The Awakening (27 page)

Carmen looked closely at the young man, noted how comfortable the dogs were with him. Was he one of them? He seemed to understand the scene perfectly.

“I’ve just got a few more things to double check and then I’ll be on my way.” He smiled at her and left her standing in the remains of her kitchen. She heard the key in the door and Andrew appeared in the vestibule.

“Honey,” he said, doing his best imitation of a sad little boy.

“I’d like to say I’m surprised but I’m not. Hello Andrew.” Carmen was cold. She felt ice in her veins, frost in her heart. She looked at this man, whom she thought she knew. There was nothing familiar about him.

He moved to touch her. She recoiled.

“Carmen?”

“It’s finished, Andrew. You know that.”

“It can’t be, Carmen. I love you. We’re getting married.” He moved towards her again. He knew that if he could just take her in his arms and kiss her everything would be all right. If he could just get close enough to touch her, replace the ring, recast his spell and ensnare her once more then she would be his again. But she kept moving away.

“Not any more. You have the ring back and your keys. I couldn’t be plainer.”

He looked imploringly at her. “Carmen, honey, what’s happened? Have I done anything? Just tell me and I’ll fix it all. I’ll make it better.”

She shook her head. “There’s nothing you can do, Andrew. We are finished. Over. I am not marrying you. Ever.”

“Baby, you don’t mean it.” He searched for the words, forcing himself to remain calm. Carmen could feel the calculation in every word. “Hey, we can slow things down. If that’s what you want? No hassle about children either. Just come home. Come back to me, Carmen.”

Carmen looked around her. “This is my home, Andrew. This charred mess is mine. And I’d rather be here now than ever be in your loft again.”

He was getting nowhere.

The assessor returned with forms for Carmen to sign. “Thanks. We’ll be in touch in a week or two. I have a contact address?”

Carmen nodded and extended her hand. She felt his warmth and understanding. He looked to Andrew. “You’re okay here?”

Carmen nodded. “Thanks for your time.”

He gave one more quizzical look at Andrew and was gone. Andrew tried a smile. “Just us now, Carmen.”

“And the dogs.” Zanzibar and Alaska were standing by, their hair bristling, a small guttural snarl building in their throats.

“Yes, of course. The dogs.” The contempt in his voice was clear. “Why am I not surprised they’re here too. Can you go anywhere without them?”

“I knew you’d be here, Andrew. So they are too. Why would I risk being alone with you again?”

Andrew sighed. “Oh, Carmen. Carmen. What are you saying? Do you know how insane you sound? I love you. You love me. We’re buying a house and making wedding plans. We’re planning a life together. Are you not well? Has someone upset you?”

Carmen laughed. “You are beautiful, Andrew. You really are. ‘Has someone upset you?’ Why do you persist in this pretence about our relationship?”

“There’s no pretence,” Andrew’s face was sincere, his voice calm again, but Carmen could sense his control evaporating. Just a few more minutes and he would blow his cool altogether. He reached for her hand and captured it. She let him hold it and felt all that she had suspected. She remembered the dream and saw beyond it. In her head Victor’s words were ringing – “trust your instincts.”

Carmen left her hand in his: she even stepped closer to him and touched his face. “Oh, Andrew, Andrew,” she smiled.

She felt his confidence soar, saw his smile turn to a smug grin. He thought he was back in control. She let him kiss her. But it was a cold and barren kiss. He stepped away from her. “Carmen?”

She shook her head. “I tried to tell you. It’s over.”

He grabbed her wrist. She looked at him contemptuously and waited. He squeezed and tried to hurt her. She simply pulled herself free. “Oh, dear, Andrew. You won’t get anywhere if you try to hurt me.”

He laughed pathetically. “Are you threatening me now?”

She shook her head, smiling, noting his increasing discomfort. He didn’t know what to do. She guessed Will had sent him and told him not to leave until he had won her back. Did Andrew know all that was at stake here? Did
she
understand it all yet? Why were the Adams’ the enemy? Victor hadn’t adequately explained that. But he hadn’t fully explained anything. She thought about the photo in Andrew’s loft, the vision of Will in his den, the collection of dead animals. Will was a hunter, he had been in his prime an alpha male – hunter, politician, womaniser, father, decision maker, bread winner. His fall from grace was connected to Carmen. He needed to control her, weaken her and Andrew was the instrument. Andrew had preyed upon her neediness, her loneliness and awkwardness about herself. She’d been too blinded by his attentions, his honey words to realise that he was quite cold, too calculating about everything. She had let him fool her: she had wanted to be fooled. She had let herself be wooed and almost won by this man, whom, she knew now as she looked deep into his heart, had never loved her. Andrew had only been following instructions. He’d been unfaithful – the dream about the Brazilian beauty was true. She guessed that if she looked closer she would see others. Any night he wasn’t with her he was with someone else. She knew it: she did not need to look for proof.

But as she looked away from his heart she saw something else. Something far more disturbing than infidelity: all her worst suspicions confirmed. Well, Victor had tried to tell her. She surveyed the wreckage of her apartment. “This was you. This was all your handy-work.”

Andrew laughed, looked into her eyes, tried to look honest and truthful. “Oh, Carmen, how could you think that? Accuse me of such a heinous act? As if I could hurt anyone, let alone you.”

She nodded, seeming to accept his lie. Alaska and Zanzibar moved closer, stood behind Andrew, ready for anything. She caught their eyes. He’d poisoned them too. And sent the attacker that Victor had frightened off. The dogs nodded – yes, yes, it was all him, their eyes said. Andrew was the only person other than her mother or the caretaker who had a key. Neither the fire nor the poisoning incident showed evidence of forced entry. Andrew had overseen the up-grade of security, made her believe it was because he loved her so much, but it was to set a trap, to hurt her or send her into his arms because she simply wasn’t moving in with him while she had her own place. True he had been nowhere near when these things had happened but she’d seen him pay those men in her dream. She’d seen him look at her and give them money. Was he really trying to kill her or just frighten her? Did she know him at all?

“No, Andrew,” Carmen said calmly. “It was you. The dogs, my apartment being trashed, the man outside that night and the fire. All down to you.”

“You have no proof.”

She shook her head. “I don’t need it. I know what happened.”

Andrew sniggered. “You think you’re so clever. But you can’t pin anything on me. I wasn’t even in the country for the fire. And I was with you the night this place was turned over and the dogs poisoned.”

“You wanted them dead, didn’t you? But you can’t kill them. Not an ordinary man like you.”

He laughed. “I’m actually not an ordinary man, Carmen. You may be on your way to great power but you aren’t the only one.”

Carmen’s eyes narrowed. She looked into him. Yes, there was something there, but nothing compared to Victor or herself. His power belonged to the mortal realm and she could see that he would be a worthy foe one day. Some of his intuition needed work and certainly his ability to hide his true purpose needed refinement. Or was it that she could see him properly now, that her powers were growing and he could no longer dupe her.

“I had you completely fooled. You were so desperate for love that for me to win you over was too easy. I know about women, Carmen, and you were a walk over. Your need for a man was naked and once I got close it was all over. You never knew what was going on. You mistook lust for love at the first moment and then you were all mine.” He snorted contemptuously at her. “You really believed I loved you. You thought I wanted to marry you.”

Carmen knew he was trying to hurt her. But it didn’t matter. There was nothing he could do or say. “So, why were you in such a hurry to get married, Andrew? That wasn’t me: that was you. Couldn’t wait to speed me down that aisle. And get me into your place. Hence the fire and the attack on the dogs.”

Andrew shrugged. “It was Will. I do what he wants. Once I’d brought you home he recognised you. I don’t know why or for what but he was insistent that you were the one for me. Yeh, he spun all that White House bullshit, what an asset you’d be. So much better than all my other girlfriends. My place in the heart of Americans would be assured with you as my wife. I bought it all. After all, you’re nice enough looking and you’re an okay fuck and once we were married and had kids I would be free to do what I wanted. Will made that clear. Once we had you in the family and I was in the White House you didn’t matter any more.”

Carmen laughed. “You’d have married me on Will’s say so? What about love?”

“What about it?” Andrew walked over to the kitchen window and looked out. “You see Carmen that is your weakness. You believe in love and it weakens you. You confused sex for love and I had you. Love doesn’t matter. Sex does. Power does. And that’s what I have. What I’ll have more of as I move into politics. Will said you needed to be neutralised – I didn’t ask questions. Dad always gets his way. And now, because you won’t come back to me of your own accord I guess it gets nasty.”

She looked from the dogs to Andrew, heard the footsteps outside. “Do you think you can hurt me?”

“Maybe not.” Andrew lunged for her, attempting to knock her over. She stepped aside and swiped his arm with her bear sized hand, her claws rapidly extending in the face of his attack. He fell against the island bench, clutching his arm. “What the?”

“I am not who you think I am,” Carmen smiled. “I have no idea what Will has told you, but if you think you can restrain me you need to think again.” She flexed her hands, extending the dangerous claws, tearing the air near Andrew’s face.

Andrew held his arm tight, stemming the blood. “Will is outside. Josh is on the way. One way or the other you won’t leave here a free woman.”

Carmen growled. “I may not be at full strength yet, Andrew, but I know that you and your father can’t stop me. Your part in my life is at an end.”

Alaska and Zanzibar ran to the door as footsteps gathered outside. Their hackles were raised and both were growling.

“I guess your father’s here,” Carmen quipped, her hands resuming their normal shape and size. “You don’t really think the dogs are going to let him in, do you? Or your policeman friend?”

Andrew grunted. “If they attack, Josh will shoot them. He’s been told how dangerous they are. Your little life is coming to an end, Carmen. The police now know that you had that poor man attacked and that your dogs are a menace. They have information that you set the fire deliberately for the insurance money. Your spotless image is about to be tarnished for all time. Nobody will want you after we’ve finished with you. You’ll end up an old drunk just like Madeleine. Josh is waiting out there with Will and a few officers to take you away. He’s waiting for my signal.”

Carmen touched her polar bear pendant thoughtfully. Perhaps it was a trap. Perhaps she was over-estimating herself. It was clear that Josh was in the pay of the Adams’, as, she assumed, were a great many other officials in New York. They were a well connected family with an impeccable reputation. There was that one incident though. One blemish in Will’s career. She tried to see it. The past remained cloudy. But she felt the link between his fall from grace and herself. She was here to redress the balance somehow, or to stop history repeating itself. What had Victor said?
Keep your enemies closer.
That’s what they had been doing with her. Keeping her close, preying on her weakness and neutralise her. Why though? What had she done, what could she do to them? Would they really destroy her? Damn, she wished she’d let Victor talk to her more about all this. Other than visions, healing shape shifting (she guessed) and bear like power, what could she do?

“But if I say, okay, let’s re-start, will that call off your dogs of war?”

Andrew eyed her suspiciously. “Would you?”

Carmen shrugged.

“It’s those dogs, isn’t it? You’d do anything to save them.”

Carmen nodded. “I guess.” She touched the pendant again, signalled the dogs to move back to her side. Let Will come if he wanted to. She was curious to see how he would behave in this situation.

Andrew laughed. “I see you put that thing back on pretty quickly.”

“I only took it off because you were so silly about it.”

Andrew smiled slowly. “Of course, Victor. Finally, he has you, is that it? Is that what all of this is about?”

Carmen sighed. “He is very persuasive, Andrew.”

“You’ve slept with him?” Carmen saw the flicker of jealously sprint across his heart. He did feel something for her.

“No.”

“But you want to.” His eyes were dark and malevolent. Or was it just the pain from his arm upsetting him?

“But she hasn’t.” Will was suddenly in the room. He had used another key and entered like a hunter, as Carmen had anticipated. The dogs were completely still, watching everything. She winked at them,
stay alert, be ready
.