Pure (45 page)

Seth laughed. “Yes, he did actually. I believe it was a Fabergé egg.”

“Oh. Sweet.”

He picked up my pinky and peeked down at me. “What are you hiding from?”

I considered that. “I don’t know. Everything?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

I lowered my hands to my stomach, but Seth still held onto my pinky. “Childish, huh?”

He wrapped his hands around mine. “It’s all right. You can hide for a little while longer, but then you’ve got to face… everything.”

“I know.”

He grinned down at me. “But for right now, just relax.”

Once we got back to North Carolina, there would be classes, and Olivia now hated me, and we still needed to find out who’d set me up last night, and… crap, Instructor Romvi. I cringed. “Can we stay… here for a little while?”

“Sure.” He bent down, pressing his lips against my forehead. “If that’s what you want.”

It really didn’t matter what I wanted, but I closed my eyes and smiled anyway.

The sun had set by the time the servants lugged my bag downstairs. Seth and I waited in the glass breezeway outside the ballroom. I tried to not stare at the furies, but my eyes kept going back to them.

“Do you think I’ll get to see Laadan before we leave?” I asked.

Seth leaned against the wall opposite from me. “I’d think so.”

I slid down the glass and crossed my legs. “I just want to see her before I leave. I hope she doesn’t feel…” I stopped, glancing around me before I continued, “guilty or anything.”

“Understandable.” He shot an irritated look back toward the ballroom. “How long is this crap going to take?”

“Who knows?” I muttered. Telly had all the pures gathered, doing some kind of stupid closing ceremony. I stretched out my legs and eyed Seth. He had changed into his Sentinel uniform, blades and all. Squinting, I noticed the new blade attached to his thigh. “Can I see that one?”

“Hmm?” He glanced down and unhooked the blade. “This one?”

I wiggled my fingers. “Let me see it.”

He walked it across and handed it to me. “Be careful with it, both edges are deadly sharp when released.”

“Yeah, I know. Aiden showed me one earlier.” I pushed to my feet, imagining chopping a daimon half’s head off with it. “You know, using this thing is going to be really messy.”

Seth made a grab for the weapon, but I stepped back. He gave me a droll look. “Haven’t used it yet, but I’m sure it’s not going to be pretty.”

I whipped the sickle blade through the air again, and then remembered what I’d realized when Aiden had showed me the blade. I peered up at Seth. “What about after I Awaken? You’ll just have unlimited zapping powers, right?”

“I don’t know.” He watched the blade with wary eyes. “I imagine it will be different. Could even be different now. Remember, we don’t know all the fine details.”

I looked at Seth, but he still fixated on the blade. “What happens to me when you pull from my energy?”

Seth’s eyes snapped to my face. “I don’t know.”

My fingers tightened around the blade. “I’m not sure I believe you.”

His eyes bored into mine. “I’ve never lied to you before.”

I swallowed hard. Seth had a point, but if he did know that something bad would happen, would he actually tell me?

Leon strolled into the foyer, coming to a complete stop when he saw me holding the blade. “For the love of the gods, who gave that to you?”

I pointed the sharp edge. “Seth.”

Seth arched a brow at me. “Wow. Thanks.”

“Please give it back to him before you do damage.” Leon frowned as I twirled the blade. “You’re going to cut off your hand or arm. The sickle blade is by far the sharpest.”

Rolling my eyes, I stopped twirling it. But I kept it. I liked it. “Are they almost done in there? Because I’m getting really—”

A siren blasted off in the distance, starting as a low pitch and building into a never-ending loop of eardrum-breaking noise. I jumped a good five inches off the floor. The three of us looked at one another and seemed to share the same mind for a moment. Even though I’d never had the misfortune of hearing a Covenant siren, I knew they meant only one thing: security breach.

Usually a very big and very bad security breach.

CHAPTER 26

I TURNED TO THE GLASS WALL FACING THE YARD.

Behind me, several Guards burst into the hall, and beyond them excited voices came from the adjoining ballroom. Guards rushed past us, one of them yelling, “Secure the gates! Lock down the school!”

Then the sirens ceased their blaring, and a cold shiver ran down my arms. “False alarm?”

“Not sure.” Seth whipped the blade out of my hand. “But I’ll be taking this back now. Thank you.”

I barely paid him any attention. The light from the scattered lamp-posts outside began to dim and flicker. I glanced back, finding Leon with a sickle blade in one hand and a dagger in the other.

“Everyone calm down!” A Guard yelled over the panicked voices. “The siren has ended! Everything is fine. Everyone just needs to calm down and stay in the hall.”

Marcus and Aiden brushed aside curious and frightened pures as they entered the room. My overactive imagination said that Aiden’s eyes searched the crowd until he found me and that there was a flicker of relief on his face.

Aiden crossed the room, dagger in hand. He must’ve changed into gear before the closing ceremonies. He stopped beside Leon. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Leon shook his head. “But I got a bad feeling about this.”

I turned back to the glass, squinting. Further off, near the tree line, it looked like something moved—several things, actually. Guards and Sentinels, I thought.

Marcus joined our little group. “Telly is keeping all the pures in the ballroom as a precaution.” He paused, glancing down at me with a little frown as if he’d forgotten about me.

“Hello.” I wiggled my
weaponless
fingers.

Marcus frowned. “Alex, you’re coming with me.”

I scowled. “I’m not hiding in a room with a bunch of freaked-out pures.”

Aiden turned to me, eyes thundercloud gray. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

I glared right back at him. “Can I be irrational instead?”

Aiden looked like he wanted to shake me… or worse.

“Alex, do not argue with us,” Marcus snapped. “You are going in that room.”

My temper snapped. “I can fight if one of you would give me one of those neat blades.”

Seth grabbed my arm. “All right, little Apollyon—who is not completely trained and is on the verge of becoming annoying—go with your uncle.”

Pulling my arm free, I whirled on Seth. “I can—”

The lights outside shuddered off, casting the grounds in utter darkness. Temporarily forgotten, I turned back to the glass. Squinting to see through the reflection of the lighted interior, I saw the shadows of the Guards forming a line. But something looked off about the formation. It moved forward instead of away from the house.

“Uh, guys…” I started to back up.

Leon stepped forward. “Miss Andros, get into that room. Now.”

Someone grabbed my arm, pulling me backward. I glanced up, expecting Seth but finding Aiden. His eyes were trained on the glass wall. “Alex, for once in your life—”

A loud crack drew our attention back to the glass. My mouth dropped open. Glass splintered and fissured under the impact of a body.

I flinched back. “Holy crap!”

The glass exploded, shooting large shards through the air as several bodies thudded onto the marble floor. The color of their uniforms made them unmistakable, although blood stained their white shirts and pants. The Council Guards hadn’t even
drawn
their weapons. All of their throats had been ripped open, revealing pink and jelly-like tissue. Some still twitched before their eyes glossed over.

Aiden pushed me toward Marcus. “Go!”

With a tight grip on my arm, Marcus rushed across the room as Sentinels entered, drawing weapons—
weapons
? I broke free and went in the opposite direction.

“Alexandria! No!” shouted Marcus.

“Give me a second!” I skidded over to one of the bodies, trying not to look too closely at it. Wincing, I unhooked a sickle and a dagger. There was no way I was going to be weaponless in a daimon siege.

A shrill, heart-stopping cry broke through all the commotion, drowning out everything else. Shivers of dread dug deep into my muscles as the soulless howls hit an intense pitch. I wrapped my hands around the blades and jerked up. Shadows descended, like a wave of death moving incredibly fast.

Daimons—buttloads of daimons.

The sight of so many pale faces—black veins throbbing under papery-thin skin and empty holes where eyes should have been—freaked the holy hell out of me. My nightmares had come alive in vivid, startling detail. There were at least a dozen of them, screeching with mouths full of razor-like teeth. But scattered among them were faces that looked no different.

Daimon halfs.

The Sentinels—Aiden and Seth included—rushed them, disappearing into the mob. Blades clattered and fell to the floor, screams and shouts mingled with the ripping and tearing of clothing and flesh.

“Alexandria!” Marcus shouted. “Let go of me! I have to get her!”

I spun around. A Council Guard pulled Marcus toward the reception hall—toward the stronghold. Another Guard appeared, helping remove Marcus to safety. Taking off after them, I reached them just as they pushed Marcus into the hall and slammed the titanium-lined door shut. Marcus beat on the door, his words muffled by the thick metal separating us.

“This door does not open again.” The Guard looked me straight in the eye. He was the pure—the Guard who’d carried out Telly’s orders.

“Thanks,” I said through clenched teeth. Then, taking a deep breath, I turned around and faced hell.

It was a bloody mess, literally. In that instant I knew that all the smaller scale attacks on the Covenants over the last couple of months had been practice runs. They’d been testing how to infiltrate the Covenant, gearing up for a grand-scale attack on the Council. Mom had warned me, and I’d warned the pures—but they’d dismissed it.

Idiots.

I caught sight of Seth as he engaged a half-blood daimon. He slammed the half in the chest with a booted foot, knocking it to the ground. In a stunning display of brutality and grace, he whipped the sickle blade through the air.

Then there were Aiden and Leon, their backs against one another as four pure daimons circled them. They looked screwed.

Fighting was in my blood, not running. This was where I was supposed to be and this definitely wasn’t my first time at the rodeo. I bolted across the room, dodging bodies of the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. The ones closing in on Leon and Aiden didn’t even see me coming. I shoved the dagger deep into the back of the daimon closest to Aiden.

Leon knocked aside one of the daimons, going blow-to-blow with it. Aiden went after the other two, trying to keep them both focused on him. “Alex, behind you!”

I whirled around, gripping the dagger in my right hand. A female daimon dove at me, but I ducked out of her grasp. Swinging around, I caught her in the chest with my sneaker just as Seth had done. She went down on one knee, and I lurched forward, jabbing the blade into her stomach. Looking through the poof of blue dust, I grinned at Aiden. “That’s two.”

“Five for me,” he grunted, sinking his dagger into the throat of his daimon.

I flipped the dagger. “Well, la-dee—”

Hands grabbed my shoulders, throwing me backward. I hit the mess of glass and blood, skidding a few feet on my back and losing my grip on the dagger. Stunned, I stared up into the face of a daimon half.

“Alex!” yelled Aiden, sounding truly panicked.

It leaned over me and sniffed. “Apollyon…”

I could easily remember what’d happened when I’d tried to fight the last half-blood daimon. It hadn’t gone well. Pushing those memories down, I scrambled across the floor. Glass dug into my palms, mixing my blood with the blood of the fallen. My hand brushed against something wet and soft. A thousand gruesome images flashed through my mind of what I’d possibly backed into.

The daimon half—a trained female Sentinel—opened her mouth and howled. She jumped in the air, swinging a Covenant dagger right at my head. There was a popping noise and then she was a ball of flames crashing down on me. I rolled out of the way as she hit the floor, screaming and thrashing.

I jerked toward Aiden. He nodded at me, then lowered his hand and swung at another daimon. Glancing back at the daimon on the floor, I winced. She slowly climbed to her feet, a charred, stinky mess of skin and cloth.