Cross Council

  Chapter 4

  You can all stop whispering, Audrey sent her thought to everyone in the room.

  “Mom?” Tiara’s wide eyes locked onto her mother’s.

  “Yes, I can do it too,” Audrey’s eyes became stern and shuttered. “Where did you think you got your talent from?”

  “How much did you hear?” Tiara asked, panic back in her eyes.

  “It’s been so long since I’ve had to listen at all that I only just realized what you were all doing,” Audrey admitted. “So what were you all whispering about that you didn’t think I should hear?”

  A lot, Jordan admitted quietly before he realized that he’d just broadcast it to the room and Audrey.

  Audrey sighed. “I was afraid of this, but I was really hoping it hadn’t gone this far.”

  “Afraid of what, Mom,” Tiara asked carefully, keeping her mind as quiet as she knew how.

  “You’re all wishing that Damian had taught you more about shields right now,” Audrey answered. “I’m now more worried about this Damian fellow than anything else. Such as where did you meet him and what else has he taught you?”

  Damian! Audrey heard Jordan send loudly and there was a pop. Audrey wanted to believe that her ears were still popping from the trip over the mountains, but when she felt another presence in the room, she knew better. Audrey reached for shields and power that was rusty from disuse.

  “You can ask me yourself,” Damian drawled from the hallway near his room.

  Audrey shielded hard and turned to face Damian. As soon as she turned, she had the satisfaction of seeing him pale drastically. As she scanned his mind, she felt like the floor was slipping out from under him. The problem with his satisfyingly shocked expression was that she hadn’t done anything to him yet.

  “You can explain what you’ve done to my daughter,” Audrey hissed at Damian, fighting to keep her anger against the pain she saw in his eyes. She just couldn’t grasp what she’d done to cause it. Audrey wasn’t sure that he didn’t deserve the pain; and she was a little afraid that if he got his feet back under him, she wouldn’t be able to control him with her rusty powers.

  “Wait, Mom,” Tiara stepped forward and between Audrey and Damian. Tiara’s face was as confused as Damian’s, but that was something Audrey had expected. “Damian didn’t do anything to me. What are you talking about?”

  “Mom?” Damian croaked out, one hand on his head and the other clutching his stomach.

  Audrey could have kicked herself. She’d had twenty-five years to explain all this to Tiara; and now that she needed it, there wasn’t enough time to tell her all she needed to know. Audrey probed Tiara deeply, something she hadn’t allowed herself to do before. It was rude to look too deep, but Audrey needed to know.

  Tiara winced with the intrusion, and the walls began to bleed red. Now it was Audrey’s turn to pale. The insanity in Tiara’s mind was stark and evident. There was only one way that Audrey knew of to create that kind of breach, and it would have taken someone like Damian to do it.

  Audrey struck out at Damian swiftly while he was still reeling from whatever shock she’d already delivered. Audrey wasn’t a cruel person, no matter what had happened to her. She just didn’t have it in her to burn Damian out completely, no matter what he might have done to her daughter. Though, if Audrey was going to do something dire, it would be to protect Tiara.

  Damian went down to one knee and then crumpled to the ground. It only took a stunned breath for the PSI Consulting team to rush to his side. Zack knelt beside Damian, while Greg and Pete stood between Audrey and his fallen form. They didn’t know what else to do.

  Get home Now! Jordan called to Marcus and Rianna.

  We’re ten minutes away, Rianna’s mental voice came back. We left the store when you called Damian.

  Damian’s down, Jordan let the whip of his anger sound in the room as well as to Rianna. I need Marcus here to shut things down, and you here to heal Damian.

  “And you!” Jordan took Audrey’s arm and turned her away from Damian and Tiara. “Shut it down before Tiara turns the Lair into a fireball. You have No idea what you’ve just done.”

  “Someone needs to start explaining then,” Audrey felt her voice shake a little.

  “How about we start with you,” Tiara turned fierce eyes on her mother, and Audrey gasped at the madness there. Tiara’s physical voice was soft, but her mental voice roared in Audrey’s mind.