“And what of you?” Giovanni asked him. “What was your agenda, Ziri?”
“I was curious,” he said.
Beatrice said, “Curious?”
The old wind vampire chuckled. “I believe that it is not a condition you are unfamiliar with, Beatrice De Novo.”
Giovanni pinched her waist and smiled. “No, indeed not.” He pulled her under his arm and turned his attention back to the story. “So, you all agreed to help Geber in his research. And you were successful?”
“That, I’m sure we can all agree, is debatable. Jabir did stabilize the blood. It took years, but the formula appeared to work. He had tried it on several servants who were diseased and it had proven to be useful for healing. As for the bloodlust, we weren’t as certain. And we were all very cautious. It was your grand-sire”—Ziri nodded toward Giovanni—“who eventually tried it. His lover, a very kind and loving young man, was ill. A wasting disease, probably some kind of cancer. But it was spreading and Kato became… strangely emotional. He forced his lover to take the elixir, then drank from him. He said if the young man did not live, that he did not care to, either. It was shocking to us, to risk himself for a mortal, but it was his choice, after all.”
All three vampires were riveted on the old immortal as he spoke. “And then what happened?” Beatrice said.
“We thought it was a success. The young man, Fadhil, grew strong again. Kato drank his blood and claimed to need no more. He claimed he was no longer thirsty. That he no longer felt the pull of hunger or the burn in his throat.”
Carwyn asked, “So why didn’t you all try it? If it appeared to be a success, why not?”
Ziri cocked an eyebrow. “Kato was in love with this human. In raptures over the possibility that his lover could live forever, and he would no longer have to feed from humans. The best of all worlds. No sacrifice. No trade-off. The rest of us… we were more cautious. I wanted to give it time. Perhaps, I thought, in one hundred years, if the human was still living, perhaps then I would try it. I left shortly after the initial tests. I was bored in Kufa and needed to travel.”
Giovanni said, “But how did it end? Why did you deceive the world about Kato? What happened to him?”
“I received a message from Saba a few years later. She did not say much, only that Arosh and Kato had gone away. That she was taking Geber’s research for further study and that I should not try to replicate it or drink from any human that had taken the elixir. She said—and this is how I know it is very dangerous—that she had killed all those who had been test subjects. There were dangers. She said that Arosh had asked her to spread the word that he and Kato had killed each other, and she wanted my help in spreading the rumors.”
“And you agreed?” Giovanni was angry. “Without asking for more information? Without confirming—”
“What would I confirm?” Ziri broke in. “Who would I ask? Saba only tells you what she wants you to know. Arosh? I had no idea where he was at the time. And, most importantly, I trusted my friend. If Saba said this was necessary, then it was. We had been friends, the four of us, for thousands of years. If she asked me to spread this rumor, it was for Arosh and Kato’s protection.”
Giovanni stood and paced. He was angry with the vague picture that Ziri had painted. Angry that he knew so much… but still not enough. Why did Lorenzo and Livia want this elixir? No one even truly knew what it did.
Beatrice said, “Well, if it did to Kato what it’s doing to Lucien—”
“Lucien?” He spun toward her. “Lucien who?”
“The Thracian, Gio,” Carwyn said gently. “Tenzin found him in Bulgaria. He’s drunk from an elixired human and there’s something very wrong. Whatever is happening to him seems to be weakening him dangerously.”
Giovanni looked at Beatrice. “What has happened while I was gone?”
She looked embarrassed. “Well, I was going to fill you in, but… two days, you know?”
He couldn’t argue with her. Catching up on news hadn’t even crossed his mind. He heard Carwyn snort as Giovanni sat next to her and pulled her onto his lap.
Carwyn muttered, “Haven’t you two done anything besides shag this entire time?”
Giovanni shot him a look. “Two days.”
“Fine, but yes, since you didn’t know, Lucien Thrax is staying at the Rome house, and he’s not well. Tenzin is with one of the Chinese delegations. You and I are going to go off looking for two supposedly dead vampires so we have some sort of proof that Livia is trying to… whatever she’s trying to do. And your wife and Ziri are going back to Rome to keep an eye on the court and find out if Livia actually has any of the elixir like the rumors are claiming.”
Giovanni could think of a dozen objections to that plan immediately, but there was one question his brain couldn’t file away. He turned back to Ziri. “How did my father get this book? I thought Saba had taken it, so how did it come to be in Andros’s possession?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. I had met your father a few times while I was spending time with Kato. They weren’t close, you know. Kato regretted turning Andros, though he never said so directly. He thought Andros was too greedy for power and knowledge. Your father was a voracious book collector, but not out of any altruistic reasons. He was greedy for knowledge, but he stored it away like he was stealing secrets. And he had become obsessed with creating the perfect vampire. A foolish quest—what interest is there in perfection? The next time I saw him was during the Renaissance.” He smiled at Giovanni. “You probably don’t remember, Jacopo. You were quite young, but I met him in Rome during the Giovanni Pico debates. I was there to meet with your uncle, but I remember you, as well.”
Carwyn bolted up. “What? That was your uncle? I always thought that was you!”
Beatrice said, “I figured that out when I was human, Carwyn. What makes you so slow?”
He sat back with a sulky look on his face. “I just don’t choose to be nosey, unlike some people.”
“Both of you, stop,” Giovanni said. “So you were watching the debates in Rome and you met Andros there? I remember him being there. He was trailing after my uncle at the time, though I didn’t understand why until later.”
Ziri nodded. “Yes, I met him there. He had acquired the majority of your father’s books after his ‘death’ and had some questions. He knew Kato and I were friends, so he was cautious. But I could tell from his questions that he had somehow laid his hands on Geber’s research. He was too curious. He would not let the subject go. It was at that point that I knew I would have to kill him and get the books back. I left Rome and went to seek Saba. I needed to know what she did.”
The air had left Giovanni’s lungs. “So… you would have killed Andros? And taken the book?”
Ziri’s eyes drifted to the fire. “By the time I returned from Africa, years had passed. I had met with Saba and we were both in agreement. Though she claimed to have no idea where Andros acquired the book, she did not tell me what she had done with it. She did tell me where I could find Arosh and Kato if I felt like I needed their permission to kill Andros. I did not go. From talking with her, I knew Andros could not live. This knowledge had to remain a secret.” He looked up and met Giovanni’s gaze. “Imagine my surprise when I returned to Italy to find that a young immortal had done the job for me.”
Carwyn sighed. “So it’s true?”
Giovanni turned to his friend. “My father was not who people thought he was. He was—”
“Hold, Gio.” Carwyn held up his hands. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I know it’s not something you would have done lightly.”
Giovanni turned back to Ziri. “How did you know? How did you know that it wasn’t an accident? A robbery, as we claimed?”
Ziri smiled. “Because I recognized you, my friend. I recognized the boy who had grown into a man and then been transformed into one of us. I remembered the bright child and I heard about your uncle’s death. I could guess what had happened. Andros had finally made hi
mself the perfect child. And that child was so perfect, he knew that his sire needed to be burned from the earth. So I say, well done, Giovanni Vecchio.”
Guilt still burned in Giovanni’s chest and anger toward the placid immortal who seemed so detached, but Beatrice rubbed his thigh comfortingly. “And the book?” she asked. “Geber’s research?”
“The fires,” Giovanni murmured in understanding. “You thought as I did.”
“Everyone knew that the library of Niccolo Andros had been scattered. Some books burned in Savonarola's fires. Others lost or destroyed… I had no reason to think that Andros had shared the information with anyone. Whom did he trust besides himself?”
Giovanni’s mouth was a grim line. “No one.”
“No one.” Ziri nodded. “And until Stephen found the books, I doubt Lorenzo knew what he had, either. They were artifacts to him. But when Stephen found them, Lorenzo took a closer look. And, as your father learned, he found something quite unique.”
Now, it was Beatrice who spoke. “You never told me how you found my father.”
“Tywyll the water vampire is an old, old friend. I have used him for information many times in my travels. He is old as Arosh or Kato or any of us, though he’s always preferred the solitude of his British rivers and his dirty pubs. When Stephen came to him to exchange gold for safe passage, he recognized what your father had. He did not know the whole of it, but he must have remembered our work in Kufa. I had told him about the time I’d spent there, though I never told him why. He put the pieces together and contacted me. I told him… enough. He wasn’t very curious, but he wanted me to help Stephen.”
Ziri turned to Beatrice. “I will not lie to you. My initial intention was to find your father, kill him, and destroy the book. But I became interested in his mind. In his research. I thought… why not another? Perhaps another could succeed where we had failed? Perhaps this search had not been in vain. So, instead of killing him, I watched him. I protected him.” Ziri leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. His face was carefully blank. “I suppose, in the end, I was still curious.”
Giovanni sat, staring at Ziri for a moment as he tried to process the revelations the ancient had given them. Finally, he spoke. “Ziri, if you would leave us, please.”
Ziri gave a regal bow. “Of course.”
Beatrice sat next to him. Carwyn stood across the room. He could tell that some of the information had been new to his wife and friend, but not all.
He said, “I can see that much has been discovered and planned in my absence.”
Beatrice tried to interrupt. “Gio, we—”
He cut her off. “You have all made your plans, but now I am back. And I will tell you what I will do.”
Chapter Eighteen
Lake Maggiore, Switzerland
June 2012
Beatrice opened her mouth again, but Carwyn caught her eye with a warning glare. He shook his head slightly, so she shut her mouth.
“I am going back to Rome. I am going to find Livia and kill her. Then, I am going to find my son and kill him. I will take the book back, destroy it, and see to it that any of the elixir that has been made is destroyed. I will maintain my reputation so that others who threaten my family will fear me. If that means that I have to kill half of Rome, so be it. If that means I have to travel to Greece and kill the council there, I will.” His voice rose. “If that means that I have to spend the next hundred years killing, maiming, and burning the European immortal community to the ground, I will. I will not run and hide. I will not stand for others shielding me, and I will not stand for Livia to live while I walk the earth. Is that understood?”
Beatrice was speechless. She could handle Giovanni’s fiery anger, but the cold rage that poured off her husband was something she rarely encountered. Again, she opened her mouth to speak, but Carwyn spoke first.
“Fine, Gio.” Her eyes widened, but Carwyn glared her into silence before he continued. “You know you have my backing, as well as the support of Jean in France and Terry in London. The Germans may have a problem with it, but I have a feeling that you could make your case to Matilda. It’s too bad you’re married already. A political marriage could have solved that problem, but I’m sure you can work something out. Greece will be tricky, but they’re not strong enough to really oppose you once you control Rome.”
Beatrice’s head began to swim, and she felt Giovanni stiffen beside her. Carwyn just continued on in a deadly quiet voice. “I can secure the support of the Vatican. Emil Conti would be your most likely rival for power. We had planned on cultivating him as an ally, but that is easily cured. You’ll probably need to eliminate him and most of those under his aegis to avoid any future problems. A takeover in Rome is long overdue. Most of the other centers of power have switched to a new guard in the last hundred years or so. Rome was the only holdout. Once you’re established, you’ll need to start thinking about whom you want as a lieutenant. I have some ideas, but you might want to bring in entirely new people. After all, you are an outsider, so it wouldn’t be nearly as simple as an internal coup. Still, it’s manageable.”
She wanted to protest. Her heart was racing, and the words were on the tip of her tongue, but Carwyn just kept talking in a steady voice. “You’ll need to send Beatrice and Ben back to the States, of course. She’s strong, but as she’d be targeted constantly, her presence would be a distraction for you. She’ll be far safer in Los Angeles under Ernesto’s protection until things are stable. If everything goes well, in fifty years she’ll be by your side again, my friend.”
Carwyn finally leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Really, not all that long in the vast span of things. Excellent plan, Gio. Let me know when you want to leave.”
Giovanni shot out of his seat and across the room, plowing his fist into the wall and shouting, “Damn it!”
Carwyn said, “You want to blaze into Rome and take out Livia. That’s what you’re looking at. You know I’m right.”
She saw him glare. “I’ll hand it over to Conti.”
Carwyn snorted. “Brilliant plan. Conti will take it and then try to kill you. He’d have to, or no one would respect him, and he’d be battling rivals for the next hundred years.”
“I’ll…”
“What?” Carwyn rose and walked over to stand next to him. Beatrice was tempted to speak, but knew that Giovanni needed to reach the same conclusions they had weeks before.
Carwyn leaned closer and spoke softly. “What are you going to do, Gio? You want to kill Livia? You get Rome. That’s the way it works. You’ll be embroiled in politics for the next three hundred years, at least.”
“I have no desire to rule Rome.”
He took a deep breath. “Then you need to listen to Beatrice’s plan.”
Giovanni pulled his fist out of the wall and turned around. He leaned against it and crossed his arms. “Livia still needs to die.”
Beatrice finally spoke. “She will. And hopefully, you’ll be able to kill her, but this needs to come from someone in Rome, unless we want the city to descend into chaos that you’ll be expected to clean up. In the long run, it’s the easiest way. Emil Conti has been making moves to return the city to a more republican form of leadership for years. He’s sensible. Stable. Given the right circumstances, he could take over and we wouldn’t be stuck with it. We just need to create the right opportunity for him.”
Giovanni smirked. “You sound so very American right now, my dear.”
“Hey.” She shrugged. “We do love our revolutions. But this time, we’ll try to make it slightly less bloody.”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “What’s your plan?”
“Dez and Ben have discovered where she’s been producing it. It’s a cosmetics factory in Bulgaria. We need you and Carwyn to go shut it down. Find the humans she’s been working with. Find out how much they know. From what Ziri remembers and looking at Lucien Thrax’s condition, we know that this elixir is harmful to
immortals, but she’s been circulating rumors that she has some great revelation. A secret that will make Rome the center of the world again and make her even wealthier. We need to get people doubting her. Questioning her intentions. If we can make people distrust her—”
“We can try, but who will believe us?” Giovanni shrugged. “She’s charismatic. Powerful. Even if we find out the elixir is poison, she could play it as if she was a victim. She’s very good at manipulation.”
Carwyn spoke up. “If we can find Arosh, Ziri’s certain we’ll find Kato. If we can find Kato, we’ll know the truth about the effects.”
“The truth doesn’t matter,” Giovanni shouted. “It only matters what people believe.”
“Then we’ll make them believe. Listen Gio, she either knows what the effects are, or we’ll make it sound like she does and didn’t care. Saba, the greatest healer in our history, killed everyone who had taken it. Killed them, Gio. Ziri thinks the truth will be damaging enough for her allies to abandon her. Once that has happened, Conti can step in with minimal conflict, because he is the obvious successor. There will be some bloodshed, of course, but we’ll be able to let him take the lead so that he’s the one stuck with the city. We’ll be backing him up, instead of acting as usurpers. Jean and Terry will throw their support behind him. The Vatican likes him already, which will lend him further legitimacy with the younger Roman vampires, most of whom identify as Catholic. It’s the easiest way.”
“You’re forgetting that we have nothing as proof. Nothing. We have guesses and the memories of one of the vampires involved. We have one sick vampire. Memories and suppositions. Even Lucien doesn’t know what’s really going on with his own health.” Giovanni paced the room.