Riven (16 page)

“Hope you liked the swim earlier, pretty vessel,” she crooned, sickeningly sweet. Her fingers gently brushed over my cheek, stinging where she touched. No sooner had her fingers left my cheek, she vanished, spreading into the misty air, leaving only words to linger. “We’ll have to do it again sometime soon.”

At first, I had thought it was her teasing me, my mind playing games with the little bits of sanity I had left. Until it paired in my head with another memory, one of Kayden and I in my local High School.

I squared my shoulders tighter and turned, making sure to avoid even the faintest connection of our eyes. “Don’t hold your breath, demon.”

“Even if I wanted to, I’d be okay,” he whispered, inching closer. “Demons don’t need to breathe, you see. What about you, Essallie? Do you need to breathe?”

It had been a passing comment, a tease when I had vehemently denied any sort of supernatural activity in my life, and now they tied together like two perfect pieces of a long-forgotten puzzle.

Pulling back to look up at Arielle, I nodded. “Lucretia’s blood did more than just make me sick, didn’t it?”

Behind us, Zeevna spoke up, fury hot on her tongue. “More than you know. You’re not the first she’s experimented on, and if we don’t put an end to her, you will never be the last.”

“Tell me what is happening, tell me everything,” I said, holding onto the bitterness in my heart, wielding it like a shield in preparation for war. I knew that to defeat an enemy, you had to know them front and back, past to present. “Help me defeat her.”

Arielle turned around, giving her daughter a short nod. “Find Ari and Kayden, bring them here at once.” Zeevna sprinted from the room without so much as a look back, the sound of the doors in the adjacent room slamming shut. No sooner had Zeevna left did Arielle move from the room, returning to the black table top of obsidian, waving a hand over the glimmering surface. “We don’t have much time, so I’ll try to make this brief.

“It’s taboo to talk about it, but everyone knows the story of Lucretia and her adopted daughter, Lucy,” she said in a rush, pressing her fingers hard against the black stone. Outlines of people began to form, color bleeding into the pictures. “How Lucy was given to Lucretia, only she knows, but what we do know is that Lucy was Nephilim, a group of core five born at the same time over three hundred years ago.”

A fair blonde, tiny and fragile, came to life on the table. She had soft, amber colored eyes that reminded me of the sun setting over fields of wheat. “This is her?”

Arielle nodded. “Yes. Tragically, she was slain, long before she ever found her Watcher and ascended into her gift. Lucretia went wild shortly after, setting wild demands to our world. It was around the same time we cut ourselves off from her tainted reign. Many followed her, but there were a few who stayed in her graces while plotting rebellion from the shadows.”

My thoughts drifted to Kayden, Lilix, and Ursula. Three people lost in the pressure of their world, forced to play one hand while hiding the other. Kayden had probably taken his time, waiting for the right person to enact his revenge on the woman who stole his love. Part of me was secretly happy he wanted to use me for his revenge, a knife hiding behind his back, a secret weapon.

“Since Lucy’s death, she has gone mad trying to find someone to replace her, or have a child of her own,” Arielle went on, pulling up images of orbs, the same crystal balls I had seen in the castle. “She had sought out prophets across our world, anyone to predict when the next female Nephilim would be born. Some she captured, held hostage in the castle’s black jagged mass, left in the dark until they gave her the premonitions she desired.”

“Wait,” I held up both hands, my mind reeling. This was a little too much to swallow in one bite. “Kind of feeling overwhelmed here. What do you mean she held some hostage in the black parts of her castle?”

The images on the table changed, painting the shape of a blue-skinned male, one large sea-green birthmark covering a portion of his face. I recognized him instantly; Carsanthum, the same person who handed Ari and I the orb, telling me to trust my blood. Shame my blood was as tainted as a prostitute.

“My first husband,” she whispered, withering instantly from her righteous fury to a timid, heartbroken woman. “A Fae, known for the spontaneous prediction that came true. She had taken him off the streets of Charon one evening, leaving his daughter parentless.”

Two more pieces of the puzzle shot into place. “But Zeevna has you,” I pointed out, watching Arielle’s face grow shocked and surprised. “The birthmark on her foot, it’s nearly identical to the one on his face.”

Softly, she swore, but even in her anger she managed a faint smile. “I told her to keep shoes on at all times.” She shook her head. “Zeevna is mine and Carsanthum’s, but has another daughter, one from a first marriage. A Fae named Serena.”

“You’ve got to me kidding me,” I managed to get out, gripping the table. Carsanthum had been right there in front of me, and I had left him to die. That was why he passed me the message for Serena, why he looked like both Zeevna and Serena. My brain was ready to explode high out of my head.

“There are many who have been hurt by Lucretia’s actions,” Arielle put a hand on my shoulder, offering a sympathetic nod. “But those same people are willing to help, if you only ask.”

“I just... this is insane, you know that, right?” I threw my hands in the air, swearing. “You all expect me to take her out, but look at how many she has fooled and manipulated and hurt so far. What do I have that no one else does?”

Hands folded over her chest, Arielle smiled. “Heart, you have heart.”

Both white doors flung open, Kayden and Ari leading the front, Zeevna carrying two swords of gold as she brought up the rear. Smoke curled off Kayden, blood and ash staining his white long-sleeve shirt and black pants. White fire flared on Ari’s knuckles and palms, ash and blood equally covering him.

“Vens, at least fifty of them. We have five, maybe ten minutes at the most,” Ari filled us in, looking over his shoulder and nodding at Zeevna. She swung them shut with barely a flick of the wrists, passing a hand over the gold detailing on each door. The gold spun, twisting and intertwining until it formed a net over the white, turning solid to keep others out.

Arielle hissed, meeting Kayden’s hardened gaze. “How?”

“I don’t know, but now isn’t the time to be pointing fingers. They know Essie is here, they’ll burn this place to the ground looking for her,” he brushed past both of us, sparks kindling on my arm. “We need to leave, just like the last time.”

Zeevna gave a jerk of the head, eyes darting to the room opposite where Arielle and I had shared tea. Screams sounded outside, followed by the sound of breaking glass. “Portal, right. It’s in there, hurry.”

Kayden and Ari rushed to the other room, and I quietly followed behind. “Wait,” Arielle put a hand to my chest, keeping me in place. “Before you go, you need to know.”

My eyes darted to Kayden and back, nervous. We had deviated from the very thing I needed to know of the most. “My soul, how long?”

“Hours, a day at the most. This bottle of salve-water, and those bands you are wearing will help, but only so much. The second soul created from Lucretia’s vial of blood will fight to consume you, destroy and distort the world around you until you cave. You must not give into it.” Pain tensed her body stiff, and she licked her lips. “I have a friend, Bartimaeus, a vampire in New York. Go to him, he will hide you. I trust him. Oh, and Essallie?” Pressing the tiny grey bottle into my hands, she waited until I stared her directly in the face. She drew across her heart in the shape of a cross, marking the spot with emphasis. “Trust the blood. It knows what you do not. It fears no one, and always strikes true. Trust the blood.”

I couldn’t even begin to understand what was happening; it felt like someone had taken the tense reality I had tried to grow and shattered it in seconds. Lucretia wasn’t going to stop looking for me, not until I was dead, and not until she got what she wanted.

The white-double doors shuddered, creaking as the wood began to bend and splinter. Zeevna crouched before them, gold swords unsheathed for the battle. Wild rage had boiled her eyes to a translucent white, the dark blue mark on her face standing out.

“Go!” She screamed at us, keeping her eyes locked on the door. Chunks of wood burst from the door, flinging to her left and right, scattering along the floor. “Get out!”

Arielle shoved me into the spare room, finding Ari and Kayden poised above an old oak wardrobe. Ari turned to the sound of our footsteps, spotting me and holding out his hand for me to take.

“Come with us,” I begged at Arielle, reaching for her arm. She side-stepped me in a swift move, using her spare arm to push me into Ari’s waiting hand. “Please, they’ll kill you.”

Arielle grinned, straightening until she stood identical to the Siren Queen I had first seen only hours ago. “You underestimate me, Nephilim. Zeevna and I will see you soon, stay strong.”

Kayden flung open the wardrobe door, beams of white and yellow light filling the room. Ari pulled me against, wrapping an arm around my waist as we vanished through our own version of the rabbit hole.

CHAPTER EIGHT

LIGHTNING CRASHES

We had exploded into the middle of a glittering, grimy metropolis.

Lights flared past us, sounds melting as one in the chaotic rush of noise and sight. Cars blaring their horns, tires screeching on pavement, headlights blaring, it all collided into one as we were tossed onto a gravel-encrusted alleyway.

I smashed into one of the walls, collapsing over a bag of something rancid before scrapping my arms on the loose gravel crunching under my weight. Wasting no time, I scrambled to my feet, taking in our surroundings. The alleyway was dark and vacant, save for several bags of rotting trash and the spare gutter rat. Chances were no one saw us materialize into the air.

Grunting sounded nearby, Ari shoving off a bag of garbage as he stumbled to his feet. My heart leapt to life in my chest, and I ran over to hug him, flinging my arms around his waist. “Holy crap, Ari, I thought you-”

Laughter rang behind us. “What, did you think your precious squeaky toy would leave you hanging like that?” Turning around, I spotted Kayden perched atop a metal container, rolling his eyes. “He wouldn’t give you up even if you were a zombie attempting to maul his face off. Actually, he’d probably enjoy that.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, forcing myself to count to five before I spoke. “Good to see you survived too, Kayden. You know, this time and the last.”

He winked, jumping down from the metal container and standing beside me. “You too, lovely, you too.”

“Alright, enough of the happy-hug-time bull,” Ari huffed, pulling away from me. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a familiar, tiny white heart. “I believe this would be yours.”

I nearly leapt on him again for a second hug. My glass heart, the only thing I had from my ever-elusive father. I had made sure not to wear it the night of the party when I had cloaked myself as Lilix, too afraid it would have lit up and given me away. Without it, I had felt lost. I greedily clasped it around my neck, feeling it settle on my chest, warm on my skin.

Beaming at Ari, I asked the first question we needed to address. “Now what do we do?”

“We find that vampire Arielle told us to search for, silly girl,” Kayden answered before Ari could, rubbing a hand along his chin in thought. “Problem is, I don’t trace vampires.”

Ari and I exchanged a look, one that told me he remembered how I had traced Kayden inside the castle. While it worked once, I wasn’t so sure it would work this time; Kayden was a demon, and Bartimaeus was a vampire, two different supernaturals in a vast pool of creatures I couldn’t track.

Still, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. “I might be able to,” I said, taking a few steps back from the both of them. I closed my eyes, tuning out each noise one by one, like one of a dozen doors shutting in a hotel hallway. By the time they had all closed, I felt the wave of scents and sounds hit me, pin-pointing demons all across the bustling city, but no vampire.

I opened my eyes, head shaking. “No dice. Couldn’t tell you where a vampire is in the city, but I can tell you there’s a demon feasting on six women right now halfway across town.”

“Now, that sounds like my kind of guy,” Kayden snickered, Ari punching him in the arm with a fist full of flames. Lazily, he dissolved his arm into smoke, forming his arm perfectly in seconds. “His face is probably grinning from ear to ear right now.”

“Yeah well, I can tell your face looks like a hat full of assholes,” Ari swore, moving to punch Kayden again.

I shoved between them, ignoring Kayden’s hiss as my touch lit up his arm again. “Seriously, knock it off. We need to find this damn vampire. And Ari... that didn’t even make any sense. A hat full of assholes? Really? Are you drunk or something?”

“Only intoxicated on your stunning wit and charm, my love.”

I blinked. “Yeah, you’ve definitely been around Kayden too long. He’s rubbing off on you.”