Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (105 page)

Jessica shirvington

“Well, we came back to her place. We’re staying here tonight

and we’ll be back tomorrow.”

Lincoln gave me a look and tapped his watch.

“After we take the car to get fixed. We’ll go straight to school and I’ll be home after that,” I added.

Lincoln gave another small nod. I’d bought us more time.

“Why didn’t you call?”

“Lucy doesn’t have a home phone and this is the first time my

cell phone’s had reception,” I lied.

Dad sighed. It was working. It was time to drive it home.

“Dad, I’m really sorry. We didn’t expect to be late back to Steph’s.”

“Well, Steph’s mother is irate.” He sighed again. “Give me the

address and I’ll come and pick you up.”

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets. I’d expected him to leave it there.

I looked at Lincoln urgently. He pressed his thumb down a couple of times, telling me to hang up. I knew he was right. I needed to get out of this conversation and we needed to keep my phone free.

“Dad, we’re already in bed for the night. Just call Steph’s mom back for us. Steph’s…already asleep. And don’t worry if you can’t get ahold of us. The phone drops out all the time. I’ll call you as soon as we’re on our way home.”

I heard Dad yelling into the phone, insisting on more informa-

tion. I waited a moment and ended the call.

Everyone in the room let out their breath as if they’d been

holding it for the entire conversation.

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“I don’t think he’ll send out any search parties tonight, but

he knows something isn’t right.” This on top of the questions

he had already been asking. I knew there would be more to

come now.

Before anyone had long to consider this, my phone rang again.

Everyone jumped again except me. There was no one left to call. It had to be him. I raised it to answer, but Lincoln stopped me and put out his hand.

“He’ll be expecting you.”

I didn’t want to do anything to upset Phoenix. I didn’t want

to cause any more possible danger for Steph, but Lincoln held

my eyes and they seemed to say so much. He was asking me to

trust him.

I handed him the phone. He put it on loudspeaker.

Phoenix sighed languidly, the way he had in the past, knowing

it unnerved me. “Ah, there you are, lover. I was worried you weren’t going to take my call.”

I didn’t respond and instead closed my eyes and just concen-

trated on breathing.

“Put Steph on the phone,” Lincoln said, calm as ever but with a hint of something else in his voice. Hatred.

“No,” Phoenix said, not even considering it. But I could tell he was surprised to hear Lincoln’s voice. “She’s…busy.”

“If you touch her, I’ll kill you,” Lincoln said, making his threat sound very convincing.

But Phoenix only chuckled lightly. “Will you?”

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Jessica shirvington

Lincoln was silent.

Phoenix thought he had this all figured out. As far as he was

concerned, he was more than immortal; he was impenetrable. With the power he held over me, with our lives connected so inexorably, he knew no one would hurt him if it could be avoided.

No one but me, that is.

“
I
will,” I said, ensuring that the full weight of my intention was clear in those two small words.

Lincoln gave me a resigned look and sank back in his chair.

“Now
that
, I believe. There you are, lover. It seems I now have two things you want very badly.”

“I hate you!” I snapped.

He laughed again. “Yes, well, we can disagree about that later.

Say tomorrow evening. Why don’t we forget the elaborate design

and just meet at our café. Just two lovers sharing a coffee and making an exchange.”

“You’ll give me Steph and the Scripture?”

This triggered a different kind of laugh from him. Darker.

“No. I’ll give you one. You choose. Oh, and this time, if I don’t get what I want, it will be Steph who suffers the consequences of your choices.”

“She’s not going to meet you alone,” Lincoln said, the loathing dripping from his voice.

“Violet?” Phoenix said and waited.

Lincoln looked at me. “We’ll find a better way than this,”

he whispered.

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I glanced at Griffin and his truth leaked out of him.

Not
if
we
want
to
get
Steph
back
alive
.

Lincoln was biased. I knew that. Griffin was concerned with

retrieving an innocent, and we were Grigori.

“What time?” I asked.

I could hear the victory in Phoenix’s voice. “Nine p.m.

And Violet?”

“What?”

“Tell your friend Spence his services will not be required on this occasion.” He ended the call.

He was never going to stop. There were no boundaries he would

not cross.

I looked around the room. My friends and fellow warriors. I

couldn’t keep putting everyone at risk.

“I have to return him,” I said, knowing it was true.

Lincoln jolted. “No! Not yet. Not until we know how to break

the— ” But I cut him off.

“We’re not going to break it! Ever! As long as I live, he lives.

It’s like I’m a part of everything he does wrong. I can’t do that anymore!” Then, I couldn’t stop the final thought as I looked at Lincoln. “It will be better for everyone this way.”

“And how is that?” he snapped, the cool exterior he’d worked so hard to maintain completely gone, his hands gripping the back of a dining chair angrily.

“He’ll be gone. The Scriptures will be safe and I’ll…You can get another partner, one less…complicated.”

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Lincoln shook his head as if he thought I was crazy. “Yeah. I

can see all of that working out just swell. And I guess your dad and Steph will live happily ever after too?”

That stopped me.

“Violet,” Griffin said, breaking into the discussion. “If it were our only option, we could consider it.”

Lincoln spun on Griffin so fast it was clear it wasn’t just a chair he was considering throwing into the wall.

“But right now,” Griffin continued, unfazed by Lincoln’s violent stare, “it is not a good option. If you make those kinds of intentions clear to Phoenix, he will hurt Steph— or someone else— to hold you at bay.”

I knew what he was saying.

Dad. He’ll go after Dad
.

He was the only one left. And Phoenix wouldn’t think twice.

“Not if he’s gone,” I said, but I’d lost my fight.

“Do you really think he will be that easy to return?” Griffin said, already aware he’d won the argument.

“I’m sorry,” Spence chimed in, sounding agitated, “but I think

everyone is missing the other option.”

All eyes turned to him. Except Lincoln’s— they were still fixed on me and fuming.

“What do you mean, Spence?” Griffin asked.

“I get that we all want to get Steph back, but there is no way

you can really be considering making this trade. If you give that Scripture to Phoenix, he’s going to bring the mistress of Hell upon 98

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us all. For the sake of one life, you will be forfeiting an unknown number of innocents.”

“What are you suggesting, Spence?” Griffin responded.

“You want me to leave her there to die,” I said, wanting desperately to hate Spence with all my heart. And I did hate him—

for being the person who said it. For highlighting the price of my choice.

“Steph’s my friend too. I want to get her out of there. But I think we should be trying to break her out.”

“The trade is the only option if we want to get her out alive. We will try and make a plan. None of us wants to let that Scripture out of our hands, but if Violet doesn’t turn up at that café with the real thing tomorrow…” Griffin didn’t need to say any more.

Spence nodded. “You’re the boss,” he said, looking at Griffin

and then to me. A backhanded statement. I knew he was insinu-

ating that I was calling the shots, that even though I’d abdicated my rightful role of leader, I was in one way or another still driving the decisions.

It wasn’t true. I hadn’t forced Griffin into anything. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t do it regardless, wouldn’t just take the Scripture and find a way to get Steph back on my own, but I hadn’t made

Griffin agree with me. I knew he’d done so for his own reasons, the reasons that set Grigori apart from exiles.

Collateral damage was not acceptable in Griffin’s eyes after everything that had happened with Magda, the way she had betrayed us all for her own selfish desires. He wouldn’t give on this issue, even 99

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Jessica shirvington

though he understood Spence’s point of view. Hell, even I understood it. It just wasn’t going to change anything.

Spence, realizing it was a closed subject, took off for a shower.

He’d set up home in Lincoln’s spare bedroom and the two of them seemed to coexist quite well. Although Lincoln was always happy to have his home used as a kind of base of operations, he liked his private space, so I’d been surprised he’d been willing to have a housemate.

Griffin also made a move, heading for the door. “I’m going back to the hospital and then to check on Kaitlin. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He was all business. Seeing there was nothing else he could do

here tonight, there was no point in him staying. I was sure he had no intention of sleeping, though.

————

When Lincoln and I were alone, I stood up. “I should leave,” I said.

“Where are you planning on going?” Lincoln asked, standing

too. We both knew I couldn’t go home.

“Maybe back to the hospital.” I wanted to check on Dapper

and, to my surprise, Onyx, plus no one would be suspicious of

someone taking a nap in the waiting area if I could manage to

close my eyes.

Lincoln shook his head.

“What?” I asked.

“You need to sleep. Especially if…” He was going to say,
If
you
have
to
face
Phoenix
tomorrow,
but he still didn’t want to concede to that. “You can sleep in my room.”

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And then, despite all of the drama, despite all of my fears for Steph, I found myself staring into Lincoln’s so- green eyes and the connection between us danced a dance of everything forbidden.

Spence came out of the bathroom wearing boxers and nothing

else. He looked up at us briefly, not noticing that the tension in the room had risen even further. He threw one hand up as he crossed the hall to his room, ruffling his wet hair with his other. “Night,” he said, before closing his door.

Lincoln disappeared into his room for a moment and reap-

peared with a towel, T- shirt, and lightweight sweats.

He shrugged, handing them over. “I don’t think you have any

more supplies here. If you give me your clothes, we can throw them in the washing machine for tomorrow.”

I nodded, heading for the bathroom.

I had a scalding- hot shower, using the time to pull myself

together. Steph needed me to be strong, needed me to bring her

back. I could blame myself later— it wasn’t going to help right now to theorize about all the horrible things they could be doing to her.

Lincoln was right. They’d be expecting us to try to get her back tonight, and even if they did have her at the airport, which Phoenix still appeared to be using as his base of operations, that plane was too heavily guarded. We needed time to prepare. The titanium

that lined the massive Antonov still affected our senses, hindering them so not only would we not know if Steph was in there, but we wouldn’t know how many exiles were waiting either.

I dressed in the clothes Lincoln had lent me, comforted and

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troubled at the same time. Even clean, they smelled of him, of his power, like sunny days and melting honey.

He was already in his bedroom when I opened the door. His

eyes darted up. “Sorry, I’m just grabbing a few things.”

I shrugged. “Take your time.”

Of course, he didn’t. He was straight out of there and into the bathroom himself.

I’d never been in his room before. Without him, that is. I’d

certainly never slept in his bed. I found myself exploring, unable to resist, running my hands over the curves of his wooden bed, the softness of his cotton sheets. There was a picture of him as a child with his mother and one of her with someone I assumed had been

his father. I picked it up, and from the back, another photo fell out.

My heart dived and my hand shook, holding a snapshot of myself.

He
keeps
a
photo
of
me!

It had been taken months ago, just before my seventeenth birth-

day, just before I’d found out about everything. I looked so different, hanging midair in a rock- climbing harness, smiling. Young.

I heard the shower stop and hastily put the photo back. It didn’t change anything.

I got into the bed and sat up. I heard him come out of the bathroom and then it was awhile before he popped his head around the door. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to come back.

“Good night, Vi,” he said, sporting a strained smile and careful not to cross the threshold.