LAILAH
TWENTY-SEVEN
"She better not be fucking damaged, I told you not to hit them going that fast," an angry voice snapped.
"Fuck off, Bill," another grumbled. "We had to make sure the rest of them were taken out so we didn't have to fight them all. It worked and all of them are alive, just like we were ordered to make sure happened. Now, if you're done being a little bitch, could you help me get them in the truck?"
I felt myself being lifted and I groaned at the movement.
My head was pounding, and everything felt sore-- almost like I was hit by a truck.
As much as I wanted to stay conscious to figure out what was going on or if the others were okay, that was dashed when they chucked me into the back of the truck.
I landed with a thud on the hard metal surface, then was shoved deeper until I thudded into something solid and unmoving making me whimper.
"You trying to get yourself killed?"
"Look she made a noise, it's fine, she'll live. Now we need to tie up these assholes so they can't use their magical weapons to get free."
"If we get in trouble just know I am completely fine throwing you under the bus. That Lilith bitch is fucking crazy. I'm not going to be one of her punching bags when things don't go her way."
"Pussy."
"Yeah--but still alive."
The sound of another body getting tossed in and shoved should have warned me what was coming but I didn't have the ability to move, let alone protect myself. When the body slammed into me, I had the glimmer of a thought that it was Brayden and he was alive, before I was lost to the world again.
As my senses started returning, hearing was the first to arrive, having been drawn out by the talking that was happening around me.
"Tell me, when I said that I needed her alive and unharmed was I not clear enough?" a female voice purred dangerously. "Because it seems that she is alive—just barely, which was not the agreement!"
"Listen bitch, I don't know who you think you are, but we did the job for you, now give us the rest of the money you owe us," one of the male voices from before snarled.
A maniacal laugh seemed to burst out from the woman. "You think I'm going to pay you after you failed to do the job? Oh, you poor foolish human, no I have something better in mind for you."
I finally got the energy to attempt to open my eyes, only to be greeted by the sight of Lilith cutting off a man's head with her claws to have it roll over towards me.
Lilith turned to face me, but I snapped my eyes closed so she still thought that I was unconscious, trying to figure out what the hell happened to us.
It was clear that Lilith was behind this, but it didn't really explain why she attacked us the way she did.
How had she known we left the house? Did they have someone watching?
Why didn't she take the guys when they left with my parents?
"Come now Lailah, I know you're awake," Lilith chided me as a claw ran along the side of my face.
"Thankfully, there is no lasting damage other than a concussion and some bruising.
I did tell them to be gentle with you, I promise.
" Resigning myself to the situation, I opened my eyes to see her face right in front of mine.
A smile bloomed across her face. "There you are, it's good to see there wasn't any brain damage. "
Gripping my shoulders, she pulled me into a sitting position leaning me against the wall, so I didn't have to hold myself up. I took a moment to look around the space and found that we were in another type of factory, but this one looked like it’s been abandoned for quite some time.
Dust and cobwebs covered every flat surface and dust motes floated through the air on a breeze that was flowing through the space from some unknown source.
"The place isn't much to look at but, someone, was responsible for exposing our last base of operations to the Elementi," Lilith sighed, as she stood. "Now we're stuck in this shit hole."
Groaning as I lifted a hand to press to my pounding head, I searched for the guys.
Something told me I knew they had been brought with us, but everything was so fuzzy I couldn't remember why I knew that.
Nothing about the area I could see told me that I was correct in thinking that, seeing as the only other person around was the dead man whose detached head was staring at me.
Why wasn't that bothering me more? It's not normal to have zero reaction to a severed head with blood leaking out of it... right?
"Where are they," I croaked out.
"Hmm?"
"The others. Where are they?"
A look of understanding appeared on her face as if she'd all but forgotten about them. "Oh them, they're alive."
"That's not what I asked. Where are they?"
Letting out a huff, Lilith put her hands on her hips. "Well, if I tell you that, then you'll go find them and I can't have you doing that. You're already fully Bonded to four of them, but thankfully I got the last one to break his Oath so there's still a chance I can make this work."
"You did that on purpose?" I snapped, anger coursing through my body.
Lilith clicked her tongue at me. "If you Bonded with all of them, then I wouldn't be able to use your body.
Just because the Dark Lord was leaving you alone for the past few months, doesn't mean he wasn't keeping an eye on you.
You hold a part of him inside you. It's like a GPS for him to find you wherever and whenever he wants to.
His plan to turn you into my conduit didn't work, so I had to come up with one of my own once I knew who all the players were.
The knight who is ruled by his heart was the easiest to go after, since throughout history they are known to be fickle. "
"Mozog didn't seem to know who Phoebe was though, I heard him talking to the person who brought her to the power plant," I argued. "How could you have set this all up without his help?"
"God, you're kind of stupid aren't you," Lilith sniffed.
"He has been supplying me bodies for months while I set this in motion.
Some were more useful than others, but I worked with what I had to get the job done right.
Phoebe got the internship and came out here, where she met your brother who was a total sucker for a woman with major daddy issues.
It was easy enough to get them to fall for each other, with some influence on our part.
" Lilith tapped her chin as she thought about something.
"Personally, I wanted the jaded fire knight to be the one to break your heart.
I set up everything up, but I underestimated how much he really loved you. "
"Micah, what does he have to do with this?"
"Did you really think his aunt was smart enough to pull a move like changing the one major thing required for him to take over the trust and other investments?" Lilith shot back.
I frowned at that.
"Oh my, did he not tell you that he had to be married?
It used to be that he had to graduate college to get access to the full trust and ownership of the businesses, but someone changed things and got the board to vote.
They felt that a wife would be better stability for Micah than an education and working his way up to the position of power.
Little did they know, that dear sweet jaded Micah never wanted a wife or to be married, because it was just too painful for him if he ever lost another person he loved.
Not to mention, the pain for said wife if he died on her.
" Now pacing, she chewed on her lip glancing at me and her watch.
"I thought for sure it would be enough to send him running for the hills after seeing what a hot mess you were after what happened with the Dark Lord, but nooo, he had to go against the plan.
Thank Satan I had backup plans for the other two you hadn't bonded with. "
"You have a plan for Jay as well?"
Lilith rolled her eyes. "Come on girl keep up will you, I know you smashed your brain, but really is it that hard to think like a demon?"
Other than myself, there wasn't much that Jay held with enough value to be swayed by... except for one other person. "What have you done with his mother?"
"See, it wasn't that hard to figure out," Lilith praised, clapping her hands. "His mother is lovely by the way, very sweet pure soul that one."
"Again, that doesn't tell me what you did to her."
"Can't you let me have a little fun with you?
Once I take over your body, we won't get to talk like this, and for some odd reason I just find you fascinating.
" Glowering at her, she pouted and sighed.
"Fine, be that way. Currently, she is spending some quality time with two of the Dark Lord’s pet demons that he rules over.
They can't really be trusted around large groups of humans.
They tend to draw attention to themselves with how messy they slaughter them.
On the other hand, they are the best at running the training camp preparing our new puppet soldiers to fight your Elementi forces.
See once the Dark Lord and I join forces with my new body and powers, you'll give me then the world is ours! "
Over my dead body was that ever going to happen. Now that I knew her full agenda, I needed to come up with a plan to stop it from happening.
"Will you at least let me say goodbye to them?" I asked.
Lilith gave me a scathing look. "Don't try to play me, Lailah, we've already established you're not smart enough for that. Besides, there is no time. Mozog will be back with the last few things we need and then you'll become my personal puppet."
"How do you know this is going to work, when the Dark Lord couldn't do it when we were next to your real body in Hell."
"That was the problem, he shouldn't have taken you to Hell to begin with," she stated. "But the biggest game changer is going to be that you'll invite me in all on your own."