Rampant

by Diana Peterfreund

  “Yeah,” I said. “When he raped her. Good-bye.”

  “What?” Now Giovanni threw all his weight against the door, and it was too much. It flew open, and we both stumbled into the rotunda. The hunters screamed.

  Giovanni regained his balance, and looked around in wonder at the marble, the statues, and most of all, at the enormous stuffed karkadann in the tableau at the center.

  “So it’s true,” was all he said.

  20

  WHEREIN ASTRID UNCOVERS THE ENEMY

  “GET OUT,” I SAID, and my voice had never sounded quite so deadly. “Get out now.”

  Giovanni looked at me as if he’d never seen me before; and for a moment, I was glad there were no weapons nearby, because that’s how little I trusted my own muscles. The re’em was gone, but its blood seemed to flow through my veins, burning brighter every moment.

  He walked back through the doors, then turned on the threshold. “Okay. I’m out. Now will you talk to me?”

  I said nothing, just stood there and glowered. The girls looked back and forth at us.

  “Astrid, please.”

  How could I have ever been on the verge of sleeping with this guy? How could I have thought he was the answer to my prayers of escaping this place? How could I have thought I ever loved him?

  He looked at the hunters behind me. “Fine, will any of you help me? I’m trying to find my friend. He’s about six foot two, blond hair—”

  “We met him,” Zelda said, running her finger over the spot where the re’em had gored her. “And we don’t know where he is now.”

  Giovanni sighed and looked at me again, his eyes like a stranger’s. “I know you’re angry at me. And I have no idea what happened with Phil and Seth. But you clearly want him located as much as I do. Five minutes. Just talk to me for five minutes, and then you can go back inside your convent and spend the rest of your life hunting unicorns for all I care.”

  His words hit me like a punch in the gut. I stepped outside and the bronze doors banged shut behind me.

  “How do you know what we do?” I asked, stepping away from the doors and out into the open. The golden afternoon sun was already hitting the courtyard at a hard slant. I squinted and moved toward the fountain, where the air was slightly cooler. Giovanni followed me, his face hard.

  “To be frank, I thought it was a joke. But you people are evidently serious.”

  I bit back a groan. He sounded so much like me a few months ago. “Deadly serious. I’m a Wildlife Control Nun, remember?” He said nothing, offered no apology. “What do you want?”

  “Is it true, what you said about Seth and Phil?”

  “Yes.”

  Giovanni closed his eyes for a long moment, and when he opened them, he seemed to have come to a decision. “I’m going to be completely honest. You probably can’t hate me more than you do now anyway.”

  “Probably not,” I agreed coldly. “You were mean to me on the phone, then you stood me up, then your best friend assaulted my cousin, and now you just threatened me on my own doorstep.”

  “Oh, it gets worse.”

  “Bring it on.”

  He took a deep breath. “Okay, after that night, when we first met, and we went to that club?”

  And I’d jumped on the kirin and gouged out its eyeball? Yeah. I’d never forget that night.

  “So we left you guys, and we went to a café. I was really nervous, because I thought I’d been drugged, remember? This guy came up and started talking to us. He was very friendly, talked about how he’d been a student once, didn’t have any money either, blah blah blah. So we get a bottle of wine, and we’re all talking, and he tells us that he’s your uncle—”

  Uncle John? Giovanni took in my shocked expression.

  “Yeah, I thought it was a little weird, too. He had an accent, and I knew you guys were American. Anyway, he says that you two are these heiresses, with the rights to this priceless fortune—that’s exactly how he put it, too, a ‘priceless fortune’—but that if you joined the convent, the whole thing would be turned over to the Church as part of your vows.”

  “That’s a load of crap from front to back.”

  Giovanni shrugged. “He was buying us wine. Or Seth, anyway, since I was too freaked out to drink. Anyway, he said he was trying to protect the family fortune, and if we’d agree to go out with you girls, convince you not to join the convent, he’d cover the costs of wherever we took you and a little extra besides. Whatever we wanted.”

  It had been premature to say I couldn’t hate Giovanni and Seth more. They had been paid to take us out? My fingers itched to tear the alicorn on the fountain from its moorings and shove it through Giovanni’s sternum.

  “What was his name?”

  “Alexander.”

  I let out a bark of harsh laughter. Give the guy credit! Our uncle Alexander! It was almost funny. Almost. “And what did ‘Alexander’ look like?”

  “I don’t know. Normal?”

  “Last name?” Could it have been The Great? Or Magnus?

  Giovanni shook his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t get it. And I thought the whole thing was a load of BS anyway, so I didn’t care. But Seth kept going on and on about how it was a no-lose situation. You were cute and you were apparently rich and it was all being paid for and what was the harm?” He looked down. “So I finally said yes, but I thought the whole thing was kind of creepy. But then, at the museum, you didn’t act like a nun at all—”

  I blushed, recalling how very nunlike I was not on that day.

  “And you said all this stuff about how your family was pressuring you into it. So then I started to think maybe that Alexander guy was right, and you were being forced to give up everything…” He trailed off, and I knew we were both remembering the lounge chair.

  “So then why didn’t you sleep with me when I asked you to?” There it was, right out in the open. What did it matter? I didn’t care what he thought anymore.

  “Astrid, everything I said to you that night was the absolute truth.”

  My throat and eyes began to sting, or kept stinging, this constant, buzzing burn that was almost second nature by now. “Except that you didn’t like me. You were being paid to go out with me.”

  “I liked you and I was being paid. I couldn’t afford that huge dinner all on my own!”

  “Oh, well. I see. All forgiven.” I looked away. “Your five minutes are up.”

  “No. Listen to me!” He grabbed me by the shoulders.

  I glanced down at his hands, then up at his face. My blood boiled like I was hunting, and the air crackled with fire and flood. Maybe it was the horn from the fountain. There were no unicorns nearby.

  I yanked away from his grip. “Touch me again and I’ll tear your arms off.”

  My own shock was reflected on his face, even as I said it. How bloodthirsty had I become? I hugged my arms across my chest, for everyone’s protection.

  He regrouped. “I thought it was incredibly sketchy, for the record. I mean, every time I was with you, it was easier to forget how weird the whole thing was. I just thought about you.”

  I just thought about you. My very bones began to ache.

  “But when we were back at school, or when the things you said didn’t add up, I couldn’t shake my suspicions.”

  “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said so far.”

  “I mean, Wildlife Control Nuns?” He took a few steps away, stuck his hands in his pockets.

  I wondered if it was to help him resist the impulse to reach for me. My entire body tingled where our skin had met. I wished he’d never touched me, wished my last memory of Giovanni’s body was when he held his hand against my heart.

  “I started thinking the whole thing was some kind of scam, some massive con that we were too young to understand. You do not get paid to take out beauti—girls like you. It’s bizarre.”

  Agreed.

  “But last week, it got superweird. Seth was the one who always did all the arrangements, called
the guy, got the money, whatever. Anyway, he comes back and says that Alexander told him it was down to the wire. That you two were about to take vows.”

  “But, Giovanni, you knew that I wouldn’t have—” I bit my tongue to keep from saying more. He knew how much I wanted to leave. He knew the only thing tying me to Rome was the fact that he was there. He knew because I’d told him, then kissed him like he was the last man on earth.

  Giovanni’s eyes seared right through me and he was silent and still, hands deep in his pockets, standing with the space of the fountain between us, and tugging on me with the force of an imploding star.

  After a minute, he began to speak again, slowly now, with great difficulty. “He told us that the convent was a bunch of crazy people, who thought they had special powers to hunt unicorns. Unicorns!”

  Now that did sound like Uncle John.

  “He said we had one chance now. If you had sex, then you couldn’t join. I believed that much—you’d pretty much said the same thing to me in Trastevere that night. But he wanted us to…do it. Sleep with you both.”

  “Bet you were sorry you missed your chance, then.”

  Giovanni didn’t even take the bait. “He offered us ten thousand euros each for…proof that we’d slept with you.”

  I gasped.

  Giovanni pressed his fists against his forehead. “I…was…I was horrified. Here I was, trying to straighten my life out, and I felt like I’d somehow become tied up in some sort of sting operation. Like any second Interpol was going to bust in and arrest us all for…I don’t know what. Running an escort ring or something. I freaked out.” He paused. “But Seth was excited. He thought you’d be—” he cut off. “I’d told him, you see. About that night.”

  “He thought I’d be easy,” I filled in, my voice toneless.

  Giovanni nodded without looking at me. I didn’t blame him. All he’d see in my eyes was murder. “But Phil had apparently told him she didn’t go all the way. And when I refused to ever have anything to do with you again, he even…” He trailed off, but I could fill that bit in as well.

  Seth had wondered if he could trade girls.

  “Anyway, he got me drunk, to try to convince me to go in on it. Kept talking about how I could pay a year of tuition with the money, and how we weren’t doing anything wrong if you and I wanted to have sex, anyway—”

  My gasp of breath must have been loud enough for him to hear over the sound of the fountain, because he flinched, eyes still downcast, so I couldn’t read him at all. Was that the truth? Were his feelings that strong? He hadn’t moved an inch closer, but my flesh seemed to singe where it faced him, like I stood too close to a fire. I wanted to cry, to shout. I wanted to throw things at him. And more than anything, I wanted him to touch me again.

  But I couldn’t. I held my breath until I was sure I could trust my voice enough to say, “And that’s when you decided you didn’t want to see me.”

  “I was so angry at you,” said Giovanni. “I thought everything you’d told me was some giant lie, some huge scam. I mean, unicorns?”

  He met my eyes now, and my resolve faltered. I struggled to keep my chin from quivering. Yeah, unicorns.

  “And that was the last thing that happened. Seth went out with you and Phil, and I stayed home. And I’ve been studying a lot, so I haven’t really gotten a chance to see him much in the past few days. Then the police showed up.”

  “And you thought it was a sting?” I scoffed.

  “I had no idea what it was, but I thought I’d give talking to you and Phil one last shot, because you’d always seemed like nice people, no matter what might have been going on.” He looked back at the Cloisters. “But…there’s a giant unicorn in that place.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you say Seth…that Seth and Phil…” He couldn’t seem to bring himself to say it. I understood the feeling. It was inconceivable and true.

  “Yes.”

  “And you don’t know who that guy who paid us was?”

  “You’re going to have to give me something more than ‘He looked normal’ for me to tell you that.” All I knew is that it wasn’t Uncle John. He’d never have gone to such disgusting extremes. If he wanted us out, he’d march right through the front door and drag us bodily from the premises. I’d seen him do as much one night when Phil was at a house party past curfew.

  He threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know. It was a while ago, and I was distracted. I thought I’d seen a unicorn on the—Jeez, that was real, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you…attacked it?”

  “Alexander?” I prompted.

  “He was older. White hair. Really pale eyes.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Tall, clean cut, maybe a business suit?”

  “Kind of old-world European, I guess. Yeah.”

  “Oh, God. Marten.”

  “Who is that?”

  “Our sponsor.” But why would he be trying to get rid of Phil and me? It made no sense. All he ever talked about was how great the Llewelyns were at hunting, how we had extraspecial super hunting abilities, how we’d make our ancestors proud. He liked us. He wanted us to hunt!

  Giovanni was waiting for me to go on, still a safe distance away, still keeping his hands deep in his pockets, but listing, ever so slightly, in my direction. I, too, was leaning toward him. I rolled back on my heels.

  “Okay,” I said. “Where did you meet this Alexander? Where did he drop off your money?”

  Giovanni shook his head. “All handled by Seth.”

  “You know nothing about it?”

  “I didn’t want to know. It was sketchy.”

  “But you took the money anyway.” A heavy silence hung over us both. Was it Marten? Why in the world would he want us gone? And did he have any idea what his little proposition had engendered?

  “For the record: I’m sorry I did it. I know that means nothing to you now.”

  “You’re right,” I lied, then got control of myself. “My best guess is that your friend, having…done what was asked of him, is collecting his reward.” I shuddered. “I have no idea where that might be, but we can track down Marten. There are some things I’d really like to know the answer to as well.” Like how dare he, and who does he think he is, and did he really want to take us all on, after he’d taught us to use swords and crossbows and knives? “I’ll ask Neil when he gets home.”

  “Ask me now.” We looked toward the entrance arch to see Neil Bartoli standing there. Giovanni backed up a few steps.

  “Neil, I think you should listen to this. This is Giovanni Cole. He’s a classmate of Seth’s, and he says the two of them have been receiving money from Marten Jaeger all summer in return for taking us out.”

  Neil looked at Giovanni like he was junk on the bottom of his shoe. “Curious. Almost as curious as the fact that when I arrived at the Gordian office today, it was completely shut down. I’ve still been unable to get in contact with anyone there or with Marten himself.”

  “No!”

  Neil nodded curtly, his face drawn with concern and frustration. “I can’t account for it. Marten has always been a phone call away, always eager to show up at odd times, to be involved in the running of the Cloisters…and now, I have injured hunters, an ineligible hunter, a body rotting in the rotunda—” He noted Giovanni’s stricken expression. “A unicorn body.”

  “Of course!” Giovanni practically snorted.

  Neil beckoned to me. “Come along, Astrid. We clearly have no information this young man will find useful. When we know the location of his friend, we will be informing the police.”

  “Astrid.” Giovanni’s voice was nothing but plea, but there was no shape to it, as if he didn’t even know what he wanted to ask from me. I understood completely. Walking away from him was the worst kind of torture.

  But I did it anyway.

  Neil’s news was received with the appropriate amount of shock and dismay by the other hunters, but it was nothing to compare with w
hat he told Phil, Cory, and me privately later on.

  “I’m afraid we may have made a very grave mistake,” he said.

  “No kidding.” I stood against the door of Neil’s office, arms crossed over my chest. Cory and Phil were seated on the chairs in front of Neil’s desk. “I think we trusted a real sicko. According to Giovanni, he was soliciting volunteers to deflower us.”

  “According to your ex-boyfriend, the friend of the man who raped Phil?” Cory said. “Yes, he sounds like an extremely trustworthy sort.”

  “Guys,” Phil warned. She turned to Neil. “No one at the Gordian labs would tell you anything about how to contact Marten?”

  “No one was there.” Neil clarified. “The place was abandoned. I contacted the landlord, and found that his number for them had been disconnected as well. They are paid for three more months, so he wasn’t particularly concerned.”

  “And you guys have no other contact information?” I asked. “No other address?”

  “This is all my fault,” Neil said, his posture stiff. “I’ve endangered the hunters under my care and I’ve been counting on support from a source that has proven unreliable.”

  “This must be some horrible mistake,” Cory said. “He’s been so supportive of me—of us—all this time. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation—”

  “Like what?” I asked. “‘I closed my business and skipped town. Oops, meant to tell you?’”

  “I never trusted him,” Phil said. “He fired Lino and never replaced him or our weapons.”

  “You never liked Lino,” Cory snapped. “And you don’t know if he had a good reason for his actions then.”

  “Neither do you,” I said. “We weren’t able to get an answer out of Marten. Just. Like. Now.”

  “Why would Marten be trying to sabotage you?” Cory pressed. “He’s been doing nothing but encouraging you to hunt. Half the girls here hate the constant stream of Llewelyn this and Llewelyn that.”

  “TThen maybe you shouldn’t add to it,” I grumbled. “Giovanni described him to me.”