Intangible (38 page)

“Sera?” Jonas was still standing next to her.

Sera turned to him and her mouth fell open. Jonas was more, too. More striking, more stunning, more intense. He seemed taller somehow, darker. He fairly gleamed.

She reached out to him and stroked his cheek. His skin was like velvet as he leaned his face into her hand and closed his eyes. He breathed a sigh and her eyes drifted to his lips. Soft, luscious. Her lips ached to take the kiss there. She leaned in toward Jonas, but he opened his eyes and placed two fingers on her lips to stop her.

“Sera,” he said. “Focus. Look at me.”

She gathered her mind, and he was Jonas again. Still in all his magnified glory, but the pull she’d felt toward him had faded. She breathed.

“What was that?” She could feel her face grow warm as she realized she’d almost kissed him. She couldn’t even begin to fathom what she had been thinking.

“That is the Realm. It intensifies everything. It can be overwhelming sometimes.”

She took him in again. He was beautiful.

“I can see that,” she said.

“Sera?” he said. She nodded. “We must go.”

She gasped.
Luke
. And immediately turned to follow Jonas.

But he hadn’t moved yet. He looked into her eyes, causing her heart to speed up again. “I’ll bring you back here another time, for you to see it all. Okay?”

She searched his deep, dark eyes.

“I’d like that.” If she lived long enough for that to happen.

Then he turned and strode down the mountain without looking back. He didn’t have to. Sera was right behind him. Nothing was going to stop her.

She was going after Luke.

A stone arch was carved into the mountainside at the base. Jonas paused when they got there and turned to Sera.

“Do what you need to do to protect yourself,” he said, a quick glance at her hands. “You still have the blade?”

She pulled it out of her pocket, gripped it tight.

Jonas nodded. “Go for the throat,” he said. “Ready?”

Sera took a deep shaky breath. She had to get Luke back. No matter how scared she was, she had to get him back. She could do this. Whatever it was. Whatever it would take. She could do it. For Luke. Her death may be a given, but his was not.

Wide eyed and pale, she looked up at Jonas. “Let’s go.”

He stepped through the arch ahead of her and started slowly down the tunnel. It sloped downward taking them farther underground. The walls were carved red rock, and she reached out to touch it, letting her hand trail along the wall as she walked. The steady rhythm of their steps helped focus her mind, let her keep her breath in check. Her heart was flying around inside her chest, and all she really wanted to do was turn and run the other way, but she kept thinking
Luke. Luke.
Every step she took was
Luke.

Jonas raised his right arm up and glanced behind to be sure she stopped. Her breaths came quicker and shorter, and she tried again to slow them down. It wouldn’t help Luke if she hyperventilated. She leaned one arm against the wall and took a couple of deep, slow breaths, waiting for Jonas to signal it was okay to continue.

She heard a voice call out from inside a room she couldn’t yet see. “Jonas. Ah, Jonas! You’ve brought me a gift! I can smell her from here.” Sera sniffed at herself—she didn’t smell anything. “Bring her in, Jonas. Bring her in. I’ve a feeling you’ve brought me exactly what I wanted.”

Sera watched Jonas’s shoulders tighten. He waved Sera forward and stepped through a doorway ahead of her. She followed him in, stood next to him. Her eyes scanned the room, looking for Luke.

And stopped. Her. That woman. She was beautiful. Red hair like fire that Sera ached to touch. Skin glowing in ivory perfection. She breathed in and smiled. She’d never wanted anything more than to make this woman happy, right here, right now, whoever she was.

She took a step toward the woman and Jonas’s hand shot out and gripped her arm painfully tight.

“No,” she said, “I want to go to her.” She struggled to get out of his grasp, twisting and turning her arm to no avail.

In fact her struggles only caused him to grab hold of her whole body and trap her inside his arms. He whispered fiercely into her ear. “Look at her, Sera. Focus your mind and look beneath what you think you see.” She shook her head, twisted to get away. “Stop for a moment and look at the real Lilith. DO IT.”

Sera wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and try, and
then
she could go to Lilith. She took a breath and looked at her the same way she looked at her painting wall when she was trying to figure out whether she’d painted something right. She unfocused her eyes a bit then let them come into focus again.

And gasped.

She—it—was horrible. Sera’d never seen anything so utterly terrifying and disgusting before. The woman, if you could call her that, was skin and bones. Her pale skin had no color at all, and she looked like a walking corpse.

How in the world had she appeared so beautiful a moment ago? Sera turned her head to look up at Jonas, who still had his arms wrapped tightly around her.

He was watching her face. “I had a feeling you’d be able to see her.”

“That’s Lilith?” she said.

“That’s Lilith.”

Sera was suddenly very aware that she was in Jonas’s arms, and pushed away from him. He kept a hand on her arm for a moment.

“I’m okay,” she said, and he let go.

Luke.
Her eyes whipped around the room searching for him.

He wasn’t there. Was he already dead?

“Where’s Luke?” she said to Jonas. “I don’t see him anywhere.”

Her eyes skimmed over the vampires gathered here and there, a couple of cages to one side of the room, the dais from where Lilith stared at them. He was nowhere.

“Where’s my brother?” Sera called to Lilith, whose grin vanished a moment before her whole body did.

In an instant she was in front of Sera but out of reach. Close, but not too close. “Your brother is gone.” Lilith looked Jonas up and down after he took a protective stance next to Sera. “He is no longer with us.”

Sera reeled. “He’s dead? Oh god.” She put out a hand to steady herself and Jonas reached to help her. No, he couldn’t be dead. She couldn’t have failed him, too.

“By which you mean?” he said to Lilith, eyes narrowed.

Her black eyes darkened dangerously, and she spat out the words. “I let him go.” Jonas’s eyebrows shot up. “I’m pleased that I can still surprise you, Jonas. It doesn’t happen very often anymore, now does it? But I’m even more pleased that you still do as you’re told.” Lilith looked pointedly at Sera. “How lovely that you brought me this present. She’s just what I wanted.”

“You let him go?” Jonas pulled Sera behind him. “Why?”

“There was interference,” Lilith said. “I felt compelled.”

“By whom?”

“A descendant of Faenial.” Lilith’s lip curled into a snarl.

“Really.” Jonas’s tone betrayed his amusement, and Sera gaped at him. Laughing at Lilith didn’t seem particularly wise. And though she was paying close attention to every word, she didn’t have a clue as to what they were talking about.

“And the other?” Jonas said. “Did you let him go, too?”

“Oh, the delicious human boy?” Lilith laughed, a wracking sound like branches scratching a window. “Oh, no. He’s here. Over there in that cage. He’s trouble, that one. And I’ve been enjoying him greatly.”

“Marc?” Sera stepped out from behind Jonas. “You mean Marc?”

“Is that his name?” Lilith said. “I hadn’t asked. Let’s see.”

And she was gone.

Sera’s eyes flicked to the cages across the room, and she saw Lilith reappear inside one of them. Lilith bent down and picked up a person by the back of his shirt—his blood-stained blue t-shirt that matched his eyes perfectly and that Sera knew very well. Oh, no. Marc.

He looked horrible. His face was swollen and covered with blood as if he’d been badly beaten. He had long open wounds oozing down the length of his arms. And he was weak, barely able to stand on his own, swaying terribly on his feet. When Lilith had raised him high enough, she grabbed his chin, and he cried out in pain, though he didn’t struggle to get away.

“No,” Sera said, “don’t.”

“Hello,
cher
. Are you Marc?” Marc nodded, but didn’t say anything. Lilith tossed him aside and he slumped back down to the floor. “Yes, it appears this is your Marc.”

Lilith vanished and reappeared on her dais again, staring triumphantly across at Jonas and Sera.

Tears spilled onto Sera’s cheeks as she watched Marc. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. She didn’t understand how he had even gotten involved in all this. He shouldn’t be here. And Lilith. She was a monster for doing this to him. She’s the one who should be kept in a cage. Sera felt like stalking across the room and wrapping her hands around Lilith’s neck until she turned human. And then Sera’d choke the life right out of her.

“Let him go,” Sera said, wiping tears from her face, her movements hard and jerky. “He hasn’t done anything to you.
Let him go.
”

“Oh, but he has such an interesting talent. I don’t want to let this one loose again.”

“LET HIM GO!”

“And what shall I do with my empty cage? Hmm? Will you offer to give yourself in his place?” Lilith paused and looked at Sera. “Yes, I didn’t think so. You want to take what is mine without offering me anything in return.”

“He is not
yours
.”

“
Au contraire
, I would beg to differ that he is, in fact, mine.”

That was it. The blade still gripped tightly in her hand, Sera took off toward Lilith before Jonas could stop her. Vampires skittered out of her way as she pounded across the room. Jonas shouted for her, but she ignored him. She’d had it.

Lilith shouted orders and Sera was suddenly surrounded by fifteen burly vampires. She tried to push past them, but was grabbed from behind, picked up, and carried backwards. She growled and reached back to grab the vampire with her free hand, but he dropped her to the ground. They circled her, hissing. She looked back past them to see Jonas fighting to get to her through even more vampires.

“Jonas!” she yelled. Knife in one hand, she held out her other hand too, ready to touch anyone who got close.

The vampires snarled at Sera but kept their distance. She could hear Jonas fighting across the room but couldn’t reach him. Nor could she get to Lilith. Or Marc. These fanged thugs simply made it impossible for her to go anywhere, but were obviously reluctant to engage her in a fight.

They were afraid of her, she realized. She charged at them, but they just reformed around her a safe distance away.

“Aw,” she said. “Don’t tell me you big oafs are afwaid of a wittle girl.”

One of them grinned at that, his long sharp teeth cutting into his bottom lip. Sera’s eyes flew open wide. He took a couple of steps toward her, laughing at her expression.

Was this the one who would kill her? She gripped the knife tightly and lowered her stance. She would go down swinging.

She reached out to touch him, but he grabbed her arm. He laughed and she swung the knife at his neck and squeezed her eyes shut. The blade made contact.

And the laughing stopped.

She peered at him with one eye, then both flew open. The vampire’s eyes were wide, shocked. Her blade was lodged in his neck, and she was still holding onto it. She screamed and yanked the knife free, then scampered back a few steps. The vampire fell to his knees, burst into dust, and was gone.

Oh. God.

She’d killed someone. She’d actually killed someone. Her breath came in short gasps and she felt like she was going to throw up. This wasn’t what she did. She saved lives. She didn’t take them away.

Okay. So he’d technically been dead to begin with. But still.

She looked over for Jonas. He’d seen it, she could tell. He nodded at her, seeming to understand.

“For Luke,” he yelled to her.

For Luke, she thought. And Marc. To save them.

And maybe a little bit for her dad. Or maybe a lot. She looked around the circle at the rest of them.

“Okay,” she said. “Who’s next?”

Huge hands grabbed her from behind, pinning both arms down at her sides and she dropped the knife. She could hear Lilith yelling, “Grab her necklace. It gives her power. Get the necklace off her now!”

Nails scraped at her neck, leaving long red scratches as fingers scrambled to close around the necklace. She tried to jerk her head away, tried to struggle her arms free but couldn’t. She felt as if she was held in a human size vise grip.

“Got it!” One of them growled near her ear, and she could feel him start to tug at the chain around her neck. She closed her eyes, wincing at the pain.

And heard sizzling.

And screaming.

And turned to see the vampire who’d let go of her necklace clutch his hand in agony before it burst into flame. The fire spread to his whole body and suddenly he was ash.

Sera’s eyes were huge, her mouth open. It was disturbing. It was horrible. It was awesome. She was totally indestructible! She reached up to touch her scratched neck—it hurt a lot. So, maybe she was a little destructible.

She held out her hands toward the vampires in front of her and they fell back out of reach, but still blocked her way toward Lilith. Toward helping Marc.

“You afraid of me, Lilith? You send these thugs in your place?” Sera lunged for one vampire after the next. “Aren’t you supposed to be some fearsome mother-of-all-the-damned vampire? You’re a fake.” Jonas appeared suddenly next to her, and she jumped backwards, which sent several vampires scattering. “Jonas, stop doing that!”

“What? Helping you?” He picked up the knife she’d dropped and handed it to her.

“No, popping out of thin air.”

Jonas smiled at her then. A huge grin, and shook his head. Then gave one quick nod, turned and was gone.

“Jonas!” Sera’d jumped again when he’d disappeared.

A strange movement in her peripheral and a
thud.
Sera whipped her head to the right and saw one vampire laying on the ground with his throat cut for a mere moment before he burst into nothingness. She put her hands down and looked around the circle as one after the other of the vampires went down and were gone. Jonas appeared for a brief second behind each one, used an ornate looking blade, and then was gone before his victim even began to fall.