Page 16 of Fateful Reunion

“I’m her kin, yes, but I’m not like her. She needs to be with witches who’re like her, now that she’s coming into her powers.”

Roxanne recalled how Ilaria had transformed her room with her powers. She’d seen witchcraft exercised quite often. Certainly Wesley, Scanguards’ resident witch, was never shy about showing off his skills, but Ilaria’s powers were something on a whole different level.

“I’ve guided her this far. My duty is nearly fulfilled. Soon…” He didn’t finish his sentence.

There was something he wasn’t telling her. “Why do you need protection for her now? She seems powerful enough to protect herself, if her little performance from earlier is anything to go by.”

He blew out a breath through his nostrils. “Hmm. It’s just a feeling. I want to make sure that nothing bad happens so close to the finish line.”

“And the finish line is?” Charles hadn’t given her any information that she could work with, nothing she could give to Gabriel other than the fact that Ilaria was born with the mark, whatever that meant.

“To unite Ilaria with her kind.”

“Yeah, you said that. How exactly is that gonna happen?”

“I’m still working that out.”

“This is not how Scanguards works. We need to know what’s going on, and where we might encounter problems. Otherwise, how are we supposed to protect you?”

“I’m not the one who needs protection. Ilaria does. That’s why I hired your team. I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, right!” she murmured under her breath.

“Trust me on this. Just protect Ilaria. Don’t worry about me.”

She scoffed.

“Not that you would, of course,” he added. “Given the fact that you’ve tossed me across the room twice since I’ve returned. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you wanted to seriously hurt me.”

She snapped her head in his direction. “Why don’t you keep your smartass remarks to yourself?”

Unexpectedly, Charles smiled. “Because it seems to be the only thing that pushes you to communicate with me. And frankly, at the moment I’d even welcome you screaming at me if it means you’d acknowledge me.”

She grunted to herself. She hated it when people pushed her buttons. She was glad that ten minutes later they arrived at the safe house. Roxanne drove the car into the garage and killed the engine. Without a word, she got out and marched toward the door leading into the two-story house.

The hallway led to an open-plan living room and through to the kitchen. To her right was the front door and the stairs leading up to the second floor and to her left she saw doors to a laundry room and a guest bathroom.

Charles was just closing the door to the garage behind him when Zane came out of the living room, glaring at her. “You should have been here half an hour ago. What took you so long?”

She glowered back at him. “None of your fucking—”

“My fault,” Charles interrupted. “I thought I sensed somebody following us, so I asked Roxanne to take a different route.”

“Hmm,” Zane grunted, then returned to the living room.

From the kitchen she heard noises. It sounded like Grayson was still trying to get into Ilaria’s pants by turning on his charm. Men!

She turned her head to look at Charles. “I don’t need you to make excuses for me.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Well, my bad. Why don’t I get settled—” He motioned to his bag. “—and give you time to cool off.”

“I don’t need time to—”

But Charles was already marching upstairs. She whirled around and headed for the bathroom. The moment she’d locked the door behind her, she took a deep breath. Then another one.

She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed Gabriel’s direct line. He picked up almost immediately.

“Roxanne, what have you got for me?”