Free Dana Marie Bell - Heart'sDesire01 by T L Page B

voice. “Let me guess. You’re his older brother.”
    “Damn straight. Tell Christopher I’m on my way.” Gareth hung up, leaving her holding a buzzing headset.
    Lana hung up. “Lovely. Now I get to deal with two of them.” At least Gareth had sounded like he knew who Cole was and how to deal with him. She stared at the phone before putting it back in Chris’s pants. “And how does he know where we are, anyway?” She shook her head and decided to worry about that later. “Grammy!”
    “Yes, dear?”
    “Can I borrow the laptop?”
    “Go right ahead. Pasta all right for dinner?”
    “Does the Pope love Jesus?”
    Grammy laughed and went back into the kitchen, shaking her head.
    She headed into Grammy’s bedroom and opened the laptop. Big brother might know who Cole is, but I don’t. And I’m the one he threatened to kill. She booted up the computer, watching Windows come up. The good Lord helps those who help themselves, and the Lady provides the means. She settled down in the chair and began researching Christopher Beckett.
    A half an hour later she had a better idea of who Christopher Beckett was, but was no closer to figuring out who Cole was. Chris was a graphic designer for Black Wolf Designs, a well established firm in Pittsburgh. From his correspondence, they were responsible for the websites of some pretty major labels. The fact that his father was head of the firm explained the name of the company. She wondered why Chris had chosen to live so far outside his home city, but nothing in the Google search had answered that question.
    Heading to the bookcase, she pulled down The Registry. Inside was listed the name of every wizard, witch and warlock around the world. Each copy was magically tied to a Master Registry and updated when the Master updated.
    How the Master updated was debatable. Some said one man was responsible, a scribe, priest or even a librarian who somehow magically knew when someone was born, died, had children and added all of that information to the registry. Others said it was secreted away in some secret monastery staffed by members of all three magical persuasions, all of them responsible for keeping the book updated. Still others believed the book updated when it needed to, with no interference from the mortals who referenced it or the person or people who guarded it.
    Lana believed the latter. To her it made perfect sense. Men could be bribed to alter registrations.
    Nothing could bribe the universe.
    She opened the page to the Becketts, first checking out Christopher. She found his family listing easily. It seemed Chris had two brothers. Gareth, the eldest by three years, and Daniel, two years younger than Chris, were both listed along with their prodigious bloodline. Both looked enough like Chris that they were unmistakably related. There was a short, not very informative entry for a Zachary Beckett, and she wondered if he’d been a brother who’d passed away. The Registry could be vague at times.
    She sat back to stretch, jumping at the sight of a strange man standing in the doorway of Grammy’s bedroom. He had dark hair and golden eyes much like Chris did, but his features were harsher, less refined, and his hair was closer to dark brown than black. He looked a lot like the portrait of Gareth Beckett in the Registry.
    “Lana? Your grandmother told me I could find you up here.”
    She grinned in relief at having her suspicions confirmed. “Gareth?”
    He nodded and stepped forward to shake her hand. “Nice to meet you. Where’s Christopher?”
    “Bed, hopefully letting the remedies work.”
    His grin faded. “Remedies?”
    She glared at him. The moment he started making fun of her “witchy” ways he was in for a world of hurt. “Don’t start.”
    His lips twitched. “Yes, ma’am.”
    “We think this Cole person tied the sickness to some wolf hair Christopher somehow left behind last night.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    The command in his voice got her hackles up,