Alice Series Box Set

by Maria Dean

  They didn't have a choice otherwise.

  ***

  Step three was putting the seal together. Once Astrid and Christian exited the alchemic realm, they paid Lorenzo a visit to sneak a peek at his progress. The jade lock was coming along nicely. Lorenzo carved it into the mouth of a bird, with a circular indent in the center of its beak.

  "It's a phoenix," he explained. "I felt like carving a dragon would be too on the nose."

  Astrid left him, carrying the seal and the wax off with her. The safest storage was at the Wells house, as none of the alchemists were dumb enough to attack Zion Wells. Astrid hid them next to her makeshift couch, under a stack of law textbooks. The less exciting it seemed to Micah, the less likely he'd be to snoop.

  Christian served one last purpose, at least for the time being. Astrid promised Sally and Winston she'd try to stop by Lionheart later that day to check up on their work. Christian brought her to the office in record time and left with one last longing look.

  "We're still friends," she reminded him after he parked. "I'm not going anywhere."

  He sighed, playing with the driver's wheel. "I know."

  "Good. Stop moping." With that, Astrid left Christian to his own devices and strutted into work.

  "Astrid!" Sally leapt out of her seat, knocking over a tower of files as she scrambled away from the desk. The paper typhoon did nothing to stop Sally from jumping at her friend and wrapping Astrid up in a bear hug. "I'm so glad to see you again," she said, her voice muffled against Astrid's chest. "It's been too long."

  "It's been at least a week and a half," Winston corrected her. He too pulled Astrid in for a hug, kissing her on the temple before turning her over to Tom. "We're going crazy without you. And by we, I mean Tom."

  "Unfortunately," Tom said as he embraced Astrid, "he's right. Reporters keep flooding us when we least expect it. Those VidaCo bastards stuck it to us hard."

  Snorting, the absent lawyer said, "I hear Daniella from HR has been your savior."

  "God bless Daniella." Winston mimed a Catholic gesture from his youth, touching his forehead and his chest in the shape of a cross. "Now you're here, we need to get down to business. Everyone's asking for more evidence than your eye witness testimony. It was great, but we only have one."

  Wracking her brain for Russo family members that wanted to help out, Astrid pulled out her phone. "I'm going to text Giovanni and see if he can lend a hand," she narrated. "He has to have some resources at Russo and Yuma."

  Sally wiggled her eyebrows. "Oh, so you're talking to him again? I thought you'd given up on him after your tragic fight."

  "Sally," Tom warned.

  "Can't say I didn't see this coming. It's one of the biggest tropes in relationships, you know. There was this one girl I know who got into a massive fight with her boyfriend and ran away. Then at the last minute she realized they were in love and she returned to him!"

  "First of all," Tom interrupted again, "at this point I don't even know what movie you're trying to describe. That could be any number of them. Second of all, maybe keep it down about the boyfriend thing when the guy is here."

  "Perhaps it's a Nicholas Sparks movie," Giovanni suggested. His cool voice rang out from behind Astrid. He was close enough he could see where her thumb hung over the 'send' button for a text she didn't need. "I heard from 'Enzo you were done with Christian. Would you like some assistance in finding more evidence?"

  Astrid turned, trying to keep her goddamn composure for once in her life. "Yeah," she managed. "Sounds great."

  "Sorry to take her away so soon," Giovanni said to her friends. "I'll have her back by four at the latest." Jingling his keys, he offered her an arm to escort her out. "I would invite your friends, but I needed a minute alone. You left my family in quite the ruckus yesterday."

  Astrid wrinkled her nose, pulling a face as she snorted. "What? How?"

  Giovanni pushed the glass door wide open with nothing more than a light tap. "I don't think my cousins were prepared for any sort of decision at that point in time. Obviously, we all knew it was coming. But Irene and Nicole had a bet it would end in a romantic declaration of love, right before you place the seal on the gate."

  She kicked the pavement outside her office. "Not really the romantic declaration of love kind of gal," Astrid said. "If you want to take me out for dinner, I'd accept that instead."

  They stopped in front of his car, long enough for Giovanni to pull her into his arms and kiss her softly. His warmth enveloped her, only for a moment, as his lips grazed her skin. When he pulled back, he was smiling. "You look shocked," he noted.

  "I am."

  God. Astrid. You're an idiot.

  He leaned forward again, lifting her chin so he could leave a lingering kiss on her cheek. "As it happens," he whispered in her ear, "I'm not the romantic declaration kind either. Dinner, however, sounds wonderful."

  "After we gather evidence," Astrid reminded him.

  Giovanni rounded the front of the car. "Right. We're off to VidaCo, if you're ready."

  They would most definitely be unwelcome at VidaCo's headquarters. Astrid's eyes sparkled as she buckled up, glancing at Giovanni with utter glee. "You know what this means," she said.

  "No, but your excitement is infectious."

  Astrid texted Nova, informing her aunt she might need to be bailed out of jail sometime soon. "It's time for that good old B&E I promised you earlier."

  "Coming from you that could literally be anything," Giovanni teased. "Law jargon, some bizarre crime, a horror movie franchise from the seventies..." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "One of your kinks."

  Astrid stayed quiet for the rest of the ride.

  It was a short trip from Lionheart to VidaCo. They had boarded shut every door and window. Bashing anything in would put them at risk of getting arrested, something they both wanted to avoid. Upon approaching the entrance, Astrid squinted through a gap covering one window. "Grab my arm," she said to Giovanni. "I think I can portal us inside."

  Hinges squeaked and squealed as the front door opened. "Alternatively," Giovanni said, "we could just walk inside. The front was unlocked."

  "Idiots," Astrid muttered. "What's the point of the boards?"

  The other lawyer shrugged. "Come now. Their records should be in the main office. We want anything that indicates they coerced a client into giving up their lawsuit. And if I were a bunch of idiot alchemists," he didn't hold back, to Astrid's amusement, "I would hide something that important over there." Giovanni pointed at a locked room labelled 'records'. "What are the odds they left it all in there?"

  "1 in 4," Astrid guessed.

  The records room was locked. Astrid discovered one of Giovanni's many hidden talents was picking a lock, something he assured her he "Never used for illegal purposes". That sounded a lot like a lie, but Astrid figured it was ok.

  Upon unlocking the room, Astrid and Giovanni split up the work. She dug through cabinets in the back while he worked his way through the front to meet in the middle. Astrid got to her fourth cabinet before getting lucky. The green filing cabinet was labelled with 'Suits', and filled to the brim with poorly recorded lawsuits against VidaCo. In every case, there was a large red 'Dropped' stamp at the top.

  "Find something?" Giovanni asked when Astrid slapped the cabinet in excitement.

  "Case 231: Jason Cooper. Suing over death of mother. Cooper family relented after Misters Davidson and Rowe visited their premises," Astrid read aloud. "Can you believe this shit?"

  Giovanni took a file from her and read it to himself, chuckling. "We will win this, hook, line, and sinker, my dear."

  Something tingled in the back of Astrid's head. She looked up, past Giovanni, and pulled him to the side. "Someone else is here," she whispered. "I think."

  "Not that I don't trust your intuition," Giovanni replied, "but you think?"

  In the main office, someone kicked over a desk. "Astrid," a woman shouted, "I know you're mad at me, but this isn't a mature
way to handle things."

  Astrid hit her head against the cabinet behind her. "Both of them in one day? What did I ever do to earn this honor?"

  "Love, is that your..."

  "Mother, yes." Astrid left Giovanni in the records room and waltzed out to meet Calypso. "Guess what," she said to her mother, waving the files around. "I'm not absolutely useless after all."

  "Sweetheart," Calypso sighed, "I never said that."

  "But you think it. I lost the key to dad, after all." Astrid grabbed a random file and shoved it into the open air for Calypso to take. "You know what this is? Solid evidence the alchemists are shit at their jobs. We're going to lock them up, both here and out there."

  Calypso nodded. "I hear you're making a seal," she said. "Nova told me. That takes a lot of work, Astrid. Are you sure you're up for that?"

  "I have to be," she replied. "There's no one else willing to do it."

  Her mother took the file, reading over it for a moment. "This ain't bad," she admitted. "And it'll get them put away for a good while. But you're still going to need a lot of help if you're going to lock the forbidden realm."

  Astrid looked back at Giovanni. "I think I have that," she said. "The question is whether you're going to join me."

  "You must've not read my text," Calypso replied as she returned the file to Astrid.

  Giovanni stepped from the shadows where he had been lurking. "She does that," he said to Calypso. "It's one of her worse qualities, though manageable." He offered a hand to Calypso. "Good afternoon, Miss Gray. It's an honor to meet you. My name's Giovanni Russo."

  "He got manners," Calypso noted. "Great." She shook Giovanni's hand, adding, "And a damn good grip. Where d'you dig this one up?"

  "His grandmother's funeral."

  Calypso snorted, giving Astrid a flash of déjà vu. Some things were genetic. "Sounds about right." She smiled at her daughter, dropping her tougher exterior. "I will support you no matter what. Even if we're at odds, we're still on the same side. So whatever you need from me, I'll get you. On one condition."

  With Giovanni standing behind her, Astrid could take anything. "What is it?"

  "Your father's mine."

  That's kind of fucked up. I can live with that.

  CHAPTER 4

  "When I started this," Astrid mused, "I never expected to find myself here. Leading the charge against a group of murderous psychopaths, putting together a magical lock so said murderous psychopaths can't escape an otherworldly prison." She propped her feet up on the car's dashboard. Traffic was taking longer than she would've liked. "I'm the last person who should lead a revolution. My skills are making coffee and binge watching movies with Sally."

  "And yet here you are, talking my ear off like a maniac," Matilde grumbled from the driver's seat. "Why the hell did I agree to this?"

  "Because you're the one who always insists I will betray you for the monster hunters, which I'm not." Astrid weighed the seal components in her hands. The jade lock was wrapped in a scarf Nova had given her for a birthday. The lock was too precious to leave out in the open. "All I need is for you to meet X and realize he's incapable of killing a fly."

  Matilde snorted, pulling off the road into the library parking lot. "Harmful or harmless, they're all the same assholes. Every last one of 'em."

  Astrid had a very limited knowledge of monster hunters at the moment. There had been Alexi Spinelli, who she'd only spoken to twice before his untimely demise. Alexi was cordial, although on both occasions he was handling rather sensitive news. X couldn't exactly be considered a monster hunter. He was a mythologist at best, with a wide range of resources at his disposal. He just played for the other team.

  Then there was Calypso, the woman Astrid never thought she'd see again. The one thing she learned from this journey was she knew nothing about her parents. They might work on the same side, but Astrid had no idea where her mother's head was at. All she could hope was it didn't interfere with her plans.

  "I need not be here for the seal process, right?" Matilde watched Astrid struggle to carry all the components at once. "God, okay. Give me that." The Dragon-shifter yanked the wax jar out of Astrid's hands. "You can't do everything yourself."

  "I'm confused," Astrid said as they walked up to the library. "Do you want to help me or not? Because that sounded like you might want to help me."

  Matilde glared at Astrid over the top of her sunglasses. "I don't want to be doing any of this. But somebody has to make sure this goes off without a hitch, and my brothers aren't helping. Next time we have to fight age old alchemist cabals, the dumb Alice helping better be a dude."

  Astrid held the door for Matilde. "How would that make things different?"

  "Only one of my brothers is bisexual," Matilde answered. "One idiot lusting after an Alice is better than three."

  Inside the library, X waited for Astrid at the front desk. His upper body lay sprawled out on the desk, with a stack of papers under his chin for support. Dark circles hung around his eyes, and his hair was a disheveled mess. Strands of light brown hair struck straight up and straight out. The poor librarian needed a shower and a good night's sleep, not an overwhelming task that could make or break a life-changing plan.

  "This is the hunter?" Matilde said, dropping the wax on the front desk. "You know what? You're right. I am underwhelmed."

  X frowned. He propped his head up on his arms and said, "And who are you supposed to be?"

  Matilde examined her fingernails. "Matilde Russo. The only person with enough sense to accompany Astrid on this bullshit little quest of hers."

  X's shoulders tensed. Mechanically, he rose from the desk, his posture rigid. "Matilde Russo," he repeated. "As in the Russo family. The legendary bloodline that magically appeared one day in Southern Italy, with no prior records." X's normal, childlike amusement left his voice. "Astrid," he continued flatly, "you didn't tell me you were working with them."

  "I..." Didn't realize he knew who the Russo cousins were. Astrid tried to steady her breathing. This wasn't something she'd prepared for. "I planned to tell you."

  He laughed, though there was no joy left in his voice. "Were you? How were you going to do that? Oh, Xander, you know those monsters you've dedicated your entire life to fighting? I'm actually on their side. All of this was for them, not you."

  "Watch who you're calling a monster," Matilde growled. "Your little pack of murderous animals are the real monsters."

  Setting the other seal components on the front desk, Astrid said, "Matilde, I need you to go elsewhere for the time being. I will handle this."

  "You better," she muttered.

  X watched Matilde storm off towards the library's romance section. "You picked a real winner there," he grumbled. "They're cold-blooded killers. How the hell did you link up with them of all people?" His voice cracked. "After everything we've done together, you're working with the animals I'm supposed to be fighting."

  "They're not animals," Astrid argued. "Neither are your monster hunting friends. They're all good people fighting on different sides. And even if they are what you think they are, that doesn't excuse what the alchemists are doing. You said it yourself. They feel pain, too. They deserve help just as much as the clients VidaCo exploits."

  "But why didn't you tell me?" X asked. His tense glare receded, though he looked on with misty eyes. "I thought we were friends."

  "We are," Astrid replied softly. "I just didn't know how to tell you."

  "I, uh, I can understand that," he mumbled. Looking down at the components, he said, "I'm still dedicated to taking the alchemists out. If that means working with the dragons, I can live with that. This the stuff?"

  "Mhmm." Astrid walked around to his side of the desk. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before," she said. "I don't expect you to forgive me immediately. But can we set that aside for the time being? You're the only person I know who can put this thing together."

  Removing his glasses, X wiped a tear away off his cheek. "Yeah," he said. "Sure. Let's
take this into the workroom." He and Astrid loaded up the parts and transitioned into the employee break area, X's makeshift workshop. Matilde, who'd given up on the steamy romance novels, followed them inside. "Is she going to watch the whole time?"

  "Unfortunately," Astrid muttered. She opened the book to the Construction section, handing X the instructions for putting the seal together. "You might need to experiment with the wax," she explained. "We're using a substitute lock material."

  "Right, because the amber bonds better when heated," X replied. "What? I've researched alchemic processes before. You're not the only ones who've tried to make a Seal of Solomon before."

  Matilde dropped into a rolling chair, sighing dramatically. "How long is this going to take?"

  Astrid left the materials with X. "I'll take care of her," she assured him. With the last fuck she'd given thrown out a window, Astrid shoved Matilde's chair across the room.

  The Dragon-shifter squealed, rolling over bumps and holes in the tile floor. "Do you have a death wish?" Matilde growled, swatting at Astrid when she cornered her. "I'm not afraid to roast you right now and take the seal myself."

  "Burn the only person who can put the seal on the gate," Astrid rephrased her threat. "Smart." She grabbed a folding chair and sat down across from Matilde. "Listen, Matilde. I know you don't like me. That's fine. You can be as mean as you want to me on your own time. But X is helping us. There is nothing that says he has to." Astrid snorted. "I mean, you were kind of a dick to him when you walked in. That's enough of a reason to say no."

  Matilde groaned, kicking Astrid's chair. "I'm an asshole, I get it. What's your point?"

  "My point is, if you can't say anything nice, just keep quiet." Astrid looked over at X, who was hunched over the jade lock. He'd pulled out a lighter, melting the alchemic wax so it lined the indent. "If you took a moment to get to know him, you might even like him."