Tegan's Power (The Ultimate Power Series #4) (27 page)

Marcel chews on his
lip. “That’s just it, Mr Cristescu. He doesn’t want to rule only Tribane, he
wants to expand. If he can take the city and continue bringing entities over
from hell, then he can build a dark army and move out until eventually the
entire country is within his hold. Tribane is just the beginning.”

My palms grow sweaty as
I listen to Marcel speak. These plans of Theodore’s may be pretty grandiose,
but I can see how they are achievable. Who knows what kind of creatures he would
be bringing over from hell.

“Well, obviously he
needs to be stopped,” says Ethan.

“How we do that
exactly, is the million dollar question though, isn’t it,” Finn adds.

Nobody says anything
for a long time, our minds struggling to conjure up ideas.

“We need to fool him
into believing his plan is working,” I say at last. “If we can make it look
like the people have all been killed by the chaos, lull Theodore into a false
sense of security, then we can get to him and kill him before he has the chance
to open up the portal.”

“There’s no way to fake
that kind of carnage,” says Marcel.

“What about a glamour?”
I suggest.

“What about it?” Finn
asks.

“Well, a glamour makes
something look like something it’s not, right? So, why can’t we construct a
glamour that makes it look like everyone’s dead, when really they’re still
alive?”

“Because that kind of
magic is far beyond any of our expertise,” Marcel answers.

I smile. “True, but I
doubt it’s beyond Roman’s.”

They all stare at me,
realising that I just might be right. Before anyone can say a word, the door
opens and my grandfather steps inside.

“My ears are burning.
Has somebody been talking about me again?” Roman questions in amusement.

The rest of the evening is a buzz of
activity. I spend most of my time helping to make plans while also eating
everything I can get my hands on. Ethan smiles and tells me it’s perfectly
normal for me to be hungry all the time. He says that dhamphir babies need far
more nutrients than human ones.

No matter where I am,
he’s never far, always keeping a watchful eye over me. The love I used to see
in his eyes when he looked at me has miraculously seemed to grow stronger. I
feel like he’d die to keep me safe, and I really never expected such fierce
protective instincts to be directed at me, even from Ethan.

Marcel is brought to
the basement of the house and Roman magically binds his hands and legs just
like he did Emilia’s. There’s no point in using regular old restraints for
someone with magic.

Roman says that the
kind of glamour I suggested is possible, but that there is a much better way.
He tells us of a spell he can cast that will allow the humans to be taken over
by the chaos, however, when they die it will be a false death. They will
essentially sleep and wake up after twenty four hours has elapsed, like
Shakespeare’s Juliet, Roman tells us. Because this is a spell he has designed himself,
and one which has not been attempted before, Theodore won’t recognise it.

He informs us that he
will need a day or two to gather what he needs and then swiftly departs. Not
long after Roman is gone I start to feel sleepy, so Ethan picks me up and carries
me to our bed.

I sleep soundly, and I
know it’s because my vampire has held me through the night.

When I wake up he’s
gone, but I’m not alone. Rebecca’s sitting on the end of the bed. She’s hugging
a pink teddy bear to her chest and staring at me sadly.

I sit up and rub the
sleep from my eyes. “Rebecca, what are you doing in here?”

“Amanda’s still
sleeping and I’m hungry.”

Ah, I’d forgotten how
Amanda had sort of been relegated as Rebecca’s unofficial carer.

“You could have woken
her. She wouldn’t mind,” I say, getting out of bed and walking to the wardrobe
to find something to wear. Finn brought my stuff from his place, so I have all
my clothes in Ethan’s room now. I feels weird how fast things are moving with
us, but I can’t seem to find a way to slow the momentum. In fact, there’s
probably no way of slowing it now that I’m up the duff.

Rebecca gets a shy look
but she doesn’t say anything.

“What’s wrong, honey?”
I ask pulling out a long black skirt and a lacy off-white top.

“I think there’s a man
in Amanda’s room with her,” Rebecca whispers conspiratorially.

My eyes widen. “A man?”

“I saw him go in there
last night. The vampire with dark hair.”

Now my eyebrows
practically shoot right into my hairline. “Lucas?”

Rebecca purses her lips
and twists the hem of her top. “I don’t know his name.”

Yeah, it was definitely
Lucas. I quickly get dressed and go to wash my face and brush my teeth in the
en-suite. Rebecca follows and watches me, playing with a gold charm bracelet on
her wrist all the while.

“That’s pretty,” I
comment. “Did your daddy give you that?”

She nods. “It belonged
to my mummy.”

Huh.

Once I’m done getting
ready I tell Rebecca to stay where she is and that I’ll be back in a minute.
Then I march straight to Amanda’s room like a woman on a mission. I don’t even
bother to knock on the door. I simply push it open and walk inside. The blinds
are down and the room is encased in darkness, for Lucas’ sake, I presume.

A lamp flicks on and I
see the vampire fast asleep in bed first before I notice Amanda staring at me,
looking equally surprised at my invasion and embarrassed at being caught.

“Tegan,” she gasps.
“You should have knocked.”

“Why, so you could hide
the naked two hundred pound vampire in your bed?”

“Talk quieter, you’ll
wake him,” she replies in a hushed voice.

I roll my eyes. “A
chainsaw wouldn’t wake him this early in the morning. Fuck Amanda, I didn’t
nurse you back to health only for you to go straight back to being his blood
whore again. I thought you were smarter than this.”

She winces at my words.
“I am smarter. It’s different this time. He said he wants things to be
different. He’s not going to feed on me. Shit, he threw himself in front of a
bullet for me.”

I think back to how
Lucas was talking about mine and Ethan’s relationship and how it’s not based on
him drinking my blood. Well, not exactly. Still, I’m not sure if Lucas has the
willpower or the dedication to conduct that sort of relationship with a human.

“It’s not as valiant as
you think, Mandy. Vampires getting shot is like a human getting hit with a
paintball. They heal from it pretty easily.”

“Tegan, please don’t
talk to me like that. It makes me feel stupid.”

I throw my hands in
Lucas’ direction. “Yeah well, sleeping with a vampire is pretty stupid.”

She gives me a pointed
look. “You must be really stupid then, considering how very fucking pregnant
you are with a vamp baby.”

“That’s different!”

“No, it’s not. You
think you’re the only one special enough for a vampire to want to be with you,
it’s obvious.”

“That’s not true. You
know it’s not possible for Ethan to drink my blood the way Lucas used to drink
yours. That’s why our situation works. How do you know he won’t bite you in the
heat of the moment?”

“We had a really long
talk last night. He doesn’t want to be alone anymore and I believe him, Tegan.
He’s jaded with his life and wants to make a change.”

I sigh, knowing there’s
no talking her out of this. I guess I’ll just have to compromise. “Okay, well
maybe that’s true, but will you do something for me just in case?”

“What is it?”

“If I can come up with
a potion that will make your blood taste awful to Lucas when he drinks it, will
you take it for me?”

She nods. “Sure, if it
will put your mind at ease.”

“It will. And I mean it
when I say I really hope Lucas has turned over a new leaf.”

She turns to glance at
the sleeping vampire and smiles. “Yeah, me too. Every relationship has to have
its problems in the beginning, right?”

I shake my head at her,
but smile nonetheless. “Right.”

Returning to my room, I
grab a magic book Rita gave me a couple of weeks ago from my bag and bring it
downstairs with me. I laugh when Rebecca and I reach the kitchen to find Finn
standing by the cooker wearing an apron and making breakfast for everyone.

I peek over his
shoulder to stare at the pan and my mouth waters. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever
seen that much bacon before,” I say.

He laughs and pats me
on the back. “You having food cravings yet, preggo?”

I scrunch up my face at
him. “Don’t ever call me that again, and yeah, not exactly cravings for any food
in particular, just food in general. I literally feel like I could eat anything
and everything.”

Finn chuckles. “Okay,
well go and sit down. I’ll bring a plate over to you.”

I sit in between
Rebecca and Delilah and begin to flick through the magic book. I find the spell
I’m looking for fairly easily. The main ingredient I need is rosemary. Funnily
enough, vamps pretty much can’t stand the herb and find it sickening in the
extreme. So, if it’s ingrained in Amanda’s blood Lucas will probably vomit from
just one drop of the stuff.

It’s a spell on another
page that really catches my interest though. I read through it and it’s similar
to the one Rita cast to find my dad when he’d been kidnapped by Marcel and Co.
This one doesn’t require the use of dowsing rods (thank God) but it does allow you
to find a person’s location if you have something that belongs to them.

My eyes flick to
Rebecca, catching on the shiny gold bracelet around her wrist. I never did get
Pamphrock to tell me the location of her mother’s psychiatric facility, but
perhaps I could use magic to find it myself. It’s not fair for the girl to be
shifted from pillar to post like she’s been this past while. She needs
stability, and the only person who can give that to her is a parent. The
problem is, her mother could be stone cold crazy.

Well, there’s only one
way to find out, and I decide that today I’m going to find Rebecca’s lone
surviving parent. After I eat more than my fill of bacon, eggs and pancakes
(and after Finn sets a second plate down in front of me with a wink after I’ve
guzzled down the first) I enlist the help of Gabriel and Alvie to cast the
spell.

It takes a bit of
persuading to convince Rebecca to temporarily give up her charm bracelet, but I
eventually manage by promising to let her have ice-cream for dinner. And okay,
perhaps that was an easy bargain since I could definitely go for a whole tub of
the stuff in my current condition.

We get the rosemary
potion for Amanda done first, and I seal it away in a glass bottle for later.
Then we cast the location spell for Rebecca’s mother with a map of the country
spread out on the floor between the three of us. I briefly remember Pamphrock
saying her name was Felicity when he spoke of her. The spell works kind of like
a Ouija board. We place the charm bracelet beneath an upturned glass, and the
glass moves to the location of the person we’re looking for. In this case it
slides straight across the map, landing on a small town on the other side of
the country, hundreds of miles from Tribane.

“It’s too far to go
there right now,” Gabriel says seriously. “You should wait a few days until
Theodore has been taken care of before you start looking for this woman.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re
right,” I agree.

When I turn to Alvie
he’s tapping on his phone.

“I thought there were
no signals in the city with the barrier up?”

“There aren’t. I was
checking to see if the internet’s working, but it’s not. I wanted to search for
psychiatric hospitals in that town.”

“Well, it’s only a
small place. I doubt it will be difficult to pin one down.”

The door creaks open
and Ethan steps inside with a bemused expression. “What are you three
conspiring about?” he asks and goes to sit down beside me, taking in the random
assortment of items for the spell.

He picks up the potion for
Amanda, popping open the cork and taking a whiff. “Ugh, this smells awful.”

“We were casting a
spell to find Rebecca’s mother. I’m going to find her once Theodore is gone.
That,” I say grabbing the bottle from his hand and putting it aside, “is for
Amanda. She and Lucas are all shacked up again after his valiant attempt to
save her life, so I’ve concocted a potion to keep her safe. If Lucas tries to
drink from her once she’s taken this he’ll be vomiting his guts up for days.”

Ethan eyes the bottle.
“I don’t doubt it. It smells like a battlefield full of week old corpses.”

“Eww, I do not want to
think about how you know what that smells like,” Alvie interjects with a shiver.

I grin at Ethan. “Aha,
but it only smells that way to you. It’s supposed to be repellent to vampires,
that’s the whole point.”