Burning Both Ends (Guardian Witch #3)

His final remark made her want to argue the point, but she swiped at her cheek again and got in a last comment of her own. “You’re too willing to take risks.”

“Am I? Some things are worth the risk. Like this.” He kissed the tip of her nose, wiped away the last tear with his knuckle, and covered her lips with his. Ari leaned into the kiss, not only willing but eager to end the disagreement. Andreas had that kind of charm; not a vampire thing, a man thing. When they broke the kiss, she rested against his chest several moments, just drinking in the feel and smell of him. This wouldn’t be their last disagreement, or the last on this subject. If he kept taking risks, she’d keep finding ways to protect him.

Now that they had come to a reluctant understanding on security arrangements, Ari had a thousand questions about protocol for the evening. She and the staff needed some idea of what was likely to happen, so the next step was a meeting with select individuals—Oliver, Russell, Lilith, Gabriel, Marta and of course Percy hung around—to talk about the possibilities.

At five o’clock, they met in the conference room attached to the audience chambers.

“Why are the rebels coming?” Ari asked as soon as everyone was seated. “Are there rules about this?”

Marta snorted. “There are always rules. It doesn’t mean anyone will follow them.”

“That’s not very helpful.”

“Sorry, I thought you wanted the truth.” Marta leaned back and eyed Ari. “We play it by ear. I don’t think we’ll know their intention until they get here.”

“The card meant nothing except they were coming? OK, so, guess.” Ari absently flipped a strand of hair behind her ear. “Are they coming to fight?”

“Isn’t that a given?” Lilith frowned, unconsciously resting one hand on the gun at her belt.

“It is certainly one possibility. I am sorry to be so vague.” Andreas looked at Ari and the werelions. “You want answers, but anything we say is pure guesswork.”

“At this point, I’ll take anything I can get. Give us some idea of what could happen.”

The vampires looked at one another and shrugged. “Almost anything,” Gabriel admitted. “Maybe it’s easier to say what won’t happen. They won’t bring weapons. They might have lycanthropes with them that are armed, but I think we can justifiably deny their entrance.”

“They aren’t coming to surrender or beg for mercy. They would lose too much respect,” Marta added. “They’ll only negotiate if they don’t see another way to win.”

“And if it comes to a fight?” Ari asked.

“They won’t do anything to trigger a group response because they’d be seriously outnumbered,” Gabriel offered.

“Unless they try to storm the place,” Russell warned. “Come at us with bigger forces.”

Marta gave him a disparaging look. “They would never make it past security. I know these vampires, and I think they will challenge you one at a time. That will keep the rest of us out of the fight, including Arianna.”

Ari’s gaze flew to Andreas’s face. “Can you take them?”

He smiled without humor. “One, yes. Two, maybe. If they continued to challenge one after another, my magic would be sufficiently depleted to make the third and fourth combats difficult.”

“If by difficult, you mean impossible,” she said, giving him her best cop look, “then we have to find a way to avoid that.”

“I could make a counter proposal to the consecutive challenges. We would then negotiate the rules until both sides were agreed,” Andreas said. “But we are getting ahead of ourselves. They may be coming in a mood to talk. Either to find a way to reconcile our differences or arrange a future time and manner of resolution.”

“There is precedent for other means of resolving this,” Marta said. “It doesn’t have to be a fight. Courts have been won and lost by a throw of the dice.”

“Really?” Ari turned back to Andreas. “Would you do that?”

He gave a brief laugh. “I prefer better odds. I believe Marta’s point is there are endless possibilities. We can speculate and plan, but we will only know their proposal when it happens.”

Ari sat back and crossed her arms. They were left with the impossible task of preparing for anything and everything. How could they do that?

Gilbert and the band of lycanthropes from Riverdale reached the compound by six o’clock. They had flown to the Canadian border, come across by twos and threes in werecreature form—the tigers requiring the greatest degree of stealth since they weren’t native—and made their way to Toronto via rented vans. Ryan, true to his word, had used his police connections to get them on several standby flights and had the rental vans waiting at a park on the Canadian side of the border.

Lilith and Russell met the reinforcements at the compound’s back entrance and smuggled the entire group into the cellars. To minimize potential tension and conflict with existing compound staff, the new arrivals had been hidden until they were needed or the meeting with the rebels was over. Ari had easily agreed to this as one of Andreas’s conditions because she liked having a secret weapon. She didn’t trust anyone who hadn’t come with them from the States. Even Gabriel. He’d yelled at her and tried to stir up trouble with Andreas. Petty maybe, but it paid to be careful.

By eight o’clock Andreas dismissed his court staff to prepare for the coming visit. This was a dress-up affair, which for vamps meant lots of black and red; silk, fur, or leather; piercings, jewelry, and decorative chains.

As soon as everyone else was out of sight, Lilith and Ari brought Gilbert, the wolves, and the weretigers out of the basement and hid them strategically throughout the compound. It came in handy that the complex was such a warren of small rooms. It allowed Ari to station them behind closed doors but still near the audience chambers—close enough to respond quickly to a crisis.

Once they were situated, Ari walked the hallways, releasing cleansing spells to clear the passages and adjacent areas of the telltale odors of the lycanthropes. Each member of their defense forces had his or her instructions already. All that remained was for everyone to stay alert and adapt to whatever situation developed.

Ari checked her watch. An hour to go. She’d have to hurry to be ready.

She found Andreas waiting in her room. He’d already changed, and he looked good. Good enough to give a gal ideas. Soft black leather, molded against his thighs and topped with a long-sleeved black silk shirt, top seven or eight buttons undone, showing glimpses of bare skin. The custom-made Armani leather vest hung open, restrained only by four silver chains that dangled loosely across his chest.

He looked up when she shut the door. “Everything ready?”

Ari nodded, staring at his chest. “Why the chains?”

“Because I can.”

Yeah. She sucked in her breath. Considering the painful and debilitating effect of silver on most vampires, the chains were a powerful statement. And oh, so sexy. She looked away.

“Will they be on time?” she asked. “Or is this one of those ‘nobody wants to get there first’ times?”

“They will be exactly on time. This is different than our meeting with Sebastian.”

“Different how? Oh, never mind. We don’t have time.” She shook her head, glad to be diverted from thoughts of Andreas’s intriguing body, but not wanting to get caught up in an extended discussion of weird vampiric protocol. “I don’t see the difference, but I’ll take your word for it. Um, I still need to change. Did you want something?”

His lips twitched, and his eyes sparkled for a moment. “Such a loaded question. But I was bringing you these.” He held up a white gold necklace with a large emerald pendant. Matching earrings and bracelets lay in a box on the dresser top. “I hoped you might wear them tonight.”

“They’re beautiful, but I’m surprised Sebastian had such excellent taste.” She took the necklace and held it to her throat as she looked in the mirror.

“They are not from Sebastian’s coffers. The emeralds have been in the De Luca family since the time of my great-grandmother. They were originally fashioned to match the emerald worn by the male head of our family, a ring that has since been lost.”

“A family heirloom? I can’t wear this.” She shoved the necklace back in his hands. “What if something happened to it?”

“It is only a necklace, cara mia. I am much more concerned about the neck it will adorn.” His face softened. “It will please me to see the emeralds worn again. Turn around. Let me fasten it for you. Then I will leave you to complete your toilette.”

Ari smiled at his language. She’d grown to like the quaint words and phrases that popped out from time to time. He made the process of getting dressed sound so elegant.

As she watched him in the mirror, he lifted her hair and slipped the chain around her neck. The emerald’s fire glittered against her bare skin. His hands touched her throat briefly, and her pulse jumped. She kept her eyes on the necklace. It would look spectacular with the ivory outfit she intended to wear. She turned in his arms and planted a quick kiss on his lips. “Thank you for thinking of this.”

“My pleasure always.”

Ari pushed him out the door soon after that, before they both forgot the rebel vampires were on the way.

Turning back to the dresser with a smile, she picked up the curling iron. It took her longer than it should, but when she finished her hair was up off her neck with long, dangling, spit curls framing her face. It was an approximation of Claris’s creation on another occasion. Claris was so much better at the girlie stuff, but Ari decided her efforts weren’t too bad. She stepped into the ivory silk pants, full and flowing at the bottom, and matching blouse. Slipping on the strappy heels and adding the other jewelry, she surveyed the results in the mirror. She hoped Andreas would be pleased. The off-the-shoulders top showcased the sparkling emerald, and the femininity of the flowing sleeves and pant legs fit the overall delicate style of the jewelry. Once she added her arsenal, concealed in pockets of the flowing fabric, she was as ready as she could be.