A piercing scream ripped through the sanctuary.
I tore my eyes away from the stranger, searching for the source of the sound. Lucas and Cassie stood in the open doorway of the sanctuary’s hidden entrance. Lucas found the opening after I unlatched it. Lucas caught Cassie and held her tightly. She turned into him, burying her face against his shoulder. Her scream choked off, and the sudden silence was broken only by the ragged breath of the dying stranger.
My thoughts felt sluggish, thick. I looked back at Seth.
He walked past the stranger, ignoring him as though he held no more threat than a statue. Seth’s confidence seemed to grow with each step. The Lilitu opened her arms. A smile curved across her sensual lips.
“Brother,” she said. Her voice was richly amused. “You look well.”
“I am better now,” Seth replied. “Illydia. It’s been far too long.”
They embraced, and Illydia’s laughter rang through the sanctuary like peals from a golden bell.
My eyes landed on the large square carving directly across the sanctuary from where I stood. In the border, I saw the pair of Lilitu Angela had identified for us. The brother and sister who’d attacked this mission all those long centuries ago. My eyes shifted back to Seth and Illydia. Brother. Sister.
Seth was the incubus.
Chapter 20
The world seemed to tilt, and in an instant the floor was rushing toward me. I moved sluggishly, just managing to throw out my hands before impact. I sprawled on the floor and felt something warm and slick beneath me. Blood, an inner voice noted dimly. My blood. The thought left no residual emotion in its wake.
I saw two forms slipping along the wall of the sanctuary. Lucas and Cassie. Somewhere inside me, a shock of alarm blared. My body tried to motivate me to move, to get up, to escape. But the impulse was buried deep, muted by the thick blanket of shock settling over my thoughts.
Lucas dropped beside me, murmuring something into my ear. His hands moved to my thigh, gently easing the blood-soaked fabric of my ripped jeans aside to reveal a deep gash. I heard him curse quietly, then he was wrestling his sweatshirt off, tearing at the fabric with his teeth. Cassie hovered behind us, eyes wide and terrified. I couldn’t feel anything.
I turned to Seth and Illydia. They pulled back from their embrace, greeting one another with genuine affection. I saw their lips move, heard the lilting sounds of their speech, but none of their words registered. We were of no consequence to them; they didn’t even glance at us as Lucas worked feverishly to tend my wound.
He fashioned a makeshift tourniquet from the ruins of his sweatshirt, then tied it around my leg. That got my attention. Pain slammed my consciousness back into place, driving the haze from my mind. I couldn’t hold back a growl of pain.
Lucas’s face twisted with empathy. “Can you stand?” he whispered. I shook my head no. I’d burned through all that adrenaline. It had left me wrung out and weak and slow.
“Take Cassie and go,” I said.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“The seal,” I started. I didn’t need to finish the thought.
Lucas winced. “We’ll worry about it later,” he said. “Put your arm around my neck.”
I tried. I clung to his neck. Lucas stood, hauling me to my feet. We took one step, then another. And then my arm lost what little strength it had and I started to slide back to the floor. Lucas caught me around the middle, guided me down safely. He looked into my eyes, helplessly.
“Lucas.” I gripped his hand tightly, trying to force him to understand. “If you wait for me, none of us will make it out of here.”
“I’ll carry you.”
“Someone has to get out,” I insisted. “Someone has to warn the Guard.”
Lucas clenched his jaw, glanced at Cassie. But any hope he might have had that she could deliver the news evaporated when he saw her. She had collapsed against the base of a column, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. Lucas turned back to me.
“They need you more than they need me,” he said.
“What does that—?”
Lucas caught my face in his hands and kissed me. This was nothing like our last real kiss, the night Gretchen had found us together, the night she had outted me as Lilitu to the unsuspecting Lucas. That kiss had been passionate, tender, full of hope.
This kiss—Lucas gave his whole self to it, like he didn’t expect to see another sunrise. He crushed me to him with a growing urgency. The passion of this kiss smoldered, burned through my resistance—almost brutal in its intensity. Everything we’d fought to contain and control, everything we’d struggled to suppress, flooded free in an instant. My body responded, starved for his touch—
And equally starved for the life energy he was offering.
I felt the draw of power as the Lilitu storm rose within me. My arms fastened around Lucas’s neck. He gripped me harder, and I heard a soft moan escape him. It was everything I wanted.
I shoved Lucas back, hard. He sprawled onto the floor, gasping. I pushed myself away from him, stronger, but not whole. Not by a long shot.
Lucas gave me a searching look.
“Not like this,” I said, shaking. I felt sickened by the thought of what I could do to Lucas. It’d be so easy to draw out his energy, drain him of vitality. I forced myself to look away from him, fighting the wild desire to pull him closer again.
“Fascinating.” The Lilitu’s voice sounded behind me, full of amused curiosity. “I see you did not exaggerate.”
I turned. Illydia and Seth were watching us, smiling with the same arc to their lips. The family resemblance was striking. Seth might have been taller, but their facial structure, their dark eyes, their skin tone—they could have been twins.
“She’ll come around,” Seth said.
The Lilitu shrugged, uninterested. She turned from me and walked toward the stranger. He slumped on the ground, still kneeling, his breath coming in short, ragged pants. She crouched before him, tilting her head to peer directly into his face.
“Senoy?” she asked.
The stranger’s eyes flicked up to her face, full of pain and failure. I sucked in a sharp breath. It couldn’t be.
“I thought I recognized that pugilistic arrogance.” Illydia gave a delighted laugh. “Well done, Sethayl.” She turned to Seth and her smile sharpened, a hungry glee sparkling in her eyes.
“Two down, one to go,” Seth said, inclining his head in acknowledgement of her praise.
“No,” I whispered. A vise seemed to grow in my chest, gripping my heart tighter and tighter until it felt like I would die. This was all wrong. Karayan had warned me. She’d told me one of the Three was coming, but it should have been Sansenoy. Sansenoy, whom I recognized. Sansenoy, who knew me as an ally. Not this stranger.
Illydia stood, turning her back on the dying angel, dismissing him completely from her thoughts.
Senoy looked up, meeting my stare levelly. The skin of his face was slick with sweat, and his lips had grown pale, but his eyes were as determined as ever. He gave me a look full of meaning and then—very deliberately—flicked his gaze back toward Seth and Illydia.
Illydia was between us and the mission’s secret door. Which left one possible escape route for my friends.
I turned to Lucas. “You’ll have to get the crossbeam off the front doors. It’s the only way you and Cassie will be able to escape.” Lucas’s eyes tightened, but before he could argue, I reached down and caught his hand in mine. “Help Cassie, please. I can handle this.”
Lucas met my eyes. After a long moment, he nodded.
Haltingly, I stood. My leg held. Whatever energy I’d pulled from Lucas had worked on the wound, accelerating the healing process from inside. There was still pain, the wound was not gone, but I could put weight on the leg without swooning. Progress.
Without looking back, I walked toward Seth and his sister. Seth’s eyebrows hiked up with faint interest. Illydia turned, eyeing me critically.
“Any time you
want to reconsider my advances...” Seth let his eyes travel over my body. I felt suddenly exposed. I stopped moving, rooted to the floor. His eyes returned to my face. “We could do everything you’ve been missing from your relationship,” and here he raised his fingers, quirking them in air-quotes with a sardonic smile before continuing, “with Lucas. Believe it or not, I really am fond of you.”
I felt a blush spreading across my cheeks, but I was conscious of Lucas and Cassie behind me, trying to escape. The one thing I could give them now was time. I glared at Seth. “It was all an act.”
“I know,” Seth sighed wistfully. “Too bad they don’t give Oscars for passing as human. Although, I did get the vessel, so in the greater scheme of things, I still win.”
“So, that’s why you wormed your way into the Guard?”
“Uh, yeah.” Seth gave me a pointed look. “You thought I was hanging around for the food?”
“Then... the Thrall? Getting Angela Linwood killed? That was you, too?”
“Dig a little deeper, Braedyn.” Seth crossed his arms, smirking. “I’ve been playing this game on multiple fronts. The Thrall, Linwood, those were the obvious moves.”
My mind churned sluggishly. “Mr. Hart?”
Seth inclined his head with a slight smile. “You suspected him early on. I just gave you a little shove here and there. The key was keeping you out of his dream. Admit it, once you tried to get into his dream you freaked out a little bit, didn’t you?”
“You shielded his mind?” I didn’t have to feign my curiosity.
“Useful trick, that,” Seth said. “I also shielded Amber’s mind, but you never went after her, not even after all those threats about what you could do to her.”
“Amber?” Something shifted in my mind. I cast my thoughts back, suddenly numb. “What does she have to do with—?”
“Oh, come on,” Seth chuckled. “You didn’t really think she was that evil did you? I mean, the girl’s got her moments, sure. But trying to get Lucas killed? I thought I might be tipping my hand there, but you bought it.” He shook his head.
My palm throbbed in protest and I glanced down, unaware until that moment that I’d balled my hands into fists. I raised my eyes back to Seth, seething with white-hot rage.
“You’re angry with me.” Seth gave me a look of pity. “It’s a bit misdirected, though. You really only have yourself to blame.”
“How do you figure?” I managed, my voice thick with outrage.
“Well, manipulation is one of my strong suits, but you did make it easy for me.” Seth spread his hands wide. “The key is to identify what it is someone finds desirable. You,” he pointed his finger at me with a knowing smile. “You like the wounded boys.” He glanced pointedly at Lucas for emphasis. “So I faked up a sad history, topped it off with the tragic death of a fake mom, and voila. Putty in my hands.”
I shook my head as a thousand new questions flooded my thoughts. Before I could put one of them into words, Seth said something that stopped me cold.
“Royal—now he was a bit more fun.” Seth rubbed his hands together with pride. “Royal likes his boys witty.” I stared at Seth, horrified, but he went on. “Convincing him to hold his tongue? Not as easy as you’d think. He was so eager to tell his besties all about our magical tryst.”
“Royal is your friend,” I said, reeling.
“No,” Seth said, as though explaining something to a child. “Royal is human. That makes him my enemy.”
“But he’s not,” I protested. “He’s not in the Guard, he’s no threat to you. Why? Why hurt him?”
Seth sighed. “It was supposed to keep you occupied until moonrise. I’ll admit, it was a desperate move.” He shrugged. “But I hadn’t counted on you figuring out the ritual would open the seal—or that it could be stopped. Too smart for your own good, by the way.” Seth wagged his finger at me in mock admonishment. “Once you knew the truth, I needed to give you something else to think about. Though, I have to say I’m surprised. I thought you’d try a teensy bit harder to find him.” Seth gave me a sour smile. “Guess I overestimated how much he means to you.”
I hurled myself at Seth.
He moved with stunning speed, dodging my attack and clubbing his forearm down against my leg. Pain exploded across my thigh. I staggered to the floor, unable to draw breath for a moment. Across the sanctuary, I saw Lucas and Cassie struggling with the beam laid across the mission’s main doors. Even under their combined effort, it wasn’t budging.
“Do yourself a favor,” Seth said. “Stay down.”
An overwhelming despair cut through me, hollowing out my middle and leaving me cold. I need help, I thought. The Guard wasn’t going to make it in time. Karayan, I willed the message to reach her. Karayan, please, help me.
“Hello.” Seth snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Are you still with us?”
“Huh?” I breathed. The connection I’d tried to forge with Karayan snapped.
“Eloquent little thing,” Illydia sniffed.
“Patience,” Seth said, giving his sister a patient smile. He turned back to me. “As I was saying, I have a proposition for you.”
“Let me guess. You want me to join forces with you?” I asked, conscious of every moment I could buy for Cassie and Lucas.
“I’d settle for you agreeing to sit this battle out,” Seth answered.
“And if I do—you’ll just let me go?”
“Seems very generous,” Illydia said. “Perhaps you should require a show of good faith first, brother.”
Seth looked at me shrewdly. “Not a bad idea.” He glanced at Illydia. “Any suggestions?”
Without taking her eyes off of me, she raised one graceful hand to point straight at Lucas. “Kill that one. Then you are free to go.”
I stared at Seth incredulous. “Seth?”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Hm. I kind of like this idea.” Seth turned his eyes toward Lucas and Cassie, still struggling uselessly against the massive mission doors. “Look, they’re dead one way or the other.”
Cold terror spilled down my spine. I scrambled away from Seth, meaning to sprint to Lucas and Cassie. Maybe if we could get the doors open they could run.
I made it two steps before Seth caught me in a headlock. He leaned slightly forward, compressing my throat against his forearm, cutting off my breath. I clawed at his skin.
“Take a moment to consider your options,” he said. “I don’t mind waiting.”
He eased back, and sweet air flooded into my lungs. I took a deep breath, then shifted my weight, meaning to leverage him off his feet. Seth sensed my intentions. I felt his body tense as he drove his fist into my lower back.
I cried out as fiery pain lanced through my core.
Lucas turned at the sound, eyes clouding with rage. He started toward us, but Cassie grabbed his hand, stopping him. Lucas shrugged her off.
“Kidney,” Seth said grimly. “Hurts, doesn’t it?”
I choked back a sob, my mind grasping for a way out. Lucas was barreling toward us. If I didn’t act soon, he’d be Seth’s next target and no one would be left to get Cassie to safety.
Seth still had me in a tight grip. I let my body go limp, my knees buckling. As I started to fall, Seth released me. He must have bought the feint, because he wasn’t prepared when I kicked my good leg up with all my might.
My foot caught him squarely in the chest and I heard a satisfying snap as one of his ribs cracked. Seth hissed, stumbling back as a wave of pain crashed into him. I rolled to my feet, ready to press my advantage.
“Get Cassie out of here!” I shouted to Lucas. He skidded to a stop, eyes narrowing. I needed him to take care of her. “Please,” I said, pouring all my desperation into the word. Lucas clenched his jaw, but he nodded. A rush of relief flooded through me when he turned away.
I’d forgotten Illydia.
She snaked her fingers into my hair and wrenched me back. I fell, sprawling onto the floor. She dropped on top of me, han
ds latching around my throat. Unlike Seth, Illydia had no interest in conversation—no interest in me. She squeezed. In seconds black spots were crushing out my field of vision. I scrabbled uselessly against her grip; I couldn’t pry her fingers from around my throat.
I reached up, a last ditch effort. One of my hands caught a fistful of her long blond hair. I jerked her closer, felt her grip loosen in surprise. I clapped my free hand against her forehead.
Images and thoughts rushed into my mind. Illydia and Seth, passing for wealthy land owners, traveling across the New World chasing rumors of a recently discovered seal. They’d carted their prize across two continents looking for a door to the other plane, keeping the vessel carefully hidden for close to 100 years, biding their time. Then, victory so close they could taste it, they began the ritual. But the monks guarding the seal laid a trap for them—and Illydia fell into their clutches. With the seal half-opened, they’d cast Illydia out of the world of men and into darkness, then worked to reverse the ritual before the seal was rendered impotent.
I shivered as the images of that other plane filled my mind. No sun fell in their world. It was a place of envy, hatred, pain. Illydia had raged against the darkness for centuries. Her banishment seemed permanent—until she and Seth had found one another again through the dream, and he’d come to her with a plan.
Illydia’s hands released me and I scrabbled away from her.
I risked a look back at the main sanctuary door. Lucas was using a large candlestick holder as a lever, trying to pry the wooden crossbeam out of its seat. Cassie was huddled against the wall, staring at me with numb horror. I felt a wave of concern for her.
Illydia was studying me, her face registering shock. Seth, recovering, noticed this with a dry chuckle.
“I told you,” Seth wheezed. “She’s stronger than she looks.”
I rubbed a hand against my throat. It hurt to swallow. With some effort, I stood, facing them down.
“I’d like to give you one more chance,” Seth said, straightening. His eyes gleamed with hard triumph and I knew—flush with the energy he’d taken from Royal—he’d already managed to heal the broken rib. “You’re powerful, Braedyn. More powerful than I think you realize. That makes you a great ally. It also makes you a dangerous enemy. So you can see the unfortunate position that puts me in.”
Incubus (The Daughters Of Lilith) Page 30
