Authors: Elizabeth Hunter
“He calls you his student.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.” Paulo was backing toward the door as Jacopo tore off another chunk of bread.
“And I am the only student?”
“Yes, but he will send you away when he smells you,
animal
.”
A grim smile curled Jacopo’s lips. “Paulo, how many servants does Signore Andros have?”
“Many.” He sneered again. “He has many servants.”
“And how many ‘students’ does he have?”
Paulo’s eyes narrowed. “Just you.”
Jacopo walked toward the haughty boy, towering over him. At seventeen years of age, he was taller than most grown men, as tall as the father he had never met. He stared down at the blond boy in his clean clothes and scrubbed face.
“Well, if I am your master’s
only
student, and you are one of many servants, then I think we know the one who is expendable, no?”
En route to Rome
May 2012
Giovanni woke, brushing the dream from his mind and looking around the compartment for Beatrice. He could hear the low hum of the engines as they flew. He spotted her sitting in a chair in the corner, notebooks spread over her side of the bed.
“Where are we?”
She looked up with a smile. “Hey! You know, you’re sleeping a lot less now, too.”
“I don’t find that surprising, considering how much blood we exchange.” His wife’s blood was powerful, more powerful than even he had predicted, and his waking hours were growing longer as a result. Though the phenomenon had its advantages, he did not envy her lack of rest.
“I’ve found something interesting in the journals.”
“Oh?”
She nodded with a grin. “I think I’ve finally identified the four original donors.”
He sat up and leaned over the spread notebooks. “How? You’ve been looking for months.”
Beatrice opened her notebook and handed it to him. “I don’t have them exactly, but I’ve been making notes every time he mentions them in his journals, and I finally found a reference to the one I’d been missing, the earth donor.”
“What did you find?” He began paging through her notes, deciphering the strange shorthand she had developed since she had turned. Most vampires developed some sort of unique language for their thoughts over time. Since their minds moved more rapidly than mortals, it was the best way to record thoughts and had the added benefit of concealing their meaning from the casual reader. To anyone else, Beatrice’s writing would have been gibberish; Giovanni alone could read it.
“What is this?” He pointed toward an unknown symbol. “This is new.”
“It stands for ‘
Aethiop
.’”
“‘Aethiop?’ You mean the earth donor was Ethiopian?”
She nodded with a grin. “Yep, and she—”
“She?”
“Uh-huh, another surprise. The others were clearly male, but this one was definitely female because Geber notes that preliminary testing on her blood showed no discernible difference because of sex.”
“Which would only be notable if her sex was different.” Giovanni smiled. “Nicely done, Tesoro.”
“So, we have his names for the four, which all indicate their origin... except for his friend.”
Giovanni paged through the notebook. “The Greek, the Numidian, the Aethiop, and ‘my dear friend.’”
Beatrice sighed. “I don’t want to make assumptions, because medieval Kufa was so diverse.”
He nodded. “It was in decline, in a political sense, during Geber’s lifetime, but it was an active center of learning and scholarship, so it could have been a friend from any number of backgrounds. Arab and Persian are the most likely, but many vampires were drawn to the Middle East during that period because there was so much going on.”
“He does use the medieval Persian word for ‘friend’ so that could be significant.”
Giovanni shook his head. “It could just as easily
not
be significant. All his personal journals were written in Persian. And if we are looking for your father’s contact in Rome, it could be less than helpful. Livia has always kept a very diverse court... well, diverse for a Roman.”
She cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“She takes pride in having tokens from all areas of the Roman Empire, thinks it adds to the ‘imperial’ quality. Shows how magnanimous she is. So, all of these, Greek, Numidian, Ethiopian, any of these would be common in the Roman court. Nothing particularly notable there. We’ll have to wait and see who’s been keeping her company the last few years. It changes all the time with a few notable exceptions. Rome is probably the most ‘international’ of the European immortal courts.”
“But old. We’re looking for older vampires, for sure.”
He shrugged. “The experiments were conducted around 800 A.D.? We’re looking for four vampires over a thousand years old. In Rome, it’s not uncommon. Though the majority of the population is fairly young, there are so many older vampires who come and go that one of a thousand years would not stand out.”
She scowled. “Well, thanks for raining on my parade, Captain Sunshine.”
He chuckled and put the notebook down. “However, this is exceptional work, as always. I don’t tell you enough how brilliant you are.”
“No, you really don’t.”
Beatrice was still pretending to pout, so he pushed the notebooks aside to grab her hand and pull her toward him. “You’re brilliant... beautiful.”
“Yes, keep it coming,” she said, waving her other hand.
“Smart, sexy.” He pulled her to straddle his lap and began running his fingers along her spine, enjoying the shiver of excitement that rose between them. “Very sexy.”
“More,” she whispered, and Giovanni grinned, not sure whether she was talking about the compliments or the caresses.
“Thorough. Thoroughly lovely, that is...” His lips nibbled along her jawline as her hands tangled in his hair. “You’re just so...” He breathed out along her skin, causing her to shiver. “
So
...”
“What?” She panted as his fingers teased her.
He pulled back and traced his tongue along her lower lip. “You’re so...
meticulous
.” He drew the word out sensuously.
Finally, she giggled and tackled him to the bed.
“Giovanni Vecchio, you sure know how to seduce a woman.”
“No.” He rolled over and tucked her into his chest as his hands continued to tease. “I just know how to seduce you.”
Rome, Italy
It was after ten o’clock when they landed in Rome. The plane had touched down without incident, but Matt and Giovanni were both wary in the foreign territory. Luckily, neither was unfamiliar with the city; Matt had spent plenty of time in Rome, and for Giovanni, Rome was like a second home. His knowledge of it was trumped only by his knowledge of Florence, which had a very low vampire population. Rome, on the other hand, was teeming with the creatures.
They exited the plane, only to be met by a dark car that Matt had ordered. As planned, Beatrice stood guard over Dez and Ben, her watchful gaze sweeping around as Giovanni and Matt thoroughly checked the vehicle for any listening devices or explosives. He knew their arrival was expected, and Giovanni would take no chances with his family’s safety. Rome was a city with a long memory.
“Clear for bugs,” Matt said quietly.
“And I don’t sense any energy signatures or smell any explosives. Beatrice?” Beatrice, like most water vampires, had developed an extremely keen sense of smell.
“I don’t smell anything suspicious.”
“Excellent.” Giovanni walked over to the driver, shaking his hand and quickly asking him a few questions that reassured him the man had been sent by the usual car service he used in Rome. The five passengers squeezed into the small car as Matt sat in the front, directing the driver to Giovanni’s home near the Pantheon.
“How old is your house?” Ben asked as they sped through the streets. The driver swerved to avoid a horde of passing Vespas, and Giovanni could hear the man cursing under his breath. It was Friday night in Rome, and the streets were alive with activity.
“Wow,” Beatrice said. “And I thought New York was busy at night.”
“My home was built in the sixteenth century, Ben.”
“Wow, that’s old. It has bathrooms and stuff, right?”
He grinned. “Yes.”
“And I have my own room?”
“Yes, Angela said she had prepared a room just for you.”
“Sweet.” Ben grinned and settled back into his seat as he watched the lights speed by. “Dude, I need a Vespa.”
“I do, too!” Dez said.
“No, you don’t,” Giovanni and Matt said together, while Beatrice laughed.
“There’s really no need for a scooter.” Giovanni tried to reason with them. You will be within easy walking distance of most of the sites. My home is very centrally located.”
“And, Honey,” Matt protested, “the baby—”
“Likes going fast. He told me.” Dez patted her still-flat belly and grinned at her husband. “Just like he told me that he hopes there’s food at Gio’s house ‘cause he’s starving.”
Giovanni chuckled and turned back to watch the streets. They zipped through Rome, drawing closer to the neighborhood where he had kept a home for almost as long as he had been immortal. The area around the Pantheon was in the oldest part of Rome, and his unassuming home there took up half a small block. He kept it deliberately plain from the outside, but it was an excellent defensive position with many passageways and access points he had built over hundreds of years. He kept two staff members in residence, his housekeeper, Angela, and a butler, Bruno, who he saw waiting as they turned up the small, twisting street that bordered the house.
“Here we are.”
Matt, who had visited before while on business for Giovanni, nodded at Bruno as he hopped out of the car and opened the back door for Dez and Ben to climb out. Bruno and the driver grabbed their bags and carried them through the green door that led to a small open courtyard paved by marble mosaics. A fountain almost identical to the one at the Houston house bubbled there, and he saw Beatrice walk in front of him, strangely nervous for her to see his oldest home.
“Gio, this is so beautiful,” she murmured as she took in the arches that lined the lush courtyard and the climbing plants that Angela lovingly tended.
“Welcome home.” He leaned over and brushed a kiss along her cheek before he spotted his housekeeper waiting in a corner by the front door. A smaller door leading to the kitchen and the servants’ quarters was on the other side of the courtyard. Angela was wearing a simple blue dress and a warm smile, her dark eyes and silver hair shining.
“Giovanni!” She walked over, pulling him down with wrinkled hands to kiss him in greeting.
“
Ciao,
Angela,” he said with a smile. Angela had grown up in his home. Her parents had been his housekeeper and butler, though Angela had never married. He had hired Bruno fifteen years before.
“And this is your beautiful bride,” she said as she walked over to fuss over Beatrice. His wife squirmed in discomfort, but returned the friendly kisses Angela gave her in greeting. “I never thought I would see you married! My prayers finally are answered.”
“Angela...” He didn’t want to make Beatrice uncomfortable, but he knew that Angela had been thrilled when he’d sent her the letter that they were coming for a visit.
“And this is your boy,” Angela said as she greeted Ben and introduced herself to his other guests. Soon, Dez and Angela were chattering away, his housekeeper thrilled to have so many people to look after. Giovanni spotted Bruno paying the driver and sorting their luggage. He was a stocky man, happily sliding into middle age, but he was efficient and an excellent handyman, which was vital when you owned a five-hundred-year-old building.
“Bruno,” he called, and the man walked over. Giovanni shook his hand and patted his shoulder in greeting. “How is the house?”
They spent a few minutes going over details, Bruno describing the leaking in the first floor bathroom that had been repaired the week before while Giovanni held onto his hand.
“Bruno, I want you to take the rest of the month off. I will call you if necessary.”
He could see the man’s eyes swim under his influence. “But, the guests—”
“I will call you if you are needed, but my wife is American and not accustomed to so much domestic help. You understand, I am sure.”
Bruno blinked rapidly. “Of course.”
“And there will be no interruption in your salary.”
“Yes, Signore Vecchio.”
“Gather your things and take a holiday. Use the house outside of Florence. I’ll let them know you are coming.”
“Thank you, Signore.”
“Think nothing of it,” he said. By the time Giovanni turned around, Matt was the only one left in the courtyard.
“Did you get rid of him?”
Giovanni nodded. “As soon as he has left, we’ll check the house.”
Matt chuckled and the two men walked inside, both keeping quiet until they heard the courtyard door close as Bruno left. He caught Angela’s eye and the old woman nodded before she herded Beatrice, Dez, and Ben into the large kitchen.
“I’ll take the top two floors,” Giovanni said. “And the south passageway.”
Matt frowned. “Does Bruno know about the passageways?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It is better to be cautious. He always seems to plant a few in places I haven’t thought of before. He’s surprisingly resourceful.”
The human and the vampire scoured the house for electronic bugs, cameras, and any other surveillance equipment. They found a few, but it was a half-hearted effort. Bruno had worked for Livia the entire time he had been in Giovanni’s employ, but he knew that the butler had gathered little intelligence for his mistress. It was an expected game; one Giovanni and Livia would both pretend to be shocked over if they ever spoke about it. Which they wouldn’t.
After another half an hour, Matt was satisfied that the house was clean, but Giovanni still felt uneasy. He had a sudden thought.
“Benjamin!” he called down the hallway.
He heard a quick scuffling before the boy appeared. “Hey, you guys done? Angela made some awesome food. It’s like the best spaghetti I’ve ever had. I can’t believe how much Dez is eating. I bet she’s—”