Shadow Light (Beautiful Beings #3) (13 page)

“So,” I said once we’d settled at a table.  “What are these questions about?”

“We found out how to close the portal, but the thing we still don’t know is how to find it.”

I nodded thoughtfully as I poked my fork into the cheesy lasagna and pulled up a long stringy line of melted cheese.  “We know it’s in San Francisco,” I said before taking a bite.

“Yeah, but I think we’re going to have to narrow it down a bit more than that.”

“Any ideas?”

“I woke up early this morning and poured over the Book of Angels.  Somewhere in there it mentions finding a place of high activity, and finding a place with plenty of fresh souls.”

“Okay, good.  So that means we’re not looking at an individual home or something like that.  This is a larger place; a place that can hold a lot of people.”  I thought of the places I’d experienced the heaviest amount of activity.  “I’ve seen the most activity at Brax’s house or here at school.  I don’t think they would want to waste too much time and energy preying on the house of a gatekeeper,” I muttered.

“Like Brax.”

“Yeah, nor would they want to take that big a risk for nothing.”

“So that leaves here.”  He ate his lasagna as if we were talking about remedial soccer, or the night’s English essay.  His gaze darted around the various picnic tables set here and there then turned to focus on the hundreds of students inside the cafeteria.

“It would make sense,” I added, my tone hushed.  “After all I was brought here to St. James.  I don’t think it was an idle move on Dr. Kingsley’s part.  I mean, look at me.  Do I really look like the kind of student who would enroll in such an exclusive school?  Never mind be accepted?”

“I think you underestimate yourself too much, but, yeah.  I can see what you mean.”

“The only reason I’m here is because Dr. Kingsley was on the board.”

“I guess it’s lucky for us this is all happening while you're still at the age to go to this school.”

I chuckled half-heartedly. “I guess you could look at it that way.  You know, my whole life I’ve gone from school to school.  I could never stay for more than a month or so.”

“Trouble-maker.”

“I’ll say.”

“You really started slaying that young, huh?”

“Two years old,” I said with a heavy nod.  “This is the longest I’ve been at the same school.”

“Must be because of me,” he said with an impish grin.

I looked his way and pointed my fork at him.  “You might be onto something there.”

“What’s your next class?” he said in an idle manner.

“Biology.”

“Hmm.” He grabbed our empty trays and stood.  “Does that help any with the dealing of demons?”

“Not really.”

Leaving our trays on the outside garbage can, we then re-entered the cafeteria and made our way back to our lockers.

As we passed in front of the boys’ locker room, Brax emerged.

“Not again,” Asher said as he took in Brax’s disheveled appearance and lost gaze.  “I’ll be right back.”  He shot into the locker room.

“You okay?” I asked Brax.

His eyes still slightly glazed, he nodded.

“I was just telling Asher about the whole reason for my being here at St. James.”

Again he nodded.

“We suspected the main core of activity is here at St. James and that’s why Dr. Kingsley had me enrolled here.”

Brax leaned back against the wall and looked like he was about to be ill.

“I mean, I clearly don’t fit in here, so why else would I come to a school like this?”

Looking at my shoes, Brax murmured something unintelligible.

“What was that?”

“They’re playing with you, aren’t they?”

Frowning, I looked into his hazy eyes.  “Who?  What do you mean?”

“You're just a pawn, a playing piece.  You have no real control over what’s going on.  You're at the mercy of those who make the rules; those who know the game; those who change the game to suit their purposes.”

“Brax, you're scaring me.  What are you talking about?”

A degree of lucidity came back and he looked me straight in the eye.  “It’s going to be all right, Lux.  You may not be in control, but you're strong and you’ll get through it.  We’re all there to help get you through it.”

Pulling me into his arms, he hugged me tight and kissed the top of my head for a long moment.  I felt his concern for me in his embrace, but that concern quickly turned into something dark and sinister.  I pushed him back and when I looked up, Asher was beside us, his crucifix in hand.

“Asher,” I said as I stared at him in disbelief.  “What are you doing?  Put that down.”

“Why don’t you ask him what’s he doing?  Or better yet what he was doing… in there?” He tilted his head toward the locker room door.

I didn’t want to ask.  I was afraid to ask.  Though growing suspicion led me to question Brax’s integrity more and more, I didn’t want to believe there could truly be anything evil in him.

“Brax?” I said softly.

“Yeah?” His voice resonated with innocence.

“What were you doing in the boys’ locker room again?  Did you have a game today?”  I sounded like a kindergarten teacher and hated it.

“Yeah, Brax,” Asher said, sounding more like a prison guard.  “I found another drained body in the locker room.  Are you going to try to tell me you had nothing to do with it?”  He turned to look at me.  “There was nobody else in there.  I went through every aisle of lockers, threw them all open and looked into every shower stall.  The only person I found was the remains of Oliver Sharp.”

My heart was split in two; the half that wanted to slay him right there and the half that wanted him to tell me this was all a mistake.”

“It wasn’t me,” Brax said.  “And believe me it’s not easy.  I’m starving for a soul, I’ll admit that, but I’m controlling it.  As hard as it is, I’m controlling it.”  He turned to look at me, his eyes imploring me to believe him.  “I’ve been working so hard to fight it off, Lux.  It’s hard, but I’m managing it.  It’s not me who took Oliver.  It couldn’t be.”

A group of students passed by, chatting amiably and going about their business as if life was easy and beautiful.  How lovely it must be to go through life without a care in the world.  How wonderful it must be to have such leisure time to laugh and play.  I’d never known that kind of luxury.  My leisure time was spent fighting to keep the world free of the demons who preyed on helpless souls.

We all looked to the floor and quieted down the time they passed us by.

“Look,” Asher said the moment they’d passed.  “I don’t know what kind of game you're playing, but this is the second time we find an empty body where you just so happen to have been.  You're going to say it’s all a coincidence?  Well, I don’t believe it.”

Darkness quickly filled Braxton’s eyes.  Laying my hand over Asher’s arm, I silently begged him to keep quiet.  “Coincidences happen,” I said.  I shot a glance at Asher and looked back at Brax.  “No use getting all upset over this.  I know you're working hard to keep control and I wouldn’t want you to lose that grip on control.  Please don’t get upset with all this.”

“I’m not getting upset,” Brax grumbled, sounding more like a petulant child than a demonic teenager.

Still, my gut told me this wasn’t good.  I was worried about the control he really did have over this.  Maybe he was able to control it while he was conscious of his actions, but could the darkness be working through him without his realizing it?

With the portal getting larger and larger, it was a possibility I had to consider… and worry about.

Chapter 17

Lost

“
A
sher, would you mind giving us a few minutes alone?” I said.

His eyes gave a definite no as an answer, but he nodded all the same.  “I’m going to go out and take a look at the field.  Maybe I’ll find an answer out there.”

Brax and I silently watched him walk outside then strolled slowly to the doors Asher had used. 

“You know there’ve been others,” Brax said.  “Others like Oliver and…”

“Yes,” I said.  “I heard.”

“I wasn’t anywhere near them.  Some even happened while we were in Italy, so…”

“Okay.”  I reached out to pat him arm.  “I don’t think you had anything to do with this.  Just bad timing I guess.”

Brax kicked an imaginary rock on the hardwood floor.  “Yeah, that seems to be following me around lately.”

“I’m hoping we’ll find the portal soon, Brax.  I know this has been hard and I can’t imagine what you're living with, but I promise I’ll do all I can to get rid of the demon that’s growing inside you.”

“I know I should be comforted by that, but right now, I’m just sick of the whole thing. I’m exhausted by the constant struggle, by the fighting.  I’m fighting myself and it’s the worst feeling in the world.”

“Please hold on until we find the portal.  We know it’s around here somewhere.”

“Where, in San Francisco?  That’s not much help.” He glared at me, something the Brax I knew was not apt to do.

“No… here, at St. James.  We think the portal could be right here; virtually under our noses.”

We walked out and the blinding sun that had so warmed my skin moments earlier now seemed to irritate and annoy Brax.  He pulled up the collar of his shirt and shielded his eyes with his hand.  “Do we really have to come out here?” he said in a plaintive tone.  “It’s as hot as hell out here today.”

I didn’t comment on his choice of words, but glanced at Asher who seemed to have found something interesting.

“Hey, you guys.”  His gaze was intently on the ground just near the doorway that led straight into the boys’ locker room.  “I think I may have found something.”

I stepped forward, but stopped when I noticed that Brax had remained behind.  “Aren’t you going to come?” I said.

He stared at me and shoved his hands in his pockets.  “Something doesn’t smell right out here.”

I sniffed the air and realized he was right and it wasn’t the smell of sweaty lacrosse players.  It was something more vile, more sinister.  Nonetheless, I walked back to him, took him by the hand and led him to Asher’s side.  “What do you have?”

“Look.”  Asher pointed to the ground.  “Have you ever seen anything like that before?”

A look of fear and pain instantly creased Brax’s face as he looked at the dark hole in the ground.  Barely a foot in diameter, the hole looked like a void, an empty space that swirled in an endless abyss.

“That’s it,” Brax whispered.  “I can feel it to my bones…that’s the portal to hell.”

The scent was unmistakable.  Even with my weakened senses, the pull toward the darkness was immense, almost insurmountable.  I’d felt like this so many times in the past; heavy and dizzy.

“I can barely inhale, the smell of sulfur and ashes is so great,” Asher commented as he turned away from the stench.

Before I could turn to question Brax about what he knew of this portal, he threw himself onto his knees and raised his fists into the air as a plaintive cry echoed out onto the empty playing field.

I felt his crumbling soul; felt I was losing him.  As weakened as he’d become these past weeks, he now seemed on the verge of losing whatever remained of his control.

“Brax,” I said as I set my hand to his trembling shoulder.

He was beside himself with grief, with loss, before he’d even lost the fight entirely.  He was giving up, I could feel it.

“You can’t stay here, Brax.”

Looking up at me, his eyes were bereft of all emotion; empty; a deep void.

“You have to leave San Francisco before it’s too late.  You must leave until we’re able to close the portal.”

His eyes remained glazed and confused.

“Do you understand me, Brax?  Do you hear me?  You have to leave.”

“No,” he muttered softly.  “I can’t.  There’s so much to do.  I have you to protect.  Don’t make me go.”

“You don’t understand.  It’s too dangerous for you here.  You can’t stay this close to the portal.  The hold it has over you is getting stronger and stronger.  You have to get away.”

“What about you? You can’t stay.”

“It doesn’t have the same pull on me that it has on you.  You're vulnerable.  You know you are.  You feel it, don’t you?  Just now?”

As though suddenly feeling weak, he stood, pulled back his shoulders and gazed down at me.  “I can still fight it.  I may have allowed myself a temporary moment of weakness, but I still have some fight left in me, Lux.”

“Please, Brax.  Don’t fight me on this.  If you remain here you’ll only make it harder for us to fight the demonic forces of this portal. I’ll be too preoccupied with your safety.  You should go to Europe.”

“No.  I don’t want to go back there.”

“Then maybe go to New York, or anywhere on the East coast.  Just get out of San Francisco; out of California.”

Despite his desire to remain strong and argue with me, I saw him crumble to the ground again.”

“The pull is unbelievable.  I never thought it could be like this.  I thought I was so strong.  I thought I could fight this, no matter what.  How am I going to manage out East without you?”

“You’ll do fine.”  I helped him back up and led him away from the portal.

Several yards away he was finally able to straighten up and walk on his own.  “I hate that I can’t deal with this on my own.”

“I know, but this is what’s best for all of us.  Please.  This is the only way we’ll be able to close the portal and beat them.”

“I hate the thought of leaving you completely alone.”

“I won’t be alone, Brax.  Asher and Moore are here with me.”

“That’s even worse.”  His eyes softened and his lips parted.  “Come with me, Lux.  Leave all this demon slaying business to Asher and Moore and come away with me.  We could both escape all of this and…”

“There’s no more time to waste, Brax.  Go!  Now!”  I tried to bring a sense of urgency to my words.  I wanted to shake him out of this lethargy.

I glanced back at Asher who stared at the portal, mesmerized by its power.

“I have to go back to Asher before he succumbs to the pull as well.  Please, Brax.  I’ll ask you one last time, leave the demon fighter and closing of the portal to us and go where you’ll be safe.”