Lucas and I turned to see Parker standing beside Amber’s table, furious. Ally said something to Parker that we couldn’t hear, but Amber and her friends snickered. Parker brushed Ally’s arm off his shoulder and strode away from her. Ally stared after him, pissed. Parker shot an agonized look at Cassie.
I looked back at Cassie, but she was steadfastly ignoring Parker. Devastated, Parker walked out of the dining hall. Lucas looked at me again, worried. I shook my head. There’d be time to talk about Parker—and how he might be resisting the power of the call—later.
Royal cleared his throat as though nothing had happened. “So,” he said. “Chuck Norris marathon at my house this weekend. Who’s in?”
“Depends. Who’s Chuck Norris?” I asked.
“Chuck Norris,” Lucas said, looking at me like I was an alien. “Chuck Norris.”
“Repeating his name isn’t actually helping,” I said.
“Cassie? Chuck Norris.” Lucas turned to Cassie for backup.
She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m with Braedyn on this one.”
“How do you not know—?” Lucas turned back to Royal.
“I find it’s best not to ask that question,” Royal sighed. “The gaps in their education are really quite shocking.” Royal turned to us, steepling his hands like a professor addressing two errant school kids. “Ladies, prepare yourselves. After this weekend, Chuck Norris will be a permanent fixture in your minds. You’re welcome in advance.”
Cassie and I traded a smile, and I felt a wave of relief wash through me. Maybe she really was going to be okay.
Suddenly, a rich, masculine voice cut through the dining hall chatter.
“Hello, Coronado Prep!” We turned, along with the rest of the school, to see a handsome man stepping up onto a chair at the front of the dining room. “For those of you who don’t yet know me, my name is Mr. Hart, and I’m the new drama teacher for this august institution.” Someone whistled and the room filled with giggles. Mr. Hart waved in the direction of the whistle, unperturbed. “Listen up, you talented masses. If any tiny particle of you yearns for the spotlight, come audition for our fall production of Camelot. I can guarantee passion, heartbreak, and everlasting love. Maybe even a little hero-worship. Will it be corny? Yeah, maybe, but in that fuzzy-no-one-gets-hurt kind of way that reaffirms your faith in humanity.”
Laughter swelled throughout the dining hall again. Mr. Hart evidently knew how to make an impression.
“Recap: Audition! You know you want to! Go Wildcats!” He raised his fist in the air, eliciting a roar from the crowd, then bowed dramatically from the waist. The roar swelled into another round of laughter as Mr. Hart stepped back off the chair. As conversation returned to the dining hall, I saw several girls straining to catch another glimpse of Mr. Hart while giggling with their friends.
Whether he was aware of it or not, Mr. Hart had done us a huge favor. No one was staring at Cassie anymore. The subject had been officially changed.
The final bell couldn’t come fast enough. It had been a trying day, and I just wanted to meet up with my friends and escape from campus. I stopped by my locker to drop off some books and pick up a few others I’d need for homework. Lucas leaned against the locker bay next to me.
“What a messed up day,” he said.
“You can say that again.”
“I don’t know how she kept it together today.” Lucas shook his head in wonder. “When I heard that tape this morning, man, I wanted to find Parker and grind his face into the ground.”
“It wasn’t Parker,” I said grimly. Lucas’s eyebrows jerked up in surprise. “It was Amber.”
“What?” He looked genuinely bewildered. “What does she have against Cassie?”
“Nothing,” I answered. “It’s me she’s trying to hurt. She couldn’t go after me directly. So she went after my friend.”
Lucas’s jaw clenched in anger. “Wow, that’s low. Even for the ice queen.”
“She wants me gone. Out of Coronado Prep.” I closed my locker, keeping my eyes focused on the lock while I turned the dial. “Do you think... do you think I should leave?”
“No.”
“She’s threatened to make all my friends suffer.” I shrugged miserably. “Before today I just kind of wrote her off, but if she’d do that to Cassie—?”
“She’s sick, Braedyn,” Lucas said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but it’s—you can’t give in to her.”
“And if my friends get hurt?” I asked quietly. “Royal? You?”
“I can take care of myself,” Lucas said. “And we can watch out for Royal and Cassie together.”
Lucas offered me his hand and I took it. We walked outside together, huddling closer as a cold breeze rustled the leaves of the aspens soaring above us.
Cassie was sitting on the stone retaining wall at one edge of the parking lot, hunched over a notebook. As we drew closer I saw what she was working on. It was a long, elegant gown with a swirling, full skirt that gathered loosely around the feet. Sleeves hugged the upper arms tightly, then opened like trumpet flowers from the elbow to the wrist.
“Cass, that’s amazing,” I said, awestruck.
Cassie looked up, slipping another paper on top of the drawing.
“Wait,” I protested. “Let me see.”
Reluctantly, Cassie handed the drawing over. I noticed that the dress was just one of the designs she’d sketched on this sheet. Next to the gown was a rich tunic, trimmed in faux fur with a sweeping cloak to match it.
“What is this?” I asked, awe-struck.
“Just doodles,” she said, embarrassed. “I guess I got inspired.”
“Mr. Hart?” I guessed. Cassie blushed but nodded, flashing me a small smile.
“Cassie,” Lucas said. “These are awesome.”
“And when are you going to show them to him?” Royal asked, gliding up beside us and plucking the drawing out of my hands.
“What?” Cassie squeaked. “No, this is just—doodling.” Cassie quickly snatched the drawing back from Royal. He crossed his arms.
“Uh huh,” Royal said flatly.
“I didn’t even know we had a new drama teacher,” I said, throwing Cassie a lifeline.
“Yeah,” she said, eager for the change of subject. “Ms. Stevenson had some kind of accident this summer, she’s going to be out the rest of the semester. I think they said she had a broken collarbone or something.”
“Yikes,” I said.
“And on that cheerful note,” Royal said, “SAT tutor at my place this afternoon. Who’s in?”
A skinny boy bounded up to us. Rick had been one of Derek’s best friends. I felt a wave of emotion and struggled to force my thoughts back onto happier ground. Derek had died in my home, killed by the Guard because he’d been turned into a Thrall. It was yet another reminder of how I put the people around me in danger. “Yo, Braedyn.”
I forced myself to smile. “Rick, what can I do for you?”
“You see today’s paper?” he asked, beaming. “I took that picture. Pretty kick-ass, huh? You looked like, I don’t know. Like some kind of super-chick. Like Catwoman or Black Widow.”
“Yeah, it’s a nice shot,” I said, trying to keep the irony out of my voice. It was hard enough keeping the Lilitu powers in check without an army of teenage boys identifying me with comic-book heroines.
“Wonder what that lady was looking for,” Rick said. “So weird, right?”
“What?” Lucas and I said at the same moment.
“Yeah, I was watching her. She kept staring at the ground, walking around in circles right in the middle of the sanctuary. Then you came down and she just lost it. Well, you know the rest of that story. Am I right?” Rick raised his fist up, clearly expecting me to reciprocate. I bumped my fist against his with a strained smile. “Awesome.”
“What makes you think she was looking for something?” Lucas asked, trying to get Rick to focus.
“Well, she had that thing drawn on her hand. You know. Li
ke those weird carvings on the floor. I figured she was looking for something specific.” A horn honked from the parking lot and Rick turned, waving at a car. “That’s my ride,” he said. “Catch you guys later.”
As Rick raced away, I looked at Lucas. I didn’t even have to ask.
“You drive,” Lucas murmured.
I turned back to Royal and Cassie. “Catch you guys tomorrow?”
“So, that’s a ‘no’ on the SAT prep?” Royal asked.
“We—there’s this thing,” I started.
Royal held up a hand. “Spare me the details.” He turned to Cassie. “Please tell me you’re not abandoning me, too?”
“I’m actually looking forward to meeting your academic Ken doll,” Cassie said.
Royal smiled and threw his arm over Cassie’s shoulder. He glanced at us and shrugged. “Their loss,” he said to Cassie. “Toodles.” Royal held my gaze for a moment, and I could see his disappointment. Then he turned and led Cassie toward his gleaming platinum two-seater in the parking lot.
While part of me wanted to stay and do my part to cheer Cassie up, I had to go back to the mission. If the Thrall was searching for something in that sanctuary, we needed to know what it was.
20 minutes later the town was receding in my rearview mirror. We headed across the natural preserve that separated the mission from Puerto Escondido proper. I stepped on the gas and the Firebird leapt forward beneath us, shooting down the ribbon of asphalt that wound up the far side of the valley.
We reached our turnoff and I eased up on the gas. The road to the mission had never been paved, and if you didn’t know where you were going there was a good chance you’d miss it. You couldn’t see the mission from this point on the road. It was higher up the mountain, shrouded from view by scrubby piñon trees. Up farther, the trees would thin out, providing that amazing view from the mission’s front door. I turned onto the dirt road. Dust and small rocks kicked up behind us.
“You know, it’s possible that Rick just saw this woman acting crazy and made up a theory that she was looking for something to explain it,” Lucas said.
“Yeah.”
“Or maybe she was there to attack us, and she was just walking in circles, waiting for us to come back down from that balcony.”
“Maybe.” I kept my eyes focused on the road. “Or maybe,” I said, “she was looking for something. Something she didn’t want us to find. Maybe that’s why she didn’t come into the sanctuary until it looked like we’d left. Maybe that’s why she attacked us,” I glanced at Lucas. His jaw was tight. “And maybe that’s why she ran away after her fall, instead of coming back to finish the job.”
Lucas looked at me, his eyes full of questions.
I turned back to the road. It curved around in a gentle arc, and as we came out of the turn, the view opened up revealing the mission. The parking lot was empty. I pulled to a stop in front of the sanctuary and killed the engine. Neither of us moved for a moment. The last time I’d seen the mission, I was being escorted into the back of an ambulance by a group of EMTs while Mr. Landon hovered by my side anxiously. I felt a sudden pang of uncertainty. Maybe we should have told Dad what we were planning.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Lucas said. I pushed down the doubt.
We got out of the car and approached the building. The doors to the sanctuary were closed but not locked. There was no lock built into the doors, actually. If you wanted to keep someone out, you’d have to lay the heavy crossbeam through the metal brackets bolted to the inside of the doors. Lucas held one door open and I walked inside, scanning the space.
It seemed empty. Darker than the last time we’d been here. The shattered stained glass window was boarded up, blocking a good part of the late afternoon sunlight. Without the warm glow of sunlight the sanctuary seemed colder, more foreboding than peaceful. I shivered against a sudden chill.
Lucas took my hand wordlessly. We moved forward into the space. Walking out from under the foyer’s coved ceiling, I was suddenly aware of the hidden balcony, unseen in the shadows above us. I had the creepy sensation that someone was watching. I shook it off.
“Let’s get this over with,” I whispered. We walked into the center of the sanctuary, coming to a stop before the altar. The floor was stone but not, as I’d assumed earlier, paved. I wandered across the floor but could find no seams in the rock.
“It’s all one stone,” Lucas said, echoing my thought.
We examined the floor, and discovered that we were only partially correct. The massive stone, roughly circular in shape, stretched clear across the sanctuary. But smaller stone tiles filled the gaps beyond the round stone, extending the floor to the edges of the room. The surface of the stone had been worn down over the centuries, but we could still make out faint marks carved into its face. I recognized one mark, partially hidden under a pew, and froze.
“Lucas,” I called. “Look.” I pointed down to the mark I’d spotted and heard Lucas’s sharp intake of breath. “Help me?” Together, Lucas and I pushed the pew back, revealing a string of symbols we both knew all too well. Symbols that were carved onto the blades of every set of daggers a new member of the Guard received. The symbols were older than mankind; they’d been handed down to the Guard from the three angels charged with hunting down Lilitu—Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof. These symbols were meant to protect humanity in the fight against the Lilitu.
“Why?” Lucas looked up, meeting my eyes. “Why here? Do you think the monks—?”
I stood suddenly, electric fear shooting through my nerves. “Lucas. What if Puerto Escondido isn’t referring to a secret door in the sanctuary? What if it’s referring to a door between realities?”
Lucas looked up at me, brow furrowed, trying to see what had suddenly become clear to me. “I don’t—” He stood, glancing back down at the ground.
“I think the monks built their mission directly over the seal.” I stared down at the massive stone, ringed with ancient symbols. “I think this is the door they were trying to hide.”
Lucas reacted, grabbing my hand and pulling me off the massive round stone. We retreated to the side of the sanctuary, huddling against a wall, staring back at the seal with sick fascination. Lucas had shielded me from the stone with his body instinctively, but as the adrenaline of the moment cleared, he turned to face me, realizing he had me pinned against the wall. His eyes found my face, but he didn’t move. Only our breathing disturbed the silence. I knew I should say something to break the moment, but I couldn’t. Lucas brushed fingertips along my cheek, leaving a warm glow lingering at his touch. I looked up, finding his eyes. Somehow, even in the dim light of the mission, they gleamed.
“Tell me what you want,” he said. I saw him struggling for self-control.
“What I want,” I breathed. “What I want.” My eyes flickered to his lips. “There’s a caveat,” I said at last. “To becoming human.”
Lucas drew back a little to get a better look at my face. “What do you mean? What caveat?”
“I can’t lose control,” I said. “Every time I slip and let the Lilitu part of me steal energy from someone, it destroys another tiny bit of my humanity. If I lose too much, there’ll be no changing what I am. No chance of becoming human for real. So when you ask me what I want—”
“It’s hard,” Lucas said. “I know. It’s hard for me, too.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to leave me.”
“Don’t joke about that,” Lucas said.
“Right, you’re the guy who flirts with danger.” I smiled, but I could hear the edge in my voice. “Why not date it, too? What’s the worst that could happen? I slip up, you die, I get executed by the Guard.” Lucas’s expression looked pained.
“Don’t,” he said again. “Don’t manufacture a reason for us to break up.”
“Fine,” I said. I pushed against his arm and Lucas let me go. “We should get home.”
“I’m with you to the end, Braedyn. Or until you don’t want me anymore.”
Something in his voice stopped me before I could walk away. He offered his hands to me. After a moment, I took them. Lucas pulled me close and this time I sank into him. He wrapped his arms around my back, holding me tight.
“There’s something you’re forgetting,” Lucas whispered into my hair. “You’ve kissed me without hurting me before.”
He was right. There had been one kiss after my Lilitu powers had blossomed. One kiss in his room, where I’d successfully battled down the Lilitu storm and kept it from siphoning off the essence that made Lucas who he was.
“I trust you,” Lucas breathed. “If you tell me we have to stay at arm’s length when we’re awake, that’s what we’ll do. But if you ever want to try again...”
Tears seared the corners of my eyes as a swell of emotion threatened to break over me. Lucas, seeing this, started to pull back. I caught his hand, stopping him. I didn’t need to speak. I tilted my head up, slipping a shaking hand up to Lucas’s cheek. He let me guide him forward, lips parting.
Someone coughed pointedly behind us.
Lucas and I jerked back as if scalded. Adrenaline jolted my system, my heart wrenching painfully in my chest. The intruder was a slight boy about my age, with thin wire-frame glasses and fair, close-cropped hair.
“Assuming that’s your car parked out front, you two could probably spring for a cheap motel. So, if you don’t mind, some of us are actually here for the history of this place.”
Without waiting for a response, the blond boy turned to a wooden panel and carefully placed a sheet of almost-transparent paper over it. He fished a bit of charcoal out of his pocket and started rubbing it lightly over the paper. With every stroke, the image of the panel beneath took shape on the page.
I turned back to Lucas, brushing my hair back from my face, embarrassed. “Come on. We should tell the others what we found.”
Lucas nodded and we headed together toward the door.
Without looking up, the boy said something under his breath.
“What was that?” Lucas asked, stopping.
“I’m almost done here.” The boy glanced over his shoulder at Lucas. “So if you’re planning on getting the goods in the back seat of your car, do me a favor and drive somewhere else first. I’m not all that interested in the mating habits of the Southwestern suburban teen.”
Incubus (The Daughters Of Lilith) Page 5
