Zaria
What Liron had done—had he known completely what it was that he had done? The Metal Library knew, and it was helping me in my search through its holdings, ferreting out the pieces needed to eliminate this virus within.
Hurry, it whispered to me, its metallic words ringing in my mind. I didn't bother answering, I merely moved as fast as my mind would allow, searching, searching—searching.
More than one thousand pieces had been corrupted. They all had to be found wherever they'd hidden themselves within the Metal Library. Whenever one was located, it was shoved out and lay floating about me, while Tamp and a curious High Demon watched.
Stand guard and allow nobody to get close to any of these, I warned the High Demon. Tamp already knew not to come close.
I am already doing so, he replied. I realized that this was Reah's new High Demon mate, Wardevik Weth.
The smart one, he informed me with a smile in his voice.
The ground around us shook, and somewhere, gold thorns tumbled down, ringing their metallic way through the supporting vine. Already, Liron was breaking into my three guardians.
Mom, I sent, gather everybody to you and build a conduit. Get them out of here. I'll hold them off as long as I can.
But, she began.
Please. If we can get out of this mess with only one or two heroes, then we're ahead of the game. Otherwise, nobody will remember any of us; it will all be Liron.
I understand. I'll gather them now.
I hoped she had enough energy to build a conduit from this universe to the other, and I hoped she'd have enough sense to shut it down the second they were all through. Warde, I sent to him, go with Reah and the others. Time is short. Tamp, if you want to survive, I suggest you go with them.
I'm not leaving, Tamp replied.
It was the response I expected, but I had to try. I had no guarantees that I could ferret out every single bit of Liron's existence from the Metal Library before Liron broke through my guardians and destroyed me.
We're all together, and I'm building the conduit now, Breanne told me.
Go. Hurry. With a crash, Liron broke through another level of thorns and was coming dangerously close. Small squares of gold, hundreds of them, floated about me, but there was too little time left, and too many of Liron still hidden within the Metal Library.
Breanne
Take them through first, I commanded the High Demons who carried Ashe, Erland and several others. They'd emptied themselves of power, attempting to buy us time. Most of them were still unconscious. I hoped healers would be waiting when we arrived—if we managed to escape. Behind me, another level of thorns and vines fell as Liron continued his assault.
The High Demons ran through the conduit as if the hounds of hell were after them. Actually, what they ran from was far worse than that. Hurry, I urged as a thousand High Demons raced through the connection I'd formed.
At least the Ra'Ak and the others we'd fought on Refizan had disappeared—victims of either Liron or the other rogues when they first arrived. Yes, that was poor payment for doing Liron's bidding, but they'd had little time to regret their bargain with him.
The ground shook beneath us again. Would it help if I could shove the others through? I was no longer worried about the damage to be done when they hit the other side; I worried that there was worse coming here.
Gathering as much power as I could, I lifted all of us—and shoved us through the portal before letting it fall shut behind us.
Then, on the green grass of a field outside Ordinandis, I fell to my knees and wept.
Zaria
He had almost reached us. Only one level of thorns remained.
Destroy what you have now, a voice whispered to me. I considered it—for a nanosecond—before Liron broke through my guardians.
Chapter 19
Queen's Palace, Le-Ath Veronis
Lissa
I was getting dressed for an infernal Council meeting five days later, as if nothing had happened and my heart wasn't broken.
So far, there was nothing on the Liron front, but that could change at any moment. Charles, Ashe and Breanne all said to go on with our lives as if nothing were wrong, to keep panic from the masses.
Let them be as happy as they can be in their final days, Breanne said.
My shoulders sagged as I studied myself in the mirror. For the first two days, I'd held hope that Zaria would reappear, and all would return to normal.
That hope had died, and there was no clock to point to and record an official time of death.
There'd been silence from Sirena, too. Too much silence. They had to be grieving—that was understood.
All of Zaria's mates had disappeared—likely to grieve in solitude and isolation. Except for Tamp. Like Zaria, he was now gone.
I'd studied Charles when he and the others came to say what they had. A deep well of emotion lay in his eyes that I'd never seen there before. I didn't remark on it. In fact, I'd said very little to any of them.
They were alive because of Zaria's efforts on their behalf. I hoped they realized the magnitude of that sacrifice.
"There's ah, something I meant to do for you while you were in the past, but things went out of control too fast," Breanne appeared and sat on my dressing bench beside me. Our mirror images stared back at both of us, now.
"What's that?" I pretended to busy myself by arranging my comb and hairbrush on the dresser.
"Come with me and I'll show you."
I really wasn't in the mood, and we both knew what had come of the last time she'd sent me anywhere. I was wallowing in the injustice of it, still. Nevertheless, I didn't try to stop her when she bent time and folded space.
I drew in a breath; it became trapped in my lungs as Bree led me into a hospital room in the past. Franklin had just stepped out to go to the bathroom, leaving Greg in the bed, half-asleep and half-watching a program on television, which hung on the wall opposite his bed.
Breanne had shielded her presence from Greg; I could tell.
"Lissa?" Greg's eyes widened as I walked in.
"Shhh, nobody is supposed to know I'm here," I held up a hand. "Don't tell anybody, not even Frankie."
"Because we don't want the vamps to know, do we?" A light appeared in his eyes.
"Nope. I can only stay for a minute, but I really, really wanted to come by and say hello."
Greg didn't even remark on the fact that it was daylight outside—the pain medication was dealing with that, and he wore the oxygen canula for the pneumonia he had.
He hadn't been in the hospital long, and I was grateful he was still mostly coherent. I approached the bed, leaned down and kissed his cheek before pulling away and smiling at him.
"We really should have taken you to Vegas with us—you'd enjoy it," he patted my hand.
"Honey, I'd give anything to do just that," I agreed.
Dallas, Texas, Past
William Winkler
"These belong to you—we apprehended the thieves," the bank president handed a large, sealed pouch to me. It was thick—as if it contained everything stolen from me. I tore into it immediately, spilling the contents onto his desk. Two million in cash takes up a lot of room. The ring and jewelry dropped out last of all. "I'm sorry it took nearly a month to locate it, but at least we have all of it back." The bank president was sweating, hoping I wouldn't sue over his poor security measures.
"We'll move this to a bank closer to home," Trajan began gathering money and stuffing it back inside the bag. "Pleasure doing business with you." He bared his teeth, meaning he was anything but pleased.
The last month, since the theft happened, was a bit of a blur, and I couldn't recall much of it. Kellee had just gotten back from a short beach vacation, and was now yelling at everybody in the house.
"Let's go." I handed the ring and jewelry boxes to Trajan, who added them to the bag.
"Ice cream?" Trajan asked on our way out the door.
"Yup. Let's go."
&
nbsp; Vladimirsky Central
Ilya Kuznetzov
I didn't care that they'd captured me after I returned to Ukraine, or that there were people in my own country who'd sell their mother for the right price.
They'd sold me back to the Russian government, and I'd been imprisoned, although they couldn't fully prove that I'd had anything to do with the demise of both Baikovs. If only I could take full responsibility for that, I would be happy to report it to them myself.
When Charles took me back to my time, he said he couldn't interfere with the rest of my life—that things had to go as they would.
I said it didn't matter.
Zaria had not returned from the pit, and nothing mattered. Andrei was somewhere in the future, and I couldn't explain that to Katya. She thought he was dead at the hands of those who imprisoned me, and, as she wasn't allowed to visit, I couldn't convince her otherwise.
My cousins were transferred back to the Siberian Prison camp; I get the occasional message through Bespalov, who keeps an eye on them and Katya from afar. Katya is getting an education, and will learn things I shall never know.
As for me, after spending twelve years in this hole, I have cancer. They waste no time and spend no money on my illness, and I suppose it is my due. I am nodding off—sometimes the pain lessens and I sleep. I am almost there, now.
"Ilya?" A soft voice wakens me from my dozing.
"What?" She spoke in English, while I replied in Russian.
"Don't worry, I understand all languages," she told me. "My name is Conner," she added. A light shone faintly about her as she knelt beside my cot. Blonde hair hung about her shoulders, and she was beautiful.
Not as beautiful as my Zaria had been to me, but still lovely to look upon.
"Zaria asked me to come for you—and take you to the other side," she said.
"Where is she?" I struggled to rise.
"That I cannot tell you. She asked me to say this to you; Ilya Kuznetzov, I will always love you, no matter who or what or where you are. And she said to give you this, to take with you on your journey."
I was handed a feather, pure white, with the softest down close to the shaft. I clutched it against my heart as if I were afraid it would be taken from me.
"Come now—the feather is all you'll need where we're going." She pulled me to my feet, and suddenly I felt as light as the feather I so desperately clung to. Looking down, I saw my body lying on the cot—old and frail as it now was—the eyes closed, as if I were sleeping soundly for the first time in years.
"You don't need that anymore," Conner smiled. "Come with me."
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"To the other side," she said, and so we left the hell of Vladimirsky Central far behind us.
SouthStar, Avendor
Ashe
Three months have passed, and still there is no sign of Liron. Was he rounding up his rogues again, after Breanne convinced them to scatter? Was he that much of a control freak, that he had to corral them before coming to do the same for us?
Trajan and I had taken a few days before gishi fruit harvest, to pick through everything that had happened from the moment Lissa went to Earth in the past to the second we arrived on Refizan and Bree had shut her connection down behind us.
We'd missed nothing, and then, when Charles came to join us on the last night before harvest, he'd gone over our notes and didn't add anything to them.
Nefrigar likely had a similar set filed in the Archives, but he hadn't said anything. After all, the Larentii had to be in mourning, much as the rest of us were. The Avii, too, had lost their Guardian, and Quin was likely inconsolable.
I found myself walking through the rows between gishi trees, shortly after this section had been harvested. A flock of white cranes flew overhead; at least fifteen or twenty of them. I stopped to watch as they lazily flapped long wings and soared northward.
Only a moment later, a white feather drifted downward, to land at my feet. Absently, I lifted it up to stroke its downy softness.
My mental shout was likely heard from one end of the universes to the other.
She's alive, I yelled to anyone who could hear me. She's alive!
Epilogue
Wlodek's Mansion, Past
Charles
Two nights after the Annual Meeting, when Lissa disappeared after destroying Xenides, I sat at my desk in my usual place, going through two days' mail.
I almost missed it—the postcard at the bottom of the substantial pile of correspondence.
Addressed to me rather than to Wlodek or the Council, I studied it in surprise. On the front was the most unusual image of all—Lissa's coronet from the future encircling a white feather, both of which hovered over a pile of bones.
A shiver went through me as I gazed upon that image; Zaria had sent me a message. Turning the card over in trembling fingers, I read what she'd written.
Sometimes it's best to destroy the enemy in pieces, it said. No blows can land if he has no arms.
No new way of destruction can be devised if he has no head. Once he was completely destroyed, I built a conduit between universes and went in search of his treasure.
I am my mothers' daughter, after all.
More later—Z.
P.S. You named me Harriet after one of my grandmothers, didn't you?
She knew who her mothers were—at least two of them. Breanne could build a conduit between timelines and universes. Zaria could, too. Did she know about the third mother as well?
As for the treasure mentioned in her message, and the pile of bones depicted on the front of the card, Zaria was letting me know that she'd gone looking for Liron's cache of bones, bone dust, and his store of the drug itself. If he'd left those in the wrong hands, too many things could go awry.
"I hope you find those things, my daughter," I whispered softly. "And all your heart's desires ever after."
The End
Blood Alliance, Blood Destiny, Book 12
Excerpt
Russian Embassy
Ambassador Bespalov
Zaria, I'm sorry I have not been able to find this information for you sooner. Many of my contacts and sources of information have either been arrested or have disappeared. I did finally speak with someone. He and his daughter worked as janitors at the facility you mentioned.
Regarding the one you name D'slay, the father swears that the filth disappeared and took his daughter with him, shortly before the facility was demolished. The father is still mourning her absence, and says that if Irina were in control of her own senses, that she would never have abandoned him.
If you wish to speak with Irina's father, his name is Viktor. You said you only needed first names, and I hope this is still true. The government is sending me into retirement in only a few months, and it is my hope that it will not be the same retirement home as that of our mutual friend.
Sincerely—B.
Queen's Palace, Le-Ath Veronis
Lissa
Lissa? Zaria sounded tentative, as if she thought I might scold her for not contacting me sooner. I knew through Ashe and Charles that she'd been more than busy tracing Sirenali bones, bone dust and Liron's stash of the Lyristolyi drug.
Zaria? What do you need? I replied quickly, in an effort to quell her fears.
Just to talk and run some things past you, she said, sounding weary.
Want something to eat while you're here?
That sounds nice. Can you feed four others besides me? Bleek, Tamp, Ilya and Edden are with me right now.
Of course. Do you want to talk to anyone else while you're here?
If Breanne is available, then yes. Also, if you can find Charles, his presence might prove useful.
She didn't call him Father, or Daddy or anything else. I figured those were names he hadn't earned and might never do so.
Like Griffin hadn't really earned them from me, either.
Charles, Bree? I sent. Your daughter wants to talk to you.
Be right there
, Charles answered first, with Bree's acknowledgement coming shortly after.
Damn, I wish they were this responsive whenever I wanted to talk to them.
Estimated Release date: Fall, 2018
Blood Recall Page 25
