The Siders Box Set

by Leah Clifford

  She’s telling me because she can’t keep it a secret any longer. The music swelled but couldn’t drown out Madeline’s excitement.

  Kristen startled at a tap on her shoulder and spun around to find a guy there. His mask covered the left half of his face, but the visible eye was sightless and pale.

  He must be wearing a special-effects contact, she thought. Not one of her Siders. He raised a hand to the others swirling around them, then raised an eyebrow in question.

  “No, thank you,” she said, but he grabbed her around the waist and spun her off into the crowd. In the shock of the moment, she caught only a blur of Madeline heading up the stairs, holding her gown so she didn’t trip over it. When she passed by another Sider, she skirted closer to the banister and left a wide wake between them. At the top, she leaned over and found Kristen, then pointed toward the back stairs. Kristen nodded to her.

  A new song began, this one a step down from the throbbing cacophony. Her partner wouldn’t let her go.

  One dance, Kristen thought angrily. She’d use it to make her way through the revelers, to the front door. Sneak around to the back entrance and put an end to the ridiculous theatrics.

  Kristen let the guy guide her deeper into the crowd. At the center of the floor, he twirled her in a pirouette. He’d clearly had lessons at some point in his past. Despite herself, a smile broke across Kristen’s face as her hand found his shoulder.

  “You’re good,” she said, her feet slowly working them toward the door.

  He pressured her backward, taking away the ground she’d gained with a quick flurry of steps. She gripped his arm to keep from stumbling. He winked over her shoulder and then released her.

  An arm curled around her waist. With a spin she was off, captured, twirled from one partner to the next in a spiral of white fabric, faces passing in blurs of sequins and painted fleurs-de-lis until the song ended. Everything slowed, bass deepening to a steady heartbeat.

  Her last partner’s grip tightened instead of letting go. His mask had a long beak nose, decorated with black sequins and elaborate patterns of filigree, more macabre than celebratory. Appreciating the touch, her gaze lifted.

  Kristen faltered and he leaned in.

  “You’d recognize me anywhere,” Luke whispered. The beaked mask scraped across her cheek as he pulled away. His hand tightened on hers, the other falling to her hip, guiding her movements. “Keep dancing.”

  She swallowed, swaying stiffly to the music. Luke. A cascade of emotions roiled through her. “You shouldn’t be here. Because Gabriel…” Her voice shook with the lie. “Gabriel is coming, and he’ll be here any moment.”

  A teasing sort of pleasure danced in Luke’s eyes. “You’re concerned about me?” he asked as he rocked her to the beat.

  Seeing him was worse than she’d ever imagined. Not because she was afraid of him, but because with Luke in front of her, the questions that plagued her rose up her throat. Was it all a game? Every moment? She hated herself for needing to know. As if it mattered what he felt as he’d manipulated her.

  She scanned the crowd for help. Sebastian’s DJ booth was surrounded by a group of Siders, their faces full of laughter.

  Look at me, she begged silently. Please, look up.

  Luke’s shoulder blocked her view as he turned her, moving them closer to the edge of the crowd. “I’d really rather you didn’t make this . . . difficult.”

  The other Siders around her laughed and gossiped, parting to let them through. Not one noticed her distress. “What do you want?”

  “You look troubled.” Luke raised the hand he held, twirling her. “Enjoy this with me. And then,” he said, ripping her roughly back into his arms, “we have unfinished business, you and I.”

  She let out a failed attempt at a haughty laugh. “Oh, trust me. Everything about us is quite finished.”

  He dropped her in a deep swoop, bringing a gasp from her before he snapped her back against his chest. As the music swelled, she found her hand in his again.

  “I thought so, too,” he said. “Imagine my surprise at your invitation.”

  “I didn’t invite you.” She jerked away, but he had her around the waist. “Why on Earth would I want you here?”

  “You mean to tell me you made it this easy for me to walk right through your front door with no intention of doing so?” He tsk-tsked his disappointment. “Admit it. You wanted me to show, in your heart of hearts. You were waiting for me. Searching.”

  “The masks weren’t even my idea. Madeline wanted her Siders to . . .” Kristen fell silent before a bitter laugh burst from her. “Well played,” she said. “But you called in a favor from Madeline, which would mean you wanted to see me, no?”

  Luke’s eyes sparkled behind their rim of black plaster. “Details.”

  He wanted to see me. Her breath hitched, but she covered it with a scoff. So what if Luke wanted to see her? He’d used her as a pawn. And I never saw it coming, she thought angrily.

  The flutter inside her from their banter fell away. Left behind was the same hollow ache she’d felt that night at Aerie. “I made my choice, Luke.”

  “Yes. But you chose wrong.” As the song ended, he stopped their dance. “You also made a deal. With me.”

  She flashed back to her room upstairs, Luke on her bed. Gabriel’s location in exchange for a favor from her. A simple promise Luke had cashed in for one week with her. A deal she’d broken when she left the club with Gabe.

  The sure smile evaporated from her face.

  Luke’s soft chuckle sent a chill down her spine. “Now you remember.”

  She could beg for mercy, throw herself at his feet, but an outburst didn’t suit either of their styles. That, and she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “What happens now?” she asked.

  “Two choices, just like before.” He held up his fingers held up. “You leave with me, or you don’t.”

  She licked her lips.

  “Decide.”

  There had to be more to it than what he revealed. Luke was a poison, but she could draw him out before he did any damage. Perhaps, if she played her cards right, she could even do what Sebastian had suggested, get Luke to tell her how to kill angels.

  “I’ll go,” she whispered, her tone hesitant yet strong, already starting her game. “I’ll go with you.”

  Instantly, he dropped a hand to the small of her back and bore her ahead of him to the front door.

  “Luke, wait, it’s freezing out,” she said, even as he opened the door. The icy air stole her breath. “Why do we have to leave now? At least let me get my coat!”

  But he rushed her down the walk. Halfway to the street, he grabbed her upper arm and hauled her off the stones and into the untouched lawn, where her dress draped across the growing snowdrifts.

  “Damn it, what the hell is wrong with you?” she yelled, trying to high step. “You’re hurting me!”

  Her heels sank, and she stumbled in the deep snow. Luke only caught her enough to ease her fall into the bushes lining the boundary of her yard. A cascade of snow powdered her dress. The deep ruts of their footprints marred the pristine snowscape. As she watched, the holes their feet had left quickly started to fill in until any trace of she and Luke’s route vanished. No slide marks from her stumbles, no wide stance where Luke had braced her. “What the hell?”

  “Now no one will find us.” He laughed, pressing her further into the scratching evergreens. “Are you ready for your punishment?”

  The words brought a hard gasp from her, clouding in the frigid air between them and mixing with his breath. As it drifted away, she was left staring into his pitch-dark eyes. And then he was behind her, one hand cupped suddenly over her mouth, the other arm squeezed around her. She fought, but his hold was viselike, tight enough to bruise.

  “You have to be quiet,” he demanded in a harsh whisper, turning her toward the house. Her nostrils flared as she struggled to get oxygen.

  A figure appeared on her porch, popping into existence
midstride.

  At a barely audible thunk, her gaze flew upward. Luke’s hand dropped, but she didn’t make a sound. Three more figures alighted along the peak of her roof.

  “Someone tipped off the Bound to your ball,” Luke breathed into her ear. “And they’ve learned how to destroy Siders. They’ve come to exterminate.”

  “No!” She yanked against his hold, gaining a few inches before he pulled her back into the camouflage of the bushes and covered her mouth again.

  His voice hissed in her ear. “Shut up before they find you, too.”

  The front door opened as an angel entered. A shadow slipped down the chimney.

  The music stopped just as the screams started. Piercing. A loud wail and then the sound of shattering glass. After that she couldn’t tell the screams apart. Sebastian was inside, Madeline, Erin, Vaughn. All the others. They were there because of her.

  “Shhh,” Luke cooed, stroking her hair as he held her up and against him. “Watch. Don’t you dare look away.”

  Shadows passed behind the lace curtains of the windows. Someone stumbled out of the house, onto the porch, and one of the shapes on the roof flicked out of existence. A second later, it was only a step behind a Sider running full tilt for the street. The angel shoved the boy’s shoulder, sent him off the path on the opposite side of where she and Luke stood against the bushes. Snow flew as the Sider went into a frantic crawl. He didn’t get far before he was flipped over onto his back. His pleas echoed in the still night.

  A mechanical chitter filled the yard. At first she thought it was only noise until the word “abomination” broke out. The angel straddled the fallen boy, one leg on each side, and lifted his arms. Fingers spread, his hands plunged downward. She heard the crack of bones before a gargling scream reached her, the Sider’s rib cage split wide, the angel’s fists groping inside. In her horror, she stepped back into Luke.

  Bright white light shone between the angel’s gore-covered fingers. Kristen squinted, trying to figure out what she was seeing. Fire burst from the center of his palms and fell like drops, hissing in the snow. A moment later, the flames dimmed and then went out. What was left of the Sider disintegrated, nothing more than a gray mark marring the snow.

  “Seraphim means ‘burning ones.’ Fitting, no?” Luke’s arms were still tight around her, his voice barely a whisper in her ear. “They’ve learned to pull out your soul. Destroy it. No chance to go Upstairs or Down.”

  The house was still full of screams.

  “You got me out,” she said in awe as Luke turned her toward him. “You saved me.”

  “Instead of warning you.” He ran a finger down her cheek. “I guess that makes us even.”

  The horror of his words slammed into her.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw the angel’s head snap up, twist in their direction. He came toward them at a loping run. She flinched, and Luke leaped in front of her, a snarl rumbling through him.

  The angel slowed. “Only when the boy was dead could I taste her terror.” His words shivered through her like nails on a chalkboard. “Her kind is unclean. She spreads seeds of plague. Stand aside, Lucifer.”

  “No closer, slave.” Under the leather jacket he wore, Luke’s shoulders rippled. Black steam hissed from the seams, out the collar and arms, and then sunk to the snow like a low, heavy fog. Rolling and bubbling, it reached Kristen and oozed over her shoes. She kicked, trying in vain to keep it off as it climbed up her legs in tendrils of darkness.

  The angel didn’t stop. “The orders of a Fallen mean nothing.”

  The bottom of Kristen’s dress disappeared under the inky blackness. Luke pressed his hand against her stomach. “You’d let them all escape for the sake of this one?” he asked. “Are those your orders?” He jutted his chin toward the house. A group of four Siders tore across the yard.

  The angel in front Luke wavered. “Our orders are to end them on sight. I’ve seen her.”

  “You’ve seen them now, too.”

  The black fog crested over Kristen’s hips, coating her with a liquid warmth.

  Luke wouldn’t save me only to kill me. She couldn’t trust him, though.

  She brushed at one of the tendrils and it wrapped around her wrist, spiraled up her arm. Wisps stretched toward her neck, her jaw. Kristen fought to move, but at her feet the dense fog felt more like tar.

  Luke’s voice stayed calm and collected as he spoke to the Bound. “My wrath surrounds her. You won’t break through before the others are gone.” He pointed to two more Siders sprinting across the lot. “You’ve allowed four to escape already. Four to spread the plague instead of one. There go two more.” For the first time, the Bound angel looked uncertain. “I wonder,” Luke mused, - “if you’ll be punished?”

  With one last glance at Kristen, the Bound disappeared. The Sider across the yard stumbled as the angel popped into existence beside him.

  At Kristen’s feet, the black fog dissipated, releasing her. Luke took her hand as it gathered back into him. From the house came the sound of a window breaking. “Some party,” he said.

  The screams were louder now, and with them came a crackling. A glimmering orange glow shone from beyond the shattered glass.

  Kristen took a step toward it in disbelief.

  “Is that fire?”

  A ball of flame burst from the second story of her house.

  Chapter 14

  Madeline checked her watch, annoyed and jittery with anticipation. Any second now, Kristen would show, and Madeline would tell her what she’d done, the glorious leap of faith she’d taken. God, how it’d paid off.

  She peeled the dress up her leg, revealing her thigh and the gash stinging fiercely there. Maybe Jackson had been right about cutting too deep. Unhealed, it wept fresh blood through three Band-Aids.

  She slipped her cell phone from her cleavage. Jackson hadn’t been happy to stay home and guard the girl, but there wasn’t simply Kristen’s reaction to worry about. Luke had only yesterday told her he wanted the Siders kept around and so Madeline’s discovery would make Luke, too, an enemy.

  She unlocked the phone and typed in a quick text to Jackson, trying to calm her nerves. Not missing anything.

  Muted through the door, the music from the party was bordering on creepy, the singer’s wail fading in and out. The beats stopped suddenly, but the stricken cry went on.

  Music’s worse than normal, she texted.

  At the base of the stairs, the door to the outside opened. A frigid draft teased her curls as Madeline stood. The hemline of her dress slipped down, the fabric catching on her Band-Aids before draping her ankle again. “Kristen?”

  A footstep creaked on the old boards, then another at the same time. Madeline froze. “Who’s with you?” she asked.

  Her voice echoed in the tiny space. She couldn’t see around the spiral of the staircase. Madeline lowered herself a step, bracing on the wall to get a glance around the bend.

  Please don’t be Luke. She hadn’t seen him, had counted on talking to Kristen before he and the Fallen made their appearance. If he’d shown, and she’d missed him, it would explain Kristen’s delay. He can’t know what I’ve done, Madeline thought.

  Her heart beat harder with each moment she waited. In a few steps she could be out of the enclosed staircase and in the upstairs hall.

  The wailing music had gotten louder, more off-key. It sounded almost like . . .

  Screaming.

  Run. Now. Launching up the stairs, Madeline grabbed the knob, but the door was ripped out of her grip. She dove forward, past the figure in the doorway. He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her.

  “Please,” she choked, hanging helpless. She clawed at the hand, but her gloves made her nails useless. “Please, I can’t breathe!” She pointed her toes, trying to find ground.

  Maroon irises bored into her. Bound.

  With a dramatic choking noise, she rolled her eyes back and went limp. Her limbs twitched to fight, punch, survive as he shook her once, hard. A
nd then his fingers loosened. With everything she had, Madeline swung her leg into his crotch.

  The angel tossed her backward. Flying down the steps, she slammed into the wall, her shoulder popping out of place. When she hit the landing, pain radiated through her rib cage, so intense she couldn’t get air.

  The Bound who’d grabbed hold of her descended the stairs even as two others came up from below. “End her,” he rasped, still bent from her kick. “Quickly. They mustn’t be allowed to escape.”

  “Stop!” she croaked. “I’m not one of them.” She held a hand up, agony shooting through her chest. “I’m not. A Sider. I swear.”

  A face appeared suddenly before her. She flinched, jarring ribs that must have been broken. She could smell the angel, a thick scent like wood smoke that tickled at the back of her throat. She clenched her jaw, didn’t dare move.

  “We know what you are. We watched you well, Madeline.”

  The broken sound of her name made her cringe. “Don’t hurt me. I helped Gabriel. Please. Ask him. I’m on your side.”

  Silence. The angel she’d kicked plodded down the stairs.

  “See to the others,” he said quietly. His two companions loped past. When the door at the top of the stairs opened, a cloud of acrid smoke rolled across the ceiling.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered.

  “No.” He tottered closer, his steps uneven. “Not your God.”

  Panic knotted in her stomach.

  “Madeline.” A low, sharp crackle came from his mouth. “Tell me how the plague began.”

  I don’t know, she thought. Should I lie? A thump shook through the floorboards above her head. Something hammered against the door. She curled up, hiding her face. If he was going to kill her, she didn’t want to see, didn’t want to know it was coming. Cold sweat poured off her.

  I’m going into shock, she realized. The angel kneeling next to her made a pitying noise.

  Fingers stabbed into her shattered ribs, squeezing. Madeline screamed. Black dots sparkled in front of her as she fought against losing consciousness.