Lucien didn’t argue. He took Eve in his arms and moved toward the least chaotic exit. There was so much going on that no one paid him any attention. He escaped to the rear of the building where he used his vampire speed to race through the complex mazes of alleys to the hotel where he could retrieve one of the hotel’s vehicles. It was a good thing Eve was unconscious, or his speed would make her extremely sick.
Lucien drove straight to where he thought no one would come looking for them: his home by the sea.
The time was just past one in the morning. Instead of using the front door, he jumped to the balcony of the master bedroom where he knew he would find a pair of unlocked French doors. He looked down at Eve resting peacefully in his arms. She felt no heavier to him than the jacket on his back.
He set her carefully in bed and laid down next to her. Eve’s eyes moved steadily beneath her closed lids. Whatever she did back at the hotel had taken a dangerous toll on her body.
Eve was still unconscious when morning came, but what really concerned him was her breathing. It had become shallow; her chest barely moved up and down. And nothing he did seemed to rouse her.
He paced the room. He had to do something. After making sure she was as comfortable as possible, he decided to pay the Deific a visit.
Because it was daytime and he was far from the city, he chose to take a faster car. In his garage, he found several vehicles, but only one stood out—a brand new, black Dodge Viper. He never bought his own cars; it was Scott who took on this task, and Lucien was glad he did. Scott had impeccable taste.
In record time, he pulled up in front of the Deific. The familiar guard, Don, rose to greet him.
“I need to see Charlie,” Lucien said.
“He’s busy.”
Lucien moved lightning quick behind him. In his ear he hissed, “Tell him Lucien’s here to see him.”
Lucien smelled fear, but Don kept his composure. He picked up the phone and said exactly what Lucien told him to say and then hung up.
“Third floor,” Don said, pointing to an elevator at the back of the building.
“I know.”
When the elevator doors opened, Charlie was there waiting. He had two black eyes and a swollen nose. “Where’s Eve?”
“At my house.”
Charlie raised his eyebrows. “Truthfully?”
“Why?”
Charlie opened and closed his mouth a few times before speaking. “I didn’t know you had a home.”
“Now you do.”
“How is she?” Charlie asked
“Still sleeping. How do I fix it?” Lucien didn’t like small talk, and this place made him feel strangely contemptible.
“I have something that might work. Follow me.”
Once inside his office, Charlie fumbled through many small bottles in a cupboard behind his desk. He cursed loudly as he knocked over one of them. “This will take a minute. Hang on.”
Finally, Charlie found what he was looking for, but as he moved to hand Lucien the glass vial, it fell from his fingers. Lucien’s quick reflexes caught it before it hit the ground and broke. Charlie cursed again. He stood up, muscles tense and looking as if he was going to scream.
“What’s with you?” Lucien asked.
“As if it matters to you,” Charlie growled.
Lucien stood. “You’re right, it doesn’t.” He picked up the unmarked bottle and inspected it. “What is this?”
“Jasmine oil. Let Eve smell it, and she should wake up.”
“What do you mean, should wake up?”
“How the hell should I know? This hasn’t happened before. All I know is she hates jasmine more than anything else. My guess is the smell will be strong enough to wake her up.”
Lucien stared at Charlie who looked like he was going to snap. Making a quick decision, Lucien asked him, before he could change his mind, “Do you want to come with me?”
Charlie moaned. He slumped into the chair and put his head on his hands while his elbows rested on the desk. “As much as I want to, I can’t. All hell broke loose this morning. I can’t leave.”
“What happened?”
Charlie looked up at him as if trying to decide if he was sincere. “Michael’s dead. Somehow vampires found out he was working with us, and they killed him.”
A small moment of silence passed before Lucien asked, “Did you find out where that vampire got your weapon?”
“It came from the Deific office in Ireland. Apparently it was stolen a month ago and they failed to report it.”
“So you have a dead undercover agent in Ireland, whose cover was blown and a weapon that was stolen from inside their building? It seems like you have someone working both sides.”
Charlie shook his head. “Impossible.”
“Whatever. I have to go.” Lucien turned to leave.
From behind, Charlie called, “Let me know how Eve’s doing!”
He nodded and walked away.
Back at his home by the coast, Lucien took the lid off the brown vial and inhaled. It smelled sweet, almost like roses. He wondered why she hated the smell.
Lucien sat on the bed next to her. Eve looked the same as when he had left, which wasn’t all that great.
Lucien closed his eyes, almost as if saying a silent prayer, and slowly moved the bottle under her nose. He wasn’t prepared for her reaction. After only a few inhalations, Eve sat up screaming. Her body tensed, and her whole frame shook violently. She reached out her arms as if fighting an invisible attacker and screamed again. The screams kept coming, one after another; he’d never heard anything like it.
Lucien grabbed her arms, but she was incredibly strong, shoving him back in terror. He returned, but this time he embraced her to his chest with arms pinned behind her back. She squirmed, desperate to get away. Her eyes were filled with the worst kind of torment imaginable.
“Eve!” he called to her over her screams, but she couldn’t hear him.
He placed his head next to hers, cheek to cheek, to keep her head from thrashing around. In her ear, he whispered, “Eve, relax. Everything’s okay. I’m here.”
He continued to whisper soothing words until her screams became soft whimpers, but she was still absent from her eyes.
“Eve,” he breathed again. “Come back to me.”
Her gaze finally met his and a glimmer of recognition passed over her face. She stopped squirming and relaxed her body into his. When her breathing returned to normal, she dropped her head against his shoulder. Then, as if her memory had just returned, she moved away from him suddenly.
“The vampires!” she cried. “They’ve found me. I have to call Charlie.” She stood and frantically looked for a phone, then frowned. “Where am I?”
Lucien took hold of her hand. “Sit down. You need to rest.”
Reluctantly, she did as he asked.
“You’re at my home by the coast.”
“You have another house?”
He nodded.
“How did I get here?”
“After you passed out from using that incredible magic, I took you here. I was afraid your house or my hotel would be watched.”
“I’m sorry I fainted like that. Did what I do even help?”
“You killed one of the vampires, and the others were knocked down, giving us the upper hand. You did great.”
She gave a small nod, as her gaze panned the room around her. “We have the same taste. It’s lovely.”
Lucien surveyed the room for the first time. She was right. Their rooms were almost identical. He remembered picking out the artwork decades, if not centuries ago, but as for the rest of it, Scott must have hired an interior designer to match the room to the art.
Eve noticed him looking around. “You don’t come here much, do you?”
“Not really. I prefer to stay in the city.”
She stared at him thoughtfully. “Thank you for saving me—again. I hope you know that’s not why I love you, although it’s a nice perk.” She smile
d. “You have given me so much more than life.”
He shook his head. “The only thing I’ve ever given is death. Don’t speak to me as if I’m some beacon of light in a dark and dreary world. I know what I am.”
“But Lucien, you are the most—”
Lucien interrupted, shaking his head. “You don’t get it. You think I say those things because I don’t like who I am or something? I don’t have self-pity, and you’re treating me like an insecure sixteen year old boy with pimples who doesn’t feel he deserves a date to the prom.
“I know what I am, and I know what I’m capable of. This—this thing with you, whatever it is—has upset my world more than you will ever know. And maybe I don’t understand what it is, but I do understand me. So, please, enough of the flattery and mock greatness thing.”
Eve’s face was blank. No crease or wrinkle gave Lucien a clue as to what she was thinking. She reached up and pressed her warm palm to his cheek. “Be happy, Lucien.”
He tried to be upset. He knew she wasn’t taking him seriously, but maybe she was right. Couldn’t he just allow himself to be happy with her and forget who he was?
Eve walked over to the window and looked out across the sea. “Do you have a phone? I really should speak to Charlie.”
“I saw him this morning to get the Jasmine oil. Other than a smashed up face, which could be considered an improvement, he’s fine.”
“Has he found out anything?” She continued to watch the ocean. In the distance, waves crashed to the shore.
“He learned that the stolen gun came from the Ireland office.”
“Then we need to find it. I can only imagine what a vampire would do with a gun like that.”
“We already have it back. One of the vampires had it on him last night.”
“Good. What else did Charlie say?”
Lucien sighed. He knew no other way to tell other than just say it. “Michael’s dead.”
“What?” She whirled around, and her eyebrows drew together.
“The vampires found out who he worked for and killed him.”
She collapsed into a nearby chair. “Poor Alana.”
“I’m sorry,” Lucien said quietly. “I really am.”
“It’s going to get worse,” she said barely above a whisper. “So many more are going to die.”
“You don’t know that. Whatever these vampires are doing, it will blow over. Vampires can’t stand working together and they hate having any sort of a leader. Whoever this Dark Prince is will have mutiny on his hands. It’s just a matter of time.”
Eve shook her head. “Not this time.”
Lucien knew she was right. He could still feel evil spreading, but he didn’t want to upset her any more than she already was. “Everything will be fine.”
Eve jumped up suddenly. “How do I get out of here?”
She glanced around and found the door, opposite the bed, and walked toward it.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to see Charlie.”
“What for?”
Eve whirled on him. “Everything is not fine. People I care about are getting hurt, and it has something to do with me.”
“We’ll figure it out,” he promised.
“Not from here.” She stormed from the room.
Lucien sat there calmly waiting for her to return as she had no way to get home. He had the keys to both cars in his pocket. But he cursed loudly when the Viper’s engine roared to life.
Magic!
He raced to the window just in time to catch Eve speed off in his brand new car that he had recently grown to love.
25
Lucien jumped into the first car he came to, an old 1973 Ford F250, in the home’s four-car garage. He tore out of the driveway, heading in the direction of Eve’s office for the second time that day.
When he arrived, he opened the door to the Deific. Don and one other guard stood tall.
“Where’s Eve?” he demanded.
“She just left,” Don told him, placing a hand on the arm of the other guard whose finger was twitching at the gun on his hip.
Lucien turned around to go back outside, but stopped suddenly. The air was different in the lobby. It hummed with power.
“Who’s here?” he asked Don.
“Excuse me?”
“Something’s different. Who’s been here since I left?”
“No one.”
Lucien walked around the lobby. Yes, someone new was here. It wasn’t an evil presence, but someone extremely powerful. He couldn’t ignore it.
“You mind if I go upstairs?”
“Go ahead.”
Instead of taking the elevator, Lucien took the stairs, two at a time, the feeling grew stronger with each step. He stopped at the first floor. The door going in read ‘Records’. Normally he wouldn’t waste his time, but something beyond the door compelled him on. He opened it and stepped inside.
It was a long room filled with rows of black filing cabinets resting on top of white tile. It was poorly lit compared to the rest of the building and the walls were bare.
He walked up and down the aisles. Other than alphabet letters, the cabinets gave no indication as to what was inside them. If he had more time, he would’ve searched, but he wasn’t here for the contents of the cabinets. Somewhere nearby was a powerful presence. He moved toward a brown door in the back. His hand hesitated on the doorknob, but only for a second. Time was of the essence.
The door opened, revealing an enormous library; rows upon rows of wooden bookshelves spanned the room. In the center was a progression of tables and chairs, and at the second one sat a tall, thin man with wavy brown hair. His head was bent over a book in front of him.
Lucien’s brow furrowed in concentration. He wasn’t a man, but a vampire—a really old and powerful one.
The vampire finally looked up and smiled slightly. “I never thought I’d see you here.”
Lucien stood still. Normally in the presence of another vampire he would have his fangs barred, taking an offensive position, but he felt nothing threatening about the old vampire.
“Do I know you?” Lucien asked.
The vampire closed the book he was reading. “My name’s Henry. We met once. A very long time ago.”
“I don’t think so,” Lucien said. “I would remember.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You weren’t in any condition to remember.”
An image flashed in Lucien’s mind, causing him to stumble. It was of blackened corpses, hundreds of them piled on top of each other, flames burning all around. The macabre picture brought severe pain in his head. He pressed his palm to his temple and closed his eyes tight, concentrating hard. Whatever that was, he never wanted to see it again.
“It’s not wise to bury the past,” Henry said.
Lucien opened his eyes, unaware of what he was doing until Henry had pointed it out. He wondered how many times he had done that before.
“Why are you here?” Lucien asked.
“I think that’s pretty obvious why I’m here, but what’s not obvious is, why are you here?”
“I’m looking for Eve.”
“Ah, beautiful, untouchable Eve,” he mused. “And why would someone like you want to find someone like her?”
He didn’t know how to answer the question. It was the same question he asked himself every day. The only answer he could come up with was, “Because Eve found me.”
Henry leaned back. “That doesn’t answer the question. We both know who you are, Lucien”–Lucien flinched when the old vampire said his name–“and someone like you could never tolerate the presence of someone as good as Eve.”
When he didn’t answer, Henry laughed and clapped his hands in realization. “How marvelous! The beast is in love with the beauty.”
Lucien’s eyes burned cold. “You know nothing of me!”
If he thought he had a chance, he would’ve ripped him apart right then and there, but Lucien knew he was no match for the old vampire. He co
uld smell the ancient power as strong as if it were a physical presence itself. The only other option Lucien had was to leave.
“Perhaps, but Lucien—”
Lucien did not want to hear any more. He turned to leave but was stopped abruptly by an invisible force. The vampire was using magic. Impossible! Lucien turned back around.
“How are you doing that?”
“Pay attention, boy,” Henry hissed, his finger pointed sharply at him. “If you ever attempt to pull another stunt like the last time we met, I will not hesitate from removing your lowly existence from this earth. Do you understand?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Lucien growled.
The vampire leaned forward, thoughtfully. “Maybe not, but I have a good idea that the memory you think is locked and buried is about to break free. One cannot exist in both worlds of good and evil without being fully conscious of past choices.”
Henry dropped his finger and the invisible concrete wall dissipated. “When that time comes, you come see me. You’ll want to know how you fit into this web that was spun hundreds of years ago.”
26
Lucien left the building bewildered. He really had no idea what Henry was talking about. He tried to recall the missing pieces of his past, but whenever he did, a stabbing pain hit his head like a million ton boulder. He pushed back the strange encounter with Henry to explore later. He had to focus on finding Eve.
Within a few blocks of her house, he knew she was there. He’d grown so accustomed to her scent that he could smell it hundreds of yards away.
Lucien parked in her driveway and entered Eve’s house. At first he raced up the steps, but on the last few stairs he slowed down, wanting to appear casual.
Eve stood by her bed, folding clothes, and then placing them in a suitcase. He could tell by its size that she planned to be away for a very long time.
“How did you like the Viper you stole?” he asked.
Eve didn’t stop packing. “It was wonderful. I’m thinking of getting one myself.”
“Really? I was just thinking the same thing. You really should get one. Let’s go car shopping today. I’ll buy you one just like mine, except a different color.” He sat down on the couch nearest her bed and put up his feet on the coffee table. “How about red? You would look good in red.”
The Devil's Angel (Devil Series Book 2) Page 16
