Jon Merz - Vicarious

Kwon screamed once more.

But only for a moment.

Curran watched the sunlight filter through the white lace curtains in the small bedroom where he and Lauren had shared a blissful few hours of passion. Outside the window, the winds had died down. The branches had stopped beating against the glass.

And nestled in the crook of his arm, Lauren slept. She breathed easily, the warmth of her body radiating out from her. Each time she breathed, Curran could feel the hairs along his arms lift and fall in time to the rise and fall of her chest.

He sighed.

Content at last.

He risked a look down at the beauty next to him. Everything about her seemed so incredibly perfect. Curran squeezed her into him a bit more. What have I don to be this lucky?

He grinned. If Kwon could see me now. I owe that guy a drink. Hell, I’ll buy a round for everyone.

Curran’s eyes felt drawn to the sun dawning outside. It seemed like this was the first morning in over a week that he’d woken up to something besides rain and wind. It wasn’t, of course, but the abundance of wind and cold and rain had almost drowned out his memories of warm weather.

Not today. The sunlight spoke of promise. A new beginning.

Curran nodded, mostly to himself. It was a new day. And it was time to make sure that the beauty of the sun had a chance to shine on earth for a long time to come.

That meant dealing with the Soul Eater.

His jaw hardened.

His muscles flexed a bit.

Time to take care of Darius.

Lauren shifted, feeling his small motions. She turned over, her breasts brushing against his skin. Curran’s nerves responded by firing off a volley of impulses. Not all of them went to his brain.

She smiled. Aware. “Good morning.”

He kissed her on the lips. “Hi.”

She came up on his chest, burying her face in his neck. He felt her hair and the warmth of her hands. He hugged her.

“Some night.”

Curran nodded. “That might be the biggest understatement of the century.”

“The century just started. There’s still time to find a new winner.” She glanced at the clock. “It’s past seven?”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t you say you were going to relieve Kwon at seven?”

“I did. But I’m not concerned about the time.”

She lifted herself up, breasts draped over him. “No?”

Curran stared. “It was his idea that I come over here last night. I asked him if he minded me getting over there a little later today. He didn’t.”

Lauren’s hands found their way around his neck. She pulled his chin up so their eyes met. “I like a man who looks at me when he’s talking.”

Curran smiled. “You didn’t exactly make it easy to choose.”

Her hands snaked down his chest, tracing useless patterns in his hair. A few inches lower and she smiled. “I guess I did make it hard on you.”

Curran closed his eyes. “This is the best morning of my life.”

She kissed him on his neck, fingers still busy elsewhere. “Compliments at such an early hour?”

“It seemed appropriate.”

She moved off to his side, suddenly breaking the physicality of the moment. He glanced at her. “What’s wrong?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Did I do something?”

She shook her head. “No.” She turned toward the windows. “Sun. At last.”

“Nice to see it again, huh?”

She sat up and moved to the edge of the bed. “This isn’t exactly how I pictured spending my time in the house of a priest.”

“Well, I certainly feel reborn.” Curran eased out of bed and began sliding into his clothes.

Lauren glanced at him. “Don’t make light of the situation, Steve.”

“I’m not.” He sat down next to her. “Lauren, I had an absolutely incredible time with you. If it was up to me, I’d spend every moment of my life with you like that.”

She tried to smile but it didn’t take. “I suppose we can’t live our lives that selfishly, huh?”

Curran frowned. “Sure seems like everyone else does on this planet.”

“Maybe that’s the problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe everyone else spends far too much time worrying about themselves when we all ought to be spending some time looking after other people. Isn’t that why we’re in such trouble?”

“You think this can be tied back to the Soul Eater?”

“Why not?” She frowned. “It’s because most of society could give a damn less about anyone besides their own self-interests that evil springs up in the first place. If we could reorient the way people think. Get them to consider the lives of others, not just their own — maybe we could make a real big difference.”

“That’s a pretty huge task.”

She nodded. “Just another item for my list.”

“Your list?”

“I’ve got a list of things I want to accomplish at some point in my life.”

Curran slid his shirt on. “That must be some kind of list.”

Lauren started dressing. Curran couldn’t help himself. His eyes stayed glued to her. The way she bent over to slid her panties on, the way she carefully eased her breasts into her bra, the way the turtleneck came on first followed by a pair of jeans. All of it seemed so…incredible.

She stopped and turned suddenly. “Oh my God.”

“What?”

“Today.”

“What about it?”

“It’s been forty-eight hours, Steve. Sister McDewey will be planning to let the Cardinal know about the Soul Eater’s presence. We have to get to the demon first!”

Crap. The last thing Curran wanted was Church involvement. Not now. Not when things seemed to be going so well with Lauren.

“Can we stall them anymore?”

Lauren shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll head over to the school and see what I can do.”

“I’ll drop you off, okay?”

She nodded. “We can grab breakfast on the way.”

Curran slid his holster onto his belt. “Let me call Kwon.” He reached for his cell phone but at that minute, the phone began buzzing against the wooden nightstand. Curran hit the talk button.

“Yeah?”

He listened for thirty seconds. His stomach dropped like a cinder block dumped off a skyscraper.

Breathing became difficult.

He could see Lauren looking at him. Concern had already scored her face.

Curran hung up the phone.

“Steve?”

Breathe.

God.

No.

“Steve?”

No.

He looked at her. His eyes felt hot. They stung. “Lauren…”

“What is it?”

“Kwon.”

She shook her head, already pulling away. “No.”

He nodded. “He’s…dead.”

Curran stared down at the sheet covering his best friend for a long time. Above him, a dark charcoal ooze settled across the sky, drowning out the earlier sunlight. Curran sighed and knelt down on the bumpy cold ground.

It shouldn’t have gone down like this, he thought. Not for someone like Kwon. Not for my friend.

He sighed again feeling like all the weight of the universe had settled on his lungs. But no matter how much he exhaled, he’d never be free from it.

He turned the sheet down to just below Kwon’s neck.

His friend’s eyes stared up at him from behind the wall of death. Curran didn’t turn the sheet down any more. He’d already been told there wasn’t much to see beyond the ghastly damage that had been wrought on Kwon’s lower torso.

Curran looked up in the direction of Darius’ house. There was no doubt in his mind who’d killed Kwon. But trying to explain that to the two Chestnut Hill cops on duty would be fruitless. After all, according to them, it didn’t even look like whoever had killed Kwon had been human, such was the damage.