Paragon - Chapter 44: Chapter 44

Ornate doors with brass trim were drawn back by a man in a finely cut suit and top hat. The polite way of telling people on the pavements that this establishment was not a walk-in.
I dipped my head briefly and caught the edge of his voice on a comm notifying them I was here.
The bar was plush and a facade for anyone that had made it this far as a mortal. I saw past the show and met the eyes of a bartender. He abandoned his glass and bowed curtly before gesturing an arm to the double set  doors at the end of the room.
I crossed the marble floor. My boots echoed in the space. A silence all too familiar to immortals. One that was maintained for a reason.
The doors opened before I could touch them.
"Your apparent lack of time management has been noted." A voice stated at the other end of another cavernous room.
I flexed my fingers and kept my expression neutral. I did not bother to throw them glances. A room full of elite immortals with ten times my years on this earth. They had enough ego already.
"You have my regret and apology, sir!" I called, gaining attention of every immortal in the room.
Some lounged, some read, some talked–but I cared not. I was not here for the political niceties. I was here to get in and out. Be told where to go so I could get back to the woman that was my true purpose.
"Sir." The immortal tasted the word wryly. I met his blank look and resisted a shudder.
Something about elite immortals always unsettled me. A detachment from everything. Eyes that had seen too much. A mind that had weathered too much darkness from the world. The ring of gold in his irises were the only thing stopping his eyes from being completely black.
He was adorned in a finely cut charcoal three piece. I tore my eyes off the pocket watch dangling in his fingers.
"So you closed your loopholes?" He drawled.
"Indeed." I said measured.
A few voices murmured behind but they were on different topics. I knew I was not the centre of Paragon's interests by any stretch...
"You kept that mortal in your presence for quite some time." He noted, taking up his watch and closing the distance to me slowly. I stayed in place freezing my body. Aggression was not only pointless but suicidal. You had to be an unmoving, compliant piece of stone to survive here.
"I did." I answered honestly.
"Was she that delicious?" He quipped, arching a dark brow and watching my reaction intently. So I schooled my features well. A small smirk and lazy look in my eyes.
"Exquisite. A shame I tasted the last of it."
A head tilt and a curious look. A dangerous one.
"Yet she is still alive. Interesting."
It took everything in me not to react. One emotional give away was all it would take for her to become an interest for them.
"The mortal was unfortunately high profile. It would give me more complications to remove her in this city."
The immortal's face didn't move. Like a piece of stone staring through my soul. He finally nodded and the blood seemed to move in my veins again. The conversations continued behind.
"We have a new objective for you."
I bent my head in compliance and internally cursed this frozen piece of soulless demon to every hell. He turned and swept a goblet off a tray as he moved past other members of the elite. I avoided all and any eyes as we walked. The floor was much like a chessboard. Checkered marble in dark and light. I was yet another pawn.
He sipped the blood and met the eyes of a few others as we moved. Their stares were endless.
"We did not just summon you to this city for the deposit of that mortal." My attention snapped to  his back as we came around a large circular table. A model of London no less. They did have an affinity for the theatrical.
"I am here to serve." I answered simply.
I caught the edge of a cracked smile.
"You were a detective in the Metropolitan police force, correct?" He arched another brow.
"Correct."
"Splendid. Your contacts will be of use."
"My... apologies but contacts within the force?" I got out, glancing at the model city below.
"Is that a problem?" He answered hollow. In other words saying it had better not be.
"My team think I am deceased." I stated.
It did not seem to affect him. He even ventured a darker smile.
"Oh, did we not mention? Paragon took care of your loose ends before you arrived."
My entire body was rooted in place as that ancient smirk only widened. One that promised nothing but inevitable control and power. I swallowed and he took his time as he sipped and returned with a blood red smile.
"Your coworkers are also deceased. We only require access to the police database now."
I almost dropped to my knees. The rest of his words blurred into the back of my skull.
Will. Jamie. His relatives. Any others close enough to know me in that department. The room was spinning. It shouldn't spin. I was immortal–we did not get nausea or dizziness. He was speaking and I should have been listening attentively. There was some gesturing to the table below. But all I could see was my partner's face right before I left him in that police car.
They were supposed to be safe from my life. I couldn't even guarantee that thousands of miles away. How could I do the same for my mortal.
"Are you with us, Ms Fletcher?" The elite drawled with a dark irritation. One that mocked my cover name and demanded attention in the same instance.
I snapped my crippling emotions away and became an immortal assassin once more.
"Yes." I murmured, focusing on the city table.
He swirled his goblet a moment before taking a longer drink.
"Perhaps it is mortal sustenance you need, hmm?" He asked, with a glint in his eye and a dangerously calm expression.
He offered me the cup.
I took it without hesitation. Denying such a thing was not only the ultimate insult but an instant question to my integrity. The game had to be played without error now. Or it would cost everything. My thoughts were mostly lingering on a mortal safely working in her office and far away from all of this.
I took a long drink and the rich eternal liquid filled me deeper than anything else. Strength found my limbs freshly–though it was a drop compared to the ones around me. I did not dare take another sip but made sure to show my appreciation with a deep bow. It appeased him. A startling grin took his features in a gore filled, sharp toothed amusement.
I was not in on the joke. But it suddenly felt hideous.
"I am glad you accept my offering. Loose ends never tasted so good." He finished.
I stared at the cup in his hands.
Loose ends.
He took a long sip again as I stood there failing to fully stay present in my own body. Loose ends. I stared at the blood trailing his lips. Keep it together. Keep it together. Waste a second of rage and it will cost you everything.
Fletcher. Breathe.
I stared at the way he licked the corner of his lips in knowing. Like he knew what Will meant to me. He was drinking my closest mortal friend–
"Is that a problem?" He asked innocently, just as the fucking phone operator had.
I met the endless blackness of his eyes and tilted my head. A dark smile took my lips and every other thought I had. As I regarded this apex predator I knew I would find a way to end him. I made a promise to myself there and then.
"No, sir." I smiled back.
* * * * *
I had 48 hours.
A vague order. Photographs and backgrounds of two men. A prison infiltration to silence both targets that were due to bail next week. Paragon knew they would conduct an attack so horrific in the next week that it would shake the country and incite more to come. The government had no notion of it. Paragon did.
Paragon would eliminate them. They would be dismissed as an unfortunate accident in a prison fight. Their names forgotten and the potential for destruction silenced. By one immortal.
I traced the pavement with my eyes as the sun fell behind buildings and the night crept it. I had not summoned Pearson or Jamerson. I walked the miles to Quinn's home. I needed to breathe a moment and to remember the faces of Will and Jamie that were stolen so simply. All because of how I had left. The crass destruction of what was left behind.
No loose ends.
My teeth were sharp. I grit them shut.
I crossed the street with my collar high and my eyes low. The city hummed around me but I could hardly take anything in. I thought of those hideous trips to dirty bars and the many times I threw pool games to their delight.
I sighed hard, watching the smoke of the cold follow it. It was still a cold March.
"Spare change love?" A gravelly voice spoke from the side walk. I glanced down at the mortal in his weathered clothes and saw Will's face. I stumbled back and hit another pedestrian. Someone cursed and I ran from them. Slipping into a darkened street away from the lights and noise.
My breathing was uncharacteristically rapid.
A shadow moved ahead of me. A cat.
I puffed out a longer breath and set my hand to the wall. I was infinitely strong and unbreakable. Yet I had never felt the fear I did now. Not for many years. It felt like a total loss of control. Powerlessness. That is what Paragon makes you feel.
There was a shuffling ahead of me in the alley again. I didn't track the cat anymore. I focused on the concrete between the bricks. The shapes and feel of the solid wall. The feel of a hospital bed in a world war. The sheer demand I felt for blood. I staggered a step and gripped the edge of a recycling bin.
"Are you alright?" A voice drifted down the space.
I shook my darkened thoughts as I held the stone.
"Fine." I said low, keeping my face obscured to the shadows.
Light steps approached me and I drew my teeth in again. I resisted the urge to crumble the stone in front of me.
"Do you need me to call someone?" She ventured, wiping her hands on the front of her apron. It took me a moment to realise she was working in one of the building and just emerging to remove rubbish.
I finally turned from the darkness and morphed my features into calm.
"Just a... stressful day." I answered simply.
Her expression changed into one of both shock and empathy at my features. But I was already tired of this. There was one mortal I needed to spend the next 48 hours with. I started walking as the mortal was still trying to find the words to my striking appearance emerging from the dark.
"Do you want–anything to eat?" She called at my back in a mixture of nerves and hope.
I smiled ahead of me.
"No thank you." I said to the street ahead of me.
I needed those burning green eyes. That quick mind. That mortal that accepted my darkness as easily as she did every other danger. The rest of my journey was faster. I hailed a cab of all things. My mind was filled with mortal death that I had caused. That blood red cup I had drunk from.
I shuddered when my feet left the cab and stepped before Quinn's residence.
I rapped on the brass door lightly. It was enough.
She opened the glossy door quickly and took in my empty expression. She was then drawing me through it in less time. I exhaled heavily into her shoulder and mumbled her name. The door shut and she wrapped her arms around my lower back tightly.
"What happened, Fletcher?"
I stayed silent and shut my eyes, letting the scent of her fill my every thought. Blood was such a distant demand in my mind–not after the blood I had just tasted so recently...
With an emotional EQ like Quinn had, it took her less than a glance to understand something was deeply wrong and words were not going to justify it. She brought me back and helped me out of my jacket before capturing my hand to lead me into her living room. The fire was already flickering in the stone set place. A discarded book upon a chair. She pushed it off and sat me on the plush sofa with her.
I stared into the fire.
She gave me space and sat on the other end. I wasn't sure what she thought of this look. I hadn't ever worn it around her. Endless emptiness, loss, lack of control–it was a dangerous combination. But I did not want to have an empty 48 hours with her before I went to conduct immortal orders.
I met her eyes and they already watched me.
The fire caught half of her face in a warm golden glow. One of her irises was closer to gold than green. I leant my forearms on my knees and held her gaze.
"You remember my... friends." I got out quietly. A frown dented between her eyes and she nodded slowly. "Paragon–they–" I swallowed and stared at my hands. But she already knew, the breath caught in her throat.
"Tara..." She moved and took the back of my neck in her hand. It felt warm, it felt strangely safe despite it being mortal and fragile. I leaned into it and closed my eyes, pushing my back against the chair. "I know there's nothing I can say to make this any better." She murmured, moving from her position and shifting her body close beside me in her warmth, "–but I'm so sorry."
I opened my eyes.
She had already wound her arms around my neck and buried the rest of her against my side. The fire crackled hungrily beside us. I finally found the strength in my body to move my arms and slowly secure her back to me.
"It's them. It's what they do. They... found it amusing." I mumbled in an empty voice.
Quinn stilled under me and watched the side of my face as I watched the fire. But she did not speak, she wanted me to continue this nightmare. Expose the darkness in its true form.
"They wanted to know why you were still alive. I told them–you were nothing–you were just too much of a complication to get rid of." I finished, realising it had come out in a low growl.
Her breathing didn't falter as I admitted this.
I was sure the gold in my eyes was brighter. I felt so dangerously close to testing the strength of my immortality against those that had the strength of thousands. So close to giving into that monster that I was in my first years.
"I am worried that I will become something much worse, Quinn." I murmured. "If they... If this happened to you–there would not be anything left that was human in me."
She took a slow breath before letting it go against my skin. I closed my eyes again and thought of nothing but her smile and her warmth I could feel.
"I don't have an answer for that, Fletcher." She said quietly, I waited to hear more of her voice. "–but these immortals that have you in their grip... It sounds like they became monsters a long time ago. But the woman I love fights every inch of her darkness and she has never been them."
I turned my head from the flames and faced her a few inches away. Her expression was serious and her breathing calm. She meant every word of what she said.
"That darkness is so close to you, Quinn. Yet you stay." I whispered before her lips.
She scanned my face with a slow nod.
"Because I know what I want."
Her words made my being buzz. An ice burn that took hold of every part of me.
"You seem so sure." I responded low.
"Lawyers are decisive." She answered, even without that famous humour dancing in her eyes. She was still serious.
"I want a life with you. However long that is." I stated.
"Then we're agreed." She answered simply before brushing the side of my face with her hand. She still scanned my features closely. The space between us was barely anything but a growing charge. Either of us could close it anytime yet we remained.
"It doesn't have to be a short time, Fletcher."
It was my turn to frown. "What do you mean?"
"I mean our time does not need to be so short together." She repeated with a much more serious intention.
"How would–" My mind realised her implication in a wave. My expression closed off and I pulled back from that heated moment. But she kept her hand secured and drew me back. I couldn't stop myself from being pulled in closer. I never could. Not to her.
"Quinn I would never do that to you–"
"Give us more time?" She asked with exasperation.
"You have no idea what you are asking for." I returned darkly. "Immortality is final."
Never in wildest imagination did I imagine having the conversation directly with her. A passing thought in my mind yes–but not a demand from her... That was madness. Condemning her to desire nothing more than blood for years.
"So is being dead. Which is a lot easier for us." She finished, watching me with those forest green eyes.
I took both sides of her face now and held her there.
"No."
"Then I guess we really are on borrowed time Fletcher." She murmured, with a look that was growing closer to hurt by the second. I tilted her jaw up and made her meet my eyes.
"I cannot do that to you."
"But you would let Paragon–"
"I am not turning you into a monster, Quinn!" I growled, forgetting that my teeth had become sharp once more.
She stared at them for a long time. Before finding my eyes again.
"I never saw one in you."
My body lost its tension and the fear with it drained away. I relaxed into her and pressed my head into her neck. She pulled me down with her onto the sofa until we could settle before the flickering fire that had decreased in size. The room was warm but not stifling, and I would keep her cool either way.
"I've got a few days before I need to work for them again."
She trailed her fingers along the top of my shirt arm like she had not heard me.
"I will have my old flat refilled in case you ever need somewhere else to stay."
She smiled slightly at this. "I did wonder where you kept all our things on our trip..."
I mirrored her look and watched her hand as it trailed in warm lines across me.
"I'll take you to the vault sometime. Perhaps tomorrow after your work."
"I did have a lot to catch up on... They were not too happy with the way I left things. But immortals never give you time to plan." She accused lightly, with a glance at me.
I grinned down at her.
"I'll make it up to you, Adams."
Her expression did not lose the smirk.
"Doesn't that sound good."
"You are despicable."
"Which you love about me all the same." She concluded confidently.
I did not argue. I bent down and pressed my lips to the side of her head. Her fingers paused before she turned in place and pulled my jaw back to meet her lips. She kissed me deeper. More surely than something that passed as a quick reminder. Her blood was steady but her breathing had stopped all together.
I kissed her back with just as much unspoken emotion. Each time shaping our lips to each other and feeling that collision of heat to cold. She finally dragged in a breath and I smiled.
"I'm going to sleep right here." She decided.
I chuckled and shook my head. "Where is your bed?"
"So forward, detective." She smiled lazily.
I rolled my eyes and scooped her up as I moved off the sofa entirely. Her weight was nothing and her sudden gasp was entertaining.
"This isn't the first time I've held you like this."
She looked confused. I just shook my head with the same smirk.
"Up the stairs, first on the right–but I have legs Fletcher." She protested.
I entirely ignored her and kept her close to my body as I walked out the room and jumped up the stairs far faster than a mortal should. She gave me a Quinn look. I returned it with a calm one.
"Can you do anything normally?" She quipped.
I glanced down at her as I entered her bedroom.
"Yes. But I prefer to be myself around you." I drawled almost sarcastically.
She grinned and reached for my face as I dropped her carefully to the bed and stood.
"Do you have anything..." I glanced at my formal wear then back to the even more amused mortal.
"God, I've tried to picture you in casual clothes for so long... Wait here." She jumped off the bed and went for another door and disappeared inside. The light flicked on in the darkness. The street lights were the only thing entering the room beyond the curtains. I glanced around me quickly. Bookshelves, desk and accessories, bathroom, thick carpet, not many sentimental items–but Quinn was not the type for it–
"Here." She said, turning the light off again and handing me a pair of soft looking trousers–sweats as the Americans knew them–and a black t-shirt. I smirked at her before nodding.
"My thanks, Adams. Now I look the part."
She fought a smile as she returned to her bed, already in similar wear.
"I considered shorts but then–"
"Good call." I finished for her, unbuttoning my dark shirt quickly and shrugging it off onto a nearby chair. I threw her t-shirt on and replaced the rest of my outfit until I was standing in the most mortal attire I ever conceived.
When I looked up she was already staring back with a look a bit darker than amusement now. I sighed and shook my head as I approached her.
"No."
"I didn't say anything!" She retorted, eyeing my torso briefly before finding my eyes.
"Your body language said it all, Adams. Go to sleep."
I rounded the other side of the bed and pulled the covers back. She curled her body to the side and smirked as I lay back beside her and shifted to get comfortable. It was a very soft bed.
"Quinn. Stop staring."
"Sorry." She smiled again and turned onto her back.
I breathed slowly and tried to keep that enticing scent out of my mind. Quinn's breathing was still not as slow as it should have been. She turned in the bed again and kicked her leg out of the covers. I kept still and closed my eyes. She sighed and turned in bed again.
"Quinn."
"Sorry–it's just so warm." She sighed.
I growled low. "I know what you are doing."
She fought a giggle and lost. "If only there was a way I could cool down to sleep–"
I turned and snaked an arm around her stomach quickly pulling her into me. I felt her silent laugh again and shook my head into the pillow.
"Go to sleep. Now."
"Feels so much better..." She murmured, through what I knew was a smile.
I sighed again and shut my eyes. But a smile was on my own lips. Her body was dangerously close to me and I would never have risked such a thing in the past. But I was moving towards forgetting the demon that wanted to consume her. My thoughts were filled with other things when I was with her.
She scooted closer to me and relaxed against me. Something no immortal would allow. But this one did. This one kept her arm secured around her and drifted to sleep wrapped in thoughts and feelings of a mortal woman.