Chapter 1
I was at Jack Borathen's funeral when I saw the young blonde girl watching me as she leaned against a towering gravestone. I noticed the family name etched into the dark marble and shuddered. Conroy. My mother's maiden name. The last name of the grandparents who'd stolen my little sister Ivy from us—wrenched her from our lives when I was just a kid. Mom had blurred the memories of my sister from my mind. In fact, I'd never seen her face in real life.
Until now.
Elyssa's hand gripped mine painfully tight as they lowered the casket bearing her brother, Jack’s, remains into the ground. Her other brother, Michael, towered in dark silence across from us. My sister—or a girl who looked just like I'd always imagined my sister would look—stood some fifty yards behind him.
I stood frozen with indecision. A funeral was a bad time to dash away without a word. Silent tears streamed down Elyssa's face leaving dark trails of eyeliner against her alabaster skin. I looked back to the other girl. Her bright blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and she wore a blue dress patterned with flowers. It seemed awfully out of place for winter. She smirked. Her blue eyes glinted. I couldn't tell if they sparked with malice or happiness.
"May his soul rest in the forever, which awaits us all," the Templar priest intoned as he sprinkled the casket with holy water.
I hoped desperately for the ceremony to end so I could excuse myself. But the priest seemed determined to drag things out as long as possible, droning on about the afterlife, God's goodness, and the better place awaiting us all.
I had to call BS. I'd met angels—two of them, in fact. If they were heavenly messengers, the only thing waiting in the afterlife was a world of hurt, and God had hopped on a unicorn and ridden into the sunset a long time ago.
The girl, apparently tired of the long-winded priest, formed an imaginary mouth with her hand, pressing the thumb and fingers together in a talking motion, and gave an exaggerated yawn. She rolled her eyes, and stepped behind the Conroy family headstone. I couldn't let her go. I had to know for sure if she was really my sister, or just some kid who'd wandered off from the funeral. I kissed Elyssa on the cheek and whispered, "I'll be right back."
Her violet eyes widened with confusion as I released her hand and backed away through the crowd. I tried to look casual. And failed. Thankfully, Elyssa's parents were sitting to her right and didn't seem to notice me slip into the crowd right away. The second I cleared the fringe, I sped in a wide arc around the sprawling graveyard and toward the headstone behind which I hoped my sister still waited.
Instead, I found only a note taped to the stone.
It fluttered in a gentle, chilly breeze, taunting me for not coming sooner. I cursed and jerked it free. Unfolded the sheet and looked at the words scrawled on it: Look behind you.
I spun, suddenly quite aware I may have walked straight into a trap set by Maximus—a real douche of a vampire who'd once kidnapped my father—or any other number of bad guys. Instead of a group of angry vampires ready to beat me and take me to their rogue leader, Ivy stood there, arms crossed, and a blonde eyebrow arched imperiously.
"Justin?" she asked, her voice still that of a teeny-bopper—cute, but with the sauciness of a fledgling tween. Her big blue eyes and golden hair looked exactly like our mom's, and the resemblance in her face almost took my breath away.
"Ivy," I said, taking a step toward her, arms outstretched for the brother-sister hug I longed for.
She backed away, waggling a finger at me. "Nuh uh, big bro." She stopped and crossed her arms, raking me with a critical eye. "I'm disappointed."
My mouth dropped open and I froze in my tracks. "Not exactly the greeting I was expecting."
"I expected you to look more dangerous. Maybe have a scar or an evil scowl on your face."
I wrinkled my nose. "Why in the world would I look evil?"
She snorted and gave me a yeah right! look. "Because you are evil."
I staggered back a step, my gut feeling like she'd just landed a physical blow with a sledgehammer. "But—but why?" I sputtered.
"You can act innocent if you want, Justin Slade, but I know all about you. Grandma and Grandpa told me how your dad tricked Mommy into marrying him and how you got all the demonic genes while I inherited Mommy's. Basically, I'm pure and you're gross."
"He's your dad too," I said, anger overcoming my shock. "And our grandparents stole you from Mom and Dad when you were an infant. Did they tell you that?"
She stuck out her lower lip and nodded. "It was to protect me."
"Yeah, then why did Mom stay with Dad all those years, huh? Why not go with them right then?"
"Because she wasn't sure how you'd turn out. Once she figured out you were a spawn, she left."
I opened my mouth to throw a retort in her face, but what if her words were true? What if Mom had left me when she did because she saw I was developing incubus powers? Becoming just like Dad? Even if the Conroys had filled Ivy's head with nothing but lies, I had no proof to fight them with. A million retorts flew through my head all at once, but none of them would do a damned thing to keep Ivy from hating me.
Except…why was she here?
Despite the lies and whatever twisted upbringing her—our—grandparents had given her, she'd come here, apparently on her own, to see me face-to-face. Maybe deep down she doubted what they'd told her. Maybe she wanted to decide the truth for herself.
"You can't believe everything they told you if you came here to see me," I said after a few seconds of silence stretched between us. "In fact, I'll bet you're full of doubt."She giggled and shook her head. "No, I'm not, silly."
"Then why—"
"I came here to get rid of you so I can save the world. Otherwise, you'll have a good chance at wrecking everything we've worked so hard for."
I almost laughed at the idea being harmed by a tiny girl and almost cried because my own sister seemed so sure it was the right thing to do. "Get rid of me?" I shook my head. "Wouldn't that be the evil thing to do?"
"Not if it's for the right reason."
I turned away from her, shaking my head. "I can't believe this. I cannot believe my long-lost sister wants to kill me."
She giggled again and dragged the toe of her black tennis shoe in the dirt. "I didn't say kill you. I said I'd get rid of you. There's a difference."
"And you're not even going to hug me first? Geez, I realize we didn't get a chance to know each other, but I was hoping for a happier reunion than this."
She grimaced. "Eww. As if I'd touch demon spawn."
"We're related, Ivy. If you know anything about the birds and the bees—"
She waved her hands frantically. "Don't make me think about it! Gross."
I leaned against the tombstone and folded my arms. "Look, before you try to kill or get rid of me, why don't you take some time to get to know me? We could climb trees together, and drink Kool-Aid. I’ll cut the hair off your Barbie dolls and you could tell Mom and Dad on me. You know, like real brothers and sisters." Having never known her, I really didn't have a clue what growing up with a sibling would be like, but I did have friends with sisters and remembered some of those Barbie doll incidents pretty clearly. Especially the one we'd dismembered to see if it worked as a voodoo doll. It hadn't.
"I figured you'd try this emotional stuff on me." She blew out a breath. "I mean, if I didn't know you were pure evil, I'd love to have a brother. There are some really mean kids at the school I go to, and I would love to teach them a lesson if I could get away with it."
"Well hey, just point me in their direction and I'll beat them up." I smiled at the thought of coming to my sister's aid, especially if someone was bullying her. I'd been through hell with jackasses who thought nothing of pushing around others simply because they could.
She actually seemed to consider it, pursing her cute little mouth and tilting her head like a puppy, blonde ponytail hanging at an angle. A sigh broke through her lips. "It would be cool to sic a demon spawn on those meanies, but I really can't risk the end of the world just so you can beat up a few idiots."
I tried a different tact. "Why do you think I'll cause the end of the world?"
"Because Grandpa told me."
Biting back a sigh, I asked, "What exactly did he tell you?"
"You're gonna unite the nasties and kill off all the good guys like Grandma and Grandpa. I mean, anyone who's friends with vampires and trannies is messed up."
My forehead pinched. "Trannies?" I had no idea how cross-dressers entered the mix.
"Yeah, the ones who transform into cats and wolves." She made a vague shape with her fingers.
I laughed. "Ivy, it's not what you are that makes you good or bad, it's what you do."
She opened and closed her fingers and thumb like a mouth as she had earlier. "Blah, blah, blah."
Her mind was sewn tight against my arguments, glued shut with the bigoted lies the Conroys had told her. I wondered if Mom had helped taint my little sister's mind with their propaganda as well.
"You've already corrupted the Templars," Ivy said, interrupting my thoughts. "A whole organization dedicated to the Brilliance and you somehow come along and corrupt it with the Murk."
"Brilliance? Murk?"
"Yeah. Light and Dark. Whatevs."
"First of all, I didn't corrupt anyone. The Divinity did. And once the Templars found out, you might say they saw the light." I grinned at my clever comeback.
"Ha, ha." Ivy glanced to her right.
I glanced in the same direction and saw nothing but headstones and tombs.
Obviously, I wasn't going to change my sister's mind about anything, at least not today. But my goal all this time had been to save her from the Conroys. I looked closer at our surroundings and saw no sign of our grandparents or my mom. Unless they were invisible, Ivy was here alone. She was tall, but thin and willowy. She couldn't possibly match me physically. As an added bonus, nearly a hundred Templars stood a scant fifty yards away. I supposed I could grab Ivy and stow her on the Templar compound. Maybe Elyssa and I could figure out how to undo the mind-twisting my dear grandparents had wreaked on her.