Hidden Worlds

by Kristie Cook

  Stefan spoke next. Even his voice—smooth, clear, authoritative—sounded familiar, but I still couldn’t place him. “Through our reconnaissance, we have heard them discuss four options and they are not yet decided whether to pursue any in the immediate future.”

  “Explain the options so we can all understand,” Rina said.

  Stefan spoke matter-of-factly. “First, they could try to kill Tristan.”

  My heart jumped against my chest. I instinctively shifted my body in front of Tristan and put my arm across him in protection, shaking my head. As if I can do anything. Tristan pulled me back to him, his arms wrapped around me like a human straightjacket.

  “Relax and listen,” he murmured.

  Stefan glanced at us briefly and continued. “They believe this could prevent another Amadis daughter and would give them their revenge for Tristan’s betrayal. However, they are not fond of this idea. They still have hope in Tristan.”

  Solomon shook his head, the long cornrows, some pulled back into a pony tail, swinging slightly. “They do not have the means to kill him.”

  I relaxed with this statement and Tristan let go of me. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.

  “It would have to be an ambush. Lucas is the only one who might have a chance single-handedly, but they would not risk that,” he said. He and Mom exchanged looks I didn’t understand. He shrugged. “They’ve tried to kill me before. It is not my life we need to worry about.”

  “Until there is a daughter, we need you,” Solomon said harshly, but he followed with an exquisite smile of gleaming white teeth. I wasn’t sure how to take him and, I thought, that’s the impression he intended.

  “There are other options for offspring besides me,” Tristan muttered. I threw him a dirty look.

  “Tristan, daughter or not, we are concerned for your life,” Rina said. “But you are right. This is status quo. Go on, Stefan.”

  Stefan said their next option was to kill me. “This would definitely prevent the bloodline from continuing and would give them revenge on Tristan by killing his mate. In their twisted way, they believe this could bring him back in remorse.”

  For some reason, I didn’t have nearly as strong a reaction to my murder as I did to Tristan’s.

  “They can only kill her if they are provoked. They must have justifiable reason,” Rina said adamantly, lifting her chin.

  “Yes, according to ancient law, that is, ultimately, the only right they have, but they could still try,” Solomon said.

  “They know it would mean a major battle,” Stefan said. “They are mostly concerned about fighting Sophia and Tristan, though—two Amadis daughters and their own warrior could be a major victory or a terrible defeat for them.”

  I looked at Mom, sick at the thought of her fighting these monsters to protect me. She glanced at me, seemingly unconcerned until she saw my face.

  She came over to me, squatted in front of me to look me directly in the eye and said firmly, “Don’t you worry about us. We are just discussing how the Daemoni see it. They will not get to us. We have the best and highest protection.”

  I nodded, trying to look calm, but I shuddered anyway.

  “Let us take a moment for a breath,” Rina said and then she looked at Tristan. He stood up, grabbed my hands and pulled me up. I wondered if she’d communicated telepathically.

  “Come on. Let’s get some fresh air,” he said, leading me through the kitchen and out the back door.

  The evening air still felt muggy and heavy against my skin, but I felt a sense of freedom as I drew it in. I smelled the humidity, combined with freshly mown grass, jasmine and magnolias from the neighbor’s yard behind us. I took several cleansing breaths, trying to focus on steadying my pounding heart.

  “You okay?” Tristan asked after a few minutes. He leaned casually against the house as if we’d just been discussing what new toy to buy rather than our own demise.

  “Yeah, freakin’ wonderful.” I gave him a weak smile and walked over to him. I lifted my hands to the back of his neck, stretched up on my toes and tilted my head back. “Make me okay, please.”

  He kissed me and a sense of calmness washed over me with his scent and taste and touch. I inhaled deeply for an extra dose.

  “Okay,” I said.

  Mom handed me a glass of ice water as I returned to the loveseat. I emptied the glass, the icy liquid light and refreshing, washing away the thick, bitter coating the wine had left in my mouth and throat. I finally nodded at Rina, who’d been watching me expectantly.

  “Okay, Stefan, please proceed with the other options,” she said.

  The third option, according to Stefan, was business as usual—the Daemoni would mostly leave me alone until they had Provocation. The way they all said “Provocation,” I could hear the capital P, as in it must be official.

  “And that leads us to the fourth option,” Stefan said. “They capture Alexis to bring Tristan to them, using her as bait. This appears to be the most dangerous option for us. They would not have Alexis’s blood on their hands, so they do not see this as a violation. They also have a strong desire to have both Alexis and Tristan alive, but in their hands, seeing the same great potential we do, but working for them.”

  Everyone in the room reacted to this statement. Solomon hissed. Mom and Rina gasped. Tristan swore under his breath. I didn’t understand.

  “I thought their natural instinct is to kill me. How could they keep me alive?” I asked. “And why would they want to, once they had Tristan?”

  They all exchanged meaningful looks I didn’t understand. Rina nodded at Mom and Mom sighed, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. Tristan put his arms around me. Mom eventually came over to us and knelt on the floor in front of me, while everyone else stared at the floor. Something horrible was coming.

  “Honey, it’s time you knew something about your . . . father,” Mom said quietly.

  “You mean sperm donor,” I corrected. “I don’t have a father.”

  Her eyes dropped to the floor and she spoke so quietly, it was barely more than a whisper. “The last time I met up with Tristan, he was with Lucas. After Tristan, Lucas was—is now—the Daemoni’s most powerful warrior. They were on a mission to kill me, but not in their normal, direct manner. Tristan thought they should act like they wanted to leave the Daemoni, become close to me, build my trust and then go in for the kill. Tristan really did want to leave and I was able to help him and bring him to the Amadis. But . . .” Her voice wavered and a tear slid down her cheek. And then another. I couldn’t remember if I’d ever seen Mom cry before. Her voice filled with grief and longing. “. . . But I couldn’t help Lucas. I tried so hard, did everything I could. I thought loving him, giving myself completely to him would do it. No one could have ever guessed . . . I’d already changed over and no one had ever conceived . . .”

  “What? What are you saying . . . ?” I shook my head, knowing already.

  “Lucas is your . . .”

  Whop! The breath flew out of me. I felt like I’d just been punched in the stomach.

  “I . . . I . . . I’m Daemoni?” I choked on the words. A heavy weight pressed down on my chest, making my breaths shallow. Tristan’s words from long ago echoed in my ears . . . pure evil . . . real demons . . . soldiers and followers of Satan himself. It flows through my blood? I jumped up and paced the living room, shaking my arms out, as if I could throw the hideousness off of me. “No! No, no, no!”

  “You are Amadis, through and through. Do not forget that!” Rina’s voice thundered in my head. I stopped and glared at her through the tears in my eyes. She spoke aloud with calm surety, “Alexis, you are not Daemoni. You have Lucas’s blood, but you are completely Amadis. All of your powers, all of your qualities, everything that makes you one of our most powerful descendents yet, are all good and righteous.”

  “How do you know that? How do you know for sure?” I demanded, throwing my arms up in emphasis.

  “We evaluated you as a
baby. I felt it again when you first walked in . . . when I took your hand, I assessed you. The evil is fully suppressed; I can hardly feel anything.”

  I didn’t feel any better. The questions flying through my head panicked me.

  “And what about when I change over? Do you know for sure I’ll be like you? That I’ll be good? What if I don’t change? Or what if the evil strengthens with the Ang’dora? Do you have those answers?” The thought of being anything different than myself or Mom . . . anything evil . . . terrified me. I choked on the idea as if it were a physical object lodged in my throat.

  Rina shook her head and admitted, “No, we do not have those answers. You are unique. But your powers are so strong, we are confident you will be perfect . . . magnificent.”

  “You might not be here otherwise,” she said in my head. I recoiled, startled.

  They would have killed me.

  “Quite possibly,” she answered silently. I stared at her, not realizing she could hear my thoughts, and she nodded. That put things into perspective. If I was evil, I would’ve been a threat to them, but they didn’t feel that. In fact, they expected me to lead them in some distant future.

  I fell back into the loveseat and dropped my head into my hands. Tristan rubbed my back. Why isn’t he mortified? Then I remembered he’d already known and still loved me, even came looking for me. I realized why he’d been so adamant earlier about telling me he loved me no matter what. Of course, he was Daemoni. I turned my head toward him.

  “Ha!” I barked hysterically. “I guess we really are perfect for each other.”

  He rolled his eyes.

  I tried to tell myself I was physically no different than I’d been twenty minutes ago, just more knowledgeable. I closed my eyes, focused on that thought and tried to control my breathing and pulse.

  “There you go,” Rina’s voice soothed in my head.

  “Can we take another break?” I finally asked when I felt control.

  I refilled my glass with ice water and chugged the entire glass, though the cold made my head hurt, then I escaped to the bathroom. I splashed cold water on my face and caught my reflection in the mirror. Do I look any different? I couldn’t help but wonder. I stared into my brown eyes, looking so much like Mom’s and Rina’s, but wondering if they really were. As I studied myself in the mirror, looking for signs of Daemoni, my stomach heaved and I barely caught the toilet as I vomited. The water mixed with the red wine looked like blood swirling in the white porcelain bowl. I wished it was the Daemoni blood pouring out of me.

  I sat on the floor, breathing deeply. I really wanted to take a hot shower, thinking soap, scalding water and a lot of scrubbing would remove any evil from my system. I’m being irrational. I’m no different than I was. I just need to get over this. Someone knocked on the door and before I could answer, it opened and closed as Mom squeezed into the bathroom with me. I scooted against the bathtub and she slid down to the floor next to me.

  “Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

  “I think so,” I whispered, a half-truth.

  She put her arms around me. “I would say I’m sorry, but I’m really not, because I have you.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I just hugged her back and we cried on each other’s shoulders for several minutes, until there was another knock on the door. It opened slightly, catching against Mom’s foot, and Rina slipped in. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She studied our tear-soaked faces.

  “You two have a very close relationship. I am glad to see that,” Rina said. She smiled sadly at Mom. “I am sorry we never had that.”

  “Me, too,” Mom said, but she waved her hand in dismissal. “It was a different time then. We had different challenges to deal with.”

  “Well, we all face the same obstacles now.” Rina eyed us appreciatively. “Together we can overcome them. Nothing can thwart the power of the three of us together.”

  She held her hands out to us and we each took one. She was surprisingly strong—it shouldn’t have startled me but it did—and she lifted both of us to our feet. She put her arms around us. “We are Amadis! All of us.”

  An unusual, powerful sensation charged through her arm into me. I instinctively knew at once it was Amadis power. And my body reacted positively to it, absorbing the warm and potent feeling into every cell. Yes, I AM Amadis. Rina smiled at me with that thought.

  We stood there, three generations arm-in-arm, until someone else knocked on the door.

  “We still have a lot to discuss,” Stefan said from the other side.

  We all sighed, our moment over. Mom and Rina stepped out while I quickly rinsed my mouth with water and gargled with mouthwash. When I caught my reflection in the mirror again, I saw a new strength in my eyes. The same strength as in the eyes of my kin—Mom and Rina. Amadis power.

  Chapter 21

  Tristan caught me in the hallway when I came out of the bathroom. He took my face in his hands and searched my eyes. I smiled.

  “You’re okay.” It wasn’t a question.

  “I’m perfect. You?”

  “Perfect.” He brushed his lips against mine. I hoped the mouthwash did its job.

  Solomon studied my face and Stefan briefly looked at me as I sat down again. I smiled at them both and their expressions relaxed. Solomon, especially, intimidated me, but I knew he was good, and Stefan emanated power, a good power, nearly as appealing as Rina’s. It still bugged me, though, how he felt familiar. And, even more, how he had a hard time bringing his eyes to mine.

  He picked up where we left off . . . before I got punched in the stomach.

  “As I was saying, the Daemoni believe it would be useful to have both Alexis and Tristan under their power. With Lucas’s blood and Amadis royalty, Alexis will be nearly—if not equally—as powerful as Tristan. They believe there is a chance Alexis could come to their side and Tristan would follow her.”

  “Which I would do,” Tristan muttered.

  “No, we will not let that happen,” Rina said. “Tristan, what do you see as the best solution?”

  He stiffened and his jaw clamped audibly. Repeating what he’d told me earlier, he said through gritted teeth, “It is not an option.”

  “If it is the best, then we must know it so we can all consider it,” Solomon said.

  Tristan glared at him. His voice held that steely undertone as he spoke. “The best solution for Alexis’s safety and long-time survival of the Amadis is for me to go back to the Daemoni. They’ll leave you all alone for a long time. Alexis will have to find another mate.”

  “NO!” I cried.

  “Absolutely not!” Rina said.

  “Not an option,” Solomon agreed. “What is the next one?”

  Tristan chuckled grimly. “Definitely not an option. Alexis and I both go to them. They leave the Amadis alone. There’s a chance we can still be together, have a child and possibly escape.”

  Mom and Rina gasped.

  “Not an option,” Solomon repeated harshly. “Give us something we can actually do.”

  “You wanted to know.” Tristan took a deep breath. “Besides those two, I really can’t come up with anything except protect Alexis and fight if and when necessary. If they go with any of their options, I believe it’ll be the last one. That one serves their purpose the most.”

  “I agree,” Stefan said. “We need to ensure they cannot even get close to Alexis. It will be much easier to abduct her than to kill her.”

  “Then that is what we will do,” Rina said decisively. “We have Tristan, Sophia and Owen here. Solomon, make arrangements for at least one more protector at all times. Stefan, continue your reconnaissance and stay on top of their plans. And keep watch on everything here.”

  “I do not think they will act immediately,” Stefan said. “It will be a difficult maneuver, very risky for them. They may never follow through on it.”

  “There are always rogues,” Tristan said.

  “And Vanessa,” Mom added. The name r
inged in my head as if I should know it, but I couldn’t place it.

  “Vanessa could become a problem,” Tristan said, “but the rogues are a bigger threat. It’s their nature to disobey and do their own thing. And they may take one of the other options.”

  “You need more protection, too, Tristan, in case they do take another path,” Rina responded. “You are planning on marrying Alexis, no?”

  “Yes,” Tristan answered.

  “You should do it soon,” Solomon said. “Marrying royalty will bind you closer to the Amadis. You will become a member of the royal family and they cannot attack royalty.”

  “That will be done on our terms,” Tristan said firmly, squeezing my hand.

  Solomon narrowed his eyes at Tristan. “The sooner the better.”

  “It just needs to be done under Amadis power,” Rina said. “You can delay your legal wedding if you need time to prepare, but marriage vows should be exchanged before the Amadis sooner rather than later to strengthen that bond.”

  “Let’s do it now. I’m ready,” I said.

  “Alexis!” Mom gasped.

  Tristan glared at me. “We’ll discuss this later.”

  “Yes, we’ll discuss it first,” Mom said.

  “If it helps you . . . ,” I said to Tristan.

  “That is not the reason we’ll be getting married,” he growled. I knew that tone and decided we wouldn’t argue this in front of everyone.

  “We will discuss this,” I promised and added, “sooner, not later.”

  “Alexis, you need to thoroughly understand this,” Rina said. “A true Amadis marriage—one between two people with Amadis blood—unites the souls into one. We have not had such a marriage in centuries. You and Tristan will have a bond like no one currently on this Earth has experienced or can ever understand.”

  “Oh,” I said as that sunk in and then I shrugged. “I’m still ready.”