Reawakened (Chronicles of Cas Book 1) (3 page)

Gigi shot me a funny look. Us underlings usually weren't supposed to talk to Guardian Elite's like that, but I figured Jake and I went back far enough that he could take a little ribbing from and old friend. If he couldn't, oh well.

I inclined my head toward Gigi. "She's the one who first noticed something was up with the line. When you got here, I was about to head out to see what I could find."

Gigi stared at Jake. "So, you're here to help us with the line?"

"No. He came here to tell me my brother was captured by an evil posse of we don't know what and that evil posse has been messing with hot spots all over the UK-US line."

Gigi closed her eyes. "Stonehenge."

I grunted in agreement. "Jake thinks they lured Damen away for a reason. To focus on Salem? To get him? We're not sure."

"Well..." Her eyes scanned from me to Jake. "Wait. You seem awfully calm for someone who just found out her brother has been captured and that you have to fix the ley line. That's not like you."

"What can I say? I'm channeling my brother. Speaking of--" I turned to Jake. "A fae relayed a message from him earlier today. He told me to run."

Jake's eyes darkened. "Damen sent a fae here?"

"Not here. I was at the library. The guy said he owed Damen a favor and this is how Damen cashed it in."

"What else?"

I shrugged, casting an accusatory glance at Gi. She'd interrupted me earlier before I could find out anything.

"Who was he? I can get Command to bring him in for questioning."

I shrugged again.

Gigi giggled, but Jake's face turned an angry red. "Cas. He could've led us to your brother. You always get a fae's name. That's entry level tactics."

"If I'd known the extent of everything, I would have asked him nicely what his name was
before
I nicked him with my blade. He wasn't too willing to give me any info after that."

Jake's lips thinned. I couldn't tell if he was about to smile or frown. It looked like a cross between both, actually.

"Bottom line, we don't have that info. Nothing we can do about it now."

Jake smiled at Gi. "Excuse us." He walked forward, grabbed me by the shoulders, and walked me backward into the dining room. In a whisper, he said, "Your brother sent you a message to leave. You're still here. Why?"

I shrugged. It wasn't really any of Jake's business anymore.

"Don't give me that shit."

My neck grew hot. I rubbed it with my hand. "Wow, and here I thought they taught Elite's better than that." His serious face urged an answer from me, though. "I can't run, Jake. You know that. I'm needed here. Damen wouldn't run and he shouldn't expect me to either, big brother or not. If it was you, he wouldn't ask you to run."

Jake closed his eyes, probably remembering the same thing I was. The past. Mistakes. Some too big to come back from. "Let me portal you somewhere. I'll get a group of Elite's in here and we'll make sure nothing happens to Salem. Promise."

I started to shake my head before he even finished his sentence. "Not going to happen. I'm needed here. This is my job."

"Damen wanted you away from all this. He must have had a reason."

"And I'm sure it's a good one, but no one knows my own strength like me. I'm fine. I can handle this without him."

His hand relaxed on my shoulder. "I'm staying in Salem. And before you tell me again that you can do it yourself, I know that. I'm staying because I want to help."

I blinked up at him. Even with the years apart, he was still the same Jake I grew up with. "You're sure?"

"Where else would I go?"

I wanted to throw my arms around him and squeeze. Over the years, I've tried to erase Jake from my memory, but when someone makes such an impact on you, it's hard. Whether or not he left us, I felt myself slipping back into old patterns. Jake and Cas were here. We were only missing Damen and then we would be complete again.

"We need a plan," I said.

His lips twitched. "Not just any plan. We need a good one."

That was one of Damen's favorite sayings. Oh god. Damen. What were we going to do?

Jake rubbed my shoulder. "I know him. He's fine. Wherever he is, he's giving someone hell."

I sure hoped so.

Chapter Four

Jake, Gigi, and I sat at the kitchen table. A map of the ley line rolled out in front of us. The line went right through the middle of Salem, but it had strong points and weak points here just like it did at different points all over the world. Years ago, a bunch of pre-teens and teens, including Damen and Jake, figured out how to put the line to sleep after an evil wizard woke it up. He thought with control of the largest ley line in the world, he'd have ultimate power, be a god of the magical world. The only thing he succeeded in doing was turning on the ley line though. Thankfully.

With the ley line awake though, it forced Damen and Jake to grow up fast. They went from riding their bikes and skateboards around town to finding all the magical weapons our ancestors in SPAWN hid so they could destroy the evil magical beings the energy called. It took them years of fighting for Salem and researching to finally figure out how to turn the ley line back off. Even now, it wasn't necessarily off off, like it had been before the evil witch coven turned it on, but it was better than nothing. The ley line's energies and dormant power attracted the supernatural to live here, but not like when it was on full power. Today, we all lived in peace with one another. The humans knew nothing of the magical world and it was the guardians' job to keep it that way. If they knew, all hell would break loose.

I racked my brain trying to remember what Damen told me about how they put the line to sleep. He called it something like hypnotizing, but I wasn't quite sure. I didn't even know where to begin something like that except to talk to the witches. In my experience though, besides Gi of course, witches were as tricky as fae. There was only one coven in town they I would feel comfortable talking to about this--Gi's coven, and her High Priestess always gave me the creeps.

What was I talking about? Relying on witches?

"Jesus. This is bullshit." I pushed the map away and stood. "We don't even know what the hell is wrong with the line. If we don't know what's wrong with it, how are we supposed to freaking fix it?"

Jake's eyes bulged out of his head.

I sneered at him. "You try facing down the sharp end of a wolverine's incisor when you're thirteen and not pick up some choice words to help you cope."

He grinned. "You were twelve. If I remember correctly, you kicked its ass."

"Whatever. I was young."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "We were all young. Too young."

Gigi rose and stood next to me. "Well, while you two bicker like brother and sister, I'll go ahead and execute a plan."

I raised an eyebrow.

She smiled prettily at Jake. "My coven can perform a ritual to show us the weak spots in the line. Spots that aren't concealing it. We might even be able to tell you what kind of magic it is, if it's magic doing it at all."

He rubbed the stubble on his chin. "I've heard some witches can even tell the mark of another witch's power. If it's magic, could you tell us which witch did it?"

Her nose scrunched as she looked up at the ceiling. I could almost see the wheels in her little Wiccan mind working. "Perhaps. It's difficult to do. We'd need a lot of energy, but since the ley line is giving off a ton of extra energy, it might even give us the fuel we need to pull something like that off."

I looked back and forth between the two. It was different seeing Jake in Elite mode. He'd always just been Jake when I was younger. Five years younger than them, I wasn't usually included in their group, but when I got older, Damen introduced me to our family history, our family duty. From the age of eleven, I'd been training to be a guardian just like them. It was too bad Jake left after he turned eighteen. I know it killed my brother to see him go. Hurt me, too.

Gi rested her hand on Jake's bicep and then laughed at something he said. Unease shivered up my spine. Jeez. Could she be any more obvious? She might as well hang an Open sign around her neck.

I shook my head at myself. That was mean. Gi was my friend and I knew what I was really trying to say. I was jealous. Jake was my older brother's best friend. Of course I'd had a major crush on him when I was younger. Who didn't have crushes on their brother's friends? Especially ones like Jake. He was always so nice. When we were young, he treated me better than Damen did.

Gi waved a hand in front of my face. "You there?"

I flinched. "Yeah. Here. What's up?"

"You should probably suit up. Jake and I decided we'd go to my coven and ask them to perform the spell. See if we can't figure out what happened to the ley line so we can figure out how to stop it."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not a Power Ranger, Gigi. I don't need to suit up."

She laughed, her voice twinkling. "Fine. Do whatever it is you do. I'll head out now and prepare the others. You'll be along?" This last part she said to Jake, her eyelashes fluttering.

The tips of his ears turned pink. Jesus. We had way more important things to worry about than flirting. "We'll be there," I said, nodding toward the door hoping she'd show her way out.

She did. She gave us both a wave, half laughing at my frankness. She knew enough about me by now that she wasn't offended. That's just how I was sometimes.

As soon as the front door closed, I ran up to the attic. Jake's heavy footsteps followed mine. I went in and grabbed some of my stash. I still had my trusty all-in-one Damascas on me. I also grabbed the spike and the harpoon. Hey. You never know what you might need.

I tried to hand the spike to Jake but he shook his head and took a step back. No thanks. I've got my own. Jake unsheathed a long sword. Shiny and pointy in all the right places.

"Beautiful," I said. I reached out and tested the edge with my pointer finger. Sharp. I was in love. "First kill with it?"

Jake shook his head, laughing to himself. "You are nothing like your brother. I don't know what I expected, but..."

"Is it the hair? It's probably the hair." I unsheathed my small hooked blade and displayed it for him. "Shifter. Right in the chest."

He grimaced. "I know. I was there."

I smiled wide. I still looked fondly on that kill. Nervous as all hell, the wolf shifter almost got me first. We'd been tracking him for a little while. The damn thing had been infiltrating other packs and taking out the alpha just because he could. He'd caught on to us tracking and caught me off guard. I took him out eventually though, and I'd only improved since then.

Jake followed me out the side door to the garage. We got in the small black SUV and I drove down Chestnut toward the center of town. It would be a bitch to park at this time of night in the summer with all the tourists around, but I wanted to save our strength for when we really needed it.

"What's the deal with Gigi? You're friends?"

I shrugged. "I never made friends as easy as you and Damen did. She's the closest I have to one."

"It doesn't bother her what you do?"

I hung a right on Norman so I could head toward Derby Street. "Why would it?"

"You help expel magical creatures? That doesn't freak her out a little bit?"

"She has nothing to worry about as long as her and her coven don't go ape shit. You know we don't bother with the good magic. It's only when they get nasty that we take care of them."

He ran his hands nervously down his thighs. "She just seemed really interested in the ley line. That's all."

"Of course she's interested. Her and her coven moved here a few years ago. They wanted peace and Salem is giving that to them. They don't have to hide their religion from anyone here. Wiccans are accepted just like Catholics and Methodists. She knows what will happen if the ley line does turn on. It'll be The Walking Dead up in here along with all the other supernatural freaks. She doesn't want that to happen."

Jake stretched his legs out. "I guess you're right. I just--"

"Shit." I slammed on the brakes. A teen boy ran across the road right in front of the SUV. Something trailed close behind him. The weyfinder vibrated beside me on the seat. It was something paranormal. Excitement buzzed through me. This was my job.

Jake unbuckled his seat belt and threw the door open within seconds. While he ran, he untied something from around his wrist and threw it. A net exploded out in front of him, catching whatever it was and tripping it to the ground. In an instant, I was out of the SUV and next to Jake as he stared down at the trapped fae. The young boy was long gone, not bothering to even look around to see if something was still following him.

Jake nodded toward the handsome fae who now sat cross-legged on the ground as if he weren't trapped under a net. "Friend of yours?"

I squinted in the dark. "Eddie? What the hell are you doing?"

Eddie bussed tables at Red's Sandwich Shop in the evenings. Never heard a peep out of him before.

He shook his head as if he was coming out of a daze. When he spoke, his voice had that musical quality some fae had. It was like a lullaby for adults--mostly adult women. "I don't know." He held his hand out. "I'm shaking with energy. I feel like I drank ten energy drinks one after the other."

Jake and I exchanged glances. That wasn't good. If the ley line was awake, I knew it would call nearby magical creatures, but I didn't know it would screw with the good ones already here.