Promise

'So…to start at the beginning,' Mom said as she worked, 'we—me, you, our family—are a part of the Amadis . The best I can explain it for now is the Amadis is like a society or culture. Our family is the original Amadis, but others have joined us.'

'Like a cult?' I asked, looking up in surprise.

Mom shook her head. 'No, not a cult. It's the society or civilization for…people like us.'

'There are other people like us ?'

'Not exactly like us…but they're not like normal people either. That's all I can say for now.' She picked up the tweezers, about to poke them into the hole in my arm. I lay my head back down.

'So our family started this uh-MOD-eez'—I sounded out the foreign word—'but others have joined it?'

'Right. Others who are sort of like us and want to live like us—for good, not evil. So, the Amadis, our family, and Tristan's…'

She hesitated, like she didn't know what to call Tristan's relatives.

'Creators,' he filled in for her, his voice hard. 'I'm telling everything about me, so let's just get it out there. I was technically born, but those were not anything I would call parents. It's more accurate to say I was created. Genetically designed…to be the ultimate warrior.'

Chapter 11

Genetically designed? The ultimate warrior? I wanted to laugh—it sounded ludicrous—but Tristan's face was completely serious.

'The ultimate warrior for the Daemoni ,' Mom said, disgust filling that last word, and I knew this was no joke. 'The Amadis and the Daemoni are, well, we'll just say innate enemies. You'll have to wait for the story behind it, but you can understand I mean much more than rivals or feuding families. Our very kinds are, by nature, opposites.'

'Our kinds ? What does that mean?'

The tugging sensation in my arm stopped as Mom sighed in frustration. 'Honey, you just have to accept some things as just the way they are without further explanation. Yes, our kinds , as in our kinds of species.'

My head shot up again. ' Species ? We're not even human ?! What the hell are we, aliens?'

To my complete bewilderment, both Mom and Tristan chuckled.

'We're human…sort of…,' Mom said, '…just different than everyone else, which you already knew. And that's all I can say. Besides, you're still very much human and you will be for a long time.'

Of course. The Ang'dora. So the Ang'dora would make me less human…and more like Mom. She didn't seem like a different species, though.

'Mom, you can't say things like that and not explain.'

She studied my face for a moment. 'I'm sorry. I know it's not fair, but I'm not allowed to go into it. This is about Tristan, not us. I can only tell you what you need to know to understand him.'

'But you're saying he's a different kind than us! How am I supposed to understand?'

'I'm not, really, a different kind, I mean,' Tristan said. 'Just be patient. You'll understand soon.'

My eyes bounced between the two of them. Tristan looked apologetic—like he understood my frustration and wanted to tell me more. But Mom's face was set firmly. She wouldn't budge.

'Okay, fine,' I sighed. 'So our family—'

'My side of your family,' Mom corrected. Of course, there's another side. I tended to forget that. The sperm-donor, as I referred to him when I had to, had never been a part of my life and Mom never spoke of him. Now there seemed to be a reason why she made that distinction…but she quickly jumped on my thought. 'No, I can't tell you about the other side right now.'

She bent her head over my arm again, squirting it with water to flush out the blood. Then she picked up the tweezers.

'Right. Of course not,' I mumbled, laying my head back down. I didn't mind avoiding that topic as much as the others. 'So, the Amadis…if we are natural enemies of the…?'

I couldn't remember the word.

'Daemoni,' Mom filled in.

'Right. Day-MAH-nee. And the Daemoni created Tristan, then he is…?'

Tristan's face darkened and his eyes dropped from mine.

'Basically…designed to kill your kind,' he said grimly, wincing at his own words, as if they physically hurt him. 'Their main purpose in creating me was to lead them into victory over the Amadis…and, eventually, humankind. The instinctual desire to seek your kind out and kill without hesitation was bred into me.'

I raised my head and tried to gulp down the boulder-sized lump in my throat. It remained stuck.

' Kill us?' I whispered around it.

He nodded and slowly lifted his eyes back to mine. They looked horribly pained.

'But…you're not a killer,' I said quietly, finding this more difficult to believe than anything else they'd told me…or not told me. He dropped his eyes again and stared at our hands, mine in his, in his lap. I had sensed a bit of danger in him. But murder? It didn't make sense. I shook my head in denial.

'I have killed people, Alexis,' he answered just as quietly, still keeping his eyes from mine. 'Innocent people. Amadis. That was my way of life.'

I gulped and blinked back the tears stinging my eyes.

' Was your way of life, but not anymore,' Mom added. 'Right, Tristan?'

'Absolutely right,' he said fiercely. 'I turned my back on that many, many years ago, before you were born, Alexis, thanks to Sophia. She persuaded me to see the Daemoni from a different perspective and I saw how evil they were…how evil I was. They are, in all respects of the word, demons. Evil spirits. Followers and soldiers of Satan himself.'

His voice was cold, his face contorted in disgust. A chill traveled up my spine.

Looking at him and knowing him the way I did, I just couldn't believe it. Then I thought about the flames I'd seen in his eyes. And how, this very night, he'd said he was much more dangerous than a vampire. I'd thought he was joking at the time. I shivered. He frowned, his brows furrowing.

'A little over twenty years ago, Sophia somehow convinced me there was good inside me,' he continued, his tone and expression softening from revulsion to appreciation with each word. 'She took me to the Amadis and they taught me how to change inside, how to pull that good out and allow it to be the overpowering force within me.'

'See, in their greedy desire to create the perfect warrior, the Daemoni underestimated the power of two types of blood they included in Tristan's,' Mom explained. 'There is enough Amadis and enough humanity in him that he was able to overcome the evil.'

'So, you have Amadis in you? You are like us?' I asked, feeling hopeful after all the repulsive information they'd told me about the man I loved.

'If you trace it back several centuries, we have ancestors in common. I do have Amadis blood, but that doesn't make it easy to be like you.'

'Tristan's been through a lot of pain and turmoil to strengthen this side of him,' Mom added.

'It still takes solid concentration and self-control, but it's worth it. I'll never return to who—or what —I once was.' The conviction was clear in his voice—as clear as the pain was. 'So…I came here to find you and Sophia, but I knew it had to be done in a certain way. It had to be in a place where you would be safe, just in case… The Amadis told me you were taking classes at the college here, so I enrolled, too, hoping we would cross paths and I knew I could be around you without having an overwhelming urge to…'

His voice broke at the end and he was unable to finish.

'Kill me , ' I finished in a whisper.

He finally looked at me again and agony filled his eyes. He seemed to be pleading for me to understand. I tried to imagine what it would feel like to have an inherent desire to kill someone—as strong and natural as the need to drink when parched or eat when starving—and then to try to overcome that force when the object of desire was right there to be easily taken. The morsel of food or jug of water…or innate enemy…right there,