Moonlight(Pact Arcanum 3) (6 page)

Jeremy looked back and forth between them. “Sure.” He followed them to the internal teleport gateways, and they jumped to the tower apartment that Nick and Jeremy shared when they visited the Citadel. Letting them into the apartment, Jeremy dropped his suitcase next to the couch and tried to contain his curiosity as Scott took up position outside the door. Then Ana sealed them inside the apartment behind a complex warding spell. “Can I get you guys anything? We’ve got whiskey, Tiamat, soda—”

Layla shook her head. “No thank you, Jeremy. I hoped you would help me with a matter of personal security, actually.”

Jeremy sat down on the couch. “Okay. What do you need?”

Layla took a seat in a chair across the coffee table from him. “Toby and I had a fight.”

Jeremy tried to keep a straight face. “That’s hardly news, Layla.”

Layla narrowed her eyes. “I am concerned that my emotional control is compromised. I am suspicious that it may be a symptom of a larger problem, and I need you to verify that my mind has not been tampered with.”

Jeremy looked at Rory and Take for confirmation before turning back to Layla. “Are you sure you’re not overreacting?”

“Of course, I’m not sure!” she snapped. “If I were, I wouldn’t need your assistance!”

Jeremy tilted his head, examining her. “Okay, I’m convinced. You never lose your temper enough to be rude in casual conversation.” He leaned forward. “You want me to do it now?”

“Yes. The sooner the better, please. Just to set my mind at ease.” She leaned back in her chair, apparently forcing herself to relax. “Do you need me to lower my shields?”

“First let me take a look with your shields up. Maybe whatever’s wrong is tied to your defenses. Let me compare what I see before and after you drop your shields.”

He focused his mind on her and gently probed over her shields. For more than half an hour, he sifted through her thoughts and memories. Feeling defeated, he shook his head. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, Layla.”

She ground her teeth in frustration. “Then take another look with my shields down.”

“I don’t know that it will do much good.”

“Jeremy, please,” she said. “I need to know.”

Jeremy glanced at Rory and Take. Take’s expression was unreadable, as usual, but Rory nodded in encouragement, one telepath to another. Jeremy turned again to face Layla. “All right. Drop your shields, and I’ll take another look.”

Layla closed her eyes and dismantled her mental defenses. When her shields were entirely down, he walked the perimeter of her mind, inspecting her fortifications, but saw nothing to explain her bouts of uncontrolled emotion. He started to withdraw from her mind when he noticed something new. Her thoughts carried a curious resonance that he hadn’t noticed before. He spread his mind out across the periphery of her defenses and listened.
There it is again. An echo of her surface thoughts, reflected off another mental shield.
Slowly, carefully, he tracked the echo, finding it originating internally to her body. He directed his senses lower, following the trace until he found it, low in her abdomen.
Another mind, heavily shielded.
He tried to probe beyond the shield and was shocked when he met a wall he couldn’t cross.
That’s impossible. I’m a Fourth Order telepath. No one can keep me out.

Then the barrier to his thoughts lifted, and a mental probe reached out to him. Jeremy linked with it and found a curious void beyond. Not empty, just unformed. He caught a sense of lassitude, of contentment … of anticipation. Then the other mind came more awake and focused its attention on Jeremy. The probe went through his shields as if they weren’t even there, and he felt his memories being read. He tried to pull away, to break the link, but he was held fast, completely helpless while the other mind completed its inspection. Then the probe withdrew from his mind, leaving him free again.

“What are you?”
he asked, feeling numb.

A series of his own memories reflected back on him, showing the moment when Scott began to include him in his social circle, the day he finally figured out what he had been doing wrong with Ana’s dancing lessons and heard her laugh out loud for the first time, the night that Nick had taken him out for dinner and given him a gift of a handmade wooden frame for him to hang his college degree. He felt the echo of his own emotions from those moments wash over him, and then he understood.

Friend.

The presence bathed him in a sense of approval and then withdrew from the link behind its shield. Jeremy was left alone in his head, staring at the other mind hovering in front of him, inviolate. Then, he backed away. He retreated entirely from Layla’s body, opening his eyes to see the others standing over him in concern.

Rory grasped his hand to help him up. “Are you all right? You just shuddered and collapsed. I could tell you were engaged in a psychic connection, but I couldn’t reach you.”

“I’m not surprised,” said Jeremy. He looked at Layla. “You were right. Your mind is altered, but not by an intrusion.”

Layla frowned. “What then?”

“You’re pregnant, Layla.”

CHAPTER 6

New York City; The next day

Faith Jameson walked up to the nurse’s station. “The paging operator said I had a visitor.”

“Yes, Doctor,” the nurse said, pointing to the waiting room. “He’s in there.”

Faith walked to the door of the other room and gasped when she saw Toby standing there, signing autographs.

He looked up and smiled at her, then turned to the rest of the women in the waiting room. “Ladies, if you will excuse me. I wanted to visit with my sister for a bit.”

Faith swallowed when twenty pairs of eyes swung around stare at her.

“Dr. J…” one young woman said in awe, “you never mentioned that you were related to the Jameson brothers.”

Faith sighed. “It never came up.” She grabbed Toby by the arm, dragging him out of the room. “Could you come with me, Toby?”

Toby allowed himself to be pulled along until Faith pushed him through the door marked with a sign reading “Doctor’s Lounge.” She followed him through the door and scowled as she pulled it closed behind her. “Damn it, Toby! Where do you get off coming to my place of work and embarrassing me like that?”

Toby blinked. “I’m sorry, Sis. I just came by to see you, and they made me wait there. A bunch of people recognized me. I was just trying to be polite.”

“Polite?” She fell into a chair and laid her head in her hands. “Over two years, Toby. Two years since Nick turned the whole world upside down, and now you traipse into my life and say ‘Hello’? Do you have any idea how fast word of this will spread? All I wanted was to do my job—without being tarred by your celebrity, even before you became a Sentinel. Now everyone will know you’re my brother, and they’ll be clamoring for the chance to have me tend to them, just so they can get closer to you. Do you have any idea how much work you’ve just thrown my way?”

Toby swallowed in chagrin. “Oh, God, Faith, I didn’t mean it like that. Honest. I … I’m sorry. Look, maybe I should just go.”

She slumped in her chair. “No, I’m sorry. If I didn’t want you to come by the hospital, I should have said so.” She regarded him thoughtfully. “So what brings you to New York, little brother? Armistice business?”

“No, I just wanted to see you. I thought maybe we could talk.”

“Talk?” She raised her eyebrows sardonically. “You mean like the monthly phone call I get from you and Nick—when you can tear yourselves away from the supernatural long enough to remember you have a family?”

Toby’s face reddened. “We’re not that bad.”

She laughed. “Of course, you are. You’re both exactly that bad. If I hadn’t been invited to Nick’s wedding, I probably wouldn’t have seen either of you again until Christmas.” She leaned forward expectantly. “So tell me. What is it that you want?”

Toby met her eyes momentarily and then dropped his gaze. “I thought maybe I could get some advice.”

She stared at him. “You want
my
advice? Tobias, we barely live on the same planet anymore. What could I possibly advise you about?”

Toby didn’t look up. “I made you a promise once, back when I was a kid.”

She watched him carefully, noting his obvious discomfort, and tried to soften her tone. “What promise?”

He glanced at her hesitantly. “I promised you that if I ever met someone special, you wouldn’t hear about it from anyone else but me.”

Her jaw dropped.

He rolled his eyes and waited.

She closed her mouth. “You met someone special?
You?
”

“I’m not a complete slut, Faith.”

She shook herself. “No, of course you’re not. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so surprised.” She laughed. “Hell, if Nick can settle down with a guy, then you’re certainly entitled to a girlfriend.” Then she hesitated. “Um, it is a
girl
, right?”

Toby rubbed wearily at his eyes. “Yes, she’s a girl.”

“So tell me about her. What kind of woman finally snagged my little brother’s heart?”

“Her name’s Layla, and I … I’m not sure it’s as serious as all that. We just had fun together.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Had? Past tense?”

“We kind of had an argument and broke up,” Toby said sheepishly.

“What kind of argument?”

“It’s complicated.”

“So summarize.”

Toby hesitated. “She gave me a birthday present that I didn’t like.”

She sat back and frowned. “That doesn’t sound like anything bad enough to warrant a break-up. Hell, I didn’t even send you a card.”

“She gave me a magical artifact that she stole from someone that she mind-raped and murdered.”

She just stared at him for a long moment. “Does that kind of thing happen a lot in the Armistice?”

“Only when you’re dating a vampire.”

“I see.” Faith shifted in her seat, at a loss for something to say. “Why would she do something like that?”

“They were at war. Killing each other was the most natural thing in the world back then.”

She shook her head. “No, I mean, why would she give you a gift with that kind of history?”

“Oh.” Toby reached up and pulled the gold cross into view above his shirt collar. “It’s a protective charm. She wanted me to be safe.”

“It’s beautiful.” She ran her fingertips over the charm. “Is there a reason she thought you needed to be safe?”

“Um, I can’t tell you that, Faith. It’s classified.”

She let her hand drop. “So you’re dating a vampire named Layla, who has good taste and bad manners. Don’t vampires always go by a House name, as well?”

“Layla Magister Curallorn.”

Her eyes widened. “Nemesis? You’re dating Nemesis? Isn’t she thousands of years old?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

Toby crossed his arms and regarded her with a defiant expression. “Not really.”

Faith sat back in her chair and regarded her brother soberly. “Are you asking me for my blessing, Tobias?”

He swallowed nervously. “Yeah, kind of.”

She considered her words carefully. “Let me be honest, Toby. I’m amazed at how bad a match you’ve made. I don’t know her, but I know you, and I think you’re only with her for the challenge. You will never be equals, never be partners, and it’s a waste of time to even try.”

Toby got slowly to his feet, gazing down at her with cold fury. “Thanks, Sis. I appreciate your honesty.”

“Toby,” she said, “I only want you to be happy.”

“I know, Faith,” he said, his face twisted in anger. “But that doesn’t make it any better.” He straightened and turned away. “I’ll see you later.” Then he spoke quietly to his AI and disappeared in a haze of white light.

CHAPTER 7

Anchorpoint City, Colorado

“How is this even possible?” asked Nick. He faced Jeremy, who sat on the couch of their apartment next to Rory and Take. “Are you sure?”

Jeremy nodded. “Absolutely. Its mind is only partially aware, but it’s definitely a Fourth Order telepath.”

Nick looked at Layla, pacing in the open area of the living room. Behind her, Scott and Ana leaned against the wall on either side of the door, continuously broadcasting a composite ward around the room to prevent entry or eavesdropping. “Then it must have something to do with the Grace. Nightwalkers aren’t fertile, so something changed when you entered the third life.”

“Clearly,” Layla said, grinding her teeth. She looked at Rory. “Did the angel mention this at all?”

“No, but you said it yourself, they aren’t fond of sharing details.”

“Details?!” she shouted. “You think this is a detail?”

“Calm down, Layla,” Rory said in a placating tone.

“I will not calm down!” she screamed. “I will not be a guinea pig for the White Wind! Whatever their plans for this child, I am not a part of them—do you understand?”

“She’s right,” said Takeshi. “We need to know what we’re dealing with, and only the higher powers understand what is going on.” He looked at Rory. “Is there any way to contact them?”

Rory shrugged. “The only way is through the Pact Arcanum. It took Jiao-long ten thousand years of trial and error to recreate the sciences that allowed for construction of the binding chalice, but I retain the knowledge of his final work. I can make another one, if necessary.”

“You’ve already invoked the Pact Arcanum once, Rory,” said Nick. “You can’t do it again, but I can request an audience if you build me the tools.”

“No,” Layla said, her eyes flashing red. “They are meddling with my life. I should be the one to speak to them.”

“We don’t know what effect the ritual will have on the child, Layla,” Nick said. “For the traveling spell to work, you have to be near death. You can’t risk it.”

Layla sighed and addressed Rory. “How long will it take?”

Rory shrugged. “A few weeks, maybe, if I work non-stop and get it right the first time. It’s complex and has to be absolutely perfect. I might have to make several attempts.”

Scott looked at Nick. “What do we tell Toby?”

Layla growled in a low rumble. “Nothing.”