by E G Bateman
With the blade held above her head, she felt power pulse through her.
She was ready to strike when the door flew open.
“Lexi, stop. She’s not a doppelgänger. She’s your sister.”
Something in the tone penetrated and she froze and stared at the bloody girl with her face. She put the sword down and looked at Scott. He wasn’t alone. Dick was there and so was someone else. She looked into the face of the man beside Scott.
He was older. Of course he was—he’d been fifteen when she’d last seen him. Before she’d been made to forget him, made to forget he’d been bitten by a shifter, made to forget being dragged out of the room, and made to forget she’d heard the shot.
“Bryan?”
Being distracted, Lexi didn’t see the powerful right hook from the girl on the floor.
The lights went out.
Chapter Fifty-Six
“Alexa, Alexa, I hope a witch’ll hex ya.”
“Alicia, Alicia, I’m not gonna miss ya.”
“Will you two knock it off? Don’t make me come up there.”
Lexi’s eyes snapped open. The world spun and her vision was blurred. She closed her eyes again for a few seconds, then opened them slowly and blinked to try to clear them. An unfamiliar room slipped in and out of focus. She stretched on a couch and a face loomed above her, but it was too blurry to identify.
“She’s waking up.”
That voice. I should know it.
As she shook her head slightly, the face began to clear. The dark hair and olive skin were familiar, as were his brown eyes. The stubble was new, though, and her hand moved as if of its own volition to touch it. “Bryan?”
“Hi, Lexi-Loo.” He smiled at her but moved beyond her reach.
She startled when she heard the nickname he used to call her and withdrew her hand. A few moments later, her surroundings settled and her vision cleared.
Briefly, she wondered if she was in a dream, but common sense told her she couldn’t invent this adult version of his face. “You were bitten by a shifter. They shot you.”
He nodded. “With a dart gun. I remember.”
When she tried to sit, the dizziness returned, so she gave up the effort and stared at him.
Dick’s voice spoke from behind them. “You must have been what, fifteen? I didn’t think they let mages out to chase shifters at that age.”
Bryan turned to speak over the couch she lay on. “I wasn’t supposed to be there. The family had been called out while I was with them. I think we were on the way back from a restaurant.”
Lexi closed her eyes again. “It was Maggie’s birthday.” She smiled as a memory came to her. “Isaac hung a birthday banner across the living room, but he attached it using his little cross-bolt gun and fired it into the corners of the room. Dad went nuts and the dinner was almost canceled.” She remembered the restaurant. Her Kindred sister, Maggie, had blown out seventeen candles on her cake.
Her Kindred brother chuckled. “I’d forgotten about that. Lexi had only just started going out on jobs with the family. I was supposed to stay in the car, but I was bored and fifteen and thought I’d be able to watch the action from a safe distance. While they were looking for the shifter, he had escaped from a window and surprised me. I couldn’t make an energy ball yet, but I managed to shock him enough to make him run off.
“The family didn’t realize I’d been bitten. I’d healed the wound before they returned to the car because I was more afraid of being grounded than dying. Within hours, I had a fever and started hallucinating. I remembered events I swore had happened but no one else seemed to recall them.”
She opened her eyes to look at him again. “When they realized you’d been bitten, I was forbidden to go near you, but they couldn’t keep us apart. We did everything together. I’d climbed in the window and found you covered in sweat and shivering. Then, after a few days of you raving, a Kindred unit came from another city. Some cold-faced bitch pulled me out of the room, and I heard shouting.
“Braxton argued with them, then I heard the shot. I thought it was from a silenced weapon. I tried to break away from the woman, but she counseled me. She took the memories away—not only of that event, but it was as though you had never existed until Barry the vampire tried to turn me. I tasted vampire blood and the memories tumbled back.” Still gazing at him, she asked. “Have you always remembered?”
He paused for a moment before he responded. “Yes.”
Still befuddled, she tried to process it. Her memories of him had only returned a year before and she had thought he was dead. But he had always known he’d left her behind. It hurt that he’d never made contact.
Her eyes stung at the thought and she dragged her gaze away from him. The blinds were closed and she couldn’t get a sense of where they were. “How long have I been out? Where are we?”
“You’ve been out a few hours. We’re in North Carolina.” Dolores appeared from behind the couch. She put a cup of coffee on the table in front of her before she walked out of sight again. Lexi looked at the cup. It was one she had bought Dolores and said I’m Tired Of Adulting. Let’s Be Fairies.
The others seemed to be giving her and Bryan a little space, but she could feel a swell of emotions from Scott. They were all hopelessly entwined with her feelings and she wasn’t sure who felt what or even that she had the energy to sift through them.
She looked at Bryan. “Where is she?” She didn’t have to say who she meant. Everyone would know she was talking about the sister she’d only recently discovered existed.
He frowned and scraped his mop of dark hair away from his face. “Back in New Orleans, at Dad’s place.”
“Dad?” Her heart raced. Had Alicia been living with their parents?
Bryan seemed to know where her thoughts had jumped to. “Our Kindred unit leader—Kevin Rand, the police chief. Not her real dad.”
“The chief’s your dad? The man who gave Lorenzo the go-ahead to murder all those people? How are you okay with that?” Lexi was shocked.
“I’m not okay with it. Dad wouldn’t be either. Not that it matters. He had one of his weird phone calls from Caleb. I’ve seen him when it happens. The man calls and starts speaking, his face goes blank, and there are things he doesn’t remember. It’s different than counseling. I don’t know how Caleb does it.” Bryan shrugged. “As far as Kevin knows, Lorenzo went crazy. I told him she’d fought him and killed him.”
“Kindred saves us all again, woohoo!” Dick’s voice, still from behind, dripped with sarcasm.
Bryan looked up, presumably at the vampire, and shrugged apologetically. “She collapsed after your fight. I counseled her before she woke up again. Dad’s not happy about that and it’s against Kindred procedures. I don’t like counseling her but it’s the only way I could think to cover your trail and give me space in which to get answers. I already suspected you were involved as the hotel staff in Cabo were adamant that Ali had been there for over a week.”
Dolores spoke from where she presumably waited with Dick. “Didn’t they counsel you?”
“Not yet, but the memories always come back anyway. They don’t know that.”
Lexi nodded. “Because of the shifter bite.”
His brows drew together in puzzlement. “No.”
“No?” She frowned at him in confusion. “But I thought that was why they shot you—because the counseling stopped working and you remembered things they were trying to hide.”
Bryan nodded his understanding. “You’re kind of right. If we’re tainted by a sting, bite, or the blood of a supernatural, counseling might not work for a while until we’re fully healed. Then, usually, everything goes back to normal.”
“I didn’t know,” she responded, still a little confused. “It was one of the reasons I ran from them. I thought they might realize I’d been tainted by the vampire blood and call someone in to kill me.”
“Tainted? Excuse me, I’m right here.” Dick sounded offended.
Bryan
looked up. “Sorry, that’s a Kindred term.”
“Quelle Surprise,” the vampire muttered.
She watched her once-brother while he spoke. He’d grown into a handsome man. She twisted her mother’s wedding ring.
He looked at the ring and smiled. “You still have that.”
Lexi smiled when she looked at the band. “It’s always meant a lot to me but I never knew why. When they took the memory of you, I also lost the memory I would have had if I’d found out it had belonged to my mother.”
Bryan returned his gaze to her face. “Dolores told me about the vamp trying to turn you. Is that when you started to remember me?” He waited for her to confirm with a nod, then tilted his head with a curious expression. “But that’s only one of the reasons why you ran. You thought they’d murdered me. What else?”
“We’d been on a job. A kid had been kidnapped by a vampire—the one who tried to turn me. We rescued the boy and he was supposed to go back to his parents. They counseled us the next morning after I’d submitted my report but it didn’t work on me. I was scared so I didn’t tell anyone. Later, they counseled us again and implanted the existence of a little brother called Bobby. It almost worked and for a brief moment, I totally believed it. When he walked in, though, I recognized him instantly as the kid who’d been kidnapped. They hadn’t taken him to his parents. He had mage potential so they kept him.” She shook her head. “His poor parents.”
“It sounds like the taint—uh, the vampire blood was wearing off and counseling was starting to work again. But then they introduced the kid who was already in your memory. The moment you saw him, it caused a conflict. Your brain rejected the new information.”
Lexi felt confused by it all. “So they don’t kill people who have been tainted—I mean…uh, contaminated. Sorry, Dick, that’s not any better, is it?”
The vampire sighed dramatically.
Bryan shook his head. “You mean the horror stories we heard growing up? Sometimes. If that vampire had succeeded in turning you, they would have eliminated you.”
She nodded. “Or if the shifter had turned you back then.”
“Exactly.”
That triggered her recall of something she’d been curious about. “That reminds me, what attacked Alicia? Those marks on her face.”
He paused and gnawed his lip before he answered. “Yes, that was a werewolf.”
After a niggle of guilt, she chastised herself mentally for being so blunt. “I’m sorry. Did you kill it?”
“I tried.” He looked away.
Lexi narrowed her eyes. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
His mouth opened but he didn’t say anything.
While she knew he knew what she meant, she said it anyway. “In the street, when we were with Thomas and Lorenzo attacked us. It was you who saved us.”
“Er… Yes. Joseph had told me about you.”
“I wish he’d done me the same courtesy.” She lowered her head carefully. “So, I have a sister and I almost killed her.”
Bryan put his hand on her arm. “She won’t remember it.”
For a moment, at his touch, memories and feelings flowed through her like a tidal wave, followed immediately by a feeling of jealousy and hurt that came from Scott.
She did her best to push Scott’s feelings away, not because she didn’t care but because it was all too much. “But I remember it. I don’t know what got into me.”
“It was probably something residual from the ring,” Dolores said, still out of sight. Bryan looked up and Lexi had a feeling they shared some unspoken concern.
Without thought, she rubbed her face where Alicia had punched her. It didn’t hurt, obviously. Scott would have seen to that.
Bryan looked at her again. “Do you remember anything about Alicia? Have any old memories resurfaced?”
“No.” She thought about the dream she’d had—two little girls teasing each other—but it had been fleeting and was already drifting away. “I didn’t know I had a sister until you came into that room and stopped me from taking her head off.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Well, thank you for stopping. Look, I’ll tell you what I know, but it’s not much.”
“I think I need to sit for this.” Lexi swung her legs to the floor and pushed into a seated position. She caught a glimpse of Scott, Dick, and Dolores at a table behind the couch. Scott was the only one who didn’t return her gaze. He stared resolutely ahead.
God knows what must be going through his mind.
Bryan continued. “I only know what I’ve overheard and it’s not much. When you were six, a decision was made to separate you and you were taken to different Kindred families.”
“What about our real parents? Were they Kindred? Or were we kidnapped like Bobby?”
“I don’t know about that. I’m sorry, but Ali is unusual. She’s the strongest and fastest legacy I’ve ever seen.”
His words hurt although she knew he hadn’t intended that. He would remember that she was almost a complete dud. She covered her discomfort by rubbing her jaw again. “I noticed that.”
She thought about the fight with her sister and how she’d seemed stronger than might have been believed, and how at the end, she had sagged. “Right now, I feel weaker than I’ve ever felt in my life.”
Dick cleared his throat. “It’s understandable. She slapped you into next week.”
Lexi twisted in her seat and leveled a gaze at him. He sat at the table facing her and shrugged. “Well, she did.”
She turned to Bryan. “Can I meet her?”
“Rematch?” the vampire muttered.
“Are you for real?” Her glare didn’t seem to have much effect.
Dick raised an eyebrow. “What? You broke my neck. I can’t experience a little schadenfreude?”
Bryan spoke quickly. “I don’t want to put her in danger. Also, it would be awkward because she doesn’t know I remember things. I’ve told her things before, but she didn’t take it well and I had to counsel her. I hate doing that.”
Lexi knew she had to ask her next question as dispassionately as possible, but she couldn’t do it looking into his eyes. She picked the mug of coffee up and stared into it. “She’s your wife, isn’t she?”
“Yes.” His voice was soft
While she tried to remain nonchalant and managed to swallow the lump in her throat, it seemed loud as though it were a rock. She grimaced, sure the whole room had heard it. Again, a swell of pity came through the empathetic link.
She silently tested the question she wanted to ask but couldn’t because it was stupid and pointless. Why did they take you away from me and give you to her?
Lexi felt like she was fifteen again and the pain of losing Bryan was still raw from her core to her fingertips.
With a slow, deliberate movement, she put the mug down. It was time to regain control of herself. “Is Broullard okay? The chief and Caleb were going to—”
Bryan shook his head. “He’s fine. I counseled him before I came here and he won’t remember any of you.”
Dick sighed. “Charles won’t remember me? That makes me sad.”
Lexi understood how he felt. She liked Broullard too.
“I told the chief I’d done it,” Bryan continued. “They’ll leave him alone—”
“You can’t assume that,” Lexi interrupted. “Caleb wanted him dead and he has a very long arm.”
“He’s safe for now. I don’t know what else I can do.” He shrugged as though helping the detective was truly beyond him.
She stood. “Counsel him again. Tell him to retire on medical grounds. Send him on a cruise. Get him out of there.”
He put his hands on her arms. “You’re right. I’ll do what I can.”
The move shocked her. For a fraction of a second, she thought of either kissing him or head-butting him.
Bryan seemed to sense the conflict and stepped back.
Lexi sat again. “I assume you know all about Caleb now.”
“We told him,
” Scott said.
Her Kindred brother picked a glass of water up and took a sip. “I’ve had suspicions about him for a while. I’ve met him a few times, but they always counsel me after, thinking they can make me forget him. Still, there isn’t much I can tell you. It sounds like you all know a hell of a lot more about him than I’ve gleaned.
“I’ve overheard Dad talk about him having business interests in South Africa. But more recently, he purchased a business on behalf of Kindred in Maine. I don’t know the details, only that it was some kind of hostile takeover and he’s in the process of changing the management team. There isn’t much I can do to help you without putting Alicia in danger.”
She was annoyed and felt the situation deserved to be taken more seriously. “Why not? Surely Caleb’s a risk to everyone. I assume they’ve told you he’s trying to bring a particularly powerful high-level demon into our world.”
“I don’t know who else is involved. If we show our hand now and discover the whole council is conspiring with him, we’re dead. I know for a fact he’s been practicing outlawed magic.”
“I know that. I killed his doppelgänger, remember? That ritual takes thirteen members—or proxies like your dad. Yes, we noticed your dad’s lost twenty percent of his fingers.”
“Precisely. The council is thirteen. What if it’s all of them? I might be able to get some information out of Kevin, although it wouldn’t surprise me if Caleb counsels him each time they go to meetings together. That happens at least once a month.”
Lexi straightened. “That works perfectly. We could find out where they meet and stick something pointy between his ribs.”
Bryan looked doubtfully at her. “You don’t look like you could poke him in the ribs with a finger. Maybe you need to get your strength back. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open and let you know anything I learn, but I’m not sure this is even your problem, is it? You left Kindred.”
She raked her fingers through her hair. “Like I said, this is everyone’s problem. If I thought I could trust Kindred to deal with their own mess, I would because honestly, I think this will be the death of us.”