Dark Legacy

by Anna DeStefano

  “—kill her mother?”

  “Stop her, Dr. Keith. However you’ve reached her before—”

  “—in dreams. It’s mostly been in dreams!”

  “Screw the dreams. Reach her with your mind. Now. Or I won’t be able to hold my men off.”

  Maddie aimed the gun at her father’s killer—at the bastard who’d shattered it all.

  Her sister’s hold on her sanity. Her father’s life. Her mother’s love for her daughters—forcing her to choose one over the other, and ultimately to lose them both. And Maddie’s life. Her family. Her future. Her dreams of having something that wasn’t tainted by darkness and death and destruction. Of loving a man who could accept what she was, and never having to let him go. This bastard had taken it all.

  The killer of everything she’d ever had cowered before her, beside the burning carcass of the truck that had hit her family car. In her hand was the gun that would finally end the destruction. It was armed. The safety off. Killing him was the right thing. It would make the nightmare finally go away.

  “Die!” she screamed into the night.

  But the coward in Maddie couldn’t fire. Or was it the healer she’d once thought she could be?

  “Kill him!” commanded the gray Wolf standing beside her.

  “Sarah?” Maddie needed her sister. Sarah was there in the dream’s darkness. Was this really what they wanted? Did Sarah really believe killing would fix their legacy? Was that really who they’d been born to be?

  “End him, you stupid bitch,” the Wolf screamed.

  “Sarah?”

  Maddie’s finger twitched on the trigger, but a surge of caution reached her from somewhere nearby. Concern. Worry. Love. She turned to find her twin staring off into the woods.

  “Who’s out there?” Maddie asked.

  A beam of light was shining behind the clearing, encompassing everything in its path. Warmth and love rolling toward Maddie, eating up the dream’s darkness.

  “Don’t do this,” the light said in a familiar voice. “This isn’t you.”

  The gun suddenly felt heavier.

  Colder.

  “Come back to me,” the light tempted. “Come away from the Wolf.”

  The killer on the ground was crying now.

  Soft, feminine sobs.

  Familiar crying that sounded like—

  “Kill him!” The Wolf’s demand ripped Maddie’s attention away from the light.

  “Don’t.” The other voice was closer. “I’m here. You’re not alone in the darkness. You’re not a killer.”

  “J…Jarred?” Maddie turned to find him right where he’d promised to be—by her side. Forever. And for a second, it was just her and Jarred and the light they’d made together. “How…Where…”

  “It’s the shadow dream, Maddie. The Wolf’s nightmare. It’s the Wolf who’s evil, not your mother. You have to see that.”

  “My mother?” Jarred was too far away to touch, and Maddie couldn’t move. “But she…Phyllis was in the car with my dad that night. The truck driver tried to kill them both. He killed my father. He has to—”

  “Turn around Maddie. See her. See who the Wolf’s dream wants you to kill.”

  “I have to…The driver has to…Where’s Sarah?” Maddie stared down at the ugly weapon in her hand.

  “Turn around.” Jarred’s mind stroked hers. “You can stop this. You and Sarah can stop this together. It’s just a dream.”

  Maddie wanted to hold him until her confusion evaporated. But the Wolf wouldn’t let her. This was the Wolf’s warped reality, she realized. Not hers and Sarah’s. The Wolf wanted her to kill, not her sister. Maddie turned and blinked the dream into sharper focus…

  An old man, not a predatory animal, loomed over Phyllis, not the driver of the truck. And there Sarah stood beside Maddie—little-girl Sarah from the playhouse, looking bedraggled and terrified as she wrung her hands in guilt because it was their mother the old man’s dream wanted Maddie to kill.

  “You psychotic bastard.” Maddie threw the gun to the ground. She tried to break away from the daydream, but his control held. “What the hell is this?”

  “This is your legacy, Ms. Temple.” His smile was as demented as the dead gray of his eyes. “This is what you were born to be—what your mother made both of you into.”

  “No…” Phyllis whimpered. “I loved you girls.”

  “You loved them so much, you left them with no control over their powers.” The old man picked up the gun and raised a hand to stall the armed men heading down the slope behind him. “You did nothing to prepare them for their destinies. You loved your daughters so much, you abandoned them to flounder in weakness and fear. Luckily, I’m here to guide them for you.”

  Maddie could feel the light behind her still. Jarred belonged in the Wolf’s dream, too, because he and Maddie were one. But his wasn’t the only light she’d need to defeat the nightmare’s darkness. Maddie smiled at the little girl cringing beside her.

  “Our mother gave us everything.” Maddie reached her hand toward her twin. Little-girl Sarah hesitated. Then she reached, too. “When she gave us this.”

  “No!” The old man raised the gun as Maddie’s and Sarah’s fingers found each other…

  The light of their legacy roared to life through their touch. Surrounding Sarah and Maddie and pushing outward. The power of it shoved the old man and Phyllis away. The light was inside Sarah and Maddie, too. It was them, as the little girl’s dark eyes glowed. Her hair shone, flowing around her porcelain complexion like silky rain.

  “Sarah?” Maddie had forgotten that her frail, damaged sister had once been this beautiful.

  “Wake up, Maddie,” Jarred’s voice whispered urgently. “Wake up and stop the Wolf before it’s too late!”

  “He’s right,” Sarah said. “We have to stop this. Now.”

  Maddie stared in awe as Sarah shifted back to her adult self. Their hands still clinging to each other, they turned to find the Wolf’s gun aimed at them.

  “Stop this?” he jeered. “Are you really that deranged? You can’t stop me.” He raised the gun higher. “Dream Weaver doesn’t succeed or fail with your shadow simulation alone. And since you’re clearly of no more use to my plans, I’m happy to say that it’s time for you both to—”

  “Die!”

  The command echoed. A raven’s wings spread. Bare tree limbs swayed.

  “No!” Their mother’s scream ripped through the night.

  She threw herself in front of Maddie and Sarah as the Wolf’s gun fired.

  “No!” Sarah and Maddie yelled in unison.

  Then their horror at what was happening, their determination to stop it combined. Built. Ripped the Wolf’s dreams to shreds…

  With her next blink, Maddie opened her eyes to a realworld nightmare. The old man was still there. Sarah was still there. Their mother was, too. But Phyllis was bleeding. Shot. Dying on the ground between all of them.

  “You bastard!” Maddie and Sarah screamed in unison.

  Summer thunder rolled across a turbulent winter sky. Lightning snaked down, blasting the earth between Sarah and Maddie and sending them flying.

  “It was a dream. It was still part of the nightmare…” Maddie tried to assure herself as she sat up. “It wasn’t real. The Wolf didn’t shoot—”

  “Mom!” Sarah stumbled to her feet and ran to where Phyllis lay. Maddie raced with her. They dropped to their knees beside Phyllis, their tears flowing at the sight of her crimson-soaked blouse.

  It had been real. Their mother had protected them with her own body, and now she was dying. And it was Maddie’s fault. She’d tried to stop it and failed, because—

  “Because you’re Death.” The man who’d made himself Sarah’s Wolf dragged himself to their side from where the lightning had thrown him. His left arm hung at an extreme angle. A compound fracture had shattered the femur of one leg. “Just like Sarah, you were born for darkness. My work will help you focus that power. Death is your legac
y. It’s what both of you were meant to be. It’s not too late. Come with me and there’s nothing we can’t do together. Or you can die a coward just like your mother.”

  “No!” Jarred stepped closer. He was really there. He would always be there. “You’re a healer, Maddie. You both can be. You and Sarah. You can be light together, just like the Raven promised.”

  “The Raven?” The old man lifted the gun he’d dragged back with him. He aimed it in a shaking arc at Jarred. “Would that be Richard Metting? The idiot Watcher who let all this happen under his nose?”

  A red dot appeared on the old man’s forehead, a split second before a neat hole sliced straight through his brain.

  “That would be him,” Jarred said as the man’s lifeless body sank to the cold ground.

  Then all hell broke lose. Guns firing and the Wolf’s soldiers racing forward, only to drop in their tracks one by one as the Watchers’ snipers proved themselves as skilled as promised. Jarred hit the ground and tried to drag Maddie beneath him. But she pulled herself and Sarah to their feet instead.

  United outside their dreams for the first time since they were children, she and Sarah stood between the approaching danger and their mother.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Maddie gripped Sarah’s hand. Phyllis’s blood coated their fingers. Blood that held the potential for bottomless darkness. But for light, too. Never-ending light.

  Jarred stood beside Maddie, his love washing away her doubt and fear. Sarah’s Raven had joined them, the velvet touch of Metting’s mind calling to the light Maddie felt flickering within her sister. Sarah’s fragile hope that she was no longer alone.

  Only a few of the Wolf’s men still advanced, and they were locked into battle with the Brotherhood’s snipers. Sarah was reading their minds. And through her, Maddie was, too.

  “Let them build,” Sarah whispered.

  “What?” Maddie was transfixed by the sound of her adult sister’s voice. “Let what build?”

  “The feelings. Yours. Mine. The Wolf’s men. Let the feelings build. Hold them until the last possible second.”

  Maddie’s and Sarah’s fingers clenched around each other. Phyllis moaned softly.

  “Now, push,” Sarah instructed.

  And with what felt like no effort at all, they used the Wolf’s men’s fears against them. The men stalled, paralyzed by dark fantasies. Whatever most haunted their souls. Their mission to reclaim the Temple legacy was forgotten. Their fight for survival against the Brotherhood suddenly meant nothing. Each man’s horrifying daydream became his only reality.

  In mere seconds, the snipers had downed the last of them.

  “Mom!” Sarah dragged Maddie back to the ground where Jarred had already knelt to attend to Phyllis.

  “Let your feelings for her build,” Maddie instructed.

  She was shaking and weak, but Sarah would help her. Love had been the key to saving Jarred. Now her and Sarah’s love would heal their mother.

  “I’m so sorry…” Sarah shoved Jarred aside and hugged Phyllis. “It’s all my fault. It’s my fault you’re here, just like when Daddy—”

  “It…” Phyllis’s voice crackled with pain. “No. Your father’s death wasn’t your fault, honey.”

  Sarah cried harder. Maddie could feel her sister’s heart breaking at the sound of Phyllis calling her honey. At the forgiveness filling their mother’s words.

  “He wouldn’t have been in that car,” Sarah argued, “driving in the rain and distracted, if it wasn’t for me.”

  “He was in the car because he loved you.” Maddie took her mother’s hand and pulled Sarah close with her free arm.

  “Loving me got him killed.” Sarah stiffened. “Now look what it’s done to Mom. I’m Death!”

  “No! You—” Phyllis’s breath caught. Jarred lifted her head into his lap. “You’re not Death, Sarah. None of this is your fault. I never…should have left you…You’ve had to battle this alone…Not fair…Not your fault…”

  “Rest, Mom.” Maddie could feel her mother’s heart slowing and Jarred’s silent warning that there was little time left. “Don’t talk.”

  “No…The legacy…That center…” Phyllis dragged Sarah’s and Maddie’s hands together, then clung to them with her own. “You have to—”

  “It’s over,” Maddie insisted. Let the feelings build, Maddie repeated to Sarah through their link. Then to her mom she said, “You have to—”

  “No!” Phyllis’s hazel eyes flashed with determination. “Listen to me…The legacy—I wouldn’t let myself believe it. I refused to believe that paper. That picture. I threw them away, but it’s still here. The prophecy. It’s still inside both of you. You have to remember…”

  “Light and dark,” Maddie offered, needing her mother calm so she and Sarah could concentrate. “Twins and a chance for good and evil. And Sarah’s chosen good, Mom. The Wolf didn’t win. It’s going to be okay.”

  “There’s…” Phyllis wheezed. “I heard those men talking after they took me. His people won’t stop. There’s more—”

  “You can tell us later.” Maddie clutched Sarah’s hand. She’s fading. We have to try now! “Just lie still, until after we—”

  “No!” Phyllis struggled to sit up.

  Jarred settled her against his chest. His concerned expression locked with Maddie’s.

  “I’m not important now,” Phyllis insisted. “You two are. You two together, like this…Making sure the darkness never wins. You have to—”

  “We won, Mom.” Maddie glanced toward the Wolf’s lifeless body, just to be sure. “The government won’t have us as weapons. I’ll help Sarah. Dr. Metting will, too. And I’ll stay with her until she’s better. You’ll see.”

  “Metting…” Phyllis’s nails dug into their hands. “He knew…He said he knew…about the legacy. To—” A bone-shattering cough racked her body. “—to call him, if anything happened. He’ll make this right. Find him. He’ll…know what to do…Another will be born, the legend said. I heard that old man talking to his people.”

  “I’m here, Ms. Temple.” Metting knelt beside them.

  “Tell her it’s over,” Maddie demanded. “Calm her the hell down so Sarah and I can help her.”

  “No—” Phyllis let go of their hands and pointed a shaking finger at Metting. “You tell them…Another will come. It’s not over. These people…won’t stop. I heard them. Look at what they’ve done to Sarah. What I let them do…Don’t let them…not again. Don’t let them do it again. You promised me…”

  Phyllis’s crazy-scared memories bombarded Maddie with images of greed and hate. The Wolf and his men—smug that even if they lost Sarah and Maddie, they still had another chance. Sarah was seeing it, too. Their mother’s memories of her captors. Their evil plans swirling around an innocent life locked into a centuries-old battle of good versus evil. Phyllis’s panicked need to save that life. To not fail her, too…

  The memories faltered, along with Phyllis’s heartbeat.

  “Mom?”

  Maddie pressed her and Sarah’s palms to her mother’s chest—to the gaping wound the Wolf’s gunshot had made. She tried to breathe through her panic. Her mother’s eyes drifted shut.

  Focus! Maddie screamed in her twin’s mind. Focus on the light.

  “Sarah’s right here, Mom,” she said out loud. “She’s here with us, and you helped save her. She’s safe now. The Wolf can’t hurt her anymore.”

  “No…” Phyllis slumped against Jarred. “Not Sarah…another will be born…”

  And then there was nothing where her mother’s presence had been.

  “No!” Maddie screamed, forcing healing light into Phyllis.

  She struggled to become one with her mother, the way she had when she’d healed Jarred. She fought to bring Sarah with her, to reclaim the power they’d shared just a few minutes ago.

  “Mom? Stay with us!”

  But it was too late. Maddie and Sarah’s link was too bruised and battered. There was too much blo
od.

  “It’s…” Maddie sank to the ground, grappling for Jarred. “I can’t…”

  “No!” Sarah dragged Maddie’s hands back to their mother’s chest. “We’re not giving up! Fix her, Maddie. Heal her!”

  The Raven placed a palm on Sarah’s shoulder. And then his mind was there, too. Pushing her and Maddie’s link deeper, until there was a spark, and then a flicker, and then a flash of healing white. Maddie ignored her exhaustion and searched for the center of Phyllis’s injuries. She dug for the miracle that would save her mother’s life. A weak, terrified woman who’d finally found the courage to fight for the legacy she’d given her girls…

  The gray that Phyllis’s consciousness had become pushed back. The absence of light cloaked everything in mist. Until finally, all Maddie could see was the memory of their mother’s smiling face, years ago, as she’d held her infant twins in her arms. And their father was there, too. So young and proud. He curled a strong arm around Phyllis—his whole family safe by his side.

  “I’ll be okay,” Phyllis assured them, healthy and happy and no longer afraid. “He’s waiting for me. Stay together, my brave girls, just as you are now. Fight together. Don’t ever let each other go…”

  And with one last near-transparent smile, Phyllis faded away, the gray ebbing until empty mist was all that remained…

  “No!” Sarah screamed. “Bring her back!”

  “She…She’s gone.” Maddie clung to Sarah’s hand. She’d never needed her sister more. “She was injured too badly. I couldn’t…There was no way to—”

  “But your jackass boyfriend—you could heal him? Fix this, Maddie. Bring her back. She can’t…I can’t…I can’t be Death anymore. You have to fix this!”

  “I can’t,” Maddie cried. “We’re both too weak. She was hurt too badly. I…We can’t.” What Sarah had said finally registered. “But that doesn’t make you—”

  “Death? That’s what I am. I’m exactly what the Raven made me, so the Wolf could kill my mother. I’m Death, and it’s all the Raven’s fault!”

  Sarah ripped away from Maddie and launched herself at Metting. Maddie collapsed onto the ground, too numb to do anything but stare.