“Well, there is that. But he was right. If we see something wrong, and turn a blind eye, aren’t we as guilty as the wrongdoers?” she asked softly, reaching out with her hand and touching the cold pane of glass as she stared out the window. Then she turned around and looked back at him, with dark, tormented eyes.
Such sad eyes… Jonah felt his heart twist in his chest as he stared at her exotic face. So lovely, so strong…and the echo of heartbreak in her eyes.
“I suppose we are,” he finally replied. “So, the question was…what are we going to do about it?”
Lily listened as he outlined what he wanted to do.
“You know that if you do this wrong, it could kill him,” she finally told him.
His face tightened and she wished she could have found a better way to say that. There was something about this boy that was important to Jonah. That boy wasn’t just some random child who had fallen into darkness, she suspected. It was there in his eyes, in the tightening of his mouth, as though he was battling back some terrible grief.
“Yeah, I know,” he muttered, pressing the pads of his fingers to his eyes. “But we have to do it…and we have to do it now, before Grayson gets in this mess any deeper.”
“Grayson…is that his name?”
Jonah’s lids flickered and then he nodded. “Yes.”
“How do you know him?”
“I don’t.” He wouldn’t look at her.
“Then how do you know his name?”
Jerking his shoulder in a shrug, Jonah replied, “I heard it around.”
Well, isn’t that vague. Lily pursed her lips and debated on whether it was worth the trouble to try again. She wanted to know who that boy was to Jonah, but he wasn’t going to tell her.
“So are we doing this or what?” he asked quietly.
“Yes. We’re doing this.”
Now would be good. She doubted she’d done enough to prove herself. If she was going to fail, she at least wanted to do one good thing with the life that had been given to her. She needed it—she needed to know that the risk she’d taken hadn’t been all for nothing. That she’d done something to make a difference.
Grayson could be that difference.
And if they waited too long, the boy would find the courage to kill again. Just animals now—but soon, he’d have a craving for more power than a mere rabbit or dog could give him. If they stopped him before he got a taste of true, blood-borne power, they just might have a chance.
Of course, the destruction of such power would light up the demon world like lightning. Her mother would feel it—would she come to investigate? Lily could always hope that one young boy wouldn’t draw the interest of the Queen of All Demons. But Lily didn’t place much hope in that.
Which meant Lily just might come face-to-face with her mother—Lilith.
Lily feared her. Greatly. Even with Sansan’s promise, she feared her. Lilith had roamed the world for centuries untold, and had a thirst for causing pain.
Taking a deep, shaking breath, she flashed Jonah a bright, brittle smile. “So, when do we do it?”
She should have known she couldn’t hide how she felt though. He had seen the fear in her eyes. His own narrowed as he studied her and she fought the urge to squirm under that intense gaze.
“Why do you suddenly look so afraid?” he asked softly.
“Blood magic, possibilities of death, what’s not to be afraid of?” she quipped.
He didn’t buy it. “Try again.”
“Does it really matter?” Sighing, she leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest. How had this all happened? She had a sinking suspicion she knew the answer to that, though.
She didn’t know this man. Not really. But she felt drawn to him despite that. She’d felt drawn to him the moment those vivid green eyes had opened and he had grabbed her hand, holding on to her like a man drowning.
It wasn’t coincidence that had crossed their paths. Lily would bet her life on it.
Sansan. Somehow, Sansan had orchestrated this.
Put her into close contact with Grayson, the equivalent to catnip for demons, and into close contact with Jonah, a man that had some of her baser instincts rising to the fore.
“I think maybe it does matter,” he said, lifting his shoulder in a restless shrug.
She frowned, wondered idly what he was talking about—they had been talking about something. But the rest of her was focused on that lovely body of his, the way his muscles moved under his shirt as he shrugged, the way the cotton clung to hard, lean muscles.
Something inside stirred, heat unfurling within her belly stirred, a demon she tried to forget rose within her, the hungry bite of lust. Inanely, she said, “You continue to recover rather well.”
Very well. He looked strong. When he’d left the hospital three weeks ago, he’d looked healthy enough and well on the road to recovery. Looking at him now, one would never guess that he’d spent three years in a coma, lost somewhere between life and death.
“Yes. Thanks to you. And don’t change the subject—what are you so afraid of?”
Swallowing, she forced herself to look back at his face. From the brief glint in his eyes, she knew her preoccupation hadn’t gone unnoticed. “Who says I am afraid?”
“Your eyes. Your face. It’s written all over you,” he said simply.
“Again, I ask you why does it matter? Being afraid isn’t going to make me walk away.”
“Tell me why you’re afraid.” He watched her with intense eyes and she suspected he’d continue to wait until she gave him an answer. “The fear I see in your eyes isn’t the kind of fear that gets brushed aside easily.”
I don’t know about that. For a second there, she hadn’t been afraid. She’d been hungry. Then he had to go and remind her. The fear was crowding back in. Thanks, she thought bitterly.
“I don’t intend to brush it aside. But don’t worry.” Forcing out a shuddering breath, she forced the bands that squeezed around her heart to relax. Lilith had no control over her. “I can handle it.”
“I don’t doubt that. But I’d certainly like to know what, or who, caused such fear, because if it’s going to turn around and bite us on the ass, I want to know,” he said.
No, you really don’t. Being forewarned wasn’t enough with Lilith. It never was when you were facing a creature that would just as soon feast on a man’s life force as she fucked him to death—literally. Some men might think there could be worse ways to go, but they’d never come up against Lilith.
Leaning forward, she grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from the table. Turning to a blank page, she started to sketch. Drawing had always soothed her, on the rare moment she was able to indulge in leisure. But drawing this only increased the fear.
Szardi’s power was long living, indeed. His pendants should never have existed this long.
In a tight voice, she spoke as she continued to sketch on the Hyari, the symbol of her mother’s touch. “Long ago, a woman fled from what she had been born to do. Men of power were sent to retrieve her and she refused. It seems like such a simple thing doesn’t it? People refuse to do things all the time, even when it’s their responsibility…perhaps even their fate. People often refuse. But this woman, she had evil in her heart, selfishness, greed, a hunger for all things she could not possess. She was cast out, cast down. In time, she grew a great power. How, exactly, I do not know. Her pleasure in life was tainting the pure, the innocent. Disruption, pain and chaos are the footprints she leaves behind. There was a man who worshipped this demon and he became one of her first priests. His name was Szardi.”
She turned the pad of paper around and tossed it on the table. “I will not speak the name of the pendant. Or of her. To do so is to invite her to come a-visiting. The pendants he created were imbued with great power. This power sleeps, until a worthy bearer is found, a person, preferably young, and always full of power and doubt. Once the pendant chose its bearer, it would once again sleep—until the time the
bearer used a great, dark magic and then it would summon her.”
She saw the speculation in his eyes as they flickered from her somber face to the pad of paper. Quietly, he said, “Grayson wears that symbol around his neck. I’ve never seen one like it before.”
“They hide,” she told him simply. “It’s in their nature. Some have indeed been destroyed. Others may have become lost to the ages. They are very, very old. I can’t believe they still exist after all this time, but one does and it somehow found Grayson.”
“Who is she? This…story…sounds like some kind of horror flick,” he said, rising and starting to pace.
“I will not speak her name.” Lily shook her head, folding her hands and tucking them between her knees, clamping her legs together to keep him from seeing her shaking. “But I know her, her power, her evil. She may indeed come hunting for him.”
“That’s why you’re afraid?” He glanced at the paper, and then back at her face. “Because you think this woman…demon…whatever, will come looking for Grayson.”
“Yes.”
“A great deal of magic will release when the power center is destroyed.” Narrowing his eyes, he said, “And it will all center on him. He’s going to light up like the Fourth of July.”
Touching her tongue to her lips, she wetted them nervously. “Yes.”
“I take it that anybody with the boy is going to be seen as an obstacle.”
Lily nodded. “She destroys those who in are her path,” she whispered. “But I have some protection from her.” Her lashes flickered as the mark on her shoulder started to burn. “I would be safe from her, no matter what, even if I failed to protect the boy. But I cannot guarantee his safety, if she comes. In a battle against her, I fear I’d most surely lose.”
There was one chance, though. It wasn’t one that she would share. If she could wait for the power backlash, it would leave Grayson helpless for a brief moment.
She could lay the mark of The Three on him. Their mark would protect him from Lilith and the lilum. But she’d have to wait.
When the power backlashed on him, that would be her chance. It would only be a small window, though. When the power backlashed, it would leave him helpless and the surge of power would also call out to Lilith.
“Then how do we stop her?” Jonah asked flatly.
She forced a tremulous smile. “We’ll have to take our chances.” She said it easily, without blinking, without looking away. No false hopes—she’d either succeed or she’d fail. But she wouldn’t offer false hope.
Chapter Six
The story Lily had told him was insane.
A pendant that survived for century after century…and from the way she spoke, it might even be millennia after millennia. A woman who destroyed all within her path and made Lily go white with fear.
He hit the Web. Searching for information on Szardi, but there was nothing. He was either too ancient for modern man to know of him, or he’d simply never existed. Jonah was more likely to think it was the former, which meant he was talking about a being that had been worshipped by a witch-priest thousands of years ago.
Woman.
Demon.
Worship.
His grasp of mythology was sketchy, at best, but for some reason, a name came to mind. Running his tongue along the surface of his teeth, Jonah typed it into the search box.
Websites upon the hundreds sprung up, some regarding magazines, some regarding woman’s liberation and more religious websites that he could count.
He kept scanning over them, hitting the next link time after time. Nothing. Nothing.
Wait…
Mother of Demons, worshipped, feared…Myth or Fact.
He clicked on the link, and after closing several annoying popup windows, he found himself staring at a hand-drawn image of a woman, a winged woman… Black, leathery wings that spanned toward the sky.
Below that was another image, the woman cowering as three men, clad in white, faced her down. Like a comic strip, it was drawn without words. The three men stared at her in rage, and one pointed down. The next strip showed her on her knees, begging. The next, the men turned away from her and she fled.
Lilith, the Queen of All Demons, fled the three angels of God. But she had sworn neither she, nor her children, the lilum, would touch any child bearing the mark of the three angels.
Lilith. Jonah narrowed his eyes and read on, stroking his chin. She was worshipped by many—one man in particular. A witch-priest known as Sharzardikai. Szardi…
Holy shit.
The next page showed the pendant. Jonah flung out a hand, hissing, as something sprung up from the computer. A spell locked within the website—damn it. His shields sprung up as his eyes flicked to the power button on the PC. It didn’t shut down the way it should have. Growling, he narrowed his eyes and focused his magic on the power cord, yanking with all the strength he had in him.
The plug stayed in the outlet.
But the cord snapped, fraying, sparks flying. The computer screen flickered, flared…and then split down the middle, busted and completely dead as Jonah sighed shakily. Shit. A spell locked into a website. Bloody, freaking hell—what was going on?
You just came within seconds of coming face-to-face with evil.
Jonah pressed his fingers to his eyes. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with any more Obi-wan Kenobi crap from Sansan.
The angel laughed. Obi-wan Kenobi, am I? Hmmm…I’ve been called worse.
“What was that, Sansan?” he asked, lifting his head and searching the room until he saw Sansan’s reflection in the broken screen of the computer. His eyes watered as he tried to focus on Sansan’s wavy image. “Can you find something a little easier to look at?”
Sansan chuckled. I could. But her reach is long. I’d rather wait here a few moments until I know she cannot reach you.
“Her?” Jonah repeated, doubt thick in his voice. “You want me to believe that some ancient demon laid a spell on the WWW and she’s going to try to come after me?”
Sansan chuckled. Oh, Jonah, she’s a lot more than some ancient demon. Think of her as the mother of all demons…their queen. But, no, she didn’t lay it. One of her followers did, just like the foul bastard Szardi laid spells within the pendants he forged. But when one of power touches such a spell, in any way, even with just his eyes, she feels it. And the greater the power, the stronger the call to her. And you have a great power indeed. You would be a great deal of fun for her, so strong willed, so dark inside…she would exploit every weakness you have. Before, she would have won. Now, I think you would have resisted her, even if it meant dying, but let’s not go there.”
Jonah pushed out of the chair, his body revved, tensed for battle, even though no battle had happened. The adrenaline inside him was singing through his veins, making his senses ultra sharp, putting him on the edge as he started to pace.
“Lily…she was talking about Li… About her, wasn’t she?” To do so is to invite her to come a-visiting, Lily had said. Damn, after that little fireworks display with the computer, he wasn’t about to test and see if she was right.
Yes. Lily is…intimately acquainted with the Queen of All Demons, the angel said quietly.
“And the pendant? That story she told me was for real?” Jonah asked.
He didn’t want to believe it. To accept it. But the skepticism that had barely taken a foothold inside him crumbled. And he knew, even before Sansan spoke.
I do not know every word that she told you, but Lily is one of the rare creatures who doesn’t lie. She may not tell all—but she doesn’t lie. Even when the cost to herself is very high.
The burning question that was eating a hole in his gut finally found its way to his tongue. Focusing his eyes on Sansan’s blurred face, the cracks in the screen making him so difficult to see, Jonah asked flatly, “Who is she?”
The picture slammed into his mind. A woman, cowering on the floor, bloodied wings trying to cover her body as a whip descended. As she lifted her
head, a scream falling from her lips, Jonah found himself staring into Lily’s eyes.
Don’t you know? Sansan asked quietly.
“She is one of them,” Jonah said, his voice rusty as he shook the image away.
“If she was truly one of them, she wouldn’t be here. She is here, because a woman with a heart and soul was born into the body of a demon.”
Jonah jerked, his head whipping up as he actually heard that voice, not just felt it. Before him, clad in radiant, shining white, was Sansan. The angel took a step away, then another, wandering the small office as Jonah stared at him in disbelief. The angel actually stood in front of him, he could reach out and touch him—
Sansan laughed. “I’ve walked in the world before, Jonah. ’Tis just not something I choose to do often. I was given a rare gift, a rare responsibility. I do not abuse it.” The angel lowered himself into the only other chair in the room. “Gifts are a rare thing indeed, and power is indeed that. A gift. It should be used wisely, not abused.”
Tightly, Jonah said, “I’ve gotten that point.”
Sansan smiled. “Good. Hmmm… What were we talking about? Gifts? Ah, yes…about Lily. She’s a rare creature, one born into total and complete evil. She had to fight, every day of her existence, to withstand the urges that she was indeed born with, had to fight the compulsions her mother—”
Jonah’s mouth tightened, thinning down into a firm, flat line. “Her mother?”
Sansan frowned disapprovingly. “You are not one to judge…not anybody, Jonah, once called Adamm. Remember that.” Then he leaned his head back, eyes closing. “Every second of her life, she fought. And she paid, dearly. And every time she cried out, we heard her. He heard her. No soulless creature cries as she holds a newborn child that sobs for her mama. But Lily, born into the body of the lilum, she cried.”
Rage built in Jonah’s heart at the picture Sansan painted. “The dream. You do know about my dream?”
“The one about Lily. Yes. I know of it.”
“Did all that happen?” he asked. Sansan said nothing, but Jonah saw the answer in his dark gaze and he had to fight the urge to vomit.
The Redeeming Page 8
