Tegan's Power (The Ultimate Power Series #4) (24 page)

When we’re ready to
leave, instead of using regular methods of transportation, Roman casts a spell
bringing us all to our destination. I feel like I’ve just woken up out of a
dream when I open my eyes a second later and we’re no longer at Cristescu’s
place, but crouched behind the trees outside a large family home.

It’s a cookie cutter
house surrounded by dozens of houses identical to it. It’s also in an area
where only humans live. Camouflage, I’m guessing. Theodore wants to blend in
with the crowd.

Roman is whispering in
Allora’s ear, giving her instructions as to what she needs to do. I can’t hear
all that he’s saying, but I understand why he wanted to use her when I see
Michael Ridley standing guard at the door.

I glance down, noticing
there’s a small metal hook where his hand used to be. I’m guessing it wasn’t
his casting hand that Ira chewed off, because if it was Theodore wouldn’t have
selected him to stand guard. I store this piece of information away for later.

Roman begins
constructing an invisible bubble around Allora so that when she approaches
Ridley he won’t be able to harm her. I put my arm around her shoulders and give
her a quick kiss before she steps out from behind the trees and starts walking
toward the house.

The second Ridley spots
her his entire body tenses, his eyes darting back and forth to scan the area
for anyone else. When he’s satisfied that she’s alone, he smiles.

“I knew you’d come
back,” he says walking toward her.

I clench my fists at
the smug look on his face. Patience. All I need is to be patient.

Allora stops just
outside the gates of the house, going no further. This is all a part of the
plan. We need him to come outside the house, outside the zone of Theodore’s
protection.

“My family have fled
the city. I didn’t have anyone else to turn to,” she says in a purposefully meek
voice.

“You’ll always have a
place with me, child. I might even find it in my heart to forgive you for what
that mutt did to my hand. That is, of course, if you have any good predictions
for me.”

The predatory gleam in
his eye puts me on edge. Ira growls low in his throat when Ridley calls him a
mutt, but I place my hand on his shoulder as a sign for him not to make any more
noise. We can’t afford for the warlock to discover we’re here.

“I’ve had a number of
visions in the past few days. I’m sure you’re eager to know what I’ve seen.”

Ridley continues to get
closer to her, but when he reaches the gate he simply opens it and gestures for
her to come inside. Damn it, he’s not going to leave the parameter of the
house.

I’m gearing up to
intervene when Roman puts a hand out to stop me.

“Patience, Mr Roe,” he
whispers. “We need to wait for her to touch him.”

My eyes are drawn back
to Ridley and Allora, and now I see that he’s holding out his good hand to her.
Time seems to move in slow motion as she reaches out to take it. The second she
does Roman emerges from his hiding spot. His lips move rapidly as he casts a whispered
spell; all variety of colours stream from his body. Ridley freezes in place
when he sees the sorcerer advancing on him. He tries to pull his hand from
Allora’s but she grips it tight.

“You stole this young
lady’s sight, Warlock,” Roman announces. “Now I shall take one of your senses
in order to return the eyes you took from her.”

“What madness is
this!?” Ridley shouts desperately. “I have already lost a hand because of her.”

“That was nobody’s
fault but your own. To try to steal the power of another is one of the worst
crimes a warlock can commit. You must be punished.”

Roman throws a blast of
golden magic at Ridley’s face. It slithers right into his ears and he begins to
scream. Allora is still holding his hand, still watching what Roman is doing to
the warlock with a look of horror on her face.

With only the slightest
nod of his head, the magic shoots from Ridley’s ears into Allora’s eyes. I’ve
seen some crazy stuff in my time, and now I’ve another to add to the list. She
whimpers and finally loosens her hold. I hurry to her side, catching her in my
arms a moment before she would’ve hit the ground. She stares at me and as I
take her in I see how her eyes are focused now. She can see.

“Hey,” I murmur,
rubbing my thumb along the base of her neck.

“Hi,” she murmurs back,
staring at me in amazement. I smile and she returns the expression.

“I can’t hear! I can’t
hear!” Ridley shouts clutching at his now useless ears.

Roman grabs him and
makes a motion akin to pulling a gag around someone’s mouth and Ridley falls
completely silent, though he continues to struggle.

A second later the
front door to the house flies open and Marcel emerges. He takes in the scene
before him with his mouth gaping wide.

“What have you done to
him?” he asks stunned.

“Take us to Theodore or
I will end his life here and now,” Roman threatens.

Marcel looks at the
sorcerer properly and his gaping mouth hangs even wider. “Roman Abraham, it
cannot be,” he whispers in shock.

“I’m afraid it can and
it is. Now, take us to Theodore or you are both as good as dead.”

Finally, Marcel comes
to his senses and leads us inside the house.

Tegan

I’m still wondering if
I’m dreaming.

I mean, me, pregnant?
It’s just too crazy. I might not be too young to be a mother, but I definitely
feel
too young. And that’s presuming I actually survive the birth, which most
mothers pregnant with dhamphir babies don’t. That’s also presuming the baby
survives.

A sense of grief hits
me like a freight train at the thoughts of losing a child. I’ve only known this
was real for a matter of minutes and already I can’t take the idea of not
seeing what’s inside of me live and thrive. I’m not strong enough to deal with
that kind of heartbreak right now. There’s already so much else to deal with.

I look up at Ethan and
there’s no mistaking the utter joy on his face. He wants this. He really,
really wants this. Suddenly, a sadness overcomes me at the idea of him being
prepared to lose me if it meant I could give him a child. Is that all I really
am to him, a walking womb?

Delilah must sense the
building tension, because she quickly makes her excuses and leaves. Before she
makes it out the door she sticks her head back in and asks, “Um, should I tell
the others?”

I shrug and turn to
stare out the window. “Sure, if you want.”

I don’t really care
about them knowing, I’m too wrapped up in my own fears and insecurities. I tug
the blankets tight around myself, my stomach still queasy as hell. It rumbles
and a stab of pain shoots through my gut. Jesus, I don’t know a lot about
regular old human pregnancies, but if they’re anything like getting knocked up
by a vampire then I feel sorry for every mother who’s ever gone before me.

I don’t make eye
contact with Ethan when I say, “There’s a chance she could be mistaken, right?
This could just be a case of food poisoning or a bug or something.”

He frowns and stands
up, walking over to the bed to sit on the edge beside me. Taking my hand into
his, he continues to frown at me. His other hand moves across my chest and down
to my belly.

In a low voice, he says,
“Food poisoning doesn’t put an extra heart beat inside of you, Tegan. I wasn’t
paying enough attention before. Now that I am I can hear it beating as loud as
a drum in my ears.”

“You can hear it?” I
whisper.

His only response is a
smile.

After a few moments of
quiet thought, I ask, “You really want a baby with me?”

“Of course I do. I
adore you. Knowing you are with child makes this one of the happiest days of my
life,” he answers fervently.

“Well, that’s certainly
high praise considering just how many days you’ve been alive,” I joke
half-heartedly to distract myself from my inner turmoil.

Ethan gives me a little
pinch and chuckles. “It’s rude to remind a vampire of his age, you know.”

“Yeah, I know,” I grin.
“That’s why I did it.”

He moves further onto
the bed and wraps his arm around my shoulders. “You are stronger than you know,
my love. Don’t be afraid. I know you will survive, I can feel it. If I thought
you might die I would never have been careless enough to get you pregnant in
the first place.”

“Well, it does take two
to tango. I was careless as well.”

He smirks but then gets
back to business. “I must arrange for a physician to come and examine you. We
need to know how far along you are. It can’t be more than a week or so, but I
want to ensure you are in optimum health.”

I drift off for a nap
after that, relatively reassured that Ethan isn’t just using me to give him an
heir, like this is some nineteenth century period drama. I’m woken up about
three hours later by Delilah, who gives me a tender smile that holds too many
emotions. I can’t look at smiles like that right now and I wish she’d stop.

“Dr Hendricks is here,”
she says. “Is it okay for him to come in?”

“Sure.”

After that she returns
with a young looking vampire with brown hair and dark eyes. He introduces
himself and congratulates me. I don’t know how to react to congratulations just
yet, so I don’t say anything. It’s kind of weird being congratulated on the
fact that both you and your baby have a ninety percent chance of
not
surviving.

He asks me an endless
number of questions before examining me.

“How long does this
take?” I ask and he quirks a curious eyebrow at me. “I mean, how long am I
going to be pregnant for? Is it nine months like human births?”

He purses his lips and
begins packing away his stethoscope. “No. Dhamphir gestation periods are
usually between three and four months. Development is much quicker in
these…sorts of cases. That’s why there’s already a heartbeat.”

“Well, that’s good,
isn’t it? It means I won’t be the size of an elephant for too long.”

“May I speak frankly?”
he asks and I nod.

“Vampire babies take
just two months to be born from the date of conception. Dhamphirs take longer
because you are essentially putting a vampire foetus in a human body that is
not equipped with the proper genetics to carry it, and that’s why both mother
and baby often…do not survive.”

“Jesus. You weren’t
joking about being frank,” I mutter.

“I find that in
situations like this, it’s best to be honest.” He goes quiet for a moment,
almost like he’s hesitating over whether or not to say what he wants to say
next. “I’ve been informed of your, shall we say, powers. Perhaps there’s a way
that you could channel your magic into the foetus?”

“I wish I knew how to
do that,” I tell him honestly.

“Are there any female
relatives you might consult with?” he suggests.

I bite my lip, thinking
of Emilia. The chances of her deciding to give me pregnancy advice are slim to
none. “No, I don’t think so.”

At this Ethan enters
the room, asking how everything is going. He and the doctor begin to talk but I
don’t follow their conversation. I hear something about being one week along,
but I already know that. My mind is adrift. I’ve never considered myself to be
a particularly maternal person, but all of a sudden I feel like I would die to
protect this tiny little thing that’s growing inside of me.

I used think that
people having babies was simply another way for human beings to feed their own
narcissism by creating a miniature version of themselves. But now that it’s actually
happening to me, I know that it isn’t like that at all. I feel almost primal in
my need to protect my child and it’s hardly even the size of anything yet. In
this moment I know I’ll do everything in my power to ensure its survival.

And that includes
getting down on my knees and grovelling to Emilia to help me find a way to save
it.

A Doll on a Music Box

Finn

Marcel marches into the house like a
moody housewife with visitors who have shown up unannounced before she’s had
the chance to make the place presentable. Roman still has a hold of Ridley who
is seething with barely contained rage.

I almost feel sorry for
the guy, but then I remember that this is the same fellow who set fire to Rita
and Noreen’s house all those weeks ago. He’s also the same fellow who kept
Allora locked up in his home like a prisoner.

Yep, not feeling so bad
for him anymore.

Inside there’s barely a
scrap of furniture to be found anywhere, just white walls and beige carpets.

“I really love what
you’ve done with the place,” I joke and Marcel narrows his eyes to slits.
“Minimalism is so hot right now.”

We walk right through
the house and out the back. It seems that all the effort to jazz the place up
has been put into the garden. There are swings, monkey bars and all variety of
playground toys amid the perfectly segmented flowers and bushes. Theodore is
hanging upside down by the legs from one of the monkey bars. Rita’s perched on the
swings wearing a long black dress, and over by a blossoming rose bush is
Rebecca. She’s standing perfectly still on top of a large, brightly coloured
box. Her eyes are closed, like she’s been induced into a magical sleep, and
there are tubes on her arms with blood flowing through them.