“Miss Tutoro,” he paused for a long moment, but then a smile slowly spread across his face. “Under no circumstances are you losing your home. You’re being permanently accepted back into Chicago’s society, and so is your brother.”
Toni smacked her hands over her face. It was finally over. She could stay with her brother, she could stay where her friends were…and most of all…she could stay with the man she loved.
She lowered her hands when she heard Christian stand, but before she could move to do the same, his cool fingers cupped her cheek. “Thank you for being worried about me, Miss Tutoro, and thank you for the hard work you put into the investigation as well.”
“You’re welcome,” she said as she tipped her head back to look up at him. “I just didn’t want you to get…” She gasped and jumped up as the wheels in her mind ground to a halt. “Oktober! She hired Oktober to kill you if you were still alive tonight!”
Christian shook his head. “Oktober isn’t going to kill me, Toni. He and I discussed the matter at length early this morning, and let’s just say that neither Oktober, nor I, had any love for Natasha Stryker. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn about what he’d done to your family until after the act had been committed. And by the rules I’ve set forth for this city, there was nothing I could do aside from assuring you lived long enough to find the responsible party.”
Toni stared into his veiled blue eyes. This must have been one of those subtle word games Dominic had been ranting about. “I think you might be trying to say something without actually saying it, but I don’t think I’m very good at this game.”
“And that’s exactly why Robert adores you the way he does.”
She smiled at that. Robert must have told him what they’d talked about. “Thank you for keeping my house, Christian.”
“You’re very welcome. Now, why don’t you go back to the hotel and relax. You may stay there as long as you wish. However, I will be billing you and Drake for the broken tiles in the shower.”
She opened and closed her mouth a few times. No! He did not just say that to her. “Um, how did you…know about that?”
He actually laughed at her. “I live in the suite above you.”
Toni offered him the most embarrassed smile she could possibly muster then took that as the perfect moment to leave.
***
Drake paced from one side of the room to the other, not so patiently waiting for Toni to come back. For as much as he thought Christian would let her stay…he had to admit that even he wasn’t completely sure what the Lord would do.
Whether Toni had broken the rules or not, after everything that had happened, he couldn’t imagine that she wouldn’t be allowed to stay. And if Christian didn’t let her stay, then he’d…
Well, Drake wasn’t exactly sure what he’d do, but he’d damn well do something. Even if it meant paying to move every single person she cared about to another city. After all, it wasn’t like he didn’t have the cash.
When the door burst open behind him, he spun around. “Well?”
Toni stared at him for what felt like forever before her bottom lip quivered. She shook her head just before she bolted for him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Drake’s heart pounded against his ribs so hard that it almost hurt. And he couldn’t tell from her reaction whether Christian had allowed her stay or not. “Do you get to stay?”
She pulled back and smiled up at him. “I’m finally home…”
Drake blew out a long sigh of relief. After living a life full of betrayal and war, and wholeheartedly believing that was all he’d ever have, he finally had the only thing he’d ever really wanted. He’d found a woman who made him feel like more than just a killer – a woman who loved him…faults and all.
Epilogue
Later that night…
Orion scowled as he approached the quaint white house located nearly an hour’s drive north of Chicago. Of course, he hadn’t driven. That was a skill of the modern age he found no interest in acquiring. Instead, he’d flown as a murder of crows so that he could gaze down upon everything beneath him.
And it was beneath him…
Not a single soul existing in the city, not even the younger generations of the Children of Shadows, had any clue as to exactly what terrible fates beheld them.
Orion stared at the small white house in front of him. He now stood in front of the home of the greatest crime against humanity, and his fiercest rival, The Butcher of Naples, Lord Stefan Nelek.
A growl rumbled in his chest. He despised coming here. He hated being here more than he hated Lord Nelek himself. However, appearing here was part of the match. It was the way they had engaged in this…recreation…for nearly thirty thousand years. This was an enduring tradition, and one he refused to rend asunder.
He glared between the two Rotweilers resting back on their haunches, guarding the entrance to the house. How little the world truly knew, and how clouded were its perceptions.
He willed the simple wooden gate to open, and as he crossed onto the grounds, crimson waves of magical energy flared around him. The quaint little house disappeared scant seconds later, and in its place loomed Castle Nelek.
Orion had seen the spectacle thousands of times in his existence. Yet, he found no awe in it. Indeed, it was a medieval castle in its truest form. The structure had been built from the blackest volcanic stone, and was larger than any building human kind would ever dream or dare to create. Crests of Nelek flew from towers that seemed to touch the sky, while twenty foot stone walls surrounded the edifice, cutting it off from the world around it.
Even the land beyond the walls grew and bloomed with nature the world hadn’t seen in millennia. However, the sweet scents of flowers that had been lost to the ages were nearly imperceptible, overshadowed by the fetid odor of death that hung heavy in the air.
This was not the home of a man. This was the home of a vicious, malignant force that attempted to guide the world with an iron fist.
Orion lowered his gaze from the castle and leveled it on the Rotweilers. No longer were they simple dogs. Now, they were ancient creatures that once fueled the greatest legends of medieval times. One ashen gray and one rust colored dragon guarded the wrought iron gates inside the main walls of the castle. Neither was less that forty feet tall, nor had a wingspan less than eighty feet wide. And though they truly were a sight to behold, Orion remained unmoved.
He approached the wrought iron gates and waited to be formally acknowledged. The wait wasn’t long, as Alfred, Lord Nelek’s personal Servio, opened the massive front doors of the castle and made his way to the gate.
“He’s been expecting you, Orion,” Alfred said with a nod.
Orion returned the respect. “Tradition breeds expectation. I have come to move my piece.”
The Ancient servant pulled the heavy gate open with ease. “Please, enter at your leisure.”
Orion stepped inside and followed Alfred into the main hall. While he waited to be announced, he cast his gaze to the tapestries and oil paintings hanging from the stone walls, all of which had been lost to the human world centuries ago. Their beauty was only second to the sculptures and busts adorning the wide hallways branching from the main room.
“He will see you now,” Alfred said as he opened the heavy blackened doors leading to Nelek’s private chambers.
Orion nodded to Alfred once more then made his way into the chamber. For any other being, this moment would have been absolutely terrifying. But for him, this moment had become a deplorable routine. Where others might have turned to run, he moved in no direction but forward. Where others would have surely faltered…Orion was stoic.
He crossed the distance between the door and Stefan’s throne in a few long strides. Stopping at the stairs leading up to where the Master of the castle sat, he stared at the grotesque chair and smiled. The throne, constructed from the bones of Stefan’s favored fallen enemies, was ever incomplete, as the space for Orion’s own skull was still empt
y.
Orion turned his gaze to his rival. Stefan was unchanging in a world he’d left behind millennia ago. His obsidian black armor glowed as the open ceiling allowed silver rays of moonlight to play across the room. Long black hair framed his unnaturally perfect and alabaster face. And where his eyes had once been only burnt out hollows remained, making it nearly impossible to discern where he focused his true attention.
But make no mistake, Stefan Nelek was not blind. He saw the world with a clarity that many would forever only dream of.
To Orion, there was nothing strangely beautiful or even remotely human about the creature. And where others would have fallen on their knees in reverence, he stood in absolute defiance.
“Running a bit late, aren’t we?”
Orion smiled as the room itself spoke. He swore the creature hadn’t moved its own seemingly human lips in years. “I had other things to do.”
“I was worried, Orion. I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you, especially when you come here in defeat.”
Orion waved away the latter part of the comment. “I wasn’t aware you were still capable of emotion. Worry is a rather human condition, is it not?”
“As is weeping, yet you wept when I destroyed your beloved city.”
Orion clenched his jaw. There was no honor to this man. “If I recall correctly, I believe you did the same when I destroyed yours. Now, if you’re finished with your attempt to anger my blood, shall we continue on to the purpose of my appearance?”
“At your leisure, you are the loser this time,” Stefan said as he waved a mailed hand.
Orion watched as the stone floor in front of him liquefied, and then rose to form the ancient chess board that held his now worthless pawn. He stared down at the remaining pieces as he contemplated his next move.
Stefan Nelek shifted his gaze to Orion, whose green eyes glowed with intense thought. As much as he hated the man, this was one of the few moments he found even a shred of amusement in.
Orion had never been gracious or honorable in defeat.
He tilted his head as he pondered the numerous human qualities Orion still possessed. The man’s garb was not modern, giving away that he too clung to a time long forgotten. His black hair, which starkly contrasted the silver streaks that began scant centimeters above either temple, hung loose around his shoulders to frame an imperfect human face that still retained the bronze hue the sun had once bestowed upon it. And the vibrancy of his dark green eyes only served as confirmation of his overly emotional connection to the world.
He grinned at the notion. That very connection had always been, and would forever be, Orion’s downfall…if not his undoing.
Growing impatient with the length of his opponent’s thoughts, Stefan leaned forward and plucked Orion’s lost piece from the board. He regarded the pawn thoughtfully for a moment. Natasha Stryker had been a very poor choice for Orion. She had caused him yet another defeat in the match, and a defeat he could ill afford.
“She certainly didn’t stand as a testament to your cause, Orion.”
“How was I to know she would attempt to overthrow Christian Locke? I don’t control my pawns as you do. I still allow them to enact their own free will.”
“I do no such thing,” Stefan said. “I merely arrange situations in which their choices determine the outcome. The amusement of this game is the chance. If I desired a specific outcome, I would take the world and make it as I saw fit. And that wouldn’t amuse me nearly as much as this does,” he said as he closed his hand, crushing the small ivory carving that resembled Stryker.
After watching the dust fall to the floor, Stefan leaned forward and removed Toni Tutoro’s piece from the board. He considered her for a moment as well, and then placed her on the stone shelf cut into the side of the pedestal holding the board.
“What are you doing?” Orion asked. “She wins the space Stryker occupied. Place her back where she belongs so we can continue.”
“I am removing Toni Tutoro from the board at my own expense. I made a promise nearly two decades ago that our chosen recreation would never touch the lives of Justin Black’s children, and unlike some, I honor my words. Toni has found love with Drake. No more needs be said.”
“Very well, then. Although I find myself somewhat taken aback, considering your decision to forfeit her space not only leaves a gaping hole in your defense, but also allows me choose a gallery piece and challenge for the square all over again. However, if that’s your heartfelt wish, I’ll agree to it.”
“Please stop wasting my time with your banter. I’m well acquainted with the rules of our game. Either choose a piece that is currently in play or select another from the gallery to replace Stryker. Finish your move.”
Orion’s eyes drifted over the pieces in play, and then to the gallery of those waiting. He gave an extended and wholly unnecessary amount of thought to every individual he surveyed before he finally reached a decision.
Stefan considered the distinctive obsidian likeness now sharing a space with Orion’s newly chosen piece. “You would threaten him so soon after the courtesy he extended Drake?”
Orion nodded. “He’s obviously in a weakened state. Now is the perfect time to lay him low.”
“So be it,” Stefan said as he waved away the board. “Let the new match begin.”
***
Three months later…
Drake repeatedly tapped his free hand against the steering wheel as he pulled into his driveway shortly before sunset. He’d been away for almost a week, fulfilling a contact that had left him a little worse for wear, but with no major injuries.
He jumped out of the car the second the engine died, grabbed his duffle bag from the trunk, and then ran into the house. After closing the door behind him, he dropped the bag on the floor and kicked his shoes off. He couldn’t help the smile draped all the way across his face. If he hurried, maybe he could slide in next to her before she even woke up.
Drake pulled the present he’d bought her from his bag, and then jogged down the hallway. He stopped just outside the door and frowned as an odd feeling washed over him. He’d done this once before and it’d gone horribly wrong.
It was a memory he still couldn’t quite get away from.
It wasn’t until he reached for the door that Drake realized his hand was shaking. After taking a short series of deep breaths, he turned the handle and pushed the door open. All he wanted to see was her beautiful face…
And that was exactly what he saw.
Toni was lying on his side of the bed, wearing one of his t-shirts, with his pillow tucked up underneath her chin.
He smiled at the sight then blew out the nervous breath he’d been holding. It wasn’t that he doubted her. He never doubted her…he doubted himself. He still had trouble believing a woman like her could love a man like him. Sometimes, he even pinched her in the middle of the day to make sure she was real. And sometimes, she didn’t appreciate that very much.
He chuckled at the thought. Regardless of her mood, Toni was absolutely amazing. Everything she said, and everything she did, more often than not left him utterly speechless.
When he’d gone with her to her family home, at first he wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle it. But she had, and she’d done so in a way that had completely astounded him. She’d cried as she walked through the house, holding his hand. But somehow she’d found the strength to tell him nearly every memory she had of living there.
He’d always known how much her family meant to her, but after listening to her and being there with her, he finally understood what she’d meant. Because the way she felt about them – was the exact same way he felt about her.
Drake walked over to the bed and grinned as her eyes fluttered open. He’d never heard or seen anything better than when she smiled and sleepily moaned, “You’re home.”
He wagged his eyebrows. “I am, and I brought you a present.”
She laughed as she pulled the comforter back. “Can I at least brush my te
eth first?”
He sat down on the bed next to her. “Not that kind of present.” He arched a brow as he tipped his head from side to side. “But ya know, now that I think about it…you do have a point. So, I guess I have two presents for you and your dirty little self.”
Toni smiled at that. If she’d become dirty over the last few months, it was solely because of him. Not that she’d even think about complaining though.
When he pulled a small box from behind his back, she sat up and smiled at him. “What is it?” she asked as he handed it to her.
“Open it and see. Damn, it’s supposed to be a surprise. How fun would it be if I told you what it was?”
She licked her lips as she ripped the box open. And when she saw the contents, she squealed in pure delight. “It’s a starter for the ‘65 Chevelle! Where did you find it?”
“In an old auto shop down in Miami. I knew how pissed you were when you couldn’t find one around here, so I took a few minutes to see if I could be your knight in shining armor. Granted, my armor might be a little tarnished…but I swear I clean up real nice.”
She threw her arms around him and pulled him tight against her. Tarnished or not, not a day went by that he wasn’t her knight in shining armor. And not a moment passed that she didn’t love him more than anything else in the entire world.
She nipped at his lips. “You are the sweetest and most thoughtful man I’ve ever known. How did I get so lucky?”
A playful growl rumbled in his chest. “Saying things like that will only get you present number two, young lady.”
Toni smiled when Drake’s clothes disappeared. “That’s exactly what I was hoping for.”
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Eternal Hearts Page 35