Conduit

  He held his breath. Around him, all was still, and he whispered silent thanks for it, knowing this was the best scenario he could hope for. Maybe he could slip away undetected. He hadn’t thought it possible; then again, maybe, for once, fate was smiling upon him.

  He waited a few seconds more just for good measure and eased himself outside, gently closing the door behind. With care, he avoided the second riser on the front porch steps, knowing it would creak under his weight.

  He wanted to celebrate getting out of the house undetected, but knew he wasn’t off the hook yet and wasn’t sure when or if he ever would be—when he’d be able to convince himself he’d escaped to do what needed to be done.

  As such, he waited again after he’d stepped off the back porch. There was no point in trying to run and hide. There’d be no hiding from Evan and Celia, he knew.

  When nothing moved, he faced a cloudless sky tossed with stars. It was perfect and infinite, and suddenly he wished he could fly again.

  “Okay. Where to?”

  “Move forward.”

  Unsure how well directional broadcasting would work, he followed her lead blindly until he reached the well-trodden path that he’d often taken.

  “Now what?”

  “Keep coming.”

  Frowning, Lev tried to think if he’d ever traveled farther down that path than the bank, but for some reason, he couldn’t remember. They’d never really had a reason to because the lake had always been their destination. Thinking about that, about all those moments with Elizabeth, tied his stomach in knots until he struggled just to breathe. What he wouldn’t give to be back there, in one of those moments—any but this one.

  “Hurry!” Her voice filled him, her tone more hurried and desperate.

  Lev broke into a run. Although the path wasn’t even, there was enough moonlight for him to make out what was in front of him, if only just. It didn’t stop him from stumbling and almost spraining his ankle, but he couldn’t slow down, nor could he stop. He had to get to her.

  “Am I still going in the right direction?” he asked even though logically he knew there was no other path, no other place to go. This had to be right.

  “Yes,” she answered. “Just keep coming.”

  He took a quick look over his shoulder to see if he were being followed, but despite the moonlight the world around him was dark, so he really couldn’t tell. Besides, he had a pretty good idea that even if he were, Evan and Celia would keep their presence hidden until a time of their choosing.

  Just ahead, he saw the lake shimmer darkly. The water was still and reflected the full moon—a gorgeous sight, one he wished he could have shared with Elizabeth. He ached for her. The emptiness was all-consuming, and he didn’t know how much more he could take. There was no other option, however, and nothing else could fix this damnable hole in his heart. He slowed and finally stopped, hands on his knees, gasping for breath.

  “What now?” he asked, stressed out by the stillness.

  “Wait. Where are you? I’m confused.” Her voice sounded uncertain, panicky, giving Lev the eerie feeling that something had happened, something bad.

  “Elizabeth?” he prompted, glancing out across the still water. Out here, even the air was still, as though it, too, were waiting.

  Lev didn’t want to admit it, but a little voice in his head was telling him to go back. Even so, the stubborn side of him refused to admit his error and pushed him to stay put.

  “I don’t know what’s happening. It hurts.” Her voice quickly rose into a keening wail that sliced through him like a hot knife. He covered his ears to try and squelch the wretched noise, to no avail. Her cry forced him to his knees amid stones that gouged and stung the flesh.

  She went silent, and the sudden silence chilled him through, stealing his breath. He looked around, trying to get his bearings, but everything seemed out of place.

  “Elizabeth?” he called, desperate to hear her voice again. The silence made him feel that much more disconnected from his hope of somehow finding her before it was too late.

  He kept calling, but she didn’t answer. The whole world was stillness. His heart hammered in his chest, and all he could think about was the emptiness that washed over him in cold, steady waves. He’d lost her again, and he couldn’t stand it.

  “Answer me. Please!” Lev’s voice cracked, and he wondered whether his legs would support him. The thought of going back to the house empty-handed gnawed at him so that he could barely breathe.

  Nothing and no one answered, and he was swimming in darkness and pain, alone.

  He waited a few seconds more, thinking that at the last moment she would come back, but no sound came.

  “I can’t take this.” He rose, heading back to the house, but in his path there stood a woman, probably in her mid-forties, with auburn hair that seemed to glow in the light of the full moon. She’d closed the distance between them and settled her hand on his chest before he could react. An unbearable pain ripped through him. In a haze of anguish and unreality, he heard himself scream.

  I can’t breathe, Lev thought, gasping. He fell and tried to roll onto his side. It was more a reflexive movement than anything else, but the woman’s hands kept him in place. Lev gaped at her through half-closed eyelids. Her expression was stony—mechanical. Her lips formed a straight line, and her eyes barely acknowledged him.

  Is she a dybbuk? he wondered, his thoughts scattered to the winds. It hurt even to think.

  Part of him wondered how the dybbuk had known where to find him, but the thought was fleeting and incoherent, which made him do the only thing he could.

  “Elizabeth!” he yelled, trying to understand what was happening to him. Besides, he didn’t have a clue who else to call for the madness claiming him.

  “You’ll see her soon enough,” the woman replied, her lips slowly twisting into a grin, which unnerved Lev all the more. It was like she was happy not only because he was in intense pain physically but also emotionally.

  Lev clamped his eyes shut, trying to drive her face away. He was starting to see things—lines and shapes crossing his vision—and it took everything he had for him not to pass out. The woman’s hands heated up, and he felt his skin blistering beneath her touch.

  He desperately tried to wriggle free, but he was way too weak to manage, no matter how hard he attempted it. The pain only increased, and Lev arched his back under the strain of it, gasping as though every breath might be his last.

  Think, Lev—go back to training. And he did, but the pain wouldn’t let him focus. Still, if he didn’t break free, he was going to pass out or die.

  He forced open his eyes, looking for anything to help him, but there was nothing. He hadn’t taken a weapon, which had been a mistake. Then again, he hadn’t been exactly awake when Elizabeth had called him away—if it had even been her at all.

  He’d been blind and stupid, and now he was done for.

  The pain suddenly seemed to surge through him with renewed force, and Lev screamed. His eyes lowered uncontrollably, but before they’d closed completely he saw a brilliant light rush behind the woman. In a flash, that glow shoved her hands from Lev, breaking the contact.

  Although the intensity of the pain diminished considerably once the woman no longer touched him, Lev still reeled from it, so much so that even though he fought to keep his eyes open, he couldn’t, and suddenly his stomach rebelled. He rolled to one side as much as he could and vomited.

  Lev was only dimly aware of the battle raging around him. The sounds of it seeped into his head, stirring up more pain, so he covered his ears, trying desperately to block everything out.

  A thick sheen of sweat filmed his skin, and now, in the night air, he shivered, his teeth chattering noisily. He willed them to stop, but his body wasn’t listening.

  The battle seemed to go on forever, and in so doing Lev, grateful, slipped into darkness.

  “Lev? Can you hear me?” an urgent female voice called distantly. Lev wanted to push it away
but couldn’t, and even before he moved he sensed the waiting pain, envisioned a massive black crow sitting near at hand, flexing its sharp talons as it waited for him to open his eyes before it plucked them out.

  He groaned at the thought.

  “I think he’s coming around,” that same voice said. It had to be Celia.

  “He was stupid to go off by himself like that.”

  Lev didn’t even have to open his eyes to know that voice—Riley’s. Just as cocky as ever. Lev felt his fingers tighten into fists.

  “We don’t know what drew him out here,” another voice said—Evan’s. How nice. Lev’s humiliation was now complete.

  A stab of pain made him inhale sharply. His head ached furiously, and when he opened his eyes he saw three of everything—including Riley. As if one weren’t enough.

  “Easy.” Celia leaned over him and tried to help as Lev rolled to one side, his body trying to compact itself as if doing so would dull the pain.

  “How long have I been out?” he managed through clenched teeth, part of him wanting nothing more than to plunge himself back to that blessed darkness in which he’d felt absolutely nothing.

  “Only a few minutes,” Celia said. “We need to get you back to the house.” At that, she wrapped her arm around Lev and helped him upright.

  “Can he walk?” Riley asked, his voice condescending as he gave Lev a doubtful once-over, which told Lev just how useless Riley felt he was.

  “Yes, I can!” Lev averted his gaze. This was probably the first time he’d ever wished to return to having wings just so as to put himself back on par with another angel, one who deserved to be taken down a few notches and put in his place, and while Lev would’ve liked to have believed the desire came from his human side, he tended to think it came from elsewhere—some place deeper and far more fundamental. Even had he still been an angel, Lev would’ve had serious issues with Riley. There was just no way this was all on Lev, not by a long shot.

  “Then by all means, how about we put it in gear and get back to shelter before more dybbuks appear and we fail to save your skin?”

  Although Lev wanted to shrug off Celia’s supporting hands and prove his independence, he knew he needed her help. While he might be stubborn, that stubbornness wouldn’t keep him on his feet.

  “You might want to go easy on him until we find out what happened,” Evan suggested, stepping between Lev and Riley.

  Riley sighed in frustration. “What happened is that he went out alone without a weapon, and if Celia hadn’t sensed something amiss, he’d now either be dead or missing.”

  “Sorry to be such a freaking inconvenience to you,” Lev spat, stumbling. He would’ve fallen if not for Celia’s unwavering support, but his sister had never let him down, and she wasn’t about to start.

  “So don’t do it again,” Riley snapped. As they walked, he fell back, and Lev wondered if he sensed more dybbuks. The way things had gone thus far, that would be just their luck.

  Celia half carried Lev back to the house, and more than once cast a worried glance in his direction.

  “Asshole,” Lev muttered, feeling a wave of weakness wash over him. His steps seemed to slow, and he thought about stopping, just falling back to earth and lying back and lying there until he’d been able to breathe without his head aching beyond measure. It had been pierced through with a billion shards of broken glass. That would be easier. Unfortunately, his doing so would result in Celia or one of the other angels having to pick him up and carry him, and he couldn’t let that happen, especially not in front of Riley.

  “While he may be an asshole,” she whispered, nodding, “he has a point, and if you’d listened to him and taken the threat of dybbuks seriously, you might not have gotten hurt.”

  “I’m fine,” he muttered. Yeah, that sounded stupid even to his ears—a response he could probably blame on his human side.

  “So fine you can barely stand,” Celia challenged. “What in heaven’s name were you thinking?”

  “It wasn’t anything in heaven’s name,” he managed as a sharp wave of pain gripped him, tensing his whole body until it passed, leaving him sweating again. “Not even close.”

  “You know what I mean,” she hissed. “Why were you so foolish?”

  “I heard Elizabeth calling me.” He exhaled slowly as the pain released him. He had to focus on taking each step, hoping he could just keep going. He was exhausted, and the pain only seemed to grow worse with each step. “She told me I needed to go to her—that she was badly hurt.”

  “And you didn’t think to take any of us, or even to grab a weapon?”

  “There wasn’t time,” he replied, grimacing with the effort it took just to keep moving. At least now he could see the house, which gave him hope the pain might end once he was able to lie down and close his eyes.

  “It would’ve taken a few seconds to get me. That’s it,” Celia sighed. “Unless of course you were just trying to slip away so no one would ever know you’d gone. That would explain everything, actually.”

  Lev took a deep breath, well aware that since he’d been caught, there was no point in lying. Celia would get around to the truth at some point. “She told me to come alone.”

  “Of course she did. She said it was an emergency and that you needed to come alone. That you got jumped by a dybbuk makes perfect sense.” She let out a strangled huff of air. “Lev, when are you going to get your head in the game and focus?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he yelled indignantly as they finally reached the porch. Walking with Celia’s help had been humiliating enough, but now he had to rely on her completely to get him up the steps.

  “That you should’ve seen it for what it was—a trap.”

  “What trap?” Evan asked, focusing on Celia as Riley came jogging up, pulling up the rear.

  “The dybbuks used his connection with Elizabeth to draw him out.”

  “Thanks for the conspiracy theory,” Lev muttered, leaning to open the door. While he had to admit that Riley might be onto something, the fact that it came from Riley immediately made Lev hate the idea. The sooner he got inside, the better. The world was starting to tilt at odd angles, making him nauseated. Once inside, he hobbled to the couch and fell onto it, though to his disappointment and frustration, lying down didn’t stop the pain. Still, maybe shutting his eyes would help.

  “It’s not as far-fetched as you might think,” Evan warned. “Obviously, whoever took her knew she was special, that she had an ability no other mortal had. It is possible that he or she also recognized you are special, too.”

  Lev couldn’t stop himself from laughing at such a ridiculous idea. “Special? I’m just a human, and not a very good one.”

  “I’ll say,” Riley agreed, closing the door.

  “It’s easy for you to be smug, but I don’t think you’d fare as well,” Celia argued, giving Riley a look that screamed, “Shut up!”

  “An interesting challenge, I have to admit,” Riley muttered and sank into one of the chairs. “Not that I’d be interested in such nonsense.”

  “Of course you aren’t,” Lev whispered, thinking he would just try to sleep. Celia, however, tugged at his t-shirt.

  “Take this off. I need to see your wound—and stop arguing with Riley.”

  “Bossy much?” Lev glared at her, not wanting to get up, but he could tell she wasn’t going to just let him be. She expected compliance, and she was going to get it one way or another.

  Celia cocked an eyebrow, which meant business.

  “Well?”

  “All right. All right.” In spite of the nausea, Lev forced himself to sit up and jerk the t-shirt over his head. “Happy?” He leaned back, aching from the effort.

  “No. I’d have been much happier had you never left in the first place, but that’s neither here nor there; the damage is done, and we’re no closer.”

  She stared at his chest and inhaled sharply at what she saw.

  “What?” Lev, too, spotted the massi
ve bruises where the dybbuk’s fingers had touched him.

  “Crap,” he muttered. Celia touched the wounds gingerly, and new pain shot through him, reminding him of what he’d just experienced. He groaned, and his whole body stiffening.

  “Take it easy,” Celia said. “Let me see what I can do.”

  “I will, if you just stop pushing there,” Lev said with a grimace. He could barely breathe. Still, her fingers lingered on, and with them came a warmth that spread through him, in which the pain diminished, easing the tension in his muscles until he could at last breathe normally.

  “Is that better?” Celia asked, her eyes finding Lev’s.

  “Yes. Much.”

  She nodded. “Is there anything you haven’t mentioned?” Her eyes remained fixed.

  “No.”

  “You should probably rest.”

  Lev didn’t know if Celia used her powers to make him more tired or if he felt just that exhausted. He tended to think it was the latter, but either way it didn’t matter. He felt his eyes close before he could ask what would happen next.

  “Lev?” Celia whispered.

  “What?” he mumbled.

  “We’ll find her. You have to trust us.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “That was an incredibly stupid thing to do,” Riley said, eyeing Lev to see if the Boy Wonder were really sleeping. No movement.

  “You don’t understand the connection he feels,” Celia said, rising. “I’ve never seen a stronger bond between two souls.”

  “You’re right. I don’t. She’s just a human, like him—or am I missing something?”

  “She’s a conduit,” Evan replied, pacing. “And whoever has her has flung the doors of her soul wide open.”

  Riley shook his head. “Wait—you mean she was the human who had the triune up in arms?”

  “I told you this was complicated,” Evan said quietly, sinking into one of the chairs near Lev. “My son nearly lost his life trying to save hers. In the end, he became mortal, and she finally shed the power of the dagger.”

  “As if that matters,” Riley growled. “She’s still marked by it, which has lured the dybbuks to her.”