Taking another shower, I crashed onto my bed. At least my mind felt calm. I convinced myself I’d done everything possible, Camille, and the trinity, had to be my priority. She was safe and perhaps my dad’s stash of knowledge in Greece could offer some clues as to how to break the curse. I prayed it would. Moving every two years would suck. I didn’t want the life my dad created. If I had kids, they would know everything from the beginning.
“You going to sleep all day.” Tyler flashed the light on and off, on and off.
I covered my head with my pillow. “Since when are you my mom? I think I deserve a break.”
“Alena said you were up late working out. Watch out, she gave you a pass last night, but she and Hunter are seething about how you drugged her.”
“Great.” I pushed myself off the bed. “More trinity drama. As if Camille wasn’t enough.”
“Drama with Camille?”
“She didn’t like that we didn’t call her and less that we weren’t coming back last night.”
“You worried she wants to be with Hunter and Alena more than you?”
“No.” Actually, the thought hadn’t occurred to me, but with it in my brain, I doubted I could lose it. “Is there food?”
“Yeah, dude, tons.”
I made my way to the empty kitchen, hoping there was nothing on the agenda for the day. I’d just sat down with my bagel when Alena and Hunter strode in.
“We need to talk about last night!” Alena’s hand went to her hip.
“Can it wait till the debriefing when we get back? I’m sure we’ll have to go through this with Orm, Chalondra, and your mom, so I’d rather not rehash it twice. My mission was a failure, got it. I put all of us in jeopardy, check. That place is going to be harder to get into, double check.” I stuffed my bagel sandwich in my mouth.
Alena opened her mouth, but Hunter grabbed her arm. “Come to the tech room when you’re done. We need to start planning for Athens.”
At least they’d given me the reprieve of letting me finish breakfast. I was surprised Hunter hadn’t accosted me for drugging his girl. He wasn’t the pushy, in-your-face type, and I appreciated that. Alena had enough of that for both of them. I got it, she was passionate, and I guessed it served the group well, but she could stand to take it down a notch.
In the tech room, we studied satellite images, marking possible locations of the structure in the poem. We noticed a few buildings that looked abandoned or had been for sale for long periods of time, and we flagged those. Next, we investigated possible locations for a safe house not far from these. I hated that Camille wasn’t there, but I brushed the thought off. We were already halfway to the spring equinox. We had six weeks to make a move before Sonia and her evil clan had another shot at using the sword.
After midnight, we packed the vehicles and made our way back to the main hideout. They hadn’t picked up any abnormal activity around the complex or at Michael’s castle since the previous night.
“You’re okay.” Camille slammed into me as soon as I exited the vehicle.
I kissed her soft pink lips. “You didn’t have to wait up.”
“Are you kidding, we’re sitting on pins and needles. Where’s your dad?” Her eyes darted from our vehicle to the two beyond.
“It’s a long story. I’d rather not tell it twice.” I took her hand.
“He’s not here? You couldn’t get him?”
Alena approached us. “My mother is ready for the debriefing. We’re gathering in the tech room.”
I let out a huge breath and grabbed Camille’s hand.
“What’s going on?” Camille whispered.
“Lots. I’m sorry you have to find out this way, but we need to get everyone up to speed at the same time. We’ll have time to talk later.”
I knew Camille, Alena, and Hunter had grown closer, and Camille considered them her team, but she and I also kind of had our own team. She’d become my person, and whatever happened, I wanted to talk to her about it first, but there wasn’t time.
In the conference room, I scanned the chairs. “Where are Dimitri and Aaron?”
“We can proceed without them,” Anne stated from the screen.
“No, they went up the cliff. They were the tie breakers, they were as much part of this mission as Grady, Tyler, and me.”
“I’ll go get them,” Grady piped up.
“They went up the cliff?” Camille whispered to me. “You didn’t go?”
I shook my head, hoping she got that I just needed the whole affair over and done. Within a minute, Grady appeared with Dimitri and Aaron. Camille sat quietly beside me as I explained how Alena went crazy, telling us she had to get to the dagger.
“But you didn’t have to drug me,” Alena insisted.
“Are you forgetting the blade you had pressed to my throat?”
Camille squirmed in her seat, looking between me and Alena. Dimitri, Aaron, and Grady backed my story, and in the end, I was forgiven for the use of questionably excessive measures. Next, Anne asked Alena how she knew they were using the sword.
“I don’t know. It was like it was calling to me. Stronger than last time,” Alena told the group.
“Do you think Marcus tipped them off?”
“It doesn’t matter. All we have is this.” I held up the page with the poem as well as the deciphering image. Then I explained how we could use it to find the structure holding my Dad’s collection of whatever he thought was important.
“Do we need to talk about their forces?” Tyler asked. “We barely got away.”
Eyes wide, Camille squeezed my hand under the table, and I squeezed back.
“Let’s save that for later. What do you know about the letter, Jude?” Anne asked.
Alena started before I could. “One more thing, I can’t ignore it. The form I saw, he guided us back to shore. He had wings, like an angel. It has to be relevant.”
“Looks like you have a guardian angel, dear.” I didn’t miss that Anne’s eyes cut to Orm. “The whole team owes a lot to him.”
I laid the poem and cipher pages on the overhead projector so everyone could see and explained how we’d located a couple of potential buildings and believed each member of the trinity needed to go to the location.
“Do we have an original of that? Do we know the history?” Anne pointed to the page.
“I have no idea. I’d have to ask my Pop,” I told her.
“We need a backup. Who else can come serve as a member of the Alonso coven?”
“You mean if I, like, kick it? It’s only my Pop, Nan, and me now.”
“Get them here, and send me a copy of the poem. I’m going to get my tech guys on finding out whether there are other copies and the origin of the verses. You guys keep working on getting to Greece, and we’ll check back in tomorrow.” Anne depressed a button and her video feed ended.
Feeling as I’d been acquitted of the sedative incident, I spun to face Camille.
“You drugged Alena? You didn’t even go up to get your father? What happened to the plan?”
“You didn’t see her. She was holding a knife to my neck. You heard your dad, Dimitri, and Aaron.”
“Why did you have the syringes in the first place? Where did you get them?”
“The infirmary. They were extra insurance. I thought I might have to drug my dad. What if Alena had gone up there, gotten caught? She was playing into their hands.”
“I don’t like it, Jude. I have to be able to trust you. When you go out on your own like this, I feel like you don’t trust me.” Camille stood, shoved her chair under the table, and walked away.
I dropped my head to the table. Maybe I should have told her about the sedatives. It hadn’t even occurred to me. What did it matter? In the end, I needed them and used them in good conscious.
Pushing back, I shot out of my chair after her. Grabbing her arm, I spun her to face me. “I was keeping Alena safe. Can’t you see that?”
“Would you have drugged me?”
�
�Yes.” She turned away from me, and I caught her arm. “If I’d listened to my gut in the castle, you would’ve never been alone. We could’ve gotten out together with your dad. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.”
Her eyes blinked and filled with tears. “I need to be able to trust you.”
“It wasn’t like I deliberately hid the information from you. I just realized I needed a backup and didn’t even think to tell you.”
“Okay, well, I don’t want to be separated from you like that again. What if you hadn’t gotten away? What if something happened?” Drops of water spilled over her eyelids and ran down her cheeks.
Hugging her to me, I stroked her hair. “We won’t, I promise.”
“I’m exhausted. I couldn’t sleep or eat worrying about you.”
We made our way to her room and she snuggled into my chest on the bed. With her warm body next to mine, nothing seemed wrong. Wishing we could forget all about the curse and prophecy, I listened to her breath in and out and the sound of her heart thumping.
I woke before Camille and slid out of bed. Making my way to the gym, I joined Grady and Tyler on the treadmills.
Grady hit the stop button and turned to face me. “Not sure I like you sleeping with my daughter.”
Feeling my face warm, I shook my head.
“Nothing to say about that, son?” he continued.
“I love her. I won’t hurt her. You know I’d go through fire for Camille.”
“Doesn’t change what I said before.” He restarted his run.
Betting Tyler felt the same, I programmed my machine and began the workout.
We trained, had breakfast, and then met in the conference room. I phoned Pop and explained that we needed him. In case the line was compromised, I didn’t discuss specifics. The group tossed around the idea of Pop and Nan being on the front team Greece, and although I didn’t want to put them in harm’s way, it made sense.
“Well, you know I don’t go anywhere without my Nan,” he said.
“I was counting on that.” I gave him the details for travel, and they agreed to pack and be ready the next day.
Scouting locations for safe houses, we decided on two. Anne instructed her people to prepare the residences, and we were informed they could be ready in a week’s time. We decided to travel with a smaller crew, which meant Grady would stay in Italy and continue his research and analysis of Michael’s castle compound. Anne felt Orm’s and Chalondra’s expertise would be needed if the building housed what we hoped it would, documents with directions for breaking the curse.
Pop and Nan arrived the next day. It was amazing how much younger they looked than six months prior.
“We were getting soft in our old age, had given up practicing magic,” Pop explained when I commented on his health. “I feel better now than I have in years.”
“I’m glad. This isn’t for the slight of heart.”
“No witch business ever is.” Nan wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “We’re excited to be helping you. This may be our last hoorah.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s okay. I’ve gotten everything I ever wanted. You’re happy. You and your dad are on the same page for once. I can die thinking I did my job pretty well,” Pop commented.
“We have vampires. Neither of you are dying on my watch.”
In the next week, Grady became our de facto teacher, making sure we kept up with our schoolwork. Orm and Chalondra tutored us for several hours a day, and we trained, working our magic as well as our muscles. Pop and Nan fit well with the others, especially Orm and Chalondra, and I caught Pop and Orm deep in conversation many times. I blocked out thoughts of all the time I’d missed with Dad and hopes of rescuing him. Once we had the dagger, perhaps we’d have the upper hand.
The day of departure for Greece came, and Dimitri and Aaron, along with two other vampires, escorted Alena, Camille, Chalondra, Nan, Pop, Orm, Hunter, Tyler, and me to the airfield.
“At least we know where we’re going this time,” I commented to Camille as we took our seats on the jet.
“You think my mother actually used one of the locations we chose?” Alena asked.
“I assumed.”
“I doubt it.” Alena and Hunter took seats behind us.
“I’m guessing she got us close enough to scope out targets.”
“We won’t see the sun till we’re on Pentelis and perhaps not even then. My guess is Mother will have us search at night.”
Resting my head on the seat back, I contemplated her words. At least we hadn’t wasted that much time scouting locations for our stay. Most of our research focused on aerial and web images of Pentelis Avenue structures. We still hadn’t found one with the coat of arms. Our searches revealed two different images for the crest, and Pop remembered using both at various times throughout history. One used a knight’s helmet positioned above a lion, and the other included two turret images juxtaposed with French la fleur silhouettes. Turrets only reminded me of Sardinia, and I forced the images out of my head.
The flight took under two hours, and we exited the jet in an enclosed hangar. Two vehicles with additional staff waited to transport us to our new base. We rode to the location in a windowless van that descended several flights before it stopped.
“What did I tell you, only the best for the best, lover boy.” Alena skipped to the elevator once we’d gathered our bags.
“Why am I lover boy?”
“Because you’re the only one I see here risking his life to keep a girl.”
“I’m not that insecure, and what about Tyler? Besides, this is about me and my heritage, my birthright, as much as it is about you three and the dagger.”
“It wasn’t an insult. You guys are cute.” She rolled her eyes. “Sheesh, always so serious.”
“Said the pot to the kettle.” Whatever had gotten into her that moment was better, maybe. It probably stemmed from being right about her mother changing up the safe house location on us. At least she seemed like a normal teenager for once.
Tyler hovered as we chose our room, jumping in and taking the room beside Camille before I could claim it. Hoping the nightmares wouldn’t return, I stowed my things and met everyone in the conference room.
“Jude,” Anne addressed me after she’d outlined the security protocols. “It’s your show now. If this spell works like we think it does, you get to call the shots on who is on your team.”
I surveyed the room. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t take everyone in. Nan and Pop can help with the search, remotely, but otherwise, the more brains and witch power on the project, the better.”
“Okay,” she agreed, “you start your search tomorrow night.”
I wished Pop could go with us, but remembering Elizabeth’s death, I wouldn’t risk separating Nan and him. They’d been together the better part of a century. Besides, we had satellites phones, and I could send him images of the potentials. When it came time to enter the structure, he would be there.
“I feel like I’m in a bad ninja movie,” Camille commented when we met in the hall dressed for our covert house hunting.
“We might need to paint your face black.” I fit the dark cap over her blond locks.
We decided to start with the addresses we’d located on the web and loaded in the van for the drive to Chalandri. Not being sure which spell would work, we’d learned all the entry spells known to the group. Pop remembered one his father taught him, and I guessed that should do the trick.
The section with older buildings covered a two-mile span, and we began on the north side. Having identified eleven buildings with lion-like architecture pieces, we unloaded a few blocks away and started our trek. Trying to blend in with the night crowd on the sidewalks, we ambled along until we found the first potential.
A silhouette of a lion walking on all fours was carved into the entranceway, and we moved on. We were looking for an animal standing on its hind feet, front paws in the air or either a shield with turret and l
a fleur. The second two buildings were the same, and we continued to the next potential site. The fourth building had a standing lion on the door clappers, and I sent the image to Pop. Peering in the window didn’t help as the shutters were closed and the space dark. Snapping pictures of the realtor’s sign, we kept going.
“This is the one. It has to be.” Alena pointed to the shield above the door, as we approached the fifth property. “How many Greek properties are going to have the Alonso crest over the door?”
I had to admit it matched perfectly. The residence seemed to be vacant as all the windows were boarded shut. Taking a picture of the crest and property manager’s number, I suggested we go to the next on the list. I wanted to make it to all the locations the first night, and then go back to the top guesses to narrow down our choices.
In the next two hours, we surveyed all the properties and rounded back to the two that fit closest, the one with the crest and other with the lion door knockers.
“There’s only one way to find out, come on.” Tyler led us to the alley behind the house and pulled a crowbar out of his pack.
“What are you doing?” I insisted.
“Well, if it’s spelled with magic, we shouldn’t able to break in, right?”
Camille snatched the crowbar from his hands. “You are going to land in a Greek jail. I don’t think you ever leave those.”
The rest of us sided with Camille, and we decided to contact the property manager the next day. At the next site, I studied the lions on the door clappers.
“The lions are facing the wrong way.”
“Look, there’s a knight’s helmet above the door,” Camille pointed out.
I ran my hands along the stone that flanked the entry. A vine pattern much like that of the coat of arms was carved into the stone.
“The images are correct, but they’re inverted. It doesn’t seem right.”
“If you were inside, it would,” Alena noted.
The Kingdom Journals Complete Series Box Set Page 72