Orano pushed him off again. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Whatever I want him to.” The third member of Tori’s inner circle—Nicole, he thought—sauntered toward them holding a creepy looking wax doll. She turned to her leader. “Gracey cast a spell to ward off the other covens’ power, but I’ve taken care of it.”
The three women behind Phoenix were still chanting around the glowing crystal. Phoenix bounced from one foot to the other, apparently ready to dive in front of anything Orano might throw. Gracey stood in silence.
The smug grin on Tori’s face all but dared Orano to risk killing his partner to destroy her crystal. He even formed another energy ball, holding it up for her to see, to let her know how close she’d come to losing. Her smile, however, never wavered. She knew he wouldn’t do it.
Nicole reached down to where Gracey had emptied her bag and grabbed the discarded book lying in a pile of leaves. Its cover, emblazoned with the title Controlling Your Mental Health, disintegrated at her touch. What remained no longer resembled a book at all, only a few sheets of photography paper.
“Thank you for making this easy, Gracey.” Nicole held the pictures in front of her, smiling as small orange flames appeared, engulfing each page.
Orano eyed the totem in Nicole’s hand. Phoenix might be blocking him from taking out the crystal, but he could still hit that wax doll and release his partner from the witch’s control.
“No, Orano,” Gracey yelled as he pulled his arm back. “The totem’s linked to Phoenix. That’s how she’s able to control him. Anything you do to it, you do to Phoenix.”
“That doesn’t stop me from taking her down.”
Gracey laid her hand gently on his shoulder. “Yes, it does. All she has to do is squeeze and every bone in Phoenix’s body will be pulverized.”
“She’s right, you know,” Nicole said with a smirk. “There’s nothing you can do.”
The internal battle raged as Orano saw his chances of stopping Tori slipping away. He could end the threat, right then and there, with only one casualty. A few days ago, he probably would have done just that, but not now. Somehow, Phoenix had gotten under his skin or, perhaps more accurately, Gracey had. He let out a long breath.
Gracey’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “It’s over, Orano. We failed.” She grabbed her bag and shoved the items that were scattered on the grass into it. “We need to go before they finish the spell, or there’ll be nothing stopping them from turning their magic on us,” she said. “Grab Phoenix.”
Orano’s jaw ticked. “We can’t take him with us. Not while he’s under their control.”
“But—” Gracey sputtered as Orano grabbed her arm and pulled her into the woods. He didn’t let go until they were safely in the car and driving back toward town. Tears streamed down Gracey’s face, though she remained silent.
Orano pulled out his phone and dialed. “We have a problem,” he said when his boss picked up.
“Yes, we do. What happened?” Myrine asked.
Orano started to answer, then realized that they were talking about two different things. Myrine couldn’t have known about Phoenix. “It happened again, didn’t it?”
“Rome, Italy is completely blacked out, along with an almost twenty-mile swath around it in every direction. It’s too soon to know for sure, but it looks like every piece of electronic equipment is fried. It’s like the area was hit by an EMP.”
“Shit,” Orano mumbled. He could see the lights of Virginia Beach in the distance, so he’d just assumed that the witches had failed. Obviously, he’d been wrong. “It’s definitely got something to do with these witches. They just finished some sort of spell using a crystal to channel their power. I don’t see how screwing with Rome helps them, though.”
“We have a theory about that. We think California may have been a demonstration of their power. It’s possible that this is another one, although, according to Julian, it would have taken a whole lot more power to do this kind of damage. Does your source have any ideas?”
Orano put the phone on speaker and relayed his boss’s question to Gracey.
“All we knew was that we were trying to harness and store as much power as possible, so when the mundanes—sorry, the people without magic—needed us, we’d be able to take care of them. Tonight, though, Tori, our high priestess, said that a lot of other covens were also sending their power to us.”
“Tori’s working her way up to the main event.” Orano pieced together what he knew. “She used California as a recruiting tool. Show other covens what can be done and get them on board to help.”
“It sounds like she’s using terrorist tactics. Recruiting is never easier than immediately after a successful attack,” Myrine said. “The California incident made national news headlines, but only garnered small bi-lines internationally. This one will be plastered across every media outlet in the world.”
“We have another problem,’ Orano said. “They’ve got Phoenix.”
Chapter 15
Gracey kept her face turned away from Orano, watching the scenery pass by outside her car window. She understood the logic of leaving Phoenix behind—they couldn’t very well have someone who worked for Tori at their side regardless of whether or not he was a willing participant. Intellectually, she agreed with the decision but, emotionally, she hated Orano for making it. She hated herself.
She’d held it together long enough to answer his boss’s questions, but now that the phone call had ended and her mind had no more distractions, she felt her resolve weakening. Gracey’s eyes welled up, threatening to shed a torrent of tears she wouldn’t be able to stop. She brought her hand to her mouth, ready to chew away whatever remained of her mangled fingernails.
Orano wrapped his enormous paw around her fist and pulled it back down to her lap. “He’ll be okay,” he said, leaving his hand resting on hers.
“You can’t know that,” Gracey choked out as the tenuous grip on her emotions disintegrated and tears streaked down her face. “Tori has his totem. She can do almost anything to him.”
“But she won’t. Phoenix is her insurance policy. She needs him alive and kicking, or she’ll lose her leverage over us.”
Again, Gracey agreed with the logic behind that statement but found it difficult to tamp down her emotional response. “And when she no longer needs leverage?”
Orano took his eyes off the road long enough to capture her gaze and show her his determination. “We’ll get him back long before that happens. My team will be here soon. Two of them are in Washington, DC right now and are probably already in a helicopter on their way. The rest are only a couple hours behind. We don’t mess around when one of our own is in trouble.”
“And they’ll be able to take down powerful witches?”
The corners of Orano’s mouth twitched up. “If you’re asking if they’re like me, the answer is no. I don’t know anyone who’s like me.”
The disappointment on her face must have been evident, because he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and continued.
“They’re different from me, but no less powerful. In fact, one of the people coming from DC, well, she’s more powerful than any human I’ve ever met.”
His choice of phrasing struck Gracey as odd. It seemed to suggest that he’d met people who were classified as something other than human. Her first reaction to that thought was one of disbelief. No aliens lived secretly among the people of Earth. Then she realized what a hypocrite that made her. Most people felt that way about witches, not to mention men who could manifest balls of energy. If she herself fell into the category of unbelievable things, then how could she assume others in that category weren’t just as real as she was?
“You know people who aren’t hum—?”
A loud crack! sounded, and the car jerked hard to the right. Orano let go of her hand so he could use both of his on the wheel, while Gracey braced herself with one hand on the dash and one gripping the plastic handle above her door. When the car turned to f
ace the woods beside the road, Gracey felt herself become weightless as the tires on her side left the pavement.
Everything moved in slow motion. The view out the windshield became an abstract picture as tree trunks went from vertical to horizontal. The world tipped on its side, and Orano’s door crushed inward. They tumbled further, until the ceiling crumpled below her and every window exploded, covering them in shards of glass. Orano’s side of the car rose up as if to continue the roll, but hung suspended for only a moment before crashing back down.
The screech of metal dragging across asphalt filled her ears until the inverted car slid fully off the road to the shoulder. Stones, twigs, and other debris hurtled through the hole in the windshield, pelting them with enough force to embed themselves in Gracey’s skin. When a small rock struck her temple, she felt herself losing consciousness.
“Gracey! Are you all right?”
She dragged her eyes open, knowing she needed to stay awake, but unable to control her thoughts enough to form words. Gracey turned her face toward the screaming voice and saw an upside down Orano, face bloodied and filthy, kneeling outside her window. Her trauma-addled brain slowly realized that she must have passed out, giving him time to extract himself from the wreck. Then she understood that he wasn’t the upside down one.
“I’m going to undo your seatbelt, Gracey. Okay? Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”
The words barely registered when she felt his arm wrap around her upper body just before her hips and legs dropped to the ground. Orano grabbed her under her arms and slowly pulled her out the window. Her head rolled to the side in time to see another car come around the corner. It slowed as it approached them. Orano stood, waving his hands while he took a few steps forward.
As soon as the car stopped, a young man slid out from behind the wheel. His facial expression felt wrong to Gracey—no shock or fear—but she knew not to trust her reactions at that moment. She’d barely begun thinking straight. When the Good Samaritan raised his arm, weapon in hand, her heart sank.
The man pulled the trigger and Orano stumbled backward, almost losing his footing but remaining upright. Relief washed over Gracey. Although she could only see him from behind, she felt sure that he would have fallen immediately if he’d taken a bullet. Somehow, the attacker missed his target.
She watched as Orano raised his hand to the side, a bright orange ball forming in his palm. Before he could let it loose, he stumbled once more and fell to his knees. The energy ball disappeared, and Orano sat back on his heels before collapsing to the ground.
Gracey heard herself scream. She scrambled the rest of the way out of their car, ignoring the added pain of the rocks and newly shattered glass shards slicing into her skin, and pushed herself up. The man held Orano’s arms, dragging him away from her. If she could just focus her mind, she’d be able to summon enough magic to—
Something hit her in the chest. Not particularly painful, it felt more like the sting from a really large bee. Forget about the bee. You need to help Orano. No sooner had the thought entered her mind, than it melted away. The silver and blue dart protruding from her chest told her why.
Another man had exited the attacker’s car, holding the same kind of weapon used on Orano. He opened their back door and helped his friend lift Orano onto the seat. He then ran to Gracey and pulled the dart out of her chest. She expected him to grab her, too, but he didn’t. He simply left her lying, almost unconscious, on the side of the road.
As the kidnappers’ car pulled forward, Gracey used every last bit of lucidity she could muster to focus her eyes and read.
X … K … F … 9 … 4 …
Her last thought before the darkness took hold left her bereft. She’d failed.
Chapter 16
Joy Remson held her cell phone to her ear. After only one ring, her high priestess answered.
“What is it, Joy?” Tori asked.
“You won’t believe it. I followed Gracey just like you asked. She and that guy just got in a car accident—”
“Are they dead?” Tori interrupted.
“No. At least I don’t think so. But that’s not why I called. Two men just shot both of them with tranquilizers and took Gracey’s friend.” Joy waited for a response, but heard nothing. She thought she’d lost cell signal, then Tori spoke.
“That’s good news, Joy. But I need you to finish it. Gracey can’t be allowed to walk away from this. Do you understand?”
Joy swallowed hard. “I don’t know if I can.”
“Just do it. She’d do the same to any of us, and you know it. We’ve got control of Phoenix, and somebody else has Orano, so Gracey’s the only one left who can stop us.”
Joy had always known what her coven leader was capable of, but until that very moment, she hadn’t known her own capabilities. They’d passed the point of no return long ago. Either Joy followed her leader’s orders, or she betrayed her entire coven, destroying everything they’d worked for, and making herself just as much of a target as Gracey. “Okay.”
Leaving her car running on the side of the road, she walked gingerly to where Gracey lay sprawled on the grass. Joy didn’t carry a weapon but, considering the state of the overturned car, she really didn’t need one. A head injury would be expected after an accident of that magnitude.
She knelt down beside her former friend. “I’m sorry about this,” she whispered. Placing her hands on either side of Gracey’s head, Joy readied herself to cross a line she’d never imagined herself crossing. On the count of three. One … two ….
Sirens pierced the night air, and Joy’s heart skipped a beat. Without thinking, she jumped to her feet and raced back to her car, leaving Gracey very much alive. Tori wouldn’t be happy, but Joy felt sure she’d understand.
As she made a U-turn, heading back the way she’d come and away from the incoming emergency vehicle, she hit redial.
“Is it done?” Tori asked without preamble.
“No. I heard sirens and had to get out of there.”
Tori took a deep breath before responding. “The accident just happened. How could police already be on their way?”
That thought hadn’t occurred to Joy. “Maybe it’s an ambulance.”
“Either way, who called them?” Tori sounded agitated. “On second thought, it doesn’t matter. Get out of sight. Gracey will be taken to the hospital soon enough. You can take care of her there.”
********
Mirissa Colson paced the floor, more agitated with every passing minute. She and Greco had gotten to Virginia Beach less than an hour after Orano’s call, yet they’d still been too late. Now, not one but two members of the Omega Group team were missing, and the only person who could give her any information about what happened, Grace McMillan, was taking a nap.
Okay, so she wasn’t actually taking a nap. The woman currently occupied a bed in Virginia Beach General Hospital and had yet to wake up from whatever sedative she’d been given. Either way, Mirissa was done waiting.
She’d been relegated to the hospital corridor when a nurse came to check the unconscious woman’s vitals. How much privacy did they need to get a blood pressure reading? Mirissa, not known for her patience, barged back into the small room.
The nurse, holding the woman’s head in one hand while maneuvering a pillow with the other, gasped at the interruption. “I asked you to wait in the hall.”
“Uh, sorry about that,” Mirissa tried to sound contrite. “It’s just that Grace is a close personal friend, and I don’t want to leave her side until she’s awake. Any idea when that might be?”
The nurse finished fluffing the pillow before answering. “There’s no way to know. I’ll be back soon to check on her.”
Mirissa smiled politely and waited for her to leave. When the door clicked closed, the smile dropped from her face and she once again focused on Grace McMillan.
“Hey! Wake up.” Mirissa poked the unconscious woman’s shoulder. “You need to wake up. Now.”
The redhead gro
aned and wriggled around a bit but stayed asleep. Her incoherent mumbling started up again, as though she was in the midst of some epic dream involving the alphabet, but her eyes remained maddeningly closed.
“Anything yet?” Greco entered the room with a cup of steaming coffee in each hand and a bottle of water under his arm.
“Nope. Sleeping beauty here has yet to come out of it. I don’t understand. She’s barely even injured—a couple of scrapes and bruises. Why would they sedate her so heavily? Are there internal injuries that we don’t know about?”
“According to a nurse I just chatted with, the doctors didn’t give her any medication at all. When the ambulance got to the scene, she’d already been sedated. Her injuries are all minor.” Greco handed her one of the coffee cups.
She took a sip and almost spit it out. “Gah! This is awful.”
“What did you expect? It’s from a machine in a hospital.” Greco sipped from his cup, shrugged his shoulders, and gulped down some more. “This is where adding cream and sugar helps.”
Mirissa took a swig from the water bottle instead—ice cold, just the way she liked it. A slightly evil idea formed. “Close the blinds, will you?”
Judging by the grin on Greco’s face, he knew exactly what she had in mind. Once he’d created a bit of privacy, he moved to stand in front of the door.
“You’re sure she has no real injuries?” Mirissa asked when she reached the side of the woman’s bed. When he nodded, she poured the contents of the water bottle onto the patient’s forehead and neck.
The redhead bolted upright, eyes wild. “Orano!” she called out.
“It’s all right, Grace.” Mirissa tried to sound soothing. “Take a deep breath. You’re in a hospital and—”
The woman whipped off her sheet and removed the heart rate monitor from her finger. She hopped down from the bed, but couldn’t seem to support her own weight and fell into Mirissa’s arms.
“Whoa there, Grace.” Mirissa held the woman’s shoulders, keeping her upright. “Take a seat for a second.” She sat her on the edge of the bed and replaced the heart monitor on her index finger.
Chaos (Book 4) (The Omega Group) Page 11