Page 30 of Luca’s Magic Embrace

Luca booted up the laptop and set it in front of her. He watched as she typed away; she chewed her lip, concentrating on what she was doing. He loved seeing her in his home, wrapped up in his black velour robe. She pushed the reddish curls of her freshly washed hair behind her ears as she waited for the program to open.

“Okay, read me the code,” she instructed and typed it into the space designated for it. “I’m going to try my high school graduation date, which was June 23, 1999. So what happens is that the computer will take all this information and work backwards to see if we come up with something that makes sense based on the code and date variables. In a date shift cipher, the date is generated sequentially without the slashes over and over. The letters of the alphabet are assigned to each number. So then you take your message, and the code assigns a letter based upon how many spaces you need to shift,” she explained.

“Can you give me a quick example before it runs?” It had been a long time since he’d deciphered a code on the battlefield and wanted to make sure he correctly understood.

“Sure. So my graduation date would be written like this.” She wrote down the number sequence, six, two, three, nine, and nine and continued, “So I would write the numbers over and over again until I had a little more than the alphabet. Like this.” She drew out the numbers until they were all the way over. “Then I would add the alphabet underneath, like this. So if I was looking to code the word, “sex” for example, I would go to the S which tells me to move over spaces. So the S turns into a B, the E turns into an N and the X turns into a G. So the code would be BNG. But still, you’d need to know the date I used in order to crack the code. But again, if you’d been given the secret code, BNG, you would need to know the date in order to solve the code.”

BNG

Luca laughed. “You’re brilliant! Perhaps in need of some lovin’, but brilliant,” he teased. He came around the bar and sat next to her to watch what happened online.

She smiled over at him but turned serious again as she watched the progress of the program. Within seconds, it finished bringing up the message. It made no sense, which meant the date was incorrect.

“Shit. That’s not it. You know what they say? Garbage in, garbage out. We need the right date,” she huffed.

Samantha closed her eyes and put her hands to her forehead trying to rack her brain for the correct date. Luca rubbed her neck while she concentrated. Think. Think. What date would I have used? I was in a hurry. In danger. Scared. It occurred to her that maybe she’d used the day she was taken by Asgear. It would have been fresh in her mind, something she’d want to remember. She reached back into her mind to search for the date but couldn’t seem to do it without a visual calendar in front of her.

Opening her eyes, she pulled up her calendar on the screen. “August. I was taken in August. August 11, 2012.” She flipped back to the cipher program and typed in eight, one, one, one, two and pushed enter.

Luca and Samantha watched patiently as the program worked backwards through the sequence to find out the code. Within seconds, the screen came up with a message: MAID OF ORLEANS.

“Maid of Orleans? What’s that?” Samantha asked.

“Maid of Orleans,” Luca said thoughtfully. “The Maid of Orleans is a statue of Joan of Arc. It was given to the city by France in the seventies. I’m not sure what we’ll find there but we’ve got our next lead. You did it, Samantha!”

Samantha was overwhelmed with relief that Luca knew what the message meant. She was one step closer to freedom. “Where’s the statue? Why would I have been there?”

Luca went over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of champagne. He talked as he uncorked it and poured it into flutes. “The statue’s in the French Quarter over near the French Market on Decatur. It’s not far from Sangre Dulce. Maybe wherever Asgear took you first, he had to walk you past it to get to the club. I’m not sure, but perhaps somehow you got away long enough to hide it. It might have taken only a few minutes to feign an escape, plant another clue or the amulet and then agree to go to the club.”

“Joan of Arc, huh? Kind of ironic, isn’t it?” Samantha commented.

“Ah yes, Joan of Arc. She was accused of witchcraft, and yet a very real witch chooses her as the place to drop the next clue.” He grinned wryly, handing her a glass.

“Let’s not forget she was burned at the stake,” Samantha reminded him. “I’d like to avoid that if at all possible.”

“Well, let’s just take a few minutes to celebrate. It’s getting really late, and I for one am growing tired of this chase. You see, I’d much rather be chasing you.” Luca set down his glass and came up behind Samantha, putting his hands on her shoulders. As he massaged her neck, she let out a loud groan.

“Ah, Luca, that feels so good. I’m not used to walking around in heels like that all night. Or being in that kind of club. Seeing some of those people do what they were doing; it made me feel…I felt…” Her words trailed off; she wasn’t sure whether or not she wanted to talk about it.

“Tell me Samantha. How did it make you feel to be in the club again?” Luca questioned her. He was worried she’d have a flashback or panic at the club, but nothing had happened. She was one cool cucumber. But he knew that beneath the surface, thoughts lingered. Fear? Anger? Arousal?

“I…I felt…I don’t know. I was scared to be in the club at first. But nothing happened. I didn’t remember anything. And then there was the whole meeting with ‘mister freaky vampire’. He was really scary at first. But it was strange. He was very angry, but controlled. By the time he was finished telling me to get the amulet, it was as if I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. I know it sounds crazy. I can’t explain it. And then seeing the submissives parade around naked as if it was nothing. And the sex. I guess it was okay.” Samantha sounded unsure of her own thoughts. She’d witnessed and experienced so many strange and new things.

Luca put his fingers around her pallid neck, tracing his fingertips from her hollow to the back of her shoulder blades. He wouldn’t let her off so easily. He wanted to know what she really desired.

“Did the domination scene excite you, darlin’? I saw you watching,” Luca whispered into her ear. She shuddered, feeling his warm breath against her.

“Luca, did you go to that club often? Is that something you like? Do you do those things? Do you do what that woman was doing to that man?” she asked.

“Answering a question with a question? No. Quid pro quo. You first,” he answered.

“Fine,” she sighed. “I found it erotic. I don’t think it’s something that I’d do every day, but I wouldn’t mind playing at home with someone I trusted. But there is no way I’d do that in public like they were doing. I don’t mean to sound judgmental, it’s just that it’s not me. When I saw them, naked, and her touching him so intimately, I was aroused, but also upset. I kept picturing me in that club. I can’t believe that I did that, served drinks that way. I guess it’s not too bad, not at this point, considering I can’t remember. It’s like you’re telling me I did it. I see a picture in my head, but it doesn’t seem at all real to me. Then, later tonight, dancing with you on the floor; that was real. Okay, enough about me. Now your turn. Dish.” She got up, walked around the stool to stand next to him and put her arms around his waist.

Luca looked down at his beautiful woman. He was falling for her. He planned on telling her about the bonding, about everything. But tonight? Gazing into her eyes, he knew it was right. She was his and he knew in his heart he’d never let her go.

“Samantha, I’ll be honest. I don’t ever want to lie to you. You know I’ve lived hundreds of years, and yes, I’ve had sex with many women. But I haven’t loved anyone since Eliza. I really want to tell you about her sometime, but tonight all you need to know is that there’s no one in my life right now except you. As for the club…well, yes, I’ve been there a few times over the past couple of years with friends. I’ve played in the rooms, sometimes dominated women who were looking for fun with a supernatural. But it’s not something I do all the time or feel compelled to do. Until you came along, I was just passing the time. I work for Kade, collect antiques, travel and that’s about it.”

“And do you want to do that to me? Do you want to tie me up?” she said, flirtatiously rubbing her breasts against his chest. Samantha hugged Luca, and he embraced her back, holding her tightly in his arms.