Colin sent her a text around lunchtime and asked her if she wanted him to drop off some takeout from her favorite Chinese restaurant. She thought about not responding, but this was Colin. She couldn’t ignore him forever. She didn’t really want to, she just wanted the old Colin back. So she sent back a short no thank you and threw a frozen burrito in the microwave. If Colin knew how she was eating on her own, he would think Armageddon was about to descend upon the world. Anna just thought she was finally starting to get lazy.
By that evening, she had grown tired of staring at her apartment’s walls and decided to get dressed and find something to do to stop obsessing about Colin and Jas. She couldn’t even stay in bed all day because every time she closed her eyes, she saw Jas’s body lying on top of the water in that dark canal, broken at an impossible angle by the force of the landing after that demon had thrown her… how far? It must have been at least half a mile. There were some images she knew she would never be able to forget: that was at the top of her list.
Anna slipped on a slinky silver metallic sleeveless shirt and black pants and found her vintage 1920s silver chandelier earrings. She didn’t know why she was going through the effort to look like this; she didn’t even know where was going. She just needed to get out of her apartment.
She drove around downtown Baton Rouge until she spotted a bar that looked casual and laid back, with outdoor seating and the biggest attraction for her: it didn’t look overly crowded. Anna did her best imitation of parallel parking and crossed the street to have a drink.
With her dark hair pulled back and only a few loose strands caressing her creamy white shoulders, Anna felt sexy, confident, beautiful. She knew someone would try to hit on her. But she was only going to stay for one drink. And she knew how to handle herself. She didn’t need Colin hovering over her all the time. Not anymore.
She walked up to the bar and ordered a Vieux Carré, a drink she’d discovered in New Orleans a long time ago. She noticed a few guys were already checking her out, but she ignored them, tipped the bartender and took her drink outside. One of the men from inside followed her. Maybe if he didn’t turn out to be a complete asshole, he wouldn’t be bad company for one drink.
He was a cute guy, probably early thirties with sandy blonde hair and a charming smile, but Anna had always thought those were the kind of men she had to be the most careful around. Anna let him sit with her but made it clear that she was only here for one drink and wasn’t looking for anyone to go home with.
Derek, at least that’s what he said his name was, held his hands up in a placating gesture, insisting he only wanted to talk to her, and Anna tried not to roll her eyes. She’d heard that one before.
But as she sipped on her cocktail, she discovered Derek wasn’t such bad company after all; he was actually quite funny and genuinely charming and he had at least gotten her mind off of Colin and Jas.
When she finished her drink, Derek immediately offered to buy her another one and Anna thought about it for a moment – she did have to drive herself home. Drinking another cocktail wouldn’t be a good idea. She was about to tell him no when her phone went off. Someone had texted her. It was Colin.
“I hope you’re planning on leaving soon.”
Anna sat up straighter in her chair and looked around her; he had followed her? She couldn’t see him; she didn’t feel him nearby. Where the hell was he? And why the hell was he following her? She texted him back and asked him, apologizing to Derek as she argued via text with someone else. Yeah, she would make a lousy date anyway.
Anna set her phone down and was so pissed off she was about to accept Derek’s offer to let him buy her another drink when Colin walked up to her table. He didn’t wait for an invitation to sit down. And he looked every bit as pissed off as Anna felt.
Slowly, she started to realize that the drink must have been stronger than she’d thought. The alcohol had dulled her senses. She couldn’t even really tell what he was thinking now. Goddamn it, this wasn’t going to be good.
“I think it’s time for your friend to leave,” Colin said, never taking his eyes off Anna.
Anna swallowed. She suddenly felt sick and guilty and… dirty… under Colin’s gaze. She found herself wishing she had a shirt to put on over the slinky silver top she’d chosen. She crossed her arms and rested her hands on her shoulders, and she kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t that drunk.
Derek had started to protest, but Colin turned that icy stare on him and told him something to the effect of get the hell out of here. At least, that’s what Anna thought he said. The world was spinning around her and it wasn’t from the alcohol. She’d never seen Colin like this before and it scared her.
“Let’s go, Anna. I’ll bring you back for your car tomorrow.”
Anna swallowed again, willing herself to speak, trying to remember things were different now, and she hadn’t done anything wrong. “Colin, we were just…”
“Just shut up, Anna.”
She felt the tears stinging behind her eyes. He had never talked to her like that before. He picked up her phone and purse and stood up, waiting for her to come with him. And Anna quietly followed him to his car. How could these twenty-four hours possibly get any worse?
She expected the drive home to be one of silence again; after all, if he was going to treat her like the whore of Babylon for letting one guy sit with her while she was having a drink, why would he want to talk to her? But he started talking as soon as he pulled onto the street.
“We’ve got to be especially careful right now. That wasn’t some sycophant we killed last night, and we can expect some sort of retribution. Going out alone tonight wasn’t a good idea.”
“Well, I would have called Jas…”
Now that he couldn’t keep that penetrating stare on her, she was feeling more confident again.
Colin sighed. “I am very sorry about what happened to her. You haven’t exactly been letting me help you with any of this though.”
Anna wanted to laugh at him but it hurt too much. “Help me? And how are you going to help me, Colin? How are you going to comfort me without slipping, without making a mistake?”
He glanced at her and Anna’s heart beat against her ribs, her stomach drowning in the Vieux Carré from the bar.
“I don’t know,” he finally said.
It was probably the alcohol or maybe the stress or maybe just how incredibly tired she was of being here and living this lie, but she reached over to him, taking his hand and slipping her fingers inside of his. It seemed like such a small gesture, so harmless and innocent, but they both knew how dangerous it was.
“Anna,” he whispered, but he didn’t let go of her hand. Colin could never let go of her.
“I miss you. I don’t even understand why we have to do this.”
Anna knew Colin didn’t have any answers either. “We just have to trust there’s a good reason, and that it won’t last much longer,” he finally said, but he didn’t sound as sure of himself as he did three months ago when he first told her about having to move to Baton Rouge, about having to do something they’d never done before – nobody was supposed to know they had ever even known each other.
He was still holding her hand, and Anna was slowly regaining all of her senses. She could hear him and feel him again, and she felt the passion, the desire, the lust he was trying to keep buried.
Anna slowly disentangled her fingers from his and moved her hand away; it wasn’t fair to either of them to walk this line of temptation. Colin looked longingly at her hand as it drifted back to her side of the car but he stayed quiet.
“This was never part of the deal, Colin,” Anna pouted. She knew she was pouting. But goddamn it, after everything they’d been through, asking this of them was too much.
But really, Colin was pouting, too. No, giving up each other had never been part of the deal.
Chapter 4
Colin had drafted several emails apologizing to Anna, not for following her – no matter what she
said, he would always protect her, he would never stop trying to keep her safe – but he hadn’t been fair to her. He had allowed his jealousy to get the better of him and he’d treated her terribly. But this assignment was taking a toll on both of them. The longer it went on, the more he felt like he was losing himself. And maybe it wasn’t just his imagination because Anna was noticing it now, too.
He went to bed that night without sending the email, unable to think of anything appropriate to say in writing, and vowed to apologize in person. That’s what he would normally do, with flowers and chocolates and a J. Crew gift card if he’d really screwed up. Like now. Maybe he couldn’t send her flowers, but a gift card was discreet. He decided to get her one before heading to the hunters’ downtown office the next day – shopping always helped her feel better anyway.
The next morning though, Jeremy called him early and asked him to meet him at his office so Colin never had the chance to buy Anna her gift card. Jeremy sounded anxious about something that had happened overnight and by the time Colin got there, the rest of the surviving hunters were gathered in the only other usable room – the one they used as their conference room. It had a long, rectangular table and eleven chairs, and as Colin sat down, he couldn’t help but notice that everyone glanced at the empty chair. The loss of Jas was haunting them all.
Jeremy was tapping his pencil nervously on a stack of papers, leaving gray dots and streaks across whatever else was written there. Colin had noticed Anna before anyone else though. She was always the first person he noticed no matter where they were. She was concerned about this impromptu meeting, which Jeremy had insisted he needed everyone here for – he never did that – and some people had called in sick to work to be here. But she was hiding it well. She looked calm, rested, all of that anger and resentment from yesterday was gone. And she was glad Colin was here.
Jeremy finally put his pencil down and lifted the thin stack of papers. “I, um, got an email last night,” he fidgeted with the corner of the paper, turning it down then straightening it again. He was driving Colin crazy. “Here, I’ll just let you read it for yourselves.”
He started passing the copies around. Why the hell hadn’t he just forwarded it to them? Everybody was engrossed in reading and by the time it reached Colin, some had already finished and were already trying to talk to Jeremy about it, their voices a mixture of confusion and fear and disbelief. The rising panic in the room was already answering Colin’s question about why Jeremy had bothered to print out an email instead of forwarding it.
Colin quickly read it. The author of the email addressed each of the hunters by name then went on to describe the “murder” of the demon outside of White Oaks the other night, how that act – the death of an archdemon – was a declaration of war against the entire group. And it was expecting them to meet it and two other archdemons outside of Baton Rouge in a small rural area that night. Of course it warned of consequences if they didn’t show – including the death of innocent people, because that’s usually what pissed off demons did.
Colin heard Dylan’s voice thundering above the others, insisting this was a trap and it would be suicidal for them to go. Dylan was a hunter in his late twenties with short black hair and smooth brown skin, a small gauge in his ear the only outward sign of some rebellious and reckless years when he was younger.
Colin had always liked Dylan. Besides Max, he was probably the only other hunter here he liked, not counting Anna, of course. Maybe that was partly because neither Max nor Dylan had ever tried to hit on Anna, but it was also because they were both smart and cautious.
The only other woman in the group now besides Anna was Tara, a Pilates instructor and triathlete who was convinced her ability to see and kill demons made her immortal. Even Jas’s death hadn’t seemed to shatter that illusion.
“We have to go,” she insisted, glaring at Dylan now. “People will get hurt. They will die. Because you were too chicken shit to face a few demons?”
“What good does it do anyone if the few people in this area capable of hunting them down go and get themselves killed?” Dylan shot back.
Tara made a noise that was a cross between disgust and exasperation. “We won’t get killed if we stick together, and do what we’re supposed to do.”
Colin knew that comment pissed Anna off; she was still grieving the loss of her friend. “What are you saying, Tara? We screwed up? We let Jas die?” Anna said angrily.
The room fell deafeningly quiet. Tara squirmed in her seat but she didn’t back down. “I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. I’m sure you all did the best you could.”
Even Jeremy had to sneer at that. “Tara, you’ve never faced an archdemon before, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. We’re not going. We can’t. Dylan’s right. But if you want, we can vote.”
Only Tara and one other hunter seemed really adamant about meeting the author of this email. A vote didn’t seem necessary. As the meeting broke up, most of the group drifted off toward the break room.
Colin got Jeremy’s attention. “Let’s talk. In your office.”
Jeremy raised an eyebrow at him. “Don’t tell me you’re siding with Tara on this.”
Colin just walked across the hallway and into Jeremy’s office, waiting for him to follow. Jeremy probably would have expressed more surprise if he hadn’t been used to Colin’s impersonal behavior by now.
“Ok, O’Conner,” Jeremy sighed as he closed his office door behind him, “what’s up?”
“You ever dealt with an archdemon before?” Colin had, of course, but he was skeptical about how much experience this group had.
“No, you have?”
Colin nodded. “You’re right to be careful here. But they will eventually force us to act. We’ve just got to try to get them to meet us on our own terms.”
Jeremy looked thoughtful. He was tapping his pencil on his desk again. Colin had a sudden urge to stab him with it. He felt a little guilty about it, but God, Jeremy could be so obnoxious.
“How do we get them to do that?” Jeremy finally asked, still tap tap tapping.
“Ignore them,” Colin answered. “The only thing that pisses off demons more than killing one of their elites is ignoring them. That pride goes before a fall thing.”
Jeremy stopped tapping his pencil and stared at him, open mouthed and dumbfounded. “You’re suggesting we intentionally piss them off even more?”
“I think it may be the only way we can get them to meet us on our own terms. They make mistakes then. I’ve run into them before and this has worked in the past. If you’ve got a better idea, let us know.” Colin stood up. He was done with Jeremy, even if Jeremy wanted to argue with him about it or ask more questions about his past encounters. Colin didn’t want to have either conversation with him.
As he passed by the break room, he heard Anna’s familiar voice, so mellifluous and clear, and he paused outside the door. She was agitated. He could sense that even though her voice was hiding it. He heard one of the other hunter’s talking to her. It was the other guy who had wanted to go out to meet these demons tonight.
“You’re all bent out of shape about Jas’s death but you’re willing to let countless other people die. You’re a hypocrite.” Eddie was seething.
“No, I’m being realistic,” Anna retorted, still trying to keep her voice calm and level. Colin wasn’t sure he would be able to keep himself calm and level if this kept up. “We can’t just walk into a trap…”
Eddie interrupted her. “So what if it’s a trap? I have a family here!” He was shouting at her now.
“A lot of people have families here. That doesn’t mean we can act irresponsibly just because you’re scared,” Anna shot back.
“If you’re not scared, then you’re an idiot,” Eddie snapped.
Colin couldn’t listen to this anymore. He stepped into the break room.
“If you’re so worried about your family’s safety, Eddie, then get the hell out of here. Go home an
d protect them. You’re not endangering everyone else’s life because you’re too goddamned stupid to realize we can’t beat them. Not right now.”
Eddie’s eyes glowed with fury but he knew he couldn’t talk to Colin the way he had been talking to Anna; in fact, everyone knew that, which is why everyone else in the room had fallen silent. They had all seen Colin fight. They had all seen the way he could maneuver around demons that moved at inhuman speeds, the way he could destroy them so quickly and efficiently. And everyone was watching Eddie now, waiting for his response: everyone, that is, except Anna.
“We should get out of here. This isn’t going to help them. Eddie’s a prick, but they’re all scared. They need some time to cool off,” Anna told him.
“Before we leave Baton Rouge, you’ve got to let me hit him at least. Just once.”
Anna tried to suppress a smile.
Eddie had never taken his eyes off Colin, and he swallowed before speaking; it was so quiet in the room, they could hear the gulping sound as his saliva went down his throat.
“Well, O’Conner, I guess you wouldn’t understand, would you? Seeing how you’ve got no one you care about and no one who cares about you.”
Colin wouldn’t look at Anna. He could feel her anger rising within her but he couldn’t look at her. He knew the damage Eddie’s words had inflicted, how desperately Anna wanted to defend him. And knowing Anna, her face had flushed to a deep shade of crimson by now. Fortunately, the room was still glued to the conflict between the two men so no one was paying attention to Anna anymore. They wouldn’t notice how personally she had just taken Eddie’s insult.
Colin was far less concerned about Eddie’s attempt to humiliate him, if that’s what he’d been trying to do. “No, but I still don’t want to see people getting killed. Including us. You want to try to change Jeremy’s mind, then go for it. But leave us alone.”
immortals - complete series Page 3
