Incubus (96 page)

into full speed. Seth’s eyes fastened on the blade. He scrambled away from me-right in front of the

cloaked Karayan.

“Sethayl!” Illydia screamed.

Seth dropped flat to the floor, but the dagger sliced a line across his back. He howled in agony.

Illydia barreled for Karayan, dropping her human aspect. Her face changed, coal-black eyes glared

murder, gleaming black claws protruded from hands as pale as a corpse.

Illydia smashed into Karayan, clawing at her face. Great gashes tore open along Karayan’s cheek.

She screamed, trying to bring the dagger up to defend herself. But Karayan had never been trained to

fight with weapons—and since this opponent could see her, she was outmatched. Karayan’s cloak fell

away as the concentration she needed to maintain it snapped.

Seth scrambled back from the fighting Lilitu. He eyed the secret door, still standing open, then

glanced back at his sister. I could see the conflict in his eyes. He wanted to help Illydia—but he was

getting ready to bolt.

I took a step toward Seth. His eyes snapped to my face, his features tensing.

Then I heard Karayan’s ragged gasp of pain. I had a fraction of a second to decide. I abandoned

Seth and leapt to help Karayan.

Illydia swiped for Karayan again, her wicked claws still gleaming with Karayan’s blood. Karayan

dodged back, but she was slowing and her eyes were lidded heavily with pain.

“Behind you!” Seth shouted.

Illydia turned on me, claws poised to strike-but I
had
trained with these weapons. She pounced. I

knocked her hand aside and buried the dagger in her heart. I felt the impact all the way to my shoulder.

I jerked back and the dagger came free. A small pool of dark blood stained the front of Illydia’s shirt.

Her face went slack. A moment later, she pitched forward onto the sanctuary floor.

“No.” Seth’s face was ashen, staring at the body of his sister. His eyes rose until they found me.

They burned with pure, roiling hatred.

I tightened my grip on the dagger reflexively.

Outside, we heard a car squeal to a stop.

“Short-sighted, Braedyn.” Seth’s voice was calm, but something in it made my skin crawl.

Behind us, someone pounded on the mission’s front door. “Braedyn? Are you in there?” It was

Dad.

“Go around the side,” I shouted. “There’s another entrance.”

Seth stepped back away from me, eyeing his escape route. “Don’t forget who won this round,” he

said. “The seal is open.” He turned and stepped onto the seal. Twining ribbons of shadow swirled up

and around him, pulling him out of this world. Another car squealed to a stop outside, followed

quickly by a third. Doors opened and slammed outside, voices filling the night.

Karayan handed my dagger back with a shaking hand. “I think that’s my cue.”

“You’re hurt,” I said.

“You think?” Her voice dripped with sarcasm, but she smiled.

“Karayan.” I laid a hand on her arm. “Stay with us. We can take care of you.”

“Sorry, Braedyn,” Karayan said. And she did look sorry. “But I’ve been down this road. It didn’t

work out so good.”

“Braedyn?” Dad raced through the mission’s secret door. His eyes scanned the room until they

fastened on me. I sensed Karayan cloaking herself, withdrawing into the shadows.

“Dad.” I wanted nothing more than to run to him.

But as I started across the floor, someone else spoke.

“Daughter of Lilith.” The powerful voice froze my steps. I turned. Senoy was looking directly at

me. “Braedyn.” His voice thick with pain. “Come closer.”

Chapter 21

Senoy’s eyes followed me across the room. I approached hesitantly, stopping several feet away from

where he knelt on the cold stone floor.

“Are you really—?” But I knew the answer. “You’re one of the Three.”

I heard Dad breathe in sharply at the secret door.

“You have nothing to fear from me, Lilitu,” Senoy said. “I would speak with you.” A spasm of

pain contorted his handsome features. Almost without thinking, I knelt beside him.

“Braedyn?” Dad took a step toward me, his voice tight with fear.

“Get help,” I said. “He’s hurt.”

Dad hesitated, then turned and ran back out through the secret door.

“He has genuine love for you,” Senoy said. Then his face wrenched with another wave of pain.

“Maybe you should save your strength,” I said. “The Guard is here, they’ve got med kits in every

car.”

“There is no need.” He glanced down, as though mildly irritated by the blade protruding from his

chest. “The wound is fatal.”

“Don’t say that,” I breathed. I let my fingers slide forward, catching his hand. His skin was cool

and smooth. It felt almost like marble. “You can’t die.”

He looked down at our hands, then back at me, bemused. “You are mistaken.”

“I’m so—I’m so sorry,” I whispered. I felt his hand squeeze my fingers lightly. It was a

comforting gesture. I stared. He was dying, yet Senoy was comforting
me.

“It is the sacrifice required of me.” His gaze bore through me. “You are, I think, a friend to the

Sons of Adam?”

I nodded.

“Then you must be strong, Daughter of Lilith.” His gaze softened. I detected a deep sadness in the

look he gave me. “In this fight, many more sacrifices will be required.” His eyes seemed to cloud. His

strength faded. I caught his shoulder before he hit the floor. As gently as I could, I lowered him to the

ground, cradling his head in my lap.

Senoy closed his eyes as another spasm of pain wracked his body. I laid my hand against his

cheek, brushing the hair back from his face. He let out a long breath, his features easing. And then the

hand cradling his wound fell away, and he grew still.

“Senoy?” I whispered. There was no flicker behind his eyes. I bit my lip and looked up. Karayan

was nowhere to be seen. Lucas was crouched over Cassie, trying to comfort her. Dad hadn’t returned.

I was the only one who’d noticed the angel die.

The floor of the sanctuary bucked beneath us. I lurched as the stone floor heaved. It split into a

web of fractures, radiating out from Senoy’s body across the sanctuary, bypassing only the seal. The

force of the fractures kicked up chunks of stone and dust. I couldn’t summon the energy to lift my

hands and shield my face.

The mission’s front doors slammed open behind us. I heard Cassie scream outside. I couldn’t look

up from Senoy’s face.

“What’s happening?” Cassie was wailing. “What was that?!” I heard Lucas’s steady voice as he

tried to calm her, but I couldn’t make out the words. “No!” Cassie’s voice was shrill, unappeased.

“Tell me what’s going on!” I don’t know what Lucas told her. I couldn’t focus on his voice.

Senoy’s features were smooth now. Death had chased the pain from them, but it felt wrong.

“We need you,” I whispered.

“Lilitu,” Gretchen shrieked behind me.

I tore my eyes away from Senoy’s still face. Karayan, cloaked, must have been trying to slip past

the Guard out the mission’s front doors. She spun at Gretchen’s scream, her cloak vanishing. Dad and

Hale had their daggers out in half a second.

“No!” Lucas launched himself between Karayan and the Guard, hands held high. “She’s on our

side,” he shouted. I watched this all as if trapped in some kind of trance.

Karayan retreated back into the sanctuary, re-cloaked, darting for the secret door and her escape.

“She’s getting away,” Gretchen hissed.

“She saved our lives,” Lucas insisted. “It was Seth. Seth was the incubus.” That got their attention.

As Lucas recounted the whole story, I noticed Karayan stumbling away from the secret door. Someone

had just stepped through it.

Thane. He did not see Karayan through her cloak. But he saw me. His eyes shifted to the dead

angel, still cradled in my lap, then to the vessel planted squarely in the center of the seal.

“You stole the vessel,” he said quietly. He stepped into the sanctuary and I noticed something

hanging from his hands. Another sword. Semangelof’s sword. I stared at it, sickly mesmerized. “You

opened the seal.”

My eyes flicked from the sword to Thane’s face. His features could have been carved from granite.

A cold fire burned in his eyes—righteous indignation. Thane walked toward me, adjusting his grip on

the sword.

“Thane!” Dad’s desperate cry stabbed through the haze of my thoughts. When I saw his face, a

wrenching regret twisted my insides. He’d had such faith in me, and I’d failed the Guard. Dad shoved

through the others and pounded forward, but he was too far away. He wouldn’t make it in time.

Thane hefted the sword above me. His muscles tensed as he started the downward swing. Dad

threw a hand out toward me, but he was at least 10 yards away.

“Stop!” Karayan caught Thane’s arm, uncloaking herself as she did so. Thane recoiled, but

Karayan didn’t release him. “She’s not your enemy. And neither am I.”

Dad hauled me off the ground, spinning me away from Thane. He enfolded me in his arms,

choking back a painful sob of relief. I could see Thane and Karayan over his shoulder.

“You plague me,” Thane whispered to Karayan. “Each time I think I’ve dug you out of my heart, I

find your claws buried still deeper.” His voice grew tighter. “You are the single greatest failing of my

life.”

Karayan winced, but she didn’t let him go. She reached up and eased the sword out of Thane’s

grip.

With a growl of rage, Dad moved. He pushed me behind him and drew his daggers. “Thane.” The

murder in his voice made the hair on my scalp prickle.

Karayan spun to face my dad, shielding Thane from his wrath. She held the sword point down,

offering it up to him. I felt Dad tense, preparing to strike whether or not Karayan was standing in his

way.

“Don’t,” I said, grabbing his arm. “Dad, please.” After a tense moment, Dad relaxed.

Thane glared at Karayan. “You think this makes you an ally?” he sneered.

“I think you need all the help you can get,” she snapped back. Then she looked at me, as though

uncertain she was making the right decision. “Assuming you still want my help.”

I smiled, a tiny hope rekindling in my heart. “I do.”

Gretchen and Hale moved forward to join us. Lucas followed them a few moments later. Only

Cassie held back. She watched us all with a numb expression on her face, still huddled by the

mission’s front doors.

Dad eyed Karayan. “You’re thinking about coming back to the Guard?”

“Not my idea,” Karayan said. She jerked her chin at me. “Blame her.”

The Guardsmen turned to me. I glanced at Hale. “We need her,” I said.

Hale gave me a searching look, then turned and offered his hand to Karayan. “Here’s hoping I

don’t live to regret this.”

“Yeah. You and me both.” She took his offered hand and they shook. Everyone else stared in

silence. “Well, don’t everybody cheer all at once,” Karayan said.

A tiny smile tugged at the corners of Dad’s mouth. He held out a hand. Unsure, Karayan took it.

“Welcome back,” he said, giving her hand a firm shake.

Lucas clapped a hand on Karayan’s shoulder. “I owe you one,” he said.

“Two, actually, but I’ve never known Guardsmen to be terribly good at math.” Karayan’s smile

was tentative. For the first time I’d ever seen, Karayan looked a little uncomfortable in her own skin.

She didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands. Finally, she shoved them in the back pockets of

her jeans. She glanced at Thane, and everyone seemed to hold their breath.

Before Thane could speak, the air cracked with a sound like thunder.

Sansenoy appeared before us—not the scruffy old man I’d first met, but revealed in his true form.

He towered over us, a gleaming pillar of light.

The others—who’d never seen an angel in his own aspect—scattered back, falling to the floor in

the face of his radiance. As my eyes adjusted, I could make out his figure, the chiseled cut of his jaw,

the perfect symmetry of his form. I’d seen him revealed like this once before. It still took my breath

away.

He turned away from us, kneeling by the side of his fallen comrade.

“Senoy.” His voice reverberated with sorrow. It broke something within me, and in moments I

could feel hot tears slipping down the sides of my face. “Rest, my friend.”

Sansenoy laid a hand to the other angel’s forehead. Suddenly Senoy’s form began to transform into

tiny pinpoints of golden light. The motes swirled up and away from us, dissipating high above our

heads. The air filled with a
presence.
I recognized it as Senoy’s, even though I’d only spoken those

few words to him. It moved through me, filling me with hope. Faith. Courage. And then it moved on,

and I felt... bereft. I let out a long sigh. Mine was not the only one.

As the last of the lights faded, the strange Lilitu weapon fell to the ground with a dull clang.

Sansenoy stood. The light of his angel aspect faded. Moments later, when he again turned to face

us, I recognized the scruffy old man I’d first met on the street last year. His expression was solemn.