A Darker Past (Entangled Teen) (The Darker Agency) (9 page)

I tried not to let his correlation between dark and demon bug me. “Lukas…” I tried to grab his hand, but he yanked it away.

He backed toward the door, gaze never leaving mine. I took a single step, but he threw out his hands. “Don’t. I don’t want you to follow me. Just let me be for now. I need to figure this out. After you—I need to decide what I want.”

He turned and left, and I couldn’t breathe. What he was saying was, if this life was what he wanted.

If
I
was what he wanted.

Chapter Eleven

Mom came home a couple hours later, having had as much luck with Paulson as Lukas and I had with the books. Zip. His ghost friends hadn’t heard anything, but promised to keep their incorporeal ears to the ground. Dad had made a quick trip back to the Shadow Realm to
check out a lead,
leaving us to work on some of the backed-up paperwork I’d been slacking on.

“When is Lukas getting back?” Mom didn’t look up from the bills, and I could tell whatever was on her mind, it was stressing her out. There wasn’t a gray hair anywhere on the woman’s head, but she had worry lines across her forehead. Told me I put them there, too, which was completely unfair.

I was only to blame for half of them. Three quarters at the most.

I’d debated telling her about Lukas since we’d sat down. She really didn’t need another thing to worry about right now. But on the other side of that same coin, she needed to know the deal. She didn’t have to know what he’d said when he left. Just the basic facts. I popped a cherry tomato into my mouth. “He, um…”

She looked up from her work and tapped the side of her head with her red pen. “What happened?”

I faked insult. “Why do you assume something happened? Maybe I wanted to chat with my mom about, ah…”

“What happened?” she repeated, setting the pen down.

“Did you know Dad used to be human?” It just sort of spilled out.

She didn’t seem the least bit surprised. “I knew. Yes.”

Of course she knew. Duh. “Do you know how he became a demon?”

“It’s not a topic that’s ever come up. I know your father doesn’t like to talk about it. I’ve never pushed.”

That’s where we differed. Me? I would have pushed. “Well, I can tell you. It’s simple. All it takes is a little death and some demon blood.”

“Okay…” It took a second, but when she understood what I meant, her eyes grew wide. “Demon blood—are you saying Lukas—”

I shook my head. “Not yet. But that stuff Dad said about demonic tendencies? They’re not so much tendencies as, well, realities. Lukas is turning into a demon.”

“Are you sure?”

“Dad told me. We talked the other night. Lukas has been… I think he’s having a hard time with it.”

“A hard time? Why do you think that?”

“I asked him why he didn’t tell us. He got kinda upset.”

Mom sighed and picked up the pen again. Jabbing it at me, she said, “Did you ever think he might have a reason for not telling us?” She leveled her gaze at me. “For not telling
you
?”

She knew me too damn well. “He did, and it’s a totally bogus one.”

Mom leaned back and folded her arms. “That’s your opinion.”

“But I’m right.” Actually,
she
was right, but I wasn’t ready to concede. “He didn’t want me to look at him differently. That’s crap.”

“Explain to me how that’s crap.”

“Because I’m half demon? Why would I go all judgey about him becoming one? That’s stupid.”

Annoyance crept into her expression. “Not everyone thinks like you do. You can’t be so pushy, Jessie. He would have told you when he was ready.”

“How do you know?”

That got me a good stare down. “We are talking about Lukas, right?”

Another good point.

Mom leaned across the table and brushed a chunk of hair from my face. She smiled. “You are a good person, Jessie. Independent, strong, and fiercely loyal. But you’re also hot headed like your father, and pushy like him, too. You don’t know when to back off.”

I laughed. “So you’re saying all my bad habits came from Dad?”

“Naturally. Darker genes are flawless, baby girl,” she said with a wink. “My point is, you need to give Lukas some time. This is a huge adjustment, and after everything he’s been through, he needs to deal with it in his own way.”

…

As usual, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned for over an hour before I gave up. I still had that math assignment to do for Monday, and I thought about getting it out of the way, but my mind kept coming back around to Lukas. I’d tried calling him twice, but there was no answer, and it was driving me crazy. Maybe because it was our first fight. Was it even a fight? There hadn’t been any name calling or door slamming. I had no idea what the requirements were. And after what he’d said, I didn’t know where we stood.

Before we’d maybe-fought-maybe-broken up, I’d decided to shadow over to his place when I couldn’t sleep. The option was still open, and it would give me a valid—in my opinion, at least—reason to see him.

Mind made up, I slipped from my bed and stuffed my feet into my Keds. Since Dad started hanging out at the apartment, we kept the heat turned down. Go figure. A resident of Hell wasn’t fond of the heat. The sneakers were cold, and I bit back a yelp as my toes slid inside.

I stepped away from the beam of moonlight shining in from my window and closed my eyes, focusing on the warm interior of Lukas’s new apartment. The tug started out as a small itch and built quickly to pressure. In a moment of release, I felt myself blend with the darkness, and when I opened my eyes, I was standing in a small white living room furnished with a fluffy brown armchair and matching love seat.

“Lukas?” I called, rounding the corner and starting slowly down the hall. If he was in a bad mood, the last thing I wanted was to surprise him. Everything was quiet, but it was the feel of the place that told me he wasn’t there. The lack of energy. Of life. It was almost two in the morning. I started to worry, which was stupid. Dad said demons didn’t need sleep. Maybe Lukas was at that stage. Maybe, like me, he was working off his insomnia. Just because he wasn’t here didn’t mean anything was wrong. It wasn’t like there was a half-insane, nameless demon running around with a grudge against us or anything…

Yeah.

I closed my eyes and focused on Lukas himself. The shadow was easier this time, which I found to be the case when I focused on a person instead of a place. Like driving in rush hour traffic compared to driving the open roads.

I came out at the edge of a dense forest that bordered a white Victorian-looking house. Lukas was peering through the brush, a few feet in front of me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking around. “And where exactly is
here
?”

He jumped and whirled around. “Jessie! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“I’m not sure that’s possible. You know, you being a demon and all.”

He glared at me but didn’t respond. Wedged between two large pine trees, Lukas was crouched behind a row of thick bushes. The house was dark, but every once in a while a bluish light would flicker in the front first-floor window. Like a television. Nice to know we weren’t the only ones having trouble sleeping.

“Do I wanna know why you’re skulking in the bushes outside this old house?”

He stood and brushed off his jeans. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“I could ask you the same thing. Men of your age need their rest.” I peered through the brush to get a better look. The house looked familiar, and once I realized the color was lighter and the porch had been removed, I knew exactly where we were. It was the same place in the pictures I’d seen Lukas looking at on the Scott table back at Town Hall. The one his parents had been posed in front of. “I wonder who owns it now.”

“My family still owns it. It’s been abandoned until now.”

“Until now?”

“A man named Patrick Scott recently moved in.”

“Relative?” I mean, obviously he was a relative, but I was trying to get him talking. He wasn’t having it, though.

Lukas sighed. “Really, what are you doing here?”

I shrugged and leaned back against the pine tree. “Things felt weird after you left tonight. I didn’t want to leave it like that.”

“I was abrupt, and I apologize.” He slid back down to the ground across from me. “It was childish.”

“Well, I did kind of ambush you.” I sat down across from him, leaning back against a young pine tree.

“Yes,” he said, looking back at the house through the bushes. The breeze kicked up, making the collar of his jacket flutter just a bit. “You did.”

We were quiet for a few minutes. The sound of the wind, mixed with the occasional chattering raccoon and piercing cry of a hawk, filled the silence between us.

After a few minutes, he sighed. “This is all new to me, too, you know. Not just this new power that’s brewing inside, but us. Our relationship—whatever it is.”

Whatever it is
. Ouch.

When I thought Lukas was dying, I’d said the worst of all four-letter words known to man. The most damning and the most dangerous.
I love you
. He hadn’t heard me. At least, I was pretty sure. He’d already slipped away. But they haunted me, mainly because he wasn’t as terrified of them as I was.

And as if he could see clear into my brain, Lukas took my hand and said, “Things are different for you, and I understand that. There was no playing the field in my time. You found someone, and you stayed with them. If you were lucky enough, you fell in love. I know how you feel about relationships and why, and I think
that’s
the reason I didn’t tell you.”

“Because you were worried what I’d think.”

He looked away. “What I’m becoming is as dark as the thing I shed when Wrath left me. Possibly darker.”

That hurt a little, but I shook it off. “Then I guess it’s cool that I’m part Shadow demon, huh?” I grabbed his other hand, forcing him to look at me. How could he think I’d be upset about this? “So, then we’re good. You and me? You don’t want to leave—”

His eyes went wide. “Is that what you truly thought?”

“You were so angry when you left. What you said…”

“I didn’t mean I needed to decide about you. You know how I feel.” He shook his head. “Shortly before you arrived, I found out about Patrick. I’m trying to decide what to do about him.”

Relief flooded through me, and I shook off a pang of embarrassment. He was right. I knew how he felt about me. How could I even think… “Do about him? I’d like to suggest taking whacking him off the table.”

Even in the dark, I could see his eyebrows rise in question. “Whacking?”

I sighed. My impeccable wit was lost on him. “Nothing. You mean, like get to know him?”

Lukas rolled his eyes. “I did some research. He’s the only surviving member of the Scott family.”

“Wanna know what I think?”

He sighed, but there was the smallest hint of a smile on his lips. “Why are you asking me, when we both know you’ll tell me regardless?”

“Good point. I was trying to be polite.” I grinned. “I think you should get to know him. Blood is blood. Knock on the door and introduce yourself. Big deal if you’re a million years—”

“One hundred and forty-seven.”

“Older,” I finished without missing a beat. “Mom and I will always have your back, and Dad, too, but maybe having someone blood related would help keep you grounded. Show you that you’re really not any different than you used to be. You’re improved. The new and improved Lukas Scott.”

“Maybe some day,” he said, sneaking a look back toward the house. When he turned back to me, his face was a mask of calm. “Right now there are other things to worry about. Did Klaire find anything about the demon from the mirror?”

I shivered as the wind kicked up again. The cold didn’t bother me as much since I’d started shadowing, but I wasn’t immune. I suppressed a slight shiver and said, “Nada. She’s gonna pay Cassidy another visit in the morning. I doubt it’ll get her anywhere, but she’s determined to try.”

“That woman is—” A shrill ringing filled the air. Lukas’s phone. As far as I knew, Mom and I were the only ones with the number, which could only mean…

“Yes,” he said into the speaker. A pause. “Yes. No, I understand completely. My apologies.” When he hung up, his expression was grim.

“How huge is the pile of shit I’m in?”

Lukas had been Wrath. He’d gone head-to-head with one of the most powerful witches in the world and faced off against the Seven Deadly Sins, the whole while staying brave in the face of inconceivable danger. But when it came to my mom? He was terrified—and rightly so. “I’d say you’re in pretty deep.”

Chapter Twelve

After I shadowed Lukas home, I sucked it up and shadowed myself back to the office. I popped into the main room specifically to avoid hitting Mom right off the bat, but she knew me too well. Instead of waiting in my room, she was sitting behind her desk, feet kicked up and nursing a cup of coffee.

“You know,” she said quietly. “I realize that on some level it’s unfair, but I expect more than this from you, Jessie.”

I was wrong for sneaking out, but I couldn’t help trying to defend my decision. “It’s not like I was getting horizontal in the backseat of some guy’s car.”

She stood and slammed a hand against her desk. I jumped. “That’s not my point. You and I are both very aware what crawls around out there—especially at night.”

“I can handle myself.”

She hit the desk again. This time the coffee sloshed over the edge, drops landing on a small pile of papers. “Regardless, you’re still my teenage daughter. What if something happened? I had no idea where you were.”

“Nothing was going to happen. I was with Lukas.”

Her glare was frosty. Borderline arctic. “Because that’s not an entirely different set of issues?”

“Well, look at it this way. You wanted me normal, right?” One look at her face and I knew joking wasn’t the way to go, even though I wanted so badly to push it. She’d basically asked for this. Her desire for me to go out and have a normal teenaged experience. Sneaking out was a classic staple. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about how we left things, and I needed to make it right. It was kind of our first fight. I thought he might have broken up with me, and—”

She sank back into her chair and sighed. “It couldn’t wait until morning?”

I followed her lead and sat down on the couch. “It couldn’t. You know me. I obsess. I really am sorry. I should have left a note.”

“You’re seventeen. You shouldn’t have gone at all.”

“In my defense, I’m not an average seventeen-year-old, Ma.”

She wanted to argue. The hard set of her jaw and serious glint in her eyes all but screamed it. But she sighed again, like she was tired. I felt bad for making her worry. I did it far too often, and pretty soon I’d be turning her platinum-blond hair gray.

She glanced over at the clock above the door. “Go get dressed. We need to head out to the Archway.”

“At this hour?”

Mom nodded. “Cassidy called. They found another body.”

…

The Archway was a sacred place to the coven. Equal to holy ground. Kendra once told me it was where the ashes of fallen coven witches were spread, turning the small section of earth into a place of great power. If the demon dropped a body there, it was a serious message to Cassidy. He didn’t care that her family hadn’t
conspired
with the Darkers in a long time. He was still pissed.

Cassidy stood at the edge of the clearing, in front of small stone altar. She was wrapped in a ski jacket and matching hat, and was tapping her feet in the snow. With an annoyed sigh, she said, “Good, you’re finally here.”

“Yep. The party can officially start,” I mumbled. The witch looked up, and I swore she rolled her eyes. Twice, even. “So what’s the deal?”

“You said you found another body?” Mom gestured to the ground. There was nothing there but mashed-in snow, like there’d been a lot of traffic. Or, maybe a struggle? But that was it. No body. No blood.

“It’s been taken care of,” Cassidy said. There was a momentary gleam of sadness before her expression reverted to its normal cold-as-ice.

Mom knelt down and picked up a handful of snow. After a quick inspection of the ground, she stood and faced Cassidy. “Could have been a struggle here.”

Hah! I’d known it.

Letting the handful of snow fall, she added, “Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Sandra, one of my coven members, came here to pray just before dawn. She found Alicia, another coven sister, already dead, spread on the snow before the altar. The word prison was burned into her skin.”

I jumped right in. This was serious. Two days wasn’t a long time, and we still didn’t know anything about the prison the demon wanted, much less where to find it. “Where’s the body?”

“As I said, I’ve dealt with it. I’m sure you can both appreciate that we have our own rituals and rules.”

Mom nodded and gave me a stern look. “Of course. We understand. And the cause of death?”

Cassidy’s face paled. “That demon did this.”

“I’m trying to be thorough,” Mom said. She was getting irritated. “The best way to stop this thing is to figure out what kind of demon it is. In order to do that, I need to know all possible information—like how it kills.”

Cassidy hesitated, but said nothing.

Mom folded her arms and flashed the witch her
cut-the-bullshit
glare. “Do you know what happened here? This thing obviously knows your family as well as it does mine, and if this keeps up, pretty soon you won’t have a coven left. Do you know anything about the demon or not?”

I’d been friends with Kendra forever, and it’d always been the same. Outsiders didn’t matter. Helping people in need? Nope. The only thing she cared about, the only thing that mattered, was her coven. Her power.

Her gaze rose to meet Mom’s with a spark of anger, white hot and menacing. “You,” she said, voice low and deadly. “This is
your
fault.”

For a minute, Mom was stunned silent. I was, too—and that didn’t happen often. Ever the trooper, though, Mom collected herself and pinned Cassidy with an equally frigid stare. “My fault?” she repeated, the very definition of calm. “I’m sure you won’t mind telling me why this is
my
fault.”

“Your family,” Cassidy corrected. The way she said it made the word
family
sound like a curse. “Your family and its disregard for the safety of others.”

“Disregard? We put our asses on the line to help people every—” I should have kept my mouth closed. Mom was handling this, but that was the line. Generations of Darkers put themselves at risk for the safety of others, sacrificing everything for the greater good. Hearing someone imply otherwise wasn’t going to fly.

“Jessie,” Mom snapped, then reverted back to her cucumber-cool demeanor. I wasn’t fooled, though. She was pissed. Fuming, even. The woman could keep her temper under the most insane circumstances. But question her family and all the good it had done to help people? That’s when things got messy. If I had to guess, there wasn’t much keeping her from reaching out and choking Cassidy Belfair. Horrible as it was, I would have paid good money to see that. I might have even given up chocolate for an entire month. “What does my family have to do with your dead witch?”

“I believe the demon’s name is…” She reached into her purse and pulled out a pen and jotted something onto her hand. When she lifted it, palm side up, there was a single word on her skin.

“Gress—” Mom clamped her hand across my mouth before I could get the word
Gressil
out.

Cassidy nodded. “To utter his name is to summon him. Something you do not want to do. If I’m right, Lorna Belfair helped Charles Darker enslave the demon. That’s why it wants revenge.”

Mom blinked. She looked from Cassidy to me, then back again, the right hand corner of her mouth tilting upward as the right brow did the same. “
Lorna Belfair
. You’re blaming my family—
me
—because
your
ancestor chose to do good?”

I knew Lorna Belfair, an ancestor of Kendra’s, had helped my ancestor, Simon, trap Meredith, Lukas’s crazy would-be bride, but I had no idea she’d gone on to help his brother Charles after Simon’s death.

Mom was gearing up for another round, but I had to cut in. I was as annoyed as she was, and definitely didn’t like playing the role of the reasonable one, but we needed information. This wasn’t going to get us anywhere. “He said he wanted his Lord’s prison. What do you know about that?”

“He is the Regent of Asmodeus. The information I have says that he was about to free his Master when Charles and Lorna trapped him. I can only assume he believes they hid the prison; therefore, one of our families must have it.”

Beside me, Mom actually gasped. That was never a good sign.

For the longest minute, no one said a word. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I asked, “And I take it that’s bad…”

Cassidy looked away. When she turned back, her eyes were narrow and both fists were clenched tight. “Asmodeus is one of the seven Princes of Hell. Yes. I would say that’s bad. If freed, he would do untold damage to our world.”

“And was he trapped by Lorna and the Darkers as well?
Asmodeus
?” Mom asked, a little shocked.

Cassidy let out a horrible laugh. Her lips twisted into a cruel grin as she folded her arms. “No one in this world could banish a Prince. No. It was not Lorna.” She squared her shoulders. “You should give us the prison. We can keep it safe with magic.”

“What makes you think we have it?” Mom asked casually.

“Do you?” Cassidy challenged.

“Afraid not. Do you?”

Cassidy was furious. In that moment, she looked nothing like Kendra. The right corner of her top lip curled up, almost like she was about to snarl, and she leaned toward Mom. “If I had it, would I be asking you?”

“That,” Mom said coolly. She nudged Cassidy away and took a step back. “Remains to be seen.”

It was about to become a supernaturally charged mom showdown. I looked from Cassidy to Mom. Both formidable and fear-worthy women. A sick part of me wanted to see Mom kick the witch’s ass, but since she was my best friend’s mom, that probably wasn’t the wisest idea. I had to act to cool the air. Fast. But what?

Stepping between them, I held up my hands and said, “Okay. So neither of us has this prison thingy. Maybe, instead of fighting, we should focus on finding it before he comes back to kick our asses?”

A few minutes ticked by before Cassidy sighed. “I’ll see what I can find out,” she replied, still staring at Mom. If she was attempting a stare down, she was going to lose. Mom was the reigning queen. “In the meantime, what are you going to do to keep my coven safe? Two of my sisters are dead, and I have no delusions that this demon is finished yet.”

I wanted so badly to point out that she’d tried to throw us to the dogs, or at least Gressil, back at her house when she thought it might divert his attention away from her family, but I didn’t. Helping keep Cassidy and the coven safe would help keep Kendra safe. Yep. I’d just repeat that until it sank in.

Mom backed down a bit. “This affects us, too. At the moment, our new demonic friend seems to be targeting your witches rather than coming at either of us directly. I’m betting there’s a reason behind that.”

“Of course there is,” Cassidy barked. “I love my sisters. He’s doing it to make me suffer.”

“Demons don’t work like that, Cass.” Mom shook her head. “They’re methodical. You know that. No. There’s a deeper motive here, and I think once we figure it out, we’ll have a better shot at figuring out where he’s going to pop up next.”

She turned back to me, and I cringed. I knew that look. It was uncomfortable favor time. “As much as I hate to ask this, Jessie, can you talk to Valefar? See what he knows about this demon?”

As much as
she
hated it, I hated it more. I wasn’t about to tell her I’d already tried. But, the truth was, he’d be a much better source of information than the books our family had collected over the years. Faster, too. Time to take one for the team.

Though, knowing Val, I’d be taking two or three.