Spell Bound (Darkly Enchanted) (27 page)

Shea held up one hand. “Why would he do anything for my father?”

“Because he’s Kyle’s brother.”

* * *

Shea felt his statement hit her like a blow to her chest. Blinking, she drew in a sharp gasp, her hands drawing into fists on the table.

“Brother?” They had an uncle? She’d thought they were alone, she and Leo. Goddess, did they have other family?

Gabriel must have read her mind. “Your mother had a sister.”

“Is she still…”

He nodded. “Yeah, she is. She was cursed, too.”

They had an aunt. Another member of the
boschetta
. More secrets. So much their parents had hidden.

She took a deep breath, trying not to hyperventilate. She let her gaze catch and hold Gabriel’s. Like a lifeline. “I didn’t know. Dad never said anything about other family. I never…never thought to ask.”

Gabriel reached across the table, almost but not quite touching her hand. “No reason you would have. Like I said,
grigori
are trained from an early age not to discuss family connections. It can get…complicated.”

She snorted. “Good word.”

Gabriel sat back in his chair. “So we’re going to see someone who might be able to uncomplicate things.”

“Who?”

“Madrona. She’s the historian. She and her sister, Furia, live in New Orleans.”

“And what do you think she’ll be able to tell me?”

Gabriel shook his head. “I’m hoping she’ll be able to tell us what you need to know to break the curse.”

She dropped her gaze. “Yeah, well, that’s the big question, isn’t it? Why the hell am I here?”

No one had an answer. She didn’t have an answer. Maybe this Madrona would have an answer. But it would mean trusting an uncle she’d never met with her brother’s life.

“So,” she sighed, “if I agree to this, and I’m not saying yes, but if I do, what time frame are we looking at?”

Gabriel’s expression didn’t change at all. “It’ll take probably a day to get hold of Matt and at least two days for him to drive. He doesn’t fly. Until then, I want to start Leo’s training.”

Just the thought made her stomach roll. But she knew Gabriel well enough by now to know he wouldn’t let up. “And what does that include?”

“Self-defense, weapons, tactics, skills development. I need to find out what he can do before I’ll know what else we’ll need to teach him.”

Quinn stood. “Hey, I’m gonna leave you two to hash this out. I’ll go keep the kid company awhile.”

Gabriel turned to grin at Quinn. And all the air left the room. How did Gabriel manage to make her hot with just a smile? “Maybe you can finally beat someone on that damn thing.”

Quinn flipped him off with a smile. “I’d kick your ass, buddy.” Then he turned to her and winked. “Don’t let him bully you, Shea.”

He turned and walked out of the room, leaving her alone with Gabriel. Strange things happened when she was alone with Gabriel. Emotions she had no time for, kisses she shouldn’t want, desires she couldn’t fulfill.

All wrapped up in a man she’d met only days before.

She stared into his steady brown eyes that never flinched. “You think Madrona will have answers?”

He nodded. “I think she’s our best bet.”

Not “your” best bet. “Our” best bet.

A simmering warmth began in her stomach, making her shift in her seat. Gabriel twisted her emotions in knots, an odd feeling for her.

 “I still can’t believe Celeste never said anything about the curse,” he said.

“My mom wasn’t big on heart-to-hearts.”  She shifted in the chair, trying to find a more comfortable position for her throbbing leg. “And I think my dad—”

Gabriel stood and carefully lifted her out of the chair. “Come on. Let’s find a better place for this conversation.”

She slid her arms around his neck without thought then tried to ignore the strength of his broad shoulders. And the warmth of his thick arms banded around her as he carried her through the hall. And the spicy male scent of him that made her stomach tighten in knots.

She didn’t look up at him. If he looked down, he’d see every one of her emotions.

And that would be a disaster.

So she stared at his jaw, at the black whiskers of his beard. And wondered what they’d feel like against her skin.

She barely noticed they’d walked back to the front of the house, past the room where Quinn and Leo played games to a backdrop of grinding metal and screeching guitars. She finally dragged her gaze away when he pushed open a door and carried her into a dark space. Setting her on a soft surface, he walked away. A few seconds later, the door clicked shut and light flooded the room.

She gasped. “Oh wow.”

From her seat on a soft leather club chair, Shea didn’t know where to look first.

The library was open to the second floor and its four walls were covered in books. A spiral staircase to the left of the door led to a small landing above. Two ladders ran on a rail system around the entire room, tall enough to the reach the top shelves under the ceiling.

“Cool, huh?” Gabriel’s smile reappeared as he sat in the matching chair across from her. He didn’t settle in, though. He rested on the edge, feet on the floor, elbows on knees.

Ready for action.

“What are they all?”

Her gaze continued to roam the walls, picking out what looked to be ancient stone tablets on a shelf between the floor and the first landing, and whole sections of books by some of the most famous fantasy writers in the world. An avid reader growing up, Shea had always imagined this was what heaven looked like.

“A lot of everything.” Gabriel’s voice echoed slightly. “The
versipelli
started this collection centuries ago. Some are grimoires, some are journals. There are whole sections devoted to different histories.”

“I could spend hours in here and never be bored.”

“This was where I spent most of my time when my dad and I would lay over here. The
versipelli
are rabid about history. I think you’ll be able to find better answers to some of your questions here than I can give you. Serena has the women’s journals at the compound, but the
grigori
histories are kept here. I never met your father but I heard he spent a lot of time here before he and Celeste disappeared.”

She nodded, smiling. “I can believe it. He had a story for everything. When I left…”

Her heart tightened in her chest, unable to finish. A memory of her parents flashed into her head. Her mom’s quiet laughter as her dad told Shea some outlandish story. He’d been good at stories, especially the ones about beautiful folletti with butterfly wings and foolish boys who swiped gold from mean Etruscan orciuli.

Would the pain of losing them ever diminish? And could she ever forgive them or understand why they’d never told her about the curse?

Gabriel didn’t say anything. She knew he wanted to ask more questions, but he didn’t and, for that, she was grateful. She looked at him and found him watching her. So intently, she felt heat bubble in her stomach. “So, did you bring me in here just to let me look or do you have something to show me?”

His grin reappeared, the one that made her stomach drop to her knees. “Let me get your grandfather’s journal. Maybe he’ll have some answers for you.”

He walked to the wall behind them and climbed the library ladder nearly all the way to the ceiling. He stood there for at least thirty seconds looking at the spines before grabbing one and climbing back down.

The book he held would have made Buffy’s Rupert Giles giggle with glee—a thick, leather-bound manuscript. But Buffy was fiction. This was the real deal.

And this one had been written by her grandfather.

“I’ve never read this,” Gabriel said. “Not sure anyone else has, either. The
grigori
aren’t required to keep journals. And if they do, they’re not supposed to mention the cursed
streghe
by name. But if Marcus wrote like he told stories, it’ll be a hell of a read.”

She ran her hands over the cover, not opening it yet. She wanted Gabriel to talk more. Just the sound of his voice eased something inside her. “You knew him?”

“Yeah, I got to meet him a few times. He died when I was around ten.”

Which meant he’d been alive at her birth. She’d always assumed her grandparents were dead. Her parents had always talked as if they were. Still so much she didn’t know. “What was he like?”

“He trained as a
grigorio
, but because his father was still alive and caring for his
strega
, Marcus became a soldier. He was Special Ops for the U.S. government for years. Fought in World War II. Then he raised two of the best
grigori
there have ever been.”

She held onto the book but didn’t want Gabriel to stop talking just yet. “So my grandfather’s mother was a cursed
strega
?”

“Yes.”

“And my mother has a sister.”

“Yep.”

She sighed, feeling lost, as if she’d forgotten something she’d never known she needed and now couldn’t live without. “I feel like I’m trying to build a house without the blueprints.”

Gabriel settled back in the chair and she relaxed. He wasn’t going anywhere yet. She wasn’t about to acknowledge, even to herself, how comforting that was. “Maybe your grandfather knows something about the curse.”

She sighed. “That would be almost too easy, wouldn’t it?”

He nodded, the dark strands of his hair falling over his shoulder and drawing her gaze. The guy was just too damn gorgeous.

“Yeah, probably,” Gabriel said.

Shaking her head, she decided on another line of questioning.  “So, how can you tell if you’re born
grigori
?”

“If he’s born to one of the thirteen, it just comes with the deal,” Gabriel said. “If he’s born to a
grigorio
and a woman who isn’t one of the
streghe
, there are ways to tell. Enhanced strength, hearing and sight, the ability to manipulate metal. Your brother has the sight, a shitload of
arus
and the tocadura. Probably more powers we don’t yet know about. That’s why he needs to be trained.”