by Theda Vallee
“I think Luc’s asking the right questions. If we can figure out the why, it might lead us to the who,” I said. I may not have much experience in this area, but I knew people, supernatural or otherwise. Most of the time, there was a reason, even if it was a crazy one.
“Kitten, not everyone has a grand scheme, sometimes they just like to fuck shit up,” Brady said shrugging his shoulders.
Luc’s phone rang, startling me. We all watched in anticipation as he answered it. He stood up and walked away from us to talk. I strained to hear what he was saying. Of all the things that were supposedly a sin, I never felt guilty for eavesdropping. A girl needed to know shit. I couldn’t hear everything, but his resigned tone told me he wasn’t happy with what they were saying.
He shut his phone and walked back over to us. Passing his hand through his hair, he stared at nothing for a few moments while composing his thoughts. “They’re sending someone to field the media. That’s one thing off our plate. I’ll wait for them to arrive, so I can give them a rundown. You guys go home and get some sleep. I’ll call you when the autopsy results come in.”
I stood up and went over to him. His body was stiff and unyielding as the impact of tonight weighed down on him. I placed my hand on his chest, trying to offer some comfort. I wasn’t great at this girlfriend thing, either, if truth be told. My first instinct had been to go home. Sleep was calling my name, and I wanted to hug my family. Seeing the burden he carried, I needed to at least offer support. I’d do it for a stranger, why not the guy I was sleeping with?
“Do you want me to stay? I won’t be of much use, but at least you won’t have to be alone,” I whispered.
He picked up my hand and kissed it gently. “No, cariad. Go home. Get some sleep. I’ll be okay. I promise.” He kissed me softly before running his finger down my cheek. “Thank you for the support. It means a lot, especially since I know you’re still mad at me.”
“You’re an ass, but you’re my ass,” I said, the lie rolling off my tongue with ease. It didn’t even bother me to lie to him anymore. I should be ashamed of that, but morality would always take a back seat to survival.
Chapter Five
Soft light filtered out from the kitchen window by the time I got home. Nonna had been up for hours working on bread for the bakery. A few months ago, I would’ve been there working alongside her. The quiet moments with my grandmother had always been my favorite part of the day. When my world fell apart after Red left, it was those hours that had got me through. Now, I was lucky if I spent a few hours a week with my family. Sometimes, I ached for it.
I walked through the back door, to find Nonna lost in her work and humming along to the soft crooning of Claudio Villa. Her steely gray hair was pulled into a neat bun at the base of her neck. She wore a floral apron over her floral house dress. The different patterns should have clashed, but she made it work somehow.
A lump formed in my throat as I watched the tiny woman I loved go about her task. This was my home. The one place on earth, I always felt welcome no matter what choices I made in life. How did she do it? How did she create an oasis of love and protection? Eventually, I’d be the person to do that for our family. Would I be able to? She’d made it seem so effortless all these years.
Looking up from the ball of dough, she smiled at me. “Dolce, are you going to stand there gawking? Come on, there’s coffee.”
“Sorry, I was lost in thought. It’s been a long night.”
I set my purse down and grabbed an apron off the row of pegs near the cabinet. Despite being bone weary, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep just yet. The familiar ritual of baking might relax me a little, but it would also give me time with her. I needed that comfort today.
“I saw you on the news channel this morning. Did you have to go into the place?”
I didn’t want to talk about what I’d seen at the club. I was doing my best to push the images out of my head. Thankfully, dodging questions from a concerned relative, was one of the few things I excelled in. “What do you need help with? I need to unwind a little before I try to lie down.”
She nodded to a row of dough rising underneath blue and white checkered towels. There was equipment we could buy to make the work easier for her, but she insisted on doing everything by hand the way her mother had taught her. It made our bread stand out, but it was labor intensive. There was no way to scale up to produce more loaves unless we hired more employees. Since we never had the extra money to do that, we’d always eked out a meager living. When I was younger, I’d thought she was insane. We didn’t have to live like paupers if she’d stop being so obstinate. I understood now. She couldn’t let go of the connection to her mother.
I grabbed the closest ball of dough and dumped it onto the floured surface of the island. The mixture was ready to be knocked back and kneaded, which would remove the air in it before the final proving. It was a satisfying task, which was always therapeutic. I could dig the heel of my hand in and force the ingredients to bend to my will. This turned out right every time I did it. It was one of the few places in my life where I felt any control.
“Your sister say you have a bad day with Lucio yesterday. Do I need to remind that cazzo you are my granddaughter?”
I almost laughed, but I knew she was deadly serious. She tolerated Luc, barely. “No. He’s trying. He even apologized to me. I promise I’ll let you know if he needs reminding.”
“Do you have feelings for him?”
Why did everyone insist I profess my love? Whatever happened to taking it slow?
“If you’re asking if I love him, no I don’t. There are qualities I like about him and a lot of things I don’t. After Red, I didn’t think I’d date again, so I’ve never considered what I’d want in a partner. I don’t know what compromises I’m willing to make or what’s a deal breaker. I’m just figuring it out day by day. Does it have to be more than that?”
“No, dolce, that’s good. I worry is all. I don’t want you to settle for someone who does not own your heart. It’s easy to stay with someone because they are there. Sometimes, our mind thinks being alone is worse than being with someone we do not love,” she said, patting my arm with her flour-covered hand. “Your grandfather, he hung the moon for me. That is the love I wish for you.”
My heart ached at the mention of Nonno. I missed him. Before he went missing at sea, I couldn’t remember a morning that didn’t start with him spinning Nonna around the kitchen in a dance only they knew. He’d kiss her tenderly, gushing that she was the most enchanting woman he’d ever laid eyes on. She’d laugh like it was the first time she’d heard him say it. I didn’t realize how beautiful their ritual was at that age, but it had made me smile no matter how many times I witnessed it.
When I was old enough to realize how special their devotion had been, it’d seemed unrealistic to think I could have something like it. As far as I could tell, most people didn’t find that kind of love. It happened once in a blue moon and mostly in fairy tales. If I was truthful with myself, I knew exactly why I didn’t love Luc. I was waiting for that fairytale. I couldn’t settle for someone that didn’t give me butterflies whenever I looked at them. I’d already settled once because I got pregnant. I wasn’t willing to do it again. It would take a miracle to find that kind of relationship, but in a world full of magic anything was possible.
The exhaustion I’d been fighting hit me hard. I hadn’t slept in almost twenty-four hours, which was probably why I was getting so emotional. “I thought I’d be able to finish a few more of these, but I’m too tired. Are you okay finishing this up?”
“It’s fine, cara mia, Sophia will be here to help soon. You rest. I know your heart is as weary as your body.”
I climbed the stairs feeling every bit of my twenty-six years.
“Hey, when are you going to wake up? I’m going crazy down there by myself,” Nerina said, hovering inches from my face.
I pulled my hand out from under the covers and pushed her head away from me. “W
hat the hell is wrong with you? How long have I been asleep?”
I rolled away from her, pulling the blankets back over my head. Whatever it was she wanted could wait until I’d slept a few more hours.
“Sorry, but this is an emergency. Desperate times call for desperate sisters. You need to come save me.”
With a deep sigh, I sat up and groped for my phone. It was eleven in the morning. I’d been asleep for less than four hours. I was going to kill her. “What kind of emergency could you conceivably have before lunchtime? If you need cash, just take it.”
“I didn’t wake you up for money. Thanks for the offer, though, there’s a super cute pair of shoes I’ve been eyeing for a few weeks, but anyway, we have bigger frogs to fry.”
“Fish, we have bigger fish to fry, and what fish could we possibly have to fry?”
“Aunt Sophia is downstairs with Father Lopez making him bless every room in the house. She’s convinced you brought home a ghost from the club last night. As soon as she saw you on the news, she freaked. You need to calm her down. Convince her you’re fantasma free.”
Hefting my body out of bed, I bit my lip to keep from screaming. Why couldn’t we go a day in this house without some kind of weird shit happening? “Can you at least make sure there’s a fresh pot of coffee? I need to shower then I’ll come down and deal with this.”
“You look like the glitter aisle at the craft store puked on you. How the hell did you end up covered in glitter? What kind of kinky shit are you into?” she asked with a laugh.
“The victims in the club had glitter coming out of their faces before they died. Show some fucking respect.”
Her eyes widened with shock, and her bottom lip quivered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“It’s not your fault. I’m still processing it all. Sorry, I snapped at you. It was a rough night.”
She pulled me into a hug, holding me like I was a fragile doll that would fall to pieces if she squeezed too tight. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I’ll go get the coffee started for you.”
When I’d dropped into bed a few hours ago, I had planned to take a long, leisurely shower to ease into the day. That wasn’t an option now thanks to Aunt Sophia, so I showered quickly, scouring every nook and cranny of my body to wash away the red glitter from the night before. If the glitter was an agent for transmitting the Tarantella, I was screwed. I pulled a maxi dress out of the closet and slid it over my head. My wet hair smacked against my bare shoulders as I padded down the stairs, steeling myself for drama.
Aunt Sophia rushed over as soon as I stepped into the kitchen. She stopped a few inches from me, her eyes roving over my body with suspicion. “Dolce, you have bags under your eyes. Was the fantasma keeping you awake?”
“I’m fine. I have bags under my eyes because I only slept for four hours. There are no ghosts here. I promise.”
Aunt Sophia turned to Father Lopez, who was busy packing away a piece of cake. “How can you know? These things are difficult to detect. Father, please come give her prayers.”
“Why don’t you come and sit with me, dear? We’ll chat a little about last night,” Father Lopez said to me with a benign smile.
I stormed over to the cabinet, grabbing a cup and filling it to the brim. “I need a cup of coffee while we talk.”
“Where is your rosary? You need your rosary,” Aunt Sophia muttered following behind me.
“Somewhere in my room, but I’m not going back upstairs until this cup is empty.”
Aunt Sophia wrung her hands in a panic, her eyes wild with fear. “Gia, Nerina, please help me to find the rosary. She needs it.”
Both girls rolled their eyes in unison but trudged after her. I wanted to warn Nerina to keep our dear Auntie out of my nightstand, but there wasn’t a good way to do that right now. I just had hope she didn’t find my vibrator. If she tried to massage Father Lopez with it, I’d probably die.
“How are you today, Etta? Your Aunt told me you were at the club last night. I saw you with some officers on the news. How’d that come about?” Father Lopez asked, finally setting down his fork.
“My boyfriend works for one of the police agencies. We were at a movie down the street when he got the call. He drove last night, so I went with him. I didn’t think it would take long. It hadn’t sounded that urgent when they called. When we got there, he’d asked me to wait outside, but I didn’t.”
“Do you want to talk about what you saw? These types of things can linger, causing long-term issues if they’re not addressed.”
I brought the cup of coffee to my lips, letting the aromatic nectar calm my nerves. “I’m not ready to go into detail. When I am, I’ll come see you. I’ll be grateful for the guidance.”
“Are you sure you don’t need to talk about anything, anything at all?”
Our eyes locked, both of us willing the other to say more. There was something in his face that made me think he knew a lot more than we realized. His simple question seemed to hold a myriad of things left unsaid. Did he know about the Osservatori? If he did, why wouldn’t he just come out and say it? I’d been told over and over not to trust anyone. After finding out Father DaNazzi was the one who’d summoned the succubus we fought a few months ago, I really wasn’t trying to trust a priest. I’d wait and let him show his hand when he was ready. My sleep-deprived brain could be reading way more into this, maybe he just had gas.
“We found it!” Aunt Sophia said gasping for breath as she trotted through the archway.
She triumphantly thrust it at me, her hand shaking with anxiety. I took it, giving her a grateful smile. I wanted to be angry at her for dragging the priest into this, but I knew she couldn’t help herself. Irrational fear was her middle name. “How about we say some ghost-busting prayers and call it a day, Father?”
We prayed for an eternity. How many damn prayers did it take to kick out a nonexistent ghost? When he finally finished, it suspiciously corresponded with the cake running out. He left to check on other parish members but not before extracting a promise that I’d come to see him soon.
Nonna stood by the window, watching him walk down the stone path to the back gate. As soon as he stepped through the gateway to the street, she wheeled around, fixing her sister with a death stare. “Of all the pazza things you’ve done, this is top of the list! How did you think Etta would explain to him why she was at the club looking like a police officer? We cannot bring ourselves under scrutiny. He will ask hard questions now.”
“Alba, please don’t yell. I didn’t know what to do. You know fantasmo are tricky. I would not leave her to be haunted.” Aunt Sophia’s face scrunched up as she fought back tears. “I can make this right. I’ll tell him I made mistakes. There is nothing to worry on.”
Nonna crossed her arms over her chest, trying to still her quaking body. “The damage is already done, Sophia. Going forward, we must be cautious. We are not old women playing with herbs in the kitchen anymore. No, we are pawns in a dangerous game, one we do not know the rules of or even who is playing. Until we do, we cannot make missteps, or it could cost our lives. Do you understand?”
She’d been talking to Aunt Sophia, but we all nodded. The life we had known was gone. This was our reality now. We could use the day to day mundane things to distract us, but in the end, the world was bigger and badder than we’d ever realized.
Chapter Six
I stood in the back of the conference room, sandwiched between Brady and Vee. We were waiting for the briefing to start. They’d instructed every agent to meet at headquarters, no exceptions. From the small snippets of information Brady had gleaned, the Osservatori was in damage control mode after last night’s attack. Every major news outlet had run the story today. Leaders from all over the world were demanding answers. The organizations that dealt with the supernatural realm had reached out with a clear message: Get your supernatural ducks in a row, or else.
One of the central tenets of our treaty with the human governments was that humans couldn’t
be harmed. Someone had broken that rule, meaning the human world had every right to declare war if they wanted. We were damn lucky they were allowing us time to fix this.
The autopsy results had come back inconclusive. No evidence pointed to what had been the actual cause of death. The Tarantella was more insidious than we’d initially thought. Desperate for answers, I’d searched the Osservatori database to see if we’d ever been this close to exposure in the human world. There were a few isolated incidences over the years, but nothing of this magnitude. Either they’d hidden the records, or this was a brand new shit-show.
The room quieted down as Pietro walked in with Desideria behind him. It was unsettling to watch the two of them stand side by side like they were just co-workers. You’d never know they had a son in common. They’d both fought hard for their positions, neither of them giving any thought to the collateral damage they’d left in their wake. Poor Luc had been given the fuzzy end of the lollipop being born to those two. I’d disliked Pietro from the day I met him. He was handsome for his age, but underneath that chiseled face slithered a reptile. Desideria just confused me. Sometimes, she seemed like the only sane one on the council, but some things made me wonder. As a mother, I didn’t understand how you handed your baby over to someone else to raise. Fuck whatever the norms were in fae society, I’d never walk away from my child willingly. Call me biased–since my daughter had been stolen from me, but I didn’t trust her.
Pietro raised his hand, signaling he was ready to start. “Thank you for coming on such short notice. I realize that many of you were in the field on other assignments. We appreciate you joining us today. Given the events of last night, the council held an emergency meeting this morning. The gravity of this attack, coupled with the unprecedented exposure, has led us to make some tough decisions. Effective immediately, all open casework is on hold.”
