Devil Inside (40 page)

That’s when it clicked.  Cassandra had expected Harley to have some kind of uncontrollable blood lust.  Her back stiffened in anger.  “What?  You expected me to be one of the Nocte who can’t handle the darkness?  You thought I was going to be one of the ones who go on some kind of rampage?”  Her anger twisted inside her—THIS was why she hated being different.

Cassandra turned back around and met her gaze.  “Well, can you blame me?  You are stronger than the rest of us.  You can go out in the sun with no affect and who knows what else you can do?  Your Nocte is obviously strong.  And you REALLY enjoyed that first feeding.  I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was hard—or impossible—for you to control.”

Harley was glad to know that no one else seemed to know about the other differences.  The stuff with Levi.  That would have made everything worse.  Those bits were more…private—not to mention weirder.  It was bad enough that Cassandra had doubted her.  She wondered how many of the other Praesidio doubted her as well.  Did Nya?  Did Levi?  They both SAID they believed in her—but did they really? 

Finally Cassandra softened her voice.  “I’m glad though.  You are one hell of a Praesidio.  It’s good you are one of the good guys.  I just hope it stays that way.”

Harley couldn’t help but ask, “What would you have done had I become one of those who can’t control themselves?”

Cassandra looked at her silently for a moment.  “I would have done what needed to be done.  That’s what I do.”

Harley tilted her head at her.  “What exactly is it that you do?”

“I take care of problem Nocte.”

Harley swallowed the lump in her throat. 
Did Nya send Cassandra along because she thought I would need to be “taken care of?”
  Her hurt and anger was apparently obvious.

“I offered to come.  Nya didn’t think there would be a problem, but I wasn’t all that sure.”

“What about now?”

Cassandra shrugged.  “So far, so good.”

Cassandra had stuck around for less than the week she had agreed upon.  She had told Nya over the phone after three days that Harley didn’t need her to stay.  She had assured Nya that Harley could take care of herself and Nya didn’t insist that she stay.  Harley was apprehensive about Cassandra leaving, but she didn’t voice her concerns.  She was sure she would be fine.  She knew that neither Nya nor Cassandra would leave her on her own if they didn’t feel that she could handle herself.  Some of her bruised feelings faded when Cassandra announced that she was leaving early.  Harley knew that she wasn’t in danger of losing herself to the blood lust, and she was glad that had Cassandra agreed.

Now a month after her arrival in the city, Harley stood at the window watching the river of people as they made their way through the city.  It was still early but Harley hadn’t been able to sleep.  She had fed just last night so she wasn’t hungry; she had just had a lot of stuff on her mind.  She decided to go out even though it wasn’t dark yet.  She hadn’t hunted during the day even though she knew she was strong enough to do so and she didn’t particularly plan on hunting before the sun set—she had just realized that she hadn’t really seen the city during the day yet.  If she came across a Burner—she’d take care of it.  But the day belonged to the Lux so if she could avoid stepping on their toes she would.

Harley hadn’t had any luck finding Cutter in the month that she had been in the city.  Granted New York was massive and there was an equally massive amount of people here—but she knew if he was here she would find him eventually.  She had been interrogating the Ignis before she killed them.  She knew she couldn’t completely trust what they had to say—but she could usually pick up on when they were lying so she felt sure that she wasn’t being duped when none of them could tell her how to find him.  Harley let the sun wash over her as she stepped into the crowd.  She hadn’t had any luck finding Cutter during the night—so she was hoping that she might come across something during the day.  She knew that was a long shot but figured she didn’t have anything to lose by giving it a try.

Harley threaded her way through the people rush of people on the sidewalk.  People still avoided bumping into her even during the day.  She didn’t know if it was an aura she gave off that made people avoid her.  Or, it might also have something to do with how she was dressed though.  Her dark red hair blew free in the wind and she wore black out sunglasses.  She also wore a tight fitting black tank top and a plain black, leather tailored jacket despite the warm weather.  She had figured out that black was the best color to hunt in because it did the best job of hiding blood that inevitably ended up getting on her clothes.  And she always needed a jacket or a hoodie to hide her knife.  She was wearing dark blue jeans and boots again.  Everything together must put off quite the imposing image.  She imaged that she looked like an agent of some kind and that was why people avoided her.  But then again, maybe she just looked like a weird Emo chick.  She smiled to herself at that thought.

During the day the city came alive and teemed with activity.  People shopped and went to work.  They snapped pictures of the sights and they oohed and they awed at the skyscrapers that towered over the streets.  The day was loud, garish and overwhelming.  It was easy to drown in the bustling crowds of New York City during the day.  But at night, you could breathe.  Harley began to feel the crushing weight of the people that passed by her on the streets.  She felt her agitation growing as she smelled the people and caught pieces of their conversations.  Their shopping bags took up walking space.  Young girls squealed over some inane delight.  She could feel them and their heat pressing into her claustrophobically and she struggled to maintain control over her calm demeanor.   It eventually became too much to block out and she looked for an exit from the flow of people.  She finally found a side street that was less crowded and she ducked out of the foot traffic, walked away from Broadway and breathed a sigh of relief.

Harley continued to walk away from the popular roads that most of the tourists took.  Eventually, the traffic of people thinned to a tolerable level and she began to relax more.  As she passed by an alley way she was stopped in her tracks by the sound of a commotion.  She felt her Nocte’s senses perk up and alert on the presence of a Burner nearby.  Without the panic of the crowd she could focus on her “sixth sense.”  She walked slowly between the two buildings and the sounds of the struggle grew louder and seemed to be coming from behind the several dumpsters at the end of the alley.  She took a deep breath and beyond the smell of trash, rats and other food Harley could make out the old burnt smell of an Ignis…and something else.  Something new that she hadn’t encountered before.  Curiosity drew her forward.

Harley could hear two males grunting with the effort of a fight and she shrugged her jacket off in anticipation of joining the fight.  The leather jacket was comfortable and looked cool—but not really practical for a fight.  She flexed her shoulders making sure that the holster that held her knife wouldn’t inhibit her movements.  She laid her jacket on a mostly clean trash can lid and slowly made her way towards the dumpsters.

Harley stepped cautiously around the side of the nearest dumpster and tilted her head at the sight before her.  Two men—one Ignis and one…apparently Lux—fought viciously in behind the dumpster.  The Ignis was tall and thin and exceptionally dirty with greasy red hair and a scraggly beard.  The Lux—and Harley was sure that’s what he was—was about the same height but had short light brown hair a strong jaw and muscles that stretched the sleeves of his shirt.  She knew that he had to be a Lux because his eyes were solid white.  Even from the side Harley could tell how white they were and it made the hair stand up on the back of her neck.  The solid white eyes looked—to her—like the eyes of the dead.

The two men fought savagely, neither gaining an advantage over the other.  Harley leaned against the metal wall of the dumpster and watched the fight progress.  She was pretty sure neither of them even knew she was here—they were way too involved in the fight.  The Burner wasn’t particularly old or strong so she was surprised he was putting up as much of a fight as he was.  The Lux was definitely older than the Burner—had he been a Nocte she couldn’t imagine that he would be having this much trouble.  She had had no idea that Lux weren’t as strong as Nocte.  She wondered why the Lux wasn’t carrying a weapon.  That question was answered by scanning the area in which the men fought.  An intricately carved knife handle lay on the other side of the alley.  She didn’t see the blade anywhere and hoped it was broken off in the Ignis.

Harley took a deep breath.  The Ignis wasn’t as nasty as some she had encountered.  He was probably a lowly drug dealer.  No—she smelled gas on him underneath the stench of his burning breath and body odor.  He was a fire bug.  She took another breath and focused on the scent of the Lux.  He smelled…warm.  She wrinkled her brow at that.  What did that mean?  Warm.  She felt her Nocte flutter at attention and purr. 
Ah, that’s what that means.
   She rolled her eyes.  Her Nocte had been bugging her for weeks to find someone else to scratch that itch for them since Levi was off in Italy somewhere.

Harley raised her pant leg and pulled out the small silver dagger that she kept hidden in her boot as a spare.  It was perfect timing because as she lowered her foot the Burner caught the Lux with a solid fist to the jaw and he was spun around to face Harley who was still leaning against the dumpster.  Both the Ignis and the Lux paused when they realized she was standing there.  The Lux caught himself from falling into her and hung partially bent over with his arms out for balance.  Harley maintained her casual lean  as she twirled the dagger so that the handle faced the Lux.

“Here, try this,” she said with a small smile.  His ghostly white eyes met hers and she clenched her jaw.  He had thin lips and a straight nose and was clean shaven.  And he was nearly as gorgeous as Levi. 
Maybe as gorgeous—just in a different way.
  Despite the creepiness of his eyes she could tell he was a good guy.  They may have been eerie in their whiteness, but his eyes were as “warm” as his smell.  In the same way that she could pick up on the nature of the Ignis, she could do the same with the Lux apparently.  The Lux only hesitated for a moment before he snatched the dagger from her outstretched hand.  He swiftly turned and met the Burner who was rushing towards him.  It was, again, perfect timing.  He met the rushing Ignis with a thrust of the blade directly into his heart.

The Lux pushed the collapsing Ignis backwards and away from him.  He then bent over with his hands on his knees and began coughing.  Harley wrinkled her nose at the wet hacking coughs that barked out of the Lux.  When he regained his composure he slowly turned to face her.  His eyes were no longer white; they pale green and even the glaring, broken, red blood vessels didn’t diminish their softness.  He wiped his face with his shirt tail showing off incredibly toned abs and Harley had to bite the inside of her cheek to block out her Nocte’s excitement.  The Lux studied Harley carefully without saying anything for a moment, his brow twisted in confusion.  Harley waited patiently for him to put two and two together.

“What are you?” he finally asked. 

His voice was soft and smooth with a slight accent that sounded Irish and it sent a chill up Harley’s spine.  She called her Nocte up and felt her eyes black out.  The Nocte jumped at the chance to rise up and it took a lot of will power for Harley to not reach out and touch the gorgeous man in front of her. She reached up and removed her sunglasses.  The Lux’s eyes widened when he saw what she was.  Harley couldn’t help but smile a little at his reaction before letting her eyes clear.  Her Nocte didn’t appreciate standing down but did so with minimal grumbling.

The Lux looked up at the sun that was just preparing to set.  “But it’s daylight,” he said, stating the obvious.

Harley smirked at him.  “Why, yes it is.”

He scowled at her.  “I’ve never heard of Praesidio hunting during the day.”

“Who says I’m hunting?”

He looked at her as if she asked a stupid question.  “Why else would you be wandering down alleys in Manhattan?”

“I wandered down this alley because I heard a fight and was pretty sure it was a Burner.  It’s a good thing for you I did.”  She left out why she had been so sure it was an Ignis because she didn’t really want anyone to know about that weird fact.  “The appropriate response is usually ‘Thank you.’”

The Lux gritted his teeth and let out a breath through his nose before finally responding.  “Thanks,” he said almost regretfully.  “Why ARE you out during the day?”

Harley ignored the question.  “I thought Lux were supposed to be able to fight the Ignis as well as we could.  Why were you having such a hard time with one so young?”

When the Lux scowled harder she realized that her question had been insulting.  “Sorry,” she said offering him a real smile.  “I’m just asking because it looked like you were having some trouble with the fight.  Then there was the coughing.”

The Lux stared at her without answering.  He looked her up and down while she did the same to him.  Again she was struck by his good looks.  He was a little taller than Levi and leaner, but just as muscled.  While Levi was all proud, rough angles, the Lux’s features were more sharp and aquiline.   Finally, mostly to distract herself, she decided to answer his question as minimally as possible.  “Nocte can come out in the sunlight.  We just aren’t usually as strong during the day.”