“Ow! Get him off me!” Duncan shouted.
Morgan cackled. The room wheeled around her as Edgar took flight, a shiny ring in his beak as his prize. He flapped back to Morgan’s shoulder.
“You little thief,” the woman chuckled, her gold eyes laughing.
“Shit! He ripped the ring right out of my lip!” Duncan complained. He was now holding his hand to his face, blood trailing down his chin. “After I saved him from the cat.”
“Edgar is in no danger from Rhiannon’s silly cat,” Morgan said.
“Got it,” Tammy heard Michael shout triumphantly.
The scene snapped back to the living room at The Breakers. Tammy turned to stare at Michael, willing him to have been successful.
He grinned and nodded at her. “We’re a go. Somebody get me a map.”
Dev grabbed for an iPad he’d left on the coffee table.
“I need, like, a topographical map, I think. A big one, so I can see the elevations.” Michael wavered. Finding was a little disorienting for him, Tammy knew.
“I’ll get one,” Kemble muttered. “We’ll spread it out on the conference room table.”
They all looked around at each other. Certainty settled on the room like the purple jacaranda petals floating down onto the terrace in May.
“So that’s it then,” Brina said, rising and taking Daddy’s hand. The Parents looked at each other and in that look was all the love, all the history they’d shared together.
“I don’t mean to be a downer, but my…my visions…. Well, it could be bad if we go,” Drew said into the silence, her voice small.
“Or maybe we don’t go and the ceremony is successful. Thomas dies and Morgan comes here to kill us all afterward and that’s when you see me, Drew. We just don’t know.” The certainty inside Tammy stiffened her spine. In all likelihood it would not turn out well. But that didn’t matter any more. Thomas might be bleeding in Drew’s vision, but she wasn’t sure he was dead. She had to try and save him. “I’m going, whether you all join me or not. I’m not letting Thomas try to destroy this ceremony alone.”
“The Pentacle forms at 1:11 a.m. tonight,” Greta said.
“Then we’d better get going.” Kemble turned all business. “Conference room in twenty minutes for a planning session.”
*
Michael sat at the table in the conference room with most of the other Tremaines. It felt familiar. Brina was taking care of Elizabeth and Jesse. Maggie was off talking to Edwards about taking care of the kids. Drew was trying to get visions, any visions, out on the terrace where it was quiet. Michael took a deep breath. Planning an operation. Not much different from his days in Delta Force, except the stakes were bigger and the people around him had become even more important to him even than his team in Afghanistan. Still, this was something he knew.
“All right,” he said. “The Clan compound is at the edge of the San Jacinto mountain range. It’s in the California portion of the Colorado desert region, here.” He pointed. “Closest habitation is the little town of Anza, about twenty miles away.”
“I can get into their computer systems,” Kemble said at the head of the boardroom table. “With luck, I’ll be able to short-circuit the locks and open the doors. Maybe I can delay our discovery by hacking their surveillance system. But I’ve got to find the control panel or something connected to their system first.”
“Or I can cut our way in,” Greta volunteered. “I’m pretty accurate with my lasers.”
“We could be picked off as we approach,” Tris said, frowning.
“A back door maybe…” Michael said.
“We don’t have time for location scouting,” Kemble muttered.
“Or, I can see through Rhiannon’s cat,” Tammy offered. “Cats pretty much go everywhere. I’ll see what I can glean about the inside layout.”
“Take Kee with you,” Michael said. “She can draw plans from what you’re seeing.”
“I hope I can stay focused,” Tammy murmured as she and Kee rose to leave. Then she paused and turned. “Maybe you can help, Kee. My power got a big boost when Michael was trying to use his power too.”
“Live to serve,” Kee said. But it wasn’t smart-aleck or anything. She was dead serious.
“Better contact Marrec and call off the search.” Kemble glanced over the map spread out before them. “Dev, you want to make that call?”
Dev nodded and rose. “On it.”
“Tell him the location,” Brian added. “He can monitor it until we get there.” Brian surprised Kemble, Michael could tell.
“I’ll have him contact us if he sees anything,” Dev agreed and left so the call wouldn’t disturb the planning session.
“Marrec shouldn’t be involved,” Kemble said to Senior. “He doesn’t have a power.”
Brian sighed. “We’ve been through this before.”
“He’s a trained fighter,” Michael said. “We need all those we can get.”
“He’ll probably demand a price. Mercenaries…” Senior pursed his lips. “Oh, okay,” Kemble capitulated. He knew they didn’t have time for this. “We’ll have to improvise, based on whose power can counteract what we encounter,” Kemble said, trying to project confidence. “We’ve got Greta’s lasers. Maggie can Calm the guards. Tris, you take care of the weapons.”
“Once we’re inside the Cloak, I can probably Find the Talismans. That will tell us where the ceremony is being held.” Other than that, Michael knew he was as useless as Marrec, except for fighting skill. He hoped that was enough.
“And I might as well get this out there.” Kemble looked really uncomfortable. In fact it seemed he was pointedly not looking at the very pregnant Jane. “There are some of us who should stay home.” A noticeable tension grew around the table. “Not much water in the desert for Dev to work with. And if Kee uses her power to re-form perceptions of space, it hobbles us as well as them.” He picked Kee because she was out of the room and couldn’t protest. “Same with you, uh, Jane. Darkness blinds us too.”
Jane bristled. “I can lift the darkness in spots. You know that.”
“That only helped because we knew The Breakers so well. In unfamiliar territory…”
“It would be just like a flashlight.”
“Jane,” Kemble practically pleaded. “I can’t chance losing you and the baby.”
“I’d like to see Tris try to keep Maggie home.” Jane ignored her husband. “Same thing.”
“We’ll trust the kids to Edwards,” Tris said grimly. “He’s their godfather anyway.”
“That’s good. I trust Edwards.” Michael realized Tris had picked someone outside the family to be his kids’ protector because there was every chance the family wouldn’t be around to do it. That was sobering, because he must have done it some time ago.
Michael looked up to see Brina standing in the doorway. Her face was pale and lined with worry, but her lips were set in a bleak, determined line. Everyone in the room turned to her.
“Everybody’s got to come,” she continued. “The whole family has to be there.”
“Uh, why?” Kemble asked into the silence.
“Sit down, honey,” Brian said.
Michael scrambled to give Brina his chair. She looked shaky but she sat and seemed to gather herself for calm.
“Because I’ve been thinking and I know how to better our chances to win.”
They were all ears now.
She cleared her throat. “Didn’t I hear Tammy say that when Michael was using his power at the same time she was using hers, it boosted her effectiveness?”
Michael nodded slowly. “Mine too, actually. My grid popped up fast, and I saw where that bird was in crystal clarity. It isn’t always like that.”
“Well, that’s our key.” Brina looked around at them all. “We can magnify our powers by working together. It might not be enough to counteract the Talismans or avoid the red blackness Drew sees, but our willingness to work together can be our strength.”
The
y looked around at each other, feeling the rightness of it.
Tammy pushed in from the hallway. “There’s a back door up at the top of the compound that leads to the hillside above,” she said, a gleam of satisfaction in her eyes. “Rhiannon lets her cat out to hunt mice.”
They all felt it then, some force outside themselves gathering, giving them purpose, a will to go on in spite of the odds.
Brian stood. “Well, then. It looks like we’re in business.”
Kemble took a deep breath. “Okay. We’d better practice working with each other. Tris, I think you should go out to the desert and scout the area. If you can find Marrec, fine, but don’t wait for him. And don’t be seen.”
Tris made a mock salute and strode out.
“We’ll need a diversion at the front door, because attacking from the front and the back door at once gives us a better chance,” Michael said.
“And then once inside, we find each other again,” Brian added. He glanced to his wife. “It’s going to take all of us to make it through this. Our job is to break up this ceremony.”
“And we don’t leave without Thomas,” Tammy said.
Heads nodded, Michael’s among them. They had put their chips on the table. All in.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
‡
“How you feeling?” Duncan asked, hanging over Thomas.
“Afraid I won’t die in the next thirty seconds,” Thomas croaked as he held his belly. The cool metal floor of the little bathroom in his quarters was welcome on his naked body, but it couldn’t assuage the cramps. He gave a garbled cry and surged up to hang over the toilet.
“Hope I got the dose right,” Duncan muttered. “There’s purging and then there’s this.”
Thomas collapsed to the floor again, the cramps relaxing for now. Thank goodness Duncan just left him to lie there. It might have been an hour as his mind drifted. When Thomas became aware again, Duncan was nowhere in sight. The vomiting and diarrhea seemed to have spent themselves. Good. He needed his strength. Just a little more rest and he’d be fine. Thomas got up on his hands and knees and crawled over to his cot, where he collapsed again.
Duncan came back into Thomas’s quarters without knocking. “Hey, you’re better.”
“I feel like I’ve been scrubbed with a brush inside.”
“That’s what you’re supposed to feel like.” He put down some bottles on the nightstand and went into the bathroom. “I’ll get you some water.” Duncan had been good to Thomas during the ordeal, getting him cool, damp towels to wipe his mouth and the sweat from his body, and some strongly flavored green liquid to wash out his mouth periodically.
“Hey, I noticed your backside is healed,” Duncan said as he handed Thomas the glass of water. The frown that had been drawing Duncan’s brows together for the last hours deepened.
Might as well tell Duncan. He’d already confessed to Morgan. “Mrs. Tremaine healed me.”
“Why would she do that?” Duncan asked, his voice dripping in suspicion.
“She is a generous person, I think. But still the enemy of our mentor,” he hastened to add.
Duncan got thoughtful. His lip was torn and a ring was missing. Thomas wanted to ask about it, but he had other priorities. Might he sow some seeds of discontent? Not that they would have time to bear fruit, but still. “I have not asked what your power is,” he began.
“I, uh, Levitate.”
“Very useful to Morgan, I’m sure. What was the power of your mate?”
Duncan’s face began to crumple before he made it blank and stony. In that moment Thomas knew Tammy was right. Morgan killed her followers’ mates. Thomas wondered if Duncan had practiced shutting down his expression a lot, like Thomas hid his feelings about Morgan. Maybe all of Morgan’s Clan hid their emotions from her. At least the ones she wouldn’t like. Otherwise they might end up punished like Jason.
“She could shrink things,” he murmured, his eyes focusing inwards, as if on memories. “Morgan already had someone who could do that.” Then his focus snapped back. “Wait. How do you know I had a mate?”
“All the Tremaines are mated. They told me that finding your mate releases your power.”
Duncan heaved a breath. “They live together?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” Thomas said, pretending to consider that fact. “They seemed very happy. Well, with each other. They worried about the forming of the Pentacle and about Morgan’s power.”
“Yeah.” He shook his head as if to clear it.
“Your mate is not with you?” Thomas asked, all innocence. He was very bad. Now that he knew that Morgan kept her followers in line through playing on their worst fears, he realized that she might even have required her followers to kill their mates themselves in order to prove their loyalty to the cause. He would put nothing past Morgan and she could punish them with their guilt over it forever. Thomas couldn’t believe his mind now turned in those dark directions.
“No. She’s…she’s gone.” Duncan’s bleak tone said it all.
“I’m sorry,” Thomas said. He meant it too. Duncan didn’t seem evil to him. Maybe a man who hated himself so much that he pierced his body painfully everywhere just wanted to belong to a group that made him feel powerful. Morgan had given him that, played on his insecurities, told him he could be more powerful, more important than he’d ever imagined. But there was a price, and Duncan hadn’t realized initially that paying that price would leave him crippled. Like Thomas was crippled without Tammy.
“She died,” Duncan managed to get out in a strangled voice. Then he shut down again.
Thomas had gone too far.
“Get down to the showers. Morgan wants you to clean yourself and oil your body.”
“I must be ready for the ceremony,” Thomas agreed. “When is it?”
“Tonight. And the sun is just setting, so get a move on.”
*
Thomas followed Duncan back toward his room. The prickly feeling of being watched only now receded. It was Morgan, he was sure. Now that he had seen security cameras at the Tremaine estate, he was sure Morgan spied on him, especially in the shower. So he had thought of Tammy and really given her a show. He was baiting a fishing line as the monks at Mt. Athos taught him, and he wanted this fish focused on the bait and not the hook. His erection was subsiding only now.
“Jesus, kid,” Duncan said, disgusted. “You were really into that.”
“I was thinking of the ceremony and my mentor.” Lies came more easily now.
Duncan gave him a kind of speculating look. Maybe he wasn’t such a good liar after all.
Around the corner came the man named Jason, looking like a frowning god of thunder. “You, up to the hangar,” he barked to Duncan. “I’ll take it from here.”
“Asshole,” Duncan muttered, but he beat a retreat down the hall.
Thomas stared at Jason warily. The man wore his usual hard expression. No one would guess that he had endured the unthinkable and ended by killing his own father less than a day ago. Not unless you looked closer and saw the shadows flickering in his light blue eyes. He was a tinderbox, ready to ignite.
“In here,” Jason said roughly, pulling Thomas into a small room filled with rows of shelves from floor to ceiling, containing metal cans and bags marked “flour” and “sugar.” The room was lit by dim bulbs. Jason slammed the door and turned on Thomas. “Okay, spill it.”
Thomas looked around, not sure what he should spill.
“Stop the innocent act. I mean talk.”
“About what?” Thomas asked, trying to keep his face guileless.
Jason took a breath. He had Thomas backed up against a corner of one of the shelf units. “You’re different since you got back here. She doesn’t see it, but I do.”
Thomas frowned. “How?”
“Don’t give me that crap,” Jason spat. “I knew it immediately. But watching you in the shower there just confirmed it.”
Thomas held his breath. How had he given himself aw
ay? He needed more information before he could lie effectively. He didn’t have trouble looking confused.
“Point one: the boner. You weren’t thinking about Morgan, so don’t even bother to lie like you did to Duncan. You looked like you were gonna hurl when she touched you earlier. You were thinking about somebody else. Point two: Morgan says you never jacked off in all those years in the monastery. But you were doing a real good job there. I think you had some lessons recently. Point three: asking Duncan about his mate. You said the Tremaines told you how getting your power works. They would never do that unless you were trusted. Why would they trust a random guy? But you were worse than random. You were Morgan’s. Maybe they knew that or maybe they didn’t. But in either case, why did they even let you into the compound? Because you’re somebody’s mate, that’s why. I’m guessing the red-haired kid. She’s the only kid left unmatched.”
Thomas wished he knew what to say to that.
Jason searched his face for a single second before he turned away in disgust. “Morgan must have a blind spot when it comes to you. She’s not normally that stupid. Probably looking forward to fucking you tonight so much she can’t think straight. I knew we should have gotten her another sex slave after she killed the last one, but she said it would be too much of a distraction from the preparation for the ceremony.”
Jason went quiet. Thomas was in no hurry to speak since whatever was coming couldn’t be good. Jason would tell Morgan. Morgan might kill Thomas before the ceremony if she concluded he wasn’t a virgin. But no, they’d try the ceremony anyway because they couldn’t miss the window of opportunity and maybe just his blood sacrifice would be enough. He was dead either way. But he didn’t want them to know about his plans. He had to seem a willing participant, or they might drug him and he wouldn’t be able to raise his fire to stop the ceremony. The ceremony might work, and then the Tremaines would be killed, including Tammy.
Jason turned slowly back around. “I’ll tell you what, kid,” he said, looking incredibly tired. “I’m gonna roll the dice. But let’s just see what my odds are. What’s your power?”
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