Pretty Dark Sacrifice (9 page)

His neck, stiff from lying in the same position for too long, tingled and ached as he scraped his cheek against the rough stone. A musty mix of rusted metal and salt filled his nostrils. The smell of mustiness and stale air reminded him of home, of his father lying on the couch after drinking all night, the curtains drawn tight. But he wasn’t home. The stone floor beneath his naked flesh proved that. Did his dad even miss him? Did Josh? Would he ever see home again?

You won’t if you don’t stay focused.

Giving up wasn’t an option. Panting, he struggled again to shift the lead weights of his arms splayed out over his head, but they wouldn’t budge. They remained stuck to the floor, heavy and useless. He might as well try to move a mountain.

Light flickered in the distance. He could make out the halo around a flame, an orange eye staring at him from the blackness.

“Hello?” Aaron’s voice was rough and low. “Is anyone there?”

Whispers hushed and shushed around him, soft and ominous, but he couldn’t tell exactly where they came from.

“Please, help me. I need help.”

If he didn’t get their attention, they might miss him. Determined, he gritted his teeth and concentrated his efforts. He stretched the fingers of his right hand, then the left. A moan escaped his lips, and he sucked in his breath as pins and needles danced across his nerves.

Metal scraped and clanged against stone as he dragged his right arm in toward his body. Panic knotted his empty belly, and he pushed himself up to a sitting position. Something bit into his wrists, weighing him down, restricting his movement. He scrambled backward, the clatter following him. Something cold and wet scraped against his leg, a chain. Shackles bound each wrist and ankle. He grunted and tried to tug them free, but the more he fought against them, the tighter they held him.

A scream so raw with anger and despair surged up from his gut and exploded from his throat. He screamed and clawed at the ground in a red rage until he collapsed. Exhausted and defeated, he curled into a ball and stared at the flame winking in the distance, teasing him, taunting him. His stomach clenched in spasm after spasm, and he prayed for death to take him, to save him from this misery.

“Even death can’t save you now, Kaemon.” Aaron flinched as a finger traced his spine, ice-cold, dangerous. “It’s too late for that,” a voice whispered in his ear.

He whipped his head around, his bindings a harsh clang in the gloom, but she was quick, a shadow moving in the corner of his eye.

“Your souls weren’t welcome in any of the other realms, too twisted, a human-angel hybrid abomination. Where would you go?” Her voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. “Even The Light wouldn’t have you. But don’t worry; I’ve made room for you here, my pet.” Something rattled his chains, tugging at his wrists. “An exception for the exceptional.”

“Who are you? Where am I?” Aaron demanded.

“Home, of course.” A ring of fire exploded around him, and he squinted as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. “Welcome to the Underworld.”

Torches lined the circular platform on which he sat. Two identical skulls with curved horns and long bony snouts sat atop two ten-foot-high metal spikes. The spikes stood roughly six feet apart in the center of the circular platform. The chains binding his wrists looped through the empty eye sockets, around an iron ring attached to the nose cavity, and back out their mouths like lolling iron tongues. Each chain coiled down to the floor, leaving him enough slack that he could pace the length and breadth of his prison and no more. The platform had no walls. Instead, three hundred and sixty degrees of edge plummeted downward into a bottomless pit. A domed cave ceiling soared three stories above in a sweeping arch, making him dizzy. The small stone island in the middle of a sea of ink and air trapped him. Deep red marks stained the floor in drips and splatters reminding him of a Jackson Pollok painting he’d once seen at the museum with his mother. Aaron shivered, wondering whose blood had been there before his own.

“Don’t worry your pretty head about that just now, my pet.” A woman stood before him, a dark hood obscuring her face. Shadows draped her curvy frame, knitting together to form a tight-fitting corset and long flowing skirt. The floor-length cape seemed to whisper and move like smoke. Within the fabric, faces appeared as if emerging from a murky pond. Empty sockets stared back at him, a thin layer of skin muffling their cries and moans, each face more tortured and twisted than the next.

“Don’t stare too long, lest you join them, my pet.” She flipped the fabric, and it rippled and stilled as if by her command, the faces dissolving back into the fabric.

“What do you want from me?” He strained against his manacles. “Who are you?”

“Don’t you remember me, Kaemon? I’m hurt.” She pouted.

Aaron gasped as she pushed back the hood. He’d never seen anyone more beautiful. Curly raven hair cascaded across her shoulders and past her waist. Skin so perfect and cold she could have been made of marble. Her eyes glowed as if lit from behind, slices of iced silver ringed her black pupil.

“Lilith.” The name sighed from his tongue, a remnant of an ancient memory.

“See, I knew you could never forget my face, old friend. Not after everything we’ve been through together.” She paced along the edge of the circle, extinguishing and relighting the torches with a flick of her hand. “You don’t really remember though, do you? Not with that mortal soul leaching onto your essence, getting in your way, holding you back from your true self?” She stopped and studied him. “How did it feel to be tricked by one of your own? We’d heard rumors that you’d fallen, Kaemon, for the love of your ward. That’s what they get for trying to tame an Elite and make him a Sentinel. I couldn’t believe it when my minions brought back word that Azrael poisoned you with your own Qeres blade and trapped you inside the mortal body of a dying boy.” Lilith smiled a cold, hard smile. “I didn’t think he had it in him. Such treachery from one who serves The Light, don’t you think?”

Aaron lunged for her, but the manacles tightened around his wrist, the slack taken up by an unseen force, pulling him back enough to keep her just out of reach. He raged and kicked until metal bit into flesh.

“Ah, there’s the fight that saved you both. How else could such souls fuse together, if not for a common desire to live? Two essences, one angel, one human, sloughed off each of their afflicted parts, then fused what was left together to form a healthy hybrid essence in the body of a mortal teenager. It’s quite the bedtime tale.”

Aaron, Kaemon, he held a part of both of them inside. The realization sent shockwaves through him all over again, and if he’d had anything at all in his stomach, he would have vomited.

“Your thirst for survival is renowned in the realms, Kaemon. Too bad it couldn’t help you in the end. Killed by the very thing you wanted to live for, love, very poetic. You had no idea what you guarded, or you would never have left her alone and vulnerable. More’s the pity.”

An image of Quinn falling into the river slid across his mind like a key sliding into a lock, and the door to his memories yawned open, waiting for him to step through. The realization that he’d been Quinn’s Sentinel blew his world apart. He’d been sent to protect her, and he’d failed every time. It seemed to be the only thing he was good at, failing.

Kaemon had left her at the mercy of those demons, chasing a myth that he could become human when he was supposed to be protecting her. Instead, Kaemon had left her alone and vulnerable to their influence. He was the reason for her pain, the reason she’d jumped into the river in the first place. Aaron hated Kaemon, his selfish nature, his obsession with Quinn, his failure of duty.

You are Kaemon.

No. I’m Aaron.

Are you?

I didn’t turn my back on her.

“Didn’t you? Over petty teenage jealousy?” Lilith replied to his thoughts once again. “Oh the drama of the modern high school. Their angst is so yummy, each mean word or whispered hateful thought can sustain my army for months. The perfect feeding ground.”

Aaron covered his ears, replaying the last few minutes of Quinn’s rescue over in his head. A black-winged angel, Azrael, stood over her, an evil smirk on his face. The idea of Quinn lying broken and pale on that slab of black rock ripped his heart open.

“Oh, don’t worry; your precious Quinn is very much alive. Azrael saw to that. Azrael fulfilled your duty as Sentinel. His sacrifice will not go unpunished and neither will Kaemon’s previous crimes against me.” Her lips twisted into an evil grin. Anger flooded him, the metallic and bitter taste for vengeance hot on his tongue.

“Don’t blame me. It was Azrael’s blade across your throat that finally put an end to your mortal frame, but don’t fret. The good news is that Qeres only affects immortals, not humans, and since you are both, your human side absorbed the poison, leaving your essence intact.” Dragging the Qeres blade across Aaron’s throat should have finished the job Azrael had failed to complete, but if Lilith were telling the truth, his human side saved the immortal but damned him to a realmless existence.

“You should be grateful. I saved you from a life wandering in the void. There is no place in the realms for an essence like yours. Maybe not so lucky for the human side of you, though.”

How had she read his mind?

“Telepathy, a gift all immortals share,” she answered his thought.

An immortal’s gift, Kaemon’s, the reason he’d been able to read other people when he touched them. Aaron’s heart hammered against his chest. Aaron’s connection to Quinn wasn’t chance. It was the reason he couldn’t let her go, couldn’t stop thinking about her. It was Kaemon all along, seeking her out. His psychic gift must be Kaemon’s, too. Which part of him was human and which angel? Was there any part of him that was fully human?

“I’m sure Azrael’s taking good care of her. Better than you. He’s not the least bit distracted by her short cheerleading skirt. I hoped he wouldn’t be so good at his job.”

Aaron strained against his bindings again, the metal rattling in defiance. “Where is she?”

“Safe. For now. I can help you get back to her. All I need is for you to tell me where the box of Agathe is hidden.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Aaron’s mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls.

Lilith narrowed her eyes, the sides of her grimace twitching as she considered him carefully. “No. I don’t believe that
you
do. Not yet, anyway. It seems that even he doesn’t trust you with the whole story. Isn’t that right, Kaemon? The box may be hidden to me, but not to Kaemon. I tried the easy way, to guide you there gently, but you both resist. He knows where it is, and he’s the one who took it from me. Weren’t you, my sweet? I aim to get it back, Kaemon.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“The great warrior Kaemon, reduced to nothing but a half-mortal child squabbling with himself over his own identity. I couldn’t have asked for a better gift.” She lifted a finger, her long silver nail biting into the skin beneath his chin. He swallowed, standing at her command, mesmerized by her beauty until they were face to face. “I’m not talking to you, child. He’s in there, though. I can see him in the depths of your green eyes.

Lilith pressed her mouth to his ear, her warm breath tickling his skin. “Come now, Kaemon,” she whispered. “You used to be so fierce, full of fire and heat. Hard to believe this sniveling weak thing houses the soul of the warrior Elite who joined with Eve to destroy half my demon horde and helped her lock the rest away in that wretched box. Watching you kill was like

watching an artist at work, such power and glory, even if you fought for the wrong side. I can free you, Kaemon, put everything to rights. I’ll even let you go back to your precious Quinn. Of course, you won’t be able to live in the human realm, but there are plenty of other places the two of you can live happily ever after. I hear Eden is uninhabited.” She laughed at some inside joke Aaron didn’t understand. “All you have to do is help me find the box. You must know.”

Licking her full red lips, she pulled him closer. Desire welled up inside Aaron. He felt ashamed and humiliated, but he couldn’t help himself.

“No, you aren’t Kaemon anymore, are you? I would never have been able to manipulate him the way I can manipulate you.” He shivered as her hands wandered across his shoulders and down his back. She ran a nail down his cheek, drawing blood. Parting her mouth ever so slightly, she moved closer until he felt the curves of her taut body against him. When she licked the blood from his cheek, he couldn’t help but moan.

“Is this what you want?” All he could do, under the power of her seduction, was nod. She struck like a snake, clasping the back of his neck as she kissed him. She tasted like bitter chocolate and chili, sweet infused with something hot and dangerous. Hunger burned within him, and he pushed against her, fumbling at the clasp that held her robe, wanting to fill himself with nothing but her.

When she pushed him to the ground and threw her head back in a haughty laugh, his heart splintered. “Don’t be greedy.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and winked.

His head cleared as she stepped back from him, and he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, spitting to rid himself of the taste of her.

“What would your precious Quinn think of you now? I thought you loved her, but your body betrays your heart. Something you and Kaemon have in common.” Lilith squatted in front of him, grabbing his cheeks in a vise grip. “Quinn has no idea who you really are, does she? Maybe it’s better that way. Should I let her continue to believe you’re nothing but a teenage boy, or should I reveal how you betrayed her for your selfish desires?”

“Do what you want with me, but leave her out of this.” Aaron jerked away, and she laughed again, deep and grating.

“Oh, I’ll do what I want, with you and with her. Mark my words, little boy. I’m only just starting to make you both pay.”

“I’ll give you anything as long as you leave her alone. What do you want?”

“Oh, so many things, but let’s start with your obedience.” Lilith stood with arms out, palms up. “I tried to do this the easy way, to pull the answer gently from your mind, but your connection to her is still too strong. Perhaps I can use that to my advantage. In controlling you, maybe I can manipulate her, too.”