Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel (31 page)

The vision shattered when Iliaria stepped away from me.

“You do not need to see that, Epiphany.”

“I didn’t mean to,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

Iliaria directed her attention at Morina, who stared out into the night again as if she were alone in her room and had nothing better to do. Iliaria turned toward the door a second before I sensed someone on the other side of it. The door swung open and Vasco’s panicked features came into view.

“Sorella, Great Siren,” he said. He glanced around the room, as if looking for something.

“What is it, Vasco?” I asked. A sense of dread unfurled inside me.

“Where is Renata?” he asked.

“Is she not with Helamina or Augusten?”

“No,” he said. He cursed under his breath in Italian.

The sound of the door downstairs opened and with it, the sound of several bodies moving quickly. Emilio came up the stairs at a run. “Father,” he said. “Come quick.”

The four of us rushed down the stairs and into the night with him, leaving Morina to her own company.

*

A wall of Dracule stood in our way, blocking us from whatever was on the other side of the wall they had formed. Iliaria pushed her way through their ranks, and when they noticed her, they parted to let her pass.

“Stay back,” she said to me and though I knew she was simply being protective, I didn’t like it. I followed her anyway, with Vasco at my back. Vasco’s blade hissed from its sheath as he drew it.

Beneath the light of the moon, I was able to make out four figures across the stretch of land. One of those figures knelt, her skirts pooled around her body as the moonlight caught the waves of her raven hair.

My heart sank, and I stepped forward out of instinct.

Iliaria had stopped in front of me, and when I tried to move past her, she put an arm out to stop me. “No,” she whispered. “Not yet.”

“They have Renata,” I said, feeling like the world was swaying dangerously under my feet.

It didn’t make sense. How could they have captured Renata?

“You two,” Iliaria said to Cuinn and Vasco. “Do not, whatever you do, let Epiphany through.”

Iliaria strode forward and Cuinn and Vasco moved in front of me to block my way. I clutched the amber gem at my chest, my heart beating so hard it felt as if it would jump through my ribcage and onto the ground below.

“Damokles!” Iliaria yelled and her growling voice carried on the night air like a roll of thunder. “Come on, you coward!”

“You underessstimated me, Printessssa.” The hiss of Damokles’s voice was a whisper on the breeze. He stood tall and proud between two other figures whilst Renata knelt on the ground by his side. One of those figures was shorter, and I realized they were much more human in appearance than the Dracule that surrounded them.

Damokles grabbed a handful of Renata’s hair and jerked her head back until the moonlight hit the startling features of her face. Even from where I stood, blocked as I was by Vasco and Cuinn, I saw as her power blazed to life, saw her eyes shine like dark water and sky before she stood and shoved her elbow into his body so hard he staggered backward and lost his grip on her hair.

The move gave her a chance to flee, a split second to get away. It happened so quickly that I wondered if anyone else even noticed. But she didn’t flee.

Why?

The human figure drew a hand back and struck Renata hard across the face. Renata’s head turned with the blow, but she did not cower.

“Now,” Iliaria whispered.

Augusten’s guards stepped out from behind the wall of Dracule and raised their bows. Their arrows sang free, whirring and buzzing in a sound more menacing than Damokles’s voice.

Iliaria raised a hand and lowered it. Emilio rushed forward and raised both his hands. White flames suddenly sparked to life at the tip of the arrows, burning and setting the entire field alight. Renata’s eyes met mine from across the clearing, and I tried to push past Vasco and Cuinn to go to her. Cuinn tripped me and Vasco’s arms slid around my upper body like shackles.

“No!” I screamed the word and fought against them.

Cara mia
, Renata’s voice spoke quickly in my head while I continued to fight and try to break Vasco’s hold.
’Tis a game of chess. Use your wits. If the Dracule was going to kill me, he would have. I am safe. If he kills me, he loses all the vampires I have sired. I am sorry, my sweet,
her voice started trailing off,
this had to happen. The next move is yours.

Wait!
I didn’t know if I’d thought it or yelled it aloud.

I tried to shake Vasco off with my elbows but couldn’t. He had my arms pinned too tightly to my body.

“Halt!” Iliaria said. “Cease fire! They’re gone.”

Emilio waved a hand toward the fire that had spread quickly across the dead grass and the flames extinguished, making the night seem darker than it ever had before and leaving behind the smell of smoke. The field was empty. Renata, along with Damokles and his groupies, was gone.

I screamed again and Vasco pulled me in against his body. His mouth whispered words, words to try to console me, to try to comfort me.

“Colombina. Sorella,” he said, and I felt him try to use his power to calm me.

My legs went out from underneath me and he let me go. I hit the ground repeatedly, screaming and trying to release the energy that welled up within me, the anger, the rage, the sorrow, the fear. I hit the ground until the sharp rocks tore the skin from my knuckles and bled me.

One of Augusten’s vampires came forward, and I was distantly aware that Augusten had given her a command. Titania caught my wrists in her hands. She set her strength against mine.

“Epiphany,” her words were harshly accented, “look at me, Epiphany.”

Her power washed over me and made my blood run cold. It made me hesitate and raise my face to hers. The black irises in her emerald gaze swallowed me whole until I lost every thought and emotion and eventually, consciousness.

*

I paced my chambers like a caged tiger. A thousand emotions raged through me at once: restlessness, listlessness, unease, fury, helplessness, longing. Renata’s words were lost on me, for I couldn’t think on them with a clear head. I cried. I screamed. I tore the room apart when my sorrow turned to the fine susurrus of wrath. I felt as though I should’ve known exactly what to do, and yet, I didn’t. I couldn’t figure it out.

I toppled the dresser and sent it splintering across the stone floor. I tore down the drapes that decorated the canopy and ripped them into as many tiny strips as I could, as far as the anger propelled me. I refused to see anyone and asked them all to leave me alone. After a while, they did, and I raged, alone.

I grew weak from refusing to feed. I knew I was punishing myself. I was punishing myself for not having a brilliant plan, for Renata getting captured in the first place. I was punishing myself for not knowing what to do or who to turn to. Queen Helamina came to speak with me when I turned Vasco away. I refused her as well.

“Is this what your queen would want, Epiphany?” she asked me, her stance proud and bold in all her silks and furs. “Do you think she would want you to starve yourself?”

“I need space and time to think,” I said, my hands trembling. They didn’t seem to want to stop.

Needless to say, Queen Helamina eventually gave up trying as well.

Later that evening I lay in bed, clutching one of the pillows to my chest. It smelled of Renata’s scent. Had I any more tears to cry, I would have. As it was, my heart ached for her. I gazed at the fire burning in the fireplace and lost myself in the dancing flames in a sort of daze.

I didn’t hear Iliaria enter. Even so, she made sure I saw her soon enough. She moved in front of the fire to block it from my sight and call my attention to her.

“Last chance, Epiphany,” she said and her tone was colder and less sympathetic than the others had been. “Feed or be forced. I’ve already discussed matters with King Augusten. If you don’t feed willingly, there are ways to make you.”

I didn’t care. I was lost in my own darkness and blinded by grief. Iliaria came to me and I lifted my gaze. She cupped my face in her hands and I tried to pull away from her.

She pulled me to my knees and pressed her mouth against mine. I growled and pushed at her chest. She broke the kiss. “Look at me,” she said.

Angry, I refused and she used the grip she had to turn me to face her. Her other hand slid down my body. I closed my eyes. “Stop.”

“No, Epiphany. Look at me.”

“Why must you torment me, Iliaria? All I ask is to be left alone to figure out what to do.”

“No, Epiphany. That’s what the others are doing wrong. You don’t need to be left alone, not in the state you’re in.”

I pushed at her chest again and the hand she’d placed against the base of my spine was suddenly as unyielding as stone. She gripped me tight against her, making sure I felt every inch of her body that pressed against mine.

“Do you love me so little to throw away all hope?” she asked.

“You don’t understand.”

“I don’t, do I?” she whispered the words against my cheek. “I understand that she is your Siren. I understand the bond there, and I understand your love for her, Epiphany, but I also understand you in ways the others do not. I understand you’re grieving, you’re mourning, and that there’s a strength inside you even you’ve yet to tap. You know this isn’t the answer. You’re not alone, Epiphany, and it’s not just your lover who’s missing. The others are missing their queen too.”

I didn’t fight her when her arms encircled me and she raised me off the bed.

“So get up,” she said, “feed, take a bath, and get dressed.” She set me on my feet and put her hands on my shoulders as if to keep me in place. “When you are done I want you to come down and speak with us as we try to devise a plan to rescue your queen.”

Wordlessly, I nodded. Iliaria tilted my face up toward her again. She searched my gaze. “Will you do that?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you promise?”

“Yes.”

“If you lie to me,” she said, her voice dangerously low, “I will make you feed, I will make you bathe, and I will carry you downstairs kicking and screaming if I must. Do you understand?”

I sighed, knowing better than to call her bluff.

“Yes.”

*

Anatharic and others of the Dracule had gathered in the downstairs room, as well as King Augusten and Queen Helamina. There wasn’t enough furniture for everyone to sit, so most of us stood. Vito, Vittoria, and Nirena stood on the side of the room against the wall closest to the door. Vasco and Emilio stood off to my left. Cuinn sat on the floor in front of me, and Iliaria stood nearby. Vasco and Emilio were paying rapt attention to Queen Helamina. Dominique stood in the corner looking as crestfallen and as lost as I felt.

I was not the only one that felt Renata’s absence. I realized how selfish I had been, grieving by myself. I stood straighter and concentrated on the conversation at hand.

“The Dracule were to attack us here at the castle with an army, not a group to take your queen hostage,” Queen Helamina said. “This means we understand less of their plan than we thought.”

“More importantly,” Vasco said, drawing her attention to him, “I think we should figure out how it is they took her. Capturing the Queen of the Rosso Lussuria is not an easy task, especially with so many of us gathered here. How did they do it? Did they infiltrate the castle and slip our guard?” He shook his head. “I don’t think it likely, even working with witches. There are too many of us here not to have noticed
something
.”

“A valid point,” King Augusten said. “I agree. Unless someone here is working with the Dracule and has betrayed your queen…someone she trusts implicitly.”

“Renata is no fool to trust anyone implicitly,” Vasco said, “and if you are implying that I am a traitor or any of those she brought with her are, that’s ridiculous. I think, signore, you forget her power. It is not easy to deceive a queen who can hear and discern your most intimate thoughts. To attempt to do so is unwise.”

Indeed, it was. Their conversation got me thinking. If someone had tried to betray Renata, how would they have done it? Surely, she would have sensed their intentions if they had tried to lure her out of the castle or to a place where Damokles and his men could capture her.

The group discussed assembling a party to interrogate all those in the castle. There were those that argued against it, considering it a waste of time. Namely, the Dracule agreed that it was a waste of time, but Nirena, Vittoria, Vito, and Dominique also thought so.

“If King Augusten is right and someone is working with the Dracule, we are housing a spy,” Queen Helamina said. “And any of our future plans will be laid to waste as well. We cannot harbor a spy. It’s too great a risk. We’re better taking the time to flush them out.”

“What plans do we have left to us aside from trying to save our queen?” Dominique asked and there was a thread of heat in his tone as if he was becoming angry. “If we don’t save our queen, all is lost for us. Maybe not for you, my lord, my lady, but for us. For the Rosso Lussuria, we are nothing without our Siren.”