by Kristie Cook
“Considering what I have heard about the events in that council room,” Rina said, “I am very proud of you, Alexis. You did what needed to be done.”
“But at what cost? You’re my grandmother! I hurt you before the trial even began and then to see you … so …” I trailed off again, the fear of Rina dying choking me as it had done nearly every day since she’d been hit. “I was so worried,” I finished lamely.
I mentally kicked myself in the shins. I’d been waiting so long to apologize and that was the best I could do?
“Alexis, darling, everything occurs for a specific reason. Do not fret anymore. Worry is a waste of energy, and you obviously have little to spare.” She withdrew her hands from mine once again. “In fact, I do not want you sharing your power with me anymore.”
“But you need—”
“What I need, darling, is for you to have your full powers. Have you been meditating? Spending time alone? Allowing your body to absorb the power from the Island as I suggested three days ago?”
“I’ve tried,” I said. “I’ve sat on the beach. Even did some more writing.”
Rina nodded. “I have noticed you scribbling in a journal while you sit with me as I rest. A new story?”
“Not exactly new. It’s my story—mine and Tristan’s. I’ve filled three books and am finally about done. Well … caught up to now, anyway.”
The itch to write again had nearly consumed me within the first week of sitting with Rina and Lilith. Holding them with my left hand allowed my right hand to be free—not exactly good for banging on a keyboard, but fine for old-fashioned writing. I’d started what I’d thought would be a journal, but it really came out more as a story, deeper than the one in my history book because my thoughts intertwined with the actual events.
“If you would like, you may keep the filled books in the Sacred Archives,” Rina said, a twinkle in her eye. “The Island and the writing have not helped, no?”
I shrugged. “I think they have. I feel more rested … sort of.”
Rina studied my face for a long moment. “Of course. You need your family. You need to be with Tristan and Dorian.”
“I do miss them,” I admitted, trying to mute the desperation I truly felt. My heart ached with longing for them. “But I’ll be fine. You and Mom need me here. Besides, it’s only been ten days.” Ten days, three hours, forty-two minutes to be exact … but who’s counting?
“That is settled. You go home immediately.”
My jaw dropped. Am I that transparent?
“Yes, you are,” Rina said in my head.
I frowned. Really, I’ll be fine, Rina. Please, let me stay here with you and Mom.
“You will not be fine. You will be useless to us if you continue as you are.” She spoke her next words aloud. “I may never fully recover, and in the meantime, the Amadis need us. All of us. As does humanity.”
“Which is why we need to help you regain your strength,” Mom said.
“Sophia, it is too late for me.” Mom and I both gasped, but Rina shook her head and let out a little chuckle. “No, no. That is not what I mean. The Angels visited me often while I was unconscious, but no, they did not share any plans for my impending death or ascension. I only mean that you have done as much as you can for me. I believe I am as well as I am going to be.”
Mom and I exchanged a glance. If this was Rina’s best …
“You continue giving me Amadis power, and I can feel it coursing through my veins, but I am not regenerating as I should be, no?”
Neither Mom nor I could argue with her.
“I know this. I accept it. The two of you need to accept it, as well. It is time to move on. To move forward.” She repositioned herself against the pile of pillows, straightening her back to sit up to her full height. Her eyes narrowed as they looked into Mom’s and then into mine. “It is time we prepare for war.”
***
Only two mornings later, Ophelia came into Rina’s suite as I once again protested my departure.
“Ms. Alexis, the jet is ready and waiting for you,” the elderly witch said.
I scowled at Rina. “Are you sure about this? I hate leaving you and Mom here.”
“Honey, we’ll be fine,” Mom said from a desk in the corner that she’d set up so she could work while still being close to Rina. “We’ve been doing this for a long time.”
“Preparing for war?” I asked.
“Not so urgently, but, yes, that is what we do. Rina and I can manage things from here. We need you out there, serving your purpose.”
“My purpose is not going home to sit on the beach and relax,” I argued. Who in their right mind disputes that? I wouldn’t have a year or two ago, but now we were on the brink of war.
Mom folded her arms over her desk. “How many times are we going to discuss this?”
“I just don’t get it. There’s so much going on, you need every bit of help you can get and you’re sending me home? To do nothing?”
“We’re sending you home to recuperate. The sooner you do that, the sooner you can be of help to us.”
“Alexis, darling,” Rina said, “there is much we need you for. But you are useless to us in your current state.”
Hmph. As if Rina should be talking. She still couldn’t get out of bed for more than thirty minutes at a time without exhausting herself.
“I am surrounded by people who love me here,” Rina said. She couldn’t usually listen to my thoughts as easily as everyone else’s so it must have been written all over my face.
“So am I,” I countered.
“Not the two whose love you need most,” Rina said. “Go home, Alexis. We will be putting you to work very soon, do not worry. We will need a new safe house to start with, and eventually, I will need you to oversee conversions in the entire Western Hemisphere, since Sophia will be here, and I will need Charlotte elsewhere. Most importantly, I will need you and Tristan to recover the stone.”
Mom rose from her chair, came over to me and took my hands into hers. She ducked her head so her eyes could catch mine. “See? There’s a lot you’ll be doing. But first, you need to be at your best.”
“Darling, simply by leaving the Amadis Island, you are doing something for us,” Rina added.
With a quiet groan, I gave her a nod of resignation. This part we’d gone over many times already. We hoped that when I left the island and the Daemoni saw both Tristan and me out of the Amadis’ direct protection, they’d lay off the Normans and focus back on us. That had been their ultimatum before, so hopefully it still stood. We also hoped Vanessa would be too tempted to come after me and would abandon her game of hide-and-seek. In other words, I’d be bait, and although it could become dangerous, the role felt passive when there was so much going on. At least now I knew Rina had other plans for me, too.
But still, my first and primary orders were to rest. Because I was useless.
After two days of arguing this, however, I knew by now Rina wasn’t going to budge. So I reluctantly said my goodbyes to her and Solomon, Ophelia, and even Julia, then flashed with Mom to the island’s runway. A small private jet sat outside the hangar, the steps down, waiting for me. A figure moved from the cabin to right inside the entrance.
“You need an escort,” Mom said, laying an arm over my shoulder.
I already knew this, for the same reason I wore my leathers and had my dagger and knife on me—just in case. I had secretly hoped Tristan had returned to serve the role of protecting me, but the figure standing at the top of the steps was definitely not my man. Not any man, actually—admittedly, after Tristan, I’d hoped Owen would have been there. That would have been an even bigger and greater surprise. Before my heart plummeted too far, however, Charlotte moved closer to the edge of the doorway and waved. I grinned for the first time in days, happy to see her face.
Mom turned me toward her and placed a hand on each of my cheeks. A small smile curved her lips, but didn’t reach her eyes.
“Charlotte will be workin
g with you again, but I wish it were me. I wish things were different. I’ve been waiting for this time since you were a little girl.” She pulled me to her in another hug as I tried to figure out what she meant. “But we each have our duty, and mine, for now, is to be here with Rina. So you take care, listen to Charlotte, and get some rest. Then I promise you’ll have more than enough to do.”
“Love you, Mom,” I said into her ear as I squeezed her tighter.
“I love you, too, honey.”
And as she held me a little longer than what seemed natural, I felt she knew the truth of something ominous coming. The world would be very different the next time we saw each other. After all, everything that had happened in the last year or so had been only the beginning.
“Ready for more training?” Charlotte yelled over the scream of the engines as I sprinted up the steps and threw my arms around her.
“It’s so good to see you!” I gushed. “How are you doing? Are you holding up? Have you heard from Owen? Where the heck is he? Where have you been, anyway?”
“Whoa,” Char said, giving me a squeeze then extricating herself from my embrace. “We have plenty of time for Q & A.”
She led me into the main cabin. I’d only been in the Amadis jet once and I’d been unconscious then. Julia and the so-called Martin had brought us all here after we found Lilith and Bree in the Florida Everglades. Every other time I’d traveled to and from the island, we’d needed to make a big performance—sinking the famous author’s boat right after the Ang’dora, and then ensuring the Daemoni knew when Tristan and I had left the Amadis Island and its protection. This time, however, Rina didn’t want the Daemoni aware of my departure until I was good and ready—well rested, in other words.
The main cabin looked like a living room, with a beige leather L-shaped couch, cushy chairs, and tables. It could easily seat ten people. Charlotte gave me a brief tour, showing me the two bedrooms, a medical suite, and a full kitchen in the rear. The jet was piloted by a vampire whose blond buzz-cut backed up the claim that he’d been a fighter pilot in World War II, and a wizard with strawberry blond dreadlocks served as his co-pilot.
“If something goes wrong, a mage in the cockpit can keep the jet airborne for a while,” Char explained. I nodded with understanding. Owen’s magic had powered the tiny plane we’d used to escape Australia. “He also keeps us cloaked and shielded.”
We took our seats on the couch, and I watched out the window as the Amadis Island shrank and then disappeared once we broke through the force field that kept the island invisible. As we lifted into the clouds and the scenery below was whited out, I looked at Charlotte and my heart squeezed. I didn’t know her true age—at least ninety, I figured—but she appeared to be in her mid-thirties. Or, at least, she had when I’d first met her.
Now she reminded me of how I’d looked right before the Ang’dora, when Tristan had been gone—a perma-frown creating lines around the corners of her mouth, her sapphire eyes tight and distant, her straw-colored hair short now and sticking out all over the place, as Owen’s often did. The shock and anger of learning about the real Martin had consumed her. She’d thrown herself into her work, unrelentingly pursuing the Daemoni, jumping into every fight even when Mom had ordered her to stop. Mom and I both knew why, though. Char searched for answers.
Charlotte explained that Owen tried to do the same. They both wanted proof that Kali still existed. What worried us all, though, was that while Char sought revenge, we weren’t aware of Owen’s intent. After learning his life had been a total farce, he’d cut himself off from us so thoroughly, we didn’t know if he’d ever return. If he thought he somehow belonged with the Daemoni now. For all we knew, the fight a couple of weeks ago could have been for show, or perhaps his attempt to prove something. The thought of losing him to our enemy sucked the breath out of my lungs.
“I wish I could give you better news,” Charlotte said, “but at least we know Owen’s alive and free. Otherwise, we would have heard about it by now.”
“Right.” I sighed. She sounded like Mom and Tristan with their no news is good news bit. “So, uh, what kind of training will we be doing?”
I needed to change the subject. We’d spent the last two hours talking about Owen and her, but mostly Owen, and I couldn’t take any more. Training was a positive action, a way to move forward and actually do something.
“Well, first, you’ll be resting,” Char said, and I rolled my eyes. “I need to do some work around the States, anyway, before we can get started.”
“Started with what?”
“Conversions. That’s your next objective.”
Chapter 4
“I have to warn you, though,” Charlotte continued as she looked out the window, although only ocean and sky could be seen. “And you better keep this to yourself, but I’m not as good at it as I used to be. Probably all this anger I’ve been harboring.”
“Maybe you need to rest, too,” I said. “Build up your own Amadis power.”
She made a face. “Resting doesn’t get anything accomplished.”
“Heh. Exactly what I said.”
Char ignored that statement and dove right into the theory behind conversions, explaining that we needed to push the Daemoni’s evil energy out of the subject and replace it with the goodness of our Amadis power. I already knew this part.
I’d tried to do this with Sheree, the were-tiger Owen had found in Key West and brought to the beach house the night I went through the Ang’dora. I hadn’t been strong enough to help her then and had nearly killed us both. Fortunately, Rina and Mom had arrived in time to take over. They’d moved her to the Atlanta safe house, where the conversion was completed.
“So once the evil is removed and they’re stabilized, they have to go through healing and training in our faith, our methods and our way of life,” she explained. “You know—no biting or eating people, no turning Normans, drinking only donated or animal blood, using magic only for good. Eventually, they should be able to live on their own and become a contributing member of society—ours and the Normans’.”
“How long does it take for them to get there?”
Char shrugged. “Depends. How long they’ve been Daemoni, how much they believe in the Daemoni philosophy, their capacity for love, which the Daemoni try to eradicate, and other things—they all have an impact on how long it takes. Some can live among the Normans after several months. Others are never ready. They have to stay immersed in the Amadis culture because they’re too easily tempted when on their own.”
And there were some who chose to live as loners instead. Such as Jax, the were-crocodile who isolated himself in the Australian Outback rather than having to constantly fight the urge to eat people.
“And my role is to replace the evil with my Amadis power?” I asked.
“Yep. Once they’re stabilized, if you’re not already at a safe house, they’ll be taken to one where they stay for the remainder of the conversion.”
I cringed with surprise. “They’re locked up?”
“Sort of. It’s like house arrest. You have to understand—if they’re exposed to Normans before they’re ready, the consequences can be deadly. But you’ve stayed at a safe house. They’re not quite a third-world prison.”
True. Mom and I had lived at the safe house in Northern Virginia throughout my pregnancy with Dorian and until he and I were both strong enough to move on. The “house” was actually a mansion, offering everything a person could need or want. I hadn’t cared for the luxuries at the time, but if all the safe houses were so nice, I could see that a new convert should be pretty comfortable.
“So how come only a few of us can do the first phase of the conversions?” I asked. “I mean, I get why Mom, Rina, and I are stronger, but take you and Owen. Why do you have enough Amadis power to do it, but he doesn’t?”
“Part of it is being born Amadis. I’ve never had Daemoni influence, never lived among them. That’s why vampires can’t administer this part of the conversi
on—they’ve had Daemoni power, even if only for a short time after they were infected. Same with converted Weres. Those born into the Amadis might have strong enough power, but converts usually don’t.”
“But Owen’s not a convert. He’s never had that influence, either.”
“Well, that we don’t know now, do we? We have no idea how Kali was subliminally influencing him.” Her lips puckered and her nostrils flared for a moment, but then she seemed to gather herself. “The other part is about focus. Martin—or Kali—focused Owen’s talents, power, and ability on fighting and protecting. I’m strong in those areas, too, since I’m a warlock, but I spent much time learning how to build and use my Amadis power. Martin never allowed that for Owen. Owen had shown signs at an early age that he’d make a good protector, so he didn’t need to be strong in the conversion aspect because the one he protected would be. At least, that was Martin’s excuse. Perhaps we know now he had other reasons, as well.”
He wouldn’t want Owen’s Amadis power to completely extinguish his Daemoni energy. I didn’t dare say this aloud. The thought of Owen having Daemoni power was too much, and I wasn’t about to tick off Char even more by voicing something so … so unbelievable.
“So any mage born into the Amadis can do conversions, if they’ve learned to use their Amadis power?” I asked instead.
Char nodded. “For the most part, yes. But not all mages are strong fighters, and the process usually begins with a battle.”
“Ah. So you’re saying I’ll be out in the field fighting?” I wasn’t sure about this idea. Not that I was afraid or didn’t want to help in this very important way. I just didn’t like the thought of leaving Dorian as much as would be required. He needed my protection.
With that thought, the excitement to be headed home finally hit me. I’d felt so guilty about leaving Rina and Mom, Rina especially in her poor physical state, but deep down, I really did want to go home. Not to rest, though. To make sure my son was protected, kept hidden away from the Daemoni’s reach. Of course, Tristan was there, the best protector of all, and also Sasha, the lykora, but the mommy in me couldn’t help feeling the need to be there myself.
