Endless (32 page)

Lincoln whistled. ‘I see you found the key,’ he said, but his attention was on the same thing as mine. The now-open basement revealed a surprisingly modern vault-style space containing pretty much every weapon imaginable. If I’d thought Father Peters was well stocked – his collection looked like the local convenience store in comparison to Evelyn’s supercentre.

Circling
the large stainless steel table in the centre of the room, I marvelled. I didn’t even think flamethrowers actually existed outside of the movies. And not just that, boxes of grenades, plastic explosives, swords, knives, daggers – hell, there were even two machine guns on the wall. I gasped when I opened the first of many drawers that were filled with different currencies and what looked like stock sheets.

‘Impressive.’

‘I never want to get on your mum’s bad side,’ Lincoln countered.

My senses were drawn to a more discreet row of daggers. Discreet but powerful. ‘Grigori blades,’ I said.

Lincoln came up behind me, his body so close I could feel his warmth and a faint smell of car grease.

‘Evelyn and Jonathan were around a long time. I imagine they made some of these blades using shavings from their own daggers like Samuel does.’

I nodded. Samuel was a weapons expert. He used small metal shavings from his own dagger to mix into silver for new weapons. It took only the smallest amount of Grigori metal to enhance ordinary weapons to entirely new levels. It didn’t make them as powerful as a pure Grigori blade, but good nonetheless for back-up.

‘But some of these are the real deal,’ Lincoln went on, fascinated. ‘Possibly blades of fallen Grigori or maybe those who retired.’

‘But
I thought they were supposed to disappear once a Grigori dies?’

I felt him shrug behind me and found it increasingly difficult to concentrate.

‘Some people say that if another Grigori is there at the time one of us falls it can be claimed by the other. The reason they usually disappear is more to prevent them getting into the wrong hands.’

My mouth was dry. ‘So, I guess she was around a lot of Grigori who died, then.’

‘Not hard to believe, since she was chasing Lilith for so long.’

I felt a pang of sadness for my mother. It couldn’t have been much of a life for her, following in the wake of Lilith’s destruction for so many years.

And then she tied herself to Lilith indefinitely … for me
.

Lincoln reached around me, his arm pressing my side as he touched one of the blades. ‘Hmm …’ he said, low, throaty.

Oh, good God. Was that for the blade or for me?

A silence filled the room, both of us now acutely aware of our close proximity. We always worked hard to keep a certain distance, but sometimes it felt like we’d been tricked. Like some cosmic set-up had toyed with us and then, there we were.

Same upending feelings.

Same uncontrollable desire.

Same heart-wrenching longing.

Same ruinous consequences.

I waited for Lincoln to step away.

My eyes rolled back as I breathed him in again. I could feel his power swirling, and vaguely wondered why it wasn’t pummelling into me yet.

His arm
slipped away from the dagger and I braced for the inevitable separation.

But instead, his arm grazed my side slowly and his hand came to rest on my hip. I froze.

He’ll move away any moment
.

When I heard him take a deep breath, the sound vibrated through my body and my head swayed back. His other hand braced my shoulder and a thrill ran down my spine, my body warming as his fingers moved into my hair, pushing it aside so that I could feel his warm breath on my exposed neck.

Heaven
.

Hell
.

My heart raced. He was warmth and sun and everything that felt right in my world. I wanted it so much, like I’d never wanted anything in my life before. Everything. His touch, his lips, his heart, his … soul. God help me, I wanted it all.

Mine
.

I let my shoulders roll back, tilting my head, inviting him.

His lips grazed my shoulders, travelling towards the curve of my neck, his other hand moving up my arm slowly, thoughtfully.

I locked my knees tight and closed my eyes, feeling the thrill of his lips on my skin and the heat from every deep breath.

He kissed me just below my ear and I thought I might faint from the feeling that the world was suddenly igniting around me.

He stepped in, pressing closer to me. I wanted so desperately to fall into him, or better, to turn to face him and give him my lips in return.

But he’d
saved me so many times. He’d always been the one to keep us in check.

His lips grazed my ear and I knew whatever small, miraculous hold I had over rational thought would soon fade completely.

I hated myself as I did it, but I drew down into my power and brought it out, gaining strength and distance and bathing Lincoln in its effects – what he’d told me was like vanilla cream.

My soul protested as if trying to get free of its unworthy host, but I pushed on, building the walls, wanting to scream as I rebuilt the barrier between Lincoln and me, locking out the sun.

I felt his lips – still on my neck – tremble. His hand, on my arm, gripped tight. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was trying to gain strength or just hold on. I gave him his time, as he had for me – staying where I was, trying not to make things worse.

When both hands had dropped from me and he had taken a step back, I wanted to tell him it was okay, that – of all people –
I
understood. But before I could get the first word out he was gone.

When I came upstairs from the basement Lincoln was stuffing things into a backpack. He didn’t even look at me.

‘We need to keep up regular patrols. I’m going to walk the perimeter and then I’ll keep watch for a couple of hours while you sleep. You can take over when you wake up.’

‘Linc, please. Are you mad at me?’

He closed
his pack and looked up at me briefly as he shook his head, a sour expression on his face. ‘I’m not mad at you. I’m furious with me. I just … I don’t know what we’re doing sometimes.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘It was selfish.’ He shook his head again. ‘Get some rest.’ With that, he stalked out of the room and I let him, even though I wanted to wring his neck.

Does he think I’m the only one who is allowed to have trouble dealing with this stuff?

It was times like this that I really missed having Steph around. I grabbed the phone Griffin had given us and ignored the warning that we should only use it in emergencies. This
was
an emergency: I needed my best friend. I dialled Steph’s number and sighed.

Message bank.

I eyed off the leather couch and considered sinking into it but grabbed my pack instead and went upstairs. I ferreted out a stash of musty-smelling towels that were going to have to make do and chose the room I thought was Evelyn’s. It would have been nice to see more evidence of her around the place, knick-knacks or photos, or journals even – but the cabin, while charming, was personality sparse.

The biggest shock was when I turned on the shower and actually felt hot water. I didn’t deliberate too long, jumping in to wash before it ran out.

Lincoln still hadn’t come back and I didn’t think he would for a while. I got it. Sometimes space was the only answer. So I settled for finding some well-packed linen that wasn’t nearly as old-smelling as I would’ve expected, and made the bed. Unsurprisingly, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I was in a long dark corridor. The walls, floor and ceiling all consisting of dark-tinted mirrors, reflecting things that weren’t there and not the things that were.

I stared into the glass, focusing on the substance that lurked somewhere within the space that my reflection should have been. I looked behind me. Nothing. What was it? And why was it familiar?

My gaze travelled down the narrow corridor. I was not alone. Sitting in a simple chair at the end was Uri. Dishevelled as always, unshaven, shoeless. When I had seen him in the desert, the sands had seemed to roll over his feet as if they were a part of him. Disturbingly, the mirrored floor now did the same, like a liquid ocean beneath his feet. He nodded to me, expressionless.

I turned. Nox was perched on a high stool at the opposite end of the corridor. He was predictably pristine, today sporting a full tuxedo with tails. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he produced a top hat. Unlike Uri, the metallic ocean seemed to move in currents away from him.

I nodded to them both, the awkward arrangement making it impossible for me to keep both of them in my sight simultaneously.

‘Am I dreaming?’ I asked, just to be sure. They’d never come to me in a dream before.

Uri nodded. ‘We thought it might be easier if we visited you together. Dreams have their purposes as much as a crossover.’

‘Have you seen everything that has happened?’ I asked.

‘And more,’ Nox replied, smug.

I looked into the dark mirrors again. Something was definitely moving within them.

‘Still intrigued by the reflections?’

I realised then, these were the same things I’d seen hovering in the background when Uri and Nox had visited me in the past.

‘What are they?’ I asked, as my hand stretched out to skim the glass surface. It was ice cold, but it wasn’t solid. When I took my hand away, my fingers were tipped in silver.

‘Only when you must know, can you know,’ Uri answered.

I rolled my eyes, but my attention quickly returned to my silvered fingers.

‘What is this?’

‘Beginnings. And endings,’ Uri said.

Nox stood, gaining my attention. ‘Do they still call to you?’ he asked, gesturing to the reflections in the mirror.

‘Why are there more of them here?’ I asked.

Nox tilted his head, studying me. ‘There are not. You simply see them better.’ He glanced down the hall to Uri, a small smile playing on his lips. ‘She grows.’

Uri remained seated. ‘She must.’

I watched the reflections cruise along the mirrored surface. Something about them was so lonely, so lost. I took a step towards the mirrors, felt my arm extend as if of its own will. They were beautiful and they were terrible and I understood them somehow. I took another step.

Nox sighed. ‘As interesting as this could be, now is not the time – child of Sole.’

I heard Nox, but I couldn’t seem to stop. They were calling to me. My hand went again to the mirror and towards one of the reflections that was wavering in mid-air.

A firm hand with long fingers pressed into my upper arm and yanked me back. Nox’s voice sounded uncomfortably close to my ear.

‘If you go to them, you may never return.’ With his words a coldness bled into me, leaving me just a taste of the terrible isolation this place offered. I stepped back with a start. He let me go.

‘You are running out of time,’ Uri said, sounding bored.

‘Time?’

‘The Hag grows stronger. You must open your eyes, see who your allies are.’

I knew Hag was another term for Lilith.

‘I know who my allies are.’

‘No. You know who you can trust, but there is one who would give his life, his very existence, for you. You must see him before it is too late,’ Nox said, smiling. ‘The dark beckons you.’

‘Phoenix,’ I whispered.

‘We have been granted permission to aid you. If you can command Lilith in her physical form, fully subdued, we can take her from you. But …’ Uri stood now and took a few steps towards me. ‘We can’t take her from your world. You must bring her over to us.’

‘Me? How? I I don’t know how to cross the realms.’

Uri blinked at me and seemed to go somewhere else in his mind. I turned to Nox.

He shrugged. ‘You have already proven you can carry things between the realms.’

‘Yeah – grains of sand and a button!’

‘We will open the connection, like we have done before; you simply need to cross into our space. It will be like when you first learned to move, in Santorini. How do you think you did that?’

‘Strength.’

Nox scoffed. ‘Hardly.’

I took offence, which he enjoyed.

I looked at the mirrors again, wanting to see myself. I thought about it so hard that out of nowhere, my reflection suddenly appeared, repeated up and down the entire length of the hall as it bounced off the mirrors.

That was my answer.

‘Willpower,’ I said.

‘Yes,’ Uri said from my other side. ‘Always.’

‘Where do you go when you do that?’ I asked.