Obumbrate (3 page)

Finally, she spoke. "You're smart. Smart enough to know not to trust me." Brushing past me, I watched as the shadows moved with her, forming a small pool around the hem of her dress. "I am, however, surprised to see you trust a demon of all things. Especially someone like Kayden."

It was bait, I knew it. She was testing to see if I'd wait to see the shoe drop off the other foot. Fire  spread from my fingers and washed over my hands. I pointed an emblazoned finger at her. "Your simple mind tricks won't work on me. I'm not interested in playing your petty game."

A horrid smile spread so far across her face, I thought it might split in half. She laughed as she stepped closer, until all I could see was the kohl lining the rims of her narrowed eyes. "Oh, you'll play my game whether you like it or not."

God, she sounded like a freaking cartoon villain. I started to turn and leave, my hands still engulfed in the angelic flame. "Sure thing, Queenie."

Shadows erupted from the ground, bursting skyward in sharp, jagged spikes. They spiraled together until a thick black cocoon sealed around the graveyard. I pushed a burst of flame through my veins to light up the inside when I saw a glimmering black spear launch into my hand. I screamed and the shadows launched into a fury, dozens of them stabbing at my hands, my arms, anywhere the fire pulsed from my body.

As I screamed and thrashed, the Queen spoke. "You see, Essallie, there isn't an option to ignore my voice. When you control the dark and all its splendor, you'll find many are willing to listen if it means their lives will be spared, if but for a moment."

Pressure crushed my chest as I fought to breathe. Breathy whispers spoke to me, like wind whistling through barren tree tops. My fire was gone, swallowed by the stabbing shadows that sunk into every inch of me. Emptiness seeped into my pores and filled me with a hollow sensation. Everything was so dark, so empty, so lost.

The shadows retreated, and I collapsed onto the ground. I watched through watery eyes as they took their place just under the Queen, shifting and swirling. She reached down and ran her hand across the shadows in a loving gesture. Some of them had spun up and into the fabric of her gown, forming swirls of deep violet against the black. "Now, let's chat."

I unsteadily rose to my feet, every inch of my body shaking. I felt like a leaf in the wind- powerless, frail, empty. The burn inside of my veins was gone, cooled to an bitter icy sensation that spread throughout my body. I reached deep inside to trigger the fire only to find a cold hollow instead. My fire was gone.

"What," my voice cracked. "What did you do to me?"

The corners of her lips hitched into the vague image of a smile. She breezed past me to sit on a thick headstone several rows over. Her hand beckoned me to follow. "Teenagers these days, " I heard her say. "Always so eager to start a fight. No doubt the hormones compel you to do it." Sitting on the etched granite, she looked up at me with a sympathetic gaze. "It must be hard, being so young and having this power you can barely control. I almost wish I could relate."

I stared down to my shaking, open hands. Hormones were the least of my worries. When you played with fire, you were bound to be burned. She could never understand, no matter how tied to her magic she was. "You don't know anything about this. Just go, leave me alone."

She let out a barely audible laugh. "You underestimate my ability to feel. Most demons lose their ability to harness emotion after centuries of seclusion from humanity, but there are a small few who never forget. I know more than you'll ever understand, Essallie." I looked up in time to watch her face harden, her mouth set into a thin line. Something stirred behind her eyes. "Some of us experience things that can never be erased. You think it was painful watching a friend die-"

"He wasn't a friend. He was so much more than I'll ever be able to explain," I spoke faster than I could think, the words rolling off my tongue with violent force. My hands shook as I missed the comfort of my inner fire. "Everyone keeps telling he was someone I barely knew, had little time with, and because of that I'm supposed to get over his death just like everyone else. They don't understand. When he died, it felt like part of me went with him. This goes deeper than some friend dying, this was someone tied to my soul."

For a moment, the Queen stayed silent. Only the subdued sound of her shadows filled the empty space between us. "I lost a daughter. So yes, I do know what it is like to lose a part of your soul, your spirit, or whatever it is we supernaturals have inside us. I know what it's like to feel yourself rip in half." A haunted look stirred in her eyes as she spoke through a thin lipped smile. "She looked just like you. That's why the night at the circus I was so guarded. I had thought for sure that my mind was trying to do me in."

My stomach dropped into my feet the same moment my chest let off a jolt of pain. Embarrassment and humiliation washed over me in waves. Here I stood, complaining over someone who may or may not have been tied to my soul, and yet she harbored a deeper secret than I had. A daughter, someone of true flesh and blood, lost to the ashes and dust.

The image of a jackass came to mind. I didn't linger on the thought for long, but I did add the loss of her daughter to the list of things Kayden had failed to fill me in with. And that list was growing awfully damn fast.

"Kayden never mentioned anything like that." I gently replied. I wasn't sure what to say past that. I'm sorry your daughter died and I'm pissing and moaning over a boy? My apologies I'm a selfish hot-headed teenager?

The lack of apology didn't seem to faze the Queen. A faint smile tugged at her lips as she let out a huff of laughter. "I can see Kayden hasn't told you nearly as much as you think he has. Tell me, what did he say about me?"

That she was cruel. Anyone who got on her bad side was as good as dead. All the things you'd tell someone to keep them from speaking to another. "Nothing redeeming."

She nodded, running a hand through her hair and twirling the ends around her index finger. "What reason does he have for staying by your side?"

"What do you mean?"

"I simply find it a little odd," she began, speaking slow to my narrowed gaze. "I've known Kayden for over seven hundred years, and not once has he been the type to simply stay with a fledgling, a newcomer, unless there was something to be gained."

But I knew what was keeping him. I was the only one with the key to his freedom. My still-beating heart ensured his connection to me, our uncanny bond. As long as I lived and breathed, he would continue to remain in the shadows, waiting for his chance to finish the charge assigned to him.

"I think he was wrong." I heard her say, surfacing me from my thoughts. When I looked up at her, she was shaking her head. "You don't seem to be easily manipulated. Then again, I didn't kiss you like he had."

For the second time today, I felt the air leave my lungs. My mind instantly brought me back images of his molten gaze, the smooth sound of his voice. I banished the pictures from my mind and ignored the heat on my face. That was supposed to have been our private moment. I hadn't told anyone of the kiss. "How- how do you know about that?"

"Essallie, do not tell me that you thought that kiss was real." The Queen came down to my level, swaths of black fabric and energy-hungry shadows licking at the edge of my feet. She stared at me intently. "I can see it in your eyes and the red on your cheeks. You're fond of him."

Fever in the form of blush colored my cheeks, my heart beating to the tune of a painful pitter-patter. "Answer me! Who told you about the kiss?"

"Who else would have told me, but the demon who did it himself."

I was starting to think my gut-punch reaction to everything I had learned recently was becoming a habit. Forcing myself to keep breathing, I ran my hands through my hair. Anything to keep myself from trying to punch a decade-old headstone. 

The Queen continued, her face carefully kept neutral. "He had laughed and told me I hadn't to worry about you. That any chance of you ascending was gone because of a
little magic
he'd done before you had all arrived." She frowned as she spoke, no doubt from seeing the physical pain I was struggling to keep inside the more she revealed. "No war could come from a dying angel, he'd said."

"He, he said he would help me." A curious numbing sensation began to spread from my chest to my fingertips. He had offered to help, that he would make it fair before trying to kill me. That's what was supposed to make this interesting. But if he'd purposely made me focus on him instead of Leo... if I had never kissed Kayden, would Leo and I have connected? Would he still be here, guiding me, saving me from myself?

"I'm sorry, but I need to go," I said, standing on my shaking limbs. The numbing sensation was starting to turn into sharp jabs of cold, sinking deep into my gut and heart. "I'm sorry about your daughter."

She held out a hand to stop me, but didn't grab or push at me. "Don't you want your gift back? Your fire?"

I shivered and stared at the ground. A bitter taste coated my tongue when I spoke. "Probably not. Unless you're giving me the okay to kill Kayden."

The Queen came to stand before me, mere inches left between us. Hands cupped just under her chest, she gently extended them outward toward me, a small blue flame flickering in her palm. It shot straight for my chest, lancing into me with instant effect. Warmth spread through every inch of my body, replacing the numbing, hollow sensation that had been there moments ago.

"You may leave," the Queen said. "but before you do, a warning. Kayden is not a person to be trusted. He'll only use you for his own gain in the end."

"Like I didn't already know."

"And one more thing. Do be careful." Her voice sounded almost resembled something of sympathy and genuine concern. "When it comes to the race of Nephilim, the world reacts in two ways. None will take kindly to your angelic blood; there will be those who will seek to harvest your blood for their own gain. Others will want you dead, no matter the cost."

Wariness crept over my skin. "Why would you tell me this?"

"Because one of the last Nephilim was killed at the hands of a madwoman. A woman who tried to harvest the blood of Nephilim to create the perfect race."

CHAPTER TWO

ALL I HAVE

I drove home in a daze, the warmth of my inner fire the only thing grounding me. I was conflicted; the more I went over my conversation with the Queen, the less it made sense. Right out of the gate she told me she wasn't to be trusted, yet she offered me a piece of detail surrounding Kayden that suddenly made everything fall into place. Her words made me call into question all of Kayden's recent actions- the distance, the bitterness, the lack of affection after kidding me like it was just us and the world-

I slammed on the breaks, and just in time. Any further and I'd have missed the turn off for home. I pulled into the driveway and made sure everything was locked before heading inside. As I cracked open the door, the sound of the local TV news station played out of the kitchen. As I got closer, a not-so-pleasant fishy smell hit me in the face.

"Jayson? You in the kitchen?" I dumped my messenger bag at the foot of the stairs and started my way down the hall.

"Who else cooks lobster ravioli and lives in this house?" I heard him shout back over the news broadcast talking about the recent power surges in Portland. "You want some?"

"Very funny, but pass," I said. Opening the door to the kitchen, I made a face of disgust. Jayson was standing in front of the stove, gently prodding at the stuffed ravioli cooking on the stove. He wore a laced apron that said 'Ready To Catch Some Tail' on it in pink cursive font.

I nearly lost it as soon as I laid eyes on him. "Did you lose a bet?"

Jayson place a hand to his chest and took a step back, a look of mock wounding on his face. "I'm offended! This was given to me by Sylvia."

Ah, his new pretty little girlfriend was already breaking him in. I had only met her a handful of times since they started dating two weeks ago, and she seemed nice enough. Part of me wondered if Jayson was trying to get the two of us girls to bond, in some hidden hope that I'd tell her what was eating me alive.

I wiggled my eyebrows mischievously. "And suddenly, I approve of it so much more."

"Essallie Miranda Lillian Hanley," Jayson said with actual shock this time. "Are you making a dirty joke about my apron?" He tugged at the girly print, pointing to a lobster tail I had conveniently missed before. "You do know where it says 'tail' it means lobster tail, right? Not having-"

"Ah, no! Don't you finish that sentence!" I half-screamed.

He placed a hand on his forehead and stuck his head up to the sky dramatically. "My own sister, a vulgar-minded teenager. I'll never look at you the same way again!" He paused and gave his ravioli a quick stir around the pan. "When you told me that joke about the bakery and buttered muffin the other day-"

"I'm not answering that."

He stared at me in horror, one hand slowly rising to cover his mouth. "I thought you meant an actual bakery and muffin!" He groaned. "No wonder the woman at the bakery thought I was gross when I told her the joke!"

I pressed the heels of my palms into my eyes and laughed hysterically. Sometimes I wondered if my brother was like any normal boy on the planet. He could cook, clean, had a girlfriend, didn't live for sports or politics; he was sort of like those dream come true boys you read about in chic-lit paperbacks at the checkout line in the grocery store. I was lucky to have him.

"Jayson, don't ever change." I said amidst the laughter. When I eventually caught my breath, I noticed he was staring at me with a weird look on his face.

"What, was it something I said?" I asked.

He shook his head, the weird face still going on. "Now that's the Essallie I've missed lately." I realized his weird face was his attempt at a kindred gaze. His smile touched his eyes, lighting up his whole face as he continued to beam. "I wish you'd tell me who put a damper on that fire of yours. I'd love nothing more than to see them burn."