Cabal

by David Delaney

  In an instant Jen was standing in front of us and pulling her shirt back on. "Well? What did you see?" she asked.

  I grinned. "I think I know what to do."

  "Is it my turn?" asked Elyse.

  I held out my hand and she took it. "I'm willing to try this," I said. "But if you get injured, even a little bit, that's it, the experiment will be finished. Agreed?"

  "It's going to work," said Elyse, stubborn.

  "Agreed?" I persisted.

  "Yes, fine, I agree," she said. "But it's totally going to work."

  "All that shifting left me starving," said Jen. "And I forgot to bring a snack. Can we please hurry up?"

  "I need you in cat form," I told Elyse. "I'm going to be poking around in your aura. I'm not exactly sure how that will feel."

  "Let's find out," said Elyse, stripping out of her clothes.

  I turned to Maddie, "If you see anything weird, don't hesitate. Hit her with your mojo."

  "I've got your back," said Maddie.

  Elyse shifted into cat form and sat back on her haunches, her big cat eyes blinking at me. I moved in closer for a better look. Elyse's two auras were perfectly clear. I reached out in the magic spectrum, my energy wrapping itself around Elyse's energy. I was able to slip my energy in-between Elyse's double aura. I didn't press in very far or try to separate them, I just got a feel for them. I pictured what Jen's energy had done when she shifted. I closed my eyes, creating a detailed mental image.

  Hey, you awake in there?

  Of course.

  What do you think? Is what I'm about to try possible?

  It would seem so.

  Well, is there anything you can do to help? Like, make sure I don't press too hard or something?

  If your desire is exact, the magic will follow your direction.

  Really?

  "Elyse," I whispered. "I need you to see yourself shifting into beast form. Pour as much of your intention as you can into that singular thought."

  The reaction in Elyse's aura was instant. I could literally feel her will as she directed it to her desired outcome. I almost cried out, but didn't want to distract her, so I kept my mouth shut. But I had just discovered that human will was magic at its most basic form and everyone on the planet, Society member or not, had access to it. If people only knew what they were capable of with just the focused power of thought and intention, they would be leading lives of perpetual amazement and wonder.

  "I'm going to count to three and you're going to shift." It wasn't a suggestion that Elyse try, I knew she could do it. "One, two, three, now!"

  I felt Elyse's aura flare around me and I gave it the slightest nudge, directing her human aura into her animal aura. The energy released during the shift blew me back off my feet, and I landed on my butt, legs splayed out in front of me.

  The bright flash had me seeing spots.

  "Whoa," said Maddie.

  Elyse roared and I could tell from the pitch that she wasn't in cat form anymore. My vision cleared and there she was, Elyse looking magnificent in her beast form.

  "Son of a bitch, it worked," said Jen.

  Elyse tried to take a step toward me and moved way too fast, her legs and arms whipping around in a blur. In a burst of speed I sprang to my feet, grabbed Maddie and jumped clear. Elyse's flailing turned the trunk of the tree Maddie had been standing in front of into toothpicks.

  "Stop moving, sweetie," said Jen to Elyse. "Just freeze in place, you can do it."

  Elyse didn't freeze, but she did manage to slow her movement.

  "See, that's good, you're doing good," said Jen.

  Elyse tried to turn toward her sister and started flailing around again, almost swiping Jen with her razor-sharp claws. Elyse began making a chattering noise like she was getting frustrated. I thought she was doing great.

  "Are you good?" I asked Maddie.

  "Yes, go," she said.

  I quickly pulled off my clothes and shifted into beast form. I chuffed at Elyse and she spun, all arms and legs in my direction. I reached out once again in the magic spectrum and gently wrapped my energy around Elyse. I tried to match her movement, mirroring her as closely as I could. We must have looked like we were engaged in some bizarre dance, but slowly I was getting her energy to match mine instead of me matching her. In a few minutes we were waltzing—well, the beast form version of waltzing—around the trees. I reduced our speed until finally we were standing still and facing each other. I released the hold I had on her energy. I held up an arm. Elyse followed my lead and held up her arm with much better control than before. I dropped my arm and raised my other arm. Elyse copied me. I dropped my arm and raised a clawed foot, balancing on the other foot. This move took Elyse a couple of tries, but she managed it.

  It was time for the big test. I shifted into bear form. Elyse stood still for a minute and then she shifted into cat form.

  "Yes!" Maddie shouted.

  I shifted back into beast form. Elyse shifted into beast form. I shifted back to human form and grinned at her. Elyse shifted back to her soft, very sexy human form and jumped into my arms.

  Naked girlfriend alert.

  Not fair.

  "I told you it would work, dork."

  She kissed me.

  "Um, hello," said Jen. "The non-naked people are starting to feel uncomfortable with all the PDA. And I did mention I was starving, right?"

  Elyse unwrapped herself from around me. "Now we're ready to kick some blood-mage butt."

  "Let's grab the rest of the gang and go hunting," I said, pulling on my pants.

  We took the time for Lucy to re-ink each of us with the comm spell tattoo. The process went quicker than I expected, even with me because now I knew how to allow the spell to be placed without my aura immediately frying it.

  All the magic tattooing jogged my memory and I asked Lucy, "Hey, do you think there may be a way for you to spell the group against my beast form shriek? It's one of my best offensive weapons, but I'm afraid to use it when you guys are too close."

  Lucy finished Maddie's tattoo before answering. "That's a great idea and a great question. The short answer is, I'm not sure. Spells are tricky things. Offhand I can think of a couple of ways that might work. There's only one small hitch, and that's how would we test it? Somebody would need to volunteer to get blasted by your sonic-ear-exploder."

  "I'll do it," said Elyse.

  "Not so fast," I said. "It will hurt and I don't know how to control the volume. I'm not even sure any kind of control is possible."

  "I'm a shifter, I'll heal," said Elyse.

  "I think one magical experiment a day should be our limit," I said.

  Maddie tapped her bottom lip, her concentration evident. "You know, I think I could kind-of-sort-of shield Elyse's ears, not completely of course, but like the magic equivalent of ear plugs. It should be enough to stop the full effect of Orson's shriek." Maddie looked at Lucy. "What do you think? Will something like that affect your ability to figure out a spell?"

  "It shouldn't," said Lucy.

  "Hey," I said. "Can we slow down just a bit, please? Lucy, you're not ready to try this right now, are you?"

  "I'd like some time to think about it and come up with the best solution," she said.

  "Okay, so no more tattooing or experimenting on my girlfriend today, agreed?"

  "You're cute when you're being bossy," said Elyse, giving me a kiss on the cheek. "And yes, I agree."

  We didn't have anything to pack, so preparing to leave took minutes. Mr. Kelly handed Elyse a cell phone and made her promise to check in regularly. I know he would deny it, but the phone was a peace offering and a huge show of support from him. Mrs. Kelly's miraculous return had done wonders for his emotional state.

  All of our preparation paid off with a smooth trip all the way to Reno. At the airport, Shelby, our pilot, had no problem securing a plane for the flight to LA. While Shelby went over the pre-flight check with the aviation company, Lucy used Elyse's cell phone to set up a car ren
tal for when we landed. With the size of our group we had to go with a mini-van.

  "An elite group of magical badasses rolling around in a soccer-mom vehicle, this isn't going to be good for our street cred," said Wyatt.

  "Well, they were all out of tactical SUVs, so you'll just have to suffer," said Lucy.

  Before taking off from Reno, Wyatt was able to send his parents a message. He and Lucy had devised a clever way for Wyatt to contact them without prying eyes intercepting anything. Wyatt was as big a WOW nerd as me and he and his dad sometimes played together. When Wyatt needed to get information to his parents he sent mail through the in-game postal service. The messages were always coded, just in case the bad guys figured out what was going on, but so far the communication route had remained secure. Wyatt assured his parents he was okay and was on emergency Society business, and he told them that if anyone contacted them looking for him they should just play dumb.

  "My mom is going to freak," said Wyatt as he clicked the send button. "She says she understands that my work with the Society is needed, but I know she hates it."

  "She's a mom, you're her baby, of course she doesn't like you putting yourself in dangerous situations," said Maddie.

  "Wow, that's pretty much a direct quote," said Wyatt. "You haven't been talking to my mom have you?"

  Maddie laughed. "No, I just know how moms think, and mine is a little over-protective too."

  Shelby seated us in the plane according to weight. Who knew that planes had to be balanced for better flying? My size landed me in the front seat next to Shelby, much to Wyatt's displeasure.

  "But I don't want to sit in the back," he whined. "I won't be able to see anything."

  "It's desert the entire way, there's nothing to see," I said.

  "Easy for you to say, you're in the best seat."

  "Get on the plane and stop complaining," said Lucy impatiently.

  We couldn't discuss too much about our plans because Shelby, while a great pilot and a very nice person, couldn't be trusted to keep our secrets. We couldn't risk her repeating anything, even accidentally, about the person we were flying to LA to meet. So we traveled in relative silence—aside from Wyatt—for the first hour of the trip. Lucy had purchased a small notebook and pen at the Reno airport and was scribbling away on ideas for a spell that would protect her and the others from my beast form shriek. Maddie and Elyse were getting some much-needed shuteye. I couldn't blame them, it seemed like we'd been in a running battle for most of the day. Wyatt was curious about everything Shelby was doing with the plane and asked about a million questions in the first fifteen minutes. After we had been in the air for a while the kid quieted down, exhaustion finally claiming him also.

  Shelby pressed a series of buttons, giving me a small smile, and then her voice burst to life in my headphones. "I just switched us to a private channel. It's probably futile considering everyone on the plane has enhanced hearing, but I wanted to at least attempt not to disturb them."

  "Okay," I said, not sure where this was heading.

  "What you did earlier to Tommy, how did you do that exactly?"

  I needed to tread carefully. Shelby didn't sound like she was interrogating me, she was genuinely curious. "The short answer is that I'm not exactly sure how I did what I did." It wasn't really a lie, more of an omission of fact. "I've never done anything like that before today, so I'm still processing what happened and what it means."

  "It means you are the Ollphiest. At least that's what my brother and his wife think. And you said it yourself at the council meeting, you're him."

  "Yeah, I'm him. But even I don't totally understand what that means. I have to ask—what do you and your family think it means to be the Ollphiest?"

  "Well, there is a bunch of scary stories about you and the stuff you can do."

  "Right, I'm the boogeyman."

  "Well, I've been thinking that maybe all those stories were just misdirection, you know, a way to hide who you really are from those who might be . . . enemies."

  I was getting that tingly uh-oh feeling. "So if I'm not the boogeyman, who do you think I really am?"

  "My brother called you . . .” Shelby paused and looked at me for a really long time. "The chosen one."

  And there it was.

  The Chosen One.

  I didn't want to be anyone's chosen one. I just wanted to be Orson. Sure, I would help Lucy and Cynthia bring down the Cabal, maybe bring some much-needed changes to Society law, but after that I wanted my life back. I wanted to go to college, maybe invent an addictive game app, sell it for millions and retire at thirty. I wanted to spend birthdays and holidays with Aunt Tina and Elyse. I didn't want the entire shifter world to look to me as some kind of savior.

  Shelby was still looking at me. I don't know the intricacies of how planes work, but it made me nervous that the pilot wasn't focused on the multitude of brightly lit instruments.

  "Chosen one?" I said lightly. "That sounds very Harry Potter. I'm just a regular guy caught up in some irregular circumstances."

  "That sounds like the perfect definition of a chosen one," Shelby said, turning back to tweak a knob on the control panel. "Because it seems to me that if someone wants to be the chosen one, that would disqualify them outright. No, the chosen one would need to be a humble, unassuming, regular guy who can do extraordinary things."

  "And what exactly has this person been chosen to do?"

  "Destined."

  "What?"

  "Destined to do, not chosen to do."

  "Okay, destined to do."

  "Save the world, of course."

  "Oh."

  I couldn't think of anything else to say. I mean, how do you respond when someone states matter-of-factly that you're destined to save the world? I didn't even know the world was in danger. Yeah, there was Marcus and the Cabal to contend with, but did they pose a threat to the entire world? The Paragon Society had a need to worry about rogue magic-users, but how much damage could they actually inflict?

  I thought about Stanford, the portals, the trolls, the ogres and more specifically the imps that could infect people with a nasty demon virus. What if that had been a trial run? What if the Cabal was field-testing their capabilities? We had been lucky when it turned out the infected couldn't transmit the infection to others, but what if that was only the first attempt? The Cabal could be sitting in a secret lab somewhere right now perfecting the demon virus and, if that was true, then they weren't just interested in imploding the Society, they were after the world.

  I rested my head back against the seat. I couldn't deal with this right now—it was too much. I needed to focus my energy on finding Marcus. After we ran him down, I could turn my attention back to the implications Shelby's comments had raised. I felt a hand on my shoulder. Elyse was in tune with me and seemed to always know when I needed a reassuring touch. She gave me a gentle squeeze. I reached up and held her hand, thankful again for the amazing woman she was.

  After we landed at the Van Nuys airport, Elyse used her phone to order up a ride-sharing car to drive us to the rental company. Mr. Kelly had made sure that the phone was loaded with any apps we might need and had linked them to his credit card so our anonymity was secure. We may have been being overly cautious, but the Society's influence was vast, and knowing that we couldn't be tracked by the more mundane surveillance tactics used by law enforcement agencies gave us peace of mind.

  We thanked Shelby again for her help and said goodbye. Before I could jump in the car, she waved me over.

  "What's up?" I asked.

  "In case it wasn't crystal-clear, I want you to know that I stand behind you and so does my family—and so does everyone I was able to speak with before we left the compound. If you guys need anything else, we have your back."

  I could sense the fierce loyalty behind her words. I wasn't surprised at her reaction, but I was surprised at the intensity.

  "Thank you, Shelby, for everything," I held out my hand, but she swatted it aside and pulled
me into hug. It wasn't romantic in any way. It was the embrace of one soldier to another, a stay safe and keep your powder dry kind of hug. Shelby released me and quickly returned to the plane, prepping it for the return flight.

  I climbed into the car.

  "What was that all about?" Wyatt asked, his hearing not of the shape-shifter variety.

  "The shifters have our back," I said.

  "Really? Because a shifter army could come in very handy," said Wyatt.

  "Nobody is assembling an army," said Lucy. "We're not going to war. We're hunting down one dickless blood-mage."

  The driver gave us a worried look. All the talk about armies, war and blood-mages must have wigged him out.

  "We're collaborating on a screenplay," Maddie told him. "It has lots of magic and monsters, it's very cool."

  The guy gave her a half-smile. I don't know how convinced he was, but we were in LA—well, the Valley anyway, and every waiter, bus driver and fry-cook was an aspiring screenwriter.

  Chapter Seven

  We made sure to give the driver a big tip, hoping that would be the thing he remembered about us and not all the talk of war and shape-shifters. Our van was waiting for us at the rental company and within ten minutes we were rolling down the 405 freeway. It was after 11:00 p.m. and traffic had thinned out to a reasonable flow. Lucy was behind the wheel and we were headed north.

  "Okay," I said to Lucy. "It's time to spill. Who is this guy we're going to see and how can he help us?"

  "He's somebody I knew a long time ago," said Lucy. "We went to school together, and he's one of the only solid memories I have of my past. I have never contacted him because of . . . well, Society rules, but I kept tabs on him throughout the years and he works for the government. I'm pretty sure it's one of the intelligence agencies. I think he will be able to help us track Marcus, he should have that kind of access."

  "So, he's like a spy?" Wyatt asked.

  "No—maybe? I don't know. His job could be something as normal as an agent for the FBI."

  "Does James Bond have a name?" I asked.

  Lucy rolled her eyes. "His name is Morgan, Morgan Crawford."