Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel

by Pennington, Winter

  “I need your help,” I said and leaned against the door.

  “Why?”

  “My queen has been captured by your cousin and his toadies.”

  She didn’t even look at me. “What makes you think I’ll help?”

  “I don’t,” I said.

  “Then why do you bother asking?”

  “Because I’m hoping that somewhere inside you, Morina, you won’t subject me to the same fate you’ve been subjected to.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, her voice dropping close to a growl.

  “You know what it feels like to lose someone you love,” I said. “Help me, please. If only for penitence for the harm you’ve already done.”

  “I haven’t harmed you. I did not take your queen.”

  I moved away from the door as I spoke. “You brought us here, Morina. You brought me here. You left me to die with you. You dragged me into your prison and your hell. You’ve marked me. How can you stand there as if you have done nothing wrong?”

  Morina shoved me up against the bedpost until the carved wood dug painfully into my back. “You came to me,” she said lowly. “You put yourself between us. I would not have taken you, had you not approached me.” She bowed her head and I turned my face from hers. “Now you are repulsed by me?” She stepped back, angry. “It was a ploy after all?”

  “What was a ploy, Morina?”

  “You were only trying to seduce me so that I would release you.”

  “What did you expect me to do?”

  Her nostrils flared as she exhaled a breath through her slightly arched nose. “That is not an answer.”

  “What do you want me to say, Morina? Yes, I tried to seduce you so that you would release me.”

  “Was it feigned, vampire?”

  I made a frustrated sound low in my throat. “I don’t know what you want, Morina. You’re infuriating, you’re selfish, and you’re filled with so much anger.”

  Slowly, the corners of her mouth rose. Her lips parted and she laughed, laughed until it rang from the ceiling like the tinkling of bells. She clutched her stomach and the post beside my head.

  “And?” she asked when the laughter had subsided. “Is there more you’d like to tell me?”

  “Yes,” I said and I tried to push past her. Her arm straightened in front of me like steel. “I don’t understand you.”

  “Good,” she said. “I’m glad you don’t. Shall I then tell you what I think of you, vampire? Should I tell you that you almost had me? Despite how infuriating I find you…” The tips of her fingers brushed my left hip and I flinched. “You almost succeeded. You almost had me.”

  I tried not to feel uncomfortable when her hand began to climb the side of my body, but I couldn’t hide it. Morina saw my discomfort and it made her smile all the more.

  “I wasn’t trying to get you, Morina. I was trying to understand you. I gave up when you kept pushing me away. I tried to show you compassion.”

  “I don’t want your compassion.”

  “I know.”

  She stepped away and I was grateful. I couldn’t tell what it was about Morina, but something about her was infuriating, and yet, intriguing. As soon as I was certain I didn’t like her, she said or did something or I saw a flicker of something inside her that made it hard for me to truly dislike her.

  “Perhaps it would be easier between us if I hated you,” I said, saying it aloud without realizing I was going to.

  “I could say the same to you,” Morina said. “Just being with you this short time has been torturous in more ways than one.”

  “She’s still here, Morina. I wasn’t doing those things to torment you. If you’re going to blame anyone, blame Andrella.”

  She flinched when I said her name, as if I’d struck her with it.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Sometimes,” she said, and her gaze strayed back toward the balcony. “Sometimes, I think I can sense her.”

  “I can’t remember everything that has happened.” I raked a hand through my curls and stepped toward the doors she kept gazing at. “I can’t remember if you really did force me to kneel on this floor and bathe in front of you, or if it was all a dream. I can’t remember if seeing Andrella actually happened or if it was merely some kind of hysteria brought on by everything else that has happened.”

  “You’ve seen her?” Morina asked. “You never told me that.”

  “I thought I had.”

  Morina came to me and put her hands on my shoulders. “What did she say to you?”

  “That you weren’t always this way.”

  She recoiled, as if the words hurt her. I had a feeling they did.

  I reached out and laid my hand on her arm. The white fabric of the blouse she wore was wrinkled and scratchy against my skin. “She asked me to help you.”

  “You cannot help me, vampire.”

  “Aye, that’s what I kept trying to tell her.”

  Morina stared at my hand for far longer than was polite and so I removed it, uncertain what she was thinking.

  “You do not hate me?” She didn’t look at me when she asked.

  “I want to. I’ve tried to. But I can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re like a wounded dog that bites the hand reaching out to help it, Morina. You’re in pain and the only way you know how to deal with that pain is to lash out.”

  The tip of her tail rose and twitched in the air.

  “I am sorry to say it, but it’s true. You know it.”

  “Leave,” she said. “I’ll decide on the morrow if I’ll help you or not.”

  She returned to the balcony doors and stood gazing into the night.

  Quietly, I left.

  I wasn’t sure what Morina’s intentions were, but one thing I was sure of, the Dracule were a harder lot to read empathically than any of the vampires I’d ever known.

  “How’d it go?” Cuinn asked.

  “She’ll tell me on the morrow whether she’s willing to help or not.”

  “That she did not outright refuse is a good sign,” Iliaria said as she opened the door to my chambers. “Depending.”

  “Depending?”

  “On if you really want her help. How much detail did you give her, Epiphany?”

  “Not enough for her to use against us if she decides to turn on me.”

  “Good,” Iliaria said. She knelt to toss another log of wood from the stack beside the fireplace into the fire. She sat back on her heels and placed her palms in her lap. “That is good.”

  Vasco knocked briefly on the door before letting himself in. “Queen Helamina will be questioning us personally,” he said.

  “Let her,” I said. “She won’t find anything.”

  Queen Helamina came to my chambers with Istania to question us. Vasco fetched the others and brought them to my chambers as well. Queen Helamina stood in the center of the room and questioned each of us one at a time. When Istania gave her nod of approval that we were telling the truth, she moved on to question the next person.

  Needless to say, everyone had an alibi. Vito and Vittoria had been with Anatharic on guard duty outside the castle. One of Queen Helamina’s men was able to confirm it. Nirena and Vasco and Gaspare had been downstairs with Istania and some of Augusten’s vampires. Vasco vouched that he had seen Iliaria, Cuinn, and me disappear into Morina’s room. He explained that when he had not seen Renata for some time, he went to find her, and when he couldn’t, he felt something was amiss.

  It didn’t take as long as any of us had thought it would, thankfully. All of us were able to confirm our whereabouts, and so Queen Helamina wasted no time asking us further questions in vain. All save Cuinn, Iliaria, and I were dismissed. Queen Helamina turned to me when the others had gone.

  “I have heard whispers, Epiphany, that you have been conspiring with the Dracule across the hall.”

  “I have gone to speak with her, lady, if that’s what you’re asking.”

 
Her gaze narrowed suspiciously. “I am no fool,” she said, straightening as if I’d accused her of being one. “Why have you been tiptoeing about?”

  I raised the sleeve on my left arm. “As you can see, lady, I have been marked. I asked that she remove the metaphysical ties that bind us.”

  I felt no need to dissemble, for it was true. I had asked Morina to take back her binding. But whether Queen Helamina was our ally or not, I did not know her well enough to trust her with all of the truth.

  “And why were you in her room when your queen disappeared and earlier this eve?” she asked.

  “Well,” I said, “if you must know, I visited the Dracule some days ago due to the issue she seems to have with my lover.” I motioned lightly toward Iliaria, who tipped her head in confirmation. “This whole thing began based on a quarrel years ago.”

  “What is the nature of the quarrel?”

  “The details are not mine to share, Queen Helamina.”

  “And you?” she asked Iliaria. “Will you tell me or will you pussyfoot as expertly as your lover? How do I now know the two of you have not conspired against your queen?” The last part she asked me.

  A surge of anger whipped through me and made the muscles in my arms contract. “I would advise you,” I said, “to never, ever, accuse me of such a thing. Renata is my Siren, lady. Not only that, but she is my lover and my queen. I would never, ever betray her, and you’d be wise to remember it.” The emotion swam through me. It made my blood pump faster, my breath shorter and clipped. The thought of Queen Helamina trying to use her status to turn Renata’s capture on me set my thoughts and blood on fire. “I could easily accuse you, Helamina. I could easily try to turn this entire situation about on King Augusten and yourself. But I have not, so please do me the courtesy of not turning it about on me and mine.”

  For several long moments, the room was bathed in an unsteady silence. The wood in the fire popped and crackled, seeming much louder than it should have. Queen Helamina assessed me while she stared at me, as if she would find the answers to her questions written on my face. I focused on making my expression as neutral as I could. Yet, the anger continued to burn inside me and I knew I couldn’t hide it. Not entirely.

  Queen Helamina inclined slightly. “Spoken like a queen, Epiphany.”

  “I don’t care how it sounds. I have one concern, lady, and one concern alone and that is my queen.” I stepped closer to her and Helamina stood still. “If I find that you have played us falsely, you will have not only the Rosso Lussuria knocking at your door but the Dracule we bear an alliance with. That, my lady, is all you need to know and keep in mind while you go about your investigation.”

  It was bold of me, to threaten the Queen of Ravenden, but it was the only thing I could think of to divert her from trying to pry into what I was about with the Dracule. I would not allow myself to overlook the possibility that Renata had been betrayed, whether she consented to it or no. If for some reason, someone in the castle had betrayed her, it could very well have been Augusten or Helamina, and that too was a possibility I would not overlook.

  “Who of the interrogators assembled have questioned King Augusten and you?” I asked. “None, lady. You have both put yourself in a position to be the ones asking the questions, but who do you answer to?”

  “I will answer to you, Epiphany,” Queen Helamina said and her tone was calm and only slightly condescending. “I was with Augusten discussing a vision I have recently had about a Dracule I do not recognize. I have walked the halls of this castle and not one matches the appearance of the Dracule I have seen.”

  “And what do you think of this Dracule, lady? What else have you seen?”

  “Nothing more,” she said.

  “You suspect this Dracule has something to do with my queen’s whereabouts?”

  “I do not know,” she admitted. “I only know what I have seen and that is not much. I saw only its face in vision, its fur whiter than our skin, its gaze blacker than space.”

  “Did the Dracule have any markings, Queen Helamina?”

  “No, it was perfectly and starkly white.”

  “None with me bear any resemblance to that,” Iliaria said. “I can only tell you that we will keep watch for it.”

  Queen Helamina nodded and I asked, “Are we done?”

  Helamina eyed me suspiciously. “You are quick to end this.”

  “You will not find the answers you seek here,” I said. “I am quick not to waste your time.”

  “Then we are done,” she said. “I may be Queen of Ravenden, Epiphany, but some of us sovereigns seek to protect one another.”

  “And some seek only to gain crowns and thrones, lady. I am no fool.” I threw her words back at her. Queen Helamina gave no outward sign that it bothered her.

  “Yes,” she said, “some do, indeed.”

  She and Istania left and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

  “Not sure that was in your best interest,” Cuinn said.

  “I think it was,” Iliaria said. “Well handled, Epiphany.”

  “Aye, I didn’t say it wasn’t well handled,” Cuinn said to her, “only now I’m not sure if the queen’s more suspicious or infuriated with your audacity.”

  “You know what I have to say to that?”

  “What?”

  “She should not have begun to accuse me.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  On the following day, Iliaria escorted the same Donatore woman I had fed from once before to my room. I fed again, choosing to drink from the sensitive skin at the bend of her elbow. She was compliant and as meek as a mouse. In a way, her demeanor reminded me of Justine, who often went quietly and willingly about the task of welcoming me and caring for me at Renata’s behest. I did not ask the Donatore her name, nor did she ask mine. I fed from her and watched the flutter of her lashes while I did so. Her blood filled my body with warmth and when I was done, I drew away from her. Then, without an exchange of words, she was taken away and it was time for me to visit Morina.

  I went alone again, leaving Cuinn with Emilio just outside the door to Morina’s quarters.

  “What aid do you specifically request of me, vampire?” Morina asked, her back turned to me. The arch of her wings relaxed behind her, the spurred tips curled as she rolled her neck. I wondered if she had gotten any sleep in the past several days and thought it unlikely.

  “Iliaria tells me that your father was once a priest, my lady.”

  She turned and looked at me quizzically. “What would you need with a priest?”

  “I seek to gain an audience with the angel Azrael.”

  Morina laughed. “And what makes you think I can help you with that?”

  “If your father was a priest, surely you would know how to accomplish such a task.”

  “Perhaps I do,” she said, “but what do I gain in turn for helping you, vampire?”

  “Forgiveness. You have done me wrong, lady. Many times now. Yours are the hands that have set this wheel in motion.”

  “I do not care about your forgiveness, vampire, or anyone else’s.”

  “I will try to help you find a way to see Andrella one last time,” I said, mostly in desperation. I didn’t know if I could do it, and I was careful not to promise her that I could, only that I would try.

  Morina watched me long and hard.

  “And what makes you think you can accomplish that?”

  “I’m not promising that I can. I can only promise to try and make it so.”

  “That is an easy promise to renege on,” she said.

  “There are those around me that might be able to help, if you aid us with this thing. You cannot promise that your aid will fulfill my request, just as I cannot promise mine will fulfill yours. All we can do is try to help each other. I will give you my oath that I will try to help you to the best of my abilities if you will try to help me, Morina.”

  “How do you think Azrael will help you find your queen, vampire? That is why you wish to summon him, is it
not?”

  “It is, but how I believe he can help me, I’d rather not say.”

  “Because you are afraid I will expose you? You trust me so little?”

  “In all honesty, you’ve given me little reason to give you my trust to begin with.”

  She blinked. “That’s true, isn’t it?”

  “Aye.”

  Morina came close to me until there was only an arm’s length of space between us. I gazed up at her much taller form and tried not to feel small. Truly, the Dracule were imposing in their height, even in the more human of their forms.

  “There is a way, Epiphany.” She looked both serious and thoughtful as she gazed down at me. I couldn’t remember her ever speaking my name, and it surprised me. “The way is dangerous and you may not survive to keep your word to me.”

  “I will speak with the others and find someone to uphold my end of the bargain for me if I am incapable of doing it. What is the way, Morina?”

  “The way is through his door, Epiphany.”

  I thought for a moment. “I have to die again.”

  “You must stand on the brink of life and death.”

  “Am I not doing that now as a vampire?” I asked.

  Morina smiled slyly. “You stand with Azrael’s gift filling you. You must relinquish that gift to him. Stand on the brink and call out his name.”

  “It’s that simple?”

  “Simple?” Morina asked. “What in the seven hells would make you begin to think it’s simple? He may not answer you, vampire. He has not answered the Dracule for a very long time.”

  “How do I stand on the brink, Morina?”

  “The priests of Azrael once practiced the art of bloodletting to commune with him. You must make of yourself an empty vessel, then you will find the brink, and there, you must call his name with your last breath.”