Obsidian Souls (Soul Series) (7 page)

             
I took my opportunity to dodge out of the door unnoticed. Thinking over the safest route to the bar, I ducked in and out of alleyways and slowly crossed the distance on foot. There was now one thing I was certain of, I was being hunted.

Chapter Eight

             
This had been a bad idea. My stomach growled loudly, seconding the thought, as I dug in my purse looking for an old piece of gum or leftover Tic Tac. I could barely feel my toes anymore, and the sweater I wore did almost nothing for warmth. I had never been good at picking out clothes for functionality and at least two or three times a year I would pay the price. It wasn’t usually this high. Frostbite was a steep price for being vain. My toes had better make it or I was going to have a serious issue with karma, or god, or whoever makes these decisions.

             
I didn’t know what time it was, but it had been dark for hours, and the lights still had not come on at the bar. I’d been watching for them from my nook in the alleyway, diagonal from the front door. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get in even if the lights did come on.

I’d seen one of Carl’s guys from my apartment earlier lurking about a block away. He had walked right past my alley, and I’d had a real scare, but he hadn’t bothered to turn his head and look. With the full moon, it was brighter than normal. I thought I was caught for sure, but he just kept walking.

             
My phone was dead yet again. In a pathetic way, I was glad. I would have caved and called my brother Ted. I didn’t want to be here alone. This was more alone than I had ever been in my life. This was a level of desperate and alone like I’d never felt. I just wanted to go back a few days and be laughing with my friends over coffee and pancakes and talking to my family making plans for our next visit.

             
I looked back at the dark building. It was Sunday; maybe they didn’t open up today. What would I do then? It wasn’t as if he had a window to knock on however many feet he was under the ground.

             
I leaned my head back against the cinderblock building I crouched by. I had to make a plan, but my survival skills weren’t exactly well polished, so I was concerned my plan might go as poorly as this idea had. I knew the first thing I had to do was get out of this alleyway. That was the easiest decision if I wanted to keep my toes and fingers.

             
I stretched my legs and edged slightly closer, so I could see more of the street. It looked clear right now. If I could make it a few blocks away, I might make it out safely. I’d find the cheapest hotel I could and pay cash. I’d call out sick for Monday and tell Judith my boss I had the flu. I never called out, so if I had to milk it for a week they probably wouldn’t even question it.

             
I took a deep breath and went to step into the street when an arm wrapped around my waist from behind, and I was pulled against what felt like a very large, hard body. My feet were dangling a foot off the ground and I started to scream. As soon as I opened my mouth, a hand covered it.

             
“It’s Caden,” he said in a low voice.

             
I nodded my head in acknowledgment, and he lowered his hand.

             
“Don’t talk. They’ve got great hearing,” he whispered softly into my ear.

He lifted me up in his arms as if I weighed nothing, and he started walking in the opposite direction of the bar.

“Why are you carrying me? I can walk,” I tried to say it in the softest voice I could.

“Because you’re shivering and your feet are probably half numb by now. I don’t want you to fall. Now shut up. I don’t want to broadcast that you are here.”

Something struck me as off, and I realized it was that I couldn’t hear his footsteps. I looked down and could see when his booted feet hit the ground, but it was eerily quiet. It must have been the scientist in me, but I was transfixed on this as he carried me four blocks away.

We stopped in front of a cellar door slanting up from the ground, and he reached down with me still in his arms and opened it up, then continued to climb down a short flight of stairs. He put me down at the base of the stairs and closed the hatch. The moment he closed it, I lost all sense of vision, and the degree of darkness was a bit overwhelming in my current state. My eyes didn’t even have the tiniest light to adjust to. I didn’t like the dark on a good day, which this certainly wasn’t.

             
“Caden?” I hated the way fear changed my voice. I couldn’t even tell if I was alone anymore or if I had been dumped in a pitch dark cellar alone. I no longer felt like the tough, independent woman that had moved to the city, but a weak girl who needed someone to save her.

             
“I’m here.” I felt his strong hands encircle my waist as he turned me and started to guide me along in front of him. There was something slightly erotic about the experience.

             
“Where are we going?” I walked hesitantly, fearing I’d trip.

             
“We’re heading to the bar. Why did you decide to come back? Cops no help?” I stumbled slightly, but his hands at my waist steadied me, still guiding me forward. “Keep your arms in. The walls are narrow.”

             
“I didn’t know where else to go. How can you see?” I asked as he directed my body through several different turns. It felt like an underground maze.

             
“It’s okay. I know where I’m going.”

             
Did that mean he could see or not? “How did you know I was there in the alley way?”

             
“I’ve got surveillance all around the place. Once you started moving a little, one of my guys picked you out on the surveillance cameras. We didn’t see you initially behind the dumpster. I sent one of my guys to get you once you left the police station, but you were already gone before he got there.”

             
He stopped me, and his arm reached past my shoulder to reach for something. I felt surrounded by his clean masculine scent. I could have stood there breathing him in for hours. He smelled better than any cologne you could buy. Something about this man was awakening every primal sense my body had.

             
“Another couple of minutes,” he leaned close to say. The timbre of his voice made my senses sing.

             
“Can they still hear us?” I asked.

             
“Possibly, but it doesn’t matter as much now. Even if they were, to find this entrance they would have to come through single file, and they would never get past me.”

             
“They are pretty scary looking.”

             
“Trust me…..I’m scarier.”

             
I believed him. Normally, scary is a bad thing, but I was quickly learning to appreciate the trait. I needed to reevaluate desirable attributes in men and update my mental list. I never thought scary would make my top five must haves, but it just goes to show you how quickly your priorities in life can change.

             
He pushed open the last door, and I found myself in the bar’s basement. My eyes finally had some light, although dim, to adjust to. Caden stepped forward toward the elevator. He was dressed in all black and almost appeared to be a shadow himself in the dim lighting. His profile was beautiful but his energy seemed even a little more volatile if that was possible.

             
“I knew you were going to be a problem. You’re causing all sorts of issues,” he spoke without looking at me.

             
I was the problem? I was a victim of a lunatic gang of marauding thugs. How was I causing this? The best thing about being around Caden is that instead of wallowing for too long, I got angry.

             
“I’m causing problems? Are you kidding?” I said with a slightly raised voice.

             
“You are and now it’s my problem,” He responded as calm as ever.

             
“How is any of this my fault?” I asked in utter disbelief that he was pursuing this line of reason.

             
“You can’t unring a bell. They’ve seen you and they know about you, which was an issue enough. But, instead of just staying here and lying low for a little bit, maybe letting things calm down, you’re either running off to the police, or giving them a merry chase across the city, so that this is now a challenge for them. The more commotion you cause, the more ripples you’re sending out. There are other things that go bump in the night besides them.”

             
“What was I suppose to do? Give up my life? Sit in your basement for weeks?”

             
He turned and looked at me, raising his eyebrows, silently asking me what I was doing here now.

             
“That’s not why I’m here now.”

             
He didn’t answer. Just smiled smugly and hit the elevator control pad.

             
“I’m not! I’m here to get answers and that’s it!”

             
“Answers? You’re so lost you don’t even know the right questions,” he said still not looking at me.

             
“Then tell me what’s going on?”

             
“Are you really ready to listen?” He walked into the open elevator. He was going downstairs and it didn’t seem I was going to get an actual invitation this time around. The doors started to close, and I moved to get in before I lost my opportunity.

             
“Yes.”

             
“You aren’t human. At least not completely.”

             
“What do you mean? Yes, I am.”

             
“No, you aren’t. And neither is Carl or I for that matter.”

             
“You don’t even know my parents. You have no idea what you are talking about.”

             
“You think you know what your world is. You have no clue.”

             
“Give me some logical answers, not this crazy stuff.”

             
“I’m being completely logical. You just have a very narrow view of what the world is.”

             
His face looked skeptical. “Tomorrow night. If you want me to prove it to you, then I’ll show you.”

             
“If you’re going to tell me I’m not human and Carl’s not human, then yes, I’m going to need some sort of proof. How could I possibly believe that? You sound like a nut!” I said the words, but doubts started creeping quickly into my mind. If he was speaking the truth, did I really want to see the proof? If by some small chance I was in denial, did I really want to know? His eyes were staring down at me as chills broke out across my skin.

             
“Cold?”

             
“I’m fine.”

             
“We’ll see.”

             
“I’m sorry, but it just sounds nuts. How can I possibly believe something like that?”

             
“It would be a lot easier to just believe me so just remember, you asked for it.”

Chapter Nine

             
I woke up in the same bedroom but a little later in the day this time. Adrenaline can only keep you going so long until you crash. I guess my subconscious felt safe here even as my conscious mind was still screaming it wanted to go home.

             
I called my boss with the best make believe sick voice I had. I’d practiced several times and replayed it back to myself from my phone recorder to try and gauge if I was pulling it off or not before I got the nerve to actual call from my now charged cell phone.

             
It was shocking, but I actually got reception down here. I didn’t even get reception in my apartment building basement when I was doing laundry. Caden had to be some sort of disguised techie because he had an uncountable amount of different types of charging cords too.

             
When I left my new room, no one was around, but he had left a note on the counter for me.

Lex,

             
You can get coffee or tea upstairs or make some down here. The elevator will open for you if you place your index finger on it. The bar floor button is the two squiggle lines running parallel. To get back to this floor is the asterisk.