CHAPTER 18

HOLY CRAP. MY DISGUISE WORKED.

I stayed in the shadows for the most part, refusing to let myself think about my actions. As I crossed the first bridge, the Guards simply nodded. One even catcal ed, obviously mistaking me for someone legal.

While I navigated the empty streets of the main island, I thought about the times I’d kil ed. I had two daimon kil s under my belt. I could do this. Mom would be no different.

She couldn’t be any different.

Being a young daimon, she would have speed and strength, but she’d never had any serious training. Not like the kind I’d had. I’d be faster and stronger than her. Aiden had practical y beaten into me the fact young, newly turned daimons would be concerned about one thing only: draining. At three months, she’d be considered a newbie—

a baby daimon.

I would just have to strike while she stil looked like a daimon, before the elemental magic settled over her and she looked like… Mom.

The main bridge proved to be a little more difficult to cross, but thankful y, those Guards didn’t have a lot of contact with the students. None of them recognized me, but they wanted to chat. It slowed me down enough to make my confidence waver.

Until one said, “Be safe and come back, Sentinel,” and stepped aside.

Sentinel. It was what I’d always wanted to be upon graduation, taking the more proactive route of dealing with daimons instead of guarding pures or their communities.

Once again, I stuck to the shadows as I made my away around the fishing and cruising boats. The townsfolk on Bald Head Island were used to the “intensely private”

people from Deity Island, but there was something about us they sensed. They didn’t know what it was that made them back off at the same time they wanted to be close to us.

Living among mortals for three years had been a truly craptastic experience for me. The teenagers had wanted to be close to me while their parents had said I was “one of those kids” they needed to stay away from. Whatever that meant.

I wondered what those parents would think if they knew exactly what I was—an almost-trained kil ing machine. I guess they’d been right to order their offspring to steer clear.

When I left the docks, I stuck to the sides of the buildings.

I wasn’t sure where to go, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t have to go far. And I was right. About ten minutes into what I lovingly referred to as the normal world, I heard quick footsteps behind me. I spun around to face my would-be attacker, gun drawn and leveled.

“Caleb?” I felt something halfway between disbelief and relief.

He stood a few feet behind me, blue eyes wide and arms raised. He wore pajamas, a white shirt, and flip-flops. “Put your gun down!” he hissed. “Gods. You’re gonna accidental y shoot me or something.”

I lowered the gun and grabbed his arm, dragging him into an al ey. “Caleb, what are you doing here? Are you crazy?”

“I could ask you the same question.” He glared at me. “I was fol owing you, obviously.”

I shook my head and shoved my gun back into the waist of my pants. I’d forgotten a holster—go figure. “You need to go back to the Covenant. Now. Dammit, Caleb! What were you thinking?”

“What are you thinking?” He glowered as he threw the question back at me. “I knew you were going to do something incredibly stupid. That’s why I couldn’t sleep at al . I sat by my damn window and waited. Low and behold, I see your crazy ass sneaking across the quad!”

“How in the hel did you even get past the Guards in your Mario Brothers pajamas?”

He glanced down at them, shrugging. “I have my ways.”

“Your ways?” I didn’t have time for this. Stepping away from him, I pointed in the direction of the bridge. “You need to get back there, where it’s safe.”

He folded his arms across his chest stubbornly. “Not without you.”

“Oh, for the love of the gods!” My temper snapped. “I don’t need this right now. You don’t understand.”

“Don’t start with the ‘I don’t understand’ crap. This isn’t about understanding anything! This is about you getting yourself kil ed! This is suicide, Alex. This isn’t brave. It isn’t smart. This isn’t about duty or some misguided guilt you—”

His eyes widened again as something landed a couple of feet behind me. I whirled around, and at the same time, Caleb grabbed the dagger from my pants as I pul ed the gun.

It was her.

She stood there, in the center of the al ey. It was her…

except it wasn’t. It had her long, dark hair that fel in soft waves, framing her pale, ghastly white face—those high cheekbones and familiar lips. But darkness existed where her eyes should have been. Inky veins covered her cheeks, and if she smiled, there’d be a row of nasty, sharp teeth in her mouth.

It was my mother… as a daimon.

The shock of seeing her—seeing her beautiful, loving face twisted into such a grotesque mask—caused my arm to waver, my finger to twitch over the trigger. It was her…

but it wasn’t.

I knew from where she stood, there was no way she could defend herself against a gunshot to the chest. I had the upper hand with my gun fil ed with titanium bul ets—a ful clip of them, actual y. I could light her up right here and al of this would be over.

She hadn’t moved, not an inch.

And now she looked like Mom. The elemental magic cloaked the daimon in her, and she stared at me with those bright, emerald-colored eyes. Her face was stil pale, but no longer riddled with thick veins. She looked like she had the night before she’d turned—smiling at me, holding my gaze with hers.

“Lexie,” she murmured, but I heard her loud and clear. It was her voice. Just hearing it did wonderful and awful things to me.

She was beautiful, stunning, and very much alive—

daimon or not.

“Alex! Do it! Do—!” Caleb cried out.

A quick glance behind me confirmed Mom wasn’t alone.

Another dark-haired daimon now had a hand around Caleb’s throat. He didn’t move to kil him or to tag him. He simply held him.

“Lexie, look at me.”

Unable to deny the sound of her voice, I turned back to her. She stood closer—close enough a bul et would leave one hel of a hole in her chest. And close enough I caught the scent of vanil a—her favorite perfume.

My gaze flickered over her face, each line of it familiar and beautiful to me. As I stared into her eyes, I remembered the strangest things. Memories of our summers together, the day she’d taken me to the zoo and told me my father’s name, the look on her face when she’d told me we needed to leave the Covenant, and the way she’d looked sprawled across the floor in her tiny bedroom.

I faltered. I couldn’t catch my breath as I stared into those eyes. This was my mother— my mother! She had raised me, treated me like I was most precious thing in the world.

And I had been her everything—her reason for living. I couldn’t move.

Do it! She’s not your mother anymore! My arm trembled.

Do it! Do it!

A scream of frustration tore through me and my arm dropped to my side. Seconds, only seconds had passed and yet, it felt like an eternity. I couldn’t do it.

Her lips curved into a smug smile. Caleb gave a yelp from behind me, and then pain exploded alongside my temple. I slipped into the sweet darkness of oblivion.

***

I woke up to a splitting headache and a dry, bitter taste in the back of my mouth. It took me a few minutes to remember what’d happened. A mixture of horror and disappointment jerked me upright, on alert despite the throbbing ache radiating down the side of my face. I touched my head gingerly, feeling a knot the size of an egg.

Woozy, I looked around the lavishly furnished room. The cedar log wal s, the large bed covered in satin sheets, the plasma television, the handcrafted furniture, al of it appeared familiar to me. It was one of the bedrooms in the cabin we used to visit, the one I’d slept in a half a dozen times. A pot of purple hibiscus flowers sat beside the bed

—Mom’s favorite. She had a thing for purple flowers.

Shock and dismay set in. I remembered this room. Oh, gods. This wasn’t good. Nope.

I was in freaking Gatlinburg, Tennessee—more than five hours away from the Covenant. Five hours. Worse yet, I didn’t see Caleb. Creeping over to the door, I paused and listened. Not a sound. I glanced at the glass doors leading out to the deck, but there was no way I could leave. I had to find Caleb… if he was stil alive.

I clamped down on that thought. He had to be alive.

There could be no other way.

Of course, my gun was gone and Caleb had taken my dagger. There was nothing in this room I could use as a weapon. If I started breaking stuff apart, it would draw attention, and it wasn’t like any of this stuff could be converted into a weapon. Anything that might’ve been made of titanium had been stripped away.

I tried the doorknob and found it unlocked. I inched the door open and looked around. The sun rose outside, pushing the shadows out of the living area and kitchen. A large round table sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by six matching chairs. Two of the chairs had been pul ed back, as if they’d been occupied. Several empty beer bottles rested on the carved oak surface. Daimons drank beer? I had no clue. There were two large couches, nice ones covered in luxurious brown fabric.

Across the room, the television was on, but muted—one of those big thin-screen ones, mounted on the wal . I went to the table and picked up a beer bottle. It wouldn’t kil a daimon, but at least it was a weapon.

A muffled scream drew my attention to one of the back rooms. If I remembered right, there were two more bedrooms, another living area, and a game room. Al of the doors were closed. I crept closer, freezing as the sound came again from the master bedroom.

I clenched the bottle in my hand and murmured a soft prayer. I wasn’t sure what god I was praying to, but I real y hoped one of them answered. Then I kicked the door. The hinges creaked and gave way as the wood around the knob splintered. The door swung open.

My breath caught in my throat at the nightmare unfolding before me. Caleb was pinned to the bed. A blond daimon was on him, his rough hands covering his mouth and holding him down while he tagged his arm. The sounds the daimon made as he drained Caleb’s blood to get at the aether horrified me.

At the sound of my rage-fueled screams, the daimon lifted his head. His empty stare bored straight through me. I launched myself away from the door, bottle raised high in the air. It wouldn’t kil him, but I was going to make it hurt.

Except it never happened.

So caught up on what the daimon was doing to Caleb, I didn’t check the room. Stupid. But dammit, these were the kind of things I’d missed out on when I’d left the Covenant. I just knew to act and fight. Not to think.

Someone snatched me from behind. My arm twisted back until I dropped the bottle to the floor. The two chairs pushed back from the table flashed before me. Should’ve seen this one coming. Struggling proved useless from this position, but I stil kicked out and tried to wrench my body away. It only succeeded in causing the daimon to tighten his grip until it became painful.

“Now. Now. Daniel isn’t going to kil your friend.” The voice came from behind my ear. “Not yet.”

Daniel smiled, flashing a row of bloodstained teeth. In a blink he stood in front of me, tilting his head to the side. The glamour took over, revealing the pure-blood characteristics.

He would’ve been beautiful if it weren’t for the rivulets of blood dripping down his chin.

Caleb’s body jerked every few seconds. Aftershocks of the tag—I would know. His bare arms revealed not one but two daimon tags. Furious, I screamed at the daimon in front of me. “I’m going to kil you!”

Daniel laughed and wiped the back of his hand over his chin. “And I’m going to love tasting you.” He sniffed me

— literally sniffed me. “I can almost taste you now.”

I kicked out, catching him in the chest. He staggered a couple of feet back, hitting the bed. Caleb groaned and tried to sit up. Daniel coldcocked Caleb. I cried out, struggling like a rabid animal, but the daimon knocked me to the floor.

And then I was flying up, but no one was touching me. I hit the wal so hard the plaster cracked, along with what felt like every bone in my body. There I stayed, pinned with my feet dangling several feet off the floor. The daimon control ed the air element—something else I hadn’t learned how to defend myself against.

“You need to learn to play nice. Both of you.” The other daimon held his hand up. He had a Southern accent—

smooth and deep. He stepped up to where I hung, leaned in and patted the top of my foot. It was the daimon from the al ey, the dark-haired one who’d been with Mom. “We do get hungry, you know? And with you here… wel , it gnaws out our insides. It’s like a fire inside of us.”

I tried to pul away from the wal , but I didn’t move. “Stay away from him!”

He ignored me, walking over to Caleb’s motionless frame. “We aren’t new daimons by any means, but you…

make it hard to resist the lure of the aether. Just a hit. That’s al we want.” He ran his fingertips down Caleb’s face. “But we can’t. Not ‘til Rachel e returns.”

“Don’t touch him.” I barely recognized my own, low voice.

He glanced back at me and waved his hand as if it were an after-thought. I hit the floor feet first, and then fel to my knees. I ignored the way my stomach muscles pul ed and pushed to my feet. Without thinking about anything other than getting him away from Caleb, I rushed him. The dark-haired daimon shook his head and simply threw his arm up.

My body slammed into the wal , knocking several framed paintings to the floor. This— this was nothing like training.

And this time I didn’t get up.

Clearly annoyed, he pushed away from Caleb. He advanced on me, and I screamed, swinging on him. He caught my arm and then my other, hauling me to my feet.

With both arms rendered useless, I had only my legs.

Aiden had always praised my kicks, and with that thought in mind, I pushed my upper back against the wal . Using the daimon’s arms and the wal for support, I pul ed my legs up to my chest and kicked out.

I caught him right in the chest, and by the startled look on his face he hadn’t expected it. He fel back several feet, and I hit the floor once again.

Daniel shot away from the bed and dug his hands into my hair, wrenching my neck back. For a moment, a sick sense of déjà vu hit me, but there was no Aiden to save me now—

no cavalry would be arriving.

As I struggled with Daniel, the dark-haired daimon dropped down in front of me. With his hands resting on his knees and the lazy smile splayed across his face, he looked like he was about to talk about the weather with me.

He was that casual.

“What’s going on here?”

Daniel released me at the sound of my mother’s sharp and angry voice. I struggled to my feet, twisting toward her. I couldn’t help the mixture of terror and love coursing through me. She stood in the doorway, surveying the damage with a critical eye. I only saw the glamour. I couldn’t see her true form.

I was so screwed.

“Eric?” She directed her scowl at the dark-haired one.

“Your daughter… she’s not happy with the current state of things.”

I couldn’t pul my eyes off of her as she stepped over a piece of broken wood. “My daughter better not have one hair on her head missing.”

Eric glanced over at Daniel. “Her hair is perfectly fine.

She’s fine. So is the other half-blood.”

“Oh. Yes.” She turned to Caleb. “I remember him. Is he your boyfriend, Lexie? Sweet of him to tag along either way. Stupid, but sweet.”

“Mom.” My voice cracked.

She turned to me with a smile—a big, beautiful smile.

“Lexie?”

“Please… ” I swal owed. “Please let Caleb go.”

She tsked and shook her head. “I cannot al ow that.”

My insides twisted. “Please. He… just, please.”

“Baby, I can’t. I need him.” She reached out and brushed back my hair, the way she used to. I flinched, and she frowned. “I knew you would come. I know you. The guilt and the fear would eat at you. What I didn’t plan on was him, but I’m not mad. See? He’s going to stay.”

“You could let him go.” My chin trembled.

Her hand drifted down my cheek. “I can’t. He’s going to ensure that you cooperate with me. If you do everything I tel you to do, he’l live through this. I won’t let them kil him or turn him.”

I wasn’t stupid enough to be hopeful. There was catch, probably a big and terrible one.

She stepped away, turning her attention to the two male daimons. “What have you told her?”

Eric’s chin came up. “Nothing.”

My mother nodded. Her voice was the same, but I realized as she talked, it lacked what actual y had made it hers. There was no softness in it, no emotion. It was hard, flat—not hers. “Good.” She faced me once more. “I want you to understand one thing, Lexie. I love you very, very much.”

I blinked, backing against the wal . Her words hurt more than any physical blow could. “How can you love me?

You’re a daimon.”

“I’m stil your mother,” she replied in the same flat tone,

“and you stil love me. That’s why you didn’t kil me when you had the chance.”

An act and truth I was already regretting, but looking at her now, I could only see her—Mom. I closed my eyes, wil ing myself to see the daimon, the monster inside of her.

When I opened my eyes, she was stil the same.

Her lips twisted into a smile. “You can’t go back to the Covenant. I cannot al ow that. I have to keep you away from there. Permanently.”

My gaze fel to Caleb. Daniel inched his way closer to him. “Why?” I could keep my cool as long as the bastard didn’t touch him again.

“I need to keep you away from the Apol yon.”

I blinked, not expecting that. “What?”

“He wil take everything from you. Your power, your gifts

—everything. He is the First, Lexie. Whether he knows it or not, he wil drain everything from you so he can become the God Kil er. There wil be nothing left of you when he is done.

The Council—they know this. They don’t care. Al they want is the God Kil er, but Thanatos wil never al ow that to happen.”

I backed up, shaking my head. Mom was utterly crazy.

“They don’t care what it wil do to you. I can’t al ow that.

Do you understand?” She stalked forward, coming to a stop in front of me. “That’s why I must do this. I must turn you into a daimon.”

The room spun and for a moment, I thought I would pass out.

“I have no other choice.” She caught my hand, pul ing it to where her heart beat. She held it there. “As a daimon, you wil be faster and stronger than you are now. You wil be immune to titanium. You wil have great power… when you turn eighteen you wil be unstoppable.”

“No.” I pul ed my hand back. “No!”

“You have no idea what you are saying ‘no’ to. I thought I lived before, but now I am truly living.” She held her free hand in front of my face, wriggling her fingers once, then twice. A tiny spark flew from her fingertips, and then her entire hand was on fire.

I jerked back, but her grip increased on my hand.

“Fire, Lexie. I could barely control the air element as a pure-blood, but as a daimon, I can control fire.”

“But you’re kil ing people! How does that make it okay?”

“You get used to it.” She shrugged dismissively. “You’l get used to it.”

My blood froze in my veins. “You sound… freaking insane.”

She looked at me blandly. “You say that now, but you’l see. The Council wants everyone to believe the daimons are soul ess, evil creatures. Why? Fear. They know we are far more powerful, and in the end, we wil win this war. We are like gods. No. We are gods.”

Daniel practical y licked his lips in anticipation as he eyed me. Sickness and fear clawed through me, and I shook my head. “No. Don’t do this. Please.”

“It’s the only way.” She turned away, glancing back at me over her shoulder. “Don’t make me force you into this.”

I looked at her, wondering how I could’ve hesitated in the al ey. There was nothing about this thing in front of me was my mother. Nothing. “You’re freaking insane.”

She whipped around, expression hardening. “I told you not to make me force you into this. Daniel!”

I pushed off the wal as Daniel grabbed for Caleb, who groaned as he started to come around. Mom caught me before I could reach them. The daimon bent his head to his arm.

Horror twisted through me. “No! Stop!”

Daniel laughed a moment before his teeth cut into flesh.

Caleb jackknifed across the bed, eyes going wild as his terrified screams fil ed the cabin. I pushed at my mom, but I couldn’t get past her. She was strong, so unbelievably strong.

“Eric, come here.”

Eric seemed to be more than happy to oblige. His dark eyes flared with hunger. Revulsion and fear fil ed me, and my struggles renewed.

Mom’s hold tightened around my waist. “Remember what I told you, Eric. Smal bites, every hour and no more. If she fights you, kil the boy. If she complies, leave the boy alone.”

I turned cold. “No! No!”

“I’m sorry, baby. This is going to hurt, but if you don’t fight them, it wil be over soon. It’s the only option, Lexie. I’d never be able to control you any other way. You’l see. It wil be for the best in the end. I promise you.”

Then she shoved me at Eric.