CHAPTER NINETEEN.

WITH A GASP, CADEN sat straight up in bed. He looked around the darkened room at Lucan's house, panting, sweating.

Something was wrong.

Bounding out of bed, he grabbed his jeans and shirt, thrusting them on as he ran down the hall to Lucan's room and shoved the door. Empty. s.h.i.t!

Backtracking, he raced toward the front of the house, wondering if his brother had slipped out, gone to challenge Shock for Anka, decided to end it all. . . . Instead, he found Lucan sleeping fitfully on the sofa.

As Caden's gaze latched onto his brother's face, Lucan opened his eyes. "What is it?" Hesitating, Caden wasn't certain what to say. Lucan was well enough-in one piece, anyway. But Caden knew something was terribly wrong.

"I have this sense of foreboding . . . this dread." It throbbed inside him, an echo of someone else's real fear.

Lucan rubbed his hand over his shadowed jaw. "Have you opened your magical senses?"

"My what? No."

Lucan sighed. "Close your eyes. Look inside yourself for your magic. That thing that sparks and burns at your core."

His eyes slid shut, and he shook his head. "It's not in one place; it's everywhere."

"Find the heart of it. Look inside," Lucan snapped impatiently.

As Lucan said the words, Caden focused deeper inward. There it was. As soon as he found the heart of his magic, it expanded, growing exponentially, as if it had been waiting for him to acknowledge its existence. Now, it woke a sleeping giant. Desperately, Caden tried to shrink it, shove it aside- something.

"No!" Lucan commanded. "Grab onto it. Let it take you."

"h.e.l.l no! It's going to drown me. It's ma.s.sive."

"Excellent." Lucan jumped to his feet. "Size . . . um, matters. Magically speaking."

"I don't want it! d.a.m.n it, I just want to be normal."

"You're not," Lucan snapped. "And the sense that something is wrong often involves a wizard's mate. If you want to know if something happened to Sydney, I suggest you give your senses free rein. Now." Caden caught his breath. Sydney in trouble? Yes, he sensed it. Her fear and panic. Her regret. Her cry for help. And for her, he'd move mountains, scale skysc.r.a.pers.

Embrace magic.

Most of the night he'd spent pondering Lucan's admonishments about embracing love and accepting his mate. His heart wanted it so d.a.m.n bad. All evening, logic had urged him to resist.

But everything changed the moment he knew Sydney was in danger.

Without hesitation, he looked inward again, mentally touching his magic. It burst inside him, burning down his arms, reaching its tentacles through his brain-and grabbing on. As it did, he looked outward for Sydney, trying to feel her, find her.

He did, and horror washed over him.

"Oh, G.o.d," Caden gasped, heart drumming furiously.

"For a moment, I saw everything through her eyes. And he's got her. Mathias!" Lucan cursed. "Don't panic. Close your eyes. See if your magic can locate her." He concentrated, frowned. Vague images pinged back at him. Her arms curled around the book, Mathias barking questions. But no location.

"I-I can't. I don't know how. You couldn't do it when Anka was taken from you." Would Sydney be ravaged by that monster, as Anka had been? If an experienced wizard with a long-term mate bond had been unable to find her, what hope did Caden have?

"He took Anka suddenly," Lucan explained. "I felt only a vague sense of uneasiness before the bond was broken."

"We aren't mated. How can I find what isn't technically mine?" "Mother said for years that your magic would cross rare lines. Try." A deluge of thoughts and emotions pounded him. Fear. Anger at himself for not mating with Sydney.

Dread. The sensations that kept pouring across the tenuous thread of consciousness he shared with her.

Determination.

There! "A house. Remote." Frustration crashed over him. "That's all I can see. It could be anywhere."

"Have you teleported on your own yet?"

"No."

Lucan sighed roughly. "Remind me when this is over to beat you within an inch of your stubborn life.

Close your eyes. Envision yourself getting as close to Sydney as possible. Focus on your sense of her, not the appearance of the location. Your instincts should guide you to her." His first time to teleport, and he wasn't even sure where he was headed? No time to worry about that.

"If I fail?"

Wincing, Lucan slapped his shoulder. "Best not to dwell on that." Perfect. But as a fresh surge of terror clawed at his magical senses, and he actually felt Sydney's fear like the taste of blood in his mouth, he had to try now.

"Here I go."

Lucan grabbed his arm. "I'll pop in on Bram. He'll help." Caden shook his head. "He coerced me to temporarily join the Doomsday Brethren in exchange for helping me find Anka. After flubbing a mission a few days ago, he ousted me." With a raised brow, Lucan predicted, "I think you'll be surprised. But if I'm wrong, then I'll go to Shock.

He'll know best where Mathias is keeping Sydney."

The gesture stunned Caden. "You'd do that? Even though the b.a.s.t.a.r.d has your mate?"

"To keep you with yours so that you could have your happy ending? Yes. Shock may well work for Mathias, and if so-"

"He claims to be a double agent."

"Not relevant now, except that if he's truly on our side, then getting him to help me find Sydney should be much simpler. Go. I'll sort the rest out."

Suddenly a scream rent his mind. Pain and fear sc.r.a.ped every nerve ending raw. The time for deliberation was gone. He had to act now.

He closed his eyes, focused on Sydney and how to be as near her as possible. Then he was tumbling through the dark.

"How lovely of you to bring the Doomsday Diary to me." Mathias sent her a tight smile. "I'll reward Zain later. But now, my dear, you must tell me how the book works." Sydney staggered as Zain completed teleporting and the room tilted. She blinked, trying to get her bearings. But all she saw was an unfamiliar house. And Mathias waiting for her.

Fear zipped down her spine. It was one thing to sit across from Mathias with Shock present and the Doomsday Brethren just outside. This face-to-face now? Disturbing, to say the least.

She clutched the book to her chest. "What will you do with it?" He sifted his fingers through her hair, and Sydney tried not to show just how distasteful she found his touch. "Put an end to all this silly fighting. Magickind needs to unite." Under the banner of false equality and his cruel thumb? No.

"How does the book work?"

Sydney figured in this instance, her best defense was to play dumb. "I don't know. I'm not a witch."

"Precisely my point." Mathias leaned closer, and she shivered. "How can a human control that book?" His eyes, so icy blue, were nearly silver-and alive with intelligence and evil. s.e.xuality oozed from every pore. To the woman who didn't know what he was, a man this good looking would be a powerful lure.

Yet Sydney was not only repelled, but disgusted. His closeness spiked nausea through her.

She had no idea why he wasn't reading her mind as Sabelle did. Different powers? Whatever. She wasn't looking a gift horse in the mouth.

"I d-don't."

Without using his hands or feet, he scooted both himself and the sofa he sat upon closer. It just moved.

Then he leaned in, grabbing her arms. "It's attached to you. The minute you left my office in the warehouse, it dissolved out of my hands, back into yours. Tell me why." If Mathias didn't know the secrets of the Doomsday Diary, she wasn't going to explain them. She was pretty certain he regarded humans as little better then pond sc.u.m, so convincing him of her stupidity shouldn't be difficult.

She shrugged. "Something Bram did?"

Mathias stared, deep, hard. Sydney tried not to give the p.r.i.c.k the benefit of her fear, but he seemed to reach inside her and bring it all out. "Do you know what I did to one of the Doomsday Brethren's mates?"

Despite her vow to stay strong, she shrank back in her chair. "You raped her." He smiled as if reliving a fond memory. "Indeed, I rent her bond with her mate and stole most of her life essence. She was a strong witch, and that took time. You I can decimate in three minutes. Then I'll hunt down the cowardly wizard who hasn't completed his Mating Call and make him watch while I waste you completely under the pounding of my c.o.c.k."

"You vile son of a b.i.t.c.h. You stay the h.e.l.l away from us!" Mathias laughed. "Or what?" Sydney clutched her hands in her lap, her brain furiously whirling for a way out. Why had she ever imagined that Zain locked up without a wand was harmless? That she understood magic enough to know what was safe? Caden had been telling her for days now that it was unpredictable and dangerous. She hadn't listened.

"Let's try again," Mathias suggested. "You tell me what I want to know, and I'll spare you."

"You're going to kill me anyway. Let's be honest."

"Hmm." Mathias frowned. "It occurs to me that the Doomsday Brethren will converge on me en ma.s.se to save you, the book, or both. You're excellent bait. As soon as all the Doomsday Brethren are dead, then I can kill you. Unless you'd like me to show some mercy. Tell me what you know about the diary, and I might."

Sydney highly doubted that, but if they were still talking, she was still alive and still able to try to find a way out of this. "I don't know anything that will help you."

"I grow tired of this game."

Mathias flicked a hand in her direction. A fireball burst inside her. She screamed as if her insides had suddenly been boiled in acid. She clutched her middle, fearing imminent death.

Caden! her mind screamed. She loved him and wished everything could have ended differently between them. She would have liked to kiss him and know one perfect night as his mate. But even dying like this, she wasn't sorry she'd become involved with him. She was only sorry that she didn't know how to fight this evil and couldn't keep the others safe.

"Didn't like that, did you?" he asked smugly. "Maybe you'll be more cooperative now. Right, Shock?" Sydney's eyes flew open, and Shock stood beside Mathias, wearing those sungla.s.ses that hid his every thought. He smirked at her, his look suggesting that she was getting what she deserved. But he'd helped Bram and the others attack Mathias's warehouse. The attack had been a success . . . or had it? Mathias had escaped, and with that terrible gla.s.s sphere he used to make Anarki soldiers at will. Whose side was he really on?

"h.e.l.lo, Sydney." Shock's voice held all the warmth of a glacier.

"You treacherous, two-faced b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

"You do have the Doomsday Brethren convinced that you have their best interests at heart." Mathias laughed.

Shock sent Mathias a brash smile. "Of course. How can I help you?" Sydney reared back. Every time Shock opened his mouth to Bram he was challenging, disrespectful.

When he spoke to Mathias, she'd been surprised not to hear a "master" at the end of his greeting.

"Read this stupid chit's mind, please. What does she know about the Doomsday Diary? Where did she get it?"

Shock turned toward her. She used the techniques Sabelle had given her to ward him out of her mind, but even her dull thoughts of computer maintenance and a dreary lullaby didn't stop him.

"It was a gift to her, from a friend. She isn't certain where the friend got it."

"What else does she know?" Mathias scowled.

"She was told it granted s.e.xual fantasies. It came with no further instructions."

"Did she use it in that capacity?" he asked Shock.

"No," Sydney said.

"Of course," Shock corrected immediately. "Twice.

It worked both times."

"Is she a witch?"

She could actually feel Shock tromping through her mind, his steps as subtle as an elephant's. Gripping her head to stop the pain, she willed him to get out. A moment later, his heavy presence left her.

"If she is, she is unaware of it."

"How old are you?" Mathias snapped.

She sighed. If she didn't answer, Mathias would just send Shock back in to pillage her mind.

"Twenty-seven."

"Not a witch," they said in unison.

"Females transition into their powers around twenty-five," Shock supplied.

Mathias focused on her utterly, the same way a snake probably watched its prey before swallowing it whole. "The book has conferred some sense of ownership to you. Because you used it?" Suddenly, Shock was in her head again, crashing through her skull as if he was looking for answers with a machete. She screamed at the skull-cracking pain.

"She does not know."

Mathias waved him away. "That's all. Go round up the Anarki. I'm expecting company soon. You'll greet them, I hope."

Shock shot her an evil grin. "With great pleasure." Sydney watched him with horror as he strode out, long leather duster trailing behind him.

As soon as he was gone, Mathias s.n.a.t.c.hed the Doomsday Diary off of her lap and rose, his long stride eating up the s.p.a.ce to the door out of the makeshift office. The moment Mathias stepped over the threshold, he cursed.

The book reappeared on her lap.