Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel

by Pennington, Winter

  Augusten nodded and the guards lowered their bows one at a time.

  “You say the Rosso Lussuria needs your help and that is why you have been following them?” Augusten asked, then said, “Stand up, boy.”

  “I am older than some of the vampires in this room. Do not call me a boy.” He rose with some difficulty, grimacing as it obviously pained him to rise. Vasco stepped back when he realized his son was not going to take the hand he offered, though he uncertainly hovered nearby. The man pressed his hand more solidly against his chest in attempt to staunch the flow of blood and winced.

  “No,” Vasco said, a thread of sadness in his tone. “You are a man fully grown now. I am sorry. I never knew. I want you to know that had I known, I would have found you.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” the man said. “I’ve found you.”

  “How?” Vasco asked.

  “As you said. I followed my mother. She’s always been tight-lipped.” He coughed, spitting on the cave’s floor with an expression of disgust. “And was even more so when she left to help you. I knew something was amiss.”

  “And so you took to spying on her?”

  Vasco’s son grinned widely, and a pang of sorrow and regret made my chest tight. I felt Vasco’s emotions like they were my own.

  “Sì. My mother quite despises you,” he said, wincing again, his chest rising harshly as he fought to breathe. “I know she’s withdrawn her aid.”

  “It was requested that she withdraw her aid,” Vasco said. “Do you need a healer?”

  “I’m healing. Your vampire just dealt me a deep wound.”

  I flicked my gaze to Nirena, who didn’t bother to apologize or even look terribly sorry.

  “My mother is a fickle woman,” he said. “She never wanted me to know you. Well, I know you now and I know your clan is in trouble.”

  “Why would you offer your aid?” I asked.

  “I am not like my mother,” he said. “I have gifts she does not possess.”

  “What gifts are those?” Augusten asked.

  “I can see the true nature of a person.”

  “And what do you see?” Vasco asked, inching closer to him.

  “In you? I see strength. I see loyalty and honor and humor. I see pain and sadness and a man not held back by life’s misgivings. I see a man that fixes his heart to the compass of love, not retribution and hate. My mother cannot see past her own wounds,” he said, leaning against the wall and letting it bear his weight. “She never has. I would come to know you, if you would allow it.”

  I looked at Vasco then and though he made no noise, tears trickled down the paleness of his cheeks in the firelight.

  My chest grew tight again.

  Vasco smiled sadly. “I would like that.”

  “Well,” Augusten interrupted, “now that your little family reunion is settled. Shall we carry on with more pressing matters?”

  Renata kept her gaze pinned on Augusten when she said, “Vasco, take your son to your quarters and have Nirena heal the wounds she’s dealt him.”

  “I do not need healing,” Vasco’s son protested.

  “You will,” Nirena said, “and only I can heal what I’ve dealt.”

  Vasco laid a hand on his shoulder. “What is your name?”

  “Emilio,” he said. “My name is Emilio, father.”

  Vasco slipped an arm around Emilio’s waist and helped guide him to his chambers while Nirena and Anatharic trailed behind.

  Chapter Eight

  King Augusten escorted us to his private study to continue our discussion. “I will send some of my guards with you when you take your leave,” he said to Renata. “As I said I would and as a show of reinforcing our newfound alliance. Tell me, what will you do with the other clans? Will you travel to them as you have traveled here?”

  “I do not yet know,” Renata said, though she seemed to consider it. “It is dangerous.”

  “It is,” Augusten said. “As it was for you to come here, but you came anyway. Why? It has been long since we last met. What made you think I wouldn’t have you captured and imprisoned?”

  Renata smiled coyly. “I did not think you had changed that much in some hundred years, Augusten. You were always more fair-minded than that, I think.”

  Augusten toyed with his facial hair. “Was I so easy to read, even then?”

  “Yes.”

  “I would have formed an alliance with you without the bribe, you know.”

  “I know,” Renata said, “but I too try to be fair.”

  “The others won’t be like me. Some, perhaps, but not all. We know one another of old, but there are those you do not know, Renata. I’ve met King Circen of the Reve Noir clan. He will not be easily convinced. Might I offer you some advice?”

  Renata raised her brows, but said, “If it pleases you, Augusten.”

  “Let me send word to them again, all of the surrounding clans. Set a date to meet with each of the rulers on neutral territory. Queen Helamina of Ravenden expressed a certain amount of interest. I think she will be easily wooed into an alliance. I can only guarantee you safe passage to Helamina’s territory, as she is a friend of old. What will you?”

  “Send word to Queen Helamina, if you will, and we will go from there.”

  “Shall I send word that she should expect a visit from you?”

  “Do you trust her?”

  “Yes.”

  Slowly and obviously slipping into thought, Renata nodded. “We might as well.”

  I spared a glance at Iliaria.

  “If King Augusten sends his men, we cannot carry all of them,” she said.

  “Not to worry, Great Siren,” Augusten said. “There are those among us that have their own preferred methods of travel.”

  “So it is decided?” she asked, her gaze sliding from Augusten to Renata. “We will go speak with this Queen Helamina before returning to your kingdom or reaching out to the others?”

  “So it seems,” Renata said.

  *

  It did not take long for Istania to fetch us with word from King Augusten. A few hours passed, at the most. It seemed awfully quick for the message to have been delivered by bat and so I wondered how Augusten had contacted Queen Helamina. Istania and a handful of Augusten’s guards escorted us to meet with him again. Vasco’s son, Emilio, was whole and healed.

  We were led to another circular chamber. There was a small reflective pool of water in the middle of the room. Unlike the others, the room was not lit by any torchlight. Two of the guards that headed our party procured lit torches from outside and carried them in. Augusten stood before the pool. At the edge of the pool, water droplets splashed down into it, sending the reflected torchlight flickering as if the water itself had caught on fire.

  “Queen Helamina awaits your audience, Queen Renata.” He swept his arm outward, gesturing toward the pool.

  “Is Queen Helamina a fish, Augusten? I do not understand.”

  “Gulliver,” the king said.

  Gulliver tossed back his hood and went to the edge of the pool while Augusten spoke. “I told you, there are those within my clan that have their own means of travel.”

  “Ah,” Renata said, watching Gulliver as he placed his palms flat over the open pool. The pool rippled as if he’d thrown a stone into it, and a small breeze of power made the curls of my hair cling to my damp cheeks.

  Gulliver stood back and bowed his head. “It is done, my lord.”

  “A veil parter,” Renata murmured, “how quaint. I did not know the clan of Bull Shoals boasted of such power.”

  “Some powers are best not boasted of.”

  “Hmm,” she mused. “Your secret is safe with me, Augusten.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’d hoped you’d say that. I will send five of my men and women with you. Istania, Gulliver, Titania, Anicetus, and Liberius. Each of them possesses skills that will aid you, have you need of them. And…” Augusten turned, waving forth another cloaked guardsman. The guardsman carried something
covered in a cloak of exquisite crimson. “This,” Augusten said, “is for you, Lady Epiphany.”

  For the second time in my life among the Rosso Lussuria, I was not sure how to react. Renata tipped her head slightly, just enough to let me know that I should indeed accept Augusten’s present.

  The guard handed the large item to me. As soon as I took it and its weight hefted in my hand, I knew what it was.

  “My lord?” I asked, perplexed.

  “You seemed to have taken a liking to them, no?” Augusten asked with a boyish smile. “Worry not, lady. It is only a gift. The cloak too, is yours to keep.”

  I sank into somewhat of a curtsey, as much as I could whilst holding the cage. “I cannot thank you enough, my lord.”

  “No thanks necessary,” Augusten said. “It is my pleasure. Take good care of him and do not forget to let him out to hunt at night.”

  I was not exactly sure what motivated Augusten’s gift, but I was not so foolish to believe it came without strings.

  Gulliver moved to face the small body of water and raised his hands to his chest, as if he were about to pray. His hands parted and the water parted with them, forming two walls of water that stood on either side of a pathway leading to a doorway.

  Emilio grumbled, “I could’ve done that.”

  Vasco put a hand on his shoulder. “No doubt, but why waste the energy when there’s someone else to do it?”

  The walkway was narrow, not as narrow as the entrance to the Bull Shoals kingdom, but narrow enough that we could only walk two at a time. Anatharic and Istania took the lead and we fell in behind them. Iliaria placed me between herself and Renata, while Vasco and his son walked behind her. Gulliver and the rest of Augusten’s guards took the back of our line.

  Emilio said, “Wait,” and started working his way up toward the front of our group. Renata, Iliaria, and I formed a single line so that he could pass. “Let me lead with you,” he said to Anatharic. “As a precaution. I can help if we come under attack.”

  “Asss you will, Ssstregherian.”

  Nirena and Dominique moved to allow Emilio to walk beside the Great Sire.

  “We will pass through the doorway and into the clan of Ravenden,” Gulliver said. “Queen Helamina will have sent others to await us on the other side.”

  Anatharic and Emilio led. When Anatharic reached for the door handle, Emilio stopped him, holding a hand above it as if he was checking to make sure it wasn’t spelled. He opened the door and light from the other side spilled outward, making the dark walls of water glisten around us.

  Emilio stepped through first and one-by-one, we followed suit, entering the kingdom of Ravenden.

  Chapter Nine

  A large brazier burned in the center of the room, casting a circle of dancing light and shadows. Unlike the cave the Bull Shoalians called home, the clan of Ravenden was more similar to our Sotto and obviously built by human slave workers some centuries ago. The walls of Ravenden were of a natural stone streaked gray and white. The firelight bounced off them, making the quartz shimmer like diamonds in a veil. Great stone pillars stood at each corner of the room, trees carved into their marble bodies, and atop each tree perched a raven, the crest of Ravenden.

  “Well,” Vasco said, “we should have company by now, shouldn’t we?”

  “One would think,” Nirena said.

  Istania drew bow and the others did too, as if she had given them an order.

  “Something is amiss,” she whispered.

  I glanced back. The doorway we had come in through had disappeared. Gulliver and Istania were the only two guards from Bull Shoals that bothered removing their hoods. The others stood tall and mysterious.

  Iliaria and Anatharic shared a look. Iliaria nodded and they moved in opposite directions. There were two doorways marked by torches, but each of the doorways was without actual doors. It didn’t seem the most private place for a quiet entrance. Surely, if the clan of Ravenden was around, they would have heard us by now.

  Iliaria’s nostrils flared as she tried to catch a scent on the air. I placed my hand on the pommel of the fox blade.

  “Someone should be here,” Gulliver said.

  “Unless we have walked into a trap, Bull Shoalian,” Renata said, giving him an unfriendly look.

  “I swear on it, this is no trap of our making.”

  “No,” a woman’s voice called from everywhere and nowhere. “It is of ours.”

  I placed the gilded cage on the ground as quietly as I could. The night was suddenly alive with a symphony of hissing steel.

  All those in our party stood armed, and yet, nothing happened.

  Iliaria had drawn both of the crescent-curved blades of the Dracule.

  “Morina,” she said. “Doing Damokles’s dirty work, these days? I knew you were ambitious, but I had thought you better than to be his bitch.”

  A tall figure emerged from the darkness at the back of the room, stepping into the circle of light from the brazier. At first, I thought it was some trick of light that made her appearance so strange. And then I realized I saw her truly. Her hair was streaked black, white, and ash gray. Draculian wings stretched from her human back, arching above her shoulders. One of her eyes was covered by a large patch. The eye left uncovered was crimson with branches of the same onyx lightning that decorated Iliaria’s gaze.

  “Now, now, Printessa.” The Dracule smiled widely, revealing all four of her fangs in a sort of grinning snarl. “Is that any way to greet an old friend?”

  It was not noticeable, but I felt Renata startle beside me. I wasn’t sure why.

  Iliaria moved from the doorway and closer to the Dracule. Morina kept the brazier between herself and Iliaria, not exactly hiding behind it, for she was too tall in stature to do that, but it did seem she was making an effort to do so.

  Istania moved to my right and Gulliver and another followed her as they flanked out. The two other Bull Shoalians covered the doorway Iliaria had been investigating.

  The rest of us stayed as we were. I let the point of the fox blade drop toward the ground and waited. It seemed no one was too keen on charging into battle just yet.

  “What did he offer you, Morina?”

  “Offer?” Her one red eye blinked. “Why would you think he had to offer anything, Printessa?”

  “What did Damokles offer you in order to gain your services to his cause? Power? He has none to give.”

  “I do not need Damokles’s power or his promises to seek to right a wrong committed long ago.”

  “Aah.” It was Iliaria’s turn to smile, dark and mysteriously. “So that’s what this is? Come to defend your wounded pride? Or should I say, your wounded eye?”

  Morina hissed through her teeth. Her face crinkled frighteningly, but Iliaria stood her ground. “You took something from me, Printessa.”

  “Fool,” Iliaria spat the word. “It was your own doing. When will you see that?”

  Fury passed over Morina’s features. “Never.”

  “So be it,” Iliaria said, raising her hands and the two sickles to her sides in invitation. “Come dig your own grave, then.”

  Morina started to lunge, but before she could get around the brazier, the sound of a crossbow to my right snapped and sent an arrow whirring through the air.

  Morina was fast. She heard the arrow and tried to whirl away from it. She used her wings to shield her body against it and succeeded in knocking the arrow off its course and skittering across the smooth floor.

  But while she was busy deflecting Gulliver’s shot, Istania took hers. The arrow penetrated her neck and Morina cried out like an animal screeching.

  Another of the guards let loose. This time, Morina caught the arrow before it pierced her heart. She jerked the arrow free of her neck and seemed to ignore the gush of blood that spilled down her chest. She spoke through clenched teeth. “You are all making me very angry.”

  Emilio raised his hands and a ball of flame leapt to life between his open palms. “There’s more
where that came from.”

  Morina growled her challenge at him.

  Piph, Cuinn whispered in my mind, she said the trap is of their making. I do not sense anyone else, though. She’s alone and trying to make ye think it’s an ambush.

  Why would she be alone? I asked him. That bloody well doesn’t make any sense.

  He offered his version of a fox’s shrug and said, Beats the pumpkins out of me.

  Emilio’s flame stretched and moved as if it were shaping itself into something. If I was going to stop the fight that was about to ensue, I had to do it now.

  Renata placed a hand on my shoulder. I think it was to warn me, but I stepped forward anyway.

  “Emilio,” I said. “Cease fire.”

  He glanced uncertainly at me and I reached up to touch his arm. He let out a breath, and as he did so, his flame shrunk to a plume of smoke.

  “Wise,” Morina said. “But why stop now? We’re just getting started.”

  “If you really wanted to kill us,” I said as I walked toward her and felt the tensions in the group behind me rise high like a tide threatening to pull me back. My legs trembled ever so slightly, but I forced myself to continue toward Morina anyway. “Why did you come alone? Why not ambush us?”

  “Does it really matter?” Iliaria asked. “The fact that she is here and stands against us is evidence enough of her treachery, I think.”

  “It matters, Iliaria.”

  Morina’s one eye-lid flickered.

  “You wonder why I approach you,” I said.

  “Terrific,” she growled. “A telepath.”

  “No,” I said and knelt before her, far enough away that if she made a move to hurt me, I was certain Iliaria could stop her. “An empath. Why do you attack us alone when, Dracule or no, you are outnumbered? You cannot win a battle against the lot of us.”

  “An empath, even better. The last time I ate an empath I had indigestion for a week.”

  “Then you know I will not go down so smoothly, though perhaps it says something of your skill when it comes to women, Dracule.”