Twilight War (8 page)

His openness
surprised her. She wanted to believe him. “There’s another way to
dispel your curse.”

He gave her a
pointed look. “Really? I doubt that.”

“If you let
yourself feel again, I can pull you over. You’ll be truly
free.”

“As promising
as that sounds, I don’t believe there is any entity that has more
power.”

“Then why are
you telling me this?”

“Guess I don’t
want you to think I’m the bad guy.”

“So this little
moment we’re having is some kind of confession to ease your guilt?”
Her hope began to sink.

“I want Coop to
pay. There is only one way to kill him. Don’t you think I’d have
taken him out by now if I had the power?”

“You’re the
Satellite, revived. You are Twilight’s most powerful tool.”

“Typically that
is true. But there’s only one way to kill creepers and the
Satellite. You are one of very few people who know how.”

“I can’t
believe this.” She turned away from him. “You want me to kill Coop
because I’m the only one who can kill creepers, just to settle an
old vendetta.”

Von guided her
face back toward his with a gentle hand. “He’s not a creeper,
sugar.”

Panic rose in
her throat. “What is he then?” She dreaded his reply and felt
certain Raef had been slain by the Twilight Master just as her
mother had. “Coop is the evil ruler?” She swallowed hard. “He’s the
one who killed my mother and now he came after the only person I
loved. He’s going to strip away anyone I love until he breaks me.”
Her heart felt cold.

“No, that’s not
it. Nobody knows who the Twilight Master is. He’s an unseen force
of energy that commands us to obey. If he does have a human body,
we are not aware of it. We just feel his presence and hear his
voice and believe me, it’s not pleasant.”

She exhaled,
almost in relief. “Then what is Coop? Why can’t you kill him?”

His eyes held
hers captive as he spoke. “Only a flaming dagger can kill a
Satellite.”

“Cooper O’Toole
is…is…a
Satellite
?” Her voice faltered. She could barely
speak it.

“The original,
the very first tool sent to earth by the evil realm. He’s older
than dirt.”

“No…you’re
lying…he can’t be…” Her mind blurred. Suddenly she felt ill. “Do
you have any idea what this means?”

Empathy
flickered in his eyes for just a split second. “Yeah, I do.”

Tears burned
her eyes. An uncomfortable knot formed in the pit of her stomach.
Cold sweat beaded her skin. She slammed her fist into the wall so
hard her knuckles began to bleed. Von tried to hold her but she
jumped to her feet and repeatedly pounded her fists against the
wall, crying hysterically. “He can’t be! How could my own father
kill the man I love? The names he called me…the cruel way he spoke,
I-I…why has he done all this to me? Does he even know that I am his
daughter?” The questions were maddening.

Von wrapped
strong arms around her from behind. “He knows who you are.”

“I thought my
father had some good in him. He helped my mother save me from the
evil realm when I was born. What made him turn on his own flesh and
blood?” She twisted the fabric of his shirt in both hands, burying
her face against his chest. “I was still struggling to accept the
fact that the blood of the original Satellite runs through my
veins. This is too much.” Her sobs came out in a frenzied rush. “It
was bad enough to find out I was sired by an evil fiend of Twilight
but to know that man is Cooper O’Toole…I can’t process that. He saw
me, rode with me, and never once let on.” She looked up at Von
through teary eyes. “And he murdered Raef right before my eyes!
He’s a beast! My father is a horrid, heartless monster.”

He held her
tightly as she sobbed with unbearable grief. Everything she’d hoped
for, everyone she’d loved—gone. Icy fingers of hate and death
gripped her heart. The urge to run, strike out, and kill consumed
her, anything to get away from her new reality. Yet a tiny voice, a
seedling of something she couldn’t explain held her back. Von
petted her hair with more affection than expected from a man she’d
killed. Maybe it was his hope in her that kept her from bolting
into the streets and releasing her rage on the first deserving
target.

He rested his
cheek against her head. “Now you know why I need your help.
Together we can hunt and destroy.”

“Together? Why
would I help you?” The dawning of this revelation began to take
root. Every muscle in her body tensed. “You want me to use flaming
daggers on Coop. What makes you think I won’t turn around and use
them on you?”

“Your desire to
win. If you kill me, the war will escalate to the next level. It
will never end until one of us wins.”

“You don’t
understand.” She pushed him away. “Get out. I’m not helping you.
You’re taking advantage of my vulnerability. Get out!”

He gripped her
shoulders with both hands. “No,
you
don’t understand. If you
don’t kill Coop, he’s already selected the next Satellite in the
event I fail. I have been given one last chance to win you to our
side. If you kill me, they’ve already lined up another to take my
place. I should know—he did the same damn thing to me. He was
demoted to recruiter after he failed to get your mother.
I
was
his
replacement…but you already put that together.”

“No, no, no,
no!” She clapped her hands over her ears. “Stop talking! I don’t
want to know anything else!”

Taking her
hands in his, he pulled them away and forced her to look into his
eyes. “Do you think you’ll be able to resist Raef if he returns as
a Satellite? He’ll come back with supernatural seductive power and
you’re in love with him. You won’t stand a chance!”

“Nooo…” she
cried while shaking her head. “This can’t be happening.”

“Listen to me.”
His voice was firm. “We have to destroy Coop and find a way out of
this thing. He’s got your boyfriend in holding. If I fail again,
they will send
him
after you. They use careful calculation
in choosing the tools to use. They pick men who attract women
naturally then they enhance that power. Mark my words—Raef will be
the next Satellite if we fail.”

“I’ll kill Coop
but I’ll do it alone. Now get out.”

“You’ll never
find his camp without my help,” Von growled, clearly determined to
do this together.

“Fine,” she
snarled through clenched teeth. “Right after I drive a fiery blade
through his icy heart, I’m going to turn the same blade on you and
bring Raef back.”

“You’d do that
to the man you love? Allow him to be cursed for eternity?”

“At least we’d
be together.”

“I never
thought a woman of your stature could stoop that low. I thought you
were a rare breed.” Von stared in open bewilderment. “Apparently I
was wrong.”

She stared back
in fury. “Yeah…I guess so.”

With a shake of
his head, he turned to go. “Have it your way, Flame
with-no-last-name
.” He slanted her a thwarted look. “By the
way, the flaming daggers are no longer a threat to me, only to
Coop. I bet Ian forgot to mention that.” He vanished without a
sound.

Flame slid down
the wall with her back to it and slumped on the hard, cold floor in
the dark. She managed to scrub all the blood from the ceramic tile
until her fingers throbbed with pain. Her mind struggled to process
what Von had said. If his words were true, then Cooper O’Toole was
not only the original Satellite, but also her biological father.
The dawning of such facts overwhelmed her. She had no tears left to
cry so she dragged her weary body upstairs and dropped into Raef’s
bed.

Scruffy,
old, belligerent Coop is my father.
The thought nauseated her.
Somehow, she imagined that her father had been a daringly handsome
man for her mother to fall for him.
How could my mother love
that old weathered coot? This is just all so wrong. If he knows who
I am, how can he do these things to me? He must have truly turned
to darkness. The original Satellite of all things and now I have to
kill him. Not only is he a murdering bastard but a liar, too. He
lied straight to my face about everything and even pretended to
want the creepers killed.

She thought
back to the night she rode with Coop’s band of Citizen Soldiers in
search of the elusive Satellite, who’d actually been right under
her nose. Coop had created an impressive smokescreen to hide his
true identity. At this point, she didn’t know what to believe. She
tried to sort fact from speculation. Von was indeed the Satellite,
this she knew. However, as to his account on everything he just
said, she had doubts. Coop did kill Raef. That was her harsh
reality so either the man had gone insane or he truly was an
enlisted soldier for the evil realm. That would lend insight as to
the name of his biker group only they were anything but soldiers
for citizens. They were nothing more than a band of evil creatures
spawned from hell.

And what of
Ian, she wondered.
Where did he fit into all of this? Was he
another pawn like my sweet Raef? Did the Twilight use him, too?
Exhaustion claimed her thoughts.

Raef’s scent
lingered on his pillow. Rolling onto her stomach, she clutched his
pillow to her face and sobbed. “Raef…if I can kill Von, then you
will come back. Would you want to return at any price so we could
be together again?”

But how, she
wondered. If her daggers were powerless against Von then how could
she kill him? How could she even win this war? Her options seemed
severely limited. Either focus on stealing Von from the Twilight or
find a way to kill him.
I’d probably have a better chance of
helping Raef accept his humanity again than penetrating the
unpredictable heart of Von Calder.
She wondered if killing Coop
would remove Raef from the equation. If so, she’d be back to square
one.

Do I want
that? If joining forces with Von to destroy Coop sends Raef away
forever, what hope do I have? All that would be left is winning a
war I’m not sure I still care about. What is the point in any of
this if I can’t be with the only man who ever loved me?
Hopelessness swept through her in wave upon wave of agonizing
torment. Her thoughts retraced her options over and over until she
finally dozed off without any answers.

She woke hours
later, parched and bleary-eyed. After making her way downstairs and
into the kitchen, she found a bottle of juice in the fridge. Her
soul felt empty and ached for warmth, ached for love, and silently
screamed for Raef’s loving touch. While sipping the juice she gazed
out the huge bay window, facing the ocean. Waves frolicked on the
sand beneath a waning moon. Dawn would soon arrive. She didn’t want
it to come. She wanted the darkness to stay and shroud her grief
forever.

A peculiar fog
gathered around the window. She assumed the warm day and cool night
had blown a night mist in off the sea. Absorbed in thought, she
stared mindlessly as the mist thickened to the point where it
blocked her view of the beach. Thinking this strange, she got up
and walked to the window, then opened it a crack and stuck her hand
outside to feel the air. The fog rushed into the room and filled it
with a pungent yet strangely enticing scent. Suddenly an eerie
presence surrounded her—one she couldn’t see but felt it very
strongly. An unseen force slammed her to the floor. She gasped for
breath.

“Flame, you are
foolish to think that you can take on my Satellite,” an unfamiliar
male voice spoke from out of nowhere. “If you kill him, you will
have to deal with me. Let me show you a little bit of me.”

In the next
instant, commanding lust consumed her. Invisible yet skilled hands
swept over her body, under her shirt and down her shorts all at
once. She writhed on the floor, fighting against the force
attempting to take her. Whatever had entered the room possessed
staggering power. Lips and tongues swathed her body until she cried
out in anguish. The ache in her core brought tears to her eyes.
Then without warning, she climaxed against her will. Her body
shuddered in forceful release, yet not in a pleasurable manner. The
evil encounter left her feeling empty and consumed by cold
lust.

“Now you’ve
seen a small measure of my power. If you destroy Von, I will
torment you night and day until you mate with my next Satellite…you
will not be able to resist
him
.” He let out a wicked laugh.
“Nor will you have the heart to kill your pretty lover boy. I will
have you one way or another. The choice is yours.”

Before the mist
dissipated, she saw black eyes flecked with green peering through
the fog. She curled into a ball on her side and wept.
Von must
have been telling me the truth. Raef has been taken by the evil
realm and placed in holding as a backup plan. Cooper must really be
as bad as Von said.
She released a jagged sigh and wiped her
eyes.

“I can’t do
this to you, Raef. I can’t let them curse you for eternity. You
deserve to be among my ancestors, well the good ones anyway.”
Rolling onto her back, she stared up at the ceiling. “I’m so sorry
that your involvement with me has done this to you. Everyone who
gets close to me gets hurt. I’m so sorry, baby. Whatever it takes,
I will free your soul.”

She scraped
herself off the floor and padded up the stairs. After a long shower
to wash off the filthy scent of Twilight’s ghostly touch, she’d
track down Von and work on a plan to destroy Coop. That was all she
could handle at the moment. She decided to deal with this new
dilemma one piece at a time.

Chapter
Five

While towel
drying in the master bath an unexpected visitor manifested himself
in the vanity mirror. She jumped backward and smacked into the
shower doors.