Samael’s black eyes stared at the demon for a moment. Could the evil bitch really convince Lucifer that what happened here tonight was all part of her plan to retrieve the vampire priest? The angel knew the demon well. She could lie and scheme with the best of them—after all she’d learned from the Master, himself. Still—her punishment would be great if she failed but Lilith’s failure or success was no concern of his. Samael’s job was retrieving souls and he had one ready to deliver. “Good luck, Lilith—you’re going to need it.” And with a flap of his giant wings, the angel rose into the night sky just as the sound of police sirens rent the air.
“Quickly…” Lilith ordered, “…they’ll be here soon. Gather the human and let’s get out of here. You can do the transformation somewhere else.
Robert approached Frank as his body began its own metamorphosis. Once complete, Frank’s body, quivering in fear as he babbled incoherently, was picked up in the sharp jaws of the huge black hound, the dagger-like teeth digging into Miller’s soft flesh, sealing his fate for all eternity.
Amid growls and howling, the pack disappeared into the darkness just as voices and running feet were heard close by. “Over there…” the bartender pointed to the side of the building, “…that’s where the fighting was coming from. I’m telling you, Shaniqua, Al was hammered. He probably got the shit beat out of him by Frank. I don’t need to tell you…what the fuck?” Jay stopped where he stood as Shaniqua and a handful of uniformed cops ran out in front of him.
“Oh god, no—no—Al,” Shaniqua whispered as she knelt beside her fallen partner, tears flowing from her dark eyes. “Jezus, who—who could’ve done this?” she turned in confusion to look at the two cops closest to her. One covered his mouth to stop himself from retching when he saw the condition of Al’s body. The other office knelt beside Shaniqua.
“His heart…” he said, staring at the crying woman, “…where’s his heart?”
Shaniqua wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “What’re you talking about?”
“His heart—it—it looks like it’s been ripped right out of his chest, for god’s sake!”
Gathering all the control she could muster, Shaniqua forced herself to look closer—examining her friend’s body in detail, “Oh Al—shit—what the hell kinda’ mess did you get yourself into—and where the fuck is the heart?” she asked, searching the ground around Al’s body. Finding nothing she said, “I don’t know what happened here but whatever it was—Miller didn’t do it. No sir—this was done by—someone—or something else.”
“Speaking of Miller—where is he?” the officer asked.
“Search the alley.” Shaniqua ordered and the officers spread out to examine the alley and the vacant lot. “Anything?” she yelled.
“Nothing,” came the reply.
What the fuck is going on? Eva—I need to call Eva. The hell with finding out what happened to the woman in the park; whatever’s going on here has just become personal. I have to let her know about Al. I have to…, Shaniqua’s thoughts drifted off as she sprang into action. Flipping out her cell phone she punched in some numbers. “Get me the coroner’s office.” As soon as I take care of Al I have to talk to Eva, she thought as sadness ripped through her body.
“Search every inch of this place. I want evidence—anything that will tell us what happened here. What’re you all looking at?” she shouted to a group of detectives standing there staring at Al’s mutilated body, “Get me something to cover him up and get your asses to work. I want answers—now!” Kneeling beside her fallen friend, she reached for a coat someone had tossed onto the ground. “Oh Al—what am I going to do without you?” she whispered. Laying the garment across his body, she pulled the material up a little higher in an attempt to cover his face as the tears rolled down her cheeks.
Chapter 13
Roy drove the black F-150 down the long gravel driveway and parked in front of the small wooden tool shed. As she climbed out of her own vehicle, Evangeline was awestruck by the beauty and serenity of the small cabin and the surrounding landscape. The moon, high in the night sky, shone bright as a neon sign, its silvery light glistening off the surface of a large pond nestled near the base of the mountain rising up behind the cabin.
“This way,” Roy said as he came up alongside of her.
Leading the way, he stepped onto the cement sidewalk that led down to the cabin. As Eva followed, a tiny chipmunk scurried across her foot. “Oh!” she exclaimed with a laugh but she sidestepped the small animal with an agility she didn’t realize she had.
“Just a chipmunk…”Roy explained, “…although there are much larger things that can spring out of the darkness to surprise you around here. We are in the country after all. Here—just follow me.” he said as he led the way to a porch located on the left side of the cabin.
“You really do need a spotlight, or something, to lighten it up a bit out here—at least a little. If it wasn’t for the light of the full moon it would be pitch black.” Eva pointed out although, much to her surprise, she was having no trouble seeing in the darkness. As a matter of fact she could make out every detail of the fenced in pasture near the back of the cabin as well as every curve, every muscle of the huge black stallion grazing there in silence. My eyes have never been this good, she thought. The last time she’d had an eye exam the doctor told her it wouldn’t be long before she’d have to wear glasses on a regular basis.
“When the moon isn’t full there’s nothing to worry about,” she heard Roy mumble under his breath.
“What?” she asked. When he didn’t reply and she didn’t repeat herself. He obviously thinks I didn’t hear him. But she had—and that wasn’t all she heard. Her ears captured a slight sound as she turned her head back towards the horse. She was amazed when she realized the sound she’d picked up was the horse chewing on a clump of grass. Again Eva found herself wondering about the changes her body seemed to be going through—ever since she’d come to this town.
“Evangeline—Eva?” Roy called, snapping her back to attention. “Everything okay?”
“What—yes—yes, of course. What a lovely place. You said it belongs to a friend of yours?” she asked.
“That’s right—the same friend whose old room you now occupy at the Inn.” As he revealed this, Roy gave Evangeline an odd look. Eva had the strangest feeling that he actually thought she might know something about this mysterious friend. But why would she? She hadn’t met any of these people until a day or two ago.
“Oh—the one that died?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, again, I’m sorry for your loss, Roy. I didn’t…”
“It’s okay—it’s over and done with—and the place is being rented at the moment. You’ll meet the new tenant tonight. Shall we go inside?” Roy knocked twice then opened the screen door.
They entered a small room, similar to an enclosed sun porch, which was full of potted plants and a few pieces of antique furniture. Off to the right was a narrow kitchen with a door that led to the dining room and the main area of the house. To her surprise the room was full of about twenty people who greeted Roy as they walked in.
Roy raised his left hand and the room fell silent which told Evangeline that he was, obviously, in charge of the group. When he had their undivided attention he said, “Everyone this is Evangeline—Evangeline Merdeloupe.”
Everyone stared at her with great interest. Again Evangeline had the strangest feeling they all knew something she didn’t but she smiled as they all said hello in greeting.
“Evangeline’s a detective from New York. She’s the one that brought Selene Peters home. Please, Eva—take a seat,” Roy said as he indicated a vacant chair at the dining room table. As she sat down he continued, “I’ve asked Eva to sit in on this meeting because of a case she’s working on. It seems there’s been the same sort of trouble in the city that we’ve had here. Rec
ently a woman was murdered and, while this is nothing new for New York—sorry Eva…” he said, giving her a slight smile. She just nodded indicating she wasn’t offended by the way he talked about her home town. “…anyway, it’s the way the woman was murdered that captured my attention. Her heart was torn out—just like—well, you all know what I’m talking about.” There was a rumbling throughout the group as they whispered to one another.
“So the evil has spread,” said a small man with light brown hair and big eyes made even bigger by the size of the glasses he wore.
“Yes, Pete, it would seem so.”
“Evil—what’s he talking about?” Eva asked, confused by the choice of words this Pete had used. This was murder plain and simple. A particularly gruesome murder, yes, by some deranged pervert, so I guess you could call it evil but she still thought the phrasing was a little odd.
Roy turned to face her. “Eva, I told you there were some strange things going on in this area—so strange the locals turned to a special—taskforce—to handle the situation. What I’m about to tell you may seem—impossible—but I’m going to have to ask you to keep an open mind and listen to what we have to say.” His eyes were almost pleading as they stared into Eva’s so she nodded to let him know she would at least hear him out. “Good,” he said as he began a slow pacing.
Evangeline watched him until he finally came to a stop directly in front of her. “Eva…” he said trying hard to find the right words that would help her understand the situation they—and she—were in, “…there are things in this world that fall outside the realm of normal human understanding—but that doesn’t make them any less real.”
“Like those—things— I saw slaughtered in the woods last night? Is that what you’re talking about, Roy?” she asked.
The room erupted in a chorus of shouts and questions. “Quiet!” Roy shouted, raising his voice once more as he waited for order to re-establish itself in the small room. “Now—to answer your question, Eva…” but he stopped suddenly, his rust colored eyes scouring the entire room. “…where’s Ferrante?”
“I’m here,” came a deep voice from a bedroom somewhere off to the left of the main room of the cabin. Rick, his tall form dressed completely in black, his tousled hair looking like he’d just run a hand through it, entered the room slowly, his dark eyes focused solely on Evangeline.
“You!” she shouted as she jumped up from her chair pulling out a gun from the shoulder holster she wore under her jacket. The room suddenly burst into a flurry of activity as everyone drew their weapons and a small group surrounded Rick, seemingly to protect the vampire from the crazed woman pointing a gun at him.
The firing of a pistol echoed throughout the cabin followed by the command, “Everyone—stand—down!” Roy stared around the room as he aimed the weapon at no-one in particular. The silence was deafening. Roy then turned his attention to the woman standing across from him, the gun still held tightly in both her hands, the barrel pointed directly at the heart of Rick Ferrante.
“Eva—give me the gun,” Roy said in a quiet voice.
“No—I don’t know who—or what…”she added remembering Rick’s eyes flashing red at her in the middle of the woods, “…this man is, Roy, but one thing I do know —he’s a killer. I watched him take down three men—wolves—whatever they were, in a matter of minutes. It was—superhuman—or something. Who—and more importantly, what—are you?” she asked looking directly at the vampire.
Rick motioned for the men around him to move. As they cleared a path for him he started walking, very slowly, towards Evangeline, his brown eyes locking with hers. Lord she’s beautiful when she’s angry, he thought, and where did that come from? he wondered as he forced himself to focus on the matter at hand. “I’m a killer, yes, but those—things—had to die. You know very well what they were, even if you don’t want to believe it— and deep down you know, no matter what my methods, that I did the right thing by destroying them. If I hadn’t, other innocent lives would have been lost.”
Eva didn’t change her stance. She held her weapon on the man approaching her but the quiet sound of his voice, his eyes—those incredible eyes—were mesmerizing. She was beginning to lose her focus. She shook her head to clear it and, as she did, Roy reached for the gun and whipped it from her hands grabbing her from behind. He held her tightly as she struggled to break free, screaming all the while, “He’s a killer, I tell you! There’s something not right about him,” but even as she spoke the words the look of torment on Rick’s handsome face struck a chord deep within her.
For a split second all she wanted to do was run to him—take him in her arms and comfort him. This is crazy. Since when have I ever let a handsome face cloud my judgment? This guy’s a murderer— or worse. What the hell is wrong with me? she thought as she once again struggled to break free of Roy’s hold on her.
“Calm down, Evangeline.” Roy whispered in her ear. “Relax—trust me.”
For some reason she couldn’t explain, Eva found herself calming as Roy’s voice soothed the anger—and fear—right out of her. She leaned back against him, resting for a moment until her breathing was back to normal. “There now—that’s better. Trust me, Eva, I will explain everything to you but first I have to get my men out on patrol. The creatures that hunt us all—more like the ones you saw killed— are out there still. Rick only did what he had to do to protect innocent lives—as do my men.” He could tell she was listening intently to him but she had yet to take her eyes off the vampire.
“If I release my hold can I trust you not to do anything foolish—Eva?”
She nodded in agreement. “Okay, good. I’m going to let you go then. Don’t do anything stupid or my men will react. Please, Eva, just sit for a moment. Once the men have gone, I will explain a few things to you—and to Mr.Ferrante.” Roy said looking at Rick. “Believe it or not, Evangeline, he’s as much in the dark as you are about certain—developments of late— and it’s my fault but I intend to rectify that. So— are we good?” he asked her again.
“Yes,” came her faint whisper as she lowered herself into a nearby chair.
“Okay then…” turning to the rest of the room, Roy said. “…we’ll cut the meeting short for tonight. Suffice it to say that Evangeline came upon Rick in the woods after he’d disposed of three of the beasts. You can imagine what happened after that but I’ll tell you all about it later. Chris—was the area cleansed?”
A tall man stood up and Eva gasped in surprise as she recognized one of the men who had retrieved the bodies of the dead werewolves that night in the woods. The man stared at her for a brief moment before he answered Roy. “Yes, it was taken care of and the vam…Rick did well.”
“Good, then I don’t think there’s anything further to say. You all know what to do. Rick and I will join you as soon as we can and we’ll all report back to the Inn at sunrise. I don’t need to tell you all to be careful. If what Evangeline says is true then it looks like this war has extended beyond our borders. We may have to send an emissary back to New York but first things first—we secure our home.”
There were nods of assent as the men filed out of the room leaving the cabin quickly. When just the three of them remained Roy looked at Rick and Eva. Shaking his head he sighed deeply, “Well—I guess we better get started?” he said as he motioned for Rick to take a seat at the table. After seating himself, Roy said, “I have a story to tell you—both of you.”
Roy looked thoughtfully at the two people seated alongside of him. How much did he dare to reveal of the pack’s history. Rick, he realized, already knew most of it. The only part of the story he was lacking was the part that involved Evangeline. There was a reason Jaclyn had left out those essential details when she’d talked to the vampire but, now that the person in question was here in the flesh well—there was no point in keeping any more secrets.
Roy looked at both of them sit
ting there patiently waiting for him to answer the myriad of questions he was sure was running through their fevered minds. Where to begin—where? he thought to himself. Then, with a deep sigh, he decided to start at the beginning.
“Eva—Evangeline,” Roy had to raise his voice to get her attention. She hasn’t taken her eyes off of the vampire since he entered the room. What’s her problem? Oh well—not my concern—at least not yet, anyway. I need to focus on the business at hand. Looking at Evangeline he asked, “Eva…are you a native of New York?”
“What…” she said, dragging her eyes away from Rick to look at Roy, “…no, but what does that have to do with anything. We were talking about werewolves…” she said turning back to Rick, “…and the man who kills them.” She noticed he was sitting quietly, head bowed slightly but, as she began speaking, he raised his eyes to meet her own. A lock of dark hair had fallen over one eyelid, the long black lashes causing it to move slightly every time he blinked.
Evangeline had an almost uncontrollable urge to lift her hand and gently brush the stray lock of hair away from his handsome face. He looked so lost—so forlorn. Lord, if I could just hold him in my arms for a moment—what the—shit! She shook her head violently to rid herself of the image forming in her mind.
“Are you alright?” Roy asked.
“Yes—I’m fine. Can we get on with this?” she knew she was being rude but she couldn’t seem to help herself. This man…she thought, casting another quick glance at Rick—why does he affect me the way he does?
“Of course and, to answer your question, I need to know how much you know about your background—your actual upbringing—in order to continue with my story. Trust me, Eva, it’s important. Hopefully, it will all make sense to you when I’m through.” Roy told her.
“Oh alright,” she said running her hand through her long hair as she tried to focus on Roy’s words. “No, I am not a native New Yorker. I was born in a town not far from here, actually—near Wilkes Barre—but my father moved us to New York after my mother died.”
A Soul in Torment Page 24
