All Knight Long, Book I: One Warlock's Love Story Read online

  He would be home right at high noon, which was when his mother normally steeped her love potions for maximum potency. His father would be at his computer obsessing over fluctuations in the stock market or looking for ways to magically influence local political races without being noticed. Like all magicals, Zander’s parents’ only job was to stay beyond the suspicion of any nearby mortals and appear as “normal” as possible. Most magical families had secured significant wealth several generations ago through the use of magic and just busied themselves with what most mortals would consider trivial pursuits, socializing and traveling abroad. When Zander’s friends asked what his parents did for a living, he would lie and say that his father was a day trader who worked from home and his mother was an art buyer for wealthy investors.

  His phone rang, and he grabbed it from the passenger’s seat immediately. It was Giovanni. Zander was too embarrassed to talk to him. After all of Giovanni’s hospitality, Zander had torn up his guest bedroom, thrown a fit, and stormed out without even saying goodbye.

  There was no wonder his cousins treated him the way they did, especially that damn Waverly Knight, his Uncle Siran’s oldest son. Waverly was his older first cousin on his father’s side. Zander had always sought Waverly’s approval -- even imagined that he was the big brother that Zander never had -- but Waverly was typically dismissive and sometimes downright mean. Waverly was everything a warlock was supposed to be -- cool, confident, cultured. It had been Waverly who was given responsibility for introducing Zander to the available young witches at the Litha... and now he could possibly be dead.

  His phone rang for the sixth time before he decided to let it simply go to voicemail. What could he say to fix things with Giovanni at this point? Not only had he managed to lose a great guy in Tau, he had also probably alienated the closest thing that he’d ever had to a warlock best friend.

  The closer he got to his house, the more nervous he became. He turned onto the highway that led to his house. He had grown accustomed to the quiet solitude that his family’s large, country estate provided. Friends were invited over only during times of low magical significance, which left very little opportunity when you considered the various solstice and equinox periods and all of the necessary wiccan activities that led up to them. His phone rang again. It was Giovanni. He didn’t answer -- he couldn’t.

  Chapter 10

  “How could he get out without you hearing him?” Tau snarled.

  “What are you trying to say?” Giovanni asked, eyebrows raised.

  “You knew he was upset. Was it too hard for you to keep an eye on him? Was that just too much responsibility for you?”

  “Let’s not forget that you are part of the reason that he got so upset in the first fucking place,” Giovanni spit.

  “I knew you were a damn mess when I first met you.” Tau pulled his large hands through his hair, obviously frustrated.

  “You’ve already been thrown into one wall by a warlock this morning,” Giovanni reminded him. “Let’s not make it two... or three. If I get started slinging your ass around this room, I just might not stop.”

  “I’d choke the shit out of you before you could even get started,” Tau hissed.

  “Stop!” Hung yelled. “This arguing isn’t doing any good. You both want the same thing.”

  Giovanni and Tau went to their mutual corners, never taking their eyes off of one another.

  “You both should go get dressed,” Hung said, palms raised. “I’ll fix you something to eat, and then we can figure out what to do next.”

  Giovanni softened. Not only was Hung a good fuck, but he seemed like a good guy, too. Giovanni was the last person on earth to be looking for love or anything close to it. Everyone that he had ever cared about had let him down, and he wasn’t keen on getting too attached to anyone too soon. It had taken months and months of online chatting with Zander for Giovanni to begin to trust him. Giovanni did a good job of acting as if he didn’t care about most people or things, but he did care. He wasn’t sure what Hung wanted, but Giovanni would keep his eyes open until he found out.

  Tau headed off to the guest bathroom while Giovanni went to his master suite yapping all the way.

  “There’s fruit in the refrigerator and granola and honey in the pantry,” he called. “Just throw it all in a bowl for me. If you can find some rancid meat in the back of the fridge, you can give that to Tau.”

  Tau rolled his eyes. “I see that you know your way around the kitchen.” He propped himself against the kitchen island.

  “You could say that.” Hung handed the plated raw steak over to Tau. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, you tend to get pretty good at quite a few things. I’ve actually studied at the Academia Barilla and the Lenotre.”

  “You’re pretty lucky to have lived along enough to attend two of the best culinary schools in the world.”

  “I see you know something about world travel and culinary schools,” Hung said with a smile.

  “A little,” Tau admitted, looking around the kitchen for a utensil. Hung found the utensil drawer and tossed him a knife and a fork.

  “Speaking of luck, it looks like we both got pretty lucky last night, huh?” Hung winked.

  Tau sighed. “I don’t know about how lucky we are. I seem to have lost Zander, and you are dating the devil.”

  Hung laughed. “Gio isn’t that bad. I like the fact that he is full of contradictions. He tries to act all hard and callous, but you can see from his concern for Zander that he is really a sweetheart. And don’t get me started on his sex game... crazy!”

  They both burst out laughing and gave each other high fives.

  “What the fuck is this?” Giovanni said, idling into the kitchen.

  “Tau was thanking me for the steak,” Hung said solemnly. Tau snickered.

  “Uh huh,” Giovanni said.

  “This is for you,” Hung said, offering Giovanni his granola, fruit, and honey breakfast. Giovanni rolled his eyes and accepted a kiss on the cheek from Hung. Tau and Giovanni ate in relative silence while Hung straightened up the kitchen. Hung gave Tau a smile and a wink while Giovanni wasn’t looking.

  Tau cleared his throat. “So what’s the plan?”

  “I have to go find Zander,” Giovanni announced.

  “I’m going with you,” Tau declared.

  “No, you are not,” Giovanni sang.

  “Where do you think he went?” Hung asked.

  “Home. It’s the only logical place for him to go,” Giovanni smacked through mouthfuls of granola, while repeatedly dialing Zander’s mobile phone.

  “So you know where he lives? You’ve been to his house?” Hung asked.

  “Not exactly,” Giovanni said.

  “So what are you going to do?” Hung asked.

  “I don’t know. I could cast a locater spell to track him if I had something that belonged to him, but he took all of his things with him when he left. He didn’t even leave a sock or a funky pair of drawers,” Giovanni huffed.

  “So how does this locater spell thing work?” Tau asked, wiping the steak juice from his chin and licking his lips.

  Giovanni sighed. “I basically take something that belongs to him, magically attach it to a divining rod made of some type of untreated wood, mahogany is best, and use it to guide me to him like two halves of a magnet. I don’t know why I am even explaining this to you. I can’t really expect you to understand this type of complex magic.”

  “So, does it work the other way around?” Tau asked.

  “What do you mean, Wilykat?” Giovanni asked, setting his granola down on the kitchen island.

  “Zander still had on the ring that I gave him when he ran out of the bedroom. If he still has it on, can we use your magic divining rod idea to take me to the ring?”

  Giovanni smiled reluctantly, tilted his head, and scratched his chin. “It may
work. It depends on whether or not he has completely accepted the ring as his or if he still considers it yours. You owned the ring longer, so it could still have your aural signature on it.”

  “Which means you have to take me with you,” Tau announced.

  “So if Zander hasn’t accepted the ring and Tau as his mate, then you can use the ring to find him?” Hung asked.

  “Basically,” Giovanni answered.

  “That is kind of a fucked up way to find out that he isn’t digging you,” Hung added.

  “But if I can find him, then maybe I can talk to him,” Tau said.

  “Once again, Wilykat, this isn’t about you. This is about Zander. We still don’t know what happened to his family. He could be driving right into the same danger that attacked the club last night,” Giovanni said.

  “We have to leave now,” Tau said with urgency. “I just need my bike.”

  “Your motorcycle was probably crushed by the wall when the building fell,” Giovanni reminded him.

  Hung glanced over at Tau. “Do you think the people who attacked the club could possibly trace your bike back to you or someone in your family?”

  Tau snorted. “We shifters aren’t that stupid. We try to live outside the grid as much as possible. My tags were faked, and the bike was purchased on the black market. They’ll never find me or any member of my family.”

  “What if he threw the ring out of the window on the highway?” Hung asked, thoughtful.

  “Would you just stop with the negativity?” Tau asked.

  Giovanni sighed. “So now what do we do?”

  “You can take my car,” Hung said, sending a text on his phone. “I’ll have one of the help bring it to you right now. I’ll stay here until the sun goes down, and then I’ll come find you.”

  Giovanni wasn’t sure that he wanted Hung to stay in his house alone or get in the habit of coming to find him every time the sun went down, but what choice did he have? He needed to use Hung’s car, and he couldn’t exactly put a vampire out in the daytime, could he?

  “Okay, then. Hung, we’ll use your car. Tigger, go get your shit, and let’s go. Like every good warlock, I have a divining rod already carved. I’ll just need something that belongs to you to connect with the ring. The more personal it is, the better.”

  Giovanni turned to Hung and ran down a list of things that Hung could not do in his condo, which included inviting over any other male guests, answering his phone, or looking in his bottom nightstand drawer.

  Hung just laughed and kept running his fingers through Giovanni’s dreadlocks. “Go get your stuff. I’ll straighten up while you are gone,” Hung said, patting him lightly on the ass.

  There were all back in the living room within minutes. Giovanni was holding a wooden, Y-shaped instrument about the size of coat hanger.

  “You warlocks and your toys,” Tau laughed.

  “You didn’t mind the warlock’s toys last night,” Giovanni snapped. Tau rolled his eyes and cleared his throat.

  “Me either,” Hung interjected.

  “So, what do you need for the divining rod thing?” Tau asked Giovanni.

  “Something personal that is closely attached to you or the ring that you gave to Zander.”

  “The cowrie shell was in my hair -- how about a piece of my hair?”

  “That should work,” Giovanni said. Hung rushed off to get a pair of scissors that he had seen in Giovanni’s potions cabinet. When he returned, Tau obliged Giovanni by tilting his head. Giovanni grabbed an ample handful of Tau’s hair, tugged at it for good measure, and then cut several inches from the root at the very front of Tau’s head.

  “Did you really need that much fucking hair?” Tau asked incredulously.

  “You want to find him, don’t you?” Giovanni said mischievously. Tau mumbled something that Giovanni couldn’t hear, as he tried to rearrange his Afro to cover the spot where Giovanni had cut.

  Giovanni took the chunk of hair, tied it at the cross of the divining rod, and then rushed to his potions cabinet to mix an elixir that would invoke the locater spell.

  “I just got a text,” Hung announced. “One of our drivers is on his way with my Mustang.”

  “I’m driving,” Tau and Giovanni said in unison.

  Chapter 11

  There was an eerie calm as Zander drove up to his house. None of the family automobiles were there. His father’s black Escalade was gone, and his mother’s Mercedes was nowhere to be found. He parked at the beginning of the circular driveway and ran up to the house. There was no noise coming from inside -- no television, no music, no singing, and no conversation.

  He pulled his key from his pocket and slowly opened the door. “Ma!”

  There was no answer.

  “Dad!” he yelled again, and wondered where in the hell they could have gone. All of his opened birthday gifts were still piled up in the living room the same way that they had been when he left. It wasn’t like his mother to leave her house so untidy. He walked through the first floor and found nothing. Every appliance and electronic item was turned off. He walked up to the second floor and found empty bedrooms. His parents’ luggage was still tucked away in the closet, and none of their clothes were gone. His eyes started to water by the time he made it up to the third floor recreation room. Again, no one was there.

  “Mom!” he yelled, desperately. He was beginning to feel hopeless as he headed back downstairs.

  He checked the kitchen on the first floor for his mother’s black cat, Tabitha, who was also surprisingly absent. Both her water bowl and food bowl were completely empty.

  Zander began pacing back and forth, trying to decide what to do next. He told himself that he could figure this out. It finally dawned on him. Every magical family kept a book called a Grimoire, which contained its family traditions, spells, and potions; perhaps it would contain some secret magic way to locate his family. The Knight family’s book was in the safe room, which could only be accessed through the library on the second floor. Zander took off quickly and accessed the secret doorway behind his father’s collection of L.A. Banks novels. He rushed in to find that the Grimoire and their most valued family treasures were gone. The room was empty. For the second time that day, Zander fell into a heap on the floor.

  Zander thought he heard a noise and looked up from his tears to find that the air was shimmering and distorted, the way it was above the asphalt on the hottest summer days. He jumped up to run out of the room and felt someone grab his shoulder. Without the proper footing, he stumbled and fell head first into the wall and knocked himself out.

  Chapter 12

  When Hung said he had a Mustang, Giovanni didn’t know he meant a completely restored first generation 1966 Shelby GT350 with tweaked suspension and 306-horsepower 289 V8. After arguing for several minutes on the street about who was going to drive it, they had come to the conclusion that Tau needed to drive because Giovanni was the only one able to properly discern the magic in the divining rod. The gentleman that Hung had referred to as “the help” was a balding man named Thomas who looked more like a retired executive than a ghoul.

  Thomas handed Tau the keys to the Mustang and nodded with indifference.

  “Where might I find Master Ly?” Thomas asked, toting a Louis Vuitton suitcase in his free hand.

  “Who?” Giovanni questioned.

  “The dude who banged your back out last night and whose last name you don’t know,” Tau taunted.

  “Fuck you,” Giovanni answered, and turned back to Thomas. “He’s in 706.”

  “Thank you.” Thomas headed into Giovanni’s building, rolling his suitcase behind him. Giovanni hadn’t assumed that “the help” would be coming to his house, too, but then again he had never allowed a vampire to sleep over before. He usually required his lovers, be they shifters, warlocks, or vamps, to leave before the sun came up -- literally. He cou
ldn’t help but wonder how many times Thomas had been summoned to Hung’s side after a night of wild sex with a random dude.

  Tau sank into the driver’s seat as Giovanni invoked the power of the Y-shaped rod, which now had a sufficient amount of Tau’s hair expertly knotted at its center, along with a few herbs and vines.

  “I need complete quiet,” Giovanni spat. Tau revved the engine and pulled out toward the highway heading south.

  “I haven’t told you where to go yet!”

  Tau shrugged. “I know he lives in southern Georgia. It doesn’t take a warlock with an old piece of wood to figure out which way to head first. You just need to let me know what to do once we get on the highway.” Tau rolled down the window and turned the radio up as loud as it would go.

  Chapter 13

  When Zander came to, his family was standing all around. His mother, his father, his grandmother Nasha, his uncle Siran -- whose wife Finity was holding a crystal globe the size of a soccer ball -- and even his annoying older cousin Waverly all stood around him.

  “Zandy, you really took a nasty knock to your head.” His mother dabbed at his forehead with a cool, damp rag.

  “We’re just glad that you are all right,” his Aunt Finity added. She was married to his father’s brother, and Zander always admired the way she carried herself; never the one to gossip about another witch or warlock, she always came to Zander’s defense when Waverly’s taunting became too much to stand.

  Waverly sneered. “I told you that he would run away screaming.” Aunt Finity hushed him and explained that the family had covered the entire estate in protective charms, cloaking potions and illusion spells. They would be invisible to anyone outside the spell. The supernatural world was abuzz with news of the attacks, and everyone from the district coven representatives to the regional coven leader had advised congregating and going underground as quickly as possible. Technology didn’t work behind the veil of such strong magic, so Zander’s family couldn’t send or receive calls. His parents had wanted to go looking for him, but that, too, had been discouraged under penalty of magical law.