I sniffled and scrubbed at my wet cheeks. Was she right? Could I break through to Tristan? And what about everyone else?
More noise in the walls reminded me of the pointlessness of worrying. We were trapped, anyway.
"No, we won"t get through it," I wailed. "It"s hopeless! I don"t know my way out. You"re blind as a bat. I can"t even fight. I"ve failed, Vanessa. I. Have. Failed. We"ll never get out of here!"
"Don"t say that. We will. Look at everything you"ve done since your change. You are strong, Alexis. You are powerful!"
I tried to shake my head again, but her grip was too strong. More tears fell. "You don"t understand. I lost the dagger. Ca.s.sandra"s dagger. My connection to her and her power was the only reason I"d been able to do anything. It was her, not me. Her power, not mine!"
Vanessa"s hands fell from my face. "What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?"
More ruckus came through the walls, but I ignored it.
"Ca.s.sandra"s power was driving me," I admitted aloud. "All this time, it was her helping me. The dagger connected us, and she gave me her power and she guided me through everything. Everything! Every fight she"s been there, and now I"ve lost her, too."
Vanessa"s head tilted. "Well, everything I"ve heard about Ca.s.sandra, her strongest power was love. They say she could literally love you to death. Sounds stupid but the threat works with the Daemoni, since they fear love so much. But even if it"s a crock of s.h.i.t, I know you and your love for Tristan, for your son, for ... everyone. Even strangers. Everything you do is to protect those you love and even those you don"t think you do. Like me."
I wiped at my tears again. She was right. That"s why I was so reckless, always throwing myself into danger, risking my own life to protect others. And here I"d been most reckless of all, breaking my promise to Tristan. And everything had gone so terribly wrong. I hadn"t protected anyone. In fact, my actions would probably get us all killed.
"Yeah, well, you"re right. I"m stupid," I said.
Vanessa groaned. "Yeah, right now you"re being really d.a.m.n stupid. End the self-pity party, Alexis. Tristan needs you. Dorian needs you. The Amadis need you. So put your big-girl panties back on and get your a.s.s out of here, then we"ll figure the rest out. But you"re not going to stay here! I won"t allow it. We"re all dead if you stay. All of us. And there"s no hope for Tristan and Dorian if you don"t make it. So are you going to fight for them?"
She glared at me with blind eyes, and I still felt them piercing into my soul, forcing me to study it myself. My soul opened and bared itself to me, exposing the raw layer of nerves that contained my love for Tristan, for Dorian, for the Amadis, even for Vanessa, and strangers. All of humanity. The Angels had given me love for them all, and they all needed me.
I considered again if she was right about being able to break through to Tristan. I didn"t have the stone, but did I still, in some way, have his heart? Could I stop him from doing any more damage than what he must have done already? Was our love strong enough? If I could find my way to Tristan and pull him back to us before he destroyed the Amadis, we could figure out the rest. We"d all be alive to figure out the rest.
Well, there"s only one way to find out if we can salvage this mess.
I pulled in a deep breath, mentally put on my big-girl panties as Vanessa had instructed and nodded.
"Oh! Did you just nod?" Her hands reached out for my head. "I can see you. Sort of. You"re just a big black blur, but I can see your shape. I saw it move. So you"ll fight?"
Maybe her vision returning was a good sign. It gave me a little more confidence. I nodded again.
"Yes," I said. "I"ll fight."
She let out a whoosh of relief. "Okay. So here"s my plan. The city has two shields and two exits. One exit is through town, which we"re staying far away from, and the other is the cave we came through."
"Which we couldn"t find our way back to," I pointed out.
"We"re not giving them time to change the paths. We"re going to flash right to where the inner shield ends, about half-way down that long tunnel. Then we can walk through the shield and flash again to the cave, where the outer shield ends."
"But that long tunnel changed, remember?"
"They won"t change it at the shield or they"d mess up its force."
I drew in a raggedy breath as I considered her plan, which sounded too simple. "And why didn"t we do this sooner?"
She scowled. "Sorry. I was too busy running for my life to have a clear thought."
The clamor in the walls came closer, making both of us jump. The adrenaline spiked through my system again, and if I hadn"t already decided, I knew now that I would do whatever necessary to get us out of here. My fight had, indeed, returned.
"Well, we have nothing to lose, do we?" I said.
"Nope. So are you ready for this?"
"Not exactly, but I don"t have a choice. How about you?"
She waved a hand in front of her face and scrunched her face. "I"ll be relying on you."
"Well, then, let"s do it."
We clasped hands and flashed. We appeared in the forever-tunnel, both ways empty of physical bodies and mind signatures. Was this actually going to work? Were we going to get out of here alive?
"We should feel the shield about ten yards up," Vanessa said, and she was right. We walked uphill twelve of my paces, Vanessa stumbling after me with her hand on my shoulder to guide her way, before we felt the slight resistance and a buzz as we pa.s.sed through the shield. "Now let"s flash to the cave."
Her hand slid down my arm and grasped my palm. We flashed. And bounced. We landed on our b.u.t.ts.
Vanessa swore. "You"re right. This was too easy. Where did we appear?"
I looked around and swore as well. "Right where we were."
"d.a.m.n it! They"ve blocked us from flashing."
With no other choice, Vanessa clamped her hand on my shoulder again, and I led her up the tunnel. Being nearly blind, she lacked her normal vampire grace, and we moved slowly, for us anyway. At least until I felt the mind signatures from way down the tunnel.
"They"re coming," I whispered.
"Go faster," Vanessa hissed.
We picked up the speed, but the signatures were coming much faster. I took Vanessa"s hand and yanked her forward, but she kept stumbling, catching herself on me, almost pulling us both down. I wrapped my arm around her waist and practically carried her, moving as fast as I possibly could. We made better progress, but the thoughts-Weres" thoughts-were closing in on us.
Then, out of nowhere, a fork appeared in the tunnel. Three p.r.o.ngs that hadn"t been here before. It had been a straight and narrow, boring tunnel all the way down.
"c.r.a.p," I gasped. "Any ideas? There"s a three-way fork."
"Hmm ... straight ahead is too easy. Right?" She obviously wasn"t sure about that.
An inexplicable but strong pull made me think left. "I think this way."
"No, right. I"m sure of it." And now she did sound more confident, so we went right. We jogged as best as we could for about twenty yards and slammed into an invisible wall. "d.a.m.n! Sorry!"
We scrambled to our feet and headed back, losing valuable distance between us and the Weres. When we reached the fork, I followed my gut this time, and Vanessa didn"t have much choice but to go with me. We hit two more forks, and both times I ignored Vanessa and followed instinct. The feeling went further than my gut, all the way into my heart and soul, as if they were pulling me toward freedom and safety.
The howls and barks of wolves followed us, coming closer and closer. I tried to run even faster, holding most of Vanessa"s weight so she wouldn"t stumble in her blindness, but her legs dragged behind us. I could physically carry her weight, but she was too tall for my short frame.
We rounded a new bend and there it was-the light at the end of the tunnel. Literally. The bluish light of the ice cave. The floor underneath our feet confirmed it, becoming slick with ice. We were almost there, just as growls and snapping jaws sounded behind us.
We slipped and slid as we fought our way up the hill and into the icy cave, and all I could think was, Get outside. Just get outside, beyond the boundaries, then we can flash. Then we"ll be safe. And finally, the opening, brightly lit right in front of us. But it was farther than it first appeared. I pushed my foot into the ground, determined to make it out. My boot slipped. Vanessa and I went down. Crashed onto our faces. I lost contact with her as I skidded across the ice, and slammed into a stalagmite.
My vision swam. My ears rang. But under the ringing, from what sounded like a far-off distance but I instinctively knew was way too close, came the sound of claws scratching on ice. I scrambled on the slick floor, pushing myself forward. I grabbed Vanessa"s hand as I pa.s.sed her, yanking her struggling form with me.
"Come on!" I yelled. "We"re almost there."
But after everything else, Vanessa now felt like a sack of bricks. I half-ran, half-scuttled us out of the cave, teeth snapping at our heels. We burst through the opening and out into the white light of afternoon sun. I blinked and squinted in the sudden brightness. Vanessa collapsed, too weak to go on. And out came the wolves. More than I realized had pursued us.
They launched themselves onto Vanessa, and she couldn"t fight back. I blasted them with electricity and swung my knife at them, but there were too many, and I was too weak. Vanessa whimpered and moaned under the ma.s.s of fur. With tears blinding my eyes and my sensibility, my hands grabbed onto a neck and my fingers dug into the fur as I yanked a wolf off of the vampire-off of Vanessa, off of my comrade-in-arms-and threw it to the side. But that was only one, and it came back at me before it even hit the ground.
"Hang on, Vanessa," I cried out, although, as the wolf"s mouth latched onto my shoulder, I had no idea how I could save her. How I could save either of us.
We had fought with everything we had, but we didn"t have enough. We were no match for Lucas and his minions. I had known all along. I had nearly given up with this knowledge. But I"d told Vanessa I would fight. And we"d been so. close. So close to the stone, to the sorceress"s soul, so close now to escape, to winning this battle if not the war, to beating the sperm donor at his own game.
But in the end, I couldn"t do any of it. Not alone when he had all these creatures at his beck and call. h.e.l.l, I couldn"t even keep my own protector loyal to me. Perhaps Lucas deserved to win ...
The wolf hanging on me went suddenly still, and I jerked from the edge of unconsciousness just as its snout released my shoulder and it fell to the ground. The wolves on Vanessa, one-by-one, went down with a yelp, too. I spun around with another shot of adrenaline, hands out and ready to fight whatever Lucas had sent after us now.
My jaw dropped. I blinked, sure that what I saw must have been my imagination. But no. Tristan still stood there. Not half-way around the world, but only twenty yards away. Big and strong and beautiful.
And the enemy.
Chapter 28.
I didn"t have the stone. Kali had control, which meant we were dead if I couldn"t break through to him. Unless ... if Bree had acted soon enough to sever the connection ... But Tristan still might have gone rogue. Regardless of how or why he was here, without the stone in my possession, my love for him meant nothing, and his for me would be a thing of the past. He"d kill Vanessa and me in a heartbeat.
So I just stood there, not sure what to do.
Tristan"s arms moved out to the side. Opened wide. "Ma lykita."
The full strength of his love-what I hadn"t felt in so long, possibly since the day my pendant disappeared-burst from him and washed over me. It hadn"t been freedom and safety pulling me through the tunnel this way. It had been Tristan"s love, even without the stone. I blew out the air I"d been holding in my lungs forever.
"Tristan!" I ran into his open arms, and he swept me up, held me tightly against him. "You"re okay?"
"I"m perfect now that you"re in my arms," he murmured against my ear.
"But how?"
"I felt it as soon as you had possession of the stone."
I pulled back. "But I don"t. I failed, Tristan. I didn"t get it back."
He c.o.c.ked his head as he peered at me. "But I feel it. So strong now."
He let go of me with one arm and lifted his hand to my chest. With one finger he poked, and though he didn"t actually touch me, I felt the pressure. His finger tapped a pattern, and I gasped. My necklace appeared from nowhere, hanging from my neck, and I hadn"t even known it.
"Scarecrow," he whispered with a smile.
I started to shake my head. Couldn"t be. But if not, who? How? When?
"But I saw you ..." I closed my eyes against the vision trying to replay in mind once again. "Kali controlled you. You ... you destroyed the safe house ... you-"
"Not me, my love. She showed you what she wanted you to see."
I swore under my breath. Would I ever learn to see through their projections? I"d almost given up on everything because of their deceit.
"I"ll kill her," I said, meaning it with every fiber in my being.
"Not now. We need to get out of here."
No, not this moment. But soon.
Right now, I really just wanted to revel in the realization that my dream of being truly safe and in my husband"s arms finally came true. But we didn"t have the luxury of time for that either.
"Vanessa needs you first," I said.
Tristan released me and strode over to the limp body of the vampire. Her wounds were closing slowly, her body too weak from the sun and the Weres" saliva to heal itself as fast as normal. My throat tightened, and I had to look away as Tristan ran his mouth over the deeper gashes, helping them to heal faster. Too bad for her that she was practically unconscious, too out of it to enjoy this.
"Don"t worry. It"s not at all like I"d imagined it," Vanessa whispered in my mind. "He"s too much like a brother now."
And that"s when it truly hit me: I have a sister.
"So," I said as I stared out the little window as the buildings on the ground below shrank away into miniatures.
Vanessa fidgeted with her seat belt. "Yeah."
With her in his arms, Tristan had led me for several flashes to a private airstrip, where the Amadis jet waited for us. With the tightened security we"d already experienced, Mom had had to make special arrangements on both ends of our flight so we could avoid anyone considering us too closely. She"d also sent a couple of mages to the military installation to alter the Normans" memories of what Vanessa and I looked like before we ended up on the Most Wanted lists.
Until now, Vanessa and I had been able to avoid the elephant in the room, but I"d finally broken the awkward silence.
"How long have you known?" I asked, finally looking at her. From the seat next to me, Tristan took my hand in his.
She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "I"ve suspected for a long time, since I was young, really. Lucas always denied it, said we had common ancestors to explain our similar looks. When we"d come to live with him when we were eleven, he acted a little like a father figure, but we were to call him Lucas. Never father. G.o.d forbid anyone suspect anything." She looked out the window, blinking several times. Her eyesight had slowly returned, and her brain still seemed to be adjusting. Her voice became distant. "At first, I tried to love him like the father we"d never had, but that only made him hate me more. He"d push me away and ignore me whenever possible. But Victor ... he loved, loves Victor. My brother could do no wrong. Lucas had amazing plans for Victor and Seth. But never for Vanessa. Not after it became obvious the first time we met that Seth wanted nothing to do with me. The prophecy wasn"t about me, so I was nothing but an embarra.s.sment."
My gaze dropped from her face to the floor. I toed the carpet, feeling unnecessarily guilty. None of this was my fault-my mother hadn"t even been born yet, let alone me-but I could now understand why she"d hated me so much. Everyone had believed the prophecy was about Vanessa and when the faerie stone in Tristan"s heart didn"t respond, Lucas had no use for her anymore. And she must have been determined to prove them all wrong, her heart set on making something happen between Tristan and her. Then I came along, and there was nothing to prove anymore.
"So why did he have you turned?" I finally asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
Her mouth puckered. "I never really knew why he turned me. He says to save my life-our version of the Ang"dora nearly killed me, just like it does most of Jordan"s descendants. He had me turned so I wouldn"t die. But why? He hates me. He said it would make me stronger, the monster he wanted me to be. And I guess it did. I was so full of hatred-for him, for Victor, for the world. He"d given me anything I wanted to shut me up, but had taken away any chance for real happiness."