“Lizzy, what did you do?” He rubbed his head, checking for blood. “What happened?”
Plucking the dagger off the ground, I sheathed it and smiled. “I killed it. Take that, Ashley.”
The bragging rights were mine for a month. I couldn’t wait to see her face when she heard that I’d out scored her today. She’d be furious.
“No, I can see that.” He pointed at the last wisps of demon lingering above the ground. “But what was that thing you did before? You were glowing. You’re not nearly advanced enough to have mastered those Nephilim powers. I only just started working with my own. Only a handful of warriors have that ability.”
A grin pulled at the corner of my mouth. “Really? I’m getting that good?”
“It’s not a good thing, Lizzy.” He frowned, pulling me back down to Earth. “If you let your powers get out of hand like that, you’ll hurt yourself, or worse. You’re not ready to control them.”
“But I’ve been working my butt off.” I threw my hands up in the air, wincing at the momentarily forgotten shoulder wound. “I can handle it.”
His eyes shifted to my shoulder and they went wide with concern. He jumped to my side, forgetting the lecture, and gripped my shoulder too hard. I gasped as pain radiated from the wound.
“Sorry,” he said with an apologetic frown, loosening his grip. “What happened?”
“It stabbed me.” I shrugged, causing pain to shoot through my shoulder again. “It took my dagger...” The fierce look Gabe shot me threw me into defensive mode. “It was only for a second. But it’s just a shoulder wound, I promise. It’ll heal fast.”
I’d had worse wounds than this from defeating the demon that inhabited the goddess, Margaret Thatcher. A little shoulder wound wasn’t going to get me down.
He shook his head. “Your father isn’t going to like this...”
I stretched to my tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Luckily for us, he’s still in Europe.”
As it turned out, my luck had ran out. We returned to Westward Manor to find my father and his sister, Esther, back from their European trip. I didn’t even have a chance to get my shoulder patched up and to change out of my bloody clothes. Luke found me in the great hall, his eyes going straight to my wound.
“What happened?” he demanded, his blue eyes filling with concern.
My father stood over six feet tall, with broad shoulders, a slender waist, and a square jaw. We shared the same brown hair color, although his had begun to gray. It was hard to think of this bookish man with wire-rimmed glasses as a warrior. He spent most of his time cooped up in his office, handling Nephilim issues or browsing his eclectic collection of books.
“Looks like today’s sweep got a little out of hand.” Esther pressed a finger to my wound, making me wince. “This will need a few stitches.”
Towering over me, she shared the same graying hair as my father, only hers fell down to her elbows. She had light blue eyes and a splash of freckles that dusted her nose and cheeks. Unlike the athletic shape of most Nephilims, my aunt had a plump figure which she hid under loose blouses. Instead of training as a warrior, she spent her time in the medical and research wards. She was a good reminder that life didn’t end after gatekeeping. There were many other jobs at the manor to keep the Nephilim busy.
“I thought Gabe was taking care of you.” Luke turned to Gabe with an accusing glare. “You promised to take care of her.”
“He did.” I tugged on Luke’s arm. “We just had a little accident. I’m fine, really.”
“You’re not fine. You need to take a break from these patrols. They’re getting out of hand.”
Esther hummed and nodded in agreement. “You’re lucky this wasn’t worse.”
I frowned at them. The patrols were the best part about training. I was learning so much from those trips into the woods. Surely, he wouldn’t take them away from me.
“Gabe, tell them I’m fine.”
“Actually, I happen to agree with your father.”
I looked up at him and felt my forehead wrinkle. We’d done just fine today. Taken down more than our fair share of feral demons. That’s what we warriors were supposed to do. And I was getting better. All I had to do was focus my rage into the attack—and I had plenty of that left over from the months before—and I could easily take down a handful of demons at once. How could he say things were getting out of hand?
“She started glowing today,” Gabe explained to them, ignoring my frustration. “We were in the middle of a maneuver when she lost control.”
“You glowed?” Luke returned his attention to me, even more concerned than before. “Did you feel pain?”
The pain of a million knives cutting into my skin, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“Maybe, a little.” I shrugged. “It went away.”
“Darling, that is a telltale sign that you are in over your head.” His lips pressed into a very thin line and he peered over the top of his glasses at me. “Nephilim powers are fierce. The fact that you can tap into them already tells me that you are very strong. But they must also be accompanied with great control. They can kill you if you don’t learn how to work with them.”
I clenched my teeth, fighting back the urge to argue. At least he knew I was strong. And every day, I got a little stronger. The faster, the better. I had to make up for a childhood wasted by living in Hanna and missing out on Nephilim training.
Thanks to Gabe’s fantastic teaching, I was doing just that. Soon enough, they wouldn’t have to worry about me. I’d master the Nephilim powers just like I’d master the job of a gate keeper. It was just a matter of time.
“I’ll be careful.” I threw in a tight squeeze around Luke’s waist. He was a sucker for any affection from the daughter he’d just found out existed only months ago. “I promise.”
If he wanted to pursue the topic any further, he didn’t have the chance. At that moment, three people whom I’d never seen before appeared at the top of the grand staircase. The first was a woman with long jet-black hair that fell to her waist. Her olive skin glistened as if she’d just stepped out of the rain. A glossy black jumpsuit clung to her lithe figure and paired well with the patent leather pumps on her feet. She tossed her head about and placed a hand on her hip, as if she owned the place.
Next to her, two men appeared. The first was a fit blond with very fair features. His pale skin, blond eyebrows, and translucent eyelashes didn’t hide the chiseled feature of his jaw and thick neck. The final man was dark and tanned with short cropped hair and a crooked frown that gave the impression he was displeased with everything he saw. His t-shirt struggled to contain the muscular curve of his arms as he leaned against the stair railing.
Gabe leaned into Luke. “Are those...?”
“The Europeans,” Luke finished. “From Hell Gate Three.”
“They’ve come to assist in our demon problem,” Esther added in a grim tone.
Gabe looked as if he’d swallowed something sour. “Assist? You mean they’ve come to take over. As if we can’t take care of our own problems.”
Neither Luke nor Esther answered, but matching sour expressions settled on their faces.
The demon problem in our surrounding woods was becoming worse each passing month. It used to be that only a couple feral demons would manage to slip through the gate each year. Now, several came through a day. The board had tripled the patrols in an effort to keep the demons from escaping the woods and invading human territory. Once a demon found a human host, their strength multiplied and they could easily disappear into the masses, causing havoc and destruction.
No one knew why the gate was failing. But each member of the Westward Manor board carried the same weary look of concern. Something had to change. But calling in the Europeans wasn’t what they’d had in mind.
I could see why they didn’t like them. The Europeans gave off an air of superiority that settled on us peons like a dense acrid fog. The dozen or so Nephilim who had gathered in the
hall all wore similar expressions of dislike on their faces as they gazed up at the newcomers. Whatever the Europeans were here to do, they were going to have a hard time gaining any approval from us.
Luke sighed and turned to me. “We’ve got to get to a board meeting. The Europeans are bringing some suggested improvements to us that we’ll have to implement. In the meantime, we need to do something about you.”
A groan passed through my lips and Luke raised an eyebrow at me. It seemed like every week we were having the same discussion.
I wasn’t a child anymore.
My mother had disappeared after she fell pregnant with me and somehow ended up back at home with her horrible mother, to give birth. When she died during labour, it’d been up to Granny to raise me, until I finally broke free from her grasp.
But now, I was twenty-one years old. Unfortunately, Luke had missed out on those precious early years. He had to realize I wasn’t a toddler. He didn’t need to do anything about me.
“Until you can learn to better control your powers, I’m instituting a lockdown,” Luke continued.
My mouth fell open. “Wait, no you can’t...”
“I can and I will.” He lifted his chin and set his jaw. “Lizzy Redding, you are hereby grounded. No gate keeping for you. I want you on the manor grounds at all times.”
An irritating little smile of victory flashed across Gabe’s face. “Sounds good to me.”
I threw a withering glare his way and turned back to my father. “That’s not fair. It was one little accident. I can’t get better if I’m not allowed to fight demons.”
“You will get better by training.” He wrapped his arm around me and I fought the urge to shake him off. “I’m only doing this for your own good. These kinds of accidents shouldn’t happen. You could get hurt.”
He wasn’t being fair. If only he could see how amazing we were out there. Even with the increasing number of feral demons roaming our woods, our patrols had been flawless, except for today. It wasn’t fair to hold one accident against me.
My thoughts must’ve shown on my face, because Luke placed a finger over my mouth and shook his head.
“No, no, no. You may think it’s not fair of your father to do this, but I’m also on the board. It’s my responsibility as a board member to keep our Nephilim safe. As of today, you are not to go out into those woods until I say otherwise. Do you understand?”
I looked to Esther for help. If anyone could help me here, it would be my aunt—as fierce a woman as I’d ever met. She didn’t compromise on her thoughts and actions even in a room surrounded by men. She believed in the power of women and raising each other up.
“Don’t look at me,” she said with a tilt of her head, her forehead wrinkling. “This is up to your father.”
A bit of rage flared up inside me, the kind that usually helped me focus in my fight against the ferals. With a calming breath, I packed it back down and managed to shrug casually. So much for female solidarity.
“Fine, you win.”
The triumphant smiles on both Gabe and Luke’s faces irked me. I didn’t stay around long enough to let them gloat. With a wave over my shoulder, I headed toward the infirmary to get patched up.
They’d see their mistake before long.
Chapter Three
I sat at the edge of the pool, hugging my knees to my chest. Water dripped from my forehead down to the tiled floor. Hot steam lined the windows of the pool house, which looked out upon a dark lawn. My fingers scratched mindlessly at the stitches in my shoulder. Already, the wound had begun to heal, thanks to the Nephilim super healing powers. It wouldn’t be long before the dull ache in my shoulder disappeared.
A splash of water hit me in the eyes and I made a sour face. My friends Adam, Ashley, and Raquel had joined me for some lazy laps, but the session had quickly digressed into a dunking war. Raquel’s red mop of hair floated on the surface of the pool as Adam pushed her under with one hand. Laughing maniacally, he used his other arm to fend off Ashley’s attack.
“Come on,” Raquel called to me after she spit out a mouthful of water. “Join us.”
She wore a ruby red monokini that revealed her toned obliques and rail-thin physique. As Esther’s only daughter, she shared her mother’s spattering of freckles across her face. We were already roommates when we found out we were cousins. It’d been hard losing my best friend this summer, but Raquel was a balm on that wound. Our friendship had quickly grown into something more like sisters.
I shook my head. There was too much going on in my mind to play around in the water. And besides, I didn’t think my shoulder could take it.
“She’s nothing but a chicken,” Adam replied in his irritating way of boasting.
With short blond hair, an athletic build, and a devilish grin, he was the perfect representation of the boy next door. And he liked nothing better than to get on my nerves, especially when Gabe wasn’t around. It was hard to believe those two were brothers.
He flashed a grin and flexed his sculpted chest. “She’s afraid to take on the beast.”
I rolled my eyes, but it was Ashley who responded.
“No, she just knows better than to get into the water with a hands-y shark like you.” She adjusted her bikini top and grabbed the strings that had become untied in the back. “I think you groped me back there.”
“It’s not my fault they got in the way,” he said with a grin, shrugging his shoulders. “Besides, three girls and a guy in a steamy pool sounds like the start to the perfect movie.”
“More like, the perfect horror movie,” Ashley muttered, wading away from him.
If I had to be honest, I’d never seen a more perfect creature than Ashley. She had supermodel features—towering height with a thin, muscular build, sculpted cheekbones, and perfectly wavy hair, the color of honey. Seeing her in her bathing suit didn’t make me feel much better about myself. The girl didn’t have an ounce of bad body fat on her. And she was a warrior through and through. My competition on and off the battlefield. As much as she liked to complain about Adam, the two of them had been a couple on and off for much of the summer. Right then, I believed they were on. Still, you never knew with the two of them.
My attention was drawn to the other side of the pool as my green-eyed warrior entered. Gabe swept into the pool house like a Calvin Klein model, pulling his shirt up a defined abdomen inch by inch and yanking it over his head. My gaze lingered on his half-naked form. It was a good thing I was already sitting down. My knees had begun to quiver.
He tossed the t-shirt carelessly aside and lined up at the edge of the pool, his toes hanging over the edge. Arms straight above his head, he dove seamlessly into the water, hardly making a ripple. I sighed audibly as I watched him begin to do laps.
“I can’t believe you get to kiss that,” Ashley said, launching up out of the water to sit next to me. Water streamed down her face and over the curves of her chest, like some erotic movie. I averted my eyes to see Adam staring at her, open mouthed, from across the pool.
“You get to kiss that,” I offered weakly, pointing at him.
She snorted and began to wring out her hair. “Yeah, but that’s different. That’s just for fun. When I find my partner, it’ll change.”
Raquel had once told me that a lot of matched partners had relationships that ventured into more physical territory. Many got married. It made sense. Our pairings were ordained from heaven. Like soul mates, we were destined to be together. I’d been paired accidentally with Gabe only a couple months ago. It was the same night I’d found my father and learned I was part angel-warrior. It still didn’t feel real.
“What if you get paired with someone like Brian Scott?” Raquel asked, popping up next to Ashley’s legs.
She gagged and stuck out her tongue. “I would never get paired with someone like Brian Scott. I’m going to be paired with someone who can keep up with me. Someone amazing. And definitely someone gorgeous to look at.”
I laughed to myself. By a
ll human accounts, Brian Scott was still a babe. He was Nephilim, after all. They were all built like demi-gods of Greek proportions. But poor Brian didn’t measure up to Ashley and Raquel’s standards. It was probably because he had decided to devote his life running the technology at the manor instead of becoming a gatekeeper. They had one thing in mind and it was the men who trained to exterminate demons. Anyone else just didn’t exist.
The girls I’d grown up with would’ve appreciated a man like Brian Scott. They’d been especially hungry for any type of male company, living in a town of all women. The few boys we had at the rural public school didn’t seem to quench that thirst. Despite the warnings from the town elders about the danger of men, my friends and I never quite got it.
My best friend Kate used to give me cutouts from her teen magazines to stuff beneath my mattress. Men of all shapes and sizes, colors, and looks. We poured over them, curious to learn what made them all so dangerous. Surely, the smiling boy on the front of our glossy magazine cover was different. He was kind and sweet. Never raised his fist to a woman. Respectful.
Funny to think I’d found him just a few miles from Hanna, living in a giant stone mansion. Gabe was everything those men had seemed and more. I was so lucky to have him.
“How’s the training going?” Ashley leaned back to look up at the lights hanging above. “You’d better keep it up. You’re not going to beat me next month, you know.”
I clenched my jaw, too upset to spill the news.
“Lizzy’s grounded to the manor,” Raquel offered up for me. “Indefinitely.”
I glared at her, but she just shrugged.
Soul of a Demon Page 2
