Casted (Casted series) (12 page)

“It’s not about what you can and can’t do. Taking her anywhere right now is risky. Putting her in such close proximity to that group is a bad idea and you know it.” Julie put her hand on Dagger’s arm. “We have to trust Edge.”

Edge reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins. “Each of these is spelled to bring you to the location I have underground. Don’t lose them.” He dropped the coins in Dagger’s hand. “When you’ve rescued Rainy and Matheson, all you will need to do is hold the coin in your hand and turn the centerpiece three times clockwise. Press your thumb to the center and the coin will do the rest.”

“And how do we know that you haven’t set us up?” Dagger asked.

Edge sighed and then gestured for the coins back. “May I?”

Dagger slapped them into his hand.

Edge pulled out a small pocket knife and pressed the blade into his thumb. “By my blood, I vow this will return you to me, wherever I may be.” He closed his eyes and the coins vibrated in response. “Now will you get on your way, before there isn’t anyone left to save?” he asked, handing the coins back to Dagger.

There was nothing left for Dagger to say. Whatever Edge had just done made Julie smile. “Told you to trust him,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

“Okay, now from what I overheard at the Council, the Nomads are completely out of character right now. They’ve camped out at the old Council building and have settled in. They’ve been there for over a month,” Edge told them.

“A month? This is serious. They never stay anywhere for more that a couple of days and that’s only if an elder is sick,” Julie sputtered.

“The old Council building was a crumbling heap of rubble,” Dagger said.

“Here’s where it gets really weird,” Edge said, leaning in as he spoke.

“They are fixing it up like a fortress. It appears, ladies and gentlemen, as if they are getting ready to take a stand,” he said.

“What’s the closest entrance we can use?” Dagger asked.

“All the outer doorways have been sealed. Only those of us with personal doorways have access to other personal doorways,” Edge explained.

“Are you saying we’re going to have to walk there?” Jessa threw her hands in the air. “That’s like several hundred miles from here, Edge!”

“You’ll just have to make it to the outskirts of the forest. I have a car hidden there that you can use. See you in a few days,” Edge said as he grabbed my hand and we disappeared.

CHAPTER SIX

“Welcome to the Bat Cave,” Edge chuckled.

I blinked my eyes to focus in on my surroundings. He wasn’t kidding. We were standing in a room made of rock.

“Follow me,” he said, taking a torch off the wall and lighting it.

The path in front of us illuminated with flickering light and Edge began walking.

“There’s a series of tunnels in and out of the cave. Don’t wander off on your own until you know which tunnel leads where. We don’t want your untimely death, now do we?” he said as he kept moving.

I shivered in the damp air. What had I gotten myself into? If the Triad or Nomads caught me, I’d be dead. If I went down the wrong tunnel, I’d be dead. What if the others showed up and walked down the wrong path?

“What about when Dagger and everyone gets back? How will they know what tunnel not to take?” I asked.

“When they return, they will come in where we did. The room will be spelled to not let them leave until I get there. Ah, here we are,” Edge said as he placed the torch into a holder bolted to the wall. Once the torch was secured, it went out and a door appeared.

Edge swung the door inward and gestured for me to enter first.

It was set up like his den at home, only bigger. Industrial style lighting hung from the cavernous ceiling above. Thick rugs were placed in different spots on the floor to make it appear homey, and a roaring fireplace big enough to lie down in was chasing off the chill in the room. Chairs were placed in various spots. They looked deep enough to sink into. A matching couch was placed in front of the fireplace. The furniture made the room fell a little homier.

Edge walked over to the side bar and poured two drinks. “I’ll show you around as soon as I meet with Jude.”

A door opened up at the far end of the room. A young man carrying a computer entered. A grin split his face when he noticed us. He looked to be around my age. His sandy blonde hair was short at the sides, longer on top. It stuck up in different directions like he’d used his fingers to comb it. He reminded me of a surfer.

“Edge!” he shouted.

He must be Jude,
I thought.

Edge grimaced and pointed to his ears. The young man looked at Edge quizzically. “Oh! Right,” he said, pulling the ear buds out of his ears. Loud music pumped through the tiny speakers as he fumbled to turn it down.

“Edge, I’m glad you’re back,” he said as he walked over and fist bumped him. “You won’t believe the shit coming up on the feed these past couple of days,” he continued.

Edge put a hand up to silence him. The young man sputtered to a stop as Edge tilted his head towards me.

He bounced his light brown eyes between Edge and I. “You never bring company, what’s up?”

“Jade, this is Jude Millar,” Edge introduced.

“Hey, Jade. Nice to meet ya,” he said to me.

“Hey, Jude, nice to meet you, too.” I couldn’t help the smirk that crept up on my face. The Beatles song was now playing on a loop in my head.

“Yeah, I know…my parents, they loved The Beatles.”

I grinned. “I like it. Your name and the song.

“Yeah, you try growing up with the name,” he winked. “So what brings you to the BC?” he asked.

“The BC?”

“The Bat Cave,” he said, laughing with a snort.

“You really call it the Bat Cave?” I asked.

“Sure, why not? Has all the feel of it and we are fighting crime,” Jude smirked.

“Alright, enough,” Edge said.

Edge handed me the glass he’d poured. “Now that the introductions are over with, let’s get down to business, shall we?”

“Oh yeah, sure.” Jude slid his finger along the tablet and turned it just enough to show Edge.

“Looks like our intel system is having a hard time keeping up with the ever-changing plans of the Triad,” Edge said as he contemplated the screen.

“Yeah, but if you look at the last few transmissions, they are still leaning towards finding the book first,” Jude replied.

“Look at the last transmission. It looks like they are getting ready to send a handful of the Enforcers to the old Council location. It seems kind of random, considering there is nothing left of the structure,” Jude said.

“They’re going after the Nomads,” Edge explained.

Jude’s eyebrows shot up. “The Nomads? Dude, seriously?”

“They’ve set up at the old Council and are rebuilding it,” Edge told him.

“The last time they stayed stationary, they were looking for someone. A girl, if I remember correctly.”

I gasped, bringing Jude’s attention to me.

“You? You’re the girl?” He grinned. “Shit just got real, for real!”

“We have a big problem. If the Enforcers are being sent to the Nomads, it can only mean one thing.” Edge sighed.

“They have the book,” Jude finished for him.

“If they have the book, then why haven’t they been looking for me, too?” I asked.

“Nomads don’t do anything in a rush. They were probably waiting for the Triad to find you first and then they’ll swoop in,” Jude said, rubbing his hands together.

I winced at his excitement. I couldn’t see anything good coming out of this little triangle of death, so why was he so revved up?

“Oh, hey, Jade, no worries,” he said with a smile. “I have contacts inside the Nomads. If they have the book, we can get it back.” Jude smiled.

“You mean, you haven’t, in all this time, searched their archives? What the hell am I paying you for?” Edge bellowed.

“Dude, Edge, chill… seriously. Think about it. Why would I have checked on the Nomads? It’s not like they have a library or anything. They never keep anything besides the essentials,” Jude explained.

“We need to talk to your man on the inside,” Edge told him.

“On it,” Jude said as he darted out of the room.

I eyed Edge with suspicion. “If you had a way in to the Nomads, why did you let Dagger, Jessa, and Julie go off on their own?” I asked.

“I don’t have a way in, only Jude does. After all, he is one of them,” Edge said.

“He’s a Nomad?” I asked.

“Yes, only he works for me and keeps tabs through a contact we have on the inside. Make no mistake about where his allegiance lies. If he’s caught, it’s treason. A death sentence for him and any other he’s caught with.” Edge clasped my arm and led me out of the room and through the door Jude had left open.

“If you stay on this main path, you’ll have everything you need. If you venture off, you’re going to find the tunnels I warned you about,” he explained.

Right. Death.

I made a mental note not to wander off this path unless I was being chased by a big harry monster with jagged teeth…and maybe not even then. I shuddered at the thought.

“Each cut out in this tunnel is a room.” Edge gestured to the first opening. It was a small kitchen. The next room down was a small sitting room, and then there were several bedrooms beyond that. He stopped at the last door and stepped inside. It wasn’t much to look at. A small bed, nightstand and dresser were against the wall, and a single light dangled from the ceiling. Edge walked over to the nightstand and pulled out a remote. On the other side of the room, an electric fireplace came to life, blowing warm air out.

“This far back in the tunnels gets a little chilly. My room is right across the hall.” He pointed. “And Jude is further up the hallway.”

I just nodded my acknowledgment. What had I gotten myself into and how long before I went completely out of mind from being stuck underground? Surely there was something I could be doing with my time besides feeling like a prisoner in these confining quarters.

I spoke up. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Right now, we have to wait until Jude comes back. Once we have a better understanding of what the Nomads are doing, then we can formulate a plan of some sort.” Edge ran his hands through his hair in agitation. Apparently he hated to sit around and wait, just as much as I did.

“In the mean time, I’m going to go over all the information that Jude’s collected and see if there is anything he’s missed. You’re welcome to join me in the main chamber,” Edge said.

“It beats going stir crazy in here,” I replied.

“Don’t knock it, it could be worse. You could be topside running for your life right now,” he said, turning away.

I tried to lose myself in the well-worn paperback now sitting in my lap. I loved reading, but my mind just couldn’t stay focused. There were too many other things fighting to be forefront. I worried about Rainy and Matheson. Were they alright? What if they were being tortured? What if they were dead? Nausea overwhelmed me at the thought. And what about the others? Had they made it to the car that would take them to the Nomad compound? And what if they got caught, too?

I felt impotent sitting there with nothing to do. Everyone was out there risking their necks to keep me safe.

“Edge, I can’t just sit here,” I blurted out.

He was so focused on what he was reading that I startled him with my outburst. He recovered quickly, setting the tablet down to squint at me in contemplation.

“I was thinking… We might want to check our archives just in case we’re wrong about the book being with the Nomads.” He tapped his finger against his lips. “It would put us one step ahead if we found something of use,” he said.

“Point me in the right direction,” I told him.

“Hold that thought,” he said as he pushed himself out of an overstuffed chair and headed for the bar.

I sighed inwardly. The last thing either of us needed was another drink. Edge pushed his finger against a small square in the wall. The bar swung out, leading to another room with a row of monitors hung on the wall. Each monitor was running a live video feed of the empty tunnels, and various rooms in his house above. One screen showed a creepy looking man standing in Edge’s den. His face contorted as he shouted, pointing at the book case, while another pulled the contents of his shelves to the floor.

Edge shook his head and turned away from the screen. “It was only a matter of time.” I watched as the two men ransacked the den. Both men appeared to be agitated as the paced the floor, kicking books out of their way. They were still shouting at each other as they began setting small fires throughout the room.

“Edge,” I called him over to me.

Edge let a steady stream of curse words flow from his mouth as he witnessed the two intruders’ burning his home to the ground. “When this is over, if those two aren’t dead, I’ll kill them myself,” he growled as he handed me a tablet of my own.

“Come on, there’s no use watching this anymore.” He shut the monitor off and walked out of the room.

Edge strode over to the chair he’d been sitting in and tossed himself in it. I felt sick after watching the Triad’s men set fire to his home. There was nothing we could do about it now. The only way we could stop the Triad was by finding the spell book. I focused my attention on the tablet and began scrolling through Jude’s notes.

Hours later and more confused than when I started, I set the tablet aside and got up to stretch. There was nothing in all of Jude’s research that led to the missing book. There wasn’t even anything on me or the death of my parents.

The only things I found were records of other Coven’s business, minimal amounts about the Triad, and next to nothing about the Nomads. If Jude was a Nomad member, then there should have been plenty of information to dig through.

I tossed another log on the fire and let my thoughts wander to Rainy. I was so worried about her. How far would the Nomads go to get information from her and Matheson? I could only hope that Dagger, Julie and Jessa could return them safely.