Chaos (Book 4) (The Omega Group) (10 page)

Gracey stared, slack-jawed, as her jar exploded in a hail of
glass and wax.

Orano, her childhood friend, had just done something that a
mundane absolutely could not do. He had magic, just like she did, but he’d
spent the last two days lying to her about it.

“You son of a bitch!” Gracey stepped out from behind the
truck with her hands planted firmly on her hips.

Pain exploded behind her eyes. Her muscles strained as every
nerve ending in her body electrified. The return of her powers, something far
more agonizing than Gracey anticipated, proved too much for her. Though she
fought to stay conscious, she couldn’t stave off the darkness, and her body
crashed to the asphalt.

********

How much did I drink last night?

The raging hangover made Gracey wish she could roll over and
go back to sleep, but the voices in her head had other plans for her.

“Can you sit up, Gracey?” one of the voices asked.

“Give her a minute, man,” the other voice interrupted.
“Breaking that jar really hit her hard.”

The jar. Her jar. Her powers.

The memories flooded back, making the pounding between her
ears even more intense. “How long?”

“You’ve been out for hours,” Phoenix said.

Gracey pushed herself to a seated position. When the pain
subsided, she opened her eyes for the first time. They’d brought her back to
her room.

“No.” She glared at Orano. “I meant, how long have you had magic?”

“It’s not what you think, Gracey,” Orano retorted, clearly
planning on continuing his deception.

“Really? So, I didn’t just see you manifest a fireball
powerful enough to shatter a magically protected totem. Is that what you’re
telling me?” Gracey, invigorated by anger, crossed her arms over her chest, head
cocked to the side, and awaited his next lie.

“Uh, well …” Orano’s brow wrinkled.

Phoenix slapped him on the back, wearing a mischievous smile
and twinkle in his eye. “I think you’re busted, there, big guy.” He glanced
back and forth between the two, as though waiting for someone to speak. When
neither did, he continued. “All right, then. You guys work out whatever you
need to work out, and I’ll just be waiting patiently in the other room.”

Gracey’s gaze stayed glued to Orano’s in some absurd staring
game. She damn well wouldn’t be the first one to look away. Unlike him, she’d
been honest from the very beginning.

“Well? What have you got to say for yourself?” she asked.

Her accusatory tone didn’t seem to sit too well with him. Orano
immediately narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, mimicking
her stance. “Look, I don’t know what you think you saw—”

Gracey’s temper flared at his response. Words escaped her,
so she settled for the next best thing. “Argh!” she yelled at no one in
particular. Blowing out an exasperated breath, she stood up and shoved Orano as
hard as she could.

Of course, the man-mountain barely moved. He uncrossed his
arms and reached out but stopped short of touching her after she sent him a
scathing glare. At least he had the decency to look contrite, which Gracey
counted as a point in the win column. A small point, but a point nonetheless.

“I’m going to count down from five. If you haven’t started
telling me the truth by the time I get to one, I’m walking out that door.” She
stomped her foot to drive her point home. “Five.”

“We aren’t children anymore,” Orano said.

“Four.” She raised her eyebrows, waiting.

“This is ridiculous, Gracey.”

“Three.” Although this tactic always worked on him when they
were kids, she thought perhaps she’d overplayed her hand. Orano’s jaw clenched,
but he remained silent.

“Two.”

Orano let out a short laugh. “Fine.”

Gracey stopped the smile from creeping onto her face. “Fine
what?”

“We’ll talk, but only if you agree to a few terms first—”

“Hell no!” Gracey interrupted before he could turn her small
victory into a steaming pile of compromises.

“Then you’re free to leave whenever you want.” Orano sat in
the small room’s only chair, once again waiting for her to speak.

Gracey plopped down on the end of the bed, defeated. “What
are your terms?” she grumbled.

One corner of his mouth turned up before he counted off his
terms on his fingers. “First, you will not freak out. Second, you will tell no
one, ever. Third …” He paused for a moment. “Third, you’ll stop flirting with
Phoenix.”

She’d expected the first two, but that last one threw her
for a loop. She’d forgotten all about Phoenix. “Agreed.”

Gracey sat enraptured by Orano’s story. She’d spent the last
ten years thinking her best friend abandoned her when she’d needed him the
most. Although she rarely admitted it, all of the self-esteem issues she’d
battled her entire adult life could be traced to that one event.

The more he spoke, the guiltier Gracey felt. She’d been so
wrapped up in her own problems—the death of her father and the loss of her one
true friend—that she hadn’t even considered that Orano might be dealing with
problems of his own. Even if she had, she’d never have imagined the truth.

Then it hit her. If he’d told her the truth back then, she
wouldn’t have believed him. She’d have thought him either crazy or simply
teasing her. Gracey would have been the one to betray her best friend, instead
of the other way around.

And he must have known that about me,
she thought. That’s
why he kept it secret. He’d known not to trust her.

Her eyes filled with tears and, despite her best efforts to
stop them, they fell in a torrent of shame. She covered her face with her hands
in a desperate attempt to hide, but it was no use. Orano’s arm slid around her
shoulders, and he pulled her to his chest until her sobbing subsided.

“I’m so sorry,” Orano whispered, his chin resting on the top
of her head. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Gracey’s heart wrenched at his words. He’d just apologized
to her, when she should have been apologizing to him. Her shoulders sank as
more guilt and shame piled on, igniting a whole new flood of tears.

“Did I say something wrong? I really am sorry.” Orano pulled
back, searching her face with utter confusion written all over his.

Gracey swallowed the lump forming in her throat. “Please
stop apologizing to me. I’m the one who wronged you. I’ve been a horrible
friend—a horrible person. You were right not to trust me with the truth. I
didn’t deserve it. I didn’t deserve you.”

“What are you talking about?” Orano sat with his back straight
and his brow knitted. “I would have trusted you with anything. You were …” He
paused and cast his gaze to the floor as though embarrassed by the words. “You were
everything to me.”

Her heart swelled at his declaration. “Then why didn’t you
tell me?”

“I’d just killed a man moments after accidentally burning
down a barn. I couldn’t risk hurting you. The only way I knew how to keep you
safe was to let you go. So I did.” Orano’s pain shone through his eyes.

Gracey placed her hand on his cheek, seeing the young boy
she’d fallen in love with all those years ago. Strength radiated from him, and it
had nothing to do with his huge muscles. She’d dreamed of one day finding a man
with that kind of honor. A man who would love her, quirks and all, and make her
feel safe in a world that was anything but.

It just never occurred to her that she’d already met him.

They held each other’s gaze, neither speaking. When she
thought she could no longer stand the tension, she leaned in for their second
kiss.

Phoenix chose that moment to peek his head around the door. “Uh,
guys? I hate to interrupt, but we may have a problem.”

The muscles in Orano’s jaw ticked. He took a deep breath
before answering his partner. “What is it?”

“Julian just called. He’s been studying the sun since our
last conversation, and he says that the same activity that preceded the solar
flare and CME that caused the California blackout is happening right now. He
thinks we might be in for another big one, and soon.”

Orano cursed under his breath at the lousy timing of
Phoenix’s entrance. Telling Gracey the truth about his past lifted a burden
he’d been carrying for a decade, and seeing that expectant look in her eyes—the
same one she’d had at the river all those years ago—warmed his heart in a way
he’d forgotten was possible.

If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought the Armani
poster-boy planned the interruption. Except he did know better and, regardless
of the timing, they had a job to do.

“We need to get to Tori’s house,” Orano said.

“No. They won’t be there.” Gracey grabbed her bag and stood.
“She has an herb shop at the beach with a back room for the coven. That’s where
we all met to do the spell that caused the California blackout.”

Orano glanced at Phoenix who wore the same confused
expression he felt sure dressed his own face. “You were a part of that? I
thought you said you didn’t know what she was doing.”

“I didn’t!” Gracey straightened her shoulders and raised her
chin. “We thought we were channeling celestial energy for the prophecy.  Tori
has this huge fire agate crystal that we funnel the energy into for storage.
She said we would need every bit of power we could muster to help the mundanes
when the time came.”

“And you never saw her do anything that didn’t jibe with
that story?” Phoenix asked.

“No, but she and her inner circle kept the crystal separate
from the rest of the coven during the channeling. It was for our safety, in
case the agate couldn’t hold the power.” Gracey twisted her face into a grimace
and blew out an exasperated breath. “All right. I get it. I’m an idiot. I
should have questioned her instead of blindly following.”

Phoenix let loose a megawatt smile and clapped her on the
back. “Pretty much, yeah. But we all make mistakes. Let’s go see if we can fix
this one before things get out of hand.”

********

Laskin Road sat deserted at that time of night. The tourists
and locals who filled the busy area during the day had long since gone, and the
businesses were dark until morning. Tori’s shop showed no more activity than
any of its neighbors, but Gracey knew that didn’t mean much.

The coven would be sequestered in the back, where the only
window led onto the small alley running behind the building, and even that
would be covered so as to hide the goings-on from passersby.

Orano placed his ear to the back door. “I don’t hear
anything. Is the room soundproofed?”

“I don’t think so,” Gracey said. She reached into her bag
and pulled out a small crystal with a key dangling from a looped chain. “Let’s
go in and find out.”

“You have a key to the bad guy’s lair?” Phoenix raised his
eyebrows.

“Duh. How do you think I got in last time? I’m not a cat
burglar.”

Orano grabbed the key from her hand. “Stay behind us.” He and
Phoenix stood on either side of the entrance. With a nod, Orano unlocked the
door and pushed it open onto an empty room.

“Well, that was anticlimactic.” Phoenix made his way into
the space, casually checking every dark corner for movement.

“Maybe it’s not happening tonight. Your computer genius
could have been wrong,” Gracey said.

“Not likely,” both men answered in unison.

Gracey flipped on a light switch. “Okay then. Give me the
key.” Orano handed it over and followed her to the table in the center of the
room. “Grab that map and spread it open in front of me.” To her surprise,
neither of her companions questioned the instructions, simply doing as she
asked and awaiting further orders.

She wrapped the thin chain around her fingers and let the
crystal dangle a few inches above the map. Closing her eyes, she took a deep
breath and allowed her energy to join with the Earth’s. When she felt the
connection strengthen, Gracey pushed her request out to the universe.
Please
help me locate my coven leader.

The crystal began to swing in a slow circle. After a few
rotations, Gracey felt a slight tug and moved her hand in that direction. She
followed the crystal’s pull across the map, until it stopped swinging and hung
still.

“They’re in the woods off Highway 60, about four or five
miles north of here. At least, that’s where Tori is.”

“What are you doing?” came a voice from behind them.

The unexpected interruption made Gracey’s heart skip a beat.
The three of them spun around to find an older woman standing in the same
doorway they’d used.

“Sarah. You scared me.” Gracey laughed nervously, gathering
her wits enough to come up with a plausible excuse for their presence. “Tori
asked us to pick up a few supplies. Why are you here?”

The woman opened her mouth to speak but immediately clamped
her hand over it and ran to the bathroom. The sounds emanating from the space
only a few feet away told Gracey why the woman ventured out in such a state.

Grabbing a bottle from one of the crowded shelves, Gracey waited
patiently for Sarah to emerge. When she did, her eyes were red and watery, and
she looked about ready to collapse.

“Here. I’m guessing this is what you came to get. It should
help.” Gracey handed her the small bottle.

A weak smile spread across Sarah’s face. “Thanks. Can you
tell Tori I’m sorry for not making it tonight? This stomach bug is worse than
any I’ve ever had.”

“No problem. I’m sure she’ll understand. You okay to get
home like this?”

“Yeah. The cab driver’s waiting outside. As long as I don’t
ruin his upholstery, everything should be fine.”

Gracey put her arm around the woman and walked her outside
to the taxi, giving the driver a sympathetic look. “Feel better,” she said
before the car drove off.

“We ready to go?” Orano asked when she came back inside.

“Almost.” Gracey began filling her bag with bottles and
pouches from the shelves. “I just need to grab a few things first.”

********

Tori held the fire agate crystal in both hands, marveling at
its simplistic beauty. Although the brown translucent quartz appeared plain at
first glance, the introduction of even a small amount of light brought it to
life. The explosion of color—red, green, orange, blue, and yellow—danced at its
heart, making it one of the most precious crystals in existence.

This particular one held more value than any other. Not only
was it unusually large, almost the size of a grapefruit, but it had also been cut
and polished to the exact specifications of the Mayan Kuhul Ajaw in 700 AD.  It
remained a focal point in the Temple of Chichen Itza for hundreds of years
until being removed from the site in the early eighteenth century.

Who had gifted the crystal to their coven founder, and why,
remained a mystery. Tori, like many of her predecessors, tried to uncover the
truth behind the priceless artifact’s appearance in Virginia, but quickly
realized the futility of her efforts. The original Grace Sherwood had been a
master of secrecy.

Although crystals held no power of their own, they were
frequently used to amplify and channel the powers of people with magic. Even a
small crystal could magnify a witch’s strength a thousand fold. This enormous
and ancient specimen increased that factor exponentially.

“Is everyone ready?” Tori asked the group of women eagerly
awaiting her go-ahead. “Tonight we will be absorbing more power than ever
before, with more than two dozen covens around the world pouring their energy
into our crystal. Our founder’s prophecy is nearing fruition and, if we are to
save all mankind as she instructed, we must hold strong.”

Tori held the fire agate crystal high above her head and
smiled as the women gasped at the bright colors swirling at its core even in
the absence of light. “The power we stored during our last commune will be
multiplied tonight. Although our crystal is strong, there is still the
possibility it won’t be able to contain the energy. That is why I, along with
two brave volunteers, will take it deeper into the woods. I need you all to
stay here, for your own safety.”

A few discontented grumbles swept through the crowd, mostly
from those desperate to be included in the inner circle. “You shouldn’t put
yourself in danger like that, Tori,” one of the women said. “Let me take the
risk for you.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Francine, but what kind of leader
would I be if I did that? No. It’s my responsibility.” She made a mental note
about the woman’s willingness to put herself in danger just to become part of
the inner circle. Tori smiled sweetly at her followers before adding one last
comment. “It is an honor to be your high priestess.” She worried that she might
have layered it on a little too thick, but when she saw the women swell with
pride at her statement, Tori knew they would follow her instructions with no
further question.

Another woman stepped into the clearing just as Tori turned
to leave. “Sarah. I didn’t think you were going to make it.”

********

Gracey joined the rest of the coven just as Tori finished
her self-aggrandizing speech. Although the glamour spell made Gracey look like
Sarah, it was their leader’s words that made her want to puke like the poor
woman.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I had a bit of food poisoning, but I’m
all right now. Except for my voice.” Gracey spoke in a low whisper as she couldn’t
make her voice the same as Sarah’s. Faking a sore throat had been her only
option. She hoped the others would be too busy preparing for the spell to pay
close attention.

Tori did a fine job of hiding her annoyance at the
interruption. She glanced at her watch before addressing the women again. “All
of the covens will begin sending their power in less than five minutes. We need
to hurry.”

Gracey watched their leader until she disappeared into the
woods with her helpers. She knew Orano and Phoenix were out there somewhere,
too, but the darkness made it impossible for her to see them. All she could do
was follow the plan they’d thrown together in the car on the drive over.

As the other women arranged themselves in a large circle
around the lit candles, Gracey doubled over with a loud groan, staggering a few
steps forward. She clasped her hand over her mouth in the universal signal that
someone was about to projectile vomit, and tried not to laugh when the coven
members all but ran to the other side of the clearing.

Feigning a gut-wrenching heave, Gracey used her free hand to
scatter the crushed ginger root, rosemary, and black pepper she’d held. She
whispered with her mouth still covered, “Whatever powers come to us here, I
cast you back. I have no fear. With the speed of wind and the dark of night,
may incoming energy now take flight.”

Although she had neither the time nor the strength necessary
to cast a spell that would entirely block the covens’ power, she hoped this
would at least disrupt the connection long enough to give Orano and Phoenix a
chance to destroy the crystal. In theory, its destruction would render Tori
harmless, at least on a global scale.

“Sarah, we need to begin. Are you all right?” Nicole, the
only member of Tori’s inner circle still in the clearing with the rest of the
coven, helped her up.

“Thank you. Yes, I’m fine. False alarm. Sorry,” Gracey said.

The women once again formed a large circle. Gracey placed
herself between two young witches she felt sure didn’t know either her or the
real Sarah well enough to notice the differences. When the time came to hold
hands, both of them paled slightly at the thought of touching the woman who’d
nearly vomited.

“It’s almost time,” Nicole announced.

Just as the women bowed their heads to begin the channeling
ritual, yet another interruption halted them.

“I’m sorry I’m late. Keep going.”

The air changed in an instant, as the real Sarah joined
their circle. All eyes turned to Gracey.

“Is that you, Gracey?” Nicole asked with a sneer, sauntering
over.

Her cover blown, Gracey dropped the glamour spell. She forced
herself to stand tall, chin up, despite the fear bubbling up inside.

“Tori said you might show up tonight.” Nicole stood inches
from Gracey’s face, opening her mouth to say something further, then changing
her mind after glancing around at the other women watching intently.

Nicole’s facial expression morphed from anger to shock and
horror before she continued, her volume rising enough to ensure her audience
didn’t miss a single word. “So, you came here to attack us? Are we ever going
to be safe from you, Gracey?”

Dumbfounded at the woman’s audacity, Gracey responded
without thinking. “What? You’re the dangerous ones. You’ve got everybody here
fooled. You’re trying to destroy the world and everyone in it!”

When her brain caught up to her mouth, Gracey fell silent.
The triumphant grin on Nicole’s face lasted for only a second, just long enough
for Gracey to realize her mistake. How easily she’d fallen into the trap,
confirming to everyone present that she was not only crazy, but also a serious
threat to their safety.

Someone called out, “It’s time.”

Gracey ran.

“Let her go,” Nicole yelled from the clearing. “You need to
start the spell. Now. We’ll deal with her later.”

The relief Gracey felt at making her getaway quickly
dwindled as her predicament became clear. Not only would Tori and her inner
circle be after her, but they’d now be backed up by the entire Sherwood coven.