"The tarot is only a tool, dear. Each card tells of a lesson, or situations that occur in every life. The cards have no magic-"
"Then how did Perfidia make them stay in that formation? An inch from the wall?" I blurted. My mind ached as badly as my body, for Pandora was teaching this lesson at my expense. Refuting beliefs I'd held almost as sacred as the myths I'd invented about the parents I'd never met.
"While it's true we vampires possess powers, there's a limit to what we can accomplish. Much depends upon how…suggestible our mark is." She smiled sadly, understanding my befuddlement. "You're an attorney, Andrea. Trained to reason your way out of difficult situations. Do you really believe cards can hang in the air this way?"
"Well, no! At least not until Perfidia-"
"Then tell the cards-out loud-that they are only paper. Tell them Perfidia no longer has any power over them. Or you."
I swallowed hard. Was Pandora asking me to traffic in the same satanic magic her partner had invoked? These damned iron bars…they HAD shifted with me, come to think of it.
I didn't know what to believe. If Pandora was telling me to divest those tarot cards of their power, was she hinting that Perfidia's other tricks were invalid, too?
"You! You're only paper! Only pretty, printed cards!" I stated as boldly as I dared. For all I knew, Perfidia was lurking invisibly, just waiting for such a challenge to drive a dangerous wedge between Pandora and herself. "Stop hanging there!"
I felt a mental push…probably assistance from Pandora. The cards shimmied, but they remained afloat.
Had I lived in the dark-in so many ways, out here beyond Redemption-that the light of hope couldn't redeem me? I breathed deeply, to fill the little room with my frustration. "Stop it right now! Perfidia put you there, but I don't believe in her power anymore!"
Slowly, the cards dropped out of formation to hit the floor. The last three hovering were the Queen of Wands-supposedly me-and the Queen of Cups, which represented Pandora, while that Knight of Wands looked over at us.
"Get lost!" I cried. "You have no power over me!"
The cards dropped, separated from the rest of the scattered spread. The dreamy-eyed Queen of Cups landed slightly above Billy and me, as though to gently counsel us-but another mental nudge made me set aside my imaginings.
"Stand up, Andrea."
I grunted with the effort, but still those iron bars held me.
Pandora scowled down at me. "We've agreed your cage isn't attached to the floor. And do you really think those bars entered this room dancing to their own music?"
"Seeing is believing!" I blurted. I tried straightening my legs, but the bars didn't budge.
"Maybe believing is seeing. Never forget who got you into this predicament, my dear."
Believing is seeing? A point to ponder-but I had no patience for philosophical thoughts right now. Yes, Perfidia was the source of this trickery! She had made me believe- Ah, there was the rub: I'd allowed her wicked ways to overpower rational thought, because she'd driven Billy Tripplehorn away. When I declared to those iron bars that they were unable to hold me now-looking to Pandora for encouragement-the cage fell away. The bars slinked back to the nether regions of the house, like dogs with tails tucked between their legs.
I stood, grimacing at my stiff muscles and the smell of my filth. "I feel so stupid."
"Most people live in chains of their own making," Pandora replied quietly. "And now that I've banished Perfidia, I hope you'll never forget you hold all the keys you'll ever need, inside you, Andrea."
Was that virago who called herself my mother really done taunting me? I didn't dare ask. Pandora's expression suggested she'd made some irrevocable decisions about Perfidia, and perhaps about Miss Pink. As she gazed around my room, I sensed the beginning of an end.
"Is Perfidia really my mother?"
"Do you believe she is?"
I pushed no further. Pandora wasn't in the mood for straight answers.
"So…you've found another place?" I ventured. "Like you suggested before?"
"It's time." Sadness lined her lovely face before she put on a resolute expression again. "After all the years you've had to keep our secrets, you deserve your own life, dear. I'll make it as though the orphanage never existed-erase it from the face of the earth as well as from everyone's memory-and by then I'll be on my way. I deserve a fresh start, too."
Unspeakable longing welled up inside me and I rushed to hug Pandora, but she rose from the floor, beyond my reach. She hovered as an image without substance, her pale loveliness haunting me. An angel in black satin.
"But-but I'm worried that if I'm half vampire-"
"Have you ever heard of a HALF vampire, Andrea?" she chided in a voice that faded along with her image. "You'll have to do better than that, now that I'm not around. Let the dead bury the dead. Don't waste any time going…"
She disappeared with the end of her sentence.
I yanked back the draperies, hoping to catch a last glance at the woman I'd loved most in this world, but it was dawn. The light looked as weak as I felt, now that I'd awakened from the ongoing nightmare of my former life. Those tarot cards on the floor appeared pale and faded-as did my entire room, on this dreary winter morning.
But I was finally free! This I believed! I shivered, for the house had gone cold without Cerise to keep the fires going. Thoughts of a warm, leisurely bath downstairs had me wrapping my dressing gown around myself as I thumped barefoot down the stairs. Surely I could stoke the furnace to heat that water- Get out! NOW!
I held my breath to listen, but heard only dead silence. If Pandora was gone, and she'd sent Perfidia away, who had spoken?
Out of habit, I called to Cerise and her blonde cohorts, but now the silence was underscored by a dull rumbling in the bowels of the house. Tremors ran up my legs and terror sent me vaulting up two steps at a time to my room. The walls and floors were quaking now-I heard china crashing from the kitchen cabinets and pictures being dashed to the floor. Snatching an armful of clothing from my armoire, I hurried downstairs again. When the front door flew open, I raced outside into the cold.
What I saw in the next few minutes astounded me. The mansion-a fixture on these hills since anyone in Redemption could remember-shuddered with a death rattle and fell into itself, followed by the orphanage behind it. Chunks of the walls disintegrated into dust before my eyes, and this grit sank through the surface of the earth. Within moments, the Sisters of Samaria Orphanage had not only disappeared without a trace, it was as Pandora had predicted: not a hint remained that this residence had ever existed.
I bit my lip, but it was too damn cold to stand there crying while the north wind whipped at my robe. As I stepped into my trousers, I wondered what Pandora had intended, dissembling her home so quickly-unless she was outwitting Perfidia and Pink. The evergreens whispered in the cold breeze, but offered no solace for losing the only home I'd known, along with all who'd ever lived there.
I could assume Cerise and the twins had followed Perfidia, at her bidding. I could hope the children had passed on into some painless oblivion where they'd never be plagued by questions-or unexpectedly ugly answers!-about their parents and what they were to make of their unloved lives. At least this way, they never became the lifeblood that literally kept the Sisters of Samaria going.
But here I stood on this windy hillside, with only the clothes on my back. The only man I'd ever wanted was gone. So were the three sultry vampires who'd raised me to be his woman, and had instructed Billy on becoming the perfect lover. For the first time in my life I was utterly alone. Except for a vague notion to quiz Judge Legg about his life with Perfidia, I had no idea what to do with myself now.
A whinny and approaching hoofbeats drew me out of my dumbfounded state.
"Dory!" I cried, rushing over to the dappled horse. "You poor thing-so frightened, and-"