Eve of Darkness (11 page)

Eve debated the merits of laughing . . . or bawling. “Give me a break, lady.”

“Sinner,” the heathen child said.

“I am
not
a sinner! This is not my fault.”

A large, warm hand touched Eve’s shoulder, then the dropped bag came into her line of vision. “Here.”

Father Riesgo. The voice was unmistakable.

Eve glanced at the archway behind them. The gargoyle was gone. The Gothic creature had been out of place on the modern exterior of the church.

“Father,” the purse-wielding woman greeted sweetly.

“I see you’ve met Ms. Hollis.” He glanced at Eve. “Don’t give up on her yet, Mrs. Bradley. I have high hopes.”

Accepting the bag, Eve stepped away in a rush. “Thanks. Bye.”

As she hurried to her car, she ignored the fulminating glare from Mrs. Bradley that was burning a hole in the back of her head. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched by a darker, more malevolent force.

The sensation scared the hell out of her.

After sliding into the driver’s seat, Eve locked the doors and released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

“I’m getting out of this,” she promised whoever might be listening. She reached into her purse and withdrew the hand wipes her mother, a retired nurse, insisted she carry.

After she scrubbed her face and hands, Eve turned the ignition. Then she drove around the block, looking for “Joey.” She had no idea what she’d do when she found him, but damned if she’d let herself get pissed on and not track the little shit down.

An hour of fruitless searching later, Eve parked her car in her assigned spot in her condominium complex’s parking garage. With her hands wrapped around the steering wheel, she refused to look at the empty space where Alec’s Harley had been when she left. He might be gone for five minutes or five years or forever.

The first time they made love, he’d disappeared before she awoke. She’d waited in their hotel room all morning. Tired. Sore. Madly, stupidly in love. She had believed he intended to come back for her. No man could hold a woman as he’d held her and not return.

In the end, she’d left only when the maid told her she would have to pay for another night if she didn’t vacate.

Days of waiting and hoping and heartbreak followed. Weeks passed, then years. She wanted to kick herself for being in the same spot, feeling the same pain ten years later. Smart people learned from their mistakes; they didn’t keep making the same ones.

A sudden rapping on her car window jolted her out of her musings. Frightened, she looked out the window and found Mrs. Basso leaning over with a frown.

“Eve? Are you okay?”

Her tense shoulders sagged with relief. She pushed open the door. “You scared me.”

“You’re jumpy today.” Mrs. Basso held mail and keys in her frail hands. The mailboxes were all located on the ground floor, just a few feet away from the parking garage.

Climbing out of her car, Eve managed a reassuring smile. “I have a lot on my mind.”

“I bet part of it is six foot two and around two hundred pounds.”

Eve blinked.

“He was looking for you,” Mrs. Basso said. “Seemed really concerned that you were gone.”

“Did he say where he was going?”
Or if he’d be back?

“No. He had a duffel bag with him though. Don’t fret. If he’s got a brain, he’ll be back. You’re worth it.”

Touching Mrs. Basso’s shoulder gently, Eve kissed her wrinkled cheek. “Thank you.”

“Come on, I’ll walk up with you.”

Depressed by the prospect of returning to her empty condo, Eve briefly considered heading to her parents’ place but didn’t think she could deal with her mother at the moment. Some days, her mom’s quirkiness was just what the doctor ordered. Most days, however, it drove her nuts. Since she was already on the edge of insanity, she thought it best to keep her distance for now.

Eve shook her head. “I think I need to walk a bit and clear my mind.”

“I would feel better if you came upstairs. You’ve had a rough week.”

Eve laughed softly, without humor. She wished she could explain. Part of her believed her friend would understand. “I won’t be gone long. Just a few minutes.”

Mrs. Basso sighed. “Okay. We still on for the movies?”

“You betcha.”

She watched Mrs. Basso head to the elevators, then left the building through the garage’s pedestrian gate.

It was a beautiful day and the number of sunbathers on the beach gave her a feeling of security. Too many witnesses. Which was both good and bad. The exposure that kept her safe also exposed her when she most wished to be private.

As she walked the length of the beach, she kept her head down to discourage interaction. She was too busy thinking to be interested in casual conversation. If she wanted out of this mark business, she’d need something of value to bargain with.

The wind whipped loose strands of her hair across her face and throat. Her heightened senses magnified the sensation until it was almost unbearable. Not in an uncomfortable way, just alien. Disconcerting.

She’d always controlled every aspect of her life, even as a kid. Her mom, a native of Japan, was an eclectic mix of old-world Bushido and 1970s hippy nonchalance, and her Alabama-native dad was so mellow, she wondered if he was awake half the time. A twenty-year employee of the phone company, Darrel Hollis’s normal tone of voice was that of a terminally bored telephone operator. In response to her parents’ loving indifference, Eve had become self-reliant and responsible to an extreme degree. Everything had its place and could be neatly compartmentalized. Interior design fit beautifully within that structured way of thinking. Assassinating monsters for God didn’t.

“Hey, baby.”

The catcall drifted across the breeze along with a vile stench. As her nose wrinkled in protest, her head turned to find the heckler. Some were easily ignored, others bolder. She needed to know which class of annoyance this guy was.

She found him sitting in the sand on a black towel, his legs stretched out before him, propped up by canted arms. He was fair haired and blue eyed, and sported arms sleeved in tattoos. His face bore a foreign cast, and his irises were hard and glittered like sapphires. He wore only makeshift shorts cut off crudely below the knee and a leer that made her skin crawl.

“Come sit with me,” he cajoled in a gutturally accented voice. He patted the spot next to him in a gesture that was anything but inviting. An indigo teardrop stained the skin at the corner of his eye, distinguishing him as a felon. She was about to look away when he flicked his tongue at her in a lewd gesture.

“Jesus!” she cried, stumbling backward into the lapping water. She was so horrified by the impossibly long and slender forked appendage that had slithered out of his mouth, she barely registered the mark burning her deltoid in chastisement.

A red slash appeared across the demon’s face and he hissed like the snake his tongue resembled. “
Du Miststück!”
he spat.

She had no idea what that meant, but it didn’t sound good.

As he leaped to his feet, Eve sidestepped to avoid him. “Stay away from me.”

“Make me.”

The menacing tone with which the words were spoken made her hackles rise. It also sent a surge of heat and animosity through her veins. “Christ, you’re a real piece of work.”

His head jerked to the side as if struck, and when he looked at her again, his eyes were unnatural. Brilliant and intensely, inhumanly blue. He lunged. She shrieked and pivoted to run, crashing into something warm and rock-hard.

“Leave her alone,” a dark voice warned. Masculine arms wrapped around her and Eve struggled briefly before absorbing the familiar scent of his skin into her lungs. It was heaven compared to the stench in the air and she gulped with relief.

“Reed.” Her hands fisted in his expensive dress shirt.

“You can’t intercede,” her tormenter said smugly.

“You’d risk the wrath of your brethren for her?” Reed asked.

“She cut me first.”

“I did no—” Eve began, only to find her face pressed brutally into Reed’s chest. She briefly considered biting him, but her overactive libido kicked in with a vengeance, mingling with the hair-trigger aggressiveness pumping from the throbbing mark. It was like PMS multiplied by a million.

“She was toying with you,” Reed drawled. “Assuming you were big enough to take it.”

“Is
she
big enough to take it?”

“Can you take
me
?” Reed retorted. “You’re not in the queue; I’m not barred from stepping in.”

A stream of unintelligible words that sounded German poured from her antagonist, and Eve wrenched free to face him. She could feel the evil radiating off him, and his tattoos writhed sinuously over his unmoving skin, as if they were alive.

Wondering if she was the only one aware of the man, her gaze surveyed the area around them. The proliferation of beachgoers hadn’t diminished, yet no one paid any attention to the tense scene taking place in their midst.

Reed’s hand settled at the small of her back, giving her much needed support in a madly spinning world.

“Go away,” Reed said. “Let’s just forget this happened.”

“I won’t forget.” The man crossed his arms. “We’ll meet again,” he told Eve.

“You cross that line,” Reed warned, “and you’ll start a war none of us wants.”

“
You
don’t want it.”

Eve’s gaze shot back and forth between the two bristling men, trying to grasp the undercurrent arcing between them. They were doing some kind of manly staring thing, then the blond sank back onto his towel and sprawled in a pose so relaxed it was clearly meant to insult.

You’re no threat to me,
his posture said.

 
Reed exhaled slowly and carefully, deliberately stemming his rising ire. Backing down from a challenge
wasn’t in his nature, but he didn’t have a choice. Any offensive move on his part would put the blame for this unauthorized confrontation firmly on his shoulders. He didn’t need any more heat right now, not after the upbraiding he’d endured for his most recent fight with Cain.

Cain the hero. Cain the fearless. Cain the invincible. No matter how often he broke the rules, Cain always emerged unscathed, his reputation strengthened by his sheer audacity.

Now Cain had been given his heart’s desire and Reed’s sampling of her charms was rebuked, his protestations of her willingness disregarded.
He,
who had always toed the line without question, had rarely been given anything he truly desired.

Hands off Evangeline,
he’d been told.

Tightening his jaw, Reed reached for Eve’s elbow and pulled her away. Damned if he would toe the line in this. If he had to reap his own rewards, he’d start with her.

“What the hell is going on?” Eve queried on a hiss of breath.

“A major fuck-up,” he snapped. “Where’s Cain?”

“Sleeping. And why do you two have different names? It’s confusing.”

“Eventually, you will have to change names, too. It looks suspicious if you don’t die.”

“Screw that.”

He led her up the beach. At the last minute, he directed her toward the patio of a Mexican restaurant and cantina. Festive music blared from hidden speakers and the spice-laden scent of food teased his nostrils. He heard Eve’s stomach growl and shook his head. “You haven’t eaten?”

“I haven’t thought about it. By the way, I don’t have any cash and the patio is closed to noncustomers.”

He shot her an arch glance. “I don’t expect my dates to pay when they’re with me.”

“This is a date?”

“It is now.”

“I’m not feeling it. Not after that creep on the beach.”

“He was a Nix,” Reed corrected. “And you need to watch your mouth. If I hadn’t shown up when I did, you’d be dead right now.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Eve sank into the plastic patio chair he pulled out for her. Their table was in the corner formed by two Plexiglas panels. It afforded them a view of the beach while shielding their food from the ocean breeze and sand.

“You used the Lord’s name,” he explained, taking the chair opposite her. “It’s a weapon against demons. Rarely deadly but always painful.”

“How the hell was I supposed to know that? He was heckling me. If he’d left me alone, none of that would have happened.”

“You’re ripe for the picking. An untried, clueless Mark. I could kill Cain for falling asleep on the job.”

He snorted. “Irresponsible, as usual.”

“What’s a Nix?”

He noticed she chose to ignore the dig about Cain, and he smiled inwardly. The first time he saw her, Eve had been dressed for business. Her unbound hair had been the only hint of softness about her. Her “look but don’t touch” air had stirred him, but it was the moment their eyes met that his interest went beyond merely pissing off Cain. Whoever said Asian women were shy and reserved had been smoking something at the time.