Storm: The Empire Chronicles (5 page)

“I don’t remember, but it has to be soon. I was back at my apartment decently early.”

“Ok. That helps.” She pulled the book from me and settled back down on the same love seat we’d been sharing.

“You think you’ll understand any of it?”

“No, but we might as well try to read it.”

“Good point.”

“Do you think there’s a glossary in here?” She flipped to the back of the book.

“A glossary in a witch’s magic book?”

“You never know.” She flipped through some pages. “And nope. There’s none.”

“No index either, huh?” I leaned over her to read along with her.

She shook her head. “That would be too easy.”

“Then maybe we should start at the beginning.” I sat down beside her.

“It’s as good a place as any.” She opened the book to the first page and started to read. “Conjuring a veil is not for the untrained.”

I shook my head. “Would have been nice for my unconscious mind to have read this first.”

“Wait.” She glanced up from the book.

“Yes?”

“You have no memories of any of this happening, right?”

“None.”

“But shouldn’t we if this happened? Does that mean we erased it? Or is it because this isn’t normal time travel? It’s a parallel thing?”

“I still don’t get what that means.” I usually didn’t like to admit when I didn’t understand something, but I was comfortable doing it with Vera. I wasn’t worried about her passing judgement.

“You and me both.” She laughed dryly. “Ok, let’s start again.” She cleared her throat and looked back down at the faded page. “A veil may be irrevocable if not erased completely. A single remnant left behind could change destiny.”

“This is getting better and better.” I started to read more to myself.
Conjuring a veil should be done in pairs, with one anchor staying back.
Already screwed that part up.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out to find the text from Hailey I was waiting for.
911. Please don’t be an ass. I’m at the 1313 house.

I tried to respond in the way I would have back then. This wasn’t the first text of this sort I’d gotten from Hailey.
What did you do this time?

I have no time. Please get here ten minutes ago with a witch.

You are going to have to learn to clean up your own messes.

Get here. Now.

I set aside the book. “We’ll have to leave this for later.”

“Are we heading back to the city?”

“Yes. To a frat house to be exact.”

Vera groaned. “And I thought I’d avoided all that crap by skipping college.”

“It’s not that kind of frat. Well, not really. It’s a Were frat she shouldn’t even know about. She’s not even in college yet.”

“My guess is she’s known about it for a while.”

“She has… and she gets messed up with the Weres again in a few days. She takes Allie to a Were party and gets in hot water with Levi. Owen almost loses it on her. I have to force myself to keep my mouth shut about this.”

“Do you need to call that witch?”

“I do…” I wasn’t looking forward to it.

“Just so you know, you’re not thanking her.”

“Did you really have to say that?” I met her glare.

“Just making sure you don’t take what Georgina said to mean you should make the witch happy.”

“I can assure you the only one I’m having sex with, in this veil or out, is you.” She’s the only one I had any desire to have sex with anymore. I was a goner, and I didn’t mind at all.

“You make it sound like that’s an actual possibility.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do.” She grinned.

I pulled out my phone and texted a friend to get Nadia’s number. It took a few minutes, but it would have taken me a few minutes the first time around as well. Once I had her number I called.

“Jared?” Nadia answered excitedly. “Hey!”

I resisted the urge to ask why she had my number. I was supposed to be buttering her up. “I was wondering if you could help me out with something?”

“What kind of help do you need?” She was flirting, and that was awkward since I was standing next to Vera.

“It’s to help a friend. Could you meet me at the 1313 house?”

“Sure. How long?”

“Twenty minutes?” I’d have to push myself flying, but after seeing how one slip up meant that Allie and Levi didn’t meet, I was afraid of messing up the timeline too much.

“I’ll see you then.” She hung up, and I pocketed my phone.

“She agreed that easily?” Vera put a hand on her hip.

“What can I say? I’m persuasive.”

“Girls throw themselves at your feet.” She wrinkled her noise. “And I’m technically one of them.”

“You didn’t throw yourself at my feet. You teased me mercilessly.”

“Me?” She gave me a coy smile. “Tease you?”

“You’re entirely too good at it.” I took her hand. “Let’s go. We’re going to have to fly fast. I hope you’re up for it.”

“Of course I am.” She pushed opened the door, and I followed.

Neither Georgina nor the servant were around, so we showed ourselves out. I pulled off my shirt and released my wings. I welcomed the familiar rush of power and adrenaline that came from my Pteron form.

“I like the new diesel you, but this is hot too.” Her eyes raked over me.

“Glad you still approve.” I wrapped my arms around her waist.

“Take me for a ride, baby.”

I shook my head and laughed before taking off and starting the flight back toward the city. I’d worry about my car if we didn’t erase the veil quickly enough.

W
e were running
behind my timeline from the first time, but I knew exactly what we were in for, so that would save us time. I landed behind the frat house, glad that it was almost dark. We walked around to the front of the house that was in better shape than most of the non-paranormal frat houses that lined Broadway.

Nadia was waiting on the sidewalk out front wearing a low cut black dress and a pair of heels. I’m not sure what kind of help she thought I needed.

“Who’s this?” Nadia strutted over.

“Vera, his friend.” Vera held out her hand. Her face was tight, and I knew she was having a hard time pretending.

“Jared isn’t friends with girls.” Nadia stuck out a hip.

“Aren’t you his friend?” Vera was laying it on thick. At least she was playing along.

“Yeah. I guess so.” She smiled. “Yes, I am.” Then she turned to me. “Is this the friend who needed help?”

“No, she’s inside.”

“Another she?” She flipped her light brown hair off her shoulder.

“See, I am friends with girls.” I smiled. Nadia wasn’t wrong. I’d never been friends with girls before, but that all changed with Allie. So much changed with Allie.

Vera and I followed behind her up the steep porch steps. Nadia stood back while I tried the door. The knob easily turned under my hand.

“What the hell took you so long?” Hailey turned as soon as we walked inside.

“I got here as fast as I could.”

“Which one of you is the witch?”

“I am.” Nadia smiled. “You’re Owen’s baby sister, right?”

“I’m not a baby.”

“Are you sure? What kind of trouble are you in?”

“I need to erase his mind.” She pointed to a guy tied up in the corner.

“Do I want to know why he’s tied up?”

“He was treating a girl disrespectfully.”

“It must have been very disrespectful to end up tied up like that.” I nodded toward the guy.

“Very.”

“Do you think you are some vigilante tasked with protecting all women of the city?” I wasn’t trying to be demeaning, but this wasn’t the first time I’d gotten a text from her like this.

“It’s called being a good person. Ever hear of it?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” I softened my voice. Hailey had a good heart. It was a better one than nearly any Pteron I knew. We were bred to be strong and powerful—not do-gooders, but she seemed to have gotten all of those traits.

“I assume you want me to wipe his mind?” Nadia sighed dramatically. She was letting us, and especially Vera, know that she did this all the time.

“Yes, everything from the last few hours.” Hailey clasped her hands in front of her. “Also wipe any thoughts of women as sexual objects. You are good enough to do that, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am.” Nadia straightened her shoulders.

“But it’s dangerous. Just get rid of the short term.” We didn’t need to cause any more damage than necessary.

“So he can go out and harass more women?” Hailey put a hand on her hip. “Is that really what you want?”

“Of course I don’t want that, but we have to be logical.”

“Jared, can I have a word?” Vera asked in a light voice.

“Sure.” I followed her back out onto the porch.

“What did you do last time?”

“I said no, and Nadia listened to Hailey.”

“So what do we do? Do we let the same thing play out?” She picked at her nails nervously. That wasn’t one of her usual habits, and it worried me.

“Why are you so concerned with this?” There had to be a reason.

“We know witches are dangerous. Messing with someone’s mind against your instructions, even if it was at Hailey’s request sounds dangerous.”

“I wish I could record you. I didn’t know ‘dangerous’ was in your vocabulary. Or at least that you ever thought it was a bad thing.”

“Come on. Let’s be serious.”

“So what do you suggest we do?”

“How bad would it be if we didn’t wipe his mind?”

“Hailey could be in danger. He’d be pissed and send people after her.”

“But he’s a jerk. My guess is this isn’t the first time he’s done something like this. Can’t we use that against him? Threaten to tell everyone about his behavior?”

“I don’t think blackmail is going to be quite enough.”

“Maybe it’s fine. We can go back in.”

“If I knew of a better solution I’d take it, but if there’s a chance we can’t erase this veil, I can’t leave Hailey at risk.”

“And Jared does have a soft side.” Vera smiled.

“Yeah well, she’s like a sister to me.”

“She’s lucky.” Vera headed back inside.

“It’s all done.” Nadia grinned. She bent down and pulled the tape off the captive guy’s mouth.

“Uh, I appreciate you getting rid of that idiot, but could you also untie me?” The guy whined from his place on the floor.

I felt anger rising. She’d done it without me being inside? I couldn’t air my grievances in front of the Were. That would defeat the purpose of what Nadia did.

“Sure.” Nadia untied him.

He smiled. “Thanks. You can always count on women to come to your aid.”

“That’s right.” Hailey smiled and headed outside.

The rest of us filed out behind her. As soon as we reached the yard I turned to Nadia. “How could you have erased his mind without me being there?”

“What?” She pouted. “You don’t trust me?”

“I trust you, but I still needed to be there.”

“We had no time to waste.” Hailey paced back and forth on the grass. “We still don’t. I don’t want to be here when the rest of his friends get back.”

“What are you doing tonight?” Nadia flipped her hair again. It seemed to be her go to motion when flirting.

“We have plans with Levi and Owen.” I shrugged. I don’t know what I was expecting to learn from her, but this time around I hadn’t even seen her manipulate his mind.

“Oh. That’s too bad. I was hoping we could get a drink.” She ran her teeth over her bottom lip.

“We still could.” Vera nodded enthusiastically. “We could grab a quick drink on our way over.”

Nadia smiled, accepting the olive branch Vera seemed to be extending her. “Great. Let’s go to Mirrored Rock.”

“A witch bar?” I wasn’t sure if that’s where I needed to be. Or maybe it was. Vera was doing this for a reason. I was positive she wasn’t actually looking forward to spending more time with this witch.

“I’m coming too,” Hailey butted in. I wasn’t surprised.

I shook my head. “Not happening. You’re not old enough.”

“I’m eighteen. I’m going to college in a few months.”

“Ask me again in a few months.” Or years. She’d always be a kid to me. Or I thought so at the time.

“Fine.” She crossed her arms.

“I helped you out big time.” And she’d forget all about it. If it was anyone else I’d have been annoyed about her tendency to do that, but in Hailey’s own way it showed that she viewed me as someone she could trust.

“It’s fine. I was totally within reason for what I did.”

“Then why did you send me the 911 message?” I narrowed my eyes.

“I was afraid.” She looked down.

“Yet you didn’t text Owen?” I didn’t really understand their relationship. Sometimes they seemed close, but other times they didn’t.

“He would have lectured me. I figured you wouldn’t.”

“Be smart next time. Stay away from these guys.”

“I couldn’t let them treat a girl that way.”

“Whatever. Thanks for coming.” She turned to Vera. “Nice to meet you.” She walked off toward where her red jeep was parked.

“Are we ready to get that drink?” Nadia asked.

“Absolutely.” Vera smiled. “I’m always looking for new places to get a drink.”

I
’d never had
any desire to go to a witch bar. I still didn’t, but I wasn’t ready to give up on Nadia’s usefulness yet. Plus, I needed to make up for my snafu. I’d been the one to pull Jared outside. Now he wasn’t even sure what Nadia did to the guy. It hadn’t been intentional, but it had been a mistake. I wasn’t going to make any more.

Mirrored Rock was like no bar I’d been in before. The name was appropriate. The walls were covered with floor to ceiling mirrors, and large faux rocks separated different sitting areas and bars. The overall effect was a tacky version of the 80s, but I got the sense that was on purpose. Whoever designed the place had quite a sense of humor. If for no other reason, I kind of liked the bar.

I stayed close to Jared’s side as we continued inside. It wasn’t that I was afraid I couldn’t protect myself, but I didn’t want to stand out or do anything else to mess things up. We needed to make this stop quick before we met up with Levi—and hopefully Allie. I wondered if Allie would be different. Had she changed as much from being with Levi as he’d changed by being with her? There was only one way to find out, but we couldn’t do that quite yet.

Nadia went right up to a large faux rock covered bar and caught the eyes of a female bartender with bright purple hair. “Three Twisted Volcanos.”

“Coming right up.” The bartender smiled before pulling down a variety of bottles.

My first thought was I was surprised she bothered to order me one, and my second was what the hell was a Twisted Volcano? I had a feeling I didn’t want to know.

“What’s in them?” Jared gestured to the large purple glasses the bartender was filling up from the various bottles. None of them had labels. There was no way the health department had checked out this place in a while.

Nadia tilted her head to the side. “Vodka and a few other things.”

“It’s the few other things that worry me.” Jared leaned away from her slightly.

Nadia shrugged. “You’re a Pteron, what could any of it do to you?”

“She’s not a Pteron.” He touched my arm. The contact was warm and comforting, the way his touch always seemed to be.

“You think I want to drug your friend?” Nadia asked incredulously. “She’s the only reason you’re having a drink with me.”

I nodded, pretending to agree even though I didn’t. She wanted Jared, and I realized drugging me and getting me out of the way could give her easier access. I’d accept the glass, but I wasn’t ingesting a single drop of it.

The bartender set down the three glasses, and we each took one. No money exchanged hands, which made me wonder if Nadia had a permanent tab there or something. I wasn’t curious enough to ask. I’d taken plenty of free drinks before in my life.

Nadia led the way over to an empty table tucked behind one of the gray rock walls.

“Interesting décor.” I attempted polite conversation as I slid into a white plastic seat.

Nadia laughed. “It grows on you.”

“You get used to looking at yourself from every direction?” Jared watched his reflection in the mirror directly in front of us.

“I wouldn’t think you’d mind the view.” Nadia rested her hand on the white lacquer finished table.

“Are you implying I’m vain?” He turned to her.

“I’m implying you’re easy on the eyes.”

“Oh.” Jared moved in his seat as though he were trying to find a comfortable spot. He was nervous. I didn’t like him being nervous. He was supposed to be cool and confident. We needed that more than ever. I always needed to be in control, but I couldn’t be. Not this time.

“It’s really cool what you did back there.” I pulled the conversation back to magic. It was the only reason we were sitting in this mirrored place.

“Manipulating his mind?” Nadia sipped her drink.

“Yes. I’ve never seen anything like that.” I laid it on, hoping it had its desired effect.

Nadia pursed her lips. “Humans miss out on a lot.”

I swallowed down the part about me being a bear. I didn’t need to draw attention to that. “Is it hard?”

“It’s a skill that comes naturally to us.” She lifted her chin.

“That’s cool. What else can you do?” I hoped my interest was coming off as normal.

“Almost anything.”

“Really?” I leaned forward on my elbows.

“Yes.” She smiled.

“Can you make love potions?” I picked up my drink as though I were going to drink it.

“Of course. That’s easy.”

“How about make someone freeze in place?” I set down my drink. Hopefully she’d missed that I didn’t actually drink it.

“Easy.”

“Can you time travel?” I tried to give enough examples to make the time travel thing sound natural.

She set down her drink. “Most can’t.”

“But can you?” Jared leaned toward her slightly.

She looked all around us. “It’s not something I’m going to advertise. I could get in a lot of trouble."

“You must be crazy powerful to do that.” I hoped I was hitting the right mix of impressed yet normal.

“My family is one of the most powerful around.”

“Why can’t you tell anyone about it?” I asked.

“It’s a sign of our power. The Society would probably want to use me or destroy me.” She gave Jared a look. “Don’t even think of turning me in or I’m spilling what Hailey is up to.”

Jared held up his hands. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Could you show us how you do it?”

“You have a hankering to go back in time?” She tapped her purple nails on the table.

“I want to see the future.”

“Oh. Even I can’t do that.” She put a hand to her throat.

My chest clenched. “Why not?”

“The way we do it involves starting with a memory. We can only go to a time and place we’ve been in some way. Once we reach that time we can move freely, even to places we’ve never visited before.

I felt a wave of relief. “But you can go back? Like if you time traveled now, you could come back here?”

“Of course. Otherwise you could mess everything up. It’s not time travel like in the movies and stuff.”

“The future would be cool, but going back to the past could be cool too.” I forced a smile.

“We could try it. But only if I know I can trust you.” She looked at Jared. “Interested in doing a little experimenting?”

He coughed. Her eyes weren’t talking about that kind of experimenting. That seemed to snap the real Jared back. “Maybe, but like I said we have to see Levi.”

Her face fell slightly, but she recovered. “Tomorrow night then?”

“Sounds perfect.” Hopefully we’d figure something out first, but now we had a backup. Still, we needed to make sure Allie and Levi met. I wasn’t taking any risks. I also needed to make sure of something else first.

“Can I borrow your phone?” I asked Jared. I’d let Nadia have a few minutes of face time with him. Maybe she’d like me even more that way. We needed to keep her on our side for now because she might be our only ticket to getting back to real time.

“My phone?” Jared’s eyes searched my face for answers.

He wasn’t going to get them until I could put my fears to rest. “Just for a second. I forgot mine.” I didn’t forget it exactly, but it was the easiest way to describe it in front of Nadia.

“Okay.” He pulled out his phone from his pocket and handed it to me.

I accepted it. “Be right back.” I walked around the rock formation and toward the back of the bar. I found a spot by the restrooms and dialed one of the few numbers I’d ever bothered to memorize.

It rang and rang without answer, so I hit end call. I was about to walk back to the table, when my phone rang. I watched as the familiar numbers showed up on the screen. With trepidation I picked up. “Hello.”

“Vera?” Murphy barked out. “Is that you?”

“Yeah… hi.” Just the sound of Murphy’s voice made me angry. I’d never hated someone more. He’d used me, and I’d let him. He’d convinced me to turn my back on everyone I loved, and I’d never forgive myself for falling for his promises and allure.

“Where the fuck are you? And what phone are you on?”

“I went on a trip, but I’ll be back.” Once again I went with the simplest explanation.

“A trip? You went on a trip? How fucking lovely. Did you think that maybe sneaking out on me would be a bad idea?” His voice dripped with sarcasm and annoyance.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I’ll be back.”

“You better come back. Otherwise I already told you what’s going to happen.”

Chills spread across my body. “I’ll be back soon.” I ended the call. We needed to get back to reality fast.