Though Allie warned her against going out, Lex felt as if the walls of Allie’s house were closing in on her.
With Allie gone for the night, likely out with the Templar vampires, she didn’t want to be alone. Having no one else to call here, she tracked down Patricia Olsen. Not Lex’s first choice of friends, still, Patricia would do in a pinch.
What a bad idea it’d been to get together with that catty bitch. All it served was to remind Lex how different she was from the girls she’d considered her friends when she lived here.
Not that things were much better in Florida.
No matter where she went and who she was with, seemed Lex was destined to feel like the odd man out.
She’d driven Allie’s old Dodge into Edessa, the next town over from Damascus, taking the dark and twisting roads cautiously. She’d spent barely an hour at Patricia’s before she needed to go. Her friend hadn’t changed a bit since high school. She still had the power to make Lex feel awkward. Freakish.
Seeing Patricia was a harsh reminder of how far removed Lex was from the “normal” world. Unfortunately it left her with nowhere to fit in, since, thus far, Allie adamantly refused to allow her into the nighttime world where fairy tales were real and normalcy was the unusual.
Passing Our Lady of Grace church, located ironically on Church Street, Lex felt compelled to go in. Though it was late, she saw Father Phil smoking a cigarette outside the rectory and asked the friendly old priest if she could have a few minutes alone with God. More than happy to oblige a young person in their quest for the Lord, he’d opened the
church to her.
This was the first time since her brother’s funeral she’d been in a church. Lex didn’t know why she stayed away from God so long. After all, she knew for a fact He existed. Allie told her all about the Templars, how they died and were reborn as vampires and how God cursed them, their souls taken by an archangel.
If that wasn’t proof of God she didn’t know what was.
On her knees, forehead to her clasped hands, Lex was beyond prayer and beyond thought. She long since settled into a wonderful state of perfect peace, not even realizing an entire hour came and went until finally her tortured knees took her out of her trance.
Looking down at her watch she cringed with dread when she saw it was nearly eleven o’clock. Though Allie wouldn’t be home yet, her sister was bound to call to check in on her. If she wasn’t there, Allie would have a coronary, rush home, find her gone and kill her for leaving.
An angry Allie was the last thing Lex wanted to deal with.
Rising from her aching knees, Lex stretched and looked around for Father Phil, thinking to thank him for letting her linger so long. Seeing he was nowhere to be found, she left quietly.
She was coming out of the church when saw him standing at the foot of the stone steps.
Lex felt frozen to the spot by the sight of the man. Good God, he was huge. The expression of his face was enough to chill her despite the warm, humid air of the summer night.
Tall, broad, dangerous, and handsome as all get-out, he looked like the poster boy for Gothic fashion. On him, the gothic clothes didn’t come across as a costume. No, he owned the look, as if the whole look had been created solely for him.
He was staring at the church with oddest eyes she’d ever seen. They were silver and quite literally, glowed.
Oh God, he’s a vampire.
By all rights Lex knew she should be terrified, knew she should retreat back into the church where she’d be safe. Yet her feet froze to the spot as excitement thundered through her.
How odd to find such a creature near a church. Weren’t there rules preventing such a thing?
Maybe it was the fleeting look of dejection that passed across his face. He stared at the church as if she wasn’t there, as if it were only God and him and nothing else existed.
She knew the feeling. She’d indulged in it for the last hour.
Unsure what to do, Lex stood staring down at him and noticed the jagged scar that cut down the left side of his face. It should have made him ugly. It didn’t. If anything, it made him more appealing.
This was a man who shook off the perfection of youth and settled into the wear and tear of adulthood.
His frosty stare shifted and settled on her. He cocked a brow at her as his tongue ran over his bottom lip. “What have we here?”
His voice was low and smooth. There was a hint of amusement in his tone that she chose to ignore.
“Are you alright?”
“I am now.”
Something about the way he said that made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
As if he wasn’t a threat to her life, Lex let the door close and began down the stairs. She knew with every step she took toward him it brought her closer to her mortality. Yet she felt no fear. She wondered if he’d put a spell on her, but dismissed the idea when she recalled Allie said vampires couldn’t do that.
Standing on the last step, she still had to look up at him. “What are you doing standing outside the church?”
“What are you doing coming out of church?”
Good question. Lex wished she knew. “I guess I needed God.”
The same despondent look passed over him again. “Don’t we all?” His tone was about as sarcastic as the shirt he wore that read It’s all about the pain (the ink and the jewelry are just souvenirs).
He looked like God was the last thing he needed. “I don’t know. Do we?”
He actually seemed to think about that for a moment. “No. We don’t.”
By the way he said that, Lex believed he was lying. Though whether to her or himself, she didn’t know.
Maybe he didn’t know either.
She stood close enough for him to hurt her if he was of a mind to.
And though she knew the danger she placed herself in, she didn’t move away. Her curiosity about what he was and her attraction to him overrode common sense and kept her right where she was.
Normally someone who played it safe, who hid in the corner while life was lived all around her, something in Lex rebelled at the idea of retreating. She wanted to touch his pale skin, wanted to see if it was as cold as it looked. He stood so still it was creepy. And were those fangs peeking out from behind his lips?
He licked his lips. Yep. Those were definitely fangs.
Everything Allie warned her about earlier tonight came back to Lex in a rush. Still, something forced her to remain right where she was. In harm’s way. She didn’t want to leave him alone, not after seeing the lost and lonely look in his eyes. It seemed almost cruel to leave him. Like she’d be abandoning him.
“You’re scared.”
Well of course I am. Did he forget he was a vampire?
Yet a whispered voice assured Lex he wouldn’t hurt her. As the melodious voice resonated in her mind an itch began right above her navel. She gave it a quick scratch though it did nothing to ease it.
“I know what you are, so yes, I’m afraid of you.”
“Do you now?” One of his black brows rose in question. Then he looked at her all thoughtfully for a moment. “What am I, elf?”
“You’re a vampire.”
His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. “Someone’s been telling you bedtime stories, have they?”
She swallowed hard when he leaned in close and inhaled the air around her. She swore she felt as if he was trying to push inside her mind. “Damascus isn’t your average town.”
“No it’s not.” Since he was so close to her, she was able to smell the scent of patchouli that clung to his pale flesh. She never been overly fond
of the scent, but on him it smelled wonderful. “I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”
His voice wove through her, wrapped around her and touched her as if his hands were on her. She shivered as a delicious thrill crept up her spine.
If she weren’t careful she’d give in to the odd sensations awakening within her, drawing her to him. “I have to go.”
“So soon?”
She nodded, wondering if he was going to let her leave. “I have to get home.”
He leaned in close. So close they were practically touching. “Stay,” he whispered seductively in her ear.
Yes. Stay. She wanted to more than she was willing to admit. “It’s bad enough my sister is going to freak since I went out after she warned me not to. If I’m any later she’s going to kill me.”
Lex didn’t understand why she was treating him so casually. The man was a vampire. He was the very thing Allie warned her about.
The whispering in her head, a beautiful chorus of voices coming from somewhere far away, out of sight, told her she belonged in this moment.
These were the same voices that led her back to good any time she thought to veer from the path of pure. But not this time, now, they were telling her to stay with a creature who was sin incarnate.
Slapping a hand to her temple, she feared she was losing her mind.
And the itch—Oh God, the itch on her stomach was getting worse every day. A burning itch directly over her navel that no amount of scratching could relieve.
“Your sister is right. Bad things come out at night.”
She let out a nervous laugh. “Does that include you?”
“Especially me.”
Maybe the lyrical voices were wrong.
The movement of his hands caused her gaze to shoot a glance down, gaping in shock when his hand moved to cup his erection through his pants. His other hand, the top of which was branded, brushed through her hair. His touch was gentle, keeping her from running as her hair
spilled over the pale flesh of his hand and arm.
“You can’t begin to imagine the things I want to do to your body.”
‘Oh God…’
No, she couldn’t imagine. She knew nothing of sex firsthand, having never even been kissed before. Those voices kept her body pure, yet now they drew her toward this formidable vampire. They compelled her to want things from him she’d never thought twice about with any other man.
She wanted to know those things he wanted to do to her. Yearned for him to show her, to bring her body to life. The mere thought of his mouth and hands on her were enough to make her heady with needs she never knew burned within her.
It took some effort but Lex remembered they were in front of a church and that he wasn’t merely a man. Yet when she finally gained the ability to move, instead of heading back up the stairs she stepped toward him.
As if he knew how badly she craved his touch, his hand left her hair. His calloused palm felt rough against the flesh of her arm when he took hold of her.
His touch came and went faster then the span of one heartbeat to the next. With fangs bared he let out a hiss that raised chills over her.
“Christ,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “You’re Allie’s sister.
Lex was not surprised this vampire knew Allie, since most of the nocturnal population of Damascus did. From what her sister told her, even they knew her as Crazy Allie.
Pride rose in her, ready to defend her sister even at the cost to her own life. “Yes I am. And you better not call her crazy because she’s not,”
“I know she’s not crazy,” he said quietly before sighing with resignation. “You have to go, elf.”
Yes, I should.
Too bad she couldn’t get her body to cooperate and walk her away from him.
She asked his name with no expectation of him actually answering her, and was pleasantly surprised when he did.
“Constantine Draegon.”
“What an amazing name.” She rolled it over in her mind, liking the way it sounded. “Since you know Allie, I guess you know I’m Lexine.”
He inclined his head politely, licking his lips again, as if he tasted the air around them. “Good night, Lex.”
“Good night, Constantine,” she whispered back softly.
The moment was suspended in time with them simply staring at each other. Finally, Lex turned and rushed down the block to where she’d parked Allie’s old car. Since the Passport wasn’t in great condition, Allie kept the old Dodge in case the SUV broke down, though the blue monstrosity was in even worse condition.
Driving away, Lex felt as if something profound passed between her and Constantine Draegon.
* * *
Once the air no longer crackled with the intensity of her lifeforce the fingers squeezing Constantine’s dead heart eased their stranglehold.
Bloody hell.
Allie’s sister. How the hell didn’t he sense that long before she came out of the church? He should have discerned her bloodline long before he touched her. Something prevented him from detecting such a vital piece of information about her.
He also hadn’t been able to push inside her mind. No matter how hard he tried, it felt as if he kept hitting a brick wall. At first he assumed she made a deliberate effort to hide her thoughts from him, but that wasn’t the case.
Lex hadn’t kept him out of her thoughts.
Something else did. The force blocking him was stronger than any supernatural power he’d ever encountered. Yet she seemed oblivious to it. He believed she truly had no idea what was inside of her. Nor, he assumed, did Allie.
Bloody hell. This was going to add another complication to their already convoluted existence.
The possibilities of what the power within her was were endless. As
were the consequences to her for possessing it.
Constantine lingered long after he watched Lexine Parker drive away, still feeling as if a piece of her was with him. The fact that she was Allie’s sister twisted his gut and had him cursing Fate.
Seemed she was forever giving him the big cosmic “fuck you”.
Pure. That’s what Lex was. Pure. He felt the innocence of her body with an intensity that nearly knocked him right on his ass.
He wanted to taste that purity, take it into himself to know what it felt like to be so clean.
He thought the last true innocents vanished from this world long ago.
He’d been dead wrong. And then to have such purity wrapped in a package of striking beauty made it nearly too tempting to resist taking her right in the front of God’s house.
Looking at the cross gracing the steepled roof of the brick church, Constantine wanted to believe the day would come when he’d step out of the shadows and into the glory of God’s love. Though it was doubtful.
Creatures such as himself were doomed to Hell even before they took their first breath of life.
Now Lexine—God Himself would come down to personally escort her home.
With one last glance at the church, Constantine headed back into the shadowy park across the street. His run-in with Lex left his body hard and hurting. The bloodlust was quickly rising to a dangerous level. If he didn’t feed soon things were going to get ugly.
With a bar located on the other side of the park, he always found one or two drunken women wondering around. Always good for an easy fuck and a quick meal, they’d do to slake the hunger and the sexual needs awakened in him by Lex.
Even as Constantine took another woman, he knew he’d be seeing Lex. The image of her was branded into his mind as deeply and permanently as the seal on his hand.
Eying a small group of women gathered around a bench in the center of the park, Constantine didn’t find any of them attractive. Not one of them whetted his appetites. Nevertheless, they were perfect.
As they smoked and laughed, their words slurring drunkenly, he knew they’d be easy meat.
He would pick one and use her until dawn began its ascent. His needs would be sated and he’d return to the Manor to wait out the day.
Fuck it, why not take all three.
Hell, he’d need them all to satisfy the lust and the hunger one tiny blue-eyed girl woke in him.