Kristie Cook - Promise

"Okay, Stefan, please proceed with the other options," she said.

The third option, according to Stefan, was business as usual—the Daemoni would mostly leave me alone until they had Provocation. The way they all said "Provocation," I could hear the capital P, as in it must be official.

"And that leads us to the fourth option," Stefan said. "They capture Alexis to bring Tristan to them, using her as bait. This appears to be the most dangerous option for us. They would not have Alexis's blood on their hands, so they do not see this as a violation. They also have a strong desire to have both Alexis and Tristan alive, but in their hands, seeing the same great potential we do, but working for them."

Everyone in the room reacted to this statement. Solomon hissed. Mom and Rina gasped. Tristan swore under his breath. I didn't understand.

"I thought their natural instinct is to kill me. How could they keep me alive?" I asked. "And why would they want to, once they had Tristan?"

They all exchanged meaningful looks I didn't understand. Rina nodded at Mom and Mom sighed, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. Tristan put his arms around me and whispered he loved me in my ear. Mom eventually came over to us and knelt on the floor in front of me, while everyone else stared at the floor. Something horrible was coming.

"Honey, it's time you knew something about your…father," Mom said quietly.

"You mean sperm donor," I corrected. "I don't have a father."

Her eyes dropped to the floor and she spoke so quietly, it was barely more than a whisper. "The last time I met up with Tristan, he was with Lucas. After Tristan, Lucas was—is now—the Daemoni's most powerful warrior. They were on a mission to kill me, but not in their normal, direct manner. Tristan thought they should act like they wanted to leave the Daemoni, become close to me, build my trust and then go in for the kill. Tristan really did want to leave and I was able to help him and bring him to the Amadis. But…" Her voice wavered and a tear slid down her cheek. And then another. I couldn't remember if I'd ever seen Mom cry before. Her voice filled with grief and longing. "…But I couldn't help Lucas. I tried so hard, did everything I could. I thought loving him, giving myself completely to him would do it. No one could have ever guessed…I'd already changed over and no one had ever conceived…"

" What? What are you saying…?" I shook my head, knowing already.

"Lucas is your…"

Whop! The breath flew out of me. I felt like I'd just been punched in the stomach.

"I…I…I'm Daemoni ?!" I choked on the words. A heavy weight pressed down on my chest, making my breaths shallow. Tristan's words from long ago echoed in my ears… pure evil … real demons … soldiers and followers of Satan himself. It flows through my blood? I jumped up and paced the living room, shaking my arms out, as if I could throw the hideousness off of me. "No! No, no, no !"

" You are Amadis , through and through. Do not forget that!" Rina's voice thundered in my head. I stopped and glared at her through the tears in my eyes. She spoke aloud with calm surety, "Alexis, you are not Daemoni. You have Lucas's blood, but you are completely Amadis. All of your powers, all of your qualities, everything that makes you one of our most powerful descendents yet, are all good and righteous."

"How do you know that? How do you know for sure ?" I demanded, throwing my arms up in emphasis.

"We evaluated you as a baby. I felt it again when you first walked in…when I took your hand, I assessed you. The evil is fully suppressed; I can hardly feel anything."

I didn't feel any better. The questions flying through my head panicked me.

"And what about when I change over? Do you know for sure I'll be like you ? That I'll be good ? What if I don't change? Or what if the evil strengthens with the Ang'dora ? Do you have those answers?" The thought of being anything different than myself or Mom…anything evil …terrified me. I choked on the idea as if it were a physical object lodged in my throat.

Rina shook her head and admitted, "No, we do not have those answers. You are unique. But your powers are so strong, we are confident you will be perfect… magnificent ."

" You might not be here otherwise ," she said in my head. I recoiled, startled.

They would have killed me.

" Quite possibly ," she answered silently. I stared at her, not realizing she could hear my thoughts, and she nodded. That put things into perspective. If I was evil, I would've been a threat to them, but they didn't feel that. In fact, they expected me to lead them in some distant future.

I fell back into the loveseat and dropped my head into my hands. Tristan rubbed my back. Why isn't he mortified? Then I remembered he'd already known and still loved me, even came looking for me. I realized why he'd been so adamant about telling me he loved me no matter what. Of course, he was Daemoni. I turned my head toward him.

"Ha!" I barked hysterically. "I guess we really are perfect for each other."

He rolled his eyes.

I tried to tell myself I was physically no different than I'd been twenty minutes ago, just more knowledgeable. I closed my eyes, focused on that thought and tried to control my breathing and pulse.

" There you go ," Rina's voice soothed in my head.

"Can we take another break?" I finally asked when I felt control.

I refilled my glass with ice water and chugged the entire glass, though the cold made my head hurt, then I escaped to the bathroom. I splashed cold water on my face and caught my reflection in the mirror. Do I look any different? I couldn't help but wonder. I stared into my brown eyes, looking so much like Mom's and Rina's, but wondering if they really were. As I studied myself in the mirror, looking for signs of Daemoni, my stomach heaved and I barely caught the toilet as I vomited. The water mixed with the red wine looked like blood swirling in the white porcelain bowl. I wished it was the Daemoni blood pouring out of me.

I sat on the floor, breathing deeply. I really wanted to take a hot shower, thinking soap, scalding water and a lot of scrubbing would remove any evil from my system. I'm being irrational. I'm no different than I was. I just need to get over this. Someone knocked on the door and before I could answer, it opened and closed as Mom squeezed into the bathroom with me. I scooted against the bathtub and she slid down to the floor next to me.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

"I think so," I whispered, a half-truth.

She put her arms around me. "I would say I'm sorry, but I'm really not, because I have you."

I didn't know what to say, so I just hugged her back and we cried on each other's shoulders for several minutes, until there was another knock on the door. It opened slightly, catching against Mom's foot, and Rina slipped in. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She studied our tear-soaked faces.

"You two have a very close relationship. I am glad to see that," Rina said. She smiled sadly at Mom. "I am sorry we never had that."

"Me, too," Mom said, but she waved her hand in dismissal. "It was a different time then. We had different challenges to deal with."

"Well, we all face the same obstacles now." Rina eyed us appreciatively. "Together we can overcome them. Nothing can thwart the power of the three of us together."

She held her hands out to us and we each took one. She was surprisingly strong—it shouldn't have startled me but it did—and she lifted both of us to our feet. She put her arms around us. "We are Amadis ! All of us."

An unusual, powerful sensation charged through her arm into me. I instinctively knew at once it was Amadis power. And my body reacted positively to it, absorbing the warm and potent feeling into every cell. Yes, I AM Amadis. Rina smiled at me with that thought.