Part 18 (1/2)

Then I lost it. Lost everything. I had no more to give, no more to keep me in the battle.

Everything fell silent. Went black.

Then gray.

Then muted sounds. Heavy breathing. Sobbing. Whimpering. A soothing voice trying to quiet another.

My consciousness slowly returned. I lay on the floor. No. On Tristan's lap. His face came into focus above me, his eyes filled with concern.

”Is it over?” I asked, my voice a hoa.r.s.e whisper. He nodded. The relief lasted only a moment as the memory of Charlotte's warning shot through me. If I allowed my energy to be drained during a conversion, the evil energy would be transferred, not eliminated. And Vanessa had drained me. I bolted upright. ”Oh, no! Did you take it? Did you take the dark power?”

He shook his head. ”No, my love. I'm good.”

”Owen?” My head twisted, my focus shooting across the room until it landed on him, with a very limp Vanessa in his arms.

He shook his head, too. ”I'm fine.”

I studied Vanessa's face-relaxed, even more beautiful in its serenity.

”But it worked?” I asked.

”I feel no evil energy left within her,” Owen said. ”Not even a trace.”

”Really?” I couldn't believe it. Six months since her conversion, Sonya still had traces of Daemoni power. And she'd only been Daemoni for a few years. Sheree said that was normal, that the residual energy could linger for months or even longer. How could Vanessa be eliminated of it already? I crawled out of Tristan's lap and over to Owen and Vanessa to see for myself. I pressed my hand to Vanessa's chest, over her heart, and a.s.sessed her.

Owen was right. Not a trace. I had done it. I'd converted Vanessa. Freakin' Vanessa!

”You did well,” Ca.s.sandra said softly.

Thank you, I told her.

”It was all you, Alexis. You and the power you've been given.” With that, her presence disappeared.

To be one-hundred-percent positive the vamp wasn't hiding anything, I tapped into her mind. The voice of the woman from her vision-the one I'd told her to latch onto and remember-floated through her thoughts: ”Hidden daughter of enemy and ally will offer strength and valor to the worthy. Yet first, she must unite with son of power and war. Only when together will they anchor victory over foe.

”That's your prophecy, Vanessa. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.”

Vanessa's eyes fluttered open at the sound of my gasp, and she looked at me without focus then up at Owen above her. Her gaze sharpened, and she clawed at her throat.

”So ... thirsty,” she croaked, and all three of us-Tristan, Owen, and me-stiffened for a moment. Then Owen stretched out his arm, obviously planning to give her his wrist.

”Wait!” I said. ”Do we really want to do that?”

Owen eyed me. ”She needs to drink.”

”But your blood is too powerful.”

Owen glanced at Tristan and back at me. ”It's the weakest blood here. We have no other options, do we?”

I grimaced. ”Yes, we do. Let's do this right.”

”Sheree will notice missing supplies,” Tristan said.

”I know, but too bad. She's going to find out sooner or later anyway.” I stood, a little too quickly-pinp.r.i.c.ks of light danced across my vision. I, too, was still weak. Tristan caught my wobbly frame and sat me down in the wingback chair.

”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 h.e.l.l 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 f.u.c.king 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 b.i.t.c.h left in her, doesn't she?”