Los Angeles

by Tiffany Aaron

  “You don’t believe he took off,” Christian muttered aloud as he started the car.

  After pulling out of the underground parking garage, he turned in the direction of the docks. Something had happened to Phillip, and Christian had the feeling it had to do with the unrepentants. The less powerful Enforcer was scared of Christian, and he wouldn’t go anywhere outside the city without Christian’s permission.

  The closer he got to the abandoned warehouses along the river, the more oppressive the atmosphere became. Christian curled his upper lip in a snarl at unrepentants who thought they could get away with gathering in his territory.

  Yet it was unusual to have so many fallen in one spot. The fallen who had gone over the edge tended to become solitary as they hunted among the mortals. Paranoia grew as the madness did until they would try to kill each other.

  Could Lucifer have anything to do with the gathering? If so, what was Lucifer up to? Was he finally planning to take over the world starting with New York?

  Christian frowned as he pulled up in front of one of the empty buildings. Fallen had been there, but they had either left or moved on because the skin-crawling feeling he normally associated with them wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been elsewhere. He climbed from the car then stretched while studying the area around him.

  The stench of garbage and unwashed bodies filled his nostrils and he fought back the urge to gag. More than fallen called this place home, which didn’t surprise Christian that much. The homeless on the streets of New York City needed to find places to spend the cold winter nights. They also needed to find places to hide when the police came to roust them out of the parks.

  He’d lived in the city long enough to have seen the increase in the street people who called abandoned places like this home, and had lost his compassion for them. Christian didn’t understand why they didn’t make their own lives better by finding jobs and homes. It wasn’t that complicated to choose not to live like this.

  “Hey, honey, you looking for some company?”

  Turning around, he barely managed to keep the disgust from showing on his face. The girl couldn’t have been any older than nineteen or twenty. Her ragged, dirty clothes barely covered the most private parts of her body. Even though she stood in a shadowed alley a few feet from him, Christian could see her clearly, and he shuddered.

  The whore was skinny to the point of starvation, the bones in her wrists and hips sticking out. The scabs on her arms and legs told him her story. Another mortal who had lost her battle with heroin, and had decided the drug was better than anything else in her life. She would give him a blowjob or let him fuck her for the money she needed for her next fix.

  Christian no longer cared why they chose to numb their lives with drugs. Why getting lost in the haze of heroin or meth made their lives better, he didn’t understand, and no longer wanted to.

  “I’m not interested,” he said, looking away from her to study the building again.

  “Come on, mister. I’ll make it worth your time.”

  “Shouldn’t you be making it worth my money?”

  Why are you talking to her? Just get the job done and get the hell home.

  He sensed her confusion at his question, but before he could clarify it, and maybe see if she had any brain cells left, three people came walking down the sidewalk. Christian looked them over, but since they were only human, he didn’t have anything to worry from them. He started to make his way towards the warehouse.

  “Mindy, are you okay?”

  Something about the voice that spoke the gentle question froze Christian in his tracks. His heart skipped a beat, and his cock hardened in a way that it hadn’t in years. Every atom in his body was on alert to hear more of that voice.

  Whirling around, he found the trio standing next to the alleyway, and the male of the group glared at him in an attempt to scare him while the two women talked to the whore. Totally unconcerned about the man, Christian strolled over to where they were gathered.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  The women turned to look at him. The guy was tall and muscular, obviously there for protection. The woman was short and curvy with short blonde hair and bright blue eyes. As big as the guy was, Christian got the feeling he needed to worry more about this petite female.

  The taller brunette didn’t glance at him as she kept her attention on Mindy. Christian had never liked being ignored, and for some reason it was worse when this woman did it.

  “I’m fine, Joan. Just chatting with that fellow. Trying to work out a price.”

  Christian huffed in annoyance. “We weren’t working out a price. I have never paid for sex, and I’m not about to now.”

  The blonde didn’t look convinced, and the man rolled his eyes, probably having heard it all before. Christian found himself wanting to protest that he was telling the truth. Having to explain himself wasn’t something he’d ever done, not really caring what any mortal thought of him, but the urge to elaborate on his presence on that sidewalk caught him off guard.

  “Joan, why don’t you talk to Mindy and give her the stuff we brought for her? I want to chat with Mr Tall, Blond and Stuck-Up over here.”

  Watching as Joan led Mindy a few steps down the alley, Christian then whirled to meet the other woman’s gaze. “What exactly did you want to talk to me about?”

  “You should really watch your tone, Mister. It doesn’t take any more time to be nice than it does to be an asshole.” The guy crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Christian.

  “Did you just make that up? Do you read fortune cookies for fun or something?” Christian clenched his teeth in annoyance. “I have things to get done, and you’re wasting my time.”

  He started to turn around and walk away, but the blonde put her hand on his arm, and short of shoving her away, he couldn’t do anything. While he might not like mortals much anymore, he wasn’t going to go around assaulting them either.

  “What’s a guy like you doing down here if you’re not looking for a little sex?” She tilted her head in the direction of Mindy and Joan. “I’m Cecila, by the way, and this is Piet.”

  Did he look like he cared what their names were?

  A sudden wave of uneasiness swept over him, and Christian knew a fallen was near. He set his feet and spread his awareness out a little thicker, trying to figure out exactly where the creature was.

  “A polite person would introduce himself and answer my question, especially if he wasn’t doing anything illegal.” Cecila propped her fists on her hips and studied him with a narrow-eyed glare.

  “I’m sure that look works on people who have had mothers to make them feel guilty, but I haven’t, so it won’t work on me.” Christian gestured towards the warehouse behind them. “I came to look at that place.”

  There wasn’t any point in not telling them what he was doing. In fact, if they were down near the docks a lot, they might know something about the unrepentants.

  Piet curled his upper lip. “Looking for investment properties?”

  Christian shook his head. “I’m interested in a group of people that had been seen hanging around the warehouses. Have you seen them?”

  Cecila shrugged. “We see a lot of people while doing our job. Are they prostitutes or junkies? Homeless? You aren’t going to have them arrested, are you? That’s not a very charitable thing to do.”

  Frowning, Christian studied the older woman. “Do I strike you as a man who does charity work or who even cares about charity?”

  “No.” Piet didn’t hesitate.

  “And you know why?” He paused, but when there wasn’t anything forthcoming, he continued, “Because I’m not.”

  “Harsh.”

  Joan’s comment caused Christian to look up to see Joan walking up to join them. Mindy was nowhere to be seen, yet the other presence Christian had felt was still around, watching them. He turned in a three-sixty circle, looking for anything that was out of place and feeling for empty spots in the energies surrou
nding them. He couldn’t sense anyone else, but that didn’t mean anything. Fallen could hide from him if they tried, or if they banded their power together.

  “What are you doing?” Joan asked once he faced them again.

  “Just checking to make sure no one is getting close.” Christian tugged back his cuff to check his watch. “I need to go, but if you could answer my question? Have you seen a group of people gathering in one of these buildings? They might look like they’re homeless, junkies or whores, but they’re something else all together.”

  “What are they?” Piet enquired, but Christian wasn’t interested in talking any more.

  “Have you seen them?” he demanded.

  “Actually, yes. A few days ago, there were about ten strangers hanging around warehouse fourteen. It’s three blocks west of here.” Joan motioned behind Christian. “I saw them when I was out giving the working girls some condoms.”

  “Is that what you do down here? Give the whores condoms?” Christian scowled. “Don’t you know how dangerous that is?”

  “We’re well aware of the danger, Mr…?” Joan let her voice fade out.

  Christian wasn’t going to be drawn into revealing his name. As attracted as he was to Joan, it didn’t mean he was going to spill all of his personal information to people he didn’t know.

  “I suggest you rethink your little charity handouts for a few weeks, or go somewhere else in this God-forsaken city. That group is far more deadly than your usual whores and druggies.”

  Joan and Piet snorted.

  “What?”

  “It’s obvious you don’t come down to the mean streets very often,” Cecila commented, staring pointedly at the Rolex on his wrist and his Jaguar F-Type S parked at the kerb. “Have you ever been down on your luck and needing help from someone? Have you ever lived the hell on earth that a lot people living on the street experience every day?”

  Anger surging through him, Christian pushed into Cecila’s personal space. She gasped when she met his gaze, and Christian imagined his eyes were almost black with his dark emotions.

  “I live in hell every day of my life, lady, and I’ve lived far longer than you or anyone else on the streets of this city. I’ve experienced unimaginable pain, so don’t judge me like you know me.” Christian snarled.

  “All right, sir. Just back up. Cecila didn’t mean anything by it.” Joan rested her hand on Christian’s arm, encouraging him to move.

  Even though there were two layers of clothes between his skin and hers, Christian swore he could feel the smoothness of her fingers. Of course, that wasn’t true, but he could imagine how her touch would feel on his body. He grunted as his cock hardened again.

  He shifted away from her, not wanting her to know how much she’d affected him. It had been over a year since he’d been interested enough in a woman to take her to bed. What was it about Joan that caught his attention?

  Her brunette hair was long and bound at her nape by a small blue ribbon. He met her wide hazel eyes with his own, not wanting to give anything away. Yet her sharp inhale told him she must have seen some of what he was feeling.

  She stepped back at the same time as he did, then she cleared her throat. “They were there for a night or two before they left. I haven’t seen as large a group again. I have seen two or three together at a time, coming and going from the same building.”

  “Thank you.” He took another step away from her, thinking it probably looked as if he was scared to death of her. It was just that he didn’t have time to deal with this strange need he felt for her. “I suggest if you’re going to continue the foolish campaign of helping out the destitute then you should go somewhere else for a little while.”

  “You really don’t care for those less fortunate than you, do you?” Joan’s question was so soft, Christian had to lean closer to hear it.

  Rearing back, he took a deep breath as shock raced through him.

  “Where has your compassion gone, Christian?” Mika’il’s voice echoed his own thoughts. “At one time, you were no better than those you sneer at.”

  “Keep them safe, Piet, and listen to me. Stay away from these warehouses for a little while. There are far more dangerous things in the world then an angry pimp or a strung-out junkie.”

  After turning, he stalked over to his car. To hell with looking for the fallen tonight. He’d go home and lick his wounds, then come back tomorrow when there wouldn’t be any mortals to bother him.

  “Wait. Please.”

  He froze where he stood by the car door. Shooting a glance over his shoulder, he saw Joan jogging towards him. “Yes?”

  “What’s your name?”

  Christian hadn’t intended to tell her because he thought she didn’t need to know. At that moment, it was like someone else had taken over his tongue. “Christian Vosberg,” he muttered.

  She held out her hand. “I’m Joan Fisher. It’s nice to meet you, Mr Vosberg. Maybe we’ll see each other again.”

  He shook her hand. “Maybe we will, Ms Fisher.”

  He let go of her hand before sliding behind the wheel, then starting the engine. He barely stopped himself from slamming on the gas pedal to peel away from the kerb. Not wanting Joan to know she bothered him, Christian eased away from the sidewalk then headed out of the city. It was time to get away, clear his head and refocus on his job. Yet he looked into the rear view mirror to see Joan standing at the kerb, staring after him. Something told him he wouldn’t be forgetting her anytime soon.

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  About the Author

  I’ve been writing for most of my life, but was first published in 2004. I believe everyone deserves love in all its forms. I write about women and men who find strength in loving each other. I live in the Midwest with my two cats, and when I’m not writing (which isn’t very often) I read and watch movies.

  Email: tiffanyaaronbooks@gmail.com

  Tiffany loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.totallybound.com.

  Also by Tiffany Aaron

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  Totally Bound Publishing