Paragon - Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Pearson didn't say a word as I carried Quinn into the dark seats unconscious.
I carefully adjusted her body and made sure her seatbelt was secured before leaning back in my seat and letting a long breath leave me. I only took the tiniest gulp of air in which burned like wildfire down my throat from her proximity and that damn scent that drove me mad.
How much did she remember of this night before her boss had drugged her? I tightened a hand just thinking of how vulnerable she had been. How close it had all come to a different headline tomorrow morning.
Which reminded me.
I made a very specific call. The answer was instant.
"FHC Insurance, how can I help you?" The calm voice requested down the phone.
"I'd like to make a claim." I said slowly. "There's been a bad crash."
"How many involved?" He responded simply. Knowingly.
"Three people." I said, noting the two guards as well as the monster.
"Have you exchanged details." Meaning have I been compromised to the mortals. I glanced at Quinn before replying. Her peaceful and beautiful face. Dark hair spilled in waves and black eyeliner slightly disturbed.
"No we haven't exchanged."
"Okay. We will send a team and digitally help out Ms Fletcher. Is that all?" He asked, like we were talking of the weather and not sending a trained team to the sight of a building I had just blown sky high. As for the digital help... they would find every trace of my appearance in the streets nearby until there was nothing left.
"Nothing more from me." I remarked dryly.
"Let's try not to make anymore claims this year." He stated with a hint of irony while I smirked ahead and the line went dead.
Paragon were aware this was a rare occurrence on my part. I never requested anything–at least not in the last ten years. They would take care of this for me with minimal effort. I had a different name now but they had no trouble updating their own information about every active immortal.
I pocketed my phone and stared at the mortal whose hair and drifted into her face as she slumped against the window. We were almost outside her place of work. I had thought about the only real way of keeping this covert and making it a believable story to her. So when the car finally pulled up outside her office I turned to Pearson.
"I need you to remain in the car until she wakes up." I stated as clear as day. Pearson nodded intently taking in instruction for the night. "When she does–perhaps no more than an hour–you will tell her you've arrived at the destination she requested. She'll be too disoriented to take in details. Just make sure she safely gets in that office or a silver Mercedes. Clear?"
"Yes ma'am." Pearson confirmed, meeting my eyes with his dark brown.
"Call me when it's done."
"Of course, Ms Fletcher." He responded with a stiff nod.
I nodded in return, finally content with the state of things. I glanced one last time at the fascinating yet exasperating mortal who still slept soundly. She was causing many problems for me. Yet now I had removed one demon from her life. Maybe she could finally move forward.
I opened the door and hit the cool night air. Just as I made to close it I noticed her stir. I quickly made sure to turn my back and hastily retreated to the other side of the street. The drugs wouldn't allow her to take in too many details yet anyway... I cut down another wide road between the towering glass buildings of the business district.
Finally I allowed myself a deep gulp of air. I noticed how desperately I needed blood. Life essence. She had caused such a loss of control that I had almost sunk my teeth into the mortal I was trying to save.
I couldn't keep involving myself this way. But she kept finding a way to be in my life somehow. A text. A picture. A drunken damn call. It was my own doing following her to a damn gym in the first place. I found myself getting more irritated the longer I had to wait for Pearson to call. To just tell me the bloody woman was okay. Ridiculous honestly. I needed a hard slap.
My phone vibrated and I drew it faster than a revolver in a cheap western.
"Yes?"
"She's safely in the office lobby now. I believe she's calling her driver. She was very confused." He added.
I smirked at the sidewalk. "Yes, well she had quite the adventure... She won't remember much anyway." I muttered. "She didn't pry too much?" I pressed.
"No, she mostly just asked what happened at the club... and seemed quite disturbed that her boss had attended."
"I'm sure your response was flawlessly plausible."
Pearson chuckled down the line. "Indeed. And I believe that is two women that owe you their lives this week. What has got you so empathetic?"
"Please." I drawled. "There are plenty of others that do not get the same mercy." I replied darkly, thinking of the way Quinn Adams' former boss had crawled before me holding his broken bones and dying heart.
He wisely didn't comment on that. While both of my drivers were mortal, they tended to skate the fine line of staying professional and being on a need to know basis. Their pay packets were enough to ensure the latter and they had seen me do enough good to avoid pressing my affairs.
"Will you be needing a pick up to return home?"
"Please and thank you. I'm around the corner on Fenchurch."
"I will be there momentarily." He concluded, finishing the call.
Of course she had been confused and probably still had the underlying fear of that heathen weighing on her. Fragments of a trip to his penthouse... His aggressive touch on her... Yet my presence remained a total ghost. It made me unexplainably sad in the same way it made me relieved. A stupid notion. I shouldn't want her attention. I shouldn't want her to know that I was the one to put an end to her demon and not an accidental building fire she would read about tomorrow.
Pearson pulled up alongside me as I contemplated my raging thoughts.
I stepped into the car wordlessly. I picked my phone back up and checked the calls. Her call to me had been a mere 3 minutes. Something that Quinn wouldn't miss when she tried to piece the night back together. I could have that information wiped from both her and my phone. But I didn't make the call. I wouldn't wipe the only shadow of my presence.
An invisible guardian to a mortal that could never know it.
* * * * *
"Did you hear what happened last night in Vauxhall?!" Will demanded, as I walked into the office the next morning.
I took a deliberately long sip of coffee before shrugging at him.
"Don't leave me in suspense."
He groaned, palming his face and slapping a fresh newspaper on my desk. I threw him a glare to maintain my pretence before scanning the headline I had already run through with Paragon.
GAS FIRE ENGULFS VAUXHALL PENTHOUSE
THREE CONFIRMED DEAD
"That's an aggressive font for a Friday morning." I muttered over the rim of the coffee cup.
Will rolled his eyes. "I haven't seen a gas fire like that in a modern new build for some time."
I turned to my desk and tossed the paper back into his face. He slapped it away with a scowl before turning back to his own monitor screen.
"How are our East end boys looking?"
"Quiet. To be expected since we seized a lot of their cash and product." Will noted as he scanned something on his screen. "I've only been able to trace a few calls and connect a few number plates to younger dealers but nothing top shelf."
I nodded, opening my own database and glancing at my limited supply of new evidence. The bust last week will only keep the Inspector quiet for so long...
"So how was the gym?" Will asked, dripping amusement.
I peered around my screen and threw him a flat look.
"Fine."
"Did your friend help you out?"
"What is that supposed to mean?" I deadpanned, watching his face turn innocent quickly.
"I mean, I've never heard of you going to a gym–"
"I don't share all of my life with you." I finished, turning back to my screen while he grinned.
"We beat Jamie and his squad mate by the way." He was actually beaming now, as if the news was waiting for me all morning.
"That's great. Well done sharpshooter." I replied with all the enthusiasm of a rotting corpse.
Will snorted and began typing. I thought the day would go by in the same mundane manner when my phone lit up with words. A single message.
"We need to talk."
And that was all it took from one woman to freeze over my being. I felt like someone had just taken a spotlight and shoved it headlong over me. I stared at the words on my phone from The Lawyer.
And they stared back.