Raphael (The Immortal Youth Book 1)

by Monica La Porta

  “Raphael—”

  The sweetness of his name on her lips was another blow to Raphael’s heart. Luisa’s tears yet another slash on his open wounds, and he gave in to a last kiss, a last embrace. His lips sought hers and he felt her breathing faltering, as his did. Knowing it was a mistake but unable to resist the call, he crashed her to him, and their tears mixed.

  The winds above disturbed the clouds. For a brief moment, the moon illuminated the greenhouse with enough light to make her shining eyes look like stars.

  When the darkness was restored, Raphael opened his arms and stepped away from her. “Please.”

  She glanced over her shoulder, but hesitated. “Don’t put yourself in danger.”

  “I won’t if you leave now.” When she didn’t move, he pulled her along and walked as fast as his aching limbs permitted.

  Once they left the protection of the greenhouse, the staggering weight of their harsh reality fell upon Raphael. Doubts assailed him, but he marched forward, and didn’t let go of Luisa until they reached the staircase landing. Without giving his mind time to find any fault with his plan, he started descending the stairs and kept her attached to him.

  If his memory wasn’t playing any trick on him, he thought he remembered where the camera was positioned on that side of the building. He counted on the darkness to hide her—she was so small she disappeared behind him—until they reached the last few steps on the ground floor level. For every story they cleared going down, Raphael felt his heart plummeting too. His eyes trained on the wall, looking for the camera that would give them away, he breathed in and out preparing for the show he had planned for the Reds.

  Then he finally saw the black box jutting a meter below their feet, and stopped. “We have one or two seconds to pull this off once I step in front of the camera.” He double-checked they were almost at ground level, and decided she could make it without broken limbs. “You stay on this step and wait for me to wave at the security guys in the monitor room. As I raise my hand, you jump. A moment later, I’ll be illuminated like a Christmas tree and you must be already on your way to the enforcer station.”

  When he felt her hesitation, he whispered, “I’ll come for you.” Turning, he kissed her one last time.

  “I’ll be fine,” Luisa said, gifting him with the only words he wanted to hear from her.

  “Then I’ll be fine too.” With a smile, he turned and descended three steps, paused long enough to give her time to ready herself for the jump, then he stepped lower to put himself right in front of the camera.

  The black box moved to frame him. He heard first a whooshing sound, then the faint noise of small feet landing on the street pavement, and breathed in relief. When a second later bright white light illuminated him, he smiled and raised his hand to show the cigarette he had kept on him. As soon as he heard Luisa’s steps dim into nothing, he walked to the front. There, he waited for one of the security guys to open the door for him.

  “Went out on the terrace for a smoke and closed myself out,” he explained to the burly guy who let him in.

  “Next time, remember to stop the door, dumbass.” The guy closed the door behind him and signaled for him to go upstairs.

  As Raphael stepped into the landing, he found Rock waiting for him.

  “Out for a smoke and closed yourself out, ah?” Rock asked, an unreadable expression on his face.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Leaning against the wrought iron balustrade of the stairs, Rock clenched and unclenched his fists as he kept his eyes on Raphael. The man’s breathing was strained, but besides the mechanic movements of his hands not a single muscle flexed or shifted. Rock stood still as a statue, and after asking a question that had sounded rhetorical to Raphael’s guilty ears, he also remained silent.

  Although Raphael had been freezing a moment earlier, now he was sweating. The silence stretched and became awkward, forcing an answer out of his mouth. “You know how it is. I needed to decompress.”

  “Did you?” Rock stilled his hands and raised his arms to wrap the balustrade, crossing his boots at his ankles.

  A young Red hurried down the stairs and only stopped before Rock. “I apologize, big brother. I didn’t realize I was late for my shift. It won’t ever happen—”

  Rock brought a hand up. “You got that right, Lupo. It won’t happen again. Since I had to cover for you, you’ll get double shift at the monitors tonight.”

  “Of course.” Lupo waited for Rock to dismiss him with a nod, then he resumed his descent.

  As if they hadn’t been interrupted, Rock asked, “So, did you decompress?”

  “I think so.” Raphael had always hated mental games, but people kept walking by and he couldn’t have a frank talk with Rock.

  “I’m glad for you.” Without a hint he would do so, Rock pivoted on his heels and went downstairs.

  Even though Raphael’s first instinct would have been to run after him, he climbed up instead. Once he was back in the infirmary, he heavily sat on his bed, glad that Guts wasn’t there. Lying on his side, he pretended to be asleep when the tattooist came back and kept pretending for the rest of the night. Once in a while, he stirred, trying to rest his body while his mind was in tumult.

  Every step in the hallway echoed inside his head like a rumble, making his heart speed and his lungs fight for air. Hundreds of scenarios played out for him as the sky slowly changed from darkness to light. The new morning didn’t bring Raphael respite. For all he knew, Luisa could have been apprehended around the corner and brought back to the compound.

  “Slept well?” Guts appeared at the side of the bed and caught Raphael with his eyes open, staring at the window.

  “Never better.”

  “Doesn’t look like.” Guts took his vitals.

  Without bothering to attempt conversation with the man, Raphael complied with everything Guts asked him to do, including let him draw blood. “Am I free to go?”

  “If you feel like it, yes.” Guts took the blood ampoules and walked to the fridge by the corner. “It’s full moon tonight, so you’ll feel like new by tomorrow morning. Just try to lay low for the rest of the day.”

  As it had happened with Rock earlier, Gut’s choice of words set Raphael on edge. Fasting since the day before, Raphael’s head swam as soon as he stood. Yet, he refused any help or painkillers and walked out and to his room.

  The whole day, he waited to be called before Tancredi. He forced himself to eat, but was too nervous and threw up his lunch. Several hours later, a knock on his door found him prepared to confront Rock, the alpha, even Rico.

  “Run call,” someone said from the other side. “Be ready downstairs in thirty minutes or you’ll be left here.”

  The announcement took him by surprise. After battling his demons the whole day, he hadn’t expected something so mundane. What had happened to Luisa? Had they found her?

  Despite his back still hurt, he donned a white shirt with his Red jacket on it, his faded jeans, and slipped into his boots without tying them. Slowed by the pain, he dragged his feet along the hallway and down the stairs. Several minutes later, he was in line to enter the Jeep that would take him to Crossing, the Red-owned piece of land where the gang shifted once a month.

  As he climbed inside his vehicle, Raphael saw Rico looking at him from inside another Jeep.

  “Sleeping beauty, care to enter any time soon?” A push accompanied the words.

  When Raphael looked over his shoulder, he saw the Lupo guy from the day before smirking at him, and behind Lupo stood Rock with the most serious of expressions.

  Sandwiched between the door and Lupo, Raphael thanked the Great Wolf for small favors, because he wasn’t sitting next to Rock. The driver and the Red sitting in front talked the entire ride about the Italian soccer championship—they rooted for the city’s opposing teams. Soon the conversation became too animated, and Rock had to intervene. For that too, Raphael was grateful. Rock’s eyes had been burning holes on Raphael’s side, despite Lu
po being between them.

  An hour later, after driving north of Rome for more than sixty kilometers, the Jeep reached Crossing. The driver parked in the large plain overlooking acres of pristine land bordered by woods, two rivers, and a lake. Wondering if the girls’ Enclosure was nearby, Raphael dismounted to fill his lungs with air redolent of grass and flowers in blossom. So close to shift, his already enhanced olfactory sense picked all the smells around him. Included Rico’s, full of rage. The werewolf had exited his Jeep and was walking toward Raphael. By the fire in the man’s eyes and the acrid stench he emanated, Raphael knew Rico was in for the blood.

  Rock moved before Raphael, hands crossed on his chest and legs spread wide. “You run by my side tonight. Tancredi’s orders,” he announced loud enough for everyone to hear.

  Raphael heard the growl coming from behind Rock and knew without a doubt it belonged to Rico. When Rock moved, Rico was gone.

  Rock’s hand on his elbow steered Raphael around the corner of the Jeep, and out of sight from the other werewolves. “If you as much as leave my side to pee, I swear I’ll tan your hide so dark you won’t be able to sit until you’re forty. Understood, pup?” Rock squeezed his hold and didn’t relent until Raphael nodded. “Good.”

  After that exchange, they both doffed their clothes in silence, and left them inside the Jeep to retrieve them the morning after. The moon peaked and Raphael shifted, but instead of feeling joy at letting go of himself he felt trapped. Fortunately, his wolf behaved and remained attached to Rock’s black wolf, who nipped him on his flank and neck several times to make sure he wouldn’t stray. More than once, Rico’s large red-brown wolf came close to Raphael, but Rock growled at him and sent him away.

  Not surprisingly, once Raphael shifted to human he felt worse for the wear. His back was healed, but he was exhausted. Rock didn’t look any fresher and was in a foul mood as they headed home.

  When they arrived, the Red compound was in high alert. Rumors were whispered along the line that one of the girls had disappeared during the run. The tension was palpable. Confused by what he heard on the grapevine, Raphael waited for the other shoe to drop as he went along with the others. Sure enough, not even ten minutes in his room and he was summoned to the fourth floor. Two guards escorted him to the alpha.

  A suit-clad Tancredi, looking as formidable as ever, sat on his throne on the dais as Rico paced before him.

  At Raphael’s arrival, Rico pointed a finger in his direction. “I’m telling you it was him.” He foamed at his mouth and he threw his arms around.

  “Raphael, do you know what he’s talking about?” Tancredi asked.

  The lie was already on his mouth, but Raphael thought better of it this time. “I heard something about a girl disappearing—”

  “My bitch. The one you were seeing behind my back.” Rico walked up to Raphael, pushing him backward.

  Raphael stood his ground and bumped his chest against Rico’s when he stepped forward next.

  “Rico,” Tancredi said with a low growl and Rico reluctantly trod to the side.

  “It was him, I tell you,” Rico spat.

  From the side hallway, the one that led to the harem quarters, Rock came out escorting Chloe. The girl was crying and she looked disheveled.

  “So?” Tancredi asked Rock.

  “I interrogated her and she swears she saw the missing girl at Enclosure last. At the van, she gave the alarm that her friend hadn’t come back.”

  “Something must’ve happened to Luisa. She was attacked—” Chloe sobbed so hard she couldn’t continue talking.

  “She wasn’t attacked.” Rico laughed, then turned to Raphael. “He had everything planned.”

  Chloe threw herself to the floor before the dais. “Luisa might be wounded, bleeding somewhere out there and in need of help. Please send someone to look for her.”

  “Don’t listen to this bitch.” Rico was about to kick Chloe, but Rock stood before him.

  “You won’t dare touch another brother’s old lady, would you?” Rock hissed. “Chloe reported Luisa was missing as soon as she realized the girl hadn’t come back.”

  “You should’ve sent me to Enclosure as it was my job to check—” Rico addressed Tancredi.

  “You forget your place, Rico.” When Rico made to apologize, Tancredi shut him up with a withering glance. “You also forget I could’ve decided to let you shift in your cell as I should have, but decided to let you run with the others instead.” He then nodded at one of the guards. “Fetch the driver.”

  In the tense silence that followed, Raphael studied first Rock then Chloe, hoping he could find a clue in his stoic attitude and her desperation. A nervous-looking werewolf was let in next, and trembling like a leaf he was pushed before Tancredi.

  “You signed the ledger and accounted all the girls in your van when you left yesterday night, correct?” Tancredi asked the newcomer.

  “Yes, I followed protocol.” The guy shook harder.

  Tancredi played with his cufflinks. “Were you high when you followed protocol?” His voice was mellow, almost hypnotic.

  “No, of course not—” the guy hurried to say as his eyes went to Chloe for the briefest of glances.

  “Are you sure? Because I was told by another driver you looked high when you arrived at Enclosure,” Tancredi said.

  Chloe kept crying without making a sound.

  The driver violently shook his head. “No, no… no, I mean yes, I’m sure I wasn’t—”

  “I’ll ask you only one more time.” Tancredi’s voice became cold. “Were you high last night?”

  The guy didn’t answer this time, but hunched over, his eyes to the floor.

  “Were you high while transporting girls from my harem?” The alpha had lowered his voice and the result was frightening.

  The driver broke and started babbling, “I found a dose on my seat, I swear—”

  “You found a dose on your seat. Just like that.” Tancredi flattened his palm over his thigh.

  “It’s the truth.” Between sobs, the guy went on saying, “But I wasn’t impaired, I swear. The girls were all accounted for when we left.”

  “The one time you have to drive solo and you decide to drink V.” Tancredi cleared his throat with a tsk. “And you lie about finding it on your seat. Get out.” With a flick of his wrist, he set the guards in motion. “The usual punishment.”

  The driver was dragged away, crying and begging to be spared the twenty lashes Tancredi had decreed for him.

  When silence was restored, suddenly animated, Rico pointed at Raphael once again. “He gave him the V.”

  Raphael opened his arms to the side. “After I left the infirmary, I went straight to my room, left to eat, then came back to vomit and never left until I was called downstairs. There, I got in line like everyone else and you saw me.”

  Rico shook his head. “You must’ve found a way.”

  “How?” His stance straighter, Raphael walked closer to Rico.

  Rico stared down at Raphael. “I don’t know how, but I know you helped her escape.”

  “Whatever.” Done with Rico, Raphael shrugged and turned toward Tancredi, who was now leaning against the back of his chair with one leg crossed over the other, his foot lazily dangling.

  A small smile tugged at the alpha’s lips and he tilted his chin toward Rock. “Tell me, Rock, is it true that you saw Raphael sneaking out of the building the night before yesterday?”

  While the world around him froze, Raphael’s heart started galloping in his chest, and he watched the scene unfold as if from a distance.

  Rico perked up, his eyes lit in cruel joy. From the floor, Chloe stopped crying and straightened her back as she turned slightly to look at Rock.

  Rock folded his arms before him. “Yes, I was in the monitor room when he walked by one of the external cameras on the terrace—”

  One of the external cameras on the terrace. Raphael had forgotten about them.

  “I saw him entering the greenhouse an
d exiting it a few minutes later,” Rock added, but Raphael almost didn’t hear him above the din of his blood rushing against his ears. “Then he realized he had closed himself out and climbed down the spiral staircase, triggering the perimeter light.”

  Rock had barely finished talking, when Rico grabbed Raphael by the lapels of his jacket. “You went to the terrace to meet the bitch, didn’t you?”

  “Let me go.” Raphael swung his arm to the side to hit Rico, but Rock first stopped him then pried Raphael from Rico’s hands.

  “I don’t know if he went to the terrace other times to see that girl, but he was alone the other night.” Rock looked at Tancredi when Rico strode toward him, chest inflated and viciously snarling.

  “I know. He was seen with the girl. I was told by one of the security guys.” At the last moment, Rico veered toward Raphael.

  “Rico.”

  At Tancredi’s call, Rico settled for a last growl, but stopped before hitting Raphael who was ready to fight back.

  “You’re all dismissed,” the alpha said after another awkward moment. “You, Rico, have tried my nerves one time too many, and you clearly don’t know how to keep what’s yours.”

  The guards escorted Rico out, Rock walked Chloe to the harem, and Raphael was left alone with the alpha.

  “Stay,” Tancredi commanded the moment Raphael bowed and made to turn. “If you’re hiding something from me, I suggest you talk now.”

  Raphael’s legs were suddenly made of jelly and his heart that had just slowed down sped up again. But the thought that Luisa had not been found finally registered in his mind, and that gave him the strength for yet another of his lies. “I’ve nothing to hide.”

  Tancredi canted his head and his nostrils flared. “Your tendency to covet what’s not yours ends now.”

  “Yes, sir.” Raphael bowed and was finally allowed to leave.

  Later, back in his bedroom, Raphael sunk to the floor and let the tears fall. Whatever had happened, Rock had lied for him, and Chloe had probably drugged the driver to confuse him about the number of girls in the van. But most of all, Luisa had escaped the Reds.