Charlie shrugged and kept his voice low. “Eve’s a powerful witch—”
“Can you use another term, please?” Eve interrupted.
“Eve’s a powerful, magical being. Is that better?”
“Not really.”
“Anyway,” Lucien encouraged, wanting the conversation to stay focused on helping Eve. Something didn’t feel right, and it knotted his stomach.
Charlie rolled his eyes and took a long sip from his Styrofoam cup. “Anyway, they must want Eve because of her abilities.”
“But who even knows about them?” Lucien asked Eve.
Eve tied a knot into a long string of torn napkin. “I’ve been thinking about that. All I can come up with is a relative of some sort. They wanted me before, but that was years ago. And as far as I know, they think I’m dead.”
“What about Boaz?” Charlie asked.
Lucien visibly jerked. “Who?”
“Boaz. Eve used to be with him.”
He starred at Eve, appalled. “It was Boaz?”
“What is it, Lucien?” Eve asked, eyebrows furrowed.
“You were with Boaz? Of anyone to ever walk the earth, you chose to be with him?”
Charlie leaned back, amused. “I take it you knew him.”
He shook his head in disbelief. The thought of Eve with Boaz turned his previous sick feeling into full-blown nauseating revulsion. When he tasted bile in the back of his throat, he stood up. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
“Lucien, wait!” Eve called after him.
He was already out the door and walking down the street, keeping to the shadows. He stopped beneath an awning a few buildings down in front of a parking lot. He’d only met Boaz once and that was enough. Even as a vampire, he could sense Boaz’s evil nature. Lucien’s naïve older brother, Aiden, hadn’t been as aware.
It was Boaz who had turned Aiden. Lucien had always wondered how Boaz had found Aiden, as his brother had no friends to speak of and rarely left his studies. In fact, most people thought their father only had one son: Lucien. Lucien always thought it wasn’t mere chance that Boaz had turned Aiden, but he could never prove it.
After Aiden turned Lucien into a vampire, Aiden immediately introduced him to Boaz, hoping Lucien would be as enamored with Boaz as he was. Lucien could see why Aiden was drawn to him. Boaz’s commanding presence was overwhelming, and Lucien could feel his mind cloud over as Boaz’s dark energy reached out to him, but Lucien resisted. That meeting had been so unsettling that it was the first and last time Lucien ever saw him.
It shocked him to think Eve could fall in love with someone like Boaz. There were so many things he didn’t know about her.
“Hey, Valium,” Charlie called after him. “I hate to interrupt whatever inner torment you’re putting yourself through, but we need to figure out how to help Eve.”
Lucien turned around. “What you said in there, about Boaz, could he really be the one after her?”
Charlie shrugged. “Eve says she killed him.”
“Did she actually see him die?”
“Why does everyone keep asking that?”
“Who else asked it?”
“Henry. He thinks there’s a chance Boaz could still be alive, but I don’t see how. Eve exploded a house with him in it.”
“Boaz was one of the first vampires, if not the first.”
“That makes him invincible?”
“Almost. He’s been around long enough that he’s learned to tap into dark, powerful magic. Vampire’s normally can’t do magic, but he figured out a way.”
“How do you know all this?” Charlie asked.
“I’ve been around a long time.”
Charlie nodded his head back toward the coffee house. “If Boaz is alive, do you think he’d come after Eve?”
“If he was with her at one point, then absolutely. He collects people, and he never lets them go. They either stay with him … or they die.”
“So we need to capture one of these blood suckers and make them talk.”
“I doubt they’re going to know anything. If it is Boaz, he’s extremely secretive, and he’d never call himself The Dark Prince. It’s too flamboyant.” Lucien walked back to the coffee house, thinking hard.
Charlie moved with him. “What if we set up a trap? You take Eve, and I’ll have a team hide out in her house. We’ll activate the chip they left behind, and when they come back, thinking its Eve, we’ll get them.”
“It will never work.”
“Why not?”
“They will smell you a mile away," Lucien said. "And they’ll hear everyone inside. It’s got to be Eve, and she’s got to be alone—or at least someone without a beating heart.”
“I’m not using Eve as bait.”
“I’m not saying you should. But if you want to catch a vampire, that’s the only way.”
Charlie looked through the glass of the coffee house, to where Eve sat alone. “I’ll think of something else.”
Lucien opened the door and walked toward Eve. She was staring down at the table. Several of the long twisted strands of napkin had been crumpled up.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked her.
She looked up at him. “Why did you leave?”
“We’ll talk about it later. Let’s go.”
“Can’t. I need to go to work. I want to find out who’s after me.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?”
“I have my ways.”
He didn’t like the look in her eyes. “Are any of them dangerous?”
Her lips curled up at the side. “They wouldn’t work if they weren’t.”
Before the smile could spread across her face, he jerked her to a standing position and pulled her close. Her eyes grew big in surprise.
“This isn’t a game, Eve.”
“What’s going on?” Charlie asked behind him.
Eve reached up and calmly placed her hands on his chest. Lucien relaxed his grip.
“I made a bad joke, that’s all,” she said.
Charlie shoved Lucien in the back. “I don’t care who you are. Don’t ever grab her like that again!”
Lucien lunged for him, but somehow Eve was faster. She blocked his way. “I’m going to go across the street and into work. Do you want to come, Lucien?”
"Everything okay?" an older man called from behind the counter.
“I’ll wait for you in the car.” Lucien didn’t take his eyes off Charlie.
"We’re fine, thank you," Eve said to the man. She turned to Lucien. “It might be several hours."
From behind her, Charlie shrugged sarcastically as if to say, “Too Bad.”
“I’ll wait.”
“Fine, but when we see each other again, we’re going to have a serious talk.”
Charlie let out a slow whistle.
“Shut up, Charlie,” Eve said and stormed by him out the door. Charlie trailed behind her.
Lucien returned to the car. He forced himself not to think about killing Charlie and instead thought of everything he’d just learned. There were too many coincidences: Ireland, Boaz, Eve. They all felt connected somehow. He suddenly wished he had at least one contact in the vampire world, but he closed that door a long time ago.
He let his mind explore every possibility of a connection and a solution to Eve’s dilemma, but as the hours passed, he was no closer than before.
When a black SUV pulled in front of the Deific, Lucien sat up. He focused his hearing in its direction. From inside, a man said, “We’re here. Come on out.”
The Deific door opened. Charlie steadied Eve with an arm around her waist, her head rested on his shoulder. She was pale and shaking.
Lucien threw open the car door, ignoring the hot sun, and rushed to her. “What happened?”
“She found out where the vampires are hiding. We’re going there now to take them out. Stay with Eve.” Charlie smoothed back her hair. “Do you want me to stay?”
“Go!” Eve said.
Cha
rlie jumped in the car. “I’ll call you soon.”
The SUV drove away.
Lucien didn’t say anything until Eve was safely in the car and he was sitting next to her. “Are you all right?”
“Tired.” She leaned her head against the glass and closed her eyes.
He took her back to the hotel and laid her down in his bed. She was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. Since Eve broke his only chair, he slumped to the floor in the corner and waited.
Her breathing was deep and rhythmic, like the ocean waves on a shore. He closed his eyes and imagined the sea; the effect calmed his nerves. After a few hours, Eve turned over, her eyes open.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Better.”
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“I found the vampires. They were hiding out in an abandoned house on the other side of town.” She pulled herself to a sitting position.
“How did you know?”
“When we saw the vampire pass by my house yesterday, I took a mental picture of him. Then at the Deific, I concentrated hard enough on his image and somehow was transported to him. It was a horrible experience.”
He moved to the bed and sat down. “What happened?”
Eve swallowed. “When my consciousness—I don’t know how else to describe it—was transported to the house, there was something other than vampires there, but only I could see them. They looked like evil spirits, demons maybe, and they could see me in return. The horrible little things were surrounding the vampires like a swarm of cockroaches. They stood about a foot high and were black with dark eyes. One of them was actually licking the hand of a vampire, but the vampire was oblivious.
“I learned quickly that these creatures couldn’t stand the light so I tried to stay in it as much as possible. But for me to find out the home’s location, I had to cross into a darkened hallway to get to the kitchen to where I could see mail sitting on the table.” Eve’s breathing sped up, and she paused, letting air into her lungs.
“I moved fast, but the moment I entered the dark hall, they were on me, grabbing at my arms and my legs. One of them scurried up my back and whispered in my ear, “We’ve been waiting for you to return.
“I tried to knock him away, but he clung to my shoulder and then—” She scrunched her face in pain. “—he started chewing on my ear. I fell to the ground, trying desperately to crawl my way into the lighted kitchen. I was almost there when they surrounded me, whispering the most horrible things. One of them urged me to slit my throat while another told me to stuff my head in the oven. It was so hard to move forward with their constant goading and their bodies twisting all over me.
“Eventually, I made it to the kitchen, but I felt so much despair that I couldn’t move for the longest time. I can’t explain it, but it wasn’t just words, Lucien. Everything they said washed over me as though the emotions came from inside of me.”
Lucien nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. “Go on.”
“Right,” she said, frowning. “The demons had all gathered in the dark hallway, stacked on top of each other. They watched me while they chanted something I couldn’t hear. A knife was on a table in front of me. I let my fingers touch it. Their chanting grew louder, and I picked the up the knife, no longer caring about anything. I had horrible images of slashing my wrists, my neck, all of it—but then I thought of you. The thought grounded me long enough to find an address, and then I came back.” She dropped her head against his shoulder.
“What you did was very dangerous,” Lucien said, his voice low.
She looked up at him. “Why were demons there? I’ve never seen them before.”
Lucien searched her face. “You’ve done this before?”
“I’ve never heard of demons like that before,” she was quick to say.
“Spirit demons are attracted to evil. They feed off of it. Promise me you will never do that again.”
“I won’t unless it will save someone’s life. That’s all I can give you.” She slid to the edge of the bed. “Do you happen to have something to eat? Crackers, maybe?”
Lucien frowned, wanting to press for more of a commitment. Eve was messing with things she didn’t understand. “I’ll have something brought up.”
For now he’d let Eve rest and recover. He left the bedroom and called room service. When he hung up the phone and turned around, Eve was staring at him as she leaned against the doorframe of the bedroom, her long hair swept to one side.
“What?” he asked.
“This morning. Why did you get so upset when Charlie mentioned Boaz’s name?”
“I knew him. I guess it took me a few minutes to get used to the idea of you being with someone like him. If you think the demons you saw today were bad, I can guarantee you that Boaz had millions following him around. But he isn’t ignorant to them as others are. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he could control them.”
Eve shuddered and wrapped her arms around her chest. “How did you know him?”
“I met him once, hundreds of years ago, and even then, I had enough sense to never do it again.”
Eve’s gaze lowered to the floor.
“Why, Eve? Why him?” he asked. He knew it shouldn’t matter as she was a different person now, but he had to know.
Her eyes met his. “I came from parents who believed abuse was necessary. But it wasn’t just physical abuse. Every day I had to listen to their evil propaganda, never knowing what love was. When Boaz came along, he offered me a way out. He made me feel special, like I was the only person alive. At first I sensed his evil, but I was so desperate for love, or what I thought was love, that I blindly gave myself to him. It wasn’t until later that I realized his love came with a price, but by then it was too late. I was addicted to using black magic, and I felt it the strongest when I was with him. The connection between us was intoxicating. I couldn’t get enough of it.”
“But you say there’s a connection between us. How’s that supposed to make me feel? How do I know you’re not hanging around me so you can get high?” He regretted the words the moment they left his lips.
“I guess I deserve that.” She moved toward the front door.
“Where are you going? The food will be here in a minute.”
“I need to go.”
“Eve, I’m sorry I said that. I didn’t mean it. Stay here.”
She removed a cell phone from her pocket and dialed a number. After a minute she said, “Hi, Charlie. How’d it go?”
Charlie’s voice said, “Perfect. We destroyed them all. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. So can I go back to my house now?”
Charlie paused. “I guess so, but I’d feel better if someone was with you. Will Lucien be there?”
Eve looked up at Lucien. “No.”
Lucien couldn’t help but be upset, whether at himself or her, he couldn’t be sure.
Charlie’s tone brightened. “I’ll come over then.”
“That’s all right. Can you just send someone to watch from the outside?”
Charlie’s voice dropped. “Sure. No problem.”
“Thanks.” She ended the call. “Listen, Lucien, I’m tired. I’m going to go home—alone. I hope I’ll see you later but do what makes you comfortable.”
“This is crazy. It’s not safe.”
“I’m sure you heard what Charlie said. I’ll be fine. Have a good night.”
She closed the door, leaving Lucien alone.
16
Lucien parked his car in the usual spot, a block away, and headed in the direction of the stupid Oak tree. The sun had set moments ago leaving the sky a dirty gray and black.
He didn’t blame Eve for leaving him earlier. What he’d said was cruel and untrue. Lucien had never been jealous before, but the thought of Eve with Boaz made him sick—still, that didn’t mean he thought he should be with her, either. Even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t allow it. He had nothing to offer, no chance at making her
happy. All he could give her was protection, and it was only a matter of time before whoever sent the vampires would realize they were unsuccessful and send more.
Eve was inside the house, shuffling through papers with the television in her bedroom turned on to a news station. The Deific had sent a car, but after only a few hours, it left. Some protection. After a while, he moved to her porch and decided to stay there instead of the tree, which felt too far away.
The next morning was just as sunny and bright as they day before, much to Lucien’s dismay. He walked the porch back and forth until he surprised Eve as she was coming out the front door.
“I’m sorry about last night,” he blurted.
“You were only expressing how you feel.” She kept walking.
“I’m not sure how I feel.”
“Sounds like a problem for a psychiatrist, not me,” she said over her shoulder.
“Would you please stop?”
She turned around. “What do you want, Lucien?”
“To take you to work. Let me be your chauffeur for a while—at least until we figure out who’s behind these attacks.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to do this.”
“Why?”
“To make sure you’re safe.”
“Why does it matter?” Eve pressed.
“You’re fishing.”
“And you’re not biting.”
“I’ve never been a good fish.”
“And I’m obviously not a good fisherman.”
He smiled. “Come on. Let’s get you to work before Captain America’s tights get any tighter.”
She paused for just a moment, then, to his relief, followed him to the car.
“Be nice to Charlie,” Eve said as she slid into the passenger seat. “He really is a good man.”
“That’s what some people said about Ted Bundy.” He shut the car door before he could hear her response. She saved it for when he got in on the other side.
“Why do you give him such a hard time?” she asked.
Lucien started the car. “He talks too much.”
“And you mope too much.”
“He has puffy hair.”
The Devil's Angel (Devil Series Book 2) Page 9
