The Demon-Born Trilogy: (Complete Paranormal Fantasy Series)

by L. C. Hibbett

  We caught sight of two black figures moving along the bar from either end, headed directly toward Jasmine, Elijah, and Megan. Sam crushed my fingers inside his and lurched forward, glaring at Jasmine to grab her attention. Megan spotted them first, and she froze, eyeing the twenty-foot drop into the heaving dance floor. Suddenly the music stopped, and the air was full of water. The wailing of a siren filled the room.

  A flash appeared behind Elijah, Megan, and Jasmine and they were gone. Vanished into the thick air. Lucas skidded to a halt in front of myself and Sam, Brandon two steps behind him. The bottom fell out of my stomach. Sam pulled Lucas against his chest. “Get rid of him, Luc. If the Guardians see him with you—”

  Brandon threw an arm over my shoulder. “Grace, Samuel! Isn’t this insane? I don’t see you for weeks, and I step off the plane an hour ago, and you’re here. You must have flown out before me. Lucas said it was a total last minute thing, what the hell? Athletes are like rock stars these days.”

  My body had turned to stone. Three black figures were closing in on us from different directions. Cool fingers pressed against the nape of my neck and the dance floor vanished, replaced by a damp stairwell beside a worn wooden door. Leadenhall Market, the Dungeon Path gate. Gabriel removed his hand from my neck and stepped back beside a dazed Megan and Elijah.

  Lucas beat his fists against the door. “Send me back.” He turned on Gabriel. “You Demon scum, let me go back and protect him. The Guardians will take him.”

  “Brandon doesn’t even know what we are, Lucas. They won’t bother with him once they sense he’s Human, right?”

  My words incensed him further, and he lunged at Sam, trying to pull the blade from his hand. “Give it to me, Sam. Just let me use the blade. I need to pay the blood tithe to get back in there.”

  Sam grabbed Lucas by the shoulders and held him steady. He gave Gabriel a pleading look. “Brandon’s a nice guy, Gabriel. He has no idea what any of this is about. You know what the Guardians will do with him.”

  Gabriel smashed his palm against the rough brick. “Children. You know not what you are asking of me.”

  Jasmine touched his sleeve with her fingertips. Gabriel let out a groan and vanished, reappearing seconds later with a dazed Brandon. His face was swollen and bloody. He backed away slowly, stumbling on the bottom step of the stairs.

  Gabriel turned to us, one eye on the screen of his mobile phone. “What do you propose I do with him? The Guardians had already taken him, I had no choice but to bring him with me. He has been Demon touched, there is no undoing it. The veil will fall away from his eyes. I can block him, but it will involve replacing all of his memories and giving him a different life.”

  Brandon sprang forward. “Like hell, you will! You’re not messing with my memories, man. Whatever shady crap you guys are involved in, nobody is touching my mind.”

  Gabriel nodded, tapping something on his phone. “Your decision.” He fixed Lucas and Sam with a glare. “Then he goes with you. Henceforth the Human is your responsibility, and what you took from him you shall repay threefold.”

  Gabriel held the phone up to his ear. “Aza. Back gate. Portal.” He paused, listening to her shrill response, and closed his eyes. “I understand, Aza. As you must.”

  The door behind us swung open, and Aza stepped into the dull light of the stairwell. Brandon’s eyes widened. She was even more breathtaking that I had remembered, braided hair coiled around her head, her chocolate skin inked with golden tattoos.

  Gabriel tipped his head in greeting, and she pursed her lips, eyes bright with unshed tears. Her fingers traced over the bricks, playing a silent tune, and a swirling portal appeared where the wall had once stood. Brandon squinted and tugged at his eyelids. I turned to Gabriel. “Where are you taking us?”

  Gabriel gestured to the portal. “To Eve. We need to help her so we can find the missing.”

  I drew my brows together. “Eve is in Shadow Hall, it’s charmed, you can just burst in, you need to go through a gatekeeper to be able to slip in.”

  Gabriel looked at Sam. “Do you possess a key?”

  “Elijah and Jasmine are Gatekeepers.” Sam nodded to the siblings.

  Gabriel tipped his head. “If they lead the way we will be brought directly to Eve.”

  Aza drew close to Gabriel. Her voice was low. “You are certain, Gabriel? This is your choice. You know the price you will have to pay to be free of your duty here.”

  Gabriel’s smile was frayed at the edges. “I will pay. The path chose me, Aza. It is written.” Aza bowed her head, and he embraced her tenderly. She spoke to Sam over Gabriel’s shoulder. “Go, nobody can know my part in this. Much has already been jeopardized.”

  Sam nodded, gesturing for Megan and Elijah to go ahead. I watched them disappear into the void with a pounding heart. Lucas took Brandon’s hand tentatively in his own. “I’m sorry. I will explain everything.”

  Brandon’s expression was hard, but he gripped Lucas tightly as they stepped into the portal. Sam molded his arm to my waist and led me forward. I stopped on the threshold. “Gabriel, you coming with us?”

  Gabriel nodded into Aza’s shoulder. She stroked his hair as she spoke. “I release you from your duty to the Demons of London.”

  In a heartbeat, the knife was in her fingers, and the cup held below it. Gabriel’s blood gushed into the silver goblet and ran in rivers over Aza’s smooth hand. Her face shattered into a thousand creases, each brimming with agony. I leaped toward them, and she threw his limp body into my arms. I fell backward into the portal with Gabriel’s blood on my skin and Sam’s arms still wrapped around my waist.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  “What happened to him?” Jasmine collapsed onto the floor beside Eve’s bed and cradled Gabriel’s head in her lap. Blood dripped from his abdomen and ran across the wooden floorboard, pooling underneath the window. I pressed my hands over my mouth.

  Brandon sprang into action. “Lucas! Get me towels. Megan, I need a belt or a long strip of fabric. Jasmine, you need to keep pressure on that wound. Raise his legs, Elijah, put those pillows under his butt. Damn it, dude, move.” He peeled Gabriel’s shirt away from the wound. “Sam, get your phone out. We need an ambulance.”

  Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me to Eve’s bedside. She was still lying on her back, chest rising and falling evenly. Sam squeezed my fingers. “You have to wake her, Grace. She’s his only chance.”

  I reached out and shook Eve, but there wasn’t even a flicker in response.

  “I can’t, Sam. The charms. I can’t undo them. I don’t know how.”

  Jasmine wrapped her fingers around my ankle. “Please, Grace. Try.”

  I clenched my teeth together and opened my mind, seeking Eve’s essence. The emotion in the room smashed into me, and I gripped onto the bedpost to steady myself, focusing on the faint pulsing of Eve’s energy. I sucked air into my lungs. Pain. So much. And guilt. And fear. But not for herself. I called out to her. Eve, come back, I’m so sorry. No response.

  My brow creased in frustration. “I can’t do it, Sam. She isn’t hearing me.”

  I tried again, thrusting myself into her consciousness but I couldn’t burst through. Tears of desperation stung my eyes, and I lashed myself at the barrier, one final time. As I struggled forward, Sam touched my skin and a flare of energy united with my own, ripping through the barrier in a blaze of light.

  Eve’s eyes flew open, and she drew in a shuddering breath. “Grace. Gabriel.”

  I pressed my face against her shoulder. “Eve! Eve, I am so sorry.”

  “It’s I who should apologize, Grace. A thousand times over. I should have trusted you with the truth. I was a coward.” She cupped my face in her hands. I shook my head, crushing my lips together and standing aside to let Eve tend to Gabriel. Brandon kneeled back and relinquished control, his fine black eyebrows arched high. Eve stroked Gabriel’s lifeless face. His lips were a deathly shade of gray and his breath was ragged. Eve’s voice was strained. “Gabrie
l. Don’t you dare let me down again, old man.”

  She closed her eyes and lifted her face up to the sky. Her lips were still, but every inch of her body appeared to be begging favor. It was as close to true prayer as I had ever seen. The skin on Gabriel’s abdomen began to heal, the wide gash knitting together effortlessly. Brandon bent closer and examined the skin in wonder. Gabriel’s eyelashes fluttered. “This is awkward, kid, but I’m afraid you’re not my type.”

  Brandon moved back and grinned. “No worries, the exception to prove the rule, right?”

  Gabriel’s lips curved upward, and he pulled his eyelids open with effort. “You are certainly turning out to be that, Human.”

  Jasmine smiled down at Gabriel, and he wiped a tear from her cheek with limp fingers. “Yes. Quite the group of exceptions.”

  He grunted and pushed himself into a seated position, coming face to face with Eve. She screwed her eyes shut and covered her face with her hands. Gabriel threw his arms around her and cradled her against his chest. “You’re all right, my girl. It’s all going to be fine.”

  A tiny part of my brain twisted at the sight of this beautiful boy comforting a woman old enough to be his mother. Consoling her like she was a small child. But my soul could look deeper than the eye. All it saw was love. I let Sam support me in his arms, pressing my ear against his chest to listen to the rhythm of his heart. His energy called to me. My heart. My heart.

  Eve dabbed at her cheeks with the hem of her dress. “You're here.”

  Gabriel’s eyes were a well of sorrow. “I should have gotten here sooner. Elizabeth sent Mathas to me, to let me know you were with the Shadows, but the message didn’t reach me until after your waif had left the dungeon.” He tilted his head in my direction, and I grinned.

  “You let her come to harm, Gabriel. And you never came for us.” Eve’s voice was frail enough to shatter in a breeze.

  “There was no real danger to Grace, I would never do that, Eve. And I tried to get to you, but everything was a mess. The London Demons are in turmoil, it was like every step I took somebody was two paces ahead of me.”

  Eve nodded. “They’re here, Gabriel. They found us. Emmanuel gave me your message about the children, they’re special. They have the ancient powers.”

  Gabriel nodded, his face grim. “Yes. We suspected as much for a while. Elizabeth has sensed a Seer. There is something afoot, a change. If we had more time.”

  My chest tightened again, the sense of urgency building like a hurricane. I flew across the room and rifled through Eve’s desk drawer, unearthing the small gilt-edged card. “It’s him, isn’t it. He has them. He’s the one who wants us. He’s one of those Brothers that Gabriel told us about, or their servant?”

  Eve took the card from my hand and ran her finger along the edge. “I believe he is. I suspected - believed - it was Emmanuel.” She looked down at her hands. “I used blood magic to make him speak truth, but his heart was pure. He felt it, the darkness in this house. Cain and Jabol, too. They felt its pull.”

  Jasmine’s face was as white as the sheet on Eve’s bed. “Who, Grace? Who has Cain?”

  I flinched, unwilling to speak the words, and handed her the small card. She turned it over in her delicate hand and read the words aloud. “With thanks, Peter.”

  Sometimes truth arrives like a tsunami, and sometimes it appears in a whisper, a secret your heart already knew. Jasmine bowed her head, and Elijah fell onto the floor beside her, pressing his skull against hers. Eve’s voice was heavy with a thousand sorrows. “I’m sorry, children. I wish it wasn’t your family.”

  Jasmine lifted her chin and pushed her shoulders back. “You have no apologizing to do. Blood doesn’t make a family.” She pressed her hands against the floor and leaped to her feet. “Now, where the hell has he put the others? We need to get our real family back.”

  Gabriel stared at her with eyes full of light before striding over to the writing desk. Everyone crowded around the table. “Okay, first things first, are we confident that we have the right man?”

  Eve’s lips thinned. “I’ve monitored every adult and child in residence. He is the only one, besides Emmanuel, who leaves regularly. He has a fixated interest in the Demon-Born children. His behavior was unusual on the night of the New York attack, he had no desire to assist the other cell, tried to sabotage our attempts to assist, even. At the time I thought it was fear...”

  I bit my lip and stared down at the wood. “My keeper. The first day I talked to him that’s how he referred to you. Not my foster mother or my mother. My keeper. And the cards. Are they like the ones you used to get in London?”

  Eve grimaced and nodded. “Identical. Down to the gilded border.”

  Sam inhaled sharply. “Is that why those Demons were outside the theater today? Were they waiting for him? Could they have been working with Peter, Gabriel?”

  “Fergus and Lara? That makes no sense, all contact regarding the Demon-Born was to go through me, I was second in command.” Gabriel glared out the window. “Unless Niamh was keeping something from me.” He fell silent.

  Jasmine shuffled on the spot. “Peter walks with a cane, too.” Megan raised an eyebrow at Lucas and Elijah, clearly baffled by the conversation. Jasmine blushed. “Gabriel told us about Eve’s father. He was a Spirit-Eater. He walked with a stick. I know the cane thing is stupid.” She glanced at Gabriel.

  His face darkened. “Have you a photograph of this man?”

  Elijah pulled out his phone and began to flick through his photo gallery. Jasmine touched Gabriel’s sleeve. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that I thought it was him. I thought the cane might be a weapon the Brothers use or a magic implement. Peter is only barely older than Eve.”

  “These are not ordinary men, these Spirit-Eaters. That much we know,” Gabriel said. Elijah handed Gabriel the phone. “Gods. It’s him. Charles.”

  Gabriel’s face was entirely drained of color as he glanced at Eve. She leaned over the desk and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, her glare cut through the room. “We need to find the others. This is no coincidence. We are playing his game, all of us. We need to take the pieces off the chessboard.”

  Sam touched my cheek. “I think that Grace can find them.”

  Gabriel set his jaw. “Do it.”

  Eve pulled open the window and touched my shoulder. I let my mind float above the house, inhaling the fresh Atlantic air rolling in through the open window. She waved the others away, forcing them to perch on the sides of her bed like oversized garden gnomes. Brandon’s whisper hit my eardrums like a shout. “What is she? A seer?”

  Lizzie’s voice tickled my memory. Whatever you are, mystery girl, you aren’t my seer. My energy fluttered on the breeze and carried over the rooftops. I pressed my palms against my heart. Fear, panic, terror. The main floor of the house was flooded with Spirit Demons, writhing around the chapel walls like a ravenous fog.

  My skin prickled as I burst through them, trying to sense Cat and Dawn in the crowded hall. Fear, love, courage, weariness. Flashes of energy stabbed me, but none belonged to my sister or niece. I tried to slip away, but something had gripped me. I recoiled from the dark taste of greed, struggling to free myself. My body convulsed, shaking my soul loose and sending it soaring above the house.

  That’s where I found her. Sweet and pure as the first moment she tore into this world. Dawn. Her energy wound itself around me, and we plummeted back into Eve’s bedroom. My eyelids exploded open, and I doubled over, drawing breath into my lungs with a ferocity born of desperation.

  “They’re here.”

  The words were threadbare, savaged by my anxiety.

  Sam bolted past Eve and kneeled before me. “Who, Grace? Who’s here? Cain?” He braced himself. “Or the Spirit Demons?”

  I pressed my fingers against his lips. “Both.”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Dread and hope twisted across Sam’s face like oil mixed with water. Megan was the first to regain her composure, reac
hing my side a split second before Gabriel and Eve. “Where are they? Is everyone else safe? Have the Spirits got hold of anyone?”

  I held my hands up in an attempt to shield myself from the avalanche of questions gushing from Megan’s mouth. “Your dad and Mark are in the chapel, Megan. The Spirit Demons haven’t breached it. The others are right here.”

  Megan cast a suspicious glance around the room, and Lucas eased the wardrobe door open, peering inside. I shook my head and walked to the bedroom I shared with Cat and Dawn. I faced the empty space against the outside wall. “He’s blocked them in. Made one of those barriers that Ozzie made the night of the New York attack.”

  Eve pulled closer and ran her hand over the smooth plaster. Sam knocked on the brick. He turned to Elijah and Megan. “I can’t feel anything. Can you?” He met my eye. “You sure they’re here, Gracie?”

  I pushed past his doubt and fear, let my mind feel the buzzing energy of the concealed space. I shoved against it with all my strength. The wall trembled but didn’t fall. I tried again, clenching my teeth in frustration. Eve stood beside me and wound her fingers between mine. She gestured at Sam to take my other hand. “A chain. It’s one of the things I learned from Gabriel’s books. A technique they used during the Spirit-War. If our bodies are connected, then we can combine our power, funnel it from a single point. Sam and I will send our power to you, Grace, and you use it to break the barrier.”

  I grasped their hands and let the energy flow through me, merging with mine in a rush of light that struck the barrier and shattered it into a thousand pieces. Cain rose from the debris like a god of old, child in his arms and a fearsome goddess at his side.

  “Catherine, Dawn!” Cat let me envelop her in an embrace. She ground her face into my shoulder.

  “It was my turn to frighten the crap out of you, Gracie.”

  I lifted her off the ground and swung her around like a ragdoll, sweeping Dawn and Eve into our hug as I turned. Dawn slithered from my grasp and whistled for attention. Brandon smirked and patted her shoulder. She turned her crystal gaze in his direction. “Brandon, you’re here already. That was quick.”