Unholy Heist (Lucifer Case Files Book 5)

by Thomas Green

  I tabbed to contacts and found Lillith’s number. Before I pressed call, I realized I didn’t know what I would say. I didn’t even know if she had found the book or not.

  I reached my car, sat, and started the internet browser. There, I navigated to Churchbook, and checked Lillith’s profile to see if she posted something about the book into her feed.

  There was nothing about that, but she was just uploading a picture of a hotel room. The tagged location was from New York. Frowning, I scrolled through her page to see they were having a school trip to New York.

  All right. I was going to resolve the vampire thing with Vivian, put on a clean suit, swallow a pocketful of painkillers, and go see Lillith in person.

  I turned the key in ignition and drove to the abbey.

  Sun had almost set when I parked in front of the surrounding park. I stumbled out of my car, checking the ruby amulet was indeed in my pocket, and walked into the abbey.

  Vivian sat on the altar, legs crossed, heels dangling in the air. She smiled as I entered. “You look like your team didn’t do much.”

  That got a smile out of me. I limped toward the altar and pulled the amulet from my pocket to let her see.

  Her eyes sparked and she leapt off the altar. “Put it on me,” she almost shouted due to excitement. She turned and moved her hair to show her bare neck.

  I walked to her, focusing to stand straight. Clumsily, I put the necklace around her neck, and closed the seal on the chain. She whirled and kissed me, pressing herself against me, lips searing hot.

  All my muscles unclenched, relaxing into the kiss.

  My aether defenses shattered and pain exploded from my chest. Vivian’s dagger pierced my shields as if they were made of paper and the blade dug into my heart.

  Shit. Panic flooded my veins, and I tried to detach from the kiss. But with the dagger in my heart, I couldn’t mold aether, so I couldn’t overpower her.

  Slowly, she withdrew her lips from mine, holding me by the nape. Her expression as compassionate, sad. “Lucas, you know I love you.” She leaned to my ear. “But Sayf was my son.” Fangs snapped out of her gums, and she bit my throat, sucking in my blood together with my aether.

  I couldn’t move and my consciousness was quickly fading. Okay, what tricks could I use? The only one I could think of was an imitation of Lucifer’s self-explosion. Yeah, I could do that, to funnel all aether I could into me and have it explode outward.

  I pulled on my power but stopped. I didn’t know how large the explosion would be. For all I knew, that move could easily level New York to the ground. And that would kill both Katherine and Lillith. I couldn’t do that.

  I ejected my spirit from my body. But the pain didn’t stop. Where she stabbed me, my spirit had a gaping hole, aether pouring out. And worse, the anchor connecting my body to my soul chamber was fading quickly.

  I looked around, panicked, not having any idea how to stop her.

  A spirit rose from Vivian’s body, strings stretching from its hand to keep controlling the body. The spirit looked just like the real Vivian, except this one had a choker with the ruby at the center. She smiled. “For killing my son, I would normally want way more than to just kill you…” she traced the ruby with her slender fingers. “But since you have freed me from Lucielle, I will stop at that. Oh, and by the way, you are fired.” Seductively, she blew me a kiss.

  I realized what she meant and bolted toward the sky to get into my soul chamber. I could not stop her from killing me, but at least I could preserve my memories and the souls I have collected.

  The soul anchor vanished as Vivian finished drinking all my aether. I continued in the direction, rapidly losing strength. My soul chamber was already rising from the others, drifting toward the Void. I thought death would be slower. Hell, I didn’t even have the time to appreciate how well she played me, creating and directing vampire thralls to hunt me until she could manipulate me to steal from Lucielle the artifact she needed.

  I focused, and with the last of my strength, I teleported into my soul chamber. My physical body died, and I lost consciousness, drifting into the emptiness of death.

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