Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (104 page)

I was at the end of the hall before he finished telling me to go.

I don’t know how long it had been since I entered the apartment, less than a minute maybe. Less than a minute for everything to

change. And yet I knew, in a few seconds…everything could get

so much worse.

Steph. Please, no! My fault, not hers.

The bathroom was clear. In the bedroom, I found Kaitlin

and Samuel. Kaitlin was out cold, but her Grigori strength had

protected her and, though bruised, she looked in a much better

state than Dapper or Onyx. Samuel was already trying to get up.

I ran to him, putting a hand under his arm to help him.

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“Samuel, Samuel! What happened?” I screamed, even though

now I knew.

“There were eight of them that I saw. They caught us by surprise.” And I understood why. We’d expected to be dealing with all the

action tonight, out on the rooftops.

Samuel looked over at Kaitlin and raised his fingers to a head

wound dripping with blood before looking back at me.

“We should be dead.” He was right.

But I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t concentrate on the other details right now. I heard sirens coming from out in the street. Griffin had called ambulances. Onyx was human and Dapper, although not

altogether human, clearly needed medical attention.

“You should get her out of here. You don’t want the ambulance

trying to cart her away,” I said in a daydream to Samuel. The last thing we needed was doctors getting their hands on a Grigori when she was in rapid- healing mode. Way too many questions there.

Samuel nodded, scooping Kaitlin up and heading for the door.

I followed him out. He didn’t even pause to look at Onyx or

Dapper. He had his job to do and right now that was to get Kaitlin to safety. He was a good partner.

Spence was still talking to Onyx, giving words of encour-

agement. Onyx was gripping his hand. There was a time, after

Spence jumped him and beat the information we’d needed from

him, when I didn’t think those two would get within ten feet of each other. But that had been the beginning for Onyx in some

ways— his true beginning, his human one. Spence had forced

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Jessica shirvington

him to admit he valued his life, and now he was helping him

keep it.

Griffin had taken over from Lincoln with Dapper, and when

Lincoln saw me come back into the room, he looked at me with

urgent eyes. Griffin turned too.

They’d obviously seen Samuel taking off with Kaitlin and Onyx

down the hall. Everyone was looking at me for one reason.

I wanted to wake up. Or go back.

My
fault.

I wanted to go back to that day I’d told her— convinced her that this otherworld existed, invited her to be a part of it. Why? Because I’d needed her. I didn’t want to let go of my human world, lose her too.

My
fault.

“Violet?” Lincoln prompted.

I started. He was right in front of me. I hadn’t even noticed him walk toward me. He grabbed my arms. I thought he was going to

shake me, but he didn’t.

I
should’ve seen this coming. Phoenix saw me coming. He knew I
couldn’t just hand over the Scripture to release Lilith. He knew me and
played me and I…I walked right into it.

I heard the medics slam through the doors downstairs and their

feet on the stairs. They were calling out, announcing themselves as they moved. I wondered fleetingly if people still filled the bar, dancing and drinking while above them…

I looked at Lincoln and then Griffin, still bent over Dapper. A similar guilt showed on their faces as mine. But not nearly as much.

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Lincoln squeezed my arms, trying to bring me back to him.

I blinked.

“Steph’s gone. They’ve taken her.”

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chapter
nine

“And out of the darkness, came the hands that reached through
nature, molding men.”

aLFreD LOrD TeNNYsON

I don’t remember much of what followed. Th e medics had come

into Dapper’s apartment and gone straight into damage control.

We’d followed the ambulances to the hospital in Lincoln’s Volvo, but there wasn’t much we could do and we were confi ned to the

waiting room.

Th e doctors told us Onyx would be okay. His major internal

injuries were to his ribs, which had also punctured his lungs, as I’d suspected. Th e main thing had been to plug the holes and get him breathing again, which they had managed to do. Th e rest was superfi cial. Painful, but he’d live.

Dapper was in worse shape. Th e doctors were amazed he was

still alive. Th e injuries infl icted by the belt alone should have been enough to shatter his throat and airways, not to mention the Emblaze.indd 88

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damage caused by the internal bleeding from the vicious beating.

They assumed he’d been attacked by weapons of some kind, as

human hands simply could not cause this level of harm. We didn’t correct them. To the doctors, Dapper was a medical miracle.

To
us
that meant we had been wrong about him too.

Dapper clearly had healing abilities. If he kept recovering at

such a rapid rate, he was going to have some explaining to do in the hospital. None of us cared right now, but Dapper would. He

was part of the community with his bar, so hiding his otherworldly abilities was all- important to him.

I went through the motions, helped by everyone but oblivious

to anyone in particular.

Eventually, someone different moved in beside me, lifting me onto his lap. His arms moved around my waist, holding me close, as if his body would somehow power mine to life. And it could. My body,

my
soul
, gravitated toward him in recognition, igniting something both marvelous and excruciating. He pushed the hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. I breathed in the feeling of warm sun on my skin and felt the trickle of honey caress me from the inside.

When he leaned in to my ear, he whispered, just for me, “I

promise you, she’s alive. I promise you, we’ll get her back.” He swallowed deeply. “Unharmed.”

I didn’t respond. I wanted to believe him. Oh, I wanted to so

badly. But how could I?

As if he knew my question, he moved closer, brushing a shaking

hand down my hair.

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“Phoenix won’t hurt her because…” He faltered and something

about that pause made me think he didn’t say exactly what he was going to say. “He needs her to get what he wants.”

That was all it took for me to snap out of it. I hadn’t been

thinking clearly. I hadn’t been thinking at all, but Lincoln broke through the barriers, found me when others couldn’t, and he was right. Absolutely right.

I pulled my head up. “This is the real trade.”

He nodded.

Phoenix knew this would hurt me the most, knew I’d felt guilty

about bringing Steph into this world. He’d expected it to hit me hard, but he didn’t understand. Not fully. He didn’t ever really get what Lincoln and I had, that Lincoln was my pillar of strength and that he was the only one who could bring me out of it to focus on what had to be done.

————

By the time we got back to Lincoln’s place, I was no longer in such a fragile state of mind. When we’d left the hospital, I’d walked out without anyone supporting me.

Sure, I couldn’t completely remember getting back to the ware-

house, but that was because from that moment, only one thing

held my attention: the choice.

Since I’d discovered my Grigori status, everything always

seemed to come down to something like this. But usually it was

a choice between letting someone else get hurt or letting myself get hurt. Like embracing to save Lincoln or facing Phoenix even 90

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though I knew the power he held over me. It wasn’t that simple

this time.

It was worse.

This time, the choice could have been anything— the answer

would be the same. I wasn’t going to stand by and let Steph die.

The price was huge and I could feel the tension in the room. Griffin pacing; Spence hovering.

Lincoln didn’t pace or hover. He went to the kitchen and made

sandwiches. He put them in front of me. “You need to eat.”

I did, chewing on autopilot. I needed my strength.

Samuel had called. He and Kaitlin were fine. They confirmed

what we already knew, that the exiles had taken Steph. They had both tried to stop them, but they were taken down. The only thing that didn’t make sense was why everyone had not been killed. It wasn’t in an exile’s nature to leave life behind. Especially when it came to Grigori.

Griffin had arranged for Beth and Archer to take the first shift at the hospital, waiting for Onyx and Dapper to come round fully.

Dapper would have to be removed before anyone became too

suspicious. Griffin was arranging a bogus hospital transfer through Grigori connections.

“I should get you home,” Lincoln said from beside me. He

seemed so calm, even though I knew he wasn’t.

“I have to do it,” I said, not daring to look at him as I voiced the very thing he didn’t want to hear.

He sighed. “We can talk about it in the morning.”

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I jumped up. “What do you expect me to do? Just go home? Curl

up in bed and get a good night’s sleep? Steph is out there! With
him
!” Lincoln just sat there, letting me yell at him. Spence and Griffin had settled down at the dining table. They were flicking through papers, Steph’s research. I wanted to storm over and rip it out from under their noses. We needed to do something.

“There are too many of them for us to try and take them

tonight. They’ll be expecting something, and they’ll be waiting for us,” Lincoln said, knowing my thoughts.

I slumped back onto the sofa beside him, hating that he

was right.

“I can’t go home,” I said. “Dad thinks I’m at Steph’s tonight.” Lincoln was silent for a moment, as if this one piece of news had caught him more off guard than anything else that had happened

this evening. I felt the honey of his power stir.

Griffin stood up. “Violet, where is Steph supposed to be tonight?”

“At her place, with me.” We’d expected to get back to her place after the exchange around midnight. I looked at my watch, realizing what Griffin was getting at.

As if on cue, my phone rang. All of us jumped. We’d been

waiting for a call all night. But then I saw who it was and groaned.

“Oh no.”

“Who?” Lincoln asked, still calm.

“Dad.”

Griffin spoke quickly. “You have to cover this up, Violet. We

can’t have more humans involved.”

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He didn’t mean it the way it came out, but I felt even worse.

Lincoln put his hand on my knee. “A party, out of town. Car

trouble. Bad phone reception but you’re staying at a friend’s place.

A girl’s,” he clarified meaningfully. “Someone I introduced you to through rock climbing.”

The phone was still ringing. He held my eyes. My pillar of

strength. I nodded.

“Dad.”

“Violet, where are you? I’ve had Eliza Morris on the phone with me for the last half hour. You’re supposed to be at her house tonight with Steph!” He was really upset. Steph’s mom must have seriously let loose on him.

“Dad! Dad, don’t worry. Listen.” I took a deep breath. “I might get cut off— there’s terrible reception here— but Steph and I are fine. We went to a house party outside the city.”

“Violet! You never had permission to go out of the city! Where

are you?”

“Dad, just listen. We’re fine. We would’ve been home by now,

but Steph’s car broke down and our phones weren’t working.”

Lincoln nodded me on. I might get into trouble for going

to an out- of- town party, but that was nothing compared to

the alternative.

“I remembered a friend of Lincoln’s lives nearby. I met her out rock climbing a few times and we had lunch at her place once.”

Lincoln nodded again.

“And?” Dad prompted.

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