Riven (18 page)

“Slayer?” I blinked, wondering who called their patrons that.

The bartender nodded, then stopped to squint. “Oh shit,” she shouted. “You’re definitely not her, sorry. You have a sister or something? Because you’re a dead ringer for one of my regulars, Rinae.”

Bells rang in my ears, but from the music or my mind latching onto the familiar name, I wasn’t sure. “Uhh, yeah, I’m actually looking for her. Is she here?”

“Should be, she never misses a night to party,” the bartender shrugged, reaching for a glass behind the counter to polish. “She clings to the exit door with her hot-as-hell boy-toy, Tegen. He’s like, Indian or some shit.” Her eyes drifted over to Kayden, grinning. “Kind of like you.”

“Well, before things get awkward, we’ll just be going. Thanks,” I said, staring daggers at Kayden. He frowned, reluctantly parting from the girl as we combed through the crowd again, slamming against the metal exit door and into the night air.

Voices scrambled deep into the alleyway, followed by a cry of pain. Ari and I exchanged a glance, fear draining the color from his face. We sprinted, crossing over scattered pieces of trash, clearing a dilapidated fence when we saw the flare of white fire light up the dark ahead.

“Tegen, get back!” A female voice shouted, fire scattering along the wall. Someone shouted, slamming into the wall with a hiss.

Ari and I lit up, white and blue fire cresting over our arms and hands. Kayden exploded into smoke, racing in front of us both, gathering behind a figure mounted in the shadows and grabbing him around the middle.

Red hair gleamed under a dance of white flames, a petite form hardly five feet tall sprinting through the dark. Crystal wings identical to mine spread from her back, shielding her as stabs of an inky black substance hurled toward her.

“Rinae!” I called out, racing forward. Her fingers locked around a pale, ghostly neck, hosting her catch into the air without so much as a blink of the eye.

“Oy, leggo, leggo!” The captor wailed, kicking and flailing. “I ain’t going to hurt you!”

“Bullshit,” Rinae sneered, tightening her hold. The man started to gag. “You’re a vampire, all you do is feed and hurt.”

Between gags, the vampire desperately tried to plead his case. “Arielle sent- sent me! She said you- you’d be here!”

The Siren’s name clicked at something in my head. Ari sprinted forward, knocking over Rinae and catching her before she could fall, her hands releasing exactly who we were told to look for.

“Bartimaeus, I going to assume?” I asked the sputtering vampire, taking note of his ragged and disheveled appearance. Brown and black tattered clothing were layered one over the other, making it hard to tell just what exactly he was wearing. His hair was long, black as a raven breast and just as silky. Two long, delicate fangs extended longer than the rest of his teeth, yellow and rotting.

The vampire nodded, massaging his neck with a wince. “That’s goin’ leave a mark, y’know.”

“Let me go, let me at him!” Rinae screamed, shoving at Ari as he held her firm in his grasp. Kayden came to join him, carrying a disgruntled, yet oddly calm human. Rinae’s gaze instantly darted to him, her struggling slowing.

Bartimaeus took in the sight of us all, obviously confused. “Arielle mentioned two Nephilim, an’ a smart-ass demon. Who are these?”

“Last minute editions, we’ll explain later Barty,” Kayden sighed, nodding at the vampire. “Good to see you man. Enjoying life under the dirt?”

Bartimaeus grinned from cheek to cheek, revealing a full set of nearly blackened teeth. “You got no idea, man.”

“Right, well, let’s cut to the chase, shall we?” Kayden pressed on, impatient to pass all the format greetings and other details. “Can you hide all of us, safely and comfortably?”

The vampire nodded, running a hand through his greasy hair. “That’s what I do. Good thing you found me before this sprite took me out,” he jerked his head at Rinae. “Things have gone to shit all over, both ‘n Charon and here. That mortal prophet the Queen was using, Jessica was her name, she’s dead, an’ so is her whole family. That wretch of a Queen has bounties out for all o’you, especially you.” He came to rest his eyes on me, frowning. “She wants you bad.”

My blood turned to ice, throat drying to a raspy lump. Jessica had died, yet one more body on the list of those who knew or had a connection to me. We were running out of time, fast.

“Bartimaeus-”

“Barty, luv,” he corrected.

“Do you know of any master vampires tied to the Queen?” I asked, hoping that maybe he knew enough of his race to point me in the right direction. If I truly only had hours, each tick of the clock brought me closer to a prison I could never escape.

He scratched his face, then pointed up ahead for us to turn left. “Tons,” he said, laughing. “More than your pretty little head could wrap around. Why? Looking for a way to stave off death for good?”

“Not really. It’s more of a need to find someone to find something.”

Rinae jumped in. “You mean, like an object that only someone knows of? Yikes.”

“Yeah, I need to find which vampire is tied to the Queen,” I said, thinking. There had to be hundreds of vampires in her back pocket, maybe more. “One of them has someone I need to rescue hostage. If I find him, I find the library hidden around here, and the book that could save me.”

“Why didn’t you just say so?” Rinae asked, humorously surprised. “Tegen and I know where it is. We’ve been in and out of there for weeks.”

“Rinae, don’t say anything,” the olive-skinned boy, Tegen, hissed under his breath. “It’s a trick.”

I didn’t fight the eyeroll. “Oh yes, because two Nephilim coming to join with you is a dirty, dirty trick. Why don’t you shut it, unless your life aspiration was to resemble a badly burned barbecue. Then by all means, let those lips flap away.”

Kayden stared at me, slack-jawed. “So not fair, you’re only supposed to insult me like that.”

“I’m feeling very sarcastically inclined tonight,” I replied, turning back to our newfound addition to the Nephilim pool. “Where is the library?”

“It’s actually under the Sphinx.”

Go freaking figure, a library under a nightclub.

CHAPTER NINE

PLAYING WITH FIRE

By the time we made it back to Le Sphinx, most of the crowds had vanished. The walk back at had been fast, but provided with more than enough time to bring Rinae up to speed with the gist of what had happened, and what was going on. Although I made sure to leave out the part of my growing attraction to two people I could never actually love, and my permanent nasal damage from smelling Siren most of the day.

We approached the front of the building, and the bouncer let us all in, confused since he had never seen us leave. If only he knew.

Rinae had agreed to play nice, so Ari had released her from his grasp. She led the way, much to her Watcher’s distaste, passing through a quick run of thinning halls leading further into the back. Just off to the side, hidden under a large, red velvet curtain, stood a trapdoor that took us down, through hallways carved of stone, lit by small glass torches.

By the time we reached the landing of the library, I was beginning to feel lightheaded. A familiar tickle of voices whispered in the back of my mind, as my stomach lurched into my throat. I instantly knew the bands were failing, and the salve-water had run its course. I only hoped I could hold of Ebony’s half until we found the saving ritual in the book.

Ari watched me struggle for my breath as we passed into the grand archway, revealing an ornately decorated library. Pictures of angels and demons painted the ceilings, tall marble pillars spanning every dozen feet. Racks of books stretched as far back as the eye could see, persian rugs perfectly positioned under each hardwood desk near a new stack, fashioned with a table lamp and set of various decorative objects. It was surreal, gorgeous, a bookworm’s dream come true.

“Stay here with her,” Ari told Kayden, nodding to Rinae with a small smile. “We’ll go get the book.” They ran off into the dark, disappearing behind shelves nearly as high as the ceiling.

I counted to ten in my head before deciding they were taking too long. “Yeah, no, not going to happen.” Biting back on the growing pain in my chest and gut, I stood off into the library, turning down a nearby isle and quickly getting lost in the amount of books circling around me.

“Essie,” Kayden called to me, lingering behind like my shadow. He looked pained as he watched me push on, a hand reaching out to help. “Just sit, for a minute.”

I shook my head, leaning on the bookcase and fighting to breathe. I could feel my head unwinding, fraying at the edges as my body shook. “No.”

“Essallie-”

“I said no,” I shouted, whipping around and stumbling on my feet, sprawling on the floor and scraping my skin. For a moment, I laid there, pounding at the ground with barely clenched fists. “That’s sixty seconds I don’t have, Kayden. Sixty seconds that I could be using to save myself from what Lucretia has done to me. Sixty seconds that brings me closer to that... that monster taking over my brain. I can’t, Kayden, I can’t.”

He said nothing, walking over and swinging me up onto my feet in a single action. Fire smoldered at his hands, but he paid no attention to them. “Then move, and fight. You can do this, I know you can.”

I nodded, reminding myself that time was burning away with every stare at his eyes, every wish to press my lips to his. “What you said to Arielle was true. Time is key, because we both know-”

“Time waits for no one,” Kayden finished, managing a smile. “I’d ask if you’d like to waste some time with me, but I am neither cheesy nor in favor of your death.”

Laughter warmed my chest. “You’re cheesier than the entire state of Wisconsin, sorry.” I could feel the dread and fear quickly turning the warmth of my laughter to a hard, bitter ice. “Kayden...”

“What was it like?” Kayden quietly asked, studying me with warm hazel eyes. “When you were locked in your mind.”

“It was... weird,” I tried to describe how it felt, being a prisoner to your own head. “When she took over, I was fully shutout of everything. All I could do was watch as she used my body like was her own play-toy.”

His hands drifted down to mine, lacing his fingers with mine through the blue fire turning his skin black. A crooked smile graced his lips. “Well, it wasn’t
all
that bad. I bet your hands saw more action in that moment compared to your whole life.”

A surge of something, confidence perhaps, made the words spill from my mouth before I could think them through. “It made me realize something,” I said, brushing over his lame joke. “Something I don’t want to keeping denying.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

“That what I feel for you is real, and I’m not sure I want to fight it anymore.”

CHAPTER TEN

TURN AROUND

Kayden’s hands dropped from mine, the sound of his breath catching delicately in his chest.

“Essie...” he trailed off, grasping for words.

I shook my head, cutting him off. If I didn’t get all of this off my chest now, there was no telling if I would before morning. Before it would be too late, before I’d be dead. Saying the words meant I had to acknowledge the thing I feared the most. My head dropped, eyes squeezed tightly shut.

“I don't want to die alone, Kayden.”

Beside me, I heard him stop breathing. I instantly regretted saying what I had, until his words shattered that thought. “How mortal can you get, Essie? Have you learned nothing from the start?” He growled, and for a second I heard him almost laugh. “You are never alone. Someone will always be with you.”

“Like who, Ari? Be serious, please Kayden.” I could feel myself shaking, an all too familiar stinging in my eyes. “I don't want to regret not saying what I need to say. I can't... I can't die not telling you how I feel...”

In the blink on an eye, he was in front of me, warm and soft hands cupping my face, tilting it upward until our eyes met. Before I could think it through, I pulled in my fire, allowing him to touch my bare skin for the first time in what felt like forever.

“You don't get to do this,” he said, a fire brighter than a million suns burning in his gaze. “Not today, not tomorrow. You are going to hold in those goodbyes until you...”

My heart pounded in my chest, breathing shallow. “Until...”

In that moment, all I wanted was to not feel alone. All I wanted was him. My lips crashed against his, feeling his petal soft lips melt against mine as I dug my hands into his hair. He pressed his hands against the small of my back, crushing his chest against mine. My hands moved from his hair, sliding over his cheeks and running along the back of his neck. Kayden trailed his lips along my neck, butterfly kisses wandering past my collarbone to the top of my chest. I flung a hand out along the bookcase, clinging to the wood as my legs buckled beneath me.

If this was the way to die, I would be glad to end it all right here and there.