He stared at the woman for several seconds before he found his voice again. “Where the hell am I? Get me the fuck out of here!”
“Oh wow.” The woman shook her head and saw long hair spill down. “She said you were gonna be pissed. Guess she wasn’t wrong. Hey, you want something to eat? Some water?”
“Just get me the hell out of here.” Damn, his throat hurt like a bitch. “What’s going on? Where the hell am I?”
“Hang tight a minute. I’ll get you a water bottle. Your voice sounds a little scratchy.”
“No, wait—”
The girl disappeared only to return a few seconds later. “Here you go. Catch.”
The bottle dropped straight into his hands. He thought about tossing it back, maybe knocking her out, but that still wouldn’t get him out of this hole. He was going to have to talk himself out.
So he swallowed all the profanities that wanted to spew out of his mouth and said, “Thanks.”
“No problem. You ready to talk?”
What the hell? He shook his head, trying to recall anything that might help him figure out what was going on. “Since I don’t know where I am or what I’m doing here, maybe you could talk to me.”
“Okay.”
And she jumped through the hole.
* * *
Time held no meaning for Bella.
Once she got past her fear and could think of Cole not as her brother but as a patient, she was able to work.
She knew she needed to stop the bleeding first and she couldn’t stitch him up because it could trap infection. So she packed the wounds, front and back, with clean towels and applied pressure.
But there was so much blood. Cole’s face was pale and his skin clammy to the touch. He was in shock but she couldn’t deal with that yet. With the heel of her left palm jammed against the chest wound and the heel of her right on his back, she pressed, until she couldn’t feel her own arms anymore.
She didn’t know how long she stood there, holding her brother together, praying he’d be okay. When she finally took a deep breath and pulled back the towels, she nearly fainted in relief. The bleeding had stopped.
Now she packed the wounds with gauze and wrapped it as tightly as she dared. She stared at the wounds for several seconds, but only a tiny bit of blood seeped through. With a sigh, she turned for the bathroom, closing the door just before she lost the contents of her stomach into the toilet.
After flushing, she sat on the floor between the tub and the toilet, waiting for the adrenaline to work its way out of her bloodstream. Her muscles snapped, tiny little explosions under her skin. She moved her jaw, trying to work out the stiffness that had set in from clenching her teeth as she worked on her brother.
It was blessedly quiet in here but she heard voices in the other room—Amy Jo, Dorian. That must mean Dorian had found Dr. Kent.
She should get out there. She needed to talk to Dr. Kent.
She wanted to talk to Steven.
Her brow furrowed. Was Steven out there? She didn’t remember seeing him but then everything had been one big blur when they’d brought Cole in.
Where the hell was Steven?
“Bella?” Amy Jo’s soft voice came through the door. “Are you okay? Can I come in?”
Was she? Hell if she knew.
“Sure. Come in, Amy Jo.”
The door opened only long enough to let Amy Jo slip through. Then she closed the door behind her and sat with her back against the tub wall, staring at Bella. “How are you?”
She didn’t know how to answer that question. “Is Cole okay?”
Amy Jo nodded. “He appears to be sleeping fine at the moment. His breathing is pretty steady. Dorian said the doctor will be here in a few minutes.”
Relief washed through her, relaxing more tense muscles. “Thank the Goddess. He’ll need blood. I’ll have to give up some of mine.” Though it wouldn’t be enough. “We’ll have to find another donor, though how—”
Amy grabbed her hand and squeezed. “The other woman, Dorian? She said not to worry. She has the same blood type, too.”
That was…interesting. She and Cole shared the same, rare AB-negative. For Dorian to have the same type…that was almost too much of a coincidence. Which didn’t mean a damn thing right now.
“Where’s Steven?”
Amy Jo’s blink gave her away and fear grabbed hold of Bella’s lungs and squeezed the air from them.
“No, no …”
Amy Jo’s hand tightened on hers. “No one can find him. He just seems to have…disappeared.”
Her breath started to come fast and shallow. Hyperventilation wasn’t far behind. “What do you mean he disappeared? Was he shot? Was he taken? Did he just vanish? No one saw anything?”
Amy Jo shook her head. “Diego and Marco just got back from looking for him. They said Steven was the first one out the door. But when Diego got to your brother, Steven wasn’t there.”
“Maybe he ran after the shooter. Maybe he was shot, too.” She stood, wiping her clammy hands on her pants. She had to get outside, find Steven. He could be lying in a gutter somewhere, hurt, bleeding.
Amy Jo stood, putting her hand on Bella’s shoulder. “Some of the men are already out looking. You can’t go out there, Bella. What if the person who shot your brother is just waiting for you to show yourself?”
“There’s no way I’m going to sit on my hands. You have to get me out of here, Amy Jo. I can’t just sit here. Would you be willing to be left behind if someone you loved was out there?”
Amy Jo dropped her gaze and shook her head. “Bella, there’s something else.”
“What?” How could this get any worse?
“Some of the other men…they think Steven was involved in Cole’s shooting.”
* * *
Shock held Steven in place as the girl dropped to the floor.
It had to be at least a twelve-foot drop but she landed on her feet like a cat then drew herself up to her full height—maybe five feet. She wore ripped-at-the-knee jeans and a red halter top and her feet were bare.
He could have been wrong, though, because he was distracted by her pale pink wings.
He actually felt his mouth drop open as she grinned at him.
“Pretty cool, huh?” She turned to the side so he could see those wings more clearly. “They’re good for flying, in addition to silencing the natives.”
They appeared to be extensions of her shoulder blades, maybe two-feet long and a little shy of that across. Without thinking, he reached out to stroke the closest wing—and she slapped his hand with the tip.
He retracted his hand with a snap. Then awe started to creep in.
“You’re folletti.”
The girl clapped her hands together like an excited two-year-old and squealed. “Very good. I told Rainey you would figure it out right away. Rainey wasn’t too sure of your intelligence but I knew you’d be smart. You’ve managed to keep yourself out of trouble this long. You have to have some brains to do that.”
Steven heard her talking but couldn’t make sense of what she was saying. He couldn’t think about anything other than those wings. They were beautiful. And so unusual.
Yes, the woman he loved changed from human to wolf, and he could manipulate aspects of the weather, but this girl had wings.
Shaking his head, he forced his gaze to focus on her face. And had to rethink his age estimate. He’d thought teenager but, on second thought, she looked at least as old as Bella.
“I didn’t think there were any folletti left in North America,” he said.
The woman rolled her eyes. “Well, sure you didn’t. It’s not like we go out and announce our presence to the world. Wouldn’t be very smart. Most humans aren’t ready to face the fact that they can’t pay their monthly credit card bills much less acknowledge versipelli, streghe and folletti. Don’cha think?”
Yeah, he did think. Still… “What do you want with me?”
Her expression said he’d just asked a stupid question. “Yo
u’re needed.”
“What?” He shook his head. “What are you talking about? Needed for what?”
Hands on her hips, she huffed, as if disgusted he didn’t know what she was talking about. “Well, to keep the balance, of course.”
* * *
“Bella, Cole’s conscious,” Diego called through the door. “He wants to talk to you.”
Everything was happening too fast. Bella felt like she couldn’t keep up. But she did know one thing.
She looked Amy Jo straight in the eyes. “Steven had nothing to do with this and, if he’s missing, he’s in trouble.”
She didn’t wait for Amy Jo’s response. Pushing to her feet, she opened the door to find Diego, ready to knock again. Instead, he grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. “He’s really weak, but he’s getting agitated. Keep him calm, whatever you do. The doctor’s only a minute away.”
She moved to the bed where her brother rested, skin pale, eyes shadowed and barely open. But when he saw her, he smiled.
“Hey, brat. Heard you fixed me up.”
She nearly fell into the chair someone dragged up to the side of the bed and took his cold hand. The fog in her head kept the tears she felt in the corners of her eyes from falling. “You’re lucky I remembered a thing or two from anatomy in college, big brother. How are you feeling?”
“Like I was shot.” His weak attempt at a joke made those tears begin to leak down her cheeks. “Hey, don’t fall apart on me now, babe. We’ve got problems. Problems you’re going to have to take care of until I’m better.”
His eyelids fluttered and she held her breath, wanting him to fall back to sleep yet afraid he was losing unconsciousness. Afraid of what he was going to say.
“Shh, Cole, just get some sleep. You need to rest.”
His eyes flew open. “No, not yet. We need to talk. Dori.” He turned his head, as if he knew exactly where to find his praetorian. “Everyone out. Now.”
Bella hadn’t even realized Dorian was standing on the other side of the bed until she moved. When only the two of them remained, Steven spoke in a voice so low, she knew no one besides her would be able to hear.
“Someone took Steven.” Cole’s gaze burned into hers. “One minute he was there, the next he was gone. He just disappeared. Get Diego on it. Find him.”
Fear iced her blood. “What are you talking about? I don’t—”
“And you’re going to have to take my place at congress tomorrow morning.”
Her mouth dropped open in shock. “What? No. I can’t do that.”
Cole’s eyes blazed so brightly, she was afraid he might be feverish. “Yes, you can. The tribuni needs to know what’s going on as soon as possible. The army started to crack when Dad was murdered. Now they’ll hear about me and think all is lost. It’s what the Mal has wanted all along. And now… You heard what Serena said today. There’s a fight coming and we’re the front line. We’re going to need the army. A strong army. You’re Luporeale, just like me, Bella. Dad worked so damn hard to keep the lucani from splintering. It’ll all fall apart if we’re not there to guide it. You show them how strong you are tomorrow morning. Don’t let this—”
The door flew open, bumping into the wall as Dr. Xavier Kent burst through.
Relief overcame the shock and fear and Bella nearly crumbled in the chair as the man hustled toward the bed, followed by Dorian, Luca, Diego, Marco and Amy Jo.
“Well, Cole. I see you managed to get yourself shot while I was unavailable. Lucky for you, your sister loves you. Fill me in, Princess.”
For as long as she could remember, Dr. Kent had been the Luporeale family doctor. If it was something that couldn’t be cured with chicken soup, cold compresses or a bandage, Dr. Kent had shown up at the door, whether it was her parents’ home or Michael Castiglione’s. As Cole had gotten older, Dr. Kent had become a permanent fixture in Cole’s entourage.
Bella swore he hadn’t aged a day in the twenty-five years she’d known him.
She released Cole only to throw her arms around the short, round man with the bald head and gray goatee, almost embarrassing herself when she couldn’t speak for fear she’d sob.
“Come now. It’s okay, sweetheart.” Dr. Kent’s large hand patted her back and petted her hair. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
Yes, she believed Cole would be fine. If Dr. Kent said so, it was true.
But there was more, so much more, on the line now.
* * *
Steven shook his head, feeling like he’d fallen through Alice’s rabbit hole into Wonderland.
And knocked his head on a few rocks on the way down.
He should take a few minutes, think about all of this before he opened his mouth and said something really stupid. But he couldn’t help himself.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
When the woman’s eyes narrowed and her wings flapped angrily, he figured he should’ve kept his mouth shut. But the mythical being was explaining something that sounded like political theory in Valley Girl speak and there was only so much he could take in one day.
“Alright, listen up, Castiglione, ’cause I’m only going to say this once.” Hands on her hips, she cocked her head to the side. “There’s a balance between right and wrong, you see. Or anyway, there had been.” She tossed her head and fluttered her wings. “Anyway, today, most people see black and white. Especially in this country. You’re either with them or against them, right? Religion, skin color, hair style, sexual orientation. Bad, good. Many people no longer see a middle ground. There’s this line and you’re either on one side or the other. Now, you… You were born straddling that line.”
Finally, something he could respond to. “I was born Mal.”
The girl’s nose wrinkled and she bit down hard on her bottom lip. “Not exactly.”
What? He shook his head as if that would help her words make sense. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Well, it means, yes, you were born Mal. Except, no, not really. See, it’s like this—”
“Tinia’s teat, Alpena, you’re making a mess of this.”
The disembodied voice sounded as if it came from all around him. He spun in a quick circle before putting his back against the wall.
The folletta huffed and pouted, crossing her arms over her chest as she spoke to the air.
“Well then, you get out here and do this yourself. I told you I wasn’t good at this kind of thing.”
A long-suffering sigh echoed before, with a barely audible pop, a woman appeared out of nowhere in front of Steven. No wings this time. Tall, curved, age indiscriminate. But her hair was the most amazing colors he’d ever seen. Black, white, blue and silver.
The newcomer turned to the folletta and shook her head. “No, you certainly are not good at this. You’ve scared the poor man into silence. And that’s a bad sign from a lawyer.”
That hair couldn’t be natural. Which was a really stupid thing to focus on right now.
He opened his mouth to speak…and couldn’t think of a damn thing to say.
The woman with the wild hair turned back to him and smiled like you would at the paperboy with diminished mental capacity.
“Hello, Steven.” She stuck out her hand and he automatically took it. She shook, firm and sure, then released him. But not before he’d felt the incredible rush of arus in her body. “Please don’t be alarmed. We mean you no harm.”
The folletta—what had this woman called her? Alpena?—snorted. “Have you been watching ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ again? I knew I shouldn’t have gotten those discs for your festival day.”
Rainey—who really didn’t look like someone you should nickname Rainey—gave the merest hint of a smile but didn’t acknowledge the other woman. “My name is Turan.”
It said something about his state of mind that it took his brain several seconds to process the name. But even though his parents had raised him on the outskirts of the Etruscan community, he knew to show the proper resp
ect.
He bowed low and held it, wondering if he was going to live through this. “Goddess Turan, Mistress of the Swans. How can I be of service to you?”
Chapter Fifteen
“We’ll make a dual out of you yet, Arabella. This is nice work.”
A warm glow suffused Bella at Dr. Kent’s words even as she shook her head. “Thanks. But you know that’s not going to happen.”
Dr. Kent continued his examination of Cole’s wounds, poking and prodding. “Never say never, honey. Those words always come back to bite you.”
Yes, she knew that. But this was an old fight. “I enjoy what I’m doing. I’m good at what I do.”
That earned her a brief glance from beneath Dr. Kent’s bushy white eyebrows. “Never said you weren’t. But, if your work here is any indication, you’d make a great trauma specialist. Goddess knows we don’t have enough of them, not in our little circle of the world.”
Yes, that was true. The lucani had only three doctors who specialized in both human and animal physiology. Dr. Kent was one. The army doctor, Giorgio Marone, was another but he was older than Dr. Kent. And Dr. Dane Dimitriou had only just finished his veterinary courses at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Bella’s alma mater. Dane had already passed his human medical boards.
She knew Cole had hoped she’d continue her studies and become a dual. But again, she’d shirked her calling and turned her back on her community. Dr. Kent glanced at her, eyebrows raised, when she didn’t immediately go into her typical bratty response about how she wanted to choose her own path, live her own life, blah, blah, blah…
“I know that. And I’ll consider it.”
Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to stare at her with varying degrees of raised eyebrows. Except for Amy Jo, who just looked confused at everyone else’s interest.
“Well, now, I’m glad to hear that, sweetheart.” Dr. Kent was the first to recover. And smart enough to know not to push her. “Why don’t you go get cleaned up. Then we’ll talk.”
“It’ll have to be much later. I’m going to look for Steven.”
There was a two second lull before four of the seven people in the room started to speak over each other. They all had the same thing to say even if they didn’t use the same words.
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