Bad Boy Prince: A British Royal Stepbrother Romance (22 page)

Without quite knowing what she was doing, Echo flung herself into the stranger’s arms and proceeded to burst into tears.

“
A
h
! I’ve got you now, you red-bearded bastard!”

Rhys Macaulay grunted as he adjusted his grip on the hilt of his long sword. His lip pulled back to bare his teeth as his fingers slipped a fraction of an inch, but his sparring partner didn’t miss a beat. Gabriel circled left, his sneakers shrilling against the rubber floor of the Manor’s gymnasium with every movement. Rhys adjusted his grip, but to little avail; he and Gabriel had been practicing for almost two hours, and Rhys’s hands were damp with perspiration.

“You’re keeping your hands dry with magic, ye English prick,” Rhys accused, anger thickening his Scottish brogue to the point that it made him self-conscious.

“I thought you said there were no rules to fighting,” Gabriel shot back, his high-bred London accent grating on Rhys’s nerves. “‘
Throw duuurt in their eyes
’, you said. ‘
Eef the chance comes, kick a maaaan when he’s doon
’.”

Rhys huffed at Gabriel’s imitation.

“I dinnae sound like that,” Rhys insisted.

Gabriel chose that moment to strike, using a clever move to knock Rhys’s sword away as he thrust at Rhys’s unprotected ribs. Gabriel stopped his sword’s arc an inch from Rhys’s skin, an impressive move in itself. Rhys had taken great pains to work Gabriel hard in the first few months of their training for that very purpose; it was a fool’s errand to train someone who didn’t have enough control not to hurt their teacher.

“I’d call that a point, wouldn’t you?” Gabriel gave Rhys a cocky grin. Stepping back and lowering his sword, Gabriel pushed a hand through his dark, sweat-slicked curls. Gabriel had come a long way since the day they’d all arrived at the Manor house, his frame filling out after a couple months of intensive daily workouts. He was almost as broad and muscular as Rhys now, but a bit slimmer, which gave Gabriel an extra dose of grace.

“Shut the fuck up, pretty boy.”

Rhys rolled his eyes, pretending to end the match. The second Gabriel’s attention left him, Rhys was on him, sword edge a hair’s breadth from Gabriel’s neck. He forced Gabriel to kneel and drop his sword, his eyes burning with spite.

“Tap out,” Gabriel hissed.

Rhys withdrew and grinned, and after a moment Gabriel gave an exasperated chuckle.

“You honestly cannot stand to lose, can you?” Gabriel asked, accepting Rhys’s hand up.

“That’s not it, Gabriel. I want you to understand that outside this safe little cocoon,” Rhys said, swirling a finger to indicate the Manor grounds, “people don’t fight fair. They fight dirty, because that’s how they win. If they can stop you moving in any way, they've won. Honor be damned.”

Gabriel’s lips twitched once more, and he shrugged.

“Soon,” he said, pointing a finger at Rhys. “We’ve been training together for a year now. I beat Aeric last week, and you are next.”

“In your dreams, lad,” Rhys said, walking to the wall and putting his practice sword on the wall mount.

Gabriel did the same, giving Rhys a skeptical glance.

“I’m four years younger than you,” Gabriel pointed out.

“Yeah, and our lives before the Guardians couldn’t have been more different,” Rhys replied with a shrug. “I was raised as the firstborn son of a Highlander clan chieftain. I had a lot of responsibility from a young age. I was in the lists every day at age seven, training others by age twelve, fighting for the King at twenty two. I always knew I was going to…”

Rhys stopped mid-sentence.
Rule my people
, had been on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t get the words out. His jaw tensed as he considered, for perhaps the thousandth time in the last year, the fact that he was never going to rule anything. He’d sacrificed that right the second he made a deal with Mere Marie.

“Rhys… it’s not 1764 anymore,” Gabriel said, shooting him a half-pitying look that made Rhys’ guts churn. “It’s 2015, and you need to get used to the fact that you’re a Guardian now. A mere worker bee in Mere Marie’s little hive, protecting New Orleans. It’s not like you’re the only one who she’s brought forward a couple hundred years in time to play soldier.”

Rhys’s jaw tensed at Gabriel’s casual tone. It was true enough that Rhys had given up his clan, traded his right to rule for Mere Marie’s assurances that his people would survive and thrive despite a number of looming threats. That didn’t mean that Rhys should forget his whole former life, though, or pretend that he didn’t mourn his choices. Rhys and Gabriel had played out this exact argument a number of times over the past year, learning each other’s quirks and soft spots as they worked to form a cohesive fighting unit.

The third Guardian on their team… well, he was a great fighter, but he was considerably less friendly. Rhys still regarded Aeric, the Viking warrior who’d somehow ended up in their group, as something of a mystery.

“I’m starved,” Gabriel announced, cutting into Rhys’s thoughts. Rhys thought that Gabriel was likely changing the subject in order to stem the flow of Rhys’s morbid thoughts. Rhys knew that Gabriel did so because of their new-found friendship. The two men had found a quiet sort of contentment over the past year, at least more so than they had with Aeric. Aeric was still standoffish and mostly kept to himself.

“All right, all right,” Rhys said, wiping his brow. “I saw Duverjay putting together some sandwiches and we were on our way out here.”

Gabriel and Rhys left the gymnasium and walked outside across the broad green space that made up the Manor’s ill used backyard. They entered the main house and bypassed the living room in favor of the kitchen, where the Manor’s butler Duverjay was setting out several Gatorades atop a bowl of ice. The short Creole man had shown up the first day Rhys arrived at the Manor, ready to serve their needs, but Rhys was pretty sure that Duverjay also reported their every movement back to Mere Marie.

“Ah, Duverjay, you always know what I like,” Gabriel teased. Duverjay raised a brow, but otherwise did not respond. The man was from the classical school of butlers, and he would no more likely rise to Gabriel’s bait then he would begin a day of work in flip-flops.

The Guardians tormented Duverjay mercilessly about the pristine black suit and white dress shirt he wore every day. The butler never deviated from his self-imposed uniform, but that didn’t stop him from shooting disapproving glances at the Guardians any time they lounged around the house in gym shorts and sneakers after a long day of sparring.

Formed by Mere Marie with the specific intention to protect the city of New Orleans from a rising tide of evil power, specifically a slippery, shadowed figure known as Pere Mal, the Guardians spent most of their time patrolling the city streets. They generally monitored all the goings-on of the Kith, or paranormal community, but could be called upon to help humans if the need was great enough. When they weren’t patrolling, the Guardians were sparring or working on their weapon-handling skills, usually in the form of target practice with a handgun or crossbow.

The butler made a point to keep a fresh suit and tie pressed and ready in the bedroom of each of the Guardians. As if it any moment, Rhys might ditch his jeans and shit kicking boots for what amounted to dinner wear. Of all the modern conveniences, Rhys loved fitted jeans and fast cars the most.

Though he’d left behind a great deal in his old life, Rhys had come to appreciate certain parts of his new one. 2015 boasted a wealth of fine wines and whiskeys, for instance. The variation of clothing styles was astonishingly broad, though Duverjay did most of the actual purchasing for the Guardians; the man had an eye for the fit of a garment.

There was also something to be said for the food, an eye-opening array of choices from every type of game or fowl Rhys had ever known, multiplied by a thousand. Rhys loved nothing more than a piece of roast salmon, fingerling potatoes, and a fresh salad of field greens. Usually finished with a glass of port or Scotch whiskey, though he kept his intake of alcohol low.

Rhys’s stomach rumbled, and he realized that he was rhapsodizing about salmon because he’d worked up a huge appetite sparring with Gabriel. Damn the man, but the other Guardian was almost as good as Rhys with a sword now, and Rhys had to work a lot harder to keep them both on their toes.

“Dinner?” Rhys asked the butler.

“Gentlemen,” Duverjay said with a slight bow. “There is a very distressed young lady waiting for you in the foyer. You might want to see her before you eat.”

Rhys gave Duverjay a curious glance, then headed into the front hall. A light skinned young woman waited there, wringing her hands. She wore a royal blue dress that clung to every curve. Paired with sky high white heels, her fashionable outfit clashed with the misery in her expression.

Duverjay inserted himself between the girl and Rhys, placing a comforting hand on her arm. Rhys noticed that Gabriel hung back, seemingly content to watch the exchange.

“This is Andrea,” Duverjay said, giving the girl a sympathetic, wincing smile. “Her mother’s in a bit of trouble. Isn’t that right, Andrea?”

The young woman nodded, her lower lip wobbling. Rhys was startled to watch as Duverjay actively tried to comfort her; Duverjay rarely showed any visible emotion, and Rhys had never seen the Butler expressed sympathy of any kind.

“That man, Pere Mal, he took my momma,” Andrea sobbed. “She didn’t do nothing wrong. The man can’t just take her off the street like that, just because she works at Le Marchè. Can he?”

Mere Marie, the Guardians’ mercurial employer, sauntered down one of the two grand staircases that flanked the front hall, though Rhys hadn’t noticed her listening in. She was a petite woman of perhaps sixty years of age, though Rhys knew for a fact that Mere Marie was at least four or five times older than she looked. She had the distinctive coffee-and-cream skin tone of a Creole woman, but her straight salt-and-pepper hair and French-tinged New Orleans accent hinted at a farther-reaching blend of mixed heritage: Haitian, Creole, and white, perhaps even a little Spanish.

As always, Mere Marie was dressed in a flowing set of cotton robes. Today she wore light yellow, and she’d pushed up the sleeves to her elbows. Rhys caught the scent of anise and bitter herbs, the herbal smell growing stronger as she neared. Her fingers and forearms were mottled with green and yellow stains, signs that she’d been at work in her apothecary room, making little sachets she called
gris-gris
.

Being employed by a Voodoo priestess was never boring, that much was certain. Rhys edged away from the overwhelming licorice scent pouring off Mere Marie, and waited to hear what she’d say about the butler bringing strangers into the Manor.

“Ah, Duverjay, I see you’re bringing your family to visit at work now,” Mere Marie said, arching a brow.

Rhys looked at Duverjay and Andrea, and suddenly it was obvious that they were related. They had similar noses, and the same chocolatey brown eyes. Duverjay glared at Rhys and Gabriel, as if challenging them to say something about him or Andrea.

“My niece, ma’am,” Duverjay said to Mere Marie. “I hope you don’t mind.”

Rhys glanced at Mere Marie, wondering for the thousandth time precisely what Mere Marie had done to earn the man’s loyalty and respect. Duverjay didn’t defer to many people, but with Mere Marie he was the very picture of politeness.

“Let’s hear it, then,” Mere Marie said, giving the young woman a skeptical glance.

“Well, I was at my work, Stiletto’s, talking to one of my regulars. This guy Amos, good tipper.” Andrea paused and took a shaky breath. “I told him a story about my momma, about her work in the Voodoo market, how she meets all these people. Witches and psychics, people who come to her for herbs stuff.”

“Your mother has very high quality products,” Marie said with a nod.

“Well, I didn’t realize that Amos works for some… I don’t know who these guys are, but they snatched my momma right off the street. She didn’t even get a close her shop or nothing, left the door wide open. Lucky everybody scared of my momma.” Andrea scowled.

“And did Amos tell you where your mother is?” Duverjay asked.

“Naw. I guess that guy, Perma or whatever his name is, has some some spot across the bridge where he keeps people. Amos make it sound like…” Andrea paused and shivered. “Like it’s no big thing. That’s fucked up.”

“You mean Pere Mal, I think. Why are they holding your mother? Does she have something they want?” Mere Marie asked, cocking her head.

“Amos was tipping me real good a couple of weeks ago, asking me to look out for a certain kinda person. A medium, he called it. Somebody real strong, with no shields to keep people out, and nobody to look after them. Momma reads auras and shit, you know,” Andrea said, circling her hand around her head to imitate an aura. “She said this lady comes in and gets some kinda herb, something to make it so she don’t see ghosts and stuff. Momma says that lady’s aura is a little blue, means she don’t got anybody waiting for her at home. Anyway, Amos was asking, so I told him about the lady. I figured he wanted to contact a ghost or something.”

“And they took your mother to find the lady?” Rhys asked, filling in the gaps in the story.

“Yeah. Her name’s Echo Caballero. Amos called her something else, too… A light or some shit,” Andrea sighed.

“Language,” Duverjay warned with a frown.

“Sorry, Uncle George.” Andrea gave him an apologetic grimace and Duverjay gave her a gentle hug.

“Let’s get you something to drink, huh?” Duverjay said, shooting Rhys a meaningful glance as he shepherded his niece toward the kitchen. “Let them work on how to get your mother back.”

The second they were out of hearing range, Gabriel gave a beleaguered sigh.

“I didn’t realize that we were doing Duverjay’s personal errands now,” he lamented.

“That’s not why Duverjay brought her here,” Mere Marie snapped, shooting Gabriel an irritable glance. “He brought her because it involves Pere Mal. And it’s a good thing he did, if this woman is what I think she is. The Three Lights must be protected, kept from Pere Mal at all costs.”

“What are the Three Lights?” Rhys asked.