Torment (Soul Savers Book 6) (8 page)

“As you can see,
she and her husband were directly involved in this sadistic attack on
an innocent family in Istanbul, Turkey.”

The new video showed
footage of Tristan and me at the side of the house. A flame shot out
of Tristan’s hand and into a window. The video was bogus, but
we couldn’t exactly call the media and tell them what really
happened.

“You know her as
A.K. Emerson,” Lucas said when his face returned to the screen,
“but her real name is Alexis Ames Knight.
She
is the
dangerous one you must be wary of.
She
is the one you must
report to authorities if you see her. She is the one you should not
approach on your own, but allow the authorities to do their job. If
you’re watching, Mrs. Knight, take heed: We will not back down
until we have reclaimed this world as ours. We will make you
all
extinct. Souls like yours can never win.”

I threw up a little in
my mouth.

“Asshole liar,”
Vanessa muttered.

“Actually, he
didn’t state a single lie,” Tristan corrected. “Excluding
the video, anyway.”

“No,” I
agreed, “except he has the Normans convinced that he’s
one of them. When he says
we
, they have no idea he means the
Daemoni. When he says souls like ours, they think he means the
damned. He has them completely snowed, and the world is going to end
because of him.”

“I can’t
believe he turned that around on us,” Blossom said.

“It’s not
terribly surprising,” Char replied. “We don’t think
like him.”

I stared at Lucas’s
face on the screen, and my skin crawled. “Well, maybe we need
to start.”

I turned on my heel and
strode out of the room before I totally lost my cool. Tristan
followed me to my office.

“You didn’t
see this coming?” I asked him as soon as the door shut.

“I see solutions,
not the future. I don’t know all the facts on their side, so I
can’t see what their best decisions are. I didn’t know
just how far up the political ring Lucas had reached.”

“Pretty high up,
I’d say. The freaking vice president of the United States
vouched for him.
Praised
him!” I blew out a breath
pregnant with frustration and despair as I dropped into my chair
behind the desk. I set my elbows on the desktop and rubbed my
temples. “They may as well be worshipping Satan himself. How do
we protect people like that?
Why
should we?”

“They don’t
know, my love. We have to believe in the goodness of humanity.”

I looked up at him and
tried to smile, but couldn’t. I didn’t see his face, but
saw the video of the blackened bodies instead. Was there any way that
could have been real? The fire was supposed to have been contained.
What had the Daemoni done? Tears stung my eyes.

“I don’t
know how to fight this kind of evil, Tristan. They murdered those
poor, innocent children and made
us
look like the
baby-killers.”

He came around to my
side of the desk, leaned against its edge, and crossed his legs at
the ankles. “We can’t underestimate them.”

“I don’t
get how they did it. How did they see us? We were cloaked. How did
they keep all of those Normans quiet about what
they
did?
There were dozens of witnesses and cameras.”

“Powerful, dark
magic. Mind control and memory erasure. Perhaps even possession.”
He lifted his hands, palms up. “They have all sorts of weapons
at their disposal.”

“So do we. But we
can’t use them.”

“We
won’t
use them. It’s not worth it. Trust me,
ma lykita
. We
will fight the right way.”

“And we will
lose,” I said with a sigh.

He squatted next to me
and placed a large, warm, comforting hand on my shoulder. “Council
meeting starts in five. Let’s figure out how we
can
win.”

I forced myself to my
feet and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m so glad
you know what you’re doing, because I haven’t the
slightest clue about war strategy. Or how to counter someone who’s
trying to take over the world.”

“You know more
than you think you do.”

“Why? Because I
have Lucas’s blood in my veins?”

Thanks to the asshole
sperm-donor, I had a darkness in me that my predecessors hadn’t
possessed. But I still didn’t think I could ever know how to
think like him. I wasn’t sure I wanted to, but with all of
humanity’s souls at stake, I might not have a choice.

“No. Because you
are the matriarch and leader of a powerful society and army with the
Angels behind you.” He kissed my forehead, then added, “And
because you have me.”

“Thank God. Like
I said before, I’m relying on you entirely for this
war-planning business.”

“And like I said,
that’s what I’m here for—to support you, to guide
you, to mentor you.”

“And to love me.”

“Mmm … the
best part.”

I tried to smile, but
couldn’t. “I’m so scared,” I whispered as I
leaned my head on his shoulder. “So afraid of doing the wrong
thing.”

“There will
always be that fear,” he said, his voice low and serious.
“Nobody who’s ever been in war knows if any decision is
absolutely right. At least, nobody with a conscience. I’m
sorry,
ma lykita
, I wish I could tell you it would be easy,
but always questioning yourself is part of being a leader. But you
have me. We’ve gone over everything already. You know what to
say and do today—form your council the way that’s best
for you.”

Yeah, I knew. But that
didn’t make any of this easier.

“
Alexis?
”
Char called to me from the media room. “
There’s more
news on the telly.
”

Yay
, I thought
with a sigh as I reached for the remote control, wondering what was
going to knock us down next.

“Breaking News”
scrolled across the top of the screen, an anchorman sat at his desk,
and video footage played in a corner box, showing people lowering
various national flags from a long line of poles in front of a glass
office building. “We have just received confirmation from the
White House. With an overwhelming vote, unanimous by all of the major
powers, the United Nations has ceased to exist. All treaties have
been declared null and void.” The video ended, and the camera
zoomed into the anchorman. “Ladies and gentlemen, I do not know
yet what this means, but we are closely monitoring this story and
will find out for you.”

A blue cartoon bear
wiggling its butt against a tree replaced the anchor’s panicked
face as the network broke for a commercial.

“Shit,” I
muttered. “Do you think Solomon’s okay? We haven’t
heard from him in days.”

I considered for the
first time that maybe he’d been discovered as a vampire when
the Daemoni had made their existence known. In fact, they crawled all
over the U.N. and likely would have outed him to the Normans. Surely
the news would have reported the “monster” at the U.N.,
while conveniently ignoring the real beasts. Unless they quietly
killed him to avoid bringing attention to themselves. My imagination
ran wild and worry pushed my brows together, but then I picked up on
the new mind signature in the mansion.

“I am fine, and I
am here,” a deep voice with a Haitian accent carried from the
hall shortly before the vampire himself appeared in my doorway. Tall
with a medium frame, the ashy skin of a pale vampire with black
heritage, and cornrows that reached his shoulders, he most certainly
was here. I jumped to my feet and rushed over to greet him with a
hug. “I do bring news, but not what you want to hear.”

Tristan strode behind
me and clapped Solomon on the shoulder. “Let’s get to the
council meeting so we can discuss it.”

We flashed to the
council hall where Owen and Char already worked on setting up the
ability to hold a conference call. Rina would have never fathomed
such a thing when she ruled. If her entire council couldn’t be
physically present, they would wait and proceed when they had a
majority. Tristan and I had sat in on meetings from our office in the
Captiva safe house, but it had probably taken Mom’s power of
persuasion to convince Rina to allow it.

The thought of Mom and
Rina made my heart squeeze.

First order of business
involved swearing Owen, Vanessa, Blossom, Jax, and Sheree into the
council. Second was finding out which existing members would stay.
Julia’s absence had already been noticed. Swearing in my team
members and dismissing Julia were no-brainers, so this felt like my
first official action … request? … no, my first
official
order
as matriarch. It was time to get real. My
throat suddenly dried up, and the speech I’d mentally prepared
vanished from my memory.

Back in the day—about
six or so years ago—when my books started becoming a big thing,
I’d often felt like an imposter. Like a fraud pretending to be
something amazing, while always fearing that eventually someone would
figure out the truth. Apparently, I wasn’t alone in that
thinking. Creators of all types lived with constant doubt of their
own talents and abilities, especially the more popular their works
became.

But that feeling didn’t
compare to this.

I didn’t belong
here, in this seat. I’d only sat at this table a handful of
times, and now I occupied the leader’s chair. The matriarch’s
throne! Who was I trying to fool? Me as matriarch? Ha! I hadn’t
even had the chance to learn how to lead an army—had struggled
to lead my miniscule team—so who would ever entrust me to rule
an entire society? Certainly not everyone here in this room with me
right now. They knew better.

“
We entrust
you
.” Three words whispered into my mind. Cassandra’s
voice, although somehow layered with Mom’s and Rina’s,
too. “
The Angels believe in you.
”

I glanced up at the
statues of the angel-warriors that glared down on us from their
perches near the ceiling. Their large wings were spread wide, and
they held swords in each hand, fierce determination carved into their
stone faces. During the abomination of Tristan’s trial, I’d
thought them angry with us. For some reason, I now felt as though
their eyes pierced me through to my soul. As though
they
were
the ones speaking to me, and at the same time, waiting for their
orders. From me.

Tristan’s hand
slid over my thigh under the table and gave me a reassuring squeeze.
Fake it until you make it
, he’d said. That’s
exactly what I had to do.

With a deep breath, I
stood, placed my hands on the edge of the round table, and leaned
forward. I wanted to make sure those listening through the device set
in the middle of the table heard me loud and clear. I just hoped my
voice wouldn’t crack like a preteen boy’s and betray my
lack of confidence. I cleared my throat to be sure.

“Many of you have
served my grandmother and the Amadis for a very long time,” I
began. Unable to look at any of the faces sitting around the large,
stone table for fear of losing my nerve, I stared hard at its center.
“She brought the kind of leadership we needed during her era. I
didn’t always agree with her decisions on the surface, but I
knew deep down she did what was right for the Amadis and humanity at
the time.”

Swallowing down my
nervousness, I took the chance of looking up. Several people nodded
in agreement. Someone on the phone let out a “hear, hear”
and another agreed with an “aye.”

I glanced at the angel
statues again and then let my gaze travel around the table to all of
the faces, different colors and nationalities and even species,
watching me intently.

“However, this is
not that time. The Angels have already warned me that everything has
changed, and we have witnessed that with our own eyes. With our
lives
. The world is a different place than it was a century
ago or even a month ago. And we must be different, too. The Amadis
were started as the Angels’ army on Earth. We’ve been
fortunate over the last few centuries to behave as more of a society
and culture, immersing ourselves in human civilization, rather than
an army involved in constant war. We’ve had to fight small
skirmishes, yes, but not like the battles we face now. It is time to
rise up and be the warriors we are supposed to be.”

I looked each of them
in the eye as I continued, my confidence growing with each word of
conviction I spoke.

“There will be
blood. There will be carnage all around. I may not have a lot of
experience with war, but I do know this much. We’ve already
seen it. I also know this: We will be a part of it. We will
fight
.
We will be the ones drawing blood if necessary. We will serve our
purpose, whatever it takes.”

“Absolutely,”
Charlotte said. Solomon and my new council members nodded in
encouragement. Exactly what I needed.

“I will say it
now, and I will say it clearly. I am
not
my grandmother,”
I declared. “I will not sit on the sidelines and watch,
formulating complicated, covert plans that eventually bring results
down the line. That may have worked in more peaceful times, but not
in today’s new world. We will
act.
And we will do so
swiftly. We will take the offensive. When I say we will fight, I mean
it. And I mean
we
. I will not ask anyone else to do what I
will not do myself. So don’t try to stop me. Rina entrusted me
to lead our army, and I will continue doing just that as matriarch. I
will not sit by in the comfort and safety of a palace while my
people’s lives are being sacrificed.”

I paused for a breath
and took a moment to scan everyone’s minds. As expected, some
were balking at my directness. I pushed on because this was important
to me to address now so I wouldn’t have to deal with the
backstabbing later.