Sinister Seductions (Book 1 The Flower of Bottesford Series)

Chapter 6: Bittersweet Reunions

When I entered, I had expected to wait for him. I was not expecting him to already be there waiting for me. Our eyes locked from the moment I set foot in the room, and I immediately found myself wanting the earth to swallow me whole. A myriad of emotions flowed through my head and heart, before coming to settle on the one that had been plaguing me my entire trip here: Guilt.

Neither of us spoke at first. After everything that had happened, I did not feel it was my place to dictate how this particular conversation began or ended. I was leaving it in his hands. So I used these moments to take in his appearance. I marvelled at how little time had actually changed him, though I found him to be more handsome than I remembered.

Hennessey De Luca came from Italian and Irish heritage. He had the height and build was bestowed upon him by his Italian mobster father: six foot four inches of tall, dark, and sinewy muscle. His hair was not the untameable mass of black curls I remembered it being, it was now cut short and slicked carelessly to the side. The dark of his hair contrasted drastically and perfectly with the natural paleness of his skin, the compliments of his Irish mother. His dark hair and eyebrows offset a set a pair of almond shaped eyes which were the most impossibly perfect shade of green. They had always reminded me of the daylight waters of the Mediterranean Ocean.

His face was more mature than I remembered; his cheekbones high and his jaw line well defined, accented by the shadow of a beard gracing it. His shoulders were wide set tapering evenly down to his waist, the black long sleeved shirt he was wearing hugged everything and disguised nothing. His long muscular legs covered by dark tapered blue jeans which held nothing but unfulfilled promises.

When we were teenagers, he had been one of those boys that could set a girl off with a single look; he looked even more potent now as a fully grown man. That potency was tripled by the dangerous aura that surrounded him, an aura rightfully obtained by being both one of the most ruthless mob bosses in both the human and supernatural communities and as being the alpha of one of the powerful werewolf packs in this hemisphere.

Like my sister, Hennessey’s unwitting indoctrination into the club of the children of the moon, was the sole result of my own stupid decisions. Another thing on the very long list of things that I could never forgive myself for.

“Well then,” he said slowly, his voice low, smooth, and dark like a freshly brewing storm, “you’ve come home.”

“Not exactly,” I responded after a moment, cursing my voice for the quiet strain it held, “you know why I am here. The Council has requested your presence and input at the next war gathering.” Good, that came out stronger with the authority of the Council, but I still shifted uncomfortably uncertain about what to do with myself.

“And you’re here to take back my answer,” he drawled, raising a brow.

“Yes.”

“Well, I can’t say I have had a lot of time to give it much thought,” He turned from me to sit at his desk, “It looks like you will have to do some convincing, since I can’t see how any of this is my problem or the problem of my people.”

I could feel more than see his stare, and I shifted my eyes to take in the elegant room around me while I attempted to reign in my thoughts.

It was clearly his office. Just as grandly decorated as the halls I came through, the two walls to my right were covered floor to ceiling in books with a chaise lounge chair set in one corner. To my left, a large grand fireplace was lit, a small black velvet couch in front of it. His ornate wood desk was near the back of the room, large and covered in an insurmountable amount of paperwork, two small chairs for guests sat in front of it.

“I am not sure what convincing I need to do. You already know what situation everyone is in, how desperate it is, and you know what the end result will be. We will all lose. You, me, everybody. No one is exempt,” I responded softly while I looked around.

My eyes eventually fell to an intricate gold frame mirror on the far wall and I found myself wondering what he thought of me now. While he had not drastically changed, I knew I had.

I turned my attention back to Hennessey to find that he had been staring at me staring at myself, and I abruptly found myself feeling embarrassed, self-conscious, and irritated at that fact. I suddenly didn’t care about giving him control of the conversation anymore.

“Working together is the only solution that makes sense, I know that you know that. So what do you say?” I decided to take a seat in the chair across from him to give me a reason to not meet his eyes, “I know the Council sent word ahead of me with Ari hoping to give you time to assess the situation and decide. Your skill and knowledge will be invaluable in the battle ahead. And whether you like it or not, your people are just as much at risk as the rest of us.”

“Is this the only reason you are here?” he asked quietly, ignoring every statement I had made, “you felt no other reason to come back?”

The look in his eye made my breath catch in my throat. In any other girl, that lost and tormented look would probably have them swooning with the need to hold him. For me, it caused another wave of soul shattering guilt to hit me like a cement truck.

Uncertainty had plagued me from the moment I had discovered, six days ago, that I would have to come back here. When the Council had told me that it was necessary to obtain the assistance of the most powerful members of the supernatural community for the upcoming battle plans, including one Hennessey De Luca, I had originally and steadfastly refused the mission. It was only after the coaxing of Ari that I eventually gave in.

I almost turned back a dozen times on my way here, terrified to see him, but at the same time excited about it.

Once upon a time we had been best friends and were thick as thieves from nearly the moment we both entered kindergarten. We had been at one point in our lives inseparable. He was even guilty of a breaking and entering spree on my behalf due to several days of breaking into my house when we were eight. I had managed to get myself grounded yet again, and as an additional punishment I wasn’t allowed to see him for a week. Every day for a week, he had climbed the tree beside my bedroom window and spent every night in my room with me until my prison sentence was over.

He knew every secret I had possessed, and I knew every corner of his mind. But then in a single night, when my life changed so irrevocably, I knew I could no longer stay where I was. I endangered both him and Mara. So without a word to anyone, I left in the middle of the night.

Was it cruel of me to leave like that? Yes. Was I aware that he was in love with me when I did it? Also yes. It wasn’t my proudest moment, but I knew he would not be alive today if I hadn’t made that choice.

I had decided I could live in world where he was alive to hate me, but I couldn’t bear a world where he didn’t exist at all. Was that selfish of me? Hell yes.

In other words, I would be lying if I said the Council’s mission was the only reason I had decided to come back.

I sighed, I had to give him this. “No Hennessey, it is not the only reason I am here. You know that.”

“Then why did you never come back? Why didn’t you even attempted to contact me, or anyone else here? Even Mara? Even your family? Where the hell have you been for the last five bloody years?” His voice was still quiet, but the anger in it made the air around him quiver with tension. For moment it seemed like the whole room darkened with his mood.

“None of those questions have simple answers, Ness.” I said softly. He flinched at the sound of his childhood nickname. “I wish I could it explain it all to you, maybe I will one day when there will be a chance. But not right now, now we are very nearly out of time.”

“That’s not good enough,” He stood suddenly making his way to the door, the unexpected motion caused me to cringe against my will. His anger sparked through the air like electricity, and felt like it could burn alive anyone it touched. I felt sorry for the door as he almost ripped it off its hinges.

“We are done here.”

Like hell we are.

“No,” I said calmly, while standing moving to catch his arm, putting myself in his face hoping he wouldn’t backhand me to the other side of the room, “No, we are not. This battle is happening Ness, whether you like it or not, whether you want to participate or not. The question is, will I be marching in to it with or without your help?”

“What do you mean you are marching into it?” He snapped incredulously. Jesus, was everyone out of the loop here?

“I meant exactly what I said. You may have heard the rumor that I am the commander of the Aratus, the master of the dogs of war. Well for once there is a rumor that’s true. Each of my men are leading their own garrison. I am heading those garrisons. I will be out there on the front lines for better or for worse, marching to meet the Carpathians whether our battle plan is brilliant, or has much left to be desired,” I shrugged not really knowing what else to say.

“That is stupid,” he spat at me furiously, “Have someone else do it, why do you need to be the one?”

“Because there is no one else,” I responded shortly, “We lost a significant amount of our soldiers and two of our best battle commanders in the last excursion on the Spanish coast. Besides, the Aratus are loyal only to me. They won’t follow a different leader even if I were to order them to. I may be one of the youngest commanding officers in the Councils ranks, but I was selected regardless.”

He just stared at me as if I had grown a second head, still unconvinced by anything I had said. I took a deep breath and planted my gaze on my feet, hoping my treacherous voice could remain strong. “Look, I know you are angry with me. I don’t blame you, I would be angry with me too. I will never say I don’t deserve it after what I did to you. To be honest, I don’t know if I was the Council’s best choice in all of this. I don’t have the same type of battle experience as the other remaining commanders. But I can’t turn it down either. The stakes are too damn high.”

I looked him directly in the eye for the first time, pleading with him with my eyes. I don’t know what I was looking for in his gaze, maybe something of the boy I once knew. That one who brought me chicken noodle soup every time I was sick as a kid, picked me up for school every day, and bandaged my knees after my track and field accident. I needed him to be that boy now and realize that if he said no this would likely be the last conversation we ever had.

I felt the change in his stance as I watched as his eyes flickered with memories. Finally his expression softening slightly. The time was now.

“I am going to tell you what I told someone else tonight,” I continued gently, “I believe this will be our defining battle, either we beat them back, or they will swallow us whole. I am not going to lie to you, our chances aren’t looking good, we need every resource we have available if we want to even believe we are going to win.”

I saw his jaw clench and his eyes grow angry again. I didn’t know if it was about the state of affairs or the very real threat to my life. I hoped it was the latter.

“If we want to win this, I need all of the help I can get. You have a keen mind for strategy and an incredible amount of experience in leading people while navigating tricky situations. I know I don’t deserve to ask you but I need that mind Ness. I need you if I honestly hope to live through this mess, and even after everything, there is honestly no other person in the world I trust more to have my back right now.”

He froze at my words, mouth agape slightly and I was suddenly overwhelmed with a sad feeling of nostalgia. He looked just as I remembered him like this, and not like the dangerous man life had turned him into. I wanted to reach out and touch him, hold him, and have him hold me.

It was definitely time to go. I was going to do something stupid if I kept looking at his handsome face.

I turned to the door to leave knowing I was overstaying my welcome here by pushing him too hard and appealing to emotions I had no right to appeal to. But I couldn’t help it, it was hard to face the man he had become and know that I was one of the reasons he became that way.

“I should go,” I said as I pulled a piece of paper from my pocket and handed it to him not meeting his eye, afraid my face would give away what I was feeling, “My number. I hope you can let me know by tomorrow night what your decision will be.”

I made my way past him out of the room. I was so close to him that I could smell the woodsy scent of his cologne. He didn’t make a move to stop me as I started my way down the hall, but then the sudden sound of his voice calling to me rooted me in place.

“Azmaria…” His eyes pierced me, “It was good to see you.”

I gave him a small sad smile and a nod. “It was good to see you to, Ness.”