White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements #1)(42)
Author: J. Lynn

“Shit. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes.” I pushed against his chest to get some air, but there was no moving him. Reasoning he could only squish me for so long, I dropped my arms and waited for him to let go.

When he finally did, Zayne grabbed my bag off the ground and took my hand. A muscle ticked along his jaw as he stared straight ahead. “I’m taking you home.”

“He didn’t hurt me, Zayne. It wasn’t him.” When there was no response, I squeezed his hand. “Zayne…”

“It doesn’t matter right now,” he said. “What does is that the bastard was right. We haven’t been keeping you safe. And if he’s truly the one who has, then there is something messed up about that.”

* * *

Jasmine held a cloth that smelled of antiseptic an inch from my face. “This may sting a bit.”

I figured it couldn’t sting any more than my eyes had. Even now they were still sensitive as I tracked Abbot’s clipped movements in the kitchen from where I sat in the sunroom. She placed the cloth against my temple and I winced.

“Sorry,” she whispered with a sympathetic smile.

Nodding, I held myself still as she swiped the material over the knot. Things could be worse, considering Caym wanted to kill me.

Zayne stood by, arms crossed. “Father, it goes against everything I know to say this, but we must give consideration to what Layla has been telling us. This demon—”

“I know,” Abbot snapped.

I tried to hide my smile and failed. Jasmine’s eyes narrowed on me. Any satisfaction was short-lived.

“She cannot go back to that school or go anywhere without a Warden accompanying her until we get to the bottom of this.” Abbot faced me, rubbing his beard. “And don’t even think to argue with me over this.”

I withered under his stare. “But what will you tell the school?”

“That you have mono or some other human disease. Really, it doesn’t matter. Your schoolwork will be sent here in the meantime.” He turned to where Geoff stood. “Have you heard anything from the police commissioner?”

Geoff nodded. “No one knows what truly happened at the school. They are filing a report that it was a prank gone wrong—a smoke bomb. But this was a close call. If the demon had gotten her out—”

“Or if my friend hadn’t shown up,” I threw in just for kicks.

Abbot’s gaze slammed into me. “Even if by some bizarre chance this demon isn’t out to raise the Lilin, he is not and never will be your friend.”

“Anyway,” Geoff said drily. “The exposure would’ve been beyond damaging.”

Jasmine brushed my hair back and continued to dab at my temple as she glanced at the doorway. Danika came in, carrying Izzy, whose little head was resting on her shoulder.

“Drake?” Jasmine inquired.

“Still asleep.” Danika hefted Izzy a little higher. “This one won’t sleep unless she’s being held, and I don’t want to miss this conversation.”

It took everything for me not to roll my eyes.

She moved to stand beside Zayne, and I couldn’t help but think that they already looked like a family, especially with Izzy in Danika’s arms. I kind of wished there was black demon smoke in my eyes again. “What I don’t understand is how we’ve been unable to capture any Upper Level demons,” she said, smoothing a hand over the child’s curls.

“Demons know when to hide,” Abbot grumbled.

“It makes sense.” Zayne looked at me and then glanced away quickly. “All the Upper Level movement around the city, I mean. A demon trying to raise the Lilin is bound to bring others by the masses.”

“True, but foolish of them. They’re safer down below, where Wardens can’t get them.” Geoff sat down in one of the chairs and stretched out his long legs.

Hearing them discuss this seriously was odd to me, but I jumped in. “They want to start the apocalypse.”

Abbot muttered under his breath. “Child, the apocalypse—”

“Isn’t supposed to happen now, or only God knows when it will be. Yeah, I know. But here’s the deal. No one benefits from the Lilin being reborn, right?” With all the eyes on me now, I felt exposed sitting there having Jasmine fussing over my head like I was an invalid.

Ducking out of her grasp, I stood and moved behind the wicker chair I’d been sitting in. “When a Lilin takes a soul, the human turns into a wraith. Neither Heaven nor Hell gets the human. And that’s why even Hell doesn’t want the Lilin to be reborn.” I’d tried explaining this before, but everyone had been so angry with me I was sure none of them had listened. “But some of the demons want out of Hell. They want to be able to come topside and not have to follow the rules or worry about the Wardens. They know that if the Lilin are reborn, the Alphas will step in and go after every demon. They aren’t going to go down without a fight. Mankind is going to find out about demons. There will be a war, which will most likely move the apocalypse ahead of schedule.”

No one spoke for a few moments. Then Geoff broke the silence. “It’s risky, but demons have never been worried about that gamble before.”

Danika handed off the sleeping tot to Jasmine. “Kind of like the crazy boyfriend, right? If I can’t have Earth, then no one can.”

I almost grinned at that comparison.

“When can the incantation be complete?” Zayne asked.

“There is no set time.” Abbot picked at a leafy blossom from one of the nearby plants. “It can only occur after Layla turns seventeen. Or at least that is how the text has been translated.”

“I can’t stay holed up forever. I’ll go crazy.”

“You have no other choice,” Abbot replied.

Irritation coated my skin and I snapped, “Now you believe me?”

“I’m not sure what to believe at this point.” He broke off a dead leaf and closed his fist around it. “All of this is just theories. None of it is backed by evidence or truth.”

I threw my hands up. “It is the truth. It’s what I’ve been telling you since the beginning.”

“There is another way,” Zayne said before his father could unleash what was no doubt a verbal lashing the likes of which I’d never seen before. “We find the demon responsible and send it back to Hell.”

“I like that idea.” I folded my arms to keep from hitting something.

“That’s a good idea, but the problem is there are hordes of demons out there.” Geoff pinched the bridge of his nose. “We could start summoning them from the Lesser Key, but that would take us years.”

“The demon…” Zayne took a deep breath. “Your friend doesn’t know who the demon is?”

I knew how much it must’ve cost Zayne to call Roth my friend, and I appreciated it. “No. That’s something he was trying to find out, but no one is talking. Either there’re a lot of demons supporting this, or they’re scared of whoever is behind it.”

“That’s not reassuring,” Danika said.

Zayne’s brows arched in agreement. “We could see if he’s made any progress since—”

“Absolutely not!” his father thundered. “We are not working with a demon.”

“Father—”

“No, Zayne.” Abbot prowled to the door and stopped. Anger mottled his cheeks. “That is a path I am not willing to go down for any reason. History has proved that doing so ends in treachery.”

I knew then that no matter what Roth could do, or any demon, for that matter, Abbot’s views would never change. They were too deeply rooted in him, to the point of blind bigotry. Nothing short of a miracle would change his beliefs. Most Wardens were like that, especially the older ones.

My gaze fell to Zayne. He wasn’t ready to let it go. “Layla’s life is in danger. So are the lives of thousands, if not millions, of humans.”

“As if I don’t know that?” Abbot crossed the room in a flash, stopping in front of his son. “Is it desperate times call for desperate measures? We’ve been here before, on the brink of the world falling apart. This is nothing new. And trusting a demon will only aid in that destruction.”

“It’s not going to happen.” Geoff stood, placing his hands on his hips. “We’ve seen firsthand what trusting a demon will do.”

“That we have.” Abbot looked at me over his shoulder, his expression unreadable. “After all, Elijah foolishly trusted a demon once before.”

“What?” I laughed. “Elijah would kill himself before he trusted a demon.”

Abbot faced me fully. “Now he would, and he has good reason for his caution. A little over seventeen years ago he made the mistake of trusting one—a demon who claimed that she would rather be dead than be what she was. No one but Elijah knows the whole story, but one thing is certain. He lay with her, and in the end the demon got what she wanted.”

I opened my mouth, then clamped it shut. A cold wind swept down my spine. Denials formed on the tip of my tongue but no words came out.

“The demon he trusted was Lilith,” Abbot said. “And because Elijah trusted her, he helped create the one thing that could destroy the world. You.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I’d never been the passing-out kind before, but I almost kissed the floor after that little bomb was dropped. Shaken and a whole lot disturbed, I sat back down.

“Elijah’s her father?” Shock colored Zayne’s tone. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“I am not.” Abbot took a weary breath. “He didn’t know the demon was Lilith until we found Layla in the foster home years later.”

I blinked slowly, but the room wouldn’t come into focus. “He knew I was his daughter?”

“He did.”

“But he…he hates me.” I sank back into the floral cushions. “He’s always hated me.” The moment the words left my mouth, I finally understood why. “God, I must’ve reminded him…”

“Of his lapse in judgment?” Abbot came to my side, his voice low. “He could never reconcile the part of you that was him.”

My head spun. “Didn’t he want to kill me when you all found me?”

Abbot looked away.

I sucked in an unsteady breath. “He did. Wow. I don’t even…” My eyes searched Abbot’s face for an answer. “You stopped him from killing me and you knew he was my father?”

Again, Abbot said nothing. It was Geoff who stepped forward. “The scar Elijah carries is not from a demon. Abbot stopped him that night and took you in. After all, you carry a Warden’s blood in you.”

“Oh, my God…” I shook my head. “This is…”

Too much.

Everyone’s eyes were on me, a mixture of surprise and pity. It was too much, learning all this and not having a moment to really let it sink in without an audience.

I stood and blindly made my way around Abbot. Someone called my name, but I didn’t stop until I was in my bedroom.

Sitting down on my bed, I stared at the spot on my wall. Nothing else seemed to matter at that moment. Elijah was my father—the Warden who hated me with the power of a thousand suns; the very same Warden who wanted me dead. He’d probably ordered Petr to kill me.

Oh, my God…

Nausea rose sharply. Petr had been my half brother. That disgusting son of a…

I’d taken my own brother’s soul.

Lying on my side, I curled into a ball and squeezed my eyes shut against the burning that had nothing to do with what had happened in school. A tremor started in my leg, working its way up to my fingers. I tucked them against my chest.

How did one deal with something like this? I doubted there were coping skills I just hadn’t learned yet. I didn’t know what sickened me more. That my own father wanted to kill me or that I’d taken my brother’s soul.

* * *

Over the next couple of days, I really didn’t come to any great understanding of everything that had been revealed to me. There was no comprehending it. The only thing I could do was not think about it. That didn’t work out so easily. It was like trying not to breathe. At the strangest moments, it would pop into my head and I couldn’t get it out.

My own father wanted me dead.

The knowledge overshadowed everything, leaving me numb to the core. Part of me could understand Elijah’s hatred because of what I reminded him of, but I was still his daughter. All these years I’d built up this fantasy surrounding my father, convincing myself that even though I was part demon, my father still loved me. That something unfortunate had happened to him and I had gotten lost in the tragedy.

Now that dream had been blown to bits.

The whole thing with Petr also weighed on me. The fact that he was my half brother didn’t change my opinion of the monster, but I wondered if, had I known who he was to me, I would’ve done the same thing.