Page 42 of Sidhe (The Incubus Saga #3)

Nathan made it back downstairs before Solrin to find the bar empty. It was always a little eerie with no one around, Alex still in the kitchen, and everyone else tucked away somewhere. He decided he might as well check in on the other duo while he waited for Solrin.

Nathan’s cell phone started to ring just as he was about to dial, signaling ‘Sasha’s cell’.

“If Jim’s inside my head right now, I swear ,” Nathan said as he picked up the call.

“Huh? No, Nate, listen,” Sasha spoke quickly, “we need you and Solrin to get down here now. We think we’ve found the incubus.”

“You—” Nathan cut off mid-thought, frowning. “But then don’t you want me to stall him or something?”

Sasha sighed helplessly. “I wish we could afford to. Problem is, we’re pretty sure Solrin was right about the two creatures being together. Jim senses the nach here too.”

Fan- fucking -tastic.

As soon as Solrin was halfway down the stairs, Nathan had a bag full of stakes over his shoulder and an ice cream pail full of dirt in his hands. “They got a lead,” he called up the steps, “time to motor.”

Of course Nathan had forgotten how they would be ‘motoring’ until he and Solrin were dashing outside in the pouring rain, thunder and lightning littering the sky above them, to reach Solrin’s motorcycle .

A good piece of machinery, sure—a ’95 black Low Rider, Nathan was fairly certain—but it was not generally built for two and it was a frickin’ motorcycle in the middle of a thunderstorm!

Nathan really regretted saying that Jim and Sasha could take the car.

Especially since he was the one who had to climb onto the back of the damn thing and hang onto Solrin’s waist.

Thoroughly drenched by the time they reached the building Sasha had told him about over the phone, which of course was well outside the Rushville town limits on the opposite side of the Gatehouse, Nathan was at least slightly appeased to discover that Jim and Sasha were drenched too.

They were waiting outside just off the rusty gates of what was literally the proverbial haunted house.

Every town had one, the old rundown place you just never went near, unless of course you were a bunch of teenagers and thought it would be smart to dare each other to spend the night.

Still, Nathan couldn’t help groaning as Solrin parked the bike and they dashed over to join the others.

“Please tell me you’re kidding,” he called over the sound of rain and thunder.

“Can you say cliché in big, bold flashing letters?” The place was even up on a hill past the gate, looking huge and black and menacing.

“If it looks obvious, it probably is. It’s even storming out!

” Nathan held out his arms to indicate the very hard to miss downpour around them that was way too Stephen King for his liking.

“It’s barely 9AM, Nate, not midnight, if that helps you,” Jim said with a stern glare.

His collar was turned up on his jacket, though it was doing nothing to stop the rain from dripping down his neck off the long plastered pieces of his hair.

“Besides, the most obvious choice is often the right one ,” he said pointedly, meaning they were sure, and considering he and Sasha could both probably sense the incubus being this close, and Jim could apparently sense the nach as well, it had to be right.

“I think we’ve scoured every last inch of the area other than that house anyway,” Sasha added.

Nathan looked to the redhead and allowed a small shiver that he would totally blame on the rain.

He always kind of liked the way Sasha looked all soaked like that.

Red hair dark as it clung to his cheeks, T-shirt suctioned to his skin, leather jacket quickly becoming more and more worn instead of new.

“And the kicker?” Sasha tried to grin, much as Nathan could pretty much feel his inner turmoil over being so close to the incubus.

“We chatted up some of the victims’ friends before heading here.

All of the victims had been in that house at some point.

Usual teenage bullshit. Might have left a scent or trail or something for the, uhh…

creature to follow.” There was a good amount of emphasis on the singular instead of ‘creatures’.

Solrin, at least, did not look at all distrusting or worried. Something in his pale green eye, staring ahead at the house, was intensely confident. “This is the place. Let’s go.”

With no reason to argue, the four of them began a sprint through the torrents of rain to reach the house.

Of course Nathan didn’t feel panicked or anxious at all as they drudged up the hill.

He just couldn’t help being bothered that once again there was no way for him to talk with Jim and Sasha about how they were going to pull this off.

Nathan was thankful the old house had a porch, giving them an opportunity to get out the stakes and coat them in consecrated soil without the rain washing it away.

Sasha ran around to the back to plant a stake in the ground outside the back door.

With the front they would just have to leave a stake lying there and hope it would be enough should the nach slip past them.

They left the ice cream pail on the porch.

Once they were set, Solrin took point and pushed on the doors, which opened easily despite the ‘Condemned Building’ sign.

The house was in better shape on the inside than the outside gave away, but it was still dark and dank, boards cracked, a lot like the barn Nathan and Solrin had explored before.

It was also huge, with high ceilings, and a staircase off the main entrance that reminded Nathan a little too much of the large familiar house Malak had conjured up the other day.

There was water dripping from several places in the ceiling but at least it was warmer and dryer than outside.

All of them had stakes as well as flashlights, thankfully; they definitely needed the extra light.

“We should split up,” Jim said hushed, no sign of any creatures immediately visible.

“It’ll make it easier to surround this thing instead of giving it an opening out of the building.

Solrin,” he nodded for the seal to go with him, looking over at Nathan and Sasha pointedly to say as best he could that the way he wanted to go with Solrin would lead to the nach, while the other way was closer to the incubus.

“Works for me,” Nathan whispered back.

Even in the dim lighting he could tell that Solrin was not happy about being paired with someone other than him, his white hair glowing eerily in the dark from its bright color as he cast Nathan a frustrated glance.

He smiled, tossed Solrin a wink, “You boys play nice now,” and then grabbed Sasha’s arm to pull him the opposite direction in search of the incubus.

Before they were even out of the room, Sasha ran ahead of Nathan and began to lead, obviously hot on the trail of the incubus since he could sense him more clearly now.

Nathan had to struggle to keep up and it worried him that Sasha was so adamant.

This could go wrong so many different ways, and all of them would just destroy Sasha.

Rounding a corner too quickly, Sasha nearly collided with a dead end, frantically righting himself to head the other way. Nathan pulled the incubus back against him at that, knowing Sasha was bound to do something stupid if he kept on like this.

“Breathe, baby, this isn’t a race. We’ll get to the kid,” he whispered assuredly.

Frantic as he was, Sasha took a moment to do as Nathan said and took a few deep breaths.

“Sorry. I know. But it will be a race if Jim and Solrin get rid of the nach before we’ve found him.

He’s close, Nate, I can feel him. He’s so scared, and…

and panicked. I think he’s being drawn to Solrin like Jim and I were. We can’t let him go to him, Nathan.”

“Then let’s go,” Nathan said, holding Sasha tight a moment more, squeezing the incubus’ arms supportively, and finally releasing.

Sasha glanced back at Nathan before moving on, his grateful smile visible in the dark.

The incubus moved on quickly, but not quite as haphazard, leading Nathan through the lower level of the house around winding turns and through several rooms that made the place feel like a labyrinth.

What made it all even more eerie was how quiet it was.

They couldn’t hear anything but the rain hitting the roof and occasional thunder.

When Nathan and Sasha at last reached a cellar door, Sasha looked at Nathan gravely, nodding his head to say that this was it.

A growl shot past them the moment Sasha opened the door. There was a blur of teal and brown that was there and then suddenly gone. The kid had probably been about to go out in search of Solrin like Sasha thought.

“Wait!” Sasha called. “It’s okay!” He started to bound down the stairs into the cellar but Nathan grabbed his arm to hold him back.

The extra stakes for the nach were still in a bag over Nathan’s shoulder, but he also had his iron knife.

He let Sasha know that as he squeezed his arm, presenting the blade with a hollow look that silently promised ‘only if we have to’.

Grief flashed across Sasha’s face but he nodded. Then Sasha turned and began a slower tread down the steps.

“Please,” he called more gently, carefully turning the light of his flashlight down the steps and scanning the large cellar as he descended into it.

“I know where you were going, why you were being drawn up there even though you didn’t want to go.

What you sense isn’t what you think, I promise you.

But I am. I know you can feel that I’m like you. ”

Another growl rumbled from one of the corners below and Sasha flashed his light that direction, almost fully down into the cellar now. Nathan, following closely behind, saw another brief glimpse of teal and brown before the figure vanished again.