Torment (Soul Savers Book 6) (30 page)

“Just kidding,”
Blossom finally said once they settled down. “I promise there
are no pigeon’s feet in there.” She looked over at Dorian
and smiled. “I really only need their beaks.”

Dorian exploded in
another fit of laughter. “And don’t forget their eyes.”

“Gross,” I
said. “No wonder this tastes like ass.”

“It can’t
be as bad as that stuff on the train,” Blossom said.

“Ewwww! Nothing’s
that bad,” Dorian said, still howling.

“I don’t
know.” I held my mug out to them. “Why don’t you
try it and tell me?”

Dorian jumped back,
hitting his head against the wall, which only made him laugh harder.
“No way!”

Blossom shook her head
and waved her hands in the air. “That’s the last thing I
need right now.”

I eyed her more
seriously. “Exactly how I feel.”

“In your case,
you’re wrong. Drink up.” She crossed her arms over her
chest and stood watch over me like a warden as I drained the last of
the tea. My throat felt like I’d swallowed fire.

“Blech. I
half-wonder if pigeon feet would make it better.” I placed the
mug on a shelf.

“I’ll catch
one for you tomorrow, Mom, and you can find out.”

I didn’t doubt he
could. Now that we’d lifted his mood, he talked to us non-stop
until the rest of the compound fell quiet with sleep.

“See you in the
morning, little man,” I whispered as Dorian began to drift off
in his cot.

“Not if I see you
first,” he murmured, and then he broke into a fit of giggles.
“Just kidding, Mom. Love you both.”

“Love you, too,”
Tristan and I said at the same time.

Only the footsteps of
the night guards and a few snores from the various rooms of sleeping
bodies could be heard. Tristan and I snuggled together in our little
bed, reminding me of the first few nights we’d slept together
at Mom’s cottage. Saying things had changed since then was the
understatement of the universe.

The next day we left
the bunker to execute our plan on the Norman farm. Except things had
changed again. Super-sized soldiers, standing half a foot or more
taller than their counterparts and beefed up like Superman, walked
the fence now.

A familiar mind
signature of a Summoned son was also nearby.

Noah’s here
,
I told everyone right before an ice pick shot into my brain.

The sharp pain, a
million times worse than a brain freeze, only lasted a few seconds
this time, and I had to wonder what that meant. But I didn’t
have time to worry about it. I needed to find where Noah hid. This
could be our chance to disarm him, and maybe even all the controls,
if they were being kept together. I tried to home in on his
signature, but the lingering pain of the ice pick blocked my reach.
Bits and pieces of words wavered in and out of my mind, and it took
me a moment to realize my team was trying to talk to me.

We’d split into
pairs and scattered along the fence line to make our move on the
fence itself. Owen had us all cloaked, of course, and my telepathy
was our only mode of communication. With a concentrated effort, I
pushed the last of the pain out and mentally cleared my head.

“
Where is he?
”
Owen asked.

“
We need to
stay on task
,” Solomon said. “
Focus on the
mission.
”

“
If Noah’s
close enough, this would be a lot easier if we could turn off his
control of these soldiers,
” Tristan pointed out. “
Alexis?
”

I’m trying
,
I said, and I meant it. I’d been reaching out with my mind
while listening to them, searching for the mind signature I’d
felt only moments ago. Finally, I pinpointed it.
He’s east.
A little north. By the Eye, I think?

I wasn’t sure
about that last part, but only guessing based on where we’d
been that night Kristen had found us.

“
Let’s
go
,” Owen said.

“
Hold on
,”
Charlotte piped up. “
What about the people here?
”

Nobody replied at
first, waiting, as though we could all feel Tristan’s gears
working.

“
Vanessa and
Owen, come with Alexis and me
,” he said.
“The rest
of you stay here, and when you see the change in the soldiers, go
through with our plan
.”

“
We need you
to paralyze them
,” Char said.

“
I don’t
think we’ll need to. If we can get the stone out of Noah, these
guys will probably be confused and disoriented. That’s when you
make your move. Surely you can hold them, Charlotte, until we get
here.
”

“
And if you
can’t remove Noah’s stone?
” Sheree asked.

“
Then we’ll
probably have some serious problems
,” Tristan responded,
which was what I’d been thinking.

We’d brainstormed
ideas for how to subdue a Summoned to cut out their stone, if we ever
found one, but we didn’t have a specific plan for this
situation. I didn’t sense any other sons or their offspring
around, but perhaps they were barely beyond my mind’s reach,
which meant Lucas may have been lurking out of reach, too. This could
have possibly been a trap, as well. If any of the soldiers had
recognized us or any Daemoni had been watching, Lucas would have
known we were in London. At least one of his sorcerers obviously did,
based on the pain and mental jam I’d experienced a moment ago.
And since Lucas always remained a step ahead of us—or two or
three—he probably knew we would go after the Summoned.

In fact, he’d
pretty much set it up so we would. He hadn’t spilled all his
secrets that night at the abbey about the horrors he’d
committed simply to brag. He knew the Normans were our weak spot, and
that we’d do anything to protect them. So he knew we’d do
what we could to disconnect the soldiers from their controllers.

That brought us to the
question of the day: Was Noah’s nearby presence a lucky
coincidence or a trap?

Considering our lack of
luck since the day the Daemoni came out to the world, I doubted the
lady would give us a stroke of it now. But we wouldn’t know
until we found Noah, or at least until we could come closer to him
and analyze the situation better.

Maybe we should all
go
, I said, worried about what we might be walking into and if
we’d be enough to fight whatever we would face. On the other
hand, if a trap awaited us, bringing my whole team into it probably
ranked up there with worst ideas ever.

“
If we succeed
in breaking the connection, we’ll only have a small opportunity
here to free these Normans before the Daemoni figure out something’s
wrong
,” Tristan said.

So with that, we left
the others behind to watch the camp, and the four of us set off down
the road and across the bridge with the murky waters of the River
Thames flowing beneath us. Moving toward Noah’s mind signature,
we turned left at the end of the bridge, in the direction of the
London Eye. A wide and stout hotel, including a McDonald’s,
stood to our right, and this had no doubt been a busy tourist spot,
even on drizzly days like today … except not now. Although it
was the middle of the day, not a single soul roamed the streets or
meandered around the area. No mind signatures anywhere near except
the one we sought. The only others were back the way we came.

As we approached the
giant Ferris wheel, Noah’s mind signature felt
above
me.
I halted, holding my arms out to stop the others, and tilted my head
back, craning my neck and blinking against the light mist falling in
my eyes. I sensed him in a pod at the top of the wheel—the
wheel that hadn’t moved in weeks.

Suddenly two more mind
signatures popped into place—the one above with Noah belonged
to Jeana, and I assumed the one behind us belonged to her partner in
crime, and whatever else they partnered in. Merrick? I remembered her
calling him that back at the warehouse when she’d had Owen and
me chained up. No sooner had I identified them when that freaking ice
pick drove into my brain. My hands flew up, clutching my head, and my
jaw clenched against the agony.

“We know you’re
here,” Merrick said from behind us, and we all turned around to
face him although he couldn’t see us under Owen’s cloak.
His stature was taller and leaner than I expected, dressed in an
expensive looking suit. His dark hair was combed back, and his hand
tugged at his salt-and-pepper goatee. Piercing blue eyes contrasted
sharply against his olive complexion. “I feel your energy.
Especially yours, Alexis. So perfect for my needs.”

“Feel this,”
I growled through my teeth as I pushed Amadis power out of my whole
body, sending it along the river of current he pulled from me.

“Fucking bitch,”
he snapped when it reached him, and he immediately cut off the drain
on my power.

The greenish light of
one of Owen’s spells soared at him at the same time Tristan
shot his power at the sorcerer. With a wave of his hand, both
ricocheted away, but he knew where we were now. A streak of red flew
at us, but Owen’s shield blocked the spell—or more like
absorbed it, shaking the air around us. Electrified energy made my
hairs lift.

“He’s too
strong for me,” Owen whispered. “He’s breached my
shields before.”

“We need to split
up,” Tristan said. “Owen, stay with Alexis.”

Owen threw a separate
cloak over Tristan and Vanessa, and we ran in pairs in opposite
directions around the sorcerer.

“I don’t
want to fight you.” Merrick turned in a circle. “Jeana,
on the other hand, is a tad bit angry for that false spell you
provided last time. That’s why she’s up there with Noah.
I don’t how long I can keep her from killing you, though.
Especially that warlock.”

“Can he sense
us?” I asked Owen as we continued sidling around Merrick.

“Possibly. He’s
a lot more powerful than me.”

“What do you want
then?” Tristan’s voice carried from Merrick’s far
side. I tried to telepathically ask him what he had planned, but his
answer came distorted and nonsensical. I didn’t even know if it
was an answer or a random thought. The pick in my brain that
prevented me from hearing either sorcerers’ thoughts messed
with my ability.

“You still have
information we need,” Merrick said. “Like how to break
the connection between Noah and those soldiers over at Westminster.”

As if.
He
couldn’t really believe we’d fall for that, could he?

“Jeana and I have
better ideas of what to do with such power. It would involve the
Daemoni vampires and Weres, and eradicating them all. Ridding the
world of their uncivilized behavior and diseased existences would
benefit us all, including the Amadis. Don’t you agree?”

“The Amadis no
longer exists,” Tristan said.

Merrick let out a
sick-sounding chuckle. “Somehow, I don’t quite believe
that. Lucas might, but I’m not so easily fooled. Now tell me
what to do, and we’ll take care of Noah and those soldiers over
there first. Then we’ll be on our way to the lovely
Commonwealth for the rest of the Summoned, making them ours, not his.
What do you say?”

“I say go to
hell,” I bit out. “If anyone takes care of Noah, it’ll
be us.”

“You want a
trade?” Merrick asked, turning in our direction, those intense
blue eyes zooming in on us. Owen and I hustled around to his left.
“We might be able to do that. We’ll give you Noah to do
whatever you want with as soon as you tell us how Lucas is connected
with the Summoned and the Norman soldiers.”

Plan, Tristan?
I
asked, and a new shot of pain dug into my head. A garbled sound that
could have been “
distraction
” came back to me.

“I think Tristan
wants us to distract him,” I whispered to Owen.

“Faerie stones,”
Owen said aloud to Merrick. The sorcerer spun toward us, his eyes lit
up with curiosity. “Kali created a spell to mimic a faerie
stone with the attribute of control.”

“And?”
Merrick asked clasping his hands together under his chin.

“And that’s
all,” Owen lied.

The sorcerer frowned,
his goatee pulling downward. “What about the lykora? What does
she have to do with it?”

“Nothing,”
I said as we moved again. If Merrick didn’t believe us, which
he obviously didn’t, spells could start flying any second.
“They soaked the stones in the Summoned’s blood, then
broke them up and implanted them in the Normans. That’s all.”

“You’re
lying!” Merrick shouted, and a red streak shot toward us. We
instinctively jumped out of the way, although Owen’s shield
held. “We know the lykora is involved.”

“She’s
not,” I said, putting as much conviction into the two words as
I could muster.

“Now we told you
what we know. Give us Noah,” Tristan said.

Merrick laughed. “What
are you going to do?
Convert
him?”

The mocking tone grated
against my nerves. “It’s none of your damn business.”

“You can’t
convert the Summoned, stupid girl.” He disappeared from in
front of us, and then his voice came from some distance behind us,
closer to the wheel. “You lied, and so did we. Did you really
think we’d give you Noah?”

Jeana and my mother’s
twin brother appeared next to Merrick. Noah’s long, dark hair
waved to his shoulders, and the scar through his eyebrow really stood
out with the way he scowled at me. I couldn’t get a good read
on his mind, but I felt like he wanted us to help him.

We’ll free
you
, I promised him, although I didn’t know if he could
hear me.
We’ll find a way.

Stabbing agony wracked
through my brain, worse than ever before, accompanied by a
high-pitched ringing. I clutched at my head, doubled over, and then
collapsed to the ground. My eyes squeezed shut for only a moment, but
when they opened, the trio was gone. Tristan’s face wavered in
front of me, flickering in and out of focus. His lips moved, but all
I could hear was the painful tone in my head. Moisture trickled over
my top lip, and my tongue swiped over it, finding the salty iron
flavor of blood. I tried to say something, but I couldn’t hear
myself think, let alone speak.