The man looked at Samuel.
Thalya could see he weighed Samuel’s words.
“You mean that there are such things as vampires in the world, and it’s not some damn sappy love story.”
“Damn straight,” Ray agreed, vigorously shaking his head.
The man took a deep breath like he still couldn’t believe his own words.
The woman, who had been unmoving beside him, gasped and suddenly came awake. Her hands were held in front of her face, a scream choking in her throat.
“Shhh,” the man beside her said, wrapping his arm around her. “We’re safe. These are friends.”
She looked at him then wildly around the car, fear still evident in her large blue eyes. Black lines of dried mascara lined a youthful pretty face. “Safe,” she croaked.
“Yes, safe,” Thalya repeated and reached past the man beside her to take the woman’s hand, drawing some of the fear out of her.
The woman’s breathing became calmer, the fear in her gaze lessening. “Safe,” the woman said again, before bursting into tears.
The man held her tighter.
“We’re going to take you to a place and have a doctor look you over,” Samuel said.
“Why not a hospital?” the man questioned. “The police? Someone has to be told about those monsters,” he argued.
“Won’t do any good,” Ray said. “No one’s going to believe you. Already those bite marks are healing, and in a little while they’ll be gone completely. And all a blood test would show is that you’re both a little anemic.”
“But the house where we were is real enough.”
“That’s true, but there won’t be anything in there to corroborate your stories.”
The man sighed, defeated. “You’re right. When your friend there,” he nodded toward Devlin. “Took the bastard’s head off, his body—his body turned to ashes. And then a wind came into a closed room, swirled the ashes into the air and disappeared though the walls.” He sighed and clenched the hand resting on his knee into a fist. “If we told anybody about this, they’ll just think we’re nuts. Vampires. Shit, even I can’t believe it and I lived through it. But I can’t not do anything. Somebody’s got to do something. At least one more, the one giving the orders, is still out there.” His voice sounded firm, a little fearful, but full of conviction and he glanced around at the occupants of the car.
“I’m glad to hear you say that and yes, unfortunately there are more than one,” Samuel said. “But you can do something. We are doing something about it. Let’s start by introductions.”
“I’m sorry. My name’s George, George Stiller. Are we—are we going to become like them?”
Thalya answered his question, “No, it doesn’t work that way.”
“This is Thalya,” Samuel introduced her. “The driver’s Devlin and this other guy is Ray. I’m Samuel.”
“My—my name is Allie,” the woman whispered. “Allie Lampton.”
“Everything’s going to be all right, Allie,” Thalya soothed.
“I want to go home,” she cried. “My roommate’s going to be so worried.”
“How long did they hold you captive?” Samuel asked.
“I—I think, only two days?” Allie answered. “I went with some friends after work to this club we’d heard about. Sort of a goth club.”
It explained the outfit, Thalya thought.
Allie dressed like the other young woman in the basement. In all black, a short black ripped skirt and black studded leather jacket. But this one had a string of black beads wrapped around her neck.
“A bunch of us left the club around two and caught the subway home,” Allie continued. “My roommate and I were the last two in our car on the train when this really hot looking guy came through the connecting door and sat down next to me. One minute, we were talking and the next minute, I—I woke up to a nightmare.”
“Allie, what happened to your roommate?” Samuel asked.
“I don’t know. I—I haven’t seen her since the train.” She began to cry again. “God, I don’t know.”
Unfortunately, Thalya thought she did. She and George exchanged glances and he shook his head. She understood. The girl Abel had killed and Allie’s friend were one and the same. Her body had probably been removed from the premises and buried somewhere else. George wrapped both arms around the young woman while she cried into his shoulder.
Samuel held on to Thalya a little tighter. No one said anything for a long while.
Chapter Eighteen
Devlin drove them to Ray’s house, which also functioned as a safe house for the hunters and was owned by Samuel. One of the hunters, Steve, was a doctor, although he didn’t hunt just take care of the wounded. He waited to treat Allie and George. After they were examined and made comfortable in the spare bedrooms, Samuel walked Steve to the door. They moved past Thalya, who lay curled up on the couch.
Devlin and Ray had gone to run some errands.
After the doctor left, Samuel came over and sat beside her, stroking her hair. He couldn’t stop touching her. “You okay?” he asked, staring into her eyes.
She smiled. “I am now.”
“Try to rest. I need to talk to Allie and George.”
“I know. You’re recruiting.”
He grinned, then left her alone.
Thalya understood why Samuel needed to get them on board. They both already had an inkling of what they were up against but he’d go into more detail. Explain the whys and what the hunters fought against. She wondered if he’d tell them about her, or himself. Yes to both. Even though she’d only known him for days, she already knew the type of man Samuel was. Full disclosure. She’d bet Samuel would leave with at least one recruit. George for sure and Allie would probably become an ally. Their lives forever changed.
Thalya remained on the couch and glanced at the open window. The sun wouldn’t set for an hour and she felt tired. Drained. She held her hands out in front of her. Like matching bracelets, the damn cuffs still graced her wrists. They didn’t cause her any pain really, but she didn’t want them there. Even Samuel had trouble breaking the metal. Ray had tried to pick the locks and had been unable to.
Devlin had promised he could get them off and left to get whatever supplies he needed to do the trick.
The door opened and she turned toward it.
Devlin came through, holding a metal box. Without pausing, he headed straight for the open kitchen area. Setting the box on the table, he opened it and called her over.
“What do you have there?” she asked.
“Something to get those off. Put your wrist on the table.”
When she did, he pulled out a fine-toothed electric saw and placed it on the table next to the box. Then he took out a cloth pad. He raised one of her wrists and placed it under the pad. “To keep your hand from moving around,” he explained. “Put your hand palm down, fingers spread.” He grinned when she hesitated. “Don’t worry. I’ve had to dismantle explosives before. I’ll be careful.” She raised her eyebrows at him but he no longer paid her any attention. Holding the cuff away from her slender wrist, he turned the saw on. Very carefully, his hand steady, he cut the metal then pulled the pieces off her wrist. He did the same with the other one.
She rubbed her wrists. A red ring highlighted tan skin circling her wrist bones.
“Let me move your chair and then I want you to place your feet flat on the floor.”
She did as he instructed and he knelt in front of her, cutting the cuffs from around her booted ankles. Those were a little thicker and bigger than what had been on her wrist.
“How is it you couldn’t get out of these?” Devlin asked, picking up the broken cuffs to examine them as he stood up.
“I have no idea. Cuffs, even metal ones, shouldn’t have been able to incapacitate me the way these did. A bullet supposedly can make me slower but metal on my wrist should not have this kind of effect.”
“That’s true, but something tells me these aren’t just
ordinary cuffs.”
Samuel walked out of one of the back rooms. “Why do you say that?”
“They look ordinary, but she’s right. Ordinary cuffs should have no effect on her.”
Samuel picked up one of the cut pieces from the table and examined it with his enhanced senses. “I think you’re right because even I should have been able to snap them. They’re metal, but may be treated with something.” He took a sniff and closed his eyes. “Yes, I have a faint trace of something coating the metal. I have no idea what though.”
“What could it have been treated with?” Devlin asked, still looking at a piece of the cuff on the table. “
Have you ever heard of such a thing?” Thalya glanced up at Samuel.
“Never. You?” Samuel asked, placing a kiss on top of Thalya’s head and squeezing her shoulder.
“No,” she answered, feeling his heat. “Imagine my shock when I couldn’t get free.”
“One of our guys might be able to analyze it.” Samuel glanced around. “I guess Ray isn’t back yet. I’ll have him give Shaun a call, see if he can figure it out. Shaun’s one of us, working on a Ph.D. from Columbia in chemistry and metallurgy.”
“That’s cool.” Devlin nodded.
“Yeah, he’s been working on something to be more effective against the soulless,” Samuel added.
“Well, looks like someone may have beat him to it,” Thalya spoke up.
Samuel grasped her hands. “Your wrist weren’t burnt, but the metal rubbing against your skin did redden it.”
“True. I felt no pain but the mark is slow to heal.”
“Interesting,” Samuel observed. “I wonder if it would have the same effect on me?”
“Your physiology is different, so maybe not,” Devlin explained. “But just in case, we should have Shaun check that out too. By the way, how are your guests doing?”
“Better,” Samuel replied, “They’ll stay here for a while and after a good night’s sleep, should be fine. At least physically. I made George an offer, which he accepted.”
They heard the front door opening and watched Ray enter. He had bags in his hands. He’d gone to get groceries for the patients and joined them in the kitchen. He placed the bags on the counter and glanced around at everyone in the room. “Okay, who’s cooking?”
“Aren’t you?” Samuel asked.
Ray shook his head. “Hell no. I just went and got the stuff. Remember I’m a bachelor. What the hell do I know about cooking? But Doc said they’d need food and not the take out kind.”
Devlin got up, moved over to the counter and began taking things out of the bag. “Let’s see what ya got.”
“Ray, I think we’re going to need to keep George and Allie for a couple of days. I want to make sure those bastards don’t try to take them again. George has decided to join us, so he’s going to need indoctrinating anyway.”
“But they’ve been missing for at least forty-eight hours already,” Thalya stated. “Someone might have noticed and Allie’s roommate is dead.”
“Yeah,” Ray agreed. “The cops are bound to already be involved.”
“Ahead of you. I’ve placed a call to our friend on the force,” Samuel announced. “He’ll come by in a couple of days and talk to them. The story is they’ll have escaped from the house on their own and made it to the road, where Ray here almost ran them over.”
“Oh man,” Ray groaned. “But boss, I’m a good driver.”
“Sorry buddy.” Samuel grinned, squeezing his shoulder. “Not this time around.”
Ray held a hand over his heart. “You’re punishing me? That’s it, you’re punishing me.”
Samuel beamed at his young friend.
Thalya forgot to use her lungs. The man was gorgeous when he smiled. Even his eyes twinkled as he laughed.
“You deserve it. Okay, so here’s the rest of the story. You picked them up and brought them here, to your house, where you called your friend on the force. He’ll come over, take their statements and check things out.”
Thalya nodded. “Nice.”
He turned to wink at her. Some of his loose hair fell forward, brushing his shoulder. It took willpower on her part not to lift her hand and put that lock of hair behind his ear for him.
“Oh, and Ray,” he said straightening. “I need you to give Shaun a call. Tell him Thalya and I will meet him at his lab later this evening. I have some metal I need him to examine. Have him text me with a time.”
Ray frowned. “What’s up?”
Samuel picked up the pieces of the cuffs. “I want him to take a look at these.” He placed the pieces in his pockets.
“Will do.”
“Well, everything is under control here, so we’ll take off,” Samuel said.
“Hey, you’re not sticking around for my mac and cheese?” Devlin asked.
“Is that what he brought?” Thalya asked, smiling.
In response, Devlin held up a box and shook it. “Yeah.”
“Hey, I got some dogs too, Kosher and some of those pre-made hamburger patties. Doc said they’d need protein. Oh yeah and broccoli.”
“Be careful,” Devlin said. “You might be mistaken for a chef.”
Ray snorted. “I don’t think so.”
After they left, Thalya sat in Samuel’s car and put her head back on the soft seat. Even though dusk neared, instead of being energized by the coming night like she typically should be at this time of day, she needed to rest. The last few days had taken its toll on her. “Take me back to my condo.”
“Do you need to feed?”
“I’m good. I just need to rest. I think somehow, those cuffs drained me a little.”
“Okay. I’ll take you back to your place.”
She slept in his car the entire way to Manhattan; barely able to keep her eyes open as they walked through the lobby of her building. Samuel’s arm around her waist was the only thing keeping her up. She had no idea how she made it to her bedroom and scarcely had enough strength left to pull her clothes off. Leaving only her underwear on, she slipped under the covers. Before her head touched the pillow, she dropped into slumber.
Samuel stood in the bedroom doorway, watching her sleep. He didn’t approach the bed. He didn’t dare. Oh, he wanted to, but if he got any closer he would most certainly get in the bed and wake up his dark sleeping beauty with a kiss. His eyes drifted up to her painting. He wanted to see that same expression on her face and know he put it there, and he wouldn’t stop with that. When she went missing a part of his soul went missing. Now, he had it back again. What kind of masochist did that make him, falling in love with someone who lacked the key ingredient necessary to love him back? Yeah that, because hell, he already loved her.
Turning away, he went back to her living room. He’d kept the book with him he’d saved from Wilhelmina’s apartment. Pulling the coffee table closer to the sofa, he sat down. The book already lay on the table where he’d placed it earlier. Opening it, he continued to read. One section he found very interesting. It talked about redemption and how the soulless could get back their souls.
What he read gave him hope. It explained how his father might have gotten his soul back. How Thalya might. Love. The key to redemption. Love freely given by another. Even as a child, his mother’s love for his father seemed clear. In spite of being soulless, perhaps because his father accepted her love, her soul had enabled him to love in return. They’d shared a soul.
Now, hope infused Samuel’s.
Thalya opened her eyes, all of her senses firing up. Awake and aware. Samuel remained near and sunset had long passed. She’d gotten some rest, but she could never sleep during the night. She got out of bed and pulled a robe on, letting her senses guide her to him in her living room.
He lay stretched out on her sofa, asleep. Wilhelmina’s book open on the coffee table.
Before she’d fallen asleep in the car, she remembered him saying something about Wilhelmina’s shop catching fire and he couldn’t find her. She peeked at the pa
ge he’d been reading. The section referenced how the soulless once had souls and a confirmation of another soulless that had his soul restored. That made three now. The book also theorized about how it could happen. She didn’t bother to finish reading it. She’d read enough to understand it required the ability to love. It was impossible to love without a soul.
She knelt beside him and stroked his hair as she’d wanted to do earlier and couldn’t. Were the Chronicles true, could he be her redemption? Could she dare hope? Did she have the right to risk his life? So many questions, too few answers.
He opened those green eyes teeming with life and stared right into her.
Thalya had her answer. She’d never risk him. “Hi,” she whispered. “Sorry, I fell asleep on you.”
“No problem. I like the way you woke me up.” He rubbed her shoulders. “How are you feeling now?”
“Fine.” She rose to her feet, putting distance between them, knowing if she stayed beside him he would pull her to him and she’d let him. No more touching. “You must be hungry,” she said, heading for the kitchen. “I don’t have any food here, but there is a bottle of dry white wine in the fridge and you can order something from the restaurant downstairs.” Thalya got down two glasses from her cabinet and poured wine in each. Returning to the sofa, she found him sitting up and handed him a glass before moving beyond his reach. She took the chair near the other end of the sofa. Could she be any more obvious?
“What’s wrong?” he asked, watching her over the rim of his glass before tilting it enough to take a sip.
“Nothing has changed.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Everything has changed. Come here.”
Still she didn’t move. Fear gripped her. She, who’d never known any emotion of her own, seemed to be coming intimate friends with a myriad of them.
“Tell me about the painting,” he said and sipped his wine.
The question threw her for a moment before she realized he spoke about the one in her bedroom. She smiled. This she could talk about. “It was done a long time ago, and the artist is long dead. It was one of the last things he’d done before he died.”
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