Veil of Darkness (Book 1)

by Derek Adam

  She closed her hands around mine and looked at me again.

  The way she looked at me. It was like she was seeing me for the first time.

  Which made sense.

  I took her in and, despite the roll of emotions and feelings churning in my stomach, my head was clouded and empty of thought.

  No complaints. I liked that she could put my brain on pause.

  “Alright, fuck it. Let’s leave and go somewhere else. Anywhere else. You wanna go to California?”

  She laughed at me and squeezed my hands again before letting go. “You know we have to finish this, and then… I’ll have work. So maybe that coffee first.”

  “Lady, I’d drink watered down Zima with you at this point. Coffee is perfect.”

  “I have a lot to sort through, Luca. I don’t want to mix this wrong or get you hurt.”

  “No... I understand. Just don’t hold out on me, okay?” I smirked, trying to laugh it off but was genuinely concerned she might suddenly be distant about it and ditch. “A kiss like that isn’t something you can just take away.”

  Instead, she stepped to me again, putting her hands on my chest. “I meant it.”

  She kissed me again, harder and more deliberate, but shorter this time.

  Which was nice because I was still a little short on breath from the first one. If she was a distraction before, I might as well walk around with a blindfold on at this point.

  My head was swimming.

  I had to refocus if there was gonna be more ‘crazy’ going down.

  Even though I’d rather get lost in that kiss. I sighed as she released it.

  “I just want to hug you for like… two hours.”

  She smiled in response, finally stepping away. Suddenly it was the extra space between us that bothered me.

  With a deep breath, I took in the room, suddenly more aware of my surroundings. It was like I had blinders on when she was in front of me.

  “When do you want to go back?”

  “Go back… to the cabin?” I quirked a brow, questioning the idea.

  She nodded and looked at me as she put a booted foot on the edge of a chair, adjusting the laces before tightening the straps of the holsters on her thighs.

  There was a hell of a lot of sex appeal suddenly pouring out of the tight body suit she was wearing.

  “Do we have to?” I rubbed my forehead. “Yeah, yeah, I know the answer to that. I need to see Hitch first. He needs to get things in motion to level that place as quick as possible.”

  “Can you call him on the way?”

  “I tried.” I slapped the pocket holding my cell. “No answer. It’s a small town, I think I know where I can find him. There’s a diner just down the road, where his wife works. He used to eat lunch there on the regular so… worth a shot.”

  Emma nodded as I headed for the door.

  As I reached for the handle, Bella suddenly shot from the bed, leaping down and padding quickly after me.

  I straightened as she came toward me and stood on her hind legs, rearing up like a horse and slapping her front paws hard into my chest.

  She just stood there, staring up at me. On her hind legs, she was nearly as tall as Emma. She had me pinned to the door with her weight.

  I looked into her eyes and she seemed to be staring back into mine, her ears erect. Shifting between the mismatched eyes, there was a strange feeling of judgement.

  My grandfather read me something once, about staring into your own eyes in the mirror. I decided to try it when I was like twelve. It was an eerie and uncomfortable feeling and I came away feeling… unworthy? That’s almost what this felt like.

  Her mouth finally opened and her tongue slid out as she hopped down, padding back toward the bed.

  She hopped up and returned to her spot, sprawling back out on the covers.

  We both watched her and I looked at Emma. She looked similarly surprised and confused by it, responding with a casual shrug.

  I could probably read it a thousand ways and still be wrong, but I chose to see it positively, given how protective Bella was of her.

  “I’ll call over. If he’s there, I’ll jog over real quick. You mind if Virgil stays with you?”

  She didn’t respond at first as she looked at me. I could see in her face that she knew why I asked.

  I didn’t want to leave her alone. Even though she wasn’t really alone with Bella.

  And… Virgil couldn’t really do a whole lot if a ‘creepy’ showed up, but he’s been known to swing wild when it was called for.

  “Sure.” She walked to me and I pulled the old pocket watch from my vest, laying it in her hand.

  Our hands lingered as they touched and I just looked at her skin, letting my fingers slide across hers

  I was having a hard time processing that she was as old as she said she was. I didn’t see it. She was practically flawless. Her skin seemed perfect.

  “I’ll be fine, Luca. Go ahead.”

  “I’ll bring you a coffee.”

  “Smooth talker.”

  Chapter 12 – Emma

  I sat on the edge of the bed, turning the watch over in my hands, admiring the age in it. It was far older than me, that was for sure.

  For being so old, it was well kept. Luca took good care of it, keeping the tarnish away.

  It still showed plenty of wear from being handled.

  Antiques always held my interest.

  With how often I moved about, I didn’t get too many opportunities to explore hobbies or personal interests.

  So, when I crossed paths with an antique shop or an estate sale tucked away from the public eye, I couldn’t help but wander.

  With so many years under my belt, I sometimes felt a bit like history.

  Like an antique.

  Old pieces like this seemed to hold a stronger connection for me than people. Most people, anyway.

  I turned the watch again to look at the back. It had a glass cover, like the face, revealing the inner workings.

  “My father gave it to me when I finished Yale.”

  I looked up, finding Virgil standing in the room, not far from me. He had his hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers.

  He was such a strange sight, it was difficult to tell his age.

  I marveled at him, taking him in for the first time. The great bushy mustache on his face made him seem so old, but his complexion, easy eyes, and the full head of slicked hair gave him a youthful look despite it being silver.

  “It’s beautiful.” I turned it in my hand, looking to the glass face and the bold Roman numerals that decorated it.

  “He was a jeweler and worked hard. Countless long hours, where we wouldn’t see him for days at a time. Gone before we woke, and home after we slept. Like the others, that was one he had made with his own hands. My father used it to sell others. It’s glass on both sides to show the mechanics as well as the jewels inside.”

  “He must have been very successful. It’s an amazing piece.”

  “He was, for some time, before his hands couldn’t work anymore.” Virgil wiggled his fingers at me, smiling beneath his mustache.

  He had such a dignified tone to his voice. He sounded every bit as scholarly as he looked.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s alright. Age, of course. We don’t last forever. That was the last watch he had. The bank let him keep it.” Virgil stared at it in my hands pensively. “He sold it to a man, so that he could pay to send me to school.”

  “I thought you said it was a gift?”

  “It was, in a way.” Virgil walked to me and looked down, craning his neck sideways to look at it in my hands. “When I finished my schooling, some years later, I was able to earn the money to buy it back from the man.”

  “It must be very important to you. I’ve never had a gift like that.”

  “It was his gift to me, as much as my acquiring it again was a gift… or an homage to him. A way to say thank you.” Virgil wandered away and settled onto a chair at
the other side of the room. “You have received a gift just like it.”

  I shook my head, one hand going to Bella’s head next to me, stroking her fur. She sighed heavily but didn’t move otherwise. “Nothing like this, Virgil. Not with such sentimental value. I don’t have family like you did.”

  “Luca has never left me with anyone.” Virgil smoothed a hand down the apron that adorned his front as he sat forward, his hand lifting to play with his mustache. “That watch means a great deal to him. His grandfather carried it everywhere he went. When it was passed to Luca he, too, carried it with him always. The only other place it rests is securely in the truck, and that is rare.”

  His kiss was at the front of my mind and I felt myself wishing he would come back quickly.

  I knew he was different the first time I saw him with Virgil and Sutter.

  But I was inexplicably drawn to him when he saved me. Like I had never been pulled toward a man before.

  There were others, but not like this. Not with this complexity.

  It unnerved me when I considered what had happened to all those who had my affection in the past.

  But none of them were able to protect themselves like Luca.

  “Virgil…” I looked to him and he sat up, raising a brow to me. He was giving me his undivided attention. I couldn’t help but smile at how gentleman-like he was.

  “You are the kindest spirit I’ve ever met.”

  Virgil rocked in his seat and smiled, and I could almost see the twinkle of appreciation in his eye as he nodded his thanks.

  “What is Luca?”

  Virgil froze and looked at me, looking to the side before meeting my gaze again. He just shrugged at me.

  “You can see more, like Sutter.”

  “Yes, ma’am. That’s… a bit of an understatement, really. There is quite a bit the living cannot see.”

  “What do you see when you look at Luca.”

  Virgil seemed to struggle, his eyes falling a bit and searching about. I grew uneasy when he didn’t respond at first, but he finally looked to me, tilting his head.

  “What do you see, Emma?”

  I sighed and looked to Bella before glancing back to him. “I see a man. I see Luca.”

  “There are other things you see, also.”

  “I see kindness, and curiosity. I see some of his passions.” Virgil nodded matter-of-fact, in response. “But, Virgil, I see what he’s capable of. Part of that worries me. I don’t know how to see him.”

  “Emma.” Virgil stood from his seat, putting a finger to his chin and tapping it as he walked toward me. “Have you ever witnessed a hurricane or other terrible storm of the sea?”

  “I have.”

  “Have you ever been in the shallows of beautiful, tropical waters that glow the most amazing, purest blue, as if they held the skies captive?”

  I nodded to him, pulling at threads of memories from places I had long since visited.

  “To judge a man by only one of his manifestations is like judging the sea by only a clay pot full of its water.”

  Virgil settled on the bed next to me. Though it dented somewhat with my own weight, there was no movement when he sat. It did not compress underneath him.

  Just inches from me, I could feel him. The collective energy of his spirit. Like I could feel the breath of the world in the trees.

  “Luca is what you see. He is what he is.”

  “That’s incredibly cryptic and deliberately vague, Virgil.”

  “He’s not a demon, or a moon man, if that is what you’re asking.”

  “That’s reassuring enough… I suppose. Thank you, Virgil.” I looked at the watch again in my hands and shook my head, laughing under my breath.

  “Is something funny?”

  “Yes, very much.” I nodded dramatically and glanced over at him, looking him up and down again as he sat next to me. “I’ve never really had a talk like this with a spirit, Virgil.”

  “Really? Never? It shocks me to think that there aren’t more gentlemen in this world, though I suppose the influence of some of your politicians does sour the souls of men quite a bit.” He looked at me curiously. “What do you usually do then, if you don’t speak to them?”

  “I usually shoot ’em in the face.”

  “Oh.”

  I reached out and took his hand. It felt odd. I’d always been in a position where I was wrestling them, fighting, pinning them down, forcing them to cross over.

  Or grabbing their face when they were vulgar.

  I never thought much about how it felt. Taking Virgil’s hand didn’t feel like the flesh of a person. It was a cold sensation, smooth – like running your hand over soft, chilled cream. There was a slight tingle to it as well.

  The underlying energy was like pins and needles when your hand or foot fell asleep.

  Virgil was startled when I took his hand, patting it with the other.

  “I’m sorry, I was just being reassuring.”

  “It’s not that.” He was fixated on my hands holding his. “The last time I held someone’s hand, it was my mother’s, as she passed. It’s funny… even in death, decades after the body is decayed and rotted beneath the earth, the memories can still haunt us.”

  I felt his hand tighten up in mine as he returned the reassuring squeeze.

  Chapter 13 – Luca

  The smell of trash was overpowering. I thought it was bad at the truck stop but it hit me in hot waves when I stepped out of the motel room.

  Given the litter collecting in the lot and the grass of Oliver’s property, I figured it would get better as I moved down the road.

  I was mistaken. It didn’t get worse, but it certainly didn’t improve.

  I kept my thoughts on Emma, as a pleasant distraction from the pungent aroma of garbage that hung in the warm air.

  The kiss had happened so suddenly that I started cooking up odd conspiracy theories.

  I had to be dreaming and walking this road was a metaphor.

  Or maybe she was using some assassin technique to get close to me in order to take me out.

  Regardless of her motives, it didn’t change how I felt or had reacted to it.

  I liked it. It was exactly what I wanted before I really realized that was what I wanted from her.

  “It looks like a garbage truck’s ass exploded out here,” Sutter mumbled as he strolled next to me down the side of the highway. “Makes me miss the old days. Wasn’t trash like this in the street and in the grass.”

  “You didn’t have grass, Sutter. Or streets. Everything was dirt.”

  “Yeah, but it was clean dirt.” He slapped his long duster, sending a plume flying out from his chest.

  Paula wasn’t entirely thrilled to hear from me, but she told me Hitch had just pulled in for lunch.

  I didn’t blame her for sounding shitty. She and I didn’t have the best relationship after high school, but I never really did anything to hurt her.

  She had it pretty good. I was just inattentive.

  And a little weird.

  Frankly, I was surprised she agreed to marry me. Even more surprised when I walked in on her riding my best man bareback.

  She and Hitch got married a few months later. I didn’t talk much after that… to either of them, really.

  All the more reason I nearly told Hitch to eat a dick when he called me up for this job. I honestly thought he was screwing with me.

  He was the only one that had an inkling of my abilities. We grew up together, and despite him seeing plenty of proof, and being my best friend for years, he was still pretty sure I was fucking nuts.

  Those occasions when I did come back into town, I always made it a point to make an appearance just for Paula.

  I knew it pissed her off.

  She probably spat in my food, but it was worth it.

  It pissed off Hitch, too. At least a little. I think somewhere inside, he was always worried that she might do to him what she did to me all those years ago.

  Maybe that’s
why I did it.

  Guaranteed he was gonna be full of hot piss when I walked into the diner.

  It wasn’t a long walk. You could almost see the sign for the place from Oliver’s motel. The day was warming up quick despite the clouds still hanging. I was tempted to take the truck, but I didn’t need Hitch asking questions about the windshield or the scraped-up hood with holes punched in it.

  As I grew closer, I could see Hitch’s Jeep parked outside the diner with a few other vehicles.

  That made me think about the distinct lack of traffic along the main road.

  The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. To the point that I stopped and looked back toward the hotel.

  Not a single car in either direction.

  I stepped out into the multilane highway and looked back toward the diner.

  Empty.

  Sutter went zipping past me down the street with his arms out, making airplane noises.

  “Are you for real right now?” I shook my head and continued toward the diner, cutting a shallow angle across the road to the other side. “I took you on one plane ride and you’re never gonna let it go. The headaches I had to go through to fake museum-piece paperwork on your gun just for that trip, and you’re torturing me with this.”

  “You’d see it my way if you weren’t cooped up inside it. I rode that summabitch like a big angry steer.” Sutter calmed his jogging and fell in next to me, kicking one of his boots along the pavement. “Second biggest thing I’ve ever had ’tween my legs if you know what I mean, Rooster.”

  “Oh God, Sutter. Stop, I’m gonna throw up.”

  Sutter laughed and put a hand to his mouth, sucking at his toothpick as he walked along beside me with extra swagger in his step.

  This is a game Sutter loved to play when he was bored, upset, tired, happy, or pretty much any other time he felt like it.

  I didn’t personally have an issue with homosexuals. Sutter’s sexual preference didn’t bother me. Grandpa made sure I knew how important it was to respect people from all walks of life.

  Sutter just liked to provide me with graphic details.

  He knew which buttons to press.

  For years, he had worked on perfecting his technique and had it down to a science.