He saw how relaxed she was becoming and wanted to keep her that way. “Tell me.”
“There was a great war. The demon hordes were uncontrollable, and the beauty of the lands was being stained with the blood of humankind. Hope was lost, and entire cities fell to demon enslavement. The faeries saw that the war would eventually spread to them. They decided humans were the only thing standing between their life and their extinction.
“To even the odds without revealing themselves, they gave up some of their own magic to the twelve wisest humans they could find. Six men and six women were chosen. In return for the power, the faeries exacted promises from those gifted. The promises were two way agreements.
“The gifted agreed to never harm an innocent being. They would protect the earth from the wicked beasts destroying humankind until the blood of the chosen no longer ran warm. In return, the magic would grow within them to suit their needs. The magic would stay with them as long as they used it for the purposes intended when it was given.
“Faerie magic is strong, and in making this bargain, the faeries had no idea that the pact would exist as long as the demons did. The magic has continued as the bloodlines of the original witches stayed warm through their progeny. So, it is passed from parent to child, and still today the promise holds. The first twelve witches selected have bloodlines that branch out all over the world now.”
“How do you find each other? How do you know?”
“It’s not as hard as you would think. All you have to do is be open to the idea, and pay close attention. Incidents or events that often make no sense can be explained with magic. I’ll bet, now that you know the truth, you’ll see it more often than you think.
“That’s why my dad created The Brotherhood—the organization I told you about in the truck. Before I was born, my Uncle Cade saved my mom from being forced to misuse her power. He did stuff like that all the time, but he couldn’t be everywhere. My dad decided we needed a network to protect people like us, so he formed The Brotherhood. These days we all have our hands in it, along with some others.”
“Others?”
“Selena, she was a seer, and your captain, he fell into it by accident like you. A secret branch of the military, of which James is a part of, contributes manpower and technology. There are some politicians and business owners that help fund it. Anyone Uncle Cade helped usually wants to assist in some capacity. We have witches like me, sorcerers, lycanthropes, partial demons, doctors, and the list goes on. It’s an extensive network."
“Wow. Okay. My captain?”
“Why do you think he gave you room to pursue this instead of shutting you down? He and my dad set you up. They wanted to see what you were made of.”
“They set me up?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “Consider it a job interview. The Brotherhood handles all possible Joe Schmoes like you the same. They have to make sure you can handle the world we live in before they introduce you to it for the first time. Not everybody makes the cut.”
“I don’t understand. You’re telling me this is how you recruit?” he said with a bite. “You throw people like me into a demon war? And then what? If I live, I get to be a member of your club? Good grief! The CIA has less brutal tactics.”
“What happened tonight was unexpected. You would have been given more time, and it would have been slower. Today wasn’t something we could predict or control.”
Jonah rubbed his forehead as he felt the beginnings of a headache. “Tracy?”
She looked away from him. Feeling the same headache, she focused on the sky again.
“What did happen today? What do they want?”
She sighed. “I don’t know.” Sensing his reaction, she spoke as honestly as she could. “Honestly, I’m not trying to evade or give you the runaround. Everything is so complicated, I don’t know where to start.”
“Start by telling me what happened to Cody, Jeffery, and if what I suspect is true, what happened to Cade’s wife?”
“I—”
The door opened before she could reply. Jonah turned to see the man in question standing in the doorway.
“Tracy, you all right?” Cade asked, his features clearly showing his concern.
“Yeah, I’ll be okay. I just…I needed a minute.”
“Come inside then, both of you. It’s time we figured some things out.”
Chapter 25
As Jonah and Tracy entered the main living space his one bedroom apartment afforded them, he observed how small it felt with the four extra people. He also lamented it was not five, and glancing at the flower, he thought of Selena.
James sat in Jonah’s favorite chair and was clearly lost in thought. Checking on her brother, Tracy went to him. Rubbing his head, she asked quietly, “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be okay. You?”
“Yeah.”
Jonah realized it wasn’t only Tracy struggling with what happened. Since Tracy had never been in a situation like that before, it was a safe bet James hadn’t either.
Jarrett stood in a corner, wrapping up a phone conversation in low tones, and Cade leaned against the bookshelves on the wall with his golden eyes locked on the detective. A few seconds passed as Cade searched for the right words, and the turmoil he displayed was not lost on Jonah. Eventually, he decided to put it all out on the table as simply as he could.
“You guessed right, my wife is dead. Her name was Collett, but few will ever know she existed. Maybe not even us much longer,” Cade explained cryptically. “She died the same night Jeffery did. She gave her life to save a young boy from one of the worst enemies I have ever faced.”
“Cody?” Jonah questioned as he pieced it together.
“Cody,” Cade affirmed.
“And tonight, what was that? Was that the same enemy?”
Cade glanced at his brother, their eyes meeting for a brief second. Jarrett clenched his jaw.
Confusion ripped through Tracy. “Cade? It’s Victor, right?”
“Who’s Victor?” Jonah questioned.
“Victor’s his assistant. He was there that day too, but he snuck away. Cade and Jarrett were hunting him these past few months,” James supplied without looking up.
“Was his assistant,” Tracy insisted looking back and forth between the brothers.
“Whose assistant?”
“Niall’s,” Jarrett said.
“Bellig’s,” Cade said at the same time.
“Bellig or Niall?” Jonah asked, rubbing his forehead again.
“Both,” the twins said together.
Exasperated, Jonah huffed out a laugh and threw up his hands. “Well that clears up everything.”
“Was his assistant,” Tracy repeated, but no one answered right away.
As she said it again, a stray thought came to Jonah. Damn, he thought, Selena. He held his tongue, waiting to get more info before he jumped to conclusions.
Cade glanced at Tracy. “Rory checked in with your dad. He says something’s stirring and members of The Faction are gathering. Jarrett and I figure there has to be someone pulling the strings. Someone powerful…”
“It’s a sure bet Victor’s got a new master,” Jarrett added.
“Rory?” said Jonah.
“He’s a half-demon. He works for us and keeps contacts within The Faction.”
“Stop! Just stop.” Jonah cursed again under his breath. “You people could drive a man to drink! I’ve managed to avoid that for five years now. I’d like to keep it that way.
“I can’t come into this and get these little facts, names, and figures and have y’all expecting me to jump on your 80 mile an hour train. Can somebody please put on the brakes and go back? Can we start from a point where I can catch up? What is The Faction? Who is Bellig and or Niall? What does this all have to do with Cody, Jeffery, and this woman you called Collett? Let’s cut all the bull pucky and start at the beginning.”
James looked up with an amused grin. “Did you just say bull pucky?”
&n
bsp; Jarrett cut off any possible response. “The beginning of where exactly? Cade, we don’t have time for this.”
“We'll make time. After tonight, he’s earned the right to know. Then, Detective, you can decide for yourself if you want out. It’s not a forced brotherhood, and we’re not going to kill you after you know our secret.”
“If you keep it to yourself anyway,” Jarrett added.
“We won’t even kill you then,” Cade assured. “Have a seat. Listen to what I have to say, and if you want to go back to your normal life, well, that’s up to you.”
Sitting down, Jonah listened to the whole sordid tale. Cade went back to the first time he met Collett and explained what happened from there. He spoke of her amnesia and mentioned her strange connection to Jarrett. He told him about the attack on the house last winter, their trip to New Mexico, and eventually California. Cade explained what happened with Cody and his role in both organizations. Jarrett even offered his two cents about The Faction and its cold-blooded leader, Niall, AKA Bellig. Jarrett’s input consisted mostly of choice descriptions Jonah wouldn’t dare repeat in front of his mother. The story slowed as Cade discussed how Collett died and their recent discovery regarding people’s vague recollections of her. He finally finished with their limited information regarding the swords they had gone to question Selena about.
The discussion took just over an hour, and during those sixty-nine minutes, Jonah felt his whole life shift. Fighting the demons was a matter of survival and required little thought, but by the time they had laid everything out, Jonah wasn’t even sure how to feel or what to say.
He stood, tugged on his ear, and turned to look at the bluebonnet lookalike sitting on his counter. His brows drew together, and he licked his split lip. He let go of all the otherworldly tidbits and tried to be logical. Jonah compartmentalized the information as any good detective would. He was simply wired that way, and it’s what made him so good at what he did. In doing this, he connected a few dots.
“Well, Hall, are you in or out?” Tracy demanded impatiently.
“It seems to me y’all have been doing this backwards,” he said absently.
“What?” Jarrett snapped.
“When I work a case, the first place I go is the scene of the crime. I work my way through it carefully, searching for the one clue that will lead to the next. Then the next clue leads me onto another until I get a break that will finish the whole picture. You can’t put a one-thousand piece puzzle together in an instant. You have to start with the first piece and work your way through it. Y’all are jumping around on this too much and missing things as you go.”
“What are you saying?” James asked.
“See that flower over there?” He pointed across the room.
“Get to the point,” Jarrett ordered impatiently.
“Before you got there tonight, Selena spent some time talking to me about flowers. She’s the one who told me to bring you the daisies the other day. So, I went in there tonight wanting to learn how she knew what was going to happen with Jenny and a few other things she had hinted at.
“When I got there, she babbled on about the bluebonnets in Texas and the story behind them. The bluebonnets look a lot like that little flower over there, and she talked about how much she missed seeing them. I think, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Selena even knew she wasn’t coming out of that little shop alive tonight. She asked me if I thought they had bluebonnets in Heaven.”
James stood. “Uncle Cade?”
“She would have known,” he confirmed.
Jarrett mumbled a curse under his breath.
Jonah exhaled as he considered how hard that knowledge must have been for the woman. “The point is,” he continued while looking directly at Jarrett, “If I didn’t overdose on some hallucinogens or slip into some weird dream no amount of abuse would wake me from, then there’s nothing that woman said that didn’t have some sort of side meaning. So you must be overlooking a huge piece of your puzzle, and my guess is it’s somewhere in my home state, Texas.”
Jarrett scowled and shifted. Cade tilted his head curiously. Tracy and James looked to each other with knowing expressions. Jonah scoffed, “I sure hope you people don’t play poker, because y’all have some big tells. I take it by your reactions, Texas was omitted from your little story. Anyone want to fill me in on that part?”
“It’s where Collett first woke up,” Tracy explained.
“What?” Jarrett asked, his head snapping up to meet Cade’s eyes.
“Collett woke up on a beach in Texas with no memory almost three years ago. It was the first memory she had when she came to us. Any event before that was gone from her mind,” Cade explained, realizing for the first time they never discussed it before.
“She woke in Texas? Nearly three years ago, you're sure? What was the month?”
“Oh, this just got interesting,” Jonah said. “Texas doesn’t mean the same thing for all of you then.”
“I’m not above killing you,” Jarrett said darkly in reply.
Jonah shrugged, unafraid. “Get on with it then. It's been a long day for me, and I could use the rest.”
“Oh Nate’s gonna love you,” James said with a laugh.
“Jarrett! Texas, August,” Cade demanded.
“I was there on an assignment from him.” Jarrett practically spat the reference to Niall out. “He was there too. His order was simple, kill the girl or he would kill the orphans she was there to help.”
“What girl?” Cade asked. “Collett?”
“No, I was there to kill Selena. That’s why I recognized her tonight. Niall sent me there to kill her.”
“But you didn’t,” James offered from his chair.
Tracy moved closer to him. “You said you thought she was dead.”
“I did. He said she was. I wasn’t going to kill her. I hoped to get her out of there, but Niall was there watching over the whole thing. I hadn’t decided what I was going to do. I couldn’t let him kill those kids and yet… Anyway, I missed my window to grab her. I had a plan. There was this fundraiser she was attending, but I was still hurt from my last task the day before. Four broken ribs and a collar bone among other problems. Of course Niall didn’t care. I decided to rest before I went, and instructed my demon handler, Finnawick, to watch for her arrival and call me. I never got the call, so I didn’t wake up on time. I was in worse condition than I figured, because I managed to sleep through a hurricane, literally.”
“Matagorda?” Cade asked carefully. “Collett said she was in a gown when she woke up.”
Rubbing the chills from his neck, Jarrett huffed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“How did we miss this? Why didn’t we talk about it?” Cade asked, straightening and pushing his hand through his hair.
“How could we have known?”
Cade shook his head. “I should've known. It wasn’t until Selena met Collett that she brought you up again. I should’ve put it together because of your connection to her, and the simple fact that we knew Collett was with you more than two centuries ago.”
“She has been there to intervene more than once,” Jarrett said. “I don’t remember her being there that night though. To be honest, I don’t even hardly remember that day. I put it out of my mind.”
Jonah’s brow pinched as he contemplated Cade's comments. “Excuse me? Did you say two centuries?”
Both brothers turned their attention back to him.
“Two and nearly three quarters,” James offered.
“Oh man, I really wish I still drank,” Jonah mumbled, rubbing his forehead again. He sighed and threw up his hands. “Okay, why not?” He reached into his back pocket, taking out his wallet. “Look, I need a shower, here’s my ID. You’ll need it for the flights. I suppose one of you can take care of the arrangements.”
“Flights?” Jarrett questioned.
“I’m not driving to Texas, and I work for a cop’s salary so I can’t pay for everyone.” Wh
en no one responded, he set his driver’s license on the counter. “Scene of the crime, my friends. The best place to find answers is the beginning.” He turned and walked down the short hall to the bathroom. Turning back, he snapped his fingers like he forgot something. “Oh yeah, in case you’re wondering, as Tracy was, or if the half-demon informant didn’t tell you, Selena says your enemy is coming and time is short. It’s just a guess, but I’m pretty sure this Niall/ Bellig person is not as dead as you believed. I’ll try not to take all the hot water,” he said as he shut the bathroom door.
The water was running hot and seeping into the stinging cuts and scrapes on his skin as he tried to figure out when his mind had taken a turn to la la land. Jonah heard the click of the bathroom door, and he picked up the soap. He knew it was Tracy, or at least he hoped it was. It would be more than weird if one of the wolf twins snuck in like that.
“Did you need something?” he asked through the curtain as he washed the dried blood from his skin.
“Why would you want to do this?” she replied.
“You know, I was just asking myself the same thing.”
“Do you understand the risk? Do you have any idea of what these beings are capable of?”
Jonah thought back to the first time he saw the tortured and battered Cody. He could still remember how broken his body was, and worse, he’d seen him since and knew how broken his mind was too. “Yeah, Tracy. I have a pretty good idea.”
“Then why? Why would you want to jump into this? You could leave and go back to your life the way it was.”
He stuck his head out the shower and met her eyes. “I told you from the beginning, all I want is the truth and victims deserve justice. Did you assume the sentiment would change when I learned the criminal was a demon?”
“He’s not a demon. He’s…we don’t even know what he is or what he's capable of. Even Uncle Cade and Jarrett are afraid of him. It could be someone even worse than Bellig.”
“We’ll see how this plays out together. After that, we can decide what to do next.”
The Truth of Victory: A Powers of Influence Novel Page 23