Sucking in San Francisco (18 page)

“It doesn’t matter. Protocol is that we exit until the bomb squad can clear the building,” Meredith answers.

This sucks. No one is going to be left with unanswered calls. We have an emergency plan set up where our calls are forwarded to another agency, but that will mean a backlog at that agency and long wait times on the phone. Some people will hang up and that is never good. We all hate what this means. I agree with my co-worker, I doubt this is for real.

We get our coats on and shuffle out of the building in an orderly manner. Everyone stands out front in a huddle as the police, the bomb squad and the fire department get here.

“Now everyone just stay calm. Aren’t you all glad you didn’t have any personal items to retrieve from your work stations? I told you all it was a good policy,” Meredith says.

Sebastian gets out of his car from across the street and walks over to me, frowning.

“Don’t look now, darling, but the good sisters are here too. I have a feeling they are the cause of all this. I heard Meredith say it was a bomb scare.”

“Yes. Where are they? And why are you still here?”

“I noticed they were down the street in that big Lincoln, and
I’m
here in case something like this should happen. I couldn’t be away from you tonight,” he says as he kisses the top of my head, sending warm fuzzies through me. “I think their plan was to draw you out before I came to pick you up so they only had to deal with you.”

Sure enough, I see the sisters stealing their way through the shadows down the street. Thank goodness for vampire sight.

“Here they come, Bast.”

“I see them, sweetheart. Get in front of me so I’m in their line of sight. I want to make this difficult for them. If for some reason this spell Helena put on us doesn’t work and I start acting strange I want you to run to the car and go straight home. Julian and Aidan said the witches won’t have enough energy to cast again right away. They have to do both of us at once or it’s for nothing.”

He puts the car keys in my hand and closes my fingers around them.

“What about you? What if they get you? You don’t think I’ll leave you, do you?”

“You must leave me, that’s probably their back up plan. They’ll try to lure you by capturing me. Don’t worry about me. They want me for Indio. They want to kill you, Cherie. Do not forget that.”

“I don’t think I can just leave you, Bast. Please don’t let them take you.” I’m shaking. Some badass vampire I am. Where is my mojo when I need it? Where is the hand sanitizer? Dammit, I am falling apart. I need something to bite! If I wasn’t opposed to killing I would drain those bitches tonight. I’m actually considering it. I can’t believe myself, but the thought of losing Sebastian stirs something primal in me.

I can hear them across the street, whispering.

“Can you hear them, Cherie?”

“Yes.”

“So far, so good,” Sebastian whispers.

“I’m going to keep asking,” I whisper back.

“Okay.”

“They’ve stopped their incantation. Are you still okay?” I ask.

“Yes, no problems, how about you?”

“None. I can hear them, they’re frustrated. Iris is pissed and Indio is throwing a tantrum.”

Meredith, for once, gives me stupendous news. “Everyone,
excuse me
, can I have your attention. This is going to take some time. They are bringing in a robot and it won’t be here for a while. I am sending this shift home.”

“Give me the keys, ma petite. Let’s get out of here before they make a scene.”

I hand Bast the keys and we walk across the street making sure we keep our eyes diverted from the area where Indio and Iris are. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Indio jumping up and down. Iris is trying to pull her into the doorway of some shop so they won’t be seen. I can’t help letting a small giggle escape. Sebastian squeezes my fingers to quiet me.

“Lily,” he warns.

“I know. I can’t help myself.”

We get into the car and he starts chuckling under his breath and I have to bend down so they won’t see me laughing.

“Indio is going to be so pissed,” I say sobering up. “We have to warn Hannah. She is going to be walking into a hornet’s nest. I’m worried for her. We have to send Aidan with her again.”

“It’s too bad she and Aidan haven’t hit it off,” Sebastian casually remarks.

“I suppose that’s true. It would be good for both of them,” I agree reluctantly. Conflicted again.

“Why do you think that?” Aidan says from the back seat.

“Dammit, Aidan,” I say.

“Merde!” Sebastian yells.

“A little privacy would be nice. And I said it because she is a really cool and a decent woman. And she is into you.”

“It’s not because you’ve made your mind up yet, is it.”

“I’ll tell you when I do, Aidan. I promise.”

“Well in that case, I’ll meet you at the manse. By the way, the spell of Helena’s held and the sisters are furious.” Then he is gone, I assume to go to the manse and tell Helena, Julian and Hannah what happened.

I sigh. The realization that we have just escaped a very dangerous situation sinks in and I begin to shake again. My mind longs for normalcy, stability. Sebastian sees me shaking and he gathers me up in his arms. He murmurs gentle words to me, telling me he will always protect me and will always be here for me. I hold him tight for a long time before reluctantly letting go.

“Sebastian, can we find a coffee house and get a peppermint mocha?”

“It’s kind of late for that, but I think I know a place that’s still open. Let me call the others so they don’t worry.” He calls and talks to Julian for a few minutes. All the time he keeps his eyes on me and holds onto my hand. Aidan has already filled them in.

“Why the late night coffee house trip, Lily?” he asks me as he ends his call.

“I just want to do something normal, Bast. Everything has been so out of control lately, I just want to pretend that we’re on a little date and are going out for coffee. Is that okay?”

“It’s more than okay. I would have loved to do this with you. You can’t imagine how many times I have thought about doing this very thing with you, sitting outside, watching people go by, holding hands.”

“I’ll take a rain check on that. We’ll have to be satisfied with eleven at night and stuffed into a booth inside somewhere, probably poetry night on top of it.”

“I think you might be right,” he grins.

We drive down Geary and pull into a parking spot. Bast gets my door and we walk hand in hand down the street to a coffee shop. It is open mic night and they are reading poetry and singing. The coffee is sublime. We’re able to find a booth at the back of the shop, it is a tight squeeze. You can’t see the stage so I’m guessing that’s why it is available. We didn’t come to see the performance anyway.

“This is fun,” I say as Bast squeezes in next to me.

“Yes it is. It reminds me of our time in Paris. We should go back for a visit, Cherie. Your French was just starting to come together. I bet you’ve lost it all now.”

“Are you saying you wouldn’t tutor me night and day?” I ask while batting my lashes.

“You are an incorrigible flirt.”

“True,” I agree. I do like to flirt, but it’s too provocative now and I rein myself in. “I love Paris. I want to go down through Brittany again and the valley of the Loire. I wonder if they sell handi-wipes in France.”

“If they don’t, I will make sure we have a crate shipped ahead of us. Why don’t we take that trip, just you and me? Let’s get out of here and all this craziness. Please, let me keep you alive.”

“We have to help Julian with those texts or the witches will end up doing something to our entire family. I can’t just leave them with all this in the air.”

“Or do you mean you can’t leave with Aidan in the mix?”

“Look at me.” I take his face in my hands. “If your invitation had happened before all this and I knew how I felt about our relationship, I’d leave with you tonight.”

He leans in and tries to break the rules. Kissing Sebastian makes me feel safe and yet I stay firm to my convictions. No problem with my attraction to him or with my attraction to Aidan. Almost a century without love and now I’m overwhelmed with offers. I really need this time to sort out my feelings.

“We better get back home,” Sebastian says, ruefully.

“Okay.”

“I know. I can’t believe I’m being the good one.” He laughs. “Come on, I’ll carry you if you want.”

“How about piggy back?” I ask.

“Deal.” It’s just what I need to lighten my serious, somewhat melancholy mood.

We leave the café and I jump on his back. He runs down the street with me, we’re laughing like fools. When we get to the car he pulls me around to the front so he can hold me like a child. He has the biggest smile I think I have ever seen on his face.

“Lily, you make me happy.”

“We should get going,” I say.

“We should, but I don’t want to.”

“I know, I’m having fun too. But everyone will be worried. Come on, young man,” I tease.

“Sweetheart, I’m all man but I’m certainly not young.”

“Figure of speech, Bast.”

Hannah gets a call from the witches demanding she come over right away and I go with her to see them. She’s nervous as hell on the way over there.

“Aidan, what am going to say?” Hannah asks while chewing on her lower lip.

“You need to be indignant and surprised. Remember to pretend like you were kept out of the fun.”

“Okay,” she blows out a gust of air which must have been difficult, and shows me just how agitated she really is.

“Remember, Helena’s spell worked on Sebastian and Lily.”

“Yeah, it’s one of the reasons I can go through with this. I have to admit I’m more than a little afraid.”

We pull up to the witches’ place and I become a beetle and hop a ride on Hannah’s skirt again. Hannah knocks on the door. Iris opens it and grabs Hannah by the shirt and yanks her inside.

“You little traitor! You warned them!” Iris yells in Hannah’s face.

Hannah takes a step back and removes Iris’s hand forcibly.

“What ARE you talking about?”

“Lily and Sebastian. They knew we were coming. They were impervious to our spell. How did that happen? Was Helena in the shadows too?” Iris spits at her.

“First of all, I don’t know what you are talking about. I just left the manse and Helena and Julian have been with me all night. Second, I didn’t say a word to Lily or Sebastian.”

I pop over to the manse to give them a quick update and am back in an instant. I try to catch up with the argument.

“What do you mean you tried to kidnap Lily without me?” Hannah argues. “You were supposed to wait for me.”

“We called in a bomb threat. We figured that if we got her without Sebastian it would make things easier. But Sebastian was waiting outside her work and met her outside when they all came out,” Iris growls.

“I told you he goes everywhere with her,” Hannah snaps.

“We incanted the spell and it didn’t work. Are you sure Helena was with you?” Indio asks Hannah again.

“She never left the manse all night.” Hannah’s got her hand on her hip – definitely giving attitude.

“Has Helena put any spells on you lately?” Iris asks suspiciously.

“She put a spell on me after the stakings started. She called it a protection spell. She put it on all of us.”

“Fuck!” Iris yells.

“How could she know?” Indio mumbles.

“I don’t know, but she obviously knows more magik than we thought and the immobilizing spell will not work on them,” Iris rants.

“What now?” Hannah asks.

“I don’t know. I have to think. We’ll call you. For now just pretend like you know nothing. If we need you again we’ll be in touch,” Iris says as she starts pacing.

“That’s not good enough. I want to know what’s going on. I thought we were going to take care of things,” Hannah says menacingly.

Iris jumps in her face, on a rampage. “I’ll tell you what I want to tell you when I want to tell you. This is my show and don’t you forget it, blood sucker.” Indio cowers in the background. “I will not let that bitch Lily ruin my plans. She has more luck than anyone I have ever seen. There has to be something going on that I haven’t figured out yet. In the mean time you are on a strictly need to know basis and you don’t need to know anything right now. Understand?”

“Call me,” Hannah says abruptly and leaves. As she heads for the car I pop over to the manse and give them an update and pop back to Hannah’s side. When we get into the car I slip into my human form for the ride home. Hannah shakes.

“You did brilliantly, Hannah.”

“I’m scared, Aidan. Iris is seriously psycho.”

“I know. She won’t wait much longer. She is getting desperate. The more desperate she gets the more drastic her actions are going to be. We’ll just have to be extra careful and stay on top of them. You need to pull back now. I think they are suspicious of you. You did a good job. I just think Iris is suspicious of all vampires now, especially since she knows she can’t put the subduing spell on Lilith and Sebastian.”

“Yeah, she lost it, didn’t she? I think it made her feel safer to be around me knowing that she could get me in the end if she decided to. What a mess. I wouldn’t be Lily for a million dollars right now. We have to keep her safe, Aidan.”

“I will, Hannah. I swear to you, I will. My existence would mean nothing without her.”

“Oh Aidan, not you too.” But her grin takes the heat out of her statement.

“I’m afraid so, dear. I’ve lost myself to her, if only she would return the gesture.”

“Not that I am in favor of this, but can’t you just bespell her to fall in love with you?”

“No, djinn can’t make people fall in love,” I say. “I could make her my love slave but that is not what I want from her. I want her whole body, mind and soul. Nothing less.”

“Always the sidekick, never the lead,” she complains.

As usual at this time of night all the lights are on. Lilith is back.

“I wish you well, Aidan,” Hannah says and she kisses me gently on the cheek. I look at her for a moment and take her hand and squeeze it. I have never had anyone to share my feelings with before. I have found a friend in Hannah.

These vamps are messing with my mind. Millennia of hatred and suddenly they show me love and friendship and acceptance. It’s hard to wrap my head around.