They came to the front of the house. Milan stood on the wide circular driveway with two other men behind him. Luke recognized a couple of them from the visit to the embassy. All of them were armed and he felt Alex tense and ready himself.
"You need to go and find Griff," Alex said.
"I can't," Luke replied. He knew it was stupid, but if he let Alex out of his sight then what would happen? "I want to stay with you."
Alex didn't look at him, he simply sent out "please", and Luke knew he couldn't stay.
"There's two still missing," Alex said to a waiting Chris. "You have to be careful."
"You're sure on two missing?" Chris asked.
"As certain as I can be."
Luke began to make his way to the back of the house and to where he knew Griff had taken Sofija and Dragan. The first bullet buried itself in the front door and Luke ducked at the noise. Clearly no one on the other side was worried about authorities being involved at the noise of weapons fire. Casting a look back at Alex, Luke bit his lip. There was nothing he could do here. Nothing. Breaking into a jog, he took the stairs two at a time on his way lower down into the basement of the manor. Darting into the far room, he found Griff pacing and Dragan holding his daughter's hand.
"Two and Milan are out at the front and apparently two are at the back," he reported quickly. Griff nodded then shut the large oak door that Luke had just entered through. Locking it, Luke wondered briefly how Alex and Chris were going to get to the safe place. Rooted to the spot by his sudden indecision, wanting to go back up and out of the room, he didn't realize Griff was talking to him.
"Luke."
"What?"
"Let's go man, get you and the kid out of here."
Luke blinked and stared at Griff. He'd just shut the door. What the hell? What did he mean get out? Then he saw what Griff meant, another door in the far corner and darkness beyond. Dragan and Sofija had already gone through and Griff was waiting. Luke didn't hesitate; he took a step in and was engulfed in the black. Griff shut the door behind them; another barrier to whoever was trying to get to Luke. Using a cell phone screen, Griff lit the way to the front of the small group and they walked slowly past more closed doors until finally a burgeoning light appeared ahead of them. Dragan carried Sofija and she was holding tightly on to her father. When the four of them stumbled out into a small courtyard and pushed their way through thick creeping ivy, they ended up at the side of the manor, hidden from view by a tall wall. Griff pressed a quick succession of numbers on his cell screen then started reporting what was happening to someone. The cops probably.
"I thought we weren't getting them involved?" Luke said.
"Not until the fuckers were actually inside my house, not until they'd incriminated themselves."
"But Alex and Chris—"
"Are on a five minute countdown to bug the fuck out of there and for Chris to stow his weapons."
"You knew about this?" Luke was incredulous. No one told him.
"You were buried in your books, Luke." Griff evidently read his expression and Luke was immediately chagrined.
Casting his thoughts out, he hoped to connect to Alex, but Alex wasn't allowing any kind of connection. The sound of discharging weapons was loud and echoed in the distance. "We're safe here," Griff continued. Dragan slumped against the tall wall of the ivy-covered space and Sofija sat next to him with her knees drawn up and her thin arms wrapped around them. She looked pale and shaky and Luke pushed aside his own anxieties to crouch down next to them both.
"Hey, Sofija. You doing okay?"
Sofija touched the fingers of her left hand to her head and murmured something, clearly in Serbian. While Luke was good with languages and actually knew a little of the Baltic language, he didn't have to know Serbian to read Sofija's expression. She had a headache, a pain in her head. Luke patted her knee and gave her his most reassuring smile, even though she couldn't see it, and tried not to think how much paler she looked today than yesterday. He then exchanged quick looks with Dragan and the man's eyes contained so much grief that it twisted like a knife in Luke's heart. If he had a daughter, what would he do for her? Anything.
Another sound broke through his thoughts. This time it was sirens approaching the house then some shouting. At least the firing had stopped. Griff pushed himself away from the wall and brushed himself down. Then with a nod to Luke, he let himself out of a small wooden gate that Luke hadn't even noticed was there.
"My turn to play Lord Morgan's son," he said. As he left, Alex and Chris barreled into the space and pushed the door shut. Luke had never been so pleased to see his lover and he was up and in his arms immediately. A quick kiss full of need followed then he pulled back.
"What happened?"
"Held them off, then backed them into a corner," Alex said. "Long enough for Griff to call the cops."
"You backed five men into a corner?" Luke asked disbelieving.
"We have mad skills." Chris smirked. "Last we saw, all four hired goons were on their knees with the armed response unit holding them down and that Milan guy was resisting arrest. Course it helped that your man here went dark and caused chaos in the group. Did his whole invisible thing."
"It worked?" Luke said worriedly. "You sidestepped okay?"
"Yeah, and it felt stable this time, like I had control." Alex smiled and Luke kissed the smile. "We stay here until Griff comes and finds us. His job now is to convince the authorities that the Serbians were out to get at the Morgan collection in the vault. So we wait."
Luke leaned into Alex and then the two of them sat with their backs to the same wall as Dragan and his daughter. Chris paced, but then his other half was out there dealing with the remnants of what had just happened. They sat for about an hour until a smiling Griff arrived.
"Done," he said as Chris hugged him briefly. "One pissed Serb demanding diplomatic immunity despite not even actually being part of the embassy staff. And four hired muscle being bundled into a van."
"Can I go back to translating now?" Luke asked quickly.
Instead of taking the corridors back, the men and Sofija walked around the outside of the house and back in through the kitchen garden. Luke grabbed a bottle of water and stalked straight to the vault where the collection was held. In his mind he knew he was translating some great cosmic Leonardo DaVinci joke, but in his heart it was the only way he could help Dragan and Sofija.
Alex followed him and stopped him just outside the vault. Pressing Luke back against the wall, Alex stole a kiss. The touch held desperation and welcome in equal amounts and Luke didn't hesitate to give Alex what he needed. Sensation flooded him and he gripped Alex's shirt tightly. Warmth built in his spine and the fears and hopes he had for the manuscript faded against the onslaught of Alex.
Alex pulled back.
"Glad you're okay," he whispered.
"Me?" Luke frowned. "I was hiding. You were the one with the guns pointing at you. I'm glad you're okay."
"Can I sit with you while you translate?"
Luke went into his own world when he translated; Alex being in the room wasn't a problem. But Luke sensed an agenda in his lover's thoughts.
"You want to see if you can find a Greek symbol in DaVinci's code?"
Alex glanced down and to one side and Luke could see the uncertainty in his stance. "I know what I saw," Alex murmured. "I know you say it couldn't be there, but when you moved the papers, like…" Alex's voice trailed off. He looked directly at Luke again and his eyes burned with fervent belief. "Have you ever seen those books that you flick the pages and they animate something?"
"Like a cartoon." Animation was just a series of stills shown in rapid succession to form the illusion of movement.
"Yes. When I flicked through them the… look, this sounds stupid."
"Come with me, have a look at the papers, see what you come up with."
"You don't think I'm going mad?"
Luke cupped Alex's face with his hands and looked straight into his gorgeous sapphire blue eyes. They were so close that Luke could see flecks of silver near the pupil.
"After what we saw in Greece, after Athanasios being inside of you, after seeing you die, and then the phoenix on your back? No I don't think you're going mad. We all want this manuscript to be something other than a joke played on us by an old master when he was a kid."
They said nothing more. Alex followed Luke inside, and when the vault closed on them and the air-conditioning units kicked in, they both settled at the table and Luke handed Alex the papers containing the translations. If anyone could see a hidden message in DaVinci's code then it would be Alex.