Marcus shook his head and closed his eyes.
“You don’t believe me?” Claudius took Marcus’s chin with his hand and forced him to look to the table where Diana looked calm and relaxed. “She begged me to be my bride.”
“No. You’re lying.” Marcus wanted her to turn toward him.
“I am not.” The vampire looked up and a servant hurried to his side, holding a tray on his gloved hands. Claudius reached for a cell phone lying on a white damask napkin. He touched the screen, then turned it to Marcus. “This is a message she left for me while you were playing house in Amalfi.”
Marcus looked at the illuminated screen and read the date under the voicemail entry. A sour taste rose to his mouth when he mentally counted backward to the displayed day and that confirmed what Claudius had just said. “So what?”
The vampire’s face lit. “Now listen.” He activated the speakerphone and Diana’s voice sounded loud and clear in the surrounding silence the room had fallen.
“Sire, please—”
Marcus had loved her Roman accent—he had known right away she was from a good neighborhood—and the way she talked, stressing certain syllables and truncating others as if she was always in a hurry to convey her meaning. Now, he listened to her and felt sick.
“I’ll serve you the centurion on a platter.”
In his mind, there was no doubt she was the one talking, but his heart didn’t want to believe.
“I’ll do anything you ask of me.”
The recording ended with Diana revealing Alexander’s house address. Claudius put the cell phone back on the tray still held by the servant, who bowed and walked out of sight.
“She’s alive.” That’s the only thing that matters. Marcus brought his wrists up to press his palms against his eyes. The rigid edges of the handcuffs dug into his skin. He pressed harder.
Claudius licked his lower lip and nodded. “And unlike you, she will live for a very long time by my side.”
Marcus couldn’t talk anymore, not when he didn’t know what to think. She’s alive.
“She never felt anything for you. She used you, and then threw you away. As Aurelia did.”
Marcus went still.
Claudius misunderstood Marcus’s lack of reaction to his words and stood angrily. “You think I can’t hurt you any longer?” He dug his fingers in Marcus’s chin. “Think again.” As swiftly he had appeared at Marcus’s side, so he left. He leapt onto the stage and gave a signal to the chorus waiting for him.
The cloaked figures intoned a low chant that soon was repeated by everyone in the room but Marcus. The heat in the room seemed to increase by the second, and soon he was drenched in sweat.
Facing the audience, Claudius raised his hands to stop the singing. He waited until the whole room was silent and still, then walked to the stained glass window behind the table and bowed to it. Marcus heard the vampire’s whispered prayer, but he couldn’t understand what he was saying. When Claudius stopped, the crowd answered with the Latin word semper, always.
One of the cloaked figures stepped out of the semicircle and brought the vampire a long chain with a fuming golden box hanging from it. The smell of the burning incense tickled Marcus’s nostrils. Claudius walked around the stage and let the golden box dangle in small circles, then stopped before the audience where he oscillated the box toward them, and finally back to the head of the table.
After moving the box over Diana and bathing her in the incense’s smell, Claudius approached the crowd one more time. “Brothers and sisters. Tonight, you have gathered to witness the ascension of my vestal Diana to the role of my eternal bride. May the power of Artume be with you.” He enunciated the words slowly, with a singsong quality.
Behind Marcus, steps and low murmurs ensued. He looked over his shoulder and saw servants getting in and out of each row, offering long goblets with blood. The guests grabbed the proffered glasses and waited, eyes fixated on the scene unfolding on the stage.
Claudius had walked back to the table and was now facing Diana. The chorus neared the edge of the table and at the vampire’s signal started singing. The melody was hauntingly beautiful, but there were no words, just the humming.
Marcus felt his head sway even though he was sitting. He kept repeating to himself that she was alive and only that mattered. He noticed Claudius’s eyes swung his way for the briefest of moments before he grabbed Diana’s legs by her ankles and pulled her over the edge of the table.
Without thinking, Marcus jumped up. The cold metal of a gun’s muzzle was pressed to his right temple before he could advance a step toward the tableaux.
“Sit.” One of the guards who had been hiding behind the columns was staring at him at the end of the gun.
Marcus closed his eyes.
The muzzle was pressed deeper into his skin. “Watch.”
Marcus opened his eyes, but soon wished he were blind. From a glass ampulla, Claudius poured oil over Diana’s wrists and ankles, then he massaged her skin in slow, sensual movements. Diana didn’t struggle. She lay on the marble, her body trailed over the rose petals scattering them around, her eyes on Claudius. A part of Marcus wanted her to fight the vampire. The other didn’t want her to suffer. Even so, his heart was ripped apart when the vampire raised her tunic to her knees and she let him. Claudius’s gestures were systematic, and it was clear from the dramatic setting and the response from the audience that he was following a script.
When Claudius’s hands reached farther up Diana’s legs, he revealed a white lacey garter on her right thigh. Marcus’s stomach cramped and he hugged his midsection with his handcuffed hands. He wasn’t sure how much more he could stand to watch.
One hand firmly pressed over the garter, Claudius helped Diana in a sitting position. “Vestal, do you swear to freely submit your body and soul to me, your sire?”
Diana lowered her eyes to her lap. “I do.”
“Do you accept to become my possession for as long as you live?” The hand Claudius had on her thigh seemed to inch up.
Diana took longer to answer, but eventually she nodded. “I do.”
Diana’s assents hit Marcus in his solar plexus. He already felt like throwing up; now he couldn’t breathe and dark spots danced before his eyes.
“Do not faint.” The guard had lowered the gun to Marcus’s heart, probably so not to disturb the people sitting in the row behind them.
“Will you bring me a sacrifice tonight as your mating gift to me?” Claudius turned to face the dark room and lowered his eyes until he looked directly at Marcus.
“I will.”
Marcus’s heart stopped beating.
Claudius caressed her thigh higher until she was exposed to her hip but kept his gaze on Marcus, his lips slightly curved up. “Name your offering, my vestal.”
The crowd, already silent, went preternaturally still. Marcus could hear the wind brewing a storm outside. Lightning illuminated the darkness and casted long shadows in the room. The stained glass panels behind the table were intermittingly lit and bathed Diana in a red hue.
She bowed her head lower. “I’ll kill Marcus Sulpicius Aurelianus for you, my sire.”
****
“Your gift pleases me greatly.”
Diana felt the vampire’s eyes on her, but kept hers to her lap as she had been instructed. The room extending beyond the sacrificial table was in the dark, but for the spot in the first row where Marcus was sitting alone. As she had entered the stage, she had almost wept in relief at the sight of him. He didn’t sport any visible injury as she had feared he would. She wouldn’t trust Claudius’s word about not torturing him. The only reason she had accepted Claudius’s terms was to ensure she was the one to kill Marcus, to be sure he wouldn’t suffer at the vampire’s hands.
In the long hours she had waited for the final drama to unfold, she had never been left alone. The girl kept her under strict surveillance and wouldn’t let her wear anything. Diana knew it wasn’t just to humiliate her further. The id
ea of grabbing whatever she could find to use as a weapon had come to her, but the windowless room didn’t contain anything beside the chair the girl had claimed upon entering. Finally, a majordomo arrived with a white tunic and flat Roman sandals for her to don, and the order to hurry up because the ceremony was starting. She followed the man through a series of hallways and antechambers, her eyes searching for anything she could hide in the folds of the loose tunic. A few minutes later, they stopped before a granite archway.
The place, nothing more than a vestibule, was illuminated by torches leaving all the corners in the darkness. Claudius, dressed in a red-cloaked tunic, was waiting for her under the arch, his hand outstretched for her to take. Her nerves froze her will for a moment, and she was pushed from behind and almost tripped on the flat soles of her sandals. Claudius grabbed her left elbow and hauled her in front of him.
As they had crossed the threshold, he stopped her behind a column and squeezed her arm. “Let’s see if your career as an escort has taught you how to act convincingly.” He led her out and they stepped onto the stage.
After looking for Marcus from under the safety of her hood and faltering for the briefest of moments when she felt his essence calling to hers, she had walked to the table. Only when the vampire arranged her on it did she realize she hadn’t been prepared for the shock of being displayed for everybody to see. She knew the whole nest had gathered for the occasion, but there were guests coming from other nests as well. Three famous vampire musicians had been hired for the night, and her ascension from vestal to bride would start the Harvest celebration Claudius was famous for.
She had hated Claudius with renewed fervor when he asked her to greet Marcus. Faking indifference to his desperate call had broken her heart anew, but she had swallowed her tears and sobs for the greater good. The applause that followed the vampire’s acceptance of her “gift” brought her back to the present moment and what was asked of her.
Claudius pushed her on her back again. “Let’s bind your ascension by consummating our union before the assembly.” His hands kept her down, and he subtly shook his head when she momentarily resisted him.
A second round of applause roared at his words. Diana was overwhelmed with bouts of nausea, but strengthened her resolve to go with the plan, repeating to herself it would be over soon. The chorus around the table started chanting in Latin, and the crowd followed at the second verse. Heads swayed and hands were raised heavenward. From the chorus, a woman Diana recognized as Laura stepped out and offered Claudius a long-stemmed golden chalice decorated with precious gems. Then Laura positioned herself at the other end of the table at Diana’s head. She grabbed hold of Diana’s hands, and at Claudius’s nod, she raised them heavenward.
Diana felt something resembling a pen slide in her right hand and Laura’s trembling fingers closing around hers. Oblivious to what was happening, the vampire took the chalice with both hands, then raised it over his head and whispered for several heartbeats. The atmosphere in the room changed, the chanting became louder, the swaying more accentuated. Claudius lowered the chalice to his heart and repeated the prayer, then brought it to his lips, tilted it by raising the base, then sipped from it. His whole face lit with pleasure, and he made sign to Laura to let Diana go. A new chant was intoned by the chorus. After one last frantic squeeze, the girl lowered Diana’s hands to the table, and Diana let the pen slide down her sleeve.
“Vestal bride, I share with you the sacrificial blood.” He raised her head with a hand, while bringing the chalice to her mouth with the other. “Open your mind and body to pleasure beyond boundaries.”
The sweet, fresh scent reached her nostrils, and she recognized the blood as Marcus’s before it touched her lips and couldn’t suppress a gasp. When the first drop fell on her tongue, her whole essence exulted at being one with him again. Afraid Claudius could read the desire in her eyes, she savored Marcus’s taste, hiding her longing behind a neutral façade. The chalice was removed too soon from her lips, and it took all her willpower not to grab it from Claudius’s hand and drink from it until nothing was left. Instead, she watched as the vampire ingested Marcus’s blood. Nobody else should have been allowed to feed from him but her. The wrongness of it enraged her until she started shaking. Next, she couldn’t breathe and everything went dark before her eyes.
“Wedding night jitters?” Claudius had bent over her. His mouth too close to hers, he deliberately blew over her nose. “I never thought I would rejoice at interspecies bonding, but you and your centurion will suffer more because of it, and that makes me feel good.”
Diana received his whispered words like a slap, but tried to reach her happy place before Claudius could hurt her more than he already had. Images of Marcus filled her mind, and for a moment, she was successful in ignoring the talking vampire. Then her hands were raised above her head and her eyes opened to the sight of two of the cloaked men pinning her down, their hands like manacles on her wrists. Claudius forcefully separated her legs farther until she was spread-eagled on the table. She was unable to move and reach under her tunic where the pen had slid all the way down to the side of her right breast. Defenseless, all her plans were spoiled. Panic rose in her chest and she struggled to free herself.
Claudius leaned over her to whisper to her mouth, “Do not fight me. Remember our pact.” With cruel hands, he tilted her face toward the crowd. “Look at him.” He pressed his fingers along her jaws. “And remember I enjoy inflicting pain.” One of his nails dug into her skin until it broke. “If you don’t go along with the ceremony as you were instructed, I won’t let you kill him. Instead, I’ll bury him in the dungeons and I’ll revive him after each session of torture. I can keep him alive as long as I like.” He licked the blood trailing down her throat. “And I’ll make you watch.”
A sudden calm possessed Diana, and she relaxed on the table. The rose petals scattered over the marble surface were as red as the blood she had just spilled, and their smell combined with her own cloyed her senses. She felt Claudius hands probing her intimately, then he was on her. Before closing her eyes, she looked one last time toward Marcus, and mouthed, “I love you.”
****
Marcus read Diana’s lips and roared into action before anyone, even him, could understand what had just happened. In the blink of an eye, he had leapt on the raised dais, his handcuffed hands around Claudius’s throat as he threw him away from Diana. A split moment later, the crowd was in uproar and more than a dozen guns were pointed at Marcus.
Claudius laughed, his hands over Marcus’s, prying them over his head to free himself from the metal necklace. “The stupidity of humans never ceases to amaze me.” He didn’t expect his opponent to make any resistance, but Marcus forced him to lower his hands. “What—?”
Marcus was as surprised as the vampire, but didn’t waste the opportunity and pulled the chain against the vampire’s throat.
“It isn’t silver.” Claudius made to drop down, but Marcus kept him upright.
“No, but my strength is coming back.” He yanked his united hands back to cut against the vampire’s throat and in his enraged fury almost didn’t hear the command he gave his men.
“Shoot her.”
Two guns moved from one target to the other. Marcus saw that, unlike the others, the two vampires holding them wore thick gloves, and turned Claudius to shield Diana with his body. Claudius fought his hold and tried to make him lose balance. At the same time, they both fell on the table, several shots were fired, and Diana screamed for Marcus to get out of the way.
A moment of eerie silence was followed by shouts and cries. Several people were crowding the table, and Marcus couldn’t see either Diana or Claudius.
“Let us go before Claudius regrets you not listening,” Diana ordered as she moved aside to show an object protruding from Claudius’s chest.
Marcus heard her, then saw two bloodied forms emerge from the melee. Diana embraced Claudius from behind and used her body to push him forward. Guns’ aims w
avered.
“Marcus.” Diana’s hand was shaking.
Marcus reached her and saw that the stake she had stabbed Claudius with was a pencil. The wooden stub wasn’t enough to kill him, but it would incapacitate him for a few minutes at least. The vampire’s eyes whipped around.
“Don’t even think about it.” Diana pushed the pencil in his chest far enough to still them. Then she looked at the men aiming their guns at her. “I will kill him.”
Claudius slowly nodded at his men. “Let us through.” His words were slurred.
The vampires hesitated.
“Push it all the way through.” Marcus spoke over the cacophony of screams coming from the crowd.
Fortunately, neither the vampires nor Claudius had realized Diana was using nothing more than a pencil. Face ashen, Claudius raised his right hand to silence everybody. “Obey my orders.”
Marcus pulled Diana through the parting throng. They walked the whole perimeter of the ballroom, holding Claudius between them, until they reached the French doors leading to the balcony and the gardens. They were followed, but nobody dared stop them. At the doors, Marcus switched places with Diana and positioned himself behind Claudius, his right hand circling what little was left to grab of the wooden stub firmly stuck in his chest. The vampire was losing his strength and soon would be an obstacle to them, but Marcus held him up.
He looked at the dim lit gardens. “Out.” He didn’t have a plan beyond reaching the gate he could see looming at the end of the lawns. With a sigh, he threw Claudius across his shoulders, hoping the pencil would stay in place in the vampire’s chest, and took Diana’s hand.
“Okay.” She squeezed his fingers in hers and they ran down the steps leading to the paths full of topiaries.
Marcus could feel his strength coming back in bouts, but he wasn’t whole yet and his movements weren’t as precise as he needed them to be. The bushes had been manicured to create a low maze that placed unexpected barriers in their progress toward the exit. Behind them, a whole army of vampires followed. They maintained their distance, but the situation was too volatile for Marcus to feel safe.
The Lost Centurion Page 19
