by Kristie Cook
In the afternoon, we looped back, dropping down into Northern Virginia. As we had several times already, we exited off the highway to take the back roads, sometimes crossing and retracing our path.
“We’re getting close,” Tristan finally said at about five in the afternoon.
We were somewhere in Fairfax County, Virginia. Though it was only twenty miles from where we lived in Arlington, I didn’t know the area. The busy suburbia tapered into a more rural area, with large colonial-style mini-mansions in estate-type subdivisions. Then the subdivisions disappeared and houses were scattered on large acreage lots, thick woods separating them. We turned down a narrow street, sunlight filtering through the trees encroaching both sides.
“Shit,” Tristan swore under his breath. The street dead-ended about two hundred yards away.
“Are we lost?” I asked, my voice small with fear. This was the worst time to be lost.
“No.” His jaw clenched. “We’re surrounded.”
My stomach rolled. Vomit shot up my throat and I clamped my hand over my mouth, but it couldn’t make it past the huge lump stuck in the passageway. I trembled all over.
“Hang on, ma lykita. Things could get ugly.” He slammed on the accelerator.
We tore down the narrow street. I wanted to squeeze my eyes closed before we flew into the wooded dead-end, but my eyelids peeled back, refusing to shut. Just before we reached the end, the trees surrounding us opened into a large meadow. A grand mansion stood toward the back of it. Tristan sped for the structure.
A man suddenly appeared in the meadow, to our left. He turned toward us. Someone else flew out of nowhere, knocking him to the ground. More people started appearing with faint pops. Voices yelled over the Ferrari’s engine. They started fighting with each other. The car slid and fish-tailed as Tristan swerved to avoid them. I turned in my seat to watch as we passed.
Some shot unseen powers at their opponents, sending them backwards several yards. They were instantly on their feet, shooting power back at their assailants. Others traded violent blows in hand-to-hand combat. A long object sailed across the window. My head whipped to where it came from. One of the people fighting just lost an arm. But he kept fighting, unfazed.
Holy hell! Who are these people?! I didn’t even know who was Amadis and who was the enemy. They all fought viciously, like animals. Is this what it means to be Amadis? Is this what I’m in for the rest of my life? Rina said Amadis were good, full of love, ruled by Heaven. Not this . . . this repulsive brutality.
The Ferrari abruptly stopped. My hands flew to the dash to brace myself before I sailed head-first through the windshield. The car door flew open. My body left the car seat and air rushed by. Then I was suddenly set on my feet inside the mansion. Owen stood next to me and Tristan appeared right behind us. My stomach heaved.
“Bathroom!” I bellowed. Another rush of air and I stood in front of a porcelain toilet. I leaned over and puked. Then my knees buckled as I fell to the floor, my body shaking violently.
“It’s okay, honey. You’re safe now,” Mom said, pressing a cool, wet washcloth against my forehead. I had no response.
Eventually the trembling stopped and I tentatively stood. Mom led me down the hall to a dark living room filled with antique furniture. The curtains were drawn tightly shut, but I could still hear fighting outside. Rina rose from a wing-backed chair to my right and opened her arms wide.
“Alexis, my poor dear,” she said. Her power washed over me as she embraced me. “Ah, a baby . . . or two?”
I stepped back and stared at her. A baby? Or two? Mom frowned and nodded. I’d completely forgotten about the pregnancy test I’d picked up at the drugstore last night. Tristan appeared in the doorway behind Rina. His brows momentarily furrowed, then he smiled at me, his eyes sparkling. For two beats. Then the smile disappeared.
He took my hand and led me through the doorway, into a library. Books lined the shelves, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall. At each corner of the room sat a pair of chairs with a small wooden table between them, a reading lamp on each table. They were all lit, the only light in the room as there were no windows. Tristan took me over to one of these sitting areas and pushed me down into a leather chair.
“I need to talk to you,” he said, kneeling in front of me to look me in the eye.
An ominous feeling brushed my shoulders and slid down my spine. I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t think I’m going to like this.”
“No, you’re not. I hate it myself.” His eyes were dark, the gold sparkle from just a few minutes ago gone. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I need to go out there.”
“What?! No!”
“I can put an end to it, Lexi.”
Of course he can. Nobody can beat him. But I shook my head.
“You can’t go fight! What if you don’t come . . . back?” I choked on the last word, my voice cracking as I spit it out.
“I may not have to fight. They just need to see proof I’ve given myself to you and the Amadis and that I am truly part of the royal family.”
“Oh.” My chest loosened from the grip of panic. “Well, that’s not so bad. Let’s give them proof. What do we do?”
I searched his face and he looked away from me for a moment, then back into my eyes. He pulled the collar of his shirt down to expose the Amadis mark.
“They have to see it for themselves,” he said grimly. “They’ve set a meeting place for me to meet Lucas.”
Chapter 27
Lucas—the sperm donor, now their most powerful warrior.
“Absolutely not!”
“Lexi, it’s the only way.”
“It’s a trap, Tristan. You can’t go to them!”
“I know it’s a trap. But if I don’t go, they’ll continue to fight and attack. They’ll continue to hunt us. I put everyone’s lives in danger.”
I shook my head. Tears spilled. “No. You can’t do this!”
I threw my arms around him, thinking if I held him tight enough, he couldn’t go.
“I have to,” he said. “I’ve made a vow to you and the Amadis that I would lay my life down for you.”
“You also vowed you would never leave me. They’re going to t-t-take you or . . . k-k-kill you!”
He grabbed my upper arms and pushed me back so he could look into my eyes. I quivered in his hands.
“They can’t take me down, Lex, remember that. They don’t know how to kill me.”
“Then they’ll take you away.”
“Nothing will keep me from you, my love. I will come back to you.” He pulled me back into his arms. “And then we can be together in peace.”
I pulled back and looked him in the eyes. “Then take me with you if you’re that confident. If they stop fighting, then there’s no danger, right? And if it’s a trap, like we know it is, we can at least be together.”
“Absolutely not!” he growled angrily.
I stood up and strode around the room. “See! You don’t know for sure this will work. You don’t know that you’ll come back. They don’t want us together, Tristan, unless we’re with them. If they’re going to get you, they’re getting me, too!”
“Stop the nonsense!” He grabbed me by the arms again. “You have to stay here, no matter what happens. You have a purpose and you have to do it for the Amadis.”
“But I need you,” I cried. “I can’t do it without you. I can’t live without you!”
I fell against him and sobbed. He held me, stroking my hair.
“You won’t have to live without me,” he said softly. “I will come back to you. Nothing can stop me. But I have to do this. For the Amadis. For you. For us.”
I cried in his arms. My gut told me this was it. Once I let him go, I had no idea if I’d ever see him again. I held his face in my hands and looked into his eyes.
“Promise me,” I whispered. “Promise you’ll come back.”
“I promise,” he said firmly. “I can’t live in this world without you, Alexis. I’ll be b
ack, no matter what happens. I will come back to you.”
He sealed the promise with a kiss, loving yet urgent . . . like it was one of our last.
Then he took my necklace off, stood up and fished something out of his jeans pocket. He thread a small key onto the chain and clasped the chain back around my neck.
“Guard this with your life,” he said. “This is literally the key to our future.”
I nodded as I held the key and the pendant in my hand. He pulled an envelope out of his back pocket and handed it to me.
“Keep this in a safe place, too. There are copies, but you should have this.”
“But you’re coming right back,” I said firmly.
“Yes. I’m just taking precautions.” He nuzzled his face against my neck as he rubbed his hand over my lower abdomen. “You stay safe. You’re carrying precious cargo.”
I nodded, more tears flowing. He leaned down and kissed my currently flat belly.
“You need to come back for all of us,” I whispered. “We need you.”
“I will. I swear to you.” He crushed his lips to mine. I only hoped I could communicate just a small portion of the love I had for him, because there was too much to be held in just one kiss. Too much for all the kisses in the world.
He pulled me by the hand back into the other room, where Mom, Rina, Solomon, Owen and Stefan stood. They all turned toward us, their faces bleak.
“Ready, Tristan?” Stefan asked.
Tristan nodded stiffly. My resolve fell.
“No!” I cried. “Please, don’t! Please, Tristan! Don’t leave me!”
He hugged me again and I clung to him.
“Please, don’t . . .” I sobbed. “I love you too much.”
“I’ll be back.” He kissed me one last time and I looked at him, into those adoring hazel eyes, memorizing his beautiful face. I inhaled deeply, taking in his scent—mangos and papayas, lime and sage, and a hint of man—capturing it to memory. He smiled sadly and I clung to his last words. “I love you, ma lykita.”
“I love you, my sweet Tristan.”
He took me by the shoulders and gently pushed me into Mom’s arms. Then the men left the room, leaving us three women to do nothing but worry. When they opened the front door, fighting sounds filled the air. The window rattled loudly as something hit it.
“Down to the shelter,” Rina said to Mom. I reluctantly followed them. As we passed through the foyer, I glanced through the still-open door and saw Tristan several steps ahead of the others, leading them out to battle.
“No!” I yelled. I ran for the front door. Tristan’s hand flicked and the door slammed shut just as I reached it. I banged my fists against it. “No! I have to watch. I need to know what’s going on.”
My feet left the ground and the air rushed past me again. Rina carried me, speeding down a hallway, then down several flights of stairs. I struggled in her arms, but she was unbelievably strong. She finally stopped, setting me down in a small room with concrete walls, lit by a single lamp dangling from the center of the ceiling. Mom pushed the concrete door closed, securing it with a large, wooden beam across the center. Four maroon recliners, each with a blanket folded over its back, and a coffee table furnished the room. Shelves full of food and jugs of water lined one wall. A toilet sat in a corner and a sink was bolted to the wall next to it. The three of us could easily stay here for three days. I certainly hoped that wasn’t the plan. I couldn’t wait three hours to see Tristan again, to know he was safe.
“Alexis, close your eyes,” Rina said. “I will show you what is happening.”
I inhaled deeply as I stared at her, trying to comprehend. She tapped her finger against her forehead.
“I can see. I can share.”
Mom sat in one of the leather recliners and closed her eyes. I dropped into another and closed mine. A vision appeared in my head, as if I stood in the clearing in front of the house. Tristan’s mere appearance wasn’t enough to stop the fighting. Through others’ eyes, we watched the battle. The viewpoint changed several times as Rina tapped into different minds. Sometimes I heard her voice as she gave commands to the soldiers. Sometimes we heard the terrifying thoughts of the Daemoni, then Rina would warn the Amadis what they were about to do. Sometimes she cut my visions off.
“I am sorry, dear, but there are some things I cannot allow you to see,” she said to me.
I nodded, grateful to see any of it and not have to rely on my unruly imagination. But, as the battle heated, I didn’t know if even my imagination could be worse than this. I had to fight the urge to not watch because I had to know Tristan and the others were okay.
It felt like we stood in the middle of it all. A blue light shot across our current vision, blasting its target into bits. Another light zipped right past us. A tree split with a loud crack. A piece of the fallen tree flew through the air, taking someone down. Stefan and Owen ran around the scene, shooting unseen powers out of their hands, knocking Daemoni to the ground. Everything—powers or solid objects—sent at Owen bounced back before it hit him, as if he were protected in an invisible bubble.
Out of our peripheral vision, we could see Solomon. Then Rina changed minds to see him better. His expression was blank, though he held a severed hand in his right palm. I gasped as I realized, seeing the stump of his left arm, that it was his own hand. He held the wrist of the detached hand against the stump and a second later, his fingers waved, then closed into a fist and opened again. Holy crap! He reattached his hand! Can we all do that? But I immediately forgot the thought as a Daemoni jumped at him. He grabbed her by the shoulders. His head dove toward her throat. And that’s when I noticed his teeth. Especially his eyeteeth. Have they always been so long? So pointed? Rina instantly changed views.
I recognized Ian, standing away from the mayhem, his dull red hair shaking around his face as he cackled at the scene. Then a round object suddenly flew at us. I flinched, expecting it to actually hit me. It landed at our feet. We looked down to see a human head rolling to a stop. My stomach jumped. Acid burnt the back of my throat.
From another view, we watched from farther back, at the house. I heard the Amadis fighter’s thoughts as he told Rina he was injured, but he could be her eyes to see the full scene. He looked down. His leg ended in bloody shreds where the knee should be. He held it in his hands, but they looked more like . . . claws. Then there were several popping sounds and his head snapped up. He focused on Tristan. I forced myself to watch.
Tristan fought off several Daemoni as dog-like creatures appeared all around him. Dogs or wolves? I couldn’t tell from this viewpoint. They were definitely larger than any canine I’d ever seen, a few nearly as tall as Tristan. He shot power at them. Some fell to the ground. Others soared back several yards. The creatures continuously sprang and lunged at him. At first, he could keep them off. He whacked at them with his arms. He kicked them across the meadow. He blasted them with his force. Owen shot his power at the creatures, too, trying to keep them back.
But more popped into existence. Pop! Pop! Pop! Dozens of them.
I gripped the chair’s arms, suppressing the irrational urge to run out there and help. Not that I could do anything against these . . . these beasts. But I felt so useless just watching the horror.
Daemoni and their creatures continued appearing all over the estate’s lawn. They swarmed onto Tristan. Oh, no! Oh, God, no! There’s too many! I cried out as a creature lunged at Tristan and grabbed onto his arm with its mouth. Its teeth dug into his skin, not letting go. Then a second one attached to his other arm. Another Daemoni jumped on his back.
Then there was Edmund. He glanced briefly at Tristan, then strode toward us, toward the mansion. He waved his hand and several creatures followed him.
But not enough to relieve Tristan. He fought off creatures while eyeing Edmund. His eyes narrowed and his chest lifted. He heaved a breath of exasperation.
Then he looked right at us.
His eyes bored into our seer’s, through Rina’s mi
nd and into mine, as if he knew I could see him. And our eyes locked. Rina switched to his thoughts. His lovely voice reverberated in my head.
“I love you, ma lykita.”
We flew through the air and tackled Edmund.
And then we went blank.
Rina switched back to the mind of the soldier near the house. The meadow was nearly empty. A few stragglers disappeared with pops and now everyone was gone. Including Tristan. My eyes flew open.
“Where’d he go?” I screamed, jumping to my feet. I looked wildly around the concrete room, disoriented for a moment. Mom and Rina finally opened their eyes, too.
“They are all gone,” Rina said quietly. “I cannot find any thoughts out there. Nowhere in my range.”
“He’s gone to meet Lucas, hasn’t he?” I demanded.
Rina nodded.
“Will they make it back?”
Neither Rina nor Mom answered me this time. They stared at the floor. Tristan hadn’t gone alone—every Amadis fighter out there went, too. Which meant there would be more fighting.
I fell back into the chair and dropped my head into my hands. I pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes, trying to push away the scene replaying on the backs of my eyelids. The heavy weight of it all . . . the bodies dropping, convulsing on the ground, some completely still, dead . . . pressed down on me, trying to crush me into the chair, into the floor.
“Is this who we are?” I asked quietly. “This is what we do? Fight deadly battles?”
This was what I waited so long to find out? That we were really no better than our enemies?
“When we need to, yes,” Rina said, taking a seat. “We try to prevent these kinds of atrocities. We prefer not to fight. We are good, Alexis. But we are the Angels’ army on Earth. We must do what they need us to do. For them. For God. Just like in biblical times, just like David and the others. We must fight for what is right.”