“No, no, absolutely not,” he exclaimed, shaking his head at the camera. “I’m probably just being paranoid is all. Old age will do that to a person. Look, I just wanted to give you a quick call to tell you that I have total faith in your abilities. You will win this fight, kiddo. Never stop believing that you will, okay?”
“Jonathan,” I croaked. “It sounds like you’re saying goodbye to me. Why would you be saying goodbye?” Was he planning on going somewhere? Leaving me now when things were getting desperate? Where would he be going?
“Never goodbye, kiddo,” he whispered, hitting one final button on his computer, then giving me his full attention. “Never goodbye. Just... make sure those boys take damn good care of you, and don’t ever forget how much I loved you.”
“What? No!” I snapped my gaze to Caleb. “Omega HQ, Jonathan’s office. Something’s wrong.”
“Kit, no!” Jonathan bellowed down the phone at me. “Do not come here!”
It was too late though. Caleb was already gone, taking Cole and River with him and leaving me behind, that motherfucker!
“Jonathan, something is wrong. Please just tell me!” I was sobbing now, clutching my phone in my hands like I could climb through the screen based on sheer will alone.
He leaned in closer to the camera, giving me a smile. “You’re needed for bigger and better things, hon. This is one battle you’ll have to fight another day, when you’re stronger.” He paused then while I sniffled and tears obscured my vision. “I never told you how we really came to Suzette’s that night. I have a lot of regrets in this long life of mine, kiddo, but none more so than how long it took me to find you. If I had just found you a few years earlier, before Suzette... before Gray. I can never apologize enough for everything you went through at that bastard’s hands, hon. Not a day goes by that I don’t curse myself for not finding you sooner.” He sucked in a shuddering breath, then smiled sadly. “You look so much like her, you know.”
“Who?” I asked bitterly. “Bridget? That bitch that took my magic away? I could be there with you right now. Whatever you think is about to happen, I could stop it!”
He shook his head, glancing offscreen like he’d heard something. “No, not her. Your grandmother, Tasha. You have her heart, kiddo. She would have been so proud of the woman you’ve become, but to me you’ll always be that spunky little girl who cracked my safe at age thirteen. I love you, kiddo.”
“What?” my exclamation was cut short by the distinctive, sickening sound of a gunshot.
On my screen, Jonathan’s head snapped back, and his phone must have been jostled out of the little holder because the next thing I saw was the ceiling fan rotating slowly above his desk. What made me physically ill, though, were the red flecks of blood across the screen.
Dropping my phone to the floor, I dashed over to the kitchen sink and dry heaved for a moment until I heard the one sound worse than that gunshot.
“Oh Foxy,” Simon’s voice sang down the phone, and my blood ran cold. “I know you’re there. Caller ID says the call is still connected. Hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to end call now. But I do hope you saw me shoot your dad in the head.” I was still at the sink, frozen. I couldn’t move to pick up my phone, and I sure as shit didn’t want to see whatever the video might be displaying.
“Let’s catch up soon, Foxy Girl.” Simon chuckled. “Life doesn’t seem nearly painful enough for you yet.” There was a muffled sound, like he was picking the phone up, and just before he disconnected the call, I heard him say, “Search everything; Boss wants those files.”
The little chime of the call ending rang out through the silent house, and my knees turned to jelly. I crashed to the kitchen floor and began sobbing. First Wesley, now Jonathan? No... surely this was some cruel joke.
“Go; I’ve got this,” Vali murmured in a quiet voice, but my distraught brain didn’t compute what he was saying until the air pressure shifted with the distinctive shift of portal magic. Austin must have gone to join the guys. And left me behind again.
I wanted to yell and scream, demand that they come back and take me to Omega, but I couldn’t even move. My body had stopped obeying any commands I gave it.
Instead, I just lay there on the cold kitchen floor, crying more tears than the human body should ever be able to produce. All the while, Vali sat with me, stroking my hair and murmuring to me in Romanian.
16
CALEB
Director Pierre had really stepped up the security at Omega since we’d left. Either that or there were mages on site who were blocking our portals. I really hoped it was the former, or we were going to need to take disciplinary steps against our people.
As it was, my portal dropped us on the perimeter of the grounds, and the three of us needed to sprint across the expansive lawns to reach the administration building where the director’s office was.
About a hundred yards from the front steps, I stopped abruptly and waved at the boys to stop too.
“What is it?” River asked, his eyes glued on our destination.
“Something is wrong here. Since when has Omega been totally unguarded? We just appeared out of thin air, then sprinted across the lawn under spotlights, but no one has come out to detain us or even check our IDs.” I looked around us, peering at the spots where I knew there were security points. Or where there were usually security points.
“You’re right,” River murmured, looking around more cautiously.
“Vixen was right; something bad is going down here.” Cole jerked his head toward the administration building. “Let’s get in there and find Director Pierre.”
“Stay alert,” River cautioned, and the three of us continued across the grass. It was just as we started up the steps that the unmistakable sound of a gunshot rang out through the silence.
“Quick,” Cole barked, yanking the doors open and halfway off their hinges. Dragons.
We’d made it maybe fifty feet down the hallway when we hit a wall. Literally hit a wall and bounced off it, sprawling on the ground.
“Caleb?” River demanded, and I stepped closer to the barrier, testing the invisible obstruction with my fingertips.
“Whoever is here, they have mages working for them.” I scowled, feeling the threads of magic that made up the wall.
“I thought you had that shit locked down?” Cole muttered, standing beside me and glaring through the invisible barrier. “Didn’t you and Austin do some voodoo ritual that made them all do what you say?”
“I thought we had too,” I admitted. “That was only a fraction of the mages of the world, though. They were supposed to be all the coven heads so the magic would transfer down from them. If a coven didn’t attend...” I trailed off and shrugged, still examining the wall. “We were sort of rushing things and didn’t do any kind of roll-call. I’d planned on following up later. As for this, I can break it; it’s not very strong. Stand back.”
Waving them back a few feet, I flicked my pocket knife out and cut a small slice through my inner arm. So often in movies it showed people cutting their palms for blood magic, but that just made no sense to me. Unless you could heal like Kit, then you’ve just disabled your hand. Seemed stupid, so I only went for inner arm, or in a hurry—and for dramatic flair—thumb pads.
With deft movements, I smeared my blood on the invisible wall in the pattern of a couple of runes that would explode the magic. It wasn’t the most subtle way to do it, but it was effective and would leave the original caster with a nasty headache.
When I completed the third rune, the wall shattered, sending glowing, whip-like tendrils snapping through the hallway that narrowly missed River’s head.
“Let’s go,” I urged them, stepping through the fading mess of magic and hurrying along to Jonathan’s office.
The door was ajar when we arrived, and River took the lead, drawing his gun and indicating for Cole to take the other side of the door. It was an easy transition for us to slip into business mode, and when River kicked the door open further, we were all inside in a matter of seconds.