Intangible

by J. Meyers

  “How long will it take?”

  Fey looked up and around as if she were calculating. “An hour at the most. Will you wait?”

  Sera looked at her for a silent moment. “If that’s what you want.”

  “It is.” She looked around the place really quickly, stopped on Jonas. “Will you stay with her?”

  He nodded, and followed her out of the room toward the door. Stepping outside behind Fey, he closed the door then stopped her with a hand on her arm.

  “Jonas, let go of me. I’ve got to get help. It can’t just be me going to see Lilith. I need an escort.” She looked up at him.

  “You were there yesterday when Lilith sent her thugs to Sera and Luke’s house. How could you leave Luke alone today?” He didn’t even pause to give Fey time to answer. “This is your duty. Your sworn duty.”

  Fey could feel sparks forming on her fingers, running through her whole body. Could feel herself growing taller and start to glow with magick. Her brilliant eyes narrowed at Jonas and she said, low and hard, “I do not answer to you, vampire. Let go of my arm.”

  Jonas pulled his hand back as if it’d been shocked, his eyes dangerous.

  Fey looked around to be sure no one was watching. “Stay with Sera, keep her safe,” she said. “And keep her out of the Realm.”

  With a single spark, she was gone.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Luke woke up slowly, his brain cloudy, his head throbbing like he was lying on a bed of stone. He stretched out his fingers and felt along the surface he lay on. It was hard, smooth, and cool.

  He was lying on a bed of stone.

  He opened his eyes and tried to focus. It seemed very red, wherever he was. Flickering caught his eye from high up on the wall. Torches? Where the hell was h—

  Luke bolted up with a gasp. His head swam, his eyes flew around the room, and he felt sick.

  He was in hell.

  This was the place.

  This was where Sera was going to die.

  He put his head between his knees and took some deep breaths to quell the nausea and calm his rampaging heart. He needed to get a hold of himself. It wasn’t over yet. Sera wasn’t even here.

  Was she?

  He looked around the room again, searching for the one face he knew better than his own. He let out his breath. She wasn’t there.

  He still had time.

  In fact, maybe this was his chance. Maybe whatever was going to happen now could change the future. Could save her life. Could stop his vision from coming true.

  Someone entered the room and his eyes slid to her. He inhaled sharp, quick.

  It was her. She was even more unbelievable in person, and Luke’s mouth slowly hung open in wonder. A smile lit up her face with a soft glow like firelight. She moved with the grace of a lioness, her long lean limbs flowing over the dark stone floor as she walked toward him. Her silky copper hair swung around her shoulders and down her back.

  He wanted her. He’d never wanted anything in his life like he wanted her now. He’d do anything to have her, to make her happy, to make her smile. Anything. Her smile filled him with such longing, such warmth, such contentment.

  Luke sighed. Everything was okay. Everything was as it should be. He was in the right place at the right time. He had no more worries.

  She was halfway across the room to him, making him more and more impatient and anxious for her to get to him with every step when something about her flickered. For a moment her beauty had been gone and in its place he’d seen a grotesque, shriveled, stick-like woman.

  It was so quick, Luke thought perhaps he’d imagined it. After all, here she was in all her magnificent splendor, getting closer and closer, making him practically ache with the need to touch her, to please her in any way he could.

  But then she was changed again. For longer this time, as she took several steps toward him. She was all sharp angles and hard edges. Her skin was as taut as her black leather pants, pulled tight over sharp bones, turning her smile into an evil-looking grimace. Luke shrank back as she got closer.

  When she changed back to the dazzling beauty there was a look of puzzlement on her flawless face. She reached out a hand toward him, beckoning him to approach her, and he felt himself getting up because his body had to go to her. His ankle hurt as he took a step toward her, but he didn’t care, couldn’t stop.

  Her motion drifted her scent over to Luke. She smelled as intoxicating as a perfect summer day. He wanted to bask in her.

  A few more painful steps toward her and her image flicked back to the menacing monster. Luke immediately stopped walking and looked at her hard, really looked at her. She didn’t change back. Fear shivered down his spine. He didn’t know what was going on. But he knew this was her true self.

  And he wasn’t taking another step toward her.

  She frowned suddenly, beckoned him again with her bony arm, but he didn’t move. Her black eyes sparked anger, but her voice sounded friendly and inviting. “Luke? Come here, cher. Let me see you.”

  No way in hell was he going any closer. He just looked at her in silence, trying not to run in the other direction. Glancing around at all the vampires in the room, he knew he wouldn’t even get ten feet before he’d be caught. No use in getting more beat up than he already was. He shifted his weight onto his good ankle. He wasn’t going anywhere.

  Her eyes narrowed, her mouth pinched tight in fury, and she was gone.

  Luke’s eyes bugged, darting all over the place searching for her.

  And there she was. Right in front of him. Luke yelped and leaped backwards in surprise, tripped over his own feet and landed on the ground looking up at her. In an instant he was hauled back up on his feet in front of her, held tight on either side by two gigantic vampires. His ankle throbbed.

  “Who are you?” Luke wasn’t sure he really wanted to know the answer, but he couldn’t help asking the question.

  She smiled then, a cold, eerie grin that made the hair on his arms stand on end. “I, mon cher, am Lilith. And you are the seer, yes?” She gingerly reached over to him, pulled his necklace from under his shirt, and looked at it closely. Luke flinched at her touch, though it didn’t hurt him. She seemed to find that amusing. “Yes, I see that I am correct. Good. Your sister, she heals, I know.”

  Then she let go of his necklace, grabbed him by the neck and lifted him above her head. She turned and announced to the collective coven, “We have found them. They are the Children of the Prophecy, and we will be rid of this problem soon.” A roar went up in the room, but Luke barely noticed. He couldn’t breathe and his throat felt like it was being crushed. He grabbed her hand with both of his but couldn’t even budge her grip. Her hands were like stone.

  As he was on the verge of blacking out, she threw him to the floor like she was tossing aside a piece of paper. He slammed into the ground about fifteen feet away, sharp pains radiating up his arms as he caught himself. He coughed now that his airway was open again, and gasped air back into his lungs.

  When he’d caught his breath, he took in the full cavernous room, looking for a way to escape, trying to see if anything was changed from what he’d seen in his vision. It all looked so familiar, which was thoroughly disheartening.

  Lilith had turned and was studying him. “You’ve Seen this place before?” Her eyes were narrowed at him, calculating. “Yes, I can see it on your face. You had a vision. Tell me this,” she said, “did I win?” At his scowl, she broke into chilling laughter. “I did! Wonderful. I always win. Just like your visions are always right.”

  She turned then, and pointed to Marc. “Friend of yours?”

  Marc. He’d forgotten Marc had been there when the vampires attacked. He was about fifty feet away, trapped in a cage. Luke had no idea how he was going to get Marc out of here. Or himself.

  Luke turned back to Lilith only to have her disappear as soon as he did, and reappear inside the cage with Marc. Lilith held out a hand to Marc, and he willingly took it and brought it to his lips to
kiss, then rubbed it on his cheek. She turned her hand to cup his cheek, then ran her razor sharp nails down the side of his face leaving four red lines of seeping blood. Lilith leaned her face close, inhaled and moaned with delight.

  She caught blood dripping off his jaw with one finger and put it in her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, how sweet,” she said. “You have been meddling with those of the Dark.” She gripped his chin with one hand and turned his face so she could look directly into his eyes. “I can taste it in your blood.” She swiped her finger along his jaw line again, then licked the blood from it. “You are going to be a rare treat for me to drain. Slowly. Painfully.” She traced her finger along his forehead, down his cheek, and over his lips—smeared blood marking her finger’s path. “I’m really going to enjoy you.”

  Then, slowly, savoring every drop, she licked the blood from his face.

  Marc’s eyes were wide with fear and pain, and he stared at Luke even as he held still so she could take what she wanted from him. Goose bumps covered Luke’s body, and he felt a little dizzy as he watched his vision come true.

  Marc squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw. Thud. Thud. The two guards on either side of Luke collapsed. Luke stared at them for a moment, then looked around the room. Most of the vampires were on the ground, unconscious.

  His eyes went right to the door. The way out. He scrambled to his feet, tried to calculate whether he could make it there before any of them woke up. But there was Marc. He couldn’t leave without Marc.

  Luke looked over at Marc again. Lilith was still there. Her eyes scanned the room, incredulous. She stared at Luke, then turned her gaze onto Marc. His eyes were still closed, his face tight.

  She narrowed her eyes at him, then took in all her unconscious minions again. With a careless flick of her hand, she knocked Marc out and he crumpled to the ground. A moment later the vampires around the room stirred, stood up looking dazed.

  Marc had done it? Luke stared. That might be their ticket out of there.

  Lilith called a vampire over. He got in the cage with Marc, who was unconscious, and kicked him once. Lilith laughed.

  “LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Luke looked around frantically. Nothing. There was nothing he could do. Then his head snapped up, and he glared at her. “I know why you want me. I know about the Prophecy. He has nothing to do with that, so leave him alone. Let him go.”

  “You know nothing, Seer.”

  “I know that you’re afraid of us.”

  Lilith narrowed her eyes at him and disappeared.

  In an instant she was hissing in his left ear. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

  Luke stumbled to the right in surprise. He caught himself, winced as he stepped on his bad ankle, and squared his shoulders. His heart was beating so fast he had to concentrate to take deep breaths. To appear calm, confident. It wasn’t easy when standing this close to her. She was monstrous.

  Then it hit him. Why she looked different when he’d first seen her—so beautiful and alluring. She was using some trick to appear beautiful. He grinned. She probably wouldn’t like that he could see through it.

  “I can see you,” he said in a quiet voice. “The real you.”

  She paused, taking him in. “What do you see, Seer?”

  “You looked beautiful when I first saw you. Not so much now.”

  One eyebrow raised, she said, “What do you see?”

  He looked at her, disgust flitting over his features. “Old, sunken, gaunt, sharp.”

  She froze. “That’s not possible.”

  Lilith circled him then, looking him over but not touching him. An idea struck him, and he reached a hand out toward her. She deftly avoided it, stepping far out of reach, but fluidly, as if she’d planned to go that direction anyway. Her eyes flew to his, and he smiled.

  “Who’s not afraid of me?” Luke said, and he lifted his chin, raised his eyebrows. “Are you worried that perhaps I possess some of my sister’s talents?” She glared at him hard, and for a moment he was sure that glare was going to turn him into stone. He looked down at his body. Still flesh and blood. Excellent. He held out his hand to her. “Wanna see?”

  She nodded at his guards and they each swung at him. One hit him on the back of the head while the other pummeled his ribs. Luke doubled over in pain, his vision blurring. The thugs grabbed both of his arms and held them back. Someone grabbed him by the hair and lifted his head.

  Lilith was there, right in front of him. He hoped his face did not betray the fear he felt.

  “The only reason I do not kill you now,” she said slowly, “is because you make better bait alive than you do dead.” She stood up and turned away. “But,” she added over her shoulder, “I may change my mind about that.”

  And she disappeared. He waited for her to reappear somewhere in the room, but she didn’t. She was gone.

  For the moment.

  Luke let out the breath he’d been holding as his guards dropped him onto the charred stone floor. He sat up with care, his body hurting in too many places, and looked over at Marc in the cage.

  They were trapped. And he had no idea how they were going to get out of there. He never saw his own future, but he wished fervently to have another vision now just to be sure that he actually still had one.

  The clock seemed to tick louder the longer she sat there. Sera grabbed her hair and pulled. She would go insane. She would. If she didn’t distract herself somehow.

  She glanced at the clock on the wall, then looked at Jonas standing across the room. He kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other and fiddling with his hands. She hadn’t seen anyone look so uncomfortable since her father’s funeral when no one knew what to say to her and Luke.

  She almost felt bad for him.

  Almost. Because she knew Fey had left him here to keep an eye on her. She blew her frustration out in one loud breath. She probably shouldn’t take it out on him. She’d have words with Fey when she got back.

  “You could sit down, you know.” Sera waved her arm at the living room full of furniture.

  Jonas strode over to an orange overstuffed chair and sat. He still fidgeted with his hands. But he met her eyes. And really looked at her, as he always did.

  She totally forgot to feel impatient or angry at Fey. For a moment there was only Jonas.

  And he was a vampire.

  “Do you hate humans?”

  Jonas furrowed his brow. “Why would you think that?”

  “Well, you don’t want me transforming anyone. You made it very clear that you didn’t want to be changed back. Are we that despicable to you?”

  “No.” He was silent for a moment. “But being human was not a joy for me.”

  “How long have you been a vampire?”

  “Over two hundred years.”

  “Wow.”

  Jonas shrugged.

  “Who were you before?” she said.

  He looked away. “A slave.”

  Sera’s jaw dropped and she didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry,” she finally said, and it felt monumentally inadequate.

  Jonas’s smile was tight, brief, and unhappy. “It was my life. It is no longer.”

  “Were you—”

  “Lilith saved me. I do not agree with her on many things—especially this one with you and Luke—but she saved me. I can never forget that.”

  “Why are you helping us? If this puts you at risk with Lilith—”

  “No. Nothing puts me at risk. She will never harm me.”

  “Why not?”

  “I do not know.” Jonas didn’t say any more.

  Sera was suddenly keenly aware of the color of her skin and wondered if Jonas hated her for it. He’d have a right to, she thought. He ran so hot and cold it was impossible to figure him out.

  She needed Luke for that. He had a knack for seeing people clearly, understanding them.

  Luke.

  Goose bumps spread all over her body. She couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to hurt L
uke.

  “Why is she doing this? Lilith. What did we do to her?” She didn’t get it, how this all had happened. Was happening.

  “It’s not what you have done, but what you could do,” Jonas said. “There is an ancient prophecy that predicted Gifteds would be born with incredible powers. They would change our worlds—the Realm and this one, the Real. You have a particularly dangerous power to those of the Realm with your ability to change us. Since you could be a threat, many just assume you are.”

  “I’m not.”

  “I know.”

  This whole situation was unbelievable. Sera needed Luke. She needed someone sane, normal. Well, somewhat normal. She looked at the clock and wondered for the thousandth time where Fey was.

  Okay, she knew Fey had said she’d be back in an hour and it had been only seventeen minutes and twenty-three seconds. But still. She just couldn’t sit here doing nothing while her brother was in danger. Her brother. Her other half. Her soul. And Marc. He didn’t deserve this—whatever was happening with them. Sure, he’d been a jerk earlier, but it had been so out of character for him that she was sure there had to be a good reason for it. And if there wasn’t, well then she at least wanted him back so she could tell him what a jerk he was.

  The question was: what was happening to them? Kidnapped by vampires. She couldn’t stop imagining their lifeless bodies completely drained of blood.

  She stood up suddenly, which made Jonas jump up too. Her babysitter. She couldn’t believe Fey had left someone to watch her. She was seventeen years old, not seven. It’s not like she was going to do anything stupid.

  “You okay?” Jonas said.

  “No.” She looked at him hard, then walked around him to leave the room. “I’m going after them.” Okay, maybe she was going to do something stupid. But she had to do something. She hadn’t been there to save her dad. She was never going to be able to forgive herself for that. But she also hadn’t known he was in danger. She knew Luke and Marc were in danger and she was going to be there to save them.

  “You?”