Darkness in the Blood (Gifted Blood Trilogy)

by Vicki Keire

Fingers traced their way down through my hair all the way along my jaw line. I became aware of another arm, steady and warm, cradling my upper body across crossed legs. “Hey there,” Ethan said quietly. He pulled his black leather jacket, a gift from another life, tighter around me as I lay sprawled across his lap. “Are you back with us?”

  I dared to open my eyes a crack. He needed a haircut. His dark brown hair framed his face in crazy rumpled waves. Gold highlights refracted the sunlight. “That depends,” I croaked, surprised by how dry and rough my throat felt. I reached a hand up towards his face. Ethan grabbed it like I’d thrown him a lifeline and stared at me with very worried eyes. I felt like I’d spent too much time in the dentist’s chair, hooked up to the laughing gas. “Is anyone going to try to kidnap me in the next few minutes?”

  He smoothed my hair out of my eyes. “Why don’t you tell me where you heard that name,” he leaned really, really close. “Belial,” he barely whispered. “Try to remember, Caspia. It’s really important.”

  I touched my forehead to his. He filled up my entire world: sight, smell, even the sound of his winded breathing. “There’s so much,” I said softly. “Dr. Christian was taking me to him. And last night, the boy from my dreams tried to warn me that ‘he’ had agents looking for me.” Ethan looked very unhappy when I said that. Great. “There’s a lot I don’t know: about Belial, and Azazel, and some kind of sword.” Ethan had gone completely rigid. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me there had been a war? That your kind killed my kind long ago, and that we were abominations and monsters and the reason for humanity’s near-destruction?”

  He jerked back like he’d been electrocuted. He went as pale as alabaster, as pale as Asheroth. “Who told you that?” he demanded.

  “I saw it,” I whispered. “Dr. Christian showed us. He had paintings. One woman,” I choked. I couldn’t help it. “One woman was about to get her head cut off. She had Shadows painted across her hands. She looked just like me.” He looked as if I’d stuck a knife in him. “The angel was beautiful. He had a bloody sword. His wings were sheer Light; radiant and perfect, not like feathers at all.”

  His jaw tightened, and he looked away. “I’ve never wanted to kill someone so much as I do right now,” he said so softly I had to strain to hear him.

  “It’s ok,” I said, reaching for him. “I think Dr. Christian’s gone. At least for now.” But Ethan just looked at me, blank and lost and tortured.

  “…not breathing, you loosen tight clothing and clear airways. Jesus, Becca!”

  Oh, hell. I dragged the jacket over my head, blocking all light. I wished I could add soundproof to demon-repellant on the list of Ethan’s jacket’s amazing abilities. I was completely clothed. My shirt, however, had been opened in a hurry. Buttons were missing, but nothing that should make a sane girlfriend mad.

  “Shh, it’s ok,” Ethan said, rubbing my back. “You weren’t breathing.” His shaking hands clenched. “If that…person…hadn’t been here, I don’t know what might have…well.”

  I tried to think of a way to phrase it: Ethan, he smelled blood on me somehow, managed to resist Dr. Christian, and I think he knocked me out of his arms. Oh, and I’m pretty sure he’s not human. How’s that for complicated feelings towards a rescue? Instead, I just said, “His girlfriend’s a real bitch.” I inched the jacket down to just below my nose and wrinkled it at him. “Not that I mind being in your lap,” I added quickly. As I’d hoped, Ethan smiled a little. Deep lines of worry marked his forehead and mouth, though, and his hold on me was a bit too possessive to be anything but fearful.

  “How long have you been holding on to this information, Caspia?” he asked, watching me with the predatory attention Abigail paid to untied bathrobe sashes. The lifeguard and his bitchy girlfriend had retreated a little farther away to continue their argument. Boy, did I feel sorry for that guy.

  I forced myself to pay attention to Ethan’s question. “I don’t know where to begin,” I said at last. “Nobody really came after me directly until last night. Starting with the Summer Court. And then there was Jack.” I sucked in my lower lap. There hadn’t been full disclosure about him. But then, what was I supposed to say? Half the time I thought I’d made him up, half the time I dismissed the dreams as not important, and half the time I didn’t want to make Ethan think something was going on when clearly… I frowned. Three halves didn’t add up to a whole, even in my bizarre universe. I groaned.

  Only a slight increase in his breathing and a sudden ashy paleness gave any clue that I’d disturbed him. “Really?” he said, his fingers stroking my hair again. A muscle bulged in his jaw. “Why don’t you start with, ‘It’s him, I know it’s him.’ That would be a great place to start.”

  “Um, well. I was in class, with Amberlyn.” I frowned up at the sky. “Dr. Christian started his lecture. It was about Nephilim.” He had to lean very close to hear my whisperings. “It was terrible. He called us monsters, with terrible powers. He knew. He had paintings, and verses from the Bible, and…” I choked on a sob. “In one painting, there was woman with dark hair, like mine. She could call Shadows, and an angel was… was…” He pulled me tight against him, stroking my hair, so that my next words came out in an exhalation against his ear. “An angel was about to cut off her head.”

  “Son of a bitch.” His arms tightened around me, rocking me.

  “He talked about the Great Flood. How it was our fault, the Nephilim, for almost wiping out human kind. Because we’re monsters. I got… very upset, I guess. And then…” I frowned. Ethan was watching me very, very intently now. I shrugged helplessly. “He took me,” I whispered hoarsely. “He was taking me away. I tried to fight him, I did, I swear, but he got inside my head, and he just made me numb,” I almost gagged on my own helplessness. “If that lifeguard hadn’t smelled my blood…”

  Ethan looked at me sharply, and then looked around for my rescuer. He said nothing, though. “You know what he is,” I guessed. Ethan nodded uneasily. “Are you going to tell me?” I pressed.

  “It’s not that simple.” He frowned at the lifeguard. “It’s not easy to tell what, exactly. And when I can tell, should I? If he’s gone through the trouble of hiding what he is, should I, you know, out him?”

  “Wow. A whole new subset of magical ethical dilemmas to ponder,” I teased, but not before a person-shaped shadow blocked out the sky.

  “Hi there,” it said, and knelt. “I’m Ryan. How are we feeling?”

  We? I thought in confusion, until I noticed Ethan’s hand had gone from comforting strokes through my hair to a tightly possessive hold around my shoulders. In fact, he seemed to be trying to reel me into his lap like a fish. No wonder; Ryan the Lifeguard was crazy gorgeous, in addition to being blood sensitive and demon resistant. With dark hair, a deep tan, brown eyes framed by the kind of eyelashes girls would kill for, he had ropy muscles that looked like he actually performed labor to get them. Add in the fact that he’d performed a life-saving act that required skin and mouth contact, and he was every boyfriend’s worst nightmare. Ryan kept his eyes trained carefully on Ethan’s and included him in questions about my welfare. Clearly, this guy had experience with Significant Other freakouts.

  “Better,” I answered, pushing myself into a sitting position to get a look at him.

  “She’s fine,” Ethan snapped, and pulled me right back against him. Hard. I let out an involuntary squeal of surprise.

  “Ok then,” Ryan said doubtfully. “Um.” Finally, he looked at me. “Do you mind if I check your pulse? I’m still not sure you shouldn’t go to the hospital. Just, you know, to be sure.” I bit my lip and nodded. Strong fingers took my wrist in his while he stared down at his watch.

  “Well?” Ethan asked testily. Ryan dropped my wrist and leaned back on his heels, watching me through narrowed eyes.

  “Fine,” he said after a long moment. “Her pulse is a little slow, but not what I’d expect after her, um,” he cleared his throat. “Ordeal.” He and Ethan locked ga
zes, and some invisible message passed between them.

  “What?” I demanded, finally forcing myself free from Ethan’s iron hold. I pulled the jacket close around me, like the shield it actually was. “What do you mean, my ordeal?” I looked from one man to the other. Neither would meet my eyes.

  “He’s gone. The one who had her,” Ryan said quietly. “I smelled fresh blood on her, and violence; the one who had her reeked of dark magic, but the forbidden kind. Blood sacrifice.” A low growl came from his solar plexus. “I do not know where he went, or for how long, but you had best be on your guard. I’ll let my people know, and trust you to alert yours.”

  Ryan excused himself. As the sun framed him from behind, I remembered who he reminded me of. Dylan, the hospital intern who’d been so kind to me when Logan was there. They could have been twins.

  “Shifter,” Ethan said, as if reading my mind. “He’s flickering too much to know what kind. But it’s something with really sharp teeth.” He grimaced. “It’s really hard to stay calm while something with sharp teeth and claws performs CPR on your girlfriend.”

  I could have lived a long, happy life without that piece of information. “I see what you mean about not ‘outing’ people,” I agreed. I looked at the wrist Ryan had just released. “Exactly how big were these claws?”

  But he ignored me. Ethan leaned in towards me, his face that of a man on fire. “Caspia, I don’t have to tell you how bad this is. I should have seen this; I should have kept you safe.” Mutely, I shook my head. I could see the echoes of my once-avenging angel. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault, I should have known long before he did, but he turned away from me before I could.

  “There’s something else,” I said at last.

  He looked sharply at me. “Before I came to you, the universe was simple. Light and Dark. Good and evil. I was Light, and my actions were good.” River bright eyes, fragile as flakes of jade, burned into mine. “But humans don’t live in a bisected world. You… your world… is made of shades of gray. I look back on an eternity of black and white choices from my shades of gray world and I don’t like what I see, Caspia. I don’t like what I was, what I did. I think I understand Asheroth and his madness a little better, now.”

  “You’re scaring me.” I pulled at him, wrapping myself around him.

  “Don’t be.”

  Was this the real curse of being mortal, the real reason people died? Not because our bodies gave out with age, or caught diseases, or stopped working? I wondered if it wasn’t the weight of life itself that brought us down in the end. Death by inches, bought by the slow unfolding of pain-filled knowledge? The realization that, no matter whom we loved or how well or for how long, we all walked into death alone, with only our experiences for company?

  A new shadow loomed over us, long and slanted in the afternoon sun. Logan stood watching us with his body squared and arms crossed.

  “You’re all right,” he said, as if he expected no less of me.

  I nodded and struggled back into Ethan’s jacket. There weren’t enough buttons left to close my shirt properly. If my brother noticed, he didn’t say anything. “Were we right?” Ethan asked cryptically.

  Logan nodded very slightly. “It’s possible,” he said at last. “Likely, even.”

  “Damn,” Ethan swore softly. He scanned the buildings surrounding the Quad quickly.

  “What are you guys talking about?”

  Logan pulled me into a loose hug. “We know who’s been hunting you, Cas. And we know where to find sanctuary,” he whispered into my ear. Then he let me go, and brushed strands of my hair off my forehead. “But we can’t talk about it here, ok? You’re going to have to trust us, because things are about to get a little weird.”

  My heart slammed against my ribcage. All I could manage was a quick, jerky nod. I let them pull me off the Quad and towards the visitor’s parking lot, Ethan on one side of me and Logan on the other.

  In the car, total silence reigned. Ethan sat behind me with one hand on my shoulder the entire time. The words “hunting you” and “sanctuary” kept echoing around in my head. So did Ethan’s pronouncement: “I don’t like what I was, what I did.” I didn’t ask where we were going, and the landscape passed by in a blur.

  Chapter Eighteen:

  Strange Passage

  Wrapped in dark thoughts, I didn’t notice where we were driving. I felt strangely detached. My brain kept replaying events and images. Angels killing Nephilim descendents. Dr. Christian’s voice in my head, his arms holding me immobile against him. How monumentally stupid I was. How badly my stupidity might have endangered Ethan, Logan, and even Amberlyn. Hell, even the whole town. By the time the car rolled to a stop, I had a dull headache and my stomach rolled with nausea.

  “Where are we?” I asked, cranky and worn out. I didn’t recognize my surroundings at all. Ethan and Logan had been silent the entire trip, giving me nothing to go on. When we rolled to a stop, Logan slammed his car door with grim fury. I slipped from the car, following them slowly as I tried to place my surroundings.

  Whoever lived here really liked privacy. The street was wide and bordered with huge lawns and patches of dense trees. It looked well tended, but there were absolutely no houses or other signs of habitation. I looked all around but couldn’t see any driveways besides the one we’d parked in. I felt Ethan touch my elbow, guiding me up a gray flagstone walkway to a gate that was at least as tall as our apartment ceiling.

  “What now?” Logan asked, stealing the words straight from my throat. He’d come to stand at my other elbow, his solid bulk pressing me against Ethan. The two of them kept me firmly between them. They hadn’t stopped since we’d left the Quad. At first, I’d found it comforting. Now, it was beginning to wear on me.

  “We go in. Or try to.” The tall stone gate had a door made of thick metal bars sunk deep into it. Ethan let go of me long enough to push on the heavy metal bars with all his weight.

  Nothing happened.

  “Let me try,” Logan offered. He gave me ‘the look,’ which I recognized from a lifetime as his little sister. It promised terrible punishment if I messed up his plans. When we were very young, ‘the look’ meant he’d put gum in my hair if I told on him. Later, it meant I kept my mouth shut when he snuck out, or he’d humiliate me in front of every boy I might ever like.

  “Ok already,” I said, spreading my arms wide open to show my innocence. “I’m not going anywhere.” Both boys began to throw themselves against the security gate with single-minded determination. I watched them use brawn instead of brains until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

  That’s when I noticed the slowly thickening mist coiling around us while they grunted and shoved. It was delicate and cool against my skin. I stared at it, fascinated. I was used to dark, hungry Shadows exploding across my skin with little or no warning. This mist seemed almost friendly in comparison. Damp cool air, white and swirling, curled around my ankles and tugged on my outstretched fingers.

  “Not. Going. To. Budge,” Logan panted, still pushing against the door with his considerable strength. Why did boys get to a point where brute strength was their only answer? Ethan paused to examine the lock itself, looking for a trick to the mechanism.

  The air between us became thicker and harder to see through. “Um, guys?” A tendril of mist, thicker than the rest had been, wrapped itself around my wrist. “Should we be worried?” The finger of mist wrapped around my own didn’t seem like something alarming. I tugged back, and it coiled more thickly around my finger.

  “It started right about the same time that we touched the gate,” Logan said. “Any chance this is another security measure?”

  “I didn’t think even he would be so paranoid as to activate the mist wall. Unless it’s arrogance,” he said thoughtfully. “That would fit. Or,” he looked thoughtful. “All of the Guardians have done so.”

  “Is it dangerous?” I asked.

  “Not once you’re inside it,” Ethan said cheerfully. “From the
inside, it’s the best possible defense.”

  The mist had grown heavier, turning a deeper gray as it thickened. “You could let me try,” I suggested quietly. Very quickly, the mist was changing from something pretty and soothing to something heavy and ominous. “Unless either of you have another plan. And throwing yourselves against something that’s clearly not going to budge does not count as a plan.”

  Ethan reached for me. I felt his hand like a cuff, just above the silver bracelet. “I don’t want to stand out here in it any longer than we have to. But we also don’t know how it will react to Shadows.”

  “Because they’re made of darkness,” I said more softly than I meant to.

  A rough thumb found my pulse point and stroked it through the wing clasp. “But you are not. Just be careful.”

  Darkness explodes out of me every chance it gets, I thought grimly. That didn’t happen to people made of sunshine and butterflies. “Right,” I said instead, and drew close to the gate. As soon as I placed my hands on it, I felt the rippling chills pooling in my palms. It wouldn’t take much; the lock was small, and I was right up against it. I felt the nervous energy that made it so hard to stand still when I pulled Shadows.

  There was a click. The lock twisted open with hardly any effort from me. Logan pounded me enthusiastically on the shoulder and pushed the gate open.

  But something was wrong. The Shadows remained pooled in my hands as the mist got even thicker around me. When it began to form tendrils, thick and white like bare winter branches, Shadows ignited from my palms and snaked up my arms. White mist followed, wrapping itself around me as if chasing its dark twin. The sensation was terrible. The razor chills of Shadows combined with a wet heaviness I knew would smother me if it got thick enough. I tried to force myself to calm down enough to get either one off me.

  “It’s attacking her,” Ethan said, much more calmly than I felt. He held me tightly by the shoulders. He stood behind me and pushed me forward through the open gate. “We have to keep moving. Concentrate, Cas. It’s attacking the darkness, not you.” He propelled me as I tried to focus on his words.