The Lost Centurion

by Monica La Porta

  He raised his eyes from the table and looked at her. The telltale signs of her next episode were all there, but he hadn’t noticed them earlier. She was sweating and shaking and her eyes were darker.

  “You’ve kept it under control until now?” He took her arm and felt unnatural coldness seeping through him at the touch.

  “I’m trying to get better at it, but it isn’t easy.” She shivered and serrated her mouth in a straight line. “Especially when you eat with such abandon…”

  He angled his body to give her access to his throat. “The least I can do is to return the favor.”

  She tentatively licked at the same spot she had bitten the night before.

  When her fangs entered him and she started sucking his blood, colorful lights exploded behind his closed eyelids. The experience didn’t last long though. She was done and cleaning the blood from her mouth and chin before he could coax her back to him.

  “Thank you.” She left her chair and sat on his lap. “You tasted like the food I made you.”

  He smiled over her head. “You’re welcome.”

  The warm light of a September morning reached his shoulder, and she yelped in pain. He instinctively removed her from the trajectory of the light.

  “It’s so hot it’s burning.” Her words were a blurred whisper.

  “It’s already happening.” He moved his chair to the darkest corner of the kitchen.

  “What’s already happening?”

  “You’re turning faster than I thought you would.”

  The old-fashioned telephone hanging from the wall rang loudly. Marcus looked at it for several seconds. When he had bought the house, he had assumed the telephone was only a decoration and had kept it.

  “Aren’t you going to answer that?” Diana sleepily moved in his arms, burrowing her way closer to him, until she rested content against his chest, her arms around him.

  Her breathing had already slowed down and Marcus didn’t want to move, but the telephone was too loud to ignore, and he reached for it, balancing her small form without disturbing her. She made a sound resembling a contented child’s snore and he couldn’t help but smile.

  “Yes?”

  “Marcus, where were you? And why, for Jupiter’s sake, didn’t you answer your damned cell phone?”

  “Alexander? How did you get this number?” Marcus rocked her in his arms as if she were a child and leaned to leave a peck on the crown of her head.

  “Never mind that. I’ve been looking for you since you left the gym yesterday.”

  Marcus recalled he had turned off the phone during his cab ride and left it in the pocket of his shirt, the shirt he had never picked up from the terrace floor. “What is it?”

  “The nest is looking for an immortal who has kidnapped a vampling. If the vampires find you, the Council won’t lift a finger to save your hide. You must leave Rome now.”

  Marcus looked down at the sleeping vampling who had adopted him. “I can’t. She can’t.”

  Alexander swore. “Is the sunlight already burning her?”

  He caressed the red spots forming on her white skin where the sunrays had touched her a few minutes ago. “The turning is well on its way to completion. I can’t move her before it’s dark.”

  “I’ll come to pick you up at sundown. Be ready. I’ll drive you to Villa Eloisa.”

  Alexander ended the call, and Marcus was left with his worries and a sleeping vampling.

  ****

  Diana woke in the darkness of the bedroom, but she wasn’t alone. Marcus’s weight pressed against her side but she could tell he wasn’t sleeping. His fingers were caressing her arms and she had the feeling she had been gently helped to wake.

  “We’re going to Amalfi.”

  She could see him despite the lack of any light in the room. She could feel his heartbeat and she knew he was under stress. “I’ve always wanted to see the Amalfi Coast.”

  “You’ve never been there?” He sounded intrigued, but she sensed something was wrong.

  “Why are we leaving Rome?” She stopped his hand on her arm.

  “The nest is looking for us. They know an immortal has you. It’s only a matter of time before they’ll come through the front door.” He sat on the bed and brought her up with him. “I can’t protect you here.” He passed his hand over his eyes, then applied some pressure over his temples. “I’ve acted against the Immortal Council’s laws in hiding you from your nest.”

  “What Immortal Council?”

  “Just a bunch of egotistical assholes who stopped controlling my life long ago…” He looked outside. Noises from the streets below filtered through the closed windows. “There’s no time now to explain. Later.” He helped her up. “There’s a change of clothes for you in the bathroom. Hurry.”

  She walked to the bathroom in a daze and splashed cold water on her eyes. The pile of folded clothes waited for her on a wooden stool. She lowered the lid of the toilet and sat to regroup her thoughts. Her feelings were all over the place. She hated being dependent on a man for her welfare. She had sworn to herself to never fall into that trap again. Then she had accepted Virgil’s help and here she was now, in a mess she couldn’t even fathom the seriousness of.

  Marcus knocked on the door. “My friend Alexander is on his way here.”

  She nodded to the walls and changed into the fresh change of clothes. Her flat espadrilles with the ink-blue canvas tops were on the floor by the stool. She examined the plaited fiber soles and found several pebbles embedded in them, reminding her once again of the night when she had been saved from certain death only to be imprisoned in a life she hadn’t asked for.

  ****

  Marcus cautiously opened the main door and peeked outside at the busy road and equally busy sidewalks. At the last moment, he had called Alexander and told him to meet a few blocks from his place. He knew he had waited too long to accommodate Diana’s new needs, and couldn’t ignore his gut feelings telling him that both vampires and immortals were circling his house like sharks.

  He spotted his tail when he and Diana, hand in hand, had rounded the corner of his building. The two immortals weren’t making any effort to hide, standing straight and tall in the middle of the crowd. He looked around, saw the bus stop a few meters ahead of them, and decided on the best course of action to lose them.

  “When I say run, you run and jump on the bus.”

  She looked up at him, then automatically tilted her head to the right.

  He squeezed her hand. “Don’t look back. There’re two men following us.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the orange and blue bus in the distance. A stop was ahead of them, but another was between them and their tail. “Let’s slow down.” He led Diana on a leisurely stroll, waiting for the bus to advance and stop behind them, while the two men following them passed it. He could feel Diana shaking.

  “It’s going to be okay.” He brought her hand to his mouth and brushed it, while he kept gazing over his shoulders. “Come on. Come on.” The traffic was intensifying, and scooters and Smart cars slowed the bus by cutting before it.

  Marcus was already thinking of a different plan when the bus crawled to a stop beside the designated area, but it was too close behind the two men. Ahead, the main road divided in several smaller arteries, each one of them with enough arches and back alleys where the two men could engage them without witnesses. By himself, Marcus could have fought and possibly won, but one look at Diana made him stick to his original plan. The bus opened its doors for people to get in and out. “Now.”

  He made a one-eighty turn, pulled her along, and sprinted toward the bus. They passed the two immortals who were now surrounded by the merging crowd. The front door of the bus was already closing by the time Marcus pushed Diana on the stairs, then he led her toward the middle, opening a path through the crowd. As he had feared, the two men weren’t far enough away to miss the bus, and they made sign to the driver to open the door. The immortals jumped in as Marcus and Diana got off the bus by
the rear door, hidden by the multitude of people commuting back home.

  “To the other side.” Marcus, his hand gripping Diana by the elbow, ran to the bus stop on the opposite side of the road as a bus arrived. They boarded that bus, got off a few stops later, then switched routes three more times before Marcus thought it was safe to grab a cab and reach Piazza Coppedè where Alexander was waiting for them.

  Chapter Five

  Finally able to relax after the adrenaline rush of their mad escape, Diana looked outside the window, taking the scenery in. She had always loved travelling by car. It was the means of transportation she liked the most. She had only flown once, and the experience was connected to the saddest memory of her life. Her grandmother had died and she had been shipped back to her mother, who, at the time, lived in London. Only a two-hour flight from Rome, but the hostess who was supposed to take care of her forgot she even existed. She was left waiting, alone, for four hours, hoping somebody would remember she was in the kids’ waiting room at Heathrow. Her mother hadn’t showed up. Her boyfriend had and he had looked the caring father she had always dreamed of.

  “Despite the forced detour, we’ll reach Capri before dawn. Don’t worry.” Alexander looked at her from the rearview mirror. His green eyes were intermittingly illuminated by the streetlights running by the side of the road as he drove. “But, if for any reason we shouldn’t arrive in time to beat the sun, I’ve brought two cotton blankets. Navy quality. Tough fabric. You’ll be okay.” He smiled at her.

  She smiled back at him. Despite his celebrity status, reciprocating smiles with this man came easy to her. When Marcus had helped her out of the cab, Alexander had been waiting for them outside of his Mercedes convertible in one of the back alleys of Piazza Coppedè. He had introduced himself as the Greek, and proceeded to take her hand and lower his lips over it. Not as tall as Marcus and of a slender build, blond and light, he could have passed for a surfer. She had told him he looked vaguely familiar, which had earned her a scowl from Marcus and an amused smile from Alexander. A moment later, she had recognized his face—a face that was on every Italian tabloid at least once a week, and on The Roman Chronicles on a daily basis—then sputtered and swatted Marcus’s arm. “Your friend Alexander is the Alexander Drako?”

  Alexander chuckled. “Whatever you’ve read about me, it isn’t true.”

  “Mister Drako, I—” She felt quite provincial in her reaction to his public persona.

  “Please, call me Alexander.”

  She blushed. “Why didn’t you tell me he was Alexander Drako?” she whispered through clenched teeth to Marcus.

  “Because I wanted to avoid the hysterics usually following him.” Marcus had opened the rear passenger door for her and helped her inside the car.

  She had been so shocked to be in the presence of one of the most famous Italian playboys she had been silent for a while, letting the two men talk about a council and other things she couldn’t even start to understand. Now, this man who was used to dining with princesses and models had just told her he had packed heavy blankets so she wouldn’t blister and combust. There was obviously more to the Greek Adonis than the press knew. Much more, judging from the conversation he was having with Marcus.

  “Thanks. I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “They’re under there.” Keeping his eyes on the road, Alexander pointed at the floor behind his seat.

  “Yes, I can see them.” Diana reached down to the car floor in front of her to pull up one of the two blankets and thought she could use it as a pillow if she got tired. “I am not used to being… what I’m becoming.”

  “You didn’t ask for it.” Marcus turned sideways in the front seat to talk to her.

  She wasn’t sure she liked the way he had said it. “I haven’t asked for a lot of things.”

  He imperceptibly flinched, but she caught his reaction and was satisfied by it. “Have you two known each other for long?”

  “We’re old friends.” Marcus laid his arm over Alexander’s shoulder and pulled his friend closer.

  “I was his tutor.” Alexander jerked away from Marcus’s display of affection.

  “Are you like him?” Diana looked at the two men in front and wondered how many surprises were still in store for her.

  “Of course not. I’m way more handsome and smart.” Alexander winked at her from the mirror, only to receive a punch from Marcus.

  “Yes, the idiot is an immortal like me.”

  Diana folded and unfolded the blanket resting on her lap. “Wait, were you the tutor who quit?”

  Alexander gave an amused look at Marcus and raised his eyebrow in a silent question. “Yes, it was me. I was young Marcus’s Greek tutor, hired to make of him a better man, but decided he was hopeless.”

  “I was such a disappointment he stopped teaching altogether and became a soldier for the Roman Army.”

  “Is that true?”

  “Well, in a way yes.” Alexander paused and gave Marcus another look.

  Marcus shook her head. “Go ahead, tell her.”

  “Let’s say that I became too familiar with a few of young Marcus’s mother’s friends—” Alexander chuckled.

  Marcus raised one hand, index finger pointing at his friend. “The day before I fell from my father’s horse, he was caught in bed with two of them at the same time by my mother who, unbeknownst to her, had been invited to an orgy. She threatened to tell her friends’ husbands everything and told my tutor to get lost. Things worked in such a way everybody assumed he had left after my little escapade.”

  “But that was so unfair.” Diana laughed, imagining the whole story unfolding.

  “Yes, thank you. It was incredibly unfair and marked me forever.” Marcus swatted Alexander’s shoulder.

  Alexander responded to the provocation by reciprocating the swat. “In my defense, I didn’t know his mother had been invited.”

  She watched as the two men playfully hit each other. “So, did you tell him the truth later?”

  “Yes, I did. We met again when Marcus entered the army—”

  Diana thought that something wasn’t adding up. “But you two look the same age…?”

  Alexander’s eyes locked with hers through the mirror. “I became an immortal soon after that accident. Marcus ended in my same legion and recognized me right away—I hadn’t changed a bit in the ten years that had passed since we last saw each other. I had to tell him the truth.”

  “And how did you take it?” She tilted her head toward Marcus.

  He shrugged. “I believed him.”

  “But—”

  Marcus looked outside of the window for a moment, then turned back to her. “Two thousand years ago, humanity was more in touch with the divine.”

  Alexander shifted in his seat, then angled the rearview mirror to better look at her. “And from what Marcus has told me, you seem to have taken this vampling thing rather well for a modern woman like yourself.”

  “Not at first, no. I didn’t believe Virgil when he tried to tell me. Otherwise, I would’ve been wary of his intentions.” Diana shrugged her sadness away. Virgil’s death, his sacrifice, was a huge weight to wear on her shoulders. “I guess it’s easier to believe when you can feel the change happening to your own body. I can’t deny what’s happening to me. Two days ago, I guess I was so out of it, I didn’t even fully realize it. Then, it was impossible not to accept Marcus’s words as the truth.” She took a moment to reorganize her thoughts to better explain herself. “I was dying. When you know you don’t have much left, you start looking at things from a different perspective. You start seeing things—” She passed her hand through her hair that now seemed longer, still short, but long enough to feel something through her fingers besides her scalp.

  “What kind of things?” Marcus reached out his hand toward her.

  She took it in hers and gently squeezed it. “I saw my dead grandmother a couple of times. I know you’ll say I was hallucinating, but she felt real. She hugged me and she told
me everything was going to be all right. And I felt so much better after that.”

  Marcus smiled at her. “Sometimes, I see people from my past.” He lowered his eyes.

  “Are those visits pleasant?” Diana moved closer to the front seat.

  Marcus shook his head. “I wasn’t nice to them.”

  She felt the urge to hug him, but they weren’t alone. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I deserve all I got.” Marcus looked outside again.

  Alexander straightened his back against the seat, but didn’t say anything.

  Diana waited for either of them to resume the conversation, and when, after several minutes of awkward silence, it hadn’t happened yet, she decided she had enough. “So, how does this immortal business work?”

  “It’s a curse.”

  “It’s a blessing.”

  Marcus and Alexander answered at the same time and burst into laughter.

  “I see.” Diana relaxed in her seat, bringing her legs up to straighten them on the cushion. “I already knew Marcus’s point of view on the topic, but I’m curious to hear your reasons, Alexander.”

  “Aren’t they obvious?” Alexander raised an eyebrow.

  She would have never imagined someone as famous as Alexander Drako could be so easygoing. He made her feel at ease, as if they were from the same social circle. “I might imagine one reason or two.”

  Alexander lifted one hand from the steering wheel, closed it in a fist, and finger by finger started enumerating. “First, I don’t age. Second, I don’t age. Third, I don’t age—”

  Diana stopped him. “I think I get it. Thank you.” Her eyes went outside for a moment. “But how can you manage your condition with being constantly in the spotlight? I mean, as you said, you won’t get old. Sooner or later that will be a problem for you.”

  “I’ll disappear for a long while—a fatal accident or a long illness—and change hemispheres. I own properties everywhere and I like my women in every shade of color.”