The Emerald Key

by Vicky Burkholder

  A few minutes later, he strode to the front of the meeting room to thunderous applause. He bowed to the gathering, then took his place behind the podium.

  “My brothers and sisters, I welcome you to our annual conference. I’m glad to see so many of you could make it because this is going to be a very special year. This is the year we will finally see a conclusion to events set in place millennia ago. This is the year that will see our ultimate triumph. This is the year when true power becomes ours.”

  William drank in the cheers and applause like an alcoholic in a free open bar. When the noise tapered off, he smiled and held up his hands for quiet. “All of you will have particular assignments. Your group leaders will pass them out to you. If there are any questions or problems, discuss them with your leaders. But understand this. Everything must be in place by the solstice.” He held up his hands at the groans and other noise. “I know the timing is short, but the auspices are perfect. Our time is now. And with your help, we will succeed.”

  He noted several people in particular as they moved around the room. He’d checked out their credentials thoroughly. They would be his top aides. His leaders. And the ones to get the job done. All was finally in readiness. “I know the hotel is not yet complete, and for that, you have my apologies. Unfortunately, I cannot control the weather.” He waited for the few chuckles to die down. “But we do have the meeting rooms and some of you have suites. I apologize to the rest of you for the alternative accommodations, but we will adapt. Now, let us get down to the business at hand.”

  The crowd broke up into smaller groups and he strode among them, touching them all with his power. They adored him, as they should. He was their leader. Their guru. Their savior. As he moved from section to section, he noted which ones emitted the most power. Unfortunately, there weren’t many. Most of them were all too human. Hangers-on who probably couldn’t summon enough magic ability to do a simple sleight of hand trick. Those would be the first to be sacrificed.

  Chapter 2

  Cass grasped her necklace at Greg’s words. Her stomach tightened, churning. “Someone did it from here? How?” Her jaw clenched when a mug on top of her desk wobbled. Fortunately, Greg hadn’t seen her lapse.

  “That’s what I’d like to know. The break-in is enough to bother me, but what worries me is the rest of the file.”

  “The rest? What do you mean?”

  “You didn’t see it?”

  “No. I tried but couldn’t get past that damned graphic. Besides, you told me not to touch anything so I didn’t.” Cass twisted her hands in her skirt hoping to get some warmth into them. Willing them to stop shaking. She needed to control her anger. “Goddess, help me,” she whispered.

  Greg nodded. “Good. Maybe Nic can get some traces.”

  “What are you talking about? Who’s Nic? You’re starting to scare me, Greg.”

  “You should be. There’s an embedded file within this file—a picture of you.”

  Cass shrugged. “That’s nothing new. All these files have had my picture. I’m the corpse.”

  “Those are nothing more than photo renderings. Anybody with a good graphics program can do that. This is an actual photo. Taken here in the shop. And another of you in your car. And there are others.”

  Cass’ lungs refused to work. The mug spun and teetered on the edge of the desk. Cass grabbed for it before Greg could see. “So what do I do?”

  “I call in a friend of mine.”

  “Steve knows what’s happening. He thinks it’s just some hacker playing a prank because of what I sell here. Besides, who else on the force other than you knows how to deal with this?”

  “Not the force. Nic is a security expert and an old friend. I’m trying to get him to join me so I can do investigating full time. I want to bring him in on this.”

  “Come on, Greg, it can’t be that bad. Like Steve said—a prank. A nasty one, but still just a prank.”

  “Cassandra?” Minerva stood in the door.

  “Yes?”

  “Your last customer—did he want anything in particular?”

  “He wanted to know about my pendant, but he left when Greg got here.” Cass rose from the chair, forcing her fears to the back of her mind. “Is there a problem?”

  Minerva glanced from the door at Greg, then lowered her voice. “You felt the safety spell?”

  “Yes. He left almost immediately after it settled. Didn’t you see him?”

  “No. Strange. I felt something I haven’t in a very long time.” She shook her head. “I’ll set some extra wards out and cleanse the place. You relax. I’ll take care of this.”

  Greg emerged from the office. “How long until you close?”

  Cass checked the big round clock on the wall above the office door. “About a half hour.”

  “Okay, I’m going to stay here with you and call Nic. He’s up the street looking at some property. Then we’ll figure out where you’re going to go. You are not going home alone tonight.”

  “She’ll stay with me,” Minerva said.

  Greg shook his head. “Minerva, I don’t think that’s any safer. The two of you together weigh less than a feather. You need protection. This has gone beyond a prank. I’m not comfortable leaving either of you alone right now.”

  Minerva glared at him. “We’ll be fine.”

  While they argued, Cass went back to the jewelry. “Time for a little power.”

  She picked up a framed, dark mirror and stared into its depths. A deep cold slammed into her palms, startling her, but she held firm. The man’s face appeared in the mirror, yet with a difference. Instead of a casual smile, the lips curled into a sneer. As more of him came into view, she saw different clothes. The modern jeans and sweater had been replaced with an oddly-fashioned suit of white pants and a long tunic with a high collar and long sleeves. It reminded her vaguely of something from India, but the man didn’t look or speak as if he came from there.

  His eyes narrowed as he stared at her, then he threw back his head and laughed. A blinding flash shot through Cass’ mind and she gasped as she dropped the mirror. Never before had anyone ever been aware of her “seeing” him or her. Never. Granted, she didn’t do it often, but she’d had the basics in training. Ever since her aunt had taken her in as a child, she’d been teaching Cass how to control her powers—and warning her not to use them in front of people. She’d need to tell Minerva about this.

  The front bell dinged and Cass turned to find a new man at the door. In a small town where everybody knew everybody, he was a dark-haired, dark-complexioned, sunglass-wearing stranger. Everything about him said “dangerous,” but not in the same way as the jewelry customer.

  He stood maybe an inch or two shy of six feet with a powerful build, military-cut short hair, and the shadow of a beard staining his jaw. He probably had dark eyes, too, she guessed.

  The man removed his sunglasses and studied her as intensely as she’d studied him. She’d been wrong about his eyes. They were green—the green of deep forests in the midst of summer. He had a tiny scar across his right eyebrow giving him a permanently sardonic look and it appeared as if his nose had been broken a time or two. He’d never win any beauty contests, but his face had character.

  She could swear she’d never seen him before, yet even with the sun behind him, she knew every line and plane of his face. Knew the way his longer hair would curl around her fingers and his eyes would darken to almost black when aroused. She knew how gentle his hands could be—and how strong. She knew the timbre of his voice, whether in laughter, anger, or the throes of passion.

  She also knew how much he could hurt her.

  But she had no clue how she knew all this.

  * * * *

  The shadows across the street hid William as he stared at the store. Too many people surrounded her, especially that old witch. He’d need to take care of the old woman first. But that could prove difficult. She had strong witch blood, almost pure. He could sense it in her—along with something else. S
omething odd, and very old. Unfortunately, he’d sworn a blood oath to protect her kind a very long time ago. He tapped one finger against his lips while the others curled around his chin. “But who’s to stop me from having someone else handle it? I am the last of the line so nobody will know if I bend the rules. And the first one I will bend is that the old witch has to go.” He headed back to his car. “The question is, how?”

  William paced around his car, then stopped, smiled, and patted the hood. “Accidents do happen.”

  Whistling a light tune, he drove back to the hotel. Once there, he ran through the list of his followers, selecting three and making the calls. Thirty minutes later, he’d put everything in place. He would protect the Keeper and, once his people took care of the witch, control the full power of the key.

  He looked over the list one more time, using his abilities to ferret out the one he wanted. The one person who had more power than the others. His finger stopped on a single name and he smiled. A woman. And she lived nearby. The fates must really like him. Of course they did. How could they not? He picked up the phone and put the call through to her, then sat back and waited for the knock at his door.

  Chapter 3

  “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re closing.” Cass needed to get the strange man out of her store. He scared her more than her earlier customer and the e-mail file together, but in a different way. Those merely threatened her life. This man would swallow her soul.

  Steve arrived almost on the customer’s heels. Cass couldn’t help comparing the two men. Steve had classic good looks, sandy hair and a slender build he kept trim by working out when not on duty. But, although the stranger didn’t have model good looks, he had an aura about him she couldn’t dismiss. Like a moth to a flame, she felt drawn to him. But unlike the moth, she knew he could burn her.

  “Cass?” Steve glanced at the stranger, then went directly to Cass. He held his hands out to her. “I just got Greg’s text. Are you all right?”

  She glanced at his hands. Strong, capable hands that could be both hard and gentle. She grasped them with her own. Steve squeezed one, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head against him, then pulled back, feeling as if she was doing something wrong. “Yes, I’m fine. I got another weird e-mail.” She turned as Greg joined them.

  Steve snorted. “Oh, that. Greg, you’re making too much of this.”

  “I think the guy is using her computer to do this—from here in the store,” Greg said.

  Steve shrugged and shook his head. “Not with all the security we have on this place. He has to be getting into the machine somehow. Or maybe…Cass, you know how busy you get sometimes. You probably forgot to lock a door.”

  “Never.” She ducked from under his arm, fighting not to show her chagrin. She never forgot to lock up. Never.

  “Then he used your wireless connection.” Steve checked his watch. “I’ve got to get moving. I have to go to a meeting out of town. I should be back tomorrow night.”

  “Tomorrow? You didn’t tell me about that.”

  He shrugged. “Thought I did. Must have forgotten. Is it a problem?”

  Cass shook her head. Not that they had a date planned, but they always went to the local playhouse on the first night of a new play. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “Cass, honey, I need to do this. It’s important to my future. To our future. This is a connection that could make or break me—us. This guy is big money and can do a lot for my campaign. The party is special invitation only. I would have asked you, but I know how you are about these things, though you’ll have to get over that if you’re going to be the wife of a politician.”

  Steve had political aspirations and making connections helped with his ambitions. She actually wondered if their relationship fit the description of a “connection.” Not so much because of her, but her aunt. With Steve, his ambitions came first. She knew that. But sometimes…ah, well, no use wishing for a miracle. “I’ll be fine. No problems. Besides, Greg is here.”

  “Yeah. You don’t have to worry. It’ll turn out to be some kids. You’ll see. Look at what you sell here. It invites stuff like this to happen.”

  A tiny crack appeared on the face of her clock and she clamped her jaw, trying to stem her anger. Before Cass could say anything, Steve left, the bell ringing after him.

  Her eyes strayed back to the stranger, who’d stood by the door during their entire conversation. If a customer, why no browsing? If not a customer, what did he want?

  Greg stepped up to the man and smiled. “Oh. Hi, Nic. Cass, this is Nic Amandine, an old friend from the Corps. Nic, this is Cassandra Richards. She and her aunt own this store.”

  Nic strode into the store like a powerful jungle cat on the hunt, with her as the prey. He cocked his head at her, a frown flitting across his face. “You’re the one dealing with the stalker?”

  His voice flowed over her like warm honey and, like a bee, she felt drawn to it. Cass moved to put the counter between the two of them, using it as a barrier. “I wouldn’t call him a stalker. It’s just files in my e-mail.”

  “If he’s sending you files with pictures taken on the sly and won’t quit, he’s a stalker. Greg, you said the last file originated here?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got her PC set up with top-of-the-line security. These pictures didn’t get through that way. And I think I found a trace where he hid the files. Nasty little program set to activate when she opened her mail. That way, nobody else would see it before she did. The machine’s back here.”

  “Before I look at that, when did the e-mails start?”

  “Back in September,” Cass said. “The twenty-third to be exact.”

  “You remember the exact date?”

  “The autumn equinox—and my birthday.”

  “Some birthday present. Anything else happen then? Any other strange presents from people you don’t know?” He barked the questions at her as if accusing her. She dug her nails into her palms, fighting for calm.

  “Because of what we sell, we sometimes get the odd threat from fanatics, but nothing unusual of late.”

  “What about Mr. Straitlaced Policeman? What’s his take?”

  She almost giggled at his apt description of Steve. “Steve? He thinks it’s kids playing pranks.”

  “Kids wouldn’t go to this much trouble.”

  She stood aside as Nic headed for the office. His arm brushed her and a jolt of electricity passed through her. From the way his eyes widened, she knew he’d felt it too. He paused, a question in his eyes, then shrugged and entered the office. Even though the floor had no carpet, she figured he must have built up a static charge somehow. That made sense. Didn’t it?

  “Cassandra?” Minerva’s voice brought her attention back to the shop. “We might as well lock up.”

  “Um, sure. I’ll close out the register.” Cass ran the tallies for the day’s receipts. After her fourth time through the counts and the fourth different total, she blew out a breath and shook her head. “Aunt Minerva? Can you do this? I can’t seem to concentrate tonight.”

  “No wonder. I’ll take care of this. Think you can handle the lights?”

  Cass laughed. “I think so.” She shut down all the lights except the ones over the counter and in the office, then locked the doors. They both stopped their work when the men emerged from the office.

  “Cass? Nic and I agree you should stay somewhere else until he gets a chance to check out the security more thoroughly. It’s too late and too dark to start now.”

  “Is all this really necessary? I mean, it’s just an e-mail. They haven’t done anything physically harmful.”

  “Yet,” Greg said. “This is a case of being safe rather than sorry. Whoever this Brotherhood is, they’ve ramped up their attacks and I don’t want anything to happen.”

  “I feel like I’m giving in to them,” Cass said. “They want me running scared. This looks like I am.”

  “She’ll be fine with me,” Mi
nerva insisted.

  Greg shook his head. “We’ve been through that. I talked to Dori. Cass can stay with us for a couple of days. You’re welcome to come too, Minerva.”

  “No. I’ll be fine.” Minerva studied Nic, her lips pursed, then she grinned, the happiest Cass had seen her in a long time. “This man will be with you?”

  Greg nodded.

  “Okay then. Cassandra, don’t let this one get away! So much better than that other one. This one has a good aura. He will take care of you. Nicodemus is your Protector.”

  “Aunt Minerva!” Heat flowed up Cass’ face. Her aunt wouldn’t quit. Minerva didn’t care for Steve and made her feelings abundantly clear any chance she got. Steve was, well, Steve. So what if there weren’t trumpets blaring and stars bursting between them? They got along pretty well and enjoyed each other’s company. That counted for something, didn’t it?

  She shook her head, as if trying to shake off an annoying gnat. She had other problems to think about that took precedence over her less-than-spectacular love life. She hated being forced to run, but if she had to stay somewhere other than home, Dori’s worked for her.

  “Okay, Greg. I’ll pack a couple of things and meet you at your place.” She glanced at the men, then turned to her aunt. “Besides, this will give you a chance to take care of that cleaning you wanted to do.” Her aunt’s nod let Cass know Minerva would return to the store to do a cleansing and set out stronger wards.

  “Nic will stay with you,” Greg said. “He’ll ride with you to our place.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “No, but you do need a protector,” Nic said.

  “And you think you’re him? I don’t even know you. For all I know, you could be one of these Brothers. Why should I trust you?”

  Deep green eyes bored into hers. “Because you know I’m right.”

  And she did.

  Cass swallowed hard against a dry throat and changed her earlier opinion about his physique. In addition to being familiar, his good looks ramped up her heart rate and sent heat flowing through her body. His jeans clung like a glove and the black Henley underneath the tailored jacket molded to him, outlining well-defined muscles. She also noted that he walked with a slight limp and wondered from what?