The Light and Fallen (11 page)

"Here it is," he said. "My favorite
place."

"It's beautiful."

Samara closed her eyes and stood basking in
the warmth of the sun. The cool weather had given way to a rare
spring-like day. Lucian shook out the blanket and smoothed it over
the grass, and she flopped down and kicked off her shoes.

Lucian settled beside her and opened the
basket as she wiggled her toes in the sunshine. "Let's see what
Sofia made us." He pulled out two bottles of water and a large,
oblong shape wrapped in foil. He tossed the foil package to Samara
and continued pulling small containers, plates, and utensils out of
the basket.

She tore the edges of the foil away and
discovered a hollowed out loaf of French bread stuffed with meat
and vegetables. "This is quite a spread," she said. "For just in
case."

They ate in comfortable silence, listening to
the waves crash against the rocks below them. Samara relaxed as a
gentle breeze slipped around her and ruffled her hair, and she
curled her legs beneath her.

"So tell me about your family," she said. "Is
Sofia one of your guardians?"

Lucian nodded. He wiped his mouth with a
napkin before he answered. "Yes. She and Duncan. I'll be staying
with them as long as I'm in Wimberley."

"What about your parents?" She blurted the
question out, then decided it was too forward and tried to
backpedal. "If you don't mind talking about it…"

"There's not a lot to say."

Samara rolled her eyes.

"Really," he said. "I know I haven't told you
a lot about myself. I'm not trying to be mysterious or anything
like that. My family is just complicated. I needed to come to
Wimberley, and Duncan and Sofia were willing to take me in."

"My family is kind of complicated too," she
said. "It wasn't always, but it is now."

"What happened?"

Samara took a deep breath and shredded the
edge of her napkin with her fingernail. "Last year my dad
disappeared. We haven't heard anything in months. The police think
he's dead."

Lucian scooted closer to Samara and rubbed
her hand with the back of his thumb. "What do you think?"

"I don't know."

She pulled her legs up and dropped her head
to her knees. "Some days I think he's dead too, but most of the
time I can't believe it. I try to stay positive. For my mom.

"I think Bell was right," she continued,
"about staying connected, no matter what separates you from someone
you love. I'd like to believe I'd know, somehow, if I could never
see him again. Do you think that's possible?"

Lucian nodded. "Lots of things that seem
impossible aren't." He slipped a finger beneath her chin and coaxed
her head up until he could just see her eyes. "Have a little
faith."

Samara gave a tiny nod, then lay her cheek
against her knees and looked out across the water. Lucian lay back
on the blanket and stared up at the clouds. They hovered over the
lake, almost close enough to reach out and grab. He could feel
Samara beside him, lost in her own thoughts. They weren't touching,
but she was so near he could feel the heat coming off of her
skin.

He pushed himself up on one elbow and stole
another glimpse. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing
deeply, her long eyelashes resting against her cheek. He resisted
the impulse to brush his lips against hers; instead he looked away
and fought to regain control of his emotions.

His feelings for Samara were growing deeper.
He knew he was already in over his head; she occupied all of his
dreams and most of his waking thoughts. He was trusting Sofia's
guidance, but what if he was going down a path with no return?

How can we ever be together?
he
wondered. He struggled with the thought. He was infinitely older,
an immortal. Members of the Host had developed feelings for humans
before, but he had always secretly found the idea of a true,
meaningful connection beyond comprehension.

Now, he had Samara. He could barely imagine
Time without her.

Samara's eyes fluttered open as if she was
able to sense his turbulent thoughts.
Did it feel like this for
her?
Lucian wondered. His troubled eyes met hers and he waited
for her to speak, but she simply smiled, and his doubts evaporated
like mist before the sun.

Part of his mind was flashing an alert. But
such a small part. Not enough to matter. All that mattered were her
eyes. She was looking at him with such openness that he felt like
he was seeing straight into her soul.

She turned to face him. A few strands of her
hair blew in the breeze as she crossed her legs at the ankle, and
she rocked forward on her hips. She seemed completely comfortable
with his scrutiny. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.

He could feel her energy. She was focused on
him with every cell of her being. He felt like she could read his
thoughts as easily as if they were words spread across a page. He
looked over her shoulder to a point on the distant shore, and
refused to answer.

He refused to voice the fear that they
weren't meant to be together. Instead, he pushed every thought that
threatened to take her away to the back of his mind and buried them
beneath the sounds of the lake, the feel of the breeze caressing
his skin, the delicate scent of her perfume.

She reached for his hands and pulled them
onto her knees. Her thumbs rubbed tiny circles across the backs of
his fingers as she cradled them between her own. "Have you ever
wanted to memorize a moment?" she asked. "Learn it by heart and
hide it forever?"

She reached out with one hand and stroked her
thumb over his eyebrows, down his nose, and around the curve of his
lips. "Maybe longer?"

Lucian felt like Time was standing still.
Seconds
had
to be marching by. He knew they did; that was
the way of the human world. But for the first time, he couldn't
sense them.

Jack lounged in a massive overstuffed chair
and pretended to watch football on TV. He had a clear view of the
indoor pool through a glass wall that separated the swimming atrium
from the den, and he could see Desiree's toned arms slicing through
the water as she swam laps. After twenty minutes she climbed out of
the pool. She shook out her hair, wrapped a towel around herself,
and came into the den.

"Quit brooding," she snapped. "You're acting
like a child."

She perched on the edge of one of the leather
couches and glared across the room at him. "I know coming across a
human girl impervious to your many charms has been quite a shock to
you, but she doesn't matter."

Jack snorted. "Are you sure?"

He refused to dignify Desiree with a glance.
"If I didn't know better," he said, "I'd swear you were
jealous."

Desiree narrowed her eyes and her nostrils
flared. "We both know," she hissed, "that if she wasn't with that
Dominion, you wouldn't be interested in her."

"That's probably true. But since I have to
follow the Dominion, I'm forced to watch them make googly eyes at
each other every day."

Abruptly he sat up and slammed his hand into
a side table. The table rocked, and his water glass fell to the
floor and shattered against the tiles. "I can't believe she turned
me down!"

"That is a mystery." Desiree smiled at Jack
with mock sweetness. "How many times has it been? Twice?"

She ignored Jack's murderous look and
strolled across the den. She rested her arms on the back of his
chair. "I think," she taunted, "that you're losing your skills. You
can't find out what the Dominion is doing. You can't even catch the
attention of a lowly little girl. Maybe you've been one of them for
so long, you're going soft."

She trailed her fingertips up his jaw line
and over his cheekbones, and Jack felt his breathing grow ragged
with rage. He longed to leap up and pin Desiree against the wall,
but he knew she would enjoy it too much. Instead he flung his chair
around and seized Desiree's wrists. He jerked her close to him,
forcing her head back.

"Don't underestimate me," he growled. "I can
take care of this. I don't think even Lucian knows what he's doing,
but I'll know if he figures it out. If he ever does. That girl is a
better distraction than anything I could've devised.

"As for the girl," he continued, "we'll have
our moment. When the Dominion finds himself otherwise occupied, I'm
going to swoop in, and I'm going to break her."

Jack shoved Desiree away from him and stalked
out of the room without giving her a chance to respond
. Samara
should never have turned me down
, he thought. She didn't know
it yet, but it was the biggest mistake of her life.

Lucian spent the week rocketing between
feelings of elation and nausea. Every moment that he was away from
Samara dragged by pointlessly, but when they were together, time
hurtled past. Lucian was disoriented by the strange way that time
seemed to be morphing around him. Instead of staying orderly and
linear, the way it was supposed to, it was adjusting itself around
her.

The key, his elusive task, faded into the
background. He knew he had to find it. And he would. Just not now.
All he could focus on now was keeping her near.

He was in his room getting ready for the
dance when Sofia rapped lightly on his bedroom door. "Come in," he
said.

Sofia pushed the door open, and he could see
Duncan standing in the hall behind her. She drifted into the room
and perched on the edge of his bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Lucian said. He gritted his teeth in
frustration. "Except for this stupid tie." He pulled fiercely on
its ends and tried to remember how Samara had gotten it to
cooperate, then whipped it off and threw it onto the dresser.

When he looked in the mirror he could see
Duncan and Sofia watching with bemused expressions. "I'm nervous,"
he admitted. "I know in the grand scale of things this isn't a
major event, but it feels important to me."

Sofia stood up and scooped the tie off the
dresser. "It might be," she said. She draped the tie around his
neck and pulled it into a smooth knot.

Lucian gave himself a final once over, then
turned to face his guardians. "Any advice?"

"Follow your heart," Sofia answered.

Lucian sighed. "That's the same thing you
always say. I was hoping you had something a little more specific
to the situation."

"Nope." Duncan grinned at Lucian's
consternation. "Quit waiting for all the answers, and just go with
your gut. Things'll come together. They might even be working their
way around right now."

Lucian looked doubtful. "Maybe."

Duncan glanced at his watch. "Even if they're
not," he said, "you've gotta go." He pushed Lucian toward the door.
"Cinderella might go to the ball without you."

Samara opened her front door before Lucian
even had a chance to knock. She was wearing a pale blue dress that
swirled around her body, and her hair flowed over her shoulders and
framed her face.

"Ready?" she asked. She stepped out and
locked the door behind her. She teetered on her high heels and
grabbed Lucian's elbow as she reached the first stair. She lifted
the hem of her dress and slowly lowered herself onto the second
step.

Without warning, Lucian's arms wrapped around
her. He scooped her up easily, like she was a child, and carried
her down the driveway. He opened the door with one hand and slid
her into the seat.

Samara laughed, breathless. "Are you trying
to sweep me off my feet?" she teased, trying to hide her
embarrassment.

"Absolutely," he said. He tapped her on the
nose. "I can't have you breaking a leg before we leave the
house."

He climbed into his own seat and started the
engine, and Samara was surprised to hear soft music coming from the
radio. "Classical?" she asked curiously.

"You can change it if you want," he said.

"No, I like it." She listened closely and was
able to pick out the low, resonant sound of a cello. "I've just
never met anyone who listened to classical music for fun
before."

"This music can tell you everything that
really matters."

Samara leaned her head back against the seat
and closed her eyes. She relaxed and let the music wash over her as
Lucian pulled out of the driveway. She was listening intently when
she felt the truck swerve. Her eyes flew open, and she realized
that Lucian's eyes were closed too.

"Open your eyes!" she shrieked. "The driver
always has to keep their eyes open!"

Lucian jerked the truck back into the right
hand lane, and Samara was seized with uncontrollable giggles. "I
can't believe you just did that," she snorted. She pressed her hand
against her chest and felt her heart racing.

Lucian glanced at her, then quickly turned
his attention back to the road. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine!" Samara took deep gulps of air as
she tried to stifle her laughter.

Lucian gripped the steering wheel with both
hands and glanced over at her again. "I didn't get a chance to tell
you that you look absolutely beautiful," he said softly.

"Thanks." She self-consciously smoothed her
dress over her knees as they pulled up to a red light.

Lucian turned to face her and took one of her
hands in his. "Truly," he said. He pressed her hand against his
chest and toyed with her fingers, "You are beautiful."

He was studying her so intently, the
sensation of his touch overwhelmed every other thought. "So are
you," she stammered.

"I'm beautiful?" he asked.

She peeked at him from beneath her eyelashes.
"Don't take it the wrong way," she said, "but for a guy, you kind
of are."