by Raven Steele
"Fight this!" she yelled at him, great tears welling in her eyes.
Lucien moved away, stunned. She really did care for him, but how deep did her feelings go? Were any part of them Eve's?
"Did you have to kill him?" Llona whispered at him, her tone sharp.
This caught Eve's attention. She spun around even as Bo gasped for his last breath.
"You did this!" She stared at Lucien with an icy glare. That glare changed to confusion the deeper she looked. That's when Lucien realized his mistake. He'd forgotten to mask his vampirism.
"You're a vampire?" she asked. Her eyes flashed to Llona and then back to Lucien.
He straightened tall. "I am."
Eve snapped her hand forward, sending a blast of invisible energy directly at him. He flew back into the wall, his head smacking the bricks before he slid to the floor.
"I trusted you!"
"As you should." He groaned and pushed himself to his feet. "It's Bo who has betrayed you."
"Says the man who just murdered him!" Her gaze lowered to Bo, and she choked on a sob. She slumped over. "Why?"
"Bo wasn't who he said he was," Llona said, her voice soft.
Eve jerked her head around. "And you two are?"
"Please listen, Eve," Lucien said, trying to keep his voice even.
Her gaze slowly met his, and she rose to her feet, not with any physical effort but by using magic. Her whole body lifted as if a string pulled her up from the spine. "You keep calling me that name. I don't like it."
She raised her finger and whispered, "Dolor." Lucien doubled over in instant agony. His gut burned with intense heat.
"Stop!" Llona cried. Her hands lit up like she was going to attack Eve.
"No," Lucien moaned through the pain. "Don't hurt her."
"I will if she doesn't stop," Llona snapped back.
Eve glanced at Llona. "I really thought we could've been friends."
"We can be," Llona said, "but you have to listen. Your name is not Reina. It's Eve, and this man, er, this vampire," she pointed at Lucien, "loves you. He's been searching for you for months."
Eve snorted, her hand raised and fingers curled to keep hold of the spell causing Lucien pain. "That doesn't even make sense. The only person alive that might've loved me is lying dead on the floor. You will pay for what you've done."
Lucien growled. They didn't have time for this. He pushed past the pain and summoned magic. It swelled with him, warming his body. He closed his eyes and thought the words, "Privo dolor," and opened them back up. The burning sensation on his insides disappeared, and he straightened.
Eve frowned and tightened her fingers as if to make her mental grip on him tighter but nothing happened. Fear flashed in her eyes.
"Your life is in immediate danger," he said. "We must get you out of here."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," she said through a clenched jaw. Her hands lowered to her sides, and her fingers spread open. She mumbled something under her breath, and a sudden, intense pressure filled the room.
"Maybe we should go," Llona whispered at him. "Give her a little time."
"We don't have time."
"But we do have our lives, and I'd like to keep it that way."
He said nothing. The room grew colder, the air thinner. A wind picked up and blew through the room, scattering papers and tipping over a tall lamp. Eve stood in the center, her hair blowing all around. Her eyes began to glow bright green.
"I can’t breathe," Llona choked.
"Stop this!" Lucien called to Eve, but she seemed beyond hearing. "I don't want to hurt you!"
"Lucien," Llona cried weakly as she fell to her knees, clawing at her chest. Her lips were turning blue.
He ground his teeth together, already regretting what he was about to do, but it had to be done. He lunged for Eve. She stretched her arm out as if to stop him, but this version of her wasn't strong enough.
He plowed into her, holding her tight as they tumbled to the ground not far from Bo's body. The wind ceased and fresh air filled the room.
"Get off of me!" she yelled from on top of him.
He held her close, pressing her chest to him despite her fists beating into him. "You have to listen to me! The DSRD is coming for you! You're not safe here anymore."
She continued to struggle beneath his grip. "You're a liar!"
She pressed on him hard and sent a jolt of electricity into his chest.
His teeth ground together, but he held on despite the pain. "Damn it, Eve! Relax! I'm not going to hurt you. It's the last thing I would ever do."
She froze, her body rigid in his arms, something he never thought he’d feel. "But you did hurt me. You're a vampire."
Lucien felt like he'd been punched in the heart. His arms loosened, and she scrambled away, her eyes full of tears.
She came to her feet and choked on a sob. "What do you want from me?"
Llona answered for him. He was too shocked by her confession. Did his being a vampire hurt her that much?
"We just want to protect you. The DSRD is coming for you."
"But why? I'm a nobody." Her chest rose and fell rapidly and her eyes darted around the destroyed room.
"That's what we're trying to tell you," Llona said. "You're not a nobody. You're a powerful witch, born to the world's most powerful witch families. You were given a necklace that holds great power. The president wants it and will stop at nothing to get it."
Her nose scrunched together. "The President? As in the President of the United States? Do you know how stupid that sounds?"
Llona shrugged. "I get it, I do. But it's still the truth."
Lucien finally found the strength to stand. Eve pressed her hand at him as if to use magic again if necessary. He spoke quickly. "He's not the President anymore. This morning he resigned to become the head of the DSRD. He's had his men searching for you for months. Bo was one of them. He found you and was instructed to gain your trust."
"But why? And why should I believe you?" A single tear streaked down her cheek.
"It's a long story, one that gets stranger if you don't know the truth about yourself. Just know that the DSRD is coming to unlock a certain memory from you, specifically the location of that powerful necklace, the one you hid. The problem is you wouldn't remember where it came from or why you hid it to begin with. They hoped in your confusion you’d turn to Bo. That information was the only reason he was here."
Eve took a step back. "This is crazy. You two are crazy!"
In the distance, sirens blared. Someone must've called the police about all of the commotion. He had to act quickly. If the police apprehended them, they would easily hand them over to the DSRD.
"Did you call the police department in Blue Ridge?" he asked.
She hesitated and stepped back again. "Let's say I did and that you were right, and no one has heard of me or my mother's case. That doesn't prove anything you're saying."
"I agree, but if you could just come with us, we think we can unlock your memories."
She glanced over her shoulder toward the open door. "So you want to fix my memory just like the DSRD?"
"We want to fix the whole thing, and not just a fragment. Then you’d know the truth for yourself."
Sirens grew closer. He didn't want to do it, but he might just have to take her whether she liked it or not.
"If what you are saying is true, how did my memories get replaced?"
An old and familiar pain returned to Lucien's chest. "You did it to yourself."
She touched her heart as if it was hurting and slid two steps back into the doorway, her breathing quickening. "I can't listen to this anymore. It's too much."
"Wait!" Llona called.
Lucien lunged for Eve, but she took off running down the hall from her apartment, toward the direction the police were now coming toward. He could hear their footsteps pounding up the stairs.
"Help!" Eve yelled. "Someone has broken into my neighbor's house!"
He whirled
around. "We need to get out of here."
"Don't worry about me, just go,” Llona said. “Meet me on the roof on the building across the street in five minutes."
"But I can carry you!"
"Someone might see. Just do your weird smoke thing. Go! I'll be fine, trust me." She shoved him toward the window. The police were seconds away.
He shoved open the window and leapt outside, dematerializing as he went. Hovering, he glanced back at Llona and frowned. Her whole body was shimmering, the way a puddle shines in the sunlight. He pushed upwards, keeping to the roofline where he would be less noticed.
The police had the house surrounded. Eve was outside speaking to a female police officer who was patting her on the back. When he thought no one was looking, he darted across the street high in the air and circled back to a much nicer and larger home across the street. He reappeared behind a tall parapet barrier that jutted upward from the walls of the house. It hid the pitched roof, while also making it easier to stand on. He slowly peeked over the edge.
"Come on, Llona," he whispered. He had no idea how she was going to get by so many people unnoticed.
A few minutes passed. The woman officer continued to console Eve, who seemed genuinely upset, but when another officer called the woman over, Eve slowly backed away, going completely unnoticed. He kept his eyes on her until she disappeared into a narrow alley between two houses.
"A little help here."
He startled and turned around. Llona was hanging onto the peak of the roof attempting to climb over.
"How did you get here?" he asked, a little unnerved that she had caught him off guard. He would need to be more careful. He trailed up the pitched roof and easily lifted her the rest of the way.
She rubbed the back of her head as if she had just bumped it. "Walked and climbed."
"How did you get past everyone?"
"Just a little trick I know. I can turn invisible. Not for very long, but I've got it up to ten minutes now. It sure gives me a wicked headache though."
"I'm impressed."
Llona peered over the parapet wall and surveyed the scene below. "Where did Eve go? I just saw her."
"The second that cop turned her back, she was gone. She went that way." He pointed to his right.
Llona grimaced, then dropped to the top of the roof, sitting atop the blackened shingles and lowered her head to her knees.
"We should probably go after her," he urged.
"Just give me a second. I need to recover. Besides, I know how to track her, remember?"
He lowered next to her and waited, trying to be patient.
"Eve sure was upset," Llona said after a few minutes. "Did you really have to kill Bo?"
"He tried to kill me first."
"Would you have spared him if he hadn't?"
He didn't answer because he knew he wouldn't have. He would've killed him simply for putting Eve's life in danger.
"If I can get near Eve," Llona said, "I can juice her up with a lot of my Light. Not only will it help strengthen your magic mojo, but it will help calm her too. She's got some major inner turmoil going on."
"She's been through a lot."
"Have you come up with a spell to counteract hers?"
"Not yet." Truth was, he thought he would have more time, but time had run out. He should have been more prepared. He should have been preparing these last several months, becoming as strong as possible. Instead he had been wallowing in self-pity. He only hoped Eve wouldn’t pay the ultimate price for his mistakes.
Chapter 17
"Are you sure she’s here?" Lucien asked. In front of him was a giant warehouse, as tall as it was wide. Metal sheeting ran in strips from the roof to the ground. The afternoon sun reflecting off the shiny copper was giving Lucien a headache.
"Positive." Llona peered out from around the side of an abandoned gas station.
They were in a part of Rouen that hadn't been rebuilt yet after a hurricane had destroyed the area a few years ago. The devastation left behind made several city blocks look like it had once been part of a war zone. Many of the buildings were tagged in brightly colored spray paint and grass grew through the cracks in the scarred road.
Lucien ducked inside the broken door of the station where he could observe the warehouse freely behind tinted windows. Three of five shelving units had been tipped over, their contents long ago stolen. Several broken beer bottles had either been shattered or shot at. Glass and shell casings littered the ground.
Llona came in after him, stepping carefully around the glass.
He refocused his hearing on sounds coming from the building. There were so many that it was hard to tell what he was listening to. The building looked abandoned, but the sounds of life told him otherwise.
A TV blared from somewhere inside, an action film by the sound of muffled gunfire. Someone laughed. Others talked. There was even a ball bouncing along with the shuffling of many feet. People were playing basketball. What is this place?
"If Eve really is in there, she's not alone." He inhaled deeply and immediately recoiled. Rotten meat.
"What is it?" she asked.
"shifters. Lots of them."
She glanced back at the building curiously. "Makes sense Eve would come here. She's probably seeking help."
"But she has no idea that some, if not all of them, are working for the DSRD."
"True. So what do we do?"
He drew his eyebrows together, thinking hard. "We need to get them out of there so you and I can confront Eve."
For the last few hours, as they were tracking Eve, he had been thinking about the spell and the powerful words that would be needed. He tried several different lines, but none of them seemed to spark.
Maybe if he could get his mind off Eve and the look of hurt that had been in her eyes, he might have some success, but she haunted his thoughts. Somehow just the fact that he was a vampire caused her pain. It didn't make sense. He remembered what Henry had said about finding an underlying reason, but he couldn't think of any that didn't make him doubt his and Eve's relationship. Maybe she had secretly felt this way all along, especially after everything she had been through with Boaz.
With her finger, Llona traced a circle through the grime on the window. "We need to know how many are in there." She finished the picture by adding downward pointed eyebrows, empty eyes and a straight mouth.
"Wait here." He slipped outside and burst into the air, a cloud of pale smoke. He circled the building searching for a way in. At the rear of the building, he found a window on what was probably the third floor. He hovered near the glass and peered inside. It looked like an office of some kind. A dusty, metal desk was pushed against the wall and a file cabinet had been tipped on its side. But the room was empty, and that’s what they needed. He hurried back to Llona and materialized in front of her.
"You know that's highly disturbing, right?" she said, pocketing her cell phone.
"There's a place we can hide inside. I can take you."
"But what if we're seen?"
"I'll be careful. Follow me."
Keeping to the shadows, he snuck through the alleyways to get as close as possible to the warehouse. Llona stayed close behind him. He was amazed at how calm she was. It's like she had done something like this before.
"Hang on tight," he said when he dared go no further.
She jumped onto his back. "Ready."
He flew upward and zigzagged through a couple of brick buildings until he was back at the window.
"How are we supposed to get in?" she asked, her voice quiet.
"Just push it open. Break it if you have to."
"But they might hear me."
"Try to be quiet then."
Lucien hovered as close as possible to the window, but Llona still had to maneuver herself in a way that she could get at the glass while also not falling to her death. At one point she nearly lost her balance, but he quickly reached back with his hand to steady her.
"This is so awk
ward," she mumbled. "It's not budging."
She slipped off her jacket and wrapped it around her fist. She punched into the window just enough for a spiderlike crack to erupt across the surface. Carefully, she wiggled a large section free and dropped it inside onto worn carpet. She then removed the remaining glass in a similar fashion until the window was mostly empty.
She crawled off of him into the room, cutting her arm on a stray shard of glass she must have missed. "Damn it!"
"Are you all right?" Lucien slid in after her.
She blotted at the wound with her jacket. "It's just a scratch." She looked up and around. "Where are we?"
He crossed the room to a large, shaded interior window and peered out between slated blinds. "It looks like some kind of supervisor's office. See? It overlooks the whole building."
Just down below cracked concrete floors took up most of the space. He noticed the guns right away; at least eight sprawled out on a folding table near what he guessed was the entrance. There were also several small desks pressed against the wall and stacked on top of each other. Next to them was a pile of old, mechanical-looking equipment. He recognized a few sewing machines. "This probably used to be some sort of sewing plant."
"Looks like the shifters made good use of it."
There were at least a dozen of them he could see, and who knew how many more he couldn't. A few of them had a sofa pushed in front of a huge screen TV hanging on the wall. Others sparred in a corner or played basketball in an open area on the other side of the building.
He craned his neck, trying to see every hidden corner. "Do you see Eve?"
"No, but I still sense her. What do you think they are doing here?"
"I doubt they live here. My guess is it's a base of operations. See the weapons over there? It's like they’re waiting for orders."
She turned to the window and looked over the warehouse with him. Eve appeared, walking along side Terence, the shifter who had been at the bridge.
"Can you hear what they are saying?" Llona asked.
He trained his hearing, trying to hear over the sounds of the blaring television and the bouncing ball, but he only caught bits and pieces. "It doesn't make any sense. I'm only picking up random words."
