by Lee, Rachel
“Avi…”
“Easy, my friend. The sun comes I know. But after all these millennia, I have no students, only colleagues. It is fun to explain.” He sighed.
“So what do you mean, it depends on what we want to do with Asmodai?”
“Do you want to build a temple?”
“No.”
“I thought not. When Solomon chained the Tetragrammaton around Asmodai’s neck, he enslaved him. I don’t think you want a slave.”
“No, actually I don’t. I just want him to get out of this world, or prevent him from coming into it physically.”
“Well, I’m not absolutely certain you can do that.”
Yvonne gasped. Creed looked ready to grind his teeth.
“You see,” Avi continued, “Asmodai used to come and go at will. Now he seems to have lost his ability to come and go as he chooses. We suspect he may have been punished.”
“But you don’t know.”
“How can we? Does heaven talk to us? Do I have a phone line there? Has any angel come to me to say Asmodai has been cast out? But I suspect he has.”
“Which would explain his need for a human pentagram to return.”
“So it seems.”
“Any idea how we should handle this?”
Avi leaned back, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “I must think about this.”
“The sun.”
“I know. Go. I will think. Come back tonight, late. You don’t want to enslave him, but you need to send him back.” He turned and picked up a volume that looked several centuries old and blew the dust off it. “Look through this. I will do some thinking. Maybe between us we will solve the problem.”
Creed pulled a drawstring bag out of one of his pockets. “Think hard, Avi,” he said as he stuffed the ancient volume into it and strung it from his wrist.
Then he turned and swung Yvonne onto his back. This time she seemed more aware of the world’s passage, or perhaps Creed moved more slowly. What little she could sense, from the flexing of powerful muscles in his back, to the world whizzing by, overwhelmed her, but with delight.
The next thing she knew, he was setting her gently down on his terrace. He opened the sliding door and let them both in.
“Dawn is getting closer. We have a little while yet before I have to lock us in. Do you want to freshen up and get ready for bed first?”
She hesitated. “I really want some answers.”
“All right. I’ll gather some food and coffee so you can be comfortable tomorrow. So where do you want to start with your questions?”
“Honestly, Creed, I don’t know anymore.” She started to reach out toward his gashed chest and slashed shirt, but snatched her hand back at once, realizing that might make it harder for him. “You are healing.”
“It was minor. His nails raked me.”
“That was some rake.” When combined with the steely strength she had felt in Luc’s arms, she could easily imagine that a vampire’s nails were more like talons. They were predators. Creed had said so. Of course they would have weapons in addition to their speed. “I was so scared,” she admitted.
“I’m not surprised. My kind can be terrifying indeed, and Luc is on the edge.”
“The edge of what?” She waited, watching him as he started gathering food and coffee for her. She wondered if time was really that short or if he was keeping himself busy while he thought of ways to answer difficult questions.
She trotted after him into the bedroom as he carried an armload of supplies for her along with the coffeemaker. She hoped he would just be honest with her because at this point, despite all the shocks she had endured, she felt half truths would only make things worse. “Creed, I need to know what I’m dealing with. There’s no way now I’m going to get through this in ignorance.”
“I suppose not.” He set things down beside her laptop, then looked away from her, his gaze growing distant. “You heard us talk about Luc wanting to avenge the death of his mate, Natasha.”
“Yes. And there was something about it. But I don’t remember the word.” She sat on the edge of the bed, waiting.
“Claiming. There’s no exact parallel for it among your kind. When a vampire claims someone or something, in this case a mate, possession becomes obsession beyond anything you can likely imagine. Natasha was Luc’s claimed mate. It’s not a choice, Yvonne. It just happens. And when it does, there’s nothing that can break it for the vampire except his or her own death, or in this case, vengeance.”
Yvonne shook her head a little, unable to grasp exactly what he meant.
“Let me try this another way,” Creed said. “Luc is not responsible for what he’s doing. He can’t help it. He claimed Natasha, and she was killed. For a vampire, this death induces a kind of insanity. The pain is intolerable from what I’ve seen and heard. So start from the point that Luc is insane. I’m just glad I was able to get through to him.”
Yvonne shuddered, remembering the strength of those arms, the threat to snap her in two. She had no doubt Luc could have done it. “So how can you help him?”
“He needs to take vengeance. That’s the only way other than death to break the obsession, and honestly it doesn’t always work.” He paused. “Jude has claimed Terri, you know. He warned her that if he did, she’d never be able to leave him because he’d follow her to the ends of the earth. There’d be nowhere she could hide. The truth is, I think he’d die before he did that to her, but it’s always a possibility.”
“She loves him, though.”
“Definitely. She’s also a mortal. At some point he’s going to have to decide whether to change her to keep her, or face the insanity that will come with losing her.”
“But she wants to be changed.”
Creed nodded. “The question is whether Jude will ever think that’s the right thing to do.”
“Why would he hesitate? The way you two live, it doesn’t seem to be such an awful thing.”
“Ah, my sweet morsel,” he said with a sad smile, “you don’t know what it’s like to be a newborn vampire.”
“Not good?”
“Extremely painful. The hunger is overwhelming. The desire to feed is uncontrollable. Her instincts could well drive her to do things she would never forgive herself for, and then Jude would never forgive himself. Frankly, Yvonne, I can’t imagine the horror of watching someone you love go through this change. Of knowing that however well they managed to get through it, you’ve condemned them to an eternity of wanting what they can never have.”
Before she could ask another question, the doorbell rang. Creed stiffened, glancing at the bedside clock. “Stay here,” he said.
Then moving so swiftly she never saw him go, he vanished.
Creed opened the door when he saw Chloe on his CCTV screen.
“I was on my way home,” Chloe snapped as she stepped into Creed’s apartment. “Then this guy waylaid me.” She jerked her head, indicating Luc St. Just.
Creed tensed, ready to spring. “What the hell are you doing, Luc?”
“Good question,” Chloe said. “I’m finally heading for my own bed, when all of a sudden I get hijacked by a vampire. Cripes, Creed, I don’t even have my car. How am I going to get home now?”
Luc stepped completely into Creed’s line of sight. “I don’t have long. I came to apologize.”
Creed hesitated, feeling utter distrust. “I’m supposed to believe that?”
“I owe a lady an apology. I brought Chloe to get you to open the door.” He glanced at Chloe who was glaring at him. “I guess I owe this lady an apology, too.”
“You owe me more than that, you blood-sucking jerk! I don’t care what kind of vampire madness you suffer from, you just don’t grab people off the street, scare them half to death, take them on a roller coaster ride at high speed, and get off with an apology!”
Luc looked at her, his expression unreadable. “Would having me take a walk in the sunlight make you happy?”
“Nothing’s going to make
me happy right now,” Chloe grumped. “Damn it, I need my sleep. Where’s the coffeepot, Creed? Sheesh, you put the dang thing away?”
Creed never even glanced at Chloe as she marched toward his kitchenette. Not once did he take his attention from Luc. “The pot is in the bedroom, Chloe. Luc, give me one good reason I should let you in.”
“How about that you’re right? That working together will get us further than me mucking around on my own.”
Creed studied him, saw that his eyes were golden, not black anymore. At this point, he didn’t see he had much choice. From the moment he’d opened his door, the chance that he could close it before Luc entered had become slim.
“Just watch it,” he said, and made way for the other vampire.
Luc slipped inside to the end of the living room farthest from the bedroom. Since Luc could undoubtedly smell exactly where Yvonne was, he supposed that was a good sign. He closed the door, the deadbolts slid into place, and he faced the other vampire.
Chloe emerged from the bedroom with the coffeemaker and banged around the kitchen making coffee, muttering about “damn vampires.” Moments later, Creed sensed Yvonne in the bedroom doorway behind him.
But Luc didn’t even glance at her. He seemed fixed on Creed.
“You’re right,” Luc said again.
“He’s often right,” Chloe commented sourly. “Mainly because he’s brilliant, unlike a certain vampire I just unwillingly met.”
“My apologies, madam.”
“Spare me. Now I’m going to have to take the bus home. I hate the bus.”
“What’s going on?” Yvonne asked. Her voice was thin with fright. The smell of her fear saturated the air along with her other enticing scents. Creed saw Luc’s nostrils flare in response. His own did as well, but he didn’t dare take his gaze from Luc.
“I owe you an apology, too,” Luc said to Creed. “I frightened your lady. I hope I didn’t hurt her. But I know better than that.”
“She’s not…”
Luc shook his head. “Maybe you don’t know it yet. But I feel it. So I am here to apologize. To her, to you, and now to your friend whom I so shamelessly used.”
Chloe spoke as she spooned coffee into the basket. “At least he admits it was shameless.”
“It was,” Luc agreed. “I needed an entrée, madam, and after what I did tonight, I was certain of only one way to get it.”
Chloe turned from the coffeepot and placed her palms on the bar. “I don’t like being used. I’m not your entrée to anything. And if you use me to hurt Creed or Yvonne, I’ll find a way to stake your dead bones out in the daylight. Trust me, I will.”
Creed was surprised to see the faintest of smiles curve Luc’s mouth. Given the vampire’s overall state of mind, that was a good sign.
“If I should behave so foolishly again, I will allow you to stake out my dead bones.”
Chloe sniffed and turned back to the coffeepot. Creed noted that Yvonne had edged into the room, and was joining Chloe in the kitchen. She felt safer with Chloe? Another wound.
“That’s all I came for,” Luc said after a moment. “To apologize. Mes excuses plus profondes. My most profound apologies to you all. And to ask that I be allowed to cooperate in your effort.”
Before Creed could reply, Chloe whirled around again. “The person you need to ask is Jude. He’s the one who knows how to deal with this stuff. And I’m not sure he’s going to trust you after what you did to me.” She turned suddenly to Yvonne. “Did I get that right? Did that vampire do something to you, too?”
Yvonne nodded. “He tried to abduct me.”
“Lovely!” Chloe threw up a hand. “And now we’re supposed to trust him? Two kidnappings in one night?” She stuffed a hand into the pocket of her tight black leather skirt—Creed wondered how she could fit anything into a pocket on a garment so snug—and pulled out a cell phone. She flipped it open, pressed a button and waited all of two seconds.
“Boss. No, I don’t want to hear what time it is. I already know. Leave Terri alone for a minute. We’ve got a problem named Luc St. Just. Oh, just a little matter of two abductions tonight, namely Yvonne and me. Yeah, we’re okay. And now he’s apologizing and wants to join us in the current mess. Uh-huh. I know. No, I don’t know how I’m going to get home. I’m at Creed’s right now, the damn sun is due up in a few minutes, and I doubt either one of these vampires could get me home in time for them to go to ground. In fact, I’m looking at one of them right now thinking he’s cutting it pretty fine. What? Sheesh. Okay.” She held her phone out to Creed. “He wants to talk to you. He said something about not having time for my babble.”
Creed had to swallow a laugh. Jude could be so acidic when Chloe got on a rant. He took the phone, saying, “Hello.”
“Well,” Jude’s voice said in his ear, “it sounds like you’ve had an exciting night. I can tell Chloe’s okay, but what about Yvonne?”
“She’s bruised and shaken, but otherwise fine. I wouldn’t blame her if she asked me to stake St. Just out in the sun, though.”
“Me, either,” Jude replied. He was silent a moment, then asked, “What’s your evaluation of Luc? Can we trust him?”
“What other option do we have?”
“Good point. We’ve either got him going rogue or we bring him in.”
“That would be my estimation. I also had a rather cryptic conversation with my friend Avi.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” Jude sighed. “It’s too late to talk. Tell St. Just to be at my office tonight at ten. You and Yvonne come, as well. We’re going to sort things out.”
Creed snapped the phone shut and passed it back to Chloe, then looked at Luc.
“Well?” Luc asked.
Creed, who felt the sun’s approach as a maddening prickle on the back of his neck, a prickle that strengthened with every passing second, wondered if Luc was suicidal. He was dallying too long.
“Jude’s office tonight at ten. We’ll all discuss you and your involvement. Which right now I would much rather do without.”
Luc’s gaze flickered, the first sign he had shown of true regret. “Until tonight,” he said, then vanished from the apartment.
Chloe leaned forward on her elbows while coffee brewed behind her. “Can I say that that was not the most enjoyable experience of my life?”
“I know,” Yvonne remarked. “Trust me, I know. I was terrified.”
“At least I figured out what was happening. You must have been totally shocked. I just got furious.”
“Understandable,” Creed said as he went to close and lock the door. “I apologize to both of you. Sometimes the behavior of my kind leaves much to be desired.”
Chloe sighed. “I understand the claiming thing. Really I do. Jude was willing to be turned into a torch rather than let a demon harm Terri. But this kidnapping thing… I’d like to slap Luc upside the head.”
A little giggle escaped Yvonne, surprising Creed. “I think you’d break your hand, Chloe.”
“Yeah. These vampires are so damn hardheaded.” She blew a noisy sigh and turned back to the coffeepot. “Man, I need that caffeine. The bus ride to my house will take almost two hours. Stupid vampire.”
“You can stay here,” Creed offered. “The couch is comfortable.”
“I wanted my own bed for a change. Every time we get involved in one of these cases, I forget what it’s like to sleep in my own bed, use my own shower…” She trailed off and suddenly grinned. “Whine, whine. I know. I guess I’m an adrenaline junkie, and I sure got a shot of it tonight. You want me to watch Yvonne while you sleep? Or are you handling this some other way?”
Creed looked at Yvonne. “I’ve been keeping her close. But I suppose it’s up to her.”
Yvonne surprised him by her lack of hesitation. “No offense, Chloe, but I feel safer locked in with Creed.”
Chloe shrugged. “Frankly, I would, too. And time’s wasting. So you’d better get in there.”
Indeed, Creed thought as the tingling
on his neck reached the discomfort level.
“I need to get some things in the bedroom for Yvonne. Like the coffeepot…” He stared pointedly at the pot Chloe had just made.
“Ah hell,” Chloe said.
“No, it’s all right, I’ll be fine,” Yvonne protested.
“No,” said Chloe and Creed at the same instant, “you won’t be.” They looked at each other, and a laugh escaped Chloe.
