"Why? Does he own the club?" Oliver asked.

"Better. He's the consigliere," the waitress said.

"He's a mobster?" Oliver looked confused.

"Sort of. He's Helda's right-hand man. How about that,"

Mimi said, leaning back in the booth and taking a moment to assess the situation. No wonder the underworld had put up such a tough fight during their journey. Helda would not want to lose her closest adviser just because Mimi wanted her boy-friend back.

"Huh. Well, it's good to have friends in high places, right?" Oliver asked, with a nervous smile.

Mimi did not answer. She had found Kingsley, but it appeared that Helda had been telling the truth. Kingsley was far from lost, and had no ambition to be found.

Chapter Twenty-four

The Bride Wore Orange

"Youlookbeautiful,"Charlessaid,findingAllegrastanding before her dressing room mirror, getting ready for the evening.

She turned around and smiled as she finished putting on her earrings. "You remember these?" she asked. "You gave them to me in Rome."

"I do." He nodded. "They were from Greek artisans; they cost me a fortune."

"Thank goodness Cordelia didn't auction them off. I was worried I wouldn't find anything after she did her spring-cleaning." Allegra carefully removed a necklace from her jewelry box. It was a Carnelian necklace, from Egypt. "Help me with this one?"

Charles carefully laid it on her neck and clicked the lock into place. He kissed the back of her neck tenderly.

"Now, go on with you. Isn't it bad luck to see the bride before the wedding?" Allegra smiled, even though she was far from superstitious, as this was only one of innumerable bond-ings they had shared since the beginning of time, after all. She felt lighter - and for the first time since Florence, she did not doubt herself. She looked forward to moving on with her life, to their life together, as well as to the party that would immediately follow the ceremony.

The Coven was gathered at the Temple of Dendur, and soon she would make her way to the altar and say the words that would bind her to her twin in this lifetime.

She had dressed in a way to remind everyone of their storied history, with the Roman earrings, the Egyptian necklace, a dress made of silk and linen cut close to the body. Hattie had woven lavender into her hair so that Allegra wore it just as she had at their bonding in Rome. She did not wear a white dress, but donned a gown of a ravishing orange hue, just as she had on the Nile. Bright and happy and festive. Then there was the veil, a curtain of silk that would cover her head.

As was the custom, Charles would travel to the bonding on his own, with his attendants, and Allegra would arrive a few minutes after. They would meet in front of the temple steps at sunset.

She was almost ready when there was a knock on her bedroom door. "There's someone downstairs for you. Says he's an old friend of yours," Hattie said, sounding a bit skeptical.

"Who is it?"

"He wouldn't say. I told Julius not to let him in. I don't want you to be late."

"This really isn't a good time," Allegra said. "Can't you get rid of him?"

"We've tried, but he won't budge. maybe it's best if you do the shooing."

Allegra walked carefully down the stairs in her jeweled slippers and walked out the front door to find Ben Chase idling by the stoop, with Julius, their driver, keeping a watchful eye on him.

"Hey," she said, tapping him on the shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey. Sorry is this a bad time ...?" He looked at her dress and veil. "Costume party?"

"No, it's..." She could not tell him what she was wearing.

Of course he didn't know. It was her bonding gown, but Red Bloods wore white to their weddings. "What are you doing here?"

He stuck his hands in his coat pocket and cocked his head to the park. "Wanna take a walk with me?"

"Right now?" Allegra looked at her watch. She was supposed to be en route to the met right now.

Julius looked at her curiously. "We'll be late, miss." But what bride was ever on time for her bonding?

And if there was ever a time to hear what Ben needed to say, it was now. After tonight it would be too late. "Sure." She kicked off her high heels and changed into a pair of flip-flops she kept in the foyer.

They walked a few blocks down to Riverside Park, and walked by the water. The leaves were starting to turn. It would be winter soon, cold. Their shoes crunched in the leaves. Her dress made a rustling noise in the grass. In an hour, she would be bonded to Charles.

Allegra spoke first. "What are you doing here?"

"I didn't get married," he said.

"Hmm," she said, not knowing quite what to think, and somehow not surprised. When she saw him at the stoop, her heart had taken a grand leap, and she knew instantly that this was what he was going to say. Somehow, even though she believed this part of her life was over and the danger had passed, it was as if someone kept opening the book to the same page - someone was insisting that she and Ben see each other again. Who was that someone? Was it her? Was it him? Why was it suddenly so easy to forget about the carefully orches-trated plans for her bonding day? She was supposed to get in the car now. In a few minutes she was supposed to be standing in the temple.

Charles would be standing at the altar in his tuxedo. Their guests would be arranged around them, holding candles. They would say the words to each other. She had already moved her belongings to the town house that morning - a careful ritual they still practiced from the ancient Egyptian world, back when a bonding was signified by the wife bringing her things to her husband's home and there was no need for ceremony.

How sensible they'd been then, truly.

And yet, in a whisper, in a flash, she had tossed the plans to the wind, had agreed to take a walk with Ben. Perhaps they should have been superstitious after all. Perhaps it had been bad luck this morning - for Charles to see her.

Or maybe it was good luck - since why on earth was Ben here, now, at such an inopportune time? If he had come tomorrow, she would not have recognized him. Or if he had come yesterday, she might have had more time to think it over before acting - time to come to reason and gather her wits. But the time was now. There was no time to waste, no time to think. There was only the drumbeat of her heart. She was in her bonding dress. She had lavender twined into her hair.

Ben found a bench and motioned for her to sit with him.

"I couldn't tell you back then because I didn't think it mattered. But it matters now. Renny was pregnant. Or she thought she was."

"What happened?"

"I don't know. I'm not really sure. It sounds like she was never pregnant in the first place. She only believed she was.

mother thinks that she was trying to marry the boss's son.

mother always thinks that of every girl I date." Ben sighed. "I was going to go through with the wedding anyway. What did it matter if she was pregnant or not.... I loved her."

Allegra nodded. It was hard to hear him declare his love for another girl, but she had seen it herself that evening at the Redwood bar - his gentle way with Renny, the obvious affection between them.

His leaned back against the bench and pulled off his scarf, twisting it in his hands. "In the end... I couldn't do it. I called it off. I realized I had to follow my own happiness, which is why I'm here now." He turned to her, and his eyes were the brightest and clearest blue she had ever seen.

"Ben... don't say anything you don't mean," she warned.

"You've just gone through a crisis. It's not an easy thing to break up with someone you were going to marry." She should know, she thought. "You don't know what you're saying."

"That's just the thing, though," he said. "I know what I want now. And it's what I always wanted. I just didn't think I could get it."

Allegra began to panic. This was not what she wanted - she was wearing the oils, the swords had been blessed, the rings collected from the safe. "You're making things complicated, and I want us to be friends. You don't know what you're doing."

"Hear me out, please, Legs," he said.

She nodded, her heart pounding. She should leave right now - she could not stay here and listen to this - it would only complicate things. But instead of thinking of the guests at the temple, or the orderly procession of events that were now slowly going haywire, she wanted, so badly, to hear what Bendix had to say.

"That night when you walked back into my life... I could never forget you. It stirred up so much in me...." he said, his hands making circling motions above his chest.

"Ben. I can't. I told you..." Allegra's voice rose, strangled by emotion. "I told you I can't."

"I know what you are, and I love you. I want you. I don't care that you're... not human." He could not bring himself to say the word.

She shook her head. "It's more than that. It's so much more than that." She bowed her head. "There's something you need to know."

She told him the vision she had seen the first time they had been together, the first time she drank his blood. She told him about their baby, and then seeing herself comatose on the bed, and her certainty that if they were together it meant that he would die, that her love for him would mean his death, that being together would mean the end of him somehow.

Ben remained silent for a while. Finally he spoke. "So if we stay together, I'll die?"

"I don't know." Allegra kept her face hard and resolute. "I think so."

"Hey." Ben smiled, and it was like the sun shining through the clouds. He chucked her chin. "Listen, Legs, I'm going to die anyway. I'm human. And I don't know about you, but I don't believe in visions of the future. I believe we choose our own destiny. You didn't give me a choice last time. You just left. But I'm here now. And I love you. Stay with me. Don't fear the future; we'll face it together."

He brushed away her tears. His hands were warm and soft.

Chapter Twenty-five

Temple Maidens

For a week, the team combed Cairo for any trace the Nephilim, hunting down every lead they could find, but it was as if the demon-born had vanished into the air. As each avenue proved fruitless, and the days went by with no resolution or progress, Schuyler decided it meant they were going about it the wrong way. She still felt sick to her stomach and nauseated in the mornings, and the smell of meat could make her vomit.

But her head was clear. She had a feeling she knew what her sickness was, but she kept her hopes to herself. She did not want to tell Jack until she was sure. In the meantime, they had a job to do.

If they could not find the Nephilim, they would have to find a way to make the enemy come to them. She remembered something that Sam had told them when they'd first met - that they had tracked the Nephilim to the City of the Dead because they were working on a hunch that the girls who had been disappearing from the necropolis were being taken to the underworld.

The girls who were kidnapped were followers of the temple of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of the dead. While modern Egypt had moved on from the old ways, the people of the cemeteries had never forgotten, and a crew of temple maidens still kept the sacred flames alive. Schuyler formulated a plan and shared it with the team, and they spent an evening hashing out all the details. When they were satisfied, everyone went home.

"I don't like this," Jack said, the next morning. "It's too dangerous. You're putting yourself at too much risk."

"There's no other way to find the gate unless they take me there," she reminded him. "I'll be fine." There was no more time to question or wait. They had to act now, before the hidden Silver Blood broke down the barrier.

"But you're still sick," Jack argued. "It's not safe."

"It comes and goes," she said with a smile. "I'll be okay.

I'll have Deming and Dehua with me. They're a match for any demon." She put on the white robes of the temple maidens and hid her face behind a veil. "Besides, you're going to be right behind us. Once they bring us to the gate, you and the rest of the team will be able to take them down."

Schuyler had asked the priest who manned the temple not to send any other girls that day, as she and the two Venators planned to perform all the duties. They'd learned that the girls were usually abducted at night, when they walked from the temple to the outskirts of the southern cemetery, where they gathered firewood for the next morning.

The temple was located in a busy part of the cemetery, next to shops and cafes. It was a simple square structure, with a forecourt where the public gathered, and an inner sanctum where only the priests and maidens were allowed. In ancient Egypt, only the pharaohs and ordained priests could offer gifts to the jackal-headed god, but in the nineteenth century, the rules had changed so that girls as young as fourteen were called into service to perform many of the rituals of cleansing and prayer, as it was believed that only the prayers of the pure and virginal would be answered by the god of the tombs.