"Wait," said Elyse. "I thought that wasn't possible, selling magic? You can’t just hand it over. Don't you have to be born with the ability? It's coded in your DNA, right?"
Lucy looked at Wyatt. "Yes . . ."
"Why do I hear a huge but coming?" asked Maddie.
I dawned on me that Elyse and Maddie hadn't heard Wyatt's full origin story. In our defense we'd all been a little busy the past few weeks.
"Uh," I began. "You guys know Wyatt's ability is unique."
"Yes. And?" said Elyse.
"A coven of blood-mages figured out how to blend magic and science, and experimented on the kids at my high school, and that's how I got my power," Wyatt blurted out.
“Holy moly,” said Maddie.
"And we're just hearing about this now?" said Elyse, giving me the evil eye.
“We were dealing with portals and imps, and memory constructs," I said lamely.
"Wait," said Morgan. "Wyatt, you received your teleportation ability from an experiment?"
Wyatt nodded.
Morgan pressed his lips together. "I knew I was right about the Cartel. All this time, my bosses have just been stringing me along."
Piper raised her hand. We all turned to look at her. "I have curated a very particular network of information-gathering, built over decades. A lot of the info comes from what would be considered nefarious sources and I can tell you I have not heard a peep about this. Magic enhancements for sale, there's no way?"
"That's because we wiped the coven out. End of story," said Lucy.
"Then how do you explain the lab my team raided last week?" said Morgan.
Lucy's eyebrows went up.
"Oh yeah." Morgan said. "It was super high-end, with gene sequencers and a bunch of other gadgets I could only guess at. And signs of shifter and magic activity."
"Huh?" I said. "Like what?"
Morgan ticked off the list of weirdness on his fingers. "Scorch marks—on the ceiling, glowing blue lights in people's hands and a bunch of dead people with no visible marks of violence."
"Yep, that sounds like magic," said Wyatt.
"This is insane," said Elyse. "Magic for sale? Has the Society become that inept?" She asked Lucy.
"It has to be the Cabal," said Lucy, gritting her teeth at the accusation.
"The Society, the Cabal, I don't care what you call it. It is magic-users letting unchecked power out into the world. It's a recipe for chaos," said Elyse.
"We all need to take a breath,” I said. "None of us are responsible for any of this crap, and we've been actively trying to stop it. And unfortunately we can't focus on this right now. We need to keep our sights on Mexico and Marcus. The Cabal can wait its turn."
I folded my arms, waiting until everyone had nodded their agreement.
"Good," I said. "Piper, when are we scheduled to catch our plane?"
"Late morning."
"Okay, late morning. I suggest we all get some sleep."
"Guys," said Wyatt. "I'm really sorry, but we need to make another call first. If the Society and the Cabal and all the spooks in the world are looking for us, I'm worried about my parents."
Maddie moved to stand next to the kid, offering support.
"I'm sure they're good, but if you think you should call then do it," I said.
The kid nodded, trying to keep a brave face. I thought about my Aunt Tina. If she hadn’t been safely hidden away with only Lucy knowing where, I would be losing my mind if I thought she might be in danger.
Piper pointed to the phone. "It's still connected and untraceable, call away."
The rest of us turned away to try and give the kid some semblance of privacy, except for Maddie who continued to stand next to Wyatt, smiling at him encouragingly.
Wyatt dialed quickly. The phone only rang once before someone picked up.
"Wyatt, is that you?" A woman's panicked voice asked.
"Hey Mom," the kid said sheepishly.
"We've been worried sick . . ."
Wyatt's mom trailed off because another voice was speaking in the background. With my shifter hearing I could tell it wasn't Wyatt's dad, it was another woman. I strained my shifter hearing to the max, but couldn't quite make out what was being said. I had a wild idea. I switched on my sight and focused on the magic around me. There was a ton of it swirling around Piper's house. What I wanted was simple—I wanted to hear what was being said on the other end of the phone line. I held a picture of what I wanted in my head, making it as detailed as possible. I envisioned myself hearing the other voice that was speaking.
It worked. The magic responded, making a connection between me and phone receiver in Wyatt’s hand. I almost shouted when the conversation taking place miles away in Wyatt's family room became crystal-clear.
Oh crap.
My head snapped around to stare at Wyatt and the offending telephone.
I recognized the voice speaking to Wyatt’s mom.
It was Cynthia.
"We need to know where they are, dear," Cynthia was telling Wyatt's mom. "Try to be calm and keep him talking."
I started pantomiming for Wyatt to keep talking and for everyone else to keep completely quiet. I received half a dozen quizzical looks, but they all followed my instructions. I gestured to Piper's keyboard and she slid it over to me. I was able to convey that I wanted to type so that the rest of them could read what I wrote. Piper nodded and brought up a word document on one of the big screens. I hastily typed out three short sentences.
I can hear Cynthia talking to Wyatt's mom.
Are we sure the call’s untraceable?
And can we put it on speaker?
Piper nodded, silently mouthing the word untraceable. She typed a command and the call switched over to speakerphone. I held a finger to my lips, reminding everyone to remain silent.
Wyatt's mom was speaking again. "Sweetie, just tell me where you are? I can come pick you up."
Wyatt looked to me for direction. I motioned for him to keep talking.
"I can't say," said Wyatt. "But I'm okay. I was worried about you and Dad."
"About us? We're fine." Wyatt's mom sounded anything but fine. I could detect the stress in her voice.
I could also hear Cynthia in the background. "What do you mean, you can't get a location? Try harder," she demanded of someone.
A second voice, a man, answered her. "They're masking their location somehow, I can't."
Lucy waved to get my attention. She pointed to her ears and shook her head.
"Give me the phone," I heard Cynthia say.
I pointed one finger to the speakers and one finger to my ear.
"Wyatt, this is Cynthia."
I smiled and did a little dance.
Elyse rolled her eyes.
"Uh," said Wyatt. "Hi, Cynthia. Whatcha doing at my house?"
"Looking for you, young man," Cynthia said curtly. "Your parents are very worried. I need you to tell me exactly where you are."
"I don't think so," said Wyatt.
"Excuse me?" The amount of indignation Cynthia was able to load into those two words was comical. You would have thought somebody had just pinched her butt instead of just telling her no.
Wyatt grimaced and shrugged at me. He clearly wasn't having fun. It was time to let the kid off the hook. I pointed to Piper and Morgan, and gave them the finger to the lips routine once more. They both nodded.
"Hey ya, Cynthia," I said loudly. "How's it hanging?"
Cynthia huffed. "Orson."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Are all of the others with you?" Cynthia asked. "Is Lucy awake?"
"Yeah," said Lucy. "I'm back amongst the living, thanks for asking."
"Lucy, dear, I'm so glad that you've recovered." Cynthia wasn't lying. She was trying to hide it, but her emotion was loud and clear. Cynthia cleared her throat, regaining her composure. "We're still not sure what happened, but when you all disappeared . . . well, you can imagine the panic that caused at HQ. What I don't understand is why you'v
e taken so long to contact us?"
Lucy considered her words before speaking. "Things have become complicated."
"Complicated? How? You were stuck in your subconscious, we sent Orson and the others to help, and you're no longer stuck. Where's the complication?"
Lucy silently mouthed to Piper 'can you mute the call?'
Piper pressed a button and then said, "We're in the clear, she can't hear us."
Lucy turned to the rest of us. "How much do we tell her?"
"I think we keep Morgan and Piper a secret," I said. "But if you want to hit her with everything else, your recovered memories, all the Marcus stuff, I say go for it."
"Yeah," said Elyse. "Let her have it."
Morgan nodded. "Maybe it will get her to reveal more information."
"Hello?" Cynthia was saying. "Lucy are you still there? Did we get disconnected?"
"The line is still open," said the man I heard previously.
"Lucy?" said Cynthia.
"Okay," said Lucy.
Piper hit the mute button again and gave Lucy a thumbs-up.
"I'm here," said Lucy. "The first complication is that the memory cap you placed on me broke wide open while I was under."
Lucy let that statement dangle. Cynthia was silent for a few moments.
"I see," said Cynthia. "You must have many questions. When you come in, we will have a long conversation and I'm sure you'll agree with the decisions that were made after the incident."
"That's highly doubtful," said Lucy, keeping her cool. "There's a second complication and it's a doozy. You might want to sit down."
"This is becoming ridiculous," said Cynthia. "I demand to know where you are and how you are blocking your location."
Lucy ignored Cynthia's demands and simply said, "Marcus is alive."
I didn't need my super-duper, ultra-enhanced hearing to pick up on the gasps on Cynthia's end. So, Wyatt's parents were hosting a houseful of Society members, interesting.
Cynthia responded in a quiet, controlled manner. "That is not possible. Marcus died with his coven. If your memories have returned, then you would know that."
"Oh, I remember everyone dying, including Marcus," said Lucy, matching Cynthia's tone perfectly. "But when the five of us got zapped out of my memory construct, something unexplainable happened, and when we arrived in the real world, Marcus was with us. Trust me when I tell you nobody was more shocked than me, and he was able to portal away before we could stop him."
"I'm telling you, Lucy, what you're saying is impossible." Cynthia sounded like she was barely keeping it together. Why was she getting so worked up?
"And I'm telling you Marcus is alive and loose in the world," said Lucy. "That’s why we haven't come in yet. We're going to find him and kill him—again. And this time we're going to make sure he stays dead."
Cynthia's calm façade fractured. "You will tell me where you are this instant!" She screamed so loud the speakers squawked with feedback. "That is a direct edict from the Paragon Society ruling council and you will obey it!"
I couldn't hold my tongue anymore. "Cynthia, what's with the freak-out? We're not saying we won't come in, just that we're going to hunt Marcus down first. Why not offer to work the problem from your end, while we work it from ours?"
Cynthia ignored me. "I have given you an order, you will comply or face the consequences."
"Consequences?" I said. "Listen to yourself, you sound completely unhinged. What's going on? Is there something else you're not telling us? Something about that night back in '88?"
"I command you to immediately—"
"Command?" I scoffed, cutting her off. "Sorry, I don't do commands." I gave Piper the sign to end the call. The line went dead.
Morgan was the first to speak. "So that was your boss? She sounds like a real peach."
"You don't think she'll do anything to my parents, do you?" asked Wyatt, worried.
"No," said Lucy. "That's not how the Society operates. They'll probably get their memory of that wacky phone conversation wiped. Your parents still think Cynthia works for the FBI or something, right?"
"Homeland Security," said Wyatt.
"Yeah, they'll have all the Society stuff wiped," said Lucy. "Cynthia really lost it when I mentioned Marcus, seriously."
I rubbed my chin. "There's definitely something going on, something about Marcus that we still don't know. How about you, Morgan, did you pick up on anything?"
"I agree with you," said Morgan. "She was fairly even-keeled until Lucy mentioned Marcus, but I don't have the foggiest idea why she went ballistic."
"I know you're convinced that the council would never use the magic map to locate us," I said to Lucy. "But the way Cynthia sounded I wouldn't put it past her to break the law to find us."
"I would have never thought it possible," said Lucy. "But now, I'm not so sure."
"So, what?" said Wyatt. "They tweak the map and just like that we're caught?"
A mischievous grin spread across Lucy's face. "Maybe not. I've got an idea."
Chapter Fifteen
Lucy's idea for a way around the Society’s magic tracking abilities was yet another tattoo.
"More ink?" I said. "I'm starting to feel like the newest member of a prison gang."
Lucy just waited patiently for me to get the snark out my system.
"Or one of those carnival freak show dudes, you know the ones who bite the heads off chickens."
Wyatt snorted.
"Orson," Elyse said, in a perfect imitation of Mrs. Kelly's mom voice—it was spooky.
I feigned innocence. "I'm just trying to lighten the mood." I gave a slight bow in Lucy's direction. "What amazing piece of spell work have you cooked up this time?"
"It's a theory, really," admitted Lucy. "I can design a tattoo that can shield us from the basic forms of location spells. But if Orson's correct and the council breaks their own law and uses the map to find us—well, there's nobody that can hide from the energy powering the map." Lucy stood up and slowly circled me, tapping my shoulders and arms as she went. "The only known exception to that immutable fact is you."
"Me?"
"Yep," said Lucy. "You don't register on the magic spectrum. Whatever weird, kooky magic is flowing through your body, it comes with a built-in cloaking device."
Elyse sat forward, frowning. "I don't see how Orson's ability can help the rest of us evade detection."
"Because we won't be using my magic to charge the tattoos, we'll be using his.” Lucy plopped back down in her seat, a smug look on her face.
"Come again?" I said.
"Is that even possible?" asked Maddie. "He's a shifter, not a caster."
I bobbed my head up and down like a crazy a person, gesturing at Maddie. "Yeah, what she said."
Lucy let out a long, almost snooty, sigh. "Orson, you have twice now stripped a shifter of their animal," she glanced at Piper, who was following our conversation with interest. "It's time to face the truth, you're part spell slinger. Now, what that means exactly and just what your capabilities are remains to be seen, but I'm fairly confident we can use your ability to make us invisible to magic prying eyes. Oh, and I’m pretty sure I figured out how to protect us from your sonic shriek, so I can add that to the mix.”
I didn't have a comeback. The monster that I shared a brain with had told me I could wield magic after my arena fight with Tommy. I freely admit that I didn't want it to be true, I didn't want to be different, I didn't want to be the Ollphiest. I could accept the life of a shifter, which would put Elyse and me on even ground. We could build a relationship, a life on that sameness. But as the freak, the oddball, the monster of the magical world, I worried that I would always be separate, even when I was with those I loved.
Elyse, of course, sensed my unease. She knelt down in front of me, leaning forward, her elbows on my knees. "Hey dork, what's up?"
"I didn't choose the thug life, the thug life chose me," I said. I'm sure having one of his most famous quotes turned into a m
eme used by millions of middle-class kids had Tupac rolling over in his grave. But damn, if it didn't sum up exactly how I was feeling.
Morgan chuckled and it wasn't a ha-ha you're a funny guy kind of chuckle, it was a please stop your bitching kind of chuckle.
Elyse rose to my defense. "Is something bothering you, Morgan?"
"Yeah, there's something bothering me. All of you are the real-life equivalent of superheroes. You’re like the freaking Avengers, but you continue to act like it's some kind of huge burden."
"Morgan,” Lucy warned.
But the grizzled Special Forces vet wouldn't be shut down. "No, I’m sorry, this needs to be said. I've dedicated my adult life to protecting the innocent from the evil in the world. And for the life of me I can't understand why you," Morgan jabbed a finger in my direction, "Or any of you, for that matter, can't accept the fact that fate or God or whatever you want to call it has chosen you . . . chosen you to be a shield against the darkness."
"Well, you just said it yourself, dude," said Wyatt. "You dedicated your life. That means at some point you made a conscious choice, a decision to fight the good fight. Some of us weren't given a choice. We were tossed in head-first and told to swim."
"Really?" said Morgan. "Why did the four of you go chasing after Lucy when she was stuck in her magic brain bubble?" He turned to Lucy. "Why did you join the Paragon Society? Why are all of you sitting here in Piper's house planning a raid to take down Marcus? It's because deep down on some level you get it. You understand that if it's within your power to save a friend or stop evil dead in its tracks, then you will risk everything, even your lives, to do it."
Morgan looked at each of us in turn, his eyes blazing, daring us to contradict him.
When none of us spoke up he continued, but in a more subdued tone. "There are seven billion people on the planet. If just one percent of them have malicious intentions, then that's seventy million bad guys. And I'm not talking about tax cheats and shoplifters. I'm talking about murderers, rapists and the occasional genocidal maniac. People who do evil not because they weren’t hugged enough as a kid, but because they like how it makes them feel. I said it before—one of the unfortunate realities of life is that some people just need killing, people like Marcus. And the power that's represented in this room can do something about that."
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