Vincent even the name called up feelings of guilt and she frowned sadly. Shed met him a couple days after shed gotten a layout of the huge museum Grandpa had sent her to. It just so happened that they had both been sent by different people to steal the same artifact.
Her lips twitched at the funny memory the look on Vincents handsome face when hed caught her breaking into the same secret room he was there to break into. If they had tried to fight over which one of them had gotten there first and who deserved the spoils, they would have alerted the heavily armed guards that were just down the hall and been busted, or worse shot.
Glaring at each other, it took them about thirty seconds to come to a mutual decision to work together in order to gain the piece. Though thinking back on it now, she realized that Vincent would have been fine either way he had only agreed to the tag team because hed wanted too.
Once theyd made it safely away from the museum, they had suddenly been surrounded by five black eyed shadow demons that had taken up host inside some of the local law enforcement by possessing them.
Standing there in the flashing lights of the cop cars with hands raised and five sets of guns pointed directly at them, shed thought for sure that they werent going to make it out of there alive. That was until Vincent had handed one of them the stolen artifact and been handed a huge briefcase of money in return.
Afterward, Vincent had offered to split the money with her and asked her to go into business with him. Without thinking of the consequences, shed agreed to the partnership deciding that she could get even more things for her grandfather by using Vincents ties to these new aggressive collectors.
She had been excited about finally having a partner and shed seen that he could be just as sneaky as she was. It also didnt hurt that he was sexy as hell and had a British accent that made it sound like he was flirting with every sentence.
Lacey shook her head at her naïve thinking as she lathered her hair up with shampoo. Shed agreed to the arrangement out of greed and because he was damn sexy her only two weaknesses.
After a night and most of the next day of hot as hell, no strings attached sex, Vincent had told her a little bit about the underground ring he belonged to. It hadnt taken her long to figure out that being partners with him meant she was also partners with an entire network of powerful demons.
Thanks to grandpa, she hadnt been completely clueless about demons but that didnt mean shed ever danced with one. Though the knowledge of what she was getting herself into had made her nervous, shed ignored the sixth sense and had been looking forward to the thrill Vincent was offering her.
That evening, hed taken her to meet the master demon of the underground ring an old man that looked every bit a hundred and ten years old and went by the name of Masters, which shed thought funny at the time.
When the old demon had coldly rejected her invite into the underground thievery ring and tried to kill her on the spot, shed lost all sense of humor. If it hadnt been for Vincent stepping in front of her and taking the bullet meant for her head, shed be dead right now. Shed thought Vincent was dead when hed jerked and groaned as the bullet entered him, sending a spray of blood across her face.
That was the first time shed been clued in that Vincent couldnt be killed no matter what was done to him. Hed dug the bullet out of his shoulder as hed argued with the black eyed demon on her behalf, saying hed wanted a partner for years and hed 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, Its 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 wasnt stupid enough to disagree with the one in front of her. As shed looked into his cold black eyes shed known he would indeed kill her and forget her with the same breath.
Once theyd left Masters huge estate, shed turned on Vincent and glared, thinking that he was also a demon or at least a half breed of some kind and hadnt warned her. She quickly informed the good looking jerk that she was thankful that hed 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 shed calmed down hed went on to explain his unusual circumstances. Hed informed her that he was completely human in every sense of the word but somewhere along the way hed been cursed by the angels.
She wasn't sure what hed meant by angels since he wouldnt elaborate but the bottom line was Vincent just couldnt die. Correction he could die but never seemed to stay dead for very long. Hed 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 shed gotten to know him better, understanding that hed lived for so long he was bored, fearless, lonely and very angry that he was still alive while everyone hed ever cared for was dead.
She and Vincent had made several agreements pertaining to their partnership and friendship. The first one was that she wouldnt try to run away because although he couldnt 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 shed enjoyed immensely.
It wasnt that she didnt 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. Hed gone by the name of Chameleon and never gave any other name. Hed also been so good at the art of deception that he had never failed a single job hed been hired to do and no doubt any hed taken on in secret.
By the way they had described him as a master of disguise and the fact that he went by Chameleon, shed known right off the bat it was Grandpa, though shed never shared that information with anyone, not even Vincent. The most agreed upon theory was that hed 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, hed promptly vanished taking the orb with him. No one had been able to find him since theyd 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. Shed known better than to contact him herself. He wouldnt have understood and probably come for her, surely getting himself killed in the process.