by Raven Steele
A crack as loud as thunder erupted through the cold, still air. Lucien was still running as Eve’s body flew back several feet.
Chapter 19
Lucien ignored the fact that they were in public and used his super speed to catch her unconscious body before it hit the pavement. Blood poured from an open wound in her stomach the size of a grapefruit, staining her green shirt a dark red.
He pulled off his jacket and pushed it into her gut to slow the bleeding. And even though he could still hear her heartbeat pump strong, he still panicked.
Another gunshot blast shattered the glass behind them. Eve opened her eyes.
“Help them,” she gasped. She coughed hard, spraying blood from her mouth.
He looked back to the inside of the gas station. A man with a stocking over his head had a shotgun pointed at a gas station attendant.
Eve gripped his arm.
“Go!” she ordered, her voice stronger than before.
He bolted for the broken window and jumped inside, easily avoiding the shattered glass. A mouse couldn’t have been quieter.
A female clerk behind a white counter shoved cash from a till into a plastic bag.
“And those!” the man with the gun shouted. He motioned to the cigarettes above the counter.
The woman, who sobbed uncontrollably, scooped the cigarette cartons into the bag, but when she saw Lucien approach the thief from behind, her eyes widened in hopeful anticipation. He wished she wouldn't have done that.
The man swung the shotgun around to face Lucien.
“Get down!” Lucien ordered the cashier, hoping she would have enough sense to obey.
He kicked at the steel candy bar rack standing between him and the robber. The rack flew back as if it were a small pebble snapped from a slingshot. It hit the burglar square in the chest, crushing him between the counter and the rack. The force of the blow knocked him out cold.
Lucien peeked over the cash register at the woman who huddled in a fetal position on the floor.
“It’s safe now. You can come out.” Just to be sure, he kneed Nylon Head in the face, breaking his nose. As he turned to leave, he said, “You should call the police.”
He jogged outside to return to Eve, but she was gone. He turned around in a full circle, searching desperately for her. This can’t be happening! He took a few steps back, trying to pick up her scent. Luckily, he caught it. A few more steps to the right, again the lilac smell. She was close.
He listened to the sounds around him. Approaching sirens, the clerk calling the police, a TV blaring music videos, water running, and someone moving around in a closed souvenir t-shirt shop across the street. The lights were off. Her smell grew stronger as he moved to the small store. The lock on the door had been broken.
He moved into the cramped store, which was overflowing with corny Seattle t-shirts.
“Is she okay?” Eve asked from behind a t-shirt rack. She pulled a pink one over her head.
“Is she okay? She wasn’t the one who got blasted by a shot gun!”
“I’m fine.” Eve stepped away from the rack. Her shirt read: They’re real and They’re Magically Delicious!
“Nice shirt.”
She looked down and frowned. “Perfect.”
Lucien approached her. “Truthfully, are you all right?”
“Better now. I didn’t think I was going to make it in time.”
“You didn’t make it. You were shot!”
“But I bought enough time for you to save that woman’s life, so who cares?”
“I care! Do you have any idea what it’s like to see blood pouring from you?”
“But you know I’ll live.”
“No, I don’t. How many people have been injected by immortal vampire venom? As far as I know, only one. You. No one knows what will or what won’t kill you. You can’t take chances with your life.”
“So you think I should’ve taken a chance with her life? Who says my life is more important than hers?”
“That’s not what I meant. There are other ways. You can’t go half-cocked into a situation until you know what you’re up against. You have other abilities —you’re a powerful witch, remember? Quit acting like you have to give your life for everyone you meet.” He froze and stared at her as if he’d just figured her out. “That’s it, isn’t it?”
She looked at him, chin turned up, not saying a word.
“You think that because of your past, the only way you can redeem yourself is if you die saving someone.”
She bent over and picked up her bloodied clothes and stuffed them into a plastic bag. “Nice theory, but we don’t have time to explore it.”
She turned to go out the back entrance. Not a bad idea, since the cops were surrounding the gas station across the street. But Lucien wasn't finished with the conversation. He appeared in front of her.
“I hate that,” she snapped.
“I won’t do it, Eve.”
“Do what?”
“Watch you take chances with your life.”
“Why are you worried about the wrong thing?” she asked.
“Because I’m supposed to protect you, but I can’t protect you from yourself.”
She let out an exaggerated sigh. “But I don't want your protection.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want you, Lucien. All of you, not just your obsessive need to watch over me.”
He clenched his jaw. “That’s not possible.”
“Then leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Then I’ll leave.” She turned to go, but Lucien grabbed her arm and spun her back around to him, crushing her to his chest. Heated energy passed between them so powerfully he sucked in a breath of air.
“I won’t let you leave when you just came into my life,” he said with a fierceness that surprised even him.
Her expression softened.
Lucien lifted his hand to her face and lightly touched her cheek with his fingertips. Her eyes closed at the contact. He memorized every part of her face, wishing he could capture this moment forever. His eyes settled on her lips. They were as beautiful as a rose in full bloom. Very gently, as if they were fragile, he moved his thumb over the pink flesh. Her lips parted, and her warm breath against his cold skin lit his nerves on fire. She drew it into her mouth and ran her tongue over the padding of his thumb back and forth. He moaned and gripped her to him. His thick and hard member pressed into her stomach.
Her eyelids opened, and she stared at him with longing.
He slid out his thumb from her mouth and lowered his head, just a little, as his own lips parted in anticipation of what he suddenly wanted more than life itself. Her. All of her. The air around him hummed something beautiful and majestic. A light as brilliant as the sun and as warm as a winter fire grew in time to the rising music.
Magic.
Lucien blinked and released her from his arms. He stepped back into the shadows. “You can’t use magic like that.”
“I’m not using magic,” she whispered, her voice etched with pain.
Lucien shook his head. “That wasn’t right, whatever it was.”
Anger creased her face. “It was right! It was beautiful and right and perfect. You felt it, and don’t you dare deny it!”
“I felt your magic.” He tried to keep his voice even.
“It wasn’t my magic. It was our magic. The goodness inside of us is drawn to each other.”
“I don’t do magic, and I don’t do good.”
She clenched her fists tight. “You are good, and you do have magic in you, otherwise what we just experienced could not have happened. Do you think I’m lying to you? Do you actually believe I’d trick you?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore.” He hated that she was growing angry, but he knew he hadn’t used magic.
“Then I’ll tell you what to think. You are not this horrible thing you’ve made yourself out to be. And you do have magic in you, beautiful, good ma
gic. We both do.”
“It’s not possible.”
Eve threw up her arms. “Forget about the magic. I’d give it all up for you, and do you want to know why?”
“Eve, don’t.” He stepped forward to stop her. He couldn’t bear to hear the words he felt coming.
“I love you completely, every part of me. So much it hurts. I’d give anything—”
“Please, no,” he begged.
She was about to say more when Lucien spotted two police officers crossing the street in their direction.
“We have to go.” He pulled her to the back of the store, stopping briefly when Eve tossed a twenty-dollar bill on the counter to pay for the t-shirt. He kicked open a back door. “Move quickly.”
Together they moved through the streets and away from the gas station. He clung tightly to her hand, thinking only of getting to the Deific. He didn’t allow her secret confession to enter his mind. It was too much.
Every once in a while, he caught her looking at him as if trying to read his mind, but he avoided her gaze.
When they reached the Deific, Eve stopped him. “Are you sure you want to come in? I’ll be fine inside there.”
“I would feel better if I was with you.”
Eve opened the door. Only one guard sat behind the security counter with an open bag of fast food. It was the same guard who had recognized Lucien as a vampire a couple of months ago.
“Hi, Don. How are you doing?” Eve asked.
Don smiled, but when he saw Lucien, he stood and put his hand on a weapon at his hip. It looked like a gun, but the barrel was much thinner and longer.
“Eve?” his voice warned.
She lifted her hand. “It’s okay, Don. He’s with me.”
Don moved his hand away from the weapon but didn’t sit. His steady gaze followed Lucien into the elevator.
As soon as the doors closed, Eve said, “You could’ve said hello.”
“Why should I? He already thinks I’m going to kill everyone here.”
“You could change his mind.”
“Too hard.”
“For you or for him?”
“We are what we are, Eve. I’m not going to try and convince him that I am a friendly, cuddly creature. It would be waste of both our time.”
“You forget where you are. We have vampires here, and those of us who know them treat them with the utmost respect.”
“And what about the ones who don’t know? Do you think they would be as willing to accept vampires as coworkers?”
Eve didn’t have a chance to answer; the elevator doors opened to a plush lobby. The walls were adorned with wood trim and dark paneling. A large painting of an Italian landscape hung to his left and below it were two antiqued-looking chairs.
A plump woman with long brown hair and black horn-rimmed glasses greeted Eve.
“Who’s your friend?” she asked, smiling at Lucien. Her teeth looked strangely white, almost to the point of glowing.
“This is Lucien. Lucien, this is Julie. She’s our receptionist.”
He nodded and looked away.
“Are you related? Friends?” Julie pried.
“Lucien is a very good friend of mine. He’s in town for a while, so I thought I’d show him around.”
“Well, if you get burned out from entertaining, let me know. I’d love to show him the secret night life of Seattle.”
Eve laughed. “I’m sure he’d like that. Wouldn’t you, Lucien?”
Be polite. “It sounds wonderful. If I have time then we should.”
Julie’s face lit up. “Great! Give me a call any time. Here’s my card.”
She slid it across the desk, exposing cleavage deeper than the Grand Canyon.
Lucien quickly dropped his eyes to the pink business card and scooped it up. He shoved it into a pocket he rarely, if ever, looked in.
“Is Charlie in?” Eve asked.
“Yeah, came in about ten minutes ago. He looks like crap. You can always tell when he doesn’t get a good night’s sleep.”
“Thanks, Julie.”
As Eve moved past her desk, Julie called, “By the way, Eve, I love your shirt!”
Eve lifted her hand and waved without turning around. She guided Lucien through a maze of cubicles. There were at least twenty people working, all of whom greeted her enthusiastically. They stared at him and then at Eve, hoping to receive some kind of an explanation, but she gave none.
Other than the guard downstairs, no one seemed to recognize him as a vampire. And as far as he could tell, they were regular humans with no magical abilities.
Eve turned a corner at the end of a long hall. Lucien followed behind as quietly and as closely as a shadow.
Charlie stood at an open doorway.
“I didn’t think I would beat you here,” he said with a hard edge to his voice.
Eve moved past him into the room.
“Where have you been?” Charlie demanded.
“Eve was shot.” Lucien followed after her.
“What?” Charlie cried.
Eve rolled her eyes and sat down. “Thanks, Lucien. It was nothing, really. We just ran into—”
Lucien coughed.
“I mean I ran into some trouble.”
“Do you care to elaborate?” Charlie pressed.
“I interrupted a robbery in process and got shot, but as you can see, I’m fine.”
Charlie turned on Lucien. “And where the hell were you? I thought you were supposed to protect her.”
Every muscle in Lucien’s body flexed like a pulled bow, and he took a threatening step toward Charlie.
“It wasn’t his fault,” Eve defended quickly. “He didn’t know what I was running into. I should’ve warned him.”
Charlie looked at Eve, his eyes tired. “You have to be more careful.”
“I will, I promise. I’ve already heard a lecture from Lucien. I don’t need one from you, too.”
Julie stuck her head in. “Sorry to bother you, Charlie, but you have a call.”
“Can you take a message?”
“He said it’s important.”
Eve stood. “Go ahead and take it. We’ll leave.”
“No, stay. I’ll pick it up in the conference room.”
After he left, Lucien asked, “So where’s your office?”
He moved around the room, trying to find out more about Charlie. On a wooden shelf behind Charlie’s desk was an encased, autographed New England football, a bunch of books about World War II, and a stack of magazines.
“I don’t have an office.”
“Do you have one of those cubicles out there?” The top magazine was on guns, and beneath it was a dirt bike magazine. The third one, however, was about gardening.
“No.”
Lucien turned to Eve. “So what do you do?”
“Technically I’m not an employee. I just help out whenever they need it.”
“Doing what?”
“Sometimes I’ll do research with the guys out there, other times I help Charlie. A lot of what we do is track down people who are known criminals that continually evade normal policing agencies. We have a few insiders both in the CIA and FBI who feed us information. Because of that, and the fact that some of our employees have special abilities, we are very successful. Lately we’ve been tracking down several well-known terrorists.”
“What about the real demons of the world?”
“Only a few of us know the truth. We spend our time making sure we know where they all are at all times, but it’s been difficult lately. Vampires are being turned faster than ever before.”
“Do you know why yet?”
“No.”
Charlie walked back into the room. “Sorry about that. It was Michael giving me an update.”
He sat down behind the desk.
“Anything new?” Eve asked.
Charlie opened his mouth to answer but closed it just as fast. “What’s with the shirt? Did he,” Charlie motioned his head toward Lucien, “p
ick it out for you?”
Lucien answered before Eve could. “Yes, and I got one for you, too. It says, ‘Nobody knows I’m a lesbian’. It’s in my car. Do you want me to get it?”
“Can you two just stop?” Eve pleaded. “What did Michael say?”
Lucien kept his cool eyes on Charlie, just waiting for him to say something else.
“Michael finally got an invitation to the rumored meeting,” Charlie said. “Supposedly the Dark Prince will be there. We’ll know more in a few days.”
“Good. Is there anything you’d like me to help out with today?”
“Alana sent over a bunch of pictures Michael took of vampires. Would you mind cross-referencing them with our database, see if we already know some of them? And if we don’t, could you add them?”
“Sure, no problem.”
“As for you, Valium, you can leave. I can watch Eve here.”
“I don’t need to be watched,” Eve corrected.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he told Charlie. He could see what Charlie was trying to do, and he wasn’t about to fall for it.
“If you two keep fighting, you can both leave.” She exited the room.
“Now look what you did,” Charlie said and followed after her.
Lucien shook his head. It was going to be a long day.
He crossed the room to the window and peered up, thinking of Ireland. Overcast gray sky, edges of the clouds etched in black. In the north, darkness grew.
A storm was coming.
Chapter 20
Lucien sat across from Eve in a long room with an equally long table. A dry erase board hung in the front with unreadable words, written by someone with very poor handwriting. Lucien guessed Charlie’s.
Eve had several photos on the table in front of her. Next to her was a laptop. “Do you want to look through some of these? Maybe you’ll know someone.”
“I won’t.”
She stared at him briefly and then returned to her work, quietly and efficiently. A strand of golden hair fell in front of her face. She ignored it and continued to work diligently. Now that they were alone, Lucien let himself think back to her confession. He could’ve believed more easily that the world was flat than that she could love him, and yet she did. He saw it in her eyes and felt it in her touch.