Promise (38 page)

I stepped back and stared at her. Mom frowned
and nodded.
A baby? Or two?
Tristan appeared in the doorway
behind Rina. His brows momentarily furrowed, then he smiled at me,
his eyes sparkling. For two beats. Then the smile disappeared.

He took my hand and led me through the
doorway, into a library. Books lined the shelves, floor-to-ceiling,
wall-to-wall. At each corner of the room sat a pair of chairs with
a small wooden table between them, a reading lamp on each table.
They were all lit, the only light in the room as there were no
windows. Tristan took me over to one of these sitting areas and
pushed me down into a leather chair.

"I need to talk to you," he said, kneeling in
front of me to look me in the eye.

An ominous feeling brushed my shoulders and
slid down my spine. I narrowed my eyes. "I don't think I'm going to
like this."

"No, you're not. I hate it myself." His eyes
were dark, the gold sparkle from just a few minutes ago gone. He
took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I need to go out
there."

"What?! No!"

"I can put an end to it, Lexi."

Of course he can. Nobody can beat him.
But I shook my head.

"You can't go fight! What if you don't
come…
back
?" I choked on the last word, my voice cracking as
I spit it out.

"I may not have to fight. They just need to
see proof I've given myself to you and the Amadis and that I am
truly part of the royal family."

"Oh." My chest loosened from the grip of
panic. "Well, that's not so bad. Let's give them proof. What do we
do?"

I searched his face and he looked away from
me for a moment, then back into my eyes. He pulled the collar of
his shirt down to expose the Amadis mark.

"They have to see it for themselves," he said
grimly. "They've set a meeting place for me to meet Lucas."

Chapter 2
6

Lucas—the sperm donor, now their most
powerful warrior.

"Absolutely
not
!"

"Lexi, it's the only way."

"It's a trap, Tristan! You can't go to
them!"

"I
know
it's a trap. But if I don't
go, they'll continue to fight and attack. They'll continue to hunt
us. I put everyone's lives in danger."

I shook my head. Tears spilled. "
No!
You can't do this!"

I threw my arms around him, thinking if I
held him tight enough, he couldn't go.

"I have to," he said. "I've made a vow to you
and the Amadis that I would lay my life down for you."

"You also vowed you would never
leave
me! They're going to t-t-take you or…k-k-
kill
you!"

He grabbed my upper arms and pushed me back
so he could look into my eyes. I quivered in his hands.

"They can't take me down, Lex, remember that.
They don't know
how
to kill me."

"Then they'll take you away!"

"
Nothing
will keep me from you, my
love. I
will
come back to you." He pulled me back into his
arms. "And then we can be together in peace."

I pulled back and looked him in the eyes.
"Then take me with you if you're that confident. If they stop
fighting, then there's no danger, right? And if it's a trap, like
we know it is, we can at least be together."

"Absolutely not!" he growled angrily.

I stood up and strode around the room. "See!
You don't know for sure this will work! You don't know that you'll
come back. They don't want us together, Tristan, unless we're with
them. If they're going to get you, they're getting me, too!"

"Stop the nonsense!" He grabbed me by the
arms again. "You have to stay here, no matter what happens. You
have a purpose and you have to do it for the Amadis."

"But I need
you
!" I cried. "I can't do
it without you. I can't
live
without you!"

I fell against him and sobbed. He held me,
stroking my hair.

"You won't have to live without me," he said
softly. "I
will
come back to you. Nothing can stop me. But I
have to do this. For the Amadis. For you. For
us
."

I cried in his arms. My gut told me this was
it. Once I let him go, I had no idea if I'd ever see him again. I
held his face in my hands and looked into his eyes.

"Promise me," I whispered. "Promise you'll
come back."

"I promise," he said firmly. "I can't live in
this world without you, Alexis. I promise I'll be back, no matter
what happens. I
will
come back to you."

He sealed the promise with a kiss, loving yet
urgent…like it was one of our last.

Then he took my necklace off, stood up and
fished something out of his jeans pocket. He thread a small key
onto the chain and clasped the chain back around my neck.

"Guard this with your life," he said. "This
is literally the key to our future."

I nodded as I held the key and the pendant in
my hand. He pulled an envelope out of his back pocket and handed it
to me.

"Keep this in a safe place, too. There are
copies, but you should have this."

"But you're coming right back," I said
firmly.

"Yes. I'm just taking precautions." He
nuzzled his face against my neck as he rubbed his hand over my
lower abdomen. "You stay safe. You're carrying precious cargo."

I nodded, more tears flowing. He leaned down
and kissed my currently flat belly.

"You need to come back for all of us," I
whispered. "We need you."

"I will. I
promise
you." He crushed
his lips to mine. I only hoped I could communicate just a small
portion of the love I had for him, because there was too much to be
held in just one kiss. Too much for all the kisses in the
world.

He pulled me by the hand back into the other
room, where Mom, Rina, Solomon, Owen and Stefan stood. They all
turned toward us, their faces bleak.

"Ready, Tristan?" Stefan asked.

Tristan nodded stiffly. My resolve fell.

"
No!"
I cried. "Please, don't!
Please
, Tristan! Don't leave me!"

He hugged me again and I clung to him.

"Please,
don't
…" I sobbed. "I love you
too much."

"I'll be back. I promise." He kissed me one
last time and I looked at him, into those adoring hazel eyes,
memorizing his beautiful face. I inhaled deeply, taking in his
scent—mangos and papayas, lime and sage, and a hint of
man—capturing it to memory. He smiled sadly and I clung to his last
words. "I love you,
ma lykita
."

"I love you, my sweet Tristan."

He took me by the shoulders and gently pushed
me into Mom's arms. Then the men left the room, leaving us three
women to do nothing but worry. When they opened the front door,
fighting sounds filled the air. The window rattled loudly as
something hit it.

"Down to the shelter," Rina said to Mom. I
reluctantly followed them. As we passed through the foyer, I
glanced through the still-open door and saw Tristan several steps
ahead of the others, leading them out to battle.

"
No!
" I yelled. I ran for the front
door. Tristan's hand flicked and the door slammed shut just as I
reached it. I banged my fists against it. "No! I have to watch! I
need to know what's going on!"

My feet left the ground and the air rushed
past me again. Rina carried me, speeding down a hallway, then down
several flights of stairs. I struggled in her arms, but she was
unbelievably strong. She finally stopped, setting me down in a
small room with concrete walls, lit by a single lamp dangling from
the center of the ceiling. Mom pushed the concrete door closed,
securing it with a large, wooden beam across the center. Four
maroon recliners, each with a blanket folded over its back, and a
coffee table furnished the room. Shelves full of food and jugs of
water lined one wall. A toilet sat in a corner and a sink was
bolted to the wall next to it. The three of us could easily stay
here for three days. I certainly hoped that wasn't the plan. I
couldn't wait three
hours
to see Tristan again, to know he
was safe.

"Alexis, close your eyes," Rina said. "I will
show you what is happening."

I inhaled deeply as I stared at her, trying
to comprehend. She tapped her finger against her forehead.

"I can see. I can share."

Mom sat in one of the leather recliners and
closed her eyes. I dropped into another and closed mine. A vision
appeared in my head, as if I stood in the clearing in front of the
house. Tristan's mere appearance wasn't enough to stop the
fighting. Through others' eyes, we watched the battle. The
viewpoint changed several times as Rina tapped into different
minds. Sometimes I heard her voice as she gave commands to the
soldiers. Sometimes we heard the terrifying thoughts of the
Daemoni, then Rina would warn the Amadis what they were about to
do. Sometimes she cut my visions off.

"I am sorry, dear, but there are some things
I cannot allow you to see," she said to me.

I nodded, grateful to see any of it and not
have to rely on my unruly imagination. But, as the battle heated, I
didn't know if even
my
imagination could be worse than this.
I had to fight the urge to not watch because I had to know Tristan
and the others were okay.

It felt like we stood in the middle of it
all. A blue light shot across our current vision, blasting its
target into bits. Another light zipped right past us. A tree split
with a loud crack. A piece of the fallen tree flew through the air,
taking someone down. Stefan and Owen ran around the scene, shooting
unseen powers out of their hands, knocking Daemoni to the ground.
Everything—powers or solid objects—sent at Owen bounced back before
it hit him, as if he were protected in an invisible bubble.

Out of our peripheral vision, we could see
Solomon. Then Rina changed minds to see him better. His expression
was blank, though he held a severed hand in his right palm. I
gasped as I realized, seeing the stump of his left arm, that it was
his
own
hand. He held the wrist of the detached hand against
the stump and a second later, his fingers waved, then closed into a
fist and opened again.
Holy crap!
He reattached his hand!
Can we all do that?
But I immediately forgot the thought as
a Daemoni jumped at him. He grabbed her by the shoulders. His head
dove toward her throat. And that's when I noticed his teeth.
Especially his eyeteeth.
Have they always been so long? So
pointed?
Rina instantly changed views.

I recognized Ian, standing away from the
mayhem, his dull red hair shaking around his face as he cackled at
the scene. Then a round object suddenly flew at us. I flinched,
expecting it to actually hit me. It landed at our feet. We looked
down to see a human head rolling to a stop. My stomach jumped. Acid
burnt the back of my throat.

From another view, we watched from farther
back, at the house. I heard the Amadis fighter's thoughts as he
told Rina he was injured, but he could be her eyes to see the full
scene. He looked down. His leg ended in bloody shreds where the
knee should be. He held it in his hands, but they looked more
like…
claws
. Then there were several popping sounds and his
head snapped up. He focused on Tristan. I forced myself to
watch.

Tristan fought off several Daemoni as
dog-like creatures appeared all around him.
Dogs or wolves?
I couldn't tell from this viewpoint. They were definitely larger
than any canine I'd ever seen, a few nearly as tall as Tristan. He
shot power at them. Some fell to the ground. Others soared back
several yards. The creatures continuously sprang and lunged at him.
At first, he could keep them off. He whacked at them with his arms.
He kicked them across the meadow. He blasted them with his force.
Owen shot his power at the creatures, too, trying to keep them
back.

But more popped into existence.
Pop! Pop!
Pop!
Dozens
of them.

I gripped the chair's arms, suppressing the
irrational urge to run out there and help. Not that I could do
anything against these…these
beasts
. But I felt so useless
just watching the horror.

Daemoni and their creatures continued
appearing all over the estate's lawn. They swarmed onto Tristan.
Oh, no! Oh, God, no! There's too many!
I cried out as a
creature lunged at Tristan and grabbed onto his arm with its mouth.
Its teeth dug into his skin, not letting go. Then a second one
attached to his other arm. Another Daemoni jumped on his back.

Then there was Edmund. He glanced briefly at
Tristan, then strode toward us, toward the mansion. He waved his
hand and several creatures followed him.

But not enough to relieve Tristan. He fought
off creatures while eyeing Edmund. His eyes narrowed and his chest
lifted. He heaved a breath of exasperation.

Then he looked right at us.

His eyes bored into our seer's, through
Rina's mind and into mine, as if he knew I could see him. And our
eyes locked. Rina switched to his thoughts. His lovely voice
reverberated in my head.

"I love you,
ma lykita.
"

We flew through the air and tackled
Edmund.

And then we went blank.

Rina switched back to the mind of the soldier
near the house. The meadow was nearly empty. A few stragglers
disappeared with pops and now everyone was gone. Including Tristan.
My eyes flew open.

"Where'd he
go
?" I screamed, jumping
to my feet. I looked wildly around the concrete room, disoriented
for a moment. Mom and Rina finally opened their eyes, too.

"They are all gone," Rina said quietly. "I
cannot find any thoughts out there. Nowhere in my range."

"He's gone to meet Lucas, hasn't he?" I
cried.

Rina nodded.