by Kailin Gow
“And what? You think he had something to do with it?”
“Not really, but he shoved Asher into a locker and doesn’t even remember doing it. He doesn’t remember being there at all. On the other hand, I was just at his place and I was attacked by a demon.”
“You okay.”
“Yeah, just barely. Funny thing is I couldn’t see it, but Brax could.” I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “I don’t get it.”
Moore nodded knowingly. “Actually, that proves my theory. The ones coming through at the moment are the strongest ones because the portal had just barely opened, and only the strongest ones can seep through at the moment, because the gates are still trying to resist their force.”
I noticed the creases of concern on his forehead. “You worried?”
Nodding, he reached out to gently finger the back of my hand. “These stronger ones, the ones that are managing to get through, they’re harder to fight, harder to resist.” He swallowed and it was obvious he was pained by his struggle. “Fighting their influence has gotten virtually impossible.”
“Don’t say that, Moore. I know you're strong. I know you can resist this, no matter how strong they are.”
“Believe me, I’m doing my best. It takes every ounce of energy, and there are days when I don’t know how I’ll manage, but…” He squeezed my hand. “I couldn’t live with myself if the metamorphosis was to become complete. I couldn’t live with the thought I’d harmed you in any way. And that’s what’s keeping me fighting.”
The love in his eyes touched me and made me want to get closer to him. I could feel the warmth of his fingers over mine and immediately sought the unhealthy pull of the demons. But there was none, just peace and hope.
“That’s what you do to me,” he said.
I looked quizzically at him.
“The whirlwind and turmoil of this battle, of constantly fighting the demons in my life is calmed and soothed just by being with you.”
Pleased that I meant so much to him and drawn to the sensual curve of his lips, I leaned in to kiss him. So dark, so mysterious, so dangerous… so delicious.
“I guess in a way, I’m soothed by you too.” I brushed my hand over his cheek and sighed.
“I know a few more ways I could sooth you.” He trailed his fingers over my forearm and up to my shoulder.
Despite the heated thrill that shot through me, I remained cool and sat back. “I think I’m good, thanks.” As attracted as I was to him, I couldn’t afford to let my emotions take over. None of us could.
I looked at him, trying to keep my gaze as detached as possible, but I knew hunger and desire flirted on my lips. I was good at controlling my emotions, but not that good. I wanted to soothe him and take away all the pain he was feeling. Moore had proven his love for me over and over again, and I wanted to do the same. I reached over and gently kissed him on the lips.
He nearly jumped when he realized I had kissed him. “What happened to the ‘I’m good’ part, Lux?” he asked, his lips curling into a seductively sweet smile.
I trailed my fingers over his arm and to his broad-shoulders and looked into his beautiful eyes. “I couldn’t stand seeing how sad you were, Moore. I wanted you to feed off of me…whatever goodness and peace I have, I wanted you to feel it, too.”
He sigh, his eyes roamed my face with such tenderness. “You’re my angel, Lux,” he said before leaning in to kiss me. “You’re the one I’ve been waiting for all my life.”
Chapter 4
Seeker
With a new dean assuming Dr. Kingsley’s position at the university, I gathered Asher, Brax, and Moore together with the hopes of raiding Kingsley’s office.
“This is cutting it close, don’t you think?” Asher asked as we rounded the corner that led to the dean’s office. “Didn’t you say the new dean was already in?”
“Yeah,” I said with a regrettable shrug. We’d concentrated far too much time searching for anything that could tell us how to stop the curse on Braxton and Moore in Dr. Kingsley’s office at home, but had neglected to take a look at his university office. “But now we’re here and we have to make the most of it. I have a visit to my dad as an excuse for being here and Brax is justified in wanting to pick up a few things left behind by his uncle. Between the two of us, we’re covered.”
“Then why’d you bring me along?” Asher grunted.
I patted his cheek. “We might come upon something we can’t physically leave with. Maybe something in his office computer. If it’s in Latin, I’m going to need you to translate for me.”
“Will do.”
Moore looked expectantly at me.
“You're my back up,” I said.
“How’s that?”
“Shayne was instrumental in raising money for the university. I’m sure this new dean is going to be just as hungry for funds. If ever he walks in on us and suspects anything, you're going to approach him with your fundraising ideas and a generous check.”
“Why is it that I always end up playing the part of the pretty boy or the rich brat?”
Braxton glared at him, but said nothing.
“Okay, here we are. The new dean should still be at the alumni welcoming luncheon. Let’s hope he’s not paranoid and doesn’t lock his door.” I put my hand to the doorknob. It didn’t give.
“Not to worry,” Brax said. “I found my uncle’s complete set of keys, including many of the offices here.” Beaming, he held up one key. “Including the one to this office.”
He slipped the key in and turned the knob. “There you go, milady.”
I offered him an exaggerated curtsy and entered the realm of the dean of university. Wood, leather and the scent of sweet tobacco engulfed us as we entered the large, but surprisingly stuffy office. The heavy wood furnishings were overpowering and the thick drapes hung over the large windows barely letting in a ray of light.
“Did it always smell like this or is it just stuffy because it’s been closed off for a while?”
“My uncle liked it dark. He found solace and security in the obscurity.”
“Great, but it doesn’t help us find his computer,” Asher said with a smirk.
Brax pulled out every drawer of the desk and flipped through the sheets of paper he found in each. “Nothing,” he said as he slammed the last drawer shut.
Asher scanned the bookshelves. “Nothing out of the ordinary here.” He pulled one out. “School books,” he said with disdain.
Then he spotted a large cigar box and let out a long, low whistle. “Cool cigar box.”
“Yeah, my uncle liked a good smoke every once in a while, but that’s not just a cigar box, it’s a humidor.”
“Well, let’s just see what he kept in his humidor.” He lifted the beautiful brass cover. “Paydirt, baby.”
Inside the humidor was a sleek and shiny laptop.
“Great.” I came to hover over his shoulder. “Think you can find something interesting in there?”
“I’ll certainly do my best.”
I gazed around at the young men with me. Moore stood at the door, ready to divert any attention away from us. Brax continued to look around, his eyes filled with chagrin and curiosity. He picked up a few items and set them in the duffle bag he’d brought.
“There’s a password just to open the damn thing.”
“Try Margaret.”
We all turned to look as Brax.
“He once told me of a girl he loved when he was younger. He never really got over her and often thought of trying to contact her.”
Asher punched in the name. “And voila. In we go.”
“Nice screen saver,” Moore called out from his watch at the door.
I glanced at the screen; glistening white mausoleums of a New Orleans cemetery against a clear blue sky. My eye was immediately drawn to an angel perched atop a tomb. Sad and praying, it looked up to the gods.
As Asher quickly typed away on the keyboard I saw pages open and close on the desktop. “So
far this is all university mumbo jumbo. Nothing interesting; a speech he was to give; an invitation he meant to send out; notes for a meeting with the faculty.”
“Keep looking.” I gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and went to stand by Brax who seemed to grow grimmer by the minute. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” He shot me a tight grin. “Just kind of weird being in here. At home at least I feel I have the right to be there, but here… It just feels like more of an invasion… an invasion of his privacy.”
“You know we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have to.”
“I know, and I’m not blaming you for any of this.” He looked over my shoulder at Asher and called out, “Just hurry it up so we can get out of here.”
“I’m doing the best I can.” His fingers continued to fly across the keyboard while a series of pages opened and closed. Finally, he saw something that interested him. “Hey, guys. Come look at this.”
We gathered behind him and peered over his shoulder.
“What is that? His email account?” I asked.
“Yeah, but look at this contact.” He pointed to a line. “Custos porta.”
“What’s it mean?” Moore asked.
“Custos is guard, or custodian. Porta is a gate or door; an entrance.”
“Gatekeeper,” I whispered.
Asher opened a few of the exchanges, and scanned the foreign and ancient words. “Look at this. This goes all the way to Venice.”
“In Italy?” My heart pounded. Dr. Kingsley contacted people in Italy. Was it for personal reasons or for something more dire.”
We all looked at each other, knowing what had to be do but not wanting to say it aloud.
“I think we’re going to have to leave with this baby,” Asher said.
“For all we know it was Kingsley’s personal possession. The new dean should have no need for it.”
“Fine,” Braxton said. “Take it. Let’s just get out of here.”
“I’ll make arrangements to have my jet ready.” Moore opened the door. “We should be good to go in an hour or so.”
We all nodded.
Chapter 5
Flight
“What are you looking up?” I sat beside Brax and glanced at his open laptop.
We were four hours into our flight to Italy and everyone had been quiet, caught up in their own thoughts, plans or fears.
Three laptops were open; Moore’s served to find places to stay while in Venice; Asher continued to search every file in Dr. Kingsley’s documents and Brax had just opened his.
“I thought I’d take a look to see what I can find out about this secret society my uncle frequented.”
I pulled the Book of Angels onto my lap and flipped to a few key pages. “I’ve been trying to find out more about the society in this book.”
“Since when do you read Latin?”
“Asher’s been helping me. He gave me a few key words to look for. Hopefully I’ll find something useful before we arrive; either about the society or about me.”
“And hopefully I’ll find out more precisely where we need to go.”
Each with our own research, the jet became silent save for the sound of the engines and the titter tatter of laptop keyboards.
“I think we may need to change trajectory,” Brax said after another hour.
“Now?” Moore complained. “We’re almost there.”
“I’m finding more and more activity in Rome, not Venice.”
“Ditto,” Asher said. “I just found a file with dozens of exchanges between Dr. Kingsley and a Delphino… in Rome. The Vatican to be more precise.”
“Great,” we all muttered in unison.
Something ominous and dark weighed down on all of us. The Vatican; the big league.
“I’m not too surprised,” Moore said. “Now that I think of it, Dr. Kingsley once mentioned a trip to Rome. It was a while back. Shayne had prepared a charity auction and he’d told us he couldn’t attend because of this trip. He’d made nothing of it and had simply told us it was a matter of a few speeches and a bit of tourism at the same time.” He nodded and stood. “I’ll go give the pilot the change in plans.”
After a few minutes I went up to the front of the plane to make sure everything was okay.
“Hey,” Moore said when he spotted me. “What brings you up here?”
“Just wanted to make sure this last minute change of plans was okay.”
Moore shrugged. “It’s a bit of a hassle, but no big deal, but now that I have you alone…”
He pulled me into his private room on the jet and silently closed the door behind us. “I’ve been wanting to do this all day.” His hold of me tightened and he leaned in to kiss me. There was little tenderness in the embrace that was possessive and urgent. “These past days, it’s been hard. I miss you, even more than I would have thought possible. I have a lot on my mind, what with Shayne, the portal and everything, but you… you're at the forefront of my thoughts… all the time.”
I didn’t want to admit aloud just how I’d missed him. More than anything I wanted his heated kiss to continue and to evolve into something more. I wanted to lock the door and spend the next few hours cuddled up to him, kissing him, touching him and getting closer and closer.
“I think I’ve already told you just how much I love you, how much I want to be with you. You don’t say much in return, but I have a pretty good idea how you feel about me as well.”
He paused as though giving me a chance to deny or confirm his statement. I simply grinned and laid a soft kiss on his lips.
“If we feel so strongly for one another, why can’t we just come out and make it official, exclusive? Why can’t we announce that we’re a couple?”
“Moore,” I said in a tone that was more plaintive than I’d intended. “This isn’t really the time to start up this conversation again.”
“Right.” He tightened his hold and edged me back to the foot of his bed. “Why waste time on a conversation about being a couple when we can simply be.”
With the back of my calf against the bed, I put a strong hand to Moore’s chest and stopped him from nudging me onto the bed. “I think we should get back to the guys.”
“Why?” His eyes were heavily hooded and his grin took on an aroused curve.
“Seriously, Moore.”
Shoving his tongue into his cheek with a petulant groan, he released me and backed away. “You're still hung up on what I am, aren’t you?”
I pressed my lips tightly together and blinked quickly in an attempt to contain the sudden spring of tears. “It’s not something I can easily ignore, Moore.”
Though no tears flowed, I could feel their weight on my lower lashes, and by the look in Moore’s eyes, Moore had noticed.
“Do you love me, Lux?” He cupped my cheek while his thumb plied the flesh just under my eyes, releasing a few tears. “Really love me?”
Nodding and casting my gaze to his belly I said, “I can’t.”
“But you do,” he whispered.
“To love you could mean the end of me, Moore.”
“To cease loving me could be the end for me.” He scrunched down so that his eyes were level with mine.
I couldn’t help but smile, however meekly, at his determination.
“In addition to loving you, I need you. I need your support. I need to know you're on my side as I try to fight the darkness that’s overtaking me. God help me, Lux, but it’s getting strong and stronger. I always thought of myself as a strong guy… fearless, but this…”
“We’ll stop it, Moore. I have no doubt we’ll find answers to many of our questions in Italy. The Vatican, Moore. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. If they don’t have the answers…”
“Yeah…”
Fear of not finding the answers was evident in his eyes. This big, strong and fearless young man now eyed me with boyish uncertainty. More than anything I wanted to soothe his fears and tell him everything would be okay, but truth was, I co
uldn’t be certain of that. None of us could. The Vatican could bring answers and solutions, just as it could bring more questions and problems.
The only course of action I found for the time being was to assuage his fears with a tender kiss. “I’m not going to give up on you, Moore. No matter what happens, I’m not giving up.” My hunger and passion for him took over and I enveloped his lips with mine, hungering to taste him, to transmit to him the emotions I couldn’t speak aloud.
He kissed me back with a ferocity that left my head spinning. Finally he pulled back and smiled.
“We should rest before we arrive,” he said. “All of us.”
“I’ll go back and tell the guys we should be in Rome in an hour or so.”
“No,” he said. “I’m sure they can come to that conclusion on their own. Let’s lie down and try to sleep.”
I glanced at him with doubt and suspicion.
“No joke.” He held his hands up in a protest of innocence. “I promise I won’t lay a hand on you. We really need to rest.”
“Hmm… I’ve heard that one before.”
Despite my protest, I laid down beside him and before long was deep in sleep.
Chapter 6
Race Against Time
The plane touched ground at Fiumicino Airport, just outside Rome.
“I found us a few hotel rooms just outside the Vatican city,” Moore explained as we all stepped off the plane and into a waiting rental car.
“I was able to find a more precise address,” Brax said as he took the front passenger seat.
Moore quickly punched the address into the GPS and sped off, leaving Asher and I just barely enough time to get our seatbelts buckled. The car swerved around a corner, skidded through a curve and sped like a bullet down the straight away.
“Hey,” Asher called. “You think you could just get us all there in one piece?”
Unamused, Moore glanced in the rearview mirror and glared at Asher. Saying nothing, he swung onto an onramp and once on the highway, gunned it.
Asher smirked and looked at me with a shrug. His sparkling blue eyes were filled with humor despite his protests. “Guess we’ll just have to pray we make it in one piece.”
