by Raven Steele
Alana glanced away, but she didn’t argue. Lucien stood and stretched his hand out to help her to her feet, but she jumped up on her own and stormed away.
Charlie came up behind him breathing heavily. “This is the same group of vampires that killed Michael.”
Then Lucien understood her anger. If anything ever happened to Eve, he would destroy everything in his path, too. He watched Alana’s long, black hair disappear around a corner.
“Regroup in front,” Charlie ordered into his headset. He pressed his hand into a cut above his right eye.
Four men walked toward them; two never showed up. An unconscious vampire lay next to Charlie.
“Let’s get him back to the Deific where we can question him. We need to find out where they’re manufacturing this stuff.” Charlie turned to a red-headed man. “When it’s daylight, come back to see if you can find Caleb and Lincoln.”
The man nodded, looking grim.
It was three in the morning when they finally returned to the Deific, almost nineteen hours since Lucien had last seen Eve. He hurried upstairs, taking them three at a time. He could still hear her steady heartbeat. Very quietly he opened the door. And then he opened it some more, his legs growing weak. The room was empty except for a laptop sitting on top of a bedside table. From its speaker escaped the faint beating of a heartbeat.
“Charlie!” he yelled.
Charlie bounded up the stairs. “What is it?” He looked around the room, confused. “Where’s Eve?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
Charlie walked around the room inspecting the closet and windows. “Couldn’t you sense she was in here?”
“I thought she was. I could hear a heartbeat!”
“But there’s no one here. And by the looks of it, I don’t think Eve was here longer than five minutes.”
Lucien turned up the sound of the heartbeat on the laptop. “This is what I heard. Like I said, I thought she was here.”
“She deliberately tricked us. But why?”
Lucien’s mind raced while he tried to figure out where she could’ve gone. He shouldn’t have left her alone. He knew something was wrong.
Lucien quickly dialed her number, but it went straight to voice mail.
“What happened this morning?” Charlie demanded.
“She saw a wolf and got frightened. I’ve never seen her so afraid, but she wouldn’t tell me why.”
“A wolf? She’s never mentioned a fear of wolves before.”
“I’m going back to the motel. Maybe she went there.” Or at least left a clue as to where she went.
“I’m going with you,” Charlie said, following after him.
As soon as Lucien stepped out of the car in the motel parking lot, he knew Eve wasn’t there, either. Like he expected, the motel room was empty and on the bed was a note. It read:
Lucien,
I had to do something very important. Hopefully I will be back before you read this. Please don’t worry.
Eve
“Where do you think she went?” Charlie asked.
“I have no idea, but we need to find her.”
Charlie studied the note. “Let’s wait a few more hours before we push the panic button. Eve said she’d return. Let’s give her the chance to do just that.”
“Not with Aiden out there looking for her. She doesn’t know him like I do. Talk to someone at the Deific and have them make calls to see if she flew anywhere or took the train. And start using your psychic gift or whatever it is to see if you can sense anything. I’m going to drive around to try and pick up her scent. Meet back here in one hour.” He didn’t give Charlie a chance to argue.
Lucien sped down the empty city streets of Dublin, gripping the steering wheel tightly. Where would she go? He thought of the wolf and how frightened she had become. A black wolf. It meant nothing to him. He made a hard right onto a country road. Eve said she had only been to Ireland once so she couldn’t have known anybody here.
Lucien slammed on the brakes. She wasn’t in Dublin. He was wasting his time. He flipped the car around and sped back to the motel.
Charlie was in Eve’s room, speaking into his cell phone. “That’s great, thank you.”
“What did you find out?” Lucien asked when Charlie ended the call.
“Shortly after we left, Eve hired a private jet to take her back to the states, all the way to Manchester, New Hampshire. It must’ve cost her a fortune.”
“That’s where her parents used to live, right?” Lucien said, recalling everything Eve had said about her family.
“More north, but basically, yes. Eve was only there for about three hours before she flew back here on the same jet.”
“When did it arrive?”
“About two hours ago.”
“So she’s here? In Dublin?” Lucien asked.
“We have no reason to think otherwise.”
Lucien tried calling her again, but there was no answer. He groaned in frustration. “Why isn’t she here or at least calling one of us? Can’t you sense anything?”
Charlie shook his head, the muscles in his jaw bulging big.
“Why the hell not? Aren’t you supposed to be psychic?”
Charlie threw his up arms. “I don’t know what’s going on. Ever since I arrived here, I’ve been off. This place is making me crazy!”
“So how are we supposed to find her?”
“Wait a minute,” Charlie said. He lifted his finger to Lucien. “You could find her.”
“That’s your brilliant plan? What do you think I’ve been trying to do?”
“No, not like that. The way Eve found you after you got your ass kicked in Seattle. Use your connection.”
“How did she do it?”
Charlie shrugged. “She never told me exactly how, just that whenever she fell asleep or concentrated hard, she could find you. If she could do it, then you should be able to do the same.”
“But I don’t know if as a vampire I can use magic.” He’d felt plenty of it, but only when he was around Eve, which made him think it was more her than him.
“You’re wrong. Henry can, and he’s a vampire. Eve also told me that she could sense magic in you.”
Lucien shook his head, even though he remembered Eve telling him the same thing.
“Would you just try?” Charlie pushed. “This is Eve we’re talking about. Just go to sleep and dream about her.”
“I don’t sleep.”
“Right. Well, then just concentrate really hard.”
He cried out in frustration. “We’re wasting time!”
“Do you have any other ideas?”
Lucien sighed and lowered his tight shoulders. “Fine. Leave me alone.”
After Charlie left, Lucien fell back onto the hard bed that still smelled of lilacs in springtime. He thought back to the first time he’d sensed her presence. He had been standing on the pier, watching an approaching storm, when all of a sudden his skin warmed. He’d sensed a light—light was the only word he could use to describe the feeling—but could see nothing. The strange sensation had been so uncomfortable that he’d turned away from it.
If only he’d known it was Eve. But then again, if he did know it was her, he probably would have tried to kill her for intruding on his life. Eve knew him so well that she knew she had to make him come to her, slowly and without provocation.
Lucien missed Eve so much his chest ached. He pictured her in his mind: every detail, every stray hair, her smile, the way her hands couldn’t sit still, but most of all, he thought of the way she looked at him with complete trust and unconditional love.
Before he realized what was happening, he was suddenly standing in front of Eve. She was sitting on a blue plastic chair, eyebrows raised, and hands resting strangely still in her lap. The look in her eyes reminded him of an anxious deer that knows it’s about to be shot. It was unnerving to see her this way. He wondered why he would picture Eve so unlike herself.
The roaring of
a nearby jet engine filled the room, bringing him to his senses. He was no longer in the cramped motel room but in an airport. He immediately recognized it as Dublin’s main terminal.
“Eve!” he said loud enough that she should’ve responded, but she didn’t.
Lucien knelt directly in front of her and tried to touch her face, but his hands passed through her. He was completely helpless. It was torture for him to see her so terrified and not be able to do anything about it. He needed to physically be with her if he was to help her.
“Lucien,” she whispered.
Lucien forced his consciousness back to the dingy motel room. The dim light above him flickered once before he bolted for the door. Charlie was waiting outside, biting his nails.
“Well?” Charlie asked.
“She’s at the airport. I’ll bring her back here.” He jumped into his car.
“Is she all right?” Charlie called after him.
Lucien didn’t take the time to respond. He stepped on the gas, tires squealing and gravel spitting.
At the airport, he parked illegally and rushed in. It was almost five in the morning. The airport was just beginning to get crowded. He moved as quickly as possible, but there were too many people to effectively use his speed.
He found Eve sitting in a chair facing a wide glass window. She stared into the distance toward a line of planes, sunlight reflecting off their white paneling. She still had the same frightened expression, except now she was shivering uncontrollably. Lucien scooped her up and cradled her to his chest, grateful at least for her steady heartbeat.
He carried her out of the airport, ignoring the strange looks of those he passed, and by the time he reached his car, Eve had finally stopped shaking. He carefully placed her in the passenger seat of the Viper and buckled her in. She stared straight ahead.
“Eve?” he asked gently, kneeling outside the car with the door open.
“He’s coming for me,” she answered without looking at him.
“Who?”
She didn’t respond. He tried a different question.
“Where did you go?”
“To get the necklace.”
Lucien frowned. “But it’s around your neck.”
“No, not yours.”
It took Lucien a moment before he remembered the only other necklace she could be talking about. “Why would you want that?”
“I had to know it was safe.”
“How did you know where to find it?”
“After you destroyed Alarica, I buried the necklace in a jewelry box nearby my old home.”
Lucien was surprised she’d not mentioned this before. “And were you able to get it?”
She swallowed hard and shivered again.
“It’s okay, Eve. I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He gripped her hand tightly. When Eve finally did speak, he could barely understand her words.
“It was gone. The necklace was gone. Boaz found it, and he’s coming for me. I can’t let him find me. He’ll put that prison around my neck again. I couldn’t bear it, not again. I would rather die!” She turned and looked at him for the first time, her eyes full of desperation. “You’ll have to kill me. Please! It’s the only way. Kill me before he brings back Alarica.”
“I’m not going to kill you, and no one’s going to find you. I’ll protect you, I promise.” He swallowed through the growing fullness in his throat. If Boaz really was alive, then Lucien would have to take Eve to the farthest corner of the earth.
Eve glanced around, her eyes shifting nervously. “Can we leave?”
“Of course.” He moved around the car and slid in next to her. He held her hand the entire ride back to the motel. She never said a word.
Chapter 40
“Just because she saw a wolf and the necklace is gone, does not mean Boaz, who is supposed to be dead, is looking for her,” Charlie reasoned in a quiet voice.
Eve lay on the bed in a fetal position with her eyes closed. Charlie thought she was sleeping, but Lucien knew better. He sat next to her, resting his hand gently on her back.
“Don’t misunderstand me, Lucien. I want Eve to be safe just as much as you do, but I think we could be reading too much into this.”
“If Eve says Boaz is alive and coming for her, then I believe her.”
Charlie exhaled. “Let’s say she’s right. What do we do about it?”
“I need to get her out of here. Somewhere extremely remote, a place only I know about. Meanwhile, you can work something out with Henry. He must know how to defeat Boaz.”
“Normally that would be a great plan, but while you were gone, Alana called. She found the location of the lab manufacturing the virus. We need to destroy it as soon as possible, and we could really use your help.”
“You’ll have to figure it out on your own. Eve is my priority.”
“That’s very noble of you, but have you considered what will happen if that virus gets out? Millions of people will die. This is greater than me, you and, yes, even Eve.”
“Do it without me,” Lucien said.
“I can’t. It pains me to admit it, but we need you. You saved my life the other night. I need someone with your abilities.”
"Then get Henry."
At this, Charlie tensed. "He can't help."
"Why?"
"He just can't." Charlie shook his head. "I don't understand it either, so don't ask. I trust that Henry will explain why one day, but for now, this is our problem to fix."
"How convenient for him," Lucien said. He moved a stray hair away from Eve's face. As much as he felt a responsibility toward her, he also felt responsible for Aiden’s actions. Lucien was partly to blame for all that was happening now. “I’ll help you, but Eve stays by my side at all times.”
“Do you really think that’s wise? What if we encounter vampires like before? You can’t effectively help us and protect her at the same time. Look, I’ll get two of our best men to stay with Eve and they can stay with her in the most public place we can think of. And we’ll destroy the lab during the day. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours.”
Lucien shook his head. “She stays by my side, or I don’t go.”
Eve moved then, sitting up slowly, her expression calm but her eyes tired. “You need to go, Lucien. Charlie’s plan is a good one. I will be fine, and I promise, this time I’m not going anywhere.”
“Come with us, Eve,” Lucien pleaded. “Both Charlie and I have seen how strong you are. You will be a big help, plus I can keep an eye on you.”
Her eyes met Lucien’s. “I’m sorry, but I need to distance myself from all of this. I can’t go with you, not if there’s a chance I might see Him.”
“But I can’t just leave you!” Lucien said.
She placed her hand on his cheek. “You’re not leaving me. You’ll be right back, and I’ll be waiting for you, guarded, in a well-lit, public place. Not even Boaz would dare attack me there. Please, Lucien. Let’s finish this, so we can return home.”
He turned to Charlie. “How soon can we get this done?”
“I can have my men ready in three hours.”
“Fine. But we do this my way.”
***
Lucien studied the lunchroom of Trinity College. Students were already pouring in, and within one hour, the place would be packed for lunch. Eve leaned against him.
“This is perfect,” she said.
“I don’t think there is a perfect place to hide you, but it will have to do.” He turned to the two guards Charlie had sent.
Charlie had told Lucien their names, but he couldn’t remember. They were both tall and well-built with perma-angry faces.
“Stay by her side the whole time,” he told them. “Don’t leave for any reason, or it will mean your life.”
They both nodded.
Eve forced a smile and said, “I’ll be fine.”
She tried to sound convincing, but Lucien could still see terror reflecting in her eyes.
Luci
en pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. “I’ll hurry. Just stay with these men. And I mean it. Don’t go anywhere.”
“I won’t, I promise.”
“This is killing me to leave you. It doesn’t feel right.”
“Just go.” She stepped away from him, and her hand slipped from his.
Lucien gave her one last look before walking away. He felt horrible guilt for leaving her again, especially after what happened last time, but he had to clean up the mess from his past. He should’ve made sure Aiden was dead a long time ago.
Lucien rode in the passenger seat next to Charlie inside a small, black vehicle. The heater was on full blast. “Does it have to be so hot in here?”
Charlie turned the passenger heat vent toward himself. “It’s cold outside."
“It’s just rain.”
“We’re almost there. You can deal with the heat for five more minutes. How is Eve?" Charlie asked.
“She says fine, but I can tell she’s lying. Do you feel anything?”
“Like what?”
“Anything to do with Eve? Something feels wrong, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“I haven’t been able to feel a thing since I came to this stupid country!”
“I doubt Ireland has anything to do with it.”
Charlie glanced sideways at him. “No. I don’t think it does.”
A voice spoke into Charlie’s earpiece. “Approaching target.”
“Copy that,” Charlie replied. He parallel parked on a main street squished between souvenir shops and cafes.
“This is where the lab is?” Lucien couldn’t believe it. It was far too crowded for Aiden’s taste, nor would a big corporation like Bodian create something like the plague around this many people.
“That’s the word we received.” Charlie looked around. “It should be right over there.” He pointed to a Chinese restaurant.
“Who told you this?”
“The vampire Alana questioned. He gave us this exact address.”
“Something’s wrong. I need to speak with Alana.”
Charlie dialed Alana’s number on his phone.
“What?” Alana asked.
Charlie handed him the phone.
“Alana, this is Lucien. What did the vampire you questioned say exactly?”
