by Anna Santos
“Cedric,” she called inside my mind.
I replied by stepping forward into the flames as if on auto pilot. I entered Camilla’s force field like it was a soap bubble and reached for Aria. It didn’t burn or harm me. I was immune to her fire. I wrapped my arms around her, feeling the softness of her feathers caress my face. I didn’t need to have my eyes open to be astonished by her transformation. I just knew that we belonged together, that we were one. I wasn’t expecting her to evolve so fast. There she was, my angel, my mate, and beautiful red-haired queen.
“Cedric,” she sobbed softly. I could feel her pain like it was mine. I could feel her anger too. It hurt me. My heart was being crushed inside my chest.
“I’m sorry, honey,” I mumbled, upset for failing to understand why she was acting so possessive, ashamed for being blind to her needs. I didn’t know she would be so upset with me for talking to Charlie. Charlie was my friend, nothing more than that. I had known her all of her life, and she was like a sister to me. It never occurred to me that Aria could see Charlie as a threat. Charlie could be rude sometimes, but it was just her personality.
In my defense, I had no romantic intentions for the girl. I had found my mate and didn’t need to keep searching anymore. Aria was more than enough for me, and Charlie would find her own mate. Gargoyle girls were never cursed for long. I had no idea my words and actions hurt Aria. But maybe I was failing to understand how vulnerable and susceptible my mate was because she was under a heavy transformation. A normal angel would take longer to get their wings. Plus, I was completely oblivious about what would or wouldn’t make a woman jealous.
The fire was calming down, and I realized that Aria had passed out. When I opened my eyes and faced Camille, I understood the state of shock she was in.
“She is a fire angel,” she shuttered. “She changed so fast! Why did her transformation happen so fast? Why weren’t you burned by her powers?”
“I’m her mate. I’m immune,” I replied to her last question. It was an instinctive answer. I had no idea until I opened my mouth and that came out. It was my angel who knew the answer. “My wings are white, but I have no clue about my own powers,” I said, staring at Camille who was still gasping for air. It had taken a lot of her powers to contain Aria’s flames.
“She is so strong! If you hadn’t calmed her down, I don’t know how long I would have been able to use my shield to contain her powers. She was destroying it. She was going to burn everything down!”
“It was my fault. I upset her angel.”
“You…were kind of a jerk. But you always act like that when Charlie is around. You had a crush on her.”
“She was a child the last time she was here. I just like her, nothing more.”
“You were hoping that Charlie would be your mate. You can’t deny that. Her parents were hoping for that, too. Besides, Charlie obviously has a huge crush on you, and you were indulging her flirting behavior around your mate. I would be upset too if it was Jacob.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I whispered, staring at Aria and grabbing her, bridal style, to put her into bed. “She needs to rest now. I’ll ask William to check on her, tonight. For now, I would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anyone about Aria’s angel.”
“Her wings breathe fire. They are different from everything else I’ve ever seen on other angels. They are red and orange on the edges when they light up. And her hair seems to be alive when she is using her power. It looked like it was moving around her head. It was really crazy. I had never heard of an angel bursting into flames. Fire angels just invoke fire in their palms, not in their whole body!”
“Camille, just promise me that you won’t talk about this to anyone,” I requested, listening to her carefully while putting Aria into her bed and covering her up. Her wings had slowly disappeared, and she was sleeping peacefully. Her body temperature had also returned to normal. Brushing a lock of hair away from her face, I placed a kiss on her red cheek.
“I don’t keep secrets from Jacob,” Camille said.
I turned to look at her. “As long as you two can keep secrets from the others,” I said, understanding her point.
“Yes, we can do that,” Camille stated.
As if on cue, Jacob appeared before us with an envelope in his hand.
Frowning from me to his mate, he asked, “What’s going on? Why is everybody packing and why are you two inside Aria’s bedroom?”
“It’s a long story,” Camille sighed. “Would it kill you to call me back?” she asked, apparently upset by something he failed to do.
“I’m sorry, baby. It has been a nightmare. The healing angels are having one hell of a day with the sick vampires. William has turned to rock early this morning, and we have no clue about what to do until he wakes up.”
I questioned him, “So, what are you doing here?”
He walked to me. “I received this letter from Philippe. His man told me to give it to you. It’s confidential and important, and that you would know what this was about,” Jacob clarified as he gave me the envelope.
I growled, upset by Philippe’s nerve. He was really going forward with his intention of reclaiming Aria. Well, if he expected me to roll over and play dead for him, he was highly mistaken. I had no intentions of giving up on my mate and let my angel fade away. Aria was the key to breaking my curse. I wasn’t going to let a conceited, evil vampire take her away.
“What is going on?” Jacob asked me when I opened the letter and glared at the contents. My expression should have explained a lot about what was written.
“He demands a meeting this evening on neutral territory. He wants me to bring Aria with me. Plus, he wants the location of the vampires who got hurt at the party. Do we have any of his vampires at William’s house?”
“None of them had his symbol on the back of their neck! And why does he want you to take Aria?”
I sighed, “It’s a long story.”
“Philippe was the one rejecting Aria,” Camille summed up.
“Oh!” Jacob pursed his lips. “That’s why he did that at the party.”
“Did what?” I asked.
Jacob shrugged. “It’s not important.” Frowning, he added, “We need to be prepared. Other vampire lords will demand to see the injured. We have important vampires who got hurt.”
I arched an eyebrow. “And deceased?”
“At least ten. It was the blood that was poisoned with Clarity. We have no idea how that happened. William tested the blood in the bottles. It seems that the recent harvests were tainted. Probably from donors who had used the drug. The good news is that the drug can be detected in the blood, so vampires need to be more careful with what they drink. But William is predicting a lot more deaths these next few days among vampires. Drinking from the source can kill them if the victim has used Clarity.”
“Yes, I agree with him. But it’s the vampires’ problem, not ours. We will assist with all we can until we find out who is making and delivering the drug to humans. However, it is not our problem. The vampires should be aware of that.”
“William said that he had no idea what this drug could do to our kind. He is afraid that the drug can have side effects on other supernatural beings.”
“I know, Jacob. He had shared his concern with me last night. However, I won’t allow him to do experiments on his own kind or on our allies.”
“Angels and gargoyles donated blood so William can experiment with the drug on it. He thinks he can predict what would happen if we came in contact with Clarity. I’m sure he will not use Clarity directly on a living supernatural being to test it.”
“Good. That’s a really good idea. I’m glad he is being careful. Now, I need to have a conversation with Charlie.”
“I saw her downstairs. She was looking pretty comfortable on the sofa of our home. Is she staying here with us? Do you need a room for her?”
“No, Charlie is leaving,” Camille intervened. “I don’t want her here. Not after what sh
e did to Aria.”
“What did she do to Aria?” Jacob asked with concern. “Why is she sleeping during the day?”
“She…just burst into flames, Jacob,” Camille stuttered. She was clearly still afraid of what had happened before. “Her angel rose from within. How crazy is that? It’s only been a couple of days since Cedric and Aria have been getting to know each other and her angel is already coming out.”
“Wow, that is amazing,” he agreed.
“Aria is special,” I whispered, feeling my limbs going numb.
Suddenly, the idea of lying down beside her and sleeping again was looking rather enticing. I was drained as though all energy had been sucked from me.
“Are we going to Philippe’s meeting tonight?” Jacob asked.
I was glad he hadn’t asked me to explain my words furthermore. I was not in the mood for it. “Yes, we are going. Aria is staying home, though. Could you two leave? I need to rest.”
“And Charlotte?” Camille inquired, folding her arms.
Having two women upset with me because of Charlie was disturbing enough, but I couldn’t send the girl away. “She has no place to go, Camille,” I reasoned.
She rolled her eyes. “Why can’t she stay in a hotel? She is rich.”
“She is a kid. We need to keep an eye on her while she is away from home.”
“Where are her bodyguards if she is so special? Isn’t she a princess? Should she arrive here without her entourage?”
“She probably ditched them and arrived without their knowledge. It wouldn’t be the first time,” I answered, amused by Charlotte’s wild behavior. She was difficult like that. She drove her parents insane with her escapades. “We should probably call her parents and alert them she is here.”
“You should probably do that,” Camille grumbled, leaning forward to give more impact to her words.
She was right. I should be the one to call them. Charlotte was my responsibility the moment she arrived at my home.
“I’ll do that,” Jacob said.
I sighed with relief. I couldn’t bear the thought of moving to do anything.
“You don’t look so well, Cedric. You should rest,” he added.
“I should,” I whispered, feeling my eyes grow heavy.
“Honey, come on,” Jacob offered him her hand. “Let him rest and tell me what the hell happened here,” he demanded, staring at the burned marks on the floor and on the door.
I heard the door close behind them as I lay my head down on the soft pillow. I grabbed Aria against me, feeling relief from doing so. I kissed her hair and inhaled the sweet scent of it. She smelled really nice, it was soothing. Soon enough, I was falling asleep and losing myself in my dreams.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
PHILIPPE
I was walking impatiently with a glass of bourbon in my hand and my senses aware of everything around me. I was going too often to the window to see if they were arriving or not. They were five minutes late. All the other people I had invited for that meeting had arrived. A lot of other vampires were also impatient as they waited to discuss the troubling events that occurred the previous night at Alpha Jean-Paul’s party. A lot of them wanted nothing more than revenge, and they were ready to hit the streets to get it. I had other plans, though.
I was able to convince other vampire leaders, who heard about what had happened the night before, to join me that night to have a serious gathering with Cedric and the other Alphas. The deaths had stirred things up and many were clamoring to restart the war. War was bad for my business. If the vampires attacked the werewolves, the angels would get caught in the middle. So, I used that gathering to lure Cedric to meet me and force him to act civilized. I was sure he was going to try to get back at me for invading his home and talking with Aria. However, he wasn’t going to try anything with so many witnesses. He could be the Prince of Angels and Gargoyles, but I had little trust in his honor and intentions to respect the sacred ground we were on.
The meeting was happening inside an old church. It was no longer a church since I restored it and made it the neutral ground supernatural beings met on and talked about their quarrels and misunderstandings. It had also become my center of operations. I had arranged to keep a chapel on the ground floor and built an office on the first floor, where there were a nice and cozy meeting room and a private workplace. The meetings with other supernatural leaders were a regular occurrence since it was sacred ground and, therefore, off-limits to fights. We respected, at least, that.
That night, the leaders who were of importance were there, waiting for Cedric and wondering what excuse he would give us for taking our friends and vampire family away from us to be supposedly cured. I was also worried about my master and friend Jo. I wanted to have news about her. I hoped she was better and was eager to find out who the bastard was to poison the blood and almost kill her. It was personal for me now.
The other leaders believed in some sort of plot between the angels and the werewolves to kill them all. I was not buying that. There were better ways to kill us than at a party. Besides, why raise attention to them if they could simply put the drug in the market and wait for us to get killed by the poisoned blood of our victims? The existence of such a drug that could burst vampires into flames was troubling, though. We had to be careful with the blood we drank and with the humans we fed from. We needed to find out why some would die and others wouldn’t. Yet, I had a more pressing matter to sort out with Cedric than Clarity.
Surprisingly, all my energy was focused on getting Aria back. All my thoughts were on her. All my eyes could see was Aria’s face, and her brown, sweet eyes. All I could dream about, over and over again, was my lips touching her silky skin. I was obsessed with the girl as never before. I wanted her. I needed her by my side. My throat would get dry and crazy butterflies would bounce against my stomach whenever I would think of her. I had to control myself and be smarter. I couldn’t let yearning cloud my judgment. I couldn’t let Cedric understand that Aria was that important to me, even if she had quickly turned into my daily obsession.
I had spent my insomniac day listening to her play the violin while noticing how stunning she was. She was gorgeous, it didn’t matter the color of her hair. Yet, I was so caught up in my vain life that I had discarded her without a second thought. Who was I kidding? I didn’t wish to have a mate because, for me, Sophie had been my one and only true love. Apparently, I was wrong. My soul-mate had yet to be born when I had fallen for Sophie, and I had closed my heart to love after her death. I was too damaged to want and hope to love again. And I had no idea if I could love anyone else. After all, the obsession I had for Aria didn’t mean I loved her. I just knew I had to have her. Love would come after, I guess. She seemed to have a lot of attributes that I liked in a girl. Maybe she could make my heart whole again. She was able to wake me up from my indifferent state and make my heart beat with feelings. Maybe she could fix me.
I drifted out of my thoughts, listening to two cars parking outside. I glanced outside and saw Cedric getting out of a black Chevrolet SUV with Jacob by his side. Other gargoyles landed next to them and they morphed into their human form. However, there was no sign of Aria. He hadn’t brought my mate with him. I was not expecting him to do so, therefore, I had another card up my sleeve. I didn’t know what he could possibly want with the girl and what his plans were, but I had the itching feeling of possessiveness every time I thought about him touching her. After all, she was a naïve girl, and he was a tall and blond prince who could easily trick her into loving him. But why would he want that? It was a damn puzzle to me. Had he fallen in love with her or was he plotting something against me?
Cedric managed to act polite with me. Well, he didn’t have much choice when he saw the other vampire leaders staring at him. We all sat around the table as if we were going to decide the fate of the world. At least, we were deciding the fate of some European cities that night.
I stared at Cedric with brooding eyes while the other leaders w
ere bombarding him with questions that he tried his best to answer. I enjoyed seeing him sweat. I was also interested in getting news about Jo. Therefore, I got extremely pleased to know that the surviving vampires had made it through the day, and we could go see them after the meeting. Cedric also had important information about the drug and about its detection in the human blood. We had to trust the word of a gargoyle, but we could always put our own scientists to confirm the results and try to find a vaccine. A vaccine would be the best solution to prevent our death by feeding from a tainted human. Many didn’t like to drink from the bottle and would rather drink from the source. I was one of those, even if I had to change my diet for a while because I didn’t want to end up in flames.
After a tiring discussion, and a lot of questions and suspicion from both parties, the meeting had been a success and the war was temporarily on hold. Cedric could thank me for that since the others respected me and were relying on me to believe Cedric’s words. I trusted that the werewolves were innocent while the angels were trying to find and stop whoever was distributing Clarity to the humans. Therefore, it was time for me and Cedric have a tête-à-tête in my private office and discuss Aria’s absence.
I poured a glass of bourbon and gave another to Cedric. Then, I sat down in my office chair, staring at the prince. He had sat across from me with a cold and serious expression. He didn’t look pleased.
I couldn’t care less about how he was feeling, so I was rather direct. “I thought I had made myself clear in my message that I wanted you to bring Aria along to this meeting.”
“You must be mad if you thought that I would bring Aria. I wouldn’t put her life in danger,” he said.
I stared at him harshly. My lips tightened into a thin line while I played with the glass between my fingers. “I knew you wouldn’t bring her, Cedric. I knew you were probably coming here to try to kill me. That was why I brought my friends along. It would look really bad if you’d tried to kill me in front of them. You will start a war. I’m sure you have all the intention of doing so. I see it in your eyes every time you stare at me. Are you so upset that I entered your home and tried to convince Aria to come with me?”
