Tegan's Power (The Ultimate Power Series #4) (35 page)

“I will. I just need a
few more minutes in here. I’m still in shock that the baby kicked.”

“Alright, call me if
you need anything.”

“I will.”

I want to go and tell
Rebecca the good news, but that can wait until later. Right now I just want to
savour this feeling of contentment. For the next few minutes I rub my hands
over my belly as the baby continues to kick. After a while it dies down and I
imagine her closing her eyes and taking a nap, exhausted from all the activity.

I get a momentary
fright when my phone begins to buzz where I’d left it sitting on the desk.
Picking it up, I find Edwards’ number flashing on the screen. I answer straight
away.

“Edwards? Is everything
all right with Dad?”

“Hi honey,” a voice
answers softly, a voice I haven’t heard properly in a really long time.

“Dad?” I whisper.

“It’s me,” he replies,
his voice low and full of emotion.

“Are you…are you okay?
I mean, are you better now?”

He coughs. “Just about.
I feel like I’ve woken up from a really bad nightmare.”

His answer makes me
smile. “Maybe you should just pretend that’s what it was. It would probably be
easier to comprehend that way.”

“Yes, I think I just
might do that,” he says and there’s a smile in his voice now, too.

“It’s so good to hear
you speak,” I say in a rapid gush. “I’ve been worried sick.”

“I’m sorry about
everything that happened, about never telling you who your mother really was.”

“You knew?” I breathe,
shocked to say the least.

“Yes. Your mother had
been running away from a life that was suffocating her. For a few years we
managed to hide behind the façade of an ordinary life. But then, of course she
was discovered by a maniac, a warlock of some sort.”

“I know,” I interrupt
him. “He was a sorcerer and he’s dead now.”

“You say that like he’s
only very recently dead,” Dad replies.

“Yes, and you’ll be
happy to know he got exactly what he deserved for what he did to Mum.”

There’s a muffled sound
on the other end of the line, like harsh breathing. “Are you safe, Tegan? I
know you’re like your mother, but she told me she had hidden it so that nobody
would know.”

“I’m as safe as I’ll
ever be. And yes, she did hide it.”

“I can’t wait to see
you. E.J. says I’ll be ready to go home soon.”

“That’s brilliant
news,” I beam at him through the phone, my heart lifting at the prospect of
seeing Dad. He’ll probably even be here for the birth of the baby.

After another couple of
minutes talking, I hang up the phone and sit back in the chair. It really feels
like everything’s coming full circle today.

“That was rather
touching, even if I do say so myself,” comes a familiar voice from the far
corner of the room. I turn in my seat to find Roman leaning against the side of
some book shelves.

“Yeah,” I say, unsure
as to what he’s doing here. “That was my dad, he’s fully recovered.”

“I gathered as much,”
he replies and walks over to me, perching himself on the edge of the desk. “I
hope you haven’t forgotten our agreement.”

I swallow. “No, of
course not.”

“Very good. Your
training begins tomorrow.”

“So soon?”

“The sooner the better.
If you are going to stand at the side of a ruler you will need all the power
you can get.”

“I guess you’re right.”
I look him dead in the eye now and there’s a sparkle of excitement in his gaze.
He’s really looking forward to this, and as I watch him some of the excitement
begins to rub off on me, too. I have no idea what being a sorceress is going to
entail, but the endless possibilities fill me with a thrilling sense of
anticipation.

“Hey Tegan, I was
looking for you,” comes Rita’s voice as she enters the room.

Roman turns to appraise
her and she stares at him coolly. “Oh, you again,” she says casually.

“Hello, little witch.
It is a pleasure, as always.”

Rita cocks an eyebrow
and snickers. “Whatever. Tegan, are you coming back out or do you plan on
staying in here all night?”

“Come and join us,”
says Roman. “I think you might be interested in what we are discussing.”

“Oh yeah?” she folds
her arms and closes the door, walking further into the room but stopping a
couple of feet in front of Roman.

Roman looks at Rita for
a long moment, and if I’m not mistaken he seems to be undressing her with his
eyes. Rita’s casual demeanour falters a little as she clears her throat. Then
Roman turns to me, “Tegan, how would you feel about having a classmate?”

It takes me a second to
get what he’s saying. “You mean you want to teach Rita, too?”

“Teach me what?”

“Teach you how to become
a sorceress,” Roman explains.

“Oh,” says Rita, her
eyes getting all round. Her interest is clear as day on her face.

“I think it’s a great
idea,” I put in. “It will be less scary than going it alone.”

“Yeah, it is a great
idea, but how do we know he’s not up to something?”

“It’s always good to be
suspicious,” says Roman with an approving nod. “But I assure you, I have no
ulterior motives. I simply wish to pass my knowledge on. I’m not like other
sorcerers, and I’m sick of keeping my powers all to myself. I feel it’s time
for a change, and I want to share.”

There’s a long stretch
of silence as she mulls it over.

“I’ll give you a month.
If I decide it’s not for me then I can back out any time before the month is
up,” says Rita. “Deal?”

Roman smiles widely and
holds out his hand for her to shake it. “Deal.”

Hesitantly, Rita steps
forward and takes his hand. They shake for a moment and then all of a sudden
Roman is tugging Rita into him and capturing her mouth in a passionate kiss.
Well, that was unexpected. She struggles for a minute but then sighs and
submits.

I know I should
probably turn away, but I can’t seem to stop watching.

Finally, they break
their kiss and Roman lifts her hand to place one last peck on the inside of her
wrist. “I very much look forward to training you, little witch,” he says with
hot, smoky eyes.

Rita looks from him to
me as though this is the first time in her entire life that she’s been completely
speechless.

“Until tomorrow, my
lovelies,” Roman bids us goodbye and then vanishes from the room.

Rita looks like she’s
still in shock as she slumps bonelessly down into a chair. After a minute or
two passes, she says, “Did that really just happen?”

I chuckle. “Yes. Roman
can be very…friendly.”

“You can say that
again,” she replies and groans, throwing her hand over her face in annoyance.

“What’s wrong?”

“That man is going to
be serious trouble, Tegan.”

“Serious trouble to
your knickers, you mean,” I reply still laughing.

“Yeah,” she says,
exasperated. “That’s exactly what I meant.”

I walk to her and pull
her up from the chair, throwing my arm around her shoulders and leading her out
of the room.

“Let him be trouble,
Rita. You deserve a little fun.”

She scowls at me but
there’s the faintest hint of a smile tugging at her lips. “Yeah, maybe I do.”

Two and a half months
later…

I never considered how much quicker
vampires can build stuff compared to humans. In a matter of days the bomb site
at Crimson was cleared, the remains of the building knocked down, and a whole
new, completely different structure built in its place.

Now the spot where
vampires and humans used to spend their time dancing and getting drunk has been
transformed into a round, dome-like building. Ethan and Rita put their minds
together and came up with The Hawthorne Centre, named after the river that once
separated the city into two halves. It’s where they will form their future
committee consisting of a representative from each supernatural species.

There has been
surprisingly little resistance to this new plan, mostly because everyone is
glad that the fighting has finally come to an end. Tonight vampires, magic
users and all variety of supernatural creatures gathered at the river to throw
white lotus flowers into the water as a symbol of peace.

I thought it was
beautiful.

I stood beside Ethan,
my dad who returned from England several weeks ago at my other side, and
watched as the witches and warlocks lit the river up with their magic to make
it look as though the flowers were glowing.

Now a big party is
being thrown at the Hawthorne Centre and the entire street has been closed off
to accommodate for the numbers. I sit at a table with Ethan, everyone getting
drunk and merry around me. On the other side of the table Rita and Roman bounce
off one another as Roman flirts and Rita tries her best not to succumb to his
charms.

Gabriel and Alvie are
dancing like they’re having the time of their lives – and they probably are. Finn
and Allora are dancing, too, all slow and romantic even though the music being
played is fast. They smile into each other’s eyes like they’re the only two
people in the room. Delilah sits atop Ira’s lap, feeding him
hors d’oeuvre
of something that looks like fancy chicken. Beside them are Amanda and Lucas,
and I have to applaud the vampire for how well he has stuck to his guns. I’ve
never seen Amanda happier, so he must be doing something right.

I see all of my friends
around me, happy and looking to the future. So why do I feel so sad? I feel as
though I could be seeing them for the very last time, but that doesn’t make any
sense. Ethan pulls me from my thoughts when he takes my hand into his, rubbing
tender circles into the centre of my palm.

“You haven’t touched
your crab,” he says, his deep voice resonating through me.

“Is that what it is?” I
say, trying to sound light-hearted. “I thought it was chicken.”

“What’s wrong? You seem
on edge.”

“I’m not. I just have
this bad feeling.”

He takes both my hands
into his now and looks me in the eye, his expression serious. “Nothing bad is
going to happen, Tegan. You’ve lived with uncertainty for so long that you’re
uncomfortable with stability. Your life is going to be good and safe from now
on.”

“Yeah, you’re right.
I’m just one of those glass half empty kind of girls, always looking for the
catch.”

Ethan shushes me,
taking my fork and lifting some crab to my mouth. “Eat and enjoy the party, my
love.”

I nod and dig into my
food. Finn and Allora return to the table, Gabriel and Alvie following closely
behind them. They’re all laughing about something, but Gabriel looks unamused.

“Hey,” says Finn
teasingly, his hands raised in the air. “Whatever raises your flag.”

“It’s not that weird,”
Gabriel mutters in annoyance.

“What’s not that
weird?” Rita asks.

“We were talking about
poor old Marcel. Gabe thinks he was attractive.”

“I just think he had a
handsome face and an alright body for his age. Jesus, you’re making too much of
a big deal out of it,” Gabriel grumbles.

“Eww, that’s gross,” says
Rita scrunching up her nose. “I don’t even want to think about what the two of
you got up to when you spent so much time cooked up in that shop together.”

Gabriel shakes his head
and sighs in exasperation. “I should never have opened my mouth.”

Alvie gives him a peck
on the cheek. “It’s okay, Gabe. I still love you, even if you do have a
penchant for wrinkly old men.”

Gabriel blushes and
looks away, keeping his attention on the wine glass in front of him. Everyone
at the table starts laughing, all except for Ethan. His attention is settled
completely on me and there’s a startling look of horror in his eyes. I follow
his gaze to the lap of my pale silk dress to see it’s not so pale anymore. Now
it’s covered in deep, red blood.

I lift my hand to my
mouth in shock, a soundless gasp rushing from my lips, and that’s when the pain
hits. Pure, undiluted agony shatters through my body, causing me to cry out.
I’m vaguely aware of the vampires in the room, and how their eyes start to glow
red at the scent of my blood.

I feel as though I’m
being ripped open from the inside out, and all I can think about is the baby.
Am I having her now? The doctor said I was still two weeks away from my due
date, and judging by how much blood there is I’m more likely losing the child.

I can barely focus
anymore, the pain is just too great, the strength of it tearing into my body at
breakneck speed. Ethan takes me into his arms and starts shouting orders at
people to get out of the way, but I’m too out of it to concentrate on his
words. Then it all becomes too much. I can’t handle a single second more of
this agony.