Illumine (10 page)

headed upstairs. Down the halway I heard Jayson say, "That

means you might as wel sit tight for another half hour." Boys. I bit

my tongue and started up the steps, making a mental note to let

everyone know Jayson stil sings in the shower higher than Michael

Jackson when the time was right.

Stumbling down the steps in the boots and snowsuit I'd

brought before moving to Maine I met Kayden at the bottom of the

steps a couple of minutes later. The original plan had been that I

would hide inside for al the freakish weather. I hadn't actualy

planned on using any of it.

We walked outside, Jayson helping me most of the way so

I didn't slip and rol downhil. Kayden's jet black Hummer sat at

the bottom of our driveway, virtualy brand new. I bet he hadn't

even put on a hundred miles on it yet. Once inside the car Jayson

waved us off as we turned off the road and made our way into

town.

"So, five minutes, eh?" Kayden snickered as he kept his

eyes on the road. I punched him on the shoulder, fire exploding

from the contact. He only sighed and let his arm vanish into nothing

before reforming back to its original form.

"If you couldn't do that smoke-thing I don't think there'd be

anything left of you by now," I said thoughtfuly, staring out the

anything left of you by now," I said thoughtfuly, staring out the

window as he drove slower than a snail down the main road.

Almost everyone was outside helping one another shovel out

doorways and windows. Smal barrels of fire lined down the road

every few feet. A sudden thought dawned upon me and I turned to

Kayden. "We're not realy going to Abigail's, are we?"

He pursed his lips and adjusted his grip on the steering

wheel ever so slightly. "You're realy not going to like me after this."

"Are you kidnapping me?" I asked hesitantly. If he said yes

I had a feeling jumping from the car and running home would leave

me with minor injuries.

Thankfuly he laughed. "Do you think I would have spent

al that time getting to know your brother if I was planning on

kidnapping you? Please." He made a turn and headed down the

road before making a sharp right into the development Leo lived in.

"Don't worry, we won't be alone if that's what you're afraid of."

He brought the car to a stop inside a driveway, came over

to my door and did his best to help me out without touching each

other. With both feet on solid ground I looked up to the mansion in

front of us. The brick-and-mortar build reminded me of a colonial

set decor, from the white shutters to the marble steps and porch

leading to the large dark wood double doors carved with minimal

detailing. It looked oddly whimsical, as if someone didn't want to

leave the past behind.

Kayden and I walked up the steps, thankful someone had

already shoveled off the mass of snow and laid salt down to

prevent any ice. He knocked on the door a few times using the

brass knocker and hung back to wait.

brass knocker and hung back to wait.

One of the doors swung open. Ursula stood in the entrance

in al of her ethereal beauty dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, knee-

length socks running up her toothpick thin legs. Her already narrow

eyes thinned to slits as she pursued her lips. She gave Kayden and

I the most profoundly withering look I'd ever seen anyone do.

"Oh hel no," she finaly said and moved to close the door.

Kayden shoved his foot between the door and the frame.

One arm rested on the polished wood as he leaned inside the

frame to the house. "Be a dol and let us in, won't you?"

Her eyes locked on me over Kayden's shoulder. "And why in

the hel should I do that?"

"Must we go over al these formalities, Ursula?"

She looked from me to Kayden, jaw locked. The tension was

almost too much to bear until she finaly caved. "Fine."

Kayden ushered me inside, pressing a finger to his lips

when our eyes met. I nodded, but I stil had no clue as to why of al

the places he chose to take me to it was Ursula's house. The girl

practicaly wanted me six feet under just for the benefit of dancing

on my grave.

The door shut she spun around stil sporting the withering

look on her face. "My father's going to hear about this."

"Same excuse different day?" Kayden drawled, roling his

eyes as he walked onto their carpet with his dirty shoes. "That

man's your father the way you're the Queen of England."

"I beg your pardon?" She stepped closer, eyes burning

with a look of pure hatred. "Don't you dare insult my father-"

"No way in hel that mortal is your father, Ursula," Kayden

spat right back but his tone remained eerily calm. "Give up the

game. Why else would I be here?"

Her expression turned from hatred to despair in one

heartbeat. "You said never again, Kayden. You swore! Last time

you ousted me I nearly died."

"I told you that was an accident. I hadn't meant to point

you as a witch in the Salem trials, it was supposed to be Annie.

Water under the bridge."

"Don't you mean water over my head? They tried drowning

me you idiot. I had to fake my own death for three days!"

"At least you're pale enough to actualy fake it. Imagine if you

had color in your cheeks like you did in Rome."

"That was blood, not blush. Timothy's blood, to be exact.

That stuff lasted forever bottled."

I watched their exchange with confusion. Ursula wasn't

human, obviously, if she had been alive during the Salem Witch

Trials and stil looked like she was sixteen. "Wait a minute, what

the hel are you?" Kayden and Ursula stopped talking and looked

at me. Apparently I had been forgotten in their reminiscing.

"What is she doing here?" Ursula asked in a low tone.

Kayden shook his head as he removed his snow suit.

"She's fine, trust me. Essie has a few secrets of her own, that's why

we're here."

I didn't feel comfortable with this. My palms began to itch

as I shook my head. "I don't understand, is she a demon too?"

He busted out laughing and came over to pat my shoulder

He busted out laughing and came over to pat my shoulder

but stopped and puled his hand back slowly. "She only wishes she

was a demon. At least she wouldn't have to eat anyone then.

Ursula's one of the prettier succubi I've had the pleasure of meeting

in my ever-lasting existence."

My eyes widened and I stared at Ursula. It made so much

more sense now why she went through boyfriends like she owned

shoes. But one thing didn't make sense. "Hold up, you said eat. I

don't remember there being any murder investigations or missing

students in our school."

She gave a dainty little shrug with a smal smile. "I don't

have to be dating them to feed on them, honey. Flesh is flesh." She

examined her nails with minimal interest. "I'm trying to reform

myself and not kil the humans I fal in love with. It makes for a

much better relationship down the road."

"Stil wish you could say that with your boy-toy back in the

'20s, don't you?" Kayden laughed darkly. He took Ursula's

outstretched arm and spun her into himself before leaning her back

in a sweeping move you'd see on a balroom dance floor.

Her face briefly flashed to a look of anger. Puling back

from him and brushing her arms she muttered something under her

breath about mistakes and hunger. "Why now Kayden?"

"Long story, trust me," he said. "We need to use your library."

"Down the hal and to the right," Ursula said without pause.

Kayden shook his head. "No, I mean the other library."

She sized him up for a minute, her face twisted between

laughter and surprise. "You can't access that. It's been barred to

others for the last few hundred years."

others for the last few hundred years."

"Right along the time Alexandria was lost to the fire, I

know. We need to see it. There's a chance one of those tombs wil

hold what we need."

"What exactly is it you need, Kayden?"

"Can't tel you that."

His harshness took her back. Ursula's eyebrows slowly

rose and something flickered in her eyes. Her pupils grew until al

color vanished from her eyes, and when she smiled I noticed her

teeth had turned from perfect squares to thin spikes as white as

snow.

She sauntered forward, her hips swaying in a hypnotic

trance I found hard to look away from. "But you can, Kayden."

She cooed with the rhythm of a sweet lulaby. "You can tel me

anything. Don't you want to share your little secret with me?"

I stood there in a trance as she danced closer to his body,

each step thinning the gap between them. She stopped in front of

him and slowly arched her chest into his, curving into him like a

python wrapping around its prey. I watched as she slid her hands

one at a time under his shirt, exposing his bare skin.

A bright blue burst of flames temporarily blinded al three

of us. My hand reached out somewhere just as Ursula let out a

blood-curling scream. As the light faded I found Kayden was

pressed on top of Ursula, shielding her. The skin on her arm had

burns in the pattern of ribbons racing over her arm, the ribbon

effect matching on Kayden's arm as wel. I looked down to my

hands to see the remnants of fire stil resting on my fingertips, as if it

were waiting for a second round.

were waiting for a second round.

He sighed and stood up, folding his arms over his chest.

He looked over to me and shook his head.

"Way to let the cat out of the bag, Essie."

"I didn't mean to," I gasped and shook my hands

vigorously until the flames vanished. "I don't know what happened.

One second she was talking to you and the next the whole room

went white." I turned to Ursula, who remarkably hadn't said a

word. "I am so sorry Ursula, realy I didn't mean to."

Kayden helped Ursula up from the ground. He examined

the burn on her arm, blood pressing through the charred skin as the

remaining skin started to turn red and swel. He leaned in and

whispered into her ear, running his fingers over the wound. The

edges began to grow inward, shrinking the wound until nothing was

left. Her skin looked perfect and untouched.

"Not even a scar," Kayden said aloud, stepping back from

Ursula. "Now, the library?"

Ursula nodded and led the way. We came to a smal study

office where she flipped a light switch to open a wal that led down

a series of steps lined in crimson carpet and fake torches. The

staircase winded down to what looked initialy like a large wine

celar until the lights came on. Bookshelves packed to the brim

lined every wal and filed every nook and cranny. Aisles stretched

on forever, standing bookshelves creating and endless sea of rows

that held no end. Every so often a chair would be randomly placed

in front of the end of an aisle, books clustered around the feet of

the chair and on the cushions.

the chair and on the cushions.

Kayden and Ursula seemed completely unimpressed. I

however couldn't stop staring. It was hard to not appreciate the

mass of the colection that had to have taken them hundreds of

years easily.

"Careful with the ones on the red shelf, they require a

blood payment to read them," Ursula said over her shoulder. A thin

smile stretched on her lips as she touched her neck. I spotted a

smal butterfly shaped scar I had never seen there before. Maybe

she spoke from experience. I wondered how much she had to

sacrifice to get what she wanted in the end.

Kayden walked down the aisles slowly, scanning up and

down. He finaly settled on a smal blue leather-bound book with a

detailed gold leafing. Unlike most of the musty texts around it this

one looked virtualy untouched, as perfect as the day the creator

finished it.

He set the book down on the nearest table and beckoned

us closer. Opening it to the middle he began to flip around through

the pages. Every couple of pages I saw drawings ilustrating people

with wings drawn inside a bal of blue fire.

"Why would you have a library of the supernatural in your

basement?" I looked at Ursula out of the corner of my eyes.

She didn't meet my gaze. "It belonged to my other half."

She sniffed and made a face. "He was the academic out of us both.

First it was just a few books, next thing you knew it was every

book on spels and blood curses and creatures."

"What happened to him?"