I am SO sorry it took me this long my lovely lovely readers. I got a whopper of a virus on my computer, and I ended up without it for three weeks. I know it's no excuse, but I got it back yesterday and this is out for you today.
Thank you to everyone that reviewed and messaged me about my story, it's really appreciated. I 3 you all.
(Beta reader is needed desperately, preferably someone who has seen the underworld movies)
FALSE TO ANY MAN
This above all — to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Stretching her arms, Ophelia smiled at the beam of sun that hit her skin. It was a shard of pure light coming into her room through the curtains. Such was a wonderful way to wake up, she felt. Her smile only grew wider as she saw that Fat Kitty had returned in the middle of the night. Now, Fat Kitty was a very strange cat to say the least. He was an interesting character and that was why Ophelia loved him so much. She and her friend Jules had found him in the middle of the street when he was just a kitten. Even then he had been the fattest cat that she had ever seen, and she had fallen in love immediately.
Fat Kitty looked up at her and seemed to smile at her in that cat like way. He was always happy, probably because somehow he always managed to get her to put even more food in his dish. Ophelia reached down and ran her fingers through his fur. This was how she woke up every morning. A fat cat lying across her legs, the sun fresh on her face, and the smell of coffee… The smell of coffee?
Sitting up quickly, Ophelia sniffed the air again. Yes that was the smell of coffee, but how in the world was that scent in her apartment? She wasn't up yet, and she definitely had never managed to make coffee when she was sleepwalking. But then she remembered the man, that dastardly and decidedly dangerous man that she now had in her apartment.
Groaning, she smacked her forehead and fell onto her back again. How could she walk out of this room and face him? There was no way that she felt comfortable talking with him. After all, he must think that she was so incredibly easy. What kind of woman just picked up a man in an underground tunnel? She shook her head. No good kind of woman, that was who picked up wounded men. He probably thought that she was used to the rough life, as if she'd ever seen a bleeding man in her life. She'd never even seen herself bleed profusely, let alone some man that she didn't even know.
But as life would have it, she had to wake up, get up, get dressed, and go and face the man who must have been the culprit that was using up her valuable coffee. Sliding out of bed, she paused when she saw herself in the mirror. Her hair was horribly greasy, and she looked as though she hadn't slept in fifteen days. That would be a good way to stall at least. If she could somehow manage to sneak by him, she could definitely rush into the bathroom and take a nice long shower.
She rummaged through her closet to find a robe, and snuck out of the bedroom. The door squeaked as she opened it, and she winced. But the sounds coming from the kitchen didn't pause, and she wondered whether or not he was somehow deaf. Tiptoeing down the hallway, she poked her head around the hallway. The sight that greeted her eyes almost made her burst out laughing more then she already was.
The man was crouched in front of the stove and was fiddling with the knobs. It seemed as though he didn't realize that she had a very old stove, and that he was trying to figure out why the flame wasn't starting. It was so surprising to see the bloodied and dangerous looking man kneeling next to her stove clicking it on and off.
With a small snort, she abandoned her original plan and switched to plan B. She walked over to where he was kneeling, grabbed the lighter above the stove, clicked it on, and lit the stove. A small smile tinged her lips as she put the lighter back on its hanger. "Usually you'd have to light the stove for the fire to turn on."
She tried not to sound sarcastic, she really did. But maybe that was something that was impossible for her, because her voice definitely didn't sound like she wasn't sarcastic.
"Hmm." His voice rumbled out of his chest. He seemed to stare at the stove again, pondering. Then his eyes turned to her, and she barely contained her gasp. His eyes, those chocolate eyes, seemed to stare straight into her soul. Ophelia suddenly was looking through a tunnel straight at his eyes, her heart pounded, and her breath came in short gasps that made her feel as though she was going to fall. "I'm afraid I've forgotten how to light… household appliances. I thought that they had invented stoves that simply turned on by now."
Ophelia smiled and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. Looking down at her feet, she tried to think of something, anything, to say to him. She didn't feel like continuing a conversation about her stove. But suddenly her tongue was tied and her mind was bound in a straight jacket. She couldn't stop being the idiot standing in front of him shuffling her feet, trying to seem as though she wasn't doing exactly that.
"I don't think I introduced myself last night." Her eyes snapped back up to his face, and saw that he was trying to smile. It looked as though the man didn't smile much. It was unnatural, as though it wasn't ready to come out onto his face or that the muscles hadn't been used in a very long time.
"No, no I don't think you did." Feeling as though she really should be playing the host, Ophelia stuck her hand out. "But I didn't either. My name is Ophelia, welcome to the apartment."
Yeah, she felt like an idiot. He stared at her hand as though she was handing him a dangling head. But soon enough he slid his fingers across hers, and she tried to contain her shiver. "My name is Lucian."
"No last name, Lucian?" She grinned at him. Man, the guy was short. Her smile only got bigger as she thought that. It was a rare opportunity for her to call a man short. He was still taller than her, but he was definitely shorter than all the other men that she knew. Ophelia couldn't imagine that he was six feet tall. If he was, she was certain that it was stretching.
"You didn't give me yours." It seemed as though at that words he suddenly stopped being interested in her. He turned around again and started grabbing pots and pans. She stood like some kind of fool in the center of the kitchen as he walked around her. It was like she wasn't even there anymore, as if she had suddenly disappeared and he didn't care anymore. But it wasn't as though she could tell him to turn around and pay attention to her. Ophelia didn't know him, he didn't know her, but it was rude of him to be so callous.
She wasn't one to call attention to anything that he was doing though, especially when she felt as though he was the one that was doing something wrong. "I- I'm going to just go… take a shower."
Backing out of the kitchen, she turned and quietly made her way to the shower. How in the world he simply flipped emotions like that she'd never know. It was like she had accidently hit a switch and he suddenly didn't care who she was or what she was doing. When she reached the bathroom, she locked the door. It wasn't that she as uncomfortable with him, she tried to tell herself, it was just that he was a man and she didn't want him to accidently walk in on her.
In truth, it was that she was nervous around him. Ophelia couldn't deny that she felt the power radiating off of him whenever she was around him. He was dangerous, that she was sure of. Why he was in her apartment and she hadn't kicked him out yet? Hell if she could even answer that question. She didn't know why she was letting him stay in her apartment and make himself breakfast. She didn't like men, she had never liked men. They were crude, callous, idiotic, Neanderthals that didn't care about what women wanted or thought. She had yet to meet a man that would be fine letting his girlfriend simply hold on to him when she was crying or feeling like she was just having a shitty day.
Of course, most men would simply say, "Oh it's just pms". That was something that it never was. She couldn't understand how all of her ex boyfriends didn't get it when she said that she just needed a good cry. They thought that something had to be wrong and she just wasn't telling them. One boyfriend even went so far as to ask if she was pregnant and that was why she was being such a bitch to him. Obviously that hadn't gone as well as he had planned.
Ophelia leaned against the door, trying to organize her thoughts. It wasn't like she was frightened of him, quite the opposite to be honest. She was drawn to him in a way that she hadn't been drawn to a man since her first school girl crush. He was like the best chocolate in the world, and she wasn't a taste more than anything in the world. Ophelia shook herself. She shouldn't be thinking thoughts like that! The man was half dead last night, let alone in any condition to be thinking about a woman in his life. And did she really want to get involved with a man that was beaten to a pulp? No.
Slipping out of her robe, she shucked off her button down shirt that she slept in. Who knows? Maybe he really was just a creep that killed little kids for kicks. But maybe he was just some nice guy that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now God was giving him a reason to relax and sending him her way for added bonuses. Yeah, that sounded like something He would do. Ophelia ran her hand through her hair and tried to untangle the knots before she put anything in her hair to tangle the strands even more. She sighed, who knew. She'd just have to get to know this man more. And with that as her last thought, she stepped into the shower.
Lucian stared at the blasting stove as he listened to her walk out of the kitchen. He hated being reminded of the past women that he had loved. Especially when the adorable woman in front of him had gotten that heavy lidded look in her eyes that he had seen so many times. He hadn't wanted to make her think that he was trying to seduce her. He didn't even know who she was.
But he had felt as though he was trying to seduce her. He had leaned in just as she had, and he couldn't stop his body from wanting to move towards her. The woman was unlike anything he'd ever seen. She had walked out of her room tiptoeing around him. No woman had ever done that around him before. Most of the women that he got involved with would have walked out of that room with something skimpy on, trying to get his attention in the only way they could.
This strange human, though, had wandered out of her room covered from head to toe in a robe that made her look like some kind of teddy bear. Lucian had never thought that he would find clothing like that sexy, but he had wanted nothing more than to wrap her in his arms and feel just how soft that material was. She made a delectable sight in that robe. One that he was sure would be seared in his mind for the rest of his life.
Cracking an egg over the edge of the black skillet, he marveled at the fact that she even had pots and pans that he liked. All the things in her house did not have the feminine touch that he was used to. Nothing was the frills and pastels that he usually found in the house of a female who lived along. This apartment seemed as though it was rarely lived in. There were still boxes in the living room, and in the kitchen there were boxes where he found spices and everything else he needed to make the omelet that he had planned for her.
When he awoke this morning, all he could think was that he felt much better. He still couldn't turn, and that was making him extremely angry. He even tried to force the change by dragging a knife across his arm. Nothing could raise the beast inside of him though, and unfortunately all that managed to do was bloody the blankets that he was on. He hoped that if she, Ophelia he reminded himself, saw the blankets she would simply think that he hadn't managed to completely clean himself last night.
His body was healed, and for that he was grateful. But there was nothing he could do able the ability to change.
A soft sound reached his ears from the front of the apartment, and he froze. Taking the skillet off of the stove, he quietly turned it off and strained his ears. There was definitely someone in the apartment, and they were not trying to be quiet about it. He heard a clink, and was certain that the cabinet in the front room had been opened, and that something had been taken out of it.
With a low growl, he pressed himself against the wall and waited for the person to walk around the corner. It might not be his home, but if he wasn't here the woman, Ophelia, she would have been in dire danger. For some reason, all he could think that there was danger in the house, and he wouldn't stop to protect this man.
By the heavy footsteps he could tell that it was a man. And as he took a deep breath he was certain that this man had no link to the woman in the apartment. Her scent would have been all over him should he had been her consort, and he scent was extremely faint on his body. Lucian could smell the sandwich the man had had for lunch, the scent of the man's cologne, and the horrible scent of pure male testosterone that made him long to turn. Fangs grew in his mouth, and Lucian's muscles tensed as he prepared to attack.
Then the man turned the corner and all hell broke loose.
Ophelia was just starting to enjoy her shower when she heard the masculine yell. It startled her so bad that she dropped the shampoo that he was holding, and jumped out of the shower. She managed to remember to wrap a towel around herself before she was bolting out of the shower and staring at the mess in front of her. It seemed as though two very large elephants had trampled through her apartment and left disaster in their wake.
The causes of this horrible mess were wrestling on carpet on top of what seemed to be her coffee table. Rolling her eyes, she carefully avoided the glass pieces before planting her feet and screaming. She knew that she had a horrible scream, it was ear piercing, annoying as hell, but it always managed to stop a fight. And the last thing that she wanted right now was a fight, especially since she recognized one of the feet that was sticking out from under the man whom she had adopted into her apartment.
Both men froze, and Lucian spun and landed onto his heels in a crouched position. When he realized just who was screaming, he stared at her in shock. He then launched to his feet and was immediately in front of her, asking quickly, "What? Why are you screaming?" His tone of voice almost made her smile, but she couldn't condone fighting in her apartment.
So instead of melting under the worried look in his eyes, she walked around him and reached out a hand to the man on the ground. With a warm smile on her face, she quietly said, "Well, welcome home. I guess I probably should have called to let you know we were currently housing a gladiator."
But, as she thought would happen, the man on the ground simply smiled and took her hand. "I'm sure I would have announced myself at least if I knew such a man was staying with us, dearest." His voice was slightly scratchy, and he grinned up at her. Ophelia planted her feet on top of his and levered him up, something that they had been doing since they were children.
The man in front of her was Jim, and he'd been like a brother to her since the moment he moved to her town in the second grade. She'd been through a lot with him, most of the incidents because of the fact that he was African American, and some of the incidents because he was also gay. But Jim had managed to wiggle his way into her heart, and had followed her to college and then later to her apartment.
They had lived with each other for over two years now.
She turned to Lucian, and couldn't help but grin at the look on his face. He was thoroughly confused, and seemed more than a little put out. Ophelia couldn't help but wonder whether or not he had thought that he was doing the good deed, being the hero, or whatever else you wanted to call it. It was very heroic of him to be scared about her safety, but surely he would have thought that if a man could get into her apartment he obviously would have a key. "Lucian, if I may introduce you to Jim. He's been my roommate for a while now, I'm sorry I didn't mention that he might be coming home today."
A little put off, Lucian waved at her as though it didn't matter to him that another man was obviously in her life. "It is of no concern of yours."
But suddenly the man, Jim, started to laugh. "Ah, man. Ophelia darling, what have you dragged in with you? The man jumped me like I've always dreamed some guy would, and the next thing I know he's pounding the snot out of me. I couldn't even get a shot in!" Jim wiped a bit of blood away from his nose, and grinned down at her. "I think you've got a wild one on your hands, but you always managed to get the odd one's to like you."
Ophelia ducked her head, and flinched when a large drop of soap landed on her hand. With a gasp, her hands flew to her head. She couldn't believe it, but her hair was still covered with suds from the shampoo. In her flight to her friend's safety, she hadn't even realized that she was still covered with shampoo. With another gasp, she clutched the towel to her chest. It wasn't like Ophelia to simply walk out in a towel around men. True she was more comfortable being in a towel around Jim, but she still never walked around naked when he was home.
She flew back into the bathroom, her feet moving at an almost surprising rate, leaving Jim sniggering and Lucian staring at her back.
Jim turned towards Lucian, staring at him as he seemed lost in his own little world. He didn't quite understand how Lucian could completely dismiss a man that was standing next to him so completely. Especially since they had just fought, all Jim could think that he had to have a death wish or something similar to that. And something else to think about, why in the world was there a man in Ophelia's apartment?
Ophelia had never brought a man home, as far as Jim knew. They'd been friends since they were kids, and it had always seemed to him that she just wasn't all that interested in men. Oh she wasn't gay like he was. No he was certain of that. His own gaydar was definitely up to par. But the thought that she'd never even had sex, now that was something that Jim had a hard time believing. But then he'd look at her in a situation like this, and how she was so uncomfortable around them when she was completely covered up, and then he'd understand why she always said she'd never been in an intimate relationship.
It was because she really had never been in a relationship of such kind. That was why she continued to tell him so.
Wrapping a friendly arm across Lucian's shoulder, he couldn't help but grin when the smaller man jumped. "It was mighty surprising to have a man of your size jump me like that, buddy. Did you learn all those moves from street fighting or did you have a teacher that I should look up?"
Lucian took one more glance across his shoulder before completely ignoring Jim's question. "So what's her story?"
Slouching across the couch, Jim laid down on the couch belly down. If anyone had walked into the apartment at that time their eyes would have been drawn to the man. He was quite an impressive sight. Jim couldn't ever be called a small man. He was well over six feet, made of pure bricklike muscle, and had an air around him that simply screamed danger. It was how he got most of his boyfriends. Ophelia always joked that he looked like some kind of hit man but really most of the time he was simply a bitch.
"Ophelia?" Jim opened one lazy eye.
He noticed that Lucian was completely tense, all the muscles in his body rippling as he moved. The man gave him a glare that almost singed the skin right off of his back before Jim groaned and sat up again. He had had a long day at the office, and it was quite an office job indeed. He'd just finished his nine hour shift, one that always killed him. Jim didn't like having to work that much, he came from a very wealthy family but had to work to get some of their money. One of his parents ways to make themselves feel less guilty for having completely spoiled kids.
"Ophelia's just one of those free souls people always talk about. You know?" When he saw Lucian's blank look, he moved to explain. "She's always moving around, changing jobs, shifting gears. She'll pick up a puppy on the road and then give it to the next person that comments they want one. She doesn't want to be tied down with anything. It's strange really. I don't know why she moves around so much. I met her in Europe and found out that we both were moving back to the states. Her parents were missionaries, and I'm pretty sure that's why she hates staying in one place or practicing only one religion."
Lucian nodded before staring at his hands again. "Has she ever been in an abusive relationship?"
A shocked gasp was his answer, followed by a flamboyant hand pressed against a heart. "Do you really think I'd let some bastard hit her? I come by here all the time, when I'm not living here that is, I'd see if something was happening that I didn't like." Jim shook his head again, before quietly asking, "Why? Do you think that something happened while I was gone?"
"I'm not sure."
Jim shook his head, "I always worry about her. She's too nice to peop—"
Ophelia walked into the room with a curious look on her face. "What were you two talking about?" She proved, yet again, that she could look even cuter then she had when Lucian had first met her. An oversized sweater covered her top half, making her look like she was swimming in some man's shirt. Yoga pants stretched tight across her skinny legs, and her hair was still wet from the shower. Lucian's nostrils flared as he caught scent of her.
Looking at Lucian strangely, she asked him, "Are you cooking something?" She pointed at the kitchen, and grinned as he quickly stood up and walked towards the kitchen briskly.
"Jim, what were you saying to him? Hopefully not corrupting his mind about me." She sat down next to her friend.
"Of course not! No, I was simply talking to him about how wonderfully amusing you are." He rested a heavy arm against her shoulders. "How in the world did you find this man in the first place Ophie? He seems like such a strange man for you to come home with."
"Oh well, I kind of… um… Found him next to that club The Underground and he was hurt real bad so I took him home to help him out just a bit please don't be mad at me." Her words came out in a jumble of a run on sentence that Jim had a hard time hearing.
"He looked fine to me Ophie." A confused look planted itself on his face. Jim didn't remember Ophelia ever lying to him, and he didn't think that she really had any reason to. Either she didn't want to tell him, or she was telling the truth about what she thought had happened. But before he could ask her himself she was out from under his arm and rushing into the kitchen.
Ophelia's heart was beating a mile a minute as she remembered that he hadn't looked as though he was hurt at all. She hadn't seen any of the bandages, and she was certain that there hadn't been any scratches on his arms or legs. Granted it had been bad lighting last night in her small bathroom, but it hadn't been that dark that she couldn't tell whether or not his arms were covered in cuts.
The moment she walked into the kitchen, she stopped and stared at his back. All of the wounds, all of the gashes and bullet holes that she herself had so painstakingly wrapped and cleaned, they were all healed. It looked as though he'd never been in a fight or been hurt at all. His bare back was smooth and healed.
In a moment of desperate confusion, she rushed up behind him and ran her hands over his back. Sliding along the muscles and tracing the line of his spine, she was close enough to breathe on the warm skin in front of her. She ignored the shiver that rippled across his back, and the shuddering breath that he took before slowly turning and taking her hands in his. When Ophelia looked up into her eyes she had to marvel at the self control that he was showing, the passion in his eyes was evident even to her.
"What are you doing?"
Even in her surprised stupor, Ophelia had enough indignation to reply to his question with a voice laced with anger. "You were hurt! I saw all the cuts on you. I cleaned the damn bullet hole in your back! How are you not hurt? How are you not still wrapped up like you were last night?"
Lucian knew that he couldn't let her continue to think that he was hurt. He had forgotten that he would heal so quickly, and perhaps he had even forgotten that she was a human and wouldn't understand when he healed faster than normal. But here she was standing in front of him with fire in her eyes. This was a side of her that he had yet to see, and Lucian would admit to anyone that asked him that she was gorgeous. This tiny sprite of a being in front of him looked ready to kick his ass, though he doubted that she would be able to even if she tried. "I wasn't hurt last night. I don't know what you're talking about Ophelia."
She pounded her tiny fists against his chest before yelling, "No! I know that you were hurt last night! I saw all of that blood, I don't just see blood!" She stared up and met his eyes before quickly adding, "I have the clothing from last night. I'll show you, I didn't go out and get myself covered in blood, it was your blood!"
But he caught her elbow as she rushed past him and said, "I thought they were dirty so I washed all your clothing this morning. I was trying to make it up to you that you allowed me to stay in your home all night long."
She stared mutely at him before nodding quickly. She walked into the living room, her steps short and measured. Then, Ophelia very quietly sat down next to Jim. "I think that you should go. There's nothing here for you to do, and I'm sure you want to get home to Lenny."
Jim's worried look resonated the tone of the room, but he quietly stood up and looked over towards Lucian who was leaning against the kitchen door. "I don't like it, but I'm guessing that you two have unfinished business. I'll leave."
As soon as the door closed, Ophelia raised livid eyes. "I can't believe that you would pass last night off as if I just simply took you home. Jim is my friend, granted, and he's been my friend for a long time. But the last thing I want is for him to think that I take strange men home with me on a regular basis! I know that I'm not lying, and I know that you were hurt last night. Hurt so bad that I carried you most of the way, and that's hurt a lot more than one person can heal in one night. Now I don't know how you healed this fast, but I'm positive that you had some kind of bullet hole in your back, and your entire body was covered with cuts, blood, and some kind of silver liquid. I don't give a damn what you think, but that was a dirty trick. Now that you've made my best friend think that I'm easy and crazy, get out of my apartment."
Lucian didn't understand why she was so angry, but he also didn't like the idea of leaving this apartment on such bad terms. He told himself that it was because he wanted to stay for her protection. At least until he could resume his position and assign someone to watch over her, he wasn't going to leave her alone to be food for the vampires. But in reality, even he realized that he simply didn't want to leave because he was still weak, and she was far too weak to leave alone.
Somehow he ended up crouched in front of her, one hand on her thigh. "I couldn't let him think that I ended up here like that, five kids were killed in the subways last night, Ophelia. I know he's your friend, but he wouldn't believe even you if you told him that I wasn't in the subways." He tried to convince himself that he wasn't resting his hand on her thigh simply to feel the warmth of her flesh. He kept telling himself that it was for her reassurance. But he couldn't deny that his fingers started to tingle as soon as he touched her.
Ophelia dropped her head into her hands and groaned. She was too nice for her own good, she realized that. But she didn't want to just put him back on the street again. His argument made sense, she should have thought of that herself before jumping to conclusions. And if he didn't want to tell her how he healed so fast, well, that was his business. Looking up through her fingers, she said tiredly, "Honestly. What am I going to do with you?" She dropped her hands into her lap and finally smiled. "Okay, fine. I'll let you stay until you can find an apartment, or at least until you want to leave. Now I think you were making breakfast for me, is that right?"
Review and Rate would be awesome! I just wanted to get this out really fast, so thank you to everyone that reviewed you are all FRICKIN' AWESOME.