“Good morning.” Christian smiled at her. She came in for another kiss, which lasted far longer than the first. “You’re being awfully affectionate.”
“You think so?” Lilith sighed, laying her head back down on his chest. “Is it so odd that I would be like this after what we shared last night?”
Christian needed a moment to think about that before shaking his head.
“No, I guess not.”
“This might sound strange, but now that I’m here with you like this, all I want is to just stay here and kiss the living daylights out of you.” Christian stiffened in more ways than one, causing Lilith’s delightful giggle to caress his ears. “I wouldn’t mind doing that with you again, either, but I’m still a bit sore from last night, so you’ll have to give me some time to recover.”
“You’re also being a lot bolder,” Christian muttered, shaking his head. “I’ve never heard you make a joke like that before. Are you sure you’re really Lilith, and not some imposter who’s just pretending to be her?”
Lilith giggled some more. She then turned her head and kissed his chest, sending shivers down his spine.
“I don’t know why, but I just feel so amazing. I can’t really explain it, but I feel almost like I’ve been reborn, or like I’ve become a new person.”
“Really?” Christian frowned. Reborn? What did she mean by that? Did she feel this way because of what they did last night? Because of what they shared together? That couldn’t be it. While he thought last night was amazing, he didn’t feel any different.
“I really do.” With a contented sigh, Lilith nuzzled her cheek against his chest. “I don’t know why, but everything feels so much better now. I feel like I’ve become complete, like some part of me that I never realized was missing has suddenly been returned.”
Christian didn’t understand what she meant, but he supposed it didn’t matter. If she felt this way, then it could only be a good thing.
“I’m glad.” Christian kissed her forehead. “I hope that you’ll always feel this way from now on.”
Lilith rested her chin on his chest. Her eyes stared into his, and he felt like he could drown within her gaze. She really did have the most beautiful, expressive eyes that he had ever seen.
“I love you, Christian.”
He smiled. “And I love you.”
Lilith slowly pulled herself up. She leaned over him, her blond hair catching and reflecting sunlight as it draped over him like a curtain. Her eyes fluttered closed as she leaned down to kiss him, and he did the same, leaning up to claim her lips as he had a few short hours ago.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
“Christian! Lilith! Open this door right now!”
Their eyes widened as a shout penetrated the other side of the door. They looked at each other. He could see his wide eyes reflected in hers as their situation became more apparent. They were in a bed, naked, and someone was on the other side of the door, knocking and shouting, sounding about ready to break the door down if he didn’t answer.
“Dammit, Christian! I don’t know what you two are doing in there, but if you don’t answer this door right now, I’m going to break it down!”
And it seemed her patience had worn off. He and Lilith scrambled off the bed, nearly becoming a tangled mess of limbs in the process, and hurried to get dressed. Before the woman on the other side of the door could make good on her threat, Christian, dressed only in his pants, answered the door by opening it just a crack and peering out.
Catherine stood on the other side of the door, hands on her hips, scowling and looking most displeased.
“Uh.” Christian tried to think of something to say. “Good morning?”
“Christian,” she said, and Christian could practically see the vein throbbing on her forehead. “Do you remember what I told you after we parted ways?”
Christian needed a moment to recall her words. His brain felt oddly fuzzy.
“Um, I think you told me to meet you at five, so that we could create a plan to deal with Damien.”
“That’s right, I said to meet me at five.” Catherine nodded, seemingly pleased that he remembered this. He felt a chill run down his spine. “And do you know what time it is now?”
“Um, no?”
“I thought not. Just so you know, it is now five-thirty in the evening.”
“Oh.” Christian winced. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t sound sorry,” Catherine said, trying to peer through the crack in the door. Christian blocked her attempt, which made her frown. “Anyway, can I come in? I need to inform you and Lilith of the plan that we have come up with since someone decided not to show up.”
“Would you mind waiting for just a second?” he asked. When Catherine’s glare intensified, he knew that was the wrong thing to say and quickly elaborated. “I need to, um, get dressed…”
Catherine stared at him. She stared at him so hard that he wondered if she was trying to see whether it was possible to make him spontaneously combust with nothing but a glare. He met her glare head-on, not looking away. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen worse from some of the monsters he had killed. Abaddon’s glares had been a truly frightening thing to behold. Compared to that, Catherine looked like a small child throwing a temper tantrum.
“Very well.” Catherine sighed and closed her eyes, looking mildly exasperated. “But make it quick. And take this.” She shoved a travel bag into his hands through the doorway. He looked from the bag to her. “I took the liberty of having someone head over to Lilith’s apartment to grab her some clothes.”
“Oh, thank you.”
After closing the door, he turned around to see Lilith standing in front of him, wearing nothing but a pair of panties.
“That was the woman from before, wasn’t it? The one who was with you when you rescued me?”
“Yes.” He allowed himself a moment to admire the vision of perfection in front of him. He then held up the bag for Lilith to take. “Here, there are clothes for you in there.”
“Thank you.” Lilith took the bag from him with a smile. She then moved over to the bed, where she set the bag down, unzipped it, and pulled out the clothes contained therein.
Christian finished getting dressed as well, pulling a skin-tight sleeveless shirt over his head, and then strapped his guns and ammo clips to his thighs. His ensemble was finished after he slung his swords over his back and tightened the straps. He left the cloak hanging on his door. It would only hamper his movements this night.
“Christian?”
He paused. “Yes?” he asked, turning to Lilith who was biting her lower lip.
“When this is all over,” she started, paused, then continued. “Will you tell me more about yourself?”
He didn’t need to be a genius to know what she was talking about. Her gaze strayed from his face to the miniature armory on his person, making what she wanted to know about more than obvious.
Christian smiled at her.
“Yeah, when this is all over, I’ll tell you everything.”
His words brought a smile to her face.
When they finished getting dressed, he opened the door and allowed Catherine to enter. The female officer, her purple suit looking crisp as ever, paused at the doorway, her inquisitive gaze staring at the mess they had made of the bedroom and, more specifically, the bed. After a moment, she shook her head, and then walked to the window, where she turned around and leaned against the windowsill.
“We’ve come up with a plan to deal with that No Life King.” Catherine paused, raising an eyebrow when she saw him and Lilith cuddling on the bed. He was grateful when she decided not to question them and continued. “The plan itself is very basic. We would have been able to come up with a more fool-proof plan if someone had decided to show up and grant us the boon of his expertise in supernatural matters.”
It was pretty obvious that the jab was directed at him. The fact that Catherine was glaring right at him only helped confirm this fact.
&nbs
p; “I wouldn’t be able to give you much information.” Christian shrugged. “No Life Kings all vary in strength. Some are so powerful that fighting them with anything less than an entire platoon of the best Warriors in the world is suicide. Others can be defeated by small teams of five. The only true weakness a No Life King has is the same weakness that all vampires have: sunlight.”
“I see.” Catherine looked put out by that piece of knowledge. “I doubt we could lure him out during the day.”
“What’s this plan you have to deal with Damien?” Lilith asked, speaking up for the first time since Catherine had arrived.
“Like I said, the plan is simple. We’re going to have you act as bait to lure him out, and then―”
“No.”
Catherine and Lilith looked at Christian, seemingly startled by his single word sentence.
“Excuse me?”
“I said no,” he repeated, narrowing his eyes. “I’m not going to let you use Lilith as bait for that monster.”
“Be reasonable, Christian,” Catherine started. “We need her to—”
“No.”
“Christian―”
“Not happening.” He shook his head. “I didn’t rescue Lilith just so you could put her in danger all over again.”
“You are being completely unreasonable.” Catherine looked about ready to punch his face in. “Lilith is the only sure-fire way of getting Damien to come out and―”
“And it’s very likely she’ll be kidnapped again, or worse, killed in the crossfire of the battle that will take place between our forces and Damien.” He looked at the woman through narrowed eyes. “I’m not going to let you put Lilith in that kind of danger.”
Catherine’s right eye began twitching. “Christian—”
“No.”
“You didn’t even—”
“Nu-uh.”
“Listen to—”
“Not. Gonna. Happen.”
“Dammit, Christian! Would you stop being so stubborn and listen to me!”
“I’ll do it.”
Before he could tell Catherine that he had no intention of listening to her, Lilith’s gentle voice spoke up. He and Catherine turned to look at her.
“Lilith?” he questioned.
“I’ll do it. I’ll act as bait.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but her smile cut off any words that he might have used to deny her.
“I know that you just want to protect me, and it makes me really happy to know that you care about me. But you have to understand; Damien isn’t going away. He’s not going to leave me alone. As long as he is alive, he’ll continue chasing after me. He’ll chase me to the ends of the earth. It doesn’t matter how far I run, he’ll just find me again. He’s already proven that he can track me from one side of the country to the other. I doubt even changing continents would keep him away for long.”
“I still don’t like it. I don’t like the idea of you putting yourself in danger.” He didn’t like the idea of anyone not trained in combat risking their lives. His job was to protect people, like Lilith, who were innocent and couldn’t protect themselves. How could he protect her if she put herself in jeopardy?
“I know you don’t like it.” Lilith’s eyes softened as she raised a hand to caress his cheek. “But this is something that I want to do.” She paused, then shook her head and began again. “No, this is something that I have to do. I’m tired of living in fear. I’m tired of having Damien constantly haunt my every step. I’m tired of always being afraid of the men around me, and letting what he did to me dictate my life. I want to do this, to move past my fear of him and men in general. Please, please let me do this.”
He stared at her, his mind a hurricane of conflict. Her eyes contained a silent plea, asking him, begging him to let her do this. He didn’t want her to. The idea of putting her in danger repulsed him.
Lilith was innocent, pure, someone whose outlook had yet to be tainted by conflict, despite her own tumultuous past. She wasn’t like him, forged in the fires of sin, trained in the art of killing. What kind of person would he be if he willingly let her face such danger?
And yet, as he looked into her eyes, he questioned himself. Lilith was seeking closure, an end to her own suffering by confronting the thing she feared most. What right did he have to deny her this?
“All right.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he opened them again, and looked at the angelic woman sitting by his side. “I don’t like this. I really don’t. But, I suppose that, from an objective standpoint, it can be argued that you’ll be safer with us than if we left you here, especially since you’re Damien’s priority. So, if you’re really set on doing this, I’ll… I’ll support you to the best of my abilities.”
“Thank you.” Lilith smiled. The hand on his cheek slid through his hair. She grasped the back his head, and pulled his mouth onto to hers, pouring her gratitude and love into the kiss that he melted into.
“Ahem.”
Jerking apart, he and Lilith snapped their heads over to Catherine, who gave them a look so dry that deserts everywhere were crying in jealousy.
“If you two are quite finished, then perhaps I can explain the rest of our plan to you.”
He and Lilith had the decency to look abashed.
“Sorry,” he said for the both of them. He made a hand gesture at Catherine. “Please, continue.”
“Thank you. Now, the plan requires Lilith to act as bait…”
Chapter 27
From a copse of trees, Christian stared out at the open field where Lilith stood by herself, waiting for the arrival of Damien. He didn’t like being forced to wait so far away from her. Catherine had told him that it was necessary for the plan, stating that Damien might realize it was an ambush and break off upon seeing him. He didn’t believe that would happen, but Lilith had backed up Catherine, and seeing how she was the leading fount of knowledge on their current enemy, there was nothing that he could have said to change their minds.
Arrayed around the area were the two remaining squads that had arrived in Seal Beach with Catherine. Alpha Squad was on the far east side of the clearing, hidden underneath a large sheet designed to resemble the ground. Omega squad waited among the trees with him.
The plan to deal with Damien was simple. They would lure the No Life King out by using Lilith as bait. When he arrived, squads Alpha and Omega would unleash a barrage of motion-targeting missiles and take him out. While they unloaded their payload on Damien, Christian would run onto the field, grab Lilith, and retreat.
At least that was the plan. He didn’t have the confidence in it that Catherine and Lilith seemed to. There was just too much that could go wrong. What if Damien didn’t do what they expected? What if the missiles couldn’t track him? Would missiles even work on such a monster?
“You worried?”
He craned his neck to see Catherine walk up to him. She wasn’t looking at him, but at Lilith. Seeing this, he looked back at the source of his troubles.
“Yes.”
There was no point in denying it. He was worried. What if he wasn’t fast enough to reach Lilith before something happened? What if Damien grabbed Lilith before Omega and Alpha squads could unleash their payload? What if she got caught in the blast? There were so many things that could go wrong, and he didn’t like it.
“How could I not be worried? This plan of yours is stupid.”
His words didn’t seem to be met with a very warm reception by Catherine’s men―one of them at least. The titan of a man with the mane of wild hair frowned at him in what could only be described as stern disapproval. Christian ignored the look.
“So you say.” Catherine had no trouble letting him know how little she cared. “But this was the only plan we came up with that has the greatest chance of succeeding. Lilith agrees.”
He grunted, but didn’t say anything else. It didn’t matter what he thought anyway; the plan was already under way. All he could do was pray that this whole thing d
idn’t backfire on them in some spectacular manner.
He looked up. The night was dark, but not pitch black. A full moon hung in the sky, acting as a silent witness to the events about to take place, and illuminating the ground with enough light that hampered visibility would not be an issue.
He was very glad they weren’t facing a werewolf, whose powers reached their peak on nights with a full moon. He was also glad that Nathan hadn’t attacked him on a full moon, as he probably wouldn’t have survived.
“Ma’am!” The call came from someone above. He and Catherine looked up to see the spotter, a man whose dirty brown hair was flecked with gray. He was looking through a pair of high-tech binoculars trained on the airspace above Lilith. “He’s coming!”
“All right, get down here. We don’t want him seeing you,” Catherine breathed out. “Okay, people. It’s time. On my mark, I want you to open fire.”
“Three…”
He looked into the open field, his eyes automatically zeroing in on Lilith. Even if he hadn’t come to know her so well, he would have been able to tell that she was frightened. Her body shook from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. Despite putting up a brave front with him, he had known from the moment she decided to help that the idea of confronting Damien terrified her.
“Two…”
It didn’t help that whatever magic made her act so boldly with him that evening had vanished the moment they had left the room. Maybe the reason for her boldness was because she had been in the sanctity of their room, where the only people present had been her, him, and Catherine. He couldn’t say for sure. He just knew that after they left, and upon finding herself in the presence of another man, Lilith had reverted to her shy, androphobic self.
“One…”
Looking away from Lilith and into the sky, his eyes narrowed. He could see Damien now. The No Life King was just a small black spot blocking out several stars, a silhouette in the general shape of a human with large wings that grew larger as he came closer.
“Fire!”
If he hadn’t been prepared for it, the sound of a dozen rocket launchers going off at once would have been deafening. The entire park lit up as several FIM-92 Stinger Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems illuminated the area in a brief burst of orange and yellow. The rockets traveled at an unbelievable velocity, a tail of smoke trailing behind them.
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