42. ZARA
ZARA
It felt more like a week than a few hours since Raquel had tapped on the kitchen door this morning and turned everything on its head.
“Are you sure you don’t mind me staying with you?” she said as soon as we were back. “I didn’t think about it when you offered, but I don’t want any of my family turning up here and causing more trouble for you.”
“It’s fine. Nero added some extra wards for me, so they won’t know you’re here and they won’t be able to get in.
” Even if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to turn her away after what she’d just been through.
“Shall I show you to a room so you can freshen up? You can borrow some of my clothes if you want to change out of what you’re wearing. ”
There was a rip in the shoulder of the white goddess style dress she had on, presumably from where her father had manhandled her, and a stain that looked suspiciously like blood on the back, although I hadn’t seen any other injuries when I’d checked her over earlier apart from the broken wrist and an already fading bruise on her cheek.
“No need.” She closed her eyes and the scent of apple blossom filled the air.
“Magical shower and costume change,” she said as her dress transformed into a pair of lycra workout leggings and a tee-shirt.
“That’s better. I hate those damn Oracle dresses, but my family always insisted I needed to look the part. ”
“Well, you can look however the hell you want now. And you look great in those leggings. Would you like something to drink?” I realised that all the time we’d been with Nero she hadn’t been offered so much as a glass of water, but when I started to apologise she stopped me.
“It’s okay Zara. I enjoy eating and drinking, but I don’t need to do it nearly as often as mortals do to sustain myself. Nero didn’t offer me anything because he knew what I needed most was to rest.”
“And you’re really all healed now?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. Good as new.” Physically perhaps, but I hadn’t forgotten the way she’d broken down over what her family had done to her.
“Can I borrow your phone to call Jules please? I don’t want to just pop in on her unannounced in case she’s…
busy.” Did that mean she knew about Eilif?
“Did she say anything to you about me while I was gone?”
“Did she wonder why you ghosted her, you mean?”
“It wasn’t by choice.” She sank down into a chair with a groan. “I didn’t want to put her on my father’s radar. Everything is fucked up enough without that. I know she was seeing someone, and we never talked about becoming more than friends, but I had hoped… Do you know who she is?”
“Who who is?”
“The woman Jules is seeing.”
Well this was awkward. “I don’t know anything about her seeing a woman,” I hedged, hoping she wouldn’t keep digging.
“You should call her now and talk to her.” I unlocked my phone and pulled up Jules’ number before I handed it to her, then wandered into the lounge to give her some privacy but she followed me.
“Can you talk to her first? Please? Explain what happened. I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold it together if I have to go through it again.”
“Fine,” I sighed. I really didn’t want to get involved but I couldn’t bring myself to say no to her after everything she’d been through today. I placed the call and hit speaker while I waited for Jules to pick up.
“Maybe she didn’t hear it. Try again,” Raquel demanded when it went to voicemail after a few rings.
She eventually answered on our third attempt, sounding a little breathless and not at all happy.
“This had better be an emergency.”
I instantly regretted putting her on speaker when I heard the male voice in the background calling out to her to ‘get rid of them and come back to bed’.
“What was that noise? Is someone there with you?” she demanded when Raquel let out a shocked gasp. “Please tell me it’s not my dad.”
“It’s not your dad.”
“Thank fuck for that. I haven’t told him who I’m seeing yet. I hope whoever’s with you can keep their mouth shut.”
“What’s going on? Is that Zara I can hear? Is she okay? Is there news on Seth?” Damn vampire hearing. Eilif’s voice was much closer now and Raquel looked like she was on the verge of breaking down.
“I have a mutual friend of ours with me, Jules.” I didn’t dare say her name with Eilif so close. “Someone we haven’t seen for a while.” Hopefully that would be enough for her to twig who was with me. “You might want to call us back when you’re alone.”
There was a pause while she processed that, then she whispered something to Eilif, too quietly for either of us to hear. I heard an annoyed huff and a muttered ‘fine’, followed by the sound of a door closing a little harder than it needed to.
“Raquel? Is that you? Where the fuck have you been?”
“It’s a long story, Jules.” I answered for her as she was obviously in no state to speak. “Can you come over later when your visitor has gone?”
“Fuck later. I’ve already told him to go home. He’s leaving now. Raquel, you’d better get yourself over here in the next ten minutes and you’d better have a bloody good reason for going MIA and worrying me like that.” She hung up the phone before either of us could answer.
“She sounded angry,” Raquel said miserably. “I’d better get over there and try and smooth things over.”
“I really don’t think you should risk going outside the wards.
I know Nero said you’re under the gods’ protection now, but what if Michael doesn’t care about that and tries to hurt you again anyway?
You’re safe here, but once you leave… I’m going to ring Jules back and tell her if she wants to see you she’ll have to come here. ”
The only answer I got was a shimmer as she disappeared, then another shimmer as she reappeared half a minute later with a startled looking Jules.
“What the fuck, Raquel? You could at least have given me some warning.” She didn’t look any happier than she’d sounded on the phone. “Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on.” They both looked at me expectantly.
“Alright. Cliff notes version,” I said, as Raquel was obviously still wanting me to do the honours.
“Raquel’s been having some problems with her father and uncles.
She managed to get away from them and asked Nero to grant her sanctuary.
Now she’s under the gods’ protection and it’s safer for her to be here inside the manor’s wards than at your place.
” It was up to Raquel how much more she wanted Jules to know.
“So you’re in hiding?”
Raquel nodded miserably. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before now what was going on. And I’m sorry I called you when you were with Eilif. That was Eilif’s voice I heard wasn’t it? Was he very angry?”
I’d forgotten that Raquel had visited him about the Prophecy when he’d still been locked up on Four. She’d probably recognised his voice as easily as I had.
“It wouldn’t matter if he was. But no, he wasn’t angry. Just curious. And frustrated,” she added with a grin, “but I’m sure I’ll find a way to make it up to him another time.”
“So he’s your lover?” she asked timidly.
“We’ve been seeing each other for a while now, yes. But we’re not exclusive if that’s what you’re thinking. We’re both open to seeing other people as well.”
“Right then. I’ll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me.
” This was not a conversation I needed to be listening to, although I was pretty sure they’d both forgotten I was there anyway.
“With a bottle of wine,” I added under my breath as I turned to make my escape.
I wasn’t really surprised not to get any answer.
“Is there any wine left?” Raquel was hovering in the doorway as if she didn’t know if it was okay for her to come in or not.
“Grab a glass. Where’s Jules?”
“I took her home.” That didn’t sound too promising. “It’s okay, we didn’t argue or anything, but it’s all a bit...”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me. It’s between you and Jules.” And Eilif. I poured a generous measure of wine into her glass and topped up my own while I was at it. “Nero should be here any minute.”
I frowned as someone buzzed at the gate. If Raquel’s fucked up family were trying to bypass the wards by getting me to let them in that way I was going to use the switch to electrify the boundary fence and hope one of them was touching it when it lit up.
The buzzer sounded again and I checked the camera feed. A bright orange sports car was sitting outside the gate, with Nero hanging out the window grinning into the camera. What on earth was he doing driving here when he could just pop in and out whenever he felt like it?
“Well I could hardly just appear out of nowhere in the middle of Wanton for a Wonton could I? And somebody demanded Chinese food,” he said when I asked him that question as he unpacked the takeaway he’d brought with him. “So I had to bring the Maserati.”
“I’m sorry, what?” I choked out. “Please tell me you made that name up.”
“No. Maserati is a make of sports car, Zara. I would have thought you’d have heard of it.” Oh ha-ha, very funny. His mouth twitched as he teased me but I refused to rise to the bait. The food smelled far too good to waste precious eating time talking about where it had come from.
We were about halfway through demolishing our feast when a huge bang had Raquel and I both leaping from our seats, her to cower behind Nero, and me to run around in a panic looking for something I could use as a weapon if we were under attack.
“A frying pan? Really Zara?” He rolled his eyes when he saw what I’d grabbed. “You’ve been watching too many cartoons. But there’s no need for alarm. That was just my wards doing their job and stopping someone from getting in. I do hope it hurt. Relax and finish your dinner, both of you.”
I grabbed another bottle of wine out the fridge first, purely for medicinal purposes to soothe my frazzled nerves.
“I am surprised they’d come here and risk trying to get through the wards though,” he admitted once we’d settled back down and I’d narrowly beaten him to the last chicken ball.
“I thought they’d have more sense. Having Raquel stay here might not be a good idea after all.
We don’t want them finding out she’s here and deciding that constitutes you interfering with their plans.
I think you should both come home with me tonight and we’ll figure out where’s safest for Raquel tomorrow.
Even though I’m fairly certain they can’t get in here, I’d be much happier having you both there.
” Fairly certain? What happened to there’s no need for alarm?
“There’s no reason you need to be here is there, Zara? ”
“I suppose not,” I said with a shrug. It wasn’t as if I was still expecting Seth to come bursting through the door anytime soon. “What do you think, Raquel? Should we go back with Nero?”
“I’ll go with him. I’d never be able to forgive myself if you got hurt because of me. Will you come with us?”
I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice really, because I definitely didn’t like the idea of being here on my own if Gabriel came back again and managed to find a way past the wards.
“Alright. Tonight we’ll both stay with Nero. But we’re going to have to find a way to deal with your family once and for all, because you can’t spend the rest of your existence hiding from them.”
“I agree,” Nero said. “They need to be stopped. I understand that they’re your family, but…"
“Not anymore, they’re not,” Raquel said bitterly.
“They disowned me, remember? And if they get their hands on me, they’ll either lock me up until they need me to do their bidding, or they’ll end me.
Or I suppose they might send me to the Underworld, but I doubt it.
They know I’d be happy with that outcome and they wouldn’t want that.
I don’t feel like I owe them any loyalty, if you’re worried about that.
I have no qualms about doing whatever it takes to make sure they’re not a threat to any of us. ”