Page 90 of Touched By Moonlight
As I started to pass Lavender’s cube, I ground to ahalt.
Lavender had vanished. But the pretty violet orchid that adorned her desk hadgrown.
Immensely.
Vines snaked over the desk, draped over the monitor. The flowers had changed as well, each one resembling a tinyface.
I didn’t need Grayson to tell me this was dark magick manifestingitself.
“Sienna?Sienna!”
“Gotta go. Something’s happening.” I hungup.
Everything fell together like the pieces of mosaic forming a recognizable pattern. The odd smells emitting from her cube. The way she never socialized with others and no one gave her stacks of work like they did with myself and others. As if she cast management under aspell…
Lavender wasn’tFae.
Lavender was awitch.
As I increased my pace, snaking around the cube farm to head for the hallway, panic clogged my throat. Lavender could be anywhere. I burst into the hallway, saw the comforting steel doors of the elevator. As I punched the down button, something snaked around my rightankle.
Mouth dry, I looked down in horror. Lavender’s orchid sent out a vine, slowly entwining itself around my foot. Trappingme.
It took more than a damn orchid to keep me at bay. I gave my foot a hard yank, and the vine broke. But two more slithered out into the hallway, and this elevator wasslow.
The red EXIT sign offered a much better alternative. When I reached the door, I glanced over myshoulder.
Several vines slithered over the elevatordoors.
Much as I detested my boss, I hoped he was upstairs in his office. I don’t imagine Randall would enjoy tangling with evil, enchantedplants.
Unless he could order them to get reports finished bynoon.
Thankful I was in good shape, I took the stairs several at a time, jumping down a few, grateful for flats. This was the reason I never wore heels. Because for the past three years, my life was all about running fromsomething.
Not running tosomething.
Somehow, I managed to leash my powers. Inside, I felt them clamoring for release, like a caged tiger roaring for freedom. But manifesting my magick would only feed the darkenergy.
And I could accidentally hurt someone innocent, like Kara. Where was she? Worry bit me as I slammed onto the first floor landing, and bolted into the hallway. I could have gone outside, where the stairs led to the street below, but how could I leave Kara to face thosethings?
She was a powerlesshuman.
Slouch bag banging against my hip, I hurried down the hallway, fumbling with my cell to call Kara. No answer. She must not have taken her phone withher.
Or, maybe that thing upstairs… don’t think like that. Evil fed off negativity. It empoweredthem.
Only one way to find her without magick. I hurried into an empty office (had everyone called in sick this morning?) and picked up the desk phone, dialing poundzero.
The whine of the intercom came over the public addresssystem.
“Kara Baylor, report to the cafeteriaIMMEDIATELY.”
I hung up and headed there, hoping my friend heard the announcement. And that Lavender had suddenly gonedeaf.
Williams Marketing had few perks, but one was a cafeteria that accommodated almost all the employees, with vending machines, long gray tables with comfortable chairs, microwaves, refrigerators and even free snacks served on afternoon break. Right now it wasempty.
No sign of Kara, or those treacherous vines. But a gray mist seeped beneath the door on the room’s otherend.
