“Why don’t you go in and get dressed? You can come and get me when you’re done.”
Lucius laughed uproariously, a fact that irritated me and further stung my cheeks.
“Oh, to see your face right now, lass, is…well, it’s priceless. You’re like an innocent angel.”
“Alright, alright. Go put some clothes on already,” I snapped.
I could hear Lucius chuckling long after he’d closed the door behind him.
Less than a minute later, he re-emerged. Little had changed. His wide, blood-spattered chest was still bear and his dark red hair still hung loose, floating wildly around his face. His feet were bear, but at least now he had on a pair of faded jeans, though they were only zipped, not buttoned.
“What?” he asked, indignation evident in his tone. “I covered all the embarrassing parts, love. Now, why don’t we put aside your ridiculous sensibilities and go inside.”
When put like that, I felt like a prude. So, with a sigh and a roll of my eyes, I climbed the steps and made my way into the cabin.
Rather than going to the more luxurious quarters below ground, Lucius veered toward the small above-ground kitchen.
“So, I think I ran into some friends of yours,” he said amicably, rooting around in a cabinet to bring out a glass.
“What? Where?”
“Just through the trees and beyond the gorge.”
I watched as Lucius poured Mountain Dew into the glass.
“When?”
“Oh, not even an hour ago.”
A pang of apprehension twitched in my chest.
“Did- did you speak to them or…”
Lucius turned and walked toward me, smiling and holding out the glass.
“You mean did I sample them for dessert?”
The teasing gleam in his emerald eyes assured me that he did not, but I still chastised myself for pushing his violent nature to the back of my mind. It could be a fatal mistake to ever let myself forget that Lucius was first and foremost a vampire.
Automatically, I took the proffered glass. “No, that’s not what I—”
“Of course that’s what you meant, but never fear, lovely Ridley. I shan’t snack on your friends.”
“Th-thank you.”
What else could I say?
“It’s really not advisable for them to be traipsing around in the woods, however. You know that.”
Lucius walked to the puffy brown couch that faced the fireplace in the living room and sat down in one corner, crossing his legs and facing me.
I thought of Summer’s brazen stupidity and I wanted to growl. “I know and, trust me, I tried to talk them out of it. They’re just…idiots.”
“Ah, careless youth,” Lucius said, his smile distant with reminiscence. “I remember it well.”
“It’s just that they have no idea what’s out there. And now, after everything else that’s happened, they could be in serious danger.”
In fact, I was feeling guiltier by the second for not trying harder to get Summer to change her mind. Of course, by the time I’d been attacked, word had gotten out to the entire school about the party and there would’ve been no stopping it anyway, but still…
The lilt of a fading Irish brogue broke into my thoughts.
“Sit, lass, and tell me what’s on your mind.”
I took the seat on the couch opposite Lucius and sipped my Mountain Dew while I decided where to begin. Lucius soon took the initiative and decided for me.
“Has Bo made contact with you?”
Though it was impossible for Lucius to know about our passionate interlude, but still I felt my cheeks burn.
“Yes. He’s alive, as you suspected.”
Lucius nodded in satisfaction, a pleased grin turning up the corners of his mouth.
“Excellent news.”
“I went to visit Denise, Bo’s mother,” I blurted.
Lucius raised one auburn brow. “And?”
“I think you were right. About the mind control, I mean. It’s like she was struggling to reconcile her fading memories with her life before…well, before Bo. It was actually kind of sad,” I admitted, my heart aching for the myriad of confusing emotions Denise had suffered at the whim of a vicious vampire.
“Well, when the effects are completely eradicated from her system, she’ll be good as new.”
I looked at Lucius, trying to tell whether he was telling the truth or just telling me what I wanted to hear. I couldn’t determine which it was.
“I hope so,” I said absently. Then I remembered the other person that had been there. “I think she’s going to take care of it before it has a chance to wear off by itself anyway.”
“Who?”
“Heather.”
“Heather?”
“Well, I assume that’s who has been doing this to Bo’s mom. I mean, the morning I was there, I had thought someone else was there with Denise, but I wasn’t sure until I went back a few minutes later. I could hear two women talking and when Denise came to the door, she was totally different, like something had happened in the short time I’d been away. She had no idea who I was. It was really weird.”
“So you heard another woman’s voice?”
“Yep. And I could smell something sweet and floral, distinctly feminine, when she opened the door that second time.”
“Hmm,” Lucius said, his brow wrinkled in concern.
“Don’t you think it was probably Heather?”
“It’s possible,” he answered noncommittally.
“Well, who else would it be?”
“That’s a good question.”
I frowned, too. Sometimes, Lucius talked in circles. Sometimes, I doubted his forthrightness. Sometimes, I got the feeling he was playing for another side in the game. Not necessarily the bad side, but just not our side.
“That aside, do you still think that Bo is the boy who can’t be killed?”
“Well, that seems to further the theory, now doesn’t it?”
“It seems to,” I said coyly. Clearing my throat, I asked, “So, what else do you know about that legend? I mean, in case it is Bo.”
“The boy was supposedly the son of two angels, a child who God Himself empowered to kill his father. Some legends say his father was Constantine and that he was the very first one of us.”
“Do you believe that?”