“Good ‘nuf, and thanks for the warning.” He got up and left, deciding to stop by Wilhelmina’s after all. He’d run out of feasible options. His last resort would be to go to Adam. Samuel shook his head. Damn, if Abel was the Abel from the Bible, did that mean he was Adam’s son? Why not? Maybe he should go see him first. But would any father turn on his son? According to the Bible, his brother Cain committed murder against Abel. But for a dead man, Abel looked alive.
By the time Samuel pulled up in front of Wilhelmina’s store, the purple and orange rays of dawn’s light slowly crept over the city. The store wouldn’t open for hours, so he drove around to the back alley, parked as he had before, got out and rang the back doorbell.
After several minutes, no one answered. She had to be home. He climbed the fire escape and made his way to Wilhelmina’s apartment over the store. There were bars across her back windows but not strong enough to keep him out. Using the superior strength he’d inherited from his father, he bent them back and forced the window open, promising himself he’d fix it before he left. As soon as he entered the chronicler’s living room, he expected her to greet him with a gun or baseball bat because of all the noise he’d made.
A dark room and silence greeted him. The part of his brain always attuned to danger chimed. Danger. He withdrew the short blade at his back, regretting he’d left the longer one in the car. He sensed no life within, human or otherwise, but still, Wilhelmina could block. He had to search. Silently, he made his way across the room to the hallway where he assumed Wilhelmina’s bedroom would be. He found the room empty, but the covers on the bed lay pulled back, like she’d gotten up in a hurry.
Given the way the rest of the apartment appeared highly organized, the alarm sounding off in his brain got louder. The lady didn’t seem like the type to leave her bed in such a state. She must have left it in a hurry and in her nightclothes, ’cause there were none on the bed or hanging in the bathroom.
He touched the sheets, cool, so she’d been gone for a while. He looked around to see if there had been signs of a struggle but saw no indication of one. Having no choice, he went back to the living room and noticed, peeking out from under the sofa, the book she’d shown them two nights before. He found it odd she would just leave something so old, delicate and priceless on the floor. No way.
Picking it up, he started to put it down on the table but changed his mind. He took it with him instead, if for no other reason than to be able to read it before he returned it to her. Holding the book in one hand and short sword in the other, he headed for the door leading to the shop but stopped mid-stride. A faint scent of smoke floated in the air. Then an explosion below him rocked the floor he stood on.
He rushed through the door and ran down the stairs, slowing down to open the door leading to the workroom, but that’s as far as he got. Samuel found the shop engulfed in flames, which forced him to shut the door. He retreated back to Wilhelmina’s apartment and made his way out to the fire escape. Clutching the book in his hand, he placed his sword back in its sheath and jumped to the street. No one witnessed him leave.
Samuel got in his car just as another explosion rocked the building. He drove in the direction of his house, hoping Wilhelmina escaped. He hadn’t sensed anyone but the smoke distracted him, so he hadn’t been focusing. But someone capable of blocking him had deliberately set the fire.
Damn it! Why? All that history lost. And what happened to Wilhelmina? Where was Thalya? He still didn’t sense any immediate danger from her. He would know it if she were. He should head straight to Adam’s but before he confronted Adam, he needed to go through the book sitting on the seat next to him. Maybe it held the answers he needed and Wilhelmina left it for him to find. The more information he had on the soulless, the better. After he read it, then he would have a little chat with Adam.
Chapter Sixteen
Thalya woke to find her hands and ankles bound. Metal handcuffs enclosed her wrists. Her arms were stretched straight up over her head, but she stood on her feet. The cuffs hung over a chain attached to the ceiling. Similar metal handcuffs wrapped around each booted ankle attached to chains that were probably hooked to the wall at her back. Thalya pulled at them but nothing happened. What the hell? She glanced around the room. She shouldn’t have bothered, not much to see, just brick walls and stone flooring with a little moss growing around the edges. Clearly, designed to look like one of the dungeons she’d visited during the dark ages to see what one looked like.
What the hell happened? One minute, she’d been leaping from roof to roof chasing some bastard when all of a sudden—nothing. She frowned, trying to remember. Her head hurt. How long had she been here? Samuel must be out of his mind with worry. A flicker of awareness had her staring at the short hallway. At the end, Thalya could see the bottom of some stone steps. When she first woke she could hear and sense no one, but now someone walked down those steps.
A soulless man paused at the bottom under the only light in the place, even though their kind didn’t need light to see. He did it for effect, standing perfectly positioned to appear bathed in a halo of light. She snickered. Theatrics much? “I see I’m not the only one who likes to make an entrance.” She recognized him, the man she’d chased from the warehouse.
He seemed to find what she said amusing because the corners of both sides of his mouth turned up. “I see you’re awake. I’ve been wanting to meet you for a while now, Thalya. I’ve come close a time or two but always you were otherwise occupied.”
She frowned. “It was you that night at the park. I’d sensed something and thought it’d been Samuel but it was you.”
He bowed his head slightly. “You are good. I was also there the second time when that buffoon screwed up.”
“Well, it seems you have me at a disadvantage for now,” she said, looking up at her cuffed hands before returning her gaze to his. “And you are?”
“Abel.”
“Abel?” She frowned again. “Adam…”
“Ah, yes. You’re quick, too. I’d heard that about you. And yes, he’s dear old Dad.”
“No shit.” So…Adam had progeny among the soulless.
“Not really. We all had to start somewhere.” He shrugged. “Adam happened to be mine.”
“Mmm, I see.” And she did, no love lost there. Thalya almost asked if his biblical brother, Cain, was soulless as well and hung out with him but didn’t think he’d appreciate the question. “Why exactly am I here?” She also wanted to know how long she’d been there. Her senses told her dawn neared.
He stopped in front of her and touched her hair.
She didn’t flinch away from him. She felt no fear.
“And to the point.” He released her strand of hair and took a step back remaining within her reach, but for the damn handcuffs. He continued talking, “Again, a trait I like. I think you and I will get along just fine.”
She raised one eyebrow disagreeing with his claim. “As what?”
“Partners. You are one of only a few oldens left.”
“Really?” She’d suspected as much but chose not to dwell on it. She could do nothing for those who’d died by the hand of hunters because of their thirst for blood.
Abel continued, “I’m gathering others to me, to our cause, if you will.”
She stared at him. “What cause is that exactly?”
He widened his eyes as though the question surprised him. “Why, the enslavement of the human race, of course.”
She nodded. “Ah, that cause. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m going to have to pass.”
This time he smiled, but his eyes remained a dark cold pit. “You haven’t heard my offer. I realize you may not be willing—at least at first. But no fear, you’ll come around.”
“I don’t think so.”
He acted like he hadn’t heard her. “Depression is your meal of choice, isn’t it? No need to respond…I know. But you’ve never taken it through the blood. Let me tell you it’s ten times as potent and filling.”
“Sorry, blood just isn’t my thing.” She didn’t count what happened before, when she almost took Samuel’s blood.
“When was the last time you came across a rich well of depression or fear, for that matter?” Abel asked offhandedly.
The sounds of panicked breathing reached her ears. Others, humans, ripe with fear and depression. A potent scent of hopelessness preceded them before they even reached the bottom of the stairs.
Two of them, a man and a woman were herded blindfolded toward her, clinging to each other. Another one of the bloodsucking soulless followed behind them, both guide and guard.
Like a thunderstorm, their emotions bombarded her. Surprisingly, without discomfort; her hunger didn’t rise to the surface, much less awaken. It could be because she’d feasted quite well on Samuel, but unsure if being sated provided the sole reason for her calm.
Abel must have been waiting for some sort of reaction and when he didn’t get it, frowned. “I see you’re not hungry. Well, no need to waste a perfectly good meal.”
The guard behind the humans ripped the blindfolds from their eyes. She could read their thoughts as if she’d touched them and were in their heads. They’d rather have the blindfolds back on. Abel wanted them to see. The fear in the room spiked even higher. The couple, a man in his forties and a young woman, were frozen both by fear and by the soulless who’d taken away their will to move.
Helpless, she watched as the man tried to shut his eyes and block out the sight of Abel with his fangs fully extended. His hand curled around the man’s neck before his eyelashes could shut, forcing him to open his eyes while he grabbed the woman’s long dark hair. The three were locked in some macabre embrace that could only end in death.
Thalya understood he meant her to watch. From the angle of the woman’s head, the woman couldn’t see her but the man could. When Abel lowered his face to the woman’s neck, Thalya stopped staring at him. Instead, she zeroed in on the human male’s face, willing him to look at her and not at what was about to happen to the woman at his side.
He must have heard her silent plea because he raised his terror-filled eyes to stare at her.
That’s it. Keep watching me. Only me.
He did while Abel drained every drop of blood from the woman.
Abel released his hold on the female and her lifeless body dropped like cornhusk to the floor.
The man released her hand. Only then did he look away from Thalya and at the woman on the floor. Lifting his head, he offered Abel his neck.
Abel shook his head and glanced at the soulless standing behind them who’d silently watched. Some unspoken signal passed between Abel and his henchman because the soulless goon grabbed the man’s arm and led him back up the stairs.
“Mmm,” Abel said. A little blood sat at the side of his mouth. Probably all for her benefit. This man would not be so sloppy. “You should have joined me. Maybe next time you will.”
She didn’t immediately reply just stared at him for a few seconds, letting the silence drag before saying, “I think not.”
“Sooner or later, you’ll need to feed.” Abel bent down and grabbed the woman off the floor, then carried her up the stairs, leaving Thalya alone.
“Shit!” she said aloud after he’d gone. He made the mistake, like those of their kind who took blood, in assuming she needed to feed more often as he probably did. Abel planned to starve her. While she could last longer than he thought, she couldn’t last forever.
She had to get out of there and do it now. Although, she tugged against her chains, the handcuffs held her fast. How the hell could that be? Other than a slight burning sensation and the aversion her kind had for touching metal, it had never really bothered her like this before. Most like her could hold knives and swords with pearl or ivory handles as long as they didn’t touch the blade. But the metal should not have taken her strength—burnt her a little maybe from rubbing against it so long but that’s about it. Yet, it did not burn, but held her as it would hold any human.
Something was seriously wrong here. She had an idea, she didn’t know if it would work or not, but she needed help. Only one person she could think of with whom she had a connection. Samuel. Exactly what the nature of their connection was she didn’t consider, but some of their kind had telepathy without the need for touch. There’d been times she could read Samuel without touching him. For the first time in memory, she prayed to the God who’d banished her that she could reach Samuel and guide him to her.
He’d broken into Adam’s home. Samuel opened the gate, drove to the front of the house, pried a window open in the foyer and made his way inside. For some reason, he thought it should have been harder to do.
He hadn’t had a chance to finish reading the chronicle and what he’d read, so far, while interesting got him no closer to finding Thalya. He had to hurry. Sooner or later, she’d need to feed. Samuel couldn’t believe Adam wasn’t home; much less didn’t have an alarm system. Until the phone rang and kept right on ringing while he walked through the place. He found it odd Adam had a phone considering most soulless didn’t use them, some screwed up quirk about technology with them. Although he noticed Thalya owned a TV and had used the phone to call him. Finally, he found the source of the ringing inside a study and picked it up. “Yeah,” he answered.
“Samuel?”
The male voice didn’t sound like Adam’s and seemed human. Phones and computers topped the list of the modern technology soulless were unable or more likely unwilling to use. Just one of the interesting things he’d learned from a note that fell out from within the pages of Wilhelmina’s book. “Yes.”
“I have a message for you from Adam.”
“What is it?”
“And I quote: ‘Get the hell outta my house.’ ”
“You tell him Thalya’s missing.”
He could hear nothing for a few seconds then came the reply, “Wait for him. He’ll be right there.”
Adam didn’t squander time. Minutes after he hung up the phone, the French doors in the den where Samuel waited blew open and Adam stormed into the room like he owned the place, which he did.
Samuel rose to his feet and didn’t waste time either with greetings. “We found the warehouse where a group of soulless were meeting, planning an act of terrorism the likes of which I hope to God I never see.”
“I’m assuming you put a stop to it.”
“Damn straight. But during the fighting, Thalya chased some soulless who we think was the leader and both he and Thalya disappeared.”
Adam’s entire body stilled. “What did this man look like?”
Samuel studied the soulless in front of him. “I was told his name is Abel.”
“What did he look like?” he asked again. Though his tone didn’t change, Samuel sensed the importance of his answer.
“He looked a lot like you except his hair was lighter and his skin looked almost translucent, like he has a serious aversion to the sun,” Samuel said.
Abel sighed. “Yes, that would be Abel.”
“So, you know him?”
Adam stared right into his eyes. “Oh, yes.”
Adam’s attitude confirmed his suspension, so he asked the question, “Is he your son?”
The olden seemed to stare past him and at first, didn’t look like he would answer, but then he spoke, “In another lifetime, he was. But such time is dead, buried and gone. This is a new one where we’ve been re-birthed and are both equal sons of the same creator.” His statement came out flat emotionless, just full of facts. Like someone would say, yes the sky is blue.
Samuel crossed his arms over his chest. “Where can I find him?”
Adam walked over to the desk in the room and leaned against it. “That I cannot tell you.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?” Samuel pressed.
Adam shook his head. “It matters not.”
“That bastard has Thalya and I have to find her.”
“But haven’t you and Thalya exchanged blood?” Adam
seemed genuinely surprised he even had to ask the question.
Samuel held up his hands palms up. “Nooo. Thalya has an aversion to the stuff, remember and I’m not soulless.”
“But your father was, and you share some of the characteristics.” Adam frowned.
“A thirst for blood sure as hell isn’t one of them,” Samuel stated emphatically.
Adam’s expression turned into a smirk. “Well, if you and she had, you’d be able to find her. Has she fed off any of your emotions?”
This time Samuel paused before replying. “Yes.”
Adam’s raised his head, his nostrils flared like he sniffed the air. “You’ve got to go.”
“Why?” Samuel glanced around. “What the hell is going on? I thought you were going to at least point me in the right direction.”
Adam brushed his hand through his hair. “Follow your instincts. You have some telepathic ability.”
“Some,” Samuel agreed.
“Then open those up to Thalya. If she’s trying to reach you, you can hear her. Come with me. I’m sorry, but someone’s on the way here and you can’t be seen. I’m supposed to be alone.” Adam put a hand on his shoulder and hurried him to the front door, walking him right up to his car. “Do me a favor and drive around the side of the house. You’ll see a one lane dirt road. Take that and it will lead back to the main road.”
“Okay. But how do I open up this telepathy to connect to Thalya? It’s not exactly something I can control.”
“Concentrate on Thalya. If she’s also reaching for you, you will be able to connect. If you run into trouble, send me word. Good luck.”
Chapter Seventeen
After Adam shut his car door, Samuel drove off. Not like his unwilling host gave him any choice. He watched Adam in his rear view mirror. The male hadn’t moved but his head turned in the other direction of the driveway. His body still appeared stiff and formal like whoever he awaited at the same time—he also dreaded seeing. Once Samuel turned the bend he lost sight of him, but found the service road.
Angel Rising Page 18
