Dark Ascension

by J. D. Brown

  Kill Logan.

  Kill Logan.

  Kill Logan.

  I blinked to the side to hide my shock. Lilith’s command... it was still there. The sire curse lashed behind my eyes. Weak little snaps of pain at first, but I knew the lashes would intensify with each passing moment. I knew she’d come back. Mummy Dearest would never let go of me. Never.

  “...was to make herself Nephilim.”

  “We already know,” said Ema. She glanced at me, and Logan’s gaze followed.

  “Why on earth would anyone want to do that?” Tancred asked.

  “She thought it would make her young again; a true immortal,” Logan explained for the vampyre.

  Tancred scoffed. “Even the Nephilim die.”

  “I don’t suppose you saw a way to cure my son, or how to hex that side of him, like you did to me?”

  Logan lowered his gaze. “No.”

  They jabbered on while I contemplated the sire command, and what to do about it. I couldn’t attack Logan here, in a moving vehicle. At least not with my powers cut off. I was outnumbered. It would be suicide. I had to bide my time. I just hoped the curse co-operated.

  “Well, she’s dead now,” said Ema. “So none of that matters. And none of it helps my child.”

  “Just because there was no knowledge of a cure in her mind doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It only means Lilith didn’t bother looking for one.” Logan offered a hopeful smile to his daughter.

  Ema studied her father, and her lips thinned. Whatever dark thought passed through her mind, she seemed to push it aside. She withdrew her hand from Logan’s and scooted closer to Jesu, where she sighed against him and rested her head on his shoulder. The vampire seemed to be deep in thought. I didn’t think he noticed Ema cuddled up to him, but then his arm hooked around her, as though responding to a magnetism between them. He held her tight without needing to look, his bicep and elbow molded perfectly across her shoulders, their fingers entwined near her lap. I remembered that feeling; that easy romance, the comfort of trusting someone so completely, you didn’t even have to think about it. It made me realize how lonely I was.

  Logan looked at his daughter with something like apprehension. He was so focused on her, he didn’t give me any mind at all. If I had my powers...

  Kill Logan.

  Kill Logan.

  Kill Logan.

  I scraped the tops of my hands with my fingernails. Red marks welted the skin as I scratched into the black ink. It burned, yet the promise of relief—of being free of Lilith’s final command—burned brighter.

  CHAPTER 24

  The limousine driver dropped us off in front of the hotel. Mr. Wu stayed in the vehicle, his cellphone pressed to his ear. I bit my lip. How many rules had we broken by killing Lilith in a public building full of innocent people? How much trouble was I in?

  I inhaled a deep breath and then headed toward the glass entrance. Jesu grabbed my arm, slowing my steps as Dad and Tancred passed us. Valafar lifted his gaze to the sky, taking in the majestic building. A muscle feathered along his jaw, and he swallowed hard before crossing the threshold.

  “What’s up?” I said when Jesu and I were the only two left standing on the pavement.

  His emerald gaze narrowed. “Are you all right? I mean really.”

  “What do you think?” I shrugged. You died, you idiot. The words lodged in my throat and I looked away. “A woman was beheaded and a group of people died in front of me. I’m a little rattled. That’s all.”

  Jesu looked as though he wanted to say more, but decided not to press the matter. His hand trailed between my shoulders and down my back, massaging my spine. It felt nice. I wanted to lean into him and curl against his side. Most of all, I wanted to hear his heart beat, to feel his pulse—to remind myself he wasn’t dead. I gestured to the doors.

  “Should we go in?”

  Jesu nodded and we entered the hotel lobby together. “What do you want to do with the incubus?”

  “Well he’s not a dog,” I chuckled. “We can’t keep him.”

  “No,” Jesu agreed. “But I thought maybe Logan could take another look around his mind. I know he said there was no cure in Lilith’s subconscious, but what if there was and she was just... guarding it?”

  I raised my brow. “Well, even if that were true, I don’t see how we’d get it from Valafar. Dad already looked in his mind. Lilith didn’t give him that information.”

  Jesu shrugged as we approached the elevators. The others had already gone up, so I pressed the button for the next crane.

  “I might be grasping at straws,” Jesu continued. “But what if Lilith had his mind blocked, or hexed or something? What if Valafar knows more than he realizes? What if Logan missed something the first time?” The elevator dinged and the doors whooshed open. We boarded.

  “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try again.” Plus, we were literally out of other options. I slid a hand over my stomach and lowered my gaze. I’ve failed.

  This time.

  Maybe there wasn’t a cure, but that wouldn’t stop me from looking. I’d learn alchemy and invent a cure myself if I had to. Giving up wasn’t an option. Thanks to Shénshèng, I had some time before my son would suffer.

  Jesu brought his arm around my middle and pulled me close. He kissed the top of my head as the elevator opened and deposited us on the twenty-third floor. Walking along the corridor to the suite, I remembered something else I wanted to talk to Jesu about. I gazed up at him, ready to say what was on my mind, when he reached forward and pushed the door open. It had been left ajar, I assumed for us, but something didn’t feel right. Judging by the stern expression in Jesu’s eyes, it wasn’t just my imagination.

  I narrowed my gaze and cast my senses over the room. Tancred and Dad were inside, their breaths relaxed. But there was no other sound, and Valafar was—”

  Jesu held out his arm, blocking me. He looked at a spot on the floor. I lowered my gaze to find a few small drops of blood on the marble, right in front of my shoes. My breath hitched, but I quickly realized it wasn’t human blood. The scent was far too sugary. Like lavender and—cocoa. I wrinkled my nose.

  “Is that...?”

  “Incubus blood.” Jesu’s features twisted in confusion, then just as quickly melted into a look of dread. “He cut the spell.”

  “What?”

  Jesu sprinted ahead of me, into the living room. I ran after him then halted at the scene. Dad and Tancred lay face-down on the floor, arms and legs sprawled as though they’d dropped where they’d stood.

  Because they had.

  Jesu rolled my father onto his back as I sank to my knees beside him.

  “Dad?”

  “He is alive,” said Jesu. “He is breathing.”

  Didn’t matter. The déjà vu was way too real. Panic welled in my chest as I grabbed my father’s shoulders and shook him. “Dad? Wake up. Wake up.”

  “Give him a minute.”

  I couldn’t. The entire room smelled of lavender. There was no telling what exactly Valafar had done—or if he was still doing it. If he’d broken the spell, then he could phase, and we would be none the wiser. I shook my father again. “Dad!”

  Jesu went to Tancred and rolled him over. “The claror necklaces are gone.”

  I winced. This was my fault for trusting that bastard. “Dad,” I whimpered.

  “He will come out of it.” Jesu reached for my hand, but I swatted at him, my chest tight with a flame that burned all the way to my cheeks.

  “Don’t tell me what to do. You didn’t watch yourself die.”

  Jesu pulled back, his brow dipped in confusion.

  I shook my head, and then gently released my father, letting my hands rest on his chest. It rose steadily with breath. Mine hitched in my throat. I closed my eyes and inhaled. “I just got him back, Jesu. I can’t lose him.”

  “He is only sleeping, muru.”

  I opened my eyes and met his gaze. “Then why isn’t he waking up?”

  Tanc
red groaned. Jesu helped him sit upright. “Easy there. You have a bump on your head the size of a golf ball.”

  Tancred touched his scalp and inhaled sharply. He looked at me and Dad, and then scowled.

  “Do you know what happened?” Jesu asked.

  Tancred’s mouth curled over his fangs. “Valafar...” The syllables drawled from his voice in a slow rumble, the beginnings of an uncertain growl. “There was... a purple light... then nothing.” He looked at Jesu and his brow furrowed.

  Jesu glanced at me, and then at my father. Dad was still unconscious, and the worry in my stomach churned, spilling into my blood and fraying my nerves. As though he sensed my unease, Jesu reached into a pocket and pulled out his cellphone. He dialed, then held the phone to his ear. I watched Dad as the line trilled. Then a meek voice answered in Mandarin. Jesu cleared his throat. “Dr. Shénshèng?”

  Dad looked surreal under the neon glow of the florescent light. He wore a green hospital gown. Thin white blankets covered him from his chest to his feet, and his gray-black hair fanned the pillow under his head. Lines creased the corners of his closed eyelids. His chest rose and fell in steady rhythm with the monitor that tracked his vitals.

  My father was in a coma.

  Shénshèng admitted him to the hospital where she worked. She ran an MRI and the usual tests. According to his official file, the reason for the coma was inconclusive. The truth, however, wasn’t much different. The cause might have been supernatural, but it still amounted to the same thing. Shénshèng said my father was trapped in his own mind, unable to find his way back to reality.

  My gaze went to the thick leather-bound tome on the plastic table in the corner. Leena’s spell book. Jesu had brought it in case there was something written inside that might help. Shénshèng had scanned its contents, but the Greek writing was beyond her understanding. Once they settled Dad in a private room, she left to consult her own sources. Though the Ch’ing Shih could protect herself from dream magic, it wasn’t something she was capable of wielding. As a vampyre, she couldn’t sleep. Without Valafar, none of us could sleep. Which meant we were useless.

  The door opened. I could feel Jesu enter without looking. His scent lifted some of the glumness of the room, replacing it with reminders of sweet grass and moonlight. A nurse had drawn the shades across the singular window when the sun set, but Jesu wore the crisp, cool essence of dusk like a second skin.

  “I brought you something to eat.” He sat a Styrofoam box on the table, next to the spell book. “Tancred went back to the hotel. He said he wanted a shower.”

  Oh God. I frowned. What would he tell the Council?

  “I called Maria,” Jesu continued carefully, “and told her what happened. She is going to contact the head of the Brotherhood. They might know something that could help.”

  “Thank you,” I said, blinking back the heat in my cheeks. I hadn’t even thought of calling other Hunters, but of course if anyone knew how to fight a magic-induced coma it would be them.

  Jesu came to my side and shoved his hands in his pockets. “How are you doing?”

  I shrugged. Tears had come and gone so many times, all of them trapped just behind my eyes, unable to fall. The inertia seemed to numb my brain.

  “Maybe you should get some air.”

  I scoffed at the thought. I couldn’t leave Dad’s side. I was too petrified he would sense my absence and give up fighting. I could return to a decline in his already fragile health, or worse. No, Dad needed me to stay. I needed me to stay.

  “Do you think he can hear us?” I slid my hand over my father’s, careful to avoid the intravenous tubes as I lifted his palm to my cheek. The rush of blood below his warm flesh was a comfort, but not much. “I heard it helps to talk to coma patients. Maybe my voice can lead him back to consciousness.”

  “Couldn’t hurt.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek and studied my father, trying to think of what to say, but my mind blanked. I hardly knew him; what he liked, what he disliked. I couldn’t even guess what he’d been doing before he walked back into my life.

  I’m mourning a stranger.

  My brow pinched as I traced the lines of his copper lips and chin, the bridge of his nose.

  There. I’d inherited his nose. His ears, too. A grin curved my lips at the tiny similarity, but the joy fell short as darker thoughts infringed on my mind. I lowered Dad’s hand.

  “Did you know he went to Lilith thirteen years ago and begged her to hex me?”

  Jesu’s brow dipped in a sidelong glance. “What do you mean?”

  I drew a deep breath and then sighed. “He told me I am part of a Jumlin prophecy. Apparently, I had started to turn when I was eight years old and that... that was the first sign. A vampyre born of two humans,” I said, paraphrasing. “He said he was afraid his clan would take me away, so he went to an alchemist. Lilith. He begged her to hex my Nephilim genes into submission so I would stay human. That’s how Lilith knew about me in the first place. She sensed my relation to Apollyon. When she needed someone to raise him from hell, it was just a matter of finding me and undoing the hex.”

  I glanced at Jesu. He was staring at the hospital bed. The etchings of a scowl turned the corners of his lips down. I looked at my father and lowered my voice.

  “I want to be so angry at him, but I can’t. Not anymore.” I shook my head. How could I blame Dad for doing what he thought was best, when I had probably made countless mistakes trying to save my own children? “I’m so scared, Jesu. What if I’m just making everything worse?”

  “I do not believe that.”

  “You didn’t know,” I looked at him, “about the Jumlin prophecy? I thought maybe that was why you wanted me to talk to him so badly.”

  Jesu shook his head. “I suspected there was much more he wanted to tell you than he’d told me, but... It wasn’t my place to pry. He wanted to tell you everything himself. That much was always plain to me.”

  My shoulders curled inward and I winced. What an idiot I had been for ignoring my father. But there was more I needed to tell Jesu, more we had to talk about.

  “When he was telling me about the prophecy, Dad said you were here because of my daughter. What does that mean?”

  Jesu tensed. “I am not sure.”

  I glared at him. It occurred to me that when I’d asked Jesu for baby names, it wasn’t a coincidence that his first suggestion had been his mother’s name. “You knew I was having a girl.”

  Jesu lowered his gaze and shrugged. “I did not want to spoil the surprise, but since Shénshèng confirmed it...”

  “But how could you know? When did you find out?”

  His mouth curved in a sideways grin, but it faded as his gaze grew serious. “Remember my last premonition?”

  I thought back. It seemed like a lifetime ago. “You mean when you saw me give birth in the future?”

  He nodded.

  I wrinkled my nose. “What exactly did you see? And don’t leave any details out this time.”

  Jesu rolled his eyes. “Promise you will not overreact.”

  I squelched my lips together and lifted one eyebrow.

  “Right.” Jesu looked to the side, hooked his thumbs in his belt loops, and drew a deep breath. “I, uh, cut her umbilical cord.”

  My eyes widened. “Wow.” I could see why the premonition threw him. Jesu and I had just gotten together at the time, but we both knew he was infertile. “Holy crap.”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  An awkward silence stretched between us. Jesu kept his gaze on a blank spot on the wall, but I couldn’t stop staring at him. He licked his lips then dared a quick peek in my direction.

  “Wow,” I said again, still not quite able to believe it.

  Jesu scuffed the tip of his boot against the linoleum floor, and then looked at me with a little more boldness in his eyes. “Ema, I love her.”

  “What?”

  “Not in a weird way,” he said with a grimace. “But in a... Gosh, a familial wa
y? A paternal way, if I am being honest. I know I have no business feeling as I do, but—”

  “No.”

  Jesu looked at me, color draining from his face.

  I quickly amended my words. “What I mean is...” I took his hands in mine and squeezed them. “She’s your sister. I’m glad you love her. I hope you’ll love your little brother too.”

  Jesu threaded his fingers with mine and smiled. “Of course. I will love them both.”

  CHAPTER 25

  I bit off a tiny piece of steamed dumpling and chewed slowly. The quick meal smelled of the heavenly fusion of soy sauce, ginger, and chili pepper—but tasted like soot. I forced myself to swallow.

  Jesu paced the hospital room with his phone to his ear. Maria dominated the conversation on the other end. I could hear every word if I concentrated, but my mind was too exhausted digesting everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. I didn’t want to think anymore, so I waited until he hung up.

  “Well?” I coaxed.

  “Good news; the Brotherhood has seen this before. They are sending their head Huntsman to Berlin to help. A man called Snow Chayton.”

  “But Dad’s not in Berlin. He’s here.” I gestured to my comatose father.

  The left edge of Jesu’s mouth teetered. “Naamah has been in contact with Mr. Wu. We cannot stay here after what happened at the museum. It was too public.” He glanced at Dad. “I did not think you would leave him behind.”

  “You thought right, but is it okay to move him? In an airplane? That far? Wouldn’t his health be at risk?”

  “We will have to ask Shénshèng.”

  A knock sounded at the door. Jesu and I stood as Dr. Shénshèng let herself in. Speak of the devil... She carried an over-stuffed accordion folder under her arm, and wore a bright smile.

  “How are you doing?”

  “Fine,” I shrugged.

  She closed the door then scanned the monitors connected to my father’s unconscious body. “He seems to be stable. I would like to get a feeding tube in him before morning. That way he can have some nourishment.”