Seth’s expression shifts, transforming into an anger that makes his features unrecognisable. I've seen many things in Seth’s expression I think the others missed, but never a shaking fury to match Xander's. There’s no sign of the pathetic, drunk guy I left in his room earlier.
"Deal with me?" Seth shouts. “You have no fucking chance of dealing with me. None of you morons do.”
I ready a retort, unprepared for his next move. Seth strides over and shoves me in the chest with both hands. The world blurs and I find myself halfway along the hallway, landing heavily on my backside, as he hits me like a truck.
What the fuck?
I push my arms behind me attempting to sit, and Seth strides over. Without pausing, he kicks me in the stomach with an unnatural force and the pain screams through my body. "You shouldn't have done that! You've fucked up everything!"
I struggle to breathe after the blow and can’t move. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" And how?
Seth sneers down, and I attempt to tackle him to the ground, arms around his legs, but he slips through them like the snake he is. I drag myself to my feet and support myself against the wall, doubling over as I take painful breaths. I’ve been kicked before, many times, but this feels like he’s pummelled my insides. "I knew it," I gasp. "I fucking knew you were trouble.”
I study him. He’s the same man, the same body, but something’s wrong. The brute force he hit me with isn’t human, nor is the person looking at me through those eyes. Hell, I’ve looked into enough eyes in my time here to know when something isn’t human, and there’s a hollow darkness; one I’ve not seen before.
I take a deep breath and wince. “What are you? How did you hit me that hard?"
Seth leans in and places his face close to mine. "I guess I don't know my own strength." Then, right in my face, he gives the sly smile, the one I see when nobody else does. “Like Xander, if I lose my temper things don't go so well for the people around me."
"Are you a demon? How come Joss and Vee didn't know?"
Seth's face sours. "Please. I'm nothing like those low lives.” He pulls away. “One thing I'm in total agreement with is demon scum shouldn't be in this world."
I don't scare easily. I've stared down enough demons to see them as part of my job, but whatever stands in front of me now projects an energy that fills the corridor and sucks oxygen from the room. His eyes blacken and an energy shimmers around him to match the light I see around Vee sometimes.
Is he suffocating me? Or is my tight chest and struggle breathing genuine fear? I steady myself on the wall and stare back. The weak human I suspected worked for someone, who I swore I could take out, isn’t even human. I don't know what the hell he is, but this is no demon.
"What are you then? Fae?"
Seth rests against the wall next to me, then holds out his palms towards me, but this is no gesture of surrender. I focus on gathering my strength to move as I watch the space in front of him blacken, as if somebody dragged the light and air away, until all that remains resembles a dark, starless sky.
He stares at the void. "Nope. There's only one person in this world more powerful than me, and she just walked out of the door. And that’s really fucking inconvenient for me."
I shuffle back as fast as I can as he turns his palms in my direction. The dark space grows around us both, obliterating everything as if somebody scrawled out the world with a black marker pen.
Holy shit.
Seth drops his hands with a satisfied look as he laughs at my fear, and the consuming darkness snaps away too. "I'd kill you, but there's no point until I've killed your friend Death and, of course, made sure Vee never fulfils the destiny they gave her."
Still doubled over, I continue to edge back along the wall, but the pain won’t stop spreading through. I bow my head and concentrate on summoning energy I’m shocked I don’t have.
“What happened to her?”
“You fucked her and now you’ve fucked things up for me.” He rubs his temples. “I guess I’d better bring forward my plans now.”
His words seethe anger through me, and I look upwards and picture how I could attack him. Do I have the power?
"Don't even think about it, Ewan. Believe me, you’d wish you could die if I really hurt you." His glittering black eyes meet mine again. "I’m saving that fun. I cannot wait to take down that condescending arsehole, War. That will be the highlight of the show, and you can be the encore."
I remain slumped against the wall, unable to move further.
Seth grabs my hair and yanks my head upwards, face in mine again. "I guess this is a tender goodbye for now. Shame this happened before Syv found what I needed and the time was right."
“Get the fuck off me,” I snarl.
"You were very intuitive, by the way, which surprised me because I thought you were incapable of thinking for yourself." Seth pats me on the cheek. “Clever boy, you almost figured me out.”
He releases my hair and steps back, and I stare as he closes his eyes, and the void I saw before grows around him. The space where Seth stood empties as his figure disintegrates and merges with the darkness.
I slump back to the floor, gripping my stomach, filled with a fear, but not only for myself.
What the hell is he?
23
XANDER
Heath rests against the wall, to the left of a door, knife in hand. I rest against the right-hand side, door between us.
We tracked Logan and Breanna through the house. They didn’t go far, downstairs, to the right of the conference room where Alasdair gave his introduction earlier, and down an opposite hallway. We followed at a distance until they walked into the room in front of us now. The situation is ridiculous. I’m ninety percent sure they knew we were behind them—as planned.
Heath nods, a silent signal that we enter and face down whatever and whoever is inside. At moments like this, I always feel a weird surge of anticipation, a build-up to dealing with the unknown on the other side of a door or around a corner. This is the closest I get to experiencing rawer human reactions, or they were until I met Vee.
Pulling my knife too, I yank open the door and step in, Heath by my side, and immediately scan the room for which threat to take out first.
Two men and a woman sit around a large conference table, carafes of water in front of them, alongside glasses, half-full. Each sits with arms on the table in front, talking, as if taking part in a company meeting.
The guy sitting in the centre holds up a hand to stop the others talking.
Alasdair.
Then I focus on the man beside him.
Logan.
Next to him, Breanna.
Heath drops his knife to the floor, and as my triggered power launches strength into every muscle, I hear the familiar crackle that comes with his conjured power. Easy. We do this, help Alasdair, and leave.
"Boys, please. Stand down. I'm not about to do anything."
I cock my head. Alasdair sounds different. The Scottish accent is missing and as he smiles back, his eyes transform into pure black, with an orange slit resembling a cat’s eye. Something shudders through my body and into my soul.