Crimson Night

by Marie Hall

  I cupped his cheek. He groaned, leaned into me, then pulled me tight to him. His hands ran down my back, holding me as if he’d never let me go.

  I nuzzled his cheek. I couldn’t help it. I wanted the comfort. This was the man I used to love, the man I thought I could never live without. A part of me would always be his. But that part was no longer enough. I needed more than he could give.

  “Sometimes,” I whispered, curling my finger through the soft thickness of his hair, “there is such a thing as too much water under the bridge.”

  He pulled back and this time he let me see his pain.

  I shook my head. “But this has nothing to do with Billy, Luc.”

  There wasn’t anger, or even violence, but a bottomless pit of sadness that threatened to steal the breath from my lungs. “It has everything to do with him,” he said, then ported.

  I plopped onto my bed, empty and hollow inside, glanced at the drawer holding the ring and wondered was he right? What was I doing where Billy was concerned?

  I reached into the neck of my shirt and pulled out the necklace I’d worn to sleep last night, staring at the medallion with an “A” etched in black.

  Luc was right, the man was a death priest. A being that stood against everything I was. A thing, that if given the opportunity would hunt my kind to extinction and still, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. Wanting to see him.

  The kiss. My lashes fluttered, body growing tight with need, stomach somersaulting with the thought of his lips pressed to my own.

  My hand shook as I touched my finger to a mouth that prickled thinking about it. This wasn’t like me. This desperate, urgent need to be with him. Even with Luc it’d been different. I knew I’d loved him, but it’d been deep, sure. Billy was wild, crazy passion that rivaled anything I’ve ever felt even when fully gripped by Lust. I was afraid my obsession—and it was that—would very likely kill me.

  It was nothing he did. The guy had stabbed me, contused me and yet I refused to share him with anybody. Grace asked, Luc asked, but I couldn’t. Billy was mine. His violence, his lust, it was mine to keep. Guard. Protect.

  I dropped my head into my hands. I needed to call Grace. I needed to find out anything I could about the priests’. If I was thralled I wanted it off before it killed me.

  I ported to Kemen’s trailer and knocked.

  “Yeah,” he called, voice muffled.

  I opened the door and stepped inside. “Kem?”

  “Over here.”

  I looked to my left, he was on the floor playing a video game, clothes looking like a miniature hill piled around him. He paused his game and glanced up.

  “I need to use the phone. Could I?”

  “Sure.” He jerked his chin. “It’s in the bedroom on the desk.”

  “Thanks.” I headed back, picked up the phone and dialed Grace’s cell.

  She picked up on the third ring.

  “Aye,” she said, voice harried with exasperation.

  “Grace, it’s me.”

  “Dora?” I could almost picture her sitting forward with eager anticipation. “What news?”

  I told her everything, sans Billy, of course.

  “That is worrisome.” She paused and I knew she was biting her bottom lip; it was her habit when thinking.

  “Listen.” My mouth felt suddenly dry, my tongue twice its size.

  “Aye?” she asked after a minute.

  I licked my lips; I really needed to read those files, if she said no I was screwed. I crossed my fingers. “Could I possibly gain access to the orders library?”

  I held my breath for what felt like an eternity before she finally said in a hushed tone, “I’m sorry, lass, but I canna do that. No one but the order allowed inside.”

  It was like someone had sucker punched me in the gut. What was I going to do now?

  “Dora. Dora?” Grace said in agitation, after I’d failed to answer her.

  “I’m here.”

  She blew out a deep breath. “I can see this is bothering you and I might get flayed alive for doing it, but if you tell me which records you want, I’ll send Mary to get them.”

  It wasn’t ideal, I’d wanted to browse the library at my leisure, but this was better than nothing. Relief flooded me. “I need anything you’ve got on the priests and...” I thought about the Gray Man, the desire to find out anything about him was almost more than my desire for Billy, but then I remembered the cold fingers on my neck and the warning to speak of him to no one.

  “Was there something else, Pandora?” Grace prompted.

  I bit my tongue. It wasn’t worth it. “No. That’s it.”

  “You sure?” she pressed, as if sensing I lied, but I shook my head. “That’s it.”

  “Okay then, meet me here at ten tonight, before you head to the club. I’ll have it ready for you.”

  “Thanks.” We hung up and a heavy burden lifted off me. I dragged my weary body back into Kemen’s living room. He was still playing his shoot ‘em up game.

  I sat down next to him, resting my head on his shoulder and sighed.

  He looked at me. “Wanna talk about it?”

  “Not really.”

  “Okay.”

  He shut off his game and turned the channel to local news, I listened for a bit, hearing some weather man spout off nonsense about more snow. No really? I could have predicted that. What a moron.

  “I didn’t mean to listen, but I heard you mention something about a priest,” he said quietly. I rolled my gaze up to his face. “Is one after you?”

  “Kemen.” I patted his thigh. “I’m sorry you heard that, but I really don’t want to talk about this.”

  He gave me a soft smile. “I’m sorry, it’s your business. I won’t pry.” He patted his knee. “Wanna lay down?”

  “Yes,” I said it in a breathless rush, “oh God, all I wanna do is sleep.” Sleep and forget, at least for a little while.

  He leaned back, resting on a pile of clothes and I settled my head against his lap. He played with my hair and just as I was at the point of totally losing myself to the numbing void of oblivion I saw something on the screen that made my heart clench.

  It was the face of the little girl, yellow banner under the picture that said: Missing. Then the picture pulled back, replaced by the crying image of a Mom and Dad pleading for their daughter’s safe return.

  I buried my face in Kemen’s thighs and cursed the eyes that couldn’t shed tears.

  Chapter 18

  I was headed back to Sanguinary, but I had no plans to party. This time it was all about finding out what was going on behind the club and try to figure out some way to get inside. I wore nothing flashy. Black on black and form fitting. I pulled my hair back, then tucked it under a plain black baseball cap.

  I twirled and studied my reflection to see if the plethora of knives and weapons I had strapped to my body were obvious. But aside from a few dips and grooves that could easily pass as wrinkles in my clothing, I looked perfectly harmless.

  I glanced at the silver necklace on my nightstand.

  After Luc had discovered the ring, I decided leaving it unattended wasn’t the wisest choice. I still couldn’t bring myself to wear it on my finger. But I had to figure out a way to keep it on me. So I’d threaded it onto the silver necklace. The gold ring looked odd next to the silver medallion.

  I grabbed it and slipped it on, tucking it under my shirt. The medallion and ring settled against my breast and my pulse raced at the mere thought that this necklace might be Billy’s. What was the A? Was it a clue? Was this necklace even his? I’d found it after our fight and assumed it was, but was it really?

  I had to know. The need to get to Grace’s and get my hands on whatever files the order had on the priests made me antsy.

  I was zipping up my boot when I smelled sulfur. I still hadn’t forgiven him. “What?”

  “Here.” Luc shoved something small and hard into my hand. “Wear this.”

  I opened my hand and stared
at a black earpiece the size of my pinky nail and a short snake like wire attached to a flat small box with an on/off switch on its side. “You asking me to wear a wire?”

  “I’m not asking, I’m telling.” Then he took a deep breath and gave me a weak smile, as if trying to take some of the sting out of his words. “Listen, Dora, I wish I could be there. Believe me or not, but I just can’t and you’re gonna have to trust me on this.”

  I crossed my arms. “Whatever, Luc. You know I don’t wear bras, so what do you expect me to do? Shove the wire up my ass? Not happening.”

  He rubbed his brow and groaned. “You’re still angry.”

  “Hmm.” I tapped my foot. “What would give you that idea?” Was he serious? Did the man really think he could say the things he’d said to me and a few hours later I’d be all happy because he decided to throw me a scrap of kindness? Judging by the plea in his ice blue eyes, apparently so.

  “I want to help you and this is the only way I know how without compromising the orders directives.”

  “Fine, whatever.” I huffed a stray tendril of hair out of my eyes. “Put it on. But I don’t know how you think it’s gonna help. Maybe if a bad guy tries to kill me I can rip it off and throw it at him. That’ll stop him.”

  He took a deep breath, as if trying to quell his rising temper. Personally, I was ready for another all out brawl. Bring it on, baby.

  “This,” he said, picking up the wire, “is laced with heat sensors; it can detect anyone’s body heat. I’ll be able to let you know if someone tries to sneak up on you.”

  Well, there was that. Though I hated to concede the point, this might help after all. My parasite detector only worked on anyone less powerful than myself, and any advantage was a good one. “Can you see what I see?”

  He shook his head. “Infrared imaging only.”

  “But if I’m in a crowd, how’s that gonna help me? All you’ll see is fuzzy red dots everywhere.”

  “Paras, even more powerful ones, transmit at a cooler frequency. We’re almost entirely blue.”

  “I didn’t know that. How come I didn’t know that? When did you find that out?” I asked disgruntled, why hadn’t he bothered to share that information with me before?

  He jerked his chin, indicating I should lift my shirt up. He paused for a second, looking at the necklace and ring. I knew he had questions, but he didn’t ask. He pushed the necklace aside, pressed the wire to the bottom of my breast so that it molded against the curve and quickly taped it on.

  “Kemen, and I have been tinkering around with the idea for a while. We used night vision goggles with an IR filter and noticed some heat differences so figured we were probably on the right path. But goggles are too obvious.” He lifted my breast and bent down so that his nose was mere inches from it and tugged on the wire.

  Believe it or not, getting your boob handled like it’s little more than a nuisance isn’t much of a turn on.

  Obviously satisfied with the placement, he jerked his chin in the direction of my jeans. “Pull your pants down.”

  I unzipped and pulled them down to my knees. He taped the box to the inside of my thigh then switched it on. “So,” he continued, “Kemen and I came up with the concept of masking the infrared in wire. This is the prototype. But I’ve tested it out. It works. It’s not perfect, has some glitches, but for what you’re gonna do tonight, it’s good enough.” He gave the wire one last tug, then patted my breast with a satisfied nod.

  My lips twisted. “If you were anyone else, I’d accuse you of copping a feel.”

  “I was.” He winked, then he grabbed the necklace again, finger lingering for a moment on the medallion. He cleared his throat. “Okay, now the receiver.”

  I handed him the earpiece. He shoved it inside my canal as far as it could go. I frowned. It felt strange, but not unpleasant. I looked at the mirror and turned my face to the side. It was like it wasn’t even in there, I couldn’t see a thing.

  “You can hear me and I you,” he said.

  “How are you going to hear me with this? Don’t these things need antennas?”

  “Pandora,” he said with a twirl of his lips, “leave technology to the experts.” He tweaked my nose.

  I’m not kidding. He freakin’ tweaked my nose. Condescending, chauvinist pig. I wanted to bite his finger off.

  He cupped my cheek. “Be safe out there tonight.” Lengthy pause. “And come home.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say. I guess in his own way, he was apologizing. I grabbed his hand, squeezed it and then stepped back. “I’ll do my best.”

  ~*~

  I brushed my hands down my pants, glanced both ways to make certain no humans were around to watch me appear as if from nothing, then stepped out of the alleyway a block from Grace’s house. I ran with hurried steps to her front door.

  It was dark enough out that I’d decided I probably wouldn’t get caught if I’d ported. I was fifteen minutes early, but I wanted to get a jump on the club and it opened its doors at ten. I doubted Grace would mind my showing up a few minutes ahead of schedule.

  “Testing. Testing. One. Two. Testing...” The teeny voice reverberated through my skull and set my teeth on edge.

  “If you don’t shut up, I will personally rip your tongue out when I get back home tonight.”

  He laughed. “Told you it would work.”

  “Jerk.”

  It was quiet again and I could almost picture Luc scrawled out on his bed wearing nothing but a pleased smirk.

  Then I thought of something I probably should have remembered much sooner. I was going to Grace’s to get a book on priests and bloody Big Brother could hear every word I said. I cursed myself every kind of fool. Oh well, I was gonna have to figure out a way to speak without giving my secret away. How to stop Grace from doing it was the x-factor.

  I ran even faster when I finally caught sight of the flag. I bounded up the steps and was getting ready to knock when I heard a scream of outrage.

  “What do ye mean he hasn’t taken the bait?”

  Pause.

  I placed my ear against the door, the words grew low and muffled, but I was able to make it out.

  “Now ye listen to me, I don’t care what ye have to do to make this happen, but ye will make it happen. If ye don’t...”

  The door was suddenly flung open. Startled, I yelped and jerked back swiftly, trying not to appear as guilty as I felt.

  “What were ye doin?” Mary asked, a suspicious glint in her gray eyes.

  “I’m here for the...umm, package.”

  “Package,” the tiny voice in my head questioned. “You didn’t tell me about a pit stop at Grace’s.”

  She stared at me for a long second. I shoved my hands down my pocket, trying my best to ignore my vexation at getting caught by her. Luc snarled that he was going to kill me when I got back if I didn’t answer him now.

  I plastered on my best smile, going for innocence and naiveté. “Well, you gonna let me in or what?”

  The static in my head died down. Let him stew, served him right.

  Mary didn’t seem to want to budge, as a matter of fact her attitude turned downright hostile. She gripped the door, her mouth set into a hard slash. My smile slipped and I cocked my head, aggravation burning a hot line through me. I lifted my brow and let her know that she had a second to move before I made her do it.

  “If I were you, Mary,” Grace said, “I’d move away from the door.”

  The girl finally stepped back, but her rigid posture screamed she wasn’t happy about it.

  I walked in, glared at her, then turned toward Grace. “Sorry, I got here early. But I wanted to make it to the club before it opened.”

  The earpiece buzzed. “I think when you get home I’m going to tie you down to the bed and swat you for keeping more secrets from me.”

  I coughed, cleared my throat. Grace gave me a questioning look. I patted my chest. “Just a prick in my throat,” I said with a stiff smile.

  “Well, oka
y...” Confusion still evident on her face as she gestured me toward the kitchen where she stood.

  My ears rang with a peal of laughter I was determined to ignore.

  Grace’s normally neat bun had come loose and wisps of curls framed her face in a gray halo. She looked about as frazzled as I’d ever seen her.

  “You look awful, Grace. You okay?”

  She curled her nose. “Bloody order’s got me teeth on edge. When ye told me about the little girl I thought of a plan to try and get inside. Find out if that was an isolated incident or indicative of some grand conspiracy.”

  I perked up, so had Luc by the obvious lack of noise on the other end of the line. “Oh yeah?”

  “Mmm.” She nodded. “Many of us when we’re inducted into the order do so at young ages. I was ten when I sealed in.”

  I frowned. That seemed incredibly young to take on the huge responsibility of being a watcher. My doubt must have shown because she wagged her finger at me.

  “You’ve no idea how valuable the little ones are to us. They’re almost always overlooked and able to get in places adults cannot.”

  Made sense. But still... “What’d you do?”

  “We grabbed a girl child, twelve, but she looks much younger. More like eight. We’ve got scouts all over her, we set her out as bait. But no takers yet. We need to get inside there, Pandora.”

  I narrowed my eyes. What a perfect answer. Too perfect maybe? Had she known I was listening? Or was it really the truth and I was looking for trouble where there wasn’t any?

  I clenched my jaw. The Gray Man had done his job well. I didn’t know who to trust anymore. Was Grace really telling me the truth, or had it been a brilliant rouse to throw me off the scent of what was real? My stomach churned. Was I losing my mind? It was beginning to feel that way.

  “Well, anyway...” She flicked her wrist. “That’s not yer problem, it’s mine.” She turned and I followed. “I’ve got what you need. Here.” She grabbed a small, leather bound book off the kitchen table.