Incipient: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Book 6) Read online

  I crossed my arms and smirked at him. “Well, aren’t you just full of magic tricks.”

  “That wasn’t a magic trick, it’s called a glamor—”

  “I was kidding. You know, like a joke.”

  “A joke.” He paused to think on it. “A display of humor. Something said or done to provoke laughter or amusement.”

  I looked at him as though he had suddenly produced a third leg. “Right.”

  Pleased with himself, he nodded curtly. “It has been noted.”

  “O-kay then. Awesome.” Shaking my head, I turned toward Temple and started walking. “This way.”

  Upon exiting the woods, I headed straight for my car, unlocking it and then gesturing for War to get in on the passenger side. He slowed his stride to a full stop.

  “I thought we were going to speak with your Council?” he asked, confused since we were standing in the parking lot right next to the building, yet not going inside.

  “We will. But I need to pay Nikki a visit first.”

  “The host?” He looked disturbed by the thought of it. “What for?”

  “I told you, I need to see this for myself. Or did you expect me to just take your word on the whole thing?” Been there, done that. Never worked out well for me in the past.

  He appeared to be mulling it over as his eyes drifted from my car, to me, and then back again. “Well, yes, that is what I assumed,” he admitted earnestly.

  “Bless your heart,” I said and then swung open the passenger’s side door for him. “You have a lot to learn about the human race. Get in.”

  Less than fifteen minutes later, I pulled into Nikki’s gated community and made my way down her street before parking in front of her massive glass-endowed house. I remembered it well from the party I attended last Spring but hadn’t been back since then, because you know, we hated each other. War didn’t really seem to notice or care about the size of the houses in this area and seemed more preoccupied with trying to get his seatbelt off. And that was after I’d spent nearly half the drive explaining the mechanics of the “machine” we were moving in. AKA my car. Apparently, he’d never ridden in one before nor had he ever had to use something as complex and mind-bending as a seatbelt.

  Deciding to take pity on the poor ancient thing, I bit back a smile and cut the sucker loose. Honestly, how the hell was he going to stop the world from ending if he couldn’t even figure out how to take a seatbelt off?

  “I heard that,” he gritted out as he hurled his massive body out of the front seat of my machine—car. I had to roll the seat all the way back just to get his legs to fit inside the vehicle. “I may not know very much of your modern world, but that does not mean I am not able to carry out the very task I was created for.”

  “So, are you going to be listening in on my thoughts the whole time we’re together?” I asked offhandedly as I strolled up Nikki’s walkway. “Because if so, I can make it really unpleasant for you.”

  “I don’t doubt that.”

  “Not to mention, it’s really rude to eavesdrop,” I added as I rang the doorbell and took a step back.

  “I’m not eavesdropping. It’s how I am built,” he quickly retorted, the crossness prevalent in his voice now.

  I held his gaze incredulously. “Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Life lesson number two,” I said, holding up two fingers. “That one is free, but the next one is going to cost you.”

  Before he could voice the confusion that was clearly written all over his face, the door ripped open, causing both of our gazes to snap to a very pissed-off looking Nikki.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” She was standing at the entrance with her arms folded across her chest as she glared down at me like I was vermin infesting her front porch.

  “So good to see you, too,” I muttered as my eyes immediately began scanning her mid-drift for any sign of a bulge or baby bump. But of course, she was wearing yet another frumpy sweater that looked about three sizes too big. Come to think of it, she’d been wearing these kinds of ill-fitting clothes for quite a while now. Even her school uniform had been hanging off her body the last time I bothered to notice.

  If that wasn’t a major clue, I don’t know what was, because let’s face it, Nikki was a lot of things but modest wasn’t one of them.

  “Why are you staring at me like some pervert?” she asked as her eyes slid over to War. “And who’s the juice head?”

  I decided to ignore both her questions and take control of this conversation. You know, finesse some truth right out of her mouth. “For the love of all things good and holy in this world, please tell me you are not pregnant!”

  Well, that certainly came out a little more pitchy and direct than I’d intended. War appeared to agree judging by the crazy look he was giving me.

  “Excuse you?” Her head snapped back a good five inches.

  No sense in backtracking now.

  “Pregnant,” I repeated ridiculously slowly as though she were hard of hearing. “You know, with child. Expectant. Preggers. Do I need to go on?”

  “No, but you can get the hell off my property,” she shot back and tried to slam the door in my face, but I quickly kicked my foot out and stopped her.

  I wasn’t going anywhere until I got what I came here for. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be, Nikki. Just answer the goddamn question.”

  Her aquamarine eyes twitched with irritation, like she was getting ready to blast me off her front steps by way of her witchy powers. I resisted the urge to recoil from her. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no, I am not pregnant.”

  My questioning gaze slid to War. Someone wasn’t being straight up with me.

  “She is lying,” answered War, his voice as thick and smooth as gravy. “I can sense the child.”

  Nikki’s eyes all but bulged out of her head as her arms instinctively wrapped themselves around her belly. “What the hell are you?” she asked him as the light from her foyer flickered above her head.

  That was never a good sign.

  “He’s just an old friend,” I lied, emphasis on the old. My eyes were fixed on the baby bump she was cradling which was clearly visible with her arms wrapped around it.

  Her eyes followed mine and then quickly dropped to her side. But it was too late.

  “You are pregnant.” I ran a hand down my face as though trying to wipe the image from my brain. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

  “What’s the matter, Jemma? Are you afraid you’re finally going to lose Trace for good once he finds out I’m carrying his child?” If evil looks could kill, I would’ve been dead twice over with the one she was giving me. “We both know the kind of man he is. He’ll stand by my side and raise his baby with me.”

  My hands balled into fists. “That’s not his baby, you no-brain-having psycho-witch from hell. It’s Lucifer’s!”

  Nikki tossed her head back and laughed like I was the crazy one here. “It was Trace’s body. Trust me, it’s his baby.”

  Anger broiling, I took a step toward her. “Are you insane? That isn’t the way this works, Nikki, and you know it. Lucifer was in control of his vessel. It’s not Trace’s baby.”

  “Yes, it is!” she roared back, clearly in a deep state of denial.

  “Do you know who this is?” I asked her as I grabbed War by his shirt and yanked him forward. “This is War, as in one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

  Her eyes darted from me to him and then back again. “And?”

  “And don’t you think his timing is a little suspicious? Don’t you think it’s weird that he knew you were pregnant before you told anyone else? Use your head, Nikki. You’re carrying Lucifer’s baby, for god’s sake!” I shrieked, my panic steadily rising as she continued to look at me blank faced. “Just forget it. You need to come with me right now,” I said as I reached forward and grabbed her wrist. “We have to go to the Council. They’ll know what to do—”

  “I’m not
going anywhere with you,” she said and ripped her arm free from my grasp, her eyes all but igniting into pools of orange fire.

  Before I could even make sense of the literal flames swirling in her iris’s, Nikki pushed me back, sending me sailing clear off her front porch with the kind of power I’d never felt from her before.

  “Come here again and it’ll be the last thing you ever do,” she warned and then slammed the door shut.

  With my ass still planted on the floor, I looked back at War and groaned in pain. “What the fuck was that?”

  Unfazed and unimpressed, he calmly strolled over to me and held out his hand. I grabbed a hold of it and let him pull me off the ground and back onto my feet.

  “She’s feeding off the fetus’ power,” he informed, his eyes darkening into something that was void of any color. “And she will protect it at all costs.”

  3. SIGN OF THE TIMES

  The ride over to Temple was uncomfortable to say the least. Not only was my backside still aching from being tossed onto it by Nikki and her newfound power, but War’s earlier premonitions, or whatever you called them, were beginning to make a serious dent in my head. He was right about Nikki being pregnant, and he was right about the way she would react to me—the way she would protect her unborn child.

  And I was petrified to my bones to find out what else he may be right about.

  If the baby was already powerful enough for Nikki to feed off of, I could only imagine the strength it would have once it was actually born. The damage it could potentially do if it were to fall onto the wrong side of the line (as War was so grimly predicting).

  Walking into Temple with a Horseman of the Apocalypse should have been a lot stranger to me than it was. Somehow along the way, I’d gotten used to a life that was anything but normal. Demons. Vampires. Hellgates. Spawns of Lucifer and all the joys that came with it were just another day in the life.

  When the hell did that happen to me?

  “We need to talk,” I announced as I waltzed into the Senior Magister’s office without knocking.

  “Oh, Jemma. Yes. Of course,” said William, his hand gesturing for me to come in. “Please close the door behind yourself if you don’t mind.”

  “Sure thing,” I said as I reached into the hallway and grabbed a hold of War’s barbarically big bicep and hauled him into the room with me.

  William’s jaw all but hit the floor. He wasn’t even speaking, which was probably a first for him.

  “William, this is War. As in one of the Four Horsemen. War, this is our Senior Magister.” I smiled at William’s shocked expression and then took a seat in front of his desk. “Good news. Apparently, he’s on our side,” I added, hoping it would help him find his manners and relax enough to start talking again.

  “Oh, well that’s…forgive me,” he said, straightening onto shaky legs and then extending a cautious hand to War. “I’m a little…confused at the moment.”

  War took his hand and nodded before sitting down into the chair beside me. My gaze dropped to the legs to make sure they weren’t going to snap in half from his weight. The last thing we needed was a pissed off Horseman landing on his ass in the middle of an important meeting.

  “Anyway,” I said, my eyes sliding back to William when I was confident the chair could hold the weight. The Magister was still staring at the Horseman, apparently unable to look away from him. I didn’t really blame him, though. He was quite a specimen. If you liked the ridiculously tall, chiseled, beefy types from centuries past. “It turns out they were never here for any of us. They’re here because of Lucifer.”

  William’s eyebrows pulled together over his befuddled eyes. “I’m not sure I follow. We’ve already taken care of Lucifer. You yourself made sure of it.”

  “I sure did, but it seems he left us a little parting gift—our very own Son of Perdition.”

  William’s blank stare morphed into something that could only be described as horror. “He mated.”

  “By our estimate, the seed is already halfway through gestation, if not further,” explained War, his long auburn hair falling freely around his face. “The next few weeks are going to be crucial as its power will continue to double every few days. If we have any hope in stopping this birth, we must act now. As it stands, we are down two horseman and I fear that even we will not be able to stop it once it is out of utero. Without the Power of Four, that is.”

  “The Power of Four?” asked William, the confusion clouding his eyes as he tried to follow what War was saying.

  Been there, done that. Was so not buying the t-shirt.

  “My brethren and I were created for this reason alone. To stop the Son of Perdition from being born and bringing about the end of days,” answered War, his voice void of any natural human emotion. “It is only when the four of us are together that our full power can be awoken. It is the way we were created.”

  “Who…created you?” he asked on a breathless note.

  War’s chin rose ever so slightly as he met William’s probing eyes. “The Angel Court.”

  The room fell silent with questions that had yet to be formed. William’s gaze appeared to be dancing around the room as though the questions that needed asking were floating around him, just there for the taking. I expected him to ask what this Angel Court was, or if they could be reached again to, you know, send in a replacement horseman. But that wasn’t what he asked when he finally spoke. Either he’d already heard about the Angel Court or he was keeping his lack of knowledge on the subject under wraps.

  “Why have we never seen you until now?” His paused for a moment. “Why is there nothing in our books about you?” he added, trying to fill in the missing pieces. And let’s be real. There was a shit-ton of them unaccounted for at this point.

  “The Angels couldn’t risk allowing creatures as powerful and destructive as the four of us to roam the earth freely, so they spelled us to slumber until the day the seed was planted in the form of a son. The one true heir to the underworld. Only then could we wake, and only when the four of us joined together could we activate our full power.”

  “I see,” he answered, his eyebrows still knitted together in a frenzy. “A form of insurance, I suppose.”

  War nodded once.

  “And your brothers? Where are they now?”

  I decided to jump in and take this one. “Famine is with Trace recovering from a wound, Death is apparently on the way, and Pestilence is…well, dead.” I bite the inside of my cheek and tried not to fiddle with my fingernails as anxiety slithered under my skin like inky smoke. “It’s not my fault though. I mean, not really. It all happened way before I knew what they were really here for.”

  William frowned and then pushed back in his chair. “I suppose I hold the blame for that,” he said apologetically, turning to War again. “I am the one that made the call, and for that I am sorry. Had we known…”

  Another curt nod from War.

  “So, where does that leave us now?” I asked, figuring it was best not to play the blame game. We could play it all day and we’d still be nowhere closer to figuring out our next move.

  “Is there any way to bring your fallen brother back?” asked William, his eyes shuttered.

  Meanwhile, I sat there doing my best to keep my jaw from hitting the floor. The way he so easily suggested reanimation as if necromancy wasn’t one of the forbidden arts…it absolutely floored me. Then again, if there was one thing I’d learned from my time in Hollow Hills, it was to expect the unexpected. Nothing should surprise me at this point.

  “I’m not certain,” admitted War and then steeled his features. “But it’s possible your book has the answers we need.”

  “My book?” asked William, playing coy.

  “The Sang Noir,” clarified War. “Your Slayer mentioned it is in your possession. If there is a way to mend this, the book will have the answer.”

  William’s eyes turned guarded as he pressed back into his chair again. “I will have my people look into it th
en.”

  “Your people will not be able to read the scripture. It has been spelled. Only the Angels, myself and my brethren are capable of seeing past that spell.”

  William’s gaze shifted to mine. “And Jemma.”

  “Right.” Thanks for announcing that.

  War turned to me, his gaze sweeping over me as though he were noticing me for the first time. “That’s…not possible.”

  “Okay.” I shrugged and then muttered, “But I beg to differ being that I’ve already read it.”

  “You can understand the text?” he asked again as though my having just said as much wasn’t enough confirmation.

  “Yes. I can understand the text,” I repeated slowly this time. “I would have to in order to be able to read it, which I just said I did.”

  He narrowed his eyes as though trying to get a better look at me. As though trying to see what was deep down inside me, under my skin and bone and muscle. Honestly, it was making me hella uncomfortable. “You can stop staring now, thanks. I don’t see what the big deal is anyway. So, I can read your special little book. Yay me. Can we move on to what we’re going to do about the whole Nikki-and-the-spawn-of-Satan situation?”

  War turned back to William as though finally getting the message. “I need to have that book.”

  Something flickered across William’s face and though I didn’t know him well enough to know all of his gestures, I could’ve sworn it looked like suspicion. “I can get you access to the book; however it will have to be in the presence of armed guards. I’m sure you can appreciate our need to proceed with caution here.”

  If War was irritated with the obvious lack of trust, he wasn’t showing it. “That’s fine.”

  “I’ll set that up right away and make arrangements to have your brother brought here as well,” said William as he picked up the phone and pressed it to his ear. “Jemma, you can turn in for the night. I’ll call you as soon as we know more.”

  I nodded and stood up from my seat, relieved that someone else was going to do the worrying and planning for once.