Power (Soul Savers) (34 page)

I squeezed my hand over the invisible hilt of my dagger,
ready to pull it from its sheath. My feet moved in circles and my eyes
continuously studied my surroundings—the oak trees, a bush down a few
yards, a large boulder jutting into the water. Tall Georgia pines tickled the
sky just beyond the bank. The smells of river water, dead fish, Georgia clay,
and pine filled my nose, but nothing from a living being. Still, I turned and
turned, my heart pounding, forcing my ears to strain to hear anything other
than my pulse.

What is she doing?
What is her ambush?

I knew it was coming. Any second now. My feet moved faster,
my eyes continuously scanning for any movement. My breaths became shallow until
I was panting. Would I be able to hold my own for any time at all? How many
would she bring? I hadn’t been able to pick out any clues from her thoughts.
Vanessa was good. Conniving, deceitful, clever enough to know how to catch me
off guard.

Even now, the only mind signatures close enough to be clear
were those traveling on the bridge overhead. Nobody else was nearby. I sent all
of my senses out, including my telepathy. Perhaps if I could ruin any kind of
surprise, I might survive long enough to flash back home.

Stupid!
She was
right. I could be so incredibly stupid. What was I doing standing here,
waiting? Did I really think there was any chance she’d told me the truth and
this wasn’t an ambush? I should just flash home now. Forget about it. Come up
with a new plan.

Just as I made up my mind, Vanessa appeared in front of me.
Alone.

She lifted her brows at my expression, then she shook her
head. “At some point, you’re going to have to trust me.”

I didn’t move. My knees were still bent, keeping me in
fighting stance, my left arm out ready to shoot electricity and my right hand
still on my dagger. Seeing that I wasn’t going to back down—no way would
I loosen my guard so they could launch their attack when I thought the danger
was over—the vampire simply shrugged.

“I was right,” she said, “which means we have a long trip
ahead of us.”

This pulled me up straight.

“What? Where are we going?” I demanded. “I thought Savannah
was our destination.”

“Kali’s not here. I didn’t expect her to be—and
Tristan pretty much confirmed it—but I wanted to be sure. She’s in
Hades.”

“
Hades
?”

“It’s what we—I mean,
they
—call it, a joke leftover from what the Ancients and the
faeries did to the Greeks. You’ve heard of the Taymyr Peninsula, right?”

I had. That’s where they’d kept Tristan all those years. “As
close as you can get to the bowels of Hell,” he’d said. So that’s what Vanessa
meant—she really was taking me to Hell. No wonder they called it Hades.

“So you lied to Tristan about going there.”

She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Not exactly. I said we
were going to Savannah, and we did. It was the only way to calm him down in
that brief moment that he actually cared about you. But I didn’t say that was
the
only
place we’re going. Why? Do
you have a problem with it? Because if you do—”

I threw up my hand to stop her. She’d said what needed to be
said to Tristan to get us out of there, that was true, and she hadn’t exactly
lied. If I’d known our plans, I probably would have done the same thing, which
bothered me. I would have deceived my husband.
And
I was breaking a promise to him. If going to Hades, the
absolute worst place I could possibly go if I valued my life, wasn’t being
reckless, I didn’t know what was.

“Tell me your plans,” I said, “
all
of them, or we go nowhere but home.”

“We’ll flash our way up to Alaska and then over into
Siberia.” She went over the path of our flashes, town by town, for the first
leg. As I visualized the locations, I couldn’t help but notice the short
distances between each stop. “We’ll take a break in Washington before crossing
into Canada.”

“We don’t have time to hang out,” I protested. “And why the
short flash distances? They’re wasting time.”

“It’s still faster than flying, and safer, too—no
chance of getting caught by the Daemoni or delayed by the Normans. But if
that’s not fast enough for you, share your blood with me, and I can flash as
far as you can.”

“Why does that have anything to do with it?”

She let out a breath of impatience, and her tone sounded as
though she explained something complicated to a five-year-old. “It’s been too
long since I’ve had real blood, especially mage blood. I’m limited. Unless you—”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, nice try.”

We began our trip north and west, and the shorter flash
trips quickly wore on us. You’d think I’d have an easier time with the shorter
distances, but the energy came from the disappearing and reappearing, not the
distance traveled. And we disappeared and reappeared a lot more often than I
was used to when flashing with Tristan.

By the time we arrived in the forests of Washington in
mid-afternoon, my energy was low and Vanessa’s was depleted.

“I wanted to follow the sun,” she said as she struggled to
hike the mountainside to a cave just above us, “because fewer Daemoni are out
to catch us, but the daylight’s too much for me. I’m too weak in this blood
state.”

As if to emphasize her point, her foot slipped, and she
almost tumbled on top of me. I caught her before she fell and pushed her to her
feet.

“We’ll stay here until dark,” I said, making an executive
decision as we reached the cave.

She must have heard the disappointment in my voice. “I only
need a short break. And maybe a small taste of your blood?”

“Haha. We’ll wait until sundown, you’ll find a deer or
something, and then we’ll go. You’re no good to me if you can’t at least
protect yourself.”

Vanessa huddled in the darkest corner and closed her eyes,
but I couldn’t relax enough to rest. I sat with my back against the cave wall
near the opening, my knees drawn to my chin and my dagger in hand, while my
mind spun in more directions than should be possible. I couldn’t help but think
of Dorian and Tristan, missing them so much, and wondering how things were
going at the safe house.

How was Tristan? Had Kali made a breakthrough? If so, were
Bree and the mages strong enough to restrain Tristan? If they couldn’t,
whatever I was doing could be pointless if I didn’t get to the stone in time. I
just knew once I had it in my hand, he’d be okay. I had to believe that.

So another part of my mind couldn’t help counting off every
second we wasted. Another second could be another life Tristan took if Kali
gained complete control of him before Bree and the mages could sever the
connection. This part of my brain sent signals to my muscles that kept them
coiled, ready to act when I finally decided it was time.

Then there was the third part that could barely contain
those muscles from springing on their own—the part that kept one constant
eye on Vanessa, even when my physical eyes finally began to close. This part
kept tight hold on her mind signature, ready to alert me if something twanged
in her thoughts.

As the sun moved overhead and into the western sky, my head
started falling, and I jerked up.

“Sleep, princess,” Vanessa said, watching me from where she
lay in the deepest, darkest part of the cave. “You need to regenerate.”

“I’m fine,” I muttered. A brief burst of adrenaline pumped
through me, caused by the feeling of falling as I’d nodded off, but it quickly
ran down and my eyes began closing again.
Only
an hour or two. Have to wait for the sun to set anyway.
I let my eyes stay
closed, and my mind finally drifted off with images of Tristan and Dorian flickering
on the backs of my eyelids.

A sting across my hand tugged me out of unconsciousness, but
it was the feeling of a mouth against my palm that jerked me full awake. Not
Tristan, I knew right away. The hardness of the cave floor reminded me where I
was, and my eyes popped open. I squinted against the late afternoon sun shining
brightly through the cave’s opening to find Vanessa squatted over me, her
tongue sliding over my palm.

“What the hell?” I shrieked, jerking away from her, but she
held tightly to my hand. She gave it a look of longing then threw it at me.

“It’s already closed up,” she complained.

“What do you think you’re doing? I told you! Not my blood!”

 
“Relax. I only
got a couple drops before you healed.” She licked her lips. “But damn, was it
good.”

The way she looked at me … fangs fully extended beyond her
upper lip and glowing blue eyes swirling with desire … I tried to scoot
backward, away from her, but my spine already pressed against the cave wall. At
least her eyes weren’t red like a Daemoni’s would be—a good sign. But,
crap, she’d drank my blood. I looked at my palm and she was right, the wound
had already healed, which made no sense. I couldn’t heal that quickly from a
vampire’s fangs.

“I didn’t mean to,” she said, her voice small now. “You slid
your hand over your dagger while you were sleeping … the smell was overpowering
… I—I couldn’t help it.”

She stared at my blade with intense longing, and, squinting,
I saw the narrow line of blood that confirmed her story. Which also explained
how I’d healed so quickly. She told the truth.

“I’m hungry, Alexis. I have to—” Her head swung toward
the opening of the cave as her nose twitched, sniffing the air. She disappeared
in a flash.

My breath caught in my throat, and I lunged for her flash
trail, but I was too late to catch it. Fortunately, my mind found her signature
not too far away, about a hundred yards down the slope. She must have picked up
the scent of a deer or a—

Oh, crap.

Animals don’t laugh.

Vanessa, don’t!
I
warned her before I flashed to her location, but she was already flying at the
hikers when I appeared. I slammed into her body, knocking her far off course.
We flew so far so fast, the Norman hikers probably had no idea we were there or
how close they’d come to being Vanessa’s dinner. A tree stopped us, and we
crashed to the ground.

“
Bitch! I’m freakin’
starving!
” In a blur, Vanessa came at me.

No people!
I said,
throwing my arms up to block her attack.

Her knuckles skimmed against my temple. I jabbed my fist up
and caught her chin. Her head snapped backward, and anger filled her eyes.

“I’m a
vampire
,”
she said as she punched me in the jaw, making me stagger. She moved forward.
“We eat people!”

“You’re Amadis now.
You
don’t eat people.” My leg came up and my foot thudded against her ribs. “You’re
better than that.”

In an instant, her hands were around my throat. She lifted
me off the ground.

“Your goody-two-shoes act gets so
old
,” she groaned. “Little Miss Perfect who gets everything she
wants. You make me sick!”

She squeezed my throat harder. I punched and kicked her, but
she didn’t let go. I zapped her with electricity, which caused her grip to
loosen enough for me to breathe, which was enough for me to keep fighting.

“Well, your lack of self control gets old,” I retorted as I
shot another bolt of electricity at her. She jumped out of the way, releasing
me completely, and the current hit a tree trunk, blowing off a chunk of bark.
“Little Miss Spoiled Brat who needs to learn some self discipline. Your sense
of entitlement makes
me
sick.”

“I hate you!” she screamed as she flew through the air at
me.

“I hate you more,” I yelled, throwing myself into her path.

“I’ve hated you longer!” She wrapped her arms around my
shoulders, pinning mine to my body. We hit the ground and rolled several yards,
before stopping against a boulder with her on top. She punched me in the face.
If I were a Norman, she would have knocked me unconscious. Perhaps even killed
me with the force. As it was, pain shot through my cheek and stars danced
across my eyes.

“Only because you’ve lived longer,” I said. “What were the
dinosaurs really like, anyway?”

She let out a hiss-snarl as she swung to punch me again. I
arched my back and bucked her off before her fist made contact. We punched, kicked,
choked, and wrestled, shoved each other into tree trunks, and rolled over the
rocks and logs on the ground. Each blow brought a grunt out of the other, but
we kept fighting, wrestling, and yelling profanities. At one point, I couldn’t
help but think how much Tristan would have enjoyed watching this.

The thought of him reminded me why we were even here. We
didn’t have time to be screwing around like this. I needed to end this farce so
we could move on. If only my blood hadn’t given Vanessa such a burst of energy.
I had to wear her out before I could bring her down and, to be honest, I could
only do that by listening to every thought she had before she actually made a
move. But she was super-fast, even with the sun still up. My blood apparently
increased her vampire speed. Finally, I got a hold of her with my legs and
flipped her to the ground. She landed hard on her back, me on top of her. I
shoved my hand into her face, pushing it sideways into the ground, waiting for
her to yell mercy.

Then I felt it. And we both froze.

Her fangs had been out. My hand had pressed down on one.
Hard enough for it to puncture my skin.

I jerked my hand to my chest as Vanessa looked at me again
with intense longing.

“Please … Alexis,” she panted. “I’m really sorry about all
of this. About what I said. I didn’t mean it. I’m just so
hungry
. And weak. If you won’t let me feed off those hikers …”

My head moved side to side in a slow shake. “No, Vanessa. No
people.”