Chap

Hi everyone! A thousand apologies for how long this took, but like I said I've been busy. Things are returning to normal now, so I should be able to write more, however my question about the trilogy still remains (see reviews if you don't know what I'm talking about.) And oh yeah, to everyone else. If I haven't reviewed stories lately it's cause I haven't had time to read them. Keep writing though, I'll get there eventually. This is a really short chapter, but finding time to write is almost impossible. I just thought that it might me smart to post before y'all sent the lynching mob after me.

Chap. 18 – Clashes

Dovidi's eye's widened at the announcement, damning the man's bad timing. "Bring him to the library please." Turning to Onica and Erik he spoke to them for a few more minutes, then excused himself and a made a polite, if carefully calculated exit. Asking them to await his return in order to finish the interview. When he was gone Onica turned to Erik and raised an eyebrow in return he only shrugged.

***

Luka stood in the D'angitino library and looked about at the overly ornate room, the shelves were lined with velvet and Paintings hung on every wall. Most were Pre-raphelite (sp?) in style but Mythological in taste. Ornate chandlers that cast light and shadow in haphazard patterns lit the library. It was chaos and order all at once, just like Luka's current plans. It he failed at his end, then Sarah would be left alone to fight his battle. He didn't want that but at this point he was lucky to have run into her at all, without her he would've been forced to spend valuable time researching for information he might never find on his own. It was time that he didn't have.

The door swung open, and the meeting Luka had long dreaded suddenly came to hand. He turned calmly and watched the man enter, he moved with a sleekness that was almost feline in its grace, the illusion was further enhanced by a set of green eyes and an impossibly slim frame. As Luka regarded Dovidi he smiled coldly – almost cruelly, because he no longer felt anxiety, more anticipation really, and his only thought? 'Let the games begin.'

***

Onica excused herself from the study, she didn't want to be at the gala, and while Erik's presence was comforting, sitting in Dovidi's study was not. Walking back to the main ballroom she found things in full swing, as the butler was about to announce another guest she found herself assaulted by several young men eager to dance. Too gracious to decline she accepted, and was for the next ten minutes engaged in dance, when she stopped to rest she walked to the refreshment table taking a sip of punch she nearly choked as she met the pair of eyes across from her own. "Sarah!"

Sarah was shocked to see the woman across from her, tall and elegant in a dazzling red dress, curls of black hair spilling over her shoulders, pulled back slightly from her face. "Callie? What on earth are you -?" Stilled with amazement Sarah offered no protest when Callie came around the table and firmly grasped her arm pulling towards the French doors that led to one of the Roman gardens.

"It's good to see you again Sarah… I've missed you." Smiling weakly as they walked Callie tried hard to think of something to say, unsure of how much Sarah knew, unsure of how much to tell.

"Are you here with Luka? When I spoke to him this morning he didn't mention that you were in town." As Sarah watched her, the color drained completely out of Callie's face.

"He's here?" The question came out as a rather horse whisper, and for a moment Sarah was unsure she'd heard, when she nodded though, she found that the hand on her arm had turned into a vise like grip. "Don't tell him I'm here… whatever you do… don't let him know I'm here." Somehow Sarah got the distinct impression that Callie didn't just mean the Gala when she said 'here', she was almost sure that Callie meant New Zealand in general.

"What's going on?" Callie looked up at her, almost incredulous. Did Sarah really know so little? Quietly, she began to relate what had happened to her since there last meeting. When she finished Sarah looked almost stricken. For a few moments she had no idea what to say, and when she did it hardly seemed adequate.

"I trust none of this will return to my father." Sarah almost started, wondering how Callie knew. "But I know it won't." Callie smiled the slightest bit, as if to reassure herself. "Tell me Sarah, who are you here. Vorschlag has no business with Excelsior that I know of – surely your not here on a pleasure trip." It then dawned on Sarah that Callie still thought she was Iron's chief of security, that she had never learned Sarah's true occupation.

"Actually Callie, I am here with on business but –." At that moment Callie grabbed Sarah's left hand, seeing the ring on it.

"Did he give that you?" Callie said the sentence with scorn in her voice. "Have you really fallen so low?" She almost glared at Sarah, blinding anger coursing through her every vein. "This was my mothers engagement ring."

"Sarah!" Luka's voice filtered through the hedges, turning both women saw him approaching with Dovidi close behind. They weren't close enough yet to see whom it was Sarah was talking to, but both could see that it was two women who stood there not one.

"Be wary Sarah, or you might share her fate." The words were hissed with contempt, but equally were they a warning. When Sarah's gaze returned to the spot in front of her, Callie was gone.

***

"Sarah, it's so good to see you again." Hiding her emotions Sarah smiled and allowed Luka to kiss her hand. "Mr. D'angitino, if I may introduce Ms. Sarah Pezzini." Dovidi's eyes widened in shock as he looked at Sarah.

"Yes we've met… I don't believe I heard Mr. Irons announced… I fear my staff is most incompetent these days." Sarah bit back from asking whether it was his staff or his hearing, saying instead that Mr. Irons was not present. When Dovidi asked why, she only smiled more apologetically.

"I'm afraid that Mr. Irons had more – pressing matters to attend to, it was simply impossible for him to come in person." Dovidi was irked but masked it well, politely asking Sarah if she would like to go indoors instead assenting the three moved to head indoors, as they walked Dovidi watched Sarah and Luka speak. They were on friendly terms, far to friendly for his tastes. He had intended to place Irons influence over the Giamano's and this would most definitely not do.