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  Devotion

  ( Soul Savers - 3 )

  Kristie Cook

  When secrets and betrayals abound, where will her devotion lie?

  With powerful abilities gained from the Ang'dora and Tristan back by her side, Alexis thinks she's ready for the next challenge-- protecting her son from what appears to be the inevitable. But she has so much to learn about her powers, her new world and the people in it. Nothing is what it seems to be on the surface, including the Amadis.

  Power-hungry politicians comprise the council and make impossible demands. A traitor lurks among them all, inciting trouble that could destroy the Amadis and, ultimately, humanity. The Daemoni wreak havoc in the human world, with the ultimatum that they'll continue attacking innocents until Alexis and Tristan are expelled from the Amadis' protection. The couple's own society begins to shut them out. But that's not all.

  Someone's keeping a secret. A big one. Faith and hope in Alexis and Tristan will be restored if she can uncover the truth in time.

  But the search for answers leads only to the discovery of more betrayals by those closest to Alexis. Her devotion is put to the test--devotion to her husband, to her family, to her people and to her beliefs--leaving her to question whom she's fighting for and why she should even bother. But if she won't fight . . . who will?

  Devotion

  Soul Savers - 3

  by

  Kristie Cook

  For my parents, Valerie, and Dan and Keena

  Thank You

  Acknowledgements

  First and foremost, I thank God and His Son. You have truly blessed me. Let me count the ways…

  Shawn, for being there when no one else was, in all the different ways that you have. My family–Zakary, Austin and Nathan, Mom, Dad and Keena, Terry, Grandma (RIP)–for your love, support and understanding.

  Chrissi Jackson, we've come a long way and still have far to go. I'm so happy and proud to be sharing this journey with you. Thank you for picking up my pieces and holding them all together. Lisa Adams, thank you for lifting me up.

  Author Brenda Pandos, your friendship means the world to me. We got it now (a little too much–haha!). Still living for the KM dream, but even if it never happens, this crazy journey brought us together and I am truly blessed for that. Thank you for your prudent picking apart of my story and my writing and for encouraging me to make it better. Thank you for all the extra help and, most of all, for your virtual shoulder when I needed it.

  Lesley Turnpaugh, my sexy model, and Jennifer Trammell, the fabulously talented photographer, for bringing Alexis to life, and Brenda, for making my covers gorgeous. I can't stop staring and drooling. Thank you!

  Author Heather McCorkle, Author Lani Woodland, Tina Moss, Judy Spelbring, Jennifer Nunez, for your time, patience and wonderful insight that has made this book shine. Heather Call and Patti Oaks, for taking your time to scrutinize each word and phrase.

  Book bloggers around the world, for all that you do for authors and readers. Thank you to those who participated in my virtual tours and for taking the time to read my books and write your reviews. A special shout-out to Mindy, my favorite book whore and pimp, and to Lisa and Jessica, for your friendship. You all are much appreciated.

  Last but certainly not least, I am blessed to have the best readers and fans a girl could ask for. Thank you for making my morning each day when I open my inbox to find your heartfelt fan mail or when I discover a new review posted online. I have had so much fun chatting and interacting with you. Oh, and your taste in men! Because of you, Tristan was the 2011 Indie Pick for Best Badass Hero and the Daemoni the 2011 Indie Pick for Best "Slimeball" Villain. You all ROCK! Let's see what we can do in 2012!

  Chapter 1

  I stood in the sitting room of the ancient Amadis mansion, stared at the giant tapestry spanning the entire stone wall and wondered how I could change the future it told for my son. A long vine, embroidered with gold and green thread and with leaves on each side, wound and climbed its way across and up the wall-hanging, a golden name on each leaf. These were the names of my ancestors. The Amadis Family Vine only showed the mothers and their children, the fathers deemed irrelevant in our matriarchal society–most had died young, long before their widows knew their real heritage.

  Silvery-green thread outlined most of the leaves–the ones with female names, the daughters–but some were brown and separated from the vine. The names on the brown leaves were all male, a twin to a green-leafed sister, and each had an asterisk next to it. A seemingly insignificant little symbol ominously marking the fate of each boy. The meaning looked disproportionately large on this huge hanging: *Converted to the Daemoni.

  A much smaller rendition of the image spread across the inside cover of the leather-bound book I hugged to my chest: The History and Life of Alexis Katerina Ames Knight. My history. The book explained that not only Angel blood coursed through my veins, but so did the blood of vampires, were-animals and mages. The book, which I'd already devoured beginning to end, was full of such fascinating details.

  I stared at the enormous vine in the wall-hanging, however, because it better reflected the magnitude of my feelings than the tiny one in the book. At the top of the Family Vine, right above my leaf, scripted in gold like all the others, was the name Dorian, my son. His leaf, unaccompanied by a female twin, an anomaly in itself, was brown, though not separated from the vine. Yet, anyway.

  I had no idea what I would do to keep it that way. I was too new to this Amadis life. But I vowed to do something. I could not let my son become part of the Daemoni, our innate enemies, servants to Satan himself.

  "Ma lykita," murmured a smooth, sexy voice from the doorway, "staring at it doesn't change anything."

  Tristan stepped behind me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, sending electric currents under my skin.

  "I know," I said with a sigh. "I'm just thinking about what we can do that will change it."

  He kissed the top of my head. "We'll figure something out. Fortunately, we have a few years."

  "According to the book and history, yes. But if he's anything like me or you, unique in so many ways, he could go early."

  "But not tonight or tomorrow or anytime soon. Right now, we have more pressing matters to worry about."

  "More pressing than our son's life?"

  Tristan sighed. "Nothing is more important than Dorian's life. But there's a difference between important and urgent and, for now, the issue isn't urgent. We have time. But tomorrow morning–in a few hours–we have a council meeting and I expect it'll be intense. It's late and you have to be tired."

  My body did feel heavy with exhaustion, not surprising with the combination of jet lag and a lack of sleep. Excitement to learn about my heritage combined with being overwhelmed by my new mind-reading ability prevented me from sleeping on the flights from Miami to Athens. I'd been awake for nearly forty-eight hours, which included fighting a psycho vampire intent on killing me. I didn't think I could shut my mind down, though. Between all the information I just learned about my history and my genetic make-up and figuring out what to do about Dorian, there was too much to think about.

  "How am I supposed to sleep?"

  "I put Dorian to bed. Let me take you. You might be surprised once you let yourself relax. And, if you can't relax," he kissed my ear, giving me goose bumps, "I can help with that, too."

  "That's stimulating, not relaxing," I said, my body already trembling for his touch.

  "Hmm … good. After all, we do have that other matter and the council will want to know we're working on it." He nuzzled his face into my hair, pressing his lips against my neck. As usual, my body immediately responded. I couldn't help it–he'd always been irresistible to me.

  "We do need to keep trying," I conceded with a smile. "And it has been a while."

  "It's been way too long." He took my hand and led me up the stone stairs, lit by torches affixed to the stone walls.

  Two days certainly felt like a long time, for us, anyway. We'd never before gone more than twenty-four hours without making love–if you didn't count the seven-and-a-half years while he was held captive by the Daemoni. Our eight-year anniversary was less than four months away, but we were still newlyweds in a very real sense, having had a total of three weeks together as husband and wife.

  We also had a mission to accomplish: we needed a daughter for the survival of the Amadis–my family, our society. And if the Amadis didn't survive, neither would humanity. It would be lost to the Daemoni.

  "Can't we flash to our suite?" I asked as we continued up the stairs to the third floor.

  "If you flash everywhere, you'll get lazy and I won't have a lazy wife," Tristan teased. "More importantly, you don't want to create bad habits. We'll have to mainstream soon and you can't be flashing all the time around the Normans."

  "Normans," I'd recently learned, meant normal humans. They'd been keeping much from me all these years, including the jargon of this world.

  "I know. But I'm not being lazy." I slid my hand down his back and over the perfect roundness of his ass and gave it a squeeze. I finished the thought telepathically. I'm just horny.

  "Ah. Why didn't you say so?" He picked up the pace and we practically flew through the long hall.

  As we entered our wing, I slowed. A door on the left led to Mom's suite and I sensed she was still awake, probably reading. I stopped at the door on the right–Dorian's room.

  "I stayed until he was sound asleep," Tristan whispered, but I cracked open the door anyway, needing to see him. A litt
le-boy snore rattled in the darkness and his dream appeared in my head–he was swimming with his dad and happily fighting sharks. I could only imagine the embellishments Tristan had added to Dorian's favorite bedtime story. With a smile, I closed the door.

  We entered the front room of our suite at the end of the hall, and once we were alone, I was instantly in his powerful arms, locked into a kiss.

  "Not in here," I reminded him, remembering Mom's warning of the antique furniture in the front sitting room.

  We made our way to the bedroom, which was specifically designed for our kind, completely bare except for a large, stone platform with a two-foot thick pad and lots of pillows–the bed. A stone pillar stood at each corner and blue gossamer hung in curtains between the posts. The bedding was either easily reparable or replaceable–a necessity considering our kind tended to destroy things in moments of passion.

  Tristan lifted me with one arm and carried me to the bed, his satiny lips never leaving my tingling skin. Making love with him had always been intense, but since the Ang'dora, my heightened senses made it so much more sensual and our powers made it so much more fun. With expert skills, Tristan quickly took me over the edge. The loss of control crumbled the mental wall I so carefully held up to block out others' thoughts … and to protect my own.

  All at once, my feelings flowed out as the mental images flooded in. Thankfully, Dorian still dreamt of sharks, but Mom stiffened in her reading chair then shook her head, thinking, "Alexis!" Solomon and Rina, in their own bed, exchanged knowing looks. Owen felt surprised and confused and … excited? The sheet over his lap began to rise. Oh, shit!

  My mental wall flew up, feeling more solid than ever, in fact, solid as steel. I could almost hear a metallic clang as it slammed into place, like the thick, heavy door of a vault. Everyone's thoughts disappeared. Mine were my own again. I panted, my body as rigid as the steel wall in my head, as I still clung to Tristan, who was pressed against the ceiling. I forced myself to relax and let go, fell to the bed and lay there on my back.

  "Oh, shit?" Tristan said as he joined me on the bed, his expression a mix of satisfaction and amusement. "That's a new one. I think I prefer 'Don't stop' or 'Right there' or even 'Love you, baby' to 'Oh, shit.'"

  "Did I say it out loud?" I asked hopefully.

  "Mmm … no."

  I groaned, automatically reaching for the necklace that no longer hung around my neck. Playing with the ruby pendant Tristan made for me had been a nervous habit for years, but now Vanessa the evil vampire bitch had it.

  Tristan rolled onto his side, facing me. He took my hand from my neck and kissed my palm. "What's wrong? I thought that was pretty great myself."

  "Of course it was." I brushed his hair, still long and darker than usual, away from his face, to see the gold in his hazel eyes sparkling brightly with my affirmation. I dropped my hand with a sigh. "And that's the problem."

  He lifted an eyebrow. "That's a problem?"

  I threw my arms across my face, trying to hide. "Everyone in the mansion heard me!"

  He chuckled. "Their hearing isn't that good, especially through stone walls."

  "That's not what I mean. You heard me, right? In your head?"

  "Ah," he said with understanding. And then he laughed.

  "Tristan, this is so not funny! I'm … mortified."

  He kept laughing, though. I dropped my arms from my face and stared at him. I wanted to hit him. He took in my glare and, a smart man, silenced his guffaws.

  "Lexi, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. They all expect it. In fact, they want us to do it. They want a daughter, too."

  "But, Tristan, you know how I can make you feel what I'm feeling through my thoughts? I just did that with them!"

  "Then I'm sure they enjoyed it." He flashed my favorite smile, then pulled me into his arms. "I bet Rina and Solomon are having their own fun now, Sophia won't care and Owen … well, at least he'll have good dreams."

  I didn't know about anyone else, but I didn't sleep long enough to dream. Although exhausted, I tossed and turned throughout the night, my mind unable to turn off. The words of my history book churned in my head, particularly those pointing to the fact we would lose Dorian. Every male of the direct Amadis bloodline went to the Daemoni. Every. Single. One. Since the beginning, when Jordan, the first male twin purposefully sought them out and eventually became leader of their army.

  Obsessed with the idea of gaining immortality and any other powers he could have, he and a witch created Jordan's Juice. The powerful potion infused the best qualities of vampires, were-animals and mages–the magical race encompassing witches and wizards, the more powerful warlocks and the strongest of them all, sorcerers–into my ancestors' DNA. For the girls, the Ang'dora brought into full effect the creatures' endowments, as well as powers given by the Angels.

  The boys, however, were different. And ever since, all of the boys followed Jordan's path to the Daemoni. With Tristan born and raised by them and my own sperm donor one-hundred-percent evil, Dorian had a lot more Daemoni blood running through his veins than he did Amadis. Everything told me he was doomed–nothing in the book provided any kind of escape clause or even the mention of one–but I couldn't believe it. I rolled over again. There has to be something we can do.

  * * *

  The next morning, I procrastinated in our suite as long as I could, not wanting to face everyone. If I had any chance of talking to Rina, my grandmother and the only other telepath to exist in many centuries, I would have been the first one downstairs, asking her to teach me better control. But with the council meeting, I knew she wouldn't be able to help much today.

  "Alexis, I don't know about you, but I'm starving," Tristan said. "Can we please go eat breakfast? This meeting could last all day."

  I leaned against the doorway to a small balcony wrapped with wrought iron, a white sheer curtain puffing around me in the spring breeze. The hem of my dated sundress–one of the few items of clothing I owned–fluttered against my thighs. Our suite was on the third floor of the mansion and the mansion on a hill, so I could just barely see the blue-and-white-capped Aegean Sea beyond the ancient cypress treetops.

  "Go on and eat. You don't have to wait for me," I said without moving.

  He placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me to face him. The wide ring of emerald green in his eyes shone brightly, the gold sparkles surrounding the pupils glinting. His skin almost seemed to glow, as it had on our honeymoon, the morning after our first time. He was happy. This place was good for him. He'd literally been to Hell and back and he needed the Amadis power–you could almost feel the energy pulsing from the island itself–to strengthen his goodness.

  "I see what you're doing," he said with the devastating smile that made my heart flip. "You have to face them some time. Do you really want to do it by yourself or would you like me next to you?"

  "Of course I'd like you next to me. Always. But …" I hesitated.

  "But what?"

  I dropped my head, staring at the floor. "But you think this is funny. I can already hear the jokes."

  "Hmm … yeah, I'm not the least bit ashamed of what I can do to you." He lifted my chin with his fingers, brushing his thumb across my lower lip. Then his hand trailed down my neck, between my breasts, along my stomach … and lower. I shuddered. He smiled proudly. "So I guess I'll go down by myself and we can all have our laughs without you."

  He kissed me and winked, then turned and walked out the door. I stared after him in a daze, and when the fog cleared, I hurried after him.

  "Don't forget I can do the same to you," I said when I caught up to him.

  He chuckled. "Trust me, I'll never forget. And I'm not ashamed of it, either. But I do promise to behave."

  He took my hand, his touch automatically calming me, but right before we entered the dining room, I stepped behind him.

  "Dad!" Dorian bounded from his chair at the table and leapt into Tristan's arms. "I've been waiting forever for you to wake up!"

  He threw his arms around Tristan's neck in a tight hug.

  "Guess I don't count for anything anymore," I said with mocked pain.