Heartbreaker

by Romy Lockhart

  Well look at that, I did manage to relax her a little. She lays her head on my shoulder again as we drive out into the desert. The car is way past the speed limit but the road is empty and we have a cop at the wheel. Nothing bad is going to happen. Only good.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Eden

  I guess this time I’ll be awake for the helicopter ride. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, honestly. I’m sick to death of feeling like a walking bag of nerves.

  The guys talk all the way to there, making plans. I only step in when they start to argue over who’s going on the helicopter ride with me. Apparently there won’t be room for all of us.

  “Nick should come with me,” I say, earning a smile from Nick and a scowl from Logan.

  “Right,” Nick says quickly. “That’s decided.”

  “It’s probably the best choice anyhow,” Eli says, a wry smile on his lips as he turns slightly to catch my eye in the rear view mirror. “If Asher’s hurt I think he’ll feel better about Nick being the one to drive his car back to Rapture.”

  I smile at his reasoning. It’s true. Asher knows Nick appreciates his car enough to not mind too much if he drives it. He knows it’ll be safe with Nick; that he’ll take care of it.

  “We should drive back to Rapture once we get Eden and Nick to the helicopter,” Logan says. “Check on things at the house.”

  Eli nods. “Sounds like a plan.”

  The rest of the drive is in relative silence. It passes quickly and in the blink of an eye the car is stopping and Nick is opening my door. I feel like my heart’s going to beat out of my chest as we walk towards the helicopter. Nick takes my hand.

  “So I’m the favorite today then?” Nick asks.

  I just smile at him. Truth is, I can’t see Asher being fine with Logan seeing him at his most vulnerable, and I can’t imagine Nick and Logan spending time alone together without seriously pissing each other off. This was the only combination that I thought might work.

  We get into the helicopter and the noise makes talking impossible.

  Nick keeps my hand in his the whole ride there. We land about a mile from the place where Asher is, and I don’t know how to explain it, but I know exactly where to go. The field is close to a forest and it’s like I can sense a path directly to him.

  I get out carefully and move quickly. Nick has to rush to catch me up.

  “It should be this way,” he yells as the helicopter takes off, his phone in hand with a map on the screen.

  “I know,” I call back, smiling when he takes my hand once more.

  We rush into the woods.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Asher

  Most houses that appear spooky under moonlight are less so before nightfall. This particular house doesn’t need darkness to be eerie. The overgrown gardens and ivy-lined walls lend to this appearance, as do the slightly rusted iron gates.

  “I assume you brought stakes?” Grace asks, pulling my attention back to the fact that I have a tag-along for this little personal mission.

  Again, I consider telling her that the Goddess isn’t a vampire. She seems so convinced. I don’t want her to try anything crazy, but I also don’t want to have to come up with some other explanation for this supernatural insanity. I clear my throat. “Leave the killing to me. You need to find your brother and get him out of there. Find the others.”

  “I don’t have that compulsion thing you have, in case you didn’t notice.”

  Shit. She’s right. We probably need to stick together. At least until we find the Goddess.

  “Okay. Where would she normally be around this time of day?”

  Grace looks around. Her gaze fixes on the clock. “This time? She’s usually waking up.”

  It’s almost three p.m. “Seriously?”

  She nods. “I know, right? Seems kind of early for a vampire. The sun’s still up and everything.”

  “We’re going in and you’re going to point the way to where she sleeps.” Right after I check the kitchen. I’d rather deal with all of the captives first, but honestly, there may not be time. The element of surprise is all I have here and I’d best use it well.

  “So I don’t get a stake, like even for my own protection?”

  I hold back a sigh. “You wouldn’t know how to use it anyway.”

  “So I won’t have a fighting chance if whatever you’re planning to do fails.”

  She really won’t. Guilt hits hard. I can’t fail. “I won’t fail.”

  Huffing, she pushes the car door open and gets out, slamming it shut.

  I get out and rush after her as she sprints to the gates and slips through the tiny opening. I have to shove it a little to get through. I grab hold of Grace’s arm before she can run.

  She frowns at me. “Hey, daywalker, I don’t appreciate being manhandled.”

  “Don’t run off like that. I don’t want to have to rescue you again.” I let her go and she falls into step beside me.

  “I want to watch you kill her,” she says, as we reach the door.

  “You can’t.”

  “I want to be sure she’s dead.”

  This girl is going to drive me totally insane.

  “Just follow my instructions and everything will go to plan.” At least I sound as if I know what I’m doing.

  She doesn’t answer me, but she follows me inside and appears to be waiting for me to lead the way.

  “Where’s the kitchen?”

  She points and lets me lead. The kitchen isn’t far away. I blow out a breath when I lock eyes on my father. He’s standing by the back door, a blank expression on his face and his posture rigid.

  I glance at Grace. “Where’s everyone else?”

  She shrugs. “Probably in their rooms.”

  “All of them next to hers?”

  She nods. Should make this easier, as long as the Goddess doesn’t catch us before we get these people out of her house.

  I move quickly toward my dad, and touch his hand when I reach him. “Wake up, Dad. It’s time to go home.”

  Eden’s light works its magic and his expression becomes confused before his skin pales and his eyes become frantic.

  “Honor. Where’s Honor?”

  He doesn’t recognise me yet, but my mother seems to be at the forefront of his thoughts.

  “She’s fine, already safe. You need to leave now. Go to the car outside the gates and wait for us.”

  “Where is she? You have to tell me where she is.”

  “She’s home, already,” I tell him, softly, leading him forward. “We came to bring you back there too.”

  He’s back to looking confused now. “I don’t understand.”

  Grace clears her throat loudly and motions to her wrist when I glance her way. She’s quite right to point out that this is taking too long. I sigh and command my father to do what I already tried to simply ask. He moves swiftly and we go out into the hallway. Grace heads for a staircase. I follow only once I witness my dad leave the house.

  My stomach is clenching. I know I’m not going to feel better until he’s home and safe. Until all of us are. Grace moves swiftly and carefully up the stairs and I follow her, getting ready to use Eden’s power on the bitch who enslaved my parents.

  My partner in crime points to a set of double doors at the end of the hallway. I nod. They’re closed.

  Grace shrugs at me, wanting to know what’s next.

  I lean in and whisper, “Find out where the others are, and open the doors to their rooms. I’ll be back when it’s done.”

  She frowns at me, muttering under her breath quietly as she checks the rooms.

  I head straight to the Goddess, ready to make this insane attempt to stop her. On my own. With only the slightest hint of an idea at how Eden does this. I must have a death wish.

  I open the doors and step into darkness. The room seems windowless. I search for a light switch and find out the room has been painted black, but that isn’t the most unusual feature of
the room. The crimson light that comes from above is strange, but it’s the huge black coffin in the dead centre of the room that makes me pause.

  For a split second, all of Grace’s vampire talk comes rushing back to me and I wonder, briefly, if such a thing might actually exist. Then the lid of the coffin creaks open and the Goddess inside sits up, to smirk in my direction.

  “Who dares disturb my slumber?” she asks as she steps out of the satin-lined coffin.

  She’s dressed in black silk and comes toward me at a languorous pace.

  I reach out and take her hand in mine, sending Eden’s light into her and finding out that she actually believes she’s a vampire. Not a blood-sucker, but a devourer of souls. She’s lost her mind.

  “Asher Reynolds,” she says, looking me over. “Not a private detective, after all. A librarian. How droll.”

  The spark of attraction she feels isn’t for my physical appearance. She thinks because I broke her hold, that I might be someone she could call an equal. Someone she could experience love with.

  I know how I should play this, but the thought sickens me. I break physical contact and smile.

  “I never thought I’d find another vampire in this lifetime.”

  “And yet here we are.”

  I nod, wondering at how little she took in when she saw into me. Her focus seems off. Maybe she just saw what she wanted to see. “Here we are.”

  “You want something from me,” she says, glancing me up and down.

  “I’ve been cursed,” I lie, wondering if it could really be this easy. I suppose I’m about to find out.

  “Cursed?” her dark eyes light up, as if she’s intrigued. “Do tell.”

  “I’ve been looking for another of my kind for years. I don’t have long left to find someone to join with. Another hour and I’ll be dust on the wind.”

  “Then why did you run away before?” She raises an eyebrow.

  “I killed the girl you put me in that room with. I didn’t want you know. I hid her body in the woods and came back.” I’m probably only digging a deeper hole for myself here, but I don’t seem to be much good at coming up with decent lies on the spot like this.

  “Hmm.” Her gaze fixes on my face.

  “Do you think you could love me?” I’m going to run out of time if I don’t get this done fast. She’ll figure out I’m a liar, or she’ll decide she’s not interested. I can’t let her have too much time to think.

  “Did you drink that girl’s blood?” Her stare tells me my answer’s going to make her mind up for her.

  If I did, maybe I’m the wrong kind of vampire. If I didn’t, maybe she’ll wonder why I killed the girl instead of keeping her around as a slave. I doubt a woman this powerful and narcissistic will want to hear that I have abilities she doesn’t, so I shake my head.

  “That’s a myth,” I tell her. “We don’t do that. I discovered the girl had no soul left to take and decided she wasn’t useful in any other way so I disposed of her.”

  Her eyes seem to sparkle. The red-lit room is starting to give me a headache, but I’m certain the Goddess is close to her decision now. It won’t be much longer until I’m able to turn her mortal.

  “We can travel the world,” she says, “devouring souls until we have an army of slaves at our disposal.”

  I really hope she doesn’t see into my head when we have to touch again. If she looks, she’ll know this is a fake-out. I don’t think she’ll take it well.

  “I need you to tell me you love me,” I say. “It’s all that will save me. And you have to mean it.”

  She reaches out and touches my chest, where my heart is. I fill my thoughts with Eden, and the love I have for her. Her light spills from me into the troubled Goddess. I see it when her eyes fill with that positive emotion, when she makes the decision to love a complete stranger, to be free of the loneliness she’s been sinking in for decades. “I do love you, Asher.”

  My heart breaks a little for this lost woman as she stumbles back, her face changing. The golden glow of Eden’s light flashes and leaves the room. The Goddess has been made mortal. She’s gone from a raven-haired thirty-something in appearance to a frail old woman with a wispy white mane and wrinkled skin. She steps out of her shoes and groans in agony.

  “You can’t hurt anyone anymore.” My voice sounds as hollow as this victory.

  She looks down at herself and tears leak from her eyes. “What is this? What did you do to me?”

  Guilt flashes through me. She’s so old, and she’s so lost. Whatever she did, she wasn’t capable of really knowing what was going on. That doesn’t make her any less dangerous. It just makes this feel wrong. I can’t leave her here like this. She can barely stand.

  The doors burst open and Grace darts into the room with a fire poker in her hand. She frowns when she sees the old woman crying as she sinks to the ground.

  “What the heck? Where’s the vampire?”

  “There was no vampire,” I tell her, finally. “We need to leave.”

  I make it a command and she scowls at me as I take her out into the hall.

  There are men standing around, frowning and murmuring. The Goddess’s spell has been broken. They’re waking up. “Everyone outside. It’s time to go home.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Eden

  We get to the house in the woods as a swarm of people move towards Asher’s car. I recognise his father standing by the side of the BMW, looking dazed. Recognition lights his features as his gaze drifts to me. I smile tentatively as I approach.

  “Mr. Reynolds.” I greet him with a hug, which doubles as a check up into his emotional state. He’s been through hell and back, used as a slave to a Goddess who believed she was draining the souls from her captives. I use my light to heal the worst of his pain.

  “Eden, I can’t believe it’s you,” he murmurs as we part.

  I gaze past him as Asher comes out of the house, a teenage girl in a snit at his side. I concentrate, but I can’t sense another Goddess here. He already made her mortal?

  “Sorry, Mr. Reynolds, I need to speak with your son for a minute.” I rush toward Asher as he comes through the gate.

  Shocked eyes give way to a passionate embrace. His kiss is fuelled by something more than desire. There’s sadness underneath this feeling that I don’t quite understand.

  The huffing noise at our side makes him break away with a heart-felt sigh.

  “What happened?” I raise my eyebrows at him, glancing at the girl and wondering if she might have been the Goddess.

  She rolls her eyes at me and pokes Asher in the side. “You don’t let me kill the vampire and she’ll only do this shit all over again.”

  Asher shakes his head. “I already told you, Grace. There’s no vampire.”

  “Okay, now I really need an explanation.”

  He smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “When we’re alone.”

  Right. I look around. “There are a whole bunch of people here.”

  “I know,” he says, “Someone should start driving them back to town. They were held captive here for God knows how long.”

  Captive by a Goddess that Asher managed to deal with on his own. It’s impressive. It’s also insane.

  “I should check them all over,” I say quietly. There are two concerns here. One, the abuse these people have suffered and the damage it did to them. Two, the story they have that they’re going to tell the police. I need to know what happened in that house.

  Grace swings the fire poker in her arm like a baton. She smiles falsely at me as I go toward her.

  “Hey, are you okay?” I touch her shoulder and find out she was captive for a few weeks after finding out her brother had been captive for years by what she thinks is a vampire. I don’t think I need to worry about this story outing Goddesses to the world. I don’t need to worry about this girl’s mental or emotional state either. She seems fine.

  “Yeah. Just kind of disappointed,” she says, looking me over.
Why couldn’t the daywalker be dating Katy Perry?

  I hold back my snort of laughter until she moves toward one of the guys who seems ecstatically happy to see her. He lifts and twirls her around in a circle before setting her down and hugging her close.

  Asher wraps an arm around me. He still feels kind of depressed, and I see why when I send my light into him. He made a mentally unstable Goddess mortal. He feels terrible for the poor lost soul, even if she did monstrous things.

  “Asher, it’s impossible not to feel something when you see into someone that deeply,” I tell him. “It might hurt now, but it won’t forever.”

  “She was so lost, Eden. I felt like an asshole for tricking her.” He clears his throat. “Don’t get me wrong, it had to be done. She stole so much from these people. She thought she was devouring their souls.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Inside. She’s old, Eden. No threat to anyone now. I can take you to her.”

  I nod. “Let me just check everyone over out here first, then Nick can start driving them back to town.”

  ***

  It takes a while to check everyone, to give them a little boost. Nick has done two trips by the time Asher takes me into the house. The room he leads me to is down a long hallway. I can hear soft, pained weeping from inside. I squeeze Asher’s hand as I step into the room. The red light in the dark room is creepy, as is the unexpected coffin in the middle of the floor.

  The old woman looks like death. I sink to my knees in front of her and take her hand in mine.

  She’s close to the end, having lived for close to two centuries. It’s only a matter of time.

  I give her all that I can, sending light into her body to ease her pain as her spirit departs from her physical form.

  “I never knew love,” she whispers as her eyes close.

  “You will, in the next life,” I promise, as she stills.

  Asher helps me up and we leave the house together. It’s time to go home.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Nick