“Straight ahead!” I shouted.
Dad moved, his daggers flashing in his hands. It didn’t seem to matter that he couldn’t see her. His moves were confident and powerful. Ais tried to slip past him but as he flowed through the form one of the blades sliced into her forearm. Ais hissed and jerked back, becoming visible again. The close space of the hall didn’t give her much room to maneuver. Dad sensed an advantage and pressed his attack. Ais fell back, eyes calculating. There was no way to pass him in the hallway, and he was gaining ground.
The front door banged open and I heard something that made my blood run cold.
“Murphy? Murphy! Are you okay?” Lucas. He was in the house.
Ais read the horror in my face and turned. Lucas ran into the foyer below, daggers in his fists.
Ais glanced back at me, eyes burning with malice. All pretense of humanity fell away from her. She stood at the top of the stairs, completely revealed in her Lilitu form. Giant bat-like wings snapped into physical existence with a leathery crack. I could just see past her as Lucas looked up at the sound. He gave a strangled yell and stumbled back toward the front door. Ais jumped off the top of the stairs, her wings catching the air like sails. She sped down toward him, a hawk diving for a mouse.
Lucas brought his daggers up reflexively, but Ais knocked them aside. She grabbed Lucas with one clawed hand. He screamed as pitch claws pierced the flesh of his right shoulder. With inhuman power, she lifted him off his feet and leapt through the front door. Lucas’ eyes caught mine for a fraction of a second, wide with panic and pain. I scrambled forward, driving my sluggish body with every ounce of strength I had left, but just like that, they were gone. The snapping beat of Ais’ thick wings faded into the night too quickly to be believed.
I stumbled down the stairs. By the time I made it outside, Ais and Lucas had vanished into the sky and only the stars remained.
I stared up into the sky, numb. Dad joined me, and we heard a commotion next door - the battle was spilling out of the Guard’s house and onto their front lawn. Their overgrown hedges screened most of the lawn from the glow of the streetlights and cast deep swaths of shadow over the battle. Despite the darkness, I could see the fight clearly.
Marx and his soldiers fought seamlessly with Hale’s crew. They managed to hem the demons into the center of a circle of soldiers. Dina and Gretchen shouted directions, and the soldiers pressed closer to the enraged Lilitu, seeking to divide them. Deliyan and Naya fought with insane power. I saw one of the newcomers fall as Deliyan struck out. Bright blood coursed over his back as he rolled aside, arching in pain. Naya struck another soldier, raking her claws across his face. He dropped away, momentarily blinded.
I had to pull my eyes away from the fight. I forced myself forward, stumbling, exhausted, to the sidewalk. I scanned the sky, but there was not even a glimmer of Ais or Lucas against the starry blackness. Dad caught me as I fell. The sword clattered out of my hands.
“Lucas,” I managed. “She has Lucas.”
“I know.” Dad’s voice sounded tight, thin.
“We have to find them. He’s alive.” I stared at the sky, eyes wide. I was afraid to blink in case I missed some flicker of shadow that might save Lucas’ life. My head seemed filled with a weird static; I couldn’t process what Dad was saying. He shook me, hard. I tore my eyes off the sky and stared at him, a numb surprise bubbling up through the shock.
“Focus. We need you.”
“But... Lucas.”
Dad squared my shoulders to him. “We can’t help him if we’re dead! You’re in no shape to fight, but you can see them. Can you help Gretchen and Dina?”
I turned back to the battle next door. The Guard still ringed the Lilitu in the center of the front lawn. Deliyan and Naya fought back to back. Beneath the cloaking effect of their wings they glistened with the pearly blood of their wounds, but they had given as much damage as they had taken, and the human frame was by far the more delicate. Four soldiers were down in the lawn, which left a dozen others facing the Lilitu. But of those, two favored wounds that were definitely slowing them. Dina was one of the wounded. She and Gretchen had taken opposite sides of the circle to act as spotters, but the Lilitu weren’t giving the Guard an opening to attack.
Dad looked at the fight. I could almost feel the pull it had on him. “Braedyn, they need me. Are you strong enough to help?”
“Yes.”
He released me and I swayed with exhaustion. Dad reached out to steady me once more. “Are you here?” he asked, searching my eyes.
“I’m okay. I can do this.”
Dad nodded once, picked up the sword, and then ran to the fight. I followed, slower. It felt like I was forcing my limbs through sludge. Every part of me wanted to lie down and sleep. But we had to save Lucas. And in order to do that, we had to finish this fight.
As I reached the edge of the lawn, Dad was diving through the circle of soldiers, swinging the sword. It caught Naya across the shoulder as she twisted aside, trying to avoid it. As soon as the sword made contact, the shimmering cloak of Naya’s wings vanished and she stood revealed in her human form among the soldiers.
Marx sprang forward, daggers in his fists. “We’ve got this one,” he shouted at Dad. The soldiers closed in on Naya, who shrieked in fury. They drove her closer to the hedges on the side of the lawn, leaving the others room to fight the still-cloaked Deliyan.
Dad turned his back on them, trusting Marx to handle Naya. His eyes landed on Dina.
Dina stabbed a finger at Deliyan, who was edging closer to the house. “There!”
Dad moved and Deliyan staggered back, her eyes fixed on the sword in his hand. Dina eagerly stepped forward with the other soldiers as they closed in on the cloaked Deliyan. Deliyan’s lips peeled back in a snarl of rage. She lunged for the weakest link of the circle – which was Dina. Deliyan raked a clawed hand down the front of Dina’s torso. Dina screamed. Dad, preparing to lunge with the sword, recoiled in horror. To his eyes, it must have looked like the ragged claw marks just appeared across Dina’s chest. The closest soldiers reacted instantly, swinging their daggers through the air before Dina and forcing Deliyan back into the circle.
Dina clamped a hand over her wounds and fell back. Her eyes squeezed shut in pain. “We need a spotter!” Dina screamed. “We’re blind over here!”
Deliyan turned on Dad, who swung the sword wide, aiming for the place she had been standing moments ago. She slipped around behind him and moved to strike.
“Behind you,” I shrieked. Dad heard me and turned. But Deliyan was faster, and still cloaked. She struck Dad with one clawed foot in the chest, kicking him across the lawn. Dad hit the ground and rolled, coming to a stop three feet from the dilapidated mailbox.
Gretchen leaped forward, taking charge. She cried out directions to the soldiers ringing Deliyan as I turned away.
“Dad!” I ran across the lawn, dropping to my knees by Dad’s side. I eased him over, terrified at what I might find. He coughed weakly, and then pushed himself up on one elbow.
“I’m okay,” he said. “Help the others.”
I looked up. One group of soldiers clustered by the hedges at the side of the front lawn. The other was closer to the front porch. Both Lilitu were ringed by five or six soldiers. Naya, near the hedges, crouched in the center of a ring of soldiers that include Marx, Matt, and Thane. She looked ready to snap. Matt dove toward her. Naya turned to face him. She no longer had the claws or wings of her Lilitu form, but she looked fierce and capable nonetheless. As soon as she moved, Marx sprang, driving both of his daggers into her back. I turned away, unable to watch. Naya’s scream cut through the night like a siren.
“The sword,” Dad coughed, pointing. I saw it gleaming where he had dropped it, steps away. I forced my body to run, willing movement from limbs heavy and sluggish with fatigue. I grabbed the pommel. Hale saw the movement and threw out his hand. I tossed the sword to him. It flipped end over end and Hale plucked it out of the air like a juggler, his
hand closing on the pommel with confidence. He turned, gripping the sword with both hands like a baseball bat.
Gretchen stood behind the line of soldiers, calling directions out of reach of Deliyan’s claws. Deliyan glared at her, furious. “You want me?” Gretchen taunted.
Deliyan didn’t see Hale joining the circle surrounding her. I felt my breath catch as he walked up behind Deliyan. She must have sensed something behind her. She started to turn, claws ready for an attack, just as Hale raised the sword.
“Now!” Gretchen and I screamed the word together. Hale swung out. Deliyan didn’t see the blow coming. It struck her head clean off. Her body, instantly uncloaked, collapsed into the grass. The battle was finally over.
I fell to my knees, nausea swelling in my throat. I gripped the grass and drew in long, deep breaths. Someone knelt beside me. It was Dad. I put a hand lightly on his chest, where I’d seen the Lilitu strike him. He winced and caught my palm.
“Just tender,” he said, smiling reassuringly. “I’ll live.”
In moments, Hale and Marx were organizing the soldiers. They dragged the Lilitu back behind the house. Three of the soldiers who’d been downed in the fight were not moving. I saw Gretchen bending over one. She looked up and met Matt’s eyes, then shook her head.
Dad stood slowly. “Give me a moment, honey.” He walked toward the house.
I turned away, drained. The sudden silence was shocking after the noise of the fight. It struck me then that I hadn’t seen Karayan in the fight. I glanced around, wondering if she was still lurking somewhere close by. I noticed a light click on in a neighbor’s window. As I watched the window, someone moved the drapes aside to peer out. Half of the soldiers had already disappeared behind the house with the Lilitu’s bodies. Several more were kneeling beside the wounded, tucked against bushes or under the shelter of the porch. I doubted the neighbor would be able to see much of anything from his window. In a few moments, I saw the drapes swing shut and the light click off. Like Lucas said, people see what they want to see.
Lucas. I felt a roiling anguish spread to fill that part of my mind that had been blissfully numb only moments ago. Lucas was gone.
At that moment, Gretchen made a sound, half-growl, half-moan. I turned. Dad was standing next to her on the porch, one hand resting on her shoulder, his face drawn with anguish. Gretchen doubled over, the news crashing into her like a physical blow. She stood there for a long time, bent over, body wracked with unbearable grief. When she looked up, her eyes landed on me. The intensity of her gaze shot lightening strikes of pain through my heart. She walked toward me, clawing past the hands that tried to stop her.
“You,” she said. “You can find him. You can use the dream and find him.” She was crying, the words bubbling out of her, unfiltered, unfocused. “You’re the only one who can do it in time.” She grabbed the front of my robe and hauled me to my feet.
I realized I was shaking my head.
“Damn it, Braedyn, you can do this! Do it! Save him!” Dad and Hale reached us and pulled Gretchen off of me. As soon as she let go, I stumbled back, falling into the frozen grass like a rag doll. Gretchen was wild, fighting them like an animal. “She can do it, I know she can! She can find him! She can save him!”
A desperate desire raged inside of me. I took hold of Gretchen’s wild hope and made it my own. I closed my eyes, willing myself into the dream. I was ready for instinct to take hold of me, to sweep me away from the nightmare of my reality. I wouldn’t fight it this time; I would embrace it. I summoned Lucas’ face in my mind’s eye. Denial thrashed inside of me like a wild thing. I couldn’t accept his loss. I wouldn’t. Grief overwhelmed me - worse than the night of Derek’s death. But nothing happened.
I opened my eyes and saw the assembled Guard staring at me, waiting with bated breath.
“I can’t.” The truth had slowly dawned on me. The one time I truly needed my full Lilitu powers, they had abandoned me. I had no energy left to dream.
Chapter 21
“I can’t.” The words came through dimly, as though someone else had spoken them. Silence crushed over the assembled Guard. Only Gretchen fought it.
“You can,” Gretchen said, advancing on me. “You can!”
I tried to stand, but my knees buckled and I fell.
“Braedyn.” Dad was by my side in an instant, helping me to my feet. “Easy.”
Hale joined us. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She stepped through the dream,” Dad said. The watching Guard reacted. Half a dozen hushed conversations broke out, adding another layer to the static in my head. I felt hollow – a body taking up space with eyes to see, and ears to hear, but nothing substantial at my core. “She’s burned through all the energy she had. And more, by the look of it. She needs to sleep.”
“No.” Gretchen grabbed for me, pulled me close. “Find Lucas, and then you can rest.”
Dad untangled Gretchen’s fingers from my robe. “She’s got nothing left, Gretchen. Look at her.” Gretchen turned her eyes on me. They looked haunted, empty.
Thane put a hand on Gretchen’s shoulder. “If Ais has him, it’s already too late.”
In one moment, we stood as statues in the frozen night. In the next, Gretchen seemed to lose her mind. It took four of them to wrestle her away from me. Her words gave way to horrible, wracking sobs. I watched it all, numb. Some part of me was screaming, too. But it was buried, deep, wrapped in thick blankets of exhaustion.
“Gretchen.” Matt tried to reach Gretchen, tried to wrap his arms around her.
She fought him off, inconsolable. “Don’t touch me! Why don’t you do something?! Why doesn’t anyone do something?!”
Matt met my eyes. It was as if he were asking permission. I took a step toward him.
Dad reached out to steady me, oblivious of the look that had passed Matt and me, unaware of the bargain we were already forming. “Braedyn?”
Matt crossed the distance between us and took my hands. “You can do this?” he asked. His voice was steady, but his nostrils flared, betraying a shaky fear.
“I don’t know,” I said. It was the honest truth.
Matt looked back at Gretchen, lost in her wild grief. His shoulders set as he came to a decision. “Try.” He caught me in his arms and kissed me. I heard several of the soldiers around us exclaim, but when someone moved toward us, Dad and Hale blocked them. If they spoke, I heard nothing. I was already lost in sensation.
Kissing Matt was entirely different from kissing Lucas. My heart didn’t skip a beat. No warmth spread inside my stomach, no shivers travelled down my spine. Instead, all I felt was the stirring of the Lilitu storm. I let it rage, and it connected with that part of Matt that no eye could see. His spirit, his soul, whatever it was, I felt the storm seize on it and pull. This had been the moment I’d broken contact with Lucas when we’d shared our kiss in the theater. But I needed more from Matt. I held onto him, letting the storm ravage through him. I didn’t know how much was too much, how much would leave him vulnerable; leave him one strike away from becoming a Thrall. I didn’t want to permanently damage him. But for Lucas, I risked it. We dropped to our knees in the grass together. I didn’t release Matt until he pitched back onto the ground. He blinked, stunned. His eyes struggled to focus. His pupils were wide and dilated.
The Guard watched us, hands on their weapons. Dina was clinging to another soldier, her mouth frozen in open-mouthed horror. Gretchen’s face was a mask of anguish. I met her eyes and saw the conflict that raged within her. She managed a faint nod.
I turned away from them all, feeling a vibrant new energy coursing through my body. I sat on the grass and closed my eyes. I willed myself into the dream, and was there.
I found myself standing in my rose garden. The petals I’d scattered the night I attacked Parker still carpeted the ground, as fresh as if they’d just been plucked, only now the red stain stretched almost halfway across each petal. Dread clenched at my heart, but I pushed it to the back of my mind. I wa
s here to find Lucas. Everything else could wait.
I touched the ground and felt the world beyond the illusion of this dream. I called up a pool of stars, holding Lucas in my mind to the exclusion of all else. A million stars scattered, and one tiny seed of light flickered and rose out of the pool. But it looked different. It was dimmer than it had been before, sputtering with a fitful light. I closed my hand around it, terrified. In that moment, I was certain Lucas was dying.
The dream shifted. I found myself slumped in a chair in a long, cramped room. My shoulder throbbed, and my eyes were fastened on Ais as she paced in tight circles of agitation. I glanced at the door beyond her and saw the logo for the Raven club. A desk beside the door was piled with barstools, and boxes of liquor were stacked on the ground to its right.
Relief flooded through me as I realized what was happening. Lucas was awake. And so his dreaming mind was half-engaged with reality. Unwittingly, he had told me where he was.
Lucas, I thought to him, willing my thoughts to reach his conscious mind. I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can... I am so sorry I deceived you. I should have told you the truth, but I was afraid of losing you. I’m still afraid of losing you. You told me once in a dream that you loved me. Now I’m telling you. I love you, Lucas. We’re coming for you. We’re coming. Just hold on a little while longer.
If he sensed me at all, he gave no indication.
I opened my eyes.
I stood on the lawn in front of Hale’s house.
Gretchen’s face crumpled in devastation. “It didn’t work,” she whispered.
“Yes, it did.” I met her eyes, steady and confident. “I know where Lucas is.”
We were armed and heading to the Raven inside of ten minutes. I rode with Dad, Gretchen, and half of Marx’s team, crammed in the back of their van. Several soldiers were tending wounds they had sustained in the fight. Most were superficial; a few were more serious. But every fighter capable of walking had joined us. All in all, we were only down four soldiers. Two seriously wounded men were laid up in Hale’s living room. Matt, still recovering from our kiss, was resting on Gretchen’s bed. The last man, who had not survived his injuries, had been wrapped in a sheet, and placed gently on the back porch. The soldier crowded next to me glanced at his watch. I read the face. It was four thirty-seven a.m.
Thrall (Daughters Of Lilith) Page 28