by Raven Steele
He struggled to know what to say. What words could right all his wrongs?
“Lucien,” she repeated. “Why are you here?”
He looked into her pleading green eyes and simply said what he felt. “Because it is impossible to find me anywhere else. I am yours, Eve. If I denied it again, the world would shake in anger, the stars and moon would fall from the sky, and the sun would disappear, for I will have denied true love.”
Her eyes glistened with tears. She leaned up to kiss him, but his lips were already on hers, kissing her deep and long. She attempted to pull him onto the bed, but he broke away.
“I need you to know that I will never leave you. I’ve broken your trust once already, but please know it will never happen again.” Lucien reached into his pocket and pulled out the rose necklace. “I made this for you. You said once that you first experienced beauty through the grandeur of a rose. And it was you that brought beauty into my life. So in a way, it was a rose that changed us both.”
“It’s beautiful,” Eve breathed while her fingers traced the silver curves. “Will you put it on me?” She sat up and turned around. The sheet fell to her waist. She only wore a thin tank top and panties.
He swallowed and lifted her golden hair to fasten the necklace around her neck. His hands fell to her bare shoulders, and he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her neck. “The sun will be up soon, and there’s nothing like an Irish sunrise. Will you take a walk with me so we can watch the first of many sunrises together?”
“I would love to.”
Lucien watched her as she dressed into jeans and pulled on a hoodie. Every curve of her body and the swell of her breasts were perfection to him. He couldn’t believe he’d almost given her up.
“Will you be warm enough?” he asked.
She pulled the hood up over her head and grabbed his hand. “Let’s go.”
It was still dark outside, but Lucien could feel the rising sun approaching. He held her hand as he guided her off a main road and onto a dirt path. The forest was unusually quiet with only the sounds of their steps against the cold, crisp earth.
“Tell me about Eden,” he asked suddenly, remembering when she’d mentioned it before.
She looked at him, eyebrows raised. “Why?”
“I just want to know what you consider heaven.”
She laughed. “It was hardly heaven, but it was very beautiful and saved me from a lot of pain more times than I can remember.”
“What did it look like?”
“It was a golden island surrounded by sea-green waters. Beautiful flowers grew all along the beach.”
He narrowed his eyes.
She smiled. “I know flowers do not normally grow on the beach, but it’s my world, remember? Wait until I tell you about the dolphins, then you’ll really look at me strange.”
He wrapped his arm around her. “Never!”
She continued to speak of Eden. She described it so clearly that Lucien could easily imagine every detail of her perfect escape.
“You’ll have to take me there some day,” he said.
She nodded her head, considering the idea. “I will.”
After they’d walked about a mile, he stopped and looked around.
“Are we lost?” she asked.
“Not in the least. Come on, this way.”
He pulled her off the trail and up a steep incline. The tall trees were thin and spread out; almost all of them had lost their fall leaves. But as they moved up the hill, the trees grew closer together, and the ground became cluttered with thick underbrush and fallen limbs. He glanced at her many times, watching for any indication that she might need his help, but there was none.
“We’re almost there,” he told her.
As they neared the top, the woods opened to a rocky landing. The sky was already starting to change colors in anticipation for the rising sun.
“Will the sun hurt you?” she asked.
“It won’t be bad, especially when I’m with you.”
She leaned against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin upon the crown of her head.
Just then, the top of the sun broke through the night sky. The rays tore through the darkness and exploded the sky in a bright orange fire.
“It’s breathtaking,” Eve whispered.
Lucien’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. It was time. “I need to tell you about my past, Eve, about what I did.”
She shook her head. “Not now, maybe not ever. It doesn’t matter to me what you did or who you were. You’re different now. Let’s just enjoy this moment. It’s so beautiful up here.”
Lucien wrapped his arms tightly around her, deciding not to spoil the moment. He would tell her the truth and soon, regardless of what she said.
All of a sudden, her body tensed and she stopped breathing. Lucien frowned and looked down at her. She was pale as a ghost.
“What is it?” he asked.
She didn’t speak. Her eyes stared beyond him.
“Eve?”
Fear distorted her whole expression. He turned to see what she was looking at.
Not far off, he found the source — a lone black wolf.
Chapter 38
“It’s only a wolf. It won’t hurt you,” Lucien assured her, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from it. Her whole body trembled.
“Please, get me out of here,” she whispered.
If it had not been for his sensitive hearing, he would not have heard her soft voice. He didn’t question why, didn’t try to convince her that there was nothing to fear. As far as he knew, she wasn’t afraid of anything, so to see her in such a state worried him.
Lucien picked her up and raced through the woods back to the motel. The entire way, her body shook as if she was freezing. Once inside the room, he held onto her tightly, waiting for any dizziness she might be experiencing from his run to pass, then gently placed her on the bed.
He was about to ask her what was wrong when someone knocked on the door. Before Lucien could answer it, Charlie cracked it open and said, “Eve?”
“Come in,” she said, her voice shaky.
Charlie opened the door all of the way. A shadow passed over his face when he saw Lucien.
“I was coming to wake you up, but I guess I didn’t need to.” He frowned at the sight of Eve. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
He moved to her side and put his arm around her.
She stood. “I’m fine. We went for a walk and I thought I saw something, but it was nothing. Really, I’m fine.”
Lucien thought her smile looked forced.
Charlie whirled on Lucien. “Do you really think it was smart taking her outside knowing Aiden is looking for her?”
“She was safe,” Lucien insisted.
“Why? Because she was with you? What if you’d been ambushed by several vampires? What then?”
“Please, stop,” Eve said. “I appreciate your concern, Charlie, but nothing happened. I am completely safe with Lucien. He would never let anything happen to me.”
“Fine, whatever.” He turned toward Lucien. “We have a meeting later tonight to discuss how to destroy the boxes, but first we need to watch the warehouse to see who comes in and out of it. As much as I don’t want you there, I think you should come. We need all the help we can get right now, and you might pick up on something I miss.”
Lucien glanced at Eve who appeared to be back to normal, but something about her still felt off. “You’re coming too, right?”
“Actually, can I skip out? I’m not feeling very well.” She put up her hand, speaking quickly. “Nothing to worry about. I just feel a little light headed.”
Lucien noticed she was avoiding eye contact with both Charlie and himself. He crossed the room to her. “I want you with me. I can’t protect you if you’re not with me.”
Charlie agreed. “He's right.”
“Really, I’m not feeling well,” she maintained. “I’m going to stay here.”
Charlie shook
his head. “Can you at least go to the Deific office? You can rest there while we’re watching the Bodian warehouse. It may take all day.”
Eve glanced at the clock on the wall. Lucien would’ve given anything to read her mind.
“Fine, but can I come in thirty minutes? I want to shower.”
“I’m not leaving you here alone,” Charlie said. “Vampires know you’re in the country.”
Lucien began to remove his jacket. “I’ll stay.”
“No,” Eve said, a little too hurriedly. “You go. You need to be there.”
Lucien eyed her suspiciously.
“I’ll have Marshall send a guy.” Charlie dialed a number on his cell phone and stepped outside to make the call.
“Seriously, Lucien. Go. If I’m not there in thirty minutes, you can come back for me, all right?”
“What are you not telling me?”
She took his hands in hers. “Nothing. I will see you soon. And thank you again for the necklace. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”
Charlie stepped back into the room. “Marshall’s sending over two men. They will be here in ten minutes.”
“We can leave when they get here,” Lucien said.
Eve huffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re wasting time.”
“Let’s go, Valium,” Charlie said. “The sooner we destroy those boxes and find Aiden, the sooner all of our lives can go back to normal.”
Lucien hesitated briefly. “Fine.” He pulled Eve into his chest for a quick hug. “Hurry up, okay?”
She nodded.
Reluctantly, he let her go, but as Charlie drove him to the Deific, Lucien couldn’t shake the feeling that something more had happened than Eve was saying, something to do with the wolf.
Charlie pulled up near the warehouse and parked between two buildings. The sky was overcast, not enough to rain, but enough to block the sun.
“Alana followed the truck to that warehouse,” he told him, pointing across the street to a red brick building. It looked old, and the only two windows on each side of a loading dock were broken.
“Were you planning on watching the building from here?” Lucien asked.
Charlie looked around. “Is there something wrong with that? We’re well hidden.”
“I am, you’re not. Any vampires within one block will hear your heartbeat.”
“That’s really annoying, you know that?” Charlie unbuckled his seat belt and reached into the back seat. He pulled out a backpack and unzipped the top. “I’ll go on a roof top a couple of blocks over and watch from there. You stay here. Here’s a radio. We’ll contact each other but only if absolutely necessary, okay?”
Charlie’s cell phone rang. Eve’s voice was on the other end. It had been exactly twenty-seven minutes.
“I’m here, Charlie. Will you let Lucien know?”
Lucien wondered why she had called Charlie and not himself. This made him feel even more uneasy. She was avoiding him, but why?
“Sure. Get feeling better," Charlie said. "Can I speak with Marshall for a minute?”
A moment later, a scruffy male voice asked, “What can I do for you, Charlie?”
“Watch out for Eve, all right?”
“Of course.”
“Also, have everything ready for tonight. I want blueprints and the name of whoever owns the warehouse. And make sure Alana is there. I want her in on this.”
“Easier said than done.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Charlie asked.
“We haven’t seen her, and she’s not answering her phone.”
“Should we be worried?”
“I don’t think so. Ever since Michael died, she’s been taking off, but she always comes back.”
“Well, keep trying.” Charlie pocketed his phone.
“Are you sure Eve’s safe there?” Lucien asked.
“There's nowhere safer that I know of.” Charlie opened his door. “Quit worrying. You can call and check on her later.”
After wasting an entire day watching an abandoned warehouse, Lucien found himself sitting in a small conference room listening to Charlie babble on about different strategies. He tried to stay focused on what was said, but it was hard to do, especially when all he wanted to do was check on Eve who was still in the upstairs room with the door closed.
In front of the conference room, a blown-up blueprint of the warehouse had been pinned to a wall. Five other men and Alana sat with Lucien around a table. Alana’s skin was dark, but her raven-black hair was much darker. She looked as bored as Lucien but passed the time by sharpening a wooden stake.
“Are there any questions?” Charlie asked, after finishing a lengthy discussion on what each person was supposed to do.
Lucien raised his hand.
Charlie sighed. “What?”
“Why have we wasted our time for the last twelve hours when we could’ve just bombed the place?”
Alana smirked, Charlie frowned, and the others looked at him with blank expressions.
Charlie gritted his teeth. “If you’d been listening, you would know that by observing the place, we’ve learned that there are twenty vampires in and around the building and no humans.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Lucien asked.
“It means we can’t bomb the place because we want to take one of them alive. We need to find out all we can about where the virus is being manufactured so we can destroy Bodian’s lab. Plus, we need to find this Dark Prince. Do you understand, or do I need to drew the plan with crayons?”
“One more time, please.”
Ignoring him, Charlie picked up one of the electric guns from a nearby table. “Everybody gear up. Test your headsets before we go. We need to make sure there are no mistakes.”
On the way out, Lucien stopped Charlie. “I’m going to go check on Eve. I’ll be right back.”
“She’s been in that room all day. Let her rest. She could use it after everything she’s been through.”
Lucien looked up the stairs and focused his hearing. The steady rhythm of a heartbeat echoed down. She was asleep.
Charlie opened the door to go outside. “Seriously, leave her alone for a while. We’re going to be back in a few hours. You can see her then.”
“Let’s go,” Alana snapped as she passed.
“It’s good to see you again, Alana,” Charlie called after her.
Lucien glanced toward Eve’s door one last time. Something big was bothering her, that he was sure of. But he could only solve one problem at a time. Clean up the mess from his past, then he could focus on helping Eve.
Chapter 39
Lucien ducked behind a building with Charlie by his side, the brick warehouse only feet away.
Charlie spoke into his headset, “Get ready, ladies. In and out as quickly as possible. On my mark. One… two…”
Lucien moved past him before he could say three. He walked to the front entrance, completely ignoring Charlie’s plan. A vampire guard stepped out to meet him, but Lucien didn’t give him a chance to speak. He withdrew a wooden dagger from his sleeve and stabbed him in the heart. A second guard rushed him. Lucien crouched low, ready to fight him, when a blast of electricity came from behind Lucien, rendering the charging vampire unconscious.
Lucien gritted his teeth and turned around.
Charlie lowered his gun. “Sorry to ruin your fun, Lucien, but we need one alive. Tie him up.”
A tall blond man moved quickly to the vampire on the ground.
Glass shattered from the other side of the building. Charlie’s men must have heard the commotion and assumed it was time to enter. Lucien lifted the garage bay door. The warehouse was pitch black.
Charlie moved behind him, searching for a light switch. “Where is it? It should be here.”
Lucien peered into the massive room using his vampire vision.
When Charlie couldn’t find the main lights, he whispered into his headset, “Lights on.”
From across the
warehouse, three small streams of lights appeared. Charlie stepped in front of Lucien, but Lucien stopped him. “Tell your men to get out of here, now!”
“Why?”
Lucien withdrew a flare gun from behind his back. “Someone doesn’t know how to count.”
He aimed the gun toward the ceiling and fired. The room ignited with sprays of oranges and reds. Lucien heard Charlie’s heart skip a beat when he saw at least a hundred vampires hanging from the ceiling. They stared hungrily at Charlie’s men. Salvia dripped from their mouths, and several hissed.
“Pull out!” Charlie yelled to his men, but the vampires were already dropping from the ceiling like flies. Several electric guns fired, but there were too many of them.
A man on the other side screamed. Lucien moved to help him, but Charlie pulled him back and proceeded to bark orders into his headset. Charlie kept his gun pointed at the opening of the door, and when vampires poured out, he fired along with three other men.
More gunfire popped from the rear of the building. Alana was nearby, kneeling over an open black case.
He jogged over to her. “What are you doing?”
She withdrew a rocket launcher and positioned it on her shoulder.
“I liked your plan better,” she said as she pulled the trigger.
A missile shot out and exploded into the side of the building. Charlie and the others were thrown back several feet. Alana reloaded and fired again. The blast from this one threw both of them to the ground, but Alana quickly recovered and scrambled forward to load the gun again.
Lucien sat up. The warehouse was completely engulfed in flames, only the screams of vampires escaped. He rushed to stop Alana from reloading, but she pushed him back.
“Get away from me!”
She was about to pull the trigger again, but Lucien knocked her to the ground and jumped on top of her. She struggled against him.
“What’s your problem?” he yelled over the roaring flames.
“Get off me,” she growled.
“Will you be good?”
