Power (Soul Savers) (26 page)

“I’m positive,” I said to Tristan as we reached Vanessa’s
door with two more bottles of blood in hand. We stopped to listen, but the room
on the other side remained silent. I whispered, “Maybe we shouldn’t bother her
yet.”

“You already have,” she said from inside, her normally
musical voice marred with annoyance. “May as well come in, especially if you
have blood for me. I’m parched.”

I drew in a deep breath, made a here-goes-nothing face at
Tristan and turned the knob on the door. From her seat at the top of the bed,
she appraised Tristan with her eyes, obviously still liking what she saw even
if she’d finally given up on the idea of the two of them together. Her little
smile turned into a smirk when she looked at me, but when Tristan held up the
bottles of blood, her face twisted with disgust.

“Ick. Not again. When do I get
real
blood? Owen said I’d get mage donor blood.”

“First, we rebuild your strength gradually to make sure
you’re ready for that much power,” I said.

She smirked at me again. “Still afraid of me?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I haven’t been afraid of
you for years.”

Tristan opened a bottle for her and held it out. She stared
at me a long moment and tilted her head. The look in her eyes seemed to
change—she knew and appreciated that I’d stand up to her—then she
took the bottle and drank without further comment.

“So,” she said after finishing the first bottle and setting
it on the nightstand, “what are these rules I have to learn? Let’s get this
over with. The sooner I can get out of this room—” she glanced at the
shackles chained to the walls “—the better.”

I frowned, now feeling badly about the way I’d treated her.
No, she was no Mother Theresa right now and probably never would be, but she
was definitely a billion times better than she’d been before, and I’d tried to
beat the crap out of her and then strung her up like a prisoner in the middle
ages.

She grunted. “Don’t get all soft on me now. I
am
still a monster. Don’t worry about
that. I just want to get out of here and get on with my new life.” She gave me
a broad smile about as sincere as a politician’s promises.

Tristan rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know how soon
you can do that, but we’ll see about getting you into a more normal bedroom
soon.”

“We have some logistics to still work out,” I said, as I
moved the winged back chair around to the side of her bed. “And first, you have
more work to do.”

She gave me her full attention, those icy blue eyes piercing
me. “Like what?”

I wanted to start by ordering her to tell me where I’d find
my pendant, but that would have been selfish. Although retrieving the stone
remained a top priority, Vanessa’s soul and well-being came first. Owen was
right—she needed time to adjust—so I forced myself to be patient
and snuffed out my burning curiosity.

“Like you have some sins to repent for,” I said, making my
voice as kind as possible although her snarky attitude brought the worst out of
me.

Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Is this like a 12-step
program those Norman idiots do? Can’t I just move on with my new life and
forget the past?”

“Sorry, but it doesn’t work like that.” I reached out to
grab her hand.

 
“What are you
doing?” she shrieked as she jerked away, her back pressing against the
headboard as if she tried to become part of it.

My heart had jumped with her sudden movement and now pounded
a little too quickly. “You need a boost of Amadis power.”

“And you have to hold my hand? Can’t Seth do that? Or Owen?
Where the hell is Owen, anyway? Did he abandon me already?”

 
“Skin-to-skin
contact is more direct and best.
Tristan
—that’s
his name—doesn’t have my power and neither does Owen. And no, he hasn’t
abandoned you.” I kept the “not yet anyway” to myself.

She looked down at my hand still lying palm up on her bed
and hissed. “You only want in my head.”

I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to push back the
annoyance and impatience. “I don’t have to touch you if I wanted in your head.
But believe me, I won’t be jumping in there if I don’t have to.”

Somehow, this made her flip a switch. “I
don’t
believe you! Where’s Owen? This
isn’t what I asked for. You’re keeping him away from me, too, aren’t you? Not
satisfied with just one man? You need both to yourself, you selfish little
slut?”

Tristan leaned over her, his expression threatening. “That’s
enough.”

Her eyes widened and then she started screaming. “Owen, you
fucker! Get your ass in here! They’re gonna kill me!
Owen!
”

“Stop it! He can’t even hear you,” I yelled over her
shrieks. But she didn’t stop.
Vanessa!
Shut up! He’s muted your room, so he can’t hear you.

She fell quiet at my silent words and stared at me with
fear-filled eyes. She drew her knees to her chest, clapped her hands over her
ears and started screaming again and rocking back and forth. “Stay out of my
head! Stay out! Stay out!”

I threw myself against the back of the chair and closed my
eyes. What was I going to do with her? Thankfully, the door flew open, and Owen
came to her side. His presence calmed her down.

“What did you to do her?” he demanded, shooting an
accusatory look at me.

“I’m trying to
help
her,” I said through clenched teeth, “but she won’t exactly let me.”

“Owen?” Sheree’s voice called from down the hall. “Where’d
you go? Oh, my God. Oh, no! Owen? Owen! Are you okay?”

Before any of us could react, Sheree already reached the
doorway. Her eyes went wide as saucers as she took in the vampire in Owen’s
arms, and then they began to change, her pupils elongating and her irises
yellowing. Her fingers had already lengthened into claws by the time Tristan
wrapped his arms around her and carried her away.

“Take care of her,” I told Owen, flipping my hand at Vanessa
while I hurried after Tristan and Sheree.

I followed them as he carried Sheree into another room down
the hall, where he released her, then backed away several paces in case she
exploded into a tiger. Her mouth bulged open with her growing teeth and fangs,
and she bent over, placing padded hands that were nearly paws on her knees. She
panted, more in a beast-like way than human, and a soft whimper, almost a mewl,
escaped with each exhale. After several moments, though, the claws retracted
and her large paws shrank into human hands. When she finally looked up at us,
her face had returned to normal, but her body trembled—with the effort of
fighting the change or with anger, I wasn’t sure. Probably both.

“
What
is she doing
here?” she demanded as soon as she could speak. “You’re keeping prisoners of
war here?”

I bit my lip and shook my head.

“So what’s going on?”

I looked at Tristan, and he stared back at me.
Well?
I wanted to ask him. He’d been so
gung-ho on telling her yesterday, but now his tongue suddenly didn’t work?
It worked perfectly well last night
. My
body warmed all over and heat crept up my neck. I frowned at that random
thought, but he took my expression the wrong way. When he opened his mouth, my
hand grabbed his and squeezed to stop him. Although I’d looked to him for help,
I knew that
I
needed to do this, not
him.

“Vanessa, um …” My mouth struggled to form the words. “She,
well, wanted to convert. That’s what she’s doing here.”

Sheree stared at me with wide, brown eyes for a long moment,
then she burst out laughing, doubling over with the fit.

“Now that’s a good one!” she chortled.

I simply watched her until she realized I was serious. She
sobered up immediately.

“Vanessa? Amadis? Are you
sure
? No. It’s probably a trick. It has to be!”

I shook my head. “That’s what we thought at first, but it’s
already done. Well, at least the first phase is. She really did want this.”

Sheree stared at me again then at Tristan, then looked
around the room, as if still expecting Ashton Kutcher and a camera crew to show
up. I knew exactly how she felt. She must have finally decided she wasn’t being
Punked because she dropped her butt to the bed and rubbed her long, thin hands
over her face.

“Vanessa …,” she muttered to herself. “Who would have ever
thought?”

She took it better than I’d expected. I thought she was
entitled to an all-out fit or to issue ultimatums that the vamp leave or she
would. But, of course, that had been foolish of me. Sheree’s heart was bigger
than anyone’s.

She finally looked up at me. “And you did it yourself?”

“Had to. No one can know she’s here. The Daemoni—”

Her eyes grew even bigger than they’d been before. “They’ll
want her back. I was nothing to them, but Vanessa … they’ll come for her!”

I nodded.

“We have to keep this quiet as long as possible,” Tristan
said. “Until she’s fully converted so it’s too late for them to do anything
when they find out.”

“That’s why you weren’t going to tell me?”

I shifted my weight and stared at my feet. “Sorry. That’s
what I wanted to talk to you about, but I should have told you sooner. I was a
little tired last night.”

“I’m sure you were,” Sheree muttered. She looked up at
Tristan. “No wonder you called me last night and told me to stay close to
Sonya. Alexis didn’t really hear anything suspicious in Sonya’s mind, did she?”

Tristan grimaced. “As far as we know, Sonya’s the same as
always. It was an excuse to keep you away from the back wing.”

Sheree examined her fingers, chose one and began gnawing on
a nail. She’d once told me she kept her nails short because when she shifted,
her claws would be less dangerous. They’d still appeared plenty lethal to me
when they’d come out a few minutes ago, but whatever.

“Vanessa’s a mess,” the Were finally said. “How bad was the
first phase?”

“Not bad, actually,” I said. “I mean, not great, of course,
but not even as bad as Sonya’s.”

She leaned forward. “Really?”

I lifted my hands in a shrug. “She’d been wanting this a
long time. That’s all I can figure.”

“Well, this next phase may not go so smoothly. Based on what
I heard and saw for that brief moment …”

“You’re right. She’s a mess.”

“She’s scared of your telepathy, Alexis,” Owen spoke up from
the doorway. “She knows you were in her head during the conversion.”

I turned to look at him. “Not really. Not on purpose,
anyway. The visions I see—that just happens. I can’t control it when
everything’s so intense.”

“Doesn’t matter whether you meant to or not. She’s freaked
out. She doesn’t like that you, of all people, know her inner thoughts and
worst memories.”

My head dropped, and I stared at the floor once more, unable
to argue with that. In fact, once again, I felt badly for Vanessa. Nobody would
want the person they disliked most to know those things. But in this situation
…

“Owen, it’s part of the process,” I said, looking back up at
him. “I mean, what we still need to do. She has to confess and repent before
she can move on.”

“I’m only saying it’s going to be difficult to get her to
cooperate, especially with you.”

“Well, she needs to get over it! I’m the only one who can do
this, remember? You didn’t want to involve anyone else.”

Owen’s eyes flitted over to Sheree.

“Oh, no,” I said, stepping in front of the Were as if to
protect her. “You agreed not to drag her into this. In fact, you insisted we
leave her and everyone else out of it.”

From behind me, Sheree put a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll
help. If you need me, I’ll do it.”

Owen opened his mouth, and I feared he would accept her
offer.

“No! It’s not fair of us to ask this.” I turned around and
looked up at Sheree. “You don’t need to do this, not after what she did to you.
There’s no reason to put yourself through this.”

Sheree’s eyes softened. “Forgiveness is part of the process,
Alexis. Part of
my
healing. I’d do
this just as much for me as for her.”

I searched her face, looked deep into her brown eyes as if
they could show me what was really in her heart, which might be different than
what was in her mind. But I didn’t need to delve deep, didn’t need to listen to
her thoughts. Her feelings were right there on her face. She was not only
certain about this but was also pretty adamant. I let out a breath of relief. I
couldn’t help but feel better that I wouldn’t be alone in this. With a
reluctant sigh, I nodded acceptance of her offer.

So Sheree and I at last had more than one patient to work
with. It took some time, but when Vanessa finally trusted that I wouldn’t
listen to her thoughts any time I felt like it, she relaxed a bit and
eventually allowed me to sit in on her faith-healing sessions with Sheree. I
pumped Amadis power into her, and she listened to Sheree intently, but when it
came time to act, she refused.

“Vanessa, you’re doing great,” Sheree said one day, a little
over a month after the vamp had shown up in those trunks. We sat in our usual
positions—one of us on each side of Vanessa’s bed, my hand over the
vampire’s. “You really are. But if you’re going to heal completely, you have to
confess and repent.”

Vanessa pulled her hand from mine and folded her arms over
her chest. Her eyes stared at the window across from her bed, and she didn’t
say a word.

“You can’t leave here until you do,” I said.

She scowled. Then she finally turned her head to look at
Sheree, as usual ignoring me. “I’ve been working on it. Just … privately. I
don’t need anyone but God knowing my business.”

I had a feeling she meant she didn’t want
me
knowing, so I stood up. One pair of
warm, brown eyes and one pair of icy, blue ones looked up at me. “I don’t have
to be here for it. Whatever helps.”