Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel (39 page)

I would not be whole until I had the two of them again, until both of them held me in the safety of their arms.

I buried my face in the bend of Iliaria’s neck, inhaling the musky incense scent of her. “I love you.”

She cupped the back of my head in her hand and drew me closer. “I love you too.”

She wrapped her arms around me tightly and I sank into her strength and protection.

My sweet Dracule
, I thought as I traced tiny circles over her lower back,
you’ve no idea the gift you’ve given to me or how, in some way, you’ve helped to redeem us all.

To find one great love during the course of one’s lonely existence is a truly remarkable thing. To find two great and passionate loves was more than I could have ever asked for. Silently, I made a vow…

As long as I lived, I would never let anything come between us. If I had to learn to fight, to kill, and to cheat to protect what the three of us had, I would do so gladly.

The sound of running water woke me. I stretched before shambling out of bed to see what Iliaria was doing. I found her in the small bathroom beyond, propped on the edge of a porcelain tub.

“A shower would be easier given the wings,” she said with an affectionate smile, “but I figured you’d prefer a bath.”

I pushed the untamed curls of hair out of my face and nodded. The door to the bedroom opened and I stepped out to see who it was.

Vasco’s eyes widened when he saw me. He stood frozen with his hand on the doorknob before he quickly lowered his gaze. “Sorella…”

“What?” I asked.

He motioned at me with a hand.

“Oh. Oh!” I snatched the crumpled blanket off the bed and used it to cover myself.

Vasco chuckled. “Grazie, colombina. I feel strangely like I should say something more.”

“Sorry, Vasco.” I couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled up from within me. “That’s probably not the first thing you want to see in the evening.”

He gave a dashing grin. “No, but I can certainly say I see what keeps our queen and that Dracule of yours interested.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Sì, I’m trying to make the situation less awkward.” He rolled forward on his booted feet and asked in a teasing whisper, “Is it working?”

“A bit, though perhaps you should knock next time before entering a woman’s bedchambers?”

He raised his hands in the air. “My apologies, sorella.” He motioned at me again with a sweep of his arm. “I did not know you strutted around…”

“I just woke.”

“Sì, but I’ve never known you to sleep in the nude,” he said.

“I don’t often die in the nude, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“You do now?”

I raised my hand to indicate Iliaria’s ring on my finger only to find it wasn’t there. “Well, no. The ring,” I said, suddenly realizing it was gone.

“Azrael probably has it,” Iliaria said from behind me. “Considering you don’t need it as a Dracule.”

I nodded and Iliaria asked Vasco, “What do you need?”

He straightened in a way that reminded me more of his courtly appearance than how he interacted when it was just us. I don’t think he was trying to make amends, per se, so much as simply showing her the same respect he would have shown to Renata.

“All’s ready when the two of you are.”

Iliaria nodded and Vasco dismissed himself. He stepped out of the room, but not before he pretended to tip an invisible hat to me.

“He’s acting odd,” she said.

“He just got a surprising eyeful of lady bits and assumes you’re still mad at him for nearly drowning me, I think.”

She chuckled. “So it’s true, he is like your brother?”

“Of course, what else would he be?”

She shrugged. “Just curious.”

“You didn’t think there was something between Vasco and I, did you? He doesn’t like women, and if you didn’t know, I’m not particularly fond of the male anatomy myself. I told you, I was a virgin when Renata took me.”

Iliaria took me by the wrist and led me gently into the bathroom beyond. “You’ve never been with a man?”

I shuddered. “No, absolutely not. Have you?”

“No.” She tugged at the blanket around me and I released it. The blanket fell to the floor as her hand slid down my side to cradle my hip. “Hmm, so technically,” her arm slid behind my back as she brought us close together, “you’re still virgin flesh.” She buried her face in the bend of my neck and began nibbling on my skin. I released a heavy sigh and reached up to hold on to her shoulders.

“Again?” I asked, pretending to be surprised. “So soon?”

Iliaria picked me up and carried me to the bath, her lips tickling the lobe of my ear. “Yes,” she murmured between nibbles. “I promise, it’s better than swimming.”

It most certainly was.

*

Freshly bathed and clothed, we descended to the lower levels of the hotel to continue my training. Thus far, Iliaria hadn’t asked me to change my form, for which I was thankful. It was so much easier moving about on human feet rather than the slightly bowed and claw-tipped legs of the Draculian form. Though the wings still felt heavier on my human frame, my balance was greatly improved.

I wondered which form Iliaria preferred. I asked her when we passed through the lobby. She considered my question.

“Honestly?” She shook her head. “I never really thought about it. I’m comfortable in both.” The corner of her mouth curled slyly. “You prefer this one, don’t you?”

I grinned. “How did you guess?”

She laughed and shook her head again, the long braid of her hair dancing past her waist. I reached out to wrap that braid around my hand when she caught me by the wrists and pulled me back against her.

“You’ve got to stop distracting me, Epiphany.”

“
I’m
the distraction?”

She held me tight, her arms closed around me like shackles. I could feel her heartbeat against my spine. She rested the side of her face against mine. “You will have to change form,” she said. “You need to learn to fight in both.”

“I know.”

She released me and gave me a playful push from behind. “We’ve more training to attend to.”

She opened two gold doors at the end of the hall and we stepped into the ballroom beyond. Anatharic pushed off the wall when we came in, his dark wings folded around his body. He bowed and used his head to gesture toward a table upon which he’d placed a row of weapons. Iliaria opened the long brocaded coat she wore and drew the crescent blades of the Dracule. She motioned toward the table with the tip of one.

“We should begin now, so we’re not at this all night.”

I took the blades they offered, not knowing who they originally belonged to. I hefted them and found that they were heavy yet strangely well-balanced in my hands.

They showed me how to use the blades first by slow-motion example. Both made their footwork and dancing blades appear easy and effortless as they circled each other.

I found, as with the obstacle course they had set for me, putting their instructions to action was not as easy or effortless. If the blade wasn’t held just so, a person risked losing it entirely. Iliaria stood behind me and the line of her body followed mine as she walked me through the motions as we sparred with Anatharic. She showed me how the curled edge came in handy for disarmament as well as a thrust-pull motion that would deal quite a bit of damage.

She swung outward to prove her point, using the hook like a claw before she jerked it backward. “Do you see?”

Slightly distracted by the heat of her body, I nodded.

She seemed satisfied and turned to Anatharic. “Go easy on her,” she said before she took a seat next to Vasco and Cuinn.

Easy
was not exactly how he went. Anatharic held his blades aloft and crossed his arms in a loose X shape in front of his body. I stepped up to face him, and as soon as I was within arm’s reach, he launched a full-out wildly slashing attack. I raised my blades to block him, constantly turning my wrist to turn the blade so that he could not catch hold of it and disarm me.

He pushed me backward across the marble-tiled floor, his elongated ears drawn back in fierce concentration. Frustrated, I ducked his next swing and skittered some feet away from him. I threw my blades down in a clatter.

“Epiphany, what are you doing?” Iliaria asked with a thread of annoyance.

Anatharic’s ears swiveled uncertainly. I kicked the blades with my booted feet and said, “Come on, then.”

Anatharic shrugged and obliged. His right blade made an arch toward my face, and I used my speed to escape the shot. I reached out with an open hand and slammed my palm into his wrist. The hit to his wrist was too sudden for him to react, and when I hit him, his arm flung away from his body.

It caught him off guard for the split second I needed to slip past his defense. I stepped into him and brought my knee up hard into his groin. Anatharic’s body bowed forward out of reflex and I grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved, using my weight to steer his momentum.

Anatharic fell in a heap on his side and I fell on top of him, lowering my head to his chest. With muscles I wasn’t used to having, let alone using, I whipped my tail up in a semicircle behind me and lowered the barbed tip against his cheek.

“If you’re going to go for a killing blow that way,” Iliaria said, approaching, “You’re going to have to make sure you have the force behind you to follow through with the throw.”

Anatharic wiggled beneath me and Iliaria ordered him to be still. He did.

One of her hands touched my lower back and the other cradled my right hip. “Like this,” she said, “follow my hands.” She pulled back on my hip and I went back with her. The move was strangely intimate and I tried to ignore it. “And forward,” she said, and her hand at my lower back encouraged me forward. “When you come forward with it, throw your upper body forward and then down, so that you don’t end up putting a barb through the back of your own head. Got it?”

“Got it.”

She helped me to my feet.

“Not bad,” she said. “But you still need to have the basic knowledge of the blades and the footwork. It’s something we learn at a young age. If you don’t have that and Damokles forces you to fight your way into his ranks, he’ll know something’s amiss.”

“Surely, not all of the Dracule are such fine warriors?”

“Every Dracule knowsss how to ussse the bladesss.”

“I haven’t seen Morina use them.” In fact, I hadn’t seen Morina at all since she disappeared from our room.

“She knows how,” Iliaria said. “That’s the point.”

Anatharic and Iliaria shared their blood with the vampires before Iliaria and I retired to dine in our room. Emilio brought up a metallic rolling cart with plates of food. Iliaria handed a large bowl to me and I found that whatever it was, it was very good and only lightly seasoned. Large chunks of beef and potatoes drowned in a savory and peppery broth. Emilio handed us a basket with a loaf of bread and Iliaria tore a piece off and handed it to me. I dipped the bread in the broth and practically moaned at the deliciousness of it.

“Well?” Emilio asked.

“It’s quite good,” I mumbled around a bite of bread. I swallowed so that I could speak clearly and dabbed at the corners of my mouth with a cloth napkin. “You’ve already helped us so much, Emilio. You didn’t have to do this.”

“Ah,” he said, smiling almost shyly. “It is my pleasure, lady. It is as much for me as it is for you.”

“Have you not tried it yet?” I asked.

“I will eat later.”

“Nonsense,” Iliaria said. She placed her bowl on the nightstand and rose to move the armchair under the window closer to the bed. “Sit.”

“I wouldn’t want to intrude,” Emilio said politely.

“Sit,” she said again, raising her bowl. This time it was clear it wasn’t an invitation, but an order.

Emilio joined us and we enjoyed a quiet conversation with our dinner. He asked about his father and we spoke at some length about Vasco. I told him how good Vasco had been to me when I most needed a friend, but it was obvious when speaking with Emilio that I did not need to say such things for him to respect Vasco. I could tell that he already did.

He told us about Savina and how she never spoke of him, how he had asked as a child about his father and was given the same cold silence repeatedly, until one day, he just stopped asking.

“She despises him,” I said. “She’s hurt, which in a way is understandable, but she’s also blind.”

“I know,” Emilio said. “My mother clings to any slight she perceives. It’s petty and childish, but that is who she is.” He shrugged and took a bite of his soup. “I cannot change it. I’ve tried.”

“We can’t change people,” I said. “We can love them, we can despise them, but we can’t change them.”

“Indeed.”

We finished our meal and Emilio bid us good night. He took the tray and dirty dishes away with him. I got the door for him as he guided the cart from the room.

“You look so like your father,” I said.