Tegan's Power (The Ultimate Power Series #4) (10 page)

“Sounds a lot like
Rebecca.”

He nods in agreement.
“That’s what I was thinking.”

“There’s no way to tell
how far into the future Allora’s prediction is. Rebecca’s still too young to
rule. It could be twenty years from now before there’s peace.”

Gabriel grimaces.
“Let’s hope that’s not true.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Let’s
hope.”

A couple of minutes
later we pull up outside of my house and the street seems quiet. Dead almost. A
couple of houses have their windows smashed in but thankfully none of mine have
been. Alvie and Gabriel go to check out the RV Rita had been staying in and I
lead the others into my place.

I feel a soft hand grip
my arm before I hear Allora apologise. “Sorry, you don’t mind, do you?”

“No, of course not,” I
answer, my voice coming out unexpectedly tender. It surprises me so I
immediately give her a cocky, “You can hold onto me any time you want,
darlin’.”

She doesn’t say
anything and I immediately feel stupid about the comment. Inside we find my
place the same as how we left it. It’s lucky for me that nobody decided to
break in and steal anything, because I have an extra storage of weapons under
the stairs that’s probably going to come in handy.

“You hungry?” I ask
Allora as I lead her inside the kitchen. I pull a packet of chocolate chip
cookies from the cupboard and hand them to her. She runs her hand over the
packet hesitantly.

“Cookies,” I finally
explain.

Silently, she opens
them and starts to eat one.

“I’ll be back in a
minute. I just have a couple of things to take care of.”

Making my way to the
stairs, I open the door to the small closet underneath and drag out the heavy
duty black trunk I keep locked in there. I open it up and take out my Benelli
M4 semi-automatic shotgun. When I have to use firearms, this baby is my
favourite. I drag my hand along its length, savouring the safe feeling it gives
me. I might be an Irishman, but I’m certain there’s Italian blood in me
somewhere.

Armies all across the
world use this model in their military campaigns.

Living in Tribane where
the supernatural reign, guns aren’t always the weapon of choice. However, they
can come in useful when you want to put on a bit of a performance, scare some
people into acting right.

Since times are so
uncertain at the moment, I’m going to keep this one on me. I can come back for
the rest. Upstairs I change into a clean set of clothes. The only stuff that’s
been washed are my DOH blacks so I throw those on, a sense of mourning sweeping
over me to think of all my dead comrades. Of our dead leader. The organisation
I’ve dedicated my life to for years is gone. The only saving grace for me is
the knowledge that there are other branches around the world. Perhaps I can
rebuild things here in Tribane with the help of those branches.

I tighten my jaw and
steel myself for the battle ahead. Theodore isn’t going to get away with what
he’s done and the first thing I’m going to do is find Rebecca. If Allora’s vision
is to be believed, then that girl is the key to our survival and possibly the
key to killing Theodore once and for all.

When I get back
downstairs, Allora’s still in the kitchen munching on the cookies I gave her.
She hears me come in and straightens up, setting the packet down on the table
and wiping crumbs from her lips.

“Where’s Delilah and
Ira?” I ask her.

“They went across the
street to, uh, Delilah’s house to get some of her clothes,” she answers.

Right. I’d almost
forgotten Cristescu had been living over there. Alvie and Gabriel come in from
the RV and I tell them about my plan to go to Emilia Petrovsky’s house for
Rebecca.

“Are you sure that’s a
good idea?” says Alvie warily. “She’s a powerful witch. She won’t take kindly
to us showing up.”

“She’ll take kindly to
it whether she likes it or not,” I answer brashly. I’m not normally so flippant,
at least I like to think I’m not, but this whole shitty situation is really
starting to get to me.

“Who is this girl?”
Allora interjects.

I turn to her. “I think
she’s the one you saw in your vision.”

“Oh,” she whispers and
her brow furrows.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. It’s just I’m
not sure if you’re right. I mean, it could be her but I just have this feeling
that my vision was far in the future. I feel like the girl I saw hasn’t even
been born yet.”

“Well,” I say clasping
my hands together. “I could be wrong, but I need to get her anyway. She’s the
daughter of my friend and I can’t leave her with an abductor.”

A half an hour later
we’re all back in the van again, heading towards the district where most of the
magical families have their homes. As we near Emilia’s house, a black town car
speeds by us and stops at the entrance gates. A smartly dressed man reaches out
the driver’s side window, presses a few buttons on the entry system and then the
gates open up. I pull in directly behind him before the gates have the chance
to close again.

The town car stops and
a man in his fifties emerges with an almighty scowl on his face.

“What do you think
you’re doing?!” he yells stomping towards the van.

“I’m looking for
Emilia. She around?” I say getting out of the van and stepping up to face him.

He sighs long and hard
and swipes his hand over his face, his forehead lined with stress.

“No, she’s not here.
She’s been taken.”

I give him a look.
“Taken by whom?”

“The sorcerer!” he
cries. “What would he want with her? Christ, he’s going to kill her.”

“Hey, hey, calm down.
Theodore has a bone to pick with the vamps. Emilia’s one of his own. Did he
take the girl, too?”

The man shakes his
head. “She was kidnapped by a woman claiming to be Emilia’s granddaughter. She
came to the house with a vampire who could walk in the sun!”

He looks like he needs
to sit down with a strong glass of brandy as he tells me this. A smile almost
touches my lips. Tegan came for her already. The little minx beat me to it. A
sense of relief I didn’t know I needed washes over me. She and Cristescu are
working together. Does that mean we have nothing to fear from him? Does it mean
he’s going to rule his vampires peacefully?

I pat the man on the
shoulder. “You should go inside and rest. You look like you need it.”

To be honest, he seems
like he’s going to faint any minute. I think he’s about to nod in agreement
when suddenly his steely reserve returns.

“I want you people off
the property
immediately
,”

“Right you are,
captain,” I say saluting him and hopping back in the van.

The gates open and I
pull quickly out of Emilia’s stately residence. What to do. What to do. The sky
is darkening and it will be night soon. I’m tempted to go to Cristescu’s place
and see Tegan, but then I think better of it. I’ll wait until tomorrow. That
way his army of vamps will be tucked safely into their coffins and I’ll be able
to talk to him man to man.

Hehe.
Tucked safely
into their coffins
. That was a good one.

“Where are going?”
Gabriel asks.

“Back to the hotel,” I
answer. “Tomorrow we’re going to pay Tegan and her boyfriend a little visit.”

We eat in the diner
again, and I’m beginning to get used to the greasy spoon vibe of the place.
When we all separate to go to our rooms, Allora flops down onto the bed and
curls up in a ball. I bend over her, hoping she’s all right.

“Hey,” I murmur putting
a hand on her shoulder.

“Please, just leave me
alone for a while,” she says quietly and then presses her face into the pillow.
I have a feeling she wants to have a good cry about her parents being AWOL, so
I leave her to it. Sometimes we all need a good cry.

Yeah, I’m secure enough
in my masculinity to admit it.

I turn on the
television and go into the bathroom for a shave. I brought some of my toiletries
with me from the house. It was necessary. Something seriously needs to be done
about the potential Gandalf I’m cultivating.

Once I’m finished
shaving I peek my head into the room. Allora’s fast asleep on top of the
covers. I go and kneel by the side of the bed, for some reason fascinated by
the way her face looks sleeping. I reach out to touch her but stop myself. I
don’t want her waking up and getting freaked out by seeing me staring at her up
close and personal like a total lech. Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t be able to actually
see
me, not properly, but she’d definitely sense me, hear me breathing.

I pace the room, trying
to think about anything other than the fact that I haven’t been with a woman in
a while and Allora looks so fucking irresistible right now. Deciding I need to
get out, I throw on my boots and jacket and head for the minivan. The thing
sputters a little and the engine won’t start.

“Come on, baby,” I coax
it. “Come on.”

Finally it roars to
life and I tear out of the hotel parking lot. Through no conscious decision of
my own, I find myself driving towards the parameter of the barrier around the
city again. People are camped out there now in tents and caravans. Some are
simply lying on the ground in sleeping bags. I don’t envy them. It’s as cold as
a witch’s tits out here tonight.

I stop the van a good
distance away and scan the area, just sitting here for a couple of minutes and
trying to think. That’s when I notice something. There are vehicles coming
through the barrier from the outside, it’s just that nobody can leave from the
inside.

It all suddenly makes
sense. If people travelling into Tribane couldn’t get in there would be havoc
and the outside world’s attention would be on the city. The fact that people
can get in but can’t get out means that there won’t be any suspicions. Well, at
least not until someone starts noticing that those who travel to the city never
return.

Welcome to the Hotel
California.

A chill runs over me.
People jump up and down, waving their hands in the air at the vehicles coming
inside, urging them to go no further, but the people on the outside can’t see
those on the inside. It’s all a part of the magic.

This needs to be
stopped. Eventually the city won’t be able to contain all of the people and
there will be complete and total chaos. The human kind as opposed to the
magical kind this time.

I start up the engine
again and drive away back in the direction of the city. This old wagon isn’t
going to last much longer and I need a mode of transport that I can rely on. There
are dozens of brand new black vans in one of the DOH compounds close to my
house, so that’s where I go.

There isn’t a whisper
of life when I get there and my gut sinks further. I’ve been internalising my
pain, trying not to feel the loss of something that was my entire reason for
breathing for so long.

Everything is change.
Everything is flux. I can start again.

I have to remind myself
of this, hold onto it tight, because otherwise I’m not sure if I can keep on
going. Keep on fighting a battle I can’t tell if there’s a point to anymore. At
the back of my subconscious a voice whispers the grain of an idea. A hopeful
idea that might very well be impossible. The idea of peace.

Damn Allora for telling
us about her vision and giving me futile hope.

I use my key card to
get inside the compound. The emptiness of the place echoes around the walls.
Unable to stay here for too long, I go to the garages and pick out a van.
They’re all the same so either one will do. I load one up with a couple of
crates of stakes, a box of handguns, some new arrows for my bow and lots and
lots of bullets.

Just before I get into
the driver’s seat, I lean my entire body into the side of the van and exhale.
I’m torn between the need to kill vampires and a need to live my life. The problem
is that I’m not sure I can live a normal life now. I’ve spent so many years on
edge, always waiting for the next catastrophe, that I feel like I might simply
lay my head down to sleep and never wake up once it’s all over. Kind of like
those old men who retire with all these dreams of a life of leisure, but then
they can’t function without a purpose so they die.

These are lovely
thoughts I’m having, aren’t they?

I don’t want that to
happen to me, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my days fighting either.
After a couple of centring breaths, I climb in and drive out of the garage. I
get back out and go to lock everything up but something prickles at the back of
my neck. Some hint of impending danger.

I return quickly to the
van, shoving several stakes into my pockets and pulling my shotgun from where
I’d left it on the back seat. I crouch low and move down the side of the van
just as something so fast it can only be a vampire moves in my peripheral
vision. A second later there’s a dark haired vamp in front of me, fangs out and
smile on his face like all his Christmases have just come at once.