“Did you talk to Evander?” he asks as I sit up, keeping Binx in my lap.
“I did, and he’s going to send someone to the hospital and to the cabin to check things out.”
“Good.” Lucas gets up and holds out his hand. I take it and slowly get up. I step over the circle of salt and put my arms around Lucas’s neck. “And now it’s time to get you to bed.”
“I’m exhausted.”
“It’s four a.m. I can only imagine.” He scoops me up, holding me tight to his chest. My lips curve into a half-smile, and I rest my head against his chest. He takes a few steps out of the living room toward the stairs when something suddenly feels strange.
“Wait,” I say, lifting my head up. “Do you feel—” Before I can get my question out, a bright blue light flashes outside like lightning. Lucas sets me down, and we both rush to the living room window, looking outside.
I can feel him before I see him, and I know right away that something is wrong. Slowly, he rises to his feet, hand clamped to his stomach. Blood drips down his middle, and the air vibrates once again.
“Oh my god,” I say, fingers trembling. “It’s Julian.”Chapter 31I break away from Lucas and rush out the door. Binx shadows out of the house, immediately on the defense. If something can hurt an angel, we’re all in danger.
“Julian!” I drop to my knees next to him. There’s a dagger lodged in his stomach, and his skin around it is sizzling and burning. “Oh my god.” I reach for the dagger to pull it out. Angels heal, right? He’ll be fine once I get the dagger out.
“No,” he grunts and pushes my hand away. “The blade is made to hurt angels. You’re half angel.” He pitches forward, and I catch his shoulders, looking at Lucas.
“I got it,” he tells me and takes over, holding Julian up with one hand. He wraps his fingers around the hilt of the dagger and pulls it out. The blade is serrated, and the unmistakable sound of flesh ripping echoes through the night.
“We need to get him inside.”
Lucas hooks Julian’s arm over his shoulder and stands, easily lifting Julian and shouldering most of his weight. He holds the dagger in his other hand, keeping the blade away from both me and Julian.
Binx shadows back, letting me know he didn’t sense anything sinister lurking about. What the hell attacked my cousin…and why is he finally here after weeks of begging him to show the fuck up?
Lucas takes Julian to the couch, and I close the front door, sealing it up with an extra protection spell. Then I fly into the living room, eyes wide and heart racing.
Julian is leaning back with his hand on his stomach. I get hit with a wave of panic, feeling like history is repeating itself, but this time, it’s Julian and not Lucas in front of me with a fatal wound.
And my sister isn’t around to save the day.
“I’m fine,” Julian says gruffly and moves his hand, frowning at the tear in his shirt. He’s not bleeding, and his skin isn’t burning anymore. There’s not even a wound. “This was my only shirt.”
“How do you even get clothes—never mind.” I shake my head and let out a breath, feeling like I might pass out. I swear I have PTSD already from seeing Lucas almost die in front of me. “What happened?”
“This may come as a shock,” he starts, brows pushing together. He’s starting to look more like himself, as if Lucas didn’t just pull a seven-inch dagger from his stomach only a minute ago. “The demon Bael is in search of the Nephilim child.”
“Oh.” I sit on the edge of the coffee table. “Yeah. I kind of figured that.”
“You did?” Julian starts to get up but stops, wincing.
“Are you okay?” I ask, holding out my hand.
“I will be fine. The poison has to work its way out of my system.”
“Poison?” Lucas echoes, looking at the dagger he put on the fireplace mantle.
“Yes.” Julian leans back. “That blade, it was forged in hellfire and made from demonic origin. It’s the opposite of what we are,” he tells me, and I think back to when my blood dripped on the root-monsters and it burned them.
I look at him for a few seconds, blinking and trying to make sense of everything. I haven’t seen or heard from Julian or my father in weeks, and now he’s here, showing up all dramatically with a demon-made dagger sticking out of his abdomen.
“But…but you’ll be okay?” I ask, needing to be sure. My hands are shaking. I press them against my thighs and suck in a slow breath.
“I will, and I came here to make sure you were, too.”
“Because of Bael?”