The lost rainbow mage co.., p.44
The Lost Rainbow Mage: Complete Trilogy Edition, page 44
He shrugged. “It’s supernatural, I guess.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. I had to get used to that.
Supernatural was normal to Coop, even if it wasn’t normal to me, yet. Maybe it would never be normal.
I laughed again. “I didn’t even mean the supernatural part. I meant the fact we’re traveling there by car rather than stepping into a portal or clicking our fingers. That would seem normal to me now.”
Coop chuckled. “I guess. And probably there’s someone in the army who can,” he mused. “Maybe I’m with the wrong partner.
But somehow, the look he gave me in the dark, suggested he didn’t think that at all, although his words reminded me of Locke, and my stomach clenched at the memory of the other guard who’d once been assigned to me.
He hadn’t been the same as Coop, but I’d liked him. Members of my father’s commune had killed him when they’d stormed the government facility and taken me.
“I miss him, too,” Coop murmured. “Let’s do this for him.”
“For Locke,” I said.
We pulled away and started traveling almost silently through town, although before long we passed the sign that was sad to see us go and entreated us to stay a while longer because Sweetwater was glad to have us.
I looked at it extra hard. So much had happened in Sweetwater. I was no longer sure I’d ever want to stay here again.
Maybe after we were safe.
“Have you got everything?” It was a stupid question. Of course Coop had everything we needed, but I needed to talk about something and the plan seemed like a good enough idea.
“Yep.” He nodded but said nothing further.
“And what’s the plan again?”
We’d already run through it a couple of times, but I wanted to hear his voice rather than my own thoughts just now.
He sighed a little as though he might not go over it again, then his fingers curled around mine, and he began to speak. “I have the keycard Lexi gave to Edwin. It allows us to access the records buried deep in the heart of Kiran’s old quarters.”
Shivers prickled through me at the thought of Lexi’s tiny hummingbird form putting herself at risk to get hold of a keycard. Both she and Edwin had done a lot of dangerous work at the commune already, with Edwin using various levels of his projection talent to travel through the rooms to see what was going on there, and even physically manifesting himself there, Coop had said.
It was a greater use of his power than he’d seemed to be able to do before, anyway.
I nodded as Coop continued to speak, comforting myself with the warmth of his voice.
“We need the keycard because to try to access the records. Trying without it will cause the records to self-destruct.”
I knew all of this, and at some point, I tuned out, instead running the way he’d just been with Greta through my mind. He’d been so calm and gentle with her that it was definitely another check mark in his column of goodness, even though I didn’t need any more reasons to like him.
Liking him was a distraction I didn’t need, and his safety had started to really matter. I needed to get back to Sweetwater for Greta, but Coop needed to get back there for me, and I didn’t want to think about the alternative.
His fingers tightened around mine.
“We’ll both be fine,” he murmured.
But I glanced out at the dark landscape, with no hint of sunrise even on the horizon and only wished I could have his certainty about that.
nine
The darkness seemed to hug the car, the farther we drove and the closer we got to the commune.
“Are you doing this?” Coop turned the wheel slightly to navigate a bend in the road.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
But was I? Was my fear summoning the light to me and deepening the shadows?
He laughed softly. “It’s quite useful if you are.”
I chuckled, too. “Yeah, it is.”
If we could travel in shadow for the rest of the night, everything would probably be fine.
Probably. I didn’t really like that word.
“Just stick with the plan and it will all work out.”
I wished I had Coop’s confidence about this, but I could only hope everything would work out, and I didn’t want to sound so uncertain, so I didn’t reply.
“There it is.” He didn’t need to have spoken.
I’d already recognized the direction we were traveling, and I’d spotted the manor house standing like a huge, lone gravestone in its patchwork of fields and gardens.
It was a gravestone of sorts, marking the place where people I knew had already died in the battle against Lucian. First Kiran, then Alice, and probably countless other victims of Lucian that I had no way of knowing.
“We need to park out here among the trees, minimize the chances of being spotted. Still got that map?” There was a tight tension in Coop’s voice that wasn’t usually there as he spoke about us being seen, and I instinctively patted a pocket at my hip in answer to his question.
“It’s here.” But I’d studied it so much that I didn’t need it.
“It’s just for if nerves take over, and you forget.” His words didn’t reassure me now.
Edwin had made sure we had an up-to-date map of the commune with as many escape routes marked as possible, but I’d been down near where we were going before, and it was underground. There wasn’t much escape from there. It was where Lucian had caught me, in fact.
I closed my eyes against the sudden visual of Lucian in my head. When he’d caught me in the room I’d discovered, he’d given me my mark.
“We could need that map. He’d made changes, you know.”
I nodded. I’d seen them. But my memories still overrode my hope that he’d installed other exit routes that we could use, no matter what Edwin had marked on.
“It won’t be like before,” Coop continued as he cut the car lights. “We know what we’re going for, and we both know the enemy we’re facing now. Plus—” His teeth gleamed briefly in the dark as he flashed me a grin. “I’m here this time.”
Warmth filled me. That much was true.
“Honestly,” he continued. “We only need to go in, get to the data storage room and search through the canisters that Edwin said are in there. He just didn’t get time to execute a search before he needed to leave.”
I nodded. I knew all of this, and both Coop and I didn’t think Edwin should have that responsibility, anyway.
Lexi had seen the zip drives Lucian was storing inside the canisters, and that was why we needed the keycard. The cards were the only thing that would open each canister in such a way that they wouldn’t trigger and erase all of the data on the drives. Lucian had drilled that into enough guys within Lexi’s earshot that we had that much information, at least.
I hated the idea that Lexi repeatedly put herself in danger by eavesdropping, but her hummingbird form was so tiny that she found plenty of hiding places, although I always worried that one day the delicate hum of her wings would give her away.
Still, we had enough inside knowledge thanks to her, and now it was up to us to use it correctly.
Coop eased his car door open and got out, and I swallowed my fear, the taste bitter, before I did the same.
“Ready?” But the tone of his voice suggested I didn’t need to answer. He already knew I wasn’t ready at all.
I tiptoed across the gravel driveway, cringing at every crunch under my feet, wishing I had the gift of flight instead of light.
We stuck to the shadows, and I darkened what I could, but my concentration wasn’t what it usually was. I needed to get hold of myself and focus.
My thoughts were so scattered that I gasped when Coop stepped right up to me. I could barely see him in the darkness surrounding us, and his soft laugh was one of amusement.
“I think you can ease your grip on those shadows a little, or we’ll spend most of our time bumbling around and looking for a door.”
I focused on his mouth as he spoke, and the urge to kiss him ran right through me. I wanted something I shouldn’t have wanted under these circumstances.
He inhaled sharply as though he’d latched onto my thoughts, but before I could consider it, his lips were on mine, and I froze before I relaxed, immediately basking in the softness and warmth of his kiss.
Then what started off as tentative, and almost innocent, shifted and his tongue touched inquisitively against my lips. I responded and the kiss deepened until we both pulled away, slightly breathless.
“That was unexpected,” Coop murmured, and I nodded, hopeful he couldn’t see me. I pressed the tip of my forefinger to my mouth like I could seal his touch to me.
But the kiss seemed to summon my courage, and when he took my hand and we continued to walk to the entrance Edwin had marked on the map, my heart was a little lighter.
We could do this. Something about Coop’s kiss had filled me with renewed confidence. I clearly needed to kiss the man more often.
We made our way inside. It was still at the point of night where it was both late and early enough that everyone was asleep, and probably Lucian’s confidence was such that there were few if any people on duty.
It had been a silent alarm that had given me away before, but one of the remote psychics Coop was working with in Alaska had assured us that they’d taken the system down in such a way that Lucian would never know.
We had no way to test that claim, though. No dummy runs on that.
Sooner than I expected, we stood in the room Lexi and Edwin had described.
“Well, shit,” I whispered. What seemed like thousands of canisters gleamed on shelf after shelf. It was like a library, only not with the same degree of pleasure lining the shelves. “What the hell does he need all of these electronic records for?”
Coop shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. But let’s hope organization is a key skill of his so we can get out of here fast.”
I took Coop’s words as my cue to start scanning the labels so that I could work out the system here. Alphabetical order would have been nice, but I doubted it was that simple.
But all too soon, I found a canister with a familiar name on it. My own. I picked it up, and Coop glanced over at my movement.
“Found mine,” I whispered.
He nodded. “Good. Here’s the card.”
I slid the keycard over the canister and almost said a small prayer that it would work before I popped the cylinder open and removed the small drive inside. It would be interesting to learn what Lucian thought he knew about me, and Coop still thought I was the key to this thing.
“Do we need to look for anything else while we’re here?” I didn’t exactly want to hang around but neither did I want to make a return trip. I moved farther into the room, passing slowly between shelves as I waited for Coop’s response, my eyes scanning labels absently in the low light I’d managed to create for us.
Then I stopped.
That canister held my mother’s name, and the handwriting on it was different. It was all spidery and loopy.
I grabbed it as Coop spoke.
“We need to go,” he muttered from somewhere close behind me, and I considered my options. Taking the whole canister was risky—the cylinders were big enough that someone might spot a gap on the shelf.
“Just this one,” I whispered back, and he nodded as I passed the keycard over it before I slid the drive into my pocket and replaced the closed canister on the shelf.
Then I froze as the overhead lights clicked on and Lucian’s voice filled the room. It was like déjà vu, only I couldn’t see him. Coop and I were behind some shelves, and I instinctively gathered as much shadow as I could around us as I pressed backward, away from the voice that still filled my nightmares.
“Have you found out anything further about Twain?” Lucian’s words cut hard and sharp into the room, and I held my breath.
“Not yet,” whoever was with him replied. “But everyone is on the lookout and we’re getting closer to the correct information daily.
I closed my eyes as fear took me. Then I focused on the man speaking, The voice was familiar. But who?
Marcus. The name came to me from nowhere.
It was Greta’s father.
He’d never seemed particularly close to Lucian. In fact, the way he’d cowed to Kiran, he probably would have attracted only Lucian’s scorn. Things had changed around here.
Marcus’s voice was colder and harder than it had been before, too.
“We all know how important the mission is,” he continued. “Light mages rule, and I’ll recover what’s mine. We won’t fail.”
Lucian’s answering laugh sent shivers through me. “I know,” he said, and there was a finality about those words that I didn’t want to explore.
I squeezed my eyes tighter, almost as though if I couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see me, and next to me I could no longer hear Coop breathing as he stood as still as a stone.
“I think it’s round here somewhere,” Marcus said.
“Mm. Does it matter? You’ve already said we know nothing, Wishing for information we don’t have won’t make it appear.” Lucian sounded impatient now.
“I want to go through it myself and make sure.”
“Very well.” Lucian exhaled the words. “But don’t cause a further delay.”
There was the sound of metal sliding against metal.
“Got it.”
“Let’s go.”
Then two pairs of footsteps strode away.
The room plunged into darkness and the door closed, but Coop and I waited, seconds ticking away in my head. Finally, Coop released a breath.
“Shit,” he said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “That could have been close.”
He nodded, but I felt the movement rather than saw it.
“What did they take?” I summoned a low glow around me, the effect instinctive and oddly effortless, and walked in a small bubble of dim light to where Lucian and Marcus seemed to have been standing.
One of the canisters still had a lid open, and I picked it up, turning it in my hand to see the name.
“Twain,” I read aloud. Just as they’d said. “I wonder what’s so special about her?”
“I don’t know.” Coop’s voice emerged from the gloom. “But it just proves that they’re chasing her.” He paused. “I’d like to add that means that maybe you’re safe, but I doubt that. I should think you’re as much in danger as before.”
“Maybe more, if they have some sort of replacement for me.” It was a horrible thought, but if Lucian truly no longer needed me, and it seemed that he didn’t if he’d switched his attention elsewhere, then I was completely disposable.
The air around me seemed to go cold, and I replaced Twain’s empty canister on the shelf.
“We have what we came for.” My voice was thinner as unease twisted around me, clogging my vocal cords. “Let’s not waste any more time here.
We still needed to leave without being spotted.
Coop walked toward me and I handed him the flash drive that had come out of the canister with my name on it.
“Come on, let’s see what we can find out about me. Maybe we’ll learn some things.”
He rewarded me with a grin. “Maybe I prefer that you’re a mystery.”
ten
Imust have held my breath all the way back to the car, but Coop must have committed Edwin’s map to memory because his movements were stealthy and quick as he led the way back to a cellar level exit from the house. It was a door I’d never seen while I lived here, and the passageway to it had been full of cobwebs, so I couldn’t imagine it was well used.
I brushed my hand over my head as I followed Coop, keeping low as we ran over the fields toward the woods where we’d left the car. Webs were sticky under my fingers.
“Thanks a lot, Lexi,” I half-grumbled. “You could have swept it out before we were expected to use it.” And I swore I heard an answering laugh.
I slowed my pace and glanced about, listening for the tell-tell hum of her wings, but there was nothing and disappointment bloomed in my chest.
It had been too long since I’d seen my friend.
I’d grown used to her presence and now my life was emptier without her.
“Don’t slow down.” Coop reached his hand behind him, and I grabbed hold of it, allowing him to tow me along behind him.
I hadn’t realized how nervous he’d been about this mission, but he was right—the sooner we got back to the hotel and Greta the sooner we could return to Alaska and the relative safety of his new facility.
We reached the car and Coop popped the locks.
As I reached for the door handle, I remembered the extra hard drive in my pocket. “Oh, I also got—”
But a flash of color whizzed by me and into the car, and I stopped talking as I leaned inside. “What the—?”
Lexi sat, giggling in the back seat.
“Lexi!” I barely remembered to keep my voice down as I catapulted myself into the passenger side and leaned between the two front seats for an awkward hug. I would have crawled between them to get into her lap if I could have. I’d really missed her.
She laughed. “It’s good to see you, too.” Then she nodded at Coop. “Coop.”
“I didn’t expect to see you here.” He drew his eyebrows into a small frown.
She shrugged. “Figured you could use some covert backup in case things went wrong.”
He laughed dryly. “Things were never going to go wrong—” But he abruptly stopped speaking, and both he and Lexi turned to me.
“Holy crap,” Lexi blurted.
“You really need to tone that down or we’ll be found for sure.” Coop shifted the car into drive and the car began to roll slowly away. “Anytime you’re ready,” he added.
“Ready to do what?”
Lexi was still looking at me, her eyes big and round, and Coop kept glancing from the road to me.
“Tone down the light show?” Lexi raised an eyebrow.
I looked down at myself. Light radiated from my skin, illuminating my hands, and I pressed my fingers to my face. “Is it all over?”
Lexi nodded.
“Thank goodness I dressed like a cat burglar,” I muttered.
