Night Magic (39 page)

His brother pulled himself
up out of sleep, his tattoos visible in the dim light from the hall. He’d had Jesse nestled against his bare chest.

“
Security’s breached. Get Maggie and Jesse down to the wine cellar.”

Tris looked around at the rumpled bedclothes.
“Maggie?” But only Jesse answered.

“
Daddy?” he asked, sleepily.

“
I’ll find her,” Kemble said grimly. “You protect your son.”

Tris looked like a man torn in half.

“Go!” Kemble urged. “Get Tammy and Mother on your way.” Tamsen was next door, his mother in the Parents’ room around the corner in the other wing. They were a sure thing, while there was no telling where Maggie had gone. Which brought him to Jane.

At least he knew where Jane was. With Senior. Right next to t
he front door. Damn. It had to be Morgan who put the security system down. That might make her brazen enough to come in through the front door. Kemble could lose everything in the next few minutes: Senior, the rest of the family. Jane. God. He wheeled and started down stairs. He had to protect her.

How? His stupid brand of magic wasn’t useful.
The family didn’t keep guns.

But Edwards and his men did.
And if one of them was the traitor? But there weren’t a lot of options right now. He reached for his cell as he hit the head of the staircase. The lights were out in the downstairs.

The old
house shook to its foundations, bringing him to his knees. Explosion.

Damn, damn, damn.

“Find Maggie,” Tris yelled, Jesse on his hip, as he pushed open the door to Tamsen’s room. Lance bounded out, barking. Kemble raised a hand in acknowledgement as he struggled to his feet.

The first floor was a roiling miasma of smoke and debris. He could see figures moving in from the front door.
He ducked back into cover at the top of the stairs.

“
Edwards?” he hissed into his cell. It wasn’t ringing. Had the man picked up?

Then he heard wet coughing.
“Somebody let them in the front gate. They hit the security office,” Edwards said weakly.

“
Casualties?” Kemble had a dead feeling in his gut. At least the traitor wasn’t Edwards.

“
Not sure. Men down.”

“
Call the authorities.” Uh-oh. Bad move. “No, don’t.” What could the Palos Verdes Police do against the Clan? It would just mean more people hurt, lots of explaining. “No use.” Edwards coughed again. Kemble knew what that wet sound meant. “You and your men stand down. Just take care of yourselves. I’ll come get you when we get this settled.” He clicked the phone off.

No help from Edwards.
He peered around the corner and down the broad staircase. More figures in the swirling dust and smoke.

“
Take out Brian Tremaine first.” It was a woman’s voice. They were moving toward the archway to the Bay of Pigs. How did they know that’s where Senior was?

Kemble knew how they knew. He set his lips.
Jane was down there with Senior. God, what could he do? He should have sent Tris to look for Maggie and Jane. Tris had a power that could be used for offense. What could Kemble’s maybe-power do for his family now? Jack shit, that’s what.

“
The rest of you, spread out. I want all of them dead.” A channel of light shone out in the dimness below, but all it revealed was the slowly settling dust. Figures were beginning to emerge more clearly. Eight? More.

It began to rain
in the foyer. The Weather Girl. The dust settled immediately and began turning into mud. Kemble racked his brain. He crept halfway down the stairs. Two guys were on their way into the Bay of Pigs. Beyond them, he saw the door to Senior’s room burst open, letting light into the corridor where it was raining. Maggie came flying out and hurtled down the hallway. One of the guys raised a gun. The blast was shocking in the silence after the explosion. Maggie went down. Jane poked her head out of Senior’s room.

“
Maggie!” she yelled.

The gun
’s pointed. Jane’s eyes were as big as saucers. Kemble couldn’t breathe.

And
then the whole house winked into utter blackness.

*****

“Why don’t you go to bed, Jane? I’ll spell you here,” Maggie was saying when the whole room was rocked by some kind of blast. Jane fell to her knees. Maggie staggered into the monitoring machine, which rolled into the wall with a crash. It began pinging frantically, but it sounded distant to Jane. Her ears were ringing. She raised her hand. The palm was bloody. She looked up as the machine went silent. What had happened? Brian’s chest still rose and fell with the respirator. She turned her head slowly to Maggie, who was getting up. The lights in the room blinked then steadied.

Their eyes met.

“Are we under attack?” Jane whispered. She couldn’t hear herself at all.

Maggie shook her head. Apparently she couldn’t hear Jane either. But it was easy to read her lips when she mouthed,
“The Clan?”

Jane nodded. It had to be. She glanced to Brian. How would they protect him when he was tied to a respirator? The intruders must have gotten by the security system and Mr. Edwards and his crew too.

Maggie’s eyes got big. “Jesse.”

Jane
heard a woman yell, “Spread out. I want every one of them dead.” Her hearing must be coming back.

“
I’ve got to find Jesse,” Maggie said. She gave Jane an apologetic look. “Come with me?”

Jane looked over to Brian
. He would be helpless against the Clan. Not that she would be much help. But she couldn’t just abandon him. When she looked back, her decision must have been in her eyes. Maggie just nodded and staggered to her feet. Maggie’s head was bleeding right up by her hairline.

“
I’ll be back for you,” she said.

Maggie opened the door to the hall. It was raining out there, improbable as that was. Jane saw M
aggie take a big breath then dart out, away from the foyer where the explosion had come from. She was headed for the old servants’ stairs. Jane scrambled to the doorway. A sharp cracking noise sounded. Maggie gave a little gasping cry.

“
Maggie!” Jane shouted. Maggie was down about halfway along the hall, lying in the pelting rain. Jane turned. A cold-eyed man with light blue eyes and short-cropped, sandy hair raised his gun again. The man behind him had a gun as well. Where could she hide? An incredibly bright channel of light burst from the foyer into the Bay of Pigs hall, silhouetting the man and making the raindrops gleam. It felt like spikes in her eyes.

Jane felt something surge inside her. Panic, yes. But something more, like she was standing on top of a capped oil well that was about to throw a gusher. Time slowed. She saw the
light-eyed man blink, and all she could think about was hiding, from the man, from the light.

It was like someone turned a switch.
Instead of bright light, the man was a red shadow in darkness, the other figure equally red behind him. The darkness felt like salvation.

“
What’s that?” he yelled, waving his gun and staggering in a circle.

“
Get the light,” the other man yelled.

The two bumped into each other. They couldn’t see, Jane realized.
What just happened? A thousand questions fell over themselves in tumbling waves. She swallowed and took a lungful of smoky air and rain. Get a grip, Jane.

“
This isn’t just a light bulb that went out, you idiot,” the man with light eyes yelled.

“
Magic?” the other one asked. He sounded younger.

“
Hell, yes. And it wasn’t on the list.”

Magic.
Of course. Lanyon was down in the gym room. He’d come into his magic. Fine. It was up to her to take advantage of what he’d given her. She crawled out the door. Could the two Clan members see her? Apparently not. They were stumbling back toward the foyer.

“
Ow!” the young one said as the barrel of the gun the light-eyed guy was waving caught him in the shoulder. “Watch out.”

Okay. Jane stood and turned down the hall through the rain. She had to get Maggie out of here. She spared a glance back at Brian. Sorry. But she’s more alive than you are right now. Maybe. Or maybe Maggie was dead.

Jane moved toward the reddish pile on the floor that was Maggie. Wait. Another figure was stumbling and feeling its way down the hall from the other direction. Clan? She slipped down to her knees beside Maggie and felt for a pulse. There it was. Fluttering, but there. If she got Maggie to safety, she could come back for Brian.

Maggie was maybe five fe
et tall, but it was harder than it looked on television to heave a limp body up. She looked up at the figure stumbling nearer down the hall. Darn. Even if she got Maggie up, he’d be hard to avoid, the way he was weaving from wall to wall.

“
Jane?” the figure whispered.

Lanyon. Of course.
“I’m here,” she whispered back. “Maggie’s hurt.”

“
I heard the shot. Where are you?”

Couldn’t he see her?
She reached for a wet pant leg. “Help me get Maggie up.”

He started
then felt first for her, then Maggie. “Okay. Got her.” He turned her over, squatted, and lifted her in his arms. “Where are the Clan guys?”

Jane
looked around. They’d disappeared. “Regrouping in the foyer, I think. Let’s get Maggie somewhere safe.”

“
Where would that be?” he muttered.

Jane thought. Third floor in Kee and Devin’s suite?
It was long way down from those windows if the Clan was blocking the stairs. “How about the wine cellar? It’s got that old loading dock. We can escape through there if push comes to shove.”

“
You’re on,” he whispered. “If I can find it.”

She ducked around Maggie.
“I’ll lead the way.”

“
You can see in this blackness?”

“
Yeah,” she said slowly, touching his hand. “You look red.” She peered around. She could see the shadowy outlines of the hall table with the vase of flowers on it and the doors, some open, along the hall. It looked like . . . like a darkroom would. Her stomach clenched. “Did . . . did you do this, Lanyon?”

“
Me?” He snorted. “Not likely. Clan power?”

She didn’t think so
. And that scared her down to her shoes.

She didn’t have time to think about this right now.
“Come on.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

The minute the power went out entirely
and the house descended into blackness, Kemble knew he had to get down to Senior’s room. Jane was in danger. And no power meant Senior’s ventilator would stop pumping. Could he breathe on his own? Wait, Tris had rigged backup generators. Had the Clan taken those out as well? Thoughts jumbled through Kemble’s mind even as the rain petered out. But he knew he couldn’t go down the front stairs through the Clan in the foyer. He made his way down the corridor by feel mostly. Kee’s room had a tree outside the window. God knew she’d climbed down it to get into mischief with Devin enough times.

He felt the open door, pus
hed through and tripped over the edge of the bed on his way to where he knew the window must be. When he finally felt the draperies, he threw them back.

Outside the window wasn’t a night sky. No
queen’s necklace coastline view of city lights. No stars, no glint of black water. It was just black, like ink, like oil sludge, like nothing he’d ever seen. Kemble felt his heart beat an erratic tattoo. This blackness wasn’t just a power outage. It was magic. Shit. Damn. Piss. He felt for the window latch and swung the old Spanish-style windows outward. He heard them clack against tree branches, though he couldn’t see a tree was even there. The Clan had brought somebody who could cause total blackouts.

He couldn’t let that stop him. Jane
was in trouble. Maggie was probably shot and Senior might be suffocating even now. He reached out until he felt the big branch he knew was there. He hoped it would support his weight. Otherwise it was going to be a fast trip down. He pulled himself out the window by feel and into the tree. The branch creaked. He let himself hang off it until his toes reached another branch. This one had to be bigger; it was lower down. He felt for a handhold on another branch. There. Okay. He steadied himself, slid over to the trunk, crouched, hung from the branch again. This time there were no branches below him. Here goes.

He dropped to the ground and let his limbs go limp. Grunting, he managed to roll into the side of the house. The smooth painted adobe wall
was cool against his palm as he pushed himself up and slid along the wall toward the French door that would lead to the Bay of Pigs.

“
This way,” someone whispered.