Dante (Blood Brothers Book 5) (14 page)

Chapter Eleven

Dante felt Giovanni’s presence in the room before he actually saw him.
It felt surreal to know he would finally have the answers he’d sought for years. The tension in the room was palpable.

The witch, Liliana who had entered the room ahead of Giovanni, spoke first, breaking the
tense
silence in the room
. “Giovanni, as you can see, everyone has been anxiously awaiting your arrival.”

Dante’s breath caught in his throat.
It was like seeing a ghost
. Except for his
deep
green eyes, this vampire was the spitting image of his papa.

A small squeeze of his hand briefly drew Dante’s attention to Isis, who stood by his side. She smiled as her eyes silently conveyed
her support
. Her presence was somehow reassuring, and now more than ever
,
he needed
it
. Dante redirected his attention to the vampire who stood in the center of the room.

Giovanni took his time to gaze upon each occupant as though committing their faces to memory.
He walked over to GianMarco and Maggie.

Marco eyed the older vampire warily, protectively pulling his mate closer.

Giovanni
smiled, undeterred
. “
GianMarco, it’s pleasure to finally meet you face to face. And this
is
Maggie?

Marco nodded his blond head stiffly, his arms tightening around Maggie’s shoulders.

“You remember me, don’t you, Maggie?”

Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

GianMarco’s eyes turned from their usual amber shade to a dangerously glittering hue of silver. “
What are you talking about? When have you two met?”
His body shook visibly with suppressed anger.

Giovanni
,
however
,
seemed unfazed in the face of Marco’s hostility
. “Relax, GianMarco. All will be explained soon enough.” Turning away from Marco and Maggie, he focused his gaze on Nico and Sasha. The centuries-old vampire
practically glided across the room
until he stood in front of the couple. “
Niccolo,
I’m
very pleased to meet you. You as well, Sasha, bearer of the mark of Hecate.”

Sasha furrowed her brows, not bothering to hide her surprise
. “How did you know?”

“I have my sources. I
,
also
,
know you’re just coming into your powers. I’m sure once you have a proper handle on them, you’ll be more of a force to be reckoned with than you already are.”

Without waiting for a response, Giovanni
focused his attention on Romeo and Christine. “Romeo, welcome to my home, I’m happy to see you. Christine, I’m very pleased to see you’ve recovered from your health scare.”

Romeo’s expression remained stony, while Christine whispered a shaky, “Thank you.”

There was something about the way Giovanni introduced himself to each brother
,
almost
as if he’d finally found something he’d been looking
for
that he’d lost. There was almost a look of longing as he glanced at each man, almost as if he were seeking something only they could provide. Dante
,
however, wouldn’t be swayed no matter how hospitable Giovanni pretended to be. There were too many years of unexplained agony inflicted on his family for Dante to immediately absolve the one man who knew why.

Dante narrowed his gaze.
“We didn’t come here to exchange pleasantries. What we want are answers
and a
reason why we shouldn’t kill you.”
He stalked over to the older vampire until they were toe to toe.
Balling his fists at his sides, he fought to reign in his temper.

Giovanni nodded in what appeared to be contrition.
“Dante, I’m not your enemy
.
Please
,”—
he gestured to a chair between Isis and Paris
—
“have a seat and I’ll tell you all you want to know.”

Wanting to protest, yell, fight
,
and
whatever
else
to ease the warring emotions inside him, Dante
continued to glare at Giovanni
.
Even if this wasn’t the vampire
that
had been behind all the misfortune that had befallen the Grimaldis over the years, Giovanni was still responsible for allowing Adonis to escape and because of it, the children were taken.

“I think everyone is on edge as it is,” Paris spoke. “I can only imagine what it would feel like if my pups were in danger, but it’s probably best if we listen to what Giovanni has to say and then we can make an informed decision on what our next move should be.”

Paris was right
. With a resigned sigh,
Dante
slid into the empty chair. “We want to know all of it.”

Giovanni inclined his head slightly. “I understand. We’ll save the formal introduction
s
for another time.
I’d first like to thank everyone for being her
e
on such short notice. I wish I would have been able to meet you all in more agreeable circumstances.” He paused briefly
,
agitation lined his face. H
e placed his hands behind his back and began to pace the length of the floor. With each stride, Giovanni seemed more bothered, until finally h
e halted, turned to his audience as he release
d
a deep breath
. “Adonis has been dealing in black magic for
centuries
now, which gives him an extra advantage in addition to his age.”

Dante arched his eyebrow. Generally, black magic was something only bound
Warlock
s or Hunters dabbled in. There were a few humans who played around with it, but since the wicked arts were not easy to master, many mortals ended up dead from trying.

“How did he get involved in it? I mean, why would a vampire need to?”
It was the very same question Dante had wondered.

Giovann
i’s lips twisted into a grimace as if the answer pained him. “
I see you haven’t guessed.
Like myself and our father, Adonis was born human, unlike you, Dante,
Nic
c
o
lo
,
Romeo and GianMarco
.”

This news was surprising to him
. Just from looking at Giovanni, he knew they were related through their father, but he never knew his papa
had not been born an immortal
. It wasn’t a subject that had ever been broached. “Papa never said.” He spoke more to himself than to anyone in the room.

“
I think you
should tell them everything from the beginning, Giovanni.”
Liliana
moved across the room to stand beside him. She placed a hand on his chest. “They need to hear it all.”

Giovanni nodded. “Yes. I know this. It’s just… I’m having a difficult time figuring out where to begin.”

“The beginning would be nice,” Marco growled.

“Of course, but I’ll need to sit down. My story is quite long and it isn’t pretty.” He pulled up a chair from one of the far corners of the room and moved
it
to the center
to give everyone a good view of him while he spoke.

Giovanni sat down
raking
his fingers through his hair. The muscles twitched in his face
and he seemed to struggle to find his next words
.

Dante flexed and unflexed his fingers with impatience. He wanted to tell the older vampire to get on with it, but something stopped him. A fleeting emotion
he didn’t quite recognize
briefly flitted through the depths of Giovanni’s
serious gaze
.

After several moments of silence, Giovanni finally spoke. “My tale begins with a girl. She was by far the most beautiful woman in her village and because of it, she was much sought after. Men from neighboring towns would visit the tiny
villaggio
to catch a glimpse of her just to see if the stories of her loveliness were true. She
—
”

“I’m sure you have a point to this, but you need to hurry up and get to it.”
Romeo’s
nostrils flared, his narrowed
cobalt
gaze conveying every bit of impatience Dante felt.

Giovanni
held up his palm
. “To understand the present, one must first learn from the past. Bear with me, brother.”

A scowl twisted
Romeo
features into an angry mask. “Don’t fu
cking call me that. We’re not —
”

“
Romeo
!” Dante
shook his head
. “Let him finish.”

Giovanni gave Dante a slight smile
. “Thank you. As I was saying, this girl’s beauty had become renown
ed
, but all the attention went to her head. After a while, she’d come to expect the admiration and adulation as her due. She’d received a number of marriage proposals, but was unwilling to accept the fate of being a mere farmer’s wife. Word traveled to the don of the land about this particular beauty and she was summoned to h
is castle. This was exactly the type of suitor
the girl was looking for. Though the don was getting on in years a
nd the girl wasn’t quite sixteen
, it
placated
his ego to have such a prize as his next mistress.”

Maggie gasped. “She was just a baby. He took advantage of her.”

Giovanni shook his head. “It was a different time. Most women back then were already married with a couple children by the age of fourteen. If anything, the girl was approaching spinsterhood. Anyway, she saw the don’s offer of protection as her opportunity to enter the lifestyle she dreamed of, though once she became his mistress she wasn’t content to simply remain his bed warmer.
”

“Why didn’t he offer for her hand?” Christine asked.

“Because the don was already married to a woman from a very powerful family. But this didn’t matter to the girl, who by the way was quite cunning
. She managed to convince the don to install her in the
palazzo
,
instead of one of the don’s many other elaborate properties. This was
an insult to the
patrona
, but the don was so enchanted by his young lover there wasn’t much he wouldn’t offer her. Besides, it was no secret the don was unhappy his wife had not provided him an heir, although there was plenty of evidence to support the fact he was the sterile
one.”
Giovanni
twisted his lips in derision.

“After
the girl moved into the palazzo, the
patrona
fell ill. Some said unnaturally so. Within weeks
,
she was dead. Many of the villagers whispered of seeing the girl visiting the hut of an old woman known for mixing tonics and potions. Others say
,
the
patrona
died because she lacked the will to live upon suffering the humiliation of having her husband’s mistress under the same roof. It’s pretty safe to say, however, that the girl had left nothing to chance where getting what she wanted was concerned.” Giovanni stood up again and resumed his fretful pacing.

Dante wanted him to get to the end of this
tale
just as much as anyone in the room probably did, but as the story unfolded, he had to admit it was a riveting one. Biting his bottom lip, he held back the many questions swirling around in his mind. Patience wasn’t one of his strong points and sitting through this was definitely a test.

After what seemed like an especially long pause, Giovanni continued. “The don, concerned with producing an heir, took a new wife.”

“But you said the don loved her,” Christine pointed out.

The storyteller shrugged. “
I said he was enthralled by her. There’s a difference. Besides, l
ove had nothing to do with it. In those times and even today, powerful people treat marriage as a business arrangement. It’s true the don adored his beautiful young mistress, but she was still just a commoner, not fit to bear his heir. This, of course, didn’t sit well with the girl, who felt her charms should have been enough.”

“But they weren’t?” Christine asked.

A slight smile touched Giovanni’s lips
as he shook his head
. “No. As I said, within weeks the don was married
,
again. Discontent with her lot, but not ready to give up on her quest to be the next
patrona
, the girl decided to capitalize on the don’s infertility. Knowing how much he wanted a son, she was determined to get him one. On a side note, she’d been unfaithful to the don even from the very beginning, but she’d always managed to avoid an accident.” He air quoted the last three words. “Her target was a young stable boy by the name of Giovanni, fifteen to her eighteen years at the time, and like any other hot-blooded male, he was in her thrall.”