Dark Legacy
Page 26
“Let them work it out.” Jarred laid Phyllis’s body aside and pulled Maddie into his arms. He drew her head to his shoulder and rocked her. Rocked them both. “Just let me hold you, sweetheart.”
He felt so good. Maddie wanted his arms around her forever, while she grieved and tried to find a way not to follow her mother into the mist. She wanted to drown in the reality of her and Jarred and never feel fear or pain again.
“It’s going to be okay,” he promised. “Metting will get through to Sarah. We’ll get you both the help you need. We’ll fight whatever your mother thought was coming after you next. It doesn’t matter. As long as we’re together, sweetheart, it’s going to be okay.”
Together.
Every step of the way, Jarred had refused to let Maddie give up. Until she’d grown strong enough to fight on her own. And even then, he’d raced to be with her. Her soul mate, in both darkness and light. Her hope and her faith. Her center.
She placed her palm over his scarred heart and softly kissed him.
“I’ll always be here,” she said through tears of acceptance and love. Whatever her legacy was, it wasn’t to be alone any more than Sarah’s was to be Death. “No matter what, Jarred. I promise I’ll never leave you again.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” He kissed her back, his mind stroking hers with the calm, soothing peace that had first drawn her to him.
“You bastard!” Sarah shrieked, still slapping at Metting. She raked at his face with her nails. “Look what you did! Look what you made me into. What you made me do!”
“I won’t fight you, Sarah.” Metting made no move to defend himself. “I won’t ever hurt you again. But you have to listen to me. Your mother—”
“Don’t talk about her!” Sarah’s fist slammed into his nose, but she was too weak to do much damage. “She was just another pawn in your sick plans. You used me, and you used her.”
“The Wolf was your puppet master.” Metting caught her arm, the next time she swung. “He used us all. And yes, I let it happen. I was blind. But I was trying to protect—”
“Shut up!” Sarah tried to wrestle free and failed.
She drove her knee into his side, but Metting took advantage of her wobbly balance to roll her onto her back.
“Get off me!” Sarah pummeled him with her fists.
Metting caught her hands, immobilizing her with his body.
“Leave her alone.” Maddie struggled free of Jarred’s hold.
A part of Maddie was still joined with Sarah. She could feel her twin’s madness flaring. The blind anger. The guilt. Sara’s hatred for the Raven, but for herself most of all.
“Let me go!” Sarah screamed.
“Not until you listen to me.” Metting’s tone was grim. “You and your sister, you both have to listen. Your mother’s right. I saw it in the Wolf’s mind when he decided to kill you.”
“You saw yourself in his mind.” Sarah’s knee came up, barely missing Metting’s crotch. “And you liked it. Admit it, you deranged bastard. You liked hurting me as much as the Wolf!”
“It killed me, every time you woke another day in the center, in that cage I built for you.” Dark emotions seethed beneath Metting’s admissions. “And I let my feelings cloud my judgment. I didn’t see Ruebens for what he was. I’m begging you, don’t do the same thing now. Hate me if you need to, but listen to what your mother tried to tell you. There’s more to the Temple legacy than you and your sister know.”
Jarred helped Maddie stumble closer, dread leaching the warmth from his touch. Sarah had gone limp beneath her Raven. She was staring into his eyes now.
“That’s it, Sarah. Listen to me. Me—the man you once trusted, not the specter you made me into in your dreams. I’m trying to protect you and your sister. I’m fighting to keep your legacy alive and out of the clutches of men like Ruebens.”
“The…” Sarah shook her head. “The Wolf is dead. It’s over. You killed him. You killed the Wolf and all of his men. It’s over…”
“No.” Metting’s head dropped. His dark hair brushed Sarah’s cheek before he sank back on his knees.
Only then did Maddie notice that Metting’s soldiers had surrounded them. The clearing was silent and still, except for the storm still rumbling overhead.
“No?” Sarah’s mind reached for Maddie. So did her hand.
Their fingers found each other.
“What do you remember about your legacy?” Metting asked.
“Nothing,” Maddie said. “We found some old piece of paper, and our mother took it away. Secret powers and twins and good battling evil…I don’t remember any more. What did my mother overhear the Wolf’s men talking about?”
“It didn’t seem to matter,” Metting said instead of answering. “Neither of you had ever had any serious relationships. There was no reason to suspect…”
“Suspect what?” Maddie demanded. “What did you see in the Wolf’s mind?”
“A little girl, with dark eyes and dark hair and an innocent smile. A child who has no defense against the darkness, because she’s alone.”
Sarah shivered at his description.
“I saw her, too.” Maddie didn’t get it. “In the playhouse dream and here in the clearing when the Wolf was controlling our nightmare. But that was Sarah when she was a little girl.”
“No, it wasn’t Sarah the Wolf was projecting.” Metting sounded so sure. “It wasn’t Sarah that Ruebens was thinking about when he lost control of your minds and decided to cut his losses. Your mother wasn’t talking about Sarah, when she tried to tell you what she’d overheard. When she said, another will be born.”
“She’s…” Sarah’s voice was distant, looking inward. “The little girl…She’s part of our legacy.”
“What legacy!” Maddie demanded.
“Twins will be born to the line,” Sarah recited in the dead Wolf’s voice. “And with them, great good to commence. Or great evil, should darkness descend. Through them, another will come, to spread light far and wide. Or to cast the ultimate shadow on a lost mankind.”
Maddie shivered, as the words she’d read as a child crawled over her skin.
“She’s…” Sarah said in her own voice. She was rocking, just like the little girl had been in their playhouse. Her head dropped to her raised knees. Her hair covered her face. “She’s…”
“She’s what?” Jarred curled an arm around Maddie as his alarm grew.
No matter what this is, his mind assured her. I’m here. It will be okay. We’ll make sure of it.
“The Temple legacy speaks of another child.” Metting pushed to his feet. His men fell in line behind him. “The Brotherhood have monitored you both since you were born. Watching for any chance that this child might come to be.”
“But neither of us have children,” Maddie insisted. “There is no child!”
Except there was.
The child whose image had been there, over and over, in her links with Sarah. Links poisoned by the dream programming the Wolf had planted in Sarah’s mind.
Maddie could see the little girl now, in Sarah’s mind. Rocking back and forth. But not in their childhood playhouse. She was in a laboratory of some kind, surrounded by cold steel and bright lights and no one to love her. There were only dark creatures training her to kill. Forcing her to become what Sarah had barely escaped.
“Oh, my God…” Maddie confronted Sarah’s Raven. “How could your brotherhood let this happen!”
“I can only surmise—” Metting began.
“Surmise?” Jarred demanded.
The memory of Phyllis’s final words returned. Another will come. It’s not over. These people…Don’t let them do it again…
“Oh, my God,” Maddie repeated. There was another little girl out there with special gifts she didn’t understand and couldn’t possible control. “Trinity?” she asked, the pieces of the puzzle she’d been racing to solve finally clicking into place. “The name of the research center is Trinity…”
&n
bsp; A nod seemed to be the only response Metting could manage.
Dream Weaver wasn’t dead. The center wasn’t through with the Temple legacy. Not even close.
Maddie knelt in front of Sarah. She brushed her sister’s bangs aside. Tears were streaming down both their faces. Jarred was there, too. Laying a supportive hand on Sarah’s shoulder. His unspoken promise to protect Sarah, no matter what had happened between them. Because she was part of Maddie.
“Trinity,” Sarah was repeating, over and over as she continued to rock. “Trinity…Trinity…” Her gaze tracked to Maddie’s. “Three…There are three of us…All this time, and I didn’t know. What did they do to me? To her? We have to find her,” Sarah pleaded. “We can’t let her go through what I did.”
Jarred tightened his grip on Sarah’s shoulder as Metting knelt, too.
“We will find her.” Maddie had never meant anything more. “Together.” She looked to Jarred and felt the healing light of his love reaching for her, warming her. “From now on, we’re not in this alone.
Acknowledgments
There are so many people to thank for a journey that brings you to a place as wonderful as this. Too many to list, but here’s to the good guys…
Many were there before…Georgia Romance Writers, from the very start; Anna Adams, who read my first rough pages and saw something worth writing a few more; critique partners—Lisa, Seressia, Tanya, Rachelle, Dorene, Missy, and Trish; everyone I served with on the GRW board—especially Emily, Traci, Maureen and Pam, who were my sanity even though they’re laughing as they read this at the idea of me being sane. You’re the strength that helped me begin.
Then dream became dubious aspiration…Michelle Grajkowski, agent and friend, you never told me I couldn’t and you kept pushing until Dark Legacy was ready to find a home; Tanya Michaels, the sister I always wanted, you said this would happen and now a lifetime of free milk shakes are yours because you told me so; Bob Mayer, teacher, your weekend writing retreat smacked sense into my wanting to create something bigger, then it motivated me to make it happen. Without each of you, this novel and the series that follows never happens.
Until there was nothing left to do but work hard and believe, and even then I wasn’t alone…Rita Herron, your encouragement while I pitched and waited was a lifeline; Patrice Michelle, you saw deeper when I was too immersed in story to find my way out; Lori Handeland, you took friendship and support to an unexpected place when you read and cheered and then lent your name to the party; Leah Hultenschmidt, editor and dreamer and coconspirator, you’ve made this wild ride possible and a blast from the first phone call—I’m so lucky it’s your hand on the wheel.
Thank you all.
High Praise for Anna DeStefano!
“Dark Legacy combines Gothic overtones, secret government technology, a psychic heroine, a brilliant and charming hero, and a lightning-fast plot to create a sure winner.”
—New York Times Bestselling
Author Lori Handeland
“Anna DeStefano’s remarkable stories of the healing power of love touch the heart with hope. One of the genre’s rising stars…”
—Gayle Wilson, Two-Time RITA
Award-winning Author
“This is what romance should be…”
—RT Book Reviews
Copyright
LOVE SPELL®
September 2009
Published by
Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
200 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Copyright © 2009 by Anna DeStefano
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E-ISBN: 978-1-4285-0738-8
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
No Way Out
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Acknowledgments
Praise
Copyright