“Eeeepiphannyyy,” Anatharic’s hissing voice sounded behind me, and I turned. He was running down the hall on all fours, nearly as tall as a small horse. His long ears were drawn back against his skull, his wings arched slightly, making his body something smooth and angular as he cut through the air.
I stood there like an idiot, no longer paying attention to the sounds of struggle behind me. Iliaria was questioning the man who looked like Dante. He was screaming as she did something to him.
And Anatharic was making a full-out run for me.
“Get on!”
I didn’t comprehend. It was happening too fast. Anatharic leapt in the air like a panther and slammed into me.
For a moment, I was falling in the dark, though I seemed to be falling far too long than was normal.
Anatharic released me and I landed in a heap on the floor.
He caught my arm and jerked me to my feet. “Get up,” he said. “Wake your queen. We mussst hurry.”
I stumbled toward Renata’s great bed in a sort of daze. Relief sang through my heart when I saw her pale visage whole and untouched. With the fox blade in hand, I crawled on top of her. I curled my fingers around the blade until the metal bit deep.
“I need your help.”
“Hurry,” Anatharic said again. His ears turned in the direction of the doors that led to the hallway outside Renata’s chambers, but he came to my side to aid me.
If the man in the hallway had not been Dante, where were Dante and Dominique?
Better yet, why couldn’t I hear anything beyond the doors? Surely, I should’ve been able to hear at least Iliaria. The mark at my wrist still tingled, letting me know she was still close.
Anatharic sheathed his claws and pried open Renata’s mouth. I held my hand above it and curled my fingers around the blade. My blood fell to coat her tongue, and Anatharic stepped aside.
Renata gasped the first ragged breath of life, her chest rising sharply as it filled her. Her lids flew open to reveal the dark sapphire and blue topaz fragments in her eyes.
“Epiphany,” she said. Unlike the only other time I had woken her by surprise, there was no surprise in her now. Only a calm calculation as she tried to assess the situation. She must have perceived the shock in me, for she locked an arm around my waist as she sat up.
She asked Anatharic, “What passes, Great Sire?”
“We are under sssiege, lady.”
“How many?”
“We do not yet know.”
Renata’s eyes fluttered closed. “It is too early still for the Elders to rise. Have they been attacked?”
“We do not think ssso, lady.”
“It seems Damokles has targeted the Donatore,” I said.
I felt more than saw the horror of such news unfurl inside her. After the horror came a fine surge of rage that filled her like a thunderous wave, gathering.
“That is impossible.”
“Apparently not,” I said.
She nodded once, sharply. “Tell me.”
“Iliaria believes Damokles used a witch to break the warding.”
“Are there any survivors?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “We hadn’t gotten that far. I came to wake you, in case it was a trap. Iliaria and I were on our way here when someone guised as Dante attacked us in the hall.”
“Magic?” Renata asked, directing the question to Anatharic.
“Yesss.”
“What do we do?” I asked her.
“Go,” she said. “Take Anatharic with you and go wake Vasco and those you are able. I will find Iliaria and help her question the witch.”
I turned around when the sound of something heavy hit the floor.
“Too late,” Iliaria said. She’d flung something at her feet. It took me a moment to realize it was a man’s body. His sandy hair was cropped short to his head. Once I took in the attire that mimicked Dante’s, I knew it was the witch.
I could not hear his heart beating, though neither could I discern the killing blow.
“He took a vial of poison before I could question him,” Iliaria said.
“What of Dante and Dominique?” Renata asked. “Have none of you seen them?”
I shook my head.
Iliaria said, “Not yet.”
“Epiphany,” Renata said, her voice cool and calm. “Go wake Vasco, Nirena, Vittoria, and Vito.” She turned to Iliaria. “Will you go with her?”
“I will.”
I didn’t know how comfortable I was leaving Renata alone with Anatharic. Iliaria might have known him, but I didn’t, not that well.
“I think you should come with us,” I said. “If they’re still here, is it not better that we don’t separate?”
Renata watched me with a thoughtful expression for several moments. “Very well,” she said. She rose and retrieved a blue silk dressing gown from the armoire. Considering I was still nude beneath the robe, I went to Renata’s closet and pulled on a pair of dark breeches.
As I was more concerned with Vasco’s well-being, I didn’t bother trying to find the rest of my clothes.
*
Vasco was fine, as untouched as Renata had been. As were Vito, Vittoria, and Nirena. We stood once again just outside the doors to the Donatore’s quarters. We had neither been attacked nor had we found Dante or Dominique. Where on earth were they?
Renata started to step past the splintered doorway and Iliaria and Anatharic blessedly stopped her.
“We’ll go in first,” Iliaria said.
Renata, strangely silent and compliant, nodded. Vito and Vittoria took up the rear, their swords drawn at the ready. Vasco and I placed Renata between us, and Nirena followed at our heels.
The last time Renata had boldly strode into a room, she’d stepped right into the middle of an ambush. Tension made my shoulders tight.
After rounding a corner, Iliaria said, “We’re clear. They’re gone.”
She and Anatharic moved, and I was able to see the ruins of not only the Donatore’s quarters, but of the Donatore themselves.
They had been dragged from their rooms and cornered at the end of the hallway like a herd of cattle. It was such a grotesque mess that my mind didn’t want to make sense of the bits and pieces of flesh and limbs. Blood splattered the walls, and bits of skin dangled from the walls as if someone had thrown them there with a meaty slap.
I averted my gaze and turned into Renata. She put her arm around me, knowing I didn’t have the stomach for such violence. This close to the confetti of human bodies, the smell of meat, blood, and bile was metallic and sour in the back of my throat.
Renata touched my hair. “The Dracule can deal a fair amount of damage,” she mused. “Yet, this does not appear to be the work of your kind.”
I heard Iliaria inhale, drawing more than air into her lungs. “Magic, again.”
“A magical explosive?” Nirena asked. She passed Renata and me to closer examine the scene before us.
“Are all of them…” I let my question trail off. Of course they were dead. Every single one of them. The Donatore could not withstand that much damage and survive.
I didn’t need to ask myself why Damokles would target them. They were our blood source, and without them, we would starve.
It was simple really. So simple that we should have thought of it and saw fit to better protect them.
I could feel Renata’s dread like a knot in my stomach. Outwardly, she remained every inch the queenly figure, her head held high as she projected an air of confidence and composure. But we were connected, and I could taste her fear.
“Sì,” Vasco said. “All of them, sorella.”
“I know why they targeted the Donatore,” Nirena said thoughtfully. “What I don’t get is how they found the Donatore. Do you think it possible they’ve been working with more than one vampire?” she asked Renata.
“None save Dante, Dominique, and I know the way to this place. It does not make sense.”
He used the witch to track mort
al blood, Cuinn said, and I passed his words on to the others.
“What do we do?” I asked aloud, though I was speaking with Cuinn. “They’ve effectively burned our crops.”
Ah, but ye see, they’ve burned your crops with magic. In my mind, I saw Cuinn’s black lips curl into a fox’s version of a smirk. Magic is reversible. Ye’ve only to find a witch to reverse the spell.
Reverse it? I asked.
Aye, he said. If the Donatore were killed with magic, they can be remade with magic.
“Epiphany?” Renata asked.
“Cuinn said to find a witch to reverse the spell.”
“That does not help us much,” Renata said.
Vasco spoke up. “It might, actually.”
“You know of a witch, my silver prince?” Renata asked.
“Sì, I do. If she’s still in the same location. One of the Stregheria, actually.”
“We can take you to find her,” Iliaria said. “Our means of travel is safer and less costly when it comes to time.”
I was trying very hard to focus on their faces and not on the graphic remnants of the Donatore around us.
Play violence I could handle; serious violence made me ill. Yet another thing that set me apart from my brethren.
“But what of Dante and Dominique?”
We can try ta track them, Cuinn offered.
How?
Remember when we tracked the Great Siren?
I did remember. Cuinn had somehow led me to investigate the hallway without actually leaving Renata’s room. It was a sort of projection that had to do with his ability and not mine.
I remember. Do you suppose that will work?
It may take some time, but aye, it should. I’d not recommend doing it here, though.
My chambers are safe, Renata’s voice flowed softly through my mind.
I startled, not aware that she’d been eavesdropping. It was decided that all of us save Vasco, Nirena, and the Dracule would return to Renata’s chambers and wait while Cuinn and I tried to locate Dante and Dominique. Vasco, Nirena, and the Dracule would search out a witch to aid us.
On one hand, I was relieved that I would not be waiting idly. On the other, I worried for Vasco and Iliaria. Would they find the Stregherian witch, and even if they did, would she help our clan?
Cuinn explained to me that the Stregha were similar to him, albeit, they were, “half-blood Fata offspring.” Still, I felt as if I knew little about them. How intimately had we worked with them in the past?
I can’t tell you that, Cuinn said, but your queen’s doors are spelled to admit only those she has invited. That’s Stregha magic at work.
Is that what kept them from attacking Renata, do you think?
Aye, he said, their witch might not’ve been powerful enough to break the warding on her room. It’s…” He seemed to be searching for the word. Finally, he said, It’s more intricate than the warding on the Donatore’s doors.
I was tempted to ask, “How so?” but didn’t, figuring if I did, I was in for a lengthy explanation that probably wouldn’t have made sense to me anyway.
Chapter Two
Vito and Vittoria stood just inside the room, guarding the two entryways. Both were garbed from head to foot in black: black boots, black pants, black tunics, and black hair. The only contrast to all of that blackness was the mirroring paleness of their skin and their clear, crystalline blue eyes. They were twins and though not identical, it was obvious with a glance they were biological siblings.
Renata sat in the high-backed chair tucked into the corner of her room by a small glass table. She watched me calmly and I could feel her gaze like the cool light of the moon, a bright beacon to my heart.
I crawled into bed. The last time Cuinn had taken over my senses, only Renata’s grip had kept me from falling on my face. I crossed my legs and rested against the pillows as I tried to make myself comfortable. Renata came to the side of the bed.
Leaning over, she pressed her full lips to mine, and one of her hands rose to cup my jaw. Her tongue brushed past my lips and encouraged my blood to sing. Under her kiss, my mind too felt pleasantly cloudy as if I had drunk too much wine.
She drew away and murmured, “You taste of her.”
I didn’t know what to say. Most days, I had time to wash Iliaria from my skin before Renata woke. It was a measure of respect. It was different when she shared me, for the two were sharing me in the moment, but to know that I’d been making love to the Dracule while Renata slept…
A sharp pang of guilt gnawed at me, not because of what Iliaria and I had done, but because of what might’ve happened to Renata while Iliaria and I had been preoccupied with each other.
The thought made me feel guilty.
Renata smiled softly. No doubt, she heard my thoughts. Whether I willed her to or not, she was my queen, my Siren, and there was no door within me she couldn’t walk through.
But our powers were a double-edged blade, for I could sense her emotions and knew that in some part of her, my guilt pleased her. She would not allay me of it. Rather, she reveled in knowing I cared deeply enough about her to feel guilty.
I placed my hand over hers and her skin was cool and smooth against mine. The length of her tapered fingers twined with mine.
I let her have it, all of it; my guilt, my concern, my relief. It was hers.
“When you are done, cara mia, we will remedy your predicament,” she whispered against my cheek. The promise was enticing, and I resisted the urge to reach out and touch her. Now wasn’t the time. Along with the pang of guilt, she knew too the steady flame of unquenched desire within me.
I nodded, slightly, sensing Cuinn’s impatience despite the fact that he did not give voice to it. Renata moved away, and I focused on Cuinn, closing my eyes to concentrate.
The first time Cuinn had helped me to “see” without my eyes, he’d done it relatively quickly, but this time he made an effort to be more patient and to instruct me.
Seeing as we do not know where they are, it will take more concentration from the both of us to find them, he said.
Cuinn had once used this ability to find Iliaria when she’d been summoned to kill the Rosso Lussuria. He’d sensed danger and woke me, and because he had sensed her, it was easier to find her in the labyrinth of hallways. Dominique and Dante would not be so easily found. They weren’t a threat, and without that sense of danger, Cuinn had to work harder. We had no starting point, so I was not sure how exactly we were to find them.
What if they had been taken from the Sotto? What if there was nothing to find or sense? I did not like the thought. Dante and Dominique were more than pretty muscle; they were two of the best guardsmen Renata had ever had. I liked them, as much as you can like someone who keeps you at arm’s length for two hundred years.
We may need your queen’s help, Cuinn murmured through my mind, to use her ties to them as a compass.
“Renata,” I whispered. “We need your aid.”
She sat on the bed beside me and took my hands in hers again. “I will do what I can. I have not sensed them, so I do not know how great a help my ties as their Siren will be.”
One thing at a time, Cuinn said. Just ’cause she doesn’t sense them doesn’t mean they’re not there. We’ll focus on one of them first, then the other, to avoid being pulled in two different directions if they’re not in the same place.
But, I thought, if Renata does not sense them, that could mean—
It could, Cuinn said. It does not absolutely.
If Renata had been awake and they had been hurt or murdered, she would have felt it. If they were safe, why couldn’t she sense them? Didn’t the fact that she couldn’t sense them mean their lives had probably been snuffed out? If they had died before she woke, there would be no life for her to sense.
As much as I disliked the thought, it was a persistent one.
Piph, it was Renata’s voice that called me back. Her fingers tightened around mine, and though she said no more than my na
me, I knew she had heard my thoughts.
Ye need to focus, Cuinn said softly. It may mean nothing. It’s easier for a Siren to sense her vampires when they’re in distress. If she can’t sense them, they should be okay. For now, at least.
I thought I understood what he meant and let out a breath. I let myself fall into a quiet darkness, finding a place within myself where each thought sank like a coin to the bottom of a still pool of water.
Now, Cuinn said when it was time.
I let myself think of Dominique again. Where was he?
The smell seemed to start in the back of my throat. I know no other way to explain it. It began from somewhere within me; the hint of iron, of cool stone and burning torches, the old stench of human sweat.
Atta girl, Cuinn thought, keep it going. Follow the thread.
This time, his magic was nothing like it had been when we had discovered the Dracule. Then, he had known where to find her; the signature of her energy had been so strong. Trying to find Dominique was like trying to find a pebble in the snow.
Renata held my hand tightly. When she released her energy, I felt a thread pull tight between us. My skin grew warm with the flood of her power, as if someone had thrown open the doors and let in an autumn wind, though I knew this wind had nothing to do with any natural element.
Renata focused the energy she gave me and I’d never felt something so strange and unusual. So many threads seemed to spiral like a web from the base of her power, all of it contained within her. Was that what it meant to be Siren?
If Renata was a spider, she navigated those threads adeptly, swiftly sorting through them until she came upon the connection, the link that she desired.
It was then the vision flared to life, igniting to life behind my lids. The torchlight came into view as the vision in my mind sped up, following a thread that led down a stone hallway lined with dancing torches. When the vision paused at the small cell, it took me a moment to realize that I knew it. It was the holding cell I had been in two hundred years ago.
Dominique moved out of the shadows. He raised his face in a line of torchlight and his gray eyes shifted as if he sensed something and looked to find it.
Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel Page 3