Before he realized what was happening, he was suddenly standing in front of Eve. She was sitting on a blue plastic chair, eyebrows raised, and hands resting strangely still in her lap. The look in her eyes reminded him of an anxious deer that knows it’s about to be shot. It was unnerving to see her this way. He wondered why he would picture Eve so unlike herself.
The roaring of a nearby jet engine filled the room, bringing him to his senses. He was no longer in the cramped motel room but in an airport. He immediately recognized it as Dublin’s main terminal.
“Eve!” he said loud enough that she should’ve responded, but she didn’t.
Lucien knelt directly in front of her and tried to touch her face, but his hands passed through her. He was completely helpless. It was torture for him to see her so terrified and not be able to do anything about it. He needed to physically be with her if he was to help her.
“Lucien,” she whispered.
Lucien forced his consciousness back to the dingy motel room. The dim light above him flickered once before he bolted for the door. Charlie was waiting outside, biting his nails.
“Well?” Charlie asked.
“She’s at the airport. I’ll bring her back here.” He jumped into his Viper.
“Is she all right?” Charlie called after him.
Lucien didn’t take the time to respond. He stepped on the gas, tires squealing and gravel spitting.
At the airport, he parked illegally and rushed in. It was almost five in the morning. The airport was just beginning to get crowded. He moved as quickly as possible, but there were too many people to effectively use his speed.
He found Eve sitting in a chair facing a wide glass window. She stared into the distance toward a line of planes, sunlight reflecting off their white paneling. She still had the same frightened expression, except now she was shivering uncontrollably. Lucien scooped her up and cradled her to his chest, grateful at least for her steady heartbeat.
He carried her out of the airport, ignoring the strange looks of those he passed, and by the time he reached his car, Eve had finally stopped shaking. He carefully placed her in the passenger seat of the Viper and buckled her in. She stared straight ahead.
“Eve?” he asked gently, kneeling outside the car with the door open.
“He’s coming for me,” she answered without looking at him.
“Who?”
She didn’t respond. He tried a different question.
“Where did you go?”
“To get the necklace.”
Lucien frowned. “But it’s around your neck.”
“No, not yours.”
It took Lucien a moment before he remembered the only other necklace she could be talking about. “Why would you want that?”
“I had to know it was safe.”
“How did you know where to find it?”
“After you destroyed Alarica, I buried the necklace in a jewelry box nearby my old home.”
Lucien was surprised she’d not mentioned this before. “And were you able to get it?”
She swallowed hard and shivered again.
“It’s okay, Eve. I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He gripped her hand tightly. When Eve finally did speak, he could barely understand her words.
“It was gone. The necklace was gone. Boaz found it, and he’s coming for me. I can’t let him find me. He’ll put that prison around my neck again. I couldn’t bear it, not again. I would rather die!” She turned and looked at him for the first time, her eyes full of desperation. “You’ll have to kill me. Please! It’s the only way. Kill me before he brings Alarica back.”
“I’m not going to kill you, and no one’s going to find you. I’ll protect you, I promise.” He swallowed hard. If Boaz really was alive, then Lucien would have to take Eve to the farthest corner of the earth.
Eve glanced around, her eyes shifting nervously. “Can we leave?”
“Of course.” He moved around the car and slid in next to her. He held her hand the entire ride back to the motel. She never said a word.
***
“Just because she saw a wolf and the necklace is gone, does not mean Boaz, who is supposed to be dead, is looking for her,” Charlie reasoned in a quiet voice.
Eve lay on the bed in a fetal position with her eyes closed. Charlie thought she was sleeping, but Lucien knew better. He sat next to her, resting his hand gently on her back.
“Don’t misunderstand me, Lucien. I want Eve to be safe just as much as you do, but I think we could be reading too much into this.”
“If Eve says Boaz is alive and coming for her, then I believe her.”
Charlie exhaled. “Let’s say she’s right. What do we do about it?”
“I need to get her out of here. Somewhere extremely remote, a place only I know about. Meanwhile, you can work something out with Henry. He must know how to defeat Boaz.”
“Normally that would be a great plan, but while you were gone, Alana called. She found the location of the lab manufacturing the virus. We need to destroy it as soon as possible, and we could really use your help.”
“You’ll have to figure it out on your own. Eve is my priority.”
“That’s very noble of you, but have you considered what will happen if that virus gets out? Millions of people will die. This is greater than me, you and, yes, even Eve.”
“Do it without me,” Lucien said.
“I can’t. It pains me to admit it, but we need you. You saved my life the other night. I need someone with your abilities.”
"Then get Henry."
At this, Charlie tensed. "He can’t help."
"Why?"
"He just can’t." Charlie shook his head. "I don’t understand it either, so don’t ask. I trust that Henry will explain why one day, but for now, this is our problem to fix."
"How convenient for him," Lucien said. He moved a stray hair away from Eve’s face. As much as he felt a responsibility toward her, he also felt responsible for Aiden’s actions. Lucien was partly to blame for all that was happening now. “I’ll help you, but Eve stays by my side at all times.”
“Do you really think that’s wise? What if we encounter vampires like before? You can’t effectively help us and protect her at the same time. Look, I’ll get two of our best men to stay with Eve and they can stay with her in the most public place we can think of. And we’ll destroy the lab during the day. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours.”
Lucien shook his head. “She stays by my side, or I don’t go.”
Eve moved then, sitting up slowly, her expression calm but her eyes looking tired. “You need to go, Lucien. Charlie’s plan is a good one. I will be fine, and I promise—this time I’m not going anywhere.”
“Come with us, Eve,” Lucien pleaded. “Both Charlie and I have seen how strong you are. You will be a big help, plus I can keep an eye on you.”
Her eyes met Lucien’s. “I’m sorry, but I need to distance myself from all of this. I can’t go with you, not if there’s a chance I might see Him.”
“But I can’t just leave you!” Lucien said.
She placed her hand on his cheek. “You’re not leaving me. You’ll be right back, and I’ll be waiting for you, guarded, in a well-lit, public place. Not even Boaz would dare attack me there. Please, Lucien. Let’s finish this, so we can return home.”
He turned to Charlie. “How soon can we get this done?”
“I can have my men ready in three hours.”
“Fine. But we do this my way.”
41
Lucien studied the lunchroom of Trinity College. Students were already pouring in, and within one hour, the place would be packed for lunch. Eve leaned against him.
“This is perfect,” she said.
“I don’t think there is a perfect place to hide you, but it will have to do.” He turned to the two guards Charlie had sent.
Charlie had told Lucien their names, but he couldn’t remember. They were both tall and well-built
with perma-angry faces.
“Stay by her side the whole time,” he told them. “Don’t leave for any reason, or it will mean your life.”
They both nodded.
Eve forced a smile and said, “I’ll be fine.”
She tried to sound convincing, but Lucien could still see terror in her eyes.
Lucien pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. “I’ll hurry. Just stay with these men. And I mean it. Don’t go anywhere.”
“I won’t, I promise.”
“This is killing me to leave you. It doesn’t feel right.”
“Just go.” She stepped away from him, and her hand slipped from his.
Lucien gave her one last look before walking away. He felt horrible guilt for leaving her again, especially after what happened last time, but what was going on with the vials was partly his fault. He should’ve made sure Aiden was dead a long time ago.
Lucien rode in the passenger seat next to Charlie inside a small, black vehicle. The heater was on full blast. “Does it have to be so hot in here?”
Charlie turned the passenger heat vent toward himself. “It’s cold outside."
“It’s just rain.”
“We’re almost there. You can deal with the heat for five more minutes. How is Eve?" Charlie asked.
“She says fine, but I can tell she’s lying. Do you feel anything?”
“Like what?”
“Anything to do with Eve? Something feels wrong, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“I haven’t been able to feel a thing since I came to this stupid country!”
“I doubt Ireland has anything to do with it.”
Charlie glanced sideways at him. “No. I don’t think it does.”
A voice spoke into Charlie’s earpiece. “Approaching target.”
“Copy that,” Charlie said. He parallel parked on a main street squished between souvenir shops and cafes.
“This is where the lab is?” Lucien couldn’t believe it. It was far too crowded for Aiden’s taste, nor would a big corporation like Bodian create something like the plague around this many people.
“That’s the word we received.” Charlie looked around. “It should be right over there.” He pointed to a Chinese restaurant.
“Who told you this?”
“The vampire Alana questioned. He gave us this exact address.”
“Something’s wrong. I need to speak with Alana.”
Charlie dialed Alana’s number on his phone.
“What?” Alana asked.
Charlie handed him the phone.
“Alana, this is Lucien. What did the vampire you questioned say exactly?”
The phone was silent for a moment. Then, “He gave me the address of the building you’re sitting in front of.”
“How did he know the exact address? I doubt Aiden would tell anyone if he could help it.”
“The vampire said he was given the address because he was one of the guards.”
“Was he a guard for the lab? Has he actually seen it?” A growing uneasiness spread in his gut.
Alana paused again. “No. Just for the warehouse.”
“Vampires are too secretive. What was the point of him knowing the lab’s address?”
“It doesn’t make sense, does it?”
“No it doesn’t.” Lucien ended the call and stared at the Chinese restaurant. An older couple opened the door and walked in. “It’s a trap.”
“What?” Charlie asked.
“It’s a trap! Turn the car around. They’re after Eve!” he yelled.
Charlie turned the steering wheel and sped back to Trinity, running stop signs and driving anywhere and everywhere to avoid stopping, including, at one point, driving on the sidewalk.
“How could I have been so stupid?” Charlie asked as he steered around a bus. “If anything happens to her, I will never forgive myself!”
Lucien couldn’t speak. He gripped the dashboard tightly until the hard black plastic cracked. He was out the door before Charlie had a chance to come to a complete stop. Despite how crowded it was, he used his vampire speed to race to the lunchroom. Several students glared at him when he threw open the door.
Everything appeared normal, but Lucien could feel it wasn’t. Dark magic had been used recently. In the back of the room, he spotted the two bodyguards. They were sitting down, eyes on the table, completely oblivious to everything around them.
He quickly walked over to them. “Where’s Eve?”
They looked up at him with a blank stare; their eyes had a strange white film across them. He would get no answers out of them.
Charlie came running up. “Is she here?”
“She’s gone.”
Charlie lunged for the nearest guard.
“What happened to her?” he yelled in his face, but the guy didn’t blink. Charlie tossed him back into his chair—something fell from the guard’s hand.
Charlie bent down and picked it up. He looked at it closely. “What is this?”
The smell of lilacs touched Lucien as if a gentle breeze. He turned slowly, afraid to see what rested in Charlie’s hands.
Charlie shook his head in disbelief. “No.”
In his hand was a thick piece of flesh. Charlie bent over and vomited on the nearest table. A girl screamed.
Lucien resisted the urge to kill her. Instead, he whirled around and walked away.
42
Eve had trusted him completely, and he’d failed her. The one person who mattered most in his life, and he had abandoned her to a demon. He closed his eyes again and forced himself to concentrate. She had been terrified. He’d seen it in her eyes. Eve knew what was going to happen, yet she refused to tell him because she thought what he was doing was more important. He shouldn’t have left her. His eyes snapped open, and he sighed.
Lucien sat up in bed in the cramped motel room, breathing in Eve’s scent. He’d been here for the last hour, trying to transport his consciousness to Eve, but all he could see was the torn piece of her flesh in Charlie’s hand. He could not find her this way. He stood and opened the door.
“Where is she?” Charlie demanded. He was standing in the rain without a jacket. His arms were gripped tight around his chest in an attempt to keep himself warm.
“I don’t know yet. I can’t concentrate in there. I need to go somewhere else.”
Charlie followed him to his car. “We don’t have time for this! You have to find her!”
Lucien spun around to face him. “Don’t you think I know that? You’re psychic—why don’t you quit being useless and help me?”
Charlie gritted his teeth and ran his fingers through his tangled, wet hair. “I can’t! Ever since I came here and saw her with you, I haven’t been able to concentrate. It’s making me sick!”
Lucien started the car. “Well, get over it, and help me find her!” He slammed the door.
“Where are you going?” Charlie called after him.
Lucien sped away from Dublin as fast as he could. He headed north toward his mother. It took him less than thirty minutes to get there, but when he did, he found his destination to be much different than what he remembered.
It was a small graveyard, no more than a hundred headstones, but they had become overgrown with tall grass and thick, gnarly shrubs. Underground tree roots forced several gravestones to tilt precariously. He walked through the graves, ignoring them all. There was only one that mattered.
He found it in the very back—his mother was the first to be buried here as this land used to be his father’s. The headstone was almost completely hidden by a full red bush. He tore the branches away and knelt by the gray stone. The words were illegible, but he knew what they said by heart. He traced the fading name with his finger: Mary. He had never met her but had always imagined her as a strong yet kind woman.
He dropped into the tall grass and leaned against the headstone. In the past, this place had always been comforting, and he’d relied upon its calming effect more times than
he could remember.
Lucien thought of Eve. He pictured the first time he’d met her in Paris. He couldn’t say he was attracted to her as she wasn’t the same person as she was now, but he had felt the connection even then—the gentle hum of something fantastic, though he didn’t recognize it as such at the time. Instead, the positive feeling repulsed him, and he found himself struggling just to remain near her. Lucien didn’t allow himself to think of it again until she reappeared years later and, even then, it took him months to finally admit to the bond that bound him to her.
Lucien imagined Eve sitting next to him, her head resting against his shoulder. She twisted a tall blade of grass in her fingers while she spoke of the children at the Academy. Every once in a while, she would burst out laughing, chasing away all of his pain and anger.
Suddenly, he found in himself in a dark room. A dim light bulb was hanging from a low ceiling swaying slightly above him. In the center was Eve who was lying down and strapped to a wooden table. She’d been stripped to her bra and underwear.
The room reeked of blood. Lucien moved closer, his heart beat racing. The entire surface of the table was covered in blood as well as the floor beneath Eve. He quickly inspected her body, but found no visible wounds. Her eyes were open … barely.
Lucien glanced around, trying to determine where he was, but the room was bare except for the wooden table and a video camera in the corner resting on a tripod. It was not turned on.
The door to the room opened, and Lucien backed up against the wall.
Aiden stepped in, carrying a chair, and set it down near Eve’s head. He was followed by a woman almost twice his age, but her features were striking, and she still appeared youthful. Her dark green eyes were a sharp contract against her flawless white skin. She remained at the door with her arms crossed.
Aiden placed his hand on Eve’s forehead and turned her head sharply to the side while he inspected her neck. Eve moaned.
“Amazing! It’s completely healed,” he said.
“I told you. She’s immortal like you,” the woman said, her voice cold and full of animosity.
“Yet she’s not like me, is she?” Aiden walked over to the video camera and turned it on. “She’s a fascinating creature. Boaz is a genius!”
The Devil's Angel (Devil Series Book 2) Page 24
