That was the first time she’d been clued in that Vincent couldn’t be killed… no matter what was done to him. He’d dug the bullet out of his shoulder as he’d argued with the black eyed demon on her behalf, saying he’d wanted a partner for years and he’d chosen her.
Seeing how Vincent was his favorite thief, Masters had reluctantly agreed, but only if he could brand her as one of his underlings, giving him rights to kill her if she ever got out of line or tried to leave the group.
Vincent had calmly looked over his bleeding shoulder at her and said, “It’s either that, or he will never let you leave this room alive. Do you agree to the deal?”
She had been taught by her grandfather not to ever make a deal with a demon but she wasn’t stupid enough to disagree with the one in front of her. As she’d looked into his cold black eyes she’d known he would indeed kill her and forget her with the same breath.
Once they’d left Masters’ huge estate, she’d turned on Vincent and glared, thinking that he was also a demon… or at least a half breed of some kind and hadn’t warned her. She quickly informed the good looking jerk that she was thankful that he’d saved her life in there, but she had a rule about not sleeping with demons.
Vincent had then calmly taken a hold of her shoulders and asked her to look closely at the blood staining his shirt… it was red. Had he been a demon it would have been black. Once she’d calmed down he’d went on to explain his… unusual circumstances. He’d informed her that he was completely human in every sense of the word but somewhere along the way he’d been cursed by the angels.
She wasn't sure what he’d meant by angels since he wouldn’t elaborate but the bottom line was Vincent just couldn’t die. Correction… he could die but never seemed to stay dead for very long. He’d even unbuttoned his shirt letting her see that the bullet wound had already stopped bleeding and was healing at a rapid pace.
Lacey empathized with his situation as she’d gotten to know him better, understanding that he’d lived for so long he was bored, fearless, lonely… and very angry that he was still alive while everyone he’d ever cared for was dead.
She and Vincent had made several agreements pertaining to their partnership and friendship. The first one was that she wouldn’t try to run away because although he couldn’t die, Vincent was pretty sure she could and would once Masters caught up with her. The other agreement was that they would continue their no strings attached relationship which she’d enjoyed immensely.
It wasn’t that she didn’t love him… she did. But it was more as a best friend, which was a good thing since he claimed to have lost the ability to give his heart away eons ago. For him, falling in love with someone would only lead to heartache as he watched them grow old and die… leaving him behind. She understood completely.
It was during her partnership with Vincent that she learned a couple truths about the greatest thief of their time… her grandfather. He’d gone by the name of Chameleon and never gave any other name. He’d also been so good at the art of deception that he had never failed a single job he’d been hired to do… and no doubt any he’d taken on in secret.
By the way they had described him as a master of disguise and the fact that he went by Chameleon, she’d known right off the bat it was Grandpa, though she’d never shared that information with anyone, not even Vincent. The most agreed upon theory was that he’d been a shape shifter, which in her opinion was the closest to the truth since no one knew grandpa had the cloaking device.
The demon world was still trying to find him but many believed he was dead. After his final job, which was to steal a soul orb from an original, he’d promptly vanished taking the orb with him. No one had been able to find him since… they’d searched, of that Lacey had no doubt. Little did they know that the soul orb in question was sitting in a concrete safe in the middle of LA surrounded by a demon ward.
Because of that, Lacey knew it would have been dangerous to get in touch with any member of her family for fear the demons would find her grandfather. She’d known better than to contact him herself. He wouldn’t have understood and probably come for her, surely getting himself killed in the process.
She’d kept her silence for more than a year, never breathing a word of his whereabouts as she became deeper and deeper entangled in the high-end thievery ring. As soon as she noticed that she was no longer being watched so closely, she started planning her great escape. She’d even warned Vincent that she was going to do it the first chance she had.
He’d reminded her about the mark Masters had placed on her shoulder, but she’d considered what to do about that. She’d ensured him her next stop would be to break into a certain safe that she knew held a spell book that would help her with the demon mark… she just didn’t tell him it was her grandfather’s safe. As far as Vincent knew, she didn’t even have a grandfather.
The last two missions they’d been sent out on had been so dangerous that she’d nearly gotten herself killed both times and would have if Vincent hadn’t been there to take the injuries for her. He’d given himself up so she could get away. Both times he’d been brutally killed and his body dumped only for him to make his way back once he’d woken up healed.
Finally agreeing that it was getting too dangerous for her to stick around, Vincent had offered to help her escape. It just so happened that the next mission landed them right back at the same museum they had met at. The job involved them stealing a device that was said to incapacitate all demons within a hundred yards of it when it was triggered. Perfect.
The plan was that only one of them would return from this job. Their hopes was that when Vincent gave the device to Masters, the demon would be focused on the device that was obviously a weapon against his kind and wouldn’t come after her right away, giving her time to get to the spell she needed to counteract the mark Masters had put on her.
They’d easily stolen the object that, to her, looked a lot like a ten sided metal Rubik’s Cube that was covered with golden symbols instead of colors. While they were there, they knocked the guards out and had stolen their weapons. Vincent had then turned and given her a cute little ‘goodbye dear friend’ speech and a quick kiss on the cheek.
The problem arose as they’d made their way out of the museum only to find Masters and a horde of demons waiting on them. Masters had laughed, saying that the mark he’d given her had given him a warning of what she was planning… right down to the fact that she was the granddaughter of the Chameleon and was running back to him where there was a whole safe of things he was now interested in… including the soul orb.
Masters had then nodded at Vincent, thanking him for keeping her distracted and unaware of the mark’s true power.
She had glared up at Vincent accusingly then snatched the device from his hand and prayed she knew what she was doing as she started quickly turning it. She’d been obsessed over a picture of the Cube before coming to the museum to steal it and used that memory to rapidly link the symbols together.
One by one, the demons started going down in agonizing pain but not Masters… no, that son of a bitch began walking straight toward her with an enraged glint in his eyes.
That’s when Vincent had moved. She’d not noticed him taking an ancient blade from the same hidden vault the Cube had been in, but there it was in his hand and he was holding it against the demon’s throat. In a movement just as quick, the demon plunged his hand all of the way through Vincent’s chest and out his back.
“Run,” Vincent growled at her just before his eyes slid shut and the demon’s head fell to the ground beside him.
All of the other demons were glaring at her from their prone positions, so she laid the Cube on the ground at her feet and did exactly what Vincent had told her to do… she ran like hell.
She had no way of knowing if Masters had told anyone what he knew about her and prayed the greedy son of a bitch hadn’t shared her secrets in fear that another demon would beat him to the legendary soul orb. Her thoughts kept straying back