Dante (Blood Brothers Book 5) (15 page)

Dante couldn’t hold the gasp that tumbled from his lips. Unable to contain his energy, he bounded to his feet. “My father?” He sought out the faces of his brothers. Judging from their expressions, they were thinking along the same lines as he.

Giovanni nodded. “
Our
father.” His narrowed gaze said it all. He would no longer be denied their connection. “
Our
father was
infatuated
with her, but he wasn’t as malleable as her other conquests were. He had honor, and his loyalty to the don prevented him from giving in right away when she blatantly threw herself at him. This intrigued the girl because no one had ever resisted her before. It took a while, but she finally wore down his resistance. Not long after, she was with child. Being naive and e
namored
with his lover, Papa tried to convince her to run away with him so they could be married and raise their child together. She, of course, laughed in his face and told him his usefulness had expired.”

Dante snorted. “A little premature, considering she couldn’t know if she was pregnant with a son.”

“This is true, but she was so used to getting her way in most cases she didn’t for a minute doubt her child was anything but. As it turned out, she did, in fact, give birth to a son, which she promptly declared as the don’s. Eager to latch onto anything which disproved his sterility, he accepted her lie and was so grateful he made her his third wife.”

“But what about his second one? Wasn’t he still married? Divorce was nearly impossible back then,” Dante mused.

Giovanni nodded his agreement. “There was no need. The second
patrona
fell ill not long after the girl conceived. She suffered from the same mysterious illness as the don’s first wife.”

“Wasn’t the don suspicious?
He might
have been forgiven for thinking his first wife died of natural causes, but when the second one succumbed to the same sickness, didn’t he suspect something?” Niccolo wondered out loud.

“One would think so, but he had his heir. The girl had finally achieved her goal. Once she had the power she desired, she returned her attention to Papa. He presented a challenge to her. He wanted nothing more to do with her after being used. The new
patrona
was not used to being told no and refused to take that as his final word. She set out to seduce him, but he remained firm in his resolve to keep things platonic. Only when she used a love potion
,
she’d gotten from the medicine woman she sometimes frequented
,
was she able to resume the affair. I was the result. Of course, I’m sure you’ve already figured out Adonis was the first child I spoke of. She named me after our father to secretly taunt the don, and in her twisted mind she believed it would keep our father close.”

“If our father wanted nothing more to do with your mother, then why did he stay?” Dante demanded. If there was one thing anyone couldn’t dispute about his father, it was his integrity. It was understandable Giovanni may have been under the influence of a love potion, but why did he stick around long enough for Giovanni’s mother to use such a concoction on him?

The older vamp
ire
sighed
. “He wanted to be near his son
, and my mother wasn’t above using a little emotional blackmail.
By the time I’d come along, he had double the incentive to remain in his position.
He couldn’t claim us as his own or
it could mean our deaths and his
.
Besides, he was a poor servant. Adonis and I had the opportunity to grow up in a style that he couldn’t provide. Once the love potion wore off, he stayed clear of her as he vowed he would.
In the meantime, the don poured all his affection and love onto Adonis, molding him to be the kind of man worthy of the Sarducci name. For all his lack of foresight where his young wife was concerned, he was a hard man and every bit the proud aristocrat. He was determined to make sure Adonis knew how to use his station in life.”

“And you?” Dante asked softly, wondering if the don was a contributing factor to Adonis’s evil.

A humorless laugh escaped Giovanni’s lips. “Me? He simply ignored me unless it was convenient for him or he wanted to reprimand me for some transgression he believed I committed. Looking back, I think deep down he knew we weren’t his sons. We looked nothing like him, you see, but at least Adonis had our mother’s coloring. Other than my green eyes, I didn’t look anything like either o
ne of them. So
,
I stayed out of
his way. In the meantime, my mother found a way to manipulate our father by using me. She’d bring me to him when the don wasn’t around, and when Papa didn’t fall in line with her wishes
,
she’d keep me away from him. As I grew older, I became close to this man who I believed was merely a servant. I think I always knew he was my real sire because I felt nothing for the don. I would sneak off to see Papa when Mama was distracted
or with one of her many other lovers. My
bond
with him
strengthened
in those instances
.”

So many questions flowed through Dante’s mind. What about Adonis? And how did
his
mother come into play?

Giovanni held up his hand. “All will be answered in time, brother.”

Dante should have been annoyed at how Giovanni had read his mind,
but he only had his self to blame for letting his guard down in his eagerness to hear the rest of the story. Somehow
,
he managed to contain his curiosity.

“Despite the don’s attempt to mold Adonis into what he deemed a proper aristocrat,
Adonis
was sensitive, kind, and quite giving.”

Snorts of disbelief sounded throughout the room.

Giovanni scowled,
showing annoyance
for the first time
since
he entered
the room
. “Adonis was not always the way he is now. He shielded me from the don’s wrath on numerous occasions and he was loved by all. Even my mother held some affection for him, or at least as much as one such as she could have.”

“So what happened?” Dante demanded.

“
Again,
I must ask you to hold your questions until I’m finished. I promise,
all your questions will be answered in due time, but this piece is very important
. Now where did I leave off? Ah, yes. My mother. It came to pass
when
the old don grew ill. His sisters and their families came to visit, believing they would be burying their relative. Before anyone asks, yes, Mother was up to her old tricks again. Adonis was thirteen at the time and I eleven, so she believed with the don gone, she could bend the heir
, Adonis
,
to her will, thus making her power absolute. She’d underestimated the don’s family, however. They’d long suspected Adonis and I weren’t the don’s sons, and that being the case, his oldest nephew was the next in line to inherit his ti
tle and lands.” Giovanni paused.
“To shorten this already long story, the don’s family and my mother didn’t get along, and even though she knew they were watching her like a hawk, she couldn’t stay away from our father.”

“She was in love with him,” Dante mused, rubbing his chin.

Giovanni smiled, shaking his head. “Hardly. The only person my mother truly loved was herself. No, the term I’d use is obsession. He was the one man who wasn’t so easily swayed by her charms. Through it all, the
patrona
wasn’t completely unaware of the precarious situation
she found herself in with the don’s family
, so she used her charms to seduce Fabricio, the
d
on’s true heir. And like countless men before him, he fell under her spell. Unfortunately for her, he was so enthralled he’d seek her out whenever she wasn’t
in sight, which is how it
finally happened. Fabricio followed my mother to our father’s quarters and was doubly shocked. Not only because he’d fancied himself in love with her, but he’d not laid eyes on the stable master thus far. It was quite obvious to him Adonis and I were the
servant’s children, and seeing my mother
forcing her attentions on this servant was all the proof of her duplicity he needed.

“Realizing her predicament, my mother tried to convince Fabricio not to say anything, but she hadn’t counted on his ambition. He took the information and
used it against her
. When confronted with the news, the don could
no longer ignore what had been right before his eyes all along
. Papa was dragged from the stables and beaten to within an inch of his life before being sentenced to death.”

“M
y mother was denounced and Adonis and I were labeled bastards. To say the don was furious for having been made a fool of
so publicly
was an understatement. He ordered her to be dragged through the village
naked
and declared an adulteress. The villagers threw stones and shouted curses at her.
We walked beside her as she was shamed for the world to see.
Adonis and I tried to shield her as best we could, but one of the rocks caught me in the temple and I nearly passed out and Adonis had taken such a pelting he was barely conscious. It’s quite possible the three of us would have died were it not for a powerful storm.
Like magic
, the sky went black and it rained like nothing anyone had ever seen before. The villagers scattered and the soldiers who’d held us captive ran away. However, we had nowhere to go. Shamed and humiliated, we were now outcasts. We were shunned by everyone except Old Sophia, the healer my mother had gone to for her remedies over the years. She
—
”

“The one who’d been supplying your mother with the poison?” Romeo interrupted.

Giovanni nodded. “Yes. Old Sophia had plans of her own, you see. She intended to steal my mother’s beauty for her own, but that was all to come later. In the meantime, our father was scheduled to hang and would have if not for the aid of a young
female
vampire who took pity on him.
Her name was Maria.
“

“
My
mother,” Dante whispered more to himself than for anyone else’s benefit
. “How
did she get involved in
all this?”

“Shortly before my mother’s affair with Papa was discovered, he befriended a young woman who he’d become besotted with. At the time, he didn’t realize she was a vampire. Upon learning his fate, Maria helped him to escape
with the aid of a charm she received from a witch she knew
. She had been responsible for the storm that day.”

“Why would she want to help your mother?” Dante asked.

“It wasn’t for my mother, but for Adonis and me. She couldn’t allow the sons of the man she’d falle
n in love with to die. O
nce she saved Papa, she had no choice but to bring him over; otherwise he would have died from the injuries inflicted on him.”

“I see.” Dante nodded in understanding of his parents’ twisted past.
From what he understood, his mother had been a young vamp
ire
when her family had been killed by rogues. She’d barely escaped with her life. Even after many years had passed, Mama didn’t like speaking of the loss of her family. “Go on,” he prompted Giovanni.

“Papa and Maria sought Adonis and me out in time to save Mama from Old Sophia. It turns out the ‘old woman’ was far older than anyone suspected, though her true appearance was that of a younger woman. She used the old lady guise to lure in her victims
into a false sense of security
. We learned after the fact that she practiced black magic and intended to use it to steal my mother’s essence. It’s what kept her alive. Papa and Maria managed to kill the old woman, but barely. Sophia was quite powerful, having used the wicked arts for so long. Papa was furious at the danger our mother had put Adonis and me in, and he told her he’d take us with him. I was willing to go, but Adonis was not. He believed his loyalty lay with our mother. Besides, he was a little resentful to know he wasn’t the son of a powerful don but that of a servant. My mother was still obsessed with Papa and thought she could use us to hold onto him, but she hadn’t counted on Maria. When he rejected her, I think the little sanity she was holding onto began to slip away. I’m sure it was a difficult decision for him, but he let us remain with her, though he was never far away. I would sneak off to meet up with him.”

Dante frowned. “I’m finding it difficult to reconcile how Papa could have left his sons in the clutches of a madwoman.”

“If I needed him, I knew how to get in contact
with him
, so technically, he never left us. I think at the time he believed Mother might actually care a little for us and perhaps
,
we would keep her out of trouble. Mother, in the meantime, thought he would love her again if she was young forever. She’d stumbled upon Sophia’s books and scrolls on the black arts and began to practice some spells of her own. But she was most interested in the one that would keep her forever beautiful. The spell required human sacrifice, however. She began luring young women to her cottage where she would kill them, stealing their souls and beauty, much like Sophia had done before her. Once Papa caught wind of it, he renounced her and demanded Adonis and I come with him. By then
,
I was fifteen and Adonis seventeen, old enough to make our own decisions. I wanted to go with him, but once again, Adonis refused. His hatred for our father had only grown over the years, mainly because Adonis blamed our papa for what Mother had become.