Cara Mia - Book One of the Immortyl Revolution (17 page)

“Dirk is an aberration.”

“Don’t you see? How far is it from you, or I, or Philip, and one like Dirk? Power in the wrong hands is more than regrettable— it’s indefensible. Power corrupts and each one of us has a monster lurking inside. I see nothing but evil if you tamper with this.”

Ethan wrapped his arms about my waist and drew me to him. “That’s why we won’t leave this to the others.”

“The child has pangs of conscience.”

I tore away. “He’s murdered my conscience. There’s nothing left but doubts, second guesses, and philosophies I don’t understand.”

“Strong words Ethan, you should heed her.”

“She’s not yet tapped her potential.”

I shivered. “As I child, I watched newsreels of corpses bulldozed into pits of lime, and why? Because someone decided he was more worthy of life than his fellow men, and infected others with this disease.”

Philip stood up, stretching his long body. “I grow weary of this philosophical and ethical carousel, and beg to be let off before my poor head aches. My advice Ethan is to enjoy her— or I’ll spirit this Psyche off to young Eros, leaving you to brood in silence.”

“She’d never fall for
that
.”

“You don’t understand women, Ethan.”

Ethan smirked. “No one understands women like I do.”

“Someone needs to teach you humility, and high time.” Philip put his arm about my waist. “Come Mia, let’s dance the night away to the strains of the phonograph and leave poor Byron here to figure out what we already know.”

“And what pray tell would that be?”

He danced me around the terrace madly. “How to live, my pet!”

“Ethan’s bizarre plans for me left me uneasy. I only hoped it was a passing whim and he’d get over it, but somehow I couldn’t believe it. He didn’t bring it up again for the remainder of Philip’s visit. I could only wonder what Brovik would do when he learned.

Philip was just the sort of distraction I needed from Ethan’s constant lessons. He kept us out all night, dancing and haunting nightspots. But I never had a chance to speak with him alone until Ethan was forced to pay a courtesy call on Gaius one early October evening.

“Come to Capri with me,” Ethan urged Philip, as he checked out his appearance in the drawing room mirror.

“I must beg off. I’d much rather stay here with Mia. Gaius’s chamber of horrors holds no charms for me. And those two succubae he keeps— no thank you. I prefer to remain intact.”

“Very well. Behave yourself.”

“I’ll be a good uncle.”

Philip and I went out onto the terrace as Ethan pulled away from the dock in our boat. The garden still dripped with roses, but the air was crisp and cool, with the scent of iron and sugar from the distant slopes of Vesuvius, and the ripened grapes growing there.

“Philip… about Brovik.”

Philip took me by the shoulders, dark eyes fixed on mine. “You’re caught in the middle of a battle that’s been raging for a century. It runs hot and cold with them. Right now is one
very
cold spell.”

“Yet he still
works
for him?”

“Brovik looks out for us and we pay tribute to him. It’s the way things are done. It started when Brovik took Kurt… ”

“Kurt?”

“He was just eighteen when Brovik found him. His entire family was transported to Auschwitz to be gassed, but he’d been sent instead to Dauchau to work. One night Brovik was there, doing business with the commandant, when the boy was dragged out and beaten, nearly to death. Brovik paid a vast sum to take him away from there. Ethan is simply jealous. Brovik dotes on the boy, but Ethan
is
and will always be his favorite. Ethan can only play this game with Brovik for so long. Sooner or later he always goes back to him. When he does, be wary. Trust no one. Nature provided you with this enchanting form— use it. If it means swallowing your pride to survive, do it. It’s a bloody game Mia. Innocents are slaughtered in the playing.”

What could I say? What can you say when you find out the man you love was the lover of another man?

Suddenly a rock dislodged on the hillside. In a blur of movement, Philip leapt, taking hold of the dark figure hiding behind a column. Dirk struggled but Philip’s arm held him fast as an iron bar, his free hand pressing a knife against Dirk’s carotid. “You’ve violated a sacred law, you brute,” Philip said. “Does your elder know you’re trespassing?”

Dirk’s eyes had the look of a trapped animal.

I shuddered. “He must have snuck off as soon as Ethan got to Capri.”

“Call the palazzo. Ethan and Gaius must come immediately. I’ll keep this one out of trouble.”

Philip dragged Dirk into the house, throwing him into a chair with the knife still poised at his throat. I did as I was told, relating the story to a furious Ethan over the phone.

They arrived by boat shortly afterward. Gaius took his usual seat, leaning back, surveying us all as if we were part of his dominion. If he’d asked us to kiss his ring I wouldn’t have been surprised. He got right to the point. “I can’t blame this fool. She’s been made to fascinate and he’s weak. Dirk tells me she’s allowed liberties.”

Dirk elaborated, “She let me touch her.”

Ethan grabbed me by the arm. “Tell the truth, Madam!”

“I did no such thing!”

Gaius smirked. “Women are accomplished liars. The innocence of her face is deception itself. Nevertheless, I’ll send him to Diego to learn some manners. But If I were you my friend, I’d keep a closer eye on her.” He stared down Ethan coolly as he rose. “Brovik will be informed about this matter.”

After they left, Ethan called me onto the carpet. “You let him
touch
you? Gaius would be more than happy for you to play their nasty games all the time. I’m sure he has a special place reserved in his dungeon. You’ve created a problem for me! My orders are to keep close tabs on the Wolf, and now we’ve offended him. You could have played them for some time, but you were stupid. Haven’t I taught you anything?”

“Just to be a whore!”

Ethan grabbed me by the back of the hair. “You have a part to play!”

“To piss Brovik off, because you’re
jealous
of Kurt?”

Ethan slapped me across the face. I reeled from the blow.

Philip stepped in between us. “Touch her again, and I’ll take her to Brovik myself!”

“This is none of your affair!”

Philip shielded me in his arms. “Strike her and you’ll have me to contend with. I’m capable and you know it.”

Ethan backed off. “Say hello to Brovik’s assassin, Mia. Does his clownish act fool you? This deadly weapon shed family blood before. There was a rebellion. Brovik ordered him to take out the disloyal alphas, but that was centuries before my time.”

Philip sighed. “I told you, child. It’s a bloody game. Ethan is right about one thing. You can’t alienate the Wolf. We need to stay in his good graces, until we learn what we’re after. We’ve reason to think he’s building a laboratory. Kurt has contacts among the rats. They see everything. Brovik sent me here to alert Ethan. This
still
may work to our advantage.” Philip and Ethan exchanged a meaningful look that worried me. “Just do all Ethan says, and everything will be fine.”

It was the beginning of the end. A Nordic chill had extinguished some of the heat between Ethan and me. Philip left us soon after the incident with Gaius. When he said goodbye, I clung to the only link I had to anything other than Ethan, begging him to stay.

“I have a summons from the hall of the mountain king to attend him now that he’s in winter residence,” Philip said.

“And you always speak so highly of him,” Ethan commented.

“It’s the
mise en scene
I object to, snow, ice and forests primeval.”

Philip brushed my tears away. “Ethan wants you back to himself, child. Look, she still sheds tears.” He caught them on the tips of his fingers, looking at them in wonder, “
Like winter’s drops…”

“And you who are but air, can you have one thought, one feeling for their afflictions?”

“Always were you’re concerned little one. Any message, Ethan?”

Ethan shook his head, and they embraced. I lingered for a moment, after Ethan went inside.

Philip chuckled. “You have question marks in your eyes, little one.”

“About Kurt… ”

A smile slid over Philip’s face. “Don’t be surprised if Brovik sends him from time to time bearing messages.” He slipped an envelope into my hand. “Read this sometime when you’re alone.” He kissed me on the cheek, sighing. “I must fly.
Ciao.”

Jumping into his Bugati, he revved up the engine, waved and sped away. Knowing Ethan would be closeted in his study for hours, I sat on the stone steps of the villa and opened Kurt’s letter. It was phrased in an oddly charming, old-fashioned, formal way. I tried to conjure what he looked like from Philip’s descriptions. All I could imagine was an angel… ”

Mia stared toward Kurt’s cell. Joe stretched and asked, “So Brovik had labs and stuff even back then?”

She shook her head.

“When?”

“Later.”

In this mood he wouldn’t get much out of her, and he was already exhausted and ready to call it quits. “We can end here— have anything for Kurt tonight?”

She held out an envelope. He stuffed the letter in his pocket, half tempted to go and steam it open to decipher the code, but Kurt would know, and in any case, code devised by that shrewd little cherub would be impossible to crack.

A few seconds later, Joe was at Kurt’s door. The vampire sat playing softly, blond head slightly bent over the keys, not looking up as the door whooshed open. “Yes Doctor?”

Tchaikovsky, a ballet, what was it? A familiar theme,
The Dying Swan.

Joe hugged the doorway, something warned him not to venture too close. “A letter, I’ll just set it on the table and go.”

Kurt looked up and regarded Joe’s face. Apparently satisfied by what he saw he murmured, “Still no computer, Doctor? I’ve made several requests now. They’re wasting their time. No one is
ever
going to access anything.”

Joe cleared his throat. “Lydia stonewalls me. She suggests I speak to Lee Brooks myself.”

Kurt’s eyes became focused and sharp. “You’re meeting with her?”

“I’m trying to set it up. I’ve e-mailed her, but she never answers. Lydia will remind her when she sees her next.”

“I wish to speak to her myself— if you’d kindly arrange it. And could you bring me the major newspapers? I’d like to know what’s happening outside.”

Joe nodded as he punched the code at the door. “I’ll see to it.”

“You look awful Doctor. Are you getting enough sleep?”

“No. I feel like hell.” Did he see a faint smile on Kurt’s face as his head bent once more to the instrument? “What are you telling Mia to do in these letters?”

“You think she does as I tell her? You obviously haven’t learned anything in your sessions with her.”

“You influence her.”

Kurt flashed his chilling smile. “I simply remind her of why we’re here.”

“And that is?”

“None of your affair.”

“What the hell is going on here exactly?”

Kurt didn’t even blink. “Do you play chess, Doctor?”

“Chess? What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“I like chess. Play with me.”

“I don’t have time for games.”

Kurt shrugged, and went back to playing. “Get me a board. Maybe we’ll talk.”

Late the following afternoon, Joe looked up to see Lydia at his door, not dressed in a lab coat, but wearing a chic red suit, smelling of expensive perfume. The soft light of the desk lamp made her almost appealing. “Talk to you for a moment, Joe? I spoke with Lee on the phone. She’s planning on touring the facility at the end of the month. She’ll meet with you then. She made a point of asking for some discs Mia promised.”

Joe leaned back in his chair, rubbing his tired eyes. “You never mentioned any discs. It’s wasn’t easy to win her trust. What’s she going to think when I start pressuring her to give them up?”

“Come on Joe, I’m under the gun. There’s some kind of data they promised.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Go in and talk to her
tonight
.”

Joe ran his eyes up Lydia’s figure. “Going on a date?”

Lydia tittered, perhaps a little self-consciously. “Just a meeting with Lee, no time for a social life these days… ”

Joe stretched and yawned. “Tell me about it.”

“Has she told you anything about who is hunting them?”

“No. She’s stalling for some reason.”

Lydia sighed in frustration. “Lee believes this isn’t the only facility where this work is going on. We’ve tried to maintain secrecy, but non-disclosure clauses are only as good as the people who signed them. Someone out there’s throwing a lot of money around and it’s only a matter of time before we lose people. I’ve had offers myself from mysterious sources. No one would offer that kind of money unless they were on to something really big. There’s a firm in Florida that manufactures blood products, lately there’s been a lot of activity.”

“All this crap she’s telling us is worthless. Maybe if we put our two lovebirds together they’ll start to sing.”

“Lovebirds are highly territorial, aggressive little monsters, Joe. I raised them as a child. They may look all cute and cuddly but put one in a cage who isn’t part of their flock and they’ll tear it to bits. Lee’s adamant about keeping them apart until she gets here.”

“Sounds to me like it’s personal.”

“We’ve been through this a hundred times.”

Joe scowled. “We’re playing a dangerous game here.”

“You’ve never been one to back down from a challenge.”

“Speaking of games, Kurt wants to play chess with me next time we meet.”

“Do it tonight! For goodness sakes Joe, he’s showing receptivity. I still can’t find anyone who can get past the firewalls in that computer of his. Get him
anything
he wants. We need that data.”

“I’m tired Lydia, give me a fucking break. I’ll go see them, but right now I’m going to sleep for a couple of hours before I go to her.”