Vampire Apocalypse - Revelations Part 30

"Julian."

But there was no answer, not right away, and then the door to her small chamber opened.

Ialdaboth's eyes were cold and hard. He stared down at Lorelei under a deeply beetled brow. Hatred rolled off him in hot, hurting waves. Lorelei flinched, but gathered herself quickly.

Next to him, Lilith regarded her with pleading eyes, her hands 204 twisting together.

"What did he do to you?" Ialdaboth demanded.

With a steadiness born either of courage or stupidity, or perhaps just from the fierceness of motherlove, Lorelei stared straight into his eyes. "He loved me."

The vampire or demon or whatever he was drew himself to his full height, towering over Lorelei where she sat on the floor, towering over the hunched and frightened, pale figure of Lilith. His eyes bored into Lorelei's, and she felt again the black intrusion of his mind. And again refused to let him in. He glared at her until his presence became a miasma around her, almost thick enough to smell. Then he s.n.a.t.c.hed it away. Blinking, Lorelei could actually see it as it swarmed back into him through his eyes.

He turned and looked down at Lilith. "Kill her." 205

SIX.

"No," said Lilith, her voice firm and thrumming in spite of her anguished face and wringing hands. Lorelei tensed. Someone was about to die, but who would it be?

"You defy me?" Ialdaboth's bellow filled the small room to bursting. Lilith flinched. Lorelei sat very still, knees under her chin.

And heard the voice again.

"Lorelei."

She closed her eyes. "Julian."

"You're there. I'm coming. Guide me in."

She had no idea how to do that, but held to the feeling of his voice inside her head, folding it within her. As she fought to keep his presence focused in her mind, she sensed more.

Emotion-fear for her safety. Sensation-his arms locked around Lucien as they focused power. The taste of a recently smoked cigarette in his mouth- "You will not defy me!"

The thunder of Ialdaboth's voice broke her concentration, and her sense of Julian fell from her mind. She fumbled after it as best she could, but the remnants slipped between the grasping fingers of her consciousness.

"I will," said Lilith, and Lorelei's focus s.h.i.+fted toward her.

It felt strange to her. More than just turning her vision toward the other woman, she turned her mind and the new senses she had discovered within it. It was like rotating a column of power, or a huge-barreled gun.

"What you ask me to do is wrong," Lilith went on. "You would kill her for no more reason than that you do not understand her power."

"I do not need to understand her power." No longer bellowing, Ialdaboth's voice slithered now along the walls. Lilith cowered under it. "I need only to know that it is an abomination."

"According to whom?"

"According to everything we believe. Everything you have 206 been taught."

It amazed Lorelei that Lilith could hold up under the pressure of that voice. Ialdaboth had put no compulsion into it, but the slithering sound of it made Lorelei's skin ache. Had she been in Lilith's place she would have been tempted to do anything to make it stop.

Lilith drew herself up as straight and tall as possible, shaking her long, pale hair back from her face and shoulders. She looked so small, so breakable.

"What if everything I have been taught is wrong?"

Ialdaboth's glare transfixed her. Lorelei could see the power now-a sickening blackish-green cloud vomited from his eyes, falling onto Lilith's upturned face. He wove compulsion around her and within it Lilith turned slowly toward Lorelei, fighting vainly.

"You will kill her," said Ialdaboth. The words drifted through the cloud on ripples that broke against Lilith's face.

"No," said Lilith. The effort to speak brought blood to the corners of her eyes.

Rage filled Lorelei as the crimson tears wound down Lilith's alabaster face. Her fists clenched, and she turned toward Ialdaboth, fury a blinding red thing behind her eyes.

"No," she said, and flung the blood-red of her anger into the black-green of his compulsion.

It broke. The dark, ugly cloud separated in the middle and Lilith staggered backward, staring at Lorelei in amazement.

Lorelei was dumbfounded herself, but she didn't have time to indulge in shock. Instead she kept her focus steady on Ialdaboth, matching his black gaze, which changed as she stared from anger to shock to terror.

"If she doesn't want to kill me," Lorelei said calmly, "she doesn't have to."

For what seemed a very long time, Ialdaboth only stared at her, into her eyes, as if trying one last time to break the defenses she wielded against him. Then he lifted his hand, his fingers angled out toward her, their tips, in Lorelei's strangely enhanced vision, glowing brilliant red.

"No!" 207 Lilith's scream barely registered in Lorelei's hearing as she braced herself for Ialdaboth's attack, certain the flood of scarlet light would be the last thing she would ever see. But instead she saw Lilith's pale body arc in front of Ialdaboth, as the wave of red flooded from his fingers. She saw Lilith backlit in scarlet, saw the blood stream from her eyes down her face, saw her collapse onto the dirt floor like a broken doll.

And stood staring in the suspended moment as Ialdaboth also stared, as Lilith looked up at the ceiling and smiled, then closed her blood-filled eyes.

Then suddenly the room was filled with light. Lorelei took a step back away from it, smelling a puff of sulphur.

"Lorelei!"

Julian was there in front of her, Lucien next to him. She reached to him, too weak with shock to move, and he closed his arms tight around her. "Are you all right?"

"More or less." She peered at his companion. "About f.u.c.king time you got here."

Julian cradled her against him. "My dear, if the first word out of our child's mouth is 'f.u.c.k,' I'm going to be quite irritated."

There were tears in his voice. She clung to him, reveling in his solidity. Then she straightened in his arms and turned toward Ialdaboth.

He stood with his eyes locked to Lucien's. In her new vision, Lorelei saw a blue-black, twisted cord of light connecting one gaze to the other. The blue and black strands writhed against each other, like pythons engaged in a deathmatch. Finally, simultaneously, both retreated. Ialdaboth gave Lucien a slow smile. "Belial," he said.

"Not for a long time," said Lucien.

"That's right. You and Samis abandoned the demon names."

"Because we're not demons."

"Yes, you are. We all are. To deny it is blasphemy."

Julian pushed Lorelei behind him, and she peered around his shoulder, annoyed by his insistence on protecting her. No more power pa.s.sed from Lucien to Ialdaboth, but somehow she knew Lucien had the upper hand.

"Regardless," he said quietly, "you will leave now." 208 Ialdaboth held his gaze for a time, his fists clenching and unclenching, his mouth a thin line. Still, he sent forth no power.

He looked at Lorelei, back at Lucien, then, in a sudden implosion of blue light, he disappeared.

A layer of tension fell from the room.

"That," Lorelei said, "is about the most annoying p.r.i.c.k of a pre-vampire it's been my pleasure to meet." She stepped out from behind Julian, her attention focused now on Lilith, still and broken on the dirt floor.

"He was always my least favorite brother," said Lucien.

He watched as Lorelei knelt next to Lilith. "Who's she?"

"She kidnapped me." She reached toward the pale, blood- sheeted face, hesitant, then let her fingers touch the curve of Lilith's cheek.

"Good riddance, then," said Julian.

"No." Lilith's skin was cold under Lorelei's fingers, but she wasn't sure if that indicated death, or simply reflected her vampiric status. "She saved my life, just before you popped in."

Julian knelt next to Lorelei. "Then I'll do what I can."

Lucien and Lorelei stepped back, leaving Julian to his work.

He bent over Lilith, setting his hands against her forehead, her cheek. White light covered his hands, her face.

"Can you see that?" Lorelei mumbled.

"See what?" said Lucien.

"The light."

He quirked an eyebrow. "No."

She nodded. She'd expected as much. The light grew under Julian's hands and began to pulse, growing up his arms and down into Lilith's chest. Power moved along the pulsations, pa.s.sing from him into her. If she listened closely in the suspended silence, Lorelei could actually hear it, thrumming with the rhythm of a heartbeat.

After a time the white light took on a pinkish tinge, then red, and finally Lilith stirred. Julian held on for a few more breaths, then sat back on his heels.

"I died," said Lilith, her voice weak and still hurting.

"Yes," said Julian. "But only for a few minutes." His smile 209 was gentle as he held a hand out to her and helped her to sit up.

She wiped her eyes, stared at the blood on her fingers.

"Thank you," said Lorelei. Lilith looked up and smiled. Julian helped her to her feet.

"We should go," he said.

"I don't know how you came in," Lilith said, "but I know a quick way out."

Lucien made a sweeping gesture toward the door. "Lead on."

Lilith's way was quick, but it took them all the way out to an abandoned warehouse somewhere in Manhattan. Here, too, Lorelei could see the tendrils of power, the vampire "magic"

that kept the warehouse abandoned, because no human being could quite see the building. Julian knew the way to the Underground from there, leading them through the nighttime streets to a back alley where the power appeared again. The tendrils were woven differently here, as if the camouflage had been constructed by a different vampire or group of vampires.

The patterns of light and color fascinated her.

"What do you see?" Lucien asked, noticing her preoccupation.

"Colors. Lots of pretty colors."

Lucien nodded, but Julian looked at her as if he didn't know who she was. She swallowed hard. She hadn't expected this.

Before Lilith had appeared in her apartment, she'd thought she'd made her decision. Now it seemed there were other factors to consider.

Finally their surroundings began to look familiar. Except for Lorelei's new layer of vision, which covered everything in the Underground with an aura of power. Once the corridors began to open into rooms, though, the power became spa.r.s.er, paler, and finally disappeared. They pa.s.sed through the rune- marked archway, the green-lit maze of crystal, then stopped outside the door to Julian's office.

"You'll need a place to sleep," he said to Lilith. "Lorelei, could you help her with that? Lucien, we need to talk."

And he went into the office and closed the door. 210 Lorelei, blinking back tears, looked at Lucien. "What the h.e.l.l is his problem?"

Lucien shook his head. "I don't know. But if he doesn't get over it in the next five minutes, I'll slam him into the wall until he does."

That brought a faint smile to Lorelei's lips. "Thanks. I knew I could count on you." She took Lilith's hand and led her down the hallway. Julian was a moron. Lilith didn't need a place to sleep. What she needed was a doctor. 211

SEVEN.

Julian fell into his office chair, sending it rolling across the floor. Absently, he braked with his foot against the desk.

He couldn't get the image out of his mind-Lorelei's odd, almost enraptured expression as she watched things around them no one else could see. And Ialdaboth, looking from her to Lucien before he'd disappeared, as if the two represented equal threats. It was too much to take in all at once. He turned toward the desk, put his head in his hands.

Behind him, the office door opened, then closed. He knew without looking Lucien had come in. "What did I do to her?" he said, a vague keen in his voice.

"Most recently, I'd say you p.i.s.sed her off."

Julian turned to look at Lucien, surprised by the seemingly flip answer. But Lucien's expression was anything but amused.