Power (Soul Savers) (14 page)

“And how would Alexis do that?” Blossom asked.

Out of nowhere, a small, ceramic jar with a tightly sealed
lid appeared in Lisa’s hand. “Trap it in here. You’ll have to kill her physical
host—or at least disable it as you did with Martin—and when her
spirit rises, trap it inside.”

“Wait—disable Martin? Is he still alive? The real
Martin?” I asked. Maybe that’s what had Owen so preoccupied.

“That is an answer we cannot give. Not part of our problem,”
Jessica said.

I cocked my head. “But Kali is. So you can tell me if she’s
what Owen’s looking for.”

Jessica rolled her eyes. “Possibly. At one time anyway.”

“So why don’t you ask
him
to do this?” Blossom asked. “I’m sure he’d be more than happy to.”

“He
does
owe us
for bringing Bree to the Amadis Island, but we don’t trust Owen or his
motivations right now,” Lisa said, then she turned her gaze on me, to drive
home her point. “We don’t feel confident that he’d follow through.”

I snorted. “Of course, he would. I’m sure there’s nothing
Owen would love to do more than take that bitch down.”

Lisa’s eyes remained locked on mine and something sparked in
them. “Don’t be so sure, Alexis. Arrogance is dangerous.”

“What does
that
mean?”

Jessica grunted her annoyance, and stood. “I’m bored. Let’s
get out of here, sis.”

Lisa nodded. “Ya know how to repay us now. We’re not goin’
to give ya a deadline. We don’ need to. The longer that unnatural thing remains
in this realm, the worse it is for the Amadis. So you don’ wanna delay too
long.”

Lisa set the jar down, and the thing was small on the vast
floor, but its purpose made it larger than life, consuming the entire
space.
 

“But don’ ignore us either,” Jessica warned, her eyes full
of menace. “Ya’ll don’ need the faeries’ wrath with everythin’ else ya’ll got
goin’ on.”

“It’s for everyone’s good,” Lisa said. “Just as much yours
as it is ours. Say? We’re really not so bad now, are way?”

I didn’t answer, but simply stared at the two at a loss for
words. They wanted me to capture Kali’s soul. Capture a soul! How on earth or
any other realm would I do that?

Jessica’s expression changed completely to her friendly,
shiny self. “Let’s do that girls’ night out sometime. You pick the date and
place and give us a call.”

Lisa made a face. “But not South Beach. That place has gone
to hell. Literally.”

“What do you mean?” Blossom asked. “It’s been a while, but I
go there all the time.”

As usual, the faeries didn’t give us a straight answer.

“Ask your new vampire friend,” Lisa said to me. Then both
faeries disappeared without so much as a
pop
.

“What is it about South Beach?” Sheree asked when Tristan
and I arrived at the safe house one morning the following week. When we both served
up a bewildered expression, she continued. “You two and Blossom have said
something about it lately, and now Sonya’s been talking in her sleep about
South Beach. It’s like the topic of some mysterious conversation, and I feel
left out.”

I looked up at Tristan. “Oh, that reminds me. The faeries hinted
that Sonya knows something about South Beach that we might find interesting.”

“Well, she keeps saying Vanessa’s there,” Sheree said,
making a disgusted face as if the vampire’s name tasted bad on her tongue. “At
least, that’s what it sounds like.”

Tristan shrugged it off. “She must still be a little
delusional. Not quite right yet.”

Sheree shook her head. “Oh, no. Actually, she’s been pretty
lucid. But I haven’t asked her about it myself—I didn’t think it my place
to. She’s awake, though. Go see for yourself.”

I needed to sit with the vampire anyway and feed her my
power, so Tristan followed me to her room. Sonya sat in bed, watching one of
the
Twilight
movies on TV. She picked
up the remote and muted the sound when she saw us.

“Ridiculous,” she said with an eye-roll. “But, I guess it
would
suck to look like a drug addict who
rolled around in bat shit every time you stepped into the sun. Becoming a
little weaker than normal doesn’t seem so bad in comparison.”

“Um …
what?
” I asked,
bewildered. I took her hand, ignoring her usual flinch. That lingering bit of
Daemoni power still made her scared of me.

“Bat shit sparkles,” she explained. “And their make-up is so
bad, they could be poster children for a rehab center. Especially that one.”
She pointed at the screen. “After all those shots of ripped wolf-boy, he looks
sickly. Makes even this vampire swing for the other team.”

I stared at her for a long moment, surprised at how lucid
she was. Only days ago she’d been little more than a zombie, and now she ranted
and cracked jokes. Inappropriate ones, perhaps, but jokes nonetheless.

“Well, at least you don’t fry in an inferno, either,” I
managed to say, trying to keep her talking.

“True,” she admitted. “Funny how all the books and movies
get some things right, but can be way off base with others.” She squinted her
eyes at me. “Except yours.”

“Yeah, well, I had help by someone close to the source, my
mom. She slipped me suggestions when she read, correcting the few things I had
wrong, making them sound like really good ideas to me. All those other writers
were only given bits and pieces, or went off others’ canon.”

“Funny how the truth makes your stories so much more
believable. You seriously didn’t know you were practically writing
non-fiction?”

“The stories are still fiction,” I corrected her. “Just the
characters were truer-to-life than I knew at the time.”

“Well, I love your books,” Sonya said. She looked over my
shoulder, as if noticing Tristan for the first time, and if vampires could
blush, I’d swear she did. When she didn’t look away for a long moment, Tristan
cleared his throat, breaking the silence.

“We have a question for you,” he said, “if you’re up to it.”

Her mouth tugged as if she fought a smile, though nothing
funny had been said. I knew how she felt—the man had that effect on
everyone of the female persuasion. Thankfully, he still had that effect on me.

“About Vanessa,” Sonya said, and she smiled for real now.
“My physical strength may be weak, but I still hear extraordinarily well.”

“Do you know where she is?” I asked.

She finally tore her blue eyes away from Tristan and looked
back at me. “South Beach, as Sheree said. I’ve overheard you talking about her,
so I guess it’s been on my mind. I’ve always had a problem talking in my sleep.
Anyway, last I heard, Vanessa was in South Beach.”

Tristan shook his head, doubt filling his eyes. “That was a
few months ago, though.”

“The day you confronted me,” Sonya said, “and brought me
here. She’d been at our nest the night before, and our leader—that guy in
the parking lot?—he said she wanted some of us to go to South Beach to
serve her.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Tristan said. “Vanessa seeks the
limelight. She’d never purposely go to a place filled with models and
celebrities. The same reason she avoids New York and Hollywood.”

“Unless she was put in charge of a new nest,” Sonya said.

Tristan stroked his chin as he peered at the vamp. “That
would
feed her ego. But why another
nest? There are several already in Miami.”

“Lucas wanted to grow the Daemoni presence over there. It’s
part of his big plan. Miami, especially South Beach, has lots of prime
candidates for turning, and with all that gourmet food there, they taste extra
special,” Sonya added with longing. As soon as she realized what she’d said,
she covered her face with her free hand. “I’m not supposed to think that way
anymore, am I?”

“It takes time,” I said, pushing more power into her.

The vamp clenched her jaw—I’d never realized she’d
still be in such pain from the goodness—and breathed through it until she
could speak again.

“So Vanessa actually
wanted
to be the one to start this nest?” Tristan asked.

“She has clout in the Daemoni for some reason, and she
probably wanted South Beach because it’s close to you guys.”

“So why doesn’t anyone claim to have seen her?” I asked.

Sonya sighed, our questions wearing on her limited patience.
“Look, I’m just telling you what I knew three months ago. But if one of your
most wanted was scheming something, would you have her in the open all the time
or kept hidden? I don’t see
you
out
there fighting.”

The girl—vamp, whatever—had a point. Tristan
nodded again, confirming this was a good possibility.

“So when do I get to see my sister?” Sonya asked.

“When you stop flinching every time I touch you,” I said. As
long as she had the reaction to goodness that she still did, I wasn’t risking
Heather’s life.

Sonya nodded and then sighed again, this time with sadness
rather than frustration. “Probably a good idea.”

***

“You guys are always going somewhere and leaving me on this
stupid island,” Dorian complained that evening when I mentioned a trip to South
Beach to Tristan. I thought our son had been too engrossed in his video game in
the other room to have heard me, but he’d suddenly appeared in the kitchen with
us. “When do I get to go somewhere?”

“Where do you want to go, little man?” I asked.

His eyes lit up. “Busch Gardens! No, wait … Universal
Studios and Harry Potter World. Heather says the roller coasters are scary, but
I don’t believe her.”

I looked at Tristan, and he shrugged. “
Daemoni hate the whole vibe of family, love, and wholesome fun at amusement
parks
,” he said silently. “
As long as
we stay with him the whole time, I don’t see why not.
” He turned to Dorian.
“How about next weekend?”

Dorian fist-pumped the air. “Yes! Can Heather come? I can’t
wait to see her scream her head off.”

Before we could answer, he bounded to his room, and the door
rattled in its jamb as he slammed it with a little too much enthusiasm. I shook
my head. His one and only friend was a teenaged girl. I didn’t know who I felt
more sorry for—Dorian or Heather.

I looked up at Tristan. “And South Beach?”

His grin dissipated. “I don’t know,
ma lykita
. Sonya’s answers made sense, but what I know about the
Daemoni—”

“What you
knew
,” I
corrected. “They’re initiating war now. Things have changed.”

“Okay,” he conceded. “Then what I know about
Vanessa—she couldn’t stand to lay low for so long.”

“Maybe she hasn’t. Maybe our people haven’t seen her because
we don’t go to South Beach—”

“For good reason. The Daemoni have always been in control
there.”

“If we want to find Vanessa, we’re going to have to take the
risk. I don’t think we have a choice, Tristan.”

“I don’t like it. You would have heard something from
someone about this already. We’ve been all over the state.”

“But if she’s in Miami, why would anyone anywhere else be
thinking about her? Or maybe they sense my presence and keep their minds
focused on other things, knowing I’d be listening. I mean, since Kali is
definitely still alive, I’m sure she’s told them all about my telepathy.”

Tristan paced the area between the kitchen table and the
island. “And the way she messed with the council members’ minds ... she may
have found a way to make others block their thoughts from you, at least
temporarily.”

“Or … maybe Kali’s even been around, working the magic for
them.” Which meant maybe I could catch her and meet the faeries’ demands.

Tristan stopped in front of me and leaned against the
counter. “Okay, we’ll go. But only on reconnaissance. Not only about Vanessa,
but to see if Kali’s there and up to something.”

“I’d sure like to catch her, though. Not just for the
faeries, but maybe it would bring Owen home.” I sighed, missing my protector
even more than usual when we were planning a mission. “I guess we’re going by
ourselves again?”

He took my hands and pulled me to him. “I’ve said before
that we can call on other Amadis. I’m sure Trevor would come for you.”

I grimaced. Trevor the werewolf
might
come for me—he did respect that I’d fought for his
wolf-pack and said he’d fight for me any time—but I really didn’t trust
anyone besides Owen enough for these clandestine missions. Although I preferred
to have my protector with us, Tristan and I had done fine so far on our own.
Besides, we didn’t need a Were with us. We needed a powerful mage.

“And I’ve told you before how I feel.”

“Then it’s only you and me again. Which is why we’re only
getting close enough to
listen
. It’s
a big colony there, and we’re not starting anything with them. Not even if we
see Vanessa.” He lifted my chin with his thumb and forefinger and pierced me
with his gaze. “Understand?”

I nodded.

“No fighting,” he said. “Promise?”

Sheesh. Was I really so compulsive that everyone required my
sworn word? Wait. I already knew that answer.

“Promise,” I mumbled under his stare.

“And
I
promise, if
we do find Vanessa, you
will
get to
fight her—just not when we’re by ourselves and outnumbered.” He leaned
forward and planted his lips on mine, sealing our promises with a luscious
kiss.

***

As soon as we appeared in the dark alley, I knew something
was wrong. For 11 p.m. on a Friday night in South Beach, there weren’t nearly
as many mind signatures as I’d expected, and those that were around were either
holed up deep inside buildings or weren’t Norman. We crept down the alley that
emptied onto Lincoln Road, which wasn’t really a road. The street was
permanently blocked off for pedestrian traffic and gatherings, with trees, benches,
and even bars where vehicles would normally be. Cafes and shops lined the sides
of the street. All were empty.