Ascendancy Origins Trilogy
Page 43
“I gave her the night off to be with her family.” When I raised an eyebrow in question she continued, “Well with what Corson has planned it might be the last time she gets to see them.” She took a drink from her glass and batted her eyes up at me. “You said you had news.”
“I do.”
“Well don’t keep me in suspense, dear.”
“Deloris won’t have to worry about her family. I sent John and Sarah after Corson.”
“And how did you manage that?”
“Well they caught me in a rather awkward situation and I redirected their passion for righteousness somewhere else.”
“Do tell.”
“They happened to walk in on me while I was killing Cane.”
She sprayed whiskey out of her mouth and onto the floor. “You what?”
“I killed him for us, so we could be together and not have to worry about him and your father trying to pull us apart anymore. I control the market now and Cane signed all of his businesses over to me.”
Tessa stood from the couch and made her way over to me. She kissed me on the lips, and it felt amazing. Her skin burned with the fiery heat of her Demon. She ran her hands through my hair and licked the tip of my nose before returning to the bar behind me to pour another drink.
“I didn’t think you had it in you to take that kind of initiative on your own.”
“Well I did and now we control San Francisco. The Ascendancy numbers will be weakened tonight making our transition easier. John and Sarah will deal with Corson. All we have to do is step in and we will rule this city together.”
Coming up behind me, she bit the lobe of my ear and then lapped at it before whispering, “Or I could rule it alone.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised when the dagger slid in-between my ribs piercing my heart. Tessa had always wanted to be in charge of everything, and to a fault, all I wanted was her. It made me an easy target. I never really expected her to go through with it, but when she did it, it still hurt. I turned to look into her eyes one more time. My magic wasn’t responding to my call, and I couldn’t heal the damage she had inflicted. I pulled her towards me and kissed her one last time. Like I said, all that I loved was standing right in front of me.
Epilogue
John, Eighteen Years Ago
It had been a good day at the office. Outside of a group of Lycan kids scaring some campers we didn’t have anything to investigate. Life really couldn’t be going any better. Thanksgiving was tomorrow and Adam and Henry were coming to have dinner with us. Sarah didn’t appreciate Adam’s trips to check in with us as much as I did, but she always found other things to do. So Adam and I were often left alone to chat about old times. Thanksgiving added in another way for her to hide, besides using football as an excuse she could take Henry into the kitchen and catch up on all the latest gossip.
I was looking forward to having a glass of whiskey or three and talking with Adam about what had happened in San Francisco. He had promised me one day he would tell me about Edward and how he became the man that I killed. That had been over seventy years ago now, but who was counting?
Jumping into my car I marveled at just how far they had come since the first time I drove one. Navigation, heated seats, a radio that could get one hundred stations. People back then would have laughed at you if you even dared to suggest something like that as a possibility. They might have even asked you to write it down and put it in one of those science fiction magazines. Today we just took the technology for granted. Even having been around the entire time to watch it evolve, sometimes I still shook my head in wonder.
The ride home took longer than it did back then, now that we had close to a million people in Tucson. The city had grown but the freeway system hadn’t, at least not here. That meant surface streets and traffic, but at least we had one of the best universities in the country. The Wildcats were on the verge of having another great basketball team and the city was excited for the season to come. One of the draws for players to come to Tucson is that there was no professional team to compete against. Your ticket was always the hottest thing in town. Who knows, maybe this year would be the year we finally won another championship.
I put thoughts of sports behind me and tuned into news on the radio. Old habits died hard. It also helped me keep in touch with any weird items that might pop up from time to time. Nothing much was going on, just another lazy day leading up to the holiday. People seemed to be in above-average good spirits this year. That always made things a little easier.
I parked in the garage and headed inside. Sarah met me just inside the door. She looked anxious and worried. I set my briefcase down and slipped out of my shoes. There was something she wanted to tell me and with that kind of expression on her face it couldn’t be good. “Baby, what’s going on?” She ran into my arms the tears already falling. “You’re starting to scare me, is everything ok?”
I felt her chest rise and fall against mine, and I stroked my hand down her back as I waited for her to calm down. Finally she mumbled into my neck, “I’m pregnant.”
I pushed her back and looked into her eyes, trying to find out if she was joking with me or not. Her eyes met mine and I knew she was serious. I smiled and I could tell that was the reaction she had been hoping for. “Why are you crying, that’s great news!”
“I thought so at first, but then I started thinking of all the things that could happen. What if he is a Lycan like me, or Gifted like you, or both? We already get enough crap from the people we know.”
“Hey, as long as he is healthy and loved it won’t matter.”
“He, huh?”
“Well of course that’s my baby boy in there.”
“How do you know?”
“I can just tell,” I said patting her stomach.
“John, aren’t you worried at all? I mean as far as I know this has never happened before.”
“Babe, people have been getting pregnant for over two millennia.”
“No, you ass,” she said swatting my shoulder in mock outrage. “I mean there has never been a union between a Gifted and Lycan that produced an offspring. What if something goes wrong?”
“Nothing is going to go wrong.” I pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Then let’s celebrate.”
“Pizza, huh?”
“You know me so well.”
“You know normal people go out to a fancy restaurant for this kind of thing.”
“Then you should be happy we aren’t normal people.”
She laughed and walked from the room. Oh man, I was going to be a father. I never thought that we would be able to have children. It’s part of the reason I decided to take over running the Ascendancy in Arizona. That way I could train and mentor people as a replacement for the children we would never have. It had been fulfilling but deep down I always wanted a child of my own. I looked in the kitchen and watched Sarah pick up the phone and start to order our favorite meal. I wanted to make sure I remembered this moment forever. If it really was a boy, I had the perfect name picked out. I was going to name our son Jackson.
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
I just wanted to take the time to thank my amazing wife Becky for supporting me in this wild adventure called writing. Without her help and support, none of these books would be possible. I also have to thank our three furry companions, Blizz, Jackson, and Cisco. They constantly keep me moving and keep a smile on my face.
I should have probably included this in more of my books, but I have to give a special thanks to Kay, who not only reads and reviews my books but helps make them better by sending me a list of anything that she finds. Her efforts make everything I do easier and for that I can’t say thank you enough.
If you enjoyed this book or any of my other works, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Reviews not only help other readers find my work but help when I need to secure advertisin
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I truly feel blessed that so many of you have reached out to me and found the books enjoyable. I plan to keep them coming.
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Also by Bradford Bates
Ascendancy The Arena
Ascendancy Jar of Souls