“Did you have a vision? What did you see?”
Iris’s eyes were watery and she had her hand on her throat. “No, not a vision. Just … I just don’t feel right.”
“Okay.” Lilliah took Iris’s hand and led her to the sitting area.
Jean watched them closely, her eyes slightly narrowed.
“So where’s the Grail?” Caleb asked, pulling Jean’s attention back to him.
“Why do you need it?” Jean asked sweetly, crossing her legs and leaning back.
“What?” Caleb stood. “I need it because it’s my responsibility. I gave it to you so you could keep it safe.”
“And it is safe. But before I give it to you, I need to know why you brought an angel here. And why is he here?” she spat, her head snapping in Benedict’s direction.
“Why does it matter? I just need the Grail. I trusted you with it and I need it back.” Caleb grabbed his head in his hands and started pacing.
“Fine.” Jean stood, sighing and headed for a door in the far corner of the room.
As soon as she was far enough away, Lilliah leaned closer to Benedict. “Iris doesn’t feel too good. She has a bad feeling about this.”
Everyone looked over to Iris. Sweat was dripping down her face, and her eyes were glazed over and unfocused.
Benedict moved to kneel in front of her. “Iris, look at me. Describe how you’re feeling.”
“It feels like I want to have a vision, like I should be having one, but something is stopping me.” She fanned her face with her hand, taking in long, deep breaths.
Benedict rubbed his hands up and down her arms soothingly while talking to Caleb. “What do you know about this woman? Who is she? What does she do?”
“She’s a witch, I know.” Caleb was still pacing the living room, hands fisted in his hair.
“We need to get the Grail and get out of here.” Benedict stood just as Jean walked back into the room with a black box in hand.
“Here you go.” She handed it to Caleb, who looked as if he wasn’t sure whether he should take the box or run away.
Benedict stepped forward. “This is the Grail?”
“No.” Jean lifted the lid, and thick, black smoke poured out.
Benedict fell to the ground first, then Caleb. Iris and Lilliah turned to run, but the smoke caught up with them before they could make it to the door. Lilliah fell to her knees, and Iris grabbed the wall, trying to stand.
“You didn’t expect me to just hand this over, did you?”
Lilliah couldn’t see who Jean was talking to; she was too busy trying not to fall into the darkness the smoke was still drawing her into.
“So, you are the angel—the one Azrael fell in love with, hmm?”
All Lilliah could see were Jean’s shoes as she approached and knelt in front of her.
“Wha-what … do … you want,” Lilliah choked out, staring down at the floor.
The only other sound in the room came from Iris’s harsh intakes of breath.
She placed something on the floor. “He thought you would come to me looking for this.”
Lilliah managed to turn her head to see what it was—the Grail. It had to be. It looked just like Iris had described—small and wooden. It was so close, yet Lilliah couldn’t reach for it.
“Now that you’re here, I need to make a call.” Jean stood, leaving Lilliah on the floor.
She could hear Jean walking around somewhere behind her, her heels clacking against the wooden floor. “She’s here, and she brought some friends with her.”
Using all her strength, Lilliah managed to lift her head. Iris was sitting on the floor, with her back to the wall and her eyes closed. Her breathing wasn’t as harsh now.
“Iris,” Lilliah tried to shout, but it came out as a hoarse whisper. “Iris, please. Are you awake?”
“They are on their way over here. The Devil and your beloved boyfriend, Azrael.” Jean walked over to her and knelt back down and grabbed Lilliah’s head and arm, turning her over so she was on her back.
“Before they arrive, I need to take care of a few things. Namely, the spell that’s surrounding you. What is this? A shielding spell to hide you from the big, bad Devil?” Jean’s nails dug into Lilliah’s head.
Despite all the pain, she still couldn’t move. Her body felt as if it weighed too much, and was crushing her lungs. It was as if her body was no longer hers to use, it felt like she was a guest in her own body. Darkness was pulling her in. She knew as soon as she would let it, the pain would go away. As much as she wanted to, or as much as her body might have craved the relief she somehow knew the darkness promised, Lilliah couldn’t go there. If she gave in, Lucifer would win.
“You need to hold on tight. I’m just going to get this spell out of you.”
Jean started chanting softly and quietly. Lilliah couldn’t even make out the words.
“Oh, this is one tough spell.” Jean laughed, her grip tightening. “I’ll just have to try a little harder.”
She restarted the chant, this time louder. All Lilliah could do was lie there, helpless.
She could feel the spell leaving her body, its power slipping away. Lucifer would be able to find her again. Would he be able to find her mother as well? She couldn’t let that happen.
Lilliah closed her eyes and focused in on her power. She had no idea how to summon it, but if there was ever a time to use it, this was it.
Closing her eyes, Lilliah tried to draw it out. She could feel something building in her stomach, like pent-up energy that needed to be released. She needed to use it somehow. She never had to really think about the spell before. Her body normally took over and always knew what to do or how to protect her. But nothing was happening. Her body or power wasn’t protecting her anymore.
“There.” Jean sat back on her heels. “The spell is gone and you are …”
Jean fell on the floor with a thud. Lilliah couldn’t see what had happened; all she could hear was Iris screaming. A hand pulled her up until she was standing and staring into the eyes of a man—a man with a gun.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” he asked, shaking her slightly.
Men filled the room. They helped Iris off the floor and then helped Benedict and Caleb, both dazed, to their feet.
“Sir, we need to leave the premises now.”
Lilliah didn’t know who he was talking to. Slowly, she looked down at Jean. Blood was spilling from her head. They’d shot her. Jean was dead.
“Lilliah! Lilliah, are you okay?” Rebecca was in front of her, her hands running up and down her body, checking for injuries. “You don’t seem hurt. What did that bitch do to you? What happened up here?”
Lilliah wanted to speak, to tell everyone about the spell, but she couldn’t. Nothing was coming out. Iris was crying behind her, and blood was pooling around Jean’s head.
“I couldn’t … I couldn’t do anything.” She placed her hand over her stomach. The pressure was gone. Why hadn’t her powers worked? Why couldn’t she have saved them?
“Lilliah, calm down.” Rebecca pulled her into a hug, wrapping her arms around her tightly. “It’s okay now.”
“No. Lucifer’s coming.”
Chapter 20
Derek downed his glass of whiskey and refilled it immediately. “What happened back there?”
“She betrayed me, but it doesn’t really matter now, because she’s dead.” Caleb stared down at his glass. It was the first time he’d spoken since they’d gotten back from Jean’s apartment. They had returned to the crappy building they had stayed in the night before.
A few hours had passed since they’d left the house with the Holy Grail. Derek and his guys had swarmed the apartment, getting her, Iris, Benedict, and Caleb out within minutes. Lilliah hadn’t asked what they had done with Jean’s body, and she really didn’t have it in her to care. Caleb, however, didn’t seem to feel the same way.
“What did you expect me to do?” Derek held out his arms. “Ask nicely for her to let you go?
Ask nicely for her not to call Lucifer?”
The room fell silent again, all of them in deep thought. Jean was just another name on a long list of traitors. Everyone they turned to betrayed them, always siding with Lucifer. They couldn’t trust anyone.
“I can’t keep my guys on this for much longer,” Derek said. “My bosses are asking too many questions.” He sat next to Benedict on the sofa.
They were all sitting around the Holy Grail, drinking whiskey and planning their next move. Lilliah had no ideas. No matter what they did or how hard they tried, Lucifer was always one step ahead of them, and now they were losing Derek.
“It’s fine. You’ve done all you can. Thank you,” Benedict assured him as he swirled his drink in his glass.
Iris was sitting on the floor, refusing to drink and barely speaking to anyone. She held her legs to her chest tightly, occasionally letting out a little sniffle. Lilliah had tried to comfort her, but she hadn’t wanted that. She’d flinch whenever anyone would get too close.
“You can all stay here as long as you need. There are always men based here, but I will be taking the bulk of them with me.” Derek finished his drink and stood to leave. “I really am sorry, guys.”
No one spoke as he left the room.
Sebastian picked up the Grail, turning it upside down and examining it. “It looks very plain. Not how I imagined it at all.”
“Plain or not, it’s still very powerful. We just have to find a way to use it.” Benedict took it from Sebastian. “It’s not a toy.”
“Are we sure it’s even the right one?” Lilliah crossed her legs and rested her elbows on her tights, not looking at anyone in particular.
“We showed it to Iris and she nodded.”
Iris looked up slightly when Benedict said her name, but didn’t speak. She looked exhausted.
“I don’t really think Iris is in the right frame of mind at the moment.” Lilliah endeavoured to smile at her friend, but Iris stared back at her emotionlessly. “All I’m saying is that Lucifer knew we would be there. Why didn’t he take the Grail?”
“It was a trap. He’d left it there to lure us in.” Benedict put the Grail back in the middle of the table.
Lilliah wasn’t convinced by any of it. “But Jean could have just said it was there and we would have had no way of checking to see whether she was telling the truth. Why leave it? Why give us an opportunity to get it? It makes no sense.”
Lucifer’s actions didn’t make any sense to her anyway. He was the Devil, a fallen angel, yet he was back on Earth, and what was he doing? Taking Azrael? He had said he’s wanted to take revenge on Michael; why hadn’t he?
“I bet that us actually getting the Grail never entered his head. He thought he’d kill us and that would be that.” Rebecca yawned and rested her head on Sebastian’s arm.
“Maybe.” Lilliah still wasn’t buying it, but looking around the room, she could tell how tired everyone was. It wasn’t even eight o’clock, but fighting the Devil on a daily basis was tiring. “I’m shattered. I’m going to bed.”
Everyone stood apart from Iris, who remained on the floor. They all filtered out, muttering their goodnights.
Lilliah sat next to Iris. “I don’t know what you saw today, but I’m sorry.” She waited for Iris to talk, but when she didn’t, she nervously continued. “I was trying so hard to get my power to work, for that blue stuff to come out of my hands, but it just didn’t work. I don’t know why, and I am so sorry.”
Lilliah jumped when Iris’s cold hand grabbed her. “None of that was your fault, Lil.”
She let go and crawled over to the table. Lilliah was about to disagree, but instead she watched as Iris carefully picked up the Grail.
“This is the real deal.”
“That’s good, then. One less thing to worry about. What did you see, in the house? You screamed so loudly, but I couldn’t help you.”
Iris ran her fingers over the Grail. “I saw death. So much death.”
Lilliah went cold. “Whose death?”
Iris didn’t meet Lilliah’s eyes. She was too busy examining the object in her hands. “Everyone’s. Lucifer will kill everyone, and we can’t stop it. Not alone.”
“Did you speak to the angels? Did they show you this?” Lilliah stood, her chest feeling heavy. She needed to get out. She needed some air.
“No, but I saw us all lying there with everything burnt around us. Me, you, Rebecca, Sebastian—all of us.” Iris put the Grail back on the table and stood. For the first time, Lilliah could see the dark bruises under her eyes.
“That’s not going to happen. It just can’t.” Lilliah had no idea who she was trying to convince more, herself or Iris.
“We can try and use the Grail to get Azrael back, then we can find a way to send Lucifer back to Hell. But all we can do is try. We’re flowers in a hurricane.”
Lilliah was speechless as Iris left the room. What had happened?
Grabbing the Grail, she stormed into her bedroom. Rebecca and Sebastian were cuddled on the bed, filling the room with their soft snores and Rebecca’s occupational snort. She grabbed her nightclothes and settled on the sofa. Iris still wasn’t back. Lilliah stared at the ceiling and waited for the door to open, which it did half an hour later.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” Iris slid under her cover, not bothering to change.
“You didn’t.” Lilliah lay in the dark, knowing she should say something, anything, to help Iris not be so afraid, but she just couldn’t find the right words.
“At first it terrified me, seeing everyone like that, knowing it was a possibility, but I’m not afraid anymore.”
“You’re not afraid? I am.” Lilliah squeezed her eyes shut, tightening her grip on the quilt.
“If we die, then we die. At least we tried to do some good. You never know. We might get to go to Heaven.”
Iris’s detachedness shocked Lilliah so much she couldn’t respond. How had Iris accepted her death so easily? How could she have possibly come to terms with this?
“I hear Benedict had tried so many spells,” Iris went on, “trying to find the right one to send Lucifer back to Hell. I guess we’re running out of options.”
Lilliah let the words sink in. She knew Benedict had been trying spells, trying to find the right one to defeat Lucifer, but the thought had never occurred to her that maybe there wasn’t one.
“I think all of this is for nothing. Lucifer’s going to kill and burn everything and everyone. No angels are going to come swooping down to help. It’s just us,” Iris said simply.
“Lucifer isn’t undefeatable. The angels sent him to Hell before, and it will happen again. It has to.” Lilliah wet her lips. She had no idea how to voice the tidal wave of emotions she felt when she thought about Lucifer. “You know, I’ve never really thought about faith before. Even when I found out I was an angel, I wasn’t particularly religious. That’s not what I believe in. I believe in people, and the good they can do. I get that there are so many bad people out there, but there’s also good. And the thought of all of those good people not existing anymore, well, it’s just unthinkable. So, we don’t really have a choice to win against Lucifer or not. We have to win; we have to win for all those good people out there.”
She could hear Iris turn in her covers, but she didn’t say anything. Lilliah put her hand over her mouth, muffling her sobs until eventually she drifted to sleep.
Lucifer stood in front of her. “It’s about time you got here. I was starting to worry.”
Lilliah jumped, her whole body shaking. “No, you can’t be here anymore. You can’t do this.”
She looked around, her heart missing a beat when she recognised where they were.
“Azrael’s apartment is very lovely.” Lucifer turned and headed for the living room sofa, leaving Lilliah standing in fear. “He also has an extraordinary collection of whiskey. I’d never tried it before, you know. I have your love to thank for introducing me to it.”
Lucif
er turned his back on her and grabbed a glass from a nearby coffee table and poured himself a drink. Seizing the chance, Lilliah ran for the door and pulled on the handle—locked.
“You didn’t really think I’d leave the door open, did you? You constantly offend me, Lilliah.”
She turned to face him once more. He was sitting down, his feet resting on the table.
“How is this real? You can’t get in my head anymore.” She looked around the room, searching for anything she could use against him. The kitchen—there would be something in the kitchen.
“That Jean woman broke the spell, but of course she didn’t do it right.” He shook his head disapprovingly. “That’s why I am not in your room, not killing everyone you ever loved. But I can get into that pretty little head of yours.”
Lilliah ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife from the set. She held it out and pointed it at Lucifer, ready to do as much damage as she needed.
“What exactly are you going to do with that?” He looked over at her, his voice laced with boredom.
“I’ll stab you with it if you come too close. Then I’ll kill you with my bare hands.” She moved to the back of the kitchen, needing to put as much space between them as possible.
“Once again, you offend me. Do you really think a knife can kill me? And besides, you can’t hurt me while we’re here. Just like I can’t hurt you.”
Before she could react or move, Lucifer was in front of her. He seized her wrist in one of his large hands and plunged the knife into his stomach.
Lilliah screamed and struggled to yank her wrist free, but his grip was too strong. She squeezed her eyes shut and fisted her free hand, trying her hardest to conjure up her power.
“That little magic trick of yours won’t work here.” Lucifer released her wrist, and Lilliah pulled it to her chest and cradled it. She didn’t care what he had said; dream or not, that was going to bruise. “I must say, I didn’t expect you to have such powers. It explains why Michael has kept you locked away for so long.”
He stepped back and sipped his drink, ignoring the blood staining his shirt and dripping on the floor.
Ruthless (The Seraphim Series Book 2) Page 21
