Chapter Seven
Lucas and New York
With his black tuxedo, he’d managed to steal from a shop, Lucas looked as though he owned a corporation. His smart look had fooled everyone. He’d made it to New York City without too much difficulty. Having visited this place for more than a hundred times, he knew the nook and cranny of the journey, the shortcut and the safest areas to obtain food – he knew them all.
Sweeping a glance around, he could sense the dark shadows’ presence. He was wearing sunglasses as to avoid having eye contact with anyone, especially not with a dark shadow which could blow up his disguise. Showering himself with a liter of perfume was another way of hiding his smell. Dark shadows had injected themselves with a vaccine that enabled them to enhance their sense of smell, a great asset to instantly determine whether a lycan was close by. The vaccine was developed by taking a particular cell from a lycan’s brain and incorporating it into the vaccine, which also served as a sort of steroid to imitate a lycan’s physical strength.
He sniffed the air, turning in all direction to find Vincent. But no luck. Vincent’s scent had already vanished. Just a few hours ago, Lucas was able to track him down but with all the different gases lingering in the air, his sense of smell was confused. He could only smell pollution that made him cough.
“Vincent, where are you?” he whispered under his breath, using his mind to communicate with him, hoping he wasn’t far away to hear his thoughts.
While using telepathy served as a convenient way to communicate, it has its fair share of danger. Anyone who had the ability to hear thoughts could also hear the message transported from one person to another. And Lucas was oblivious of this fact, thinking only those he’d chosen to hear him would be able to hear it. Little did he know someone was keeping watch on him.
A couple of minutes had ticked by and his patience had run low. Vincent didn’t respond back which gave him an indication he was far beyond the reachable perimeter. He sighed in disbelief. He couldn’t stand to walk any further. Turning around, he bumped into a lady wearing a police uniform. His sunglasses fell and their eyes met. A sparkle of delight shone in his eyes and his heart beat faster.
The policewoman stared at him blankly. She didn’t seem taken aback by his good looks. “Watch your step next time,” she said quite harshly, but for him, her voice sounded like a benevolent angel.
Lucas stared at her for a moment, mesmerized by her emerald green eyes with those plump juicy lips that cunningly invited him to kiss her. Suddenly, a strong tap on his shoulder brought back senses into his head.
“Don’t stare at her like that. Get your ass moving,” Garth ranted, pissed off that Lucas was eyeing Anna as though he had all the legal right to do so.
Lucas frowned and glared at Garth with an evil look in his eyes. No one had the right to mistreat him, especially not such a mortal as Garth. His eyes began turning black, but he remembered Ayana’s warning to keep his temper down and extend his patience for it could spoil everything they’d worked hard for. He sighed and looked away. He suppressed his pride and turned around, brushing Anna’s face off his memory.
“What a bastard,” Garth mumbled, glaring at Lucas’ back.
“That’s enough,” Anna said.
“He can’t just look at you like that.”
“It’s okay. He didn’t do me wrong.”
“I know, but–”
Anna had lost her patience. She hated nonsense argument. “I said that’s enough and that’s an order.”
“Alright!”
Walking forward, an unexplainable need to turn around knocked on her head. She suppressed it and kept walking, but finally gave in. She stopped and turned her head around only to see Lucas gazing at her from afar. She couldn’t explain it, but somehow she felt attracted to him. Her heartbeat picked up speed and her cheeks blushed at the attention he was giving her. It had been a long time since she’d felt this way for someone and that was when her life took a spin for the worse. No, she couldn’t afford to fall for someone again – especially not with a stranger like him.
She startled awake when a hand grabbed her by the shoulder.
“Are you okay?” Garth asked with a worried look in his eyes.
“I-I’m alright,” she stuttered. She looked back in Lucas’ direction, but he was gone. She thought it must have been her hallucination again. This was getting serious. If she kept prolonging her visit from the doctor’s clinic, it might get worse.
Garth caressed her on the back. “Let’s get something to eat.”
They walked ahead and Anna remained awkwardly quiet as if her brain was occupied with so many thoughts that she estranged herself from the conversation.
He got it – she was tired. “I think you have to take a rest and go home for a bit. Take that necessary sleep.”
“No, I’m okay,” she quickly said.
“Anna, it’s an order…” he said, smiling.
Though he was trying to be cute, she didn’t fancy him as much as she’d found Lucas irresistibly attractive at the second look. She forced an oppressed laugh.
“Thanks, buddy!”