Dark Series, The Color of Seven and The Color of Dusk (Books We Love Special Edition)

by Gail Roughton

  He rose abruptly and walked swiftly back to his own mausoleum, disappearing behind the door. Cain strained his senses and felt Paul’s swirling essence emerge from the structure’s roof and turn toward town. He followed and hovered outside over a big house on one of the city’s older streets. The enemy was within.

  * * *

  Paul stood in the glow of Ria’s nightlights in the living room. The mantle clock sounded one a.m. in soft chimes. He glanced around the room, his vision needing no extra lighting. The room looked just like her. Full of rich, soft color. Shelves of books ran from floor to ceiling on one whole wall. Feminine but not frilly, elegant but not sparse. He breathed in her scent. Lemony. Like sunlight. The open door led to the bedroom. He walked over on cat’s feet and stood in the doorframe, watching her sleep.

  She moved in and out of restless dreams, tossing and turning. She hadn’t wanted to sleep but the last two nights had finally caught up to her. She’d realized by midnight he wasn’t coming. She gave in to her drooping eyelids and sought her bed. Maybe in sleep she’d forget she’d found the man who’d haunted her these past months. And lost him after two nights.

  He moved forward and stood beside the bed. Her hair pooled in dark shadows over the pillowslip and her eyelids fluttered. Dream sleep, he thought, and hoped her dreams were happy. He wanted to touch her but he didn’t.

  He’d spent the entire night swinging like a pendulum from one resolution to the other. He was back on the opposite side of the swinging arc that had finally sent him flying to her through the night. He backed away, both relieved and disappointed she slept. Her eyes flew open. She spoke as he began the process of disincorporation.

  “I thought you weren’t coming.”

  He halted the process and moved a step closer.

  “I didn’t think I was, either.”

  “But you did.”

  She sat up and without thinking, raised her hand and ran her fingers through her sleep-tousled hair. The strands flowed like liquid darkness in the shadows.

  “Yes. I did.”

  She reached and took his hand in both of hers. He let the gentle pressure of the tug pull him nearer. On the wall, his shadow followed him. Ria’s fingers caressed his hand and her lips curved in a slight smile as they moved over his fingers.

  “Your ring’s gone,” she said softly.

  “Someone gave me a reason to take it off.”

  The shadow of her arms raised toward him. The shadow of his arms moved downward.

  Shadows and bodies merged.

  The bricks and boards of the house smiled as it listened. The rhythms of love, the whispers and low laughter and sighs of lovers had been gone too long from these rooms. Now the master of the house was home.

  Outside, above the roof, Cain swirled and caught the sounds. He swooped closer and passed through the ceiling, hovering in the corner of the bedroom. His old nemesis had a new love. Oh, the dark gods were so good! Cain laughed to himself, endless possibilities running swiftly through his brain. Retribution wouldn’t be swift. But it would be terrible.

  Chapter Three

  The first few nights were theirs alone. Neither had any need for the outside world. They talked and laughed and watched old movies. They touched and kissed and made love, and when Ria succumbed to human limitations and fell asleep in his arms, Paul held her and watched as she slept. Ria sensed great restraint when he held her, though.

  “I don’t break, you know,” she said, lying on her side against him with her head on his shoulder and his muscled thigh clasped tightly between her own.

  “I could break you, Ria. I could break you into pieces without even trying. And all it’d take to do it is to forget for just a second that I can.”

  She never commented on his gentleness again. She just savored his hard muscles and the strength of his body, eternally that of a thirty year old man at the height of his physical perfection. A body conditioned by hours in the saddle and miles of walking. A body that perpetually wore the light tan of a summer more than a century gone.

  “Paul?”

  “Um?”

  “When we do start to go out, when you start to meet my friends, are you Paul Everett or Paul Devlin?”

  “Everett.”

  “Why? There’s absolutely no chance there’s anybody around now that’d remember the name.”

  “I’m used to it. And besides, Paul Devlin’s dead. Part of him died with Chloe and most of the rest died in August of 1888. And what little bit was left died—”

  He broke off abruptly.

  “You never ate anything tonight,” he said lightly. “Let’s raid the kitchen. Aren’t you hungry?”

  “The rest of him died when?”

  “A long time ago. Let’s see what’s in your refrigerator, if anything is. Don’t you ever cook?”

  “Not if I can help it,” Ria said, but she swung off the bed and slipped on her robe.

  They often put together simple meals in Ria’s newly remodeled kitchen. When she didn’t have a necessary ingredient, which was pretty often, Paul would sigh in mock exasperation and disappear, returning in ten or twenty minutes from one of the local grocery stores.

  Handy as that skill was, a thought occurred to Ria.

  “You don’t know how to drive, do you?”

  “I couldn’t figure out how to add a garage to the mausoleum.”

  “Smartass. Would you like to learn? You never know when it might come in handy.”

  “I’d love to.”

  They spent hours on the back country highways that stretched across Bibb and Jones Counties, moving south to Twiggs County and north up to Monroe County, and west over into Houston County. In just a few nights, Paul handled the classic Mustang’s gears as easily as he’d handled his high-strung black stallion, Cyclone.

  October headed into November and the holiday season neared. It was time to move out as a couple into Ria’s circle of friends.

  “And how are you goin’ to explain me?” Paul asked.

  “Same way you explained yourself to me. You’re a reporter taking a sabbatical to write a book. Even though the Mobile Reporter doesn’t exist. Mobile’s paper is the Press-Register, so you might wanta make a mental note.”

  “You knew that the first night we met?”

  “Nope. But I looked it up to check your cover story the next day. And to see if they had a reporter named Paul Everett. Guess what? They didn’t.”

  “And the moral to that story is, always check your facts before you talk to a lawyer.”

  “And don’t you forget it. You’re nervous, aren’t you?”

  “Been a long time since I’ve seen the same group of people on a regular basis. Suppose they notice—something?”

  “Like I’m madly in love? That’ll surprise some folks, yeah. Think they had a pool going on when I’d fall for a guy, actually. Most folks were bettin’ on when hell froze over.”

  Paul didn’t need to worry. His southern charm hadn’t faded over the years. He wowed them all, up to and including Johnny Bishop, Ria’s life-long best friend, virtual brother, law partner and co-owner of the house who had his own apartment across from Ria’s. Maybe, if Paul hadn’t been in love for the first time in over a century, he’d have noticed the fluttering presence tracking them most evenings. Maybe, if Ria hadn’t been in love for the first time in her life, her legally trained brain would have noticed the old clunker following behind them on other evenings. But neither of them did.

  By the second week of November Paul had met almost everyone of importance in Ria’s life. With one notable exception.

  “I think I’ve met about everybody you know, darlin’. ‘Cept your parents. You ashamed of me, or do I smell bad, or do you just not get along with ‘em?”

  Ria laughed.

  “Well, you do get embarrassing when you start drooling over people’s necks the way you do.”

  “I haven’t done that since Halloween!” He curled his lips and his incisors, never noticeable unless he chose to show th
em, gleamed sharply.

  Ria goosed him in the side.

  “Cut that out!”

  “So why don’t you want me to meet your parents?”

  “It’s not that I don’t want you to meet them, it’s just—well, my parents are weird for parents.”

  “Good weird or bad weird?”

  “Oh, good weird, definitely.”

  “Well, that explains it.”

  “No, what I mean is, they don’t hover over me very much. Don’t plan their activities around me. Daddy believes you do as much harm or good to a child as you’re going to do by the time a kid’s 12, you need to stop trying by the time they’re 18, and you need to let ‘em go if you want to keep ‘em. And Daddy’s schedule’s real hectic and Mom’s real social and has lots of clubs and volunteer stuff so when I see them it’s usually for lunch and not usually together. You’re sort of not available to do lunch, you know.”

  “True. What’s your father do, anyway? You’ve never said. Is he an attorney, too?”

  “Oh, God forbid! He’s way too blunt for that, he’d stay in contempt of court all the time. No, he’s a doctor. I never told you that?”

  “No, you didn’t. Then I’ve probably seen him somewhere, I used to hang around in the hospitals a good bit before I got the free shower offer.”

  “I swear, you love that shower more than me.”

  “No way, darlin’, but there’s no point in not taking advantage of—Knight!” Paul broke off suddenly as realization dawned. “Charlie Knight?”

  “Yeah, that’s my Daddy. “

  “Of course. Damn, you look a lot like him.”

  “So I’m told. Often. You’ve seen him then?”

  “God, yes. Neurosurgeon. Gets called in a lot for emergency head trauma, car accidents, things that can’t wait for morning or I wouldn’t get to see.”

  “That’s my daddy, all right. I take it you’re a fan of his technique?”

  “Past that. He’s past good, he’s brilliant. What I’d give to be able to do what he does.”

  “You had the current training, you could. Lots of that is just modern science, you know. And equipment.”

  “Not all of it. He’s a natural. He’s a healer. He was born to be a doctor.”

  “Seems I’ve heard that said about him a time or two, yeah. Okay, I’ll call Mom but for God’s sakes don’t tell him you’re a groupie. Be sort of hard to explain how you’ve been watching.”

  * * *

  Ria never got a chance to call her mother. She and Paul ran into Don and Joyce Billings while grabbing a late meal at Denny’s that night. Don Billings was her father’s partner in his medical practice. Ria had managed to circumvent some serious repercussions with the law for their teenage son Dennis when he’d finally broken free of the influence of his so-called friend Justin Dinardo. Justin thought dealing drugs was the ultimate adventure in living large and pulled Dennis right into the ugly mess with him. Ria wasn’t surprised. She’d never liked or trusted Justin. When Dennis and Justin were small, she’d even refuse to babysit them together, much as she loved babysitting Dennis.

  Joyce Billings defended her social status by explaining why they were in such a common restaurant as a Denny’s and not a more upscale eatery while running her eyes up and down Paul’s long frame. Ria knew her mother’d have a blow-by-blow description of him up to and including the shade of his hair by nine the next morning. So would every other social acquaintance Joyce or her mother had.

  She was dialing her mother’s number the next morning when Liz Knight knocked perfunctorily on her office door and sat down with a frown.

  “Really, Ria!” she exclaimed, settling herself into one of Ria’s client chairs. “I don’t expect you to give me a copy of your social calendar but it would have been nice to meet your new boyfriend before Joyce Billings did, of all people!”

  No love was lost between the wives of the two doctors who formed Macon Neurology, P.C. Liz Knight was classy as a Rolls Royce, Joyce Billings as ostentatious as a pink Cadillac with chrome wheels. The two just didn’t mix well.

  Ria groaned.

  “I’m surprised she’d admit she was in Denny’s. Gave some big song and dance about Don’s horrible preference for common food. You should have seen the cheeseburger she was stuffing down! I don’t know how Dennis turned out as well as he did, now that’s he’s past his Justin rough spot.”

  “I do. You. Then and now. You always were his little substitute mom. Now stop trying to sidetrack me, young lady.”

  “You and Daddy stay so busy, Mom. I just hadn’t gotten around to introducing you yet. You didn’t have to rush down here to call me on the carpet, either, you could have called.”

  “I did not rush down to call you on the carpet,” her mother sniffed. “I happen to have a hair appointment and I just stopped in to ask you why everybody in town, including Joyce Billings, has met your new boyfriend except Daddy and me.”

  “Oh, c’mon, Mom! Everybody in town hasn’t met him.”

  “Well, according to Joyce, you’ve been an item for the past three months.”

  “That’s not so, I didn’t even meet him ‘till October.”

  “Then aren’t you moving a little fast? Joyce says it’s obvious you’re just absolutely wild about each other and—”

  “Joyce says? You’ve never believed one word Joyce Billings ever said and you’re starting now? You make it sound like we were making love on one of the tables or something, Miss fell-head-over-heels-in-love with a man 15 years older than you and married him in two months!” Her mother and father’s story was legendary in the annals of family history. Both of Ria’s maternal grandparents had nearly had heart attacks.

  Her mother laughed. “And I’d do it all over again, too! And anyway, he was a doctor! Thought your grandmother was really goin’ to explode when I reminded her she always wanted her girls to marry doctors!”

  Ria bit her lip. Wouldn’t be a good idea to share Paul’s true profession.

  “How ‘bout I bring him to dinner tonight? Y’all goin’ to be home?”

  “Great. What should I fix?”

  “Like it matters? You’ve never cooked a bad meal in your life! Why do you think all the kids were always at our house when I was in high school?”

  “Because you were a popular girl, of course!”

  “Duh. That and your pizza.”

  “Not pizza for an introductory dinner, though. I’ll stop in and get a nice roast to slow-cook all afternoon. That’ll work. Almost late, darlin’, got to go! See you tonight!” Her mother bounced up and out. Ria called after her.

  “Mom!”

  “What, sweetie?”

  “I want to be just like you when I grow up.”

  “Try real hard not to grow up, baby. Daddy and I never have. Being grown-up’s not near as much fun.”

  * * *

  Ria made certain to be showered and dressed before Paul arrived. They’d never make it on time if he found her in the shower. She was inserting her earrings when she saw him behind her in the mirror.

  “Good eveennning.” He kissed the top of her head. “I take it we’re going out?”

  “Good eveennning, Bela Lugosi. How nice of you to visit. If you want a shower, make it quick.”

  “Not as much fun without you. Do I smell?”

  “Like the crypt.”

  “And where are we so obviously going?”

  “My folks. Command performance.”

  “Thought you didn’t have command performances.”

  “Yeah, well, Joyce Billings, the lady we ran into last night—”

  “Your father’s partner’s wife.”

  “Right. She couldn’t wait to call my mother this morning and tell her all about you in glowing technicolor.”

  “Ahh!”

  “And my mother’s put out that, quote ‘everybody in town has met you except her’ unquote. Especially Joyce Billings. Mom’s not too fond of Joyce Billings.”

  “I see.”

  �
��So if you want to shower and change, hurry up.” A good portion of Paul’s wardrobe now resided in Ria’s closet.

  “Do I really smell?”

  “Like April Fresh Downy. Your clothes always did, even before you started washing them here. Always loved that about you, a vampire that stops to think about fabric softener.”

  “Then hand me my most masculine smelling aftershave and I’ll be right with you.”

  * * *

  Ria pulled up in her parents’ driveway at precisely seven p.m.

  “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be. My experience with parents—”

  “I’ve seen your mother-in-law,” Ria said. “The house playbacks before I met you, remember? Anything’s a step up.”

  Charles Knight threw the door open while they were still walking up and pulled her into an exuberant hug.

  “Your mother’s pretty put out with you, young lady!” He offered his hand to Paul. “Pleased to meet you, young man. Charlie Knight.”

  Paul shook.

  “Paul Everett, Dr. Knight. I apologize for not insisting that Ria introduce us sooner. We didn’t mean to cause an international incident.”

  “Oh, no harm done. She enjoys fussin’. C’mon in the house.” Dr. Knight knew this was no casual relationship. Ria could feel it. They’d always had a sixth sense between them.

  “Okay, Liz, they’re here. Come inspect!”

  “Charles!”

  “Well, you know damn well that’s why you were so pissed! You didn’t get first announcement rights. So come out and inspect.”

  Liz bustled out of her kitchen, cheeks flushed from the heat of the oven. Liz had aged well, which is to say, scarcely at all, and occasionally strangers took the mother and daughter for sisters.

  “To inspect,” she confessed bluntly. “But you don’t need to announce it to the world.”

  “So this is where you get your good looks!”

  Ria grinned. Paul had learned the art of social byplay in a more gracious era.

  “Well, thank you, Paul,” said Ria’s father. “I appreciate that.”