Raphael (The Immortal Youth Book 1) (20 page)

Their wolves howled at the same time and they separated their lips for a chuckle. Raphael bumped her forehead with his, his whole body shaking in anticipation, his heart in his throat as he moved over her, blanketing her small frame.

She tilted her chin up for another kiss, and her hands wound up on his back, roaming up and down. After a moment, feeling he couldn’t resist any longer, he angled toward the edge of the bed, his hand trailing down looking for his jeans and one of the square foils he had stuffed in its pocket. An act he had performed a few times in the past proved challenging with his trembling hands, but she dropped a kiss on his shoulder and that helped. Gently, he coaxed her knees apart and she welcomed him as he ever so slowly descended into her. Pleasure, as whole and perfect and pure as he had never experienced before engulfed him and his wolf.

One, at last. One, forever.

Their bodies dancing in a rhythm that was their own, Raphael left her lips for her throat where he nuzzled at the collarbone, then moved to her shoulder. His canines lowered and he licked her skin, feeling the frenetic rush of blood in her veins. Lost in the bliss of her warmth and her choked moans, with his teeth aching and his wolf demanding the mark, he pressed his mouth down. The moment he latched onto her soft skin, she arched her throat and his fangs erupted all the way through and pierced her. A white light exploded behind his eyelids, sending him into another level of pleasure. When he thought it couldn’t get any better, she tilted her head and sunk her teeth into his shoulder. Then he knew ecstasy.

Mine.

Yours.

Always.

Together.

Forever.

In the aftermath, they drifted away as one, their thoughts as intertwined as their trembling bodies, tears falling freely, the smashed rose petals releasing the sweetest of fragrances.

Framed by the oval window, the sun shone bright in the sky when Raphael woke with Luisa cuddling in his embrace. Trying not to disturb her sleep, he reached for the quilt and raised one corner to cover her. She snuggled closer with a contented sigh and he kissed her crown, then rested his chin over her head wondering at how perfectly they matched. The mark on her shoulder complemented his, its sight filling him with pride and a sense of belonging that made his heart soar.

When she opened her eyes, Luisa regaled him with the most radiant of smiles. Tender caresses and soft kisses followed, their bodies awakening as they sought each other for the rest of the morning. Only when their stomachs growled, he realized it was long past lunchtime.

“I’ll go fetch something to eat, then we’ll better keep going.” Raphael wasn’t ready to leave their haven, but the more they waited the more dangerous it would be. He sat and leaned to pick up his clothes strewn on the floor.

Luisa hugged him and leaned against his back. “We are the lucky ones.”

“I know.” Pressing her hands to his chest, he tilted his head over his shoulder to kiss her. “Everything in my life happened so I could find you.”

She remained silent for a moment, then freed one hand and with her fingers traced lines on his back. “Love your wings.”

“I couldn’t wait to show them to you.” Her movements lulled him and he purred.

She lingered a moment over one of the ridges left by the belting. “It was Rico, wasn’t it?”

Raphael hadn’t told her what had happened and didn’t want to mar the moment by talking about his big brother. “Next full moon those will disappear, and it will be as it never happened.” He slightly turned to kiss her mouth. “I want to show you something.”

“What is it?”

“A surprise.”

Her whole face lit. “I love surprises.”

After hastily donning his boxers, he wrapped her in the quilt and couldn’t help some more kissing. Then he scooped her in his arms and walked back to the barge’s main room where he lowered her to the tattered rug he had covered in rose petals as well. On his haunches, he gestured at the coffee table behind. He had made the furniture by placing a wooden board over a terracotta vase, then arranged his gifts for her on it. “It’s not much—”

She threw her arms around his neck and lowered him down to the rug. “It’s perfect!” After yet another long kiss, she leaned away from him and grabbed the plush teddy bear. Cuddling the bear to her chest, she sat straighter to look at the other items displayed on the table. “You bought me flowers, balloons, this—” she pressed the stuffed animal to her heart, “—and chocolates!”

“One day earlier, but…” He tilted his head to the side with a smile. “Happy Valentine’s Day, baby.”

“Raphael.” Her eyes brimmed with tears.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered, moving closer to her.

She took shelter in his embrace as small sobs shook her frame. “It’s joy. I can’t contain it. I’ve never been so happy. Am I dreaming?”

He couldn’t help a small laugh as he shook his head. “No, this is better than a dream and it’s forever.”

“I love the sound of it.” She chuckled and sobbed at the same time, and he hugged her tighter.

“And what is this?” She pointed at the wrapped package.

“That’s your birthday gift, but I want you to open it tomorrow.” They would be on the run, and he wanted for her to have something to sweeten the harshness of the situation.

“Okay,” she said with a huff, then laughed. “May I have the chocolates now?”

“Sure.” He reached for the box and gave it to her. They sampled a few of the chocolates, but Raphael’s stomach growled. “I’ll go get something to eat.”

“I’ll come with you.”

After a short walk, they ended up eating pizza at a nearby pizza by the slice place. The simplest of meals but to Raphael it was the best food he had ever had. Sitting on the high stools at the pizzeria window, he looked outside. Red and pink balloons hung from canopies and were driven every which way by the February breeze. People walked by with heart-shaped boxes or gifts wrapped in pastel papers. Flower shops displayed what was left of their bouquets. Rome was all decked out for Valentine’s Day, and he couldn’t help but think it would have been nice to spend her special day in the city and not on the run.

As if reading his thoughts, she nudged his arm and dropped her head to his shoulder. “I don’t need anything else. Just you.”

Walking back to the barge, Raphael realized with a twinge of sorrow that they couldn’t delay their departure any longer. The usual chaos of a Friday afternoon in Rome, combined with the coincidence of also being the day before Valentine’s, meant they would get stuck in traffic even with his Monster. “We must get our things and leave now.”

“Okay.” She squeezed his hand and hurried her pace to match his running steps.

They reached the barge a few minutes later and were collecting their stuff, when a stench both familiar and foreign hit their nostrils and they turned at the same time toward the entry.

“Vampire?” Frowning, Luisa asked then shook her head. “Too early—”

Raphael’s heart slammed against his ribcage as he recognized the underlying scent of werewolf. A moment later, a known bulky frame filled the door.

“Going somewhere, pup?” Rico asked.

Careful not to attract any unwanted attention from Rico, Raphael scooted on the wet floor of the tender boat and tried to reach Luisa’s arm with his outstretched fingers. The rope chafed his wrists at every movement, and he could feel the blood trickling down from the fresh cuts, but needed to know she was okay. “Luisa?” His ankles were tied too, and he felt numb from the waist down for the forced position.

She was shivering and hadn’t said a word the whole ride. Rico had hit her on her face and split her lower lip with his rings. Raphael had done his best not to antagonize the werewolf knowing that Rico would take it out on her to spite him.

“Told you not to do or say anything.” Rico kicked him. “You’ve never been good at obeying.” The werewolf redirected the tender, then focused back on Raphael. “But it ends tonight.”

“Let her go,” Raphael said, even though he knew no amount of begging would ever dissuade Rico from exacting the revenge he thought he was entitled to.

Rico laughed. Over the noise of the tender’s engine, it sounded like cackling. “I can’t believe Tancredi once thought so much of you. You were never that great, if you ask me.”

Raphael stilled his mouth before he would aggravate the situation with an insult, and said instead, “I did what I was asked for and never shied from any task. Even when you sent me in rival gangs’ territory.”

Rico looked down at him. The werewolf had always been scary, but the vampire blood had changed him for the worse. He now had a manic edge to him that terrified Raphael. “Those little runs you did for the gang?” He shook his head. “You must be kidding. You can’t believe they were enough to grant you all the favors you received from me.”

Raphael wondered about those alleged favors. “Those little runs, as you call them, brought the Reds hundreds of thousands of euros.”

“You were supposed to work for the Reds. Or do you think that we’d patch you in just because you have a pretty face?” Rico corrected the route once again.

Raphael didn’t bother answering. Instead, he took advantage of the werewolf’s temporary distraction to scoot closer to Luisa. Finally, his fingers touched her cold arm. She was only wearing a thin shirt and jeans when Rico had barged in.

Pointing a gun at Luisa’s head, Rico had said, “Loaded with silver bullets,” then forced them to walk to the aft, where he had slapped her to convince Raphael to take the external ladder and descend into the tender.

“Or did you think I would ever leave you alone?” Rico was acting erratically. More than usual.

Raphael had seen Rico high, but never like this. From the little he could gather sitting on the bottom of the small boat and the landmarks he had recognized, Raphael inferred they were sailing toward the sea. “Where are you taking us?”

The werewolf laughed, then said, “Where you should’ve gone yesterday, Fiumicino,” confirming Raphael’s suspicion.

Raphael’s heart stopped. “Why?”

“Because it was your fault we supposedly didn’t ship one of yesterday’s loads and Tancredi made me pay for it.” Rico lowered the collar of his winter jacket and revealed a patch of skin raw and bloody.

Raphael had a hard time following the werewolf’s train of thought. “I thought you were sending me straight into a trap.”

“Of course I was, but that’s beside the point,” Rico continued. “I promised my suppliers a token of my appreciation for dealing directly with me without Tancredi being the wiser. You were my gift that never showed up—”

The tender was pushed sideways by a wave. “I drove ahead and waited for you on the dock for hours. I had everything ready to—” Rico swore and slammed the wheel with his hand, as he steadied himself. Right away, another wave unbalanced him.

Raphael jumped on the floor, but he didn’t lose contact with Luisa. “How did you find us?”

“How do you think I did, clever boy?” The werewolf shrugged, then spat into the water. “You forget I have friends in all the right places. I only had to ask for a copy of your entry log at RYS, where I discovered your father’s address, and a note about the Controller finding you at that barge all those years ago. Your father’s address is now a supermarket, so I drove to the barge and you were stupid enough to be there.”

“Why are we going to Fiumicino?” Raphael knew why, but felt Luisa responding to his touch and needed to distract Rico.

“The vampires didn’t appreciate being denied young blood, but they know it isn’t in their best interest to out me before my alpha. They are making business behind his back as well. So, this morning, they called Tancredi, complaining about a whole shipment of V that went to waste because you didn’t show up. After a long and thorough session of whipping imparted by one of Tancredi’s guards, I was ordered to go and meet the vampires tonight and appease them any way I could. But before letting me go, Tancredi stepped into the room to say, ‘If you find your little brother, good for you. Otherwise, don’t bother coming back after you’ve dealt with the nest.’ So you see, it was imperative I found you. Her, just an added bonus.” Rico swayed, but grabbed the wheel and steadied himself.

“Please, let her go.” Raphael raised his head above the tender’s edge and saw they were approaching the mouth of the Tiber and the city of Fiumicino.

Rico snorted.

Another wave hit the tender. Rico almost lost control of the wheel.

This time, Raphael was pushed to the side. “Free her. No one will ever know. You never told Tancredi about her, and Luisa won’t say a peep for sure. You know that.” Raphael kept talking, saying the first thing that came to mind. The majority of what he was saying was aimed at Luisa anyway. He wanted to let her know she should save herself any way she could. There wasn’t time to plan anything. The sun was setting ahead of them, and by the time they reached the vampire nest the bloodsuckers would be awake and hungry.

Rico wasn’t listening to Raphael though. The werewolf was mumbling to himself. “I don’t have any use for her in any case. She’s good for nothing. Too ugly to bed, and too incompetent for anything else. All she had going for her was that she was in the right place to pass along some drugs to those losers at the shelter, and you ruined that for me too.” For no apparent reason, he started laughing. “You two caused so much trouble to me that you deserve what’s coming next.”

The noise from another boat’s engine reached Raphael’s ears above the din of their own. Looking up at Rico’s back, Raphael drew his knees up to his waist, then thrust his legs outward to hit the werewolf. But having sat in the same position for too long, his body didn’t respond as expected and Raphael barely reached the man’s ankles.

Rico turned, eyes red-shot and mouth frozen in a snarl. “You, little piece of—” The rest of the werewolf’s insult was lost to Raphael, because he lowered his fist on Raphael’s head.

The blow momentarily incapacitated Raphael, but he refused to pass out, too worried of what would happen to Luisa if he wasn’t conscious. When he saw the syringe in Rico’s hand, he tried to move but the needle pierced the skin on his neck before he could react.

“Luisa—” Blackness folded over him like a heavy blanket and Raphael drifted away, cursing Rico all the way to the gates of Hades.