Chapter 26
Apparently, Ethan doesn’t have guards posted at all the doors, but he does have one stationed here at the front.
I back up hastily, the feel of the man’s polyester jacket still on my face, and breathlessly explain, “There’s a fire.”
Blocking the door with his largeness—and doing a fine job of it—he gazes into the foyer and frowns.
The man is enormous—easily six-four, maybe six-five, and at least three hundred pounds. It’s not all muscle, either. He doesn’t look like he’d run very fast, but if he tackled you, you’d be squished.
Deciding to believe us, he takes us each by an arm and escorts us outside.
Ethan’s staff scurries around the grounds, pulling hoses and looking a little lost. Our massive nanny barks out orders to anyone who will listen to him as he leads us away from the house and onto the grass.
Letting us go once we’re at a safe distance, he gives us a sharp look. “Stay.”
I rub my arm where his meaty paw clamped over it, making sure it’s not permanently dented. “Instead of working on obedience training, don’t you have a handy kennel you could lock us in?” That earns me a glare, and I lift my hands in surrender. “It was a joke.”
Deciding to ignore me, he turns back to the house and crosses his huge arms.
“I take it you’re not a vampire,” I say.
“Second stage,” he answers, eyes on the pandemonium. Smoke rises from the back of the house, telling me it’s not a false alarm.
Cassian actually set the place on fire.
“So, you can be out in the daytime?” I ask the guard.
“Yeah.” He frowns at me. “I have to wear sunscreen, though.”
“Same,” I say. “What’s your name?”
His frown deepens. “Hilo.”
“I’m Piper.”
“I know.”
I try to think of something else to say, mostly because I’m nervous. But when I realize Hilo is distracted, I sneak a peek at my phone.
My heart seizes when I see Noah is still in New Castle, but now his avatar is gray. What happened to his phone? What happened to him?
I tuck the phone away and try to breathe. Noah is a professional hunter. He’ll be fine.
I scan the property for some sign of Cassian or Max. Nothing yet.
But then I hear sirens.
“That was fast,” Olivia says.
Too fast, maybe. We’re pretty far out here for the fire department to arrive that quickly—unless someone called them before the fire got started. Which I suspect Cassian did.
Minutes later, a firetruck flies into the drive. It’s a little surreal, being on-site of another emergency less than twenty-four hours after the first. Several police cars follow it in, then an ambulance, another firetruck, and a second ambulance.
Suddenly, the property is crawling with first responders, and the chaos is very welcome. Just as I’m trying to catch Olivia’s eye to silently tell her to start creeping backward, a fireman appears at my side.
“Ma’am, were you inside while the fire was burning?” he asks.
My knees nearly buckle when I realize it’s Noah under all that gear, but he subtly shakes his head, telling me to play along.
“Yes,” I answer. “My friend and I both were.”
“We need you to sit down with one of the paramedics for a quick examination.”
“Okay,” I say breathlessly, grabbing Olivia’s arm and yanking her with me.
When our massive guard starts to follow, Noah asks, “Sir, were you inside while the fire was going?”
“No, but—”
“Then you need to stay out of the way while we see to those who might have inhaled smoke.”
The man’s face scrunches up, but his eyes travel over Noah’s uniform. After several tense seconds, he gives him a curt nod.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” I whisper as we walk, relief making me shaky. “Your avatar turned gray while you were in New Castle, and Ethan said—”
“Yeah,” Noah growls. “I found the real Colin locked in a closet.”
“Is he okay?” I gasp.
“He’s going to need that support group.”
“What happened to your phone though?”
“I busted it during the fight.”
A paramedic greets us when we’re close to the ambulance—a paramedic who’s not a paramedic at all.
I gape at my brother, wondering how they pulled off this charade. “Are any of these people actual first responders?” I hiss to Noah.
“Most of them are.”
“How…?”
“I told you—Cassian knows people.”
“Handy,” I say dumbly.
“Yeah,” Noah grunts. “And now I need to go in there and help him. He’s inside, looking for Ethan.”
I grasp his arm. “You can’t go in there—don’t you see the smoke? The crazy vampire set a real fire.”
Noah gives me a cocky grin before he lowers his visor. “I got this.”
“Wait…”
But he’s already jogging toward the mansion.
“Come on,” Max says urgently. “Get in.”
Olivia goes first, and I follow, and then Max locks the doors behind us.
“Take a seat on the gurney,” a maybe-paramedic says.
Max leaps into the driver’s seat moments later, and we’re off, making a hasty getaway in an ambulance, of all things.
“You two breathing okay?” the paramedic asks.
“We weren’t even close to the fire,” I tell him, and then I gesture to his uniform. “Are you legit?”
“I am, but the ambulance belongs to Cassian. My name is Carlos.”
He’s slender, not much taller than me, probably in his mid-thirties, and he has a friendly smile.
“Thanks for rescuing us,” I say.
“Which hospital are we going to?” Olivia asks.
“We’re going to Cassian’s vacation home in Aspen.”
“Fancy,” Olivia mutters.
“So, you work for Cassian?” I ask Carlos.
“Nah, but I work with NIHA often, and he called in a favor. Wanted someone on site in case you two needed medical attention.”
“A considerate arsonist,” I breathe out a laugh, overwhelmed.
Olivia makes a strange noise. When I glance over, I see she’s turned her head and is looking at the wall behind us. But she wipes her eyes with her hands, telling me she’s not interested in the strange medical instruments.
“Hey,” I say softly, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. “You okay?”
Carlos decides it’s a good time to leave, and he escapes to the empty passenger seat.
She looks back, her face red and her eyes wet. “I’m fine. It was just…”
“Scary?”
She nods, and a fresh wave of tears makes her duck her face into her hands. “The hot stone massage was really nice though.”
I laugh even as my eyes grow misty. “We’ll get real massages after this is all over. You can book with Alessio.”
“Poor Alessio,” she says with a sigh, lowering her hands. “He used to be the most handsome man I’d ever laid eyes on.”
I frown. “He’s not anymore?”
She lifts a brow, giving me a look. I’ve known her long enough to decipher it.
“No.” I shake my head. “You’re not having those thoughts about a vampire. Especially not a vampire as vampirey as Cassian.”
“That’s not a word.”
“I don’t care.”
She lowers her voice and leans in. “I didn’t say I want to marry him and have his vampire babies. I just think he’s hot.”
“Vampires can’t have babies.”
“Small detail.”
I laugh, shaking my head.
“Thank you for facing Ethan for me,” she whispers, changing the subject. “I know that had to have been really hard.”
I exhale my lingering tension, reminding my body I’m now safe when it tries to go into panic mode again. “It’s okay. It was the only way to figure out where he was keeping you.”
“Do you think Cassian and Noah will be okay?” she whispers, her voice small.
“It sounds like they do this sort of thing all the time,” I say, reassuring her and myself. “They’ll be fine.”
She nods, and I turn my eyes toward the back window, fervently hoping my words will prove true.
Cassian’s home makes Ethan’s place look like the help’s bunkhouse.
It’s massive, and it has turrets.
“Is that a castle?” Olivia whispers, gripping the back of Max’s seat and peering out the front window as we drive down the mile-long cobblestone drive.
The mansion sits in a wildflower meadow that’s surrounded by blue spruces and aspens.
The building is shaped like an L, with a courtyard at its center.
Unlike Ethan’s property, there are no mermaids.
There is, however, a formal garden at the heart of the courtyard with a huge urn centerpiece.
Bright white geraniums are the focal point, with lavender petunias and purple ornamental sweet potato vines flowing over the edges and cascading into the complicated center of the boxwood knot.
“He has rose trees,” I murmur, my eyes moving through the landscape.
“Breathe,” Olivia instructs, poking me in the ribs.
“Oof.” I swat her away. “It’s gorgeous.”
“You’re still talking about the flowers, aren’t you?”
“What else would I be talking about?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe Cassian Palace.”
“It does have a name,” Carlos says from the passenger seat. “But I don’t remember what it is.”
This place is unreal. It looks like it belongs in medieval France, not in the middle of Colorado. Though, to be fair, if it was going to be anywhere, it would be here in Aspen.
Max follows Carlos’s directions and parks in front of the house.
A woman walks down the sweeping entry steps as we filter out of the ambulance. She’s wearing a navy sleeveless blouse, a pair of white shorts, and white tennis shoes. I’m not sure if she’s about to play pickleball or if she’s one of Cassian’s employees.
She appears to be in her early forties, with lowlights in her blonde hair, and she walks with the air of someone who seems very efficient.
“Hi, Carlos,” she says affectionately. “Did everything go all right?”
“So far so good,” he says.
I hope Noah and Cassian are okay. I texted Cassian fifteen minutes ago, but I haven’t heard back. It hasn’t even been quite an hour, though. I’m sure everything is fine.
But that doesn’t stop me from looking at my phone again.
“Piper, this is Melissa,” Carlos says.
The woman warmly shakes my hand. Her skin is hot like Olivia’s, so she must be a regular human. “Welcome to Chateau Chevalier.”
“You were close,” I say to Olivia.
She nods knowingly, smiling when it’s her turn to take Melissa’s hand.
Noise on the road beyond the drive catches our attention, and a minute later, a black, unmarked SUV comes into view and pauses outside the automatic gates.
They open, and it drives in.