Beautiful Eternity

by Alicia Deters

  “It’s okay, Lucy,” he said, rescuing me from word vomiting all over the moment. “I did want to discuss our future, though. That box would have had a ring in it if I had time to find the right one.”

  My gaze shot back to his as my jaw replaced my eyes’ spot on the floor. He laughed, but it wasn’t like a ‘ha-ha, I got you’ kind of laugh, and that scared me.

  “Lucy, stop panicking at the thought of marrying me. You’re going to upset the delicate balance of my ego.”

  That earned him a snort I couldn’t hold back.

  “I’m only saying that I want to make you mine someday, like normal couples do when they want to tie themselves to each other in every way. I know deep down, you want that as much as I do.”

  “Well, when you put it like that…” I smiled as I imagined walking down the aisle to meet him in our uncertain eternity.

  “Lucy, when all of this is over, I want to give you as many of those dreams as I can. And I’m not saying it has to be right away. We have forever. I just wanted to make it perfectly clear to you how serious I am about you.”

  “Oh, and here I thought it might have something to do with making it clear to Elias that I was yours,” I teased, but on the inside, my heart was doing happy dances and jumping for joy at the thought of a semi-normal life with Gavin.

  His brows dropped, and his lips thinned. “Don’t worry, gorgeous. I’ll make sure every guy you meet knows whose first in line to your heart. The giant rock I plan to put on your finger should help.”

  Breaking into a wide smile, I replied, “That won’t be necessary, because there is no line. My heart only knows you, sexy.”

  He kissed me hard, and by the time we rejoined the group, my hair was too wild to tame back into place, so I opted for pulling it into a low bun.

  Max was the first to notice our return. “Hey! There you guys are. I was getting worried. Did you two get lost in each others’ pants, I mean, on the way to the blood supply?”

  Nick and Brody cackled like two old ladies, and Allison studiously ignored them by inspecting her plum nail polish. Sophie kept her eyes glued to the floor.

  I raised my hand to scratch my forehead, using my middle finger, making all the guys in the room crack up. Gavin just stood behind me with his arms folded over his magnificent chest, seeming unaffected and unembarrassed.

  I glared. “No comment?”

  His leaned down so only I could hear. “Let them talk, gorgeous. I mean, is it so bad they know what you do with your future husband behind closed doors?”

  I blushed and he winked, reveling in his ability to completely unhinge me. He wrapped a heavy arm over my shoulders and kissed my forehead. “I love you. Don’t let that shit get to you or they’ll never stop harassing you about it.”

  He had a point, and I really needed to stop blushing at the simple suggestion of sex. “Kind of like how you can’t stop trying to shock me with your dirty mouth?”

  He threw his head back in laughter. “Kind of like that, yeah. Don’t worry, love. I’ll shock you with my dirty mouth the next time we’re alone,” he whispered in my ear.

  My body stiffened.

  Son of a—

  “Lucy,” Jakob interrupted as he approached. “My cyber team has dug up locations for known ancients in the city, and based on missing persons lately, we’ve narrowed it down to three buildings in one particularly hot area in town.”

  “Perfect.” Switching on my game face, I called to the guys. “Hey! You idiots want to make jokes at my expense all day, or would you like to kill some vampires?”

  “Hoo-rah!” Brody shouted.

  “Locked and loaded,” Nick added.

  Dorks.

  I shot my gaze to Max. He smiled wickedly. “You know I’m ready.”

  “I want to make jokes at your expense all day,” Allison said.

  Leave it to her. When a wadded up napkin smacked her in the face, she spun in her seat to face Brody, who wore the look of pure innocence. She huffed angrily and threw it back at him. He dodged easily.

  “I was kidding. God, none of you guys can take a joke.”

  “Whatever. Let’s just go kick some ass already,” Max said.

  That was the plan.

  18

  Just before we reached the elevator, Sophie stopped me. “Lucy, wait a second.”

  Gavin held the doors for me while I went back to where she sat at the expansive table in front of her computer. A blond haired boy of about eighteen sat beside her on his own computer, every once in a while stealing glances at her. His curly hair reached his ears, and his blue eyes shone with awe when he looked at my Soph. She was pretty awesome. I couldn’t blame him.

  “What’s up, Soph?”

  “Um, nothing yet, but I’m working on something that may help us. I just don’t want to say it out loud in case someone nearby hears, or until I have something for real.”

  “Okayyyy, well, keep me posted when you do have it.”

  I understood her reluctance to voice it out loud when we’ve been burned too many times by my father’s prying eyes, or ears in this case, but I trusted her to find us useful information. She was a little magician when it came to her research, so it meant something that she even mentioned it.

  “We’ll see you soon, Soph,” I called as I squeezed into the elevator with my team and four other Keepers from the Berlin faction. Jakob opted to stay behind with the rest of his members.

  As the elevator doors closed, everyone shifted uncomfortably, trying not to bump elbows. “How pissed will Elias be when he finds out we left him?” Nick asked.

  “He’ll be fine. He’s too weak during the day to be of much help. He knows that,” I answered.

  We drove by two possible dens where Gavin and I sensed nothing. There were no humans, only a few vamps. Ancients gave off more power, and I didn’t get the strong uneasy feeling that indicated their presence, so onward we went to investigate the third option.

  Creeping to a stop on the side of the road in front of a two story night club, I felt that uneasiness in spades.

  Bingo.

  This shady part of the city definitely fit the horror movie setting. Run down buildings lined the pot hole covered street, and stepping out of the vehicle gave me that unwelcome feeling, as passersby gave off that vibe saying if you look at them the wrong way they’d pull out their semi automatic weapon and waste hundreds of dollars worth of ammunition just to make you vacate the premises.

  Gavin and I flanked our small group to shield them from that possibility as we shuffled toward the entrance of the club. Suspicious eyes followed us the whole way, but no one made a move against us. I got the feeling that would be the only form of welcome we’d receive, and it wouldn’t last long. A black door matched the blacked out windows, and when the handle gave Gavin resistance, he used a different kind of key. His boot.

  A seedy bar greeted us, but the chairs were empty.

  “Over there!” Max said, pointing out a stairway to the side of the bar.

  I led the others down a dark stairwell toward the sound of thumping techno music. Even in the early morning hours, the party was still raging with the younger Shadowmarked. At the bottom landing, a short hallway pointed to a set of rusted metal double doors. Flashing lights penetrated the crack between them.

  “Stick close to me,” I called behind me.

  They huddled together as we gathered by the doorway, leaving me just enough space to barge through it.

  Bursting through the flimsy metal, we came upon a mass of writhing undead vermin dancing under strobe lights. This whole unity thing my father inspired among the Shadowmarked was beginning to really piss me off. Dens used to spring out of convenience and fear of human retaliation during the daylight hours. Now, they seemed to grow from celebration. They got along splendidly because there was enough food to go around when they didn’t have to pick their meals out of the shadows, and they no longer had to fear the day when my father promised to basically turn humans into cattle.


  The scent of blood and death hit me hard, forcing my fangs to retract. In the mirrors that lined the walls, I noticed my eyes had brightened to a light minty green color. They connected with Gavin’s equally bright eyes in our reflection.

  I tore my gaze away to search the room and found dead bodies discarded in a corner. Raging on the inside, I refrained from giving into that part of me, the part that would love nothing more than to tear each of their undead hearts out with my bare hands.

  The dancing stopped when they spotted us. Every vampire in the room stared with blackened eyes and snarled with blood soaked fangs. They narrowed their hungry gazes on our human companions but made no move toward them.

  “Jeeze, where’s Wesley Snipes when you need him?” Brody asked.

  “We don’t need him when we have the ultimate Shadowmarked deterrent. A couple of Daymarked vampires who could kill them all in under ten seconds,” Max replied.

  “That’s right, bitches! How do you like us now?” Nick taunted. He wouldn’t be so cocky if he had seen the bodies in the low lighting.

  They erupted in low growls and pushed a step forward. But Max was right. Their gazes bounced back and forth between the humans and Gavin and me. Fear held them back.

  “Come on. Let’s get what we came for and deal with this later,” I commanded.

  We skirted the perimeter of the room and made our way to another set of doors on the opposite side, where I could hear faint heartbeats. The black eyes tracked our movements but the young vampires remained glued in place to the concrete floors.

  I kicked open the rickety set of doors to be greeted by another long hallway. The ceiling was arched and florescent overhead lights, tinted in red, lined the peak. Some hung by only the cords. They flickered and hummed, creating the only sounds in the long corridor. The brick walls muted the sounds of heartbeats coming from a room at the end of the hallway.

  As I crept slowly forward, the others followed with silent steps. My instincts were telling me to duck, and just as we approached the center of the hall, the sound of brick scraping against brick alerted me to an ambush.

  “Form a huddle!” I shouted.

  It was too late. Arrows and knives zinged through holes in the wall. A couple caught me in the arms and neck, and I spun in time to see my team take a few non lethal hits before I dove at them. Forming a tight circle, Gavin and I used our bodies as shields to our friends.

  “Move!” I yelled over the mayhem.

  As one unit we shuffled to the end of the hallway taking an onslaught of hits. A solid steel door blocked our path to safety, but I shouldered through it, cringing when the deep wounds on my arm took the brunt of the weight.

  “Go!” Gavin shouted as he shoved the others into the room, pushing me farther inside, where I could make out forms along the walls.

  Slamming the door shut behind him, Gavin leaned against it to stop any further attacks. There were twelve people shackled to the walls, some screaming in fear of the new arrivals while others studied us wearily.

  “Everyone all right?” I called to my team.

  “Man, that was some real Indiana Jones shit right there,” Brody mused, blood coating his shirt and jeans.

  “Right,” Nick agreed, yanking an arrow out of his still-dirty cast.

  “Idiots,” Allison muttered under her breath as she tore a chunk of fabric off her shirt to use as a tunicate over a flesh wound on her arm.

  “We’re good, Luce,” Max answered, ignoring our over stimulated friends.

  “Good, let’s get these people out of here.” Faint light trickled in through a small, boarded window close to the ceiling.

  Wasn’t that a lucky break?

  “Kristana?” one of our German Keepers asked.

  A girl curled in the corner perked up at the male voice. “Nikolas?”

  He limped over to where she sat chained, and I noticed the broken arrow lodged in his thigh. They spoke in low tones, but Gavin moved to aid them, ripping the chains out of the wall.

  Another guy next to Kristana spoke to them in German, and Gavin moved to break him free. I followed suit and began yanking the chains off of the other captives. Quickly moving to the window, I ripped the boards off and smashed the glass only to find bars on the other side. Snapping each one in half, I bent the bottom pieces toward me so the others could use them as ladder handles. I pushed the top pieces outward so they wouldn’t stab anyone on the way out.

  Being in this dark hole pissed me off, and my hands clenched and unclenched as images of dismemberment ran through my head. The lives lost here may or may not have been innocent like the children in the First’s castle, but they still mattered. Although I wouldn’t mourn them like their loved ones would, I’d use this to push myself harder, trying desperately to keep it from happening to others. The other factions sprang to mind. They were going through the same thing, and we’ve already wasted so much time.

  “Everyone out!” I snapped, my infamous impatience bubbling over the edge.

  Gavin looked at me sharply, and I realized I needed to tone it down before the victims wet their pants. I was losing my handle on that anger I stifled earlier.

  Those who were capable of lifting themselves out of the window did, and then they helped hoist the wounded and weak outside.

  When it was just Gavin and I standing in the empty room I shouted for Nick. He poked his head down into the carved out window space.

  “Yeah, Lucy?”

  “My fellow pyromaniac, I know you’re always packing something fun. What do you have for me?”

  He smiled widely. “I got you covered, girl.”

  †

  Smoke poured out of the night club’s windows as we drove away, our vehicles loaded with extra passengers. The German Keepers calmed them and were in the process of convincing them that they had been kidnapped by psychopaths with a vampire fetish. Nothing more.

  We drove them to the nearest hospital and spent hours there while Allison received ten stitches to her arm where the knife had pierced her during the ambush, and Brody’s two wounds were patched. Nick had his cast removed but refused to let them replace it with a new one, so instead, they gave him a brace and warned him about restricting movement for at least two more weeks.

  Three of the German members, including Nikolas received the same treatment as Brody and Allison. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but my careless planning could have gotten them killed.

  I never even considered booby traps, but I should have known better after letting that last vampire in the parking garage get away. They were ready for us. My fists clenched and unclenched, needing to punch holes through metal, or vampires, but metal would suffice in a pinch.

  I was pissed at myself and pissed at those vampires for killing all those people, but mostly, I wanted to murder my father a thousand different ways for starting this.

  “Hey.” Gavin’s hoarse voice trickled down my back like a feather, easing some of the guilt and frustration bombarding me.

  I stood at a window in the waiting room of the ER, watching as an ambulance drifted out of its parking space and flipped on its sirens and flashing lights. His reflection approached mine from behind, and I watched woodenly as his arms snaked around my waist, their warmth drawing out even more tension. Leaning into his embrace, my head fell onto his chest, and I met his eyes in the reflection.

  “They were ready for us.”

  “They were. None of us anticipated it, Lucy. We’ll just have to be smarter about it next time. You know you can’t let these setbacks change your decision to keep going. Your father isn’t going to stop. Neither are you. I won’t let you question yourself. You’re doing everything you can to end this.”

  I soaked up his words like a Bounty paper towel, closing my eyes to absorb his strength. He was right. I had to remember none of this was my doing. The blame rested solely on my father, and I would stop at nothing to watch him burn.

  “Why are you always right?” I asked, slightly annoyed.

  He
laughed loudly enough to draw the attention of a distressed family nearby. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that for me?”

  “Shut up.”

  “I’m just remembering a time when you argued with me on everything because you thought I was wrong. This is a really nice moment for me.”

  I elbowed him and spun while he was hunched over at my eyelevel. Grabbing his jaw in one hand, I glared at him. “Don’t take this as a concession to future arguments. It was more of a compliment than a fact. Obviously, you’re not always right, otherwise I wouldn’t feel the need to argue.”

  “You couldn’t just let me enjoy that a few more seconds?” My fingers holding his face in place caused his broad smile to be squished at the edges.

  “I just wouldn’t want those words to come back to haunt me later when I’m right and your ego gets in the way of you seeing that.”

  He chuckled and his hands on my waist pulled me into him. I kept his face in place as I tilted to fit my mouth over his. He grabbed my bottom lip between his teeth and dragged it out slowly. I kissed him hard one more time before pushing him back.

  “Let’s go back to the compound to plan our next move.”

  †

  Jakob was relieved to get his missing house members back safely and told us the other factions were all in agreement to fight back in numbers. The next few weeks went by quickly as my friends, Elias and I traveled across Europe to rescue our missing teams. They all agreed to fight with us when the time came to organize, grateful for my help against the radical Shadowmarked. After each mission, the houses disbanded to safer locations until they were called to action.

  Each den we attacked had been booby-trapped in a similar way the Berlin night club was. We were smarter about our strategy and didn’t encounter any more problems or injuries. Surprisingly, Nick kept his arm out of harm’s way and it healed nicely. He was able to remove the brace a few days ago.

  Elias seemed closed off lately and only spoke to update us on my father’s whereabouts. It seemed he hadn’t gotten any closer to finding the Sword.