April
Lucy's Age: 19
I'd given Geoffrey his phone back the last time I'd seen him so the act of contacting him was as simple as sending a text. Once the easy part was done I was left with nothing to do but stew over what I was going to say to him once we actually saw each other again.
As the hours dragged by it was tempting to text Geoffrey a second time and tell him that I'd changed my mind, that I wouldn't be able to make our running date, but Venice was right that I needed to move quickly. I didn't know about the rest of what she'd told me, but it really would be a waste if Imastious tortured Geoffrey and found out about everything simply because I took too long to decide what I was going to do.
Apparently April was coming in like a lamb because I woke to one of the most beautiful days I'd seen in months. The sky was clear and it was warm enough that I opted for shorts and a light jacket rather than running tights.
Now that I had no other companionship at the apartment I'd finally learned the names of the towers of muscle that had spent so many months standing outside my door. It turned out that there were actually four of them, two pairs of brothers, which helped explain at least part of why I'd never realized that there were more than two of them.
Hal walked me down to the street and waited while I started stretching. Hal was ostensibly there just to keep an eye on me until Geoffrey arrived, but I caught him watching me out of the corner of his eye and there was a glimmer of appreciation there that made me blush.
Geoffrey's recent protestations of love notwithstanding, it had been a long time since someone had noticed me like that. I hadn't picked the shorts out because I'd been trying to look sexy. I'd picked them out because they were the most comfortable pair of running shorts that I owned, but it was true that they bore an awful lot of resemblance to some of what Venice wore. They weren't tight, but they were definitely short and the way that they fluttered around as I moved probably exploited one of Venice's other secret weapons that I'd finally clued into after so many months.
Clothes didn't actually need to come off for guys to get hot and bothered, they just needed to look like they might slip at some inopportune moment and reveal more than the girl had intended.
I wasn't the slightest bit interested in Hal, but it felt simultaneously nice and wrong to have someone looking at me like that. Nice because even when he was professing his love to me Geoffrey hadn't looked at me like that, wrong because I'd spent so long now focused on Geoffrey and not even noticing other guys.
I moved slightly, angling my body such that Hal wouldn't get quite such a show as I finished stretching, and saw him smile guiltily. Apparently I'd managed the right balance there. He knew I'd noticed him watching and I'd communicated the fact that I wasn't interested in it continuing, but I'd done so without making him feel too bad about everything.
As I finished the last of my stretching routine I looked up to find Geoffrey leaning against a mailbox waiting for me.
"Sorry, have you been waiting there for long?"
"No, just a couple of seconds. Are you ready to start then?"
I nodded my assent and he led off, picking a pace that was pretty fast, but still comfortable. I caught up to him half a block in and then stayed with him as he led us around a long loop of the city. It was a different route than we'd taken before. Instead of going straight to Central Park he took us over and then up Columbus.
Despite the fact that I still hadn't decided what I was going to do, what I was going to say, I managed to lose myself in the run. The blocks rolled past and I found a measure of relief in the feel of the pavement beneath my feet.
I didn't even realize how far we'd gone until Geoffrey slowed down as we came up to a park that I didn't recognize.
"Where are we?"
"Morningside Park. There's a cathedral up here that I come visit from time to time. I can't really explain it, but it's comforting to sit in the park and look up at the cathedral."
"You've never struck me as being particularly religious."
"I'm not. It would be pretty hard to reconcile my actions with any of the recognized major belief systems. The comfort isn't religious, not really. Maybe it's as simple as being around something that's older than I am. It just feels right for me to be here."
We lapsed back into silence as Geoffrey led me deeper into the park. A few minutes later he stopped and pointed. "There. There it is. This is where I come when I want to just sit and watch the cathedral for a while. I think this spot has the best view of anywhere in the park."
"It's beautiful. Thanks for bringing me here. I think I needed that run this morning. It's odd how something so mind-numbingly repetitive can help push aside worries of the future."
Geoffrey nodded. "Before we started running together I would have said that I would never come to enjoy running, but for months now I've looked forward to our runs. You have no idea how often on the days when we ran together that I was silently wrestling with the fact that I was attracted to you."
A half-grin snuck onto my face. "Probably about half as often as I was running next to you worrying about whether or not it was wrong for me to be feeling the same kinds of feelings."
Despite the seriousness of our situation, Geoffrey smiled back at me and shrugged. "I guess we'll never know."
We stood next to each other, close enough to touch but not quite making contact, for a minute or two and then Geoffrey pointed at a bench.
"If you'd like to stay here for a few minutes, that bench is the best sitting view out of anywhere in the park. You may want to go ahead and stretch first though if we're going to be here for a while."
I nodded and started stretching, more out of habit than anything else, and then as I looked up I saw that Geoffrey was watching me with the same kind of appreciation that Hal had shown at the start of our run. I felt myself start to blush and then I realized that saying the two looks were the same was like comparing a flashlight to a forest fire.
A flashlight created light and probably a miniscule amount of heat as well, but it was nothing compared to the heat and light given off by a forest fire. Geoffrey wasn't just appreciating the lines of my legs; he was devouring the very sight of me.
Part of me wanted to turn away much as I'd done with Hal, but I forced myself to complete my normal routine without acknowledging his stare and then I looked up and met his gaze squarely.
"You don't usually look at me like that."
"I always look at you like that, Lucy, I just don't usually let what I'm feeling inside make it out to my face. I've spent a lot of years dealing with people who take advantage of any emotions displayed in their presence. That's part of what I love so much about being around you. I don't have to worry that you've got some scheme simmering away in the back of your head. The only thing unusual about the look you just got was the fact that this time there was less guilt in the mix than normal."
"You say that I never have a scheme that I'm working on, but that's not the case. Venice and I have been working on a scheme for months that was designed to manipulate you into regaining enough of your emotions to be willing to run away from Imastious."
Geoffrey nodded, but shrugged at the same time. "You've been scheming, but your scheming was only ever meant to help me. I'm not sure that a person can get away from scheming totally. I've been inside enough minds to have seen that most people scheme, even with regards to their loved ones. The best anyone can hope for is to surround themselves with people who will scheme for their benefit rather than against them."
"This wasn't my plan, Geoffrey, this was Venice's plan. She is the one who was so focused on making sure that you were able to escape Imastious. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally onboard with getting you away from this place, and I have been for months now, but Venice was the catalyst, she was the one who got the ball rolling."
Geoffrey sighed. "I understand why you want to save Venice. To be honest, I wish there were a way to bring her along with us, but I just can't see how it could work. There are complications to the situation simply because she's a vampire."
"I don't understand, Geoffrey. So much of the good that you want to attribute to me is all coming from Venice. How can you doubt her like this?"
"Lucy, have you considered the fact that she might be doing all of this just so that I'll go in and free her mind of any programming put in there by Imastious? A telekinetic who is turned by a powerful mentalist is invariably faced with decades, if not centuries, of servitude before she'll have even the faintest hope of freeing herself from any programming input by her master. Venice has been working on this plan to get me away from Imastious for less than two decades. If my getting out from under Imastious' thumb results in her being deprogrammed after such a small investment in time and effort, she'll have pulled off what most would consider to be a masterstroke."
I shook my head, frustration growing, but not sure how to get Geoffrey to understand what I'd seen in my various conversations with Venice.
"There is nothing to indicate she's ever even thought in those terms, Geoffrey. The only thing that Venice has ever wanted out of all of this is for you to be free. She's practically pushing the two of us together despite the fact that she'd much rather be with you herself than see me with you. She's not as calculating as you're making her out to be."
Geoffrey's fists had gone white, but his voice came out completely controlled, calm, almost emotionless. It was the way Geoffrey talked when he was trying very hard not to betray just how much something was costing him.
"Venice has considered doing exactly what I've just described to you. I know because I'm the one who explained to her how things like this are normally done among vampires. You want to believe the best of Venice because you've only known her for a few months. I don't have that luxury, not just because I've known her for years, but because I know what Imastious and I did to her. I know what went into turning Venice into a cold, calculating weapon while still maintaining an exterior that would make people trust her."
"If that's true, if you really did turn her into a heartless person, don't you feel some kind of obligation to help make sure that she comes back from that?"
"Yes, I do. I'm not going to let that ruin everything else though. You've done more to make me want to improve in the last few months than Venice has in all of the years I've known her."
"She was being who she thought you wanted her to be."
My voice came out soft, little more than a whisper, but Geoffrey didn't have any difficulty hearing me.
"Even if that were the case, can't you see that the situation will be better if it's you and me rather than Venice and me? You were a strong enough person to stand for what you believed regardless of what you thought I might or might not want. With Venice I'm much more likely to backslide than I'd be with you."
There was nothing particularly significant about what Geoffrey had said, but it suddenly crystallized something that had been lurking in the back of my mind.
"This isn't all because you can't see a way to be with Venice, it's because it has to be an either-or decision for you. You either escape with me or you escape with Venice, but you can't take us both."
Geoffrey opened his mouth to say something, but I didn't let him get it out.
"It's an either-or decision and you're basing your reasoning on the wrong things, Geoffrey. It isn't that I'm a stronger person, it's that Venice loves you more than I do. Ever since I found out what you and she really were, I've been coming up with rationalizations to justify the kinds of things the two of you do. I'm not strong, I just didn't really care before. The more I care about you the more I'm tempted to bend on stuff that should never be negotiable."
I felt a headache building. "Venice was never operating under that kind of advantage, was she? She loved you almost from the very first and that is why she finally agreed to do the things that you and Imastious wanted her to do, wasn't it?"
Geoffrey nodded and I felt my decision make itself.
"If it's a question of either or then it's no question at all. Go, go today if you can make the arrangements that quickly, but go and take Venice with you."
"Taking Venice with me would complicate things incredibly. With two of us there is almost no chance that we'd be able to make it the weeks it would take to set up a long-term blood supply. We'll end up feeding on people and killing them simply because we won't be able to kidnap and keep quiet the five or six people it would take to sustain us."
"I think you'll find a way, but even if you can't, I still want you to take her. I guess when all is said and done, it's better for you to be out from under Imastious' control and killing rather than his slave and still killing."
Geoffrey went to grab my arm but I was off the bench already. It was a sign of just how stunned he was that I'd managed to move faster than him.
"Think about what you're saying, Lucy. This isn't something that can be undone later. If I take Venice then I'll have to clean her mind and just put myself completely in her hands. I won't be able to make any calls or pick a destination or a route, there won't be any way for me to get ahold of you, not when every action I take could be Imastious' conditioning trying to assert itself."
"I know, and it's not like Venice will make the call for you. This is the end. Make the right decision, Geoffrey."
I turned and ran away from him. I knew I couldn't outrun him if he really wanted to catch me, but somehow I was sure that he wouldn't follow me.