by K. M. Liss
“Miche sweetheart. I had a sudden impulsive moment this evening. I hope you don't mind me taking the initiative but I've brought my things over. I can't bear to be apart from you for a single moment more. I'm moving in with you darling!”
He stared at her speechless and stunned by her assumption that this would be okay with him. She placed the champagne in his hand and swept past him and inside, checking to see if anyone else was there. His eyes strayed to the corridor where three large suitcases sat ready for his attention. At this point he really should have objected and pushed her out into the corridor with a firm 'I don't think so', but for some reason he didn't. He was probably taken aback with surprise or caught in that trap again, her technical hold over him. He toned down his outrage considerably.
“For God's sake Mercedes, I've just moved in. I haven't even unwrapped my new bed!” he gasped with exasperation. He hadn't intended to unwrap the plastic cover on his brand new bed either. He was going to watch soccer, drink some special wine he'd bought, listen to some classical music on his surround sound equipment, and crash on the sofa tonight.
His first heavenly male evening of self indulgence in his new home had just gone up in smoke.
“We can do that together, can't we? Unwrap and indulge ourselves on our new bed!” she announced with some obvious excitement, at the same time looking around in disapproval at his perfectly empty apartment that was just how he liked it. “I can bring some of my furniture over too, as it's far too empty in here.”
He ignored that comment.
“What about your own apartment Mercedes? I thought you liked it there?” He had been there a couple of times and it was much grander than this and chock full of very feminine and antique French furniture which he hated.
“Oh that... It's far too big for me. I get lonely sleeping there all alone. I shall let it out and keep it as an investment.”
“I think we should wait a while longer before taking this big step. Let's see how things go,” he tried to reason in as level a tone as he could, because in truth he was very angry indeed about this latest fait accomplis of hers.
“But things are already perfect between us my love, aren't they? We're very close physically. We work together and go out everywhere together. I think we know quite well how things will go. Bring my suitcases in, will you, while I take a look around.”
“Okay. But I'm telling you now, no cramming this place with furniture. It's my place. If you live here you have to respect that,” he said dragging the first of her suitcases inside in resignation. He had already decided he would have to move on from her agency at the end of the contract period. It was the only way to extricate himself from her life. She was like a vampire octopus, wrapping her arms around him from every conceivable angle so that he had no means of doing anything or going anywhere without her.
“Oh dear, still tetchy are you?” she grumbled.
“Not at all. Just laying down one ground rule. Hopefully I won't need to lay down too many more.”
Chapter 3
April, 2018, Madrid
“Come back to bed, Rico.” Anna's sleepy voice suddenly broke the silence and interrupted his thoughts.
“Soon,” Enrico replied, continuing to gaze out of their apartment window at the twinkling lights of the city of Madrid below him. He was too vexed to sleep, or to do anything else. This indecision and inner fury had to stop.
He needed to take action in some way. Exactly what that action should be he wasn't sure.
He hadn't spoken to his mother since he found out who his father was, so very long ago. He'd always suspected, but hoped he was wrong. To be an incestuous product of a brother and sister was bad enough, but to find out that when his mother was just sixteen years old, she had seduced her fifteen year old younger brother was too much to bear. He couldn't face her after that.
She'd always kept in contact and never given up on him, begging forgiveness and understanding. He'd meant to see her again, to visit Naples and repair the damage somehow, build new bridges between them, but he never had. And now he never would. It was too late.
He'd been far too busy doing something else, anything else. Racing cars for a living, chasing women, and generally misbehaving himself as best he could were far more important activities. He enjoyed being a vampire, maybe even too much at times. He had to rein himself in, pull back from being the 'real' him. The raging wild Ristorian he felt he was inside.
Until he'd met her. His love.
Meeting Anna had helped him so much. She was calmer and so much more thoughtful. She'd settled him down and was a perfect complement to his personality. It had taken him a long time to find her. Not that he'd been looking for anything stable in his love life. It had just happened. He turned and looked at her deep red curls tumbling over the pillow. He loved her hair, the fiery colour of it, and its long length and thickness. Not that that was her only asset. She was a beauty in every way she could be. Curvy, very pale skinned, as befitted a redhead vampire, and with a perfect little pout of a mouth that he wanted to kiss all day and night. Well, normally he did, when he was in the mood.
His eyes strayed to the letter on the table. He'd read it a hundred times. He knew it by heart. His mother's last message to him. Those few poignant words of farewell. His heart stabbed with pain and regret yet again, as he remembered them.
Dearest Enrico,
If you receive this letter it is because I am no longer alive. I left this note in safekeeping with a hotel clerk in Naples with instructions to post it, if I did not retrieve it within 60 days from the date above.
Prepare yourself for another shock my dearest son. Your father is also dead. I am travelling to Tivoli with Severina Basteri and Sabato Accosi. We are to avenge his shocking death at the hands of the Gianni. Severina lost her brother at the same time and she is intent on bringing a bloody end to Nico and Calista, the heads of their household and those she feels should take the blame for their terrible end.
My house and all its contents, jewellery, money, everything that is mine in Naples, is yours to do whatever you wish with it. My will is with my solicitor. All addresses you need are enclosed.
I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me.
You, my dear son, and Raffaele were all I really cared for in the world.
With all my love and more,
Your mother,
Portia
He'd spent a lot of time thinking and debating since he received the letter via a friend in the States the month before. He very much wanted to know why Severina and Sabato were still alive and kicking if his mother was dead. More to the point, he wanted to know why Severina and Sabato were pictured together with Nico and Calista and all smiles at Severina's wedding. He'd seen them pictured in the celebrity magazine Hello, in January of this year. The happy couple standing next to their 'family', amongst others, best man Nico and matron of honour Calista.
He sensed deep treachery and lies, something which had brought about his mother's end.
And what of his father? He had no contact at all with him since his discovery that his uncle Raffe was in fact his father. It had been a mutual distance between them. But despite that, he'd like to know how and where he met his end as well, and to visit their graves and pay his respects one last time. To come to terms with who and what he was, and to bury the pain he bore once and for all.
His heart suddenly burned for retribution for his parents.
He would do this one last thing for them. Something to repair all that had gone before. He would gather a small army of his kind, the hardest, wildest Ristorians he could find, the type of vampire who would enjoy a bloody task such as this, dispatching the Giannis. All would fall in their household. There would be a tide of blood on their floor and he would stand ankle deep in it and rejoice at their end.
He glanced at the drawer where he kept his hand gun. He would need weapons, many weapons. He had no idea of the strength of the Gianni household, but modern weaponry would give him an advantage. One
AK-47 and a pump action shotgun could do a lot of damage. A small army of them could wipe out a whole town.
He smiled to himself as a sense of calm flooded his inner being. A decision had been made. He was to take action. The violent kind. And soon.
He wandered back to bed, to Anna's arms, and kissed her awake.
“Well hello,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Got over your mood?”
“Oh yeah, I sure have. Mmmm, you taste so good. I want to eat you,” he murmured, running his tongue down the valley between her breasts towards her smooth flat stomach.
“Go on then, eat me all over. You know I love that.”
He struck at her with his fangs, gently and fast, in a whirl of desire. Nipping and sucking at her gorgeous soft flesh in a frenzy. No one tasted as good as she did. He could suck her dry. Every last little drop of the amazing bloody cocktail that ran through her veins. It was such a shame that vampires couldn't feed from one another and that he had to satisfy his need for food elsewhere. But she satisfied him completely in other ways, all other ways. And far more than that.
He smiled to himself as he took her hard, burying his cock inside her wet welcoming warmth in a fast thrust. She rolled him over and sat upon him. Her long red curls hung over her breasts and he gathered handfuls of them, wrapping the hair around his wrists like silken rope, pulling her head down towards his. She snarled and growled at him, her fangs on display, as she thrust on him wildly, her hands stroking his chest and shoulders. Her eyes were ablaze like deep yellow stars.
“I love you Rico,” she said, swooping down to kiss him fiercely, biting at his lips and tongue. He sighed with pleasure as she made them both come, with her well practised fast and hard style. He dissolved into the moment, a wonderful mad moment of red light and heat, exceptionally filthy language, and rough and raw behaviour. They sank into each other and fell asleep, attached, lazy, and warm, and saturated with love.
* * *
The next morning he awoke with a steely determination imprinted in his mind. He picked up his phone and called his contact Quin. The guy could get anything you ever wanted, at a price. What he wanted was going to cost him, he knew that. But for his army, the best was required. He wanted to make sure they had every advantage against their target. It would be a swift massacre. The end of their line. A smile bubbled up inside of him as he imagined Nico riddled with bullets and that bitch of his smothered in blood from head to toe. They'd pay for fucking with his family. Even if he had been estranged from them, they were his kin. This was payback time and how he was looking forward to it.
“Rico!” Quin's familiar American accent boomed in his ear.
“Hey man. How's business?”
“Cool. Got my irons in the fire. You know me.”
“Don't I just."
“What can I get you my friend?”
“Guns.”
“What type?”
“Top of the range sub machine guns, pump action rifles. Maybe ten of each. Plenty of ammo, and I mean plenty.”
“Sounds like a bad ass job you're planning, man.”
“No questions, okay?”
“When do I ever ask you anything?”
“You know better than to ask, don't you, you bastard.” He laughed loudly.
“I'll get back to you asap. Could take a while, quite a few months. It's a big order and I'll have to get them delivered to your drop off.”
“Find out then, and timescale isn't that important yet. I have some prep to do in Rome and Madrid.”
He ended the call and turned to find Anna watching him with a deeply concerned look from the bed.
“I don't like the sound of that.”
“Don't involve yourself in my affairs.”
“I am worried about you, that's all.”
“I need to do this Anna. They murdered my parents.”
“But you hated them both!”
“It wasn't hate. It was more like revulsion. And I had planned to contact my mother soon, to try and start again with her.”
“Look Rico. Just be careful. I don't want to lose you, my love.”
“It'll be over in a few moments. They won't know what's hit them.”
“The best laid plans can go terribly wrong.”
“Not mine. Because I know exactly who to head up my campaign. I'm getting Jaxon Carter in on it.”
“He's the best, isn't he?”
“Yep, SAS elite squad before he turned. Highly trained in infiltration and tactical assault. I'll pay him really well to make sure it all goes smoothly.”
“Mmmm, honey. Come back to bed and let me kiss you all over, I get the feeling you're going to be busy for a long while.”
“I've got races to win and an army to form. I can't do it all from our bedroom, can I?” he said with a grin, making his way over to the bed and taking off his pants.
Chapter 4
September 2018, New York
Severina looked at the time. He wasn't back yet. He was staying out later and later. She gave up waiting and went to bed on her own. Again. She finally heard him come in an age after that. She was full of anger and tried to calm herself. But she couldn't sleep. She sat up and switched the light on, turning to face him.
“Where have you been Saba?”
“Here and there.”
“Here and there? Where is that exactly?”
“Out with the guys. Drinking. You know.”
“No, I don't 'know'... What on earth is the matter with you? You reek of cheap perfume amongst other things. Have you been with those vampire whores again?”
“One or two.” He turned towards her and she could see the strange glazed look in his eyes.
“Smoking something as well as drinking? And whoring too? What a lovely husband you have become.”
“I'm bored. You're never here. I need company. It's your fault. If you'd retired, like I had, we could do things together.”
“Saba, you know full well I have nearly another year on some of my contracts. I can't retire yet. You should get some casual modelling work. It'll keep you busy.”
“I'm not auditioning. I've had it with all that.”
“Rose will find you something, I'm sure.”
“No, I'm done with the business. That's it as far as I'm concerned. Let's go back to Italy and stay with our family.” He snuggled up to her and she grimaced, pushing him away in disgust.
“I'm under contract. Next year… maybe.”
“Baby... please... for me?”
“Why can't you get it through your thick skull? I CAN'T!” she raised her voice loudly in exasperation.
“DON'T call me stupid!” he replied heatedly.
“What shall I call you then? Oh I know... Lazy, cheating, amoral, intoxicated, filthy alley cat... How about those for starters?”
“Well I'm not staying here being insulted. I'm going to sleep in the spare room,” he said standing up, and stomping off unsteadily on his intoxicated feet.
“Good. Stay there. Permanently if you like.”
“I might just fucking well do that.” He swung through the door and slammed it shut behind him.
Sevi sunk back down in bed, hurt and confused. Her throat ablaze with emotion. He was so infuriating and amazingly immature at times. It was all about him... She still loved him dearly, he had been so loyal and wonderful to her, but cracks had begun to open up in their relationship. Wide cracks. Their differences and opposite attitudes to life were becoming a big problem. They had been together for seven years. It could well be the seven year itch. She was beginning to think she should never have mated and married him. She was bound to him for life. Immortal life. Something needed to be sorted out. This behaviour had been going on for months and they rarely got together in bed lately. Mainly because he was hardly ever at home at night, and when he was, she found him to be most unappealing.
Maybe they needed a break from each other. A few months apart. He could work out his addiction to whores and whatever else he was into, and
she didn't have to be around to witness it. Yes. That was the answer. She would bring it up tomorrow.
She woke early, showered, dressed, and then poked her head in the spare room. She wandered in and stood at the side of the bed looking down at him. He was out like a light. She looked at his dark handsome features and her heart hurt very badly. Why did he have to be like this? She left the room and went into the kitchen. She wrote him a short note and left it next to the sink. He'd be thirsty when he woke and would see it straight away. She looked at the note and added three kisses as an afterthought.
"Saba, make sure you are here this evening. I want to talk to you about us. Love Sevi xxx”
She packed her bag for work and left their apartment.
She was on a studio shoot today, for Karen Millen clothing. She was a favourite designer of hers.
It was five in the evening when she returned after a quick detour for a feed. She unlocked the door and went inside and was met by silence. She went into the spare room to see if he was asleep in there, but the bed was unmade and empty. She straightened the covers and checked each room. He was nowhere to be found. She sent him a text. She knew he wouldn't answer. He never looked at his phone when he was out. Her stomach dropped in disappointment. Then she remembered her note. She went into the kitchen. The note was still there next to the sink. He had added a line underneath it.
“Gone out for a couple of hours. Be back soon.”
When that would be she had no idea. His couple of hours could mean all night. She settled down to wait. At 11 p.m. she gave up and went to bed. She drifted off to sleep, an uneasy sleep. Something woke her, a tiny noise. She lay still and listened, her vampire hearing on full alert. She could hear whispering noises. She got up and made her way to the bedroom door. She went to the spare room next door and placed her ear to it. Rustling, giggling... She flung the door open and turned on the light to be met with a sight which hurt her so badly she almost screamed with distress and humiliation. Saba and two of his scruffy whores, naked on the bed, were indulging in a disgusting ménage-a-trois.