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I squeezed her tighter blinking the god damn tears from my eyes. When I flipped the lights off earlier and the wall did its passing daylight trick, a rock formed in my throat that the shower did little to erase. It’s not like I haven’t seen some beautiful scenes on the web, but having the light surrounding me like the living room and the bedroom left me wanting the sunshine as much as I wanted Naomi.
I pushed her away and flipped the overhead lights on. Her dark gaze met mine and I tried on a smile to appease the worry lines creasing her forehead. They smoothed and she sent a smile back.
“So the crew is out?”
“It appears that way. I wish I could just go out. Michael asked me to lay low for a while too, just to make sure Lucifer’s henchmen weren’t in the vicinity.
“As annoying as it is, he’s right.” I couldn’t see any way around it. If we suddenly appeared here, and Lucifer got wind of it, he’d send his entire army to gather us. And even though the property was monster-proofed, that wouldn’t preclude them from grabbing Ted and Valerie as bargaining chips. We had to lay low and until we were sure Lucifer had bought the bait.
“Have you heard anything from him?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I haven’t checked my emails today. I have a few things to do for work, but I figured none of it was critical yet. So I fixed up the tunnel.” I headed into the living room and crossed to the desk, flipping open the new computer to see what it offered. My backpack sat to the side of the desk just in case this one didn’t have everything I needed.
The internet connection was already set up, so I ventured into my email, pushing the sense of dread away as the screen loaded. My jaw clenched at the sight of another email from the same source and I raised my gaze to Naomi.
“You know he’s going to kill me if he gets a hold of us,” I said. “But I’m going to make damn sure I get a few licks in before he does.”
Her face paled and her lips pressed together in the telltale sign of apprehension. I know she hated when I talked like this, but she had to know, his tracking us down was inevitable. It might take years, but the time would come when we’d both have to face the music.
“You can’t think like that, Damian,” she said and I laughed.
“He’s on the hunt, baby. And Lilith was right, when you choose to dance with the devil, the song eventually ends.”
She rolled her eyes at my analogy. “We can beat him.”
I loved her with my entire being, but even after everything we’ve encountered, her naivety still amused me.
“The tiger could beat him, but that’s lost to us now.” I said, finally admitting something I’ve kept inside for five years. If we had another five or ten minutes in that warehouse before the sun rose, she would have ripped him to shreds.
“You can beat him,” she said with all the confidence I lacked.
“No, I can’t. I couldn’t even take down Michael.”
“You weren’t in shadow form,” she countered and her hands found her waist. I hated her argumentative stance. It completely undermined my train of thought because when she stood like that, her perky breasts strained against the fabric of her shirt and the dare in her eyes always fanned a heat deep inside me.
It was completely unfair how this woman could derail me. From the moment we met, she could melt and infuriate me at the same time. I was sure if I had a thousand years with her, it would be the same. Naomi made me feel alive and significant. Not just some beast trained to be a watch dog.
Before I opened the email or said anything derogatory to Naomi, I decided to staunch my hunger. I stalked across the room and opened the refrigerator, taking the blood bag. Instead of opening the top and pouring it into a glass, I opted to tear the corner with my teeth and gulp it down like it was a severed arterial spray instead of a civilized drink.
The need to hunt ate at my bones and I closed my eyes, letting the cold human blood quench my nerves and cool the burning pit in my stomach. When the bag was empty, I tucked it into the garbage under the sink and turned back to Naomi and the computer beyond her.
With the blood spreading a warm chill through my body, I crossed to the computer and opened the email. My legs turned to jelly and I sat down in the chair.
“What’s wrong?”
I guess my face registered the shock at Lucifer’s words and I could almost hear him chuckling. “He didn’t buy my attempt to snow him,” I said. “Someone saw the lights in the garage last night. The good news is he hasn’t connected us to the house yet. He thinks we’re in the garage and he knows I’ll eventually have to come out.” I chuckled at the last question, raising my gaze to hers. “He’d like to know how I got in.”
I pulled out my computer because I knew it had mechanisms that rendered it untraceable and opened the email. I pressed the reply button and typed, ‘Isn’t it amazing what fingerprints can do?’ and sent the email. I smiled at my wit wondering if my question would stump him or not.
“Did you just confirm where we are?”
I met her gaze. “I confirmed where he thinks we are.”
“Do you have a fucking death wish?” Naomi snapped and stomped out of the room. I tried to catch up to her but she was up the stairs and into the belly of the house before I could stop her. I found myself halfway up the basement stairs before my internal alarms sounded.
“That’s not fair!” I yelled at the cracked door and made my way back to the underground sanctuary. She didn’t understand how long this game with Lucifer had been going on or how tired I was of always being at the shit end of the stick.
I sat down behind my computer and brought up the reply prompt again and typed another message. ‘You know where I am, but are you so sure that drop off in Buffalo didn’t contain a very special package of mine? Did you check all the northbound traffic?’
I sat back and smiled. Punching the send button gave me a moment of pure satisfaction. Lucifer would spend the next several days hunting down all the rental agencies and ticket counters in Buffalo looking for Naomi. When he finally came to the realization I led him on a wild goose chase, I had better buckle down for a long quiet stay underground.