Pretty Dark Sacrifice (19 page)

Hurry! I can’t keep her out much longer. You have to help me shield the location of the box and Quinn’s connection to it.

Aaron’s breath came in quick spurts as he focused all his energy on hiding the information she sought. Using his gift to turn the psychic link back on her felt like banging his head against the side of a mountain, but even the slightest vibrations had an effect. A speck of dust, a pebble, a boulder, a landslide, enough to pull her attention elsewhere while he transformed the vision of the box into a hummingbird, sending it on a whirling, frenzied path through his mind.

“Clever, very clever. Your ability to manipulate the psychic plane is impressive, but you won’t keep it from me for long.” She charged the memory, and it dashed away. Charge, zig, chase, zag, always staying half a step ahead. Mind against mind, will against will.

“You saw for yourself. That’s all there was.” Aaron had to convince Lilith, throw her off the path no matter what.

“You think you can fool me? Your deceit, your manipulation, will get you nowhere.” She grabbed his chin in her hand and squeezed.

Aaron braced himself. Her lightning bolts seared his veins, turning them into a thousand crackling wires beneath his skin. Convulsions rocked his body with each new shot.

“Bring it back, and I’ll make the pain stop.”

Aaron gritted his teeth. “I will never give you what you want!” He had to keep her from finding this box of Agathe. Quinn’s life depended on its secret staying buried. Not just her life, he feared, but all of humanity.

“You will give me what I want in the end.
Kavash
!” Mauling his mind, she clawed and ripped at every thought that bubbled to the surface until long strands of thick red blood dripped from his nose, his ears, his eyes. Such agony, torture, screams bringing him to the brink of madness.

“I tried to be gentle, but you had to fight me. Tell me!”

The hummingbird zoomed in chaotic patterns just out of her reach, but she would catch it soon. There wasn’t much left of his mind to search, nowhere left for it to hide. Even Kaemon’s power waned. She was too strong.

Lilith’s laugh rolled and thundered as her power wrapped around the hummingbird and ripped it from his mind. A thousand volts of energy exploded through Aaron, and he lolled to the side, foaming at the corner of his mouth. Nothing but pain and screams and more screams, and a memory of her face. He failed. Quinn would die, the box would be opened, and Lilith’s demon horde would be unleashed. The human realm would become another Eden, tainted, ruined, and it was his fault.

Quinn. I’m so sorry. If I had known. Quinn.
Her name, an apology, a mantra, a ward, but nothing could protect either of them now.

Lilith retreated from his mind, and he sagged against his bonds, sucking in shallow breaths to clear his thoughts. Her pale face swam before him, the venom making it hard to focus. Blood dripped from Aaron’s nose, the tang of copper filling his mouth, making him gag.

“So, that little bitch is even more than she seems. Eve’s blood runs through her veins, does it? No wonder The Light sent his best Elite to protect her. I should be angry that you hid that from me for so long, but never mind. Your good intentions have paved her way to hell.” Lilith’s touch prickled his skin as she patted her new pet. “Now that I know where to find the box, I can move fate along as it suits me.”

Lilith pulled her cloak from her shoulders and laid it on the ground in front of her. Faceless skulls writhed within the smoky fabric, moaning, pressing against it.

“Hello, my pretties,” she cooed at the shadowy, featureless souls trapped within her cape, willing slaves that would do anything for their master’s attention. “Find her for me. Go. Find me Quinn.” The cloak rippled, and at her command, the spirits trapped inside whispered louder and louder to one another, swirling in a frenzied circle. Then, one by one, they disappeared back into the depths of the inky black fabric until it was still as obsidian glass. Lilith cocked her head, silver eyes intent on whatever her minions were showing her.

“Ah.” With a wave of her hand, Lilith beckoned one of the faceless demons from the depths of her cloak. It thrashed and gurgled. “There she is. Seems she thinks you’re still alive somewhere. Nothing but Aaron, Aaron, Aaron on the brain. Her whole essence quivers with your name. She’s looking for you right now, in fact.” A smile twisted across Lilith’s face, striking fear into his heart. “Using a spirit board, no less, and on the very shore where Kaemon thinks the box is buried. Looks like fate is on my side after all.”

The demon disappeared within the cloak. With one fluid motion, Lilith swirled it from the floor and back on her shoulders, fixing it with the silver serpent broach. “I can’t cross the veil into the human realm, not yet, so she will need to bring the box to me, and I know just the trick. She would do anything for you. Follow you to the ends of the Earth, to me, to her death. Is it her blood or her tears that will unleash my dark children back into the world and help me cross the veil into the human realm? Either way, I can arrange to make her cry and bleed. And you, my pet, will help me with both. Revenge on two for the price of one.”

“I’ll never help you,” Aaron growled.

Lilith smelled of a coming storm as she approached. Forcing his head up, he straightened his shoulders and met her cold gaze.

“You will.” Grinning, she cupped his cheek. “All she needs is one more small push in your direction. Her mind is open and vulnerable. Do you think Quinn inherited Eve’s proclivity for being manipulated?”

He jerked away and spit in her face.

She laughed as his saliva dripped down her cheek, and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. Another twisted smile crept across her lips. She turned up her palm and began another chant.

Electric shocks rocked his body as silver threads of power leapt from her fingers and pierced his skin and into his heart. Every nerve was on fire as she wrapped her dark sorcery around his essence.

“All I need is a little bit of your essence. Just enough to make her think it’s you.” He felt a tug deep in his chest. Lilith’s chants grew louder, and Aaron balled his fists, determined not to give her what she wanted. He lunged for her, twisting his wrists to free himself, but his chains held him tight.

“Stop struggling. You won’t win.” Silver eyes found his, two pools cold as ice, freezing him in place. “
Kavash,
” she whispered to the control demon around Aaron’s neck. Another shot of fire entered his veins, the creature’s venom dulling his resistance.

“You won’t miss that little part of you.”

Aaron screamed and arched his back as she clawed a tiny piece of his essence from him and drew it from his heart. He slumped forward, head lolling to the side, his manacles the only thing keeping him from falling face first to the ground. A thin thread of gold, a part of his gift, his spirit, hung in the air between them, pulsing with brilliant light. Lilith covered her eyes, shying away from the brightness.

“Just enough of your essence to disguise my own.” Puckering in disgust, she opened her mouth and swallowed the bright piece of him. “You taste awful.” She gagged as her darkness absorbed the light, her skin pulsing with a golden glow. Within seconds, her black curls shortened around her ears. Eyes blinked silver to green, and her striking cold face morphed into that of a boy. Not any boy—Aaron stared into his own face. He smiled at himself, malice dripping from his lips.

“Do you think she will trust that I’m you?” Lilith turned, arms outstretched, showing off the completeness of the transformation, even down to a T-shirt and jeans.

“I will not be your bait.” Aaron rattled his chains, and she laughed.

“You have no choice. I already have what I need from you.” Lilith held up the likeness of his own finger, making a dramatic show of pricking it with the tip of the silver broach that had previously held the shadow cape around her body. Blood dripped from the tip, and she dragged it on the ground, enclosing them both in a circle of dark red.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be reunited with your precious Quinn soon enough. When she hears from your own lips that you’re in my clutches, she’ll find a way to come to the Underworld. And when she does, I might even kill her first and let you watch. I’m sure you’d like to watch, wouldn’t you? Consider it a gift, a thank you for all you’ve done.” Another command to the control collar, and fire ate through his blood.

“I will die before I let you touch her.” Instead of sounding strong and angry, his words came out slurred.

“I’m just giving her what she wants. Where’s the harm in that? I’ll be sure to say hello to your precious Quinn for you.” The mirror of his own Adam’s apple bobbed in her throat. Aaron wanted nothing more than to wrap his hands around it and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. It was his last thought before another shock of electricity splintered what was left of his mind into a million tiny pieces.

Quinn watched, jaw to chest, as the guitar pick levitated six inches off the board, twisting and spinning as if caught in a whirlwind.

“Please tell me you see this, too.” Marcus didn’t answer. He sat frozen, eyes closed, full lips parted in a half-grin, and hands clasping the board. His usually rich brown skin looked pale and ashen against the cloud-laden sky.

Quinn jerked her hands away, but her body didn’t move with her. Instead, it mirrored Marcus’s, still as a statue, fingers still gripping the board, forehead creased in concentration.

Whoa! So that’s what an out of body experience was. Was she in some sort of trance? Her translucent spirit shimmered ghostlike, somehow connected to, yet separate from, her physical form. Quinn swallowed the panic rising from her stomach. Had she done this, or was it something else entirely? She took three deep, calming breaths and surveyed her surroundings.

It was as if she’d stepped into a sepia-toned photograph. Everything was frozen in time, all but the spirit board. The once ordinary letters adorning the surface radiated a strange, iridescent, glow-stick green, the only color among the reddish-brown landscape.

“Is anyone there who wants to communicate?” She tried to sound confident, in control as she asked, but her voice squeaked.

Letters floated off the board and joined the plectrum in a swirling light show.

“Aaron?”

In answer, the letters mixed and spun until they arranged themselves into a single word.

Quinn.

Her heart became a thunder of hooves within her chest. “Aaron? Is that you?”

Quinn.

Characters flew in and out, pulsing and dimming.

“Where are you? Are you hurt?”

Instead of a direct answer, the letters morphed into strange runes like those on Azrael’s sword. She focused all her attention on them, trying to make sense of what they could mean. What kind of language was it anyway? Sanskrit? Sumerian? She was a teenager, not some expert in linguistics.

“Seriously, how am I supposed to read that? It could say anything for all I know,” Quinn huffed in frustration.

As if by magic, the symbols started to unravel, pulling apart and morphing back into letters she recognized, rearranging themselves into words, faster, a frantic cyclone of glowing green.

When the tears of Eve have turned to blood and her sins have turned to flesh, the key will fall. For love is bound by the power of the Trinity. Their destiny is written by chaos and betrayal and on the first eclipse on the eighteenth year, the voice of the sacrifice will break the lock, restoring darkness unto the light. By this promise, be compelled.

Be compelled.

Be compelled.

Be compelled.

“What does that mean?” Quinn asked.

Seize your destiny.

The letters arched above her head like a comet and dove into a small pool near the river’s edge. She hadn’t remembered seeing that pool before leaving her body. It only seemed to exist in this strange alternate universe. Quinn glanced at her corporeal form still sitting cross-legged with Marcus. What would happen if she strayed too far from her body? Surely walking a few yards away wouldn’t hurt anything. Both her body and Marcus would still be within sight. Giving up now wasn’t an option; she had to see this through.

Her heart hammered as she inched down the bank of the river and approached the place where the comet fell. She stood looking down into a hole about three feet in diameter and half as deep.

Myriads of gold, blue, and green shimmered beneath the murky puddle, reminding her of fireflies dancing in a darkened field. She rubbed her chest at the ache the memory evoked. At the bottom, the source of the mysterious light beckoned to her. A box, half-buried in silt, flared bright as the letters, once on the spirit board, now etched into runes along the sides and top. A sense of déjà vu brought a sick feeling in her stomach. A forgotten dream, and something more, something older. Visions of her handing the box to an angel with golden wings flashed before her then vanished just as quickly. This was
her
box.

Quinn shook her head to clear her mind. Impossible. Yet it wasn’t. She gritted her teeth and dipped a finger into the water. The colors of the runes shifted faster and faster, from green to gold and back to blue. Swallowing her fear, she lowered her hand into the cool water and wrapped her fingers around her destiny.