Lucca (12 page)

As they entered the restaurant, along with
the aroma of Italian sauces, cooked meats, and fine wines hitting
his senses, Lucca picked up on the preternatural beings present.
His gaze lingered at the bar. Two men stared up at the flat screen
television mounted on the wall where some kind of sport was being
played which required uniforms and a ball. He really didn’t follow
football or baseball, but both tended to be American pass-times for
families. The males at the bar were human, the bartender, too.

“Will that be two for dinner?” the dark
haired hostess asked, already picking up a couple of menus.

“Yes, two,” Juliet answered.

They followed the waitress to the back room
where the booths and tables were set up for dining. His gaze landed
on the long table to the right of them and knew why his back ached,
his wings bulking at the idea of being bound.
Was it a Watchers'
convention tonight?

Gideon, Zaiden, and Eli sat at a table,
looking too large for the low-back chairs. His gaze shifted to the
female next to Eli and frowned. Ryden sat next to her mate. So,
maybe the meeting wasn’t of a preternatural sort. Rydan may be
mated to Eli, but last he checked, she was still human.

Ryden chose that moment to look up, her gaze
meeting his with surprised recognition. She leaned near Eli and
whispered something to him, most likely a warning that their enemy
stood not more than a few feet away from them.

Lucca’s brows lifted in surprise. Why hadn’t
the Watchers noticed him first?

Eli’s gaze riveted to him with murderous
intent. Ryden took hold of his arm as if she could keep him in his
seat.

Lucca let out a snort. Without his glamour
it would be suicide to face one of the Fallen, especially a newly
mated one. Preoccupied with Eli seated at the table, he forgot
Juliet stood beside him until she spoke, drawing his attention back
to her.

“Are they friends of yours?” she asked with
a nod in their direction.

Friends? Not likely. The bastards stood
by while the elders bound his wings.
“They’re…”
Backstabbing
bastards, the lot of them.
“…colleagues.”

Juliet looked at the waitress, who stood
waiting next to a booth meant for them. “We’ll be there in a
moment,” she told her.

“I’ll just leave the menus on the table
then,” the hostess offered.

“Thank you.” The hostess walked back to her
post and Juliet turned toward Lucca again. He should have marched
her out of the restaurant right then and there, but his feet seemed
planted where he stood.

“There’s no need to be rude.” Her voice
sounded far away.

Anger, frustration, and a weird need to draw
a broadsword egged on his body to take action. For what?
Protect
Juliet
, rang in his ears. His gaze focused on the table of
Watchers. Before he could decipher what that meant, Juliet spoke
again.

“We should at least say hi.”

“Juliet, wait.”

It was too late to stop her. Her agile steps
took her to the table where the brethren appeared as uncomfortable
as he felt.

“Hello, I’m Juliet Romeo.”

Gideon glanced over to Lucca with a frown,
but recovered quickly enough to break the ice. “We meet again.” He
pushed his chair back and stood, giving a gallant welcome, which
seemed out of character with his spiked auburn hair, skull earring,
and leather duds. It must be the charming smile that kept humans
from thinking he was a thug. “I’m Gideon Sharpe.”

“Nice to have a name to the face.” Juliet
returned the smile with one of her own.

Gideon’s mouth curved into a bigger grin.
The eegit.
Lucca’s eyes narrowed, sending daggers in
Gideon’s direction, but the Watcher chose to ignore him.

“Let me introduce you to everyone,” Gideon
finally offered. “This is Zaiden LeGard,” he pointed palm up to the
large warrior with a wave of dark hair and piercing blue eyes.
Zaiden gave her a slight nod, his blue eyes taking on an icy
sheen.

Was he trying to glamour her? Lucca took a
step forward to only halt his steps. His gaze shifted to Juliet,
her gaze fixated on Zaiden, but he didn’t pick up a telltale sign
of a human being glamoured. Matter of fact, Juliet arched a brow at
Zaiden as if she knew what he was trying to do and had somehow
blocked him. What in the world? Was she challenging him? His hands
fisted as he moved forward again, ready to shield her, but the
Watcher’s gaze shifted with bored indifference.

Gideon turned toward Eli, who still eyed
Lucca with suspicion. “This is Eli and Ryden Grigori.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Juliet,” Ryden gave
her a warm smile before her gaze wavered to Lucca. Ryden no doubt
wondered what devious plans he had in the works for Juliet. Ryden
may not recall their encounter from the other dimension of time,
but he would wager Eli informed her of his insidious deeds.
Pity
. It made this little impromptu meeting even more
awkward, as if it wasn’t already.

“Why don’t you join us?” Ryden offered.

Lucca almost laughed at how the Watchers
shifted their large warrior bodies in their seats, their jaws
clenching as if they were biting their tongues. Believe him, he no
sooner wanted to share their company than they wanted to share
his.

“I don’t think—” Lucca tried to intervene,
but Juliet was quicker, shooting down his escape.

“We’d love to.” She glanced at Lucca with a
disarming smile, making it difficult to refuse. Her power over him
was proving to be an annoyance. Why couldn’t she let him usher her
to the nice little booth in the corner where no one would bother
them?

He moved forward, pulling the chair out for
Juliet. Not that he wanted her to sit next to Zaiden, but he
couldn’t afford to be boxed in. He needed a corner spot just in
case things got ugly.

Chapter Sixteen

Juliet sat back in her seat. She never
witnessed so many Watchers in one room. She didn’t fear them. Well,
not in the sense that they meant her any harm. The Fallen Angels
had their own worries and tended to stay out of her business. It
was the Archangels she had to worry about coming after her and
Owen. Raziel gave her a special weapon to use against the
purebreds. The ability to recognize when glamour was being used was
one of the special talents she possessed. With practice she had
learned to hold the glamour back when a preternatural tried to use
it on her.

At least her ability worked on the Nephilim.
Chances were the Archangels would fry her before she’d have a
chance to recognize the threat.

Her gaze took in each Watcher’s appearance.
Eli had the face of a saint, with angular features and eyes the
color of whiskey. Gideon looked a little rough around the edges
with his auburn spiked hair and leather attire, but his grin took
the edge off his badass persona. Zaiden’s dark looks and ice blue
eyes would definitely turn heads, but there stood an undercurrent
of darkness around him as if he witnessed too many horrible deeds
and couldn’t entirely shake free of them. All of them were lethal
in one way or the other. Raziel’s teachings warned her of the
Fallen Angels, the Nephilim were included in the branded name. They
were warriors and males you didn’t want to cross if you knew what
was good for you.

She glanced at Zaiden, who did a pretty good
imitation at pretending she didn’t exist. Funny, she could almost
believe he feared her, or at the very least, was leery of what she
might reveal about what went down at Leroy’s. Good. Maybe it would
keep him quiet. She had a hunch verbally sparing with him would
wear her down.

She glanced at Lucca, who shifted in his
seat, appearing as uncomfortable as a man awaiting execution. One
wrong word and he’d either end up bolting for the nearest door or
come up punching the closest Watcher.

She rested a hand on his arm. He looked at
her and it seemed to calm him. Lucca may have once worked Black Ops
or something of the sort, but he was in no way a match for
preternatural beings. How did he know so many Watchers anyway? Her
gaze swept over him, wondering if she missed that he was a
preternatural being, too. He was as large as the Watchers, but she
didn’t detect the glow the half angels had surrounding them. No
glamour poured off him like the other three males at the table, who
were forced to conceal their true self.

Eli put out an extra amount of magic,
shielding it around Ryden as if she needed protection. From whom
would she need protection in the friendly family restaurant? Her?
Lucca? For the life of her she couldn’t imagine what threat they
posed.

Gideon’s distorted glamour wavered in and
out like a ghostly image having trouble materializing. He looked
healthy enough, but it was as if he suffered an injury and had yet
to heal completely. He had a smaller structure than the other two
Watchers. Heck, he was smaller than Lucca, but she had no doubt
he’d be a formidable opponent if a fight broke out. He probably
stood close to six-foot one or two, while the others stood closer
to six-foot four or five. All built like they spent time at the
same gym.

Her gaze wavered over Lucca again. Maybe
that’s where Lucca met them. Did Watchers actually need to work
out? She never thought to ask Leroy about that. For a moment
sadness seeped into her heart. She would never speak to the Angel
again. She shook off the melancholy. She’d have plenty of time to
grieve in the privacy of her home.

Lucca’s gaze met hers and she realized she’d
been staring at him. God, his eyes were an incredible shade of blue
gray, cool stormy winter sky, but fierce in their assessment of
situations. Then his gaze darkened as it wavered over her with a
beat of forbidden desire. Her breath wobbled, catching in a sexual
way as she imagined his lips covering hers, taking her under until
she begged for more. She blinked and inhaled sharply, wondering
where the thoughts had come from and why she wanted to act on it by
grabbing his hand and dragging him back to her place.

“How did you two meet?” Ryden’s voice
brought Juliet tumbling back to earth with a crash. She swallowed
the lump in her throat and forced herself to turn away from Lucca.
Ryden’s eyes were a light brown, reminding her of brown sugar. A
beautiful contrast to her dark tresses cascading down her right
shoulder in waves of ebony. “We met…” What did she tell them? Which
time constituted as true introduction? The time he sniffed behind
her ear or when he insisted on buying her groceries and walking her
home? Or was the crime scene where they truly met and exchanged
names? She could leave out the part where she drew her gun on him
first.

Lucca remained mute, sitting there next to
her all wound up, edgy, and if she hadn’t misread his heated gaze a
minute ago, frustrated as well.

“They met at the Laundromat,” Gideon
supplied the answer. All eyes shifted to him. He cleared his
throat. “Clothes get dirty.” His broad shoulders lifted in a shrug.
He cleared his throat and leaned forward to reach for his water
glass.

“And how did you both end up at the same
crime scene?” This was from Zaiden. He turned in his seat, pinning
her down with his ice blue eyes, frosting over with suspicion.

So much for the Watcher keeping quiet.

“You referred to Lucca as some detective as
if you didn’t really know him, but here you are on a date with
him,” Zaiden accused her.

Lucca and she spoke at the same time.

“This isn’t a date,” she claimed.

“It’s none of your business,” Lucca chimed
in.

She glanced at Lucca who closed his eyes in
a deliberate blink. Her words had hurt him. She hadn’t meant them
to, but her pledge to not get involved with him was becoming
difficult to uphold. Then Zaiden threw it in her face. How could
she not lash out? She resisted the urge to cross her arms over her
chest in a defensive manner. She refused to cow down. She opened
her mouth to respond, but it was Lucca who spoke.

“How do you know about the crime scene,
Zaiden?” Lucca’s voice matched the chilly look Zaiden had bore down
on her.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Zaiden
shifted his gaze to Lucca.

“I think you know the answer to that. What I
want to know is why you’re involved?”

“Get off your
higher-than-thou
attitude with me,” Lucca met his challenge head on. “I don’t answer
to you.”

She could literally feel the hostility
flowing from Lucca. Any moment there would be a brawl and she sat
smack dab in the middle of it. “Listen boys, can we tone down the
testosterone a bit. The back lash from the both of you is making me
nervous.”

Lucca snorted and she was sure a curse flew
from his lips, but he was polite enough to keep it at a low
murmur.

Zaiden sat back in his seat, but his hands
gripped his thighs as if he was having a difficult time reining in
his anger.

“I personally would like to know what
you
were doing there?” Juliet questioned Zaiden. “How did
you know to show up? Or do you sit by a police scanner hoping to
find a good homicide to spend your day?” She smiled sweetly at
Zaiden, knowing her gaze told him she wouldn’t play nice.
Go
ahead, angel boy. I’d love to see you talk your way out of this
one.

Zaiden’s gaze riveted to her, his eyes
narrowing. “I am not in a habit of discussing my business with...”
His nose flared and she all but heard what he left out.

Humans.
He didn’t discuss his
business with humans. “Too bad. I want to know who or what killed
Leroy. I want to know what we’re dealing with and how I’m going to
take the preternatural being out.”

Zaiden lost his hostility for a moment. His
brows raised and was that admiration lighting his eyes? He looked
away before she could decipher.

Eli fastened his look on her now. “How do
you know about preternatural beings?”