An Uncommon Truth of Dying (Broken Veil Book 2)

by Marie Andreas

  Bart looked like he wanted to question what Stella was doing, but shook his head, took the phone, and told Mott the address. Then he held the phone up to Caradoc. “Did you have anything else to add?”

  “I think that was it. Unless we need to know how to use these new gadgets?”

  Stella grinned. “He already told me. Easy as pie. Actually, easier than pie—some pies can be extremely problematic.”

  “Thanks Mott, we’re good. And thank you for getting it to us.” Bart was about to hang up when Caradoc waved at him and reached for the phone.

  “Hold on, Mott. I need you to increase the security on the house and perimeter. Don’t go out unless you absolutely have to.” He looked over to Reece. “Someone was asking about you and you might be a target. I don’t think they know where my house is, but stay safe.” Then he rattled off a series of numbers, letters, and what seemed like random sounds and hung up the call.

  “Good thinking. It could have been something from Nix, or someone else. But someone definitely is after Mott,” Aisling said.

  “And didn’t know where Caradoc’s house is.” Reece went back to the table after a final look at the board.

  “Which is good,” Bart said. “And even better that you are having him increase security. I know we’re waiting for the new toys, but might not be a bad idea to have Stella check out Jones right off?” He shook Jones’ off before he could complain. “You two were together. You were around at least two people who we know were replaced. And I am your boss.”

  Jones opened his mouth but shut it on the final one. That was the one that could not be disputed.

  Stella motioned for Jones to take a seat. “It’s a lot easier for you and me if you’re closer to my height. Trust me.” Her smile was broad but her eyes were serious.

  Aisling was the closest to the two, so made sure she moved a bit closer. Her gun was back in her nightstand but hopefully she wouldn’t need it.

  Jones sat but didn’t look happy. The other three came a bit closer as well.

  “Seriously, I’m not going to grow an extra head or anything.” But even he seemed nervous. He did willingly hand over his gun.

  “Considering that I had no idea there was something inside me, you never know.” Reece turned to Aisling. “Anything beyond sounding weird and having a smile like Nix to look for?”

  “Your eyes changed color. They were almost white with how light they were. That was the first indication I had that you were you—when they changed back to normal.”

  “Reece’s eyes are light to begin with but everyone look for changes, they might be more subtle.” Stella put one hand on Jones’ face and the other held the red and orange sparking spell she’d had before when she’d searched Reece.

  Aisling needed to ask her what that spell was when this was over. She and Stella were different types of magic users, but Aisling had never really tapped into her magic side beyond healing—maybe it was time. She’d see if Stella could train her after this was done. Harlie would be a good teacher, once he recovered. Except that he’d be looking at the deeper side of every spell, and Aisling wasn’t a patient learner. Better to work with Stella.

  Jones looked nervous as Stella peered at him closely and began her spell. Reece, Bart, and even Caradoc were nearby in case something went wrong. Reece and Bart had guns. Caradoc might prefer to play with his tech toys, but he was a powerful magic user if push came to shove.

  “I think he’s clean.” The words had just left her mouth when Jones started twitching. “Or not. Damn them, they hid it too well. Anyone have a tranquilizer something that can keep him from fighting back, but conscious?”

  Reece and Bart leapt forward and grabbed Jones’ arms as he lunged to grab Stella.

  Stella laughed and the spell ball in her hand crackled more. “Oh no, whoever you are. You don’t get this one either. Tell us who did this.” The spell ball turned redder and Jones shrunk back in pain.

  “Not a tranq, but there is a healing spell I can try. I’m not strong in it though, it’s tricky.” Aisling stood closer to Jones. Like Reece, his eyes had gone lighter.

  At nods from both Stella and Bart, Aisling took a deep breath and put her hands on either side of Jones’ head. This spell was tricky and usually ended up with her knocking the suspect out. She’d stopped trying to do it on the job years ago. The turmoil in Jones’ mind was impressive. The possession might have occurred a while ago, but his conscious awareness of it only hit when Stella prodded it. The search of Reece’s mind happened after the possessing entity fled—this was still going on and it was a fight.

  Aisling ignored the fight and focused on sleep and slowly added her spell. The effect, when it worked, would be like a strong sleeping pill. Before it actually put the person to sleep. In theory, it could calm difficult suspects but still keep them awake.

  Jones started calming down, but the other being inside him still fought. Stella’s spell was waiting for that and attacked the entity.

  “Tell us who you are and how you got here.” Stella’s voice echoed from outside and within Jones’ head.

  The entity fought back, but a bit slipped up and Aisling could see who it was. Nix. The essence was so much like Nix, she almost released Jones’ head.

  “Destroy the possession.” Aisling said it out loud and hoped Stella could hear her. She pushed through to completely knock out Jones.

  “NO!” The shout came from inside, outside, and somewhere beyond. And it was Nix’s voice. He fought back. Aisling felt Jones’ hand going back to where he kept his gun. When it wasn’t there, he started trying to fight, but the others kept him pinned

  Stella’s spell pressed harder, and Aisling didn’t let go on her end either. She grinned. “Get the hell out of his head.” With magic that must have come from the repressed side of her skills, she flung Nix’s essence out. At the same time, she found herself flung across the room.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  No Harlie this time, just an overhelping burst of energy from Nix, Jones, or maybe herself sent her airborne and into the wall. Reece and Caradoc ran to her, Bart and Stella stayed with Jones.

  “I’m fine, just might have overemphasized Nix getting the hell out of Jones.” Aisling grimaced as they helped her up. “And yeah, it’s him. No idea how he’s doing it, but it’s Nix doing these possessions. Probably why your smile looked like his when you came at me.” She nodded to Reece.

  “Might need someone taller to help move Jones to a sofa. He’s sliding.” Stella looked a bit haggard as she called over, her hair stuck up everywhere and her clothes were rumpled—but she was also grinning madly—she was enjoying this.

  They got Jones on the sofa just as he started moving. He looked ready to wake up, his eyes fluttered, but then he gave a huge yawn, rolled over, and went to sleep.

  Aisling shrugged. “I might have over done the spell I used. Never was great at that one. Surratt made me stop trying years ago.”

  “You got Jones’ psyche out of the way, which helped a lot and kept him sane.” Stella was checking his pulse, lifting his eyelids, and moving his arm around. “He’s going to be fine. And I am glad for Mott’s toy coming our way. If any of the rest of you are possessed, I don’t want to know right now. That was way more excitement than I’m used to.”

  “Wouldn’t being able to knock a suspect out like that be handy?” Caradoc asked.

  “In theory, but it means I’d have to be far too close to them, and the spell traps me in their head for a while. Even if I were good at it, it has limited applications. And I was never good at it.” Aisling shuddered at the thought of the prior attempts. Other cops having to save her when the suspect didn’t go under fast enough.

  Bart looked down at Jones, but he was sleeping peacefully. “Maybe when this is over you could help agents who suffer from insomnia. For now, we need to figure out what in the hell is going on and how Nix is doing this.”

  “That was an extremely secure possession,” Stella said as she sat. “And it felt un
ique. Too hard to explain at this point, but a possession that has jumped, and yes, they can do that, has a different feel. Even though Reece’s possession had already been banished when I felt it and Jones’ was right in the start of his—they were unique.”

  “But I felt Nix. He wasn’t behind this?” Aisling hadn’t sensed who had been taking over Reece, but he was too Nix-like for it not to have been him.

  “He was. But he sent a possession to each of them separately.”

  “How?” Caradoc sounded more annoyed than anything else, but this was back out of his area of expertise. Which was making him cranky.

  Stella shrugged. “How is he appearing in multiple places at the same time? I don’t know that anyone has solved that issue. This could be tied to that.”

  A series of pieces slid into place in Aisling’s head. “Could he have been pulled through the veil when he was sucked out of that tunnel in L.A.? And something changed in him?” She didn’t like that idea any more than Nix just creating this stuff on his own. But there weren’t a lot of options. Nix never had the type of magic skills for possessions, and she didn’t know anyone who could duplicate themselves like he appeared to be doing.

  “And he came back with super powers but the building is coming back in pieces?” Caradoc looked like he saw where she was going, but didn’t like it.

  “We have no idea what he came back as. If he even went.” Aisling paced. “I think he planned everything and played us well. He set things up to happen; the bit in the forest, the iron death, the potential explosion of that drug. He was stopped each time. What if his contingency plans were actually part of his master plan and one was whatever busted through the veil?” That logic hurt her own head, but it also felt right.

  Everyone looked at her in various degrees of what the hell?

  “Each one easily leads to another if that one failed. They built on each other.” Aisling went to the board, saved what they had so far, and on a new screen put what they knew of Nix’s recent actions. “He grabbed Maeve because he was looking for a scroll.” The narrowing of Reece’s eyes reminded her she hadn’t told him, Jones, or Bart about that part. “He wasn’t even certain what he was looking for when he grabbed her and her stuff. But after we got Maeve back and took out his people, he fled. Then he set up trying to use the gnome tunnels under the city to disburse fatal amounts of iron death across L.A.” She added that part to the board. “We stopped him. He fled again, then escaped by getting sucked up into a handy tunnel? And Area 42 goes missing at the same time?”

  “It hasn’t fared well for Area 42.” Bart watched as she added things to the board.

  “But if he is back, in multiple bodies, and can possess multiple people at the same time? It’s worked well for him.” Aisling frowned at the board as if that would make it point out what in the hell Nix was up to and how he was doing it. There was something to her theory, something valid. But there was also a lot missing.

  “Not to mention, Nix was never one with the powers of possession. He’s got some nasty magics, but possession was never connected to him.” Bart scowled at the board.

  “And you know if he had that power before, he would have used it.” Aisling shook her head. “He had to have orchestrated being pulled through the veil. Either he killed millions and took over L.A., or he managed to get himself sucked through the veil. He probably didn’t care which.” She was making leaps that would make a professional hurdler green with envy. But it was right. She knew it. Just no idea the how or what of it. The why was simple with Nix—power. Everything he did was for more power.

  The room was silent, but the worst part was no one could object to her theories. Part of Aisling truly hoped she was wrong.

  “Then he meant for Area 42’s building to be pulled through the veil? Why? How did that help him?” Caradoc asked. His eyes lit up as he made a connection of some sort. “Or it was a reaction to what he did?” He quickly saved Aisling’s screen and started an intricate diagram on a new one. “All actions have to have opposite and equal reactions, right?” He circled a badly drawn tunnel and labeled it Nix. Then a building structure as 42. The drawings weren’t great, but the representative distance between them was exact. At least with the detail and calculations he scribbled alongside, Aisling assumed it was exact.

  “Area 42’s building was pulled through the veil to counterbalance Nix being pulled through?” Now it was Reece’s turn to scowl at the board. “They never taught us veil-physics in spy-school, but that doesn’t seem right.”

  Something Harlie had said previously about oddly delayed spells and disrupted timing hit Aisling. “Maybe the events happened at different times? What if the Area 42 incident was already in motion, set up a while ago? And Nix knew of it and used when it happened to go through the veil?” She looked around but everyone was trying to digest her words—they really needed Harlie. “Think about it, everyone determined that Nix had to have somehow built up an immunity to iron death. But if the mass of it in that tunnel had exploded as he’d planned, no immunity could have protected him. He’d be dead like the rest of us.” She paused. “Unless he was on the other side of the veil.”

  “Damn. I think that just added about ten more layers to our problems, but that might make sense.” Reece ran his fingers through his hair. “I have no idea how any of that would work.”

  “Harlie had mentioned the time displacement spells a while ago. Something about a huge spell that had been hidden or corrupted somehow?” Caradoc shook his head. “While it did seem interesting at the time, we never asked him more about it.”

  Stella quietly nodded to herself. “Yes, that could happen. It would take a magic user of insane power though. The High Council forbade those types of spells because of the havoc they could cause.”

  Aisling and Caradoc shared a look.

  “What if the person behind it was a member of the High Council? A very high, powerful, and psychotic one?” Aisling felt sick to her stomach.

  “Your mother? Why would she, or anyone of the Council, push back a spell reaction? One that might or might not have been directly connected to Area 42?” Reece now got up and paced. He was smart, but usually let the brainiacs take over. “What if she, or someone with her, pushed back a huge spell years ago. Then they also wanted to get rid of Area 42 for some reason, so tied some part of the impact from the displacement to the building. And Nix found out and used it.”

  “Why did I just get a nasty chill at your words?” Bart shook his head. “We’re accusing the High Council of treason. If your mother did do it, there’s no way the rest of the Council didn’t know. Which implies the High King and Queen knew. And then, somehow Nix knew?”

  “I know. I’m freaked out about what our mother might have done—but as much as I hate her, I just can’t see her working with someone like Nix. He’s a thug and she’s a snob.” Aisling had no idea what could have been such an issue that her mother would have used a push back spell. Or if she’d only done it once. There could be more time-delayed spell reactions out there hanging around, waiting. With potentially catastrophic results. That was a thought she was shoving aside for a few hundred years.

  “You just shivered,” Reece said.

  “What if this wasn’t the first time this has happened? We have no idea what spell reactions she’d pushed back or for how long. Harlie thought it was about two hundred years ago, but he was only going on a hunch. Why would she have let the reaction to the spell loose now, and who knows if she did more before?”

  “Could this somehow be related to the vallenians?” Caradoc frowned and drummed his fingers on the table. He didn’t look happy about their family connection either, but he might also have a point.

  “Great. No answers, but lots more questions.” Aisling added the vallenians to the board. “Maybe? They keep pulling in boxes of the first families after all. All of which have someone on the High Council.”

  “Then why haven’t they been back, aside from their trip to the first building drop? And they di
dn’t bring a box that time,” Bart said.

  Aisling lifted her necklace. “If they are going to keep bringing things like this, we don’t need them back. So far it hasn’t done much but help, I don’t like being chained to a piece of jewelry with a mind of its own. It was obsessed with Reece when Nix was inside him.”

  “Go over to Jones and see what it does.” Caradoc had been closest to him but stepped back. Jones was now lightly snoring.

  Aisling walked over and at first the pendant did nothing, then it slowly tugged toward Jones, then dropped back. “Maybe it only works on people who still have a taint of possession in them? Can you sense anything in Jones now?”

  Stella went over to him then shook her head. “No. But I would have been surprised if there was anything. You did a good job knocking the possession out of him.”

  Jones turned on his sofa. “Why are you all in my bedroom?” He opened his eyes, then closed them again. “Actually, why am I in the living room?”

  Stella pulled up one of the dining chairs next to him and sat near his head. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “Sleeping. Then something about Reece being compromised. Then waking up here. Damn it; I was compromised too, wasn’t I?”

  “Yup. That’s what it looks like.” Reece stood behind Stella. “Aisling and Stella kicked Nix out but he got you too.”

  “So we’re sure it’s Nix?” Jones started to sit up but winced and rubbed his head. “I need something or my head will explode.”