“Then you should have an interest in all things Latin. The Romans are Latin,” he confirmed, as if she didn’t already know this.
“Do you want these or not?” She held her breath as his gloved hand smoothed over the contents of the box. Her father had told her about the woman who had given him the items. None of his story had seemed believable then but after having met Constantine and Sebastian and learning the threat to the world was real she realized that the contents had a value and so did the story that went with them.
“I could tell you things about Rome that you do not know. Things no one knows.”
Something about the tone of his voice indicated intrigue, mystery. “Such as…”
“Take the ring. I have a feeling you will know how to unlock its secrets yourself.” He pushed the ring back across the desk.
“Secrets? I figured it could be melted—”
“No!” He practically shouted. “No,” he said more softly. “Do not ever attempt to melt this gold. This is not Cortez’s fool’s gold. This gold has more power than you could ever dream of. Do you wish to see El Dorado? This gold has that power. No. You must not destroy it.” He pulled the ring back across the desk as if he had changed his mind.
“It is a gift,” he repeated. “And you should wear it.” He leaned across the desk, holding out a chain he had pulled from his pocket.
She leaned into him, lifting her mass of tangly, curly hair. Looking into his eyes made her want to wear the ring. There was a weird stirring in her belly at the thought of the gold touching her bare flesh. When the ring made contact with her thumb it was as if an electric charge crept through her system. Slowly she slid the chain around her neck and allowed the ring to rest just above her cleavage.
“Constantine, “she whispered, before she was even aware she had spoken.
“Did you say something?” Licinius pulled back, admiring the ring against her blouse, making her suddenly feel uncomfortable.
“No.” She cleared her throat. “No, I didn’t…I… Thank you.”
“It is very valuable. I trust you will look after it for me.”
“Yes. I will. I… Yes, and the box, the contents,” she stammered.
“I will take them.” He picked up a lock of hair that had lain against an old piece of parchment. “Auburn.” Lifting the hair to his nose, he inhaled and closed his eyes. “I have searched for this for many years and now I have it. I thank you, but I have spent much too long in this city already.”
“New Orleans has a way of doing that to people.” The contents of the box belonged to a woman from Licinius’ past. That much she knew. The lock of hair was joined by an old letter and a map leading to a convent in the mountains of Eastern Europe. There was also a locket with a faded miniature portrait from the 1800s.
He gathered the contents, a slight glitter of tears in his eyes. “Yes I imagine it does. Much like old Europe. It is a haunt for many lost souls.”
She didn’t hear him leave, the rhythm from the ring had become so strong. She pushed her hair out of her eyes. This had been a hell of a night. Standing on shaky legs, she made her way across to the door of her little shop. The French Quarter provided a nice outlet for her antiquity business and there were enough old Spanish settlements around to usually pull in nice objects such as coins and old boxes. But this ring… Her hand closed over it as she stared up at the moon from the shop door. She had never felt anything like what she felt when she touched this ring.
Magic radiated through it. The kind of magic she hadn’t known in a long time.
You got the gift, child, her Spanish grandmother always said. Curanderas, the Spanish witches or healers, ran in her family and she indeed had the gift, which was why she collected Spanish antiquities. And the occasional oddity from Rome.
She stole a backward glance at her desk. Her keys were already in her pocket and the night air of New Orleans was calling to her, telling her it was time to hunt down Sebastian and finish things. Stars twinkled above and the moon practically disappeared beneath a small stir of clouds. The wind was changing and it was about damned time. Summer had held on to Southern Louisiana for too long this year.
Stepping out into the night, she turned the key in the lock. Instinct should have warned her to look up as she did this. She should have been aware of the movement behind her from the reflection in the glass but as the hand closed around her mouth she swore she’d heard no sound and seen no reflection.
Goddamned vampires, she thought as she felt herself fall backward into the rock-hard chest of whoever had grabbed her.
Chapter Two
Constantine had watched Licinius leave the antique shop. Everywhere he turned in New Orleans there was a new danger. Somehow Helen was in the thick of it all. Now that Licinius had showed up the danger had intensified.
They were linked, he and his enemy. Each knew the movements of the other, especially when they let their guard down. Constantine had been forced to allow Licinius to see inside his mind as he stole the scroll. This was the only way to find the ring that had been bequeathed to Licinius by the gods who had tricked them into their peculiar form of immortality.
“Be quiet,” he whispered against the woman’s thick red hair. “I won’t hurt you. I only want to know what Licinius was doing here.”
Rather than struggling against him as she had been, she stilled for a moment. Then, before he realized what she was doing, she bit into his hand with the force of a snake, scratching the surface but not drawing blood. Caught by surprise, he released her.
“Damn you, Constantine.”
“Secret meetings, Helen?” He took a step back to take a look at her. He would like to deny his interest in her but there was no point. From the first time he had accidentally touched her she had become part of his agenda. Looking out for her was one of his top priorities but she was making it damned difficult.
“Late business. What do you care?” She jutted her chin out, a look of rebellion in her eyes. She still refused to admit that she needed his help. With the vampires and the other dangers lurking around every corner she needed someone to look out for her.
“More than you know.” He reached out and ran his hand along her cheek. “I hear you had some trouble earlier.”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“When are you going to admit that you need my help? You know one day Sebastian’s men will overpower you. Then what will you do?” It was one of his biggest fears. He knew the secrets Helen was protecting and he knew they put her in a vulnerable position.
“Wing it.” She shrugged and pulled away from him. “I have business, if you don’t mind.” She turned on her heels and he followed closely.
“I don’t mind.”
She shot him a dirty look before quickening her pace. “I have unfinished business with Sebastian.”
“You shot him earlier. Now what do you plan to do?” He was well aware that she was heading toward Sebastian’s bar, The Haven. Looking for more trouble, he was certain.
“Finish what I started.”
* * * * *
Helen wasted no time making her way to The Haven, a club on the east side of Jackson Square. She’d grown damned tired of warnings from Sebastian’s little clan of vampires and tonight had been the last straw. She’d run out of bullets earlier but had shoved several more rounds into her pocket before leaving the antique shop. It was time to finish the job with or without Constantine. Right now she’d rather it were without him.
Being near Constantine made her weak in the knees. Yeah they’d had their share of mind-blowingly hot sex but there was so much more to their love-hate relationship than that. They didn’t trust each other but more and more they found they needed each other. She still wasn’t sure if she would tell him about the ring or not. One thing she did know for sure was that right now she wasn’t concerned overly about her wellbeing.
She knew Sebastian well enough to know that he wouldn’t give the word to end her life anytime soon. He was too concerned
about the power she held and the control she had over certain artifacts that he couldn’t gain access to. That was exactly why she had chosen the stones beneath the church’s altar to house the most ancient relics she had uncovered and it was exactly why Sebastian’s crew threatened her on a regular basis. They would never gain access to what Cortez had found in the jungles of Mexico. Not as long as she lived and breathed.
Pushing open the swinging doors, she felt like a gunslinger in an Old West movie. The doors served as a small barrier between the vampires inside and the world outside. Imagining old-fashioned boots clicking against the dirty floor, she fingered the gun at her side. The regulars scattered, looks of disgust on their faces, as she walked through the door, her eyes set on the bar and the overweight man wiping out beer mugs with a grungy towel. The humans who came here usually didn’t mind a little dirt here and there. Otherwise they wouldn’t be slumming with the vamps.
“Where’s Bas?” She impatiently tapped her nails against the worn hardwood bar. Jed didn’t look up at her as a sly smile spread across his face. His hair hung in dirty, dark brown dreadlocks, giving him the look of a wooly mammoth. His burly arms made him an ideal bartender-bouncer at a place like this but it was the stench of death that made most fear him. Oftentimes he was the one who placed mortals in their graves.
“You ready to give in?” His yellowed teeth and foul breath made her breathe a little more shallowly than she had before.
Her blood boiled at the condescending tone. She wanted to reach across the bar, knock the glass from his hand and wrap her fingers around the collar of his greasy shirt. Instead she set her jaw and narrowed her eyes at him. “One more time. Where’s Bas?”
“Easy now, honey,” Jed protested.
“I’m not here to play games. We have unfinished business.”
“You here to finish the job?” The ancient accent swirled around her, Bas’ voice, commanding as always.
She turned to face her nemesis. “Care to step outside?”
“My dear Helen, I don’t know what you mean.” He looked down at her, his golden blond good looks making him appear more like a surfer from Malibu than a vampire.
“Don’t play your little games with me, Bas. You and I have unfinished business and I plan to finish it now.” Her hands flew to her hips, her indignation clear. She knew she looked somewhat capable of handling herself.
“Did you think I would walk outside with you and give you another chance to shoot me? Tell me, Helen, did you bring enough bullets this time? I see you brought backup.” He nodded toward Constantine who stood two steps behind Helen.
Shit. Bas circled around her, raking his eyes over her as if she were some sort of forbidden dessert. “Go to hell,” she snarled, wishing Constantine had not come with her. His presence made her appear incapable of taking care of Sebastian.
“I have already been there. The weather is nice. Not quite so hot as it is here in the summertime.” He smiled, baring his fangs, a move she knew was meant to intimidate her. How many times in the past year had they danced this dance? It was exhausting, and she’d had her share of vampires.
“You will never get your hands on my magic. Do you understand that? I would kill myself before I let you inside my head,” she warned. His eyes showed nothing more than passing amusement.
“I am already there, my dear.”
“You and your goons stay away if you don’t want to die.” She turned on her heels, hoping the action would exude more confidence than she actually possessed at this moment. Sebastian unnerved her, at times shaking her to her core. Of course, Constantine did little to settle her nerves.
“Can I buy you a drink?” Sebastian called from behind.
She raised her middle finger in response. He was starting to get to her. She could feel him peeling away the layers, attempting to claw his way into her head. If he ever made his way there he would never find the answers he sought. She had been smarter than that. The ancient spells were not memorized. They were written in a code that only she could decipher.
Still, the chill of his attempted invasion wrapped around her, causing her to stumble forward as she moved through the swaying crowd of people. The music had intensified, the smoke from the fog machine began drifting out around her. Faces blurred as she made her way to the door. For a second she felt as if she were lost in an ancient fog, attempting to make her way to freedom. Her claustrophobia set in and her head began to spin.
Then her hand made contact with a rock-hard chest that seemed to draw her in like a magnet. She looked up and through the fog saw Constantine standing in front of her. Shuffling past him, she made her way out the door even as music and laughter swirled around her. She’d hoped she’d left him behind in the crowd. When she turned to look, he had not followed her. She gasped as the fresh air hit her lungs. The moon peeked its head out from behind the clouds that were rolling in from the Mississippi River. Her hand clung to the cross around her neck, a sign she didn’t believe in but that allowed her safe travel in and out of the church where the Aztec stone rested.
Tonight the urge to visit it was strong but she knew she could not reveal its location with Constantine watching her so closely. What lay in that underground tomb was not meant to see the light of day. It had been well hidden. Only she, the priest and two of the monks knew the way to it. Even the priest did not know the location, as per his request. And the power it possessed was so strong a woman with sin on her soul was drawn to it like a moth to a flame.
She shook the thoughts from her head. Never would she use the powers that rested beneath the church. If she did the balance in New Orleans and the world would be disrupted and something even worse than Sebastian stood a chance of being released. She couldn’t place the city in danger like that.
Her heels clicked against the pavement as she made her way to a place she knew would be safe. She didn’t want to go home yet. Instead she made her way to Louella’s, a place where she could disappear in the crowd and not have to worry about vampires or immortals who looked like rock stars.
Chapter Three
Constantine stood in the fog, watching Helen as she slipped from his grasp. His hand had covered the ring only briefly before she had pulled away from him and bolted out into the night. It took a second or two for him to shake her from his head and slowly begin his pursuit down the street. He knew Licinius had been in town for two days. He also knew that Licinius would be willing to trade his ancient ring for the contents of the box Helen kept under the counter in her antique shop. He’d inspected the contents one evening when he’d broken in, searching for the Aztec stone Helen protected.
The stone wasn’t there but plenty of relics from his past in Ancient Rome were scattered throughout the shop. She was determined to lock him out of her life right now but he knew that what she was dealing with was too dangerous for her to handle alone. He also knew there were only two places she could go from here. Pirate’s Wharf or Louella’s, both of which lay just ahead of him. Instinct told him she would not go to the Wharf. He knew enough about her to know she would go to Louella’s and seek out a drink in the comfort of the bluesy music that played there.
His boot heels hit the rough sidewalk and the weight of his mission was on his mind. Find the ring. Recovering the scroll had been an easy task compared to tracking down Licinius. Ancient Roman emperors tended to hide away from the light and leave little trace of their existence.
It was both a gift and a curse born of their shared past. There were twelve of them here altogether. Twelve men from the past who had been involved in some way in a pact with the ancient gods. White men had not discovered the Aztec gods until well into the Colonial Era but the men of the past, those who had watched Rome live and flourish, knew the powers of the forbidden lands which had later been visited by most men who sought immortality.
In some cases the ancient gods had sought them out, offering them retribution, vengeance or whatever other prize they needed to soothe their lonely existence. In his case it was
the power to destroy his enemy, to revive Rome, to keep her alive in the Christian Era. He hadn’t realized the pact formed by himself and Licinius would doom them both.
He also hadn’t counted on Helen, the woman who held more keys to the past than one woman should be allowed to hold. Her father had befriended a priest who knew more about the ancient pact that he should. The two of them had spent years tracking down the Aztec stone. Constantine was certain that Helen’s father had known more than his daughter now knew.
Of course there was more to Helen than just her knowledge of his past. She had gotten under his skin. The way her body reacted to his made him want to wrap her in his arms and keep her there, protected from the rest of the world. It made him wish he could erase some of the past and the plans he had when he came to New Orleans.
Walking toward Louella’s, Constantine knew Sebastian had unnerved Helen and he knew that somewhere deep inside she wished she could confide in him. She didn’t trust him yet and he hadn’t given her much reason to. They both had their secrets.
Stepping into the bar, he was instantly surrounded by a soothing atmosphere. Louella’s was different from the Haven. Soft jazz music caressed the people who swayed on the dance floor or tapped their feet out of time. Many had their eyes closed, enraptured by the sounds of New Orleans at its finest.
“Give me a double,” he heard her rich voice say as the music drowned out to nothing more than background noise. Parting the crowd, he watched the patrons move like dolls on a paper dance floor, pushing aside as he made his way to the bar. The seat next to her was empty and he slid onto the stool, consciously aware of her beating heart as he did so.
Contact with her skin had done this to him. He should have known better, should have never touched her but how sweet it had been!
He was sure she had intended for him to be a one-night stand but that had been a year ago. She had taken him home after a night of drinking whiskey. He had been in town to visit her father and learned that the man had just died and left everything to his one and only daughter. He hadn’t intended to seduce her but when she looked up at him with her sad eyes he’d reached out to touch her. From that moment on he’d been under her spell.
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