Joseph: Bentley Legacy (4 page)

Gracie stopped and turned to her. “Oh, honey. Normal is long gone. The bus has not only left the station for you, but has left you no forwarding address and won’t return. You’re a Bentley now, and you had better get used to us. I’m afraid you’re stuck with us.”

Chris moved into the bathroom and leaned against the door after Gracie left her. She had a feeling that the woman was right. And Chris thought perhaps she was going to have to keep her guard up in order to keep herself from becoming a part of this group.

Lifting her hands to her face, she felt the mark on her hand move again. Looking at it, she thought of when she’d lifted her hands to push Joey away. Something had scared her to death.

Her sigil looked different. She could see that now. The blue of it was still there, but there were other colors as well. The greens and the reds were new, as well as the yellow that seemed to be wrapping around her wrist and moving up under the sleeve. Lifting her shirt up, she could see that the entire sigil had moved up her arm and was now almost to her elbow. It moved again while she watched.

“No.” Pulling the sleeve back down, she tried to think what was happening to her. “No way is this going on. I’m under stress. I’m seeing things.”

But she knew better. She was changing with the mark on her hand. The words of her mother came back to her then, just as if she was telling her at that moment.

“There are witches about that can evolve into more. And once they meet their other half, it will make them stronger. There will be nothing that can come between them, and the witch will have power beyond anything that has ever been known to our kind.” Angel had asked if it was one of them, but their mom had said no. “We’re not that kind of witch. We use ours to make our lives easier. Like when you want a book to read, you bring it to you. You need to know where someone is, you can search. The kind of power that I’m talking about will move mountains, kill your enemies, and destroy your lives. People will hunt you down when they find out. They won’t understand it, so they’ll try to destroy you and it. Never wish that kind of magic into your lives, my daughters. It is too dangerous for the likes of us.”

“How do you know when they have it?” Her mother had touched her fingers to her forehead and she saw it all. The change to their mark, the way their magic grew, and then the way that witches had been burned at the stake. The witch’s body had flamed up and then suddenly disappeared in a ball of flames.

“You’d do well to remember that, love. And not let your magic get the better of you, ever. Once people find out what you are, it changes them. Makes them say and do things that will harm you and us.” Chris had nodded. “You’ll keep us safe, I know that, but Angel will be more…difficult to control. You must keep her close to you at all times. If they find out, people will kill you.”

And now it appeared that something was going on with her, and she had no idea what it was. Chris looked at the mark again and realized that it was still growing, still moving. Pulling her sleeve down again, she washed her face and hands and left the bathroom. Without knowing what she had to do specifically, Chris knew that she had to go back home and hide again. There was no way that this was going to change her like it had her mother and sister.

Entering the room that was filled with big men, she nearly turned and left again. But Joey saw her and pulled her into the room. She thought perhaps he’d been waiting for her, but that couldn’t be true. No man watched for her. As she was led to the couch, which was near a fireplace that looked large enough to roast several people in, Chris shivered. Joey took her hand and kissed it. Instead of making a scene and pulling away from him, she let her hand settle in his.

“I need my sister’s things.” Micah looked at her dad, then at her when she spoke. “She contacted me just before she died and said that you have it. If you’d be so kind as to give it to me, we can be on our way and not bother you any longer.”

“I was just telling your dad here that I didn’t get anything from her. There really wasn’t any time.” Micah stood up and got a box and handed it to her. “Other than her clothing, this is all that was in the apartment that she was living in. There was food, of course, a few things in her refrigerator, but we went through it all and there was nothing more than that in it. That’s all the personal things we could find.”

Chris was shocked at how very little there was. A framed picture of Chris and their mom, one of them all at some restaurant years ago, and the wedding picture of her dad and mom. A hair brush, toothbrush and paste, some deodorant, and a bottle of perfume that Chris had gotten her for Christmas some years ago were all that was left.

“She said that she gave it to you.” Chris took out each item and looked it over, trying to see if there was a spell on it. Angel had been a great witch. “The last thing she said to me was to find you, that she was dying and that I had to find you. That you had everything. What do you have?”

Tears of frustration made her more upset, but Micah wasn’t helping her. None of them were. She wanted to scream, stomp her foot again, and make them understand that she wanted her sister’s things. But Micah stood up and grabbed her by the arms, and that was when she saw it.

His eyes told her everything. There she could see the glimmer of her sister, the last minutes of her life. And the way she had given this man, the only man she trusted that was close to her, everything that she had. Everything that made her a witch.

“She did give it to you.” He shook his head and Chris nodded. “It’s not a physical thing, but her magic. Angel gave it to you.”

“How? When?” Chris didn’t know but touched his forehead with her fingers and could almost feel the magic, strong and powerful, trying to stay focused within this man. “Is it what has been giving me nightmares?”

“Nightmares?” She moved back from him and he let her. “What kind of nightmares? Do you see who killed her? The monster that killed her, do you see him in your dreams?”

“I don’t see anything. I just wake in a cold sweat and screaming.” Chris nodded. While she did feel the magic there, hidden deep within the man, she couldn’t see how much there was. But it was powerful. “Can you take this from me? I’d like to be able to sleep at night again.”

“I don’t know how. I mean, I know that I can get it from you, but I have no idea how to do it. I’m not that strong.” She looked away from him, knowing somehow that he could see the lie for what it was. “I know a witch that can help us, but I’d have to convince her to come here. She’s not very nice.”

“I can handle one witch. Beg her. Tell her I’ll pay her what she wants.” Chris told him she’d not want money. “What would she want then?”

“I’m not sure. I’m not even sure I can find her. But I’ll start tonight.” Chris moved away from him and sat on the couch. Joey was there, and when he took her hand this time, she gripped it hard. To contact Myra was going to be hard. To deal with her was going to be even harder. And she’d know what was happening with her too. “I’ll try and contact her tonight. Until then, I think we should go to a hotel. It’s for the best.”

Chapter 4

“What sort of personal problems?” Dick just shrugged and handed him the file. Jackson had been right in the middle of a good game of chess online when his boss just barged into his office saying he had to help out on a case that Chris had been working on. “When is she coming back? I might need a few questions answered if I’m taking this case from her.”

“You’re not taking it from her, Hill, you’re working on it for her while she’s gone.” Jackson would see about that. “When she comes back, you’ll brief her on what you’ve found, and she’ll still be in charge of the case. I just want you to work on it. Or are you too busy fumbling through that game?”

Jackson didn’t say anything, but he was pissed. Opening the file, he wasn’t surprised when Dick came around to his side of the desk and closed the game. He’d have the guy he’d been playing with all over him when he logged back on, but that was life. Shit happened and he’d just have to get used to it.

“We’re not paying you to play games, Hill. You’re an attorney for one of the biggest firms in this state. Act like it.” Jackson doubted that Dick Roger did much more than he did in a day’s time, but he was higher on the chain of command and he could afford to play when he wanted. Jackson was going to be there, someday soon too.

“This is a case about a divorce. I don’t do divorce cases.” He laid the file on his desk and glared at Dick. “And I’m pretty sure that it can wait until she gets back. What are you really doing in here?”

“You’re a lazy fuck, did you know that?” Jackson nodded. “Why my father gave this promotion to you is beyond me. What did you do, have something over him? It must have been good, because my dad doesn’t take well to blackmail.”

“I used magic.” Dick leaned back in the chair and laughed. “You might not want to piss in my oats there, boy, I have a great deal of magic and I’m going to have even more before this is all over. I just have one more thing to take care of and it’ll be all mine.”

“Whatever.” Dick stood up and moved to the door. “Work on the case, Hill, or my dad said he’d find someone that would. And you should know that when you log into your account to play that shit, accounting knows it. Just a heads up.”

As soon as Dick was out of his office, Jackson used a little of his power to lock the door behind him. There was too much to do for him to work on a case where two people should never have married in the first place. It actually occurred to him to end one of their lives, or maybe both of them, but he had to conserve his energy. For some reason since he’d come here his power had been draining him. He thought it had to do with Chris.

Jackson couldn’t believe it when he’d seen her sigil. It was as if it were meant to be that he not just work in the same place as her but be with her. But soon after working with her on one or two cases, he realized that he’d kill her soon after they started dating, because he just could not stand her. She was a cunt and a power-hungry bitch. And her magic was just lying in wait for someone like him to come along and make it work. For him.

He’d thought about killing her right off. But he was glad now that not only had he waited, but he’d found out more about her too. Her sister. Jackson had done a search on Angel McKenzie and found out that was where the real power was. And she was ripe for the plucking.

But in the end he’d had to kill her…or have someone kill her. She’d been stronger than he’d realized, and now…well, fuck, now all of it was gone. And the creature that had killed her for him was gone too. His magic and body had just disappeared from where she’d been working.

Jackson wanted to know what had happened the day his plan was set to work. And how not only was her body empty of her magic, but Angel had taken out his man, so he had her power. Without either body, Jackson couldn’t take it from the monster he’d hired either.

“This is not how I wanted this to work.” As he logged back into his account, he bypassed the five messages the man had left for him about stopping a game in the middle, and went to a contact that he’d been using for months now. Since he’d found the family of witches, he’d needed someone to advise him on things that came up. The person at the other end was quick to answer him, which Jackson had found to be very nice. No leaving a message with this person and waiting days for a half-assed reply. He asked the question that was burning him up. What happened to the little shit that was supposed to bring Angel to him whole?

“Have you had any luck finding the croction?”

The croction were a group of beings that worked primarily for witches as hit-men and gofers. Not that they were created for that…that was what he used them for. And no one had complained, so he didn’t stop. The one that he’d hired was young and a little high-strung, but he had a good track record with others of their kind.

“Dead.”

The single word made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Few could kill one of them, and if they did manage it, there was hell to be paid for it.

“You are responsible for his death and owe the council for it.”

He started typing and then deleted it all. Jackson could point out that he’d only hired the idiot that had gotten himself killed, so it wasn’t his problem. That he was dead because he’d not been paying attention, or had bitten off more than he could chew. But he decided he might need something more from the council in the future, and only said that he’d pay.

“Where is the witch, Chris McKenzie
?”

The little icon that told him that words were being typed danced along the screen for several minutes. Jackson picked up the file that had been left for him and snapped his fingers over it. Mr. Smith was now dead. His heart attack had just expedited the divorce for the firm. When the words appeared, Jackson read them twice before he finally was able to reply.

“What do you mean, her power is no longer my concern? And I will not cease looking for her. She has something I want and I’m going to take it from her.”

The typing began almost as soon as he hit enter.

“Then you go at your own risk. We are no longer here for your questions
.”

The icon disappeared and the little message box faded out. What the fuck did that mean? he wondered, and tried to log into the account again. There wasn’t even a gaming site any longer. Everything, even the icon on his computer, was gone now.

He worked on it for nearly two hours. They had to be there somewhere, and he was going to have some answers. What the hell did they mean, they were no longer there for him? They were the fucking council, a place to answer questions. As he searched for the contact that he’d gotten when he’d first come into his own, someone knocked at his door. Getting up, he nearly snarled at the man standing there when he realized who it was.

“Mr. Roger. I’m sorry, I’m so deep into this case you gave me that I completely forgot everything else. Was there a meeting that I should be at?” The man didn’t even bother asking for permission to come in, but nearly knocked him out of the way to do so. “Sir?”

“They’re dead.” Jackson moved to the other side of the desk and waited. He didn’t have time for this, but he knew that this man was his boss. “My grandsons are both dead. Killed just now in an accident when their father was taking them back to my daughter.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, sir.” Jackson wanted to ask what he wanted him to do about that but didn’t. “Is there anything I can do for you? Make some arrangements for you to go to her?”

“No. No. I was…I had just turned it over to you this morning. I wanted my daughter to be happy, so I thought you working on it while Chris was gone would help get it going faster. But then this. Douglas was driving through an intersection, just driving along, when a car came out of nowhere and hit them. The car was…there was nothing left, I was told. Nothing. I’m going down there now. My daughter is going to…I’m going to be there when they tell her.” Mr. Roger stood up. “I just came to tell you to stop working on the case. It’s taken care of….”

The man broke down. Jackson was never good at emotions, and this was well beyond anything he felt was in his job description. Christ, like he had nothing else to do but hold someone’s hand during what they conceived as a crisis. Jackson stood up but didn’t move to the man when he waved him away. As Mr. Roger moved out of his office, closing the door behind him, Jackson picked up the file and dropped it in the trash. One less thing he’d have to worry about.

By the time five o’clock rolled around, he was no closer to finding a link or a contact than he’d been that morning. He even tried to get in touch with someone at the meeting place that he’d used when he first came to this town, and they gave him the run around as well. But one thing that was said to him made him keep coming back to it.

“She’s out of your reach now. You should just move on.” Out of his reach? She was just a white witch whose powers were dormant. It was her sister’s that he wanted, and they had been taken from him. Jackson went home and stripped down. It was time to try his own method of finding something out.

The candles were lit by a breath of his air. As he moved into the circle, he started his chant. There was no way that anything could escape him when he sat in the middle of it. As his body began to sway, Jackson reached out for Chris. He was bringing the bitch home, and there would be little she could do against him.

“Come to me.”

The wall he hit made his belly jump. Digging deeper within his magic, he tried again. This time he had to lean over and throw up, the pushback was so powerful. Sitting up after dealing with the mess, he tried once again. This time he got something he’d not planned on. The woman standing before him was someone he’d never encountered before. As he tried to wave her away, she laughed.

“Listen up, kid, ‘cause I’m only going to tell you this the one time. Leave her be. She’s not going to be anything to you now.” He told the woman, dressed in red from head to toe, that he didn’t want her for anything more than her power. “She’s not going to give it to you. Someone else is sharing it with her. You’re just shit out of luck, I guess.”

“I have powers coming to me from her sister. I want them. I took them and I want them given to me.” The woman threw back her head and the laughter bounced around the room and inside his head. Jackson grabbed his skull when it felt as if she was in it, laughing at him.

“You killed her.” Jackson said nothing. “Well, you didn’t, but you had her killed by one of mine. And that is going to cost you. Or, I should say that it has cost you. Thank you for the payment. Very generous of you. But as for Chris and her sister? You’d be better off trying to fight me for it. You’re not going to be able to compete with her any longer.”

“With Chris? Don’t be ridiculous. She’s nothing. Less than nothing. Her powerbase is less than that of a normal human being. I doubt if she could conjure a simple flame, much less take me on. I’ve grown in my powers, I’ve been working with them.” She only moved around his circle. Jackson frowned when what she was doing occurred to him. “You should have been inside this and I moved out when I summoned you.”

“You think you summoned me? Oh dear boy, you don’t have that much power no matter how many young witches you kill or work on your own. No, I came here on my own. The witch that you called is…well, she’s otherwise occupied.” Her laughter rang around him again, this time making his belly sick. “I’m here to tell you…no, that’s not quite right…I’m here to warn you…. That’s what I’m here for. To warn you. Though I doubt very much that you’ll heed it. And to be honest, I’m hoping—”

“Do get on with it.” The moment the words left his mouth, he felt the surge of power. Not his own, but hers. As he found himself lifted off the floor, his naked body splayed wide, Jackson felt fear like he’d never felt before. As he struggled to get free, she moved toward him. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way.”

“Nay, you should not have. And I am well within my rights to kill you now, take your puny powers, and end this…this idiotic plan you have thinking you can take the powers of Chris McKenzie.” She moved around him and his body, his face, continued to face her. “You’re not as good as you think, are you? Oh, you have a few powers, party favors, but nothing more. You can command someone to kill themselves by stepping in front of a bus. And it looks as if you can maybe, after spending a great deal of your power, make a decision in a court room go your way. And I’ve seen where you used your power to kill a man and his children. Very bad form of you, that one. The man would have been…tolerable; but the children?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But he did, and he was pretty sure she knew not just that, but everything. She only tisked at him, and Jackson decided that he’d had enough of this groveling. “Tell me what you’re doing here. I’ve things to do and you’re not helping me.”

“I am not going to either. And so you know, there is no one that will. Not anymore.” He asked her why. “I suppose I could tell you. I could let you know just what has transpired since Chris left here. But I’m not going to. This is just too much fun, watching you struggle with trying to get her to bend to your will.”

“She will.” The witch laughed again. “Who are you? I’m going to report you to the council and have your powers revoked. They will, you know. Only on my word.”

Which wasn’t even close to being true. He had pissed them off enough to last several life times over these last months, and he’d be hard pressed to get them to―well, answer his questions any more. She seemed to know this too.