Let us in. Invite us.
She caught herself about to do as he asked, her hand tightened on the door, wanting to slam it shut, but unable to. She swallowed past her suddenly dry mouth. “Is there a problem, Mr. Crowley?”
His gaze narrowed. “Ma'am, we believe you're harboring a wanted man in this house. It's a serious matter. If you'd invite me in, we can talk in private.”
Trina stood off to the side, out of view. She ran a hand through her hair. “They're fishing.”
“Is someone else in the house, ma'am?”
“My sister.” Lilith forced herself to smile. “I assure you, she isn't dangerous in the least.”
“I'd like to come in and have a look around.”
Let us in. Trust us.
She tried to take a step back, to turn away, but her legs wouldn't listen. Her heart rate picked up speed.
“Ma'am, you must understand—if James Pasquino is here, your life is in danger.”
She froze as soon as he spoke James' name. Hot color flooded her cheeks. Damn. She'd never been good at lying. But it was more than that. He was doing something to her. Influencing her. Pushing her. Had she been a regular human, she'd likely have already invited him in.
“There's no one here by that name.” She massaged her temples.
Trina walked closer. “Are you okay?”
She waved her back, hoping she got the silent message. “Yeah, I’ve got a headache or . . . something. Get me some Ibuprofen from the medicine cabinet upstairs.”
Trina stared at her for a long moment, likely trying to decipher her words. “Yeah. I'll bring what you need right down.”
“Lilith.”
Her gaze returned to Crowley.
“Pretty name. Pretty name for a pretty lady,” Crowley said, his voice almost oily. “How about you let us in?”
Trust us, pretty lady. Invite us in.
Pain flared behind her eyes. She wanted to shut them, to look away from him, but couldn't. She struggled against saying the words he wanted to hear.
“He's here, I know he's here.”
“Yes.” Oh, gods, why did I tell him that?
“Lil?” Trina stopped at the top of the stairs.
Something slithered in his eyes.
The hair on Lilith's arms stood on end. “Ibuprofen.” James. She needed James.
“Lilith, do you trust James?” Crowley asked.
She couldn't look away from those big doe-brown eyes, even as they changed, even as he tried to burrow like a parasite into her mind.
“Do you know who he is?”
Tiny golden snakes slithered in his eyes, winding over and around and through.
“What he is?” He sounded so reasonable. “Let us come in.”
Such a little thing to ask. Let us in.
Lilith stepped toward the door. She needed to see in those eyes. Thousands of tiny snakes slipping and sliding around and over.
Viperous. Serpent-like, they glided faster.
“I can protect you. Invite us in, Lilith.” Crowley's voice grew urgent.
Now. Invite us. Say the words. Invite us.
***
He'd never seen such a horrifying sight. Lilith feet from Julius Crowley, reaching her hand out.
“Shut up!” James descended the stairs two at a time, Trina hot on his heels. “You bastard, we were friends—what happened to you?” He pulled Lilith from the doorway, turning her so she couldn't see Crowley. “Lilith.” Her gaze was far away, her body stiff. “Look at me.” He gave her a little shake. Wiped his hands over her eyes and shook her again. “Wake up, damn it.”
She blinked. Glanced around. “James.” She pressed her hand to her eyes. “There was this guy—”
“He's still here.” He eyed the men in the doorway from over her shoulder, careful to keep his gaze from Crowley's. Two others stood in the background past Julius; their eyes glowed, reflecting the house lights. He pulled her into a fierce hug.
“I'm okay.” Her words were muffled against his chest.
He leaned away a second later to cup her face in his hands. “Don't meet his eyes again.”
“What he said is true, Lilith,” Julius said. “We're friends. We've been friends for years.”
James hugged her tighter. “Don't listen to him. It's okay. Everything’s okay now.”
“He helped me find you.”
James shook his head, kept his gaze on Lilith. “Bullshit.”
“I've been talking to him about you for a week now. Right, James? Did he tell you about me, Lilith? Why would he hide the information unless he planned to help me?”
“He's lying.” James tightened his hold on her.
She nodded. “I know.”
Crowley chuckled. “I can’t lie, Lilith. James can, though. Did he tell you he's killed you before?”
Shit. How the fuck did Crowley know so much? He stared at Lilith, his gut twisting as her expression turned wary.
And of course Crowley kept going. “You tried to protect him, keep him safe, and for your troubles, he planted a sword in your chest while you were tied helplessly to a pyre.”
James let his hands drop, refusing to lie to her. “That's not how it happened.”
“That's exactly how it happened, Lilith. Trust me.”
She shook her head, as if denying Crowley’s accusation, but the pain of his betrayal, her hurt, shone bright in her eyes.
“Damn it.” James looked away, his hand smoothing over the top of his head. “I was going to tell you.”
“No, you weren't.” She stepped back.
Julius seized the opportunity. “I told you the truth, Lilith. You can trust me.” Then, to James, “Quite the woman you got there, James. Are you upset to know I was in her mind? If it makes you feel better, she's tough. I've never had to work so hard.”
He turned to Julius. “Shut the fuck up!”
Lilith flinched. She feared him. She only saw the monster now. “You weren't going to tell me.”
His chest tightened. James searched for something to say to allay her fears, to get her to understand. To keep her with him. Finally, he agreed. “No, I never wanted you to know.” He took a step toward her, but Crowley's next taunt stopped him cold.
“The Council isn’t going to like this, James. You, here with a human woman? You, doing nothing while Guardians are disappearing? They might think you have something to do with it.”
His mind reeled. So the Council did know about the Guardians . . . or at least Crowley did. He'd known someone high up the ladder had to be involved. And Crowley fit the bill—the Council's right hand. “Jesus, it's you, isn't it? You're responsible for the Guardians disappearing.”
Crowley offered a taunting smile in response.
He was going to ash the son of a bitch. “Stay inside, Lilith. He can't hurt you as long as you don't invite him in.” Growling, he strode toward Julius. Fists clenched. His muscles tensed ready to fight.
“I'll follow you.” Her quiet threat stopped him short of the threshold. “You step one foot outside and I'm coming, too. You know I will.”
He eased a step closer to her. Did she still care? Maybe still want him?
But she backed away. “You'll draw the entire Council here.”
Julius laughed at his predicament.
James paced, trying to come up with a solution. If he allowed Julius to hang around the property, he'd make a nuisance of himself. Eventually, he'd end up with one of the women outside.
As owner of the property, Lilith had rights. But he feared her knowing her power. He feared she'd use it against him. James threw his hands up in the air. What the hell. He didn't have any other options. “Tell him to go away.”
“Go away?” It came out more of a question than a demand, and even then Crowley swayed on his feet.
“You're the Original, aren't you?” Julius watched Lilith intently. “I've been waiting a long, long time for you.”
“Mean it, Lilith.” James barked the order.
Julius star
ted laughing. The eerie sound carrying a note of madness.
She shot James a mutinous glare. Then she braced her legs apart and closed her eyes. Her delicate hands balled into fists at her sides. When her eyes opened again he felt a palpable difference to her, a change that energized the air around them.
Her voice was strong, commanding. “Go. Away.”
Julius's mirth died abruptly. His eyes widened as something impalpable grabbed him, plucking him off the porch. He twisted, raging impotently against the intangible foe as it whisked him away over the porch, beyond the lawn, and disappeared into the trees. His associates followed the same way.
A tempest blew through the room, slamming the door in its wake.
Stunned, James stared at her. “A bit more, uh, forceful than expected, but it works. They're gone now. You're both safe. They can't return here.”
She watched him with a wary skittishness that tore at him. He needed to make her understand. “Listen—”
“How dare you.”
“Lil, let me—”
“No.” Her voice echoed in the entryway. “You don't get to explain. I felt like shit the other night because I withheld information and you, you milked it. You let me feel bad. You let me tell you I love you and you said it back.”
“I wanted to protect you.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Protect me or yourself?”
“You don't understand what he is, he—”
“I think I do. I think I understand far better than you.” She pointed to the door. “He was the man I saw in the vision. He killed the coven. He controlled the Nephilim during the Clearances. And you . . . you're in league with him? Have you taken turns killing me off during each of my lives?”
He shook his head. “It's not like that. He's part of the Council, as soon as I dust him, they'll—”
“I want you out.”
“—kill us all. I just needed a plan before I took him out. I wanted you safe—”
Her eyes became warning slits. “Go aw—”
“No!” He shouted the denial, wincing when she jumped. He stuck his hands up in surrender, walking around her, backing away toward the door. He released a sardonic laugh, shaking his head. “I'd rather walk.” He opened the door, backed outside, and closed it behind him.
Christ, she'd almost banished him from the property.
Well, he'd let her have her way.
For now.
But they were mated. They had to work through this.
He glanced down at his bare feet and hesitated. He considered going back for his boots and shirt, his hand pausing mid-air, inches from the door knob. He sighed. He had a spare set of clothes in Lou's trailer. At least he had his keys, wallet, and blades. He didn't know where Julius and the others went, and he sure as hell didn't want to risk finding out through the same means.
***
Lilith sat on the bottom step before her knees gave out.
Trina flew down the stairs as the sound of James' motorcycle faded. “What the hell was that?”
“I don't know.” That pinpoint of awareness she had with James started to thin, not much, but enough to remind her he wasn't with her. “Weird, huh?”
“I'm not talking about you zapping creepy guy to goddess-knows-where.” Trina scowled down at her. “We'll get to that later. I'm talking about James.”
She shrugged, covering her face with her hands. “I panicked.”
“You panicked?”
She gave Trina a good glare to let her know she treaded on thin ice. “You did tell me to do everything you would do.”
A hurt look flashed over Trina's face. “I didn't tell you to adopt my psychosis.”
“Look, you didn't see him last night. He made me feel so freaking guilty. I'm pissed as hell at him.”
“He didn't make you feel anything. You felt guilty because you were. And now he feels guilty. But are you giving him a chance to ease his conscience? No.”
“What he did was worse.”
“You are so pig-headed!”
Lilith rubbed her hand against her chest. Damn it all, now she was starting to feel guilty again.
Trina stormed out of the room, but she returned seconds later. “Lilith, I've never seen you so . . . .” She searched for the right word. “I don't know . . . free. Happy.” She pointed to the door. “And that big, bad-ass vampire turns to mush every time he looks at you. It's disgusting. I can't believe you kicked him out.”
Lilith scowled. “You know, a quarter of an hour ago you were trying to ash him. What the hell do you want?”
“I told you if he hurt you any vow I made would be void. I saw you lying on the floor and his face covered in blood and I saw red.”
“I understand that. But after. You kept pushing him. Antagonizing him. Why?”
Trina paled. “I wanted to see what would happen. I needed to know if he was one of those guys who’d forbid you to see me. Or get mean.”
The haunted look in her eyes damn near broke Lilith’s heart. “What happened?”
Trina shook her head. “This isn’t about me.” She waved her hand toward the door. “I see something in your eyes when you look at each other, something I'll never have.” Trina shrugged. “You just threw it away.”
Lilith’s eyes welled up with unshed tears. Trina was right. “What did I do?”
“He's perfect for you.” Trina met her gaze. “You're lucky, Lil. You shouldn't have kicked him out.”
“I needed time to think. Everything's moving so fast. I don't know what to do about the coven. Or the Council.”
Trina sat next to her. “Every relationship has its issues.”
Lilith snorted. Easy for her to say, she wasn’t the one in the middle of such a mess. “Why didn't you ever go searching for your mate?”
She shrugged and looked away. “I got caught up with Trevor.”
“But now.” Lilith searched her friend’s face. “Why don't you find him now?”
Trina plucked at the black plastic bracelets covering her forearm. “It's too late for any of that.”
They sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts, heads together. She shouldn’t have kicked him out. They needed to talk. She needed to give him a chance to explain.
Lilith straightened. “I need to call James.”
“You know”—Trina bumped her shoulder with her own—“since you are dating a vampire and all, does that mean we'll get to make you a corpse bride.”
Lilith rolled her eyes. “Stop it.”
“We'll go totally Goth. Black flowers, black dress. Play a bit of Manson. It'll be great.”
“You're such an ass.” Lilith chuckled.
“Yeah, well, you're laughing.” Trina smiled. “You just need to add a little irreverence to your life.”
Lilith's humor faded. “You think he'll come back?”
“Eventually,” Trina said with mock seriousness. “You kicked him out half-dressed. He'll probably at least come back for his boots.”
Chapter 32
James had gotten spare clothing from Lou and then headed out for a drive to clear his head. Relationships were not his forte. He'd avoided all but the most necessary—his relationship with his teammates in the Seattle area.
He'd fucked up.
After taking Lilith to task for withholding information, he'd done the same. He understood why she'd gotten so pissed. Hell, he would've, too. But the rest . . . . He had to try to explain, but there would be no way to do so without putting himself even further out of her good graces.
He turned off the freeway and headed for home, for Lilith. He had to talk to her. Somehow he needed to make things right again.
As he turned on Highway 202, his phone rang. He activated the Bluetooth in his helmet. “This is James.”
“Someone's trying to break into the bloodmobile.”
“Lou?” She sounded panicked, breathless. He hit the gas, racing his way home. “Did you hit your alarm?”
“Yeah. But I caught a glimpse of the guys—one of the
m has a Sentry tattoo.”
Christ. They were from the Council. This had to be Crowley's doing. Had the son of a bitch called in his whole team as rogues in revenge for what happened at Haven House tonight? “I'm coming. Did you lower the bar on the door and press the alarm?”
“Yeah, but—” Her hushed words turned into a scream.
“I'm almost there. The other Guardian will be coming, too.” He hoped.
“I-I think Walker is gone. He didn’t s-show for his appointment.”
Goddamn it. Why the hell had he gone so far? Lou took care of their crew; she didn't fight. “You got the blade I gave you?”
She didn't answer. For a moment, he thought she'd hung up.
“Lou?”
“I got it.”
He started breathing again, pressing as hard as he dared on the accelerator.
“They're almost in.”
“Put me on speaker so you can use both hands to defend yourself.”
The speedometer sat at one-hundred-twenty and he still needed to travel ten plus miles. “Five minutes. I'll be there in five minutes.”
The sound of something shattering came through his earpiece. Five minutes. He had to slow as he entered Carnation, moseying past the fucking cop sitting just inside town limits, but two other bikes approached from the other direction.
That left two of his guys unaccounted for. Maybe they’d arrived already.
As soon as he hit the turn off, he gunned the bike again, racing through the residential streets.
He listened to the sounds of struggle, the occasional curse with a steadily building dread. He wasn't going to make it in time.
A muffled male voice said something. He couldn't make it out, but he heard Lou's response clear enough. “Fuck you. Fuck you.”
It grew quiet then. He pulled up to the Tolt River, parked his bike and ran down the embankment as the sounds of other bikes approached. They had this. They'd get the son of a bitch. Lou would be fine. He promised her he'd protect her.
The bloodmobile came into view as he rounded the bend. Her attackers had shattered the aluminum door and left it in pieces on the ground. The siding around the opening bent inward from the forced entry.
The Beacon (The Original's Trilogy Book 1) Page 25