The 13th Mage (6 page)

He would die and be reborn.

To grow and develop his powers he would become something completely different, he would be reborn female, and would make sure the female learned the Way of the Witch. This way he would keep his promise to Aeoife without endangering his position in the Council.

It was a most horrifying and disgusting plan, it was beautiful.
He would then die again and be reborn as a man once more.
A man who would hold all the knowledge of elders and witches within his mind, the most powerful elder in the universe and no one would know it was him, no one would be able to expel him because of breaking a law.
He would be The
Staff
Holder.

There would be no danger in his state of infancy, no one could trace him after death, and no one would suspect.
The plan was so cunning, so appalling, so unthinkable and for one simple reason, elders had
no idea how powerful witches could be.
In their majority they thought witches were amateurs at the art of mage.
No one in their right mind would go through the trouble of dying, and its consequences, to become something lesser than they were before.

Owen could taste victory with his entire being.
He closed his eyes and felt the glory of power, the
Staff
in his hand, held up high. Rossini looking up at him in defeat, kneeling down before The Great Owen, kissing the
Staff
and vowing to honor and obey the new
Staff
Holder.

Victory!

The bell rang.

It took him a few seconds to realize where he was and that bells usually meant someone at the door wanted his attention.

The bell rang again.

He looked out of his study window.
It was a
young woman,
a bit too
thin, her nose matching the red of her curly hair.
Must be Irish, and she’s cold, Owen thought.

He felt for her aura, she was a mortal.
As he opened the door the woman gasped and fainted.
He sometimes produced that reaction in mortal women so it didn’t surprise him.
He noticed the creature was more a child then a woman, he also noticed he had seen her before, she was very familiar.
It disturbed him not to place her straight away but he knew with the amount of memories he held this one would make its way to the top soon enough and didn’t think more about it.
He picked up the girl and her suitcase and took them to the living room.

He looked into her face and his heart started thumping hard.
She was the most enchanting being he had seen, ever.

“Sean?” She whispered.

“No, my name is Owen.”

“Sean?” She said again and opened her eyes, “you bastard!” she screamed and slapped him across the face so hard it sent tears to his eyes.

It was a long time since he felt tears in his eyes, but her rage at him seemed to destroy him.

“I’m sorry!
You fainted, I just brought you in because you fainted, I have no intention of hurting you,” he said trying to calm her down.

“No intentions of hurting me huh?
You left me without a word!
I wanted to die,” she said breaking down in sobs.

“Me? I have never… I don’t think we’ve met before. But maybe we did? You do look so familiar”

Owen tried hard to remember all the women he had met in the last few months, but he was sure this one was not one of them. He wouldn’t have left this one. He couldn’t even leave her side now. Besides, she was a little too young for him to have sex with, he would have stayed with her until she became a woman, and then he would have had sex with her. He loved her.

“Oh, Sean, I’m pregnant, you knew it didn’t you, that Saturday, the last Saturday…” she had gone through every minute of that morning, had seen the guilt in his face a hundred times over, he knew the condom had broken and hadn’t said anything.
He simply left.

“I’m terribly sorry madam, but I think you must be confusing me with someone else.
My name is Owen, Owen O’Neil.”

“Owen O’Neil? You are Sean’s twin brother?”

She sat up and looked at the young man in front of her.
“But he said his twin brother died at birth… another lie I guess.”

Suddenly the whole truth dawned on her, Sean had lied.
“I am sorry about hitting you, I thought you were him,” she said clearing her eyes, “you are different though, your voice is different.
Your eyes, well they are… older, I don’t know, something about them.
But you are so much like him. Where is Sean?
Can I speak to him?”

“I don’t know of any Sean, I don’t have a… brother.”

Having said it he didn’t believe it himself.
It felt untrue, but why?
Did he have a brother? Yes, he did. Owen felt his chest contract.

“Please, just tell him that I … that I don’t mind, if he felt he had to leave… well…” She started sobbing again, and Owen felt he wanted to make her better, make her happy again.
Then he felt a tiny little presence.

“You are pregnant!” He said moving away, stumbling over the furniture behind him.

“Yes, it’s Sean’s.
Does he live here too?”

“No, I live on my own, this is my, I mean, my grandfather’s house.
He gave me permission to use it while I stayed in
London
, which might be a long time, but there again it might not, I haven’t decided yet. What brought you here?”

He was babbling.
He was seventeen hundred years old and he was babbling in front of a mortal girl who was a couple of decades old, if that.
That did it, he would accelerate the aging process, the risks were high but staying this age was even riskier, he was losing his mind and heart.

“I came about the work, housekeeper. Mrs. Crow said she would ring you about me, she said you were looking for a housekeeper… ” The girl said, her voice t
r
ailing off into an incoherent whisper as she realized she didn’t particularly want to work for Sean or his identical twin brother.

“Mrs. Crow? The phone hasn’t been fitted yet…”

She reached into her bag and handed him a letter.

Dear Owen, this child needs your help. Make sure nothing happens to her. Protect her from the Shadow Ones. A.

It was a letter from Aeoife, he felt a wave of remorse going through his body.
He hadn’t tried to contact her yet. What was worse was that he hadn’t contacted her in all these centuries, never a “hello” or a “thank you” note.
He had meant to get in contact with her since he arrived in London, but hadn’t got round to it
yet
, something always seemed to pop up. And if she had tried to contact him she would have found it rather difficult, he had a habit of making his location invisible to all mages except the
Staff
Holder.

He touched the words with the tip of his fingers and closed his eyes, he felt Aeoife listening and told her the girl had arrived safely.
Aeoife sent him a wave of motherly advice and closed the link.

If he had to protect the girl from the shadow ones it meant she was about to become a mage, which might also explain why he had seen something familiar in her.
But not why he felt so attracted to her.
He searched deep into her aura and saw it, the fetus had a tiny little purple light in her heart, it wasn’t the mother to be
who would be a mage
it was the recently conceived girl child.

A child having a child, he thought. A mortal giving birth to an immortal.

He guessed from Aeoife’s letter that it was his turn to give back what he had been given.
Protection and preparation, fostering a mage to be.

The baby must be the Thirteenth whatever
.

He was meant to be a baby’s protector, not become a baby himself.
He felt disappointed. This confused him.

“Yes, of course,” he said wondering if Aeoife had located him via the ad he had placed in the newspaper, she was one of the few people who knew this house belonged to him.

The young woman mumbled something, got up, straightened herself and picked up her suitcase.

“I think this is a mistake, I can’t work here, it’s a mistake,” she said walking toward the door.

“No,
don’t go
!” he said, making her come to a full stop.
He hadn’t meant it to be an Order but that is how it came out, “I mean, please stay, have a cup of tea, it will make you feel much better, and we can talk about what to do next.”

He was begging.
His inner battle was unbearable, how could he be begging to a mortal!
He could make her sing and dance with just a word.
But he didn’t want to, he wanted her to be with him because she wanted to, that’s all.

She was shivering from head to toe, and Owen realized it was not just from the cold.

“
Calm down, you are safe here.”

The girl relaxed considerably.

She knew it wasn’t Sean, she could feel he wasn’t Sean, but she c
ouldn’t just walk away from him. T
here was something about him,
something in his eyes
that
felt right.
And besides, if she stayed, sooner or later she would find out about Sean.
She didn’t believe in coincidences and this was too strange to be a coincidence.
She remembered thinking it odd when Mrs. Crow mentioned Owen’s name, it was the same name Sean had said his baby brother had been given, but it was a common enough name. But for him to be identical to Sean was no coincidence, this was Sean’s brother and sooner or later someone would tell her the truth.
She would stay.

“Can I speak to your grandfather?” She asked.

“No! I mean, he’s in
Brazil
, he lives there you know.
Married to a beauty queen.
I am in charge here,” he babbled again, this had to stop.

She smiled, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply you were not in charge, it’s just that I thought maybe I could speak to your grandfather... maybe he knows something about... well, about Sean, the brother you don’t have.”

She hadn’t meant it to sound sarcastic, but by the look on Owen’s face that was the way it was interpreted.

“Something is obviously happening here that I don’t quite understand.
I am not saying this Sean person doesn’t exist, but I can assure you that my grandfather knows nothing about him.
I am the sole inheritor of the O’Neil Estate.
My mother died at childbirth and my father died when I was a child.”

Jennifer was taken by surprise, Mrs. Crow hadn’t mentioned the fact that Owen was orphaned, Sean said he was an orphan
too. A
t least he hadn’t lied to her about that.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it, wasn’t very close to my father really, he died in a car accident a while back.
And I didn’t really get to meet my mother at all.
Tell me a little about yourself.”

“I… bring references, and I can clean and cook very well and I am very responsible.”

Own picked up the envelopes the girl was holding out to him, he put them in his pocket and reached for her suitcase.

“Mrs. Crow
said she knows you very well, she said you wouldn’t mind the pregnancy, I promise it won’t get in the way, I am very strong and so far ha
ve
n’t had any problems.”

“Well, as long as you are feeling fine, that’s the important thing.
What else did she say?”

“She told me a bit about you, by the sound of it I thought you were an old man, I mean, I don’t mean old…
Well, you know.
”

“How old are you?” He asked as they went back to the living room.

“Old enough.”

“That’s a good age, and I see you are healthy and strong.”

She smiled, “twenty three, I am twenty three,” she added in a stronger voice.

“You have the job,” he said, “the kitchen is down the back stairs, look around see what you need for food and cleaning, the builders have the place in a mess but I suspect they will be finished before the end of the month.
I want lunch ready for one, don’t worry too much about the cleaning aspect for now, we’ll sort that out when the builders leave. My study is out of bounds, no one goes in there.
I want afternoon tea by four and supper by
six thirty
. Your quarters are down the corridor next to the kitchen.
You’ll find your bedroom, your own sitting room and bathroom.
I’m sure you’ll be quite comfortable once it is all cleaned up. There are no men allowed in the house.
Tuesday is your day off. M
ake sure you spend it outside the house.
Now you better go and put on some suitable clothes and get working.”