him by at least one hundred times compared to before. I lost any control I’d ever had. And he did, too…but not in the way that made his eyes blaze. In a good way. A blissful way.
I knew because when I lost control, the wall in my mind fell and I could hear his thoughts. And I felt the sensations and experienced the excitement for both of us. Overcome with euphoria, my mind exploded and reached into his, sharing what I felt.
“Oh…Lex,” he moaned pleasurably as we both flew over the edge.
I apologized later, as we lay on the floor, the bed in shambles again. “Sorry for getting into your head. I couldn’t help it.”
He grinned widely, the gold flecks in his eyes dancing. “Don’t be sorry. That was…mind blowing.”
I slept peacefully—for the first time in over seven years, I didn’t have a single dream.
Chapter 24
We spent the next two days putting our affairs in order, as Rina had put it. Tristan used my computer to move money around our various accounts. Owen met Julia, who delivered identification for him and for the new A.K. Emerson-Wells. We also worked on my powers.
By our last day there, I could move objects—even Tristan—with my mind, control my electrical charge at different levels of power and flash without falling. We practiced flashing together, too, Tristan holding my hand and leading me. I found this even more disorienting than flashing by myself, because I went with him but didn’t know where. The “destination” I had to concentrate on was simply “wherever Tristan is.” We must have done it fifty times before I could land without falling, Owen laughing at me every time. Although I learned to sense Tristan’s flash trail, the guys decided against my learning how to follow it yet. Apparently, following a trail was more difficult than I had time to practice.
We also searched for my pendant. We never found it.
Our flight from Miami to London, where we would connect to Athens, left in the afternoon of the third day. My emotions were mixed as we prepared to leave the beach house, where so much had happened to me.
“Will we ever be able to return?” I asked Tristan.
“I don’t know. I hope so.”
“Me, too,” I said with a sigh.
From my honeymoon to grieving to the Ang’dora, this house had seen the best and worst of me. It would forever hold a special place in my heart. We shared one final kiss in our house and then Tristan looked down at me and smiled.
“Ready to go home?” he asked.
I felt sad to leave but excited for what was to come, even with the danger we could face on the way. “I guess. Let’s do it.”
He took my hand and we walked down the driveway, into the brush and flashed. I’d become accustomed to the absence of air by now, but I still sucked in a huge breath when we appeared, a natural reaction.
Owen had gone ahead to drop the photos in the mail and to transport our luggage because we couldn’t flash with it and we’d look suspicious flying without any. He waited for us in the long-term parking lot at the Miami airport.
“So much for the Ferrari,” Owen muttered sadly as we abandoned the sports car and headed for the terminal.
“I thought you were getting a motorcycle,” I teased to cheer him up. It worked.
His face brightened and he smiled. “Oh, yeah.”
We traveled with no problems from the Daemoni. Tristan had been concerned they would stage a terrorist attack, but apparently they weren’t ready to go that far with the humans. When we arrived in Athens, we had to go our separate ways. The Amadis mansion occupied a private island in the Aegean Sea. Owen took the Amadis boat with our luggage, but Mr. and Mrs. Wells checked into a hotel room and then rented a boat for the day, leaving a paper trail for the authorities and the media.
The boat trip was unbelievably beautiful. The sun shone brightly, dancing on the azure water and warming the air, although the wind held a slight chill. I was glad to finally be able to let my mind relax—being in crowded places was difficult. It had taken every ounce of mental energy to keep my wall up on the airplane, knowing I couldn’t escape the voices if it fell. Owen and Tristan took turns “singing” and “talking” to me, just to give my mind something to tune into. Now, with no one around but Tristan, I didn’t have to hold the wall at all.
After about an hour, Tristan idled the engine and pointed at an island about three miles away, barely visible on the horizon. “That’s where we’re flashing to first. I’ll lead. Then we’ll have to swim to the Amadis Island. It’s shielded, of course, so we can’t flash onto it.”
“Okay,” I said, although I didn’t feel okay at all. My insides squirmed with anxiety.
Tristan twisted his hand and shot a bolt of fire at the boat’s engine. It ignited, large flames building on the fuel. No turning back now.
And then we both heard another boat engine approaching quickly. Too quickly.
“They’ll go by—I hope,” Tristan muttered. We had little time with the flames growing larger by the second and we certainly didn’t need someone coming to help before we flashed.
“Got ’em,” the horribly familiar yet beautifully musical voice chimed in my head. I felt the blood drain to my feet.
“Vanessa,” I barely croaked.
Tristan spun around and eyed the approaching boat. He swore under his breath, his fists clenching at his sides.
“Now what?” I mouthed, unable to get the words out.
His body relaxed as he turned to me. “Stick to the plan. She won’t be able to get us.”
“Will she follow us, though?”
“She won’t know where we’re going and she won’t get close enough to follow our trails.” Tristan’s eyes cut to the fiery engine. “We have to go.”
He grabbed my hand but I couldn’t bring myself to stand up. I watched the other boat approach from the back and swing around to the front of ours.
My insides contracted tightly with panic. What if I screw up and don’t go with Tristan? What if I get stuck here alone? Can I fight her? I thought I could, but I wasn’t positive. And Vanessa had back-up. Her brother drove the boat.
“Come on, ma lykita, we’ll be okay,” Tristan said softly. “Trust me.”
Those last two were the words I needed to hear. I stood up and nodded. Holding hands, we ran up the bow and jumped.
Barely in time. The boat engine exploded.
Vanessa stood right below us at her bow, grinning as she looked up at us. Her brother stood behind the wheel, also gazing at us. They seemed to be waiting for us to land right into their laps.
And then we flashed.
But not before I caught the gleam of the sun hitting a silver circle with a red stone in the center, dangling from Vanessa’s gloved hand, as if taunting me.
We landed on the island and I sucked in a deep breath as Tristan surveyed our surroundings.
“We’re good from now on,” he said.
I turned around, though, and started stomping away as if that was the way back to Vanessa. “Stupid, evil, thieving vampire bitch.”
Tristan’s arm immediately encircled my waist, holding me motionless. “I know, my love. I saw it, too.”
“Then let’s go get it!” My anger overshadowed the fear I’d just felt when I first heard her thoughts.
“Don’t worry, we will. Just not right now. We need to get home.” He pressed me tighter against him.
I stopped struggling. As strong as I was now, intensified more by my anger, I was still no match for Tristan. And he was right. There would surely be plenty of opportunities to get my pendant back in the future. Because she—and the Daemoni—would not give up.
