The Lost Centurion
Page 8
“Can you believe my parents hired this fool to be my tutor?” Marcus lowered his head to his hands and then shook it.
Alexander looked at the ceiling. “Hey, I was a great teacher, mind you!”
“I did have my first anatomy lesson thanks to you.” His head tilted toward Alexander, and Marcus looked up from between his fingers.
“Do I want to know?” Diana tucked her legs closer to her, then opened the blanket and covered herself with it. She knew it wasn’t cold, but she felt like it was freezing.
“I know you don’t know me, but it hurts my feelings you think so low of me already.” Alexander brought both hands to his heart and pressed as if to stench gushing blood.
Diana had a hard time focusing on what was said next and not on the visual she had just imagined.
“It doesn’t take that long to take your measure, I’m afraid.” Marcus talked to his friend but looked at Diana. “Are you okay?”
She mouthed she was fine, then out loud she said, “So, what’s this story about?”
“Nothing of importance, really—” Alexander took a right turn and entered the highway.
Diana felt uneasy at leaving Rome at night like a thief. Then the shivering began anew.
Marcus left his arm dangling backward over his seat. “I was wandering through my property when I heard a woman crying—”
Alexander turned to face Diana. “She wasn’t crying.”
“Yes, I connected the dots a few years later, but anyway, I took my gladius in my hands—”
“You did what?” Diana would have spilled the proverbial coffee if she were drinking any.
Marcus’s bottom lip curved up, his eyes glinting with mirth. “Don’t you have a naughty mind, little thing?”
Diana blushed and bit her bottom lip.
Despite the fact it was evident Marcus was enjoying the situation a great deal, he came to her rescue. “The gladius is a wooden sword used by gladiators to train. Every kid in Rome had one to play with. Mine was beautifully carved with my initials. Father had given it to me for my tenth birthday.”
“So, you were saying…” Diana felt her strength dwindling as her shivering became more difficult to hide.
“I went to the poor woman’s rescue, of course.”
Alexander gave her an exasperated look from the mirror. “The poor woman didn’t need any rescue. I would daresay she was having the best time of her life.”
“That’s debatable. But anyway, I ran to the summer gazebo where I had a clear vision of what a naked adult woman looked like. It would’ve been a truly life-changing experience, but, unfortunately, this ass was also naked, which gave me nightmares for years.” Marcus brought index and middle finger of his right hand to his mouth and made a gagging noise.
“I’m sorry I made you feel inadequate.”
Alexander hadn’t finished talking when Marcus punched him.
“I have from certain source—the same poor woman you harassed—that I won the race in that department.” Marcus raised his hands over his shoulders.
Alexander shrugged. “Well, first, I’ve never harassed a woman—they come to me begging. Second, I’m sure she said that to everybody.”
Diana was thankful for their banter because it helped her contain the first pangs of her hunger from becoming obvious. “Coming back to my original question, how do you become an immortal?”
Alexander answered first. “The gods decided our fate.”
“But how did that happen?” The blanket was heavy and it kept slipping down, uncovering Diana. She yanked it up to her chin and hugged herself underneath.
Marcus remained silent, and Alexander took the floor again. “Me, I was coming back from Athens. I was travelling on the Appian Way, resting at a small hostel for the night, when Minerva appeared to me in a dream. She told me she needed a warrior and I accepted the request to be hers.”
Diana found the idea of a divinity interacting with the mortal realm disconcerting and fascinating. “Do you talk to your goddess?”
”No, I haven’t seen her in a long while.”
Diana detected the hint of longing in his voice. “Why?”
“Our gods have deserted us. As humanity made more and more scientific discoveries, they lost interest in the gods, and the gods lost interest in us immortals and retired to their domains.”
“Where are those domains?”
“They are on planets in parallel worlds. But none of us has ever been invited to any of our gods’ abodes, so you can use your own imagination to picture them.” Alexander laughed, but there wasn’t any mirth in his laugh.
Diana wanted to ask Marcus his story, but his forbidding stance, his back to her and his face to the window, prevented her from uttering the question. She resigned to look outside as well. Talking was taxing her and she needed what strength she had left to keep the hunger at bay. “Are we there yet?”
****
Marcus had noticed Diana was doing her best to hide her need to feed and didn’t want to humiliate her in front of Alexander. “Almost there. Two hours tops.” He had turned to answer her and realized she couldn’t go much longer without feeding. He touched Alexander’s arm and applied a subtle pressure. “I need to loosen up my legs. Can we make a quick stop?”
Diana raised one eyebrow and mouthed, “What are you doing?”
He smiled at her in response. “I only need five minutes of fresh air.”
Alexander tilted his head and gave Diana a quick glance, then pointed at the road ahead of them. “That’s fine. I just saw a rest area sign.” A few minutes later, he exited the highway and turned into the well-lit parking area filled with semi-trucks. He drove around, then stopped the car by one of the few dark spots available. “Five minutes.”
Alexander was out of his seat and opening Diana’s door before Marcus could exit the car.
“Diana…” He leaned inside. “Wow.” He stepped back and gave her a good look. “You’re hungry, aren’t you?”
“It’s okay.” Marcus pushed him away and stood before the open door to shield Diana from Alexander’s eyes.
“Nothing’s okay.” Alexander paced up and down behind Marcus. “She needs blood ASAP.”
“Let me deal with that.” Marcus crouched before the passenger seat and caressed her shivering form. “It’s okay.”
Alexander kicked the curb with his boots. “I don’t see a blood bank around here.”
“We don’t need one.” Marcus whispered a few soothing words for Diana, then gently pulled her to him, cradled her in his arms and let her out of the car. “Check no one gets close to us.” He strolled toward a big eucalyptus tree and sat on the ground under its foliage. Alexander swore under his breath and called him several names, but he didn’t mind him.
“I tried to resist the urge, but it’s getting stronger and stronger.” Diana had tears in her eyes.
“I know. You’re doing great.” He brought his arm to her mouth. “It’s okay.”
Her body was shaken by a shiver that left her breathless.
“Drink from me. Now.” He pushed his wrist against her lips and felt her fangs snapping and descending into his skin. The pleasure he experienced as she drank from him transported him away from the eucalyptus, the resting area, and Alexander. Only the two of them mattered.
“Thank you.” She licked his wound closed too soon.
“Have you had enough?” He watched as she nodded and laid a kiss on the two disappearing punctures on his wrist.
“Are you done? We’ve got to go.” Alexander had resumed his pacing before the car.
“We’re coming.” Marcus helped her on her feet, then bent and made to loop his arms around her back to pick her up.
She took his hand in hers instead. “I can walk.”
They walked out of the natural hiding place hand in hand. When Alexander saw them, he raised one eyebrow, but Marcus shot him a warning look, and they entered the car without a word.
Alexander drove several kilometers, his hands
on the steering wheel and his eyes on the road before he broke silence. “You do know there’re consequences to weaning a vampling—”
“Not now.” Marcus felt Diana stir on the back seat.
“What is he talking about?” She grabbed the back of his seat with both hands.
“Nothing.” Marcus shook his head at Alexander.
Alexander mouthed, “How was I supposed to know?” His hands both left the steering wheel in a show of frustration.
“What did you mean?” Diana asked Alexander.
Marcus sighed, and moved sideways to talk to her. “Vampires take care of their own. A vampling bonds with the person who takes care of her or him soon after the turning. Usually that person is his or her sire.”
Diana frowned. “You mean that I should’ve bonded with Virgil?”
“Yes, if everything would’ve gone as planned, you’d be attached to Virgil,” Alexander answered.
“Attached?” She scooted on the back seat and moved behind Alexander.
He nodded. “From what I’ve heard, it works like a tether between the vampire and the vampling. I guess it’s an evolutionary trait that came about when vampire’s nests were raided at night. Vampires are very protective of their progenies and prefer to feed them with their own blood, which depletes them greatly. Humans soon discovered adult vampires left their nests at night to feed themselves. The attacked vamplings would cry their distress and their sires would immediately come to their rescue.”
“You said that vamplings bond with the person who takes care of them after they are turned—” Diana shifted on her seat again, leaning toward Marcus.
Marcus angled his body farther back and locked eyes with her. “Another evolutionary trait. In the Dark Ages, nests were decimated by humans, and vamplings were left orphans of their sires and died en masse as result. Infant mortality in the vampire race was so high back then it almost erased their kind from the face of earth. Vamplings started tethering to the survived adults as a mechanism of preservation.”
She opened her mouth and closed it, then lowered her eyes to the floor. “So, you’re basically saying that I’ve tethered to you…?”
He watched her worry a corner of the blanket she had thrown over her legs. “I think that’s what has happened between us, yes.”
“How long does it last?” She kept her eyes down.
He wanted her to look at him. “Until death tears us apart.”
“And since you’re an immortal, and I a vampire—” Diana finally raised her chin, and her eyes held a dreadful expression.
Wounded by her tone, he turned to look outside at the passing scenery. It was still dark, but the moon had escaped the heavy blanket of clouds that had followed them since they had left Rome. “It’s going to be forever.” It didn’t help his mood to notice the way Alexander was silently scowling at him. He could almost hear his thoughts. You should’ve told her before feeding her. It was her right to know she would be tethered to you for all her life. Or maybe it wasn’t Alexander talking in his head, but his conscience. Vamplings don’t have a choice though, do they? Their sire doesn’t ask them their opinion on that matter. He argued. Yeah, but it’s not same, is it?
A few hours later, Alexander interrupted Marcus’s internal monologue. “We’ve arrived to Amalfi.”
Marcus hadn’t even noticed they had left the highway and were now navigating through a small, winding road that cut through the mountain at sharp angles. Last time he had been in Amalfi, it was before the invention of the combustion engine, and he didn’t remember the road had so many turns back to back.
“This must be the most beautiful sight in the whole world.” Diana had rolled down her window and had stuck her head out. “And the scent from the flowers? Can you smell them?”
Infected by her enthusiasm, he rolled down his window too, and deeply inhaled the nightly fragrances. “Yes, but as a vampire, your nose is better than mine.”
“I wish you could feel it the way I do.” She took out her arms and opened them to the darkness, then threw her head back and exposed her throat. A crystalline laughter rumbled in her chest and exploded from her open lips. A moment later, she was looking at a point far away ahead of them in the middle of the vast Mediterranean ocean. “And the lights reflected on the sea? Can you see how they dance, riding the low waves?”
He squinted and shook his head. “No, I can’t see the lights. I’m afraid your eyes are better than mine as well.”
The road dropped dramatically, and Alexander took two ninety-degrees turns at a higher speed than the driving conditions permitted. Diana squealed and Marcus swore, and both of them reentered the passenger compartment at the same time.
Alexander laughed at their reaction. “My bad. I’ve been driving up and down the Amalfi Coast every other weekend since I got my first car.”
“Which was when?” Diana settled back in her seat.
“Early fifties, but I’ve owned the vacation house for a very long time. I won it at cards from an English Archduke in the seventeen hundreds.” Alexander paused, his thoughts in the past. “After, I let him and his family free to spend their vacations there. His wife and daughter never knew the place was mine.”
Diana leaned over Marcus’s backseat, her right arm hugging the headrest. “Why? The house was legally yours, right?”
“I knew I had all the time in the world. I didn’t need to humiliate him before his family.” Alexander’s hands followed the contour of the steering wheel in lazy movements.
“It was his daughter you cared for, right? Did you love her?”
Marcus was surprised she would connect the dots so easily.
Alexander stopped his hands at the top of the steering wheel. “I adored her. She was smart, beautiful, kind. The most loyal woman I ever met.” His lips were curved up in a sad smile.
“What happened?” Diana laid her head on her arm and ended up close to Marcus’s.
“Mortality happened.” Alexander tilted his head to the right. “Villa Eloisa.”
The sight of his friend’s vacation home never failed to make Marcus breathless. This time, he waited for Diana’s reaction and turned on the seat to look at her eyes when she realized the sheer magnitude of Alexander’s property.
“So, this is the Villa Eloisa.” Diana’s mouth hung open.
She looked like a study in disbelief. On her right, the moon illuminated a sumptuous mansion the likes of which weren’t built anymore. Four stories of pink and white marble, overlooking the whole coast from a cliff, Villa Eloisa was nested among Italian gardens that followed the cliffs down to the sea and covered the walls of the ravine in winding terraces. A private beach with its own moor and yacht at the ready completed the picture.
Marcus wished he could make his friend disappear—if only for a moment—and have Diana by himself to be free to drink in her childlike joy. He saw the scenery reflected in her big, liquid eyes and found her beautiful. But she possessed a different kind of beauty. Like ancient amber encased in dirty soil, once extracted and polished reveals the treasure within, so did she. She was pure.
Diana must have felt his eyes on her and she looked at him, her skin flushed by a pink sheen that hadn’t been there before. The villa disappeared behind a mountain loop for a moment, then reappeared bathed in the silver light.
Alexander turned right onto a narrow lane bordered with boxwood plants contained in terracotta vases as high as a person. “My home away from home.” He drove slowly down toward the garage, a former stable that had been built to look like a miniature version of the house. “Finally.” He parked in the first available spot he found.
As soon as Diana was out of the car, she gave an appreciative look at the place and whistled. “And this is your famous car collection.”
“It’s great fun to drive them along the coast.” Alexander made a gesture that encompassed the whole content of the garage. Dozens of car were displayed on a marble floor shining like a mirror, three big chandeliers illuminated them.
And Diana continued for him, “A few sheiks have tried to buy pieces from him, but he has never sold any of his babies.”
Marcus walked to a light-blue Bugatti Alexander had let him drive once in the backyard.
“Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Bugatti...” Diana came closer to Marcus. She tentatively touched the car he was dying to drive again and surprised him by saying, “This Bugatti is perfection, pure and simple.”
His attention snapped away from the car. “You like cars?”
She waved her right hand in the air. “Cars in general, no. I don’t care about them. But antique cars? That’s a whole different story. Those—” She moved between the vehicles, brushing her fingers over the metallic bodies. “Those are engineering miracles and architectural dreams.”
Marcus smiled at her statement and turned only to see Alexander’s looking at him with one of his signature amused expressions he very much wanted to erase from his friend’s face. Possibly with a resounding slap. “What?” he whispered to Alexander.
“Nothing.” Alexander pivoted on his heels and went to show a car to Diana. “This is my pièce de résistance.” He gentlemanly put a hand on her back to direct her to see the front engine of the matte black Lamborghini he kept under its own spotlight on a raised platform.
When Alexander’s hand lingered longer than necessary on her, Marcus steered her away from his friend by moving between the two and attaching his hip to her when he leaned to take a better look under the open hood of the car. He straightened and looked outside at the gardens. “It’s almost dawn. We need to get her inside.”
Alexander looked outside too. “Right.” He indicated the back wall for them and, when he saw they were following, strode that way. “I’ll show you your quarters and I’ll leave. Marcus can give you the grand tour tomorrow. He knows the house.”
“But you just drove all the way here.” Diana stepped to his side and touched Alexander’s elbow and he wrapped her fingers with his.
That gesture from her bothered Marcus even more than Alexander’s wandering hands. “He’s used to pulling all-nighters all the time. Don’t worry about him.”