Page 49 of Incubus (The Incubus Saga #1)

Nathan moved with deliberate caution as he turned around.

“ Gabriel ,” he said in distaste. “I guess Jim's little power words to keep you away didn't stick, huh?” He had never been so close to Gabriel before, only a couple of feet apart with a street light above them lighting up every grey hair amidst Gabriel's otherwise dark locks.

Gabriel scowled, which made him look older, like his illuminated scars. He wasn't a bad looking man, just worn like he had lived in a war zone half his life. Although the seal didn't appear obviously armed, Nathan knew better than to trust first impressions.

“Nathan, I’m sorry,” Walter said. “He’s human. I couldn’t sense him coming.”

Nathan remained staring forward. There had been so few times over the years that he had heard Gabriel’s voice, but the sound of it, low and gruff, always made Nathan nauseous.

“You’re luckier than you think right now, Nathan,” Gabriel said. “I'm not looking to fight you. Not you.”

“Right,” Nathan huffed, standing his ground. “Let me guess. I’m supposed to just step aside now and let you kill my freak of a brother like a good little boy, is that it?”

“The changeling is the most important part, yes,” Gabriel said, irritatingly calm, “but I also intend to kill the incubus.”

Nathan’s eyes widened.

“Oh yes, I know what he is now. I gave him the benefit of the doubt for years because I knew his father, but after seeing him with you it was easy to believe he had been corrupted. No real son of Deklin Kelly would allow himself to be turned into something like that.”

“Turned into?” Nathan repeated, allowing a short, bitter laugh.

“You really don’t get it, do you? Sasha was born an incubus.

Your friend was the one who decided to be turned.

Because he fell in love, not because he was corrupted.

” He took a step closer to the older man, steadying his hands from shaking by tightening them into fists.

“I used to agree with the way you think more than you might know, but I know better now.”

Gabriel shook his head as if Nathan was nothing more than an ignorant child. “You only prove my point. Would you have ever allowed a creature like that into your company before your brother started to change?”

Nathan's anger flared at the question, especially when he knew the answer. "Maybe I’ve changed too.”

“I don’t think you have. I think you want to believe your brother is still a good, kind person so badly that you would do anything, even lie, to believe it. Even…allow yourself to be seduced by an incubus.” His dark eyes flashed knowingly.

Fists were no longer enough to keep Nathan from shaking. “You bastard…"

“This is the only chance I’m going to give you,” Gabriel said coolly.

“If you choose to help those creatures, to side with evil, then you will be counted among evil. Let your brother go, Nathan,” he added almost mournfully, with the barest twitch of his apathetic face.

“I had to do it once too. I know how hard it is. I let my sister go rather than see her live making a mistake that would have cost her more than her life. I took no joy in killing your mother that night, believe me. I only did what I had to do.”

"What?” Nathan gaped, shaking harder and feeling the cold around them creep into his skin. “What are you saying?”

"I had no grudge against your father either," Gabriel went on, "but they had been warned.

They knew better, were raised to know better as children of tainted families.

To mate with another of a fae bloodline is the worst offense.

Both of your parents knew that. But Miriam didn't listen to me no matter how many times I warned her.

She ran off with your father and had you.

We might have let them live if they had handed over your brother, but they chose to run.

Don't make that same mistake, son." He paused, holding out an empty hand toward Nathan like an offering. "I know the importance of family."

Nathan stepped back, swallowing down the bile that had risen in his throat. "You are not my family," he said with tears welling up in his eyes.

"Your mother and I—"

"I don't care! You are not family. Family doesn't do this to each other. You're not even willing to give Jim a chance. You killed my parents without even giving Jim a chance!"

"A chance to what?" Gabriel said, hardened as he lowered the hand he had been offering.

"A chance to kill them and you himself? A chance to be the one changeling the dark fae have been waiting for, so he can bring about the end of the Veil and destroy everything?

You have no idea what you are risking. Are you really willing to take a chance like that for one man's life? "

“ Yes ,” Nathan said unwaveringly, his fists tightening at his sides as all his horror and grief fueled into rage, regardless of the consequences, even if Jim was the key to ending the Veil.

“Because he's my brother. He’s family. And I would rather watch the world burn than let anyone take him away from me. "

Gabriel scoffed and shook his head in disappointment.

“You could have left him years ago and saved yourself. Instead you join with yet another monster and say I’m the one who is wrong.

You have no idea what these creatures are capable of, Nathan.

Are you even still human yourself? Or has the changeling enslaved you for his amusement? ”

Nathan didn't pause to think, he just rammed forward, tackling Gabriel back and howling from all of the emotion that had risen up within him. He didn’t care that he didn’t have a weapon or a plan. He couldn't run this time. He couldn’t let Gabriel walk away. Not again.

Blinded by his emotions, Nathan didn’t notice that Gabriel had reclaimed his leverage until Nathan’s feet were knocked out from under him. He hit his back hard as he fell, but the impact didn’t wind him, not when his adrenaline was running so hot.

Rolling back onto his shoulder blades, Nathan kicked out at Gabriel’s knees, sending the other man to the ground beside him. That disrupted Gabriel for a moment, but Nathan soon saw that the seal was indeed armed as he reached to pull a gun.

Starting a desperate roll toward the car, Nathan avoided the first two shots easily, but a third bullet grazed past his shin.

Cursing loudly as he rolled under the car, Nathan took a breath and then rolled the rest of the way out onto the other side.

Standing was a chore, but Nathan knew he had to move.

“You can still get out of this, Nathan!” Gabriel called. "You can still make the right choice!"

Nathan growled low under his breath, crouched down with his back against the car's passenger side door. This was not a situation where Nathan could take the high road. There was no high road. There was Gabriel on one side and Nathan’s family on the other.

“Nathan!”

“Save your breath!” Nathan called back. “Blood has nothing to do with real family, asshole! We have nothing to talk about!”

“Hn. So be it.”

There was silence, leaving only the faint shuffle of feet on concrete. Nathan waited. He knew Gabriel could see him clear enough, even with the car mostly blocking him. He waited, one moment, another, until he was certain Gabriel had to be about ready to pounce on him from one side or the other.

“Nathan, now!” Walter called.

Kicking up off the ground, Nathan hoisted his backside up onto the top of the car's hood, flattened himself, rolled off onto the other side, and came down again on his feet, ready to run.

But when Nathan turned to bolt, he saw that Gabriel was faster than he had given him credit, standing there to block his escape and readying a shot.

“Nathan!”

The gun fired, a bullet disappearing somewhere into the sky as the blur of a figure knocked Gabriel to the ground. For a moment Nathan thought it was somehow Walter, but then he saw a flash of red hair.

Nathan stood frozen at first watching as Gabriel and Sasha grappled on the ground. Gabriel ended up on top of the incubus, and although his gun had been dropped, Nathan could see something glinting in Gabriel’s other hand.

Ready to dash forward and offer whatever assistance he could, Nathan saw that Sasha was already ahead of him, kicking his knees up into Gabriel’s chest and lifting until he flipped Gabriel over and slammed him to the ground almost at Nathan's feet.

It seemed to take forever for Sasha to get up after that and rush to join Nathan. Gabriel wasn’t fazed enough to be out of commission, and even as Sasha reached Nathan, it was clear they didn’t have enough time, breath, or weapons to defend themselves in the parking lot.

Sasha grabbed Nathan’s arm, both of them turning and sprinting for the motel.

Jim , Nathan thought with sudden panic. Jim was in their room probably passed out on the bed, dead drunk.

“How did he find us again!?” Sasha yelled, but his voice echoed distantly in the foreground as they burst through the doors into the motel, and Nathan ran over possible escape plans in his head. “This neighborhood is quiet enough, but we have to get away from the motel."

Gabriel was gaining on them; Nathan was certain of that without having to glance over his shoulder. Reaching Jim was most important. If they lost this fight, Jim would be completely vulnerable, left up there for Gabriel to gut like an animal.

Barreling ahead, Nathan saw the elevator and pushed forward that much harder. Their room was on the fourth floor. They had to make it.

Sasha was faster than Nathan, reaching the elevator and pushing the button before Nathan even got inside. The doors started to close and Nathan dove forward, his chest aching from sprinting. He looked back just as the doors shut completely to see Gabriel’s furious face.

“Never a dull moment, is there?” Nathan gasped, trying to grin as the elevator moved slowly upward.

Sasha smiled weakly. “I was coming to get you. So much for a happy birthday.” He tried to laugh but fell suddenly against the side of the elevator and almost dropped to the floor.

“Whoa, you okay?” Nathan asked, grabbing hold of Sasha by the arms to steady him. That was when he noticed the cut on Sasha’s arm, just below the cuff of his T-shirt.

Sasha turned over his hands, both of which had long jagged cuts in the palms from fending off the knife Nathan had seen Gabriel wielding.

Iron .