Bloodlines (23 page)

He didn’t respond. Then I felt his arms wrap around me and his head rest on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, it just…shocked me. It’s not every day you hear someone tell you she is related to the queen of Hell,” he said. “I don’t care what’s in you – you’re still you.”

“I’m not related,” I corrected, turning to face him.

“Her blood runs through your veins, her power is in you. You’re connected to her – somehow.”

“Come on you two!” We heard Jake shout. “You’ve been down there longer than half an hour; we’re waiting for you.”

“We’re coming,” Tyler shouted back. “Set the table up.”

“Ok, hurry up.”

“Look, let’s just go and be normal; we can talk about this tomorrow. We’ll go out somewhere on our own again,” he said. “Somewhere no one will hear us.”

“Like where? The only place safe enough to talk about this is down here.”

“Well, then we’ll come back here.”

I agreed with him and we went to find Lily and Jake in the games room.

Chapter 21

Surrounded

“Are we playing doubles?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

“I’m with you,” Tyler said, passing me a cue.

Jake was right; he was a very good player, but I was good too. After four games we were tied.

“Ok, best of five,” I said.

“You’re on,” Jake and Lily said.

It was a very quick game and much to Jake’s and Lily’s disgust, Tyler and I won.

“Ha!” I laughed. “Looks like we’re the better players.”

“Oh shut up, I bet you cheated,” Lily said.

“Rubbish, just admit defeat.”

“Never!” She laughed.

“Feel like a beer anyone?” Jake asked, going to the bar.

We all got a drink, turned the music on and sat on the black leather sofas facing the pool table.

“Shame the others aren’t here, we could have kicked their ass’s too,” I smirked at Tyler.

“Oh shut up,” said Lily again, throwing one of the cushions from the sofa at me. “We’ll beat you next time.”

“It’s nice to be able to chill out like this,” Jake said before taking a mouthful of his drink. “Remind me to have a room like this when I get my own place.”

“I love this house,” I told him. “I’m so glad I decided to move in.”

“So are we.”

“Are you two ok?” Lily asked, looking at me and Tyler in turn.

“We’re fine,” Tyler said plainly. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

“Ok, once again that means no. Come on, Jake,” she said, standing up.

“Where you off to?” I asked.

“We’re going to leave you two to talk. You obviously need to, so don’t come down until your both smiling again.”

She grabbed Jake’s hand and led him out of the room closing the door behind them. There was no point in arguing with her, her mind was made up.

Tyler sat there staring in front of him.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked him as I turned to face him.

“Nothing.”

“Why won’t you look at me?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I don’t want to.”

“Fine, this is a waste of time!” I said, getting up.

“Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“Where?”

“For a drive.”

As I started to open the door he jumped in front of me.

“What?” I said impatiently.

“How can you ask me what’s wrong?” he started. “Like you don’t already know.”

“What do you want me to say to you, Tyler?”

“Just answer me one question,” he said, looking into my eyes. “Should I try to stop liking you so much?”

“That’s up to you,” I turned from him.

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“That’s the only answer I’m giving.”

I tried to get past him to leave the room, but he grabbed me and pinned me against the wall. He brought his hand up to the side of my face and looked at me for a moment, then moved his head forward as though to kiss me.

He wasn’t even an inch away from me when Lily burst through the door.

“Keira, something’s happening, quick!” She said as she grabbed my arm and dragged me downstairs.

She ran with me down the stairs and through the hall, straight to Jake who was standing in the front doorway. Tyler was right behind us.

“What is…?”

I didn’t need to finish my sentence – there in my front garden was the answer.

“What the hell!” Tyler said.

In front of us were hundreds of creatures, more than hundreds – thousands. All of them different shapes and sizes. When I looked up I couldn’t see the sky at all – winged creatures, some of them like small dragons, others like monkeys but with wings like bats, blocked out the view of the clouds above them. It was as though they themselves were the clouds. All of them were hovering around my house and the surrounding grounds. The noise from their wings sounded like very loud thunder.

The creatures in front of us looked like a demonic army. Some looked relatively human, standing line after line, in perfect formation surrounding the house. Each had some kind of weapon in its hand, some with swords or huge axes, others with maces that were easily half the size of me. They varied in size, from around three feet to easily over twice the height of me. Some of the others on the ground looked like monsters and stood there snarling, baring their large teeth. They looked ferocious, fearless, terrifying…

Three creatures made their way through the crowd. Two of them stopped a few feet in front of the army. The one in the middle came forward a little more, obviously the leader. These were different from all the others. The two either side had a human shape, but they were heavily armored so I couldn’t see their faces. The one at the front was smaller than them, without any armor. He stood there looking to either side of him. He wore a long black coat, open and swaying at the bottom in the light breeze; what looked like leather trousers, not too tight; a black top and big, black-leather and metal boots. He turned to look at me. That was when I noticed his eyes – they were glowing bright red.

“Keira, what do we do?” Lily asked in a shaky voice.

“Nothing.”

“What?” Jake whispered. “We can’t fight all these, Keira.”

“We don’t have to. They’re not here to fight us.”

“How do you know?” Tyler asked.

“Look at them – they haven’t moved in all this time. If they wanted to kill us we’d be dead by now,” I said.

I started to walk slowly towards the leader.

“No, Keira...” The three of them whispered.

“Keira, please,” Lily pleaded.

“It’s ok,” I told them.

I walked until I was only a few feet away from the leader. He was head and shoulders taller than me and was abnormally gorgeous. His skin was perfect and his long black hair fell around the side of his face. I looked up into his eyes and all the fear I had just moments ago left me. He seemed to bow his head to me slightly, before he looked at me once more, and then he and the whole hellish army faded away.

I stood there with my back to Lily and the others for a moment, staring out into the now visible sky.

“What the hell was that?” Jake said grabbing my arm tight.

“Ouch, you’re hurting me. Let go!” I said, trying to get my arm free.

“No, what was that? Who were they?”

“I don’t know,” I cried, still trying to free my arm.

“Get off her!” Tyler thundered, pushing him away from me. “Don’t hurt her!”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to grip you so tight. Forgive me, I’m sorry,” he said as he walked over and hugged me. “I’m really sorry, Keira.”

“It’s ok,” I told him, ending the hug. “I don’t know who they are, or what they were doing here.”

“We need to tell the others,” Jake pulled out his phone. “We need to warn them.”

“I don’t think they need to worry about them – I don’t think they meant us harm.”

“Maybe they were sent to scare us,” Tyler said.

“Maybe,” I said, walking back in to the house, grinning to myself again. The others followed behind.

Jake got on the phone to Lucian and Danny. He put them on speakerphone so we could all talk to them.

“I’m telling you, I’ve never seen anything like it. Not even on the TV,” Jake said, pacing up and down. “In a way it was breathtaking. I couldn’t take my eyes of them all. But I tell you, I’ve never been so frightened in my life.”

“We’ll keep our eyes open. If we see anything we’ll call you,” Lucian said.

“Keira, I can’t believe you were stupid enough to walk up to them,” Danny shouted through the phone.

“I couldn’t help it. Besides there’s no harm done,” I shouted back.

“Right, I don’t want arguing,” Lily shouted. “Just keep in touch. We’re hanging up now. See you tomorrow,” then she cut them off. “That solves that, doesn’t it?” She said, before walking out of the room.

Jake and Tyler sat down and stared at me, so I walked out of the room and went back into the cellar. I wanted to put all the information I’d found up to now together. I carried on looking for more details about Lilith and what the deal Elizabeth made with her was. But I found nothing. In the end I got so frustrated I had to go back up into the house.

When I went back upstairs I found Lily alone in the kitchen. Jake and Tyler had left. She said they didn’t want to disturb me and that they would speak to me tomorrow.

“I’m thinking of calling Sofia to see if she wants to come and look at the garden this weekend,” I said.

“Why not? She said you’d be curing boredom. I’m glad you said the weekend; it would be nice to meet her. Oh, don’t forget, I’m not here tomorrow. All the stock is being brought to the music store.”

“Oh brilliant.”

“I thought I’d told you.”

“Maybe you did; I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, sorry.”

“It’s ok. Jake will be with me obviously and I think Lucian is coming to help him with something. He did tell me what but I wasn’t really listening,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

‘So that means I’ve got Tyler and Danny to put up with then.”

“I don’t know. Tyler didn’t say he was coming around tomorrow. Normally he does.”

“Well, I’m calling his mom,” I told her before getting my phone.

When I called Sofia she sounded really pleased to hear from me and said that she would love to come around. I heard Tyler say hi to her when he walked in. When she told him who was on the phone, I heard him ask her to pass it over to him. I told her to come around any time she liked, and then she put Tyler on.

“Hey, Keira,” he said.

“Hey, your mom’s coming over this weekend; she wants to do my garden.”

“I know, she’s just walked off with a big smile on her face.”

“She won’t be smiling when she sees the state of it.”

“Oh I wouldn’t be too sure,” he told me. “Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t say bye; I thought you were busy.”

“Don’t worry about it. Are you coming around here tomorrow?”

“If you want me to I will. I haven’t got anything else planned. What are you doing now?”

“Not much. I got too annoyed in the cellar so I’ve given up for the night.”

“It’s only nine o’clock. Do you want to go for a drink somewhere?”

“Yeah, but I don’t like the thought of leaving Lily on her own.”

“Bring her with you.”

“She’s in her pajamas.”

“Ok fair enough. Well, call me if you change your mind.”

I put the phone down and turned around to see Lily glaring at me, one eyebrow raised.

“What?” I asked, giving her a funny look.

“Tyler obviously asked you out. Why are you making me the excuse not to go out with him?” She said, folding her arms.

“I was being serious actually. After everything that’s happened lately and all that before, I don’t like leaving you.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll tell Jake to come back. He can bring his things with him and stay the night,” she smirked.

“Oh I see, so what you actually mean is, piss off, Keira, I want a night in with my boyfriend.”

“No…”

“Call him first. If he comes over I’ll go out.”

I waited until she called him. I don’t know why; I already knew he would jump at the chance to stay with her. So I called Tyler back.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hi, do you still want to go out,” I asked.

“Yeah, Danny’s just rang. He and Lucian are at
Heaven and Hell
– it’s a rock club on the outskirts of the new town. Do you fancy meeting them with me?”

“Sounds good.”

“Right, well I’ve got to get changed, then I’ll order a taxi. I should be with you in about twenty minutes.”

I ran upstairs to get changed myself. Lily followed behind me.

“Finally I get to go to a rock club,” I told her. “I didn’t think they’d have something like that around here.”

“Poor Tyler,” she said with a grin.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you dressing like you did when we went out in West Chester?”

“Of course, that’s how I feel comfortable.”

“His tongue is going to hit the floor,” she laughed. “Did I hear him right – is Lucian there too?”

“He and Danny.”

“Ok, I’ll correct myself – Tyler and Lucian’s tongues will hit the floor.”

I didn’t have long to get ready so I got changed while she was talking to me. I decided to wear my tight leather pants, with my knee-high new rock boots that had metal skulls running up the sides of them and thick metal heals and grills on the front; two studded belts that I let hang on my hips instead of putting them through the belt loops on my pants; my low-cut strappy black top with a silver skull on the front and, of course, my thigh-length black leather coat. I decided to make an effort because I hadn’t been out like this for a while. So while Lily straightened out the few kinks I had in my hair, I put my make-up on. Not much, just black mascara and eyeliner with a bit of dark-grey eye shadow.

“How do I look?” I asked, giving her a twirl.

“Gorgeous, it’s nice to see you dressing like you used to again.”

“I’ve missed it. This is the real me. I think I might have to let loose again,” I laughed.

There was a knock at the door, so I grabbed my coat and my black coffin handbag and made my way downstairs. When I opened the door Tyler stood waiting for me. He was wearing his black jeans, with a black satin shirt, his black boots and a black leather biker jacket. He looked gorgeous.