Woot!  Here’s chapter three of Dead by Dawn.  I honestly think Tuesday is going to kick my butt.  I make things up and change them without consulting her and when she reads this post, it’ll be the first time she’s read this chapter.  Talk about living on the edge!  Anyway… enjoy!

*****

Vincent melded with the shadows, surrounding himself in their dark embrace as he waited.  The demons who called the dark their home burrowed beneath his skin, seeping through his very pores, in search of his soul.  They wouldn’t find it.  He’d determined long ago that whispers of souls were myth told to human children.

Seconds ticked by and he remained ignored by Sola.  He wasn’t surprised.  They’d danced this same waltz many times before.  She would tell those who begged her for assistance what exactly what was in store for them and then… he would go to work.  The dirty task always fell to his shoulders.

As he grew tired of the demon’s embrace and prepared to shake off their presence, the office door opened.  Markham entered.  Unusual for him to precede a guest.  The disrespect would hopefully be noticed by Sola.  Regardless of her occasional heartless outbursts and quick temper, she embraced human customs and manners.  In turn, she forced them all to.

Vincent darted his gaze between the door and Sola, waiting to see her response.  She merely raised an eyebrow at her follower before returning her attention to the papers on the desk.  When he returned his full attention to the doorway, he sucked in a quick breath, gut tightening as if he’d been kicked in the stomach.  Fierce, painful and straight through his blood, this woman’s spirit flowed.

She didn’t seem aware of his presence as he remained surrounded by the damned and he took a moment to admire her beauty. 

Pressed against the corner as he was, Vincent could only admire her in profile.  Her silken midnight hair hung long down her back, free of any ties or braid to keep it secure.  Foolish.  Beautiful, but foolish.  In the darkened room, her pale skin burned like a bright light.  A beacon for the soiled looking for purity.  One look at upturned nose, rounded features and smooth skin and he knew the woman before him had one of the purest souls known to the devil. 

Dressed in the traditional black gothic garb, even the clothes couldn’t diminish her internal light.  And they definitely didn’t diminish the appeal of her figure either.  The spaghetti strapped tank top clung to her shoulders and outlined her pert breasts.  Taking a deep breath, he sent a soft wind of frigid air in her direction and was satisfied to see her nipples bead and harden in response to the chill.  No bra.  The leather pants she wore fit her like a glove.  Tight enough to outline every dip and curve of the lower half of her body, but still appeared to give her room to move.  She’d need it.  Steel-toed boots capped off her attempt at fitting in with the patrons of In Darkness. 

But this woman… she’d never fit in with the world of pulsing and gyrating bodies below with the scents of sweat and sex mingling with alcohol as they drowned their problems.  No, she was not his typical assignment.  He wondered what Sola was thinking.  Calling him in for a case such as this amounted to…

“Sit.”  Sola’s clipped order met silence for a moment.

“I’ll stand.”  The newcomer braced her legs apart, arms crossed over her chest.  Vincent wondered if Sola caught the tremor in the woman’s voice.  While she tried to appear in control, she was anything but.

 ”Very well then.”  Sola stood and glided over the carpeting to stand before the woman.  “Isis, your brother contacted me on your behalf, yes?”  At Isis’ nod, Sola continued.  “You have a problem that only a certain member of my followers can solve though, ultimately, your death is the answer to your dilemma.”

Sola turned toward him, her ice blue eyes cut through the demons still searching for his soul and he shrugged them off.  Stepping out of his shadowed sanctuary, he made himself known to Isis.

Her violet eyes clashed with his and time seemed to stop as they stared at one another.  Not a muscle, save her heart, moved as he took her measure.  Just as he suspected, purity flowed through her veins and shone from her eyes.  The curves he’d glimpsed before sent shocks of desire straight to his cock.  Perhaps there would be time for a quick fuck before he dispatched her.

Before he could utter a word of welcome, she sucked in a quick breath, eyes widening.  In a flash, she dove through the two-way glass window leading to the club below.  The window shattered, shards of glass raining on the patrons and Vincent rushed to ledge, arriving just in time to see Isis flip through the air to land on the bar-top below.  Her hair wrapped around her as if it were a cloak when her boots met the wooden surface.  Her violet eyes, almost glowing in the darkness, met his for a brief second before she took off running through In Darkness. 

People and things seemed to melt away as she sped through the cloud.  The entire time, he kept his eyes trained on his quarry.  He’d been ordered to complete the task, and he would.  Eventually.

“You should not lose her, my Vincent.”

“I will not.”  He responded quickly.  He’d never lost anyone.  Ever.  He definitely wouldn’t lose the woman.

“Ah, but there are things you do not know about Isis.  Why did she not become overwrought with fear until she saw you, do you think?”  Vincent remained silent, knowing Sola would answer her own question.  In time.  “Isis has a gift unique to all others.  So few, even in my Kindred, have this ability.”

Vincent replayed his first meeting with the woman in his mind.  Nothing he’d sensed or seen proved to him that she was anything other than human.  A highly trained human when he considered how she’d escaped, but human none the less. 

He watched as Isis neared the club’s outer door, dancers and party-goers blocking her path. 

“Isis knows your powers with just one look, my Vincent.  Even if you do not know them fully yourself.  You see, dear boy, she can tell you what you are, even if you cannot.”

Vincent wasted no time.  He followed Isis’s path. Jumping from Sola’s window, he landed on the bar with a thud.  Instead of plowing through the patrons, he called to the shadows and melted into their embrace.  He had a woman to question… and kill.