by E. M. Moore
On the second floor landing, the glow from the enormous painting of the merchant ship docked at Salem's wharf intensified. That could only mean one thing. A guardian was coming through the portal. Inside the messenger bag, the electricity and the vibration coming from the weyfinder skyrocketed.
I took a deep breath and held it, hoping Damen was about to make his way through the portal that he left through just two days ago. Being the big brother, he'd want me safe. Of course he'd tell me to run if the ley line was brewing up trouble. Damen still thought I was six years old with pigtails half the time.
The air around the portal wavered. I narrowed my eyes to get a glimpse. When I saw who stepped through the painting, my mouth almost dropped open. Almost. One of the first rules of guardianship is to never act surprised.
Jake rushed into the house, stopping dead when he spotted me.
A million different emotions flowed over me. Disappointment that it wasn't Damen. Shock that Jake, the Jake, stood before me. Anger that the Jake who abandoned us was standing in my house after all this time when he hadn't so much as called in years.
His hair was darker than I remembered it. I'd been thirteen the last time I saw him. His shoulders were broader. His face was more angular, grown up. There was even some man stubble across his cheeks and chin. It was him, but it wasn't the Jake I remembered.
His eyes widened. "Cas?"
I stared at his black tactical gear. I'd known he joined the Guardian Elite team, but I'd never seen one of them in real life and this was not just one in my living room, but the one that had torn my brother apart when he decided to leave. "Sweet getup," I said, pulling my messenger bag higher up on my shoulder. "Do you have to pay for your own? Or do they give a set when you make it?"
His eyes narrowed as he studied me. His gaze paused at the pink streaks in my dark hair. I wanted to tell him a lot had changed in eleven years and not just my hair color.
He took two steps, still studying me. "Thank God you're okay. When I heard about Damen, I came right away."
"Damen?" My heart freefell into my stomach. "What about him?"
"Maybe you should..." He eyed the sofa in the corner.
Oh hell no. Gone forever and still going to treat me like a little kid? Not going to happen. "Jake, I'm not thirteen anymore. I'm a full-fledged guardian myself. If there's something I should know about my brother, you need to tell me."
Jake tipped his head up, his chin strong. "He's been captured. We don't know where he is."
My chest hollowed out. A thousand denials bubbled up inside me. Damen was the best of the Ley Line Guardians. That's why he was always off helping the other guardian groups. "Are you sure?"
"He was at Stonehenge--"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. They needed help. Something about their line. But what happened? Is he okay?"
Jake paced around the small landing, not looking at me. His eyes stayed trained on the hardwood floor. "We think it was a trap. Damen had no way of knowing but we've been investigating weird phenomena in the line that runs from the UK to the States. In each of our hot spots, we've recorded instances where something out of the ordinary happened."
I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "And of course you wouldn't share that with the lowly Ley Line Guardians. Why should we know something that would help us do our jobs better?"
Jake squared his massive shoulders and set his jaw. "Not my decision. The point is, I think that they--whoever they is--wanted to get Damen out of Salem and they knew if they asked him to help, he would leave. Here, Damen has all the protection he could ever want. Out there, he's more vulnerable."
I pushed past him down the stairs, my mind still trying to wrap around the fact that no one knew where Damen was and that couldn't be a coincidence considering what I'd just learned. I bit down on my thumb knuckle and wore a path into the carpet. "Makes sense they'd lure him out since there's something gone screwy with our line now. But why? Why this part of the line? And other than the obvious, why wouldn't they want Damen here?"
Jake blocked my path and ran his hands through his hair. "There's something wrong with the line? What is it?"
I glared at him and continued walking. "Don't know. Only that it seems to be blasting off energy."
"Shit. What are you doing about it?"
I turned and scowled at him. Typical holier-than-thou bullshit. Relay the problem and then wonder how someone's going to fix it. "Nothing yet because I'm standing here talking to you."
"Cas..."
I waved him away. We hadn't needed Jake in eleven years, I could figure this all out on my own. "So Damen's been captured. The ley line is giving off energy. Obviously the two are connected."
He interrupted my path again and grabbed my shoulders. "I'm here to help, Cas. I came as soon as I found out. I--"
He trailed off, not finishing his thought. The despair in his eyes was apparent though. I shook my head, not understanding the sudden feelings for Damen. If he'd cared, why hadn't he stayed in touch? "What's Damen's status? Do you guys have any idea where he is? Any leads?"
His gaze dropped to the fancy red oriental carpet at our feet. "We don't know."
I blew out a hard breath. I was well trained as a Ley Line Guardian. I wasn't worried about that part at all. Damen was number one, but I was his number two. It was just this all happening at once that got my spidey senses up.
Okay. Think. What would Damen do?
He would tell me to worry about what was in front of me and push aside anything I didn't have control over. I didn't know where he was and there was no way I could leave Salem right now to help find him. I'd have to trust that the Elite Guardians were doing everything that they could to try and get my brother back. As for myself, I needed to find out what was wrong with the ley line.
"The Elite are looking for him though, right?"
"We're doing everything we can."
I took the hair tie from around my wrist and put my hair in a pony tail. "Shouldn't you be helping? I can handle Salem's problems. It's not as if I'm new to this."
"I--well, my captain--thought I'd be of more use here."
"If you're worried about me, I'll be fine. I have things under control."
Three short raps sounded on the door. The weyfinder pulsed in my bag. I pulled it out. The stone in the middle was pure white and spinning. It was a witch. I looked at Jake. His eyes were round and big, and he eyed the weyfinder as it were a thing of fairy tales that he'd just found out was real. I offered it to him, but he shook his head and stepped away.
Weird, considering this was one of Jake's favorite devices when he was in SPAWN.
I shrugged, put the weyfinder away, and then strode to the door. Gigi was on the other side. Her eyes were dull and her features drawn tight across her face. She held her hands out in front of her, nervously clasped together. "Oh Cas. Thank the goddess you're here. You need to come downtown. It's like kindergarten class with all the residents of Salem. There's yelling and screaming, confusion, I think I even saw someone pee their pants."
Her eyes darted behind me and for once, her mouth stopped moving. Eyelashes lowered, she looked up at Jake like she wanted to devour him. Typical Gigi, actually.
She sauntered in and smiled at him like a luring siren. "I'm Gigi. And you are?"
Mr. Guardian Elite in my living room squared his shoulders and bowed his head.
"Oh please," I sniffed. "Gigi this is Jake. He used to be Damen's best friend until he bailed on him. Now he's an Elite. Jake, this is my friend and before you ask, yes, she's a Wiccan. No, we don't have slumber parties. And yes, we can trust her."
Gigi shot me a funny look. Us underlings usually weren't supposed to talk to Guardian Elite's like that, but I figured Jake and I went back far enough that he could take a little ribbing from and old friend. If he couldn't, oh well.
I inclined my head toward Gigi. "She's the one who first noticed something was up with the line. When you got here, I was about to head out to see what I could find."
Gigi stared at Jake. "So, you're here to help us with the line?"
"No. He came here to tell me my brother was captured by an evil posse of we don't know what and that evil posse has been messing with hot spots all over the UK-US line."
Gigi closed her eyes. "Stonehenge."
I grunted in agreement. "Jake thinks they lured Damen away for a reason. To focus on Salem? To get him? We're not sure."
"Well..." Her eyes scanned from me to Jake. "Wait. You seem awfully calm for someone who just found out her brother has been captured and that you have to fix the ley line. That's not like you."
"What can I say? I'm channeling my brother. Speaking of--" I turned to Jake. "A fae relayed a message from him earlier today. He told me to run."
Jake's eyes darkened. "Damen sent a fae here?"
"Not here. I was at the library. The guy said he owed Damen a favor and this is how Damen cashed it in."
"What else?"
I shrugged, casting an accusatory glance at Gi. She'd interrupted me earlier before I could find out anything.
"Who was he? I can get Command to bring him in for questioning."
I shrugged again.
Gigi giggled, but Jake's face turned an angry red. "Cas. He could've led us to your brother. You always get a fae's name. That's entry level tactics."
"If I'd known the extent of everything, I would have asked him nicely what his name was before I nicked him with my blade. He wasn't too willing to give me any info after that."
Jake's lips thinned. I couldn't tell if he was about to smile or frown. It looked like a cross between both, actually.
"Bottom line, we don't have that info. Nothing we can do about it now."
Jake smiled at Gi. "Excuse us." He walked forward, grabbed me by the shoulders, and walked me backward into the dining room. In a whisper, he said, "Your brother sent you a message to leave. You're still here. Why?"
I shrugged. It wasn't really any of Jake's business anymore.
"Don't give me that shit."
My neck grew hot. I rubbed it with my hand. "Wow, and here I thought they taught Elite's better than that." His serious face urged an answer from me, though. "I can't run, Jake. You know that. I'm needed here. Damen wouldn't run and he shouldn't expect me to either, big brother or not. If it was you, he wouldn't ask you to run."
Jake closed his eyes, probably remembering the same thing I was. The past. Mistakes. Some too big to come back from. "Let me portal you somewhere. I'll get a group of Elite's in here and we'll make sure nothing happens to Salem. Promise."
I started to shake my head before he even finished his sentence. "Not going to happen. I'm needed here. This is my job."
"Damen wanted you away from all this. He must have had a reason."
"And I'm sure it's a good one, but no one knows my own strength like me. I'm fine. I can handle this without him."
His hand relaxed on my shoulder. "I'm staying in Salem. And before you tell me again that you can do it yourself, I know that. I'm staying because I want to help."
I blinked up at him. Even with the years apart, he was still the same Jake I grew up with. "You're sure?"
"Where else would I go?"
I wanted to throw my arms around him and squeeze. Over the years, I've tried to erase Jake from my memory, but when someone makes such an impact on you, it's hard. Whether or not he left us, I felt myself slipping back into old patterns. Jake and Cas were here. We were only missing Damen and then we would be complete again.
"We need a plan," I said.
His lips twitched. "Not just any plan. We need a good one."
That was one of Damen's favorite sayings. Oh god. Damen. What were we going to do?
Jake rubbed my shoulder. "I know him. He's fine. Wherever he is, he's giving someone hell."
I sure hoped so.
Chapter Four
Jake, Gigi, and I sat at the kitchen table. A map of the ley line rolled out in front of us. The line went right through the middle of Salem, but it had strong points and weak points here just like it did at different points all over the world. Years ago, a bunch of pre-teens and teens, including Damen and Jake, figured out how to put the line to sleep after an evil wizard woke it up. He thought with control of the largest ley line in the world, he'd have ultimate power, be a god of the magical world. The only thing he succeeded in doing was turning on the ley line though. Thankfully.
With the ley line awake though, it forced Damen and Jake to grow up fast. They went from riding their bikes and skateboards around town to finding all the magical weapons our ancestors in SPAWN hid so they could destroy the evil magical beings the energy called. It took them years of fighting for Salem and researching to finally figure out how to turn the ley line back off. Even now, it wasn't necessarily off off, like it had been before the evil witch coven turned it on, but it was better than nothing. The ley line's energies and dormant power attracted the supernatural to live here, but not like when it was on full power. Today, we all lived in peace with one another. The humans knew nothing of the magical world and it was the guardians' job to keep it that way. If they knew, all hell would break loose.
I racked my brain trying to remember what Damen told me about how they put the line to sleep. He called it something like hypnotizing, but I wasn't quite sure. I didn't even know where to begin something like that except to talk to the witches. In my experience though, besides Gi of course, witches were as tricky as fae. There was only one coven in town they I would feel comfortable talking to about this--Gi's coven, and her High Priestess always gave me the creeps.
What was I talking about? Relying on witches?
"Jesus. This is bullshit." I pushed the map away and stood. "We don't even know what the hell is wrong with the line. If we don't know what's wrong with it, how are we supposed to freaking fix it?"
Jake's eyes bulged out of his head.
I sneered at him. "You try facing down the sharp end of a wolverine's incisor when you're thirteen and not pick up some choice words to help you cope."
He grinned. "You were twelve. If I remember correctly, you kicked its ass."
"Whatever. I was young."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "We were all young. Too young."
Gigi rose and stood next to me. "Well, while you two bicker like brother and sister, I'll go ahead and execute a plan."
I raised an eyebrow.
She smiled prettily at Jake. "My coven can perform a ritual to show us the weak spots in the line. Spots that aren't concealing it. We might even be able to tell you what kind of magic it is, if it's magic doing it at all."
He rubbed the stubble on his chin. "I've heard some witches can even tell the mark of another witch's power. If it's magic, could you tell us which witch did it?"
Her nose scrunched as she looked up at the ceiling. I could almost see the wheels in her little Wiccan mind working. "Perhaps. It's difficult to do. We'd need a lot of energy, but since the ley line is giving off a ton of extra energy, it might even give us the fuel we need to pull something like that off."
I looked back and forth between the two. It was different seeing Jake in Elite mode. He'd always just been Jake when I was younger. Five years younger than them, I wasn't usually included in their group, but when I got older, Damen introduced me to our family history, our family duty. From the age of eleven, I'd been training to be a guardian just like them. It was too bad Jake left after he turned eighteen. I know it killed my brother to see him go. Hurt me, too.
Gi rested her hand on Jake's bicep and then laughed at something he said. Unease shivered up my spine. Jeez. Could she be any more obvious? She might as well hang an Open sign around her neck.
I shook my head at myself. That was mean. Gi was my friend and I knew what I was really trying to say. I was jealous. Jake was my older brother's best friend. Of course I'd had a major crush on him when I was younger. Who didn't have crushes on their brother's friends? Especially ones like Jake. He was always so nice. When we were young, he
treated me better than Damen did.
Gi waved a hand in front of my face. "You there?"
I flinched. "Yeah. Here. What's up?"
"You should probably suit up. Jake and I decided we'd go to my coven and ask them to perform the spell. See if we can't figure out what happened to the ley line so we can figure out how to stop it."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm not a Power Ranger, Gigi. I don't need to suit up."
She laughed, her voice twinkling. "Fine. Do whatever it is you do. I'll head out now and prepare the others. You'll be along?" This last part she said to Jake, her eyelashes fluttering.
The tips of his ears turned pink. Jesus. We had way more important things to worry about than flirting. "We'll be there," I said, nodding toward the door hoping she'd show her way out.
She did. She gave us both a wave, half laughing at my frankness. She knew enough about me by now that she wasn't offended. That's just how I was sometimes.
As soon as the front door closed, I ran up to the attic. Jake's heavy footsteps followed mine. I went in and grabbed some of my stash. I still had my trusty all-in-one Damascas on me. I also grabbed the spike and the harpoon. Hey. You never know what you might need.
I tried to hand the spike to Jake but he shook his head and took a step back. No thanks. I've got my own. Jake unsheathed a long sword. Shiny and pointy in all the right places.
"Beautiful," I said. I reached out and tested the edge with my pointer finger. Sharp. I was in love. "First kill with it?"
Jake shook his head, laughing to himself. "You are nothing like your brother. I don't know what I expected, but..."
