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“You have your own reality?” Kostos asked as they walked through the slit in the air into James’ living room.
“It is a very good way to avert the Agency,” James said. “This knowledge does not leave this group.”
“Affirmative,” Kostos said.
“James, do you have any way of running samples?” Zee asked.
Zee had had to pull her samples out before anything else came up with the scan while the guys gathered the papers.
“No,” James said. “I am sorry, Sarah, but even I do not have access to the Agency database.”
“I think I can get something off them,” Nathan said, holding his hand out.
Zee glanced at Kostos.
“I think, considering the circumstances, we can allow Kostos access to this information,” James said.
“Yeah,” Nathan said. “I’m psychic.”
Kostos looked between them. “There are no psychics in our reality.”
“That’s the party line, and we’re going to keep it that way,” Zee said, jiggling her box full of papers.
“This isn’t looking good, y’all,” Nathan said.
“Conspiracies never do,” Kostos said. “James, do you mind if I pull my girlfriend into this? She… if anyone can be trusted, it’s her. And considering her and my signatures were the first to come up on the computer’s search, I’m worried.”
“They may have you in their sights,” James said. “If you tell me her location, I can bring her here in such a way that she will not be able to find this reality later. I do apologize, however, I-”
“Can’t take any chances,” Kostos said, holding up a hand. “Trust me, I get it. We live in San Diego.”
Zee’s stomach lurched as Kostos gave James their address.
They were living together?
“This will only take a moment,” James said, disappearing.
“Kostos, can you set this all up in the dining room?” Nathan asked. “We’ll get some coffee and food going. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.”
“Sure,” he said, walking through the archway into James’s fancy ass dining room and Zee followed, putting her box down on the table before following Nathan through double doors into the kitchen.
It was big and looked like a showroom kitchen as opposed to something actually used, like most of James’s house, kept as impeccable and neat as him.
“Anal little shit, isn’t he?” Zee said as Nathan got out the coffee beans.
“Zee,” Nathan said.
“Stop right there,” she said. “You’ve got your therapist tone on. I don’t know where you’re going, but drop it. We’ve got way bigger issues tonight.”
“I…” He pressed his lips together. “You have a point. After this.”
“Sure, let’s pretend I’m actually going to go all girly and talk about my ex. That works.”
“You have to deal with it eventually.”
“Says who?”
He shot her a look and she winked, blowing him a kiss.
The slight crackle of the reality opening made Zee turn just as James walked through, a frozen and bound woman floating in behind him.
James snapped his fingers and the bindings released Rachel an inch above the floor.
She tapped down and brought her hands up so fast Zee didn’t have time to react before she shot shards of solid water at him.
He smacked them down with a bored look.
“Rachel!” came from the doorway and she turned.
“Kostos?” she asked.
“It’s okay. They’re friends,” he said, crossing the floor and pulling her into a bear hug. “I asked James to grab you. You… we might be in danger.”
“But he’s…” she pulled back and pointed between James and Zee. “And Zee’s… Isn’t James the bad guy?”
James laughed but there was no mirth in it.
“Propaganda, honey,” Zee said. “Your bosses are looking like the bad guys. Well, and the Kings. Even if they aren’t the ones killing people, they’re still bringing deadly drugs in…”
She slammed her mouth shut.
No. Fucking. Way.
“Kostos!” She ran into the dining room and the group followed. “The autopsy reports on those chaos candy overdoses… you remember what any of them said?”
“I remember what all of them said,” he said as she started picking through the folders. “Why?”
“What did they say? In general, I mean. How did they determine it was a drug overdose?”
“They all said chaos candy was found in the system.”
“But we also have science reports saying they can’t nail down exactly what chaos candy is or how it does what it does? How is that, if they have all these samples from people? At the very least they know the ingredients, to be able to tell that’s what is in these people’s systems, right?”
“Yeah, so they’re faked, I thought we already knew that.”
“Oh my god,” Nathan said.
Zee finally looked up.
Kostos and Rachel looked confused, but Nathan’s eyes were huge, his face frozen in shock.
And James’s was stone solid.
He nodded once.
They both got it.
“Tell me I’m wrong, James,” Zee said. “You have more experience with the Agency than all of us combined. Tell me this is insane and I’m in tinfoil hat territory. I mean, covering up some deaths by framing others is one thing, but…”
James shook his head. “I fear you are correct, Sarah. We have all been hoodwinked. It fits what we have found.”
“What?” Rachel practically whispered, holding Kostos’s hand so tight Zee could see her muscles straining.
“There is no chaos candy,” Zee said. “No Kings. It was all made up by Agency, to give them a good cover for getting rid of people they didn’t want around… and controlling the rest of us along the way.”
“That’s…” Kostos shook his head. “Impossible.”
“You’d think.”
Zee’s head snapped around.
Jolnavich stood in a rip in front of the wall. “Really not that hard once you have control of the media. Thanks for going back to grab Rachel and leading us here. We’ve been trying to find and capture Dr. Morganson and his little protégé for years.”
The rip expanded, showing a crowd of at least a dozen witches, power crackling and potions up.
Lindsey and Jarred right up at the front, grinning wide and proud of themselves, spells on and at the ready.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Tricked.
This whole thing had been a set up. Maybe James was getting too close to something, or maybe the Agency just realized their whole coverup with the drugs thing would help them finally get the vampire who’d been a constant thorn in their side, but either way.
They’d played Zee like a pawn from the beginning.
“You have one chance to come quietly, Dr. Morganson,” Jolnavich said.
“I believe the poor lackeys you sent after me earlier learned a most difficult lesson, that that is not a likely outcome,” James said.
“Yes, well, we would have had you if Agent Darin had not disobeyed orders and stayed in that reality to find Zee when he was supposed to return to base to report.”
Zee fought not to look over at Kostos.
He’d disobeyed orders to look for her?
“You and that psychic you’re harboring don’t come with us, these three die.” Jolnavich jerked his chin towards the mortal witches.
Zee’s heart seized.
They knew about Nathan.
“And we all know how you feel about protecting women,” Jolnavich finished.
“I do feel very strongly about protecting women,” James said. “That will not stop me from killing ones attempting to harm innocent women or me. If you wish to take me alive”—James spread his arms wide—“you are quite welcome to try.”
“George?” Rachel asked in a small voice. “We’r
e friends. We’ve been to your house. I’ve babysat your kids. What are you doing?”
“Sorry, Rach.” Jolnavich shrugged. “You two are good scapegoats for this whole debacle.”
That’s why her and Kostos’s signatures were at the top of the list. They’d been recently brought up for this frame job.
Zee shook as she pulled her powers up.
Jolnavich and his entire goon squad practically glowed with power. Everything from natural abilities to premade spells and potions.
Five against at least a dozen.
And they were already tired.
“James?” Zee whispered.
“This is quite literally my world,” James said. “If this man wants me, he will have to come in after me.”
Jolnavich smiled.
Witches burst forward through the rip too fast to count, far more than the dozen Zee had seen.
They smacked against a shield she didn’t even see get raised and James raised his hands.
About a third of the witches froze in place, James’s natural ability to freeze things capturing only the weakest of the witches.
Zee and Kostos didn’t waste any time, both bringing their powers up and zapping the frozen witches before they could shake it off, Zee with fire and Kostos with his lightning.
The floor rose on its own, swallowing one of the enemy.
The man barely had time to scream before the wood snapped back together, cutting him in half.
Nathan had backed into the corner and Zee could barely see him as he whispered off to the side.
Thousands of itty bitty bugs spilled out of the floor in front of Nathan, crawling for the intruders.
Two of the witches paled and ran back through the rip and Zee grinned.
It was never a good idea to go up against a psychic.
They could see your phobias and use them against you.
She took a deep breath and shot a wave of fire at Lindsey.
That bitch played on Zee’s personal history of tragedy to get her on the case.
She was going down.
Lindsey blocked it and Zee pulled out her gun, shooting at Lindsey dead center, grateful for the spell to suppress the noise as it kicked in her hand.
The bullet smacked into a shield and dropped to the ground.
The others were in skirmishes all around the kitchen, James spelling so fast Zee’s eyes couldn’t track it, Kostos and Rachel fighting back to back, and Nathan conjuring fears so fast from the corner no one was able to get close to him without facing their deepest darkest terrors.
Zee grinned and faced down Lindsey.
“You’re never going to win,” Lindsey said, looking for all the world like a fanatic with the maniacal gleam in her eye.
“What happened to you?” Zee asked.
“We’re doing what we have to to protect the people.”
“No, you’re doing what you have to to control them.” Zee sent a blast at the bitch, heating the air around her to beyond what a human could withstand, making her sweat even through the shield, making the magic melt as it hit its tolerance.
Zee aimed and shot, the bullet getting stuck again, but falling on the other side of the shield.
Lindsey grunted and grinned over Zee’s shoulder.
Zee dropped to her knees, shooting at Lindsey and turning so fast she didn’t see if she actually got the woman as she shot up at whoever had been behind her.
The bullet bounced off Jarred’s shield and up into the ceiling.
He backhanded Zee too fast for her to block.
Her face exploded and she cried out as she fell backward, gun skidding across the floor.
Jarred grabbed her arm and the world blinked away as they teleported into the room on the other side of the rip.
He slapped magic binding cuffs on her and grabbed her by her neck.
“Morganson!” Jarred yelled. “Surrender or she gets gutted.”
Jarred produced a knife out of thin air and held it to Zee’s neck.
She froze.
The room wasn’t anywhere near the chaos it had been, most of the attackers dead, at least one curled up in a ball in the corner from whatever Nathan had showed her, a few left backing away as Zee’s compatriots stopped to listen to Jarred.
James stared through the rip and looked from her captor to Zee.
She stared back and blinked once.
James nodded. “I surrender. Release her.”
Jolnovich pulled a pair of handcuffs out and tossed them to James.
It was no surprise he’d managed to keep himself out of the fray.
The fucking coward.
“I put these on, you release Sarah, and let them all leave peacefully,” James said, picking up the handcuffs.
“Not the psychic,” Jolnovich said. “We need him.”
Nathan didn’t react.
James met Zee’s eyes again and she blinked once.
James sighed. “Then it will be a trade of me for Sarah, and you may deal with Nathan on your own.” He put the handcuffs on, face twisted up like he was smelling something nasty or wiping dog crap off his shoe.
Jarred snorted and let Zee go, running forward so fast he nearly tripped as he entered the next reality.
Zee pulled the small set of lockpicks off her belt and went to work on the handcuffs, getting out almost as fast as it took for Jarred to get to James.
She’d been getting out of handcuffs since she was first arrested at fifteen.
Her powers rushed back and she shot Jarred in the back with a concentrated bullet of superhot fire.
He screamed as he went up in flames.
Jolnovich turned as Zee launched herself back through the hole and flicked her away with a toss of his hand.
She flew through the air, slamming into Nathan and he grunted as they slammed into the pantry door.
“Ouch,” Nathan said, standing in the superfluid vampire way.
He grabbed Zee’s hand and pulled her up.
She was beyond feeling much of anything at this point.
The remaining witches stared at them, breathing deep and looking pretty wore.
Jolnovich however…
Zee’s sight blazed when she looked at him.
He had some serious juice.
“James,” she said.
“How much?” he asked, slinking around Jolnovich, already out of his handcuffs too.
“More.”
She knew he’d understand the shorthand to mean more power than him.
Kostos rubbed his hands together, lightning crackling over his knuckles. “Run, cannon fodder. You’re on the wrong side.”
“No,” James said. “They know how to enter my reality now. Until I can move it, they either must be killed or captured.”
“Fine by me,” Zee said, grabbing her gun. She walked over to James, Nathan close behind.
“You are welcome to try,” Jolnovich said the same words James had mocked him with.
Secure in his power.
But he’d been fine sitting back and letting the others take the punishment, take the death, when he could’ve saved many of them just by joining the fight.
Kostos was right. Those poor warped fools were cannon fodder.
“He let you all fight while he stood on the sidelines,” Zee said. “And he’s got enough power to take on at least two of us by himself. But he kept his power and sent you all to fight. You really sure you’re on the right side?”
The remaining three witches looked at each other, doubt making them so so young.
Jolnovich snorted, lifting a finger.
The three on the fence went up in flames.
Rachel screamed and Zee’s shock was the only thing keeping her from doing the same.
“Can’t trust foot soldiers who start thinking too much,” Jolnovich said. “You know I had the perfect set up. Now I have to build my ranks again. Oh well, bunch of newbies will be coming to University soon.”
“You will not live long enough to see it,” James said
.
“You’re all exhausted,” Jolnovich said. “I’m taking you in, Morganson. You and that poor simpleton you yanked away from me ten years ago.”
“Don’t let the accent fool ya,” Nathan said, laying on the drawl. “Just ‘cause we talk slow don’t mean we are slow. And it’s about time for you to learn that, you arrogant, yankie dick.”
Nathan’s eyes clouded and Jolnovich snapped a shield up.
But you never underestimate a psychic.
The dead bodies littering the floor pushed up, half torsos skootching across the floor, burned corpses standing on half cooked legs, all heading for Jolnovich.
He screamed, shooting magic out.
James pulled a gun out of the air, teleporting it from somewhere in the house, and walked up to Jolnovich, ripping through his shield with practiced precision while Jolnovich was weakened by his fear, and shooting the man from behind too fast for anyone to react, splattering the shield in the front with brains and blood.
The zombies dropped as Jolnovich fell.
Rachel turned and ran around the kitchen counter, barely hitting the pantry in time to throw up in the trash.
Kostos ran up to her, holding her hair and stroking her back.
“Right behind ya,” Zee said, falling to her knees in the ichor.
EPILOGUE
“You know it goes higher than just Jolnovich,” Zee said a few days later, sitting next to James in his kitchen.
“You believe it does,” James said. “We do not have proof.”
“The presidential candidate that turned up dead by seemingly unrelated causes but is somehow linked to all this says so,” she said.
“That is a good point. However, after they destroyed the servers in San Diego, we do not have proof to take to anyone.”
While they’d been fighting, one of the agents had slipped behind them and destroyed what they’d taken from the servers. And the next day, the servers in San Diego fell victim to an accident.
“Did Nathan find anything?” Zee asked.
“He is still looking. However, he can not risk stepping foot into the main reality or Parata, not now that the Agency knows of him and has samples of his magic to use to track him.”
After the battle, Nathan went through the inn to hide in a new reality, essentially going into witches’ protection, and Kostos and Rachel had debated following suit but they’d already decided they wouldn’t. They’d go back to their jobs like nothing had changed, trying to find the rest of the corruption from within.
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