Intangible (39 page)

In less than a minute all fourteen vampires were dead. Gone. Lilith sat mute, glaring at Jonas, who looked drained. Sera stalked over toward her.

But didn’t get very far before she and Jonas were surrounded again by more than thirty vampires, all armed with those nasty looking knives that had hurt Jonas outside her house.

That wasn’t good. If Jonas got hurt again, she’d be on her own. And the odds were not in her favor.

Lilith suddenly appeared in front of them. “I have an almost unlimited supply of those, and can easily keep you busy for much longer than it will take me to kill the human boy.”

“Yes,” Jonas said, coming up behind Sera, “but that will leave you sorely lacking.” He nodded in Sera’s direction. “How are you going to kill her and her brother without them? Be reasonable, Lilith. The Prophecy is true, we’ve seen, but it says their power could go either way. From what I’ve seen, there is no real threat to us or anyone else in the Realm. Leave them be.”

“I cannot believe you would side with
humans
,” Lilith said, biting off every word. “You, who were so tortured at their hands.”

Jonas pointed at Sera. “But not at
these
hands,” he said. “These hands healed me and didn’t change me.”

“You are changed, Jonas. I can see it. Already she has changed you.”

“I am still of the Night. I am not human.”

“You are more human than you think. More than you’ve been in a long time.”

Jonas shook his head. “You’re wrong. She is not a danger. If you let Luke go because of his protector, then you cannot harm Sera either without incurring Faenial’s wrath. You
know
that.”

“I’ve decided the Fates have smiled on me with this second chance, with you bringing her here, and I’m going to take it.”

“And start a war with the Light Elves? A war we cannot win?”

“If that is what happens, yes.”

Jonas grabbed Sera’s wrist and pulled her arm upright, showing Lilith the Mark on it. “She’s
protected
, Lilith. You cannot do this.”

“I can and I will.”

“That is insane. You’re willing to destroy the precarious peace we have in the Realm over a human girl? Your plan will wipe us out of existence, not this girl here.
You
will do it.”

Lilith stared at Jonas for a split second before waving the vampires forward and disappearing. The thugs held out their knives and started closing in the circle around Sera and Jonas. Sera gripped her knife tight and pressed her back against Jonas’s.

So this was it, she thought. This was how she would die, killed by a group of knife-wielding vampires. She could see no way out of this, no way that they could win even with Jonas’s superior strength. There were too many of them. There was just no way.

She was suddenly sorry that she hadn’t gotten a chance to say goodbye to Luke, to tell him how much she loved him. Or her mom. There was so much she would have said.

She swallowed hard as the vampires started swinging. Jonas was wild, trying to fight them off and protect her at the same time. She swung her knife out and sliced a vampire’s arm, but as she pulled her arm back another vampire lunged forward and his blade grazed the back of her hand.

The cut stung like a thousand bee stings and her hand felt like it was on fire. She’d never experienced pain like this in her life. She cried out and all she wanted to do was curl up clutching her hand and hide, but more and more vampires were coming at her. Faster, harder.

Jonas yelled something that she couldn’t understand. There was too much noise, too many people coming at her to be able to focus on his words. Somehow he was managing to fend most of them off, to take most of the blows, to protect her. She should have thanked him, too, she thought as she swung at another vampire. She should have told him how much it meant to her that he’d helped her and Luke. That he’d tried.

Now it was too late. She was going to die with so many things left unsaid.

Sudden shouts split the air behind them, and they turned to see several vampires airborne and crashing to the ground. The remaining vampires around Sera and Jonas turned. Fierce-looking warriors filed into the room. They were beautiful, Sera thought. Light hair that shone gold even in the dark underground cavern. They were all tall and strong, and most wore their hair in a single long braid down their backs. Leather armor covered their bodies, showing bits of different shades of green of the clothes underneath.

“
Sera?
Where
is
she?”

Sera’s heart stopped at that voice.

“
Luke?
” she said.

THIRTY-FOUR

L
uke charged into Lilith’s lair.

“Luke!” Sera called.

He turned toward her voice. There were hundreds of vampires in there. Where was she? Lilith, glorious and irresistible, beckoned him and he had to fight the overwhelming urge to go to her. He focused until he could see her true self. And breathed. She had an arm held out stopping her vampires from action. He was sure that wouldn’t last long.

“Luke,
mon cher,
you’ve come back,” Lilith said. “How sweet.”

“Where’s Sera?” he said.

That’s when he saw her. She was way too far away across the room, but she was there. Still alive. His throat closed, tears blurred his vision, and he couldn’t speak.

They’d gotten there in time.

Sera took off running toward him, and he choked back a sob, but he kept his eyes hard on Lilith. He wasn’t going to let her out of his sight until they had Sera safely out of there. And Marc. He glanced quickly toward the cage where Marc had been, but couldn’t tell if he was still in it. Luke hoped he wasn’t too late for Marc.

Eyes back on Lilith, he opened his arms a moment before Sera flew into them. He crushed her into his arms and turned her away from Lilith. A dozen Fae Fighters circled around them like a barricade.

Luke took a deep breath of Sera, and tears spilled onto his cheeks. “You’re okay,” he said, his voice tight. He would never let her go. He was whole again.

And he was also petrified that she was about to be ripped from him forever. He couldn’t take that. He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t let her die.

And he couldn’t figure out how to stop it.

But what if, he suddenly thought, they left right now? What if he and Sera ran through the Fae Fighters, out into the tunnel and up to open air? Even if the vampires chased them outside, he would have changed where the fighting took place and therefore perhaps changed the outcome.

It was worth a shot. “When I tell you to, run,” he said into Sera’s hair. “We’ll try to make it back outside. Okay?” This had to work. This had to save her. He squeezed her even tighter.

“Mmrhr,” she said into his chest. He loosened his arms a bit and leaned his head back. “Marc’s here.” She looked up at him. “We can’t leave him. We’ve got to get him out, too.”

Marc. This was impossible. Sera’s life was more important than anyone’s. But he couldn’t just leave Marc there. Again.

“Okay, then
you
run. And I’ll stay behind to get Marc.”

Sera raised an eyebrow at him. “Right. I’ll just leave
you
here. I see
that
happening.”

“Sera,” Luke said, grabbing her shoulders and looking hard into her eyes. “This is the place. This is where I Saw you…” He couldn’t finish that sentence. He couldn’t say it out loud to her.

She set her mouth, lifted her chin. “I’m not leaving you here. No matter what.”

Impossible! She was impossible. If she’d asked him to—

Well. He wouldn’t leave her either.

Sparks were flying, literally, across the room where Fey was arguing heatedly with Lilith and Jonas. Little jolts flew out of her fingers as she gestured wildly at Luke and Sera, and then at Marc.

“Is that
Fey?
” Sera said, pointing to the sparkling Realm edition of Fey that Luke was growing accustomed to.

“Yup.” Luke nodded, then looked around the room. Everyone was focused on Lilith and Fey. Maybe they could release Marc and slip out, unnoticed. Okay, he realized it wasn’t likely to work out that way, but he had no better plan. And since Sera wouldn’t leave without Marc at least they could try. Luke signaled to the Fae Fighters surrounding them to let them through.

“Let’s, uh…” Luke jerked his head toward the cages.

“Marc?” Sera said quietly. She glanced around and then nodded.

They crept slowly toward the large black cages, stepping carefully around vampires, being sure not to touch anyone and raise an alarm. Luke cast a brief look in Lilith’s direction again. Fey and Lilith were still at it, but Jonas had seen him. Jonas looked from Luke to the cages and back again. He nodded at Luke and turned back to Lilith.

Luke was suddenly very glad they had a vampire on their side. And looking at all the mesmerized vampires they were sneaking past, he was awfully happy Lilith had such a magnetic personality. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who was affected by her.

He looked ahead to where Sera was sneaking between two huge vampires, reaching for something on the ground. Another knife. She’d almost gotten it when one of them glanced down and saw her. He looked back up at Lilith, then grabbed Sera and pulled her up in front of him. He bared long pointy teeth and pulled her toward him to bite her neck.

Luke scrambled toward them, braced himself to leap on the vampire. But before he could, Sera lifted both arms and shoved her knife deep into the vampire’s neck. His eyes bugged, he dropped Sera, and staggered backwards, knocking into a couple of vampires behind him. His hands reached toward his throat where the hilt stuck out, then he burst into nothingness.

Luke grabbed Sera’s hand and hauled her to her feet, then looked around. All attention was now on them. So much for Plan A.

Lilith waved her hand in the air and they were surrounded by vampires. Time for Plan B. If only they had one.

“Fey teach you that?” Luke said, eyeing them all.

“Jonas. He said go for the throat. They’re as easy to kill as humans.” Sera shook her head. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

“Yeah, well, desperate times,” Luke said. “Got anymore knives?”

She shook her head again.

Luke sighed. “Wonder Twin powers then?” he said to her.

Sera dove for her knife on the ground, but one of the vampires kicked it away. Hissing and snarling, the circle of vampires closed in on them. Sera held out her hands to touch anyone who came close. Back-to-back with Sera, Luke was cursing that he hadn’t gotten the Fae Fighters to loan him some sort of weapon. He had nothing. He patted his pockets.

Wait, he had keys. He could at least hold them between the fingers of his fist to make his punches more painful. He pulled them out and placed them in his hand, then quickly checked the rest of his pockets. There was the flask in his back pocket.

Holy water! Yes! He’d totally forgotten about it. He grinned. He had holy water and was surrounded by vampires.

He pulled it out of his pocket. “I’ve got holy water,” he said quietly to Sera. “Do you want it?”

“It doesn’t work on them.” She shook her head. “It’s myth, like a lot of vampire stuff.”

Luke cursed to himself and shoved it back into his pocket. He looked around the dark room, up at the stone ceiling.

“I could use some windows right about now and bright sunlight.”

“That wouldn’t help either,” Sera said. “At least not on most of them. Sunlight only affects the Old Ones like Lilith.”

At least he still had the keys.

He swung out with his keyed hand as a vampire got close and was rewarded with deep bloody gouges across the guy’s face. Then he spun around to find Sera gone. Two brutes had managed to grab Sera’s arms without being touched by her hands, and though she was kicking and thrashing, she couldn’t free herself.

“Shall she be the first to die, Seer?” Lilith’s voice was right next to his ear and he flinched away. Chills covered his body at those words. The words that had haunted him for months.

This was it.

She looked at him and nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I think so. Her healing makes her the more dangerous.”

Luke’s eyes widened in horror as he watched Lilith reach behind her neck and unlatch her necklace. Time slowed down for Luke, as if to emphasize each terrifying moment of his vision finally coming true in spite of everything he’d done. Lilith’s eyes narrowed as she glared at Sera and closed the latch on her necklace, readying it for flight. She ran one finger along the edge of it, and Luke gasped at the deep slice the finger bore as she lifted it away.

He whipped around to look at Sera. There was nothing he could do. She was trapped, an easy target. Too far away.

And he was helpless.

His fingers brushed against the flask of holy water. Hell with the myths, he thought. What if this one was different for Lilith, too? Besides, he couldn’t just stand there doing nothing.

He wrenched the flask out of his pocket, then turned back to Lilith in time to see a sadistic smile stretch across her face. She bent her arm to fling her necklace at Sera.