Cross Council Read online

  Chapter 5

  With Jordan angry and Marcus not there to jettison off the extra emotional output, Tiara had slipped into the bloody nightmare that always lurked in the back of her mind. The only other hope they had to hold Tiara’s madness at bay was crumpled in a heap in the hallway. Greg, Zack and Pete scrambled to shield from the backlash, but they all saw the walls begin the pulse. Tiara knew all this with one part of her mind, but it wasn’t the part that was in charge right now.

  “You will explain exactly what you did to Damian,” Tiara demanded of her mother as if their familial roles were reversed. “Then you will undo it.”

  “It’s not possible,” her mother’s terrorized eyes teared up.

  “It’s very possible to explain yourself,” Jordan tried to interject some sanity.

  “That’s not what I mean,” tears glistened in Audrey’s eyes. Audrey kept staring at the bloody walls. “No one here could have done that to her.”

  “What are you talking about?” Tiara’s eyes started to edge back from the insanity’s hold, but only slightly.

  “Who broke your mind?!” Audrey begged her daughter to answer the question.

  “Not Damian!” Tiara raged, the blood starting to pool at their feet.

  The PSI Consulting team knew that the blood wasn’t real. The fact that the walls were impersonating a horror movie was all a projection of Tiara’s madness. They got slightly weirded out by the pulsing goop that dripped and sagged, but that wasn’t what worried them. What worried the team who knew her was what the bloody walls signified. Tiara could literally roast them all if she didn’t get a hold on the temper.

  “Who?!” Audrey screamed.

  “He’s dead,” Greg told Audrey.

  “Damian?” Tiara turned bleak eyes to Damian’s body, misunderstanding Greg’s answer to her mother.

  “The man who did this to Tiara is dead,” Greg explained, waving his hands at the walls.

  “Damian’s still breathing,” Zack reassured them, “but I can’t wake him.”

  Tiara began to slump a little and then a lot. “Jordan?” she reached out to him.

  “What are you doing?” Jordan caught Tiara in his arms while his eyes blazed accusation at Audrey.

  “It’s not me this time,” Audrey shook her hands in front of her, feeling the draining sensation as well.

  Tiara had collapsed fully into Jordan’s arms when he recognized Marcus’s blanketing effect. Marcus must have turned it on full blast from over a block away. Slowly the magic and psychic powers drained out of the room.

  It was a quiet five minutes that felt more like an hour. The only reason the PSI Consulting team stayed still was that they knew they now had the situation fully under control. They didn’t descend on Audrey because she wasn’t going anywhere and posed little threat now. Audrey didn’t move because she wasn’t leaving Tiara alone in what she considered a den of wolves. The silent standoff lasted until Marcus slammed the door open and raged into the room like a bull.

  “What the hell are you people doing?” Marcus shouted down the hallway.

  “Oh, quit bellowing, Marcus,” Rianna dashed past him into the main living area. “Where’s Damian?”

  “Here,” Zack called to her.

  “Marcus, shut it down so I can heal him,” Rianna ordered, all business.

  “Wait!” Jordan countermanded. “You can’t turn it off. We don’t know what she’ll do.”

  Audrey winced at Jordan’s derisive tone, but she wasn’t going to back down until she had some answers. “You say that he didn’t do this to her, but how do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “He helped us kill the guy who did do it,” Greg swore, his eyes flat and emotionless.

  “Without Damian, that guy would have killed us all,” Zack nodded, his eyes open and sincere.

  “Oh, stop this!” Rianna stormed. “You!” Rianna pointed to Audrey. “Give me five minutes to revive him, and you can ask him yourself. But this time you’d better ask nicely, or we’ll all fry your ass, Tiara’s mother or not.”