Zamani (18 page)

Wren was ecstatic. She’d made
actual contact.
 
She felt more
confident than ever her visits weren’t just her imagination, and she now would
just have to wait.

Chapter
Twenty Five

At the beginning of her
training, Zofia explained to Sasha that she was there to help her uncover what
she already knew.
 
“I’m not so much
a teacher as a guide.
 
You already
know what to do; you just need some supervision.”

Over the months they had
worked and trained together, Sasha learned to read what Zofia’s different expressions
meant.
 
She rarely asked questions
of Sasha vocally, and the morning after Wren’s first successful contact was no
different. Zofia raised an eyebrow in Sasha’s direction as she came in.
 
Sasha knew she’d have to fill in the
blanks.

She had told her of the
visit the night before.
 
“You
remember me saying I felt as if someone was watching me? I even felt Wren’s
presence. I know now it’s her, Zofia.
 
She said she’s sorry.
 
I want
to hear her out.”

Zofia thought on it for a
bit.
 
“Why?
 
What do you think she can offer
you?
 
She’s in jail.
 
Perhaps you should just let things with
her unfold on their own without getting involved.
 
I assume that Olivia is still in control
of her.
 
What if this is some kind
of trap Olivia is setting?”

Sasha shook her head. “I’ve
thought about that already.
 
I don’t
think that Olivia would send Wren for me; if Olivia were aware of me, I think
she’d come herself.”

Zofia nodded. “You’re likely
right on that count.
 
So, what are
you going to do?”

Sasha decided she was going
to do what she’d told Wren she was going to do—go to her.
 
She and Zofia had been working on her
ability to travel through materialization, and she also knew she would have no
resistance from Wren in going to her.

“I’m going to her. The least
I can do is hear her out and then we can go from there.
 
Maybe she has some information about
Olivia we can use.”
 

Her first step was to
familiarize herself with the correctional facility where Wren was housed. She
found plenty of photos of the and she concentrated on those and on the image of
Wren’s face in her mind until she felt herself becoming lighter and lighter,
almost as if she were dissolving. The feeling was similar to the feelings of
butterflies in one’s stomach, a tickling sort of apprehension, and then she was
off like a shot—feeling nothing but seeing a burst of light as she shot
through space.
 
The butterflies
returned as she slowly took shape in Wren’s cell.
 
This time it was Sasha who leaned over
and whispered in Wren’s ear.
 
“I
can’t wait until you see me again.”

Wren rolled over, sleep
still in her eyes.
 
She sat up and
smiled.
 
“You came.
 
Thank you.”

Sasha was still angry and
didn’t quite trust her, but she had the upper hand. Wren could sense those
emotions from her, but she also knew her curiosity held her distrust at
bay.
 
Sasha stood with her arms
crossed over her chest and simply said, “You have a story to tell me.
 
So, out with it.”

Wren told her everything she
could remember—how Olivia seduced her, how she’d quickly been caught up
in Olivia’s machinations, how she had feared Olivia would get to Alex
first.
 
“I thought at the time that
you were her target, but I realize now that you were a pawn, too.
 
It’s Liz she’s after.
 
You were merely a way to get to
Liz.
 
I didn’t know that at first,
but when she showed up as I was trying to turn you, she revealed Liz is Daniela
reborn.”
 

Sasha was sitting at this
point, having softened toward Wren as she told her story. “Does Olivia know I was
turned?”

Wren shook her head.
 
“I don’t think so; she’s not indicated
she suspects anything.
 
Every time
she talks about you, she refers to you in past tense.
 
I do know she’s still pursuing Liz,
though.
 
Sasha, I want to make
things up to you; let me help you protect Liz from her.”

Sasha was still unsure
whether she could trust Wren, but she knew how to be sure.
 
She kissed her softly at first, and then
she turned the ring Zofia gave her so Wren could see the small, razor sharp
tip.
 
She brought the tip against Wren’s
tender skin on the inside of her wrist and she looked her in the eye as she
drank from the wound.
 
There was no
hint of deception there; she only felt contrition and love from her friend.

“Can you keep my existence
secret? I know you’ve not been trained as I have, and Olivia will expect you to
be open to her.
 
I can only imagine
how hard it is to hide your thoughts from her.”

Wren laughed.
 
“Remember, the long con has always been
my specialty.
 
I had more regular
customers than any of the other girls and the clients who paid the most for the
least were usually the ones I can’t stand.
 
So far, she’s been supportive of my learning better mindfulness; as long
as she thinks I’m on her side, she sees a benefit to it.”

Sasha smiled, but still
looked worried.
 
“Let me see if I
can’t get Zofia, my mentor, to come see you.
 
There may be some techniques she can
share. We’re going to have to be careful, though; we don’t want Olivia catching
one of us here, either.”

Wren was relieved that Sasha
trusted her. She hoped she might forgive her someday. Before she left she allowed
Wren to feed from her as well as a sign of trust and friendship.
 
“I won’t come again, as it’s likely to
be risky for both of us.
 
Find me
once you are on the outside.
 
If
Olivia manages to free you, we’ll work together.
 
For now, though, I’ll do my part on the
outside and I’ll be glad when you see me again.”
 
Sasha’s parting words hung in the air as
she disappeared.

Chapter
Twenty Six

When Sasha returned to the
carriage house, Zofia and Lucy were waiting for her.
 
She smiled as she realized they were waiting,
as she was proud of her successful materialization.
 
She’d been practicing for weeks, but
this was the first time she’d traveled so far and to somewhere she hadn’t
physically visited before. “Thanks for the welcome party.” She sat down in the
chair facing the sofa where the other two sat.
 
They waited for her to begin.

“So, it wasn’t a trap.
 
Olivia doesn’t seem to know I still
exist, and Wren is trying to find a way out.
 
I believe that she didn’t mean to kill
me.” Zofia and Lucy had poured three glasses of wine while they waited for
Sasha to return, and she took a long sip from her glass.

“If she’s right, Olivia
wasn’t really after me.
 
She was
after Liz. Wren told me a story about someone named Daniela. Apparently Olivia
has decided that Liz is Daniela reincarnated or something.
 
I was simply in the way.
 
Wren seems to think she turned me
because she’s still in love with me and thought if I was turned, I would be
protected.” She sipped her wine.
 
“She claims she only told Olivia I was an offering in hopes she’d take
pity on her and help her.”

Zofia was the first to
respond.
 
“That Olivia didn’t train
her doesn’t surprise me in the least.
 
She left me with Istvan, after all. I’ve been forever grateful to have
had him as my teacher rather than her, surely, but she doesn’t tend to deal
with things not going according to her plan.”

“The story of Daniela is
what we were afraid was happening. We’ve both been keeping an eye on Olivia
since she arrived this time.”
 
Lucy
looked at Zofia and then at Sasha. “If Liz truly is the one she’s after, we
have to make contact and warn her.”

Sasha nodded.
 
“I was hoping you’d agree to help. Wren
has done a lot of self-training, and that’s how she managed to contact me.
 
She’s trying to get in Olivia’s good
graces so she can get out of prison somehow; she didn’t indicate how, though.
Maybe Olivia is going to teach her how to travel through materialization.”

Zofia shook her head. “It
can’t be that simple—the missing body would cause too much
attention.
 
Remember how Lucy was
careful in rescuing you so that there was someone to take your place in the
morgue drawer? Olivia has to be planning something similar for Wren if she’s
truly working to free her.” She refilled wine glasses. “I will go to Wren and
see what more I can glean from her, as well as what I can teach her to help
protect her from Olivia as much as possible.
 
If she senses Wren is deceiving her,
she’s likely to arrange a suicide for her or simply drive her mad.”

Chapter
Twenty Seven

Wren focused all of her energy
on finding some way out after her interaction with Sasha.
 
Olivia’s visits were infrequent, and the
two women had at least come to an understanding that Wren was dependent upon
Olivia’s kindness if she was to make any progress.
 
In the days that she waited for some
inkling of Olivia’s plan to free her, she was at least occupied by a local
reporter, Vaughn Morris, who wanted to write about her.
 
He told her he was working on a book
about the murders, and he wanted to show readers who Wren Anderson really was.

Wren agreed to the
interviews; it was nice to talk to someone, and Vaughn’s visits helped to break
up the monotony.
 
After one of these
interviews she found her cell occupied when she returned.
 
Zofia stood in the small space, her
finger to her lips as Wren entered her solitary cell.
 
The guard was a donor who didn’t bother
to look in the cell anyway—why would she?
 
Zofia and Wren stood in silence as they
listened to the guard’s footsteps carry her down the hallway.
 

When they couldn’t hear her
any longer, Zofia introduced herself.
 
“Hello, Wren.
 
I am Zofia,
Sasha’s mentor.
 
She asked me to
come to you and see if I can help you.”

Wren sat on the edge of her
bed.
 
“I appreciate you coming to
see me.
 
How can we be certain we
won’t be disturbed?”

“We’ve tracked Olivia’s
movements and schedule. She is in classes and meetings this afternoon.
 
Her absence would be noted, and she’s
apparently doing her best to be inconspicuous.”

Wren nodded, relieved.
 
“She says she has a plan to free
me.
 
I need help to learn how to
keep her from finding out what I’m thinking; I can’t have her realize that I’m
anything other than completely loyal to her, or she won’t help me. She controls
the guards I work with, and she’s ensured that as long as I obey her, I have
sustenance.”

Zofia smiled.
 
“You must have figured out some things
on your own.
 
After all, you found
Sasha and called to her.
 
That’s not
overly surprising considering you turned her. The connection between the two of
you is quite strong as a result.
 
But, the connection between you and Olivia is even stronger, given that
she has such great power.
 
Do you
know who she truly is?”

“Yes.
 
She revealed her identity to me as
Dracula’s daughter well before I was arrested. On her urging, I read the novel,
and it was from remembering the ways in which mind control and telepathy worked
in the novel that I got the idea to reach out to Alex.”

“Good.
 
While the book is not completely
truthful, there are some useful lessons there.
 
I can help you learn to cloak your true
feelings from Olivia. I assume you’ve already been doing this to some extent?”
When Wren nodded, Zofia sat next to her and the two of them got to work.
 

For the next few hours while
Zofia knew Olivia was occupied she worked with Wren, putting her through a variety
of mental exercises.
 
She started by
having her read a passage from one of the books she had in her cell that she’d
borrowed from the prison library.
 
Once Wren was able to read a passage without Zofia mentally reading over
her shoulder, she started working on Wren blocking personal thoughts from view.

By the time the sun set,
Wren felt far more capable of defending her thoughts from view.
 
Zofia also went over Olivia’s schedule
with her and assured her that she would return soon to work with her again.

“Why are you helping me?”

Zofia was quiet for a few
moments before she answered. “Another lifetime ago, Olivia turned me into a
vampire as an offering to a man she felt indebted to.
 
While he and I did eventually find a
great kinship as he trained me, we also vowed to stop her from continuing to
victimize innocent people. I’ve spent many years working to undo her damage.
That is why I am working against her. You realize that the only reason I am
willing to help you is because of Sasha. You will need to be loyal to her and
use your position next to Olivia to aid in Sasha’s plans.
 
Do you agree to help us?”

Wren assured her she would
do whatever she could to help Sasha.
 
“I still love her; I owe her my loyalty.
 
I also am no big fan of Olivia; if it
were not for her, we would still be alive and free.
 
I have no illusions that her working
with me now is motivated by anything other than her desire to continue to use
me and control me.”

Zofia nodded.
 
“Good.
 
You realize that you must guard Sasha’s
existence above all else from Olivia.
 
She can’t know. Not yet.”