Lightbringer: An Enemies to Lovers Urban Fantasy with Demons, Portals, Witches, Renegade Gods, & Other Assorted Beasties (Light & Shadow Book 1)

by JC Andrijeski

Looking up at the ceiling briefly, he lowered his gaze back to hers. As he studied her eyes once more, his mouth curled in a faint expression of distaste.

  “Does it matter?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Alexis responded at once. “To me, it definitely matters. Tell me who did it. Who did the Ancients send––”

  “Me,” the Traveler said, blunt.

  She blinked, staring.

  His answer briefly stumped her.

  Seeing a fiercer look rise to his now violet-colored eyes, she fought a deeper wave of disbelief. Not at the veracity of what he’d told her, but that such a thing might be possible.

  The Ancients were using Travelers as enforcers and assassins?

  Since when?

  If her obvious shock at his answer bothered the Traveler in any way, no hint of it showed on his preternaturally handsome face. He returned her look, displaying little, but she saw that harder, more warrior-cold expression still visible in his eyes.

  When she didn’t break the silence, he held up his hands in a kind of prayer position before letting them fall back to the chair’s arms.

  “I tracked them. I hunted them. I found them. In the end, I finished them off. Trust me, they will not reach you here. Not those two, at least. You have my word, Lightbringer. I made certain of it… and I am never wrong in such things.”

  “That was not my primary concern––” she began, her voice as cold as his.

  “I am aware of that.” His pale eyes grew warning as they held hers. “I simply wished us to be clear. I need your mind clear, Lightbringer. I need your focus on the future, or at least the present moment, on what must happen now. I need your mind on duty, on your responsibilities, on the big picture… not on any smaller wants for revenge.”

  Pausing, he added in a more conciliatory tone,

  “And certainly not on problems that have already been solved.”

  Clearing his throat, he waved a long-fingered hand.

  “Particularly now. My need for you is great, Alexis Poole. My need for your mind. My need for your thoughts as to how we move forward. I apologize if I seem unsympathetic. I assure you, that is not the case. However, I fear we cannot afford to indulge in these more personal emotions yet. Not until we’ve addressed the far more immediate and pressing concerns arising from this initial attack.”

  Pulling his leg off the chair’s arm, he leaned closer, steepling his long fingers.

  His eyes transformed to a lighter green as she watched.

  They studied hers, his well-formed mouth tilted in a frown.

  “We need answers, Lightbringer. About the whys… even more than the whats. We must adjust our minds, and quickly, in preparation for the next set of attacks. We need contingencies put in place. We need fighters. We need weapons. And we need a strategy.”

  Alexis leaned back in her seat, her own mouth curling in a frown.

  Folding her hands in the lap of her burgundy-colored leather pants, she found she was the one measuring the Traveler now.

  She was still stuck on his answer around who killed the intruders.

  She hadn’t expected that answer to be him.

  She hadn’t expected it to be any Traveler, but certainly not him.

  Why would they send an assassin to speak to her?

  Truthfully, that threw her… more than a little.

  She wondered who he was.

  Obviously, he was a Traveler.

  But who was he, specifically?

  As for his ability to kill––the power it would take, given what he told her about Darynda’s killers, and what she knew of Darynda herself––that piece of the puzzle surprised her less. She knew Travelers to be powerful, even frighteningly so; she simply didn’t think of them as warriors, much less assassins.

  Truthfully, she would have thought it beneath him.

  She would have thought it beneath all Travelers.

  That was in the modern era, of course.

  She knew the Traveler race had engaged in brutality in the distant past.

  Before the portals between worlds had been opened, before they were watched as closely as they now were, Travelers had their inter- and intra-species wars, just like all the races. They fought for territory, for power, for wealth, for family, for clan, for influence over the different planets within the dimensions they ruled.

  They even fought for mates, from what she had heard.

  Of course, that last part remained a mystery to her.

  She’d heard conflicting, strange things about what that meant.

  Regardless, she considered all of those wars ancient history.

  Imagining them now was like seeing Natural History Museum dioramas of human beings fighting woolly mammoths with spears, or shooting bison from horses, using only a bow and arrow. She would have said Travelers no longer needed to secure their power of position in such crude ways, not in the modern world.

  She thought of such practices as not just dated, but dead.

  Dead and buried.

  “Why?” she said finally. “Why did you kill them? Why not bring them back to the Ancients for judgment? Why not put these murderers on trial for what they had done?”

  “What they had done?”

  The Traveler stared at her, like her words made no sense to him.

  “To the Lightbringer,” she said, her voice cold. “To Darynda. They murdered a Lightbringer. Every one of my race would wish to be there for that. To witness justice. To witness this thing to be held to account…”

  She trailed in her words.

  The Traveler was shaking his head, but it wasn’t only that.

  It was the way he did it.

  It was the look of cold rage that rose to his face. It was that ruthless warrior she saw in him again briefly, reflected in those blue-violet eyes.

  It was the realization she’d missed something, some vital piece of information.

  The Traveler continued to stare at her, even after she fell silent. His eyes, now the color of blue ice, watched her minutely, his mouth curled in a warning frown.

  “No,” he said.

  “No?” Her heart pounded harder. “No, what?”

  “Not just one,” the Traveler said. “No… no, sadly. That is incorrect.”

  His eyes narrowed.

  That time, the emotion in those pale irises took her aback. His jaw clenched, cutting off his own words, right before he looked away, staring through the window behind her.

  He wasn’t looking at her at all now.

  “All of them,” he said, his voice harsh as he clasped his hands, so tightly, the gesture struck her as somehow violent. “Not just Darynda. Not only those on a handful of worlds. Not even only half. They killed all of them, Alexis Poole. All of them. Every single one.”

  He stared at her, his jaw hard.

  “As of two of your hours ago… you are our last Lightbringer, Alexis Poole.”

  7

  Staying

  “What are we doing out here?” the Traveler said.

  His voice reflected frustration now, verging on annoyance.

  “We must talk, Lightbringer,” he added. “I did not come all this way to either witness or to help you work out your emotional issues in violent acts in the Los Angeles hills.”

  “No one asked you to be here at all,” she muttered, giving him a hard look.

  “But what are we doing?” he demanded.

  She kept walking.

  She didn’t answer him, not directly.

  She didn’t even look back at the Traveler that time, not even to see if he was still following her, or if she’d lost him somewhere out in these woods.

  Alexis walked steadily up the hill, making her way through the trees, up the steep slope, not bothering to follow any of the path markers she’d set over the years, but simply honing in on the vibration of the gate itself.

  She wore the same burgundy leather pants, but had switched out her high heels with thick-soled leather boots.

  She’d also changed her top, going f
rom the filmy silk of the peacock-green blouse she’d worn at the club to a form-fitting leather vest that wouldn’t get in her way.

  Her custom-made twin swords poked out of scabbards that ended above each shoulder.

  She wore her customary whip at her hip, but now wished she’d thought to bring something more powerful.

  Like a gun.

  Like maybe a shotgun, or an automatic rifle, along with several handguns.

  Or maybe a flame-thrower.

  After tonight, she would have taken a damned grenade launcher if one had been handy.

  Hell, she wouldn’t have refused a tactical nuclear weapon.

  She muttered under her breath as she made her way through the trees.

  “Couldn’t we have driven here?” the Traveler groused, bending down to go under a large branch. “Or taken one of the marked trails, at least?”

  “Why? Do the woods scare you, Traveler?” She threw the words over her shoulder. “I will warn you if I see a lion. Or a bear. Or a coyote,” she added, her voice holding a faint mocking tone. “You can wait for me back at the club, if this is too frightening for you.”

  She was being unfair.

  She knew she was being unfair.

  She also knew she was taking her pent-up anger out on the messenger, literally in this case. She had nothing else to do with that rage yet, so she aimed it at him.

  She knew it was unfair, but didn’t much care.

  She even rationalized he deserved it, despite what he’d done in dispensing some small amount of justice for her Lightbringer sisters and brothers.

  He’d come here, to her world, without telling her jack shit.

  He’d given her bad news––hell, the worst news she’d ever received, worse than anything she ever thought she could or would receive.

  Yet he’d given her no way to act on it.

  He’d given her no path to justice.

  He’d given her nothing, not a damned thing to act on.

  He’d destroyed her world.

  Now he expected calm from her?

  He expected inaction?

  He expected a quiet planning session over wine and finger-foods? A meeting of the minds, solely for the benefit of him and the Ancients?

  He expected her to… what? Sit in her club, and wait for higher beings to tell her what to do? The gall of him, of all of them, to pretend it was somehow unreasonable for her to want to check the portal herself. For him to pretend she was somehow overreacting to want to come out here, after everything he just told her.

  They could go to hell. All of them.

  Literally in this case.

  Gods forbid she attempt to do her job.

  Gods forbid she try to understand what might have killed her brethren.

  She snorted, not hiding her anger.

  Let this arrogant Traveler interpret her emotions, her anger, however he chose.

  “Why are you even still here?” she asked next.

  Still thinking, she added,

  “It can’t all be to ‘pick my brain’ for some post-Lightbringer world you and the Ancients would like to put in place… presumably with my help. The gods know, you don’t need to be here for that. When the Ancients want something, they aren’t shy about asking. Nor do they have to come to the material plane in person to get what they want.”

  She didn’t pause her steps, but continued making her way through the dried grass and scrub oak, doing it noiselessly more out of habit than intention.

  Truthfully, if she’d been thinking about it, she might have stomped up the hill as loudly as she could, cursing and smacking into trees and kicking her way through the tall grasses to make as much noise as possible.

  Instead, she moved as if she were stalking prey.

  Angling around another cluster of oak and pepper trees, she changed direction slightly to take them up a steeper part of the hill.

  “Well?” she said. “Will you not answer, Traveler?”

  “I told you why.”

  “And you delivered your message,” she said, without looking back. “Go home.”

  The Traveler grunted, lengthening his strides so that he walked beside her.

  Peering warily into her face in the dark, which she had no doubt wore a mask of fury, he looked away long enough to shake his head, glancing up at the shadowy trees and to the sky visible through the branches.

  He didn’t slow his pace.

  She was grudgingly forced to acknowledge he moved as silently as she did.

  “Do you know who I am?” he said, matching her strides a second time when she sped her steps.

  He kept pace with her easily, still moving as silent as death.

  She snorted, gripping the whip at her left hip.

  “Should I?”

  “Perhaps you should, yes.” Glancing at her, the Traveler let out another faint sigh when she didn’t return his gaze. “I am Caliginous––”

  “You said that.”

  “––King of the Travelers,” he finished.

  Alexis frowned, coming to a hard stop.

  She stood at a slight slant on the steepest part of the hill, the thick soles of her low boots digging into the loose dirt and rocks. Turning to stare at him, she saw his face almost clearly in the full moon hanging over the city.

  “What?” she said. “Why in the gods would anyone send a king on such a task? Much less the king of the Travelers?”

  “It was deemed an important message,” he said, his mouth quirking perceptibly.

  “Important enough to risk a king?” she retorted.

  “Yes.”

  She stared at his face, noting it appeared a bluish tint under the moonlight.

  Looking at him, she again wondered how much of what she saw was even real.

  The night sky emphasized the height of his cheekbones, his narrow mouth, making him look almost like a painting. She fought not to get distracted by his looks, especially now that he stood next to her, looming over her height, which was hardly nothing at five-nine.

  “Why would they do that?” she demanded again.

  “I was deemed their best choice.”

  “To play assassin? And errand boy?”

  “They think it is best if you are protected for a time.”

  “Protected?” She snorted, staring up at him in disbelief. “I am a Lightbringer! I am the protection!”

  “You are now the last Lightbringer,” he reminded her gently. “And we have not yet hunted down or caught those who killed the majority of your brethren. As you pointed out, my self-control was not ideal when I came across the two who had already murdered Darynda. I killed them before they could be questioned. Before we were able to learn anything about who had done this. Or why.”

  Alexis refocused on him at that, frowning.

  She was about to speak, but he cut her off, holding up a hand.

  “We must of course presume you are still being targeted, Alexis Poole.” Staring at her eyes, his pale amber ones shone in the dark.

  After a beat, he added,

  “You did not really believe the Ancients would leave you alone? After your entire race was massacred only a handful of your Earth hours ago? When yours is the only watched portal that remains? When someone is clearly looking for one of the primary portals still?”

  Alexis looked away from the Traveler’s face.

  Thinking about his words, she frowned.

  “The whole system is collapsed,” she said. “With no Lightbringers, what is the point of protecting this network of portals alone?”

  “It is not collapsed,” he said, his voice a warning. “It remains intact, and more or less inviolable until whoever has done this captures one of the primary portals. So far, they have been thwarted in that effort. The Lightbringers hid them well.”

  She snorted another humorless laugh.

  “So… what? We just hope they do not find them? Until another generation of Lightbringers is born? And trained? And put to their posts? What makes you think any of us will be abl
e to find their primary gates? It could take centuries!”

  “They only need to find one,” he said meaningfully, staring at her.

  She glared at him, tempted to yank the whip off her belt, give him a demonstration.

  “You didn’t answer me,” she warned.

  He sighed, combing his fingers through his thick hair.

  “I am told there will be… substitutes,” he said, holding the same hand up in a shrug. “For now. They are working on getting immortals to guard the other worlds. But you are our main defense now, Alexis Poole. You must know that.”

  She frowned, her hand clenching on the whip. “What kind of immortals?”

  “I did not ask. Presumably, the Ancients determine that.”

  She grunted, staring at him in disbelief.

  “The Ancients?” she said derisively. “How comforting. Because clearly they are all-seeing, and all-knowing, given how well they protected my people from this.”

  The Traveler only shrugged, his eyes flat.

  “You are not at all interested in why they would continue to protect this last primary gate?” she retorted angrily. “To risk so much on a single Lightbringer, a single portal? Versus simply shutting all the doors down? Cutting all the dimensions off from one another altogether until they had determined the full nature of the threat?”

  “Because that would be madness?” he said mildly.

  “It has been done before,” she reminded him. “For millennia, the gates were closed. The dimensions were islands… totally apart from one another.”

  “And it brought darkness to all of those places,” he said.

  “It is not better than the alternative? To give the gates over to the darkness altogether?”

  She paused, gauging his light, and now nearly colorless-looking eyes.

  “Or is that why you’re here? To help the Ancients determine that very thing?”

  Like all Lightbringers, Alexis had been taught that history.

  She knew what the Traveler meant about that isolation and darkness.

  It had been like a multi-dimensional Dark Ages across all of the worlds. The Ancients had shut the gates that first time due to a rising evil in one of the dimensions, one that threatened to spread to all of them. It had already nearly overpowered that first set of worlds when the Ancients made the decision to close the portals altogether, to cut them off from one another, from the gods, even from the Ancients themselves to a large degree.