Return of the Real Italian Alphas (2 page)

When they got out of the water, Gabriel found it just too tempting to take advantage of their nudity before they found their clothes again. Betsy seemed more than willing as Gabriel grasped her by the shoulders and leaned her against one of the trees.

“I love you, my wife,” he told her before their lips met.

“And I love you,” she told him.

Then Gabriel picked her up and tossed her right on the hot sand, and Betsy squealed in surprise. They made love right there, the dirt clinging to areas where it ought not to cling and making Betsy giggle by the time they were done.

“What’s so funny, ma bella?” Gabriel wanted to know.

“Um, I think we’re going to need another bath,” she explained as she turned her backside in his direction. Gabriel started laughing along with her when he saw it. The sand was everywhere.

“I’ll race you to the water,” he teased, and ran over to dive right in again. Betsy waddled uncomfortably behind him, dipped in her lower half, and gingerly removed the debris before she began to swim again.

Gabriel hadn’t laughed so much in quite some time.

CHAPTER TWO

Egypt was a strange blend of sand and spices, or at least that was the first impression Betsy had of it. The old world blended with the new as they met with Rico on the outskirts of Cairo and followed him to the compound he’d been living in for the past year.

“You built this place in one year?” asked Betsy incredulously as she looked around. The suite of ten buildings seemed literally huge. They were a non-descript group nested within sand dunes, blending into them almost as though they were just dunes themselves.

“Not entirely,” Rico explained. “Most of it was already here, it just wasn’t filled with my—test subjects or materials. We’ve tested a great many types of metals and materials on some of them, both as regular werewolves and as Alphas. So far the use of the metal we gathered inside Lupo’s labyrinth has consistently pierced the flesh of the Alphas, but nothing we’ve tried to date has proven toxic enough to kill. However, we’ve spent the last six months mining a local vein of the ore and creating bullet casings just in case.”

“So really, there’s only one known material that ever supposedly killed an Alpha,” Betsy said. “So what we really need to know is, where is the lance?”

Rico had been looking down at the screen of his computer, where his notes were kept, but as soon as he heard her say that, he glanced up in surprise. “I’ve never thought to look for it,” he admitted. “It’s supposed to be nothing but a myth and an obscure one at that. I don’t even believe we can find information about it on the net.”

He sat down and started searching. When quite a bit of time went by and he still didn’t move, Gabriel cast Betsy a long-suffering look. He walked over to one of the other people in the room. “My wife and I are exhausted, and Rico appears to be occupied. Is there someone who can show us to a room?”

“Of course,” he said. He picked up a phone and dialed three numbers, speaking into the receiver when someone answered on the other end. “Someone will be with you shortly,” he informed them after he hung up, and then he returned to whatever it was that he was doing.

Gabriel turned and took Betsy’s hand in his as another man showed up. He greeted them in Italian, and the two men conversed as he led them through the long, dark halls. Finally, the man opened a door and ushered the couple inside, opting not to follow them. He bowed deeply, and left them to themselves.

“What did he say?” asked Betsy as she stepped over and sat on the sumptuous four-poster bed. She had to pull one of the velvet bed-curtains out from under her butt before she could stretch out more comfortably.

“He said that we won’t be disturbed for a very long time, maybe even the rest of the night,” Gabriel told her. “I guess once Rico gets his nose into the computer, he tends not to pull it out again until he’s found what he is looking for. So we may as well get some rest.”

Betsy smirked. “Two years ago, if you’d seen this big bed with me in it, the last thing you’d be thinking about was getting some rest. Have you really become so mellow so fast?”

“I was only thinking of you, ma bella,” he defended himself. “I thought the journey here might have left you weary. If it has not, we could certainly think of other things to do in a room like this.”

Smirking, she asked, “And what might those other things be, my dear?” Gabriel grinned as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it on the floor. Betsy sat up and watched with avid eyes as he began to unbutton his pants. “My, my, what a lovely sight we have here.”

“Take off your clothes, ma bella,” he said as he stepped near the edge of the bed, kicking off his pants as he arrived.

Betsy was quick to comply with such a tantalizing request. Gabriel kissed her, scooting her further back onto the mattress so there was more room for him. Then he crawled onto the bed beside her, never stopping his kissing even to take a breath of air.

“Ma bella, what you do to me,” he whispered against her eager lips.

“And what you do to me because of it,” she teased, nipping at his bottom lip.

Gabriel chuckled as he laid her back on the bed and mounted her, wasting no more time with their banter. He was much too hungry for other things. Betsy seemed to be equally as hungry for the same things, and it didn’t take long for Gabriel to push deep inside her. She groaned appreciatively as she wrapped her legs up and around his hips.

The two of them moved together as only lovers familiar with each other could. Gabriel knew just where to put his hands as he moved, teasing her nipples to life and then grabbing her by the hips as he thrust harder and faster until Betsy was mindless with need.

“Gabriel, yes, yes, please! Right there….don‘t stop!”

Betsy keened her release, and her husband was not far behind her. He fell forward onto her chest so he could catch his breath before he rolled away and gathered her into his arms.

A little while later, he watched as Betsy scrambled out of the bed and headed into the adjoining bathroom. His eyes worshipped the curves of her body as a lazy smile played about his lips. If anything, having the babies had made her even more beautiful. Her breasts seemed larger and fuller, and the curve of her hips was even more enticing.

But thinking about their children made him sigh and he rolled onto his back to stare up at the canopy above him. How long would he have to be apart from them, he wondered. And how long before Lupo learned about the fact they existed?

Betsy crawled back onto the bed and pulled the light blanket over them. “It must be night again,” she commented. “The heat seems to have disappeared and made the room cold.”

“Then perhaps I should warm you,” Gabriel said as he pulled her against him.

“I believe my need for sleep has caught up with me at last,” she said with a yawn. “You should get some rest as well. We have no idea when Rico will want to speak to us again.”

“Yes, I suppose you are right,” he agreed. “The sooner we figure out what substance the lance was made from, the better I will feel. I wonder if they have begun to crawl by now.”

“I’m sure they have rolled over at the very least,” said Betsy, wiping a tear from her eye. “They might even be trying to say a word or two. Some babies do at six months. And they might be really happy about the fact they are so close to as many bananas as they can handle.”

Gabriel chuckled. “Mama told me I loved applesauce.”

“I was peaches all the way,” Betsy said.

“You still are,” Gabriel smirked as he lifted one of her breasts and gave the nipple a tweak.

“Oh, ha ha,” she grumbled. “What are you then, walnuts?”

“Coconuts?”

“No way, that’d be way too big,” she laughed. “You don’t want those.”

“Perhaps not, ma bella, but I will always want my peaches.”

“Go to sleep, will you?” she said, putting his hands onto his stomach and rolling away from him.

“I will, but my hands are staying right here,” he told her as he slid them around her and put them back where they’d been before. He splayed his fingers over each breast, and then squeezed just enough to get a good hold on them before he settled down into the pillows to get some rest.

Smiling indulgently, Betsy snuggled down and sighed. She was very content to be held in his arms, and soon she drifted off, fast asleep.

CHAPTER THREE

Gabriel pulled a sheet up around his hips and went to open the door when he heard the steady, familiar rap that told him Rico stood on the other side. The man looked tired but triumphant.

“What did you find out?” he asked in a hushed voice so he didn’t wake Betsy.

Rico whispered as well, talking his cue from Gabriel. “I’ve narrowed it down to four possible places where the lance might be hidden,” he explained. “I figure to search the closest one, the pyramids at Giza, within a few days. However, I have my doubts that we will find it there.”

“Well yeah, you know nothing is ever in the first place you look,” said Gabriel with a smirk.

“It’s like looking for the needle in the haystack,” Rico added. The two men chuckled. “If she’s going to sleep for a while, maybe we could go have a few drinks and talk. I’ll show you what I found.”

Gabriel nodded. “Yeah, just let me find my clothes first.”

“Good idea,” he agreed. “Much as I like you, my friend, I don’t think I like you enough to have a conversation with you in nothing but a blanket.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Me neither,” he replied.

After he dressed, he and Rico went to a big room decorated as if they were inside a desert tent. Furs and pillows lined the walls, and in the middle was a little wooden table on which the drink glasses and decanter sat. Gabriel was amused as he looked around.

“So what, you have decided to become a desert sheik?” he smirked.

“No, of course not,” he said. “But it does seem comfortable, doesn’t it? This room belonged to the previous owner of the place, and I just left it the way it was. The men seem to like it, so why not?”

“Very well then, show me what you have found out.”

The two men stepped over to another part of the room where a rather modern-looking desk and computer were located.  Rico flipped the switch to turn it on, and poured each of them a glass of Merlot while they waited for the old dinosaur of a computer to boot up.

“You spent millions of dollars to buy this place, even more to update it, several more finding more of that ore we found in the labyrinth, and a ton on producing bullet casings out of the stuff, and you didn’t get yourself a brand new computer?” asked Gabriel as he stared pointedly at the thing.

“I’m used to this one,” Rico excused himself with a smirk as he sat down and quickly pulled up the file he wanted to show him. “Here we go, these are all the possibilities, from first to last in order of likelihood.”

“Good, then let’s go to the last one first instead of the other way around,” Gabriel teased him.

“You want to go look in the Amazon rainforest?” Rico scoffed. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that where you pretty much just came from?”

“Pretty much,” Gabriel agreed with a nod. “And where my children still reside.”

“Yeah, boss, and I’m sure you miss them like crazy by now,” said Rico with a sad sigh. He took a large drink of his wine, then said, “Like I said, we intend to begin in the pyramid. After we eliminate that possibility or, if we get really lucky, find the thing, we’re looking at a few temples in Greece, the Coliseum, or maybe even the Vatican itself. Then of course, some folks think it might be in Jerusalem, but I tend to doubt it. The Templar Knights clearly had a hand in both the creation and the hiding of the object. But the real key is in its name: Gordral’s Lance. Apparently, Sir Gordral was a well-known knight around these parts during the Third Crusade, when the lance was supposedly forged. But he wasn’t fighting against the same enemy as the others. His target was the werewolves. Back then, they were much more open about their existence, and he deemed them to be more evil even than the non-Christian element they were trying to eradicate. He believed they were spawned from the Devil himself.”

“What nonsense,” Gabriel sneered. “I’ve been a wolf for a long time now, and I’ve never seen any Devil.”

“Of course not, but you must consider the source,” Rico reminded him. “He made us a weapon either way.”

“So, you think we ought to look in Greece for an object made during the Crusades by a member of the church? In a temple erected for a pagan god?”

“Only if it was stolen by them for some reason,” Rico explained. “There are conflicting reports concerning just such an occurrence.”

“No, I think you’re looking at this thing the wrong way,” said Gabriel. “We know that the Christians of that time believed that the reason werewolves and other creatures of the night wouldn’t go into a church had to do with something spiritual, when in fact it has a lot more to do with the stones from which those buildings were made and the metal bits incorporated into them. If I were Gordral, I would make certain to put my prized weapon somewhere beyond the reach of the creatures I was trying to end.”

“Such as in an old church or cathedral? But Jerusalem has many, and that’s where the man resided for most of his life when he wasn’t out hunting down the werewolves he so abhorred.”

“What else do we know about Gordral?” Gabriel asked, rubbing his chin in thought.

“In his later life, he was called back to Rome to serve as an archbishop in one of the churches there. He ended up being caught devirginizing the nuns and excommunicated. He was put to death a few months later for his crimes against the church.”

“It seems to me that Jerusalem is hardly where the lance is to be found,” Gabriel pointed out. “To follow the lance, would it not make the most sense to follow Gordral?”

“You’re right, of course, but it cannot possibly happen until after we visit the pyramids at Giza,” Rico insisted. “It is rumored that within the pyramid are some artifacts we could use to defend ourselves against the lance—just in case the thing isn’t just neatly sitting on some stand looking pretty.”

“This idea is sound,” Gabriel said. “But only if we manage to find the thing. What exactly are they?”

“Some sort of stones you hold in your hand,” Rico explained. “But if I could discover what they are made up of, perhaps we could synthesize some sort of armor.”

“You’re really loving your life now that you’ve decided to devote it to science, aren’t you?” Gabriel asked with a smile. “I’ve never seen you quite so animated before.”

“It’s something I always wanted to do,” he admitted. “But my father made me join the mob just as soon as I was old enough, wolf bite and all. I’ve never really gotten a chance to be my own man before this.”

“I do not wish to bring Betsy into the pyramids with us, Rico, but I don’t know how I could get her to stay here,” Gabriel admitted.

“You want to keep her safe, I know,” Rico said. “But maybe she would be safer remaining with us than she would be remaining at this base. You know this place would be the first thing Lupo attacked if he ever figured out where we were or what we were doing here. I don’t think she’d be any safer if she stayed behind. Besides, you’d drive me crazy from all your worrying about her if she wasn’t right by your side.”

“You know me too well, I think,” said Gabriel with a chuckle. “When will we leave for the pyramids?”

“I think we could all use a bit more sleep first,” Rico decided. “We will rest until nightfall, and leave here in the dark. We are far less likely to be spotted that way.”

“That’s what I like about you, Rico,” said Gabriel appreciatively. “You’re always thinking ahead.”

“And Gabriel, make sure that you actually get some sleep this time,” Rico teased him. Gabriel gave him a punch in the arm, finished his drink, and returned to his bed, where Betsy remained fast asleep. He smiled as he got into the bed beside her, kissed the top of her head, and settled down for some much needed rest.