Out of Time (Collectors Cross-Over)

Chapter 11

Nate – Matched

"We have a major problem," Sam walked into the kitchen as we were having breakfast.

Brody M.'s face fell. "Charles can't get the sand from the hourglass."

"Oh, no," Sam turned to him. "Morrigan brought that over last night, and he and Misha are going to start preparing things tonight. I'll go help if I can."

"Then, what's the problem?" Sean asked.

"There's a dispute over land between a couple of vampires and a circle of witches down in Kentucky," Sam turned her attention away from Brody M. I resisted the urge to dip into her mind to see how she was dealing with that not being her boyfriend, but I figured she'd talk if she needed it. "They've decided that they'll abide by whatever the Matchies here say."

"What's the big deal though?" Emily stood up to get more juice. Having her around was making me much calmer than I had been the day before. The alone time the night before had done even more to help.

"Humans have been killed in this dispute," Sam took the glass of juice that Emily was handing her. "The vampires can't go in, because the witches claim to have a deed to the land. The vampires do as well."

"And Dad is going to be too busy with this spell in order to research it for us," Emily looked around at us. I was a little confused. "As a lawyer, Dad can research the deeds, find which one is real."

"Ah," I nodded. "Can't we get a lawyer down there?"

"Charles has made a call to someone he trusts, but you two are still going to need to go down," she turned her attention to Brody M. "And as soon as you walk in, they're going to know you're not their Keeper."

"The major problem," Emily sighed, walked over and put her hands on my shoulder. "Can Odin somehow mask it?"

"It's possible," Brody M. had a far-away look on his face. I knew this was because he was trying to talk to Odin.

It suddenly hit me. "Fuck. If the supernatural community thinks we're without our Keeper, they'll go crazy and doing all kinds of shit. Won't they?"

"Major problem," Sam nodded at me. "If Odin can mask it, we'll be fine. Otherwise, we have to find a way to put this off until after they're switched back. But, with the death of humans, I don't think it's possible."

"How bad are the deaths?" Emily started rubbing my shoulders. It felt really good, and I wasn't sure if she was doing it to be nice, or because she was trying to calm herself down. Purely selfish, I didn't care.

"Bad," Sam handed a folder to Emily.

I wasn't very happy when her hands came off of me, but she sat down beside me and opened the folder so we could both read the things in there. "Want to see too?" she looked at Brody M.

He nodded, then walked over behind us so we could all read it at the same time. If he was going to pretend to be our Keeper, he needed to know what he was walking into just as much as we did.

As soon as I read the first article, I reached over to take Emily's hand. The people down there weren't just being killed, it wasn't pretty at all. Someone was also getting a workout from covering things up as much as they could.

"Shit, and I thought the things we dealt with were bad," Brody M. leaned back up, ran a hand through his hair, and sat back down.

I pulled Emily closer to me. She always has a problem with people getting caught up, in a deadly way, all the shit we have to deal with. Especially children, and there were a couple of kids that got caught in the crossfire.