Incubus (50 page)

“Told you.” I grinned at Lucas, feeling some of my anxiety melting into the background. Royal

was a grounding force in my life. Safe. Familiar.

“You said he’d make an entrance,” Lucas replied, unable to wrench his gaze off the gleaming

roadster, “but now I’m thinking you left out a few key details.”

“What?” I said innocently. “I told you he got a car for his birthday.”

“ A
car
—?” Lucas glanced at me, incredulous. “That’s like calling the Hope Diamond a pretty

rock.”

“Which is technically true,” I shrugged, “depending on your taste in gemstones.”

Lucas smiled, shaking his head, then draped an arm over my shoulder. “Okay. Now I’m thinking I

put too much thought into your Christmas gift.” I elbowed him in the ribs. Lucas grunted, but his grin

deepened.

In the parking lot, Royal emerged from this gleaming work of art, seemingly oblivious to our

classmates’ stares. He walked around and opened the passenger door for Cassie. She unfolded from

the car, smoothing her long black hair back from her face. She was beaming, flushed from the ride,

and when she spotted us she waved brightly. We moved forward to meet them at the edge of the

parking lot. Royal approached us casually enough, but as he got closer I could see the twinkle of

excitement in his eyes.

“Well?” he asked. “First thoughts. Brutal honesty.”

“Hm.” I said, tilting my head to one side critically. “I thought it’d be more—” I glanced at Lucas.

“Awesome,” he supplied.

“Yes. I thought it’d be more awesome,” I said. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s okay, for a car.

I’m sure it will get you from point A to point B. Maybe you can upgrade it in a few years. Get

something a little—”

“Awesomer,” Lucas said.

“Right.”

Cassie bit her lip, muffling a giggle.

“It’s an incredible ride and you know it,” Royal said, unruffled. He held up his car keys. “Just for

that, Cassie gets to drive it first.”

“Me?” Cassie squealed.

“I’d like to amend my former statement,” Lucas said.

“Too late.” Royal tossed the keys to Cassie, who plucked them out of the air gleefully. Lucas

looked forlorn.

“Although I do need a favor, so if anyone wants brownie points—” Royal jabbed his thumb over

his shoulder at the car behind him. “To be clear, brownie points get you behind the wheel.”

“Let’s hear it,” Lucas said.

Royal lowered his voice. “My dad’s hired some SAT dude to come over and tutor me three times a

week. I could really use some company. This guy is way,
way
beyond plastic. Just watching him smile

all afternoon makes
my
cheeks hurt. Isn’t there some saying? ‘If you’re going to suffer, you might as

well make your friends suffer, too?’”

“I don’t think so, no,” I said.

Royal snapped his fingers. “Misery loves company.”

“Yeah, that’s not exactly the same thing.”

“Whatever. My misery basically demands your company. It’s the first rule of friendship.” Royal

turned beseeching eyes on Cassie. “Save me from Academic Ken Doll. You’ll have my eternal

gratitude.”

“All right. I’m in,” Cassie said.

“Thanks, study buddy.” Royal grinned, catching my eye for the briefest moment. I knew—and I

knew Royal knew—that if Cassie was going to go to college, she’d need some serious scholarships.

The kind of scholarships that started with an excellent score on the SATs. Which made me suspect

that this tutor might not be as lame as Royal would have us believe.

“Count me in, too,” I said.

“So these brownie points,” Lucas began.

“Don’t worry, pretty boy,” Royal said, grinning. “There’s plenty of road to go around.”

Behind us, Mr. Landon clapped his hands together, drawing everyone’s attention toward the doors

of the old mission. His portly stature and receding hairline—which might have made him the target of

students’ jokes—were easily overshadowed by a youthful enthusiasm for his subject. He was one of a

handful of beloved educators at Coronado Prep voted among the “Best Teachers” year after year. Mr.

Landon taught AP History to all the juniors at Coronado Prep, which was the reason for this class-wide

field trip.

“All right, kids, I think that’s everyone,” Mr. Landon said. “Please direct your attention to our

fabulous guide for the day, Annie Gerardo. Annie?”

I turned toward the slender, mousy woman standing next to Mr. Landon—but my gaze caught on

another figure, hovering at the back of the crowd of students. Almost as soon as our eyes locked, the

strange woman slipped through a gate into the mission’s garden and was gone. A shivery tingle crept

over the back of my neck. I’d only had the briefest glimpse of her, but something about the woman

was off. She was human—that much I could see instantly. Approaching middle age, with a wide, kind

looking face. But something in her eyes was missing.

“Braedyn?” Lucas looked at me curiously. I noticed the rest of the students were following Annie

into the mission’s main sanctuary. Royal and Cassie, a few paces ahead, trailed the bunch, waiting for

me to catch up.

I turned back to the gate through which the woman had vanished. “Did you see...?”

Lucas followed my gaze, but of course there was nothing to see. “What am I looking for?” he

asked, tensing like a coiled spring, ready for release. I realized I wasn’t the only one with a hair-

trigger these days.

“Nothing,” I said, forcing a smile. I squeezed his hand, still laced through my fingers. “Let’s catch

up before we miss the whole tour. Knowing Landon, this is probably going to end up on a quiz.”

Lucas and I were the last of our group to set foot inside the mission. The heavy mission doors swung

shut behind us and a sweeping peace enveloped me. The outside world fell away, as though muted by a

great distance. The sunlight, which had seemed so harsh moments ago in the parking lot, was at the

wrong angle to beam directly into the sanctuary. Instead, fingers of light shot through the high

windows to reflect against the painted ceiling, bouncing aimlessly in the vastness above us and filling

the cathedral with a reflected glow.

“Come in, everyone. Come on, don’t be afraid to scootch a little closer.” Annie waved us forward.

When Lucas and I edged farther inside, she gestured at the sanctuary around us grandly. “This mission

was first established in 1593, by a group of Spanish monks. This room we’re standing in was the

entirety of the original mission. Everything else—the dormitory, the gardens, the refractory—that was

added later.” Annie gestured for us to follow her deeper into the sanctuary. I stepped out from under

the shelter of the foyer and got my first good look at the simple stained glass windows, depicting the

lives and deaths of a variety of saints.

I heard a group of guys muffling laughter from the other side of the sanctuary. I glanced over and

saw Dan Buchanan making a lewd gesture while a group of kids surrounding him snickered. One of

the girls tossed her icy-blond hair back over one shoulder and noticed me staring. Her smile vanished

in an instant.

Amber. She used to brag that she’d grown up getting most of the things she wanted in life. Until I

came along, I suppose. She’d made a failed play for Lucas when he started at Coronado Prep, but that

wasn’t the reason for the icy rage that gleamed in her eyes.

This was about an ultimatum she’d given me last winter.

You were there when Derek died,
she’d said.
You had something to do with Parker’s meltdown. I

don’t want you at my school. I don’t want you near my friends. I’m warning you. If you stick around,

whatever happens next is on your head.

With some effort, I let my gaze slide away from Amber back to our tour guide. Amber’s threats

were toothless. If she ran around telling everyone her theory that I was a Lilitu demon, they’d all look

at her like she was nuts. Never mind the fact that it was true. Most of humanity wasn’t willing to

accept that people—things—like me existed. I’d had a hard enough time believing it myself when I’d

found out. Steering my thoughts carefully away from this sensitive topic, I sighed. No, there wasn’t

much Amber could do to me, and we both knew it.

“And now for the
pièce de résistance,
” Annie proclaimed with a wide sweep of her arm. She

walked into the small alcove to the left of the altar. “Have you ever wondered why our town is called

Puerto Escondido? Well, feast your eyes on this.” Placing her hand on a carved wooden rose, she

turned her wrist. The rose, which had looked like it was carved into one of the church’s pillars, moved.

It was some kind of latch. Behind Annie, a section of the rich oak paneling popped open. She pulled it

open farther with a flourish.

While Annie was obviously excited about this revelation, the junior class of Coronado Prep did not

share her enthusiasm.

Annie, struggling to win back her audience, attempted a “spooky” voice that came off painfully

corny. “But why, you may ask, did the monks of Puerto Escondido need a secret door out of their

sanctuary?”

“Booty calls?” Dan offered. The sanctuary rang with raucous laughter. Annie’s face fell, and my

heart went out to her. But seriously, we were in high school, not kindergarten.

“Okay, Mr. Buchanan, you’re with me for the rest of this tour,” Mr. Landon said. Dan shrugged

and moved to join Mr. Landon near the front of the group.

“Um...” Annie struggled for a way back into her tour.

“Maybe the kids could roam a bit? Come to you if they have any questions about the mission?”

Mr. Landon offered. Annie’s face melted in relief and she nodded. “Okay, kids,” Mr. Landon said,

taking charge. “Try and remember this is a school field trip. There may or may not be a quiz on this

mission so it might behoove you to take some notes.” He waved off a chorus groans with good humor.

“Thank the Lord,” Royal said, turning around to face us. “That poor woman. I was getting ready to

dial emergency services to come and resuscitate her.”

I heard someone approaching behind us, but when the newcomer spoke, even Royal’s expression

blanched.

“Cassie?” Parker’s voice wavered. When she saw him, the blood seeped out of Cassie’s face.

Royal and I had made a pact to keep Parker away from Cassie as much as possible. We’d done a

thorough job of it so far this year; Cassie hadn’t come face to face with him once since school started.

If she guessed why we’d sometimes steer her down a side hall, or forget a textbook and ask her to

walk back to a locker with us, she hadn’t let on. But here in the mission, outside the confines of

school, we’d let our guard down. He’d gotten past our defenses. Royal locked eyes with me and I saw

his flash of panic.

“Leave me alone,” Cassie said to Parker, her voice suddenly cold.

Royal and I moved at the same time. Royal guided Cassie away. I stepped in front of Parker to

block him from following.

“What are you doing, Parker?” I hissed. “She doesn’t want to see you anymore, remember?” I felt

Lucas move to stand beside me.

“I thought maybe—” Parker ran a shaking hand through his hair.

“Maybe she forgot that little video you made?” My voice crackled with quiet fury. “That’s not

likely, is it?” It had been almost a year since Parker had seduced Cassie on a dare and shared the

videoed evidence of the deed with his friends. She’d never quite recovered. She put on a brave face,

hung out with us like old times, but she’d stopped sewing, stopped designing those fashion-forward

creations she’d been so passionate about before. And she’d stopped wearing her hair in the quirky

twisted knots that had always seemed so
her
. Where she used to radiate her own personal brand of

Cassie-ness almost unconsciously, she now struggled to fade into the background. It was the thing I

hated most about what Parker had done to her. He’d stolen her from herself.