He laughed. It was a much harsher sound than what Gareth made. It was twisted, cold and flat. “Tell him that two more Nephilim have been discovered in Montana. They are female. He should find that particularly interesting.”
Something fell beside the senator’s face. From what he could see, it looked like a file. “Is that all?” he gritted out again.
“For now,” responded the Nephilim.
The pressure was suddenly gone, and the sweet smell of honeysuckle floated in through the open limo door. Senator Sharpe pushed himself up and immediately started fixing his rumpled tux. He glanced over at the surprisingly quiet Gareth. A scream lodged in his throat.
Pale dead eyes stared sightlessly up at the senator. The minion’s head lay on the polished shoes of the senator, mouth open wide in a silent scream.
Horrified by the brutal violence, he stared at the minion’s slumped body as his hand clutched against the sudden pain in his chest. “Jesus Christ.”
…
Monday had consisted of training a very sour-faced Michael, who didn’t like anything she had to say. She avoided being alone with him because she really didn’t have the answers he needed.
She also spent time avoiding members of the circle, which hadn’t proved too difficult since most of them were avoiding her like she had the black plague. She stuck to the training room and cafeteria, where the likelihood of confrontation was slim. The only ones who talked to her were Rafe and Remy. Either they didn’t know all that had happened or they were good at pretending Lily was still the cat’s meow. She tried to find Nathaniel to tell him about Baal and the info gained from the minion, but he was never in his office, and he didn’t return any of the messages she’d left with Sandy.
Luke had cornered her the moment she stepped foot inside the Sanctuary, demanding to know why she couldn’t have returned one phone call all weekend. She gave him a look that said he would rather not know, and now she was avoiding him, too.
Monday night, she and Julian scoured the entire city for more minions but came up empty-handed. Not a single corrupted Nephilim nor a human possessed moved around the streets. The night turned out to be a total bust when it came to making any progress with who was betraying them.
On the flip side, Julian had gone back to her apartment with her for a rousing round of lovemaking. That wasn’t too shabby.
The rest of the week went like that. Michael grew more annoyed with each passing day, especially after he realized his personal time was really turning out to be more like indefinite leave. Annoyed wasn’t the greatest description. He finally did go ape-shit, and only after he was hauled off to Nathaniel’s office—without Lily—did he calm down.
Lily continued to play hide-and-seek with the circle. Eventually, she stopped trying to avoid Luke and told him about Baal and Asmodeus. Thank God she had told him in the corner of the training room, because when he realized she had been hunting with Julian, he also went ape-shit on her.
“You’ve been hunting with him?” Luke demanded.
Her gaze darted to Rafe and Michael. “Luke, lower your voice. You heard me the first time. It doesn’t matter. Baal is dead. And we know the Nephilim betraying the Sanctuary is an arrogant male and has been feeding info to Asmodeus.”
“It doesn’t matter?” His voice rose. “Are you insane?”
Michael missed his mark with the knife and faced them with a deep scowl.
“Now look what you did,” she muttered.
“I don’t care,” he said, much lower. “Lily, when you are being suspected of working with the Fallen, the worst thing you could do is go hang out with them.”
She exhaled slowly. “Did you even hear me? We know Micah is working with Asmodeus. All we need is evidence.”
“Lily.” Luke sighed. “Why are you so hell-bent on it being Micah?”
“Because it is him!” she hissed back.
“You little shithead, do you think Nathaniel hasn’t been watching Micah? Do you think I haven’t been?”
She huffed. “Whatever. Nathaniel doesn’t think it’s Micah. He thinks I’m being coerced.”
Luke dragged his fingers through his messy brown hair. “You’re wrong. He’s followed Micah, and he hasn’t found anything. Now he is looking at other possibilities.”
Lily was so not ready to let go of the sense of betrayal that came with Nathaniel. “So who is he looking into?”
Luke turned to watch Michael. His silence was her answer. She swore. “What do you expect?” he asked quietly. He looked at her crossly then. “You’re going to hate me, but I’m going to Nathaniel. This has to stop. And your ass needs to be locked up.”
She whirled on him, hands balling into fists. “If you do that, so help me, you will never see my ass again.”
He cocked his head to the side, not at all worried. “You’re not fifteen anymore. You can’t just run away.”
She opened her mouth but couldn’t come up with anything clever. Of course he wouldn’t forget the night when she did try to run away after Nathaniel refused to allow her to accompany Luke on a hunt. It hadn’t been one of her finer moments.
“I’m worried about you,” he said quietly.
She scanned his face. He did look worried, like he hadn’t slept in days. There were faint shadows under his eyes, and his irises were almost transparent. “Don’t worry about me, Luke. I have things under control. Give me a couple more days, and I will have something that proves my innocence.” Hopefully, she could figure out a way at the same time to prove to them Julian wasn’t evil, too.
“I don’t know.”
“Please, Luke.” She gripped his arm. “You know me. You know I will pull this off. I always do. Please, just give me a few more days?”
He stiffened. A muscle popped along his jaw. Terse, awkward silence stretched out between them. “You and Anna are a lot alike, you know that? Both of you had Nathaniel eating out of the palms of your hands. And neither of you could see what you were doing to the people who cared about you. Sometimes it’s hard to tell you two apart.”
Lily sucked in a sharp breath.
“You’re going to end up just like her.”
“Luke,” she gasped.
He closed his eyes, seeming to gather himself. “You love him, don’t you?”
She opened her mouth to deny it, but her denials died on her lips. Did she love Julian? She wanted to say no, that it was just about sex and companionship, but her heart fluttered.
Luke laughed, but it was without a trace of humor—of Luke. For a moment, well, she didn’t recognize him at all as he stared like she was a virtual stranger to him. Unease knotted her insides. “Luke…”
Blinking, he finally placed his hand over hers. “Yeah, I know you usually pull something off. Whether I’m going to like the outcome or not is yet to be determined.”
Relief shot through her. “I know you hate this, but please give me a couple more days. Please.”
“I’m such a sucker,” he grumbled. “Just don’t disappoint me. Promise me you will stay away from Julian, and I won’t go to Nate.”
She glanced away, unable to lie looking him straight in the eyes. Even Lily had her limits. “I promise.”
…
Sweat poured and his legs screamed out in protest, but Michael kept pushing. Hours ago, Rafe had left the training room. His parting order was for Michael to run a combination of suicide sprints and burpees until he could no longer move.
“Had enough?”
Michael lunged up from a push-up. He was surprised Lily was still here, considering she usually disappeared seconds after training ended. “No.”
Lily watched as he sprinted the distance of the room to drop down into another burpee. “You look like you’ve had enough.”
He flipped her off on his way past. Anger boiled under his skin as he sprinted the distance of the room, dropping down into another burpee.