Casted (Casted series) (26 page)

He was right, what little I’d managed to channel into him barely made a dent in the raging storm battering at my senses.

I focused again. This time, the connection was instant and the energy flowed out of me quickly. So quickly, that I snatched my hand away from Edge before he was the one consumed with it all.

I slumped against him and he tucked me close against his chest. My head still hurt, but nothing like it was before he took in what might have killed me.

I drifted off as the book settled in snugly and started turning its pages one by one. With each page came spells. The book was opening up to me and giving me access to the power it contained. I wanted to pull myself from the heavy slumber it had me under, but the book wasn’t ready to stop showing me just what I’d be capable of.

When the last spell was shown to me, the pages flipped back to the middle and the woman’s vaporous form shimmered before me.

Knowing the spells that the book contained were hers, I felt a jolt of fear that she was now here before me. This woman was very powerful, and very determined.

“You don’t need to fear me. In fact, I owe you a great deal of gratitude for what you have done.” She ruffled the pages lovingly as her form began to waver.

“Wait! That’s it? You haven’t even given me your name. I know you didn’t go through all of this just for you to hand over your spells.” It made no sense. There had to be more to it than this.

“Clever girl, I’ve done what I can, the rest is up to the book,” she said, pausing. I don’t know if it was for effect or if she was deciding on how much she was going to tell me.

“Those who covet the book will not give up and you must be ready. When the time comes, I will help you destroy those who seek us.”

“How will you be able to help me?”

“When the time comes, and it will come soon, I will be there.” Her wispy body disappeared back into the book, leaving me with no idea what she meant. How could she just be there? It wasn’t like she was out of my head. Was she planning on taking over my body again?

My cheek vibrated on Edge’s chest. His soft words rumbled against me, pulling me from the deep sleep I had been in.

He was talking with Rainy, filling her in on what had happened. I cracked my eyes open and willed my body to wake up so that I could process what they were saying.

“How long has she been out?” Rainy asked.

“A few hours. If she doesn’t wake up on her own soon…I’m worried about all the power she has now,” Edge said. His thoughts were so scattered that he was talking about two different things at a time.

“Maybe you should just wake her up,” Rainy told him.

I shifted my body, putting every ounce of energy into trying to communicate that I was awake. I managed to keep my eyes open as I sought out Edge’s hand.

“Look who’s finally decided to join us,” he said as he helped me sit up. He stacked pillows behind me and I fell back into them. My body felt so weighted down that the mere movement tired me out.

The faucet in the bathroom turned on and I could hear Rainy rummaging around in the cabinets. “Here,” she said, holding out two little white pills in one hand and a glass of water in another.

“I have a headache, not a hangover, Rainy.”

“For once, could you try not to be so stubborn,” she said, placing the cool glass in my hands.

“I’m going to go let the others know you’re awake,” Rainy said as she waited for me to take the pills. I handed her back the empty glass.

“Hang on, before you go I want to tell you guys something,” I said.

Rainy settled down at the foot of the bed as I began telling them about the spell book and what the woman had said about helping me when the time came. I showed Rainy my arms and watched her eyebrows disappear into her hairline.

“So all of that appeared because you…oh man, yeah, not going there,” she said. Her cheeks turned bright red and she avoided looking me in the eyes.

“Did you hear what I said? My brain is on information overload with all the spells in the book, and I can use them…I can use my magic.”

“Do you think Lorenzo thought that he’d be able to do that–unbind the book and get the spells?” Rainy asked.

“Edge, what if he didn’t just walk away from us? What if he was just giving us enough time to unbind it?”

“It makes sense. If he couldn’t touch the book, he’d need you to do it. And if the woman of the book placed the spell on her bloodline, then it eliminated his chances of being the one to unbind it,” Edge said.

“You know what this means right?” I asked him.

“You’re going to need a lot more training,” he replied.

“If I can get a handle on my power and the spells from the book, we could take him out.” I couldn’t help the jolt of excitement coursing through my veins. To beat Lorenzo at his own game and not have to run and hide in fear anymore…it was more than I could hope for.

“I want to learn as quickly as possible. Maybe we can fight back. The Covens’ numbers are dwindling. Every time he and his merry gang of murderers pay them a visit, people die.”
“Jade, you can’t just go in there and start fighting back. What if you are captured or worse, killed?” Rainy said.

“We can’t just sit here and wait for him to find us. I’ve been given the means to stop him, Rainy! I owe it to the Covens to at least try. How many years have they been attacked by the Triad because I was hiding, unaware of what my part in all of this was?”

“Let’s just focus on getting you some training. You can’t go out and fight if you have no idea just what you’re capable of,” Edge said as he squeezed my hand in assurance. He was pacifying me at best and that was okay because I would be getting my way whether they liked it or not.

“First things first, you need to rest. We can start training tomorrow if you’re up for it.” Edge helped me get settled and kissed me on the forehead. “I’m going to go with Rainy and fill everyone in on what’s going on,” he said, placing his finger over my lips to stop me from arguing with him.

Stubborn man
, I thought. I’d rest alright, but he had better be ready come tomorrow because I wasn’t going to be placated anymore after today.

I woke to the soft sounds of Edge’s deep slumber and turned over to face him. His midnight hair was covering his eyes, so I gently swept it back to get a better look at him. His eyes fluttered open and blinked to focus on me.

“I’m sorry I woke you.”

“S’okay,” he murmured. “What time is it?”

I darted a glance at the alarm clock and winced. “It’s still early, go back to sleep.”

His eyes closed and a sleepy smile spread across his lips before he soundly fell back to sleep. I got out of bed in small increments so I wouldn’t wake him back up and stepped out on to the balcony. The stars were almost gone as the sun started to peek its way over the water. A cup of coffee seemed like a good idea, so I crept quietly down the stairs and stood in front of the pot while it brewed. When I made it back upstairs, Edge was slipping a t-shirt over his head.

“I thought you were sleeping,” I said as he snatched the hot brew from my hands and drank deeply.

“I told Jude I’d meet up with him this morning to go over the intel that was blowing up our system last night.” Edge slid his shoes on and swept in for a quick kiss before trotting down the stairs.

What kind of intel would have Edge up so early? I threw on some sweats and raced down the stairs to find out what was going on. I found Edge and Jude huddled over a map. Jude’s hair was sticking up in every direction. His face was washed out, making the bruises stand out prominently. From the looks of it, he’d been up all night.

“That’s four Covens in one night. Last time it was two,” Jude said as he picked through a stack of papers, pulling a couple of sheets out of the mess and handing them to Edge.

“If they keep attacking the Coven’s, there won’t be anyone left,” Jude added. His hand scrubbed through his hair making a bigger mess of it.

Edge dropped the pages he’d been reading on the table and heaved a deep sigh of frustration.

Either they didn’t notice me or didn’t care that I’d overheard their conversation. More innocent people were dying because Lorenzo was still looking for the book. We had to step in and help what was left of the Covens.

“What can we do? Are there any safe locations left to take the survivors? And what about the Covens he hasn’t raided? Can we get to them before he does?” I asked.
“Even if we did get to them, they wouldn’t leave. For some reason, they think they’re safe because they don’t have the book. What they don’t realize is that Lorenzo is so desperate that no one is safe,” Edge said with a sweep of his hand at all the strewn papers on the table.

“So how do we get one step ahead of him?” I asked.

Jude’s fingers flew over the keys. “I’ll send an email out to the Coven leaders still able to receive messages”

“Tell them that help will be available and to get in touch with us at the first sign of trouble,” Edge told him.

I felt giddy in the sense that we were one step closer to turning the tables on the Triad.

“Jude, gather the others in the living room. We need to come up with a shift schedule and a game plan,” Edge said as he grabbed a stack of papers. “I’ll put this in some kind of order so that everyone can look at what we have so far. Maybe there’s a pattern for the attacks and we won’t have to wait for a distress call.”

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

I walked over to the table and helped Edge stack the disarrayed papers. He flipped through them picking the ones he wanted to show everyone.

“Do you think it will work?” I asked him.

“It has to. We can’t afford to lose anymore Coven members,” he said, linking his fingers with mine. “Ready?” he asked.

The living room had been transformed by the time Edge and I got there. What once was a cozy sitting area, was now more like a war room. One wall was covered with a huge colorful map of the world. Red dots covered the surface, making me wonder if they were Coven locations or all the places that had been attacked. Monitors were hung in various spots on the other wall.

Everyone was seated around a table in the center of the room and to my surprise, Micah had been included. Edge handed the papers to Jude and took his seat at the head of the table. I slid into my seat between Matheson and Micah as everyone waited for Edge to speak.

“Our latest intel is showing a spike in attacks on the Covens. We can no longer sit back and wait to see what happens next. As of today we’re stepping in to help.”

“I’m game for it. The Triad needs to stop killing off our people,” Dagger said, slamming his fist on the table.

“How should we do this?” Jessa asked.

“We’re going to have to do this in shifts. With that being said, we’ll come up with a schedule of who’s going out to assist, while the others watch the intel. There will always be someone here to watch the monitors and report what’s going on to those of us who are out in the field…so to speak. For now, Jade will assist Jude while he keeps watch on the intel,” Edge said with a pointed look at me.

I shot up from my chair. “What? No way! You can’t leave me out of this; it’s my fault this is happening!”

“Jade, it’s not a permanent thing, just until you’ve had a chance to train. I can’t have you out there in the middle of a fight unprepared,” Edge said, gesturing for me to sit back down.

I silently fumed at my inability to use my magic.

Matheson leaned back in his chair, fingers pressed together. “It will only be a matter of time before the Triad turns their attention back on us. How will we keep them out once we start fighting back?”

“The house is heavily spelled and will protect us from attacks. To be on the safe side, all of the Triad members we come up against must be taken out,” Edge replied.

“Won’t the Triad know something is up? Don’t you think they’ll be just a little suspicious that someone is fighting back? None of the other Covens have done it before,” Dagger asked.

Jude jumped in. “Maybe they’ll think the Covens have finally decided enough is enough.”

“They will definitely know something is going on when their Enforcers don’t return after the attacks. The key thing here is to stay in the shadows, don’t let anyone get by you. We can’t afford a tip-off to the Triad that it’s us fighting back. Especially since Jade now has access to the spell book. We have no idea what Lorenzo wants from the book. Until we find out all of us need to stay off his radar,” Edge said.

“I have news for you Edge. If you think Lorenzo is just going to tell anyone what he wants from that book, you are sadly mistaken,” Matheson said as he got up and studied the map.

Edge blew out a pent up breath. “I know, Matheson. We can only hope that our efforts will reduce the attacks.”

“It’s possible that the attacks will get worse. If the Covens start to fight back, he’s going to think they are protecting the book and send more Enforcers out.” Matheson never turned from the wall as he spoke his words of doom.

He was right. What could we do to keep the Covens safe from Lorenzo’s attacks? He wanted the book and was destroying everything in his path to get to it. But without knowing what he wanted from the book, there was nothing we could do to bargain with him - short of offering myself up.

“Right now, the only option is defense. We can’t sit back and let him destroy all the Covens in his quest. They’ve gone from shakedowns to murder. Until we know what the book can do, we have no choice but to protect those who cannot, or will not, protect themselves,” Edge said, pausing to look at everyone. “What I need to know is, are you in?”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

After the meeting in the room I’d dubbed the War Room, Edge put himself on Jade-training detail. The padlock finally seemed off and a thick current of energy was running over my skin. I felt alive. Sure, I’d just tumbled across the sand, even got a good sized mouthful of it, but I knew there was more he could hit me with. It was like there was something he was still holding back on.