Infernal

Nina's POV

"Maybe you trapped her too long."

"I didn't."

"Then why is she still out?"

"She's not. She's coming to as we speak, look."

I felt more compelled than ever not to move. Someone was waiting for me—unknown people. Not completely. I knew that male voice, the one whining about me being out. For some reason 'purple' jumped to mind.

Scrunching my nose, I knew I couldn't hide, my lids lifted. Three people stared down at me, each with calculating gazes.

Gods of time please let me go back on my decision!

One, two, three. Nope, still awake and feeling exposed.

There was a woman with platinum hair, mid-thirties if I had to guess, her face was all flawless skin and sparkling beauty, with eyes the color of pure oceans.

She was the one sending chills up my spine. Not the guy with bad hair taste, not the girl with black-nail polish—her.

A tingle started in my neck. The same hot-and-cold feeling I got every time Cameron was near. The shock had been so huge when he'd stumbled through the woods, I hadn't noticed there hadn't been a tingle.

I still didn't know what it meant. Or if it was all in my head, but I trusted it.

"Cameron," I chocked out. "Where is he? Don't try telling me he isn't here! I know he is."

Prickling fury charged me. I didn't care who they were—I needed to see Cam. Needed to understand what was off.

"I told you she's all ballsy. Must be the company." Purple Dye filled in, lips hinting at an amused grin.

"You can't blame her for that. If I had a piece of male hunkiness like that, I'd do more than just hang around him." Black Nails sounded more slurry than Sam The Slut. She leaned closer to me. I didn't back away for one whole minute. Glaring as hard as Cameron would. "Too bad she's dumb as a bucket of bolts."

My teeth ground. I felt like murdering this chick on sight. My Power rattled against the invisible yellow wall. This wasn't time for visions, though.

"I want to see Cameron. Now." I growled the word, nails digging lunar-shapes into my palms.

The platinum haired bimbo looked at me questioningly. Like I was a puzzle she was trying to crack.

I wish I could dig my nails into her skin.

"How do you know that?"

So he was here. Ha! Weird-little-tingle stroke gold.

"None of your business. Where is he—what have you done to him?" I got up from the small bed too fast. My legs wobbled and the hotness in my head was off the charts.

"An after effect. It happens when I trap someone in a dream-like state for so long." My head whipped toward her.

"I was never asleep."

The goth rolled her eyes like I'd said the biggest idiocy.

"Dumb," she popped the word. "Smelled it a mile away," she paused, lips curving. "Or a dimension away."

"Back down, Lyra." That name was far too pretty for someone so annoying. "It's true. You were never asleep. When the person is awake dream manipulation becomes an illusion."

"An illusion..." I whispered, placing a hand against my chest, suddenly breathless. "You messed with my head."

"It was easier to get inside Cameron's, if that's any consolation. As Psychics our Power is all focused in our brain which makes our minds more resistant to break-ins. Even an untrained one like yours."

Had she just said 'as Psychics'?

I nursed my head, rubbing my fingers on either side. "You're..." I cracked my eyes. "You're a Psychic?"

"Yes, I am."

Purple Dye laughed a good one.

"Did you think you were the only one?"

Yes, D-bag. Angels told me I was an endangered species, like Nephilims. Pardon my surprise.

"On Earth she is." Platinum Hair said. "Here, however, that is not the case."

In Hell. Psychics were living in Hell.

My frown went long.

"That doesn't make any sense," I braced my back into the wall. "We're descendants from Nephilims." Why would we stay with the bad guys?

Ocean eyes hardened at the N word. "We are. And that's why it makes perfect sense."

I fumed deciding to let her have the cookie. For now.

"Fine, whatever. You're like me! We can have a cocktail party later—I wanna see Cameron." My lungs felt like famished sponges. Not getting enough air.

"Alright," the guy broke the trio by stepping forward. "Let's go see your boytoy."

"Careful with her, Felix, she's fragile."

"I carried her here without problem, Helena." I tried to get his hand off my arm. He smiled at my defiance. "As long as she behaves we won't have trouble."

The Basilisk scrape burned as he shoved me to the door. It looked sturdy, made of wood and metal bindings.

The outside was suffocatingly depressing. I'd never liked castles. This looked straight out of medieval times. Stone walls, stone ceilings and stone floors. Jesus.

Something curious caught my attention. Something besides the people walking down the hall in modern clothing making this feel like central station. Something besides the fact that said

people didn't care I was being held against my will.

It was the little balls of light. They were exactly like the ones in my dream.

All at once, I rounded on Felix the best as I could, disgusted when our faces ended inches apart.

"Is Phillip here, too?" I bit out.

Helena sauntered forward. Felix pushed me to follow her.

"No, he's not." Her tone was neutral. "He stopped having use when Cameron declined my generous offer." Her sly eyes side-glanced my confusion. "You in exchange for his brother."

Holy crap.

The dream Cam told me about. She'd been responsible. These people wanted me for reasons unknown and I'd played into their hands.

"Did you ever have him?" Thinking about possible impending doom wouldn't help.

Helena's boot heels snapped as she stopped outside a rock door. It looked like an entrance to a centuries old tomb.

"No, we never had him. But we could've gotten him if your friend had chosen differently." If he had given me up.

If Cameron had chosen to trade me in for his twin, Phillip and him could be walking to the Ice Caves. Leaving. Now they were trapped. Both because of me.

The pressure on my forearm vanished. Felix gripped a large circular handle, tugging. He was moving a massive door. A rock, really. But it looked like he wasn't doing zit.

The room was a small square with soil for a floor, no windows or light. Nothing was inside. Nothing except a wide-eyed, pissed-off-at-the-world Nephilim.

My favorite kind of Nephilim.

"Cameron!" I ran forward, he did too.

We both never made it past the threshold.

I yelped as a strong hand wrenched my hair. My hair! Pulling me away, just enough so my fingers would almost slip inside Cam's prison.

The place he couldn't seem to leave.

Cam—perfectly healthy, no blood-stained-clothes Cam—banged on an invisible barrier. There was a faint noise, like he was actually banging on a door.

His hands pushed outside. Nothing happened. He was boxed in.

"Get your hands off her!" Cameron's voice was loud and vicious. Reminding me of his throw-down with the Cambion in Haven Hills.

"Or what? You'll kill me?" Felix looked at Cam pointedly. "That might be a problem since Lyra has you trapped with a little spell."

A scream ripped itself from me as Felix sent me flying back. My side bounced off the hard wall, I wished I could say I was fine. My vision swam going spotty. I coughed.

"I'm going to rip your lungs out." I heard Cam say. Gritting, really.

"Again with the trapped part." Felix dropped to one knee beside my shaking frame. "That wasn't so bad, let's get you up. Come on."

He pulled me to my feet and it took all I had not to throw up. Head woozy, I almost couldn't hold my eyes on Cameron's obsidian gems.

"Did you learn your lesson?" Felix held my back to his chest and I desperately wanted to run. His breath roamed my ear shell, "You don't have a say on anything I do. You don't give orders and you really don't raise your voice here. Prisoners don't have those liberties."

Ignoring any and every word, I reached out my fingers, straining my hand forward. Cameron pressed his directly in front of mine.

I was one step away from the invisible wall.

It wasn't fair.

"You shouldn't have turned down my offer, Cameron." Helena's voice fluttered from somewhere.

Cam's gaze kept fixed on me as he spoke.

"I'd say go to Hell but..." a smile tipped my lips. Even in a dizzy I thought he was funny. "Let her go."

Felix snorted, "I just explained to your girlfriend how things work around here. Do I need to repeat the rules?"

"Shove them up your ass." Their gazes met. Clashing.

"What have you done... why can't he leave?" My voice sounded a bit dragged. That had Cam's worry rushing back to me and Felix smirking, no doubt.

"It's a trapping spell, duh! Don't you know anything about anything?" I was going to kill her.

A static sound pulled me out of a murderous fantasy. Energy cracked in Cam's hands, his eyes set on Lyra. A cloud of whitish-light was aimed at her—it dissolved before passing the threshold. Cameron looked like he couldn't believe it. Me neither.

The young Witch leaned into Cam's holding place, just inches from crossing the line between spaces. His muscles tensed and I wished I could kick her in so he could rip her apart.

"I used your blood to trap you inside. Your Power is bound to your blood... Get what I'm saying?" She gave a long cat-who-ate-ten-bowls-of-cream grin.

It meant Cameron's Power was restrained to that tiny room, just as he was, until the spell went down.

Tossing hair from his eyes, Cameron used the invisible shield to his "advantage" propping his shoulder on it. He was going for a relaxed stance, not showing how antsy he was just beneath the surface.

"Okay. You have Nina, you have me. Congrats. Is this the part where you reveal your master plan?"

Helena smiled smoothly at him, hands clasped in front of her. Only it didn't transmit kindness or innocence. On her, it translated into danger.

"You weren't this smart-mouthed in the illusion." Cam inhaled deeply. My heart beat faster when he avoided me.

The wounded-Cameron had been fake, not real. It only made sense Cam had been trapped and subdued by the same methods. But... what had she shown him?

Helena went on as if oblivious to the fear she'd spiked in my Prince. She knew it—she liked it.

"You're right. Our plan can be carried out." She flickered her hair back. "But you're wrong about one teeny detail."

"What's that?"

"You're useless to us." Any arrogance he still had—gone. "We never wanted to capture you. The only reason I contacted you and offered a trade was to get Nina. You became expandable the moment you told me no."

"Not used to getting dumped?"

Smiling bitterly, she said, "No, I'm not. And I don't really share any particular affection toward your kind."

What was up with this crazy gown-wearing-woman?

"His kind? Your bloodline originated from people like him!" My air supply got tricky. Felix pressed his fingers deeper.

"What did I say about yelling?"

At Helena's wave, he released me and I breathed greedily. Cameron looked positively murderous and confused and trapped. More than literally.

"Nephilim aren't as innocent as you might think, nor are Angels. Angels started making Nephilim with one purpose—send them into Hell to kill Demons, Fallens and whatever more they could find." Her expression soured. "It didn't work well. Not long after, Fallens discovered their offspring with Humans could kill Nephilims with one bite. After that, survival rate for Angel spawns became slim on Earth. Imagine what happened to the ones who were sent here."

I remembered Cameron and Phillip telling me this. About the wars between species. How Angels were being wiped out. How they'd used Nephilims has mere tools. How they'd sent them into Hell. To die.

"They died..." I whispered feeling tears for those poor souls. No one deserved to be born and used.

"That's the point, honey. They didn't die." Cam's eyes jerked to her, interest shining brightly. Reflecting mine. "The Nephilim who came here weren't killed. Not all, anyway. Fallens gave them a choice. They could stay in Hell and live or try to leave and die. It wasn't much of choice really, not when they were fiercely outnumbered."

"Most of them chose to live. They stayed here and lived. Neither of you has any idea what's like living here—in Hell—in a place where you're treated like slaves, worse than Demons." My throat tightened. "Some Fallens learned about the unique abilities descendants from both Nephilims and humans had. They dragged people here, locked them up and mated them—if they refused they died."

A glance Cameron's way told me it was killing him not being able to step out and rip out Helena's tongue, Felix's arms and fry Lyra's brains.

"That's a moving story," his black-holes shone dangerously. "But it has nothing to do with me or her. How about you let us go?" His lip curled in a bright, cruel way. "Don't, and once I get out, I'll go on a killing spree. Choice is yours."

Helena shunned him with a smirk of her own, doubling the cruelty, if possible.

"I've said it before, dear, you are of no use to us. A possible complication, really." She waved her hand at the monolith-door and Felix moved his free hand towards it—intent on closing it. "The next time this door opens, it'll be your death."

Cameron shouted my name, beating his fists behind the large stone. My eyes were watery with each time I heard him and I wanted to break into sobs. But I didn't. I bit down my pain, heating it into anger until I couldn't feel my body shaking with terrible thoughts.

I had to find a way of saving us.

***

Felix threw me inside a spacious room.

The room was chilly—just as the halls—scattered throughout were pillars of cement. The ground and walls were limestone. The only rich thing standing out was the altar at the end of the room.

Four steps of white stairs led to a marble tomb. On top, was a satin towel the color of blood and behind the rectangular crypt was a stained glass window. With the symbol of the Fallens marked in red.

I spied Helena walking forward, to the altar.

"What do you want from me?"

There was silence as her heels clacked, then her voice boomed from afar, echoing.

"It's very simple, Nina. We want to enlist your help."

"My help for what?" Lyra was the only other person in the room. Felix must've locked us in. "I don't have any amazing ability." I took a couple of steps toward Helena, not trusting Lyra who kept coming closer.

A ripple of laughter chilled my core. Helena scared the bejesus out of me.

"Of course you do, child! It's exactly why we need you. You need to find someone for us, you're the only one that can do it."

Did I have "lost and found" written on my forehead? First Angels wanted me to find some bad-ass weapon, now these lunatics wanted me to find a person?

"Look," I held up my hands. "I have no idea how I'm supposed to do that. I get visions from the future, dreams—but I can't control them. And sometimes I manage to see flashes from the past. Even if I wanted to help... I can't control it."

Helena leaned her hip on the marble tomb, amused eyes jumping all over my face.

"I know exactly what you can do. I've known for quite a while—"

"How?"

"We have our ways," she replied, lips tinging into a smile. "Eyes and ears? They are everywhere. I would've known sooner, but with that pesky cloaking spell in San Diego it was impossible to detect you."

Cloaking spell? San Diego?

"Fortunately it was bound to the city, not to you, so when you moved to Haven Hills you became visible."

"That's not..." Who would've put a cloaking spell all over San Diego? Why—

"You really don't know anything about your family, do you?" Helena tsked and Lyra arrived beside her, shifting her dark-clad leg. "Well, your Mother couldn't have given you those answers, so it doesn't really matter that we killed her."

Those three words stopped my heart. Stopped my anger and stopped my thinking about a way out.

"What... what did you say?"

Those words were like a switch. Pain, loss, and grieve bubbled up. I didn't fight them—not this time. This time, I had a target for it all. I moved fast—I threw myself at her, hands gripping Helena's shoulders. I cried out feeling tears unleashing themselves.

She tried batting me away. I slapped her across the face then grabbed a fistful of hair and smacked her head into the stairs.

My hand injury didn't throb or my shoulder wound.

We killed her.

In a breathing frenzy, I sunk my fingers into the porcelain neck, watching as she writhed below me—drawing blood and wanting more. I wanted to make sure she paid for what she'd done. For taking my parents away from me. Nigel away from Henry and his parents.

For tearing my world apart.

Thud.

Lyra tilted her hand and some invisible force pushed me into the tomb's side, pinning me, arms beside my head. I couldn't move but it didn't stop my writhing. No. This wasn't fair! She killed my family—she had to suffer. More than a few black bruises on her face, more than nail scratches on her neck...!

They took everything from me... I sobbed, kicked to be released, cried out whatever I could to ease the burning well of despair the memories of that night brought. The images my Power had brutally given me.

I thought about my mother's smile when I walked out the door. She'd been so proud. Dad, too. Thought about Nigel's antics. I missed it—all of it—and for the first time, I allowed myself to feel it.

The emptiness.

A massive graveyard hole threatening to swallow me whole.

I didn't know how to make it stop.

"This will work just fine," Helena said. I saw her smiling behind blurry eyes. "You can do it now?"

"Yes, there won't be a problem." Lyra murmured above my shaking breaths and broken sounds. "Just get her to focus on those emotions—those memories."

Boots clicked against hard pavement then a hand touched my face. A hand as cold as the Ice Caves.

"Get away from me...!" I screamed. "You... you murderer! You killed them... all of them... you killed them..." I whispered shutting my eyes.

"Yes, I did. I sent Fallens to kill them. Felix sent a Cambion after you, too. To bring you here." I heaved a chocked breath—Romeo had told the truth. He hadn't sent the Cambion. It was her—it was all them! "You're going to help us, Nina, you'll find who we're searching for. And when you do, Angels will get what they deserve. As will the Fallens and everyone who is against us—they will all pay!"

I moved my head away from her—she just gripped my chin in a stubborn hold.

"I will never help you." I spat as steadily as I could while looking into my family's killer.

"You will," Helena glanced Lyra's way with a pleased nod. "After Cameron dies, you will do everything we want you to."

I let out a hysterical laugh.

"Killing someone I love isn't the best strategy to get me to do something I don't want to."

Helena's fair hair fell forward as she leaned closer, making me want to puke. When she spoke, her words had to rise above Lyra.

The Witch was chanting.

"We're not going to kill him, sweetie. You are."