Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
The house was still standing, the house where I’d spent the first decade after turning while Tralcon trained me how to kill.
It was dark. The trees around me were bare with leaves skittering along the pavement of the road.
The road was new, as were the dingy Chinese restaurant to its right and the laundromat on its left.
“It looks like a haunted house,” Gavriel murmured. “In fact, it looks like a death trap. The fact that it wasn’t bulldozed as the city expanded is a good sign. Something evil is definitely lurking there.”
I shot him a frown, then looked around at the mostly empty streets.
One old woman was carrying a bag of groceries slowly towards the small apartment building next to the laundromat.
“It’s too close to civilization. It was too close a hundred years ago when Tralcon realized that he really needed to expand. ”
“All the blood rituals were far away from here.”
“Yes.”
He inhaled deeply, his broad chest expanding in a way that caught my eye. Not that everything about him wasn’t utterly mesmerizing. “This entire area is under a spell, subtle, evil, drawing strength and life from the surrounding people, feeding on them.”
“How vampiric.”
He shot me a smile and took my hand, squeezing it gently. “Not my vampire.”
I looked away, feeling uncomfortable and guilty, but I didn’t drop his hand until he released me on his own. I wanted to kiss him and tell him to be careful. I wanted to tell him that I loved him and that he’d always have my heart. But my heart was dead.
I swallowed and pushed towards the tall chain-link fencing that was wrapped around the yard with beware signs every three feet.
“You don’t want to go in there,” the old woman called, getting my attention. Her voice was creaky, but strong enough to carry across the street.
I stared at her, then following a hunch, hurried across the street, leaving Gavriel behind.
“Why do you say that?” I asked, trying to sound polite and friendly.
She studied me with a frown. “You’re a vampire. Why are you out in the sun?”
I looked up at the overcast sky. The daylight was so diffuse, I hadn’t even noticed it. “Why did you say that I shouldn’t go into that house?”
She shrugged uncomfortably and kept walking towards the apartment’s entrance. “Most people who go in there don’t come out, or if they do, they’re changed. Sick. Kids sometimes dare each other to go into the old cursed place. But a vampire would probably be right at home there.”
“I was turned there,” I said, for some reason feeling like I needed to tell her something.
She gave me a startled look. “You were turned in that house? Then you’re from around here? When were you turned? You’re stable, so it’s been a while.”
“A hundred and ten years. Yes, it’s been a while. There wasn’t anything else out here back then, just the woods and the dirt road that led from town.”
“So, why did you come back?”
I looked over at the house and shivered. “I’m here to destroy it.”
“You want to take over?”
I looked at her and smiled. “Finally someone who doesn’t trust a vampire just because she’s polite.
But no, I never took any pleasure in the misery of others.
” Ah. That’s what Gavriel meant about angels taking pleasure in so few things.
“Can you tell me anything else about the house? Do you remember someone living there?”
“Sure. A young man I saw around town when I was a girl. He was still young when I was a young woman, and still young when I was old. But not a vampire. He disappeared ten years ago, at least stopped coming out during the day.”
Ten years ago? When I’d killed Tralcon? Was there any chance that the young man was David?
My heart twisted painfully at the thought.
I didn’t want to see him again. I absolutely didn’t.
I’d rather face a resurrected Tralcon than the man I’d sold my soul to save, who had betrayed me so quickly.
I’d spent a hundred years murdering for him.
If I’d known that was the deal, I never would have made it.
“Are you all right? You’ve gone even paler,” the old woman croaked, peering at me.
I blinked a few times and offered her a smile. “Thank you. Be sure to lock your doors at night.”
She gave me a smile in return, showing her yellowed teeth.
“Everyone in this neighborhood knows that well enough. You take care of yourself. At least you’re afraid.
I’m more worried about that angel across the street.
Angels think they can’t fall.” With that, she entered the apartment building’s bleak cement courtyard, leaving me to hurry back to Gavriel.
“You should leave,” I said, grabbing his arm.
“You mean you’d like me to watch from the top of that building while you do reconnaissance?” He shook his head. “Too risky. After the last time you were attacked, I’m not giving you an inch. If you’d like to watch from the top of the apartment building…”
I gripped his shirt and stared up into those glorious, glimmering pools of beautiful death. “You have a life to live.”
“Yes. Since I met you, I’ve felt like I have a life to live. Duty isn’t life, and without you, that’s all I have. Purpose and duty aren’t enough, not after I’ve tasted happiness and love.” He cupped my face and gazed into my eyes, his own gleaming with fervency. “I love you.”
I blinked at him, while my body went through a variety of sensations, from burning hot to icy cold. Then my heart, my poor dead heart, beat. Not once, but twice. It beat for him.
“I can’t let you die,” I whispered, my eyes burning with tears I shouldn’t have.
He gathered me close to his heart and kissed my hair. “I know, because I can’t let you die either. But that’s not your choice, like it’s not my choice. The most we can do is try to protect each other. Dying together is on my list of goals.”
I pulled away, horrified. “We aren’t dying together,” I spat.
He grinned at me. “You want me to die first?”
“Of course not. That’s impossible because I’m already dead.”
“Ah. That sounds like cheating. Tell me you love me.”
I stared at him while my heart struggled in my chest to reach out and hold him forever. “Why would I do that?”
“Well, I might die. And I want to hear that you love me. I know that you do. I ate your cake and have your card tucked in my shirt over my heart, but I want to hear it.”
I stared at him, horrified and embarrassed but unable to look away from the sincerity in his eyes.
“I…” My heart leapt into my throat, like a hand had reached up and was squeezing the love out of me.
“I love you,” I whispered. My heart beat again, sending a flush of agony through my veins as I turned and scrambled up the fence, throwing myself off the top and into the overgrown yard as far as possible.
Enough talking. Anything would be better than that, particularly hearing him casually say that he might die.
Yes, of course he might die, because that was the price of being alive, but to just say it so casually…
And I’d confessed my love? What happened to protecting his heart?
I was too selfish. How had that happened?
I used to be too selfless. Why couldn’t I just be somewhere in the middle where I could keep myself and those I loved out of trouble?
I’d had such a quiet, dull, uneventful life until I’d met David.
Had I been happy? I couldn’t tell. I’d known so much misery which should theoretically give me the ability to contain as much happiness, but the best I’d had was peace, locked in prison with nothing to kill but time.
And then Gavriel started bringing me to life, filling me with all of those feelings that I’d buried in years of numbness.
My heart had beat three times. How was that possible? Because he loved me?
It only took me a moment to get from the fence to the front porch.
It looked like it would collapse at any moment.
I glanced back at Gavriel who was directly behind my shoulder, looking innocent and sweet, also giving me a look with love in his eyes that sent a dart of agony through my chest. Love was pain.
Why did he want my love? He should cling to his duty, his purpose, and leave me to my peace and solitude.
I took a moment to soak in that look because I was weak and foolish before I turned and leapt across the porch, hitting the door with my feet and exploding it inside as the hinges gave way. I landed in a cloud of dust that I didn’t inhale, eyes searching the dark interior.
The scent of angelic blood was too strong for me to sense anything else.
There against the floral wallpaper from hundreds of years ago, Lorien dangled from chains attached to his wrists.
His blood was smeared across the floor, the walls, even the ceiling.
Someone didn’t want me to smell anything else.
I leapt to the wall to my right, opposite the angel, hit the wall and then leapt off that surface, grabbing those chains and snapping them with my jaws.
I tasted the demon blood in them and tasted Tralcon.
Lorien fell to the ground while I leapt from that wall to the stairs.
I stayed outside the railing, moving as fast as I could, blurring until I was on the top floor, but it wasn’t high enough, not if Tralcon stood on the widow’s walk, gazing over his desolate domain.
The trapdoor was locked. I grabbed the frame and swung up, kicking it open.
It took three tries for it to burst, and then I flew up with it, landing lightly on the spire that would cut anyone else’s hands.
A figure stood where Tralcon had always stood, but he was thinner, with a posture that was slightly slouched, apologetic, like the first time David had asked me if I had poetry.
“It took you so long to find me,” he said, his thin voice cutting me into a million pieces. The wind blew around me, and I felt it like ice picks to the bone. David turned around slowly until he met my gaze.