Tegan's Power (The Ultimate Power Series #4) (6 page)

“Not another step,” I
say to Raul whose eyes flicker from side to side trying to figure out a way to
get by my sparks. Ethan turns his attention to me, and if I’m not mistaken he
looks like he’s proud of me.

Angelica tries one more
time to plunge the stake into Ethan. He grabs her wrist and turns her body
before clutching her to him. Her back is pressed to his front, one of his arms
wrapped around her middle. It’s a position that looks almost like a lover’s
embrace if you were to ignore the way his hand grips her neck and smoothly
wrenches it to the side. I hear the dull snap of bone just before he lets her
body drop to the floor.

Milliseconds later he’s
grabbing Raul in the exact same way and incapacitating him with the exact same
snapping of his neck. He picks the stake Angelica had tried to kill him with up
off the carpet and then drags both bodies from the room as though they are
weightless rag dolls.

I hurry out after him
as he strides down the hallway to his front door, opens it and heaves both
bodies out. The vampires waiting in the dark gasp audibly as Ethan stands stoically
before them and announces, “This is what happens to those who try to betray
me.”

Lightning fast he
plunges the stake into Raul and then Angelica before tossing their bodies out
onto the road. Mere moments pass and they dissolve into a black sludgy mess.

Dead silence fills the
street as the assembled vampires look on in terror, whispering hushed
exclamations of shock and fear. Ethan turns and re-enters the house, bringing
his attention to Lucas who is standing by me with a pleased expression. He’s
glad that Ethan has shown the vampires a display of power. And to be perfectly
honest, I am too. It will make any of them planning a similar assassination to
think twice about it.

Long hours later, Ethan
has met with most of the vampires who had been waiting. He tells those
remaining to return the next night and they leave, quickly obeying his orders.
I take the liberty of using his home phone to call for a pizza delivery.
Something about drinking Ethan’s blood this morning kept my hunger at bay for a
while, but now I’m starving.

When Lucas sits beside
me on the sofa I take the opportunity to ask him about the others. “Where is
everyone? You were with them on that roof, weren’t you?”

“I was. They were
frightened when they saw what had become of Ethan and fled. I haven’t located
them yet. I searched the slayer’s house but it was empty. They can’t have
gotten too far since we’re all trapped in anyway.”

I sigh. “Yeah. That’s
true. We have to find them, make sure they’re okay.”

“Delilah will return
when the time is right.”

“Speaking of my
sister,” says Ethan entering the room. “I would like her found now, Lucas. I
don’t like thinking of her out there alone.”

“She’s not alone. She’s
with Finn and the others,” I interject.

Ethan lets out a low
sound of derision and I roll my eyes. Before I know it I’m being flipped over
his back and hauled upstairs to his room. Seconds later he throws me down on
his bed.

“Do that one more time
and see what happens,” he warns playfully, leaning over me and nipping at my
shoulder with his teeth, no fangs – not yet.

I smirk at him and take
my time doing one big leisurely eye roll. In response he turns me over abruptly
and spanks my bottom hard. I yelp.

“Ow, ow, okay, I’m
sorry. Please forgive me, oh great one,” I can’t help giggling while I say it.
“That good enough for you?”

Ethan growls and licks
a line from the curve of my neck to my ear where he sucks my lobe into his
mouth. His hand slips over my belly and then down into my pants, his fingers
digging into the fabric of my underwear. I moan in response and he massages
lightly then pulls away.

I turn and stare at him
in frustration.

“Glad to see you’ve learned
your lesson,” he smiles just as the doorbell rings with the pizza.

“Oh, come on. It’s not
polite to leave a girl with blue balls,” I protest and Ethan quirks a brow.

“You have a curious way
with words.”

“So do you,” I reply,
rising from the bed and walking past him to go collect the pizza.

Several minutes later
I’m sitting by his kitchen counter digging into a slice when he decides to join
me.

“Not going to share, my
love?” he asks with amusement.

“Go ahead,” I say
gesturing to the open box.

We eat in comfortable
silence for a few minutes before I begin to broach a conversation. “You do want
this, don’t you? Leading the vampires of the city and all? It kind of feels
like you think you don’t have a choice.”

“I don’t,” says Ethan
placidly before throwing the crust back in the box.

“Of course you do. I’m
sure there are a whole bunch of vamps who genuinely want the job. Just give it
to one of them.”

“I could do that, but
then I’d have to disappear. They couldn’t rule comfortably knowing a far
stronger candidate is still residing in the city. And I don’t want to
disappear, Tegan.”

I study him a moment.
“Well, maybe it’s a good thing. They always say that reluctant rulers are the
best kind. You aren’t in it for the benefits or the lavish lifestyle. It means
you might actually focus on what’s important instead of your own selfish interests.”

“That’s a good theory.
But it could also go the opposite way. The fact that I’m reluctant might mean
that I’ll intentionally fuck up the job.”

I smile at him. “I
don’t think you’d do that. You’re too much of a perfectionist. It would just
irritate you to do a half arsed job.”

“Why, is that a
compliment, Tegan?” he chuckles.

“A roundabout one.
That’s the best you’re going to get from me.”

He kisses me tenderly
on the cheek and clears away the pizza. A second later his arm is reaching
under my knees so that he can lift me up.

“Come on,
fata
frumoasa
,” he whispers in my ear. “Let’s see what we can do about those
blue balls of yours.”

I laugh as he carries
me all the way to his bedroom.

Finn

I wake up in the early hours of the
morning because the bed is shaking. Glancing to my left I see Allora convulsing
beneath the covers and a surge of panic grips me.

Rising up on my elbow,
I put my hand to her forehead; it’s hot and clammy with sweat. I know she told
me this might happen while she slept, but that doesn’t make it any easier to
watch her. The convulsions that wrack her body look painful. As I stare, I
wonder what it is she’s seeing. I wonder if she can see the future of the city
and what’s going to become of us.

Will Theodore keep us
trapped in his bubble forever? Or will we all be dead before the week is
through?

One thing I know for
certain is that I have to make contact with Tegan. I have to know the choices
Cristescu is going to make for his vampires. Will he spur them to kill or
encourage them to live peacefully?

Too many ‘what ifs’
fill my head which makes it impossible to get back to sleep. After a couple of
minutes Allora stills and her breathing returns to normal. I lie awake on top
of the covers, my hands clasped above my head and my mind on high alert.

Once seven o’clock hits
I get up, have another shower and get dressed. Allora wakes up just as I’m
sitting at the foot of the bed lacing my boots.

“Morning, Goldy. Did you
sleep well?” I say turning to give her a friendly grin.

She sits up and rubs at
her head. The towel robe she slept in is hanging open a little at the chest,
showing me the round curve of her cleavage. She notices me looking and
surreptitiously covers herself, wrapping the robe tighter around her body.

Rubbing at her head she
replies, “I slept okay.” She pauses and glances at me. “Did I…did anything
happen while I was asleep?”

I nod. “Yeah, you had a
vision. At least I think you did. It was just like you said it would be. Your
body shook with convulsions. Do you remember anything?”

She grimaces. “I always
do, unfortunately.”

“And?”

A small grin shapes her
lips. “What? You think I’m going to tell you? I hardly know you, Finn.”

I raise an eyebrow.
“You know me well enough to share a bed with me.”

“Yeah well, my options
were pretty limited,” she replies.

She climbs from the bed
and feels her way to the bathroom without another word. A minute or two later I
hear the shower coming on. I smile to myself, thinking my shy little elf has a
steely side, and I think I like it.

I go out to the van and
drive to the nearest shopping mall, which is back out on the motorway a couple
of miles from the hotel. I stock up on necessities for everyone and buy Allora
something to wear that’s a little less conspicuous than a floor length evening
gown. I opt for those one size fits all leggings and a couple of t-shirts and
cardigans. I also throw in some socks, plimsolls and knickers. I’m not even
going to try guessing her bra size.

Small boobs are easier
to guess than big boobs, and Allora could be anywhere from a double D to a G. I
love how this is what my brain decides to focus on, instead of thinking of how
I’m saddling myself with yet another damsel in distress. I’m sure a psychologist
could have a field day with me. Always trying to save females because I
couldn’t save Mum and Sis, the only two who really mattered.

When I get back to the
hotel, I drop off the bag of clothes I got for Ira. When I reach my room I find
Allora sitting by the dresser, attempting to blow dry her long hair with one of
those tiny hotel hair dryers. I drop the shopping bags down on the bed.

“I bought you some
clothes,” I say. “I went as generic as possible because I don’t know your
sizes.”

Her eyes drift back and
forth as through trying to spot me. She must have pinpointed my form because
her gaze stops where I stand by the wall.

“You didn’t have to do
that,” she whispers, her voice aeons away from the sass she gave me earlier.

“I wanted to. Besides,
it looks like I still have some proving to do to show you I’m trustworthy.”

Turning off the dryer,
she sets it down on the dresser and then makes her way over to the bed. She
latches onto the bags and slips a hand inside one of them.

“You’ll have to tell me
what’s what,” she says quietly.

“Oh, right, yeah,” I
reply slapping my head dumbly. Taking the bag from her I pull out a pale yellow
T-shirt, navy leggings and a black cardigan. Next I grab a pair of knickers and
some socks.

“So, these are leggings
and this is a T-shirt,” I tell her placing one in each hand and feeling like an
idiot. I have no idea how to treat an almost blind person. “And, uh, here’s
some clean underwear,” I go on throatily. “You can go change in the bathroom
and then I’ll help you with the rest.”

“Thanks,” she answers
and if I’m not mistaken she seems touched by how I’m assisting her. She walks
into the bathroom but leaves the door open.

“At Michael Ridley’s,”
she says talking to me from the other room, “I always had maids to dress and
wash me, so I never learned how to deal with my blindness. Most people would
have little tricks to get by, but I haven’t had the chance to learn any. I feel
so clueless.”

That makes two of us.

“You’ll learn, Goldy. I
can help,” I assure her.

A minute later she comes
back out and I try not to focus on how the tight leggings cling to the curve of
her hips and hug her perfectly round arse. The T-shirt is a good deal tight as
well. I must have gotten a size too small.

I walk to her, take her
hand and lead her over to the bed, sitting her down. “Here are your socks, do
you need help with them?”

She shakes her head.
“No, I have to get used to doing this by myself.”

Fumblingly, she puts on
the socks and then the plimsolls and I help her into the cardigan once she’s
done. “Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” I ask her with a smile.

Unexpectedly, she
reaches up, puts her hand on the line of my jaw and places a kiss to my cheek.
My heart skips a beat. She smells like soap and her lips are so fucking soft.

“Thank you, Finn. You’ve
been incredibly sweet to me,” she says with gratitude, pulling away just as I’m
instinctively turning my lips to hers. I shake myself out of the urge to plunge
my tongue inside her pretty little mouth. The air is thick between us.

“Any time, babe. Come on,
let’s go get breakfast.”

On the way to the diner
I inform the receptionist on duty, now a young red haired woman, that we’ll be
staying another night. I use my DOH credit card, knowing that it has a decently
high limit and since Pamphrock is gone nobody’s going to care that I’m spending
the money anyway. The cards are provided to higher ranking members to be used
in emergencies. I’m thinking that since the city is trapped in a purple cage of
magic and is now under the rule of an all-powerful vampire, that times are
definitely in the emergency realm.