INVISIBLE FATE BOOK THREE: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) (24 page)

Chapter Fifty-two

I gasped, hearing and feeling the slam of Bran’s emotions ricochet through me.

Van grabbed my arm. “What’s wrong
?” he demanded, his voice urgent for all its lethal silence.

All I could manage was a shaking of my head. I felt like a limb had been ripped from me. I could see Sabina over Van’s shoulder, her eyes wide and worried. At last I whispered through a dry mouth. “It’s Bran. Something’s happened to him.”

“What?”

I glanced at Van, bracing myself from shaking. “I don’t know. I’m not getting a video replay through his eyes.”

Sabina actually held Van back. No doubt he wanted to rattle some answers out of me. Fat lot of good it’d do.

“Tell us what happened?” Sabina asked, her voice sounding like she was coaxing a feral cat into submission.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, still grappling with the weight of Bran’s emotions. “I heard my name.”

“And then?” she asked, her voice low and measured, absorbing the parental role.

“And then nothing. As if he … as if he disappeared.”

“What
—” Van started.

“Nothing else?” Sabina cut off Van. Maybe she wasn’t as much of a lightweight as I’d thought.

I looked at Sabina. It was the compassion in her glance that drew me. “He was terrified. But I have no idea what happened.”

“Can you tell if he’s still alive?” Van demanded.

I swallowed. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean? Can’t you contact him?”

“No.” I all but spat the word. “It’s not like I have him on speed dial
.” That’s right, revert to sarcasm as a weapon.
But it was better than bleeding out in front of them with no clue except knowing Bran needed me.

Van released a heavy sigh but at least he didn’t roll his eyes. “Then what is it like?”

What he meant was how can you possibly use this ability if you don’t have a clue what it is. Welcome to my world!

“I sometimes hear Bran’s voice in my thoughts, that’s all.”

“When?” Sabina coaxed. “When do you hear him?”

I thought about that for a second, dismissing my first response of whenever I didn’t want to hear him. “I don’t know.” Trust me
, I was as frustrated as them. If Bran … if something happened to Bran our plan on how to contain Padraig was up in smoke. But that wasn’t the worst. I couldn’t imagine a world without him. Impossible. Dictatorial. Arrogant. All of that but more. Larger than life. Engaged. Making a difference.

Please
, Mother Goddess, don’t let him be gone.

Van was eyeing me as if a complicated puzzle. Trust me
, I wasn’t. Straightforward as they came. Except for being witch-born, a shaman and a shifter, but everyone had their quirks.

“Can’t you get in touch with him?” Van asked with that I’m-being-patient-here
tone.

“No.” I almost snorted the word. What part of not-on-speed-dial didn’t he understand?

“Have you tried?” Sabina interceded.

“Tried to reach Bran’s mind?” Did she realize what she was asking? She couldn’t.

She nodded. Very slow and evenly.

“No. He pops into my mind. Usually when it’s most inconvenient.” Like now. I glanced around
, sure a Were or some other nasty wouldn’t be ripping around the nearest corner, alerted by the calamity still roiling through me.

“You never contact him? The other way?” she probed.

The words stumbled on my tongue as I slowly shook my head, every atom in my being resisting the implication of her words. “I’ve never tried intentionally.”

“Because?”

I speared both her and then Van with a what-can-you-be-thinking glance. “Are you kidding?” At their blank expressions, I continued, my voice low and urgent. “Do you have any idea what it means to let someone else into your mind? Throw open the doors to your memories, your most personal thoughts and feelings and let a stranger know everything?”

Okay my voice may have risen a little more than I
’d intended, which is why I didn’t slug Van when he put a finger to his lips. I looked away and not because my eyes started to water. Must be a speck of dirt in them.

Sabina’s hushed voiced reach me
, though even turned from her. “Wow. I never thought of that. Must take a whole lot of trust.” She paused then added, “And even with trust I don’t think I could do it.”

If it didn’t mean I had to crawl over Van to give her a hug I would have and Noziaks are not touchy feely kind of folks.

Van cleared his throat before cupping his finger under my chin and pulling my face towards him. “Look, I know this is hard.”

Understatement.

“But if you don’t try, if you can’t reach Bran and find out what the hell is happening, we’ll be going into that house blind.”

I glanced at the front door where my dad had disappeared only seconds ago, swallowing a fist-sized lump in my throat.

Was this another of these no-win choices? Mind rape or lose my father?

Van gave no quarter as he pushed. “This is more than Bran’s life at stake. It’s Dad’s. And Kelly’s, and your team. We need to know what’s happening.”

I pulled my head away from his touch, making my choice, though I wasn’t happy with it.

“I hate it when you’re right,” I snarled, taking a deep breath, wondering if I opened this door, this pathway inside me, if I would ever be able to close it again.

Chapter Fifty-three

I had a plan to find out what was happening to Bran.

Taking a deep, cleansing breath
, I wrestled with the nerves and the emotions coursing through me. Worry. Frustration. Fear. Mostly fear.

What was happening to him? Where was he? Could I help? There was a way to find one of these answers and doing something was better than doing nothing.

Being on the squirrel train wasn’t helping though so I hunkered low beneath the tree, burrowing my hands into the loamy soil, smelling the scent of bark, of new growth from the leaves, listening to cars humming past somewhere not far away. A robin fluttered by as the sounds of other birds seeped into my awareness.

I’d pulled out my anathema dagger that was against my leg in a sheath. Yes, I know most witches call it an athame, but my mom had always called it an anathema dagger and if it worked for her
, it worked for me. Mostly it was used in rituals, but it could be a weapon if needed. I just couldn’t combine using an external harming device with any spell casting. They tended to cancel one another out, or backfire, big time, on the witch. If I was going to the other side while chanting a spell I didn’t want the dagger to complicate an already complicated situation. So it’d wait here for my return.

If I returned.

Crap, back to focusing and centering myself.

Slower. Quieter. Be in the moment.

Just like spell casting. Bringing oneself to a center point. A quiet grounding before opening up to the universe, to the power around all of us.

Sabina rustled a little then quieted.

Lying flat on my stomach was not the easiest position to summon magic but needs must.

I pitched my voice so low it was more whisper than words. First to acknowledge the spirits watching over us all.

“Light come forth. Clear the darkness. Guide and protect. Light to dark.”

I repeated, waiting until the tension between my shoulders eased. It’d be hard enough to open oneself blindly, but it’d be suicidal to make the druid aware of my presence. Nothing like a hear-I-am shout out.

Only when I was sure did I take the next step. Seeking one who I could not find. Not a scrying spell as much as calling back someone.

“
Yod He Vau He, king of the east.

Adoni, king of the south.

Eheieh, king of the west.

Agla, king of the north, from whence all warriors abide.

Call back those who belong to you.”

A soft breeze kicked up around us, stirring small dust devils with bark, making me squeeze my eyes shut. This next part was the trickiest.

“I seek for one tied to me. Known to me. Bound to me.

By thrice and by syce, I thee call. I thee bind
.



By new moon, by old moon. Power I thee call.

My will be thy will. My thoughts be thy thoughts.

Earth and air
.

Shield harm from me and mine
.



Power bound
.

Light revealed.

I command thee. Be revealed.

There is a reason for being. Journey here to me now.

I seek thee. I call to thee. I command thee.

So mote it be!”

I used my voice to push more power into the last words. The breeze had become a sudden wind, swirling around us. Strands of my hair came loose from my braid and whipped my face. A chill rent the air.

I braced my self. Waiting. Reaching out. Expecting something. Anything.

“Bran?” I whispered, before I realized it.

But it was no good.

Like hitting a hole in space. There was nothing. Not a peep. Just a numb blankness.

My shoulders sagged. My mouth went dry. The wind stilled and then died.

“What is it?” Sabina asked, her voice cracking.

“He’s not answering.”

As if even the birds waited all sound ceased.

Sabina cleared her throat. “Well that just sucks.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Chapter
Fifty-four

A roar welled up within Bran, not that it’d do any good, or that he could release it. He was well and truly encased in the prison of his own rigid body. Whatever the druid had done trapped him.

The vampire cast an appraising look toward the smug druid. “Nicely done, Padraig. My compliments.”

The one called Padraig bowed his head, but kept his gaze locked with Bran’s as if sharing his gloating
mano-a-mano
. There was something in that look that was very personal. Calculated revenge versus an impersonal punishment applied.

“What shall we do with him now?” the Celtic witch asked, licking her lips. “Will he survive long in
this state?”

“As long as necessary,” the druid answered.

One question down. More pushing at Bran, not that he could do anything about them.

“You are ready for him?” the demon spoke up, looking at his nails as if the answer didn’t matter to him in the least.

“Yes.”

That’s when Bran knew he was well and truly screwed, as an American would have said. Not any American, but Alex, who had a fine talent for putting her fin
ger on the nexus of a problem. Of course, she caused most of them. The woman was born trouble.

He lived but could do nothing. And this totally psychopathic druid meant to use him in some way. But how?

Since panic would do him no good, except to drive him insane, he willed himself to give nothing away, even from his gaze, as the druid seemed to be waiting for the horror, the terror to rip through Bran. There was so little he could control in this situation, except his response. For that, Bran would make the druid wait. Forever.

When Padraig didn’t expand on his one word answer, the Celtic witch leaned forward, her glass green eyes bright. “Oh, do something now, Padraig. Don’t keep us in suspense.”

Padraig glanced in her direction as he smoothed the front of his pressed shirt and returned to his chair. “I’m afraid you shall have to wait, Breena, all in good time.”

“You can tell us nothing of the details?”
She pouted. A look that might have been attractive on her a few centuries ago but now only served to show her true nature; sharp and calculating.

“Let’s say we’re one step closer to making our final plans come to fruition.
Zaradian is waiting. Behind him, the others.”

“I could help. You know that.”

He cast her a closed look. “We’ve discussed this before, Breena. You do not have enough power. It must be the other.”

She glanced at Bran, but the look told him she didn’t see a man anymore, only a means. “You’ll be able to use him to lure the Seekers?”

Padraig nodded as Bran’s mind raced. Alex had used the name Seekers before. But who, or what were they? And what did he have to do with them?

“Patience
, Breena, all is in hand.”

“You have the witch then? The one in the portents?”

Padraig gave a small shrug.

Bran didn’t need a seer to know which witch he meant. There was only one
who came to mind. Alex.

His heart, deep within his petrified body, shuddered.

The druid spoke. “This one shall work.”

“But I
-I thought—” the witch sputtered.

“All is under control
, Breena. With him.” The druid cast him a disdainful glance. “She will come. Then we shall have two powerful magic wielders.”

“And if she doesn’t come?” The witch’s tone indicated how unlikely she thought another would risk
her life for Bran.

“We shall start the process with the mage. He might prove to be just enough to open the portal.”

He called out to someone behind Bran’s sight. “Bring him to the laboratory.”

“Yes,
sir.”

The sounds of hurried footsteps reached Bran as someone grabbed his legs and levered him to a horizontal position like a ladder, awkward but manageable and ready to be moved. He could smell the sharp scent of Weres. Why had the Weres aligned with the druid and his friends on the Council? Something to figure out and the sooner the better.

“Mr. Byrnes, Mr. Noziak is at the door to have a word with you.”

“What does he want?” Breena asked, her voice a little less stable than seconds ago.

“No worries, my dear. I’ll take care of him.” A pause then the sound of clapping hands. “Hurry now. Remove him. Breena, I’ll meet you below.”

Bran could say nothing. Do nothing. Not even call out to Jeb Noziak.

But if Noziak senior was about it could mean his daughter was near also.

Why couldn’t she use common sense for once and stay clear of trouble instead of running headlong into it?

But that wouldn’t be Alex.