by Lily Luchesi
“You brought us together,” Mark added. “We’re going to miss you. More than anything. It will be hard coming back and you’re not there.”
“What a way to celebrate your wedding. I’m really sorry, you two,” she said, “but Mark, you need to come back now. We need a director, and I can’t risk Danny being in such a position right now.”
“But…what about the vampire?” Mark asked.
Brighton put his hand on his new husband’s arm. “Don’t worry. I can take care of this. If need be, I’ll call in Linwood or my brother. You’re needed in Chicago, so go, love.”
Mark looked up at him, love and wonder filling his eyes. He kissed him, momentarily seeming to forget that they were being watched. “I’ll be there soon, Angelica,” he said.
Brighton winked. “Your people had better take good care of my husband.”
She smiled up at them. To think she had always thought herself alone! “Thank you. Both of you. I must go. The sun is rising and I need to work quickly come sunset.” She turned off her laptop, staring at her non-reflection in the black screen.
She had always considered herself alone, and that her solitude was an advantage considering the life she led. It was only now, faced with an impossible situation, that she realized how many people would miss her. How many people loved her. She only now realized that those few people she loved, she had rarely told. She’d spent so much time pushing Danny away. She’d treated Brighton and Mark less like friends and more like employees. She’d shut herself off, and only in the past six months had she opened her heart. She felt like a fool, living over two centuries without any of the pleasures life had to offer.
And now it was too late to indulge. And the one person who had opened her heart the most was the one she could not say goodbye to.
***
Danny felt that he had had a great day at the PID office. Acting deputy director, which was his official title, was tiring and often times boring, but it was fulfilling when he managed to head a good investigation. He just wished he could have been a major player, and not sitting behind a desk. He liked being in the thick of it, always had.
Angelica had left him a message to come home before she got to the office, so he had left the director’s desk unattended as he drove home. It was a twelve minute drive, and he made a stop off to buy Angelica a bouquet of calla lilies, her favorite flower. No reason. Just because.
When he unlocked the front door, however, his detective’s senses went wild. The house was empty and too quiet. No TV playing one of Angelica’s DVDs. No music blasting from the speakers, making their neighbors’ ears hurt. Just the cold silence of an empty house. It was the same silence he’d always gone home to till he had Angie move in with him.
“Angelica?” he called, concerned. Had there been a PID emergency? Had she accidentally gotten a whiff of garlic and was slowly dying? Was there an intruder that got past all of Angelica’s defenses? He took his gun out. First rule of being a cop: always be prepared.
He checked the first floor, and there was nothing. Going upstairs, he checked the bedroom they shared, and it looked just as he had left it. Finally, he went into Angelica’s room, which she usually kept locked. The fact that it was unlocked was a bad sign, and he felt his hands grow clammy. No sign of tampering to the lock, so that lowered the chances of a breakin.
He walked over to her open coffin, apprehension chilling his bones. She always left the coffin closed, the vampire equivalent of making your bed. An open coffin, she’d said, was the sign of a sloppy vampire.
The room was not tampered with. Most of her clothes looked in place, not that he knew her entire wardrobe. He peered in the coffin, terrified in case he’d see her, motionless, but it was devoid of anything living or Undead. Instead, inside was Angelica’s laptop, phone, the keys she had to the house, and a note written in her usual rushed hand.
His own hand shook as he reached for it, realizing now that no crime had been committed. This was much more personal than a breakin. He sat down in the plush black chair she kept in the room and began to read with a heart filled with trepidation. There were bloodstains on the bat-printed stationery, but they were diluted, meaning that they were from tears, not wounds.
Not again…
How this hurts me, Danny. How this hurts so bloody badly! For the first time in my life since your other incarnation died, I had been having a normal life. A happy life. I saw a really lovely future for myself, at your side. Now, it is my deepest regret that I have to leave.
Please don’t ask exactly why, and don’t worry: it has nothing to do with you. I can’t tell you exactly why, but I can tell you that you are in danger were I to stick around or give you any information about where I’ve gone. Believe you me, I would never leave unless it was to protect you. They are after me, Leander sent them, I am sure, and once Hell has caught your scent, there is no escape except to run.
Don’t bother asking Brighton or Mark where I’ve gone: they don’t know. I’m being hunted, and the fewer people who can locate me the better. The Enemy can and will torture the information out of you if they wanted to. It’s better that no one knows.
Mark is coming back within two days. Once he’s back I have given him orders to keep you far, far away from the PID. Just your being there would make you have a target on your back. I can’t afford that. I can’t be the reason you die again.
Chances are, by the time it is safe for me to return to this life, to be Angelica Cross again, you will be long gone. I hate having to state something so devastating so plainly, but it is true. I miss you already, and you’re barely five miles away! To know that I can’t risk staying to give you a proper goodbye burns like acid in my chest.
I want you to know that I have never been happier than I was these past six months. Being with you was nothing short of joyous, and I will treasure that for the rest of my life, whether I live another five, ten, or a hundred years.
Please don’t be angry. I am doing this to protect you, and nothing more. Remember the time we had together with the same fondness I have, and don’t be afraid to move on. You’re a wonderful man, and you deserve happiness. I am just glad that I was the one who was able to give you that happiness for so long. But that era is over now, and you need to find someone who makes you feel human, who can warm you on the cold nights that will come. You have warmed me, figuratively and literally, for so long. It is your turn to be taken care of and loved unselfishly.
Yours now, yours then, and yours till the day I die,
Angelica xoxo
***
“She’s gone, sir.”
Leander looked up lazily at the low-level demon who had rushed into his chambers without knocking. “Excuse me?”
“Angelica Cross has fled. We can’t track her.”
The Lieutenant stood up, hands in his pockets. He was smirking. “Oh, that’s not a problem. No. She can run. She can try to hide, but rest assured I will find her, no matter who I have to kill in order to do so.”
To Be Continued…
Acknowledgments:
Hello, readers, once again. Thank you for being here for the third Paranormal Detectives novel! That you’ve stuck with Danny and Angelica this long means the world to me.
Thanks, as always, to my mom, who supports, encourages, and loves what I do. She is also my chief research partner, helping me with dates, locations, directions, and so much more when I’m too into the story to stop and check facts.
A big thanks to Sarah Davis Brandon, for signing this and the next two books in the series. Your belief in my work means so much!
Thank you Rue Volley, for giving me another brilliant, beautiful cover.
Thank you Elizabeth Anne Lance for editing this book and making it as great as it can be.
To everyone in the CHBB Publishing family: you’re all so kind, supportive, and inspiring. I am blessed to be a part of this wonderful group of artists!
Thank you to everyone in APC/IBBS, your friendship and support brings me s
uch joy!
Thank you to those who have been there since day one when this series was not even officially released, and to those of you I’ve met along the way: Sarah Fairbairn, Stephen Kozeniewski, the ladies of Knightingale Reviews, Dr. John Benedict, Paul Cude, Louise Hunter, Kimmie Chameleon, Hal Hefner, Robert Herrera, and every single one of my Vamplets! You are all brilliant, and I am so grateful for every review, share, like, and kind word I receive. I could not have done any of this without mortals like you in my life!
Finally, thank you to my friend Matt Lande, for allowing me to use his song “Together” in my trailer and whose music has been an inspiration for nearly seven years now.
Thank you, reader, for being here, for sticking around to read more of Danny and Angelica’s story. I hope you find Life Sentence just as satisfying as the first two books, and enjoy meeting some new characters as well!
It is my sincerest hope that you enjoy what you are about to read, the journey deeper into Chicago’s Paranormal Investigative Division.
xoxo LL
