Raphael (The Immortal Youth Book 1) (11 page)

Once released from the infirmary, for several days Raphael saw less of Rico—who was busy with some vampire business—and more of the rest of the Reds.

Although grateful for the respite—he hated Rico’s guts and his mere presence set Raphael on edge—at the same time, not knowing what the man was up to worried him. Every moment he wasn’t with Rico, the werewolf could be with Luisa. That possibility alone terrified Raphael. The only pleasant note were Rock’s visits. As promised, the burly Red kept swinging by daily, and more than once Raphael felt like confiding in him, but squashed the impulse fearing it would put Luisa in danger.

A whole week passed by with no news about her.

Days filled with menial tasks around the compound—Tancredi’s orders—didn’t alleviate Raphael’s worries. If anything, the reduced workload, consisting mostly in cleaning porn from laptops, drove him crazy. Too much time to think and long sleepless nights made him come up with all possible scenarios of what was happening to Luisa. At least once a day, but more often three or four times, he tried to sneak past the guards standing vigilant on the fourth floor landing. Soon, sending Raphael away became a fun game for the guards who didn’t take him seriously.

His free time was spent roaming around the portions of the building open to him. Finally allowed in the basement under the gym level, he once found Rock on his way to the security room.

“Do you mind if I ride along?” he asked when the Red didn’t slow down.

“I mind because you’re a pain in the butt, but I’d rather have you under my sight than let you wander alone. Don’t touch anything.” Despite the grumpy statement, Rock let Raphael inside both the server room and the monitor room. After he greeted the security crew, he explained to him, “Thanks to the cameras and the alarms placed around the whole compound, breaching in from the outside is virtually impossible.”

On the wall there was a floorplan of the building, and Rock pointed at the dots indicating the position of the cameras. While Raphael was listening to the Red, he saw some movement on one of the monitors. A moment later, an alarm went off and all eyes converged to the monitor Raphael was looking at.

A bright light illuminated a spot on the video a second or two later, and one of the security guys laughed and shook his head. “Just a kitten.” He pointed at the small shape climbing the black spiral staircase hugging one side of the building. “The other day, a pigeon set the alarm off, and we had to go and remove the damn bird from one of the cornices.”

“State of the art, ah?” Taking everything in, Raphael tried to store in his mind as much information as he could.

“But no one in the last fifty or sixty years has ever tried to get in,” Rock finished at the end of the tour.

Once they exited the security room, the door was locked behind them and Rock escorted Raphael back to the third floor. “Find something useful to fill your time.”

“Let me in the harem.” Raphael gave Rock his best puppy eyes.

Rock opened his arms to the side and shook his head. “Will you ever learn?”

“It was worth a try.”

****

One night, after another day of installing antiviruses, Raphael was battling his insomnia by contemplating ways to get in contact with Luisa. Suddenly, small steps echoed in the hallway outside his bedroom. A long moment passed, then a shadow darkened the crack under the door, and a folded piece of paper was pushed into the room. He was at the door a heartbeat later but only managed to catch a glimpse of long blond hair, rounding the corner and disappearing from sight. With shaking hands, he bent to retrieve the paper, but had the presence of mind to close the door behind him before reading the message.

I’m on laundry duty. L.

Luisa’s scent lingered on the note. After going so long without news of her, those few words written in her neat handwriting were like a balm to Raphael. He flattened the paper and put it under his pillow, together with her other letter. During the night, unable to relax, he read her two messages several times, bringing the papers to his lips and to his heart.

The next day, Raphael went straight to Rock and asked if he could switch to household duty.

Rock raised his eyes from a newspaper he was reading when Raphael entered his office. “Already bored of watching home-videos all day?”

“There’s such a thing as too much porn.”

“For a guy that tries to enter the harem every chance he gets, that doesn’t sound true.”

Raphael hooked his thumbs into the rear pockets of his jeans, and toed the desk with the square point of his boot. “Never liked theory. I’m more of a practice-makes-perfect kind of guy.”

With a roll of his eyes, Rock waved his hand toward the hallway. “Go ahead, no one is going to fight you for laundry duty.”

When Raphael had already cleared the door, Rock called him back. “You do know that you’ll be carrying hampers from the fourth floor to the first and back, all day long?”

“Need the exercise.” Before the man could see through his façade, Raphael sprinted ahead and announced to the fourth floor guards he had permission to enter their dominion.

“Don’t go near the harem,” one of the two Reds said with a smirk, after confirming with Rock that Raphael wasn’t trying to sneak in again.

“I won’t.”

“Laundry room that way.” The man pointed at yet another corridor departing from the hall, then added, “You know what, I’ll walk you there.”

“I have no intention to—” As he said the words, Raphael made a show to steal a furtive glance in the opposite direction where the harem was situated.

“Just in case.” The guard chuckled and patted him on his shoulder. “I was your age once.”

“If it makes you feel better.” Dragging his boots and slumping his shoulders, Raphael followed the man along the secondary hallway.

The guard led him into the laundry room and nodded at the Red sitting at a table, sorting papers. “Hi, Tiberio.” With his head tilted toward Raphael, he said, “He’s Raphael, the one on duty today.”

Tiberio anchored the papers down with a glass weight, then gave Raphael a look, his eyes lingering on the cast. “You’re late.”

From a swinging door, two girls entered the laundry room carrying between them a heavy wicker basket. Without thinking, Raphael walked to them and one-armed relieved them of the weight. Giggles and whispers followed his act.

With a disapproving look, Tiberio sent the girls scurrying to the other section of the room where they went to work on the ironing boards, then directed his focus on Raphael. “No funny business here, pup.”

“Be careful with this one.” The guard left with a last laugh.

“Where do I start?” Looking around, Raphael noticed that one of the two girls was staring at him. When she moved, her long blond hair fanned all around her shoulders, reminding him of the previous night’s events.

“Go downstairs and collect the recruits’ laundry. There—” Tiberio pointed at a basket full of fabric bags. “Sort the dirty clothes by colors first.”

“Okay.” Without diverting his eyes from the blonde, Raphael walked to the basket and grabbed a handful of bags.

Feminine voices came from beyond the swiveling door, and, from the oval window, Raphael had a glimpse of a large room where several girls were folding clothes over high tables. Hoping for a clearer view, he set out in that direction but Tiberio called him back.

“Scoot.” Annoyed, the Red waved him away, and Raphael complied before giving the man reasons to reallocate him somewhere else.

The whole morning passed, and Raphael made several trips to the fourth floor to deposit loads of laundry, but he never had a chance to get close to the inner room. Nor he had a glimpse of Luisa. After a short pause to the cafeteria where he ate a light lunch, he went back to work, hoping for better luck.

After a fruitless morning, the afternoon didn’t bring anything but disappointment to Raphael. Tiberio never left his place behind that table, and the two girls who had been ironing weren’t there anymore when Raphael came back from his break.

Feeling cranky after yet another call from the first floor, he threw a laundry bag full of socks and underwear on the counter by Tiberio’s table, and gave the man a dirty look. “What about investing in an elevator? Is it too much to ask in a four-story building? Plus two underground?”

“We got one at the end of the hallway, but it’s only for the big brothers.” Tiberio’s sleek smile was too much to bear, and Raphael stomped out of the laundry before he would say something highly inappropriate.

Four more tedious hours of climbing and descending stairs passed, and the muscles in Raphael’s legs burned, while his cast arm felt like lead, dragging him down. Close to dinner time, his stomach started aching too, adding to his general suffering. When he entered the laundry room with the intention to tell Tiberio where he could put the next load of dirty clothes, the blonde from the morning was talking to the Red.

“Here you are.” Tiberio seemed relieved to see him, and that set Raphael on edge.

“I’m done—” he started, but the girl’s eyes locked on his and she subtly tilted her head toward the swinging door. “What do you want now?”

“They need help out on the terrace.” Absentmindedly, Tiberio caressed his stomach betraying his motives for giving Raphael one more task.

“It’s late. I’m sure whatever it is they need help with can wait.” Raphael saw the girl’s worried expression, but Tiberio faced him and he couldn’t do anything to reassure her.

Tiberio’s eyes went to the clock on the wall, then back to Raphael with a sneer. “You go help them or I’ll make your laundry duty a living hell, starting now.”

Raphael shrugged and stepped around Tiberio’s table, walking toward the girl. “No need to be nasty about it.”

“That’s a good pup.” Tiberio exited the laundry, but a moment later came back to add, “And don’t forget to keep the door ajar or you’ll close yourself out.”

Once Tiberio was gone for good, the girl pushed the swiveling door open. “Come. Hurry.”

“What’s happening?” Raphael followed her into the empty backroom.

“Hurry. Someone could see me—” the girl threw over her shoulder, heading toward a metal door. Without waiting for him, she lowered the handles and sprinted outside to the terrace.

“See you doing what?” One hand on the door frame, he looked around.

“Stop the door with the brick,” the girl ordered.

Looking down, Raphael found the brick and pushed it against the door so that it wouldn’t close all the way through. Then he gave the terrace a good look.

Had he not been tired, hungry, and confused, Raphael would have appreciated the sight. Half of the terrace resembled a garden with plants, trees, and corners furnished with patio sets and striped umbrellas. The other half of the terrace was occupied by a big greenhouse. Modern and sleek, the glass and metal structure stood three stories high.

Running, the blonde reached the entry to the greenhouse, and only then looked back for him, waving for him to reach her. “Come!”

The command was laced with worry, and Raphael obeyed, jogging toward her, even though his legs didn’t want to cooperate and he would have crawled instead.

“Stay no longer than ten minutes. I’ll be hanging sheets on the drying rack.” She opened the greenhouse and pushed him inside.

The sound of the glass door sliding back was dimmed by the greenery, filling the place in rows of terracotta pots. With the corner of his eye, Raphael saw something moving, nothing more than a flash of pink.

“I’m here.”

Luisa’s scent hit his nostrils, and he found himself running to the other end of the greenery where she stood, semi hidden by the large branches of a ficus tree, her arms outstretched to welcome him.

“Baby—” As soon as they embraced, he sought her lips for a frantic kiss. Pushing her toward the braided trunk, and mindful of his cast, he circled her back and pressed her closer to him. “Are you okay?” As it always happened when he was in her presence, his heart beat violently against his ribcage and his breath became erratic, making him dizzy. When she didn’t answer him, he leaned away to look into her eyes and placed a finger under her chin. “Has he hurt you?”

A shake of her head and a small smile were her answer, as tears stained her face.

“If he’s touched you again, I swear on the Great Wolf I’ll kill him. I’ll rip him apart.” Sighing, he took her small hands in his and brought them to his lips. “Please, tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m okay. Rico hasn’t looked at me at all.” Luisa burrowed closer into his embrace. “I missed you so much.”

“I swear I was about to start drilling holes into my bedroom ceiling to reach the fourth floor and kidnap you.” He said it as a joke, but he had thought about doing that and so much more.

His hand went to her waist, then tugged at the hem of her top, raising the fabric to feel her skin. Goosebumps appeared everywhere he touched her, and when he skimmed the side of her breast over the sport bra their breaths hitched at the same time.

“Raphael—” Her lips brushed the spot behind his ear, sending shivers all over him until he shook and lowered his head to the hollow of her throat, and his arms circled her in a crushing hug.

“I can’t breathe without you.”

“It feels like I’m drowning all the time.” Luisa’s hands went under his shirt and to his back to caress him in slow hesitant circles, her fingers tracing the web of scars with feather-light touches.

After spending a lifetime hiding the signs of his father’s cruelty from the rest of the world, with Luisa he didn’t feel the need. The shame that would have accompanied such discovery by anyone else wasn’t there. In its stead, relief. Luisa was his safe haven. The place where he could be himself.

“I want to hurt the one who did this to you.” Her hand pressed over the ridges of flesh where the belt had struck almost every night for years.

His father knew hitting a werewolf before his first change would mark him for life. Yet, not even fear of being discovered had stopped him.

“Took care of him, but thank you.” He raised his mouth to hers for a long kiss. Dazed by her scent all around him and her hands still brushing every scar on his back, he lost himself in the moment, his own hands memorizing the texture of her soft skin.