He left the room.
Lucien jumped back onto the roof. The falling rain doused him, chilling his skin. A stiff breeze blew in from the north, carrying with it the smell of the bay. He would follow Jay first and then figure out what to do about the vampire, Bill.
Jay jogged down the steps below him. He smelled like cigarette smoke and green olives. Most likely, he was heading to his car where he would have to drive out the gates. The gates.
Lucien jumped off the roof and raced toward the entrance, easily hopping over the tall iron fence. He traveled about a quarter of a mile before he stopped. The area was deserted; tall, leafy trees edged the narrow winding street.
He only had to wait a few minutes before a car, which reeked of cigarettes and green olives, approached. Lucien concealed himself behind a tree and, at the last moment, jumped in front of the speeding vehicle. Jay jerked the steering wheel to the right. The car spun around until its back-end slammed into a streetlight on the opposite side of the road.
Lucien strolled over and peered into the driver’s side window. A dazed Jay was trying to find the door handle. Lucien opened the door for him.
“Who the hell are you?” Jay asked.
Lucien decided to show him—actions always spoke louder than words. He grabbed him roughly around the arms and jerked Jay to a standing position, then he pierced Jay’s skinny neck with sharp fangs.
The life-giving blood flowed into him, quenching the hunger he had stifled for the last several weeks. He pulled the man closer, trying to force out every last drop. His hunger was insatiable, and when there was no blood left, he tossed Jay’s body back into the car, still hungry.
The familiar sharp pain stabbed at Lucien’s stomach, forcing him to double over. His hands, knuckles white, gripped the metal roof of the car, which buckled under the pressure. After a few deep breaths, he slowly recovered. Once again, he didn’t question the reason behind the pains and focused only on the tasks ahead.
Lucien jumped into Jay’s car and re-parked it normally against the street as to not draw attention to it. He would return for it later, but right now he had more important things to do.
Back on the balcony of the condo, the same two men lay passed out on the sofa, but the woman was missing. He listened carefully. Something shuffled through a back bedroom out of Lucien’s view. It could’ve been a fan blowing or a person without a heartbeat. Lucien wouldn’t be sure until he snuck into the condo, but the moment he did, another vampire would become aware of Lucien immediately.
It was a chance he was willing to take.
He gripped the sliding door handle and pulled slowly, but a latch prevented it from opening. He jerked it hard as quietly as possible, but it still made an audible pop as it opened. The two sleeping men didn’t move. And by their slow breathing and heartbeats, Lucien guessed they’d been drugged.
The movement in the back stopped. He crept down the hallway. Two doors were closed at the end, one on his right and the other on his left.
Lucien had learned over time that you always choose the door on the right. Most humans were right handed so, if given the choice, they’d naturally choose to hide in a room on their right. But “Bill” was not human and would naturally avoid anything human-like.
Lucien opened the door on the left. The room was dark with several boxes piled high around the room. Just inside, he found the blond woman standing unnaturally straight against the wall. He didn’t have to listen for a heartbeat to know she was dead. Her once pink skin was now entirely white, and all blood had been drained from the two pen-size holes in her neck. Most of her shirt had been torn off, and the tops of her toes barely touched the floor. And lastly, two stakes, just barely sticking out from her flesh, had pierced both shoulders, pinning her to the wall.
A shadow shifted in the corner. “I heard there was another vampire in Seattle.”
Lucien moved to the side of the woman, positioning himself directly in front of Bill.
“Seattle’s my city. What are you doing here?” Lucien asked.
“I’m here on a job. I’ll only be here a couple of weeks, and then I’m out.”
“What kind of job?”
Bill moved toward the door. “One that pays well.”
“You can sell drugs in any city, why come here?” Lucien stepped toward the door, blocking any potential escape.
“I’m not here for the drugs, although it’s a great side job.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I was told to be.”
“By who?”
“By one more powerful than either of us combined.”
“Stop being cryptic. What are you doing here and who sent you?”
The vampire slammed into Lucien before he could react. Bill was much stronger than he anticipated. The force of the blow pushed him into the door across the hall, breaking its hinges. Bill moved to attack again, but despite his size, Lucien was faster.
Lucien jumped up to the ceiling. With a hand and foot on each side of the hallway, he perched waiting for the moment when Bill would look up. He didn’t have to wait long. With hands still pressed against the walls, he swung his legs down and connected them with Bill’s face. Bill slammed into the living room wall over thirty feet away.
Lucien dropped to the floor and waited for Bill to attack or run. Bill’s fangs extended, and he stood, ready to fight, but then suddenly stopped. His expression became as calm as a priest’s in the middle of a Sunday sermon. He turned his head toward the front door and then looked back at Lucien.
“I have more important things to do,” he said.
Before Lucien could say anything, Bill disappeared out the front door.
Lucien didn’t go after him. If a vampire didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t be. Instead, Lucien flipped on the light in the room with the erect dead woman. The boxes contained nothing but junk: old school papers, bills, sports memorabilia. A small closet in the corner was full of clothes that had been thrown to the floor.
He crossed the hallway to the other room. He stepped over the broken door and turned on the light. One queen-sized bed was pushed up against the wall. Next to it was a black end table with a red lamp. The floor was littered with photos, which were organized into three piles. He bent down to look at the pile closest to the bed. They were of legs and feet only. He pushed his way through the pictures, but couldn’t find a face or a body, only legs. They were of women’s legs, thin, in sheer stockings and heels.
He moved to the next pile. The glossy photos were of women’s bodies—no head, no legs and no arms, only the torso. In some of the pictures, he noticed the same outfit, but he couldn’t be sure if it was the same woman wearing them.
The final pile were pictures of meticulously cut out female hands. They were small with long, slender fingers and the color of milk. He stared at them for several minutes, captivated, until he realized he was as familiar with these hands as he was his own. Even in a photo, he could still feel their familiar warmth. But the warmth quickly turned his insides into a sick heat when he realized whose hands he was looking at.
He stumbled back. Something soft fell to the top of his head and then to the floor. Another photo. He slowly looked up. Taped to the ceiling were hundreds of cut out pictures of one woman’s head.
Eve.
18
When Lucien was ten-years-old, he found a stray dog in the forest. The poor animal was skin and bones and had cockleburs tangled into its raggedy, golden fur. Lucien brought the dog home where he fed and bathed it, and discovered a deep cut on its right shoulder that was full of dirt and maggots. For several weeks, Lucien nursed the dog back to health, spending every spare moment with him. His efforts paid off, and soon the dog resembled a normal healthy one that had quickly become his new best friend.
Every day Lucien would go into the woods in order to spend time with the dog. Together they would race through the cooling shade of the forest, looking for the kind of adventures that would only satisfy a ten-year-old
boy and his dog. Their journeys often involved dragons, knights, monsters, giant fish, haunted forests and other creatures his mind could invent. This was the happiest he’d ever been, and the dog had made it so.
For a long time, he kept the dog secret, but eventually, Aiden took notice of his constant cheerful mood and followed him to find the cause. Always quick to remove any joy from his life, Aiden told their father of the mutt and the frequent visits into the woods.
One day, when Lucien returned with his dog from an adventure that had led them to the tops of a snowy mountain where they had “killed” a wild snow monster, he found his father waiting for him. His father stood tall with broad shoulders and a torso like a tree. His beefy hands were balled up, and his angry expression seemed to explode from his long red hair and thick beard, making Lucien wish he’d never been born.
His father yelled at Aiden to hold the dog while he dragged Lucien up the many stone circular steps leading up a narrow passage to the north tower of their home. He tossed Lucien into a dreary room that had long ago been abandoned as any suitable living quarters due to of a leak in the roof directly above it.
Once Lucien was inside, his father slammed the door and locked it behind him. All this was done without saying one word despite Lucien’s pleadings for an explanation.
He raced to the window and, on his tiptoes, peered out to the front of the house. Aiden was on his knees in front of the dog holding the animal’s small head as it squirmed and wiggled, desperate to free itself from Aiden’s tight grip.
Lucien cried out when his brother smashed the dog’s head into the ground, smearing it into the dirt. He ran to the door and tried desperately to open it, but to no avail. He ran back to the window, frantic to stop Aiden from the unnecessary torture of his dog. He shouted and begged for him to stop.
Aiden looked up. Steel blue eyes stared at Lucien through narrow slits. His thin smile disappeared, and in its place grew a poisonous scowl as silent and deadly as a cobra, silencing Lucien. He’d seen that look before, and it terrified him.
A moment later, his father appeared holding a knotted tree branch as if it was an extension of an already monstrous arm. He motioned Aiden away with a mere nod of his head. With one downward swoop of his hand, the stick hit the dog’s head with fatal accuracy. Lucien turned away, stifling a cry with a fist in his mouth.
When his father’s heavy footsteps moved away, he turned back to the window, bile churning in his small stomach. Lucien didn’t recognize the heap of golden hair, standing out like an island in a sea of blood. The bile in his stomach exploded from his mouth, preventing him from yelling at Aiden who was now dragging the dead dog away, probably to be experimented upon.
Lucien had never felt that same urgency and helplessness again until now. He had to get to Eve before it was too late.
He left the condo and made it to his car in record time. While he drove, he called Charlie.
“What do you want?” Charlie asked without saying hello.
“Is Eve okay?”
“She’s fine. I’m in front of her house now. Why?”
“Are you sure?”
“I said goodnight to her twenty minutes ago. She was going to bed. What’s going on?”
Lucien wondered how much to say. He couldn’t very well tell Charlie that he was sent to a criminal’s house on a murdering spree. “Another vampire is coming for Eve.”
“How would you know?” Charlie asked.
“Does it matter? Get help.”
He disconnected the call and pressed on the gas. Eve was safe. For now. He debated on whether or not to abandon the vehicle and use his vampire speed to get there, but he worried he might need his car to get Eve out of town. He could carry her, but traveling at his speed over a long distance had the potential of making her seriously ill.
Lucien didn’t let up on the gas until he parked a block away from Eve’s home. From a distance, he saw Charlie talking to someone inside the Deific’s black SUV. Good. He’d called for backup.
Inside the home, Eve breathed quiet and regularly. She was asleep—also a good sign.
Lucien moved swiftly to the rear of the house. He leapt up to the second floor and slid quietly in through the window that Eve frequently escaped from to get to the roof.
He held completely still in the dark room as he listened, smelled, and looked for signs of an intruder—there was none. Despite no visible threats, he didn’t let himself relax but kept his muscles tight and alert. Bill was still out there and would come for her. It was only a matter of time. He’d seen the determined look in his eyes—it was the look of a wolf smelling a wounded fawn.
Lucien’s gaze drifted to where Eve slept. Her golden hair spread out like waves of summer wheat on her pillow, and her skin glowed in the moonlight. She lay on top of the covers in a tank top and sweats, undisturbed by the cool air blowing in from the open window.
He tried to ignore the warming sensation as he sat on the floor next to her bed, facing away. He could feel her hot breath on the back of his neck, tickling his skin. A violent yet pleasant chill pulsed through his body, igniting every part of him. He didn’t dare turn around for fear of giving in to something he had closed the door to long ago, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave, either.
As the chill subsided, it left behind a gentle, wondrous hum that calmed every part of him, including the shadows in his mind. He didn’t push it away as usual. Instead, he let himself enjoy the peaceful feeling that seemed to erase years of pain and suffering. His chest lightened, and air flowed more freely into his lungs. He felt—did he dare let himself admit it? Hope. Hope for the future, hope for himself, but most of all, he felt hope for the both of them. He closed his eyes, wishing for the possibility.
Suddenly a soft touch caressed the back of his head as Eve’s slender fingers moved through his short stubble hair. Never in his life had he been touched with such tenderness. It communicated volumes, but he wasn’t prepared to hear the unspoken words. Her hand continued to stroke his head until it fell to his shoulder where it remained the rest of the night. Eve had fallen back asleep.
A few hours later, as the morning sun poured into her room, Eve still slept. She was usually awake by now, but he didn’t mind. In fact, he would be content if she slept all morning with her hand resting on his shoulder.
The front door opened below, disrupting the perfect moment. Footsteps shuffled loudly across the wood floors as a man whistled. Charlie.
Lucien darted away from Eve and positioned himself in a chair in the corner of the room.
Charlie came up the stairs. “Hey, sleepy head. Time to get up!”
Eve stirred and stretched her arms.
“Mmm, that was the best sleep I’ve had in years,” she murmured, still groggy.
“That’s what happens when good ol’ Charlie’s around. I’m like a big, comfy, protective teddy bear.”
She lowered her arms. Her eyes opened wide, and she stared at Charlie, lips turned down, confused.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’ve been out front all night, remember?”
Eve sat up and looked around the room. She smiled when she spotted Lucien in the corner. “Lucien.”
Charlie whirled around and swallowed hard. “I thought you had more important things to do last night. What are you doing here?”
Lucien reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded up piece of paper. “Have your men go to this address. You’ll find drugs and bodies.”
“Who’d you kill while you were high?” Charlie asked.
“In the back bedroom you’ll find pictures of Eve.”
Eve slid out of bed and stood. “Pictures of me? But who took them?”
“A vampire who calls himself Bill, but I’m pretty sure that’s not his real name.”
“One of your buddies?” Charlie asked.
“They’re going to keep coming," Lucien said. "We need to leave the city, Eve.”
She shook her head slowly. “And go
where? Seattle’s my home. I’d rather fight them here.”
“I hate saying this, but Valium’s right,” Charlie said. “You need to leave, at least until we figure out who is behind all of this.”
She folded her arms defiantly. “I’m not leaving.”
Charlie crossed the room to her. “This has become too dangerous. I can’t handle another attempt on your life.”
“I appreciate your concern, but I can’t go.”
Charlie turned to Lucien. “Can you talk some sense in to her?”
“She’s made up her mind.” Lucien didn’t agree with her, but he could tell she was serious, and he wasn’t about to make her do something she didn’t want to do.
“Real helpful. You’d think if you cared about her, you’d try a lot harder to save her.”
Of all the stupid comments Charlie had said in the last few minutes, this was the one that made him angry. Lucien crossed the room to Charlie, fists clenched tight.
Eve hurried between them. “There is nothing either of you can say to me to make me leave.”
Charlie tried again. “Why not go back to New York? To the Academy?”
“Charlie, I’m not leaving!”
Charlie slumped his shoulders. “Fine. Then I’ll have two men be your personal body guards from now on.”
“I’ll watch her,” Lucien said.
Charlie looked at Eve and then to Lucien. “Whatever. I have to go home and change.”
“Charlie, wait!” Eve chased after him down the stairs and stopped him at the front door.
Lucien didn’t watch; instead, he walked around her room searching for other possible entrances into the home. He had to start thinking how he was going to protect her if something went wrong.
From down below, Eve’s voice drifted up.
“Thank you for staying last night. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem.” Charlie’s voice was flat and distant.
“Maybe next time you’ll let me win?”
“You want me to cheat at Scrabble?”
“No. I just don’t want you to try so hard. Maybe use only half your brain instead of the whole thing?”
The Devil's Angel (Devil Series Book 2) Page 11
