by Kristie Cook
“Finally!” I exclaimed with a small sense of joy when Tristan and I returned to the safe house. “It would have been perfect to get them all, but thirteen! Thirteen souls saved. Thirteen new recruits for us. Thirteen fewer for the Daemoni.”
A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.
We couldn’t celebrate yet—once the moon set and the wolves returned to their human forms, we had to begin our work on them. But as soon as we could a few days later, we all sat down with the rest of the safe house staff and enjoyed a luxurious meal together. We needed the camaraderie—and the win—so badly.
Since Vanessa hadn’t found Victor the other day, we assumed Sasha had chased him off, but the lykora still hadn’t returned. I couldn’t help but worry about her, but Vanessa said she’d seen no silver blood when she inspected every inch of the woods on a daily basis. Tristan figured Sasha would chase Victor around the globe if he’d been the one to hurt her or to take Dorian, and the thought of the vamp constantly on the run from her made me smile.
My mind couldn’t stop harping on Vanessa, though . . . and Victor. And Sasha’s reaction to Victor. Was it because he had been the one to sever her wing in the safe house suite? The one to take Dorian? If so, did that mean Lucas had been behind the kidnapping all along? Had we been too focused on Kali and Owen when we should have been looking for Victor and Lucas? And had Vanessa told the truth about not finding her brother, or was there something more? Was there a reason she volunteered to go after him and shooed me home? I still didn’t know if I could trust her.
For now, however, I’d focus on our big win and celebrate with my team. My phone rang in the middle of our meal, and since it was Mom, I had to answer it.
“Hi, honey,” she said, her voice still full of happiness. “I thought I’d give you some much-needed good news. Your safe house on Captiva pulled in a whole nest of vampires in Tampa. Sixteen of them converting!”
My whole team cheered loudly.
“To hope, faith, and a little perseverance,” Charlotte said as she raised her wine glass after I hung up with Mom.
“A lot of perseverance,” I said as I lifted my own glass.
“To love conquering all,” Tristan said with a wink in my direction. I dazed out for a second, missing Jax and Blossom’s toast.
“To good always wins,” Vanessa said as her ice-blue eyes locked on mine and a small smile played on her lips. She tipped her glass of blood up and didn’t break our gaze as she drank.
The pit of my stomach tightened. Her thoughts were innocent, but I couldn’t help but wonder what she was trying to say with that little statement.
I woke up the next morning in the closest thing I had to a good mood since the day Tristan lost his mind to Kali nearly six months ago. Happy didn’t quite describe my feelings—I wouldn’t be happy until my son was home where he belonged. But definitely more hopeful than I’d been in some time. I could sense a difference in Tristan, too, as we lay in bed for a few minutes longer than usual, cuddling and kissing and simply enjoying a bit of peace.
“One of these days, we’ll be able to do this every morning,” he mused as his forefinger stroked loops over my arm.
“If only,” I said, my fingers copying his but over the ridges of his hard abs. He flexed them in response to the tickle, making me smile. “Somehow, though, I don’t think our lives will ever allow such laziness every morning.”
“Laziness? This isn’t laziness.” In one swift motion, he turned us over so I lay on my back, and he hovered on his elbows over me. “This can be our morning workout.”
I giggled as he lowered himself down enough to plant a kiss on my stomach, and then my giggles turned to moans as his mouth moved lower. Although all the nearby mind signatures prevented me from enjoying the moment as much as I had by the waterfall, it was still the best wakeup call we’d had in a long time.
And we weren’t the only ones in a good mood. The victory with the wolves had meant a lot more to all of us than I realized. A lighter, more playful atmosphere enveloped the whole team.
“Blossom, I think today is the day,” I said to her after lunch. “I feel it. We’ll break through today.”
“Let’s do it then,” she said, and we headed for the room where I’d given birth to Dorian. She said his presence lingered more strongly there than in the room that had been his nursery. “Can I tell you something first?”
My heart skipped. I could tell by her tone we were moving into girl talk and all I could think was what a crappy friend I’d been to her. Again.
“Of course,” I said with a little too much enthusiasm.
“Jax and I . . . well, your cake idea worked, if you hadn’t noticed, and I, uh, well, I think he might be the one,” she finally blurted as we entered the bedroom.
I stopped in my tracks and spun on her. “Blossom! Are you serious?”
She smiled shyly and gave a little shrug. “I don’t know . . . we seemed to click right away, you know? And he’s so kind but determined to protect you and me both, and well, he’s nice to look at. Even with the scar. It’s kind of sexy.”
I chuckled. “Do you know how that scar got there?”
She giggled. “Yeah. He told me Tristan gave it to him. But it sounded like he deserved it. Jax can be . . . well, he’s Jax. But I think I love him.”
“I’m sure the accent has nothing to do with it.” She seemed to have a thing for those.
“Oh my god. You should hear him talk dirty with that accent of his!”
I clapped my hand over my mouth to cover a laugh. “I don’t want to know that!”
“Yes, you do. Doesn’t Tristan ever talk dirty to you in all those different languages he knows?”
Hmm . . . funny how I’d never thought about it. He was holding out on me! That would have to change. Next time, I swore I’d make him do it. Although, I’d probably forget because his lips on my skin pretty much made me forget everything.
I wrapped my arms around Blossom’s shoulders. “I’m happy for you. Jax is a great guy.”
“You don’t think a were-croc and a witch is, I don’t know, kind of weird?”
I leveled my gaze at her. “Blossom. Of course it’s weird. Every word you just said is weird if you don’t live in our world. But this is our world, and weird is normal. Besides, with the way things are right now, any kind of love is good. The world needs it.”
I was happy to know it was love, too, and not a passing infatuation or flat-out lust. They made a great couple, even if it was weird.
She took my hand in hers and squeezed. “Thanks, Alexis. Your blessing’s important to me.”
I blew it off by pulling us to the floor in the center of the room, right in front of the queen-sized bed I’d spent a straight eight months in. Mom and Rina had knelt in this very spot, helping to ease Dorian out of my body when I passed out during his delivery.
“Suburbs today, right?” Blossom asked as she crossed her legs and made herself comfortable.
We’d ridden all over the east side of the metro area and downtown right before our big win, and I’d scoured the area for mind signatures then.
“Yeah. This side of D.C., though,” I answered. “But not too far west. I just did a scan the other night when we got the wolves.”
“Okay, so Maryland?”
“Sure. Why not?” Of course, we’d already searched Maryland and Northern Virginia—the entire D.C. area and beyond—more times than I could count, but the chance of discovering something new always remained. Even if we didn’t find Dorian, the Daemoni mind signatures in the area numbered in the thousands—it was a politicians’ city, after all—and we never knew when we might stumble upon something useful.
We grasped each other’s hands and closed our eyes, and Blossom began her spell. My good mood faltered, though, as we mentally traversed over the Maryland suburbs and nothing new caught our attention. We skimmed over the tens of thousands of mind signatures, looking only for the familiar ones we sought or the pricks of those belonging to Dae
moni, but I should have known the afternoon made the timing bad. Too many awake Norman signatures and too many sleeping Daemoni ones. My optimism waned, and Blossom must have felt it because she began pulling back with me.
When the situation allowed, we tended to bring our minds back in a slow fashion, meandering our way to our physical selves so when we opened our eyes, we weren’t completely disoriented. So we floated lazily over the state line and into Fairfax County, and we’d almost reached home when something piqued my interest. My breath caught. Could it be? I almost dismissed it—the mind signature was way too close, in an area we’d scoured time and again. I mentally went back to where I’d caught the proverbial scent and searched more closely. Focused in on the specific twang that had grabbed me. And . . . there.
My son.
Chapter 20
Dorian! I exclaimed.
“Mom? Is it really you? In my head?”
I choked back a sob at the sound of his voice. Yes, little man, it’s me.
“Really? Because I thought I heard you before, but you never answered me.”
I’m sorry. I . . . I lost you. Are you okay?
“How are you in my head, Mom? How are you talking to me?”
You know how you can fly? It’s kind of like that, but this is something I can do.
“Okay,” he accepted easily. I wondered what they’d been telling him, if he knew all about the Amadis and the Daemoni. But that wasn’t important at the moment.
Dorian, are you okay? I asked again.
“I guess. But I miss you and Dad lots. Uncle Owen said I can’t see you.”
My jaw clenched. Are you with Owen right now?
“Not right this minute. But he’s usually around. He’s acting all weird, and I want to go home, but he won’t let me. Are you coming to get me?”
Oh, baby, we are! But we don’t know where to find you. Do you know where you are?
“Not really. A stupid, boring room where I always am.” He glanced around, and I peered through his eyes to see a small room with gray commercial-grade carpet, a twin-size bed, and a TV with a game console hooked up to it, probably to keep Dorian quietly entertained.
Have you been there the whole time? I asked.
“Not always. Sometimes we go places. There’s a big lake outside the building and sometimes Uncle Owen will take me out there. But not for long. And never when Kali’s around.”
A growl rumbled in my throat. Can you picture in your mind what it looks like outside? The building and the lake?
He fed me a picture, but nothing was familiar. After all of the miles we’d put on the bikes, we’d never been past that place before. How would we—
“Got him,” Blossom murmured under her breath.
Unable to control myself, I jumped to my feet and let out a squeal.
As always when we tried to locate Dorian, Tristan had been nearby, and he must have heard us, because he appeared in the room in a flash. I kept my mind linked to Dorian’s as they looked up the location—only eight miles away. Eight freaking miles. How long had he been so damn close? The desire to kill Kali and do some serious harm to Owen became a fervent ache.
We’re coming, Dorian, I promised him.
The seven of us jumped on the motorcycles and peeled away from the safe house. Charlotte muffled the loud engines so we could get as close in as possible. We turned down a street nearly hidden by heavy lines of trees—no wonder we’d missed it in all of our searches—and approached a parking lot at the end. I recognized the three black-brick office buildings set in a horseshoe shape around a lake as the same scene Dorian had shown me.
“What the hell?” Tristan muttered.
A small sign stood at the entrance to the parking lot:
United States of America:
Department of Defense
He pulled the motorcycle off the road and parked it in the trees, and the rest of our group followed.
“What’s Dorian doing here?” Blossom whispered.
“We might not want to know,” Char answered, her voice dark and heavy.
I could only imagine one reason the DoD would want Dorian—they’d consider him no different than an alien life-form—but why would Kali do such a thing? What was in it for her?
“It could be a front,” Tristan suggested.
My mind had already been open to new signatures, but none had been threatening or close, so I hadn’t paid them much attention. I now zeroed in on the only ones nearby. All of them were norms and in the same building, the one directly in front of us and farthest away from the entrance, and they were all on the same floor—where Dorian was. Then I found several others—all Daemoni but similar in quality to Dorian’s, although much older. And then . . .
“Owen,” I whispered as I opened my mind to the others.
“Mom?” Dorian spoke to us. “Are you still there?”
Yes, little man. We’re coming.
“Mom! Don’t leave me again!”
I’m still here, Dorian. Almost there.
“Mom! Please!” Anguish and tears filled his mental voice, and all I wanted to do was reach out and grab him. “No. Please. I don’t want to go!”
He actually shouted aloud now, meaning he pled with someone else. It had to have been Owen. Tristan and I traded the same look of horror, he nodded, and we both took off in a blurred sprint for the front of the building.
We’re coming, baby. We’re coming, Dorian!
“Shield!” Charlotte and Blossom both yelled in my mind, sensing the magic before we had.
Tristan suddenly stopped, and I slammed into his back, bouncing off of him like a rubber ball off a wall. I thought I heard Vanessa snicker. We must have looked like a cartoon. Boom! Pow!
“Holy super-brakes, Tristan,” I muttered as he reached back to catch me with one hand while lifting his other to press against the invisible wall that kept us from our son.
White-hot pain knifed through my brain, though, making me stumble backwards and out of his reach. Then the force of it, the screaming agony, brought me to my knees. Kali. She was here, too. I clasped my hands over my ears and doubled over my thighs as I tried to push her out of my head, but my mind began to gray out. Then went blank. As did my vision.
I didn’t think I’d actually passed out this time, but the next thing I knew, the others had caught up to us, standing next to Tristan and me. Vanessa sprinted away, toward the far end of the parking lot, but after what I didn’t know. Pressing the heel of my palms to my temples, I squeezed my eyes shut and forced my mind to focus inside the building. But Dorian’s mind signature was gone. Kali and Owen seemed to have disappeared, too . . . as well as one of the others, one of the Daemoni who had been there.
“Shit!” I screamed. “We were so close!”
“Amadis royalty,” I heard in my head, coming from someone in the building. “I feel it in my blood.”
“I feel it, too. They’re close. But they can’t help us. We’re locked up like fucking lab animals.”
They weren’t only thinking, but spoke to each other. Daemoni being held prisoner. At a building that may or may not have belonged to the DoD. Why? And what did Kali have to do with it?
We can help you, I dared to tell them. Just tell me what’s going on.
An evil laugh cackled in my mind. “You can’t help us, princess! Even if we wanted you to, we can’t ever go with you.”
“Not that we want to,” another added, his voice vaguely familiar from a distant memory, but I couldn’t grasp it.
They growled more words at each other, but they were incoherent in my mind.
“I don’t know what they’re doing in there, but I don’t think locked up Daemoni is a bad thing,” I said as I tried to push myself to my feet, but Tristan’s hands were heavy on my shoulders.
“Are you okay?” he asked with a raised brow. “You slammed into me pretty hard.”
“It wasn’t that. Kali was in there, too, and she shoved me out of her head by sticking a knife in my brain. I’ll be fin
e.” I lifted my brows until he finally let me up. “We just need to figure out where they went.”
“I tried to catch them,” Vanessa said as she ran up to our group, “but Kali or Owen put up a cloak. They disappeared from sight.”
I swallowed down the sob threatening to explode. We’d been so damn close. So close to holding our son again. So close to killing the bitch sorceress and her traitor son. My eyes cut guiltily over to Char, glad she hadn’t heard my stray thought. She paid no attention to the rest of us, but glared at the black DoD building with hard sapphire eyes, her jaw muscle popping in and out as she seemed to grind some kind of thought between her teeth. I thought about peeking to see what she was thinking, but decided to give her privacy. I didn’t really have to wonder too hard about it—she wanted to kill Kali as much as I did.
We pulled back into the woods and kept surveillance on the building throughout the night, in case they all came back, including Dorian. When it started to look like they might not return at all, we took shifts watching while the remainder of us rested at the safe house. At some point between my first and second shift, an unknown Daemoni warlock had come in and strengthened the shield, blocking the mind signatures inside from me. The stronger shield also meant no one could flash in or out without us knowing. The only people who came and went, however, were norms dressed in either security coats or civilian clothes. What were they doing in there? And had they already done it to Dorian?
I held on to his word that he was okay. I hoped he would have told me if they had been running some kind of tests on him or experiments. Surely in the short time we were connected he would have brought that up. But maybe that had been Kali’s plan—to deliver Dorian to the norms who were so interested in learning more about us. But what would be her motivation? Why would she hang around? Why would she take him out now when we’d found him?