Rise of the Dunamy (21 page)

41

A
s they continued on, Sofia took notice of how Lucian’s body was beginning to change. He was still larger than usual, but he was gradually moving towards his normal size. His skin remained pulled tight around his muscles, but the muscles themselves were changing shape. They were no longer the god-like masculine form they had been before. After his fight with the men on the street, every single muscle on Lucian’s body had been the perfect example of what that muscle looks like beneath the skin. His chest was barreled out in full, rounded humps that rested over his tightly drawn abdominal muscles. His biceps were perfectly defined and clearly separated from his mounding shoulders, and his triceps were perfectly cut horseshoes beneath the skin on the back of his arms. Although she couldn’t see his legs because of the jeans he was wearing, she could see where the seams of his pants had been pulled to their limits and actually popped in several places along his thigh. Now, the shapes of his visible muscles were odd and dimpled. She imagined that this was his body tearing down the muscle to account for the energy he had exerted. As his form began to return, Sofia found herself softening towards him again.

“Who was it?” She finally asked quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“No one makes that sort of decision without a reason. No one ever just decides to start a personal war on crime without having lost someone or having some terrible incident that started everything. So who was it?” She regretted asking the question as Lucian slowed his stride. She could almost feel it as his mood seemed to darken. It felt as if the temperature dropped as he walked in silence. The moment passed quickly, and Lucian’s face eased. It passed so quickly that Sofia was unsure if his mood had changed or if she had merely imagined that it had.

“I don’t really think any one thing made me do this. I think it’s the thought of something happening that really drives me. A lot of times, I’ll see the person that I’m checking out commit a crime or I’ll think of the pain they’re causing. I think about the people they hurt and everyone else that’s affected by their actions and it makes me sad. And like I said before, the sadness that I experience is a powerful force. And, just like most people, things that make me sad, usually make me mad and that makes it easy to do what I do. Like with what just happened. When I saw those men attacking you; I’ve never felt anger like that before. Simple enough decision for me. They all deserved to die.”

“So, your biggest problem is with men attacking women?” Sofia asked innocently.

Lucian stopped and looked at her, somewhat shocked that she hadn’t understood what he meant.

“No! When I saw that they were attacking you I completely lost control!” The look on his face was a mixture of anger and hurt. Sofia could tell that he was thinking of the moment from earlier when he had seen her on the ground. He turned abruptly and continued down the road. Sofia remained still for another few seconds to absorb his meaning before returning to his side.

“I mean, that’s definitely one of my biggies, but it was you! I went into that fight thinking I needed to save some woman from an attack. I didn’t realize it was you until I saw you face to face. I mean, look at you; you don’t really look like yourself. I really just got lucky that I was able to find you at all. See, I really wasn’t sure what was going to happen when you left earlier. I knew you were gonna go turn me in. That’s just who you are. I thought it out a little, figured I would go pack up my shit and move. I was just gonna head to a new city; make a fresh start. I’ve left places like that before and started over, no problem. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave you. I knew I had to make sure I did everything I could to make you understand what I been doin’, and why. So I took off after you not long after you left. I figured I’d be able to find you quicker than I did, but you went the wrong way. I ended up doublin’ back pretty quick when I couldn’t find you, but you were nowhere. It was just by chance that I found you when I did, and when I saw it was you on the ground I guess I came unglued. I guess with all we’ve been doin lately, and me bein’ concerned about how to tell you about all this, I didn’t really acknowledge what’s been goin’ on; but I fell in love.”

Lucian looked out of the corner of his eye to see what Sofia’s reaction was, but never stopped walking or talking. “I’m pretty shocked that it went down so quick, but it did. Like I said, my feelings grow strong and deep, just not usually so quick. When your emotions can hurt you as badly as mine can, you learn to keep people at a distance. I mean, I knew early on that you were special, but you’re really so much more than that. I’m in love with you, Sofia.”

Sofia wanted to be able to break down and cry, or go to him, or something, but she couldn’t allow herself. He was saying exactly what she had hoped that he would, only it was what she wanted before she knew the truth about him. She had felt the very same way and had found it difficult to believe that she was having such strong feelings about someone in such a short time.

“Wha... I…” Her thoughts were scattered; her mind in a state of complete chaos. Between all he had told her, what she had seen, and what he was now saying, it was all too much for her to wrap her head around.

“I don’t expect you to feel the same after what all has happened. I don’t even want that to affect your decision on how to move forward. I can only hope that you’ll allow yourself to think about it and decide how you really feel. As far as how we work things out from there, we can figure that out. I just want you to think about things and give me an honest answer.”

“How can I even know that, Lucian?” Sofia’s head was spinning from what he was telling her and the conflicting emotions she was feeling. It was probably due to the exhaustion, or the possible concussion she had suffered from the multiple blows to her head, but she was finally able to remain calm.

“How can I know anything? You just told me you were a freaking vampire, or ‘Dumany’, or whatever. What the hell am I supposed to know for sure? How can I even know that you’re not affecting the way that I’m thinking or how I’m feeling? How do I know you aren’t just saying what you know I wanted to hear before all of this happened?”

“It’s ‘Dunamy’, and it’s not like that.” He reached out to touch her shoulder, but Sofia shrugged off his attempts to soothe her. She was still very unsure of how she wanted to proceed. Lucian drew back his hand.

“I can’t do that. Like I told you, there are a lot of things that you’re going to think about me that are simply not true. I can’t read your mind and I can’t control your mind. That’s just not possible. Your thoughts don’t work like that. They’re not like radio waves that float around for people to pluck out of the sky and listen to.” Lucian dragged little imaginary thought waves from the sky as he spoke.

“No jokes, Lucian.” Sofia said softly. “Not now.” She was in no mood for his little attempts at humor or his endless attempts to deride her comments with his logic.

Lucian quickly dropped his hands and regained a somewhat serious tone.

“What you feel is real. The only way that I’ve influenced your feelings is by being myself. From there, you formed feelings and opinions as you would with anyone else. So, you just need to search your heart and decide what you feel towards me and what you need to do next.”

Sofia turned and headed down the street ahead of Lucian. They walked on in silence, which made the remainder of their walk seem endless. Sofia had so many questions for him, but she couldn’t even speak as she wrestled with her emotions and thoughts about what he had told her. As they approached her apartment Lucian finally spoke, “I’m sorry for how all this went down. I’d definitely do it differently if I could, but this is how it played out, so we’ll just have to move on from here. I can only tell you that I was being sincere and everything that I told you tonight is the truth. I only ask that you consider your feelings before you consider my actions. If you can get past what I’ve done, let me know. Just to be clear, know that I’m not going to stop. I’ll understand if you can’t accept those terms, but there are just too many evil people out there for me to stop.” After a few seconds of staring at one another, Lucian turned to leave Sofia so she could rest.

“Lucian?” She called out curtly. He turned hopefully to reply. “Do I even want to know why your hair and facial hair are longer?” Realizing she was only asking to satiate her inquisitive nature, not as a sign of forgiveness, Lucian answered quietly, “Chemical thing. Hair and nails,” he held up a hand filled with long nails, much different than the manicured look he normally kept. “They grow when it happens.”

“But after the alley…” She began, but Lucian cut her short.

“I shaved. You were out for a while.” Sofia looked at Lucian for a few seconds before turning to drag her exhausted body into her building without a response.

42

S
ofia slept through her alarm even though it beeped incessantly for an hour before automatically shutting off. It had begun going off shortly after she had fallen asleep but she somehow managed to go into such a deep sleep immediately, the sound never affected her. It wasn’t a problem that she didn’t get up because she didn’t have to be in to work that day, but it was very uncharacteristic of her to not wake up at the smallest sound. She was exhausted from the night’s events and barely had the strength to climb into the shower for a very quick, but very thorough rinse; after which she collapsed into her bed, a towel around her hair to keep from soaking her pillow. Sofia slept as if she had not done so for a week, and didn’t wake up until late in the evening.

Her body ached from all of the activity followed by the hours at rest. Sofia continued to lie there, staring out of her window for some time, just thinking of the previous night’s events. Whenever she had faced difficulty in her life, Sofia found it helpful to immerse herself in her work. She was able to do some of her best thinking when she was able to focus on something else for a time, and the answer usually came to her out of the blue. The problem with doing that was that when she went to work tomorrow, she would run into Lucian. Even if she and Bishop were to be out of the precinct all day, she would never be able to stop thinking about Lucian. Sofia knew that she had to make a decision about what she was going to do in the remaining hours before she returned to work.

Rising from her bed, Sofia slipped into her favorite pajama pants and made her way to her kitchen. Her steps were deliberately slow and short in order to ease the pain in her legs. She had no idea how far they had walked last night, but she knew she wouldn’t be doing it again anytime soon. Sofia was in excellent physical condition but her body was in no way prepared for the variety of abuse she had put it through. In retrospect, it was a terrible idea to not even try to get a cab or something. Why hadn’t she just called the precinct and had someone come and pick her up? That would have been a much better alternative, especially considering what all had transpired. Maybe she had subconsciously wanted to protect Lucian so she had blocked herself from even considering that option. There was no telling. She only knew that she was not thinking clearly in any way, and getting away from Lucian at that moment was her only concern.

She finally made it to the kitchen and selected one of her favorite single serving coffee containers. Inserting the tiny cup into the device, she leaned back against the adjacent counter and waited for the heavenly brown liquid to brew. The aroma of French Vanilla quickly filled the small kitchen, giving Sofia the first nice sensation she had enjoyed in over twenty-four hours. As she stood waiting for her cup to fill, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in her toaster. She picked it up and gave her face a good look. She had some bruising around her neck from where Spit had squeezed her. She quickly began checking herself over and realized that she had sustained several bruises on her arms and around her beltline where he had held her and attempted to remove her pants. She became angry as she thought about her attackers; the way that they had made her feel completely helpless; the terror that she experienced when she realized that she was completely at their mercy. Then she thought of how Lucian had come to her rescue and how he had helped so many other people that would never know what he had done for them. Could she, in good conscience, stop Lucian from what he was doing when she knew first-hand how much good he was doing? She knew that she would have to have an answer by the morning. She couldn’t see him again or even step into her precinct without knowing what she would do. And, what would she do when she did see him? There was no denying how unbelievably attractive she found him in his excited state.

She continued to run through everything that had happened in the past few days. She couldn’t base her decision on just the events from last night; not knowing all she knew now. The past weeks had meant so much to her. She had felt such a connection with Lucian; one that she had never expected to feel. It was a feeling that she had given up all hope of having, long ago.

Sofia had always placed so much focus on her career that she had convinced herself love was not even something that she wanted. Until now, she had never believed that she was missing out on anything. Lucian had unlocked emotions and feelings that she believed just did not exist for her.

She made herself a cup of coffee and adjourned to her living room and turned on the television, leaving it on the 24 hour news station. She had no intention of watching anything but preferred the background noise to silence. She noticed a particularly screechy personality was on so she lowered the volume to just above the muted level. Sofia’s muscles screamed as she eased down onto her couch, she slowly laid her head back until it rested on the cushion behind her and stared at the ceiling as she continued reflecting.

Her feelings for Lucian coupled with the fact that he was actually trying to do good were the only things that even made her think twice about turning him in. He was clearly going about it in a very different way than she had ever considered, but she could see why he was doing it. She had felt the frustration of watching a man that she knew was guilty of some of the most depraved acts walk free for various reasons. She knew the pain of knowing that it was unlikely that that person would ever pay for his crimes. The difference was that when she saw these things and felt these pains she immediately began trying to find a way to make them pay under the rules of the law. She had never considered going outside of the law for justice. Although she had, on several occasions, suspected Bishop of operating outside of the rules, she had never considered for a single second doing the same.

The hum of the television and the faint squelching of opinionated “news professionals” continued in the background as Sofia stared blankly into space, occasionally sipping her coffee. She wasn’t really staring at anything in particular; she was just caught in a stare and trapped within her thoughts. Nothing was making this decision any easier. It was as if she actually had the little imaginary angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, each pleading their case as to how she should judge. Her moral compass had always pointed true North, guiding her in the direction of good and pure decisions and actions; but this time it was as if it were spinning out of control. The decision was not as black and white as she had once believed. Clearly the path to goodness and purity was to turn Lucian in and stop his destruction, but wasn’t it just as good to allow him to operate and save the lives of so many people that could be harmed by those he hunted? Or was that just the legal path? Obviously it was the legal path, but was legality as important as morality in these situations? She just didn’t see the path that Lucian followed as being wholly evil. Those he disposed of, they absolutely followed the path of evil. His path lie somewhere in the middle and Sofia was beginning to wonder if maybe that wasn’t the purest path of all.

She had no idea how long the knocking had been going on when she finally noticed it. Slowly getting to her feet, Sofia eased over to the door. She braced herself as she peered through the peephole, expecting to see Lucian staring back. To her surprise, it was Shane. She slowly cracked the door, allowing the chain to keep it from opening fully.

“Hi, Shane. Did Lucian send you over?”

“Not really. He mentioned that you were upset about something and that you had had a rough night, so I thought I’d check in on you.” His face was warm and genuinely filled with concern so Sofia closed the door and removed the chain.