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  “I’m right there with you, brother, but Monte isn’t stupid enough to try anything in public. He’s got too much to lose. Kat and Calli will be safe enough here with the sigils up.”

  Luca nodded and turned toward the en suite.

  “Luca, one more thing,” Kassian added almost as an afterthought as he slipped out of the door. “You break her heart, I’ll break your ass.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Admit it,” Kat regarded her husband and brother with a smug expression. “You need me. I’m going with you.”

  Calli and Luca were both showered and dressed, and Kat and Kassian had deposited their bags in their own suite. Now they were all gathered at the kitchen table as though by mutual consent. The room was warm and fragrant with the scent of dark roast coffee and fresh baked goods. Piero’s son had already delivered the cornetti, and Maria had arrived and filled the coffee pot and left it to simmer on the stove before heading upstairs to begin her daily cleaning.

  Kassian glared across the length of the table at his wife, his brow so deeply furrowed he suddenly reminded Callista of Chin-Chin, the Shar-Pei puppy her father had presented to her one year on her birthday. Douglas McAllister had smuggled the creature all the way to London from the Guangdong province of China. How she’d adored that dog. Sadly, the lifespan of a domesticated animal was barely a blip in the long life of an Earthbound. As fond as she’d been of Chin, she hadn’t given the dog a thought in centuries, but at the moment, she couldn’t help but be reminded as the resemblance to her irritated brother was uncanny.

  “It’s not even a consideration,” Kassian growled. “You will stay right here at the villa with Calli where it’s safe.”

  Callista recognized that tone. It was a tone that didn’t suggest argument or invite rejoinder. Kat McAllister, however, seemed immune to the implied warning. Callista couldn’t decide if her sister-in-law was incredibly brave or just plain crazy as she widened her bright silver eyes in her husband’s direction and batted her long lashes.

  “I’m so sorry, Darling.” She smiled sweetly but her voice dripped with barely concealed annoyance. “Did I forget to preface that with if it pleases Your Majesty?”

  Callista gasped at her audacity. Luca’s dry cough failed to disguise his snort as he rose to refill his coffee, snagging Calli’s nearly empty cup on the way. A muscle twitched in Kassian’s cheek.

  “You’re pushing, wife,” he ground out through teeth clenched tightly enough to snap.

  “I’m being logical, McAllister,” Kat replied. “Do you honestly think paying Monte a visit is going to get you any real information? Monte won’t admit a thing, even if he does know something about the key or Elle’s whereabouts. He’ll have his mind battened down tighter than a nuclear submarine. His emotions, however, won’t be so closely guarded. Granted, I won’t be able to elicit many more details than you will, but I probably can determine if he’s hiding something or not, and at least we’ll know if we’re looking in the right place.”

  “She does have a point, Mac,” Luca observed, plunking Calli’s steaming mug on the scarred wooden table in front of her and dropping into the chair beside her. He moved his chair so close to hers that they touched from hip to knee. When he dropped his hand onto her thigh and gave a light squeeze, Calli found it very difficult to concentrate on the conversation around her.

  “I know she has a point,” Kassian snapped, crossing his arms over his massive chest. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.

  “I don’t expect you to like it,” Kat soothed, rising from her chair and coming to stand behind her husband. She wrapped her arms around him from behind and rested her chin on the top of his dark head. “I’m only asking you to see the sense of it. If Monte doesn’t know anything about the key or Elle’s whereabouts, better we find that out sooner rather than later. Otherwise we’re wasting time.”

  Calli could almost hear Kassian’s thoughts tripping over one another. His eyes darkened to black and his lips compressed into a thin, straight line.

  “Shit!” He spat, uncrossing his arms to reach around and tug Kat into his lap. “Fine. But hear this, wife…I say go, you go. I say move, you move. I say bark like a dog, you bark like a dog. Got it?”

  “If it pleases Your Majesty,” Kat quipped with a lopsided grin, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Although you might want to rethink that barking like a dog thing. You know very well I’m a cat person.”

  “Yeah, and look how well that worked out for you,” Kassian goaded. Kat’s most recent pet, a tabby cat named Sid, had turned out to be her cousin Miranda’s Familiar. His sole purpose was to spy on Kat and report back to his mistress who was hoping to locate and claim the Ring of Aandalena for herself.

  “It’s very ungallant of you to bring that up, Kassian,” Calli whispered quietly. Kat’s skin crawled every time she thought about exactly how familiar the Familiar must have been with every private aspect of her life, and they all knew it.

  “Thanks for the support, Calli, but it’s okay. McAllister thinks that by pointing it out again and again, he can convince me I should never get another animal of the feline persuasion. It won’t work though,” Kat winked at her sister-in-law. Kassian McAllister had a strong aversion to cats, and they all knew that, too. Calli thought it would be interesting to see who won the battle. Judging by the look in her brother’s eyes every time they came to rest on his wife, her money was on Katrina.

  “I have four words for you, Mac. Largo di Torre Argentina,” Luca sniggered referring to the remains of Pompey’s Theatre where Julius Caesar was believed to have been assassinated. These days the square was almost more famous for the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, a no-kill shelter for the many homeless cats wandering the city streets. “I’ll bet Katrina could find a new friend in no time.”

  “And I have two words for you, Luca. Get. Bent.”

  “And I have two more,” Kat added, untangling herself from her husband’s arms and hopping to her feet. “Let’s go. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can find out if we’re looking in the right place.”

  “I’ll get my jacket,” Calli moved to rise from her chair. Luca’s hand clamped down on her thigh and held her in place.

  “Are you cold?” Luca asked in a soft voice. Kat’s sympathetic look spoke volumes as she glanced at Calli and then quickly followed Kassian from the kitchen.

  “Well, no,” Calli began, covering his hand with her own and nervously stroking his wrist. “But I’m…”

  “Staying right here where you’re safe,” Luca finished for her. He leaned forward to capture her lips before getting to his feet and reaching for the jacket he’d hung behind the door the previous day. He kept his back to her as he threaded his arms into the sleeves and settled the black leather across the width of his shoulders. When he turned back, Calli saw that he’d schooled his features into the cold, dispassionate expression she’d grown to hate. After last night, she’d rather thought they were past that.

  “But I’ll be here all alone except for Maria and she leaves at noon. Wouldn’t I be safer with you? I’ll do nothing but worry the entire time you’re gone. I’ll do exactly what you tell me,” Callista hated the pleading tone she heard in her own voice. She hated even more that Luca appeared completely unmoved by it.

  “Between my sigils and Mac’s, no one is getting into this place until we return, cara. If we didn’t have need of Kat’s empathic ability, there’s no way we’d be letting her anywhere near Monte, either,” Luca replied firmly. “The difference is, she can fade out on her own if things go south. You can’t.”

  “So you’re saying I would be a liability?”

  “I’m saying I won’t put you at risk and it’s safer if you stay right here.”

  Her throat tightened and her chest ached. He might be willing to admit he loved her, but he still saw her as a helpless nitwit. She thought she’d felt a little sizzle when she’d been close to Giovanna, so maybe her sensation of evil was returning, but no one was any closer t
o figuring out how to break the magic that bound her ability to fade. If something happened at this meeting and her disability endangered any of the people she loved, she would never forgive herself. And if anything happened to Luca because of her…He was right. She was a liability. It was safer for everyone if she stayed behind.

  “I understand,” she whispered. “Please be careful.”

  He reached down and tugged her to her feet, wrapping his arms around her. She buried her face in his shirtfront, swallowing the tears that threatened. She blinked them back rapidly as he hooked a finger under her chin and tilted her head back to look into her eyes.

  “I’m always careful, carissima. And now I have even more reason to stay alive. I have you. Whether you like it or not, there is no way in heaven or hell that I intend to lose you again. Do not leave this house, Calli. This won’t take long and we’ll go out and do something when I get back. Maybe the Galleria Borghese? They have an incredible collection. You’ll love it.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Calli cleared her throat and forced a smile. He headed into possible danger and she would not be cause for distraction. She stretched up on her toes, cupped his face, and pressed her lips to his. “I’ll see you later, then.”

  Luca buried his fingers in her hair and pulled her back for a longer kiss then stepped around her and went into the other room to join Kat and Kassian.

  “I love you.” Calli sent the thought to Luca as she stepped into the parlor to see him off, only to realize there was no longer anyone there to receive it.

  ****

  “What on earth is going on?” Kat instinctively grabbed at Kassian’s arm and Luca’s jacket to maintain her balance as she was pushed and elbowed yet again by the oblivious crowd. Kassian and Luca took up positions on either side of her using their enormous size to buffer Kat from the worst of the abuse. The mood was ugly on the unusually congested sidewalks. Luca saw Kat’s struggle to hold her shields as the riot of emotions being broadcast by the quarrelsome crowd bombarded her on all sides. Traffic snarled, horns blared, and drivers stopped in the middle of the street, hanging out of their windows screaming streams of rapid fire Italian laced with some of the most originally phrased profanity that even Luca had ever heard. Arguments and shoving matches raged on every side as the Earthbounds navigated the jostling crowd.

  “Have people lost their minds?” Kat gasped as they finally pushed through a chrome and glass door that clashed incongruously with the ancient façade of the building it fronted. The portal hissed closed behind them, muffling the worst of the chaos outside. Luca hoped it would also provide Kat a respite from the boiling cauldron of negative emotions swirling in the streets. But any relief his sister enjoyed was destined to be short-lived as it was quickly replaced by the creep of evil. They were on Monte’s turf, so they’d been expecting it, but Kat already looked exhausted from the battering her empath had taken on the way. He reached to give her shoulder an encouraging squeeze.

  “I suspect it’s far more likely an outside force is at work,” Kassian replied grimly. “Unless I miss my guess, Azakriel has already come out to play.”

  Luca dropped his hand from Kat’s shoulder, nodded a curt agreement, and yanked his cell phone from inside his jacket. He sent Michael a quick and cryptic text, then followed as Kassian reached for Kat’s hand and pulled her across the dimly lit but elegantly designed lobby to the reception desk where a sophisticated looking and well-dressed Fallen brunette regarded them with a wary, vaguely hostile expression.

  “Tell your master that Kassian McAllister is here.”

  “Mr. Monte is not taking appointments today,” the woman responded in a dismissive tone.

  Luca arranged his features into his customary steely calm. He planted his hands on the surface of the desk, mere inches from the woman’s heaving chest, and leaned in until they were almost nose to nose. She blinked and sucked in a deep breath, but to her credit, she held her ground and barely flinched.

  “Irrelevant, bella, as we don’t have an appointment. So let me explain how this will go down. You will call your boss and give him a heads up, or we will walk in the door and surprise him. Somehow, I don’t think he’ll appreciate the surprise.” Luca’s smile was anything but friendly. It could have frozen lava. Fortunately for the woman, she hadn’t attained her position of running interference for Ignazio Monte by being stupid. She picked up the phone.

  “Third floor, end of the hall,” she directed tightly after conveying a rapid, hushed message and replacing the receiver in its cradle.

  “Grazie, bella. You are as wise as you are lovely. Ciao, ciao.” Luca rapped his knuckles on the desk in approval and cocked his head in the direction of the elevator indicating Mac and Kat should precede him. He winked at the brunette as the elevator doors swished closed and grinned as color suffused her face.

  “Really, Luca?” Kat rolled her eyes at him. “Now? And under these circumstances? McAllister’s right. You’re a man-whore.”

  “Whatever works, cara,” he grinned at his sister. “Besides, it’s all for effect. I am now a one woman man-whore.”

  “You’d better be,” Mac growled menacingly.

  “Never doubt it.” In fact, after last night Luca had reached the conclusion that he’d always been a one woman man. He just hadn’t known that one woman still lived. “Now, let’s get this done. I don’t like leaving Callista at the villa alone, sigils or no sigils.”

  “I’m on board with that,” Mac replied, pushing Kat behind them as the elevator doors slid open. The brunette’s directions had been superfluous. Ignazio Monte waited at the end of the hall with an Armani clad shoulder propped against the doorframe. He offered a sardonic lift of his brows as they stepped from the elevator and he spied Kat behind them.

  Monte levered himself away from the doorway as the Earthbound’s boots beat a measured tattoo down the length of the marble tiled hall. He stood aside to allow them entry into his office, and then closed the door with a decisive click. The Fallen waved all three toward a comfortably appointed seating area, and then parked a hip against the edge of his desk.

  “I would like to say this is a surprise, but frankly, I’ve been expecting you,” Monte began.

  “You have?” Kat’s brows knit together and she opened her mouth to continue, but at a single look from McAllister, she lapsed into silence.

  “Certo!” Monte spread his hands before him, palms up. “I knew that, like me, McAllister and Fiorelli will have noticed the, shall we say, aura of discontent swirling about the city this day. However, I am surprised at your presence here, la mia bella. I’d heard rumors the Defensori were spread a bit thin, but I didn’t realize they had become so desperate as to recruit women to join the ranks.”

  “My wife, Katrina,” McAllister offered by way of an introduction. “So you managed to release Azakriel back into circulation, eh, Ignazio? I don’t know how you figured it out, or how you got to the key before we did, but enjoy the chaos while it lasts, because it won’t. Now if you’ll simply tell us what you’ve done with Elle Gates, we’ll be on our way.”

  “I suppose I should be flattered by your certainty that I beat you at your own game, especially after you managed to take both Giovanna and her uncle right out from under my nose. I would like to help you, McAllister, truly. But I didn’t release Azakriel, nor did I ever intend to do so.” Monte straightened and made his way to the window. Tugging back the drapery, he gazed out on the mayhem running rampant in the streets below. “Though I will admit the demon certainly hasn’t forgotten how to put on an entertaining show.”

  Luca rose to his feet. He’d already had enough. He wanted to get to the bottom of this whole mess and get back to Calli. She said she understood, but he knew she’d been hurt by the decision to leave her behind. She believed she was a liability. Well maybe she was, but not in the way she thought. True, she still couldn’t fade, but any of them could have gotten her away with the slightest touch. The real problem was that Luca found he could concentrate on v
ery little else when she was near and that put not only Calli, but all of them in danger. He needed to stay alert and keep his head on straight until they could rectify the situation. He hadn’t explained it very well before he left. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and spend the rest of the day showing her that her only fault was in being too important to him. Quite a revelation for a man who had spent the better part of the last century walking away from any sort of emotional entanglement. He’d wasted so much time avoiding her, afraid that anything Calli felt for him was simply misplaced infatuation for someone safe and familiar in an unfamiliar world. But she continued to believe in him even when he found it impossible to believe in himself. How could someone of his advanced years and experience have been so blind? He’d felt it last night, the invisible ties binding them together heart, mind, and soul. She was meant to be his. And God help her, he was hers. He hoped she was up for the challenge.

  “Luca!” Mac’s voice cracked into his brain like a well-aimed shot. Luca snapped his attention back to their current situation while acknowledging that apparently Callista didn’t even have to be in the room to serve as a distraction. His sister eyed him knowingly. No doubt her empath was having a field day with the emotions she was picking up from him.

  “…no intention of releasing Azakriel,” Monte was saying. “My sole purpose in seeking the key was to destroy him.”

  “You’ll excuse me if I find that a little hard to believe,” Mac responded dryly.

  “Believe what you wish, McAllister. It’s immaterial to me. But remember, I’m many times your age. One of Aandalena’s descendants had bound the demon in that book and hidden it away hundreds of years before you were even a gleam in your father’s eye. I have my own history with this demon and I’ve waited a long time to see him eradicated once and for all. Of course, now it has become a bit more complicated.” Monte brushed an imaginary piece of lint from the sleeve of his immaculate suit and regarded them from under his lashes. “But, perhaps if we work together, we can both achieve our goals.”