LILITH (DEMONOLOGY I)

V

I didn't even remember falling asleep. It seemed like one second I was with Thalia running tests, and the next I was lying awake in completely different clothes and in a really posh bedroom. For a second, I thought everything was a dream. That I was at a friend's house and my dad was fine. That I was just a normal person and my whole life wasn't a lie. But, of course, that wasn't the case.

I sat up, sending searing pain through my arm. I looked down at it. It was still red and sore from yesterday's tests. We probably ran no more than ten tests, but it felt like hundreds. I tried rubbing my arm, but that only made it worse. Wincing, I worked my way off the bed. There was a window, but when I looked out, all I saw were clouds. Thalia wasn't kidding about moving with the clouds.

Slowly, I eased open the bedroom door. Before me was a long hallway. At the end was a staircase. I tiptoed my way down. The setup of this house was so similar to my house in Cameron. In fact, it was practically identical. Three rooms upstairs - two of them being bedrooms and one an office. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I gasped. The two old armchairs from my house were there, on the same dull gray rug that my dad had bought years ago. It even had the same crappy box TV.

"Do you like it?"

I turned to find my mother sitting at a table - my table, from my kitchen. "Like" wasn't the word I would use. It was relaxing, but nostalgic. It almost hurt to be back in my house.

"It's amazing," I lied. "But how did you manage to get all this here? It hasn't even been a whole two days yet since . . ."

"Your father's death," she finished. It hurt to hear her say it, but it would have hurt more to hear myself say it. "I knew you wouldn't adjust to the new environment well, once we found you."

"Speaking of which, did you really have to kidnap every teenage boy in North America just to find me?"

"We weren't sure where to look, at first, and how to go about finding you. We looked in your father's hometown. We searched all of Huntington Beach. After that, we decided to methodically search all of North America. The Council had their doubts, and tried to shut down the operation several times, but it all paid off. As to how we went about trying to find you, approaching every teenager who matched your description and telling them that their mother was an angel wasn't a good idea, so we used trickery. True, we had to 'redirect' a few lives in the process, but this was important to me, to all of us on the council. If the other side gets their hands on a Nephilim, they could easily jeopardize us. At that point, it wasn't just a matter of getting back my son, but a matter of stopping the enemy."

"But what about killing my dad? Was that a part of the plan?" My voice was shaky, and I was biting back tears. Even if all the things she had said about my father were true, murdering him in cold blood right before my very eyes wasn't the way to get him back.

She pursed her lips together and walked over to the large bay window at the front of the house and drew back the curtains. "It wasn't in my original plan, but the Council needed something more from me. We used up a lot of our resources trying to find you. Your father was a criminal, and since he escaped captivity, he was considered a lethal threat, a lethal threat that had to be taken care of immediately. I tried to convince them not to - for your sake - but they didn't budge. Listen, I know this is important to you, but we have to focus. Don't think you're safe just because we found you. As long as the enemy roams free, you and all the other Nephilims in the world are in danger."

I tried to recollect myself. "Okay, so what do you plan to do about it? You said I could join you in your field of work - what exactly does that mean?"

"Let me show you." She outstretched a hand. I hesitated for a second. She was definitely motherly, but I wasn't sure I fully trusted her yet. I took her hand anyways. What else what I was supposed to do?