Power (Soul Savers) (41 page)

Then, out of nowhere, a fork appeared in the tunnel. Three
prongs that hadn’t been here before. It had been a straight and narrow, boring
tunnel all the way down.

“Crap,” I gasped. “Any ideas? There’s a three-way fork.”

“Hmm … straight ahead is too easy. Right?” She obviously
wasn’t sure about that.

An inexplicable but strong pull made me think left. “I think
this way.”

“No, right. I’m sure of it.” And now she did sound more
confident, so we went right. We jogged as best as we could for about twenty
yards and slammed into an invisible wall. “Damn! Sorry!”

We scrambled to our feet and headed back, losing valuable
distance between us and the Weres. When we reached the fork, I followed my gut
this time, and Vanessa didn’t have much choice but to go with me. We hit two
more forks, and both times I ignored Vanessa and followed instinct. The feeling
went further than my gut, all the way into my heart and soul, as if they were
pulling me toward freedom and safety.

The howls and barks of wolves followed us, coming closer and
closer. I tried to run even faster, holding most of Vanessa’s weight so she
wouldn’t stumble in her blindness, but her legs dragged behind us. I could
physically carry her weight, but she was too tall for my short frame.

We rounded a new bend and there it was—the light at
the end of the tunnel. Literally. The bluish light of the ice cave. The floor
underneath our feet confirmed it, becoming slick with ice. We were almost
there, just as growls and snapping jaws sounded behind us.

We slipped and slid as we fought our way up the hill and
into the icy cave, and all I could think was,
Get outside. Just get outside, beyond the boundaries, then we can
flash. Then we’ll be safe.
And finally, the opening, brightly lit right in
front of us. But it was farther than it first appeared. I pushed my foot into
the ground, determined to make it out. My boot slipped. Vanessa and I went
down. Crashed onto our faces. I lost contact with her as I skidded across the
ice, and slammed into a stalagmite.

My vision swam. My ears rang. But under the ringing, from
what sounded like a far-off distance but I instinctively knew was way too
close, came the sound of claws scratching on ice. I scrambled on the slick
floor, pushing myself forward. I grabbed Vanessa’s hand as I passed her,
yanking her struggling form with me.

“Come on!” I yelled. “We’re almost there.”

But after everything else, Vanessa now felt like a sack of
bricks. I half-ran, half-scuttled us out of the cave, teeth snapping at our
heels. We burst through the opening and out into the white light of afternoon
sun. I blinked and squinted in the sudden brightness. Vanessa collapsed, too
weak to go on. And out came the wolves. More than I realized had pursued us.

They launched themselves onto Vanessa, and she couldn’t
fight back. I blasted them with electricity and swung my knife at them, but
there were too many, and I was too weak. Vanessa whimpered and moaned under the
mass of fur. With tears blinding my eyes and my sensibility, my hands grabbed
onto a neck and my fingers dug into the fur as I yanked a wolf off of the
vampire—off of Vanessa, off of my comrade-in-arms—and threw it to
the side. But that was only one, and it came back at me before it even hit the
ground.

“Hang on, Vanessa,” I cried out, although, as the wolf’s
mouth latched onto my shoulder, I had no idea how I could save her. How I could
save either of us.

We had fought with everything we had, but we didn’t have
enough. We were no match for Lucas and his minions. I had known all along. I
had nearly given up with this knowledge. But I’d told Vanessa I would fight.
And we’d been so.
close
. So close to
the stone, to the sorceress’s soul, so close now to escape, to winning this
battle if not the war, to beating the sperm donor at his own game.

But in the end, I couldn’t do any of it. Not alone when he
had all these creatures at his beck and call. Hell, I couldn’t even keep my own
protector loyal to me. Perhaps Lucas deserved to win …

The wolf hanging on me went suddenly still, and I jerked
from the edge of unconsciousness just as its snout released my shoulder and it
fell to the ground. The wolves on Vanessa, one-by-one, went down with a yelp,
too. I spun around with another shot of adrenaline, hands out and ready to
fight whatever Lucas had sent after us now.

My jaw dropped. I blinked, sure that what I saw must have
been my imagination. But no. Tristan still stood there. Not half-way around the
world, but only twenty yards away. Big and strong and beautiful.

And the enemy
.

I didn’t have the stone. Kali had control, which meant we
were dead if I couldn’t break through to him. Unless … if Bree had acted soon
enough to sever the connection … But Tristan still might have gone rogue.
Regardless of how or why he was here, without the stone in my possession, my
love for him meant nothing, and his for me would be a thing of the past. He’d
kill Vanessa and me in a heartbeat.

So I just stood there, not sure what to do.

Tristan’s arms moved out to the side. Opened wide. “
Ma lykita.
”

The full strength of his love—what I hadn’t felt in so
long, possibly since the day my pendant disappeared—burst from him and
washed over me. It hadn’t been freedom and safety pulling me through the tunnel
this way. It had been Tristan’s love, even without the stone. I blew out the
air I’d been holding in my lungs forever.

“Tristan!” I ran into his open arms, and he swept me up,
held me tightly against him. “You’re okay?”

“I’m perfect now that you’re in my arms,” he murmured
against my ear.

“But how?”

“I felt it as soon as you had possession of the stone.”

I pulled back. “But I don’t. I failed, Tristan. I didn’t get
it back.”

He cocked his head as he peered at me. “But I feel it. So
strong now.”

He let go of me with one arm and lifted his hand to my
chest. With one finger he poked, and though he didn’t actually touch me, I felt
the pressure. His finger tapped a pattern, and I gasped. My necklace appeared
from nowhere, hanging from my neck, and I hadn’t even known it.

“Scarecrow,” he whispered with a smile.

I started to shake my head.
Couldn’t be.
But if not, who? How? When?

“But I saw you …” I closed my eyes against the vision trying
to replay in mind once again. “Kali controlled you. You … you destroyed the
safe house … you—”

“Not me, my love. She showed you what she wanted you to
see.”

I swore under my breath. Would I ever learn to see through
their projections? I’d almost given up on everything because of their deceit.

“I’ll kill her,” I said, meaning it with every fiber in my
being.

“Not now. We need to get out of here.”

No, not this moment. But soon.

Right now, I really just wanted to revel in the realization
that my dream of being truly safe and in my husband’s arms finally came true.
But we didn’t have the luxury of time for that either.

“Vanessa needs you first,” I said.

Tristan released me and strode over to the limp body of the
vampire. Her wounds were closing slowly, her body too weak from the sun and the
Weres’ saliva to heal itself as fast as normal. My throat tightened, and I had
to look away as Tristan ran his mouth over the deeper gashes, helping them to
heal faster. Too bad for her that she was practically unconscious, too out of
it to enjoy this.

“
Don’t worry.
It’s not at all like I’d imagined it,
”
Vanessa whispered in my mind. “
He’s too
much like a brother now.
”

And that’s when it truly hit me:
I have a sister
.

***

 
“So,” I said as
I stared out the little window as the buildings on the ground below shrank away
into miniatures.

Vanessa fidgeted with her seat belt. “Yeah.”

With her in his arms, Tristan had led me for several flashes
to a private airstrip, where the Amadis jet waited for us. With the tightened
security we’d already experienced, Mom had had to make special arrangements on
both ends of our flight so we could avoid anyone considering us too closely.
She’d also sent a couple of mages to the military installation to alter the
Normans’ memories of what Vanessa and I looked like before we ended up on the
Most Wanted lists.

Until now, Vanessa and I had been able to avoid the elephant
in the room, but I’d finally broken the awkward silence.

“How long have you known?” I asked, finally looking at her.
From the seat next to me, Tristan took my hand in his.

She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I’ve suspected for a long
time, since I was young, really. Lucas always denied it, said we had common
ancestors to explain our similar looks. When we’d come to live with him when we
were eleven, he acted a little like a father figure, but we were to call him
Lucas. Never
father
. God forbid
anyone suspect anything.” She looked out the window, blinking several times.
Her eyesight had slowly returned, and her brain still seemed to be adjusting. Her
voice became distant. “At first, I tried to love him like the father we’d never
had, but that only made him hate me more. He’d push me away and ignore me
whenever possible. But Victor … he loved,
loves
Victor. My brother could do no wrong. Lucas had amazing plans for Victor and
Seth. But never for Vanessa. Not after it became obvious the first time we met
that Seth wanted nothing to do with me. The prophecy wasn’t about me, so I was
nothing but an embarrassment.”

My gaze dropped from her face to the floor. I toed the
carpet, feeling unnecessarily guilty. None of this was my fault—my mother
hadn’t even been born yet, let alone me—but I could now understand why
she’d hated me so much. Everyone had believed the prophecy was about Vanessa
and when the faerie stone in Tristan’s heart didn’t respond, Lucas had no use
for her anymore. And she must have been determined to prove them all wrong, her
heart set on making something happen between Tristan and her. Then I came
along, and there was nothing to prove anymore.

“So why did he have you turned?” I finally asked, curiosity
getting the better of me.

Her mouth puckered. “I never really knew why he turned me.
He says to save my life—our version of the
Ang’dora
nearly killed me, just like it does most of Jordan’s
descendants. He had me turned so I wouldn’t die. But why? He hates me. He said
it would make me stronger, the monster he wanted me to be. And I guess it did.
I was so full of hatred—for him, for Victor, for the world. He’d given me
anything I wanted to shut me up, but had taken away any chance for real
happiness.”

“So you turned Victor in revenge?”

“Yeah. I was newly reborn, starving, and mad. Mad as hell.
And darling Victor was right there. I’d wanted to kill him and make Lucas live
with that the rest of his existence. But Lucas forced me to finish the process.
He would rather have Victor as a vampire than not have him at all, even if it
took away any chance for Victor to lead with Seth.” She looked at me with a
tilted head. “Did you know we vamps aren’t leadership material? At least, not
of other species. They say we’re too impulsive.”

“Go figure,” I said, and she snorted.

“So, anyway, Lucas has hated me ever since I turned Victor.
No matter how much of a monster I became for him, I was never good—or
bad—enough.”

I shook my head, not knowing what to say.

Tristan stroked his chin, then spoke up for the first time
since takeoff. “I always thought Lucas told me just about everything, but I
knew nothing about this.”

Vanessa chuckled without humor. “Lucas has more secrets than
anyone could ever guess. Victor never knew about the supposed prophecy until
Alexis was born. The fool actually thought you two were brothers for the
longest time, and Lucas let him believe it! Oh, there’s worse, I’m sure. He’s
the best deceiver there is besides Satan himself.” She looked at me. “So, yeah,
our father’s a dick.”

“I don’t have a father,” I said. “And neither do you. He’s
just a sperm donor. Nothing more.”

Vanessa nodded, and she looked out the window again. Her
voice came out quietly with her next words. “But we do have a brother.”

Of course. I had gained both a half-sister and a
half-brother. They were twins, so no doubt about it.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and spoke just as quietly.
“Is there any hope for him?”

Vanessa didn’t answer at first. Her eyes glistened as she
finally looked at me. “I don’t know, Alexis.” She shook her head. “I really don’t
know.”

“He’s not rogue,” Tristan said. “There’s hope.”

I didn’t know if he said it for Vanessa or for me or because
he truly believed it, but I was thankful he did. I squeezed his hand.

“So how did you get to us so fast?” I asked him. “It took us
more than twenty-four hours to get there.”

His mouth quirked in a small smile. “I had a little help
from Bree.”

“She couldn’t help us get home a little faster than this?” I
asked. “I miss my son.”

“You have to be faerie to cross the veil.”

“You went through the
Otherworld
?”
I asked with disbelief. “But
you’re
not—Oh. Yeah. You are.”

Vanessa snorted as she still stared out the window. “That
explains a lot,” she muttered. “Big, bad warrior is a
faerie.
”

Tristan growled at her teasing tone. I placed my hand on his
thigh.

“Be nice. She saved my butt and she’s a friend now,” I said
and then I smiled. “No, she’s more than that. She’s family.”

Vanessa turned away from the window and stared at me for a
long time. Then she gave me a look that was so foreign on the face I’d hated
for so long. She almost looked happy.