The Nephilim: Book One (18 page)

Agrippa sighed, “I was a bit
concerned you would not oblige me, but it will make your life much more
pleasant if you learn to.”

“You’ll just have to kill me,”
Sophie challenged.

“Kill you?” the man laughed, “Now
why would I want to kill my mate? You see, you are mine, Sophie. I claimed you
as my own when you were inside your mother, and now we can never be parted.”

Sophie felt her stomach twist, but
she peered back at him defiantly, “You can’t just claim someone.”

“Can’t I? Not even by embedding a
piece of my soul within you?”

She slapped a hand against her
chest; there was a piece of him inside her? She shook her head, nausea taking
her. She wanting to rip whatever it was out.

“You are special, Sophie,” he told
her in a low, raspy tone, “You are nephilim, and I am the sire of the strigori.
Together we will create the most powerful race of beings to ever exist.” He
leaned over the dais, gripping its edges with whitened knuckles, his eyes
narrowing to milky slits, and just a flicker of anger overcoming his face, “You
will either accept this fate happily, or it will be accepted for you.”

Chapter 17

Footsteps sounded from the back of
the chamber. Sophie squinted into the darkness and four shadows ambled into the
room. Sophie’s heart caught in her throat. Was it really? Though they all
looked worse for wear, they were there nonetheless. Her friends.

“Ah, my boy,” Agrippa flourished a
hand at them, and Troian immediately snapped to attention. He had been
supporting Verrine and she fell to the ground, just catching herself on hands
and knees. Troian’s eyes, glassy and lost, looked right through Sophie as he
stepped up behind Agrippa.

As Mona and Adam both moved to go
to Verrine, two shapes appeared behind them, and in a single, swift movement,
blood erupted into the air. Laughter, high-pitched and maddening, filled the
chamber, and Apollyon and Naomi rushed them.

Sophie followed the sound of
laughter and saw Danielle land in one of the room’s corners. Verrine was
slumped at the strigori’s feet, her head raised and supported only by her white
hair wrapped around Danielle’s hand. Sophie jumped to her knees to go to her,
but was stopped when Agrippa held out his hand and gestured to the rest of the
room. Naomi held Mona against the wall, her arm pressed against the girl’s
neck. Sophie had never seen Mona appear so petrified. Troian stood behind
Agrippa, his body unmoving and face unresponsive.

Agrippa laced his fingers together,
“As you can see, it is in your best interest to help me now.”

“Sophie, don’t!” Adam’s voice rang
out from behind her, and she turned to see the dark-haired man holding him at
bay as he tried to struggle away.

“Calm down, idiot,” the man hissed
in Adam’s ear, “Do you want to die faster?”

“Apollyon,” Adam took in a
staggered breath, recognizing the man, “Why?”

“Let them go!” Sophie demanded.

“Oh, sure,” Danielle laughed,
dropping Verrine, and the demon collapsed on the ground. She could barely
support herself.

Sophie took in a deep breath,
casting a long glance over her friends. This is how they would die, she told
herself, if she didn’t do what he wanted. “What do I do?”

“That’s my girl,” Agrippa offered
her a tight smile, “I split my soul, Sophie, and you and your brothers each
received a piece of it. It resided inside each of you, silently waiting for me
to return and claim. That is, until you, silly thing, cast them out. I know,
you thought you were protecting your family, making yourselves untraceable, but
you couldn’t make those pieces simply stop existing. And now they are out
there, the little bits of my soul, entangled with little bits of your own.
Well, not all of them,” he pulled aside his cloak and Sophie saw a red stone
embedded in his chest, “My children did, however minutely, succeed in that
regard and collected this. Now I need you to call the others back.”

Hesitantly, Sophie lifted the book
into her lap again and placed her palm against its only marked page. Her mind
screamed with the memory of flames, and she felt as though her body was tearing
apart. She pulled her hand away: she had no idea what to do, and looked again
to Agrippa desperately, “I don’t know how.”

“Well, then who shall it be first?”
he raised his arms above his head, and his voice echoed off the walls, “Your
sweet little lady in waiting, our own traitor, or your beloved mockery of an
angel?”

Sophie’s heartbeat quickened. She
wanted to do something, anything, but it seemed impossible. Even if she could
call the stones back, then what? Agrippa would be whole, and her friends would
still be in danger. She glanced from the red stone to Troian. He had not
mentioned killing her brother, and no one guarded him.

Agrippa’s body flickered, and he
stumbled forward a single step. Gripping the end of the altar, he composed
himself, then looked back up to her. He was weak. “I assure you,” he rasped,
“one of them will die before I do.”

Her eyes fell back on the red
embedded in his chest. If the stones were somehow connected to them, to her and
her brother, perhaps the one Agrippa held, the one he used now to live, was
controlling Troian. There was only one way to know.

Sophie shot herself forward, her
arm outstretched, the book tumbling from her lap. She collided with Agrippa and
wrapped her fingers around the stone. It made a terrible sound as she tore it
from his skin, the flesh ripping away and spattering her with blood. As it came
free, Agrippa fell back, clutching at the hole it left. Sophie fell forward off
the altar, crashing to the ground, her fist tight around the stone.

There was fervent movement
throughout the chamber, a trading of blows and cries, and when she lifted her
head she saw Naomi bent over Agrippa. The woman snapped back to Sophie, her
eyes flashing bright yellow, “How dare you!”

“A sacrifice must be made!”
Apollyon announced, still holding back a grappling Adam.

Sophie pushed herself up on shaking
arms and scanned the room. Mona and Troian were both at Verrine’s side and
Danielle and Rose had vanished. Naomi got to her feet and towered over Sophie,
loathing etched on every sharp corner of her face. She raised her claws and
sneered down at her, then froze.

Her face changed, her eyes lost
their glow, and a trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth. She
dropped her arm and glanced down at herself where a red stain was growing on
her chest. Her body jerked, and with a watery cry she fell forward, slamming
into the altar.

The dagger slipped from Rose's
grasp and danced across the stone floor as she gawked at her own bloodied
hands. Sophie’s mouth fell open, and she found herself staring up at Rose who
looked almost as bewildered. Then a smile, slow and deliberate, spread over the
strigori’s face. Laughter rumbled from her throat, building and filling the
room.

There was a massive crack, and the
altar split. Sophie clamored to her feet, still unsteady from the fall, but
with a tight grip on the stone. She jumped away from the dais and the bodies of
Naomi, Agrippa, and a cackling Rose. Light filled the chamber, breaking up through
the cracks in the altar, and the shell that was Agrippa’s body disappeared. The
floor began to shake, and Sophie struggled to stay on her feet.

Apollyon still held Adam’s arms
behind his back, looming over him with his great strength, but Adam didn’t seem
to be struggling any longer. His head was cocked, his ruddy hair tangled in
Apollyon’s fingers, and the dark-haired man examined a burn mark on his neck.
Adam’s gaze, from under heavy eyelids, locked on Sophie, and she started toward
him.

“No!”

She stopped abruptly at his
exclamation, afraid to move.

Adam slurred his words, his head
drooping when Apollyon released it, “You have to go. Now.”

A stone fell from the tomb’s
ceiling, crashing down between them, and Sophie screamed. Earth began to fall
inward, filling the room with a smoky haze, and another section of the ceiling
collapsed.

“If you want him,” Apollyon’s voice
sounded over the falling rubble, “you’ll have to come and get him.”

A hand grabbed Sophie and she
turned. Mona stared up at her, her dark eyes wide, face spattered with dried
blood, “Come on.”

“No,” Sophie looked back to Adam,
but his figure was obscured by falling rubble and dust, “I can’t leave him.”

“We have to.” Mona pulled at her,
and Sophie tried to rip her arm back, tears filling her eyes, but Mona
overpowered her, wrenching her from the room’s center just as the ceiling gave
way.

***

They spoke in hushed tones, quietly
nursing wounds in the throne room. Pru sat on the steps with Verrine’s head in
her lap and Troian paced below. Thanatos skittered about between everyone,
fetching what they requested, but always came back to where Sophie had sat
herself on the floor. “She’s okay for now,” Mona would tell him each time and
wave him away. She wanted to tell him herself, but when she tried the words
were overcome by a twinge in the back of her throat and a burning behind her
eyes.

Verrine sat up quickly, her gray
eyes wild, and Troian fell at her side. She threw herself at him, and he
nuzzled his head into her shoulder. A warm smile crept over Pru’s face and she
smoothed Verrine’s hair before going to tend to the others.

Sophie watched as Verrine scanned
the room, recognition of where they were settling on her like a warm blanket.
She smiled drowsily at her and Sophie tried to return the look. Verrine then
narrowed her eyes, giving the room another inspection, finally looking back to
Troian, “Where’s Adam?”

“That angel, Apollyon, had him,”
Troian told her in a quiet voice, his eyes cautiously flicking over Sophie and
back, “and I may have nicked him with a haykal.”

“You what?” Verrine gaped at him.

“He didn’t know what he was doing,”
Sophie spoke up, somehow finding her voice.

Verrine went and knelt before her,
her eyes wide and sad.

Sophie opened her hand, showing her
the red stone, “Agrippa was using this to control him. He said it’s a piece of
his soul entwined with a piece of Troi’s.”

“Is this why you left?” Verrine
turned over her shoulder at him.

He cautiously came up to them, “The
only thing I remember is Raziel coming to me, here, and convincing me that
Sophie was alive in the Material World. Of course, I realize now that wasn’t an
archangel at all, it was just Agrippa. After leaving, everything is a blur,
like a bad dream, until I woke up in the tomb.”

“That’s so scary,” Verrine reached
up and took his hand, “Can it happen again?”

“There are others out there,” Mona
shook her head, “Strigori were always being sent on missions to locate and
recover things.”

“Others?” Sophie narrowed her eyes
on the stone, “Agrippa did say something strange to me. ‘You and your brothers’
he said. More than one. But Troian and I are twins, and we’ve got no other
siblings, right? How can there be more than one more out there?”

“As far as I know we’re it,” Troian
spoke up, shrugging.

“Well, no matter how many there
are, Agrippa will be after them,” Mona spoke with certainty.

Sophie sighed, “You think he’s
still alive? After the cave in?”

“I know he’s still alive,” Mona
sniffed, “Rose saw to that with that sacrificial dagger when she stabbed Naomi.
They sometimes spoke of a sacrifice, but it always seemed like a last resort.”

“It looked like it was,” Sophie
remembered the irate look on Naomi’s face when she knelt at Agrippa’s side. The
woman had thought him dead and so had Sophie. She cleared her throat and cast
her eyes on the floor, afraid to ask, but the need overrode her fear, “So if
Agrippa survived, then do you think, maybe, Adam survived too?”

“Definitely,” Mona answered quickly
and Sophie’s heart fluttered. She lifted her head and stared at Mona to be sure
she told the truth. “Apollyon could have easily sacrificed him, but chose to
keep him instead. He’s worth too much to them,” Mona hesitated, “I think
they’ll try to use him somehow.”

Sophie swallowed hard. She wanted
to be glad he was alive, but in their hands would death have been better? She
remembered his story of being imprisoned in Heaven and shuddered.

Verrine reached out and grabbed
Sophie’s arm, “We’ll get him back.”

“Thank you,” Sophie muttered in a
tiny voice. She took a deep, ragged breath, but pushed the tears away, “You
came for me, all of you. You could have died. Thank you.” She stood, “I just
need a few minutes. I’ll be back.”

She walked to the back of the
throne room, offering small smiles to Carabia and Buer who were exchanging
harrowing stories, and to Ose and Aeshma, wrapping their own wounds. Reym stood
at the archway, pulling himself to attention when she approached. “You’ve done
more than I could have ever asked already,” she put her hand out and bade him
stop.

He blinked deep green eyes at her,
nodding, “You could never ask too much.”

She passed through the arch and
into the hall, but a voice called to her, stopping her, “Sophie.”

She turned and Troian stood there.
He fidgeted, unable to look her in the eye. Instead of waiting for him, she
went to him and pressed the stone into his hand, closing his fingers over it.
“This is yours. I don’t want you to lose yourself again.”

“I don’t want it. It’s part of
him.”

She could feel his fingers trying
to release it, “And part of you. We’ll find a way to destroy it, if we can, but
it has to be safe. For now just hold on, okay?”

He nodded,  “I just, um, wanted to
say I’m so—”

“Please,” Sophie smiled at him,
“you don’t have to say anything.”

“But I want to.”

As she looked at her brother, she realized
it was the first time they had been together that he was completely himself.
His amber eyes were sad and, though she hated to see it, she was glad to see
them full of life. He let out a worn breath, “I’m sorry, Sophie.”

She pulled him toward her and
embraced him, “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” He squeezed her
back, too tightly making her squeal, and then they both laughed. “It’s just
like…”

“What?”

“Like normal.”

After she left him, Sophie found
her way to the garden. She stepped out onto the soft grass and looked up to the
faux sky, it’s moon shining back at her. It’s not real, she told herself, none
of it is. Nothing was as pretty as she remembered it, the vivid leafy jades now
a sort of dulled mossy green, the bright neon flowers clashing instead of
complimenting one another.

She sighed and dropped down onto
the ground. “I’ll find you, okay?” she spoke to the sky, “I promise.”