Lilith grinned.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice.” Andreas spoke from the front of the room. The seven strangers in the room took their seats. Ari looked for a good spot, but Andreas caught her eye and motioned for her to join him. “I’d like to introduce you to Arianna Calin, she works for the Magic Council in the USA and shares my life.” He flashed her a brief smile, before turning back to his guests. “I understand you have all known for years that I am a vampire.” He smiled when no one seemed surprised. “I already owe you my gratitude for maintaining that secret from the outside world. But your knowledge also makes it easier to explain recent events that may have drawn powerful Otherworld enemies to this area. I am urging you to take steps to protect yourselves, but I also need your assistance.”
His guests stirred but waited for him to elaborate.
Andreas gave them a much watered-down version of their history with the O-Seven, and Ari took the opportunity to study the gathered lycanthrope leaders. Ramon, the leader of the local foxes, sat between a female Italian wildcat and a male werewolf. A red deer couple sat by themselves on the far side of the room. A pair of falcons had chosen the middle seating.
“That’s an amazing story.” The werewolf was the first to comment when Andreas had brought them up to date with the final escape from the O-Seven’s stronghold. “So what do you want from us?”
“Beyond increasing your own security, I would ask that you become our eyes and ears out in the community. I will return to the States within the next few hours. Hopefully the elders will direct any retribution in that direction. But if they come here, my people will need some warning in order to get themselves to safety.”
“As I told you earlier, I’m in,” Ramon said immediately.
The wildcat added her voice. “You can count on us too. You and your staff have lived in harmony with us for two hundred years. We won’t fight the ancient vampires for you, but we can warn your people if we hear or see any sign of them or their minions.”
Minions? Ari’s head came up at the wildcat’s use of the word. She’d once accused Andreas of being old-fashioned when he’d said it, but maybe it was a regional thing. Kind of like Tuscan slang.
She listened as the other leaders voiced their willingness to cooperative. Even the shy deer chimed in.
“Thank you,” Andreas said, once he’d heard from everyone. “I cannot express how much I appreciate this. Ramon has agreed to be our local contact, but you can always reach me directly if you prefer.” He included everyone in a final look around the room. “I am truly in your debt.”
Shortly after that, the leaders filed out, each of them stopping briefly to speak with Andreas and Ramon. Ari ran upstairs to pack her bags but found the staff had been there before her, and the luggage was already aboard the plane. She returned to the library to find Andreas alone, searching the shelves.
“What are you looking for? Can I help?”
“By all means. Sophistrina advised me to read my family history, that we would find the answers to some of our questions.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “What questions did she mean? Had you discussed something with her? She seemed adamant, so I thought we should check before we leave. I do not know how soon I will be able to return.”
“I don’t know what she meant. She hinted there was something in your past.” Ari became thoughtful. “Come to think of it, so did Zylla.” The 800-year-old wise woman had said that Andreas would need to learn about his heritage. “Do you have any idea what we’re looking for?”
“There was a book, when I was very young. A brown leather book.” He ran his hands over a set of bound encyclopedias and moved on down the row. “I saw my mother looking through it once. When I asked to see it, she said she would show me someday. But I have not seen it since she died.”
“If it was important, would she hide it to keep it safe?”
He swung his head to smile at her. “You are absolutely right. And I think I know where. My brother and I had a secret hiding place in her sitting room. We would bring her a special rock, or a treasure we had found, and she would keep it for us.”
He grabbed her hand, and they ran up the stairs. Andreas paused a moment outside a closed door, then opened it and they stepped into the 18th century. Large canopied bed in white, heavy gold drapes. Nothing had been changed in two hundred years, but the room had been aired and dusted. Andreas strode directly to the fireplace. A picture of two young boys stood on the mantle. “If the book still exists, it may be in here.”
Ari picked up the picture. She recognized the boys from the portraits that hung in Andreas’s home. It was Andreas and his older brother Luis who’d died as a young man. She set it back.
Andreas touched one of the ornate panels above the mantel, and a section of the molding popped open. He peered inside, then shifted so Ari could see. A folded parchment lay on top of a brown leather book.
“My mother’s book.” Eagerness or maybe a different emotion made his voice husky. “And a note or letter with it.”
“Well, see what it is,” she urged.
He picked them up, handling the yellowed parchment with care. He handed her the leather book and opened the single sheet of paper.
Power surged through Ari’s fingers, warm, friendly, and her magic sang in harmony. “By the Goddess, Andreas. It’s a Book of Shadows!” She turned to look up at him. “Did you know your mother was a witch?”
He was so absorbed in the letter that he didn’t respond. She studied his face, usually so expressionless, but Andreas appeared stunned. Finally, he refolded the paper, took the Book of Shadows from her and tucked the letter inside. “We should get to the plane. We can discuss this on board.”
He looked so lost in the past, that Ari didn’t argue, and they hurried out the front door. The bright sunshine of earlier had disappeared during the last hour, leaving an ominous haze blocking the sun. Her neck prickled, and Ari wished they’d left earlier. She grabbed Andreas’s hand to keep him from stopping to give Beppe one last instruction.
“Why are you suddenly in such a hurry?”
“I don’t know. Something’s just wrong.”
They reached the door of the waiting limo and handed the book to Samuel to place with their luggage. She ducked her head to get in, and the first wave of power struck.
Andreas grabbed the doorframe to keep from falling. A savage, tornado-like wind nearly lifted Ari off her feet, and she grabbed his arm. He drew her in and held on tightly as the pressure increased and a high whine filled the air. Blood tinged the corners of Andreas’s eyes pink as his blood began to heat to a boil.
“A psychic attack,” he murmured.
Ari didn’t have to ask who or why. The elders had found them.
She filled her aura with white protection, clutching Andreas to keep him within its shield. “Get us to the plane,” she yelled. “Our only hope is to outrun it.”
She didn’t have to tell them twice. Russell and Lilith shoved them in the limo while Samuel jumped behind the wheel and sped away before the doors were fully closed. Andreas held his head with both hands, fighting the pressure and using his own powers to repel the attack; Ari climbed into his lap, cradling his head, kept her aura intact. Still the pressure and the bleeding increased.
Their friends hustled them on board the jet, and they were in the air within minutes. Pushing the little aircraft for all it was worth, they streaked across Italian airspace headed south toward Africa in an attempt to increase the distance from Germany as quickly as possible. They would eventually swing to the west and try to put an ocean between them.
Andreas slumped against her, bleeding freely now: his eyes, his nose, his ears, even the corners of his mouth. Ari’s blouse was soaked, but she hardly noticed. She held him, chanting every protection spell she knew and boosting her own aura to cover him. And yet the bastards were winning. Was there no limit to their powers?
“What can we do?” Russell asked desperately.
“I don’t know.” Ari fought back helpless tears. After all they’d been through, Andreas was on the verge of dying in her arms. She swallowed hard, forcing herself to calm down and think. Think, dammit.
“Ice,” she said suddenly. “We need to cool him, and start an IV of blood.”
Andreas stirred, “Yes.”
She hoped that meant he approved of her idea. They moved him to the kitchenette area, where he lay on the floor with his head in Ari’s lap, and they wrapped him in cold, wet cloths. They packed all the ice onboard around him, and Samuel started an IV.
Ari’s mood roller-coastered from angry curses against the O-Seven to terrified despair and pleas to her Goddess to spare him. She longed for a corporeal enemy that she could beat into submission. Instead, she used every ounce of magic she had and tried every spell, whether fire, earth, water or air magic. She’d surrounded the plane in a protective bubble and still the O-Seven had broken through. All she could do now was hug his still form to her and hope some of it would work in his favor. Russell, Lilith, and Samuel sat nearby, seldom talking, mostly just waiting.
After the worst hour she’d ever been through, the magical pressure finally lessened. Not enough, but noticeable. Were the elders running out of juice? Had the plane gotten far enough away that the distance itself was draining their power?
Andreas hadn’t moved for the last quarter hour, and blood seemed to be coming out of him as fast as it was going in. Sheets and towels stuffed around them were stained red or pink and soaked with melted ice. The air reeked with the metallic smell of the life-giving substance that was never intended to be outside the body. But his hand still held hers, even if his grip was weak.
Another twenty minutes. Ari’s sagging spirits rose as the intense pressure began to drop at a rapid pace. The bleeding slowed. Andreas stirred, and his hand tightened on hers.
The pressure suddenly lifted. His chest rose and lowered with a deep sigh.
“Andreas?” she whispered.
He inhaled a second deep breath, and his eyes snapped open, dark and intelligent. He turned his head and smiled at her. He looked wonderful.
“Wow, man. Glad to see you’re back.” Russell hooted, punching Lilith in the arm in his relief.
“About time.” Lilith leaned over and started stuffing the bloody sheets and towels in a plastic bag, but Ari saw the mist in her eyes.
Andreas slowly pushed up on one elbow and pulled the IV out of his arm. Lilith threw him a clean towel. He mopped the blood from his face and glanced at Ari. “You have not said anything.”
She just sat there. Her mind refused to believe it was over, that he’d survived. The tears she’d held back started to trickle down her face.
“Ah, cara mia. Do not cry.” Dropping the towel and ignoring the mess, he put his arms around her, brushing her tears away with his lips. “You know how I hate to see you cry.”
* * *
By the time they were on final approach to Riverdale a few hours later at 5:00 p.m. local time, it was difficult to believe Andreas had come so close to death. A quick shower in the small lavatory, a change of clothes, and he appeared to be his former self.
Ari sat in one of the leather swivel chairs, still mentally hugging herself and reliving those horrifying minutes and hours. How could they avoid a repeat in the future? She had known the O-Seven was powerful, but nothing had prepared her for that kind of a sustained long distance attack. What if they could reach all the way to Riverdale? Would Andreas ever be safe?
She looked out the window at the Midwestern landscape below. Almost home, and there were things he still didn’t know. She turned to him. “I can’t put this off any longer. I haven’t told you everything that happened. It’s about Brando.”
Andreas reached over and took her hand. “I know, cara mia. Remember the dreams, the images? I saw enough to know. I am sorry. He was a good friend.”
She blinked back the tears and nodded. “He was.” She turned back to the window. The plane rocked gently as the wheels touched down. Home.
Andreas rose and pulled her to her feet. “Try not to worry. We are back on American soil, far from the elders, and I can hardly wait to reach our home. Once we catch our breath, I will call Daron and invite Gabriel over to plan for our on-going defense. But for just a short time, I would like to be alone with you and share my mother’s letter.”
The airplane cabin door opened, and they stepped onto the portable stairs. Their evening plans changed with one glimpse at the crowd of friends waiting for them to descend. At the front stood Gabriel, Steffan, Ryan, and Claris.
“Claris.” Ari flashed a quick look at Andreas.
“Go,” he said, smiling. “What are you waiting for?”
She bounded down the stairs and flung herself into her friend’s arms. They burst into tears, words unnecessary, as they grieved and rejoiced together.
Chapter Sixteen
“Don’t you ever get tired?” Ari asked as they entered Andreas’s Victorian home more than six hours later. “You weren’t looking so good earlier, but now…”
“Would you rather I would moan and groan a little?” He wrapped a possessive arm around her waist, and they started up the broad staircase. “Does this mean you’re ready for bed?”
“If you mean sleep, no, but I’m glad we’re finally home.”
His mouth quirked at the distinction she’d made. “It was good to see friends again and to learn the club has done so well in my absence. I was surprised to see Claris, but I thought she was doing well.” Reaching the top of the stairs, he turned to face her. “I am sorry you had to leave her at such a time.”
Ari sighed and leaned against him. “Coming home brought it all back. I’d put his death at the back of my mind for days, but now it seems like yesterday. Claris is strong, but I know Ryan and Steffan were a big help. They’re terrific guys.”
“I wish I could do something for her, for everyone who suffered losses that day. I feel responsible.”
She jerked her head up to look at him. “That’s ridiculous. The damned warlocks are responsible. Claris doesn’t blame you, would never blame you. In fact, she insisted I leave for Europe to find you before they held Brando’s memorial service, because she…” Ari stopped and took a breath to keep her voice steady, before repeating Claris’s words. “Because she didn’t want us to lose you both.”