Fading Darkness (Bloodmarked #1) (39 page)

She nodded again, obviously too in shock for
twenty questions, which I appreciated. I couldn’t deal with that right now. I
just needed to be sure she wouldn’t say anything about what she saw. It had
been a while since I had to pull clean up duty. Most people attacked have so
much blood loss, they can’t be sure what happened, or they’re too shaken up to
make sense of what they really saw, but she hadn’t even been bitten. It was
harder to dismiss something when you’re fully aware of what’s going on right in
front of you.

I backed away to leave her, but before I
turned, she got her voice back. “Thank you, for what it’s worth. I mean, you
saved my life. I wish I could repay that debt,” she said.

I didn’t know how to respond. “Just stay
alive,” I said finally. I felt my heart contract and expand deep in my chest,
and it felt like it was expanding further than usual. She reminded me of why I
started saving others, not just killing vampires, but actually saving lives in
the process. No other words came, so with tight-set lips and a quick jerky nod,
I spun to leave.

For once, I decided not to run back to the
apartment. I was taking a cab. If there were assassins out there looking for
me, I needed to act more human now more than ever. Sitting in the back seat of
the musty old cab, I gazed out onto the sea of traffic lights and cars
surrounding me, already feeling lost in the crowd. I laid my head back on the
leather seat, taking in the rare moment of relaxation while I could.

The car ride dragged on slowly with frequent
stops at each light, and as I felt the car coming to another stop, hearing the
squeaking of old brakes, the door opposite where I was seated opened and closed
before I could react. When I peered over at the person, or rather thing,
sitting next to me, I relaxed my tensed position a little. The cab driver
turned his head to look at our new guest, confusion on his face.

“Oh, I’m going where she’s going,” he said
in that obnoxious silky smooth and all-too arrogant voice of his.

The cab driver turned his focus on me. “It’s
fine,” I nodded in reluctant approval.

He turned his attention back to the road as
the traffic began moving again with the green light. “Now what do you want,
Shane?” I asked shifting my focus back to the traffic outside my window.

“Sorry, was just in the neighborhood and
recognized your handiwork back there. You know, you really shouldn’t leave your
weapons lying around as a calling card,” he said.

“You know,” I mocked, turning my attention
back on him, with a cocky smile to match his. “I’m really getting bored with
your faux concern and wish you would just get to the point. What are you doing
here?”

“Nothing. Like I said. I just wanted to make
sure you weren’t being followed by any more of those bastards. I can’t have
anything happen to my partner in crime,” he said with a little more sincerity.

It was unlikely that I would ever believe
anything he said, but his presence didn’t really bother me at the moment. He
did save my life. Normally, I hated being saved by others, especially vampires,
but being recently instilled with the fear I had kept at a distance for so
long, I couldn’t afford to be too proud right now.

“Well, while I have you here, what else can
you tell me about that whole prophecy?” I asked hopefully. After what Father
Thomas had said about prophecies coming true in different ways, I became a
little curious. Maybe if I heard more, I could analyze it and figure it all
out.

“Ah, you’re wondering if it’s about you?” he
mused.

“Can you tell me anything else or not?” I
asked with growing irritation.

He measured me a moment before responding
with the most serious answer he could muster. I got the feeling he didn’t do
serious very often. “Look, it might not even be about you. You just have the
First scared and desperate because you’re the first person to successfully wipe
out a whole lot of vampires without being caught or killed yet. And to be
perfectly honest, even if it was true, I wouldn’t mind if you did take them all
out, as long as you spared me, of course. At least there would be more food for
me. You worry too much, you know?”

“We can’t all live the easy, carefree life
like some,” I said staring directly at him.

“Who me? I can’t help that I like to enjoy
my life, or afterlife I guess.” A moment later, the car came to another stop at
a street corner I recognized as being two blocks away from Gavin’s. “Well, this
is my stop,” he grabbed for his wallet, pulling out a wad of cash that he
handed to the cabby. “This is for me, and the girl.” Turning to me, he said,
“Don’t say I never gave you anything.”

“Thanks,” I said dryly. At that, he swept
out of the car, disappearing once again into the night.

When the cab pulled up in front of the giant
stone tower, I stepped out, wrapping my coat around me further like a cocoon
while I hurried to the door. Once inside, I glanced toward the reception desk
where the ever charismatic Gregory tossed me an evil glance that was completely
devoid of the venom he once injected in his stares. He had begun to warm up to
me, as much as he could when he still hated me. It never helped that I always
blew him condescending kisses and shot him winks that said ‘
Ha, ha, ha, you
have to be nice to me
.’ This time was no exception. I gave him a wicked
smile as I passed, to which he simply looked sharply in the other direction. A
laugh escaped me, which caused a couple coming out of the elevator to look up
at me peculiarly. I stepped around them as I entered the elevator, punching
Gavin’s code number in.

“Hello?” I called, stepping into the loft.
“Honey, I’m home,” I teased as I turned to close the door. When I swiveled back
around, he was there. Startled, I jumped back. He was close, too close. His
scent filled my airways, as he leaned toward me. As he reached around me, I
almost punched him until I realized his intention was just to take my coat. I
wasn’t sure I could ever get used to a guy with manners.

“You seem chipper,” he said slightly amused.
“For you, I mean,” he added insipidly.

“Well, I had a good night, as good a night
as I can have being a vampire-human hybrid, anyway,” I said. “I had a good kill,
and I saw my old neighborhood. Not that it was much to see, but it was home for
a while, a place of my very own. Plus, I don’t think anyone has moved in to my
old place yet. When I went by it, the lights were all off, and it just had that
vacant feel about it,” I stopped myself there when I realized I was starting to
ramble. I must have been in a better mood, which was strange considering how
close I was to becoming a vampire. Maybe I just needed to feel as human as
possible for as long as I could, while I could.

A strange look crossed Gavin’s face, and he
turned to take his seat in his usual chair in the living space. “Lucy, I have
to tell you something,” he said without turning back.

I followed suspiciously, “Tell me about
what?”

He sat, and I came to a seat right in front
of him on the coffee table. “Tell me about what,” I repeated, with more of an
edge in my voice that I recognized as growing anger.

“I just wanted to help, but I paid off the
rest of your lease for your apartment,” he said.

What he said wasn’t sinking in very well. It
wasn’t exactly the conversation I was expecting. “I’m sorry, what? What are you
saying?”

“When I brought you here, for your own
safety, I took care of your rent for the next few months in case you ever
wanted to return,” he said, holding something small in his outstretched hand,
my key.

I snatched it, staring at it in disbelief.
“What the hell? I never asked you to do that. You don’t owe me anything, and I
definitely don’t need to be indebted to you. Do you have any idea how hard it’s
been to live here without feeling like I owe you? You had no right!” I yelled,
jumping to my feet.

“Lucy, please don’t be mad. You don’t owe me
anything, and I don’t expect anything from you. And I don’t owe you anything,
but I did it because I knew you would feel that way. I thought that maybe, if
all this blows over some day that you could go back, that you could regain some
of that normalcy I know you long for still. In fact, I had hoped you would be
able to get back to that, because that would mean you weren’t in as much danger
as I feared, but…”

He looked at me, unable to finish his
thoughts, unable to crush my hopes of someday going back. “But there is no
going back,” I said for him. “Because I
am
in that much danger,” I
added, as that fear I felt earlier slowly crept its way back into my veins,
working its way through like morphine, slowly stinging my insides before
numbness set it, followed by the harsh metallic taste on my tongue that would
forever offer a painful reminder every time I swallowed a bitter pill of truth.

“Lucy,” he said gently, as he rose to his
feet in front of me. “Lucy,” he repeated, cupping my face in his hands, forcing
me to meet his eyes. “Look at me.” I did, mechanically, the numbness still
working its way through me. “I promise I will do everything in my power to keep
you safe.”

His eyes pierced mine as they pleaded with
me to believe him. Looking into those deep blue eyes, I wanted to. I wanted to
let the warmth in them wrap all the way around me, pull me into their safety
and let them convince me that everything was going to be okay, but there was
something in them just beneath all that warmth that made me pull away from him.
It was something that mimicked the way I felt. There was fear in his eyes,
doubt. It was doubt that he might not be able to protect me. It was the truth.
Maybe he was right all along. I couldn’t handle the truth. I felt the sting in
my eyes, and recognized that tightening in my throat that I had felt earlier
tonight.

He saw the change in me and pulled me up
into a not-so-gentle embrace. His arms wrapped all the way around my back, his
hands grasping my sides as he lifted me off the ground. I couldn’t fight it
anymore. As much as I wanted to be strong, I felt a weakness I never knew I
had. I needed the comfort of his embrace right now. I wrapped my arms around
his neck and buried my face into his shoulder. When I pulled back to look at
him, our eyes met.

For a split second I saw the unguarded fear
in his eyes, and I would have fallen to the floor had he not been holding on to
me. Seeing the look on his face, knowing how much he feared for my life knocked
the wind out of me, and it took me a moment to regain my breath. But when I
did, I realized I was too close to be looking into his eyes. My eyes were now
fixed on his lips, which happened to be only a thin space from mine. My lips
tingled with the anticipation of sensation I knew his touch would bring me.

Our foreheads met, keeping our lips at their
almost non-existent distance. He tilted his head back and forth, wavering as if
holding himself back. He moved forward briefly before his nose traced the
length of mine up to my forehead where his lips stopped wavering and planted
themselves firmly. It was a quick kiss filled with so much tension, and then he
was gone. Well, not gone, but he had flashed across the room to stand at the
door to the balcony, his back to me.

“I promised I would protect you. That’s all.
And I’m going to do that,” he said, in a low voice, that I barely heard. He was
talking to himself, not to me. “I can’t let myself get…” he trailed off.

“Promised who?” I asked.

There was no answer.
Shocker!
After a
moment, I gave up waiting for one and sat down on the couch, staring deep into
the dancing flames in the fireplace. Clearly, I was not going to learn anything
about Gavin from Gavin himself. Maybe I could talk to Shane. So far, he seemed
to be more helpful than Gavin had been lately. I had to go with my best option.
He obviously had his own opinion of him, but maybe if I got him talking, I
could siphon out some details about Gavin.

It was really more of an errant thought,
considering that any answers from Shane would just cost me. I instantly felt
guilty for thinking about it. Gavin’s done nothing but help me since I’ve met
him.

Gazing at the fire, my thoughts trailed back
to that night I found him at the club in a seemingly nefarious act. I knew he
wasn’t drinking from that girl, but that was strange because I have never seen
him drink blood before. Maybe he was really secretive about it around me, but
it made me curious. An idea began stirring in my head. I wasn’t sure if I
wanted to see him in a vulnerable state like he’s seen me in, or if I was just
desperate to know and understand him better.

My gaze trailed back to Gavin where he was staring
out the large glass door to the balcony. His posture was stiff and from what I
could see of his reflection in the glass, his brows were furrowed, eyes closed
with his head bowed as his fingers pinched the bridge of his nose. He seemed to
be having some internal debate, mumbling about a promise.

“Gavin?” His eyes popped open and pierced me
with a look that held all the usual intensity, even through the blurry
reflection. The moment his eyes snared mine, they hardened in some sort of
resolution, like he didn’t want to deal with any more internal struggles
anymore.

I wasn’t exactly sure how to broach the
subject, or even what I hoped to gain from asking, but he was such a mystery to
me, I needed to understand. He turned to study my expression, unsure of what to
expect, but the next words that came out of my mouth were as unexpected to me
as they were a shock to him. “Are you hungry?”

At first, there was nothing. He just stood
there, stunned into silence. Then, he looked at me speculatively, trying to gage
my intentions. “What?” he asked, uncertainty seeping into his tone.

“You must get hungry at some point. Why hide
it from me? Come on. Show me your fangs,” I goaded, setting my idea into motion.
“You want me to trust you? Well, I need to see first-hand what kind of a danger
you are. I need to see what the blood lust turns you into.”