Reawakened (Chronicles of Cas Book 1) (5 page)

"You didn't need me anymore. The ley line was under control and I thought my skills would be better used somewhere else. I wanted to fight and there was nothing left to fight anymore. Damen had it handled."

I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. How many times had I dreamed about doing only guardianship? Too many to count. Was I just settling for this gig? Could I really give up being a librarian, give up Salem and Damen, to pursue guardianship full-time? I could never be the sole Ley Line Guardian unless...well, it didn't matter. That was never going to happen so I wasn't going to even think it. But I could leave like Jake and try and go Elite. I may not make it. In fact, I probably wouldn't make it if I pulled a stunt like I did with Eddie last night and trained like I did this morning with Jake.

"Can I ask you a question?"

Jake nodded.

"How did you know the fae was going to do something last night?"

"I didn't, obviously, or I never would've turned my back on him. You thought it was okay so who was I to tell you you were wrong?"

"But I was wrong."

He shrugged and took another sip of his cocoa. "Happens to the best of us."

I rolled my eyes. "You know I don't get it though. I know Eddie."

Jake cast me a sidelong glance.

"Not like that. But I know him enough to know that he wouldn't fuck with me unless I provoked him. Do you think the energy is turning good magic into bad magic?"

"I've never heard of it before, but you know the deal. Magic is constantly evolving, constantly changing. It isn't like the laws of physics. In magic, there are no laws. There are loose guidelines."

"I think that was rule number one in the SPAWN handbook."

Jake chuckled, suddenly sending me back fifteen years. "No, I think that was a Damen original."

"He is quite poetic, isn't he?"

My gaze wandered to the portrait of Damen and I on the mantle in the living room. It was probably the last sibling portrait we ever took. I was five or six, he was eleven. It was taken right before he was inducted into SPAWN. Right before Grandpa spilled the beans.

Jake followed my gaze and smiled. And then, as if he read my mind, "You know I walk by Grandpa Marston's picture almost every day. It hangs in Command Central for the longest service as a Ley Line Guardian."

"It was Dad's fault. He was supposed to take it over from him."

His smirk faded. "This life isn't for everyone. I think your Grandpa understood that. By the time it came to our generation, we were kind of stuck. Your Grandfather was too old to fight, mine was already gone, and we had real trouble on our hands."

"If you could've chosen though, would you still have chose this?"

"One hundred percent."

"I wonder about Damen. He's so good at this but he's also good at everything. He could have been anything."

Jake looked into his mug of cocoa. "I think Damen's exactly where he should be."

Chapter Seven

I always loved walking into the library first thing in the morning. The quiet calm and soothing, like a breath of fresh air. Then the lights flicker on, illuminating all the books. All those words sitting unread just begging to be absorbed. It's always felt like a place on the edge of opportunity.

This morning though, my solitude was interrupted by the presence of Jake. And he was a presence...of something. I wasn't quite sure of what yet. The way he walked around the place as if it were a museum made me laugh. "What? Is this the longest you've ever been in a library?"

"Ha. Ha."

"I can't say I remember Damen ever calling you up and saying, 'Hey, let's go read some books.'"

He chuckled. "No. That wasn't our thing, was it? But you're wrong, I have actually been in a library for longer than oh, the thirty seconds I've been in yours."

I cocked an eyebrow at him.

He leaned against the reference desk and smiled, his eyes affixed on the librarian nameplate on my desk. "When I was studying to be an Elite. You would think that being broken in by Salem would help--and it did--but not as much as you might think. The Elite test is killer."

Despite where my thoughts led me to this morning, I liked having a foot in both the human and the magical world. It gave me some resemblance of a normal life. Looking at Jake, who whirled around when a group of kids came in for story time, I wasn't so sure he could say the same.

Since he got here, he seemed on edge all the time. He practically launched himself out of the car yesterday when we saw that fae running wild. I barely even registered the supernatural aspect and he was already chasing the guy down. Reflexes like that meant you were aware twenty-four seven. Suddenly, I was grateful that the Salem ley line was usually quiet. As much as I liked to let some steam off by hunting down some rabid paranormals, I didn't think I'd want to live, eat, and breathe it.

Maryanne Coventry, a forty-something housewife and a library regular, walked by and almost ran into the new book display when she couldn't tear her eyes off Jake. I nodded toward a chair in the corner. "Sit down. You're making people crazy."

He pointed at his chest as if to ask, Who? Me?

I nodded and then gestured toward Mrs. Coventry who stared at him over the DVD racks. He did as I told, but put a little too much swagger in his step than I thought was warranted for a glance by a woman known to take out knitting magazines. She probably just melted right there where she stood. I'd have to get Earl, the early morning housekeeper, to come in and clean the place up.

"On second thought, why don't you look around? In the back. Preferably behind some stacks where no one can see you."

"What?" he whispered loudly.

"You look out of place. Go...do something."

He shook his head all the way to the stairs where as far as I could see, he did follow my advice and go to the back. Now I'd have to keep an eye on Mrs. Coventry to make sure she didn't follow after and try to join the "Ask Einstein Club", the equivalent of the Mile High Club for libraries.

I whirled after someone tapped me hard on the shoulder. I jumped at how close the fae from the other day stood next to me. "What are you doing here?"

Ignoring me, he pointed toward the stairs. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"What?"

"Elitey-poo who just stalked to the back like you kicked his kitty. Is he your boyfriend?"

My god. What is happening? Could this world be going any more topsy-turvy?

Why I actually answered his question, I didn't know. "No. He's not."

A singsong voice called out behind me. "Oh, Cassandra." Mrs. Coventry walked toward me, turning toward the back of the library every few seconds. "Who is that handsome man?"

I shrugged. "An old childhood friend."

The fae made a noise of disgust and I shot him a glare.

Mrs. Coventry smiled. "I'd be acting funny too if I had a guy like that who was
just
a friend."

I peered over my shoulder at the fae. He chuckled to himself. "Yep. I'm invisible to all the humans. I mean, think about it, if I showed myself this woman wouldn't be able to stop from salivating. I think she still has a little something on her lips from your 'friend'. If I showed up, she'd probably be a puddle on the floor."

And damned if he didn't actually use air quotes when he said friend. It was amazing how some magical beings acted more human than magical. Well, besides the fact that he was actually invisible right now.

I bit my lip and turned toward Mrs. Coventry. If she wasn't a new resident of Salem, I would've told her who Jake actually was, but there's no way she would know the name. "We go way back. It's nice to have him here."

The woman gave me a lopsided smile. "I bet."

When Mrs. Coventry walked away, the fae clawed the air in front of him. "I thought she was going to go all lioness on you."

Half listening to him, I said, "No, she's human."

He waved his hand in front of my face. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. I'm talking about her claws, as in she'd probably claw your face off trying to get him before you."

"Why do you care about this? Why are we even talking?"

The fae's humor died on his face along with his smile. "I'm here on fae business."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Great. Good for you. Can we maybe conduct fae business when I am not at my own business looking like I'm talking to myself?"

"This is the only place Damen told me I could port to you at. If you'd like to tell me where you live..."

"Oh hell no. Here's fine. Come into my office with me."

I put out the
Be Right Back
sign and walked toward the corner of the room where the Library Office was. I barely used it. I was usually at the information desk or in the stacks. We couldn't afford the luxury of having more than one librarian at the front desk on a shift so I usually didn't get much time in there.

Kicking the door closed behind us, a hand intercepted it. "Where are you--?" Jake jumped in front of me and spun on the fae. "Your purpose, faerie?" he growled.

The fae rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Does that usually work for you?"

"Sometimes, but I know what will definitely work." Jake cocked his wrist. An iron swing blade slid from a cuff on his wrist just like he showed me earlier. It was pretty badass.

The fae's gaze narrowed in on it. "I mean her no harm."

I nudged Jake aside. "This is the fae who gave me the message from Damen yesterday. Now he says he's here on official fae business."

The fae nodded in my direction as if he approved of my message. "My clan leader sent me. He told me he heard from the Salem Clan that one of their fae was taken out yesterday by a blade that sounded suspiciously like the one you cut me with yesterday."

This, he addressed at me. In truth, he was right. I had cut him and killed the other fae. "Extreme times call for extreme measures. Know that I didn't do it lightly and that there was cause for it."

"Cause being?"

Jake's body clenched for a fight. "I'm not in the habit of being spoken to in this manner by a fae."

The fae's emerald green eyes danced. He was loving every second of this. "I guess it's a good thing that I wasn't talking to you then was it?"

Jake stepped forward, but I grabbed his shoulder. "Calm down. I can handle myself." I turned toward the smirking fae. "Listen, I know Eddie. I know he wasn't himself. We were just going to trap him until we could get help, but then he tried to shoot me with a blow gun and well, that just kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth."

The fae eyed me skeptically. "What do you mean wasn't acting himself?"

I cast a wary glance toward Jake. I wasn't sure how much I should reveal to the fae, but really, he'd probably noticed the change in energy around Salem too. It wasn't as if it was a secret when all magical beings pulled their power from energy.

"Be calm for one second. Can you feel something different in the air?"

He looked at me quizzically, but then closed his eyes for a few moments. "Nothing too out of the ordinary. I suppose there's a little more electricity to the air."

"Maybe a little more electricity to the air than what you're used to, but this is Salem, and we've been operating with a sleepy ley line for years. This amount of energy is abnormal."

"You think the ley line made Eddie act...funny?"

I nodded. "Have you ever heard of anything like that happening?"

Jake cursed under his breath and then walked away to the other side of my desk. I was pretty sure I picked up the word insane among the others muttered. I didn't care what he thought though. Who else to ask other than someone who was actually supernatural to see if they've ever heard of anything like it?

The fae tapped his chin. "Not that I can recall. I could ask around..."

This time, Jake all out laughed. "You're telling me you're going to help us find out what's wrong with the ley line?"

"One, there is no us. I'm helping her, Miss Bad Ass Pink Streaks. Two, it's obvious you're not doing anything about it. All you're doing is sitting in the back looking at comics." The fae turned toward me. "Oh yeah. That's what the Elite was doing in the back. I spied on him."

"Why would you help me?" I asked.

He shrugged nonchalantly and tugged at my hair. "I like your spunk."

"Good enough for me. Can you um...can you tell me anything about Damen?"

With another scowl toward Jake, he asked, "The Elite's haven't tracked him down yet?"

Jake's face turned redder than werewolf's blood.

"Please...whatever your name is. What is your name anyway?" I asked.

"Oh no. I'm not telling you my name. Absolutely not. We are definitely not there in our relationship."

I had to laugh at that. When you knew a fae's name, you could call on them whenever you wanted. That meant even when they were doing something extremely important, didn't matter. If I called him, he'd have to come. They didn't give their names out freely. "Fine. Green eyes. That's what I'm going to call you. So, Green Eyes, what can you tell me about my brother?"

"I honestly don't know. If I knew something I would tell you."