“Now?” If I had butterflies before, it was nothing compared to the hailstorm that was taking place in my belly. “Isn’t that a bit rushed?”
He raised his eyebrows. “It’s now or never.”
“You’re not going anywhere without me.” Ashley abandoned the pouting. Her face settled into a fierce scowl that would’ve intimidated me weeks ago. “If you’re going against Margaret, you’re going to need help.”
I wasn’t going to deny that having another warrior around would be for the best. If only it didn’t have to be Ashley. But if Gabe was going to stay in the dark, then I had to let her in.
“Fine. Let’s go,” I said, before I could talk myself out of listening to Adam’s guilt trip.
Maybe this was the kind of plan we needed. Simple and clean. I was the bait and Ashley and Adam would take her down. Done and over.
Adam shook his head and gave me a toothy smile. “Big brother isn’t going to like this…”
An hour later, we had snuck away from the manor and into the northern forest. Adam had assured me that the patrol would’ve already changed at the Hell Gate, and that we wouldn’t be spotted. The plan was to go as far north as my favorite stream and wait for Margaret. If she showed, Adam and Ashley would take her out. If she didn’t, we’d try again tomorrow night.
The nagging feeling that I was crazy for putting my life in the hands of the man who had just tried to kill me a few weeks ago wouldn’t go away. So, I focused on the dark forest and the silver tipped dagger in my pocket. Ashley and Adam had lined themselves with weapons – swords, dagger, a crossbow, and a handgun. I didn’t feel safe using them yet, so I stuck with the dagger.
During my training, Gabe had explained the use of silver on all the weapons. He said it was the only metal that could actually kill a demon. Iron, gold, nickel – anything else, was useless. The purity of the silver was combined with a blessing ritual that the elders did on all the Nephilim weapons. Cut off a demon’s head or stab it in the heart, and it would sink back to Hell.
“End of the line, folks,” Ashley said.
I squinted my eyes past the light of my flashlight. The creek flowed twenty feet ahead of us, lit up by the brilliant full moon that shined through the needles of the pines. It was here that I’d rescued Gabe and this whole thing started. If it ended here, I’d be more than happy.
“She’s got to be here,” I whispered, clutching the dagger in my pocket.
Adam pulled his sword out of its sheath and clicked his tongue. “How about you call for her and we’ll wait in the dark? If she shows up, we’ll have the element of surprise.”
I waited until they had disappeared in the shadows of the ponderosa pine and then scanned the forest with my flashlight. Tiny eyes flashed in the light. Probably raccoons and possums scrambling in the dark. Nothing big enough to threaten me. I took a deep breath and rolled my shoulders. Now was the time.
“You want me, come get me,” I yelled into the dark. It felt a little silly to be talking to no one, but I kept going. “Come on, Margaret Thatcher. That’s right, I know your real name now. Come out and play.”
Five minutes of shouting into the dark hadn’t produced more than an agitated flurry of bats through the trees. I was beginning to lose hope when a branch broke behind me. With the beam of my flashlight, I lit up the woods and screeched. The goddess was standing on two feet in a gap between two pine trees, her eyes reflecting the flashlight like a cat. She bared her teeth and hissed.
Now that I knew who she was, I could pick up the resemblance. Her skull, which I’d first thought was bald, still had a few strands of long blonde hair clinging to the shrunken scalp. She looked stronger than the last time I’d seen her. Muscles tensed along her arms and thighs. Her cheekbones were high and dignified under the paper-thin skin. But that was where the humanity ended. Margaret Thatcher was no more.
“You’ve been attacking people I care about,” I said with a tremble. “I’ve come to stop you.”
She tilted her head like she could understand what I was saying and leered at me.
“You’re not going to take me alive.” I took the dagger out of my pocket and unsheathed it, letting the silver glint in the yellow glow of the flashlight.
Margaret took a big step forward and crouched down. I was hoping that Adam and Ashley would’ve attacked by now, but the woods were silent. No help came.
With a jolt, I realized they might not help me after all. If Margaret took me away, the attacks on the Nephilim would stop. They didn’t have to risk their lives. Two of their problems would be gone at the same time. Two birds, one stone. I had let Adam manipulate me into following his plan, once again proving that I wasn’t capable of controlling my own life.
Desperation clutched at my chest and spilled over into my nerve endings. I’d seen Gabe and Margaret fight the first time she came for me. There was no way I could match her strength or speed. If I was lucky, I’d get one shot at this before she ripped the dagger from my hands and took me away.
“Alright, demon. Come get me.”
In less than a millisecond, she rushed me and clasped a cold and bony hand around my wrist. I yanked her down with my other arm and caught her off guard. She tripped over my hand and landed on all fours on the ground next to me. I watched in horror as her head spun a hundred and eighty degrees on her neck with a sick pop. She gave me a rotten smile and growled.
Shaking off the horror that had frozen my limbs, I gripped the dagger tighter. This was my chance. But before I could bury it in her torso, she darted five feet away and righted herself on two feet. Too far away to reach. My eyes trailed up her sickly thin figure to her face. An evil gleam in her eyes told me that she had claimed me as hers. She’d never stop coming for me.
A swinging blade caught the silvery light of the moon. The sword pierced the demon’s back and came out the other side. For a shocking moment, Margaret stood there like a skewered piece of meat. Then, she clasped the blade with her hand and snapped it in two, black blood oozing down her bare chest.
At the same time as Ashley stepped from behind the tree next to Margaret, Adam rushed forward with the crossbow and launched an arrow at the demon. She twisted, the arrow sailing over her shoulder. Ashley pulled a dagger from the sheath in her boot and yelled at me to hide. I couldn’t move, even if I wanted to – my feet had turned into stumps.
With a guttural shout, Adam lunged at the demon with his sword. She managed to sidestep his blade to the right and swiped at him with her lethal claws. In a blur, all three tumbled over the ground. Grunts of pain and flashes of silver were all I could see.
As fast as it had started, the fight ended. Margaret stood on the other side of the creek, her eyes gleaming with hate and black blood oozing from multiple gashes on her body. In a flash, she was gone, taking off through the dark woods.
I looked back at the scene in front of me and gasped. Ashley had fallen to her knees with her hands pressed to her throat. A waterfall of blood poured between her fingers. Adam dropped to the ground next to her and tore off his shirt, revealing a muscular torso and a tattoo that looked similar to Gabe’s.
“Hold this to her neck to stop the bleeding,” he ordered.
I took the t-shirt from him and forced Ashley to drop her hands. A jagged mark had been torn into the flesh at the base of her neck. It looked like she’d been attacked by a wolf. I swallowed the nausea that welled up in my stomach and pressed the damp t-shirt to her neck.
Adam swept Ashley up and began jogging through the trees. I did my best to keep the t-shirt pressed to her neck, but the bouncing of his run wasn’t making it any easier. At this rate, she would never survive. Margaret had run off to nurse her injuries. There was no more threat to me here.
“Go,” I panted. “Just go without me. I can’t run that fast and she won’t survive. Go.”
He frowned at me for a second, a look that I realized was very similar to his brother’s. Then, without a word, he disappeared into the trees with her. I was left holdin
g the rag in my hands with Ashley’s blood dripping down my arms in grizzly dark red lines.
If she survived tonight, I’d never complain about her rude comments again, I promised myself. I’d even let her call me a filthy human again. If only she wouldn’t die.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I stood in front of the door to room 225, not even caring how late it was. Anywhere was better than that sick room with Ashley lying on the bed, stitches holding the thin fabric of her skin together. They’d told me she’d be okay, but that didn’t stop my hands from shaking or the sudden need to see him. All I could do was knock on his door and hope he would answer.
It didn’t take long for the door to swing open and Gabe to appear from the dark shadows of his room. He was dressed in soft blue pajama pants and nothing else. I ran my eyes up his muscular abdomen, not sure whether it was the aftershock of the attack or something else driving shivers up my back. The sleepy look on his face quickly turned to alarm as he scanned me over and turned on the light.
“God, Lizzy, what happened?”
I looked down and realized I’d forgotten to change out of the blood soaked jeans and t-shirt I’d worn into the forest. At the sight of Ashley’s blood, tears began to pool in my eyes and spill onto my cheek.
“I’m so sorry for waking you, but I had to see you.” I brushed past him and into his room.
Only a single queen sized bed took up one side of the floor. Across from it was an armoire and a desk. Pencil sketches lined the walls. There were intricate drawings of bears, elk, and landscapes. Amongst them, I recognized pictures of Luke and Adam and other Nephilim.
Taped on the front of the armoire were three drawings that captured my immediate attention. One was of a girl tied to a tree with a raging fire burning around her feet. The second was a girl standing between two pine trees, getting ready to flee. The third was a close up of my face.
Gabe still stood near the door. I knew he wanted to know what was going on, but I wasn’t ready to talk about tonight, so I zeroed in on the pictures.
“Did you draw these?” I stepped closer to them. Every detail, down to the faint freckles on my nose, had been drawn with absolute precision. They were beautifully done by a master of the art.
There was a long moment of silence in which I was sure he was contemplating whether to grab me by the shoulders and make me tell him what happened, or to answer my questions. The long slow breath he let out told me that he would play my game for another few seconds.
“Yes.” I felt him move next to me, scanning me for signs of injury. “Drawing helps me think through problems or find answers to questions. It’s kind of therapeutic.”
I gestured to his drawings of me. “What questions were you working through when you drew these?”
He was silent for so long, I almost thought he’d gone. When I tore my eyes away from the drawings, I found him looking at me with concern in his eyes.
“I was working through…” he turned back to the drawings and pressed a hand to the armoire, “…questions about you, I guess. I drew this one the first day I saw you in the woods. The way you stared at me, it was like you could see right through me. Part of me thought you were a deceiver, but in my soul I knew that wasn’t true. Drawing you helped me figure that out.”
My eyes followed his lips as he talked. He looked back at me and his eyes trailed the spray of blood down my shirt.
“What happened tonight?”
My stomach hardened. I wasn’t ready to talk about that just yet.
“And the drawing about the pyre, what was that about?” The question tumbled out of my mouth in one jumbled breath.
Gabe’s eyes narrowed and he moved closer until only inches separated our bodies. His arm bumped up against mine, sending a thrill through me.
“I was trying to understand what made me turn around that night.” His voice was raspy and full of emotion. “I’d already made it halfway to the manor when I got the feeling you were in trouble. If I’d waited another minute, you would’ve been taken by the demon.”
He turned and took my shoulders in his hands. “Tell me what happened tonight. Why are you soaked in blood?”
“Ashley…” I took a shuddering breath and bit my lip to keep the tears from coming. “Adam and I went ahead with the plan, using me as bait. We went into the woods to look for the demon. Ashley, Adam, and me.”
He cursed and his grip tightened on my shoulders. “I’m going to kill Adam.”
I shook my head. “Please don’t be mad at him. We were all stupid. We went out there and Margaret did come. She tried to take me. Ashley and Adam fought her off, but Ashley got hurt.”
My voice broke and I hung my head. So much for no one else getting hurt. We’d taken things into our own hands and still made a mess.
Gabe’s voice softened. “Is she okay?”
“Yeah, they said she’d be okay eventually.”
I turned my face away and stared at the last drawing – the close up of my face. Gabe’s hands fell to his side, but I could still feel him watching me.
“Tell me about this last drawing.”
He shifted his weight and drew in a long breath.
“This was from the meeting with the board.”
That night had been such a shock for me. I was surprised to see his drawing didn’t show a deer-in-the-headlights expression on my face. Instead, he’d given me a soft smile that lit up my eyes.
“And what did you learn?”
He cupped my chin with the palm of his hand, sending a shiver down my spine. I turned my head to look at him and found myself staring into his smoldering green eyes. He had the same dangerous look on his face as he had in the training facility this morning. It was the kind of look that made heat rise in my belly.
His thumb caressed the corner of my mouth before he whispered, “I learned that I wanted to do this.”
Leaning into me, he pressed his lips softly against mine. It only took me a second to get over the shock. My body reacted to his, my mouth meeting his with a hunger that threatened to drive me mad. I parted my lips and gasped as his tongue entered my mouth. He tasted like sweet wine and mint.
Running my hands up his neck, I pulled him closer, our kisses growing more urgent. He obliged with a moan and pressed me hard against the armoire. My mind ran wild with desire. I pictured him planting kisses down my body and touching me in every place imaginable. I wanted to taste the salty skin of his abdomen, discover every plane of his beautiful body with my tongue.
As if he could read my mind, his hands moved to my buttocks and he lifted me so that I could wrap my legs tight around his torso. He pulled me away from the armoire and carried me to the unmade bed on the other side of the room. We landed hard on the mattress and he tore at my shirt, yanking it over my head in one smooth motion.
I moaned as his kisses trailed along my jawline and moved to my earlobe. He didn’t stay there long. Continuing down my neck and to my collarbone, he finally paused above my bra. The wait was torture. I dug my nails into his back and willed him to keep going.
“Don’t stop,” I panted.
He gave a helpless sigh and then pressed his lips to the crest of my breasts. I arched my back to meet him, giving him all of me. I suddenly realized this is what I’d so desperately wanted to do with him since I first saw him in the forest. He was the only one that could put out this fire that had built up inside me.
I hooked my leg around his thigh and pushed him to the bed next to me. In one swift movement, I was on top. Bringing my lips to his, he kissed me deeply until my head spun. Without another thought, my lips moved down his neck and to his chest, paying extra attention to the skin around his tattoo and his muscular stomach. The way he groaned as my tongue trailed lower intoxicated me. I’d never done anything like this, but I didn’t want to stop.
“I’m glad we made it in time for the show.”
My head snapped up and that’s when I saw Adam and Luke standing in the doorway. Adam was wearing his ridiculously
cocky grin that stretched from ear to ear. He leaned casually on the door frame, his arms crossed in front of his chest. Luke stood two steps behind him, his face white as a sheet. He worked his jaw like he wanted to say something, but no words came out.
Gabe swore and tossed the rumpled sheet over my chest, nearly throwing me to the ground. He shot from the bed like a bat out of a cave and put at least five feet of distance between us. I covered my bra with the sheet and closed my eyes.
Maybe when I opened them again, this embarrassment would all be gone. My long lost father wouldn’t have walked in on us with Gabe’s annoying little brother, and all would be right in the world. But when I opened my eyes, they were still there.
“There’s been another attack.” Adam uncrossed his arm and swept into the room, perching himself on the edge of the desk. “An hour after your demon attacked us, she went after one of the Hell Gate patrols. They fought her off, but the board wants to have an emergency strategy meeting. We were just on the way.”
Another attack? Margaret was getting too bold. She should’ve been hiding somewhere, licking her wounds.
“I’m going.” I wrapped the sheet around my torso and stood up. “I need to be there.”
“No, you’ve done enough of your own strategizing tonight,” Gabe said without meeting my eye. He opened the armoire and pulled two t-shirts out. Throwing one to me, he pulled the other over his head. “We’ll fill you in tomorrow.”
So, suddenly I was useless? If that’s what I got for making out with a guy, I didn’t want to repeat that episode ever again.
“Adam went into the woods with me and he’s going to the meeting.” I pulled the soft white t-shirt over my head and threw aside the sheet. It would be a lot easier to argue when I didn’t feel so naked.
“Lizzy,” Luke finally found his voice and stepped in the room, “you’ve done enough tonight. The best thing for you to do is get some rest. Adam is an experienced warrior and will need to attend.”
I wanted to wipe the cocky smirk right off Adam’s face, but I settled for grabbing Gabe’s arm before he walked out the door.
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