by Ally Shields
“Name another,” she blurted.
The wizard sighed. “I did not want this to become accusatory, Arianna, but if you remember, I had to call you home from the vampire court in Canada when one of our council members was missing.”
“And I came right away.”
“Yes, you did, but there was a delay of several hours while you were in flight. Your dedication to your duty is not in question. It is your equal availability to all.”
“OK.” She spoke slowly, trying hard to see his viewpoint. “Then I’ll manage my time better.” Who needed sleep anyway?
As if he’d heard her inner dialogue, Eryndale’s mouth tipped up in a brief, reassuring smile. “You’re a valued Guardian, Ari, and you care about the people you protect. You will burn out, if you don’t make some adjustments.” He turned his attention to the wizard. “Now I am the one who is needed elsewhere, Mr. President, but thank you for setting up this meeting. I feel confident the issue will be resolved.” He stood, nodded to Ari, and departed with the characteristic, graceful stride of his race.
The door swung shut, and the wizard spoke with a definite warning in his voice. “Eryndale was kind, as always, but other representatives are less forgiving. Your activities with the vampires have raised criticism within the council before now. It will be worse this time. You must make visible changes.”
Her temper flared, her magic stirring in reaction, and she struggled to keep her tone civil. “Are you trying to dictate my personal life? Is that what this is about? Quit dating Andreas or else?”
The president lowered his brows. “By no means. Your life is your own…within reason. Not when it interferes with the job. I’m merely asking that you spend more time on community matters. Keep better office hours, maintain regular patrols. And make a special effort to mingle with representatives of the other races.” His frown deepened, his look piercing. “If I have to, I will make that an order.”
When she continued to look at him without speaking, he got up, abandoning the formality of his desk, and stopped in front of her, his hands folded at his waist. “I do not fault you for being at the shelter last night, but not knowing the javeys were in town is a serious problem. If you had been talking with or listening to all of our people, someone would have told you.”
She dropped her gaze, thinking hard. Counting back, it had been two days since she’d visited her office. She hadn’t been playing hooky, she was busy. But had she become unapproachable? It seemed so, since the evidence was staring her in the face. She hadn’t known about the javeys.
“How do you know they didn’t just arrive last night?” She was clutching at straws, but she still hoped this was not the problem it seemed.
The wizard leaned against his desk and crossed his arms. “I spent the last two hours finding out. They arrived in Olde Town more than twenty-four hours ago.”
Damn. And not one word said to her. She had a cell phone, so somebody could have called. Steffan, the local werewolf leader. Martin, the Guardian for suburban Riverdale. Why hadn’t her friends called?
Her frown deepened, but she hid the sudden stab of betrayal. “Why didn’t someone from the council tell me?”
“I presume they thought you knew.”
“Because I should have.” She drew in a long breath, letting the anger go. “I’ll fix this.”
The old man’s face lightened for the first time since the meeting began. He stood and moved back behind his desk. “I am pleased to hear that. The consequences otherwise could be more serious than I wish to contemplate.”
Ari mentally shuddered, hearing the warning in his words. Would the council really fire her? What would she do if she was forced to give up the Guardianship? Dazed by the enormity of the thought, she left the Magic Hall without another word and went straight to her office.
* * *
An hour later she had consumed a full pot of coffee and had run through an emotional roller coaster from anger to guilt to denial and back again. She’d reviewed the events of the last year and couldn’t find much she’d change, except for the deaths. And many of those had been out of her hands. As for last night, could she have saved the javeys? She would never know for certain, but a tiny question would always be there. More blood on her hands.
She rubbed her temples to ease the tension and started the paperwork on the fight. Half a page into the report, she realized her mind was somewhere else, deleted it all, and set the keyboard aside. She needed to talk this over with someone. Someone who wasn’t a vampire. Had she really been playing favorites?
Ryan could always be counted on to take her side, but she wanted some honest advice, not a cheerleader. She finally called Martin, the Guardian assigned to the sections of Riverdale outside of Olde Town, where lycanthropes, mostly werewolves and some of the werecat groups, often lived side by side with humans. Considering last night’s incident, the fact that Martin was an elf made his opinion even more valuable.
“Ari, heard you had some excitement.”
His voice seemed friendly enough, which was encouraging. “More than I wanted. It was pretty bad.” She hesitated, then forged ahead. “I suppose you’ve heard I’m in trouble.”
“Not exactly trouble.” He grew more careful, but acknowledged he’d heard the gossip. “If you’re worried about Eryndale or the any of the elves, don’t be. This will blow over. Life is so sacred to us that naturally the elves involved are upset, but they aren’t blaming you. I’d be more concerned about other reps on the council.” He paused. “I think Eryndale was talked into filing a complaint. You know you have enemies among other wolf clans, not our locals, but others that were involved with Steffan’s disappearance last year. The Chicago pack is pretty tight with our werehyenas. And you know how the hyenas are—always ready to make trouble if they can.”
“I had no idea anyone felt this way. How do I fix it? Nobody even told me the javeys were in town.”
“Gosh, Ari, I’m sorry. I should have called, but you usually hear things before I do.”
She shifted uncomfortably, realizing how long it had been since she’d talked with Martin. She should have kept in touch. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I hadn’t noticed I was talking so exclusively to the vampires.”
“While you’re beating yourself up, I might add you’re not good about spreading the info you get.” Martin kept his tone light, yet made a point.
Ouch! Had she become so absorbed in Andreas and the O-Seven that she’d shut out everyone else? Handled things without informing anyone? But wasn’t some of it just doing her job? Where did she draw the line? Keeping the seven most dangerous vampires in the world from making a visit to Riverdale and spreading their brutal dictatorship had to be a priority.
Ari sighed. “I guess I’m not good at sharing.”
“It’s not all your fault. I reckon you’d tell me if I called and asked. It’s something we can both work on,” Martin conceded. “If we get in the habit of touching base once a week, we’ll be more likely to mention the important things when they come up.”
“I like that idea.” She grasped at his solution. Anything to lessen the current hole she’d dug for herself. “How about Monday mornings? I’ll mark it on my calendar. In the meantime, if you need me, I guess you’ll find me at my desk. I’ve been scolded by the wizard and sent to my office.”
Martin chuckled. “You know the old man likes you. This was merely an early warning. Keep your contacts open and continue doing your job. Two months from now, you won’t even remember this.”
“I’m not so sure about that, but I hope you’re right. I can’t believe any of this is happening.”
Chapter Two
Ari dragged her feet as she climbed the front steps of the Victorian home she shared with Andreas. They’d talked twice during the day. He’d called right after he first awoke, concerned when their magical link telegraphed her unsettled mood. She’d brushed him off, saying it was nothing important, but he hadn’t believed her. There were definite drawbacks to h
aving a strong psychic connection to someone. It made it impossible to lie with impunity.
He’d called again, later in the evening when she was beginning patrol, but she’d delayed the discussion again until she got home. Well, she was home now and not looking forward to the coming rehash of her meeting with the wizard.
She keyed in the front door code, raising a brow when Andreas pulled it open. “Hi, I figured you’d be at the club.”
A slow smile parted his lips, and his dark eyes gleamed. “No, you did not. You knew very well I would be waiting.” His magic reached out to brush against her skin, a warm, soothing sensation.
She sighed. “OK, so I figured you’d be home, but not manning the front door.”
“I wanted to give you these.” He pulled a bouquet of daffodils, her favorite flower, from behind his back. “You sounded like you could use a little TLC. Consider this my first contribution to that end.”
She tipped her head and took a long look at him. The black wavy hair, the sexy dark eyes with those incredible long lashes. His black Armani jeans and the bluish-silver silk shirt unbuttoned at the throat couldn’t have fit him better. Long, lean, muscled. And he shared his life with her. Ari smiled and leaned forward, resting her head against his chest. Did he know what one look, one gesture from him could do? And how much she’d come to count on it?
She turned her head to bury her nose in the fresh, delicate scent of the bouquet. “I won’t even ask where you found them at this time of year. But thanks, I guess I needed this.” She raised her head and brushed her lips across his. “You’re too good to me.”
He wound an arm around her waist. “Always glad to help, but dinner awaits, and we can talk afterward.”
Andreas steered her toward the study, his favorite room. She was delighted but not surprised to see a candlelit table and bottles of wine. This wasn’t the first time he’d arranged intimate dinners brought in from Club Dintero, his fancy supper club. Nor was the dinner menu a surprise when he pulled the silver cover off her plate to reveal chicken marsala. It was her favorite fancy dish. Well, fancy when compared with the sandwiches, chips or fries that she often grabbed on the run.
As he pulled out her chair, his fingers brushed her neck. Her breath quickened, and he responded with a deep chuckle. She smiled up at him, and an understanding passed between them. They’d been together long enough that the unspoken promises were comfortably tucked away for later.
Once they were seated, they made small talk about the club, the two cats that shared their home along with several vampires of his lineage, and the weretigers whose family had been in his service for two hundred years. Ari mostly fiddled with her food. Andreas’s eyes flickered to her plate, but he didn’t comment on her lack of appetite. He sipped a glass of Chianti and talked a lot about Italy, especially the coming grape harvest. Was he missing his native home?
When he brought it up again, she asked. “Are you planning a visit to your Italian estates?”
He looked up from his drink with a faint smile. “I’d intended to put off the discussion until later, but I appear to have tipped my hand. I am considering the possibility. I had a letter from my overseer reporting some mysterious incidents—destroyed vines, break-ins at outbuildings, petty thievery. Nothing significant, but it made me realize how long I have been away. Almost four years. It is time I went home, looked over the land, visited the people.” His eyes lit with memories. “It would be fun to oversee the harvest again. We still have a harvest party where they stomp the grapes with their feet. You could come with me.”
“That’s just the thing,” she said, putting down her fork. She pushed the plate away and took a sip from her wine glass. “I can’t. I’m pretty much grounded.” When his brows shot up, she went on to explain her meeting with the council president and the elf representative. “It’s not that they’re wrong, but they’re not taking into account the amount of trouble you’ve had in the last two years. Between Sebastian, a bunch of evil witches, and the O-Seven, you’ve been under constant threat.” She cocked her head at him. “Should you even be going to Europe? Aren’t you safer here if those creepy old men are still on the rampage?”
Andreas threw back his head and laughed. “Creepy old men? The vampire elders might be offended if they heard you call them so.”
“Too bad.” She cracked a impish grin. “As if I care what they think. But I’m serious, will you be safe in Italy?”
“Once I land, I will not leave Tuscany. The jet will fly directly to an airfield on the estate and return from there. The O-Seven will never know I left Riverdale. In fact, I will be safer than you are.” He frowned, indicating the thought was a new and unwelcome one. “If the O-Seven is intent on further trouble, this is where they will look for us. Perhaps I should wait for a better time rather than leave you alone.”
“Yeah, like when? I’ll be fine. I’m surrounded by people who’ll protect me. I’m more worried about the elders finding out you’re in Europe. What if they do? I know you think that’s unlikely, but humor me. Do you have sufficient staff in Italy to protect you?”
“There are hundreds who work on my estates, and a staff from here will travel with me. More than enough.”
Ari wasn’t convinced, especially since most of those people worked in the vineyards—they weren’t trained in security—but she’d learned to accept his decisions. Respect had to go both ways, and that was how they’d managed to merge their divergent lives. “How long will you be gone? A week? A month?”
He reached a hand across the table and captured hers. “No longer than necessary, but it will be weeks. Perhaps four or five. There is always much to do on these infrequent trips.”
Ari tried to ignore the empty feeling in her chest. It had been a bad day. The meeting with her boss had sucked, and now Andreas was going away. She remembered how it had been when she’d returned to Riverdale last year and he stayed in Canada. For two weeks she’d felt…incomplete.
She rallied a lighter tone. “I think it’s great that you’ll see your family home again.”
“Casa De Luca,” he murmured, as if he were seeing it in his mind.
“Yes, the casa. I’ll miss you, but I can concentrate on my job and mend fences with the council reps. How soon do you plan to leave?”
His soft voice told her he wasn’t fooled by her forced enthusiasm. “It is not decided yet, but if I go it will be by the end of the week. I want to meet with the family solicitors while I am there, and I should hear from them tomorrow. I will miss you too, cara mia. Very much.”
With emotions threatening to spill over, she pulled her hand away and stood. “If you’re going to be gone so long, we better make good use of these last days.”
“What did you have in mind?” His lips curved into a smile, and he leaned back, looking up at her. When his gaze darkened, she had no trouble interpreting what was on his mind. It was the way they often dealt with strong emotions.
“I was referring to plans for the running of the club and how I can support Gabriel in his position as prince pro tem while you’re gone. But I can see your imagination has gone somewhere else.” Ari tapped her cheek with one finger. “Now I wonder where? How about a good movie in the rec room? I’ll go pick something.” She grinned and walked out the door.
He caught her in the hallway and pinned her against the wall with an arm on either side. Andreas bent his head to nuzzle her neck. “We have not had dessert yet,” he whispered. “Perhaps the movie could wait.”
His lips claimed hers. He deepened the kiss, tightening his hold, pressing her body against him. When Ari sighed against his mouth and wiggled her hips, he picked her up and carried her to the second floor. The only recreation room on that level was the master bedroom.
* * *
Ari was seated at her office in the cultural center by 7:30 the next morning. Although she was often there on Wednesdays, as one of the two days she tried to squeeze in appointments, she hadn’t made it on Monday, and she wanted to get an early s
tart. It might help her prove to the council president that she could do things by the book.
It was a busy morning. Besides three regularly scheduled appointments for clients to sign up for community services, she spent a long time with a family of weretigers. Mother, father and two young cubs arrived unannounced to complain about the stench from their next door neighbors’ garbage, which hadn’t been taken to the curb in three weeks.
“It smells like road kill,” the father declared. “Very tempting to our children.”
“Did you complain to city services?”
“We’re telling you.”
Ari refrained from rolling her eyes, made the call, and filed a complaint on the tigers’ behalf. Once that was done, the father left to get to his job, but the mother refused to take her children home until the problem was resolved. Since city services were notoriously slow, Ari pointed out the center’s formal waiting room and called in her next appointment. When her client departed a half hour later, Ari found the tiger family still sitting in her hallway. She sighed. Obviously the mother wasn’t budging until something was done. The tigress and her cubs sat stiffly on a row of hard wooden chairs along the side, flanked by two large potted plants. The cubs squirmed restlessly. Having raised Bella’s kittens, Ari knew the signs. Trouble wasn’t far away. Scrounging through the storage room, she found two balls of twine for the cubs to use as toys. Picking up tangled string would be an easy cleanup.
The tigers had a long wait. It was almost noon before city services called to say the neighbors had moved without notice, but the garbage had now been removed.
When Ari stepped into the hall to give the family the good news, she clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the laughter that threatened to bubble free. She doubted the council members would share her amusement. As anticipated, the twine wound up and down the hallway. What she hadn’t counted on was the cubs would also unearth the potted plants, leaving a trail of soil, shredded leaves, and dirty paw prints.