Thrall (37 page)

As I studied the blades, I couldn’t help but think about what they meant. I was an official member of the Guard. And so was Lucas. I glanced up at his room, but his drapes were pulled tight shut. He was probably sleeping. Like I should be. I sighed, and was about to put the daggers back when I heard something in the front of the house.

I slipped the daggers into the oversized pockets of my bathrobe and eased into the hallway, thinking I might find Dad in the kitchen, unable to sleep as well. But the front door was standing open, letting in moonlight and the bitter night air. As I edged into the foyer, I heard someone moving in the living room. I turned, and almost screamed. Karayan was standing in the center of the dark room, watching me. Moonlight spilled in through one picture window and pooled at her feet. A glimmer of light caught in her eyes and made them sparkle.

“Shh. Wouldn’t want to wake your daddy. I’d hate to turn this into some kind of scene.”

“You.” My fists curled into tight knots at my sides. “Get out of my house.”

Karayan crossed the distance between us in a heartbeat. She caught my face in one hand and turned it into the moonlight. Her brows drew together. “The Guard did this to you?”

I jerked away from her. “You’re one to talk. You sent three Thrall to attack me.”

“You handled yourself just fine.”

“Barely!”

“You didn’t have to fight them,” she whispered with a small smile. I pulled the robe tighter around me as another wave of revulsion coursed through me. She laughed softly. “Ais was so right about you. Until you own your power, it will own you. I want to help.” She reached for me and I jerked back another full step. “You’re angry with me.” She sounded exasperated.

“Yes!” I spat.

“I’m trying to make it up to you. The Guard will never trust you, even when you’ve done nothing but try to help them. You must see that now. You’re a Lilitu. You belong with us. Ais is ready to bring you in on the plan. I told you there’d be a part for you to play.”

I froze, unsure what I should do. The Guard planned to attack the warehouse at dawn. But what if Marx’s team hadn’t figured out where Ais was planning to open the doorway? I needed time to think. “What plan? What are you talking about?”

“Well, for that, you’ll have to come with me.” She twined her fingers through my hair, and then let the tips of her fingers trace over my cheek. I forced myself to keep from recoiling. Karayan was looking at the red mark. “No one lays a hand on one of us and goes unpunished,” she said softly. “Now.” Her eyes locked onto mine, coming back into focus. “Are you with us or not?”

“I should change,” I said. If I could go upstairs, I could find a way to alert Dad. Before I had even a preliminary idea of a plan sketched out, Karayan crushed the idea with a small smirk.

“No need to change. I’ll have you back here before anyone knows you’ve gone.” Karayan darted out the front door, her feet making almost no noise on the aging wooden floor.

I had to decide: follow her and learn their plan, or stay behind in helpless ignorance. I followed her, pulling the door shut behind me. I only remembered the daggers in the pockets of my robe when they knocked silently into my legs as I followed Karayan down the porch steps and across the lawn to her little black sports car.

Karayan pulled to a stop in the warehouse district on the outskirts of town about twenty minutes later. A late night train rattled past, close by. Huge industrial street lamps hummed overhead. The sound was oppressive, angry. I didn’t see a single car anywhere. It was so unsettling that my wings half-expanded, ready to cloak me at the first sign of trouble.

“You won’t need those, sweetie,” Karayan said, smiling. “You’re among friends. This way.” Karayan led the way forward, and in minutes we were climbing through a flap of chain-link fence outside an abandoned warehouse. But as Karayan slipped one of the side doors open, I realized it wasn’t abandoned after all. Dim light shone through the opening.

I followed Karayan inside. The air was strangely hot, close. Karayan led me through a maze of boxes and sheets of plastic. It finally opened up in the center of an interior room in the warehouse. A dozen young men lounged on salvaged couches and mattresses. I didn’t have to examine them to know their pupils were wide and vacant. If they weren’t Thrall yet, they would be soon. I was suddenly glad Marx and his team had joined us. These men might bring the number of Thrall closer to forty. Karayan hesitated at the edge of the room. I glanced at her and saw a guarded tension edging her eyes.

Two Lilitu were moving through the room. When they saw Karayan, she forced her face into a neutral mask. The Lilitu changed course, gliding toward us. I recognized them both.

“Welcome,” the first Lilitu said. She was the other one I’d spoken to at the Raven, the redhead with the bob. She touched one slender hand to her chest, the action doubled by the Lilitu form within her. “Deliyan.” She stared at me, waiting.

“Uh, Braedyn,” I said.

“I am Naya.” The second Lilitu said. She had darker skin and glossy brown hair. I had followed her and her mark to the rave earlier this evening. I glanced at the young men lounging in the room, looking for him, unsettled. Naya noticed my gaze and shrugged. “These belong to Ais. But tomorrow there will be other, fresher prey.”

I forced a smile, remembering why I was here. They had to believe I was one of them, or they would never share the plan. “Yum.” I said. I couldn’t make my voice sound enthused. Karayan flashed a look full of unexpected understanding at me.

Deliyan and Naya wandered back among the men and Karayan plopped down on a vacant couch. I joined her, watching the other Lilitu nervously. “So when are we having this talk?”

“Soon.” Karayan watched me study the Lilitu. They were so strange, enticing and horrifying at the same time. They moved like predators, disarming their prey with those lovely faces. I shuddered. Karayan lowered her voice. “I know how you feel. They take a little getting used to. They grew up on the other side, so they don’t see the world the way we do.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” I watched them pass through the men, ignoring them entirely, and come to a stop on either side of a doorway. The opening was obscured with strips of dirty plastic. “They’re very... intense.”

She shrugged. “They’ve got incredible control over their powers, and they’re not bad teachers. They’re just not so good at other things. You know, furnishing a place, cooking, basic conversation. But now we have each other, so, there’s that.” Karayan smiled lightly, and I realized -
she’s lonely.

Karayan straightened. I turned. Another young man stumbled out from behind the plastic strips. Deliyan caught him and whispered into his ear, sending him toward a mattress against the far wall. He stumbled onto it and passed out. I realized Deliyan and Naya were guarding the door. And not for the boy. At that moment, a slender hand parted the plastic strips.

Ais strode into the room. You would have thought the sun was breaking free from the clouds. The guys stirred, like plants straining toward her. Power radiated off of her, waves of swirling shadow curling around the ground at her feet. The guys fell back into their stupor when she passed them without a glance. They must all be her victims, I realized dimly. So many. She practically glowed with the energy she’d siphoned from them. Deliyan and Naya flanked her, an honor guard. Ais’ eyes found my face.

“Karayan tells me you are ready to help us reclaim this Earth,” she said.

I stood, a thrill of terror shooting down my spine. Ais. Ais who might be able to read my thoughts with a touch. I turned back to Karayan to buy myself time to calm down. “She helped me see what I was missing.”

“Did she?” Ais’ eyelashes lowered. I couldn’t read her face. I shifted uncomfortably. “Did you tell the Guard you’ve seen me?”

“I...” I licked my lips nervously. If I lied and she guessed, it was all over anyway. I dropped my eyes. “I had to.” I felt Karayan stiffen beside me. I glanced back up into Ais’ face, milking the truth for all it was worth. “But they didn’t believe me.”
At first,
I added silently. “They thought I was making it up to save my own skin.”

“And yet, they let you live.” Ais’ gaze hitched on the mark on my cheek. I touched my cheek self-consciously. My gut warned me to stay silent.

“I told you,” Karayan breathed. “They think they can control her. If they’ve let her live, it’s because they still think she might be useful.”

“She will be,” Ais said. She turned to me. “I have a simple request. Fulfill it, and I will see that you have great riches in the world to come. But if you attempt to betray me, you will pay with your life.”

I swallowed and glanced at Karayan. She gave me an encouraging smile. I forced my eyes back to Ais’ face. “What do you want me to do?”

Ais’ eyes shifted, still gleaming with that odd twilight glow. “Go back to the Guard. Tell them I’ve disappeared. I’ve left to return to South America. Confirm the rumors that I plan to take down the Wall in South America, and see that your Guard is on their midnight flight out.”

I stared at Ais, afraid to blink, trying to keep my face smooth. I nodded.

Karayan linked her hand in mine. “They trust her,” she said to Ais. “They’ll listen.” She gave my hand a squeeze. “Right?”

“Yes,” I said. Panic was raging in my mind. Ais would know very shortly that I had turned on her.

Ais misread my panic. “Do not fear retaliation. Within three days, my army will snuff out the Guard, down to the last raw recruit. There will be none left alive who believe in the existence of our kind.”

Maybe, if she hadn’t been staring directly into my eyes, Ais wouldn’t have seen me flinch. I barely felt the movement - it was involuntary. My body reacted the moment my mind’s eye filled with images of Dad and Lucas, fighting against overwhelming numbers of Lilitu, falling beneath the onslaught. Ais’ eyes narrowed and I knew instantly that I’d given myself away.

Ais shot forward. She caught my throat with one hand and pressed the fingertips of her other hand to my forehead. I felt another icy wash along the skin of my face, but this cold dug deeper. It was as though I could feel freezing fingers raking through my mind. After one breathless moment she shrieked, and her hand tightened around my throat.

“Treacherous child!” Her eyes were dangerous slits. “Like her mother, she means to betray us.”

Karayan looked at me, the color draining out of her cheeks. Her green eyes widened with alarm. Deliyan and Naya glanced at her; the threat was clear.

“I didn’t know,” Karayan said.

“They mean to attack at dawn,” Ais hissed. She tilted her head back, eyes half-lidded. “Seventeen soldiers. Go to them now. Kill them in their sleep.” Deliyan and Naya bobbed their heads, but I caught a glimpse of fear creeping into those strange, mask-like faces. Ais grabbed Karayan with her free hand. “Do not come back until all are dead.”

Karayan looked pale, but she nodded and ran with the others. I struggled to breathe. Ais wrapped her other hand around my throat, tightening her grip and cutting off my air entirely.

“We would have made a place for you,” she whispered. “Now you will go down to dust. Just like a human.”

Red and gold stars exploded behind my eyelids. I realized dimly that I was losing consciousness.

With a surge of desperate hope, I remembered the daggers.

I reached into the oversized pockets of my bathrobe. My hands closed around the hilts and I slashed upwards. The first blade carved a long line across Ais’ torso, from her belly up to one shoulder. Her scream was a guttural snarl of rage and pain. She jerked back, releasing me. Instead of retreating, I drove the second dagger toward her throat, not letting myself think beyond the impact of blade into her gray-white skin.

She was too fast. She caught my wrist and twisted; pain forced my hand open. The dagger dropped with a tinny clank on the cement. I swung the other dagger. Ais dodged back.

“Stay back,” I said. My voice was hoarse, but I held onto my remaining dagger tightly. I hoped she hadn’t gleaned from my thoughts that I had no idea how to use these weapons.

Her hands curled around her wound and she stepped back. I saw the Lilitu beneath her human features. Her pitch mouth, full of darkly gleaming teeth, opened. “These human feelings will be the end of you.” It sounded like a promise. And then the air around her seemed to unfold into a thousand points of glimmering air and she was gone. I stared at the place she had been standing only moments ago. There was no cloaked Lilitu, no residue of her presence at all.

I heard Hale’s voice, as clearly as the night he had told me face-to-face.
There have been rumors for centuries that some of the most powerful Lilitu can use the dream world to make a hole from one physical place to another, in effect folding space... But we have no proof this is possible.

I had just seen the proof with my own eyes. I knew exactly where she was going.

And my family was completely unprepared for her arrival.

Their faces filled my mind, one after the other. Memories of our time together, practice with Hale and Gretchen, sweet, stolen moments with Lucas, and Dad - a lifetime of memories with Dad. The images pressed in on me, threatening to block out reason. I felt a hysterical panic swelling inside, but I clamped it down. My eyes landed on the dagger at my feet. I picked it up. I was a member of the Guard. I was not helpless.