“Ravenna has been kidnapped—from her home last night, and Malina is missing too.”
Chapter Nine
Ravenna felt the steps nearing, but she couldn’t see anything. She had been awake for several minutes, but had kept still as to not to alert her captors. Her hands were tied together and she was sitting on a cold floor. She had heard two men talking. Unfortunately, they hadn’t said anything to give her any idea of who they were or what they wanted from her.
Big, callous hands touched her head. “Don’t try anything funny. There’s no escape.” The man yanked off the blindfold from Ravenna’s face. “I’ll behead you if you do.” A cold, metal edge was pressed against her throat.
The man inhaled close to her ear, as if he were smelling her, and she winced. To her right she could see Malina. The shifter looked unconscious. Thankfully, her captor stood and without another word left the room.
She waited for him to close the door, then focused on the shifter, whose breathing came in shallow pants, her face marred by darkening bruises. “Malina?”
Malina didn’t move. Like Ravenna, the were-panther was shackled to an old cast iron radiator. The radiator had been painted over with several layers of white paint, but rusty patches appeared between the elements, and the residue from water spilling from underneath it had created white stains on the marble floor. She pulled at the chain securing her leather cuffs to one of the radiator’s elements, but it didn’t give an inch; it only made unnecessary noise.
Sharp banging from outside the door was the immediate response to her action.
Ravenna adjusted her body so she could see more of the room. A small chair, antique looking—a piece of frail furniture that would have been perfect in Alexander’s house—was to her left. The frame was intricately carved, but the upholstery was in tatters. She raised her eyes to the ceiling and saw plain white stucco, while the four walls closing the room in a small box were upholstered with dusty wallpaper. A variety of equally dusty frames hung on the walls and lined up in two rows against the baseboards. The pictures were mostly landscapes. From the look of them, they must have been old prints. To her right, a small window let the sounds from the outside world in. The glass panels were opaque, but the shadow grid from the bars caging the window on the outside was outlined by natural light. They weren’t underground and it was day.
Malina finally stirred, but didn’t give any sign she was coming to. Ravenna didn’t have enough data to make any assumption regarding her companion’s health, but she felt nauseous and dizzy, even sitting on the floor. The likeliest reason why Malina was still under was because she must have put up much more of a fight and she had been drugged with a stronger dose of whatever Raul had injected into Ravenna’s system.
She was ashamed at how easily the man had taken her by surprise. Her first error had been not checking her details’ identities with Samuel. Her second error had been not rectifying her first as soon as possible. It pained her that she had been more preoccupied with Alexander than doing her job. A sudden noise outside the window interrupted her self-recriminating thoughts. The loud screech of brakes engaged at the last moment, followed by the collision of metal on metal echoed inside the cell and Malina gasped.
The shifter’s eyes opened wide, and she looked around, finding Ravenna at the end of her reconnaissance. Malina frowned. “Ravenna…?”
“I was hoping you would have an explanation for this.” Ravenna raised her shackled hands. “Do you remember what happened to you?”
Malina gave the room a second, more thorough look, then came back to Ravenna and shook her head. “I was late, driving on the Lungotevere Boulevard, coming back from the were-mitzvah when I saw a police car approaching me from behind, all sirens displayed. I pulled over to the curb. An officer asked for my documents. I leaned toward the glove compartment to retrieve them, then I felt a prick on my neck. I straightened and hit the man through the window, then I opened the car door on him, sending him to the ground. He wasn’t alone though, and someone else grabbed me from behind and finished what the man had started. I can’t remember anything after that.” She tried to caress her neck, but her hands were chained even lower than Ravenna’s, and her fingers only reached the hollow of her throat.
“We’re probably still in Rome. The bars on the window suggest we’re in the city. The light and the fact we can see their shadow, but not any passersby means we’re on an elevated floor. Maybe second or third story. I don’t think we were out for more than a matter of hours, so only a night should have passed. Samuel must have been notified of our kidnapping already. I’m sure he’s looking for us.” Ravenna brought both her legs together, then bent her knees, and sat leaning to her right side.
“This place could be anywhere in Rome though.” Malina’s eyes went to the radiator. “This make can be found in every house older than fifty years.” She tilted her chin toward the chair. “That’s an antique.”
Ravenna moved the weight of her body on her left side. “I think this room must’ve been used as a studio.”
Malina nodded. “Given its dimension and the window—” Then she looked up at the ceiling. “Or maybe a servant’s bedroom. Only houses built in the last ten to twenty years have ceilings that low in the master’s rooms. And the pattern on the marble floor dates this house older than that. I would say older than most houses in Rome anyway. Which makes this room on an elevated floor and low ceiling a servant’s.” Malina slouched on the floor as if all of the thinking had drained her. “We’re probably under the roof of a building situated in the very heart of Rome.” She pointed a finger at the radiator, then at the chair. “This house belongs to dilapidated gentry.” With a loud sigh, she closed her eyes for a moment. “The owner must be a collector of sorts. Those prints”—she tilted her head toward the closest baseboard where the frames were—“are expensive. They are in a numbered series, and the quality of the paper is exceptional. Selling this collection would fetch several hundred thousand euros. And yet, they’re gathering dust in a room that is rarely used.” She straightened her legs before her, then stretched her ankles by flexing her toes up and down. “It gives me the impression whoever owns this house might not care about earthly possessions.”
Ravenna stared speechlessly at Malina. She didn’t know much about of her ex-friend anymore, but she had to admit the woman before her was intriguing.
“We must find a way out of here before nightfall.”
Ravenna brought a finger to her lips, then looked at the door. “Believe me, there’s nothing else on my agenda at the moment.”
“It’s almost a full moon. You can’t be chained close to me when I turn.” Malina’s expression was pained. “I don’t have any control over the panther and I doubt she would recognize you. She wouldn’t be friendly—”
“Well, that would make two of us.” It surprised Ravenna how the hurt was still raw despite everything that had happened in her life.
“Ravenna—”
Ravenna raised an eyebrow. She had caught the wishful inflection in Malina’s voice and regretted her remark.
The shifter sighed again, this time softer. “We should talk about what you think happened between me and your fiancé back then.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Ravenna would have thrown her hands in the air; instead, she pulled her cuffs up, causing the chain to rattle against the radiator.
The banging on the door didn’t fail to follow a moment later. This time, their captor added, “Whatever you’re up to, don’t forget my sword is sharp.”
Ravenna gave Malina an angry look.
The were-panther shrugged. “Listen, I don’t know the exact extent of our predicament, but I won’t waste the opportunity to clear the air with you now that we’re stuck together.”
“Really? Now?” Ravenna tried to turn her back to her, but the chain wasn’t long enough.
“I might not have another chance.”
Ravenna shook her head.
“Remember that night you barg
ed into Livio’s stables?” Malina brought her knees up and lowered her chin to them.
“You wouldn’t believe that after all those years I would be able to remember anything at all, yet there are only a few memories I retained as detailed as the ones concerning that night.” Ravenna tried to put as much distance as she could manage between herself and the shifter.
Malina rested one of her cheeks on her knees, so that she looked at Ravenna with her head tilted toward her. “I know. It’s the same for me. If it weren’t for that night, I wouldn’t be here at all.”
Ravenna looked at the window, then at the frames hanging on the wall, then at the chair. She didn’t want to look at the were-panther when she sounded so defeated.
“That night, life as I knew it ended, but the events that led to my demise started in the morning. One of my cousins, Giulia, remember her? She had dared me to enter the haunted house in Via dei Tomacelli—”
Ravenna found herself projected to five hundred years earlier to a time when talking about hateful Giulia had been daily gossip between them. “The house where it was said a witch lived?”
Malina rearranged her legs, slightly lowering them. “Yes, that one. It wasn’t the first time Giulia had tried to get me in trouble. She was jealous of me, of my family, and I knew it. Usually, I didn’t fall for her tricks, but that time she had proclaimed the dare before a boy I liked and he told me he would come with me.” She sadly chuckled. “Needless to say, I should’ve known better. They both played me and I ended up out at night, without a proper chaperon, inside what I thought was a house haunted by ghosts.” Her chain trailed on the floor when she moved once again. “The house was haunted, but not by ethereal presences.”
Ravenna listened to the shifter’s tale with mixed feelings. She remembered that girl who had been her best friend, Malina. “I waited for you the whole afternoon. I had things I wanted to tell you, but you never showed up.” She hadn’t realized she had inched forward and was now almost touching Malina’s knees with hers.
“Giulia had led me on a series of fool’s errands the entire morning. I told her I was to visit with you in the afternoon, and she stranded me on purpose at one of our aunt’s farmhouses outside of Florence. She had the boy drive us there on his cart, then left me while I was talking with my aunt. Later, I discovered she had asked my father if I could spend time with her, so nobody looked for me when it came night and I hadn’t come back home.” Malina crossed her legs, moved her shackled hands, and rested them on her lap.
Ravenna wanted to stand up and stretch her legs, but she could only change position on the floor. “I don’t understand. If you were at your aunt’s farmhouse in the country, how did you come to be at the haunted house later that night?”
“My cousin and her friend, who turned out was her boyfriend, came back for me with a series of excuses that at the time must have sounded plausible. I don’t remember what she told me anymore, but I went back to Florence with them, and even followed them to the house in Via dei Tomacelli. And you know what?” Malina raised her chin and gave Ravenna a penetrating look.
“What?” Ravenna had her back to the radiator. Its elements dug into her shoulder blades, but she pushed against them to soften the knots tightening her muscles.
“The whole time, I thought of you. When I was at my aunt’s waiting for a ride back to the city, I hoped my cousin would arrive in time for me to visit you as promised. Then, when the time for visiting had come and gone, and Giulia had taken me to the haunted house, I thought of how I wanted to have you with me, of how fun it would’ve been to enter that place at night hand in hand.”
“You should’ve come anyway. Even if it was late.”
“I know that now. But then… I was seventeen. I thought I had a whole lifetime of afternoons with you. I wanted to show my cousin I was better than her, that I could do anything she did and more. And there was the boy. I wanted to tell you afterward that I got the boy to kiss me.” Malina’s lips flattened in a grimace. “That too was orchestrated by Giulia.” She paused, her eyes focused on a distant point somewhere beyond the walls of their cell.
Ravenna’s hands reached for Malina’s before she could stop herself. “What happened that night?”
Malina looked at their hands together and blinked some moisture away. “Giulia knew things happened in that house. The rumors were based on truth.” She patted Ravenna’s hands, then moved hers away. “The moment I darkened the steps before the rotten wooden door, I knew something was wrong with that place, but I entered to prove a point. The boy was a step behind me while Giulia waited outside. He brushed my arm and whispered a compliment to me, then pushed me deeper inside the hall. The room was pitch black and I could only hear my heartbeats drumming against my ribcage. I was terrified, but I wasn’t going to admit I wanted out and let Giulia win.”
“You were always so…” Ravenna automatically waved her right hand in the air, pulling at the chain once again.
Malina’s smile for a moment wasn’t marred by sadness, but it didn’t last long. “Stubborn? Volatile? Proud?”
“All of the above. And also not very smart when it came to self-preservation. I remember that time when you stole the eggs from the neighbor’s chicken coop. Your father—” For a moment, Ravenna had forgotten she had grown to hate her best friend.
Malina waited for her to finish her sentence, and her face lit at the memory, then she lowered her shoulders. “It’s okay. You’re right, of course. I wasn’t very smart. You would’ve never ended up like me.”
Ravenna’s heart became heavier with longing. After Malina, there hadn’t been a true friend in her life. Even Tommaso had preferred everybody else’s company over hers, and she had never let Karl close enough to hurt her. “I always thought you and I were similar.”
“No, we weren’t, but I loved you like a sister.” Malina had lowered her voice to a whisper at the end.
Ravenna didn’t react to the statement, but a small wound opened in her heart.
“I was engulfed in darkness. Loud noises and scurrying rodents filled the silence while I tentatively moved around the room, my hands outstretched to feel the place. A sliver of light illuminated the steps outside as the boy opened the door. I saw his silhouette merging with Giulia’s as he joined her on the other side of the threshold. I heard their laughs, but I didn’t want to believe she would leave me alone there.” Malina’s staring at the wall lasted longer this time.
Ravenna’s first reaction would have been to yell at Malina to make her finish her tale. Instead, she tried a breathing exercise to calm her nerves.
“As soon as the door was closed and barred behind me, the noises from inside the house changed. I heard screaming and begging. At first, I thought my cousin had orchestrated the whole thing, and I prepared myself to see the two of them barreling through the door to make fun of me. So I put a hand over my mouth and I tried my best not to scream when I heard steps coming from nearby. I backpedaled until I found a wall, then I followed its contour to a doorjamb. I felt the frame of the door with my fingers, getting several splinters under my fingernails in the process, but once I rounded it, I saw faint light coming from the other side and I kept walking in that direction. I hoped to find my way out through the servants’ opening that normally would have been at the back of the house. Instead, I found the stairwell that led both upstairs to the bedrooms and downstairs to the cellars. The noises came from the bedroom, from where a bright light spilled into the stairwell. At that point, I had the feeling something was completely wrong. The smell in the air, the quality of the illumination—everything was unnatural. I turned on my heels, finally ready to call it quits, when I was grabbed from behind. A hand was lowered over my mouth and I almost fainted. I struggled to free myself, but I wasn’t as strong as I am now, and my assailant wasn’t the boy I had thought him to be. I was dragged upstairs where I was dumped on a floor slick and wet with blood. My mouth free from the restraint, the smell of old blood, like at the butcher’s, hit my senses
and I gagged. The bright light coming from a corner of the room temporarily blinded me and it took me a few seconds to make sense of what I was looking at.” She took another of her long pauses, but raised her chin to face Ravenna instead of staring at imaginary points. “Your fiancé, the illustrious Livio, the renowned merchant the whole of Florence knew for his virtues, was sacrificing women on an altar.”
Ravenna instinctively shook her head.
“I didn’t know then that he was sacrificing women, of course. That is knowledge I acquired later on. Back then, I was only seventeen. Brave and careless. And naïve. I was so shocked by the sight, a man I knew of, my best friend’s promised, with his hands elbow deep in the carcass of what once had been a woman. I didn’t scream. I didn’t move from the spot.”
“It can’t be.” Ravenna felt sick. The picture Malina was depicting had that eerie ring of truth that made it difficult to dismiss as a lie.
Malina’s lips turned up in the ghost of a smile. “It shouldn’t have been. In a fair world, I would’ve encountered a caring man, lived a human life to its completion, and left numerous progeny behind.”
“He was never… I didn’t—” Ravenna’s stomach hurt.
“No, you couldn’t know. Nobody besides his helpers knew. The man who had dragged me upstairs was one of them. He grabbed my hair and led me closer to the altar, where his master had successfully rescinded the woman’s heart from her open thorax. The man waited before interrupting Livio, who seemed deep in trance, his eyes rolled to the whites as he ate the organ still pumping blood.” Malina slouched against the radiator. She looked tired. “The man, no more than a servant, asked permission to talk only when, several minutes later, Livio’s eyes rolled back to normality. ‘Master, I got a fresh one for you. She might be a virgin also.’ I was paralyzed by fear, but when Livio lowered his gaze onto me, I convulsed and released all the contents of my stomach onto the floor. The servant slapped me, but Livio stopped his hand from hitting me a second time. ‘I know you,’ he said. ‘You’re my stupid fiancé’s equally stupid friend.’ He brought his bloodied fingers under his chin as if to ponder my fate, then laughed. ‘Ravenna seems to be very fond you. It is only fair you’ll both share the same destiny. Hazelthot needs fresh virginal blood and you’ll do just fine until my dear wife’s turn to contribute to the monthly quota.’” Malina leaned toward Ravenna, who was now ready to cast her last meal out.
The Immortal Greek Page 15
