Lucca Read online

  “Blooding is discouraged, yes, but it’s not a crime.” She refused to be intimidated by her twin.

  “All true, dear sister, but if one of the Guards of Judgment should die, the Fallen will not let the slight go with a slap on the hand. They’ll want your blood in exchange for his. Regardless of Zaiden being a willing participant. Damn the Watcher for putting you in this precarious position.”

  “Zaiden didn’t put me anywhere I didn’t want to be.” She lifted her chin in defiance. “Don’t bully me, Blaize. We aren’t younglins anymore and you can’t beat me in a fight as easily as you did back then.”

  Her brother glared at her with narrowed eyes, his nose flaring as he tried to temper his anger. He let out his breath in a whoosh, leaving no doubt about his frustration. “I don’t want to fight you, Sarice. I want you to think this through. Let Zaiden LeGard go before it’s too late.”

  Sarice’s hand curled over the doorknob, yanking the door open. “I think you need to leave.”

  Her brother always liked the last word in an argument and this time was no different. No one told him when to go and when to stay. He used his glamour and shimmered out of the room instead of using the conventional way humans could accept.

  “You’re such a child,” she said to the empty room, but she had no doubt he heard her when a blast of air hit her face, sending her dark strands flying behind her.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Lucca’s meeting with Blaize took longer than he expected and he arrived late to the foray of disgruntled performers practicing their lines without their Hamlet being present. Lucca knew all Shakespeare’s plays and could recite most of the lines from heart and could sum up the stories in three lines or less. For Hamlet: In the beginning of the play Hamlet wishes he were dead. He eventually comes to terms with life. He keeps his integrity and strikes back at what’s wrong around him. Lucca could only hope his life could be as successful.

  Arty had been impressed with Lucca and gave him the leading role, which didn’t win him points with Darin Peters who thought he should play Hamlet.

  Lucca didn’t need to rehearse, but if he wanted to be part of the company, he must be a team player and show up on time.

  The director’s eyes narrowed in on him. He took in his size and still didn’t give a damn that Lucca could beat him to a pulp if he wanted to. “So nice of you to grace us with your presence, Mr. Marlowe.” He didn’t wait for him to make an excuse. He continued on with the scene at hand.

  Lucca spotted Juliet and headed over to her, hoping she wouldn’t be just as gracious as the director had been.

  She handed him the script, slapping it against his chest. Okay, so she wasn’t pleased with him either. She knew he didn’t need a script, but he took it anyway out of courtesy.

  Juliet had her sun-kissed strands pulled back in a long braid, letting it lay loosely down her back. Her blouse and jeans fit her curves as if complimenting them with an appreciated caress. When he wasn’t near her, he was firm in his convictions to let her go, but here he stood before her the besotted fool.

  “Did you see something you liked?” One ruddy brow lifted.

  His lips slid into a smile and he leaned close to whisper in her ear. Good Lord, she smelled wonderful. “Don’t ask the question if you don’t want to hear the answer.”

  Her cheeks were a nice shade of crimson. “Who says I don’t want to hear?”

  Good looking and haughty without being pretentious. He found he rather liked the combination. “So be it then.” He took her hand in his, reveling in the softness of her skin. Her gaze touched him, waiting with anticipation for him to make the next move. “O, thou art fairer than the evening air clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.” Raising her hand to his lips, he bestowed a tender kiss.

  She slipped her hand from his grip, placing it on her rounded hip. “Flattery is meant to distract, is it not, Mr. Marlowe?”

  She reverted to last names. Either his disappearing act earlier at Purcible’s or his tardiness now upset her. Maybe it was both. “Only if I didn’t mean it.” Quoting Marlowe had just popped out of his mouth as if the phrase had been written for her. Losing his head around Juliet had become a common occurrence.

  “Lucca you’re up,” the director shouted. “Would you mind joining us on stage with the rest of us lowly actors?” He waved his hand in a dramatic flare.

  He strode up the stairs if only to put some distance between Juliet and himself.

  Lucca read his lines, not once glancing at his script and certainly not looking at Juliet less he forget himself entirely and sweep her up in his arms. What the hell would you do with her then? Ravish her on the stage? Or whisk her back to your place to make love to her?

  No, he couldn’t, but the thought of removing every inch of her clothing and running his hands over her smooth skin kept playing in his mind. God, he wanted her. He needed her. As he finished his last line of the scene, his gaze did find hers. She chewed on her lower lip, her eyes dark green pools. She wanted him too. It would be wrong for him to take advantage of her when he knew he had to give her up. Heck, even if his father hadn’t shown up to screw things up, he couldn’t give her what she needed. He may be earthbound, but he wasn’t human and he couldn’t promise her a future. Once he delivered the book to Barachiel and managed to reclaim his life, he wouldn’t stay on the earth’s realm of existence.

  He could do this. He could walk away from her as long as he kept her at a distance and didn’t kiss her again. The elders wanted him humbled, wanted him to respect human life. How could they ask this of him when it was so painful?

  His gaze slid over Juliet in a slow roll of want. His pledge to stay away from her fell short when his thoughts returned to removing her clothes and lying with her. He didn’t believe bedding a human was what the elders had meant by respect, and sleeping with her wouldn’t keep her safe from his father.

  He turned sensing a surge in the air, a ripple as if the veil between this world and the Otherworldly realm had torn. He scanned the rows of chairs in the stands. He didn’t see him, but he knew his father was close, his presence pressing down on him, trying to break him. He stood taller, pushing his shoulders back. “Not this time, Father,” he murmured beneath his breath.

  “Lucca?”

  He turned to look at Juliet. She looked so young and innocent, and perhaps she was compared to him. He wanted to reach for her, hold her, and tell her he’d keep her safe, but he could tell her nothing. With the weight of his father’s presence, crushing down on him, his pledge would be unworthy. He done things he wasn’t proud of. Some of it because his father forced him, but there were other acts he committed on his own. He had a choice and he chose the darker path. If she knew who he was, what he was and what he’d done, the light in her eyes meant for him would dim and she’d look way with disgust.

  “Lucca, are you okay?” Her hand lay on his arm, warm and comforting.

  “I’m fine.” He forced a smile for her benefit.

  Her lips curved. “I know you wanted to talk about the case. You said there was something you needed to tell me.”

  He did, but it couldn’t be here with his father so near.

  “Can it wait until tomorrow?” she asked. “Arty and I need to go over what we still need. Tony’s costume is too tight and a few of the other costumes have seen better days.”

  He placed a hand over hers. She’d given him the perfect out. “It’s okay. What I have to tell you can wait one more day.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Lucca hadn’t slept all last night. He thought his father would make contact with him. His presence lingered, but he refused to show himself.

  Lucca covered his mouth as he yawned. He’d showered and dressed. His feet carried him into the kitchen for a much needed cup of coffee. He indulged, letting the warm liquid slide down his throat with hopes the caffeine worked its magic.

  His weapons were within arm’s reach—all his daggers of different lengths. He wondered what his father wa
s waiting for, but then the male had always been a coward at heart. He liked to strike the young, the weak, and when someone’s guard was down. He didn’t know the meaning of an honorable fight.

  Sometime near dawn the heaviness pressing down on him lifted and he knew his father had gone to whatever hidey-hole he crawled into in the light of day.

  Finishing his coffee, he felt ready to face Juliet. He’d tell her the truth. Tell her the reasons why he had to stay away from her.

  He strode to the door and swung it opened, but before he could take a step, Zaiden waylaid him, shoving him back inside. “What the hell?” Lucca shoved him back. He should have sensed Zaiden’s arrival, felt the preternatural shift, but with his lack of sleep, he let his guard down.

  “No, that’s my question, you bastard.” Zaiden’s fist plowed into Lucca’s nose. He staggered back holding his face, blood oozing between his fingers.

  Zaiden was many things: ruthless, precise, and a warrior you wanted at your back. Lucca spent many centuries with this Watcher and knew his moods. Zaiden didn’t lose his cool even if the odds were stacked against him. Whatever he did to piss off Zaiden, it was on a personal level. The Watcher’s eyes blazed brighter, the blue almost nonexistent as his power charged to spark fire.

  “Do you mind telling me what has you all hot and ready to blaze me into fried toast?” With the back of his hand, Lucca wiped the trickle of blood from his nose.

  “You told Blaize about me and Sarice.”

  Lucca was rather surprised Zaiden figured out so quickly that it was him, and even more surprised the Watcher cared. He thought his affair with Sarice would be a fleeting attraction. Perhaps he’d been wrong. “I didn’t say anything that isn’t true,” he defended himself.

  Right before his banishment, he witnessed Zaiden after one of his little private sessions of suck-me-dry with the Darklin. The puncture wounds had yet to heal and he could smell Sarice’s scent all over him. It hadn’t been difficult to realize what went down behind closed doors.

  Zaiden’s nose flared as he inhaled, keeping his anger back by a thread. “You’re going to tell me what you’re forcing Blaize to do for you. Then you’re going to tell him the deal’s off.”

  Lucca lifted his brows and snorted. “I believe the deal is between Blaize and myself.”

  Zaiden took a step toward him, his fist already balled and ready to use. “You involving Sarice made it my business. Don’t make me repeat the question.”

  Lucca moved around the coffee table even though the object would in no means keep Zaiden from plowing his fist into him again. “I asked him to do me a favor. It’s no big deal.” He lifted his shoulder in a shrug. Yeah, Shimmer him to the Otherworldy realm even though he’d been banished, help him sneak into the Temple of Moqaddas. Retrieve the Book of Magic and we’re on our way. Simple. Not!

  “You threatened to expose Sarice and my relationship. It’s a big deal.”

  “Really Zaiden, and I thought I was the hothead. Keep up this, I’m-the-big strong-protector malarkey and I might think you’re in love with the Darklin.” Lucca’s eyes widened as Zaiden threw himself at him with a hiss, baring his fangs. The sudden impact sent their bodies catapulting against the sofa, pushing it across the hardwood floor like a sled sliding over a slippery snow covered ground. It slammed into the wall unit with a crash, knocking over the vase with a crash of shattered pottery and dirt. Lucca defended Zaiden’s blows with a few of his own.

  “Stop it!” The shrill voice of a small child froze them both, their gazes riveting to the front door where Owen stood in the doorway, his eyes wide with worry. “Don’t hurt my friend,” he demanded of Zaiden. Lucca had to give the boy credit. With the wild look Zaiden wore with his dark hair sticking up on end, his blue eyes blazing and his fangs exposed, he looked like a vampire from a horror flick, but Owen stood his ground.

  Zaiden looked at Lucca as if expecting he had plummeted someone else by mistake. “Him?” His voice shook with disbelief. “He’s your friend?”

  Lucca pushed the warrior off him, sitting up and rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand. He rested his elbow on his raised knee, leaning back on his other hand for support. “Didn’t the hum—boy, say so?”

  Tiger Lilly sauntered through the open door, her green eyes assessing the damage: broken vase, turned over coffee table, a skewed sofa slammed against the television. Not to mention what he must look like. His gaze wavered over to Zaiden. He would have smiled if he didn’t sport a fat lip. The Watcher stood, swiping at his nose, blood oozing with annoying consistency.

  “Meoooow.”

  Yeah, kitty-cat, my sentiments exactly. The cat may have a ridiculous name, but it didn’t hamper the feline’s intelligence to recognize the asinine scene before them: two grown warriors wrestling on the floor as if they hadn’t gained their wings yet.

  A second later, Juliet appeared at the door, holding a plate wrapped in tinfoil.

  Lucca frowned. When had his home become an open arena for humans and Nephilim alike? “Do come in.” Sarcasm dripped from his words but no one seemed to notice.

  With a sigh, he forced himself to stand. He headed for the bathroom for two washcloths, not that Zaiden deserved one, but he didn’t want him bleeding all over his living room floor. Returning, he threw the washcloth at Zaiden, who caught it and held it to his nose. Lucca took great satisfaction in the fact that the Watcher couldn’t just glamour his way out of here. Juliet may know about Watchers, but he’d bet Owen didn’t. Add a disappearing act and Owen would surely think he’d seen a demon.

  “What’s going on?” Juliet stood behind Owen, her free hand on his shoulder. “You were fighting in front of my nephew?”

  “It wasn’t like we invited him to watch,” Lucca said, and wished he kept his mouth shut.

  Juliet’s gaze riveted to his. Her eyes locked onto him with such fierceness, he had the urge to take a step back. She was a feisty human with a larger than life warrior attitude. No wonder he fell so hard for her.

  “I thought better of you.” Disappointed dripped from her words, slicing him as if she stabbed him with a dagger.

  Zaiden snorted with a harrumph as if he could care less what she thought.

  “And you,” she pointed her finger at Zaiden. His eyes widened in surprise. Very few spoke to Zaiden in anger if they knew what was good for them. Obviously, Juliet didn’t receive the memo on proper etiquette when dealing with one of the Guards of Judgment. “You should know better. Why don’t you pick on someone suited to your strength?”

  Lucca’s brows furrowed. What did she mean by that? He was no weakling.

  “My dear,” Zaiden began, barely keeping his fangs hidden. “Your tongue lashing only serves to tell me how ignorant you are. Lucca is no saint and he is more than ample to take my blows.” He removed the washcloth revealing his bloodied nose. “And give a few of his own. Be warned, you should stay clear of him. Friendship with him could prove lethal, isn’t that right, Lucca?”

  Before Lucca knew what he was about to do, he hauled off with a left hook, catching the Watcher off guard. Zaiden staggered back, hitting the bookcase, but he kept his feet planted on the ground. He looked like he would march forward to retaliate, but Juliet moved with speed Lucca didn’t think possible for a human. She stood in front of him as if she could protect him if Zaiden chose to rip his head off.

  Lucca’s hands went to his hips. A harrumph spewed out of his lips in exasperated disbelief as he rolled his eyes.

  Zaiden stood stalk still. He glanced at Juliet then at Lucca as if reading into Juliet’s protective mode and coming up with his own assumptions. “I’ll be damned.”

  Lucca curved his lips in a snarl. “Isn’t that the point for us?”

  Juliet whipped around to face him, her brows furrowing as if she were seeing him for the first time.

  “What?” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. Her mouth opened to say something then she pressed her lips together again with a shake of her head. His instincts told him to t
ake her into his arms, but he fought the urge. Distance, he told himself. He couldn’t keep her safe if he gave into his desires. Not being able to have her would be his punishment for all his past transgressions. He deserved this. Banishment was nothing compared to losing her.

  “We’ll talk later,” Zaiden announced as he headed for the door.

  “Don’t hold your breath,” Lucca murmured under his breath. If he could avoid it, he would. He looked at Juliet then, who still hadn’t taken her eyes off him, but now something else lingered in her depths. Her strange expression worried him. “What’s wrong?” But she put up a wall.

  “Here, these are for you,” Juliet shoved the plate at him. “Come on, Owen, I need to get you to school.”

  “I wanted to eat breakfast with Lucca,” Owen whined as his aunt ushered him out the door as quickly as they appeared.

  Lucca ran a hand over his face confused over Juliet’s sudden departure. Tiger Lilly jumped up to sit on the back of the sofa he had yet to straighten, but it didn’t seem to matter to the feline that the sofa sat at an angle.

  “What just happened?”

  Tiger Lilly tilted her head, staring at him in that unnerving way cat’s do.

  He glanced at the plate Juliet shoved into his hands and lifted the end of the tinfoil. Juliet had made him chocolate chip cookies. He grabbed one before taking the plate into the kitchen. Tiger Lilly followed, jumping up on the table. He munched on the cookie as he rubbed the feline behind her ears. She seemed to like the attention if the motor-like purr proved an indication. “Juliet looked like…” His frown deepened as he realized the shadows darkening her features had been fear. She feared him, but why? Even her scent changed, heightened, became more potent.

  He ran his fingers down Tiger Lilly’s back as the feline arched and made soft mewling sounds of pleasure. He finally realized what he was doing and pulled his hand back as if scorched. “Oh no, I’m not doing this.” He backed away. “How did my life become so off track? I’m coercing Darklins to do my bidding. I’m out of the loop with the Watchers. I’m starting to live my life like the humans I’ve always avoided like the plague. I don’t even care for cats.” He scooped up Tiger Lilly, who complained all the way to the door with squawks of protest and squirming limbs. He opened the door and tossed the cat out. “I am not human,” he announced to no one in particular. He slammed the door shut again. He might have felt relieved to take back control of his life, but he only felt a sense of loss. “I don’t care.” But the fact of the matter was he did care. He wanted to know why Juliet left in a rush. “I don’t want to lose her.” But he already had.