I was getting impatient. After a three hour train ride and three more hours wandering around the foreign city trying to find the right safe-house, we apparently came at a time when nobody was home.
I tapped my foot rapidly and crossed my arms as if angrily willing Titus to show his face. The lure of Paris was overwhelming and as I stood outside the door, with my back to the still icy waters of the Seine river, I painfully suppressed the tugging desire to explore the city.
I could see the top of the Eiffel Tower in the distance; we walked past Notre Dame on our quest to find this house. I dreamed about what it would be like to wander aimlessly through the Louvre and I could smell freshly baked bread from a little bakery just a block away.
“OK, enough of this,” I grumbled, finally reaching my breaking point after a local walked by holding his elegantly unique pastry proudly in his hands as if taunting my stomach in the cruelest of ways.
I pushed past Gabriel and Jericho who stood politely on the stoop and reached out for the door handle. I heard Jericho start to protest, but before I could figure out what he was saying, I used my magic abruptly on the door, bursting it open. However, something happened when I forced the door to move.
With my hand still on the handle, the brass doorknob fought back violently, sending me flying across the checkered marble floor of the entry way and head first into the ivory wainscoted wall opposite the doorway. At the same time, three masked men jumped from every direction, holding weapons high above their heads, screaming at me. I screamed back, covering my face with my arms and expecting the worst.
“Well done, gentlemen,” Jericho called, clapping his hands, clearly amused.
I pulled my hands away from my face, finding courage in Jericho's sarcasm. The men around me too, paused and lowered their arms slowly. Now that I had time to take them in, I could see that their weapons weren't so much of the dangerous variety and more of the pots, pans and cricket mallet variety. I sat up straightly, pushing myself against the wall, which was now marked with a head-sized hole through it.
“Eden?” one of the men exclaimed through a black ski mask, his voice muffled since the mask lacked an opening for a mouth.
“Xander?” I asked, realizing who the three men surrounding me probably were.
“Jericho?” another one of them asked, and then the three of them simultaneously removed their masks.
Xander, Xavier and Titus all stood around me, suddenly relieved. Titus reached out a strong hand to me, pulling me to my feet and then into a giant bear hug.
“Man, are we glad to see you!” He practically shouted in my ear.
“Yeah, you look like it,” I mumbled sarcastically, but smiling all the same. “Didn't you recognize our magic?”
“Oh, sorry about that,” Xavier apologized sincerely, staring at the hole my head had made. “We felt your magic, but you can't be too careful these days, and we wanted to make sure, you know, extra sure you weren't the bad guys.” He pouted his lips, one hand absently stroking the gruff shadow of a beard he kept nicely trimmed and nodded his head as if to say they had obviously done a good job at being “extra sure.”
“Well, you definitely did that; don't worry.” I rubbed the top of my head where a nasty bump started to rise. I sent magic to heal the wound, but no amount of magic was going to be able to heal my bruised ego from being the victim of easy magic.
Everyone laughed, even Gabriel, and the tension in the room was lifted. Jericho shut the door and locked it and then we moved into an elegant sitting room just off the entryway.
“Man, it is so good to see you guys!” Xavier echoed Titus's sentiments, plopping down on a perfectly white, pristine couch and bouncing up and down with excitement. He tucked his chin-length, dark hair behind one ear and I marveled at how similar he and Xander looked. They weren't twins, but they were almost identical, facial hair and all. “We heard what happened, but Jericho, man, I didn't expect to see you here!”
“Yeah, it's good to see you guys too!” Jericho echoed equally as animated. Titus reached out his arm and patted him roughly on the back. The moment felt like they would all get up and hug each other, but instead the four boys sat or stood staring at one other bouncing up and down with nervous energy. “I'm glad you're all here and all Ok.”
“Oh, we were never really in danger,” Xavier continued. “I mean, nobody even knew we were here or knew anything about us. But man, when we heard what happened at the farm, that our worst nightmare came true, well, we just.... it was hard to stay here. It was hard to sit still....”
The room fell silent for a moment, nobody moving, nobody making a sound. We sat staring at each other, lost in the deepest moment of remembrance for the dead and the heart-wrenching frustration of waiting for vengeance. Collectively we knew it would come, but for now, at this moment, we were prisoners of patience.
“Jericho, dude, we heard you were captured, what are you doing here? What happened at the farm? We need to know it all.” Xander broke the respectful silence.
“It's a long story,” Jericho sighed, glancing at me with a curious expression. But then I felt it; I felt the stab of longing and regret that threatened to sweep me up again in the trauma of memory. The story, and Jericho would have to start from the beginning, would force me to be fragile, would demand that I give credence to the painful emotions and I wasn't ready for that again. I especially wasn't ready for these boys to witness it.
“Eden, why don't we go make some coffee and let these friend's catch up for a moment,” Gabriel offered wisely.
“That's a good idea,” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, wait do you know these guys?” I asked, realizing how rude I had been.
“Are you Gabriel?” Titus asked, walking over and extending his hand. When Gabriel nodded, he continued, “I've heard of you. I'm Titus Kelly and this is Xander and Xavier Akin.”
“I've heard of you as well; it is good to meet you,” Gabriel said in his abrupt way that was always taking me off guard, even if he was saying the most normal things, “It is good to be here.”
He turned on his heel and walked out of the room while I struggled to catch up with him before I lost him in the enormity of the house.
Gabriel walked straight into a large all-white kitchen that was perfectly cleaned and mouth-droppingly immaculate. I found a seat at the kitchen island while Gabriel tinkered with the coffee pot.
“Well, this blows the stereotype that boys can't clean up after themselves, out of the water,” I mumbled to myself, impressed that three boys living together could keep a kitchen this perfect.
Gabriel didn't respond, so I turned my attention to some picture frames on the island next to me. My mouth dropped open again after realizing who was in every single picture.
“Gabriel!” I shrieked, forcing him to turn around and pay attention to me, “This is my English teacher! This is Mr. Lambert!” I held up a picture, as if proving my point, both horrified and shocked that we would be inside a house possibly owned by the single man that hated my habit for tardiness most in the world.
“Ah, Charles Lambert? Yes, he's an old friend of Amory's. Well, and an old friend of mine, too, actually,” Gabriel turned back around to focus his attention on the dripping coffee pot.
“Wait, so does that mean this is his house? That's he's part of the rebellion?” I asked, not comprehending that it was even a possibility. I didn't think the worst of Mr. Lambert, but the thought that we would be fighting on the same side of this war was almost too bizarre to believe.
“Oh, yes, for a long time now,” Gabriel replied, pouring me a cup of coffee and then one for himself.
“Eden is definitely going to have to change, though,” Xander announced playfully, walking into the kitchen and putting both of his hands on my shoulders. “Because this might cut it when you're climbing mountains, but sorry, E, they won't even let you in a place like that, dressed like this.” Xander squeezed my shoulders in his giant hands, making me cringe and laugh at the same time.
“Let me in? Where are we going?” I asked, trying to catch up with whatever plans the boys had made in the living room.
“To a party, of course,” Xavier replied, a mischievous smile on his face.
“And what party would that be?” I questioned, reservations already sending alarms off in my blood.
“A birthday party,” Titus answered seriously, walking over to the coffee pot and accepting a cup from Gabriel.
“Who's birthday party?” I pressed, growing irritated that they were making me ask so many questions to get to the bottom of this.
“Sebastian Cartier.” Jericho was the last to enter the kitchen. He took a seat next to me, reaching out for the cup of coffee Gabriel was extending to him. “It's his birthday and the Immortal community is throwing an extra large celebration in honor of him tonight. Rumor has it that somebody took his magic. Apparently, he's a little depressed about that,” Jericho finished snidely, the same mischievous smile on his face as well.
“Then somebody better finish the job,” I murmured with renewed interest.
The large kitchen buzzed with anxious energy. It felt good to reunite with this team. We were finally an assembled group with a concrete mission ahead of us. Sebastian Cartier was more than just an end to tie up; he was a wealth of information and if we could pull off kidnapping him, it would be a serious message sent to Lucan. The tables were finally turned on our relationship; I would be the one stalking him this time.
Chapter Eleven
“I still don't understand why we couldn't have at least brought some explosives,” Xander grumbled underneath his breath. “I mean, I'm not asking for a whole lot here, just one or two or maybe five.... small.... small-ish bombs.”
“Xander, for the last time, we don't want to hurt any more Immortals than we have to. And we only want to kill two of them, Ok maybe three of them,” I scolded sternly, while we walked down the long concrete tunnel leading to a secret Immortal club deep beneath the streets of Paris. “Plus, blowing up an underground club might have some serious effects up in the human world,” I reminded him casually, “and by might, I mean it would, we're talking major sink hole in the middle of downtown Paris, that is so not Ok.”
My brand new, extra tall stilletos clicked with every step I took, echoing off the rounded concrete walls. Low, reverberating club music grew steadily louder in the distance the closer we walked to the Immortal prince's birthday party.
“I didn't say we had to use them, I was just suggesting they might be useful, you know just in case,” Xander protested and I gave him a hard look not wanting to go over my reasoning again, for the hundredth time. “All right, all right, you're the boss-lady,” he said with hands in the air surrendering.
“Avalon would have brought explosives,” Xavier mumbled and when I turned my glare on him, he shrunk away to the back of our group, but not before the corners of his mouth turned up into a smile.
The excited buzzing of magic grew stronger, the farther into the tunnel we walked. I looked around at the boys, who had all cleaned up very nicely. All except Gabriel who opted to stay home instead of trading in his priestly wardrobe for something that would be more appropriate for a night club. Titus was less lumberjack looking after he shaved the red stubble that grew long during their “underground” phase. He looked muscular in a tighter fitting white dress shirt and loosened tie. Xander likewise, wore a collared white dress shirt, but underneath a gray suit coat with matching charcoal trousers. Xander changed up the color a bit with a black dress shirt and went a little classier with a well tailored, tan suit. He pulled his longer hair back into a loose ponytail.