“No sign of the Mindbender who interfered with your magic?”
I shook my head. “No, and I’ve kept my Elemental eyes peeled for signs of someone else using Spirit. But if they’re strong enough and used it to create a concealment spell, there’s a chance I could miss it.”
As far as I knew, I’d cornered the market on one-person firewalls that were the highest form of invisibility anyone in our Clan had ever seen. However, that didn’t mean someone else hadn’t worked out how to cast it with the help of four Elementals channeling the physical elements; or that there weren’t similar spells using only Spirit I just didn’t know about yet.
He tilted his head, and I could almost see the calculation spinning in his brain. “And you saw him when you scouted that second time, just before we crossed the pond?”
“Yeah. He was still sleeping in there. Right on that sleeping bag in the far corner.”
Something glittery flashed when I pointed, and I gasped. Liam’s gaze sharpened and his gaze followed where I pointed, only to clearly register nothing. Disappointment drew his lips tighter, but awareness tingled along my skin, and I hot-footed it into the living room. The sleeping bag had been abandoned on the hardwood floor, and the hints of Spirit I’d caught sight of from the other room were floating in the air above it. That had me shoving the sleeping bag out of the way and perusing the floor around it closely. Sure enough, the motes of Spirit seemed to be disappearing into the floor.
“What are you looking at?” Liam asked sharply.
“There’s a lot more Spirit over here than there should be. It appears to be flowing into the floor beneath this spot.”
Jake stepped over and knelt down, expression hyper-vigilant. He shook his head ruefully. “I don’t see anything, but remember that secret panel Keith had in his closet back in St. Louis?”
I tossed him a saucy grin. “Of course I do. That’s why I moved the sleeping bag and am examining the dusty-ass floor up close and personal.”
Dia snickered and pointed toward the hot spot. “Are you thinking there’s a secret basement underneath us?”
“It would make sense, given that we have a fairly successful mercenary group here. I mean they were no match for a concerted attack from a Beholden Clan and highly-trained monks, of course, but they’re no stranger to battle tactics. I’d guess that they either have a hidey hole down there or an escape tunnel.”
Liam’s expression sharpened. “Then we better figure out how to open the secret door ASAP. No telling how far they’ve gotten if they grabbed Nic and ran once we attacked.”
I nodded, gesturing for everyone to give me some space. Taking several deep breaths, I shut my eyes momentarily before flashing them open and viewing the world with Elemental vision. This time, I reached for the nearby sparks of Spirit and used them to further sharpen my senses. And that’s when I struck gold.
The outlines of a trapdoor were clearly discernible in the corner that had previously been covered by the sleeping bag. I began probing at its outer edges with Spirit, increasing the strength of my magic until finally a loud creaking sound rent the air. Everyone else blinked or stepped back in surprise. I reached down and slipped my fingers into the cracks and began to push. Slowly at first, and then much more quickly as I applied stronger pressure, the trapdoor slid neatly open like a pocket door.
A long flight of stairs was revealed, leading down into dimness that to me screamed a subterranean tunnel far more than a hidden basement. Meaning we had some pursuing to do.
Liam and Jake had figured as much. They made as if to leap down the stairs, but I reached a hand out to jerk each one short by the waistbands of their jeans. Angry scowls turned my way. I just shook my head. “Be patient!” I cautioned. “And to avoid any misunderstandings, that’s an order. Wait until I say otherwise.”
Angry expressions turned comical as I exercised the authority they’d been encouraging me to shoulder. Funny how they were all gung-ho about my doing that until I told them not to do something they wanted to do. I rolled my eyes and turned toward the crowd of faces that had joined the rest of us at the loud creaking sound. That included Riku and Colin, who had joined in our assault by shepherding in our reinforcements from the ranch house’s main road. “Perfect, just the folks I wanted to see!”
They grinned when I pointed at each of them. “I want the two of you up front when we take off down those stairs and, I assume, down the dark and creepy tunnel waiting for us. Keep your eyes peeled and Spirit at the ready. Who knows what we could face down there?”
Breena cleared her throat from where she stood next to Colin. “Is it the wisest thing for you to accompany the search party, liegelord?”
The fact she addressed me by title for one of the first (if not the first) time had me momentarily gaping. Then I shook my head and considered her words. Learning to think before I leaped didn’t come naturally, but I was working on it.
“In other circumstances, I might share your reticence. But if that enemy Spirit user is the one who snatched Nic during the chaos—and considering they would have to be involved to open and close that trapdoor, I think that’s most likely—we’ll need me down there. That person’s strength rivals my own, at minimum. I don’t think Riku and Colin will be able to handle them alone. No offense.”
I directed that last at them, and Riku merely smiled. “None taken. Truth is not an insult.”
Try telling that to oh, just about any human and most Elementals in the world!
Liam made a frustrated sound and shifted away with just enough force to slip out of my grasp. I let him go without a fight and addressed my next words to him. “You and Jake can follow those two, and then Rhianne, Dia, and I will form the middle of our Elemental sandwich.” My gaze flashed back to Breena. “And then your Quatrain and several others can follow the rear. Everyone else here should gather up our fallen comrades and evacuate them. Use the vehicles Riku’s group brought and, hell, if you need to you can borrow some of the mercs’ wheels to get back to our other vehicles. Just leave the mercs’ cars where ours are parked. We don’t need some hapless cop tracking us down if they are vindictive enough to report them stolen.”
Murmurs of agreement echoed in the air as people moved to put my orders into action. I glanced at Felicity, one of Riku’s most trusted monks. A human, but still high up in the Cassidy’s Own chain of command. “Also, take at least a few of the dead mercs with you. We’ll question them before deciding what to do with them.”
She gave a feline grin that would have done Sugar proud when hunting mice on the farm. “Consider it done, liegelord.”
It was getting a little easier to have people address me by that title without wincing. It still struck me as ridiculous in the extreme, but hey. Baby steps and all that.
“All right, then. Let’s get our brother back.”
Chapter 6
My heart raced as we descended those rough-hewn stairs into the cool, dank subterranean tunnel. It had obviously been carved into the earth by Dragons, because the tunnel walls were a good eight feet apart and completely smooth. The generous size helped me steady my rapid breathing, as did focusing on Nic’s face and my determination to find him. Goosebumps pricked my flesh due to how much cooler it was here than above. I rubbed my arms briskly to warm them and augmented both vision and hearing enough to make up for the increasing dimness and sound of our footsteps striking the tightly-packed earthen floor.
The tunnel began to gently curve in the opposite direction from the pond that we’d used to approach the house. Tension hung heavy in the air as we each held ourselves ready for whatever might leap at us in the darkness. Only nothing—and no one—ever did. Instead, Riku contacted me telepathically about five minutes into our extremely unfun jaunt beneath the ground.
((We hear voices ahead. Pass along the word to stop and be silent. I’m going to have Liam use Air to amplify the voices so we can hear them clearly.))
((Understood. And good idea.))
Riku, Colin, and I m
ade quick work of silently instructing everyone to be still. Moments later, two voices became audible as Liam worked his magic.
“...don’t believe that he knows you planned to kill him permanently. There’s no way he’d agree to that. He wouldn’t risk alienating Cassidy even further than your bullshit stunt already did.” A woman’s vaguely familiar voice.
“Yes, well, what our father doesn’t know won’t kill him. Nic won’t be so lucky, of course.”
My body tensed even further when it recognized that smarmy voice and the self-satisfied laugh it gave. Drew Garrett, AKA Baby Brother. Which confirmed that he had been the puppet master behind today’s attacks all along.
“There’s one little problem with your plan, Andrew.” The woman’s voice again, sounding passive-aggressively sweet.
“Oh, and just what is that, big sister?”
“I’m not gonna just stand here and watch you kill our brother. And I’ve been recording this conversation on my phone the entire time. Don’t think you can just kill me to stop me from sending it, either. It’s already uploaded to the Cloud. Father will find out what you planned, and it just might kill you rather than Nic.”
All at once two facts clicked into place like puzzle pieces. That voice sounded familiar because it belonged to the red-haired woman who’d been murdered and teleported via Spirit before she could swear a liegeoath to me. And two—this woman was none other than my other sister Lily, Garrett’s golden child and favorite daughter. Meaning she must have been in disguise earlier for Dia and Nic not to recognize her.
Dia grabbed my hand and squeezed as she apparently connected the same dots. ((That has to be Lily! But man—she’s disguised herself so well I don’t even recognize her voice.))
((That was my thought as well. I guess she gains points for trying to protect Nic but loses infinity points for being on Team Dad.))
((At least right now she’s not on Team Drew.))
((Good point, little sis.))
I opened my telepathy to everyone in the immediate vicinity. ((That’s Drew and Lily, the two of Garrett’s children who are willingly serving him. We can’t risk Drew making good on his threat. I’m going to quickly scout ahead to make sure we’re not walking into an ambush. Assuming we have superior numbers, get ready to kick some ass and get our brother back!))
Feeling the silent support and determination of the people around me bolstered me even more surely than spoken words. I had to admit that the ability to channel Spirit into psychic communication did not suck. Even if the tyrant I’d inherited it from did.
Jake motioned for me to lean against him, which I did with a smile. His chest pressed against my back did much to warm my body that had felt chilly ever since we stepped into the tunnel. He wrapped his arms tightly to steady me so I could lose myself in the metaphysical jaunt I was about to take.
I closed my eyes and embraced Elemental vision. Earth energy was by far the most prevalent here below the surface, but threads of the other four elements could be seen. Fortunately, Spirit was plentiful enough for my purposes. I sent my psyche spinning ahead along threads of Spirit and Fire, which was the weakest here next to Air. There was just enough to get me where I needed to go without borrowing Jake’s affinity with Earth.
The tunnel remained straight for a couple dozen more feet and then turned at a sudden 90-degree angle. It began sloping gradually upward for another few hundred feet. My psyche zoomed along much more quickly than human feet could manage. Within seconds it spilled out into a vast cavern that stretched for the size of several football fields. On the far side of the cavern I caught sight of a small opening that seemed to empty onto the great outdoors.
Nic’s inert form caught my attention, sprawled atop the uneven ground halfway between the tunnel’s end and the mouth of the cavern. A few dozen goons who appeared to be half biker mercenaries and half Garrett’s more typical minions stood guard at the cavern’s mouth. Several more stood staring into the tunnel where my psyche had just appeared from. Thankfully none of them could sense that.
Drew stood a few feet away from the brother I actually loved, with the woman I believed to be Lily standing defiantly between them. She still wore the red-haired and green-eyed guise that didn’t match up with the blonde hair and pale blue eyes I knew she actually possessed. That bright red lipstick caught my attention again. Her arms were held stiffly at her side with clenched fists as she tried to get Drew to back down. His teeth were bared, and he didn’t appear particularly intimidated. In fact, judging by the flood of Spirit dancing around him, he appeared to be gearing up to make good his threat to kill Nic. And given that Lily was a Dragon, she wouldn’t stand a chance against a purely Spiritual attack.
My eyes flashed open as I jumped back into my body and grinned fiercely. Lily wouldn’t stand a chance—but I sure as hell would.
I telepathically described the scene ahead to everyone and asked Jake’s parents to coordinate a plan of attack. Riku, Colin, and I would be focused on locking down Drew and his Mindbending powers. Jake, Dia, and Liam informed us that they would be watching our backs while we did that, and Theo and Melody chimed in that so would they.
My lips twitched as I thought about how good it felt to have people care about me so much they actually wanted to help protect me. Plus—it would be way harder for me to follow in Daddy’s tyrannical footprints with plenty of people around who always told me exactly what they thought. My kind of people.
Minutes later we stalked toward the cavern, wrapped in a shield of Liam’s Air to dampen our footsteps. My smaller circle of protectors were also surrounded by a second-level firewall to grant invisibility in addition to soundproofing. The larger group would provide a distraction once we took our places just feet away from my three siblings. I glanced at the grim-faced Dia next to me and amended that to our three siblings.
I signalled my group, and we darted past the guards still staring into the tunnel and across the cavern toward where Drew and Lily were still trading barbs. My brows furrowed as that realization struck. Why were they just standing around here waiting rather than mounting an attack to take back the mercenary headquarters or hightailing it out of here. Drew had to know we’d be hot on his trail…
As if he’d read my thoughts, Drew gave a sudden grin when the second group behind attacked the tunnel guards. My flesh grew cold when I realized this was the exact event Baby Brother had been waiting for.
He glanced from Lily to Nic with a more sinister smile and then began siphoning massive amounts of Spirit into a spell I couldn’t recognize but that unsettled me to the core. Slowly it began to solidify into a six-foot-long jagged spear of Spirit that looked far more deadly than any made of metal could possibly be. Riku sucked in a breath and shot me a panicked expression.
((That is a Mindbender’s equivalent to going kamikaze—except he can thrust it upon someone else and they will be the ones to die.))
No need to guess what he was going to do with it or why—he wanted to make me watch as he murdered the brother I actually cared about. I’d thwarted Drew’s plans the last time we’d faced each other, and he clearly wanted revenge.
((Can we counter that spell?) I asked frantically. ((Or can one of my firewalls contain it?))
Riku hesitated before admitting, ((I don’t know. I’ve never seen it successfully countered, but your abilities aren’t the same as my father’s.))
Drew, like the best of all supervillains, indulged in a little showmanship before unleashing his evil. “Our guests of honor have arrived at last. Lily, my dear sister, the time has come for you to choose. Will you take your place by my side as I help Father claim his rightful place, or will you let foolish sentiment make you just as weak as our older sister?))
Lily’s expression became conflicted. I didn’t know her well enough to guess what inner demons she battled, but the anguished look she shot Nic suggested she felt at least some affection for him. And that was the exact opposite emotion from the hatred she then turned in Drew’s direction.
“I won’t let you murder him.”
Drew shrugged as if mildly disappointed. “So be it, then. You brought this upon yourself.”
Panic had me acting on instinct to move the firewall encircling my small group of protectors to surround Nic instead. His body vanished from sight just a second after our forms popped into view. Drew’s self-satisfied expression met mine as he did what he’d apparently intended all along. Flung that deadly spear of Spirit straight at me.
Riku and Colin were in the midst of forming spells I didn’t recognize to cast upon Drew, and I’d used most of my depleted store of energy to protect Nic—leaving me wide open. Something Drew had damned well counted on.
Nobody else could even see the deadly blast flying straight toward me. I saw my presumably permanent death barreling straight toward me, and all I could do was telepathically blast out, ((I love you all!)) because I just knew I was going to die.
Except that Lily did something I never saw coming. Glittering shards of Spirit flashed as she disappeared, only to appear right next to me and knock us both to the ground. She screamed as an edge of Drew’s death spear touched her arm. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she passed out.
Holy shit. Lily must be a hybrid Mindbender, too!
Because teleportation was the only explanation for what I’d just seen. I didn’t have much time to dwell on that realization, however, because chaos broke out around me. My protectors sprang into action, Riku and Colin unleashing their spells upon Drew. He must have drained most of his energy casting that death spell, because he barely managed to counter their spells and started backing toward the cavern entrance, where his surviving minions waited to evacuate him.
Jake and Dia ran to help me stand. Theo and Melody checked that I was okay and then stood watch over Lily’s body. Liam arrowed straight toward Nic, now visible because I’d dropped my firewall after Lily barreled into me. He leaned down to ensure Nic was still alive, and then nodded when our gazes met. I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. Now that Spirit was involved, permanent death without beheading or cutting off one’s access to their element was an ugly possibility.
Embraced by Embers Page 9
