Half-Blood

“By the time they got to be me, they’d learned from their mistakes. Gotta drain our kind slowly.” He glanced down at the dagger. “But we aren’t like them. We don’t change like them.”

I backed up, swal owing down the fear. My training vanished. I knew how to deal with a daimon, but a friend driven crazy was a different story.

“I was hungry, so hungry. There’s nothing like it. I had to.”

Horrifying realization set in. I took another step back just as he launched himself at me. He was so fast, faster than he’d ever been. Before I could even ful y register the swing, his fist connected with my face. I flew back, crashing into one of those little tables. It happened so quickly I couldn’t break my fal . I landed in a messy heap, dazed and tasting blood in my mouth.

Kain was on me immediately, yanking me to my feet and flinging me across the room. I hit the edge of the bed hard, and then the floor. Scrambling to my feet, I ignored the pain and faced the one thing that could not be.

Beyond reason or explanation, I had no doubt that Kain was no longer a half-blood. Only one thing moved as quickly as he did. Impossible as it was, he was a daimon.

CHAPTER 17

BESIDES BEING ABNORMALLY PALE, KAIN

LOOKED like … Kain. It explained how none of the other half-bloods had sensed it in him. Nothing about him gave off a warning that something was horribly wrong. Wel …

except the pile of dead bodies behind the curtain.

I reached for what looked like a heart monitor machine, hurling it at his head. Not surprisingly, he knocked it aside.

He laughed that sick laugh again. “Can’t you do better than that? Remember our training sessions? How easily I got the best of you?”

I ignored that painful reminder, figuring it was best to keep him talking until I had a better option. “How is this possible? You’re a half-blood.”

He nodded, switching the blade to his other hand.

“Weren’t you paying attention? I already told you. They drain our kind slowly, and gods, did it hurt like hel . I wanted to die a thousand times, but I didn’t. And now? I’m better than I ever was. Faster. Stronger. You can’t fight me. None of you can.” He lifted the dagger and wiggled it back and forth.

“The feeding part is messy, but it works.”

I glanced over his shoulder. There was a smal chance I could make it to the doorway. I was stil fast and not badly hurt. “That… has to suck.”

He shrugged, seeming like the old Kain—so much so it stole my breath. “You get used to it when you’re hungry.”

That was reassuring. I inched to my left.

“I saw your mother.”

Every instinct in me screamed not to listen to him. “Did you… talk to her?”

“She was frenzied, kil ing and taking great pleasure in it, too. She was the one who turned me.” He licked his lips.

“She’s coming for you, did you know that?”

“Where is she?” I didn’t expect him to answer, but he did.

“You leave the safety of the Covenant and you’l find her… or she’l find you. But that’s not going to happen.”

“Oh?” I whispered, but I already knew. I wasn’t stupid.

Mom wasn’t going to get a chance at my aether, because Kain was going to cut me and drain me.

“You know the one thing that sucks about being a daimon? I’m always so damn hungry. But you? I’m certain you’l feel like nothing else. It’s a good thing you came to me. Trusted me.” His blue eyes dropped to my neck—to where my frantic pulse beat. “She’l keep kil ing ‘til she finds you or ‘til you’re dead. And you are going to die.”

That was my cue to make my move. I pushed with al my strength, but it was no use. Kain blocked my only route of escape. With no other option but to fight him, I squared off, weaponless and out-skil ed.

His too-red lips quirked. “Do you real y want to try that?”

I forced as much boldness in my voice as possible. “Do you?”

This time, when he grabbed for me, I kicked out and caught the hand holding the dagger. It flew from his grasp, clattering against the floor. Before I could celebrate the smal victory, his meaty fist lashed out, and it appeared he remembered how poor my blocking skil s were. The punch got me in the stomach, doubling me over.

A rush of air stirred my hair, giving me only a second to straighten myself. I was a goner—no doubt about it. But as I lifted my head, it wasn’t Kain standing in front of me.

It was Aiden.

He didn’t say anything to Kain. Somehow, he just knew as he forced me backwards, away from the daimon half-blood. Kain turned his attention on Aiden. He let out a howl, eerily similar to the one the daimon had made in Georgia.

They circled one another, and with Kain weaponless, Aiden had the upper hand. They exchanged vicious blows—no longer partners, but enemies to the core. Then Aiden made his move. He thrust the titanium dagger deep into Kain’s stomach.

The impossible happened—Kain didn’t fal .

Aiden stepped back, revealing Kain’s startled face. He looked down at the gaping wound and started to laugh. It should’ve been a kil shot, but as cold understanding set in, I realized we had more to learn about daimon half-bloods.

They were immune to titanium.

Aiden kicked out at Kain, who blocked and whirled to deliver a kick of his own. A medical machine crashed against the wal . I gaped at them, frozen in place. I couldn’t just stand here. I went for the dagger on the floor.

“Get back!” Aiden yel ed as my fingers wrapped around the cool titanium.

I looked up, seeing the reinforcements—and the Apol yon.

“Move back!” Seth’s voice thundered through the chaos.

Aiden jumped forward, pushing me against the wal and shielding me with his body. My hands fel to his chest. I turned my head as Seth stepped in front of the Sentinels, one arm stretched out in front of him.

Seconds later, something I could only describe as a lightning bolt erupted from his hand. The flash of blue light—

so intense and bril iant—obscured everything in the room.

Akasha—the fifth and final element: only the gods and the Apol yon could harness it.

“Don’t look,” Aiden whispered.

I pressed my face into his chest as the air fil ed with the crackling sound of the most powerful element known to the Hematoi. Kain’s horrific screams rose above it as akasha crashed into him. I shuddered, pushing further into Aiden.

The screams—I would never forget those screams.

Aiden’s hold tightened around me until the agonized screeching stopped and Kain’s body thumped to the floor.

Aiden pul ed back then, the tips of his fingers brushed over my split and swol en lip. For the briefest second, his eyes latched onto mine. In one look, there was so much. Pain.

Relief. Fury.

Everyone rushed into the room at once. In the chaos, Aiden quickly checked me over before handing me off to Seth. “Get her out of here.”

Seth pul ed me past the Sentinels as Aiden turned his attention to the crumpled body. In the hal way, we passed Marcus and several more Guards. He spared us a brief glance. Seth led me down the hal way, silent until he shoved me into another room at the end.

He closed the door behind him and then slowly approached me. “Are you al right?”

I backed up until I pressed against the wal furthest from him, breathing heavily.

“Alex?” His eyes narrowed.

In a matter of hours, everything had changed. Our world

— my world—was no longer the same. It was too much.

Mom, the crazy stuff with Seth, last night with Aiden, and now this? I cracked wide open. Sliding down the wal , I sat with my knees pressed against my chest. I laughed.

“Alex, get up.” His voice carried that musical lilt, but it sounded strained. “This is a lot, I know this. But you have to pul yourself together. They are going to come in here—

soon. They wil want answers. Last night, Kain was normal

—as normal as Kain could be. Now he was a daimon.

They’re going to want to know what happened.”

Kain had been a daimon then, but no one knew that. No one could have known last night. I stared at Seth blankly.

What did he want me to say? That I was fine?

He tried again, crouching down in front of me. “Alex, you can’t let them see you like this. Do you understand me? You cannot let the other Sentinels or your uncle see you like this.”

Did it matter? The rules had changed. Seth couldn’t be everywhere. We would go out there and die. Worse yet, we could be turned. I could be turned. Just like Mom. That thought brought forth a flicker of sanity. If I lost it, what good would I be? What about Mom? Who would fix this—fix what she’d become?

Seth glanced back over his shoulder at the door. “Alex, you’re starting to worry me. Insult me… or something.”

A weak smile stretched my lips. “You’re a bigger freak than I could’ve ever possibly imagined.”

He laughed, and my ears must’ve been fooling me, because he sounded relieved. “You’re just as big as a freak as I am. What do you have to say about that?”

I cringed, my fingers tightening around my knees. “I hate you.”

“You can’t hate me, Alex. You don’t even know me.”

“It doesn’t matter. I hate what you mean to me. I hate not having control. I hate that everyone has lied to me.” On a rol now, I straightened my legs. “And I hate what this means.

The Sentinels wil die out there, one after another. I hate that I stil think of my mother… as my mother.”

Seth leaned forward and grasped my chin. The shock of his touch wasn’t as shattering as before, but the bizarre transfer of energy stil shimmied through me. “Then take the hate and do something about it, Alex. Use the hate. Don’t sit here like there is no hope for them—for us.”

For us? Did he mean for our kind or for him and me?

“You saw what I can do. You wil able to do that. Together, we can stop them. Without you, we cannot. And damn it, I need you to be strong. What good are you if you end up a damn servant because you cannot deal?”

Wel … I guess that answered my question. I smacked his hand away. “Get out of my face.”

He leaned in closer. “What exactly are you going to do about it?”

I shot him a warning look. “I don’t care if you can shoot lightning from your hand. I wil kick you in the face.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me? Could it do with the fact you know I wil not hurt you—that I cannot?”

“Probably.” I real y wasn’t sure about that. Twenty-four hours ago he’d dragged me clear across an island.

“That doesn’t sound particularly fair, does it?”

“This whole stuff with you isn’t fair.” I poked his chest with my finger. “You have the control in this.”

Seth made an exasperated sound. He reached out and clasped the sides of my head. “You have al the control.

Don’t you get it?”

Annoyed, I grabbed his wrists. “Let go.”

He twisted his hands and grasped mine. Those amber eyes flared, like he was up for the chal enge. After a few terse moments, he broke away and stood. “There’s the attitude I have come to know and loathe.”