Waiting for Mercy (Cambions) (28 page)

He was right. Somewhere deep down inside, I knew that Luke wasn’t being wholly honest with me.  But I wanted to be with him so badly, I accepted his words.  Trying to justify my decision, I accepted his right to make his own.  But really was that who I was?  Could I live with myself if his soul was tarnish because of me? 

“It doesn’t matter anyway because he’s left me,” I said softly.  Biting back tears, I opted for silence.  My heart broke because Luke was hurting.

He sucked in a breath drawing my attention back to him. “Yeah, the bleeding heart will be back.”

“Not this time,” I said, only releasing air once I’d spoken out loud the last word.

“You ought to hope he doesn’t,” he said.

He sounded so much like Flynn I could feel the old anger at that night kindle inside me. “You sound like Flynn now,” I blustered.

“Ah, Flynn,” he said.  Something about the way he said it was like he was happy to change the subject.  I had the feeling he didn’t want to deal with my tears.  Did Sebastian have more human emotions than I’d calculated? “You and he were preordained.”

My eyebrows rose. I wasn’t sure how much truth I could handle in one night. “What does that mean?” I asked.

“You’re succubus, he’s incubus,” he said in a mock caveman voice.

“No, no, no,” I said while my head shook side to side. “Don’t give me that interspecies talk.”

He turned towards me away from the road yet the car remained steady. There was no traffic to speak of this Sunday morning. “It’s the truth Kayla and I have yet to lie to you.”

“Omission of the truth is lying,” I countered.

“For my words to you,” he said turning back to watch the road ahead, “All of them have been true.”

“Fine,” I said sharply. “Explain.”

“Okay, it’s like natural for the two of you to be attracted to each other.  It’s nature at work here.”

Smiling because he was wrong on this point, I said, “Flynn doesn’t want me.  I’m just a challenge for him.”

His words were quick and I wasn’t sure how to answer them. “And you?  I see how the two of you look at each other.  And truthfully, I think it’s more than your similar species that attracts Flynn.  If Amanda was a cambion, I don’t think he’d want her anymore than what he wants from her now.”

“So what now, you want me to be with Flynn?” I asked.

He thought for a moment. “Kayla, I’m just being honest with you.  I want you to trust me.”

I wanted to believe him but fear that maybe he was right about my feeling for Flynn had my cheeks flamed in embarrassment. “I love Luke,” I said.  “Look, this conversation is stupid. Paul just wants me because he doesn’t want anyone else to have me.  Flynn wants to conquer the only girl who says no, you have some other reason you won’t tell me but it’s certainly not to date me.  The only one who really cares is Luke,” I bellowed.  My words had begun softly and ended in a loud crescendo.

Apparently my words had stung him in some way.  His hold on the wheel suggested he was holding back his own angry words. “Say what you want about the others, but you’re wrong about me.”

Fatigue clouded my rational mind.  If I was rested, I might not have gone on.  Sebastian could crush me in a thought I was sure.  He was helping me to help Flynn.  Why was I purposefully trying to piss him off?  Maybe because I wanted answers and I didn’t give a rat’s butt whose feelings were hurt in the process. “Really, then why are you interested in me?” I asked.  Funny, I’d asked the same of Luke earlier in the day.  I was just curious enough to watch Sebastian to see if I could spot a lie.

He didn’t answer right away.  So I assumed his response would be long and well thought out by the time he spoke.  Little did I know. “You’re different,” he said simply.  Several giggles left my mouth to show just how surprised and how overused that statement was. “Why are you laughing?” he asked.

I didn’t have to think to respond. “Everyone is different,” I said. “That’s what makes each individual unique.  I was sure someone of your type could have come up with something better than that.”

“It’s the truth and I haven’t lied to you yet,” he said venomously.

My mouth clamped shut.  It was a good thing I did because for once I believed the words he said without hesitation.  Something in the way he said it, had rage as an undercurrent. “When I first met you, I thought you’d be a silly little girl.  The way you got drunk so easily.  But there’s more to you.  It’s different than most girls even demon ones.  You don’t have any ulterior motive in the things you do.  You speak from the heart be damned what anyone thinks.  You care about everyone around you including me. And the biggest thing of all is the fact that you are a lust demon yet you remain virginal.  It shows true strength of character and conviction.”

When his monologue was over, I was speechless. But as time ticked on, I found my voice.  “Why is everyone surprised or in awe of my innocence?” I asked.  Luke had mentioned it too.    

“You’re a succubus,” he stated like I should understand.

Finally, I rolled my eyes again.  So maybe it was becoming a habit. “Yeah, and,” I said. “Like that’s a big hint.”

He sighed. “Come on. You know what you are,” he said.

“Yes, but I don’t know much about what that means,” I added.

Then I saw it.  The dawn of understanding crossed over his profile.  “Your mother?”

I nodded and said “Yes,” at the same time.

“Okay, daughter of Lilith, let me bring you up to speed.  I can’t believe you didn’t look up the information yourself.  I mean the web is full of it,” he said.

“Yeah, like I’m able to decide what is true or false just because of my species.  And yes, I did a search.  But it was fruitless. Besides, who is Lilith? I’m the daughter of Julie,” I said flippantly.

He laughed and maybe for the first time in our long drive and conversation, things got a little relaxed. “I’m surprised you didn’t find a reference to Lilith in your research.  Anyway, Lilith was supposedly the first wife of Adam.”

“Supposedly,” I interrupted. “If she’s related to succubus then she’s a demon.  Wouldn’t you know for sure your history?”

“Ha-ha,” he said. “But you must remember our nature is evil.  Truth is buried in lies and nothing is gospel. And yeah, pun indented.”

“Fine,” I conceded. “Tell me more about Lilith.”

“Lilith wasn’t a good wife for Adam.  She chose to use her feminine wilds on archangels.  Her punishment for her crimes was to be cast out as a lust demon.  She is the first,” he said. “She made more of her kind through a pack with the devil himself so to speak.  The first of her kind reproduced with humans over time which created your species, the cambions.  But after the compact to move the war from earth to realms outside, demons were no longer able to reproduce.  Thus you cambions seek each other out.  With the problem that the mother will not survive the birth, it leaves your species numbers in the low, low hundreds.  But nature draws you together, because cambions are not able to reproduce with humans.”

There might as well been a ringing bell over my head because I understood what it meant what he just said. “So,” I began.

“So how are you here?” he finished.  Nodding, I waited. “You have to wonder on one hand, but then again.”

“My father was a sociopathic psycho-serial killer,” I finished for him this time.

Glancing my way, he said. “Well, there’s that.  But he was still human because he died.”

That was true but there was more. “But someone let him out for revenge.  Doesn’t that mean he’d sold his soul or something to the devil, thereby making me possible?”

He ran a hand through his hair.  “Honestly Kayla, I don’t know.  But something had to be different.”

Great, my life was truly crap.  He drove in silence for a long while.  One thing was for sure, mommy dearest had some explaining to do.

The silence was thick.  He’d saved my life on a number of occasions.  I wanted to believe that whatever he sought from me wouldn’t result in my harm.  I bit my lip, and closed my eyes.  I had so much to worry about.  Maggie may no longer be human.  Brent may have changed her, changed Doug.  Luke wasn’t answering his phone.  Was he finished with dealing with me and all the chaos my life was?  Flynn, what to do for him?  He’d made his feelings clear.  But Flynn was resilient.  I truly didn’t think whatever he thought he felt was real.  I was just the girl that had turned him down.  That was a first.  His ego would only allow him to pursue and conquer me.  Now somehow, I may be the cause of breaking up an old friendship.  It didn’t sit well with me.  I need to fix everything.  I needed to make sure Maggie wasn’t a shifter.  But that was one problem, I wouldn’t be able to solve.

Time stretched on just like the miles.  No longer on a busy highway, we were on a long stretch of road with nothing but barren land on either side.  Ahead were mountains.  The sun rose high in the sky but the chill in the air made it clear it was still winter.  We were the only car on the road.

When the noise came from the back seat, I turned expecting that a book or bag may have fallen to the floor.  What I should have realized was there was nothing back there.  The car was empty. We hadn’t packed for this trip.  What I didn’t expect was a red eyed phantom to be staring back at me.  I let out a very frightened girly, ear-piercing scream.  And I wouldn’t apologize for it.

Sebastian slammed on the brakes giving a half turn seeing what I saw.  I’d pulled as far away as I could from the back seat with the seat belt still restraining me, trying to put distance between me and whatever was in the back.

The ghostly projection snarled a toothy grin.  I surveyed it, thinking of my options.  The fact that I could see through it calmed me some.  If it had no substance, then maybe it couldn’t hurt me either.

When the car came to an abrupt halt, I was sent forward with the momentum.  Then I was pulled back by my seat belt restraints.  Sebastian turned to me.  “Stay in the car,” he bellowed, an instant before he hopped out of the car.  I turned my head wondering why he was leaving me alone when I noticed the phantom had disappeared. 

I turned back to watch Sebastian make his way to the front of the car.  I noticed he’d stopped us in the middle of the road not bothering to pull over to the shoulder.

Then I saw the beastly thing several feet in front of the car.  It was huge and black as night with beady red eyes.  It seemed so out of place in the daylight.  It snarled and bared its fangs taking its appearance from a giant dog to a beast from that of nightmares, globs of spittle dripping from its mouth.  Sebastian steps didn’t falter.  But he was a demon of course.  I, on the other hand thought it was wise to stay where I was. 

I heard the clopping noise a half a second before a rider on a huge horse materialized in a path aimed directly at us.  Sebastian lifted his hands.  But before I could see what would happen next, I was wrenched out of the car by my hair.  The action so sudden, I had no time to counter the attack.  I landed on my back on the warm asphalt of the road.  I was tugged by my hair. Sharp needle pricks of pain settled in my scalp.

Looking up, I saw that my attacker was the corporal version of the thing that had been in the back seat.  I had seconds to come up with a plan.  Although my self-defense lessons wouldn’t save me from a demon, maybe it might surprise him long enough for me to get away.

My spine steeled even though it felt like he was going to rip every hair out of my head.  I didn’t struggle, saving my strength for the battle to come.  I didn’t even scream.  Sebastian had enough on his hands.  If this thing tried to part time like Sebastian then I would scream to let Sebastian know.  But now, I wanted the demon to think me weak and underestimate me.  Fear tried to overcome me, but I pushed it back.  I could do this.

My back raw with scrapes from the road felt better when I was pulled onto the grass.  The thing stopped and turned.  It released my hair and bent down with his hand aimed for my neck.

Turning, I grabbed its leg and pulling with all my might.  As it started to go down, I pulled my legs towards me only to kick out, helping it on its way down.  Startled, it fell and I scrambled to my feet.  I did the dummy thing and I ran with no real place to go.  There was nothing but the car and I headed away from that.  So I wasn’t surprised when my arm was taken in its clutches.  It’s fist connecting with my face.  I went down hard.  That’s when a cry of pain escaped my throat.  I was a goner for sure.