Skin Deep

by Lily Luchesi

  “Do I know you?” he asked him.

  “Fuck, if we don’t know each other, I wanna see your family tree,” the kid said, standing up. They were the same height.

  Danny looked past him to Angelica, who was shaking her head. He wondered if she was amused, exasperated, or a combination of the two.

  “Daniel, let me re-introduce you to your great-grandfather, Danny Mancini,” she said. “My husband and the vampire Emperor.”

  Danny looked between Angelica and the kid, unable to speak. It took a lot to render him speechless these days, but this was certainly something that could do it. Daniel, whom Danny had always thought of as a child, fainted dead away.

  Angelica leaned against her clasped hands and said, “This is why I avoided any emotion aside from anger and annoyance for most of my life.”

  Danny could hear that he was breathing fine, so letting him get his wind back, he stepped around Angelica’s side of the desk and said, “What the Hell? You couldn’t have given me some warning?”

  “I had no warning; all of a sudden your descendant strolled in here after I sent Sean to pick up the only local precog left. I was as shocked as you are,” she replied. “You never told me he inherited your powers.”

  Danny shrugged. “I had never really thought about it. I left him — and that rapidly diminishing life — behind me when I agreed to come with you. No point talking about what I would’ve lost whether or not I had turned.” He meant that: whether he had chosen a mortal death or eternity at her side, he was going to lose his human family. And that was just fine with him. Now he was forcibly thrust into a past he had voluntarily given up.

  Why did he think life with Angelica was going to be easy?

  “Danny, if you want him gone, we can attempt this without a precog. Had I known he was the one Sean was getting, I would have discussed it with you prior to bringing him here,” Angelica said.

  “And what? Just kick him to the curb with everything he knows? That goes against one of your biggest laws,” Danny pointed out.

  “Have a Coven member alter his memory,” she suggested. “But you forget, your great-grandson isn’t normal, not by a long shot. So even if he doesn’t want to help, he should spend some time here, learning, so he doesn’t become overwhelmed by his own mind. And I would never kick one of our own to the curb as you so callously put it.”

  Danny looked over at Daniel, who seemed to be beginning to stir. “All right, we’ll give him the choice. I’d rather him stay out of it, though.”

  “Is that why you used to tell him stories about our adventures? So he could stay out of it? Whether you wanna believe it or not, you conditioned him for this day. Your subconscious knew something you didn’t: that despite my orders to have you get a normal life, your blood will always be a part of this company.”

  He grinned, hiding the uneasiness settling in his stomach at those words. “You make it sound like the Mafia.”

  “Think I’d prefer the mob,” Daniel muttered, coming round to full consciousness. “I think I’m going mental.” He made an effort to sit up straighter in his seat, looking between Danny and Angelica like a baby bird. “It doesn’t make sense: you were over a hundred when you went into the hospice. How are you in your forties?”

  Danny was glad he was speaking in a level headed manner. Right then, he felt like he was teetering on the edge of insanity himself. “Angelica, the Empress’ blood, brings anyone she turns back to their prime age.”

  “How long after we left did you wait to turn? Because we got the call the next day and there wasn't even a corpse, they claimed they did everything according to your wishes...and that included a closed casket,” Daniel said, his tone accusatory.

  “That very night,” Danny replied. “I would have been gone no matter what: I was going to die that night anyway.”

  “And you just split? Took a sabbatical? Decided fuck them, they don’t deserve the truth?” Daniel’s dark eyes lit up with fire.

  “I guess his appearance isn’t the only thing he inherited from you,” Angelica muttered.

  Danny turned to her and shook his head. The last thing he needed during this whole thing was sarcastic commentary from the peanut gallery. Turning back to his relative he said, “Your mother never believed me, and I was perfectly content with not telling her the truth. I let you all think that I died a mortal death to give you closure and to ensure that you never became targets.”

  “Targets?” That seemed to pique the boy’s attention. “What do you mean?”

  “Hunters. Psychos. Rogue vampires. Angry shifters. The life of a vampire, especially the rulers, is a difficult one, and having mortal attachments could be disastrous. Believe me, no one knows that better than Angie and I,” Danny explained. “So far we’ve been lucky, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stay that way.”

  “Then why contact me now?” he asked.

  “We didn’t know it was you,” Angelica said. “I let Sean handle this, and he didn't dig far enough into your family tree. Believe me, he’ll be reprimanded for that.”

  “And what would you have done had you known who I was?” he asked.

  Are we playing Twenty Questions? Danny wondered.

  “I would have asked Danny how he felt about bringing you in.” She shifted in her chair. “Look, no offense, I understand you’re in shock and have questions up the ass. I would, too, and both Danny and I will be happy to answer them, but right now we’re in a bit of a time crunch. You asked why we contacted you, and I’m willing to tell you. We need a precog and you’re the only one in the area.”

  Daniel pursed his lips. “What about him?” He gestured to Danny.

  “Lost his powers when he was turned. Vampires can’t be precognitives, apparently. Unless we search the world over, you’re all we’ve got,” Angelica said. “Before I can brief you any further, I need to know now if you’re willing to assist.”

  Danny had to refrain from smirking. He remembered what he was like at that age, and he had a funny feeling that Daniel wouldn’t appreciate being spoken to so brusquely. Angelica was still a polarizing enigma. He knew a bright, funny, intelligent woman. Here in this room, however, she was the Ice Queen, no doubt about it.

  Daniel gave a sarcastic laugh. “Like I’d agree to something without knowing what I’m getting myself into. He told me stories, and I’m sure they were just the tame ones. Undead ex-girlfriends, rogue fathers, murderous witches. I want to know what I’m dealing with before I agree to anything.”

  Angelica abruptly stood up, her chair nearly falling over in her haste. Danny saw the fire in her eyes and held his breath as she walked around the desk to face him, not his descendant.

  “Knock some sense into this impertinent brat...or I will.” With that, she left the two men alone in her office, the door slamming so hard her diplomas rattled in their frames on the walls.

  They both stared at the door for a moment before Danny plopped down into the other visitor’s chair with a sigh. Twenty-three years it had been since he became the Emperor, and things had been so easy. He should have known peace would never last. Mentally, he had prepared himself for the day they might face a supernatural adversary, but he hadn’t been prepared to fight a personal battle.

  “You know, in all your stories, you never made her out to be…” Daniel paused. “I don’t know. Bitchy seems far too nice.”

  “Hey, don’t you dare talk about her like that,” Danny admonished. “Everyone’s got a flaw, her biggest one is impatience. If not for her, you never would have been born and mortals would be corralled like cattle, being fed to monsters. Show her the respect she deserves.”

  “Getting all paternal, Pops?” Daniel said with a smirk.

  Danny wanted to slap him. Deep down, he recognized this arrogant prick. How could he not, he’d seen him in the mirror from his teens until Vincent had destroyed that part of him in a dark alleyway nearly a century ago. Daniel acted just like him when he was a young man. Problem was, he had no idea how to deal with it. He�
��d been forced to change due to circumstances beyond his control. Not only did they have no time to wait for Daniel to change on his own, he also didn’t want his great-grandson to have to be scared to near insanity.

  “Listen to me, and listen well. You now know that every freaky thing you ever read about or saw in a horror movie exists. This is no time for your attitude,” Danny said. “We legally cannot tell you exactly what you’re up against unless you allow us to wipe your memory afterwards. I’d rather that not happen.”

  Daniel’s eyes widened. “Wipe my memory? Like, last century’s CIA conspiracy theories? You fucking with me?”

  Danny couldn’t help but smile. “Who do you think started those rumors? CIA mind control and alien invaders?” He cocked his thumb. “Angie has been creating crazy stories for decades upon decades to keep the paranormal world a secret. Which is why we can’t risk you leaving here with information others could...coerce out of you.”

  That blank stare. Danny remembered how he used to look at perps he questioned. It was eerie to see it on another’s face. He had only had a daughter, no one to carry on his name or his looks. Seeing his own face staring back at him with just minor discrepancies was eerie.

  “Coerce. You mean torture.”

  Danny nodded. “You’d be in grave danger if you decided to leave once you had information from us. And so would we.”

  Daniel stood up, and Danny watched him walk over to the fake windows that observed the city of Chicago. It was amazing that, in this ever-changing world, the city hadn’t changed much. A couple new buildings enhanced the skyline, and there were more satellites one could see hovering closer to Earth, less smog from everything being run on electricity as opposed to running on gas, but that was it. The people hadn’t changed much, not like he had thought the world would be like in the twenty-second century. Though some cars and motorcycles did have hover options, and holograms could now be live broadcast, things were still similar. Technology had vastly improved, creating more medical breakthroughs.

  The world had experienced a major wake-up call in the early twenty-first century, starting in twenty-seventeen and lasting for four more years. It was a period even Angelica refused to speak of. Danny had been told that Sean had to forcefully keep her from becoming an internationally wanted terrorist because of what was being done to the world. Since then, they had worked hard to reverse some of the damage selfish, cruel human beings had caused, and while things weren’t ideal, Danny was confident his former species would remain for at least another century, if not two.

  But there would always be a non-human-generated threat waiting to fuck with the natural order.

  “What can you tell me?” Daniel asked, still staring at the city.

  “We’re hunting something that has heightened brain activity. We need a precog to help pick them out easier,” Danny replied.

  “And what’s the mortality rate?”

  Danny laughed. “This is the PID, kid: the mortality rate is always high. But the pay is good, if you manage to survive.”

  Daniel was silent for another moment. “We’re gonna have a lot to work through, you and me.”

  “I know,” Danny replied. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad I got to see you again, whether or not you agree to help us out.”

  Daniel turned back to face Danny, a determined and slightly mischievous look on his face that Danny didn’t recognize.

  “You got a deal, Pops. Let’s go kick some paranormal ass.”

  Chapter Six

  I almost blew up back there, Angelica thought as she went to one of the sitting rooms to get a bag of O-negative to calm her down. What is wrong with me? I haven’t been so volatile since...well, since I faked my death. Maybe it’s the city. I adopt its general mood or something.

  She looked out the window as the half moon passed from under a gray cloud, lighting up the city even more. This is my city. I built it up, I made my nest here. It’s no wonder the place itself influences me: it is as much a part of me as I am of it.

  The microwave beeped, alerting her to her snack and she removed the red mug with the Hogwarts crest on it and took a sip, letting the hot blood calm her nerves as a cup of tea would do for a mortal.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Angelica.”

  Ugh, that voice. She’d hoped that the echo chamber of her mind would shut up the longer she remained the Empress, but it seemed that some of her old enemies had taken up permanent residence in there. And old friends. Brighton Sands, Fiona Guilfoyle, and this particular voice: Vincent Cross, her deceased father whose soul was, she hoped, still being tortured in Hell even though his torturer, Leander Price, was dead.

  “You know that the city is not affecting your mood. If anything, it would be improving it,” the voice continued. “You know as well as I do, daughter, the real reason for your sudden mood swing. You might be a vampire, but your bloodline goes back to mortals. You can’t lose your human emotions, my dear, and you cannot write them off, either.”

  Daddy dearest was making a point, and Angelica didn’t care that it was her own mind telling her what she already knew. It still pissed her off and centering that anger on her father worked for her.

  She closed her eyes, trying to calm herself. She had a great reputation for being icy, but the few people who knew her well understood that she had a fire in her soul that could never be extinguished. The cold, calculated killer was just one side of her.

  When she’d left, faked her death and made Danny promise to live a full, mortal life, she had put him out of her mind. It was a neat trick Augustus Caesar had taught her. While the former Emperor was naught but dust now, he had had his uses and had taught Angelica many things she found useful as the Empress. Blocking out entire sections of her mind so as not to waste brainpower was just one thing.

  She didn’t think back then about what Danny was doing while she was off gallivanting around the world with Sean, visiting vampires and other creatures, learning and training. She focused on herself, on her friend, and on her position as the Empress. She didn’t think about Danny until she had gotten the call that he was not long for this world.

  She and Sean had flown home to Chicago and she arrived at the PID at the very moment Danny had been taken into their hospice care room. She’d not seen Danny, but she had seen his family: his granddaughter Cammie, her husband, and little Daniel. No one had noticed her except for the husband, who seemed to find the whole PID fishy. After they left, she never gave them another thought.

  And the reason why was simple: to think about Danny’s family was to think about his marriage after her so-called death, whatever woman he had managed to love in between that time and when she came back for him. She couldn’t bring herself to think about Danny having another wedding, laying side-by-side in a carnal embrace with a mortal woman. It would have driven her half mad if she had.

  When she faked her death, technically her marriage to Danny was annulled. You can’t be married to someone who no longer exists. This had been her choice and she was still certain that it had been the correct one. However, she still didn’t want to think of his life without her, and Daniel Castorini showing up forced her to acknowledge it.

  Daniel was living proof that Danny had lived and loved without her, and she wasn’t so proud that she couldn’t admit that it hurt. She had no idea who Danny married, and she didn’t want to. If the kid started talking about his great-grandmother, chances were she’d kick him out, regardless of the security risk.

  Angelica knew it was stupid and childish to be jealous of the dead, especially since she had been the one to make Danny promise to live a mortal life without her, but it couldn’t be helped. When it came to him, she had never had a great grasp on her own emotions.

  If Danny became reattached to his mortal family, would that make him become less attached to her? Not that she couldn’t live without him: she had before and she would again. She just didn’t want to. Angelica knew that she always got what she wanted, as long as she worked her ass off fo
r it first.

  “Hey, Cross, Earth to Angelica.”

  She jumped, turning to face Sean, who was the only person who didn’t acknowledge her name change from ‘Cross’ to ‘Mancini’.

  “You okay?” He came behind her and put an arm around her shoulders. She loved and cherished his friendship. Had it not been for her consistent love for Danny in both his incarnations, she might have been able to love him. Despite his asshole exterior, he was a sweet, compassionate man.

  “No, I’m really not, but I will be,” she replied.

  “The kid? I’m really sorry, I didn’t think to go any further back than the grandparents. I wish I had so you could’ve been prepared,” he said.

  She shook her head. “I’ve had worse surprises than this in my life, believe me. Your newly-turned vampire dad waking from his first slumber and tearing your mother to shreds before your eyes kind of makes everything else pale in comparison.”

  “Well, shit. I guess it does.” He gave her a squeeze and said, “Danny’s a Catholic. You know that. The man gave up Heaven for you. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

  She smiled. “How is it you always know what to say?”

  He shrugged. “Comes from being a creative soul, I suppose.”

  “Ass. I’m going to go see if they reached some sort of agreement. Keep everything running for me?”

  “You know I will, darlin’.”

  She patted him on the head, something he hated so she did often, and went back into her office, hoping that she wouldn’t walk into a hardheaded Italian male fistfight. Instead, Danny and Daniel were sitting calmly. Daniel had a smirk on his face she didn’t like. It was more of the Price soul than his Mancini blood. He wasn’t reincarnated like Danny was, but Angelica had a thought that everyone related to Danny would have a little of the Price family inside of them.