Resistance (Dark Realm Series) (5 page)

As operator of probably the only place
where human and paranormal patrons coexisted in relative peace—a place of
enforced neutrality—he was more than a bit dodgy. He had many secrets I
would like to know. Not that I'd trust him to tell me the truth about any of
them. For instance, why was he still allowed to operate? Why hadn't the prince
closed the pub down by now? No doubt Reggie was playing all the angles.

A laugh barked out. "True, I
couldn't tell you
everything
but I would tell you the password for this place at
least. This month it's mayhem."

"Good to know."

After grasping my arm he pulled me into
the heart of the pub. "I've missed you, beautiful Amy."

Unusual looking maybe, but I didn't have
any illusions about beauty. Nevertheless, Reggie had been trying without
success to get into my knickers since the bad old days. He'd try any lame line.

"Get stuffed, Reg." Anger made
me tug my arm from his. Even though I required his help, or at least his
permission, I couldn't be diplomatic because of the tension playing along my
skin like fire ants. What was the dark figure doing? Would I reach him in time?
"Knock off that flattering crap."

He chuckled before taking my arm and
leading me to the bar. "Okay. No more...even if it is the truth. You know
I've been in love with you since we first met."

Brilliant. He seemed serious.

"Reg—"

His expression transformed, once again,
into an insincere leer.

"What'll it be tonight? Sex, drugs
or Guinness?" Reg leaned in and whispered suggestively in my ear, "Or
perhaps all three?"

"I'd like to get up to your
roof."

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr." His hot
breath on my ear made me want to gag. "Is that a sexual position I haven't
heard of?"

"Eww," I exclaimed. "No.
The roof of this building."

"Whatever kinks your coil," he
continued, stroking my hand in a circular pattern with his index finger.
"But are you certain I couldn't interest you in some excellent juice of
the poppy?"

Once upon a time the temptation would
have overwhelmed me. In the days before I'd joined the Resistance I'd done a
lot of self-medicating. Now, I'd even given up smoking. So I felt only a twinge
of longing to lose myself in the oblivion he offered. I swallowed hard before
answering.

"I don't do that anymore."

"Pity," he drawled. "We
could have so much fun if you did."

"The roof." I drew the pistol
I'd confiscated from Driscoll out of the back waistband of my pants.

Reggie hissed, jumping back and then
taking an aggressive stance. "You're aware my guards could be on you in a
second. Even before you fire that thing."

True to his word, the guards, five
gorillas—who I assumed were shape shifters in a gorilla form— had
separated themselves from their stations and surrounded me on three sides. The
bar trapped me on the fourth.

I smiled seductively and simpered up at
him. "I don't want to use this on you, my friend. The gun is for my
urgent
business on your roof."

He still eyed me doubtfully.

"Really, Reg," I assured him
trying to inject sincerity. "Do you think I'd ever want to mar your
handsome face with a bullet?"

Maybe I was laying it on a little too
thick. But still he seemed to be buying it because a smile spread across his
face. He waved all but one of the gorillas back.

"Take the lady to the roof,"
Reggie ordered the one of them.

As I made to follow the enormous furry
beast, the smarmy beast—Reg—put a hand on my arm to stop me.

"Next time, my beautiful Amy. You
won't get by me with just pretty words and unspoken promises."

"Yeah. Next time. I'll be ready for
you."

He released his hold on me, seeming to
take my words as a good kind of promise although that wasn't necessarily how I
meant it.

* * * * *

Keeping to the staircase and avoiding the
brothel and opium den portions of the premises, my gorilla and I finally made
it to the roof. The security ape pushed me through a door at the top before
slamming, and locking, it behind me.

I gazed out over the expanse of the flat
tops of the buildings and spotted the dark figure right where he'd been when
I'd entered the pub. A kind of nervous relief filled me. The relief quickly
turned to worry. This figure could be a building gargoyle and not the stalker.
Perhaps I'd been on some kind of wild ghost chase.

Only one way to find out.
Springing forward I ran and leaped the
small distance between each building until I reached the fourth and final
rooftop.

"That time may cease, and midnight
never come." The dark figure, still staring down, spoke in a baritone voice
laced with a slight edge of amusement.

His words brought me to an abrupt halt a
few meters away. Raising my arm, I pointed the pistol at his center of mass and
inched forward. "Turn around and put your hands where I can see
them."

Arms going up, the dark figure slowly
twisted to face me. The cloud cover parted. For the briefest of seconds, in the
dim moonlight, I had the impression of sharp features: gleaming eyes, aquiline
nose, angular cheekbones and a sly smile.

"For a thousand eternities have I awaited
thee," he muttered.

What was he saying?
Never mind
, I told myself. Only securing
him mattered.

"On your knees." My command
pierced the night air.

The clouds shifted again and covered him
in shadow. Before I could move, the dark figure calmly took one step back,
dropping off the edge of the building.

"
Invincibility lies in the defense; the
possibility of victory in the attack."

Sun
Tzu,
The Art
of War

After a few stumbling steps, I made rapid
strides to the spot where the dark figure had disappeared. With care I poked my
head over the side to take a quick glance down, half expecting the figure to be
hovering just below the roofline and ready to attack. Instead, I observed him
careening down the steps of a fire escape, the metal jangling under his heavy
footfalls.

"Stop," I yelled and then
castigated myself for the stupid futility of such a command.

I hoisted myself over the roof's edge and
climbed down. But with his head start, the dark figure had already descended
about two thirds of the way, so I fired a shot. The bullet missed him and
ricocheted off the cobbles below. He stopped and glanced up. I could have sworn
on my dog-eared copy of
The Art of War
that the bastard grinned at me before leaping two at
a time down the remaining few steps. Once at the bottom, he turned right and
dashed off.

Realizing he'd soon be lost without
drastic action, I stopped at the next landing between flights, shoved the
pistol into my waistband and scrambled over the metal rail. With my butt
leaning there for a few seconds, I gulped in a last lung full of air before
leaping the remaining distance to the ground.

The impact on the cobbles sent a jolt
through my legs and flung me forward. Falling into a roll saved my head from
impact but my shoulders took the brunt of the bruising force. As I turned end
over end the gun came loose, fell from my pants and skittered away. The pistol
came to rest at the same time I did but it was well out of my reach. For a
moment I lay collecting myself, my cheek resting in a gooey substance with the
consistency of troll snot.

When the dark figure stopped, whirled,
and stood staring at me for a moment, I didn't know whether to be happy or not.
At least he wasn't getting away, right? But then he began to stalk, in a
haughty swagger, back in my direction and I settled on
not
happy. Not at all happy. He'd be on
me in a moment's time if I didn't do something quickly.

Pulling myself upright, I spotted the gun
and then scrambled towards it.

I took my eyes off him for only a second
as I reached down, but it was enough. With unnatural quickness he pounced,
hitting me like a runaway carriage and taking me down. For a moment I lay
squashed on the ground before I managed to shove and wriggle my way from under
him.

The male had at least six inches of
height and one hundred pounds of muscle on me but I was quicker and could use
leverage. At least that was what I told myself as we grappled with one another
in the dirty street. What bollocks. I needed a weapon to truly have an
advantage even if he was a human. And I suspected he wasn't.

Finally, I managed to wrestle about until
I'd pinned him beneath me, straddling his waist. Or perhaps he'd allowed me to
pin him because I wasn't anywhere near strong enough to force him into this
position.

"Enough foolishness, girl," the
male said from beneath me in a calm voice, confirming my suspicion. "Do
you not think me capable of subduing you physically should I choose to exert my
superior strength?"

"It seems to me that I am in the
superior position here," I bluffed.

"Only because I choose for you to
be." His dangerous half smile sent a chill through me. A chill and an
almost electric volt of something else...Sexual awareness.

Oh no.

The male wasn't a ghoul. The night might
be too black to determine the exact color of his eyes but not so dark that I
couldn't tell they weren't glowing yellow. Nor did he have a row of sharp
shark-like teeth. The male seemed human in many ways but the quickness with
which he moved. Not quite fast enough for me to be certain he wasn't human but
just enough for there to be a question.

Rolling off him, I jumped to my feet and
inched to the side until I reached the gun. Grabbing it up and pointing the
muzzle at the male didn't alleviate my unease. I suspected he might be able to
remove the weapon from my grip with no problem at all. The spark of laughter in
his eyes, not to mention the sly up-curve of the corner of his mouth, conveyed
his confidence that he could easily disarm me.

What was he?

A clatter on the cobbles signaled an
arrival. I glanced to my left and saw Driscoll limping into view with Cam at
his side.

"We heard a shot and—"
Driscoll began.

"Father," Cam shouted.

The boy dashed forward toward my nemesis
and embraced him as he gave a whoop of laughter. The male responded with a
happy baritone chuckle of his own.

"Are you all right?" Cam pulled
back slightly and seemed to search the male's face.

"I am unhurt as you see." The
male said before he clapped his big arms around Cam pulling him into another
hug. Over the boy's shoulder, the male met my gaze. His eyes taunted me with
silent mirth.

"You're his father?" I asked.

"Yes." Nodding, he pulled away
from Cam. The male stepped toward me with hand outstretched. "I'm called
Marlowe."

Thinking of all he, Marlowe, had put me
through—from the pub all the way to rolling around with him on the
street— I brought out my hand too. However, I made mine into a fist.
After drawing my fist back, using every bit of power I had, I threw an uppercut
to Marlowe's jaw.

 
* * * * *

After that Marlowe used his charm to
subdue eveyone...well, not everyone since I didn't find him charming. Mocking?
Arrogant? Irritating? Yes, yes, yes. Charming? No. But my opinion was
immediately discounted.

When I'd punched him, his head had
whipped to the side with the impact. But instead of punching me back or
shouting angry insults, Marlowe had only offered me a smile accompanied by a
small baritone chuckle. A disturbingly attractive chuckle.

Driscoll had succumbed first to the
maddening man's charms. In the flurry of male bonding, my suggestion of
blindfolding Marlowe and Cam for the journey back to Resistance HQ was ignored.
And despite my ire, or perhaps because of it, Driscoll led us into the mansion
through the front door rather than entering through the nearby church and
taking the indirect—and therefore more secure—passage through the
underground catacombs. With me muttering complaints, we marched through the
entry hall and then up the main staircase.

Some remnants of the building's former
opulence had survived like the bones of a human skeleton after the flesh has
decayed and fallen away. For instance, the white marble under our feet with its
faint black veins still gleamed, but the oriental carpets that covered it were
worn to the point of tatter. The ballroom that served as the main office had an
ornate chandelier at the center of a coved ceiling painted with a depiction of
the birth of Venus. However, the original furnishings had been stripped and in
their place were tables, desks, and chairs scattered about.

Only a few officers and guards were
there. Troops I'd have expected to see about the place were missing.
They must be out
on a mission
, I theorized.