The Immortal Greek

by Monica La Porta

  As soon as the golden afternoon sun had reached their heads, bathing them in its warm rays, the shifter had become more and more anxious.

  “I can’t control it.” She had kept repeating the same sentences one after the other, until Ravenna had shushed her to be careful not to anger their jailers.

  Once she had recognized the smell of dried herbs and flowers coming from the outside, she had also realized she was in Alberto’s house. She couldn’t believe she was right, but somehow she knew in her heart she was, and it pained her.

  “Ravenna, do you believe me?” Malina’s eyes were bigger and liquid.

  “Yes, I do believe you.” The answer came to her in a rush. She didn’t have to think about it. As she knew Alberto had kidnapped them, so she knew Malina had told her the truth about that night and about not wanting to hurt her. “I’m sorry I never tried to listen to you. I should’ve known better.” She thought of her friend, only seventeen and shunned by her family and friends. For years, she had imagined her dead. Then one day, several decades later, Malina had reappeared, apparently out of thin air. By that time, neither of them was human anymore. “How were you turned?”

  Malina shivered. Her teeth had elongated and now could be seen poking through lips she couldn’t close. They also gave her a pronounced lisp. “That same night, when my family threw me out, I ran away from Florence. I was terrified Livio and Giulia would find me and kill me. I wandered through Italy, begging for food…” Tears escaped her eyes, now black as the night.

  Ravenna felt her heart shrink at the image of her friend alone and without any help, fetching for herself in times when a girl’s life wasn’t worth much.

  Malina straightened her back. “I survived though. And I became stronger. Eventually, I joined a gipsy family and they gave me what my own hadn’t, support. I fell in love with a gipsy, Alan. He was several years older than I was and the most handsome man I had ever seen. We lived together, traveling from place to place. Sometimes, when we needed to lay low for a while, we made camp in remote areas.” She paused and gave Ravenna a sad smile. “You can imagine how this tale ends.”

  “Were you attacked by a passing shifter?” Ravenna took Malina’s hand in hers and caressed her to soothe her shivers, now more pronounced.

  “The were-panther attacked Alan. I attacked the shifter. Can you believe my stupidity? But I didn’t care about dying if I could save Alan. He had taken me in without questioning my past, without judging. He just loved me and I loved him in return. Nothing else mattered when I threw myself at the creature tearing apart my companion. That panther paused for a moment and pawed at me, as if testing my resolve, then growled and bit me. Soon, I realized it didn’t want to kill me. It kept biting, but only to tear my skin, then it would lick at the wounds, and start again. I couldn’t move. The creature kept me anchored to the ground with his forelegs. When my tormentor finally had enough, it left me mangled and barely conscious. Alan was dying a few meters away from me, but I couldn’t move. I passed out. When I woke, Alan’s body was already cold.” Malina couldn’t repress a sob.

  “I’m so sorry you had to go through that…” Images of the carefree child Malina had been in her youth came back to Ravenna and superimposed on the suffering woman before her.

  “The first full moon came, and I changed.” The skin on Malina’s face was tight, revealing the different bone structure emerging.

  “Were you scared?”

  “Very. I thought I was dying and it was so painful. Then the creature came out of nowhere and sat by my side. It stayed there the whole time, its tail brushing my thigh when I thrashed on the ground. When the change was complete, it talked to me in my mind. It told me what to do.”

  Ravenna was so engrossed in Malina’s tale, she hadn’t realized the sun had set and the room was now illuminated by the orange halo of the streetlights. Steps echoed outside and the door was pushed open. Two men, one of them Raul, entered and came straight to them.

  “Time to go,” the second man ordered while yanking Ravenna’s chain up to unlock it from the radiator.

  “Where to?” She asked.

  “You’ll see in a few minutes.” Raul wasn’t looking at her, busy keeping Malina on her feet. He was a big, hulky man, but Malina was as tall as he and not fully in control of her body.

  The two men escorted them out and led them through a narrow corridor that opened onto several doors. They entered the third on the right that turned out to be a stairwell. Ravenna counted five landings before they reached their destination. From the earthy smell wafting from the stucco walls showing patches of molds, they were underground. Almost all the houses in the historic center of Rome had retained the ancient cellars, and in most cases archeological findings were buried in them. Reason why when it became mandatory for people to declare anything found in their properties belonging to Roman and Etruscan times, those cellars were erased from the houses’ official blueprints so that taxes weren’t due.

  Raul opened the metal door facing them at the end of a small and narrow hallway. Upon entering the room, Ravenna took in the bare brick walls, the two dilapidated armchairs, one missing its back, the other its armrest, and the enormous cage in the middle of it. A kennel for a big animal. Or two women. They were pushed inside and left there without an explanation. The bars forming the cage were sturdy and too close to each other to permit anything larger than an arm through them. The two men hadn’t even bothered to chain them to the two hooks dangling from the cage’s ceiling.

  “Ravenna, you must kill me.” Malina was on her knees, in the same position she had landed when Raul had forcefully let her inside.

  Ravenna took Malina’s face in her hands and pressed on her cheeks to make the were-panther look at her. “What are you talking about?”

  Malina shook her head. “Why do you think they closed us in here? They know I’ll be turning soon. They want me to kill you.”

  Ravenna shushed her gently, then lowered her forehead to Malina’s. “There’s still time.” She rocked them slowly. “Anything can happen.”

  Malina seemed to relax, but another shiver ran through her body, her eyes rolled to white, and her body went limp for a moment. When she came back, terror was etched in her face. “You must promise me. I never hurt anyone. Not even by mistake. I’ve always been careful. I couldn’t live with your death on my conscience.” She took Ravenna’s hands in hers and squeezed them. “Please.”

  “I won’t let you kill me. Don’t worry. It won’t come to that.” Ravenna said what she knew she had to say, but Malina’s change was coming, and without any window in the cellar, there was no way to know what time it was. She had never witnessed a shifter change before, so she couldn’t estimate how long they had before Malina would become a panther.

  Finally reassured, Malina nodded and heavily slumped against the bars. Ravenna couldn’t sit. She had been cramped in the crouching position for too long and needed to stretch her legs. She used the bars to stretch her arms and wrists as well, crossing and bending them, until she felt the blood circulating again in her limbs.

  “You always had the grace of a ballerina.” Malina’s lips, fangs freely protruding from them, curved in a smile.

  The metal door’s hinges creaked as the door was swung open. Following Raul and the other nameless man entered Alberto Giudici, who immediately looked at her and sighed. “Ravenna.”

  Ravenna’s heart plummeted to her stomach. She had hoped until the last moment to be wrong. She had wanted to be wrong. Her eyes were full of tears she couldn’t stop, and she had to grab the bars not to fall. “Why?”

  He walked the whole length of the cellar, passed the cage, grabbed the chair with the back intact, then turned, dragged it behind him, and stopped a few steps from her. “Why…” He sat on the chair and crossed his legs, one of his hands on the remaining armchair, the other stroking his white beard. He tilted his head, his eyes first on Malina’s shivering form, then on Ravenna. “I have plenty of reasons, but I doubt you could unders
tand any of them.” His expression showed pity that enraged Ravenna.

  She pulled at the bars. “I need to know why I’m here.”

  Alberto nodded. “I can understand that.” He steepled his hands. “Believe me, my child, when I say I wish things were different.” He waved his right hand at Raul and the other man, indicating the door with his chin.

  While the nameless man immediately obeyed the silent order and exited, Raul hesitated at the threshold. “Master—”

  Alberto gave him a paternal smile and gestured for him to go. “I’ll be fine. They can’t do anything to me.” He waited for Raul to leave and close the door behind him. “I should start from the beginning, but I see that your friend doesn’t have much time left before her change is complete. I’ll try to be brief.”

  Ravenna saw how relaxed he looked, how calm he was, and her blood boiled. She squeezed the bars until her hands hurt.

  “You met me as your distant uncle, a cousin of your mother's several times removed. In actuality, I am one of your ancestors. I was turned before the Etruscans ruled the lands that became Rome. It was easier before the digital era to disappear and reappear when most convenient. I only had to travel from city to city. I didn’t even have to leave the region.” He uncrossed his legs and placed his hands palm down on his thighs. “Before I became an immortal, I was a medicus in my village. I knew a great deal about natural remedies.” He chuckled. “Back then, they were the only remedies—”

  Ravenna couldn’t help but interrupt him. “You were Livio Treccani’s personal doctor.”

  Alberto raised an eyebrow, then he briefly lowered his eyes on Malina, who was still sitting on the floor of the cage—her breathing erratic. “You want to get straight to the point, I see.”

  “You knew what he was after when you came to speak with my father on Livio’s behalf.” Saying the words out loud made them real for Ravenna, whose stomach had shrunk to the size of a walnut, so much anger was corroding her.

  He flattened the fabric of his pants with slow deliberate gestures. “Yes, I did.”

  Ravenna was about to comment on his statement, when he raised one hand to stop her.

  “I did know Treccani was a student of the dark arts because I was his teacher.” He raised his hand a second time. “And yet, when you and your brother fell ill with the plague, I saved your lives.”

  Ravenna looked at him in a stupor. She needed to scream and let all her pain out, but she couldn’t even open her mouth at the moment.

  “Don’t you want to know why?”

  Malina emitted a sound that resembled a growl, but Alberto barely flinched. Ravenna left the bars to sit by Malina, and gently pulled the were-panther’s body against hers, passing her arm over Malina’s shoulder. Ravenna tried to comfort her, hoping she was still conscious enough.

  “I was fond of you and your brother. I tried to have kids when I was still human, but after changing several wives, I realized I was sterile, and that’s something becoming an immortal doesn’t fix.” He stretched his legs before him, crossing them at the ankles. “The few times I visited with your family, I saw something special in you. A special resilience Livio needed in a wife. You would’ve become a great sorceress. Way more powerful than Livio, and eventually, I would’ve asked my goddess, Athunè, to change you. I wanted a daughter who would follow my steps and you were the one.” He looked at her with that paternal expression of his Ravenna had always loved.

  Now, the mere sight of him made her nauseous. “You’re lying. Livio’s intention was to sacrifice me, not to practice the dark arts together happily ever after.”

  Alberto dismissed her words with a shrug. “I wouldn’t have let him hurt you.”

  Ravenna massaged Malina’s back. “How?”

  He pointed a finger at the were-panther. “Same way I didn’t let him kill her when he had the opportunity. How do you think she could leave Florence so easily?” He laughed. “When I realized who the girl he was looking for was, I ordered Livio to let Malina go. I knew you were fond of her. Well, I knew you had been fond of her once. And once you had become privy of the truth of what had happened that night, you could’ve used a trusted friend by your side. Life as a sorcerer can be lonely, and I always wanted a big family.”

  “What about Giulia’s involvement? Was she part of your plan as well?” Ravenna felt Malina stir at the mention of her cousin.

  Alberto moved on the chair, his chest expanding before he released a long sigh. “No, I must admit she was a nuisance I hadn’t expected. Ultimately, she was also the reason why I never contemplated vouching for Livio. Once under her spell, he became useless to me. I need people I can trust and his loyalties were divided after he met that hateful girl.”

  Ravenna’s head was exploding. “I still don’t understand why you dabbled in the dark arts. You were an immortal—”

  “No, it’s the other way around. I was a powerful sorcerer when I was changed. Athunè saw fit to grant me immortality because I was versed in the dark arts she was the depositary of.” His eyes focused on a distant point for a moment, then he blinked. “As a pre-Greek and Roman deity, she was formidable and implacable when it came to mete out her form of justice. Too bad all the gods and goddesses have decided to abandon us to our destiny. We could have used their help once in a while. I lost interest in the dark arts once she retired to the Tartaros.”

  Malina, who had gone still for several minutes, was now shaking from head to toe.

  Ravenna was tired, but it was imperative she did her job at the best of her abilities. “Why are we here now?”

  “That’s the real question isn’t it, my child?” His words were affectionate in tone.

  “You’re providing the Immortal Death.” At the sudden realization, Ravenna would have smacked her head if she weren’t busy soothing Malina with circular caresses on her arms and back. “Why?”

  “Because when you’ve lived as long as I have, immortality becomes a burden.”

  “Tommaso used to say that to me.” Ravenna felt a shiver run through her spine. Alberto had used her brother’s words verbatim.

  “Tommaso grew to be the son I’d always wanted.” He paused a moment, his forehead wrinkled as he pressed his hand over his eyes.

  Ravenna remembered how her brother and Alberto had become close soon before she and he developed the plague. They were still living in their paternal house, despite being both of marrying age—although in her case she was already considered a spinster. After her engagement had ended in such a public spectacle, Alberto had started frequenting the house more and more. Everyone in the family loved him. He was considerate, good spirited, and it was clear he had a sincere affection for the two siblings. When he had saved them from certain death and given them an eternal lease on life, Ravenna’s and Tommaso’s fondness for him had become love. Guilt had ridden Ravenna when she had distanced herself from him after Tommaso’s death.

  Alberto’s eyes filled with tears, but he blinked them away, then passed the palm of his right hand over them to wipe off any that remained. “I couldn’t see him suffer and do nothing.”

  “You killed my brother.” Ravenna’s intention was to scream the accusation at him, but she couldn’t muster the strength, and only a whisper came out of her mouth. Her arms fell to her sides, while the room outside the cage seemed to tilt on its axis.

  “I would’ve never killed him. He was my son. Not in blood perhaps, but in any way that counted, I was his father, and he was suffering greatly. I eased his pain and gave him respite from an existence he hadn’t wanted in the first place. With Tommaso, I realized immortality was all wrong. I asked Athunè to gift both of you eternal life because I didn’t want to lose you, but it was selfish of me. Tommaso’s wretchedness was the proof of it.”

  “You killed Tommaso.” Ravenna felt cold. The room hadn’t stopped spinning, and her vision was blurred. She still saw Alberto smiling at her in his paternal way.

  “No, child. I didn’t. I was with him when he peacefully passed. I
held his hand as he breathed his last breath and he thanked me.”

  “If immortality is so horrible, why haven’t you killed yourself?” She felt bile on her tongue and had to repress the need to gag.

  “It was my intention to kill myself soon after Tommaso died. I had already drunk the whole content of the flask, knowing I would soon be with Tommaso in the Tartaros. My wrists were already cut, my life essence dissipating into the warm water of the Mediterranean Sea, when I realized I was being selfish again. So many people needed me to help them with their suffering. I sacrificed myself for the greater good of our race and endured life. But I’m tired, my child.”

  She saw the dark light in his eyes and the way his whole face was lit with a manic happiness. “Why are we here now?” This time, she managed to raise her voice high enough to convey her anger and hurt.

  “Because she stands in the way of a plan I’ve been putting together for a while now. A plan that involves your happiness and can’t be delayed any longer.” He gave Malina an assessing look, then pressed his right hand over the armrest and pushed himself up.

  “What are you going to do?” Ravenna tried to raise herself as well, but her legs didn’t want to cooperate. Dehydration and stress could do that to a human, but she wasn’t one. “What did you do to me?”

  “I gave you enough Immortal Death to ensure everything goes according to plan. It was for your own good.” He regarded her with his most tender expression yet. “Regarding your former question, as my final act of love for my brethren, I will give them a way out of this wretched existence we call immortality. Then I’ll be finally free to reach Tommaso and you in the afterlife.”

  Ravenna heard his last words and she pressed both hands over her stomach. Images of Alexander stormed in her mind and the beauty of them momentarily erased the ugliness of her condition. She saw kids looking like Alexander smiling at her and her heart was filled with love. “Alberto, please, let me and Malina out of here—”

  “No, child, I can’t do that.” He walked closer to the cage, then crouched before Ravenna.