JAVIER (16 page)

All this distracted him from Cassia. He had been
preternaturally aware of her from the second he’d entered the room; homing in
on her scent. They had exchanged polite nods but that was all. He could hardly
bear to look at her and Rafe; hardly bear to think of their names together.
Every time Rafe touched her, and he did it a lot, Javier noted, he had to fight
the urge to launch himself across the table and rip his throat out. He knew
that he was silent and moody and that this big adopted family of his had all
noticed.

“Hey Javier, I’m taking Cassia into Nice tonight. I
thought we could go to La Loge; they do fantastic tapas and then dancing till
dawn. You look like you could do with a night out, join us. I’ve asked Jean to
get the boat ready for nine, Cassia will enjoy the trip across the bay.”

As Javier declined Rafe’s friendly invitation he
glanced quickly at Cassia only to find her examining him calmly. Well, he had
no rights there; just friends. That had been what she had said.

“Is it a jeans kind of place or a little black dress
kind of place Rafe?” Cassia asked;

“You look gorgeous in jeans Cassia but I’d love to see
you in a dress.” Rafe all but purred.

Bastardo, thought Javier viciously, he bet he would!

“I need to see all of you to discuss what we have
found out and plan our strike. My study in one hour gentlemen. Rafe, you are
free after the meeting.” LaSalle’s comments cut into Javier’s thoughts.
Breakfast came to an end and everyone set off on their various tasks.  Javier
hurried after Hera; hanging back as Gabriel kissed her then followed Max and
Luca down to their underground Operations room. Rafe and Cassia, he noted,
still lingered over coffee in the breakfast room.

“Hera! Wait a minute, can I talk to you please?”

Hera turned; “Yes, what is it? You look tired, what’s
happened?”

“It’s…it’s… I just wanted to talk to you actually. In
private.” Javier stuck his hands in his pockets feeling suddenly awkward as he
looked down at the floor.

Hera reached forward and touched his arm lightly then
asked gently;

“What is it Javier? Something’s troubling you deeply
isn’t it? We’re friends, you listened to my woes in the past. Shall we go now?
I was only going to send some e-mails over to Venice, they can wait. Let’s go
to the beach, I find there’s something about looking at the sea that makes it
easier to talk.”

Javier nodded gratefully and they set out in
comfortable silence down the path from the main house, through the woods to the
beach where Gabriel and Hera shared a small beach house. It was their private
place, where they went when they wanted to get away from life in the chateau.

He helped Hera grab a couple of deck chairs from the
beach house’s little veranda and then set them up on the sand facing the dark
expanse of the sea. They sat quietly for a while and Javier marvelled at how
easily she had managed the transition into the Vampire’s nocturnal world.

“Do you miss spending most of your time in daylight?”
he asked.  Hera laughed softly;

“I get plenty of daylight you know Javier, I try to
get an hour or more every day and sometimes a lot more if I feel like a spot of
sunbathing or I’m in Venice. That makes me rather tired at night though. I’ve
adjusted; it’s all a matter of balance.”

Sunbathing? Javier couldn’t imagine such a thing.

“How do you think Flavia would manage if she and
Chronus got together?” he asked.

“Did we come out here to talk about Flavia and
Chronus?” Hera asked quietly,

“What’s troubling you Javier?”

Where should he begin, wondered Javier. How could he
put all this into words?

“I never said goodbye Hera, I never said goodbye to
Charlotte and I never let her go. The night of the bomb, I went to that
restaurant. It had been reduced to almost ashes, everything and everybody in
there. LaSalle went with me, I couldn’t have gone on my own; it was like a
waking nightmare. I couldn’t retrieve her body for a pyre because there were no
real bodies left. I was completely numb and it was LaSalle who collected what
we believed were her ashes, her remains and put them in a sealed box. When we
got back here he urged me to have a small pyre, perform the ceremony to send
her into the Infinite. Hera, I never did it. Her remains are still in that box
and I’m such a coward I’ve never even asked where she is kept.”

“Why do you think you never performed the ceremony
Javier?”

Javier sighed as he stared at the sea while Hera
waited patiently;

“At the time I thought I’d do it once I caught the bombers
but when I’d done that I still couldn’t. To be honest Hera, after I caught the
bombers I totally disintegrated. I suppose performing the ceremony would have
forced me to face the truth of what had happened. And I couldn’t, I didn’t want
to face the truth. Even after I got myself together again I resigned myself to
a future alone. Oh, I dated plenty of women but never with any real intent,
always thinking back, always with Charlotte in my head.”

“And always lonely, I’ve sensed that in you. And now?
It’s Cassia isn’t it?”

Javier looked up at the sky; far above them an
airliner was making its way towards the French mainland. Probably Paris, he
thought, too high up to be heading for Nice. How the hell was he going to
explain what was happening to him? He noticed that Hera just waited quietly for
him to continue.

“Hera, you know by now how it is for us, for Vampires
when we…” he had been about to say fall in love but how could that be?

“When you fall in love Javier? Is that what you’re
stopping yourself from saying?”

Javier cleared his throat then took a deep breath and
plunged right in.

“Yes, when male Vampires fall in love it’s more than
just an emotion in the heart or head, wherever emotions live Hera. It’s very
physical; an actual physical impulse. Completely overwhelming and painful and
unstoppable. The need to join, to claim, to mate. Oh Hera, you and Gabriel…do I
have to spell it out?”

“No, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Are you
feeling this for Cassia?”

“How can I be? How can I feel it for Cassia? How can I
love Cassia when I love Charlotte? Hera, it can’t be happening, can it? It
fills me with guilt. We just met and she’s not my type or anything…”

Hera laughed softly;

“I loved Gabriel from the day he crashed rather
violently into my life and it was the same for him. Do you remember you once
said that he was mine but he just didn’t know it yet? You didn’t answer Javier,
are you experiencing the bonding impulse? Be honest.”

“Yes, it’s burning me up. She’s mine.” Javier
whispered, looking straight ahead.

There was a long silence then Hera said;

“If I died I would never want Gabriel to suffer, to
spend the rest of his life alone. I would want him to find someone else to
love, to share his life with, to have children with. Javier, I’ve always thought
that the heart has an infinite capacity for love. Just because you are falling
in love with Cassia doesn’t mean you loved Charlotte less. What would Charlotte
want for you Javier? Right now. Do you think that if she could see you like
this it would make her happy?”

Javier pictured Charlotte. When he thought about her
now, he always imagined her smiling her wide infectious smile.

“No, it would not. I hurt her Hera, Cassia that is, I
rejected her. I told her it couldn’t happen. I’ve left her thinking that all
she would be is a second best. She won’t have that and I don’t blame her. How
do I go forward Hera?”

Hera reached out and took his hand;

“Oh Javier, you’re chasing around in circles. I don’t
yet know much about the belief systems in your world but it seems to me that
you need to complete the ceremony for Charlotte. Gabriel always teases me when
I go into therapist mode as he calls it but I believe it is called closure. You
say you never said goodbye; perhaps now is the time. You wouldn’t have to face
it alone unless you wanted to, we’d all be here with you. Just say the word.”

Javier squeezed her hand suddenly overcome by a rush
of emotions. Hera got to her feet and smiled;

“We all have a habit of complicating things don’t we?
Sometimes the solution is simple. Love Javier, is as simple as that. If you had
another child would you love Bee less? Of course not, you’d love her and you’d
love the second child just as much for who they were. Loving Cassia won’t
change your love for Charlotte. This isn’t a curse, you’re lucky; lucky to get
a second chance at something many people never find. Now, I must go, I’ve got a
pile of jobs to get through.”

Javier looked up quickly and nodded, he didn’t trust
himself to speak. Hera rested her hand on his shoulder and, for that brief
moment, he felt a wave of calm and comfort flow into him like a balm. Then she
left.

Javier walked to the edge of the beach and watched the
waves. The calm Hera had sent him seemed to settle deep inside his heart and, for
the first time in years he suddenly felt that he could see a future for
himself. A future that stretched beyond just the following day. Turning back up
the beach he tidied away the deck chairs. Time to get back to work. Later, he
would think about the ceremony. It was long overdue.

CHAPTER 14

“Your Katie has worked her magic again.” LaSalle
grinned at Max.

They had all convened in the study as ordered. Harry
Marshal was right, thought Javier, their attack was imminent. LaSalle’s eyes
had taken on the gleam of the hunter. Their Supreme Commander continued;

“Our little gang of self-styled knights communicate
via the dark web, no obstacle for Katie. They have a full meeting of the gang
arranged two nights from now. It is an initiation ceremony no less and it will
take place at that warehouse. That is when we hit them.”

“How hard?” asked Javier.

“Not as hard as I would like.” answered LaSalle
bleakly;

“Those guys are heavily into peddling class A drugs
and have been clever at hiding their activities from the police but, Javier, I
agree with you, over twenty dead Humans would attract too much attention.
Therefore this will be a joint hit with the Empaths; Rafe, you will lead our
team. The Empaths will incapacitate them using their mind games and then we
will wipe their memories and reset things a bit. Simple.”

Rafe chuckled darkly; “And if someone were to drop a
heavy hint to the boys in blue that would wrap things up nicely.”

This was just up Rafe’s street, thought Javier, he
needed to keep it professional. Rafe was a clever commander and a skilled
warrior; whatever designs he had on Cassia. He wondered what his role would be.
LaSalle’s grey eyes were steely;

“Javier, you and your warriors will hit Dion Erebus
and his men simultaneously. We now know where they are. He has the dagger, I
want it captured. No holding back; finish it this time Javier, you already owe
him a bullet. As he and his gang are all Empaths you will be joined by a team
from Venice.”

Javier suddenly knew what was coming next;

“Led by whom?” He already knew the answer.

“Chronus himself. He volunteered. He’s damned good in
a fight as we already know.”

LaSalle concluded;

“This has turned out to be more about revenge and
criminality than the old style slayers we all feared had returned.  However, a
young boy died horribly and another may have gone the same way had it not been
for you, Javier and your Cassia. I also have to tell you that we have a copy of
a certain document in our possession that relates to Draco Erebus; again,
thanks to that very intrepid woman. I cannot share it with you yet, it is
currently restricted to our High Councillor, me and Aries Achilles in Venice. 
Based on what I have read so far I am certain that we will be approached to help
find him and bring him to justice. That is all.”

What was Chronus’s game? Javier was certain he hadn’t
shared the fact that he had a copy of the journal with Hera’s brother, his
boss, and now Javier was in an extremely awkward predicament. He could really
do with discussing this with the only other person who knew, who he realized he
trusted; Cassia. Why had LaSalle referred to her as his Cassia? It had
certainly caused Rafe to sit up and take notice. God, they were behaving like
adolescents in the schoolroom.

As the meeting broke up and everyone left the study
Javier hung back. There were two reasons for that.  Firstly, he didn’t think
he’d be able to contain his aggression if he saw Cassia dressed up and heading
out with Rafe’s arm draped all over her and secondly, and more importantly, he
needed to ask LaSalle something he should have asked years ago.

“Javier? You have a question?” LaSalle paused with his
hand on the phone, his sharp eyes narrowed.

Javier reached up and quickly pulled his collar tighter. 
The marks Cassia had left on his neck had almost faded; he had mourned that
fact when he had examined them in the mirror as he shaved. Surely LaSalle
couldn’t see them. That was not important; he took a deep breath.

“Will you take me to Charlotte? If…if it is
convenient...you are busy…” Javier tailed off lamely, indicating the phone.

LaSalle dropped the phone as though it was suddenly on
fire and stood bolt upright as his eyes flared with shock; he recovered
quickly.

“It can all wait. Follow me Javier of Seville, I will
take you to her.”

Neither of them spoke as Javier followed LaSalle’s
marching figure down into the underground corridor. They must have presented a
grim and purposeful sight because three of their foot soldiers jumped out of
their way and flattened themselves against the wall as they swept past.

Soon they were deep in the bowels of the old tenth
century castle. LaSalle paused to take down two old pitch torches from their
ancient iron sconces and lit them with a flick of his lighter;

“Never got this area wired up for electricity. We are
heading down to one of the first rooms hewn out of the rock Javier. This bit is
about a thousand years old. Ready?”

In all the decades he had lived on the Island Javier
had never visited this part of the castle and, as LaSalle led the way down
ancient passages cut from rock he realized he had never even known this place
existed. The smoky flames from the torches lit on rough walls and the air was
cold and musty with the scent of centuries. The passage ended at a towering
wooden door. As Javier lifted his torch he saw it was black with age and
studded with huge iron nails. The top was curved to fit into the line of the
passage’s stone roof. It swung open silently as LaSalle pushed and Javier
stared in astonishment at the room they entered.

An enormous circular room with a domed ceiling had
been hewn out of the rock. A stone bench had been cut into the wall and
followed the curve of the room; it reminded him of chapter houses he had seen
in old cathedrals. As Javier raised his torch higher he saw a painting of a
dragon with massive outstretched wings and a lashing tail. It was almost
identical to the depiction he had seen in the gigantic sacred cave in the
Arctic Circle. Underneath the dragon was the prowling figure of a black wolf;
the emblem of the LaSalle family.

“This was once the most secret and sacred room in the
castle.” explained LaSalle;

“It was here that the warriors of our race were
initiated into service and where they mourned their fallen. Charlotte is here.”

Javier approached the high stone dais in the exact
centre of the room. It was painted in red and black and gold and covered with
sacred runes in the old language. At each of the four corners stood a tall
ornate gold candelabrum on which burned thick ivory beeswax candles. The room
was golden with their soft light and sweet with their honeyed scent.

The long box containing Charlotte’s remains was
exquisitely carved with her name and bloodline interlinked with his.  It was
placed centrally on the dais. A vase in front of the box was filled with fresh
flowers. Javier reached out and touched them in wonder;

“But…who put these here? Who lit the candles? I mean,
you had no idea I was going to ask to see her…” his voice cracked and he felt
LaSalle take the torch from his hand.

“Ysabeau, Katie, Rosa, Madame Lemond and old Louis
take it in turns. They make sure candles are always lit and bring the flowers.
We would not want her left in the dark.”

Javier’s vision went wavy. Eight years; they had kept
vigil for eight years waiting for him to do his duty, to carry out the last
service he owed to the woman he had loved. He laid a trembling hand on the box.

“I am a coward my Lord LaSalle.” he whispered, letting
the tears slide down his face and drip off his chin.

“That is complete nonsense Javier of Seville. You are
a brave and honourable warrior.” LaSalle said gruffly.

Javier laughed bitterly;

“Oh, I can face my enemies; swords, bullets,
knives…bring it on. Too cowardly to face up to the death of the woman I was
bonded to through blood itself though.  Too cowardly to let her go and see that
she is returned to the great Infinite. My duty, mine alone. I am so sorry
Charlotte.”

“Do not judge yourself so harshly Javier. If I had
lost Ysabeau when she was injured this summer I do not know how I would have
carried on. The mere thought of losing our bonded consorts makes cowards of us
all. Can you imagine Gabriel now without his Hera? She is his light and what
about Max without his clever Katie?”

LaSalle stood beside Javier, one firm hand gripping
his shoulder;

“I remember the day you pledged your oath as
commander. That was when you first brought her to the Island. Ysabeau commented
that her smile would light up the gloomiest of rooms.” LaSalle said. Javier
scrubbed at his eyes then smiled as he remembered;

“She wore a green dress and I remember telling my
father that I felt as green as that dress, so afraid of not living up to what
was expected of me, of letting you and him down.”

“You never let us down Javier. You were the best
warrior for that post and, my god it was a difficult rise through the ranks for
you, being the son of Alejandro of Seville. Your father was harder on you than
on any one of us, had to be I suppose. You dealt with it all without complaint,
we all saw that.”

They stood together, lost in their shared memories
then LaSalle gave a low chuckle;

“All of us unbonded warriors celebrated when you were
joined to Charlotte.  Do you know why?”

“No, why?” Javier asked as he traced his fingers over
Charlotte’s name carved on the box.

“Gave us a chance with the ladies. Before, one look at
you with that great Spanish sword you used to wear strapped to your back and
they were swooning. We never stood a chance.”

They both laughed.

“There was no one else for me from the night we were
first introduced to each other.” said Javier.

“At least you were introduced, the night I met Ysabeau
she cut me with her sword.” murmured LaSalle touching his throat; “I knew she
was mine from that moment.”

“Javier…Charlotte loved you very much, she would want
you to be happy.”

There was an awkward silence. Had LaSalle noticed,
wondered Javier, and if he had, what about the all seeing eye of Gabriel? Were
he and Cassia the subject of benevolent speculation amongst the happily bonded
couples in the chateau?

“I will leave you alone. To find your way back simply
follow the line of torches, I will light them as I return.” said LaSalle.

“Thank you, thank you all. I shall begin preparing for
the ceremony immediately.” said Javier.  Yes, he thought, Hera was right, it
was time.

Cassia materialized before the great doors of the
chateau and stood completely still with her eyes shut and her face turned up to
the sky. Oh, blessed silence. When you had a Vampire’s hearing the assault on
your eardrums in these nightclubs could be excruciating. Leaning down she
pulled off her high strappy shoes and groaned with relief; the sacrifices a
girl made for fashion. She was about to buzz for entrance at the security panel
when she hesitated; if she went in she would have to talk to Flavia and whoever
else was about. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk. Then there was the risk
of running into Javier. Well, she was totally mixed up on that one. She tugged
at the hem of her short red dress. Perversely she had put this on especially so
he would see her in it; to show him that what had happened between them had not
affected her in the slightest. Of course, he had stayed closeted away in the
study with LaSalle and Rafe had been the one who had practically salivated as
she teetered down that elegant staircase.

Abandoning her evening bag and shoes in front of the
door Cassia turned and headed along the path to the nearest beach. She could
get used to living here, she thought, mid-September and it was still
deliciously warm. If there was no-one about she might even take a quick dip in
the sea. As she walked through the woods she stopped, cursing as she stepped on
a pine needle. Then she froze as she heard sounds coming up from the smaller
beach that was at the end of path that ran to the left. It was the sound of
someone chopping wood with an axe.

Overcome by curiosity she
took the left hand fork until she emerged through the woods onto the beach
where someone was working relentlessly. She would recognize Javier anywhere by
the way he moved. He tossed the axe onto the sand then started carrying logs
over to the structure he was constructing close to the tideline. Cassia edged
nearer watching as he aligned the logs crossways over the layer below and roped
them together securely. The rectangular shape was already over four feet high.
Her hand flew to her mouth as her mind flew back to the time she had helped her
mother construct her father’s funeral pyre. Javier was making the ritual
preparations laid down in the ancient texts; the final service owed to his
bonded consort. Cassia started to back away into the trees, this was private
and she should not be here.

Javier suddenly turned
sharply in her direction almost as if he had sensed her presence. Well, he
might have, his blood ran in her. Either that or he had caught her scent.

“Cassia! Wait, don’t go.”
He ran across the beach to join her, wiping his face on the sleeve of his
shirt. Cassia folded her arms defensively. She could remain calm; after all he
was just a friend.