Mortal Bite (Golden Vampires of Tuscany) (24 page)

Cara awoke to the sounds of cheering coming from down below. She slipped
out of the luscious, buttery sheets and padded barefoot across the room to the
double doors. She was pleased when she found them unlocked. On the landing she
could hear lots of chatter and movement down below. Music was playing, and she
could smell sweat and something else besides the left-over aromas of fast food.
A glance to the corner by the front door explained it all. A small arsenal was
leaning against the plaster walls of the grand house in case any intruders
chose to come uninvited.

There was some raucous party happening in the living room. Waves of
laughter erupted. Someone wearing a shirt and no pants disappeared into what
looked like a hallway guest bath.

No pants?

The music sounded like a home Karaoke machine and the male singer was
horrible, flat and off key. But a female singer took over to the whistles and
catcalls of the audience. She was singing a song Cara had seen on old Marilyn
Monroe films. But this singer was better than the the great lady herself.

Cara retreated to the bedroom. Beside the door she spotted a wicker
basket with a set of clean clothes and a pair of shoes. She quickly dressed.
Grateful that the maid had provided tennis shoes, she tiptoed down the hallway
and found a rear exit leading to the back yard of the house. She opened the
back door and began to run like hell.

Paolo didn’t like airplanes. He usually traced. But the tracing always
scared Lucius to death, so this time he sat back and allowed himself to be
transported more slowly, enjoying quality time with his son, and politely
fending off the attendant who kept inserting her body parts everywhere.

Lucius waved a generous goodbye to her as they were deplaning. “I think
she liked, me, Father.”

When Paolo turned to look back, she winked at him.

“You know, son, I think maybe you’re right.”

Paolo and Lucius were picked up at the airport by Marcus, who drove an armored
Suburban. It surprised Paolo he was not taking more precautions.

“How was your flight, brother?”

“Long.” Though it was morning in Italy, and Paolo wished he could go
straight to bed.

“It was awesome, Marcus. I played video games, and we watched three
movies.”

“Oh, my.” Marcus picked up Lucius’ bag and slung it over his shoulder.
“You get any rest, then?”

“Not a wink.”

“Well, I’m afraid to say you’ll not get any for a bit longer. I have to
get over to the Council chambers within the hour. There’s just time enough to
drop Lucius off.”

“Where’s your driver, Marcus?”

“I needed to speak to you in private, if you know what I mean.”

“Problems?”

“Complications. And I’m having trouble with some loyalty issues.”

Paolo paused after he deposited Lucius in the second seat and made sure
he was strapped in. “Not the Jett brothers?”

“No. God, no. They’re golden.”

Paolo looked back at his brother who chuckled, “Well, not Golden, but no,
no problems there. Dag made a raid on Cara’s apartment about an hour ago. She’s
safe; Jeb and Huge traced her to my house. But they captured Lionel.”

“Not good.”

They sped along the freeway, Lucius becoming engrossed in the movie
playing behind the driver’s seat on a portable screen. The countryside was greener
than he remembered. The farms and olive orchards they passed, nestled amongst
old stone ruins, looked smaller after living for a while California, where the
scenery was similar, but with larger open spaces. But Tuscany was his home, and
he was glad to be here at last. He wished Cara were at his side.

“I’ve alerted the local authorities,” Marcus began. “The SEAL embedded
with them said Cara was sorting through lots of papers last night. And she made
a couple of calls. We’re trying to track the numbers now.”

“Surely you don’t suspect Cara of—“

“No, brother. But I think she’s beginning to piece together her last forty-eight
hours, not that she remembers any of it, but she’s re-tracing her steps.”

They got behind a tractor pulling an enormous tiller. Marcus had to
reduce speed. He checked the clock on the dash. “We have to hurry to make our
allotted time slot.”

“You should have brought the driver, Marcus,” Paolo said.

“I can see that now. But, we need the privacy.”

“So what else is going on?” Paolo asked.

“The Council is very concerned about the missing book. They hold the
family partly responsible for its disappearance. Praetor says they have already
had one meeting.”

“No way we could have known. I think we told them as soon as we found out.
It’s not like we were hiding things from them.”

“I agree. We have to make the Council understand. They can impose
sanctions if they feel we have mismanaged things, brother.”

“That would be so unfair. We have all risked much.”

“And complacently underestimated the gathering forces of the dark coven
leaders.”

“Leaders?” Paolo knew about Dag. But the Monteleones had a long history
of coexisting peacefully with the dark coven lords, helping them through tough
times on occasion. They had been generous with their time and their money.

“The leaders are uniting. There is a scramble. Word is, the book contains
something so powerful it could affect us all.”

Paolo had felt such a shift in the temperature of their world.

“So I was right, she was looking for the book last night,” he said to
Marcus. “Perhaps it wasn’t wise to erase her memory. We might have needed
information she had stored in her head.”

“I admit, perhaps I acted rashly.”

The tractor pulled off on a dirt road and Marcus gunned the Suburban. They
tore down the narrow country road until they saw the villa mounted high atop
the hill, like a crowned jewel amongst the pale olive trees that had been in
their family for nearly a thousand years. Was all this at stake, Paolo
wondered?

“Whatever happens, I am with you till the very end. You will not have to
suffer for any of my misdeeds, as has happened in the past.”

“Love. Always complicated. Sometimes fleeting, and for us, usually dangerous.”

“Very dangerous. I should have been more careful, Marcus. I have much to
make up for. First Lucius, nearly costing you your life, and the life of your
Anne. Now Lionel, who has been loyal to this family since before we were born.
I pray to the God of vampires he will be returned to us safe.”

They rounded a sharp corner and Marcus nearly lost control of the
vehicle. Paolo held on to the handgrip bolted into the ceiling.

“In a sad way, your becoming involved with Cara has perhaps saved us. Had
we not known about the book, the coven leader and his designs, we might not
have been as prepared. So don’t take that guilty tone with the Council. We have
to convince them we have done all we could. I fear the day they would take the
power away from us to act on the Council’s behalf.”

“If not us, who?”

“I don’t know. I have been away this past year. Laurel doesn’t involve
herself in politics, so I have no clue, brother.”

They drove up to the stone pillars that meant home. It was bittersweet—he
was so grateful to see the apricot colored stucco of the family villa, but he
faced the possibility it all could be confiscated, or worse yet, lost in a dark
coven war that might claim them all.

As soon as the vehicle stopped, Paolo dashed out and ran around to
unstrap Lucius, carrying him into the house. Marcus came behind with the
luggage.

“There you are, young prince,” Laurel said as she ran to her nephew and lifted
him in her arms, twirling him around the kitchen. Laurel was wearing flowers
woven into her hair, and her blouse was frilly, with a big collar that fluffed
up in the breeze coming from the kitchen. “Let me look at you. Oh, so
handsome.” Lucius blushed and giggled under his aunt’s affections.

Laurel addressed Paolo, giving him a hug. Paolo could feel her shaking.
His sister was scared. So was he, for the first time in centuries.

“Marcus tells me there is a new love in your life. I am so happy for
you.” Laurel was Marcus and Paolo’s unmarried sister. She had served as a link
between Paolo and the rest of his family while he was living out his fantasy of
a normal, mortal life in the States, as he said farewell and buried three
wives.

Paolo had loved spending time at this house, where she had entertained
him over the years, talking about Marcus and his investments and adventures. Laurel
was the one who kept Paolo informed about family business, the marriages and
births, and occasionally the tragedies, making sure he stayed loosely connected
in case he ever wanted to return to the fold. And now perhaps it was too late.
He could see it in her eyes.

It was in this house, Paolo remembered, that he learned the fragrance of
the orchard as it bloomed in the spring months. As a young boy his mother had
taken him through the warm sunny hillside, back when he was mortal. When
everything was perfect. He still missed that idyllic life, even now.

“You are lovely, even more beautiful than before I left.”

Laurel’s caramel-colored hair and fair complexion were similar to his
own. They’d been mistaken for twins growing up, and they were the closest in
age. However, Laurel took the turning two years before Marcus and Paolo,
anxious to be done with her mortal life and ready to begin a family.

But time had not been their friend, and so neither of them had married.
Laurel had never met her fated mate, and Paolo hadn’t wanted anything to do
with his. Because they all believed Marcus had fathered the child, Laurel made
it her job to look after young Lucius for her bachelor brother. “Laurel,”
Marcus said to her, “we have to trace to the Council immediately. You will see
to it Lucius gets settled?”

“I will, certainly. Safe journeys.”

Outside the villa, Paolo asked a question he’d been wondering about for
the past half hour. “Any idea what number she called?” Paolo was curious to see
if someone else had gotten close to Cara and was directing her actions.

“A number in Eastern Europe.”

“Give me the number.”

Marcus gave Paolo a slip of paper with the number written in Marcus’
scrawl.

“We have no time for that. Let’s meet with the Council, and then we’ll
make plans,” Marcus said.

They both knew the way, having traveled to the little Council
headquarters numerous times. Their tracing appeared with practiced precision at
the steps to the chamber building. The brothers entered, and the tall copper
doors with copper bas-relief designed by Michelangelo himself, shut behind
them, sounding like the boom of a cannon.

In the anteroom, a robed novice greeted them. She was a beautiful girl,
probably not quite twenty and not yet the age of choice, for she had porcelain
features and appeared to be affected by the two handsome brothers. That was a
mortal trait.

Paolo cursed under his breath when he saw her.

Careful, brother,
Marcus
mentally warned.

The Council, made up of aging Golden vamps of legendary lineage, always
surrounded itself with younger girls, and it was well known that Council members
occasionally bedded them.

Paolo checked his attitude, inhaled, and set his mind on the task at
hand, not quite knowing if this would be the last day he would wander around
Italy as a free man.

The lovely novice opened the doors to the inner chamber and they stood
before the dais of the Council. Paolo recognized almost all of them. But a few
newcomers were present who did not smile. Two members were hunched over in
wheelchairs, red IVs dripping into their arms. He’d always thought it was odd
some members would waste their lives on things that would make them weak and
sick, and wondered why their advice could be valued considering their aged,
addicted state.

In the center of the council sat Praetor Artemis. At last Paolo had
something to feel grateful for. He knew the Golden vamp to be an honest man who
had helped Marcus out of the predicament of the murder trial. But since most
the Council were made up of men who were clinging to power, Paolo wondered how
much of a tightrope his old friend had to walk to stay on as Chairman.

“Welcome back,” Praetor began. “You’ve had some adventures out in the
Wild West, I’m told.” Someone at the end of the dais sniggered.

The brothers bowed in tandem, as they had done for decades. They both
made sure the bow was long, and low.

“Thank you for agreeing to see us at such short notice, Council,” Marcus
began. “We have urgent news we felt the Council needed to hear from us
directly, and in person.”

One of the members Paolo did not recognize slammed his fist on the table
and yelled, “Where is the book, Marcus? That is all that matters here.”

“We are trying to locate it—“

“I’m told you had it in your possession, and yet you allowed a mortal
woman to take it away with her? How can that be?” another member demanded.

“Not true, sire. We have never seen this book. Only heard about it. To my
knowledge, no one has seen this book since it disappeared in the fire before we
were born,” Marcus replied calmly. “It could very well be destroyed, for all we
know.”

“Then why the hell are all the darks revving up for war over it?” another
Council member asked.

“I don’t have an answer for that.” Marcus was running out of room to
maneuver. Paolo could see his brother shaking slightly. So much was at stake.
They’d had little time to plan for this. The sudden accusatory tone of the
Council distressed him as much as it did his brother.

Paolo stepped in front of his brother. “Members of the Council. I am the
one responsible for this series of events. I came to be acquainted with a young
woman, a college professor in California, who is an expert on vampire
mythology. During this casual conversation I discovered that, while she did not
believe in vampires, she had followed a lead to a rare book on the subject that
she was able to purchase from a bookseller in Prague.”