Chapter 24

Tyra’s triumph was short-lived.

No sooner had she sunk into an attack stance than an arm came down, crushing with surprising force against her windpipe. All traces of the charismatic, convivial Master from before were gone when he spoke. “It turns out that after eight hundred years I do have a trick or two up my sleeve. I told you that I would not be so easy to defeat, did I not?”

It was probably a rhetorical question. Not like she could answer, what with him cutting off her airflow and all.

Her fingers dug into skin that was hide tough. Eyes watered. There was nothing nearby for her to use to grab a toehold, nothing to gain leverage from. She focused on flexing the new power she had absorbed from Anton, heating her body from the inside out so that she could in turn heat the wizard’s, but in the panic of the moment nothing was happening.

“Miss Tyra.” And to add to the entire snafu, Selena was awake.

Tyra opened her mouth to reassure the girl, but nothing came out other than a garble and a gasp. So she did the only other thing she could think of. She tucked her chin, bit the Master’s arm as hard as she could, and while sinking her fangs into it, tried very hard not to think about where that arm might have been.

“Ow.” Tyra got the knee-jerk reaction she had hoped for, and she sank in harder, focusing more on using her blunt back teeth to increase the Master’s discomfort. It was both gratifying and horrid when he wrenched his arm free and the flesh ripped under her teeth.

Immediately Tyra spun. He’d gone invisible again, but the blood trail had not. And she was, after all, still part vampire. The hungry, bloodthirsty, primal part of her scented the fresh blood, and her fangs crowded her mouth as her adrenaline surged. She glanced at Selena, who stood near the corner, poised but uncertain, with clenched fists. Poor girl had gotten so much more than she bargained for tonight.

“Selena, honey, I need you to get in the corner and put your head down. You got that?”

A small nod.

“Okay. I’m going to do my best to see that you get back to your mom, but I can only do that if you stay out of the way. If you don’t watch, that’s even better.”

She didn’t wait for an answer. Couldn’t, because in the next moment one of the drips of blood swung with movement. The wizard was taking advantage of her distraction. She crouched low, pulling a knife from her ankle strap when she did. She rushed forward at the same time and was rewarded with a groan of pain when the knife sank into flesh. It wasn’t clear where she’d hit, but she’d definitely hit something, and a quiet uneven shuffle could be heard in the far corner of the room. He was retreating to regroup, and he was hurt. Good.

Another fireball formed in the palm of her hand. It was her favorite power. Her first, the one she’d inherited from her father. Probably that was why she loved it best to use in battle. She was most confident with it, and it made her feel closest to her vampire side. And setting the enemy on fire was so cool. She shot a small orb in the direction of the blood trail.

Nothing.

A larger ball, in case the first had misaimed, but still nothing.

Remembering the surprise attack from behind, Tyra started inching backward, constantly sweeping her gaze across the room until her back met the cold stone of the wall. Selena was to her left, curled into a tight, self-protective ball. Good girl.

Tyra got quiet and stretched her senses. She was willing to bet any amount of money he was still in the room. She could feel him. But his presence was nebulous and scattered, like a thick fog rather than something solid. After a few deep breaths, she arrived at a decision. It was risky, but it had to work.

He was in here somewhere; she was sure of it. Absolutely sure of it.

Tyra breathed deeply again, all the way to her toes, drawing up every bit of power she could, and then went for it. She backed into the corner where Selena was curled to make sure the girl was protected and then proceeded to fill the remainder of the room with fireballs. Every. Effing. Inch.

If the Master was in there, she would smoke him out, or at the very least, she might get him to drop his cloak of invisibility.

Seconds passed… a minute…

Nothing.

Tyra inhaled, waiting… The drain from using her powers, especially that last burst of fire, was coming fast. He was in here, dammit. He was in here somewh—

An unseen force yanked Tyra’s arm, and she half flew, half flopped against the wall like a rag doll. Perfect. Just perfect. A fist, still unseen, connected solidly with her jaw. Blood and spittle flew.

The fighter in Tyra wanted to fight back, but against whom? Or at least, where? A long cut appeared on her arm and blood welled from it. She thought of that scar on Anton’s collarbone.

Anton. She could see now what he had been up against. It would be good to have him to fight alongside her now, like she had earlier. It would be good to have him here at all.

Another invisible fist struck her already tender cheek, but she couldn’t connect it with any kind of body. Nobody seemed to be standing over her. She raised a hand and flailed a little, but she didn’t manage to touch anything.

Laughter. Wicked, evil, villainous laughter came from nowhere. No. This can’t happen…

“I did tell you that I would win, Tyra.”

***

Xander woke in a darkened room. His body was incredibly heavy, and holy hell, was he ever tired. If he allowed himself, he probably could have gone back to sleep for hours.

Except… where was he?

He breathed in a familiar scent. “Theresa?”

“Right here.”

He turned his head to the side and there she was. Looking worn and tired, but no less lovely. “What am I doing in your bed? And where is the baby?”

She smiled and ran a protective hand over his forehead. Xander was surprised as much by the gesture as by the comfort he took in it. “Sleeping. They do a lot of that at the beginning. And you’re here because this bed is more comfortable than the guest room.” She pressed gently on the mattress. “Memory foam. I figured you would be sore. From the sunburn.”

He closed his eyes, and as he exhaled, it seemed indeed that he could sink right into the mattress. Through it would have been even better. “Tell me you didn’t give me more blood.”

“Only a little.” Her voice was soft. “You didn’t need much. The wizard or… whoever he is. Anton? He had some kind of healing power. It worked on you fairly well, as it turns out.”

“Damn.” Xander exhaled and shook his head slightly. Turned out too much movement made his head throb. “I never thought I’d see the day when I would find myself grateful to a wizard for anything.”

“He seems like a nice man.”

“He does. Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

Theresa smiled in the semi-dark. All of this was very odd. Their conversations hadn’t extended very far beyond day-to-day small talk. And being here in her bed. He wasn’t much of a traditionalist, but it was unseemly to him, being in the bed of a recently widowed female.

Xander moved to sit up. “I should go check in with Thad.”

Her hand landed on top of his. There was no pushing or forcing, just a hand. Her fingers wrapped gently around his. Somehow, that small gesture was enough to stop him cold.

“I wish you wouldn’t go just yet.”

“Theresa, I…” He what? He couldn’t explain exactly why he felt like he shouldn’t be here, only that it was the worst kind of wrong to drink her blood, not once but twice, and lie in the bed she had shared with Eamon.

“Alexander, lie down please. You need more time to rest.”

Hardly anybody ever called him that. He must be really exhausted because it was enough to make him comply with her request. “Theresa, I just don’t think I should be here.”

“I got new sheets, you know.”

What? “I’m not sure what… okay.”

There were a lot of lines around her eyes when she smiled. “Before the baby, I went a little crazy wanting to get all these new things. It’s so bizarre in retrospect, but at the time I was convinced I needed brand-new sheets for the bed in case the baby slept in bed with me. For some reason, the ones I already had weren’t good enough. I wanted the best, softest sheets I could find. Fifteen hundred thread count.” She ran a hand along the edge of the mattress next to Xander’s hand. “Nice and soft, huh?”

Xander had to agree; they were comfortable sheets. Even though he didn’t entirely understand where the hell she was going with this. “Uh. Very soft, yes.”

“Eamon thought it was crazy. That I’d spent way too much money on something that the baby was only going to spit up on, you know? He was so angry he ordered me to send them back.” A delicate fang sank into her lower lip, and a tear slid down her cheek. “But I didn’t want to. So I hid them. I never used them until after the baby was born.”

Something significant was in that statement, and Xander couldn’t… quite… grasp it. Clearly, he was supposed to, though. Shit.

“The mattress and pillows too. You remember?”

He closed his eyes and let his head sink for a moment into the aforementioned pillow. Yes, Xander remembered. Just before the birth Theresa had begun to complain of back pain, and then her water had broken while she was in bed, destroying the mattress on which she slept. The one on which Xander now lay was brand new.

“Yes,” he said quietly, “I remember that.”

She patted his hand. “Sometimes it’s okay to make a new start, Xander.”

Ah. That was the message, then?

“I believe this wizard’s intentions are good, and I think you already know it’s okay to be his friend. And being here… taking my blood…” She ran her hand over the sheet again. “I would return these sheets in a second, if I could, for another day with Eamon in my arms. I would give anything in the world to have him back. I know you feel the same about Tam. We can love them and miss them and still survive. A new start is okay, sometimes. Sometimes it’s good and necessary, and I believe that they would want that for us. Don’t you?”

Her golden eyes glittered with tears in the light of the bedside lamp. His fingers traced over Theresa’s brand-new soft sheet, and he wondered if perhaps he didn’t need to agree as much for her benefit as his own. “I’m sure you’re right.”

She leaned down and placed a kiss on his temple. “You rest, okay, Xander? We just got you healthy again, and I’m not ready to lose you just yet.”

With that, the lamp by the bed winked out and she left him alone.