Phoenix Inheritance (22 page)

“
Daz, you shouldn't have tried to tell Renee to rest. This concerns her as much as it does you.”

“Is that professional advice or personal meddling? And can Renee hear us?”

“I'm only speaking to you. And, yes, it's personal advice. I know you're trying to protect her but shutting her out isn't the way.”

“How do you know so much about it? You and Alec have easy sailing between you.”

“Not so easy all the time. But I'm not thinking of us, I'm thinking about my father and his wife. You know how he shuts down emotionally. He's had to make some serious adjustments now that he's married. It's not been easy. Luckily, Del not only loves him, she understands him.”

“If you're comparing me to Philip Drake, I must really be doing something wrong.”

Laughter flavored the connection with Beth. “
Philip's starting from a rough place. It should be easier
for you. But you and Renee are both self-contained. It's hard to tell sometimes how deeply you care. I'm not sure even Renee knows how you feel about her. I'm not sure she ever will, unless you say it.”

Damn. “
Can you tell how Renee feels about me?”

“You'll have to figure that out for yourself. Relax, now, I'm bringing her into the link.”

“
So what's this danger?”

That was Renee's voice. Her emotions flavored the words too. On the surface, there was calm. Underneath, though, he could almost feel the rumblings of panic.

“
Daz, Renee, let me show you what Charlie saw through Odin's eyes.”

And just like that, Daz was plunged into a vision of Charlie holding Odin. All he could see of Charlie were his hands. This must be his point-of-view then. That image vanished to be replaced by thoughts Odin must have sent to Charlie or, at least, what Charlie remembered Odin said to him.

An oversize man peered down at Odin, threatening, telling him he had to lure the nice boy out of his yard. Charlie cut into that memory, asking who the mean man was. Odin again, projecting very little except he hated the mean man and wouldn't stay with him now that he had Charlie.

One thing was clear. Odin was really scared of the mean man.

Daz blinked and the room around them reappeared.

“Whoa,” Renee said. “That was interesting.”

“But you don't sound surprised,” Beth said.

“No, I'm not,” Renee said. “That's because Charlie said something like that before about a mean man and that Odin had been sent by someone to lure him away. I thought it was an odd thing for him to make up at the time. He usually reported happy conversations to me. That's one of the reasons it took me so long to be worried about it.”

“I'm all for protecting Charlie, and we'll look into this but remember, this is coming from a cat,” Daz said.

“I believe every word of it and that Odin's fear was real,” Renee said.

“Why?” Daz asked.

“Because, in retrospect, everything Charlie's ever said to me about when he talked to animals has been accurate,” Renee said. “Now that I know he can really do it, I'm inclined to believe him. If Odin was scared of this man, he's dangerous.”

“That's good logic,” Daz said. “I'm just surprised you're taking to this telepathy so well.”

“Anything that helps my son,” she said.

“I agree too,” Beth said. “Obviously, I can't read Odin's mind, but what he transferred to Charlie indicates this master wanted Odin to bring Charlie to him. And the cat was definitely scared of this man.”

“Who wants to take my son?” Daz gripped Renee's hand tight and stared at the monitor. Alec had joined Charlie to play with the blocks. Someone wanted his son. And someone had also entered New Jersey over a year ago, on a mission from Rasputin. Could the two events be connected? But how could Rasputin know something about Charlie that his parents hadn't known?

“Wait, forget about ‘who' for a second. How could this mysterious man give a cat orders?” Renee asked.

“Damn good question,” Daz said. “Sounds like we have another animal telepath on our hands.”

“I agree,” Beth said. “I believe the ‘mean man' was speaking to Odin telepathically, like Charlie does.”

“So it's someone who has abilities just like Charlie,” Renee said. “Why would he want Charlie?”

“I can guess.” Daz stood and stared at the monitor. He knew Alec was in there and nothing got past Alec. He knew the Institute was safe. But it didn't make the fear for his son's safety go away. “Best-case scenario, this mean man could've recognized Charlie as a kindred spirit and wanted to be closer to him.”

“A very warped kindred spirit,” Renee said.

“Yeah. Unfortunately, I think we're closer to the worst-case scenario: someone wants to take Charlie for his ability and control him.”

He looked at Beth.

She nodded. “Like my kidnappers wanted to do to me when I was his age.”

Renee walked over to the monitor to stand next to Daz.

“I know, it's illogical to think I'm somehow protecting him better by standing over here.”

“But it helps.” He put her arm around his waist. Instead of objecting, which he half-expected, she put her head on his shoulder.

Someone wanted to steal their son.

Never.

“This is my fault. What I do is putting our son in danger,” Daz said.

“How could this be
your
fault?” Renee asked.

“Some enemy of the Phoenix Institute is after my kid,” he said.

“What enemy?” Renee asked.

He tapped his shoulder. “The guy in Germany. He took me hostage. Beat me. Burned me with his hand alone. And I got away. He'll hate that. He'd want to get back at me.”

“Was he an animal telepath like Charlie's mean man?” she asked.

“He was a psychic. Who knows what else he could do? And he had a legion of followers. We thought he'd gone underground but apparently he just changed tactics. We recently found he's been watching the Institute for over a year and that he has an operative in this area. Shit.”

“Daz.” Renee put her hand on his face to get his attention. “Get past your guilt. Beth just said that this man probably wants Charlie for his psychic ability. How could this enemy of yours even know about him?”

“That's a very good question.” Daz's eyes narrowed. Had his captor read his mind during the torture? Daz had thought they were after information about Alec and the Institute but what else had they plucked from his brain?

“We'll get answers.” Beth rose. “I won't let anything happen to Charlie or either of you. This kind of situation is another reason the Phoenix Institute exists. We train people in their abilities. But we also protect them.”

“Thank you,” Renee said.

Loki head-butted her knees. Renee leaned down and hugged him.

“You're not alone,” Beth said. “Everything we have, we'll use to keep you both safe. And we will find out who did this.”

“Damn straight we will,” Daz said.

“So what's next?” Renee asked.

“You don't have to do anything except stay here safe with Charlie,” Daz said. “This is my specialty. I'll come up with a plan.” He was going to have to put all that leveling-up training to use, along with all those new weapons. He was going to crush the person after his family.

“We'll call in all our resources, but please stay here with Charlie until we sort this out, Renee,” Beth added.

“Okay,” she said. “You don't have to talk me into it. Whatever keeps Charlie safe.”

“In the meantime, we need to get Odin here, so Charlie can quiz him more about the mean man and I can get a clearer picture of what's going on,” Beth said. “There is a good side. With Charlie staying here, I can get a jumpstart on his therapy.”

“And you leave getting Odin to me,” Daz said.

After he made sure Renee and Charlie were set up in their own rooms at the Institute, Daz and Alec headed back out to Renee's house.

Charlie had pleaded to come with them, claiming they wouldn't catch Odin without him but there was no way Daz was going to allow his son to leave the safety of the Institute right now, not with one, maybe two hostile unknowns out there: Rasputin's man and the one who controlled Odin. Possibly they were one and the same but it never hurt to plan for two enemies rather than one.

Alec, with his TK, should be able to grab a cat, no matter how uncooperative, and together, they could handle any other problem.

They'd figure out who was behind it and then…

He gripped the steering wheel tighter. Then someone would pay.

“You think Rasputin is behind this?” Alec asked.

“He's the one with an organization behind him, and I assume he knows about all kinds of psychics. And he sure knew a helluva lot about us before we even knew he existed. Plus, he has someone on the ground already.”

Daz rolled his shoulder, wishing the damn burn would stop itching. He'd taken the job of accompanying Richard Genet to Europe to start a dialogue between the Phoenix Institute and Richard's immortal court. He hadn't expected to encounter a very much alive Gregori Rasputin or that the Mad Monk had a hard-on to destroy Alec and the Institute. Taking Daz captive and torturing him had been the first step in Rasputin's war. No, not the first step. The shot one of Rasputin's people had taken at him had literally been the opening salvo in this war.

Daz owed his life to Richard and his lover, Marian Doyle, but Rasputin had disappeared after their explosive confrontation in Germany. They'd been watching and waiting for him to make a move, but Daz never expected Charlie to be part of it.

“I'm sorry your son got dragged into this. It's me Rasputin seems to be after. I feel responsible,” Alec said.

“Save the guilt.” Because Daz had enough for both of them. “Rasputin is the one who's responsible, not you.”

“Okay.”

After that, there was silence. Daz barely noticed the road crews working on the power lines on the main roads. But as they turned off the main road to a country road that led to Renee's home, Alec spoke.

“Daz, did it occur to you that it's a weird coincidence that your son has psychic abilities and you happen to work in a place that knows these abilities are real?”

“Yeah, it's a weird coincidence but what else could it be? What are you getting at? That Rasputin was involved somehow?”

“No, not him. Lansing.” Alec paused as he reached ahead of them with his TK to toss a large tree branch out of the road. “You know how he was obsessed with finding as many psychics as possible, even to the point of trying to create them.”

“And?”

“Lansing hired you after Charlie was born, right?”

Daz nodded, slowly, catching on to where this was going. “You think Lansing somehow knew that Charlie was psychic even back then?”

“I bet Lansing knew there was a possibility Charlie
could
be psychic. He was obsessed with genetic codes. Look how he tried to duplicate his own genetic code, except his DNA was too degraded. It would be just like Lansing to check the genetic codes of everyone he hired, including you. He knew what he was looking for in the DNA. He would have known if you carried any genetic markers for psychic abilities.”

“That seems horribly possible.” Not for the first time, Daz cursed himself for not delving deeper into Lansing's background before accepting his job offer. But if he'd done that, he'd have never met Alec. “Is this something you found in Lansing's records?”

“No, nothing about you in particular, but we did finally decode an encrypted file that included the genetic markers that Lansing believed were important for psychic abilities. In all his records, it's a continual obsession with him. With you, he not only got a good trainer for me but had an excellent way to keep an eye on your son, in case Charlie developed any abilities.”

“Shit.” Alec was right. “So that's why he recruited me. I didn't apply for the job. I didn't even know it existed.”

“Exactly. Then the question becomes how he knew to check your DNA in the first place. It's like you were on his radar already somehow. You ever run across him?”

“Not that I'm aware of, but now I'm going to double-check every job I ever did.”

“At least he's dead now and can't hurt you or Charlie.”

“There's that,” Daz said.

“And whatever angle he was working on you, Lansing blew it because when I broke from him, you backed me and not him.”

“It took me too long,” Daz said.

“You're the one who keeps harping on that, not me,” Alec said. “When push came to shove, you backed me because we were a team.”

“I should've never needed that shove.”

“Let it go,” Alec said. “I have.”

Not until he could make up for it, Daz thought. Just like with Renee, he had to put things right.

“Anyway,” Alec said, “the point is, if Lansing knew Charlie could be psychic—”

“Then people working for him could have known too. And those people could be out there still. They might be behind this, not Rasputin.”

Alec nodded. “Yeah. Or it could be the people who grabbed Beth all those years ago.”

“It's all guesswork right now,” Daz said.

“Until we get the story from the cat.”

Alec said that with such seriousness that Daz glanced sideways at him. They both laughed.

“A cat. A damned cat,” Daz said.

He pulled his car into Renee's driveway. Nothing had changed from yesterday save more of the snow had melted. Alec pointed to the remains of the van. “I should move that or Renee won't be able to pull her car out of the garage.”

“Wait until we get the cat.” Daz searched around the garage and found the dog carrier that Renee told him was there. He held it up. “This is a little big but Odin won't be able to slip through the bars on the doors.”