vampires of san francisco 07 - suckers lost and found (8 page)

      “You know me so well, Bast,” I say.

      At the intricately carved and gold-leafed bar, I pull my sanitizer from my purse and slather a glob on. I start to feel a little better. Sebastian brings us some wine and we sit down at a table. Aidan soon joins us. I give him an arch look – but he is unrepentant. Helena and Julian have taken a table. Hannah and Diel are dancing. Everyone has been trying to meet the famous Demon Duke and his wife and children. Hades stayed in the room for the evening, guarding the babies and helping Liam and Andrew babysit. Basilio sent up plenty of meat and a cow femur for the Hell Hound to occupy himself.

      “When he kissed you, I almost glued his lips together. What were you thinking when you asked him for information on Manda?” Aidan asks. 

      “I believe he was surprised. I think he’s going to find out what’s going on.”

      He looks about as distressed as I have ever seen him. Aidan has the whole unruffled Brit thing down. 

      “I don’t know if I’m more elated that we may finally have something to follow up on or terrified that he won’t find anything to tell us.” He lets out a heavy breath and runs his hand through his hair. “And I think he was surprised too.”

      “My friend, we only have to get through tonight. Then we will be gone,” Julian says.

      “I can survive anything until then, Aidan,” I say patting his hand. “Plus he has given me his word that he will look into Manda’s disappearance.”

      “Yes and he also wants to trade one night with him for that information. I can’t allow it. I knew he had an idea of what happened. I don’t know if I can wait until the wedding, love.”

      “Let me worry about Basilio.”

      He squeezes my hand.

      Basilio surprises us by appearing at my side.

      “Lily, will you please honor me with another dance?”

      “Yes, but then I owe Aidan and Julian a dance.”

      “But of course,” he says with a bow.

      The King leads me back onto the dance floor. I can feel the eyes of my friends on my back. I look down and I see the elegant butterfly. I smile at him. He twitches his antennae at me. I laugh. The King smiles at me.

      “I am glad you are enjoying yourself, bella. I did this all for you. I would give you many beautiful things if you were mine.”

      “I already have everything I need, Basilio,” I smile at him. He is relentless. His single minded attention to what he wants must just wear any resistance down. But I am a werevamp and I’m beginning to learn how tenuous my nature is, as well.

      He sighs.

      “You are not going to let me make love to you are you?”

      “No, I am not. I will dance with you, though.”

      “I will have to be happy with that.” He smiles and pulls me closer to him. “For now.” He is biding his time. He thinks I will eventually cave and I remind myself to never let down my guard with him.

      He touches his cheek to mine and we dance slowly. I worry about my butterfly getting crushed. He lets his hands rove a bit. Crikey, this man just doesn’t respect any boundaries. He starts to nuzzle my ear and hair. 

      He whispers in my ear, “I will die a little when you get married, Lily.”

      “Basilio, you barely know me. You will survive,” I laugh.

      He chuckles.

      “You underestimate the pull of love at first sight. I told you how special you are. In all my years I have never met a vampire like you and now you are slipping through my fingers.”

      “There will be others like me. There are more werevamps.”

      “That is not the only thing about you that is special, bella,” he says in a husky voice.

      He kisses my earlobe. I feel a tiny bit of fang. I shake my head, pulling away. He smiles at me.

      “At least I had one kiss.”

      Our song ends and Aidan is there looking so angry even the King looks nervous. He backs away and Aidan takes his place.

      “That’s it. No more dances for the King tonight. We will keep you busy or you claim some kind of illness. No more!”

      “Calm down, Aidan.”

      “I can’t. It’s one thing for Sebastian to have his hands on you, but I cannot tolerate that blood sucking leech touching you. It’s an insult to you.”

      “Okay, okay. It’s done, dearest. Just dance with me. Let’s forget about it. You are with me now, let’s enjoy the moment.” I smile at him. “Did you check the King’s computers?”

      I get a tight grimace back. 

“No, I didn’t get a chance. Someone is using it to enter data, dammit.” 

As we dance he slowly begins to relax. Aidan is a wonderful dancer and we waltz across the huge floor. Helena beams, she loves Aidan too. I smile back at her. When the song is over Julian comes to my rescue. 

      “My child, you seem to cause a situation where ever we take you. What are we to do with you?” he says with an arched brow. The smile on his face softens the reprimand.

      “I just want to get married and slip away with Sebastian for a while. I am tired of all this drama, Jules.”

      “Well my dear, when you are as kind-hearted as you are the drama will never be far away I am afraid.”

      “Bite your tongue, Julian,” I tease.

      “Let’s dance and forget about it for now.”

      Julian expertly spins me around the floor. 

“I’ve been talking to a few old contacts that I have here. There have been quite a few turnings without registration and kidnappings. They’re sure the humans are being turned. There are more tourists determined missing by the authorities than usual. Everyone is worried about it but no one is brave enough to talk to Basilio about it.”

“Well, I just did. We’ll have to see what comes of it.”

When our song is over, Sebastian is waiting for me with a smile on his face.

      “My turn, ma petite.”

      “I thought you’d never get here.”

      “I danced with Helena and Hannah again, just so I could be close to you. The King seems to be pouting,” Sebastian remarks blandly.

      “Bast, be careful. Anyone can hear you. Do you think people would notice if we disappeared for a while?”

      “My thoughts exactly.”

      He scoops me up and walks with me out of the room and up the stairs to our room. He has me out of my dress in no time and barely takes the time to get his tux off. We are quick and loud and it is great. I love that about Sebastian. Whenever the mood hits me he is up for it. By the time we get dressed again and back down stairs the ball is winding down. Aidan asks to dance with me again.

      “I can smell the sex on you, Lilith, you tramp,” he grins. “At least it kept you away from the King. It is probably the only time I’ve actually been happy that you and Sebastian have… uhm, been preoccupied.”

      I have the decency to be embarrassed. 

      “Don’t be embarrassed. I know what this time of the month is like for you. I remember it vividly. I used to play it back to myself daily, sometimes hourly.”

      “Oh, Aidan. I love you, darling. I’m so sorry.”

      “I’m not, love,” he smiles. “Loving you allowed me to be able to love Manda. And I found everything I wanted in her. Thank you for helping me. If I hadn’t had you teaching me about human emotions, this would have been impossible for me.”

      He holds me close and presses his cheek to mine. He smells of the wind and cinnamon and sunlight. I love his smell, and I snuggle up to his warm body. Vampires are perpetually cold.

      I dance with the King one more time before the evening is over. He behaves himself. I think he smells Bast on me too. I think Bast thought of it as the ultimate way of marking his territory. Which works. The King is very polite. When our dance is over he kisses my cheek and wishes me a good day’s sleep.

      Sebastian and I retire to our room to get ready for my bed time. We still have a couple of hours and we plan on using the time wisely.

      I fall asleep in his arms. I wake up next to his naked body and in his arms. He kisses me passionately and hugs me close to him. I sigh.

      “I love when you do that,” he says.

      “When I do what?”

      “When you sigh after I kiss you. It means you are totally content to be with me. I love knowing you are happy and that I make you feel that way.”

      “You do and I am.”

      “Cherie, we have to pack and get ready to leave. I am anxious to marry you at last,” he smiles down at me.

      I give him a huge smile in return and kiss him. After a shower and packing, I select a mini dress with an empire waist. It is blue, Sebastian’s favorite color, and it goes with my engagement ring. I add makeup, heels and brush the fangsters and I am ready to say goodbye to the King.

      We descend the stairs and set our luggage with everyone else’s. Armand choreographs our departure like a state affair. The King has yet to make an appearance.

      “You will be taken by boat to your limos. The King wants to say goodbye and he will meet you in Florence in two days for the wedding,” Armand says.

      The King comes down the hall just then. He kisses Helena and Julian on their cheeks and thanks them for coming. He shakes Andrew’s and Liam’s hands and kisses Hannah on the cheek. Then he shakes hands with Diel and kisses both the babies, presenting them with little platinum rattles that have bells attached. Finn and Fiona are intrigued by their new toys. He eyes Aidan and Sebastian carefully and then decides to offer his hand to them. Aidan reluctantly shakes his hand. Sebastian gladly shakes hands because it means that we are leaving.

      When he gets to me he pulls me aside and takes my hands in his. He looks me in the eyes and says, “If ever there is anything I can do for you, bella, let me know and it will be done. I am forever at your service.”

      And he kisses me on the cheek, letting it last a moment longer than it should. I don’t believe a word he says, yet… he seems so sincere.

      “Thank you, Basilio. Thank you for your offer and for your generosity and hospitality. We look forward to seeing you at the wedding in two days. Take care of yourself.”      

      I take my hands back and give him a smile as I join my fiancé. Our luggage has been loaded and we are ready to go. The King walks us out and watches us leave down the canal. I let out a sigh of relief as we go around the corner. Sebastian hugs me and smiles. I know he is relieved too.

      “Cherie, you have just successfully negotiated your first international crisis,” Bast says and nuzzles my ear.

SIX / LILITH

The limos are well stocked with champagne and we make use of it. But, all of us are in a serious mood as we drive through the city and then countryside. Aidan seems preoccupied and stares out the window. Hannah and I exchange looks. It’s the ‘I need to tell you something’ look.

We have rented a villa from a nice vampire couple for the whole group and had to change our plans since we are three days late. They understood since we had to change our plans to accommodate the King. When we arrive we find everything is ready for us and our hosts are very gracious. While everyone else makes their way to their rooms and unpacks, I ask Hannah to go with me to check out the pool. We all have a ton of luggage from the cruise, but Hannah and Diel win in the baggage department because of the twins. 

While Diel takes care of the luggage and juggles Fiona, Hannah steps in close to talk to me without anyone hearing. Finn immediately grabs my hair and I start cooing at him ignoring the tugs, stronger than normal for his age. They are going to have their hands full with this one. 

“Girlfriend, I’ve been following threads on that board I was telling you about. One thing led to another and I was on Tumblr and found a picture of two fighters. I think one of them might be Manda. If it is she is still alive but in really bad shape. The photo was date-stamped two days ago.” She shows me the photo on her phone. My hand flies to my mouth to stifle a cry. Manda looks terrible and my heart is breaking for her.

“We can’t tell Aidan yet. He would be wild trying to track her and we still have no clue about where to look. Let me talk to Julian. He has connections here, besides his absolutely brilliant hacker skills,” I say as I try to extricate my hair from Finn’s little fingers.

“Diel’s coming. I hate to keep this from him but this situation needs a feminine touch not brute strength. Will talk to you soon,” she says as she hikes up Finn on her tiny waist and goes to meet her man, err, demon.

I search for Julian and find him typing away on his laptop. He’s taking advantage of the wi-fi connections at the villa. I sit down beside him and quietly tell him what Hannah has found out. He continues typing like we are having an everyday chat.

“I’ll need to see the picture and I’ll need the link to the message board. I do have a contact at Tumblr and might be able to track it. I’ll keep you posted. Do not tell Aidan.” I hope Aidan never finds out how we shut him out. It would hurt him, but telling him before we know where she is would hurt him worse.

Everyone had decided to meet out by the pool and have some wine under the stars. The main villa, where everyone but Sebastian and I will be sleeping, is painted a rich terra cotta and has purple and sage trim. The field behind the house is full of sunflowers, their heavy heads tucked in for the night. The family slowly trickles in from having unpacked or changed. The villa is perfect, a short drive from Florence.

      “Andrew, what did you think of the King?” Julian asks.

      “He was rather handsome, but slippery wasn’t he? My Miss Lily can get into trouble where-ever she goes,” Andrew says.

      “I’ll second that,” Liam agrees.

      “She’s worth it,” Sebastian says with a smile.

      “Thank you, Bast,” I say as I slather on the hand sanitizer. Sophie, my therapist, and I are working on my germaphobe tendencies but I haven’t quite kicked it yet. Besides retail therapy isn’t always available and I haven’t been able to see Sophie for over a month. May have to schedule a phone session.