I Am Lightning (Laurel Defense Series) (4 page)

No, no!  Bad Abby!  He could get hurt and we would get in trouble.  No!  I closed my eyes and started thinking of anything else… basket of puppies… kittens and yarn… apple pie… Yankee candles… sweet potato casserole… the red and orange leaves that were collecting in my backyard…
Robert and I rolling around on the leaves.  Okay, that didn’t help at all.  I had to get a grip.  Besides, for all I knew he was aroused because of the blood not because of me.  He just liked the smell of the ionized air around me; that was all.  It cleansed his palate so he could drink the blood he needed.  I was providing a service to a colleague.  Easy peasy.

Not so easy
peasy when his hand at my waist tightened its grip and his free hand found the slits in my suit for my wings.  Robert snuck a finger and caressed my left wing, sending a shiver that made even my hair tingle.  I took a deep breath to try to steady myself.  I cleared my throat to speak, but another caress made me moan instead.  Shit!

“Please, Robert.  No more,” I managed to say and looked up.  The bag of blood was nearly empty, so I took myself away.  I got up as fast as I could and headed for the door.

“Thank you, Abigail,” Robert said.  I didn’t turn to look at him, only nodded and left the room. 

Isabelle was sitting at her desk in the office next to the room I’d just vacated, and Mark had been pacing in front of it.  His face was full of… rage? 
Jealousy?  Overprotectiveness?  Who knew?

“What the hell, Abby?” Mark said and made sure I was walking away and back into the main part of our headquarters, or he would have walked me there himself.

“Robert needed help with something,” I said, leaving it vague.

“I don’t trust him.  What did he need help with?” Mark huffed.

“An itch!” I yelled.  “Honestly, Mark.  I can electrocute him to teeny pieces.  He needed help with something.  I helped him.  End of story.  He didn’t hurt me, he helped me too, remember?”

“Yeah, he helped you by giving you his blood.  Did he tell you that?” Mark asked.

I stopped in the middle of the hall.  “No,” I said meekly.  “The potion was purple.”

“It was purple because it had been blue and then he put his blood in it.”  The implications of what Mark was telling me were huge.  I had a part of Robert in my body, meaning he could find me anywhere, he could manipulate my emotions, and nobody knew how it had affected my energy core.  Robert was death and I was the exact opposite.  I was power, life, the most powerful force on Earth.  Lightning!

I ran with Mark close at my heels, but I was faster and driven by fear.  I made it outside, running past several colleagues who all eyed me curiously and then started following too.  I ran to the edge of the parking lot, unto a field that was sometimes used for touch football.  At the edge of the field was a bank of trees about a hundred yards away from where I stood.  I ran to the middle of the field and concentrated, gathering energy.  I was scared, yes, but I was also very mad at Robert for not telling me what he was doing, or not giving me the choice.  I would not have accepted his blood, ever.

When I had a good enough charge, when I felt like I’d maxed it out, I let it go into the woods.  The lightning bolt hit a tree with such force that it split in half and then burst into flames.  I sighed with relief, even if I was surprised that Robert’s dead blood had the opposite effect in me than it should have.

“I suppose you want me to put that out,” Brenton, the fire demon, said.  He didn’t sound pleased, but he was the best one to put out a fire, being a fire demon and all.

“Yes, thank you,” I said to
Brenton and turned to head back inside.  I needed sugar.

“You okay?” Mark asked, walking beside me.

“Yeah, I feel fine, just hungry,” I answered, feeling okay physically but… Okay!  I was crushed.  My crush on Robert was crushed.  How could he have been so underhanded?  It smacked of vampire that much was true.  And here I’d been thinking he was different.

I walked with purpose to the break room, hoping there was food because I was now not only craving sugar, but starving.  Thankfully there were two boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts, so I stole one and sat at a table to stuff my face.  Mark sat across from me, handing me a cup of very light coffee.  Not that I needed the caffeine.

“Thank you,” I said, probably looking like a squirrel stashing nuts with my cheeks full of donut.  Mark attempted to take one from my box and he almost lost his hand.

I saw Robert standing at the door out of the corner of my eye.  I couldn’t look at him just yet.  I was mad enough to make my donut hand shake.  “Mark, can I talk to Robert alone?”

Mark looked at the door over his shoulder and knew better than to ask if I was sure.  “I’ll be right outside,” he said and left.  He bumped Robert’s shoulder with his as he walked past him.  It was the new equivalent of inviting someone to a duel.  Instead of smacking someone on the face with a glove, they would bump shoulders.  Crash shoulders, was more like it.

“You better keep your distance, Ackermann,” I said to Robert, refusing to look at him, staring at my stash of donuts instead.  Or what was left of them.

“I didn’t mean to touch you.  I’m sorry,” he said, obviously not knowing why I was so upset.

“It wasn’t that
you touched me, although that wasn’t right either.  You gave me your blood without asking me first,” I snarled and looked up.  Robert looked pink from the blood he’d just drunk.  If I continued looking I would forgive him anything, and I wasn’t in a forgiving mood so I looked back at my donuts.

“I’m sorry, Abby, but…”

“It’s Parker to you,” I interrupted.  No way was he calling me Abby now.

Robert remained silent, so quiet that I had no choice but to look up.  His expression shocked me, as it was not what I was expecting.  I expected either anger or sadness.  Instead he looked utterly frustrated.  He ran his hand through his dark hair over and over.  He threw his head back and roared into the ceiling, the muscles in his neck popping with the force of his scream.  That’s when I noticed the one solitary tear that ran down to his chin.  It was clear.  Vampires cried blood.  I knew that for sure.

“You’re not a vampire,” I muttered, staring in shock.

He didn’t answer.  Robert looked at me for a split second, turned around and left, leaving absolute confusion in his wake.

CHAPTER 4

The silence inside the ladies’ locker room was as soothing as a freight train passing through my house at four in the morning.  I was sitting on the bench
in front of my locker and I was staring… at nothing.  My mind was busy trying to decipher what Robert was, not that it was any of my business.  Still, inquiring minds and all that.  I found myself sorting through what I knew about vampires from my lessons during training and general folklore, and what I had witnessed in my colleague. 

Robert drank blood, so he was either a vampire or a demon.  When I’d attacked him at the gym I’d mentioned he was a vampire, and he hadn’t corrected me.  Besides, demons were never that beautiful, nor would they be bothered by sunlight, as Robert was.  But if Robert was a vampire, then why wasn’t I dying from having his blood inside me?  My own reaction to him was bothering me too, the way I’d been so sure that he had put my life at risk.  I’d assumed he’d tried to hurt me.  It had been the first thought that entered my mind the moment Mark said that Robert had
given me his blood.  But Robert had been about to explain when I cut him off, so obviously he didn’t want to hurt me and wanted to calm me down.  Whatever had made him scream in frustration?  Anger would have been a more appropriate emotion to my pigheadedness.

“Abby?” a female voice said behind me.

I turned and saw Rhiannon, another fairy like Isabelle, but she was a guard, like me.  She was dressed in her leathers, still fresh from whatever mission she’d gone on that night.  Unlike Isabelle with her long dark brown hair, Rhiannon had her blond hair cut into a bob, and her large almond-shaped eyes were green and at that moment looked worried.  I’d seen her turn into countless things and animals, and even her clothes would shift with her.  Fairies were neat that way.  She had dated Mark for a time, never minding the thing about no fraternizing within the force.  Thankfully they still worked well together.  Let me rephrase that: thankfully Rhiannon was mature enough to not let Mark’s short temper ruin their work relationship after they broke up.

“Ifan wants to see you in his office when you’re done,” Rhiannon said and frowned.  “Are you okay?”

“Everybody keeps asking me that,” I mumbled under my breath and stood up to get dressed.  I had taken a quick shower and all that was covering me was a towel.

“Maybe we keep asking you that because you don’t seem okay.  What’s going on?  Do you still feel sick from the incubus?” she asked walking towards me.  Rhiannon was the closest thing I ha
d for a friend within the force or without.  My life had been very lonely since I’d left my childhood home near Mount Airy.

“No, no.  I think I’m in trouble with Ifan.  I should just go face the music,” I said, leaving it vague.  I didn’t think it was anybody’s business whether Robert was a vampire or not, and at that time my malady stemmed from my thoughts about him, not from the incubus attack.

I dressed in a pants suit and headed out of the locker room.  I’d done enough hiding for one night so I went straight to Ifan’s office, paying special attention to my feet and avoiding looking at anybody in the eye.  I didn’t want anybody to seize the chance to ask me (again) if I was okay or fine.  Thanks to Robert I was perfect physically.  Ifan was waiting for me sitting at his desk.  He stopped working on the computer when I appeared in his doorway.

“Close the door and have a seat,” he said, his whole being humming with gravity.  I did as he said and sat perfectly straight in a chair in front of his desk.  His office was neat.  It reminded me of a lawyer’s office, except that the books on the shelves behind the desk were not chock-full of law but magic. 

I felt like I was in trouble, and given the amount of guilt I felt about what had happened between me and Robert, I should have definitely been in trouble.  I was almost hoping Ifan would call me on it so we could just get this show on the road already.  There is nothing worse than to expect a scolding that never comes.

“How are you feeling?” Ifan asked and gave me a small smile.

“I’m good,” I said, but then decided to amend that statement.  “Physically I feel excellent, thanks to Robert’s potion.”

“Yes, I know he healed you and cut down your recovery time considerably, by about a week,” he said,
leaning forward to put his elbows on the desk.  It seemed like he was studying me.

I nodded slowly, not letting him see how truly surprised I was by his statement.  It would have taken me a whole week to feel better?  I would have gone mad if I’d had to stay home convalescing for a whole week!

“Is there something on your mind that perhaps you should talk to me about?” Ifan asked, poking my guilt with a stick.

I gathered my courage.  This conversation ought to have been easier than dealing with a snake dragon, but for some reason it was not.  However, I didn’t feel comfortable approaching Robert again, and Mark was a hothead, so I would have to trust my boss.  “Robert gave me his blood.  I didn’t know it at first, but Mark told me later.  I… I didn’t handle it well and may have behaved badly toward Robert.”  I breathed deeply.

“Is that all?”

I took another deep breath.  “I don’t think Robert is a vampire.”

“Why do you think that?”  Ifan was the picture of composure.  I wished he’d share some of it with me because composed I was not.

“Because his blood doesn’t make me feel like death is just around the corner and he cries translucent tears instead of blood,” I said as fast as I could get the words out.

“When did you see his tears?”

Shiiiiiiit
!  “I may have made him cry,” I said, looking at my hands on my lap and bracing for impact.  Of all the people that I hated letting down, Ifan was at the very top of the list.

I heard Ifan take a deep breath.  “Robert had my permission to give you his blood.  Did Mark tell you that, at least?”  I looked up and shook my head, my eyes widening in surprise.  When I saw Mark again I would beat him up good.  “Robert is a vampire but he’s very special…”

“In what way?” I interrupted leaning forward.  My nosy-not-pushy side was getting nosy and pushy.

Ifan arched an eyebrow and the ghost of a smile passed over his lips.  “He will have to tell you that if he feels up to it.  But you have to understand that I would never allow a team member to hurt another in any way.”

I nodded.  I understood what he was saying immediately.  “I know.  I will apologize to Robert,” I said and got up to leave.  I was not such a coward that I wouldn’t, at least, go to Robert.  Before I opened the door to leave the office I turned back to look at Ifan.  “If something happens to Mark, just know that he’s my cousin before he’s my colleague.”

Ifan smiled broadly.  “I need him alive.”

“He’ll live,” I assured him and left, closing his office door behind me.

I looked around our office.  From Ifan’s door I could see everybody at their desks or milling around going about their various tasks.  Mark was typing up his report, and Robert looked equally absorbed in work.  They were at opposite ends of the office.

I went to the break room, got a cup of black coffee – making a face at the offensive liquid – and walked back into the office.  I set the cup down in front of Robert, who almost spilled it because he was so surprised.  I smiled and squeezed his arm, sending a couple of gentle vibrations that would feel good instead of sting.  Robert shivered in response, never taking his eyes off me and still shocked speechless.  I patted his arm and left.

Across the way, Mark had witnessed part of what I’d done.  He looked livid, though he had no right to be upset.  I rethought beating him up.  Mark would win, in any case.  I approached him and put my hand on his bare neck, sending a shock that made him let out a choked sound before it was lights out for him.  He slumped over his desk, but the wheels of his chair began rolling away from the desk, and he ended up sprawled on the floor.  Several people gasped.

“He’ll be fine,” I said and walked away.  It was time for me to go home.

Mark had commuted with me, but I didn’t feel like waiting for his ass to wake up.  He could walk it, for all I cared.  I walked to my car aware that maybe I owed Robert more than that lame apology, and that it was his right not to accept it.

My house felt empty, even though
it wasn’t empty of things at all.  I knew my ghost Paul was in the attic and all the rooms were tastefully furnished thanks to IKEA.  Sometimes my loneliness had a way of making everything else sound hollow.  I headed for the refrigerator, stocked as it was with cookie dough, a cake I’d baked the day before in the wee hours of the early morning, milk and orange juice.  It wasn’t empty, but the contents left much to be desired, and what I desired was pizza.  I lucked out and found one at the bottom of the freezer.

The loud knock on the front door of my Colonial came as I was getting ready to enjoy my pizza.  It didn’t take a genius to guess who was at the other side of my front door.  I took my time in
answering, the knocks becoming more insistent until I opened the door.

“What’s the matter with you?!” Mark yelled, his hands resting on his
waist.  I could feel his whole energy core spiking in short angry bursts, and being what I am I had to exert a certain level of control so that I wouldn’t steal it.  I tended to do that when I was mad: steal the other person’s energy to feed my own.  My whole body shook as I reined in my anger.

“You didn’t tell me that Ifan gave Robert permission to give me his blood,” I said, keeping my voice low.  I reached and took Mark’s hand, pulling him inside lest we started yelling and cursing at each other in front of the neighbors.  It was already pretty late.

“Shit!  That hurt, Abby!” Mark said rubbing his hand.  I must have shocked him as I pulled him, again.  I would have found it funny if I hadn’t been so mad.  Besides, it hadn’t been more than a static shock and Mark was being a big baby.

“Deal with it.  Why didn’t you tell me that Robert had Ifan’s permission?  Is there something you want to tell me?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

Mark’s eyes flashed in anger and his nostrils flared.  It wasn’t the first time we fought, and he knew I wasn’t above fighting dirty, so he kept his voice level and the snarling to a minimum.  “I see the way Robert looks at you and he has no right.  And you look at him the same way.  What the hell, Abby?  He’s a vampire!”

“Thank you for pointing that out, Captain Obvious.  I don’t know why you think he has no right to look at me, and if I didn’t know better I’d say you were jealous.  So, what is it?  Did you change your mind about us being mates?  Are you going to force
me now?”  I noticed my voice came out shrill.  I wasn’t mad as much as scared.  If Mark was jealous this had just turned into a whole ‘nother ball game.

Mark backed off and
tsk’d, rubbing his face.  He turned away from me and looked out the small crescent window on my front door.  He was tall enough to do that.  “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

My heart sank into my stomach and I couldn’t help the hyperventilation that came right after.  If Mark wanted me there was nothing I could do to stop him.  More than that, I wouldn’t stop him or try.  Biology would take over
and that would be the end of my life as I was living it.  He would claim me and that would be the end of my freedom.  “How long have you been feeling this way?” I whispered and had to lean against my wall, just in case I fainted.

“Since Ackermann started on the force,” Mark admitted without turning around.

“What are you going to do?” I asked, feeling like I was about to throw up.  My life, my freedom, everything I’d enjoyed for two years hinged on his answer.

“How many lovers have you had?” he asked, ignoring my question completely.

“There is no way I’m answering that, Mark Findley!” I yelled, straightening up and shaking my head adamantly.  It was none of his business.

“I’ve had many.”

“Why in holy Hell are you telling me this?”  I was getting mad again, my voice rising at the same time as my temperature did.

“I haven’t found anybody for me.  I was wondering if it was the same for you.  I was wondering if we were really meant to be together and we’re just postponing the inevitable,” Mark answered in an even
voice.  Honestly, I thought he wouldn’t offer any kind of explanation.

I kept my mouth shut because I knew I would start screaming any moment.  Mark turned around and seemed taken aback.  He put both his hands up in the universal sign for giving up.  “Calm down, Abby.  You’re going to burn the house down,” he said in as calm a voice as he could muster under the circumstances.

Looking down at myself I knew why he’d said that.  There were blue licks of electricity running through my whole body, making my hair stand up and my temperature spike ever higher.  Thankfully I was wearing rubber soled shoes, or I would have discharged into the floor.  I reined it all in.  I would never forgive myself for setting fire to my house.

“Are you done here?” I asked him.

“I’m sorry.  I thought I could talk to you,” Mark mumbled.  He hated to appear vulnerable or weak, but if he was going to do such a thing it would definitely be in front of me.  Now I felt guilty for my reaction.  I was doing that a lot lately.