White Hot Kiss (16 page)

Every child Lilith spawned from that point on was a monster—succubi, incubi and just about every other demonic creature you could think of. Worst of all, she’d birthed the Lilin, a race of demons who could steal souls with a single touch. They were her first and most powerful children. Around that time was when the first generation of Wardens appeared, created by the Alphas to battle the Lilin. They managed to wipe out the Lilin and capture Lilith. Texts claimed that Lilith had been bound to Hell by one of the Wardens, chained down there together with him for all eternity.

Like most things that Alphas did, that just didn’t make sense to me. Through the birthing of so many demons, Lilith turned into one herself—and because the Alphas had punished her, they accidentally created the Lilin, a legion of demons so feared and powerful that they could ensure no human ever made it past the pearly gates.

Humans who died without souls, no matter how good they were in life, existed between Heaven and Hell, stuck in the in-between for all eternity. Plagued with endless thirst and hunger, they turned into violent, vengeful wraiths that even demons were wary of. Wraiths could interact with the living world, and when they did, it usually ended in a gory mess.

Tucking my hair back, I watched a shimmery blue soul trail behind a man in ragged jeans. My mother couldn’t be
that
Lilith. Because if she was, what did that really say about me? How could I ever overcome a bloodline like that? And if Lilith was really my mother then Abbot would have to know and there was no way that anyone would let a child of Lilith walk around. Besides, there was the whole problem of her being chained to Hell. It wasn’t like someone let her out to get knocked up and birth a kid.

Hell’s Most Wanted List? I shuddered. Was that why the Seeker and a zombie— I cut that thought off. Nothing Roth had told me could be true. What was I even doing considering any of it? Trusting him would be like smacking the Wardens in the face. Demons lied. Even I lied. Well, my lying really didn’t have much to do with being a demon, but still.

Roth was just messing with me, trying to get me to stop tagging. And if Hell was after me, then that could be the only true reason.

Squeezing my fingers around the ring, I stopped a groan from escaping. I’d kissed a demon. Or he’d kissed me. The semantics probably didn’t matter. Either way, my lips had been all up in a demon’s. My first kiss. Dear Lord...

I almost squealed when I spotted the black Yukon, seriously needing a distraction from my troublesome thoughts. I stood and shouldered my bag. A strange shiver wiggled its way down my neck, raising the tiny hairs on my body. It wasn’t like the time before while I waited for Morris. This was different.

I turned, scanning the pedestrians on the sidewalk. Blurs of faint pink and blue and a few darker auras, but no one was missing a soul. Craning my neck, I stretched onto the tips of my toes and tried to see around the corner, past the fleet of cabs lining up. There didn’t seem to be anything demonic, but still, the feeling was familiar.

Morris honked the horn, drawing my attention. Shaking my head, I darted between two cabs and yanked the passenger door open. The feeling hit me again, like a cold hand traveling around my neck.

Shivering, I climbed into the front seat and pulled the door shut, my eyes on the line of taxis. Something...something wasn’t right.

“Do you feel that?” I asked, twisting toward Morris.

He raised his brows and, as usual, said nothing. Sometimes I pretended we had a conversation. I’d even acted it out once or twice for Morris. I liked to think it amused him.

“Well, I feel something weird.” I leaned forward as he eased the SUV out into the congested streets. Three cabs pulled out, too, blocking most of the storefronts and sidewalk. “It’s like there’s a demon nearby, but I don’t see any.”

Three blocks later and the feeling not only lingered, but grew like an ominous cloud. Malice and evil filled the streets, seeping into the Yukon, its presence choking. Beads of sweat appeared on Morris’s creased forehead.

“You feel it now, don’t you?” I gripped the edges of my seat. “Morris?”

He nodded, gaze sharp as he veered around a slow-moving truck and then cut in front of it, hitting the exit ramp. Two cabs were right behind us, plus a whole slew of cars were also entering the beltway.

The malicious feeling hung thick and murky. So potent that it felt as if whatever was causing the suffocating feeling was in the backseat, breathing down our necks.
That
was a feeling of raw evil, something I’d never picked up on around a Fiend.

“Morris. I think we need to hurry up and get home.”

He was already on it, foot slamming down on the gas as he weaved in and out of the congested traffic. Twisting around in my seat, I peered out the back window—and my heart tripped.

Behind us, a cab was so close I could see its silver cross dangling from the rearview mirror. The fact that the cabbie was inches away from kissing our rear end wasn’t a big deal; cabbies were insane when it came to city driving. No, it was the
driver
behind the wheel that sent a shot of fear straight through me.

Now I knew where the bad feeling was coming from.

The space around the hunched driver was blacker than any shadow, thick like oil. Thin slivers of silver, tiny specks of humanity, peeked through the darkness of his soul, barely there. His soul spread out from him, seeping through the front of the taxi, slipping over the dashboard and crawling over the window.

“Oh, my God,” I whispered, feeling the blood drain from my face. “The driver’s possessed!”

As soon as the words left my mouth, Morris wrenched the steering wheel to the right. A horn blared. Tires squealed. He slammed down on the brakes, whipping me around as he narrowly avoided clipping the back end of a delivery truck. A series of quick maneuvers later, and several cars were between us and the possessed cabdriver.

I stared at Morris. “Damn. For an old man, you sure know how to drive.”

Morris kept a tight grip on the steering wheel, but he smiled in acknowledgment.

A second later, we were on our exit ramp, flying down the road. The Yukon fishtailed as he hung a quick right, and I shrieked, grabbing the “oh, shit” handle. Then the heavy vehicle lurched forward as he put the gas pedal all the way to the floor. We hit the narrow two-lane stretch of private road at breakneck speeds.

And we weren’t alone.

The taxi was gaining on us, and then it was in the other lane, going in the wrong direction, inching up on us. My heart jumped in my throat as I stared into the taxi.

The blackness of the man’s soul faded, revealing a pale, empty face. The human was on autopilot, completely under the thumb of the demon that had possessed him. Possession, next to murder, was one of the worst crimes, and it was forbidden according to the Law of Balance. Humans lost all free will once a demon breathed its essence into them, possessing them. Only Upper Level demons could possess humans.

Roth? Seemed likely, since he was the only Upper Level demon I’d seen, with the exception of the one that had moved too fast for me to be sure. Dread filled my stomach like lead. Had Roth possessed this man because I’d refused to stop tagging? If so, I’d just put Morris’s life in danger. Anger and guilt swirled inside me, causing my hands to clench until my nails bit into my palms.

Suddenly the taxi was speeding alongside us. Like a pro, Morris kept his gaze trained forward, but a scream built in my throat. My muscles tensed, as if my body already knew what to expect.

Morris swerved. Two wheels went off the road, crunching over dirt. But—oh, God—he was too late. I squeezed my eyes shut, terror seizing me in its tight grip.

The taxi slammed into us.

CHAPTER TEN

The impact was deafening.

Metal crunched and gave way in an explosion of white that sent me sideways and then snapped me back. A second before the airbag smacked into my face, I saw a blur of trees rushing toward the front of the car.

God bless Morris, because somehow, even with an airbag in his face, he turned that steering wheel, spinning the vehicle around so the back end instead of the front slammed into the thick trunk of an ancient tree. But the impact was no less brutal, throwing us backward.

When we finally stopped moving, I was sure I was going into cardiac arrest.

“Morris. Morris!” I pushed at the deflating airbag, coughing as white dust plumed. “Are you okay?”

He leaned back, blinking several times as he nodded. White powder caked his cheeks, but other than a trickle of blood under his nose, he looked fine.

Turning my attention to the other car, I unhooked my seat belt with shaky fingers. The entire front of the cab was a mass of twisted, crunched metal. A body-sized hole was in the windshield. Splotches of a dark red substance coated the edges of the broken glass and splattered the hood.

“Oh, God,” I said, letting the seat belt smack back. “I think the other driver was ejected.”

Scrambling for my bag to get my cell, I smacked at the damn airbag. I needed to call for help—something. Even though the cabbie had hit us, he was possessed and totally not responsible for his actions. He was an innocent human being, and I had to do something. Traffic didn’t come down this road often—

A bloodied, mangled face appeared outside the passenger window. I jerked back, swallowing a scream. Nausea rose swiftly. The face—oh, God—the face was a wreck. Pieces of glass were embedded in his cheeks. The flesh was torn. Rivulets of blood coursed down his face like rain. One eye appeared almost gouged out. His lower lip...it was barely hanging on and his head was bent at an unnatural angle. Dude should be dead, or at least in a coma.

But he was still up and walking.

Not good.

He grabbed the handle and pulled, tearing the Yukon door right off its hinges. He flung it aside and then reached in, bloodied hands shooting straight for me.

One of Morris’s arms came around my shoulders as I scrambled out of the seat, but the damn possessed kept coming. Leaning back against Morris, I brought my knees back and slammed both my feet into his ragged shirt, knocking the man back.

The possessed popped back up, determined and single-minded. His hand wrapped around my ankle as I kicked out again, and he yanked, pulling me out of the car. Blood bubbled out of his mouth—out of the freaking
hole
in his throat.

I screamed and slapped my hands down wildly, wrapping them around the gear shift. For a second, my body went up in the air, half out of the Yukon as the possessed pulled like he was willing to rip me clear in two.

Morris shot forward, yanking the glove box open. There was a flash of shiny, black metal and then an explosion rang through the interior of the car. The possessed jerked and let go. I hit the seat and center console on my side. Dull pain shot through my body. Acrid smoke burned my eyes.

The possessed stood still, eyes glazed over, with a bullet hole dead center in his forehead. Then his head fell back and his mouth opened. An inhuman cry escaped him—a cross between a screaming baby and a dog’s whine.

Red smoke poured out of the gaping mouth, filling the air with its filth and stench. It kept coming until the last tendril snaked out and a cloud of rolling smoke formed. The possessed toppled over, but the cloud continued to expand. Shapes formed inside it. Fingers and hands pressed out, as if something was seeking a way to escape.

The mass suddenly reared back, and a long oval shape formed, almost like a head. It swung toward us, and panic punched a hole through my chest.

This thing just wouldn’t die.

Beyond the mass, the tops of the trees began to shake like Godzilla was about to make an appearance. At this point, anything was possible. Branches waved back and forth, shaking loose the last of the leaves that had been clinging on. They fell like rain, clouding the sky in muted browns and greens.

Something big was coming.

Then, along the edge of the trembling woods crowding the roadway, the fading sun caught and reflected over a thick, shiny onyx tail slithering along the leaf-strewn ground.

My breath caught. Bambi.

The mass pulsated and twisted, but that damn snake was
fast.
Shooting across the ground, it arced into the air, swallowing the evil essence within a second.

And then there was nothing—no essence or giant snake. The horrible scent of sulfur lingered, but it was no longer potent, and the malicious feeling had vanished. There was just the sound of Morris’s heavy breathing and my pounding heart.

“Did you see that?” I looked up into Morris’s face.

His expression said “see what?” And I wasn’t sure if he had seen Bambi, she’d moved so fast.

“Jesus,” I murmured.

Morris smiled.

* * *

It was chaos in the mansion.

From the moment Morris and I explained what had happened, anger and tension seeped into every room in the sprawling house. A possessed human coming after anyone wasn’t good. And the idea of one coming so close to the house had all the Wardens in a tizzy. All except Zayne, because I had no idea where he was.

Even with all the security and the charms blanketing the acres of land the house rested upon, only so much could be done. Because of...well, because of me.

My presence threw off the protective charms. Probably not as much as a full-blooded demon or a possessed would, but the Wardens had to be careful they didn’t accidentally take me out.

I had no idea how my day started off somewhat normal—at least normal for me—and ended with my whole belief system being questioned, sharing my very first kiss with a demon, finding out my mother could possibly be
the
Lilith and being chased by a possessed human.

How in the world had things gone so wrong?

Nicolai, a Warden in his mid-twenties who had lost his mate and his child last year during childbirth—like so many of them did—stopped by where I stood on his way to dispose of the body and the wreckage of the two cars.

“Are you okay, Layla?” he asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.