She shook her head. “It isn’t a matter of forgiveness. What was he supposed to do when Morgan had Elaine? No wonder he’s been so distraught lately.”
“You do know why we can’t have him here anymore,” he said. Maybe it was Kemble Jane wouldn’t forgive.
“Moot point. He couldn’t face us every day. This is better for everyone.”
Except Elaine, Kemble thought. What a mess. He’d known as he texted Morgan that they were exiling Mr. Nakamura that Elaine would remain dead. Was that like killing her again?
“It was the right decision,” Jane whispered.
He shook his head, not sure he could speak.
“I just hope his church support system can keep him from . . . dark thoughts.”
He gave her a squeeze. Life went on, just like Senior said. “What man wouldn’t give his eye teeth to land a forgiving woman?” She turned her face up for a kiss. Kemble was glad to oblige. Cares fell away as he probed her mouth with his tongue. He had Jane. And she loved him. He wasn’t certain about her love just because she’d developed a power. He could feel it in the way she clung to him. He’d never been so glad he was a big guy. He wanted to be strong for Jane. He thought back to that time when Jane had said his mother wanted to protect him. They’d been trying to shield him from the fact that he wasn’t Senior for a long time. Or maybe from the effect that fact had on him. He’d been needy. That was going to stop. No one had time for that anymore.
He still wasn’t Senior. Nobody was, maybe not even Senior at this point. But Kemble had magic in his own right. He’d been thinking about some of the things you could accomplish with what he could do. It wasn’t a stupid power. Would it be enough to make him useful? He’d been afraid when the Clan attacked. He hadn’t been sure his plan of action was the right one. But he’d stepped up to the plate and done something. Maybe that was all you could expect of yourself. If that turned out to be all the courage he could muster, maybe it would be enough. It had to be, for the family’s sake, for Jane.
But Jane was strong too. The way she’d taken charge of Mr. Nakamura, the contractors, and the family was certain proof. It would be Jane who held this family together through all this adversity if anyone could. He kissed her again, very thoroughly. They’d do it together. And by damn, he was going to hold up his end.
“I knew it.” The voice was flat.
Kemble and Jane jumped apart as though they were middle school kids caught necking behind the tetherball courts.
“What do you want, Tamsen?” Kemble growled.
“It finally happened for you.” Tamsen’s red hair glowed in the afternoon light like the fire this morning. Kemble realized that Tamsen had changed in the last few days. Her aura of resignation cut Kemble to the quick. He never thought he’d miss that girly shriek.
Kemble looked down at Jane to see her blushing furiously.
Tamsen gave a sad smile. “Come on. The family’s out back. They’ve got questions.”
Jane put her hand through Kemble’s arm and squeezed. They followed Tamsen out through the kitchen, which still had burn marks but was at least dry, onto the deck.
Drew got up to meet them. She looked more serene than she had in weeks.
“How are the visions?” Jane asked her best friend and now sister-in-law.
“I think I found a way to control them.” Drew gave a small, wry smile. “I just sort of thrust myself into them more forcefully and walk around. I wish I’d figured that out sooner.”
“You take . . . control?” Kemble asked.
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “A little. Sometimes. If they’re the longer kind and not just the flashes. I’m not very good at it yet. But just taking action seems to make the flashing kind fade into the background.”
“This sounds good.” The family desperately needed some good news.
Kee, Devin, and Michael all got up from where they were sitting and gathered Jane and Kemble over to the big silvered teak table and sat them down. The sun was still fairly high over the ocean at six o’clock in late May, but the vibrantly purple jacaranda tree gave the terrace shade. It was going to be the kind of sunset where a big orange ball sank into a glinting steel sea. He couldn’t see any damage to the house from out here. Instead, Kemble saw Lanyon out in the yard teaching Jesse how to play the kazoo. It all looked almost normal. Except for the fact that the Parents weren’t here.
“Mother still in with Senior?” Kemble asked.
Jane nodded as she scooted in next to him on the bench side of the table, her back to the sun. Drew handed Jane the broad-brimmed floppy straw hat she’d been wearing. Tamsen plopped down on the other side. Jane took the hat gratefully. It shaded her entire face. “We’re going to have to pry her out for dinner,” she said. “Which is a self-serve taco bar, by the way, and I’m taking no complaints.”
“Don’t tell me they made you cook dinner.” Kemble frowned. “Does Jane have to do everything around here?” He scanned the table.
Jane looked up at him. “Tacos are easy. You can barbecue steaks tomorrow night, if you’re so concerned.”
Wasn’t Jane getting feisty?
“No complaints,” Michael assured her. “But here’s the best part about Drew’s vision.”
Kemble looked down to see Jane’s wary look. “The funeral one?” she asked.
Drew nodded. “That’s the one that’s been driving me to distraction. I just pushed in and walked around in the vision until I knew more about it. I feel bad for feeling relieved—but it’s Elaine’s funeral, not Father’s. Of course we’d all be there. We loved Elaine. I didn’t see Father. But he wouldn’t be there. He’s . . . ill. But he’s not dead. And we get through the ceremony without a Clan attack as well.”
Kemble felt relieved. At least the grave was a sorrow realized and not one yet to come. Then he felt guilty for being relieved. His decision to tell Morgan he was exiling Mr. Nakamura was the reason there would be a funeral.
Drew reached across and took his hand. “You look exhausted, brother. We all collapsed out here and napped off the shock. You and Jane took care of everything.” She cleared her throat and removed her hand. “Don’t think we aren’t grateful.” Oh, that was hard for Drew to say. But she needn’t get used to it.
“Can’t say I did a great job. Not like Senior would have.”
“Oh, stop,” Drew admonished. “Who came up with the strategy for Devin to blast the wine bottles?”
“Who led the effort to save Senior?” Michael added. “And plugged Senior back in before it was too late?”
“Just about got Tris killed,” Kemble muttered. “Almost didn’t make the reboot on the respirator in time either. And I forgot to check the credentials of the cleaning crew this morning.” He ran a hand through his hair. Then he felt Jane squeeze his arm.
“One of Edwards’ men took care of that. You did fine,” she said softly.
“Yeah,” the Kee/Dev Consortium said, in unison.
“You got us through it,” Devin said simply, shrugging.
“And mostly intact,” Keelan qualified. “Which I didn’t think was possible.”
“Only with Jane’s help,” he said, clearing his throat, uncomfortable.
“Which brings us to the main point,” Kee said. “What’s with you two? How did it happen? When did you know?”
Drew piled on. “I thought your real father’s name was Pedrino, Jane. You got Butler from your stepdad, didn’t you? Italy is hardly a Celtic hotbed.”
“Are you questioning my Italian mother’s contribution to my obvious skills?” Michael asked. His real name was Michelangelo. Drew punched his arm.
“You’ve got it a bit tangled up,” Jane said. “Aurie Butler was supposedly my real father, but apparently my mother doesn’t even know who my real father is. “
“I could never keep the men in your mother’s life straight.” Drew shook her head.
“Neither could she,” Jane said, shrugging.
“We might have known your power would be Darkness,�
�� Kee said thoughtfully. “You always sat in the shade, ever since I can remember.”
“Bet what you liked about photography was all the time in the darkroom,” Devin added.
“Sure saved our butts last night,” Michael muttered.
Kemble felt a small smile touch his lips. “She certainly did.” His heart seemed big in his chest. He was so proud of Jane.
“When did you know?” Drew asked. “I mean, that you loved each other. I could have sworn you weren’t in love when you got married.”
Kemble wished he were anywhere else. Did they have to pry so when he and Jane hadn’t even had a chance to talk about it themselves? He didn’t relish remembering how he’d married Jane with so little concern for her and what she wanted. He’d bought her a house without asking her, and pushed her into a wedding in a suit that needed to go to the cleaners with no bridesmaids and almost no honeymoon. He felt himself flushing.
“I was,” Jane answered, unexpectedly. “In love.” She looked up at Kemble with apology in her eyes. “I’ve been in love with you since I was about twelve.”
Kemble was horrified. “You were?” That made him a hundred times more insensitive. A million. “I never knew. . . .”
“Thank goodness,” she sighed. “I couldn’t have borne it if you thought your little sister’s mousy friend had a crush on you.”
“You weren’t mousy,” he said loyally.
“You know I was. Wasn’t I, Drew?”
Drew suppressed a smile. “Not a fashion plate. No matter how hard I tried.”
Jane didn’t suppress her smile. “And you did try, poor dear.”
“You looked wonderful at the museum opening,” Kee declared.
“She was coming out of her shell by then,” Drew mused. “I think we know why.”
Oh, no. Don’t start talking about sex, Kemble prayed silently. Jane won’t be able to bear that. He looked down and saw her blushing furiously. But to his surprise she said, “Exactly.”
Everybody but Tamsen grinned. They’d all had that rush of feeling too, the overwhelming sexual attraction, the acceleration of the senses.
“I don’t get how this works,” Michael said, frowning. “Drew sees me on a TV show, not even in person, gets a power and runs three thousand miles to reel me in. We weren’t in love, let alone . . . uh . . . intimate. But Jane and Kemble had known each other forever before it happened.”
“Dev and I, too,” Keelan offered. “It really sneaked up on us.”
“Well, darlings, I always knew it would happen for me.” Drew’s confident drawl was back. “I was expecting it, watching for signs. Kemble thought it would never happen for him.” “And Jane . . . I think Jane didn’t feel like she belonged with the Tremaines. Not true of course. She’s been taking us in hand one way or another for years. Just quietly, behind the scenes, so we wouldn’t notice. But she wouldn’t have guessed she had magic. And you two. . . .” She gave Devin and Keelan a stare. “You had a little barrier too. You were living as brother and sister—adopted, of course, but still.”
“Yeah. That was a bitch,” Devin agreed. “I was sure I was going to hell.”
“I was already in it,” Kee whispered fervently.
“So you’re saying we didn’t find each other earlier because we didn’t feel like we deserved true love?” Jane asked, frowning.
“Let’s just say you were a little repressed. And both sure you didn’t have the gene.” Drew gave each a pointed look.
“Darling,” Michael said, hauling her into his side. “You were plenty repressed when you found out that I was an alcoholic who was still in love with his dead wife.”
“Not repressed,” she scoffed. “I tied you to the bed while I put you through detox. I’d say I was a woman who knew what she wanted.”
“Okay, depressed then.” Michael grinned at her.
“Well, depressed, sure. Who wouldn’t be depressed if they found out their Destiny was a lug like you?”
At that moment, Kemble felt Jane stiffen. He jerked his head up and saw his mother standing in the doorway. She looked so fragile. Her skin was almost translucent, and for the first time, he could see she would be sixty this year. He jumped to his feet. “Let me get you a chair, Mother. How is Senior?”
“The aide is bathing him. I wanted to, but they said. . . .” She trailed off. Where was the confident matriarch he knew and loved?
Kemble pulled up an armchair to the head of the table and settled her into it. He wondered how much she had heard. Was she affronted that they had been discussing family business without her? Because he and Jane getting a power was not just personal. In times like these, it was family business first and foremost.
“I’m so glad about you and Jane,” his mother said, hesitantly. “I knew when we were in the wine cellar what had happened. It’s especially important now.”
“Why now?” Keelan asked. “I mean, we can always use some more powers, especially good ones like Darkness and . . . and whatever it is Kemble does with computers and code.”
Kemble watched his mother’s face go still. It was as if she had just erased all expression. “Because this is the moment when the torch passes from one generation to the next. With Brian. . . .” Her voice broke. She swallowed, blinked back tears and cleared her throat. “With Brian and me both out of commission, it’s up to you all to fight the Clan and protect the family.”
The faces around the table were somber. Tamsen was crying silently. Out in the yard, Kemble saw Lanyon’s back stiffen. He’d been listening to every word. But he didn’t come up to the terrace to join the family. He just sat in the grass watching Jesse play with his little kazoo, fists clenched. Not good.
The machines in the house had grown quiet as the crews picked up to leave for the day. Now Kemble heard the front door bang shut.
“Anybody home?” a baritone voice called.
Tris and Maggie were back.
*****
Morgan closed her eyes. They’d have to get another display cabinet for the Cup. She’d brought the bodies back to Las Vegas to work on them, just for security.
The five of them were sleeping off the regeneration in the bunkroom down the hall.
Morgan couldn’t quite sleep yet. Her thoughts kept darting between her failure to eradicate the Tremaines and the possibilities that lay ahead to find the fourth Talisman, to bring the boy out from his monastery in Greece, to regenerate the military strategists who would soon owe their lives to her. All part of her plans for economic and military domination.
The world lay at her feet. Almost. She could at least see it from here.
Peachy. Except for the Tremaines. There they were, poisoning her well again.
But her failure last night was an accident. They had least one power the butler hadn’t known about. She still didn’t know how they’d fixed Brian’s medical equipment.
Of course, she had to admit that she should have brought the Sword as well as the Wand to the attack, let someone else wield it. Difficult. She wasn’t the trusting sort. If any of them got too much power, they might get big ideas.
But the Tremaine well was poisoned too, with sorrow and failure. Brian Tremaine was neutralized. His little nurse/whore too. She wouldn’t be Healing anybody anytime soon. Morgan would have Hardwick figure out if the Clan had managed to kill any Tremaines, as soon as he was up and around. They’d be on their guard even more now, of course.
She was too obsessed with them. She realized that. What could they do to stop her plans at this point? They could find the fourth Talisman, but she could find that out and steal it back.
No, it was time to get cracking on the rest of her plans. Let the Tremaines stew in their losses for a while. Unless one of them dropped into her hands, she had better things to do.
*****
Jane and Kemble were finally alone. They were staying in Kemble’s old room in the Bay of Pigs next door to Brian’s hospital room. If Jane listened carefully, she could hear the faint ping of the monitors. There was
no question of living in the house Kemble had bought. It was too dangerous. Besides, she and Kemble were needed here. She didn’t want to believe what Brina had said before dinner, that she and Brian were done leading the Tremaines. But it was a low point for the whole family. It would take all they had to win through to a happier time. She absolutely refused to believe that wasn’t possible.
Or maybe she wasn’t facing reality. She was somewhere beyond exhaustion at this point. She wasn’t even really sleepy. Kemble looked beat. He sat on the bed with the dark brown and red color blocks and began taking off his shoes. He’d had a messenger service bring over some of their things. Jane at least had a nightgown to put on.
Maybe she didn’t want to sleep in one of those demure white cotton ones with the lacy collars. Maybe she didn’t want to sleep in a nightgown at all.
Where had that thought come from? She was so tired she was getting confused.
Kemble unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged out of it. “Mother can’t mean what she said tonight,” he muttered.
“She’s just as tired as we are,” Jane said. She was just standing there, watching the muscles move in Kemble’s chest and arms. She heaved in a breath. He was a beautiful man, inside and out, and she felt lucky down to the tips of her toes. “It will be better tomorrow.”
He stood and unbuckled his belt. When he glanced up to her there was something like panic in his eyes. “What if Senior never. . . .”
Jane closed the distance between them and put her arms around her husband. He felt solid and real against her breasts under the thin sweater twinset she was wearing. “He will.” Kemble was sending those frissons of need down into her loins. How could she be aroused when she was this tired? She put that away. She couldn’t lie to Kemble either. She looked up at him. Best face it head on. “But if he doesn’t, or until he does, you’re the head of the family.” She put a finger to his lips to stifle his protest. “It’s you, Kemble. It is. And you’ll do fine at it.”
Night Magic Page 33