Incubus (65 page)

Karayan looked at me, unimpressed. “Before you answer,” I added. “You should know that I can be

pretty stubborn. Also? I know where to find you in your dreams.”

That wiped the bored expression clear off Karayan’s face. After a moment, she forced a smile.

“Well. What are mentors for?”

Lucas and I walked into the Guard’s living room half an hour later. Hale looked up from the

newspaper he was scanning. He frowned.

“You’re not dressed? Matthew and Gretchen are already downstairs warming up.”

“We need to talk to the Guard,” Lucas said. “We’ve got news.”

Hale didn’t need to hear anything else. “Get your sister and Matthew. I’ll get Thane. Braedyn?”

Hale glanced at me but I was already dialing my cell for Dad.

By the time Lucas returned with Matthew and Gretchen, I had Dad on the line and Hale was

leading Thane out of the back office.

Two minutes later, when Dad walked through the front door, we were all sitting around the dining

table. He joined us, taking the chair next to me.

“What’s the news?” Dad asked.

“There’s a ritual,” I said. “That can lock the seal. It could keep the Lilitu out forever. The monks at

the mission knew about it.” I had expected a big reaction. Instead, the room fell into silence. Dad and

Hale glanced at Thane.

“I’ve never heard about any ritual capable of locking a seal,” Thane said after a long moment.

“Braedyn where did you get this information?” Hale asked.

Lucas and I shared a quick look. “We went to Seth’s house,” I explained. “He showed us his

mom’s journal.”

“You went through Angela’s work?” Dad asked. I could see this disturbed him. “Without her

knowledge?”

“Why would she keep this from us?” I asked, voicing the thought that had been nagging me all

afternoon. “If it really could shut out the Lilitu forever, why would she even hesitate to tell us about

this?”

“Angela is an archivist of the first order,” Thane said stiffly. “If she’s not ready to share her

research, there’s likely a good reason.”

“Like what?” I snapped.

“Maybe she doesn’t have all the necessary information yet,” Thane replied.

“But if she told us—if she told you,” I glared at Thane. “You could help her. Aren’t two archivists

working on this problem better than one?”

“I have projects of my own,” Thane said.

“As important as this one?” Lucas asked. Thane glanced at him but remained silent.

“They have a point,” Dad said.

“Murphy,” Hale said. It sounded like a warning. He turned to me. “Braedyn, I understand that this

is potentially very significant. But we have to trust our experts to do their work. Angela is—as Thane

says—one of the best. She’s got a gift for research. She’ll come to us when she’s ready.”

“But,” Lucas started.

“Drop it,” Gretchen said quietly. “You guys shouldn’t have left school.”

“Dad?” I pleaded. Dad glanced at Hale. Conflict warred in his eyes.

“Linwood is following protocol,” Hale said. “She’s doing exactly as she was trained to do.”

Dad nodded stiffly. “Hale’s right.”

“So we’re just supposed to trust her blindly?” I asked. “What do we really know about her?”

“Braedyn,” Dad said quietly. “We can’t give into paranoia. Not when we’re so close to the next

battle. Let Linwood handle the research. We need to focus on the fight.”

“Speaking of which,” Matthew interjected. “We got a call from Marx’s people. The first group

should be arriving in a month or so. They’re going to make some stops along the way, try to ferret out

a few other units if they can.”

“We need to start preparing for them,” Gretchen said. “I think we can fit four cots to a room

upstairs if we move out the furniture. It’s going to be tight, but we can’t sleep everyone downstairs.

And we’re going to need supplies to handle the crowd.”

Hale pulled a notebook out of his back pocket. “I’ll make a run to the army surplus.”

“Wait.” Lucas’s voice rang like a bullet, silencing the room. “You’re not listening to us.”

Gretchen turned to Lucas. “We’ve had our answer,” she murmured. “Give Linwood some time.”

“There’s more at stake,” Lucas looked at me.

“If we can lock the seal,” I started. Hale glanced at me. He wasn’t used to having his orders

questioned. “If we can lock the seal, we won’t have to fight. And if we don’t have to fight,” I caught

Dad’s eye. “I can become human.”

My words ran through Dad like some kind of electrical current. Hale saw it, too.

“It doesn’t change anything,” Hale said.

“We should, at the very least, ask her,” Dad replied.

“You want to avoid inciting paranoia,” Thane muttered. “You might not want to tell the archivist

we’re depending on for answers that we’ve been snooping through her private journals.” His eyes cut

to me.

“We need to make learning about this ritual a priority,” Dad said. It wasn’t a question.

“Thane can research it independently,” Hale said after some thought. Thane didn’t look happy

about this, but he nodded in acceptance. Hale turned to me. “All right?”

“All right.” It was the best I was going to get for now.

Dad gave my shoulder a warm squeeze. “Just hang on. We’re going to figure this out,” he

promised.

That promise didn’t make life any easier. School became an exercise in patience. Whatever progress

Thane might be making on his own, he wasn’t talking about it. And Angela still hadn’t come forward

with any of her theories. But Lucas and I had agreed to give them time. And so we were stuck, waiting.

Going through the motions of our everyday lives. School. Training. Dinners spent planning with the

Guard. And all the while we were trying to ignore the possibility that all this was unnecessary because

maybe, just maybe, there was a way to lock the door between this world and the Lilitu world forever.

One week became two. Two weeks became three. And then it was Halloween. Lucas and Seth came

over to watch TV with me. The pumpkins Dad had bought for us sat on our porch, un-carved. Next to

them I’d set out a bowl of self-serve candy for any trick-or-treaters brave enough to walk up to our

dark front door. It just didn’t feel like Halloween without Cassie and Royal. We’d spent Halloween

together every year since elementary school, but this year they had other plans. They’d been invited to

a big party that some of their theater friends were throwing. Cassie had asked us to join them, but

neither Lucas nor I felt up to it, and Seth wasn’t exactly well liked around campus. After half-

heartedly flipping through some Halloween specials, I told the guys I wanted to turn in early. Lucas,

understanding, said he thought it was time to be getting home, too.

Dad offered to make popcorn if Seth wanted to stay and finish the show, but Seth made his excuses

and left to drive himself home in the car he’d borrowed from his mom for the night.

Moments later, after hastily brushing my teeth and jumping into bed, I slipped out of this reality

and into my dream. I sat in the rose garden, hugging my knees to my chest, next to a pool of flickering

dreams. It felt like a small eternity had passed before Lucas fell asleep, but as soon as he did I could

sense him. The glimmering light of his unconscious mind rose up and out of the pool at my feet. I

closed my hand around it and felt the comfort of Lucas’s presence drawing me into his dream.

I found him squinting against a bitter wind, anxious and unfocused. When he saw me his troubled

brow eased. He came to me and I buried myself against his chest, holding on to him tightly, drawing

comfort from the embrace. I felt Lucas’s hand brushing the side of my cheek and looked up. His kiss

was warm, urgent. I responded, threading my fingers through his hair—trying not to compare the

sensation to what it felt like in the real world. In the dream, everything felt somehow muted, watery.

Which wasn’t to say it wasn’t nice. It just wasn’t... real. And yet, it was all we had. We spent the night

trying to take our minds off the agony of waiting.

November settled over Puerto Escondido, teasing the last of the leaves off the aspen and oak trees, and

we still had no answers about the ritual.

That week in physics class, while Mr. Harris stood at the board going over the math for another

experiment, Seth was watching me. I had been trying to take notes, but my pencil kept straying to the

margins, filling the page with anxious doodles.

“Something’s bothering you,” he said. “I think—I think I get it.”

I glanced at him. “What?”

“You know, because that ritual is all about shutting the door on the Lilitu world forever. I get why

that would freak you out.”

“It doesn’t,” I looked at Seth, surprised. “Why would you think that?”

“Well, if I were you, I mean,” Seth shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. “Aren’t you curious? About

what’s on the other side?” Seth studied my eyes. “If my mom figures it out,” Seth shrugged, “you’ll

never get the chance to find out.”

“This ritual, it’s a good thing,” I said, studying Seth sharply. “Do you know something more about

it?”

“No. It’s just,” Seth glanced quickly to the front of class. Mr. Harris had his back to the class,

carefully writing out a list of formulas on the board. “Why do you want to be human? I mean,” he

lowered his eyes sheepishly. “I think your powers are cool.”

I looked at Seth. Unfamiliar feelings tickled the back of my mind.

“What?” he asked, seeing my expression.

“Not even Lucas thinks my powers are cool,” I admitted.

“Why not? They’re a fundamental part of who you are,” Seth said. He looked honestly surprised.

“I mean, you can turn yourself
invisible.
How much cooler does it get?”

I couldn’t help smiling. No one—with the possible exception of Karayan—had ever talked about

my powers like this before. Seth looked at me with awe, but not like the boys who were caught in the

snare of a Lilitu’s beauty. This was different. Seth looked at me,
really looked
at me, and saw all of

me as beautiful. The feeling was strange, but nice.

Seth was still watching me, curious. “He seriously can’t see that?”

Stubbornly, I defended Lucas. “Lilitu hurt his family.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t you. I mean, from what Gretchen says, you saved Lucas’s life.” I had no

answer for him. Seth shook his head. “I thought Lucas was cooler than that.”