Power (Soul Savers) (25 page)

“I’ll get it,” he said, and he disappeared.

I didn’t know how Sheree would take Vanessa’s presence, now
that the vampire was nearly converted. Sure, she had much faith-healing to go
through, but I was still amazed that she held no trace of Daemoni power. She
was less Daemoni now than Sonya. So maybe Sheree would feel that and forgive
the vampire for her past. After all, forgiveness was part of being Amadis, and
she knew that as well as anyone. It was part of her teachings. And if
I
could forgive Vanessa, hopefully
Sheree could, too.

In less than a minute after he’d flashed, Tristan opened the
bedroom door and slid inside, two bottles of animal blood in his hands. Owen
lifted Vanessa and carried her to the bed, while I pulled the bedding back. He
took the bottles from Tristan, twisted the lid off of one and held it to the
vampire’s lips. She drank greedily, pulling long draws without even tasting
them. At least at first. As she finished off the first bottle, her body
lurched, and her hand flew to her mouth, as if to keep the blood from spewing
out.

“That’s
disgusting
,”
she said.

“I told you the rules,” Owen said.

“I know, but
ugh
.”

“You feel better, though, right?”

She made a face and took the second bottle. After a
full-body shudder, she drank that one down, too. Then she finally turned her
blue eyes on Tristan and me. And they were as icy as ever.

“Is there a reason you’re still here?” she asked.

My eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”

“Was I not clear? What the hell are you still doing here?”

“Vanessa,” Owen warned.

“What? I’d just like a little privacy for a while,” she
said, sticking her bottom lip out in a pout and making her eyes big, as if
feigned innocence could excuse her rudeness. “I feel like I’ve been ripped
apart and put back together—oh, wait. I
have
been, remember? You
chopped
my body up into pieces. Chopped me up! Do you have any idea what that’s like?
And then to put myself back together … And my
insides
. Gah! All this Amadis power in my body …” She shuddered
again. “I’m so fucking sorry if I need some time to get used to it.”

I swallowed down what I wanted to say and simply nodded. “I
could use some rest myself, but one thing. Where’s my pendant?”

Vanessa’s eyes darted away from mine, and she shrugged. “I
don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” I echoed without an ounce of belief. I
peeked into her mind, which focused on the fact that she had nothing to her
name now, not even clothes on her back, let alone the pendant.

She looked back at me, straight into my eyes. “I. Don’t.
Know.”

Owen?
I reached
out to the warlock.
Did you get it?

He pursed his lips. “
I
looked for it, but couldn’t find it in her stuff. She’ll tell us eventually.
Give her time and she’ll come around, Alexis.
”

“Weren’t you leaving?” Vanessa snapped.

Again, I bit my tongue, holding back a few choice words for
both of them, and moved for the door. When Tristan stood to leave with me,
Vanessa’s eyes watered, and I thought she would beg him to stay. But her gaze
flicked away and she stared at the wall for a moment, then looked at Owen. The
tears disappeared as a small smile formed on her lips. I didn’t want to see anymore.
I flashed out of the room, only to go as far as my office, blinking against the
late-afternoon daylight flooding through the windows, a shock after the near
darkness of Vanessa’s room.

“I thought eliminating the Daemoni power was the hard part,”
I said to Tristan as soon as he appeared. “But she still has a lot of bitch
left in her, doesn’t she?”

“Faith-healing should help … but I doubt you’ll ever get rid
of all of it. That’s just who she is.”

“Great. And I barely have a clue of what I’m doing with this
next phase. I kind of wish I could ask Sheree for help.”

“I’m right here,” the were-tiger called from the other side
of the closed door.

Ugh.
Sometimes I
still forgot how good everyone’s hearing was. I waved my hand, and the door
opened. I couldn’t help the smile that broke on my face—I often forgot I
could move things with my mind, too, and the coolness factor never became old.
Sheree grinned back at me.

“So?” she asked. “How did it go?”

“Um …” I looked at Tristan but he simply looked back at me,
no help at all. “Sort of good, I guess. I’ll be pretty busy for a while, though
…”

My thought went unfinished when Sheree lifted her nose in
the air and sniffed, then made a face mixed with disgust and surprise. She came
closer to me and sniffed again. Her eyes widened with alarm. “
Vanessa?
You found her?”

Crap. Crap, crap, crap
.
“You can smell her? Her specifically?”

She wrinkled her nose. “You never forget the stench of
someone who almost killed you for fun. At least, this Were doesn’t.”

Which meant she’d eventually detect the vampire’s scent in
the safe house. The only reason I could figure that she hadn’t smelled Vanessa
in the trunks was because of Owen’s protection on them. Or maybe chopped up
body parts lost their scent since they were no longer an actual being? I fought
the shudder that tingled my spine at that thought. I could soak my eyes in
bleach and still never rid myself of the image of Vanessa putting herself back
together.

“Yes, we found her,” Tristan said. “Owen did, anyway, and
she’s actually—”

I couldn’t let him say it, not yet. She’d have some kind of
stressful reaction to the news, and I wanted to be there for her completely. I
didn’t know how Charlotte could do back-to-back conversions, but they drained
me, and right now, I was too exhausted to be the friend Sheree deserved.

“She’s incapacitated,” I interrupted. “For now anyway. We
had a pretty rough fight.”

Sheree nodded. “No wonder you look so bad. Sorry, but you
look like you could use some rest and regeneration. You’ll tell me what
happened later?”

I gave her a weak smile. “Yeah, of course.”
No matter how badly I don’t want to
.

Tristan called me out after we arrived home and were in our
own bedroom. “You know it’s better to tell her before she finds Vanessa on her
own.”

“I know,” I said as I fell backwards on the bed, too tired
to hold myself upright any longer. After further thought, I moaned and covered
my hands with my face. “I should go back and tell her, shouldn’t I? I just
wanted a little rest before—”

Tristan leaned over me, moved my hands off my face and
placed a finger over my lips. “Rest, my love. I’ll take care of it.”

“Don’t … tell …” I drifted off.

I awoke still fully clothed at 12:22 a.m. to Tristan
sleeping next to me and a tray on the nightstand. After my eyes adjusted to the
darkness, I slowly sat up and placed the tray over my lap, finding a bottle of
orange juice sitting in a small bucket of ice, a bunch of grapes, and a roll of
Tristan’s handmade sushi in a container kept cold with an icepack. Judging by
the size of the ice cubes and the chill of the icepack, he hadn’t been asleep
for long, so I let him be while I quietly ate the dinner he’d prepared for me.
My mind remained relaxed and open, finding only Dorian’s sleeping signature.
Tristan must have relieved Blossom of her babysitting duties.

As I placed the tray back on the nightstand after finishing,
Tristan rolled over, throwing the sheet off of his upper body. His arm slung
over my lap and his fingers slid under my thigh in an embrace although he still
slept. My fingers traced over his muscular forearm and then up, admiring the
contour of the mounds and dips of his bicep, tricep, and shoulder. Even in
sleep, they were rock-hard. My groin tightened and although I really wanted
Tristan to wake up, he’d already done so much for me and deserved to rest. So I
carefully slid out of bed and padded to the adjoining bathroom.

Enjoying the peace of the middle of the night, I lit candles
around the bathroom rather than flipping on the overhead lights. I turned on
the faucet for the separate tub and poured a generous dose of bubble bath into
it, but while it filled, I stepped into the shower to wash my hair. I had just
rinsed out the conditioner when Tristan joined me, very naked and very hard.

A smile threatened to break across my face as I looked at
him with innocent eyes. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

His lips danced with his own smile. “I’ll never complain
about being woken to this.”

He pulled me into his arms, pressing our naked bodies
together. His love flowed through the skin-to-skin contact, and I pulled on it,
needing this for true regeneration. I tilted my face up toward his, and he bent
down to deliver an amazing kiss that spread warmth throughout my body. Our
tongues flicked and danced together. I pulled on his bottom lip with my teeth,
and he returned the gesture, sucking a line of desire from every nerve of my
body. On their own accord, my hips ground against him.

Our mouths stayed locked together in a mind-numbing kiss as
our hands slid along our wet bodies, exploring and playing and teasing. As the
water rained down, I made my way over his chest and abs, licking and sucking
the rivulets as they slid down his skin, until I was on my knees. I took him in
my hands and then my mouth.

“Ah, Lex,” he moaned pleasurably as my tongue and hands
caressed him and my mouth sucked.

As much as he obviously enjoyed it, he didn’t let me play
for long. His hands grasped my waist and lifted me to my feet. After another
kiss, he used his power to raise me up until my belly button was at his eye level.
He moved me against the wall, gripped my thighs, and pushed my legs up and
open. He looked up at me with a devious smile before his gaze traveled down my
body. His eyes smoldered as they took me in, and he licked his lips, igniting a
fire within me at the anticipation. He kissed and sucked and nibbled the
insides of one thigh from hip to knee, making my body quake with need, and when
he started at the other knee and worked his way in, I thought I’d die from the
torture of waiting one more second for his mouth to reach its final
destination. And then it did, and I whimpered with the first lick. His lips and
tongue and fingers moved in unimaginable ways, bringing wave after wave of
orgasm crashing over me.

“I want you … inside me,” I finally panted, the need for him
to fill me overwhelming. But he didn’t obey until I came once more.

Then he released my thighs and his power over me, and I
skimmed down the wall until I reached the right place, then slid onto him. We
both moaned as his inches filled me. Then we were all animal, savage, thrusting
and bucking and slamming against the shower walls. Twisting and flipping and
clawing at the tiles until our minds shattered and the raw passion consumed us,
leaving us trembling against each other on the shower floor.

Not until we turned the shower faucet off and still heard
water flowing did I remember the tub. Bubbles spilled over the side, but the
damage wasn’t too bad. Good thing it was an extra large tub. After draining a
few inches and mopping up the floor with a couple of towels, we sank into the
water together. Tristan leaned against the back of the tub, and I sat between
his legs and leaned against him. We lay there peacefully, candlelight dancing
around us, until the last bubble disappeared, my energy replenishing with his
undying love.

Yet it still wasn’t as strong as it should have been.

***

When we arrived at the safe house the next day, we found
Owen sitting in Sonya’s room, visiting with the vamp and Sheree. Sheree
practically sat on his lap, while Sonya’s expression exposed her own hunger for
Owen. Maybe it was only his blood she desired—she didn’t exactly love the
animal blood any more than Vanessa did—but I didn’t think so. What was I
going to do with him? With all of them?

Withholding a few names I felt like calling Owen, I shook my
head and told Sheree I needed to meet with her in an hour.

“What does he think he’s doing?” I muttered to Tristan as we
headed for Vanessa’s wing. I needed to take care of the vamp before I could do
anything else, such as spill the news to Sheree. “He just leaves his charge all
alone to go flirt with those other two?”

“Scarecrow’s got his mojo back,” Tristan said. A grunt of
annoyance escaped my throat. “I thought you wanted him to find a girlfriend.”

“One, Tristan.
One.
Not three. And two of them are spiritually unstable and when the other sees who
she’s competing against, she might become mentally unstable.” I groaned with
frustration. “He shouldn’t be playing with their minds and hearts like this!
Especially since
he’s
the one who
brought Vanessa here. He should be focused on her. She isn’t exactly pleasant
when she’s jealous.”

“No. And if she has second thoughts—”

“She won’t have second thoughts,” I said automatically. “Not
about converting.”

“You’re sure?”

I thought about why that reply had come to me so easily, why
I was convinced she really wanted this and didn’t do it only to make Owen
happy. Well, obviously, converting didn’t lock Owen down into any kind of
commitment, and I still wasn’t sure which side
he
was on. He seemed to care enough about Vanessa’s desire to
change to make it happen for her, but for
her
,
not for him. Which made me question his motives even more.

But Vanessa’s motives? They’d come clear to me through her
memories. She’d lived lies all of her long, miserable life, including the
biggest lie of who she really was—under all the evil and innate
bitchiness, she really just wanted love and acceptance. I hoped, once she felt
those two things through the Amadis, she’d open up and tell me more about her
life. I had so many questions about what I’d seen, and I knew she’d barely
scratched the surface of what dwelt within her.