by Brenda Huber
“Look, Kyanna. There’s something you need to know. Something I should have told you long before now,” he said as he turned to face her. “That first night, when I—”
He froze. His attention seemed focused slightly to the left of her. Turning, she gasped. A man stood there in the meadow with them, only a few short paces from her. Where had he come from? He wore a long, flowing white robe. His expression was serene. His eyes were the color of the springtime sky. What stunned her immobile and speechless were his massive, flowing, snow-white wings. He was beautiful.
The angel looked from her to Xander and back. His gaze was piercing, enthralling her. Beckoning her. He held out his hand, and she was filled with the longing to take it. To let him lead her wherever he chose.
“Kyanna! No!” Xander yelled. “Don’t let him touch you.”
“I only want the book,” the angel said, his voice like warm silk. His words sank through her, alluring and soft. Compelling. “You want to give me the book, Kyanna.”
“The hell she does. Stay away from her, Gabriel, or I’ll rip your wings off and feed them to you.”
She couldn’t move. She was dimly aware the angel was moving closer to her, just as she was dimly aware that something was very wrong. But she just couldn’t quite put her finger on it. All she wanted to do was float in the warm, wispy cloud of contentment surrounding her right now. Her periphery vision tracked Xander as he raced to her side. The angel whipped around to face off against Xander, and as he did, the tip of one of his white wings sliced across her forearm, cutting through the sweatshirt like a razor-sharp sword. Beautiful, but deadly. The cut wasn’t deep, but it burned like hell, startling her from her daze.
Sucking in a sharp breath, she dodged away from the angel and threw herself into Xander’s open arms. The bottom of her stomach dropped as the world around her spun. And suddenly they were standing in the middle of the living room back in Xander’s cabin.
“Call the enchantments. Now!”
“But—”
“Now!” He held her so close, wrapped tightly—protectively—in his arms, she could barely breathe. His wary attention darted around the cabin.
“Xander, you’ll be rendered powerless again.”
“Do it, woman. Now! Before he tracks us and finds you again.”
Kyanna quickly recited the incantations. She felt them the moment they surrounded the cabin. A warm fuzzy blanket of reassurance.
Only then did Xander release her. He swore, ripe and long, as he paced across the cabin, paced back. Something warm trickled over her wrist and down to her fingertips. Struggling to understand what had just happened, she glanced down and stared blankly at the blood soaking her shirtsleeve and running down the back of her hand.
“Damn it!” Xander exploded, and she jumped.
He flew across and seized her wounded arm. He snatched up a towel from the counter and pulled her sweatshirt over her head. Xander gently wrapped her forearm, applying pressure. His fierce expression so at odds with his solicitous actions.
“Was that an angel?”
He grunted affirmation, led her over to the sofa, and sat beside her.
After unwrapping the towel, he inspected her wound. The bleeding had already slowed, but the gash was long. It would take some time to heal. Swearing, he pressed the towel to it again. “This is all my fault. I should never have put you at risk like that.”
“By going outside?” Baffled, she peered at him, trying to understand where all this guilt was coming from.
“I shouldn’t have let you go out, unprotected.”
“Xander, you can’t expect me to stay locked inside this cabin the rest of my life.”
He turned to stare at her, but he chose not to comment. Instead, he changed the subject. “Why does he want the book?”
Chilled bumps rippled along her skin. Cursing softly, Xander shot to his feet, ran up the stairs, and returned a spare moment later with a T-shirt. Very carefully, he helped her into it and sat beside her.
Pressing her lips together, she glanced away. His finger curled beneath her chin, drawing her face up to his. “Why does Gabriel want the book, Kyanna? There has to be more in there than incantations and a few recipes.”
Still she vacillated. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, but it had been drilled into her to keep the contents of that book secret at all cost.
“Damn it, I can’t protect you if you won’t trust me. I can’t keep you, the stone, or the book safe unless I know what’s in there.”
“All right,” she finally agreed.
Feeling as if she were betraying every ancestor that had come before her, she rose and, cradling her injured arm, she went up to the loft to retrieve the book. On heavy feet, she returned to his side, clutching the object of contention in her hand. Kyanna dropped to the sofa and stared at the worn leather cover. She trusted him. She kept telling herself that, but it didn’t make this any easier. Her loyalties divided, she chewed on the inside of her lower lip and finally handed the book over.
He frowned at her, clearly confused, so she leaned closer and opened the front cover. “This section contains the angelic enchantments. It also contains incantations to repel demons and protect homes, reinforce ward stones and guard stones, that sort of thing.” She thumbed through a few pages, then came to the next section. “These pages are listings of the healing properties of certain plants and herbs, and prescribed remedies for injuries and ailments.” Again, she turned a few pages as her unease grew.
“This section is a listing of demons my ancestors have had some contact with. They recorded as much information on those demons as they could gather. Some of it seems spot on. Some is little more than narrow-minded superstition.” The pages crackled beneath her suddenly trembling fingers. “And this section…this section contains the record of angelic lineage.”
His gaze snapped to her face. “Ancient lines, like yours?”
She slowly shook her head. “Not all of them are ancient. Most of the ones listed in here are. But there are several that are newer. Within the last century. There’s even a new line originating less than twenty-five years ago.”
“A first generation Halfling,” he breathed. Then his gaze cut to her, direct, probing. “Why were you given this list?”
“To protect the Halflings when possible. To provide assistance, should the need arise. To give them the enchantments one day and to teach them how to avoid detection.”
“Have you had contact with the first generation Halfling?”
“No. Not yet. My mother.” She stopped, swallowed as grief surfaced. “My mother watched over the Halfling’s human mother while she was still pregnant. I found Mom’s journal mixed in with some of her things. I didn’t even know she kept a journal. Anyway, she didn’t write in it religiously, but she did mention a Clarisse Michaels several times. Unfortunately, Clarisse disappeared shortly before giving birth. Mom thought maybe something might have spooked her. Maybe an angel or a demon had made contact, she wasn’t sure. Only that Clarisse had suddenly packed up, quit her job, and disappeared. Anyway, Clarisse was gone, and it was only later that Mom learned that Clarisse had died in childbirth, and the baby had been fostered out. She managed to track the child, ah, Margaret was her name, but she kept falling through the cracks of the DHS system. If I remember correctly, I think she ended up in some kind of placement facility. Oh, what was it called?” Kyanna frowned, struggling to remember. “Stone, stone, stone,” she muttered, tapping her fingers to her forehead. “Stonebridge Academy!”
“Where are your mother’s journals? Is it possible there might be more information there?”
“There may have been, but they were in my apartment. They’re gone now.”
Something dark flickered over Xander’s face, but he turned away before she could tell what it was exactly.
“Mom did tell me once, that in order to minimi
ze the risk of discovery I’m only supposed to contact any Halflings once, to teach them the enchantments, to teach them about the ward stones and about your world. But then I’m not supposed to have contact with them again, not unless I become aware of a mortal threat to them. The idea is to help from afar and to keep all contact to a bare minimum. Emergencies only. So that if one leaf falls, the whole tree won’t follow.”
Xander was silent for a moment, his brows pulled together.
“What’s wrong?”
“How did your mother know about Clarisse and her child? How did she find out there was a new Halfling?”
That gave Kyanna pause. This was a touchy subject. One her mother had only ever spoken about once, long ago when Kyanna had been very small.
“My mother was a Guardian for the stone, and a custodian for the book. But she was also a Keeper. To my knowledge…to her knowledge, there are but a slim handful of Keepers in the world.”
“And what’s a Keeper?”
“A Keeper of Secrets. When an angel fathered a child with a human, obviously they couldn’t watch over that child for themselves lest other angels, let alone demons, find out about it. So they made contact with a Keeper, and charge him or her with watching over their Halfling offspring.”
“So your mother actually had contact with an angel?”
Kyanna nodded, recalling even after all these years the way her mother had trembled and gone pale when speaking of the incident.
“Did she mention which angel?”
“No. But I know, whoever he was, he scared the living hell out of her.”
Xander was silent for a moment. He lifted his eyebrows. “Can I?”
Nodding, she settled back on the sofa and watched as he rose and made his way to the table. Xander dropped onto one of the chairs, laid the open book on the table, turned carefully to the first page, and bent his head over the brittle pages. Minutes ticked by. Half an hour. And still he read. Growing drowsy, Kyanna laid her head on the arm of the sofa.
Chapter Twenty
“So it’s like a Halfling family tree?” Sebastian hopped up to sit on the counter in the kitchen area. Leaning forward, he braced his weight on his palms.
“There are four lines listed.” Xander pushed the book toward Gideon.
Gideon skimmed the list. “I don’t see a Hughes family listed in here. I thought you were certain Kyanna was of angelic descent.”
“She is.” Satisfied with his pronouncement, Xander leaned back and crossed his arms.
“But her family isn’t listed in here,” Gideon repeated.
“It wouldn’t need to be, would it?” At end of the table, Mikhail adopted a similar pose as Xander. “She’d hardly be expected to keep track of her own line in a book like this, would she?”
“Either way, that thing is dangerous.” Sebastian reached over, took a can of soda from the fridge, popped the top and took a long draw. “If it fell into the wrong hands—”
“Those lineages could be eliminated,” Gideon finished.
“Or exploited,” Mikhail added. That verdict led to a long, heavy silence.
“Gabriel knows about Kyanna. He knows she has the book. And he wants it.” Xander waited for the ramifications to sink in.
“Well I sure as hell wouldn’t be sittin’ around, waitin’ for him to come knockin’ if I were you.”
“What do you suggest?”
Gideon scrubbed a hand over the bristly shadow on his jaw. His hair was wild, all but standing on end. His eyes were shadowed, his clothing even more rumpled than the last time they’d seen him. “Take the bull by the horns.”
“Meaning?” Sebastian prompted.
“Capture an angel,” Gideon tossed out, as easy as if he were suggesting fried chicken for supper. “Gabriel, if possible. Assess the level of threat against your woman.”
Xander looked to the sofa where Kyanna lay sleeping. This time he didn’t even try to deny it. Not to the others, and not to himself. Without giving it a second thought, he got up, crossed the room, and drew a blanket over her. He tucked it tightly around her, covering her all the way up over her ears like she seemed to prefer. He returned to his seat, ignoring the incredulous glances Sebastian and Gideon were shooting him. At least Mikhail could keep his thoughts to himself.
“And once we have him, what the hell are we going to do with him?” Sebastian glanced around the room. “Gabriel won’t talk. It’s not like we can torture the truth from him—or kill him when we’re done.”
“Did you read any of these incantations, Xander?”
“Yeah.”
“This is some scary stuff. There’s one in here that might be useful.” Gideon’s long finger traced a path over a line in the book. “It compels demons to tell the truth. Pointless for you, I know. But damned handy for the rest of us.”
“Gabriel might be a pain in the ass at times,” Sebastian snorted, “but in case you haven’t noticed, he’s not exactly a demon.”
“The wording could be altered, but the effect should still be the same.” Gideon tapped his fingers on the table. “We still have the cuffs Asher used to bind that last demon. We capture Gabriel, slap the cuffs on him, and use the incantation to coerce him into telling the truth.”
“While we have him, we could find out if the angels know anything about the Prophesy,” Sebastian suggested. “They may know where the other Guardians are.”
Xander waited, but no one else seemed to see the fly in the ointment. “And then?”
“Then what?” Sebastian frowned, draining the last of his soda before setting his can aside.
“Then what do we do with him?”
When no one responded right away, Gideon closed the book and leaned back in his chair. “We let him go.”
Sweet Mary, why weren’t any of them waking up to the big picture? “You think he won’t be the slightest bit pissed off? You think he’ll just happily fly off on his merry way? You think he won’t call the full force of heavenly wrath down upon our heads?”
“There’s a charm in here to incapacitate a demon. And another to make them forget their purpose, at least short term,” Gideon said, laying his hand on the book. “It’s only temporary, but if altering one incantation works, we should be able to do it on any of the others. We could use it, take him someplace, dump him and split before he comes to. Before he realizes what happened.”
“You’re just full of bright ideas,” Xander snapped. Ideas that had disaster written all over them.
“It’s better than sittin’ around here, wringin’ my hands and frettin’ like a bunch of old women,” Gideon snapped. His eyes flickered red for a moment.
Xander stared at him, grim and assessing. He didn’t like what he saw. Gideon had been walking a tightrope lately, playing it fast and loose, taking greater and greater risks every time he went off on his own. Word was starting to spread, slowly filtering back to Xander and the others. Gideon had begun showing a cold-blooded brutality he hadn’t had since the Great Fall.
A cold, efficient part of Xander—a part that was also more than a little saddened by the fact—began to wonder how long it would be before they would be forced to hunt the Demon of Temptation and put him down like the rabid dog he was obviously becoming.
That day might come sooner rather than later if Gideon was suggesting using Xander’s woman as bait like Xander thought he was.
Sebastian, ever the diplomat, stepped in to the tense silence. “It could work, Xander.”
Xander didn’t back down. “You’re forgetting one sticking point. How do you intend to lure Gabriel out into the open?”
“Bait the hook with somethin’ he can’t resist.” Apparently Gideon didn’t realize how close he was to meeting his end. That or he was just too stupid to care.
“And what would that be?” His fists clenched and his body went rigid, preparing for a fight. Hung
ry for one.
“Me.”
Xander’s gaze flew to the sofa. Kyanna was sitting up now, a blanket clutched around her shoulders. Her attention focused on them.
Damn it. How much had she heard?
Slowly she rose, dropping the blanket to the sofa, and crossed the room. She drew the chair beside his from the table, sat, and stared at Gideon. “That’s what you’re talking about, isn’t it? For this to work, I need to be the bait?”
“No,” Xander barked, coming to the edge of his seat.
Ignoring him, Kyanna continued to stare at Gideon, waiting for an answer.
“You or your book, darlin’.”
She shook her head. “I can’t risk him getting his hands on that book.”
“And Gabriel getting his hands on you would be better?” Xander snarled.
“Will I alone be enough to draw him out?” She continued to ignore his outburst, refused to even look his way. Fury boiled inside him. He clenched his teeth so tightly it was little wonder they didn’t shatter. She stared hard at the Demon of Temptation. “Gideon?”
“Yes. You could draw him out.”
Xander exploded, shoving away from the table. “Hasn’t anyone been listening to a damn thing I’ve been saying? You’re of angelic descent, Kyanna. If he gets his hands on you, he’ll kill you. To him, you’re an offense against nature. A genetic flaw, a disease that must be stamped out before it’s allowed to spread. To him, you’re no better than us.” He swung his arm around the room in a sweeping gesture.
Kyanna turned to stare up at him. Her face was too pale. But her expression was grim. And determined.
“Xander, it’s the only way to draw the angels out.” Clasping her hands together to still the trembling he’d already seen, she pleaded with him. “It’s necessary. I can’t hide anymore. He already knows about me. He’s going to start actively hunting for me now anyway, won’t he?”