by Lan Chan
“Nope.”
Suddenly, I was so tired. I eyed the stack of textbooks Nanna had stacked neatly on my dresser. “Are you packed for school?”
Her face contorted. “I am not looking forward to Restricted Magic. Have you gotten your timetable yet?”
“No!” Everyone else received them last week. Mine hadn’t turned up. Truth be told, it had gotten shoved down on my list of things that needed attention.
“I’ll call Alex tomorrow,” I said. “Did you cave to Jacqueline’s request?”
She snorted. “I would rather die than be House Captain.”
I had to smile at that. With Kai and Max as well as Drake and Bradley gone, Bloodline students were campaigning heavily to be the next House Captains. Jacqueline has asked Sophie to nominate herself, but Sophie had flat-out refused. I suspected she believed she would lose badly.
“There are more reasons than one for not wanting to be House Captain,” she said. “I don’t have time to design the entrance trials with everything else happening.”
Over the course of the summer, we’d tried to do as much research as we could into the fall of the archangels and had come up with diddly squat. Our best bet was still to find Lucifer’s blade and use it to kill him. There were problems all around with that plan, though. The most immediate being containing the explosion afterwards.
But there was nothing I could do about that right now.
After Sophie left, none of my thoughts were pleasant for the rest of the evening as I packed my things ready to return to the Academy. I was just about to get into my pyjamas when Nanna called me from downstairs.
“Lex!” she said. “You’ve got visitors.”
“Haha,” I screamed out my open door. “Very funny.” She was always making up reasons to get me out of my room these days. For weeks now, I had been an unholy terror. Nobody wanted to be around me.
“She’s not joking,” Jacqueline’s voice responded. Uh oh. A visit from the headmistress this late at night was never a good sign.
But Jacqueline was the least of my problems. I stomped down the stairs to the living room to be greeted by Jacqueline’s reserved smile and Angus’s stoic stare. Basil was also sitting on the edge of the armchair looking slightly harassed.
“I didn’t do it,” I blurted.
Jacqueline’s smile turned amused, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I hedged my bets. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong,” she said. “The Council have asked us to escort you to a meeting that requires your presence.”
Nanna interjected. “It’s eight-thirty at night. Can’t this wait until the morning?” Or not at all, I wanted to add.
“No,” Angus said.
Nanna’s left eye twitched. Here we go. I braced for Hurricane Nanna. Luckily, Basil sensed things were about to go south. “I’ll take her.”
“That’s not the point,” Nanna snapped. “They can’t just sweep in here in the middle of the night and drag her off whenever they feel like it! Besides, you look like a sneeze could bowl you over.”
Angus crossed his arms. “With all due respect, Bethany –”
Nanna turned her back on him. “Don’t talk to me about respect, you maniac. I haven’t forgotten what you did to her in the Unity Games! I have half a mind to –”
I pressed down frantically on her toes with the heel of my foot when Angus’s features darkened. “It’s fine. I’ll go with them.”
Nanna bristled. “Well, then I’m coming too.”
Basil peeled himself off the armchair and stood up as well. Angus’s nostrils flared. On him, that was akin to stamping his feet and tearing his hair out. “There really is no need.”
Jacqueline waved her hand at him. “It’s quite alright. What’s another couple of people anyway?”
Angus swallowed the harsh words I bet he was going to bark. Finally, he nodded and gave Basil coordinates for a portal. Angus walked through first. While I waited my turn, I hissed at Jacqueline.
“Why are the elite guard here?”
She gave me a bland expression. “I believe you may have complained to Angus about the restrictions at Bloodline and how it’s stifling your ability to learn to use your powers to defend yourself. And that the Council are always scheming for your untimely demise. After the investigation, did you think that was going to go down well?”
Oh that. I’d just come back from the dead and found out about not being able to have kids. I was saying all kinds of crap. How was I supposed to know he’d take me seriously? Jacqueline didn’t buy the excuse.
“A word of advice? Always take an elite guard seriously.”
She was preaching to the choir.
5
I blamed the complete lack of foresight on being tired. It didn’t hit me that I’d be going to see the Council until I landed on the other side of the portal and came face to face with a room full of people. That wasn’t the problem. I’d faced down the Council enough times now to know how this rodeo worked. What tripped me up was the blaring of the bond as it reacted to Kai’s presence. It was a low hum of awareness at the best of times, but when he was close, the damn thing spasmed completely out of control. It took me precious seconds to contain the flare of green that washed over my senses. By then I’d taken an involuntary step towards him.
I hadn’t even noticed until Basil clamped his hand on my shoulder. He was the only one who was still incensed that Kai had unknowingly bonded with me. Whether or not the bond had saved my life wasn’t the point of contention. They had definitely had words behind my back because Basil bristled whenever anyone mentioned Kai. But when I’d asked about it, Basil had just muttered something about plausible deniability and hating Nephilim before swiftly exiting the room.
Ever since the investigation, Council meetings were being “watched over” by the elite guard. The stick-up-his-butt expression on Orin’s face left no doubt about his feeling in that regard. Rather than the usual interrogation bench that greeted me at these “meetings,” the room had been set up to resemble a conference room. An enormous rectangular boardroom table sat in the middle of the room. Kai leaned on the table, his arms gripping the edge loosely. My jaw clamped hard as his lips pulled up into a smirk.
I turned around to find the same shit-eating grin on Durin’s face. He was standing in the middle of the room speaking to Griff and Dorian, one of the shifter elite guards. I gave the alpha the stink eye that only made him grin wider. I was ready to follow up with a rude gesture, but Nora grabbed me in a hug that mirrored Sophie’s earlier choke hold.
“We need to put a magical leash on you,” she said when she released me.
“That’s exactly what I’ve been saying,” Nanna agreed.
Behind Nora’s shoulder, I spotted somebody I hadn’t been expecting. Declan Summers nodded solemnly at me. The grim set of his face was an omen that poured apprehension over me. Now what?
My presence caused a hush to sweep through the room. Jacqueline ushered me to the head of the table. She pulled out the chair on the left and took a seat on my right.
Basil sat on my left with Nanna next to him. One by one the seats filled until the table was full. Rather than allow myself to become unnerved by them all staring, I busied myself adjusting my chair. It wouldn’t budge. Far be it for me to be comfortable in their presence.
Somebody cleared their throat. I glanced up to find myself the focus of everybody in the room. The whole supernatural council was in attendance. Besides Angus and Dorian, there were four other elite guards stationed around the table. One was Ivan, the head of the Midnight Guard, the vampiric arm of the elite guards. There were two women, one a Fae with ice blonde hair and a dark-eyed shifter woman sitting beside Orin Harcourt down at the far end of the table opposite me.
It was the man sitting next to Nora who caught my attention. He didn’t bear the usual markings of the Fae or vampires and I didn’t sense a shifter heart in him. Probably a mage then. His eyes were a deep golden colour ringed in a corona of black. He wor
e a long-sleeved T-shirt even though it was relatively warm. My eyes tracked over the back of his right wrist where I thought I spotted scales before he retracted his arm into the sleeve.
Jacqueline tapped my arm. It forced my attention back to the table as a whole. Victoria’s puckered mouth was hanging slightly open like she’d been speaking while I was spaced out. Oops.
“As I was saying,” she said, “we’ve run into a slight difficulty with securing the scene at Terran Hospital. They say their wards were impeccable. It was held together by the same spells that created the soul gate. Yet somehow a demon managed to not only infiltrate the surrounding area, but it also managed to break through the wards. We need to know how.”
It was obvious in their line of questioning that they shared Jessica’s chagrin. My circles had always been strong enough to withstand a demon siege. Why hadn’t they this time?
Feeling like I was being backed into a corner, I had no choice but to offer up my vulnerability. “The seraphim believe the Angelical is affecting my powers. For a little while there, I had no control of it.”
“Like what happened in the ocean while you were at Terran Academy?” Walter asked.
“Sort of. That time it was an overabundance of power.” I glanced down at my own hands, feeling somehow betrayed. “This time it was a complete lack of control.”
“Hmm,” Megan said. “I assume they’ve cautioned you against continuing to use the Angelical?”
All I could do was nod.
“What can you tell us about the girl the demon was after?” Victoria asked.
I scratched my ear. “Ahh…” Truth be told, I had forgotten about Angel Girl. There was only so much a person’s mind could take and I was at my limit. Still, I tried to dredge up the memory. “There’s not much to tell. She seemed human and suitably terrified.”
“You said somebody spoke to you in your mind. Why?” Ivan stated.
How long was a piece of string? “Because I’m nice?”
“Alessia.” Angus gave a long-suffering sigh. “It would be helpful if you could keep your answers factual.”
“I don’t know why,” I said, trying to keep the petulance from my voice. “It just happened. Don’t you think I would stop it from happening if I knew how? Do you think I like it when random people invade my mind without my consent?”
That one I shot directly at Kai. He returned my warning with a wink. In my mind, I imagined sailing over the table and punching him in the face. It was oddly unsatisfying.
“We’re not here to question your motives,” Ivan said. “We only need the facts.”
“I don’t know what more you want me to say,” I shot back. “I already told Raphael everything.”
“Did you get a sense that there was anything odd about the girl?” Scott Brandis wanted to know.
My top lip curled at the thought of speaking to him. Being interrogated by the elite guard wasn’t so bad. Maybe I had a soft spot for soldiers. But speaking to the Nephilim wasn’t on my list of fun things after what happened last semester. The last thing I wanted to do was throw another girl under the bus. It was obvious there was something not quite right about her. “No,” I said, deciding that less was more in this instance.
“Are you sure, lass?” Durin piped in. He leaned forward to block out the Nephilim sitting to his right.
“Yes.” They all grumbled and spoke in low voices to each other. That was the problem with being human in a room full of supernaturals. They could whisper and still communicate while I strained to hear. “What’s wrong?”
Angus nodded at Orin. “The girl can’t be wiped,” Orin said. “We’ve tried several different tactics to remove or replace her memories of the attack, but she has resisted them all.” Wiping was the supernaturals’ top tactic to keeping their existence a secret. The Fae and the vamps were best at it. They worked any human witnesses until the memories either disappeared or became like a dream you couldn’t quite grasp.
I looked to Nora for confirmation and found Declan with a small smile on his lips. Score one for the humans, I guess. Though at the end of the day, living with the knowledge of supernatural society was going to be difficult. Seconds later, something dawned on me.
“You want to try and integrate her.”
Declan nodded emphatically. Victoria’s shrivelled frown was less enthusiastic. “There’s still too much uncertainty,” she said.
“What would you like to do instead?” Declan snapped. “Keep her in a cell until you can work out how to wipe her? How long will that take? You’ve had people working on her day and night.”
The enormity of what he said hit me. Memories of how frightened I’d been when I’d stumbled into this world washed over me. My brows knitted together. “Did you try to have my mind wiped?”
Orin snickered. “Of course not. You resisted a direct attack from an angel blade. We couldn’t risk removing your memories and letting you run wild in the world with that kind of power.”
Was I supposed to be flattered by that concession? “So you want to keep this poor girl in a cage because she’s unfortunate enough not to have powers?”
Megan stepped in then. “Let’s not forget that she’s been marked by demons. We can’t very well send her back into the human world to be a target.” And because they wanted to keep her if there was something useful about her.
“There’s only one clear choice,” Declan said.
The whole table paused, their features showing a range of emotions from disdain to resignation. Finally, Angus nodded at Jacqueline. “Given that Alessia was the last human to be integrated into our world, we’re asking you to take Emily on as well. It would be less disruptive.” Translation: Bloodline was the least prejudiced of the Academies.
Jacqueline’s hands threaded together in front of her. “Bloodline is still recovering from the aftermath of the Unity Games. We will need additional resourcing. Our guards are stretched as it is.”
“We’ll arrange suitable replacements,” Angus said. “For now, our top priority is making sure Emily doesn’t upset the balance.” He turned to me. “It would be helpful if we could have your cooperation. She will need human companions to settle her.”
Great. A babysitting job. As if I didn’t have a million things going on at the moment. But I found myself agreeing nonetheless. I’d gotten lucky and Sophie had taken me under her wing. Now was the time to pay it forward.
I thought the meeting had ended when the rest of the Council got up to leave, but when I tried to move, Jacqueline held on to my seat. “What’s going on?” I asked.
Angus motioned for Kai to come closer. My half-hearted attempt at breaking free from Jacqueline’s grip turned into a fully fledged attempt at escape. She rooted the chair in place. If Jacqueline were a shifter, she’d be a shark in fire-engine-red lipstick.
Kai sat down beside Nanna. He had the audacity to settle his arm around the back of her chair. She paused for a moment, caught between loyalties. He leaned down and spoke quiet words in her ear. Lines formed around her lips where she was failing to keep the smile under wraps. Traitor!
When only the elite guard were left, Angus finally filled me in. “We’re aware you’ve been making enquiries into the Popescu massacre,” he said. “And that you’ve been acquiring reference books illegally.”
He took my silence as confirmation. “The Popescu matter was settled a long time ago,” Ivan said. “We don’t need old grudges dug up. Especially not now while things are so uncertain.”
“No offence,” I said evenly, “but I’d rather not take your word for it. Things have a nasty habit of jumping out of the closet and trying to kill me around here. So you’ll understand if I want to be sure. Also, I made a promise to Andrei that I’d raise his family to find out the truth.”
“What makes you so sure you haven’t been told the truth?”
“Past experience?”
Angus regarded me for the longest time. His physical appearance was no older than mid-thirties but something ancie
nt lingered behind his eyes. A wariness that spoke of untold hardships. “There will be some who will create obstacles for you.”
“No kidding!” Victoria had already blasted Andrei and me because we were ruffling feathers in the vampire community. They just wanted to bury the past and move on. “Makes me think there’s definitely something going on.”
Over Angus’s shoulder, Ivan sat like a marble statue. In direct contrast to Angus’s sharp features, Ivan was heavy-set and darkly brooding. The air felt like it literally stopped moving around him. I swallowed, averting my gaze in case he decided I was too much of a pain in the ass. “You insist on performing a summoning?” Ivan asked. “That is dangerous magic.”
“All of my magic is dangerous. I can’t just sit quietly and pretend it isn’t.”
“Agreed,” Ivan said. If Jacqueline weren’t still holding my chair, I might have fallen off it. As it was, her back went rigid.
“Come again?” For the briefest second, I thought I saw light spark in Angus’s eyes. Jacqueline opened her mouth, but he forestalled her.
“We understand you’re protective of her,” Angus said. His gaze flicked to Kai. “But we agree that Alessia can’t be kept sidelined while we wait for the demons to show their hand.”
“We can’t just allow her free rein either,” Jacqueline said.
“I’m sitting right here.” I was categorically ignored.
“If we continue to take a defensive stance, we will be overrun,” Ivan added.
Kai leaned forward. The arm around Nanna dropped as he brought his hands together in front of him. “What do you want?”
The frost in his voice sent chills racing down my spine. In the connection of the bond, I felt his protective instincts flaring to life. Basil’s boot landed on my toes. He pressed down and pretended to stifle a yawn to cover up his eye roll. I pinched his thigh under the table because now I was fighting not to laugh.
“We’ve known for a time that the demons are mobilising themselves,” Angus said. “There have been reports all over the world that populations of demons are gathering into cohesive units unlike anything we’ve seen since the assault on Seraphina. If Jacob Buchanan is back in the picture, it’s safe to assume that they’re planning something. Their numbers far outweigh ours. If they possess the humans as well, we will be overrun. It is likely that the demons will factor Alessia into their plans. If anything happens, we want to know about it as a matter of urgency.”