Betrayed (23 page)

“Don’t go yet. You just did something wonderful for your sister, yet you don’t seem happy.

Are you worried about the List?”

“Not real y,” he muttered.

He was lying, but I let it pass. “Are we going to Old Jethro’s?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Why not?”

“First, we need to make sure it’s relatively safe. So far the surveil ance indicates the area has low demonic presence except for occasional gang activities. That bothers everyone.”

“Gang?”

He nodded. “New influx of demons after Coronis Isle was destroyed led to different groups becoming territorial. It’s like that in almost every major city in the country.” He tucked a curly strand behind my ear and gave me a brief kiss. “See you at the guys’ in a few.”

For a moment I stood there and stressed about how the Guardians would react to everything Valafar told me. Sighing, I opened the pantry and removed a box of chocolate-covered granola bars.

As for Bran and the List, the Cardinals shouldn’t give him such an unattainable goal. It wasn’t fair. I should discuss it with Grampa.

***

Half an hour later, we gathered in Remy and Sykes’ basement. I repeated the conversation with Valafar, focusing only on what he said about my safety, and finished with, “I tried to get his phone number, but he hedged as though he knew we planned to track his communication with the medium. He said he’l cal later in the week.”

“He can’t know of our plans,” Remy said, speaking up first. “We haven’t discussed them with anyone else.”

“Unless one of us is the guide,” Sykes added, smirking at Bran.

Bran ignored him. I’d already told him how Sykes implied the same thing with the others and how Kim zapped him. Sykes needed to watch it.

“If you start with that again,” Kim warned, her eyes flashing. She glanced at me and added, “I’m not buying Valafar’s concerned father routine, Lil.

Where has he been these past seven months? Why now?”

I shrugged. “Just like you, I question his motives.”

“But it’s the second time he’s cal ed and brought up your safety,” Izzy said. “Maybe he has a reason.”

“Sure he does,” Sykes retorted. “He’s learned Lil can lock on demons’ psi and command them to do her wil , so he’s running scared.”

“I agree.” Remy’s expression was thoughtful.

“The timing is too convenient. Maybe having you out there wil screw up his plans to take over the demonic world.”

“What if he has changed?” Izzy insisted then, scowled when the others glanced at her. “Don’t look at me like that. Even demons change.” She shot Bran a glance. “Valafar didn’t have to kil the Goetz brothers, but he did. Admitting his plan to eliminate Bran’s family also indicates he’s serious about keeping Lil safe.”

“Oh, please,” Kim said. “You’re just feeling sorry for him, you softy. He doesn’t deserve anyone’s pity.”

“That’s not it. I spoke with him, Kim. He sounded real y desperate. I mean he promised to hunt me down and every member of my family if I didn’t get Lil on the phone.” Even though she addressed Kim, Izzy’s gaze locked with mine as though she sensed my ambiguous feelings toward Valafar and tried to tel me she understood. “So I’m not just feeling sorry for him.” She made a face at Kim, who rol ed her eyes.

“What do you think, Llyr?” Sykes asked, cutting Bran a sly look. “You have more experience with that world. Is he being genuine or demonic?” Bran chuckled, although my empathic reading indicated he wasn’t amused. Sykes was always putting him on the spot. “Anyone can change.

Demons, too, so I understand why Izzy would like to give Valafar the benefit of the doubt. There are two ways to look at what he’s doing.” He leaned forward, his gaze bouncing from one face to another. “If his objective is to lure Lil to his side, he’l want her vulnerable and wil ing to trust him. The only way to do that is to destroy everything she believes in. Look at what he’s doing. First, he tries to plant doubts in her mind about her grandfather’s loyalty by hinting the mind about her grandfather’s loyalty by hinting the Cardinal hid her presents. From there, he’l try to convince her that he and he alone has her best interest at heart. That her grandfather or the Guardians are not to be trusted.”

I stared at Bran wide eyed and swal owed. It was as though he’d been there and heard every word Valafar said to me.

“Needless to say, he wants my family out of the way too because of my relationship with Lil. That means planting more doubts about my love for her.” The way his heated eyes caressed my face left no doubt in anyone’s mind he loved me. My cheeks warmed and my heart expanded.

“Or my loyalty,” he added, “which might explain why he sent Solange after me and my brother.”

“Are you saying you and this Solange….?” Kim asked.

“Have a history,” Bran mumbled then gave me an apologetic smile.

Kim and Izzy exchanged a glance then cocked their brows at me as if to say, “How are you dealing with that?”

I just shrugged.

“Let me see if I understand this,” Remy said, scooting forward in his seat. “You’re saying Valafar knew Lil would be in Seattle.”

Bran nodded. “The guide helping him with the medium is also spying on us. At least, that’s the conclusion the Cardinals have reached. Based on his conversation with Lil, he knows way too much about her. The information had to come from one of the Guardians.”

“We real y need to flush him or her out before we have another demonic raid,” Izzy said, fear glistening in her eyes.

“The Cardinals would never let that happen,” Bran said, sending her a reassuring smile.

“That’s wel and good,” Kim cut in. “But what are you going to do about your brother? I mean, there’s no way he’l ever agree to live in the val ey, right?”

“He wil ,” Bran said firmly and leaned back against the seat, taking me with him.

Silence fol owed his statement as the others stared at each other with horror. It was no secret none of them liked or trusted Gavyn. Having him live in the val ey would be a real thorn in their sides. One of these days, I’d explain Gavyn’s story to them.

Maybe then they’d cut him some slack.

“You sure about that, dude?” Sykes asked, not looking pleased.

“Yes. As Izzy eloquently put it, even demons change.” Bran smirked, clearly getting a kick out of their response. “He might even join the Guardianship program. He has energy abilities like you, Sykes.

You two could team up.”

Sykes’ lips turned up as though he swal owed something rotten.

“You said there were two ways of looking at what Valafar is doing,” Remy reminded Bran.

“What’s the second?”

“He might have changed like Izzy said, which means he’s genuinely worried about Lil’s safety,” Bran explained. “Kil ing the Goetz brothers to stop them from leading a horde of demons here then makes sense.”

“And coming after your family?” Sykes asked, eyes gleaming.

Bran’s eyes narrowed. “Makes perfect sense, too, but that’s a non-issue. We are here to stay.

Gavyn
will
join us as soon as he’s wel enough to be moved.” He got to his feet. “I’l let you guys finish here. I need to take Celeste to the Academy.” He leaned down and gave me a brief kiss.
See you
later.

“So what does this Solange demoness look like?” Izzy asked as soon as Bran teleported.

“I bet she’s hot,” Sykes said. “Most demonesses are total babes.” He and Remy banged fists.

I shook my head. They real y had one track minds. “She’s okay, if you like big boobs and girls who curse like sailors.”

“Me like…me like,” Sykes said.

I glared at him. “Too bad. Next time we meet, I’m vanquishing her.”

Izzy grinned. “That’s the spirit.”

12. Lightning Bolts

After our brief meeting, I headed home.

Grampa must have grocery shopped because a bowl of fresh fruit sat on the side counter in the kitchen. He even got my favorite apples—Pink Lady.

Funny how I tended not to notice things when Bran was around. I total y missed the bowl when he and I were in the kitchen earlier.

Munching on an apple, I zipped through Math and English. When I finished, the clock on the microwave said three-thirty, plenty of time before my session with Haziel. I headed to the bedroom to change into workout clothes.

I pul ed off my T-shirt and aimed for the hamper. It missed and landed on the floor. For a moment, I stared at it, debating whether to leave it there until later or to scoop it up and put it away.

The book on mediums caught my eyes as I kicked off my jeans. Unpleasant thoughts fol owed.

Nose

bleeds…headaches….sudden

death.

I

shuddered. We needed to find the medium. Then what? How did we stop a medium from being a conduit?

Pul ing on a pair of sweatpants and a tee, I settled on my bed and searched through the book for answers. Bran said if Kylie was the medium, she’d have more things to worry about than me freezing the bowl. Things like what?

Nothing jumped out at me. This time, I didn’t skip the quotations in the text or the captions under the il ustrations showing humans in the throes of agony, hands gripping heads, blood spewing from nostrils, eyes wild.

I gulped, looked away from the drawings and continued.

The next subtitle threw itself off the pages.

‘Some Mediums Don’t Show Symptoms.’ News to me. Panicking, I read careful y. Arteries in their brain burst from information overload during a session leading to severe hemorrhage and sudden death.

That this only happened on rare occasions didn’t matter. One of my friends could keel over and die without warning. If we pissed Valafar off he could overloaded the medium’s system. This was worse than I thought. Damned if we didn’t do anything and damned if we did.

Feeling like crap, I moved to the next chapter.

‘Cures for Mediums.’ I could do with some good news right about now. The more I read the more hopeless and bleak the solutions. The title might as wel be ‘Cures for Mediums Don’t Work.’

‘Destroy the evil spirit channeling the medium’. Valafar was impossible to find let alone destroy. He already escaped being vanquished once. Hunting him down could take years.

‘Destroy the guide.’ The first sentence went on to explain how the evil spirit always found another guide, so the medium was basical y screwed for life.

Great.

‘Destroy the object of the evil spirit’s obsession.’ Yeah, that would be…
me.
I laughed, hysteria bubbling to the surface and making me sound demented.

‘A Psi can drain part of the energy of the medium.’ This could erase memories or reduce the medium to a person with subnormal intel igence. In other words, my friend could become an imbecile, mental y chal enged. Not good. It took an experienced Psi to perform this procedure, the text added.

Hope returned, lifting the load off my Hope returned, lifting the load off my shoulders.

Grampa

was

experienced.

After

hundreds of years of kil ing demons, this should be a piece of cake for him. Al we had to do was find the medium. No, trick Valafar into revealing the medium.

If we got lucky, catch the traitor, too. Deceiving Valafar would take some planning.

Feeling better, I grabbed a hoodie and left for the kitchen. The clock above the fireplace in the living room said fifteen to four. I scribbled a note about the party to Grampa with ‘please say yes’ in capital letters, added two Xs and Os to the note, and put it on the fridge door.

If he said no, I’d be in trouble. Or maybe not. I could use Sykes and Remy’s place. If worse came to worse, Club New York, the dance club on Main Street, hosted parties for students al the time and was close enough to monitor the guide’s involvement. Stil , I’d much rather hold it at home.

Teleporting to HQ to retrieve my dagger, I turned the corner and entered the hal way leading to the weapons’ room. The door was open and laughter came from inside. I recognized the voices of the three female Cardinal Guardians. Not sure if I should interrupt them, I checked my watch. I had ten minutes before my session.

I moved from the door, leaned against the wal and waited for them to finish and leave, or teleport out. Their voices carried and I couldn’t help eavesdropping.

“I cannot believe the mess we made of things, the poor child,” Cardinal Moira said with a sigh.

“Maybe it was wrong to tel him so soon,” Hsia, the Cardinal Time Guardian added. She appeared to be moving toward the door. I took another step back just as Aunt Janel e spoke.

“No. It was the right thing to do, but I wish Seth could have been more diplomatic.” Aunt Janel e sounded angry. “The poor boy has been through enough.”

Bran? He was the only boy who hunted with them. Heart thumping, I angled my head to catch more.

“No one knew how he’d react,” Hsia added, her voice distant, as though she was in the back of the room.

“We must convince him to….” Cardinal Moira’s voice trailed off. “Come inside, Lil,” she added louder.

I cringed. So much for eavesdropping.

Nothing ever got past Cardinal Guardians. I walked to the doorway and gave them an apologetic look.

Moira had one booted foot on a bench and her elbows on her raised knee. Hsia and Aunt Janel e were by the back wal storing their weapons. They al looked at me with disapproval. Heat crawled up my face.

“How long were you standing out there, Lil?” Aunt Janel e asked.

That wasn’t good. Aunt Janel e cal ed me Luminitsa normal y, but she used Lil when angry. “I just arrived and didn’t want to intrude. I’m, uh, here to pick up my dagger,” I added quickly.

Aunt Janel e didn’t look convinced. No surprise there. I sucked at lying.

Moira dropped her foot to the floor and walked toward me, eyes watchful. “Stil training with Haziel every day?”

I nodded. “Yes, Cardinal Moira. Four o’clock everyday unless we’re going hunting.” Aunt Janel e continued to study me with narrowed eyes. The ever chipper Hsia was the only who wasn’t watching me as though waiting for my nose to grow like Pinocchio’s.

“I guess something good is coming out of putting up with his rigid rules. I heard you expel ed a Lazarus demon from Gavyn.” As usual, the air grew warmer with Cardinal Moira’s approach.