Chaos (Book 4) (The Omega Group) (9 page)

The trap door in the ceiling leading to an attic space
sat crookedly in its opening. The folding wooden ladder caught on the molding,
keeping the hatch from recessing fully and leaving a small gap just large
enough for his host to find purchase out of sight. A quick flutter of his wings
and Phoenix’s tiny talons gripped the wooden perch just as he heard Liza call
out, “Tori? Are you in there?”

A moment later he heard the office door below him close
with a click.

More voices could be heard entering the kitchen, and
Phoenix knew he was in trouble. The heat seemed to be driving the guests
inside, even though his human body still conversed with Orano, Gracey, and Tori
out back. The women in the kitchen bantered about the food, the weather, and
the men in their lives while his feathers became heavy with the heat and
humidity of the attic above him.

The sound of running water signified Liza would be in the
mix again soon. Hopefully, she’d run those stragglers back to the party in the
yard and Phoenix could resume his search. “What are you ladies doing inside?”
she asked.

“Just cooling off a bit. The air conditioning in here
feels great,” another voice answered.

Yet another voice spoke the last words Phoenix wanted to
hear. “Speaking of air conditioning, Tori’s power bill this month will be
enormous with her attic door open like that.”

Before they reached the hatch and forced it shut,
squashing his host in the process, Phoenix squeezed his feathered body through
the space beside the folded ladder and up into the safety of the attic. The
incredibly hot attic. The shadowy space held only one small window. A circular
pane of glass divided into four quarters by crossed pieces of wood. He flew
over to it, but a quick glance told him that window held no purpose other than
to beautify the outside of the house. He pecked at the glass with as much force
as he could muster, but his beak didn’t have the strength to break it. He
wouldn’t be getting through it, nor would any fresh air from the outside.

********

“Phoenix? Are you all right?” Gracey asked.

He’d been so focused on his bird host avoiding Liza that
he’d forgotten he was involved in a human conversation at the same time. “What?
Sorry. I must have zoned out for a minute there. What were we talking about?”

“Nothing important. You don’t look so good. Are you coming
down with something?” She placed her hand on his forehead. “You’re burning up.
We should get you home.”

Phoenix’s body often reacted to the environment his host
occupied, but because he could only connect to a bird close by, it had never
been much of a problem. Now, with his host locked in an oversized oven, he
could feel his own body temperature rising as well.

“Tori, would you grab a glass of iced water for my friend,
please?” Orano waited for her to step away, then asked, “What’s going on?”

With a quick glance at Gracey, Phoenix answered as well as
he could. “I feel like I’m locked inside a sweltering attic or something. I
just need some air and I’ll be fine.” He hoped Orano understood his meaning.

Gracey wrapped her arm around his waist. “Let’s get him into
the air conditioning for a while. He might be suffering from heat stroke.”

“Good idea,” Phoenix said as he allowed them to help him to
the kitchen table. He chugged the glass of water Tori handed him, but it didn’t
help. Nothing would help until he could get his host out of there.
Disconnecting from it would save Phoenix, but the bird who’d allowed him to use
its body would be left to die. He couldn’t do that. Just as he could feel the
effects of the heat surrounding the bird, the bird could also feel the effects
of the cool air in the kitchen surrounding Phoenix. That was probably the only
thing keeping his host from boiling in its feathers.

While the women fussed over him in the kitchen—something he
would have enjoyed under other circumstances—he locked gazes with Orano,
jerking his head in the direction of the ceiling hatch to the attic. His
partner nodded and slipped away unnoticed.

********

A sliver of light rushed into the attic through the hatch
as it cracked open, bathing the plywood floor around it. An old masonry jar sat
a few inches from the opening with what looked like a misshapen doll inside. As
the hatch lowered, the light illuminated the jar and the name scrawled across
the front of it in black marker.
Gracey McMillan.
Phoenix struggled to
remember what Gracey told them about how the coven bound a witch’s powers.

As long as the totem remained bound, so did Gracey’s
powers.

Through the hatch opening, he could see Orano gesturing
to the bird to come out. Although Phoenix wanted nothing more than to be
enveloped in artificially created cool air, he forced himself to wait. Wedging
his tiny body behind the jar, he pushed with his chest until it tipped over. As
the jar rolled toward an unsuspecting Orano, a distorted reflection in the
curved glass caught Phoenix’s eye. He rotated his neck to check if what he
thought he’d seen reflected in the jar actually existed.

It was. Row upon row of shelves lined the wall behind
him, each jammed full of masonry jars. Apparently, Gracey wasn’t the only one
to have her powers bound. Not by a long shot.

Phoenix flew out the hatch and landed his host on Orano’s
shoulder just as his partner caught the falling jar.

********

“You’re looking a little better now. How are you feeling?”
Tori asked. She’d planted herself in the chair right next to his at the kitchen
table.

“Much improved. Thank you.” Phoenix disconnected from his
host as soon as Orano let him out the front door. Less than a minute later, the
big guy walked back in with neither the bird nor the jar. “Although, just in case
I’m coming down with something, we should probably go. I wouldn’t want to
infect you nice ladies.” Phoenix stood, thanked each of his nursemaids again,
and held his hand out to Tori. “Thank you for your kind invitation. I’m sorry
to leave in such a hurry.”

Her smile grew as she swatted his hand away and pulled him
in for a hug, her arms wrapped around his neck. “You’re welcome any time,
Phoenix.”

When she released him, a painful tug at the nape of his neck
caused him to wince.

“Oh, goodness me,” Tori spouted. “This darn watch is always
getting caught in people’s hair. I’m so sorry.”

Gracey’s eyes widened, but Phoenix didn’t need to see her
reaction to know he’d royally screwed up. The coven leader had just gotten a
lock of his hair.

“Well, that was a waste of time.” Gracey slumped in the back
seat of their car, arms crossed over her chest. “We didn’t even get inside her
office.”

Phoenix glanced over his shoulder and gave her a sympathetic
smile. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out.”

“Seriously? You guys aren’t going to hop on the next flight
out of here? You said we needed proof, and we didn’t get any.” Although Gracey
wanted them to stay and help her stop Tori, she hadn’t expected them to even
consider doing so. “Am I missing something?”

“No,” Orano and Phoenix said in unison.

Gracey’s eyes narrowed as she peered at her companions. Their
denial came far too quickly and easily. They were up to something, but she
couldn’t begin to understand what. Or why.

“You hungry?” Phoenix asked.

They hadn’t eaten since breakfast so, of course, Gracey was
starving. “I could eat.”

“Why don’t we head back to the hotel to freshen up, and then
we’ll grab something,” Phoenix suggested.

Gracey agreed, although she felt sure they were keeping
something from her. Orano should have been grumbling under his breath about the
time they’d just wasted, and Phoenix should have been recommending she go back
to the loony bin, in the kindest possible way of course. No, they were
definitely hiding something from her.

When they reached their rooms, Gracey waited for one of them
to follow her into hers. When both of the boys headed to the other door, she
stopped short.

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to be left alone,” she said. “You
know, me being crazy and all.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be right next door. By the time you’re
out of the shower, we’ll both be ready to go.” The smile Phoenix wore resembled
the one he’d flashed Tori at the barbecue. She filed the image away in her mind
so she’d never forget his “I’m lying” smile.

Gracey bit the inside of her lip. “Okay. I’ll come over when
I’m done.” With a fake smile of her own, she stepped inside her room and closed
the door. She immediately turned on the shower, though she didn’t intend to use
it.

The door joining the two rooms sat slightly ajar, allowing
Gracey to hear the hushed conversation taking place next door.

“That Tori chick has big plans,” Phoenix said. “She has
several texts about all of the solar flare stuff Julien told us about, along
with some really creepy looking old books. Like, really old, witchy kind of
books. I emailed myself a file from her computer. Take a look.”

Gracey couldn’t risk taking a peek but knew all she’d see if
she did was two men staring at a phone. How had Phoenix seen any of those
things? She’d been by his side the entire afternoon and they hadn’t stepped
foot inside Tori’s office. The only time he’d been out of her sight was when
he’d been in the bathroom. Did he climb through a vent or something? If so, why
hide it from her?

“What about this?” Orano asked in low voice.

What about what?
Gracey thought.

“I found it in the attic. If it is what I think it is,
shouldn’t we take care of it?”

What were they talking about? What did Phoenix find, and why
was he telling Orano he’d gotten it from the attic? He’d never been anywhere
near Tori’s attic.

A few moments of silence, broken only by the occasional
grunt, had Gracey biting her fingernails down to the quick. Curiosity consumed her.
Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, a loud curse from Orano had
her stifling a giggle.

“If a guy as big as you can’t open that jar, I’ve lost all
respect for body builders,” Phoenix taunted.

“It’s going to take a little extra to break through whatever’s
protecting this thing,” Orano said.

Jar? It can’t be
. Gracey replayed the afternoon’s
events in her head, trying to remember anything that might explain what she’d
just heard. The only jar she could imagine Orano being unable to open was the
one containing her totem, but that couldn’t be what they were discussing.

“We should have a few minutes before she’s out of the
shower. Do you want to find a sheltered place outside?”

Although she didn’t hear an audible response, she did hear
the door to their room open and close. Gracey cracked her door as quietly as
she could and risked poking her head out enough to see down the hall. She
caught sight of Orano’s backside as the exit door closed behind him.

Feeling a little like a cat burglar, Gracey ran down the
hall. She had no way of knowing where they’d gone after exiting. They could
easily be standing right outside, ready to catch her in the act of spying on
them. After a deep breath and silent prayer, she pushed open the door. Nothing
but a standard parking lot greeted her.

They could have gone anywhere,
she thought. Except
that wasn’t true. Phoenix said they would go somewhere sheltered. There weren’t
many places she could see that fit that description. None in fact. The parking
lot held no trees and ended at the wall of the next hotel. Then again, there
were a couple of transport trucks parked near the back corner. They didn’t have
their trailers attached, but the cabs alone were plenty big enough for a couple
of guys to hide between.

Gracey made her way to the closest cab just in time to hear
Orano tell his partner to step back. She crouched low and crept around the
front of the cab. Their backs faced her, Phoenix closest to the truck she hid
behind. They’d put the jar—her jar—on the pavement in front of them.

Would they kick it? Maybe drop something heavy on it? Gracey
wanted to tell them not to waste their time. The magic protecting her totem
wouldn’t go down that easily. Maybe after a few unsuccessful attempts, they’d
finally see the power she’d been trying to convince them existed. It might do
them some good. At least then they’d be forced to believe in—

A bright orange ball of fire appeared out of nowhere in
Orano’s hand. Instead of shrieking like any normal person would, he threw it at
the jar like a major league pitcher.

With a sigh of relief, Tori said goodbye to the final guests
of her party, leaving behind only her inner circle. Although she’d wanted to
kick everyone out immediately after Gracey and her friends departed, she’d
continued to play the perfect hostess for long enough to keep up appearances.
Only her inner circle knew the whole truth of her plan, and she needed to keep
it that way.

“Let’s get to work, ladies.” Tori led the trio to her
office. She needed to find out what coven, if any, those men belonged to. “Nicole,
start working on the totem for the one named Phoenix. You’ll find some wax in
my bottom drawer.” She handed over the lock of hair she’d removed from the
GQ
-looking
guy. “Liza, work your magic on the computer and find me everything you can
about those two.”

“What do you want me to do?” Joy asked, appearing more than
a little nervous that she might be left out.

“You and I are going to see what the spirits can tell us.
Grab the board from the closet,” Tori instructed.

Joy returned a moment later holding the spirit board
reverently in front of her. The aged wood, rubbed smooth from centuries of use,
smelled of incense and oil. Tori placed a chair in front of the sofa for Joy.
Before sitting down on the couch herself, she lit the small white candle and
the Dragon’s Blood incense which rested on the end table. Ouija boards were not
something to be toyed with, and those items would help protect them from any
darkness they might encounter.

Joy pulled her chair close enough for their knees to touch.
After laying the board on their laps, she set the planchette on the triangle
carved in the center of the wood. Joy had the strongest connection to the
spirit realm of any coven member, the only reason she’d been brought into the
inner circle.

“Are you ready?” Tori asked after they took calming breaths
to clear their minds. When Joy nodded, they both placed two fingers from each
hand on the planchette, and Tori began.

“With the elements and spirit guides, I ask that the users
of this board be protected from all negative energies and entities. Are there
any spirits who would like to help us by speaking with us now?”

As usual, no spirit immediately made its presence known. For
reasons Tori never quite understood, it often took more than twenty minutes for
an entity to start talking, like they were playing hard to get. With her
patience running thin, she almost repeated the question right away—a response
known to anger spirits considering making contact—but the sound of Liza tapping
on the laptop keyboard stopped her. They had the time to wait.

She cleared her mind of everything but the planchette on the
board, hoping Joy did the same. Several minutes passed before she felt the
familiar connection and watched the planchette move to the top left corner of
the board.

YES.

“Thank you for offering to help us. We would like to know
about the men who were here today. Orano Tulay and Phoenix Reese. Are they really
from the government?” The planchette stayed put.

YES.

Tori paused at the unexpected answer. She’d initially
discarded Liza’s theory that the men were actually warlocks, but the more she
thought about it, the more sense it made to her. She’d all but convinced
herself of it.

“So, they’re just mundanes. Good, I can handle that.” Tori
felt her confidence surge at the knowledge, and then the planchette moved
across the board.

NO.

“No? I don’t understand. Of course I can handle a couple of mundanes.
Even government agents.”

YES.

The planchette moved much quicker that time, indicating the
spirit might be growing annoyed with her. Tori decided to slow things down and
get the entity back on her side.

“Thank you very much for helping me. I’m very sorry that
I’ve misunderstood your message.” Tori tried to figure out the proper wording
to get the information she needed. “Are these two men, along with being from
the government, also warlocks?”

NO.

Tori clenched her jaw to stop herself from lashing out, another
surefire way to anger any spirit. If that happened, it might leave. Worse yet,
it could intentionally mislead her with false answers. She needed to keep it
happy and talking until she figured out what she’d missed.

“So, you’re saying that they aren’t warlocks, and that I can
handle mundanes, but I can’t handle these men. Is that correct?”

YES.

“What are they, then?”

The planchette began making slow circles on the board. Tori
waited for it to stop over a letter and spell out a word, but it just kept
circling. Either the entity couldn’t answer the question, or it just didn’t
want to. A moment later it stopped over the carving at the bottom of the board.

GOODBYE.

“No. Please don’t leave. I have more questions for you.”

The planchette didn’t move, and Tori knew they’d lost the
connection. She moved the board to the couch and stood. Joy looked up
expectantly, but Tori ignored her.

“Liza, any luck online?” Without concrete answers from the
spirit world, she had no choice but to rely on her second in command’s hacking
ability. Not a bad back-up plan considering her level of skill.

“I’m having no luck tracking down a Phoenix Reese,” she
said. “There are plenty of people with the surname, but I can’t find any with
that given name. I also don’t have a way to narrow down my search without
knowing where he’s from. So, I put him aside pretty quickly and started on the
other one. Orano Tulay from Nigeria has an interesting past.”

“In what way?” Tori could see by the smile on Liza’s face
that the story would be a good one.

“He was born in Osogbo, Nigeria, to Deinde and Cherice
Tulay. A few months later he and his mother moved to Tennessee. There’s no
mention of the father. At first I thought they’d just split up or something,
but it’s more than that. Orano’s father disappeared the day he was born.”

Tori found the information interesting, but definitely not earth
shattering. Lots of families split up. “You must have found something more than
just a broken home.”

“Oh yeah. The Tulay name goes way back. At some point a long
time ago, according to the legend, two of the Tulay brothers branched out and
started killing their cousins. They claimed demons cursed their bloodline and that
they’d been tasked by God to root out and destroy every family member infected
with the”—she used her fingers to make air quotes—“demon-like ability to
express the fires of hell from their hands. Since then, dozens of people in
that family—maybe a lot more—have disappeared just like Orano’s father did.

“I’m still piecing together the folklore but, from what I’ve
gathered so far, it looks like the brothers convinced a bunch of other family
members to join their cause. Rumors of their exploits pop up everywhere, even
now. If any of it’s true, they might be the oldest cult in existence.” Liza
continued tapping on the keyboard as she spoke. “It’s going to take me a while
to wade through everything.”

Tori needed that information, but she couldn’t afford to
have Liza sidelined right then. Their final demonstration would take place in
less than eighteen hours, ensuring the rest of the European covens fell in line
for the grand finale.

“Can you get a phone number for someone suspected of being
in the cult? Anyone?” she asked.

Liza scrunched her eyebrows together. “Sure, I guess, but …
do you really want me to just call them? I mean, we’d lose all anonymity and,
let’s face it, they sound seriously crazy.”

Tori couldn’t argue with the logic, but it didn’t matter.
She had to take the risk. “Just call them and find out as much as you can.”

“Guys?” Nicole’s soft voice trembled behind them. “Did
someone forget to close down the scrying board?”

“Of course not,” Tori spat out. “The spirit said goodbye, so
the board is clo—” As she turned to send a withering look to Nicole, she saw
why the girl sounded so scared. The planchette moved back and forth across the
board’s surface on its own volition.

Only a very strong entity could control a Ouija board. To do
so after a user properly closed it down required serious energy and, in the
spirit world, evil tended to be the only thing to amass that kind of power. Had
Tori opened the door to a poltergeist?

She took a tentative step toward the board, leaning forward
to follow the planchette’s path. As though sensing her presence, it stopped its
quick movements, made two slow circles, and began spelling out a message.

S…T…O…P…….T…H…I…S…….T…O…R…I…

Tori felt the air leave her lungs as her chest tightened.
Before it could spell out any more messages that the others might see, she
grabbed the planchette, held it over the carved “goodbye,” and forcefully
closed down the board with her words. “Goodbye spirit. Leave now.”

She held the planchette in place a moment longer, then
pulled her hand back. It didn’t move. “Whatever that was is gone now. There’s
nothing to worry about.” She held her breathing to a slow rhythm, though panic
felt all too close.

“What did it say?” Joy asked.

“Nothing. Just gibberish.” Tori took a deep breath and turned
her attention to Nicole. “Have you finished Mr. Reese’s totem?”

“Yes.” She handed over the wax figure. “What spell do you
want to use?”

Tori took the totem into her hand, opened her mouth to
answer the question, but stopped short of speaking. An odd sensation came over
her, one she’d never experienced before. It felt like a warm breeze blowing
through her.

“Do any of you feel that?” she asked.

At first, she assumed whatever spirit took control of the
board had manifested itself somehow. But that didn’t seem right. It didn’t feel
as though a presence joined them, rather it felt like something had left. Not
the nasty entity from the Ouija board, but a warm power of some sort.

And then she understood.

Tori bolted into the hallway, pulled down the attic stairs,
and climbed. When her head reached through the hatch, her anger swelled yet
again.

“Someone’s broken Gracey’s jar.”