Through a Lens Darkly

Chapter 5

@copyright 2009 Heather Amaral and Jean Hontz

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It was the still humidity that woke her. The fan wasn't running. She was sweaty and restless when her eyes finally opened. It was early morning, only the first rays of the sun lighting up the sky. Salmons and purples colored not just the sky but the very air, it was so still.

She looked for the darkness and found nothing. She sat up and sensed him before she saw him. He'd been standing in the window looking out over the dawn. No longer a shapeless bit of darkness, he was a figure now, granted almost transparent but still a figure: wide shoulders, long legs, narrow hips. He was naked. His head turned as she sat up.

Shaggy dirty-blond hair, wide hazel eyes, a day's growth of beard, Etienne looked at her and smiled.

"Etienne?" She asked drowsily. Trying to keep her eyes off the naked bits, which wasn't all that hard since he had a damn fine face to look at.

"Oui," he replied. He made a movement and he was dressed.  "Is this proper?  Someone on the street is dressed like this."  He was wearing jeans and a tee shirt that advertised Coke.

"Uhmmm." She looked dubiously at the shirt, trying to hold in the laughter bubbling up inside. It was really too early for this kind of weirdness. "It'll do until we find a better shirt for you to copy." She said finally.

"The power that runs through the walls. What is it?" he asked.

Alicia peeled the damp sheets away from her legs and got out of bed. "It's electricity." She said flipping on the lights so she could see him better. "It's how all the lights and appliances work in the building."

"Ah, it is fixed now. Good."  He reached out a finger and suddenly power was flooding into him through the socket and the lights were flickering and then everything stopped.  "Not enough," he muttered.

"God dammit, that's why I woke up in a hot box." Alicia swore, glaring at the ghost. "You just shorted out the whole building, you happy now?"

Etienne frowned, lines forming between his eyebrows as he regarded her. "Shorted out? I merely am giving myself what I need. Feeding as you fed."

"Yeah, but we don't feed off electricity, we use it to keeps the lights on, the phone working and fans going so we don't boil in the middle of a hot southern night." She said, looking pointedly at her not working fan. "Now it's gonna be hours before the electrician gets here to fix it."

She was annoyed and not too keen on covering it up. It was a lot different with Etienne like this; she might have forgiven the cloud. But the man, in her mind, should have known better. Even if he was a few hundred years behind modern technology. It was too early and miserable for her to be thinking rationally.

Etienne eyed her thoughtfully. "Explain it to me," he ordered.

One defiant eyebrow rose at his tone. "Excuse me?"

"Si'l vous plait. Please."

Alicia sighed, shoulders loosing their stubborn set. "All right, what do you want to know?"

"Everything," he replied with a slight smile. "I've been locked in a tomb for more than 200 years. Although I could watch the passage of time my view was limited.  The horseless carriages, this ... electricity that lights the nights, the thing you keep cold food in.  All of it."

"Is that all?" She asked weakly. "I don't know everything you want me to tell you, Etienne. I'd give you my computer and let you go to town if I didn't think you'd kill it."

And if it wasn't in the apartment uptown that she couldn't go near.

"But I can get you some books that might help. Can you read?" She asked.

His jaw dropped. "Of course I can read," he snorted. "Latin, Greek, German, a bit of Italian, French and English."

Alicia didn't look impressed, though she was a bit embarrassed for assuming. "Then you can get through the Encyclopedia Britannica just fine." She said before gathering up some clean clothes from the two drawer nightstand housing her radio. "I'm going to take a shower, so I trust the gentleman will stay out here while I do that."

One side of Etienne's mouth lifted in a smile. It was more predatory than friendly. "On my honor, mademoiselle."  He bowed to her with a flourish.

Alicia eyed him wearily. This was gonna be a quick shower.

"Mademoiselle, all I can do is look. Your honor is indeed safe. Or, perhaps...  No, I think not."

If those green eyes were capable, Etienne would of been charcoal at that point.

"Stay." Was all she said, but it was enough to get her meaning across, especially when she said it with the same authority as to be used on a misbehaving dog as she locked the bathroom door behind her.

Etienne Davignon watched the door close with authority and heard the lock turn. He reached out with his mind and toyed with the idea of unlocking it. No, let her have her false sense of security.

He turned from the door, ignoring the persistent need to stay close to her. He managed, barely, to take a few steps toward the window and returned his gaze to the street.

Those who'd locked him into the tomb had wanted to punish him, so they'd given him a window to look out on the world as it changed. At first he'd had a view of the street but then they'd built walls, and trees had grown up and tombstones and granite mausoleums had risen to block his view.

People did come into the cemetery, over the years, and he'd watched as fashions changed, as behavior changed.  Time had crawled for him and he'd had lots of it in which to nurse his anger and his will for revenge. And suddenly, unexpectedly, he'd been freed. By a magical woman who could change her appearance but not, apparently, mount a magical defense. Interesting.

His thoughts turned back to the street then, as horseless carriages such as he'd never imagined passed in his view. And people, dressed casually, no regard for the correctness of well tailored clothes, sauntered by. Something flew past the window far up in the sky. At first he thought it an eagle or a vulture. But no.. he realized as he reached out magically toward it, it was something quite impossible!  He grinned, and decided he was going to like this era.

But his need for revenge would have to wait. He needed to understand many things before he dared make his move. And, he needed to find a way to untie himself to Alicia. She was quite delicious, but far too timid for his tastes.

Alicia spent some time in the shower, waiting for the water to reach some decent temperature above sub zero. The last two days she'd spent treating Etienne like a pit bull with a French accent. Dangerous, but on all other planes dumb and working on a one track mind. Now, she wasn't exactly sure what to do with the person just on the other side of the door. As a person, she had to admit that Etienne was complex and she could already see those tell tale signs of a devious personality in him. For all she knew, she'd released Jack the Ripper on the world.

Kyle's face swam before her eyes, ugly and twisted, and now dead. She had to brace herself on the shower wall before she got sick. Ten more minutes and she would have been free and half way to Mexico. But then the cops had shown up, then Etienne, then Kyle. And now she didn't know how to get out of this mess. The organization wouldn't want her alive anymore, that was for sure. With their top hitman dead, they'd be out for blood now.

Alicia wanted to curse at the old pipes for not warming the water up faster but then she remembered a certain ghost had fried the water heater along with everything else and resigned herself to a cold shower. At least it blanked out her mind while she furiously scrubbed away two days worth of dirt and sweat.

Ten minutes later the lock on the bathroom door clicked open.

Etienne turned from the window.  He'd changed his look and now wore something a bit dressier. Soft fawn colored slacks and a white shirt. He'd somehow erased the beard and his hair looked a bit neater.  He ran his eyes over Alicia from her feet to the top of her head, stopping at the critical places for a mere fraction of a moment.

"Who is after you and why?" he asked, curiosity evident in his tone.

Alicia stopped just in the bathroom door, looking at him from part way under a towel she was using to hand dry the long kinky black curls that just touched her shoulder before she padded barefoot across the room to sit on the bed crossed legged and continue the fight with her tresses. Having changed into a cream tank top and a pair of capris, she was determined to beat the heat.

"It's not really your problem since it doesn't affect you." She replied calmly.

"I've no desire to test the theory that I would be still tied to a corpse. At the moment it does affect me," he replied, crossing his arms on his chest and meeting her eyes. "At least until I can devise a solution for breaking whatever chains  tie us together.  I believe that is not your area of expertise."

She smirked. "No, I was raised Christian, the only candles I was forced to light were in church not in a pentagram. But in all fairness I think you should go first. I think I have a right to know what kind of monster I let out of his cage."

He threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, that is rich. A woman who shifts her appearance at will calls me a monster."

Alicia wasn't laughing.

"Yeah, well there's a big difference between you and me and you pointed a lot of them out when you were still single syllable man last night. Because the words like betrayed and punish, are a bit different. So are avenge and kill."

His smile stayed in place. "I had thought to help you but if you've no interest in my help," he shrugged. "Ca m'est egal."

She snorted. "I think you've already helped enough. And if you aren't talking, then neither am I. Simple as that."

"Shall I reassure you I did not eat babies for breakfast, and rape women for entertainment? Shall I also claim I am innocent and I was locked in a tomb because of a jealous lover?  No matter what I tell you, you will not believe me.  You've decided what I am, so I see no point in listing all my old errors."

"No, I've decided based on what you've done. If the wording bothers you, then I'm sorry. But I felt that cold anger inside of you when you first got out, and I felt the agony you went through when you killed Kyle, physically not emotionally. Someone who's used to killing, who talks about it so simply. They're used to it." She paused, looking at him. "I know you won't kill me because, like you said, being tied to a corpse won't be fun. But why don't you try the truth and let me come up with my own opinion rather then the one you want to make for me."

"You are not in the least bit sorry.  And pardonnez moi for being angry to have been locked into a tomb to rot for eternity, kept alive and shown the outside world so that I could remember how lonely I was. I am surprised I'm sane. There were times when I was not. Anger and fury were all that fed me, all that kept me alive, all that sustained me and kept my spirit together enough so that I could grasp the tiny straw that your touch offered to me."  He paused. "I will kill the man who wove that spell. Without remorse, without a twinge of conscience, just as he put me alive in a grave because he thought it crueler than to kill me outright."

Alicia could only stare at him for a moment, wide eyed while her chest sharply contracted again, but not so much with remorse than with the power of his words. After a pause she nodded, taking in what he said as something she probably had no part in changing or interfering with.

"But can I trust you, Etienne?" She finally asked. "Right now that's all I really need to know."

"I have no reason to betray you. No reason to harm you. Every reason to keep you well. Every reason to free you as it will free myself.  What more trust can there be than mutual need?" The last he asked quite softly.

The sharpness eased. "I can live with that for now. But no more killing, not even to keep me alive. There's always another option that'll work just fine. And the more you kill, the harder the organization's going to work to find me."

"D'Accord. But you had best tell me who will be coming at you. My defenses are lethal when I am surprised," he replied.

Alicia sighed and ran a hand over her face. "They're a organization of hitmen, assassins that operate through the southern states. One of them caught sight of me changing and brought me into their Charleston base to proposition me with a job. They told me everything but the name of their group, pretty smart. And the only members' name that I knew was the person they assigned as my personal shadow, Kyle Richards." She gave in to a mirthless smile. "They said I'd make the perfect assassin because I could shoot the target and literally blend into the crowd a moment later. But I only use my powers to get by, I don't kill, I can barely hit someone without paying for it later with a guilty conscience. So they said I was either to join them or be their next hit."

Alicia shrugged. "I've been able to avoid them until now. I even left my nice apartment uptown and was hot wiring a car the night before to ditch town completely, then you, then Kyle..." She closed her eyes and shook her head, verbally mimicking her thoughts from earlier. "Now I don't know what to do."

"You do not know who else to avoid, or how much they know of you?" Etienne asked.

"No, but I imagine they know enough."

"So you must seek shelter somewhere they would not suspect," he frowned. "I knew Charleston well all those years ago. I doubt it will much resemble what I knew. I may, however, know where you can obtain something of value to help you escape."

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