Incubus (45 page)

his fist instinctively. I found myself staring into his eyes.

“Where is it?” It was a command more than a question. I stared at him, uncomprehending. His

expression hardened, and he pushed me back with the slightest effort. I sprawled onto the pew. Before

I could regain my balance, he leveled the sword at my throat, resting the icy blade against my neck. “It

will go easier for you, if you cooperate.”

“I don’t know what you want,” I said, my voice hoarse.

“The
vessel.
”

My mouth opened, but the protest died on my lips. Behind the stranger, I could see Seth edging

along the dark wall of the sanctuary, holding something in his hands. A surge of hope filled my chest.

The stranger, seeing something in my expression, turned.

Before he had time to spot Seth in the shadows, I kicked the sword out of his hands. It skittered

across the floor. The stranger turned toward it and I lunged to my feet, meaning to dart the other way.

But he was faster than I had anticipated. His hand closed around my throat, hauling me up until we

were face to face for the second time.

“I will not be baited,” he said. I clawed at his hand, but it was like a vise around my throat. If he

put any more pressure into his grip, I wouldn’t be able to speak.

“The salt,” I screamed at Seth. “Scatter the salt on the seal! You can stop the ritual!”

The stranger froze, giving me a sharp look. Something was wrong.

He turned back towards the seal, giving me a clear view into the heart of the sanctuary. We saw

Seth at the same instant, returning the vessel to the center of the seal. The stranger released me,

lunging for Seth.

“Spill it,” I screamed. “Seth, you have to spill the salt!”

Seth looked up, confusion clouding his eyes. He stepped back as the stranger barreled toward him.

Moonlight speared into the sanctuary, flooding the seal with silvery light. The stranger skidded to

a stop just beyond the seal, transfixed.

Smoky black ribbons rose up around the vessel in twining spirals of shadow.

“No,” I whispered. “
No.
”

The ritual was complete.

The stranger retreated across the stone floor to take up his sword. I limped toward Seth, fighting

the growing pain in my leg. “We have to get out of here,” I whispered.

Instead of replying, Seth tensed. “Look,” he said. I turned, and my breath caught in my throat.

A slender form stepped through the rift between our worlds, gaining substance in half a heartbeat.

She had long, pale blond hair that fell in undulating waves down her back. She was small, shorter than

Seth by a good six inches. Her limbs were delicate, perfectly proportioned. She was achingly

beautiful.
Of course,
I thought numbly.
She’s Lilitu.
She held a weapon loosely in one hand. It was

shorter than the stranger’s sword, but too long to be considered a knife. The curved blade was

tarnished with age, but the edge tapered to a cruel point. Strange glyphs ran the length of the blade.

The handle, what I could see of it, was a dark and twisted metal.

The Lilitu looked up. Her dark eyes landed on Seth and she moved. The weapon spun through the

air directly toward him. I acted without thought, diving into Seth. We hit the floor as the weapon

skittered to the ground behind us. Seth let out a surprised gasp. I rolled off of him, back up onto my

feet.

“Stay back,” I hissed. I couldn’t spare the time to check if he was injured. I spun back around,

expecting the Lilitu’s attack any moment.

Instead, she was eyeing the stranger.

He stood at the edge of the seal, as if unwilling or unable to step onto the stone. He lifted his

sword, ready to strike.

“Go back, Lilitu,” he said, his voice ringing with authority. “Tell your sisteren that this land is not

for-” The stranger’s words choked off with a wet cough.

I fell back against one of the sanctuary’s columns, struggling to make sense of what I was seeing.

The blade of the Lilitu’s weapon speared out from the front of the stranger’s chest. His sword fell

from his hands to clatter against the stone floor. A second later, he followed, dropping to his knees. He

raised a hand to his chest. It hovered helplessly near the base of the blade. An expression of genuine

shock crossed his face. I stared. His blood was strangely light, almost pearlescent. Not human. Not

Lilitu.

Seth stepped away from the stranger, his face grimly satisfied. He dragged his hand across his

jeans, wiping off a spattering of the pearlescent blood. Almost as an afterthought, he kicked the

stranger’s sword out of his reach. The stranger watched, numb, as his sword skittered to the far edge of

the room.

A piercing scream ripped through the sanctuary.

I tore my eyes away from the stranger, searching for the source of the sound. Lucas and Cassie

stood in the open doorway of the sanctuary’s hidden entrance. Lucas found the opening after I

unlatched it. Lucas caught Cassie and held her tightly. She turned into him, burying her face against

his shoulder. Her scream choked off, and the sudden silence was broken only by the ragged breath of

the dying stranger.

My thoughts felt sluggish, thick. I looked back at Seth.

He walked past the stranger, ignoring him as though he held no more threat than a statue. Seth’s

confidence seemed to grow with each step. The Lilitu opened her arms. A smile curved across her

sensual lips.

“Brother,” she said. Her voice was richly amused. “You look well.”

“I am better now,” Seth replied. “Illydia. It’s been far too long.”

They embraced, and Illydia’s laughter rang through the sanctuary like peals from a golden bell.

My eyes landed on the large square carving directly across the sanctuary from where I stood. In

the border, I saw the pair of Lilitu Angela had identified for us. The brother and sister who’d attacked

this mission all those long centuries ago. My eyes shifted back to Seth and Illydia. Brother. Sister.

Seth was the incubus.

Chapter 20

The world seemed to tilt, and in an instant the floor was rushing toward me. I moved sluggishly, just

managing to throw out my hands before impact. I sprawled on the floor and felt something warm and

slick beneath me.
Blood,
an inner voice noted dimly.
My blood.
The thought left no residual emotion

in its wake.

I saw two forms slipping along the wall of the sanctuary. Lucas and Cassie. Somewhere inside me,

a shock of alarm blared. My body tried to motivate me to move, to get up, to escape. But the impulse

was buried deep, muted by the thick blanket of shock settling over my thoughts.

Lucas dropped beside me, murmuring something into my ear. His hands moved to my thigh, gently

easing the blood-soaked fabric of my ripped jeans aside to reveal a deep gash. I heard him curse

quietly, then he was wrestling his sweatshirt off, tearing at the fabric with his teeth. Cassie hovered

behind us, eyes wide and terrified. I couldn’t feel anything.

I turned to Seth and Illydia. They pulled back from their embrace, greeting one another with

genuine affection. I saw their lips move, heard the lilting sounds of their speech, but none of their

words registered. We were of no consequence to them; they didn’t even glance at us as Lucas worked

feverishly to tend my wound.

He fashioned a makeshift tourniquet from the ruins of his sweatshirt, then tied it around my leg.

That got my attention. Pain slammed my consciousness back into place, driving the haze from my

mind. I couldn’t hold back a growl of pain.

Lucas’s face twisted with empathy. “Can you stand?” he whispered. I shook my head no. I’d

burned through all that adrenaline. It had left me wrung out and weak and slow.

“Take Cassie and go,” I said.

“I’m not leaving you.”

“The seal,” I started. I didn’t need to finish the thought.

Lucas winced. “We’ll worry about it later,” he said. “Put your arm around my neck.”

I tried. I clung to his neck. Lucas stood, hauling me to my feet. We took one step, then another.

And then my arm lost what little strength it had and I started to slide back to the floor. Lucas caught

me around the middle, guided me down safely. He looked into my eyes, helplessly.

“Lucas.” I gripped his hand tightly, trying to force him to understand. “If you wait for me, none of

us will make it out of here.”

“I’ll carry you.”

“Someone has to get out,” I insisted. “Someone has to warn the Guard.”

Lucas clenched his jaw, glanced at Cassie. But any hope he might have had that she could deliver

the news evaporated when he saw her. She had collapsed against the base of a column, her arms

wrapped tightly around her knees. Lucas turned back to me.

“They need you more than they need me,” he said.

“What does that—?”

Lucas caught my face in his hands and kissed me. This was nothing like our last real kiss, the night

Gretchen had found us together, the night she had outted me as Lilitu to the unsuspecting Lucas. That

kiss had been passionate, tender, full of hope.

This kiss—Lucas gave his whole self to it, like he didn’t expect to see another sunrise. He crushed

me to him with a growing urgency. The passion of this kiss smoldered, burned through my resistance

—almost brutal in its intensity. Everything we’d fought to contain and control, everything we’d

struggled to suppress, flooded free in an instant. My body responded, starved for his touch—

And equally starved for the life energy he was offering.

I felt the draw of power as the Lilitu storm rose within me. My arms fastened around Lucas’s neck.

He gripped me harder, and I heard a soft moan escape him. It was everything I wanted.

I shoved Lucas back,
hard.
He sprawled onto the floor, gasping. I pushed myself away from him,

stronger, but not whole. Not by a long shot.

Lucas gave me a searching look.

“Not like this,” I said, shaking. I felt sickened by the thought of what I could do to Lucas. It’d be

so easy to draw out his energy, drain him of vitality. I forced myself to look away from him, fighting

the wild desire to pull him closer again.

“Fascinating.” The Lilitu’s voice sounded behind me, full of amused curiosity. “I see you did not

exaggerate.”

I turned. Illydia and Seth were watching us, smiling with the same arc to their lips. The family

resemblance was striking. Seth might have been taller, but their facial structure, their dark eyes, their

skin tone—they could have been twins.

“She’ll come around,” Seth said.

The Lilitu shrugged, uninterested. She turned from me and walked toward the stranger. He

slumped on the ground, still kneeling, his breath coming in short, ragged pants. She crouched before

him, tilting her head to peer directly into his face.

“Senoy?” she asked.

The stranger’s eyes flicked up to her face, full of pain and failure. I sucked in a sharp breath. It

couldn’t be.

“I thought I recognized that pugilistic arrogance.” Illydia gave a delighted laugh. “Well done,

Sethayl.” She turned to Seth and her smile sharpened, a hungry glee sparkling in her eyes.

“Two down, one to go,” Seth said, inclining his head in acknowledgement of her praise.

“No,” I whispered. A vise seemed to grow in my chest, gripping my heart tighter and tighter until

it felt like I would die. This was all wrong. Karayan had warned me. She’d told me one of the Three

was coming, but it should have been Sansenoy. Sansenoy, whom I recognized. Sansenoy, who knew

me as an ally. Not this stranger.

Illydia stood, turning her back on the dying angel, dismissing him completely from her thoughts.

Senoy looked up, meeting my stare levelly. The skin of his face was slick with sweat, and his lips

had grown pale, but his eyes were as determined as ever. He gave me a look full of meaning and then

—very deliberately—flicked his gaze back toward Seth and Illydia.

Illydia was between us and the mission’s secret door. Which left one possible escape route for my

friends.

I turned to Lucas. “You’ll have to get the crossbeam off the front doors. It’s the only way you and

Cassie will be able to escape.” Lucas’s eyes tightened, but before he could argue, I reached down and

caught his hand in mine. “Help Cassie, please. I can handle this.”

Lucas met my eyes. After a long moment, he nodded.

Haltingly, I stood. My leg held. Whatever energy I’d pulled from Lucas had worked on the wound,

accelerating the healing process from inside. There was still pain, the wound was not gone, but I could

put weight on the leg without swooning. Progress.

Without looking back, I walked toward Seth and his sister. Seth’s eyebrows hiked up with faint

interest. Illydia turned, eyeing me critically.

“Any time you want to reconsider my advances...” Seth let his eyes travel over my body. I felt

suddenly exposed. I stopped moving, rooted to the floor. His eyes returned to my face. “We could do

everything you’ve been missing from your
relationship,
” and here he raised his fingers, quirking them