Kristie Cook - Purpose

Tristan and I walked them outside. Rina told Owen to accompany them to the airport, as an extra precaution. I had a feeling she would use the opportunity to reprimand him for his lack of attention to his responsibilities. I felt bad for him. Though what Rina said made sense and I could definitely see the truth of it in Owen, a lot of our mishaps were also my fault.

“Give Dorian hugs and kisses for me,” I told Mom before they left. “And please save our surprise.”

“Of course, honey,” Mom said as she hugged me. “You work on your powers. Learn what you have and how to use them. Be prepared for anything.”

Owen snorted.

“Anyone who can handle Tristan the way she did can handle anyone,” he said. “I thought I did good just to hold him for so long. But, you, Alexis, you literally brought him to his knees.”

“Ah, Tristan’s easy. I know his weakness.” I saw Owen was about to ask. “But that’s my secret.”

Tristan squeezed my hand as we watched Mom, Owen, Julia and Rina walk down the driveway, into the brush, and disappear.

Tristan and I sat on our beach for the sunset. Until now, I hadn’t purposely watched a sunset since our honeymoon. I kneeled behind him, kissing and rubbing the scars away from his back. He’d shuddered several times, but had otherwise been quiet and withdrawn. My own thoughts had been reeling over everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

“How can Vanessa and the other vampires come out in daylight? Is that just a myth?” I asked, breaking the silence. His back free of scars and dark magic, I moved to sit in front of him, between his legs, just like the old days.

He chuckled. “With all the questions you must have, you’re still focused on vampires?”

I shrugged. “I have been writing about them for the last six years.”

I’d been curious about this since yesterday in Key Largo, but I really asked now because it was the most trivial of all my questions. I felt the need to lighten the tension hovering over us. It worked—or, at least, distracted him from his heavy thoughts. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and leaned his chin on my shoulder.

“Can’t your vamps come out in the daytime?” he asked.

“My vamps have no limitations. They’re the ultimate predators.”

“And so are real vamps.”

A seashell in the sand caught my eye and I reached out for it. It came to me without my touching it. I did it again with another one.

“Whoa,” I breathed.

Tristan chuckled again. “You’d better be careful or you’ll create bad habits. Next thing you know, you’ll be at a restaurant and the salt shaker moves across the table in front of the waiter.”

“Good point. But I’m supposed to practice.”

I made the shells play leap frog with each other. Then I tried to levitate a shell; I couldn’t hold it. A different shell rose and hung in the air, but not by me. I watched Tristan’s hand, but it just looked like he held it out, waiting for someone to shake it. I tried to imitate him, but my shell only hopped up and down.

“I thought you were the ultimate predator,” I said. “If they have vampires, why did they need to create you?”

“I’m a warrior, not a predator. There’s a difference,” he said darkly. He made his shell fly into the water. I tried levitating mine again and was able to hold it in the air. “Vamps have their own problems. You can get the scoop from Solomon in a few days.”

“Solomon?” I tried picturing Rina’s mate. I hadn’t seen him since the day Tristan had disappeared, when they left for the battle. In fact, I’d only seen him twice in my life—the only other time in Mom’s cottage in Cape Heron, when I’d first met Rina, too.

“Sure. He is a vampire, after all.”

“Solomon’s a vampire?” The shell fell with my astonishment.

“What’d you think he is?”

“I don’t know. Didn’t really think about it.” From what I did remember about Solomon, he looked to be of African descent, but with very pale skin, and he was exceedingly attractive and quite scary, actually…but I didn’t remember fangs, like Vanessa and the others. Of course, I hadn’t known vampires were even real at the time, so I wasn’t exactly looking for them. “So, we have vampires on our side, too?”

“Of course. That’s what Amadis do, remember? We save the souls of the so-called damned.”

“That’s an oxymoron. How can we save souls that are already damned?”

“That’s exactly it. There are some who willingly gave their souls up long ago, but for most, they’re not entirely lost causes. If they’ve been bitten, turned against their will, they can continue to hold onto some humanity. They can hold onto their souls. As long as there’s any hope, Amadis power can lead them to goodness. Like they did with me. Like you did with me.”

“They started it. Mom started it.”

“You finished it,” he murmured as he tightened his arms around me in a hug.

“Can you feel that it’s gone? I mean, I actually felt the dark power leave my body.”

“The evil force? Most of it, yes. And with each scar you remove, I feel the last traces disappearing. But the strength of our powers mostly comes from Daemoni magic. It’s part of our DNA.”

I shuddered. “I hate that part.”

“It’s pointless to hate it. There’s nothing you can do about it. Something I realized a long time ago. But we can use it for good and you have a lot of strength you can do good with. I think you may be more of an ultimate warrior than I am.”

I laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“I’m serious,” he said and his voice held no hint of humor. “Owen was right. No one else could have done what you did with me.”

“Like I told him, I know your weakness. You told me a long time ago.”

He pressed his lips against the side of my neck. “You.”

“And our love.”

“Our love is a strength.” He sighed, the warm air fluttering the tiny hairs at the base of my scalp. “My biggest strength and my biggest weakness.”

I remembered being ready to give myself up to the Daemoni for love. “Yeah, probably mine, too.”

We sat in silence as the sun sank behind the water. The heavy tension returned with each heartbeat of dead air. My attempts at conversation hadn’t lifted Tristan’s mood at all. I sighed, knowing what simmered in his mind.

“You’re brooding,” I finally said.

“Hmm…?” he asked distractedly.

“You’re wallowing in regret and you need to stop.”

He confirmed my suspicion by not responding for a long moment. When he finally did, his voice came out in a pained whisper. “I almost killed you today, Alexis.”

I shook my head. “No. Not you. You protected me. The monster tried to kill me, but you were still in there, too. Preventing it.”

“I couldn’t control it, though.”

“I’m still here, aren’t I?” I countered.

He sighed. “You give me too much credit.”

“I wish you would stop beating yourself up,” I said with a groan of frustration. “If you really wanted to kill me, Tristan, you would have. But you didn’t. You couldn’t do it. You overcame the monster.”

He shook his head. “God overcame it.”

“God gave me the power and I gave it to you to strengthen the real you. Because we knew you were still fighting. I would be dead right now if it weren’t for Real Tristan…my Tristan…keeping me alive.”

He fell silent again for a long time. I hoped he accepted my point.

When he finally spoke, his voice was much lighter. “Well, keeping you alive is in my best interest. And I’m selfish like that.”

I snorted. “You are one of the most unselfish people I know.”

“Hmm…when it comes to you, you have no idea how selfish I can be.”