Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel (27 page)

“Has Damokles amassed so many followers as that?” I asked Queen Helamina.

“He has gained enough loyal devotees to attack both Augusten’s and my clan simultaneously,” she said. “That I find worrisome.”

Augusten nodded his agreement. “As do I, but it is more a matter of cutting the serpent’s head off, I think.”

“Well,” Iliaria said from the doorway, drawing our attention to her, “when targeting the serpent’s head, best you make certain it doesn’t grow another.”

“She’s right, I’m afraid,” Renata said. “Yet, how do we defend ourselves without our actions of defense being seen as a threat to the Dracule as a whole?”

“Those not aligned with Damokles’s agenda will already know it is not an affront to them.”

“Ye better give them a scare,” Cuinn said. “Let them know the vampires won’t sit idle when they’re trifled with. It’s the only way.”

“Then,” Helamina said, “we’re all in agreement? We stay and fight?”

One by one, Iliaria, Renata, King Augusten, and even Cuinn nodded. I let out a sigh. Never, in all the time that I had been with the clan, had the Rosso Lussuria had cause to go to war.

Now that we did, I feared the price of it.

*

Renata did not press me to tell her what I had endured. Granted, being Morina’s prisoner could have gone far, far worse than it had, but I did not wish to speak of it or divulge what I had gone through. Not yet, anyway. I had only spent a week and a day as her prisoner, but strangely, it felt as far more time had passed.

In the days that followed, I thought of her. I thought about confronting her, and every single time the thought crossed my mind, I did not act on it. I remembered when I had tried to speak with her before, remembered that it had all came to naught. Too, I thought on the White Lady’s words. If there was some way that I could help Morina, I didn’t see it. The more distance I placed between Morina and me, the better. It was not cruelty or apathy in regard to her, not necessarily. It was a matter of distancing myself from who I had been as her captive and remembering who I was.

With the distance between us and my thoughts percolating, I began to feel a measure of pity for Morina. It didn’t happen overnight. It was not until some days later I gained enough distance between myself and the events that had transpired that I began to remember things other than how I had felt. Namely, Morina’s pain and the grief she masked in anger.

Iliaria did not feel pity for her. She made it abundantly clear that whatever Morina was going through was her own doing. In a way, she was correct. But I don’t think she had seen as much as I had. I didn’t feel she had all of the pieces to the puzzle that was Morina.

Then again, when it really came down to it, I didn’t think I had all of the pieces, either, and I found myself over thinking it, wondering if Morina was truly as bad as she wanted to be. A part of me wanted to lean toward compassion, whilst the other part argued and pointed out the fact that Morina had taken me and left me to die.

But she had been willing to die with me. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.

Cuinn glanced up at me while we walked the castle grounds. Anatharic followed. He was far enough away to give us the illusion of privacy, but it really was just an illusion. When I’d first requested to take the bat out and release him to find food, Renata had hesitated. The only reason she yielded to my request was through her own sense of compassion. She knew that if she did not let me roam somewhat freely, I would begin to feel as captive with her as I had with Morina. And so she let me leave, so long as Anatharic played the role of my unobtrusive guard. Well, as unobtrusive as the incredibly tall Dracule could be.

“You’re going to have to help put the entire puzzle together, ye know,” Cuinn said almost idly and I knew he’d been eavesdropping on my thoughts.

“I know, but I don’t think I’m ready to face her again just yet.”

Blessedly, he seemed to understand. I had learned that Cuinn could still communicate with me telepathically. Fortunately, for the most part he’d respected my wishes. We had both decided to leave the telepathy for situations where we needed it.

Since he had become physical in our reality, he had not left my side. Once or twice, I had thought he was not there with me, but when I looked I found that he was. Strangely, I didn’t mind. After the scare of nearly losing him, I gained a greater appreciation for his company.

Renata, Iliaria, and Vasco managed to keep themselves busy as they made arrangements with King Augusten and Queen Helamina for the other clans to join us. I didn’t think the small castle would hold everyone, but I had faith they would find a way for it to accommodate the lot. Vito and Vittoria and the rest of the Elders had joined us. Even Gaspare, whom Cuinn cunningly suggested using as Draculian bait. Alas, although Renata found his suggestion amusing, it was not meant to be. It was apparently déclassé to single out only one of your Elders and to use them, in Cuinn’s words as, “giant bat-beast fodder.”

I knelt in the dry grass and opened the latch on the cage door. The bat didn’t take much encouragement to climb the bars to the cage’s opening. He climbed onto my open palm and I set him off in search of food.

Cuinn watched him with an expression of mischief and fascination.

“You’re not going to eat him one of these days, are you, Cuinn?”

“Ah, no.” He shook his head as he lay in the grass beside my feet. “I wouldn’t eat the little bugger. Too many sharp and wee little bones get stuck in your throat and—” He made a terribly loud hacking noise that made me laugh.

I sat beside him, watching the bat flap its wings wildly and dive for a small flying insect I couldn’t see.

“That’s a comfort.” I grinned. I laid my hand on his back, feeling the rise and fall of his breath. It soothed me and I felt a bit of tension leave my shoulders. He stretched his front paws out in front of him like a lazy cat. “This is better, Piph. It is so much better.” He gazed at the night sky above us. “If I wasn’t so peeved at Ol’ Patch for almost killing ye, I might thank her.”

I ruffled his ears. “I know, you hooligan. I’m just afraid it won’t stay this way.”

His mouth opened wide as his tongue curled in a yawn. He dropped his jaw onto his forepaws. “Ye gots to have faith that we’ll give ’em a good arse kicking.”

“I hope so,” I said. “But the conflict seems childish. Is it really worth their lives and our lives to fight over something as stupid as one man’s ideals or his hatred for another?”

“Why not?” Cuinn asked. “Mortals throughout the centuries have been doing it for ages for land, for wealth, for power, for hate, for lies. It just makes the beasties no better than the mortals. We’ve no choice but to defend ourselves, and we’ve every right to do just that.”

He was right, of course. Damokles didn’t give us any choice but to prepare to fight back, and I couldn’t blame anyone for defending themselves. Still, it seemed petty and wasteful. And ungrateful, ungrateful of the gift of life.

The bat flew back to us when he was done hunting and landed on Cuinn. Cuinn startled, but didn’t protest and neither did the bat when I picked him up to put him back in his gilded home.

I stared up at the castle as we approached it. I was glad Renata and Iliaria and Vasco were there, but I was ready to return to the Sotto, for things to return to normal and not to be at the brink of war.

I was ready to go back to the Sotto, and I realized for the first time I did actually consider it my home. The knowledge startled me a little, for I had always considered Renata my home, but somehow, at some point, I’d begun thinking of the Sotto that way.

Renata descended the stairs when we walked in. I didn’t know if she sensed my thoughts or read some expression on my features, but she came to me and slipped her arms around my waist. “Soon, cara mia. Soon, we will shake the dirt of this place from our feet.”

I wrapped my arms around her and she held me more tightly whilst I sank into her. For now, the piece of the home I found in her and the others would have to do to combat the dark fear that set within my breast while we stayed within these walls.

“Soon,” I said, “whole and safe and soon.”

As far as prayers went, it was one of the sincerest I had ever made.

*

Despite so many vampires in so small a place, I found myself restless and unable to keep to my room. The sun didn’t rise, and thus no one slept. The others stayed well away from my chambers, namely because of who I shared those chambers with, but Renata managed to find ways to keep herself occupied as she conspired with King Augusten and Queen Helamina and our Draculian allies. They arranged for our allies, friends of Iliaria and Anatharic, to bring the Donatore we would need. Renata chose those who were loyal to her and who enjoyed her service to come to the castle. Queen Helamina chose among her humans, and King Augusten chose among his. It was not only war we had to worry about, but necessities and taking care of ourselves while we prepared for it.

I walked with Cuinn in the dead gardens under the light of the waxing moon. The vague memories that I had picked up from Andrella clouded my memory and made me feel somewhat melancholic, no matter how much I tried to shake them.

I stopped to sit on the stone bench and Cuinn silently followed. The night was alive with the hushed whisperings of the others within the castle’s walls. I turned my gaze toward the balcony that overlooked the garden.

I still had not approached Morina. I was gazing at the balcony, thinking on her, when Cuinn got to his feet and put his body in front of mine. A noise of warning tumbled from between his black lips.

Gaspare swaggered into the clearing as if he sought to claim ownership of it. Just the sight of his walk inspired me to roll my eyes, but I resisted the urge. He fingered his dark beard idly, a gesture he often reserved for when he was prowling pretentiously around the court. His black pants were tucked into a pair of impractical thigh-high boots. The only color on his person was the shine of the sword hilt at his hip and his pale skin that peeked through the edges of his black jacket.

He stopped and looked at me as though I’d just appeared.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t know I was here, Gaspare,” I said, knowing his oblivious and arrogant saunter was all for show. “What do you want?”

He smiled and there was something petty and cruel in it. “Your tongue grows bold, little rabbit.”

“And your games grow tiresome, Gaspare.”

Cuinn stayed between us, stating his loyalty. If he unsettled Gaspare, aside from staying where he had stopped at the end of the pathway, Gaspare didn’t show it outwardly.

Gaspare tutted softly. “I haven’t started a game with you.”

“That’s a lie,” I said, “but I’ll remind you and advise you against starting one. The last time you tried to play a game with me you ended up enduring our queen’s mercy, did you not?”

Gaspare had openly attacked me in court after I exchanged verbal insults with him. Renata had tortured him for it. The reminder didn’t sit well with him, and his eyes narrowed beneath his bushy brows.

“So,” he said, “becoming the slave-bitch-whore of our queen and the Dracule has at last gone to your head, little queen.”

“Yes, Gaspare. That’s precisely it. All the sex has gone from my groin and directly to my gargantuan head,” I said, rising. “Now, if you’ll forgive me, I’ve better things to do than to sit around and play repartee with you.”

I turned my back on him, trusting Cuinn to alert me if he made any sort of threatening move. I didn’t trust Gaspare at my back for an instant.

But Gaspare didn’t have to attack me in the courtyard to bring me up short. “How many women are you sleeping with?”

I turned my head slowly to peer over my shoulder at him. “What makes you think that’s any of your business, Gaspare?”

He smiled again, cruelly, arrogantly…coldly.

“Know this, little rabbit, were it not for your
skills
…” His smile stretched even wider as his eyes glistened darkly. “You would not have been so lucky.”

I let out a deep breath. At last, it was happening to my face. He was trying to belittle me by implying that if I was not Renata’s lover, I would have not survived the challenges, that I would not have survived his challenge.

I shook my head, unsure how to respond. In truth, Cuinn had aided me during my duel with Gaspare. Not Renata.

Cuinn gave no warning save to bark. His fur took on an orange glow, illuminating the night like a firefly. He rose up and slammed his paws down on the stone pathway that led to Gaspare, and the pathway rolled as if a small wave of water had set itself beneath it. Gaspare fought to keep his footing, caught off guard by Cuinn’s magic.

Cuinn drew his ears back and he faced Gaspare. “Ye think it’s been just your queen protecting her, do you? Believe if it wasn’t for her you’d be able to do what ye want and hurt who ye want, do you?”

Gaspare’s leather-clad hand went to the hilt of his sword. “Are you threatening me?”

I moved then and diverted his attention. Gaspare’s gaze flicked from Cuinn to me and back to Cuinn. I touched the top of Cuinn’s head, and a surge of strength and courage emitted off him and filled me.

I approached Gaspare, and as I did, I showed him exactly what I felt. I was not afraid. “For all your big talk, you don’t have much bite,” I whispered, and the night breeze carried my voice. It stroked awake the fire of something within me, and I felt my skin grow warm with the heat of its glow. “Gaspare.” I raised my hand and he flinched when I placed my palm flat against his cheek. My power stretched open wide like a whirlpool in the center of my body. I felt it distantly, felt it reaching out to those nearby. I grabbed hold of the energy and narrowed it on the vampire in front of me, molding and shaping it into something more powerful than anything I had felt before.