Intangible (41 page)

He was met with cold silence and three pairs of orange eyes glaring at him from the inky blackness.

“That is not wise. We thought you were smarter than that.”

“Yeah, well, I’m done. I just got back from being a human lollipop for Lilith.” Marc gloated at the surprise he saw in their creepy floating eyes. “Oh, yeah. She’s onto them, too. So I’m out. Done.
Finito
.”

Marc turned to go.

“You still need our medicine, Marcus. Our help.”

“I’ll take my chances. I don’t want to be a part of this, a part of whatever it is you and the rest of the creatures of the night are doing. I was sucked on by a vampire. Do you understand me? Lilith tried to kill me today. Slowly. Painfully. FOR FUN.” Marc threw his hands in the air. “I’M DONE.”

He turned again to go, but the sudden pain in his head brought him to the ground. A blazing fire was burning his brain. Hundreds of thousands of voices crowded into his head, all screaming their thoughts.

Marc grabbed his head, moaning, and couldn’t even form enough of his own thoughts to be pissed that he was about to lose his much-needed dinner right here in the graveyard. Again. He retched and retched, hardly able to breathe in between.

Then there was silence. Blessed silence. Marc was curled up tight and was rocking himself slightly from side to side, moaning.

“Without us, that is your life, Marcus. Is that what you want?”

“I don’t care.” Marc coughed, his throat raw. “I’m not doing it anymore. I’m not going to end up vampire fodder. I’d rather die.”

“Oh, you will, Marcus. You will. But you will wish it had been Lilith who killed you.”

Marc cried out as the pain shot through his head, the voices overwhelmed his mind, and his stomach rebelled again. Suddenly meeting the Shadows in a cemetery seemed like the perfect spot. If he was going to die, what better place to do it?

“D
on’t pick me up! I’ll walk.” Sera pushed Jonas’s hands away for the second time.

His voice was low, urgent. “We have to get out of here quickly before her anger surges again.” He nodded toward Lilith who sat on the dais, staring at the wall, appearing to ignore them. “And surge it will. I’ve seen it, and I don’t want you or anyone here near her when it happens. You are hurt, you’ve lost a lot of blood. I need to carry you to get us all out of here as quickly as possible.”

“Can’t you just pop us out of here?”

“Only Lilith can teleport in and out. She has wards set up to prevent others from doing it.”

“But you popped around the room.”

“Stronger vampires are able to do that. But none can teleport in or out. Lilith’s safety precaution.”

Sera frowned at Jonas. “What if I change you by accident? Because my hands will be on you. I don’t want that to happen.”

“Sera,” he said, his tone serious again. “If you change me, you change me. At least you’ll be safe. That’s more important at this moment.”

Tears sprang to her eyes, but she blinked them away as best she could. “Okay,” she said. “But I’m only agreeing because I don’t think you’ll take no for an answer.”

“I won’t.”

Jonas squatted down next to her and opened his arms. She put her good arm around his neck while he slid one arm under her knees, and then in one liquid-smooth movement he stood up with her tucked safely in his arms. Sera kept her hands in tight fists even as she clung to him.

Luke fell into step with them as they crossed the immense room to where the Fae Fighters waited to escort them out. Sera craned her neck to catch Luke’s eye.

“You look like crap.” she said. He was limping and his face and neck were covered with bruises.

“Excellent,” Luke said. “It was mostly Lilith.”

“Your new girlfriend?”

Luke laughed and pulled on one of her feet. “She’d be a real killer of one, wouldn’t she.”

Jonas looked back and forth between the two of them. “Let’s not incur her wrath at the moment, shall we?” he said.

“Okay, Dad.” Sera heaved an overly dramatic sigh.

“Yeah, sure, Pop.” Luke clapped him on the back. “You don’t cross Lilith, do you. I think she may have trust issues.”

They’d reached the entryway to the tunnel. Fey and several Fighters went out ahead of them into the corridor, while some of them followed behind. It felt strange to Sera. All this attention. All this dedication to her well-being. And Luke’s. Like they were special.

She didn’t feel terribly special. She felt terribly ordinary. Now, Fey, striding confidently down the hall in all her sparkly splendor, she seemed incredibly special.

Sera leaned over so she could see Luke again, who was still walking alongside Jonas. She nodded up toward Fey. “Wow.”

“Yeah, right?” Luke said. “She’s a total babe in the Realm, isn’t she?” Sera shook her head at him, but he just grinned. “She’s a Light Elf, and she’s our protector. Cool, huh?”

“I thought she was a vampire.”

“Nope. One hundred percent elf.”

“Wow.”

“Yes, indeed.” Luke nodded, his eyes on Fey.

Coming out into the light, into the fresh air, Sera felt as if she was suddenly truly breathing for the first time since they’d entered Lilith’s lair. They were going to use the gateway through the water, she’d heard, and was kind of glad she wouldn’t have to pick her way through bat guano on the way back out.

When the Fae Fighters paused for orders from Fey, Jonas let Sera down, but she was dizzy and couldn’t stand on her own. Her arm was slick with blood.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” Jonas said. “You should heal yourself before we continue.”

Sera shook her head. “I can’t. It doesn’t work that way.”

“What about Luke?” Jonas said.

“What
about
Luke?” Luke said. Sera looked at him.

“Could you heal her?”

Luke held up his hands. “Noooo. No. No. No. I can’t do that. I’m not the healer. I’ve never healed anyone, I’ve just made people feel a little tiny bit better.” He held his index finger just a hair above his thumb to show how much healing ability he had.

But Sera nodded, understanding dawning on her. “Yes, but when you put your hands on me in there, the pain in my arm almost went away completely. I think the Realm strengthens our abilities, Luke. And Lilith said that part of my power comes from my necklace. Maybe if you’re touching it, you’ll be a stronger healer? It’s worth a shot,” she said. “That way I don’t have to explain this to Mom or the emergency room staff.”

Luke looked doubtful. “This is so not going to work.” But he picked up her pendant and held it in one hand, then placed his other hand on her injured shoulder.

Instantly Sera felt a smooth, warm wave undulate inside her arm. She closed her eyes and lay her head back on Jonas’s shoulder. Light flooded her body, intensifying around her shoulder. She could feel the muscles knitting themselves back together, the layers of skin fusing, could almost visualize it. Pain that had been throbbing stronger and stronger, now faded to nothing. She stretched out her fingers, then moved her arm around. It felt…normal, healthy. Like it always did.

“Wow,” Luke said. “I’m amazing!”

Sera smiled. “I think
amazing
is a bit strong, don’t you?” She looked at Jonas.

“A bit,” Jonas said, a smile playing on his lips.

But Luke ignored them. “Hey, Fey! I just healed Sera! Check it out. I’m like a god!”

Fey glanced over from where she was consulting with her Fighters, knit her eyebrows together, and said, “Okay.”

“I’m incredible. Prodigious. Awe-inspiring.”

“Unbelievable. Preposterous. Absurd.” Sera laughed, and reached out to hug Luke. She almost couldn’t believe they’d both come out of this alive. He really was amazing.

She felt the healing light flowing through her arms and going into Luke’s body. She released him from the hug, but stood in front of him, her palms pressed against his chest until the light faded completely. Her eyes focused on his necklace. Since he had been able to heal by touching her necklace, she wondered if maybe she could See the future if she touched his.

Sera reached up and touched his pendant lightly with her fingers. Then she scooped it into her hand and held it for a moment.

Marc lay on the ground writhing in pain, incoherent, inconsolable. Shadows from gravestones circled him, an inky black mass slowly moved toward him. She could hear the sounds of water nearby—the lake. Sera instinctively knew the cemetery.

“I don’t care if I die,” Marc said.

“Oh, you will care,” a voice rasped. “You’ll be begging for it.”

Sera gasped, her heart thundered and chills spread over her skin.

Jonas reached for her, concern clouding his face. “Are you okay?”

Sera took his hand, but stared at Luke. “It’s Marc.”

THIRTY-SIX

A
s soon as Sera spied Marc’s car at the back side of the cemetery, she broke into a run with Luke at her side.

“MARC!” There was already a stitch in her side, and she was having a hard time catching her breath, but she couldn’t slow down. Thankfully the silver light of the moon lit the place up almost as if it were daylight. Her eyes scoured the area around his car as she got closer.

She heard a cough, and her eyes flew in that direction. She could just make out a lump on the ground near a couple of headstones, not far from a few small pine trees. It moaned and Sera sprinted toward it.

It was Marc.

She threw herself to the ground next to him, completely out of breath, and immediately took stock. He looked awful. Shivering, sweating, and moaning, he seemed oblivious to where he was and that they were there.

“He’s freezing,” Sera said between gasps. She ripped off her coat while Luke did the same, and they covered him as best they could. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. I usually get a sense of the problem, but nothing is coming to me.” She placed her hands on either side of his face, his eyes open but not comprehending her, and silently hoped it would work.

Light spread down her arms and into Marc, making his whole body glow—except his head. Sera looked at him for a moment and then up at Luke. She’d never seen that happen before. As if the energy was somehow blocked from going above his shoulders. She could see him healing from all that had happened in Lilith’s care, but he didn’t seem better. He was still moaning, still incoherent, unaware that she was there. She didn’t understand why the light wouldn’t go into his head.

“It’s not working!” Sera’s breaths started coming faster and faster. “Why isn’t it working?” She grabbed her necklace with one hand while keeping the other on Marc, but it didn’t help. She couldn’t have lost the ability to heal. Not now when she really needed it.

Luke sat on the other side of Marc, watching, his brow furrowed. Sera looked up at Fey and Jonas, panic on her face. Fey’s eyes were narrowed as she looked at Marc and Sera, then she peered hard into the darkness of the pine trees nearby. Her eyes widened suddenly, then her face filled with such hatred Sera gasped.

“What is it?” she said.

Fey looked back down at her. “I’ll be right back.” And she was gone.

Sera couldn’t believe that Fey would just pop off at a time like this. Sera had always thought that Fey had a certain amount of respect for anyone’s life, but she sure seemed to have less for Marc’s.

Sera looked down at him again. If this was what he’d wanted healed, then she was starting to understand his strange reaction earlier when she hadn’t been able to heal him. She didn’t understand why her power was failing her now, but she felt completely helpless as she watched him writhe. She wished there was something she could do.

“Put this around his neck. Quickly.” Fey’s voice was warm in her ear, and a necklace suddenly hung in front of her face. Suspended from the silver chain was a rectangular pendant with three wavy lines etched into it, one on top of the other. Sera grabbed it out of Fey’s hands and pulled it over Marc’s head as quickly as she could.

His whole body relaxed as if the pain were instantly gone. He breathed normally, his face smoothed out, and he lay at peace in Sera’s lap. She gently touched his face, he opened his eyes, looked right at her. And smiled.