Today, I whizzed past the artwork and headed straight toward my father’s cozy office in the second floor of the east wing. The team had dropped me off not an hour ago and headed to their next location. I know Gabe had expected me to argue with him—to fight to be a part of this next demon hunt. But I’d jumped out of the SUV willingly, kissing him on his concerned face before I ran off. My recent episode with my own demon had left me shaken and nervous.
Adam was right. I was a liability.
What I needed now was a good logical conversation with my Nephilim father. Luke knew how to objectively tackle an obstacle. If anyone could figure out how to deal with the demon in my head, it was him. I needed help. I needed my dad.
I turned the corner to his office and breathed with relief when I saw the door already swung wide open. Light streamed from southern windows through the open door frame and onto the faded paisley carpet. Picking up my step, I sprinted into the office with a grin plastered on my face.
But instead of my father, I found his similarly gray-haired sister standing behind his desk with a wastebasket and a file box. She jumped as I screeched to a halt and we stared at each other for a long moment.
“Where’s Luke?” I asked, finally finding my voice. Eyeing the full trashcan in front of her, I rounded the desk. “And what are you doing?”
“Lizzy Redding, you are a twenty-two year-old woman. You don’t need to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” She pressed a hand to her chest and sighed. “You could’ve given me a heart attack.”
I grinned. “Nephilim don’t get heart attacks.”
“I said could’ve.” Her eyes flashed with irritation and affection at the same time. “What are you doing back so early? I thought you were headed to another mission.”
“They dropped me off early,” I said, dropping the wooden box onto an empty window shelf, next to Luke’s brown and wilting spider plant. “They’re headed there now.”
Esther fixed me with her cool blue eyes. I nonchalantly avoided her gaze and stared at the dry brown leaves of Luke’s plants. My aunt was as observant as they came. She couldn’t miss a speck of dirt on the hide of an elephant. I felt her penetrating gaze grow heavy until I nearly burst.
“Are you cleaning Luke’s office?” The words fell out of my mouth. Anything to change the topic. “He’s not going to like that, you know.”
“I know.” She dropped the cardboard box on the floor. It was already halfway full of papers, books, and a few files. “But if I don’t do it now, it’ll be another century before he gets around to it. Some of these things need to be filed away with record keeping. I don’t want that information getting lost.”
I smirked. “Luke says you’re like a mother hen.”
“And he’s a pack rat.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. It matched the other dozen wrinkles forming on her age-spotted face. “It’s been too long since he had someone to look after him. I’m just filling in.”
An awkward silence settled on us as I thought about the last person to look after Luke. That had been my mother, Elizabeth Quinn Redding. She’d run off from her hometown of Hanna, not ten miles from here, and arrived at the manor in the middle of a cold winter’s night. They’d met, fallen in love, and married not long after. Sometime within that same timeline, she’d also been possessed by a demon, gotten pregnant, went back home, and had me. I watched her die in Luke’s arms last fall after I sealed the Hell Gate closed. The memory still replayed in my darkest dreams.
“I’m sorry,” Esther said, placing a warm hand on my arm. “I wasn’t thinking when I said that.”
“It’s okay.” I gave her my cheeriest smile, although it felt fake enough to crack my cheeks. “That’s ancient history.”
She nodded solemnly and dropped her hand, returning to shuffling through some papers in a drawer. I watched her for a moment, appreciating how similar she and my cousin, Raquel, appeared. Same height. Same sharp nose and freckles. I wished I could be with her right now, chasing down another soldier from Hell. The past few months had been some of the hardest and best days of my life. I craved more of that excitement and teamwork.
Esther cleared her throat, drawing my attention. “I take it the reason you’re here and Raquel isn’t is because you had another episode.”
It wasn’t a question. I knew she was too observant for my own good. No use in lying.
“Yeah, this one was worse than the others.” I pulled a pile of papers from her stack and began to slowly sort through them. “My demon is growing stronger. She’s fighting back.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You think she’ll be able to take over?”
“Possibly.” With a sigh, I dropped the paper I’d been reviewing. “Maybe? I don’t know.”
“Have you been practicing your meditations?”
“Everyday.”
“But you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. The entire drive back to the manor these thoughts had been whirling around my head.
“I think more than anything, I’m just afraid,” I told her. “Afraid it’s not enough and that she’s going to get too strong. That I won’t be able to pull her back and one of these days, it’ll be me huddled in the dark reaches of my mind.”
She raised her chin and stared at me down the bridge of her nose. Something like satisfaction flashed in her eyes. “At least you can admit that you’re scared.”
I shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, but it makes me feel weak.”
“Nonsense.” She pushed her long graying hair out of her face. “Those who feel and recognize fear are stronger for it. It is those who reject fear and trample over it who are the fools. Remember that when you decide one day that you’re invincible. It is a healthy dose of fear that keeps us alive, teaches us to treat life with caution. It is what causes us to seek help. I’m glad you were smart enough to seek help.”
The light tinkling of music in the distance caught both of our attentions. It was the way the Nephilim liked to announce the arrival of someone special. A lighthearted little tune, like a jingle played over a TV commercial. Esther perked up to listen, her hands frozen over the trash can.
“Luke’s back with the new researchers.” She quickly set the remaining papers back in their drawers and put the box on the floor. “This can wait. Would you like to come meet them with me?”
My lips managed to curl into a soft smile. “In a minute. I think I need a minute alone before all the madness.”
She nodded her head in understanding. With a pat on my shoulder, she was out the door. I dropped into Luke’s comfy rolling desk chair. It was a dark brown leather, cracked and faded from decades of use, no doubt. Grooves on the armrests gave away the exact location my father’s elbows liked to rest as he sat in this very spot. I ran my fingers over them, wishing he was here so we could talk.
My gaze fell on the wooden box we’d confiscated from the priest. Gabe was sure that Luke would want to have a look at it and discover its mysteries. Part of me stirred at the idea of an ancient angel artifact. Who knew what kind of powers it contained? A book with spells or demon fighting techniques. Or maybe an unbeatable weapon to use against the legions of Hell.
Before I knew it, I’d moved from the chair and toward the window seal. Plucking the box from its spot, I brought it back to the desk and set it carefully in front of me. The wood was stained so dark, it almost appeared black. The symbols along the sides had been roughly gouged into the sides as if with a primitive tool. My fingers trailed the shape of a particular symbol, feeling the sharp turns and corners of the foreign shape.
There was no place for a key. Just the round, jagged clasp that connected the lid to the box. Despite the tiny voice inside my head telling me to keep my hands off, I slowly turned the clasp to the right. A tiny clicking noise inside the box indicated it was unlatched. All its secrets lay just beneath, ready to be exposed...
“Lizzy!”
I jumped at the sound of my name
and looked up to see Luke standing in the doorway. He wore a tired smile that brightened as we locked eyes. Pushing up from his desk, I ran to give him a hug.
“I’ve missed you,” he said as his chin rested on my head. “When Esther said you were back, I had to come find you right away.”
I squeezed him extra hard, grateful he’d returned. “Yeah, I caught her cleaning out your office. I’m afraid you’re going to have to put a lock on this place.”
He loosened his grip and rolled his eyes. “Not even the archangels could keep that woman out of here. I’ve learned to just let her accomplish the task at hand. It’s easier than fighting her.”
I laughed. If I’d learned anything about my aunt in the year or so since I’d met her, that was certainly true.
His blue eyes twinkled as he looked down at me. “Are you ready to go greet the newcomers? You know, I had my doubts, but I think these Australians really know their stuff. They’ve already got a dozen ideas of how to get to work in the lab. They’re going to improve our demon hunting by spades.”
I nodded at him and followed silently out the door of his office. Before he shut it, my gaze fell on the innocent looking box sitting on his desk. Somewhere, inside of me, I felt a sudden and resounding disappointment—as if I’d failed a vital task. I couldn’t tell if that emotion was coming from me...or someone else.
Shaking off the feeling, I let Luke lead me down the hall as he chattered about his visit with the Europeans. He was excited about the year to come and hoped it would be a year to remember. Even though I tried my best to listen, I couldn’t help but feel the opposite of my father. He might want a year to remember, but I certainly didn’t. I’d already experienced the hardest year and half of my life. I certainly didn’t need any more.
But something told me we weren’t in the clear just yet.
Chapter Five
Luke lead the way down a spiral staircase to a portion of the basement separate from the dungeon they’d stuffed me in last summer. Despite the fact that it was well-lit by humming blue sconces on the walls and fluorescent lighting on the ceiling, I shivered and felt the immediate desire to rush back upstairs for air. Underground spaces freaked me out now. I preferred my feet at sea-level, with enough exits to make a getaway, should I ever need it.
“I’ve never been in this part of the basement before,” I told Luke as I eyed the crystal clear glass door in front of us. A high-tech panel with a touch pad hung at chest level next to it.
“Most of our warriors have no interest in the research side of operations.” Luke swiped the screen of the panel and keyed in a code. “I’m not surprised.”
Guilt made me squirm. Nephilim research was one of Luke’s passions. I’d listened to him drone on about tech things that made no sense to me, not bothering to show any interest. I’d behaved like the typical warrior. All about the fight and ignoring everything else. I vowed right then and there to change.
“Besides, before this summer started, our research lab wasn’t anything to boast about,” he added with a shrug. “The Nephilim we brought in recently have carried us into the new millennium. This was just a wooden door with a rusty old lock that didn’t stay shut half the time. They’ve really made us shape up.”
I followed him through the door once it clicked open and into a gigantic room that reached as far as my eyes could see. It was bigger than the ballroom that lay somewhere above our heads. Rows and rows of computers with brilliantly lit screens, stainless steel tables loaded down with various experiments, and a few dozen men and women walked around in white lab coats.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. This was so much more involved than I’d expected. I’d imagined a tiny little room, not much bigger than a closet, stuffed with three scientists and an old-school green screen computer. This was so much bigger, so much better. Like a scene from the super hero movies that Gabe occasionally made us watch together. I scanned the room and tried to soak in as much detail as I could.
“Over here, we’re working on a demon catcher,” Luke said, ushering me toward the nearest table on which a young brunette woman fiddled with a strange looking steel square. She smiled politely at us and returned to her business.
“Oh, and over here, we’ve got grenades.” He held up a smooth silver ball, no bigger than the palm of his hand.
I eyed it cautiously. It didn’t look like any grenade I’d seen.
“It’s completely harmless to humans and Nephilim,” Luke explained. The tenor of his voice rose as his cheeks turned pink with excitement. “It sends out a blast of blessed olive oil. Not enough to do any really damage, but enough to stun the possessed. It’s almost complete. Just a few more bugs to work out. Have to figure out why they keep exploding at random, though.”
With my eyes glued on the offending silver grenade, I took an involuntary step backwards and ran into something hard. With a loud oomph, I rubbed my elbow and turned to see a man standing tall above me. He gave off a golden glow, as if he had lived on the beach all his life, and had long sun-kissed amber hair that fell to his muscular shoulders. Not exactly the kind of person I expected to run into in the manor basement. Light caramel eyes rimmed with dark lashes blinked at me with concern.
“Excuse me, love,” he said in an Australian accent that would’ve had Raquel drooling on the spot. “Didn’t mean to run you over, there.”
“No, it’s my fault. Don’t worry about it.”
His lips melted into a pleasant smile. “American, huh? I didn’t know they grew them so beautiful at Westward Manor.”
Involuntarily, I blushed and waved a hand in front of my face. Good thing Gabe wasn’t here to see that. “Actually, I didn’t grow up here. Lived in Hanna, a little town just a few miles north of here, until last year.”
I wasn’t sure why I was offering that information. Something about the tall, athletic man with a faded denim shirt and worn jeans under his lab coat seemed to instill confidence.
“Oh...” A knowing frown came to his face. “You’re that girl? Gabe’s girl?” He looked to Luke for confirmation.
A blush came to my cheeks again. Being known as Gabe’s girl was just about the best thing anyone could ever call me.
“Yes, sir.” I smiled. “Do you two know each other?”
“Know each other?” He dropped his jaw and jutted out his strong jaw in fake anger. “That Yank’s always been my number one competitor. We’re mortal enemies, you know.”
His exaggerated eyebrow waggle had me giggling behind my hand.
“I may be a lab geek, but that doesn’t mean I take it easy on him in the training ring.” He flexed his arms, the sleeves of his coat straining tight across his biceps. “Just you wait a few days, love. He and I have a date in the ring this week. You’ll be nursing your partner’s pride when I’m done with him. Where is the bugger, anyway?”
I pursed my lips. Hopefully, he and the rest of the team were sound and safe. I hated not being there, among the demon battle. From this distance, I couldn’t protect my partner or my friends. The distance was killing me.
“He’s pursuing another demon case,” Luke interjected for me. I smiled gratefully at him. “We’re still doing clean-up of the ferals who escaped last year’s battle.”
The man’s eyebrows knit together and nodded solemnly. With a quick pat on my shoulder, he frowned. “That was a terrible time. We Aussies were glad to hear of your safety. You’ve got friends around the world, whether you know it or not.”
A surprising well of tears formed in my eyes. I didn’t even know this man a minute ago, but already, he felt like a long-lost big brother.
Blinking away the moisture, I smiled gratefully. “Thank you. But I’m afraid I don’t even know my friend’s name.”
“Noah Brown, at your service.” He waved his hand and bobbed his head in a bow. A mischievous grin tugged at the left side of his mouth. “But don’t think our friendship is going to make a difference for that boy of yours. I still plan on giving your partner a run for his money.”<
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“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” I said with a laugh. “And neither would Gabe. I’m sure of it.”
With a wink, he left us to go sit at a blinking computer with strange symbols on the screen.
“Lizzy.” Luke squeezed my shoulder, an exhausted smile on his face. “Can you believe this? Isn’t it amazing?”
“It really is.”
I scanned over the dozens of different stations, researchers hard at work at each of them. With this much brain power in one room, we could really make a difference out there. No more relying on outdated fighting methods. We could defend the manor better, too. The battle of last summer would be a distance thought, only painful to those of us who lost someone that day.
“Come,” Luke said, pulling on my elbow. “There’s someone else who arrived tonight that you need to meet. I had no idea they’d be coming.”
He led me through the giant room, pausing every few seconds to greet one of the researchers or comment on an invention. I could tell Luke was in his element. Despite his bookish behavior and quiet mannerisms, he was a people person. Having the manor full of Nephilim from all over the world made him giddy with excitement. He could hardly catch a breath between sentences. And introducing me as his daughter seemed to put an extra big smile on his face as we migrated toward the back wall.
“Over there,” he said, pointing to a man and woman surrounding a table.
They were deep in discussion, examining a curved blade with intricate carvings on the handle. She was tall and extremely thin with porcelain skin and long wavy blonde hair. To a human, she appeared to be in her sixties, but for a Nephilim she could well be into her six-hundredth year. Holding herself completely straight, she walked like a queen on parade. A light smile hinted on her thin red lips as she spoke to the man beside her.
He seemed to be of a similar age with an athletic build and broad shoulders in a sports jacket and jeans. He had a pleasant face and a thick brown beard. With his hands stuffed casually in his pockets, he looked out of place next to the elegant woman. Still, she kept one arm looped in his, making it obvious they were together.
Death of a Demon_An Urban Fantasy Romance Page 3
