Page 29 of Fateful Reunion
Charles wanted to wipe the self-satisfied grin off the young hybrid’s face, but one look at Ilaria’s back squashed that notion: Grayson had indeed managed to keep the mark calm by distracting Ilaria throughout the battle that had raged outside. And who was he to deny her that small pleasure? After all, she’d never had the chance to flirt with a young man.
“Why don’t we go downstairs, and discuss the situation?” Samson suggested motioning to the hallway. Already halfway out the door, he looked over his shoulder at his son. “And Grayson?”
“Yes, Dad?”
“Behave.”
“Don’t I always?”
Samson rolled his eyes and marched down the corridor to the stairs.
Charles pointed his index finger at the smug young hybrid. “What your father said.” He grunted. “Or you’ll learn first-hand what the wrath of a witch feels like.”
Grayson took his time to answer. “Yes… sir.”
Satisfied, Charles turned and caught Roxanne’s unreadable gaze on him. He ushered her out of the room, and side by side they walked downstairs, where several Scanguards staff members were milling about.
“Haven, how long till all the bodies are loaded?” Samson asked a broad-shouldered vampire stomping into the hallway.
“Give us twenty minutes, and the place will look as normal as ever.”
Nodding to Haven, Samson lifted his hand to Charles and Roxanne in a gesture to join him. “A word.”
“Again, I’m grateful—”
But Charles didn’t get any further, because Samson lit into him. “What the fuck were you thinking, keeping from us what we were supposed to protect?” His eyes started to shimmer, indicating the caged vampire beneath the surface. “You could have gotten all of us killed! And to use my son—”
“Your son seems to have no objections,” Charles protested.
Samson snarled, flashing his fangs. “Because he’s a kid with raging hormones! That doesn’t make it right or safe.”
“Judging by what I saw, he’s no kid.”
Samson went toe to toe with him. “The point is: you lied to us. Ilaria is a danger. To all of us.” He glanced at Roxanne. “Zane filled in HQ, and Haven and I discussed it on the ride here.” He glared back at Charles. “My men will take her into custody until she can safely be transferred to the witches who are capable of handling her. We have underground cells at HQ where she’ll be safe.”
“Over my dead body,” Charles protested. “Nobody puts Ilaria in a cell.”
Samson braced his hands on his hips. “We don’t have a choice. Grayson may have been able to distract her this once, but nobody knows what will happen next time. I’m not playing fast and loose with my family’s and my employees’ safety.”
Charles was ready to explode with fury. “Then consider yourself fired!” Because he’d never allow Ilaria to be put in what amounted to a dungeon, an underground cell. The skin on his nape began to prickle uncomfortably. The thought alone gave him the creeps.
“Too late! You don’t get to fire us. This is a matter of protecting our own now.”
The prickling grew stronger, and something else did, too, the awareness that he and Ilaria weren’t the only witches in the house anymore. Had one of the enemy witches managed to hide? Were they about to be ambushed?
“Witch!” Charles screamed and whirled around.
Several weapons were instantly leveled at the figure standing in the open front door.
“Don’t shoot!” Charles screamed, throwing himself between the pointed guns and the witch. “I know her.”
But he shouldn’t have bothered, because the witch who he’d spoken to at Golden Gate Park only hours earlier threw her hand up and shielded herself with her own power, the force field protecting her so strong that the air between her and the vampires shimmered with a silvery glow.
The Scanguards men didn’t stand down.
“It’s touching that you want to protect me,” the witch drawled in much the same tone she had employed earlier in the woods. “But I need no protection from vampires.” She stepped past him, motioning to Samson. “You look like you’re their leader.”
Samson nodded.
