Waiting for Magic Read Free Page B

fair share of wrinkles. But her yellow eyes weren’t glazed with cataracts and she wasn’t one step away from being a desiccated corpse. Jason could actually look at her now without his stomach rebelling.
    He stood in the shadows of the darkened hotel suite, silent, careful, watching her as she knelt in front of the lighted glass case that held the Sword. Sometimes he thought they were all crazy. Could they really believe the Sword had reversed her aging process? Sympathetic vibrations coursed through Jason’s body when he was anywhere around the damn thing. That Sword had something . He just wasn’t sure what.
    Several new members of the Clan stood in the shadows with Jason. Phil, Denny, Talbot. The ever-present Hardwick hovered protectively behind the old woman. Rhiannon lounged on the big couch. She’d dyed her hair pink, of all things. Her stock was riding high after she’d gotten the Sword for the old woman, even though she lost the Finder to the Tremaines.
    Jason couldn’t understand it. He hadn’t been forgiven for letting the biker Tremaine brother get away with his little rodeo rider. The fact that the Tremaines had hunkered down at their estate was at least as much Rhiannon’s fault as his. So why hadn’t she been punished? Jason sucked in a breath, trying to suppress the memories of the price Morgan exacted for his failure. Now he just did as he was told, expecting nothing.
    The old woman lapsed into English. “Help me, oh Talisman of the Tarot. Help me find your mates. Give me the power to gather magic, as it wants to gather. Rivulets will turn to streams that flow into rivers, until they run into a mighty sea of power. I, Morgan Le Fay, will change the world forever.” She held out a hand. Hardwick lifted her to her feet. “Help me,” she hissed to the Sword, stalking toward the lighted case.
    But the Sword only sat, immobile, silently gleaming. The silence crackled with tension.
    “Faugh!” the old woman exclaimed, turning away. “This is getting me nowhere. I need the other Talismans.” She turned on Hardwick.
    Hardwick took a deep breath. “Nothing in the British Museum, nothing at the Vatican. The Nazis don’t seem to have had any . That’s a disappointment. They were obsessed with objects of power. I thought sure…”
    Only Hardwick could survive offering excuses.
    “We don’t even know the others still exist.” Hardwick shrugged his lean shoulders. Hardwick had been with her from the first. What was it now? Almost thirty years?
    “They exist. I feel it in my soul.” The old woman’s eyes went harder, if possible. “The Cup has got to be a chalice of some kind. Start combing the world for chalices.”
    Hardwick looked daunted.
    “I don’t care if you have to go through every chalice that still exists from that period. I want—that—cup.”
    There was no arguing with that. Hardwick sighed and nodded.
    The old woman beckoned to Jason. “Where can we get an infusion of cash?”
    “How about a football game? The gate receipts .… ” Jason couldn’t help but grin. He loved to use his Cloaking. At least this would be fun .
    “I was thinking someplace closer to home.”
    *****
    Of course Kemble found it impossible to get Drew alone. These days she was never far from her husband, Michael. They’d been married almost four years, but they acted just as sickeningly newlywed as Tristram and Maggie still did. Right now they were eating lunch on the terrace, even though the wind was rising.
    Kemble stood in the doorway. Maggie was just bringing in her four-year-old, Jesse, from playing on the lawn. His hair was Maggie’s soft brown, but the kid’s very blue eyes belonged to Tristram. Tristram was downtown at his body shop today. He thought he was the only Tremaine who’d avoided having a security detail because he’d thrown a fit when he found Senior had assigned him one. Senior canned those guys. The new ones were more careful not to let Tristram catch them. Devin was