Dark Awakening (18 page)

“Come with me,” he said. “This way.”

He took her hand and pulled her through the crowd, heading in the opposite direction as everyone else. They headed to a large mirror that was taller than Ty and twice as wide, hanging on the wall opposite the bar. After he felt along the side of it, Lily heard a faint
click
, and the entire thing swung outward like a door. No one paid any attention as they rushed by.

Ty motioned for her to go in ahead of him, and so she stepped in, hearing him shut the door behind her. Lily coughed as she looked around her at an opulent office now hazy with smoke. Inside were two people: Anura and another man she didn’t remember seeing inside the club, though she supposed she could have missed him. She doubted it, though. He could have been Ty’s younger brother, with his chin-length black hair tucked behind his ears and the same guarded expression that she was already so used to seeing. Jet-black eyeliner rimmed bright blue eyes that warily watched the two of them enter, and on one of his forearms, a tribal black cat stretched.

Ty’s reaction surprised her, but she thought it surprised the other two even more.

“Jaden!” he cried, one of his rare smiles lighting up an otherwise serious countenance. He strode forward, grabbed the younger man, and pulled him into a quick, tight embrace. “I worried you were dead, brother. You should have tried to find me.”

Jaden stiffened for a moment but then seemed to accept the spontaneous show of affection. One fist pounded Ty’s back a couple of times, and then he was released. He didn’t return Ty’s smile, but Ty seemed too preoccupied to really notice. Instead, he rounded on Anura, and Lily could see the confusion and anger in his expression.

“I expect you to explain this. You lied to me about it even when you knew I hadn’t come for him.”

“I couldn’t be sure,” Anura replied, spreading her hands before her. “Much hangs in the balance, and your loyalties are divided. We couldn’t be sure which side you would come down on. I told you… you don’t know all of it.”

“We?”

The pain in Ty’s eyes when he looked back at Jaden was so deep that Lily could feel it herself, a knife in the belly. She didn’t question why it hurt her so, didn’t have time. All she knew was that she didn’t ever want to be the source of such anguish for him.

“You’re blood, Jaden. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for my blood. I protected you when no one else would have. We are
brothers
. How do I not deserve your trust?”

“Weren’t you the one who told me to rely on no one, to trust no one, but myself?” Jaden asked, though Lily could see that Ty’s words had affected him. On his pale cheeks there was a faint pink bloom that looked like shame. Jaden glanced away, and his voice dropped so that she could barely hear.

“In truth, brother, it was safer for you not to see me. You risk enough. You always have. I worried you would risk more, once you knew the way of things. It would be better if you hadn’t come here.”

Anura sighed. “As my club is on fire, I would have to agree. But what’s done is done.”

“So… this is your brother?” Lily asked, glad for Ty that he at least had family that had followed him into his life as a vampire. She hoped to do something, anything, to distract him from whatever emotions had put such an expression on his face. Her effort didn’t amount to much, but he did, at least, answer her.

“Jaden is my blood brother,” Ty said, tearing his accusing eyes away from the other two. “He’s of the Cait Sith, like I am. And he and I have done plenty of running together for the Ptolemy over the years.” There seemed to be a wealth of meaning in just that one sentence.

“Not anymore,” Jaden said, his voice soft and slightly rough.

“No, not anymore,” Ty replied, his tone hardening. “What the hell are you doing here, Jaden? You know what they’ll do to you if they find you. What’s happened?”

“That will have to wait,” Anura said tersely. “You three need to get out of here. Now. The entire damned stockroom is already in flames, and this place was never brought up to code because it isn’t even supposed to be here. This may all be gone by tomorrow. Someone is trying to smoke one or both of you out. Take my stairs. Jaden, you take Ty and Lily to the apartment. I’ll meet you when it’s safe for me to do so, but it could be a couple of nights. You can’t be seen leaving here. And I can’t be seen leaving with you.” She glanced at Lily, and it seemed
there was an ancient sadness that lingered in Anura’s eyes. “There is more at stake than you know.”

Jaden looked sharply at Anura. “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

Anura smiled, though it was humorless. “I’ve always got a backup plan or three. I’ll manage. Be careful,” she said, looking first at Ty, then at Lily. It was the strangest sensation, looking into Anura’s dark eyes. Lily felt the room waver the moment their gazes connected, and the smell of smoke seemed to vanish in favor of the scents of incense and night-blooming jasmine. For just a moment, Lily could hear the wild song of flute and pipe, and a vision flashed before her eyes of white-robed women dancing, hand in hand, in a circle beneath a full summer moon.

She blinked, and reality roared back. Someone was banging on the mirror door, and the smoke was thickening.

“Anura! Are you in there? Anura, we need to get out of here. We can’t save it!”

Lily recognized the voice of the bouncer who’d given Ty a tough time at the door. She sucked in an acrid breath and immediately started coughing again. Ty, seemingly unaffected, looked at her worriedly, and Anura strode to open a door on the opposite wall. Beyond it were stairs leading up.

“Go!” she commanded. “As you can see, I’m not without protection. Not that I need it, but it’s nice just the same.”

Jaden gave a quick nod, then headed in. Ty put Lily in front of him and nudged her forward. She went, but paused at the threshold where Anura stood waiting for them to go. The pounding against the door intensified.

Without understanding why she did it, Lily reached
out and clasped Anura’s forearm. Instantly, she felt the warmth of the connection, the truth of the bond. She just didn’t know what it meant. But she could see that Anura did, and her gaze was warm.

“Be safe,” Lily said, feeling like an idiot, wanting to say something. She had so much to ask, but the opportunity was being stolen. The disappointment of it was crushing.

Anura, who had clasped Lily’s forearm the same way, gave her a smile that was both sad and sweet. “Blessed be, little sister. You stay safe too. We have much to talk about.”

Lily caught only a glimpse of Anura’s physical form vanishing, turning transparent before dissolving into a column of pure white smoke. Then they were gone, rushing up the pitch-black stairs as the world filled up with fire below them and sirens wailed above.

And not long after, the three of them emerged into a cold night dotted with indifferent stars.

I
N HER DREAMS
, she was back in the fire.

Lily stood in the empty club, watching the fire slowly consume Mabon. The only lights were those of the flames, but though the heat grew steadily more intense, the smoke didn’t fill her lungs. She drifted through the club, watching the fire lick its way up the walls and curl around the wood of the bar. The door to Anura’s office hung open, but all was blackness beyond.

It was there she was drawn, and though part of her knew she was dreaming, Lily still felt sick dread coiling in her stomach as she approached that blank space on the wall. It seemed to yawn as she drew closer, but she knew it was useless to resist its pull. This was where she needed to go.

“Look inside, daughter. See the past. Our past.”

The voice was all around her like a sigh, warm and familiar. Lily knew she’d heard it before, perhaps in other dreams. So she stepped forward, hesitating only a moment before her foot crossed the threshold.

It was a step into madness… but a madness she had seen many times before and knew well.

She stood in a beautiful temple, white marble columns soaring above her. And all around her rang the screams of the dying as the floor ran red with blood. Lily stumbled forward as the battle raged, as men and women garbed in red and gold forced their way through the crowd that had gathered, fangs bared. Their silver blades flashed like lightning as they came down, again and again, like the Reaper’s scythe.

Vampires, Lily saw. But not only the aggressors. The innocents had fangs as well, visible with every battle cry, every dying scream, and they fought valiantly though it was obvious they had been taken by surprise. This had been meant to be a celebration. Lily knew it, in the way that the reality of dreams seems certain to the dreamer. Instead, it was a massacre.

At the head of the temple, a woman stood, both a part and not a part of the scene. She was the most beautiful creature Lily had ever seen, with wild red hair that tumbled over the shoulders of a simple, one-shouldered gown made of jade-green silk. Her skin was alabaster, her lips as red as blood. She watched the horror with sad and ancient eyes that rose and then locked with Lily’s, as green as the dress she wore.

Around her upper arm, a golden snake was coiled. From her neck hung a pendant shaped like a star.

“So fell our people,” she said to Lily, her voice echoing as Lily approached her up the long central aisle, drowning out the screams. “So fell the first dynasty, the bloodline of the Mother.”

In the woman’s arms, Lily realized, was a baby, swaddled in rich cloth. Lily could hear its cries rise above the din.

“You are all that is left of me, daughter. In you the blood will be reborn or will vanish forever. Do not let them take it. They will try. Better we are gone forever than corrupted by what coveted our power. Our sisters will carry on as best they can, though most have forgotten the promise that was given.”

The woman turned and handed the baby to another woman wearing a long cloak. The baby was hidden beneath, the woman’s hood drawn so that no features were visible. They clasped forearms, the woman and the goddess, before the one with the baby rushed off, cloak flowing, looking like little more than a wraith. It was fitting, Lily thought as she moved more quickly toward the red-haired woman. This was a haunted place. Panic rose in her throat, telling her that the end of this dream, so terrible and familiar, was nigh. She started to run, feeling the evil in the air pressing in on her, all around her. Something horrible was going to happen. She didn’t want to see.

But she knew she had to.

The power crackled in the air around her, and it was then Lily realized that the men and women fighting for their lives were fighting not only with their hands and blades, but also with something that emanated from within them. She looked to her left, and a bloody but triumphant vampiress hurled a red-clad intruder away from her as a flash of light burst from her hands. Another look around her, and Lily saw it was much the same everywhere. After the initial shock of the ambush, the temple vampires had rallied.

But for every attacker who was beaten back, two more took his place, and these were strong and lightning fast, so quick that their movements were only flickers.

If only they had been prepared, Lily thought. If only they hadn’t been taken by surprise, they would have triumphed.

The goddess-woman was gathering her own power. Lily could feel it, as she’d felt the same sort of power gathering in herself the night she’d left Tipton. Lily rushed toward her, hoping the woman would be triumphant but knowing that the worst was to come. And then she saw her, slim and dark, her lips peeled back in a snarl and a glittering, curved blade held high above her head. She moved into position directly behind the red-haired woman, whose eyes were closed, readying for the final burst of power that would scatter her enemies to the four winds.

“Bride of the demon! Whore! You’ll destroy us all with your madness!”

“No!” Lily shrieked as the blade came down, slicing right through the long, ivory neck.

The world flashed bright red, bursting into flames, and then went dark as Lily’s scream rang painfully in her ears. A baby cried. A woman screamed her command, though it echoed as if she were hearing it from across a great distance.

“Find the child! Where is the child? It must be destroyed!”

“Break his chains, free our blood. No house can stand alone.”
It whispered through her mind as Lily jerked awake. Ty was shaking her.

She gasped in a breath of blessedly clean air, not a trace of the acrid smoke of her nightmare remaining. Her lungs expanded painfully, and her body surged upward as though she were surfacing from underwater.

She was okay. It hadn’t been real. In some ways, it
was the same scene she had witnessed dozens of times since she’d been a child. But in others, it had been utterly new.

The woman had never looked at or spoken to her before tonight.

Ty’s eyes gleamed above her in the darkness. His hands gripped her shoulders tightly.

“Lily, damn it, are you all right? Wake up!”

She tried to focus, to come all the way back. “Yeah. Yes. I’m here.” Her voice sounded gritty and rough. It took her a moment to remember where, exactly, “here” was. Then, slowly, it came back. The burning club. The ride to a decidedly more upscale part of the city, which had been marked by the uncomfortable silence between the two men she was with. And then they had come here, to a loft in a converted warehouse where it seemed Jaden had been staying.