Crossfire (Book 1) (The Omega Group) (9 page)

“What was that all about?” Mirissa was sitting cross-legged
beside Asteria on the sectional sofa where they had taken her after her
episode.

Greco pulled one of the armchairs forward so he was seated
directly in front of her. “I see you finally connected with your ring. I’m
sorry I wasn’t here to guide you through it.”

“I don’t understand. I’ve never felt anything like that
before. It was as though every one of my senses was magnified and I was
radiating… I don’t know what.” Mirissa knew she wasn’t describing it properly,
but words just didn’t do the experience justice.

“You’re evolving, sweetheart.” Myrine moved to sit at her
side and reached out to hold her hand. “This is part of who you are, part of
the power I told you about earlier. This kind of evolution should take time,
years even, to manifest itself, but your ring is taking you through it much
quicker than I had anticipated. It must have a reason.”

“So, this happens to you, too?” Mirissa asked, feeling a
little less isolated at the prospect.

“No. All Amazons have a connection to their rings. It’s what
allows us to go to Tritonia and how the ring becomes a weapon and protects us.
For you, the connection is much deeper. It is a part of you and it’s helping
you become the warrior you are destined to be.”

“But what about Carter and Han? I did something to them.”

Myrine gave a sympathetic smile to her daughter and
explained. “No, sweetheart, you didn’t do anything to them. This isn’t exactly
how I’d planned on introducing you to all of this, but basically,
your
power unleashed
theirs
. You see, they, like many of our group, are
preternatural beings—humans with exceptional abilities. Carter is a werewolf;
he can shape shift into a wolf whenever he chooses. Han can change his
molecular structure to allow him to pass through solid objects. We all have
special abilities and we use them to fight evil.”

“Really? So, what can Barbie do?” Mirissa asked.

“
Jackie
,” Myrine stressed the name, “is one of our
government liaisons. She and Ken are highly trained operatives and they play a
large role in our missions, but neither of them have preternatural abilities.”

Mirissa gave her mother a puzzled look, and Myrine
continued. “Amazons have been fighting Kakodaemons for over two thousand years.
But, as I told you earlier, Kakos aren’t the only threat out there. There are a
number of other beings in this world that are just as lethal, and there are
also a number of other beings like
us
that fight them. For thousands of
years, we fought our demons, so to speak, separately, without even knowing each
other existed. That all changed a little over a decade ago when a demi-god
named Daedric came on to the scene. He united many of the preternatural forces
of evil, and now he leads them like a general would his army.”

“So,” Mirissa said, “when the bad guys joined forces, all of
you did, too.”

“Basically, yes. The Director of the CIA, Robert Finley,
approached me shortly after I left you and your father. He was surprisingly
well informed about the Amazons and our plight against the Kakos. He told me
about the other groups like ours and about the evils they fought. He also told
me about Daedric. Intelligence agencies worldwide had been keeping an eye on
the preternaturals in their respective countries, and when Daedric took over,
they knew something had to be done. No government, not even ours, has the
ability to fight a demi-god and his army, so they hatched a plan.

“For the first time in history, all of the major world
governments came together to build a new agency—one that worked outside of the
confines of any government but had the funding and support of all of them. I
was recruited to build that agency. With Director Finley’s help, and that of
his counterparts worldwide, representatives from various preternatural groups
throughout the world that fought for good were brought together to form Omega
Group.”

When the front door opened this time, it was Ken who
entered, followed by Mirissa’s father. She immediately jumped up from the
couch, momentarily putting all thoughts of magical beings and secret government
agencies aside, and rushed over to put her arms around him. Steve held her
tight for several minutes and whispered, “Thank God you’re all right.”

“You, too,” Mirissa said. “Is Henry OK?”

Steve chuckled before answering. He looked her in the eye,
placed his hands on either side of her face and said, “Yes, sweetheart. Henry
is just fine.” Then he looked over her shoulder and into the eyes of the woman
he loved.

Mirissa could feel the tension in her father’s body and knew
immediately what was causing it. Despite her desperate need to be in his arms,
she pulled away to allow him to go to her mother.

The silence in the room was deafening. One by one the other
occupants of the house found something that they needed to do in another room,
until it was just the three of them—Mirissa’s family.

Steve walked slowly toward Myrine, as though he feared her
an apparition that could dissipate at any moment. Their eyes were locked on to
each other and a myriad of emotions played across their faces—longing, fear,
sadness, and a whole lot of love. When they were toe-to-toe, Steve swept his
wife up into his arms and kissed her with a passion that Mirissa had only read
about in the trashy romance novels she secretly loved.

Mirissa had always thought she came from a broken family,
but judging by that kiss, her family was anything but. Feeling more than a
little uncomfortable, she quietly eased her way out of the living room, giving
her parents the time they so richly deserved.

Daedric stood staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows of
his forty-second floor office in the Bank of America Tower. The view from the
top of Jacksonville’s tallest building reminded him of his rightful place in
the world. He could just imagine all of the inconsequential people running
around far below him thinking that their lives were important. Why the gods had
chosen to give the earth to these worthless humans was something he would never
understand. As far as he was concerned, humans only had one purpose: to serve
him.

“So, you failed me,” he said flatly as he turned. Daedric’s
ice blue eyes contrasted starkly with his short dark hair and almost glowed
when he was angry. Although he wasn’t exceptionally tall, standing a hair over
six foot one, his presence dominated every room he entered.

Bill Grainger, the leader of his private military, stood a
few meters in front of him, with his lips quivering, terrified. Exactly the way
Daedric liked him.

“Sir, my men had the girl but were surprised by two agents
in an air vent…”

Cutting him off, Daedric spat out, “You failed me!”

Swallowing hard, Grainger said simply, “Yes, sir.”

For over a decade, Daedric had planned his moves
meticulously. He’d succeeded in uniting over a dozen tribes of preternaturals;
something previously thought impossible. He’d had to promise each tribe what it
was they wanted most—walking in daylight, human appearances, extended life
spans, and much more. He couldn’t even remember all of the promises he’d made,
but it didn’t matter. He had no intentions of following through on any of them.
Those preternaturals were simply a means to an end. A useful machine to get him
what was rightfully his—dominion over the earth.

Facing his pathetic excuse for a commander, Daedric raised
his right hand and slowly closed his fingers into a fist. Immediately, Grainger
grasped his throat, buckling at the knees as his airway constricted.

“I do not accept failure from anyone, for any reason. Do you
understand me?”

A jerky nod of his head was all Grainger could manage as the
lack of oxygen to his brain caused him to collapse to the floor.

Daedric enjoyed this man’s suffering immensely and would
have loved nothing more than to watch him writhe in pain until his heart
finally stopped beating, but, regrettably, he still had a use for him. Opening
his fingers and dropping his hand back down to his side, Daedric released him.

Grainger took several long, agonizing breaths as his airway
suddenly opened again. When he had recovered enough to stand, he straightened
his uniform, placed his feet shoulder width apart, and awaited his next orders.

“Find where they are keeping the girl and report back to me.
I will send someone more capable to extract her.” Another nod of his head and
Grainger took his leave, looking enormously relieved that he was able to do so.

Suffering the company of inferior beings always gave Daedric
indigestion and, since every being on the planet was woefully inferior, he
preferred to spend his time alone with is thoughts. So much was riding on
finding this girl that he couldn’t afford another mistake.

All of this could have been easily avoided if only he’d
known who that Amazon bitch really was when he’d first met her all those years
ago. He could have killed her daughter when she was just a small child and not
be wasting his precious time and resources dealing with her now.

Daedric reached for his crystal decanter of Louis XIII Black
Pearl cognac and poured himself a much-deserved glass. It was one of the rare
human-made items that he felt was worthy of him. The smooth taste of the
100-year-old drink calmed him, clearing his mind.

He thought, once again, of his mysterious informant from all
those years ago. Daedric still had no idea who it was that had helped him, or
why he’d chosen to do so, but he often found himself wondering about that
person.

It was twelve years ago, when Daedric’s plan was still in
its infancy. He had just begun to court the preternaturals, convincing them to
join him, and everything was going exactly as he had hoped it would.

Then came the phone call.

It lasted for only a few seconds—just a whispered couple of
sentences—but it had changed everything.

The Queen of the Amazons has a daughter that is destined
to disrupt your plan. Her powers will be great, and if you don’t stop her, she
will stop you.

That was it. The caller didn’t identify himself and he
disconnected the line before Daedric could even ask a question. At first, he
ignored the cryptic message. No Amazon had the power to stop him so it wasn’t
worth his time. But the call was always in the back of his mind, chipping away
at his confidence.

Whoever it was knew about at least one group of
preternaturals, so there was evidence of some inside knowledge. Somehow he also
knew that Daedric had a plan in place. Those two things were enough to give
credibility to the caller’s information, enough to force Daedric to call in
some very valuable favors to find out definitively. And that was exactly what
he did. He confirmed what the caller had told him only a few short weeks later.

Finding the girl, however, had been much more difficult than
he’d imagined. He was able to ascertain the name of the Amazon Queen, but that
information had proved useless. Not only did he lack a surname, but also none
of his many contacts in local government had been able to find any record of
property ownership with the first name Myrine. It was a dead end.

Until three months ago.

Over the years, Daedric had infiltrated many levels of local
and national government, placing his people in positions that would ultimately
help him. It was one of these people that happened upon the information he
needed. His mole had overheard a secretary giving her boss a brief message. “
Myrine
on line three for you, sir.”

That was the beginning of the end for Myrine’s secret
existence. Knowing whom she contacted allowed Daedric to instruct his people to
dig in the right places, until he found the Omega Group. From there it was a
simple matter of watching and waiting until they made contact with the
girl—something that happened last night.

Today should have been a day of celebration for Daedric, if
Grainger and his team had done their jobs. Now he’d lost the element of
surprise and his target knew she was his prey. Things had gotten much more
difficult but not impossible. Daedric was too powerful and had his fingers in
too many pies to let a little girl thwart his plans. He would find her again,
and this time she would not escape.

Taking another sip of his cognac, Daedric eased into the
leather chair behind his desk and returned to the business at hand. The next
phase of his plan would be initiated soon. He needed to make sure that
everything, and everyone, was in place.

When Myrine finally emerged from her private reunion with
her husband, she called everyone in the house to the living room.

“Myrick, I’m glad you’re here. Did you have any trouble
getting our supplies?”

A red-haired man standing three inches taller than Mirissa,
with wide shoulders and a narrow waist, answered quickly, “No. I just arrived,
so I haven’t unpacked anything yet, but everything we need is in the garage.”
Myrick looked at Mirissa and gave her a smile and a wink. “Can I assume that
this lovely young lady is your daughter?”

“Yes.” Myrine smiled. “This is Mirissa, and this,” she said,
putting her hand on Steve’s shoulder, “is my husband, Steve. Mirissa’s very
protective father.”

As though completely unaware of Myrine’s warning, Myrick
reached for Mirissa’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “It is my pleasure to
finally meet you, lass.”

She didn’t know if it was his slight Scottish accent, or his
mischievous grin, or maybe the look on her father’s face, but Mirissa couldn’t
hold back the giggle she’d been trying to suppress and her cheeks turned
crimson. Another quick wink and Myrick went back to his seat, still sporting
that grin.

“Myrick is our resident flirt. He’s a merman.” Myrine said.
“Okay, right now, we have work to do. Greco, I need you to take Mirissa to
Tritonia. She needs to learn to control her new powers, and we can’t risk
anything else happening here. Ken, I need you to contact Director Finley and
bring him up to speed on today’s attack. He may have information that we need.
Jackie, talk to Julian and have him scour the Internet for anything that can
tell us what Daedric is up to. We need to know what each of his companies is
doing. There has to be a trail to follow and if anyone can find it, it’s
Julian. The rest of you, contact your preternatural brethren: get whatever
information they have and put them on alert. If today’s attack tells us
anything, it’s that Daedric is close to making his move. We’ll need all hands
on deck.”

The atmosphere of the room was heavy as everyone got up to
make their calls. There would be no more giggling tonight, Mirissa thought.

Greco came to Mirissa’s side, putting his hand out to help
her off the couch. “Let’s find a quiet room where we won’t be in the way while
we’re in Tritonia.”

They found a small den down the hall, with a couch and two
comfortable-looking chairs, which was perfect. Greco sat in the chair while
Mirissa took the couch. “Now that you’ve connected to your ring, sending your
consciousness to Tritonia shouldn’t be difficult,” Greco said as he reached
into his pocket. “I’ll walk you through it, and as soon as you’re there, I’ll
join you.” He pulled something out of his jean’s pocket and put it on his
finger.

“You have an Amazon ring?” Mirissa was surprised to see that
his ring was identical to hers, except in a larger size.

“It’s a long story. Are you ready to go?”

Mirissa nodded.

“Lie back so that your body doesn’t fall when you leave.
Now, close your eyes and concentrate on Tritonia. See the island in your mind’s
eye—the clearing, the warriors there, the statue. Once you have a clear
picture, just will yourself to be there. It should happen fairly quickly”

She was gone. Her body was still lying on the couch, but her
consciousness was far away.