Vampire - When Darkness Falls Part 11

Lucian leaned forward. "So what upset you so badly?"

"Oh! Oh, well, I ... uh ... I have odd jobs to make ends meet. I work at the morgue, and it's been interesting, and I've learned a lot, but Jesus! Last night ..."

"Last night?"

"We had an accident victim. A kid. Went right through the front window of a car. Man ..."

"Ripped up, I take it?"

"To shreds. But the oddest thing, the most awful, was..."

Daniel looked down, breathing in.

"The most awful was ... ?" "The head."

"What about it?"

"It was"-he moistened his lips-"off ... but not completely. It was hanging by shreds of flesh and sinew and . . . there were smears of blood, but not pools of it, and the eyes, oh, G.o.d, the kid must have seen it coming, the eyes . . ."

Lucian was very still for a moment. "They're convinced he was the victim of an accident?"

Daniel exhaled. "What else? What the h.e.l.l else? They found the car in a tree. The kid was through the window, half wrapped around the tree. It happened not far from here. Near the Saint Louis Cemetery.

G.o.d, it was awful.

I've seen little kids, poor old people mugged and battered ... I've just never seen anything like this kid's eyes."

"You should go home and get some sleep."

"I'm not very tired," Daniel said, looking down into his coffee. "Or maybe I am tired. I just can't seem to shake this. I'm ..."

"What?"

Daniel hesitated. "I'm tired. But I can't sleep."

"Yes, you can."

He looked up. "I-"

"You can."

Daniel nodded. "Yeah, thanks. I'm going home now. I'm going to sleep." He stood, started to leave, then turned back awkwardly. "Nice to meet you. Thanks again. See you around."

Lucian nodded.

Daniel left. Thoughtfully, Lucian stared after him.

Jade awoke to find herself on the couch, Rick at her side.

"You okay?"

A sense of panic seized her. What had she said and done? Nothing, nothing-he had walked in; she had pa.s.sed out. He had come in very late-or very early, depending on how you looked at it He hadn't been in her bed.

She had dreamed that he was.

No, not him. Yes, it must have been! Who else would she allow into her dreams, and such a dream?

"You really are upset, huh? I don't blame you, of course," he said kindly, his blue eyes gentle as he smoothed hair from her face.

Upset? She was losing her mind!

"I. ..um..."

"No offense, but you look like h.e.l.l. And I feel like it."

She looked like h.e.l.l? She believed him. And she believed that he felt like it as well. He was drawn and haggard. She had never seen Rick in such sad shape.

She reached out and stroked his cheek. "You must be exhausted. Bad night?"

"Terrible." He shook his head. "Even your buddy Daniel was turning green."

"I'm so sorry. It was a teenager?"

"A young man, a student. A transfer student with a bit of past history, but still ... young." He looked at her awkwardly. "Look, I, um...

well, I've never been so thrilled in my life that anybody wanted to be with me, but ... I think I gotta go home. I'm really feeling lousy. I can't keep my eyes open. I want to thrill you to no end and make you see that the world will never be the same without me. But I'm not so sure I could accomplish that at this moment."

"I understand," she told him softly. "I'm ... uh ... not so sure I could thrill you to no end myself right now."

"You couldn't sleep. Nightmares, hm?" he asked kindly.

"Um, yes, dreams," she said.

That wasn't a lie. Was it?

"I asked for details from the crime scene in New York," he told her.

"Gavin will be getting everything in today. When I wake up we can go to the station together and get the information he's received over the wires."

"Okay, thanks, Rick, you look ... drained. You know," she offered, "you could just get some sleep right here."

"I need to get home. I want clean clothes. I need clean clothes. After the morgue ..."

"I see."

"I just can't begin to explain how exhausted I am. I'm sorry." "No, no, it's okay, really okay," she said quickly. What had she been thinking? Her room looked as if she'd invited a dozen friends to an orgy.

"I'll make it up to you."

"No. I'll make it up to you," she promised.

He nodded and rose. At the door he hesitated. "Even in the day, keep the doors locked. I mean, what happened was in New York. Far away. There are lots of madmen in the world, no reason to think this is part of the same insanity. But still ..."

"Hey," she said. "This is New Orleans. I'm a street-smart kid. I always keep my door locked."

He nodded. "Talk to you later."

She brushed his lips with a kiss. She felt odd. As if she'd cheated on him.

Or as if she were cheating with him.

"Rick," she murmured, feeling guilty. Shamed.

"Yes?"

"I do love you, you know," she whispered very softly.

He cupped her chin. "I adore you." He smiled, caressed her jaw, then stepped out the front door.

"Lock up," he told her.

"Right."

The door closed.

Rick Beaudreaux heard Jade lock the door behind him.

He stepped away, starting down the hall. He hesitated, looking back.

Idiot! He told himself. Go back.

That was nuts. He'd waited this long. She was a strong character, but she had been damaged by the horror she'd witnessed in Scotland.

He understood that. He'd fallen head over heels for her, though, and he'd been willing to wait. She never played games; she'd been honest, affectionate, fun, charming-and beautiful-from the start.

He could wait a little longer. She was unnerved.

And man, but he felt like s.h.i.t.

He didn't remember ever feeling so bad. h.e.l.l, yes, a lot of it had been the corpse. But then, actually, it had started before that. It had started when ...

When that woman in the street had asked him for directions on his way to Jade's last night. She'd been really good-looking. Not that her appearance had really swayed him.

Jade was gorgeous.

But she had been a charming and lost tourist-a beauty with a soft accent and a way of getting a cop not just to show her the way to where she wanted to go, but to lead her in the right direction.

She had sneezed. He must have picked up a bug from her.

And so, at this moment, he was in sad shape. Totally unworthy.

And yet...

As he left Jade's house, he had the strangest feeling that he had let something slip through his fingers that he couldn't quite touch, and in doing so ... he had lost something.

A strange fear closed around his heart.

Go back! A voice urged him.

He shook off all his strange feelings.

He was a cop, for G.o.d's sake!

The young woman slid into the chair in front of Lucian-the chair so recently vacated by Daniel Thacker.

He looked at her, surprised to see her there. Maybe he shouldn't have been, and maybe he shouldn't have cared. G.o.d knew, he'd gone through his times of darkness.

Times of cruelty.

And there was nothing different about what he was now: a survivor.

The one who upheld the laws, kept the balance. The keeper of the keys, so to speak.

But the world had changed for him that night in Scotland. He'd felt the threat of his enemies again for the first time in eons.

They had waged battle, and he had won the fight, but he knew that it was a war-and for them, a war of vengeance. He knew his own strength and power, which had been savagely won.

Yet there was something else he knew again. Something he had once managed to put down, along with his enemies.

Fear. She smiled and reached out a hand, touching him.

"It was you last night, wasn't it?"

"Hey, Cathy, you came in after all!" Sh.e.l.ly said, walking by. Cathy shook her head. "I'm not working, Sh.e.l.ly. I just came by to ..."

Her voice trailed. She looked at him.