Their beers arrived. Audray pushed hers to sit touching his with a little clink. He ordered one grande tostada and two forks. His large paw dove into the chips and the red salsa the waitress brought with the beer. Audray watched the eating machine in front of her and wanted to lick the salt and corn meal remnants out of the corner of his mouth.
He smiled, in an open invitation, so she did. “Um, you taste so good. You always taste so good.” She let her tongue work over the salty goodness of her lower lip.
“Do that again and you’ll have me unable to walk in a few seconds.”
“I could relieve the pressure, if you like.” Her hands went to the zipper in his dark pants. She pushed up the long rod she felt underneath the smooth bulging leather. As the heel of her hand pressed against him, he grew even larger.
The welcome sandpaper of his cheek brushed against hers as he whispered, “I can’t wait, my love, but I brought you here to talk. We’ll do this later.”
Disappointed, she sighed and removed her hand. “Right. So you were saying about the man not being from the Underworld?”
“He had blue eyes, did you see them?”
“No. Saw his reflection, but not a look at his face. So he can’t be a dark angel, then.”
“Right again.”
“So what do you think?”
“My newly-found relatives,” he paused as he rolled his eyes at the ridiculous predicament he was in, “must have human accomplices. I’m not sure why they would have a human following us, but apparently they do.”
“What if they’re following me?”
“Not sure I understand.”
Their tostada was delivered and Jonas took no time to dig in. Audray took a sip of her water. He put a forkful of beans and lettuce in front of her mouth and gestured for her to open.
“I have need for all your strength later,” he whispered, covering her with plenty of his erotic breath. They both laughed. The beans tasted remarkably good, though Audray’s stomach was acting up. “Another?” he asked.
“No, thanks. I am not hungry. I’m having the first stomachache of my immortal life, can you imagine it?”
He smiled. “Ugh. I’d forgotten how I used to feel as a young lad after a night of drinking and chasing the lasses.”
“Maybe the whipped cream was bad.” She was serious.
“Oh, no. The whipped cream was good. Very, very good.”
She basked in the glow of his gaze, blushing at the memories of their morning together. She could still feel the slick texture of his red cock as she licked the whipped cream from him, leaving him glistening and ready for her.
But then an awkward pause returned. She scanned the room and the street outside to check for the dark man, but saw nothing. She remembered what she’d found in Bakersfield. “I still can’t get the vision of my mom out of my head. And my sister, Claire.”
“Yes, I felt some of that.” He kissed her lightly. “I worried, but didn’t feel your fear or I would have come. Your thoughts were a bit masked to me, though. Like there was a short or some kind of static connection and I couldn’t feel everything like I normally can.”
“Has that happened before?”
“Not to me. Used to happen to my dad. He used to blame it on evil spirits. Of course, he wasn’t a dark angel and knew nothing of the Underworld.”
“See, that’s what I mean. Something strange is going on. I can feel it.”
“I do too. And remember, we have to be careful. I do feel it’s more safe for you up top with everything going on in the Underworld. There at least we know who our enemies are.”
“Agreed.” She stared at her food and could not bring herself to eat. Her nerves were frazzled. She was turning her head and scanning everyone and everything around her. Perhaps she was worrying too much.
“Come on, sweetheart, have a little more.”
Audray shook her head.
“What if it was arson? What if someone deliberately killed her?”
“What do you think?”
“She was in pretty bad shape. She even passed out on the bed with a cigarette when I was there…”
“There, you see? Don’t go worrying yourself over things that aren’t real.”
“After what we’ve both lived through, how could we doubt anything being real? Would you have believed anyone if they said you could live forever, or would be able to go back and forth between the human world and the Underworld?”
“Or find true love?” He whispered through his teeth.
“That too.” Audray brushed the backs of her fingers against his cheek, glad he had mentioned it. “Do you suppose there are forces of evil here in the human world, not connected to the Underworld? And what if they’re after me, not you?”
“I don’t know, love. Possible, I guess.”
“I look at what happened to my mother. She clearly had interventions, perhaps Guardian angel interventions. But she also had other influences, evil influences that don’t have a dark angel’s thumbprint on them. Our little family of dark angels is all about the claiming, getting the job done efficiently, culling the human population for its weak links. It would have been no problem for a dark angel to send her off the deep end and make her end her miserable life. But it’s almost like something or someone wanted to prolong her pain, at least until I got to see her again. And then she was done away with.” Audray searched his face. “Do you think this is crazy?”
Jonas shook his head. “Crazy? No, I don’t think so. But I must admit I haven’t seen or felt anything like that.” He took her fingers in his large hand and kissed her palm.
“Haven’t you ever felt the presence of evil, real evil? Not in the Underworld, in the human world?” Audray asked.
“Evil on earth? I suppose so.” He chomped down on another chip laden with salsa, dripping a large dollop onto the Formica tabletop. “So, you’re talking humans, not immortals, who walk the line between good and evil, try to straddle the fence and work their magic for their own purposes?”
“What kind of creatures would do that?” Audray asked.
“Well, witches for one. But they don’t exist.”
Witches? Had she seen witches? Had she felt them around her? She thought not. But it would explain one of the things that bothered her about the timing of her mother’s death, the situation with Burt and the discovery of Claire’s grave. It was like someone was one step ahead of everything she tried to do in the human world. Though her experience was limited, it didn’t feel like something from the Underworld. This was something new. Someone had inserted themselves in her life. It felt like a festering wound. Her stomach lurched and she almost vomited.
They were waiting for another cab to take them back to the St. Francis. Audray was watching Jonas finish a private phone conversation with one of his men when her sat phone rang. It was from below.
“Audray here.”
“Geez, Director,” her Chief of Staff whined. “I was about to get the minions out to look for you.” Luke was beside himself, although Audray knew he could handle anything, even an attack from aliens or space monsters. He would make a much better Director than she, but like the friend who sponsored him, Joshua, he never had a desire to run for office. And that’s why he made such a good Chief.
“I told you I was spending a few personal days up top with Jonas.”
“Yeah, well we’ve been calling his phone too. I’m not going to tell you what he told us this morning, or what everyone’s thinking down here.”
“Thinking?” She smiled at the thought.
“Not funny. The boys on staff have been having a field day making up what you guys are doin’ 24/7. May I remind you that there’s a world to run? Decisions have to be made. We haven’t finished the housecleaning. People need to be fired, Director. It’s a mess.”
“I know. Look, I’m coming back in a couple of days. In the meantime, what’s so urgent you couldn’t wait?”
“Okay, well there’s a challenge to your Directorship. You know we a
re supposed to have free and honest elections next month to confirm your appointed position?”
“Right.” Audray saw Jonas’ arms going out in all directions, having some sort of heated conversation on his cell she desperately wanted to listen in on.
“There’s this guy, Rupert Blade, who is saying you fried his little brother, Peter, and took over. He wants a full investigation.” Audray smiled at the image of Peter being torn apart by the wrath of Father, who had descended from heaven just to take care of the former Director and his dark winged angels. Hard to think of Peter as anyone’s little brother. But there wasn’t much left of him.
“So, let them investigate. I have nothing to hide.” It amused her, the thought of them trying to subpoena Father. How would they properly serve the most powerful being in the universe?
“Well, with Rupert here and you up there, he’s done a good job getting a few people riled up. I’m sorry to say, the winged ones that witnessed Peter’s death and had their wings stripped off, those miserable burnt dudes, well they’re changing their story.”
“No doubt someone promised them wings.”
“Something. You know how everyone is down here. We don’t like all this upset and controversy. Makes everyone nervous.”
“God forbid, it would interfere with the consumption of Red-X and the local lovelies.”
“It isn’t what we promised the people we turned. We told them their worries would be over forever. Sort of makes us look like a pack of liars.”
“We are a pack of liars, Luke. We stretch the truth every day to get what we want. Otherwise, no one would come.”
“You need to get back here and start scorching people, clear the decks. Put the place in order. Make it run like it used to, before Peter even.”
“It was shit before. Chaos, really.”
“Yeah, but nobody got hurt, unless that’s what they wanted.”
“Nobody wanted to run for office.”
“So we always elected somebody who couldn’t read and didn’t care.”
“The good old days, huh?” Audray smiled.
“We need our freedoms back. Everyone’s looking over their shoulders all the time now.” He sighed in resignation, and caused the phone to go static. “Guess it can wait a few, but I just wanted you to know. Things are strange down here. Have a good trip.”
“Will do. Thanks for the call. I’ll think on it, Luke. I really will. I think we’re done here. You think I should get back tomorrow?”
“I think that’d be wise, Ma’am.”
“Sounds like I should be prepared for a battle.”
“Well, you should be. They say the Director shouldn’t have a paramour. Said it’s too distracting, your current love holiday being proof of that. They say Jonas has to go.”
Now this got her mad. “Who said this?”
“These…these rabble rousers.”
“Rupert?”
“Nah, he’s too smart for that. Lackeys. The guy has an army of lackeys they’ve been turning day and night. Everyone at the arrival center is way overworked and about to quit. You know what happened the last time…”
“I’ll be there tomorrow, and we’ll take care of business.”
“Good. I’ll start making my list.”
“Excellent.”
It was a shock when they returned to the suite at the St. Francis. The room had been completely tossed. The sheets on the bed had been shredded, stuffing pulled out from the mattress as if a jealous female animal with claws had had her way. Nothing was missing, except some of Audray’s underwear. Her makeup was smashed, lipsticks ground into the carpet.
Even the hotel staff was nonplussed. They apologized profusely at the obvious breach of their security and offered them a room at a nearby hotel, complimentary, of course. They offered to pay for front row seats at the Curran Theater and dinner afterwards at Harris’s. Jonas didn’t appear to care much about the spoiled things, the room at the Stanford Court, or the theater, but he was excited at the prospect of dining at the best steakhouse on the peninsula.
My lover is indeed an eating machine.
Then her stomach heaved and she barely made it to the bathroom, where she threw up the single forkful of beans and lettuce Jonas had fed her earlier.
“You wish for me to send for a doctor?” the hotel manager blurted out, clearly scared. His brown eyes were the size of hardboiled eggs, Audray thought. And that led her back to the bathroom for a dry retching.
I’ve been poisoned. What have they done to me?
She recalled what she ate at the greasy spoon in Bakersfield. But that was too long ago. Something in our breakfast? But when she thought about it, her tummy had been sensitive throughout their mad sex last night. Just that the sex covered it up.
“No, thank you. I think we should get her out of here though. Could you please pick up all our things and have them delivered?” Jonas spit out the instructions with his centuries-old experience leading men into battle. He drew her to him, wiped her mouth with a wet washcloth. “There. All better. Do you need anything here?”
“No. Everything that’s important is in my satchel.” She pointed to her red leather bag, which had not left her side. “Just maybe some clothes.”
“You don’t need any clothes, my love,” he whispered in her ear. “Until you are ready to wake up and have a cappuccino. I think we’ll turn in early and stay in bed late, hmm?” The playful creases at the sides of his mouth deepened as his lips curled upward. He tipped her chin with his thumb and forefinger and placed a soothing kiss there. Their lips parted and he blew in her face so she could feel his erotic power wash over her, and, although she became a little dizzy, she felt absolutely wonderful.
The room was a beehive of activity. Several staffers in maroon smocks began cleaning, picking up their things and speaking in hushed tones.
“Again, let me express my sincere apologies on behalf of the St. Francis Hotel. We have never had anything like this, ever.” The manager’s hands were flapping in the breeze as he ran slightly ahead of them, pushing the elevator button so they wouldn’t have to wait more than a second. The doors opened two floors down, but there was no one there. Audray felt Jonas’ muscles spring to full readiness. He pulled an arm in front of the manager and peered up and down the hallway, and then leaned back in.
“Can you override the calls with your key?”
“Yes.” Shaking fingers produced a large brass key he slipped into a keylock bordered with a maroon plastic ring. One quarter turn and the elevator began its descent to the lobby.
“No. Make it stop at the parking lot underneath.”
“S…s…sure.” He kept his fingers on the turned key until at last they stopped. The sensor above the door read P2. “This is the second parking level. You have to take another elevator up, or the stairs to the right, one flight and out the emergency exit. We don’t keep it armed in the daytime since many of the staff use it themselves. Disregard what it says.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll call the Stanford Court…” his voice trailed off as the doors closed in front of him, sending him up to the lobby. Audray and Jonas stood in the middle of the parking garage. Alone.
Taking her hand, Jonas led her to the stairwell and up one flight. A car motor revved, so Jonas pulled her back inside the enclosure to wait until the sound of the vehicle and screeching tires faded. The overhead fluorescent lights buzzed. Mixed with the gasoline smell, Audray felt sick again, but she willed the nausea away and was surprised she could do that.
The red Maserati waited a few steps away. Audray began rummaging through her bag for her keys, but Jonas put his finger to his lips.
“We must leave it.”
She nodded.
A large red set of double doors plastered with warning signs was around the corner, on the other side of a concrete column. Jonas inhaled and pushed the doors open to the glare of the dying afternoon sun. Sounds of passing cars echoed off the walls of the hotel, getting louder as they made
it to the street.
Jonas motioned to a taxi waiting nearly tenth in line at the entrance. He opened the rear door and handed the cabbie a fifty dollar bill. “You get another fifty when we get to the ferry terminal.”
Discreetly, the cab pulled out of line, switched on his yellow light and spun in the opposite direction.
“Where are we going now?” Audray asked. She was scared, her stomachache long forgotten.
“Ferry terminal,” he whispered so the driver couldn’t hear. “We’ll buy tickets and board, then you’ll transport us home. We’ll need to find some place private where no one will see. You need to get us back north to your home where we’ll be closer to the transport station.”
“What about the rest of our things?”
“I did that so they’d think we’re taking the room. We’re not staying there tonight. Too many people know about it.”
Once on-board the ferry, they stood at the brass rail and watched as the city began to shrink. Audray loved the feel of Jonas’ strong arms around her, holding her warm and secure on the windy deck. She could almost believe nothing would be able to touch her. She could almost imagine a forever without danger, where the only concern of the day was when she would next be able to lie naked with him and feel the pulse of his life force pumping into her soul.
Chapter 20
Audray put her arms around Jonas’ neck and hiked her knee up over his hip. She was about to put her other leg on the toilet seat of the ferry’s unisex bathroom, but Jonas stopped her.
“Not here.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re trying to get away clean, remember?”
“But you don’t know how it works.” She steeled some of her thoughts from him, yet painted a vivid picture of them being transported, with a large appendage of his inserted deep inside her.
Jonas drew back, looking at her in askance. She willed herself to speak to him through her thoughts. Oh yes, that’s the way it’s done. We must be connected, physically.
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