Darkness & Discovery (The Bespelled Trilogy #2) (16 page)

“Bryn,
is something wrong?” I asked.

“I
was just talking to Athos. I was curious about his lineage, especially his
nonhuman one. Turns out the angel that impregnated Athos’ human mother is one
I’ve heard of. His name is Deverroth.” Bryn’s expression was unreadable.

“Is
that bad?” I asked.

“Not
necessarily.”

The
conversation caught Alastair’s attention, and he pulled off the headphones and turned
toward Bryn as he asked, “So, where have you heard that name before?”

“From
you, actually,” Bryn told him.

“Do
I know Deverroth?”

“You’ve
met him a couple times,” Bryn said, frowning slightly.

“And?”
Alastair asked. “Why is this relevant?”

“It’s
relevant, Allie,” Bryn said, “because Deverroth is your father.”

Chapter Ten

It was a good thing the
plane was on autopilot, because otherwise it probably would have plunged out of
the sky as Alastair leapt up and exclaimed, “So that means – ”

“That
Athos is your half-brother,” Bryn finished for him.

Alastair
looked absolutely stunned for a long moment. And then he muttered, “Brilliant.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I already have a half-sister that tried to
kill me, and now I have a half-brother who also wants me dead. My family
reunions must be delightful.”

I
asked, “Did Athos know about this connection?”

“He
didn’t. And to say he’s flabbergasted is putting it mildly,” Bryn said.

“You
told him?” Alastair asked.

“Yeah,
I kind of blurted it out when he told me his father’s name,” Bryn admitted. “I
was as shocked as you were.”

Alastair
pressed his eyes shut for a long moment before sitting back down in the pilot’s
seat. He sighed and put the headphones back on, and knit his brows as he tried
to concentrate on the controls.

“You
know, this explains a few things,” Bryn was saying. “I’d always wondered how
Alastair managed to survive the vampire transformation. And now that I know he
has a half-brother with special abilities, it’s clear to me that their father,
Deverroth, is somehow an anomaly. He himself must possess some unusual gifts,
and has passed some of them on to his offspring.”

I
was watching Alastair closely, and got up from the co-pilot’s chair and told
Bryn, “Sit here, ok?” It was obvious that Alastair was distracted after that
bombshell.

I
went back into the main cabin, where Athos was staring out the window, arms
wrapped around his bare torso. “Here’s your t-shirt,” I said, sitting down
beside him. “Thanks for loaning it to me.”

“You’re
welcome.” He pulled on the shirt and turned to look at me, his pale blue eyes troubled.

“So.
Small world, huh? I mean, what are the chances you and Alastair would end up
being related?”

“Depends
on how you look at it. Your boyfriend is – or was – nephilim. All of us can
trace our lineage back to just a few angels that came to earth and had children
with humans. So, it’s not quite as improbable as, say, two random humans
discovering they had the same parent.” Athos looked out the window again.

“Are
you ok?” I asked. “You seem upset.”

He
said quietly, still facing the dark window, “It’s been decades since the last
of my family died. I still miss them. I had such loving parents. It was painfully
obvious that I didn’t belong to my human father. I was a foot taller than him
and my brothers, and then I had these pale eyes when all of theirs were dark.
But he forgave my mother for her infidelity and raised me as his own. And my
brothers – it was apt that we were named for the three musketeers. We were
inseparable, the best of friends.”

Athos
turned toward me and said, “After they died, I searched in vain for any family
I might have left, no matter how far removed. But I came up empty. I was alone
for almost ninety years, and that contributed to my decision to join the Order.
In part, I joined because I believed in the cause of fighting vampires. But
beyond that, I just really wanted to belong to something again. I wanted to be
part of a family.”

“So
normally,” I said, “you’d have been thrilled to find a living relative. But
finding out your long lost half-brother is a vampire, especially
that
vampire, isn’t exactly your idea of a good time.”

“About
sums it up.”

Landing in Las Vegas
was incredibly smooth. It was
too
smooth. I suspected a bit of magic was
involved in order for Bryn and Alastair to land the plane that perfectly. A bit
more magic was involved when we pulled up to the terminal and the ground crew
wanted to know what had happened to the pilots and flight attendants. Nothing a
little spell couldn’t handle.

We
grabbed our luggage and started to walk toward the line of taxis at the front
of the airport, but Athos hung back. I went up to him and said, “I know you’re
about to tell me you don’t think you should come with us, but I’m too tired to
argue right now. So let’s just cut to the part where I win the argument, and
come to the hotel with us and get some sleep.”

“It’s
not a good idea.”

“No,
see, that’s the part we’re skipping, the part where we debate this. You have no
place to go. Do you even have any money or credit cards on you?”

“Well…no.”

I
took hold of the sleeve of Athos’ leather jacket and pulled him toward the
taxis. He sighed and went along reluctantly.

Bryn had checked us in
to a pair of adjoining suites at the Bellagio. Each was elegant and luxurious, though
the dark wood and marble floors and flashy artwork paled beside the sparkling
view beyond the huge windows. I looked out over the Strip, glittering like a
million brightly colored gems strewn against a black velvet background of empty
desert. And then I stepped back quickly, startled when several jets of water
shot past the window. I leaned forward and looked down, and realized the huge fountains
out in front of the hotel actually reached the top floors of the building at
times, during their famous choreographed routine. But the fountains shouldn’t
have been running this time of night, and I looked over my shoulder at Bryn,
who winked and grinned before heading into another room.

Each
suite was over two thousand square feet, so there was more than enough room for
Athos to stay with us. In fact, we could have picked up a dozen more former
assassins on the way to the hotel, and all would have fit comfortably. I guided
him to the bedroom beside Bryn’s. Joey and Alastair were in the other suite, as
far away as I could manage from Athos. You know, just in case they got up
before I did and decided to fight to the death or something. He stood in the
center of the large bedroom and said, “I shouldn’t be here, Luna. I’m not
wanted.”

Bryn
stuck his head in the door and said, “Luna wants you here, and so do I. And
since I’m the one funding this little expedition, you’re my guest and welcome
to stay as long as you like. Now don’t argue. We all need some rest.” The
warlock looked exhausted.

Athos
hesitated for a moment, and finally said, “Thank you, Bryn.”

“Come
tuck me in, Lu,” Bryn said. “And I’ll see you in a few hours, Athos. Sleep
well.” He headed down the hall.

“Good
night, Athos,” I said. “Or good morning, or whatever it actually is right now.”

I’d
been slowly adapting to a nocturnal lifestyle since getting involved with a
vampire, but was beyond tired now. Still, I dragged myself to Bryn’s room,
where I found him sprawled out face down and fully clothed across his big,
fluffy bed. He rolled onto his side and smiled at me when I came in, and I perched
on the edge of the mattress.

Though
Bryn was over three hundred years old, he had bespelled himself to stop aging when
he was nineteen. Every once in a while though, his dark eyes seemed to reflect
his real age – like now. I gently brushed his hair off his forehead and asked,
“You doing ok, Bryn?”

“Yeah,
just wore myself out today. I worked a lot of spells, and it drained my energy.
I’ll be better after I sleep. But first I wanted to tell you not to worry. I’ve
set up a little virtual trip wire between the suites. So if, say, Joey gets the
bright idea to kill Athos while he’s sleeping and comes over to this suite, an
alarm will sound and wake everyone up.”

“Good
call.”

 “I
also want to tell you not to worry about Athos. Your instincts are absolutely
right about him. He’s a good person who made a mistake getting involved with
the Order. He intensely dislikes Alastair, but he’s not going to harm him or Joey,
for your sake.”

 “And
how do you know all that?”

“I
read it in him.”

“I’d
always wondered if you could read minds. What am I thinking about now?” I asked
with a grin.

“You’re
thinking about jellyfish. You’re an odd girl, Luna,” he said with a grin of his
own.

“You
really can read minds! And I was thinking about them because that’s exactly what
the glass sculpture in the lobby looks like – hundreds of jellyfish.”

“You’re
right, it does. And I can only read minds when I make the conscious decision to
do so and expend a lot of energy. What I do all the time and fairly
effortlessly is read people’s intentions and emotions. I don’t like it when anyone
catches me off guard.”

“Is
that why you let Augustine stick around? Because you can read his intentions
and know he’s not planning anything bad?”

“Actually,
vampires are almost impossible to read. I should have said I can read humans
and half-humans, not people in general.” Bryn yawned hugely. And then he added,
“Speaking of Augustine, he’s in a room on this floor of the hotel. If you need
him for some reason, you can find him in the Cypress Suite.”

“You
told him to come?”

“Nope.
He came on his own, and thinks I don’t know he’s here. He’s concerned, because
he’s expecting me to go on an epic bender now that I’m in Vegas. He’s not
wrong.” Bryn’s eyelids were half-shut, and he smiled sweetly.

“How
do you know he’s here if you can’t read vampires?”

 “Because
I can track him like a cocker spaniel with a microchip.” Bryn was murmuring
now, his eyes closed.

“Huh?”

 “I
cast a spell marking Augustine with a locator signal, so I always know exactly
where he is. You know, like people do with their dogs so they can find them if
they run off? Only in this case it’s for the opposite reason. It’s so I can find
him in case he
doesn’t
run off. Thought it was probably a good idea to
keep tabs on him if I was going to let him hang about.” He was barely awake,
his speech slurring a bit.

“Makes
sense. Good night, Bryn. Oh, and thanks for the plane ride and the posh
accommodations,” I said as I pulled a blanket over him and shut off the light
on the nightstand.

“Welcome,
love.” He was asleep before I even shut the door.

I’d
almost made it to my bedroom before Joey stuck his head out into the hall and
asked, “So, in all the excitement, I never did ask how it went with your mom.”

“Bad,
Joey. Really, really bad.”

“What
happened?”

I
so didn’t have the energy to talk about this right now, but I muttered, “Turns
out she was released from prison this past spring. And she never bothered to
call and tell me, or come and see me, or find out her sister was dying, or
anything.”

“Oh
God.”

 “So,
do me a favor, Joey: never, ever mention her to me again. Because as far as I’m
concerned, I don’t have a mother.”

Joey
moved so fast, I didn’t even see it. One moment he was in the doorway to his
bedroom, the next he was crushing me to him in a huge hug. “I’m so sorry, Lu.
God, I’m sorry. I kept pushing you to go see her. You kept trying to tell me
she was awful, but I didn’t listen. Are you ok?” His cheek was against mine,
and I felt his cold tears on my skin. But I for one was done crying about this.

I
let go of him and stepped back. “I’m fine. Turns out I was right all along to
keep her out of my life. I know that now, beyond any doubt.” I turned and went
to my room.

Pausing
only long enough to pull off my boots, I fell onto my bed fully clothed like
Bryn had, draping an arm over my eyes. The door to my bedroom opened and shut,
and then a blanket was being pulled over me. I didn’t have to open my eyes to
know who it was. I rolled over and buried my head in Alastair’s chest as he
climbed into bed and wrapped his strong arms around me.

“So,
you obviously heard what I said to Joey,” I murmured.

“Yes.”

“I’m
fine, you know. I don’t need comforting.”

“I
know,” he said, and went right on holding me. I slipped my arms around him.

After
a while, he changed the subject by asking quietly, “Did he hurt you? Athos, I
mean, when he took you hostage.”