but he had damn near a hundred pounds on her and a foot or more in height. Using the grappling skills Rafe all but beat into him and the advantage of strength, he locked his legs around her hips and rolled. He peered at her. “What are you going to do?” he taunted.
She tried to kick out her legs, but the iron strength of his thighs pinned them to the floor. When she lifted her upper body to throw him off-balance, he quickly forced her back. “Well,” she sputtered, “apparently you are very adept at grappling.”
He grinned. “Now you want to tell me I’m not ready? When I took you out?”
“Well, shit.” She smiled. “You just might be ready.”
Staring at her, he laughed. “That’s all I’ve wanted to hear.”
She frowned. “Good. Now get off me.”
He rolled off and sat cross-legged beside her. “I can’t believe I actually got one up on you. I’m kind of impressed with myself.”
Slowly, Lily sat up and looked at him. “Don’t get too big of a head. It was only once.”
“We could go again, but I feel bad about beating up on a chick.” He grinned, but it quickly faded as another reality settled in. “Shit. You know what I just realized?”
“What?”
“Some of those deadheads and minions will be females.” He shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Man, besides that deadhead in the stairwell that day, I’ve never hit a female in my life.”
“Well,” she said slowly. “Don’t look at them as females, you know? And trust me, when the first one tries to rip out your intestines, you’ll get over it pretty quickly.”
“Hopefully they all try that then. I won’t have such a complex.”
Lily smiled. It seemed to Michael some of the tension had eased from her body. He watched her for a few seconds, wondering what it must’ve been like for her to grow up in this world. When he asked, he was surprised that she answered.
“It’s hard to explain,” she said. “The Sanctuary became my family, you know? And all of this—the fighting and the craziness—is second nature to me. Some days nothing shocks me.”
“And others?”
She lifted her head, eyes large and somewhat distant. “Some days I wish I was you and no one had found me.”
“I don’t know. Living and not knowing what I was? All of this would’ve been easier. I could have avoided years of feeling like there was something more I should be doing.” He laughed, shaking his head. “I know that sounds lame.”
“No! No. It doesn’t sound lame. Did you really feel that way?”
He nodded, relieved he was actually holding a normal conversation with someone. “I always felt like I was missing something, like a purpose.”
“Wow,” she murmured. “I had no idea.”
He started to respond but was cut off by an alarming amount of yelling. Lily shot to her feet, then headed toward the door. Nearly ripping it from the hinges, she threw open the door.
Michael followed her into the hallway. The brightness of the corridor cast a harsh light on the scene before him. Farther down toward where the labs were, Lily had been brought to a standstill.
Part of him wished he hadn’t followed her. He had seen a lot of bad things in his life, but…this was by far the worst thing he had ever seen.
Luke and Danyal supported a man slumped between them; his head fell forward and blood streamed from his messy blond hair. Michael couldn’t even tell what the color of his shirt had once been. Soaked with blood, it had been ripped open, and strips of flesh hung from his bones.
They took a step, and the thing lifted his face, letting out a howl that turned Michael inside out. The Nephilim was utterly unrecognizable. Deep cuts ran from his scalp down to his chin, exposing tissue and muscle.
“Micah?” Lily gasped.
The receptionist from the lobby hovered behind them with a cell pressed to her ear. Her normally manicured exterior showed cracks as she ran a hand over her tightly crafted coif. “I don’t give a flying shit who you are,” she hissed into the phone. “Or what dinner I’m interrupting! If you don’t get Dr. Winchester on the phone right now, it will be your job and your head!”
“What happened?” Lily asked.
“I don’t know,” Danyal answered, visibly shaken. “Luke found him.”
Sandy flipped her phone shut. “The doctor is on his way. I’ll get Nathaniel.” She raced down the hallway.
Lily followed them into a room. “Luke?”
Luke guided the wounded man toward the bed. “Lily, you should leave.”
She stood defiant. “What happened to him?”
“I have never seen anyone this bad before.” Danyal grunted as he helped Luke lift the man onto the gurney. “I don’t know if he’s going to make it.”
Micah moaned, prying one bloodstained eye open. “He…he did this to me.”
Danyal moved to Micah’s side. “Shush, don’t talk. It’s going to be all right. The doc is on his way. He’s going to fix this.”
“He did…this.” Blood trickled from his mouth.
Lily leaned forward, but Luke grabbed her arm, swinging her away from the gurney.
She pulled out of his grasp. “Luke, what the hell happened out there?”
Luke cursed, rummaging through the cabinet until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a box of needles and a bag of tranquilizer potent enough to take out a horse.
Danyal stripped off the remains of Micah’s shirt, exposing what was left of him. Lily covered her mouth, stepping back into Michael. He steadied her, tried to be some comfort, but even he had to look away.
Luke jabbed the needle into Micah’s arm as he whispered to him. Within seconds, the Nephilim drifted off into unconsciousness. Luke pushed away from the bed, closing his eyes briefly. When they reopened, his pale eyes found Lily.
Call it intuition or a terrible sense of foreboding, but Michael placed his hand at the small of Lily’s back.
“What?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
“It was Julian who did this to him,” Luke said, never once breaking eye contact with Lily.
Her face paled to the point that Michael feared she’d pass out. “No. He wouldn’t…” She turned to Danyal, who had retreated to a corner. “He didn’t.”
Danyal peered up through his fingers. “It is true.”
“I saw him do it, Lily!” Luke said, holding her gaze. “You should have let Micah kill him when he had the chance. Now look what’s happened to him. Your precious Julian did this. This is what you’ve risked everything for!”
“That’s enough, Luke,” Nathaniel ordered coolly as he entered the room.
“Enough?” He turned to him. “Will it be enough when we carry Danyal back here? When we carry Lily? Will it be enough then? He’s a Fallen! This is what they do!”
Lily tore away from them, storming from the room, her eyes glinting with horror and anger. Michael started after her.
“Let her go, Michael.” Nathaniel turned to the receptionist. “When will the doctor be here?”
She cleared her throat, her eyes fastened to Nathaniel. “Should only be a few minutes.”
“Please make sure Lily is in her room. Lock her in if necessary.” He faced Michael. “You should leave,” Nathaniel ordered quietly. “You don’t need to see this.”
It was too late for wiping this memory from his head. Staring down at Micah sprawled lifelessly across the gurney, he now saw firsthand the violence between the Nephilim and the Fallen. Never had he seen such utter destruction or so much blood. It pooled on the floor beneath the bed in such great amounts that Micah shouldn’t even be alive at this point.
“Are you sure it was Julian?” Nathaniel asked as he placed his hand over Micah’s head. His intense stare met Luke. When the Nephilim nodded, he rose. “Where did this happen?”
“I don’t know,” Danyal answered.
