Volume 1.15: Closer

Type: Series

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Rating: M

Characters: April, Andrew, Luca, Willow
Word Count: 1168

Glossary: 

Warning: none, not even language, someone's been a good girl

When you're standing on the edge

You don't look down

Till you're ready and willing to fly

Now I'm one step closer

With my arms open wide

One Step Closer-Bon Jovi

Al Simhara, Egypt

Present day...

Egypt was unbearably hot; the dry arid air, infused with the aroma of spices and incense, hit their nostrils the moment their plane touched down.

It was just after 9:00am when they walked into the main airport terminal, but the place was a beehive of activity and chaos.

Everywhere they turned they were greeted by excited chatter in different accents, people rushing in to the country and some were leaving. Many were eager to be reunited with their loved ones and others looked just about ready to leave the dessert behind them and return to ‘civilization’.

April and Willow struggled to keep up with Luca’s and Andrew’s long strides as they moved swiftly through the throngs of travelers and airport staff. After a while they gave up, Luca and Andrew carried on to the baggage collection area.

They stopped at a curio shop. It was a quaint little place, tucked between Exclusive Books, the major bookseller in these parts, and Mugg & Bean, which according to their travel brochure served the best falafel and bottomless coffee.

The two ladies hesitated at the door, half in and half out, the trinkets on the glass displays looked enticing, but they really didn’t have anyone to buy gifts for.

Willow was now a lone wolf, she’d cut all ties with her coven when they learned she planned on helping Andrew break out his sister from the Youngblood’s prison. Witches, whether they knew each other not, stuck together and she’d learned this the hard way when her own coven refused to be part of her grand scheme with the Vampires. They’d insisted their loyalty was with the Youngblood  coven; because of what they were they were automatically on their side.

April on the other hand, had no living relatives; her parents had died decades ago, soon after Julian turned her. Luca and Andrew were the only friends she had, and they certainly didn’t need or want trinkets.

“Should we?” Willow sighed as she glanced at a pair of pyramid shaped earrings.

April thought they looked ghastly, but the dazed look in the Witch’s eyes told her the heart wants what the heart wants. At that moment it was those heavy pyramid earrings Willow’s heart wanted.

Before she could reply, the sales assistant pounced on them like a vulture ready to pick their bones clean. He’d sensed their indecisiveness the moment they approached the windows. The fact that they’d lingered for so long had told him they were open to a little convincing.

He introduced himself as Ahmad. And he was brutally persuasive as he rushed them from one glass casing to the next, showing off earrings and neckpieces.

Willow’s eyes grew as round as saucers when he pulled out a set of gold and Tanzanite earrings and necklace from a secret compartment he’d unlocked by punching a few keys on the keypad located on the side of the display.

Ahmad, in his impassioned sales pitch voice, claimed the set was once Cleopatra’s, the Egyptian queen.

“Really?” Willow squealed with excitement and April couldn’t help but laugh.

“You do know he’s lying right?” she muttered, and Ahmad glared at her, silently warning her not to ruin his sale.

“Yes, yes, it’s true,” Ahmad continued in his oriental accent as he shoved the necklace in Willow’s hands, “It was a wedding gift from Mark Antony-”

His thick accent made it hard for them to keep up with his tale, but since Willow, the romantic that she was, had miraculously made out love and fate and happiness in his long narration, she was sold.

April rolled her eyes when the Witch fished out her credit card. But before the sale could be finalized, Luca and Andrew walked in and whisked them away.

Willow was not impressed.  She complained all the way to the base camp.

“If you want Cleopatra’s earrings so much, I’ll steal them for you from the museum,” Andrew told her.

“Awesome! And I’ll be the getaway driver,” Willow cried excitedly.

“You know this, Bonnie and Clyde. That’s us!” Andrew added and for a long time Luca and April listened to their playful exchange and they both longed for the people they loved.

As April stared at the shimmering mirage in the horizon, she couldn’t believe they were really in Egypt, just a step closer to setting Julian free.

She was excited and nervous about the D-Day, but she also knew it wouldn’t be a smooth road for her and Julian.

Vampires loved deeply and when they made a commitment it was forever, they didn’t handle infidelity and betrayal very well, if at all.  She’d seen it first hand with Luca and Renee. And knowing how alike the Delacroix brothers were, she knew, despite all her good intentions, Julian may never forgive her actions.

The longer Luca watched Willow and Andrew fool around in the backseat; the more he missed kissing Cadence.

She’d been on his mind constantly since leaving Twinbrook. He didn’t have her cell phone number so he’d resorted to calling her home phone when they landed at Al Simhara International. He’d wanted to talk to her, find out how her day was and if she’d broken things off with the Kingston boy. But the coward that he was had hung up when he heard her voice. She made him nervous. Even when she was so far away.

He frowned darkly when he remembered her words about Mitchell being her boyfriend. He had no right to be jealous, or to even tell her to stop seeing the human boy, but he couldn’t stand the thought of another male, human or otherwise, touching her, and he’d said the first thing that  had popped to his head when he saw the challenging look in her eyes.

He knew he was getting too emotionally entangled with her and it wouldn’t end well; nothing would ever come out of his feelings for her.

He sighed, thinking that maybe the time away from Cadence was a good thing, and maybe Egypt would not only give them the keystone, but also reverse the spell she’d cast on him.

“Are you okay?” April asked him. She’d sensed his darkening mood.

Luca gave her a brief look before slowly nodding his head. April was a good sounding board, easy to talk to. But he doubted she’d want to know he was freefalling into the fire.

“I’m fine,” he lied. They pulled up at the base camp before April could push him to talk.

Willow had never been to Al Simhara and the last time she’d gone camping was in her senior year of high school twelve years ago, so she was a little too enthusiastic when she found out they’d be roughing it out.

April wasn’t so thrilled though.

“Really, Andrew? Wasn’t there a three star hotel at the very least?” She moaned as they unloaded their luggage bags from the car…