Timeless Moon (16 page)

"I've never stopped loving you, Josie."

It wasn't until
the next morning, over breakfast in bed, that she decided it was time to check in with her family. She hadn't had any visions at all this morning, and it concerned her. It was probably the first time in a century that she wasn't getting hourly visions of
something.
It could mean nothing, but it worried her nonetheless. They decided, after a truly delightful romp that still had her glowing, that Rick should call Raven. While
Josette
hated that particular choice, he was the most logical person to come down. He'd been human far longer than most Sazi, not turning until he was a junior in high school, so he would be able to understand Ellen's plight. And, if things grew difficult, he'd be able to draw power from her. She was going to eventually have to tell Rick about the mating. She knew that. But not quite yet.

She took a short walk around the pond and tossed bread crumbs to the fat orange koi, who didn't seem to fear her at all, using the time to sniff carefully for signs of any other shifters. There were none, even in the deeper grass, so she sat down on a stone bench far from the house and dialed her sister's number into the cell phone.
Amber picked up on the first ring. "Hello?"

"Bon matin,
ma soeur.
Comment vas-tu?"
Greeting her in French would help in case anyone happened to be listening, which seemed unlikely.

"Aspen! Thank God you're alive." There was desperate relief in Amber's voice. It carried over the line clearly, despite the poor connection. The storm had passed, but the morning was cloudy and smelled of more rain. "Where
are you?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but her sister interrupted. "No! Wait. Don't say anything. You need to call me back at a different number. We're in a full system crash."

"What?"
Josette
nearly dropped the phone. Surely she hadn't heard correctly. A full crash was an utter disaster
—the kind of thing she
should
have seen coming. She hadn't had a clue. None.

"Do you have a pen to write down this number?"

"Give me a second." Propping the phone between her shoulder and her ear, she began rummaging through the tote bag she was carrying with her everywhere. It only took a second to find a pen, which had the logo of the Shooting Star Motel, along with a small pad. "Go ahead. I've got it."

"Okay, the number I'm giving you is a sterile phone. We're only going to use it for the one call. You'll need to get rid of your phone after you use it. Use top security protocol. Remember that plan? We talked about the details in Monte Carlo during the regatta."

Josette
forced herself to remain calm despite the adrenaline that was racing through her veins with each beat of her heart. So much code, so many worst-case scenario plans they'd made long ago, when Amber married Charles. There was no Monte Carlo, no regatta races that they'd attended. They were just codes to confuse the enemy
—whoever that might be during any given crisis.

There was a bitter taste on her tongue, and her mouth had gone dry with the same fear she could hear in her twin's voice. Amber recited the series of numbers that formed the cell phone number she was to use, and
Josette
repeated them back.

When Amber confirmed she had the numbers right she disconnected the line. With trembling fingers
Josette
tapped in the numbers and waited for the call to go through.

"Bonjour? La soeur, cela vous est? S'il vous pla
ît confirmer avec le nom de notre grandmère."

That seemed a logical enough
question
—asking for their grandmother's name. People trying to impersonate her might know one of them, but not Giselle. She wasn't a true relative, after all.
"Oui, c'est moi. Grandmère
Giselle
ou Grandmère Helene?"

Josette
switched to English. "Both, apparently. Now tell me what's wrong."

"What isn't?"

She heard the panic in her twin's voice and was surprised that she couldn't feel any sort of emotional
bleed from their twin connection. It didn't happen often, as they were fraternal rather than identical twins, but sometimes when things were especially bad
—

"Calm down. Take a deep breath. Then tell me what's going on."

Amber took a steadying breath. When she spoke, her voice was still a little higher and breathier than usual, but there wasn't the edge of panic that had been so apparent a moment before.

"I have to make this brief. Rick probably already told you if you've seen him, but in case not, we found electronic bugging devices on all of the standard-issue equipment for agents while we were visiting his cabin. Lucas ordered the entire system to be crashed and rebuilt from scratch."

Josette
nearly fell off the bench. The immensity of the problem was staggering. A full crash meant that every agent was effectively cut off, completely on their own. There were protocols for checking in, but that in itself would be perilously dangerous for the agents currently on deep cover assignments.

"I do understand that this is very bad, but what does that have to do with me?"

"Nothing. Lucas is handling it. But there's the other crisis going on. Have you seen Rick? Do you know anything at all?"

She hesitated. How much should she say over the
Une?
Yes, she bought this little prepaid phone off the shelf, but who could say that it wasn't tampered with
before she arrived. It had been the
only
phone in the tiny convenience store. "Yes. We've
…
met."

Amber paused for a long moment, and then a hint of something briefly playful, and immensely pleased came over the wire. "Are you two
—?" She didn't have to complete the sentence. They'd talked on too many occasions about the situation.

Josette
shook her head. "Yes
…
no. I don't know. But he did tell me about the seers. I think I saw the caster in a vision, but I couldn't see a face or get a location."

"We need you here. Now."

That widened her eyes and she glanced around her carefully to make certain nobody was in sight or scent range. "Can you explain?"

"Not over the phone." Amber's frustration was evident. "No, wait. I have an idea." She paused, her voice very careful as she asked the next question. "Do you remember what mother did to you when you were eight."

She shuddered at the memory and began rubbing her arms from a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. "It's not the kind of thing one would forget. Yes, Rick explained it."

"Only Charles,
Antoine, Nana,
Duchess Olga from the Chicago pack are involved. Tony Giodone is fine. Does that make sense?"

Amber had just named all of the seers besides herself with
foresight.
For an instant she wondered
if
…
but no, she had been having future visions. She just hadn't been
in
the visions. Besides, Charles himself had told her that her powers were too erratic as a result of what
Maman
had done. They would have to kill her, because never again would her powers be bound.

Silence stretched along the line for so long that Amber began to panic.

"Are you there? Did you hear me? We need you here, need you to break the spell. They're dying,
Josette.
All of them. We'll be
blind."

Josette
wondered if her sister realized the danger of what she was asking. If
Josette
wasn't strong enough, if even the smallest thing went wrong in a breaking ritual. But no, in reality, it didn't matter. Even if it killed her, she had to try. Maybe that was why she wasn't in the visions. Perhaps she would be forced to give her life to the spell. The others were the true eyes of the Sazi. They watched the future, planned events, kept the entire world, both human and shifter, safe.
Josette
knew in her heart that she was expendable, while the others weren't.

"I heard. We're in the middle of nowhere. I'll leave for the city immediately. Just tell me where you are and I'll take the next plane out."

"No, we'll send Bruce and Lucas with the jet. It will be faster and safer. They know where we are going, so I won't say it on the
Une. But
can you make sure the weather is clear enough for them to land at either end?"

She shook her head. "That's a bad idea. We have no idea how strong whoever did this is. I don't want to waste strength that I may need for the working. There's an airport in Grodin, New Mexico. I can meet them there." She thought for a moment, considering everything she might need to break the magic that bound her friends, for while most of what she did would simply use her own innate power, there were words and rituals that might help. "And when I get wherever you are I'll need a white pillar candle for each of the seers affected, some church incense, and the book."

"What book?'

"The book
Grandm
ère
Helene
gave me, the one that had been in her family for generations. Surely, you remember."

"Oh!
That
book." Amber didn't quite manage to keep the disgust from her voice. Not that
Josette
blamed her. The book had been a gift to
Josette
from their paternal grandmother when she had discovered that
Josette
was a seer. It was ancient, with different sections written in various ancient languages, but was, she'd been assured, a mystical volume exploring the seers' gifts. The cover was made of snakeskin identical to the ones in the jungle cave and the German cave
—which would not have been nearly as disturbing if
Josette
hadn't had a vision where she was inside the mind of the Sazi snake who had been flayed for his skin to make the bindings. It had only
been a matter of sheer luck that the volume hadn't been in the house at the time of the explosion.

Could that have been what the snakes were looking for? But they already had a book. She'd seen it. If they needed more than one
…
Oh, this was bad.

Thankfully, a year or so ago Charles had asked to borrow it. He'd wanted it available for Tahira's research on power wells when she finally appeared in the canvas of the future, which was now the past.

"Do you still have it?"

"Of course. It's at the house in Germany. I can get everything you require and have it all waiting when you get here. We're in Charles's old hometown." There was no hesitation in her voice. "We're having all the others brought here as well, so you'll only need to do the ceremony once."

Josette
understood the logic of her sister's plan, but it couldn't happen in New York, where she'd first appeared at
h
is offices so long ago. Too many powerful Sazi in one place would affect the weather patterns. More to the point, security would be a nightmare. How tempting would it be to their enemies to strike when all the seers were in one central spot. And New York was a major hub. People could arrive from anywhere.

"Amber
…
" she began to argue, but her sister cut her off.

"We have to risk it. There's not enough time to do anything else." Her voice dropped to a mere breath of
sound that only her sister could hear. "They're not doing well
Josette.
Please hur
—"

With an annoyed yowl that would probably be heard inside, she snarled,
"Arr
êt, Yvette!
Stop! Listen to me,
petite souer
—" She didn't often call Amber
little sister,
especially since she was technically the younger born, so it stopped her cold. "You
must
listen.
Not
New York. This must be south, much farther south. I
saw
this event once, long ago."

That did it. Amber stilled completely and her voice regained its usual calm. "I see. Very well then. I must rely on your judgment in this. Where must we go?"

How could she tell her the location without anyone overhearing? She fumbled in her memory just as Rick started to walk down the railroad tie steps to where she sat.

"Do you remember when we visited the grasslands together, down at the tip of the country?"

A pause and then a slow answer. "Vaguely."

She prompted more, without directly saying anything. "Surely you remember that austere British gentleman, Matthias
…
oh what was his last name? Morning? Evening? Night? He built that lovely hotel."

Amber's voice brightened. "Oh.
Oh!
Yes, I do remember him. He was quite the flirt. Yes, I think we can manage that It's too early in the season for anything horrible. Good pick."

It wasn't without reason. The vision she'd seen so
long ago said that the book wouldn't be the one they needed. No, she would need the
other
book
—the one from
Grandmère
Giselle. Even Amber didn't know about that one. Nobody did, except Giselle herself. There were four ancient magic books originally, and three were needed for any great ritual working. Most believed that there
were
only three, which is why one was kept secret. At any given time, those who sought to do evil with them might have all three. But the one
Josette
possessed, and which was safely hidden in Daytona Beach, Florida, could undo them all. It wasn't a power book by itself. It was strictly an eraser. With one power book and the canceling spell, anything could be corrected.

She folded the cell phone closed and removed the small battery pack. Then, with casual strength she crushed the phone in her hand, ignoring the pain as the sharp plastic shards dug into the flesh of her palm. She needed to get out of here, now. They needed to get to Florida before the others arrived.