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

“I really like it too,”
I say meeting his eyes. “But we can’t, it’s too risky. We’ll only do it if it’s
like, a life or death situation and I need your blood to heal. Alright?” I
thrust my hand out for him to shake it.

He looks at me like I’m
being adorable and then finally shakes my hand. “Deal,” he says with a growl,
pulling me onto his lap and attacking my mouth with his, plunging his tongue
inside. A minute or two later somebody clears their throat and Ethan zips away
from me, his posture guarded, ready for an attack.

My heartbeat slows down
when I see that it’s only Lucas. He’s standing in the doorway with an amused
yet eager look on his face. His eyes trace over Ethan, taking in the changes in
his appearance. The power. The power that I gave to him. Then his gaze flicks
to me and I can practically see the thoughts churning in his mind. Maybe he’s
thinking how he could drink from me and then he’d be like Ethan, too.

“Lucas,” says Ethan.
“How did you get in here?”

Lucas jangles a key in
his hand. “I have a spare, remember?”

Ethan groans and rubs
his jaw. “I hope you made sure nobody saw you coming inside.”

“I might not be a
super-vampire, but I’m not stupid,” Lucas replies, walking to the window and
glancing out. He whistles. “That’s some queue. When are you actually going to
deal with them?”

He must be talking
about the vampires waiting for Ethan to see them so that they can pledge their
allegiance.

“I don’t have to deal
with them. They can go about their lives as they had been before. I have no
interest in setting up any kind of new hierarchy.” Ethan goes to stand beside
Lucas by the window.

Lucas laughs. “Did your
transformation cause you to forget everything you know about our people? We
cannot function without hierarchy, and all of those vampires waiting for you to
see them want to know where they fall in the new order of things. You might not
have asked for the title, fuck, I know for a fact that you don’t want it, but
for all intents and purposes you are the new Whitfield and you’re going to have
to embrace it. If you hadn’t noticed, there are humans piling up on the
outskirts of the city trying to get out but they’re trapped. We’re all trapped.
Somebody needs to step up and fix things and that someone is you, Ethan.”

He points a finger at
him, strolls from the window and sits down on one of the armchairs by the
mantelpiece, crossing his arms over his chest and looking satisfied with his
logic.

“Drinking from Tegan
didn’t turn me into a warlock, Lucas. I am just as clueless as to how to break
the barrier as everyone else.”

Lucas’ eyes flick from
Ethan to me. “What about you? Do you know how to break the barrier?”

“I have no idea,” I
whisper. “I wish Rita hadn’t gone with Theodore. She’s the only person I know
who even has a chance of breaking it.”

Lucas snorts. “She’s
probably the one who put it in place. Stupid bloody witch.”

“Uh, the fact she could
trap us all like this makes her the opposite of stupid,” I say defending Rita
instinctively even though she’s not on our side anymore. The pain of that is
still fresh, still hurts.

Lucas brushes me off
with a wave of his hand and returns his attention to Ethan who’s still staring
out the window.

“So, when are you going
to see them?” he asks, referring to the waiting vampires.

With an audible sigh,
Ethan turns back to the room. “There’s no time like the present.”

I guess we aren’t going
to get a day to ourselves after all.

Finn

After settling Allora
in a seat at the back of the van, I return to the front and start up the
engine.

“Why are we taking her
with us?” Delilah asks, disgruntled. “We’ve got enough to worry about without
adopting every waif and stray we come across.”

I glance at Allora in
my overhead mirror and see her visibly redden at Delilah’s statement.

“You don’t have to take
me,” she volunteers meekly. “I can find my own way…”

“You’re staying with
us,” I interrupt firmly before meeting Delilah’s gaze. “She’s some kind of
clairvoyant. Ridley kidnapped her two years ago so that he could use her
powers. Two fucking years she’s been kept prisoner by that psycho. We’re
helping her. It’s not up for discussion.” I tighten my jaw, giving Delilah one
final stern look before I start driving.

“You always have to
play the hero,” she mutters passive aggressively under her breath but I pretend
I can’t hear her.

I think about that as I
drive and wonder if it’s true. I signed up with the DOH because I wanted to save
people from vampires. I wanted to make up for the fact that I couldn’t save my
mum and sister from them. Then there was Tegan. The very first night I saw her
with Cristescu after he’d annihilated a whole squadron of my men I knew she was
stuck in a bad situation, and I wanted to help free her from it.

I’ve been trying to
help her ever since that night to no avail. She stayed with a monster
willingly. Maybe she never needed saving to begin with. Or maybe she’s just a
lost cause, too in love with a blood sucker to see how she’s falling down a
hole. Eventually there’ll come a day when she’s in too deep to climb out of it.

Up ahead I see a
shitload of traffic piling up on the road. I roll down my window and stick my
head out, only to be greeted by the sounds of horns blaring and people shouting
in desperation.

“What the heck?” I say
pulling the van to a stop on the motorway.

All three lanes on the
side of the road leading out of the city are crammed with vehicles, while the
lanes on the side going towards the city are empty. I guess it makes sense.
After all the madness and carnage that’s gone down, it seems only logical that
people would want to flee.

Telling the others to
stay where they are, me and Gabriel get out and go to investigate the hold up.
Even if everyone’s trying to get away from Tribane, the traffic shouldn’t have
come to such a dead halt unless there’s been an accident.

We weave through the
stationary vehicles and people standing around kicking up a fuss about the
delay. When we get about a half a mile up the motorway we see that there has
been an accident, only not the kind I expected. Several cars look like they’ve
been pulverised to pieces, and stretching from the ground far up into the sky
is a glittering purple shield, a barrier to the outside world.

Gabriel lets out
several low expletives as we continue closer to the shield. It vibrates with
power – magical power. The sound of women and children crying fill the night
and among the shattered vehicles is a mess of blood and limbs. Most of the people,
though, are staring up at the barrier in fear and fascination.

“This is Theodore’s
doing,” says Gabriel quietly. “He’s trapped us all in.” He pauses and points to
the carnage. “Those people tried to drive through it and look what happened.”

“Shit,” I whisper, not
knowing what else to say.

I’d thought Theodore fled
in terror when he saw Cristescu transform. Clearly he wasn’t too terrified if
he could manage to construct something like this.

“Well,” I say, kicking
a stone aside with the toe of my boot. “It looks like nobody’s going anywhere
right now. We’d better get back to the van and find somewhere for all of us to
sleep tonight.”

Gabriel nods and we
begin walking back. Once we reach the others I quickly fill them in on what’s
happened. Alvie trembles when he hears and Delilah looks out the window with a
resigned expression while Ira rests his furry head on her lap. Allora moves
warily to the front of the van.

“Can I sit up here with
you?” she asks hesitantly.

My eyes roam her pretty
face, her unseeing, unfocused eyes before I respond, “Sure you can.”

She exhales with
something like relief and climbs between the seats. Maybe she thought I was
going to deny her. Once she settles in beside me her hands fumble at her sides
trying to find the straps for her seatbelt. My eyes soften.

“Hey,” I murmur. “Let
me help you.”

Her hands still and she
nods once. I take the seatbelt and secure it over her chest and around her
waist, my hands brushing off the smooth material of her dress as I do so. Her
gaze is on me even though she can’t see me.

I turn the van around
and begin driving away, back in the direction of the city. I think about
bringing everyone to my place but then reconsider. Perhaps it would be a good
idea to stay under the radar for a while until we can get the lay of the land.
I turn off the motorway and down a side road. Up ahead I notice a sign with the
universal symbols for food and accommodation two miles farther. A couple of
minutes later I turn into the parking lot of a large chain hotel, with a red
brick, one storey diner beside it.

“Anyone hungry?” I ask
as I park in one of many free spots. In fact, the entire place is almost empty.
The lights are on in the diner and I can see that there are a few people inside,
so I presume it’s open.

“I’m starving,” Alvie
exclaims fervently and Gabriel smiles at him affectionately.

“Right, you all go and
get some food while I book us into the hotel,” I say sliding out of the van.

Everybody begins
walking towards the diner but I notice that Allora’s still by my side. She
blushes when she asks, “I’ll stay with you, if that’s alright.”

She bites on her lip
and I have a hard time looking away. A real hard time, if you get my meaning.
Without saying a word, I slip my hand into hers and guide her towards the hotel
entrance. A receptionist in her sixties with a purple rinse hairdo sits at the
reception desk thumbing through a gossip magazine. She looks up when we enter
and raises an eyebrow at Allora’s long silk dress and bare feet.

I give the woman my
best charming grin as I step up and lean one arm on the counter. “How are ya
doing, Miss?” I ask.

She puts her magazine
aside and gives me the once over, her tongue wetting her lips as her eyes move
along my body. “Not too bad. It’s quiet,” she answers.

“I need rooms for six
people,” I tell her.

She taps on her
computer screen. “I can give you three twin rooms, or one family room. If you
go for the family room, two of you will have to sleep on the sofa bed.”

Real classy joint, this
place.

I’m tempted to go for
the family room since it’s better if we all stick together, but then I think
how crowded that will be and I go for the three twin rooms options instead. The
two girls can stay together and I’ll room with Ira so that Gabriel and Alvie
can have some privacy.

I hand over my credit
card and Purple Rinse slides it through the scanner before giving it back to
me.

“Sorry, but my friend
here lost her shoes. We had a bit of a wild night,” I smirk. “You wouldn’t know
where I could buy her a pair of slippers, would you?”

“I can get her a pair
of the hotel flip flops we sell for the swimming pool,” Purple Rinse suggests.

“Thanks, that’d be
great.”

She leaves her desk to
go and get them and I slump back against the counter. I haven’t slept properly
in about a week and exhaustion is beginning to catch up on me.

“Are you okay?” Allora
asks shyly and I open my eyes, suddenly realising I had closed them for a
moment. “You seem tense.”

I tilt my head
questioningly. “What makes you say that?”

“Your breathing is
all…harsh,” she answers.

With her lack of sight,
I wonder what other things she notices about people.

“It’s been a rough
week.”

She turns her head away
and crosses her arms over her chest. “I can understand that.”

“Are you cold?” I ask
her, eyeing her thin flimsy dress.

“A little,” she replies.
“I’ll be okay.”

I slip out of my
leather jacket and pull off the work shirt I’m wearing over my long-sleeved
T-shirt. Handing it to her, I say, “Put this on.”

She takes the shirt
wordlessly and slides her arms into it just as Purple Rinse returns with the
flip flops. I pay her and help Allora put them on. She gives me a small
grateful smile and I shove the key cards for our rooms into my pocket before
guiding her over to the diner.

When we get there we
join the others at a large table and I order myself a steak while Allora asks
for a glass of water.

She’s sitting beside me
and I lean into her. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“I don’t have any
money,” she replies, her voice tight as though trying to keep tears at bay.

“I’m paying. Order
whatever you want.”

“I don’t want to be a
bother.”

“You’re not. I won’t let
you go hungry, Goldy,” I say. “Now, what tickles your fancy?”

She gives me a small
smile and says she wouldn’t mind a tuna melt and I call the waitress back to
put in her order. The others eat and chat over us, speculating over how
Theodore managed to construct a barrier around the city.