Light Me Up

by McKenna, Shannon

  “You will place Russo, Vilardi, and Naimo near the cross in the Sala,” Konig said, slowly. “Is that understood?”

  Lella gave him a jerky nod.

  “Repeat my directions,” Konig said.

  “I will place Russo, Vilardi, and Naimo in key positions in the Sala.” Lella’s voice was now so slurred, he sounded drunk.

  “Very good,” Konig said softly.

  A thin thread of blood trickled from Lella’s nostril and pooled over the scar tissue on the man’s upper lip. Konig pulled out his handkerchief from his pocket, leaned over the desk, and dabbed at Lella’s mouth until it was clean. Almost tenderly.

  He tucked the handkerchief into his pocket, walked outside, and canceled the command frequency. He let the door fall closed as Lella sagged forward onto his desk with a choked cry. Released.

  He hurried straight for his room, but couldn’t resist pulling out the tablet as he went, flicking through the camera feeds until he found the mystery couple again.

  They were in the garden now. Having what looked like a very intense conversation. Their backs were mostly turned. He couldn’t even read their lips.

  The woman’s ass was very fine in that red dress. In a couple of hours, all that seductive femininity would be ground meat. Or charred to ash. Pity. Such a waste.

  But now that he looked at the woman more attentively, she began to strike him as problematic in her own way. The set of her shoulders, the angle of her chin, the way she tossed back her hair. She had the posture of a woman who needed to be put in her place.

  He could think of a few good places.

  Chapter 9

  Caro kept a tight grip on Noah’s arm until they were out onto the wide flagstoned veranda that overlooked the garden. From there, a broad, shallow staircase led down toward a long reflecting pool. The rectangle of water mirrored the ragged pink and gold clouds of sunset, and the evening star high above.

  It was incredibly beautiful, but she was unable to appreciate it. Not after meeting Captain Lella. Images of his agony while being tortured had blindsided her.

  She leaned against Noah and gazed out at the tranquil garden, trying to loosen the tension in her chest.

  “You OK?” Noah asked softly.

  “I will be. That poor man. Lella is in such pain. And I mean right now, in real time. I’m not talking about the past. Could you feel it?”

  “Yes. Something’s way off with that guy,” Noah said. “He spiked my AVP to the max.”

  Caro closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them, deliberately filling her mind with the pink, gold, and lavender clouds reflected in the mirror-smooth pool. A soft breeze ruffled the surface and the images rippled and swayed.

  What had happened to Lella was over. It was past and gone. She was here, right now. With Noah. They were safe. She could breathe.

  “Morelli seemed like an OK guy,” she commented, changing the subject.

  Noah made a disgusted sound. “He’s a walking oil slick.”

  She was startled. “Are you feeling jealous? Seriously?”

  He shrugged.

  She smiled at him. “We’re not staying for dinner or dancing. All I want is to see the cross. Then we can blast on out of here.”

  “Thank God. It can’t be too soon. I did not like the feeling I got from Lella.”

  Caro shivered. “I know what you mean.” She opened up her evening bag and pulled out the red leather ballerina flats she’d stashed in there.

  The quality of the silence tipped her off. She looked up, and caught his intent stare. “Busted,” she said sternly. “Stop that.”

  “Stop what?”

  “You don’t have to monitor me.” She grabbed his thickly muscled forearm to steady herself as she unbuckled the beautiful but useless red high-heeled sandals, then tugged the soft flats on. She buckled the sandals through the handle of her evening bag. Her skirt was now a couple of inches too long, but that was a small price to pay for being mobile again.

  “OK,” she said briskly. “Now we’re talking.” She gathered her skirt up into her hand, and slid an arm through his. “Let’s stroll.”

  They walked silently for some minutes on the path that bordered the pool. The air felt charged with intensity. It hummed between them.

  A drift of flower petals landed on the shoulder of Noah’s tux jacket. Caro reached up to brush them away.

  Noah grabbed her hand and kissed it. Then hung on to it, as if he were working up to something. “Caro,” he said.

  “What is it?”

  He pulled her hand to his lips again. “I want you to have all this.”

  She shook her head, baffled. “All what?”

  He gestured around himself. “Beautiful places. Great experiences. I don’t want your life to be limited by all my tormented Obsidian shit. I also want you to be safe. And I want you always with me. These things just don’t mesh. It’s making me fucking nuts.”

  “I know.” She gazed at him for a moment and smiled. “So? Embrace it. Be fucking nuts, then. What other choice do you have?”

  A brief smile came and went on his face. “None, I guess,” he admitted.

  “Right,” she said. “There is no plan B. Get it through your head.”

  “Keep your voice down,” he murmured, his gaze darting around. “We’re being watched.”

  Caro was beyond the point of being shushed. “You always act like it’s just you who has to make all the tough choices and the painful sacrifices,” she said. “But it’s not just you. Get over yourself. We’re together now.”

  “I hear you,” he said, eyes flicking around them. “The whole Palazzo hears you.”

  “Be warned,” she said. “If you try to pull some bullshit noble sacrifice routine on me, I will kick your modified ass into next week. And I’ll be noisy about it.”

  He looked like he was trying not to grin. “Are you threatening me?”

  “Hell yes! And I mean every goddamn word!”

  He pulled her close and kissed her.

  Whatever she meant to say was lost in the wild rush of emotion. A hidden part of her was always shocked awake when he touched her. She felt stronger, wilder. An untamed animal, dangerous and unpredictable. A force to be reckoned with. Fears, restraints, shyness, all of them just…gone. Like they’d never existed.

  She was all power, all hunger. All for him.

  He smelled so good. Her clutching fingers could barely grip the thick hard muscles of his big shoulders. She loved his huge appetite. The vital force blasting out at her. Loved his skillful, demanding kisses that were worshipful and wildly erotic all at once, and the hard, hot bulge below his belt, pressing into her.

  She wanted him right here. On the grass. Deep and strong and now.

  The only question was where.

  They both looked around, but nothing suggested itself. The meticulously trimmed hedges and rosebushes that bordered the paths were too low to offer privacy. The trees didn’t help either. And as they looked, a group of people in evening dress came around a hedge of shrubs, laughing and talking.

  “Damn,” Noah muttered. “I want to make you come. I want it so bad.”

  “Yes, please,” she whispered back. “I approve of that, as a coping mechanism.”

  That grin transformed his face, but she didn’t have time to enjoy it because he was kissing her again and his mouth was hot and tender. Demanding, delicious.

  “Noah,” she whispered against his lips. “All those people. Stop.”

  “Fuck ‘em.”

  Her protests dissolved against that kiss, but the intensity kept building, and she finally drew back. “I mean it. Stop. Or it’ll just get harder.”

  “Too late.” His voice was strangled. “Oh man. It can’t get any harder than this.”

  “Save it for tonight,” she told him, nipping his earlobe hard en
ough to make him gasp.

  “You’re on,” he muttered. “Shock me. Subdue me. Can’t wait.”

  She dug her fingers into his arms. “You’ve got a long night ahead of you,” she told him. “Save your strength.”

  The group of people smirked shamelessly as they passed. Noah gave them a glance, dismissed them, and turned his attention back to her. “We need to get inside,” he said. “Where I can chill down to socially acceptable proportions.”

  Caro studied the fit of his tux pants, which strained over his erection. “Nice,” she murmured.

  “Stop giving me the pure sex look,” he complained. “It keeps me hard.”

  “So I’ll ignore you.” She turned her back on him, and soon felt his hot lips pressing sensually against her bare shoulder, which made her shiver with excitement.

  “Forget it,” he murmured, kissing her neck. “The back view turns me on too.”

  She cast a seductive smile over her shoulder. “It’s still too early to go inside, right?”

  “Nope,” he said. “Let’s go inside anyway. I want to take you to the Sala dell’Annunziata by another way through the Palazzo. I have an idea.”

  “Oh, really?” Caro crossed her arms. “Another last minute change of plans? Care to explain?”

  Noah sighed. “It was supposed to be a surprise, but nothing gets past you. Come on, Caro. Indulge me, for once.”

  “I’m not in the mood for surprises.”

  “Fine,” he said in a longsuffering voice. “There’s something in the Palazzo that I want you to see. It’s on our way. If we take my special route. OK?”

  She waited for more, fingers tapping on her crossed arms. “What is this thing you want me to see? Something secret? Something private? Something…personal?”

  “For starters, I want privacy to finish that kiss,” he said, pressing his lips against her bare shoulder. “I liked where it was going.”

  This was interesting. He was being almost, well…playful. Good sign. And the look in his eyes made her tingle with erotic anticipation.

  She slid her arm through his again. “OK, Noah. Lead the way. Amaze me.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  They started by strolling down a long allée of tall trees toward the Palazzo. After a while, they veered off at an angle and took a winding path through thick shrubbery, which led them past occasional burbling fountains, blooming roses, and timeworn marble statues. From there, he led her through a thick grove of ornamental trees. Noah’s eyes were faraway as he guided them carefully through a mental maze, the walls of which were visible only to him.

  At one point, Noah stopped, leaning toward a thick, leafy bush, listening closely.

  A car went by on the other side. The sound was discordant and out of place, but it was clearly the sound Noah had been waiting for. He pushed the leafy branches aside and looked through them. “Yes,” he said. “Like I thought.”

  “Where are we now?” she asked.

  “Close to the road that leads into the kitchen courtyard. I was hoping they’d leave the gate open, but no problem. It’s a busy day. We’ll just wait for another car to go in.”

  Caro leaned to peek through the opening in the boughs at the road beyond, and across it, a big wrought iron gate. There was a cobblestoned area behind it, full of parked cars and vans.

  He tugged her back. “I hear someone coming,” he said. “Let’s look for a place to get through these bushes without shredding your dress.”

  He found one quickly. By that time, she could hear the car approaching, too. As soon as she heard the gate opening, Noah bent the bushes back.

  They darted through the hedge and hurried across the narrow blacktop road, slipped inside the gate just as it began to close again, and waited between two parked delivery trucks for some minutes while the chattering workers who had just arrived unloaded their boxes and trays from their van.

  When those voices faded, Noah and Caro wound their way through haphazardly parked vehicles and entered the building.

  This much more modest entrance led directly into a large, plain corridor. Many doors on one side of it led to a huge kitchen, a hive of activity. She heard yelling and scolding in Italian, the din of pots and pans and crockery, the constant hum of excited voices.

  They hurried past it, down the long corridor to where it ended in a stairwell. Noah led her swiftly up one flight of stairs, then another. She’d studied the plans of the Palazzo all day herself, but it never ceased to amaze her how quickly he found his way. He was always instantly oriented, interfaced with a map, a blueprint, a satellite image. He’d never been in this building before in his life, yet he moved through the place with absolute confidence.

  Noah led her down a third floor corridor, different from those downstairs. Smaller, older, and simpler, with heavy dark beams in the ceilings. The white-plastered walls were covered with colorful painted flowers, vines, angels, and cupids.

  Noah stopped in front of a paneled wall beneath yet another flight of stairs. He bent down to study the seams in the wood, rattling and tapping. “Here’s the door.”

  “It doesn’t look like a door,” Caro said.

  “That’s the point.” Noah kneeled, fished out the tool in his tux jacket, and got to work.

  Caro crossed her arms over her chest as she waited, glancing uneasily toward the stairwell they had come from. “You sure this is a good idea?”

  Noah glanced up. “Don’t worry. Anybody finds us, we’ll play dumb and say we were looking for the john. Or another few more bars on our smartphone.”

  “Right. With you on your knees?”

  “Shhh,” he murmured absently. “Let me concentrate. Almost got it…”

  A click, a rusty squeak…and the low door opened onto a square of ominous darkness.

  Caro got a whiff of stale air, dust, and mildew. “Oh, joy,” she muttered. “Spiders again?”

  “Maybe a few, but it’ll be worth it.” Noah leaned in and sniffed the air. “Seems OK to me. Come on.” He disappeared inside.

  Like she had any other options. Caro followed him into the cramped, airless blackness, waiting while Noah pulled the hidden door closed after them. The narrow passageway was barely tall enough to stand upright. Noah had to stoop. She pulled her smartphone out of her evening bag and held it up, activating the flashlight. Cobwebs fluttered and swayed in the freshly disturbed air.

  Noah winced away from the LED glare. “Jesus, Caro,” he said. “A little warning.”

  “Sorry,” she murmured, lowering the light. Best not to think about those billowing spiderwebs anyhow. “Ewww. Creepy.”

  “The dark part goes on for a while,” he told her. “Keep close to me. And keep your voice down. This passageway runs parallel to a main corridor.”

  They moved silently on through the dark passageway. At one point, Noah turned sharply to the left. “We’re alongside a suite of connecting rooms here,” he murmured. “Closed up for decades, from what I read last night.”

  Caro squeezed his hand, trying not to think about the webs brushing her shoulders.

  “And my amazing superpowers inform me that there’s no one around, so we should be able to come out of this passageway…right…about…here. Yeah.”

  A rustle, a click, and a square of light opened up. Caro emerged after Noah, blinking, into a vast, high-ceilinged room. It was very hot and smelled of age and dust. The few pieces of furniture were covered with canvas throws.

  The air was incredibly still. It was eerily quiet.

  She turned, fascinated by the faded, peeling paintings. “Where are we?”

  “In one of the older parts of the palace. This part hasn’t been renovated, at least not in the past century. Come on, let me show you something.” He took her hand and led her through the rooms. Through a wooden door twice the height of a normal human.

  The room th
ey entered was a rotunda with a breathtaking domed ceiling, flooded with rosy sunset light from the west-facing windows. All around them, the walls were a chaotic blaze of painted color, all the way up to the gold sunburst in the top.

  The floor was a masterpiece of intricate mosaic tiles, and halfway up the walls, an intricate wooden balcony ringed the entire room, allowing access to a gallery of statues that were set in deep niches all the way around the dome. A steep wooden staircase led up to the gallery. As far as furniture and décor, there was only an inlaid marble table and an enormous sculpture.

  Caro went over to the sculpture for a closer look.

  The magnificent white marble statue seemed to glow, stained gold by the sunset. A glittering chandelier was suspended over it on a chain as thick as Caro’s arm. The prisms that dangled from it refracted the light into a shower of stars that scattered over the carved figures of a naked woman straddling a massive bull.

  “Wow,” Caro whispered. “So beautiful.”

  “Zeus in action. With the beautiful Europa.” There was a note of triumph in Noah’s voice as he turned around, surveying the room.

  “I know the story,” she murmured. “He turned himself into a bull to seduce her.”

  Noah gave her a crooked smile. “A god has to do what a god has to do.”

  The dense, crowded images in the wall frescoes started to sink in. The paintings were blatantly erotic. All of them.

  She stared up at them, open-mouthed.

  Noah chucked her under the chin, grinning. “Hey, remember the count who built the secret passageway for his mistresses? This room was his idea. His secret fuckpad. And the passageway we just used? That was how he got them here unseen.”

  “Aha.” She gazed around, fascinated. “So you wanted to get me up here before the party just to, ah…kill some time?”

  “Yes. Since you love art and all.”

  “Very thoughtful of you,” she said, studying the entwined bodies in the paintings and the classical god’s heroic proportions. “Looks like a good time was had by all. Gods, goddesses, demigods, mortals. Quite a crowd.”

  Noah put his arms around her. “One breathtaking goddess is enough for me.”