The Immortal Greek

by Monica La Porta

  In a sudden burst of lucidity, she remembered her nudity and found his formality comic.

  Drako swore in Greek. “Ravenna, are you okay?” When she didn’t answer, he raised the assailant by his collar and shook him. “What did you do to her?”

  The man must have given him an answer Drako didn’t like because he hit him so hard the man’s head bounced several times. Then Drako repeated his question. The assailant shook violently, then slumped between Drako’s hands.

  With the last of her strength, Ravenna gave one last look at the unfolding scene while trying to raise her hands to cover her breasts.

  Drako checked the man’s pulse, swore again, and let the body fall to the floor with a thud. “Damned coward.” He was at her side a blink of an eye later, his face a worried mask. “Ravenna, can you hear me?”

  She wanted to nod, but wasn’t sure she could. He had called her by her name.

  “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. I’m calling Samuel right now.”

  She knew from the reflection off the door mirror he was stroking her shoulders, but couldn’t feel the pressure of his hands on her skin. He left her line of sight for a moment, then reappeared with the white terry robe dangling before her eyes. He draped her with the robe, gently adjusting her limbs to cover her.

  “Help is coming.” He reached his arm around her back and tried to help her get up, but she kept sliding down. “It’s okay. I’ll take care of you.” He took her in his arms and cradled her to his chest, then carried her out of the bathroom.

  She heard him make a few phone calls. He said something to her as well, but she was too tired to answer.

  ****

  Alexander looked down at Ravenna nestled in his arms. She looked peaceful, almost childlike. The thought made him smile. Ravenna Del Sarto was a formidable woman and would have probably punched him if he ever told her she looked like a child. She was definitely going to punch him as soon as she regained consciousness and realized she had lain scantily clothed on his lap. He rearranged the lapels of the terry robe to fully cover her chest.

  When he called Samuel, the angel told him to wait for the para unit to arrive and that it would take a few minutes. He had snarled back at Samuel to send them over yesterday, surprising both the angel and himself. Now, the adrenaline rush was ebbing and he shook as if he were running a fever. On unsteady legs, he rose from the couch where he had sat to take a breather, then carried Ravenna to her bed. When he bent to his knees to lower her on the white coverlet, she moved against his chest, burrowing closer to him. He lowered both of them to the bed and laid her on its center, then peeled away one side of the bedding to cover her with it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the man’s feet and decided he had to remove the body from the bedroom. Alexander grabbed the man by his ankles and dumped him in the middle of the kitchen, where he furiously paced, waiting for the cavalry to show up.

  The para unit and Samuel arrived a few minutes later. While the doctor and the nurse examined Ravenna, Alexander took Samuel to see the body. “My guess is he bit a poison capsule.”

  “I’m sure the autopsy will confirm that.” Samuel crouched by the dark figure and removed the ski mask covering his face. Then he turned on a recorder similar to the one Ravenna had used and gave the man a good look. “Immortal. Approximate human age between thirty and thirty-five. Average height and build. Sudden, unexplained death. Possible cause, poison, self-administered.” He then rose and headed to one of the kitchen counters where he opened and closed several drawers before finding a wooden spatula. He strolled back to the body, then used the flat end of the spatula to raise the dead’s lips, first the upper lip, then the lower. “Scratch that. Sure cause of death, self-ingestion of poison.” He gestured for Alexander to step closer and lowered the man’s lower lip to show him the dark brown stain coloring his gums and the inside of his lip. “He must have truly feared his employer’s anger.”

  Alexander straightened his legs then hugged himself, rocking on his heels. “Why the attack on Ravenna?” He caught himself one word too late. “Why Miss Del Sarto?”

  Samuel looked at him from under his lashes. “Don’t know yet.” He stood and went to the counter and rummaged through the drawers again, found a box with transparent freezer bags, and dropped the spatula inside one of them.

  Alexander followed him and leaned on the counter. “She was distraught back at your office. Was she just upset about having to work with me?”

  “Well, I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled about that.” Samuel moved to the sink and washed his hands with soap and water, then grabbed a towel from a hook and dried them.

  Alexander raised one eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s disappointing.”

  The angel moved about the kitchen as if it were his home. He reached for the moka sitting on the higher shelf of the cabinet next to the fridge, then grabbed the coffee beans can sitting on the counter top. “Would you like some coffee while we wait for the doctor to finish?”

  “No, thanks. I’m fine.” Alexander sat at the kitchen table. For some reason, he didn’t like that Samuel was familiar with her place.

  Samuel poured a good handful of coffee beans into the coffee grinder and let it run until the whole kitchen smelled of freshly roasted coffee. He brought the container with the ground beans to his nose and breathed in with great gusto.

  “Why do you think the doctor is taking so long?” Alexander wanted to check on what they were doing to Ravenna.

  “Relax. She’s in very good hands. The doctor knows her well.” Samuel fixed the moka and turned on the smaller burner on the gas stove.

  “Is she often in danger?”

  Samuel turned to face him and opened his arms to the side. “She’s an enforcer. And why the interest?”

  Alexander shrugged. “Just to make conversation.” He wanted to ask several questions, but resigned himself to look outside the window and let his mind wander to the recent events that had disrupted his usually easy life.

  When Alexander looked back inside the kitchen, Samuel held a cup of fuming coffee over a saucer and appeared deep in thought.

  “She was upset in my office,” the angel said.

  Alexander straightened on the chair.

  Samuel brought the cup to his lips and drank the coffee in one draw, then put cup and saucer in the sink and washed them. “She has a personal reason to investigate Immortal Death’s suicides. Her brother was one of the first opting out of immortality using the potion.”

  The doctor and the nurse chose that moment to come out of Ravenna’s bedroom.

  “How is she?” Alexander asked, once again realizing a moment too late how that sounded.

  Samuel echoed his question a fraction later and gave him a raised eyebrow.

  “She’s fine. As suspected, she was poisoned. We had to flush the poison from her system and the practice is rather taxing. She needs to drink small sips of water every half hour or so.” The doctor, a gentleman in his fifties whom Alexander had never met before, talked in a low monotone, gesticulating with his gloved hands.

  “Do you know what kind of poison she was injected with?” Samuel had left his chair and was now towering over the doctor, who had moved to check on the body lying on the kitchen floor.

  The doctor opened the dead’s mouth as Samuel had already done. “The same the assailant died from, but in a smaller percentage. A paralyzing mixture. Possibly curare. My guess is that he didn’t mean to kill her right away.”

  “But she will be okay. There won’t be complications.” Alexander inched closer to the bricked archway, wanting to see with his own eyes that she really was fine.

  “We pumped her stomach and it hadn’t passed enough time for the poison to do any serious damage. So, yes, my professional opinion is that she will recuperate from this ordeal. She’s a strong woman. She’s been in worse situations and she kicked back in no time.” On his way out, the doctor passed by Alexander and patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry.”

&n
bsp; Samuel walked the doctor and the nurse to the door, then came back, and looked at Alexander with a grin on his face. “I’m assigning a detail to look after her tonight.”

  “I can stay.” Alexander realized, yet another time, he had spoken too fast, but the words were out.

  Samuel’s grin became more pronounced, a strange sight on the fallen angel’s usually composed face. “I’m sure you have things to do. Parties to attend. Women to ravage.”

  Alexander inwardly groaned. His friend could be such a pain in the ass sometimes. “I won’t leave her alone.”

  Samuel stepped forward, his serious self back. “Be careful. She’s different.”

  “And you would know because?” Alexander couldn’t help but raise his voice.

  The angel sighed and shook his head. “Because we are good friends.”

  Alexander wanted Samuel gone.

  “I’ll send the detail anyway. They’ll be outside.” Samuel tipped his head and turned to leave.

  Alexander didn’t wait for his friend to close the door behind him and headed straight to Ravenna’s bedroom. She was lying in the middle of her big bed, over the sheets, sleeping. The coverlet he had covered her with was gone. Her head rested high on two pillows, and her hair fanned all over the white linens. The nurse had changed her because she was wearing black silk pajamas, one of those sets resembling a man’s shirt and matching pants. Pearls of sweat crowned her forehead. He leaned over her and wiped her cold, clammy skin with the palm of his right hand.

  Looking around the room, he saw the armoire in the corner. He opened it and found a quilt to wrap her with. Her eyes moved fast under her eyelids as if she were in the middle of a dream. He hoped it was a good dream and brushed her cheek with his fingers.

  Alexander stepped back and looked at the woman who had filled his mind with all sort of thoughts. And all had happened in less than twenty-four hours. “You must be part-siren. There’s no other explanation.” He chuckled at his own flight of fancy. “I can have any woman in Rome and I’m here playing nurse to a sleeping beauty.” Remembering his duty, he walked to the kitchen where he filled a pitcher with fresh water, looked for a glass and linen napkin, and a few minutes later was back by her side.

  He put the pitcher and the glass on the nightstand, then dipped one corner of the napkin in the water. “Let’s see if you like this.” He lowered a knee on the bed and leaned closer to pass the soaked fabric over her lips. She softly moaned and he took that as her assent, and gently stroked her eyelids and forehead with the linen. When she parted her lips ever so slightly and tilted her head up, he reached under her neck and raised her to let her drink a few sips from the glass.

  Reluctantly, he lowered her back to the bed, then retreated to the padded armchair on the side. He wanted to lie with her and wrap her in his embrace instead of the quilt, but it would be highly inappropriate given the fact they were nearly strangers. He pinched the arch of his nose and pushed his head to the headrest behind, his eyes staring at the white ceiling.

  “This wasn’t one of my smartest ideas.” He sighed, then tried to make himself comfortable on the chair, but he was a tall, restless man, and that chair was his enemy at the moment. He looked out the window; the sun was lower on the horizon, casting long shadows inside the room. His Rolex confirmed it was still afternoon, and he had the whole night ahead of him. To his left, French doors opened into a small studio. He checked that Ravenna was still peacefully sleeping, then entered the studio.

  Despite all the obvious differences, the room reminded him of the coziness of his alcove. A modern desk, aluminum with a black top, faced an oval window overlooking the pine trees outside and the faraway Roman cityscape. A matching chair with a tubular frame was packed under the desk. On the opposite wall from the door, two bookshelves were crammed with books. In fact, as he surveyed the whole space, books were everywhere. On the mosaic floor. On the windowsill. On the chair under the desk. Over the desk. On the shelf right over the door frame. The French doors, their glass panels covered by two white curtains fitting inside the frame, couldn’t be closed because books were in the way. He smiled. Ravenna’s sancta sanctorum was rather messy.

  “Let’s see. What do you like to read?” A few minutes later, he had discovered that Ravenna Del Sarto, the enforcer with the capital E, had a penchant for tragic love stories and was a history buff. He was also pleased to find several books about Ancient Greek history and mythology. He found a title regarding life in Florence at the time Ravenna had been born, and after leafing through it, he saw the notes written on the margins. He exited her studio and took the book with him.

  She stirred and mumbled a few words. He thought he heard her calling out names, but couldn’t be sure. A moment later, she was calm again. He gave her a few sips of water, then sat on the chair and opened the book. Back during the Renaissance in Italy, the same time she had started her life as an infant in one of the most prestigious families in Florence, he had been in Rome, living at the court of Pope Borgia. He taught Greek and Latin to the pope’s nephews, when Ravenna had been learning to walk.

  He perused the yellowed pages of the book, but was more interested in the notes left in neat handwriting and wondered if it was her calligraphy. A chapter was dedicated to the Del Sarto family. The notes intensified in number on that chapter. Both Ravenna’s parents came from illustrious families. Her mother, Camilla Giudici, was a much-celebrated beauty whose father had been major of Pisa. Ravenna’s father came from a long line of Florentine notables, and he was a famous barrister himself. Ravenna had a brother, Tommaso, a few years younger than her.

  Alexander read the paragraph about a sudden plague sweeping away the two siblings along with so many others in Florence. The book reported their deaths, aged twenty-one and eighteen, in the A.D. fifteen-eighty-two. A note scribbled in a less readable handwriting and stained by a water mark that had left a halo reported a different date for Tommaso’s death. Ravenna’s brother had died at the beginning of the last century.

  He closed the book, feeling like an intruder prying on Ravenna’s sorrow.

  ****

  Ravenna woke with the worst hangover she had ever experienced. Her head was heavy, her stomach hurt, her tongue was made of sandpaper. She opened her eyes and felt like throwing up, then noticed the slumped form on her chair, and she remembered bits and pieces of what had happened to her. “What are you doing here?” She sat against the headboard. She should have put some venom in her words, but it was too early in the morning.

  Alexander Drako stretched his long legs, yawned, then tilted his head toward her. “At least you haven’t screamed at me. Yet.” He took his face between his hands, his fingers caressing the blond regrowth shadowing his jaws. “How do you feel?”

  She passed her tongue over her teeth, then shrugged. “I’ve fared worse.”

  He gave her a smile. “So I’ve been told.” He made to stand, hands over the padded armrests, ready to leave.

  She reached her hand toward him and brushed his fingers. “Thank you for saving my life.”

  He looked down at her retreating fingers trailing over the quilt, and his expression changed. “I’m glad I decided to visit yesterday.”

  She looked down at herself, then at him. “About that—”

  He raised one finger to ask permission to talk. “Before you get mad, let me explain.”

  She pushed her knees up and rested her chin on them, arms hugging her legs over the quilt. “Okay.”

  “Yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with Lucius Seneca Quintilius and I wanted to share what I found with you. I called you several times, then I realized I was just around the corner and decided to stop by. Once I arrived here, something was wrong, and the rest you know.”

  She hugged herself closer. “I was… undressed.”

  “I covered you.” Alexander stiffened and his voice held a cold note.

  “I have a vague recollection of the doctor being here.” She was usually quite blunt and got to the point
without dancing around questions, but words failed her. “But I sensed only you around.”

  His hands left the armrests and he stepped out of the chair, farther away from the bed. “I stayed the whole night. Mostly, I sat here. Besides giving you water and wiping your forehead dry, I haven’t touched you. Is that what are you hinting at?”

  Any other time, she would have answered. Instead, she wiggled her toes and kept silent.

  Alexander turned and walked toward the hallway, but stopped at the door and looked at her from over his shoulder. “I assure you, I like my lovers to be fully awake.”

  He looked and sounded hurt and she felt terrible for the implication.

  “I’ll call Samuel and ask him to send a woman nurse to attend to you.” He reached for his jeans’ rear pocket and retrieved a cell phone while stepping into the hallway.

  Ravenna raised her voice to be heard. “Speaking of which, I guess I should report to Samuel—”

  Cell phone at his ear, he reappeared in the doorway. “You need to rest. You were drugged with a paralyzing agent, then had your stomach pumped.”

  “I’m fine. I told you, this is nothing.” She raised her legs and swung them over the side of the bed. The moment her feet touched the floor, her head swam, and she was taken by a bout of nausea.

  “I understand you’d do anything to fall into my arms, but take it easy, enforcer.” One moment he was outside her room, the next he was leaning over the bed, his arms protectively supporting her.

  “You wish.” She inhaled his scent through his shirt tailored to show his lean physique and felt even more lightheaded. His arms felt strong and she wanted nothing more than to fall asleep in his embrace, her eyes already closing. He shuddered and she found herself clinging to his shirt, her hands fisting its fine fabric in knots.

  When she looked up, she found his eyes staring down at hers, and she had to unlock her gaze, unable to bear his intensity. “I think I need a bath.” She wasn’t sure she had said the words out loud until he replied to her.

  He opened his mouth, then closed it. “Maybe you should wait for the nurse to arrive.” He let her down on the bed and gently released his hold on her back.