Incubus (27 page)

“If Angela was killed over this, and you go poking around in it—” Dad stopped himself, but I

understood.

“Tell Thane to hurry,” I said. “Please.”

Dad took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. He kissed me on the forehead. “I will. I will.” He

drew me close into a tight hug, then released me. “Go back to school.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“Gather the Guardsmen,” he said. “It’s time to find this incubus.”

I led Seth up the stairs. We could hear Lucas talking to Gretchen on the phone in the kitchen. Seth

grabbed my arm, stopping me in the privacy of the hall.

He lowered his voice, but the emotion was clear in his eyes. “So, that’s it? It’s over?”

“It’s not over,” I said. Let Thane go to Terrence for permission. If he gave it, great. But I wasn’t

going to wait for some old man I’d never met to decide the course of my future. Even if it meant

hiding from Dad. Even if it meant lying to Lucas. “We’re going to do this ritual. But we’re going to

have to do it on our own.”

Chapter 12

The new moon, curved in the sky like a silver thread, had set hours ago. Stars glittered with fierce

determination, but their light was too distant to offer much comfort. So different from the vast

darkness of the dream reality. There, the glimmering lights of dreams responded in swirling gusts of

motion to my every thought.

I sat at my window, waiting for Dad to fall asleep. I could hear him moving through his room,

pacing anxiously. It was all I could do not to follow suit. All afternoon I had been plagued by the

knowledge that if we couldn’t stop this war from starting in the next two weeks, I might not get the

chance to become human for the next two decades. I’d watch Lucas grow and age, while the Lilitu

within held me back. And if I slipped? If waiting became too great a test of our patience? If I hurt

Lucas?

I shuddered, and leaned my head against the window frame. Lucas’s light had gone out over an

hour ago. I felt a pang of longing to join him in his dream, where I knew I couldn’t accidentally hurt

him. But I had other plans tonight.

Finally, Dad’s pacing ceased. I heard the springs on his bed groan, followed by the faint click of

his light switch. I forced myself to wait another half-hour, then eased my bedroom door open. At the

door to Dad’s room, I could hear the steady, deep breathing of sleep. My shoulders unknotted,

releasing a tiny fraction of the tension from the day. At least now I could
do
something.

I hurried down the stairs, slipping down the back hall to the guest room. I could see light spilling

out from the crack under the door. I knocked, and heard a soft thud as Seth jumped out of bed.

Moments later, the door opened.

“We’re good?” he asked.

“He’s asleep. What did you find out?”

“You better come in.”

Seth opened the door a little wider. I entered the room, and Seth closed the door behind me. His

bed was still made, strewn with notes he’d taken while reading his mother’s journal. On one page he’d

made a rudimentary sketch of the vessel. I picked it up. It was nowhere as detailed as the drawing that

had burned up on Angela’s desk, but it was a start.

Seth stood behind me to get a look at the drawing over my shoulder. “It’s an instruction manual,”

he said. “The vessel, I mean.”

“An instruction manual for what?”

He shuffled through the notes on his bed and came up with a handful of crinkled pages. “For the

ritual. Apparently it’s kind of complicated.”

“No surprise there,” I said, an edge of bitterness pushing through my voice.

Seth glanced at me and smiled. “We’ll get it. I mean, the monks only had the vessel. We’ve got the

internet.” He handed me the page. “Here. This is the list of ingredients we’ll need.”

I scanned the notes. “
Ericameria nauseosus, Juniperus scopulorum, Pinus edulis, Rosa canina
hips

—” I looked up. “The ingredient list is in Latin?”

“Don’t panic. According to Google, it’s mostly a bunch of plants.” Seth leaned over to point at the

page in my hand, translating. “Basically—chamisa, juniper, piñon, dog rose hips, et cetera.”

“So, we just have to go out into the desert and pick some wildflowers?”

“Not exactly,” Seth said. “Some of them have to be tinctures, like the juniper and the rose hips.

The problem is, we’ve only got two weeks.”

“Hm. Yes,” I said. “And that might mean something to me if I knew what a tincture was.”

Seth ducked his head. “Right, sorry. A tincture. It’s just basically alcohol infused with a berry or

something. So, like, take some juniper berries, soak ‘em in vodka for a month or two, then strain them

out and
voila,
tincture.”

“Vodka, huh?”

“Well, the clearer the alcohol, the better. Medicinal alcohol would be best, but vodka works in a

pinch.”

I shook my head. “Those monks must have really liked their moonshine.”

Seth chuckled.

I returned to scanning the page. “Herbs and tinctures.”

“Yes, mostly,” Seth said. I heard something in his voice and looked up. He avoided my gaze. “It

shouldn’t be too hard to get our hands on most of that stuff.”

“So what’s the problem?”

Seth hesitated, then cleared his throat. “Here.” He pointed back at the list. “The last ingredient.”

I read it off the page. “
Sanguinis lamia.
” I looked up, suddenly chilled. “
Sanguinis?
Doesn’t that

mean—”

“Yeah,” Seth said. “Blood.”

“So, what is
lamia?
”

Seth squirmed in his socks. He couldn’t meet my eyes. “It’s the Latin word for Lilitu.”

“Oh.” I turned and sat on the edge of Seth’s bed.

“But we don’t need much,” he said. “Just a few drops should work.”

“You think the monks stopped with just a few drops?” My voice sounded faint in my ears.

“I think if more was needed, they would have detailed it in the ingredients list.” Seth sat beside me

on the bed. “Seriously, Braedyn. They took crazy insane notes about every single ingredient. Which

juniper berries could go in the tincture, how to harvest the perfect rose hips—but when it came to

sanguinis lamia...
” he shrugged. “That’s all they wrote; no annotation, no explanation.” He studied my

face, concerned. “Braedyn? I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I thought—”

“No,” I interrupted him. “It’s okay. I’ll do it.” And as I said the words, I knew that I had to do it. If

I wanted to be free of this curse, if I wanted a normal life, this was the way.

“Are you sure?” Seth asked.

“Why? Are you hiding another Lilitu in here somewhere?” I asked.

Seth smiled. “No. ‘Fraid not.”

“Then it’s settled.”

Seth let out a long sigh. “The only problem left is—”

“The vessel.” I finished the thought for him. Seth nodded, his eyes solemn. “Well, we’ll have to

cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said. “In the meantime, you’ve got our shopping list. There’s

a lot we can do to prepare.”

“Yes,” Seth agreed. “But we don’t have a lot of time left.”

I could see the worry in his eyes. We had two weeks to find this mysterious vessel, or all the

tinctures in the world wouldn’t help us lock the Lilitu out.

“Why didn’t you tell me what you were doing?” Lucas asked, leaning against the locker bay. It was

the first time we’d been alone together since Seth and I had ditched school to search his mom’s house.

“You’re right. I should have,” I said, closing my locker. I was exhausted. I’d left Seth’s room at

around four in the morning, leaving me just over two hours to nap before I had to get up for the day. I

could tell Lucas was upset, but I really didn’t have it in me to do this right now. I started to turn away.

Lucas caught my arm.

“No, come on.” Lucas’s eyes searched my face. “You ditched school with Seth, fine. Whatever.

But you went to his house, even though you knew how dangerous it was—I mean, seriously, the

incubus broke in
while you were there.
” I felt his hand tighten on my arm.

“I know.” I felt miserable, but what was done was done.

“You could have died.” Lucas’s voice was tight with emotion. “You should have died. How you

guys managed to escape with your lives—”

“I know, Lucas. I know. It was a huge mistake. How many times do you want me to say I’m

sorry?” I snapped. Lucas released me, stung. He turned his head, pretending to watch the students

hurrying past us before first bell. I’d hurt him. I took a deep breath and let it out, trying to regain my

calm. “I—that came out wrong.”

“No, I was pushing.” Lucas looked down at his fingernails. “It’s just that we used to tell each other

everything. So, what is it? You don’t trust me anymore?”

“No, Lucas.” I reached out and caught his hand, risking the touch. “Of course I trust you.”

“So why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew you’d stop us,” I said. “And I need this ritual to work.”

“Wait, what are you saying?” Lucas asked, his face stricken. “You’re not trying to do the ritual on

your own?”

I felt a thrill of fear shoot down my spine. If Lucas told my dad that Seth and I hadn’t given up, I’d

be lucky if I didn’t end up under house arrest. At the very least, it would be nearly impossible for us to

gather everything we needed in time. I forced a smile, steeling myself to lie. But as I started to speak,

Lucas released my hand and took a step back.

“Wait,” he said. “You know what? Maybe we shouldn’t have this conversation right now. I don’t

want you to say something you might regret later.”

Lucas turned and left me standing by my locker alone. I closed the locker with a quiet click,

reeling.

This is for the best,
a small voice in my head said.
The less he knows, the easier it will be on him.

Once the ritual is complete, the door will be locked, you’ll be human, and there won’t be anything left

to be upset about.

So why didn’t that thought comfort me?

I kept meaning to talk with Lucas. I felt like I needed to apologize again, or offer him some comfort—

or do my best to throw him off our scent. But it was harder and harder to find time to talk with him

alone during the day, and by the time I crawled to bed each night in the pre-dawn, I was too tired to try

to have the conversation in a dream. Seth and I had our hands full preparing for the ritual; I didn’t

seem to have any energy left for anything else.

By the time Thursday arrived, I’d reached a state of exhaustion that I wouldn’t have believed

possible. My irritation had gradually grown into paranoia, which exploded that day in physics class.

I was working with Seth on some experiment, the details of which hadn’t been able to penetrate

my sleep-deprived mind. He seemed to have it under control, so I let my thoughts wander. Amber and

Ally had their heads together in the back of lab. As I watched them, I saw Ally’s eyes flick past me,

toward the lab table where Royal and Cassie sat working on their experiment. It put my hackles up.

Ally caught me staring. A faint smirk twisted her pretty lips, but that was the only indication she gave

of having seen me. She and Amber turned back to their lab work. I kept my gaze fixed on their table,

waiting for the next indication of what they were planning.