“Oh, I was.” He gave me a rueful smile. “There isn’t a scale big enough to measure the level of curiosity I’ve managed to hold at bay about you, and all of the previous incarnations of you.” He pushed the fingers of his right hand through his hair, ruffling the thick strands. “It was easier before the age of the internet, where anything and anyone is searchable. Until then, I could stick my head in the sand, go about my business, and ignore the fact that you were out there somewhere, living your life without any memory of me.” A soft chuckle escaped his lips. “They say ignorance is bliss. I say, fuck that noise. It’s sheer, unadulterated, seventh ring of hell, torture. The woman I’ve loved for thousands of years was somewhere out in the world, and if I went looking for her, I’d kill her—permanently.” He shook his head. “I wanted to find you more than I wanted my next breath. But, I also wanted you to live full and happy lives. So, I stayed away.”
His mention of my permanent death brought back to mind the consequences Fallen had outlined earlier. I frowned and bit my lower lip for a moment. “But…” He lifted an eyebrow in question and I let out a shaky breath. “This is not me saying that I believe any of this, but… How am I still alive then? You found me, Fallen. We’ve been together for the better part of an hour, and I’m still breathing. Kinda makes the whole ‘you find me and I die thing’ look like a steaming pile of horse crap. Don’t you think?”
“Call me Alex, please? And… I don’t know.”
A soft tap on the window behind me drew his gaze up from mine. Curious, I turned to look as well. Noah stood outside, his face barely visible beneath the lip of his ball cap, and those strange eyes glowed in the gloom. He executed a series of hand signals to which Alex emitted a series of curses that would make even the saltiest sailor blush. Alex made a gesture in return, one I recognized as meaning ‘Come here’, and fell silent while we waited for Noah to join us.
Another burst of early April air blasted inside as the big guy entered and made his way over to join us. He pulled a chair over, flipped it around and straddled the back as he leaned toward us. “I’m not sure if this is a problem, or a huge fucking blessing, but… the gods have disappeared.”
***
I stuck my fingers in my ears, gave them a good wiggle to make sure the channels were indeed clear, and faced Noah once more. “Come again?”
“They’re gone, bro.” He made a ‘poof-gone’ gesture with his hands. “No one’s heard from them in days. Pax tried summoning Mafael, but she’s not shown her face or sent any type of response whatsoever. Same for Shesmu. I’ve been trying to get his prickly ass down here since you guys sat down, and nada.” His phone pinged, and mine joined in a second later. Noah picked his up as I pulled mine out from a back pocket. I thumbed across the screen and a text from Lambert, one of our brethren, popped open. ‘Am-heh MIA. None of the gods responding to summons. Shit officially hitting fan.’
I tapped out a quick reply and hit send. ‘Aware. Zoe attacked by minion. Contact established. Still breathing.’ There was no need to explain who Zoe was to Lambert. With so few of us left, the six of us were familiar with each other’s curses. Some were worse than others. All were sacrifices we’d been willing to make at the time.
Zoe sat across the table, quietly sipping her café mocha. She’d tuned us out and hoped that she was working through everything thrown at her over the last hour. Her face was so expressive, and I was sure she didn’t realize just how much her thoughts broadcasted across her features. I’d been watching her, the flicker of doubt in her eyes with each revelation. She put on a brave face, but I saw beyond it to the uncertainty she tried to hide.
I let out a breath and scrubbed my hands through my hair. How would she react when I dropped the biggest bomb of all? Eyes closed, I blew out a long, slow breath and let my head hang forward. One step at a time, I reminded myself. She needed to believe the rest first, to see me as Alex and not Fallen, the vampire protecting a band of absentee, asshats who just happened to be gods.
No sweat. I let out a soft snort. I was so screwed.
Noah nudged my boot beneath the table and I glanced over at him. He cocked a brow, a silent query asking if I was okay. I nodded, rubbed my face and sat back, slouching in the chair.
“Has anyone reached out to Atum?” Noah nodded, popping the gum in his mouth as he flipped his baseball cap backward.
“He doesn’t have a clue where any of the kids have gone off to.” He scratched the stubble on the edge of his chin and gave the gum another pop. “They’re all off the grid.”
A chill worked its way up my spine, my shoulders shuddering at the implications. “Even Am-heh?” Noah nodded and a cold pit of dread settled in my stomach. “Shit. If any of those bastards need to be kept on a leash it’s that sick fuck.” I let my head roll forward, chin resting on my chest. “As much as I hate to say it…”
“Then don’t,” Noah growled. “This is our chance to be happy, Fall. I, for one, am taking that chance and running like hell with it. Freedom has been a long time coming for me. You know that more than the others.”
He had a point, and I knew it. Appointed as my mentor at the time of my turning, Noah and I spent hundreds of years at each other’s sides. He was reassigned for a brief period, but when that ended we came back together and patrolled Northern Ontario together. Only recently had we settled in the Sudbury area after receiving reports of unusually high activity. The disappearance of nearly a dozen gods would certainly explain the rise in supernaturals in the area.
I glanced at Zoe, the night’s events starting to make sense. With Shesmu missing, those under his dominion had free reign to run amok, creating chaos all over North America in his absence. It also meant that those the gods had kept hidden from such creatures were no longer protected—as evidenced by the attack on Zoe.
Noah’s silvery blue eyes met my amber ones as I turned to look at him. He blew a pale pink bubble, snapped it and sucked the gum back into his mouth. I hated the habit, but he persisted no matter how many times I asked him not to snap the damn gum. He shrugged and I let out a sigh.
“We’re fucked.”
He nodded. “Yup. Hard, with no lube.”
Chapter Five
My Saturday had started off so well. I’d slept in late, luxuriating in the cushy warmth of my king size bed until almost noon. Garlic’s insistent nipping at my toes had finally pulled me out of bed. The beast was a pest when he wanted to be fed. I’d given him a bowl full of kibble and proceeded to put together my own feast—four eggs over easy, homefries doused in a liberal layer of Frank’s Red Hot, thick buttered toast and, of course, a pound of crispy bacon. Because, bacon. Yeah. A pot of black coffee, and a tall glass of orange juice rounded things out. A bowl of Corn Flakes was not enough to fuel this machine. No sir.
Sunlight had streamed in through the kitchen curtains, Dallas Smith’s album Lifted blasting from the stereo while I ate, cleaned up and changed into my running gear. With my Rowdy Country playlist pumping in my ears, I put feet to payment and headed out into the crisp afternoon for my daily fifteen kilometer run. Yeah, my body was forever locked in prime condition and health. That didn’t mean I would let myself lay around all day and watch crap TV until it made me want to take out half of humanity in a what-the-fuck fueled rage. The run gave me time to clear my head and plan that night’s patrol. Not that much changed when it came to that either. Noah and I had a routine for which areas to walk, and which night we hit each one. We didn’t deviate it from it, much. Not until tonight anyway. Tonight the plan had been shot all to hell. Thank you, gods.
Zoe cleared her throat and I shifted my attention back to her. I’d been so focused on the gods’ disappearance, and the possible repercussions, that I’d forgotten her for a moment. She wiggled her fingers at me, her right brow arched as if to say ‘Hi, remember me?’. I gave her a sheepish smile and nodded.
“Sorry.” I scratched the edge of my jaw, the right corner of my bottom lip caught between my teeth. “Just trying to think. We
need some sort of plan, and I’m drawing a big fat zero on what to do next.”
Her lips parted as if she was going to say something but Noah’s snort put a halt to it. We both shifted to look at him, and he let out a soft chuckle.
“Really?” He held his hands up, brushing the palms together in an ‘I wash my hands of this’ gesture. “Dude, the gods are gone. What do we do next? Are you kidding me? We break these damn curses and get the hell out of Dodge. That, my friend, is what we do.”
Noah threw a pointed glance at Zoe and returned his attention to me. What he said made sense, I knew it was. But I also knew that Zoe was nowhere near ready to accept the things I’d told her already, never mind what I’d need to ask of her in order to break the curse. That would take some serious proving of things best not done sitting in a Tim Horton’s.
“Wait,” Zoe cut in, leaning forward and placing her elbows on the table. “You can break the curse?” She settled her beautiful brown eyes on me and I silently cursed Noah for his big mouth.
I nodded and caught Noah doing the same out of the corner of my eye.
Zoe pushed her fingers through her hair, the auburn locks tumbling back around her shoulders. I wanted desperately to lock my own fingers in the thick depths, hold her tight and plunder her mouth. Even after two thousand years I remembered the taste of her, and the sweetness of her kisses. Visions of us together had played on repeat in my memory for decades. I’d eventually forced them to the back of my mind, the constant reminder was too much to handle and focus on what was now required of me.
“It’s… complicated.”
She snorted. “You’ve used that one already.” Pushing her cup aside, Zoe laid both hands flat on the table and leaned back in her chair. She tilted her head, assessing Noah and I. “Not that I believe any of this for a second—because, really… vampires, gods, reincarnation and curses? That’s just a little farfetched and science-fictiony for me, thanks. For all I know, the guy who attacked me earlier was just some X-Men cosplayer on a bad trip, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Really?” Noah snorted, blond brows arching up toward the edge of his cap. “You did see the state of your clothes, right? The blood soaked into your shirt wasn’t fake, Zoe. That minion damn near killed you. No bullshit.”
Zoe shrugged, her expression one that said she still didn’t believe him.
Noah growled, leaned closer and I heard the faint squelch as his fangs pushed through his gums. Her eyes grew wide as she watched the process. He was taking his sweet time, deliberately slowing the release for dramatic effect. Both upper fangs settled into place, gleaming under the fluorescents above us. He gave Zoe a second longer to gape and then snapped his teeth, biting at the air inches from her nose. “Believe now?”
“What the fuck, Noah?” I gave his right shoulder a shove, glaring at him. “Put those damn things away.” He flicked his tongue over his teeth and the fangs disappeared. “Dick move. Seriously.”
He shrugged, glancing at Zoe. “Maybe, but it worked. Didn’t it, Zoe?”
I looked across the table and cursed beneath my breath. Zoe’s eyes were wide, pale hands clutching the edge of the table. Her breaths came hard and fast, posture rigid as she shifted her gaze between the two of us. “I wanted her to believe, not scared out of her fucking mind, you idiot. Jesus Christ. You just made my job ten times harder.”
“Nah, man. I did you a favor. You’ll thank me for it later.” He smirked and twisted his ball cap around, the bill shading his eyes once more as Noah rose from his seat. Touching two fingertips to his right temple, he saluted me and winked at Zoe. Cocky bastard. I waved him off and returned my focus to the woman across from me.
Zoe stared at me, brown eyes still wide between slow blinks. “You’re a… a vampire?”
“Yes, Zoe.” I held back a sigh at the sense of déjà vu. “I’m a vampire, and everything I told you was true. There’s more, but this isn’t the place to discuss it and I don’t think you’re quite ready yet either.”
“Show me.” She sat forward, eyes trained on my mouth, and reached out. Her fingertips brushed my bottom lip, pushing it down. I jerked back, cutting off a growl before it had time to start. “Let me see, and then I’ll believe you.”
Against my better judgement, I moved closer and peeled my upper lip back. Both sets of fangs slipped into place with a wet click and tingle in my gums. I lifted a brow and cocked my head, pulling back when she reached out to touch the left set.
“No,” I grumbled and retracted the extra teeth. “That’s a really, really bad idea. No touchy the fangs.” I left the ‘yet’ part out. What she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. There’d be time for that story when I got her to a more private location. With that in mind, I rose from my seat and offered her my hand.
Zoe placed her right hand in mine and scooted out of her chair. I looked down at her, the tip of her nose barely reaching the middle of my chest—a good foot in height separated us. My jacket dwarfed her and made Zoe look like a little girl wearing her daddy’s clothes. Zoe, however, was no little girl. She was all woman beneath the heavy leather covering her skin. I released her hand, guiding with a palm on her lower back as I tried desperately to shake off the train of thought I was on.
“Where are we going?” She glanced up at me as we exited the coffee shop. Cold wind blustered around us, cutting through my shirt. I’d deal with it though if it meant she was warm inside my jacket.
Turned back in the direction we’d come from earlier, I gave her a little nudge to keep us moving forward. “My truck’s parked a little way down. I’m taking you to the safest place I know—my house.” She jerked but my firm push on her back kept Zoe’s feet in motion. We didn’t have time to debate the destination. We just needed to get there. “You’re not protected anymore, Zoe. If that minion could locate you, there are any number of other things—more powerful things—that can, and will, find you. What he did? That was nothing compared to what some of these creatures would do to you given half the chance.”
“Okay, okay.” She picked up the pace, pulling the jacket tighter around her petite frame. “I get it. But what’s to stop them from coming to your place and doing that anyway?”
I held up my right hand, the shadow of my sword glimmering beneath a streetlight as we walked under it. Her eyes widened, throat working as she swallowed. “That, Zoe. Now, come on. The truck is in the next alley. Once we get to my place I’ll answer your questions.” I released the sword from its partial manifestation and shoved my hand back into my jeans pocket. “There’s something I want to show you, too.”
Chapter Six
Garlic greeted us at the door, twisting himself around between my feet before making his way over to sniff at Zoe. She bent, hand extended for the cat to sniff but, ornery thing that he was, Garlic turned tail and walked away. I turned toward the hall off the living room and pointed at the couch.
“Sit. I’ll be back in a sec with a clean shirt for you.” She moved to the couch and the cat hopped up on the other cushion, eyeing her warily from his perch. “Garlic will warm up to you in a minute. Just ignore him.”
Zoe snorted and a grin spread over my lips as I walked away. “You named your cat Garlic? Poor kitty.” Her voice dropped off to a murmur, whatever she was saying not meant for my ears.
I grabbed a hoodie from one of the dresser drawers and turned toward the closet across the room. Did I really want to do this? Was this can of worms one I could open? Better yet… Would the gods allow it? Yeah, the crazy shits were missing in action, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t pop out of the woodwork like the fucking parasites they are if I tapped this genie’s bottle.
Hangers rattled on the bar as I shoved clothes aside to reveal the small safe tucked into the wall. A soft beep confirmed I’d entered the combination correctly and the door clicked as the latch released. I stood frozen for a moment, further debating the wisdom of what I planned to do next. This was crazy. This was never going to work. This was… e
verything I’d wanted over the last two thousand years.
Noah’s words, spoken long ago, came back to me. I’d taken one golden torque from my neck, the one which proclaimed to anyone who saw it that I was married, and produced another from my pocket. The wide bands carried my name with Zoe’s, and were inscribed with my family’s motto ‘Protect and Defend’. Noah had stopped me from throwing the trinkets into the ocean. “Don’t. Those, my friend, are something you want to hang onto and protect with your life. You may need them one day. There’s more power in those twists of gold than you realize, and when the day comes, you’ll understand just how much.”
I understood now what he’d been trying to tell me. The sly bastard. I pulled the torques from the safe, my heart skipping a beat as light flashed off the smooth gold surfaces. The day Zoe had presented me with these, slipping one around my neck as she stared in my eyes, had been the happiest of my life. I’d place the matching one around the slender column of her throat and proclaimed my eternal love. The celebration of our union had gone on until the early hours of the morning, the entire village joining in revelry as the Lord’s son married the prettiest girl in the district.
A soft knock pulled me out of the memory. I turned, a golden torque in each hand, and faced Zoe. “You were gone so long I thought maybe you’d gotten lost.” She gave me a small smile. “What are those? They’re pretty.”
The words stuck when I opened my mouth to answer. I cleared my throat and tried again. “They’re our wedding bands, sort of. Back then, we wore torques to symbolize marriage.”
“Those…?” Zoe entered the room, her strides purposeful as she crossed to where I stood just outside the closet. She held out her right hand, a silent demand to see the jewelry. I hesitated a moment and then placed the smaller one, hers, into her palm. She held it up to the light, reading the inscription out loud. Her finger traced the infinity symbol etched between our names and she looked at me.
Fallen (Northern Bites Book 1) Page 3
