Covenant (21 page)

More mysteries to add to
those already there, and while I probably should have asked him
about the dagger before I took it, I didn’t want to arouse his
suspicions. It’s going to be bad enough if I don’t return it before
he sees the outline in the pulpit. And then it’s just a matter of
time before he asks the right questions of Celia to find out I have
it. Celia’s never been able to divert suspicions from anything she
does. She is completely honest, which isn’t a bad thing. I’m the
one doing something I shouldn’t, but I know it’s the best thing I
can offer Elizabeth.

I don’t know how long I sit
there, pondering what I’m doing and how it will turn out before the
sliding glass door opens again. As I look up, Theresa, Bob, and
Kane walk in. They’re in the middle of a conversation, laughing and
talking animatedly when Theresa spies me.

“
Lev?”

As she walks over to me, Bob
says, “I brought him here earlier. He said he wanted to try to help
Elizabeth as soon as possible so he could replace the dagger and
keep Evan out of the loop.”

“
So you have the dagger?”
Kane asks in a calm voice, shifting his gaze to me as
well.”

I nod. “Yes. I
do.”

He frowns. “Are you sure
it’s the right dagger?”

I think back to the hologram
he presented, and the image of the dagger I took seems to match. “I
believe so.” Yet even as I answer, doubts plague me, so I reach
back and gently ease the dagger from my waistband.

Bob’s mouth slips open and
he shakes his head. “That’s an ancient artifact, Lev. Perhaps you
should be careful.”

I look at the steel,
suddenly struck by how beautiful the blade appears. The silver
gleams in a way that suggests the light emanates from within.
There’s a heat building in the grip and it warms my palm. That’s
when I realize there is something unique about this blade. It is an
entity of its own, not a mere weapon to be used. I just have no
clue as to what its true purpose is or why Evan had it to begin
with.

“
May I see it?” Theresa
asks, nodding toward the blade.

Some part of me doesn’t want
to hand over the weapon, and the chaos begins building again,
swirling darkly inside me. Yet this time, I do not think the chaos
is completely of my own making. Part of it comes from that
blade.

She reaches toward it, and I
know I should tell her to leave it be, but the words won’t come. If
they do, I won’t be able to heal Elizabeth’s memory, and I have to
do that. I have to. No matter how difficult it is, things can’t
stay as they are for her sake. She deserves to have a full life
unmarred by my existence.

Theresa’s fingers wrap
around the handle and lift it from my palm. Even as the blade
leaves, I feel a coolness replace the heat. For just a second, the
blade seems to glow even brighter, as though it is communicating by
light. I feel the chaos take a more firm hold of me, and I know I
need to get the dagger back. I try to reach up and take it, but
Theresa as much quicker.

“
Calm yourself, Lev, I just
want to look at the blade. Nothing more.”

Nervous, I finally lower my
hand and watch her take it in both hands, staring at the blade as
she runs a finger across the gleaming silver.
This is wrong,
I think.
I can feel the disturbance within, and the dagger
is still glowing;
Celia was right and I
have been a fool.

“
I should take that back,”
I tell her, stepping toward her, yet even as I draw closer, Kane
steps between us, cutting me off path.

“
Why so nervous?” Kane
asks. “Don’t you wish to heal Elizabeth?”

As he asks, I suddenly
realize the answer. “You lied. That blade can’t erase her memories.
It won’t work on a mortal.” I keep watching the dagger, trying to
find a chance to get to it without Kane being in the
way.

A smile turns Kane’s lips
upward. This is the first time I’ve seen any emotion at all from
him, and I feel something stirring within him—chaos. But this chaos
is centralized and growing, unlike anything else I’ve ever
felt.

“
It’s a shame we had to
trick you. But we need this dagger more than you do. Otherwise,
Evan will destroy us, and I can’t let that happen.” He holds up his
hand, and suddenly a wave of chaos hits. The pain rips through me,
leaving me in darkness.

Chapter Fifteen

“
Lev?” The voice is
distant, and as I reach for consciousness, trying to swim through
the dark caress of sleep, I feel the pain surrounding it, waiting
for me to wake. I try to answer, but the sound that comes out is a
moan.

“
Lev, you need to wake up!”
The tone is more urgent. This time, I feel someone shaking me,
jostling me back into the pain. I open my eyes, and the light seems
to spear through me. Gasping, I shut my eyes and try to relax,
hoping it will drive away the pain.

“
Lev, are you all right?”
Celia. The voice is now clear. They’re her hands.

“
I don’t know,” I finally
manage.

“
We need to get you to
Evan.”

“
No!” Despite the pain, I
force myself to look at her. She’s kneeling beside me, frowning
worriedly. “I don’t want to see him.” I look around to find I am
still in Theresa’s house, but it appears Celia and I are alone.
Fitting. I seriously doubt Kane and the others will be back, not
since they took the dagger, which is probably what they wanted all
along.

At first, the pain shoots
through me, but then I realize it’s the chaos, the same chaos Kane
somehow used to knock me flat on my back so they could escape. Now
that I know what he’s done, I force myself to concentrate and push
the chaos back. That relieves the pain.

“
What happened?” she
asks.

“
You were right.” I rake my
fingers through my hair and sit up despite her trying to keep me
down. “Kane waited until Theresa had the dagger to attack me. Kane,
Theresa, and Bob escaped. I don’t know about Sarah, Jayzee, or
Colin. They weren’t here when I showed the blade.” As I turn to
Celia, I see she is cringing, and I realize that perhaps she knows
something I don’t. “What is so important about that dagger,
Celia?”

“
I don’t know, exactly. I
do know Evan has been assigned a different task—that of dealing
with rogue angels. That’s why he had the dagger.”

I start to struggle to my
feet, and Celia helps me up. “Has he realized the dagger is
gone?”

She shakes her head. “No,
not yet.”

“
We have to get it back.”
My voice is frantic, just like I feel.

“
Yeah, well, that would be
nice, but we don’t even know where Kane would be.”

While I’m not totally sure,
I do have a hunch. The side of Kane I saw right at the end before
he attacked me was that of a sadistic angel who wanted nothing more
than to hurt others. What better way to hurt me than through
Elizabeth? While it could be nothing, right now it’s all I have to
go on.

“
I think perhaps he might
have gone to Elizabeth as a way to mess with me. Let me guess—Kane
and I didn’t exactly get along, either.” I look at her, and when
she nods yes, I’m not surprised.

“
The two of you had many
arguments about how things should be and you caught him several
times not doing as he should have done. When you reported those
slights to Evan, he reported it higher up, which probably resulted
in Evan being the one to deal with the rogue angels.”

“
Then we need to get to
Elizabeth. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I’m not just
going to wait around and see what happens in hopes it’s not so
bad.”

“
All right. Let’s go.” We
both rush outside and throw our bodies into the air, and the moment
our wings appear, we sail higher, Celia leading the way.

“
I should have listened to
you,” I say.

“
You wanted to believe
there was a way to fix things.” Her gaze is pointed toward the sky
instead of at my face.

We lapse into silence; all I
can think of is getting to Elizabeth. I know he’s had all too much
time to do things while I’ve been out of it. I just have to hope
I’m not too late. Gritting my teeth, I try not to focus on the
chaos, knowing that if I think too much about it, it will overwhelm
me again. I can’t risk that.

Although Celia is flying
toward Elizabeth’s house, when I focus on the connection between
us, it doesn’t seem to be coming from that way. “I don’t think
we’re going the right way,” I tell her, breaking off to head more
south.

While Celia is puzzled by my
sudden shift, she follows suit. “How do you know where to
go?”

“
I sense it.”

As we fly lower, I realize
she’s walking on the trail by the waterfalls, a place that is more
laden with memories than is healthy for either of us. Lower and
lower. It doesn’t take much for me to realize she stands at the
falls, and I know it’s no accident Kane has led her
here.

I turn towards Celia. “How
much does Kane know about my relationship with
Elizabeth?”

She takes a deep breath and
exhales softly. “Probably more than any of us would like. There’s
no telling how long he’s been watching you, Lev. He’s been waiting
for the chance to get back at you for a long time.”

Finally, as we turn the last
bend where the waterfall cascades, I see Elizabeth at the railing,
staring out into space. No, not space, exactly. An image of the
teenager I used to be floats just above her. While she hasn’t seen
him yet, he’s close—so close. Although his wings are dirty, more
dark grey than white, they still flash in the sunlight. They always
will regardless of how much they change due to how far he slips
from what the pure intention of what he was. It’s part of not being
from this world.

“
Get away from her,” I yell
at Kane.

As he turns, I see my old
face, I feel slightly disoriented. Although I know that skin isn’t
me any more than this is, it’s still strange to see it on someone
else. “Why? Are you afraid?”

“
Leave Elizabeth out of
this!”

He offers a hateful smile.
“Too late.”

It’s then his form glimmers
into the corporeal world where Elizabeth can see him. But she’s not
seeing Kane. She’s seeing me because that’s what she wants to
see.

“
Elizabeth,” he whispers
softly, transforming his leering smile to something much softer, an
expression I would have worn when I spoke to her.

She blinks a couple of times
and then she sees him. “Lev?”

“
Yes.” He reaches out for
her hand but there is just enough distance that she is forced to
climb up the railing to try to get to him.

“
Stop it!” I yell. I start
to fly toward him, but Celia holds me back.

“
You can’t let her see you.
We’ll have to deal with whatever damage he does when this is
over.”

I turn toward her and
whisper, “And what if we
can’t
deal with it, Celia? What if it is too great?
Should I simply abandon Elizabeth to his destruction?”

She points to Kane. “The
damage has already been done whether you realize it or not. It was
done the moment she saw him as you.”

I feel the chaos swirling
with it, and it takes everything I’ve got to reign it in as I watch
the girl I love rise to the top of the railing and balance there,
still reaching for something Kane can’t give her—something no one
can ever give her again.

“
Come to me,” he whispers,
luring her.

She reaches, almost able to
grab his fingers. That’s when her eyes widen. I sense the fall
coming even before she does. “Get Kane. He’s probably got the
dagger. I’ll get Elizabeth.”

Kane lifts suddenly, and she
tilts forward. She can’t lean back to restore her balance. Instead,
she begins plummeting toward the roiling water below. Her
high—pitched screams sound like bird cries, and her arms and legs
flail wildly.

I dive toward her, my wings
flashing against the water. At this moment, I don’t think about her
seeing me. All I can think about is changing my face to be the one
she expects to find. Still, I don’t know if I can reach her before
her body breaks against the water.

I try not to think about it,
yet I remember the first time, when she was with Griffin and fell
over the falls. I didn’t know if I would get to her in time then,
either. It seems so long ago now—so long and so painful to
remember.

Even as I dive, I see her
body impact the water, and I move faster, trying not to think about
the rocks and what they will do to her. I feel neither the cold nor
the impact of fluid against me. My eyes take a moment to adjust to
the light, and I see Elizabeth’s body plummeting toward the bottom.
Her arms and legs are still thrashing. Before I can get to her, she
slams her head against a large rock. In that instant, all her
motion stops, and her body starts to sink.

I propel faster. The chaos
threatens to overtake me, but I force myself not to think of it,
only Elizabeth, only getting to her in time and pulling her to
safety above the cold water. I reach out and grasp her hands, then
encircle her body with one arm as I propel us upward in frantic
haste.