Page 58 of Sacrifice

“What? Who found you? Who did this to you?” Lucien’s energy increased in pitch to match his voice. “I’ll kill them,” he growled. “Tell me who it was and I’ll kill them.” He looked wildly about as if expecting to see her attacker in hot pursuit, then held her a little way away from him to look into her face for clues.

Eve squinted up. “Michaels. It was Michaels. He’s one of them, isn’t he?”

Rage filled Lucien’s eyes, flashes of red dancing in their depths. “Michaels!” he roared. He pulled Eve in close to his body again, and she looped her arms around him to hold on. The onslaught of light and sound had been made bearable when he’d held her close.

“Where the hell have you been?” Lucien demanded. “I’ve been chasing around the streets, searching.”

“The tube,” Eve managed.

“The Underground, of course. I thought for a while–” He cut himself short. “What does Michaels want, for fuck’s sake?” He scrubbed at his hair.

“He says you want to hurt me. He says I’m in danger.”

Lucien clutched Eve tighter to his chest. “Can he not just fuck off, even for a minute?” he roared and the heads of passers-by turned to stare at them. Lucien hissed at the closest, who doubled their pace to get away.

The heat of fury radiated from Lucien’s chest into Eve as he clutched her to it. “Lucien, please.” The relief of being in hisarms was being tempered by the raw sting of her skin. He looked down at her and his expression softened.

“Let’s get out of here. I need to get you somewhere safe.”

And then they were moving, faster than, to Eve, it seemed possible. Perhaps she was falling in and out of consciousness because the scenery went by in a blur. Along the embankment and then crossing the river, riding in a lift and then in an enclosed space she didn’t recognize.

“Stay here for a minute,” Lucien said, “Rest.” He settled her gently on a sofa.

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” she said.

“You’re safe now. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Sleep.”

When Eve awoke,she found herself in a spacious living room. Gingerly, she eased herself into a sitting position. Her face felt tight, like sunburn. She touched her cheek and found the remains of some kind of gel. Lucien had been tending to her while she slept.

She looked around the room. It was someone’s home, Lucien’s, she had to assume. Modern and minimally decorated, it was the antithesis of the chateau. Shining polished marble floors and charcoal grey walls took the place of oak paneling and flagstones. Lucien’s liking for art remained, however. A gigantic canvas in the style of Botticelli’s Mars and Venus spanned most of the facing wall, its original cherubim replaced by cartoon horned devils who lifted the skirts of Venus with their cliché pitch forks. A smile broke over her face.

“That’s more like it.”

Lucien, dressed in faded jeans and a loose black shirt, strode across the room to envelop her in his arms. The fizz of his touch ran over her body. “I was worried about you,” he said.

Eve melted into the familiarity of it. “I was worried about me, too.” She closed her eyes and allowed herself to be enveloped. The eye-watering glare of Michaels aura still burned bright in her memory, along with the associated fear. Here, with her face buried in Lucien’s chest, she could shut out all light. He was a sanctuary from the storm.

Lucien breathed her in and kissed the top of her head. “Tell me what happened? Where did you run into Michaels?” His voice was gentle now.

Eve’s head span with memories. ”I, I could see him, see that his aura was odd. White. I was going home and I could justfeelhim. When I saw it across the street, I knew it was off, so I made a beeline for the tube to get away. I didn’t know it was Michaels. He followed me and caught up.” She bit at her lip. “The quintessence, I let out a little, but it was hard to control.” She looked up at Lucien and he raised an eyebrow.

“What happened?”

Looking back, it was crazy. She gripped at her own hands and rubbed them together. “The quintessence let me see him, but it ramped up everything else as well. Sounds and smells, everything. It was just so much.” She remembered the disgusting stench of damp coats and urine from the station and suppressed a gag.

“Michaels got in my face on the platform and followed me onto the train. He was trying to warn me off you. Said you were dangerous as if I couldn’t see you for myself.” Eve shook her head and ran a palm down her own face. “This guy on the train tried to intervene and Michaels just got inside his head, and everyone else on the carriage. They all got off. That was when I knew. When I realized Michaels could channel power, too.”

“Did he attack you? I swear he’s gone too far this time. I’m going to kill him.”

Eve held up one hand. “He didn’t exactly do that, no.” She smiled sheepishly. “I may have blasted him out of the back of the train.”

Lucien blinked, then started to laugh. “Christ.”

“Yeah, the quintessence kind of got away from me a bit.”

“A bit! I bet he wasn’t expecting that.”

“Er, no.” Eve stifled a laugh.

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