vampires of san francisco 07 - suckers lost and found (12 page)

Aidan is sitting next to Hannah with Fiona up against his chest. She is bundled up to keep warm.

      “Has anyone heard from the King yet?” Sebastian asks the group at large.

      “Yes, he will be here in about ten more minutes,” Julian says as he puts his phone back in his pocket. He must have had a text from the King.

      Sebastian and I sit down in chairs next to each other and we join in the conversation. Before long we hear the King’s car pull up. We all rise to greet him and Julian and Helena help him settle in. After that, he and Armand join us on the terrace.      

We stand to greet the King. He kisses cheeks, shakes hands and then when he gets to me he kisses me on the cheek but it is almost the mouth. He is incorrigible and it makes the boys edgy. 

      “Bella, how good it is to see you again. It seems like an eternity since I last laid my eyes on you. How are you?”

      “Very well, Basilio. How are you?”

      “Better now for having seen you. Tell me, have you made all the preparations for the big day?”

      “Yes, with help from everyone else. Mostly I went shopping today.”

      He laughs.

      “As it should be, bella. You should relax and pamper yourself.”

      “That’s on the agenda for tomorrow. We women will be busy in the salons in the city tomorrow.”

      “Excellent.”

      We spend a good part of the night talking and drinking wine. Aidan summons coffee and tea for us. The tension builds as everyone waits for the King to give us information. Aidan is practically bouncing around in his seat. I know he is annoyed that Basilio is keeping us at bay, yet again. 

I can tell Sebastian is anxious to be alone with me and so I make our excuses to the King. 

      “I believe that I will retire for the night. I have some last-minute things I need to do before I go to sleep for the day. As always it has been a pleasure, Basilio.”

      “I heard that you ran into Cristian. Was he accommodating to you, bella?”

      “He slipped me a mixture in my blood and it left me paralyzed. He said he was going to make me disappear after he played with me first,” I say giving Basilio a steady look, trying to read his reaction. Everyone is silent for a minute.

      Basilio slowly grabs his phone while keeping eye contact with me. I see a vein popping in his neck. He pushes one button and waits for an answer. He speaks in Italian rapidly and in clear crisp English.

      “Cristian, terminate him.” He hangs up then, stands and gathers my hands. “Bella, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

      “I thought you might have heard of it already.”

      “And you think I would do nothing? That I am so cold I would let someone do that to you?” He has rage in his eyes.

      “No,” I say carefully. “I think that because I am American that it would cause problems if something happened to him because of me.”

      “Lily, I wouldn’t have tolerated his action from any of my subjects. Knowing he had his hands on you at all and tried to do that makes my skin crawl and my heart ache. Knowing what he could have done…” Basilio shakes his head like he is trying to clear it of some image.

      “You have to know,” he looks at everyone. “I didn’t know what he was doing. After your concern for your friend I was made aware of a rash of vampire disappearances. But I don’t know if Cristian is the only one behind this or if there are others, so I’ve been quiet. I planned on talking to you about it.”

      “I must talk to Cristian before he is killed. Please,” Aidan says.

      “Of course. Let me make a call.” Basilio speed dialed someone again. I don’t think I would want to meet the person on the other end. “Before you finish with Cristian, Mr. Aidan would like to speak to him. Call me or him. I’ll text you his number.” He hangs up again abruptly.

      “Thank you, Basilio.” I kiss his cheek and squeeze his hands before returning to Sebastian’s side.

      “Did he hurt you, bella? I must know. I feel responsible since you are in my country under my protection.”

      “No, Aidan was watching and realized what had happened. Then he and Sebastian extracted me. They brought the waiter that had served me the tainted blood with us and were able to convince him to tell us where the antidote was,” I say cautiously not wanting to open that can of worms. “When Aidan went back to find Cristian he had gone to ground.”

      “I am so sorry,” Basilio says to the group.

      “Your Majesty, you should know that this waiter had told us he witnessed Cristian doing this with six other women,” Sebastian says.

      “I don’t want this scum in my country. It’s beneath a royal – I forgot to mention that Cristian is royal. Conceived by my sister and then after I turned her she turned him. He is my nephew and I have never trusted him and let him get away with too much. But no longer. I am so sorry, bella.”

      “It’s done, Basilio. I am stronger and smarter for having gone through it.”

      “You are too brave for your own good,” Basilio says. His amber eyes are dark with anger and though he tries to act his usual severe self he seems too upset. This give me more reason to believe he is telling the truth than anything so far.

      “Yes, she is,” Sebastian says as he pulls me closer to his side.

      “Stubborn too,” Aidan says and winks at me. He turns a cool look at the King. He hasn’t forgotten the brush-off he received today.

      “Would you like some wine, Your Majesty?” Helena asks, transitioning us from the awkward silence.

      “I would love some, Helena, thank you.”

      “Armand…?”

      “Yes, Helena. Thank you.”

      “I think that Lily and I will retire for the night since tomorrow will be a long day,” Sebastian says kissing my temple.

      “I have some calls to make about Cristian. I’m going to retire too. See you all in the morning. Thank you for the wine, Helena,” the King says. Aidan is speaking in whispers to Julian. I’d bet real money the King is going to have a beetle attached to his pant leg.

      “I’ll join you. Again my thanks to you too, Helena,” Armand says with a nod.

      “Good night, bella.”

      “Good night, dears,” Helena says with a wave of her fingers.

      “I believe I will pop into the city again,” Aidan says. “I had quite an enjoyable time last night.” He turns to Basilio with a cold glare. “Text me with the information on Cristian when you have it.”

      I laugh at his audacity when talking about last night. It was about as fucked up as it gets last night. Aidan winks at me and then he disappears. I’m sure he is already in Basilio’s rooms. He wouldn’t miss an opportunity to eaves drop like this.

      Sebastian and I return to our bungalow.

      “Well at least the King seemed to behave himself. He is still much too familiar with you for my tastes.”

      “He was better though and he was upset. Perhaps because he is not on his turf. Aidan is so going mosquito in hopes of gleaning some info from Basilio. He’ll he probably bite him too.” Sebastian throws his head back and laughs heartily. 

“I was surprised that he was related to Cristian. It just gets more sordid the deeper we go.”

      “I wasn’t surprised. Foreign politics are very complicated. They mix actual family with vampire-made family and then there are the hierarchies. It’s very tricky business. I’m assuming that is one of the things Basilio likes about you. Your innocence.”

      “I’m just thankful that he is here and we might get a clue about where Manda is.”

      “As am I. But I’m pleased that Basilio seems to be on our side. I am also thankful for you and your sexy body, cherie. Let’s get it naked so I can fully appreciate it,” he says with his crooked grin that is so dangerous.

      I fall asleep in his arms. When I wake up it is to Aidan sitting in the chair next to my bed, again.

NINE / LILITH

      “Good afternoon, love,” he smiles at me.

      “Aidan, I am not covered up properly, shame, shame on you!” I say as I pull the sheets up.

      “Believe me I am appreciating it,” he grins wickedly.

      “Give me my robe you naughty jinni and then turn your back!”

      He obliges me while I get out of bed and put my robe on.

      “This is starting to be a routine. Okay, you can turn around now.”

      “Here you go, love,” he says as he summons me a peppermint mocha, my favorite.

      “Oh thank you! You know how to make my day. Not that I don’t like seeing you, but what are you doing here?” Aidan smirks at me while I lust over my coffee.

      “I wanted to tell you what I found out last night.”

      “Tell me! Please let it be helpful…”

      “Basilio didn’t say much but he confirmed with one of his security people on the phone that there have been too many vampires that have gone missing. Too many are being turned and not registered and he is really pissed about it. He’s afraid to raise too many alarms because his enemies are just waiting for something like this to turn the court against him. No other info. But we know we are on the right track.” Aidan begins to pace. I can tell he is itching to get his hands on the King. “I will be escorting you and the girls to the salon. We decided it was the fastest way to get there and back. By the way, your dress is in the closet,” he says with a tired smile.

      I rush to look at it. There in the walk in closet hangs a garment bag holding my wedding dress. I unzip it and stare at the dress that I will wear into a new and everlasting phase of my life. I sigh in contentment.

      “You will be heart-breaking, love,” Aidan whispers over my shoulder.

      “Thank you, Aidan. I was going for stunning.”

      “You are stunning in anything you wear.”

      I jab him in the stomach, actually his rock-hard abs. If you get to pick your own body might as well make it devastating. Lucky djinn. 

“You’re naughty,” I say over my shoulder and he kisses the top of my head.

      “Lily, are you ready yet?” Helena calls. “Your dress looks beautiful, doesn’t it? They did a good job with it.” 

      “Yes, do you think it is a mistake not having a veil?”

      “No, I think veils are old-fashioned. It will be fine. You still have your mother’s comb to wear. Now hurry and get ready. Aidan, come with me and tell me what happened last night,” Helena says as she shuffles Aidan out of the room.

      I hurry through a shower and get dressed. When I come out of the bathroom, Helena, Hannah and Aidan are waiting for me. We link hands and are whisked to a prestigious salon in the city. When we land, Helena quickly takes charge.

      “We want to get the works. We have appointments and a wedding to go to tonight so we can’t be late.”

      “Yes, madam, where is the bride?” the owner of the salon asks.

      “Here I am.”

      “I will be taking care of you myself. Let’s get started with a mud bath. It is heavenly for your skin. Soften you right up.”

      I smile at her and wave to the others as they are led on to their adventures. The mud is very relaxing. Next they want to wax my eyebrows but since they were exactly the way I wanted them when I was turned, there is nothing to do so they move on to my nails and toenails. I love getting my feet done. The warm water is heavenly. I decide to have a French manicure. Keep it simple. Aidan is tagging along as we move through the various stations, chatting me up all the while. After my nails we move to my hair.

      Aidan had planted a bug in Basilio’s phone and GPS on his car. Every time there is some action he gets a text and listens in on his bluetooth. Occasionally he gets a far off look as he listens. Then when he comes back to me he smiles and shakes his head. Nothing interesting happening yet. He takes a minute out to listen as they tackle my hair.

      The shampoo girl washes my hair and applies a deep conditioning treatment. Everyone else is getting their hair done at the same time so we talk. I only wish Manda was here sharing it and talking about her upcoming nuptials with Aidan as I tell the stylist to put small curls in all over. It takes a lot of products to get it to hold and overrule the crazy curls that usually take over, but finally we win. Everyone looks great. We walk around the corner to an alley and take each other’s hands and transmanifest back to my bungalow. It’s strange how we are living on two levels. On one we are immersed in one of the biggest days of my life. On a deeper level we are grieving and anxious over one of our own. Manda is always on our minds.

      “Lily, do you want some wine or coffee, dear? You can’t leave. I don’t want Sebastian to see you and he is sure to be pacing the villa by now,” Helena says.

      “Some coffee would be great.”

      Aidan summons another peppermint mocha and then some coffee and tea for the rest of the party. We sit around on our little veranda and chat until it is time to get ready, an hour before the limos will be here to pick us up. Helena and Hannah leave to get dressed in their simple, silver satin dresses. Aidan keeps me company. He changes his clothes in a flash to a gorgeous tuxedo. He is mouthwatering.

      “I’m tempting you. I can see it in your eyes,” he grins.

      “You look very nice, Aidan.”

      “I could help you undress if you wanted,” he asks with a sly smile.

      “Behave yourself, Aidan.”

      “That’s against my nature, love.” We both know he is trying to put on a good face for my day. I hope soon I’ll be doing the same for him.

      “We’re back…” Helena sings out. “Let’s get you into your dress, Lily. Aidan, you need to leave for a few minutes. Now.” Aidan grins again before he disappears. “What lingerie are you wearing? Oh, that’s perfect. Where did Sebastian put his mother’s necklace? I’ll go get it.”

      “It’s in the wall safe. The combination is 19-06-10-87.”

      “Got it. Hannah, help me hold the dress while Lily steps into it.”

      “’Lil, this dress is so beautiful. Sebastian is going to wig out when he sees you in it. What does your bouquet look like?” Hannah asks.