Bliss (The Custos) (3 page)

              His chest was tightening the veins in his neck were suddenly darker and thicker, but his eyes, his eyes were black and a whole lot of 'Hell hath no fury' in them. "I said go!" His voice before shaky was now deep and angry and distorted.

              I didn’t wait around for an explanation; I pulled my shirt on and grabbed my clutch. "Freak." I said as I walked passed. This guy was some kind of fucking Emo or Goth and for real, give me a break I don’t go-

              My arm jerked back and I found myself looking into a wall of a man who was more terrifying than any monster in my dreams. The room was vibrating like thunder and lightning and smelled of a rainstorm. I had no doubts this guy had somehow come up close and personal with a little fire and brimstone. "I am so much more than a freak little girl .Leave or wish like hell you had Princess." Baring what I could only perceive as fangs my stomach sank.

        Seriously WTF?

              No longer dumb enough to fight with him I shut my mouth and ran out the door. The cold air hit my lungs like a knife but I kept running, Lou Boutins click click clicking down the sidewalk I ran as if my life depended on it.

              Something deep inside told me that my life did depend on it.

              He must have been an employee of Fathers, Chase Pharmaceuticals employed over sixty thousand people so the chances were huge and it also told me loud and clear why I stopped having sex, at the end of every date it came down to my being Walter Chase's daughter. For a minute there I was only London.

              Whatever!  I was damn sure of two things. I pulled my phone out and looked up my position on the navigation screen and called a cab. Getting home was a huge number one priority and two; two was that I finally learned my lesson. He could like it or hate it but I was as good as gone.

*

Cash

             
The minute the door slammed I fucking damn near ripped my hair out. "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUUUUUCK!!!!!" I roared but new damn well it did me no good. Four hundred fucking years and here I was about to make the biggest fucking mistake of my life. The fucking mark for gods’ sake was seconds from being sprawled out on a granite counter top while I gave into a lust I didn’t recognize. Grabbing for my phone I called Mac, AKA Preacher who I assumed was still at the bar looking for the damsel in fucking distress I just sent away.

              Preacher answered immediately like I knew he would. "Get over here now Preacher." My words were clipped, same as the words I used on London minutes before. He must have picked up on my distress because his response was clear. "Your place?" He asked his Irish accent still thick as the day we met in 1923 when I saved him a fate far worse than hell.

              "Yeah, make it fast though Preacher, bat out of hell fast."

              "Got it, like winged serpents from hell, I'll be there shortly."

              Yeah right. Shortly was not what I was thinking when he showed up two hours later. "Winged serpents from hell? Try a hundred year old tortes you ass."

              "Good things come to those who wait, you should remember that." Preachers tone and the cryptic riddles always pissed me off but I assumed he knew what I had to tell him and I was right. "Let me guess you left with London Chase, the mark and fucked her or damn near?" He sat on the leather sectional sofa in the living room and lit up a joint. Most Vampires,
Custos
who fought against the
Nex
used liquor to smother the blood lust and Infatuation but Preacher chose to abstain from liquor. Weed came from the earth so he believed he was saved. I think he's a little crazy but if it keeps him on my side then I am fine with whatever ails him.

              "Yeah, fax came through right as I went down her pants." Preacher lifted an arm to stop me from going further and for the first time since discovering who she was I smiled. That’s how our jobs worked though. We didn’t know the story and we didn’t know identities until we were set up and ready, this house as all the others were masks owned by the Custos heads that Preacher and I work for. We fight against our soulless but kindred kind, The
Nex
; Soulless blood sucking murderous fiends, but Vampires same as us. And two hours and three minutes ago I found out that the woman we were hired to save is one in the same as the woman I almost fucked.

              Preacher looked around the house, looking for where I had hidden her. "Christ our savior she's not in the prison is she?" The look of disbelief on his face was priceless. As if I would have put her in the prison below the house that all masks had. I’m an asshole, a killer by trade but not twisted to torture an innocent.

              "A little credit Preacher, I’m no son of God but I’m not in to caging human females." I smiled then and figured why not mess with him some more? "Well unless they beg for it."

              Preacher answered with a tsk tsk and sat back down. "Where is she then?"

              "I made her leave, run. I was seconds from losing it and was planning to feed from her, bloodlust kicked in the same time as the fax came, I had to get her out." I had shown her my true face fangs and all, most women I erase my essence when I’m finished feeding but I didn’t have that choice with the breathtaking Miss Chase, no she would see me again and she will know what I am.

              "What now? Her friends see you?"

              "Yeah, Fuck." Pulling at my hair again I cursed repeatedly knowing that a clean up on this girl would be risky, to wipe her friends memories and her own to only reintroduce it all to her again seemed ruthless. Wiping memories from humans was painful but safe when done in small pieces and not frequent, to erase me from her memories and her friends along with Preacher.... The chances where one or more could be more strong minded than I perceived though I doubted it based on the mind numbing topics they clamored on about. I knew it needed to be done but the idea still made me sick, and too many wipes could kill London. Humans meant nothing to me but when it came to London I felt a lust I couldn’t explain, it was bigger and stronger than any bloodlust I felt in my long life and sexual lust never beat out bloodlust. The fact she overtook it all scared the hell out of me and my only mission was get her safe and gone and damn soon. The last thing I needed was a woman, human no less fucking up my flow. I’m a killer by nature and trade and nothing else, nothing left to be anything else. "I have her residence and will tag her and bring her back." Reaching for my keys Preacher stopped me.

              "At least tell me she was infatuated at least then you can be in her mind and we'll know if she is gonna talk." Preacher was one in a million literally. He was infamous, as a human he was Father O'Conner and as a Vampire he was the same. On a rampage that would have ended his life, I simply offered him a new one. My partner for almost a hundred years I still enjoyed watching him....do Gods work. He took repentance from the Immortal damned and then ended them, sent them to hell with a wooden stake carved from his own cross. He was merciless to a fault, at all the right times, showing mercy on few.

              "She was, and even now I can feel her, hear her mind and she still wants me. She's scared but if I asked she would come back no prob."

              "Well you didn’t know, now you do; now you can fix it. Redemption is a gift Cash you'll see."

              "I don’t fuck up Preach, I don’t. Tonight....." I couldn’t finish the sentence but I was no fool, Preacher knew what I was going to say. I fucked up tonight and now I had to clean my own mess.

              This human, this beautiful human with dark brown hair the color of chestnuts and bright green eyes, moss green, made everything inside of me stand up and take notice. She was full of herself, so confident it bordered on vanity and a serious attitude problem. But of everything I picked up from her, it was strong, strength, so tough her heart had been callused and sheltered for years and didn’t that make me want to dig for more…..

              This human had become my mess and damn it if I never saw her coming.

London

              What the fuck am I thinking? He did not have fangs, unless he was some freaky Emo guy like I thought then none of this was real. Maybe this was divine intervention, maybe this was the final push I needed to finally go, get out and never look back. With my decision made before I even thought it I grabbed my credit card and figured the old man could take the last hit I threw, he would never see me again so what did I care? As far as last night was concerned I chose to push it out of mind. If I think of the small amount of time I spent with him, well it didn’t make sense. I was terrified of him but deep down I felt like I could trust him, more than felt, I knew I could and the image of him in my mind, of him touching me was so vivid. Part of me ached to have been able to finish what we started the other part said I was crazy, thank god for rationality right?

The mall, I needed shopping and pretty things around me, I needed to forget about last night, with my Father with my friends but most of all I needed to forget Cacius.

              Two hours later I shifted the bags of clothes and cosmetics that I was carting as I stepped out the doors of Neman Marcus. The air was thick with heat as it always was in the dead of summer in Texas and I couldn’t help but moan when I saw how far away I had parked. I was big on exercise and enjoyed working out, but lately, this had become my cardio. “Brilliant.” I said to myself wishing I didn’t have to walk so far now. I was tired and bitchy and just wanted to be gone. But my bitchiness came from knowing that I had to stop fooling myself and face the fact that I would never be happy until I was finally gone and on my own.

              No more people I had to feign friendships with, I hated the spoiled brats I grew up around and I hated faking that I was as shallow as they were. Maybe I was, just a week ago I could have went home with a man who now looking back was nothing more than showing face in front of all of the girls who wanted him. I knew all I had to do was say my name and I could have any guy I wanted, er, well any guy accept the one I wanted, the one who denied me....Cacius.

              What was I thinking? He was so far off the scale of my normal guy. A Mohawk for god’s sake was I kidding myself, and the tattoos? Don’t get me started; I didn’t even know what they meant. On one arm on the inner crease of the forearm was one word:
Custos Nex
, on the other across his bicep looked like a tally sheet and who the hell knew what he was tallying. Something inside of me said it would scare me to find out.

              The voice on him too, so scratchy, raspy like his vocal cords had been replaced with sandpaper and the deepest blue eyes I had ever seen, they were midnight and danger and damit I wanted him.

              Natch.

              Five minutes later I finally reached my Mercedes Benz slk 350 and took a deep breath for the last ten feet. I wanted to get home and get these heals off and relax in a hot bath. Time had come and I was going to start looking for a house in Seattle close to Madox Culinary School, and of course like everything else I would make sure it was on my own dime. If I wanted free of the Old Man than I needed to make a clean break, I had a trust fund and that was one hell of a safety net but I had given blood, sweat and tears,
literally
, for every dime I had. It was time to make my life mine.

              I spun when I heard footsteps rushing behind me, I was the only car parked this far back and my instincts told me to
get in the car, London now
.

              I rushed to the driver’s side door and had the handle when two men with hooded jackets ran at me in speeds I couldn’t follow, it was as if they were so fast I lost track of them in the half a second it took for them to slam into my side. I flew through the air landing on pavement a good twenty feet from my car, but one of the guys was at my side pulling my hair before I could even sit up.

              "Get in the car Bitch." The guy who had a handful of my hair in his fist said through gritted teeth.

              Though he was so courteous the way he asked me, he didn’t give me time to try and walk when he lifted me with one arm and carried me like a football at lightning speed to my car. This all lasted about four seconds and I finally had the air back in my lungs when he threw me in the back seat of my car.