Darkness Brutal (The Dark Cycle Book 1) (32 page)

The demon seems oblivious, coming for me, until the word “
nocte
”—
night
—sounds for the third time.

It stumbles back as if something struck it. A fiery breath puffs from its nose. Little fissures grow over its black, leathery skin. White and blue lights fill the cracks, a glow of power creating a halo around its body. The creature snarls and throws its head back as the air vibrates, turning to shivering ice. It disappears with a pop.

Gone.

I stare at the space where it was, amazement and relief filling me.

“Ava,” I say, looking over to her. She did that.

“He’s gone. Hopefully for a long while,” she says, short of breath, like she’s run a long way. “And its hold on Rebecca will be severed now. It won’t be able to find her again.”

Demon Lester pulls out a phone and dials. “Yeah, 911,” he says loudly. Panic fills his voice. “My friend tried to kill herself. Please! I need help! Please!”

I can hear someone on the other end say to remain calm.

“No, please! Help!” he fake cries, gives me a wink. “There’s blood all over!” And then he rattles off the address and hangs up. “Okay, so that’s done. Let’s go before that horned Hunger guy comes back.”

I stumble to Rebecca’s side. “What the hell is going on?” I ask, looking back and forth between the demon and Ava. Who exactly is in control here?

“Well,” Demon Lester says, “your sister called me up and made a deal with me: she’d come with me quietly if I answered a few questions and helped fix this mess you got yourself into. We were going to trap that creature—a more permanent solution than what just happened—so it wouldn’t tie you up with your own entrails. Even though I’d have kind of liked to see that . . .” He seems to consider for a second, and then, sounding disappointed, he says, “You, however, ruined everything by jumping me and killing this shell I’m inhabiting. So I guess ‘safe for a while’ will have to do.”

Bile fills my throat.

“You must really like this girl.” He motions to Kara’s still form beside Rebecca.

I pull my shirt off and wrap it around Rebecca’s arm. She looks so pale. Her lips are turning violet. I need to stop the flow of blood. It’s already slower, though, and her pulse is beating like butterfly wings against my fingers.

“Don’t worry, Aidan,” Ava says, sounding tired. “Lester didn’t cut deep enough to kill her quickly. He just had to make it look real.” She turns to Demon Lester. “Right?”

He shrugs, and I want to kill him again.

“How could you do this, Ava?” I ask. “What if she dies?”

“I had to,” she says, sounding small. “It was the only way to save you.”

“No. You could have talked to me. We could’ve done things together, figured it out.”

She laughs weakly. “As if you ever listen to me. I’m your
little
sister. And you don’t trust me.” She looks down at her hands. “I see it in your eyes.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Demon Lester says. “Cops are coming any second. Say your good-byes. We need to go.”

“No one’s going anywhere,” I say. I need to wrap my head around what just happened. And I need to make sure Rebecca’s all right.

“Aidan, you’re staying,” Ava says. “I’m going. With him.”

“No.”

“It’s where I belong,” she says, sounding defeated.

“Ava.” My voice cracks. She can’t be saying what I think she’s saying. She can’t have just given up. “This is insane. We’re going to figure this out, we’re going to keep you away from them. I have powers now. You don’t understand.”

She shakes her head, closing the grimoire and putting it back in her bag of secrets. “I love you for thinking we can fix this together. But it’s
you
who doesn’t understand.”

“I do, Ava. Please—”

Our gazes lock, and the pain in her eyes makes my throat clench shut, stopping my words.

“I made a deal,” she says. “It’s for the best. I’m not a part of this world, Aidan. I never was. Our mom made sure of that.”

“You’re a part of me.”

She gives me a shadow of a smile. “This is all going to work out. You’ll see. It’s how it was always supposed to happen.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You will.” She leans over and kisses my cheek. “Remember what I said. I saw it, Aidan. And I’m never wrong.”

The sound of sirens fills the air.

Demon Lester stands with her, points at the slice in his neck, and says, “Catch you on the flip side,” before heading down the stairs and slipping out the back door.

Ava follows him.

“Please,” I say. “Don’t do this.” I can’t let her go. What if Sid is right? What if she’s some key to Death’s gateway? More than that, I need my sister to be safe.

She pauses when she’s halfway down the stairs. “You belong here, Aidan. With her.” I start to rise, but she holds up a hand. “If you let go of her right now, she’ll die.”

Confusion and disbelief keep me captive. I’m unable to move. And then Ava’s at the bottom of the staircase, slipping into the shadows of the kitchen as the banging on the door begins.

FORTY-TWO

Chaos. That’s the only word for what happens next.

The cops come through the open door when I don’t answer their warning shouts. The paramedics slip in and surround Rebecca and Kara, pushing me to the side as they ask a million questions I can’t answer.

They lose Rebecca’s heartbeat for a second, and there are shouts and needles and people pressing at her chest, her head lolling to the side. They try to wake Kara as a cop pulls me down the stairs, grilling me about the blood in the entryway, the bodies on the landing.

I say nothing. I’m still seeing it all in my head: the two girls limp and lifeless, the blade cutting into Rebecca’s skin, my own knife killing Lester, Ava disappearing into the shadows.

She made a deal.

I stare at Rebecca as they wrap her arm in white gauze, knowing my sister brought the darkness that nearly killed two innocent girls.

But I’m no better. I killed Lester. Poor, kind Lester.

I killed.

“Yo!” yells one of the cops. “I’ve got another one outside.”

I wonder if Lester’s body is out there, lying in the grass, abandoned by the demon. But after a few seconds, two paramedics walk in, Sid limping between them. He has blood running down his face. Lester must’ve gotten to him, too.

Someone leads him to a kitchen chair. And then the questions begin all over again.

It’s a good thing Sid got me that new identity. And that he’s got a really good lawyer. The cops release me on the scene when Kara vouches for me, fingering Lester for the mess. We can’t leave the area, and I’m still a person of interest, but they seem to believe that I was an innocent witness to it all. But Lester’s a teen fugitive. And I’m free. Even though I killed him.

I killed Lester.

Rebecca’s in stable condition, they say, but they won’t let me see her. She’s a runaway. A troubled girl in need of help. They believe she tried to kill herself. While we wait in the ER, one of the nurses takes pity on me and says she’ll tell Rebecca that I wanted to talk to her but wasn’t allowed. She also says she’ll give me phone updates, let me know which room Rebecca’s transferred to, if I ask for the nurse by name when I call.

Kara is released after a check by the doctor. She’s only a little bruised up. Apparently Demon Lester drugged both the girls so they would stay under, but there aren’t any lasting effects. When Kara follows us out of the ER several hours later, she’s quiet and heavyhearted. It’s obvious whatever Lester did or said to her before I came into the house wounded her more than just physically.

Sid is bandaged up and looks like he got an anvil dropped on his head. While he’s waiting for his clean bill of health, he calls Eric at the club for help. Well into the night the three of us finally leave the hospital in a state of exhaustion. We don’t talk about what happened; we don’t talk about what’s next. Because it’s obvious we lost before we even started fighting.

Eric sends his car to pick us up. He’s having the house “cleaned” and the protections strengthened again, but it’ll be a few days before we can go back since it’s now a crime scene. Apparently Sid called Connor and told him to bring the other kids to SubZero.

When everyone has arrived, we convene at the bar. Kara explains in a shaky voice what happened. She sounds like someone else, not the Kara who threatened to kick my ass a million times. Hearing her describe how Lester grabbed her, how he drugged her, makes me ill. And she doesn’t even know everything. She only knows up to the point in the tale where she blacked out—before I came in. She does know that Lester was possessed, though. She said she could tell that when he first attacked her.

Holly is curiously silent. I don’t have to ask if she had an inkling that something was up before today, with all the adventures she and my sister went on. I’ll be asking her very soon why she did nothing, said nothing, and allowed this all to happen as the result. But now’s not the time. I’m too raw, too angry.

The others look to me to fill in the blanks after Kara’s done, but I can only shake my head and tell them I don’t know anything. Because I don’t. Not really. I’m not about to tell them that my sister’s chosen to embrace darkness, something she believes will save me, something she thinks is inevitable. I won’t say that Lester is now a walking corpse because of me. When they ask about Ava, I can’t speak. Sid seems to understand, but I know he’ll be grilling me later. It won’t matter. There’s no way out of this mess now.

My head spins. I failed. I didn’t protect her. She made her choice. Just like our mom.

The meeting ends when they realize I’m useless and Sid seems disinclined to push me, which I’m thankful for.

Eric says he’ll pay for a few hotel rooms for us, and we end up heading over to stay at a five-star place off Avenue of the Stars, next to Nakatomi Plaza—from
Die Hard
(exclamation point), as Jax won’t stop reminding me. I’m stuck in a room with Finger and Jax—who I’m now sharing a bed with, apparently.

As we settle in the room, Jax can’t seem to shut up or stop asking questions that I don’t want to answer. I finally make my escape and go downstairs to the patio to sit by the pool. It’s quiet now. Still. Only the lingering smell of sunscreen and chlorine fills the air. The sun sets a bright orange fire along the horizon as night swiftly approaches.

I’m not surprised when Sid finds me after an hour or so. He grips his cane as he walks toward me. The bandage on his head is stark against his now sallow complexion.

He sits beside me and releases a long breath. “I need you to tell me what happened, Aidan.”

“I’d rather not talk right now.” I’d rather pretend it never happened at all.

“Your sister’s birthday is tomorrow.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore.” I can’t help the bitterness in my voice. “It’s done.”

“So this
was
about her.”

I rest my head in my hands with a groan. “This was about a million things I can’t understand. Like why I was born in the first place, or why my mother made some mystery deal with a demon that’s now being paid off by my little sister who didn’t do anything to deserve her fate except to be born.”

“I know this is difficult—”

“No. You really don’t.”

“Aidan, I want to help. We have to figure this out.”

I lean back, looking up at the sky. “I’m done trying.”

“But the scrolls said—”

“I don’t give a shit what some ancient scroll says. She is my
sister
. I love her. And she made a choice.” Just like my mom.

“If the door is opened, Aidan, it will be more than your sister’s soul at stake.”

“
If the door is opened?
” My frustration turns to rage. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to save people that didn’t want to be saved! I’ve done
everything
to stop something that was inevitable. And I failed. Every. Time.” I take in a shaky breath. “If it’s the end of the world, there’s nothing I can do anymore. I’ll watch it burn.”

I expect him to argue, to fight and say I’m wrong, but instead he leans back, looking a hundred years old. After a few minutes of silence he says, “I’m so sorry. I’ve been a fool. A prideful fool. The way I’ve gone about this was all wrong. Please believe I never wanted anyone to be hurt. I wish I could’ve helped you save your sister, stopped what happened today. If I’d only gone through the front door instead of the yard, maybe . . .”

The smell of his guilt filters into the air like a muggy fog. My anger dissipates a little. “You wouldn’t have been able to stop it,” I say.

He shakes his head. “I should’ve told you right away, told you everything. Maybe then you would’ve trusted me more, and maybe I could’ve helped your sister.”

“No. She made her choice.”

“I truly am sorry, Aidan,” he mumbles again.

We sit there together, both of us lost in what might have been, if only . . .

I don’t dare think about what
will
be
. If those scrolls really were referring to Ava, it seems fitting for the end to begin now. I can’t even fathom my life if she’s truly lost to me. And she knew it was coming. She’d known since that day in the trees, when I went to her after I’d saved Rebecca—she knew everything had changed.

I wanted to save her. To protect her like Mom told me to. Instead, all I did was watch her fall.

An hour or so later Sid stands up, telling me he has to go sleep in his shed, but that if I need anything I should call him. He says he’ll be back at the hotel in the morning, and we’ll talk more then and make a plan, but I have no idea how that’ll help. He hands me his key card.

“I may return in the morning to use the room,” he explains, “but there’ll be an extra bed in there if you want it.” And then he walks away.

I decide to call Rebecca’s ER nurse at the hospital and take her up on her offer for information. It’s only been a few hours, but my nerves won’t let me relax. When the woman gets on the phone she says she remembers me and that she told Rebecca’s dad that I called 911 and saved her life. Not true, but whatever.

“Her father will be here in the morning from Paris,” she says, sounding motherly. “If you’d like, I can give him your number, in case he’d like to thank you personally.”

I’m not sure what to say. “Um . . . sure. Yeah, I guess that’s fine.” Probably not, but I don’t want my connection with Rebecca to be severed. Thinking about that now makes me panic.

“She was asking for you,” the nurse says.

“When can I see her?”

“I’m not sure, sweetie. That’s up to her father.”

“Then tell her I’ll come to her as soon as I can.” I wish I knew when. It suddenly seems important to keep her close.

I thank the nurse, hang up, and walk through the lobby, heading for the front of the hotel. I leave through the tall glass sliding doors, walking past the valet staff and up the street toward what looks like an outdoor mall. Maybe the crowds will help me hide from everything in my head.

The sounds of a concert filter out from across the street where there’s an outdoor stage. Hundreds of partygoers in expensive clothes crowd the sidewalks. The city is full of color and light, as if nightfall actually brings it to life. Excitement has a savory zing to it, like a warm summer night. Joy, an earthy urgency that catches you by the heart and makes you feel like dancing. And lust . . . lust is a rich spice that fills the head, making you drunk on the aroma. It all swirls in the air, coating me, and I welcome it.

There’s a demon hunched in a shadow across the street, but I can ignore it this time. I’ll be just another body, another face in the masses. I can pretend I’m not the boy who can see a lie in your eyes or smell your emotions. I’m not an experiment of fate—the boy who can touch demons. Or the boy who may have a half-demon sister.

I am No One.

“Aidan,” comes a male voice in the crowd. I turn and see Connor and Kara walking toward me through the mass of people.

They look like a couple. He has his arm on her shoulders.

It’s hard to look at them.

Kara doesn’t seem to want to catch my eye; she gazes off into the crowd as they approach.

“Hey, you okay?” Connor asks, sliding his hand to hers.

I pause, studying Kara. “Sure.”

“We’re heading back. Do you want to walk with us?” he asks.

I shake my head. “I just left. Getting air.”

Why won’t Kara look at me? She keeps her eyes down or on the people passing by.

Connor nods. “We’ll see you back at the hotel, then.”

“Kara.” I say her name so she’ll have to acknowledge me.

She blinks up at me. And that’s when I smell it, even over the mass of sensory input from the people around us—her fear. It’s in her eyes, too.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She swallows. Gives a shaky nod.

“She’s fine,” Connor says.

I act like he didn’t say anything and move closer to her, ready to ask again, to hear her say it herself, but she steps back a little, and my gut sinks.

“Why don’t you walk back with Aidan,” Connor says to her. “Then you guys can talk.”

Kara looks like she’s going to protest, but instead she says, “Sure,” through clenched teeth.

Connor leans over and gives her a kiss on the cheek. It feels like he’s trying to make a point. When he glances at me I know I’m right—he smells like a protective brother as he walks by and disappears into the crowds.