Spell Bound (Darkly Enchanted) (53 page)

“Then why are you here?”

Matt shook his head. “Well, that would be the million dollar question, now, wouldn’t it?” He glanced over his shoulder at the door. “She’s gonna be a problem, isn’t she?”

Gabriel huffed. “She’s tough. She’ll deal.”

“What about the boy?”

“He’s the most powerful
grigorio
I’ve ever met.”

“Yeah, well, that would figure, wouldn’t it?” Matt released a heavy sigh and shook his head. “Damn Kyle for leaving this mess to me.”

“I don’t think he had a choice in the matter.”

Matt nodded then dropped his head and stared at the ground. “Kyle called me just before he was killed, said something was up, needed me to come. I didn’t get the message until it was too fucking late.”

Well, that explained Matt’s grimmer-than-usual mood, Gabriel decided. “If you’d been there, they might have killed you, too.”

Matt rounded on him again, and Gabriel could actually see a sheen in the guy’s eyes. Hard-ass Matt, who didn’t have a sentimental bone in his body. “I still don’t understand how they got to Kyle. My brother was one of the best.”

Gabriel shook his head. “I’m pretty sure Leo’s power got away from him, and Dario followed the trail. Then I think…I think Kyle and Celeste sacrificed themselves for the kids.”

Shea opened the door at that moment, Leo clutching her free hand while she held her backpack in the other. Her gaze tripped over Gabriel before she stuck out her chin and looked straight into Matt’s eyes.

“No swearing,” she said. “I have to agree to wherever we’re going. You look at me when I speak to you, and you don’t ignore Leo. I agree to jump when you say jump and bite my tongue most of the time.”

Matt didn’t hesitate. “I’ll try to tone down the swearing, for the kid’s sake. You can say anything you damn well want to me. I will look at you when you’re speaking, but I won’t promise to hear what you’re saying. You can try to ditch me but it doesn’t mean you will.” He turned to Gabriel. “I take it you’re going after Quinn alone?”

Gabriel nodded, trying to ignore the plea on Leo’s face and the way Shea wouldn’t look at him.

“Think that’s wise?” Matt asked.

“I work better alone.”

Matt shrugged. “Your funeral, then.” He turned back to Shea and Leo and did something Gabriel hadn’t expected. He knelt in front of Leo and stuck out his hand.

“Matt Tedaldi. I’m your uncle.”

Leo swallowed and took his hand. “I’m Leo. Do I call you Uncle Matt?”

Matt’s head tilted to the side, considering. “You can, if you want. And I’m gonna apologize right now for being an ornery bas—jerk most of the time. It’ll save a lot of grief later, ’kay?”

That made Leo brighten a bit. “Okay.”

Matt nodded and stood. “Let’s get outta here.”

Pain ripped through Gabriel’s chest, nearly taking him to his knees.
Vaffanculo
, this wasn’t right. They shouldn’t be leaving him. But he had to find Quinn.

And Dario.

And he couldn’t watch them and do that.

Leo walked over and held out one little hand to shake. Instead, Gabriel picked him up so they were eye to eye. “Listen to Matt, okay? He’s a good trainer.”

“We could come with you, Gabriel,” Leo whispered. “We could help.”

The pain in his chest tripled. “I know you could, bud. But I couldn’t concentrate with you and Shea around. I’d worry about you too much. This way, I won’t worry.”

Tears popped into the boy’s eyes. “Will we see you again?”

Gabriel nodded, every movement an agony. “Count on it. And the next time I see you, I’ll expect you to have mastered those knives.”

Leo’s tears never fell. He blinked them away as Gabriel set him on the ground. Fuck. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t supposed to go down like this.

He turned to find Shea staring at him through dry eyes. She was royally pissed, whether at him or Matt or life in general, he wasn’t sure.

Grabbing her hand, he drew her to a corner of the room, far enough so the others couldn’t hear. “I’ll come for you and Leo. As soon as I’m done here. We’re not finished, you and I.”

That made her smile for a brief second but something flashed through her eyes. Something that scared the shit out of him. “Be careful, Gabriel. I need— You need to stay safe.”

She leaned up, pressed her lips against his cheek. Then she walked to Leo, took his hand and let Matt lead them away.

* * *

Serena was gone.

Mentally, Gabriel kicked himself backwards, sideways, up and down as he stood in the garage staring at the empty space where the Jeep had been. He should have known she’d do this, should have seen it coming.

But he’d been so fucking furious at Serena and so damn heartsick at sending away Shea and Leo. He should have realized she’d been planning something like this.

“Jesus, Gabe, where the hell do you think she went?” Digger shook his head. “Why the hell didn’t she wait for you?”

That second question he could answer. The first… He didn’t have a clue where she was headed.

But he bet she knew exactly where to find Dario. Had probably been in contact with the bastard when Gabriel had been stupid enough to leave her alone in the garage.

Gods-be-damned. She was going to give herself up to Dario for Quinn, and Quinn would do something so fucking stupid to try to save her that he’d get himself killed.

Crushing weight dropped on his chest like a solid block of iron, the one metal
grigori
could not manipulate.

He had to find them all and he had to be prepared to kill Dario when he did.

* * *

Matt had an old Chrysler with a front seat the size of a church pew.

Shea and Leo sat in the front with Matt…because he had an arsenal in the back. A rifle, two handguns, a few boxes of ammunition, two sets of wrist sheathes and throwing knives, and a few miscellaneous blades. A custom-made carrier held it all steady on the backseat.

She studied their new
grigorio
, their uncle, in silence as Matt drove with an intensity only madmen have, though his handsome features and curly, golden brown hair made him look more like a California surfer than a powerful protector. The shadow of whiskers on his square jaw added to his air of danger.

He looked like their father, enough so that her heart ached as they left the building. Except for his eyes. Matt’s were bright blue and sharp, able to see through lies and into all your secrets. He turned those eyes on her now, only briefly.

“What?”

A man of few words. So unlike Quinn. So much like Gabriel. She hated him for sending them off with someone else, even though she knew he was doing what he thought best.

“Nothing.”

Matt’s right eyebrow lifted slightly but he didn’t say anything.

“You look like Daddy,” Leo said, his tone subdued. “Are we going to live with you now?”

Shea drew in a short breath, ready to punch the man if he so much as looked at Leo the wrong way.

Matt surprised the hell out of her. “Yeah, I’d like you to. You two are all I have left in the way of family. And frankly, I miss your dad. He was some years older than me, and…” Matt took a deep breath, “your parents raised me when my mom and dad were killed.”

He now had their undivided attention. Their father had never talked about his parents. In fact, he’d never talked about Matt, but Shea wasn’t about to mention that now.

“What happened?” Leo voiced the words Shea couldn’t get past the lump in her throat.

Matt’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel, and his foot goosed the gas pedal before settling into a slower speed for the city streets. “Car accident, if you can believe that. Drunk driver ran ’em down on the side of the road. They were walking home from a dinner party. Mom was killed instantly. Dad hung on for a few days until we pulled the plug. I was twelve. Your mom and dad took me with them after that. Kyle trained me, even though I wasn’t sure I was going to be a
grigorio
. I thought maybe I’d follow my dad into the service first.

“We traveled for a few years, until I decided I could take care of myself when I was seventeen and set off to see the world.”

The look he shot Shea said something she couldn’t understand, but there was something…

“How old are you?” she asked.

“Thirty-eight.”

She gasped. “You knew. About me. You were there when I was born.”

“Yeah, I was.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Did Mom…did she tell you how…how I’m supposed to break the curse?”

His expression softened, and he released one hand from the steering wheel to squeeze her shoulder. “Sorry, hon, she didn’t. She never said a word about it.”

The hope that had flared briefly but so fiercely for those few seconds died with a sharp pain in her chest, and she silently cursed herself for being a fool. She knew what she had to do. Her grandfather’s journal and Serena had made that so clear.

This was a blood curse and it would demand blood in payment. Her blood.

And it was going to be soon. She just needed to know that Leo would be safe when she was gone. Then she’d finish this.

“Where are we going?” Leo’s voice broke into her morbid thoughts and she waited for Matt to brush him off. He didn’t.

“New Orleans, see Gabe’s sister, Maddie. Then Dallas. I got a house there, been in the family for nearly a century. We should be safe for a while. If not, then Mexico. I got a few spots tucked away.”

As Leo continued to ask questions, the buzz in Shea’s head grew louder. It had started the second Matt had pulled away from the warehouse. She hadn’t worried about it. Now that she knew what that buzz was, what it meant, she’d accepted it and didn’t try to block it. She still couldn’t make out what the women were saying, though, and it was beginning to drive her a little crazy. She knew they wanted to tell her something, something important. About the curse.