Intangible

by J. Meyers

“Sera?” Naomi said. “Sorry about…” She waved her hand around. Sera just stared at her. “I don’t know what came over m—”

  “Leave me alone,” Sera said, and turned away. She handed the car keys to Fey and got into the passenger seat.

  Fey got in and reached over to squeeze Sera’s arm. “You okay?”

  “No.”

  “Wanna talk about it?”

  “No.”

  “Okay.” Fey nodded. “What was wrong with Marc?”

  Sera met Fey’s eyes. “Nothing,” she said. “Absolutely nothing.”

  She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She could feel Fey waiting for more of an answer. But Sera wasn’t going to give it to her. Finally Fey gave up, started the car, and pulled out of the parking lot. Sera was so glad she wasn’t driving.

  Her eyes stung under their lids and she could feel years of tears threatening to burst forth. But she was not going to cry. She swallowed a couple of times and could feel the tight grip on her throat loosening.

  She was not going to cry.

  But they had been right. All of them. Even Naomi. Marc had never liked her, he’d only liked what she could do for him. I’ve been looking for you, he’d said. You can heal people. He’d known about her ability before they’d even met. He’d only come because of their gifts. He’d only wanted to meet her and spend time with her because she could heal. So she could cure him.

  It had never been her.

  No one was ever going to love her, just like Naomi had said. It was true.

  But what did it even matter? She was going to die unless Luke figured out how to change the future. She needed to get home to him.

  Maybe if Luke described his vision she might have some ideas about it.

  Maybe it took the two of them to change the future.

  Marc sat in his car at the stoplight, his eyes squeezed shut, his mouth tight, and pounded his fists on the steering wheel.

  It hadn’t worked.

  And he couldn’t figure out why. If the medicine he took helped him, then there had to be something to be healed. The Shadows had promised they could cure him. If that was true, then Sera should have been able to heal him.

  Unless she didn’t want to.

  He shook his head, opened his eyes, and saw that the light had turned green, traffic was moving forward. He followed along, though he didn’t have anywhere to go. And a crushing weight grew as he realized that he was never going to be free, never going to be cured. Whatever was causing the migraines and the uncontrollable noise in his brain was never going to go away. He knew what Sera could do. He’d seen her do it. And if she couldn’t heal him, no one could.

  But part of him wondered—really wondered—if she’d faked it. If there was some reason that she’d held it back, that she didn’t want to heal him. Although he didn’t know what that would be, but he also couldn’t explain why the Shadows tortured him as they did. Just because he couldn’t fathom the reason didn’t mean there wasn’t one.

  Maybe she wanted to control him like the Shadows did.

  Or maybe he really couldn’t be cured and the Shadows were a bunch of sadistic liars. Everyone was a liar.

  He should just leave Sera and Luke to the Shadows. They deserved that. He was in hell, why shouldn’t they be too?

  Except he couldn’t do that to them. No matter how pissed he was at Sera right now, he hated the Shadows more than anything and he refused to give them what they wanted.

  So he’d have to try to lead the Shadows astray. He could tell them he was sure Luke and Sera weren’t the two, but he’d heard of a pair in Laos, Siberia, or Bora Bora. Anywhere far away from here. Then he’d have to go there and put on a convincing show before pissing them off enough so they’d just kill him and he’d be rid of this torturous life.

  He sighed, following the car in front of him as they turned left at the next light. He didn’t care where he drove, he just wanted to feel like he was going somewhere. Even if he wasn’t. He couldn’t believe his life had come down to this. But try as he might, he couldn’t see any other options.

  His eyes were drawn to movement on the sidewalk as he drove down the street. With a start he realized it was Luke, running. Marc drove slowly past him, glanced at him in his rearview mirror, and then pulled over to the side. For some reason he felt like he needed to stop.

  He rolled the window down as Luke jogged over to the car.

  “Hey.” Luke bent down, popped his head in the window.

  “Hey yourself.” Marc forced a smile, but couldn’t muster enthusiasm. “Need a ride?”

  Luke’s brow furrowed, but he nodded. “You okay?” he said.

  Marc sighed. “Not enti—”

  Before he could finish, Luke was gone.

  Marc looked out the window and gasped. Five huge guys had hold of Luke and were dragging him off into the trees between two houses. Marc opened his door and tried to leap out of his seat, but was held tight by his seatbelt. Cursing and struggling to release himself, he tumbled out of the car, scrambled to his feet and raced around it.

  “LUKE!” Marc took a flying leap at one of the brutes, wrapped his arms around the guy’s torso, and tackled him to the ground. He was up again in an instant, flying at another guy, taking him down too. He didn’t know who these guys were, but he figured they were working for the Shadows too and had found Luke by following Marc.

  He wasn’t about to let the Shadows have his friend. He was not going to let them win.

  The other three had turned, dropped Luke, and were swarming toward Marc. The two he’d already tackled were pulling themselves up off the ground. Marc looked around at all of them as they surrounded him. They had the darkest eyes he’d ever seen. Dark like the Shadows. Perhaps they were people possessed by the Shadows. He had no idea. They snarled at him, baring long sharp teeth.

  “Marc, behind you!” Luke said as he dove for one of the guys and brought him down. Marc whipped around and swung out his arm to clip the guy in the head. He went down, but he took Marc with him.

  Luke threw himself on top of the guy and rolled him off of Marc, who then kicked the guy in the chest, knocking the wind out of him so that Luke could detach himself and get up.

  They stood surrounded, back to back, looking around at the remaining four.

  “Who are these guys?” Marc said.

  “Vampires.”

  “Ha. Ha. I’m serious.”

  “So am I.”

  “WHAT?” Marc jerked around to look at Luke for a moment. “There’s no such thing as—”

  The vampires took that moment to make a grab for Marc and Luke, wrestling them both to the ground. Marc was wild. He couldn’t move his arms or legs, and one of them had his hefty hand over Marc’s mouth. He clamped his eyes shut and silently screamed in his head.

  Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. And he was suddenly free. He opened his eyes and looked around. Luke was sitting up, and all five of the thugs were on the ground as if they’d been stunned.

  “What’d you do?” Marc said, meeting Luke’s surprised look.

  “I was about to ask you the same thing.” Luke rolled his right ankle around slowly, wincing as he did. “You okay?”

  “Mostly.” Marc pointed to Luke’s ankle, and was about to ask about it when he saw one of the guys behind Luke open his eyes and start to get up. Luke’s eyes went wide as he looked behind Marc.

  Then everything went black.

  Marc woke slung over someone’s shoulder, his hands and feet tied. He looked around and saw Luke being carried the same way. Luke hung limply over the guy’s shoulder, his hands tied behind his back. Marc hoped Luke was simply unconscious not dead. The vampires wouldn’t kill Luke and keep Marc alive, he told himself.

  His mind couldn’t quite grasp the vampire thing. That couldn’t be true, he kept telling himself, regardless of evidence to the contrary.

  A small group of them stood at the edge of the lake. Marc tried to look around without moving his head much so they wouldn’t know he was
alert. Nothing looked familiar to him. He assumed it was still the same lake, but someplace he hadn’t been. That was going to make it harder to escape from if he didn’t know where he was. He eyed the vampires and Luke’s unconscious form for a moment. Assuming they could escape.

  Suddenly the guy carrying him started walking. Toward the water. They were going to throw Marc and Luke into the water, Marc realized, and let them drown.

  He started struggling, and his thug gripped him tighter. He couldn’t get his hands or feet free, the rope was too tight. Marc whipped his head around. The guy’s feet were already in the water and he was going downward quickly.

  Marc thrashed. He threw his head up, arched his back, and tried to shift his weight from one side to the other. The guy kept going down deeper into the water.

  He could see the level of the water rising almost to his head and then he was under it. Marc struggled with all his might, breathing heavier and heavier with fear.

  Breathing?

  He stopped struggling for a moment and looked around. They were under the water. He could see the surface above his head, see the sky through it, the trees along the waterline. They were definitely underwater. And he was definitely able to breathe.

  He looked up behind his captor to see another thug coming down too. The way the guy walked it looked like he was going down a flight of stairs. Marc looked down. He saw mud and rocks, and a few underwater plants here and there. It looked like a normal lake bottom. There were no stairs that he could see.

  The guy behind them was closer now. Close enough to grin at Marc’s confusion. “It’s a glamour, human. Welcome to the Realm.” His long sharp teeth dented his bottom lip but didn’t puncture it. Vampire, Marc thought. They really were vampires.

  Marc looked up again and the last thing he saw was a fist coming right at his head.

  THIRTY

  Jonas stormed around the corner and into the corridor. Torches lit the way up toward daylight at the far end. He walked a few paces, then stopped, punched the wall.

  Lilith would not be swayed. He’d been arguing with her for twenty-four hours straight, and had tried everything he could think of. Even appealed to her deepest sense of evil by implying that Sera could be used to get rid of certain Realm beings she particularly despised.

  She’d actually considered it for a while—or at least appeared to—before she’d laughed and told him no, she still wanted these two particular Children dead.

  Jonas’s head snapped up as realization hit: Lilith was scared. She was terrified of Sera and Luke. He almost laughed out loud at that. At how ridiculous that was.

  Almost. He was still standing far too close to her domain to do anything but rage in silence.

  Movement up ahead caught his eye. At the far end he saw several silhouettes enter the tunnel and walk toward him. He could make out the humans being carried in. Probably fresh playthings for Lilith’s cages. He shook his head and walked toward them.

  The humans were tied up. That was unusual. And they appeared to be unconscious. That, too, wasn’t normal. His head tilted to one side, Jonas looked more closely at the clothes and features he could see. Both wore jeans, one had on hiking boots, the other wore running shoes.

  Oh, no. This couldn’t be them. They were both too big to be Sera, but one of them looked a hell of a lot like Luke.

  Jonas quickened his pace to meet them as far away from Lilith as possible.

  The vampires nodded to Jonas as he approached.

  “Are these for Lilith?” he said.

  “They are.” A lone vampire stood in front of the group.

  Jonas peered around at the two unconscious forms as if he were shopping for a new car, lifting their heads to get a good look at them, seeming to assess them. It was Luke and Sera’s shifty friend Marc.

  He looked at the leader, glanced back down toward Lilith’s lair, then said, “She’s in a particularly foul mood at the moment.”

  The leader drew breath in quickly, peered warily down the corridor.

  “Are these for her cages? That might give her a lift.”

  The guy shook his head. “She wanted one of these two captured and brought to her.”

  Jonas raised his eyebrows and looked at Luke and Marc again. “I just hope you got the right one. You wouldn’t want to make a mistake right now with the mood she’s in.”

  The vampire looked back uneasily at his cohorts. They all looked like they didn’t know what to do.

  “Now,” Jonas said, leaning close, “I could take them in for you, if you’d like. I’m fairly certain she won’t take her anger out on me.” Jonas shrugged and the others nodded. Everyone knew he was the favored son. “And that way you could all be far away—out of reach, out of mind—in case Lilith feels the need to express herself.” He looked pointedly at them all.

  The other vampires looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Jonas kept his expression neutral, his attitude carefree, but watched them carefully. He had them. He could tell. They just needed a moment to come to it on their own.

  One nodded. Then another. Another. Then all of them. The two vampires carrying Luke and Marc had just started to shift them off of their shoulders when—

  “Ah, bon! My guests have arrived.” Lilith’s voice rang out from behind Jonas. “Bring them in! Bring them in.” She waved the vampires into her lair.

  The vampires exchanged a brief wary look, then walked around Jonas and down the tunnel toward where Lilith stood, her eyes narrowed.

  Jonas took a slow, deep breath and closed his eyes. If he tried to fight them now he’d most likely lose. While he could take on the other vampires and probably win, he was no match for Lilith. Her strength, intelligence, and command of magick made her unbeatable. And she knew it.

  Plus, he’d be hard pressed to fight against her. He couldn’t betray her like that. He owed her so much that he couldn’t fathom ever hurting her.

  She knew that, too.

  He turned to face her, and bit back the snarl he felt rising in him at the arrogance on her face. He feigned indifference.

  Which only made Lilith laugh. “Oh, Jonas, you are so cute. This is one of the things I like most about you. Now, do go get your little girlfriend, would you, mon cher? We’re having a party and she’s the guest of honor.”

  Fey paced back and forth across the living room floor, checking out each window as she did. Where was Luke? Where had he gone? She couldn’t believe she’d actually let him talk her into leaving him home alone today. It was a stupid, stupid mistake. And she had a feeling he was paying for it right now.

  She looked out the windows again as something caught her eye. Someone walking by on the sidewalk. Sera had been dialing Luke’s cell number every few minutes for the last hour and a half and just kept getting his voicemail. She’d called over to their house as well, just in case he’d gone home for something, but there was no answer.

  His keys and shoes were gone, so at least Fey knew he’d gone out on his own, and that the vampires didn’t know where she lived. Yet.

  She kept pacing. How she would ever explain this to her father, to her people, she had no idea. Especially if anything happened to Luke. She would be cast out for sure. A failure. She’d lose her family, her people. Even worse, she’d lose Sera and Luke.

  “Did you try him again?” Fey turned to Sera, who was watching her with worried eyes from where she sat on the couch.

  “Just now.” Sera nodded. “No answer.”

  “Great Hills, where is he?”

  “Do you think they got him? The vampires?” Sera said, her voice small. “Jonas said they’d come after us because I changed that other one yesterday. Do you think they have?”

  “I don’t know,” Fey said. “I hope not.”

  “Can’t you call somebody? Like one of your vampire friends?” Sera paused, then added, “Do vampires have friends?”

  “I suppose some must.” She had a hard time keeping the disdain from her voice.

  Sera looked at her strangely
. “Shouldn’t you know?”

  In their brief discussion last night, Fey had omitted some key facts, and this was not the time to clear that up. But she did need Sera to stop asking questions she was not yet willing to answer.

  “Sera, I—”

  A knock on the door sent Fey hurtling across furniture to answer it. She flew through the air as if winged and threw open the door.

  “You.”

  She turned and walked back into the living room.

  Jonas followed her into the room, fists clenched, mouth tight. He saw Sera on the couch, softened his features, and went to kneel before her. “Luke—”

  Sera sat bolt upright. “You’ve seen Luke? Where is he?”

  Fey’s head whipped around, and she stared, waiting.

  “Luke has been taken, but he’s alive.” Jonas turned to look at Fey. “Lilith has him.”

  “WHAT?” Sera was on her feet in an instant.

  “Great Hills!” Fey could feel the color drain out of her face. Pull yourself together, she immediately thought, and straightened up, squared her shoulders. This is what happened when you became emotionally attached. But warriors didn’t panic. There were solutions to every problem. She would solve this.

  “Lilith?” Sera looked from Jonas to Fey and back again. “Who is this Lilith?”

  “She also has Marc.”

  “Oh my god,” Sera said. “Where are they? We’ve got to go get them.”

  Fey came over and put her arm around Sera’s shoulders, and eased her back down onto the couch. She turned Sera to face her and looked right in her eyes. “We will go get them,” she said. “I promise, we will. But I want you to wait for me. Okay?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m going to go get…help. People to help us get Luke and Marc back, but I have to go by myself, and I need you to wait until I get back.” She looked intently at Sera, trying to read her face. “Will you do that? Will you wait for me?”

  “What people are you getting?”

  “My people.”

  Sera studied her. “Like a vampire mafia?”

  “Sera, there’s no time for me to explain. I’ve got to get Luke back,” she said, and knelt down in front of her. “Trust me.”