by Raven Steele
Lucien dropped to the floor and waited for Bill to attack or run. Bill’s fangs extended, and he stood, ready to fight, but then suddenly stopped. His expression became as calm as a priest’s in the middle of a Sunday sermon. He turned his head toward the front door and then looked back at Lucien.
“I have more important things to do,” he said.
Before Lucien could say anything, Bill disappeared out the front door.
Lucien didn’t go after him. If a vampire didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t be. Instead, he flipped on the light in the room with the erect dead woman. The boxes contained nothing but junk: old school papers, bills, sports memorabilia. A small closet in the corner was full of clothes that had been thrown to the floor.
He crossed the hallway to the other room. He stepped over the broken door and turned on the light. One queen-sized bed had been pushed up against the wall. Next to it was a black end table with a red lamp. The floor was littered with photos, which were organized into three piles. He bent down to look at the pile closest to the bed. They were of legs and feet only. He pushed his way through the pictures but couldn’t find a face or a body, only legs. They were of women’s legs, thin, in sheer stockings and heels.
He moved to the next pile. The glossy photos were of women’s bodies, no head, no legs and no arms, only the torso. In some of the pictures, he noticed the same outfit, but he couldn’t be sure if it was the same woman wearing them.
The final pile were pictures of meticulously cut out female hands. They were small with long, slender fingers and the color of milk. He stared at them for several minutes, captivated, until he realized he was as familiar with these hands as he was his own. Even in a photo, he could still feel their familiar warmth. But the warmth quickly turned his insides into a sick heat when he realized whose hands he was looking at.
He stumbled back. Something soft fell to the top of his head and then to the floor. Another photo. He slowly looked up. Taped to the ceiling were hundreds of cut out pictures of one woman’s head.
Eve.
Chapter 18
Lucien bolted from the condo and made it to his car in record time. While he drove, he called Charlie.
“What do you want?” Charlie asked without saying hello.
“Is Eve okay?”
“She’s fine. I’m in front of her house now. Why?”
“Are you sure?”
“I said goodnight to her twenty minutes ago. She was going to bed. What’s going on?”
Lucien wondered how much to say. He couldn’t very well tell Charlie that he was sent to a criminal's house on a murdering spree. “Another vampire is coming for Eve.”
“How would you know?” Charlie asked.
“Does it matter? Get help.”
He disconnected the call and pressed on the gas. Eve was safe. For now.
Lucien debated on whether or not to abandon the vehicle and use his vampire speed to get there, but he worried he might need his car to get Eve out of town. He could carry her, but traveling at his speed over a long distance had the potential of making her seriously ill.
He didn’t let up on the gas until he parked a block away from Eve’s home. From a distance, he saw Charlie talking to someone inside the Deific’s black SUV. Good. He’d called for backup.
Inside the home, Eve breathed quietly and regularly. She was asleep, also a good sign.
Lucien moved swiftly to the rear of the house. He leapt up to the second floor and slid quietly in through the window that Eve frequently escaped from to get to the roof.
He held completely still in the dark room as he listened, smelled and looked for signs of an intruder, but there were none. Despite no visible threats, he didn’t let himself relax but kept his muscles tight and alert. Bill was still out there and would come for her. It was only a matter of time. He’d seen the determined look in his eyes. It was the look of a wolf smelling a wounded lamb.
Lucien’s gaze drifted to where Eve slept. Her golden hair spread out like waves of summer wheat on her pillow, and her skin glowed in the moonlight. She lay on top of the covers in a tank top and sweats, undisturbed by the cool air blowing in from the open window.
He tried to ignore the warming sensation as he sat on the floor next to her bed, facing away. Her hot breath on the back of his neck feathered across his skin. A violent yet pleasant chill rocked his body, making him think about the way her hand had stroked him. He didn’t dare turn around to see her beautiful face for fear of giving in to something he had closed the door to long ago, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave, either.
As the chill subsided, it left behind a gentle, wondrous hum that calmed every part of him, including the shadows in his mind. He didn’t push it away as usual. Instead, he let himself enjoy the peaceful feeling that seemed to centuries years of pain and suffering. His chest lightened, and air flowed more freely into his lungs. He felt … did he dare admit it? Hope. Hope for the future, hope for himself, but most of all, he felt hope for the both of them. He closed his eyes, wishing for the possibility.
A soft touch caressed the back of his head as Eve’s slender fingers moved through his short stubbled hair. Never in his life had he been touched with such tenderness. It communicated volumes, but he wasn’t prepared to hear the unspoken words. Her hand continued to stroke his head until it fell to his shoulder where it remained the rest of the night. Eve had fallen back asleep.
A few hours later, as the morning sun poured into her room, Eve still slept. She was usually awake by now, but he didn’t mind. In fact, he would be content if she slept all morning with her hand resting on his shoulder.
The front door opened below, disrupting the perfect moment. Footsteps shuffled loudly across the wood floors as a man whistled. Charlie.
Lucien darted away from Eve and positioned himself in a chair in the corner of the room.
Charlie came up the stairs. “Hey, sleepy head. Time to get up!”
Eve stirred and stretched her arms.
“Mmm, that was the best sleep I’ve had in years,” she murmured, still groggy.
“That’s what happens when good ol’ Charlie’s around. I’m like a big, comfy, protective teddy bear.”
She lowered her arms. Her eyes opened wide, and she stared at Charlie, lips turned down, confused.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’ve been out front all night, remember?”
Eve sat up and looked around the room. She smiled when she spotted Lucien in the corner. “Lucien.”
Charlie whirled around and swallowed hard. “I thought you had more important things to do last night. What are you doing here?”
Lucien reached into his pocket and removed a folded up piece of paper. “Have your men go to this address. You’ll find drugs and bodies.”
“Who’d you kill while you were high?” Charlie asked.
“In the back bedroom you’ll find pictures of Eve.”
Eve slid out of bed and stood. “Pictures of me? But who took them?”
“A vampire who calls himself Bill, but I’m pretty sure that’s not his real name.”
“One of your buddies?” Charlie asked.
“They’re going to keep coming," Lucien said. "We need to leave the city, Eve.”
She shook her head slowly. “And go where? Seattle’s my home. I’d rather fight them here.”
“I hate saying this, but Valium’s right,” Charlie added. “You need to leave, at least until we figure out who is behind all of this.”
She folded her arms defiantly. “I’m not leaving.”
Charlie crossed the room to her. “This has become too dangerous. I can’t handle another attempt on your life.”
“I appreciate your concern, but I can’t go.”
Charlie turned to Lucien. “Can you talk some sense in to her?”
“She’s made up her mind.” Lucien didn’t agree with her, but he could tell she was serious, and he wasn’t about to make her do something she didn’t want to d
o.
“Real helpful. You’d think if you cared about her, you’d try a lot harder to save her.”
Of all the stupid comments Charlie had said in the last few minutes, this was the one that made him the angriest. He crossed the room to Charlie, fists clenched tight.
Eve jumped between them. “There is nothing either of you can say to me to make me leave. Besides, I’m not helpless. I know I can fight them. I’m getting stronger.”
Charlie tried again. “Why not go back to Coast City? To the Academy?”
“Charlie, I’m not leaving!”
Charlie slumped his shoulders. “Fine. Then I’ll have two men be your personal body guards from now on.”
“I’ll watch her,” Lucien said.
Charlie looked at Eve and then to Lucien. “Whatever. I have to go home and change.”
“Charlie, wait!” Eve chased after him down the stairs and stopped him at the front door.
Lucien didn’t watch; instead, he walked around her room searching for other possible entrances into the home. He had to start thinking about how he was going to protect her if something went wrong.
From down below, Eve’s voice drifted up.
“Thank you for staying last night. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem.” Charlie’s voice was flat and distant.
“Maybe next time you’ll let me win?”
“You want me to cheat at Scrabble?”
“No. I just don’t want you to try so hard. Maybe use only half your brain instead of the whole thing?”
Charlie laughed. “That’s like asking a lion to only kill half his prey. I’ll see you later today. Be careful, Eve.”
The front door closed.
Lucien was in Eve’s closet when she found him. He pushed up on a square, moveable section of drywall that led to the attic.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I need to seal this up. Do you have anything you need in the attic?”
She shook her head. “Where were you last night?”
Lucien wasn’t ready to answer those questions. “I had something to do.”
He crossed the room to the windows and closed them tight. One of the locks was broken.
“You didn’t say goodbye. You just left.”
“I called Charlie.”
“But you didn’t call me.”
He stopped fidgeting with the lock. “I figured if you needed me, you would call.”
“But what if you need me?”
He didn’t answer.
She lowered herself into the bed. “Lucien, what if something had happened to you last night? Who would’ve helped you?”
“Nothing will happen to me. I have an amazing knack for getting myself out of trouble.”
He thought back to the time he had magically escaped from two vampires who had strung him from the ceiling in a storage unit. To this day, he still had no idea how he’d gotten out of that one. He’d asked Eve once on one of their midnight ice cream runs, thinking maybe the Deific had something to do with it, but she had only shrugged and changed the subject. He doubted it was Eve or anyone connected to her who had helped him anyway. He hadn’t even met her yet.
Lucien continued, “Besides, I’m a bodyguard for a powerful witch now. What could go wrong?”
“Weren’t you my bodyguard before?”
“I was only your driver, but from now on, you and I are inseparable.”
“Does that mean you’ll come with me into the Deific?”
He shuddered openly. “If I must.”
“What do you have against the Deific? We do a lot of good there.”
“I don’t doubt it. My problem isn’t with the Deific. My problem is with me inside the Deific. I don’t belong.”
“You belong as much as I do.”
Since the truth would’ve been too difficult to explain, he decided to make it up, partially. “Fine, I’ll be honest. Charlie bothers me. I couldn’t stand an hour in the same building with him.”
Eve grinned. “Nice try, but I don’t believe you.”
“No, really, I can’t stand Charlie.”
“I mean I don’t believe that’s why you won’t go into the Deific.”
He sighed. “I will go in, but only because I’m protecting you.”
She seemed satisfied with his answer. “Do you mind if I get ready?”
“Not at all. I’ll wait for you downstairs.”
She walked over to him and took his hand in hers. He looked down at their intertwined fingers. If it weren’t for the fact that it was his hand touching hers, he would’ve thought they were a perfect match: two puzzle pieces made for each other. He glanced at her. She was staring, too, as if thinking the same thing.
“Thank you for staying with me. You don’t know how much it means to me. I hope it wasn’t too difficult for you.” She met his eyes.
With all sincerity, he said, “It’s too easy. That’s the problem.”
She gave him a weak smile. “I’m not going to pretend to understand what that means. You’re here now, and that’s all that matters.” She let go of his hand. “It won’t take me long to get ready.”
“It never does.”
He walked downstairs to inspect the rest of the home, trying not to think about the way her touch electrified him.
The garage door needed a dead bolt.
Her soft breath on his neck.
A light bulb needed to be replaced on the back porch.
The smell of her skin.
A security system, the best money could buy.
The way her eyes forced light into the darkest parts of his soul.
She would need weapons.
She had given him hope.
He leaned against the wall, next to the hole he had created on her porch. His body was exhausted. He had fed last night, so why did he feel drained?
“Lucien? Are you all right?”
He turned around. The sight of Eve in a green-scooped shirt, slender collarbone exposed beneath white skin, sapped the last of his energy, and he slumped to the floor. This was all too much.
Her hair had been pulled back into a loose ponytail, and her green eyes shined. She moved to his side, face full of worry, and touched his cheek. “When is the last time you fed?”
His head snapped up. “Don’t ask that. Don’t ever ask that.”
The thought of her thinking about something so horrific punched some energy back into him. He straightened and moved away from her. He couldn’t let himself feel hope. He was to protect Eve and nothing more.
Eve searched his face. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again.
“You need to get to work,” he said.
“I’m ready.”
They stared at each other in an uncomfortable silence.
“Right. Let’s go then,” he finally said. She followed him out the front door, but instead of following him to his car down the street, she turned the opposite direction.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m walking.”
He jogged up to her, grateful for the cooler weather and the overcast sky. “You’re too out in the open.”
“I’m walking.” She didn’t stop moving.
“Eve, it’s not safe.”
She stopped and turned around. “Look, ever since I let you be my chauffeur, I’ve neglected certain abilities. I haven’t been able to help people as much, and this sudden shift is weakening me. I need to get stronger, especially if I might have to fight more vampires. And the only way I can get stronger is by using my gift, not repressing it.”
“Can’t you do that from the car?”
“Not all of the time. Some people’s lives have been so trodden down that their pleas for help are only a faint whisper. I need to be closer to them.”
“Fine. But I’m staying by your side the whole time.”
She smiled. “Good.”
After a few blocks, she eyed him sideways. “Does the sun bother
you much?”
He rubbed at his arms, realizing he hadn’t even thought about its hot rays on his skin until now. “Not when I’m with you.”
She smiled, knowingly, and he could practically read her thoughts. There was something between them, something powerful, but that didn’t make it right.
On an exhaled breath, she asked, “Have you ever wondered why you are able to endure the sun when other vampires can’t?”
“I used to but not anymore. It is what it is.”
They continued walking, occasionally bumping shoulders. Sometimes he did it on purpose. The early morning streets were quiet except for the occasional car horn or a dog's bark.
“Are you warm?” he asked her.
“Strangely, yes.”
He didn’t ask her what she meant, because he, too, was warm.
“Are you ever going to tell me where you were last night?” she asked.
“Maybe one day, but it’s not something you need to know or think about.”
“I’m a big girl. You might be surprised by what I know.”
“I might be, but I don’t—”
She grabbed his hand, preventing him from moving forward.
“Someone’s afraid,” she told him, barely above a whisper.
Lucien glanced around. There was a grocery store to the right with only a handful of cars in the parking lot. To the left was a fast-food restaurant that wasn’t open yet.
“Where?”
She took off running the way they came, but turned the next street over. He ran after her. She was fast, but Lucien was faster, if he wanted to be. He had no idea where she was going, and he knew better than to try and stop her. He set his pace just ten feet behind her.
She picked up her speed, running as fast as she could. Her footsteps against the pavement echoed through the quiet streets.
“I’m not going to make it!” she cried.
“Eve?” He didn’t like the tone of her voice.
She sprinted into a parking lot of a gas station on the corner. She ran right into the door, shoving it open with outstretched hands.
