Eve of Darkness (17 page)

She had traveled extensively over the course of her life—family road trips when she was younger and job site visits when she was older. Nowhere else in the United States had she ever seen such bleached and cracked roads as there were in California. Repairs were made with topical applications of tar, creating a haphazard web of black over gray that was often more prominent than the painted safety lines. But not here at St. Mary’s. It was another sign of the health of the church’s congregation.

More than that, however, the asphalt made Eve think of her life. Over the years it, too, had lost its color. As cracks had appeared, she’d slapped a Band-Aid on them and kept on driving. Her dissatisfaction almost felt like a midlife crisis, and at twenty-eight years old it was far too soon for that.

“I’ll help you,” Eve blurted, meeting Alec’s gaze over the roof of her car. “But only to the extent that it doesn’t interfere with my work.”

“Deal.” The curve of his lips drew her eyes to his mouth.

Shaking her head at her preoccupation with sex, Eve pulled on the handle and stepped out of the way of the swinging car door. Her gaze dropped to the driver’s seat to facilitate sliding into it and the stench of a sewer made her recoil violently. Looking for the pile of shit she must have stepped in, she found herself staring into eyes of malevolent, crystalline blue. A face. In the puddle at her feet. She screeched, kicking instinctively, causing the visage of the Nix to explode in a shower of water droplets.

As her leg came back down, the spray regrouped in a rush, forming a rope of water that wrapped around her ankle. It yanked hard. Eve fell, the ground rushing up to meet her, the Nix’s face leering with such gleeful anticipation it struck terror in her soul.

As Eve’s knees buckled, she reached blindly for the car door, crying out as her forearms slammed into the thin metal lip that rimmed the top. She caught the edge with her fingertips, her body nearly dangling as water snaked around her calves and pulled at her.

Then Alec was there, catching her around the waist and chanting in a language she didn’t recognize. What she did understand, however, was how furious he was. His large frame vibrated with it and his voice hummed with unmistakable menace. She kicked furiously at the puddle, her shins hitting the bottom of the door in her frenzy. The displaced water began to converge, evaporating with unnatural swiftness until it was no longer there.

“Shh,” Alec murmured with his lips to her ear. “He’s gone. It’s okay. Calm down.”

“Calm down?”

“I can’t believe he came after you while I was here,” he bit out. “He knew he didn’t have the time to hurt you with me nearby. He’s just terrorizing you.”

She hiccuped, which brought to her attention the fact that she was crying. “
Just?
Damn it that’s enough!”

“No. It’s too much.” He set her down and urged her toward the passenger side. “I’m driving. You’re shaken up.”

“I’m pissed.” And she was. She was scared, yes, but she was mad as hell, too. Her forearms and shins hurt, and aggression flowed across the surface of her skin like a hot breeze.

“We need to add the Nix to our to-do list.”

“You’re goddamn right we—Ow! Crap!” She hissed as her mark sizzled.

“Watch it.”

Alec opened the door for her, then rounded the trunk and slid behind the wheel. He moved the seat back to accommodate his longer legs, then turned the engine over and slid the transmission into reverse. “You okay?”

“No. I’m not okay.”

He squeezed her knee, then tossed his arm onto her headrest. He glanced out the rear window as the car backed out of the space.

The drive to her condo was made in silence. Eve wiped her tears, examined her already healing arms, and inhaled resolve deep into her lungs. When Alec pulled into her assigned spot next to his Harley, he sat for a moment with both hands on the wheel. He stared straight ahead at the cement block wall that framed the parking garage. Eve got out.

As she passed through the archway that led to the lobby, she paused at the mailboxes and waited for Alec to catch up. He dropped her keys into her outstretched palm and she opened her box. Mail poured out and littered the marble floor. Eve cursed and pried out the rest with effort. Some of the envelopes were torn, junk mail was crushed, and there were three receipts to pick up packages that wouldn’t fit in the box.

Alec whistled, his brows arching. He handed her the mail he had retrieved from the floor. “Popular gal.”

“It’s been over a week since I checked my box,” she reminded, stepping over to the nearby trash receptacle and beginning a cursory sift through the mass. She tossed the sales flyers, coupons, and catalogs. There was a letter from her sister and she set it on top, her fingertips lingering on the paper a heartbeat longer than necessary. She saved a Del Taco flyer with a sudden appreciation of her present hunger, then she paused, unblinking.

“What?” Alec looked over her shoulder. He stilled, too. Reaching around her, he plucked the postcard from her nerveless fingers and flipped it over. “It’s stamped, not bulk mail.”

“Yeah.” A chill swept through her, like the old saying about a ghost walking over her grave. “The date of the cancel says it was mailed the day before I was marked.”

Eve took the postcard back and read the text on the reverse. It was an invitation to view the Gothic-style building infested by the tengu. Olivet Place it was called. Only the date preprinted on the card was still a few months away and the collage of photos on the front included blank sections with notes like “insert lobby photo here.” It was a mock-up and should not have been mailed.

“Someone wanted me to go to that building,” she said, frowning.

“Looks like.”

“Why?”

“That’s the question.” Alec mantled her with his body and rested his chin on her shoulder. “This isn’t good.”

“Ya think?” She exhaled in a rush, her gaze riveted to the suddenly threatening piece of paper in her hands. “What are the chances that I would be lured to a demonic building at the same time I was marked?”

“Slim to none, I’d say.” His voice was grim, his touch possessive.

“Is there any possibility that the bad guys knew ahead of time? The two events have to be connected, right? Seems like too much of a coincidence.”

“There is no such thing as coincidence.”

She didn’t say it, but she was glad Alec was with her. Yes, he’d gotten her into this mess to begin with, but at least he was around to help her deal with the aftermath. “So what do we do?”

“Ms. Hollis?”

Eve jumped at the sound of her name. Alec turned fluidly, pushing her behind him as he faced the man who addressed her. The visitor was dressed flawlessly in a three-piece suit of dark gray, his tall and slender frame motionless with his hands clasped behind his back. His hair and eyes were as gray as his garments, and his thin lips were curved in the vaguest glimpse of a smile that did not touch the rest of his face. Behind him waited a black limousine.

“Yes?” She stepped around Alec despite his protesting murmur.

“Mr. Gadara would like to meet with you now,” the man said in a voice without inflection.

“Now?”

“Yes.”

“How did you get in here?” The parking garage had a gate that required a remote or a resident code to enter.

One gray brow arched. “Gadara Enterprises is the trustee of this property for your homeowners’ association.”

Eve glanced at Alec, whose jaw and frame were tense. “I’ll need a few moments to change,” she said.

“I am afraid there is no time for that,” the man in gray replied, pivoting to gesture at the open rear door of the limo. “Mr. Gadara has a flight at four.”

“I’m wearing wet jeans,” she pointed out. She had no makeup on, her hair was in a messy ponytail, and she probably had a shiny forehead and nose. Beyond that, however, Gadara had stood her up for their last interview, so she wasn’t feeling too accommodating. “I also need my portfolio.”

“Mr. Gadara is familiar with your work.”

“He can’t expect me like this.”

Gray Man said nothing, simply waited patiently.

“Okay, fine,” she conceded.

“I’m coming with you.” Alec’s gaze never left their guest.

“That is not advised,” Gray Man interjected.

Eve’s gaze narrowed. “He comes if I say he comes.”

“Mr. Gadara will not appreciate the request, Ms. Hollis,” Gray Man drawled.

“Well, I don’t appreciate the last-minute notice to go see him,” she retorted.

“As you wish.” Gray Man moved to reenter the limo. “I will advise him of your sentiments.”

Eve made a split-second decision. She could keep protesting the crap being shoveled her way, or she could do something about it. She looked at Alec. “I have a jacket in my trunk; could you get it for me, please?”

Alec looked startled, then none too pleased with the request. “You’re not going alone.”

“That’s fine. I knew you wouldn’t like being left behind.”

She glanced at Gray Man, who had paused. He didn’t seem to catch her hint, but Alec’s pursed lips told her he hadn’t missed it. “You could toss all the mail in there, too,” she suggested with a wide innocent smile. She secured her mailbox and handed him the keys.

Alec headed toward her car, glaring over his shoulder. While he was occupied with finding the right button on the remote to open the trunk, Eve slipped into the backseat of the limo. “Let’s go.”

Without hesitation, Gray Man climbed in and they set off. Alec shouted something after them and Eve winced inwardly. She knew he was pissed at her, but she thought it best to dance to Gadara’s tune for a bit and see what “shook out,” as Alec said. She’d been marked in Gadara’s building, after he stood her up. Since Alec insisted that there were no coincidences, Eve thought it was necessary to go back to the beginning. If the only way to do that was to go alone, so be it. She wasn’t helpless; not with her new super skills. Clueless about being marked, maybe, but not helpless. And Alec would be only a step or two behind her.

Fear didn’t enter into the equation. Or maybe she was scared to death and her brain was too scrambled by shock to notice. Without the accompanying physical reactions it was impossible to tell. She was grateful for that, since the lack of emotion kept her mind clear.

Reaching up, Eve removed the elastic restraining her hair and ran her fingers through the mass. Luckily, she had inherited her mother’s thick locks, which seldom tangled too greatly.

“How did you know I wasn’t at work?” she asked, taking a lame stab a conversation.

Gray Man’s face split with his grimace-smile that made him look more constipated than pleasant. He said nothing.

“Is Mr. Gadara going on vacation?” she prodded. “Or is he leaving for a business trip?”

Again, nothing.

Eve refastened her hair and looked out the window at the passing scenery. Despite the uncomfortable silence, the trip to Gadara Tower passed swiftly. That was no doubt due to the traffic lights on Beach Boulevard, which stayed green for them 100 percent of the time. She had barely gathered her thoughts when the limousine drew to a halt outside the revolving front doors. Foot traffic was steady as usual.

As Eve followed Gray Man out of the car, she lamented her lack of heels and suit. She would have felt armored then. In jeans and a T-shirt—and reeking like a demon—she felt worse than naked.

They crossed the packed foyer on their way to the glass tube elevators. Unlike the last time she was here, she found the sickly sweet fragrance of the atrium flowers almost nauseating. She concentrated hard on turning off her Spider-Man sense of smell but it didn’t work. And then something else drew her attention.

The door to the stairwell where she had been marked.

Memories hit her in a rapid-fire series of heated images. She could smell Reed’s scent in her nostrils and feel his rough touch on her skin. The recollections were both disturbing and a turn-on.

She growled low in her throat. Her libido was now officially a royal pain in the ass.

“This way, Ms. Hollis,” Gray Man said, gesturing to an elevator that was separated from the others.

Looking away from the past and ahead to the future, Eve began to notice the number of stares directed her way. They were prolific. She tugged surreptitiously at the hem of her shirt and lifted her chin. When the elevator doors closed behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Gray Man inserted a key into a lock in the panel and the car shot to the top without pause. She looked down at the atrium below, watching normal-size people shrink into teeny ants. So industrious. So inconsequential. Is that what she looked like to God? Is that why he didn’t care that he had set her life spinning like a top?

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. Eve turned and found herself looking directly into a massive, well-appointed office. An intricately carved mahogany desk was angled in the far corner, facing the bank of windows on the opposite side. Two brown leather chairs faced the desk, a fire crackled in the fireplace, and a portrait of the Last Supper decorated the space above the mantel.