Tegan's Power (The Ultimate Power Series #4) (31 page)

“Am I? I think Roman
might have a bit of a thing for you, Reet. Don’t tell me you didn’t consider it
even for a second when he was giving you his come to bed eyes.”

“I did not!” she shouts
and I dive out of the way when she flings her magic at me again. I don’t emerge
entirely unscathed this time and the sleeve of my coat gets singed.

“Whoa, you must have
considered it for more than a second seeing as how adamantly you’re denying
it,” I quip and raise my hand just as she’s about to throw more magic at me.
“Now, now, let’s not be so hasty, Rita. I let you get in a couple shots for
free, the next time I’m going to have to retaliate.”

At this there’s a loud
smashing sound from the mansion and purple magic begins to swirl out of the
large chimney. Rita hurries to investigate and I follow her, making sure to
keep a good distance behind. In the foyer a gigantic crystal chandelier has
crashed to the floor but there’s no sign of Theodore or Roman.

“Where are they?” I ask
her.

She doesn’t reply for a
long time as she closes her eyes and a light starts to shimmer from her body.
When it’s gone she opens them and turns to look at me.

“They aren’t here,” she
answers flatly. “I guess it’s time for me to kill you now.”

Not here? I swallow
hard and consider the ramifications of Roman abandoning me like this. It’s one
thing to go inside the building and leave me outside alone with a murderous
Rita, but it’s another entirely for him to just disappear completely.

“Don’t. You aren’t
always going to feel this way. If you do this, one day you’re not going to be
grieving for your mother anymore and you’ll hate yourself for what you did.
This feeling you’re having is only temporary.”

“It’s not temporary. I
will never be the same again and it’s all because of the vampires. They are
going to pay for what they did.”

“
They
didn’t do
anything. It was one vampire who killed Noreen. One, Rita. And Ethan killed
him. If anything you should be thanking Ethan instead of trying to kill the
mother of his unborn child.”

“I’ll never thank him.
They’re all the same, all heartless.”

For a second I wonder
if this is really Rita talking, or if Theodore has somehow brainwashed her into
thinking all vampires are evil. She starts to advance on me quickly now, and
out of instinct I throw a blast of sparks at her as I back up all the way
outside. She wails in pain when they hit her body, but the pain only lasts a
moment before it turns into anger. She comes running at me.

“You’ll pay for that.”

“I didn’t mean to do
it, you frightened me. Look, there’s no need for either of us to get hurt here.
Roman could have killed Theodore already. You need to come home with me, Rita.
We’d all welcome you back with open arms.”

“You talk a lot. Why
don’t you shut up for once and fight me?”

She crouches to the
ground, placing her hand to the earth and suddenly the grass is exploding and
balls of dirt are shooting up into the air like mini landmines. Instinctively,
I raise my hand to my face and create a barrier of sparks around my body so
that I don’t get pelted. Rita lets out a bark of annoyance when I defend myself
and I decide I can’t stay passive anymore. I have to fight back.

Perhaps if I can show
her that I’m more powerful than she is then maybe she’ll finally listen to me –
not that I actually am more powerful than her. I just have to fake it. Rapidly,
the All-Knowing Tome opens in my head, the pages flicking before landing on
more information about my blood. Okay, so I can pretty much add it to any magic
and it’ll be rendered ten times stronger.

I still have the knife
Finn gifted me a couple weeks ago in my pocket, so I pull it out and cut a
small line into the tip of each finger on one hand. Immediately it mixes with
my sparks and they start to pop and sizzle. They aren’t just shiny and white
anymore, now they’re every colour of the rainbow.

Rita spots what I’ve
done and begins to move away, but she’s not fast enough. I swing my arm at her
and she screams when my magic burns her worse this time. She puts both hands
over her ears because it’s making a high-pitched squealing sound. I watch as it
slithers over her face.

I close my eyes and
order it to stop, because I don’t actually want to send Rita crazy. She’s
already halfway there without any help from me. I just want to show her what
I’m capable of.

“I told you I had
power,” I call to her.

She rises to her feet
and sweeps her hand to the side, knocking me down with a gust of wind I hadn’t
been expecting.

“You still talk too
much. And your power is worthless without the knowledge of how to use it.”

“Oh, I’m learning.”

Before she can react I
throw enough sparks at her feet to knock her down. Hey, I’m sick of being the
only one falling over all the time. Rita manages to get up quicker than me and
before I know it she’s running at me full steam ahead. Without thinking I pull
Ethan’s sword out of its holster on my back. Just as she’s about to throw more
magic at me I slash her hand and she reels back. There’s a painful looking gash
right across her knuckles

“Fuck!” she growls,
clutching her bloody hand to her chest – her bloody
casting
hand. Score
one for me. Just because she’s the daughter of a sorcerer doesn’t mean she
can’t bleed.

“You almost chopped off
my finger,” she shrieks.

“You’re the one who
came running at me. What did you expect me to do?”

“I expect you to…shit
that hurts.” She’s distracted by all the blood, so I get up slowly and walk
towards her.

“I can help you to heal
it,” I tell her softly and she peers at me, unsure.

I feel like she might
almost agree to it, but then her dark eyes turn blank and dead again.

“I don’t need your
help! I need you to leave me alone.”

I get a shock when she
leaps at me, pushing me down into the muddy grass. I gulp and try to breathe
but her hands are around my throat, squeezing.

“You see, Tegan, you’re
not the only one who can use human means of inflicting pain,” she says, her
voice dark.

She’s got my hand
pinned under her knee, but I manage to move it just enough to burn through the
black fishnet tights she’s wearing. She suffers through the pain while digging
her knee harder into my hand. Then she lifts it up the slightest bit before
slamming it back down again. Shit, that hurts. I think she might have broken
one of my fingers.

I raise my free hand up
and smack her hard across the face. It gives me an advantage for just a second,
which is enough time for me to shove her off me. I don’t get far enough though,
because she throws herself onto my back, her arms wrapping roughly around my
neck.

“Get off,” I grunt,
trying to dislodge her.

“No chance,” she
replies out of breath and seconds later she’s pulling me back onto the ground.
Bits of dirt hit me as she pushes me face down into it. Now it’s on. I roll my
body and punch her in the gut, which earns me an upper cut to the chin. My entire
abdominal region is screaming in pain with her on top of me. For someone so
small she weighs a bloody tonne.

“You can’t replace
Noreen with Theodore,” I manage to gasp.

“Shut up!” she wails.

“Noreen was the only
real parent you’ll ever have.”

“I said shut the fuck
up!”

“Rita, he’s evil.
You’re not evil, you’re good, just like your mother was.”

She smacks me hard,
sending my face flying sideways. I taste blood in my mouth and when I manage to
turn my head and look at her again, furious black mascara tears are running
down her face.

She clutches my throat,
squeezing the air from my lungs. My head starts to get dizzy as I hear her
seethe, “I’m not letting go until you’re dead.”

I try to say something
back, but I have no strength left. I need oxygen. Where the hell is Roman?

He needs to get back
here now, because I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out.

Don’t Drink the
Kool-Aid

Finn

I’m doing one of my routine circuits of
the city early in the morning when I’m approached by a thin, nerdy looking
fella. He hands me a flyer, telling me he hopes to see me at the rally and then
continues on his way.

Rally? What rally?

I unfold the flyer to
reveal Theodore’s face smiling back at me, and I’m not lying when I say I get a
momentary fright. That’s one ugly motherfucker – and not someone I want to see
up close and personal when I’ve only just had my breakfast, thank you very
much. He’s wearing his ordinary concerned citizen clothes and looking caringly
into the camera. The text on the flyer reads:

THE THEODORE
GIRARD FOUNDATION PRESENTS,

AN ANTI-VAMPIRE
CAMPAIGN RALLY.

THIS WEDNESDAY,
10AM SHARP ON CAMPION ROW.

COME AND SHOW
YOUR SUPPORT FOR HUMANITY.

TOGETHER WE WILL
DRIVE OUT THE DARKNESS.

Christ, he really
doesn’t give up. You’d think he’d have learned his lesson from the fiasco that
went down the last time. I keep walking through the empty streets, knowing they
won’t be empty soon enough. It’s just gone eight-thirty, which means there’s an
hour and a half before Theodore’s rally begins. What exactly is he trying to
achieve by this?

And that’s when it hits
me.

This is when he’s going
to release the chaos; gathering all the humans in one place will make it that
much easier for him. It’s supposed to be tomorrow morning, but I’m guessing
he’s put two and two together and figured out that Marcel betrayed him,
revealing his plans to his enemies. Now he has to act earlier than scheduled. I
rush to the van and hightail it back to the house.

Everybody’s gathered in
the large kitchen eating breakfast. I walk straight in and slam the flyer down
into the centre of the table. Cristescu calmly reaches over and picks up the
piece of paper, his sharp eyes quickly scanning the words. There’s ash in his
hair and black soot on his face, showing he’s paid a visit to the bomb site at
Crimson. He looks tired and I almost feel bad for throwing this doozy in his
lap, but there’s nothing else to be done.

“He’s acting a day
early,” he says in a low, angry voice.

“Yeah, which means we
need to find Roman ASAP.”

“Tegan will have to
summon him. She’s still in bed, I’ll go get her.” The vampire stands and leaves
the room. Less than a minute later he returns seeming on edge.

“She’s gone.”

“Huh?” I say and then
look to everyone sitting around the table. “Did Tegan tell any of you she was
going out?”

“No,” Amanda speaks up.
“But she did have me and Rebecca help her cast a spell this morning.”

“What kind of a spell?”
Gabriel asks with suspicion.

“Um, she said it was to
protect the house. It had an upturned glass on a map and a piece of a scarf
under the glass.”

“That wasn’t a spell to
protect the house. That was a location spell. She was looking for someone.”

“What did the scarf
look like?” Alvie interjects.

“It was red and black,
sort of silky.”

Alvie gasps and puts
his hand to his mouth. “That’s Rita’s. She’s gone after Rita.”

I’m about to swear
loudly when the front door slams open and I hear feet stumbling weakly down the
hallway. A second later Tegan emerges covered in dirt and blood and looking
like she just stepped out of a warzone. Cristescu immediately scoops her up
into his arms, asking what happened.

“Rita…” is all she can
manage.

“Yeah, we figured that
bit out.”

“She tried to kill me…”
she whispers and then passes out in Cristescu’s arms. He carries her to the
kitchen counter, swiping everything out of the way to clear the space. Then he
begins running his hands over her body to check for injuries. He stops when he
reaches her left hand, holding up the index finger.

“This is broken. It
will need to be taken care of by a doctor.”

“If you have a first
aid kit I can see to her,” Allora puts in. “I’m a trained first aider and I
used to volunteer at the hospital on the weekends when I was still at school.”

Cristescu gives her a
look of approval. “Yes, yes, thank you. I will bring her upstairs. The first
aid kit is on the shelf in the laundry room. Retrieve it and follow me up.”

“What about Theodore’s
rally?” I interrupt. “We need to find Roman so that he can cast his spell.”

Before Cristescu can
answer, the back door swings open and the sorcerer himself enters. His normally
pristine hair and suit are slightly ruffled.

“I am here,” he says as
though he heard every word I just said. “I need volunteers and I need Emilia.
She’s the only witch powerful enough that we have at our disposal.”

He notices Cristescu
holding Tegan and walks over, running his hand softly over her face. “Ah, you
survived, little one. I knew you would,” he murmurs.

Cristescu’s eyes cut to
the sorcerer. “You were with her?”

“I was. I got caught up
chasing Theodore and Tegan was left with the witch…”

“Enough,” says
Cristescu quietly fuming. “We don’t have time for this. Theodore is releasing
his chaos onto the city in only an hour’s time. I expect you are ready to cast
your spell?”

“Absolutely. But I will
need to release Emilia.”

“So release her, just
get it done.”

He finally leaves
carrying Tegan; Allora follows behind him with the first aid kit tucked under
her arm. Fifteen minutes later I’m standing in a circle with Gabriel, Alvie,
Delilah, Ira, Cristescu and Emilia. Roman transports us all to Campion Row,
where it’s now jam-packed with humans gathered for the rally.

The avenue is just how
it had been in Allora’s vision. Something a lot like dread forms in my gut as I
remember how the chaos entered the bodies of the humans, killing them on the
spot. If Roman isn’t successful here, then the vast majority of us are as good
as dead, and that includes me.

When I look at Roman I
find he’s holding a huge ball of shimmering red string, energy humming from it.
He hands one end of it to Emilia and begins instructing everyone else to take a
hold. When it’s my turn I notice how he’s not just giving me the string, he’s
magically fusing my hand to it.

“This is a very rare
and potently magical material. We are going to use it to create a line of magic
that will run through the gathered crowd – think of it like an electrical wire.
In this case, the ends are the most important parts, and therefore the
strongest casters need to be holding them. Those two people are Emilia and
myself. Be as inconspicuous as you can; we cannot afford for Theodore to figure
out what’s happening.

“Emilia will walk to
the lower end of the avenue and I will walk to the top. Once the spell has been
cast and Theodore has released his chaos, believing all the humans to be dead,
that will be our moment to strike. I will be closest to him, so I will be the
one to catch him. Make no mistake, he will have many tricks up his sleeve to
get away, that’s why it’s going to take all of us to kill him. I will cut off
his head and young Gabriel here will douse him with petrol. Mr Roe, I will
allow you the honour of setting his body alight.”

“I can do that.”

Addressing Ethan, he
says, “You will have to restrain the daughter. She could prove troublesome, and
you are the only one with the physical strength to outmatch her magic. Get her
hands first. If you can keep her from moving them then she won’t be able to use
magic against you. You will be beside me in the line.” He pauses and looks at
each of us in turn. “Once I summon the magic only those holding the string will
be able to see it. Any questions?”

We all shake our heads.
I’m surprised Emilia hasn’t put up a fight since she’s basically being forced
into taking part. Instead, she remains stoically silent. Maybe she’s sane
enough to realise this is all for the best.

“Very good. Please
ensure there is at least thirty yards between you and the person next in line.
We need to cover as much ground as possible.”

I find myself being the
second last person in the line next to Emilia. She starts to walk swiftly down
the street and I wait a minute or two before following her. I’m not entirely
clear on the details of what Roman’s going to do here, (I’m guessing he
simplified the arse out of it for us just now) but I’m putting my blind faith
in him. With so little time left, we don’t exactly have any other options.

By the time we’re all
lined up and camouflaged into the crowd, Theodore has stepped out onto the temporary
stage that’s been built at the top of the avenue. He stands in front of a microphone
and coughs to clear his throat. People cheer when they see him, shouting praise
and declarations of faith. Some even hold up banners proclaiming him as their
savour.

They’ve all been
drinking some serious amounts of sorcerer Kool-Aid.

I spot Rita standing
off to the side of the stage wearing a long flower print dress and her hair in
two short pigtails.

The string in my hand
starts to pulsate.

“Thank you all for
coming today,” says Theodore, his voice booming through a number of speakers
that have been set up around the area. “As some of you might be aware, I have
taken the liberty of putting together a foundation to fight against the
vampires. You are all welcome to join and there will be sign-up sheets
circulated at the end of the rally. Now, before we get down to business, I
would like to observe a one minute silence as a mark of respect to those we
have lost in recent weeks. Please, take hold of the hand of the person beside
you to signify your solidarity.”

There are hushed
whispers of approval among the audience before they all begin to take each
other’s hands. I realise I’m glamoured invisible when nobody tries to take
mine. A ripple vibrates through the string and zips into my body. I can hear
Roman chanting in my head even though he’s halfway up the street. He’s not
speaking in any language I can understand, but his words strike a chord. A deep
down part of me knows that something miraculous is about to happen.

He’s standing so close
to the stage and Theodore can’t even see him. If ever there was a case for
choosing to be good over bad, then this would be it. Because Theodore is at
least twice Roman’s age, and yet I have a feeling Tegan’s grandfather might just
have a chance of killing him.

“Close your eyes, hold
your neighbour’s hand and think of all the lives that have been lost, and all
the lives that will be saved because of your dedication to this cause.”

The audience does as
requested and now I can hear Roman’s chanting even louder in my head because of
the unearthly quiet that follows. My heartbeat speeds up and it feels like
there’s electricity shooting from the string and into my body. I feel it in my
every molecule, rushing through my system. The red of the string starts to glow
and then I see little glittering veins spreading out from it and into the
crowd, connecting from one person to the next.

Once a person gets
connected to the string I see a bright red glow formulate around their body.
This is amazing. My jaw is hanging as I watch, my body fizzing and popping like
crazy.

I wonder if the others
are feeling the same way.

My amazement is cut
short when the bright morning sky begins to darken. I look overhead and into
the distance to see a black chaos cloud approaching. Everyone’s got their eyes
shut so they have no clue what’s coming their way.

I start to panic but
then I remind myself of Roman’s string and how it’s going to protect the people
from dying. They’ll go to sleep and wake up at the next sunrise. Turning my
head to the stage I see Theodore is no longer closing his eyes and faking like
he’s observing a minute of silence; now he’s staring at the people before him
with a sick smile on his face.

His entire body is
practically humming with anticipation. He’s getting a kick out of this. He
wants to watch the chaos kill all these people. Soon the black has blocked out
all the light and I can barely see a thing. The only way I can see anything at all
is because of the glow from the string and the magical veins that connect each
person to the one standing next to them.

Just like when I’d been
inside Allora’s vision, the chaos descends from the sky and invades the bodies
of the humans, slipping into any opening; mouths, ears, eyes. Seconds later
there’s a sound I hope to never hear again, the sound of thousands of bodies
dropping lifelessly to the ground.

The black cloud begins
to abate and drift away, the silence broken only by Theodore’s ridiculous
cackling. Then I hear someone struggling for breath close by. Turning my head I
spot Emilia still holding the string with one hand, but clutching her chest
with the other. Oh, shit. I know a heart attack when I see one.

She doesn’t have the
strength left to hold the string any longer. Weakly, she falls to the ground on
her hands and knees. Immediately, I feel the magic sail right out of my body, and
with it the glamour that had been hiding us all from view. The line has been
broken. I rush to Emilia and start CPR, while at the same time Theodore wails
in outrage.