Bound by Blood (Vampire Romance) (22 page)

“Me.” His voice was quiet, but the weight of it carried.

“But they didn’t keep you when they had you! They wanted Sandy.”

 “Alessandro is certainly one of the few who may be able to stop them--”

“Destroy them,” Philip said. His tone brooked no argument.

“If need be,” Alex said, then turned his attention back to Lisa. “There is the timing. Other factors must also be in place. These do not align often.”

“You mean, like planets and such?”

His lips quirked. “Among others. For now, we’re going to split into two groups.” He looked at Philip, “You and Louis will remain here; I will take Lisa and Cassandra with me.”

“Is it wise to take the child?” Philip asked.

 Alex gave him a bitter smile. “Probably not, but it has to be done. I can protect her better if she is within sight.”

“And Lisa?” Philip’s gaze met the vampire’s.

“Do you think that the child will go with me without her nanny? I think not,” he said when no one answered. He wanted Lisa there for other reasons, but they didn’t need to know that. “There’s no need to make her feel more stressed than she may already be.” He looked around the table then declared it would be best to let the child sleep while they finished making plans.

Philip poured Lisa another cup of coffee. She looked at him in surprise. “One gets used to staying up all hours of the night once they meet Alex,” he said wryly.

Alex rested his hand on hers again, giving it a reassuring squeeze. It pained him to see her so apprehensive. Not that she didn’t have reason to be. His regret was being the source.

“Do you need to rest first, Lisa?”

“No, I’m fine,” she assured him.

“Good.” Louis pushed away from the table and stood. “Philip and I will make preparations.”

Lisa stared at him, then back at Alex. “What kind of preparations do you need?”

How to answer? Instead, he ignored it. “Lisa will help you for now,” Alex told them. “Or you could rest,” he turned his attention back to her, “but I must report to the office.”  He, too, stood and announced his intention to return shortly.

Lisa pushed her chair away from the table. “I think I would rather help,” she said standing next to Philip. “Lead on.” Suddenly she stopped. “If we leave this room, I don’t know if I’ll hear Sandy if she needs me.”

 “Louis will hear if there is any sound,” Alex told her.

Louis nodded in agreement. In the next moment, Alex was gone.

~*~

“Where do we start?” Louis asked.

“The best place will be the basement. I have some rather antiquated volumes there.”

“I have heard about your collection,” Louis admitted.”

At Philip’s surprised look, Louis chuckled. “We do speak of things other than blood, you know.”

Lisa was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable with the turn in the conversation. What did she know of Louis anyway.

As if reading her thoughts, he looked directly at her, meeting her gaze, then looked at Philip. The teasing note was gone. “I am Alex’s friend. What he holds dear, I hold.”

Philip gave him a brisk nod.

Was that supposed to mean something?

Evidently it did. “We need to go through the anteroom to the basement.” Philip instructed them, leading the way.

The basement to the church was a warren of niches and she was quite happy to follow. It was not a place she would want to find herself alone. She started when she felt Louis’s hand on her back and stiffened. She doubted he had difficulty seeing. Maybe it was Sandy. She turned to face him, but he gave her a bland smile and urged her to continue.

Down a dark corridor, then a few steps around the next corner and they reached their destination. Philip inserted the key he held ready and pushed the paneled wood door open. Lisa stood and looked about the darkened room as Philip made his way to a bulb suspended from the ceiling and turned it on. The light was rather glaring and Lisa blinked as she looked around. There were pieces of wood and books piled everywhere. There wasn’t much else that she could discern.

“And this will help, how?” she asked after surveying the room.

Philip cleared his throat. “We need to find some material in the books.”

Lisa looked around at the piles again with a new sense – one of despair. “Philip, can you actually find
anything
in these piles? It will take forever.”

“Not quite,” Louis assured her, shooting her a grin.

She wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. He just didn’t seem the lighthearted type. By now, she was closer to the stack near Philip and picked the top book from the pile, opened it and started leafing through it. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”

She was surprised when a hand reached from behind her and took the book. Whirling around, she found Alex behind her. She tried to disguise her relief. She trusted Philip implicitly, but she hadn’t quite made up her mind about Louis. “I thought you went to the office?”

“I thought better of it and called,” he told her, looking down at the book, frowning. “This is Latin – ancient Latin,” he corrected. “I doubt that you will be able to understand it.”

Lisa resisted grinding her teeth and gave him a saccharine smile. “I understand it just fine.” She snatched the book from his hands. She ignored the warning look he sent Louis’s way.

“Not a word,” Alex said as he turned his attention back to her. “We’re looking for anything that will have dates, or an astronomical line up of Jupiter and Saturn.

“Those are never in alignment,” she said looking at the men around her. This would be downright frightening, she thought as she gazed at them, all serious faced. Recalling that two were vampires, and what did she know of them anyway, made her take an involuntary step back, straight into Alex’s chest. He steadied her. Even she could feel her blood rushing through her veins.

“Calm down, Lisa,” Alex murmured in her ear, leaning over her shoulder.

Was that supposed to relax her?

Alex ran his hands up her arms, grasping her shoulders. She tensed even more, clutching the book to her.

“The two planets are seldom in the position they are now,” Philip said. As if sensing the problem he began speaking in a normal tone of voice.

“You asked what is different? What would keep Janelle from trying this again?” Alex reminded her, his voice matter of fact. “Just this -- the alignment of the planets.” He released her shoulders, but let his one arm slide down to rest on her waist.

She breathed easier and actually felt the tension in the room drop considerably. “How often does it happen?”

“Once every century, perhaps. Maybe longer.” Louis shrugged. “I have seen it several times, but of course there was no Cardinal’s Ruby, so it was immaterial.” He picked up another book and made his way to a corner of the room to flip through it.

“And all the wood?” she finally asked.

Philip cleared his throat, but it was Louis who spoke. “Why to make stakes, m’dear.”

Her gaze flew to his, then Alex. Was he serious?

It seemed he was. She looked to Philip for an explanation since neither of the others appeared to want to speak.

“Stakes are still used to kill vampires,” Philip told her.

She looked to see if either of the others were angry with Philip telling her that little tidbit. They didn’t seem to be.

“Sometimes there are rogues, and the vampires can’t leave it to fate that a vampire slayer, as such –“

“Are there really such things?” she interrupted.

Alex scoffed.

“Okay. Stupid question!” She put her hand to her head as she tucked the book closer to the front of her. Alex still hadn’t released her, and she wasn’t inclined to step from his touch. That should disturb her.

“Consider that last week you didn’t know there were vampires,” Alex reminded her.

Good point.
She turned to look at him. “Why are you telling me these things?”

“Because you may need to know,” Louis told her.

She felt her eyes widen in shock.

“Hopefully not against one of us, but there are others.”

“Like Carlos?” she asked.

“Like Janelle,” Alex corrected her.

“If it’s Janelle, she better stick it in herself first,” Louis said before turning back to his book.

Was he serious?
Her expression must have been easy to read because Alex gave her a reassuring squeeze then turned to pick up a book himself and started to leaf through it. “He does have a point,” he said after a moment.

“If that was a pun, Alessandro, you should keep it to yourself.” Louis never looked up from turning the pages.

Lisa hid a grin and looked down. It was rather pitiful, but she got the point. And winced at her own thought.

She might be able to read ancient Latin, but obviously not as fluently as the others as she saw the stacks of books dwindle in front of them. She was only leafing her way through her third volume and hours had passed. By now she was sitting on one of the discarded stacks of books and feeling the pain in her back. Philip must be exhausted. She peeked a look at him and was disturbed to find he looked positively chipper. There was no other word for it. She let the book lay open on her lap as she addressed him. “How do you do it? I’m exhausted.”

“I told you, lots of practice. I often keep late hours with Alex.”

She looked at her watch. It was two o’clock in the morning.

Louis put down his book. “I have one reference. It refers to another book, the
Implications of Astrological Interpretations of Planetary Alignments
.”

Alex and Philip stopped what they were doing, and checked the titles of their books. Lisa did the same. Since none matched, it meant if it was in the room it was one of the remaining books. All of them searched the remaining stacks to no avail.

“Okay.” Philip ran his hand over his thinning hair. “It’s not here. Do either of you know of other collections?”

“There aren’t many,” Alex said. “The British Museum, perhaps.”

Philip headed for the stairs and encouraged the others to follow. “And bring the book, Louis,” he reminded the vampire.

Lisa was afraid to look. Philip spoke to Louis as he would any young person. How would he take it?

Louis just grinned and did as he was told, turning off the light behind them.

Once back upstairs, Lisa blinked at the brightness compared to the gloom of the passageway. Philip and Alex headed toward the armoire in the corner which held an up-to-date computer.

Alex seemed quite familiar with it, but encouraged Philip to sit in his chair. “I have access to various catalogs,” he explained as his fingers flew over the keyboard. “Private and public.” He practically flew from one screen to another. Alex stood on one side and Louis on the other, scanning the titles as quickly as the man could pull them up.

Lisa sat at the table and played with the papers in front of her, not really paying attention to what they said – at first.

“Alex.” She could barely get his name out in her excitement. “We have a match.”

He was immediately at her side, while the others looked on.

“What are you talking about?” He braced one arm on her chair and leaned over her, studying the papers spread before them.

“No, there’s still just a title, Lisa. Granted it’s the entire title, but we need the information.”

She looked up at him. “My father has this book. See?” She pointed to the fax number near the top of the page. “My father sent this, so he has to have the book, or at least know where it is.”

Alex rested his hand on her shoulder. Even so, she was already pulling her cell phone from her pocket.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Concern colored Alex’s voice.

“Don’t we need to know now?

“No,” Alex said.

“Yes,” came from Louis and Philip.

Looking at them, she shook her head. They were quite comical although she was certain they wouldn’t appreciate hearing that.

She started dialing the number and breathed a sigh of relief when her father answered. “I need more information,” she said.

Chapter 23

“Lisa, whatever you are involved with, get out now.”

The others in the room also heard him quite clearly.

“I agree,” Alex said in a voice low enough that only she and Louis would hear. “I can hide you for a while,” he said.

And he would, he thought. He had no right to drag her into this. Certainly not to this level. Louis would help him.  As would Philip if it came to that. He had Philip were friends, but if it came to one life for another, he would spare Lisa’s – hands down.

“Hold on, Dad,” she said into the phone and covered it with her hand.

“I’m fine, Alex. I want to do this. I’m responsible for Sandy.” She placed her hand on his arm and squeezed. “Look, it’s my job to watch her.”

“It’s
my
job to do so,” he said. He couldn’t resist running his hand down the length of her hair. He closed his eyes briefly when she leaned into him. Would that she would always trust him as she appeared to do now.

“Talk to your father,” he said, using his chin to point to the phone. He could hear the man calling to her.

“I’m here, Dad. Sorry about that.”

“Lisa, let me help you.”

Alex had no problem hearing the man and he laughed at himself for actually feeling a kindred spirit with the vicar. He was worried about Lisa too.

“That’s why I’m calling. The papers you sent were just what we needed, but now we need more.”

“There isn’t more.”

“We know there is. We found the next key and now we need the dates as to when the planets will be in alignment.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Alex could hear the underlying desperation in the man’s voice. He leaned close to her other ear and again whispered, “You don’t have to do this.”

She brushed him away as if he were an insect.

“The dates, Dad.”

“Is that all you need?”

“No. I really need everything. I need the damn book, but I’m here and you’re in England so I don’t see how that’s going to help. Even if you faxed it to me page by page I wouldn’t get it until morning.”

“Everything looks better in the morning, Lisa. ‘At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing.’”