Ivory Guard (13 page)

Whatever was happening to him, Micah was right in one thing. It either needed to stop
right now or he would have to pay. With his wings. Not to mention what Lillian would have to face.

He allowed himself one glance, to drink her in, to see her smile, and then he disappeared, heading for the
safe house.

Clouds shrouded the stars, would soon swallow the moon, and lightning flashed on the horizon every now and again.
Lillian had always liked to drive during the night, when the dark world beyond the headlights stretched into infinity while her own was suddenly limited to a patch of illuminated asphalt rolling by. And Lillian especially loved driving their new Dodge Challenger through the night.

“I can’t believe they beat us
, man,” Joshua muttered in the back, but his partner wasn’t listening since he had already drifted off to sleep.

Abby snickered beside her.
“He-he.” Then shot an evil smile at Joshua over her shoulder. “Skill, my friend. Skill.”

Winning the game of pool against the boys was mostly Abby’s credit. Lillian
glanced at her. “Now really, you were scary to watch. How did you do it?”

“Got two brothers who like to play.
Impossible to grow up with them and not learn a trick or two.”

“Nice.”

“Yup.”

“Well, the next time we’ll c
hoose another game. Maybe poker,” Joshua mumbled.

Abby grinned at Lillian, biting her lip. Her eyes and the mischievous glint in them said it all. She
’d learned a few tricks.

Lillian smiled back at her.
The four of them were a weird bunch. Whether thrown together by fate, God or coincidence, it didn’t really matter to her. She had a feeling life would be fun. Maybe not always, but probably when she least expected it.

They reached the safe house
, which lay abandoned in the darkness of the night, with a feeling of satisfaction cushioning their souls and lifting their spirits. The quiet around them was deafening and Lillian was thankful for the roll of thunder in the distance. She was grateful for the thrill of a storm charging the air and buzzing in her blood. Purgatory’s calm still gave her the creeps and yet she almost felt like coming home. What did that say about her? She preferred not knowing.

Together with Joshua she helped carrying Matt up
the stairs and into his room. Joshua tried his best to get him into the sleeping bag, when Matt grunted and murmured in his sleep.

“Did he just ask for his
Mom?” Abby exploded into giggles and slapped a hand over her mouth.

Lillian hushed her
, but stifled a laugh as well. After they calmed down, the girls wished Joshua a goodnight and slipped out of the room.

While Abby hit the bathroom
, Lillian made her way along the hall. Raz hadn’t returned to the bar that night and she wanted to talk to him, especially since her mind was calm and her heart was content for a change. Although said heart did speed up at the prospect of seeing Raz.

Her
feet were silent on the floor since she didn’t want to wake him in case he was already sleeping. Nudging what had once been a whole door, but was now only a sad piece of compressed wood held up by invisible hands, to open a crack, Lillian peaked inside.

What she saw made her stomach clench
and her heart sink, heavy.

No. He wouldn’t.

Floored she opened the door wide but didn’t step inside.
For a moment, while her mind struggled to accept reality, she closed her eyes to concentrate on her breathing and her hand gripped the door frame like a lifeline. Everything inside her hurt, everything screamed.

She didn’t know how long she stood there in the door, staring, but Lillian
tasted salt on her lips as she bit them and realized it was from her tears. A sad laugh escaped her as she wiped them away and something dark wrapped around her heart. A coward wasn’t worth her tears.

The room before her was empty. No slee
ping bag, no clothes, no radio.

Raz was gone.

IV

TIME FLIES

“…but the heart stays in the same place.”

- Harlan
Coben

FOURTEEN

Almost two years
later…

“
Dammit. They keep coming,” Joshua screamed beside her over the red hell that was loose around them.

Lillian looked up and saw more demons spill out of the hellhole only a few yards away from her
. Shit. It had taken them over a week to find this one and the demons had taken advantage of that.

They were in the middle of a
big-ass forest somewhere in the west of Oregon, and it made for a damn difficult battlefield. Thick drops were falling from the trees, remnants of the quick, heavy shower that had heralded the beginning of their battle. As if escaping demons weren’t enough of a pain in the ass, they had to watch those damned roots sticking out and the sneaky undergrowth, both of which could quickly become fatal traps for them here.

A sweeping gaze reassured her. Abby
had climbed a tree and was shooting her crossbow with a grim concentration, her hair swinging in a wild array of braids that she kept in a high ponytail now dark blood-red behind the hellhole’s veil. While Matt was off to the side standing on a small rise, the two of them kept a good distance between their opponents and themselves, their arrows flying and hitting a target with a satisfying
thump
every time.

Her distraction cost her. The white-hot bite of a blade
across her upper arm brought Lillian back to the fight she was already engaged in. The Ebony in front of her was tall and lean and looked to be more fragile than he really was. He used that willowy build of his to slither like a snake, escaping the kiss of her sword and striking fast in return. Red glowing eyes smiled triumphantly at her. Well, let’s see for how long.

Her sword clashed against his dagger, light and darkness fighting against each other as her flames danced with his shadows.
Lillian clenched her jaw and spun away, retreating and letting him savor the taste of victory for a second before she charged forward with her sword a lethal, swirling and flaming eight in the air. His chest and stomach opened and shock filled his eyes as he dropped to the ground.

She was breathing hard while t
he fight continued around her.

Lillian
knew, could sense, her Stalker was watching her every move. Wiping the beginning fatigue and any other emotion from her face she whirled around, pinning him with her deathly calm eyes. A sickly amused grin tugged at his lips and Lillian itched to wipe it off him - with her sword - as he cocked his head to look at her like one would at an exotic animal in the zoo.

He stood like a commander, apart from the battle in front of him but taking great pleasure in it.
That damned incubus Ebony, whom her guard had fondly started to call her Stalker, since she still didn’t know his name after all this time or why he seemed to be gunning for her like this. He followed them. No, he followed
her
. And she didn’t have the slightest idea as to why or how.

A few quick flaps of his red wings and suddenly he was right in front of her. His gaze traveled the length of her body and something in his gaze made her skin crawl as his eyes settled on her chest. She knew not only her arm but also her top had been cut during the last fight, offering a glimpse of her
soft flesh and bra.

“Hmm.
Not bad, Ivory. I’ve got to admit you’ve grown into your skin, but it’s nice to see it’s not all hard muscle. Maybe I’ll keep you for a while before killing you. You’ve certainly become quite entertaining to watch, who knows what other surprises you hide.”

Lillian didn’t hide the disgust on her face. “
I know you’re an Incubus but, God, do you have to borrow every cliché in the book? Please, is some imagination really too much to ask?”

His eyes darkened with red flames, “You want some imagination. Well, let’s see how your
s will be doing when your mind replays this, over and over again.” And then he was once again up in the air…to land behind Matt, using him as a shield while drawing his shade.

Lillian screamed at the top of her lungs.

But there was nothing to be done. The noise of battle swallowed her scream as if it were nothing. Only a couple of yards separated them, but it was as effective as endlessness stretching like an abyss between them. Dozens of demons fought around her while she stood frozen, her heart being ripped out of her chest as she helplessly watched.

The shade was just about to bite Matt’s neck, when a pink flash barreled into the Ebony from the side
before disappearing into the woods. Thrown off balance the Ebony stumbled, but didn’t take Matt with him and that’s when Abby’s arrow finally had something to go after. The arrow hit and burrowed deep under his collarbone, hopefully puncturing his lung.

Lillian had pushed through the demons surrounding her to get to the rise. Seeing her approach the Ebony’s furious and yet triumphant, red eyes locked with hers, “So predictable, little Ivory. Imagine how much I’m going to enjoy this when I go after your parents.”

Unfortunately the Ebony disappeared with the rest of his winged minions before she could cut him open.

To the sky she screamed,
“Damn you! Just fight me!”

H
er sword dropped to the side as her heart raced, helpless desperation chasing her.

Her parents.
The bastard wanted to go after her parents. And she had no idea whether they still lived in Kansas nowadays. How the hell would she be able to protect them? Lillian’s heart squeezed, her lungs burned, as she ran up the rise to where Matt got up off the ground, looking rather dazed.

“You okay?”

He rubbed his neck as if to assure himself that it was alright. “Yeah.” Then he frowned. “What the hell happened just now? I thought he had me. Shit, I thought…”

“Doesn’t matter right now.”
Relief and terror were flooding her, fighting for dominance within her. Feeling herself getting lost, she threw her arms around Matt and hugged him tight. “Only that you’re alive does.”

Lillian thought back to the pink flash she had seen. Her eyes had been so focused on Matt and the Ebony, on the shade at his throat, that she had no idea who or what had intervened. Whoever it was, she was damn grateful.

“Amen to that,” Joshua said as he reached them.

Drawing away from Matt, s
he turned her attention towards the rest of the lingering demons who hadn’t yet noticed the sudden departure of their leader, who had left them to their own devices without so much as a backward glance or thought. Their numbers were quickly dwindling now that newcomers turned around to escape back into hell after one look at the Ivorys.

With a snap the hellhole shut down, the red swirl finally vanishing into nothingness, but satisfaction over another job accomplished di
dn’t last as long as it used to. Knowing that another would soon pop up somewhere else in this world, the naïve, rose-colored rush of battle had faded a few dozen fights ago.

They had been fighting about a dozen demons beside the five
Ebonys her Stalker had dragged along. Lillian imagined that about as many had fled into the woods as soon as they had stepped through the hellhole. Joshua had taken care of the last remaining demons, as had Abby, and suddenly there was only one demon left. Realization hit the guy the same moment as Abby’s flaming arrow pinned him to a tree.

Shoving her worries into the back of her mind, Lillian got a grip
on herself and ordered, “Let’s sweep the forest and find as many as we can,” before disappearing into the woods.

She swiftly followed the fresh tracks on the damp ground, now grateful for the rain that had
drenched them earlier.

The more distance she put between herself and the hellhole
’s lasting taint, the more the colors came rushing back. The different rich, deep shades of green and brown once more matching the fresh and woodsy air that was now humid after the rain and with the sunlight filtering through the canopy of autumn leaves and evergreens. The woods were quiet and peaceful, and she knew she didn’t belong. Lillian felt like a trespasser, reeking of blood, sweat and sulfur.

Lillian shook her head in an effort to get those thoughts out of it. She had to concentrate. There.
Two of them. A smaller and bigger print.

Instinct kicked in, along with a new burst of adrenaline.
Alert now, Lillian moved quickly but silently through the shadows that the forest so willingly provided. Her prey was trying to hide, had stopped running, she just knew it.

“I know you’re here, so I suggest
we cut the hide and seek and you come out. Both of you.”

A couple
of yards, slightly to the left in front of her, leaves rustled and two pair of hands came up before a woman and a man stepped out into the open.

If Lillian didn’t know better
, she would have bet the woman belonged rather to the realm of fairies or even these woods than hell. On the short side, about her age, with blonde short hair and big, brown eyes the woman looked tomboyish and yet ethereal and fairy like. A friendly, a bit mischievous pixie, there was really no better word to describe her. And it was really not what a demon she was supposed to kill should look like. Not to mention her clothes. Retro style polka-dotted dress, black boots and leather jacket, and a big, worn shoulder bag strapped across her body.

Right.
Lillian was so not getting the demon vibe here.

Frowning
she took in the man. Make that boy. Darker shade of blonde hair than the woman’s, but the same warm, brown eyes. She guessed he was about fifteen years old, already tall for his age and one day, when he’d fully grow into that body of his he’d be a force to be reckoned with – and he’d make women fall flat on their faces.

Lillian didn’t take her eyes of them, fearing this white flag to be a fake as it had come about a little too easy in her experience.

The woman angled her body so as to cover the boy somewhat, protecting him. “Please, don’t hurt him. We had nothing to do with the fight.”

“Oh, really?
Why should I believe you?” But Lillian did, actually. Something about those two, about this situation made Lillian hesitate. It was a first for her. They were demons, so there was no reason for her to hesitate, or was there?

Behind the demons she noticed movement and noticed Joshua approaching them slowly. With a quick glance she told him to
hold off for now. Lillian was still trying to decide what to do with the demons in front of her, when the boy suddenly dropped his arms.

Joshua didn’t waste any time, summoning his
daggers and attacking…air.

Just as quickly the boy had
gone airborne only to land in front of Lillian – and found himself with her sword tip at his throat.

Not a boy, not just a demon
, but an Ebony.

“
Nooo!” The woman screamed and Lillian saw how much it cost her to stay where she was and not to come running to help the boy. “Wait, you don’t understand!” she rushed on.

Lillian cocked her eyebrow at that, not once taking her eyes o
ff the Ebony in front of her. “Oh, I think I understand quite perfectly.”

“No.”
Her eyes were wide, her voice frantic as she hurried to explain, “He didn’t mean to attack. He wanted to speak. With his hands.” The woman swallowed, obviously grappling for control when she realized her words didn’t make much sense to them. “My brother’s deaf. He wanted to sign something since he can’t hear you. We didn’t, and
still don’t
, mean to hurt anyone. Not you and not the humans. We just want to escape hell to live a quiet and normal life in the human realm. Nothing else, nothing more. Believe me.”

Matt and Abby stepped out from behind the cover of the trees to the side, their faces calm and their
flaming arrows drawn.

The demon girl noticed them and
Lillian could see her fighting to keep in place, angry desperation lacing her voice. “Please, don’t hurt him. I could easily kill you, so if you want to kill someone, choose me, but let him be.” When Lillian didn’t react she added, a little exasperated, “For God’s sake you have us surrounded and we’re unarmed and outnumbered.”

True.

Lillian had to give it to the boy. He didn’t blink, didn’t move, although she could almost feel him bursting to know what was going on. Instead his gaze remained on her, calm and filled with fear he didn’t yet manage to hide.

The woman’s
eyes, fixed on her brother’s throat and the sharp edge of the sword there, were filled with such love that Lillian was stunned. The only emotions she had ever seen in a demon’s eyes had been hunger, lust or rage. Never love. Never something so pure and honest as she was witnessing right now.

“Dump your bag.”

The witch did so without hesitation and didn’t move when Joshua grabbed it without needing to be told.

He went through it.
“Purse, candles, herbs, chalk or something…other stuff.” Seeing his face, she knew he meant women stuff. “No weapons, just this small dagger here.” He held the weapon up before tucking it away to join his own.