by R. D. Brady
“Actually we were already awake,” Lou said. “What’s up?”
“I just got a call from the preserve. Something’s happened with the cats. They were hoping maybe Noriko would be able to come over.”
“What’s happening?” Noriko’s concern about the dream receded, replaced by concern for the leopards.
“Not sure. John said the cats were all worked up. They checked the perimeter and didn’t see anything that would cause it. They thought maybe you could come and figure out what’s bothering them.”
“Of course. Just let me get changed.”
“We’ll meet you downstairs in a few minutes,” Lou said.
Ten minutes later, they were driving off the grounds of the school with Yoni behind the wheel. No one said anything during the twenty-minute ride. But as they grew closer, Lou frowned. She rolled down her window.
“What is that?”
The night air wafted into the car, but Noriko didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary until a few minutes later. Then her eyes grew wide. “That’s the cats.”
The cats were screaming and howling into the night.
“Good God,” Yoni muttered. “What’s wrong with them?”
“I don’t know.” Noriko tilted her head. “They’re—happy.”
“Happy?” Lou asked. “That doesn’t sound happy.”
“But it is.”
Yoni pulled to a stop at the first gate, and the guard opened it. After the gate closed behind them, the second gate opened. Noriko was out of the car before Yoni had time to stop.
“Noriko!” he yelled.
But Noriko ignored him as Cleo raced toward her. What’s happened?
Cleo skidded to a stop in front of her. Noriko could feel the excitement coming off of her. She’s awake.
CHAPTER 58
The chopper ride back to the estate was silent. And it was not a companionable silence; it was tense, filled with anxiety. Someone on the estate was working against them. Jake stared out the window, his fists tight.
As soon as they landed, he headed for the security office. Heads were going to roll. He spent the rest of the morning reviewing tapes, demanding answers, and generally scaring the hell out of everybody.
At lunch, Jen stepped into his office. “You okay?”
Jake thought for a moment about giving her a reasoned response. But these last few months, he and Jen had become good friends, and he knew she wouldn’t let him get away with anything but pure honesty. And besides, he was too ticked off for reasonable. “Okay? How the hell am I supposed to be okay? One of our people is working for Samyaza. One of our people is working against us.”
Jen opened her mouth, then shook her head. “I don’t know, Jake.” Silence fell between them.
The helplessness he’d felt last night as Gerard had waltzed in and taken the book played through his mind again. “We led Elisabeta right to it. She wouldn’t have been able to separate the kids without it. We gave her what she needs!”
“I know that!” Jen yelled. “But you acting like an ass doesn’t help us figure out what to do.”
“Yeah, I know!” Jake huffed out a breath. “I know that. I just, I don’t know what to do. Nothing’s been right since Laney left.” The words had escaped his lips before he could stop them.
Jen’s voice was equally somber when she answered him. “No, it hasn’t.”
“God, I feel like we’re just stumbling around in the dark.” He closed his eyes, picturing Laney. He loved her. He always would. But that love had shifted from passion to loyalty. She was right: he couldn’t give her what she wanted. He wanted to be someone’s hero, but Laney didn’t need a hero. She was one. Still, that didn’t change his need to find her, to see her safe. They were family. All of them.
And Jake had been unable to find her, unable to bring her home. So he had turned his attention to the kids. And now he felt like he was failing at that, too.
“I’ll check back later, okay?”
“Yeah, sure.” Jake turned back to the stack of notes on his desk with a sigh.
A few minutes later Jordan interrupted him, his face serious. “Jake.”
Jake tried not to sigh. “What is it?”
“We found the mole.”
“Who?”
“His name’s David Keller. He was just hired four months ago on the maintenance staff.”
Jake stood. “Let’s see what he has to—”
Jordan put up a hand. “ He doesn’t have anything to say. He’s dead.”
Jake sank back in his chair. “How?”
“It was made to look like a suicide. He left a note. But I think it was staged.”
“Any idea why he would rat us out?”
“He’s got debts—lots of them. He’s been receiving five-thousand-dollar payments every two weeks for the last two months.”
“Money—of course.” And then once Samyaza was done with him, she took care of him.
“Some of our guys are going through his online life. Looks like he was big into online gambling. I’ll let you know if they find anything else.”
“Yeah, okay.”
As Jordan disappeared back down the hall, Jake’s phone rang. He felt like ignoring it. No, actually he felt like stomping the thing into the ground. He pulled it out and frowned at the name on the screen. “Lou?”
“Hold on, Jake. Noriko needs to talk to you.”
“Lou, it’s not really—”
But Lou was gone, and Noriko’s quiet voice spoke. “Hello?”
Jake reined in his frustration. Noriko was a sweet girl and very timid. She didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of his misery. “Hey, Noriko. It’s not really a good time.”
“I know. They have the book.”
“How do you—” He shook his head. Right, psychic. “Yes. So now we need to—”
“Cleo called to me. I’m at the preserve.”
Jake frowned. “Cleo? What are you talking about?”
“She told me Laney’s awake. She’s awake, Jake. And she’s coming back.”
CHAPTER 59
HALFWAY BETWEEN PRUDHOE BAY AND BARROW, ALASKA
Laney sat on the couch in the cabin. Maddox and Max had left almost two hours ago, and she had spent that time looking at news coverage from the last six months. Blowing out a breath, she pushed the laptop off her lap.
Henry’s company, which he had spent his adult life creating, was under siege. It seemed like every step they made was noted and documented by the media and law enforcement. Somehow, all of Henry’s good works were being cast as suspicious activity. Just like all of my activities.
The search for her hadn’t waned any, although the priestess’s attack on the agents at the SIA facility had at least given some journalists pause. But the warrants for her arrest remained, both in the United States and abroad.
Laney’s gaze shifted to a picture on the monitor of Henry, Jake, and Jen walking out of the Chandler School. In the corner of the shot were Danny, Lou, and Rolly. God, she missed all of them. It felt like a lifetime since she’d seen them—and in a way, she supposed it actually was.
She put the laptop on the coffee table next to the TV remote. It looked so alien. It had been four hours since she’d woken up, and the “modern” world still felt out of place.
She looked up as Drake entered the living room, his hair still damp from his shower. She tried not to imagine him in the shower. He was by far the most jarring part of this current life. Waking up and recognizing him had shocked her to her core. But luckily, Max and Maddox’s arrival had kept them from having to talk about it—yet.
“I was thinking of making something to eat. Are you hungry?” Drake asked.
“Actually, yeah.” She paused. “I don’t suppose there’s a pizza place nearby.”
“I could make pizza happen. But I think maybe we should talk first.”
Laney tucked her feet underneath her. “Okay. What do you want to talk about?”
Drake took a seat on the other side of t
he couch. “Oh, I don’t know. How about the weather? It’s been unseasonably warm.”
“Global warming.”
“Most likely. You humans sure are making a mess of this planet.”
“Hey, I recycle.”
“Oh, well then, no worries. The planet is saved. “
They exchanged a smile before Laney looked away.
“Well, now that that’s out of the way, you seem uncomfortable around me.”
Laney looked into his eyes, not sure what to say. She decided to go with blunt honesty. “I don’t know how to react to you. I met you as Drake. But now I know you differently.”
“Intimately,” he said.
Laney felt her cheeks flush. “Yes. And I’m not sure how to deal with that. When we met in Vegas, you acted as if we had never met before.”
“It was startling to see you again. I guess I felt like you feel now. I wasn’t sure what to say, especially seeing as you didn’t know me. All you saw was the flashy Las Vegas entertainer.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He watched her for a long moment, refusing to let her look away. “What should I have said? That at one point we had been each other’s entire world? That I had lived just for you? That you and I were each other’s reason to breathe? How would that have gone over?”
Laney looked away. His words had been spoken as questions, and yet the sound of them, the meaning behind them, pulled at her. “You died protecting me.”
“I did. I don’t regret that. But I’m not that man anymore. And you’re not that woman. And according to Max, we have more important matters to focus on.” His words were good, but he couldn’t seem to drop her gaze, and she couldn’t seem to look away from him either.
“Right. Victoria,” Laney said.
Drake finally broke eye contact and stood. “I will take care of the pizza if you take care of our next steps. But be warned: everyone from your life is under surveillance. If you stick your head out, the world will know. And most of that world would like to see that head on a platter.”
Laney nodded, pulling back her thoughts from her and Drake and focusing on what Max had told her: Life’s changing, Laney. You have two paths, and you need to take both of them. But you can’t. You have to choose.
She knew exactly what he meant. She had to choose between Victoria and finding the Omni, the weapon that could make anyone a Fallen or strip any Fallen of their powers. With that weapon, she could defeat Samyaza. And if that weapon fell into Samyaza’s hands, the darkness would win.
But even knowing all that, the choice was easy. Victoria came first.
She picked up her computer. And I know someone who can help me find her.
CHAPTER 60
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA
Elisabeta stood on the balcony of her estate in Beverly Hills. From here she could see the eternity pool and the fountains that dotted her twenty-acre estate. No expense had been spared in reproducing her home in Venice here. But she ignored all of it, instead watching the chopper land on the east lawn.
Gerard’s golden-crowned form was easy to pick out from the group that disembarked. And he had a confidence, a grace to his walk, that none of her other men could match.
He looked up and caught sight of her. She smiled. He always knew when he was being watched.
Gerard disappeared from view, and Elisabeta turned and leaned against the railing. Soon. It will all be completed soon.
A knock sounded at her door.
“Enter,” she called, and Gerard strode in. He walked toward her, the book wrapped in fabric at his side. He held it out to her. “Samyaza.”
She smiled as she took it, walked into her office, and placed it on her desk, which had already been cleared off. A thick, heavy, cotton sheet had been placed there in anticipation of this moment. “Has anyone looked at it?” she asked.
“No, Samyaza. As per your orders.”
“Good.” She unwrapped the heavy fabric protecting it, and when she saw the box, surprise filtered through her. It looked like the box that had once held the Omni. But no, the pictures on this box were different. They were peaceful scenes depicting humans, animals, and nature.
She scoffed. The followers had always been too optimistic for the real world.
She opened the box. A very old leather-bound book lay inside. It had no title, nothing to indicate its explosive contents.
She pulled it out and placed it gently on her desk, noting it had only a little wear at the edges. Even at a glance she could tell the pages were made from different materials—animal skin, papyrus, leather.
The book had survived. All these years, and somehow it had survived. It was a miracle. Humans might not be worth much, but every once in a while, one of them surprised her. Nicely done, Marguerite.
She pulled on a pair of cotton gloves and carefully opened the book. It was written in a language she hadn’t seen since the time of Lemuria and Atlantis. A language long since forgotten by man. But Elisabeta didn’t need to read the words to get what she wanted—for it wasn’t the words she was interested in. She had eyes only for the sketches that adorned each page—sketches of the Great Mother in her various incarnations.
The Great Mother. Samyaza sneered. A woman with no power beyond memories. And right now, she was a helpless child just waiting to be identified.
Gerard moved closer. “It’s beautiful.”
She nodded, agreeing with him. Each page was a work of art. The script, long and flowing, was surrounded by pictures of extraordinary beauty. Flowers, buildings, mountains, animals—and of course, Victoria. On each page, her face stared back at Samyaza. Different ages, but the same face, no matter the time period.
She studied each depiction carefully, not sure what exactly she was looking for but knowing she would find it within these pages. Carefully she turned page after page, until she noticed a similarity. The page in front of her showed a picture of Victoria when she was a child, running around without clothes. Samyaza flipped back to a picture of Victoria as a twenty-year-old, wearing a long dress that draped over one shoulder. She flipped back once more, to a picture of Victoria in tunic. As she studied the drawings, her smile grew wider. “That’s it.”
“What’s it?”
She turned to Gerard, feeling triumphant. “Look at these pictures. What do they have in common?” She turned the pages, giving him a chance to inspect each drawing. And she recognized the moment he saw it.
“The mark on her shoulder,” he said. “It’s a birthmark.”
Samyaza smiled. “Each lifetime, she’s born with the same mark. That’s how we’ll know who she is.”
“You are brilliant.”
Elisabeta’s eyes roamed over the book. “Yes. I am.”
“What are your orders?”
“Have all the children inspected. Find the one with the mark.” She paused. “Actually, no. I will inspect them. I want to be the one who finds her.”
“Of course, Samyaza.” He paused. “And what will we do with the other children when we find Victoria?”
“They are not needed. Dispose of them.”
“By dispose of them, you mean…”
Her voice was dry. “Kill them, Gerard. I assume you don’t have a problem with that?”
“Of course not. I’ll see to the arrangements. And I assume you wish us to leave immediately?”
She smiled. “Yes. We leave within the hour.”
CHAPTER 61
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
The gates to the Chandler estate opened in front of the SUV, and the guards waved Yoni and Noriko through.
Yoni waved his thanks before turning to Noriko. “Just two minutes more. How’s she doing?”
Yoni had been giving her a running countdown of how long until they reached the main house. Noriko couldn’t blame him. Cleo was pacing along the back of the Suburban, looking extremely agitated.
“She’s good. She just needs to lose some energy.”
“But Laney’s still awake and comi
ng back, right?”
Noriko smiled. “Yes. It hasn’t changed.”
Yoni grinned. Grins were something Noriko had seen on everybody’s face after she told them about Cleo’s statement. In fact, a new energy seemed to have infused the whole school. There had been a noticeable buzz when Yoni and Noriko dropped Lou back at the school. Lou had called the boys to let them know ahead of time, and they had all been waiting when Yoni pulled up.
Rolly pulled Noriko from the car and hugged her tight. “You are awesome!”
Noriko had laughed, but she had felt his excitement. Now Jake had asked for her and Cleo to come to the estate to tell everyone exactly what she had seen.
The main house came into view, and Cleo let out a roar. Yoni swerved. “Damn it, Cleo, not when I’m driving.”
Cleo laid her head on Noriko’s shoulder. Sorry.
“She says she’s sorry. She’s just excited.”
“That’s okay, buddy. We’re all kind of excited today.” Yoni pulled to a stop. “You guys hop out. I’ll be up in a minute.”
Noriko opened the door and stepped out. Cleo was right behind her. She gave a deep stretch on the drive as Yoni pulled away.
Noriko felt butterflies zip across her stomach. She’d never been here without Lou or Danny. It was making her a little nervous.
As if he was psychic, Danny appeared at the front door and jogged down the stairs toward her, Moxy at his side. “Hey. There you guys are.” He rubbed Cleo’s head. “Come on. I’ll walk up with you.”
Cleo stayed where she was. Run.
Noriko nodded as Cleo took off for the back of the estate. Moxy took off after her.
“Where’s she going?” Danny asked.
“She needs to run. She’s been hyped up since Laney woke up. She’ll join us after she runs some energy off.”
Noriko followed Danny into the foyer and up the circular staircase. When they reached the third floor, people streamed past them, rushing between rooms.
“What’s going on?” Noriko asked.
“Henry’s got people rearranging schedules and meetings as well as developing contingencies for wherever Laney pops up. They want to be ready to move if she needs them. Come on.” He led her into Henry’s office.