by J. E. Taylor
He stepped back in a flinch before my lips even touched his flesh and his eyes flashed in a wince. I lowered my heels, stunned at both his conditioned response and the pain that flared in my chest. The reality of our situation hit home yet again, leaving me hollow.
Chapter Twenty-Six - Naomi
Exhaustion took control of my muscles and I made it to the bedroom upstairs, stripping down to my underwear before climbing into bed. It was already half past three and my eyelids wouldn’t stay open. For the first time since we met, we didn’t spend the night together.
Brightness and warmth woke me from a sound sleep and I gasped, my heart thundering in my chest as I pressed my back against the headboard. Sunshine painted the end of the bed and it took me a few breaths to remember the sun wouldn’t turn me to dust.
When that realization settled into my skin and my heartbeat returned to normal, I actually chuckled. I don’t remember dreaming, but the covers were crumpled and twisted like I had been fighting with the fabric.
I glanced at the clock and my eyebrows rose. It was a little after one in the afternoon and the house was very quiet. A bout of melancholy hit and I ran my fingers over the pillow next to me. The one that Damian should have occupied if it weren’t for the damn sun.
My stomach growled, interrupting my little pity party and I swung my feet over the side of the bed. Instead of addressing my stomach, I decided to clean up first. The prior evening left me feeling like my skin had a hefty layer of dirt and sweat. The hot water in the shower felt like heaven and I scrubbed my body clean and donned a pair of sweats and a torn t-shirt that Damian was partial to and headed to the kitchen to find something to quell the stomach pangs.
Once my appetite was satiated, I headed down to Damian’s lair, finding it dark and empty and a moment of icy panic bit at my skin before I took a deep breath, calming my nerves. I headed down the tunnel and the sounds of hammering calmed any remnants of worry.
Light filtered from where he was working making the need for the cell phone light obsolete and I followed the path easily. I stopped and leaned against the concrete and watched the sweat trickle down Damian’s back as he hammered nails into a fancy trellis designed to keep the pathway from collapsing. The muscles in his back rippled and I smiled.
The hammer stopped halfway from hitting the nail and Damian shot a glance back at me. Dimples lining his cheek gave away his lighthearted mood and I’m sure my carnal thoughts fueled his playful grin.
“It’s about time you got your lazy ass out of bed.”
“Give me a break, I’m just getting used to being human again.”
“Well, if being human means sleeping for days at a time, then I’ll pass,” he mumbled and returned to the task he started. As soon as he set the nail, he stepped back next to me and scanned his work. With a satisfied nod, he said, “That ought to do it.”
He gathered up the scraps on the floor and dumped them into a wheelbarrow. The hammer, nails and spotlights followed. With a light leading the way, he strolled toward the underground apartment.
“How far did you get with the cars?”
Without missing a step, he reached into his back pocket and handed me a folded piece of paper. “I need a couple of batteries before I can do any further assessment of the cars. They’ll all need one eventually, along with tires, but if you could have someone pick up the things on the list for starters, I should have at least a couple of vehicles working by the end of the night.”
“Really?”
“I put the batteries in the basement so you could trade them up for new ones. If you go to Napa, they’ll give you a credit on the purchase for these.”
The fact that Damian even thought about discounts made me want to laugh, especially with his accumulation of wealth. His job provided what he called petty cash, but most people would consider his six figure income a damn good living.
“What?” he asked as I mulled over this contradiction.
“Nothing. I’ll give Ted the list once he gets home. I think he’s at work.”
“I need a shower,” Damian said as we rolled the barrow through the living area. He parked it at the entrance and glanced at me. “Do you mind parking this by the hatch and I’ll get it up to the garage after sunset?”
“Sure,” I said and started out the door.
“Can you grab my bag too?” he called as he headed back toward the hallway.
“Sure,” I called and deposited the wheelbarrow where he asked before heading upstairs to retrieve his duffel bag. I left the list on the kitchen table before trotting back downstairs.
When I stepped into the bedroom downstairs, I wondered why they bothered building the bedroom upstairs. The only distinct difference between the two rooms was the room upstairs actually had windows that allowed the sun to light the room. Down here, the decor was similar to upstairs but the mural on the back wall was as breathtaking as the beach scene in the living room. Here it showcased a large picture window that looked out over a spring meadow with the bright sunshine painting the array of colorful wildflowers. The rest of the walls were a mix of white and brown and black with green speckled in and after a couple of blinks I realized it was a forest of birch trees. The ceiling was a canopy of leaves with a bright blue sky filtering through.
Valerie and Michael had amazing painting skills. I dropped Damian’s duffel bag on the small ottoman and headed toward the bathroom, curious to what type of decor that held. A tropical underwater world met me when I pushed open the door and my gaze landed on Damian wrapping a towel around his waist. His gaze scanned the walls and landed on me.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” he asked and ran his hand through his wet hair, hand combing it into less of a disheveled mess.
“Yes.” I know he meant the artwork, but his sculpted form always left me speechless.
“The walls,” he answered my less than subtle inspection.
“I know what you were referring to. This should be in highlighted in Architectural Digest.”
“Have you looked at the details? This must have taken years to do.” He ran his fingers over the school of rainbow fish, and their scales shimmered against the trail of light.
“The bedroom is just as incredible.”
“If I had taken the time to look at this last night, I never would have made it to the garage,” he said and passed by me.
I took a few minutes to inspect the artwork and I couldn’t find a flaw in anything, from the coral reef to the seahorses to the array of fish. Even the sinks and shower were in the aquamarine motifs. Valerie must have missed her calling. Interior design came naturally to her based on the designs throughout the house.
“Valerie has quite a bit of talent,” I said when I stepped into the bedroom.
Damian laughed. “Valerie didn’t do this.” He waved at the room. “It might have been her idea, but her talent ends with drawing stick figures.”
“Then her uncle?”
His eyebrows rose and he shook his head.
“No way,” I whispered and scanned the art. “I just assumed...”
“I know. It may have been her idea, but Michael painted these scenes just for us.” Damian’s smile faded and he sighed. “As amazing as it is, it just makes me miss the sunshine even more.” He finished buttoning his shirt and walked to the light switches near the door. “Want to see something cool?”
I nodded.
He flipped the main switch off, dropping the room into darkness. Little by little my eyes adjusted and then I realized light was filtering in the window like it would right after sunrise. It brightened to that of mid-day and then faded like a sunset and I turned to him. The longing in his face forced a lump into my throat.
When his gaze dropped from the window just before the last of the light faded, I saw the mist of unshed tears shimmering over his bright blue eyes. I never knew just how much he ached for the sun and my feet shuffled across the floor, finding the fabric of his shirt after a few paces. I wrapped my arms around his waist and tucked my h
ead against the breast of his shirt, careful to not to connect with his skin in any way.
His arms wrapped around me and we stood still, embracing in the dark.
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Damian
I squeezed her tighter blinking the god damn tears from my eyes. When I flipped the lights off earlier and the wall did its passing daylight trick, a rock formed in my throat that the shower did little to erase. It’s not like I haven’t seen some beautiful scenes on the web, but having the light surrounding me like the living room and the bedroom left me wanting the sunshine as much as I wanted Naomi.
I pushed her away and flipped the overhead lights on. Her dark gaze met mine and I tried on a smile to appease the worry lines creasing her forehead. They smoothed and she sent a smile back.
“So the crew is out?”
“It appears that way. I wish I could just go out. Michael asked me to lay low for a while too, just to make sure Lucifer’s henchmen weren’t in the vicinity.
“As annoying as it is, he’s right.” I couldn’t see any way around it. If we suddenly appeared here, and Lucifer got wind of it, he’d send his entire army to gather us. And even though the property was monster-proofed, that wouldn’t preclude them from grabbing Ted and Valerie as bargaining chips. We had to lay low and until we were sure Lucifer had bought the bait.
“Have you heard anything from him?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I haven’t checked my emails today. I have a few things to do for work, but I figured none of it was critical yet. So I fixed up the tunnel.” I headed into the living room and crossed to the desk, flipping open the new computer to see what it offered. My backpack sat to the side of the desk just in case this one didn’t have everything I needed.
The internet connection was already set up, so I ventured into my email, pushing the sense of dread away as the screen loaded. My jaw clenched at the sight of another email from the same source and I raised my gaze to Naomi.
“You know he’s going to kill me if he gets a hold of us,” I said. “But I’m going to make damn sure I get a few licks in before he does.”
Her face paled and her lips pressed together in the telltale sign of apprehension. I know she hated when I talked like this, but she had to know, his tracking us down was inevitable. It might take years, but the time would come when we’d both have to face the music.
“You can’t think like that, Damian,” she said and I laughed.
“He’s on the hunt, baby. And Lilith was right, when you choose to dance with the devil, the song eventually ends.”
She rolled her eyes at my analogy. “We can beat him.”
I loved her with my entire being, but even after everything we’ve encountered, her naivety still amused me.
“The tiger could beat him, but that’s lost to us now.” I said, finally admitting something I’ve kept inside for five years. If we had another five or ten minutes in that warehouse before the sun rose, she would have ripped him to shreds.
“You can beat him,” she said with all the confidence I lacked.
“No, I can’t. I couldn’t even take down Michael.”
“You weren’t in shadow form,” she countered and her hands found her waist. I hated her argumentative stance. It completely undermined my train of thought because when she stood like that, her perky breasts strained against the fabric of her shirt and the dare in her eyes always fanned a heat deep inside me.
It was completely unfair how this woman could derail me. From the moment we met, she could melt and infuriate me at the same time. I was sure if I had a thousand years with her, it would be the same. Naomi made me feel alive and significant. Not just some beast trained to be a watch dog.
Before I opened the email or said anything derogatory to Naomi, I decided to staunch my hunger. I stalked across the room and opened the refrigerator, taking the blood bag. Instead of opening the top and pouring it into a glass, I opted to tear the corner with my teeth and gulp it down like it was a severed arterial spray instead of a civilized drink.
The need to hunt ate at my bones and I closed my eyes, letting the cold human blood quench my nerves and cool the burning pit in my stomach. When the bag was empty, I tucked it into the garbage under the sink and turned back to Naomi and the computer beyond her.
With the blood spreading a warm chill through my body, I crossed to the computer and opened the email. My legs turned to jelly and I sat down in the chair.
“What’s wrong?”
I guess my face registered the shock at Lucifer’s words and I could almost hear him chuckling. “He didn’t buy my attempt to snow him,” I said. “Someone saw the lights in the garage last night. The good news is he hasn’t connected us to the house yet. He thinks we’re in the garage and he knows I’ll eventually have to come out.” I chuckled at the last question, raising my gaze to hers. “He’d like to know how I got in.”
I pulled out my computer because I knew it had mechanisms that rendered it untraceable and opened the email. I pressed the reply button and typed, ‘Isn’t it amazing what fingerprints can do?’ and sent the email. I smiled at my wit wondering if my question would stump him or not.
“Did you just confirm where we are?”
I met her gaze. “I confirmed where he thinks we are.”
“Do you have a fucking death wish?” Naomi snapped and stomped out of the room. I tried to catch up to her but she was up the stairs and into the belly of the house before I could stop her. I found myself halfway up the basement stairs before my internal alarms sounded.
“That’s not fair!” I yelled at the cracked door and made my way back to the underground sanctuary. She didn’t understand how long this game with Lucifer had been going on or how tired I was of always being at the shit end of the stick.
I sat down behind my computer and brought up the reply prompt again and typed another message. ‘You know where I am, but are you so sure that drop off in Buffalo didn’t contain a very special package of mine? Did you check all the northbound traffic?’
I sat back and smiled. Punching the send button gave me a moment of pure satisfaction. Lucifer would spend the next several days hunting down all the rental agencies and ticket counters in Buffalo looking for Naomi. When he finally came to the realization I led him on a wild goose chase, I had better buckle down for a long quiet stay underground.
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Damian
The sun set while I tinkered with the new computer, building it out with everything I needed for both the day job and the URL bounce I built for the laptop we’ve had for years. A yawn caught me off guard and I stretched, arching my back in the chair to get the stiffness out of the muscles. A glance at my watch told me it was safe to proceed upstairs and find Naomi.
I stepped into the family room, finding Michael and Valerie engaged in a game of chess and Ted in the kitchen whipping up food.
“Where’s Naomi?”
All three of them looked at me like I should know and my skin flushed hot. I turned toward the bedrooms and skidded into the empty room. The bathroom was empty too.
“God damn it,” I muttered and took a closer look at her clothing. Her jogging shoes along with the parka I bought her were gone and I spun around, stalking to the living room.
“She went out jogging,” I said and the shocked silence filled the room. Then everyone scrambled at once and I put out my hands to stop them. “I’ll find her, just give me the controller for the gate, okay?”
Michael glared at me but didn’t say anything.
“Just let me borrow a coat and a hat and I’ll go look for her,” I said. “And I’ll need the remote to open the gate.” I headed downstairs and grabbed my sneakers, slipping them on before returning to the living room. Ted handed me a coat and a hat and then he offered another item that made my eyebrows rise. A nine-millimeter.
I met his gaze.
“Platinum rounds just in case,” he said.
“If a vampire bites her, they’re doomed.” Both Valerie and Ted registered sl
ack jaws. “I’m not the only one that’s allergic to her.” I offered a smile, but I took the gun anyway. A bullet would do just as much damage to a demon regardless of the metal components.
I made sure the safety was on and slid it into the inside pocket of Ted’s jacket. He handed me a Red Sox cap and I tucked my black curls under the hat before looking at the group. “A remote?” I asked and put my hand out.
Valerie crossed to the kitchen and pulled a small key ring from the pegs, tossing it to me. I slid it into my pocket and headed out the front door. Walking the driveway with my attention focused on the asphalt, I sniffed the air, letting my sense of smell dictate the direction Naomi had headed.
I stepped through the open gate and pressed the remote securing the property behind me. Turning left, toward the path that headed into the woods, I adopted the slow gait of a jogger warming up. The urge to take flight and soar over the area took hold and I squashed it. That would give away our tie to the house. Instead, I forced myself to maintain the slow casual pace.
My heart thundered with each step and after I had traveled a little over a mile, the scent on the air thickened, mixing her natural musk with an undertone of fear. It drove my feet faster and when I turned the blind bend in the road, I saw her. She stood between two men, her hands clenched in fists and her stance defensive.
I stopped and inhaled, assessing her attackers. They were more than mere mortals and anger bloomed under my skin. Demons toyed with her, circling and laughing at the weak human girl. I caught a hint of wariness in their stance, like she had already delivered a couple of blows and they treated her with caution.
All upper level brain functions ceased and the animal in my heart took over. I growled as I darted toward the closest demon, but he turned, prepared, like this had been a set up all along. I dodged the glinting blade, ignoring Naomi’s cry of caution.
