She didn’t say anything else, just waved her hand through some empty air on one of the benches and then turned to go.
She rejoined Ed and the others outside. “Taken care of,” she said.
She was grateful that Ed was beside her, and if there had been any lingering doubts that he’d have her back, they were long gone now.
“So, where to?” Ed said.
Connor turned and led the way to three black cars.
“Not conspicuous at all,” Ed quipped.
“Get in,” Connor said.
She and Ed got in the backseat of one of them. Trina slid in next to her.
A few minutes later they were headed out of the city. No one seemed to want to say anything, and that was just fine with Samantha, who leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
This was the group that Randy had told her about as he was dying in Salem. The FBI group made up of people with power who were hunting witches and trying to stop whoever had been behind the group in Salem. It made perfect sense that they were here now.
The fact that they had called her by her birth name meant that they were probably aware of at least part of what had happened to her. They would be suspicious of her now, and with good cause. Fortunately Ed was by her side and hopefully he could help convince them that everything was okay. She owed him for that.
She was still surprised he was even here, but she was incredibly grateful. The hope of being able to go back home and pick up the pieces of her life was the greatest gift he could have given her. She’d be forever in his and Anthony’s debt, and if they all made it through this she’d spend a lifetime making up for it. She just hoped that the FBI agents present turned out to be more of a help than a hindrance.
A sudden thought occurred to her and she opened her eyes and turned to Trina. “The Lightfoots, from San Francisco, are they okay?”
Trina frowned. “As far as I know.”
“It’s just that people with power are being called here and I suddenly realized that Robin Lightfoot might have felt the call, too, and tried to come here.”
Trina shook her head. “I haven’t heard anything, but I hope she stays put.”
“Me, too,” Samantha said, wishing there was someone she could call in San Francisco who could help who would actually remember her. There wasn’t, though.
“Do you have anyone you could call who could just check?”
“This is really worrying you?” Trina asked.
Samantha nodded.
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do,” Trina reassured her.
“I’d appreciate that,” Samantha said.
Her thoughts turned to the other people besides Claudia that she had spared in Salem, and she couldn’t help wondering how many of them had also made their way here. The whole thing was turning into a huge mess.
She leaned her head back again and tried to figure out exactly where it was they were going. The farther away from the city they got, the more agitated she felt. She could feel the call now, too, the same one that was drawing everyone with power to New Orleans. Just one more thing she’d have to be sure to thank Lilith for when she saw her next. One of so very many.
After about half an hour the car slowed and turned down a long, winding drive. A plantation came into view. It was lovely and under other circumstances Samantha might have looked forward to exploring it. Now, though, she just wanted to get through whatever she had to in order to return to the city and hunt down Lilith.
One of the first things she noticed as they pulled up outside was the number of guards in dark suits patrolling the perimeter. They appeared to be agents as well. Also, she couldn’t sense any more people with power until they had literally stopped right in front of the main entrance.
“You’ve done some work to shield this place, to keep the energy from being felt unless you’re right on top of it,” she marveled. “How did you do that?”
“A combination of magic and technology,” Trina said. “What we sense when we come near each other is a disruption in the normal flow of energy. Yet the flow of energy can also be manipulated by us and by other forces such as magnetism.”
“That’s enough,” Connor said from the front seat, clearly not pleased that she was starting to reveal some of their secrets.
“Clever,” Ed piped up from beside her. “Next you’ll be telling me the Batcave’s underneath this place, and Bruce Wayne is a personal friend.”
Samantha bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud. She really had missed Ed’s sense of humor more than she would have imagined. She regretted now that she hadn’t taken the time to laugh more back when they worked together.
If they made it through this, that would be one of the things she’d have to change. Of course, somewhere in the back of her mind she was slightly shocked that she was even worried about something so trivial as laughing more. If the last few months had taught her anything, though, it was that the little things mattered far more than people thought they did. She’d spent so many years wrapped up in her own anxiety and guilt that she’d never taken the time to truly live.
She could see that now with such a sudden sense of clarity that it was overwhelming. It was the kind of self-revelation she wished she had time to just sit and quietly contemplate, but who had time for such things when a war was brewing and she was about to have a devil of a time convincing the good guys that she was indeed on their side?
The doors opened and they slid out. From the way four agents immediately closed ranks around her, Samantha was under no delusions that what was coming next was going to be anything less than a full interrogation. And with so much at stake and magic users involved, this was going to get ugly fast.
She glanced at Ed, her first instinct to try to protect him. Then she forced herself to take a deep breath. He had walked into this willingly. They knew he was a cop and one without powers, so they weren’t about to harm him. Besides, she had tried in the past to protect him and it had only driven a wedge between them. As she was sure Anthony could attest to, shared danger often built a stronger bond than anything else.
Ed reached through the agents that had closed ranks around Samantha and briefly touched her right shoulder blade. The message he was trying to send came through loud and clear. I’ve got your back.
She nodded and put her thoughts inside his mind. And I’ve got yours.
In that moment she remembered what it had been like when she was at the theme park and tripped the booby trap in the one kid’s head when looking for information about Lilith. It occurred to her that she could do something similar with Ed so that anyone but her who tried to walk around inside his mind would get a nasty shock and she would simultaneously be warned.
She moved quick, using the brief touch they had shared and the knowledge she had of his mind from her other times planting thoughts in it. What she accomplished was quick and sloppy, but it should work.
They walked inside the mansion and the agents immediately herded Samantha to the right. Ed had started to move that way when Connor put a hand on his chest. “We need to talk to her alone.”
“Whatever you have to say to my partner you can say to me,” Ed growled.
She found herself smiling. He sounded like the old protective Ed she had trusted with her life.
“It will be okay,” she heard Trina murmuring. “They just need to check her out, make sure that everything is as she says, that she’s . . . okay.”
“Of course she’s okay. What’s wrong with you people? We are all on the same side,” Ed said, sounding more belligerent.
“It will just be for a few minutes,” Connor said.
“To hell with this,” Ed said. “I might not have any freaky tiki powers like the rest of you, but I can sure as shooting put a bullet in someone.”
Things were going to escalate. She could tell that and she was pretty sure the others could as well from the amount of tension she suddenly felt around her.
“I have nothing to hide from my partner,” she said, st
opping abruptly enough that the two agents behind her both bumped into her.
She turned and made eye contact with Connor. “You might as well let him come along, at least until he’s satisfied that you’re not going to do anything . . . barbaric.”
Connor looked furious. Of course he was. As a member of the FBI he had certain standards and guidelines he had to live up to, and Ed would make sure he adhered to them. As one with powers, though, he had planned on doing things a little bit more old school with her, figuring none would be the wiser. She respected where he was coming from and might well have made a similar choice had she been in his position.
They marched into a room that had guards stationed all around the inside. There was a chair in the very center and Samantha willingly walked over and sat in it, knowing it was expected. In the corner she saw a pile of chains that were clearly meant for her.
Connor glanced at her and then at Ed and she saw the frustration in his face.
“We have to be sure you are who you say you are,” he said, clearly trying to figure out how he could justify the use of the restraints to Ed.
“I understand, and I’m here to prove to you that I am Samantha Ryan,” she said, not giving him an opening.
She noticed that Trina wasn’t in the room. It actually made her feel a little better, given that they had a bit of a relationship even though she was the only one who remembered it. She would have had a hard time getting over being interrogated by her. Sometimes it was impossible to separate the business from the personal. Clearly Trina understood or she would have been present. After all, it seemed as though nearly every other available agent was.
Connor waved his hand and two chairs that were lined against one wall slid across the floor toward him and Ed.
Ed jumped but struggled hard to control it. She could feel Connor’s disdain for him, and it made her furious. Ed was still new to this world and hadn’t been in a position to witness too much personally. It was a lot for anyone to take in, and if you hadn’t been born into the world, it would naturally take time to adjust.
Connor and Ed sat down and she noticed that Ed moved his chair before doing so in order to be facing more toward Connor than her. Connor was putting her on trial, but Ed was making the statement that he’d be watching him like a hawk for any impropriety. That fact was clearly not lost on Connor, who stared with burning anger at Samantha.
“Since you left Salem you’ve been using the name Desdemona Castor; why?”
There was the real reason, which there was no way she was giving him. Then there was a plausible one. “Lilith called Desdemona Castor out by leaving something for me in the empty grave with that name on it. Since there was no longer any need to hide my birth name, I stopped going by Samantha and chose to use the name that Lilith was trying to connect with. At the time I didn’t know who it was that was taunting me, who had been behind the events in Salem and San Francisco. I just knew that they had a vendetta against Desdemona Castor and that they knew that was who I had been as a kid.”
It sounded plausible and completely logical. She just hoped he thought so.
“And since you made it here you’ve threatened people and acted with a wanton disregard for human life.”
Before she could say anything, Ed shot back at Connor, “You ever been undercover, you personally?”
Connor glared at him. “No, but I handle all the agents—”
Ed held up a hand, cutting him off. “Nothing Samantha ever does is reckless. It’s always calculated, thought out. This Lilith chick was expecting, hoping for a badass witch, and that’s what Samantha had to be. She needed to put the fear of God in the other witches to help get them under her sway as well. In Salem the coven leaders there specifically said they had been trying to bring out the inner witch in Samantha. They clearly thought they had succeeded. We had every reason to believe something similar was happening in San Francisco. In order to keep her cover with others in the community and to keep Lilith off guard, we had to present exactly what she was hoping and expecting to see. Anyone that’s worked undercover before knows you have to take on another persona, live it, breathe it, and make hard choices in order to protect it and those you’re working with. Samantha did what any cop would do to get the job done and she never once stepped over the line.”
Samantha decided then and there that she would always want Ed to be her advocate in all things.
“Is this true?” Connor said, turning to look at her.
“You know how it is—you have to really sell the part if you want your quarry to buy it. You have to make it so much a part of you it becomes almost natural so that you don’t get tripped up and get yourself and those around you killed,” she said. That was absolutely the truth. It didn’t explain her behavior over the last several days, but it was still a truth.
Connor leaned forward. “Here’s what I think. I think there is no Samantha Ryan. I think you buried yourself so far in the part you lost yourself and you don’t even know right from wrong anymore.”
She forced herself to stare back at him, unblinking. “If that were true, none of you would be breathing still.”
Shocked silence greeted her statement and she gave it a moment to let what she’d said sink in. “Think about it. I’m the sole survivor of the massacre of the most powerful dark coven that’s operated in this country in the last hundred years. I took down the new Salem coven. I stopped the events in San Francisco and helped rewrite time and history. Do you honestly think that any of you would be more than gnats to me if I had truly lost my way?”
She could tell her words were affecting some of the witches in the room.
“Look, this is ridiculous,” Ed snapped. “We’re all wasting valuable time here.”
Samantha could practically feel Connor twitching. She knew he wanted to take a walk through her mind or use magic to try to shock the answers out of her. One of the others walked over to him, leaned down, and whispered something in his ear. Whatever it was, it seemed to satisfy him for the moment and he nodded slightly.
The other man returned to his post and Connor stood up. “The proof is in the pudding, that’s what my mom always said. If you’re lying, we’ll know soon enough. Excuse us for a moment.”
He gestured and everyone filed out of the room. He went last and closed the door behind him.
Ed turned and gave her a puzzled look. Clearly he, too, was wondering what the other man had said. He glanced around the room and then focused in again on her.
Samantha, can you hear me?
He was thinking it, clearly as concerned as she was that they probably were being spied on.
Yes, are you okay? she thought back to him. She saw him wince, a clear sign that he heard her loud and clear.
Been better, but hanging in.
What is it? she asked him silently.
I know what you told them, but just to be clear, you went bat-shit crazy for a while, didn’t you?
Completely.
Fair enough.
“Okay, enough of that. You know it creeps me the hell out,” Ed muttered.
“And we wouldn’t want that,” she said sarcastically.
“A lot of thanks I get for being your partner. I have to put up with a lot, you know.”
“Yeah, like only getting to eat half the food off my plate, having me save your life, a whole lot,” she quipped.
“Smart-ass.”
“Jackass.”
“You’ll never know how much I missed our conversations,” he said with a sigh.
“You’d be surprised,” she said, smiling at him.
The door opened and Trina and Connor entered the room.
“So, what’s the story?” Ed snapped. “Have the big kids decided to let the little kids play in their sandbox?”
“For now,” Connor said, eyeing Samantha still with open suspicion.
“About fricking time. Now we can get some real work done,” Ed said, standing up.
“I’d like to get your take on some of t
he things we’ve found,” Trina said, addressing Ed.
“And I want to show you a couple of things,” Connor said to Samantha.
“If this is just a trick to try and separate us, it won’t work,” Ed said.
“I can assure you,” Trina said, “it’s no trick. I do need a fresh eye on some of the intel we’ve gathered, and Connor wants to show Samantha some things that fall into the . . . what did you call it? The ‘freaky tiki’ category.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Ed said, glancing at Samantha.
She nodded. “If I need help, I’ll scream.”
And don’t worry. You’ll hear me, she told him silently. Call if you need me.
“Fine,” he said out loud.
Trina cocked her head to the side. “You two have a very . . . interesting . . . relationship.”
“Don’t get any ideas,” Ed said, rolling his eyes. “I’m a happily married man and my wife would kick your ass for looking at me sideways, powers or no.”
“She would, trust me,” Samantha said, unable to suppress a grin.
“I didn’t mean anything like that,” Trina said, quickly backpedaling.
“Whatever, let’s get to the real police work this century,” Ed said. “We’ll see if your witch-dar is even half as good as Samantha’s.”
“My what?”
Ed gave her a pitying look and strode out of the room, leaving the rest of them to trail behind.
Samantha had to hand it to him. Moxie he didn’t lack for at all.
He and Trina headed off to a different part of the mansion. Once they were out of sight, she turned to Connor, wondering exactly what he had in mind and sure that whatever it was, she wasn’t going to like it. He had clearly wanted Ed out of the way, and no matter the reason, that couldn’t be a good thing.
“What is it you want me to see?” she asked.
“We have a friend of yours,” Connor said.
Samantha raised an eyebrow. They couldn’t be talking about Anthony. She was fairly certain no one had arrived since they had. “Who?” she asked.
“Come with me,” he said.
She rose and followed him to a room in the back of the house that had two agents standing guard outside it. When Connor nodded the one opened the door, letting them enter.