by Kristie Cook
“Lucas wants nothing to do with your son,” Victor added. “It’s all Kali.”
“Now see, we know that’s a lie,” I said as I tried to hold myself back from attacking again. Tristan handled the vamp perfectly fine, evidenced by the wheezing sound escaping Victor’s throat.
“Find the bitch and . . . you’ll know,” the bloodsucker stammered. “And kill her . . . if you want. But you’ll . . . be doing Lucas . . . a favor if you do.”
I nearly screamed in frustration at his lies and his taunts. Tristan shoved his weight further into Victor’s body.
“You’ve already admitted to being at the safe house,” Vanessa reminded her twin, with her body, like mine, angled threateningly toward him.
“Not . . . for the boy,” Victor wheezed, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head again.
“He’s incapable of telling the truth,” Tristan said.
“He’s incapable of saying anything now,” Vanessa mused.
Victor had slumped under Tristan’s weight, unable to bear whatever power my husband had given him beyond brute strength, especially now that the sun had risen over the horizon. Tristan stepped back and the vampire fell to the ground. Although he appeared to be completely out of it, I gave him a hard kick to the ribs to be sure. The vampire didn’t move, but my foot felt as though my steel-toed boots had slammed into a concrete wall.
Frustration brought a growl out of me. As much as a part of me wanted to kill him—to destroy something to release the pressure of my anger—I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. I was, admittedly, all bark with little bite. At least until it mattered. When I learned for certain who took Dorian, God help those souls. Because I didn’t think I’d be able to.
With a grunt of annoyance, I flashed back to the beach by the safe house, and Tristan, Vanessa, and Sheree appeared behind me. Without a word to them, I strode across the street, into the mansion, and past the crowd that had gathered in the foyer and pretty much everywhere else where they could find a space. As I headed for my office, I mentally called out for Tristan, Blossom, and Sheree to join me, glad to find Blossom already awake. Vanessa still followed me, too, but I shut the door in her face. I immediately felt bad for doing so—my feelings about her were all kinds of conflicted—but I wasn’t sure what to do with her yet. Trusting her as a confidante wasn’t quite at the top of my list, though, and we had private matters to discuss.
“We’ve wasted enough time,” I said to those I did want behind my closed door. Victor and his ridiculous lies had definitely been a total waste, and now a new day had begun and we still didn’t have a plan, let alone an army. I went behind my desk, but didn’t sit down. Instead, I placed my hands on my desk and leaned forward. “We need to make a plan to find and rescue Dorian and Heather. We need a team. An elite team. Our very best.”
“You need to talk to Sophia first,” Tristan said.
“She called a few times last night and once already this morning,” Blossom added. “She knew everything that happened before we even told her.”
Of course she did. Mom could sense the truth. I hadn’t told her about Vanessa’s and my trip to Hades before we left, because I knew she’d try to talk me out of it. Forbid it, actually. If she didn’t suspect something being wrong, she wouldn’t have reached out for the truth of the situation. So something had tipped her off, and I imagined she wasn’t very happy with me at the moment. Hopefully, her love for Dorian would eclipse any anger she had for me. And hopefully she knew the truth of where to find him.
“She understood you needed to rest and regenerate,” Blossom continued, “but she demanded that you call her the moment you woke up.”
I sighed. “Fine. I’ll call you guys back in here when I’m done.”
Blossom and Sheree left my office, but Tristan stayed.
“There are some things you should know before you call her,” he said when we were alone. “So that she doesn’t catch you off guard.”
Not liking the warning in his voice, I closed my eyes as I sank into my chair. “Like what?”
“Well, to start with, the Normans seem to be on the verge of war. Almost everywhere.”
My eyes popped open. “What?”
“The Daemoni are escalating things. There have been two assassinations and four ‘accidental’ bomb detonations just in the last twenty-four hours. The whole world has gone on edge.”
Damn it. Does it ever end? “Having their fun with the Normans? As if messing with us isn’t enough?”
“War is the best way for them to build their army.”
“Because they know taking Dorian has started our own war.”
“We’ve always been at war, but yes, they’re taking it to the next level. But not only with us, Alexis. With the Normans, too.”
I rolled my head around on my neck. “Vanessa said they were planning it. Preparing to make their move to take over.”
“Well, their move has been made.”
I nodded and reached for my phone. “Okay. Good to know.”
Tristan placed his hand over mine, preventing me from dialing. “Just be prepared that Sophia might not give you the answers you’re hoping for.”
I looked up at him. “All I want is to know if she has an idea of where Dorian is and an army to go get him.”
“Exactly.”
He held my gaze as I stared at him with incredulity. “Dorian’s her grandson! She loves him. She would do anything for him, just like us.”
He tightened his hand on mine. “I’m not saying I agree with them, but Sophia’s taking orders from Rina, who must look out for the Amadis as a whole and all of humanity. Nobody’s going to understand putting resources into a search and rescue of one kid who will eventually serve the Daemoni anyway. Not when the rest of the world is at risk.”
My blood pressure shot up again, and I opened my mouth to protest, but he held his free hand up before I went off.
“I’m only saying what others will. Whether we agree with them or not, there are other valid perspectives.”
His tone drove home his meaning. Mom and Rina had picked the Amadis over my family and me in the past. They were obligated to serve the greater good. Our purpose as the Amadis family was to protect our society and all of humanity, regardless of what it meant for us personally. I needed another angle, because our love for Dorian wouldn’t be enough to convince the matriarch, her second-in-command, and the rest of the Amadis that he was worth fighting for.
If I only knew why the Angels had sent him on his own, without a twin sister. There had to be a reason.
“Do you want me to leave?” Tristan asked.
My brows pushed together and the corners of my mouth turned down. “Of course not.” I rose from my chair and rounded the desk, then pushed him back until he sat on the edge. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my forehead against his. “You belong right here.”
“We’re in this together,” he agreed before brushing my lips with his. He snagged my phone from the desk and handed it to me. I turned around and leaned back against him, and he wrapped his arms around my waist while I dialed Mom’s number.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” Mom said as soon as she answered. “I wish I could be there for you. The timing couldn’t be any worse.”
In other words, Dorian’s kidnapping was inconvenient. My hackles rose immediately. Tristan moved his hands to my shoulders and squeezed, trying to massage the tension out, but it only built.
“I know you and Rina have a lot to deal with,” I said, trying to be forgiving. “I know you can’t completely drop everything.”
“I would if I could. That boy . . .” She choked on her words. “I love him so much, Alexis. We knew this was coming, but you can never be adequately prepared.”
Her tears almost got to me, but I refused to break. Not now. I needed to be strong. “It came too soon, Mom. This isn’t right. They’ve overstepped their boundaries, and they know it. So do you.”
“Alexis, honey—”
“Feel the
truth, Mom. That’s your gift. Use it. And tell me this isn’t wrong. He didn’t feel drawn to the Daemoni like all the other sons did. He didn’t choose to go. They didn’t even give him that choice.”
She blew a sigh into the phone. “It doesn’t matter, honey. They have him. Regardless of timing or methods, they have him. It was inevitable, and we know it.”
Renewed anger clawed at my chest. “No. Not yet. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not like this.”
“Everything happens for a reason, Alexis.”
I let out a maniacal laugh. “Yeah, well, maybe the reason is so we’ll finally do what needs to be done—eliminate Lucas and the rest of the Daemoni. Destroy them once and for all. We need to gather our forces.”
“Yes, we do,” she actually agreed. “I need you and Tristan to build our army.”
“Right,” I said, glad we were on the same page. “And we’ll go in, get our son, and decimate Hades.”
“No, Alexis.”
“What do you mean ‘no’? How else are we going to get Dorian back?”
“First of all, I don’t feel the truth that Dorian is in Hades. I don’t know where he is, exactly—there must be a powerful cloak on him—but I don’t sense that Lucas has him.”
“But he surely knows where he is. He did take Dorian, after all.”
“I don’t feel that truth either.”
“Of course he did! He all but warned me when I was there only hours before, and he left my dagger that he’d taken from me as his calling card.”
“This isn’t really something Lucas would do himself,” Tristan said. “He would have sent someone, like Victor.”
“Technicalities,” I muttered. “Victor doesn’t have Dorian, so he obviously took him somewhere during the night. And Lucas knows exactly where.”
“Nonetheless,” Mom said, “we can’t and we won’t raid Hades. We’re not powerful enough.”
“So we get that way. Build our army, like you said. We have strong fighters, Mom. We’ll take our best. Tristan and I can—”
“Alexis, will you listen to me for a minute?” Mom’s voice had risen, causing me to pause. “We’re on the defensive! And we’re not in the position to take the offense. We have to put all of our resources—our best people, our time, our money—into protecting the Amadis and the Normans. The Daemoni have already acted. They control some of the world powers, and now they’re moving in on the United Nations. There are secret meetings all over the world as we speak. Lucas’s men occupy many of those war rooms, and if we don’t do our job, humanity will go up in a forest of mushroom clouds.”
“So why aren’t we in those secret meetings? We’re the damn Amadis! Why don’t we have people in there stopping them?”
Mom sighed heavily. “We do, honey. But too many politicians are power-hungry and corrupt. They feed off the lies the Daemoni give them and don’t want to listen to us. Even those who want to do right will do what’s necessary to protect their own. If another country or faction—or species—attacks their people, they’re not going to stand around and do nothing. They’re going to retaliate.”
“That’s what the Daemoni want!” I pulled away from Tristan and started pacing.
“Yes, it is. They’ll turn the dying into theirs until they have an army big enough to take over humanity. Normans will become their slaves. If they have to wipe out half of the human race with a nuclear war to achieve this goal, they will. Which is why we need to counteract their every move and convert as many as we can.”
“Which will build our army. Then we can go into Hades before it’s too late.”
“Hopefully, yes. While our best diplomats are with the politicians, we need to be working on our primary mission of building our army. I need you and Tristan to focus on this.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “But we’re not losing focus on rescuing Dorian, Mom. As soon as we have the people we need, that’s our primary mission.”
She didn’t respond right away. My nostrils flared.
“I want Dorian back as much as you do,” she finally said, “but he can’t be our primary mission. Not yours. Not anyone’s. The Amadis and the Normans need us.”
“Dorian needs us!”
“Honey . . .” She paused again, and I could picture her pinching the top of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. When she finally continued, grief tainted her voice. “Honey, Dorian is where he belongs now.”
“No!” I yelled. “Don’t you ever say that! He doesn’t belong there. He belongs here with us, with his dad and me. You say there’s a reason for everything. Well, there’s a reason the Angels sent him alone, Mom. We may not know what it is, but they couldn’t have sent him only to be taken from us.”
“Maybe that is the reason, Alexis. Maybe you needed this motivation to finally use your powers and fight. Maybe this all happened to force you to focus on your real purpose. To do what you, as Amadis royalty and a future matriarch, are supposed to do.”
I stopped in my tracks, her words like a slap across the face or a violent shake you give someone to make them see reason. No. I refused to believe Dorian’s life meant nothing more than this. There had to be another purpose.
“No. My son needs me,” I said. “So does Heather. What about her?”
“The Norman girl’s safety and well-being is a concern. We have a team searching for her now, but . . . Alexis, it may be too late for her.”
My heart skipped a beat. “What?”
“She knows too much, and the Daemoni know that.”
“Let us go search for them, Mom. Please. She and Dorian are probably together.”
“If we find the girl close to you, we’ll send you out. It’s the best I can do right now.”
“I will not give up on them,” I said through a clenched jaw. “On either of them. I will not abandon my son.”
“You will serve the Amadis, Alexis,” Mom countered just as firmly. “You will serve the Angels and lead their army like you’re supposed to.”
“I won’t abandon him,” I repeated.
“You won’t abandon your people. You won’t leave your army.”
“No. I need them.”
“Not until they’re ready.”
“We don’t have time to waste!” I sucked in a deep breath. “Why can’t you just give me the best and let Tristan and me take care of this immediately? Then we can serve you like we’re supposed to.”
“I can’t afford to give you our best. I need them where they are.”
“We can make our own team,” Tristan said in my head. “We can build her an army and do this at the same time.”
“Then I’ll make my own team,” I said to Mom. “Tristan’s already coming up with a plan.”
“Alexis—”
“Don’t worry, Mom. It’s all about building the Amadis army.”
“Good. That’s where your energy needs to go. Thank God and the Angels for Tristan’s level head.”
I rolled my eyes. She must have sensed the truth.
“Don’t lose focus,” she warned.
“Don’t worry,” I said again, although my focus was a little wider than hers.
“Don’t abandon your people, Alexis,” she repeated.
“Unlike you, Mother, I won’t abandon anyone.”
Chapter 3
“So you have a plan?” I asked Tristan after hanging up with Mom.
“The beginnings of one,” he said, “but the only way you were going to satisfy Sophia was to convince her we’d build an army. Which we’ll do. If you want to do things your way, Alexis, you have to learn how to make her and Rina trust you. Make your goals and theirs one and the same.”
I stood in front of him and jutted a hip out while dropping my hands to my waist. “But they don’t want to try to find Dorian. How am I supposed to agree with that?”
“I’m not saying you have to agree on everything. Only the big things. Build an army and fight the Daemoni. That’s what you’re agreeing to. You don’t have a problem with it, do you?”
<
br /> “Of course not. As long as we can rescue Dorian in the process.”
“Exactly. Serve their purpose, ma lykita. Build and train our army. If Sophia’s right about Dorian not being in Hades, we won’t need to wait on a full army to get to him. We can put together a special ops team for a search-and-rescue mission. All part of the training program.”
For the first time in days, maybe even weeks, a smile tugged at my lips. I threw my arms around him.
“You’re brilliant!” I said.
He shrugged under my embrace. “Yes. That’s how they made me, isn’t it?”
“And we’re going to use all that brilliance and everything else they gave you against them. We’re going to destroy them. Once and for all.”
He shifted under my hold. I pulled back to study his sublime face. The gold in his eyes shone darkly.
“What?” I asked.
“As much as I’d like to decimate them all, we might have to settle for restoring balance.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“That’s how the world works, my love. That part is beyond our control. If the Angels and the Heavens only want balance restored, that’s what we’ll achieve. We can do everything in our power, but in the end, it’s not up to us.”
I huffed out a breath of resignation, knowing he spoke the truth. “Fine. As long as I get to kill Lucas.”
He nodded. “Without Lucas’s direction, the Daemoni will be lost for a long while. He holds them together, keeps them from killing each other. That could restore balance.”
“And Kali,” I added. “And we know that’s okay because the Otherworld wants her soul.”
“Right, but Hades is a no-go. For now, anyway. No use wasting our time and losing lives if Dorian isn’t there.”
“Agreed. But what is the plan?”
He began ticking items off his long fingers. “First, we need to figure out what to do with all the people here. If Sophia still wants it as a safe house, we need to take measures to make sure it’s actually safe, since we won’t be here. And we need a task force. A team of trackers and converters. And a protector.”
He looked up at me, knowing just the word would feel like a stab in my gut.