Illumine (17 page)

chairs led to a set of majestic stairs carpeted in traditional red. Low

lighting gave everyone a soft glow to their complexions, making the

diamonds and rubies every woman wore glimmer with a tantalizing

glow.

I checked my coat in and turned around, praying I blended

in. Even though I wasn't the only human in the room I felt my white

dress with the extra layers stand out, the bodice corset with a

sweetheart neckline suddenly too revealing. I brought along smal

white gloves to cover my ring less hands and made sure to double

check my red laced mask was stil in place.

When I turned around to find Kayden for our seats he was

nowhere to be found. Leo was reading a smal pamphlet on the

history of Fae, lost in his own little world.

"Leo, you seen Ursula or Kayden?" I nervously asked,

tugging on the hem of my gloves.

Looking up from his reading he stared around in confusion.

"They were here a second ago." He scratched his head while

frowning, scanning the crowd until he pointed. His face quickly

turned from relief to worry. "There they are, talking to the Queen."

"Judging by your tone I'd say that isn't a good thing."

"Let's just say," Leo quietly muttered, pretending to adjust

his bow tie. "Few are on her good side, and even fewer who were

on her bad lived long to tel about it." He quickly changed the

subject. "Listen, while we have a minute alone, I need to tel you

something."

Smiling I gave him a little shoulder nudge. "Sure. What's

Smiling I gave him a little shoulder nudge. "Sure. What's

up?"

He looked around the room before puling me aside to a

corner of the lobby. "I know we're not supposed to be seeing each

other like this because Ursula thinks we're getting al close and

lovey, but I have to explain something to you." He took a deep

breath. "I think I might be your Watcher."

"Leo." I took his hands and gave him a sad smile. "Don't

listen to what that woman- what Serena had said. She said we'd

have to have matching birthdays right down to the minute."

Stil resolved, he leaned closer. "Tel me your birthday."

"March seventeenth," I said with a little irritability. "Please,

let's not go down this road. We're here to have fun tonight and-"

"My birth date is March seventeenth," he barely said above

a whisper. His hands slipped from my grasp and cupped them

instead. "At 4:35 in the afternoon."

I shook my head and started to speak over his increasing

protests. "I don't even know what time I was born. Listen, Kayden

and Ursula are going to come over here and get the wrong idea."

"What idea would that be?" Ursula snapped from behind

me. Her face looked livid, as if someone had lit a roman candle

under her behind. She reached out past me and took a hold of

Leo's arm, puling him to her side. "That you're flirting with him yet

again? You'd better be damn thankful I don't have anything heavy

to swing at you with tonight, Essalie."

"Would you just get the hel off your high horse?" My voice

grew as I stepped closer, fists clenched tight. One good shot in the

face and she'd never have to worry about any male ever loving her

face and she'd never have to worry about any male ever loving her

again, least not physicaly. "He was sharing an idea with me about

finding my Watcher. You know, that person I'm supposed to bind

to and save my soul from burning alive?"

"Quite frankly," she seethed between her pearly whites. "I

don't give a damn if you find your person and live or burn to a crisp

like a piece of processed fish stick. Let's go, Leo." She puled him

up the steps and out of sight, my last glimpse of Leo being his pitiful

stare as he looked over his shoulder, mouthing something to me.

"Essalie, have a minute?" Kayden came over, his

expression neutral. I wondered if I had pissed him off somehow,

too. "There's someone I'd like to introduce you to."

A tal, thin dark haired woman with skin as fair as

buttermilk came around Kayden, dressed in a long flowing gown of

fabric that reminded me of the midnight sky. Her dark brown

almond shaped eyes matched the perfect pout of her lips and light

blush on the tops of her cheekbones. Black hair spun in a perfectly

slick braid coiled like a tamed snake over her shoulder and down

to her hips. While her body appeared frail and dainty her presence

was one that commanded power without question.

"So you must be the Nephilim, a first in over three hundred

years. What a curious race, one foot in the realm of immortals, one

in the realm of death," the Queen lamented with a kind smile that

didn't touch her eyes. She gave a smal nod and turned swiftly to

head up the stairs, the train of her dress flowing. "The show's about

to start, let us go."

"Come on, let's get to our seats," Kayden took me by the

arm and led us into the fabric just past the stairs. We found

arm and led us into the fabric just past the stairs. We found

ourselves at the top of a staggeringly high set of stadium seating. A

smal space halfway down, two empty chairs, awaited us.

We took our seats just as the lights were dimmed, a single

spotlight trained on the center ring of the circus stage down below.

Trumpets blaring an intimidating opening fel quiet as drums

pounded. A gentleman, the balding man who owned the

Apothecary, stepped out to the sound of rigorous applause and

whistles. His emerald green suit went against the bright red shoes

and checkered print blouse he wore.

"Greetings al to the Circus of Bizarre, an annual tradition

here at Charon! I am the great Ringmaster Rooney here to show

you everything that wil go wrong, sily, and downright

mischievous," he finished with a twist of his mustache. "Be patient

ladies and gentlemen, for a surprise waits behind our door, like our

residential lion ful of roar!"

A light came to life in the far left end, spotlighting a woman

in a nude suit and a fake crest of hair framing her face. She gave a

sultry little pose before morphing into a ful-sized lion. The crowd

started to clap enthusiasticaly as I seemed to be the only one

confused.

Leaning in to Kayden's shoulder I did my best to whisper

as quietly as I could. "They're using shape-shifters instead of real

animals?"

He nodded enthusiasticaly as he kept his eyes glued to the

circus floor. "That's our version of a circus. In case you haven't

noticed, we don't realy folow a standard protocol."

noticed, we don't realy folow a standard protocol."

I sat back in my seat, frowning. A circus was supposed to

be about animals doing tricks, knowing that at any given moment

they could snap and eat the ringmaster or go insane and stampede

through the crowd. But who was I to judge? It had been obvious

from the start that nothing ran like it did in the mortal half of the

world. It was only fitting a circus would be as perversely weird and

as unusualy different than anything else in the world.

The acts continued one by one, each animal starting off as

a beautiful woman dressed in a nude suit with a piece of their

animal to decorate with. Lions, tigers, rhinos, even elephants al

came to life on the stage, each performing a couple of tricks before

returning to the dark shadows of the floor.

After several displays of boa constrictors speling words in

the ground, the ringmaster spoke as loud as he could over the wild

applause. "And now, for the grand finale I give you the beautiful

Cassandra and her half-demon lover Chase as our entangling

trapeze duo!"

I felt my blood turn to a cold sludge and thunder in my

ears. Immediately I started shaking Kayden violently and searching

for the nearest exit. "We have to leave right now. If Cassie's here

that means she's going to see me and her and Chase wil kil me

and- Kayden?"

Kayden hadn't moved an inch despite everything I had

said. His eyes looked permanently frozen in a gleeful stare to the

center of the circus stage. One look around confirmed it; hundreds

of faces al had the same cheerful smile and dol-eyed wide eyes

focused on the floor down below.

focused on the floor down below.

"Pity, isn't it? That your little precious boy toy is unable to

help you need it most," a catty voice sounded from above. Cassie

sat on one of the trapeze swings as it gently rocked back and forth.

"I can't imagine what that could be like. Oh, wait."

I stood up from my seat, taking in more frozen faces.

"You're supposed to be dead. Kayden kiled the two of you that

night in the apartment, I saw it!"

"Please." She jumped off the swing and landed soundlessly

onto a couple of steps below. "You watched Chase die, we both

did. He never kiled me."

She looked nothing like the Cassie I had remembered from

our days of sharing secrets in class, of sleepovers and shopping

excursions. Her uncut knee-length black hair had been traded in

for a short violet bob. Patches of colors randomly appeared on her

skin, making her look bruised one minute and colored in with a

sharpie the next. This wasn't my Cassie, not any more. The Cassie

I knew had long since been swalowed alive and offered like

fodder to her inner turmoil to look forever young.

"Must be so proud, being a necromancer and al," I said

slowly, caling my inner fire to every inch of my body. Like

Kayden, if she touched me she'd be engulfed in flames in a matter

of seconds. "How is Chase?"

"Why don't you ask him for yourself? I'm sure he'd love to

chat before ripping out your heart like that demon did to him," she

hissed but stayed in place. "Are you surprised to see us? Shame

we had to catch you off guard like that, but it's realy al for Chase

over there. You see, he loves the taste of fear in blood."

over there. You see, he loves the taste of fear in blood."

Taking another step backward I nodded, encouraging her

to keep talking. I could feel the sensation of my fire just under the

fingertips of my skin, ready for action. "How did you know where

to find me? Charon isn't exactly a high-traffic area."

"But it is for supernaturals like yourself," she skittered

closer, closing the gap I'd been creating between us. "You needed

to find your caling, a little place to cal home. Chase said it would

only be a matter of time before you showed yourself asking about

what you were." She shook her head and laughed. "Such a sily

little freak."

The pendant around my neck began to glow in spurts and

flash like a warning signal. Cassie looked down for the smalest

second, taking her eyes off of me. My arm jerked up as fire burst

in a violent stream in her chest. She toppled backwards, shrieking

as the flames covered her chest and arms, spreading faster than I'd

ever seen it.

"Now
that
was a truly stupid move, Essie," Chase's voice

loomed overhead. I looked up into the pitch black top of the tent in

shock as dozens of demons dropped down from the ceiling, each

one exactly like the one I had seen in my dream. "You made me go

and use my new little pet on you."

"Come out and show your face!" I screamed as the

demons charged for me claws extended. I ran over to Kayden's

frozen form and did the first thing that came to mind. Shoving my

hand onto his face, I set him on fire too.

The effect was instant. Kayden screamed, exploding into

The effect was instant. Kayden screamed, exploding into

smoke. The second he re-formed he started to swear at me until he

saw the others heading our way. I didn't need to tel him that if they

took a hold of me, everything would be over.

Kayden opened his mouth and exploded again into black

smoke, trailing through the whole room. People started to stir,

instantly recoiling and screaming in horror as they took in the sight

of a burning corpse and demons scrambling about.

A figure blocked my sight of the demons and smoke,

Chase's newly mangled form even more grotesque than when he'd

been alive. He gave me his best dagger-toothed smile before

reaching out and wrapping his hands around my throat.

"Let her go!" A familiar voice soared from above. Abigail

swung her feet into Chase's face, sending him flying into a crowd of

screaming people. She landed with grace and puled out four sharp

ninja stars from thin air, flinging them straight for Chase. "Essalie,

get out of here now!"

I didn't need to be told twice. Scrambling up the steps I

got halfway there when someone grabbed the back of my dress

and punched the back of my spine, hard. Cassie's voice whispered