shrugged, “Sure, why not?”
“Good,” Zachary smirked, “you’re presence has been requested by our boss… your first official PIT meeting.”
Jason cocked an eyebrow. “But I’m not a member of PIT.”
Zachary smiled mischievously, “It’s either join us, or suddenly come down with a huge case of amnesia.”
Jason pulled away from Zachary with a worried frown. Holding his hands up in surrender, he nodded, “Lead the way.”
When Zachary laughed and took off down the stairs, Jason had no choice but to follow… though he did so at a safe distance.
*****
“I’ve got something for you.” Storm said and took out a small USB drive from his shirt pocket.
Ren took it from him and plugged it into the computer. He smirked when he saw the same map he’d created… only this one was more updated. Where the original map had only a few blips on it focusing on the centralized power recorded, this map resembled a child’s Lite-Brite on speed. Different colored lights now lit up every inch of the city and were extending outward toward the slums, the preserve, and even the beaches… they were everywhere now.
“Where did you get this?” Ren asked in awe, slowly rising from his chair in the process to get a better look at the huge screen on the wall.
Storm looked down at his nails and examined them with great interest, “You.”
Before Ren could say anything, the doors of his office suddenly opened and some of the PIT members who had filtered back to the castle walked in. Ren felt the accumulated power in the room and fought to keep his own power under control. Though his face was outwardly expressing boredom, inside he was almost panicking.
Reaching out for the blocking power he’d felt earlier, Ren latched onto it and felt his world stabilize again. He nodded at Zachary as the other man entered and joined him and Storm at the desk.
Zachary let his gaze slowly filter across the people, quickly skipping the area Tiara was standing in just to prove to himself he could do it. It was harder than he thought. When his gaze swung back to her, he noted her flinch and she quickly looked from him toward Storm. Zachary frowned and crossed his arms over his chest wondering why she’d reacted to him like that.
Jason looked around for Angelica and was disappointed when he didn’t see her among the exotic looking group. He quickly drew back against the wall swearing he’d just seen a guy teleport into the room. One second the spot beside him had been empty… and the next it wasn’t.
Guy immediately sought out Tiara with his gaze and tried to think of the best way to approach her with his plan. He’d just spent the last couple of hours tearing his and Carley’s room apart trying to find a spell for what he had in mind.
During his grief-fed rage, he had remembered Carley stumbling across it in one of her ‘acquisitions’ as she’d called the stolen scrolls. The two had shared a bit of amusement at the time, believing they would never have a need to bring the dead back to life.
The spell was an old one that had been transcribed from an ancient text… a way to bring the dead back. In this case however, it would only tie the spirit to the human realm while it remained attached to the spirit realm. In short, Carley would become a ghost.
Guy knew there was another part of the magic that would allow Carley to return to her body but you had to have the power of necromancy for that to work. Tiara was the only one who could help him bring Carley back… it would take Tiara’s power to bond his sister’s soul back to her body.
Tiara felt eyes on her and looked up wondering if it was Zachary. Instead, she found Guy staring longingly at her. She calmly met his gaze knowing what was going through his mind. She’d heard about his sister’s death and hoped that he would change his mind. Her mother had often been approached by the loved ones of those who had been killed in the line of duty. She’d have to avoid him for a while… at least until he calmed down.
“Glad all of you could make it,” Storm said once the doors were closed. “I’ve got good news and bad news.” He nodded toward the huge computerized map on the wall, “That’s the bad news.” There were several murmurs within the crowd.
“What’s the good news?” Trevor frowned from the doorway as he entered the room.
“The good news is that the most powerful demons are smart. They just made it back into this world and they’re not stupid so they’re not going to out themselves right away by going on killing sprees.
In the past, the master demons liked to control humans… not kill them. They will set up shop first and try to claim a territory. My hope is that some of them will even kill each other in order to stake their claim on an area and it will narrow down the playing field.”
“Are you saying they’re all going to stick around this area instead of scattering to other states?” someone near the window asked. “Why would they do that when it’d be smarter to get the hell out of Dodge?”
“There is something that’s keeping them bound to this area,” Storm pointed at the map, “The area you see and about a hundred miles out in all directions.” he decided to change the subject.
“More good news, the earthquake activity and the sudden oddities in the weather are forcing some of the humans to leave the area. I had to pull a couple strings but I arranged it for the press to announce that the series of quakes earlier tonight may be hinting at a larger earthquake… the ‘big one’ for lack of a better phrase.”
“However, we all know this isn’t the case. We don’t want to attract too much attention to LA, but if we can get even ten percent of the human population to leave on their own, then it will make our jobs a lot easier. I’m also working on getting the weather modification technology to create a hurricane and keep it dangerously close to the coast for a while. That may drive even more people out of the city.”
“Fear mongering at its best,” someone agreed.
Storm nodded, “We need to attempt to keep as much of this out of the notice of the humans as possible. I’ll need all of you to watch out for anyone with a recorder; those of you able to do mind wipes will have to do double time as damage control. All 911 calls are also being monitored. And don’t let your guard down. It’s dangerous out there… we lost several PIT members last night.” He finished softly as he gazed at Guy.
Guy kept his gaze locked with Storm’s daring him to try to put him on the sidelines with the excuse of appropriate grieving time. What he truly needed was revenge, and getting out there among the demons was the only way he was going to achieve that.
Zachary leaned against the desk and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I was there… not everything that came out of the rift last night is evil.”
Storm nodded, “Yes, quite possibly the only good thing to come out of this mess. When Misery opened the rift, she freed not only demons, she also succeeded in freeing a number of fallen and a few others who are, thankfully, on our side.”
“Like who?” Trevor asked.
“Like the ones who were protecting the seal from the other side of the rift.” A new voice said from the back of the room.
Everyone turned in the direction of the voice. A young man who didn’t look a year over eighteen was leaning against the back wall with his arms crossed over his chest. His dark hair looked windblown and the way the light hit it at certain times gave it a purple hue. When he opened his eyes, colors were fading in and out resembling a glittering tourmaline stone causing many in the room to look away.
“What are you?” Ren asked, puzzled that he couldn’t feel any power at all from the newbie.
The young man smirked, “To the demons… I’m the boogey man.”
“This is one of our allies from the other side.” Storm answered. “Kamui