Chapter 25

"I had the weirdest dream…"

"Yeah?" Mark slathered butter on Claira's Pop Tarts, just the way she liked them when he 'made breakfast', Brooklynn upstairs still asleep. He hadn't really gone back to sleep after their lovemaking, so he had shut the alarm off long before it could wake her.

"Yeah." Claira grinned as he set her junk food down before her. "Your hair was really, really black and you were standing in front of a bonfire, talking to me about…" She frowned, then shrugged. "I guess I don't remember."

He was definitely going to the library.

"Don't tell Mom about it." Claira requested, after scarfing the two Pop Tarts and sighed at her father raising his brow at her. "Look Dad, Mom is…she's stressed out about this whole dream thing she's got going on. The last thing she needs to worry about is me having crazy dreams. I don't know what's going on, but…let's just keep this between us for now, okay? Please?" She was afraid if her mother found out, she would go into a full-blown panic, mothering mode and that wasn't fun to deal with.

"Not a word." He mimed zipping his lips, in agreement with Claira on this. Brooklynn already had enough on her plate; he wouldn't doubt it if she didn't start looking up ways to block her dreams or something, not that he blamed her. "Seth picking you up today?"

"Yeah, he should be on his way." She watched as he filled his thermos with coffee. "You going to work today?"

"Yeah." How many lies was he running at once?

Not believing her father, Claira dropped the subject for the time being and heard the horn beep outside, kissing her Dad's cheek. "See you later, Pops!" She flew out the door and jumped into Seth's truck, kissing him before they took off down the road toward school.

As soon as Claira was gone, he jotted down a note reminding Brooklynn that he was going out today and a reminder to stop to eat and use the bathroom. His daughter was dreaming about Taker. While it wasn't all right that Brooklynn was, the fact that Claira was riled him. She was innocent.

Claira hoped her mother would be alright, especially after the zombified state she'd been in the previous day with her laptop and research. What was the darkness coming, exactly? It sounded bad and she didn't want to think about it, a thoughtful frown crossing her face.

"What's wrong, gorgeous?" Seth asked, having picked up on Claira's somewhat out of it state and frowned.

She couldn't tell him. He would think she was insane and probably try to have her committed. "Just nervous about finals." Claira hated lying to her boyfriend, but it was the only way to protect her family secret. A secret she detested and wished she'd never inherited by her supernatural parents. "Are you excited about Spring Break? You get to spend it all with me, did your Mom say it was okay?" Hell, she hadn't even thought about the fact he'd have to ask his mother's permission to go.

Seth wasn't entirely sure if he believed her, but the change of topic was enough to distract him. "Well, she had to clear the practices with the coach, but your Aunt Trish is apparently really, really persuasive. I think my Mom is convinced that, with so many adults around, I'm going to be nervous… or shy." He wasn't, not entirely…Seth smiled at Claira's knowing look. "Think we'll be under constant supervision, gorgeous?"

"Unfortunately, yeah, especially with my Dad and Uncles there. They're…overprotective of me." That was an understatement. Steve with his mindreading ability, Glenn with his headaches if any danger was around, John with his writing ability and she wasn't sure if Melina's husband, David, was supernatural. "We'll find time to be together, but I don't think we'll be able to do another 69 unless we're REALLY sneaky." Maybe having her powers unlocked could help with that, just this once.

"I'm coming!" Brooklynn called out, standing up from the couch and padded over to answer the front door, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a burnt orange tank top. Her eyes nearly fell out of her head at the sight of the individual standing in front of her. "Oh my god…Randy?!"

Not hesitating for a second, she tossed her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, tears filling her eyes. Randy struggled to hold still, feeling her bare arms around his neck. Every inch from the neck on down was covered, even in the Texas heat, including his hands. Neck up… bare and he grit his teeth as wave after wave hit him.

"What's going on?" He demanded harshly, gently but firmly untangling her from him, trying not to let everything he had just picked up from her pull him under as his mind frantically tried catching up with it.

Brooklynn immediately stumbled back, her eyes wide while Randy tried to make sense of everything that had washed over him. "I should ask you the same thing. What are you doing here? And…your hands are covered, so how are your powers working on me?" As far as she remembered, the only way Randy's magic/touch ability worked was by his hands. She had hugged him around the neck, so Brooklynn was extremely confused.

Smiling awkwardly, Randy followed her inside when she opened the door for him. The last several years had been difficult and he was leaner, more muscular, his features a bit sharper, perhaps a bit colder as well. "About a decade ago, I started picking up shit from skin to skin beside my hands… I can't control it, I've tried…" He shrugged, used to it. "So… I just stay covered as much as I can and try not to use it unless I have too. Now, what was all that I just saw, Brook?"

"No, you're not gonna bypass my question with a question of your own." Brooklynn chastised, trying to wrap her mind around the fact Randy Orton showed up at her doorstep unexpected and shocked the hell out of her. No wonder he looked colder and leaner, he probably took care of himself as much as was needed, but he didn't look at happy at all. "You and I both know you hate Texas." It was the heat, considering he had to stay completely covered up. "So, what are you doing here? I'll tell you what's going on, but you're gonna tell me what brings you here first. Do you want something to drink?"

"You haven't changed at all, Brooklynn, and no." Randy had zero patience for people these days and it pretty much stemmed from the fact that he lived alone, isolated, for good reasons. He preferred not going insane from the onslaught of accidental contact. "I was here for you, and something strange I picked up from someone I bumped into on the street in St. Louis, which leads me back to: what the fuck? Taker is in your dreams and Julia?"

"What do you mean something strange?" Randy had her undivided attention and Brooklynn scratched her forehead when he refused to go further. "I had a dream a few nights ago. Julia came to me through my dream and…she told me the darkness is coming. It was a warning. She couldn't elaborate. She said I needed to trust my instincts, trust myself and protect my family with the help of the circle. Mark thinks he's the one being targeted because of his past with…Undertaker." It was hard to say that name, especially after the nightmare she had the previous night and touched her neck as if remembering being strangled to death. "As far as HE goes, I've been having nightmares about him and I don't know why. Mark thinks it has something to do with the fact Bastet is dead. She was murdered by a sinister, dark magic source and Mark can't locate it. He thinks they left town. Now, what did you find in St. Louis that brought you to me?"

"I was walking down the street, had to buy groceries, and it was really, really hot." It was weird because, this time of year, St. Louis was not hot, it was cold in the Midwest as April pretended to be Spring. "I don't even know which person it was, it was crowded, but I was wearing a t-shirt and someone brushed against me, my arm…" His ice blue eyes were staring over her head, lost in thought, before dropping down to meet her stare. "I saw Taker, at a bonfire laughing, and felt… scared, but it wasn't me being scared, it was you. I can't make sense of it because I usually only get experiences that the people have felt, this was like it was being forced on me."

A bonfire with Taker standing in front of it, laughing and Randy felt her, not himself, in that scenario. "What the fuck is going on?" Brooklynn asked, more to herself than him and stood up from the couch, tearing a hand through her hair. "It's been 17 years…17 years of nothing besides the occasional spirit needing to be crossed over! Why now? Why after all this time is this happening? First Bastet dies, then Julia contacts me in my subconscious along with that piece of shit, and now you're here. And how can you bump into a random stranger and see shit about Taker and me? There's no way it was Taker because Mark has been here with me the entire time and they are one in the same."

"Exactly." Randy already knew about the Taker / Mark thing, enough to know that Taker wasn't wandering loose because Brooklynn would have raised alarms that Mark's body had been hijacked by his counterpart. "And I saw your dreams, with Julia and Taker, so… what's trying to get us back together?"

Obviously, if something in St. Louis had directed him here, then he imagined the others were going to wind up herded. Brooklynn looked down at the ring on her finger, the amethyst stone glittering back at her and felt her chest tighten, wondering if getting married was part of this darkness coming for them. Mark had asked her abruptly, out of the blue, and she couldn't escape the nagging feeling in her gut all of this was connected somehow, someway.

"Did anyone contact you about the party that's going down in D.C. for us? Mark and I…we went to Mexico and finally got married." She sounded saddened by it, tears stinging her eyes. "It was spontaneous and out of the blue. After 17 years, he finally asked me to marry him and I said yes. And the girls are throwing us a wedding reception – Trish, Mickie, Melina and Beth – and we're leaving for D.C. on Friday to stay with Melina and David for a couple days and then going to Tennessee to stay with Glenn and his wife for the remainder of it. What if all of this is a plan? What if…what if Mark was FORCED to ask me to marry him by magic or something? Oh god…"

The idea of someone forcing Mark to do anything, that was amusing and Randy found himself genuinely smiling down at Brooklynn, the ice melting just a little bit. Once upon a time, he had thought he loved her, but he had been a lot younger back then, and now… now not so much. A cherished friend, that was all she was, and even then that was a tentative claim.

"Nobody called me." Not surprising; over the years, Randy had just cut off the contact from everyone, even the circle, such as it was. "And Mark doesn't do a damn thing unless he wants too. You of all people should know that. If something magical was getting to him, he'd know, bank on that."

"It's too coincidental, Randy. Even YOU have to admit that! For fuck's sake, he never ONCE brought up marriage in the 17 years we've been together. Not ONCE and suddenly, out of the blue, he wants to marry me? Something isn't right about this. I feel it in my gut." Trust your instincts, trust yourself…Julia's words rang through her mind again, knowing she had to listen to her sister. "All of this is connected somehow and someone or something has gone to A LOT of trouble to get the circle back together." Randy was a dear friend of hers and she thought of him as a brother, as family. "Don't get me wrong, I love Mark and you know that and all I've ever wanted was to be his completely, but…why would he suddenly want to marry me after 17 years? If someone could breeze past him and kill Bastet with DARK magic, which is what he specializes in, don't think for a second that same asshole can't cast a spell of some kind and force him to ask me to marry him. It's not far-fetched, at all."

"Well, I'll take that drink now, whiskey if you have it."

Randy would have to circle back to his previous statement and really hoped he was wrong. He wasn't. He knew he wasn't; he had touched Mark/Taker before and he knew just what kind of juice the big man had at his disposal, whether he used it or not. Following Brooklynn into the kitchen, Randy watched as she got down a pint of Jack Daniels and two small shot glasses, accepting it when she passed one over. He downed it, gritting his teeth and took a deep breath.

"If you think he was magically forced into it, or anything along those lines, then he already knows, Brook."

"What if he doesn't? Magic, especially dark, sinister magic, is capable of virtually anything. Look what it did to you, putting you in that coma state and Taker is the one who put you in that predicament." Brooklynn downed her shot, pouring another one and refilled his own glass. "Bastet is gone and she was the one who was keeping Taker in check, dormant, but now she's dead and I can only hope Taker died along with her, that part of him." Second shot down. "He's invading my dreams, causing nightmares and killing me in almost all of them…or hurting me in some way. I'm terrified right now, but I don't know what to do about it and there's really nothing I CAN do since I'm not supernatural like him or any of you. All I do is see spirits and cross them over into the light if they want to go."

Randy was silent, listening to her intently and frowned. "Brooklynn… I've felt him before… I know how much juice he has. Mark and Taker, whichever he is… the only difference between them is how they choose to USE it. Look… I'm telling you, if there is anything wrong, if there is anything having an influence on him, he already knows." The question for Randy was what was Mark doing to stop it? "And if you have doubts, ask him to let me… let me touch him."

"You've officially lost your mind if you think that man will let you touch him and read his most intimate thoughts. He's at his library right now researching the Familiar crap and possibly what's happening with my dreams." Brooklynn had no idea what Randy saw was a replica of Claira's dream, with Taker and the bonfire. That was something she would be mentioning to Mark and hopefully, Randy stuck around to tell him about it more in depth. "If he knows he's being fucked with, then he hasn't told me anything. I've asked him several times if he feels alright because…there are moments where it looks like he's zoning out. I don't know how else to describe it, but…one minute we're talking and the next he's not paying attention, he's in another world. I just hope…I hope him asking me to marry him was strictly from his heart and what he wanted instead of someone forcing him into it…" That would shatter her.

"If he has nothing to hide, then he shouldn't have a problem with it, Brooklynn," Randy said reasonably, folding his arms along the kitchen counter as he considered her. "Or are you afraid? Maybe he's lying, and you know it, and you don't want it confirmed. Or, on the other hand, maybe he's not, and then you're in a pickle because he'll know you doubted him." Fortunately for him, Randy didn't have those problems, but he could see how it would be a pain for her.

"All of the above," Brooklynn admitted, downing another shot and poured him a third, putting the cap back on the bottle. "I'm terrified right now – not of him, but of what we'll find out. I'm scared of finding out he has been lying to me and that he only asked me to marry him because of a spell or someone forcing him to do it." She hadn't told Mark any of this, what she felt, because she didn't want to fight and argue so soon after getting married. "I love him…and I hate myself for doubting him, but…there's too many coincidences for this NOT to be connected to what's going on."

Randy would lay his hand on Mark, with or without Brooklynn's permission, this would clear her of being guilty if he was wrong. If he was right… well… he'd deal with Mark's anger. If Mark did know and was hiding it, then it had to be bad, especially for the big man to hide it from her. They had been the star-crossed lovers of the group, both caring for each other, but neither able to settle with the other. It had been odd and then perfect when they finally did jump that gun.