Page 15 of Destined for Shadows
Deciding on a course of action, Bartol turned himself invisible and flashed into the woods near Cori’s house. If the man did return, it was best to catch him off guard. Cori had left for work a couple of hours ago, but if he was a stalker it could be that he’d return to her house while she was away. He might even try to break into her home.
Bartol wandered the woods, searching for any sign of the man’s return. There were no new boot prints, and he didn’t find any of the brush disturbed. Could this person have been supernatural? Without getting the full story from Cori, he had little to go on.
He let out a growl of frustration. Since returning to Earth, he had taken little interest in anything, but now he found himself plagued with the need to resolve this situation before it became worse. Sitting inside his home alone would accomplish nothing. He might not wish to be around people but tracking his neighbor’s attacker was something he could do without having to socialize. Walking in the woods was something he did for exercise anyway.
He broadened his search to farther out. After an hour of wandering the woods and flashing back to check the interior of Cori’s home, though, Bartol came to the conclusion there was nothing more to be found that day. He returned to his home, turning visible again, and paced between the living room and kitchen. He felt like a lion trapped in a cage, except his was of his own making.
Bartol’s gaze fell on the cell phone sitting on the side table by his front door. It was still attached to a charger just as it had been since Lucas gave it to him several months ago. He had a general idea of how to use it courtesy of Emily’s instructions, but he’d never had anyone to call, and the strange device made him nervous. Telephones had changed quite a lot in the past hundred years. It was as if the world had conspired against him while he was away to ensure he’d feel as out of place and bewildered as possible once he returned.
But something inside him was changing. He didn’t want to sit around his house all day with nothing to do other than clean, sleep, or eat. And though he might not wish to stray far, Lucas had given him another option. Bartol could help with the nerou, who were likely as lost in this world as him.
He picked up the phone, detached it from the cord, and pushed the button at the top. The screen lit up, and he entered his passcode. It was the year he was born with a zero in front—0210. He’d heard using significant dates was a bad idea, but no one knew the precise time of his birth except him, and perhaps the archangels. Even Melena could only estimate his age to within a couple of decades with her sensor abilities.
The lock screen went away, and a message appeared telling him he needed to do an update. An update? The damn phone was only a few months old. He muttered a curse and tapped the screen to cancel the message. It led him through a couple of more prompts before he finally reached the “home” screen he recognized from Emily’s instructions. He searched for the address book where several of his friends’ names and numbers had been programmed. Finding Lucas, he tapped the nephilim’s name. Bartol’s large finger accidentally hit the wrong spot on the screen, and the phone started to call Cori.
“For God’s sake!” He tapped madly, barely able to stop the call before it went through, and tried Lucas again. He was much more careful aiming his finger this time.
“I can see you’ve finally moved into the twenty-first century,” Lucas answered after one ring.
Bartol snorted. “Hardly. You have no idea what I just went through.”
“It cannot be worse than when Kerbasi learned to use a cell phone. He broke three of them before he learned to make his first call. It took two more phones before he mastered it.”
Though Bartol could hardly stand to hear the guardian’s name, it did bring him some comfort to hear Kerbasi had fumbled with technology even worse than him. “My phone is still in one piece, though I was tempted to throw it.”
“Do not feel bad. Even the most technologically adept humans are known to toss their phones into walls for one reason or another.” Amusement colored Lucas’ tone. “I have a few more phones on standby in case you break that one.”
Why did that not surprise him?
“I wanted to speak with you about training Tormod,” Bartol said, wanting to get to the point of his call.
“What have you decided?”
Bartol paced across his living room, clutching the phone to his ear. “I am willing to give it a chance.”
“Good.” There was a brief pause, and it sounded like Lucas was shuffling through some papers. “I will bring him by Monday afternoon after his physical training to introduce him to you. If all goes well, he can get there on his own after that.”
“Monday?” Bartol hadn’t expected things to move that quickly. That was less than two days away.
Lucas chuckled. “He grows restless at the compound. The sooner we get him out of there for a while, the better.”
He supposed he could understand that, considering his own reasoning behind taking up the offer. “There is something else I wish to speak with you about as well.”
“Yes?”
“Have you heard about the man who attacked Cori?” Bartol asked.
“Melena told me. She believes he was a vampire, and she’s already working on a way to track him down,” Lucas replied.
That would make sense. Bartol couldn’t see any other way the man could have disappeared that quickly the other night. “I should tell you that I got the sense Cori recognized him. Did she happen to say anything to Melena about it?”
Lucas was silent for a moment. “He is a man from her past, but my wife swore me to secrecy on the details, and she will likely remove my entrails if I tell you anything. You must ask Cori if you want to know anything else.”
“She denied she even knew him,” Bartol growled.
“I am surprised you are this concerned. Cori is just a human after all.” There was more than a little curiosity in Lucas’ voice.
“She brings me food sometimes,” Bartol said, using the first excuse that popped into his head. “And her meals taste far better than your wife’s cooking.”
