At first, he thought Gregory regained consciousness and wanted to smash his face. He lashed out with his burning cigarette until he noticed that he had the scowling face of Keanu in front of him, "Hey, boy what's going on? Did someone assault you? You're totally beside yourself," he shook Antony slightly, and then he let go of him. Antony staggered backward when he surprisingly let go off him. He threw the half-smoked cigarette to the ground stepping on it with his foot, "No, we haven’t been attacked." Keanu took a closer look at Gregory lying unconscious on the Vespa, still bleeding. "What happened? Did you have an accident?" He looked at the Vespa, which as far as he could see was not a battered victim. Antony scuffled his hair in despair, "No, damn it, I hit Gregory with a stone."
"What's wrong with you? Are you crazy? Why did you do something stupid like that?" Keanu looked sternly at Antony. Gregory moaned and got slowly to his feet. He touched his head, saw his bloody hand, and looked reproachful at Keanu, who was standing in front of him, "Man, what did you do to me? Stroke me down before you even said hello? What kind of a sick thing was that?" Keanu had his arms crossed and seemed unmoved, "Ask your buddy here!"
"Antony?" "Yes, Antony looks like he struck you down because it wasn’t me for sure." "What are you saying?" Gregory looked incredulously at Antony, who guiltily inspected his dusty shoes, "You knocked me down? Are you out of your mind?" Antony shrugged, "Apparently!"
"I thought you were my friend," Gregory looked accusingly at Antony. Keanu still stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, "A legitimate question," he said grimly, and both looked to Antony.
Antony retreated, "Sometimes friends must do something drastic to bring each other back to their senses, and you two are certainly not behaving normally at all. In fact, if I think closely about it, I am the only normal one around here. Do you want to defeat the Vultures? But, you also want to kill each other, which is absolute nonsense. So, I thought that if I beat him down, you two will stop that stupid duel. I admit that it probably was not one of my most brilliant ideas, but tough times sometimes require tough measures." He looked desperately from one to another, and Gregory realized for the first time since he knew him how young and insecure he looked. He stood there ruffled and confused, no malice in his green eyes, only despair, and kindness. How had he ever seen a resemblance to Gabe in him? Antony was a true friend who wanted to prevent Keanu and him from killing each other. His methods of prevention were somehow questionable and quite painful.
Gregory touched his hurting head. The guy had slammed down on him with full force, "Now calm down again dude. It looks like you have granted me a laceration out of sheer pacifism. You could have told me how you felt about the duel. But as it seems you are not into words that much. What If you had hit me too hard? Have you thought about that genius, what then?" Antony looked taken aback at Gregory, "As if you would listen to me. I tried to talk to you at that gas station, but you didn’t give a damn. Now you are giving me the blame for the whole mess? Or, what?" Gregory shrugged grinning uneasily. He knew that Antony was right. Antony glanced at Keanu, who still watched him with folded arms.
Antony had enough of these two obviously crazy guys. "You know what? You two idiots, then kill each other, be my guest, I don’t give a shit.” He turned and walked briskly to the Vespa. Gregory realized that the key was still in the ignition. Someone had to stop him. Otherwise, the guy would take off. "Don’t you want to hold him back?" He heard Keanu’s grim voice beside him. "Why should I hold him back? Hold him back yourself." Looking at Keanu's gloomy face, Gregory sighed, "Ok, I'll hold him back, even though my skull is about to explode." He quickly followed Antony, who had arrived at the Vespa, “Hey, wait where are you going? I thought you were my backup!" Antony set out to push the Vespa from the stand, “Forget about that dude, have a good time with your crappy duel without me. I'm hitting the road." Gregory tried to stand in his way because Antony got on the Vespa by now. The engine of the Vespa roared, "Get out of my way you bat shit crazy would-be suicide." The Vespa shot forward, and Gregory just managed to avoid being run over jumped to the side. Antony sped down the road. Great, Gregory thought watching him get away. He hoped that he could get a ride back with Keanu after they had talked the duel over. Otherwise, he was screwed.
Keanu’s position was unchanged He stood there like a statue, his arms still folded with an indefinable expression on his face. The dust swirled up through Antony's Vespa, shimmered through the dry heat, and gave the situation the kitschy touch of an old Western movie on TV. In Gregory's imagination, an impressive number of Redskins dashed out of the bushes, with wild war paint on their faces. They grabbed Keanu handcuffing him. Then they took him to their village, where they tied him to a stake. He saw their tents in his vivid imagination before Keanu cleared his throat and brought him back to reality.
"I suppose you still want a duel with me, even if your aggressive second has taken off?" His voice was dripping with sarcasm, and Gregory almost laughed aloud. Well, the situation was not without a certain humor, depending on how one looked at it. He shook his head, "No honestly I want to talk to you, and I admit that the idea of the duel was pretty stupid because ultimately we are indeed on the same side, right? I think I was hurt in my vanity and my pride because you've always criticized me. I'm honestly sorry." He looked at Keanu noticing his surprised expression, "Respect, I wouldn't have believed, that you had the balls admitting such a thing." He nodded impressed, "So what are we going to do now till Antony probably comes back with the cavalry? He is truly convinced that we are going to kill each other and is scared as shit about it." Crap, Gregory hadn’t thought about that, Antony close to a nervous breakdown would inform first thing Giacomo and Donna Tiziana and bring them to the stone pit. "What can we do to stop him?" "You can’t do anything, let things take their course and hope that Antony will see Tiziana first. She will know how to calm him.
Now back to my question, what do you want to do? Do you fancy a sailing trip?" Gregory looked at him somewhat confused, "You want to go sailing with me?"
"Why not, on a sailboat on the open sea, we are just the two of us, and if Antony should come back, he is no longer able to find us."
"And why should I go sailing with you? Don’t we have anything better to do? I want to cooperate and learn everything there is to know about how to save that damn world and my ass as well!"
He looked at Keanu, who was ignoring him as well and got into the car. Well, he would certainly get his attention one way or another. "If HE had someone to support him back then, rather than to fall for a traitor, the job probably would have been done a hundred years ago and you no longer needed me." Keanu's head snapped around, "what are you talking about?" "I am talking about Lorenzo Belmont. When were you planning to tell me about him?" Keanu squinted intently, "When you're ready." "Damn, I'm ready, or do you want to wait until I'm dead? For your information, then it will be too late." Keanu nodded thoughtfully, "Maybe you're right." He opened the car door pulling out some Ray Ban shades and threw them at Gregory. "Put them on. We are going to visit someone." Gregory was confused, that was not the answer he expected, "I thought you would tell me more about Lorenzo, and we’d go sailing?" "Don’t ask so many questions and put the damn sunglasses on, or they'll know immediately what is going on. We must be careful because the beast is dangerous." "What beast? Who do you want to visit?" Keanu threw him a dark look, "The real reason for my negative image towards women and at the same time the most insidious person that exists of the female species. Her name is Giada di Benedetto." "Aha, another Di Benedetto seems to be a popular last name around here on this island." He didn’t want to tell him about his conversation with Donna Tiziana and tried to act clueless. "Is she related to Giacomo?"
Keanu looked at him almost pityingly, "You really don’t have the slightest idea whom we are dealing with, do you?" Gregory shrugged, "How am I supposed to know anything. Enlighten me then!" "The Di Benedetto family owns half the island, a real mafia family out of the textbook. The people from
the circus Motta Benedetto on the other hand, are moderate Mafiosi if you know what I mean." "No, I don’t know what you mean I don’t have the slightest clue about the Mafia and the Savior legend. So, far I haven’t had the pleasure to meet any Mafiosi."
"Believe me, it is never a pleasure, and by now they have emerged to the north of the country, as the government had the great idea to put some important mafia bosses in jail to the north. Unfortunately, some of their fellowship followed their bosses and brought their criminal activities to the north. So, you should be happy if you’d nothing to do with them so far."
"Why should I? My step-parents are certainly no Mafiosi and as far as I know there only are problems between the Mafia families, regular people are not being bothered, at least what I have heard so far."
"Not quite Gregory, perhaps in the north, but here we often have different rules. If you have a thriving business, suddenly members of the Di Benedetto family or one of the other influential families show up at your doorstep and ask for some protection money. Otherwise, they’ll threaten your family, burn your business, or do something else not very nice to you. Fortunately, most of the di Benedetto, Maltese or however their names don’t have any Akandos or Vultures amongst them." He laughed bitterly, "Probably their genes refused to function properly with all their wickedness. A bloody bunch they are."
Gregory looked at him thoughtfully, "If many of these Mafia guys originally descended from the three Onendas having landed here, they were supposed to have the ability to control at least one element, or am I wrong here?" He stared at Keanu's sharp profile. The wind blew his hair from his face. Then all of a sudden his face lit up, he threw Gregory an amused look, "Yes, that is what one would think, right? But it isn’t the case, and I don’t know why in Canada it seems to work quite well. The descendants have the ability to control the elements and elsewhere in Europe it apparently works. Only here on the very Island the original Onendas landed, the descendants don’t have any supernatural abilities. Quite ironic, isn’t it? Who knows maybe it is part of the prophecy, or maybe we should rather call it a curse?"
"Then tell me more about the curse."
"Be patient we will come to that soon enough.” He threw a clean towel at him to wipe away the dried blood from this temple. ” First of all, you have to get the whole picture." Finally, some light would be brought into the story for once Gregory thought, as he was all ears.
"The Sicilian descendants don’t inherit the gene or the ability or whatever we want to call it in most cases, which is a good precaution of nature. There are however some few cases in which the descendants around here have very strong skills, but it is very rare. Sometimes they have very weak abilities and are always in search of people like me trying to exploit them," his voice was full of bitterness. "I see, that’s where your opposition against any relationship comes from, Tiziana told me that you almost died because of this girl, Giada, wasn’t it?"
"This old crow just can’t keep her mouth shut," Keanu squinted angrily. Gregory grinned, because he was right, "But as to your reaction to my remark, I assume that the old crow was right?"
"Of course, she's right, and since then I have completely lost all confidence in the so-called weaker sex." First Gregory though that Keanu would leave it at that and wouldn’t say anything more about it, when he continued as if nothing had happened. "As I said the Sicilian families usually have no control over the elements and guys like Giacomo do only what is necessary not to pay any protection money.
Finally, they have to defend themselves, so they don’t have a choice and believe me that Motta Benedetto are the good guys, and they cling to the legend of the Savior, who is supposed to free them from the power of families such as the-Maltese’s or the Di Benedetto." Gregory was a little confused, "But that name's almost the same in both families. What led to this difference?"
"That’s a long story, but I'll try to keep it short because we still have a few other things to discuss today. We need to prepare ourselves, because as I've heard the Vultures are already on their way here. You have been busted, my dear." Gregory looked at him shocked and tried to say something. "Don’t look at me like that, it doesn’t matter why you ‘ve been busted, it was only a matter of time. There is no one to blame. They will be here latest in two or three weeks, since October 15, approaches, the day Lorenzo died, and the planetary alignment is the same on that day as a century ago. The alignment only happens once every few years. When it comes to the Di Benedetto's and some other families, the worst of them is Carmine Grande and the Maltese, who are your direct relatives. They would have you bite the dust better sooner than later. Do not forget both your father and your grandfather live in the village where we're going now.
Gregory was stunned, "My father lives here, and you know who he is?" "Indeed, and he is of the top five candidates if it comes to killing you. If your grandfather doesn’t push him aside and finishes you himself, as he did with your mother."
"My grandfather, killed my mother?"
"He, or one of his men, it doesn’t matter. To get out whatever burgeoning feeling you should ever get about your family from the start of your head, I have to tell you that your Grandfather is the cruelest man I ever met in my entire life. If you ever should fall into his hands, it would be best to kill yourself at the first possible occasion you get." Gregory’s head spun, with so much information. "So, let's summarize, many people are after me, trying to kill me, and my grandfather is the worst of all of them, who lives in the village where we are going now. If I think about all of it, I must ask you a question; are you out of your freaking mind? Weren’t you supposed to be the good guy in this? Are you with the firing squad?" Keanu grinned and looked at him briefly, then he turned his gaze back to the dusty road, they had now reached the coast, and the narrow road demanded his full attention. A careless maneuver and they would fall off the cliffs and land on a rock. "That is why, I’ll take you to my boat, you can’t go back to the Circus, we’ll have to hide you from now on."
"And where the hell are we going, I thought I had to prepare myself for the great battle? What will happen if I won’t make it? Is it the whole of humanity that will die due to earthquakes, volcano eruptions, storms, and whatever?"
"Boy, you are asking far too many questions at once. I have to fucking concentrate on driving, or we are going to die right now.”
“No need to get vulgar in language.”
"Back to your first question, we are on our way to Capo d ’Orlando. From there we will sail to Malta, and I don’t know if humanity truly would be erased, probably not, but it is certain that the volcano will erupt and then there would be no more Sicily on the map. What consequences the disappearance of an island such as Sicily would have for the rest of the world, I can’t tell you. Perhaps none, but they might be unexpected, nobody knows. The last time there were many deaths and great devastation, a part of the island was destroyed, and predicted that the island would perish next time."
"This means, all these Mafia gangsters and the Vultures do want Sicily to disappear and sink into the ocean, are they nuts?"
"What can I say, power and greed are on their Agenda, they don’t think clearly and you must never forget that most of them are being manipulated and don’t know about Sicily sinking into the ocean if they kill you. Besides, I guess the important families must have a plan to get away from the Island if things get out of hand. I can’t imagine Giada’s father to wait in his Villa till he dies. Besides, most of their men are usually not the brightest lights in the hall, the only things they think about are money and power." Gregory thought of Gabe. He was smart. On the other hand, he was after money and power, which made him easy to manipulate for sure. "So, what the hell are we going to do in Malta?"
"There you’ll be safe, and you’ll be able to prepare and focus on the countdown. Do not tell your girlfriend or anybody else where you are going. We don’t want to risk an unwanted visit." Gregory nodded, "Of course I'm still in Sicily if someone is asking." "That's right kid."<
br />
Keanu parked the car at the port of the small coastal village. It was an idyllic place with bright houses and big mansions standing at the hillside. Someone approached on a light blue Vespa. Keanu threw a ridiculous looking fisherman cap, which he took from the back seat, at Gregory. “Put it on quickly there is someone coming!" Reluctantly Gregory put the ugly cap on his head. Keanu hissed just in time at him that he was Antony from now on and shouldn’t take of the sunglasses before the Vespa got closer. Something about Keanu's pose didn’t bode well. Gregory glanced at the Vespa. It turned out to be a young woman stopping in front of them. She had wrapped a Chiffon scarf around her hair, 50s style and was wearing some stylish sunglasses. Her long slender fingers were slightly cramped on the steering wheel. Gregory raised an eyebrow and saw that Keanu stood there petrified. He counted two and two together, guessing that this girl had to be the much-feared Giada.
The responsible female for Keanu’s disability when it came to relationships with the female species. Gregory had to hold back from laughing, and the situation was delicious. Experiencing Keanu nervous and upset was indeed priceless. She rose from her Vespa and came slowly over towards them. Wow, was the only thing that popped into Gregory’s mind. She walked like a feline predator. Endless long legs tucked into incredibly short frayed jean shorts. Her tight shirt was knotted under her breast so that a large part of her flat brown belly could be seen. Around her neck, she wore a distinctive amulet, which represented a kind of spiral. Gregory's gaze wandered on to her face, which was covered by huge sunglasses. She had full sexy lips and a birthmark on the right side above her upper lip. A smile played on her lips, and her pearly whites were gleaming.
Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy Page 15