by Kristie Cook
I had my own mother to say goodbye to, and it was a lot harder to do so than I’d thought it would be when we first arrived last night. I’d thought her uncaring and hard-hearted at the time, but that wasn’t the case at all.
“I wish you could come with us,” I said as I held onto her in a tight hug. “Why don’t you? You are a strong converter.”
“I wish I could, too, to be honest,” she said. “But I am needed here. Rina requires my assistance.”
We hadn’t even left yet, and my chest already tightened with longing. “I’ll miss you. I already do.”
“I miss you, too, honey. But you do what you need to do now. As soon as you get pregnant, you’ll be back here, and we’ll get sick of seeing each other so much.”
“I doubt it. You were always my best friend.” I gave her a tighter squeeze. “But for now, I must find Dorian.”
“Yes, you must. Go get our little boy, Alexis, and bring him home. This is where he belongs, at least for a few more years.”
A lump formed in my throat as we gave each other one last hug and said our “I love yous.” Why did I always feel when I left my mom that things would only be worse the next time I saw her?
Chapter 10
“You’re sure you’re up for this?” I asked as my team flew across the Atlantic Ocean at warlock speed once again. Jax sat across from me on the Amadis jet, decked out in new fighting leathers. Part of me couldn’t be happier about him being here, but I worried about him. “I know there’s a reason you stayed away from people all those years. Please don’t feel like you have to do this.”
He stroked his chin as he looked out the window, though the only way to distinguish the sky from the ocean below was the smattering of stars that showed every now and then when the clouds allowed us a glimpse.
“At some point in his life, a bloke’s gotta rock up and do what’s right. The Amadis are the closest I got to rellies, and it’s time for me to stop bein’ a piker and take care of ya.” He puffed up his chest as he gave me a smile. “I’m fit as a Mallee bull. No way could I hide in the bush when my mates need me. ’Specially you, princess. I’ll do whatever I can to help you find your lad, even if it’s just keepin’ you and your team of pretty sheilas safe.”
Tristan, who sat next to me, let out a low growl.
Jax gave him a mischievous grin. “Well, maybe you’re no sheila, but you are a beaut, too.”
Tristan growled louder. Jax threw his hands in the air in surrender.
“No worries, mate. I’ll behave.” Yet right after making that promise, his eyes slid over to Blossom who sat with Vanessa and Sheree.
Rina must have convinced everyone else of Vanessa’s trustworthiness because the three of them sat with their heads close together, in deep conversation. My grandmother hadn’t quite convinced me, though. With her assessment, I felt ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure Vanessa was good, and I hoped to strengthen our relationship. However, I would still hold onto that sliver of doubt, just in case. That suspicion would keep me alert if I turned out to be right about her being in on Owen’s plan for massive betrayal.
My anger bubbled up again at the thought of my former protector, creating an ache for the chance to zap him with a few billion volts of electricity. I looked out the window to see us zooming toward dark storm clouds and lightning, apropos for my mood. Sasha, who’d been sleeping on Tristan’s lap, sensed my ire and nuzzled her snout against my hand. Tristan noticed, too, and the arm he held around me tightened.
I pulled on his love to calm me, closed my eyes, and told myself to sleep while I could, because as soon as we landed, we’d be heading out on our mission. We’d already lost enough time. Everyone else had settled down and the cabin became quiet, though Jax let out a loud snore now and then. I was just about to doze off when the plane hit some turbulence.
“We’re headed for some rough weather near the coast,” the co-pilot’s voice said over the speakers. “We’re going to keep our speed, so hang on. It could get a little bumpy.”
A “little bumpy” turned out to be the understatement of the day. The jet bounced, rose, and plummeted like a roller coaster, making my stomach dip. Everyone woke up instantly. Tristan dropped Sasha into my lap, then leaned over to jab a button on the console, turning on the information screen that hung on one wall so we could see how close we were to Florida and how long we’d be flying in this weather. The image of our plane nearing the coast of South Carolina and Georgia flashed on the screen, and then it went blank. The entire cabin fell dark.
Lightning lit the sky outside and flashed through the windows. A burst of thunder shook the plane. My seat came out from underneath me as the jet lost hundreds of feet of altitude, and then I slammed back into it. Blossom screamed.
“This isn’t good,” Tristan said.
What’s going on? I asked the pilot.
“Mayday! Mayday!” came the only response as the pilot tried to call for help.
Another flash of light. The plane rocked sideways and downwards. My body banged against the seat and the wall, and Sasha fell off my lap. I grabbed for her and held on right before the plane rolled over and then upright again.
“Ms. Alexis, the storm tore through my shield! The Normans have spotted us and are firing at the plane,” the warlock co-pilot said to me.
What?!
“You must leave!”
The jet shuddered again as something slammed into the side of it.
And then it began to spin as we plunged toward the earth.
“Flash! You all need to get out of here,” the pilot yelled in my mind.
“We’ve been hit!” the co-pilot shouted. I hesitated for a fraction of a second, not believing what I heard. “Hurry! We’re going down!”
“We have to flash out of here,” I yelled over the thunder outside as I shoved Sasha into the front of my jacket. I lurched for the center of the cabin as the plane continued to rock side to side and back and forth.
Tristan’s hand wrapped around my wrist, and he tugged me closer to him. He reached his other arm out, and yelled, “Come to us, and I’ll lead us for the flash.”
Everyone’s movements looked disjointed and awkward in the lightning that lit up the cabin in strobe-like fashion. Charlotte lunged for Tristan, and Vanessa grabbed my hand and stretched for Sheree and Blossom, who reached for Jax, but the jet tilted again, throwing us off balance. I fell to the side, catching myself on a seat with my arm to protect the lykora in my coat, and pushed myself upright.
I stumbled again for the center of the cabin, as did the others. Lightning flashed, imprinting my team’s faces on my brain, their wide eyes filled with worry and their mouths set with determination. We had nearly formed our circle when the plane jerked once more with the sound of thunder cracking all around us. Wind suddenly whooshed through the cabin, knocking us off our feet. And that’s when I realized the ear-shattering sound hadn’t been thunder.
“The jet’s breaking apart,” Tristan yelled.
At the same time, I also realized we weren’t surrounded by only Amadis mind signatures. Several Daemoni were nearby, probably the real cause of the impending crash.
Sasha shuddered inside my jacket with a growl, and she squirmed her way to the top of my zipper. As soon as she freed herself, her wings burst from her back and her body began to grow.
“Is she in there?” a Daemoni yelled from outside the plane.
“Be careful if she is,” said another, “she has a helluva bite!”
I didn’t know who they spoke of—me? Vanessa? Sheree? I didn’t wait to find out.
“Let’s go!” I yelled, holding my arms out.
Vanessa grabbed my hand again as the jet split farther apart and another powerful gust of wind knocked us into a wall. Something sharp cut through my leather pants and jagged across my hip. I clenched my jaw against the sting before the cut healed. Charlotte and Sheree braced themselves on the other side of the break, and Charlotte busted the cockpit door open. Blossom and Jax were behind me,
near the plane’s tail.
And my husband blurred past me toward the chasm between the two parts of the jet. He dove downward. Out of sight.
“TRISTAN!” I screamed as I tried to follow, but the gap between the two parts closed.
“Go, ma lykita!” he said. “Get them out of here. I can’t hold this for long.”
Something hit us again, pitching the jet sideways. Another hole burst into the side of the plane.
“GO!” Tristan yelled, his voice thundering in my head as he strained to hold the jet together.
The co-pilot swept past me in mid-air and flew out of the hole. Sasha followed right behind him.
“No!” I screamed as I dove after both of them.
Daemoni mages waited outside, hovering in the air, as the ocean below surged toward me and wind roared in my ears. Squinting against the rain and rushing air, I couldn’t see Sasha, but the co-pilot was only feet below me. He instantly became my first concern, and I stretched my arms downward to try to catch his foot or leg. An orange light streaked through the rain and hit the warlock. His body jerked, then fell limp as he continued plunging toward the wall of black sea, and I threw a bolt of electricity in the direction the spell had come from. I tried to reach for our co-pilot again, but my hands only grabbed air. Another light streaked in my direction, yellow this time, but it missed. Someone screamed from a distance, but I didn’t recognize the voice. A big, white body flew by—Sasha as big as a horse—and another scream ripped through the night, followed by a round of thunder.
A hand clamped onto my ankle. I tried to shake it off and twisted in the air to hit its owner with a jolt, but then my mind registered it belonged to an Amadis. I prayed it meant my team was close enough to follow my trail, and I flashed.
I envisioned as our target the beach at Hilton Head Island where Mom and I had taken Dorian once. That wasn’t where we appeared.
Like the other night when I’d tried to cross the border into Canada, my body slammed into an invisible wall, and I fell to my ass into a muddy puddle. Another body thudded next to me—Vanessa. We both jumped to our feet, squinting through the pouring rain for the others. Lightning lit up the area, immediately followed by an ear-piercing crack of thunder.
Tristan! No response came. I mentally called out for the others.
“Where are they?” Vanessa shouted over nature’s cacophony.
Still hearing nothing from them, I reached out for their mind signatures, but they weren’t in my range. Unfortunately, others were nearby. Not Amadis or Daemoni. Only Normans, but they were heavily armed.
Grab my hand and let’s go! I mind-yelled at Vanessa while I shared the thoughts I heard with her. We had to get away before we were seen. But when we tried to flash, we couldn’t.
“Hold it right there!” a male voice called out. “Hands up where we can see them.”
“Shit,” Vanessa muttered.
“Yep,” I agreed. Shit was right. We hadn’t even made it to ground before one of their freaking traps had caught us. I sucked in a deep breath, trying to suck in a level of calm with it so I could be diplomatic, as Rina and Mom had requested. Well, ordered.
Five Norman police officers surrounded us, and it took every ounce of control Vanessa and I had to not fight them. Our self-preservation instincts bucked against us, but we cooperated as they handcuffed us and pushed us into a marked car. The whole time, I kept my mind open, but I could only find Norman mind signatures. Where were Tristan and everyone else? I tried not to think about what could have happened to them, especially to my husband. He’s Tristan. He’s okay. He and Charlotte are probably taking care of everyone else. I kept repeating this to myself until I believed it.
“We have our proof now,” said a policeman as he ducked into the front passenger seat. “Whatever those Savannah folk did, it worked.”
My eyes cut to Vanessa at the mention of Savannah, and she peered back at me with narrowed eyes as water slid off her hair and down her face.
I don’t sense any Daemoni minds, I told her. She scowled, but didn’t reply.
Another cop slid into the driver’s side, and they both yanked their doors shut before more rain poured inside. “Yeah, but I don’ trust ’em.”
“You want to call Atlanta?” the passenger asked.
“Don’ know yet. All I know is we ain’t bringin’ them nowhere. Whoever wants ’em can come see for theirselves that we got ’em, but they’re ours ’til we know what’s goin’ on.”
“Damn straight,” the other said as the driver cranked the engine over.
They’re acting on their own, I told Vanessa after listening to their thoughts as they drove us toward the lights of a small town. Not with the Amadis or Daemoni. They don’t know exactly why they have us except that we appeared out of nowhere, so there’s obviously something wrong with us. They don’t really know what to do. They know Savannah, Atlanta, and a few other nearby towns are looking for people like us, but they don’t know who to trust.
“Hopefully not the Daemoni,” Vanessa said. “I’ll fight if they do. I won’t be captured by them.”
Just do as Rina said for now until we know for sure.
I hated being passive as much as Vanessa did. Probably more because not only did I worry about the risk of being captured by the Daemoni, but now the search for my son had been delayed even longer. An angry growl threatened to escape my lips, but I kept it suppressed. I didn’t want to piss off Rina by ruining anything or exposing our secrets. I didn’t need to give her or the Council an excuse to change her mind about our mission.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” the cop who’d been on the passenger side of the car asked me a while later as we sat in a small room with no windows, a wooden table, and two folding chairs. A cliché interrogation room. He had greenish-gray eyes, which were about the only attractive feature on him. A reddish five-o’clock shadow covered his soft jaw, and his coarse orange-red hair was flattened around his crown with police-cap hat-head. His tobacco-stained fingers drummed the wooden table as he waited for my answer.
“Only that I’ve done nothing wrong,” I said.
He let out a flat guffaw. “And what makes you think I’d believe that? Anyone who can do what we saw you do ain’t no good. Not in no one’s book.”
“And what did you see us do?” I asked innocently.
He jabbed his yellowed finger at me. “You and your friend appeared out of nowhere.”
I had to try to convince him he hadn’t seen anything, and I suddenly wished for Mom’s power of persuasion. “That’s absurd. How would we be able to do such a thing?”
“You tell me.”
“It’s impossible, isn’t it? Are you sure the lightning wasn’t playing tricks on your eyes?”
“We’ve been watchin’ that locale for days,” he said, leaning toward me. “We’d heard through the grapevine of freaky stuff like this happenin’. Wanted to see for ourselves, and, finally, there ya’ll were. Right outta nowhere!”
I rolled my eyes. “We were simply out for a walk.”
“In the weather? It’s rainin’ calves and hogs out there.”
I shrugged. “Our car broke down.”
“And where were ya’ll headed?”
I paused, trying to remember my Georgia and South Carolina geography from our time in Atlanta. I didn’t remember much from that era of near insanity. “Statesboro?”
His brow rose. “Lemme get this straight. Your car broke down while ya’ll were headed for Statesboro, and you decided to walk there?”
I widened my eyes and lifted my brows to portray innocence. “Exactly.”
He sat back in his chair. “Statesboro, huh? Or do you mean Walterboro?”
“Um . . .” Was that near Hilton Head, too? I had no idea.
He shook his head. “It don’t matter. Either one would be a hell of a long walk in the rain.”
“We like the rain. Thunderstorms are beautiful.”
“So ya’ll think you were gonna walk over forty
miles in it?” He cocked his head as he studied my face. I couldn’t come up with any more lies. Lying wasn’t exactly my strong suit. “So, what are you, you and your friend? How do you do it? What else can you do?”
I didn’t answer him. He wouldn’t believe me if I told him anyway, and I could have showed him some things I could do—like give him a shot of electricity—but that was exactly what Mom and Rina had warned me about. When he finally accepted that I wouldn’t answer, the metal feet of his chair scraped against the linoleum as he pushed it back and stood up. His hands gripped the edge of the table, and he leaned over me.
“Well, then, I guess ya’ll get to spend the night with us,” he said as though he’d delivered a horrible threat, “and we’ll decide what to do with you and your friend in the mornin’.”
Now that could have been horrible, if they decided to call the Daemoni, but I wasn’t sure yet what they planned to do. They weren’t sure yet, according to their thoughts.
Taking a risk, I went for a different angle.
“All you need to know is we’re the good guys. If we wanted to hurt you, we would have already,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady and non-threatening. “Your facilities aren’t built to contain us, though.”
He leaned over closer to me, his eyes became slits. “I’d like to see you try to break out. We have silver ammo.”
So he did know something. But not enough. I smiled. “Then give us your best shot. The silver only works against the bad guys.”
He pulled back and cocked his head again as he glared at me. Then without a word, he strode out of the room.
A few minutes later, I let another officer escort me to a small cellblock, where the fumes of human urine mixed with body odor hung heavily in the air. They separated Vanessa and me by one cell, as though it would keep us from conspiring against them. There were only three cells, though, so I supposed they had no choice.