by K. C. RILEY
He didn’t say a word as I opened the door to one of the bedrooms.
Inside, I pushed him up against the wall.
“What are you—”
“Shhhhhh,” I said, putting my finger at his lips.
I then pulled him in for one deep…hot…kiss. Christopher’s bare hands inching up my back sent me into a frenzy. He moaned and so did I. I could taste the life force on his tongue. And I wanted more. So much more. I was this close to taking the energy of his soul for myself when I was ripped from his grip and his lips.
“Hey,” Christopher said.
“Sorry,” Kai growled. “She’s off-limits.” The guy threw me over his shoulder and carried me down the stairs like he was some kind of Neanderthal.
Was it hot? Sexy? Sure. But there’s something to be said about timing. And not when a girl is trying to feed.
Kai carried me out the door around to the side of the house as I ranted for him to put me down. He then turned on a hose.
“Sorry,” Cassie said.
Of course, Josie joined in. “It’s for your own good.”
Typical. I should have known the two of them were in on it. I only needed one second to find a spell to dropkick all of them onto their asses. The whole dirty lot of them.
Kai threw me down onto the grass.
“You wouldn’t dare,” I huffed. After all, I was the Queen of Hell and Shadows.
Obviously, no one had gotten the memo because Kai continued to hose me down until I was completely drenched. The water was icier than the arctic. I screamed and yelled profanities unheard of.
However, and more importantly, their plan had worked. Lilith had completely simmered down.
Everything I had done, the blackouts, the shopping, trying to seduce Kai, the drinking, and God, making out with Christopher? Not to mention the insatiable hunger. It had been Lilith the entire time. The moment I gave her an inch for Mason’s spell was the moment I had lost complete control of myself. My real self.
“Sorry,” I said cold and drenched.
“I know.” Kai gave me his hand to help me up.
“We didn’t know what else to do,” Cassie said, concerned.
“Oh, that was pretty spot on.”
“We can talk about it later,” Josie said. “For now let’s just go. Everyone’s staring.”
“If you guys don’t mind,” Kai interrupted. “I’d like to take her home.”
Cassie and Josie glanced at me for an answer.
I was completely mortified and embarrassed to even think of sitting next to Kai in his car after what I had done. Especially, soaked.
But I also owed him an apology, so I nodded yes.
“I’m dripping all over your car,” I said.
Kai kept his eyes on the road. No endearing glances. Just an innocent smile that I couldn’t make out. Maybe it was just Kai being himself. Maybe not. Mrs. Ellington had completely used him for his mediumship. Aunt Norah had completely used him for his body. And I…well, I wasn’t any better.
“It’s all right,” he said, still not looking at me.
I couldn’t blame him. I had already said sorry a couple of times on the way home and his response was the same. It’s okay. But it wasn’t okay. I don’t know. It just seemed like we needed to talk about it. Then again it wasn’t hard to forget the shots Lilith had devoured. My stomach was nauseous, my head woozy, and I felt like crap.
“Pull over. Now.” I barely got the words out and the door open as Kai swerved off the road. Everything that Lilith had devoured earlier came spewing out.
“Ugh.” I closed the door and Kai handed me a tissue to wipe my mouth.
“Are you okay?”
“I will be. I think.”
Kai slowly pulled off when I told him to stop the car again. This time I got out. I couldn’t breathe. And there was nothing left in my stomach to vomit. My stomach contracted anyway. All I could do was dry heave. My forehead felt clammy and I could still taste Lilith’s venom in my mouth. Like Aunt Norah, everything Lilith touched, she destroyed.
I heard Kai get out of the car as I started sobbing. I couldn’t win, not with anything.
“Hey,” Kai put his hand on my shoulder before pulling me in tight for a hug. “Come here. It’s okay,” he said, rubbing my back with his hand.
It was nice.
“I know that wasn’t you,” Kai continued.
I was tired of crying like a blubbering idiot. And I had been so stupid to think I could control her. Lilith.
“I saw the wall in Alexandria, the fresco,” he said.
“Great, so you’ve seen me naked and you know I’m the end of the world.”
Kai snorted.
“It’s not funny,” I sniffled.
“It kind of is. I mean you’ve seen me naked, twice, if I recall.”
My body warmed at the truth.
“And what I saw on those walls wasn’t the end of the world, but the beginning of it. I’ll be honest. Finding out I’m the reincarnation of Adam and you Eve scared me a bit. I didn’t know what to do with it. Or these feelings I have for you that I can’t explain.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“I didn’t quite believe it until tonight when you kissed me and I saw her. Lilith,” he continued. “I saw us, you and me together. We were in this magnificent garden and happy, until we weren’t. That part had nothing to do with Lilith herself. You had already fallen in love with someone else. Jake. Gadreel. Angel extraordinaire. The two of you together were inevitable. It all makes sense now. Why I never had a shot with you to begin with. You and Jake are twin flames.”
“What’s that?” I asked, sniffling.
“You both share the same soul, Jake’s soul. There’s no going up against that.”
That was the legend, but was it really true? Did Jake and I really share the same soul? “Did you see anything else?”
“You mean outside of the fact that I never had a chance? No. It was just a glimpse into what seemed like a dream.” Kai paused. “Do you love him?” he said, bluntly.
It was hard to tell Kai the truth, because at some point the truth became distorted. Complicated. Yes, I loved Jake. Or at least it felt that way. But there was something about Kai that was just as strong and palpable. How could I be in love with two guys at the same time? It was insane.
“What would I know about love?” I replied, deflecting. “I’m just a kid who should be focusing on SATs and college. Or whether to wear my hair up or down to go to a freaking house party. Love should be the last thing on the list. Right? That, along with witches, vampires, and Lycans.”
Kai lifted my chin gently, forcing me to look into his eyes. “Elizabeth Maverick, you are no kid.”
My knee caps practically melted under the spell of Kai’s eyes.
“You don’t know it,” he continued. “But I was close to ending everything. You saved me from completely losing it that night in the car. Being around you, it gives me hope and purpose.”
Butterflies fluttered in my chest. And more than anything my heart and soul were dying for Kai to kiss me. The real me. I would have reached for his lips, but I had done enough damage for the night.
“I’ve seen you sacrifice yourself to save your friends, to save Jake. God only knows what you had to do to save Mason. I would say you know more about love than anyone I’ve ever met. So again, do you love him?”
Saying it out loud terrified me. Like if I loved one, I would have to lose the other.
My heart thumped in my throat both at the question and the way Kai softly looked at me.
“We better get back,” I said, utterly confused.
21
There was a loud banging in my dreams, like someone pounding a sledgehammer against the wall. And I could hear Jake’s voice in the dark. Don’t, he said, over and over. His voice was weak. I couldn’t see a thing. Only hear.
The banging was excruciating as my head throbbed, feeling like it would pop off.
Don’t, I heard again.
>
Something grabbed my arm in the blackness, burning my skin with its fingers. The demon that was holding Jake captive.
“No!” Jake yelled.
I woke up to the wretched sound of someone banging on my door as I held the burn at my arm, the claw marks quickly fizzling away. My head pounded. I had been dreaming.
“Ugh. All right already. I’m coming.” I opened the door.
“Okay, so truce,” Josie said barging in with Cassie behind her. “Look, I’m sorry about how I handled the other day. And God, you look like shit.” She continued eyeing me up and down as I massaged my temples. “Yeah, girl, that’s gonna hurt. Anyway, you know how I get when I can’t control things. Crazy. And while I know we needed to save Mason, for which I’m incredibly grateful, the idea of powers randomly surging through my body whenever they want is driving me, well…insane.”
There was no use in fighting. They weren’t going to leave.
“You do know it’s only 6:30 in the morning, right?” My throat was as dry as sandpaper and my voice sounded like I was talking through some kind of electronic box. And did I mention my head was throbbing? It was just too early for this. But whatever.
Cassie handed me a cup of coffee.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Sure. You know, this thing with The Four Maidens, it’s serious.”
“You’re right. I was wrong,” I said, my voice still scratchy. “The spell I unleashed to save Mason triggered Lilith.”
“Yeah. We figured,” Josie said.
We all climbed into my bed. The funny thing is, if I was them, I probably would have run for the hills. But they didn’t. They were still here, despite me being an ass and the end of the world.
“It’s all connected.” Cassie cast a spell and my room was full of opened books on the bed, the floor, and my desk.
“Wow,” I said, impressed and overwhelmed. It didn’t matter. I needed to listen to what they had to say without reacting. Even if was the crack of dawn.
“First things first.” Josie bounced on the bed. “What’s the dealio with Kai?”
After my fiasco last night, I should have known it was coming. I sighed. “We’re just friends.”
“Uh-huh,” Josie teased.
“No. Really. We talked. He knows about the Garden of Eden. Me. Lilith. Him as Adam and Jake as Gadreel.”
“And?”
“And…nothing.” I took a sip of my coffee. “He said Jake and I were made from the same soul. Twin flames or something like that. And that was it. He brought me home. Well, after I puked my guts out on the side of the road.”
“And that’s it?” Josie asked.
“I swear nothing happened.”
“You know he’s got it bad for you,” Cassie said.
I stayed quiet. I had already felt bad enough about Lilith taking advantage of him. And bad enough about not knowing what I felt anymore. I didn’t want to talk about it.
“Anyway, what’s the deal with Lilith? Did something go wrong with the unbinding spell?” Cassie asked, concerned.
I couldn’t tell the girls about The Book of the Unnamed. It would completely undo the spell I used to save Mason. I did, however, explain how the unbinding spell she had cast had opened me up to Lilith’s dark power. Which was in some ways true, and probably why Jake placed the binding spell on me in the first place.
Carrying the power of The Book of the Unnamed was only the icing on the cake in releasing her. Regardless, Lilith was back under wraps, I hoped. And I still needed to ascend and find the amulet before I could save Jake.
I gave the girls the shortened version, and swore I wouldn’t do a thing without consulting them first. Despite Jake running out of time.
“Good,” Cassie said. “The powers we’re tapping into, they’re dangerous.”
Cassie read through several references from the book in her lap about The Four Maidens, how they were vessels for the four directions of the winds and the four elements of earth, air, water, and fire. The maidens had been created from clay pots Eve constructed to hold and balance the forces of nature.
She grabbed another book. “Only the Elohim were strong enough to contain the four elements within their bodies of light. Eve had been working with her guardian angel Gadreel to ascend into a god, to sit at his right hand as an Elohim. The Queen of Heaven.”
“What?” I asked confused. “So either I’m the Queen of Hell and Shadows or the Queen of Heaven?” Either way, I should have been shaking in my skin and hiding underneath the bed for the rest of my life. Which version of these stories was right? There were so many.
“Eve was not only the first witch,” Cassie said. “She was the first alchemist.”
Cassie jumped to another book and then another weaving bits and pieces of various entries and stories together.
“Gadreel held The Codex Rose, the spells of the Elohim, for raising an earthly body to the light body of a celestial being. It was the only way that Gadreel and Eve could be together. Unfortunately, the Elohim devised a way to destroy both Eve and Gadreel’s plans for ascending her to his throne. A poisoned apple that was given to her…by Adam. Kai,” Cassie stressed.
“Wait. What?” I said again. “I thought it was Gadreel that had given her the apple.” At least, according to the walls of Alexandria.
“Not according to this. Adam was tricked into poisoning Eve. However, the Elohim hadn’t planned on Gadreel giving up half of his soul to bring her back with a kiss. Their first kiss.”
“Oh my God, it’s so romantic,” Josie cooed.
“Oh my God, it’s so not,” I countered.
“Despite giving Eve half of his soul,” Cassie continued, “Gadreel couldn’t get rid of all of the poison. Darkness took over Eve’s mind, changing her into The Queen of Hell and Shadows. Lilith.”
Chills ran up my spine. The dreams and images of me sucking Kai to death. The images from The Blood Book. The hunger I had been feeling since saving Mason.
“So Lilith is some kind of succubus?”
“Oh, it gets worse,” Josie said.
“Hungry for life, Lilith drained all four maidens of their power, taking the elements for herself. She then drained Adam. That was the day the earth fell into darkness. And that was the day Eve extinguished her own light to save the world.”
“Great,” I said, hanging on to every word with a shallow breath. I had seen my life ended by my own hand, over and over in The Blood Book. Ending myself was not an option. Neither was ending anyone else. There had to be another way of destroying Lilith, without destroying myself. “So, basically, if I don’t get a grip on Lilith, I’ll somehow summon the elements into you guys and then drain you of them.” It sounded way more morbid out loud than it did in my head.
“Bingo,” Josie said, bluntly. “And I for one have things to do like, I don’t know, graduate, plan the school’s next biggest event. Something even bigger than the Homecoming Ball. Become a millionaire. Oh, and have lots and lots of sex with Mason.”
“That’s a lot,” I said, wanting to hurl.
“Don’t knock it,” Josie replied. “The point is I’m way too busy and important to die.”
“There are some things that still don’t make sense.” Cassie flipped through pages as though she was trying to find something. “We know I’m a maiden for air. Josie, the maiden for earth. But whose fire and water?”
My alarm went off. It was already 7:30 a.m. And the girls were already dressed for class. “Crap. I better get moving.”
“The bottom line is we’re in uncharted territory,” Josie said, completely ignoring me.
“We’ll help you get Jake back, but we need to be careful,” Cassie added, also ignoring the fact that I looked like crap, was still in my PJs, and needed to get going. Especially after missing a day of class and training.
“You’re both right,” I sighed. “These books, are they all from the—”
“Library? It’s better if you don’t ask.”
“Right.” I totally und
erstood.
Cassie said another spell and all the books disappeared. “There. I’ve put them all back.” She pulled out a list from her pocket. “Use this. And just promise me you’ll talk to us before you do anything about Jake or use any of the spells you got from Mrs. Ellington’s books. Clearly, they’re powerful.”
If she only knew.
“We want to help. We do,” Cassie stressed again.
“We just don’t want to die in the process,” Josie said, for like the fifth time.
The girls opened the door to leave.
“Woah,” Josie said.
Someone had written SLUT all over my door. I was more pissed than anything. As girls, why do we do that? Tear each other down. What I did was wrong, but had I been a guy putting the moves on two girls, it would have been all pats on the back along with a social status that blinged out the ass.
“They’re just jealous,” Cassie said. She looked down the hall before casting a spell that erased the slur.
“Thanks,” I said still angry.
With a splitting headache from my hangover, I barely got through the morning, let alone training in the afternoon. Based on my performance the previous evening, I was too scared to dare touch a drop of Fallen venom or draw any power from The Book of the Unnamed. The plan was not to do anything that would trigger another outburst from Lilith. Needless to say, without tapping into magic, my performance on the mat was pretty pathetic. And I had the bruises to prove it.
The biggest shock, however, was finding out that Kai had just upped and left.
It was weird sparring without him. So, I asked of his whereabouts. Sister Clara mentioned that he had taken an immediate leave to finish his studies with The Lycans of Anubis and the monks in Budapest. The same place they had sent Cassie’s dad for rehab.
It was double weird not knowing that he was just minutes away fiddling in the bookstore to get it ready for a grand opening.
How could he just leave without saying anything? Not even a text. Then again, why would he after everything I had done? The sting of mortification throbbed through my face. Thinking of kissing Christopher wasn’t helping either.
