by Raven Steele
Charlie stared at the ground.
“Charlie? It’s not true, right?”
He finally stood and wrapped his arms around Eve’s sudden quivering frame.
Eve’s heart raced, a pace Lucien hadn’t heard before. He thought it might break from the speed, and he almost moved out from within the shadows beneath a nearby awning, but confusion held him at bay.
Charlie embraced Eve for what felt like eternity to Lucien, but in actuality was only a minute, before he released her and said, “Let’s get out of here.”
Charlie took her hand and led her to his car, placing her in the passenger seat before taking his own place behind the steering wheel. Lucien snaked around the building toward his Hummer, which was parked a few rows behind them but kept his hearing focused on their conversation.
“I could’ve saved her,” Eve said. “If I would’ve stayed, I could’ve saved her.”
“Don’t do that,” Charlie advised.
“Do what?”
“Play the blame game. I could’ve saved her, too. I should’ve sensed it.”
Eve exhaled a tired breath. “Maybe this was a mistake, coming out here.”
Charlie didn’t say anything as he pulled into traffic. Lucien was quick to follow behind.
At first, he thought they were going to Eve’s house, but then Charlie turned onto the freeway. It wasn’t quite rush hour so Lucien was able to maintain a safe distance from them, separated only by a large moving truck and two smaller cars. He tried focusing his hearing, but Charlie and Eve’s conversation was drowned out by all the road noise.
Lucien cursed and slammed his hand into the steering wheel. Who was this Sarah? It bothered him that he didn’t know more about Eve and the people in her life. She should be an open book, easily traceable through some kind of electronic record. If he had this, then maybe he would know who Sarah was and why she was so important to Eve. But then what? What would he do about it? Nothing. He couldn’t.
The moving truck switched lanes, giving Lucien a clear view of the back of Charlie’s car. They were halfway across Aurora Bridge when all of a sudden, Charlie slammed on his brakes and black smoke billowed up from the tire’s tread, burning against the pavement as the vehicle came to a stop. Everyone behind them, including Lucien, also came to an abrupt stop, his pulse racing.
Eve jumped from Charlie’s car and ran toward the edge of the bridge high above the water. A man in a business suit and a long coat saw her coming and backed up quickly until he was pressed up against the bridge’s rail, his eyes big.
Lucien risked exposure and opened his door along with many other drivers who had been forced to stop. What the hell was she doing?
Eve slowed to a steady and careful walk as she approached the man and ventured, “I know this seems like an awkward time, but I was wondering if we could talk?”
Lucien positioned himself behind a crowd of onlookers.
“Are you serious?” the man asked and placed one hand along the rail. His long overcoat whipped in the wind, slapping as if it were a flag beating against a pole.
“I never joke,” Eve said, giving him a kind smile.
“Neither do I. Now get lost!” In one fluid motion, the man leapt to the top of the rail and balanced precariously along its four-inch top.
Charlie positioned himself behind Eve, taking slow and deliberate steps toward her. Lucien also crept forward, mindful to stay out of view.
“Come on down,” Eve’s gentle voice coaxed. “Surely things can’t be that bad?”
“Lady, you have no idea.”
Behind Eve, Charlie soothed, “Why don’t you get down and you can tell us about it? We all have problems. We’ll understand.”
The man snorted. “No one knows real problems until they’ve lost sixty million dollars. And I bet you’ve never seen that kind of money, have you?”
Eve took another step forward. “We just want to help.”
The man pointed at her. “Don’t come near me unless you want to end up dead, too.”
Something about the crazy man’s voice made Lucien forget about trying to stay hidden. He moved toward Eve, pushing through the growing crowd.
Charlie also tried to stop Eve’s progression, but she had already moved out of his reach and was almost to the man.
“Come on, man,” Charlie pleaded. “Get down.”
“Take my hand,” Eve encouraged, reaching out so close she could almost touch him. “Everything will be all right. I promise.”
The man grinned at her, a thin sadistic smile, then his hand snapped out and latched on to hers. With one hard jerk, he threw Eve over the ledge and then attempted to jump himself.
Lucien didn’t hesitate. He raced at the rail and leapt over it, falling at Eve faster than gravity. He reached out and grabbed onto the back of her shirt before spinning her around and pulling her to his chest. Then, twisting his body, he rolled over midair so that his back faced the water in hopes he would cushion the blow when they smashed against the water’s glass-like surface.
Their eyes met for a fraction of a second before his back hit the water with such force he was knocked unconscious. When he came to moments later, both their bodies were sinking into the murky water. It suspended Eve in a slow moving, sitting chair position. Her long hair swirled around her face like spider silk, blowing in the wind. Through the tendrils, Lucien noticed the corners of her mouth were turned up slightly. He watched her for just a brief moment, preferring this dark, murky world to the one above.
She is so beautiful.
Lucien clenched his jaw and swam to Eve who was still unconscious. Very carefully, in case she had any internal injuries, he hooked one arm around her chest and headed to the surface, kicking hard. As soon as he broke free from the watery depths, he pulled Eve to his chest and swam backward toward shore.
On the bridge above him, several people were helping to pull the suicidal man back onto the road. Charlie must’ve caught him in time. He should’ve let him fall.
In the distance, Charlie yelled Eve’s name. He was closing in quickly.
When Lucien’s feet touched bottom, he carried Eve the rest of the way to shore and gently laid her down. He didn’t mean to, not really anyway, but as he pulled away, his fingers caressed the skin on her arm. A powerful sensation, like being filled with warm water, washed over him, heating his insides. Lucien startled at the phenomenon.
“Eve!” Charlie’s voice called. He was running across the rocky shore toward them, sweat dotting his forehead.
Lucien knew Charlie could see him, but Charlie didn’t know who he was. Better leave now before he asked questions. As hard as it was, Lucien straightened and disappeared.
Chapter 8
Lucien waited until nightfall before he returned to his second “home” high in the Oak tree across from Eve’s house. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since he’d touched her. That electric feeling still lingered inside him, making him more than hard than he’d ever been. But it wasn’t just a physical attraction he felt toward her, but something far deeper. It felt ancient too, reminding him a little of his connection to darkness. The way it soothed him, whispered comforting words. He could exist there forever.
Charlie’s car was parked in front of Eve’s house. The two were inside talking about Sarah’s death. Apparently, she was the secretary at the Deific office in Coast City and a close friend of theirs.
Lucien listened to the conversation for a few minutes before he had to stop. For some reason, he found it difficult to hear Eve speak so openly with Charlie. The two were obviously close in a way she and Lucien never would be.
Every few minutes, Lucien would eavesdrop again to see if they would mention the incident at the bridge. Eve had nearly died after all, but nothing was said. How was that not a big deal?
He leaned back against the tree and thought back to the sensation he had experienced when he’d touched Eve, how warm he had become. There was something familiar about it, and the more Lucien thought
about it, the more he convinced himself that he did know Eve, but he couldn’t pinpoint from where.
Eve’s front door opened. Charlie stood next to her in the doorway, his hand resting on her arm.
“Despite the bad day,” Charlie said, “progress was made. You’re happy about that, right?”
Eve stared into the night, looking anything but happy. “He still has some serious walls. I saw it in his eyes.”
Who is she talking about? Maybe something else had happened after Lucien left her at the bridge. Whatever it was, she seemed even more upset.
Before Charlie left, he wrapped his arms around Eve and gave her a long hug that made Lucien dig his nails into the tree limb.
“Don’t blame yourself,” Charlie said when he released her.
Eve nodded but still looked pained.
Shortly after Charlie drove away, Eve escaped outside and climbed to the roof from her back porch railing. She didn’t lie down like last time. Instead, she cradled her knees to her chest and her whole body shook as she quietly cried.
Lucien hated seeing her so upset, and it hurt him more than he could express or understand. He wanted to reach out to her, to comfort her, but he couldn’t get his body to move from the tree. Somehow, he felt he had caused the pain, but that was impossible.
When Eve had exhausted herself, she lifted her head to the moonless sky and inhaled a shaky breath. She wiped the last of the tears from her cheeks and rolled her shoulders back as if she’d found an inner source of strength. Her eyes closed briefly, but when they opened, her gaze focused in Lucien’s direction, eyeing the tree that concealed him. Lucien sucked up closer to the tree’s trunk, but a moment later, she turned away and climbed off the roof.
Finally, he could move. And he moved fast. Emotions he never thought he’d feel again cracked something deep inside him, and what oozed from the crevices frightened him. What was he thinking, allowing himself to grow close to a woman he barely knew?
Lucien drove back to the hotel angry and bitter. To prove to himself that he could stay away from Eve, he didn’t leave his suite the whole next day. But that one empty day lasted longer than the last ten thousand. The walls of the hotel room seemed to have grown smaller, and he paced the floor, feeling more animal than vampire.
By 5:00 a.m. the following morning, he drove straight to Eve’s house. He didn’t even bother parking blocks away. Instead, he parked directly in front of her house, surprising even himself. It was time to face her, to once and for all, strip the air of mystery surrounding her. Then maybe his life could return to normal, something he desperately needed.
When the car came to a stop, Lucien knew she wasn’t there. There were no sounds coming from within the home, and there was a piece of blue paper taped to her door. He got out of the car and stepped closer to get a better look.
He squinted, then stumbled at the stairs when he read the first word: Lucien.
How did she know my name? Impossible!
Anger replaced whatever emotions he had been feeling earlier. He stomped up the porch and ripped off the note.
Lucien,
I will be gone for five days. I’m sure you have lots of questions. Please meet me for dinner when I return at 8:00 pm.
Sincerely, Eve
Lucien dropped into the porch chair, unable to move until well after the sun sank below the horizon. His mind couldn’t comprehend it. Has she known I was following her all of this time? She must’ve.
Anger ignited a burning fire in his veins. Games were being played, and he was the pawn.
He stood and paced back and forth, opening and closing his hands tightly. She played him for a fool. All this time wasted and for what? His jaw muscles bulged, then he slammed his fist through the side of the house, leaving a gaping hole of twisted metal siding and splintered wood. This was over.
For the first time in weeks, he walked away and didn’t look back.
Chapter 9
It was easy for Lucien to avoid thinking about Eve. For the first few days anyway, then she was all he could think about. It was the touch that had done it. That closeness to her. He wished he could go back in time. He would never have followed her that night at the pier.
Anger and rage consumed him until he thought his tightened muscles would burst. He needed to find a way to release the tension before he hurt someone.
Lucien knew of a place, an underground club in the basement of a house on the outside of town. It wasn’t a bar humans were aware of, at least not the good ones. He avoided it whenever possible, but after days of pent-up frustration, he craved the darkness it contained within its walls. He thought back to when he’d found it, hoping the memory of that encounter would give him some relief.
From the outside, the home looked like a regular farmhouse. A place a good family would live in. It was white with blue trimmed windows. The lawn was cut short, and a white picket fence bordered the front yard.
He’d come across this place after following a man named Jax a few years ago, thanks to an address John had given him. At first, Lucien had every intention of killing Jax on sight, but there was something odd about him.
Jax was well dressed and drove a nice car, but he moved unnaturally as if a babe learning to walk. His movements were methodical, even the simple ones like opening a car door. He did everything in steps.
Step one: Look at door.
Step two: Reach for door.
Step three: Open door.
Step four: Get inside car.
Step five: Close door.
He was incapable of moving smoothly, and it was unsettling to watch. But what was even more unsettling was the man’s sporadic heartbeat. It would beat fast for several seconds and then stop for minutes. A moment later, it would pick right back up again in its unusual pattern.
When Jax had disappeared into the nice, yet simple home all those years ago, Lucien hesitated in going after him. There were sounds coming from within that didn’t make sense. Heartbeats, lots of them, echoed out but not a single one beat regularly. He couldn’t even detect a regular breathing pattern. There also weren’t any lights on, not even the occasional flashing of one.
Eventually, curiosity got the best of Lucien, and he slipped inside. The entry way was neat but dusty. An old curio, he guessed early nineteenth century, was pressed against the wall covered in dust. To his right was a living room. Pale couches, an old piano, a Queen Anne chair. None of it had been used in a long time.
The only evidence of humans in the house was a worn walking path through dust on the floor. Lucien followed it to a narrow entry leading to the basement. The smell of alcohol and road kill wafted upward. But that wasn’t all that reached Lucien. A feeling of darkness spread all around him, the kind that spoke of evil deeds.
Had he not been given Jax’s name, he would’ve left that place, but one way or another, Jax had to die.
Lucien descended the steps after him. The walls around him were built with gray cinderblocks that contained more spiders than he dared count. At the bottom of the stairs, the temperature dropping dramatically as a wide and long basement revealed itself. The back half of the room had been dug out and around supporting columns, making the room almost four times the size of the house above. A string of red lights hung from one end of the room to the other, giving the space an eerie crimson glow.
There were at least thirty men and women, all of whom were either drinking, smoking, or shooting-up. They moved as strangely as Jax, in calculated, almost jerky movements. Toward the back of the room, the people’s appearances begun to change. Their skin was gray in color and many of them were in the process of losing their hair, if they hadn’t already. They wore very little clothing upon their bodies, which had ceased to look quite human. They looked like—impossible.
Someone tugged on his shoulder from behind, prompting Lucien to whirl around.
“Your kind is not welcome here,” said a man several inches shorter than Lucien. Most of his hair had fallen out, and he was incredibly pale, e
ven his eyes looked white with only small black pupils.
“What is this place?” Lucien asked.
“This is our place to experience all that humans do.”
Lucien glanced around again, trying to make sense of it all. He locked eyes with a woman who was tying a rubber tube around her arm. She grinned at Lucien; the glint in her eyes reflected her true nature. Wild and carnal, seeking only pleasure the human body could give.
Lucien backed against the wall. These things, these creatures, were diablos: evil spirits who’d been invited into human bodies.
He shook his head in disgust. Sometimes humans could be so shallow, placing value on thing that didn’t matter, which meant they always wanted more: more talents, more money, more everything. They wanted the best life had to offer for free. And because of their idolatrous attitude, they’d seek out evil, unknowingly or purposefully, believing only darkness could give them what they want. The ultimate reality, however, is that evil gives nothing without a price.
Once a human invited an evil entity into their body, it was almost impossible to get rid of. The spirit, excited by its new form, demands it live out every human experience as quickly as possible, for it knows that in just a short matter of time, its presence will change the human’s outside appearance until all traces of the human disappears. The end result is a diablo, a creature desperate to feel human again.
“Time to go,” the short man said. Behind him, two fully changed diablos had jerked toward Lucien.
Lucien inched toward the bottom of the steps while scanning the room for his target. He found Jax not far away, inhaling a joint. Lucien reached behind his back and withdrew a dagger.
Three more diablos joined the others in their slow pursuit. When Lucien reached the bottom step, he tossed the dagger with such a force that all but the tip of the handle had disappeared into the side of Jax’s head. Jax fell to his knees, grayish, blood-tinged ooze leaking from the wound.
