I took a deep breath in and pulled my gaze away from his magnetic form, then leaned back and watched the sun dip below the horizon. I was guessing we were about an hour behind Rio here. It had just gone dark at Copacabana when Gabriel spirited me away and now the dark was bleeding into the sky in the Bahamas too.
How the hell was I getting out of this? I could have just left Lutin here and begun exploring. Going inland didn't look like a safe bet. Bare feet and wearing only a skimpy bikini, didn't bode well for a jungle-like scene. Following the beach would have been the best bet, but I was thinking Lutin was not stupid, he'd chosen our island well. There'd be no village with helpful locals to dial up a rescue mission here. I was on my own and would have to deal with the situation myself. Typical.
I stroked my Light cloak mentally and made sure it was snug. Lutin was not going to get the better of me, that much I was sure.
A low groan came from beside me and Lutin rolled onto his side.
“If you try anything, anything at all, I will punch you again even harder,” I said evenly as his eyes peeled open and he blinked at me. “Not to mention smashing you with my Light.”
“Elska?” he asked, his voice a little shaky.
“New rules Prince of Ljósálfar,” I said, stabbing a finger into his chest. “You do not get call me elska. My name is Lucinda to you. Got it?”
He just looked at me and blinked slowly. I could see the cogs whirring inside his head. Things had not gone as he had planned, but so far all was not lost. His eyes began swirling a maelstrom of greens, hypnotic and mesmerizing, but failing to pull me in. My cloak was working.
“Oh, what big green eyes you've got, grandma,” I said and batted mine back at him.
He was up and standing over me in a second. I'd forgotten how fast he could move. Not like a vampire, a flash of colours and then they were there. The space around Lutin had warped a little and he had simply stepped through it to get to where he now stood. I realised in that second, that it was the shimmer I had seen in the bar. Fey distorted the air around them. Impressive and also a little scary. Just what could they achieve when space was at their mercy?
I held his gaze with a look of defiance. “Things not going your way, Lutin?” I asked innocently. “I'm not begging for it, like I'm supposed to? I guess you're going to have use that famous charm of yours instead. Win me over with chocolates and roses. A bottle of wine wouldn't go astray too.”
He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly as if counting to ten in his head. The tension in his shoulders began melting away with the air as he released it through his lips.
“Why are you fighting this, Lucinda?” Well hell, he'd used my name, things were looking up. “We are meant to be together. We fit. Your Light calls to mine and mine to yours. It is not something to fear, but to cherish. I will always cherish you.”
I stood up and brushed the sand off my rear. I had a couple of different ways I could handle this. At the moment I held most of the power. Well, apart from being on an island I couldn't name and no way of getting home. But, he no longer had influence over me. Not that I wasn't aware that he was constantly trying. My cloak of Light was billowing around me as though air was breezing past and trying to make it come loose. I was guessing it was his Light. The moment I felt it I would be gone. He was doing his best to find a weakness, even as he stood before me and acted calm. I could hold it for a while, but I knew without a doubt that he would wear me down.
He didn't know this yet, so I had to play my cards right. And play them quickly.
“We got off to a bad start, you and me.” He just cocked his head at me suspiciously. Yeah, I didn't blame him, this was a long shot. “I know you're not all bad and personally, I'd prefer you over some of the others who would try to get in my pants. So, I was thinking...”
I didn't get to finish my sentence, Lutin began chiming musically and then his hands were running over my body, checking for injuries.
“Are you all right? Did they harm you? I will kill them. Every one. You are mine and no one else's.” His arms wrapped around me and his face buried in my neck, his hands stroking my back in circles. I'm not sure if he was calming himself or me.
“Um, I'm fine,” I managed to get out without pushing him away. Pushing him away would not help my plan.
His hands came up and framed my face, one on each cheek. “Are you sure?”
I stared at him for a moment, realising the subtle attacks on my cloak had ceased. He was so concerned with my safety and health, he'd stopped trying to influence me. I swallowed under his intense gaze and just nodded.
He leaned forward and it took all of my self control not to pull back. His lips moved to brush over mine, but I pulled back slightly and placed my finger over them and said, "Not yet".
“Elska,” he breathed, leaning the length of his body in closer to mine.
“Not elska,” I answered softly. “I need time to get to know you, Lutin. Please don't rush me.”
He looked at me for a moment, hunger obvious in his eyes. “What would you have of me, Lucinda?”
“Take me back to Rio and stick around for a while. Let's see how it goes,” I said with a coy smile. God I'm not the world's best actress, far from it, but I was trying for that Oscar. I was giving it everything I had.
It must have worked because he sighed, ran a finger over the back of my hand and suddenly I was dressed in my short shorts and singlet and standing behind the bar at A Praia Mocambo. My hand went under the counter and grabbed my jacket as Lutin slipped into a chair in front of the bar and gave me a dashing smile. I shot a covert glance at Avery who was being restrained by two fey; bigger and burlier than him. And who, by the looks of it had roughed him up pretty nicely. And then sent a blast of my Light out targeting every single shimmering being on the beach.
Musical chimes rang out in a cacophony of notes, clashing together and clanging in my head. I wasn't the only one to hear it. Humans were doubled over, hands to heads and Avery was gritting his teeth, as he tore through what was left standing of the crowd towards me. I jumped the counter, grabbed his outstretched hand and ran.
I'm fast, I can get some speed up when I try, but maintaining my cloak against Lutin and blasting so many fey over such a wide space had taken its toll. Avery swept me up in his arms and we flashed to the other side of Copacabana towards Ipanema Beach. Somewhere, in amongst the tourists and happily celebrating locals, he found a car. Something sleek and fast and red. I vaguely thought, perhaps a Ferrari. He settled me in the passenger seat and slid in beside me. Using his Sanguis Vitam to start the engine and then we were off.
I silently did my seat belt up and tried not to notice how recklessly he was driving. Eventually I had to close my eyes and just let my head fall back against the leather of the seat and concentrate on slowing my breathing down.
It was several minutes and even several more kilometres later, when Avery spoke.
“You smell of him.” His voice was a low growl. “Did he hurt you?” This through gritted teeth.
“I knocked him out with a fist to his face. Laid him flat for the first hour and then taunted the fuck out of him for the rest.”
Avery slowly started to smile and shook his head, turning back to the road in front of us. “Fucking hot,” was all he said and I had to smile too.
After a few more suburbs and a gradual straightening of the seaside road we were on, I started relaxing. And then started yawning. I was knackered. My Light had worn me out. Usually I'd be up for the rest of the night, but the encounter with Lutin had done a number on me.
“Get some sleep, Ms. Monk,” Avery said, sliding me a glance.
“Where are we heading?” I asked through a yawn.
“As far and as fast as I can from here. We'll get lost in the throng that is São Paulo. Don't worry, I'll hide us tonight. Now... sleep.”
As if to prove a point on how shattered my shields were, including my Light cloak, his command slammed into me and I fell instantly asleep.
/> São Paulo is bigger, badder and noisier than Rio. I'd travelled through it briefly on my way to Copacabana, but it hadn't felt like the right sort of place to lay down roots. It actually made me quite jumpy. Something I don't really wish to admit to a soul. When I stumbled into Copacabana however, I knew I'd found somewhere I could call home. Even though I am a Kiwi through and through, and Auckland will always hold my heart, I needed somewhere that called to me as a home. Somewhere I could feel comfortable and start to mend my fractured heart. Rio was it. And now I had lost that too.
I woke up as we began weaving through the busy streets of São Paulo. Honking horns and screeds of pedestrians, even in the middle of the night, made for a forceful wake-up call. I started stirring as soon as the car began its slow stop-go motion.
“Welcome to Cidade da Garoa, Ms. Monk. The City of Drizzle,” Avery said as he negotiated the traffic.
It wasn't raining. Or drizzling for that fact. But, I guessed São Paulo had inclement weather. Who'd give their city that sort of nickname? I snorted to myself. At least Auckland's was City of Sails.
“Do you have a plan for where to stay? Dawn's approaching,” I asked, taking in the number of vampires I could sense throughout the city centre's limits.
“I am well aware of when dawn will arrive,” Avery answered crisply. Grumpy, huh? “I'm going to ditch the car and then we'll book into a hotel. It will be difficult for them to sense us here. There is simply too much magic.”
I looked out of the window and tried to get a handle on the amount of concrete and glass that surrounded me. I'd read somewhere that over eleven million people live in São Paulo, Auckland has just over one million. The high rises here were sandwiched together, practically leaning over on top of each other. White concrete, coloured yellow and orange in the lights of the night, standing like giants above us. It would take a lot to get used to this many people in such a dense area. And to top it off, my Sanguis Vitam Cupitor powers were thrumming with signatures. Many of them Dark.
“How many vampires in this city?” I asked, rubbing my hands on my jacket sleeves to stop the tingle of blood life power in the air.
“I would have thought you could have answered that better than me, Ms. Monk,” Avery offered.
I could have, but somehow the number and degree of Dark in this city was making my spidey-sense tingle to such an alarming level, I was starting to simply shut down.
When I didn't answer Avery continued. “This city is run by a conglomerate of vampire clans. Gangs, you might say. I was surprised to not find you here, when I tracked you. Your hunter skills would have kept you busy in São Paulo.” He flicked a glance at me, taking in the constant rubbing of my arms and the fidget that had started up in my legs. “You are not comfortable here, are you?”
“There's something not right in this city. There's just so much Dark,” I whispered.
“Can you maintain your shields? All of them?” He pierced me with a look that said: don't lie!
I took a deep breath in and answered. “It might prove difficult.”
He swore loudly. “We'll stay one day, then move on somewhere less taxing tomorrow night. Hopefully, one day in amongst all of the Dark will keep us shielded from the Fey.”
He didn't sound convinced and he most definitely did not sound happy.
By the time we stashed the car in a multi-storied car park and made our way to a hotel, my head was buzzing and my pull was going berserk. Avery had chosen a hotel away from the VC, or vampire central. Still within good feeding areas, but not quite in the thick of it. I think he had hoped that would help me, but my pull has a wide range. The effort required to ignore the pull was tremendous. I didn't have any energy spare to shield. Not mentally nor with my Light.
I practically collapsed in a tight ball on the bed of the room he had booked us and tried my best not to make a sound. I think I was failing, a slight whimper was escaping my lips. I felt the bed dip beside me, but had my eyes firmly closed. All senses humming right now. On full alert.
“What can I do to help?” Avery asked, quietly.
“I need to hunt. I can't ignore it any longer.”
“I don't think that is wise.” I was quite sure it wasn't, but I couldn't lie here and feel that tug. That pull towards evil. Knowing an innocent might die and do nothing about it. It's what we are. Nosferatins, born vampire hunters. It's in our blood and right now my blood was boiling.
“Drawing attention to yourself is not safe, Ms. Monk,” Avery added, unhelpfully.
I sat up and glared at him. “You don't get it,” I said through gritted teeth. “I don't have a choice. It's what I am.”
I sprang off the bed and took two steps towards the door, fully intending to go out there and stake a few vampires as quickly and efficiently as I could. I had no intention of endangering myself more than I needed to. But, I couldn't fight the pull. It would tear me apart. Mentally. Physically. Psychologically.
Avery was in front of me before I had even reached for the doorknob. His fangs down and amber and ochre swirling in his eyes.
“Not happening,” he said in a low growl.
“Oh yes it is,” I said, fingering my stake.
“It is nearly dawn. You can last.” I didn't agree with him. I didn't agree with him at all.
I wanted to double over and clutch my stomach. Or rub my chest above my heart. Or pound my fists against his body in frustration. Or all of the above. It was tearing me apart. Such conflict of emotions. Such desire to hunt and being unable to.
I had only denied myself a hunt once before and that had been because I was recovering from being drugged and kidnapped and kept away from my kindred for an unhealthy length of time. I hadn't been at full strength. Michel had to hold me down on the bed to stop me from leaving the house. It had hurt. But, nothing like it did now. Maybe, it was the sheer number of Dark vampires about to attack. Maybe, it was the proximity, because they were close. I could tell. I'd only need to leave the hotel's main entrance and walk a block, no more, and then I'd find them. Three for starters and then there would definitely be more.
But, I had to get past Avery. I sized him up. He wasn't play acting. He looked like he meant every word. He would fight me, before I got out of this room. He would hold me back with force. Part of me acknowledged that was probably the best course of action. São Paulo had lasted this long without Nosferatins, it could last one more night without me. And going out increased the chances of a stray member of Álfheimr finding me. Right now, that would not be good.
My shields were tattered and my Light all but lost from my grasp. I couldn't even muster enough to blast Avery and knock him out so I could escape.
The only other option left me, was to stake him. I wouldn't be able to land a punch like I had on Lutin. Avery is strong and too fast. But, a stake in the chest, not directly in the heart, but close enough to immobilise him would work. I'd done it before, I could do it again.
Avery cocked his head at me. “Can you do it, Ms. Monk? Can you thrust that stake into my chest and coldly walk over my paralysed body out the door? Leave me for dead? Then what? You hunt your vampires and return only to be faced with a hungry master vampire with a stake in his chest. You won't be able to remove it. It needs to be done by a level one Sanguis Vitam Master. I don't see any spare around here, do you?”
He watched as the words were processed in my mind. His eyes turning more jade as the seconds passed. He thought he knew me. And he was partly right. The Lucinda who had lived in Auckland and had been joined to the Master of the City there, wouldn't have done it. Avery was Dark, but he had been doing everything in his power to keep me alive. To give me a chance to come to terms with joining him. He'd helped me master my Light as an effective shield against the Fey. He'd taught me to detect them. I was no longer an easy prey.
But, he had forgotten who I had become. The Lucinda who has spent the past two months hiding, mourning her kindred and merely surviving day by day had a bit more gumption than that. Avery would force me
to join with him, whether I am convinced it is the right thing to do or not. Part of him was Light, but most of him was definitely still Dark. He'd make me do it, even though it would kill me to give up that part of my soul to someone else.
Michel was my kindred. He would be my only true kindred for eternity, whether or not he was alive or dead. There would be no other. It was only ever him.
I spun through the space between us and thrust my stake towards his heart. It took only a fraction of a second for Avery to realign his perception of my character with the evidence before him. His hand shot out and dislodged my aim. The stake landing only a glancing blow to his arm. It would of hurt. Silver always does. But, he didn't even grunt.
I spun immediately out of his grasp, toppling over an armchair and rebounding off the king sized bed, before he could grab me. He pounced from his side of the room, some ten feet away and flew through the air towards me with a low, chilling growl. I spun again, before I had even righted myself and caught my balance, making him miss me by a whisker's breadth. Slashing out with my stake across his back.
That move did elicit a grunt and a curse, followed by a blast of his Sanguis Vitam that had me collapsing to my feet just as I had reached the door. I mustered my shields, somehow, I don't know how. I have always been able to work well under pressure, find reserves I didn't even know I had. And rolled out from under his outstretched arms, scraping my stake down the length of his thigh.
He called me a few choice words then, but was now blocking my egress to the door. We stood still looking at each other, both panting, both hyped up on adrenaline. Both ready to go another round.
“What? No don't make me do this, Avery?” he asked in a rough low voice, still managing to imitate me in a slight falsetto with the last of his words. “You want blood, don't you, Ms. Monk? You have to hunt, so why don't you hunt me?” His eyes flashed at those words. A beautiful shot of jade over the ochre, making my heartbeat increase even further.
Shadow's Light Page 10