42nd & Lex (38 page)

“Abri, I'm really starting to freak out.”
We’ve been pacing the floor of Lucan’s bathroom for the last twenty minutes
waiting for the guys to return.

“It will be all right, they should be back
any minute. Serge certainly knows where Lucan lives but he’s never made an
attempt to come here in the past. I think he’s afraid of Lucan.”

“I feel like this is all my fault. If I
hadn’t been such a bitch to Mark last summer, he wouldn’t have been in that bar
and he’d never met Serge. He wouldn’t be a Halfling and your boyfriend wouldn’t
be out trying to kill this guy to protect you.”

“Unfortunately, I’d have still met Serge. He
parked our car the first night I went out with Lucan. Even without Mark, our
paths would have crossed. The fact that he made Mark and you hired me to be
your divorce attorney is really just a sick coincidence.”

My phone buzzes with a text from Lucan:
“We’re
on our way up.”

Sarah and I venture out of the bathroom just
as Lucan, Mark, and Amelia trudge up the stairs. We are going to need a little
bit more security in this place if Zaid doesn’t find Serge tonight. Lucan’s flimsy
bathroom door is not enough protection from a rabid, half-blind vampire.

Amelia looks up from her phone. “Zaid says
it didn’t look like he’d been to your room, Mark. He’s checking out the park and
Serge’s place again. He will check back in later.”

“Good. Mark, you and Sarah should stay here
tonight. I have a couple of guestrooms downstairs,” Lucan offers. “I would not
be surprised if Serge comes looking for you. He’s bound to know the Enclave
will be coming for him and you’re his only ally.”  

Mark and Sarah agree to the accommodations
and Lucan shepherds them back down the stairwell to give them the tour. The
guestrooms each have a queen-sized bed and a bathroom with a walk in shower but
no giant tub. “Goodnight,” I call out. “Let us know if you need something.”

Amelia is at the kitchen table obsessively
checking her phone for news from Zaid. “I wish I had stayed home, but nooo, I
wanted to visit New York,” she says to no one in particular. 

“He’ll be fine, Amelia.” I sit down across
from her and fiddle with the edge of a placemat to occupy my nervous energy. “He’s
done this hundreds of times, right?”

“Yes, but every time is like the first time
and I worry about him. He hasn’t taken an assignment in a few years. I know he
accepted this one because it was Lucan asking.” She doesn’t say it to make me
feel guilty but I do.

“Just stay here tonight and if he calls we
will take you back to the hotel. If you’re still here in the morning I’ll get
up and make us a huge human breakfast.”

Amelia gives me a tired smile. “Thanks,
Abri. The hotel is just a few blocks away, I’ll be all right. Serge has no idea
who I am so I should be safe.”

With that, she pushes in her chair and heads
for the stairwell. I silently thank God that it is not Lucan out there looking
for that maniac. Although I’m not completely sure he won’t go out after his
friend once he puts the humans to bed. “Text Lucan when you get to the hotel,”
I call to her as the stairwell doors swings shut behind her.

Alone for the first time all evening, I take
the opportunity to decompress with a hot shower. I am in and out in five
minutes, too tired to stand under the pulsing jets. I have already begun to
drift off to sleep when Lucan climbs into bed next to me. He’s wearing
basketball shorts and an undershirt, which is a lot more than he usually wears
to bed.

“I think you need to move in with me
permanently,” he says into the darkened room. In spite of prefacing it with “I
think,” the tone of his voice says this is more of a command than a suggestion.

“I agree.” This is probably the only time in
my life I haven’t wanted to debate something. “My lease is up in a few weeks
anyways—not that I was assuming I would move in here, but I haven’t had time to
look for a place yet. Things have moved so fast with us I just kind of forgot
about it.”

Lucan slides his hand under the blankets
searching for me. “I also think we need to perform the ceremony immediately if
Zaid doesn’t find Serge tonight,” he pauses. “As in tomorrow when we go to see
the Council.”

“What?” I sound more exasperated than I
intended. “What about all that talk the other night about how you couldn’t risk
hurting me?”

“The other night, with the blood, I wasn’t
in the best frame of mind. There has never been a moment since I met you that I
didn’t want to go through with it. I was willing to wait for your sake so you
could get used to the idea of me and what I am; but I can’t risk you being
vulnerable to Serge. And you know as well as I do that I won’t be able to keep
you from going to work if Zaid doesn’t find him tonight. You’re not going to
let me watch you twenty-four/seven.”

“Well, at least you realize that,” I laugh,
trying not to sound too self-satisfied. “Not that you wouldn’t still try.”

“Nope.” He snuggles closer to me and I curl
into his chest. “I like that you think of the ceremony as more like a wedding
than just a patch job on my immortality. I’d always hoped to find a wife, even
more than a Sodalis.”

“The worst part,” I choose my words
carefully. “Is that I can’t tell my friends or my family. I can’t tell them
it’s not a wedding without revealing you’re a vampire, and I can’t tell them it
is a wedding and you just practice a really strange religion without them
freaking out that we just met. I’m not exactly sure how to tell my mom we’re moving
in together either. My apartment is rent controlled so I can’t use escalating
prices as an excuse.”

“Tell her the crime rate has gone up,” he says,
smoothing my hair. “That part is at least true.”

“I really want you to meet her. And Lindsey.
God, I haven’t talked to Lindsey in forever. Hell, she might be married to
Brooks by now for all I know. I'm such a bad friend.”

“I'm sorry, Abri. I forget that my world is
not yours and I have swallowed you up in it. Believe me; I’m only rushing things
to protect you. If it wasn’t for Serge, I would agree to wait as long as you
needed.”

“I'm just thinking out loud mostly. I’m
ready to go through the ceremony today, tomorrow, or whenever. Whether Zaid
finds him or not. I just won’t tell my mom for a while. Months maybe. A year
even.”

“Good. It’s settled. I will have movers to
your place tomorrow to pack. You can store anything you want to keep downstairs
or move it up here.”

“There really isn’t anything I want to keep
other than my clothes and personal stuff like pictures and books. All the
furniture is crap, I wouldn’t even think of bringing it in here,” I reply. “Just
have them pack it all up and I will go through it after things have settled
down. We can donate the furniture and other junk if someone will have it.”

Lucan is laughing to himself next to me.
“What’s so funny?”          

“Oh nothing. It’s just that when I said I’d
hoped to find a wife more than a Sodalis you didn’t exactly react the way I
thought you would.”

He had said wife, hadn’t he. And I just kept
prattling on about rent control, grubby furniture, and my family. “Well, were
you asking or telling?”

“Uh, well… asking, actually.” He takes my
hand in the dark. “Abri Elizabeth Cole, will you marry me?”

“Yes,” I squeak through tears of joy. “Yes.
Tomorrow or a year from now, yes.”

Lucan kisses my forehead and then settles
back down into the covers. “Good. We’ll get you a proper ring, I promise. Then
you can plan the wedding for however far out in the future you want. We have
all the time in the world.”

“Let’s get rid of that asshole Serge first.”

“Deal.” Lucan hugs me tighter to his chest.

I try to blank out my mind and not think
about how incredible a day tomorrow will be or how surprising the last thirty
seconds have been. I wish I could hear Lucan’s thoughts right now, but he’s
blocking me because we are touching and I hear nothing. Luckily, sleep overtakes
me before I have the chance to delve too deeply into it.

The rumble of male voices drags me from a
rather peaceful dream featuring a white dress and hundreds of flowers. Zaid
must be back. I promised breakfast to the humans of the house so I will my eyes
open and my feet to the floor. Lucan has the shutters down so it is darker than
I expected. 

“Everything okay?” I call out as I search
near the bed for my slippers. “Did you find him?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Zaid grumbles. “There
was no trace of him in the park or Mark’s hotel suite. He’s been back to his
apartment but he was gone by the time I got there. Smelled like he took a shower
there. I waited but he didn’t come back. He could probably smell me from the
street.”

He is pissed. Tracking was second nature to
Zaid, even before he became a vampire, and he hated to miss a target. Amelia
looks relieved, I can tell, but she’s keeping that to herself. Zaid wouldn’t
see his safe return as a bonus when his target is still on the loose. 

“Who’s hungry?” I ask. “I can make breakfast
before we go.” Zaid and Lucan are indifferent, focused more on finalizing their
presentation to the Council. However, I am more concerned with the other humans
our ever expanding group. “Mark, is Sarah still asleep?”

“In the shower,” he answers. “I’m hungry and
I know she will be too.”

Right, well, I don’t want to linger on the
whys of that statement. “What would you two like then? Amelia, are you hungry?”

“I'm fine with whatever you’ve got,” she
replies, not taking her attention off Zaid as he huddles with Lucan over a
stack of papers. She is always quiet and reserved, but the stress of Zaid’s job
has made her even more so.  

“Meat of some kind, any kind.” Mark
immediately blushes at his request. “If that’s not too much trouble.”

“Not at all. So does eating help more or the
blood?” I find myself asking without even thinking. Funny how I have just
accepted Mark into our fold like it’s nothing. I really have fallen straight
into the rabbit hole of Lucan’s world. No going back now, right?

Mark’s mouth opens and closes a few times
before he answers. “I’m not sure yet. I think the blood has done the most good
but I still get hungry three times a day.”

“Well, there is a definite improvement,” I
agree. “At least this time you’re not standing here trying to wear me for a
hat.”

Mark pales. I forget he hasn’t had a chance
to get used to my sense of humor yet.   

“I'm kidding, Mark. You gotta believe us
that there are no hard feelings. That shithead left you on your own, basically
rotting from his inability to do the job right. Hell, he couldn’t even get
kidnapping me right. You are one hundred percent part of the family now. Sarah
too. I don’t hold grudges, okay?” I stride over and give him a big hug. “Now,
let’s see what kind of stuff Lucan has to eat.”

Mark looks relieved. “You’re all right, you
know that? I'm glad Sarah found you.”

“Me too, for both your sakes. Speaking of finding
me, how did you know where to find me that night? It’s not like Lucan and I
were public knowledge.”

“Of course Serge recognized your name on the
divorce papers. He’d been talking about how you were dating Lucan and how he
wanted you. He went on and on about how he’d seen you with him one night at the
Enclave and how he’d hacked Lucan’s Enclave file to find out where he lived. I
think he originally planned to come here and ambush you, but then he found out
how powerful Lucan was, so he gave up. I guess I wasn’t sane enough to have the
same fear.”

“Huh. That dude is a psycho,” I say,
rummaging through the fridge. There is a large brown paper package labeled
filet
mignon
and a dozen eggs. “Steak and eggs?”

Mark nods in approval. Zaid and Lucan are
still deep in conversation so I skip them and look to Amelia. She gives me a
shrug of indifferent approval. “Steak and eggs it is then. Rare, Mark?”

“Yes, please. I’m going to check on Sarah.”

***

After breakfast, I head to the closet to get
dressed. What does one wear to a vampire death sentencing? I decide on a black
pencil skirt and jade green blouse and then dig around for the black tights and
sensible flats I know are somewhere at the bottom of the pile of laundry from
the last few days. I brush my hair, secure it with a clip, and swipe a little
make up on my face. Satisfied I look presentable enough for the Council, I head
back into the main room. 

“You look amazing as always,” Lucan purrs
into my ear. 

“Thank you. I wasn’t sure what one is
supposed to wear to a vampire death sentencing
cum
Sodalis ceremony.”

Lucan helps me into my coat with a laugh and
we head down the stairs to the larger elevators that reach the garage. We
decide on the intimidating Hummer for our transport, as it is the only vehicle
in Lucan’s collection that will fit us all comfortably. There is an air of
nervousness in the truck as we head up the ramp and onto the street. Mark and
Sarah look like they might bolt if given the chance.

This is the first time I’ve seen the light
of day and my eyes balk at the brightness. Lucan taps a compartment over my
head and a door falls open to reveal a pair of sunglasses. Grateful, I put them
on, even if they are sized for a man and cover half of my face. I can’t help
but hope Serge is stuck outside somewhere losing whatever strength he’d stolen
from his victims. 

Thankfully, the ride to the Enclave is brief
since there is little traffic downtown on a Saturday morning. Lucan pulls up to
the valet stand and we all pile out onto the curb. As the valet climbs into the
driver’s seat, I steal a glance in his direction. He doesn’t seem to be the
least bit interested in the half dozen humans and vampires making their way to
the door. It gives me hope that he isn’t on his way to alert Serge to our
arrival.