I arched an eyebrow, surprised by the shift from sweet and unassuming to blunt. “I’m not from around here.” I shrugged.
Larissa examined me with knowing eyes. “I’m just gonna cut to the chase. If you’re here for… work… you’d probably want to leave now. Boss man ain’t so tolerant of that illegal stuff since he’s been on parole.”
“I’m… sorry…” I knew what she meant, but I didn’t know what had made her say that. I tried not to let her know the suggestion offended me, but it was unfounded. “What?”
“You’re a pretty girl, alone in the moors at a time most girls your age are still sleepin’. I don’t know your story, but if you’re here for some kinda drug deal, you’d best take your leave.” Her chin jutted towards the door.
“I’m not here for a drug deal.” I assured her, my voice a little indignant even to my own ears.
“Well, what then? You sure as Hell didn’t come for a cup of coffee.”
A frustrated sigh escaped my chest, and I planned to tell her my being there was none of her business, but I caught her eyes…sweet and warm like honey, they were thickly lined with black, but that didn’t hide her concern. I held her gaze a moment before looking away.
“I’m hiding,” I confessed, and of their own accord my eyes swept the room. Thinking about Xian set me on edge, and I couldn’t help but make sure he wasn’t close.
“Hiding?” The inflection of her voice informed me that it was not the answer she had been expecting.
“From my ex-boyfriend,” I continued. It was kind of true, anyways…Xian had been my boyfriend once. Recognition lit up her eyes, but not in a remotely fond way. She seemed to know the feeling.
“Ah, well that’s always fun.” Larissa’s sour expression told me she knew it was anything but. Turning around, she surveyed the room before focusing back on me. “He here?”
“Outside.” I said, comforted by the fact that once again that was true. Xian was somewhere outside, just maybe not outside the building.
“Well, you see that man at the counter? The one reading the paper. That’s the sheriff. He’s a good man, maybe a little too fond of looking the other way, but he’ll make sure nothing happens here. Not in my diner.”
“I don’t want any trouble.” I said honestly.
“Then there won’t be any,” She smiled and stood, smoothing down the edges of her skirt. “If you need anything, a refill or maybe an alibi, just holler.” She winked before heading over to tend to the elderly couple.
I made a conscious effort to relax myself into the booth, but was certain not to take my attention off the door. This sleepy diner was not the city I’d imagined, but I could certainly see the point that Larissa had made. It was an odd cluster of buildings, not your typical tourist trap. It was no stretch of the imagination that some shady misdeeds did take place around here.
Larissa appeared again not even twenty minutes later. “How’s it going?”
I hesitated a moment, looking into her friendly face. I’d learned not to trust anyone, but she seemed so honest. And I couldn’t sit there all day. I had to get away from here and figure out where I could find Samuel. “There is something you could do,” I offered, taking this opportunity as it presented itself.
“What’ll it be?”
“I need to get as far from here as possible, but I’m low on cash and—well I don’t know my way around.”
“How much do you need?” She asked, reaching into the pocket of her apron and producing a fold of rumpled dollars bills.
“No,” I shook my head, trying not to sound ungrateful. It was a generous offer. “How about some advice, instead? I need to get somewhere I can regroup and get myself together. Do you think you could point me toward the bus station, or a taxi or…?”
“That bad, huh?” She offered me a look so full of sympathy, it made me feel bad for deceiving her.
“Pretty bad,” I agreed. “Yeah.”
Larissa looked to be on the verge of speaking when someone called out her name from across the room. She sighed without even turning, put up a finger to tell him to wait a moment, and then focused on me once more. “Can you wait just a few minutes while I go shut him up?”
I peeked behind her to see the angry man who had called for her standing behind the counter with his thick, tattooed arms crossed before his broad chest. “Yeah, I’ll be here.”
“Be right back.” She promised.
Relieved, I sat back in the booth and looked absently around the room. Goose bumps raced up my arms even before I connected eyes with him, but when I did, I felt like there was something gnawing in my stomach. The man Larissa had pointed out, Julius, stared at me with dark eyes and a look of hatred. I broke contact immediately, and rubbed my arms to ward off the chill that had sprung up in me. It was like he could see into my soul, into my past…like he knew what I was. I recognized the look of a hunter, even though I’d never seen a live one.
In an attempt to seem casual, I focused on the sweaty water glass before me a moment and then gathered a sufficient amount of courage. Through my lashes, I saw that the other man had stood up, turning a pair of prying eyes towards me. With no further hesitation, I slid off my seat in a fluid motion and instinctively headed toward the door. Realizing that would require me to pass him, I paused, scanning for a restroom. The hand that landed on my shoulder was light, but I jumped nonetheless and found myself face to face with Larissa.
“Hey, you ok?” Concern marred her pretty face, and she looked over my shoulder. “Is he here?”
“I need to get out.”
“Come with me.” Larissa’s hand closed on my wrist and she led me through a maze of empty tables, ignoring the man who started yelling at her when she dragged me through the swinging door that led behind the counter. She continued to ignore him as she led me through a crowded back room, past stacks of milk crates and shelves packed with cans. A glaring red sign showed me the exit, and Larissa threw it open, heedless of the wailing alarm that erupted around us. “Come out of the alley and make a left. Follow the road a couple blocks down. You’ll need to cross the street when you get to Jefferson, but you’ll see the sign for the subway.” I looked at her blankly, trying to get my mind to process what she was saying. “Go on, you’ll have a decent head start.”
“Thank you,” I breathed, my throat tight with the cold as a plume of air bloomed around me. She gave me a slight nod, and I stepped out the door into a shadowy darkness. The sky was moments from opening up in a torrential downpour; thunder cracked overhead. The door shut behind me, and a few moments later the wailing alarm ceased, paving the way for silence. I gathered my bearings, then pushed through the alley, repeating the directions in my head.
I saw the two figures before I heard them, leaning up against the alley, clouds of smoke hanging in the chilly air around them. I pressed myself into the wall as much as I could and carried on, picking up my pace and focusing intently on the ground.
“You look lost.” One of the men said. His tone fell just short of friendly.
I glanced at him and immediately regretted it, for the feigned friendliness was nothing more than a taunt, his ‘smile’ more of a leer. “No,” I said, trying to offer up a small smile, to act unconcerned.
“Where you going?” The second man chimed in, his voice cutting like steel through the quiet dark dawn.
Deciding silence would speak volumes, I tried to walk around the side of them, knowing that behind me was nothing but the locked door. I heard his movement and felt his presence as the man tried to sandwich me between him and the other. That was his mistake. I pushed him to the side just hard enough so that the man stumbled backwards a few paces. That was my mistake. “Stay away from me.” I warned, fixing him with a cold look which I hoped disguised my fear.
I’d heard rumors of what happened in places like this, with people like them. My brothers had exchanged stories about the meals they’d made and the entertainment they’d found in dark allies like this one, in cities where the
re was so much crime that a few deviant acts in a back alley were barely a drop in the bucket.
The other man reacted quickly, and as I turned to contend with him, the second shoved me against the wall. He didn’t seem to be too much older than I. “No one ever taught you how to treat a man?”
“No one ever taught you how to treat a lady.” I fired back, my voice level despite my anger. Remain calm, Lilith. Don’t let them see what you really are.
“Oh, I know a thing or two,” The man purred, fixing me with a languid once-over.
My heart threatened to beat out of my chest, and a peal of nausea tore through me, but my experience with Xian had taught me to disguise it. I could fight and I would if I had to, but I didn’t know if it would do much good.
“Yeah, I picked up a few things here and there,” Agreed the younger one, moving closer. They effectively eked out whatever dismal light slipped between the buildings, so that they stood between me and any way out.
“I have nothing of value.” I said.
“Well,” they looked between each other. “I’m sure we could think of something.” He moved a strand of my hair from my face, and I batted his hand away.
“I think you should let me go on my way.” My voice was barely a whisper, not at all intimidating as I’d hoped.
“Oh no. You wanted to get physical…let’s get physical.” The one who had me pinned to the wall moved in closer, to my face, my neck, his eyes sweeping over the scars there—countless pinpricks, remnants of older marks, and some bruised, crescent shaped ones from the more recent months. He trailed a long finger down my neck, and I shuddered as it dusted my collarbone. His eyes lit on the pendant resting against my chest.
Grinning, he moved closer, pushing his face toward my neck. Instinct took hold of me; I slammed my head into his face, and when he backed up with his nose cupped between his hands and blood spreading over his fingertips, swung as hard as I could with my fist. I barely had a moment to register satisfaction before the second man was in my face, his large hands grinding me against the brick wall.
“You’ll pay for that, you stupid—”
But he never finished his threat, because he was thrown to the ground in the next instant. I looked up into the eyes of another, third man, and was about to utter a thank you when he pinned me by my neck against the wall. Without even removing his eyes from mine, he commanded the other two, “Get out of here!” His voice was a deep and guttural growl. I was unable to pry my eyes from my assailant, but the scuffle and sound of running footsteps told me that they were gone in a matter of seconds. The new threat released his chokehold and shook me so hard my head hit the wall, blurring the world before me, but I was grateful at least to be able to breathe again as I gasped to fill my lungs.
This man was strong—more so than I imagined any human to be—and with the blow to my head, I felt a little faint, unable to attack or defend myself. I blinked slowly, and opened my lips to say something, anything, when a roar ripped through the air. The man turned slowly, as if he’d been expecting this new addition. When the weak morning sunlight broke through a crowd and fell on his face, I recognized my attacker was Julius from the diner. “I’ve got this one, James.” His voice was wrought with irritation, but that didn’t stop the other figure from charging.
It moved too fast for me to register it, but in a matter of seconds, the thing was upon me, its teeth buried in my shoulder. The force of it was completely new, and paramount to the bites of vampires I was accustomed to. Unable to do anything else, I screamed. In the very next second, it released me as if my scream really were some sort of deterrent. With nothing to hold me up, all my energy finally exhausted, I slid to the dirty ground with a hand pressed to my bleeding shoulder, my teeth bared against another scream.
Everything burned, a pain unlike anything I thought was possible, but in the seconds following that didn’t seem to matter. Nothing did, except for the creature before me, easily twice my size from down here, with massive paws that could cave my chest in within seconds.
I could smell it now, something I’d heard of, something I’d read about. My vision blurred, my heart slowed, and my eyes grew heavy as I realized—I’d been bitten by a werewolf.
There was no holding it back this time. I screamed again, as fire and ice spread through my veins in quick succession, a white hot symphony of barbed flames that tore through my skin straight into my veins. The world was shaking as it turned white, like the blinding pain. And then…black.
Chapter Three
That blackness held me tight, refusing to release its hold on me even the next day. I fought the dregs of darkness, but woke up to darkness of another kind.
I immediately noticed the cold—the hard concrete beneath me allowed the frigid air to seep straight through to my bones. The next thing I realized was that the pain, which had been present at the back of my skull while I was unconscious, had taken over practically every inch of my body. It wasn’t a typical pain though—it was like waking up with a hangover and realizing I’d been hit by a truck. Blood coursed through my temples, making the ache there more pronounced. I tried to gather myself into a sitting position, but felt too heavy to move. I braced myself to try again. That’s when I noticed the thick iron shackles on my wrists, their weight holding me in place. I pulled on them, testing their strength, but the effort was exhausting so I lay my head against the wall, trying to recall where I was, and what had led me here.
“Nice of you to finally join us.” A voice broke the silence, echoing off the walls. I winced, not only at the voice that stirred some memory in me, but at the way his voice echoed through my skull.
Confusion steeped my brain for a long moment, and then I placed it. Trying to dredge up the memory hurt too much, but it came to me in flashes—the men outside the diner, the one who threw them away—Julius, who I’d thought for a fraction of a second was going to help me…then the creature, something between a man and animal, it’s eyes full of fury as it’s teeth clamped around the hollow of my shoulder. Recalling that extraordinary pain…incisors digging through flesh and tearing into muscle… I reached for my shoulder, the cold metal chains scraping over my body, and felt the ridged skin healing there.
The sound of a chair grating against concrete issued from somewhere just a few feet before me, and a couple footfalls later, there was a flicker of light as a match bloomed to life. Looking past the offensively bright flame, I saw him. Julius. As if an electrical current had shot through me, I jerked back until I hit the wall again.
“You’ll not be going anywhere.” His voice was casual, but he couldn’t conceal the malice in his eyes. “Those chains are reinforced iron, attached to steel beams underneath the concrete, so strong that no werewolf could break them.” He looked proud for a moment, but then he spoke his next words with unconcealed disgust, “Much less a vampire.” I shuddered as his eyes trailed over me, but it wasn’t the way the two lowlifes had looked at me in the alley—this was a look brimming with hatred. “There are two ways for you to get out of here. You either go in a body bag, or you play nice. I’m fine with either.”
“You did this to me!” I accused, holding my arms up by way of illustration. I let them fall almost as quickly, not willing to let him see the strain it caused.
“Wish I had.” He said, and what I could see of his smile was amused. “You did this to yourself. What were you doing in the city?”
Jaw clenched, I made up my mind not to tell him anything. He watched me then, perfectly still, and I turned my head away, probing the darkness for anything that would help me get free. “You were found on werewolf territory on the day of the full moon. Not just one strike but two.”
The accusation came as a shock, forcing me to look at him again. “I never crossed onto werewolf terrain!” I said loudly, truly indignant at the thought of what he insinuated. As if I would willingly put myself in that kind of danger.
“You were in the city, an extension of the werewolves’ protection. By that token, yo
u were hunting on our land.” The candlelight glowed brighter for a moment and I caught a glimpse of him leaning forward, his jaw tense, as if he were fighting the desire to act upon something. It only made my anger grow, a mirror of his.
“I wasn’t hunting!” My voice was a growl, but the threat was empty.
“So you were just there to entertain those men for a little while?” It wasn’t necessary for the flame to flicker over his doubtful expression; the sarcasm was rife in his voice.
“To entertain them?” I gasped, feeling sick with confusion and pain and injustice. “They had me cornered, not the other way around!”
He snorted a laugh. “As if I haven’t seen that act before. Tell me, do you get a cheap thrill from making them think they’re in control and then turning the tables? You are one sick, twisted little girl.”
Squinting through what little light there was, I saw the determination in his face, the way it shaded his dark eyes. Arguing with this man was useless. I turned away, wishing to erase his face from my thoughts, but it was already burning into my mind, searing deeper with the brand of profound anger. I heard his footsteps come closer, and though I pointedly refused to turn, he bent down and grasped my chin with one hand, forcing my eyes to meet his. The candle flickered on the floor, barely illuminating half of his face. When he spoke next, his voice was deceptively soft, the poison of it thinly veiled. “All you have to do is admit you were hunting, that you were wrong, and it will all go away. The pain, the cold, the hunger…”
The hunger. I hadn’t noticed it before, but as he said it I realized it was there, rolled in with the fatigue and the anger. The promise of its release was seductive, but I knew what it meant to agree. I tore away from his touch and he stood, taking with him my only source of light. I watched it bob across the room and then come to a stop as he paused, turning to me. “I have all the time in the world. It’s you who’s running out of it.” His voice was cryptic, much like the message, and he hesitated a few moments as though expecting me to ask what he meant. But I stayed silent and seconds later, heard the creaking of a heavy metal door grinding open. Light filtered into the room, and though it was dim, it was an assault on my eyes. By the time they’d adjusted, I barely caught a glimpse of a barren corridor before the door closed.
The Celestial Kiss Page 3
