At that, Rolf grinned. He had always liked Peter and only held a grudge because the others hated him so. Peter had always had the best sense of humor in the group. He put his pants on.
“Now,” Peter continued, “you may blame me for what happened to Karl, but you might just as well blame yourselves. None of us were there, and if we had been, we’d probably be dead as well. Finally, what Meaghan—that’s her name, by the way—what Meaghan says is true. It is not meant as an insult, only a wake-up call. Your ignorance keeps you here, and within the next twenty-four hours, it may very well kill you.”
“What in hell—”
“Sheng,” Alex interrupted. “Let him talk.”
Sheng was red-faced with his fury and disbelief.
“It’s fine if all of you want to kiss and make up with Octavian. Karl is dead and this traitor, always his favorite son, still lives. But how can you stand to be in the same room with Cody October, the creature that murdered your brothers? How can you?”
Peter was visibly stunned. “What?”
“Oh, he didn’t tell you that, did he?” Sheng continued.
“Sheng,” Peter said, “Shannon was killed for her stupidity and Veronica committed suicide. You can’t blame Will for—”
“I’m not talking about them. Haven’t you wondered where they are? Trini and Xavier and Louis?”
In fact, he hadn’t. Peter had assumed they’d be arriving that night. He looked at Cody, who had backed off several paces.
“I would have felt it,” Peter said uncertainly.
“No,” Alex said. “Many of us learned how to sever that bond. We didn’t want the strays like you two looking in on what we were doing.”
Octavian walked toward Cody. “Is this true? You murdered your brothers?”
Cody only looked at him for a moment, then shook his head in disappointment. “You know much more about me than I do about any of you. I would almost expect it of the rest, Peter, but not from you. Our father commanded them to leave me be. Those three came after me. They died trying to kill me.”
“You were bringing too much attention to our kind,” Sheng yelled, and even Rolf glared at Cody with mute fury. “Your antics were inspiring too many questions and you were too recognizable, and you know that! That FBI man, Laurence—hell, he even believed in you!”
“That’s my business,” Cody said as he advanced on Sheng. “I was putting some things right that never were after my death. Karl knew that and you were all told to keep away. None of you were disrespectful enough to come after me, but those three did.”
He turned to Peter. “Get to your demonstration already. As soon as you’re done, I’m leaving.”
“As you wish.” Peter turned to face them all.
“Haven’t you forgotten something?” Meaghan said from the doorway.
“I’m sorry, Meaghan,” Peter said, looking pointedly at Sheng. “Please come in. No harm will come to you here.”
“You’re awfully sure of yourself, Octavian.” Ellen said, but Peter ignored her.
“Meaghan Gallagher,” he began, “Shi-er Zhi Sheng, Alexandra Nueva, Jasmine Decard—cover your tits, Jazz—Ellen Quatermain, and my silent friend, Rolf Sechs.”
“Pleased to meet you all,” Meaghan said as she stepped out of the light and into the room, Daniel into the lion’s den.
There was a tense moment, and then Alex stepped forward and shook her hand. “Welcome,” she said, and when she saw that Meaghan didn’t flinch, she realized that she meant it.
“Now,” Peter began, and all eyes were on him, “for my demonstration. I’ll need a volunteer from the audience. The bravest among you, please.”
Rolf raised his hand like a schoolboy.
“Ah, yes, I thought you might volunteer, Rolf.”
Peter moved toward the door, where the area of sunlight was as clearly marked as if its boundaries had been drawn. He motioned for Rolf to step with him up to its perimeter, and the big German did so.
Peter stepped into the light. Rolf and the others just stared. Even Cody still couldn’t get over it and he’d conquered the fear as well.
“Magic,” Sheng said smugly.
“Far from it,” Meaghan said behind him, though he ignored her.
“Peter,” Alex said, “we all knew that you believed this was possible. It’s what you told Karl. And Hannibal’s had people watching you. He told us you could do it. But I didn’t believe it until now. How is it done?”
“Rolf,” Peter said. “Give me your hand.”
Rolf looked at him, his smile faltering. He searched Peter’s face for some sign, and found nothing. His own chiseled features revealed doubt, his blue eyes narrowed with confusion. He was afraid, and he hated it. He shook his head and walked away from Peter’s outstretched hand.
“It’s okay, Rolf.”
“I’ll do it,” Alex said, and Peter smiled again. Once he had loved Alexandra Nueva, and he had known that she was the bravest of them, though Rolf would surely be the first to volunteer.
Alex walked up, reached into the light, and grasped Peter’s outstretched hand.
And she burned.
She didn’t pull away, though, just looked at Peter’s face as her hand and wrist blackened, then burst into flame. “Get to the point,” she snarled through gritted teeth.
Peter let go and Alex pulled back, cradling her arm. Sheng went to her, glaring at Peter.
“What does that prove?” Ellen asked.
Peter ignored her. Instead, his attention was on Alex. “Why did that happen?” he asked her.
“What?”
“Why did your hand burn?”
“I put it in the sun, you idiot.”
He smiled at her. “Wrong answer.”
“Well, then,” Jasmine said, intrigued, “what is the answer?”
“I tried to teach Karl this ages ago,” Peter said sadly. “Obviously it didn’t work. Alexandra’s hand burned because she believed that it would.”
“Of all the stupid . . . her hand won’t heal for days!” Sheng said.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Have a little faith, won’t you?”
“Not in you,” Ellen said, but now even Sheng was listening.
Peter stepped forward, out of the light, then put only his hand back in. “Nothing happens because I don’t believe it. But if I will it . . .”
His hand started to blacken just as Alex’s had. When the flames began, he pulled it back.
“Ouch,” Cody said.
Peter held his hand in front of them, and as they watched, it healed.
“I don’t understand,” Alex said.
“That’s okay, darlin’,” Cody told her. “Neither do I, and I can do it.”
“Sheng,” Peter said. “Turn to mist.”
Sheng did.
“Ellen, become a wolf.”
She did.
“Back to normal, both of you. Now just watch.”
And Peter did something incredible. Cody couldn’t have imagined it, but he did it. The other five immortals in the room just stared with jaws slack, but Meaghan screamed.
Peter burst into flames. In moments he was immolated, his body exploding in burning ash and cinder.
“My blood,” Jasmine hissed. “He wasn’t even in the sun.”
Then an even more incredible thing happened. As they watched, the ash drifted together, of its own accord. The flames leaped higher and the cinders built on one another, and in a moment Peter was standing, bent at the waist, his face a rictus of pain. There was not a mark on him.
“That . . . hurt.”
“Don’t you see?” Meaghan said, as surprised to find herself speaking as the others were to hear her. “Don’t you understand what he’s saying? You turn to mist, you turn into any number of things, but you control it. Sure, it hurts, but what is pain to you? And if you can be mist, why not fire and ash? Why not water or earth, for that matter?”
“Hmm,” Peter said, looking at her strangely. “I hadn’t thought of that.�
��
“You hadn’t thought of that,” Ellen said, almost panicked now. “This is insane.”
“Oh please,” Meaghan said, her voice loaded with sarcasm. “You’ve lived this life and you’re still questioning these things? After all the things I’ve had to swallow, this should be easy for the bunch of you! No wonder the church is knocking you off. You can’t feel the truth when it bites you on the ass!”
“Now just a minute,” Ellen began, but Meaghan would not be stopped.
“You don’t have a minute! That’s why Will and Peter risked their lives coming here. You’ve been brainwashed for centuries by the church. They’ve been keeping you like dangerous cattle for a thousand years, culling the herd once in a while if you get too close to the truth because they can’t really control you. That’s why they call you the Defiant Ones. Well, they did the next best thing. They made sure you’d handicap yourselves with these superstitions. You’re even more powerful than you think you are.”
“Sheng,” Peter said, “when I left the coven, you called me a gelding. That’s what we all are. The church cut our balls off long ago, only they didn’t really cut them off. They just made us forget they were there!”
Silence reigned. Then Alexandra spoke up: “Teach us.”
“I’m afraid there’s no time for that. You see, they are also much more powerful than we ever gave them credit for, and far more organized than we could ever have imagined. The black sorcery they have at their hands is extraordinarily powerful.”
“Sorcery,” Ellen said. “But they’re the church.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Cody yelled. “Why do you think they call us Defiant Ones and only us. You know there are all kinds of dark things out there, but none of them have that name. The church controls it all. Do you think they could have done what they’ve done to us, and hunted us so successfully over the centuries, if they didn’t have the darkness on their side?”
“Then we’re not of the darkness?” Jasmine asked.
“If not,” Alexandra said, looking around her, “well, then what are we?”
Peter’s face became troubled and sad, and he looked around at what remained of his estranged family. That was the question that haunted him.
“I wish I knew,” he said softly.
“The answer to that will have to wait,” Meaghan said to them. “They’ve been holding back for years, waiting for the right time to destroy you all, and they’ve decided that now is that time. They’ve always known about carnival, about the annual meetings. They’ve been trying to weed out some of the old ones, some of the more powerful ones before this event to make it easier to take the battle to you.”
“They can’t possibly make some kind of mass attack on Venice,” Sheng said, though he didn’t know quite what to believe. “What about the media?”
“The church is coming just the same,” Cody said. “And we’ve got to be ready when they get here.”
“How do you know all of this?” Sheng asked, suspicious again.
“From the Vatican itself,” Meaghan said, and held up the book.
“The Gospel of Shadows,” Alex said.
“You know of it?” Peter asked, a little surprised.
“Karl had been telling us about that book for years,” Ellen said. “If you hadn’t abandoned us, you’d know that. He even had sketches of it from somewhere. But none of us thought it was real.”
Alex explained to them Karl’s plan to steal the book, and Cody nodded at Peter and Meaghan when his suspicions were confirmed. Karl had indeed given his Gypsy thief instructions that would kill him if he were discovered, and he was.
“We didn’t know what happened with it,” Alex said.
Peter explained to them the events that had taken place after the Gypsy was discovered, about Henri Guiscard, and about his own involvement through Janet’s disappearance. He detailed what he had seen Mulkerrin do, and though many of them were aware of the church’s use of magic, they were still surprised by the man’s power.
“That’s how you got the book? From this cardinal?” Alex asked.
“No,” Meaghan continued. “Peter saved Guiscard, but Mulkerrin escaped with the book and returned to Rome.”
“Then how do you come to have it now?” Sheng said.
“Simple really,” Cody answered. “He went into the Vatican and took it.”
Nothing could have pleased Cody more than the look on Sheng’s face. Von Reinman’s remaining children had a lot to think about, and even more to do, but with the animosity they felt toward him, he could not be a part of it. And further, they weren’t the only ones who hated him. The majority of the immortals at carnival would want him dead. Venice was not a healthy place for him to be. Still, he had things to accomplish. There were ways he could help them, even if they didn’t want his help.
He kissed Meaghan on the forehead and headed for the door, still smiling to himself at the contemplative silence that had fallen over the room.
“When will you return?” Peter asked.
“In time,” he said, and left.
Upstairs, the Closed sign was in the window, but the shopkeeper had not returned. The police weren’t coming either.
At the front of the train, Father Mulkerrin pulled Robert Montesi aside. He checked, with both his eyes and his mind, to be sure no one was listening before he issued his orders.
“Robert, you know I trust you completely, don’t you?”
“Yes, Father,” Montesi said with a smile.
“And you know that of all your father’s sons, the children of my greatest friend and most powerful ally, only you have lived up to your father’s example, only you have fulfilled the potential for greatness in the Lord’s path.”
“Yes, Father.”
“I have a job for you, Robert.”
Montesi said nothing.
“Giancarlo Garbarino is lacking in faith. He does not truly believe in our efforts. A less pious man than yourself, even I, might forgive him these sins. But we cannot afford any weakness—in ourselves, in our faith, in our strength . . . in any one of us. We do God’s work, and such weakness is a hindrance to that work. You will take care of it.”
It was not a question.
“At the first opportunity, Father,” he said, and smiled.
“Vincent would be proud.”
“Where is Hannibal?” Peter bellowed into the face of the elder creature’s servant.
“Sir, please calm down. I have told you that the master is sleeping and does not wish to be disturbed.”
The man was clearly rattled to be confronted by six Defiant Ones stepping into the house out of the bright sunshine of a cold February day. And he wasn’t the only one who was rattled.
“Bloody hell, that hurts!” Ellen cursed.
“It’ll go ’way,” Jasmine said, “or at least dat’s what Peter says. But I still don’t quite believe it.”
Meaghan had come up behind them, and now she took Jasmine’s arm as Ellen shook off the warmth of the sun like a dog shaking off fleas. “If you really didn’t believe it,” she said, “you’d be dead.”
She and Jazz locked eyes, then Jasmine smiled.
“You all right, girl.”
Peter went storming about the house. “Wake him up then, Jeeves. I want to see him and I won’t take no for an answer.”
“Sir,” the butler continued, “let me be quite frank with you.”
“Oh,” Sheng joined in with his usual sarcasm. “Please do.”
“The master does not wish to be disturbed and he will not be. There is very little you can do about that. Even if you should turn this house upside down, you will not find him. Rather, he will rest peacefully, unmolested by your group of rabble.”
“‘Rolf,” Sheng snapped. “Kill him.”
As Rolf moved in Peter stopped him.
“No. Only kill when you must.”
Sheng looked annoyed for a moment, but, remarkably, let it go. Alex hugged him.
“I’m proud of you. The
re’s too much at stake for egos,” she said.
“Tell that to Octavian.”
“All of you, search the house,” Peter said, “but let’s respect our elders. Don’t make too much of a mess. Meaghan, stay with me.”
It wasn’t long before they started to drift back, unhappy. They’d found many things. A number of secret rooms and a cold room with recent kills among them, but they hadn’t found Hannibal’s sleeping quarters. Then Rolf and Alex appeared, Rolf forcibly escorting an attractive young woman with a leather-wrapped chain shackled to her ankle. The other end looked as if it had been pulled right out of the wall, and Peter imagined it had been.
“Who are you?” Peter asked her.
“Why, don’t you recognize me?” the girl snapped. “I’m breakfast.”
“Her name is Tracey,” Alex said. “She’s nothing, a volunteer.”
“A what?” Meaghan asked.
“They come here of their own free will and offer themselves to our kind,” Peter said without turning.
“My God,” she said.
“Yeah,” Tracey said. “That’s what I thought, too.”
“You’ve got guts, Tracey,” Peter said. “Why were you chained?”
“I changed my mind.”
“And smart, too.” Ellen smirked.
“I recognize you, y’know,” Tracey said to Alex, then to Sheng. “You, too. You’re like him, like Hannibal.”
“Yes.”
“But it’s daytime?”
“We’re special,” Sheng said, his nose wrinkling.
“I remember you now,” Alex said to her. “We warned you to stay away from here. You should have listened.”
“I wish I had.”
“Alexandra, why don’t we gel that chain off her?” Peter said, and turned to the butler as Alex was tearing the metal away with her hands. “Jeeves,” he said, “give her your coat.”
“The master will not be pleased with your—”
Unasked, Rolf approached the butler and stripped him of his coat. He handed it to Tracey.
“Go,” Peter said to her, and that was all. In seconds, she was gone, and just as quickly forgotten.
“When master Hannibal awakes, he will be quite angry, I can assure you,” the butler sniffed.
Of Saints and Shadows (1994) Page 26