The Walls of Jericho

Welcome Home

“Your new home, Mrs. Stark.” Channing is flashing me one of his megawatt smiles as he says it, and I’m tempted to zap him, just for being so cocky. “Don’t even think about it,” he warns, as if reading my mind.

“Fine,” I reply flatly, following him towards the trash and the Ducati parked nearby. “We got engaged like an hour and a half ago. It just feels like we might be rushing things.”

He rolls his eyes, stuffing our trash into the bin. “Rushing things?” He dusts his hands on his jeans and hands me my helmet. “We’ve been waiting for each other for decades, babydoll. The whole point is to get rid of the dragon. We may as well do it in style.” He swings one muscular leg over the bike and flips up the kickstand, then grabs his helmet.

“My God,” I can’t help but stare as I pull on my helmet and fasten the chinstrap. As soon as his helmet is over his head, I connect the audio. “You’ve got legs like a thoroughbred.”

He stamps the foot nearest to me, pawing at the ground like a horse might. “That’s not the only thing I’ve got like a racehorse, babydoll.”

My lip curls in disgust and he laughs. “Piece of free advice, that kind of line never works on girls. In your case, it’s worse.”

“Worse? How can it be worse than being shot down by the woman of my dreams minutes after I bought you a magical engagement ring and fed you tacos?” Starting the Ducati’s engine, he leans back and motions me onto the motorcycle in my spot in front of him.

“Well, I feel a bit obligated to tell you that your proposal left a bit to be desired in terms of romance and the proper level of humility. Try not to be crushed, beefcake.”

“For pity’s sake, will you take it easy on my ego?” he laughs, then settles over me and takes to the streets again.

Tassler Heights sits atop a serene promontory on the elite side of north Crossroads. Most of the hilltop neighborhood offers an expansive view that spans the entire city skyline or the hungry ocean. Some of the homes offer both.

There’s a bored-looking expensively-dressed woman in a white pantsuit leaning against a BMW sport coupe off to one side of the exclusive community’s long, meticulously landscaped drive as we pull up, but she lifts her designer glasses and eyes us speculatively as we slow. Channing stops the bike not far from her and pulls off his helmet.

The woman gives him a blatantly drooling once-over then a come-hither smile and I grind my teeth. It sucks not being the hot one in a couple.

“Jannica?” he asks.

“Are you Channing?” Jannica is practically falling all over herself on the paved drive as her stilettos sink into the hot asphalt. As she draws closer, she extends her hand to him.

On the side where she can’t see it, he gives the back of my thigh a nudge with the front of his. Begrudgingly, I take my helmet off and shake out my hair.

“Yes. I’m Channing.” He shakes her hand, hugging me around the shoulders from behind. “This is my wife, Jericho.”

“How nice to meet you.” She extends her hand to me without taking her eyes off Channing behind me. I’m pretty certain she’s wishing I was dead and buried in a shallow grave somewhere.

That feeling is mutual.

“Nice to meet you too.”

“You two just want to follow me?” Jannica asks Channing, completely ignoring me. “Or there’s room in my car. Tall as you are, you’ll probably want to sit in the front with me.”

“We’ll follow.”

I pull my helmet back on at the same time he does, all the while staring daggers into Jannica’s back. “I don’t like her.”

“Yeah, she grates a bit,” he agrees, giving me a reassuring squeeze around the middle before we lean forward on the motorcycle and follow Jannica’s BMW through the security gate. “If she wants to make this sale, she better straighten up.”

“Sale? I thought you said Avernus owns this place.”

“We do. To keep up appearances, we put it on the market through a local realtor and sell it to ourselves.”

“What kind of appearances can you possibly have to keep up? If you can afford to keep a house here, you can just as easily say you’re spending the next three years living on your private tropical island because you need some ‘me’ time.”

Channing laughs. “Maybe I’ll try that next time.”

It’s several more minutes on the gradually inclining winding road that leads up the hilltop promontory. We pass the driveways for several other obviously expensive houses before we reach a gated drive. Jannica pulls her BMW up to the security panel and leans out the driver’s side window.

Picking at the keypad, she starts entering the gate's security code, but before she’s finished, the gate slides smoothly off to the side.

“Did you do that?” Channing asks through the helmet audio, chuckling as the realtor stares confusedly at the opening gate and the scrap of paper that has the security code she didn’t finish entering.

“She was taking too long,” I justify. “It’s a six digit code, for pity’s sake.”

“Keep it on the down-low, please, Jer.” He leans forward, whipping the motorcycle around Jannica’s sports car and zipping up the long driveway.

Along the way, we’re shielded by a landscaped privacy hedge. It blocks the view from the houses in the neighborhood below us, as does the rise of the ridge on the opposite side. The drive ends at a circular drive court before a three-car garage, with the house soaring above it, the upper story level with the surrounding treetops.

“Whoa,” I breathe, my head tipped back to take in the massive structure. Distractedly, I slide off the motorcycle, pulling my helmet off after, and gawk at the jaw-dropping views of the canyon stretching out below us.

“I hope that means you like it.” Reaching for my helmet, he leaves it on the Ducati’s seat and takes my hand, drawing me towards the stairs just as Jannica pulls up.

“That thing’s got a surprising amount of pick up for a motorcycle,” the realtor says, oozing out of her BMW and thumbing at the Ducati. “Don’t worry,” she adds, hurrying around the front of her car. “The stairs are just for architectural impact in the landscaping. You don’t actually have to walk up all of them to get to the house.”

Cutting around the side of the garage, she opens a tall wrought-iron gate, leading us through it to an elevator along the side. “There’s a private elevator inside the house that takes you between all three floors—the garage to the main living level, then to the upstairs living spaces. This one only goes to a secured entry on the main level, one floor up, so it’s very safe.”

“Is this the listing I asked you about, Jannica?” Channing queries, as we follow her into the elevator.

“It’s not,” she replies in an ingratiating voice. “But before you get upset with me, let me explain why. I know you asked for something with four bedrooms and an open floor plan. You said you wanted some nice natural light and views, and a two-car garage. But this one’s only a little bigger with the three-car garage you saw, and it’s still in the price range you gave me. I really think it would be a disservice to sell you something in this neighborhood without that third garage.”

She tugs the key code out of her pocket as the elevator doors open in a walled-in entry directly before the front door. One side is walled with a serene water feature and the open side looks out towards Crossroads, providing a wide view of the city. The all-white exterior rising above us is painfully modern, gleaming with glass.

“It’s nice, isn’t it? I simply love the water feature. It’s so Zen-like.”

, I groan to Channing.

 “Few things attract attention more than a bold modern home,” Jannica pitches as the front door finally swings open. “This one is an updated contemporary and I just knew it was perfect for you two newlyweds when Channing told me you really love naturally lighting, sweetie.”

I grouse.

me when she did it.> Channing shoots back.

I assure him.

He grins as Jannica leads us into the two-story foyer. The stone staircase with a glass and chrome guardrail wraps around the light airy space and leads to the upper level. Overhead, a skylight illuminates the entry and sets the modern crystal rain chandelier draping nearly the entire height of the second story to sparkling brilliantly.

“Both of the living floors feature floor-to-ceiling windows to take advantage of the unobstructed three-hundred-sixty degree views. Not to mention, it brings in a lot of natural light to fill the interior space.” Her stiletto’s click-click, echoing along the white travertine stone tiles in the hallway. “It’s open concept living and dining, with a gourmet kitchen, a glass-enclosed wine cellar, in-house cinema, a home office, home gym and utility room on this floor.”

Thus far, what I’ve seen of the house has a black and white color palette with darkwood doorframes and ceiling planks to add architectural interest that especially stand out. The décor pieces—like chandeliers and art— are bright bold colors, and sumptuous fabrics of the rugs, pillows and upholstery add texture to the clean contemporary canvas. The voluminous great room occupies an entire corner of the house, with arresting panoramic views of the city and the ocean on full display.

As I step closer, the automatic pocket doors open to a raised terrace with a covered al fresco dining area and an outdoor kitchen and barbeque. There's also a wet bar, multiple modern-style water features and two fire pits. The lower terrace lifts from the back side of an infinity-edge swimming pool with a separate infinity-edge spa to create a large gathering space for outdoor entertaining that floats over the city skyline. Wooden lounge chairs with cushioned seats, tivoli lights, and various plants add to the area’s laidback, quintessential west coast feel.

“The privacy is extraordinary, isn’t it?” Jannica asks from close beside me and I startle, surprised she could get this close without her clickety-clackety heels giving her away.

“It’s incredibly well designed,” I agree.

“The architects are brilliant. I love how they took advantage of the native terrain in this place. Between the lush landscaping and the natural lay of the land, the entire backyard, all the balconies on the second story and both the saltwater pool deck and dining deck here are essentially invisible to the neighbors. The place is just perfect for entertaining. Let me show you the rest of it. I just know you’re going to love it.”

Jannica waves Channing over. “This place was built with no expense spared. It’s made with the finest materials and state-of-the-art smart home automation technology, including eco-friendly cooling and ventilation.”

As we move through it, the great room’s modern design is revealed in a sleek tableau—a rounded mirror reflects the cityscape like a piece of art. The sleek contemporary furniture is arranged around a metal boulder table and against a glass accent wall, a console table lined with rosemary topiaries floats upon clear Lucite legs. In the dining area, the Baccarat crystal chandelier’s translucent pieces are echoed in the dining chairs’ Lucite legs and a wall-length mural adds an appealing color accent, coordinating perfectly with the quirky spiky silver chandelier.

At the elevator to the second story, Jannica provides a descriptive prelude. “I know you said four bedrooms—this place has five, along with five full bathrooms plus the half powder room downstairs off the kitchen. The upstairs is set up so there are two wings of private spaces, which is just wonderful for the master bedroom. Don’t worry though, the interiors are clean and minimal, designed to suck in a lot of daylight and offer the epic views from every room.”

She by-passes the second story’s ensuite guest rooms, making directly for the tour-de-force—an exceptional master suite, then stands aside with a smug smile on her face. “Go ahead. Check it out.”

In typical Channing fashion, he elbows me to get my attention. Once he has it, he jerks his head towards the king-sized bed against one wall, then waggles his brows suggestively. 

Ignoring him, I follow the contemporary in-wall fireplace that’s shared with the spa-like master bathroom, standing in the doorway to gawk inside at the glass-paneled shower area and angular bathtub beneath a jolting red-and-white spike chandelier.

The darkwood doorframes and ceiling planks continue throughout this level too, but in the master bedroom, they extend down an interior wall to provide modern-looking floating shelves, wrapping around to the outside to serve as a shade and privacy screen between the outdoor balcony and the bedroom. Through a sliding wall of glass, the indoor and outdoor merge to take advantage of the epic view, which, like the great room below, spans from the ocean to the city along the horizon.

“And there’ll be no fighting over space here.” Jannica slides open two pivot doors into dual showroom closets, each with open shelves, numerous drawers and a full-length mirror at one end.

“Since we haven’t been down there yet, I’ll just tell you,” she continues as I stand shell-shocked. “The garage off the motor port is enormous. It has a subterranean compartment with a state-of-the-art car elevator that allows you to stack multiple cars on top of each other between the two levels. There are two security gate entrances—the one that we came in, and one that leads to the hilltop trails through the community, including down to the private beach.”

“So you see now why I couldn’t let you pass this one up. It’s the perfect hilltop nirvana for you two—modern, daring, timeless. A peaceful island in the midst of the best part of Crossroads.” Pleased with herself, the woman actually wiggles—head to toe—as she grins, as if waiting for applause after her grand presentation. “Why don’t I meet you two in the kitchen and you just take a minute to talk about it. Hmm?”

As soon as we’re alone, I cross my arms over my chest and stare at Channing. “You can’t be serious.”

Chuckling, he takes a seat on the edge of the bed, then lays back and laces his fingers behind his head. “Why not? What’s a guy have to do to impress you, Jericho?”

“Oh, well, now, let me see.” I amble to the side of the bed and stand over him. “How about ‘not all this’? Seriously? You can’t possibly believe Rebecca’s going to clean all this and I'm sure as hell not.”

Sitting up, he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me down on top of him. “Of course not. You don’t have to. The community has its own groundskeeping and cleaning service. You call and pick a time. They do everything else. All I need to know is: can you live here? Will you be comfortable?”

“Comfortable? Channing, I’ve lost count of the number of nights I slept on a park bench. Of course I can be comfortable here.”

“Okay then. There’s a pair of computers in the downstairs office. Rebecca can keep an eye on Mr. Adriani and you finish your schoolwork, keeping your magic use to a minimum. During the daytime, I’ll work with Damien and Ferdi to try to pinpoint the dragon, and in the evenings, we play happy little lovebirds. If we absolutely need to, we take the subterranean garage to Avernus.”

“That’s it? That’s your whole plan?”

He shrugs, looking up at me with those gorgeous blue eyes of his. “That’s the only plan, Jericho. Always has been.”

That’s not quite true anymore. What was it he called me before? A complication. A rogue element. That’s about to become very true, and to do it, I need more freedom than I'll have at Avernus. “Okay then.”

“Great. Welcome home, babydoll.”