They were halfway to Talismaniac when Mara suddenly stopped walking, tilting her head as if listening to something. A minute later, a woman approached them, one hand at her temple.
"Which one of you is it?" the woman asked, pain in her voice. "Or is it both of you?"
"Just me," Mara answered.
The woman, wearing a business suit under an expensive looking duster, looked to be in her mid-thirties. She raised her head and looked Mara in the eyes.
She lowered her hand, saying, "You must be really old. I'm three hundred twenty-seven and I've never met anyone with such a strong presence. My name is Jane."
"Mara. And yes, I am old. We don't have to do this, I have no quarrel with you."
Jane shrugged. "In the end there can be only One. It's either now or later and I like to get fights out of the way. Nothing personal, it's just the Game."
Mara sighed. "Shall we at least go somewhere a little more private?"
Lilianna motioned down the street. "There's an old apartment building slated for destruction at the beginning of next week down the street from here."
As the three of them walked, Lilianna kept track of Jane's Watcher following them. Did Jane know about Watchers? She frowned when she remembered Jane's insistence that it was "nothing personal," just the Game. She knew from Mara's memories that the Game had only begun a little under four thousand years ago, and that none of Mara's family members actively participated in it. How had the Game started? It seemed a shame that beings who had the potential to do a lot of good chose instead to kill each other off. The Stones of the Blades flashed, telling her that someone else was also following them.
Hoping that it wasn't another of Irons' lackeys, she led the way into the building she had indicated, prying a board loose so they could slip through the boarded-up front doors. What had been the lobby ran the depth of the building, and Mara and Jane drew their swords.
Jane snorted when she saw the word "Excalibur" etched in gold on Mara's blade. "Isn't it a little presumptuous of you to name your sword after a legendary blade?"
"Some legends are true, and some are a little misleading." Mara shrugged in a way that clearly said she didn't care whether Jane believed her or not.
The younger Immortal frowned thoughtfully. "Why don't you want to fight? Don't you want to be the One? To win the Prize?"
Again, Mara shrugged eloquently. "No. I have no interest in the Game. It didn't even exist for more than half of my life. There are many things in the world that are more important."
Jane looked thoughtful again and Mara waited patiently. After a few minutes, Jane put away her sword, and Mara followed suit.
"Is she your student? Your aura is so strong I can't tell if she's one of us."
Mara glanced at Lilianna and smiled. "No, she's mortal. But she could probably kill off a lot of us if she ever had a mind to."
"You may want to keep an eye out for a man named James Stewart. He only hunts female Immortals, says we don't deserve the Prize, and he fights dirty."
"Thank you," Mara said sincerely. "And good luck, if you continue to play the Game."
Jane exited through the back of the building and Mara looked at Lilianna again.
"If only they were all that easy to persuade. But, I have talked my way out of more fights than I've been in." Mara started walking to the front. "Come on, I have to catch her Watcher and make sure he or she doesn't pass on knowledge of me."
"There's someone else I sensed following..."
A sudden commotion at the front door stopped them both, and a man was shoved into the building by a young woman half his body weight and a third his age.
"Susanna!" Lilianna rushed forward to greet her sister. She was pleasantly surprised when Susanna allowed a quick hug before pulling away.
"Ah ah ah," Susanna growled softly, pulling the Watcher back by his jacket. He had been inching slowly away from her, a digital camera clutched protectively against his chest. "You're not going anywhere. There are some Immortals the Watchers should not know about. Try to run again and I kill you."
"Who are you?" Mara asked, having taken a defensive stance upon hearing Susanna's threat.
"She is my sister." Lilianna stated, moving to stand between Mara and Susanna, who still had the Watcher by his jacket. "She's only trying to help."
Mara blinked and shook her head imperceptibly, as if snapping out of a slight trance. "Of course, I'm sorry. I was unaware you had any siblings."
"I'm her half-sister." Susanna studied Mara for a few seconds before telling her, "My name is Susanna Irons."
Mara stared at Susanna thoughtfully for several seconds. She took a single step forward and Susanna tensed.
"May I?" Mara asked gently, holding out her right hand.
Susanna glanced at Lilianna. Lilianna nodded, and Susanna took a step forward and shook hands with Mara. Lilianna watched as her sister's big brown eyes got even bigger. Her own eyes had probably nearly popped out when Mara had shared memories with her, for she knew that was what Mara was now doing with Susanna.
"I'll leave him to you, then." Susanna said a minute and a half after Mara had taken her hand.
The Watcher trembled at the sight of Excalibur when Mara pulled it out.
"Please..." he whimpered.
"Shh," Mara soothed.
She held the sword so that the flat of the blade was perpendicular to the floor. Gently she placed it against the Watcher's forehead, and the man slumped to the floor in an oddly graceful way, sleeping peacefully.
"He'll wake up five minutes after we leave, and he won't remember anything he shouldn't."
"What about his camera?" Lilianna asked.
"We'll have to take it, just in case it does have pictures of me or you."
Susanna crouched and pried the camera gently out of the unconscious man's hands. She turned the fancy machine over and over in her hands, studying it.
"If you two don't mind, I'd like to keep it. I was thinking of getting one like this for surveillance."
"Sure." Mara gestured to the front of the building, "We should go. The less time Irons has to send someone after Gabriel the better."
It was the second time she had said that, and Lilianna wondered briefly if Mara knew something that she didn't.
"You went to see Bowman?" Susanna asked her sister.
Lilianna nodded, "It was before I knew your father was having me followed. I can't let anything happen to Gabriel because of me."
Susanna frowned. "In every timeline I know about, he died because of his loyalty to... our mother. He has an open destiny if he's taken away from all of this." Susanna's jaw clenched and she looked into the distance. "Sometimes it's hard to live that way."
"Destinies can be changed, but only if they were meant to be."
Susanna nodded at Mara's words, and the three women left the building. Lilianna was amazed when Susanna stayed with them, and she held her breath every time her sister hesitated. When they reached Talismaniac, Susanna was still with them. Lilianna turned her concern to keeping Gabriel safe.
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Gabriel watched the surveillance tape for the third time, freezing it on the moment right after Lilianna had closed the door behind herself three days before. There was a shadow on the ground, but the person casting it had stayed out of the camera's line of sight. Someone had been following Lilianna, and chances were great that Irons knew every move she had made since meeting up with Nottingham. He picked up the phone and dialed her number. The ring of a cell phone greeted him from the front of the store.
He hung up and jogged to the front of the store. Lilianna hadn't pulled her phone out and didn't seem about to.
"I knew it was you." She said to his perplexed look.
"What, are you psychic now?"
Lilianna waved her ring at him.
Gabriel shook his head at himself, then remembered why he had been calling her, "There's a guy..."
"He's dead," Lilianna said flatly. "But we do need to get you out of the city for awhile."
For the first time Gabriel noticed the women standing with Lilianna. The first was younger than Lilianna, and her hair was white-blonde, falling to just past her shoulders. Shoulders she was holding very stiffly. When he reached out to her with his mind, he reeled at what he learned. Susanna Irons was strong, stronger and more capable of keeping the Witchblade in check than any of it's other three current Wielders. The strange thing was that she didn't have that much power to wield it, most of what she could do was keep it controlled. She also dealt with more pain and self-doubt in one moment than most people felt in a lifetime. If he had not felt that, along with her developing devotion to Lilianna, he would have been very afraid of her. But Susanna, unlike her father, had her heart in the right place.
The other woman seemed timeless, though she looked about the same age as Lilianna. She was a breathtakingly beautiful woman, with long jet-black hair and startlingly light blue eyes. She also looked very familiar.
"Mara?"
"How do you know me?"
She seemed only mildly surprised, and Gabriel read her flashback to the bookstore owner who had been a Watcher.
"I'm descended from Lea," Gabriel told her, "I had a great-aunt who knew the family history and when I showed an interest in ancient lore, she filled me in. Since I started my business, I've done as much digging as I could, and I've found a few portraits of some of your siblings. I have one of you as Lady Raven."
"What about your parents?"
A dark look passed over Gabriel's features but was gone quickly, "They weren't the kind of people you would want to share that kind of knowledge with."
Mara nodded. "Well, it's always good to meet another family member. I can tell you as many stories as you like on our flight."
"Our flight?" he echoed.
"I don't think it's safe for you to stay here," Lilianna said guiltily. "It was a fortunate accident that Mara and I met in the bookstore today. She's only here on a visit, and she's flying to Los Angeles tomorrow morning before going back to Sunnydale..."
"Sunnydale? Isn't that where one of the Hellmouths is?" Gabriel interrupted.
"Actually, it's where THE Hellmouth is, the one Glory is near. And we've discovered part of what has to be done to beat her, but there's still a long way to go. Right now that's not important. Mara will take you to a hotel in Los Angeles where you'll be safe, but be prepared to see more than you ever imagined was possible. The owner is a vampire with a soul and he and his people help the hopeless. They're all good people, even if they aren't human." Gabriel nodded and Lilianna continued, "Be careful, and hopefully in a few weeks Christian and I will be free to come out there."
Gabriel pulled Lilianna into a hug, "You be careful, too."
"You should probably stay at the hotel with me tonight," Mara said to Gabriel. "Gather together what you need."
Gabriel paled, and his gaze wandered over his extensive collection of rare and priceless antiquities.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of all your other stuff, just gather the essentials and show me where you have a packing crate."
Just then a cell phone rang and Lilianna turned her gaze to her half-sister. Susanna pulled out a small flip phone and looked at the caller ID screen.
She sighed and said apologetically, "I have to take this."
The others waited silently while she opened the phone, answering, "Doe." She listened quietly for a minute before responding to the caller, "It will be done by Monday night."
Susanna hung up the phone, shrugging apologetically. "I have a job to do, I'll try to come back when it's over. Tell Ian...tell him everything will work out and I look forward to getting to know him when I bring the crystal."
"I will," Lilianna answered as she pulled Susanna into a quick hug. "And thank you."
After Susanna left, Gabriel led Lilianna and Mara into the very back of the room. Against the wall were several sizes of packing crates, most of them with labels from distant, foreign countries. Mara indicated one that was a perfect cube, each side two and a half feet long. They left it in the middle of the room, and Mara and Lilianna helped Gabriel pack some clothes in a suitcase, along with a toiletry bag and his laptop. At Mara's instruction, Gabriel turned his main computer off, and he and Lilianna began unplugging all the electrical equipment in the room.
When they were done, they joined Mara next to the packing crate. Mara began to glow, blue flames taking shape around her. She raised her arms, and everything in the room began to float. Mara made a small motion with her hands and all of Gabriel's possessions began to shrink as they whipped around the room, caught in an invisible tornado. A few seconds later, the room was empty except for the three of them, Gabriel's luggage and the now-sealed packing crate.
"Whoa."
Lilianna made a soft noise, agreeing with Gabriel's one word assessment.
"The crate will not open for anyone but you now," Mara said. "If the airport x-rays it, all they'll see will be a vase packed in Styrofoam. This is important, do not, under any circumstances, open it in a room smaller than this one, you'll get buried under everything and most of it will break."
"Okay," Gabriel agreed, his eyes wide.
Lilianna handed her cell phone to Mara without being asked. Mara called information and then a cab company, asking for a van so they could take Gabriel's crate.
Gabriel pulled Lilianna into another hug, whispering, "If you need help with anything, anything at all, you call me."
"Ditto."
They let go of each other, and Lilianna and Mara hugged briefly.
"We'll all see each other again." Mara looked confident as she said the words.
Lilianna nodded and quickly left. She didn't want them to see the tears that filled her eyes. Mara wouldn't age, but hopefully the next time she saw Gabriel he wouldn't be twenty-four years older.