by E. M. Moore
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Other Books by E. M. Moore
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Power
Chronicles of Cas: Book Three
E. M. Moore
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by E. M. Moore. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact E. M. Moore.
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition December 2016
Second Edition December 2017
Other Books by E. M. Moore
Ravana Clan Vampires Reverse Harem Series
Chosen By Darkness
Into the Darkness
Falling For Darkness
Surrender To Darkness (Coming Soon!)
Chronicles of Cas Series
Reawakened
Hidden
Power
Severed
The Adams’ Witch
Bound In Blood
Cursed In Love
Adams’ Witch Spinoff Series, Order of the Akasha
Novella Starter — Stripped
Phoenix Series
Flight of the Phoenix available in the CREATURES box set!
Witchy Librarian Cozy Mystery Series
Wicked Witchcraft
One Wicked Sister
Wicked Cool
Prologue
I wish my grandfather were here. Surely, he’d have a helpful nugget of wisdom to hit me with at this time. Ha. This time. It sounded as if I were about to go on a Sunday drive or talk about some abstract moment in an infinite number of moments. “This time” symbolized that my brother Damen was captured by the bad guys of which I knew nothing about—who they are, what they want, or why they were doing this.
Some Guardian I turned out to be.
I paused the TV and stretched my arms out to the side. My muscles ached, not from being used but from being under-used. I wanted to punch something…and hard. Mostly when Douchewaddle McDoucherson a.k.a. General Etau was around. I couldn’t wait to find Damen and get the hell out of Command. If I’d ever fantasized about being an Elite before and I was sure I had, I was out of my stupid, young girl mind. No way could I put up with him anymore than I already had.
It must have been different back in my grandfather’s days. Sure, there was still a Command—a general headquarters for everything, but from what Damen told me, Grandpa used to revere the Elite and especially someone who held the Head of Command title, numero uno Elite Guardian. That guy, whoever he was back in the day, was probably awesome. This guy was a dumbass. If Grandpa were here, I highly doubted he’d be able to stand being in Etau’s presence for even a moment either.
I closed my eyes and rubbed the back of my neck. Watching this video repeatedly wasn’t getting me anywhere, yet I kept finding myself in this little back office with the TV monitor playing and replaying what they sent us. A message--to me--Damen had said. If it was my message, couldn’t he have given me a clue? Something that said, oh I don’t know, who had him? Who set the mother of all bombs off? He couldn’t have hinted at anything important? I knew we should’ve come up with a secret code when we were younger. All of this would be resolved by now. He could’ve said, “The dove flies past the clock tower at midnight.”, and I’d know the damn faeries were behind it. Or the Wiccans. Or whom-fucking-ever instead of sitting on my ass with no more information than I had a week ago.
The worst part of it all was something Damen said did resonate with me. It was the reason I kept coming back up here to watch the stupid forty-five second clip. It was like something was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t quite put it into words yet. A thought waiting in the back of my head to come to fruition but I hadn’t put the two perfect puzzle pieces together. And I wanted to put those freaking puzzle pieces together. More than anything I wanted my brother back. The more time we wasted not doing anything, the worse off Damen could be. He said they were pissed off. Whoever they were.
“Ugh. I hate this.”
I sat back in the chair and pressed play. Damen’s face moved again. His ashen skin and dark circles under his eyes haunted me. “They’re going to turn all the ley lines on, Cas. They have more bombs like the one that took out Stonehenge and they’re going to use them. They’re done being hidden. They want to come out into the light. They want to show themselves to the world. They want to be the ones to make the decisions. It’s always all about power, Cas. Always.”
Chapter One
I was back in high school again hoping to find a lunch table with people who didn’t have a terrible case of the RBF’s—or resting bitch faces. Steam from the corkscrew pasta they’d just shoveled onto my plate rose in front of me in little wisps as I scanned the small mess hall. Not a minute too soon, I saw Jake in the far corner.
“You have that look,” I said, sitting down next to him.
He stiffened for a second, eyeing me. Ever since the bomb went off, Jake and I hadn’t spoken much. It was most likely my fault. The only thing I’d done was sleep and watch that damn clip over and over again.
Jake took all of me in. No doubt I had circles under my eyes and I was almost certain I’d forgotten to brush my hair this morning. Pushing the tray back, I ran my hands through the tangles and pulled out the sides to see my faded pink streaks.
“I have no look,” Jake said.
Shrugging, I peered over at him. He didn’t look that great either. This situation was taking its toll on both of us. “Maybe that’s just how you look when you’re thinking. It must hurt.”
The corner of his lip tipped up. “Always the smartass.”
“Can you blame me? I had to compete with you two when I was younger. Then, I became a monster killing badass. If you were me, you’d be smartass too.”
He snorted. “Monster killing badass? In your dreams.”
I smirked at our easy banter. The tension eased out of my shoulders allowing me to finally relax. Hell, maybe I should talk to Jake more often. It could be good for the both of us. “You know it.”
I pulled the tray closer and stirred the pasta with my fork. It didn’t look appealing, but I didn’t have another choice. This wasn’t a buffet. It was cafeteria-style. You held out your tray, they dished it into your little segregated compartments.
What I really wanted was pizza from back home. The crap they served here on Saturdays didn’t deserve the title. However, if I left Command to get some real food, General Etau might not let me back in.
“You’re looking at that with disgust. Just so you know, it’s not the worst thing they serve. In fact, on a scale of fish sticks to pizza, it’s on the slide up to pizza.”
Up? My stomach rolled. “Good to know, Shifty.”
Jake’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t say anything, but the look implied I should never call him that again. I mentally shrugged.
“The doctors released the fae late last night. Have yo
u seen him yet?”
The steaming mouthful of pasta paused halfway to my mouth. The answer to the question was easy. No, I hadn’t seen him. Why hadn’t I seen him, though? Troian and I had gotten close. Well, as close as a fae and a Guardian could get. He saved my life. Why hadn’t he sought me out? He could have at least stopped by to tell me he’d been released from the infirmary.
I took a deep, relaxing breath and smiled before putting the forkful in my mouth. “Glad to hear he’s doing well enough to get released. Haven’t seen him.”
“I have.”
Jake’s eyebrow rose as he stared across the table at me. I wished I knew what reaction he expected of me. I put the fork back down. “So, how’s he doing?”
“He’s still pretty banged up, but at the same time, still that overconfident fae with serious reality issues.”
“Aww. That’s probably the nicest thing you ever said about him.”
Jake’s lips split into a wide grin. “Thank you.”
I pushed back my half-eaten tray of food so we could talk business. We both knew that’s what we really wanted to do anyway. “I’d like to get his take on the video clip. He might have some insights we haven’t thought of yet.”
Jake looked away for a few seconds and then stared straight back at me. “The message was for you, Cas. If you can’t find anything in there, no one else is going to.”
My fingers gripped the edge of the table. My mind was having a field day picturing punching him in the face. Didn’t he know I thought of that already? Couldn’t he just humor me, or did he have to point out the fact that I was grasping at straws?
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what? Like I want to put a nice bruise on your jaw?”
“Yeah. Like that.” He sighed. “I’m just saying that if you haven’t found anything, we should move on. We can’t just keep watching that clip and hope that somehow something is going to jump out at you. If it was going to, it would have already. We’re wasting precious time.”
I chuckled angrily. “I love that-” I shook my head. “Never mind.” What I was about to say was truly mean and even though I hadn’t had much sleep and the food here sucked, I didn’t want to be on Jake’s bad side--even if what I was going to say was the truth. I loved how he was preaching to me about finding my brother when he hadn’t been around in years. Years.
My face was hot. The surge of anger still rose inside me. I looked away and took a deep breath.
Jake grabbed my hand. “You love what, Cas?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
He pulled his hand from mine. “I bet I deserve whatever it was you were about to say.”
I nodded. “Yup.”
“But I think we can both agree that family, loyalty is the most important. I’m here now, Cas. I can’t take back the fact that I ever left, but I’m here with you now and damnit, we need to find Damen. We need to find him so I can look him in the eye and tell him I’m sorry. You get that, right?”
I blinked as Jake’s dark eyes bore into me. Guilt was all over him. If it had a smell, Jake would need a shower about now. “I get it,” I told him. “But, so we’re clear. No one wants to find Damen more than me. He’s my brother and I’m telling you that there is something in that clip. I haven’t figured it out yet, it’s like right there, but I haven’t connected the dots. So, I will continue to watch the clip. If you have other bright ideas you want to share, fine. We’ll do those, too. But there is something there. Just because I haven’t figured it out yet, doesn’t mean Damen didn’t leave something there for me.”
Jake leaned back in his chair. “Fair enough.” He searched the space around us and then leaned in. “I’m sitting in on a Command meeting today. I’ll let you know if I find out anything good.”
“Don’t you think it’s odd that I’m not invited to any of these meetings? It’s wrong. It’s like they’re hiding something.”
Jake shrugged. “They’re just private here. There’s a definite rank of power strata happening in Command. It must always be obeyed. If they knew you strategized with the witches or were buddy, buddy with shifters—regular shifters, not shifter Elites--they’d freak around here. Anyone who isn’t an Elite is looked down on. Speaking of…” Jake handed me a phone. “Your other phone won’t work here. If you need me, call me. I programmed my number into your contacts.”
I slipped the small phone into my front pocket. “Thanks, Jake.”
“I think you need to get to the training rooms, too. Let’s meet there after my meeting. We don’t need you going soft right now.”
I was about to make a smartass comment, but he was right. My body was turning normal. I needed to get back on my game.
I nodded. “You got it, Shifty.”
*****
I was never good at wasting time.
Jake told me to meet him at the training rooms at six, but I didn’t have anything to do until then. I could watch the clip again, but I’d stayed up until my eyes were like dry peppers in my head. Of course, I’d also thought about what Jake said earlier. Part of me agreed with him and that part of me was pissed off he was right. If I hadn’t noticed anything from the clip yet, would I ever? Would watching it over and over make it somehow suddenly appear in front of me? Damen was trying to lead me somewhere. Lead me to the answer of who was behind all this crap and I just couldn’t get it.
At least Damen was trying to help me. The people around here acted as if they only tolerated me. It couldn’t have been that way when my Grandfather was Salem’s Ley Line Guardian. Here, us Ley Line Guardians were treated like grunts, like we were only a step above the magical creatures we kept in line when necessary.
Feeling out of place, I threw myself back on the bed in the room I’d been given after I got out of the infirmary. I missed my home. I missed my library. I missed Damen.
The clock on the bedside stand read 4:30. Another hour and a half of this ‘woe is me’ crap?
Then, I had an epiphany. Why was I waiting around? Why was I just lying in bed when these meetings obviously had something to do with my brother? I deserved to be there. Since when did Cas Marston just wait on the sidelines because someone told her to?
I call bullshit.
Without giving it a second thought, I stood, whipped the door to my room open, and headed down the hall toward the center of Command. I was going to that meeting.
I rounded the corner and noticed a familiar face outside the door.
“Sanders.”
Sanders did a double-take and then sighed heavily. “Cas…”
“Hey, Buddy,” I said, keeping my tone light and airy.
“I know what you want. In fact, Jake told me you’d be coming.”
Weird, but not too weird. I guess he’d known I’d grow a pair before I did. In fact, I didn’t know why I didn’t think of it before. “So, Jake told you to let me in, right?”
“He told me not to let you in, but he knows me better than that so he just told me to make you promise that you’d keep your mouth shut and sit in the back.”
“That does sound like him.”
The humor faded from his eyes. “How are you doing, Cas?”
I shrugged my shoulders, not ready to throw a pity party in front of an Elite.
He nodded his head knowingly. “I have a sister. If it were my sister, I’d be looking like you right now.”
I ran my hands through my hair again remembering the way Jake looked at me earlier. “Is it that bad?”
“It’s not the way you look, though you got a little something…” He shook his head. “Never mind. It’s your eyes, Cas. They tell a whole other story.”
I smiled when a memory popped into my head. “My grandfather used to say eyes could tell a story, but only about what that person was doing at that exact moment. Eyes hold secrets.”
Sanders nodded as he pushed back on the door, revealing a small space for me to sneak by. He looked inside, eyes scanning. “There’s a spot for you right there. Turn rig
ht. Second row in.”
I was just about to slip past him when he caught my arm. “Let me know if there’s anything you need, Cas. I know I never met your brother, but if he’s anything like you, and half the guy Jake tells me about, he’s someone worth saving.”
I held Sanders’ gaze, touched by his words. Emotion threatened to pop to the surface. I swallowed it down and smiled. “That he is.”
I took a deep breath, turned, and headed toward the empty seat. General Etau stood and spoke up front. No one paid any attention to my entrance. They were all ears for Etau. It took me a second to get my bearings on what he was saying. Basically, and to my very happy surprise, General Etau was getting a verbal beat down from the crowd after every sentence he finished.
A woman stood in the corner. “General, I’m glad you’ve updated us on the slow progress, but what information do we have on where the enemies plan to strike next?”
Etau’s jaw clenched. He struck me as the type that wouldn’t like that type of question so I was glad someone was asking him the tough ones. That made it easier for me to keep my mouth shut. “As I said before, there is a taskforce working on that very question right now.”
A man stood next to the woman. “Is it an Elite taskforce?”
The general looked affronted. “Of course. Who else would it be?”
I bit my tongue to keep my mouth shut. As if having other Guardians help with the taskforce would be a terrible idea. It was no wonder no one knew anything. We should all be working together. This wasn’t just an Elite problem. It was a problem for all magical folk and guardians everywhere.
The man spoke again. “May we have the names of all the members of the taskforce?”
General Etau’s face reddened under the harsh lights. I didn’t know what it said about me, but I was pleased he was on the hot seat.
He walked to his chair on the raised dais and sat. “Names can be provided.”
A middle-aged woman from the front row stood. “I hope you know, General, that these questions are coming from a place of fear. What if our enemies attack Command?”