A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums (Lilith and Co. #1)

Chapter 18

Chapter

Eighteen

T he next morning, we took things outside. The weather was gorgeous. Bright sunshine and not too hot or too cold. I took off my shoes to let my toes squish in the grass, simply because I could. Poor Connor kept checking his texts distractedly.

“Do you need to leave?” I asked, knowing that Luc—or should I say an incredibly pissed-off Luc —was the one blowing up Connor’s phone. He’d been sort of forbidden to go on this little adventure with me. And although he wouldn’t tell me what Luc had said back at the witches’ archives, I knew it couldn’t have been pleasant.

“Fallen angels don’t have mates,” he said rather than answering my question.

“Oh- kay .” I patted his shoulder. “Good of you to inform me of that.”

“No, Simone, I mean, he’s angry with me, but my mate comes before his hissy fit.”

“Your mate should come before everything. It’s only the nice thing to do.” I pinched his cheek teasingly, causing him to swat my hand away.

“ Woman .” He sort of warned me with that one word.

“Okay, okay…” I held my hands out in front of me with my feet shoulder-width apart, ready to fake fight off an attacker with witch powers. “It’s good to know my mate won’t slink back to work with his tail between his legs,” I mumbled, laughing as he stormed at me. He’d moved away when I’d gone all fighting stance. Connor flipped me up over his shoulder as he carried me behind Lily Joy’s house and I shrieked with laughter, kicking my feet and slapping his back until he dropped me to the ground, pressed me up against the plaster siding on the cottage, and proceeded to kiss me stupid.

“What’s between my legs?” he whispered, all sultry and turning me on like no one’s business, well, until we heard Lily Joy scream. The scared kind. We took off running to get to my cousin. That was when I stopped short, briefly taken aback by the three large, dark figures charging Lily Joy.

“What are they?” I shouted at Connor.

“Demons.”

Demons? What in the ever-loving Hades? How did demons find us? We were so careful. Demons should not have found us here. “Luc?” I asked.

“No. I know all Luc’s minions.” That was the last he said in human form. He stripped down faster than I’d ever seen anyone disrobe, and dropped, his gigantic death-hound form stood in his place. Eyes glowing red. Baring razor-sharp teeth as he squatted forward, ready to attack.

Lily Joy retreated back next to me and moved into her fighting stance. I hated that my sweet, beautiful cousin needed to utilize a fighting stance to begin with. When the largest one got a bit too close for comfort, Connor lunged.

I threw out my hand, meaning to create a strong enough wind to push the other demons back, but instead, a small hill formed on the grass, tripping one and sending him toppling to the earth. Yeah, I needed to practice that one more. The last demon kept charging. Lily Joy threw out a spell, but he managed to sidestep it at the last minute. With nothing else coming to me from my vast repertoire of spells—yeah… I know —I cloaked myself and threw my body against his beefy one in a move he literally didn’t see coming. Thank goodness I got this one down. Connor had the biggest demon down for the count. This left the last one for Lily Joy. She used a badass spell to lift him off the ground and throw him. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see me and he landed hard right on top of me. I screamed as I scratched and clawed to scramble out from under him, but I still had the presence of mind to manifest a demon-proof cage, trapping the invaders.

My cloak faded. Connor popped back into his human form and I couldn’t even enjoy all that olive skin on display as he quickly dressed because something hurt really bad. He dropped down at my side. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”

“I think my shoulder is out of joint,” I told him. But when he tried to pick me up, we found out it wasn’t just my shoulder. One of the demon’s long, blue-black, razor-sharp talon fingernails jutted from my side in a bloody mess.

“Damnit,” I whined. “I liked this top.” It was so cute. Peasant style with embroidered flowers around the collar and arm holes. And now stained red with blood.

“Get her inside,” Lily Joy ordered. “I think she’s good and trapped them for now.”

Oh, yeah, I choked hardcore in that particular fight, but I’d gotten that cage right. Connor tried to be so gentle, but each move he made jostled me and I bit my lip trying not to scream as that razor-sharp talon ripped at my flesh with every one of his movements. I whimpered and winced.

“Let’s deal with the shoulder first,” Lily Joy said. “That will go quicker.”

She meant it. Lily Joy cast a glorious spell where we all watched as the end of the bone shifted, then popped back into place. My arm felt sore, but it no longer had me wanting to pass out. The demon claw, now that was another story.

“We have to get it out now,” Connor snapped at Lily Joy, staring down at the torturous blade jutting out from my side. “The longer it’s in, the sicker she’ll get.”

“I need to brew a?—”

“No time. This is a demon claw. Do you know how toxic they are?”

Uh, toxic? And yeah, I felt sick with some lightheadedness, and a little bit of nausea thrown in for good measure, but I thought that was from the blood loss.

“Sorry, Simone,” she whispered right before separating the wound with her fingers and easing the blade back so as not to rupture any more tissue. I screamed bloody murder and promptly passed out.

When I awoke, I felt like shit, like if the worst flu of my life and a third-degree burn had a baby and the parents used me as a host for their demon spawn. My wound screamed red and angry at me; the skin burned to the touch. I had a fever, and my entire body ached. Was I dying? Was this what dying felt like?

“Simone?” Connor dropped down to my side, smoothing my hair back from my face.

“I… hurt…” I managed to say.

He pressed his face to the side of mine as he breathed in sharply. “Lily Joy is in the kitchen trying to brew something. As pissed as he is at me, Luc even showed up to try to help.”

“Luc… was here?”

“He’s outside interrogating those demons. There are rules, even in Hades. I work for him; therefore, no demons should attack me unless he puts the hit out.”

I tried to laugh. I really did. “I’m burning up… but I’m so cold, Connor.”

My mate lifted me, sliding behind me to set me on his lap. There, he held me. “You’re going to be okay, you hear me?”

“I don’t know… that I am…”

“Don’t you say that.” He kissed the top of my head. “ Lily Joy! ” he shouted.

“Here.” She returned with a mug of what smelled like rotting vegetation and a small bowl of salve that looked like it. She rubbed the salve on my wound where it bubbled and hissed when it made contact with my flesh. The god-awful smell burned the inside of my nostrils. It stung despite starting to cool the skin there. Then she lifted the mug to my mouth. I felt too weak to hold it myself. Connor helped me drink.

“How long before it starts taking effect?” he asked.

“I don’t really know. I’ve never brewed a fallen angel blood tea before.”

I coughed, choking on the drink. “Fallen angel… blood ?”

“He says it’s one of the only things to help counteract the poison, baby.”

And right on cue, the man himself appeared in the room. “You gave her the tea,” he said.

“How’d you know?” Connor asked.

“I’m moving inside your mate as we speak.”

Connor growled. “I will end you if you say that shit again.”

“Too soon?” Luc asked all innocently and when no one gave a response, he mumbled, “Right, right…” under his breath. “Make sure she drinks it all. If it works, she should be back to her normally charming self in an hour.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” Lily Joy asked and Luc’s face fell. That didn’t bode well for me.

“She’ll need a blood transfusion from someone with her blood type—and I don’t mean A, B, O, or any of those. I mean Lilium, like her.”

“I’m Lilium,” Lily Joy said. Her face lit up with hope.

“We could try it, but I think your blood is too diluted.” He looked at Connor. “Yours, too.” Connor’s head jutted back. “And you know how strong demon toxins are. I’m so sorry.”

Lilith had said that yesterday, that Connor’s magic came from the man who’d married her oldest daughter with Zohor. That only made us kind of related, right? Like our family tree branched enough for our future children to be fine? Connor, it seemed, paid no attention to my internal struggle, putting his own thoughts together. No, I wasn’t a mind reader—I mean, yes, I could talk to Connor in his head when he was in death hound form, but I didn’t need to connect with him like that and couldn’t right now even if I wanted to.

I knew Connor was putting his own thoughts together because he muttered, “ Simeon .”

“What?” Luc asked.

“Simone’s brother. Simeon. If the tea doesn’t work, then we need to get him here.”

“We don’t even know exactly where he is,” Lily Joy reminded him.

“Let’s just hope the tea works,” Luc said.

I finished the entire mug and even choked down a second for good measure, but after an hour of me progressively deteriorating, getting weaker and weaker, it became apparent that we needed more than Luc’s blood. I needed my brother’s.

My entire body shook violently. Connor did everything he could to keep me comfortable, but some things were just out of our control. “We… had a… good… run,” I said.

“It’s not over yet, Simone. Don’t you dare give in. I need you.”

It took so much effort, but I managed to lift my hand to his cheek. “I… love you… Connor.”

He pressed a kiss to the meaty part of my palm. Dying sucked, both physically and emotionally. As I started to phase out, Connor screamed, “ Lily Joy! ” The fear… Even in spirit form, I doubted I’d ever forget the fear in his voice. Lilith shimmered into the room before my eyes.

“Are you… bringing me… home?” I asked her.

“Who are you talking to, sweetheart?” Connor asked.

“ Lilith ,” I answered.

His arms grew tighter around me. “No… no, no, no. You can’t have her, Lilith. Not now. She’s mine.” Connor’s words sounded as thick as they did angry and I felt one of his tears hit my skin.

“Hold on, my sweet granddaughter,” she cooed softly. “Help is coming.”

I felt myself transitioning out of this world. Lilith’s features began to sharpen. The room lit up with swirls of energy. Universal energy that mortals couldn’t see.

Then we heard a woman’s voice. “ Connor? ”

“Where’s my sister?” Simeon pushed past his mate and Lily Joy to drop down at my bedside. He lifted one of my hands into his. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Stabbed with a demon claw,” Connor answered. “We were attacked and while I fought off one, she was injured by another.”

“What can I do?” he asked.

Luc stepped back inside the room. “The only thing to save her now is a blood transfusion.”

Both Simeon and Madigan stood mesmerized by the fallen angel’s glowing beauty. “Luc?” Madigan breathed out. “I’ve never seen you outside the office.”

“I don’t get topside much.”

“It’s a good look,” she answered.

“Can we stop?” Simeon asked, snapping out of his fog. “ She’s my mate and my sister is dying .”

“Luc’s an old friend, Sim,” Madigan said. They both looked tired, and I meant that in a physical and mental way. Her injuries had healed for the time, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t taken a toll on her.

“Sim?” Luc asked.

“Simeon,” he grunted.

It didn’t bother Luc one bit. “Well, Simeon. We need your blood. She needs a transfusion to live.”

“Does anyone know how to do one of those?” he asked.

“I know a guy,” Luc said. “But I don’t know if he’ll do it. We didn’t part on the best terms.”

“Are you talking about Raph?” Connor asked, highly surprised.

“If anyone can do it, it’s Raph.”

“But do you think he will?”

“I guess we’ll find out.” Then Luc looked at me. “Simone, don’t die. I’ll be back.” He popped out of the room right as my consciousness began to wane again.

“Simone?” Connor’s voice sounded like he was shouting at me from the end of a very long tunnel.

Sorry, humanity. I think I just screwed over the world.