Authors: Susan Squires
Brina started and turned toward her, showing anguished eyes.
“Oh, Jane, it’s you,” she said, visibly relaxing. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, hastily. “No, no.” She hesitated. “Well, perhaps yes. One never knows with the cards.” She shook her head helplessly as she glanced over the cards spread out on the cushion of the window seat. “I just don’t know anymore. I used to be so certain.”
Jane drew up a chair and sat beside her.
“Well, if it isn’t certain that it’s awful, I guess that’s a good thing.”
“
I should never have cast for Brian and me.”
Jane frowned.
“I thought you said you didn’t do that anymore.”
“
I don’t.” Brina’s shoulders sagged. “But this little adventure tonight has me so worried. I would never tell Brian, but . . . I just have a bad feeling about it.”
Jane wasn’t about to confess her agreement with that statement. Not when Brina looked so worried.
“So you decided to throw the cards to figure out what was happening tonight.”
“
And of course that never works. What I see might not be about tonight at all. I got big change cards. Death, which can just be change, of course. But I also got lots of reversed cards. Bad, bad cards: the Wheel of Fortune—that’s unexpected bad luck, delay, difficulties—the Three of Swords—that’s betrayal and heartbreak. I . . . I just don’t know. I’m so anxious I can’t think.”
That did sound bad. Jane took Brina’s hand. It was better t
o show solidarity than try to talk her out of her fears in a situation like this. “I’m worried too. Kemble talked Brian into letting him go. I shouldn’t have been surprised. They’ll need him on site to disable the lasers and the locks.” She sighed. “But it doesn’t make it any easier. I was just going to Drew to pry out of her what her visions are. I guess that’s the same impulse that led you to throw the cards.”
“
What can we do about this?” Brina whispered.
“
That’s why I’m not going to find Drew,” Jane said quietly. “Because we can’t do anything. Do you think there’s any way of talking Brian and Kemble and the others out of going tonight?”
Brina pressed her lips together and shook her head.
“Because they feel they have to go. We need the Talisman,” Jane continued. “They’re taking the members of the family who can help and leaving home anyone who can’t, like me. They’re going to be careful. But they’re going to go. There’s nothing we can do about that. And you’re going with them.” Jane summoned up a smile. “So you’re part of the problem.”
“
You’re right, Jane.” Brina sighed. “I know that. It’s just . . . hard. This whole feeling of being under siege . . . knowing that . . . that woman would gladly kill any and all of us, even little Jesse . . . having to do things like steal.” She shook her head. “I’m not cut out for this.”
Jane managed a smile.
“At least if anything happens your talent can Heal them. All I can do is call Miles to get you out of jail if you’re caught.”
Brina squeezed Jane’s hands.
“Promise me you’ll take care of Tamsen and watch out for Lanyon if the worst happens and we aren’t granted bail.”
“
Of course you’ll be granted bail. It’s not like you’re serial murderers.”
“
But we have money and influence. We’re a flight risk.”
“
Oh, dear. You have been thinking about what could go wrong, haven’t you?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Kemble pushed up out of a groggy sleep. For a minute he didn’t know where he wa
s. The room was dark. No light leaked through the heavy drapes. What time was it? A single LED light pulsed on a laptop that sat on the desk.
Oh. His old room at the Breakers. He glanced over to the digital clock. One
thirty a.m. Shit! Better get a move on or they’d leave without him. He jerked up and threw off the blanket.
Then he froze.
What the hell had happened down in the office today? It had felt like he entered another world or something. The whole thing felt unreal, like he’d gotten trapped inside one of Lanyon’s video games, or fallen down the rabbit hole in the world of the Matrix. It had to be a dream.
Shit.
If that was a dream then the security at the museum wasn’t turned off and his family would be walking into a trap. He lunged for the laptop. He’d just see if he could figure out how to get to that dashboard again. Would it tell him whether the security elements were in place? In his dream, he’d made it lie so no one would know they were turned off. He flipped open the laptop. The screen glowed with the close-up of a wave that was his screen saver.
“
How did I get in?” he muttered to himself. And why was everything so muddy in his mind about exactly what he’d done?
He touched the keys. A shock of calm shot through him. He went from anxious and frantic to serene like a switch had flipped. The screen sputtered to something like static and then the dashboard of Knight, Inc. popped into view. He glanced over it, found the part of the display devoted to the museum. Somewhere, his brain registered that it said the security was up and functioning. That didn’t matter. He sank into the keys of his laptop like butter melting on hot toast. And underneath—well that, apparently, was where the swirl of code lived. He read it like it was one of Tristram’s
classic X-Men comic books.
“
Hey, you, ready to go?”
“
What?” Kemble jumped. His brain fizzed and popped, like he’d been standing in water when he tried to insert a plug with a frayed cord into a socket. God, but that hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut.
“
You ready to go, son? Jane’s been guarding your door like a dragon, but we’re rounding up the SUVs. It’s time to move out.”
“
I’m on it. I was just, uh. . . .” He glanced behind him to the screen, blithely showing its blue and green wave as if nothing had happened. He cleared his throat. It had happened again. He sat up straighter. “Just checking to see that the museum’s security is still disabled.”
“
And is it?” his father asked.
“
Yes.” He pushed to his feet. His head was filled with a thousand thoughts. And one of them, he couldn’t escape. He might have just gotten a power. He swallowed and tried to breathe. Was being good at computers a power? But what’d he’d done in the wee hours of today was more than just hacking. It was almost becoming the code. What could you do with that?
He followed his father out into the corridor of the Bay of Pigs
in a trance. His father was already striding away, calling back over his shoulder that Kemble had missed dinner. Kemble stumbled after him.
How could he get magic now? There was no woman in his life but Jane. He liked Jane. He mig
ht even . . . even . . . love her. And he sure as hell loved having sex with her. But it wasn’t like instantaneous Destiny, true-love-forever love between them. She had never even said she loved him. She didn’t have the gene anyway. Kemble’s brain was on overload.
It was crowded in the foyer. Senior and his mother were there, Tristram and Maggie, Kee and Devin. Everyone
who was going was wearing black. Keelan wore a black cat suit sort of thing. Tristram and Devin wore black jeans. Tristram’s black leather jacket was duster length, while Devin’s was short. Practically twinsies. Maggie followed suit but her coat was a black jean jacket. Senior wore a black sports coat over an open-necked black shirt and his mother wore black tights and a black knit dress that hit her about the knees, with black knee-high boots. The rest of the family circled in the background, looking tense.
Tristram tossed him a black tee shirt.
“Get with the program, bro.”
Kemble caught it, still in a daze.
Jane stepped forward with a sandwich for him, wrapped in a paper towel and a baggie.
Did your Destiny bring you a sandwich?
Kemble was so confused it was painful. He wanted to sit down and talk to Jane, but dared he? Maybe it wasn’t Jane who’d raised his powers. Drew got hers when she saw Michael on TV from three thousand miles away. Who had he seen lately? One of the women at the exhibit last night? God. If somebody else raised it, he’d never forgive himself for how that would hurt Jane.
“
Are you all right?” she asked him.
What did you say to that? He just stared at her, blinking.
“Jane, honey.” Maggie came up and snagged Jane’s attention. “Can you check on Jesse? I don’t know when we’ll be back. He gets up pretty early these days. He’s in Devin’s old room.”
“
I won’t leave him alone,” Jane assured her.
“
Michael, I’m counting on you to keep the home front safe,” Senior said.
Michael nodded.
“They gotta get by me.” It was a man-to-man moment. They both knew that breaking up the family like this made both halves vulnerable. “Edwards has got everybody double shifting.”
“
Nobody’s coming here,” Tamsen pouted. “We’re going to miss all the action.”
To Kemble’s surprise, Lanyon spoke up. He looked angry.
“What am I? Chopped liver?”
Senior realized his mistake.
“I’m counting on you too, son. You and Michael take care of the women. And Jesse,” he added. “Where is Mr. Nakamura?” Everybody shrugged. “I’m glad if we haven’t wakened him.”
The front door opened. Edwards stuck his head in.
“Car is ready to go. You sure you don’t want us with you?”
“You’re an important part of the security here,” Senior said roughly. He looked around. “Cell phones off, everybody. We’ll be out of touch until we’re on the way home.”
The
cat burglar crew busied themselves shutting off their connection to their loved ones at the Breakers. “We’ll go over everyone’s role again on the way there.”
That was just Senior trying to keep them all so busy their nerves wouldn’t fray. That was fine.
“Great,” Kemble said. “I’ll need to catch up since I’m a late addition.”
“
You’re the one who’s getting us in the door,” his father said. There was pride in his voice. He’d never know how much that meant to Kemble. Kemble leaned in and gave Jane a kiss on the cheek. His nervous system nearly short-circuited, the shock was so strong. Maybe he should have made time for a quickie today. Jane looked startled herself.
Kemble’s brain fizzed and popped again. Wait a minute. That sexual attraction to Jane, the one that was stronger than he’d ever had with another woman
. . . was that. . . ? And the heightened senses—all the family with magic talked about how great that was. He flashed on the steaks that tasted better than any he’d ever had, being able to hear Jane, even when she was upstairs. . . .
“
Let’s go,” Senior barked.
No time to think about Jane, or about what all this meant. He had to focus on doing his part here, or he’d screw this up for all of them. He gave her a bri
ef salute. Before he knew it they were getting into the big black Suburban that would hold all seven of them. As it was pulling out of the circular drive, he looked back to the house. Jane and Drew and Michael, Tamsen and Lanyon clustered in the door. Lancelot poked his nose through the Tamsen’s legs. She cuddled a disgusted-looking Bagheera in her arms. The light from the house shone out into the night, silhouetting the figures in the doorway as the car moved away until they were just shapes receding in the distance. Why did Kemble have such a feeling of foreboding? He was washed with regret. It occurred to him that he might never get his conversation with Jane.
*****
The Suburban pulled up quietly into the loading dock area of the museum. At three in the morning, all was quiet. The only other vehicles there were two large panel trucks and one small pickup that looked like it belonged to the gardening staff. The Tremaines got out quietly. There was no need to talk. They each had their role.
The
touchpad door locks weren’t part of the Knight security setup. They were part of the museum’s normal protection system. The ten-digit codes were changed every night when the museum closed. Kemble had said he’d take care of them. That was going out on a limb. He wasn’t sure of anything right now. But there was this . . . this thing inside him, a burning right up under his heart. It made him feel strong and alive (if a little disoriented) and it hadn’t been there yesterday. Might as well take it out for a spin and see what it could do. He only hoped that using it didn’t drain him as much as it had this morning. Kemble slipped up to the keypad at the side of the door off the loading dock. He touched it softly, but he didn’t press any keys. He looked at the family to be sure they registered the click of the lock as it opened.
Senior’s eyes got a little big. He frowned. Yeah. He was going to have questions later—questions Kemble didn’t know how he’d answer. Kemble gave a g
rim smile and opened the door. Everyone was braced for an alarm going off. They relaxed visibly when the only sound was the creak of the metal door.