Page 42 of Cursed Lifeline (Eternal Love)

Forty One

Felix

song: tainted love | holy wars, NOCTURN

Las Vegas, Nevada

My eyes trail her as she struts across the room in her leather skirt and cherry red stilettos that match the shade of gloss on her tempting lips. She brushes her ebony hair off her shoulder, and shimmies between two gentlemen seated at the bar. Motioning for the bartender to come closer with her French manicure, she leans forward until her tits are spilling out of her dress and whispers something in his ear. The men to her right and left lean back and openly admire the view of her round ass sticking out the bottom of her black skirt with no thought of repercussion.

Fire ignites in my veins. Not just because of the vile thoughts running through the good as dead men’s minds but because it’s been over a century since I last saw her, and I had no clue she was even alive until our paths crossed tonight.

So much has changed since the last time we parted. Evangeline and Viktor have been missing since Ember played all of us so well. As for Celeste and Talon, the pair have not been on speaking terms since the night I threatened their lives. Alfred, Silas, and Caelum, I sense, are not far away as it appears the slayer has been trained well since the last time our cursed course brought us together.

Esme reaches behind herself and adjusts the hem of her skirt, pulling it down over her mouthwatering backside. The gentlemen at her side groan as their depraved thoughts have them itching to touch, taste, and savor the curves only my hands, my mouth, and my cock will ever come near. The bartender slides Esme a drink and gives her a devilish wink that has me seeing red. She sits down on her stool and smiles as she turns her back to the bar.

I stand by patiently watching from a dark corner across the room. For a brief moment, I could swear our eyes meet before she quickly looks away and brings her drink to her nose. Smelling softly, most would think she’s savoring the aroma of the wine, but as she playfully rolls her eyes, grins, and turns to set the glass back on the bar, it’s apparent she sensed what I already knew.

It’s been tampered with.

Poisoned.

Someone here wants her dead.

No doubt a monster that lurks in the night.

One she’s been trained to defeat.

Question is who?

She turns my way, and studies the dark corner I’ve hidden away in. When her blue eyes catch mine, I slink back into the darkness I’ve grown accustomed to hiding in.

I’ve promised myself the next time she was brought back to life I would watch from afar. Never get close. I can protect her more this way. Watch over her. Ensure her safety and her survival without my feelings for her disrupting our every move.

But as one of the men at her side reaches over and places their hand on her knee, I take a step forward, intent on ripping his arm from his damned body. Before I can make my move, Esme takes one look at the man’s hand and instantly glances in my direction. Worry once again gets the better of me. Fear I’ll mess this up a third time causes me to retreat back into the shadows. She catches a brief glimpse of my retreating form, looks back down at the man’s hand on her bare skin, and slowly turns his way.

Grabbing the lapel of his dinner jacket, she pulls him harshly towards her and whispers something in his ear. Horror flashes across his face seconds before she thrusts him back in his seat. She rises and struts off towards the back of the club. Happy she seems to have more sense than her previous lives, and a fiery attitude I suddenly have the craving to tame, I let her get a few seconds head start before stalking off after her.

As I pass the gentleman who so confidently touched what’s mine, I raise my right hand. Ghostly fingers wrap around his neck as he attempts to take a sip of his beer. The bastard begins to choke. Spewing his drink at his friends, his glass drops to the floor and shatters as I continue past toward where Esme drifted off. Patrons gather as the man grabs his neck and attempts to loosen my phantom grip.

It’s a little trick I picked up from Talon as a means of trying to apologize for the way things went down in Esme’s past life. Though my shadow skills are not as advanced as his, moments like this, when they come in handy, I almost think about forgiving him and Celeste for taking Esme away from me over a century ago.

The poor fool falls to his knees and his face turns ghostly white. A second later, he topples over and a loud, shocked gasp collectively rings through the club as people gather to see if he’s going to be alright.

I’m two steps around the corner, hot on Esme’s delicious tail when the club owner runs past, and someone behind me shouts, “he’s dead!”

Good.

He deserved it.

Following the clickety-clack of Esme’s stilettos against marble, we quickly descend a spiral staircase into darkness. Across the way, I watch in panic as Esme slips through a large doorway and into another room.

I approach the door quickly. Muffled voices quietly sound on the other side as a slender palm slips around my waist.

Pulling a woman from behind me, I harshly swing her into view. Her eager gaze finds mine, but when she notices the color of my eyes, a fearful shiver rushes up her spine.

“I’m sorry,” she stammers. “I… I thought you were someone else.”

Narrowing my gaze, I study her startled expression and her flushed cheeks and swear I know her from somewhere. But when voices escalate on the other side of the door, I quickly drop her wrist and focus back on Esme.

“You like the chase?” she purrs, obviously not getting the clue.

Glancing back at the woman, I look down at her hand and study the white, pale skin circling her ring finger, which is a stark contrast to the tan that coats the rest of her body.

“Seems you do, too,” I hiss, “Seeing as you’re here instead of home in bed with your husband.”

“My husband doesn’t care what I do or who I do,” she suggests, coming a step closer. “Only that I’m happy.”

Curious, I study her in the dim light and say, “Happiness is a choice. You could choose to be happy with what you have.”

“Right,” she laughs, “Tell me, do you follow your own advice? Or get off on telling others what to do?”

When I don’t respond, she takes a step backward. Distressed sounds continue to escalate on the other side of the door. Eager to get rid of the woman in front of me, I grab the doorknob and twist it quickly. But it’s locked.

“I hope you both enjoy your future together,” the woman says, drawing my attention back her way. She gestures to the door, then leaves me baffled when she says, “However long or short it is.”

Before I can demand answers to her threatening farewell, she walks away. A loud banging noise, followed by the sound of glass shattering, pulls my attention back to the door. Panicked, I glance over my shoulder, then mist through space and time and transport myself into the next room.

Esme glances up quickly from her kill. Straddling a rogue member of the coven, her hand holds a bloody stake as her enraged eyes find mine in the moonlight. Rising, she takes a heated step towards me.

I almost shrink back into the shadows. I almost mist myself out of the room to the street above where I can attempt to think straight before I wipe her memory clean of our meeting. But as her anger builds with each calculated step she takes, I know erasing this encounter will prove too difficult.

She’s too heated, too excited from her last kill not to want to hunt me down. To make matters worse, my heart warns I’d let her. Even though I know I should keep my distance, I’ve never been able to deny her. As much as I need to stay away, refusing her advances, even if they prove fatal, will be impossible after a century spent apart.

Taking a step forward, I start to speak when Esme cartwheels into a backflip and catapults herself once, twice, three times across the room toward me. Speechless, her toes meet mine just as she raises the stake in her palm and takes aim at my heart.

Sucking in my last damned breath, I straighten my spine, puff up my chest and welcome an end that could finally bring her peace. Finally bring her justice. Finally put an end to everything.

But before she brings her hand down in a vicious, killing blow, her eyes lock on mine, and a startled gasp falls from her lips. She takes an alarmed step back. The stake falls from her grasp and collides with a loud thud against the concrete floor. Hanging her head, she shakes it in disbelief and begins to back away.

“No,” I demand, instantly grabbing her wrist.

Wide eyes find mine as a multitude of words, visions, and memories pass between her hand and mine. Pulling her close, I spin her around and back her up against the wall. She closes her eyes and starts to tremble under my touch.

Brushing my thumbs gently across her cheeks to wipe away fallen tears, I whisper, “Look at me, baby.”

She shakes her head no as more tears fall and I fail at fulfilling my promise to myself, to her.

Stay away.

Two words I warned her to follow over two centuries ago wedge between us as she slowly glances up and opens her eyes.

Releasing a deep sigh, my forehead falls against hers. Emotion gets the better of me as I hold her stare and whisper, “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Her eyes darken. Her stance hardens. Overcome by the knowledge she’s alive, that she’s once again back in my arms, I don’t realize my mistake until it’s too late as her hand slithers between us. As her hand rises to meet my heart, I look down and take notice of another pointed stake clutched between her crimson-stained fingers.

“I’ve been waiting for you, too,” she seethes as she plunges the stake into my chest, and I stagger back a step.

A strangled gasp falls from my lips as blood oozes from the wound before rising in my throat. Stepping forward, Esme lifts her right leg and viciously kicks the stake in deeper. Falling to my knees, I look up at the only woman I’ve ever loved, my mon cheri, my doll, my baby - in harrowing disbelief.

Glowering over me, Esme leans down and whispers, “Play with me, Felix. One. More. Damned. Time.”

Sucking in a sharp breath, I jolt awake in a cold sweat. The base from the club vibrates through the room as I frantically feel the center of my chest for the stake I could swear is still lodged there. Attempting to calm my breathing, I realize the pain in my chest is the rapid, unrelenting beating of my troubled heart and not a wound inflicted by the hand of my lost lover.

“In my heart, there was a kind of fighting that would not let me sleep,” I pant in distress before sitting up and trying to catch my breath.

Banging on the door to my office causes my panicked heart’s rhythm to spiral out of control. Before I can take another shaky breath, the door swings open, and Dimitri and Talon hastily stalk into the room.

“I didn’t tell you to enter,” I hiss, attempting to collect myself from the horrific nightmare that felt all too real.

“We have a problem,” Dimitri sighs.

Swiveling around in my chair, I look out the one-way glass that lets me privately view my club from my office and sigh, “This is Vegas, what happens here...”

“Always brings trouble,” Talon insists.

Across the club, I lock eyes with a woman I haven’t seen in over a hundred years and stop breathing. Visions of my nightmare collide with the blue of her irises, and my right hand begins to shake. Anxiously, I grab the only antidote to numb the pain that losing her twice inflicted and bring my tumbler of bourbon to my lips.

Look at me, baby - my heart pleads.

Baby.

It seems fitting that I call her that in her third life, seeing as she’s the only thing I’ve ever longed to care for and protect.

Dimitri and Talon flank my side as I sit in my chair and we watch Esme move through the club like a viper slithering close to its unsuspecting prey and waiting for the perfect time to strike.

“She’s not trouble,” I whisper as I deny my heart what it wants most.

To run to her. To hold her in my arms. To calm my heart's frantic beating with her welcoming embrace so I can put the nightmares I’ve been suffering from behind me.

But the truth is, nightmares bring clarity. Force focus. Require you to look at what you’re most frightened of.

Protecting Esme has always been my number one priority.

In the past, I did so by keeping her close.

Scared to lose her, I failed to realize the closer we became, the more my priority for her safety was clouded by the desire to give into our craving for one another.

Unlike the dream I just had, I don’t fear her running a stake through my heart. If that’s how our time together ends this lifetime, so be it. What I fear most is getting too close and not seeing the hidden dangers lurking around every corner.

“No,” Dimitri sighs, “She’s not trouble. But they are.”

Pointing towards a dark shadow making its way towards her, the eyes of her apparent attacker slowly lift. I take in his hungry expression, his ravenous intent and instantly rise and start to make my way towards the door.

“The Revenant coven,” I hiss.

“You’ll want to see this,” Dimitri shouts after me.

Glancing back over my shoulder, several other cloaked figures emerge through the entrance of the club and follow the first through the crowd.

With capes covering their heads and mysterious dark fabric veiling their eyes, it’s hard for mortals to make out who they are as they disguise their form and keep to the shadows.

“Should I call security?” Dimitri asks.

Watching the scene unfold, I’m oddly reminded of shadows cast by flickering sconces that quickly performed a dreary scene.

A foreboding dance.

A girl. A boy. A chase.

Forbidden love. Sudden death.

“I’m the only security she needs,” I growl.

Talon chuckles. “Same shit, different life.”

Before I can tell him to watch his mouth, the phone rings, and Dimitri picks it up as Esme drifts out of sight.

“They’re headed for the card tables at the back of the club,” he says a moment later as he hangs up the receiver.

“Should we follow them?” Talon asks. When I don’t respond, he says, “Do you think Esme baited them here?”

“She doesn’t know whose club this is,” I say, baffled by the realization.

“Wrong,” Dimitri scoffs. “She’s called to you just as much as you’re destined to find her. The question is, does she come in peace, or is a war that’s been building for almost the last three centuries about to unleash?”