Page 55 of Changeling (The Incubus Saga #2)

“It’s not her. Or any of the others so far, at least that I can tell.

Jennifer is definitely scared though, which makes me think she could be a new target.

She’s hiding something we couldn’t quite read but she’s no dark fae.

There’s just one more kid to see. When we talked with Mrs. Larson,” Jim said, pointing to the now closed office door of the choir room, “she said that Tina, the last girl on our list, would be in the auditorium now practicing.”

“Sure,” Nathan said, “there was a girl in there when we left. Let’s go.”

The four of them headed back the way Cam and Nathan had come from.

The girl was stretching on stage when they returned.

Surprisingly, Jennifer was there too, hanging by the door.

Nathan made to approach her since she still looked freaked about something, but as soon as she saw that she was no longer alone, she made a quick exit.

“Better keep an eye on that girl,” Nathan said.

The others nodded but continued for the stage.

The brunette turned out to be Tina, just as they suspected, and talked openly when they asked her questions.

Nathan didn’t get any feeling that she was anything but a normal high school girl, and glances at Cam and Sasha said they weren’t picking up anything strange from her either. Jim was another story.

No one else would have been able to notice, but Nathan knew how to read his brother.

Jim was tense and very alert as he talked to Tina, gauging her much more scrutinizingly than he had Jennifer.

There was definitely something going on beneath the surface that neither Nathan nor the incubi could sense.

Jim very quickly ushered them all out of the auditorium after they were finished speaking with her and said without any hesitation, “It’s her. I’m positive.”

“What?” Cam looked completely taken aback. “What are you talking about? She wasn’t lying about anything. Totally genuine. Sash?”

Sasha frowned, his eyebrows tightly furrowed. “I didn’t sense anything off either, but you seem pretty sure, Jim. How do you know it’s her?”

“Because. I couldn’t read anything from her.”

“You couldn’t tell if she was fae?” Sasha asked.

“No,” Jim shook his head, “I couldn’t tell if she was fae, human, or even actually standing in front of us. She was just…blank.”

Leven was not pleased when they told him they were sure the person they were after was Tina.

She was another younger friend of his that he did not feel like losing.

She also played the part of Aida, the title character, even as a younger student.

Given the pattern of fear in the victims before their deaths, they were almost certain Tina was targeting Jennifer next.

There was practice that night and both Jennifer and Tina would be there.

Jennifer was the other female lead in the play, Amneris, the Egyptian princess.

Their scenes were often together, which meant they would be offstage together, too.

Nathan and the others needed Leven to keep the people on stage occupied so they could make certain Tina was the culprit.

A runic trap set up to look like spilled paint was an easy way to test if she was what she appeared to be before they confronted her.

Before practice started the group made sure the main curtain was drawn.

There was plenty of room to practice in front of the curtain since the cast was only doing simple blocking at this point and would assume the set was being worked on backstage.

It was Nathan’s job to lure Tina into the right location.

“You promise you’ll be sure she’s an evil faerie before you kill her?” Leven asked for probably the hundredth time.

Nathan placed a firm hand on the kid’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’re not gonna let some sweet high school kid get killed on accident, okay? We’ll be sure.”

“I just…I can’t believe it’s her. She’s been acting weird like a lot of people, but…but she’s nice. Super nice. You better be really sure.” Leven clutched his script like it held all the answers to the universe.

Cam came over and patted Leven’s other shoulder before giving the kid a good push towards the front of the stage.

“Don’t worry, Lev. Now go do your part or the whole thing’s screwed.

Keep the cast out front where they belong and just get Tina to come back here.

That’s all ya gotta do. If we’re wrong…well, just hope she is the villain coz otherwise we’re pretty much shooting blanks back here and we’re gonna have to start from square one.

” He tried to grin to make Leven feel better but didn’t have much success.

Once they proved Tina was dark fae all they would need to do was play it cool.

They didn’t want to kill her—not right away.

They wanted her to call for the bounty holder so that Jim could compel him—or them —to release Nathan.

They didn’t plan to kill the bounty holder either unless they had to, though killing the dark fae terrorizing these poor kids was probably a must once they were done.

Getting a body or two out of the school without attracting attention would require a little stealth, but they would deal with that when the time came.

Nathan waited near the edge of the curtain for Leven to get Tina backstage. He could hear when practice started, eyeing the others in their various positions—Cam and Sasha up above in the catwalk and Jim around the other side hiding behind unpainted flats.

With everything in place, Nathan was surprised when his phone vibrated with a text message from Jim: Jennifer’s with Tina. Heading your way.’

“Just a few minutes,” Nathan heard from Tina as the girls neared him. “We really should talk about—”

“Hey there, girls, aren’t you supposed to be out there?” Nathan said as soon as they came into view, looking like he was just casually hanging out backstage to check on things.

Jennifer turned terrified eyes on Nathan—beseeching.

“You remember me,” Nathan said, taking Tina’s arm and pulling her toward him to free Jennifer from the other girl’s hold. “Mind if I ask you a few more questions while you’re not busy? You should probably run back around,” Nathan said with a wink at Jennifer.

The redhead nodded eagerly and was instantly gone.

Tina was good though; she turned to Nathan and didn’t appear at all put out. “Of course, officer . Or is it just Mr…whatever it was. Sorry, I forget. But then…you’re not really an officer, are you?”

Nathan smirked. “I suppose not. But I never did like the term Private Dick . Just call me Nathan. Now…” Nathan had a whole crapload of, well, crap he could spew at her while he got her in position, but getting her in position was key.

He chatted away as he led Tina to the center of backstage just beneath the catwalk. The runic trap was near impossible to see until you were in it, but just as Nathan almost had her across the line inside, Tina looked down and noticed the paint.

“That’s bad,” she said, crouching down for a moment. “Lars will be pissed someone spilled.” She touched her fingers to it but came up dry. Then she shrugged, stood, and continued walking with Nathan right through the trap…and safely to the other side.

Nathan was pretty sure he gaped at her for a split second, but kept his cool as best he could.

“Well I…guess that’s all I needed. You should probably get back.

” He had all intentions of turning around and walking to where Jim was watching Jennifer so he could smack him one, since somehow the mistake had to be his fault, when he figured he should at least be completely sure before he counted Tina out.

It was a little mean if she was just a normal girl, but Nathan feigned tripping on the last of the still wet paint, which was slippery enough to make the fall completely natural looking. A second later, he knocked into Tina and brought both of them down hard to the floor of the stage.

Tina howled, a sound thankfully drowned out by the singing coming from up front, and when Nathan looked down between them he saw that the stealthy cut he had made on her bare leg with his ankle blade was sizzling.

Nathan jerked his attention back to the girl’s eyes to find them glaring at him slit .

She was a dark fae, but the trap hadn’t held her.

“Shit!” Nathan rolled off of the girl as quick as he could, but she was faster. Tina rolled right back on top of him and pressed his hands into the floor, pinning him.

“Thought you could get me with runes, did you? Silly boy.” She lunged down at Nathan, but Jim was there in an instant to pull the girl back. He looked equally shocked when he ripped her off of Nathan to find slit eyes.

“She’s fae!” Nathan managed to call out as Jim held her. “Hold the bitch!”

But as much as Jim seemed to be concentrating on holding control over the girl, she merely writhed in his hold and eventually broke free with a kick at his shins. She sprinted for the other side of the stage.

Nathan jumped to his feet and reached down quickly to pull Jim back up onto his. “I said hold her!” he shouted as they ran to catch up.

“I tried!” Jim shouted back, and then hushed his voice because they could hear that the singing had come to an end for now and this would not be a good time for the cast to come wandering backstage.

“It wouldn’t work. She’s not a normal dark fae, Nathan.

I can’t sense her. And if I can’t sense her…

” He didn’t finish but Nathan understood.

Can’t sense. Can’t control. Can’t banish.

Nathan looked up and whispered as loudly as he thought he could get away with toward the catwalk, “A little help down here!” Tina was almost to the curtain where she could run back around and hide amongst the other students. And Jim and Nathan were too far away to catch her.

Just then a great swoop of dark brown wings came from beyond stage left. Cam landed in front of where Tina intended to go, blocking her. Before she could think to turn around and run the other direction, Sasha landed just behind her.

Without any seeming effort, Tina shot her hands out at Sasha’s chest, causing the redhead to fly backwards and land hard and painful on his wings several yards away.

Cam launched himself after her, grabbing her shoulders and raising her into the air as high as he could fly.

But Tina was vicious. She turned her head to get at one of his arms and bit down hard. Cam dropped her with a growl.

Jim’s arm shot out and he steadied the girl with his TK. Slowly, he lowered her to the ground, but as soon as she touched down it was as if she tossed his powers aside. She dove for him, seeing him as the largest threat, and wrapped her hands around his throat.

Sasha rushed over to pull the girl off of him but her grip was steadfast. Cam landed back down behind them, favoring his arm.

Nathan could see that the bite had taken out a good chunk of flesh.

He didn’t know what he could do to help, even as he watched Jim bring his hands to Tina’s wrists and start to burn her with the same bright electric light he had once used on the Dryads.

The dark fae threw back her head to scream as her grip loosened, but Sasha brought a claw to her mouth to silence her and pulled her the rest of the way off of Jim.

Again, Jim pointed an arm at her, and this time his TK seemed more capable of holding her still.

Sasha still kept a firm hold on her physically, and as he took a moment to calm down, he looked across the stage at Nathan.

Then Nathan saw Sasha’s eyes widen.

Nathan whipped around. Leven was standing there with Jennifer, obviously having been trying to keep the girl from wandering backstage again since his hand was tight on her arm. Both of the teenagers’ eyes were wide with fear.

“Nathan!” Sasha yelled, and Nathan immediately turned back. Tina had broken free of Sasha’s hold and the steadying power of Jim’s TK. She was sprinting across the stage towards him .

No , Nathan thought, not him. She was going for Jennifer and Leven.

“Hurry!” Nathan said, rushing to them and pushing them back towards the front of the stage.

“But…but is that really…” Leven stuttered

“Just trust us. Trust me. And get back out there.” Nathan pushed at them again, both of them looking terrified, but still they listened.

There was barely enough time for Nathan to turn around before Tina would be upon him. He moved to just in front of the runic trap and braced himself. The trap hadn’t held her before, but maybe the combination with Jim’s powers would be enough.

Without hesitation Tina plowed into him, knocking both of them back inside the trap. That would have been great except that Nathan would disconnect the lines with his body if he crawled across them to get out. Being trapped inside with her was not a pleasant option.

Nathan retrieved his ankle blade and, using all of his remaining strength while still holding her barely at bay, stabbed it into her shoulder.

Tina howled louder than before and released him, lifting up just enough for Nathan to scramble away. When he looked back, the area around where his ankle blade was protruding had turned black.

Only one of his feet was still inside the trap when Tina rounded on him again and caught it. She could still get out. With Nathan’s foot across the trap, the markings were invalid until he moved it, and she wasn’t letting go.

“Such…fighters, you are,” Tina hissed. “You want this girl so badly? Have her . I can still finish this.” Then Tina’s mouth opened wide and something like dark mist poured out of her and sped faster than any feet could catch around the other side of the curtain toward the practicing children and their director.

Nathan stared in shock and confusion as Tina’s body went limp.

He didn’t understand what had just happened, but he knew that the mist was more important than the girl.

He easily pulled his foot free from Tina’s body and ran for the curtain.

By the time he had a clear view of the stage, however, he couldn’t see anything.

It looked as if they were just practicing, as if nothing had been disturbed.

The other side of the curtain was dimmed to most of the backstage sound, so no one even seemed alerted.

The mist was gone.