Angel Unbound

by Sharon Saracino

  Luca knew Kat easily read and felt everything he couldn’t say. Sometimes it was a royal pain, but at the moment he welcomed her support and the fact that she could feel what was in his heart without his having to say the words. She crossed to the window and slid her arms around his waist from behind, silently laying her cheek against his back as though giving him a moment to get his erratic thoughts and emotions under control. He took his hands from his pockets and folded his arms over hers where they wrapped around his waist.

  “Do you really believe Callista is so shallow?” She said at last.

  “Shallow?” A shadow of a smile flitted over his face. “Once upon a time Calli was the most spoiled, impulsive, and self-centered little chit you could imagine. Still, even then there was something about her.”

  “And now?”

  “She risked her life to help a friend. She even came back to offer what comfort she could after getting the child to safety with no thought for herself, even knowing Mariana was likely already dead. Merda! What that cost her! What it cost all of us.”

  Luca could still clearly envision the scene Calli had shared with them earlier. She’d arrived to find a squalling newborn and Mariana bleeding to death faster than even Earthbound healing could reverse. The human midwife distraught and verging on hysteria, unable to save the girl. Mariana had already made arrangements for a mortal couple with knowledge of the Earthbound’s existence to take and raise the child, hoping to keep her far from the influence of her Fallen sire. She’d begged Calli to take the child to them. Mariana feared Rapier had discovered her location and would arrive to claim the child at any moment.

  With great reluctance, Calli did as her friend asked, but could not bear the thought of Mariana dying frightened and alone. And so she went back. Mariana was already dead, and Jacques had massacred the midwife when she refused to reveal the child’s whereabouts. Calli had enough presence of mind to deny any knowledge of the child, pretending to have just arrived in answer to Mariana’s desperate summons. The moment Rapier realized that she was Callista McAllister, the treasured sister of the Earthbound who had slain his beloved brother short hours earlier, her fate was sealed. He could have slaughtered her on the spot, but he thought it would be far more satisfying to keep her alive and let McAllister suffer in contemplation of what evil might befall her at any given moment.

  “Then today, she could have, should have stayed in hiding, but she thought I was in danger and she barreled into the middle of a fight, swinging that damn liquor bottle with no thought for herself,” Luca continued. “You should have seen her standing over that bastard with the sword raised over her head. I think it took a century off my life. No, Kat, she’s anything but shallow. Still, her heart rules her head. Exactly why, under the circumstances, I think she could easily fool herself into thinking she feels something she doesn’t because I’m safe and familiar.”

  Kat sighed dramatically. “Like most men, you are an idiot and you underestimate women completely. I understand you can’t help it. It’s an inherent flaw of the Y chromosome. Look, I understand what it’s like to lose everyone you love, Luca, and frankly, it sucks. Big time. But no matter what happens, you won’t ever be alone. You’ll always have me. You’re my family, my blood, and no power in Heaven or on Earth will ever change it.”

  “Not even, Mac?” His smile colored his voice.

  “That’s not fair,” she squeezed and then released him. “I love you both more than life, but in different ways, so no, not even Kassian could keep me from you if you needed me.”

  “Good to know, cara,” Luca turned and wrapped his sister in an embrace, acknowledging to a higher power for the thousandth time how grateful he was to have found her. “And ditto. Not that I would ever make you choose. Mac has been like a brother for more years than I can count. In fact, before you came into my life, the McAllisters were my only family for a long time. Maybe that’s just one more reason to let sleeping dogs lie.”

  “So you think if you acknowledge your feelings for Callista and things go wrong, you’ll lose the McAllisters, too? Oh, Luca,” Kat sighed. “You really don’t give people enough credit. You don’t give yourself enough credit. And you most definitely don’t give love enough credit.”

  “Okay, since you seem to know so much, how about some sisterly advice?” Luca challenged his sister, once again firmly in control of his thoughts and emotions.

  “I seem to recall being on the other side of this conversation, dear brother, and you telling me you weren’t getting in the middle,” Kat laughed. “I think I’ll claim that same right.”

  “That was completely different.”

  “Was it?” Kat retorted, her silver eyes sparkling with amusement. “I’ll say this… there’s nothing I can tell you that you don’t already know in your heart. You simply have to accept it and decide what you’re willing to do about it. I can’t imagine how I would survive losing Kassian, but I wouldn’t trade a moment of what we have together in exchange for the certainty of never losing it. If someone told me I could have his love for a year and then I would lose him, I wouldn’t sacrifice that year for anything, not even to avoid the inevitable pain. Maybe instead of worrying about what you have to lose, you should concentrate on what you have to gain. Some things are worth the risk.”

  “You know, Katrina, I was perfectly content being an only child.”

  “Oh bite my ass, Luca! You were so NOT.” Kat’s peals of laughter produced an answering smile in her warrior husband as he came back from the kitchen juggling four bottles of Moretti for Luca and himself and a glass of cranberry juice for Kat.

  “What’s so funny?” Callista’s quiet voice asked from the entrance to the hall. Had Kat really told Luca to bite her bottom? That couldn’t be right, could it? It must be another of those confusing slang terms she struggled to comprehend.

  “Callista, you should be asleep,” Kassian scolded fondly.

  “And you should remember I’m not a child,” Calli retorted peevishly, shuffling into the room and plopping down in the chair Luca had vacated earlier. She tucked her bare feet beneath her and settled the voluminous folds of her robe around her. “I can’t turn my mind off simply because you think I should be tired.”

  “Your brother knows that, Callista, he’s just worried about you,” Kat said gently, sinking back onto the couch beside her husband and reaching for her glass.

  “I know,” Callista sighed with a fleeting smile. “I’m sorry, Kass. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

  “It’s okay, kiddo. I get it. Want something to drink?” He leaned forward as if he would get up, but Calli waved him back into his seat.

  “No, thanks. I’m fine. So what were you all talking about?” If she hadn’t walked in on Kat laughing, she would have assumed it was her. Since she doubted anyone could find one iota of amusement in anything she’d told them earlier, she deduced they must have been talking about something else entirely.

  “Luca was just wishing he was still an only child,” Kat smirked. “And Kassian was about to announce we were taking your mother back to Fiesole tomorrow.”

  “I was?” Kassian stared at his beautiful wife with a blank look.

  “You weren’t?” Kat smiled back sweetly snuggling even closer into his big body.

  “I, uh, thought you were staying here, Kat,” Callista said, looking from one to the other. It was obvious to her that her brother and his wife were communicating on a private level and she uneasily suspected it had something to do with her. “I hoped we could spend some time together, maybe go shopping or something.” She glanced at Luca. “Some of those clothes…well, I don’t think they’re really my style.”

  “No doubt those would be the ones Elle picked out,” Kat laughed.

  Elle Gates was Katrina’s best friend. She was a bit flashy and had a certain affinity for drama. Elle had a real flair for fashion, too, but her fashion sense suited her own dramatic and eclectic style far better than Kat or Calli’s simpler, more classic one. Callista
wondered how she and Kat had ever become friends. They seemed so opposite. Still, Kat loved her, so Kassian made the effort to consider her a member of his extended family.

  “No doubt,” Kassian responded in a dry tone.

  “Tell you what, we’ll go shopping before your brother and I return to New York. There are some wonderful shops here. In the meantime, I’m going to make a few calls tomorrow morning before we go and see if I can get you set up for a day of beauty and pampering. There’s a great salon in Piazza del Popolo. All of the ex-pats swear by it,” Kat smiled delightedly at her own brilliant plan. “Won’t that be fun, Luca? Content with being an only child, indeed!”

  Calli glanced over at Luca who had drifted back toward the window after grabbing another beer. He still wore the jeans and tight, black tee he’d donned that morning. Without the jacket, Calli could clearly see the ornate ink of the daggers on his forearms and the way the dark cotton of the shirt strained and molded the tight, heavy muscles of his arms and chest. His expression was as cool and placid as if Kat hadn’t spoken at all. Something warm and nervous uncurled in the pit of her stomach and moved lower the longer she watched him. They would be completely alone here until Kassian and Kat returned. She wished she had some inkling of how Luca felt about that, but his usual unreadable expression was firmly in place.

  “You can do that?” Calli turned her attention back to her sister-in-law with difficulty.

  Kat hooked her thumb in her husband’s general direction. “Billionaire,” she chuckled.

  Kassian rolled his eyes and hauled her against him with a mock frown. “I thought you didn’t care about my money?” he growled against her lips.

  “I don’t,” she agreed after pausing to return his affection. “But you have to admit, it comes in handy when you want to get something done in a hurry. So what do you think, Calli?”

  Calli glanced nervously at Luca again. He had to be less than thrilled at the prospect of spending hours in a salon.

  “I don’t know, Katrina. I appreciate the thought, but…” Calli trailed off uncertainly.

  “Make the arrangements, Kat,” Luca said decisively. “It sounds like a great idea.”

  Three pairs of shocked eyes swiveled to Luca where he lounged against the window frame, as unreadable as ever.

  “It does?” chimed three astounded voices simultaneously. It was difficult to say who was more taken aback.

  Callista tamped down her excitement, trying hard to maintain a blasé demeanor on a par with Luca’s. She’d never been to a salon. Kat had offered to take her before the wedding, but she hadn’t yet felt comfortable enough to go. Her excursion into the city today had shown her that though times had changed, people were basically the same with the same virtues and vices.

  She felt far more comfortable now at the prospect of going out, especially with Luca nearby. She’d noticed many women, including Kat, still wore their hair long, but she hadn’t seen any that wore it hanging well past their buttocks as she did. In the nineteenth century, Callista’s long, thick hair had been a source of pride. Today she’d felt as though it made her stick out like a sore thumb. How could she expect Luca to see her as a modern woman when she looked as though she should still be wearing bustles and corsets? It was time to move into the twenty-first century and what better place to start than a make-over that would hopefully give her at least the veneer of style and sophistication sported by the women Luca chose to spend time with.

  Luca shrugged and levered himself away from the window.

  “Sure, why not? I admit I don’t exactly relish the thought of spending the day in a den of artificial beauty being asphyxiated by the scent of perm solution and hairspray, but it should be easy enough to protect Calli in such a public place.”

  “Maybe it would be better if I went with Kat and Kassian to Fiesole?” Calli offered hesitantly.

  Luca shook his silvery head as he crossed the room to perch on the arm of Calli’s chair.

  “No way. Michael’s orders are to stay in Rome and it’s easier to protect you here. It’s also far more likely that whoever is asking questions about Mariana is still hanging around and I want to get to the bottom of it.”

  “Luca’s right, Calli,” Kassian agreed. “Though I still think the most likely explanation is Mariana’s child has discovered Calli is alive and wants information about her mother. The upswing in Fallen activity in the city could be completely unrelated.”

  “Probably,” Luca granted with a shrug. Calli didn’t believe it for a minute, and she doubted anyone else did either. A girl looking for information about her mother could simply knock on the front door and ask. A girl looking for information about her mother didn’t send animorti to the kitchen door, nor set up an ambush in an alley. But someone had. The question was, who? And why?

  Chapter Seven

  After checking every dressing suite, lounge, and treatment room in the salon for security purposes, while suffering the offended gaze of the owner, Luca relinquished Callista to the stylist. That had been well over three hours ago. He shifted awkwardly for the hundredth time on the small, upholstered Queen Anne style vanity bench. The dainty furniture, chosen for its elegant appearance, had never been intended for function or comfort, especially for someone of his size. He froze as the wood creaked ominously. The last thing he needed to do was to land on his ass on a pile of splintered wood in a room filled with gawking women. He released a sigh of relief when the delicate piece held together. He was gaining a new appreciation for the trouble women went through to appear attractive, but Calli had always looked fine to him without any artifice whatsoever. Still, he wasn’t completely blind. Women enjoyed this kind of thing, though the why of it defied his understanding. Calli had been excited about the appointment, though she tried to appear blasé.

  The faint pin prick shocks traveling up and down his spine heralding the presence of evil interrupted Luca’s boredom. Mindful of the delicate furniture, he rose slowly as the sensation increased in intensity, and eased toward the archway leading to the area of the salon into which Calli had disappeared. Distracted by his surveillance, he nearly jumped out of his skin when Calli gave him a tentative tap on the shoulder. He spun on his heel to face her.

  “What do you think?” Calli asked, her large, blue eyes sparkling like twin sapphires.

  “I…” Luca worked to draw in sufficient air to speak. Freed from the weight of a good twelve inches, her dark hair tumbled and curled over her shoulders in a thick, shiny mass that ended slightly above her waist. The make-up was subtle and enhanced her natural beauty and coloring rather than detracting from it. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and he wasn’t sure if it resulted from an artist’s brush or her excitement. If Luca had thought her pretty before, now she literally took his breath away. He was powerless to stop the tightening in his groin and wished he’d left his jacket on despite the warmth of the salon. He was so screwed.

  Before he had time to reflect on exactly how screwed, a wave of evil diverted his attention, slamming into him and crawling up his spine with a vengeance. There were too many witnesses to draw his daggers, but whoever the bastard was, he would have to go through Luca to get to Calli. Even with Luca unarmed, that was no easy task. He shoved Calli behind him without answering and turned to the door to face the threat.

  Giovanna stood frozen in the doorway, eyes wide with astonishment as they locked on Luca standing tensely across from the entrance. A car was parked in the piazza behind her, and over the roof Luca’s eyes met the dark, inscrutable gaze of Ignazio Monte, a Fallen. Luca relaxed only slightly. Monte was a wealthy businessman well known to the Earthbound. He maintained a high profile and respectable façade both in business and in his private life and never actually got his hands dirty. He could well afford to hire the less savory elements of his race for that. His high visibility and carefully cultivated reputation as a philanthropist made him nearly untouchable. The Fallen nodded at Luca and ducked back into his car. No confrontation today. After a brief hesita
tion, Giovanna allowed the door to drift closed behind her and strode confidently forward toward Luca. Okay, maybe there would be a confrontation today.

  “Luca! Tesoro!” Gia smiled too brightly. “What are you doing here?” She kept walking until she was close enough to brush her generous breasts against his chest, then placed her hands familiarly on his shoulders, and kissed him on either cheek. A few days ago, that would have been adequate contact to jump start his libido. Luca found it now had no effect on him at all. Gia apparently realized it too and her expression tightened imperceptibly.

  “Interesting company you’re keeping, Gia,” Luca offered, stepping back slightly and nearly trampling Calli who still stood behind him. He reached back and pulled her to his side, his attention never straying from Giovanna.

  “Oh, you know,” Gia waved a hand dispassionately, her eyes widening and then narrowing as Calli came into view. “I was thinking of expanding the shop. Igna has plenty of money at his disposal.”

  “You could have gone to a bank. Or you could have come to me. I don’t think you’ll like his interest rates,” Luca said shortly.