Entice

by Jessica Shirvington

  I told Steph all the things she wanted me to say—that she should help him out, maybe give him some extra English lessons, all the stuff that would put them close together. I didn’t mention my concerns, that getting close to a Grigori in a romantic way could spell disaster and that maybe she should consider keeping her distance. I didn’t know if that made me a good friend or a bad friend.

  By the time the end-of-day bell rang, I was dying to get back to Lincoln’s. I needed to see him, to clear everything up and get back on track. Plus, I had to make up for my lax performance yesterday and do better in training. In between notes from Steph, I managed to mentally talk myself out of all my crazy theories, especially the—I can’t even believe I’m thinking it—baby one. Of course Magda and Lincoln weren’t having a baby. Just because it had sounded like a couple’s kind of conversation—there simply had to be more to it.

  Steph came with me again, and I could see that as long as Salvatore was around, she most likely would be too. When we arrived, training was already in full flight. Salvatore and Zoe were both glistening with sweat and looked as if they had gone about ten rounds with one another.

  Spence was in the corner using Lincoln’s weights. In a sleeveless shirt and shorts, he looked quite tall and showed off a fit body. For the first time, I really looked at him and saw that beneath the shaggy blond hair that gave him a kind of surfer look, he had gentle lines on his face that made him not boy, not man, but someone with a whole lot of potential. When he saw me, his face lit up with a devilish grin, and I found myself grinning from ear to ear and wondering how much trouble this new friend of mine was going to get me in.

  “Hey! Where is everyone?” I asked him as Steph edged away from me. I knew exactly who she’d be making a beeline for.

  “Well, Zoe and Sal have been going all day. They’re just winding down. Your buddies told Nyla and Rudy about our little error in judgment last night, so we’re not even allowed to spar today.” Spence dropped his hand weights on the floor mat and grabbed his water bottle. “Griffin, Nyla, and Rudy have been out most of the day, looking into this Scripture thing you’re all after. They said to tell you they’d be back in time to give you a theory lesson later.”

  “Oh. Okay. Sorry you got in trouble. I shouldn’t have involved you in my mess.”

  “Hey, don’t apologize. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.”

  A thought that truly worried me.

  “So um…where’s…”

  Spence raised a brow. “Lincoln and Bitchda?”

  My eyes quickly darted around, scared we were being overheard. No one was close enough to hear. I relaxed. “Yeah.”

  “Don’t know. Lincoln dropped in at one point, said something to Griffin, grabbed a few things, and went back out. Haven’t seen Maggy. Not much love lost between you two, hey?”

  “Not much.”

  The door opened and in walked Nyla and Rudyard. Their arms were linked. Almost every time I had seen them, they had been holding hands or touching in some way, as if they were drawn to each other. Moths to flames.

  “They’re amazing,” I said to myself.

  “Yeah. Rarest thing around,” Spence said.

  I looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “They’re the real deal. Less than one in a million…or more.”

  “I don’t understand. What are you talking about?” But even as I asked, I felt my throat tightening because I knew: this was crucial.

  He looked at me as if I had taken a stupid pill, but before he could answer, Nyla was standing in front of us with a look that made Spence stop in his tracks. My eyes darted between them.

  “Violet, it’s time for your lesson. I believe since Zoe, Salvatore, and Spence have finished for the day, we will have the place to ourselves and can have our lesson here.” She turned her attention to Spence and the others and gestured toward the door. “We will see the rest of you back at the hotel.”

  Spence mumbled something under his breath about the unfairness of it all and grabbed his bag along with the others, leaving me alone with Nyla and Rudyard.

  I reached to get a notepad and pen out of my school bag. It was obvious Nyla was the fighter, so I wondered who would be giving the theory lesson.

  Rudyard called out from the kitchen. “How do you work this thing?”

  I dropped everything and bolted over to him.

  “Don’t!” I said, throwing myself between him and my baby. “Ah, I’ll make you coffee.” No one touched the espresso machine except for me. It had been a birthday gift from Lincoln, and since I’d waited two years to finally be able to have good coffee at his place, I wasn’t about to have Mr. Four-hundred-plus, who probably missed the entire discovery of the espresso bean, mess with my well cared for and appreciated machine.

  “Thank you,” Rudyard said, smiling at my reaction. He pointed to my notepad and pen on the bench. “You won’t be needing those. This isn’t the type of lesson you will need to document, Violet. Nyla and I thought it was time you understood more about life as a Grigori and about your history.”

  “Okay,” I said, suddenly feeling a little nervous. I passed him a black coffee, and after I made a latte for myself and Nyla poured a juice, we all sat at the table.

  “First of all, both Nyla and I believe it is only right to disclose to you some things about your mother.”

  My hands gripped my cup and I froze. “Did you…know her?”

  I heard the smile in Nyla’s voice even though I couldn’t look at her. “She was a good friend for many years.”

  “Oh.” I was sure there were a million things I could have said. But not one came to me at that moment. I never knew my mother. The only things I had ever received from her had been left for my seventeenth birthday a couple of months ago. I always feel uncomfortable when people talk about her. It’s like they expect me to know her, to have some bond with her even though we never met, some kind of filial connection. I don’t know. I don’t have it. All I have is the knowledge that, before me, she was Grigori, and somehow, she knew it would be my destiny too. She left me one of her wristbands and a cryptic note. Bottom line: it all left me feeling pretty cheated. I figured since she knew what was coming, she could have done more to give me the heads up.

  “She lived in New York with us for about thirty years, before she met your father. Rudy and I were her teachers when she first became Grigori, and then later, she herself was a tutor at the college for some time. Her partner’s name was Jonathan. They were together for one hundred and twenty-eight years.”

  I lifted my head. Nyla’s smile softened.

  “Grigori partner, nothing more. They were like brother and sister. Fought like cats and dogs, but loved each other dearly.” I noticed her voice dropped off at the end.

  “What happened?”

  “Jonathan and Evelyn had a single overarching assignment. Together they were responsible for only one exile of unparalleled power. It took them one hundred and twenty-eight years to defeat her, and it cost Jonathan his life.”

  “Lilith,” I said, choking on the word.

  Rudyard and Nyla both looked shocked. “How did you know? Griffin said you hadn’t been told of your mother’s history. He doesn’t even know himself.”

  “When I embraced, my guides told me some bits. The rest I just kind of pieced together.”

  “Well, that’s impressive. I am sorry you had to work these things out on your own. Especially given your…previous involvement with Phoenix.”

  I looked down, blushing. It seemed everyone in the world knew about that one stupid decision I’d made, with Lilith’s son no less.

  “That is part of the reason Rudy and I wanted to be the ones to come here, so that we could tell you about her.”

  “So what happened?”

  “We don’t know exactly. The battles with Lilith were legendary. She was very strong, very clev
er, and had many followers. Jonathan died in their final confrontation, protecting Evelyn. It was Evelyn who discovered how to defeat Lilith. That last battle cost her greatly. She never forgave herself for Jonathan’s death. After that, she refused a new partner and stayed with us at the college, training new Grigori. Then she met your father and found a new happiness. I’m ashamed to admit that, after she left, we lost contact. I think that was what Evelyn had wanted.

  “She hoped she could have a normal life with James—as much as possible, anyway. We didn’t even hear of her death until a few years after it happened, and we certainly didn’t realize that she had borne a child or that her child had been given an angel essence. If we had, we would have kept a better eye on you. It would’ve been the least we could do. When Lincoln first embraced and was told your name, no one in this city knew of your mother, and since you went under your father’s name, Eden, you were off our radar.”

  “She left me her box with one wristband…and a letter.”

  “Just one?” Rudyard interrupted, looking confused.

  I nodded and his look morphed into something I couldn’t decipher as he glanced toward Nyla.

  “She knew she was going to die.” I had suspected it for some time, maybe even known, but it was the first time I had truly admitted it aloud.

  Rudy nodded. “It makes sense. She was talented, Evelyn. A dreamwalker. She could converse with angels in her dreams if they wished for it. Grigori made by the Seraphim, like Griffin, can be fed information in dreams, told things they need to know—like the names of the first of a partner set—but nothing like what Evelyn could do. I imagine she may have known for some time before you were born that this would be the outcome. I also imagine she may have played a hand in the decision.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said, shifting in my chair, increasingly self-conscious. It’s one thing to wonder if your mother gave you up to this life; it’s another thing for outsiders to confirm it.

  “It’s only speculation, but given her history and her power, I believe she would have been offered a choice.”

  “In her letter. She asked me to forgive her…” And like pieces of a puzzle, one more snapped into place. “That’s why. She chose to die, to make me this.” I tried to blink back the tears that started trickling down my face. “She left me.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “She killed us both.”

  Nyla’s hand touched mine. I pulled mine away.

  “What do you mean? You’re alive and well, Violet.”

  I didn’t respond. How could I even begin to explain?

  “She loved your father dearly,” Nyla continued. “She never believed she would discover a love so strong, especially with someone…so normal. I know she would’ve been so excited to have a child with James and it would have been the hardest thing she ever had to do, leaving you both. She knew better than anyone the sacrifices that a Grigori must make. But she would not have chosen this life for you if she believed there was another way.”

  “Yes,” agreed Rudyard. “And that’s the other reason we are here. For Evelyn to have made such a choice, to have committed her daughter to a life as a Grigori, we know the reason must have been…Well, she must have felt that it was critical and there was no alternative. We believe she was made privy to information, information so cataclysmic possibilities that it led her to believe it was only through you that they could be stopped.”

  “Stopped how?”

  “That we do not know.”

  “Do you think it has something to do with the Scripture?”

  “Perhaps. We certainly need to find it before the exiles do. We have people in New York looking into the history of the Scripture. The problem is, we just don’t know the original thread to track it by.”

  The feeling in the room had become so charged that when the front door opened, we all jumped.

  Lincoln walked in. “Hi. Where’s everyone else?” He glanced at me and gave a small smile, and I let go of the breath I was holding. I hadn’t known what to expect from him after the previous night.

  “Everyone finished a little early today so we could talk with Violet,” Nyla responded.

  Lincoln’s eyebrows went up. “Oh.” Then he quickly added, “Do you want me to leave?”

  Nyla stood. “No. Not at all. In fact, this is perfect timing. Rudy and I were hoping to talk to you as well. Would you mind?” She gestured to a seat.

  Lincoln tentatively sat down. I wasn’t much help; I was still absorbing everything else.

  What now?

  “Lincoln, though you trained in New York, we did not get a chance to get to know you well, unfortunately.”

  Lincoln nodded and spoke for my benefit. “I wasn’t one of Nyla or Rudyard’s students. It’s a pretty big facility. We only met a couple of times.”

  “That’s right. So there are some things that you do not know about Rudy and me that probably were not explained to you during your training.”

  “Such as?” he asked while I looked up, more interested now.

  Rudy answered, “There are some things about being Grigori that others do not think important to teach. For Nyla and I, we believe in it more because it affects us directly.”

  When we didn’t say anything else, he went on. “Have either of you known another pair of Grigori like Nyla and me? Who are not only partners in work but in life?”

  I froze.

  Did they just admit they are together-together?

  Lincoln looked over the table to me. I could see his mind working, trying to see where this was going. “No. Grigori aren’t compatible. I’ve been meaning to ask you how…I mean, you still have power, but…”

  “I believe you have only heard one side of the possibilities, Lincoln, and with good reason, I dare say. What Nyla and I are—we would be what you would call an exception as opposed to a rule.”

  “Sorry, but I’m not following,” I said, trying to remain calm.

  Rudyard looked to Nyla, who nodded him on.

  “In a nutshell, Grigori partners often—usually fairly early on in a new partnership—have an inclination to explore…possibilities. When we realize that we are bound to one person for a very long time, it seems logical that if we could be partners in life as well as work, that would be a good outcome. However, history has shown us that the compatibility of Grigori is almost nonexistent. Often, when partners explore the…”

  “Physicalities,” Nyla offered, the corners of her mouth lifting.

  I couldn’t stop the quick glance at Lincoln. He was sitting very still, looking at his hands laid flat on the table as if he were about to push it into the ground.

  “Yes”—Rudyard smiled at her—“physicalities of a relationship, they quickly discover there are some very severe consequences. Many believe it is a type of fail-safe system the angels put in us to prevent emotional bonding that could distract us from our duties. Others”—he smiled again at Nyla—“believe it has more to do with the angel part in us interfering, because angels are independent beings; they do not partner the way humans do. Either way, it has become apparent that making a…physical connection is not something to be done without all the information.”

  “But you two are together?” Lincoln said, still not looking up.

  “Yes, we are.” Nyla looked at me, a soft knowing smile settling on her lips. “It is generally seen as a rule, a guideline to being Grigori, that we must all accept that partners are not compatible…as mates. Do you know why that is, Violet?”

  “It weakens us.”

  “Lincoln?” Nyla pressed.

  “Sometimes we can lose our powers altogether, sometimes just one partner does, sometimes both are left without defenses.” Lincoln concentrated on his hands, inspecting his now splayed fingers on the table. “It’s always a bit different, but ultimately, the partnership is altered and weakened overall. Partners that…get involved…reduce
their chance of survival.”

  “Very good, Lincoln. I can see you have considered this,” Nyla said kindly, though it seemed to upset Lincoln and he threw his hands down and twisted his body in the chair away from us.

  “Right,” I said, starting to realize the enormity of what they were saying. “So, if partners are ever…”

  “Physical,” Rudyard offered again.

  “Yeah. It’s…bad. I mean, really bad.”

  Nyla’s look turned to one of sympathy. “It is a likely consequence. But as we said, it seems Rudy and I are the exception. With all things in life, there are always different ends to a scale. We are the very opposite.”

  Rudyard reached over and closed his hand over Nyla’s. “When Nyla and I first became partners, we fell in love quickly. But unlike many others, though we tried, it was simply not an option for us not to explore our love. It was part of us, and in the end, no matter what the cost, we believed in that love. When we first became intimate, instead of it pushing us apart, it brought us together—completely. Nyla and I are partners through our angelic essence and as Grigori, but we are also partners through our human souls, linked in every way.”

  My eyes went to Lincoln. He had turned back toward the table and was already staring at me. I knew what we were both thinking, and my heart started thumping so hard I was sure everyone could hear it. Remembering when we had kissed on my birthday, the way our bodies and souls had seemed to intertwine so perfectly. The way my healing always seemed to work through a physical connection.

  “And your powers?” Lincoln asked Rudyard, not taking his eyes from me. It was as if he couldn’t.

  “Fully intact, and through our connecting souls, they are in fact amplified within one another.”

  “I…I don’t understand,” Lincoln said.

  “It’s hard to explain. The best explanation I can give is to ask you to imagine a tunnel. Like there is an invisible tunnel between Nyla and myself and we can each, at any time, walk through or reach through that tunnel to one another. So can our powers. We can always feel each other and each other’s powers.”