“I have no interest in your common wife. She may be seen by some as extraordinary, but it is not evident to me. A human of questionable breeding with little to no grace? I’m still wondering what you see in her.”
The impassive expression blanketed his face again.
“Lorenzo has expressed an interest in using her as a plaything once our plans are complete. I’ll most likely give her to him. She won’t be any use to me.”
Still, he let no expression flicker over his face.
Livia forced his head down and whispered in his ear.
“Let this all be a misunderstanding, my darling boy. Show me your contrition and I will let you live.” He felt her fangs flick along his earlobe. Giovanni reached back to his earliest memories and emptied himself of all emotion, as he had under his father’s sword.
“I would bear you no ill will. I, of all people, understood his temperament. His particular foibles were my friends for a thousand years. Let me free you of him once and for all. Confess to me, my Giovanni.”
He closed his eyes and pulled away, opening them to meet her gaze. Finally, he spoke in a soft voice. “Livia?”
“Yes?”
“Do you know what my father called you?”
Her eyes frosted over. Livia stepped back and pulled the sword from the belt of one of her guards. She ran it into Giovanni’s gut, but he only smiled. Even as the blood spilled out, he smiled.
“He called you the Roman whore, Livia.”
She reached back and pulled the other guard’s sword from his waist. He felt it pierce higher, closer to his heart as she ran the thin blade between his ribs. As his father taught him, he did not even flinch.
“The Roman whore,” he said again, feeling the pull of the blades against his skin and muscle. “That is what your dear husband called you in the privacy of our home.”
“I will kill you, Giovanni di Spada.”
He smiled. “My name is Giovanni Vecchio, son of Niccolo Andros. Mate of Beatrice De Novo. And you will not kill me.”
“Dead man.”
“Whore.”
She raised her hand and slapped him before grabbing a blade from his body and ramming it in again. Giovanni smiled, but said nothing more. She turned on her heel and strode from the room. The silent guards walked over, drew their weapons from his body, and left behind her.
He heard the heavy clanks of metal as the unseen locks fell into place. Livia knew almost as well as his father how easily he could escape most places. As he looked around the room, Giovanni realized that she had constructed this dungeon with him in mind. He also noted it did not look new.
He reassessed his options. He would not underestimate Livia’s intelligence; he would not be able to escape on his own. Luckily, he was not alone. Carwyn was in Rome. Beatrice was stronger by the day. Tenzin would arrive soon, if she hadn’t already.
Giovanni tore off strips of cloth to stuff into the stab wounds. With no blood and no ability to manifest his fire, he knew he would heal slowly. He took a deep breath of the damp air, pictured his wife’s laughing face in his mind, and closed his eyes to wait.
Chapter Eleven
Residenza di Spada, Rome
June 2012
Beatrice was meditating to the strains of a Bach concerto when Tenzin came in her room. The wind vampire looked at Ben, stretched out at Beatrice’s feet, sleeping in the late afternoon. The boy had refused to leave his aunt, even when he needed to rest.
“Get up. Get dressed. We’re going to Livia’s castle.”
Hope flared in Beatrice’s eyes. “We’re going to get him?”
“No. Not yet, anyway. But she doesn’t know I’m here, and she needs to.”
“Why?”
The small vampire smiled. “Because I scare the shit out of Livia. I always have. She hates me.” Then the smile fell. “Plus, she has Lorenzo with her. I have a few things to say.”
Beatrice stood and looked over her wrinkled clothes. She was still wearing the loose shirt and leggings from the party. “What should I wear?”
“Whatever you want. Whatever you think she’ll hate. And bring your shuang gou. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to kill something.”
She hopped to her feet. “Hell, yes.”
Beatrice ran to the bathroom to take a shower. As she reached down to untie the drawstring on her leggings, her fingers twisted in the knot. For a moment, she clutched it, remembering Giovanni’s hands tugging at the drawstring in the tower room. She lifted the front of her shirt and inhaled the sweet and heady fragrance of their combined scents. Then she stripped off her clothes, stepping into the shower as she locked her sorrow away.
A few minutes later, she poked her head out the door. Ben was gone, and Tenzin sat at the desk in the corner of the room, poking through Geber’s journals.
“We should give these to Lucien to look through. He’ll be able to read them.”
Beatrice went to the closet and began to dress in a pair of black jeans and a skin-tight black T-shirt. She slipped on the leather boots she’d worn to the party. “I doubt it. It took me months to wrap my head around Geber’s writing.”
“Trust me, he’ll be able to read them.”
“Is he awake yet?”
Tenzin shook her head. “He probably won’t wake until well after sundown, and we’ll already be in the air.”
“Oh, right, you can fly us. Much better,” Beatrice muttered as she tied her hair back and strapped on the scabbard Baojia had made for her to carry the twin hook-swords that had become her weapon of choice. She slid the two blades into the black leather sheaths and stretched back over her shoulders to make sure she could draw them easily. She thanked her vampire strength and flexibility that she was able to wield them at all.
“Ready?”
Beatrice nodded. “We have a few minutes before sundown. What are we expecting to happen?”
“We’ll fly up there. Scare her. If we’re lucky, some of her guards will attack us and we’ll get to kill some of them.”
Beatrice hesitated as she remembered Carwyn’s admonition to be patient. “As much as I’m looking forward to killing something, are you sure this is a good idea?”
“If they attack us, we can defend ourselves. No one will question it, particularly since you have been put on the defensive, and I am a known ally of Giovanni’s.”
“And you’re sure going there is the right move?”
“It’s the only move. Currently, Livia has all the bargaining power. We need to shift the balance and throw her off her plan. Making her appear weak is our main objective.”
They left the bedroom and walked down the stairs.
Beatrice asked, “So how are we going to do that?”
“When we get there, let me do the talking. I may hate politics, but I know how to play the game when I must.”
“What do I do?”
“You’ll stand behind me and look pissed off and menacing. Like I said, if anyone threatens you, kill them.”
“Even Lorenzo?”
Tenzin cut her eyes to the side. “He’s not that stupid. He might not even be there. It depends on how much attention he’s looking for.”
Beatrice paused at the base of the stairs. “Tenzin, why are we really going?”
The small woman looked up at Beatrice with furious eyes. “For almost a thousand years, the Eastern immortals have left her to her pretense of an empire. She kept to herself. We had no interest in her. Lorenzo changed that. Livia needs to realize that as long as she harbors a vampire who killed my mate and defied my father’s court, she has lost any pretense of disinterest.”
“She’s powerful.”
Tenzin gave a wicked smile, baring her curved fangs. “Never forget, Livia has tasted defeat in the past. She’s vicious, but she’s become soft on her cushioned throne.”
Beatrice nodded, feeling nervous and elated at the same time. She watched as Tenzin strapped her ancient scimitar to her waist and opened the door to the garden. Twilight had fallen.
/> Tenzin held out her hand for Beatrice to grasp as they took to the air with a quick jerk. “My girl,” she called out. “I believe we should remind her what it is to fear.”
A few minutes later, they landed with a soft thud at the gates of Castello Furio. Beatrice could hear the sounds of a party going on in the house.
Tenzin’s eyes swept the grounds. “She’s thinking more defensively.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, two guards rushed them. They came to a halt a few meters away, but Tenzin kept walking at a steady and determined pace.
A guard spoke. “Stop, both of you! You may not enter the castle with weapons.”
Tenzin drew her sword in the space of a heartbeat, sliced off the head of the guard who spoke, and kept walking as the body crumbled to the ground. “Oh, really?”
The other guard immediately snarled and drew his weapon, but Beatrice reached back for the shuang gou, drew them, and cut off the head of the vampire in one smooth movement. She hooked the swords in front of her and kept walking.
Four guards came at them next. Tenzin took to the air and swiftly killed two as Beatrice reached out to either side and hooked her blades around the necks of her attackers. She pulled both of them toward her, feeling the cold blood spatter on her face as their spines were severed and their heads fell at her feet.
By the time they were halfway across the garden, more guards had gathered but had stopped attacking them. They walked up the stairs, and Tenzin sent a great gust of wind to slam against the doors, pushing them open.
The two vampires entered the grand entryway and halted as every eye in the room turned toward them. Beatrice walked to the fountain and tore off a sleeve, flicking her fingers to spray a sheen of water over her blood-splattered face. She patted it dry, staring at the gaping immortals in formal wear that watched them. The music had died, and a path opened through the crowd, guiding them forward.
Beatrice bared her gleaming white fangs and let her amnis churn the water in the fountain until it splashed over the edges of the stone basin.
“Sorry about that.” She sniffed and flicked the water back in. “We left a bit of a mess on the front lawn, too.”
Tenzin hushed her as they walked to the right and into the great banquet hall of Castello Furio. It looked like the party the night before had not stopped with Giovanni’s arrest. Beatrice could see Livia sitting on a plush chaise with a group of admirers in one corner. The noblewoman was dressed in another rich amethyst gown, her hair piled in a tower of curls. She looked up, and the smile fell from her face. She stood as Tenzin came to a halt and sniffed the air.
Out of the corner of her eye, Beatrice saw Lorenzo emerge from a doorway to the right with a company of guards. The guards spread along the edges of the room and Lorenzo stood behind Livia. His smiling eyes never left Beatrice. She glanced at him, then turned back to Tenzin, who stood quietly in front of the Roman. No one spoke until Tenzin opened her mouth.
“Livia.”
“Tenzin.”
“Give me Giovanni Vecchio.”
Livia curled a red-painted lip. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“In thousands of years, I’ve been called many things, but ‘ridiculous’ is not one of them, Roman dog.”
Livia narrowed her eyes and scanned the two vampires, noting their bloody clothes. “Why do you come to my house to insult me, barbarian? To kill my guards? What kind of civilized person comes to a party with bloody weapons?”
“You will give me my friend.”
“Why? Giovanni di Spada killed my husband and mate, Niccolo Andros, his own sire. I have every right to keep him as my prisoner. He is a murderer, a liar, and a thief. His own son confirms it.”
Even though the accusation had been made before, Beatrice could still feel the shock roll through the room, and her own rage mount. She glanced around at the crowd, all of whom were keeping a safe distance. No one seemed to be able to take their eyes off of Tenzin and Livia.
“I do not know the truth of this accusation, nor do I care.” Tenzin lifted her bloody saber and pointed it toward Lorenzo. “I know that you harbor a vampire who has defied a judgment of the immortal elders of Penglai Island. What have you to say to that?”
Livia shrugged. “I have received no official correspondence from that court. Who are you to speak for them?”
Beatrice could hear a few gasps around the room. Apparently, Livia was surprising even the jaded Roman population with her arrogance. From the corner of her eye, she saw Emil Conti approach with watchful eyes.
“Who am I?” Tenzin bared her fangs. Beatrice could hear the rustle of alarm spread through the room, but Livia remained still. “I am Tenzin. That is all the explanation you require.”
Livia lifted an eyebrow. “Oh? And who makes these ridiculous accusations of my associate?”
Beatrice forced back the angry words that wanted to burst from her mouth. Her fangs grew long, and she tasted blood. She glanced over at Tenzin, but the small vampire looked eerily calm as she turned her back on Livia and addressed the Roman crowd.
“This vampire who Livia favors, Lorenzo, defied an official judgment of the Eight Immortals when he stole a manuscript from their scribe, Beatrice De Novo. Further, he and his vampires slaughtered the learned monks of Elder Lu Dongbin in the Wuyi Mountains. They killed humans under immortal aegis, none of whom had provoked such an attack.”
A growing wind built in the room, lifting Tenzin as she surveyed the crowd. Beatrice looked on, unable to tear her eyes from the frightening specter of her friend wielding her power. Tenzin turned to Livia, but her voice echoed off the stone walls.
“The vampire you shelter defied the Elders, slaughtered the monks, and then...” Tenzin swooped down and grabbed Lorenzo by the throat, lifting him in the air and beyond the reach of his patroness. “Then, this bastard killed my mate.”
The reaction was instantaneous. The Roman vampires, still even in the face of Tenzin’s frightening power, began to whisper and scuttle to the edges of the room. The black-clad guards stepped forward, surrounding Beatrice, but keeping their distance from her drawn weapons.
Livia calmly walked down the steps and came to stand in front of Beatrice. She looked up with haughty eyes. “And what immortal accuses Lorenzo of this murder?”
Beatrice made sure she spoke loud enough to be heard over the rushing wind.
“I do. He killed my father and my sire, Stephen De Novo.”
Livia was silent for a moment before she burst into laughter. “Lorenzo killed your father? How predictable. And why should we believe the accusations of an angry child?”
Beatrice let a satisfied smile curve her lips when she realized the trap that Tenzin had so carefully laid. Lorenzo dropped from Tenzin’s grasp a moment before the wind vampire landed next to Beatrice. Tenzin kicked the blond vampire to the corner and stepped between Beatrice and Livia.
“Quite right, Livia.” The Roman inched back as Tenzin crowded her. “You are quite right. Who would believe the angry accusations of a grieving child? Even more”—Tenzin aimed a glare at Lorenzo—“who would believe the accusations of a spiteful child? One who has always coveted his father’s wealth? Why, to believe something like that without question, would be... madness.”
The air was suddenly still and not a whisper could be heard. Livia took a step back. Anger churned in her eyes, but her face was otherwise placid. Finally, she turned and sat on the brocade sofa where she had been holding court. Lorenzo brushed his clothes off and came to sit next to her. She placed her hand in his.
“So, Tenzin, what do you want? We all know your power, but you are in my court now, not an island in the sea. You know I will not release your friend, and you cannot have Lorenzo. There is obviously some investigation to be done in this matter, which I trust you will allow me to pursue. I’m a very fair person. Are you?”
“Not particularly.”
Beatrice heard a few laughs in the crowd. One of them, she was almost certain, belonged to Emil Co
nti. Tenzin continued watching Livia with cold, calculating eyes.
“You know what I want, Livia. I want Giovanni Vecchio returned to his wife, the daughter of my mate. I want the head of the vampire on your left. I’ve considered killing you, as well, but I’m willing to let you live as long as you meet my demands.”
“I could kill Giovanni with a snap of my fingers.” Livia raised a hand and Beatrice could not stop the snarl that left her lips. Livia smirked. “But I won’t, of course. Some of us aren’t barbarians.”
“And some of us are.” Tenzin stepped closer and pointed at Lorenzo. “He exists at my pleasure. I could kill him quite easily; I’m sure you know this. If any harm comes to my friend, I will.”
“As I said, I’m not—”
“And if that is not enough incentive to keep Giovanni Vecchio safe...” Tenzin again raised a swirling wind that lifted her in the air as she faced the Roman immortals. She lifted her arms, raising her bloody sword. “Vampires of Rome, I am the only child of Zhuang Guo, warrior king of the ancient steppes. I am the daughter of the Northern Wind. It has been many years since the hordes from the East have descended on your land, but make no mistake, we can and will raise them again.”
Faster than the eye could follow, Tenzin darted down to twist the neck from the guard who stood next to Livia, splattering blood across her purple gown. A group of guards rushed toward them, but Beatrice raised her swords, twisting them in a razor-sharp whirl until they fell back.
Tenzin snatched the head of the guard and flew to the top of the room, then dropped to the ground in a crouch and tossed the guard’s head at Livia’s feet. Then she stood up, smearing the blood across her cheek as she tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Make no mistake, Roman. I am not civilized. Giovanni Vecchio remains safe, or I will call the Golden Horde. And remember, no ancient power remains to guard your Eastern gate.”
Then Tenzin grasped Beatrice’s arm, and the two vampires flew from the room in a rush of wind.
A few miles outside of Rome, they suddenly dropped to the ground. Beatrice looked around at the small, deserted piazza with a fountain in the middle. Judging by the position of the moon, it was probably around ten o’clock.