Bewitched, p.38
Bewitched, page 38
“Someone looking for me?” A deep, rich voice with a faint British accent called out, the sound filling the still air of the cavernous space.
Selene spun to face an older man with shaggy white hair, wearing a worn, wool jacket with patches on the elbows. Wire-frame glasses perched on the end of his nose as his gaze skimmed over Selene.
Gryph’s lips lifted in a smile. “Father.” He engulfed the man, who was stooped with age, in a bear hug.
Father? Selene stared at the older man, trying to see in him traces of Gryph and finding no similarities whatsoever.
Balthazar patted Gryph’s back. “Back so soon?”
Gryph’s smile faded. “There’s been more trouble.”
“So much trouble you would forget to introduce me to your beautiful lady-friend?” Balthazar held out his hands to Selene.
Selene immediately trusted the man, placing her hands in his. He had an aura of serenity that made her comfortable with him from the moment her hands touched his. “I’m Selene Chattox. It’s nice to meet you.”
The gray-haired man waved toward a doorway that was painted a sleek antique blue. “Come inside.”
With his hand on Selene’s arm, Gryph led her through the door and into what once must have been a kind of warehouse, but was now an open, high-ceilinged room with soft rugs covering a concrete floor and walls painted in shades of cream and the warm gold of wheat. Prints of famous paintings from the ages decorated the walls and antique furniture graced the living areas. There were lamps glowing on tables and track lighting hung from the ceiling. On several walls, murals had been painted of French doors and windows, overlooking lush gardens filled with sunshine, roses and gerbera daisies. The paintings were beautiful and looked almost real, as if you could step through the doors into a garden.
Selene was struck by the beauty and the light and airiness of this underground abode.
“Do you like my home?” Balthazar asked.
“It’s stunning.”
“I fill it with all the things I love. I have a library with all the classics in multiple languages and many contemporary works.”
“I’d love to see it.”
“Gryph can show you, while I prepare a pot of tea.”
Gryph shook his head. “Father, we don’t have time.”
“Nonsense. You both look flustered. A bit of tea will calm you so that you can sleep. Show your young lady the library. I’ll bring the tea there.”
Selene wanted to contradict the older gentleman and tell him that she was not Gryph’s lady. But she bit down on her lip and kept her words and thoughts to herself.
Balthazar entered an open kitchen area as Gryph led Selene toward another doorway.
As they stepped into the room, Selene was overwhelmed by the rich reds and golds of the furnishings, and the mahogany bookshelves that stretched to a twelve-foot ceiling and were lined with leather-bound, hardback and paperback novels. A thick Persian carpet filled most of the floor space and a large mahogany desk dominated the room, with a leather sofa placed in front of it.
“This room is amazing,” Selene whispered.
“Balthazar encouraged us to read from the moment we could started talking.”
“We?” Selene wanted to know more about this enigmatic man.
“My brother and I.”
“You have a brother?”
He glanced down at her. “I do.”
Selene shook her head. “A father, a brother… Are there any more people in your family I should know about?”
His lips tightened. “That’s all of us. And the others who live in the Lair are like my extended family. We look to each other for support.”
“Why is it people—surface dwellers—haven’t discovered the Lair? I would think the people who’ve come to explore the underground tunnels would have come across all of you by now.”
“We’ve sealed off most entrances, hidden those that we use and manage to discourage entry by those curious enough to dig beneath Chicago’s glitzy surface.”
“And Balthazar? I’m sorry, but you two don’t look anything alike? Is he like you? A shifter?”
“Balthazar is not my biological father. I’ve never seen or met either of my parents. My mother left me with Balthazar when I was an infant. She couldn’t handle raising me, knowing I was a monster. Balthazar accepted me and raised me. I owe my existence to him.”
Selene’s heart squeezed. “You and your brother were abandoned?” A woman had to be either heartless or desperate to leave her child.
“My brother came to the Lair with his mother when he was not quite two years old. I was eight at the time. From what I recall, they were homeless, his mother had been an addict, abused and stalked by her former boyfriend and in need of a place to hide out and get clean. Other than the trauma of an unhealthy situation, they were normal. When Lucas’s mother couldn’t shake the addiction, she disappeared back to the surface, leaving Lucas behind. Balthazar opened our home to him.”
“Does Balthazar do that often?”
“Do what?”
“Take in strays?”
Gryph chuckled. “It’s who he is.”
“How many people live in the Lair?”
“Last count, around forty.”
“Forty?” Selene stepped back. “That many?”
“Those who can, work on the surface.”
“If they’re that…different, how do they get jobs?”
“Balthazar has connections and, as you know, I have businesses.”
“You employ them?”
“I try to accommodate as many as possible. It’s not always a fit.”
Selene let her brows inch upward. “You can’t have cat people working for GL Enterprises?”
His mouth tightened. “I’d hire them all, but many don’t want to work during daylight hours, where they will be seen, and I don’t have as many night-shift opportunities.”
“What do you think of my library?” Balthazar entered carrying a silver tray with a silver teapot and cups. “You’re lucky—Mrs. Martin brought by scones this morning.” He set the tray on the edge of the desk. “Gryphon will you be so good as to fetch the tray of scones from the kitchen?”
Gryph frowned. “Father, we have to discuss an urgent matter.”
“Certainly.” His father nodded. “After you retrieve the scones.”
Gryph’s chest rose and fell on a silent sigh and he left the room.
Selene stood in the middle of the Persian carpet, not sure what to say. The entire setting, the underworld society, this home beneath the city—everything was so unusual she struggled to take it all in.
Balthazar poured a cup of tea and turned to hand it to her. “Gryphon has always been a blessing to me and the other inhabitants of the Lair.”
She accepted the cup and sipped carefully before asking, “How so?”
“He was the one who got permanent electricity wired into the homes within the Lair. I managed to get internet here, but he insisted on high-speed access for all those who desired it, wanting our children to take online coursework to enhance their homeschooling, and so that they could learn about the world above from the relative safety of their homes here.”
“I don’t completely understand. They are people like the rest of the world. They should be allowed to live in peace on the surface.” But she knew even as she spoke the words what life on the surface would be like. She’d been bullied as a child when she’d been in public schools.
“You know their reasons. Fear of rejection. Past experiences.” Balthazar’s shoulders rose and fell. “Has Gryphon told you about how his mother abandoned him?”
Selene nodded.
“It was more than that. She was a young college coed when she was raped by a monster.”
“That’s terrible. Did they ever catch the man?”
“Maybe you don’t understand that when I say she was raped by a monster, it was a true monster, not just a man with evil in his soul.”
“Oh.” Selene’s eyes widened. “Oh.”
Balthazar nodded. “You see, Gryphon’s mother was human. Her rapist was not. We’re not certain what it was, but once Gryphon started shifting, even as early as two months old, she knew she couldn’t provide for him and keep him safe from people who would exploit him and turn him into a science experiment.
“Though she loved her baby, she didn’t have the strength or the resources to support him in a private environment, where he would be protected from the ridicule, poking and prodding of people trying to understand what exactly he was.
“I found her outside a church, near one of our hidden entrances. She was bent over a basket, crying softly, tucking blankets around her baby.”
“Gryph.” Selene’s eyes welled with tears, her heart filled with the ache of despair Gryph’s mother must have felt to come to the conclusion that only by abandoning her baby could he get the care that he needed.
“She told me her story and how she couldn’t keep him in a world that wouldn’t understand. She begged me to take good care of him and that she loved him, but couldn’t be a part-time parent. When she gave up custody, she didn’t want him to come looking for her. I never told him who she was.”
“And you took him in.”
Balthazar nodded. “He was a fighter then and now. As a toddler, he nearly ripped off my arm.”
“Sweet goddess,” Selene exclaimed.
“Don’t worry. He’s learned to control his beast. Now he only calls on the animal inside when danger is present. He would rip anyone apart who tried to hurt someone he loves.” Balthazar glanced down at Selene, his gaze softening.
Selene’s face heated. “Gryph and I just met,” she muttered. She refused to consider their urgent lovemaking as anything more than lust.
“Really, Father, don’t fill Selene with tales of monsters and demons,” Gryph said as he returned.
“Are there demons in the Lair?” Selene asked.
Gryph chuckled. “No, but there are monsters.”
“Only in the eyes of people who won’t understand.”
“Don’t scare her more. I need her to go with me to D’na Ileana.”
“The gypsy.” Balthazar set his teacup on the desk. “You remember the dangers?”
With dip of his head, Gryph stared hard at his adoptive father. “The animal who attacked the woman outside the theater was a wolf shifter. When we went to question the Devil’s Disciples—”
Balthazar reached out and gripped Gryph’s arm. “You went into Disciple territory?”
Gryph nodded and the hint of a smile curved his lips. “And lived to tell.” Beneath his breath, he added, “Barely.”
Balthazar turned and paced away, coming back to stand in front of Gryph. “When you confront a pack, you take your life into your own hands.” Balthazar glanced at Selene. “And you? Were you with him?”
“Yes, sir,” Selene responded, feeling like a recalcitrant child. “With the help of my sisters, we managed to get away.”
“Very fortunate, indeed.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And why must you visit the gypsy?”
“We need to find the rogue werewolf threatening the city.” Gryph stepped forward. “Unless you know where we can find him, D’na Ileana may be our only hope.”
Balthazar shook his head. “I’ve only heard rumors of the wolf. Remember, the gypsy sees the future,” Gryph’s adoptive father said, “not necessarily individuals.”
Gryph’s eyes narrowed, his jaw tightening. “If she can see where he’ll strike next, we can be there.”
Selena smiled, now that she understood why Gryph had brought her with him. “We could stop him before he kills again.” They might get ahead of the killer and catch him before he harms another. “Where is this gypsy?”
“Deep in the darkest tunnel,” Balthazar said.
Like spider legs crawling across her arm, Selena’s skin tingled. “I take it where she lives isn’t as nice as this place?”
“No,” Both Gryph and Balthazar said at once.
“And there are other creatures who live in the maze of tunnels we don’t want to anger along the way,” Gryph added.
Her knees suddenly shaking, Selena asked, “Would one happen to be a Chimera?”
Balthazar shook his head. “There was legend of such, but none of the inhabitants of the Lair have come across one.”
Selene bit down on her tongue. She and her sisters had fought a mighty battle against a Chimera in the tunnels beneath Colyer-Fenton College in another part of the city.
Selene needed to know what the stakes were, how difficult it would be to get to D’na Ileana. “What do we have to aware of?”
Balthazar counted off on his fingers. “Old rusty machinery, possible sinkholes, crumbling bracing and a nasty old troll who threatens to eat you if you pass through his tunnel.”
“Don’t worry.” Gryph’s lips twitched. “He has no teeth.”
“Let me guess,” Selene said. “Although he has no teeth, he’s strong enough to grind my bones to mush?”
Gryph shrugged. “He’s big, but I won’t let him hurt you. He’s slow and not very bright.”
“Anything else?” Selene asked, though she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer.
“We might run into Kobaloi.”
“And that is…?”
“Spritely creatures who like to deceive people and lead them into danger.” Gryph pushed a hand through his tawny mane. “As a child, I followed one who’d disguised itself as a firefly. I almost fell into a sinkhole. If I hadn’t shifted at the last minute, I might still be at the bottom of that hole. I believe the drop fell all the way to the reservoir deep beneath the city.”
A huge tremor shook Selene and she was afraid to ask, but had to know… “Is D’na Ileana somewhere near this Kobaloi and that sinkhole?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Gryph drew in a long breath. “I shouldn’t have brought you. But I thought—”
“I might be able to see what the gypsy sees?” Selene pushed aside her fear of the dark and dangerous tunnels that had nearly been the death of her and her sisters. “If this helps us find the one responsible for that woman’s death, we should get going. The sooner, the better.”
“You’ll need a flashlight.” Balthazar reached for one in a recharging unit plugged into the wall. “You think she’s up for the journey?” he asked Gryph as he handed the light to Selene.
Gryph’s lips curled upward at the corners. “Absolutely.”
Selene’s heart swelled at the confidence Gryph had in her. After the episode at the bar, she’d been more shaken than she cared to admit.
She’d always considered herself the weak link among her sisters. Not anymore. She’d just begun to realize the extent of her powers.
And what could be worse than battling an evil Chimera, or a pool hall full of angry werewolves?
Chapter 13
Gryph stopped to play with Jack and Jillian for a brief moment, then promised he’d be back when he had more time.
“Oh, don’t go, Gryph. You hardly visit us anymore,” Jillian cried.
Being a busy businessman meant staying at the office more than he preferred and the relationships he cared about had suffered. The ones with the man who’d raised him as a son, his brother, Lucas, and the people of the Lair had all taken a hit lately.
“I promise. I’ll be back to play soon.” Gryph grabbed Selene’s hand and headed back the way they’d come.
Jack ran ahead of them. “Can I go where you’re going? Are you going to the surface? When can I go? Are the people up there as mean as everyone says? Why can’t we live in the light?”
“Not everyone is mean who lives on the surface.” Gryph rubbed the boy’s head. “Selene is from the surface and she’s not mean.”
“Only when I haven’t had my morning coffee.” She smiled down at the boy.
Jillian raced up behind them. “Are you taking Jack? May I come, too?”
Gryph stopped, blocking the way ahead. “You two have to stay here. It’s not safe where we’re going. Besides it’s way past your bedtime.”
Jack puffed out his chest. “I’m strong and brave. I’ve gone all the way to the sinkhole on my own. And I can stay up very late and never get tired.”
Gryph gave the boy a stern look. “You should never go that far without an adult. You know the tunnels can be tricky. You could get lost.”
“But I didn’t and I looked down into the sinkhole, and I could see all the way to China.”
“Could not,” Jillian said. “It was just a dark hole.”
Gryph gripped her arms, his pulse pounding at the thought of these small children teetering on the edge of the sinkhole’s abyss. “You went with him?”
Contrite, Jillian nodded, her eyes round. “Yes, sir.”
Squatting in front of the two children, Gryph stared hard at them. “Promise me you will not go back to the sinkhole without an adult.”
“Ah, Gryph.” Jack rolled his eyes. “It was easy.”
“And you probably didn’t run in to any Kobaloi.”
Jillian shook her head. “No, we didn’t. Jack said he saw a light, but I didn’t.”
“Promise.” Gryph stared from Jack to Jillian and back to Jack, the older of the two kids.
Jack ducked his chin and scuffed his sneaker on the ground in front of him. “I promise.”
“I promise, Gryph. I didn’t want to go anyway.” Jillian flung her arms around Gryph’s neck. “I’ll be good.”
“Thank you.” Gryph stood, with Jillian on his arm. He hugged her tight, then set her on her feet and touched Jack’s shoulder. “You have to protect your little sister. She’s younger and smaller and needs a big brother to make sure she doesn’t get into trouble.”
“I didn’t want her taggin’ along, but she always does.” The boy glared at his sister.
Jillian crossed her arms. “I don’t, either.”
“Enough. You two stay in the Lair. Selene and I have an errand to run and can’t be worried about two hooligans following us through the tunnels.” He turned them around, gave them a pat and sent them on their way. “Go back home to bed.”
“Are they always so precocious?” Selene smiled after the children.
The twinkle in her deep brown eyes made Gryph look again. “You’re beautiful when you smile.”
