Incubus (14 page)

Lucas, leaning against the hood of my car, shook his head. “Wouldn’t have made it any easier. He

just needs time.”

“How much time?” I worried aloud.

By the time the parking lot had emptied of everyone not staying for an afternoon practice of some

variety, I was pacing in front of my car.

“I don’t think he’s coming,” Lucas said. “We should get home.”

“He didn’t let me explain.” All I could see was that look of horror on his face, replaying itself in

my mind over and over. “He must think—” I covered my face with my hands. “I don’t know what he

must think.”

“Come on, Braedyn. He’s smart. He knows Gretchen’s a spotter.”

I looked up sharply. Lucas reached out a hand to me, his gaze steady.

“He’ll work it out,” Lucas murmured. “And when he does, he’ll realize you’re on our side.”

I took Lucas’s offered hand and let him draw me close. “Okay.” But that left another problem.

“Amber,” I whispered. “What do we tell the Guard?”

Lucas shook his head, miserable. Spotters were rare—and they were critical to the Guard’s

mission. You could always train more Guardsmen to fight, but being a spotter wasn’t something you

could learn. The Guard had lost Dina last year, the spotter for Marx’s unit. They’d come to help us

battle Ais and Dina had died—killed by Ais in the first moments of our fight. Since Dina’s death, no

new spotter had been found for Marx’s team, which left them dangerously exposed.

“I think for now,” Lucas said after a long moment. “We keep it to ourselves.”

It was what I wanted to hear him say, but I still felt a twinge of guilt. The Guard needed people

like Amber—regardless of what I thought of having her embraced by my friends and family.

Lucas stood and opened the driver’s side door for me. With a heavy heart, I drove us both home.

That night, after practice and dinner with the Guard, Dad and I returned home.

“Feel like watching some TV with your old man?” Dad asked.

“I think I’m going to turn in early tonight,” I said.

Dad’s eyebrows jumped a little in surprise. “You’re feeling okay?”

“Yeah. Just tired.” That was true, but it was only one part of the truth.

As I lay down in bed, I willed myself into a dream. I was aware of my head hitting the pillow, but

the sensation was far away; I was already standing in the odd rose garden that waited for me every

night.

I knelt and put my hand on the ground at my feet, sensing for the world beyond this tiny dream. I’d

learned that perceiving this place as real—a real garden, with clouds and dirt and roses—made it real

to my sleeping mind and trapped me here. But once I could sense the dream for what it was, I’d slip

out of my secluded bubble and into the larger dream space shared by all living things.

A pool of darkness opened at my feet, and the swirling stars of other sleepers’ dreams came into

view. I sat there for a long time, until I sensed the dream I was waiting for spring alight in the

darkness.

“Karayan,” I said, calling her dream out of the crowd. It rose up to the surface of my pool. I

reached down and touched it, willing myself inside.

Karayan turned as I entered her dream, her perfect mouth dropping open in silent surprise.

“I need to talk to you,” I said. Karayan’s dreamscape was dotted with bluebells, which stirred in a

sudden breeze; Karayan’s unease manifesting itself.

“How did you—” With visible effort, Karayan struggled to regain her composure. “It’s generally

considered rude to force your way into another Lilitu’s dream,” she said crisply.

“You do it all the time,” I retorted.

“That’s different,” Karayan said, waving this away. “I’m like your mentor.”

“My—” I stared at her, momentarily stunned into silence.

“Uh, yes?” Karayan’s eyes narrowed. “Or are you forgetting coming to me, asking for help with

your little extra-curricular revenge project?”

The irritated response died on my lips. Karayan was right; I’d gone to her for help to punish

Parker. Karayan was the one who’d showed me how to plant the seed in his sleeping mind—but only

because I asked her to.

“Fine,” I said, swallowing my pride. “Mentor me.” I willed two chairs into being and sat in one of

them. The leather felt soft under my fingers, warm and comforting. Karayan eyed the chairs with a

strange look in her face, but sat. She ran a hand over the surface of her chair, reluctantly appreciative.

“I need to know how someone becomes a spotter,” I said.

Karayan turned her beautiful eyes back to my face. “Why? Don’t tell me you want more of
them

out there?”

“No,” I said impatiently, “there’s a girl at school. She
saw
me.”

Karayan leaned back, considering this for a moment. “Amber,” she said at last. “Of course.”

“Why ‘of course’?”

“Because of Derek.”

“But they weren’t even dating when—” I faltered. “When he died.”

Karayan gave me a pitying look. “Braedyn. Do we need to talk about the birds and the bees again?”

I blushed hotly. “What does sex have to do with any of this?”

“Everything,” she said simply.

I waited, but when she didn’t offer anything further, I was forced to speak. “I don’t understand.”

Karayan tilted her head to study me with a condescending smile. “I know you don’t, sweetie.”

“Just tell me what you’re talking about,” I snapped.

Karayan’s smile widened, but she settled in her chair to explain. “When two people have sex, they

forge a bond whether they want to or not. It’s not just a physical act. It’s a union of spirit. And when

one of those spirits is damaged, sometimes the other is impacted as well.” Karayan’s eyes grew

thoughtful. “Spotters are usually deeply in love.”

“When you say Amber was impacted...” I prompted.

“Altered. Unblinded to the larger world, somehow. That change allowed her to see through a

Lilitu’s defenses after—” but here Karayan stopped.

“After you turned Derek into a Thrall,” I finished.

The bluebells on the hill around us shivered. I glanced at them, then back at Karayan, surprised.

She’d never indicated any remorse for attacking Derek. But that was definitely an emotional reaction.

Karayan stood abruptly. “You should go.”

“I have more questions,” I protested.

Karayan glared at me and I felt a strange pressure, like the larger dream world was trying to suck

me out of Karayan’s dream. My eyes snapped back to Karayan’s face.

“Stop,” I said.

The pressure ceased. Karayan staggered back almost as if buffeted by a gale-force wind. Her face

registered shock.

I was dimly aware of my alarm clock, blaring back in the real world. Time to wake up. I stood, and

Karayan took another step away from me, eyeing me like I was some kind of venomous snake.

“If you don’t want to talk in dreams, meet me in the Plaza today after school,” I said. “Four

o’clock.”

I opened my eyes. Sunlight crowded the edges of my drapes, eager to flood the room with dawn. I

felt a moment’s irrational resentment, then sighed. Ready or not, the day was beginning. Pushing back

the covers, I rose out of bed.

I tried to catch sight of Seth before first period, hanging out by his locker. He didn’t show. First bell

rang and I gave up, resigning myself to seeing him in physics. Provided he had even come to school

today.
What if he told his mom and she kept him home from school to keep him away from me?
I

wondered.
What if I never get the chance to explain?

I walked into first period. Amber was back in her usual spot in the second row of class, talking

with Missy. She pointedly ignored me as I entered, which was fine by me.

Cassie was scribbling notes into the margins around another costume drawing.

“Nice,” I said, admiring the design of another tunic, this one encrusted with some kind of rubies.

“Sorry,” Cassie said without looking up. “Can’t talk right now. My fabric estimates are due

today.”

“Right.” I opened my history book, pretending to look over last night’s chapter, feeling awkward

and lonely. Not a great start to a very long day.

The morning classes seemed to last forever. I found myself checking the clock every two or three

minutes, urging time to leap forward. But when the time came for physics class, I found myself

dragging my feet, suddenly unsure about whether or not I wanted to see Seth after all. I got to class

just before the bell rang announcing the start of class.

Seth was sitting in a desk near the back of the classroom, head bent over his book. Just in front of

him, Ally and Amber spotted me and shared a whispered conversation I’m pretty sure featured me as

the main subject.

I was trying to summon the courage to go talk to Seth when Cassie and Royal entered. I felt my

heart surge when I saw Royal, and forgot about Seth for the moment. Royal wore a light grey knit

skullcap. He gave me a thin smile, tugging on the back of the hat self-consciously.

“Not my favorite choice, but the alternatives were my brother’s baseball cap or my mom’s beret.”

“I told you,” Cassie said. “It looks fine.” She turned to me for back up. “Tell him, Braedyn.”

“Actually,” I said, eyeing him critically. “It looks kind of edgy and cool.”

“Right?” Cassie turned back to Royal. “You see? Edgy.”

“Please. Braedyn’s got the fashion sense of a timid nun,” Royal said. “No offense,” he added to me

as an after thought.

“Why would I be offended by that?” I asked mildly. Cassie shot me a grin.

“Okay, folks, class actually started a few minutes ago,” Mr. Harris called. He was a compact man,

with a penchant for outlandish bow ties. I liked his class; he had a zest for his subject that was

contagious. Cassie, Royal, and I took our seats as Mr. Harris wrote “LAB DAY” in big letters across

the chalkboard. “I see we have a few absent students, so I’m going to take this opportunity to mix

things up a bit.”

The class groaned. I glanced around and remembered that Rick and his two soccer buddies were on

their mini-suspension. “New lab partners will be as follows.” Mr. Harris started reading off names, but

when he called Royal and Rick there was an audible reaction from the class. Royal’s face drained of

color as Mr. Harris grabbed his eraser, suddenly realizing his mistake.

“Nope, sorry.” He glanced up at Royal, his face lined with consternation. “Why don’t you and

Cassie partner up? I’ll put Rick with someone else.”

“Thanks,” Royal said faintly.

“Braedyn, you’re with Seth. Amber, you’re with Ally.” Mr. Harris looked up. “And I think that’s

it.”

I glanced at Seth, who was staring at me, expressionless.

“Let’s move this party to the lab,” Mr. Harris said. We filed out of the classroom and headed

across the hall to the physics lab for what Mr. Harris called our “plumb-bob experiment.” It involved

hanging a weight from a string to make a pendulum, taping a razor to the edge of the desk to cut the

string as the weight swung by, and predicting where the weight would land on the floor—all based on

the height of the weight at the start of its swing.

Seth and I worked together, setting up our pendulum almost wordlessly. I started the calculations

to predict where the weight would land. Seth glanced around the room, then lowered his voice.

“You’re Lilitu, aren’t you?”

I looked up at him sharply, unprepared for this question in the middle of physics lab. Seth read my

face and nodded. He looked tense, but not scared.

“I’m fighting for the Guard,” I said.

“Yeah, I figured that much out,” Seth replied. “But you and Lucas? In the mission it looked like—I

mean, are you guys allowed to...”

I blushed. “That was a moment of weakness. We know we have to be careful.”

Seth nodded and fell silent for a moment. I was about to turn back to my calculations, thinking

that’s all we were going to say for now, when he turned back to me, eyes alive with curiosity. “So how

did this happen? I mean, how did
you
end up with
them?
”

“My dad,” I answered. We kept our heads bent over our experiment and I filled Seth in. I told him

about Dad, the great Murphy, a living legend to the Guard. I told him how Dad had been good friends

with my biological father, Paul Kells, and how Paul had given his life so I could be born and raised by