by CJ Lyons
He rose to his feet, towering over her, inhaling her essence and despising the mere mortals who huddled in their dark caverns, unknowing and unseeing, and he howled at the moon. This, this was life. This was why he returned. This primal hunger, this passion, this power.
The corpse in the gutter at his feet began to cool. His bloodlust grew, consuming him, vanquishing the man he once was. Now he was a creature of the night, beyond the laws of man or God.
CHAPTER 33
Half-past Dead
Jimmy forced himself awake, fought to banish the nightmare. He was pinned to the bed by a heavy weight, crushing him, stealing his breath. He panicked, his eyes flew open, and he saw the weight was Alex. How the boy's frail body could have seemed a crushing force he had no idea, but it had brought him back to reality, so that was all that counted.
He blinked, surprised that somewhere beyond the grey clouds scudding through the sky visible through the window, the sun must be up. He wanted to raise his head, look at the clock, but it took all his energy merely to keep his eyes open. And to breathe. As if his time on Earth had dwindled to the point where it was now measured in every beat of his heart.
The swoosh of the machine that kept Alex's lungs inflated mixed with the boy's raspy breaths. Jimmy inhaled and the stench of death and decay nearly choked him.
Then, before he could stop himself, he drew another breath in, this one shuddering through him, and tasted the fresh energy of youth and innocence, of a life about to be cut short, of rich blood waiting to be shed.
Jesus Mary Patrick, no! He pushed himself upright, trembling hands gently rolling Alex off his chest, freeing himself from the boy's embrace.
His palms left sweat marks on Alex's pajama tops. Then he realized his entire body had broken out in a cold sweat, drenching the sheets, turning them into clammy swaths that clung to him, holding him fast.
Jimmy reached for Grace, her touch would banish these insane feelings that threatened to devour him. She was all he needed.
Grace was gone.
That jolted him from bed. He staggered across the floor, bracing himself against the wall, as far from the sleeping children as he could get. His stomach lurched in anticipation as his gaze fell on Kat, curled up on the chair, the faint, silver light escaping the clouds bathing her in a glow of innocence.
He licked his lips, tasting blood once more, knowing the thrill of encircling her throat with his hands, squeezing the life out of her, capturing her last breath as his own.
"No!" The single syllable escaped his lips in a strangled whisper. He stumbled through the door, pulling it tight behind him, a flimsy barrier between him and madness.
His gaze darted down the hall. Where was Grace? His entire body shook with need, his legs threatened to dump him onto the floor he felt so weak.
A familiar figure beckoned to him from the janitor's closet across the hall. Jimmy slitted his eyes at the silver-haired man, now outfitted in a green custodian's jumpsuit. Leo. The devil himself.
As he staggered across the hall, he wondered how the blood of an immortal and conniving Jesuit would taste.
"Now you know why so few make it as far as you have," Leo greeted him with a knowing half-smile. "It must be difficult being here, surrounded by all this easy prey."
"You could have warned me," Jimmy said through gritted teeth. So this was how the others before him had lasted more than their allotted time--they had bought their way with the blood of innocents. Not merely blood, but devouring their energy, stealing away all that remained once they died.
"You wouldn't have believed me if I had. Besides," Leo's smile widened, "stubborn Irishman that you are, would you have really changed your mind? Turned your back on Grace when she needs you most?"
Jimmy choked back his desire to see how well his fingers fit around the monk's scrawny neck. "You know I wouldn't. But at least I would have been prepared."
Leo merely shrugged. "Too late now. Just like it's almost too late for Grace. She made the wrong choice. Sealed her fate." He scowled as if Jimmy were to blame. "And maybe, mine as well."
"What? Where is she?" Jimmy straightened, fought to clear his mind, focus on what was important, on why he had returned. How could he have allowed himself to fall asleep, to lose her again? He was meant to watch over her, protect her.
"On her way to the Tower. She broke her promise to Vincent, made a pact with Helman."
Jimmy spun on his heel, ready to bolt after Grace. "If he hurts one hair on her head, I'll throttle the man."
Leo pushed a mop and bucket against the doorway, blocking Jimmy's escape. "Now, now, Jimmy. Haven't you learned anything? You shed blood, anyone's blood, while you're here and you'll never see Grace again. You'll never be again--except as trillions of subatomic particles blasted into the void."
"Kabaam," Jimmy breathed, remembering Alex's colorful description of hell and those banished there.
"Kabaam indeed," Leo said in a dry tone. "The end of existence as you know it. The end of any hope you or Grace have of being together ever again."
He stared at the Jesuit. Hell, this was no priest, no man of God. Vampire was more like it. "But you do it. And you're still here."
Leo shook his head. "I've never killed. I merely take what is there to take already."
Now Jimmy understood. "All those years, giving comfort to the dying. Those missions to war-torn countries, to relieve suffering you said. But that's not really why you do it. You surround yourself with the dying--absorbing their energy, hoarding it, using it to keep yourself alive."
"I do what I must. I told you, I have a destiny to fulfill. One that Grace is currently jeopardizing. Only you can stop her, save her."
Jimmy nodded soberly, tilting the mop out of his way as he faced off with the so-called priest. "Save her from what? For what?"
"If you don't go now, you'll never know. Never see her again."
Grace sagged against the corner of the elevator, eyes tightly shut in an attempt to make the world stop spinning around her, ready to hurl her out into darkness. Eve's voice droned on beside her, undercutting the deafening buzz of the wasps that now spiraled through her brain, her chest, into every private crevice of her mind and body.
"I thought you were a doctor," Eve said, her fingers squeezing Grace's arm with bruising force. "How can you turn your back on all the people you could help? Even if Jonas' technique doesn't save you, he could use it to save hundreds once he perfects it. You know as well as anyone that medical breakthroughs take trial and error."
A breath of fresh air and swoosh of sound told Grace that the elevator doors had opened. Her stomach still lurched upwards. Before she had a chance to regain her equilibrium, Eve tightened her grip on Grace's arm, hauling her out of the metal box.
Grace stumbled and opened her eyes. They were at the Annex doors to the Skyway. The helipad door across the way shook as a gust of wind slammed against the building.
Pounding footsteps echoed from the stairwell beside them. The door flew open, banging against the wall with a shotgun crack.
Jimmy raced out. He stopped when he saw Grace, hands up before him as if bracing himself for a blow.
He looked so pale, as if he'd lost weight overnight. Wraithlike.
Grace shuddered at the words and wrenched her arm free of Eve, falling into his embrace. The wasps vanished, replaced by the warm constancy of his heartbeat thudding against her.
"Christ almight." His breath stirred her hair as he lowered his head to hers. "I thought I'd never see you again. Thought I'd lost you for good."
She said nothing, her fingers digging into the flesh of his back as she strained to pull him closer still. He was drenched in sweat, his chest heaving as if it took all his energy to remain here with her and for the first time she realized what his return had cost him. They clung to each other, shrouded in their separate mortalities until Eve's mincing drawl sliced between them.
"Excuse me, but y'all need to say goodbye now. Grace is a very sick woman and she ne
eds to begin her treatment. Now," she added in a commanding voice when Grace didn't relinquish her grip on Jimmy.
Grace inhaled his scent, drank him in as if he had what she needed to sustain her through eternity. His lips caressed her head, christening the shaved area where Helman had tunneled into her brain, then his fingers framed her face, raising it to meet his. Their kiss was deep, like falling into a star-filled night, familiar and comforting and passionate and magical.
Finally they parted.
"About time," Eve said, reaching a hand to take Grace's arm. No buzz of fear, not now with Jimmy holding her. Grace effortlessly shook free of the woman's grasp.
"I'll meet you on the Skyway," she told Eve, marveling at how steady and firm her voice was.
"I don't believe that's a good idea."
"You can watch me through the windows. Make sure I don't run away."
Eve gave Jimmy a long, hungry look, then shrugged her agreement. "All right, but you could just bring him along. I'd make sure he feels right at home."
Jimmy dismissed the other woman with a chuckle that rekindled Grace's resolve. "In your dreams."
She nodded to the glass door, relegating Eve to the role of spectator. "I'd like a moment with my husband."
Eve arched her eyebrow. "Didn't realize you had remarried."
Grace and Jimmy were silent, staring into each other's eyes, the other woman already forgotten. The clatter of Eve's heels echoed against the linoleum then faded away.
"I've been thinking," Grace started, leaning her body against Jimmy's, her head tilted up to meet his eyes. "All that mumbo jumbo talk about voids and dissolution, it really boils down to simple laws of physics doesn't it?"
Jimmy waited a moment before answering, busy nuzzling her hair. "If you say so. You're the scientist, the one who needs answers."
"Matter cannot be created nor destroyed, merely changed in form."
He traced a finger up the side of her body, caressing her breast. "Aye, but this is a nice bit of matter, don't you think? I'm rather partial to your form just the way it is."
"Stop it, I'm serious. If we can change from one form to another, if we can learn to do it once--why can't we do it at will?" His thumb stroked her nipple, rubbing the fabric of the scrub top over it and she sucked her breath in. How could she let him go without some hope that she might someday have him again?
He frowned, the cutest little worry line digging its way into his brow. "Something to think about, love. Anything is possible. If anyone could do it, you could."
She pressed her hips against his, turned her head to kiss the sensitive skin at the base of his neck. "I'm not talking about me, fool. I'm talking about you."
"Ach now, I'm not too sure on that. Not too sure how I got here in the first place exactly. And if I try to stay--well, let's just say the price to pay is mighty high."
She grabbed his hands, held them between them, a bridge between their hearts. "But you did get here, Jimmy. If you could do it once, you could do it again."
Silence. Her heart stuttered with disappointment. Maybe she would never see him again. No, she couldn't accept that. Not after everything they'd been through. "At least promise me you'll try?"
"For you, love. Anything." He sealed their bargain with another deep kiss that resonated through her, almost crumpling her resolve. How could she possibly leave him, face a world without him?
A sharp rapping on the Skyway door brought her to her senses. Jimmy took her hand and walked her through the doors.
She remembered their wedding day, Brother Leo beaming down on them, presenting them to a church filled with Jimmy's friends and family who had embraced this stranger from a strange land and welcomed her into their home. She'd felt so light that she was certain that her feet had never touched the ground as Jimmy led her down the aisle, proudly presenting his wife to all.
The best day of her life. No matter what had happened after, she would never forget the way he made her feel that day or regret her love for him.
She squeezed his hand, saw the gleam of tears in his eyes and knew he was thinking the same thing. Reaching her left hand up, she stroked her fingers along his cheekbone. He turned his face to kiss her palm, leaving a warm reminder of what once was.
"Watch over the kids. Keep them safe."
His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard and nodded. Her fingers lingered against his lips for a moment before she turned to follow Eve across the Skyway.
Every step brought a thunderclap of agony. Grace felt her legs shake uncontrollably as her body was wracked with nausea. She fought to keep her back straight, refusing to allow Jimmy to see her pain.
"No matter what he did," Eve was saying as she held the door to the Tower open for Grace, "Lukas Redding truly loved you. He still does. He's waiting for you."
A savage howl of agony crashed down on Grace as the door slammed shut behind her. She took one more step and fell to the ground, drowning in a black tide of pain.
CHAPTER 34
Rebel Cry
When he heard Eve Warden's words, realized what truly awaited Grace in the Tower, Jimmy catapulted himself across the divide that separated him from Grace.
And was immediately slapped back. The universe dissolved into red-hot daggers of pain.
He was hurled back along the length of the Skyway, propelled with such force that he crashed through the Annex doors and landed in a heap on the floor in front of the elevators. He rolled to his feet, shaking the sense back into his sight, ignoring the booming in his ears, and rushed through the helipad door, hoping to catch a glimpse of Grace, to somehow bring her back.
Instead, all that greeted him for his efforts was a dank, swirling mist and leaden clouds shaped like anvils pressing down so low from the heavens they felt ready to crush a puny human such as himself. He cried out, demanding attention, recourse, vengeance. Thunder swallowed his shouts of desperation and rage.
Finally, his energy spent, he sank to the grit-covered roof, his body drenched, shivering with fatigue and anger. Rain pelted him from every direction and the wind had no mercy. He gulped in deep draughts of frigid, bracing air. What was the good of coming all this way only to lose her?
Warm tears of frustration thawed the frozen skin of his face as he pounded a fist against his thigh.
Where was Leo, cursed bastard, now?
No, it was as much Jimmy's fault as Leo's. When he'd held her, she had reeked of terror, he'd tasted her fear in every kiss. Fool that he was, he'd thought it was the same old fear that had driven her into hiding for the past four years. Idiot. Arrogant bastard. He'd thought she was afraid of losing him again, of re-opening wounds still festering.
Jimmy got to his feet, pacing along the parapet parallel to the Skyway. It was painful to admit, but some small part of him had delighted in the fact that her love for him was so strong, so all consuming, that she'd sacrificed everything for it.
She'd built a life around his memory, refusing the rest of the world entry. He stopped at the edge of the roof, the closest to the Tower he could physically go, and stared across the void.
But today, it wasn't losing Jimmy that Grace was afraid of. It was facing the man who had destroyed their lives, who had almost killed her once.
Redding, the murdering bastard.
"No!" Jimmy shouted into the sky so dark that it could be noon or midnight. "I won't let you. You'll not be getting your hands on her, not again!"
The wind scudded layers of clouds aside for one brief moment. A rose-tinged shaft of golden light pierced the grey, a beacon of hope at Jimmy's feet. He stretched his arm out, the light playing off his wedding ring.
To hell with Leo and his plans to save the universe. Bugger that. He would find a way to save Grace. This time he would not fail her.
The thin sliver of light was banished as quickly as it had come. Thunder bounced off the buildings, echoing through Jimmy's head along with Leo's words. There are rules, me boy. Rules that no one can break.
"Fuck you and
the horse you rode in on!" The shout of emancipation renewed Jimmy's strength. "Fuck the rules and the universe and everyone in it! I'm not letting him win again!"
Lightning crashed between the buildings, raising the hair on Jimmy's head and blinding him for a moment. He held his ground, refusing to bow.
Then he turned. At first, his steps were the slow jerking of a marionette rebelling against its master.
Wind lashed at him, trying to force him back from the doorway, prevent him returning to the battleground, but Jimmy kept pushing forward. His legs stretched out into lengthy, purposeful strides. Then he was jogging, sprinting through the door and across the lobby, down the steps to Pediatrics.
She had told him to look to the children, keep a watch over them. She had sacrificed everything for the sake of the children.
Maybe they were Jimmy's last hope to save Grace.
Vincent should have been making rounds, but Eve had invited him to help her with Grace's brain mapping.
"A chance to see Lucidine therapy in action," she had said.
She'd seemed fine, hadn't mentioned the strange occurrences of last night. In fact, she seemed to be the only person around here who was acting normal today.
He grabbed coffee, stopped by medical records to sign some charts, then took the Tower elevator up to the ECU. He wasn't stalling because he was nervous about facing Grace, he told himself. No, not at all.
In fact, he wanted to see her, to follow her treatment course. Once the tumor was gone, things would be so much different. Maybe they could even start over...
The elevator doors slid open. Grace lay in a heap on the floor in the lobby, Eve bowed over her, trying to revive her.
"What happened?" He rushed to Grace's side. Her breathing was normal, but her color awful, skin clammy, and pulse thready.
"She fainted," Eve said, brushing wrinkles from her tailored linen slacks as she stood. "Back home we called them the vapors."
"You sure it's not the tumor? Maybe we should call Helman."