Chapter 30 Arabella
Arabella
I WATCH THE WOLF FROM ABOVE.
She watches me back, sitting upright, ears pricked, brown eyes alert. The more I study her features, the more I’m certain of it – that wolf is my friend.
She has Celeste’s red streaks in her auburn coat, her kind eyes, and a feral regality to her features. And there is the matter of that earring. The wolf didn’t pierce her own ear.
Plus, wild wolves haven’t been seen in England since before I was given the Kiss. And while I believe it likely many members of Sanctus lay claim to exotic pets, this she-werewolf isn’t a pet.
She’s my friend.
I’m contemplating what to do with this new information when the wolf’s head whips around, her snout in the air, sniffing some new scent. A moment later, there’s another knock on my door.
The wolf leaps into the bushes, heading closer to the stairs leading to the house, body low to the ground.
Hunting.
My heart thuds against my chest. I pull across the tablet that controls the features of the house and bring up the security camera. A figure stands on my doorstep, one hand casually wrapped around a bottle of blood while the other swipes through his phone.
It’s Gideon.
And coming up right behind him is Celeste.
Gideon has his head bent down, focusing on his phone. He has a tote bag from a gaming shop slung under his arm. A moment later, a text beeps on my screen.
Gideon: I’m here to work on our routine before tomorrow’s rehearsal. I promise I’ll even let you dress me as a meerkat.
I text back as quickly as I can.
Arabella: You fool, get out of here.
I search my memories for what I know about werewolves, which isn’t much.
They exist only as rumours among our kind – fairytale stories about a time long forgotten.
All I know is that every full moon, a werewolf transforms into their wolf form, with all the wolfish instincts and proclivities that entails.
A single werewolf can terrorise a whole village when their shift overtakes them, and they are driven by their hunger, their need to eat and to protect their territory.
If they ever did exist, I’ve been told, they were hunted to extinction a long time ago.
But that can’t be true. Because Celeste is here, stalking towards Gideon, and one thing I do know about werewolves is that in their wolf form they are vicious, and their hunger knows no limits.
My phone beeps again.
Gideon: Is that any way to talk to the greatest meerkat to ever grace the stage? Please let me in. Don’t make me press my beautiful face pathetically against the window.
As quickly as I can, I grab the dead songbird (don’t think about bird guts between your fingers) and the tablet, punching the button to open the living room window.
“Hey, Celeste,” I call out. “You don’t want him. He’ll be stringy. No flavour.”
I toss the poor songbird out the window.
I have many talents, but underarm bowling is not one of them.
The bird splats against the sculptural fountain in my garden, spilling blood and bits across the white tiles.
The scent hits my nostrils, and a flash of raw hunger surges in me.
But Celeste doesn’t even slow down. The bushes rustle as she sneaks closer to Gideon.
I’ve got Gideon’s attention, at least. He steps out from the entrance, gaze trained on the bits of bird. “Arabella, what’s going on?”
Shit.
The wolf growls. I slam the window shut as Gideon hollers. He whirls around, searching for something that could fend off a wolf. Celeste leaps for Gideon. I sprint to the front door, punching the button to open it as I grab an umbrella from the stand.
Gideon’s on the ground, his hands around Celeste’s neck. In the harsh glare of the entrance light, I get my first up-close look at Celeste in her wolf form.
She is terrifying – larger than any wolf has business being, with vicious claws that swipe at Gideon’s arms and chest. Powerful jaws snap at his face, and I know that even with his vampiric strength, Gideon will lose this battle.
“Argggh!” Gideon wrestles with her. Blood gushes from claw wounds in his arm.
“Celeste!”
At the sound of my voice, Celeste’s back straightens. She sits back and glances over at me, teeth bared, stained with Gideon’s blood. Her eyes narrow. She doesn’t seem aggressive towards me.
Is she here to protect me?
Raw fear punches through me. I can’t let Celeste hurt Gideon.
I step forward, placing my body between them.
“Arabella, no.” Gideon hisses.
“He’s part of our pack,” I growl, brandishing the umbrella. “We don’t hurt our own.”
Celeste growls back, the sound so deep and dark that it rumbles in my stomach. I think she’s telling me to move… or else.
She lunges straight at me, those horrible teeth bared. I swing the umbrella through the air, knowing with horror that it’s not going to stop a huge, salivating wolf with a heroine complex.
A long shape darts between my legs.
Cleo VII rears up, fangs bared, hood extended, hissing a warning. Celeste twists midair to escape the snake, hitting the flagstones on her side. She whimpers, rolling into my garden bed, crushing the flowers.
Cleo VII advances. Celeste scrabbles onto all fours and slinks off into the bushes.
“Cleo, you beautiful creature.” I hold out my arm, and she coils around my shoulders, her tongue flicking as she fixes her eyes on the spot where Celeste entered the woods.
“Arabella…”
I turn at the forlorn sound. Gideon lies, clutching his arm, blood staining the flagstones beneath him. Shit.
“I can’t leave you out here to attract more delightful wildlife.” I grab Gideon under his shoulders and drag him inside, leaving a trail of blood across my front porch. I’ll be sending him a bill to clean that later.
Once inside, I’m confronted with the scale of my problem. There is absolutely nowhere in my vast and pristine new property where I want a bleeding, moaning Gideon. I settle for dumping him on the kitchen tiles while I search for something to clean him up with.
“Ow.” Gideon crawls towards the living room. “Why didn’t you put me on the couch?”
“That couch is Hermès. You’re not getting anywhere near it until those wounds are healed over.”
“That blasted wolf has ruined a perfectly decent suit.” Gideon coughs blood on my Scandinavian larch floorboards.
“Don’t pretend like you don’t love an excuse to go back to Savile Row.”
“Did you just save my life?”
“Technically, Cleo VII saved your life. But don’t let it go to your head. She still doesn’t trust you.” I toss him a damp tea towel. “You’re bleeding on my new rug. Fix that.”
Gideon wraps the towel around his arm. He fishes his phone out of his pocket as I open my fridge and pull out a bottle of vintage blood I’d been saving for tonight – a Steamboat Captain (full-bodied, sea-salt flavour). “I’d better call the security team and tell them we have a wolf problem.”
I whip the phone out of his hand. “Don’t do that.”
Gideon tilts his head to the side. “And why wouldn’t I? Are you hoping that beast comes back for another bite?”
“Perhaps.” My heart hammers against my ribs as I debate what I should tell him. I wipe off two glasses and pour blood right to the rims. I hand him his glass and settle on the truth. “Drink. You’ll need it. That’s no ordinary wolf. It’s Celeste.”
“Celeste? As in, that human cutie from the bakery?” Gideon gulps down his blood. His wounds still aren’t closing.
“The very same. Didn’t you see the earring in her ear?”
“I was a little busy trying not to get my face ripped off.”
“Well, she was wearing Celeste’s earrings. And she’s trying to protect me, so I don’t want your guys to hurt her. Besides, aren’t they busy with Paul Badica?”
Gideon smiles ruefully. “They may be.”
“Celeste told you, didn’t she?”
“She’s just trying to protect you.” Gideon winces as he leans against my larch cabinets, empty wine glass clutched so tight his knuckles are white. “And I take it from the delightful treat you tried to distract her with that you received another message.”
“I sure did. It must have been his Thrall, because I found it on my table when I woke up. But I don’t need a fuss. I’ve already taken care of Badica myself. I suggest you take a look at his accounts. If his Thrall can mess with the security system, they’re probably the one stealing from you.”
“Stealing from us,” he corrects with a groan. “That occurred to me too. My team checked his accounts, but we didn’t find any evidence, and now they’ve been completely cleared out. Not that you’d know anything about that.”
I smirk. “The clergy are always losing their wallets in the most inconvenient places.”
“We’ll keep digging, but his crimes are enough for me to make certain Badica will never step foot inside Sanctus again. This place only works if everyone inside it feels safe. Which is why Badica’s Thrall is gone, too, and I’m doubling security. But don’t change the subject. Celeste is a werewolf?”
“It appears so.” I slump down on the sofa, tossing Gideon’s phone on the table beside the scrawled word, and sipping my blood.
“I wondered why she smelled… not entirely human.”
I know exactly the scent he’s talking about. It’s always clung to Celeste, this… wildness. I thought it was from all that running in the woods.
“This wound isn’t closing. It must be something to do with werewolf magic. No wonder our kin hunted them.” Gideon crawls across the floor, reaching for his phone. I kick his hand out of the way. “I have to, Arabella. What if she attacks one of our residents?”
“Celeste wouldn’t do that.”
“She was just about to gut me!”
“She thought she was protecting me. Besides, good luck finding her. Her species has eluded capture for, oh, thousands of years.”
“You have my word that my men won’t hurt her.
They’ll keep her secret. We’ll contain her until the full moon is over.
She’ll turn back into a human, and we can find out exactly what’s going on.
I know you have every right not to trust me, but I’m asking you to try it for your friend’s sake.
If she’s allowed to roam these woods and another Upyr sees her…
you know our kin get a little stabby when confronted by ancient enemies they thought long dead. ”
I sigh and kick his phone off the edge of the table. It skids across the floor towards him. He makes the call to Sinead.
“A werewolf.” Gideon slumps back on the floor once he hangs up. “Of course you’re friends with a werewolf…”
His voice trails off. His cobalt eyes fix on a spot behind me.
Oh, right.
I don’t need to turn around to know what he’s looking at. I hung Claude’s painting behind my sofa. I like entering my home to be greeted by my naked figure reclining over the ruins of a Greek temple – Aspasia clad in moonlight, with the jewels of a queen at her throat.
I especially like the reaction it stirs in Gideon. His body is frozen, the only movement his Adam’s apple bobbing at his throat. Red cherry, poppy and honey scent the air, and I’m aware that once again, Gideon has wormed his way across my threshold into my sanctum.
“You kept it,” Gideon whispers.
“It would be a sin to destroy something so beautiful,” I say.
“On that, we agree.” Gideon tears his eyes from my naked form, those luminous aquamarine orbs fixing on me. “Arabella, this—”
“All it means is that I enjoy torturing you with what you’ll never have again. Take a good, long look at that painting, because that’s as close as you’ll ever get to this Aspasia.” Lights break through the trees outside. “You’d better pick your jaw up off the floor. The cavalry has arrived.”
I watch from the window as Gideon’s security team moves through the woods. There’s some snarling, trees rustling, and a lot of lights moving quickly. It looks like a scene from Jurassic Park, only Gideon is more annoying than Jeff Goldblum.
“Thanks for the update, Sinead. We’re going to keep her overnight, until the full moon is over.
” Gideon appears by my side, his mobile phone in his hand.
He’s taken off his jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, revealing surprisingly muscled forearms that absolutely do not make my lady parts tingle.
“They’ve got her. She’s alive and unhurt.
Sinead says they’re loading her into a secure cell now. ”
I don’t like Sinead knowing Celeste’s secret, but Gideon assures me she’s trustworthy, and Sinead being Thralled to Sanctus gives a measure of protection. “I want to see her.”
Gideon glances towards the garden, where his security team are hefting a dark shape into the back of a vehicle. “I don’t think Celeste would want you to see her like this.”
“Tough. She’s my friend. I know that concept means nothing to you, but she’s important to me. Besides, I’m not in danger anymore. I took care of Paul Badica.”
“I took care of Badica.”
“If you say so.” I shrug, knowing it’s infuriating him that he has no idea what I did. But I’ve already lost interest in my so-called stalker.
How has Celeste been transforming into this beast every full moon, and we haven’t noticed?
The Nevermore Coven prides itself on sniffing out a supernatural mystery, and yet she’s kept this from us the whole time.
How much control does she have over her shifting?
Does she only eat raw meat? Is she immortal?
I have so many questions, I sound like Isis.
“Celeste is dangerous. She’s already tried to eat two of my men. And me.” Gideon points to his wound.
“Don’t punish her for her excellent palette.”
“Are you saying I taste good?” Gideon smiles, his fangs visible, long and curved, a beautiful shape. “You would know.”
I sigh, already forgetting the way his forearms made me feel.
“Are you going to listen to me if I insist you stay with one of the Nevermore Coven members tonight?”
“Staying at Black Crag or Dora’s cottage would require far too much explanation, and this isn’t my secret to spill.”
“Riiiiight, and Arabella Lestrange wouldn’t want to spend her Bloodeve with her friends.”
I have to carefully arrange my face to hide my surprise. “You remembered.”
“I would never forget,” he says, checking the wound.
It’s stopped bleeding but is still an ugly, jagged gash in his perfect skin.
“When I found out you were Upyr, I figured that what you told me was your birthday was really your Bloodeve. Working on our act was merely a pretence to get me in the door so I could give you your surprise.”
“Please, no more surprises.”
“You’re going to like this one, I promise.”
“You sound awfully certain.”
“That’s because I know one thing for a fact.” Gideon grins wickedly as he collects his now-bloodied tote bag. “Arabella Lestrange cannot walk away from a game.”