“Come with me,” Cassie whispered in her ear.
Jared’s wife took her to a small room that was gently lit with electric candles. Light filtering through leaf patterned curtains bracketed an exterior door, brightening the room. Two comfortable chairs sat on either side of a small table. Along one wall a sideboard held a porcelain teapot and a wooden tea caddy. The total effect was one of relaxation and Tasha felt the tension leaving her body as Cassie guided her to one of the chairs.
“This is a lovely room. Is it for meditation?”
Cassie flipped the switch on an electric kettle and measured some aromatic tea into a ball strainer. “Indirectly. I still do readings for a few clients and I suppose drawing upon my psychic abilities is a kind of meditation.”
“That must be gratifying, to have a skill that others find helpful.”
An unpleasant memory seemed to flicker across Cassie’s face. “It is, usually. But not always.” She gave herself a little shake. “I can’t always see the useful thing.” The water came to a boil and she filled the teapot.
Curiosity teased at her. She remembered a joke a friend had made about a Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times. Only it wasn’t a joke, and her life was way too interesting. Kellan’s friend was dead, and she still had an international organization looking for her. It would be nice to know how things were going to turn out—at least a little bit. Some of Tasha’s friends in college had gone to psychic fairs just for fun, but she’d never gone with them. Even though she’d denied her heritage, she had too much respect for her parents’ memory to make light of those skills—or to give money to people who were probably charlatans. But Cassie was the real deal and Tasha wanted to know if she’d ever have a normal life again. Cassie’s gift might not be perfect, but it was better than not knowing anything, right?
Before she lost her nerve she blurted, “Would you consider doing a reading for me?”
The corners of Cassie’s mouth turned up. “Of course.”
“What do I do?”
“First, relax. Sometimes I only see something from the past, or a short way into the future. And my predictions reflect probabilities only; they aren’t set in stone. You can always choose a path that will lead to a different outcome.” Cassie smiled and held out her hand.
Tasha put her hand in Cassie’s. The other woman turned it palm upward but didn’t pore over the lines like a palm reader would. Instead, she laid her other hand over Tasha’s and closed her eyes. There was no tingling or outward sign of anything magical, just the other woman’s warm hands sandwiching hers. Then Cassie frowned and stiffened; her breath grew rapid and shallow. Is this normal? Should I say something?
A second later Cassie jerked her hands away and shook them as if trying to fling the memory of her vision away.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m sorry.” Cassie rose and went to the sideboard. She poured the tea with shaking hands. “That was…unexpected.”
What the hell did she see?
Tasha crossed the small room intending to put an arm around the other woman, but Cassie stepped back holding out a cup of tea to her as if it were a shield. Apparently touching wasn’t something she wanted right now—at least not with Tasha. It was probably a psychic thing.
Cassie took her tea back to her chair, the cup rattling softly in the saucer. They sat across from each other saying nothing for a few minutes as the warm fragrant beverage filled the room with a soothing aroma of cloves and oranges. Tasha stared into the light amber liquid wondering what had just happened, but there were no messages hidden there that she could read.
“Sorry about that.” Cassie put down her empty cup. Her breathing was back to normal. “Here’s what I saw.”
Tasha stopped her with a lifted hand. “If it bothers you, you don’t have to talk about it.”
“I’m okay now. And I want to tell you. I try not to interpret what I see. Maybe you can make better sense of it.”
Doubt made Tasha hesitate. She wasn’t sure this was a good idea—she was pretty sure Jared wouldn’t like that it had upset his wife—but she put down her cup with a nod. “Okay. Tell me.”
“It’s night. You and Kellan are in an open space. You’re excited to be there, and want to prove yourself. Then you’re wrapped in so much darkness I can’t see you, but I know you’re there. You’re running toward something. Danger? You need to catch something? Then the concrete beneath you begins to dissolve. You’re sinking into it, first your ankles, then your knees, then your hips. You can’t move. Someone else is there, too—and he’s not alone in his body. He’s possessed. That’s when I stopped.” Cassie drew in a deep breath and blew it out slowly in a way that seemed like a calming ritual. “Do you understand any of that?”
“Some of it.” How much should she tell Cassie? She didn’t mind revealing her skills to her, but she wasn’t going to tattle on Melchior and Athena, especially since she didn’t know if Cassie’s vision involved them. “Shadow is something that I’ve been working with. I’ve been afraid of the dark since my parents died. I have some pretty awful nightmares. Learning to manipulate it is helping me get past that. I think that’s what you saw when I was wrapped in darkness.”
Cassie nodded. “Good. I’m glad that wasn’t part of an attack. But what about the sinking into the concrete?”
“How much do you know about the Fey?”
“Cam has told me some. The Fey are the descendants of Gaia and her followers, just like the Progeny are descendants of the Celestials. The Gaians started out as Celestials but they changed when they became part of the Earth. Each Fey has an affinity for one of the four elements depending on your forebears. Ana’s is Air.”
Tasha nodded. “Mine is Earth. I can do stuff with dirt and rock. That may be what you were seeing in your vision when the concrete turned to sand—but I’ve never done anything like what you describe.”
Cassie pursed her lips. “That might explain it. Maybe you were trying something beyond your skill level, and it got away from you?”
“Maybe. Or could it be a metaphor for me getting bogged down or held back? Do your visions work like that?”
“Not usually. At least you started out excited to be there, and that feeling didn’t change, even when you were sinking. You were determined, not frightened.”
“That sounds right—if Kellan ever lets me help.”
Cassie’s expression softened. “I’ve learned over the years that when you love someone who has experienced as much loss as Kellan and Jared have, you have to find a way to be patient with their desire to wrap us up in cotton batting.”
Cassie’s words took her aback. She hadn’t thought of loss as being a frequent cost of living for thousands of years, but of course it would be. How many hundreds of people had Kellan buried? Her heart ached for him and the last of her anger evaporated, but frustration still nagged.
“Do I have to let him lock me up in a pumpkin shell so he can stop worrying about me?”
“That may not be the best reference since that nursery rhyme is about infidelity and domestic abuse, but I take your meaning.” Cassie chuckled as Tasha’s expression reflected surprise and disgust.
“Really?”
“Really. And no, you don’t have to let him control your life. But you have been the target of a dangerous organization. Maybe you can cut him some slack while he’s preoccupied with Jasper’s murder?”
“But I could help him. He knows what I’m capable of.”
“And you’ll probably have the chance to—just not this time. You and Ana and I are all strong women. We wouldn’t have survived what we’ve been through, otherwise. Our men know that. But letting us put ourselves on the line isn’t something they’re comfortable with.”
Our men. She hadn’t thought of Kellan in those terms, but he’d let her in when he’d fed from her and made love with her and she knew he needed her right now. And she wanted to be there for him. Did that make her his woman?
Chapter Fifteen
After stopping at a postal outlet, Dave pulled into a beach parking lot and called Gideon. When he picked up, Dave asked without preamble, “I need to ask your wife for a favor. Do you have a problem with that?”
“That depends on the favor.”
Dave started to explain what was going on, but Gideon cut him off. “I’m kidding. Ask her. She’ll make up her own mind.”
He called Ana next, but his call went to voicemail so he left a message. She’d either agree to his request or she wouldn’t.
Now for the hard part. Dave scrolled through his contacts. He still had numbers for some of the guys he’d served with, but he hadn’t been in touch with them for years. He knew more than one guy never wanted to hear from him again. MissionOne Security had acquired a less than savory reputation and so had he. It wasn’t just by association, either. He’d made some morally ambiguous decisions back then—and some that were unambiguously wrong. But when his team had been called in to back up the guys still in uniform, he’d made sure their asses were covered. That ought to be worth something.
He passed over the names of a couple of guys he’d worked with at MissionOne. They were more than capable, but he’d hated the way they talked about women. He didn’t want Alex to pick up that kind of talk, and he didn’t want to put Julie in the position of having to hold back from ripping them a new one because they were doing her a favor. He picked the top five who still lived near Pendleton and started texting.
An hour and a half later he’d gone way past the first five. Only one guy had texted back and he was married with a new baby and unavailable. Some of the numbers had been disconnected. One guy had died of an overdose and he’d listened to his widow blame the Department of Veterans Affairs for neglect for half an hour. Some of the guys might be at work and unable to respond, but he suspected that most of them had decided that they didn’t want to answer when they’d seen who was texting. The grim truth that he’d burned so many bridges was a bitter pill to swallow. He was down to the men he didn’t want to call, and the guys who wouldn’t want him to call. Cam was busy on a missing person case. He might know some operators Dave could ask, but he’d rather have men he knew and had fought beside to guard his sister and nephew.
Dave stared at Jack Helmann’s number. They’d had each other’s back once upon a time. There’d been no one he’d rather have at his side in a tight situation. He’d tried to recruit Helmann to join him at MissionOne, but he’d refused. MissionOne operatives cut too many corners, he’d said and that was a top down problem. He wouldn’t join an organization like that, no matter how good the pay. Helmann hadn’t known the half of it, but after the debacle at Pankrit his friend had stopped returning his calls.
He’d texted the other men, but with Jack a text felt like he’d be taking a coward’s way out. If Helmann wanted to blow him off, he could just not answer, and if he wanted to tell Dave to go to hell, he deserved the chance to say it, if not exactly to Dave’s face, at least out loud. Dave cued up the call.
While the phone rang Dave started to mentally compose a message for when the call went to voicemail, but Helmann answered, his tone reserved and cautious.
“Hey, Hopkins. It’s been a while.”
Dave heard the subtext: why are you calling me now? So he got right to it. “Jack, I need a favor.”
In years past, Helmann would have agreed first and asked questions later, but now the only thing Dave heard was silence. But Jack hadn’t hung up on him so he kept talking. “My sister is in a tight spot. I need someone to help me keep her and her son safe until I can figure out how to clean up this mess.”
After a pause, Helmann asked, “This the same sister you sent half your pay to every month?”
“Yeah. For our mom’s care.”
Another pause. “What kind of trouble is she in?”
“An ex-boyfriend owes money to a drug cartel. They may think she has it.”
“Shit. Does she?”
“Not for long.”
“Did you kill the boyfriend?”
Dave huffed a bitter laugh. He deserved that question. “No. But it was a good thing he wasn’t around when I found out he’d hit her.”
“Huh. Who else did you call in on this?”
“You were my first choice, but I called you last. None of the guys I’d want watching my sister has opted-in on this. I haven’t called any of my MissionOne team.”
“Why not? They can’t all be assholes.”
“They’re not. But that part of my life… MissionOne nearly destroyed me.” And that was an understatement.
“Okay.”
Dave wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “You’ll do it? You’ll help me?”
“Yeah. But we’ll need more than just the two of us to do this right. I’ll call a couple of guys I trust. Where does your sister live?”
Dave told him the address in Oceanside and they set up a time to meet. He ended the call with an almost giddy feeling of relief.
“He’s in there, or his phone is, at least.” Jared lifted his gaze from the graphic on his tablet that indicated the burner phone’s location on a map and pointed at the mid-level restaurant that stood alone near a shopping mall. “Shall we have brunch?”
Kellan nodded even though food was the last thing he wanted. His breakfast was still sitting like a lump in his stomach.
It was midway between the breakfast and lunch rush, so Kellan and the two Celestials were seated right away. Half a dozen other tables were occupied. Two held families, two had women of various ages, one had a well-dressed man talking to another, and a young couple sat side by side in a booth, the guy’s arm around her shoulders. Their quarry could be any of them.
The waitress came by with menus and took their drink orders. Kellan dialed the number of the burner with his own disposable phone. A moment later a standard musical tone chimed and the well-dressed man pulled a cell out of an inner pocket. He frowned, probably at seeing an unfamiliar number, swiped the call to voicemail, and slipped the phone back inside his jacket.
“That’s our guy,” Jared said.
Kellan’s shoulders tensed, but he didn’t move. They weren’t going to take him in the restaurant in front of his dining companion and everyone else.
“Lucky for us they’re just starting their meal. We have time to eat.” Gideon opened his menu.
Kellan didn’t have much of an appetite. “How can you eat?”
“Gotta keep our strength up.” Gideon winked.
When the waiter came to take their order Jared and Gideon made their selections, but Kellan just shook his head.
“Have a bowl of the minestrone,” Jared said in a voice that was just short of a command.
Kellan didn’t appreciate the Lightbringer’s tone, but he nodded. “That sounds fine.”
When the server had left, Jared touched his hand to Kellan’s. **As a private investigator and an U’dahmi, I’d think you’d know that blending in is key to successful observation. There’s no sense in drawing attention to yourself by not eating in a restaurant. Besides, spooning your soup should help keep you from staring at our quarry.**
Kellan’s jaw tightened. Jared was right. He knew better.
“So, you’ve been together with Tasha for two days now?” Gideon said. “She’s a lovely girl, but then she is the sister of my Ana. So why would you spend half the night out running around?”
“How did you know…?”
Jared coughed. “I might have mentioned it.” As Kellan frowned he added, “My security system logs who and when someone leaves or enters the house.”
“Of course it does.”
“Did the run help?” Gideon lifted his brows.
“Marginally.” Kellan tried to not growl at the Guardian. The Celestials were here helping him.
“Sex would have worked better,” Gideon observed.
A corner of Jared’s mouth turned up. “He figured that out—eventually.”
Kellan glared at the Lightbringer. Were all Celestials su
ch gossips? “Do you have security cameras in our bedroom, too?”
“You did a good job of pleasuring Tasha quietly—thank you for not waking Grace—but you forget that my senses are heightened.”
Kellan closed his eyes and mentally kicked himself. He had forgotten. Jared’s and Gideon’s bodies were created out of their Celestial Essence. Their senses were more acute, their strength and speed greater than a human’s. Greater even than his own.
“Don’t tell Tasha you heard her.”
“And destroy her illusion of privacy? Of course not.” Jared unfolded his napkin as the server brought their orders. “And it wasn’t just her.”
Gideon snickered while Kellan felt his face heat. Tasha brought out something primal in him that he was used to keeping under control. But with her, he didn’t want to.
When their waitress left, Gideon leaned forward and gestured pointedly with his fork. “Don’t hurt her, Apostate. That would make my Ana both sad and angry. She’s a very ethical pagan but she’s also very skilled with magic and her Fey skills. If you hurt her little sister she could forget she’s a high priestess. I might not be able to restrain her. I might not want to.”
Kellan’s jaw tightened. He was U’dahmi, not Apostate. The Celestial knew the difference, but apparently didn’t care. “I took a vow to protect her, Guardian. That doesn’t exactly walk hand-in-hand with hurting her.”
“You know what I mean. Don’t break her heart.”
It was far more likely that she would break his, but he wasn’t going to confide that to the Celestials. Kellan turned his attention to his soup, even though he wasn’t hungry.
“Good idea.” Jared cut and speared a bite of his steak. “Let’s eat.”
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