by Kristie Cook
“Mom!”
Dorian burst onto the beach, running full speed. I ran to him and swept him into my arms, spinning around and kissing him all over his sweet, little face.
“I missed you so much!” I said, squeezing him tighter. I buried my face in the crook of his neck and inhaled his tangy little-boy scent.
“Wow, Mom, you got strong!” Dorian mused. He touched my face, then kissed my cheek. “And very beautiful.”
I laughed at his observations. “And I think you got much bigger.”
I squeezed him tighter as I spun him around again. I stopped us to face Tristan. He watched us, a mixed expression of love and trepidation on his face. Dorian became quiet and stared at him wide-eyed.
“That’s my dad,” Dorian whispered in my ear. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, it is, little man,” I whispered back.
He sucked in his breath noisily. He looked at me, his face lit with the brightest smile, and then jumped out of my arms and ran as fast as he could into Tristan’s. A huge grin spread across Tristan’s face as he scooped Dorian up and held him tightly. I ran over and wrapped my arms around both of my guys. We fell to the ground, all of us laughing and crying at the same time.
At some point during all of this—I hadn’t even noticed when—Owen returned and came to shore.
“Uncle Owen!” Dorian shouted, jumping to his feet and running into Owen’s arms.
“Hey, little buddy.” Owen returned the bear hug.
Tristan and I stood up and brushed ourselves off, then Tristan took my hand and pulled me close to him.
“Uncle Owen, my dad’s here!” Dorian flew back to Tristan, who scooped him up in his free arm. Dorian wrapped his arms around Tristan’s neck and planted a kiss on his cheek. Tristan squeezed my hand and I could feel his joy. My heart would explode if it grew any bigger.
“Hey, Alexis?” Owen said.
I tilted my head. “Yeah?”
He looked at Tristan and back at me. “We always win.”
He stood with Mom and Rina and they all grinned and nodded. I looked at Tristan and Dorian and they beamed, too. And I realized this was my family—Owen, Rina, Mom and my two men. The people I loved. And I was finally Real Alexis, with my Real Tristan. We had suffered through the darkness and emerged into the light, our lives drastically changed forever. But we were all together. Finally.
We did win.
Epilogue
Silence filled the Amadis mansion as Tristan and I headed downstairs after changing into dry clothes. It felt like a museum at night. Well, an ancient museum—the two-story foyer was dark, with the only light coming from torches on the stone walls.
Mom? I didn’t know where to find Mom and Rina and I didn’t think calling her name aloud would be appropriate. She appeared in one of the three arched doorways off the foyer. Tristan and I followed her into a stately sitting room, where Rina waited for us, holding two leather-bound books in her lap. We sat on a brown leather couch in front of the fireplace while Mom sat on another couch next to Rina.
Mom and Rina both smiled warmly at me and Rina began.
“We start with ancient history. As your mother has taught you, in the very beginning, there was rebellion in Heaven. God permanently cast the archangel Lucifer and a third of the angels out of Heaven, sentencing them to Earth and Hell. There has been spiritual warfare waging ever since.
“The outcast angels, now called demons, take many forms and most take no form at all, but are evil spirits. The spirits frighten humans, plant evil thoughts in their minds, tempt them with immorality and sometimes even possess the human body to do their evil deeds. Their goal is to bring human souls to Satan and Hell. God and the angels work through priests, ministers and counselors to cast these demons out and keep them away.” Rina sighed. “Sadly, most humans do not realize there is this ongoing battle for their souls.”
She paused and closed her eyes. I wondered if she prayed for those souls.
After a couple of moments, she continued. “A much smaller number of demons take some kind of human or animal form, such as mages, vampires and shape-shifters. These are the Daemoni. Their purpose is to harm or kill humans, disregarding their souls. They continuously seek more power and, therefore, more members. Growing their army requires human sacrifice—the humans may not actually die, but their lives are forever changed and their souls are at risk.
“Those created demons are the souls the Amadis are responsible for. We cannot do anything about the original demons, the Ancients, but we can still win over the souls of the rest of the Daemoni. We show them how to live responsibly with their abilities and powers and how to control their desires without hurting humans. We bring the goodness out of them and, hopefully, we can lead them to the decision to ultimately save their souls, giving them true immortality. And I believe you know how that is accomplished?”
I nodded. “But how did this become our responsibility? I mean, why us? Who are we?”
“In short, we come from Angels. We are the result of the Daemoni infecting a half-Angel and half-human woman named Cassandra. Although infected, she still only knew love and goodness and she started the Amadis at the direction of the Heavenly Host of Angels.”
“So, we are Angels, but we are also essentially Daemoni?”
Rina shook her head. “Not exactly. There are the Angels, including the original Daemoni, and there are offspring of Angels. We are the offspring. We have Angel blood and we have Daemoni powers. But we are their exact opposites. We are inherently good.”
“And we can bring goodness out of them,” I said, glancing at Tristan.
“Yes, if there is any soul left, we can affect them,” Rina answered.
“And…if there is no soul left?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.
Rina sighed.
“If they are a threat to humans or ourselves…well, sometimes we have to kill them, honey,” Mom answered.
“So the ones at Tristan’s house in Cape Heron that one day, during the storm, you wanted to kill them. They had no souls left?”
“No. Unfortunately, Edmund had given his soul to the Daemoni and they completely destroyed it,” Mom said, her voice heavy with grief.
“Remember when we discussed the rogues back then?” Tristan asked. I nodded, though I barely remembered. “The rogues usually have destroyed souls, which is why they can’t be controlled.”
“So how do you know if they still have a soul?”
“You will learn to sense it,” Rina answered. “If you can feel any love or compassion toward them, they can be saved.”
“And if they show anything like mercy or love, there is hope,” Mom added. “Like Vanessa. She showed feelings for Tristan.”
“Hmph,” Tristan grunted.
“I think that’s lust,” I muttered.
“I don’t know about that. She has a desire to be with someone else, so she still has a soul,” Mom replied.
“And the vampire that threatened me…since he showed mercy, he still has a soul?”
“Yes,” Mom answered. “That’s also why he left when he sensed me and then Owen. He didn’t want to take the chance of us converting him.”
“He brings me to the subject of my books. What is their purpose?”
“Ah, good question,” Rina said. “We will start with more history. You see, up through the eighteen-hundreds, the Daemoni ran rampantly in the human world and humans were very aware and fearful of them. This fear strengthened their faith and helped protect them from being lured into the evil world. Unfortunately, however, the humans killed many innocent people who were not evil or possessed at all. Even those who were real Daemoni were not usually rogues. They still had hope. You would be most familiar with the Salem witches, no?”
I nodded.
“There were many similar incidents around the world. Heaven lost innocent humans, the Amadis lost the ability to convert the souls and the Daemoni lost many of their soldiers. The Daemoni decided to become more covert t
hen. We have an obligation to keep the existence of our people secret, which means keeping the Daemoni secret, too.”
“So what changed? Why did you decide to break that obligation?” I asked.
Rina shook her head. “We have not broken the obligation. We have not revealed their existence. When the Daemoni went underground, humans felt safer and became complacent. We have just reminded humans there could be a possibility of their existence. You see, over the last century, with advances in science, humans have lost their belief in, and therefore, their fear of the creatures we know as the Daemoni and evil in general. They only see evil in each other, perpetuating wars among themselves. With this loss of fear has also come a loss of faith.”
Rina stopped and looked again as though she worried for humans.
“You’re an excellent writer and your readers want to believe your characters are real,” Mom said, picking up for Rina. “For them to believe the good ones are real, they must also believe the bad ones are, too. You’ve made humans more aware of the possibility of their existence. They can better protect themselves, by increasing their faith.”
“You see,” Rina said, “the Daemoni truly desire to take control of the world and rule over humans. They are growing restless and angry with their limitations and are preparing to fight. The union of you and Tristan has exacerbated their anger. We believe you have changed over so soon—so young—because we will need as many generations of Amadis daughters as possible. The Angels are preparing for major war. Our hope…our plan…has been that your books will help prepare the humans. The humans will need their faith and knowledge of how to protect themselves as spiritual warfare will re-enter their realm in the near future.”
“Why don’t I just write our story—mine and Tristan’s—then,” I muttered. I meant it rhetorically, not at all desiring to tell the whole world about us.
“I hoped you would say that,” Rina said, smiling. “You, of all people, could write it so people think the story is fiction, but it seems like it could be very real.”
I stared at her in disbelief. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tristan shaking his head slowly.
“I wasn’t serious!”
“But it is something to think about,” Rina said, a gleam in her eye.
“I think I’ve done enough damage already. It was risky to write those stories. Now the Daemoni feel justified in killing us.”
“Any risk is worth saving humans,” Rina said pointedly. “But the Daemoni really do not have Provocation because we did not break the obligation. We did not really expose them. And, now that we know Tristan escaped, we believe they used Provocation as an excuse to come after you. If they could get you, they could get Tristan back.”
“They’d already planned it before I escaped,” Tristan said. “That’s why I made the move when I did, because she was in danger.”
“Yes, they have been discussing this for some time. They have been giving me ultimatums to make her stop since she wrote her second book,” Rina said. “But they knew they did not have real Provocation. They were empty threats. If they came after her at all when they still had you, it would be to have you both. So the books were really irrelevant to their desire to attack her. They served as an excuse.”
“And I wouldn’t have known they were lying,” I said. “I would’ve fallen for it. I did fall for it.”
“Yes, we know we made a mistake in not telling you sooner,” Rina admitted.
“So why couldn’t anyone tell me? Why has Mom always had to keep this from me? I’m twenty-seven years old and just now learning who I am and what it means!”
Rina sighed. “I understand your frustration and I appreciate your patience. There were many reasons for your not knowing the whole truth. First, there was a trace of doubt about the power of the Daemoni in you—enough doubt that we had to be cautious in protecting our secrets. Second, our secrets are always kept hidden until the woman goes through the Ang’dora. We all lived normal, human lives until then.
“You, however, are unique. You had powers before your Ang’dora, so you knew something was different from a young age. For the rest of us, our mothers left us to return to the Amadis just before they changed over and we continued living normally until our turn came. You, however, saw and understood that your mother does not age. Sophia was so concerned for your safety, she would not return to us when you became too old for her to look like your mother. Then Tristan came to you and you deserved to know at least some of the truth so you could build a solid relationship with him. So, you actually knew more than any of us did before the Ang’dora.
“Finally, as your gift of writing became apparent along with your interest in creatures you thought were mythical, we knew you could serve a great purpose. You would not have done so well if you knew it was not fiction, no?”
“No, I might not have written them at all,” I admitted. I thought I’d been creating—and losing myself—in my own world.
“So we still could not tell you everything, even when you already knew so much.” Rina placed one of the books she’d been holding on the table between us and slid it toward me. “Read your history, Alexis. You will learn everything you have been waiting to know.”
I picked up the heavy book. The title was embossed in gold on the cover:
The History and Life of
Alexis Katerina Ames Knight
“It will give you the insight you seek,” she promised.
I ran my finger over the title and then opened the cover. The inside cover depicted a family tree—well, more like a vine—starting with someone named Andrew at the bottom and ending with Dorian at the top. Holy crap!
“Mom…you’re a twin?” I’d never known that before. She’d never mentioned it once, not that she had a brother and definitely not that she was a twin. But depicted on the family vine next to her leaf was another—Noah.
She and Rina both looked a thousand years old, full of a thousand years of heartache, as they both nodded. I opened my mouth to ask what happened to him, but Mom gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head. Rina stared at the flames in the fireplace, though she didn’t seem to actually watch them. Her mind was far off, lost in distant memories. I’d brought up a difficult subject. Noah must have met a terrible end and I had inadvertently brought it to the forefront of Rina’s mind.
I wanted to tell her I was sorry, to hug this woman who always displayed control and power, but seemed so despondent and broken now. But my intuition told me the best thing to do was to simply give her a moment of silence. So I returned my attention to the book and became engrossed in the first couple of pages, which were about Andrew, a fallen Angel, his twin children, Jordan and Cassandra, and a potion that forever altered our DNA. Tristan tapped his finger on the page.
“They used a similar potion to create me,” he murmured.
I flipped the pages and saw text only partially filled the heavy book. The majority of the pages were blank. I looked questioningly at Rina, who seemed to have recovered from the pain inflicted by the reminder of her son, her attention returned to me.
“The rest will fill in as you go through your life here on Earth,” she explained.
“And when the pages run out?” I asked.
“That is when you either die or ascend,” she replied.
“Ascend?”
“When your purpose is fulfilled here and your daughter is ready to take over as matriarch, you will ascend to a different place, joining our ancestors and the Angels in the Otherworld.”
“Assuming I have a daughter,” I muttered.
“I know you will,” Rina answered confidently. “We do not yet know the purpose of Dorian’s lone arrival. But the messages I have received from the Angels indicate there will be another Amadis daughter. This is something we will need to discuss with the council. As you know, our very existence relies on a girl in the next generation.”
“And if there’s not? Dorian can’t rule the Amadis?” I asked.
“We are a matriarcha
l society, Alexis.” Her tone was firm, as if that were answer enough. As if it could never be changed.
“What if he has a daughter? Can we skip a generation?”
Now they all—including Tristan—sighed heavily, it seemed with despair. I looked at him in surprise, thinking he would support this thought. He pursed his lips and just barely shook his head.
“Read your book, Alexis,” Rina said, “and you will understand.”
I flipped through the pages of the book again. My story, starting with my conception and ending with my travels to the Amadis Island today, used only a few pages, compared to the number of blank ones.
“Well, I will either have a very long or a very full life.”
“I believe you will have both,” Rina said, smiling now. “But the pages cannot be counted—the number is protected by the Angels and they can add more or take some away, so we have no idea how long you will actually live.”
She placed the other book on the table. “Tristan, we have yours, too. We did not include any history. You probably do not mind, no?”
“Absolutely not,” he said, picking up the book with his Amadis name on it.
“Good. It starts when you saved Sophia, your first step in becoming Amadis.”
I looked at him in surprise again. “You saved Mom? I thought she saved you.”
“He saved me first,” Mom answered for him. “Once I had him convinced there was enough good in him, he fought Lucas, who tried to kill me. Actually, I was unknowingly already pregnant, so he saved both of us.”
I inhaled sharply. Even then we needed each other. I pushed the thought into Tristan’s head. He smiled at me.
“We always have,” he thought. “Maybe I somehow knew you were in there and we already had that connection.”
I like that thought. I smiled back at him. You and me together forever.