Incubus (15 page)

Murphy to fight for the Guard. When I was done, Seth studied his hands for a moment in silence.

“That makes sense, I guess,” he said.

“What about you?” I asked. “How did you end up with the Guard?”

“My father was killed when I was a baby, too,” he said. “Mom had been an ancient history

professor, but losing my father messed her up pretty bad. The police didn’t have any leads, but Mom...

something about the crime scene, the marks on his back, the changes in his personality, it all sounded

weirdly familiar to her. She dug into some old Mesopotamian research, stuff she hadn’t looked at

since her grad school days. And there it all was. Beautiful demons who steal men’s souls, kill with an

embrace,” Seth eyed me uncomfortably and shrugged. “She got obsessed with the Lilitu. Quit her job.

Became a Guard archivist.”

“She seems pretty intense,” I offered.

“Yeah. She’s totally into this mission project. She keeps finding little bits of information she calls

‘clues to the big picture,’ but she won’t tell me what they are.” He shrugged. “She tries to keep me

insulated from a lot of this stuff.”

“So she’s found something?” I asked, suddenly focused on Seth.

“Well, yeah. That theory she mentioned to the Guard? That’s all she’s been working on for the last

month. She thinks she’s onto something huge.”

“When is she going to tell us what she found?”

“I don’t know. When she wants to.” Seth smiled a lopsided smile.

“Could you ask her?”

“You think I haven’t? What gets really annoying is when I’ll hear her say something like; ‘how do

they keep it locked,’ and I ask ‘keep what locked?’ and she tells me to go outside and play. Like I’m

10 years old again.”

All of a sudden the room seemed to lurch. My heart beat painfully in my chest and I put a hand out

to steady myself on the desk. “She said that?” I asked, my voice hoarse with urgency. “She said

‘locked?’”

“Well, yeah,” Seth said, giving me a curious look. “Why? Does that mean anything to you?”

I bit my lip, trying to control the sudden hope that flared inside. Locked. Could she mean the seal?

Was there a way to keep it closed? Instead of answering his question, I asked, “Can I see your mom’s

research?”

Seth shifted his weight, suddenly uncomfortable. “She wouldn’t really—”

“She doesn’t have to know,” I breathed in a rush.

Seth gaped at me. “I—she’s got her papers all organized in piles. She’ll know if we mess with

them.”

“Please,” I said. “This could be really important.”

Seth didn’t say anything for a long moment. He was avoiding my eyes. “She doesn’t like strangers

in our house.” I felt a wave of disappointment crash over me, but it vanished in the next moment. “So

we’ll have to sneak over at lunch. She’s on a research trip to the library in Santa Fe. She won’t be back

until this afternoon.” Seth caught my eye, gaining courage with every word. “If we’re going to do this,

we should do it today.”

After fourth period, I spotted Lucas on the way into lunch. I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of

line. His shoulders tensed, suddenly alert.

“What is it?”

“We need to take a little field trip,” I said.

Lucas followed me to the parking lot, glancing at me with surprise when he saw Seth waiting by

my car.

“I’ll explain on the way,” I said.

10 minutes later, Lucas was caught up. I didn’t have to mention the seal—Lucas gave me a look

that told me he knew exactly what I was thinking. We pulled up outside the little cement-block house

Seth and his mom had rented for their stay in Puerto Escondido. It had a salmon-colored stucco face,

with sun-faded roof tiles. Seth led the way to the front door, through a small, gated courtyard.

Seth turned to us, suddenly hesitant. “Let me look around first,” he said. “Just to make sure she’s

not here.”

I nodded, and Lucas and I crouched down out of view of the front windows.

Seth disappeared into the house, and reappeared a few minutes later. “Coast is clear.”

We slipped into the house and Seth pulled the door closed behind us.

The inside of the house was dated but comfortable. Deep brown tiles stretched from the foyer into

the living room.

“The office is this way,” Seth whispered, clearly nervous. Lucas gave me a smile as we followed

Seth down the hall. He opened a door and stepped back.

A desk sat in the center of the room, surrounded by islands of paper stacked all over the floor. The

bookshelf pushed up against the back wall sagged under the weight of a mountain of books.

“Whoa,” Lucas said, taking it all in.

“Just watch out for the piles,” Seth said, hovering nervously in the doorway. “I have no idea how

she organizes this stuff.”

“So,” I was at a loss for where to look. “Where should we start?”

Seth seemed to understand the question I wasn’t asking. “She records her theories in her diary,” he

said, walking quickly into the room. He stepped nimbly around stacks of papers to the back of the

desk. “It should be over here somewhere,” he said.

Lucas and I walked into the room, moving cautiously to avoid the paper land mines surrounding

us. Books and papers weren’t the only things in this room, I saw. Mingled among the research were

artifacts, some extremely old judging by their patinas.

“That’s Mesopotamian,” Lucas said, pointing to a small statue of two figures wrapped in a pair of

bat-like wings.

“You know your art history,” Seth said, rustling papers on the desk. “Mom picked up a bunch of

Mesopotamian artifacts over the years. Some of this stuff is from the Guard Library, on loan. Come to

think of it,” he blinked, looking up at the room around him. “Now that the Library is gone, this might

be the biggest collection of Lilitu artifacts in existence.”

Lucas and I exchanged an uneasy glance.

Seth saw the look and smiled sadly. “You guys are lucky,” he murmured. “Having each other. I’ve

never really had a friend I could trust like this before. Mom’s kept us moving around. Even if we were

in one place long enough for me to make friends, she didn’t want me hanging out with anyone my own

age.”

“Sounds familiar,” Lucas said. Seth met his gaze and they shared a look of understanding.

Seth moved another stack of papers and revealed a worn, leather-bound journal. “This is it,” he

said.

I moved closer, eager to discover Angela’s theories. Seth handed the journal to me and I opened it

on the desk. I started scanning Angela’s notes. A few minutes later, I pulled the desk chair back so I

could sit down. We’d found the mother lode.

I read and read and read, flipping through Angela’s journal. She had stumbled onto several

disjointed pieces of information that—taken together—seemed to lay out the monks’ grand plan. As I

read, I’d pause to share the most telling bits of research to the guys.

“She thinks the monks believed they had to perform a ritual to, this is a direct quote from her

research, ‘thwart the coming of the mother of demons.’” I looked at Lucas.

“Lilith,” he said grimly. “What kind of ritual?”

I scanned farther down on the page, then flipped to the next page, which contained an itemized list

of the contents of the monks’ pantry. The journal was blank after that. I flipped back a few pages,

trying to see if I’d missed anything. “It’s not here,” I finally realized.

Seth, perched on the desk to my left, glanced at his watch for the hundredth time. “Lunch ended a

while ago,” he said. “I think we should be getting back.”

“Just a little longer,” I pleaded.

“My mom is going to be home anytime,” Seth said. “She’ll freak out if she finds us here. Trust me,

it’s not worth the drama.” When I still didn’t budge, Seth pulled on my shoulder. “Okay—I’ll bring

you back the next time she leaves town. I promise. Can we go now?”

With effort, I set the journal down, watching as Seth buried it under the stack of papers where he’d

found it.

We hurried out of the house, trying not to leave any sign of our visit. On the way to my car, it finally

hit me. What all of this really meant to me, personally.

I froze in my tracks. Seth and Lucas, hurrying toward my car, stopped when they realized I was no

longer with them. They turned back.

“Braedyn?” Lucas asked.

“Lucas,” I whispered. My hands started to tremble. Lucas crossed the distance between us in half a

second.

“What’s wrong?”

“If this ritual is real,” I said. “That means there’s a way to keep the final battle from ever starting.”

Lucas searched my face, uncomprehending. “My duty to the Guard will be fulfilled.”

Understanding entered Lucas’s eyes, but he needed to hear me say it before he could believe.

“I can become human,” I said.

“What?” Seth, just a few feet behind us, stared at be blankly. “How is that possible?”

But I couldn’t answer him. My eyes were locked on Lucas. He pulled me in tight, crushing me to

him with the force of his emotion.

Lucas released me, beaming. “Do you really think—”

“We have to find out,” I said. “If it’s real—if it’s really real...” I twined my arms around his neck,

afraid to speak the words and break this magical spell. Lucas lifted me off my feet, spinning me in a

wide circle. I shrieked with laughter, not caring for the moment that we still knew nothing about this

ritual, if it really existed, or if it could be reproduced.

For now, we had hope. That was enough.

Chapter 7

We’d missed most of fifth period so we waited for the bell before sneaking back onto campus for sixth

period. Sixth and seventh period were an agonizing wait, and when final bell rang I felt my shoulders

sag with relief. All I wanted was to get home and talk to Dad about this ritual.

It wasn’t until I opened my locker that I remembered I’d practically commanded Karayan to meet

me in the plaza today. “Crap,” I muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Cassie asked at my shoulder.

I jumped, startled to find her there. “Just remembered there’s something I have to do today.

Speaking of which, aren’t you working in the costume shop?”

“Yeah, actually I need to get over there.” Cassie pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket

and handed it to me.

“What’s this?”

“You tell me. Someone slipped it into my locker by mistake. It’s addressed to you.”

I looked down at the note, which had my name written on it in a strong, confident hand. I opened

the note. It read:
Fair warning. I can’t take my eyes off of you. Your secret admirer.