Incubus (23 page)

woman who’d attacked us at the mission. She stepped out from behind a wide wooden column. She’d

been waiting for me.

“Apologies for the mess,” she said. “But as we both know, you don’t respond to subtle.”

“What?” I asked. But the woman’s eyes were blank, empty. Those words had not been her own.

They were a message. A message from the incubus who had enthralled her.

The Thrall pulled a knife from behind her back.

Adrenaline slammed into my system and I braced myself for an attack. “Lucas!” I screamed.

The knife gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. With a grunt of effort, the Thrall drove the knife

down, burying the hilt in her own belly. Blood blossomed around the blade, glistening with a red so

bright it didn’t seem real. With a sick, wet sound, the Thrall pulled the knife free.

“The next messenger I send will be someone you care about,” she said. Her face registered no

emotion as she stabbed herself again.

Another scream ripped from my throat. I stumbled back against the wall of my house, watching as

the Thrall pulled the blade out of her middle again. She stumbled to one knee, then drove the knife in

again.

Lucas, who’d been at his door when I’d called his name, pounded across my front yard. I reached

for him, forgetting the promise we’d made to one another. His arms folded around me, and he pulled

me off the porch, away from the Thrall.

She followed me with those empty eyes, the knife still clutched in her bloody hand.

What if that was Cassie?
I could taste the bile rising in the back of my throat. “No!”

Lucas pulled me tighter against him. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

“It’s not okay,” I whispered. And it wouldn’t be, not until the incubus was dead.

Chapter 10

Fire licked up the sides of three split logs, undulating in waves of amber and blue. Dad laid another

log on the pile, sending a shower of sparks into the chimney’s flue. I watched, hypnotized by the

movement. Some part of me felt the heat, but it didn’t warm me.

The Thrall had vanished.

When Lucas had pulled me away, she was kneeling in front of this house, spilling her life onto the

porch in great splashes of liquid red. But when the Guard had raced out to confront her, she was gone.

Only the thickening pool of blood remained to bear witness to our story. And only a Thrall could have

summoned the strength to flee after losing so much. The incubus wasn’t done with her yet. He wasn’t

done with me.

Dad glanced at the clock. It was past midnight, but I was too freaked out to sleep. The Guard had

been on high alert all night, canvassing the area, looking for any trail that might lead us to the Thrall.

They’d found nothing. Not one single drop of blood to indicate which way she’d gone. Dad had let the

others search, refusing to leave my side.

We couldn’t have kept Lucas from the hunt if we’d tried. That Thrall had gotten too close to me. If

she’d wanted to attack me, I would have been alone, unprepared. I would have been killed. Lucas was

driven half-wild with that thought. He’d felt compelled to do something. And so he was still out there,

with the last patrol of the night, looking for her. I knew it was hopeless. We wouldn’t find her until the

incubus wanted us to find her.

“Can I get you something?” Dad asked. “Something to eat?”

“I’m not hungry.”

Dad sat beside me on the couch. “Okay.” We sat in silence for a few, long minutes. “Braedyn,

maybe it’d help if you talked about it.”

I felt another wave of terror rising inside. “It was a message,” I whispered.

“I know.” Dad sighed in resignation. “It was only a matter of time before he figured out we were

here, looking for him.”

“No.” I pulled my eyes away from the fire. “It was a message for me.”

“What—what makes you think that?” Dad shifted on the couch, turning to get a clearer view of my

face. I could see him holding his panic at bay. This is why I hadn’t told him before.

“Never mind.” I turned back to the flames, reaching for the numbness of a few minutes ago.

“Braedyn.” Dad put a hand under my chin, gently forcing me to look at him. “Honey. Tell me.”

“Before she—” I swallowed, battling another rush of nausea. I could see it clearly in my mind’s

eye, the knife buried in her stomach, her fist clenched around the hilt, pulling it out only to stab it in

again... Dad nodded; I didn’t have to say it. “She said—she said the next messenger would be someone

I cared about.”

“Braedyn?” Dad took a steadying breath. His eyes didn’t waver. “Is it possible—the night you

went looking for him in the dream—do you think he sensed you?”

A shrill giggle bubbled out of me, tinged with hysteria. Dad’s eyes creased with worry. “I didn’t

want you to worry,” I said, fighting off another panicked giggle.

“Worry about what?” His voice was hard, scared.

“He’s been in my dreams.”

“This isn’t the first message he’s sent you?”

I shook my head no.

Dad bit his lip, and I could see him fighting the urge to yell. “Tell me everything.”

“There was a note. He left it in Cassie’s locker, but it was addressed to me. He said he was

watching me.”

“When was this?”

My voice came out in a whisper. “About a month ago.”

“
What?!
” Rage and fear leapt into his eyes. I shrank back instinctively. Dad’s nostrils flared, but

he clamped his mouth shut. I could see a muscle along his jaw jumping with tension. After a long

moment he spoke. “He left you a note. Was that all?”

“No,” I whispered.

Dad looked at me, too overpowered by emotion to speak. There was something murderous in his

gaze, and though I knew it was directed at the incubus, and not me, it struck an icy fear into my bones.

“He left a message in my dream,” I said. Dad watched me, gripping his hands tightly together,

waiting for an explanation. “He’s trying to warn me to back off.”

“Back off from what, Braedyn?” Dad’s voice was suddenly quiet.

I licked my lips. “I think—I think we’re close. I think he knows it. And he’s scared. We’re onto

something with this ritual.”

Dad stood abruptly. I fell silent. He paced to the fireplace and stared down into the fire. When he

turned back to me his face was tight with anger. “Hale told you to leave it alone. This is why Hale told

you to—” he suddenly turned and brought his fist down on the mantle. “Damn it, Braedyn! Why is it

so hard for you to trust that we know what we’re doing?”

“Because no one trusts
me,
” I wailed.

“And you think this is going to earn their trust?!”

I stared at him, stricken.

“Do you really believe that we’d ignore something as important as a ritual capable of locking the

Lilitu out of this world?” His eyes bore into mine, demanding a response.

“No,” I said.

“And do you think I’d hesitate one
micro
second if I thought there was a way to—” Dad stopped,

his voice choking with emotion. “Ever since you told me Sansenoy had the power to make you human,

every single day,
I’ve carried that thought in my heart.”

Hot tears spilled down my cheeks. I nodded, scrubbing them away. “I’m sorry.” It wasn’t enough,

but it was the only thing I could say.

Dad crossed to me, sitting down and enfolding me in a big bear hug. “Tell me,” he whispered

hoarsely into my hair. “You have to tell me when stuff like this happens.” I clung to Dad, letting my

tears soak into his shoulder. He tightened his arms around my back. “Okay. It’s going to be okay.”

Pounding came from the front door. My heart leapt into my throat. “Do you think they found her?”

Dad stood. “Wait here.” He crossed out of the living room and into the foyer. I heard the door

open, and Dad’s surprised voice. “Seth?”

“Please, you have to help me.” Seth’s voice was pitched unnaturally high. His voice cracked, and

with a stab of fear I realized he was crying. I was on my feet in an instant. Dad pulled Seth inside and

closed the door. Seth stood blindly in the foyer, his slight frame shaking with grief.

“Seth, what happened?” Dad asked.

“My mom—” Seth choked down another sob. “She’s missing.”

“How long has she been gone?”

“She didn’t come home last night,” Seth said. “Sometimes she goes on these research jags and

forgets to call, so I thought maybe—” Seth shook his head, his eyes wide with terror. “Only the police

came to my house just now. They found her car on the interstate, 50 miles from anything. The door

was open. They couldn’t find any sign of Mom anywhere.”

“Oh, God.” I backed into the wall, dizzy with panic.

Dad glanced at me. “Stay with him. I’ll get the others.” I nodded, and the next second Dad was

gone, pulling the door closed behind him.

Seth didn’t move from his spot in the foyer. He was shaking like a leaf, eyes wide and staring. “Do

you think—do you think the incubus went after her? Braedyn?” He looked suddenly younger than his

16 years. “She’s all the family I have in the world.”

I wanted to reach out to him, to offer him some comfort. But I couldn’t move. I know I should

have been thinking about Angela, but at that moment, all I could think about was what I would do if I

ever lost my Dad.

I went through the motions of seating Seth at our table, making tea, trying to make him comfortable.

But neither of us were really present. We were walking through separate worlds constructed by our

darkest fears, fears that overshadowed the tangible comforts of my home.

We sat at the table until steam stopped curling from the surface of the tea I’d poured. Dad had

returned with Hale a few moments after he’d left us standing in the foyer. Once they’d gotten all the

details they could from Seth, they’d left to organize the Guard to go out and find her.

Which left us here, waiting.

“She found something yesterday,” Seth said suddenly. “I don’t know what it was. She just said she

had to go check on something and she ran out of the house. I waited and waited for her, but she never

came home. I almost called you,” he gave me a faint smile. “I thought maybe she’d figured the whole

thing out.” His smile faded. “But when the police came tonight—” A ragged sob shook Seth.

“Seth,” I said, feeling helpless. “Don’t. We don’t know anything. Not yet.”

“Yes we do.” Seth looked up, his eyes wild. “We know my mom’s digging into something that the

Lilitu don’t want us to find.” Seth stood, too wired to sit still any longer. “We know there’s at least

one demon out there, maybe more. If they discovered what she’s doing—” Seth slumped against the

wall, doubling over in pain. “God—what if he’s got her? What if he’s hurting her?”

I stood, anxious to calm Seth down. “It’s no use making yourself crazy like this. We don’t know

anything yet.”

“What if she’s dying somewhere?” Seth pushed off of the wall, stumbling toward the foyer. “We

can’t just sit here,” he gasped. I grabbed Seth’s hand. He tried to pull away, panic driving him into a

frenzy. “Let go. Please, Braedyn, let me go!”

“
Calm down,
” I said. The chiming tones of
the call
seemed to set the air around us aglow. “
Calm

down, Seth.
”

It worked almost instantly. All resistance seeped out of Seth. He seemed to forget what he was

doing for a moment. Then he blinked and drew in a long, slow breath. “You’re right,” he said. “You’re

right.”

“I’ll be here. I’m not going to leave you alone.” I drew Seth into a hug, meaning to comfort him.

Seth’s arms tightened around my back, and he buried his face in my hair. I could feel his breath

against my neck. I pulled back quickly. Seth released me, but his eyes lingered on my face. The look

he gave me was almost guilty. Awareness hit me in the stomach. Cassie had seen more than I’d been

willing to acknowledge. Seth had feelings for me.

“Seth,” I started.

“I think I’ll put my tea in the microwave,” he interrupted. “Can I warm yours up, too?”

Seth wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Sure,” I said. Now was not the time to have this conversation. Seth

pulled our cups off the table and retreated into the kitchen. I folded my arms around myself, thinking

back over our time together. If I’d given him any reason to hope I might return his feelings, it was