Intangible (14 page)

No, for the time being, it was better to keep them all behaving themselves in ignorance, protecting the secrecy of their own existence and that of the Realm.

Devlan stood at the door, waiting for him. As Jonas approached, he opened the door wide, allowing Jonas to sweep through. He strode down the middle of the room quickly, vampires flinching out of his way as if afraid of his touch. He smiled at that.

At the front of the room, he snapped around to face them. Silence greeted him. Hundreds of black eyes glittered at him. He met them all, one by one. Everyone was accounted for. Good.

Jonas nodded to them and his voice echoed in the wide room. “
Vita brevis, mors aeterna.
” Life is short, death eternal.

“
Vita post mortem,
” the vampires intoned, “
vita aeterna.
” Life after death, life eternal.

“
Vita aeterna, mors aeterna,
” Jonas said, and began the meeting as he always did. “I see all are present.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.

“Not all, Sire,” Xavier said from the back of the hall. “Meghan is not here.”

Jonas cursed himself silently for the slip, but didn’t say anything.

“Has anyone seen her?” Xavier said. He was a head taller than anyone else in the room, a gaunt, towering stick of a man with a voice that carried like thunder. If Jonas were a lesser vampire, he’d have been afraid of him.

As it was, none of them were a match for Jonas. Certainly not Xavier. A vampire’s sire had control over how gifted a fledgling was. Jonas had made sure Xavier was strong, but not too strong. Jonas hadn’t liked him when Xavier was human, liked him even less as a vampire, but he’d needed to build his corps of guardians for his territory, and Xavier had fit his one requirement to be turned—he’d been on the verge of death.

There was a restlessness around the room as it became clear no one had seen Meghan recently.

Ezekial nodded at Jonas “I saw her a week ago. As did Jonas.”

A voice called out from the crowd, “She’s human.”

All eyes turned toward the speaker. Tall, lean, and tattooed, he lounged against a far wall, arms crossed over his chest. His long black hair hung to his shoulders and he wore a dark leather vest over a short sleeved white t-shirt. Damien. Jonas gritted his teeth. Meghan and Damien had been close. Too close. She must have contacted him before she left town. She damn well better have left town.

“She’s human,” he said again, and licked his lower lip.

Xavier laughed. “Impossible,” he said, voice rich with arrogance.

“But true,” said Damien. “Ask our illustrious leader.”

Everyone turned back to face Jonas. Xavier, Jonas noticed, looked back and forth between he and Damien, trying to figure out if this were some kind of joke.

If only it were.

Jonas glared at Damien for a moment. “It’s true,” he finally said into the heavy silence.

“Impossible,” Xavier said again, but this time he sounded much less sure of himself.

“Unfortunate, yes,” Jonas said. “Impossible, no.”

The uproar was deafening.

W
hen Jonas returned to his house at the far end of the island after the meeting, he sat on the back porch steps and looked out at the water in the darkness of the night. This was his spot, his chosen place to sit and think.

He looked down at his hands for a moment, studying his palms, the strong fingers still callused from his life two hundred years ago. His hands were remarkably steady after what just happened. Which meant he was either good at faking his role as leader or he’d actually turned into the cold, vicious tyrant his coven had cowered beneath this evening.

He wasn’t sure which.

And that worried him. Was he becoming the monster Lilith had long hoped he would? He raked his hands through his hair, his fingernails leaving long scratches on his scalp. The sting was a welcome distraction, though it faded instantly as the scrapes healed over.

Tonight’s meeting had not gone…well. They’d called for the healer’s life in return for Meghan’s, though he had pointed out that Meghan was, in fact, still alive. Or, really, alive again. They didn’t want Sera transforming anyone else. They didn’t want her to wipe out their kind. She had to be stopped. Volunteers popped up at once, the more bloodthirsty of the crew fighting over who would get to do it.

“She’s protected,” Jonas had said loud enough over the din to be heard by all. It stopped them cold. “We can’t touch her without consequences.”

“Like what?” A voice rang out from the throng.

“War,” Jonas said. “Full out war.”

“Over a human girl who is a threat to us all?” They were incredulous. “Who is protecting someone with this kind of power? Who, exactly, wants to keep her alive?”

“You don’t need to know that,” he said. “What you need to know is that you cannot harm her or her brother. They are both protected.”

“She has other family. She took one of ours, we’ll take one of hers.”

“YOU WILL DO NOTHING!” Jonas roared.

Silence. Hot stewing silence.

“I will take care of it myself,” he said, temper under control, but barely. “I have warned her, and I am watching her. That is enough for now. You will say nothing about this to anyone.” He looked directly at Xavier. “We will keep this amongst ourselves.”

Xavier’s voice boomed across the room. “We are guardians of the Realm, Jonas. We must inform Lilith and do away with this girl. It is our responsibility to keep the Realm safe, to keep ourselves safe.”

“I am well aware of our responsibilities, Xavier. I do not need to be reminded.”

“I think you do.”

The room was quiet as death. Jonas spoke in a low voice. “Remember who you are speaking to.”

“Remember who you are!” Xavier said.

Before his voice had even faded, Jonas was across the room, Xavier’s throat in the vise of his grip. Lip curled into a snarl, Jonas squeezed slowly, deliberately, until he felt something pop. Xavier’s eyes jumped in pain.

“You’d do well to remember your place,” he said in a sharp hiss, and shoved Xavier backwards. Xavier stumbled and fell to the floor, gasping, his hand on his injured throat. No one moved to help him. They knew better.

Jonas glared around the room at the rest of the group. And then he’d stormed through the door Devlan held open for him once again, his black leather coat flying out behind him like wings.

Mortis angelus.
The Angel of Death.

He closed his eyes now, and breathed in the cool night air coming off the bay. He was calm again—water always did that to him—and feeling relieved that it was out, in a way. The worst was over, he thought. The coven knew, they were controlled, they would continue in their duties. They didn’t know Sera’s name or anything about her, so they wouldn’t be able to find her on their own. And they would keep the situation a secret from the rest of the vampires in this world and in the Realm.

At some point he would have to tell Lilith—well, maybe the worst wasn’t over yet—but that could wait. Indefinitely. Until he figured out how he was going to get her to agree to let Sera and Luke live.

Which meant, essentially, that she could never, ever find out.

FOURTEEN

S
era placed her mug on the table and slid onto the bench. The coffee house was busy this afternoon and she was glad Fey had spotted the open booth as they’d waited in line. Luke handed a mug to Fey and sat down next to her.

“So,” Sera said to Fey, “what’s the story on your friend Jonas?”

Fey looked around the room quickly, then at Sera. “Why? Have you seen him around?”

“No,” Sera said.

“Oh, good.”

Luke leaned in toward Fey. “So, who’s Jonas?”

“Just someone I know,” she said, and waved her hand as if dismissing the idea of him. “Not someone I want hanging around.”

Luke looked relieved. Sera eyed Fey for a moment, wondering if she should say anything. When Jonas had shown up outside her window a couple of weeks ago, she hadn’t told Fey anything about what he’d said, though Fey had asked. But it wasn’t like she could really say anything without telling Fey her secret. And she’d decided not to tell Luke about it because it would have just worried him.

But keeping this to herself was torture—especially keeping it from Luke. And she thought, maybe, just maybe it might be okay to tell them about it. They would just think Jonas was insane, as she did, and that would confirm that she didn’t need to worry about him knowing her ability. After all, it had to have been a lucky guess.

“Um, Fey?” Sera said slowly. “Has Jonas ever told you that he is a—”

“Hey, Marc,” Luke said to someone suddenly standing at the end of their table. Sera looked up.

Oh. My. The mystery man from the school parking lot. Her worries about Jonas faded away.

Bright blue eyes framed by long eyelashes were surrounded by fair skin with a slight toasty glow to it, like he’d spent some time in the sun recently. A square jaw and angular cheekbones. Looking up into his face, she realized how tall he was. Taller than Luke by several inches. Sera’s mind ground to a halt as she took him all in.

Then she snapped back to herself.

“Sera, Fey, this is Marc.”

Her eyes flew from Marc to Luke, narrowing when they got to her brother’s face. He mouthed the words
your new boyfriend
. She glared at Luke. She didn’t know why he didn’t get it. She wasn’t going to date anyone.

She turned her attention back to Marc. He wasn’t looking at her face, but gazing at her hands. That was different. She glanced at Luke again. He shrugged and shook his head.

“Hi,” she said, and forced a smile.

“Hey.” Marc nodded, glanced at her face before looking around the coffee house.

Which was very odd. Most people gazed right into her face, as if drawn there, almost leaning in toward her at times. Her gift pulled them in, as if they fell under a spell she hadn’t cast. And all it took was a moment in her presence or a touch of her hand.

For a few people, it was the exact opposite. They were inherently repelled by her power, and approached her with mistrust. That didn’t bother her at all. She could change it with a silent suggestion.

But his seeming immunity to the magnetism of her gift—being neither attracted nor repelled—was strange. She watched him as he went up to the counter to get a cup of coffee. There was something about him—she didn’t know what. Something familiar.

When he got back to the table, Sera scooted over to make room for him on the bench. Luke raised an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes at him. Seriously. It was the only place left to sit at the table.

Fey stood up. “I’ve got to go,” she said.

“Where?” Luke said.

“Home.”

He looked a little disappointed.

“I’ll catch up with you two later?” She looked at Sera and Luke, then nodded at Marc. “Nice meeting you,” she said. She studied him a brief moment before turning back to Sera. “I’ll call you later,” she said, and left.

“So,” Sera said, turning to Marc, “do you go to school here?”

“No, got my GED a year ago.”

“Really? How old are you?” Sera said.

“Eighteen.”

“Why’d you drop out?” Luke said.

Marc opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything. He almost seemed afraid to answer. There was this look in his eyes—
haunted
was the word that came to Sera’s mind. She had the sudden urge to reach out and touch his arm, plant the silent suggestion that he was safe. But she kept her hands to herself.

There was a story here, she could see. And he wasn’t going to tell it. At least not today.

“Too cool for school?” Luke said.

Marc smiled, warm. “Something like that.”

“Yeah, me too,” Luke said, “but Sera won’t let me leave. She needs me.”

Sera nodded. “Like a hole in the head.” She rolled her eyes and laughed, then leaned back. She pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail. Several strands of curls immediately fell out, and she automatically tucked them behind an ear.

She noticed that Marc had paused and was watching her. Her heart did a little flip.

An hour and a half later, the three of them were laughing and talking like old friends. Their cups were empty and it was time to go. As Sera zipped up her sweater, Luke and Marc headed for the door.