Cross Council Read online

  Chapter 2

  “Bus station?” Tiara gulped into the phone, waving frantically to Jordan to listen in. “Why are you at the bus station? I thought we agreed that you’d take Jordan’s gift of plane tickets again.”

  “And wait until next week?” Tiara’s mother’s laugh sounded tight but that might just be the connection. “I called the bus station on a whim and found out that I could be here in a few hours. I could have driven, but I didn’t want to waste the entire ticket that Jordan bought. I can still use the return ticket.”

  Tiara fought for breath and fought even harder to hide her panic from her mother. Jordan and Marcus descended on her. Jordan with a calming effect and Marcus to drain away some of Tiara’s emotional energy. Tiara losing control of her emotions was more dangerous than a normal person doing so. When Tiara lost control of her emotions, the walls of the Lair bled.

  The Lair was the secret hide-out of the PSI Consulting team. It was a large underground home where Jordan, Marcus, Tiara and now Rianna, Marcus’s fiancé, lived. It was also now the headquarters of their little band, and almost everyone from the team had moved in. Jordan was the boss. Marcus, Jordan’s best friend since childhood, was Jordan’s partner. Together they’d founded the company and built this underground home with their own hands. It didn’t look like a cave, though. It looked like a mansion out of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

  “The Las Vegas bus station?” Rianna’s voice hitched with disbelief. Rianna was usually the one to have dramatic emotional outbursts. Rianna was Tiara’s best friend, and they were good foils for each other. Tiara was normally the calm one, and Rianna was the dramatic one.

  Tiara nodded quickly. The walls flickered briefly with the now-familiar bleeding effect that warned the team of danger. PSI Consulting wasn’t just a business. Jordan had designed his company to gather budding psychics. He’d fed the casinos the pretense that he was saving them from psychic cheaters, but what Jordan had really wanted was a family of psychics. PSI Consulting was just the excuse to do it.

  “Um, yeah,” Tiara stalled into her cell phone. “We’ll be right down there to get you…”

  “Of course,” Jordan wasn’t as calm as he would have liked.

  Thanksgiving was still three days away. He’d thought he had more time to organize the whole Thanksgiving with his mother-in-law thing. He glanced around the Lair’s main room and started motioning to Marcus on what they’d need to clean up. Unlike a normal house, they didn’t need to clean up stray laundry but rather the two immense white boards that detailed their growing list of talents.

  Damian jumped to help Marcus roll the first of the white boards down a long hallway that led to the storeroom. Damian was the reason that their list of talents had grown beyond what this world generally considered already powerful talents. Damian was literally from another world. In his parallel world, magic was the norm and psychic abilities were commonplace. Because Damian couldn’t get back to his world, he had joined PSI Consulting and agreed to teach them all he knew of magic. Magic went beyond telepathy and telekinesis, which they already knew to varying degrees. Damian was teaching them much more, and they were eagerly soaking it up, except for Marcus who had the unique talent to drown out all magic and psychic powers alike; but he didn’t really want to admit that magic existed.

  Marcus was looking forward to Tiara’s mother’s visit for two reasons. The main reason was that it would mean that they’d be holding off on any of this crazy magic training that gave him the willies. The second reason was that Marcus loved to cook in his chef’s dream of a kitchen, and Thanksgiving was his favorite holiday for cooking. Marcus resembled a line backer and cooked like someone’s Martha-Stewart trained grandmother. His main worry was how he’d thaw the turkey early for the feast.

  Zack and Pete grabbed the ends of the other white board and gave matching resigned sighs as they followed Marcus and Damian in putting it away. Zack and Pete were more than ready for more training. Zack was bright-eyed with youthful enthusiasm for psychic training. Pete was steadfastly resolved to it. Zack loved that he could be something special. Pete was determined not to be caught out without it again. Both men held to PSI Consulting as a family because neither of them had ever fit in anywhere else.

  “I’ll go get her,” Greg offered. Greg was the quietest member on their team and the scariest which was saying a lot considering the current company he kept. Greg and Pete had a lot in common in how they carried themselves. Pete had been a cop, and Greg had trained with the military. They were also the oldest members of the group; at least they were since they’d lost Tammy.

  “Hang on, Mom,” Tiara covered the mouthpiece and turned to Greg. “Are you sure?”

  “I could take a cab,” her mother offered.

  “I’m sure,” Greg lifted the keys to Jordan’s SUV off the key hooks between the kitchen and the door to the home office.

  “No really, Mom,” Tiara broke away to tell her mother. “Greg and I will be down there in a jiffy.”

  “Greg?” her mother became confused. “I thought his name was Jordan.”

  “You caught us a little off guard,” Tiara admitted, wanting to bite her tongue as soon as she said it because it sounded like a reprimand. “We have company over, but Greg and I would be happy to come get you.”

  “I don’t want to intrude,” her mother uttered the politeness, but Tiara knew it was untrue. Her mother didn’t mean to intrude, but how could Tiara tell her that their company lived here?

  “You could take her to my old place,” Zack said in a stage whisper. “It’s a little more normal.”

  “Mom, we’re on our way now,” Tiara gave Jordan a pleading look as she jogged after Greg toward the underground garage.

  I’ll figure something out by the time you get there, Jordan told Tiara telepathically.

  Thanks, Tiara sent back to him. Let me know where we’re taking her.

  Tiara, I know that it’ll be a bit of a shock, but I think we should at least show your mother our home. Jordan was proud of his home. We’ll already be keeping a lot of secrets without adding another lie on top of it.

  I trust your judgment, she sent back her loving support, but you’ll need to do a lot of the explaining. My mother is very…

  Normal? Jordan chuckled.

  Yes, Tiara sighed, resting her worry on his shoulders. And we’re all so…

  Not normal, Jordan sent her his affection and turned away his attention to give the room a sound appraisal. It looked as normal as an underground mansion could look.