Incubus (2 page)

handful of beloved educators at Coronado Prep voted among the “Best Teachers” year after year. Mr.

Landon taught AP History to all the juniors at Coronado Prep, which was the reason for this class-wide

field trip.

“All right, kids, I think that’s everyone,” Mr. Landon said. “Please direct your attention to our

fabulous guide for the day, Annie Gerardo. Annie?”

I turned toward the slender, mousy woman standing next to Mr. Landon—but my gaze caught on

another figure, hovering at the back of the crowd of students. Almost as soon as our eyes locked, the

strange woman slipped through a gate into the mission’s garden and was gone. A shivery tingle crept

over the back of my neck. I’d only had the briefest glimpse of her, but something about the woman

was off. She was human—that much I could see instantly. Approaching middle age, with a wide, kind

looking face. But something in her eyes was missing.

“Braedyn?” Lucas looked at me curiously. I noticed the rest of the students were following Annie

into the mission’s main sanctuary. Royal and Cassie, a few paces ahead, trailed the bunch, waiting for

me to catch up.

I turned back to the gate through which the woman had vanished. “Did you see...?”

Lucas followed my gaze, but of course there was nothing to see. “What am I looking for?” he

asked, tensing like a coiled spring, ready for release. I realized I wasn’t the only one with a hair-

trigger these days.

“Nothing,” I said, forcing a smile. I squeezed his hand, still laced through my fingers. “Let’s catch

up before we miss the whole tour. Knowing Landon, this is probably going to end up on a quiz.”

Lucas and I were the last of our group to set foot inside the mission. The heavy mission doors swung

shut behind us and a sweeping peace enveloped me. The outside world fell away, as though muted by a

great distance. The sunlight, which had seemed so harsh moments ago in the parking lot, was at the

wrong angle to beam directly into the sanctuary. Instead, fingers of light shot through the high

windows to reflect against the painted ceiling, bouncing aimlessly in the vastness above us and filling

the cathedral with a reflected glow.

“Come in, everyone. Come on, don’t be afraid to scootch a little closer.” Annie waved us forward.

When Lucas and I edged farther inside, she gestured at the sanctuary around us grandly. “This mission

was first established in 1593, by a group of Spanish monks. This room we’re standing in was the

entirety of the original mission. Everything else—the dormitory, the gardens, the refractory—that was

added later.” Annie gestured for us to follow her deeper into the sanctuary. I stepped out from under

the shelter of the foyer and got my first good look at the simple stained glass windows, depicting the

lives and deaths of a variety of saints.

I heard a group of guys muffling laughter from the other side of the sanctuary. I glanced over and

saw Dan Buchanan making a lewd gesture while a group of kids surrounding him snickered. One of

the girls tossed her icy-blond hair back over one shoulder and noticed me staring. Her smile vanished

in an instant.

Amber. She used to brag that she’d grown up getting most of the things she wanted in life. Until I

came along, I suppose. She’d made a failed play for Lucas when he started at Coronado Prep, but that

wasn’t the reason for the icy rage that gleamed in her eyes.

This was about an ultimatum she’d given me last winter.

You were there when Derek died,
she’d said.
You had something to do with Parker’s meltdown. I

don’t want you at my school. I don’t want you near my friends. I’m warning you. If you stick around,

whatever happens next is on your head.

With some effort, I let my gaze slide away from Amber back to our tour guide. Amber’s threats

were toothless. If she ran around telling everyone her theory that I was a Lilitu demon, they’d all look

at her like she was nuts. Never mind the fact that it was true. Most of humanity wasn’t willing to

accept that people—things—like me existed. I’d had a hard enough time believing it myself when I’d

found out. Steering my thoughts carefully away from this sensitive topic, I sighed. No, there wasn’t

much Amber could do to me, and we both knew it.

“And now for the
pièce de résistance,
” Annie proclaimed with a wide sweep of her arm. She

walked into the small alcove to the left of the altar. “Have you ever wondered why our town is called

Puerto Escondido? Well, feast your eyes on this.” Placing her hand on a carved wooden rose, she

turned her wrist. The rose, which had looked like it was carved into one of the church’s pillars, moved.

It was some kind of latch. Behind Annie, a section of the rich oak paneling popped open. She pulled it

open farther with a flourish.

While Annie was obviously excited about this revelation, the junior class of Coronado Prep did not

share her enthusiasm.

Annie, struggling to win back her audience, attempted a “spooky” voice that came off painfully

corny. “But why, you may ask, did the monks of Puerto Escondido need a secret door out of their

sanctuary?”

“Booty calls?” Dan offered. The sanctuary rang with raucous laughter. Annie’s face fell, and my

heart went out to her. But seriously, we were in high school, not kindergarten.

“Okay, Mr. Buchanan, you’re with me for the rest of this tour,” Mr. Landon said. Dan shrugged

and moved to join Mr. Landon near the front of the group.

“Um...” Annie struggled for a way back into her tour.

“Maybe the kids could roam a bit? Come to you if they have any questions about the mission?”

Mr. Landon offered. Annie’s face melted in relief and she nodded. “Okay, kids,” Mr. Landon said,

taking charge. “Try and remember this is a school field trip. There may or may not be a quiz on this

mission so it might behoove you to take some notes.” He waved off a chorus groans with good humor.

“Thank the Lord,” Royal said, turning around to face us. “That poor woman. I was getting ready to

dial emergency services to come and resuscitate her.”

I heard someone approaching behind us, but when the newcomer spoke, even Royal’s expression

blanched.

“Cassie?” Parker’s voice wavered. When she saw him, the blood seeped out of Cassie’s face.

Royal and I had made a pact to keep Parker away from Cassie as much as possible. We’d done a

thorough job of it so far this year; Cassie hadn’t come face to face with him once since school started.

If she guessed why we’d sometimes steer her down a side hall, or forget a textbook and ask her to

walk back to a locker with us, she hadn’t let on. But here in the mission, outside the confines of

school, we’d let our guard down. He’d gotten past our defenses. Royal locked eyes with me and I saw

his flash of panic.

“Leave me alone,” Cassie said to Parker, her voice suddenly cold.

Royal and I moved at the same time. Royal guided Cassie away. I stepped in front of Parker to

block him from following.

“What are you doing, Parker?” I hissed. “She doesn’t want to see you anymore, remember?” I felt

Lucas move to stand beside me.

“I thought maybe—” Parker ran a shaking hand through his hair.

“Maybe she forgot that little video you made?” My voice crackled with quiet fury. “That’s not

likely, is it?” It had been almost a year since Parker had seduced Cassie on a dare and shared the

videoed evidence of the deed with his friends. She’d never quite recovered. She put on a brave face,

hung out with us like old times, but she’d stopped sewing, stopped designing those fashion-forward

creations she’d been so passionate about before. And she’d stopped wearing her hair in the quirky

twisted knots that had always seemed so
her
. Where she used to radiate her own personal brand of

Cassie-ness almost unconsciously, she now struggled to fade into the background. It was the thing I

hated most about what Parker had done to her. He’d stolen her from herself.

Parker squirmed miserably. “I made a mistake,” he started.

Lucas didn’t give him time to finish. “Don’t worry. You’re not going to get the chance to make

another one.”

Parker pulled his gaze off of Cassie and glanced at Lucas, as if seeing him there for the first time.

“This has nothing to do with you, Mitchell.”

“Come on, man,” Lucas said, his voice soft and dangerous. “Walk away.”

Parker gave Lucas a lopsided smirk. “Or what? You want to take a swing at me? I thought you

used up all your second chances with Fiedler last year.”

Lucas’s shoulders loosened, the way they did before a practice bout with the Guard. I tried to catch

his eye. Parker was an arrogant ass, but that didn’t make him wrong. Lucas couldn’t afford to push

things with Fiedler, not after the rocky start he’d made at Coronado Prep last year.

Either Parker couldn’t see how close he’d pushed Lucas to the breaking point, or he meant to

instigate a fight.

“She’s got nothing left to say to you,” I said. Parker’s eyes shifted to me a half-second before he

shook his head and shoved me aside. I stumbled, catching myself on a column.

“Hey,” Lucas growled. He caught Parker’s arm roughly. Parker spun around, fist clenched, ready

for a fight. Behind them, I spotted Mr. Landon wandering through the crowd, eyes peeled for any

trouble. If I was going to diffuse this situation, it had to happen now. I fixed my gaze on Parker.

“
Leave Cassie alone,
” I said, willing power into the words. The faint tinkling of chimes echoed

strangely around my words as they tunneled through the space between us to settle inside Parker’s

mind. I saw Lucas tense out of the corner of my eye. I hadn’t used
the call
since the night of Winter

Ball—the last time I’d told Parker to stay away from Cassie. I shouldn’t have had to tell him again,

but I pushed that troubling thought down and willed my words to penetrate through Parker’s own

desires.

It worked. After a second or two he blinked at us, as though startled to see us.

“Um, hello?” Ally Krect snaked her arm through Parker’s and glared suspiciously at me before

turning an inviting smile on Parker. “Did you get lost, babe?”

“Clearly.” Parker seemed to shake the last of his haze off. He looped his arm over her shoulders,

turning his back on us.

I could feel Lucas turn to study me.

“I don’t know,” I said, in answer to his unasked question. I finally met his gaze, and saw my own

worry mirrored in his eyes. “Maybe I didn’t do it right the first time.”

“I was there,” Lucas said softly. “You did it right. He’s resisting somehow.” Lucas turned to stare

after Parker, who was ignoring us, arm still comfortably circled around Ally. She flicked a suspicious

look over to us, then angled her body so her back was facing us, too.

“Come on,” I said, drawing Lucas back to Royal and Cassie, who were studying some old carved

panels on the walls. Doing their best to act normal.

“It’s so pretty here,” Cassie said, glancing up as Lucas and I joined them. “I can’t believe this

place is over 400 years old.”

“All right,” Royal said, getting down to business. “I say we split up. You two take that side, we’ll

take this side, and we can compare notes tonight. Deal?”

I glanced at Lucas, more than a little willing to spend some time strolling through the beautiful

mission alone with him.

As if he could read my thoughts, Lucas smiled. “Deal.”

Cassie was right. The mission was beautiful. Everything, from the beams in the ceiling to the stones

under our feet, had been hand carved by the monks who’d established this mission nearly half a

millennium ago. Lucas and I wandered through the sanctuary, letting the peaceful beauty of the space

wash over us. As we drifted back to the main sanctuary doors, Lucas spotted a crack in one of the

massive columns framing the narthex. He examined it for a moment, then smiled.

“Huh,” he said. “Apparently those monks were hiding more than one secret around this place.” He