Vampire in Crisis E-Book

Mayer Dale

• Herausgeber: Valley Publishing Ltd.
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Tessa's world exploded. She survived Deanna's inheritance. She sees more, hears more … understands more. But more is not always better.

Cody doesn’t like what's happening around him. Tessa has walked through hell and she has a lot more to go before she's clear. He plans on standing by her side – her guardian – whether she wants him to be there for her or not.

Jared can't believe all trails lead him into trouble. He'd escaped once. Tried to stay out of the mess since. But a friend is missing, and when he tries to get help, the person he confides in goes missing too.

The vampire world was never ready for Tessa before. The new Tessa? No one is ready for her.

Leseprobe

Vampire in Crisis

Book #8 of Family Blood Ties

Dale Mayer

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

About This Book

Complimentary Download

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Sneak Peek from Vampire in Control

Author’s Note

Complimentary Download

About the Author

Copyright Page

About This Book

When teenage vampire Tessa’s existence exploded in sheer pandemonium and she was forced to figure out how to survive Deanna’s dark inheritance, she comes out the other side seeing more, hearing more, understanding more about herself and the world around her. But more isn’t always better.

Tessa’s boyfriend and protector Cody doesn’t like what’s happening to the girl he loves. She’s been through hell, and she has yet to emerge fully from the flames. Even as she tells him she has to face the darkness alone, he’s determined to stand steadfastly by her side…whether she wants him there or not.

Human teen Jared can’t believe all the trouble he’s found himself in lately. Every trail he’s followed seems to lead straight into a whole different nest of misfortune. He thought he’d escaped the worst, avoided further woe, but once a friend goes missing, he has no choice but to seek help – and then the person he confides in disappears, too. He no longer knows where to turn. In the past, Tessa and Cody were always there for him. Now everything’s changed – were they still?

The vampire world Tessa comes from has never appeared ready for her before. But the new-and-improved Tessa seems to be poised to take the world as everyone knows it by storm…

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Prologue

This is the last chapter of book 7, Vampire in Chaos. We left Tessa after this point…

Tessa woke as if from a long deep sleep. She felt like she’d had eight solid hours of rest. She stretched and would have rolled over but realized there was a large warm body stopping her. Cody.

She pushed herself up on one arm and said, “Hey.”

He twisted, studied her face carefully and, as if liking what he saw, responded, “Hey back.”

She smiled and leaned back down on the bed. It wasn’t much in the way of comfort, but she’d been so needing a chance to rest it had felt like a bed for a queen.

“How are you feeling?”

“Terrific,” she murmured. “I really needed that.”

There were no aches and pains, nothing but a sense of relief. She swung her legs over the side and sat up. “Now, food would be helpful.”

Cody smiled. “You and your food.”

“It’s not like you go days without needing sustenance.” She grinned. “Do you want yours from here?”

“My dad brought back a bag of supplies from the Council Hall for us.” He motioned to the bag on the ground beside her. With a long look at him, she reached over and rummaged through the bag.

“Blood, blood, and more blood. Great.” At least it didn’t revolt her as much as it would have a few days ago. She understood the need to eat for her strength.

“Check the outside pockets,” Cody said.

She opened one of the flaps and laughed. Tucked inside were a half dozen granola bars.

She snatched up the closest one, ripped it open, and took a big bite. “Your dad is a good man.”

“Yeah, only he’s gone down with a team to overtake the eighth floor.”

She stopped, looked at him, and then at the granola bar. “So this is to keep my strength up in case I’m needed again?”

“Something like that.”

He laughed as she shrugged and demolished the rest of the bar while reaching for a second one. “Then so be it. I might as well make sure I don’t get hungry anytime soon.”

She polished the second bar off too. Then she hopped to her feet. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Ready for what?”

She turned to look back at him. “To go help. Surely we’re not going to stay here safe and sound while our fathers are out there fighting – are we?”

He shook his head.

“Well, I didn’t think so.” She gave him a cheeky grin. “Good. Then let’s go.”

By the time they reached the eighth floor, the action was all over. The men were in the process of going from room to room and checking on the vampires inside. Tessa stood in the first doorway and surveyed the energy of the occupants. They were all going to be fine.

She moved through the floor checking, helping, healing, and releasing the occupants of a dozen more rooms.

She met up with her father at the other end of the hallway. “Hey, this system worked well.”

He nodded. “They’ve already gone down to take over the seventh floor.”

“Good, let’s go.”

She was following her father down the stairwell when he stopped. He turned to look at Tessa. Then he frowned and averted his gaze but held his hand out to stop her from entering the floor.

“What is it?” Her heart sank.

“Goran says Deanna is here.”

“What? Oh no. That means she was caught again.” Tessa pulled the door open and ran inside. “Where is she?”

“Tessa, wait!”

But she’d already entered the first room, her father and Cody hard on her heels. Sure enough, there was Deanna, Hortran beside her. She rushed to the old woman’s side. The tubes had been removed and were hanging drunkenly off the side of a big wall–mounted dispenser. Tessa eyed it balefully. The damn drugs again. These assholes had a lot to answer for.

She sat down at Deanna’s bedside. “How is she?”

“She’s gone,” Hortran whispered, his voice hollow. Fading.

“Why didn’t she call out to me?” Tessa asked, afraid that she’d missed hearing Deanna call her because she’d been sleeping, then remembered Deanna’s call could wake anyone from Hell.

“There was no time. They knocked her out and got the drugs into her.” Tessa started to frantically move the energy away from Deanna’s heart.

“You’re too late,” Hortran said.

Tessa moved quickly to clean the blackness. She couldn’t see any spark underneath. Panic set in. There was too much darkness. Not enough light. She poured energy into Deanna’s system.

“You can’t help her,” Hortran said. “It’s over.”

While her hands still desperately worked to remove the heavy darkness, Tessa studied Hortran’s face. A weird fire burned in his gaze, and he reached out a hand and placed it to the side of Deanna’s head in a gentle gesture. Then he reached out with his other hand and cupped Tessa’s head over her ear.

Instantly she could hear Deanna’s faint voice.

It’s over, Tessa. My time has come. Even now my body is gone. This is the last of my energy. I said you were being tested. What I didn’t say was that you passed all the tests with flying colors. And as much as I hate to dump this on you, someone needs to know. Someone needs to take my place. So far in all my travels, there have been none who cared as much as you. So I leave you all my worldly possessions and all my knowledge. Be good, my child. Be wise. And her voice dissipated into a weird, faint echo until even that faint ringing stopped. And there was only silence. Empty vast silence. And confusion.

“Wait,” Tessa cried. “Deanna, what are you talking about?”

“She means this,” Hortran said. “You are the One.”

A bolt of lightning surged into Tessa’s head. Her body contorted and danced, caught helpless in the grip of something she never knew could exist. Names, numbers, videos, and information that she’d never known before downloaded into her brain.

Hortran’s voice chanted some mantra in the background. The noise overwhelmed her ability to sort through the information overload.

She couldn’t hold on. She cried out, “It’s too much.”

There is no one else, Hortran said, only you.You must take it all. You have no choice. You are the One.

Tessa’s mind went into overload as she finally understood what was happening. She could hear Cody screaming at her in the background. Her father’s voice. Maybe even Goran’s. There were many others she didn’t recognize. Hortran’s voice never wavered. Instead, it gained in strength.

“I can’t do this,” she screamed. “I’m not strong enough.”

“You are,” Cody snapped. “I’m here. Hold on.” And he grabbed her hand and squeezed. That helped her to stabilize, but she knew it wasn’t going to be enough. She was going under. There was no escape this time.

“You’re wrong,” Cody roared. “Use my energy. My father is here too. Use his energy.”

She felt the surge of something old and powerful connect. Then another as her father reached out and grabbed her other hand. Suddenly there were dozens of other energies swimming around her, pouring into her, giving her the strength. Fainter energy joined in, distant but connected.

“Hortran, what is happening?” she sobbed, her head exploding.

You have received the finest gift that was possible to give, he whispered in her head. She has given you everything she had to give. Now use it wisely.

He collapsed in front of her, his hand falling from her head. In front of her shocked eyes, maybe from the electrical force, maybe because it had been his time, or maybe he’d just lost the will to live, he dissolved into ancient ash and dusted the top of Deanna’s dead body. Inside her head there was a roaring sound. A building up of something huge. Something she had no idea how to control.

And something that suddenly got out of control.

She cried out, trying to tug her hands free, only to realize there were dozens of people all joined in one massive circle around her. Speaking, yelling, and crying. A kaleidoscope of words fought for space in her consciousness. Yet she couldn’t get any to take form in her mind. There were too many.

But like any universe under too much pressure – eventually it becomes too much to contain.

The pressure became too strong.

The heat too hot.

The pain too much.

The black fury in her head exploded.

She shrieked and her back arched before collapsing backwards off the bed to crumple on the floor.

In the background, she heard her father screaming for her. Inside her mind, she heard Cody screaming at her. But there was more. So much more.

As she drifted away, she heard Cody’s cry resonate through her mind.

Tessa, don’t leave me. Please. Tessa—

And she knew no more.

Chapter 1

“Tessa?”

Who was calling her? Why? She wanted to roll over and block out the noise.

“Tessa, wake up!”

“What’s wrong with her?” cried a young male voice she didn’t recognize. “Why won’t she regain consciousness?”

“Shh, she will. She’s just not ready.”

That last voice sounded almost familiar. But it was thin. Distant.

Voices rattled through her consciousness in an endless sea of noise. The voices were there but remote, connected but not clearly.

Ready, my ass. You will wake up when you feel like it. Deanna’s voice floated through her subconscious as the other conversations drifted in and out with no end. It was distracting and painful and deafening. She couldn’t hear herself think.

Or sort out the voices. Were any of the messages important? Did she need to wake up? Or would she be better off just letting the words drift away unacknowledged? She wanted to ignore them and just keep on floating here forever. The air was peaceful. Gentle. She liked that. There’d been so much stress, so many shocks in the last few weeks. So much panic and pain and loss. This break felt right. It was good to be here. She could stay and enjoy. Let everyone else just drift away. Maybe they’d disappear for good and she could just relax.

Not going to happen.

Tessa froze. Who said that?

Her mind flooded with memories of a thousand conversations and a thousand answers to who’d said something over the vastness of her experience. No, correction – the vastness of Deanna’s experience.

With that, understanding slammed into her consciousness.

Deanna.

Hortran.

The One.

The one what? Oh, right, the only one to fit Deanna’s list of requirements. Supposedly Tessa had been tested and passed without even knowing about it.

And without having given her permission for what followed.

Hortran’s voice drifted through her mind on a faint whisper. She strained to hear, to make sense of the impression in her mind. Something about how she’d been given a gift like none other and to use it wisely.

Like an echo, the word triggered multiple associations in her head and conversation after conversation jumped to the forefront, all referencing the phrase “use her gift wisely.” In a sepia-toned movie rolling through her mind, she saw Deanna speaking to young vamps, old vamps, council vamps, and strange vamps, either being cautioned to use something wisely or to tell someone else to use something wisely.

All the while, Tessa shuddered as her brain filled to capacity and battled past into overload. With a hard bang, her brain hit the end and she shuddered as her mind blanked out. Not sure what just happened, she lay there on whatever surface she was on, unaware of her surroundings as she tried to sort out the still reverberating recoil in her head. Just what had happened? Her body, her sense of place, had no beginning and no end.

“Deanna, couldn’t you have at least left me an instruction manual? Something to show me how this works?” She felt more than saw a weird whisper through her mind. Hortran?

“Is that you, Hortran?”

No, it couldn’t be. He was dead.

That whisper came again.

Or was he? She tried to remember what exactly had happened prior to the forced data transfer to her brain. Had he said something as to how to survive this? Hinted at a way out?

Instantly her mind was flooded again, the conversation as real as it had been the first time it played out in Technicolor with perfect audio pitch through her mind. And she realized there’d been no instruction possible. There’d been no time. It had been Hortran that had facilitated the exchange of Deanna’s memories. Her knowledge. Her life. But…had he left a piece of himself behind in the process? Was that possible?

There was a tiny nudge of that same energy.

With an intuitive flash, she realized that Deanna might be gone and Hortran might have exploded into ash, but a piece of his energy…his consciousness had remained behind. The connection required to do what he’d done remained.

Somehow that was a huge relief. But she didn’t know why.

It wasn’t like she could communicate with it – with him – as if there was a person attached to it. It did, however, add significance to the meaning to his name – Deanna had called him a Ghost. Now he was in spirit form – more ghostly than ever.

Could he help her with this transition? Or better yet – reverse the process?

Instantly pain slammed into her temples. She groaned as sharp claws bit into her consciousness.

She focused on her breathing, trying to manage the onslaught. After a moment, the weight in her chest eased.

She’d take that to mean reversing the process wasn’t possible. Or maybe not desirable. After the trouble Deanna had gone through to find Tessa, it would make sense to learn to manage this new state.

Instantly, the air around her lightened, as if a silent pat of approval had smoothed over her head.

She sighed. “Hortran, can you hear me?” Stupid question, but she wanted to know for sure that it was him. The pat of approval came again.

Good.

“Can you talk to me?”

No pat.

“But you can communicate somewhat.” Okay. She could work with that. Considering the option was no contact at all, it was a huge relief to know that he was there some of the time. “Any chance you can tell me what I’m supposed to do with this mess of information? I’ve barely got any memories of my own. To deal with hers is too much.”

No response. Lost as she was inside, whatever space in her mind she’d ended up with, she sighed and said in a needy whisper, “Please, Hortran, tell me how to push this back into some kind of filing system so I can open it only when I want to and keep it safe in an archive of some kind the rest of the time. I can’t live like this,” she cried out. “It’s her life. Not my life. Maybe I’ll need her memories, but maybe not.”

Instantly, a filing system popped up in her mind – by century. She stared in awe as the centuries opened to show decades, with the first of those opening to show years.

“Hey, that works. Now put all of those in a big folder called Deanna’s Memories.”

Instantly there was a folder with Deanna’s name and, oh wow…a second folder appeared with Hortran’s name on it.

“Hortran, do I have all your knowledge and memories as well?”

That warm whisper of energy slipped across her face this time.

“Why? Why would you do that too?” She was so confused. She had seen a lot of vamps die lately and none had a chance to pass on any information. Had they wanted to? Could any vamp do this?

Was it a common thing? A gift that each vamp could bestow as a gift on their loved ones? She didn’t understand how that could be a good thing. And if it was so easy, how come she’d never heard of it?

Then she remembered the things Deanna had said about her prison and her partner. She shuddered at what information she could have access to. Instantly she threw up a mental shield and said, “Section off all intimate memories Deanna might have so I don’t inadvertently see them.”

There was a weird shuffling in the files. She stood in the center of the maelstrom as folders flew around her. When it was done, she could see a red folder off to one side for each century, decade, and year.

Good. It felt more respectful that way too. And much less like she was a voyeur into Deanna’s personal life. It was a different story to have access to her business life and clan knowledge. There’d be any number of other bits and pieces in there she could use, but she didn’t want to intrude on Deanna’s most private memories.

Who would?

Okay, anything else? Could she organize this in a better way? Maybe add a search function? It was hardly a computer, but it was a database. Then she realized all the folders were there, but they were empty.

Shit. She had to fill them.

*

Cody’s fingers spasmed with the effort of holding back from giving Tessa yet another hard shake to wake her up from the dead – or whatever unholy place she’d gone to. He needed her to respond – in some way – in any way to let them know she was okay. Her head lolled to one side. Her eyes closed and her mouth fell slightly open. The only reassuring thing was the steady rise and fall of her chest.

She was alive, and he had to believe she was fighting to stay that way.

He hated what Deanna had done. He didn’t know why Tessa had been chosen or why Hortran would have helped facilitate what had just gone down, but just thinking about it made him angry all over again.

He bowed his head and once again called out to her, Tessa. My love. Answer me, please.

The blankness in his mind terrified him. He hadn’t been able to mindspeak for very long but the absence – the sense of loss – by her silence shook him deeply. He wanted to reach in there – wherever there was – and grab her by the shoulders and shake her until she yelled at him to stop. He wanted to hear her voice snap at someone – even him, to say the real, the normal, the defiant Tessa he knew and loved so well was there.

And yes, the word was love. He was no longer afraid of it, of the feeling and definitely not the commitment. He’d like nothing better than to plan on being old and gray with her at his side.

He’d had no warning of how important she’d become to him, but he’d done well adjusting. Or at least he thought he had, but now this sense of grief at the thought of something finally being too much for her to handle – that realization that for all she’d done and managed to do, all she’d had thrown at her and had surmounted – she might have finally come up against something she couldn’t deal with.

And that thought was going to kill him.

“Cody, lay her down so she can rest.” Serus hovered in front of him.

“She is resting.” Cody refused to do anything that would mean no longer having her in his arms. Sitting beside her wasn’t good enough. He had to hold her.

“She could take hours recovering,” Goran said quietly at his side.

Cody snapped his gaze towards his father. “This is Tessa.”

A lopsided grin slipped out from his father’s face. “I know. We don’t know which way she is going to handle this. We have to assume it could take time. She is under a tremendous amount of pressure right now. She might need to adapt…”

There was a pregnant pause.

Cody leaned back against the wall, adjusted Tessa in his arms, and said, “She’ll adapt just fine. She needs a little time, that’s all.”

He closed his eyes, determined to give her that time.

At least outwardly. Inside, he couldn’t resist murmuring, I’m here, Tessa. Tell me what I can do to help.

For the first time, he thought he might have sensed a response. Staying still so as to not let anyone else know, he whispered in her mind, Tessa? Sweetheart – is that you?

And the whisper that came back brought tears to his eyes.

Cody? Where are you? I missed you.

*

Serus watched his daughter with a hawk’s eye. She lay so pale and weak in Cody’s arms. He couldn’t have imagined what had just happened. The impact on Tessa. Damn Deanna. How could she do that to Tessa? His daughter. Not some nameless victim he could possibly ignore but his own daughter. He wished he could kill the witch himself. This time before she’d had a chance to grab onto his poor girl. There’d been rumors of particularly strong vamps downloading their memories in the past as in centuries ago, but he’d never known it to happen or seen it happen, and no one knew of it having happened. Hence, the myth that it was possible but not probable.

And now knowing the sheer power at Deanna’s disposal and possibly with Hortran’s help, he’d seen Tessa gifted with everything Deanna had to give.

What that would do for her – or against her, he couldn’t imagine.

It was a huge burden and one he wouldn’t wish on anyone, especially not his teenage daughter. She had enough challenges.

Cody’s face twitched, his eyes moving under his lids. Serus leaned closer and whispered, “Can you hear her?”

Cody gave a jerky nod. “Barely.”

Barely was enough. It meant she was in there – functioning at a level none of them could even guess at.

But to know she was responding already – well, his heart swelled with relief. She’d be okay then – maybe not in an hour or a day, but she’d cope – like she always had.

So she’s waking up, is she? Goran’s worried voice slid into Serus’s mind. He’d only checked in every ten minutes since he walked away to find something useful to do.

His buddy had left rather than stay there and do nothing but hover over Tessa. Serus knew his friend hated to sit around and do nothing if there was something he could grab control of.

Cody says he’s heard from her, so I’ll take that as a good sign.

I will too then. Goran’s voice beefed up. I never doubted she’d handle this.

Serus smiled. Neither did I, old friend. Neither did I.

*

Still at the hospital, trying to find a comfortable way to sit on the hard seat, Jared stared at the list of names and license numbers. These were the potential drivers who were driving the ambulances yesterday when he saw Tobias taken away. None of the names were familiar. Then why would they be? He wasn’t part of the medical world and knew few people outside of school friends. He lifted his head, his gaze falling on Clarissa, who’d curled up on the couch and fallen asleep. She’d been emotionally wrought since they realized what likely had happened to Tobias. Jared was afraid so much more might have happened to him but hated to speculate on the devious experiments the blood farm doctors might even now be doing.

“How do we narrow this list down?” Jared asked. “There are too many here to follow up on.”

“Sian is on it. She can access the tracking data for each of the ambulances and check out their routes. Might even be able to search for the address of the group home to see who was there.” Taz stared off into space, as if contemplating what technology could do to make their job easier.

Jared didn’t really care what could help as long as something did. And fast. He was fed up with sitting around and doing nothing. His future was up in the air too. He couldn’t go back to the group home and they’d missed morning classes. Something he wasn’t thrilled about, but priorities had to be set and this bloody nightmare had to come to an end sometime – surely.

As if reading his thoughts, Taz suddenly broke the silence.

“You two should go on to school. Leave this with me for the moment. If you want to, you can stop by after class and I’ll let you know what we’ve found out.”

Jared stared at Taz, his mind working. It was tempting. He just needed to finish this term and he’d be done. Failing was not an option. Neither was it for Tobias. But what could he do right now for the kid?

“Surely there’s something we can do to help,” Clarissa said in a sleepy voice. She sat up and yawned then rubbed her eyes.

“Not at the moment.” Taz stood up. “Maybe by the time you get back I’ll have something that we can move forward with.”

Jared watched as Clarissa turned to him, a question in her gaze. He shrugged. “I don’t know what else to do. Maybe we can find out something at school. There has to be someone there who knows something.”

Her gaze warmed and she smiled. “True. School it is then.”

As they walked out of Taz’s office, he called from behind them, “Be careful that you don’t go asking the wrong questions of the wrong people.”

A good warning to keep in mind – but how were they supposed to know what were the right questions and who were the wrong people?

*

Rhia sat up slowly and stared around the empty Council Hall room. Had she fallen asleep yet again? All she did now was sleep and lie here. She felt so out of it. So useless. She’d heard a gnarled rendition of something involving Deanna and her daughter, but the accounting could barely be believed. Could it? Surely Deanna hadn’t gifted Tessa with all her knowledge. Rhia had heard of such things from other elders, but it was a hugely dangerous process with more failures than successes. She worried on the names that slid through her mind. She couldn’t remember a single case where the recipient had actually lived through the process.

Supposedly Tessa was alive but unconscious. She was at the hospital – and what a joke that was. A hospital was supposed to be a place of healing. A place of helping those in need of care. A place to get help. Not this war zone it had become.

And of course all she held dear was caught in the middle.

Again.

Her mind froze. Not all – not Seth. No one had found out anything about Seth. Maybe that was something she could work on.

If she could only remember what she’d already done.

Chapter 2

The warmth hit Tessa first. Then cold followed by waves of cozy heat as if she was going through a myriad of different climates one after another. She didn’t understand and could only sway as she was buffeted by the discordant sensations. In the back of her mind, she could sense something holding her in place. Something stalwart. Something enduring. Something she could trust.

There was a deep rumbling under her feet, sending more shockwaves up her lean frame. She closed her eyes and let her body, her mind, her spirit sink into the process. Go with whatever was happening to her. Surrender. Fighting was useless – worse, it would kill her. With a deep sigh, she released the last of her resistance and watched the filing system once again float around her as the centuries of Deanna’s life flew into their correct spots. The relationships slid into another section. Her eyes opened in wonder as she caught bits and pieces of the truths that the old vampire knew. The trials and challenges she’d been through. There was an odd popping sound, then another and another. She watched as files closed one after another and disappeared – presumably into her own memory banks.

As each closed, the pressure she’d barely been aware of with so much going on eased back. The pops came faster and faster to the point that it was as if popcorn was popping in her mind.

It built to a massive crescendo of noise and then – stopped.

As in stark complete silence.

The air cleared around her, and the sensation of her head being too large to hold up eased. She shuddered. A freeing, relieved type of motion.

“Wow. That feels so much better.”

Instantly, a small caring pat whispered across her head.

Then a murmur so faint, so soft and carried on a warm breath of air – so caring she wondered if she’d imagined it. You did good.

And the breath faded away, the sensation drifting off like a boat whose mooring had been untied.

“Wait,” she cried out. “Are you coming back?”

This time the answer was slightly crisper around the edges, enough for her to hear the response.

Always.

And he – Hortran, the Ghost – was gone.

Tessa opened her eyes and slammed them shut just as quickly. A shocked gasp escaped. That couldn’t be. She peeked out from under her lashes at the world gone brilliant. The space around her was alive with color – but not just any color. Luminescent greens and blues and purples spun and twisted in front of her. But not calm quiet movements as if blowing in the wind; more distressed, agitated, and the colors were packed tight into the same space, twisting and coiling in on themselves and each other.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She wished the colors weren’t so bright, so in her face. It was making her eyes hurt.

As if by her thoughts alone, the colors instantly muted. She blinked and mentally thought to change it back – and sure enough, everything around her brightened up again.

Not possible.

Everything is possible. You are the One. She shuddered as Hortran’s ghostly voice whispered through her mind again.