Casted (Casted series) (9 page)

“Are you okay?” I asked them.

Edge turned to look at us. “They will be fine in a minute. It’s not very pleasant for card-carrying white magics to pass through.”

“How come it didn’t do that to me?” I asked.

He quirked a brow at me, “I should ask you the same thing, but since you don’t know, my only guess is you’re not as pure as you look.”

Dagger straightened himself up and clasped my arm. Julie was trying to right herself, but after several attempts to swallow the bile, she finally bent over and retched. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and grimaced. “That was awful,” she said.

“So tell me how it is that you two,” Edge pointed at Dagger and Julie, “were the only two affected.”

“She’s the one the Triad is seeking,” Julie blurted out.

Dagger groaned.

“Well then, it appears you’re the one I should thank for all my unwanted guests.” He looked up at the top of the dome and shook his head. “I guess I’ll need to add another layer of protection.” He walked away, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

“Come on, lets go see what we can find out,” Dagger said as he gently tugged me forward.

Jessa came barreling out the door and slammed into me, almost tumbling us to the ground. She was sobbing words so jumbled, that I didn’t try to make sense of.

“Oh, Jade, it’s awful. They have them. They have Rainy and Matheson.” She looked at Dagger.

He pulled in a sharp breath. “When?” he asked.

“Yesterday. They were on their way here and were attacked at the Crows Nest House.” She wiped the tears from her face and tried to pull herself together.

“Did anyone here see what happened?” he asked.

“There was one girl who was able to slip away from the group. You have to talk to her. She’s the only one who can explain what happened in detail. I don’t understand it, why would she be the only one that got away?” Jessa wiped another tear off her cheek.

“If there was only one person that made it and all the others were caught, then we have a serious problem,” Dagger said.

“She’s a plant,” Julie whispered.

“We aren’t safe here. We have to leave before she sees us,” Dagger told me.

“I’ve handled it,” Edge said from behind us.

Dagger whipped around to face him.

“What do you mean you’ve handled it?”

“After she showed up and explained what happened, I did a little meddling. Mind you, it won’t hold forever, but it will buy us some time.” Edge tapped his head with his finger.

Dagger relaxed a little and eyed Edge. “How much time?”

“A week, maybe two.” Edge stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “That is, if we can tolerate each other that long.”

Dagger snorted, “We don’t have a choice.”

“There are a few Covens here that have their elder with them. They are all trying to power play each other. It won’t be easy to get them all to follow one person. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll leave because you’re here.” Edge smirked.

He walked past us and went inside the house as voices started getting louder. Before we could walk in the door, two men began shouting at the top of their lungs at each other.

“Enough…both of you shut your mouths, before I toss you outside the boundary,” Edge’s voice boomed. The men quieted instantly.

Others milled around the house. Some quietly talked amongst themselves, while others looked to be preparing a meal. When Dagger stepped into the room, they all turned to see the newest arrivals.

“Dagger, my boy, we’ve heard about Matheson. What do you think the Triad wants with him?” an elderly man asked when he walked up to shake his hand.

Edge walked away without a word, leaving us to deal with the group of vagrants as he had called them.

Dagger spoke low enough for only the man to hear. With each word, they made their way closer to the door. Before stepping out, the man turned with a gasp and stared at me. Dagger pulled the man outside and slammed the door shut.

Everyone turned to look at Julie and me.

“Hello, everyone, oh…is that cheese?” Julie asked as she walked over to the table and plucked up a cube and tossed it into her mouth.

Jessa tugged on my arm and I followed wordlessly. We ended up in a large den. The desk was stacked with papers and a computer. The walls were lined with leather bound books. A sturdy leather couch sat snugly against the wall under a lace trimmed, curtained window. My eyes wandered around the room as Jessa pulled me over to a couch and gestured for me to sit.

“I’ve been worried sick about you,” she said squeezing my hand.

“What happened?” I asked her.

“We’ve been jumping from safe house to safe house. Every time we’d get to one, the Triad would show up not long after and blow it up.” She sighed. “We almost didn’t make it out of the last one.”

“Jessa, why are they so determined to get to me?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. I overheard two of Matheson’s men talking. They said something about a book and made mention of you, but then all hell broke loose and we were running again.” She shrugged.

“A book?” Could it be the same book Dagger had been talking about?

“Yeah, but none of it makes sense. Who cares about a book? If they are looking for a book, why would they be so dead set on getting their hands on you?”

“Dagger said something about a book of spells that is missing. He thinks the Triad needs me in order to complete a spell. We should talk to those two men and see what they know.”

“That’s gonna be a problem,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because they didn’t make it here,” she replied.

“Didn’t make it here? They died?”

“I don’t know. One minute we were standing in the living room at Riverside Manor discussing what our next move would be, and then the house started collapsing around us. Only a few of us made it here and they weren’t with us.”

“At least the girl that was with Rainy and Matheson was able to get away,” I said.

“Yeah and she’s a plant. I doubt we’d get anything useful from her. More than likely, she will have the whole Triad breathing down our necks in no time.” Jessa rolled her eyes as she tossed herself back against the couch to slump.

The door to the den opened and Edge walked in. “I told you, I handled it. Now if you don’t mind…” he said, pointing at the door. He wanted us to leave. Tough, I had questions.

“Jessa, can you give me a second?” I asked.

Jessa looked from Edge to me, and then back again. “Sure.” She looked confused that I would want to talk to Edge on my own. I waited for her to close the door before I spoke.

“Thank you for allowing us to stay,” I told him.

“It’s not as if I have a choice,” he replied. He was trying to ignore me by busying himself at his desk. He turned his computer on and began sorting through papers, while he waited for the machine to start up.

“What do you mean, you have no choice?” I asked.

“Look, I understand you have questions. However, I’m not the one who can enlighten you, nor do I want to be.” He again gestured for the door.

“How is it that you and I walked through the barrier unaffected, yet Dagger and Julie were so sick?” I hadn’t been completely unaffected by it, but close enough.

Edge scowled at me, not answering. There was something about us that had to be similar. I stared back at him as I tried to put the pieces together myself. Dagger had called him a plant. He had said that the house was protected by dark magic. So if Dagger was that uncomfortable about staying here, it could only mean one thing. Edge was still a part of the Triad. My eyes widened.

“Put it together yourself, didn’t you?” he smirked.

“You’re Triad?” I sputtered.

“Like you, I’m
part
Triad,” Edge replied.

“Part?”

“Yes, part. My mother, may her soul rest in peace, married Lorenzo, the Triad leader. My real father died when I was very young.” Edge began clicking away on his keyboard, still attempting to ignore me. I wasn’t going to be put off quite that easily.

“Are there more like us?” I asked.

“Why, you want to have a mixed Coven reunion?” He was being a sarcastic ass and I wasn’t going to fall into an argument with him. I really needed him to answer my questions.

“I’m just trying to understand why I’ve been singled out by the Triad,” I said.

“You can thank your ass-hat of a grandfather for that,” Edge said as he got up and went to the wall of leather bound books. Slowly, he slid his finger along the spines before coming to a stop and pulling one of the worn tomes off the shelf.

He turned the book over, inspecting it as he made his way over to stand in front of me.

“Here, this has a little history about the Triad. Maybe it will give you an insight to just how sick and twisted they really are.” He tossed the book into my waiting hands. I grabbed his sleeve before he could walk away from me.

“Wait a second. Why can’t you just talk to me about it? Why do I have to read the book?” I asked.

“People are dying because of you. People will continue to die because of you. The least you can do is take a few hours to understand it first hand. After all, that is one of your grandfather’s journals. Nothing better than getting to know your family though their writing, even if they are certifiable.” He had leaned in close to me as he spoke, anger etched on his face.

“I never asked for any of this, Edge. I’m trying really hard to understand what is going on around me. At least you know who you are. I haven’t had a chance to, since I’ve been running all my life without any answers, so excuse me if I ask a few questions.” My chest heaved in and out. My temper was getting the best of me. Edge was putting me on the brink of my own sanity.

He grabbed my face firmly with one hand. It didn’t hurt. It just held me in place. His face came closer, so close I could feel his breath along my skin. I sucked in a sharp breath as his nose slid along my cheek and he inhaled deeply. “It could be so easy, you and me,” he said as his lips hovered closely to mine. I realized he was about to kiss me and I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to move.

The door slammed open and Dagger walked in.

“Get your hands off of her!” he snarled.

Edge slowly slid his hand from my face, down my neck, and let go. My legs began to shake as I backed away. Dagger pulled me to his side and walked me out of the room. Edge called out to me, “When you’re done reading that, I will be waiting for you.” Meaning that the book I held firmly clasped to my chest was probably only going to confuse me with more unanswered questions.

Dagger pulled me outside and spun me around to face him. “Are you okay? Jessa should not have left you alone with him.”

“I’m fine. He’s just trying to rattle me.” I tried for a half smile.

“Looked more like he was trying to kiss you,” Dagger argued.

“It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t have let him anyway.” I wasn’t going to get into the fact that I was intrigued with Edge.

There was a reason that he was pulling out all the stops to rattle me. He started out with indifference, trying to brush me off. He turned it to anger when I wouldn’t walk away, and from there, he moved to seduction. Maybe he thought if he had me flustered enough, I’d stop questioning him, questioning me–questioning us.

Dagger shook his head and sighed. “Just be careful. He’s not what you think, okay?”

I nodded my head in acknowledgement. I wasn’t going to fight with Dagger about Edge. I didn’t want anymore tension than there already was.

“What are we going to do, Dagger?” The Triad has Rainy and Matheson. What do you think they are planning to do with them?”

“I don’t know. I think we should talk to the girl that was with them,” he replied.

“But you think she’s a plant.” It wasn’t likely we could get any reliable information out of her if she was planted by the Triad.

“If Edge took care of it, then he’s blocked any sort of spell she would have on her. She might give us information we need. At this point, at least it’s something,” he replied.

“There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you,” Jessa called out.

Dagger stepped in front of me, blocking Jessa. “If you ever leave Jade alone with Edge again…”

Jessa flicked her hand as if batting his words away. “Chill out. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s on our side,” she said.

“He’s on no-one’s side. The sooner you accept that, the safer we’ll all be,” Dagger warned her. He walked away, ending the conversation.

“Gah, I hate to see him leave, but I love to watch him go.” Jessa wiggled her eyebrows at me. “He’s a serious hottie, with a seriously bad attitude. Nice backside though,” she said, fanning herself.

“You have issues,” I told her. I pulled her with me. “Come on, I think he’s going to go question the girl that Edge mind jacked.”

“I hope she has some information on Rainy. I’m really worried what the Triad will do, and there is no one here willing to go infiltrate the bad guys. I’ve been trying to round people up, since that girl showed up without Rainy and Matheson.” Jessa shoved her hands in her pockets as she walked beside me.

“When were Rainy and Matheson taken?”

“Yesterday evening. I got here about an hour or so before she showed up. Should have seen her, she was freaked out. Edge walked up to her and grabbed her by the face and forced her to look at him and she went all vacant after that.”

“Vacant?” I questioned.

“The lights are on, but nobody’s home,” Jessa said, circling her finger at her head.

“I hope he didn’t scramble her brains,” I sighed.

“Seriously? Have you looked at that guy? He’d scramble any girl’s brain, just by being in close proximity.”

“You have no idea,” I mumbled.

I scanned the kitchen upon entering. Dagger was nowhere to be seen. Before I could continue on to the living room, an older woman came up and gently touched my arm.

“Dagger asked me to tell you to meet him on the back porch,” she said with pat to my arm. She turned to walk away as I murmured my thanks.

Jessa led the way to the back porch. My stomach tightened with worry on what the girl would say. Had they been injured? Were they still alive? It had been more than a few hours since they were taken. Anything was possible at this point. No matter how we looked at it, there really was only one option. We had to get them back and that meant diving further into the danger already surrounding us.