Crux (The Aurora Lockette Series) (16 page)

“
You are grounded,” Sam said.

I opened my eyes.
“I’m really hungry.”

He laughed and
looked more human when he did. “Let us practice moving back and forth, and perhaps you can fly us back so you can eat.”

“
Let’s.” I wiggled my toes, enjoying one last second in flesh, then called Spirit to me.

GAVYN

She’d been gone for a few minutes now. I had to trust her to be safe, but the thought of her out there in the world, invisible, made me feel ill. I just got her back
, and I hated to have her away from me again.

When I was done being a useless lump
and feeling sorry for myself, I finally pushed out of the chair and went back to the war room. The house was filling up with people; I saw them everywhere I went. I didn’t know how big this estate was, but it was getting smaller and smaller.

The formal sitting room had made a complete transformation. There were three long rows of tables pushed together, covered with phones and laptops. All the couches and chairs lined the edge of the room. Men and women filled all the spaces, talking on their phones and working on laptops and tablets. In the middle of it all was Dennis, Konstantin, and Carmen.

Carmen waved at me when I come in. “Hey!”

“
Hi,” I said.

She looked at me, then back down
. “Where is she?” She leaned back to look behind me.

“
They, um, disappeared into the Spirit thing.”

Her eyes widened.
“So he was right? I wish I could’ve sensed it, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even sense it on Sam when I met him the first time; I just knew there was something special about him.”

I tried to smile, but I don’t think it worked.
“What’s going on here?”

She smiled.
“What isn’t going on here? We’re coordinating flights and drivers and airport pick-ups. We’re deploying commercial grade tents to hold the troops on Abel’s land. We’re getting food and water supplies ready to feed our people.”

“
It seems like this is all happening very fast,” I said.

“
We’ve always had Code White plans drafted up and revisited every year. It’s one of the most important things that Dennis does. There’s always been a feeling that it would come to this.”

“
This?” I glanced around the room at the very tough looking men and women around us. “What is this?”

“
This is war,” Carmen said.

My nerves were a bundle, winding tighter and tighter.
“I don’t want her to face this right now.”

Carmen put down the cell phone she was holding.
“I don’t either, but we don’t have a choice.” She led me over to one of the couches pushed against the wall. She sat down and patted the cushion next to her. “Abel has been pulling research on Mesopotamia and ancient demons. Asag was known as a rock demon, true, but he was also known to have the ability to make people sick and die. If he can make people sick, and he plans to do a cleansing to wipe out the entire world, that is some serious business.”

I sat.
“But why? What is the point?”

Abel appeared beside us
, a stack of thick books in the crook of his arms. He pushed his glasses up and said, “I believe that Asag can open a portal to the underworld. The underworld will come out into this world. It would be the end of times, so to speak, that has been written in many cultures. His second wife, Ki, has been trapped there for centuries, and they will reunite.”

He was right. That sounded terrible.
“What exactly is the underworld? Hell?”

“
Maybe. Let’s not find out.” He handed a book to me, then walked away. The pages of the book were opened to an illustration of a horned beast covered with scales. The caption read, “Demons of the Underworld.”

“
Bloody hell.” I slammed the book shut and stuck it in the couch cushions. “We are screwed.”

Carmen patted my arm.
“We’re not screwed.”

I looked up at her with my eyebrow raised.
“Okay,” she said. “Maybe we’re a little screwed.” She smiled, and I was glad she was here. She made me miss my parents, safe in London. Well, safe for now. Maybe not for much longer.

I stood from the couch.
“I need to do something. I can’t just sit here.”

“
I’m sure Dennis will be happy to put you to work.” One more pat on my shoulder, and then she was gone.

Dennis was in the cluster of tables, quietly giving orders to the people around him. I was not surprised to see Aubrey in the mix of it. I was even less surprised to see that she appeared to be managing an ever growing pile of ammo, explosives, and firearms.

“I see you found your niche,” I said.

She looked up from the large machine gun she was cleaning.
“I can’t sit still anymore.” She wiped her hands on her jeans, leaving a little gun grease behind. “If I just sit there, I’ll worry and worry about Aurora. And I can’t stop her from doing what needs to be done.”

“
I know.”

She field stripped the gun at astonishing speed while she talked.
“I know we just got her back, but we have to let her go. She’s important to the world.”

“
I will not let her go. I will protect her. I’m going to marry her and give you grandbabies.”

Aubrey laughed, almost dropping the parts in her hand.
“Please do.”

Her smile faded and mine did too. The pain from Aurora’s
kidnapping was still fresh in our minds and the knowledge that we would soon be fighting a horde of evil creatures was almost too much to feel like smiling about anything.

I turned away, leaving her to her thoughts and me to mine.

“Hey,” I said Dennis. I found him hunched over a topographical map.

“
Good, there you are. You need to memorize this map.” He smoothed out the wrinkles on the map with his finger. “This is the area of the desert where Aurora said Asag is.” He pointed to it, drawn in a dotted green square. “This is where our men and women will be mobilizing.”

He handed me a rolled up map.
“This is the latest map of the underground cave system. I suggest you memorize all of this.”

“
I will, but why?”

“
Because your fiancé will be in the middle of all of this very soon, and you need to be able to find her.”

He went back to his planning, picking up a beeping walkie-talkie and speaking through it.

I pulled up a chair, smoothed out the maps of the caves, and started reviewing them. If I could memorize movie scripts, I could certainly memorize a map.

AURORA

By the time Sam and I returned to the mansion, I was pretty good at slipping in and out of Spirit. I didn’t like it like I did flying, but I could do it.

I was hungry and thirsty.
All I could think about was eating and drinking something—anything. I headed straight to the kitchen. I turned to Sam to see if he wanted something to eat, too, but he was already gone.

Weird.

I found the kitchen on the other side of the house from the war room. It was massive, filled with gleaming stainless steel appliances, double stoves, and beautiful brass cookware hanging from a giant rack.

I started with a few glasses of water to get my body hydrated, then dug into the food. The refrigerator was stocked full of milk, cheese, fruits, juices
, and meats. The pantries were also stuffed with dried goods, grains, and cereals.

Soon, I was full again
, and I missed Gavyn.

I felt terrible for leaving him alone so soon after being reunited with him, but I had no choice. My molecules demanded his presence, so I went in search of him.

I found him in the war room, drinking a soda, hunched over a table with maps strewn in front of him. He stopped occasionally to make notes on a laptop, concentration etched on those perfect features.

My
heart dropped a little in my chest. He was in danger because of me. He should be in L.A., living his movie-star life, relaxing in his home, partying with his co-stars, not hunched over strange maps with his life tied to a non-human freak like me.

But I pushed those thoughts aside. I deserved to be loved like this, and I treated him well and loved him to the stars and back
. It wasn’t our fault that we were what we were.

He looked up,
and his lips curved into that perfect grin he saved just for me. The late afternoon light caught his amber eyes and skin, and danced through his shiny black hair.

Damn
. My insides lurched.

Focus
.

I hugged him first, then kissed his lips, because I always will. I didn’t know if tomorrow would arrive, or where it would find us.

I kept our hands together. “We need to huddle up,” I said to Dennis.

“
Agreed,” he said gruffly. “Are you um, Spirit?”

“
Yes.”

His shoulders rolled back.
“You might save us all.” He raised his voice so the whole room could hear. “Gather ‘round please!”

People dropped what they were doing and tightened around us.

“Where are we at on numbers?” I asked.

“
Two-thousand confirmed by tomorrow at 1600 hours. Thirty discrete squadrons, from just about every country you can think of,” Dennis said.

“
What about the civilians? Should we try and contact the government?” I asked.

Dennis eyes
moved from me to someone behind me. “They know of us, already. We need to bring them some concrete evidence before they will commit to sending forces.”

“
All right. We can do that,” I said.

“
Can you brief us on what you know?” Dennis said.

“
Yes.”

So
I shared every piece of knowledge I had with everyone in that room. I started with the beginning, walking them through their treatment of me and every word the Shyama revealed about the cleansing, upper and lower demons, everything.

As I spoke, the tight circle of my kind around me spilled out of the room as more people came in to hear me speak. They had all heard legends that we were ancient creatures. They had all suspected we
were much the same.

But we all knew we
were good and right. We chose to walk in the light.

People shouted out ideas and suggestions, and they were good ones. We had a capable army, we had weapons, and we had great powers, beyond anything I could have expected. We had Shifters, Blockers, Sensitives, Spirits, Earth Movers and Telekinetics. We even had a shy young woman from Romania that could fold light and time.

I had hope.

We dispersed
; everyone had a task.

Tomorrow we would attack.

GAVYN

We’d met for almost three hours. Aurora held everyone’s attention perfectly, detailing all she’d learned during her captivity. Abel interjected with historical and cultural references, and by the end, I felt like we had pretty good handle on what we were fighting.

The room was crowded with people. They all wanted to hear her talk. They lapped up her knowledge—it was what they had always wanted—to know exactly what they were.

By the time the crowd dispersed, it was late. It was dark outside, and I was exhausted. I grabbed a slice of pizza that some kind soul had ordered. I noticed
, with relief, that Aurora had eaten a few slices, too.

Aurora hugged her mom good night, announced she was tired, and we left. Abel took us to a bedroom
on the fourth floor, and a few minutes later, a woman showed up with the suitcase Aurora’s mom had packed from the last safe house.

Finally, we were alone.

Aurora sat in the windowsill, chugging a bottle of water. She pushed her hair out of her face and stared into the crescent moon that hung in the sky. She was still wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and her hair was pulled back loosely. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back.

She didn’t know I was staring at her so intensely, so she was not self-conscious at all.

But I was very, very aware of her.

Her curves pushed through her shirt, meandered down the small of her back, and gave shape to her rear and thighs. Maybe it was because I knew precisely how beautiful the body underneath the cotton and denim was, but I’d never wanted her so bad
. I’d never needed her skin against mine as much as I did in that moment.

I sat across from her
on the wide windowsill. “Are you okay?”

She dropped her chin and opened her big, dark, gray eyes.
“Yeah, I think so. It’s been a crazy day. A crazy week.”

“
It has.”