Sacrifice (5 page)

Ethan
willed himself to sleep, keen for sunset to come quickly, regretting now that
he hadn’t woken Hallie and told her again how he felt about her. Would he ever
get another chance to tell her that he loved her?

Chapter Three

Hallie
hovered outside Ethan’s apartment, wondering if it was dark enough outside for
him to get up. He’d left earlier than usual that morning, claiming a need to
visit Clive to plan their next move. Ethan said he’d be back in the house just
before dawn and that he would sleep until the sun went down and see her at the
usual time . She pressed her ear to the door and strained to hear any sound of
movement inside the room. Turning to use her other one, as if somehow it would work
a little better, she caught sight of herself reflected in the glass of the
front door. She looked like a stalker.

Running
back to her room with a guilty giggle, she shrugged off the accusation she’d
leveled at herself only seconds earlier. Counting down the minutes until he
would wake every day might have seemed strange to her a while back, but
now…now, she was in love.

Finally,
blessedly, she and Ethan had taken the step from friends to lovers.

Hallie
flopped onto the sofa for the tenth time since the sun went down and surfed
through the TV channels, trying to find something to occupy her time, but she
couldn’t focus. A commercial, showing a handsome young couple walking in the
sunshine, each of them holding the hand of their beautiful daughter, soured her
mood. She and Ethan could never be like them.

The
dark cloud brewing over her head for the three days since she’d discovered Ethan’s
secret, was dark and disturbing.
Ugh!
Don’t do this to yourself Hallie,
she thought, turning the TV off and
sliding onto her back to stare at the ceiling. She couldn’t help her train of
thought. No amount of positive thinking could change the basic fact that the
man she loved wasn’t even a real man. Admitting he’d claimed her heart and her
body didn’t matter a damn in the grand scheme of things. She knew she’d been
blocking out any thoughts of a future with Ethan because she didn’t want to
face the truth. They didn’t have a future.

Hallie
begged him to quit the investigation. Surely now, exposing them would mean
exposing himself too. What would be the point? But he’d refused to talk to her
about it, making it clear that he didn’t want to argue over a course of action
he was set on following.

“Let’s
not waste these moments together talking about things that are beyond our
control,” he would say, and then do something to distract her. And boy was he
good at distracting her, but Hallie never missed the implication in his words. He
too thought their time together was limited.

A
noise in the hall dragged her out of her dark musings and she leapt to her
feet, ready to run into Ethan’s arms and cherish every moment with him. Hallie barely
took a step forward when the door exploded from the wall, shattering into a
million splinters of wood. She fell backwards with a scream, shielding her face
from the debris and landed on the floor with a hard thud that knocked the wind
from her lungs. Almost as soon as she hit the ground, a hand grasped the back
of her neck, threatening to choke the life from her, and suddenly Hallie was up
against the wall, her feet kicking the air beneath.

Still
in shock and dizzy from her fall, Hallie had to squint to get the image
swimming in front of her into focus. A man filled her vision. He was tall, dark
and terrifying, just as Ethan described him. There was no doubt the being wasn’t
human…nor was there any doubt in her mind that it was Silas.

Her
mind screamed to run away, but strong hands of people she didn’t notice before,
held her captive and lifted her from the floor. Her feet pedaled the air
uselessly, yet still she kicked, terrified into motion by the blood red eyes
staring at her.

“You
know of me?”

The
soft caress of his voice confused her into stillness. Like a badly dubbed
movie, the sound that emanated from the huge man didn’t fit with his
appearance. The gentle, almost lilting tone washed over her again when he
repeated his question.

“Cat
got your tongue?” he asked with an indulgent chuckle as he took another step
closer.

Hallie
felt as if she had been drugged. The nearer Silas got to her, the less afraid
she became. A part of her knew she was in mortal danger, but for some reason
she couldn’t react to the notion. She watched in almost morbid fascination as
he got close enough for her to see that his eyes were more than just red. They
were speckled in multiple shades of red yet ringed in black…and totally
mesmerizing.

Silas
smiled again and his lips parted to expose strong white teeth, his fangs
already extended. The helpless stupor which held her immobile lifted at the
sight of them, and she screamed in terror, struggling anew to free herself. Her
tormentor laughed, enjoying her fear it seemed, so she clamped her lips
together to stifle another shriek lest it excite him more and he attack his
prey.

“If
you know of me,” he said, answering the question she had ignored, “then you
know where
he
is.”

“W…who?”

Silas
leapt forward, closing the narrow gap between them in a fraction of a heartbeat
and snapped his teeth together, inches from her face. “Don’t test my patience,
child. Ethan. You know of whom I speak.”

“He’s
not here.” Hallie barely heard the hoarse whisper that she managed to force through
her fear-stricken throat.

“She
is lying,” one of her captors snarled in her ear. She turned to look at him,
surprised to find the hands bruising her arms belonged to a youth barely out of
his teens. On her other side was a slightly older Creole woman. Hallie wondered
if it was the same woman who’d attacked Ethan.

Silas
assessed Hallie’s reaction to the accusation, his eyes narrowing as he watched
her. “No, I don’t think she lies. After all, he would have tried to save his
lover already if he was close enough to hear.”

Hallie
couldn’t ignore the logic in his words. Obviously, Ethan wasn’t back yet.

“He
left here…weeks ago. After the night…you know…the night he...” She shut her
eyes, unable to make the lie believable with Silas making her feel like he
could see into her soul.

He
growled in anger and she flinched, expecting to be punished for her
disobedience but when she opened her eyes, he was glaring at the woman beside
her. “You mean the night he should have died? Had Martine done as she was ordered,
we would not be here looking for him now.”

“Master—”

“Silence!”
Silas cut short the woman’s explanation with nothing more than a deadly
whisper. He turned to Hallie, his chilling smile back in place. “You are not
the only one who fell for his charms. Martine thought she could have him for
herself and that I would never find out. And I might not have, had he been
sensible enough to stay hidden and keep out of my affairs. He and that old fool
he thinks so much of, have become…troublesome.”

“Well,
he’s not here. I don’t know where he is.” Hallie forced herself to maintain eye
contact, narrowing her gaze. “If I hear from him again, I will tell him you
dropped by. I am sorry you wasted your time.”

Silas
laughed again, stroking a finger down her cheek. Hallie’s flesh crawled at his
touch. “Silly girl, I have wasted nothing. I got what I came for.” He leaned in
closer and she tensed; sure now he would kill her.

I love you Ethan
,
she repeated over and over in her head, clinging to the words for strength. Hallie
shut her eyes and waited for the fatal blow. Another dark chuckle assaulted her
ears and she resolved not to move a muscle and give the sick bastard the sport
he craved. She couldn’t stop him doing whatever he wanted to her, but he
wouldn’t have the satisfaction of watching her beg for her life.

“Bring
her.”

Before
she could process his words—and what they meant to her short term prospects of
survival—the young boy rushed her out into the night air. The open trunk of a
car filled her vision seconds later as she was roughly tossed inside, before the
lid slammed shut, sealing her miserable fate. The car engine roared to life
almost instantly and as the car lurched forward, Hallie rolled back against the
cold, hard metal.

Alone
in the dark, Hallie lost all track of time. Tossed about by bumps and sudden
hard turns, shattered any slim grip she had to get out of this alive. She began
to cry. Deep, gut-wrenching sobs filled the trunk. She tried to stifle them
with her fist, terrified that if she didn’t get control of herself, she would
anger Silas and force him to deal with her now rather than later.

Ethan…where
was he? Had he returned from his trip and stayed hidden while they took her? Hallie
rejected the idea because she knew Ethan loved her. He would die for her—he’d
even told her as much. The irony of her thoughts wasn’t lost on Hallie. It
might be her who would die for him.

*
* * *

“Ethan!
Stop and think, man. If you rush in there now, he’ll kill both of you!”

Clive’s
words seeped through the rage clouding Ethan’s mind, stopping him in his tracks.
Mere seconds earlier, he’d watched impotently as Silas dragged Hallie through
the back door of his club. The look of absolute terror on her pale, tear
stained face had damn near torn out his dead heart. “I can’t just sit here. God
knows what that sick bastard is doing to her.”

“Listen
to me.” Clive grabbed his shoulders and forced him to turn away from the door Hallie
disappeared through. “If he only wanted to hurt her, he wouldn’t have brought
her back here. It’s you he wants and he is using Hallie to get you.”

“Then
what are we waiting for?” Ethan pulled free. “The sooner he gets what he wants,
the sooner he lets her go.”

Clive
sighed and shook his gray head, then he took off his glasses and pinched the
rim of his nose. “At the moment, the only thing keeping her alive is the fact
that she is useful to him. Once he has you, he has no need for her…and no
desire to leave any witnesses.”

Ethan
punched the wall, surprising himself with his own strength as a small section
of the concrete crumbled to the ground at his feet. He kicked at it, frustrated
anew at the freak he’d become. What was the use of the powers he had now if he
couldn’t even use them to save the woman he loved?

“How
in the hell did he find her?”

“I
guess that explains the reason for the break-in at the office. He was looking
for some clue as to where you were staying. I’m sorry I didn’t figure it out
before. I should never have called you.”

“Hell,
it’s not your fault. It didn’t occur to me either. Besides, you couldn’t move
all that furniture back by yourself.” The office had been trashed with filing
cabinets overturned and bookcases thrown down, contents and all. The frail old
man blaming himself for the recent developments, had simply thought he’d been
vandalized, as did Ethan. They’d both been relieved to find that nothing was missing.
“So what now? What’s he gonna do?”

“I
wish I knew. We have a little time yet. It doesn’t look like he knows we’re
here.”

Clive
had taken a call an hour earlier from a woman instructing him and Ethan to meet
Silas at the club at midnight. They’d been across the street for the last
fifteen minutes, taking the time to check things out before they walked in to
what could be a trap. Ethan checked his watch. They still had three quarters of
an hour before the meeting. He couldn’t simply wait and hope Hallie was okay.

“I’m
gonna take a look around, try and figure out where they’re holding her.” Ethan
moved forward as Clive reached out to stop him again. This time, he pushed the
old man’s hand away, shoving him much harder than he’d intended to. Ethan quickly
stopped Clive from hitting the wall, setting him straight on his feet. “Jeez…I’m
sorry buddy. I just can’t stand here and do nothing.”

“I’m
okay. All I was going to say is that I think I know where she is. Remember that
cleaning woman we interviewed? The one who said she’d found a hidden room when
she’d gone in to work to pick up some stuff one night? She didn’t know the
brick wall at the back of the storage room had a door in it.” Clive’s face
suddenly lit up. “Didn’t she say there was a blacked-out window at street
level?”

Ethan
nodded, recalling the woman was fired when she mentioned her discovery to
Silas. “You’re right. You think that’s where they’re keeping her?”

Clive
shrugged. “I don’t know where else they
could
keep her. My guess is its Silas’s lair. I think he sleeps there during the
day.”

“Okay,
I’m gonna go check it out. Stay here.” Ethan ran across the street, keeping to
the shadows in the alleyway behind the building. He inched closer, spying a
thin shaft of light cutting through the dense foliage growing up the side of
the wall.
 
The window hidden behind it couldn’t
be much more than two feet square. He definitely couldn’t get through it, but
Hallie might. Ethan frowned, wondering if Clive would be strong enough to pull Hallie
out. They couldn’t take any chances with her life.