The Devil's Angel (Devil Series Book 2) (19 page)

“Are you saying my money isn’t good? That it would be better if my charities never received a dime from me?”

“I’m saying it would be better if you chose a different career. The money you give to charity is dirty money. You go ask the beneficiaries if they want your money knowing it was made by freeing murderers and rapists. If they are any kind of a decent human being, they will throw the money back in your face.”

“Well done,” Arthur said, clapping quietly. “It’s what I’ve been trying to tell her for years.”

The music changed to a soft waltz. Lucien seized the opportunity.

“May I have this dance?” he asked Eve.

She smiled at him. “I thought you’d never ask.”

He took her to the center of the room, maneuvering in and out of the many masked couples, and pulled her close to his chest. Even though it had been centuries since he’d danced last, he found it was like riding a bicycle. He expertly moved their bodies matching every beat.

“Thank you for getting me away from the table. I can’t stand it when people justify their bad behaviors simply because they do something that seems good in the eyes of others.”

“You don’t belong with them anyway.” He twirled her around and then pulled her back to his chest.

“Where do I belong?” she whispered, but it was more an out-loud thought then a direct question.

He stopped moving and looked down at her. “Tonight, you belong right here—with me.”

They danced for the next several hours, unaware of the time, neither taking their eyes off each other. Even when Charlie interrupted Eve for a dance, she never stopped looking at Lucien as he stood, waiting against the wall. As far as Lucien was concerned, she was the only other person in the room.

Toward the end of the night, the music slowed and the crowd thinned out, candles burning low. His arm remained tight around Eve’s waist; beneath her sheer dress, her muscles flexed in time to the music.

All of a sudden, the pressure in the room changed as if a storm had approached. Lucien looked around for the source of the change.

“What’s wrong?” Eve asked.

“Stay here.” He walked away from her, but after only thirty feet, he turned back around to catch a glimpse of Eve on the dance floor. “Pachebel Cannon” filled the air as beautiful couples danced around her—no, for her, he decided. A tribute to a beautiful Goddess. The sight was mesmerizing.

Then, as if a shot had been fired, something evil entered the room. Lucien faced the left entrance where two vampires crossed the threshold into the ballroom. At the same time, two others entered from the right.

Lucien quickly locked eyes with Charlie, who was standing up with a grim expression on his face and a cell phone to his ear. He, too, must have sensed the evil. Charlie said into the phone, “Get here as quickly as possible.”

Lucien looked back at Eve whose eyes were closed as she listened to the music. She didn’t sense the impending danger.

He glanced back and forth to each set of vampires who stealthy moved toward Eve like predatory cats. He recognized Bill as one of them. Lucien walked quickly to Eve, hoping to get to her before they did.

In the corner of his vision, he saw Charlie pull the red lever of a fire alarm. A loud whistle exploded into the air. People everywhere frantically looked around as they decided if there was any immediate danger.

Charlie helped them along. “Fire! Everybody out!”

People jumped and rushed to the entrance all at once in a chaotic mess. In his haste, a man knocked Eve onto all fours. Lucien rushed to her, but Bill made it to her first.

Eve’s gaze met Lucien’s just as Bill clamped his large hand around her neck, and with the other hand, he tore the wings from her costume where they fell in a crumpled heap. For the first time, there was fear in Eve’s eyes.

Lucien was careful not to make any sudden moves. He knew Bill would snap her neck before he could get to her—whether that would kill or not, he wasn’t sure, and he didn’t want to find out.

The other vampires eyed him dangerously through the crowds of rushing people. He slowly pushed the frenzied humans to the side as he walked closer to Eve in a non-threatening manner.

Lucien maintained eye contact with Eve, who stared back at him frantically. Her eyes bulged when Bill squeezed harder on her neck. He shook his head at Lucien, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Behind him, Charlie was barking orders at the hotel staff.

Eve’s frantic eyes glazed over, and their jade color grew lighter and lighter until they were almost white. Her features suddenly relaxed, and she displayed no signs of stress, despite the fact that there was a vampire squeezing the life out of her.

With Eve’s physical change came a variation in the air. It felt electric and pulsated with invisible life. Even Bill seemed to notice, and he looked around anxiously as if trying and determine the source.

Just then, a blast of cold air rushed through the room with a fierceness that turned over tables and chairs. Glasses and plates shattered on the ground, and the four vampires were tossed across the room, including Bill whose body whistled through the air like a deflated balloon.

One of the vampires came crashing down onto the leg of an overturned table; it pierced his heart, and he burst into a cloud of ash. Lucien guessed his death was intentional.

A second vampire landed near Charlie, who had a gun pulled and pointed. One blast from it sent the vampire into a violent fit; his body jerked and twisted in ways Lucien didn’t think possible. Charlie jumped on him, trying to get a good shot at his heart with a wooden dagger that he had removed from his boot.

The ballroom was almost entirely empty. Chaotic screams found their way in from the foyer, and in the far distance, a fire truck’s siren wailed.

In the center of the ballroom, Eve stood alone, the air still flowing with electric energy. And then suddenly, it stopped, and she collapsed to the ground. Lucien was there to catch her unconscious body.

A long-haired vampire rushed at Lucien. Lucien dodged and kicked him in the back, sending the vampire to the ground and sliding across the floor. With a lifeless Eve in his arms, Lucien backed up to the corner of the room, unsure if he would make it to the exit in time.

Bill, who looked abnormally calm, strolled toward him. The long-haired vampire recovered and moved toward Charlie who’d just finished stabbing the stunned vampire in the heart.

“Charlie!” Lucien yelled.

Charlie glanced up just in time to see the fist of the vampire smash him in the face. The crack of his nose breaking echoed in the large room. Charlie joined Eve in unconsciousness.

“I should’ve recognized you before, Lucien,” Bill said.

Lucien kept backing up toward the south exit. “We all make mistakes.”

Bill followed. “I can only imagine the kind of reward I’ll get when I kill you and capture her.”

“That’s what the other Bill said right before I killed him.”

Bill raised his eyebrows. “Thank you for saving me the time.”

The long-haired vampire circled behind Lucien. Lucien needed to do something before he became trapped.

“Why don’t you put the girl down? I need to make sure nothing happens to her while I kill you,” Bill said.

“Good idea.” Turning sideways, as to keep both vampires in view, he carefully laid Eve on circular table that was still standing. Her dress absorbed the spilled wine on the table, staining her white gown red.

No longer holding precious cargo, Lucien let all the powers of his vampirism take over. When he turned to face Bill with fangs extended, he was more than ready for a fight.

He dropped to the ground and swiped Bill’s legs out from under him. He leapt up to jump on top of Bill, but the long-haired vampire pulled him down by the back of his jacket.

Lucien fell to the ground and rolled into a backwards summersault. Then he quickly arched upward with his hands at his shoulders and kicked the vampire in the face. From behind him, Bill kicked his back, his steel-toed cowboy boot hammering into his ribs.

Lucien was a little slower getting up. Bill and the other vampire had him cornered. He rushed the long-haired vampire and crashed into him. Together they fell on top of an overturned table. Lucien rolled toward a wooden chair to rip off its leg. He barely managed to snap it off before the vampire grabbed his foot and twisted.

Lucien moved his body with the twist, preventing his bones from breaking. With his other foot, he kicked at the vampire. Lucien struck him several times in the chest before he finally let go.

Just in time too. Bill was midair and coming down on top of him, a sharpened wooden dagger in his hand. Lucien rolled away, missing death by a fraction of a second. When Bill landed on the ground, Lucien snatched up a broken plate and whirled it at Bill. It sliced through a good chunk of Bill’s neck. Not enough, but it bought Lucien some time.

Lucien scurried away on all fours, deliberately moving slowly as if tired. The long-haired vampire took advantage of what he must’ve thought a weak moment and leapt into the air. Just as he was about to land on Lucien’s back, Lucien turned over and shoved the broken chair leg through his heart. The force was enough to make the vampire explode into a shower of ash. Lucien spit and wiped the dust from his face.

“I can see how you survived,” Bill said. He had healed and was standing near a table against the wall, wiping blood with a napkin from off the front of his shirt.

“Excuse me?”

“Very few men, and even fewer vampires, fight to stay alive like you do. Why do you do it? What makes you want to live?”

The question startled Lucien. “Why do you live?”

Bill shrugged. “For power, money, all the things I didn’t have when I was human.”

“But those things can be taken away.”

“And so can life. So why do any of us bother?”

“To prove ourselves,” Lucien said. Covertly, he scanned the area for anything he could use against him.

“Prove ourselves to who?” Bill asked.

“To anyone who might be watching.”

“And what exactly are we trying to prove?”

“That despite all opposition, we will never give up. We will fight for what we believe in until the very last breath is forced from our lungs.”

Bill nodded. “How very inspirational. To fight for what we believe in.”

Bill reached behind his back and pulled out a gun identical to Charlie’s. He pointed it at Lucien’s chest.

“I
believe
,” Bill said, “that I will become ten times more powerful when I kill you and deliver the woman to the Dark Prince—and I’m willing to fight for it.”

His finger pulled the trigger.

Lucien prepared to bolt, hoping he could move out of the way from the blast in time. The gun exploded, but it wasn’t Lucien who fell—it was Bill. From behind him, a bloody-faced Charlie was sitting up with the gun pointed.

“Get her out of here,” he said, motioning to Eve.

Lucien didn’t argue. He took Eve in his arms and moved toward the least chaotic exit. There was so much going on that no one paid him any attention. He escaped to the rear of the building where he used his vampire speed to race through the complex mazes of alleys to the hotel where he could retrieve one of the hotel’s vehicles. It was a good thing Eve was unconscious, or his speed would make her extremely sick.

Lucien drove straight to where he thought no one would come looking for them: his home by the sea.

The time was just past one in the morning. Instead of using the front door, he jumped to the balcony of the master bedroom where he knew he would find a pair of unlocked French doors. He looked down at Eve resting peacefully in his arms. She felt no heavier to him than the jacket on his back.

He set her carefully in bed and laid down next to her. Eve’s eyes moved steadily beneath her closed lids. Whatever she did back at the hotel had taken a dangerous toll on her body.

Eve was still unconscious when morning came, but what really concerned him was her breathing. It had become shallow; her chest barely moved up and down. And nothing he did seemed to rouse her.

He paced the room. He had to do
something
. After making sure she was as comfortable as possible, he decided to pay the Deific a visit.

Because it was daytime and he was far from the city, he chose to take a faster car. In his garage, he found several vehicles, but only one stood out—a brand new, black Dodge Viper. He never bought his own cars; it was Scott who took on this task, and Lucien was glad he did. Scott had impeccable taste.

In record time, he pulled up in front of the Deific. The familiar guard, Don, rose to greet him.

“I need to see Charlie,” Lucien said.

“He’s busy.”

Lucien moved lightning quick behind him. In his ear he hissed, “Tell him Lucien’s here to see him.”

Lucien smelled fear, but Don kept his composure. He picked up the phone and said exactly what Lucien told him to say and then hung up.

“Third floor,” Don said, pointing to an elevator at the back of the building.

“I know.”

When the elevator doors opened, Charlie was there waiting. He had two black eyes and a swollen nose. “Where’s Eve?”

“At my house.”

Charlie raised his eyebrows. “Truthfully?”

“Why?”

Charlie opened and closed his mouth a few times before speaking. “I didn’t know you had a home.”

“Now you do.”

“How is she?” Charlie asked

“Still sleeping. How do I fix it?” Lucien didn’t like small talk, and this place made him feel strangely contemptible.

“I have something that might work. Follow me.”

Once inside his office, Charlie fumbled through many small bottles in a cupboard behind his desk. He cursed loudly as he knocked over one of them. “This will take a minute. Hang on.”

Finally, Charlie found what he was looking for, but as he moved to hand Lucien the glass vial, it fell from his fingers. Lucien’s quick reflexes caught it before it hit the ground and broke. Charlie cursed again. He stood up, muscles tense and looking as if he was going to scream.

“What’s with you?” Lucien asked.