by J. Meyers
“Where’s my brother?” Sera called to Lilith, whose grin vanished a moment before her whole body did.
In an instant she was in front of Sera but out of reach. Close, but not too close. “Your brother is gone.” Lilith looked Jonas up and down after he took a protective stance next to Sera. “He is no longer with us.”
Sera reeled. “He’s dead? Oh god.” She put out a hand to steady herself and Jonas reached to help her. No, he couldn’t be dead. She couldn’t have failed him, too.
“By which you mean?” he said to Lilith, eyes narrowed.
Her black eyes darkened dangerously, and she spat out the words. “I let him go.” Jonas’s eyebrows shot up. “I’m pleased that I can still surprise you, Jonas. It doesn’t happen very often anymore, now does it? But I’m even more pleased that you still do as you’re told.” Lilith looked pointedly at Sera. “How lovely that you brought me this present. She’s just what I wanted.”
“You let him go?” Jonas pulled Sera behind him. “Why?”
“There was interference,” Lilith said. “I felt compelled.”
“By whom?”
“A descendant of Faenial.” Lilith’s lip curled into a snarl.
“Really.” Jonas’s tone betrayed his amusement, and Sera gaped at him. Laughing at Lilith didn’t seem particularly wise. And though she was paying close attention to every word, she didn’t have a clue as to what they were talking about.
“And the other?” Jonas said. “Did you let him go, too?”
“Oh, the delicious human boy?” Lilith laughed, a wracking sound like branches scratching a window. “Oh, no. He’s here. Over there in that cage. He’s trouble, that one. And I’ve been enjoying him greatly.”
“Marc?” Sera stepped out from behind Jonas. “You mean Marc?”
“Is that his name?” Lilith said. “I hadn’t asked. Let’s see.”
And she was gone.
Sera’s eyes flicked to the cages across the room, and she saw Lilith reappear inside one of them. Lilith bent down and picked up a person by the back of his shirt—his blood-stained blue t-shirt that matched his eyes perfectly and that Sera knew very well. Oh, no. Marc.
He looked horrible. His face was swollen and covered with blood as if he’d been badly beaten. He had long open wounds oozing down the length of his arms. And he was weak, barely able to stand on his own, swaying terribly on his feet. When Lilith had raised him high enough, she grabbed his chin, and he cried out in pain, though he didn’t struggle to get away.
“No,” Sera said, “don’t.”
“Hello, cher. Are you Marc?” Marc nodded, but didn’t say anything. Lilith tossed him aside and he slumped back down to the floor. “Yes, it appears this is your Marc.”
Lilith vanished and reappeared on her dais again, staring triumphantly across at Jonas and Sera.
Tears spilled onto Sera’s cheeks as she watched Marc. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. She didn’t understand how he had even gotten involved in all this. He shouldn’t be here. And Lilith. She was a monster for doing this to him. She’s the one who should be kept in a cage. Sera felt like stalking across the room and wrapping her hands around Lilith’s neck until she turned human. And then Sera’d choke the life right out of her.
“Let him go,” Sera said, wiping tears from her face, her movements hard and jerky. “He hasn’t done anything to you. Let him go.”
“Oh, but he has such an interesting talent. I don’t want to let this one loose again.”
“LET HIM GO!”
“And what shall I do with my empty cage? Hmm? Will you offer to give yourself in his place?” Lilith paused and looked at Sera. “Yes, I didn’t think so. You want to take what is mine without offering me anything in return.”
“He is not yours.”
“Au contraire, I would beg to differ that he is, in fact, mine.”
That was it. The blade still gripped tightly in her hand, Sera took off toward Lilith before Jonas could stop her. Vampires skittered out of her way as she pounded across the room. Jonas shouted for her, but she ignored him. She’d had it.
Lilith shouted orders and Sera was suddenly surrounded by fifteen burly vampires. She tried to push past them, but was grabbed from behind, picked up, and carried backwards. She growled and reached back to grab the vampire with her free hand, but he dropped her to the ground. They circled her, hissing. She looked back past them to see Jonas fighting to get to her through even more vampires.
“Jonas!” she yelled. Knife in one hand, she held out her other hand too, ready to touch anyone who got close.
The vampires snarled at Sera but kept their distance. She could hear Jonas fighting across the room but couldn’t reach him. Nor could she get to Lilith. Or Marc. These fanged thugs simply made it impossible for her to go anywhere, but were obviously reluctant to engage her in a fight.
They were afraid of her, she realized. She charged at them, but they just reformed around her a safe distance away.
“Aw,” she said. “Don’t tell me you big oafs are afwaid of a wittle girl.”
One of them grinned at that, his long sharp teeth cutting into his bottom lip. Sera’s eyes flew open wide. He took a couple of steps toward her, laughing at her expression.
Was this the one who would kill her? She gripped the knife tightly and lowered her stance. She would go down swinging.
She reached out to touch him, but he grabbed her arm. He laughed and she swung the knife at his neck and squeezed her eyes shut. The blade made contact.
And the laughing stopped.
She peered at him with one eye, then both flew open. The vampire’s eyes were wide, shocked. Her blade was lodged in his neck, and she was still holding onto it. She screamed and yanked the knife free, then scampered back a few steps. The vampire fell to his knees, burst into dust, and was gone.
Oh. God.
She’d killed someone. She’d actually killed someone. Her breath came in short gasps and she felt like she was going to throw up. This wasn’t what she did. She saved lives. She didn’t take them away.
Okay. So he’d technically been dead to begin with. But still.
She looked over for Jonas. He’d seen it, she could tell. He nodded at her, seeming to understand.
“For Luke,” he yelled to her.
For Luke, she thought. And Marc. To save them.
And maybe a little bit for her dad. Or maybe a lot. She looked around the circle at the rest of them.
“Okay,” she said. “Who’s next?”
Huge hands grabbed her from behind, pinning both arms down at her sides and she dropped the knife. She could hear Lilith yelling, “Grab her necklace. It gives her power. Get the necklace off her now!”
Nails scraped at her neck, leaving long red scratches as fingers scrambled to close around the necklace. She tried to jerk her head away, tried to struggle her arms free but couldn’t. She felt as if she was held in a human size vise grip.
“Got it!” One of them growled near her ear, and she could feel him start to tug at the chain around her neck. She closed her eyes, wincing at the pain.
And heard sizzling.
And screaming.
And turned to see the vampire who’d let go of her necklace clutch his hand in agony before it burst into flame. The fire spread to his whole body and suddenly he was ash.
Sera’s eyes were huge, her mouth open. It was disturbing. It was horrible. It was awesome. She was totally indestructible! She reached up to touch her scratched neck—it hurt a lot. So, maybe she was a little destructible.
She held out her hands toward the vampires in front of her and they fell back out of reach, but still blocked her way toward Lilith. Toward helping Marc.
“You afraid of me, Lilith? You send these thugs in your place?” Sera lunged for one vampire after the next. “Aren’t you supposed to be some fearsome mother-of-all-the-damned vampire? You’re a fake.” Jonas appeared suddenly next to her, and she jumped backwards, which sent several vampires scattering. �
��Jonas, stop doing that!”
“What? Helping you?” He picked up the knife she’d dropped and handed it to her.
“No, popping out of thin air.”
Jonas smiled at her then. A huge grin, and shook his head. Then gave one quick nod, turned and was gone.
“Jonas!” Sera’d jumped again when he’d disappeared.
A strange movement in her peripheral and a thud. Sera whipped her head to the right and saw one vampire laying on the ground with his throat cut for a mere moment before he burst into nothingness. She put her hands down and looked around the circle as one after the other of the vampires went down and were gone. Jonas appeared for a brief second behind each one, used an ornate looking blade, and then was gone before his victim even began to fall.
In less than a minute all fourteen vampires were dead. Gone. Lilith sat mute, glaring at Jonas, who looked drained. Sera stalked over toward her.
But didn’t get very far before she and Jonas were surrounded again by more than thirty vampires, all armed with those nasty looking knives that had hurt Jonas outside her house.
That wasn’t good. If Jonas got hurt again, she’d be on her own. And the odds were not in her favor.
Lilith suddenly appeared in front of them. “I have an almost unlimited supply of those, and can easily keep you busy for much longer than it will take me to kill the human boy.”
“Yes,” Jonas said, coming up behind Sera, “but that will leave you sorely lacking.” He nodded in Sera’s direction. “How are you going to kill her and her brother without them? Be reasonable, Lilith. The Prophecy is true, we’ve seen, but it says their power could go either way. From what I’ve seen, there is no real threat to us or anyone else in the Realm. Leave them be.”
“I cannot believe you would side with humans,” Lilith said, biting off every word. “You, who were so tortured at their hands.”
Jonas pointed at Sera. “But not at these hands,” he said. “These hands healed me and didn’t change me.”
“You are changed, Jonas. I can see it. Already she has changed you.”
“I am still of the Night. I am not human.”
“You are more human than you think. More than you’ve been in a long time.”
Jonas shook his head. “You’re wrong. She is not a danger. If you let Luke go because of his protector, then you cannot harm Sera either without incurring Faenial’s wrath. You know that.”
“I’ve decided the Fates have smiled on me with this second chance, with you bringing her here, and I’m going to take it.”
“And start a war with the Light Elves? A war we cannot win?”
“If that is what happens, yes.”
Jonas grabbed Sera’s wrist and pulled her arm upright, showing Lilith the Mark on it. “She’s protected, Lilith. You cannot do this.”
“I can and I will.”
“That is insane. You’re willing to destroy the precarious peace we have in the Realm over a human girl? Your plan will wipe us out of existence, not this girl here. You will do it.”
Lilith stared at Jonas for a split second before waving the vampires forward and disappearing. The thugs held out their knives and started closing in the circle around Sera and Jonas. Sera gripped her knife tight and pressed her back against Jonas’s.
So this was it, she thought. This was how she would die, killed by a group of knife-wielding vampires. She could see no way out of this, no way that they could win even with Jonas’s superior strength. There were too many of them. There was just no way.
She was suddenly sorry that she hadn’t gotten a chance to say goodbye to Luke, to tell him how much she loved him. Or her mom. There was so much she would have said.
She swallowed hard as the vampires started swinging. Jonas was wild, trying to fight them off and protect her at the same time. She swung her knife out and sliced a vampire’s arm, but as she pulled her arm back another vampire lunged forward and his blade grazed the back of her hand.
The cut stung like a thousand bee stings and her hand felt like it was on fire. She’d never experienced pain like this in her life. She cried out and all she wanted to do was curl up clutching her hand and hide, but more and more vampires were coming at her. Faster, harder.
Jonas yelled something that she couldn’t understand. There was too much noise, too many people coming at her to be able to focus on his words. Somehow he was managing to fend most of them off, to take most of the blows, to protect her. She should have thanked him, too, she thought as she swung at another vampire. She should have told him how much it meant to her that he’d helped her and Luke. That he’d tried.
Now it was too late. She was going to die with so many things left unsaid.
Sudden shouts split the air behind them, and they turned to see several vampires airborne and crashing to the ground. The remaining vampires around Sera and Jonas turned. Fierce-looking warriors filed into the room. They were beautiful, Sera thought. Light hair that shone gold even in the dark underground cavern. They were all tall and strong, and most wore their hair in a single long braid down their backs. Leather armor covered their bodies, showing bits of different shades of green of the clothes underneath.
“Sera? Where is she?”
Sera’s heart stopped at that voice.
“Luke?” she said.
THIRTY-FOUR
Luke charged into Lilith’s lair.
“Luke!” Sera called.
He turned toward her voice. There were hundreds of vampires in there. Where was she? Lilith, glorious and irresistible, beckoned him and he had to fight the overwhelming urge to go to her. He focused until he could see her true self. And breathed. She had an arm held out stopping her vampires from action. He was sure that wouldn’t last long.
“Luke, mon cher, you’ve come back,” Lilith said. “How sweet.”
“Where’s Sera?” he said.
That’s when he saw her. She was way too far away across the room, but she was there. Still alive. His throat closed, tears blurred his vision, and he couldn’t speak.
They’d gotten there in time.
Sera took off running toward him, and he choked back a sob, but he kept his eyes hard on Lilith. He wasn’t going to let her out of his sight until they had Sera safely out of there. And Marc. He glanced quickly toward the cage where Marc had been, but couldn’t tell if he was still in it. Luke hoped he wasn’t too late for Marc.
Eyes back on Lilith, he opened his arms a moment before Sera flew into them. He crushed her into his arms and turned her away from Lilith. A dozen Fae Fighters circled around them like a barricade.
Luke took a deep breath of Sera, and tears spilled onto his cheeks. “You’re okay,” he said, his voice tight. He would never let her go. He was whole again.
And he was also petrified that she was about to be ripped from him forever. He couldn’t take that. He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t let her die.
And he couldn’t figure out how to stop it.
But what if, he suddenly thought, they left right now? What if he and Sera ran through the Fae Fighters, out into the tunnel and up to open air? Even if the vampires chased them outside, he would have changed where the fighting took place and therefore perhaps changed the outcome.
It was worth a shot. “When I tell you to, run,” he said into Sera’s hair. “We’ll try to make it back outside. Okay?” This had to work. This had to save her. He squeezed her even tighter.
“Mmrhr,” she said into his chest. He loosened his arms a bit and leaned his head back. “Marc’s here.” She looked up at him. “We can’t leave him. We’ve got to get him out, too.”
Marc. This was impossible. Sera’s life was more important than anyone’s. But he couldn’t just leave Marc there. Again.
“Okay, then you run. And I’ll stay behind to get Marc.”
Sera raised an eyebrow at him. “Right. I’ll just leave you here. I see that happening.”
“Sera,” Luke said, grabbing her shoulders and looking hard into her eyes. “This i
s the place. This is where I Saw you…” He couldn’t finish that sentence. He couldn’t say it out loud to her.
She set her mouth, lifted her chin. “I’m not leaving you here. No matter what.”
Impossible! She was impossible. If she’d asked him to—
Well. He wouldn’t leave her either.
Sparks were flying, literally, across the room where Fey was arguing heatedly with Lilith and Jonas. Little jolts flew out of her fingers as she gestured wildly at Luke and Sera, and then at Marc.
“Is that Fey?” Sera said, pointing to the sparkling Realm edition of Fey that Luke was growing accustomed to.
“Yup.” Luke nodded, then looked around the room. Everyone was focused on Lilith and Fey. Maybe they could release Marc and slip out, unnoticed. Okay, he realized it wasn’t likely to work out that way, but he had no better plan. And since Sera wouldn’t leave without Marc at least they could try. Luke signaled to the Fae Fighters surrounding them to let them through.
“Let’s, uh…” Luke jerked his head toward the cages.
“Marc?” Sera said quietly. She glanced around and then nodded.
They crept slowly toward the large black cages, stepping carefully around vampires, being sure not to touch anyone and raise an alarm. Luke cast a brief look in Lilith’s direction again. Fey and Lilith were still at it, but Jonas had seen him. Jonas looked from Luke to the cages and back again. He nodded at Luke and turned back to Lilith.
Luke was suddenly very glad they had a vampire on their side. And looking at all the mesmerized vampires they were sneaking past, he was awfully happy Lilith had such a magnetic personality. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who was affected by her.
He looked ahead to where Sera was sneaking between two huge vampires, reaching for something on the ground. Another knife. She’d almost gotten it when one of them glanced down and saw her. He looked back up at Lilith, then grabbed Sera and pulled her up in front of him. He bared long pointy teeth and pulled her toward him to bite her neck.
Luke scrambled toward them, braced himself to leap on the vampire. But before he could, Sera lifted both arms and shoved her knife deep into the vampire’s neck. His eyes bugged, he dropped Sera, and staggered backwards, knocking into a couple of vampires behind him. His hands reached toward his throat where the hilt stuck out, then he burst into nothingness.