Intangible (34 page)

She kept pacing. How she would ever explain this to her father, to her people, she had no idea. Especially if anything happened to Luke. She would be cast out for sure. A failure. She’d lose her family, her people. Even worse, she’d lose Sera and Luke.

“Did you try him again?” Fey turned to Sera, who was watching her with worried eyes from where she sat on the couch.

“Just now.” Sera nodded. “No answer.”

“Great Hills, where
is
he?”

“Do you think they got him? The vampires?” Sera said, her voice small. “Jonas said they’d come after us because I changed that other one yesterday. Do you think they have?”

“I don’t know,” Fey said. “I hope not.”

“Can’t you call somebody? Like one of your vampire friends?” Sera paused, then added, “Do vampires have friends?”

“I suppose some must.” She had a hard time keeping the disdain from her voice.

Sera looked at her strangely. “Shouldn’t you know?”

In their brief discussion last night, Fey had omitted some key facts, and this was not the time to clear that up. But she did need Sera to stop asking questions she was not yet willing to answer.

“Sera, I—”

A knock on the door sent Fey hurtling across furniture to answer it. She flew through the air as if winged and threw open the door.

“
You
.”

She turned and walked back into the living room.

Jonas followed her into the room, fists clenched, mouth tight. He saw Sera on the couch, softened his features, and went to kneel before her. “Luke—”

Sera sat bolt upright. “You’ve seen Luke? Where is he?”

Fey’s head whipped around, and she stared, waiting.

“Luke has been taken, but he’s alive.” Jonas turned to look at Fey. “Lilith has him.”

“WHAT?” Sera was on her feet in an instant.

“
Great Hills
!” Fey could feel the color drain out of her face. Pull yourself together, she immediately thought, and straightened up, squared her shoulders. This is what happened when you became emotionally attached. But warriors didn’t panic. There were solutions to every problem. She would solve this.

“Lilith?” Sera looked from Jonas to Fey and back again. “Who is this Lilith?”

“She also has Marc.”

“Oh my god,” Sera said. “Where are they? We’ve got to go get them.”

Fey came over and put her arm around Sera’s shoulders, and eased her back down onto the couch. She turned Sera to face her and looked right in her eyes. “We will go get them,” she said. “I promise, we will. But I want you to wait for me. Okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to go get…help. People to help us get Luke and Marc back, but I have to go by myself, and I need you to wait until I get back.” She looked intently at Sera, trying to read her face. “Will you do that? Will you wait for me?”

“What people are you getting?”

“My people.”

Sera studied her. “Like a vampire mafia?”

“Sera, there’s no time for me to explain. I’ve got to get Luke back,” she said, and knelt down in front of her. “Trust me.”

“How long will it take?”

Fey looked up and around as if she were calculating. “An hour at the most. Will you wait?”

Sera looked at her for a silent moment. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.” She looked around the place really quickly, stopped on Jonas. “Will you stay with her?”

He nodded, and followed her out of the room toward the door. Stepping outside behind Fey, he closed the door then stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“Jonas, let go of me. I’ve got to get help. It can’t just be me going to see Lilith. I need an escort.” She looked up at him.

“You were there yesterday when Lilith sent her thugs to Sera and Luke’s house. How could you leave Luke alone today?” He didn’t even pause to give Fey time to answer. “This is your duty. Your sworn duty.”

Fey could feel sparks forming on her fingers, running through her whole body. Could feel herself growing taller and start to glow with magick. Her brilliant eyes narrowed at Jonas and she said, low and hard, “I do not answer to you, vampire.
Let go of my arm.
”

Jonas pulled his hand back as if it’d been shocked, his eyes dangerous.

Fey looked around to be sure no one was watching. “Stay with Sera, keep her safe,” she said. “And keep her out of the Realm.”

With a single spark, she was gone.

THIRTY-ONE

L
uke woke up slowly, his brain cloudy, his head throbbing like he was lying on a bed of stone. He stretched out his fingers and felt along the surface he lay on. It was hard, smooth, and cool.

He
was
lying on a bed of stone.

He opened his eyes and tried to focus. It seemed very red, wherever he was. Flickering caught his eye from high up on the wall. Torches? Where the hell was h—

Luke bolted up with a gasp. His head swam, his eyes flew around the room, and he felt sick.

He was in hell.

This was the place.

This was where Sera was going to die.

He put his head between his knees and took some deep breaths to quell the nausea and calm his rampaging heart. He needed to get a hold of himself. It wasn’t over yet. Sera wasn’t even here.

Was she?

He looked around the room again, searching for the one face he knew better than his own. He let out his breath. She wasn’t there.

He still had time.

In fact, maybe this was his chance. Maybe whatever was going to happen now could change the future. Could save her life. Could stop his vision from coming true.

Someone entered the room and his eyes slid to her. He inhaled sharp, quick.

It was
her
. She was even more unbelievable in person, and Luke’s mouth slowly hung open in wonder. A smile lit up her face with a soft glow like firelight. She moved with the grace of a lioness, her long lean limbs flowing over the dark stone floor as she walked toward him. Her silky copper hair swung around her shoulders and down her back.

He wanted her. He’d never wanted anything in his life like he wanted her now. He’d do anything to have her, to make her happy, to make her smile. Anything. Her smile filled him with such longing, such warmth, such contentment.

Luke sighed. Everything was okay. Everything was as it should be. He was in the right place at the right time. He had no more worries.

She was halfway across the room to him, making him more and more impatient and anxious for her to get to him with every step when something about her flickered. For a moment her beauty had been gone and in its place he’d seen a grotesque, shriveled, stick-like woman.

It was so quick, Luke thought perhaps he’d imagined it. After all, here she was in all her magnificent splendor, getting closer and closer, making him practically ache with the need to touch her, to please her in any way he could.

But then she was changed again. For longer this time, as she took several steps toward him. She was all sharp angles and hard edges. Her skin was as taut as her black leather pants, pulled tight over sharp bones, turning her smile into an evil-looking grimace. Luke shrank back as she got closer.

When she changed back to the dazzling beauty there was a look of puzzlement on her flawless face. She reached out a hand toward him, beckoning him to approach her, and he felt himself getting up because his body had to go to her. His ankle hurt as he took a step toward her, but he didn’t care, couldn’t stop.

Her motion drifted her scent over to Luke. She smelled as intoxicating as a perfect summer day. He wanted to bask in her.

A few more painful steps toward her and her image flicked back to the menacing monster. Luke immediately stopped walking and looked at her hard, really looked at her. She didn’t change back. Fear shivered down his spine. He didn’t know what was going on. But he knew this was her true self.

And he wasn’t taking another step toward her.

She frowned suddenly, beckoned him again with her bony arm, but he didn’t move. Her black eyes sparked anger, but her voice sounded friendly and inviting. “Luke? Come here,
cher
. Let me see you.”

No way in hell was he going any closer. He just looked at her in silence, trying not to run in the other direction. Glancing around at all the vampires in the room, he knew he wouldn’t even get ten feet before he’d be caught. No use in getting more beat up than he already was. He shifted his weight onto his good ankle. He wasn’t going anywhere.

Her eyes narrowed, her mouth pinched tight in fury, and she was gone.

Luke’s eyes bugged, darting all over the place searching for her.

And there she was. Right in front of him. Luke yelped and leaped backwards in surprise, tripped over his own feet and landed on the ground looking up at her. In an instant he was hauled back up on his feet in front of her, held tight on either side by two gigantic vampires. His ankle throbbed.

“Who are you?” Luke wasn’t sure he really wanted to know the answer, but he couldn’t help asking the question.

She smiled then, a cold, eerie grin that made the hair on his arms stand on end. “I,
mon cher
, am Lilith. And you are the seer, yes?” She gingerly reached over to him, pulled his necklace from under his shirt, and looked at it closely. Luke flinched at her touch, though it didn’t hurt him. She seemed to find that amusing. “Yes, I see that I am correct. Good. Your sister, she heals, I know.”

Then she let go of his necklace, grabbed him by the neck and lifted him above her head. She turned and announced to the collective coven, “We have found them. They are the Children of the Prophecy, and we will be rid of this problem soon.” A roar went up in the room, but Luke barely noticed. He couldn’t breathe and his throat felt like it was being crushed. He grabbed her hand with both of his but couldn’t even budge her grip. Her hands were like stone.

As he was on the verge of blacking out, she threw him to the floor like she was tossing aside a piece of paper. He slammed into the ground about fifteen feet away, sharp pains radiating up his arms as he caught himself. He coughed now that his airway was open again, and gasped air back into his lungs.

When he’d caught his breath, he took in the full cavernous room, looking for a way to escape, trying to see if anything was changed from what he’d seen in his vision. It all looked so familiar, which was thoroughly disheartening.

Lilith had turned and was studying him. “You’ve Seen this place before?” Her eyes were narrowed at him, calculating. “Yes, I can see it on your face. You had a vision. Tell me this,” she said, “did I win?” At his scowl, she broke into chilling laughter. “I did! Wonderful. I always win. Just like your visions are always right.”

She turned then, and pointed to Marc. “Friend of yours?”

Marc. He’d forgotten Marc had been there when the vampires attacked. He was about fifty feet away, trapped in a cage. Luke had no idea how he was going to get Marc out of here. Or himself.

Luke turned back to Lilith only to have her disappear as soon as he did, and reappear inside the cage with Marc. Lilith held out a hand to Marc, and he willingly took it and brought it to his lips to kiss, then rubbed it on his cheek. She turned her hand to cup his cheek, then ran her razor sharp nails down the side of his face leaving four red lines of seeping blood. Lilith leaned her face close, inhaled and moaned with delight.

She caught blood dripping off his jaw with one finger and put it in her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, how sweet,” she said. “You have been meddling with those of the Dark.” She gripped his chin with one hand and turned his face so she could look directly into his eyes. “I can taste it in your blood.” She swiped her finger along his jaw line again, then licked the blood from it. “You are going to be a rare treat for me to drain. Slowly. Painfully.” She traced her finger along his forehead, down his cheek, and over his lips—smeared blood marking her finger’s path. “I’m really going to enjoy you.”

Then, slowly, savoring every drop, she licked the blood from his face.

Marc’s eyes were wide with fear and pain, and he stared at Luke even as he held still so she could take what she wanted from him. Goose bumps covered Luke’s body, and he felt a little dizzy as he watched his vision come true.

Marc squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw.
Thud. Thud.
The two guards on either side of Luke collapsed. Luke stared at them for a moment, then looked around the room. Most of the vampires were on the ground, unconscious.

His eyes went right to the door. The way out. He scrambled to his feet, tried to calculate whether he could make it there before any of them woke up. But there was Marc. He couldn’t leave without Marc.

Luke looked over at Marc again. Lilith was still there. Her eyes scanned the room, incredulous. She stared at Luke, then turned her gaze onto Marc. His eyes were still closed, his face tight.

She narrowed her eyes at him, then took in all her unconscious minions again. With a careless flick of her hand, she knocked Marc out and he crumpled to the ground. A moment later the vampires around the room stirred, stood up looking dazed.