There's Always Tomorrow (Immortal Series) (7 page)

“Stop it.
 
You’re hurting me,” she protested.
 
“I can’t understand you.
 
What do you want?”
 
Sophie was surprised that she had any
voice at all, considering she was petrified with fear.
 
The repulsive creature was demanding
some kind of an answer, but to what?

He shook her
small body like a rag doll and grunted louder.
 
He started to wail and thrash about.
 
The man was afraid of something and
changed directions, dragging an unwilling Sophie behind him.
 

* * *

As Tony
continued to search the darkness, a loud jolt stabbed his brain.
 
It was
him.
 
Finally!
 
Immediately, Tony focused all his attention to the
animalistic sounds he heard, mentally.
 
What could he discover hidden in the background noises?
 
Voices?
 
Laughter?
 
It
was the same as what surrounded him now, but those were the common sounds of a
city, and could be found on any dozen such streets.
 
He strained to hear more of the background.
 
Suddenly, his blood froze in his
veins.
 
“Oh God!” he shouted, as he
began to run.

Tony ran wildly
through the dark streets, looking right and left, up and down dark alleys.
 
He pulled his cell from his pocket and
called Grant on his speed dial, while he continued to run in a panic.

“Yeah, what
‘cha got?” Grant asked, casually.
 
Then he heard the rapid breathing and the gasping for air.
 
“Tony?
 
What’s wrong?
 
Where are you?”

“I’m down on
Spring, heading toward SoHo.
 
I
hear
him
.
 
I hear him and…and
I hear
her
.
 
Dammit,
Grant!
 
I heard Sophie!”

Grant cursed
and hollered into the phone.
 
“I’m
on my way.
 
I’ll 911 the cops and
get them down there.
 
We’ll find
her, Tony.
 
We’ve got to.”
 
He dropped his cell into his pocket and
headed toward his friend.
 
Not a
corner or an empty lot escaped his gaze.
 
His eyes were hawk-like, allowing him to see every rat that scurried
across the dirty pavement—even the two legged ones.

“Thank God,
you’re here, Grant,” Tony said, relieved at seeing his friend.
 
“I’m certain it’s Sophie, I hear.
 
I’ve tried calling the office and she
doesn’t answer.
 
I don’t have her
cell number.
 
She screamed.
 
But the odd thing is, when I heard her
mention our names, he howled like an animal caught in a trap.
 
What do you make of that?”

“He senses
us.
 
He knows he is the
hunted.
 
We’re very close,
Tony.
 
I can see he’s heading to
the entrance of a cave or an abandoned building.”

“Could it be a
tunnel?”
 
Tony knew of several that
were close by.

“Yeah.
 
A tunnel would be perfect.
 
Show me the way.”

Losing no time,
the two men hurried toward the Hudson River.
 
Their feet flew over the cement, the cobblestones, and the
trash that attempted to trip them.

“Tony, I can
see the toddler.
 
He’s holding out
his arms to something or someone.
 
God, it’s Sophie…and she’s bleeding.
 
Hurry!”

“Down here,”
Tony yelled.

As they reached
the entrance to an abandoned tunnel, the men stopped.
 
They couldn’t just rush in and expect him to give himself
up.
 
No, he’d hurt his prisoners,
first.

Grant snagged
Tony by the shoulders to stop his forward momentum.
 
“I know you want to run in there, but that’s not a good
idea.
 
I can see through his eyes
from this distance.
 
In complete
darkness, I can see.
 
You can’t,
Tony.
 
Stay here.
 
Guard the exit and don’t let him
pass.
 
No matter what you hear,
don’t leave this spot.
 
I’ll save
them.
 
I swear it.”
 
Grant stared deep into Tony’s eyes,
seeing all the pain and sorrow the man had suffered over the many decades of
his life.
 
“It’ll be okay,
Tony.”
 
The Hunter turned and crept
silently into the dark entrance of the tunnel.

One small
candle flickered valiantly, in the paralyzing darkness.
 
“A baby.
 
You took the baby,” Sophie rasped.
 
The pain in her head was blinding.
 
Weakly, she held out her trembling hand to the child.
 
He giggled and cooed at the pretty
lady.

Swiftly, the
monster knocked her hand away and ran his sharp talons up her harm, causing her
bright red blood to spill upon the ground.

The baby cried.

“Garrr,” the
man growled, softly, almost tenderly, as he picked up the young child.
 
Running his finger through the river of
blood, he tried to entice the boy to open his mouth.
 
“Ahhhph,” he muttered.
 
Still, the child continued to cry and reached out for the pretty young
woman.

Angered, the
man tossed the child aside and settled upon the woman.
 
In the darkness, he could see her
beauty.
 
She was exquisite, and so
innocent and tender.
 
He hated her
and he would destroy her soon enough.
 
Licking his lips, he nipped at her creamy white throat, imagining the
warm liquid flowing from her veins and running down his throat.
 
He could smell the rich, iron fragrance
of her blood as he broke the skin and filled his nostrils.
 
Licking at the dark trickle of blood,
his eyes rolled over in his head with desire and an unquenchable thirst.
 
It was sweeter than ambrosia…pure
nectar of the Gods…and it was what he lived for.
 
He howled and bared his teeth, preparing for the kill, when
the violent pain in his abdomen forced him to double over.

“Not now!”
he screamed, silently.
 
“Aaagh!’ he
cried aloud.
 
He rolled away from
the woman and writhed on the hard ground.
 
It couldn’t be.
 
He had
stayed away from all others of his kind.
 
For more than fifty years he had been able to hide from them.
 
But the incredible pain that roiled in
his stomach would not be denied.
 
An immortal was near.

He tried to
stand, but his legs were weakened.
 
Sadly, he glanced over at the beautiful woman he wanted so badly, and at
the funny little pet he’d kept, to keep away the loneliness.
 
It wasn’t fair.
 
“Not now!”
 
Not when he had everything he wanted.

He blew out the
candle.
 
He would be safe in the
darkness.

Grant could
smell the incredible stench of the insane.
 
The smell of old blood and rotten flesh permeated the
air.
 
He had discovered the
monster’s lair.
 
He could see
Sophie, bleeding, but she was still alive.
 
He saw the toddler crying and trying to crawl to
Sophie.
 
How close was he?
 
He needed to feel his way through the
darkness.
 
It was completely black
in the abandoned cavern.
 
Slowly he
stepped, feeling the cool air currents brush against his face.
 
He drew his knife from his boot.

Then he
saw
himself, with his knife pulled and aimed directly at the seer.
 
Swiftly, and without hesitating, Grant
sliced through the darkness, watching himself attack the monster.
 
He felt the knife slide through muscle,
severing bone, and come through to the other side.
 
The severed head rolled across the damp floor.

That quickly,
it was over.
 
He felt it,
immediately.
 
He could no longer
see in the darkness.
 
The fiend was
no longer able to see him.
 
His
yellow eyes had closed.

“Sophie!” he
yelled.
 
“Sophie, it’s me,
Grant.
 
Where are you,
sweetheart?
 
I can’t see you.
 
Hold out your hand.”
 
He heard her sniffle and moan.
 
The baby began to cry in earnest.
 
He reached out and felt the small child
crawling on his knees.

“I’ve got you,
little guy,” he said, softly to the small child, as he picked him up in his
arms.
 
“Sophie, say something.”

There were
several minutes of silence before he heard the feminine voice.
 
“Grant?”

“Sophie!
 
Stand up, sweetheart, and put out your
hands.
 
I’ll get you out of
here.
 
Tony is waiting for us at
the entrance.”

“I can’t stand
up, Grant.
 
I think something is
broken.”

“Okay.
 
I’m going to take the baby outside, and
then I’ll come back for you.
 
Don’t
be frightened.
 
He can’t hurt you
any longer.
 
I’ll be right back to
get you.
 
Hang in there, girl.”

Sophie nodded
in the dark.
 
“Grant?”

Grant hesitated
for a moment.
 
“Yes, darling?”

“Use your
cell.”

“I don’t need
to talk to anyone right now.
 
I
need to find our way out of here.”

“I know.
 
Use it to light your way.
 
It’s like a flashlight.
 
Sheesh, Grant.
 
Get with the times,” she groaned.

He
chuckled.
 
She was right.
 
Grant decided to bone up on the most
recent technology…just as soon as he had the time.

Tony heard
footsteps approaching the entrance to the tunnel and prepared to attack.
 
No one would get past him.
 
Instead, what he saw made his heart
skip a beat.
 
A very large man,
cradling a very small child, in his arms, came stumbling out of the darkness,
looking as if he’d just seen the opened gates of hell.
 
Clutched tightly in his fist was his
cell phone, bringing badly needed light to his path.

“Where’s
Sophie?” Tony demanded to know, as he ran toward the pair.

“She’s hurt and
I have to…Hey!
 
Where you
going?
 
You can’t see in
there.”
 

Grant smiled
has he cuddled the curly head under his chin.
 
The boy was asleep.
 
How do kids do it, he asked himself?
 
He looked back at the mouth of the tunnel and shook his head
slowly.
 
His friend had it bad for
little Sophie.
 
They would be good
for each other, he predicted, if Tony would allow her into his life.
 
She already resided in his heart.

Tony opened his
cell phone and thanked God for the bright light it emitted.
 
“Better than a flashlight,” he mumbled.
 
“Sophie?
 
Where are you, sweetie?
 
It’s me…Tony.
 
I
want to take you out of here.”
 
He
listened for her response.

In the
distance, he heard a slight scuffling sound, and headed toward it.

“Tony?”
 
Her voice could barely be heard, but it
sounded sweet to his ears.
 
She
coughed once, and he could hear her rapid breathing.

Turning his
phone to the side of the tunnel, his light fell upon a glorious sight.
 
Sitting against the wall, with her
springy curls coiling around her beautiful face, sat his Sophie.
 
Her enormous eyes were trained on him
and he watched as her lips turned up at the corners and her cheeks dimpled in a
big smile.

“Tony, you came
for me,” she said in wonder.

On his knees,
he lifted her hands to his lips and cried.
 
“My God, Sophie.
 
I was so worried.
 
Are you
hurt?”

She shook her
head.
 
“Take me out of here, Tony,”
she pleaded.

Gently, he
lifted her, and carried her out into the fresh night air.
 
Grant still held the sleeping toddler,
as a bevy of patrol officers started milling about.
 
The news crews had just arrived and were jostling for the
best position to report live.
 
The
baby’s parents were on their way.
 
It was going to be a great human-interest story, but Tony and Sophie
would not be a part of it.

“Grant, can you
handle all this?
 
I want to keep
Sophie out of the news, if I can.
 
She needs to see a doctor and then she needs some rest.
 
I want to take care of her.”
 
Tony was still holding the young woman
in his arms, hiding her face from the reporters.