I stormed off down the hall, stopping only to open my door and slam it shut behind me. I couldn’t believe that Finn didn’t understand where I was at right now, having just let my sister walk away from me, and I needed someone that would understand me. Tanya, Ezra, and Holly were my friends, but I couldn’t talk to them about this, because they wouldn’t understand. Finn might have if he hadn’t been such a jerk, but it didn’t matter, because I knew exactly who I needed.
I needed my mother.
Reaching into my shirt, I gripped the amethyst pendant that was about the size of a large coin. It hummed softly in my hands, immediately calming my nerves and thoughts, preparing me for what I had to do. To find my mother, I would have to delve deeper into my power than I’d ever gone before, and I wasn’t sure what would happen when I tried, since Annie hadn’t covered that with me yet.
But I couldn’t wait for Annie to teach me. I needed my mother now.
I sat down on the edge of my bed and closed my eyes. I took several deep, slow breaths to calm my racing heart, and I tried to wipe my mind of anything but the sound of my breathing and the humming that emanated from my pendant. When I felt completely at peace with myself, I reached for my power–which resided at my very core, as it usually did.
The small ball of energy grew in response to my command, and it flowed to my fingertips, where it awaited an order. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with this power, but I had a rough idea of how this worked. My mother’s soul was probably still in the Outer Planes, and it would take a miracle to reach her.
The power inside of me continued to grow until it spilled out of me, enveloping my room in a soft white glow. The room began to pulsate in time with the beat of my heart, and the sound vibrated inside of my head. Pressure began to build up at the backs of my eyes, and I fought to push back the nausea that threatened to overcome me. I had a feeling that if I threw up now, I’d never get the chance to say goodbye to my mother.
The vibrating got harsher and the pulses increased in strength and frequency until my entire room was shaking. I worried that the walls might fall down around me, but I couldn’t have stopped even if I wanted to. I was too far consumed by my power to care or stop. I closed my eyes again and searched through the deepest recesses of my mind for anything that registered as familiar. I’d only truly seen my mother’s soul once, but I would never forget what it felt like to be near her, not as long as I lived.
The Outer Planes was a stretch of my mind that was visible only when I closed my eyes, and I searched through it for my mother’s soul. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I had the feeling I would know when I found it. For now, I passed over glimpses of fading souls that weren’t long for this world, and I refused to stop when lost souls called out to me, begging me to listen to their problems. As much as I would like to help them, I had more important things to do at the moment.
I felt her presence the second she came within my reach. I could feel what little power she had left reaching out to me, trying to latch onto me before she disappeared for good. Her presence was beginning to fade out, and I wasn’t sure where she would go when she vanished. If I was going to get my mother’s guidance, it had to be now or never.
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was the far corner of my room was bathed in white light. The soft glow pulsated evenly. From my spot on the edge of my bed, I could feel the power emanating from its center, and I recognized it. My mother’s face slowly appeared. The first thing I noticed about her heavenly appearance was that she looked incredibly sad. She looked absolutely miserable, and it made my heart hurt just to look at her. When she smiled sadly, I felt myself start to tear up and she hadn’t even spoken yet.
“Sweetheart, I was hoping you could reach me.”
Chapter Nine
Before she could say another word, I hopped off the edge of the bed and launched myself at my mother. She spread her arms wide and wrapped them around me. I buried my face in her shoulder and cried like I hadn’t in a long time. It felt so good to be held by someone warm, familiar, and loving that I didn’t even think about the fact that for once I was touching a ghost.
“The ghost of a necromancer differs from the ghost of a normal person,” she murmured. She stroked my hair gently and lovingly, and she whispered soothing words in my ear. Slowly, the tears began to fade away, and my mother pulled away to look at me. “I’m so proud of you, Veronica. You’ve endured so much the last few months, and you’ve come out in one piece. I knew you would.”
I sniffed, and wiped my face with the back of my hand. “Mom, I need your help.”
She nodded, unsurprised. “I know. I’ve been watching over you since the fight on the rooftop, and I’ve seen what’s been happening with Andrew’s little girl.” The use of the words little girl made me flinch guiltily, and she quickly continued. “Don’t mistake her as a child, Veronica. She’s got the dark thoughts and ambitions of any grown woman, and you’ll have to deal with her that way. Any sympathy or kindness may result in life-altering mistakes.”
“She’s my baby sister. She’s alone, she’s upset, and she’s confused. What am I supposed to do, Mom? She’s a child, and I don’t think she understands what’s going on here. When I think of Andrew, all I see now is a murderous psychopath that would have killed me if I didn’t side with him. All Tabitha sees is a loving, caring father that was taken unfairly from her. It’s not like I can force her to open her eyes and see what everyone else did.”
She sighed softly. “I know. You’ve got a problem, Veronica, and I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to help. I don’t have the power to help you like I did on the roof. I’m too weak to change the outcome of this situation, but you’re not. Remember that. You have the power to change things for better or worse.” Her words sounded strangely ominous, and I realized what she was really saying.
“Mom, I’m not going to join Tabitha’s hate-filled crusade. Aside from the fact that it’s wrong, I have too many people I care about to just abandon them and allow Tabitha to destroy them. I can’t believe you actually thought that I would–”
“I don’t think that, Sweetheart. I just wanted you to know that your actions will have more consequences than most. That’s the problem with being truly powerful. People look up to us, and then they blame us when things don’t work out. It can be easy to let our power go to our heads, and we don’t always think clearly.”
“I would never do anything to hurt someone unless I had no other options, like with Andrew.”
She tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear and smiled slowly. “You look so much like I did when I was your age. The resemblance is uncanny. You’re also so full of hope for the future and fear of your power.” The smile faded completely from her face. “Unfortunately, you’ve also got the same boy troubles as I do. I fell for the bad boy, and it destroyed my life, and very nearly destroyed yours as well.”
“Finn is not a bad boy. Really,” I said when she looked at me. “He’s just a little hard to understand some times. He’s looked after me, Mom. He’s protected me, and I think he really cares about me.”
“It’s more than caring,” she said so quietly I almost didn’t hear.
Pretending I didn’t hear her, I continued. “Besides, even if Finn was a bad boy, there’s a difference between bad and evil, and I know deep down that Finn would never hurt anyone he didn’t have to. And he’d never hurt me, no matter what.”
She sighed again. “Well, I hope you’re right, because trusting the wrong person now could land you in hot water. I just hope you know who your friends are and how far you can trust them. You may need to trust them with your life in the near future.”
“I would trust any of my friends with my life, and they’d trust me with theirs.”
She nodded her head. “Very well. Now, what are your friends going to do to help you solve this Tabitha problem? You can’t allow yourself to be alone with her again. That little stunt you pulled in the cemetery could have ended with you in a body bag, an
d I will not have my only child joining me in the afterlife so soon. Do not ever let your guard down like that again. Do you hear me?”
I almost smiled at the tone of her voice. She sounded almost like I was five years old and she was warning me to not talk to strangers again. “I hear you, Mom. I’ll be more careful in the future. Besides, I don’t think Finn would let me be anywhere alone with her again.” She clicked her tongue in annoyance, but didn’t say anything about Finn, and I continued. “Mom, what am I going to do about Tabitha?”
“You can’t allow these raisings to continue. If you do, the world will be consumed by chaos, and millions could die. Can you imagine a third world war, one that pitted humans against supernaturals? The bloodshed from both sides would be immeasurable.”
“But I thought humans outnumbered supernaturals almost a thousand to one.”
“They do,” she said, nodding her head. “But you have to remember that one single vampire could easily kill that many humans before being stopped. And if all the other supernaturals were to band together, they would be unstoppable. The humans wouldn’t stand a chance, and would probably be wiped out. There are only two things keeping them from attacking right now: the knowledge that they’re weaker, and the fact that no supernaturals have openly attacked them yet.
“But all it will take is one of us to cast the first stone, and the humans would retaliate. We cannot allow that to happen. You need to stop Tabitha before she finishes her father’s plans. A zombie army would create mass hysteria, and it would be the attack humans need to justify a war.”
“How am I supposed to stop Tabitha though? She’s family, Mom. She’s the only family I have left. I can’t just kill her.”
She hesitated, choosing her words carefully. “You may have too. I’m sorry, Veronica. I know you don’t want to hear it, but it may be your only option. You’ve tried talking to her, and it didn’t work out. You could always try threatening her, but it may just force her to speed up whatever plans she may have. The only option guaranteed not to fail is to kill her.”
I let her words sink in while trying to ignore the sudden cramping in my gut. I knew this was wrong, and I wasn’t sure if I could live with it, but I knew she wouldn’t lie to me. If she thought this was my only option, then it most likely was. Unless something else presented itself in the next couple of days, I was going to have to kill Tabitha, just like I’d killed Andrew.
I shuddered at the thought of having someone else’s blood on my hands.
“Veronica, I know that it seems like the wrong thing to do, but it’s not. We live in a sheltered community that relies solely on one another. We have to put the wellbeing of our community above even our own comfort and sanity. That’s just the world we live in. I know it sucks, and I know you probably feel trapped, but I’m telling you the truth. Honestly, I don’t see another way for this to end. Either Tabitha miraculously comes to her senses and gives up her plans for revenge, or you have to stop her…by any means necessary…”
Her voice was getting softer and farther away. When I looked up, I was surprised to find that she was nearly see-through. “Mom, what’s going on?”
She smiled sadly. “I’m sorry, Sweetheart, but it’s time for me to move on to the afterlife. I’ve managed to stay with you this long, but my power is nearly gone, and I can’t remain behind any longer.”
“No! You can’t leave me again!” I begged, rushing forward to cling to her one last time. Burying my face in her shoulder, I breathed in the wonderful scent of lilac and vanilla that always seemed to surround her, even before her untimely death.
“Veronica, you had to know that this was coming. I’ve spent so much energy remaining in the Outer Planes so I could watch over you, and I just can’t do it anymore. Sweetheart, look at me,” she said, putting her warm hand under my chin and forcing me to look at her. “I would give anything I ever had to be able to stay here and continue to look after you. To see you triumph over anything that comes your way. To watch you get married and someday start a family of your own. But I can’t. That’s not the way our power works.”
“But–”
“Veronica, I’ll see you again someday. You know that.” She was fading faster now, and I could now see the wall behind her. Sensing her time was short, she wrapped her arms tightly around me one more time, and I felt a single teardrop fall to my hand. When I looked up, she was crying softly. “I love you, Veronica, and I always will.”
“I love you, too, Mom.” My voice cracked and came out as barely more than a whisper.
She faded completely from view, taking with her the scent of lilac and vanilla, and her warm, comforting touch. Her loss hit me so suddenly that I fell to my knees and began to scream and cry and throw whatever I could get my hands on. It didn’t seem fair that she could be gone forever, but I knew she was, and nothing would ever be able to bring her back.
Her last words echoed in my mind over and over again, and each time I heard them, another wave of raw agony washed over me. It felt like someone had ripped my heart out of my chest, shredded it into tiny pieces, ground those pieces into the mud, and then set fire to the remains. There was just a gaping, jagged wound in my chest where my heart used to be, and not for the first time in my life, I felt truly and utterly alone.
There was nobody there to watch over me. There was nobody for me to turn to when I needed guidance. There was nobody there that would love me no matter what mistakes I made in life. My mother was gone from my life, and she was never coming back. Ever.
Leaning against the wall, I buried my face in my hands, trying to stop the screams that were building up in the back of my throat. I could feel them, festering just below the surface of a shattered exterior, and somehow I knew that if I let them out, I wouldn’t be able to stop. I would become broken beyond repair, and nothing would be able to save my sanity.
“You’re not alone,” a rough voice said gently. I peeked up through my hands at Finn as he wrapped his strong arms around me. He pulled me against his chest, protecting me from the multitude of morbid thoughts that threatened to overwhelm me. “Do you hear me? You’re not alone, Ronnie, and you never will be. I’ll always be here to watch over you, to listen to your problems, and to protect you from harm. I promise you that.”
His words were comforting, and I felt myself begin to relax in his arms. I turned so I could wrap my arms around him, and his tightened around me. “She’s gone,” I said, sobbing into his chest. “My mother’s gone, and she’s never coming back. I feel so alone, Finn.”
“You’re not alone,” he said again. “You have me, and you have Tanya, and Holly, and Ezra. We’re always going to be here for you. You can count on that.” He shifted his arms so he could lift me up, and he carried me over to the bed. I didn’t object when he slid in beside me, or when he placed his arm around my stomach, holding me against his chest again. “I won’t leave until you ask me to. Do you understand? As long as you want me, I’ll be here for you.”
I nodded my head. “Finn, why did you come back to my room?”
“I got angry when you stormed off, and I made it all the way back to my room before I realized what an ass I was being. So I came back here to apologize and to check on you. I’m glad that I did. I heard you screaming and crying, and I thought you could use someone to listen.” He was silent for a moment, and I wondered what he was thinking about. “You know, I can’t remember the last time I shared a bed with a woman like this…just holding and nothing more. It’s nice.”
“You should try it more often, instead of just humping anything that moves…”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said dryly. “For now I think you should get some rest. I’ll wake you when it’s time for dinner. Okay?”
I nodded again. “Alright.” I felt exhausted, but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sleep ever again now that I knew my mother couldn’t watch over me. However, Finn’s chest was warm and comforting at my back, and I focused on his gentle breathing, hoping it could lull me into
a temporary sense of security. When my eyes started to drift shut, I knew it was working.
“Finn?”
“Yeah?” he asked softly.
“Thank you.”
*****
Marcel looked down at me with obvious pity in his soft brown eyes. Normally that would have angered me, but I was too wiped out by my mother’s final departure to really care. Instead of my normal anger, all I felt was a sad hopelessness that refused to go away, despite the fact that Finn had stayed in my room and held me all night long. He skipped dinner when I refused to eat, and he murmured softly in my ear all night long.
He was the only reason that I hadn’t lost my mind after my mother vanished, and I would owe him for that as long as I lived.
I peeked at Finn out of the corner of my eyes, and was unsurprised to find the same stoic, uncaring man I’d come to know. If I knew Finn as well as I thought I did, he would probably play off any embarrassment he was feeling by pretending that nothing had happened. As long as we were in public view, he would pretend to be this emotionless beast, but I knew the second we were alone, he wouldn’t hesitate to comfort me by any means necessary.
It should have insulted me that he would only care in private, but I knew it was hard for him to open up and trust people. It didn’t help that this Council obviously did not trust him, no matter what good he did for them. I understood why he felt the need to hide his true self away from prying eyes that would only use his “weaknesses” to their advantage.
“Veronica, I understand that you’re going through a dark period right now. Finnley informed me of your mother’s visit last night, and I want you to know that I feel for you. Truly, I do. But, as I’m sure you’ll remember, we have more pressing matters to attend to at the moment.”
Finn bristled angrily at Marcel’s words, but Marcel pretended not to notice.
“I understand. I can mourn for my mother later. Right now, we have to stop Tabitha before she carries out her plans for revenge. That’s what’s important.”
Dark Heritage Trilogy Page 28