Grave Danger (26 page)

“
You should call an ambulance before she
bleeds out.” He stood almost motionless over the women. It wasn’t
in his nature to care about the living. What had they ever done for
him but turn him into an animal? However, in this moment, he found
himself sympathetic to this one woman.

No. It wasn’t her at all. It was the woman who was
staring up at him with malicious hatred in her beautiful blue eyes.
Clarissa. It was because of her that he had stopped himself from
taking what should have been his, by right.

He could feel the sticky blood on his fingers and it
took ever measure of his self control not to bring them to his
mouth for a taste of it. It was like getting barbeque sauce on your
fingers and hands; you were compelled to lick it off.

“
How dare you attack an innocent woman?”
Clarissa raged as she stood up from her crouched position in the
street. “You don’t deserve to exist in this world.”

Those words stung deeper than he would have
expected, but they were true. He didn’t deserve to exist in her
world. He was a monster with a ravenous appetite for living flesh
and that was all he’d ever be to her. But he refused to allow her
to condemn him for a crime he did not commit.

“
I did not attack this woman. I don’t target
the innocent,” he explained all the while closely watching her
reaction. Clarissa’s expression said she wasn’t buying
it.

“
If you didn’t do this than who did?” Leah
asked. Holding one blood soaked hand to Candice’s throat she dug
into her pocket for her cell phone with the other. Bringing it to
her ear she began talking in animated Korean to what had to be her
grandmother. In the next instant she was off the phone.

“
The paramedics should be here in about two
minutes.” Looking up at the creature before her, she was at once
filled with a plethora of emotions, not least of which absolute
awe. Her first encounter with the legendary flesh-eater, he was the
complete opposite of everything she had ever expected or heard
about them. If she didn’t know better she might have believed he
was as alive as she, until she looked into those iridescent blue
eyes and saw the emptiness of death; a shadow that told the truth
of his species.

Corrigan remained immobile as Clarissa came to stand
in front of him. Her rage was evident in her eyes. “Someone
attacked her and you’re the only person found on the scene. The
evidence of it all is on your fingers.” Clarissa glanced down to
see him fist his hands, droplets of Candice’s sweat blood dripping
through the cracks.

“
I didn’t do this and you know it.” His face
solemn, he stared down at the breathing specter of his dreams.
Something flashed in her eyes as she matched his stare before
quickly turning away.

You should leave before they get here.” Clarissa
turned to look at Leah as she continued to hold the last of
Candice’s life inside her body. Already she could hear the
ambulance siren and just behind it she could feel the panic of the
humans in a car. Leah’s grandmother, Mi Sun and her mother, Hana,
along with other S.S. members she couldn’t remember the names of.
Not too far behind that were the Eidolon, just emerging from their
homes. In another few seconds they would have all their
company.

Corrigan remained standing fixed in the street,
seemingly uncaring of the fact that at any moment he would be
caught. If the police didn’t put him in jail, surely the S. S. or
the Eidolon would find a means to detain him. For some strange
reason, she couldn’t understand yet, Clarissa wasn’t ready to turn
him over to them.

Though she knew he was a monster, there was
something she had seen in his eyes that told her he was telling her
the truth. Even odder, there had been a moment there where she had
felt the reality of him. Where she had felt through the ugly
emptiness and there underneath it all a bright circle of beauty and
tenderness; something he was unlikely to reveal or even admit
to.

“
Leave,” she commanded him, invoking her voice
on him. For some reason it wasn’t working because he remained
standing, unmoving, staring down at her from his impressive height,
refusing the chance to escape.

“
Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
Clarissa cried. Seeing the flashing red lights and knowing that the
decision would be out of their hands at any moment.

Leah looked between the two of them, then over her
shoulder as she too saw the Calvary coming. “Get him out of here,
Clarissa. They’re not going to care whether he’s innocent or not.
If they see him here, they’re going to assume the worst.”

“
You are such an idiot,” Clarissa groused at
Corrigan before she grabbed his warm arm, holding on to him
tightly.

She wasn’t sure if this was going to work, but there
was no time to question the theory of it. With a silent pray she
made up her mind about something and in the next instant they were
gone.

The ambulance stopped short of the scene, paramedics
leaping into action as a car pulled up behind it. The occupants of
the car stood silently by as they watched one of their own being
placed on a gurney.

Mi Sun closed her eyes for a second then quickly
opened them to stare out far across the bridge to the other side.
From this distance she couldn’t possibly see the two figures on the
opposite end of the bridge. But she knew they were there all the
same. The old woman frowned before whispering something to her
daughter. Hana frowned as well, looking off into the distance.

A shadowy figure of a man stood in the dimness of
the night, unnoticed by the medical staff and the living humans. If
not for that upstart of a ghost, his plans would have worked out
perfectly. Corrigan should have been caught in the act and taken to
task over this most grave error of judgment, another dead S.S.
member. It should have started the ball rolling, bringing around a
most climatic and enjoyable moment where the final threads of
forced amicability between the Eidolon and the flesh-eaters would
be severed and the war would begin. But that hadn’t happened.

Oh well, he thought. There was always another he had
his sights set on. And in the mean time, he’d make it a prime
mission to see that the burgeoning romance of these two sickeningly
sweet creatures was exposed to the world.

Chapter 14-

“
Did you just do what I think you just did?”
Corrigan questioned as he as looked out over the bridge from the
opposite end of where he had, just seconds ago, been standing. In
one heart-stopping instant he had shifted through the atmosphere as
if his body no longer existed, then reappeared in a new
location.

“
Yes, and it worked,” she answered proudly.
Clarissa couldn’t help but reveal a smile of triumph at her
talents. It should have been impossible to move a corporal body
through the atmosphere, yet she had. It was both a little scary and
amazingly empowering to know she could do such a thing.

Corrigan looked down to see her hand still clutching
his lower arm. She obviously was oblivious to her mistake or
distracted by her newly learned ability, either way he didn’t mind
in the least. He also didn’t mind seeing her smile so proudly at
her accomplishment which was indeed a great one. As far as he knew,
no other of her kind could do such a thing. She was truly a unique
woman.

Unfortunately, for him, she did finally realize her
hand was still on him. With a sudden jolt she removed it, stepping
a few paces back and away from him. That action did a strange and
unpleasant thing to his stomach, somewhere along the lines of
nausea or the sensation of a heavy boulder falling through his
intestines.

Clarissa felt the heat of his arm penetrate her
soul. It took her a few seconds to realize what it was, but by then
it had been too late. Clutching her fist tightly to her side, she
held the warmth of him against her skin until as the seconds
slipped away from her it disappeared leaving her cold once again.
Strangely, a slight sting of pain pierced the area where her heart
used to be as if it were telling her something she should have
known all along but refused.

“
What the hell were you thinking back there?”
Clarissa started in on him again. It was easier to be mad than to
examine her own thoughts and feelings at the moment. “I told you to
make a run for it, but no, you had to stand there like a giant
lump.”

Corrigan eyed her curiously. Her colors changed as
she went through a succession of emotions all the while yelling and
calling him names. He stood there quietly, taking it. If she had
been anyone else he might have retaliated and his retaliations were
deadly. Instead he watched the beautiful show of her soul.

After several minutes Clarissa caught the odd look
in his eyes. “Stop looking at me like that you completely daft man.
I should have let them have you when I had the chance.”

“
Why didn’t you?” he asked, taking a step
closer to her.

Clarissa took a step back, a frown on her face. “I
don’t know,” she answered honestly.

A deep sadness crossed his eyes before it was gone.
It was only by chance that Clarissa managed a glimpse of it. But
she was all too aware of it and in a deep secret part of her soul
it reflected her own.

“
You should go back to your side now.”
Corrigan stepped away, intent on finding his way back to the
LeMoyne complex. Pulling out a paint stained rag from his pocket he
wiped his hands of the woman’s blood, stuffing it back in his
pocket. Turning to walk away, he suddenly felt a cool hand on his
arm. He would know that touch anywhere. It was imprinted on his
memory for all time.

“
You didn’t attack that woman, did
you?”

“
No.”

But she had seen him over the woman’s body, his
hands at her throat. If he had wanted to he could have taken her.
Even if she wasn’t his kill, he could have ended her life and taken
what he wanted from her. He hadn’t though and she had a slight
inkling that it had been extremely difficult for him to restrain
that desire for flesh and blood. Candice had been laid out before
him like a feast and he had pushed his plate away and denied
himself the luxury of an easy kill.

I don’t target the innocent.

Clarissa hadn’t wanted to believe him at the time.
It was so much easier to blame him. He and his family were after
all the only monsters in the area, and if not him – then who? It
was a question she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to.

“
Then your family isn’t responsible for these
deaths against us, are they?” There was still some doubt there, but
every time she thought about it, something didn’t seem to add up to
that conclusion. The murders were done up too precisely and with
obvious intention at being discovered. If she didn’t know better,
Clarissa might think it all a set up or someone trying to throw
gasoline on an already smoldering fire between her people and the
flesh-eaters.

“
I already told you that my family is not
responsible for the murders of your human servants.”

“
Why didn’t my command work this time? I asked
you to leave, but you refused. I thought as a bokor, you had to
carry out my orders.”

Corrigan took the cool and delicate hand that was
still resting on his arm, holding it firmly within his own hand. “I
did not listen because even though you used your voice, it wasn’t
what you really wanted, so it didn’t work.”

“
It wasn’t what I wanted? What are talking
about? Are you saying that I wanted you to get caught?”

He shook his head in the negative. “No, you just
didn’t want me to leave. That’s all I know.” Corrigan held her cool
hand tightly, touching her soul and wanting the privilege of
holding it close to him. “I just don’t know why you wanted me to
stay.”

Clarissa refused to look at their intertwined hands.
It would be too much and at this moment she needed to be in
complete control. But as she felt the warmth of him penetrate her
cool spirit and that place within her body were the beat of her
heart had been cut short she felt a moment of completion. It was a
place in time where she wanted to bask in forever.

“
Does your family know where you are now?” she
asked the question instead of answering him. “Won’t they worry? I’m
sure they’re already aware of what happened. Don’t you all
communicate through thoughts?”

“
Won’t your people wonder where you have
gone?”

Clarissa made a snort of disgust. She wasn’t a child
to be looked after. Yet everyone seemed to be overly concerned
about her whereabouts all the time. Telling someone with her
capabilities to be careful was without a doubt offensive to her
pride.

“
I can take care of myself,” she said
irritably.

“
So can I", he said pointedly. "What choices I
make are mine alone. My family doesn’t need to control my every
movement.” A tiny smirk edged its way onto his lips. “And yes we
can communicate through our thought patterns as you are obviously
more than aware of this capability.”

“
I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. It was an
accident, I swear.”

“
I know,” he assured her. “Chas, however,
wasn’t particularly enthused by your skills. He suffered a great
blow to his pride when you knocked him on his ass the other night.
You’ll be pleased to know my brothers are teasing him to no end on
that one.”

“
Well, he deserved it. Tell your brother it
isn’t nice to growl at people.”

Corrigan failed at hiding the smile that was
threatening to reveal itself. She was a complete contradiction to
how he had always perceived the Eidolon people. In his brief
encounters with her kind, they always seemed to hold themselves
above him, like his lack of a soul made him less than human in
their eyes. But they hadn’t been the only ones who looked at him
like that. Except for Clarissa, she spoke to him now as if she had
completely forgotten that at any moment he could end her existence.
Then again, she could easily end his.