Alexandra woke up a few hours later. She didn’t know what time it was or what day it was. The room was dark, but that didn’t mean anything because they were underground. Finally she noticed Reece’s cell phone lying on the nightstand next to the bed. She slowly reached for it and saw that it was past 3am.
Reece was still sleeping peacefully next to her, his breathing deep and even. Lex had never really slept next to anyone like this. With Tristan, she tended to pull off to her own side of the bed, shying away from any contact with him while she slept. But she was strangely comfortable now, lying next to Reece with her arm over his chest and her leg draped over his thigh. She couldn’t believe that he was still here with her. He trusted her not to hurt him or kill him in his sleep. He trusted her to be in his room, where there was sensitive information she could find and maybe sell to the highest bidder. She didn’t understand his faith in her, but she was grateful for it.
She felt peculiar then, driven by some impulse she couldn’t explain and didn’t dare pause to contemplate. Lex carefully disentangled herself from Reece, trying not to disturb him, and slid off the foot of the bed. She hoped that he wouldn’t wake up before she came back.
Quietly, she opened his door and stepped out into the bright hallway. It took her sensitive eyes a few minutes to adjust as she walked down towards the elevator, her feet bare and cold.
The elevator opened onto the 10th underground floor, where the infirmary was. This late, there weren’t many Daybreakers around, just a few witches at the main desk, a couple of human nurses in scrubs walking down the hall toward the patients’ rooms.
Lex had a talent for making herself invisible, so that no one noticed her. It was a practiced art that she took advantage of now. She followed the nurses down the hall, stopping to look at each patient’s chart in a folder attached to each door. After walking up and down a few corridors, she finally found the person she was looking for.
He should have been guarded, but strangely there was no one outside his door. When Lex picked the lock and went inside, she understood. Aiden St. Helen was chained to the hospital bed. Thick wooden cuffs were clasped tightly around his wrists and interlocking wood and metal chains were wrapped around his chest, covering him from shoulder to stomach. She was surprised that he could still breathe under the weight.
Aiden’s pale gray eyes fixed on her as soon as she shut the door behind her. His mouth looked sullen and the top of his head was wrapped in gauze. His steady gaze on her seemed to be a challenge. There was a clarity in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. Lex came to stand next to his bed and, after taking a breath, she sat down by his legs.
The slight dilation of his pupils told her that she had surprised him. “What do you want?” he asked her. His voice lacked the sultry warmth that it had possessed earlier.
At first Alexandra couldn’t answer because she had no idea why she was here. She only knew that she’d been lying next to Reece, thinking about trust and faith, and she’d been compelled to see Aiden. It had been foolish and she knew that she should leave, but she couldn’t.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I guess maybe I wanted to apologize for slamming you into the wall.”
Aiden mouth twisted into something that could have been a smile or a sneer. “How kind of you.”
Lex was quiet, trying to think of something to say. Why had she come here?
The words fell from her lips before she even knew what she was saying. “I’m not her.” She’d said it several times before, but she needed him to understand it. She looked steadily into Aiden’s gray eyes as if she were trying to will him into believing her.
“I know,” he replied sadly, with a sigh. Lex was taken aback. She hadn’t expected him to agree with her, not yet. “Don’t worry, angel. I haven’t completely lost my grasp on reality. What I saw in your mind…that wasn’t Eve. I only wanted it to be her.”
“I’m sorry,” Lex said, not knowing what she was apologizing for now. “I guess I must have absorbed some of her soul’s essence when I— I read her while she died. That’s the only thing I can think of. The physical soulmate link is there between us, but…”
“Not the emotional link,” he finished for her. “I know.”
“Why didn’t you stop?” Lex asked him, suddenly angry. “You must have seen—you knew how much you were hurting me. Why didn’t you let me go?”
He seemed like he was trying to shift his weight under the chains wrapped around him, but didn’t have the strength. “I don’t know. The link felt amazing at first, like it always did in the second before I would block it out. But then I realized that you weren’t Eve and I didn’t want to believe it. Maybe I just wanted to pretend.”
Aiden looked down as if he couldn’t stand to look at her any more. The pain radiated from him so fiercely that Lex could almost see it, angry red and vivid, like a raw wound that wouldn’t ever heal. His soulmate was dead and he had the rest of eternity to obsess about the things that he’d done wrong.
“She forgave you,” Lex told him softly. “Her last thought was that she loved you.”
The vampire’s gaze snapped back up to Alexandra and she saw the gleam of tears in his eyes. “Really?”
At Alexandra’s nod, Aiden’s face contorted as he began to sob. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know…I didn’t let myself feel her until it was too late. She took everything from me, my whole life. I hated her for that. And I’m so, so sorry.”
Lex laid her hand on his leg that was under the blanket, afraid to do anything more. His tears unnerved her because they revealed how fragile he was. But this was what she’d come for, wasn’t it? She recognized that sorrow in him and she wanted she wanted to touch it. “It’s all right. She forgave you. She loved you.”
“Then why did she leave?” he cried passionately. He seemed more like a child than a Night World killer then. His tears streamed down his cheeks because his hands weren’t free to brush them away.
“I don’t know.” Her voice broke and Alexandra found herself crying with him. Her heart broke with his. “It was selfish and she knew that it was. But she was so tired of living. She was tired of being the Wild Power and of being hurt because of it. She was tired of Daybreakers treating her like a messiah and of having to be watched all the time. She was tired of making sacrifices. She was just…tired.”
Aiden sniffed, composing himself a little. “So she passed the power on to you. She chose you.”
Lex rolled her eyes and wiped her cheeks. “She should have held out for someone better.”
“She must have seen something in you,” he insisted. “She could read auras.”
“Reece,” Lex whispered. “Maybe she saw that I was Reece’s soulmate.”
Aiden smiled a broken smile. “That’s the witch, right? I saw him in you. I suppose that makes sense. She would want her power to be protected by someone she trusted.”
His tears had stopped for now, but Lex knew that there would be a flood of them in the future. His grief would never end. Aiden sighed and bit his lip, looking like he was debating something. She was quiet and realized that she was holding her breath, waiting for him to speak.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” he said after a while. “I worked for the Night World for decades. I wanted us to win the war. I guess it doesn’t seem to matter now, after losing her. And…I like you. So I think you should know that you don’t have a lot of time left. Angie must know about you by now and she’ll be coming to kill you eventually. She’s not going to give up on that, ever.”
The conviction in his tone chilled her. “Why not?”
“She plays it cool. She acts like a slutty, conceited bitch most of the time. Like she doesn’t really care about anything but having a good time and getting more power. But the truth is that her own power is driving her crazy.”
Alexandra nodded slowly. She, more than anyone, could understand that.
“She hates you, you know,” Aiden continued. “That’s probably why she liked goading you with that ‘Soul Stealer’ line. She hates that you can choose to stop sensing people’s souls because she can’t. Angie hears the thoughts and emotions of everyone in the world. All the time. It’s loud and it’s wearing her down.”
“What does that have to do with the Wild Power?”
“Without four of them, darkness will reign. Humans will be slaughtered and all that will be left is Night People. We make up only a minute fraction of the people in the world.”
Lex thought for a moment and then she understood. “Less people, less noise.”
“Right.”
“Can she hear me right now?” she asked nervously. “Can she hear you?”
“I’ve figured out a way to block her. It’s a spell, actually. A cloaking spell. She might be listening to you, but if she concentrates too long on any one voice, she gets a migraine so bad that it would bring anyone to their knees.”
Alexandra shook her head wonderingly. “I can’t imagine living with the sound of everyone’s soul in my head. It must be so hard. It’s hard enough for me living with the power I have.”
Aiden smiled wryly at her. “Don’t make the mistake of pitying Angie. She’ll take advantage of it.” He waited a beat. “The same goes for me.”
Lex looked at him. His mouth was set in a grim line. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t pity me. Whatever pain I feel…it’s far less than I deserve.”
“I know that feeling,” she said softly. “I spent years hating myself and trying to tear myself apart.”
“I saw that,” Aiden admitted.
“Fun as it can be, I think maybe it doesn’t do any good. You can’t take back what you’ve done. Neither can I.”
“But how can I live with it?” His silvery eyes pleaded with her, desperate for an answer.
“I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”
“Do you think—” his voice broke off and he tried again. “Do you think I’ll see her again? Do you think she’ll be reborn somewhere?”
“You’re asking the wrong person.” Truthfully, Alexandra wasn’t sure that she would want Genevieve to be reborn. Aiden might be remorseful now, but there was no way to predict what he would become later. It might be better for the both of them if Genevieve’s soul stayed away from this world.
“What do you think Daybreak will do to you, once you’re better?” she asked him.
“I don’t know. I don’t think they would’ve wasted all the witch power healing me if they were going to execute me. I’m probably too valuable now, with what I know about Angie and the Night World here.”
“Will you tell them anything?”
Aiden moved slightly under the chains, as if he were trying to shrug his shoulders. “Sure,” he replied in a dull voice. “What do I care now.”
“It’s what she would have wanted.”
“Doesn’t matter. She’s still dead.”
It hurt Lex to look at him. He was in so much pain and she felt a kinship with him because of that. In many ways they were too alike to ever be good for each other. But she wanted to offer him a shred of comfort, as Reece had given her. Tentatively, she walked towards the head of the bed and brushed the tears off his cheeks.
The soulmate link opened between them and in some fundamental way, it still felt wrong. But Lex clenched her teeth against her fear and let him see what she’d seen in Gen’s mind as she died. She wanted him to know undoubtedly that Genevieve had still loved him.
When she broke away from him, Aiden looked up at her, his eyes shining, and whispered, “Thank you.”
“I should probably go,” she said, stepping back. “Thanks for telling me about Angie.”
“Sure,” he said quietly.
She gave him a small smile. “I like you, too.”
Aiden smiled back at her and she realized that they were connected in their own way. It wasn’t like what she had with Reece, but it went beyond the discordant soulmate link that had been thrust upon them. They were like two addicts struggling through the beginning of recovery. It wouldn’t be good for either of them to become too close, but they were important to each other regardless. Maybe one day, when they were both stronger people…
Better not to think of it now.
Without saying anything more, Alexandra left his hospital room to return to her own soulmate.
Reece’s heart was pounding. He was pacing his room, not knowing what else to do with himself. She was okay, he knew that much. If she was hurt or distressed, he was pretty sure that he would feel it. And right now all he felt was his own anxiety.
He’d woken up, feeling a little cold, and saw that Lex was not lying next to him. She wasn’t anywhere in his room or on the floor. Somehow he’d stopped himself from systematically searching every floor in the compound and realized that, as long as he knew she was alright, the best thing he could do was wait in the room until she came back. Hell of a lot easier said than done.
Goddess, he was in trouble. Reece could almost laugh at himself. Little more than a week ago, he was in Canada, keeping Montreal as safe from the Night World as he could. He’d been organized and in control. Now he was pacing his room, out of his mind with worry about a girl that, in the last two days, had come to mean so much to him that it was frightening.
His breath stopped when he heard the doorknob quietly turning and he watched the door crack open. Once she saw that the lights in the room were on, Lex came inside with an apologetic expression on her face.
“I was hoping you’d still be asleep,” she said.
“Well I’m not,” he said, wishing his heartbeat would slow down. “Where the hell did you go?”
He saw her blue eyes widen, as if he had scared her. “I went to talk to Aiden.”
Reece couldn’t speak, he simply had no words to respond to that. He kept swallowing, trying desperately to reign in his fear and frustration. She’s back, she’s okay. Nothing happened. Calm down.
“I should have left a note,” Lex said lamely.
“No,” he said through his gritted teeth. “You shouldn’t have gone at all. How can I keep you safe if you put yourself in dangerous situations?”
“I’m sorry. I’m not used to—”
“Get used to it, Lex. You’re my responsibility.”
Alexandra’s shoulders stiffened. “I see,” she said coldly. “Well I wouldn’t want to ruin your career and reputation. In the future I’ll ask you before I go anywhere. Now if we’re done with this discussion, I’m going to try to get some more sleep.”
She strode past him rigidly, her shoulder roughly jostling him as she headed towards the bed. Reece turned and grabbed her forearm. “No, we’re not done,” he said huskily.
He jerked her into his arms and kissed her forcefully. He could feel her chest heaving against his as she tried to breathe. Her arms went around his neck as she shuddered in his grip. Closer, he needed her closer. He reached down to lift her up and Lex wrapped her legs around him, crossing her ankles at his back.
Oh, he was coming undone. Her mouth was hot against his, her mind bright and brazen with passion that finally rivaled his own. Reece needed to feel her, to prove to himself that she was truly okay. He’d been so scared, despite how hard he’d tried to rationalize his fears away. Lex was here now, safe and in his arms.
By degrees, he calmed down and finally dragged his lips from Alexandra’s. He held her tightly against him, both of them gasping for air. “Don’t do that to me,” Reece breathed. “Ever again. I was worried about you.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her breath tickling his neck. “I didn’t mean to.”
Biting down on a groan of regret, Reece reluctantly set Lex back on her feet. She was dazed and he couldn’t help grinning when her balance wavered as she tried to get over to the bed.
“Why did you go?” he asked, sinking into the down comforter as he sat down next to her.
“I’m not sure. I needed to talk to him about what happened. I wanted him to understand that I’m not Genevieve.” Alexandra hesitated and looked at Reece. “I have to tell you this. Aiden and I have a soulmate link.”
“What? That’s not possible.”
“It’s true. I watched Genevieve die and I was drawn into her. Maybe her soul was sort of imprinted on me then. Whatever it was, that’s why Aiden was sure that Genevieve had taken over me. He wasn’t really crazy. It’s just that he could feel that he had a physical soulmate connection to me.”
Reece felt sick, as if the air had been knocked out of him.
"But it feels different than it does with us,” Lex continued hastily. “It feels wrong. Like someone else’s limb attached to me. I can’t explain it. But he understands now. When he touched me back in the cell, he saw that I wasn’t Genevieve. He’s in so much pain…I wanted him to know that she loved him until the end.”
It was an effort for Reece to get the words out, but he needed to do it. “And you?”
It was a vague question, but Lex understood what he was asking. “No. I don’t love him.”
Reece exhaled, releasing the tension that had built up inside him. It was disturbing just how relieved he was and he didn’t want to think about what it meant.
“He told me some things about Angie,” Alexandra said, veering away from wherever their discussion had been going. She told him about Angie’s power and why Angie was so desperate to kill a Wild Power.
“Okay,” Reece said, his mind racing with plans and details. “We need to figure out what cloaking spell Aiden is using to block her. And I need to get you out of here as soon as possible. We can’t tell anyone where we’re going or anything else about this. The more people that know, the more people Angie can get information from.”
Reece got up and unzipped a black shoulder bag that was lying on the desk. He pulled out a laptop and booted the computer up. Moments later he was frantically typing and searching through web pages. “Databases of spells,” he explained when Lex looked at the screen over his shoulder. “I should be able to find it.”
“What can I do?” she asked him anxiously.
Reece turned to her. “Eat,” he said shortly. “There’s food in the fridge, blood bags too. Have both. I don’t want you passing out on me, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Lex groaned. But she went into the kitchenette and made a sandwich.
It took a few hours for Reece to narrow down his search. Some of the newer spells hadn’t been properly cross-referenced yet, so he was forced to go through some of the pages line by line. He knew he shouldn’t complain because this was a hell of a lot easier than using books and trying to translate ancient spells into something that made sense, but he still found himself growling impatiently at the computer when the web pages took longer than a few seconds to load. He kept checking the clock in the corner of the screen, suddenly sure that they were running out of time.
“Ah, this could be it,” he finally exclaimed. He reread the spell again as Lex came over to look at the screen. “I think this will work.”
“Okay,” she said softly. Reece glanced over his shoulder at her and saw her making some vague, nervous gesture with her hands. “I’ve never had anyone do a spell on me before.”
He took her hands in his. “It’ll be fine. I’ve been told that I’m pretty good.” He gave her a playful smile.
Lex laughed. “I’m sure. I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“I would never,” he replied, feigning indignation. Then Reece looked at her seriously. “I promise it’ll be okay.”
Keeping their hands joined, Reece closed his eyes and recited the words to the spell. He felt Power flowing through him and into Alexandra. She hissed, but did not withdraw from him as the magick surrounded them both. Reece felt a cool sensation at the back of his head, as if water had been poured over him and he shivered. A sudden jolt in Lex’s grip told him that she had felt it too.
Reece opened his eyes when the spell was complete, but he didn’t release Lex’s hands. “I hope that worked,” he said. “Now let’s get out of here as quietly as possible.”
“Where will we go?” Alexandra asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t care. For right now, let’s just worry about getting out of this place and then getting out of the city. Later—”
A shrill screech sounded three times. Then again. Again.
“What is that?” Lex cried over the noise, pressing her hands against her ears.
“It’s the alarm,” Reece shouted back. He pointed to device on the wall by the door that resembled a smoke detector. A bright light on it flashed in time with the screeching of the alarm. “I think our time just ran out.”
Part 16
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