Angel Unbound

by Sharon Saracino

  “How can you be so sure, dolcezza?”

  “How do you think I knew about the Ring of Aandalena?” Calli returned reasonably. “He liked to brag, he couldn’t wait to tell me about his plan to get it. I suppose he was still trying to impress me.” She laughed without humor. “Nothing else worked. Maybe he hoped I would find power attractive…wait a minute,” Calli straightened. “The witch, Luca! You remember I told you Miranda said she took care of Nicola…she said she didn’t have the ring but she had something else. She used Dark Magick. I know it! What if she had this book? Do you think Katrina might know something?”

  Luca stroked his jaw. “I doubt it. Kat had no idea what she was before she met Mac, and she and her cousin were never close. But we can call her later and ask.”

  “The only person I’ve ever met with more thirst for power than a Fallen was that woman, Luca. I don’t believe she ever intended to give Jacques the ring. I think she was using him to help her find it and planned to use it against him when she finally got her hands on it. And he was using her to get either the ring, or this book, or both. I can’t think of any other reason he would have kept her around. She was an evil, malignant woman. If she had this book, she might have made promises, but she would never have handed it over,” Callista stated emphatically. “That has to be it. Jacques never actually had it, though I wouldn’t put it past him to brag to someone that he did.”

  Giovanna had stopped crying. Her eyes had taken on a speculative gleam as she listened avidly to the conversation between Luca and Calli. Her sudden interest did not go unnoticed by either of them.

  “The witch is dead, dolcezza, so we may never know the truth,” Luca redirected the conversation. “In the meantime, we have to find a safe place for Gia and discover where they are holding Enrico.”

  “But if we had the book, we could trade it for Enrico,” Gia interjected. “If she knows where the book is, let her say so!”

  “She doesn’t and even if she did, we couldn’t trade it for Enrico, Gia. Use your head,” Luca admonished in a hard voice. “First, if you handed power on a platter over to the Fallen, even to save his life, Enrico would kick your ass into the second Tuesday of next week. Furthermore, if they get what they want, he’s of no further use to them. They have nothing to lose by killing him.”

  Giovanna’s shoulders slumped. Luca was right on both counts.

  “What about Mariana’s family?” Calli said suddenly. “Maybe we could take Giovanna there.”

  “I have a… family?” Gia whispered in a stunned voice.

  “Of course you do. Grandparents, an uncle, and a couple of cousins at the very least.”

  Giovanna’s expression twisted with bitterness. “I doubt they’ll appreciate my showing up on their doorstep. They can’t have wanted me anymore than my mother did, otherwise they would have raised me themselves.”

  “Is that what you think?” Calli cried in sudden understanding. “Oh, Giovanna you couldn’t be more wrong. Your mother wanted you with every fiber of her being. When she realized she wasn’t going to survive the birth, she sent you away because she was afraid her family was the first place Jacques would look for you.”

  Giovanna was quiet for several minutes. When at last she spoke, her voice was a harsh whisper. “All my life, I thought…I thought it was because she couldn’t bear the sight of me…because I was the child of a dark one.” She looked at Calli with stricken eyes. “I thought…she hated me.”

  “Mariana loved you, Gia,” Calli shook her head. “Times were different then, and it would have caused quite a scandal, but she would have suffered it to keep you with her. It broke her heart that she would never see you smile, never hear you laugh. It broke her heart that you would never know her.”

  “I don’t even know what she looked like,” Gia whispered brokenly. “To have seen her, even once, to have some memory, some knowledge of where I came from.”

  “When we get this mess all sorted out, we’ll take you to London to meet your grandmother,” Calli offered gently. “She has a beautiful portrait of your mother hanging in the parlor. If they’re still in London, that is. Regardless, we’ll track them down. I can’t imagine she wouldn’t still have it wherever she may be living now. But until then, though I can’t give you your mother back, Giovanna, I can give you this.” Calli opened her mind and let Giovanna share her memories of Mariana. She slammed a thick mental door on every detail of that final, ugly night when Gia came into the world and allowed the girl to see only the good things. The fun she and Mariana had, the places they’d traveled, the pranks they’d pulled, usually on Luca and Kassian. But most of all, Calli showed her the love and laughter between two friends closer than sisters. By the time she closed the door on her memories, Calli’s eyes burned and her heart ached with recollection and tears sketched a wet path through the traces of flour smearing Gia’s enraptured face.

  “You humble me with the capacity of your heart, cara.” Luca’s voice brushed her mind.

  “Grazie, Calli. Mille grazie,” Gia murmured in an unsteady voice. “To see her as she was, to see her through your eyes…I never expected…I…it seems I am in your debt once again. This debt I can never repay.” The profound moment shattered when Gia suddenly jumped from her chair. “Merda, I forgot the pies!”

  Using the apron to protect her hands she yanked open the door and pulled the pans from the oven. They were a shade too brown, but they smelled divine and Calli laughed when Luca’s belly rumbled in response. Gia cut a generous wedge for Calli and one for herself, and simply handed Luca a fork and set the rest of the pie in front of him with a knowing smirk. Calli wasn’t sure what irked her more. The fact that Gia was obviously well acquainted with Luca’s enormous appetite or the fact that the crostada was the best she’d ever eaten.

  “You should taste her cornetti,” Luca rolled his eyes and mumbled over a mouthful of the savory pie. Calli gave him a look that required neither word nor telepathic communication to convey her thoughts. Luca blinked and continued eating, wisely keeping any further culinary opinions to himself.

  Calli and Giovanna finished first and began to clear the table and rinse the soiled dishes in the large farmhouse style sink before loading them into the modern dishwasher. Luca had no sooner put the last bite into his mouth when his cell phone jangled in his back pocket. He fished it out and checked the display. A calculating look came into his eyes.

  “Dio, it’s a beautiful thing when a plan comes together, especially since I didn’t really have one in the first place.” He tapped the screen and lifted the phone to his ear.

  “Pronto?” Luca listened for a moment, looked at Calli, and winked. “Yeah, Michael, we know who’s been asking questions about Mariana, too. I’m glad you called.” His brows drew together. “Yes, really.”

  Luca waved the phone in the air and stepped out the back door into the garden for privacy, snicking the door closed quietly behind him. Calli watched him go, mesmerized by his high, firm backside encased in tight denim and the play of muscles rippling across his broad back under his snug, black cashmere sweater. She’d become completely shameless. She favored Giovanna with a dark, threatening look when she realized the other woman was admiring the same view. Gia quickly averted her eyes, gathered up the remaining dishes, and carried them to the sink. They worked together in uneasy silence to clear and wipe down the counters and table. When everything was back in order, Luca still hadn’t come in.

  “Well, I guess we may as well sit down…” Calli offered, waving Giovanna into a chair and taking one herself. “So, how long have you and Enrico lived in Rome?”

  “We first moved here in, let’s see, I think about nineteen hundred and five. We moved around for a few decades until anyone who might recognize the fact that we weren’t growing older as we should was gone. We came back about eight years ago.”

  “Is that when you met Luca?” Calli struggled between wanting to know every detail and wanting to ignore the affair altogether.

  “No, I m
et him just three years ago. He was in the city and came to visit Enrico. Zio and Luca’s father had been great friends.” Giovanna opened and closed her mouth as if unsure whether to continue. “Luca spends most of his time in the States. I did not see him often and he never led me to believe there would be anything more. I hoped of course…but, well, I would not want you to think badly of him. He was always honest with me.” She finished in a rush.

  “Well, er, thank you for that, I think. But, there is nothing you could say that would make me think badly of Luca Fiorelli. I know what kind of man he is, and I’ve loved him for longer than you’ve been alive, Giovanna.” Calli hated that her words would cut, but in the end, she was really doing Gia a kindness. It would be crueler to let the woman cling to the hope of any kind of future with Luca. Callista McAllister had waited well over a hundred years to capture his heart. Any woman who wanted to challenge her for it would have to pry it out of her cold, dead fingers.

  “Good to know, dolcezza,” Luca grinned from the doorway. A guilty flush colored Calli’s cheeks. She hadn’t heard him come in. He crossed to stand behind Calli’s chair and began to knead her shoulders. Now that he felt the freedom to do so, it seemed he couldn’t stop touching her. And she didn’t mind in the least, rubbing her cheek against his forearm like a contented kitten.

  “Well, the good news is I’ve found a place where Gia will be completely untouchable,” Luca began, but anything further he had been about to say was interrupted by a loud pop that coincided with the appearance of Michael the Archangel in the McAllister kitchen. Both Calli and Gia jumped, but Luca didn’t react at all.

  “Fiorelli,” Michael growled with a curt nod.

  “Your Grace,” Luca mocked inclining his head slightly. He wore the odd expression of a man attempting to look grave while biting back a smile. Michael, on the other hand, offered an impressive imitation of a thundercloud personified. Luca seemed to be enjoying every minute of it.

  Michael started toward Luca, hands clenched, jaw rigid. Then he seemed to remember they weren’t alone and pulled up short. He uncurled his fists slowly.

  “Hello, Callista. How are you, child?” He offered Calli a benevolent smile.

  “I’m very well, thank you. And you?” Calli replied.

  Michael blinked. “Me? No one ever asks me how I am. I just…am. I mean, I’m uh, fine. Thank you for asking.” He shook his head slightly and turned to Gia who sat ramrod straight and saucer eyed. “And you must be Giovanna.” He bowed slightly in her direction. She remained frozen.

  “Michael,” Luca hissed quietly. “Wings.”

  “Oh! Damn, I forgot,” the Archangel muttered before folding his massive wings out of sight with the same effortless efficiency Calli had witnessed at their previous meeting.

  “Gia, this is Michael. Who likes to preen and then pretend it was an accident. You’re going to be staying with him for a while,” Luca smirked.

  “I am?” Giovanna looked absolutely terrified.

  “It’s really the best solution, signorina,” Michael began while glaring at Luca. “The Castel is impenetrable. Besides, your uncle is most anxious about you.” He concluded, turning back to Gia with a dazzling smile.

  “Enrico? But how…”

  “After the attempts on Calli and me, and with the increased Fallen activity in the city, Michael augmented the Defensori presence in the neighborhoods around the Castel. You weren’t the only one who saw Enrico being forced into a car,” Luca grinned.

  “Do you mean...he’s safe? He’s okay?” Gia breathed as though hardly daring to believe it could be true.

  “If by okay you mean cranky, critical, and worried sick about you, then yes, Giovanna, he’s perfectly fine,” Michael confirmed with a sigh. “He’s back at the Castel waiting for us. I would have brought him along, but he’s having a little difficulty getting around without his prosthesis. I’ll send men to retrieve it once I’m sure your place isn’t being watched. Monte and his cohorts will have no idea where either of you are. I imagine that will aggravate the hell out of them.” The thought seemed to cheer him considerably.

  Gia unexpectedly leapt from her chair and threw herself at the imposing figure of the Archangel. Though she was a tall woman, with Michael standing at his full height, she could barely reach his neck, so she settled for wrapping her arms around his waist and sobbing her thanks and relief in a torrent of rapid fire Italian into his midsection. Michael’s expression hovered between incredulous and pained. He looked first to Luca and then to Calli for direction on how to deal with the nearly hysterical woman. Luca raised a brow and shrugged, but his usual bland expression held a hint of mischief. Calli simply bit her lip and tried not to grin. Michael glared at both of them, then rolled his eyes, and patted Gia awkwardly on the back with his big hand, looking decidedly uncomfortable.

  “Hey, try flashing your wings again, big guy,” Luca suggested. “That stunned her into silence before.”

  “One of these days, Fiorelli…” the Archangel growled.

  “Promises, promises, Your Grace,” Luca retorted with a cheeky grin.

  Finally, Giovanna’s sobs subsided to happy little hiccoughs and she seemed to belatedly become aware of her actions. With a gasp she stepped back and craned her neck to assess Michael’s reaction to her unanticipated outburst. He schooled his features into a pleasant expression and Gia visibly relaxed. She turned to Luca and Calli.

  “Grazie, for… everything. It is more than I deserve after the way I behaved. And Calli, after this has all been settled, I-I would like to meet my grandmother…if you really think she would welcome me, I mean.”

  “I have no doubt she will welcome you with open arms and great joy, Giovanna,” Calli took the few steps needed to embrace Gia. She was Mariana’s daughter, after all, and Calli could not fault her for resorting to desperate measures to keep Luca. Calli herself would do whatever it took if anyone threatened to take him from her now. She wouldn’t hold Gia’s behavior against her. This time. As she wrapped her arms around the young woman, she was surprised to feel a faint frisson of sensation along her spine. It was so mild that she almost thought she’d imagined it, but no, it was definitely there. Maybe Michael had been right and her ability to sense evil was coming back on its own now that she wasn’t constantly exposed to it.

  “I’ll call Mac and update him on the situation. Not sure what he’ll make of it. I know you wanted us to stay in Rome, but it may be necessary to head back to the States. Can you spare some men to keep an eye on Madge in Fiesole if we need to travel?” Luca asked Michael.

  Michael nodded. “Don’t worry about Madge. I’ll get someone up there and if necessary, I’ll bring her back to the Castel. Monte will be nearly impossible to touch. He isn’t your average Fallen who can be taken out with no questions asked. His high profile guarantees an investigation if he suddenly disappears. You’ll need to tread carefully, Luca.” He hesitated, glancing worriedly at Callista. “If, as I suspect, this book really is the Key of Azakriel, Monte will stop at nothing to have it. We’ve effectively removed Giovanna and Enrico from his reach. You understand what this means?”

  A chill moved through Calli and she shivered as understanding dawned.

  “He’ll come for the person he believes knows its location,” she whispered. “He’ll come for me.”

  Luca pulled her into his arms and nodded shortly, his expression glacial. “He can try, dolcezza. He can try.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Kassian McAllister disconnected the call and shoved his cell phone roughly into the back pocket of his jeans. He raked a hand through his long, dark hair. He sure as hell hadn’t gotten his sister back to lose her to some overachieving Fallen with an agenda and delusions of grandeur. Michael was right. They couldn’t simply eliminate Ignazio Monte without provoking a lot of questions and unwanted attention, but there had to be a way to get rid of the bastard. Or at least neutralize his threat. Anyway, if Kassian couldn’t be in Rome himself at the moment, he could rest easy know
ing Calli was with Luca. Luca hadn’t said a word that gave anything away during the tense call, but Kassian knew him long enough and well enough to recognize that something had changed back in Rome between his sister and his best friend. Added to Kat’s uncanny intuition, by the time the call ended, his wife grinned from ear to ear.

  “I guess you called that one, baby,” he sighed.

  Kat grinned. “Well, I would say I told you so if we didn’t have more important things to worry about at the moment. Oh, who am I kidding? I told you so, McAllister. I’ll let you reward me for my shrewdness later. Luca sounds happy, doesn’t he?”

  “Yeah.”

  His wife frowned. “They’re perfect for each other, Kassian. Why don’t you look happier about it?”

  “It’s not that I’m not happy about it,” Kassian began. “It’s just…”

  “What?”

  “Kat, I’ve know your brother a lot longer than you have and I know you love him, but let’s face facts, he’s been kind of a man-whore for years. Don’t get me wrong, Luca is the best man I know, Earthbound or human. I just don’t want Callista to get hurt.”

  Kat rolled her eyes. “Okay, we’ve already established the fact that Luca hasn’t exactly been noted for long term, committed relationships, but can you please stop calling him a man-whore? And honestly, has he ever actually treated a woman badly?”

  Kassian thought about that for a minute. “No, but that’s not the point. This isn’t any woman. This is my baby sister we’re talking about.”

  “Callista isn’t a baby. She’s a three hundred year old woman who knows her own mind and her own heart. She managed to survive over a century with a psychotic serial killer and come out on the other side with her sanity and disposition intact. Luca loves her, McAllister. Truly, deeply, completely, to the exclusion of everyone and everything else. Luca loves your sister the way I love you. So maybe it took him a little while to figure it out and work up the courage to have faith in it. He doesn’t trust his heart easily, you know that, but he’s learning.” Kat stretched up on her toes to plant a kiss on her husband’s jaw. “You know Luca as well as anyone. If he’s finally worked up the nerve to acknowledge his feelings, and she feels the same way about him, which I am absolutely positive she does, he won’t let anything or anyone come between them. Certainly not Monte and his goons. Not even a big, cocky Defensori like you, my love, even if you are her adored older brother. Get over yourself.”