The Price of Knowing: A Powers of Influence Novel (The Powers of Influence Book 2)

by C. B. Haight

  A few blocks later, she spotted him standing in front of the St. Louis Cathedral. He made no move to enter, but looked like any other visitor admiring the historic building. The gate was decorated for the upcoming holidays. She wondered absently if such things meant anything to him. She guessed they likely didn’t.

  Keeping her distance, she watched him for a long time, trying to understand him. Suddenly, his fierce eyes were on her, and she saw annoyance clearly displayed in his expression. Her heart thudded once under the intensity of his scowl. There was so much in those eyes, she thought. She saw so many emotions and thoughts in a single look. It was strange for her to look at him and see so much of her long-time friend, but at the same time, she could also see so much that was nothing like Cade.

  Ignoring his displeasure Delphene sauntered up to him, only stopping a mere step from him. As if she was analyzing it for answers, she looked at the building much the same as he had. “Il aidera pas,” she said quietly.

  “What?” he groused.

  “It will not help.”

  “What?” he repeated.

  “This building,” she answered and pointed at it as if he should understand her meaning.

  Confusion was evident in his features. He shook his head. “Do you speak English?”

  She laughed out loud at the cynical tone. “Oui,” she answered with a sweet voice full of sarcasm.

  His dark brows drew together, but he said nothing. Instead, he took a minute to look—really look—at Delphene. She was a beautiful woman, so stunning, that any man would notice. She had soft, chocolate colored skin and dark, ebony hair she kept long and tightly bound. He found himself roaming over her figure next. She wasn’t small, far from it. She was tall and well-muscled, but not like a bodybuilder. Her eyes held glittering amusement within them and were almost level with his own. Her stature could be attributed to long, shapely legs that drew a man’s attention, even when they were covered up by jeans. A lesser man might have drooled.

  Her smile stayed bright and full as he scrutinized her, showing him she wasn’t shy or bothered by a man’s roaming eyes. In fact, she looked purely satisfied by his apparent admiration. She wasn’t loose by any standard, but confident and sure of who she was.

  “It will not help you—this place I mean,” she began again.

  He met her eyes once again. “I wasn’t looking for help.”

  “Oui, I suspected as much. All the same, you won’t find it here.”

  Confused again, he shook his head and pulled his focus from her to look at the church once more.

  Tapping her finger to her lips, she drew her brows in as if thinking about it. “I know what,” she said and walked away.

  Perplexed, Jarrett actually began to follow her. “What am I doing?” he asked aloud, and stopped himself.

  “Come on, Chère, I don’t have all day,” she called over her shoulder without breaking stride.

  Nice to look at, he thought, but strange.

  It wasn’t long before Jarrett found himself moving, his curiosity getting the better of him. He caught up to her easily, and they walked for a long time, practically ignoring each other’s presence.

  Before he could figure out her intentions or where she was going, she stopped. Glancing around, he noticed they stood on Rampart Street in front of the historic Voodoo temple. People milled around them, paying them no mind as they went about their own business.

  “Perhaps here then?” she asked him

  “Here what?”

  “You might find help here.” She paused as he looked at her with a frustrated glance. He obviously thought she must be a little screwed up in the head. Unbothered by his expression, she merely shook her head, “Non, not here. It’s likely you’ve already tried something like it in any case. It is no matter. I have another idea.” She moved past him, walking onward.

  Cocking his head, he puzzled over what she was getting at. He hurried after her to confront her and get to the bottom of her little game. He ran into her when she stopped abruptly, snapped her fingers, and turned to him once more. “This is definitely the place for help, non?”

  Scowling, he followed her fingers as she pointed to draw his attention to the building before them. He looked up, seething, and clenched his jaw so tightly Delphene wondered how he didn’t grind his teeth to nothing.

  They were standing in front of a bar, and there was fire in his eyes now. He was beginning to catch on. Despite the rage in his eyes, she remained unbothered. “Non, this will not do.” She tapped her fingers to her supple lips as if thinking again. “I have tried that too. It doesn’t work for us. And between you and me, it stinks in there,” she said the last part cupping her mouth as if confiding a secret to him.

  As she left him again, Jarrett stood firm and refused to continue playing her silly game. He still couldn’t figure out why he followed her the first time. Sensing his intent, she turned. “A thought has struck me. Come, we must hurry though, it may no longer be there.” She took off running.

  His self-control broke, and a familiar anger took over. He would have no more of this trickery of hers. He took off after her, intending to put her in her place and let her know he’d had enough. She was fast though, faster than he’d expected, and outdistanced him. Refusing to let her win, he pushed himself harder and got within reach of her just as she stopped again.

  Despite her sudden stop, he grabbed her, and they both tumbled to the ground. He landed on top of her with a grunt. “I’m done playing your silly game!”

  “Non Chère, not my game. It’s yours.”

  “What are you talking about? You’ve been toying with me, thinking you could get into my head,” he snapped. “It stops now! Do you understand?”

  “Oui, I don’t want to be in your head, Mon Ami. There are already too many voices there, no?”

  “Stop it!”

  “As you wish.”

  He scowled. “Leave me alone, and we’ll be fine for as long as we’re stuck together. Got it?”

  “Oui, now get off me, Chère before I force you off,” she said easily, but he understood her intent as her muscles coiled in anticipation. He was curious to see if she could, but eventually he relented and stood up. Jarrett scanned his surroundings to get his bearings, only to find himself standing back where he started. He heard Delphene rise and brush at her clothes, but he ignored her as he stared at her home like a lost boy.

  “Ah, at last, this is the place, no? How long has it been since you looked here?”

  He swallowed hard as he watched the shapes of people moving behind the light curtains that hung over the window. He couldn’t help from asking, “For what? I’ve never been here before today.” The fire in his tone was gone now.

  “Ah, maybe not this house, but we were never talking about buildings, were we?”

  “What am I supposed to see?” he asked quietly, knowing the answer already.

  “What you were seeking?”

  “I wasn’t seeking help,” he retorted.

  “We’ve established that already.”

  “I don’t want help!” he assured her firmly.

  “En déclin et qui ont besoin sont des choses très différentes, Mon ami.”

  Unfortunately, he didn’t understand that she was telling him wanting and needing are two very different things. Jarrett never bothered to learn French. “What?”

  “I’ll see you inside,” she said sweetly.

  “What did you say?”

  “I will tell you someday. For now, I go to my friends.” She moved away from him to the front stairs of her colorful historic home.

  He stood there for a long time, thinking about the chase she took him on through the streets in the French Quarter. He also thought about what she was trying to tell him.

  The hardest part was admitting she was right. He had gone looking for help in the beginning. He tried everything to rid himself of his demon half. He consulted witches, sorcerers, priests, and yes, he even tried voodoo once. He’d endured an allotm
ent of painful and crazy attempts in a desperate need to destroy the monster within. None of it had worked. Not even finding his brother all those years before could fix him.

  The only help, if you could call it that, he’d ever found was when Niall taught him how to use his rage as a fuel to sustain him. It kept him alive time and time again, injury after injury. The festering fury forced him to stand when he wanted to quit. Using his anger, he taught himself to fight, and he became a deadly enemy to any and all that evoked his wrath. But he was a tool and nothing more. Only, he’d been too stupid to see that until it was too late.

  He’d learned how to survive, and as Niall’s killer, that’s all he’d been doing ever since. He’d functioned on hate and anger alone, but since Collett, everything changed.

  The dreams, the recollections of the past, his fights with Cade, and most of all, acknowledging that Collett may be the only reason he still drew breath today—was too much to take in. There was nothing left where the anger once was. He simply felt empty and tired.

  Jarrett rubbed his hands over his face and cursed silently. “What’s happening to me?”

  What good will any of it do at this point anyway? If I do stay, he reasoned, it’s not like they have any chance of succeeding. Even with all of them together. Hell, even with the whole combined force of the ridiculous Brotherhood Cade continues to swear by, we still couldn’t win, he reminded himself.

  He couldn’t see any alternatives though. He’d considered leaving several times already. On his own, he knew he couldn’t be betrayed, or so he told himself. He wouldn’t have to worry about anyone else’s safety either.

  Unfortunately, he hadn’t fared so well on his own recently, and if he was going to go anyway, it would be nice to at least take Niall with him. He’d wanted to do that for a very long time, and sticking around Collett may draw the S.O.B. out of his hole.

  He paced in front of the house, breaking down every possibility before him. A sudden burst of laughter came from inside the home. Looking back to the window, a slight ache bloomed in his chest. He’d let go of any ties to people so long ago. He didn’t realize it was fear keeping him from stepping through the door now. He took a step backward, and then another, intending to walk away while he still could.

  Fate intervened. A shriek from inside, and the crash of furniture, carried to his ears. His decision made for him, he rushed to the stairs without a second thought.

  He entered the living room with lightning speed and saw a demon choking Collett while Cynda helped Rederrick rise from the floor in the hallway, where he’d obviously been thrown. Delphene pinned another demon to the floor, pounding away at it recklessly, and Cade crashed around with yet another in furious combat. Jarrett flew into action. Ripping the drapes from the window, he heard a host of hissing monsters as sunlight poured into the room. He kept his focus though, and when the demon holding Collett struggled to cover his eyes with his free arm, Jarrett threw a dagger with deadly precision, embedding it between the creature’s jaundiced eyes.

  Before that demon could even crumple to dust, Jarrett leaped upon the back of the demon trying to disengage from Cade to escape the painful sunlight. Wrapping one arm around its neck, Jarrett used his other arm and an amazing amount of strength to twist the demon’s head almost all the way around to face him. Tendons and bones popped. The demon only smiled. “You are a dead man, Hunter!” it rasped.

  “Check again,” admonished Jarrett as Cade stabbed the creature through the heart with a broken table leg. Jarrett easily landed on his feet as the demon turned to a gray-white ash that fell to the floor.

  He noted the carnage caused by the three demons. Cade went to help Collett stand while Cynda dabbed at a cut on Rederrick’s temple. He met Delphene’s eyes as she rose from the floor, and he knew she was right. He may not have been looking for help, but here it was regardless. What’s more, he accepted that if they worked together, a few of them may even live. The time to leave had passed. It was time to be The Hunter once again, only this time, he would not hunt alone.

  “If we’re going to make it through this, the first thing we need to do is train,” he said. “And I know just the place to do it.”

  Chapter 19

  Cade began to set the room back together as best he could, considering the coffee table was destroyed and there was a Rederrick sized hole in the hallway. “I’m sorry Del.”

  “Not to worry, Mon Ami, there have been far greater storms here,” she assured him. “What do you mean train?” she directed to Jarrett.

  “I know demons, and you can bet that is the bulk of what will be coming for us. Niall uses them often to do his dirty work. I can teach you all everything you need to survive. It’s the only way we stand a chance. Even then, the odds are against us.”

  “I already know how to fight demons,” Cade insisted stubbornly.

  Jarrett conceded his point with a nod, “Maybe, but I know how to hunt them. I’ve spent the better part of my life keeping them in check, and I can tell you all I learned—like how the sunlight affects them. If only one of you had pulled those drapes, things may have been very different in here.

  “Niall doesn’t care how many of his pawns we kill, he’ll send more. There is no shortage of them in the world, and they’re always eager to cause problems. He’ll keep sending the demons at us to wear us down. He’ll start small at first, then work his way up to bigger things, and you can bet that’ll work. Unless we all know how to fight them, we’ll all die. Anyone who doesn’t know how to fight is a weakness to us.”

  “You’ll teach everyone then?” Collett asked hopefully from the back of the room.

  “Yes,” he replied, meeting her eyes, “everyone.”

  “Wait a minute here,” said Cynda, “sending these demons out—isn’t this Niall concerned about the attention it will draw? I mean, I know The Faction is a little crazy, but they’re usually more careful.”

  “Niall is careful, but he’s also proud and egotistical. He’ll stop at nothing to get his way,” Jarrett said darkly.

  “Why? Why do we matter to him so much?” asked Collett.

  “I know why he wants me dead, but I don’t know about you. Likely, the only person who does, is you,” he replied grimly.

  “Why do you matter?” she asked him hesitantly.

  “I don’t,” he corrected with finality. Collett and Jarrett stared at each other awkwardly before she turned her head away.

  Cade moved to her and put a protective arm around his wife. “Alright Jarrett, as the demon hunter, it looks like you’re in charge—for now anyway. Where are we going?”

  “There’s a place I know of in New Mexico. We should probably gather up that little punk, Jeffery, and the other annoying guy,” he said, referring to Nate. “We need to teach them too.”

  “I wonder what Christmas is like in the desert?” supplied Cynda, trying to add some positive energy.

  “You’ll have to find out some other time. We’re not going to play, and we won’t really be in the desert. At least, not like you’re thinking,” he replied.

  The trip required a little strategy on their part, but eventually everything was set up and executed smoothly. They couldn’t jump on the next plane to New Mexico, and the brothers agreed that a straight flight there would be too easy to track anyway. Ultimately, using Delphene’s contact, they were able to arrange for a couple of small, private aircrafts to take them to Shreveport. From there, they drove to Dallas where they visited another member of the brotherhood, Darrin.

  A corporate heavyweight in the oil industry, Darrin also held a strong sense of projection. Because of it, Rederrick insisted they spend at least one night there to see if he could help teach Collett about one her many abilities. Despite Jarrett’s protests and cursing, the opportunity to meet with Darrin along the way was one Rederrick refused to pass on.

  It didn’t help as much as Rederrick hoped though. Unfortunately, Darrin could only offer a little guidance since Collett’s group of abilities seemed
too interconnected and time was short. Nevertheless, she spent the entire night working him, hoping that every little thing learned was something she didn’t have before.

  Ashley, Jeffery, and Nate flew to Dallas and met up with them while Tracy flew to Colorado to be with Jenny and James. Having faith Jenny would wake, no one wanted her to wake alone. The family planned to meet up again later. For now though, James couldn’t get away from his duties, and knowing an empathic Ashley would have a difficult time staying at a hospital, Tracy insisted on being the one to stay with Jenny. She also argued, as strong as she was with elemental magic, she was more capable of defending herself than her sister. Rederrick consented, but he arranged for extra protection on the base for them all, an arrangement that James grumbled about.

  The truth was, they all understood that Jarrett and Collett were the real targets here. In fact, despite the attack in New Orleans, James’s and his sisters’ days had been uneventful since the group separated. Still, they knew the best way to trap something was to use a bit of bait, so they all complied with the precautions.

  After Dallas, they flew to Alamogordo-White Sands Regional Airport, rented two separate cars under more false identifications, and drove to a ranch about 30 miles outside of Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Worn out and travel weary, each of them disembarked the vehicles to get his or her first look at where training would begin for the battles they would face against The Faction.

  Nate evaluated his surroundings and looked to Jarrett. “Whose land is this?”

  “Mine. No one knows about it, though.”

  Glancing to Cade, Nate quipped, “Well, I would guess not. We can’t have people finding out that Mr. I’ll-eat-you-alive-and-spit-you-out-just- -for-fun is a bonafide hillbilly.”