"So you turned Victor in revenge?"
"Yeah. I was newly reborn, starving, and mad. Mad as h.e.l.l. And darling Victor was right there. I"d wanted to kill him and make Lucas live with that the rest of his existence. But Lucas forced me to finish the process. He would rather have Victor as a vampire than not have him at all, even if it took away any chance for Victor to lead with Seth." She looked at me with a tilted head. "Did you know we vamps aren"t leadership material? At least, not of other species. They say we"re too impulsive."
"Go figure," I said, and she snorted.
"So, anyway, Lucas has hated me ever since I turned Victor. No matter how much of a monster I became for him, I was never good-or bad-enough."
I shook my head, not knowing what to say.
Tristan stroked his chin, then spoke up for the first time since takeoff. "I always thought Lucas told me just about everything, but I knew nothing about this."
Vanessa chuckled without humor. "Lucas has more secrets than anyone could ever guess. Victor never knew about the supposed prophecy until Alexis was born. The fool actually thought you two were brothers for the longest time, and Lucas let him believe it! Oh, there"s worse, I"m sure. He"s the best deceiver there is besides Satan himself." She looked at me. "So, yeah, our father"s a d.i.c.k."
"I don"t have a father," I said. "And neither do you. He"s just a sperm donor. Nothing more."
Vanessa nodded, and she looked out the window again. Her voice came out quietly with her next words. "But we do have a brother."
Of course. I had gained both a half-sister and a half-brother. They were twins, so no doubt about it.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and spoke just as quietly. "Is there any hope for him?"
Vanessa didn"t answer at first. Her eyes glistened as she finally looked at me. "I don"t know, Alexis." She shook her head. "I really don"t know."
"He"s not rogue," Tristan said. "There"s hope."
I didn"t know if he said it for Vanessa or for me or because he truly believed it, but I was thankful he did. I squeezed his hand.
"So how did you get to us so fast?" I asked him. "It took us more than twenty-four hours to get there."
His mouth quirked in a small smile. "I had a little help from Bree."
"She couldn"t help us get home a little faster than this?" I asked. "I miss my son."
"You have to be faerie to cross the veil."
"You went through the Otherworld?" I asked with disbelief. "But you"re not-Oh. Yeah. You are."
Vanessa snorted as she still stared out the window. "That explains a lot," she muttered. "Big, bad warrior is a faerie."
Tristan growled at her teasing tone. I placed my hand on his thigh.
"Be nice. She saved my b.u.t.t and she"s a friend now," I said and then I smiled. "No, she"s more than that. She"s family."
Vanessa turned away from the window and stared at me for a long time. Then she gave me a look that was so foreign on the face I"d hated for so long. She almost looked happy.
I let out a sad sigh myself. "I"ve gained a sister and a brother, but I seem to have lost the closest thing I ever had to a real brother. Owen"s ... gone."
Vanessa frowned again. "He"s not gone. Not for good. We"re going to rescue him, right?"
"I don"t think the traitor wants to be rescued!"
"Whoa," Tristan said, "back up. What"s up with Scarecrow?"
"He abandoned me and went off with Kali to be her little minion."
Vanessa shook her head. "I don"t think so. I think he"s trying to get her to trust him. He needs to figure out her weakness before anything can be done about her."
I fingered my pendant, wanting to believe her, but I just didn"t know. "Are you sure about that?"
"Sounds more like Owen than your version," Tristan said, which was true.
"Did he tell me that straight out?" Vanessa said. "No. But that"s what I want to believe. That"s what I have to believe."
"Well, I want to believe it, too, but that"s not how I saw things," I said. "He"s supposed to be my protector, and he left me in the worst situation possible. Unprotected."
"You weren"t unprotected," Vanessa muttered. "I"d promised Owen I"d take care of you if he needed me to. I tried my best. But I"m no warlock."
"No, you"re not. You"re not trained to be a protector." Tristan put his arm across my shoulder and squeezed. "He shouldn"t have left. He"s dug a pretty deep hole for himself."
Vanessa threw her hands in the air. "So you"re not going to rescue him? You"re going to abandon him now?"
"I"m just saying that Alexis may be right. Owen hasn"t been himself. Maybe he"s chosen what he wants."
Vanessa opened her mouth, and I braced for the list of profanities she"d spew out. But like me, she was trying to learn control over her emotions. She shut her mouth and scowled, diverting her attention to the clouds out the window. Tristan took my hand, stood and led me over to the couch, giving Vanessa her s.p.a.ce.
"I lost my dagger, too," I lamented as we sat in the corner of the L-shaped couch. I hated not having my best weapon, but I knew now that I didn"t need to rely on it. Perhaps Vanessa was right about love being my strongest power. Ca.s.sandra had always said I had the power within me.
"Yes, you do," her voice whispered in my mind.
My back straightened, and Tristan gave me a strange look, but I ignored him. Ca.s.sandra?
"Always here."
But how? I don"t have the dagger.
"The dagger does not connect us. Our shared power does."
Then where were you before? How could you let me go through all of that alone?
"You were not alone. I was there, but I only guide when you need me. You didn"t need me, Alexis. With Vanessa"s help, you succeeded on your own. And now you know your true power."
Her presence receded again, and I sagged against the back of the couch, lost in thought. Tristan always said my biggest advantage was my telepathy, and my dagger may have been my best weapon. But what made me really powerful was something the enemy feared more than anything because they didn"t understand it, and they"d never be able to steal, block or beat it out of me.
Vanessa had been right. Like Ca.s.sandra, my true power was love.
"You"ve lost a lot, but you have me," Tristan said as he pulled me onto his lap, totally unaware I"d just had a major epiphany. He nuzzled my neck. "Feels good to be whole again. You and me."
"Yes, it does," I said, encircling my arms around his neck. "Let"s hope forever this time. I"m sick of them taking control of your life."
"You and me both, my love." He kissed my jawline.
"And we have Dorian," I said, my excitement to see him growing the closer we came to home.
Tristan lifted my pendant and rubbed his thumb over the stone. "And maybe now we can have a daughter."
"I can"t wait to start working on it," I said as his mouth finally made its way to mine and delivered the kiss I"d been waiting for.
My family was growing. And soon, it would be even bigger. In fact, with our daughter, it would finally be complete. At least, until we had to deal with Dorian and the Daemoni. But I wasn"t going to think about that right now. It was a long way off. Right now, I was going to wholeheartedly focus on this amazing man giving me the most amazing kiss.
I lost myself in it.
Epilogue.
By the time we landed in Florida, night had settled in. I couldn"t wait to get home and we had to avoid the authorities anyway, so we flashed right off the plane and to the island. We appeared on the beach across the street from the safe house, Vanessa"s temporary home and where Dorian waited for us. My heart swelled with excitement to see my son and hold him again.
Then, after a few hours with him, Tristan and I would finally be able to enjoy some real time together. That kiss on the plane had only been a tease.
When we stepped onto the safe house"s property, though, I knew immediately something was wrong. I didn"t feel the little buzz of crossing through a shield. Had the mages left already? Perhaps Blossom knew we were home, and they could lower the shield. Maybe they"d done it so we could flash directly into the house. But there was something wrong with that possibility. Vanessa gasped and covered her nose and mouth with her palm.
"Everything was fine when I left," Tristan said, feeling it, too.
Vanessa shook her head vehemently, and her voice came out m.u.f.fled behind her hand. "Blood. Lots of blood."
"Vanessa, stay here," I ordered, my words tumbling out of my mouth in a rush as my body strained to run for the safe house. "Promise me!"
"I ... I"ll be in the water." She blurred toward the Gulf to immerse her senses in the salt water.
Tristan and I exchanged a glance, then flashed into the house.
Right into the scene of a horror movie.
A pattern of crimson splattered the wall of the common room. The bodies of the four mages from the colony lay crumpled on the floor, blood spilling from ripped-out throats and decimated wrists. Tristan blurred to each of them. Shook his head each time.
Oh, no!
"Blossom," I cried out. "Dorian!"
"Alexis?" Blossom came running down the dark hallway, her phone in her hand. "Alexis! Tristan! They"re gone! Sheree ..."
"Sheree?" I echoed, my voice several octaves too high.
"She"s in Sonya"s room. She"s okay. Not great, but okay."
Tristan rushed past me for Sonya"s room to help the Were.
"Sonya?"
Blossom shook her head. "She"s gone. Heather is, too. Her mom just called, freaking out. Sonya ..." Tears leaked from her eyes as she drew in a shudder of a breath. "She ... she did this, Alexis. We couldn"t stop her. I"m so ... so sorry."
I took the witch"s hands in mine.
"It"s not your fault," I said, as firmly as I could muster. My own emotional stability was on the line. This was supposed to be my safe house. I was responsible for it and everyone here. And now four mages were dead and a Norman missing, her life in grave danger. I sucked in a breath, trying to calm my own nerves. "Where"s Dorian? He"s okay?"
"I think so."
My stomach rolled.
"What do you mean you think?" I shrieked, panic immediately surfacing once again.
"He hasn"t come out of the room where you left him. He probably heard the screams and hid. Sasha"s in there with him."
I nodded, but the p.r.i.c.kly feeling that something was wrong climbed up my spine. Dear G.o.d, please say my baby"s okay. I ran across the common room and into his wing. Blood smeared the walls, and I told myself it came from the mages. Everything"s okay. He"s just hiding. He"s fine. But the blood trailed all the way to his closed door.
My hand shook as I reached out for the k.n.o.b. I gripped hard as though I expected it to be ripped out of my hand. With a deep breath, I slowly opened the door.
"Dorian?" I said as I peeked in. My heart sped, hammering against my ribs. I could barely speak, my throat too constricted to let the words out. They came out in a choked whisper. "Where are you, little man?"
No answer.
Tristan appeared next to me. "Is he in here?"
"I ... I don"t know." The suite was too big to see everything from the door, but when I reached out with my mind, I only found one signature. Not human.
Before I could say anything else, Tristan took off down the hallway, throwing open other doors. "Dorian! Dorian, come out!"
I stepped farther into the front room of his suite on shaky legs, my heart not accepting what my mind already knew. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, and everything looked fine. But I knew everything was far from fine. Even with this knowledge, though, when I entered the bedroom, I gasped at the disaster area. The blanket had been yanked from the bed and the sheet shredded. Little white things littered the floor. My stomach clenched. Feathers. I told myself they were from the pillow. Down feathers. That"s all.
But then more blood.
I moved around the bed, following the trail, barely able to breathe.
"Dorian?" I choked out.
My son wasn"t there, I already knew this, but a small, white figure lay still on the floor.
"Sasha?" I fell to my knees next to her. She blinked and whimpered, but otherwise didn"t move. My hands fluttered over her broken body, not knowing what to do.
"Did you find him?" Blossom asked, running into the suite and to the bedroom doorway. Unable to speak, I shook my head, not knowing if she could see me or not. Not caring.
"Is he in here?" Tristan asked, right behind her. "Ah, f.u.c.k!"