Vanessa was on her feet, already tugging at my hand. "He's playing a game. Let's go while we can!"

But I didn't move, my eyes on my dagger still in Lucas's hand. I needed my weapon. I needed Ca.s.sandra.

"My dagger?" I boldly asked. "You've given me nothing for it in fair trade, so can I have it back?"

"I'm giving you your life!" he roared, all sick humor gone, replaced by the intense anger of an overpowered tyrant.

A hissing sound whistled through his teeth. The Weres crouched, ready to pounce, the hair along their spines standing on end and their lips pulled back from their saliva-dripping fangs. Vanessa wasted no more time. She bolted, pulling me with her, through the doorway and down the tunnel, the werewolves right on our heels. But not the cheetah. Lucas really was giving us a head start.

I shot electricity blindly behind us, but it sounded as though it hit the walls and not our pursuers. I glanced over my shoulder and a wolf's golden eyes were right. there. I flicked my wrist, and he flew back, plowing into the others like a bowling ball. They recovered immediately.

"Faster!" Vanessa said. We moved so quickly, the walls became a brown blur on either side of us.

But we weren't fast enough. As we rounded the bend, claws dug grooves down my back. I stumbled, then fell face first.

My fingers fumbled for the back-up weapon I kept in my boot as long teeth sc.r.a.ped against my knuckles, trying to stop me. I eventually found the knife, and flipped it open while trying to roll over, but the wolf pinned me to the ground with one paw on each shoulder. Its jaw snapped near my head, its hot breath blowing on my ear. I wiggled and squirmed and finally pushed myself over. As I rolled, I plunged the knife in between the gray wolf's ribs. It arfed like a dog, but the wail trailed into a human moan of pain. I scurried out crab-like from under the naked man's body, and yanked my knife out of his side. I stared, mesmerized, at the blood pooling under him. My chest contracted. I'd killed him? Was this my first kill?

"Alexis!" Vanessa shrieked.

I spun to find a wolf's mouth attached to her arm and another yanking on her calf, about to pull her down. I pushed a wave of power at them, and they both flew off her, their bodies crashing to the ground. Now freed, Vanessa took off in a blur and a second later, reappeared right where she'd been, her tongue licking blood from her lips. All of the wolves morphed back into their human forms. All of them dead.

"Let's go!" She grabbed my forearm and ran again. I stumbled after her at first, still in shock, but my survival instinct finally kicked in, and I ran.

The large room where the tunnels met felt so much farther away than it had been before, but we finally flew into it. And so did more wolves from all directions, blocking our way out. We had no choice but to fight.

One or two wolves would have been no problem. Even five or six or seven. But this many? And still more poured out of the tunnels. Vanessa grabbed the ones that lunged at her by the heads, snapped their necks and flung them away like ragdolls. I blasted them with Amadis power and electricity until the putrid odor of burnt fur made us gag. But there were more than a handful to pick off one-by-one. A pack of twenty or so attacked us, jaws snapping and claws swiping.

Our fists and feet pounded at the creatures' bodies. Vanessa ripped into their necks with her fangs, and my knife sliced into their limbs and shoulders and haunches, but this smaller blade didn't compare to my dagger, and the damage was minimal. A wolf's claws raked through my hair, ripping out a clump. Other claws ripped through my leathers and into my skin. Snouts clamped down on my arms and legs and shook like a dog does with a rope, tossing me back and forth. My head smacked the wall, then the floor, then the wall again, each impact rattling my brain. I formed a bubble of Amadis power within me and pushed it outwards. They all let go.

But only for a moment. They lunged again and grabbed on to whatever part of my body their teeth found. I gathered more Amadis power, worked it into a frenzy and exploded it out of my body. The wolves yelped and whimpered as their bodies crashed into the walls and floor. We seized the opportunity and ran again.

But something was wrong.

I thought we'd chosen the same pa.s.sageway we'd come through, the one that led back to the icy cave. But that one had been long and empty, no signs of life surrounding it. As we continued running now, I sensed mind signatures up ahead. Tons of them. Way too many to fill a tunnel. Way too many to fill a cavern or even a large building. Enough for a small town ...

Vanessa!

"Oh, s.h.i.t!" she said at the same time. "That's the marketplace."

She spun on the spot and grabbed my wrist again.

"Hurry! Before they sense us!"

We ran back the way we came, but before we returned to the junction, the tunnel suddenly veered off to the left when it had been straight just a moment ago.

"Mages are changing the paths. He's messing with us," Vanessa said.

We pa.s.sed a wide opening, and Vanessa darted inside the room. She bent over, her hands on her knees and looked up at me.

"We need to regroup," she said, keeping her voice low.

I leaned my b.u.t.t against the wall and a.s.sumed her same position. Neither of us was out of breath, but at least for me, my heart raced and adrenaline pumped too quickly in my veins. My pulse pounded and whirred in my head.

Then the wall disappeared from behind me, and I fell on my b.u.t.t.

Lucas stood over me, and his lips turned up in a smirk. "Change your mind, my daughter?"

I jumped to my feet and Vanessa straightened up. One glance around told me we were back in the room where we'd started.

What now? I asked Vanessa. She gave me an I-have-no-clue look. Actually, knowing her, it was more like a we're-f.u.c.king-dead look.

So Lucas really was just playing a game with us. He had no intention of letting us go.

"Did you change yours?" I asked bravely. Or stupidly. Whatever. It didn't matter anymore, if Vanessa was right. "Did you decide it's okay for Dorian to break the curse? Or that it's okay to kill me?"

Lucas grinned, exposing his perfectly straight, snow-white teeth. "See, I can't bring myself to kill you. You have too much potential for me." He tsked and Rene the cheetah, in animal form, sauntered over to his side. "My followers, however ..." He ran a hand down the cheetah's spine. "... I can't always control them."

"So you're still letting us go?" I asked.

"Like I said, if you can find your way out alive, yes. This time."

Vanessa and I exchanged another glance, then moved for the doorway.

"One more thing, Alexis," Lucas said, and I hesitated. "Since you were so kind to return, I must offer you another deal. I think you wanted this?"

I looked over my shoulder. He held his hand out, my dagger lying across his palm. I lunged, but he clamped his fist around the blade faster than I could grab it.

"Now, now. Fair trade, remember? But I'll need more than just the garbage taken out this time," he added, his eyes flickering to Vanessa then back to me. "Seth or Dorian will do."

A dagger over 2,000 years old, forged by the Angels themselves, probably more precious than anything in Amadis history. And it was my best weapon, especially with Ca.s.sandra's power behind it, my connection to her. I needed the dagger to give us any hope of escaping Hades. I needed Ca.s.sandra's power to live through this. But nothing, not even the possibility of my own survival or even Vanessa's, was worth the lives of my son or husband.

"Not a chance in h.e.l.l," I said.

"Ah, you'll regret that. But don't worry. I always get what I want. I will get what's mine." He glanced at his bare wrist. "Oh, sorry. Out of time. You've lost your head start."

He hissed and instead of werewolves coming after us, Rene did.

Vanessa and I ran again, the cheetah chasing us down. I'd never run so fast in my life, but it wasn't fast enough. With a peek over my shoulder, I looked right into amber eyes. The cat roared, drool hanging from her five-inch-long fangs. Then she sprang off her back legs, and those same fangs tore into my bicep. I cried out as I spun around and slammed her with electricity.

I held the current on her, even as we ran, and the cheetah slowed enough to give us a chance. Then her footsteps behind us fell away, and I looked over my shoulder once again. The cat took off down a corridor we'd just pa.s.sed.

"Where's she going?" I asked Vanessa.

We ran another hundred yards or so, then Vanessa slowed almost to a walk now that nothing chased us. Her head turned at each corridor we pa.s.sed, inspecting it even as we moved on.

"To get help?" she finally answered my question. "To spring ahead and cut us off? Who kno-"

An orange streak of light blasted through the air and smashed into the side of her head. She screamed once and fell to the floor. Another streak flew at me. I threw myself on top of Vanessa's body, narrowly missing the spell that hit the wall, carving a chunk into it. Granules of dirt rained to the floor. My mind found a mage's signature down the hallway that branched off to our right, where the orange lights had come from.

I lifted my head just enough to peek. A cloaked figure crouched in a doorway. I latched onto his thoughts in time to hear the next spell before the orange light soared at us. I rolled off Vanessa, flat on my back. The light skimmed over us, singeing our leathers before hitting the wall like its predecessor. I shot a bolt of electricity in return. It hit the floor right in front of the mage, making him jump. While he reconfigured, I yanked Vanessa's body out of his path, then shot another bolt at the mage as he sent a spell at me. I connected with him and kept the current flowing in a bluish-silver arc, the air sizzling around it. But he continued shooting a series of orange lights at me. With my free hand, I pulled my knife out again and held it up to try to parry the spells. One bounced off the blade and slammed back into him. His figure sank to the ground, smoke rising from his cloaks.

I hurried to Vanessa, squatting next to her body.

"Come on, he's gone," I said, pulling on her arm. "At least, for now."

"I can't see," Vanessa whispered as she sat up, her eyes wide but gla.s.sy. She rubbed her fists into her eyes, and when they came away, panic contorted her face. "Alexis! I can't see!"

I grabbed her hand. "I'm right here. It's okay."

"It's not okay!" She shook off my hand. "I can't see. How can I run if I can't see where I'm going?" She threw herself back on the floor. "I'm dead."

"No, you're not."

"I may as well be. And you are, too, if you don't go."

"Then let's go."

She pounded her fists into the floor, leaving divots in the frozen earth. "I can't, Alexis. Don't you get it? You go. Get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you here."

"Yes, you are! There's no need for both of us to die."

I rocked backward off my heels to sit on my b.u.t.t and dropped my head into my hands. What am I going to do? After everything we'd been through, I wasn't about to leave Vanessa behind. But I didn't know how to get out. h.e.l.l, she knew this place and hadn't found the way out yet. And now she couldn't see to at least try.

"You're still here," she said.

"Of course I am. I told you, I'm not leaving you."

"Then what do you plan to do, oh smart one?"

"I don't know. We can't sit here right in the open." I didn't sense any mind signatures close by, but that could change in an instant. "Do you think your vamp powers will heal your sight any time soon?"

"I'm sure. Eventually."

"Will a drink from me help?"

Vanessa lifted her hands in a shrug. "Probably. But then you'll be too weak to go on, and although I could, I'm not carrying your a.s.s out of here if I don't have to."

"So we need a hiding place." I looked around, then glanced down the hall where the mage had been. "I'll be right back."

Keeping my mind open, I rushed to the doorway where the mage's body still lay and peeked inside. A small, empty room, no bigger than a bathroom, and with no fire in the sconce on the wall. Just dark enough that maybe we could hide there for a while. I hurried back to Vanessa.

"Keep your hands on my shoulders and try to see through my mind," I said, and I led her to the room.

We settled in the darkest corner, huddled together, and I gave her my wrist. When she was done, I collapsed beside her. But only for a few minutes. Several mind signatures buzzed on my radar.

Someone's coming, I told Vanessa. Can you see yet?

"Not in the slightest." But then she straightened up. "I have an idea, though. Follow me."

Chapter 27.

Vanessa held her hand out in the air, searching for mine, and I took it, not knowing what to expect since she couldn't exactly lead me anywhere. But then she flashed, and I realized barely in time to catch her trail. Of course, we couldn't flash out of the Daemoni compound-that would have been too easy-but we flashed to a different part, and appeared in another tiny room that had no doors or windows, no way in or out. And treasure filled it-all gold, no silver, of course.

"Put what you can in your pockets," Vanessa said, feeling her way around.

"What is this? Whose is this?"

"It's mine. This is my vault. We can't stay here long, though. This will be one of the first places Lucas looks for us when he realizes they lost us. But hopefully we'll have enough time for my sight to come back."

I picked up an ancient looking gold coin. "Wait," I said, hesitating before putting it in my pocket. "Where did you get this stuff from?"

She shrugged. "Some I won, fair and square. Most I stole."

I dropped the coin. "We can't take this, Vanessa. It's like ... blood money."

She groaned as she sank to the floor. "I knew you were going to say that."

I sat on the floor, leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes. "We don't need it anyway. Let's get a little rest then get out of this G.o.d-forsaken place."

But resting allowed the adrenaline to dissipate from my system and my mind to think of more than running for my life. Everything that had happened in the last few hours pressed down on me like a two-ton beast making itself comfortable on my bruised throat and chest. The image Kali had shown us of Tristan destroying Captiva Island, and the colony and the Normans with it, replayed behind my eyelids. Now that she knew the power of the stone, what had she made him do? Where would she lead him next?

Breathing became impossible as heartbreak ripped through me. I had failed. Oh so miserably failed. The Amadis, with humanity right behind it, would fall. This whole trip had been a waste of time. I'd not just miserably failed, but epically failed. And I would never see Tristan or Dorian again.

Or would I? I could always choose to stay here and then we could all be together ... I remembered the vision I'd seen during my Ang'dora, of Lucas-I now knew the man in the snowy field-tempting me with this idea while Mom and Rina had stood on the sunny side of the mindscape, fighting for me. With the Amadis, I was guaranteed to lose Dorian, and now I'd lost Tristan, too. But, as Lucas had promised, with the Daemoni, we could have it all.

Was he right, or were those more empty promises? Could I stand to live this life if it meant being with the two people most important to me? Did we even have a choice, since the Amadis would be gone anyway? Grief blossomed, enshrouded me as this thought seized hold, and my mind barely registered a m.u.f.fled clanging in the walls.

"We gotta go," Vanessa said. "That's Lucas digging his way in."

I shook my head, though she couldn't see me. Tears overflowed down my cheeks. "It's no use," I croaked.

"What? What are you talking about?" She sniffed the air. "Are you crying? Oh, for f.u.c.k's sake. You're not doing this. You can't break down on me now, Alexis. I have a plan. We're going to get out of here."

"But what's the point?" I cried. "I didn't get the faerie stone. I didn't get Kali's soul, and we lost Owen. They have Tristan, and they'll get Dorian soon enough. I failed, Vanessa! You go, but there's no reason for me to."

She reached her hands through the air in the direction of my voice. They found my face and clamped down on each side.

"Don't. Give. Up." Her voice lost its musical quality, replaced by the firmness of a mother. Or an older sister. "Don't let their evil energy get to you. It's not over until it's over. You wouldn't leave me before, and I'm not leaving you now. Not like this. I've seen you break through the Daemoni power before to get to Tristan. I know you will find a way to reach him again. And Owen ..." Her voice trailed off for a moment. "I don't know about Owen, but we can't lose hope, Alexis. We'll get through this."