Crimson Dahlia (15 page)

Ramsey
and Lila took a big bowl of popcorn into the living room and started up another
movie. Truly, Ellie’s collection at this house was excellent. They decided on
John Wayne this time. As they went to sit down, Lila sat in the far corner of
the couch as she had the previous night.

"Hey,
what’re you doing way over there?" Ramsey took her hand and gave it a
little tug to pull her closer.

Lila
tugged away. "I'd rather not."

Ramsey
gave her an exasperated look. "Okay, Lila, talk to me."

She
tried not to squirm. "Now is probably not the best time.”

"Now
is the best time. We don't know what's about to happen... So talk to me,"
he insisted.

She
glanced toward the corner of the room and then gave him a meaningful look. “Not
now.”

“Yes,
now
. I made mistakes through the years that have cost us too much time. I’m
not wasting any more. No matter what is going on or who may or may not hear.
Talk.”

Lila
fiddled with the blanket fringe and tossed another glance toward that corner of
the room. She sighed. "I don't know what your feelings are toward
me—" Ramsey opened his mouth to say something, but Lila held up her hand.
"Let me finish."

She
took a deep breath, her heart hammering. "I've been in love with you what
feels like my whole life. The day we met, when Mom brought you home, there was
this immediate connection. I felt drawn to you in a way I’d never felt with
another person before or since. And despite the fact that you were a
firestarter…and that you wanted to leave us…and you wanted me to stay away from
you…despite all that, the connection, the feeling, only grew stronger every
day."

Ramsey
couldn't believe what he was hearing. She’d been so closed off until this
afternoon in the hail. He opened his mouth again to say something, only to be
stopped once more by Lila’s hand.

"Not
finished yet," she said.

Ramsey
nodded for her to continue.

"No
matter how often – or how harshly – you pushed me away, that connection
wouldn’t stop growing. And then you went and fell in love with Selene.”

"No,
I did n—!”

"Don't
deny it. I could see the emotions radiating from you anytime you were around
her. I knew what you were feeling. And… it broke my heart." Lila stopped
and took a deep breath. The pain inside her was as raw as the day she'd realized
what was happening.

"…So
I left. I needed to become my own person. Figure out who I was without you. And
I
like
that girl. She's strong, and independent. She doesn't need a man
to be happy."

Lila
looked up at Ramsey. Her vulnerability touched him, but it was her strength
that shook him to his core. He waited, knowing she wasn't done talking.

"…So
when you said you wanted me—,” she glanced around the room again but still
continued, “—as much as I want that too, I would want it for all time. But I
know for you it would just be the heat of the moment."

Lila
looked down and played with the rings on her fingers, bracing herself for
Ramsey's response. After what felt like an eon of silence, his hand reached out
and stilled her nervous fidgeting.

"Look
at me," he prompted gently. She met his gaze, unable to tell what he was
thinking.  "I am not – and never have been – in love with Selene," he
said.

Lila
opened her mouth to protest, but Ramsey placed a single finger against her
lips. "My turn to talk now."

Lila
nodded, wide-eyed.

"My
feelings for Selene are very simple. She's like a big sister to me. Now I don’t
doubt that you believe what you saw. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that
you were projecting feelings onto me that you feared I had. Because, for a
while, I did feel this odd link with her. It wasn't love. I don't know what it
was. But it stopped the day you left for Louisiana with Marcus."

Ramsey
was silent for a moment, giving Lila a chance to absorb his words. A frown
puckered her brow.
Could he be right? Was I forcing those feelings on him?
It was entirely possible, that was for sure.

"Have
you checked my emotions lately?" Ramsey asked her.

Lila
shook her head. "I didn't want to know.”

"Chicken."
He grinned. "Try it now."

Lila
took a deep breath. She reached down inside herself for that glow that she kept
dimmed as much as possible until she needed it.

But
then something happened that she was not expecting. Instead of seeing the aura
of emotion, Lila's perspective of the world suddenly shifted and so did her
body. Now she was looking
up
at Ramsey, and he was larger than she was.
And in sharper focus. And his eyes were wide with shock.

"Oh
shit," he muttered.

Lila
tried to ask him what was happening, but instead of words coming out of her
mouth, the sound of a high-pitched cry pierced the air. She looked down at her
body, and instead of seeing arms and fingers, she saw wings and talons.

Oh
my God!  Oh my God! Oh my God! I'm a freakin’ falcon!
A more rational
part of her mind said,
I must be getting some of Ellie’s abilities now.
Ellie was a metamorph. She had the power to shift into several forms, her most
natural were those of a falcon, a wolf, a jaguar, and her most frightening
morph, a dragon.

Lila
squawked and looked at Ramsey. She could see her fright reflected in his
shocked face. But he pulled it together quickly.

“I
can still feel you, Lila,” he said in a soothing voice. “And I know you’re
scared. I can’t call Ellie or Griffin right now, but you can fix this on your
own.”

Lila
heard his words, but her anxiety consumed her entirely. She couldn't begin to
try to shift back to human.

Ramsey
could see her distress. "Look at me. Look in my eyes. I'm here."

Lila
drew on Ramsey’s steadiness. She focused on his face and willed herself to be
rational and in control.

"Good,"
he said. "Now use that emotional control on yourself, like when you help
me calm down when I’m on the verge of losing it."

Lila
took a deep breath and focused, projecting an aura of calm and peace. She let
the feelings wash over her own body.

"Better,"
she heard Ramsey say. "Now, I'm not sure how this works. But I imagine
that if you picture yourself in human form, that'll—”

Suddenly
Lila was sitting there, back to her old self.

"Thank
heaven," Ramsey breathed.

He
yanked her into his arms in a great bearhug. "You scared the crap out of
me."

"Out
of
you
? I don't think I'll access any of my powers for days after
that." Lila let out a nervous laugh. She pulled out of his embrace and sat
back on the couch.

"Well,
you'll definitely have to talk to Ellie and Griffin about how that works,"
he said.

"You
ain't just whistlin’ Dixie," Lila said. "You'd better believe after
this is over, Ellie and I are going to have a long talk."

"How
many gifts is that now exactly?" Ramsey asked.

"Too
many," Lila grumbled.

Something
in her voice caught Ramsey's attention. "What do you mean by that?"

Lila
shook her head. "I can feel the growing power within me. It's as if all
these different abilities are battling for space and dominance. I'm being
stretched to hold them all."

Ramsey
sat back, thinking. "I remember Selene once told me that twins happen to
our race of people when too many powers would be passed on from both parents to
one child. It’s why she and Gideon were twins, and why Ellie and Griffin are twins.”

“That’s
concerning,” Lila said. “Ellie and Griffin both have, what, two each, I guess?”

“Plus
they access each other’s powers. They must have a little of those inside them,
or Ellie wouldn’t have been able to pass on the telepathy to Adelaide. Right?”

Lila
nodded her agreement. “And Selene has…”

“Three,”
Ramsey ticked off Selene’s abilities on his right hand. “Stopping powers,
including blocking trackers from seeing Svatura or hiding her thoughts from
telepaths, visiting people in their dreams, and enhancing other’s powers… No!
Four. You have to count the wolf metamorph too.”

“I
thought the stopping powers and hiding people were separate?”

Ramsey
shook his head. “Ellie worked with Selene on some of it while you were gone and
determined that those both come from the same basic power.”

“Okay.
So, I can see if people are telling the truth, heal or control emotions, and
now I can control dreams and morph into a falcon. That’s four.” She looked at
Ramsey, fear in her eyes. “What happens if I get one more?”

“All
the better for me, then,” a voice spoke from the back corner of the room.

Lila
gasped as Maddox stepped out of the shadows.

Ramsey
jumped up to put himself between Lila and Maddox. His hands erupted in flames,
but he didn’t release them.

Maddox
wagged a finger. "Impressive. But that fire won't hurt me." He turned
his attention to Lila, who rose slowly from the couch. She squared her
shoulders and faced him.

"What
do you want, Maddox?"

"You,
my dear,” he replied with a chilling smile. Lila shuddered, and Maddox glanced
over his shoulder. "Ready when you are, Corin.”

Lila
knew what was coming next. Corin was probably Maddox’s teleporter. Ellie's
warning to not let Maddox’s teleporter touch her in any way rang in her mind.
Instinct kicked in, and she spun and stepped away just as a woman appeared at
her side. Catching her foot on the coffee table, Lila fell backwards, her arms
flailing wildly, and landed on the couch.

The
woman suddenly froze in place, her arms outstretched, still reaching for where
Lila had just been standing. Lila blinked, and then saw that Maddox was also
still as a statue.

Alex,
who’d used his power to freeze anything, sounded as though his voice was coming
from a tunnel. "Ellie, Selene, do what you've got to do quickly. I don't
think I can contain either of them long. Both of them are putting off more
energy than I’ve ever felt… even more than Ellie in her dragon form."

Griffin
suddenly dropped the invisibility shield he'd been holding up. He, Selene,
Alex, and Ellie had been sitting in the corner of the room the entire time,
rendered invisible by Griffin’s power. They'd taken several precautions such as
this to make sure Maddox wouldn’t realize he was walking into a trap. Lila had
suspected that if Talia had some kind of power over Nate, Maddox or one of his
followers would show up in the cottage shortly after Adelaide told Nate where
Lila and Ramsey were hiding.

Ramsey
helped Lila to her feet, careful to keep her out of reach of Corin’s
outstretched hand. Ellie hurried across the room to Maddox. She’d barely
touched him, about to take over his powers, when Alex said in a strained voice,
"I can't hold them. Selene, can you turn off the telep—"

Suddenly
Corin disappeared, only to reappear a few seconds later, right beside Lila. She
reached out to grab her, but Griffin slammed his shield up around Lila,
preventing the teleporter from seizing her.

"Freeze
her, Alex!" Griffin shouted.

"I
can't. I'm barely holding on to
him
," Alex gritted through clenched
teeth.

The
teleporter disappeared again, only to reappear beside Ellie. Corin grabbed
Ellie's arm. And that was
her
big mistake. Ellie controlled the power of
anyone she was touching. They vanished, only to immediately reappear again.
Corin appeared slightly dazed.

Ellie
flashed her attacker a wicked grin. "Now, now. Let's play nice."

"Selene,”
Alex said, “you've got to turn off Maddox."

"I've
been trying. But I can't see what power he's using," Selene answered.

And
then chaos erupted. Maddox broke Alex's hold on him. He knocked Ellie away from
Corin, and the two of them blinked out of sight before anyone could stop them.

They
made one more grab for Lila. Some sixth sense – perhaps a remnant of her
mother's abilities – warned her only a second before they appeared by her.

"Ramsey,
fire on me now!" she yelled.

Ramsey
didn't even hesitate, blasting an inferno right at where Lila was standing.
Only she wasn't standing there anymore, because she’d dropped to the ground as
a wall of flames exploded around Maddox and Corin.

And
then they were gone, but not before the sound of Corin’s ghastly screams filled
the room.

Nobody
moved. Nobody even breathed. Every single person in the room remained where
they were, their senses on high alert, waiting for another attack. After a good
ten minutes had passed, they finally started to relax.

Ramsey
looked at Selene. "Couldn't you stop them?" He reached down to help
Lila up off the floor again.

"I
was trying to," she said in a shaken voice. "That teleporter was too
fast for me to get a lock on her power. And after that first moment, I had all
my concentration on Maddox."

Alex
crossed to Ellie’s side. "You okay?" he asked his wife softly. He was
probably the only one who noticed her slight hesitation before she nodded.

"Did
you catch anything, Ellie?" Lila asked.

Ellie
grimaced. "Not enough. The dream control that we know about already. Maybe
something more, but I didn't get enough time to find out what."

"Well,
he definitely has something else. Something strong," Alex said.

"What
about you, Griffin?" Ramsey asked. “Hear anything?”

"The
only thing I caught was that he really wants Lila.
Badly.
It's why he
bothered to come himself," Griffin said.

Lila
shivered, remembering that cold smile Maddox had given her. "Could you see
what for?"

"It
has something to do with your ability to control emotions. He needs you to calm
something down. At least I think so. His mind is a jumble of thoughts, kind of
like when the Vyusher are in wolf form."

"Well,
one thing is for certain," Alex said, a grim look on his face. "Nate
can't be trusted."

Lila
felt the burn of unshed tears in her eyes. Nate had been a close friend for so
many years. And what was she going to tell Adelaide? This would shatter her
sister's heart. "What do we do about it?"

"It
has to be Talia. She's got to be controlling him somehow," Ellie said.
"We need to separate them."

"Or…
we use them," Lila said, a determined glint in her eyes.

Five
pairs of confused ones stared back at her. "How?" Ramsey asked.

"Maddox
probably suspects that we know about Nate and that we are smart enough to
figure out that Talia is most likely involved. He'll come get them if he
can," she explained. “What if we plan for that?”

"He
hasn't come for Zara yet," Selene pointed out.

Lila
tipped her head. "My guess is she's no longer useful to him. But if Talia
has that much control over Nate that she can make him betray us, then she’s
still a valuable asset to Maddox."

"The
Council is going to have a fit about this," Selene muttered.

Griffin
crossed to her side and wrapped an arm around her waist. "It definitely
won't help the Vyusher to trust the rest of us."

"Also,
we need to get Lila out of here and somewhere else," Ramsey said.

"We
know the castle isn't safe," Griffin said. "Three more Vyusher have
gone missing over the last few weeks."

"We
are preparing to call a conference for as many of the Svatura tribes throughout
the world we can convince to come talk to us,” Selene added. “If my guess is
right, other clans are probably missing a few members too, but may not have
linked it to Maddox yet. That might help persuade them."

"I
should be there for that," Lila said.

Ramsey
turned to her. "It won't be safe,” he said in a hushed voice “for you in
particular."

Lila's
heart warmed at his obvious concern. "I know that. But if I can help keep
discussions calm, it might be worth it." She turned back to the rest of
the group and ignored their raised eyebrows. "Okay. Ramsey and I hide
until the conference with the tribes. You guys work on the Nate situation. Let
me know when to show up. Did I miss anything?"

"You
and I might want to discuss the whole falcon thing at some point," Ellie
added.

Of
course, Ellie had seen Lila’s uncontrolled shift while she was hiding under
Griffin’s shield. Lila grimaced inwardly. She’d known they were there. It was
why she hadn’t wanted to talk through their issues right then. Ramsey had known
too, for that matter, but he’d pushed, and she’d laid into him, thinking it
would shut him up. Which meant they’d heard everything. The altercation with
Maddox had put all of that clean out of Lila’s head.

“We
couldn’t hear you,”
Griffin’s
voice sounded in her mind.

She
threw him a surprised look.
“Why not?”

“I
caught both of your thoughts early on and made the shield soundproof to give
you a little privacy.”

“Remind
me to give you a huge hug later.”

Griffin
just gave her a subtle little smile.

To
Ellie, Lila said, "Oh, yeah. Tips about falcon-morphing would be good
too.”

“First
things first,” Ellie said. “We need to figure out where to hide you next."