Sera’s screams split the air as the cat’s claws raked through her jeans into bone and muscle like butter. Kyle climbed over the demon’s body until his hands reached around the nekomata’s neck. He didn’t stop squeezing despite teeth shredding his leg. His mind started to dull, but he couldn’t stop until he felt the neck change shape under his fingers, and his brain barely registered that he was strangling something human.
“No!” he shouted, pulling away automatically.
Confused, he leaned back, seeing another Sera crawling on her hands and knees toward him, her face horrified. The moment of indecision cost him dearly as the shape-shifter reared up toward him and rammed a broken piece of wood right into his rib cage with human hands. He gagged, vomiting blood, and heard a terrible scream.
Black spots danced before his eyes and then hands were pulling the creature off him as if it weighed nothing; a deformed hellish thing with a cat’s face on a human’s body was before him and then there was a flash of blinding light as a flaming golden sword stabbed through the creature’s body. It screamed as it died, flipping backward onto its shrinking form, until it was nothing more than a dark patch of ash on the carpet.
Behind it, all Kyle saw was Sera standing behind the dying creature, hair in her face and a golden sword flaming from her right hand. Its flame flickered as she stood, her face trance-like. Kyle blinked and the sword was gone. All that was left was Sera, kneeling over him, her face displaying sheer terror.
“Kyle? You OK?” Sera pressed against his side and he whimpered. “I don’t even know how you are still alive. You’ve lost so much blood.” She touched the piece of wood jutting out of his chest. “If I take this thing out, you’ll bleed to death.”
“Take … it … out,” he said, his voice barely a rasp. “Be OK.”
“You sure?”
“Trust … me.”
Sera ripped his T-shirt away from the edges of the piece of wood and grabbed it with two hands, pressing her foot against his shoulder for leverage. Then she heaved backward.
Kyle screamed, and he felt Sera press the heels of her palms against the skin of the gaping wound, applying pressure. “There’s too much blood. We have to call 911. Where’s my phone?”
“Be OK, wait,” Kyle said, coughing. His voice was thready but getting stronger. “Keep pressure on.”
“Why was that thing here?” Sera whispered, pressing until almost all her weight rested on top of Kyle’s chest. “It wanted you to go somewhere with it.”
“I don’t know,” Kyle gasped.
But he did know who’d sent the nekomata. It had to have been a pet—a spy of Azrath’s. He shivered, and wondered whether Azrath would know about the demon’s death. And who had killed it.
With several deep breaths, Kyle focused on healing himself from the inside out. After a few moments, he felt better, his Azura blood assuaging his mortal pain. He wasn’t immortal, but at least his Azura blood kept him from dying.
He stared at Sera’s hands against his chest and thought of the glowing weapon they’d wielded. As if sensing his stare, she pulled her hands away, wiping them on her jeans.
“We need a bandage or something,” she said, using a piece of his ripped shirt to mop up some of the blood pooling on his chest. Suddenly she froze, frowning at the gash.
“Sera—”
Her frown darkened as she watched his muscle and skin knitting back together. She leaned back slowly.
“Kyle? You’re—” She scooted her body back until she was a foot away, her expression accusing. “Your wound, it’s not bleeding anymore.” He drew himself into a sitting position, grimacing at the sore stiffness of his body. “You should be dead,” she said softly, watching him. “But you’re not.”
“No,” he said. “You saved me.” He stared at her hand intently and Sera pulled it self-consciously against her body. “What was that, Ser?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“The golden sword,” he said. “Where did it come from? How did you know it would kill the nekomata?”
“I didn’t—” She frowned again, this time staring down at her empty palms, and then glared at him. “You first. Why are you still alive? Anyone else would be dead.”
“Looks like we both have secrets,” Kyle said, and coughed, tasting blood. “I don’t want to keep anything from you anymore, Sera. I have something to tell you, something about me. It’s why I can heal so easily, why I didn’t die.” He coughed again and spat a mouthful of scarlet phlegm to the side. “I’m not exactly … human, as you may have already guessed.”
Sera’s smile was unexpected. Kyle could have sworn her whole face glowed from some light burning inside of her. “Me too,” she said with a shaky smile. “I guess I’m not either.”
Kyle frowned. Sera was human, he was sure of it. His ability had never failed him before. Then he thought of the mystical weapon she’d wielded with such ease. Another fit of coughing overcame him then.
“It’s a long story, my—” Sera turned as a light from the wall to the right of them caught her attention. Kyle followed her gaze. It was a glowing circle, like red embers left behind from some fire. “What’s this?” She reached toward it, her fingers grazing the shimmering outline.
“Sera, no!” Kyle bolted upright, the pain doubling him. He remembered the nekomata scratching at the wall with its tail, the burst of sparks. “Don’t touch that! It’s a—”
But it was too late.
The portal sucked Sera through it, her body melting into thin air, her face frozen in belated surprise at the last-minute understanding of his shout. And then she was gone. The echo of his roar reverberated against the walls.
In vain, Kyle pounded against the wall until his battered fingers bled, but the portal had already closed—its shape only built for one single transfer … meant for him. The glowing circle faded and disappeared, thin lines of blackened ash the only memory of its existence, and then they, too, disappeared.
And Sera had been taken instead.
To the bowels of hell.
THE PORTAL
Kyle dug his fingers against the wings tattooed on his head, but they remained flat, unresponsive. He couldn’t reach Jude no matter how hard he tried. And he could guess why—they weren’t anywhere in the Mortal Realm. He felt the panic settle into his bones. If Sera was human, she would die on the other side of the portal. But if Sera wasn’t just human, then she was in even more danger than he knew. The portal had been meant for him, not her. He owed it to her to do something.
Kyle pulled himself to his feet, still woozy from the blood he’d lost, and made his way downstairs. He got into his car and drove back to Sera’s. As he knocked on the door, he put all thoughts of what he was about to do out of his head.
Mrs. Caelum answered, her eyes filled with mistrust. “Yes?”
“I … ” Courage failed him.
“It’s OK, Sophia,” Micah said, walking past her to the door. “Kyle is a friend.”
“I know who he is. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to see Sera now, Kyle,” Sophia said after a hard look at Micah.
Kyle felt a rush of gratitude at Micah’s words and took a deep breath. “Please, listen to me. I’m here about Sera. She isn’t here. There’s been … an accident.” He stared at Sophia’s face. “Maybe you should sit down.”
Once in the kitchen, Kyle explained what had happened at Carla’s. Sera’s parents’ expressions went from shock to fear to panic in a matter of seconds. Before Sera’s mother could direct her clearly mounting anger at him, he continued, “She came to me, I swear. I stayed away, like you told me. I didn’t know the demon was going to be there. I know you think I’m bad news, and you’re probably right, but you have to know that I would never put Sera in danger. Never.”
Mr. Caelum interrupted him. “Where is the portal, Kyle?” His voice was urgent.
“I already checked, Sir. The portal is sealed.”
“I know, but I can still get an idea of where it went,
or at the very least try to reopen it. It’s worth a shot. Some portals leave a residue, like a shadow, of their path. We can try to recreate it.”
“You can do that?”
A shadowy thought niggled at Kyle’s brain and he pushed his energy carefully toward Mr. Caelum. But he was human, nothing more—it was hard to believe he was the mysterious Samsar.
“I can’t, but Micah can,” Sam said.
Kyle shook his head. “Even if he could, I know that portal doesn’t go to Illysia or anywhere in this realm. It goes to Xibalba. Which means you can’t go there. You’d die.” He glanced at Micah. “And he’d be too weak to even find Sera.”
Sam smiled, a gentle smile that made Kyle think of Sera. “You know who I am, don’t you, Son?”
“Sam,” Sophia said in warning. “We can’t trust him. Azrath—”
“If Azrath learns about Sera, we are lost. We have nothing to lose by trusting this boy.”
“You’re Sera’s father. Sam Caelum.” Kyle glanced at Micah, who nodded. “And Samsar.”
“Yes, I am Sera’s father, but what you don’t know is that Azrath is my brother.”
Kyle gasped. “But you’re human.”
“I am now, but I wasn’t always. I was an Azura Lord, like Azrath, once. Up until Sera’s birth.” Kyle felt the blood drain out of his body, remembering how furious Azrath had been when she’d hissed Samsar’s name in the white house. “Now you understand what kind of danger Sera is in, don’t you?” Sam said quietly.
“But Azrath thinks she is human, too.”
“As you probably realize, my brother will find out very quickly that Sera is a little more than mortal. The good thing is that she won’t die there, because of my Azura blood. So we must find her before Azrath does.”
Kyle was in shock. A child with both Daeva and Azura bloodlines, Sera was definitely something more than just another girl. “So she’s Daeva, too?” Kyle asked weakly.
“Sanrak,” Micah clarified.
Kyle stared at Sera’s mother, his mouth going instantly dry. No wonder she’d been able to shade both herself and Sera so well—she was one of the most powerful goddesses, the guardians of the Trimurtas. This new revelation was staggering.
“She killed the nekomata with deifyre,” Kyle said. “No Azura born has ever been able to wield deifyre.”
“Kyle,” Sophia said, her tone still guarded. “If Sam and Micah can recreate the portal, you’re the only one who can follow her.”
“You mean to Xibalba.” His voice was barely a whisper, but inside Kyle knew—he’d do anything to help get her back, even if it meant going to the place that had haunted him his entire life. He nodded.
“Sophia, you stay here in case she comes back. Micah and I will go with Kyle,” Sam said. Sophia whispered something to her husband that Kyle didn’t catch, and they embraced. Kyle turned away, embarrassed, catching Micah’s strained expression out of the corner of his eye.
The three of them drove back to Carla’s place and entered the house cautiously. It was still in shambles.
“The nekomata must have been a strong one,” Micah murmured as they crept upstairs. “I can still sense it even though it’s dead. Only the strongest demons leave that kind of essence behind.” He glanced at Kyle. “Where did it die?”
“It’s in this room,” Kyle said, showing him where Sera had killed the demon.
All that was left of it was a thick black burn mark that stank of decay. Micah placed his hand over it without touching the residue and closed his eyes. His forehead creased as he rocked back onto his heels.
“Very strong,” he repeated. “Strange. I have met my share of nekomatas over the years and they all felt the same. This one doesn’t. It was very old.” He turned to Kyle. “How did it look?”
“The usual—like a giant cat. This one shifted really fast, though, once to human form. And it … talked.”
“What did it say, Kyle?” Micah asked cautiously.
“It kept saying ‘come.’” Kyle cleared his throat. “And it wanted to eat Sera.”
“That’s it?”
“And something about a price, but that was it.”
“A price?”
Kyle shrugged. “I don’t really know. It was very guttural. Before it attacked, it drew the portal with its tail. It seemed so strange to me at the time, even though it barely took its eyes off of us.” He nodded toward the wall. “The portal was over there.”
Micah stared again, this time in disbelief. “You saw it draw the portal? Are you sure it wasn’t there before?”
Kyle turned his mind inward to the scene with the demon. He wasn’t sure what he’d seen; the two tails scratching against the wall now seemed less than what he’d thought originally. He knew that transient demons could not portal in and out of the Mortal Realm but rather had to be summoned or sent by someone.
“Maybe you’re right. It must have been there before.” He glanced at the wall where Sera had disappeared, where no visible trace of it remained.
Sam raised his palm in front of the wall. “Here?” he asked Kyle, who nodded.
Micah stooped beside him. A golden light filled the room as Micah’s hand glowed brightly against the wall, moving in a slow circle. Sam chanted something under his breath, his right hand on Micah’s shoulder. Faint red lines appeared beneath Micah’s incandescent palm.
Without warning, Sam placed both his hands directly on the red lines. He screamed as they burnt into his skin, but still he held them there, even as Micah grasped his shoulders, his blinding white aura flowing around and through them. Kyle squinted against its blaze. Then suddenly, everything went dark.
“What happened? Did Sam see anything? Does he know where the portal went? Did Sera actually go through it?” Kyle fired off in rapid succession. But Sam had collapsed against Micah, his eyes closed. They both looked drained. “Is he going to be OK?” Kyle asked Micah.
“Azura markings aren’t gentle on human bodies. I absorbed as much of the pain as I could, but it wasn’t enough.” His face was strained.
Sam stirred and opened his eyes. His hands were crisscrossed with faint red lines and dusted in black ash. He curled them into fists, even as his face tightened in pain.
“She’s there,” he gritted. “In Xibalba.” His eyes clouded over as they dropped from Kyle’s. “Not sure where. I don’t think the portal was my brother’s, although I sensed him there, too.”
“Azrath?” Kyle gasped. “Are you sure? I don’t understand. I just saw him here. Why would—”
Kyle clamped his lips together, realizing what he’d confessed. But it was too late. Micah and Sam were both staring at him in confusion and wariness. He backed away.
“It’s not what you think,” he said. “I only met him today, after Micah tracked the Ifrit and showed up at the shack. But he retreated back into a portal … ”
Sam pulled himself up to his feet and stumbled toward Kyle. His face was desperate. “Where? The portal before, was it in this realm?”
“I don’t know. I went into a big white house, and Azrath appeared there as a woman.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Azrath loves playing with emotions,” Sam said. “What does he want with you, Kyle?”
Kyle stared at the floor, his fingers crossing over one another. Looking up at Sam’s worried face, though, Kyle realized he had to trust someone, and if he couldn’t trust Sera, he’d trust her father if only because he loved her as much as Kyle did.
“He wants my ability,” he began after a deep breath, spitting the bitter words out of his mouth. “I can feel energies, even shaded ones. I helped them find Daeva. For Fyre. I’m not proud of what I’ve done, and I’ve done some terrible things. After I met Sera I knew even more that I didn’t want to end up in Xibalba. Azrath is, was, the only way out for me to stay here, with her.”
“I don’t understand,” Sam said. “Why would Azrath need Fyre?”
“I don’t know. I find the Daeva and the Ifrit kill them. That’s how I met Mi
cah. I led them right to him and Aria. It’s my fault she died.” Kyle stared ahead, unseeing. “And it’s my fault Sera’s in danger. My mother was right,” he whispered. “I am a curse to everyone around me. I should have let her kill me when she had the chance.”
“It’s not your fault,” Sam said gently, but Kyle shied away from his kindness.
“You’re wrong. You don’t know what I am. My mother, she knew, and she tried to kill me. She was trying to save me. But she failed. And so I did everything possible to finish the job she’d started. Until I met Sera, nothing mattered to me—not death, not living, not Xibalba, nothing. I don’t even know who I am.” Kyle crouched down to the floor, his head in his hands. “When my mother died, she—something—told me that I would be in Xibalba after my seventeenth birthday. When I met the Ifrit, I knew who they were, what they did. And I saw Azrath as a way out. So I took it. No matter the cost. I turn seventeen soon, so I don’t have a lot of time. I was desperate.”
“Kyle, does Azrath know anything about Sera?” Micah asked.
“No,” Kyle said. “But I can’t be sure.” Sam shot Micah a worried look.
“Go,” Micah told Sam. “I’ll stay here with Kyle and see if we can learn anything more about the portal. Don’t worry, Sophia can protect herself if need be.”
Sam walked past where Kyle knelt and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t let someone else decide who you are. You decide. You are free to make that choice no matter where you’ve come from. Blood does not define you.” Sam squeezed Kyle’s shoulder reassuringly and tapped his own heart. “This does, what’s in here. It’ll be OK. We’ll get Sera back.”
Kyle felt his throat tighten at Sam’s compassion. It wouldn’t have been easy for anyone to hear and accept what he’d just revealed; yet Sam had not shown any anger or hatred toward him. Kyle wiped the tears from his eyes with one hand, then stood after Sam left.
Alpha Goddess Page 13
