Artem sat on the edge of the bed holding his breath. He agreed with Alan, it was doubtful they would find him still there. They had gotten him out, but whether he was still alive was another question.
“I’ll have to inform the others,” Artem said, getting his mind focused again. “You call Murray and tell him to meet us downtown at that coffee shop he likes for two o’clock. I have to take care of some things first.” Alan agreed and they hung up the phone.
Artem quickly threw on a pair of jeans and a green polo shirt, before calling the others again. This time their concern was immediately evident over the phone. They said they would phone him or Murray later, and hung up. After he made a few more calls to confirm Alan’s story, he switched on the TV to see if the story had hit the news yet.
It was everywhere.
He had to make sure the girl was alright. He quickly found his shoes and ran out the door, praying Brian hadn’t gotten to her yet.
My eyes flew open as one of the creature’s long, black hands went to wrap around my ankle. There was an instant panic in my chest when I realized someone’s arm was around me, but then Caleb’s scent hit my nose. I relaxed immediately, wiggling closer to his chest. His arm instinctively tightened, holding me close. It felt safe lying there with him in his room, especially after the dreams I had just had.
There had been about twenty of them – little devil like creatures running after me, or grabbing me from the shadows. They always stood just out of my line of vision, until they were right beside me trying to grab my arm, or my hair. It was horrible. No matter how hard I tried to run from them they were always there.
I tried to push the dream away, letting my mind go back over the previous night, after all the fighting and crying. Everything had been perfect. I’d never imagined my first time would be like that, but it had exceeded all my expectations. Every horror story I’d heard from other girls about their first times seemed fictional to me. Caleb had been amazing.
After we had eaten, me sitting naked in his bed as he had fed me pieces of fruit, we had found release in each other’s bodies again. There was nothing that compared to the feeling of being connected to Caleb in the most intimate of ways.
There was something more to it than simply physical release. It was as though I’d been missing a piece of me my entire life and had finally found it. It was crazy to think it was love, we had really only just started dating, but there was definitely a strong connection between us that I couldn’t explain. Our bodies knew each other somehow, and it was the most incredible feeling. Every touch and taste felt amplified a thousand times.
I smiled to myself, feeling my body heating again from the memories alone. I needed to put some distance between us, otherwise Caleb was going to be woken up very soon. I glanced up at his relaxed features and repose, and knew I couldn’t disturb him.
Suddenly he shifted and his arm slid off of me, freeing me to manoeuvre my way off the bed. I wiggled down a bit and quietly slid my legs off the edge, followed by the rest of my body, and stood there expectantly. I watched him for a minute, but he didn’t rouse. Successfully freed, I tip-toed away from the enormous bed.
I wrapped myself in a blanket and walked outside to stand on the balcony. It wasn’t raining outside, but the sun was completely hidden behind large, ominous clouds, the air dense with a damp, miserable atmosphere. The wind was disturbingly still. I shivered slightly, passing it off as just a chill, although it wasn’t really cold out.
Two hands slid across my stomach to wrap around me, soft lips landing on my bare shoulder. I turned and smiled at Caleb in the early light. Even first thing in the morning he looked great, which made me wonder what I must look like. I wished then that I had taken a minute to look at my reflection before he woke up. My face went hot with that thought. Any insecurity fled my mind though, the second I realized Caleb was standing there, completely naked.
“Good Lord, Caleb,” I said laughing. “Most people pay for a show like this.”
He didn’t seem to care, proceeding to pull open my blanket, wrapping it around the two of us. We now stood extremely close on the balcony, where anyone who thought to look up would be able to see us. My face continued to burn.
“Is that better?” he asked, his eyes full of heat.
“Uh huh,” I replied. He leaned down and kissed me slowly on my lips. A contented sigh escaped me as I opened up to his gentle prodding. Our mouths melted together as my entire body heated in anticipation.
The phone inside began to ring, breaking our brief moment of peace. Caleb pulled away and growled, picking me up and carrying me inside while still keeping the blanket around the two of us. He unceremoniously threw me on the bed, and went to find the phone that refused to stop ringing. I wiggled back under the covers to keep warm, hoping our morning together wasn’t officially over.
“Hello?” he said, eyeing me hungrily. “What’s up Kellan?” he asked clearly irritated at the interruption.
As Kellan spoke on the other end, I could see Caleb’s face change at each word. “Are you sure?” he asked, still sounding calm. “Yes,” he said glancing in my direction. “Okay, thanks. Yeah, I’ll see you later.” He hung up and rubbed a hand slowly over his face.
“Is everything alright?” I asked nervously. I knew that something had felt wrong today. I couldn’t explain how, but something in the air had seemed off.
“It appears that Brian Connor has somehow escaped from prison,” he said, sitting down in the chair.
“Escaped?” I squeaked. “How is that possible, he’s in a heavily guarded building?” My voice grew higher. Sweat broke out along my spine as my pulse began to race.
“I don’t know,” he replied, sounding tired, or perhaps bored. “They just said he’s disappeared, so maybe he’s still in there somewhere? Wherever he is, he’s not in his cell.”
“That doesn’t make sense. How can someone disappear from inside a prison cell?”
Caleb absentmindedly shrugged his shoulder, laying his head back on the chair. “My father is probably furious,” he muttered almost to himself.
The mention of his father had a slither of unease rippling across the back of my neck. Was this Dermot’s doing? I didn’t think he had the ability to pull something like this off, but I didn’t know that for a fact either. The thought made my blood run cold.
He wouldn’t let him free just to get at me would he? If it wasn’t Dermot, then who? There was no way that someone like Brian Connor, who had a grade seven education, could have managed to escape a building like that all on his own. Someone must have gone and helped him, but who would want to help a person like that? Dermot was the only reasonable explanation.
My eyes slowly rose to look at Caleb sitting on the chair at the end of the bed. He had gone out last night. I shook my head to myself. There was no way Caleb could get in the prison and out without someone seeing him. The idea was ludicrous really.
“Are you hungry?”
I looked up, startled by the interruption. Caleb was staring at me with his face calm again, apparently having gotten over the news. I was hungry, even though I kind of felt sick. I nodded
“Let’s go get something then, shall we?” he said getting up.
We both got dressed quickly. I pointed out that I only had my evening dress on hand, so he agreed to stop by my place first to let me change before we went anywhere. I could only imagine the gossip if people saw me in the morning with Caleb Banks, still wearing the same dress I had worn the night before.
My mother would die of embarrassment.
We held hands as we stood in the elevator, watching each floor go by. Caleb’s car was waiting for us when we walked outside, and we quickly sped off towards my place.
The manhunt for Brian Connor was in full force. Updates and cautionary new casts were being run every minute. Artem walked briskly down the street, trying to make his two o’clock appointment with Alan and Murray. He could see people in the store and café windows watching the news that was bein
g played on all the televisions. Fear was being instilled in every citizen, as though some rabid animal was on the loose.
He had gone over to the girl’s house that morning and waited to make sure he saw she was okay. He hadn’t seen any movement inside the house for a while. Fearing the worst, he had snuck across the lawn and climbed up through one of the bedroom windows. The garage roof was conveniently under one of them. It had happened to be her room that he’d climbed into, but thankfully she hadn’t been there. His momentary relief gave way to panic when he’d realized her bed hadn’t even been slept in that night. What if Brian had already gotten her?
He had been about to climb back out and call for help, when a black car pulled up outside the house. Vivian had jumped out in the same dress she’d worn to the ball. He realized then where she had been. An unwanted emotion had crept up on him that he’d pushed away immediately.
He’d heard the front door opening and closing, and realized that she was heading up to the room he was in. Panicking, he’d looked toward the window to jump out, but knew that Caleb would have been able to see him if he went that way, so he’d decided to hide in the closet instead. He’d quickly slid in amongst the clothes hanging there, making himself all but invisible in the girl’s closet.
Leave it to him to find himself in such a ridiculous situation, he had thought to himself, cursing.
Even now as he walked down the street, his face turned red at the thought of that morning’s events. The girl had burst through the door moments after he had hidden himself, and quickly took the lovely dress she’d been wearing off, throwing it in the pile at his feet – thankfully not looking in. Then she’d continued to search for a pair of shorts and a t-shirt in her dresser. Artem had felt horrible hiding where he was, being able to see the girl half naked as she walked around the room.
It wasn’t unpleasant, he thought, but it was horribly wrong. He knew that image would be stuck in his mind for the rest of the day.
He shook his head now as he walked down the street, trying to forget the memory of her that morning. He had to focus on the more important events that were taking place.
She had left the room within a matter of minutes and taken off again with Caleb. Artem had waited a couple of minutes to make sure no one was around before descending the wall of the house and taking off himself. He was glad she was alright – that’s what mattered.
Now he rounded the corner and saw the two men he was to meet waiting for him outside the small café. Murray waved at him as he approached.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” he said, shaking their hands.
“No worries, my friend,” said Murray with his usual jolly smile. “We both just arrived ourselves, so no harm done.”
“Let’s get inside so we can talk,” said Alan quickly. He had clearly not calmed down since that morning.
The three men walked inside and took a seat at a table near the back wall. The waitress came and took their orders, so they talked about routine topics until she brought them their drinks and left them alone again.
“What have you heard so far?” Artem asked, turning to Alan.
“The police are at a loss for any explanation. They have no idea what to think. Every guard and policeman in the city has searched high and low in that damn prison, and no one has found him. I think they’re beginning to think he really did get out, although that baffles them even more,” Alan replied, mopping at his sweaty brow with a napkin.
“Well I could have saved them trouble,” said Murray. “I knew right away that man was nowhere in the prison. If a man is going to escape, then he’s going to escape, not just get out of his damn cell and hide somewhere else.”
“I think they were hoping he was intending to break out, but hadn’t made it that far yet. No one has broken out of that prison in thirty years,” Alan replied.
“The main issue here is whether or not he is alive or dead. It is clear that someone must have helped him. We’ve all seen Brian Connor, and we know he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer,” Artem said. The two men nodded in agreement. “Therefore someone much more skilled must have lent a helping hand, and there is only one person who would have cause to do that.” The two older men nodded again, following along with Artem’s train of thought. “The question that boggles me is, why?”
“What do you mean why? They have him working for them now obviously, and they have a vested interest in his wellbeing,” Alan replied, lowering his voice.
“It doesn’t make sense. He would have been out in less than a week anyway. Let’s be honest with each other, we both knew we were going to lose that trial,” Artem pointed out. “Therefore, why rescue him now? Why have the media all over the story, and have the police looking for him, if in another week’s time he would have been free to do as he pleased? Something doesn’t fit.”
The three men sat in silence.
“Maybe they killed him?” suggested Alan.
“Dermot wouldn’t do that. It would have made the whole trial a waste of his time, plus he loves people like Brian. He would never bother to save mankind from someone like that man.” Artem was tired and could feel a headache coming on the longer they talked about this.
“What if it wasn’t Dermot who had a hand in this? What if it was one of the boys?” Murray said. “Now hear me out,” he continued. “Caleb is clearly having some sort of strong human-like emotions for Vivian, and this has to upset Dermot, so wouldn’t it make sense for Dermot to use his new weapon, aka Brian, to eliminate the problem?”
“All the more reason for the person behind this all to be Dermot himself,” replied Alan. “He probably sent him out to find the girl and take care of her for him.”
“No, because he could have just waited until Brian was released, and avoided the whole media involvement. If Caleb had realized his father’s plans though,” Murray argued, “he would have wanted to put a stop to it immediately, and eliminate the threat before he was out.”
They sat there and thought it over. Artem figured either situation was plausible. What he couldn’t believe was that Caleb would go to such lengths for a girl, and that he would defy his father so openly. He dismissed the idea based on that thought. None of the boys would be dumb enough to challenge their father in such a way. He expressed this to the other two.
They agreed he had a point. Dermot was up to something that they didn’t quite understand. The only thing they could do at this point was to keep a constant watch over Vivian, if she were in fact some sort of target. Alan would find out everything that was happening behind the scenes at the police station, since he was the lead prosecutor on the case, and would keep the others updated.
The three of them parted ways, and promised to talk again after Artem had spoken to the others back home. Artem headed back towards the girl’s house, having offered to keep an eye on her until the evening.
He could hear the girl crying from where she lay on the bed. He admitted to himself that maybe he shouldn’t have taken all his anger out on her, but there had been no one else around for him.
Dermot stood by his bedroom window now, slowly pulling on the cigarette he had just lit. The news this morning had made him angrier than he had been in many years. He had been waiting to see if the police would actually figure it out, however he had been sceptical from the beginning.
Then his thoughts went back to the girl, as they so often had lately. Her green eyes seemed to haunt him at night, like no other ever had. He didn’t understand why Caleb felt the way he did about the girl. Could the old writings have been right all along? Dermot didn’t give much weight to what the human species envisioned, considering their knowledge of his kind was limited at best.
Perhaps the Brotherhood, the annoying creatures that they were, had been on to something? Was this Vivian more than what she appeared?
Of course, Dermot knew they had gotten some major aspects of their little prophecy wrong. He’d known it the moment he and Nora had welcomed their youngest son into the world. I
t was a crucial aspect to the story that the Brotherhood was completely unaware of.
Dermot had known though. He’d known the moment he’d held Caleb for the first time. He’d seen his future in the strangely cognizant blue eyes of the infant who had watched him back so calmly, despite being thrust into the cold, hard world.
He’d avoided this for centuries now, and knowing that it could all come to pass was nearly destroying him. He was losing his self-control more often than usual, which was not good for maintaining appearances.
He heard the girl behind him again, and knew something would have to be done about that. The last thing he wanted now was some whore telling police what the famous Defence Attorney, Dermot Banks, had done to her.
He ignored her for a moment, focusing back on the French girl. With the revelation this morning, he knew he couldn’t attack her directly anymore. Caleb would be furious with him, and Dermot still needed Caleb on his side if he was going to ensure the prophecy never came to pass.
Dermot came to the decision that the only discreet way to get to the girl would be to continue haunting her in her head. Everyone had bad dreams, he mused to himself. He would just help to intensify them for the girl, and perhaps even seem to haunt her while she is awake. Hopefully she’d be so scared, or think she was going crazy, that she wouldn’t even mention it to Caleb.
A befitting devilish smile spread across Dermot’s face. Eventually they would get to her and she really would go crazy, then she would have no choice but to leave Caleb alone. She would want to get as far away as possible from him. Wasn’t that how it always ended with these human women?
“Please let me leave,” pleaded the girl from behind, breaking his train of thought. Dermot put the cigarette out and turned to face his current prey. The smile he had worn a moment ago came back when he saw the fear in her eyes.
Balance (The Balance Series Book 1) Page 14
