Cast Into Darkness (12 page)

Victor went to her father’s liquor cabinet and poured them each a glass of wine. He handed her one, then sank into the chair facing her.

“You know Dad doesn’t approve of underage drinking.” She rolled her eyes as she took the glass.

“After what happened tonight, even he’d make an exception. Tell me everything,” he said.

Kate sighed. She told Victor all she remembered about hurting her father, from the time she woke up until Victor arrived and saw her father lying in the hallway. Parts of what happened in her bedroom, like when she got angry with her father, seemed vague and distant, almost like a dream.

“You’re not being very clear.”

She squirmed in her chair. “No. Well, I don’t understand exactly what went on. I know what I did, but how could I have done it? One minute we were having an argument, and the next…” She took a sip of her wine to cover the rush of emotion, her throat tight. “He was all crumpled up in the hallway, hurt. I don’t know how I could have blasted him. I’m a Null.”

“That’s what I was told.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

Victor sat silent for a moment. Then, “Tell me how you feel right now.”

“Fine.” Kate crossed her legs.

“Really? Your brother’s dead and your father’s lying on the floor bleeding upstairs, and you’re just dandy? Bullshit.” Victor leaned forward. “I asked you a question. How do you feel?”

“None of your goddamn—You really want to know?” Kate’s voice rose as she got up from her chair. “I feel like shit, okay? Is that what you want? It’s my fault Brian’s dead, and it’s my fault Dad’s lying upstairs bleeding. Do you think I wanted to hurt him? Do you think I want to be here, talking to you? I don’t even trust you, okay?”

She walked over to the desk. “For all I know, this is something you planned. Maybe Brian got the stone from you. Or you were trying to get it from him. Maybe you put a spell on the thing to control me.”

“Listen to yourself.” Victor said. “If I said to you what you just said to me, what would you think?”

She took a sip of her wine. “You were twitchy after a spell.”

“Uh-huh.”

“No, I don’t think so. I’m not a caster. I don’t—”

“It’s clear you are casting spells and getting the aftereffects. There are three ways I can explain this.” Victor paused, taking a drink from his glass.

“And?”

“One: you’ve gained the ability to cast. I don’t see how that could have happened. Nulls can’t do that. Two: someone else, an enemy, most likely, is controlling your actions. Or three, the stone is still possessing you.”

“How do you know so much about the stone?”

“What do you think I’ve been doing all night? Cleaning up your mess. And from what I’ve seen, possession by someone, or some
thing
, is the most likely explanation. And if you are being controlled, then we’re all in a lot of danger.”

She looked down at her wine, trying to mask the fear in her eyes, then took a long drink. “But Brian freed me from the stone’s control.”

Victor’s face started to waver in her vision. How strong was this stuff?

“Maybe.”

She put the glass down. “Is there a way you can tell?”

“I can do some diagnostic spells. They’ll tell me if you are under someone else’s control. Just like possession. As for the stone, well, that’s more Grayson’s area.”

“Then why are you asking me all these damn questions? Do the stupid spell.”

He smiled a tight smile. “A couple of reasons. If someone is controlling you, you might tell me something useful.”

“Like what? ‘And now I will reveal my master plan?’ That only happens in B-movies.” She blinked, her eyelids so much heavier than they should be.

“You would never make things that easy on me.”

“What’s the other reason?”

The room’s getting dark. What happened to the lights?

“I had to give the drug time to work.”

“You…asshole.” She slid into unconsciousness.

The Sanctum woke
Kate.

Its song came up through the smooth rocks and crystals embedded in the floor, through her nightgown and robe, and into her skin, her bones. The low hum of a thousand small things working in harmony—a quiet symphony of energy—vibrated inside her as she lay on the hard, flat surface.

It felt like being a part of all the power of creation.

Basking in the feeling, she enjoyed the energy flowing over her skin. It seeped into her bit by bit. Keeping her eyes closed, she followed the hum to the source of the energy—the crystals and rocks beneath her, and through them, the stones of power all around the room. The song she heard playing in her soul came from them. She knew it.

The Sanctum was alive for her. Just as it had been for Brian.

Kate’s eyes opened. She remembered what had happened in her father’s office.

Victor. I should have paid attention to those little voices in my head—should have known better than to trust him.

She shut her eyes. Better that she stay still and pretend to be asleep, until she could figure things out. Faking sleep proved easy; she let herself sink into the rhythm of the crystals.

Footsteps rang against the stone floor, then her uncle’s voice sounded close by.

“Well?”

“She passed the simple tests.” Victor’s voice, from a few feet away. “But they don’t explain how she did what she did back at the house. Now we have to bring out the big guns.”

“We need her awake for that,” Grayson said.

“She’s waking up now,” Victor said. “Faster than she should be. I gave her enough tranquilizer to knock out a rhino.”

“You should have let me handle her. This is my business, not yours.”

“I’m not leaving until I know who, or what, attacked the boss. They shouldn’t have used Kate to do it. Whoever they are, I’m going to make them pay for that.”

Victor? Caring? Will wonders never cease.

“It’s not what you think,” Grayson said. “Look around you. The Sanctum’s responding to her. What happened in here earlier, with the stone, is nowhere near as mundane as her being used.”

“Maybe. But I’m not as convinced as you.”

Kate heard her uncle sigh. Footsteps approached her, then stopped. “Sweetheart, sit up,” Grayson said. “We need to talk.”

A part of her wanted to keep lying on the Sanctum floor and never open her eyes again. She wouldn’t have to think about Brian or her father. But then she wouldn’t find out what she needed to know: What had happened to her? What did the stone actually do, and why is it so important to everyone? And how had Brian died?

She sat up slowly and pushed her hair out of her eyes. She lay inside the ring of circle stones, glistening amber in the Sanctum’s light. The crystals on the walls shone brighter than ever. Their facets sparkled with a million shades of red, yellow, and orange. The spiral patterns on the walls seemed to pulse in time to the hum she felt throughout her body.

Grayson pulled a chair over to the edge of the circle and sat, his eyes steady on her. Victor leaned against a carved wooden cabinet on the far wall. Grayson had changed his shirt, but his pants still had flecks of blood on them—her father’s.

She stood, reaching out to touch the faint shimmer rising up from the circle stones.

“Kate, don’t—” Grayson began.

As her fingers brushed the shimmer, a flurry of sparks went up from the contact point.

“Ow! That stings.” She snatched her hand back, glaring at her uncle.

“I set the circle’s barrier up to hold you,” Victor said. “You can’t get out or use magic. Don’t bother trying. It’ll do more than sting next time.” He had that look of his—halfway between a smile and a sneer—that told her that he didn’t care what she thought.

She turned her glare to Victor. “I’m fine now. There’s no reason to cage me like an animal.”

Victor cocked his head and stared down his nose at her. “Just a safety measure, ’til we know what we’re dealing with.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kate asked.

“We’re not sure what’s happened to you, and we need to find out.” Grayson got up and went to the cabinet behind him. He ran his palm over a latch on the door and concentrated, and it popped open. He reached in and pulled an object out of its dark recesses: a filigree silver ball about the size of a grapefruit, studded with chunks of what looked like topaz.

“Victor thinks you might still be possessed, either by the stone or by someone or something else.”

She tugged her robe tighter around her. “Is that why I attacked Dad?” Kate searched Victor’s face for a reaction. Nothing. She wouldn’t want to play poker against him.

“I don’t know,” Victor said.

“How did I levitate in the bathroom? Any explanation for that?”

Victor gave her his silent stare.

“Do you remember anything I taught you about possession?” Grayson asked.

“Um…”

Grayson frowned. “Possession’s not an easy feat to achieve. Magic—the way we do it now—can’t affect the mind very much. But ancient magic—such as the stone’s—is a different story altogether. From what we can tell from our forensic reconstruction—”

“Your what?”

“I cast a spell that showed me what happened to you and Brian from the time you entered the Sanctum until Brian died.”

“So you know what killed him.”

Victor’s hand cut through the air. “Later.”

“But—”

“Now we’re worried about you,” Victor said. “And I’ve seen the sort of thing the stone did to you before. Possession.”

She remembered what the stone had done in the Sanctum—forcing her to look at it, taking control of her actions, making her bring it into the circle, trigger some kind of spell.

She thought back over the past twenty-four hours. When had the stone first begun calling the shots? Had it only controlled her that last time, in the Sanctum? Or yesterday afternoon, when she’d looked into its jet-black depths and lost the whole day? Had she been its puppet from the very first time she’d touched it, when it stung her and she’d lost a half hour in the theater dressing room? It certainly made sure she hadn’t remembered it changing color. She shivered.

Was the stone still dominating her? She didn’t think so. She felt its absence, like the hole formed by a newly pulled tooth she was used to running her tongue over. She kept going to the place in her mind where it used to be but found nothing there.

“I know you don’t have any reason to believe me, but I don’t think the stone is still controlling me.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “Now that it’s gone, I can feel it’s gone. It’s hard to explain.”

“I need more than your say-so, princess.” He took the silver ball from Grayson and gave each yellow stone a light touch. The ball lit up with a soft glow from inside, the luminescence spreading to each stone. He tossed it, underhanded, at Kate.

The silver ball came straight for her. She ducked, but it swerved right before it reached her, veering off to circle her. It spun around Kate three times, just outside the circle stones, leaving a trail of golden light in the air behind it. The ball stopped, hovering in the air to the left of Victor, and its topaz stones dimmed, awaiting his next order like one of his obedient security guards.

“This isn’t going to hurt, is it?” Kate asked.

“No,” Grayson said. “Victor is going to ask you questions. You answer them. That’s all.”

Kate eyed the silver ball, floating in front of her. “What does it do?”

“The Verity Globe tells us if anything is influencing your answers.”

“Like a lie detector?”

“No.” Victor broke in. “Look, Grayson can tell you all the technical details later. Right now, tell us everything that happened, from the time that you first got this stone to when you blacked out.”

“You’re kidding. I already told Dad everything.”

“And he’s out of it, so—”

“Is he okay? Will he be…?” She clutched her nightgown in stiff fingers.

“He’s resting,” Grayson said. “He’ll be fine. So tell us what happened.”

She sighed. She gave them a brief rundown of what had happened since Brian gave her the stone. The globe didn’t do anything when she told them that Brooke demanded the stone from her, but Victor’s reaction was predictably Victor.

“You should have told me, and your father.” Victor punctuated his statement with an accusing finger.

“Yeah. Believe me, I know. But I promised Brian I wouldn’t say anything about the stone to anyone.”

“And why did he make you promise that?”

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me.”

“What did he tell you about the stone?” Grayson asked.

“Not much. Just that it was ancient. Powerful. And if it fell into the wrong hands, well, you know.”

The globe hovered in front of her, its yellow stones glowing.

“Why did Brian interrupt your play to hand the stone to you? Why not give it to one of us?” Victor pushed away from the wall and walked a few steps closer to Kate.

“I don’t know. He…” She looked from Victor to Grayson. Brian could have been working for either one of them, but clearly he didn’t trust them. Could she? She glanced at the silver globe. If she didn’t answer, would they assume something made her not answer?

“He never said.”

Victor frowned. “Kate, you have to tell us everything you know. If Brian said something—”

“Look, I don’t know anything else.” All she had left were her own suspicions about what Brian might have been doing with the stone, where he had gotten it, for whom he might have been working. But those were just guesses.

Victor gave her a long look and frowned, as if he were weighing everything she’d said. Then he held out his hand. The swirls of golden energy around her dissipated, and the ball sped back to him. “It didn’t react to you. So you’re not possessed.” He handed the ball to Grayson.

“So I’m the one who hurt Dad? Not the stone?”

Her uncle’s eyes were sympathetic. “Yes.”

She slumped to the floor. “How?”

“I don’t know. But I know how to find out.” Grayson put the ball back in the cabinet and shut the door, locking it with a moment’s concentration. He walked to the edge of the circle stones. Reaching into his pocket, he took out a small silver box that fit in the palm of his hand. He opened it. Inside, nestled in a cocoon of white silk, sat the stone, black as bone burned down to coal in the heat of a holocaust.