Ben shook his head helplessly. “You said Brad gave the necklace to Missy. We could start with Brad.”
Sam shook her head vehemently. “It’s too easy. I think Scala is playing games with us. He knows we’re looking for him. He knows we know what to look for.” Sam shook her head again. “This isn’t right. Tell Christian to stick with Brad.”
“Christian is too new to take on Scala alone. If he’s in Brad –”
“I don’t think Scala is in Brad. He’s sending us on a wild chase. You stick with Missy. I need to talk to Eugene.”
Sam fazed; the brick walls faded into darkness and Eugene’s temporary HQ materialized around her.
Eugene was sitting at a computer at a wooden table speaking to someone as Sam walked up behind him.
“You’d better relay this message, Eugene,” the familiar voice on the screen said. “I know where to find you.”
“Don’t threaten me,” Eugene replied with more venom than Sam had ever heard.
Sam stepped up behind Eugene… and froze.
Memories and past agonies rushed through her as the face on the screen filled her vision. She would recognize the square jaw, the rugged profile, the aquiline nose anywhere. The only difference was the eyes. Where they had been a sapphire blue before, they were completely black now. A lump rose in her throat as a smile spread across his face, almost melting her very being.
“I think it’s too late, Eugene. Hello, Sam,” Damien greeted.
Eugene spun around to face Sam.
Sam didn’t want to look at Eugene; she only wanted to look at Damien. Her wit and sarcasm abandoned her. Her very soul ached for her husband. She couldn’t even return the greeting.
“Meet me at the abandoned factory on Washington,” Damien instructed.
Sam nodded blankly, even though she had never been there before. She couldn’t faze there if she had never been in that area before or didn’t know exactly where it was. “I don’t know where it is,” she whispered.
Did his eyes soften or was that her imagination? “I’ll wait for you.” And the screen went blank.
She almost reached for him, but forced her hand to remain at her side. She stared at the blank screen for a long moment, remembering him. Damien. The vision on the screen seemed so much more… alive… than she remembered. So much more real. It had been six hundred years. His image had faded, his touch just a forced memory. But her feelings for him had never dissolved.
“Sam, you can’t go. It’s a trap.”
Her gaze snapped to Eugene. He had lied to her. Anger, fierce and sudden, swept through her. It was a dangerous anger, an anger that roared like an inferno, that completely took over her being. She fought it. Fought the betrayal, fought the rage, pushing the anger back down inside of her. She refused to let that fuse ignite. That was the path to becoming a Changed. A one way ticket to doomsday. She forced her thoughts to slow and let the words come out slowly. “Do you have a map?”
Eugene’s shoulders slumped. “I can’t…” He shook his head. “Did you see his eyes? He is a Changed!”
“First you keep the information that he was a Soul from me, then you keep the fact that he was trying to get in touch with me a secret.” Her voice was strangely calm. Much more calm than the swirling fury dangerously close to surfacing. “Do you have a map?”
“Sam, please. This isn’t right. You can’t meet him.”
Sam leaned in close to Eugene. “I’m tired of you telling me what I can and can’t do. For years, Eugene. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. And now…” She shook her head. “I can’t forgive you for this. I can’t.” She straightened. “I’ll get the damned map somewhere else.”
“Wait! Wait. I’ll get one.” He punched in some letters on the keyboard and a map of the city popped up.
Eugene relinquished the chair to her.
Sam ignored the chair, leaning over the keyboard, studying the map. She found the road Ryan’s house was on and placed a finger against the screen to hold her position.
“Sam,” Eugene whispered. “I’m trying to protect you. I knew you wouldn’t be able to think clearly, to see this for what it was. He is evil. He is not your husband anymore.”
She scanned the map for Washington Street.
“You are biased in this matter. I was trying to help you.”
Sam located Washington Street on the map and found the quickest, easiest path to the street. She would find the warehouse by walking the rest of the way.
“Sam, listen to me.”
Sam slowly turned to Eugene. He had been her friend for a long time. Or maybe he wasn’t really her friend at all. Maybe he had just been looking out for himself. She shook her head and began to step around him.
“Please, Sam!” He reached out to her.
She jerked away. “When did Damien contact you?”
Eugene dropped his hand and his head. “Yesterday. He was adamant. He wanted to talk to you. He said he knew you were here.”
Sam stared at Eugene, knowing she could never trust him again.
“I couldn’t tell you…” Eugene whispered. “I just couldn’t… lose you.”
That was it, then. The reason he hadn’t told her about Damien. The reason he had remained silent all these years. And now she knew why. Eugene thought he was in love with her. Damien, and her feelings for Damien, would only get in his way. “You’ve never had me to lose. I can’t work with you anymore, Eugene. After we finish with Scala, don’t call me again.”
Eugene snapped his hurt gaze up to Sam.
She ignored the pain in his eyes and fazed to Ryan’s house. She followed the street west to the intersection and made a right.
Damien. It had been so long. How would he react? What did he want? Why hadn’t he tried to reach her before? He was a Changed. She would have to remember that when she faced him. But did it really matter?
They could have been together. She swallowed in a thick throat. Six hundred years. If she had known, if they had been together, she could have helped him. Had he asked Eugene for help contacting her when he was a Soul? Agony speared through her. No. She wouldn’t think of that.
She took a left and continued walking.
He was waiting for her. Why now? What was different now? Too many questions. And she could only focus on the fact that it was Damien… and how much she missed him.
What if it was a trap?
She turned onto Washington Street and the empty warehouse loomed before her. It was a black building with broken windows dotting its entire front wall. She didn’t give a damn if it was a trap. She had to see him.
She fazed closer to the building. She pushed her hand through the wall, and then her head. The immediate view she had of the room showed her nothing alarming. She stepped through the wall into the large room. The front part of the room was empty except for a broken chair and a twisted metal beam on the floor. Light from the moon shone through the glassless windows, illuminating squares on the floor.
Sam didn’t need light to see him.
Damien sat in the middle of the huge room on an old metal desk. His bottom rested on the metal, one of his legs bent over the side. His hands were folded in front of him as if he had all the patience of a saint. His dark shoulder length hair fell forward over his bowed head, obscuring his face. He was everything she remembered.
She fazed forward once, cutting across the distance in the blink of an eye, and then again until she stood before him.
She stared at his bowed head for a long moment. Slowly, agony rose inside her burning her heart. It was Damien. The Damien she had thought she lost. Her husband.
The silence stretched between them, an abyss no words could bridge.
“Damien,” Sam whispered softly, finally unable to bear the quiet any longer.
“It’s been a long time,” he agreed. But his voice was strong and didn’t have the same tremble hers did.
“I thought you were dead.”
The soft, familiar chuckle rumbled from his throat. “
We are dead.”
She stepped forward. “I would never have left you. I didn’t know.” The sting of tears rose in her eyes. “I wouldn’t have left you alone.”
“Six hundred years and you heard no word of me?”
There was bitterness and a touch of anger in his voice. Sam lifted her chin. “The same could be said about you.”
“When I found out you were a Soul, it was too late. I had already Changed.”
Changed. The word sliced into her heart. He wasn’t like her anymore. It was too late. “I won’t hunt you. I won’t hurt you. I owe you that much,” she told him.
“You owe me nothing.” Damien looked at her then with his black eyes. Evil eyes.
Sam wanted to touch him, to run her hand through his hair. She would never be able to now. It was too late for them. She felt the tingle of tears on her cheeks. Too late.
He stood and came to her, lifting his fingers to touch her cheek, tracing a trail of one of her tears. His closeness was intoxicating. She could… smell him. A thick heady scent she remembered from a long time ago. His scent. Forest and man. She couldn’t tell if she really could smell him, or if it was merely a remembered scent. Whatever was happening, the scent filled the area around her.
He pulled his fingers back and looked at the tiny charges on his finger. Snapping tendrils of blue power sparkled and jumped wildly about his fingertips. He rubbed his fingers together and the blue energy vanished. When he looked at her again, his dark gaze moved slowly over her face. Longing furrowed his brow.
Sam could have sworn she saw tenderness in his eyes. But in the next moment, they were hard and cold. “I want you to leave Scala alone.”
It was as if he had just splashed ice cold water over her. She blinked. “Scala?”
“You are not to blast him or whatever it is you did before.”
Sam pulled away and the distance seemed to clear her head. She brushed angrily at the tears on her cheeks. “Are you kidding me? He’s a killer. He hurts young girls. Did you see what he did to that human?”
“He’s not your problem. Stay away from him.”
Sam grimaced. “You’ve forgotten I don’t take orders well. I never have.”
A grin slid over his lips. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“I can’t just let him walk away! Or worse yet, kill again!”
“You can and you will.”
Sam stared at him for a long moment. “Why do you care? A Changed doesn’t care about another Changed.”
Damien turned his back on her and returned to the desk. “Some Changed do.”
Sam narrowed her eyes. “Scala was locked away in an iron crypt for centuries. Someone had to let him out. Was it you?”
“I didn’t know he was locked away. It was cruel of you to do that to him.”
“Cruel?” Sam took a step toward him, her fists clenched. “You don’t know what he does. What he did to the Souls. What he did to me. The torture he inflicts is… inhuman.”
Damien froze. His back straightened but he didn’t turn.
“You can’t ask this of me. I won’t do it. I want him gone from this world. From my world.”
Damien turned to her, putting the full force of his piercing black gaze on her. “It’s not a request, Sammie. I’m telling you to stay away from him. You are not to blast him.”
This time, the agony was different. She mourned the past, knowing it was truly gone and could never be reborn between them. “I don’t think so.”
Damien fazed and in an instant was directly in front of her. “I won’t let you do it.” He lifted his hand.
Sam stared at him without flinching. Part of her wanted him to drain her. Part of her wanted to be a Changed so they could be together. “I’m not running away from you.”
Again, his look softened his dark eyes. His hand lowered just slightly. “You think I’m not evil enough to drain you?”
“I think you are.” Sam’s jaw clenched. “I’m not letting Scala go. Nothing you can do to me would ever be as bad as what he did.”
He lowered his hand. “I can drain you completely.”
It would be too merciful, Sam thought. Because she didn’t think she wanted to exist knowing Damien was evil. She lifted a hand to rest against his cheek. “It’s the only way to stop me.”
His lip quirked up in his familiar grin. “Always so stubborn.” Still grinning, he lowered his lips toward hers.
Sam waited to feel the touch of his skin, the pressure of his lips, his tongue. She had imagined it for so long. But she never felt his touch on her lips. Instead, agony flared from her chest as he slowly put his fist into her and began draining her energy.
~ ~ ~
Ben and Christian fazed into Eugene’s temporary headquarters to find him sitting on a small couch. All of his devices were off, the room strangely silent.
“Eugene?” Ben called.
Eugene didn’t move.
Ben approached, slowly, cautiously, scanning the room. Nothing looked out of place, nor were there any signs of struggle. “Where’s Sam, Eugene?”
Eugene shrugged.
“Was she here?”
He nodded solemnly.
Ben sat beside him. “What happened?”
“I tried to protect her. I really did.” He lifted sorrowful eyes to Ben. “Damien has been trying to reach her. She found out.”
Ben stood, alarm striking through him. “Where is she?”
He shook his head. “She said we were through. She never wants to work with me again.”
Ben grabbed his shoulders. “Where is she?”
“She went to meet him.”
Dread sliced through Ben. “Where?” he demanded firmly.
“A warehouse on Washington Street.”
Ben cast a glance at Christian before sitting beside Eugene again. “Eugene. She’s in danger. You know it. You have to help us. We have to find her. She doesn’t see Damien as a threat. She still loves him. And he’ll drain her.”
Eugene’s lower lips pouted further.
“Did you hear me?” Ben demanded. “Damien will drain her. We have to get to her. You have to take us.”
Eugene scowled.
“Eugene!”
Slowly, Eugene’s brow furrowed and he nodded. “Yes. Yes. I will.” Eugene stood up and placed his hand on Ben and Christian’s shoulders.
Eugene’s lab faded around them and a dank, dark building appeared around them. The moon shone through the broken windows.
Ben spun, his gaze flashing from corner to corner, searching for Sam amongst the shadows.
“There!” Christian called.
Laid out on a metal desk with her hands folded on her stomach was Sam. She looked like she was sleeping. But Ben knew she was not. He fazed to her side. She was light, but not transparent. The bastard had drained her, but not all the way.
Ben swept her up and they all immediately fazed back to Eugene’s.
~ ~ ~
Damien waited until they had all disappeared. He watched, crouched on a beam in the ceiling. It was lucky they hadn’t looked up. He glanced at his hand. Small bolts of electricity sizzled across it in tiny bands of blue light. Sam’s energy had boosted his power much more than any of the others. He slowly turned his hand over, marveling at the tiny surges of lightning rippling across his limb, dancing between his fingers.
Yes, her energy and his matched somehow. She had powered him up two-fold. He could feel the charge through his entire body. He could make the Jump now, he knew it.
But it was not what Damien wanted. Not now. Not yet.
He fazed to the desk and opened one of the drawers. He pulled out a large, wickedly sharp blade. It was an arm’s length long and the edge of the blade was honed to a razor sharpness. Iron. Pure iron. He took the handle in both hands and stared down at his reflection in the blade. Those black eyes were dead giveaways to what he was, what he had become. He hated them.
Sam had not looked at him any differently. He still saw the compassion in her gaze. D
amn, but he had missed her. He hadn’t expected her to have such an impact on him.
Blue electricity snapped around his face in the reflection.
He grit his jaw and drove the iron blade into his stomach. Pain exploded throughout his body and the room around him disintegrated and disappeared as he vanished into nothingness.
When he materialized again, the pain was less. The iron sword lay on the floor where he had dropped it when he disappeared. When he reached to pick it up, he paused. The electricity was gone. No blue light shone across his fingers. He lifted his hand and clenched and unclenched his fingers. He was back to normal. Well, not quite normal.
~ ~ ~
Sam opened her eyes, groggily. Her body ached with weariness.
Ben sat in a chair beside her. He was drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair, staring at the open door.
“Go back. There. Can you enhance that?” Christian’s voice came from outside of the room.
“I know what I’m doing,” Eugene snapped.
Sam groaned and pushed herself into a sitting position. The metal table she was lying on, the straps hooked to her wrists and ankles were a dead giveaway to where she was. Eugene’s lab. The regeneration bed. Damien had drained her! The thought sent anger flooding through her body.
Ben stood quickly, and eased her back down with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You have a few more minutes in bed. Take it easy and let your body recharge.”
“Did you get Damien?” She lay back down, mostly because she was too weak to fight Ben.
“Damien was long gone by the time we got there.”
“He didn’t kill me,” Sam muttered to herself.
“Close to it. Maybe we got there before he finished.”
Sam looked away. Maybe.
“You were foolish to confront him alone.” Ben’s voice was stern and anger filtered through in his reprimand.
“He’s my husband.”
“He was your husband. He’s a Changed now. A monster. It will only be time before he makes the Jump. Sam, you can’t take chances with this. You can’t have feelings for him. I need you sharp and focused.”
Lost Souls: Imperfection – Episode 2 Page 6
