Burning Emerald (11 page)

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Authors: Jaime Reed

BOOK: Burning Emerald
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“This was where it happened?” he asked with his back still facing me. “This was where she died?”
I didn't try to deny it or pretend not to know what he was talking about. “Yes. She broke her neck, and stopped breathing soon after. I tried to revive her, but it was too late.”
“You were with her?” He sounded surprised but then sniggered at some private joke. “Of course you were.”
“I didn't want to leave her alone. She was very close to me, a good friend,” I rambled on while I inched toward the stairs.
I'd barely made it two paces when he said, “Don't bother. She won't hear you.”
Not taking his word for it, I dashed up the staircase, my screams going unheard by my mother. Was she hurt? Had he gone after her first? A vision of Nadine flashed before my eyes, her broken body discarded without a second thought, an obstacle that had to be eliminated. The risk of Mom sharing a similar fate fueled me with rage.
I opened the bedroom door and found Mom stretched across the bed in a graceless sprawl. Her night mask covered her eyes at a slant. Tangled within the covers, she rolled onto her side and rooted into a deep sleep that had eluded her for too long.
Her peaceful state left no doubt that some mad paranormal activity was taking place. If the intruder could enter the house undetected, he could leave just as easily, making a quick call to the police a moot point. I quietly closed the door and trotted back downstairs to find the stranger standing where I left him.
“What did you do to my mom?” I demanded, pointing the kitchen knife at his back.
“Nothing. She's only asleep. She won't hear us unless I let her.”
I couldn't have been any more spooked out if I'd tried, and I really did try. Gathering all my courage, I bit the bullet and asked the question of the hour. “Who the hell are you?”
“Whoever you want me to be.”
“Can you be more specific?”
In response, he turned around. The glow from the window trapped his body. A light ripple rolled from his torso to the roots of his hair, darkening his skin, and distorting his features to a different shape altogether. In seconds, Malik Davis stood before me with hands on his hips, looking pleased with my astonishment. He hiked his chin in greeting. “What's up, Shorty?”
“Malik!” I leapt back and whacked my head against the wall.
“No. Malik is dead. He's been that way for several weeks now.”
I was going for the gold for the number of freaky events that can occur in one day. “Malik isn't dead. I saw him a few hours ago at practice.”
“No. You, the coach, and his teammates saw
me
walk from under the bleachers. If anyone cared to look, they would find Malik at the bottom of the James River ... where I left him.” He bit out the last part. The energy you took today was mine, and with it, some of the memories I'd taken from him.”
“Wait. Malik was already dead? But how?”
“Friends don't let friends drive drunk,” he intoned.
A cold streak followed that answer and it froze the blood in my veins. “He had a car accident last month. He didn't survive, did he?”
“No.”
I glared up at him. “Was there really an accident?”
“Yes. He was dying when I found him. I took the pain away, and while doing so, I saw a few memories of you at school, and I jumped at the opportunity. What better way to get closer to you, much easier than hovering in shadows.”
“And you've been walking around looking like him all this time?”
“Not the whole time, but a while. I've been waiting for a time where I could get you alone, a chance to reveal myself without frightening you.”
“Right, because showing up in my house unannounced isn't frightening at all.”
“Are you frightened right now?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but shut it again. I was a lot of things: surprised, angry, annoyed, confused, but fear didn't factor into it at all. A false sense of security seemed to trap my body in a warm, protective coating. I would have been stupid to trust that feeling for a second, but it was there.
“You're a cold, slippery one, Miss Marshall.” He stepped closer, his eyes hooded in recollection. “I saw you on Halloween. I thought I would have my chance then.”
“Hold up, so you were the man in the mask?” His affirmative recharged my anger. “Why are you following me? If you wanted to talk to me, then why not just come up to me and say hi?”
“I tried that, and as I said, you're a cold, slippery one—emphasis on ‘cold.' You really don't like this Malik fellow, do you?”
“Not really. He was always mean to me, but that's not the point,” I dismissed irritably. “So, that epic death scene behind the bleachers, it was all fake?”
“One of my best performances. Lilith left me winded, but as you realize, the spirit won't truly harm what it knows, and she knows me quite well.” He smiled. “But I wanted to see what you would do, how far you would go should a real danger cross your path. I must say, I'm quite proud of you. A true killer instinct.”
His words made me shiver. “You tried to take advantage of me, you crazy rapist!”
He moved closer, not in the least bit threatened by the knife aimed at his chest. “Sweetheart, I don't have to rape any woman. I am every woman's fantasy. They come to me without a fight. Well, except you, of course.”
I took a minute to ponder his reply. That was something a Cambion would say. Cambions inspired lust and for that reason, were usually victims, not aggressors. Then I remembered what Mom told me about demons and how they could appear as any person they chose. Oh yeah, I knew these glamour tricks well, but something wasn't right.
“What kind of Cambion are you?” I asked.
He looked at me like I'd insulted his mother. “Cambion? I'm not some demon mutt, Samara, and you wound me deeply for even insinuating it.”
“Well, this
demon mutt
is offended by you busting in her house and trying to ... whatever you were trying to do.” I fell back against the wall, resigning to the absurdity of the argument. Taking a deep breath, I added, “Just answer three questions for me: Who are you, what do you want, and what did you plan to do with Malik's body?”
“You have nothing to worry about. As far as anyone knows, Malik went home after practice like he does every night. I made sure plenty of people saw me as him, including his mother. Business as usual.”
“Ohmigod!” I had completely forgotten about his family. Before I could regard it any further, he continued.
“As for your second question, I'm here because I've come to claim what is rightfully mine. But I can't take it by force, nor should I have to. It already belongs to me. But there are some people who are trying to trespass on my territory, and I can't have that.” To show an example of said trespassers, the ripples returned. His skin lightened, his hair grew, resembling an image that drained the fight from my body. The knife slipped from my hands and hit the carpet with a dull thud.
To the smile, to his height, to the way his hair fell around his face, the man in front of me was Caleb's carbon copy. Déjà vu hit me with such strength it made me dizzy and I lost my balance. Once again, I stood before a predator that used my one weakness as camouflage. Was this some sadistic wheel that kept reverting back to this same moment in time, history repeating until I learned from it? Or maybe Mom was right: I needed professional help.
A pair of arms caught me before I hit the floor. Through barely parted lids, I stared up at the man, frozen beyond any normal range of shock.
I knew he wasn't Caleb, and the inner connection hadn't come from Capone. Lilith agreed, but no complaint came from her end. She flipped and yipped with excitement, the only one amused by this new circumstance. She didn't fight back, but beckoned him into her inner sanctum as one would an old friend. Or something else. Then I saw it, the secret that I could never uncover, the puzzle that had gone unsolved until now.
“You have an interesting taste in books, Samara,” he said in Caleb's voice. Then he placed a finger to his lips. “Shh.”
The gesture brought a distinct memory and a new series of righteous anger. “You're the one who broke Caleb's windows!” I shoved his chest, which only pushed me back toward the wall. “Did you put olive oil in my drink? You could have killed him and me!”
“I may or may not have taken my anger out on his car, but you were never at risk. You're no good to me dead. Him on the other hand—most beneficial.”
His admission made me sick to my stomach. Anger tainted my system to the point where I couldn't move. “Why are you after me? What did I do to you?”
“What makes you think it was something you did? And that's not one of the questions.” He turned his back to me and faced the window. “As for who I am, I'm pretty sure you figured it out by now.”
He was right. We stood in silence as if some solution would appear without our input. I remained motionless for several minutes until the stall tactic grew tiresome, even for my own reasoning.
“You're a ...” I strained to get out the word. “You're an incubus. A full-blown incubus.”
He turned and held me with a look just shy of antagonism. “That takes care of
what
I am. The question is
who
am I?”
That answer was more terrifying than the first. It was a truth that had haunted me since I'd entered the room, but it couldn't be denied. I fingered the bracelet on my wrist, thinking of Nadine, and understanding her reason for keeping this secret locked away. Memories within her hidden archives now made themselves available for my private viewing. Past and present mingled in a swirl of gibberish within the posterior lobe. Errors of another life, the regret of others weighed down my heart with unwarranted guilt.
If I was honest with myself, it was the real reason I couldn't seal the bond with Caleb and why I could not in good conscience ask this guy to leave.
“You didn't have a name, but Nadine called you Tobias,” I said with a crippling sense of defeat. “She gave you that name the night you gave Lilith hers. The same night she became your mate.”
11
T
his latest development was still too fresh to analyze, so I pushed my nervous breakdown to a later time slot.
Suffering a numb, almost out-of-body detachment, I watched Caleb's imposter wear down the carpet with aimless pacing. I quickly grew distracted by that noise grating my ears, that odd shrill of some tortured thing in need of a mercy kill. It then dawned on me that those whimpers came from my uninvited guest. His chest rose and fell in rapid speed with every shallow breath.
“Why are you panting like that?” I asked finally.
His body stilled. “This is how we cry, Samara.”
“Like an injured dog?” I joked, but I was the only one amused. “Do you shed tears?”
“Rarely. We grieve differently from humans. I don't expect you to understand.”
“I think I understand, despite everything else I don't know. I've noticed Lilith has animal-like characteristics, the way she communicates with me.”
“That barely scratches the surface. We're primal creatures. We rely solely on instinct. Our senses are heightened beyond what any human mind could grasp, and we feel
everything
.” His voice broke. His entire body tightened on the brink of combustion. “Was he here, that demon mutt that killed her, the one who broke her and threw her away like trash?”
Again, I didn't need to ask who he was referring to, but his body language told me to tread lightly. “Tobias ...”
“Was he?” he bellowed.
“Yes. He killed her to get to me and my mother.”
“Two offenses on his head.” His eyes rolled in my direction, heated with accusation and disgust. “And you let his spawn touch you after that, kiss you? How can you even look at him after what his father has done?”
“It's more the other way around. I killed Caleb's father that night. How do you think he feels?” I had never confessed this aloud and the words sounded alien to me, almost vulgar. I had killed Caleb's father, the first life I'd ever taken and consumed in its entirety. Caleb had forgiven me, understood that it had to be done, but it wasn't his forgiveness I needed.
Tobias scoffed, unimpressed. “They know the rules. They know to never kill a Cambion, and a mated one at that. This is punishable by death among your kind.”
“On what grounds?” I argued. “Nathan Ross was insane, taken over by grief. You of all people should know what it's like to lose someone you love, someone connected to you.”
“I'm only aware of that feeling
now
, thanks to him.” He proceeded pacing, more agitated than before.
I sympathized with his anger, really, but he didn't know the whole story. It wasn't black and white—a villain preying on helpless damsels, kicking puppies, and pushing old people down stairwells. The evil in Mr. Ross came from a good seed planted in tainted soil, the same earth used to bury his wife. Tobias didn't know the private moments that man had shared with the woman he loved, the hours he'd cried and prayed when the doctors had diagnosed her with cancer, the deterioration of her health and his sanity. I would never excuse his actions, but I understood more than anyone else. After all, once seen, it can't be unseen.
“What about the other women he murdered, huh?” I asked. “You gonna shed a tear, or whimper for them?”
He stopped midstride to look at me.
“Yeah, I thought so. It's one thing when it's humans, but killing one of your own is another story, isn't it? It's all wrong, no matter who it is or why. Everyone is at fault. So if you're gonna convict someone, convict me too.” When he didn't reply, I continued, “Nadine died months ago and you're just now showing up to pay your respects?”
“You think this is my first visit here? I come here and watch the house every night. It's a comfort to know you're just feet away, so close and yet so far.” He saw me freeze up, then said, “I told you, I can't force you. Lilith will protect her host no matter what, so I need your consent. Won't be too long though. I sense her stirring in you, getting used to me, demanding her mate—”
“See, I have to cut you off right there. I'm not your mate. In fact, I'm no one's mate.”
“Yet. But I plan to fix that,” he assured with unwavering confidence.
“So do I—just as soon as Caleb wakes up.”
His hard stare glued me to the spot. “It won't do any good. In the end, he and his brothers will die. You buy them valuable time by keeping away.”
I pushed off the wall and closed the distance between us, unconcerned by my state of dress. “You can't do this! They didn't do anything wrong!”
“They knew what their father was capable of. They knew the insanity a broken link could cause. As far as I'm concerned, they had a hand in Nadine's murder.”
“They couldn't do it. They couldn't harm their father and their spirits' source.”
“You defend them, yet claim to care for Nadine. Why?” Hurt and betrayal flashed in his eyes before he concealed his emotions. “I have unfinished business, Samara. I strongly suggest that you don't interfere and accept the inevitable.”
I knew a threat when I heard one. My finger jabbed into his chest and rebounded against the solid surface. Using both hands, I tried to push him, but he didn't move an inch. That didn't stop me from getting my point across. “You lay one hand on Caleb, and I'll kill you.”
He smiled as one would at an adorable child. “Caleb's already dead. You just need to let go.”
It took me a minute to regroup after that acidic reply. It didn't help that Tobias still held Caleb's likeness, the same man he marked for death. I called on the four corners of my resolve and fought the tremor grating my voice. “He wouldn't still be a threat to you if he were really dead, nor would I be standing here. You're lying.”
His eyebrows rose in a gesture of defiance. “Am I?”
“That's what you do. You manipulate everything around you to get what you want.” I swept a glance over his appearance. “Look at you. You can't even get a woman on your own. You have to pretend to be someone else.”
His lips curled as hooded eyes ran up and down my body. “I don't need silly parlor tricks to get what I want.”
He could have fooled me. I took a few steps back. “Then show yourself. Come as your true form. No disguises.”
He flinched for a split second, then quickly recovered. “And you call me manipulative.”
He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The surface of his skin began to swell and ripple until the image of Caleb dissolved and a new form appeared. His deep tan reinforced a distinct Mediterranean ancestry, with high cheekbones and sleek black hair tied in a ponytail. Thick muscles and a whole lot of “hot damn” tucked underneath a black shirt and slacks. The more I stared, the more difficult it was to stay on topic. I was mesmerized by his face, yet totally aware that I stood in the presence of something unearthly.
Amused by my ogling, he said, “I told you, I don't need to trick a woman into wanting me. They just do.”
I ignored his unbuttoned shirt and the muscles peeking underneath, I really did. “Look, I don't care what kind of heated affair you had with Nadine, but it's over. Please leave me out of it. You have to let this go.”
Tobias crossed his arms and shook his head. “I disagree, but that is beside the point. I'm connected to Lilith, and there's no getting around that. The only thing that's standing in my way is you.” He stepped closer, controlled and soundless across the carpet.
His slow advance made me painfully aware of his six and a half feet and the powerful body that could throw me across the room, or worse should the feeling move him. That knowledge forced me to retreat to the safety of the loveseat.
He stopped in front of me, so close his legs brushed against mine. The heat of his skin filtered through his slacks to warm where our bodies touched. He lurched forward, invading my breathing room, and I offered not one token of protest.
Glowing amber eyes held me captive when he said, “You were not part of the deal. When Nadine died, I was supposed to ascend with Lilith. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only was I still alive, but that my mate was hiding in someone else's body.”
“And this is my fault because ...” I guided.
“It's no one's fault but Nadine's.” The hand on my knee almost scorched my flesh, and I pushed it away before it traveled any higher.
“I'm sure this is a lot to take in, but after what happened today, I had to see you, to let you know who I was. Next time, we'll have a chance to talk and answer your questions.”
I leaned back and sized him up. “Next time?”
Humor touched his eyes, which shimmered like polished brass. “You thought that I would give up that easily? Lilith and I may not be bonded anymore, but we're still linked. I've come to get my mate back, and I finish what I start.”
“But you're a free agent now. You don't have to be tied down by one person.”
“Who said anything about being free? I'm more obligated now than I ever was while bonded with Nadine. I sacrificed a lot to be with her, and I intend to get back what I lost. In order to do that, I need a mate,
my
mate. I'm sorry, Flower, but it looks like you're it.” He stood up to move to the window again with a balled-up piece of cloth trapped in his fist.
Shaking the fog from my brain, I called after him. “Where are you going?”
With his back facing me, he shoved the fabric in his pocket. “I'm hungry. I'm going to feed and probably get laid.” He paused and looked at me over his shoulder. “Why? Do you care to join me?”
“Uh, n-no,” I stammered. “If you wanted me so bad, then why are you so quick to sleep with someone else?”
“Are you judging me now? I'm an incubus, or did you miss that part? Sex is not a primary source of energy for you Cambions, but we heathens need it to survive. You're linked to more than one male, yet I'm not condemning you,” he replied in a tone dripping with disdain. “I'm not going to force your hand. I'm not a monster.”
“And you seemed like such a nice guy,” I returned with a snarl.
“As far as my kind goes, I am a very nice guy. But I'm selfish, and according to you, manipulative. Don't mistake patience for concession. In the end, I always get what I want, damn the consequences.” And with that, he disappeared from sight in a plume of vapor, leaving no trace of his presence.
When he left, everything went with him: the air, the warmth, and my last thread of reason. A chill swept up my leg, causing a peculiar draft under my T-shirt. Lifting the hem, I learned never to underestimate his power. If Tobias managed to steal underwear off a girl without her knowing, what else could he do right under her nose?
Then, and only then, did the panic attack take effect, bringing everything to a head with astronomical force. The long-awaited meltdown began at its newly scheduled time, without further interruptions, even as my scream echoed the walls of the house.

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