The Search for Alexandre begins when Julia and I travel to the Wisteria Hotel. Gabrina would like you to know that she just discovered that Wisteria is the name of a street on a tv show. And she thought she was soooo terribly original.

Ch 50

Storming the castle didn't seem like a brilliant plan once we were a mere fifty paces from the front entrance. In all likelihood I would be restrained, jailed, recognized and tried, and eventually executed. If the shah knew where I was I would then be revived, tried, and executed again.

Julia and I stood with our shoulders touching as we stared at the Wisteria Hotel. The streets were quiet because of the weather and the hour. Without anyone to see us, I threw back my hood and touched the inside pocket of my cloak just to be sure that the mask was still there. My legs instantly began to atrophy from the brisk walk to the hotel and the sudden stop.

"Why don't you stay here and I'll speak with the man at the front desk?" Julia suggested. Her teeth were chattering from the cold. "Sit down a moment."

"We don't have time," I argued. As much as I wanted to be stubborn I still sat. My body sought revenge for the pace I had insisted upon.

"I'll be back in a moment."

"You are not going in there without me," I replied with a groan. Every muscle in my legs had knotted. By the feel of it my calves would soon be burned to ash.

She crossed her arms and shook her head at me. "You, with your mask and your temper, cannot just walk in and expect to reach their suite without some sort of altercation."

"So?"

"So you'll never reach the room. If I go in first and have a word with the clerk you stand a much better chance of seeing the Vicomte and Vicomtess de Chagny and finding out about Alex." Julia stepped forward and tilted my head up. "Your forehead is bleeding again. Must you wear that thing?"

"Yes." My finger slid under the front of my hair and pulled it up enough. I hadn't even noticed the throbbing pain. It didn't even contend with how my shins and thighs felt.

She scoffed at me and took a handkerchief from the inside pocket of her cloak. Once she folded it neatly she pressed it against my forehead where the closed wound disappeared into my new hairline. "Why? Because you like the torment?"

I glared at her. "For fear." She stared at me a moment but made no reply. "They remember me as a sniveling, weak fool in the end. They remember me unmasked. But I have no doubt that when the boy closes his eyes at night his fears will return." My finger ran along the mask. "He sees this and he knows that if I so choose he will be strung up by the neck. He will not have an advantage again."

"You would kill him before your own son?"

She earned a scowl from me. How galling that she had to have valid points! No wonder she wanted to come along! To make certain that I had a conscious!

"I won't kill him," I sighed in disgust. "As long as Alex is unharmed."

Julia sat down on the bench beside me with her hand still holding the handkerchief to my head. "Do you honestly think he would come here?"

"I'm not sure." Even I knew that was a lie.

"You're coming here for revenge, aren't you?"

I took the handkerchief from Julia and turned away. Her hand fell to my shoulder.

"Where is he?" she whispered.

"If he isn't here he's safe."

She could have argued with me over where he was but she didn't. "Then why are we here? If you don't think he's here…"

"I can't take that chance. Look at what he did to me," I said between my teeth. "Tell me if you think for a second that he wouldn't do the same to Alexandre, to the son conceived out of wedlock—to my child. If I'm wrong, if Alex is here, he's dead."

Before I knew what had happened I felt the warmth of tears on my cheeks. Emotions forced me to my feet.

"You honestly believe he would kill another man's son?"

"Anger can evoke anything," I murmured.

Julia stood up beside me. "Erik, even you wouldn't kill a child. You—" she stopped and stared at me, her eyes locked on mine. It frightened me that she couldn't continue. With a shuddering sigh she looked away, arms hugging her body tighter. "I pray to God you would never do such a thing," she said under her breath.

Prayers were never enough to erase the past. If simple words could take away all that I had done my life would have started with the day Alexandre came to me and would have skipped and skittered like a rock across the water to the day I first met Julia. Torture chambers, extortion, kidnapping….I wouldn't have done any of it had I thought I would ever meet someone like Julia. Had I known I could lose someone like Julia.

"The storm is getting worse," I murmured. "We better go before it starts to pour."

Julia warily nodded.

We walked across the street together and I thought in silent misery that it really was ironic how the past came to haunt a ghost.

The front of the hotel was empty aside from a doorman snoring in the foyer. I could see him through the carved glass, head tilted back and mouth gaping open. Julia warned me under her breath not to touch anything or talk to anyone while she was at the front desk. Condescending, I thought, but I didn't argue. She stood a distance away from me and I felt it. There was a curtain of doubt that had been drawn between us and no cord that I could find to lift it again.

"I'll only be a moment," Julia assured me. "Find some scrap of patience and wait here."

The tone of her voice had changed. Only someone who had spent a great deal of time involved in music would have noticed it. She didn't even meet my eye, even when she turned to straighten my collar.

"Julia—"

"He's been missing for at least two hours now, Erik. We can't stand around and chat all night. Not when you won't tell me where you think Alex is at."

"I'll tell you. I'll tell you anything."

"Wait here."

"No, listen to me—"

"Wait. Here."

She started through the double brass doors but I called out to her before she disappeared. Her movements were slow but she did stop and turn to face me. From a distance I couldn't see her eyes clear enough but I hoped her gaze lacked the fear I felt in my heart.

"Do you trust me?" I asked.

The door closed and she was gone.