Ivory Guard (21 page)

Raz spine went rigid
at that. “What the hell?”

Not even caring to look at him the witch calmly remarked, “Keep that up, angel, and this will take longer than you’d like.”

Lillian’s eyes flicked to her guard. “The others…”

“Are fine.
The sigil on the house works and the ones on their arms do too. But not yours. That’s why a certain Ebony keeps finding you. His name’s Darrick by the way.”

Raz had to admit that this was getting quite interesting but he remained suspicious. The witch was a demon after all.

“How’s that possible?”

“The sigils are made to protect Ivorys, but you aren’t one.” When stunned silence exploded around her, she hurried to add, “
No, you
are
an Ivory but not…not a hundred percent.”

Raz burst out laughing and shook his head. “Now, you’re really starting to piss me off, demon.”

“And I don’t really care, angel.” To Lillian she said, “This will make much more sense when you know reason number two for my visit. Did you tell him?”

Lillian shook her head.

“I think you should. This is all connected.”

Raz bristled, not liking the fact that the witch knew more about Lillian than he did. And especially that Lillian seemed to trust the witch more than him. “
Tell me what?”

His gaze pinned Lillian,
but her eyes were avoiding his - which unsettled him more than anything else could. “Tell me what, Lillian?” His whole body was tense, his heart missing more than just a beat as dread filled him.

TWENTY-TWO

Lillian swallowed visibly before finally looking at him and admitting, “I can fly.”

“Come again?”

“I can fly and before you ask, yes, I mean more than just Ivory style.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

Lillian scoffed. “Oh, let’s see. Maybe because you already accuse me of murder…and somehow I just knew that advertising that little tidbit in the angelic gazette wouldn’t be very healthy for me.”

Her gaze ping-ponged between Raz and Becca.
Quite sick of being sucker punched, she needed and wanted answers now. “If I’m not an Ivory, what the hell am I?”

“The daughter of a
human woman and an angel,” Raz insisted.

Becca countered, “You should have done your homework, angel. Her mother isn’t all human. There’s
Nephilim in her.”

“
Nephilim?” Raz was stunned into silence which scared the hell out of her, and so she looked at Becca for answers. She had heard that word before knew it had to do with angels but couldn’t remember it all. “Somebody tell me what that means, right now!”

Abby stepped forward, the expression on her face a mix of curiosity, foreboding and a lot of what-the-fuck and probably mirroring Lillian’s. “
Nephilim are the children of the Fallen and humans.”

Becca nodded. “Apparently your mother is a descendent of one. Way back, so there’s just about a drop or so of Fallen in you
, but obviously it’s enough to make you more than just an Ivory.”

Lillian looked down, not seeing the colorful cupcakes in front of her and awash in confusion. Why was finding out that she wasn’t an Ivory bothering her so much?

The first eighteen years of her life she thought she was nothing more than an ordinary human only to find out she was an Ivory. Now they were telling her she wasn’t even that. Again she was something else. What the hell was she? Neither human, nor Ivory, nor angel. Something in between. Why didn’t anyone tell her? Why didn’t they know?

Another thought pushed to the forefront: how had the Ebony known? Her head snapped up and her eyes pinned Becca. “
The Ebony knew. That’s why he knew how to follow me, right?”

“I think so, yes.”

“How could he know when neither Raz nor I knew? Can a demon somehow tell?”

Becca shook her head. “No. Like I said, the
Nephilim blood in you is so…diluted, barely there, it’s…unbelievable it even manages to show like that.”

Anger was taking over, pushing away the confusion. Lillian had had quite enough of her life changing on a dime. Thank you very much. Maybe it was reckless of her
, but she wanted some answers and most of all, she wanted some control over her own freaking life.

“Is there a way to keep the Ebony from vanishing
again once he’s found me?”

“
Uhm…yeah. Sure, now that we’ve got his name.”

“What do I need to do?”

Understanding dawned in her eyes and Becca said, “Give me five minutes. I need to establish a zone of confinement. Like casting a circle but I’ll broaden it and use the whole back yard, to be on the safe side. And
you
need to make him bleed the moment he shows up. His blood needs to be on you. Understand? Kind of a reverse locator spell.”

“
Good. Thanks. If you don’t want to be found, it’ll be better you stay inside for this once you’re done, Becca. Okay?”

Without another glance at the others she marched over to the porch door and out onto the lawn
, Becca on her heels.

“Lillian? What the hell?” her guard and Raz exclaimed in unison.

Becca ran from one corner of the yard to the next, chanting and whispering under her breath, her feet soon leaving a trail of red sparks behind that fell into the grass settling into a fiery line that flamed and then vanished once the witch fell silent.

“It’s done.” Halting on the steps that lead to the porch, Becca asked, “Are you sure about this? Once he’s stuck here…”

One of them would die. “I know.”

“Remember, make him bleed on you. You’ll need his blood on your hands, literally.”

Lillian nodded. With a sigh Becca walked up the steps.

Come on you bastard, she thought as her eyes searched the sky and surroundings. “I want to know how he knew. Get back into the house for now, all of you. I don’t want him to realize we’re expecting him.”

No one asked who she was talking about, and she was grateful when her guard did as she had asked.
Raz hesitated and just stared at her with an expression on his face that she couldn’t read at all. Realizing what he must think she turned away and bit her lips as tears threatened her. Even though she didn’t kill the angel, heaven and therefore Raz now had a different and very valid reason to eliminate her. To kill her. She could fly and was a threat to heaven. She had helped and even worked with the enemy. Yes, he certainly had a reason now.

Turning her back on him, she prayed for the Ebony to show.
She needed to feel herself balancing on the edge of life and death, wanted to be free and aware of her body – wanted to fight for one last time.

Lillian walked towards a couple of wild herb brushes acting as if she was just out to gather some of them, although in reality her body was tense and ready to pounce
, and her heart thundering inside her chest.

Come on you bastard.

Minutes ticked by, feeling like
an eternity, until she was finally rewarded and her Stalker and a group of six demons appeared in the back yard. Her sword was out and aflame before they could even blink. Summoning her wings she used them to boost her jump and then she was on him like white on rice.

The Ebony’s smile vanished
the moment her sword cut his arm and then his eyes widened with realization and in horror when her hand followed, wiping at his welling blood.

Becca’s
fiery circle flared, a bright red ribbon in the grass.

Lillian smirked.
“Gotcha.”

Ever since her guard had proven itself, the Ebony had never fought her directly, always teasing and enjoying the show from the sidelines while his minions swarmed them. Not this time though. She wouldn’t have any of that.

“Hello Darrick. So nice of you to drop by.”

As she circled him, she had to smile at the irony. She was stalking her Stalker and he had nowhere to go. Staring into those fiery black eyes of his, aflame and scalding with his anger and rage
and something more, it suddenly hit her. Why had she never seen this before? Had she been too frightened by the memory of what he had done to Amber to see it? Behind his black eyes and cocky attitude, he was afraid of her. Well, maybe not afraid but definitely wary. Because he knew she was not just an Ivory. He knew she had angel blood flowing through her veins, even if diluted. Ha. Knowing she was…more, apparently had its disadvantages. And it was a weakness, she would gladly and fully exploit.

“Cat got your tongue?”

In her periphery she noticed her guard and Raz swarming the back yard and rushing his minions. Good.

They circled each other now.

The Ebony shrugged, a little too casually for her taste. “Not at all. Just enjoying my name on your lips. And wondering how good it’ll sound when you scream it.”

His shade in hand he suddenly burst forward. Lillian deflected and then went in on an attack of her own.
Lillian knew she wasn’t a match for him once this fight went airborne, what with him having used his wings all his life. If she wanted to get out of this on top, she needed to keep him on the ground. She went at him, her sword just a blur and then after an especially complicated combination she jumped up, using her wings to boost herself, in a movement that would send her flying above him and keep him on the ground at the same time as his eyes tried to follow her. Then she struck and her blade bit into the root of his left wing.

Yes.

The Ebony howled in pain and whirled around, going after her the moment her feet hit the ground. She was barely able to block him in time. His black eyes were ablaze with flickering flames that wanted to devour her soul. He was nowhere near done, but at least he wouldn’t be able to fly and that was all that mattered.

It went on
, the old battle of shade against flame, and soon both their blood dropped and trickled onto the grass beneath their feet, the clash of swords and daggers around them drowning out their gasping and wheezing.

Lillian whirled, her blade singing, and suddenly she had him pinned against the wall of the shed with her sword at his throat. If he leaned back even more, he’d be one with the shed.  As she remembered the acid pain of the shadow blade she could understand him, as he tried to get away from the flame edging her sword.

“I have some questions.”

“Fuck you.”

She let her sword get a taste of his flesh, the tip pressing into his throat and making him breathe heavily through his gritted teeth as he tried not to scream. His eyes lost some of their fiery light, darkening.

“Let’s try this again, shall we? I want to know who told you about me.”

He hesitated.

More pressure.

He growled, a deep, feral sound in his chest and then the words left him in a rush. “Some angel told me. Right after our fight.” The flames in his eyes flickered to life and a sick smile curved his lips. “Remember the one where we went…through the ceiling?”

“What did he look like?”

“Don’t know. Never saw him, only heard him. Deep voice, rather…elegant.”

Lillian absorbed the information and then stepped away, not liking the thought of killing him when he was already defeated no matter what he had done to deserve death.

Her mistake. The moment she eased up on him, he burst into action.

However before he could reach her Raz was there,
coming seemingly out of nowhere with his flaming sword nothing more than a blazing blur and in the next blink the Ebony’s body toppled over, his head rolling on the ground.

Staring, wide eyed, it took her a moment to realize what had happened. The Ebony, her Stalker, was dead.
After all this time. A wave of flashbacks rushed her and she saw him standing in her home, clapping. Him killing Amber and liking it. Him ordering his minions around, not caring how many got killed. Him standing on the side lines, evil smile in place.

Raz’s
hand on her arm, made her look up. “You okay?”

Lillian blinked a couple of times and breathed, trying to snap out of it. When her voice didn’t want to cooperate, she cleared her
throat. “Yeah. Yes. You?”

“Good. What did he say?”

“Uhm…That…an angel told him about me. But he never got a look at him.” Remembering something else, she added, “Said the guy had a deep, elegant voice though.”

Her gaze swept the back yard.
Bodies and blood, red mixing with black, stained the lawn and the scent of sulfur was heavy acid in the air. Shit. They would have quite some cleaning up to do.

Then she saw
Joshua, holding his stomach, apparently hurt. She ran towards him.

“Let me see.”
Without waiting for his answer she pushed up his shirt.

Abby and Matt hurr
ied to their side.

The cut wasn’t lethal and not that deep but
was bleeding rather freely, and knowing that any wound could get serious if the bleeding wasn’t stopped soon, she ordered, “Let’s get him inside.”

Since
Lillian’s arm was hurt Matt and Abby took him between their shoulders, rushing up the stairs to the house. She meant to follow them when Raz’s deep voice stopped her, freezing her in place. “Lillian?”

Oh God.
Her heart sank. Would he do it now? Right after he saved her life?

Deep, elegant voice,
huh? Yeah, that certainly fit, Raz thought. He had thought Lillian’s alleged involvement with the angel’s murder was bad enough, but even he hadn’t guessed how truly screwed they all were.

“Can I talk to you a moment?”

It took her a second before she turned around and walked up to him. Looking him straight in the eyes, she nodded subtly and then said, “Okay. Just do it.”

Somehow Raz knew she meant more than just for him to tell her what was on his mind, but he didn’t know what exactly she expected him to do. “Do what?”

“Kill me.”

He nearly recoiled. “What?”

“I didn’t kill the angel, but I can fly. Which means I can go up into heaven and… spread evil. That’s why Ivory’s aren’t supposed to fly, isn’t it? So, do what you have to do. Let’s get it over with. Kill me.”

She stood there,
proud and with her head held high although she was pale, ruffled and panting and wounded from the battle she’d been through…and was asking him to kill her.

Fuck.
If he hadn’t been in love with her ever since she made him laugh for the first time, he certainly would have fallen now. Everything had changed when all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place, and he had to thank a witch of all people for the sudden clarity.