by Kristie Cook
My gaze slid back to Vanessa. Her eyes pled her innocence.
If I ever discover you’re lying to me, I said in her head, you’ll be the first one I kill. Then Victor. And when I’m done, there won’t be any pieces of either of you to put back together.
She nodded. “I’m on your side, though. I want to help you. I never got to meet Dorian—”
Don’t you say his name! Don’t you even think it!
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
I wrangled myself free of Tristan’s hold and turned back to Victor, who was just now recovering after my attack.
“Where’s my son?” I demanded again.
He stood to his full height—barely shorter than Tristan—and spit a wad of blood at my feet. “I told you I don’t know.”
“And I told you I don’t believe you. Tell me, or I won’t hold back next time.”
“Why don’t you ask that warlock of yours?” he snarled. “Oh, yeah, because he’s not yours anymore is he? He’s Kali’s. And they know where your fucking little brat is.”
Tristan blurred past me and heaved Victor’s body into the lighthouse wall, his forearm pressed into the vamp’s throat. I became suddenly curious what would happen if Tristan crushed his trachea, since Victor didn’t technically need it to breathe. He did, however, need to be able to swallow.
“Watch it, asshole,” Tristan breathed in Victor’s face. “That’s my wife. And you better answer the fucking question.”
“I did,” Victor choked out.
I dove into his mind, but he showed me what he wanted me to see: Owen tossing my dagger next to Sasha’s limp body on the floor and taking Dorian into his arms.
“Lucas wants nothing to do with your son,” Victor added. “Not yet, anyway. This is all Kali.”
“Now see, we know that’s a lie,” I said as I tried to hold myself back from attacking again. Tristan handled the vamp perfectly fine, evidenced by the wheezing sound escaping Victor’s throat.
“Find the bitch and . . . you’ll know,” the bloodsucker stammered. “And kill her . . . if you want. But you’ll . . . be doing Lucas . . . a favor if you do.”
I nearly screamed in frustration at his lies and his taunts. Tristan shoved his weight further into Victor’s body.
“You’ve already admitted to being at the safe house,” Vanessa reminded her twin, with her body, like mine, angled threateningly toward him.
“Not . . . for the boy,” Victor wheezed, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head again.
“Then for what?” I asked, but Victor didn’t answer.
“He’s incapable of telling the truth,” Tristan said.
“He’s incapable of saying anything now,” Vanessa mused.
Victor had slumped under Tristan’s weight, unable to bear whatever power my husband had given him beyond brute strength, especially now that the sun had risen over the horizon. Tristan stepped back, and the vampire fell to the ground. Although he appeared to be completely out of it, I gave him a hard kick to the ribs to be sure. The vampire didn’t move, but my foot felt as though my steel-toed boots had slammed into a concrete wall.
Frustration brought a growl out of me. As much as a part of me wanted to kill him—to destroy something to release the pressure of my anger—I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. I was, admittedly, all bark with little bite. At least until it mattered. When I learned for certain who took Dorian, God help those souls. Because I didn’t think I’d be able to.
With a grunt of annoyance, I flashed back to the beach by the safe house, and Tristan, Vanessa, and Sheree appeared behind me. Without a word to them, I strode across the street, up the marble stairs, and into the mansion. I snaked my way through the crowd that had gathered in the foyer and pretty much everywhere else where they could find a space. As I headed for my office, I mentally called out for Tristan, Blossom, and Sheree to join me, glad to find Blossom already awake. Vanessa still followed me, too, but I shut the door in her face.
“Rude much?” she muttered from the other side.
I smirked, but then I immediately felt bad—my feelings about her were all kinds of conflicted—but I wasn’t sure what to do with her yet. Trusting her as a confidante wasn’t quite at the top of my list, though, and we had private matters to discuss.
“We’ve wasted enough time,” I said to those I did want behind my closed door. Victor and his ridiculous lies had definitely been a total waste, and now a new day had begun, and we still didn’t have a plan, let alone an army. I went behind my desk, but didn’t sit down. Instead, I placed my hands on my desk and leaned forward. “We need to make a plan to find and rescue Dorian and Heather. We need a team. An elite team. Our very best.”
“You need to talk to Sophia first,” Tristan said.
“She called a few times last night and once already this morning,” Blossom added. “She knew everything that happened before we even told her.”
Of course she did. Mom could sense the truth. I hadn’t told her about Vanessa’s and my trip to Hades before we left, because I knew she’d try to talk me out of it. Forbid it, actually. If she didn’t suspect something being wrong, she wouldn’t have reached out for the truth of the situation. But all kinds of things went wrong, and we had to contact her for help to get home. We hadn’t had the luxury of a lengthy explanation or lecture at the time, and now . . . I couldn’t imagine how pissed off she was at me. Hopefully, her love for Dorian would eclipse her anger. And hopefully, she knew the truth of where to find him.
“She understood you needed to rest and regenerate,” Blossom continued, “but she demanded that you call her the moment you woke up.”
I sighed. “Fine. I’ll call you guys back in here when I’m done.”
Blossom and Sheree left my office, but Tristan stayed.
“There are some things you should know before you call her,” he said when we were alone. “So that she doesn’t catch you off guard.”
Not liking the warning in his voice, I closed my eyes as I sank into my chair. “Like what?”
“Well, to start with, the norms seem to be on the verge of war. Almost everywhere.”
My eyes popped open. “What?”
“The Daemoni are escalating things. There have been two assassinations and four ‘accidental’ bomb detonations just in the last twenty-four hours. The whole world has gone on edge.”
Damn it. Does it ever end? “Having their fun with the norms? As if messing with us isn’t enough?”
“Norman wars are the best way for them to build their army.”
“Because they know taking Dorian has started our own war.”
“We’ve always been at war, but yes, they’re taking it to the next level. But not only with us, Alexis. With the norms, too.”
I rolled my head around on my neck. “Vanessa said they were planning it. Preparing to make their move to take over.”
“Well, their move has been made.”
I nodded and reached for my phone. “Okay. Good to know.”
Tristan placed his hand over mine, preventing me from dialing. “Just be prepared that Sophia might not give you the answers you’re hoping for.”
I looked up at him. “All I want is to know if she has an idea of where Dorian is and an army to go get him.”
“Exactly.”
He held my gaze as I stared at him with incredulity. “Dorian’s her grandson! She loves him. She would do anything for him, just like us.”
He tightened his hand on mine. “I’m not saying I agree with them, but Sophia’s taking orders from Rina, who must look out for the Amadis as a whole and all of humanity. Nobody’s going to understand putting resources into a search and rescue of one kid who will eventually serve the Daemoni anyway. Not when the rest of the world is at risk.”
My blood pressure shot up again, and I opened my mouth to protest, but he held his free hand up before I went off.
“I’m only saying what others will. Whether we agree with them or not, there are other valid perspec
tives.”
His tone drove home his meaning. Mom and Rina had picked the Amadis over my family and me in the past. They were obligated to serve the greater good. Our role as the Amadis family was to protect our society and all of humanity, regardless of what it meant for us personally. I needed another angle, because our love for Dorian wouldn’t be enough to convince the matriarch, her second-in-command, and the rest of the Amadis that he was worth fighting for.
If I only knew why the Angels had sent him on his own, without a twin sister. There had to be a reason.
“Do you want me to leave?” Tristan asked.
My brows pushed together, and the corners of my mouth turned down. “Of course not.” I rose from my chair and rounded the desk, then pushed him back until he sat on the edge. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my forehead against his. “You belong right here.”
“We’re in this together,” he agreed before brushing my lips with his. He snagged my phone from the desk and handed it to me. I turned around and leaned back against him, and he wrapped his arms around my waist while I dialed Mom’s number.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” Mom said as soon as she answered. “I wish I could be there for you. The timing couldn’t be any worse.”
In other words, Dorian’s kidnapping was inconvenient. My teeth immediately set on edge. Tristan moved his hands to my shoulders and squeezed, trying to massage the tension out, but it only built.
“I know you and Rina have a lot to deal with,” I said, trying to show my understanding. “I know you can’t completely drop everything.”
“I would if I could. That boy . . .” She choked on her words. “I love him so much, Alexis. We knew this was coming, but you can never be adequately prepared.”
Her tears almost got to me, but I refused to break. Not now. I needed to be strong. “No, you can’t, especially not like this. They’ve overstepped their boundaries, and they know it. So do you. You feel that truth, right? He didn’t feel drawn to the Daemoni like all the other sons did. He didn’t choose to go. They didn’t even give him that choice. So tell me this isn’t wrong.”
“No, honey, you’re not wrong.” She blew a sigh into the phone. “But it doesn’t matter. Regardless of timing or methods, they have him. It was inevitable, and we know it.”
Renewed anger clawed at my chest. “No. Not yet. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not like this. Not this soon.”
“Everything happens for a reason.”
“Yeah, well, maybe the reason is so we’ll finally do what needs to be done—eliminate Lucas and the rest of the Daemoni. Destroy them once and for all. We need to gather our forces.”
“Yes, we do,” she agreed. “I need you and Tristan to help build our army, and eventually, train them.”
“Right,” I said, glad we were on the same page. “And we’ll go in, get our son, and decimate Hades.”
“No, Alexis.”
“What do you mean ‘no’? How else are we going to get Dorian back?”
“First of all, I don’t feel the truth that Dorian is in Hades. I don’t know where he is, exactly—there must be a powerful cloak on him—but I don’t sense that Lucas has him.”
“But he surely knows where he is. He did take Dorian, after all.”
“I don’t feel that truth, either.”
“I know he did! He all but warned me that he was going to when I was there only hours before, and he left my dagger that he’d taken from me as his calling card.”
“This isn’t really something Lucas would do himself,” Tristan said. “He would have sent someone, like Victor.”
“Technicalities,” I muttered. “Victor doesn’t have Dorian, so he obviously took him somewhere during the night. And Lucas knows exactly where.”
“Nonetheless,” Mom said, “we can’t and we won’t raid Hades. We’re not powerful enough.”
“So we get that way. Build our army, like you said. We have strong fighters. We’ll take our best. Tristan and I can—”
“Slow down and listen to me for a minute, please.” Mom’s voice had grown unusually impatient, causing me to pause. “We’re on the defensive. And we’re not in the position to take the offense. We have to put all of our resources—our best people, all of our time and money—into protecting the Amadis and the Normans. The Daemoni have already acted. They control some of the world powers, and now they’re moving in on the United Nations. There are secret meetings all over the world as we speak. Lucas’s men occupy many of those war rooms, and if we don’t do our job, humanity will go up in a forest of mushroom clouds.”
“So why aren’t we in those secret meetings? We’re the damn Amadis. Why don’t we have people in there stopping them?”
Mom’s heavy sigh sounded almost like a groan. “We do, honey. But too many politicians are power-hungry and corrupt. They feed off the lies the Daemoni give them and don’t want to listen to us. Even those who want to do right will do what’s necessary to protect their own. If another country or faction—or species—attacks their people, they’re not going to stand around and do nothing. They’re going to retaliate.”
“And that’s exactly what the Daemoni want.” I pulled away from Tristan and started pacing.
“Yes, it is. They’ll turn the dying into theirs until they have an army big enough to take over humanity. Normans will become their slaves. If they have to wipe out half of the human race with a nuclear war to achieve this goal, they will. Which is why we need to counteract their every move and convert as many as we can.”
“Which will build our army. Then we can go into Hades before it’s too late.”
“Hopefully, yes. While our best diplomats are with the politicians, we need to be working on our primary mission of building our army. I need you and Tristan to focus on this.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “But we’re not losing focus on rescuing Dorian, Mom. As soon as we have the people we need, that’s our primary mission.”
“I want Dorian back as much as you do,” she said, “but he can’t be our primary mission. Not yours. Not anyone’s. The Amadis and the Normans need us. These are your people, Alexis. They look up to you. They need to see that you can lead. That you will do what needs to be done for them and all we stand for. A waver like this from our primary creed will create a lot of distrust that you may never be able to rebuild.”
“And abandoning my son won’t? How can they trust me to stay true to them if I can’t do so for my own child?”
“You know how they feel about Dorian. About any Amadis son. And choosing one soul over all others—especially one we know has no hope in the end—”
My temper flared. “There is always hope! And I won’t give up on him, Mom. I can’t believe you and Rina gave up on Noah so easily. He was her son. Your twin. How could you?”
My accusation must have hit Mom unexpectedly because she sucked in an audible breath and didn’t answer for a moment. When she did, her voice came out much softer than it had been. “He was already deeply entrenched in the Daemoni before Mother knew he was still alive.”
“Well, Dorian’s not. And the sooner I find him and rescue him, the less likely he will be. As for the Amadis—they don’t know the future. They don’t know what Dorian could mean for them. Right now he is one of us, and we won’t give up on anyone, no matter who he is. At least I won’t. Tell that to anyone who questions my loyalty.”
Mom fell silent again, apparently having no rebuttal for my excellent point. But her silence was also a response, and not the one I wanted.
Because this was how it was going to be. What Tristan had been warning me about. The council didn’t give two shits about Dorian, and Mom and Rina hadn’t come up with a strong enough argument to change their minds. If they’d even tried. From what Mom had said so far, it didn’t sound like they had. Not even they believed he was important enough. They’d already determined this years ago, the day he was born.
“So I’m supposed to give up on him? That’s what you’re asking me to do?�
�� The question barely made it out as my throat constricted around the words. How could she ask that of me, one mother to another? How could she be so cold and heartless?
“Honey . . .” She paused again, and I could picture her pinching the top of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. When she finally continued, grief tainted her voice. “Dorian is where he belongs now.”
I shook my head in protest.
“No.” I wanted to yell, but I could only manage a whisper.
My whole body trembled with such outrage at those words that the phone nearly fell from my hand. Visions of the rampage I so badly wanted to go off on occupied all my thoughts until a buzz filled my head, drowning out whatever else she had to say.
“Heather,” I finally said, interrupting whatever she’d been telling me. “What about Heather?”
Mom fell silent again, apparently surprised by my question. Heather must have had nothing to do with her one-sided conversation.
“The Norman girl’s safety and well-being is a concern,” she said. Finally, some reasoning. “We have a team searching for her now, but . . . Alexis, it may be too late for her.”
My heart skipped a beat. “What?”
“She knows too much, and the Daemoni know that.”
And now my heart took off in a panicked gallop. “Let us go search for them, Mom. Please. She and Dorian are probably together.”
“If we find the girl close to you, we’ll send you out. It’s the best I can do right now.”
“You can do better!”
“No, I can’t. I’m sorry. It’s not up to me.”
My jaw popped, I clenched it so hard. I wanted to throw the phone, but knew that would do no good. I closed my eyes and forced a breath through my nose as I reeled my anger in once more, forming it into that tight little ball that sat in the pit of my stomach.
“I will not give up on them,” I said through gritted teeth. “On either of them. I will not abandon my son.”
“You will not abandon your people or your duties,” she said just as firmly.
“So give us our best and let Tristan and me take care of this immediately. Then we can focus on whatever you want us to.”