Power (Soul Savers) (42 page)

I let out a sad sigh myself. “I’ve gained a sister and a
brother, but I seem to have lost the closest thing I ever had to a real
brother. Owen’s … gone.”

Vanessa frowned again. “He’s not gone. Not for good. We’re
going to rescue him, right?”

“I don’t think the traitor wants to be rescued!”

“Whoa,” Tristan said, “back up. What’s up with Scarecrow?”

“He abandoned me and went off with Kali to be her little
minion.”

Vanessa shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think he’s
trying to get her to trust him. He needs to figure out her weakness before
anything can be done about her.”

I fingered my pendant,
wanting
to believe her, but I just didn’t know. “Are you sure about that?”

“Sounds more like Owen than your version,” Tristan said,
which was true.

“Did he tell me that straight out?” Vanessa said. “No. But
that’s what I want to believe. That’s what I
have
to believe.”

“Well, I want to believe it, too, but that’s not how I saw
things,” I said. “He’s supposed to be my protector, and he left me in the worst
situation possible. Unprotected.”

“You weren’t unprotected,” Vanessa muttered. “I’d promised
Owen I’d take care of you if he needed me to. I tried my best. But I’m no
warlock.”

“No, you’re not. You’re not trained to be a protector.”
Tristan put his arm across my shoulder and squeezed. “He shouldn’t have left.
He’s dug a pretty deep hole for himself.”

Vanessa threw her hands in the air. “So you’re not going to
rescue him?
You’re
going to abandon
him
now?”

“I’m just saying that Alexis may be right. Owen hasn’t been
himself. Maybe he’s chosen what he wants.”

Vanessa opened her mouth, and I braced for the list of
profanities she’d spew out. But like me, she was trying to learn control over
her emotions. She shut her mouth and scowled, diverting her attention to the
clouds out the window. Tristan took my hand, stood and led me over to the
couch, giving Vanessa her space.

“I lost my dagger, too,” I lamented as we sat in the corner
of the L-shaped couch. I hated not having my best weapon, but I knew now that I
didn’t need to rely on it. Perhaps Vanessa was right about love being my
strongest power. Cassandra had always said I had the power within me.

“
Yes, you do
,” her
voice whispered in my mind.

My back straightened, and Tristan gave me a strange look,
but I ignored him.
Cassandra?

“
Always here.
”

But how? I don’t have
the dagger.

“
The dagger does not
connect us. Our shared power does.
”

Then where were you
before? How could you let me go through all of that alone?

“
You were not alone. I
was there, but I only guide when you need me. You didn’t need me, Alexis. With
Vanessa’s help, you succeeded on your own. And now you know your true power.
”

Her presence receded again, and I sagged against the back of
the couch, lost in thought. Tristan always said my biggest advantage was my
telepathy, and my dagger may have been my best weapon. But what made me really
powerful was something the enemy feared more than anything because they didn’t
understand it, and they’d never be able to steal, block or beat it out of me.

Vanessa had been right. Like Cassandra, my true power was
love.

“You’ve lost a lot, but you have me,” Tristan said as he
pulled me onto his lap, totally unaware I’d just had a major epiphany. He
nuzzled my neck. “Feels good to be whole again. You and me.”

“Yes, it does,” I said, encircling my arms around his neck.
“Let’s hope forever this time. I’m sick of them taking control of your life.”

“You and me both, my love.” He kissed my jawline.

“And we have Dorian,” I said, my excitement to see him
growing the closer we came to home.

Tristan lifted my pendant and rubbed his thumb over the
stone. “And maybe now we can have a daughter.”

“I can’t wait to start working on it,” I said as his mouth
finally made its way to mine and delivered the kiss I’d been waiting for.

My family was growing. And soon, it would be even bigger. In
fact, with our daughter, it would finally be complete. At least, until we had
to deal with Dorian and the Daemoni. But I wasn’t going to think about that
right now. It was a long way off. Right now, I was going to wholeheartedly
focus on this amazing man giving me the most amazing kiss.

I lost myself in it.

By the time we landed in Florida, night had settled in. I
couldn’t wait to get home and we had to avoid the authorities anyway, so we
flashed right off the plane and to the island. We appeared on the beach across
the street from the safe house, Vanessa’s temporary home and where Dorian
waited for us. My heart swelled with excitement to see my son and hold him
again.

Then, after a few hours with him, Tristan and I would
finally be able to enjoy some real time together. That kiss on the plane had
only been a tease.

When we stepped onto the safe house’s property, though, I
knew immediately something was wrong. I didn’t feel the little buzz of crossing
through a shield. Had the mages left already? Perhaps Blossom knew we were
home, and they could lower the shield. Maybe they’d done it so we could flash
directly into the house. But there was something wrong with that possibility. Vanessa
gasped and covered her nose and mouth with her palm.

“Everything was fine when I left,” Tristan said, feeling it,
too.

Vanessa shook her head vehemently, and her voice came out
muffled behind her hand. “Blood. Lots of
blood
.”

“Vanessa, stay here,” I ordered, my words tumbling out of my
mouth in a rush as my body strained to run for the safe house. “Promise me!”

“I … I’ll be in the water.” She blurred toward the Gulf to
immerse her senses in the salt water.

Tristan and I exchanged a glance, then flashed into the
house.

Right into the scene of a horror movie.

A pattern of crimson splattered the wall of the common room.
The bodies of the four mages from the colony lay crumpled on the floor, blood
spilling from ripped-out throats and decimated wrists. Tristan blurred to each
of them. Shook his head each time.

Oh, no!

“Blossom,” I cried out. “Dorian!”

“Alexis?” Blossom came running down the dark hallway, her
phone in her hand. “Alexis! Tristan! They’re gone! Sheree …”

“
Sheree?
” I
echoed, my voice several octaves too high.

“She’s in Sonya’s room. She’s okay. Not great, but okay.”

Tristan rushed past me for Sonya’s room to help the Were.

“Sonya?”

Blossom shook her head. “She’s gone. Heather is, too. Her
mom just called, freaking out. Sonya …” Tears leaked from her eyes as she drew
in a shudder of a breath. “She … she did this, Alexis. We couldn’t stop her.
I’m so … so sorry.”

I took the witch’s hands in mine.

“It’s not your fault,” I said, as firmly as I could muster.
My own emotional stability was on the line. This was supposed to be
my
safe house. I was responsible for it
and everyone here. And now four mages were dead and a Norman missing, her life
in grave danger. I sucked in a breath, trying to calm my own nerves. “Where’s
Dorian? He’s okay?”

“I think so.”

My stomach rolled.

“What do you mean you
think
?”
I shrieked, panic immediately surfacing once again.

“He hasn’t come out of the room where you left him. He
probably heard the screams and hid. Sasha’s in there with him.”

I nodded, but the prickly feeling that something was wrong
climbed up my spine.
Dear God, please say
my baby’s okay.
I ran across the common room and into his wing. Blood
smeared the walls, and I told myself it came from the mages.
Everything’s okay. He’s just hiding. He’s
fine.
But the blood trailed all the way to his closed door.

My hand shook as I reached out for the knob. I gripped hard
as though I expected it to be ripped out of my hand. With a deep breath, I
slowly opened the door.

“Dorian?” I said as I peeked in. My heart sped, hammering
against my ribs. I could barely speak, my throat too constricted to let the
words out. They came out in a choked whisper. “Where are you, little man?”

No answer.

Tristan appeared next to me. “Is he in here?”

“I … I don’t know.” The suite was too big to see everything
from the door, but when I reached out with my mind, I only found one signature.
Not human.

Before I could say anything else, Tristan took off down the
hallway, throwing open other doors. “Dorian! Dorian, come out!”

I stepped farther into the front room of his suite on shaky
legs, my heart not accepting what my mind already knew. My eyes adjusted to the
darkness, and everything looked fine. But I knew everything was far from fine.
Even with this knowledge, though, when I entered the bedroom, I gasped at the
disaster area. The blanket had been yanked from the bed and the sheet shredded.
Little white things littered the floor. My stomach clenched.
Feathers.
I told myself they were from
the pillow.
Down feathers. That’s all.

But then more blood.

I moved around the bed, following the trail, barely able to
breathe.

“Dorian?” I choked out.

My son wasn’t there, I already knew this, but a small, white
figure lay still on the floor.

“
Sasha?
” I fell to
my knees next to her. She blinked and whimpered, but otherwise didn’t move. My
hands fluttered over her broken body, not knowing what to do.

“Did you find him?” Blossom asked, running into the suite
and to the bedroom doorway. Unable to speak, I shook my head, not knowing if
she could see me or not. Not caring.

“Is he in here?” Tristan asked, right behind her. “Ah,
fuck
!”

A loud crash sounded behind me. He must have taken in the
scene.

I still couldn’t speak. I just stared through the tears at
the lykora, my son’s protector, as she lay there. Silvery blood gushed from
where one wing had been torn from her back. I blinked back the tears that
insisted on falling, and a silver glint next to Sasha caught my eye. Not her
blood. But the tip of my dagger.

“I always get what I want. I
will
get what’s mine.” Lucas’s words taunted me from inside my own
head.

The rest of my dagger hid under Sasha’s normally white
nuzzle, which was now stained crimson. She’d put up a fight. But she’d lost.

And Dorian was gone.

Tristan fell to my side and his arms swallowed me and he
rocked me back and forth, back and forth, horrible, horrible noises wrenching
through his throat all the way from his heart and soul.

 
“Maybe … maybe
Dorian flew away,” Blossom said from right behind us, her voice a mere whisper,
“just like we taught him. Maybe he’s hiding somewhere.”

Grasping at this fine thread of renewed hope, I opened my
mind and searched for Dorian’s mind signature. I pushed beyond the safe house,
forcing my mind outward, scanning through all the signatures for the only one
that mattered,

past the shores of Captiva

over the sound to the other islands

to the mainland

as far as I could push my mental
boundaries

but not him

not him

not him.

He was nowhere to be found.

They’d taken my baby.

Kristie Cook is a lifelong, award-winning writer in various
genres, from marketing communications to fantasy fiction. Besides writing, she
enjoys reading, cooking, traveling and riding on the back of a motorcycle. She
has lived in ten states, but currently calls Southwest Florida home with her
husband, three teenage sons, a beagle and a puggle. She can be found at
www.KristieCook.com
.

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BOOK 5

Coming Spring 2013

Stay tuned to the Soul Savers website at
www.SoulSaversSeries.com
and to the
author’s site at
www.KristieCook.com
for updates on new releases, excerpts, special events, appearances and
signings.

If you haven’t read
Genesis:
A Soul Savers Novella
, then you haven’t met Cassandra. Read on for an
excerpt.

Chapter
1

Cassandra picked her way through
the sea of broken and battered bodies, the blood-soaked grass squishing under
her sandals. She tried to ignore the warm wetness seeping between her toes as
she searched for signs of life. She doubted she would find any. This skirmish
had been short and vicious, the number of soldiers on either side not nearly as
large as other battlefields she’d come upon—the Romans, Greeks and
Macedonians had been fighting for as long as she could remember. She hadn’t
seen any nearby camps in recent days and assumed these two groups had surprised
each other while en route to joining their legions.

She’d heard the fighting while
gathering berries this morning and waited several hours for it to end,
listening—she could never watch the viciousness—with a knotted
stomach as the last few surrendered. She then waited more hours for the field
to clear as the survivors took their injured comrades with them and left the
rest for dead. But she knew from experience there may be a few she could still
help and so, even as twilight approached, she searched.