Incubus (51 page)

Parker squirmed miserably. “I made a mistake,” he started.

Lucas didn’t give him time to finish. “Don’t worry. You’re not going to get the chance to make

another one.”

Parker pulled his gaze off of Cassie and glanced at Lucas, as if seeing him there for the first time.

“This has nothing to do with you, Mitchell.”

“Come on, man,” Lucas said, his voice soft and dangerous. “Walk away.”

Parker gave Lucas a lopsided smirk. “Or what? You want to take a swing at me? I thought you

used up all your second chances with Fiedler last year.”

Lucas’s shoulders loosened, the way they did before a practice bout with the Guard. I tried to catch

his eye. Parker was an arrogant ass, but that didn’t make him wrong. Lucas couldn’t afford to push

things with Fiedler, not after the rocky start he’d made at Coronado Prep last year.

Either Parker couldn’t see how close he’d pushed Lucas to the breaking point, or he meant to

instigate a fight.

“She’s got nothing left to say to you,” I said. Parker’s eyes shifted to me a half-second before he

shook his head and shoved me aside. I stumbled, catching myself on a column.

“Hey,” Lucas growled. He caught Parker’s arm roughly. Parker spun around, fist clenched, ready

for a fight. Behind them, I spotted Mr. Landon wandering through the crowd, eyes peeled for any

trouble. If I was going to diffuse this situation, it had to happen now. I fixed my gaze on Parker.

“
Leave Cassie alone,
” I said, willing power into the words. The faint tinkling of chimes echoed

strangely around my words as they tunneled through the space between us to settle inside Parker’s

mind. I saw Lucas tense out of the corner of my eye. I hadn’t used
the call
since the night of Winter

Ball—the last time I’d told Parker to stay away from Cassie. I shouldn’t have had to tell him again,

but I pushed that troubling thought down and willed my words to penetrate through Parker’s own

desires.

It worked. After a second or two he blinked at us, as though startled to see us.

“Um, hello?” Ally Krect snaked her arm through Parker’s and glared suspiciously at me before

turning an inviting smile on Parker. “Did you get lost, babe?”

“Clearly.” Parker seemed to shake the last of his haze off. He looped his arm over her shoulders,

turning his back on us.

I could feel Lucas turn to study me.

“I don’t know,” I said, in answer to his unasked question. I finally met his gaze, and saw my own

worry mirrored in his eyes. “Maybe I didn’t do it right the first time.”

“I was there,” Lucas said softly. “You did it right. He’s resisting somehow.” Lucas turned to stare

after Parker, who was ignoring us, arm still comfortably circled around Ally. She flicked a suspicious

look over to us, then angled her body so her back was facing us, too.

“Come on,” I said, drawing Lucas back to Royal and Cassie, who were studying some old carved

panels on the walls. Doing their best to act normal.

“It’s so pretty here,” Cassie said, glancing up as Lucas and I joined them. “I can’t believe this

place is over 400 years old.”

“All right,” Royal said, getting down to business. “I say we split up. You two take that side, we’ll

take this side, and we can compare notes tonight. Deal?”

I glanced at Lucas, more than a little willing to spend some time strolling through the beautiful

mission alone with him.

As if he could read my thoughts, Lucas smiled. “Deal.”

Cassie was right. The mission was beautiful. Everything, from the beams in the ceiling to the stones

under our feet, had been hand carved by the monks who’d established this mission nearly half a

millennium ago. Lucas and I wandered through the sanctuary, letting the peaceful beauty of the space

wash over us. As we drifted back to the main sanctuary doors, Lucas spotted a crack in one of the

massive columns framing the narthex. He examined it for a moment, then smiled.

“Huh,” he said. “Apparently those monks were hiding more than one secret around this place.” He

hooked his fingers into the crack and what had looked like a carved section of the column turned out

to be another concealed door. Lucas opened it, revealing a tightly curved spiral staircase leading up.

“Where do you suppose that goes?” There was a decidedly mischievous glint in his eye.

“Well,” I said, as if resigning myself to an odious task. “Mr. Landon did give us an assignment.”

“True. This might be on the quiz.”

The spiral staircase was so narrow you had to watch where you put your feet; each tread narrowed

from about eight inches to almost nothing as it connected in the center of the spiral. It took a bit of

concentration to walk up, and I knew coming down would be another challenge.

But the climb was worth it. Lucas and I reached the top of the stairs to discover we were in a cozy

little viewing balcony overlooking the main sanctuary. Very cozy, actually—we could barely move

without bumping into each other. Sheltered in our hiding place, we had the perfect view of the

sanctuary. Just above us, a stained glass window depicted a beautiful saint, haloed in light, holding an

arrow over her heart.

Something drew my attention back down to the level below. A lone figure stood in the center of

the sanctuary. A familiar feeling pulled at the edge of my thoughts, but before I could place it, Lucas

spoke.

“Beautiful.” He was so close, his breath stirred the hair against my neck. I was suddenly aware of

the warmth of his body behind me and ached to lean back into him. My heart quickened. I tried to

tamp it down. We couldn’t act on these feelings. We had made a promise to the Guard, to our families.

But beyond that, I’d sworn to myself to never,
never
let myself risk Lucas’s safety again. And yet,

right at this moment, none of that seemed to matter.

I turned in his arms.

Whatever reassuring thoughts I might have had about Lucas’s and my self-control, I overestimated

it.

I don’t know which of us moved first. Our lips brushed and I felt the sudden swell of the Lilitu

storm inside me, straining forward, waiting for one moment’s weakness in my self-control to drain

Lucas of his vitality. I pulled back from Lucas as if stung.

“We can’t.” I cringed at the sound of my voice, hoarse with emotion. “We can’t.”

“Braedyn,” he started. I traced my fingers across his lips, thrilled at the soft warmth of the touch. I

bit my own lip and turned aside.

“We promised,” I said.

“I know. I just wish—” Lucas pulled away from me, and I could see the struggle on his face. “This

would be a lot easier if we knew when the waiting part would end.” He smiled, that lopsided smile that

made him look in the same moment vulnerable and worldly. “Too bad Sansenoy didn’t leave you his

number.”

“Right. Because, you know, why not just call and ask?”

Lucas pitched his voice an octave higher than normal, and I realized he was imitating me. “‘So,

Sans, that whole becoming human thing, when do you figure that’s going to happen? ‘Cause my

boyfriend and I have some plans.’”

“I do not sound like that!” I said, punching him in the arm for the poor impersonation. But I

couldn’t stop myself from giggling.

“Ouch.” Lucas smiled, rubbing his arm, clearly pleased to have won a laugh. “Hey, can I ask you a

question?”

“What?”

“Why haven’t you told Murphy?”

The question caught me unprepared. When I’d told Lucas of the angel’s offer to make me human,

he’d been so thrilled, I’d stopped halfway through. There was a part I hadn’t told him. I hadn’t told

him about the caveat. Because if I slipped up, if I used my Lilitu powers to hurt someone badly

enough, I would cross a line. My soul would be too tainted to ever be redeemed, and my chance of

becoming human would evaporate as completely as a drop of water spilt on the hot desert floor. That

was why I hadn’t been able to bring myself to tell Murphy, my father. I couldn’t bear it if Dad pinned

all his hopes on me becoming human, and then I lost control and crossed the line. It would crush him.

I’d told myself it was better he not know, but keeping this from him was getting harder and harder. I

forced myself to smile. “I just haven’t found the right time.”

Lucas nodded, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. “What exactly constitutes the right time to tell

your dad that you might actually get to live a normal, healthy life?”

“It’s—” I took a deep breath, then went for a half-truth. “The Guard needs me right now. As a

Lilitu
. I don’t want to distract anyone with thoughts of what might happen someday.”

“
Might?
” Lucas looked genuinely surprised. “What’s this ‘might’ business? You got a guarantee

from an angel that you could be human one day. How does that leave room for ‘might?’”

I dragged my eyes back to the sanctuary. “Yeah. No, you’re right.” I forced a lightness into my

voice, hoping that would put an end to the discussion. But Lucas heard the fear behind my words.

“Braedyn?”

I didn’t respond, not trusting myself to speak.

“You don’t have to hide anything from me.”

“I know.” Still my words came out too brightly to be believed.

Gently, he cupped one hand under my chin and lifted my face. “What are you not telling me?”

I reached up to take hold of his hand, but I didn’t pull it away from my face. After a long moment,

I came to a decision. “Okay,” I breathed. “But not here.”

Lucas’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t say anything. He simply nodded. I returned to the spiral

staircase. I could feel him watching me all the way down.

I emerged from the hidden staircase, trying to get my breath back under control. It would be too

humiliating to start crying on a school field trip. I turned to face a row of shadowy statues, pretending

to study the carved figures while I quickly thumbed moisture out of my eyes. I turned back to the

sanctuary, scanning the room for my friends. If I hadn’t been so distracted, I would have seen her

sooner. As it was, I only caught the motion of her darting from behind a statue out of the corner of my

eye. I barely had time to react, shying to the side as she attacked.

That tiny movement probably saved my life, not that I had time to appreciate my good fortune.

One moment I was twisting to shield myself from an unknown attacker, the next I was skidding across

the floor, pain lancing through my shoulder, and she was there, on top of me, lips pulled back in a

snarl.

I reacted without conscious thought, my muscle memory kicking into action. I drove my knuckles

into the woman’s throat, which should have flattened her. She barely reacted, but her grip loosened

enough for me to plant my feet against her ribs and kick her off of me.

I heard someone scream. Lucas shouted. And then she was diving for me again. I threw my body to

one side, rolling onto my feet and spinning around, hands up and ready for a fight. She was already

mid-lunge. I was dimly aware that she was the woman I’d seen earlier, slipping through the gate into

the mission’s inner garden.