Incubus (3 page)

hooked his fingers into the crack and what had looked like a carved section of the column turned out

to be another concealed door. Lucas opened it, revealing a tightly curved spiral staircase leading up.

“Where do you suppose that goes?” There was a decidedly mischievous glint in his eye.

“Well,” I said, as if resigning myself to an odious task. “Mr. Landon did give us an assignment.”

“True. This might be on the quiz.”

The spiral staircase was so narrow you had to watch where you put your feet; each tread narrowed

from about eight inches to almost nothing as it connected in the center of the spiral. It took a bit of

concentration to walk up, and I knew coming down would be another challenge.

But the climb was worth it. Lucas and I reached the top of the stairs to discover we were in a cozy

little viewing balcony overlooking the main sanctuary. Very cozy, actually—we could barely move

without bumping into each other. Sheltered in our hiding place, we had the perfect view of the

sanctuary. Just above us, a stained glass window depicted a beautiful saint, haloed in light, holding an

arrow over her heart.

Something drew my attention back down to the level below. A lone figure stood in the center of

the sanctuary. A familiar feeling pulled at the edge of my thoughts, but before I could place it, Lucas

spoke.

“Beautiful.” He was so close, his breath stirred the hair against my neck. I was suddenly aware of

the warmth of his body behind me and ached to lean back into him. My heart quickened. I tried to

tamp it down. We couldn’t act on these feelings. We had made a promise to the Guard, to our families.

But beyond that, I’d sworn to myself to never,
never
let myself risk Lucas’s safety again. And yet,

right at this moment, none of that seemed to matter.

I turned in his arms.

Whatever reassuring thoughts I might have had about Lucas’s and my self-control, I overestimated

it.

I don’t know which of us moved first. Our lips brushed and I felt the sudden swell of the Lilitu

storm inside me, straining forward, waiting for one moment’s weakness in my self-control to drain

Lucas of his vitality. I pulled back from Lucas as if stung.

“We can’t.” I cringed at the sound of my voice, hoarse with emotion. “We can’t.”

“Braedyn,” he started. I traced my fingers across his lips, thrilled at the soft warmth of the touch. I

bit my own lip and turned aside.

“We promised,” I said.

“I know. I just wish—” Lucas pulled away from me, and I could see the struggle on his face. “This

would be a lot easier if we knew when the waiting part would end.” He smiled, that lopsided smile that

made him look in the same moment vulnerable and worldly. “Too bad Sansenoy didn’t leave you his

number.”

“Right. Because, you know, why not just call and ask?”

Lucas pitched his voice an octave higher than normal, and I realized he was imitating me. “‘So,

Sans, that whole becoming human thing, when do you figure that’s going to happen? ‘Cause my

boyfriend and I have some plans.’”

“I do not sound like that!” I said, punching him in the arm for the poor impersonation. But I

couldn’t stop myself from giggling.

“Ouch.” Lucas smiled, rubbing his arm, clearly pleased to have won a laugh. “Hey, can I ask you a

question?”

“What?”

“Why haven’t you told Murphy?”

The question caught me unprepared. When I’d told Lucas of the angel’s offer to make me human,

he’d been so thrilled, I’d stopped halfway through. There was a part I hadn’t told him. I hadn’t told

him about the caveat. Because if I slipped up, if I used my Lilitu powers to hurt someone badly

enough, I would cross a line. My soul would be too tainted to ever be redeemed, and my chance of

becoming human would evaporate as completely as a drop of water spilt on the hot desert floor. That

was why I hadn’t been able to bring myself to tell Murphy, my father. I couldn’t bear it if Dad pinned

all his hopes on me becoming human, and then I lost control and crossed the line. It would crush him.

I’d told myself it was better he not know, but keeping this from him was getting harder and harder. I

forced myself to smile. “I just haven’t found the right time.”

Lucas nodded, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. “What exactly constitutes the right time to tell

your dad that you might actually get to live a normal, healthy life?”

“It’s—” I took a deep breath, then went for a half-truth. “The Guard needs me right now. As a

Lilitu
. I don’t want to distract anyone with thoughts of what might happen someday.”

“
Might?
” Lucas looked genuinely surprised. “What’s this ‘might’ business? You got a guarantee

from an angel that you could be human one day. How does that leave room for ‘might?’”

I dragged my eyes back to the sanctuary. “Yeah. No, you’re right.” I forced a lightness into my

voice, hoping that would put an end to the discussion. But Lucas heard the fear behind my words.

“Braedyn?”

I didn’t respond, not trusting myself to speak.

“You don’t have to hide anything from me.”

“I know.” Still my words came out too brightly to be believed.

Gently, he cupped one hand under my chin and lifted my face. “What are you not telling me?”

I reached up to take hold of his hand, but I didn’t pull it away from my face. After a long moment,

I came to a decision. “Okay,” I breathed. “But not here.”

Lucas’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t say anything. He simply nodded. I returned to the spiral

staircase. I could feel him watching me all the way down.

I emerged from the hidden staircase, trying to get my breath back under control. It would be too

humiliating to start crying on a school field trip. I turned to face a row of shadowy statues, pretending

to study the carved figures while I quickly thumbed moisture out of my eyes. I turned back to the

sanctuary, scanning the room for my friends. If I hadn’t been so distracted, I would have seen her

sooner. As it was, I only caught the motion of her darting from behind a statue out of the corner of my

eye. I barely had time to react, shying to the side as she attacked.

That tiny movement probably saved my life, not that I had time to appreciate my good fortune.

One moment I was twisting to shield myself from an unknown attacker, the next I was skidding across

the floor, pain lancing through my shoulder, and she was there, on top of me, lips pulled back in a

snarl.

I reacted without conscious thought, my muscle memory kicking into action. I drove my knuckles

into the woman’s throat, which should have flattened her. She barely reacted, but her grip loosened

enough for me to plant my feet against her ribs and kick her off of me.

I heard someone scream. Lucas shouted. And then she was diving for me again. I threw my body to

one side, rolling onto my feet and spinning around, hands up and ready for a fight. She was already

mid-lunge. I was dimly aware that she was the woman I’d seen earlier, slipping through the gate into

the mission’s inner garden.

She collided with me before I could do more than block her punch. The force of her blow sent me

staggering back a few steps. I faced her, frantic, but hard as I wracked my brain I knew I’d never seen

this woman before in my life. Could she be a spotter? Maybe a member of the Guard from a different

unit? I held out my hand—a gesture of truce.

“I’m not your enemy.”

She lunged for me again, swinging her other arm with more force. I saw the tire iron with just

enough time to drop. It sailed through the air where my head had been moments before. Ice gripped

my stomach. Whoever this woman was, she was not playing around. That blow was meant to end me. I

tried to run past her but she caught me by the scruff of my shirt and jerked me back, hard. I hit the

ground with a sickening thunk, red and black swirls overtaking my vision. When they cleared, I saw

her standing over me, tensing to swing the tire iron for my head.

Lucas hit her like a freight train, bowling her over before the killing blow could fall. A wave of

nausea rose in my throat but I pushed it down and forced myself to roll to my knees.

Lucas was wrestling with her for the tire iron beside a bank of stained glass windows. She released

the iron suddenly and Lucas, unprepared, lost his balance. Before he could recover, she turned,

punching him savagely in the solar plexus. Lucas dropped the tire iron. It struck the ground, impacting

with the sound of a clanging bell. Something was wrong—Lucas gasped for breath with a horrible, wet

sound. He dropped to his knees, unable to do more than struggle for oxygen.

The woman picked up the tire iron and turned back to Lucas, hunched over on the ground before

her.

“No!” My voice sliced through the sanctuary. The woman turned toward me, and I saw again the

lifelessness of her eyes. My breath came out in a ragged hiss of realization. “No.”

The woman left Lucas, bearing down on me. I realized that I had to end this fight, and I had to do

it now. Nothing would make her stop, and the next time I went down, there would be no one there to

save me.

I charged toward the woman. She lifted the tire iron to strike, but at the last moment I dropped,

skidding toward her across the slick, polished stone, feet first. I connected solidly, the force of my

kick shoving her up and back.

No surprised flickered through those dead eyes as she hit the stained glass window. The glass

exploded behind her like a shower of multi-colored gems, clearing the way for sunlight to flood the

sanctuary with blinding intensity.

I skidded to a stop beneath the window and threw my arms over my head protectively. Tiny

fragments of stained glass showered down. The silence was profound, but brief.

Screams sounded inside and outside the sanctuary. I couldn’t summon the energy to look up.

“Braedyn!” Lucas called, voice hoarse.

I moved my arms away from my head gingerly, and slivers of glass tinkled to the ground. Glass

littered the floor around me. Lucas was half-crawling, half-scrambling forward to meet me. I dragged

myself up into a sitting position.

Lucas threw an arm around me. In seconds we were surrounded. Mr. Landon was shouting, his

usually jovial face a mask of panic. Annie was screaming into the phone, eyes streaming. And beyond

them, a shell-shocked crowd of my classmates watched in horrified fascination.

The only thing that felt real was Lucas’s arm around me. I realized I was clinging to him

ferociously when Mr. Landon tried to pull us apart.

“Are you hurt?” he was asking. “Braedyn, are you hurt?”

“Don’t,” I whispered, tightening my grip on Lucas’s shirt. Mr. Landon pulled back helplessly.

“How long?” he asked Annie. “How long until the ambulance gets here?”

I didn’t hear Annie’s response. I was looking at Lucas’s face. “Did you see?” I whispered. “Did

you see her eyes?” Lucas nodded grimly. So I wasn’t crazy. The woman who’d attacked us?

She was a
Thrall
.

We were still clinging to each other 15 minutes later when the paramedics arrived.

Chapter 2

As far back as I could remember, the moon had been a comforting beacon in the darkness. But tonight,

the thin crescent sliver seemed distant, unfeeling. My shoulder ached. A student who’d seen the attack

reported that the woman had leapt for me, clubbing that tire iron across my shoulder. I supposed I was

lucky that the fracture was my only serious injury from the day. Most of the large stained glass shards

had fallen out of the window with the woman. The few smaller fragments that had rained down on me

left only superficial cuts on the skin of my hands and my lower back. My jacket had ridden up during

my slide across the floor; otherwise, I might have escaped with even fewer cuts. My arm was bound

up in a complicated sling, but I knew I’d only have to wear it for a few days, not the month or more

the doctors had prescribed. There were a few perks to being Lilitu. One good night’s sleep would ease

the pain, three or four would heal the fracture completely.