Power (Soul Savers) (39 page)

A small noise sounded in my throat as I tried not to gag.
Lucas smirked again at my reaction.
Jabbing
buttons. He’s just trying to get to you.
I tried to control the anger
clawing at my chest.

He shook his head when I didn’t answer. “I guess it’s not
the time for a grand reunion. So let me make this clear.” He stepped toward me,
his icy blue eyes piercing into my soul. His warm, buttery voice became
glacially cold. “You take something from me, I take something in return. It’s
only fair.”

“As if you believe in fairness,” I whispered.

“Oh, now, see, you don’t even know me. I
do
believe in fairness. At least, when
it’s in my favor.” He chuckled at his joke. “And this works in all of our
favors, don’t you think? You get Vanessa and I get something I want. Win-win!
Isn’t that what your generation calls it?”

“What do you want?” I asked, stalling for time to try to
figure out how we were going to get out of here alive. Never had I wished so
vehemently that I knew the best solution.

“My daughter of course.”

“Then take me,” Vanessa said. “I’ll stay. Let her go.”

Vanessa, no!
I
knew she really didn’t want this. She was doing it for me. Vanessa, my once
sworn enemy, was trying to save me.

“
He’ll never let us
out alive. I have to try!
”

Lucas eyed her, as if considering. Then he waved his hand at
her, and she flew backwards, her back cracking against the earthen wall. He
burst into laughter as her body slid to the floor. My heart hurt with the sound
of his frigid guffaws, but not nearly as much as Vanessa’s must have.

“
You’re
not what I
want!” he barked. “You’re right—you were never good enough. And
definitely aren’t now.” He turned back to me. “I want the daughter that
actually matters. You stay, Alexis, and Vanessa can go, and I’ll even let her
take the stone with her. Seth will be free of us. He’ll be safe and so will the
Amadis.”

My head moved side to side with each promise I knew he’d
break. Lies. Deceit. Their most powerful weapon.

“You wouldn’t do that for your people? Your husband? Your
sister
?” And, man, did he know how to
use that weapon. “How about my grandson, then?”

“Never!” I seethed.

“I’ll eventually get Dorian anyway, though. He’ll be,
what—nine?—next month? I’ll be getting him soon, so why delay the
inevitable? It’d be such a great trade for you.”

The anger boiled over at the sound of my son’s name coming
from his wretched mouth. Just that he knew my son well enough to know his age
and birth date made me sick. My body moved on its own until I stood
nose-to-chest to Lucas. I glared up at him.

“You lay a hand on my son and I’ll fucking kill you.”

He laughed, the sound of an iceberg breaking apart.
“Beautifully said. I’ll have you on my side one of these days, my daughter.
It’s only a matter of time.” His eyes flicked over to Vanessa and then to me as
he combed the tip of my dagger through his goatee. “Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll
let you go as long as you take that traitorous whore with you. If you can get
out of here alive, you’re free.”

What?
I eyed him
with suspicion. “You’re letting us go? Just like that?”

“Well, no, not
just like
that
,” he said, mimicking my voice. He narrowed his eyes at me. “But I
can’t keep you here. Not against your will and not alive. Otherwise, Dorian
might get it in his head to come rescue his mummy. And
that
would break the curse and ruin all of my plans for you and
your little family.” He leaned toward me. “I need him to come to me on
my
terms, not as a self-sacrifice.”

“
If he’s letting us
go, we gotta get out of here!
” Vanessa shrieked in my mind.

Lucas snapped his fingers and the Weres—five burly men
and a woman with black hair down to her knees—instantly stood next to
him. The woman gave me a surly grin.

“Let’s see what you’re made of. I’ll even give you a head
start before I set Rene, here, after you.” Lucas nodded at the woman and then
the others. All of them burst out of their skins, were-goo flying, replaced by
five werewolves and a cheetah. He petted the cheetah’s head, and she let out a
growl.

Vanessa was on her feet, already tugging at my hand. “
He’s playing a game. Let’s go while we can!
”

But I didn’t move, my eyes on my dagger still in Lucas’s
hand. I needed my weapon. I needed Cassandra.

“My dagger?” I boldly asked. “You’ve given me nothing for it
in fair trade, so can I have it back?”

“I’m giving you your
life
!”
he roared, all sick humor gone, replaced by the intense anger of an overpowered
tyrant.

A hissing sound whistled through his teeth. The Weres
crouched, ready to pounce, the hair along their spines standing on end and
their lips pulled back from their saliva-dripping fangs. Vanessa wasted no more
time. She bolted, pulling me with her, through the doorway and down the tunnel,
the werewolves right on our heels. But not the cheetah. Lucas really was giving
us a head start.

I shot electricity blindly behind us, but it sounded as
though it hit the walls and not our pursuers. I glanced over my shoulder and a
wolf’s golden eyes were right.
there
.
I flicked my wrist, and he flew back, plowing into the others like a bowling
ball. They recovered immediately.

“
Faster!
” Vanessa
said. We moved so quickly, the walls became a brown blur on either side of us.

But we weren’t fast enough. As we rounded the bend, claws
dug grooves down my back. I stumbled, then fell face first.

My fingers fumbled for the back-up weapon I kept in my boot
as long teeth scraped against my knuckles, trying to stop me. I eventually
found the knife, and flipped it open while trying to roll over, but the wolf
pinned me to the ground with one paw on each shoulder. Its jaw snapped near my
head, its hot breath blowing on my ear. I wiggled and squirmed and finally
pushed myself over. As I rolled, I plunged the knife in between the gray wolf’s
ribs. It
arfed
like a dog, but the
wail trailed into a human moan of pain. I scurried out crab-like from under the
naked man’s body, and yanked my knife out of his side. I stared, mesmerized, at
the blood pooling under him. My chest contracted. I’d
killed
him? Was this my first kill?

“
Alexis!
” Vanessa
shrieked.

I spun to find a wolf’s mouth attached to her arm and
another yanking on her calf, about to pull her down. I pushed a wave of power
at them, and they both flew off her, their bodies crashing to the ground. Now
freed, Vanessa took off in a blur and a second later, reappeared right where
she’d been, her tongue licking blood from her lips. All of the wolves morphed
back into their human forms. All of them dead.

“
Let’s go!
” She
grabbed my forearm and ran again. I stumbled after her at first, still in
shock, but my survival instinct finally kicked in, and I ran.

The large room where the tunnels met felt so much farther
away than it had been before, but we finally flew into it. And so did more
wolves from all directions, blocking our way out. We had no choice but to
fight.

One or two wolves would have been no problem. Even five or
six or seven. But this many? And still more poured out of the tunnels. Vanessa
grabbed the ones that lunged at her by the heads, snapped their necks and flung
them away like ragdolls. I blasted them with Amadis power and electricity until
the putrid odor of burnt fur made us gag. But there were more than a handful to
pick off one-by-one. A pack of twenty or so attacked us, jaws snapping and
claws swiping.

Our fists and feet pounded at the creatures’ bodies. Vanessa
ripped into their necks with her fangs, and my knife sliced into their limbs
and shoulders and haunches, but this smaller blade didn’t compare to my dagger,
and the damage was minimal. A wolf’s claws raked through my hair, ripping out a
clump. Other claws ripped through my leathers and into my skin. Snouts clamped
down on my arms and legs and shook like a dog does with a rope, tossing me back
and forth. My head smacked the wall, then the floor, then the wall again, each
impact rattling my brain. I formed a bubble of Amadis power within me and
pushed it outwards. They all let go.

But only for a moment. They lunged again and grabbed on to
whatever part of my body their teeth found. I gathered more Amadis power,
worked it into a frenzy and exploded it out of my body. The wolves yelped and
whimpered as their bodies crashed into the walls and floor. We seized the
opportunity and ran again.

But something was wrong.

I thought we’d chosen the same passageway we’d come through,
the one that led back to the icy cave. But that one had been long and empty, no
signs of life surrounding it. As we continued running now, I sensed mind
signatures up ahead. Tons of them. Way too many to fill a tunnel. Way too many
to fill a cavern or even a large building. Enough for a small town …

Vanessa!

“
Oh, shit!
” she
said at the same time. “
That’s the
marketplace.
”

She spun on the spot and grabbed my wrist again.

“
Hurry! Before they
sense us!
”

We ran back the way we came, but before we returned to the
junction, the tunnel suddenly veered off to the left when it had been straight
just a moment ago.

“
Mages are changing
the paths. He’s messing with us
,” Vanessa said.

We passed a wide opening, and Vanessa darted inside the
room. She bent over, her hands on her knees and looked up at me.

“We need to regroup,” she said, keeping her voice low.

I leaned my butt against the wall and assumed her same
position. Neither of us was out of breath, but at least for me, my heart raced
and adrenaline pumped too quickly in my veins. My pulse pounded and whirred in
my head.

Then the wall disappeared from behind me, and I fell on my
butt.

Lucas stood over me, and his lips turned up in a smirk.
“Change your mind, my daughter?”

I jumped to my feet and Vanessa straightened up. One glance
around told me we were back in the room where we’d started.

What now?
I asked
Vanessa. She gave me an I-have-no-clue look. Actually, knowing her, it was more
like a we’re-fucking-dead look.

So Lucas really was just playing a game with us. He had no
intention of letting us go.

“Did you change yours?” I asked bravely. Or stupidly.
Whatever. It didn’t matter anymore, if Vanessa was right. “Did you decide it’s
okay for Dorian to break the curse? Or that it’s okay to kill me?”

Lucas grinned, exposing his perfectly straight, snow-white
teeth. “See, I can’t bring myself to kill you. You have too much potential for
me.” He tsked and Rene the cheetah, in animal form, sauntered over to his side.
“My followers, however …” He ran a hand down the cheetah’s spine. “… I can’t
always control them.”

“So you’re still letting us go?” I asked.

“Like I said, if you can find your way out alive, yes. This
time.”

Vanessa and I exchanged another glance, then moved for the
doorway.

“One more thing, Alexis,” Lucas said, and I hesitated.
“Since you were so kind to return, I must offer you another deal. I think you
wanted this?”

I looked over my shoulder. He held his hand out, my dagger
lying across his palm. I lunged, but he clamped his fist around the blade
faster than I could grab it.

“Now, now. Fair trade, remember? But I’ll need more than
just the garbage taken out this time,” he added, his eyes flickering to Vanessa
then back to me. “Seth or Dorian will do.”

A dagger over 2,000 years old, forged by the Angels
themselves, probably more precious than anything in Amadis history. And it was
my best weapon, especially with Cassandra’s power behind it, my connection to
her. I needed the dagger to give us any hope of escaping Hades. I needed
Cassandra’s power to live through this. But nothing, not even the possibility
of my own survival or even Vanessa’s, was worth the lives of my son or husband.

“Not a chance in hell,” I said.

“Ah, you’ll regret that. But don’t worry. I always get what
I want. I
will
get what’s mine.” He
glanced at his bare wrist. “Oh, sorry. Out of time. You’ve lost your head
start.”

He hissed and instead of werewolves coming after us, Rene
did.

Vanessa and I ran again, the cheetah chasing us down. I’d
never run so fast in my life, but it wasn’t fast enough. With a peek over my
shoulder, I looked right into amber eyes. The cat roared, drool hanging from
her five-inch-long fangs. Then she sprang off her back legs, and those same
fangs tore into my bicep. I cried out as I spun around and slammed her with
electricity.

I held the current on her, even as we ran, and the cheetah
slowed enough to give us a chance. Then her footsteps behind us fell away, and
I looked over my shoulder once again. The cat took off down a corridor we’d
just passed.

“Where’s she going?” I asked Vanessa.

We ran another hundred yards or so, then Vanessa slowed
almost to a walk now that nothing chased us. Her head turned at each corridor
we passed, inspecting it even as we moved on.

“To get help?” she finally answered my question. “To spring
ahead and cut us off? Who kno—”

An orange streak of light blasted through the air and
smashed into the side of her head. She screamed once and fell to the floor.
Another streak flew at me. I threw myself on top of Vanessa’s body, narrowly
missing the spell that hit the wall, carving a chunk into it. Granules of dirt
rained to the floor. My mind found a mage’s signature down the hallway that
branched off to our right, where the orange lights had come from.

I lifted my head just enough to peek. A cloaked figure
crouched in a doorway. I latched onto his thoughts in time to hear the next
spell before the orange light soared at us. I rolled off Vanessa, flat on my
back. The light skimmed over us, singeing our leathers before hitting the wall
like its predecessor. I shot a bolt of electricity in return. It hit the floor
right in front of the mage, making him jump. While he reconfigured, I yanked
Vanessa’s body out of his path, then shot another bolt at the mage as he sent a
spell at me. I connected with him and kept the current flowing in a
bluish-silver arc, the air sizzling around it. But he continued shooting a series
of orange lights at me. With my free hand, I pulled my knife out again and held
it up to try to parry the spells. One bounced off the blade and slammed back
into him. His figure sank to the ground, smoke rising from his cloaks.