“I can’t let a renegade in. You know the rules.”
“I need Marcus by my side.”
“But—”
“Please.”
Silence for several interminable seconds.
“I suppose since he’s married to a vampire…”
“Thank you. I owe you one.”
He had hung up before Samuel could change his mind.
He showed Marcus the men patrolling the room. “The Council has already taken all the necessary steps to ensure nothing happens. The order is to keep the whole thing as quiet as possible. They don’t want the rest of the paranormal society to know one of us is behind this mess. And they want to deal with the Vampire Nation with the same caution.”
Marcus scoffed. “Yeah, I know. Dirty laundry shouldn’t be aired outside of the house.”
They stopped talking because Ravenna and Diana were looking at them with interest. Alexander moved back to Ravenna’s side and took her hand. “I can’t wait to go back to my house and—”
She tilted her head, her lips curved in one of those half-smiles that so intrigued him. “My house.”
“My house. Your house. I don’t care. We can buy a new one.” He noticed how her shawl had slipped down her back, revealing more than he was comfortable with. He didn’t have time to readjust it over her shoulders. His immediate attention was diverted by sudden movements somewhere to his right. A waiter was pushed aside by someone in a hurry to leave the premises, and the tray he was carrying fell on the marble floor with a loud clash of crystal glasses.
At the same time, Samuel entered the hall followed by several immortals who hastily spread out among the guests. Samuel’s men acted stealthily. The room had almost filled to capacity in the last ten minutes, and they meshed with the crowd. Alexander was able to see them only because he knew what to look for. Samuel shot him a warning look as he passed, but despite his bulk, he was swallowed by the paranormal throng in a moment. As he turned, a second vampire had tried to run, and he was immediately surrounded by immortals. A moment later, they were gone, vampire included.
The situation seemed under control. The immortal guests weren’t in any real danger from the vampires. Yet, he had a gut feeling he couldn’t ignore and made the signal to Marcus. Once Ravenna was safe and far away from there, he would be free to look for Giudici and hand him to Samuel. Only then, he could finally breathe.
“Time to leave the party.” Marcus extended one arm toward Ravenna who looked at him with a frown.
“I’m not going anywhere.” She pivoted on her high heels to give Alexander a stern look. “Really?” Her shawl fell to the floor.
“Please, don’t be so stubborn.” Alexander noticed several eyes widening at the sight of her naked back and automatically reached for her shawl to raise it. He lost his focus on the rest of the room for only a moment.
When Alexander looked up, a vampire he hadn’t seen approaching was beside Ravenna. To anyone looking at the scene, the vampire was just talking to them, the syringe he held against Ravenna’s side barely visible from a few feet away.
“Follow me.” The man smiled and nodded to his left, toward the other end of the hall. “Only you.” With his free hand he made a sign for Alexander to come along, while he halted Marcus.
His head slightly tilted toward Marcus, Alexander mouthed, “Samuel,” then fell in step with the vampire who was leading Ravenna away from the floor. He knew better than to ask questions that would have only irritated the man, and forced himself to calm his nerves.
Alexander could have sworn the crowd had swollen since he had last checked a mere moment ago. They passed through the sea of people, and besides several heads whipping around at Ravenna’s passage, nobody seemed to notice the look of terror that must have been evident on Alexander’s face. The vampire had wanted him to his right, obstructing his view of Ravenna who walked on the man’s left. He tried to take a small step forward, enough to take a look at her. The vampire reminded him it was in her best interest to behave by showing him the spot where the syringe had poked Ravenna’s bare flesh on her side, just under the swell of her breast. Alexander saw red and his heartbeat, already through the roof, increased. Besides the drumming of his blood, he couldn’t hear anything else.
They finally reached the end of the hall, and the vampire guided them to one of the doors opening outside to the large terrace overlooking the Tiber. Several couples looking for fresh air and privacy were milling about, but not one noticed them.
“This way.” The vampire, who had slowed his pace to look around, took a sharp right, as if he had just located what or whom he was looking for.
Alexander saw the metal gazebo decked with fresh garlands and the flickering lights of a wrought iron chandelier holding dozens of candles. The gazebo was partially screened by flimsy drapery that billowed out, revealing someone waiting for them inside. Even at a distance, Alexander recognized the leonine white mane framing Alberto Giudici’s head.
The man stood when saw them approaching, then, when they were at the gazebo’s entry, gave the vampire a nod.
Alexander turned on his heels to hit the vampire as Ravenna was pushed forward inside the gazebo, where Giudici grabbed hold of her.
When the immortal grabbed her elbow and moved her sideways, Alexander saw the red drop of blood marring her skin where a moment earlier the needle of the syringe had been. He launched himself at Giudici, but the man was fast in drawing a gun and pointing it at Ravenna’s temple.
Giudici canted his head toward her, but kept his eyes on Alexander. “Stay where you are.”
Ravenna stared at Alexander, shaking her head slowly. He froze on the spot and raised his hands.
Giudici turned slightly toward the vampire. “We need some privacy.”
The vampire hesitated.
Giudici let out an exasperated sigh and waved the man away. “Consider your debt fully paid.”
“A pleasure dealing with you, immortal.” The vampire bowed and left.
Giudici’s attention shifted to Alexander once again. “Come inside and close the curtains behind you.”
Without looking away from Ravenna, Alexander hooked the curtains to the metal posts and waited for instructions.
Giudici sat on the bench and lowered Ravenna with him, then gestured for Alexander to follow. “Such a beautiful night for a farewell party.” He looked up at the transparent canopy over their heads.
Alexander gingerly took one of the chairs opposite the bench, a round, wrought iron table between them. “What do you want from us?”
“I’m making sure this time everything goes as I planned it.” With the back of the hand holding the gun, Giudici gave Ravenna a small caress on her right cheek before pressing it against her flesh again.
She flinched. Alexander felt bile rising to his throat. “Let her go.”
“I can’t.” Giudici angled his body on the bench so he was facing Ravenna, who hadn’t yet said a word. “Don’t be afraid, child.” With his free hand, he reached inside a pocket and retrieved a syringe.
Ravenna’s eyes widened, but she kept her mouth closed.
“You’ll inject yourself with it or I’ll shoot her.” Giudici offered the syringe to Alexander, who took it as Ravenna finally reacted.
“Don’t!” She leaned over the table, her hands stretched toward Alexander. “He won’t shoot me.”
The immortal’s fingers tightened around the gun’s trigger. “Care to test it?”
Alexander plunged the needle in his throat as Ravenna screamed.
Giudici held her back as she tried to reach Alexander. “Now, listen to me, Ravenna.” He switched the gun in his other hand and pointed it at Alexander. Then he retrieved a second gun and laid it in front of her on the table. “Last time, my plans for you were foiled by his actions. This time, it seems only fair to use him to convince you to obey me.” Despite his words, the man sounded as if he were talking to a child in need of a time out.
Alexander was already feeling
the effects of the Immortal Death working its way through his system, but his thoughts were focused on how to free Ravenna from the madman.
Mascara lines running down her face and splatting the front of her dress, she turned to Giudici. “Please, Alberto, I’ll do whatever you want me to do, but if you really care for me, don’t hurt him.”
Giudici smiled at her. “I told you already. I need you to take your life. The only way you can enter Tartaros and be with me and Tommaso is for you to take your own life.” Without a moment of hesitation, and while he was still looking at Ravenna, he pressed the trigger and shot Alexander.
Alexander looked at the red flower blossoming on his silk shirt, a few centimeters south of his heart.
****
Ravenna felt as if Alberto had shot her. Alexander’s face paled before her eyes and he slumped on his seat.
“Take the gun and aim at your temple or I will shoot to kill.” The immortal she had once considered a father looked at her with cold eyes, his gun never wavering from Alexander.
She couldn’t understand how she had never realized the man was insane. He had always looked after her and her brother. She had never, even once, imagined the depth of Alberto’s depravity. “I need reassurance you’ll let him live.”
Alberto produced a second syringe from the same pocket he had retrieved the first. “You still don’t believe what I’m doing is for you? I could’ve ended my life hours ago, when I poisoned the food for the gala. Instead, I stayed behind, risking apprehension, to ensure you would be with me in the afterlife. Tommaso has been waiting for us long enough, don’t you think?” His gun still aimed at Alexander, he injected himself single-handedly, pushing the syringe in his thigh. “I’ll pull the trigger on myself a moment after you do.”
“No!” Alexander, his hands pressing on his wound, leaned over the table, attempting to stand.
Alberto raised his aim toward Alexander’s head. “He’s not coming back from this one.”
Her whole body shaking with rage, Ravenna took the gun from the table and raised it to her temple. Behind a curtain of tears, she looked at Alexander, then steadied her resolve. “I love you.”
****
Alexander jumped across the table to slap the gun out of Ravenna’s hand. He heard the shot as his chest slammed against the cold, metal surface. His arm finished the intended trajectory and connected with Ravenna’s elbow. The gun slid to the floor. The sound of people screaming rang inside his skull in a loud cacophony that left him dazzled. Or maybe it was the blood loss. The moment he had stopped pressing his wound, blood had gushed out. Ravenna was screaming too.
She was alive. He had stopped her from killing herself. For a moment, happiness flooded his mind. Then he remembered about Giudici. He tried to move, but he couldn’t. His limbs were made of lead. His eyelids were made of lead too. He couldn’t faint now and leave her to face that monster by herself.
“Stay down, idiot.”
Alexander moved his head toward the direction Marcus’s voice had come from, but he couldn’t see anything.
“Alexander, please, don’t move.”
Ravenna’s smell reached his nostrils. Warm lips left a kiss on his mouth.
He gathered all his strength to talk to her. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, my love, I’m fine.”
Alexander wanted to ask her where Giudici was, but he had depleted all his energy, and slipped into unconsciousness.
****
When he came to, his first thought was of Ravenna. He opened his eyes to blinding light, and for a moment, he couldn’t see anything but his fingers shielding his eyes from the glare. His body awakened a moment later, pain gripping it from the inside out, starting from his chest. By the clean smell and the amplified sunlight for the heliotherapy, he knew he was in the hospital. “Ravenna?”
He heard sudden movement to his right side and the sound of something light hitting the floor.
“My love.” Ravenna’s scent enveloped him as her warm body joined him on the bed. She sought his mouth and kissed him slowly.
When he reemerged for air, her black eyes were the first thing he saw. “You’re really okay.” He’d had nightmares of being too slow and her dying. “What happened to Giudici?”
She leaned back and rested her head on her bent arm. “I wounded him and he’s now in jail where he will spend the rest of eternity.”
Alexander’s memory was sketchy at the moment, but before he intervened, the last image he had of her she was pointing a gun to her temple.
She leaned forward to nudge his nose with hers, then leaned back to give him one of her smiles. “I gambled.”
“You gambled.” He thought he had misunderstood her.
Her smile widened. “Yes.”
He wanted nothing more than to kiss that infuriating mouth of hers. “Care to elaborate?”
“I knew the moment I aimed the gun at myself you would do something. I counted on that something to create enough of a diversion for me to shoot Alberto instead. It worked.”
He stared at her, unable to decide if he wanted to strangle her or make love to her.
“Alexander?” She poked his arm. “Are you angry with me?”
“I should be.” He wasn’t sure he could ever put in words what he thought of her stunt, and decided kissing her would suffice to calm his nerves.
He needed to be reassured she was fine, and hooked his hands at her nape to open the button keeping her dress together. “You’ll never, ever, wear this damned gown again.”
She moaned, and moved closer to him, then suddenly stopped him. “Almost forgot we’re at the hospital.”
“Nothing they haven’t seen before.” Alexander almost succeeded in opening the collar, but she removed his hands from her neck.
He was about to protest, but Ravenna’s face had become serious.
She lowered her hands on her lap. “We must talk.”
Alexander’s eyes went to the glossy magazine laying open on the floor. “Not again. Please.” He groaned and slid back down, eyes closed, two fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m not feeling well. Could you call the nurse?” He dared a peek.
“No nurse for you, mister.” She left the bed to pick up the magazine. She opened it to a page in the middle. “Who’s this Lena Chiosi and why has she announced to all and sundry that you’ll give her a private tour of your playroom?” Her eyes threw daggers at him and she even stomped her foot down.
She was adorable. And they were arguing about nothing. “I’ll kill Marcus. I swear, I’ll hunt him down, and I’ll kill him. And I will feel great pleasure in it.”
“What does Marcus have anything to do with this?” She pointed at the incriminated page.
“Marcus is the bane of my existence. I knew he would take his revenge some day for the horse accident. I knew it.”
“The horse accident? What are you talking about? You aren’t making any sense.” Ravenna checked his forehead. “Maybe you’re right. I should call the nurse.” She leaned over the headboard to push the call button.
He sat on the bed and pulled her on his lap before she could call anyone. “The playroom is closed. Forever.”
She relaxed in his arms. “Hmmm. Forever?”
“And ever.” His hands shoot around her neck and started playing with the button holding the collar of her dress once again.
She angled her head so that her hair slid to the side and gave him better access. “Well, that’s an awful long time to have that room closed, don’t you think?”
By the gods, but he loved that woman. “I think you’re right.”
She pushed herself out of the bed and walked toward the door.
He was about to complain when she blew him a kiss, then turned to face the wall, giving him the most beautiful side of her dress, and locked the door. The resounding click put a big smile on his face.
Alexander immediately forgot all about killing Marcus.
Dear Reader, if you liked this book, please consider
writing a review. As an indie author, I rely solely on word of mouth to promote my stories. Just a few words from you will ensure my work is discovered by other readers.
Thank you very much,
Monica
If you liked Alexander and Ravenna's story, you might also like the novella An Immortal Valentine's Night which follows the adventures of the couple's kids in the near future.
http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Valentines-Night-Future-Book-ebook/dp/B01BHFCTIC
Acknowledgments
As usual, I must thank my kids and my dad for just being the wonderful people they are.
Claudia, because she is the beta reader any author dreams of.
Amy, because no book would be as compelling without her help.
Katie, Kory, and Angela from my critique group, for their keen eyes in catching typos.
All my friends, who spend precious time looking for those perfect images that grace my Facebook author page.
Roberto, because he is the true inspiration behind my heroes.
Persons of Interest
I wrote the book and created the cover with the help of Roberto Ruggeri
Amy Eye edited it
Roberto Ruggeri formatted it
You, the reader, hopefully had a good time reading it
Bio
Monica La Porta is an Italian who landed in Seattle several years ago. Despite popular feelings about the Northwest weather, she finds the mist and the rain the perfect conditions to write. Being a strong advocate of universal acceptance and against violence in any form and shape, she is also glad to have landed precisely in Washington State. She is the author of The Ginecean Chronicles, a dystopian/science fiction series set on the planet Ginecea where women rule over a race of enslaved men and heterosexual love is considered a sin. She has published the first four books in the series, The Priest, Pax in the Land of Women, Prince at War, and Marie’s Journey. She just released two new NA paranormal romances, Gaia, and Elios. She also wrote and illustrated a children’s book about the power of imagination, The Prince’s Day Out. Her published short, Linda of the Night, is a fairytale love story celebrating inner beauty. The Lost Centurion, the first title in The Immortals, a paranormal saga set in modern Rome, has just come out. Stop by her blog to read about her miniatures, sculptures, paintings, and her beloved beagle, Nero. Sometimes, she also posts about her writing.
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