An hour later the three of them were back in the sedan.
"Where do you think your brother would go?" Julia asked Drew when he'd settled into the passenger seat, preferring Cassie's immediacy to the back. Julia didn't object, wanting him to feel comfortable. Whether it was due to her efforts to foster trust or because he'd had a hell of a night Cassie couldn't guess, nor did it matter. Either way, it seemed to be working. At present Drew had his head resting against the door, alternating his attention within and without the car but also answering questions willingly. Julia conducted her interview with the back of his head.
"It depends if he's with him or not." Drew let a little venom creep into his words. His dislike for Terry Pritchard was clear.
"Have you tried to call him?"
"He's never carried a phone, he says he can't get them to work."
"Hmm. That's a side effect of too much energy running around in his body. It happens with the strong ones sometimes before they learn how to contain it all." She spoke gently to soften the shock of what would be beyond bizarre for a newbie.
Cassie felt Julia's hesitation at further insinuating herself in what she hoped was developing between Cassie and Drew. She was waiting for Cassie to delve into the more unpleasant subjects. Cassie was the one he trusted. Manipulating him at such a vulnerable time bothered Cassie.
Sure, she knew field agents had to manipulate clients and sometimes regulars for missions. She'd had classes on it at the Academy and studied case files. But this client had a face, and a history, and it was his family they were going after. It felt wrong. Then again the alternative was to let Brandon and Pritchard go and end up with more dead bodies. Or she could fail and lose her job, costing her family dearly.
Swallowing her qualms for the greater good, Cassie kept her eyes forward. "Drew, what did you see last night?"
He was quiet for a long time and Cassie slid her gaze sideways to catch him staring blindly out the windshield. At last, when she'd nearly given up on getting an answer, Drew's haunted words came out halting at first, before picking up a flow.
"We have cameras. They're on both entrances." He began slowly.
Cassie had gathered as much from the monitor she'd seen on the desk. Pretty standard for an operation like theirs. It was easy to picture him sitting there with his feet up and a drink in hand, that easy way about him. Her heart pained her. Had he thought of his parents?
"I saw the dealers come. One of them was jumpy. I'm pretty sure he was on something." His mentioning of the tiny details was good. He might have seen more than he realized. "I was planning on going out there if Brandon needed help. Then, I couldn't move when I saw the jumpy guy pull a gun. I was afraid if I moved he'd pull the trigger, like I could keep him from pulling the trigger by staying still." He drummed the backs of his fingers on the side window, the nails beating out a popular tune she couldn't quite place on the glass.
Cassie recognized the sound of self-defeat, it was all too familiar.
"Brandon tried to leave and Pritchard grabbed his arm. He couldn't fight back, he's been sick lately. He looked so weak I thought he was going to pass out." His voice, though more forceful at mention of his brother's ill treatment, was still faint and hard to hear. Neither woman spoke.
"That was when Pritchard put Brandon right next to him and threw his hands up. Like he did in the club." His voice and fingers stopped.
"He was casting a spell." Cassie confirmed what he was piecing together.
Drew nodded, turning back to the windshield. "But then something must have happened, I couldn't see. Brandon went totally stiff like he was in pain or something. He threw his hands out just like Pritchard and all I could see were the faces of the dealers and they were scared, I mean really scared. They went down and then the monitor cut out." He ran a hand through his hair, mussing his waves already out of place from the long night. "I ran but by the time I got there." He cleared his throat, struggling with the memory. "It was over and Brandon and Pritchard were both gone. I don't know if they left together or if Brandon got away or what." He turned, his worry for his brother unguarded and exposed.
Feeling his eyes on her, Cassie met his gaze and wanted in that moment to spare him the pain he was feeling as well as what he was in store for when they executed his brother. His statement had cemented it in her mind. Still, as a human being Cassie felt for him.
Drew was strong and capable yet there was a vulnerability in him that reached out to her, she understood it. It didn't make him weak, it made him stronger that he could function despite having lost his parents; that he had kept from confronting the possibility that his brother was a murderer and ostracizing him as well spoke of a loyalty she could only imagine. He loved his brother no matter what he'd done and wanted to protect him and he suffered greatly for it. Cassie felt the protectiveness she had for Drew twisting into loathing for Brandon his selfish, undisciplined brother who had chosen his associates so poorly. It was because of Brandon's actions that Drew was in the position he was in.
She offered him a gentle smile, hiding the iron behind her assertion. "We'll find him Drew. Don't worry."
They pulled up at the club and all was quiet. It was not yet eleven o'clock in the morning, far too early for anyone to be inside. They didn't bother going in, walking around the side of the building instead to find the alley cordoned off with yellow police tape, like that would keep anyone out. The repulsion spell, however did the trick making regulars and witches alike not want to be anywhere near the perimeter Quan had set.
Julia and Cassie shrugged off the discomfort prickling at their backs telling them to leave to meet their partner. Drew trailed stopping short of the tape. Quan was standing with his back to them, the toes of his shoes barely outside the reddish brown spill the size of two small cars parked side by side. No one had hosed off the sidewalk yet, Cassie knew that was up to the property owners. Once the police gave the "all clear" that they were done with their on scene investigation the building owner would be able to clean up. Most likely it would be gone by business open.
Julia moved ahead, ducking under the yellow tape to join Quan. Cassie kept to her primary job, that of keeping Drew close and continuing to inspire trust and possibly getting further insight into their quarry in the process. Dutifully she stayed with him. When Drew pressed closer to hear Quan's report, the hair went up on her arms. Catching a glimpse of Drew squinting, she called out. "We're going to step inside."
Julia took one look at Drew and bobbed her head. Quan did not respond, he was intent upon his process. The nearness of the ocean and the causeway that passed not two miles from the club let him draw on his element, Water making his magick overwhelmingly strong here. Drew could feel it too.
Drew had his hand to his temple. When Cassie touched his arm she was ready for the impact of the ring, working hard to ignore its seductive whispers. "Come on, it won't be as strong with the brick between you two." She pointed at the side of the building. "Thicker materials like this are insulating."
He closed his eyes briefly in visible pain and fished the keys out of his pocket. Cassie followed him under the tape and into the back door. As soon as it shut there was instant relief. "Thank you." He aimed a quick flash of teeth at her before heading across the floor to the bar where he grabbed a glass and a bottle from high up on a shelf. He held up a second lowball in askance and Cassie shook her head.
"You're not much of a drinker are you?" He asked curiously as he poured half a glass full then splashed one more glug on top, no ice.
"Not really. Plus at the Academy they explained how alcohol affects your control. Nobody wants a witch getting wasted and testing out her latest spells on the populace." She chuckled, remembering just such an instance. The poor witch had been nearly expelled over the fiasco and her victim had taken the rest of the term off to recover from the shock of being partially liquified.
Drew was gaping at her his drink hovered in the air. "What?"
"You talk like it's all so normal, this witchcraft and voodoo stuff." He waved his glass toward the hall leading to the back door.
"Did Julia tell you she practices vodou?" Cassie didn't remember hearing them discussing the subject.
Three shades fell from his lightly tanned complexion and he took a drink. "That lady does voodoo?" He stared at the dark hall, half expecting some sort of monster to come rushing out.
"Whatever you think you know about vodou," she annunciated the word to point out the difference, "or even magick for that matter isn't accurate. Julia is really a very sweet woman and I've never known her to do black magick." Though she'd seen her come close a couple of times. Something told her now was not the time to tell Drew that. "Most everybody has some sort of magickal ability and they don't even know it." Cassie fell back on an old script she'd used on many a client to try to normalize their situation. "Maybe they can guess what time someone will be home or they have a gift with animals or knowing what someone else is thinking before they say a word. Maybe somebody dreams things that come true or has a knack for playing music without ever having a lesson. All of those things are forms of magick. It's far more rare for people to have something like you and your brother where other people can see it or it can physically affect someone else." Her hand unconsciously touched her cheek where he'd left evidence of exactly her point. She watched his eyes follow her hand and he took another swallow, he had already drunk half of his heavy pour.
"What did you mean when you said last night was a first for you? Have you never been in a wizard's duel or whatever you call it before?" He leaned an elbow on the bar. It was helping him relax to keep talking, the alcohol would help matters soon enough at the rate he was pounding it.
Cassie fingered an imperfection in the metal of the bar top, letting the pad of her finger rest in the divot. "I told you, mixed bloods usually wash out." She shrugged offhandedly, downplaying the seriousness of her situation. "Well, I was about there and then something changed last night. It was the first time I've been able to defend myself without screwing it up." Her hand brushed her bangs before she could stop it and she flushed.
"What changed?" He was staring at her again. Cassie felt warm and gave him a nervous smile.
"I don't know." She pointed a finger at his ring. "When I touched you I felt the amulet influence me like it does you, it took the edge off my nerves I guess. It was like it was all clear. I knew I could do it and then he broke my protection and I couldn't get it back in time and I had to react on the fly. That was it. That was my breakthrough."
"I didn't understand most of that." He gulped again. The glass was nearly empty.
She laughed in spite of herself and Drew laughed with her. Cassie liked his laugh, it was warm and real. She didn't doubt his claim from the night before that his luck with women had little to do with his ring. Heat crept up her neck at the thought of his love life. He was out of bounds for her and she had to remind herself of that. Nothing could jeopardize her place with Veritas again.
"Some forms of magick are dependant upon spells and some aren't. I was using the wrong format so to speak. I was trying to use the wrong parts of my parents' magicks. It never felt right. And then last night it finally felt like it fit, like it was mine." It felt good to say it and to realize that she was, at last, her own person and had her own power. For the first time Cassie felt like she had an identity that had nothing to do with being from two worlds. She was just her.
"You talk about your mother like she's gone. Can I ask?"
"She died when I was twelve, cancer." She waited, expecting the turn of the conversation and knowing she needed to pursue it and at the same time feeling like something slimy you might find under a toadstool doing it. Using her loss to further tie him to her was cheap.
"I was twelve when my parents died too but I suppose you know that."
"I saw the police report." She said quietly.
"Then you know they died the same way as those two." He drained his glass and reached for the bottle still on the bar. "Brandon was home. The police always tried to tie it to him but there was no trace of drugs in their systems that would have allowed one person to do," his voice got thick and he coughed, "to do that to two healthy adults. Brandon didn't have a mark on him and there weren't any signs of a struggle. It was like they just dropped in place. Police never solved it." Drew was watching the liquid in his glass, swirling it on the bar and watching the lazy vortex it created.
"You were at a friend's house that night, did you go back to the house?" She couldn't imagine a twelve year old seeing carnage like that when it was his parents.
"No." Drew's hand shook and he put it flat on the bar.
"That night I swore I'd never ask what happened. The cops and Brandon were so spooked I guess I knew it had to be bad. When I was eighteen I thought I could handle it and convinced a cop I knew to let me read the report. I thought it would help to know everything, that I could finally put it to bed. It didn't." He fast-forwarded, editing the years in between and the fallout that had nearly destroyed him not wanting her to know how weak he'd been.
Unwittingly Drew was driving the final nails into his brother's coffin. When they found him, they would bring him before the Directors, there was now no question. The Directors were the only members in Veritas allowed to conduct executions. There was no doubt in her mind that that would be the recommendation of all three members of her triad. The thought of condemning Drew's brother sickened her. The job she so needed and wanted all of a sudden made her feel like a phony, something she found hard to stomach.
There was a bang as the back door slammed shut causing Cassie to jump. Drew clammed up seeing who was approaching.
Quan moved not a muscle, giving Drew a long appraising look then turned to Cassie. "It is Chaos."
She shot a wide eyed look over at Julia who nodded slowly, her feelings locked behind a serene mask. "Are you sure?" She asked needlessly. Of course he was sure. He was Quan and he had been here for an hour. She was sure he'd been thorough.
Quan's talent was great and his ability to figure out others' magickal types and follow them over land unflaggingly was well reknowned. It was most likely one of the big reasons they'd been brought together in the same triad. Who better to figure her out and head off any catastrophes before they became too great?
"What does he mean?" Drew broke in, his voice rising. He knew they were discussing his brother even if he failed to understand what exactly it all meant.
Cassie waited, watching Quan who gave a small nod. Sighing at how useless it was to try to glean anything from the infuriatingly opaque man, she filled Drew in. "Chaos magick, it's the hardest to train and the most unpredictable. It all depends on the witch and his mind whether it can be considered reliable." She left out that it usually drove the user insane what with being faced with the absence of a higher power or limits beyond one's own desires. If they didn't destroy themselves they were typically put to death for some crime stemming from their limitless ability.
Drew said nothing, he tossed back the rest of his drink and poured yet another. Cassie could see him fighting to divorce himself from the conversation as well as his own thoughts. He'd taken in a lot today and now this. The constricting of his pupils told her he was beginning to find his escape. Briefly she wondered if it was a good idea for him to drink considering his past drug history. His file had been full of petty crimes all related to drugs and the lifestyle until an assault charge a few years ago. After that it stopped. She would hate to see him go back to it.
"Drew, where do you think Brandon would have gone?" Time was ticking away and Drew was sitting here getting stoned while they all sat around watching him. A glance around the room showed her partners to be in a similar state of agitation. Julia's fingers were tapping anxiously against the side of her thigh and Quan might have been frowning.
"I don't know. I hope he ran, but maybe he's at Pritchard's little church. Who knows? Obviously I don't know my brother very well." He waved a hand dismissively.
"Cassie, why don't you take Mr. Carter home and stay with him for the time being?" Julia offered, seeing his declining state. Sensing Drew's objection, she headed it off. "Quan and I will follow all leads. We'll call you if we find him."
His mouth shut. The alcohol induced fog he'd so enthusiastically sought now cutting him off from any sort of lucid thoughts. Cassie said that she would. In a way she was glad not to be chauffeuring another one of Quan's frustratingly silent tracking trips.
***
Julia wasn't so lucky. They left with her driving while Quan sat mutely beside her.
"For the record I think this is a lot for her. She's only starting to figure out her power." The older woman wanted to see her young partner succeed and was less certain of the wisdom of this first solo mission than her Supervisor and partner sitting beside her. Leaving her with a client who had little self-control was a questionable call considering Cassie's own control issues. "It's easy for Anna to say it's time from behind that desk, she won't have to pick up the pieces if it turns out it's too soon."
Shrugging, Quan replied noncommittal, no indication of how he felt one way or another. "At some point she must do this. It is how we all prove ourselves." Twisting in his seat beside her to offer her a view of his black eyes, Quan gave her a vague smile. "I am reasonably convinced they both will survive the next twenty-four hours." He then followed with the odd little symphony of tittering and snorting that concocted his laugh. Julia rolled her eyes, glad it was a rare occurrence.
***
At the club Cassie called a cab, failing to get a straight answer from Drew as to where his car might be and not being in the mood to go searching. Drew had one more drink he didn't need while they waited. He was well on his way to passing out by the time the cabbie came. Cassie locked up the club with the keys he sloppily fished out of his pocket and, by the time they reached his condo fifteen minutes later, it took both her and the driver to get him out and up to his sixth floor unit. She'd kept his keys and let them in, one of Drew's arms over her shoulder, the other over Esteban the cab driver.
"Down here." She guessed the short hallway at the far end of the unit led to the bedroom. She was right and they let him fall onto his bed so that she could pay Esteban for services above and beyond his fare. Cassie tipped heavily figuring Veritas wouldn't object.
After the door was locked Cassie looked around. It was simple, modern and clean. She was guessing a cleaning woman was responsible for the latter. Typical for Florida, all the floors were tile to prevent termite damage and to keep it cool. The large, open unit was painted in a sterile cream color with stainless appliances and natural brown colored stone countertops to match the floors. A center island had two coffee colored bar stools tucked underneath to function as what appeared to be the only eating surface in the place.
The living room had the same neutral flooring with minimal furniture, all of it matched and looking like something someone else would buy for a bachelor looking to furnish a condo he would never be in. The sofa was tan leather, angular and too stiff to be his choice. Only the television mounted on the wall and the dark brown club chair across from it seemed like they suited the man now sleeping in the other room. A cherry wood coffee table sat in front of the sofa, its smaller mate was beside the club chair topped by a cork coaster marked by the sweat from countless drinks. Yes, this was where Drew relaxed when he was finished worrying about everyone else for the day.
Cassie sat down in the chair letting the butter soft leather envelop her. The back was too tall for her. It would be perfect for someone his height. She flicked on the television. It was on sports, of course. Glancing around she saw a small bookshelf and got up to peruse its contents.
Good old Oxford had its dictionary there on the top shelf with a few books on automotive repair and general fixes. He was a man who didn't mind getting his hands dirty. Cassie could respect that, her father had always been handy with a toolbox.
The second shelf was more revealing with a few bestsellers about military men doing the right thing even if it meant going against the establishment; typical and uneventful. There were also a few older titles, one by her favorite Russian author.
"He's got depth too." She nodded in approval.
Being in his home, Cassie didn't miss the chance to search for hints as to where Brandon might be in case Drew hadn't been entirely truthful about knowing his brother's whereabouts. Though that type of thing happened often when loved ones felt they were protecting each other, Cassie didn't think that was the case here. Drew had not been anything except honest with her, which was more than she could say for herself. Regardless, no matter what Drew chose to share they had the number one thing that would bring Brandon back here. He was just beginning to snore softly from the other room.
Pushing herself out of the chair she got up to see if she could find a blanket to put over him since he was lying on top of his dark gray bedding. A long thin linen closet in the hall across from the bedroom afforded several choices. Cassie picked out a blue plaid blanket that wasn't too heavy and closed the cream painted cabinet door, slowing when she reached the bedroom.
Drew had rolled over onto his side, one arm under his head and the other thrown over his stomach. Both feet hung over the edge of his queen sized bed with his shoes on. Cassie crept in, not wanting to wake him, and set the blanket down beside her so that she could unlace and remove his shoes. That close, she noticed the brown stains on the bottoms and on his pant leg.
Her heart wrenched, it had to have been a nightmare. She wondered again if he had seen the faces of their parents as he looked down at them in the blood and the gore, and if he was still denying who had killed them all.
He moaned faintly, speeding Cassie in her actions, hastening to slide his now sock clad feet up onto the mattress and spread the blanket over him. Just as she leaned over him, tossing the far corner over his back, Drew's eyes popped open. They were the lightest gray, a few flecks of blue in them she hadn't noticed before. She froze.
"Cassie what are you doing?" He sounded perfectly sober, never mind the fact that he'd downed nearly half a bottle of booze in less than an hour.
"I'm putting a blanket on you." She gave him a small smile.
"You're a nice girl Cassie. Don't get mixed up in all this. You'll end up like those other two."
She wanted to ask which two he meant figuring he probably meant her partners given the fact he wasn't too keen on them, but with a shudder she considered he might have meant the two dead men in the alley. She shut that thought down. It never helped to think about what could happen in the line of duty. His eyes closed again and she stepped away.
She'd nearly reached the doorway when he called out after her, apparently not asleep after all.
"Do you think it hurt? It looked like it hurt."
"I hope not. It was fast so if it did, it wasn't for long." She gave him the best answer she could and it seemed to satisfy him or the alcohol reclaimed him because his soft, even breathing sounds once again filled the room.