The Elemental Mysteries: Complete Series (156 page)

Castello Furio

June 2012

When he woke, Beatrice was sitting on the edge of the bed, playing with the ends of his hair, as she knew he loved. Giovanni blinked once.

“I’m dreaming.”

“Yes.”

He reached a hand up and let it ghost down her arm. “This is much better than most of the dreams I’ve been having lately.”

She smiled. “I’m sure it is.”

He lay quiet, reveling in the vision of her beside him. He was afraid to move. Afraid that the dream would shatter, and he’d be back in the cold cell alone. She had no such worries and angled herself toward him, leaning over his chest to look into his face.

“Why do you let him haunt you?”

“Andros does not haunt me.”

“Not Andros.”

“Lorenzo does not haunt me.”

“Not Lorenzo.”

He frowned and chanced a single finger to trail along her cheek. “Who then?”

“You. You let the memory of who you were haunt you.”

He paused. “I did many things wrong.”

“You look back at the actions of a child and expect the wisdom of five hundred years.”

“It is far easier to forgive others than to forgive yourself.”

She sighed and laid her head on his chest. “I forgive you.”

“I am dreaming?”

“Yes.”

He fell silent, the protest dying on his lips as he enjoyed the weight of her body pressing against his unbeating heart.

“I love you, Beatrice.”

“I know.”

“Loving you has been the finest thing I have done in five hundred years.”

“You have done many good things.”

“I do not tell you enough.”

She looked up and smiled. “You tell me every night.”

“It is not enough.” He rose and twisted her in his arms, flipping her so that she lay under him. Desperation colored his words. “It is
never
enough.”

“It is enough.”

“No.” His lips touched the swell of her cheek. They whispered down to her jaw and explored the delicate line that led to the tip of her chin. “Never enough. It should be the unceasing prayer on my lips. The echo in every breath I take.”

“It is enough.”

He drew back and looked into her dark eyes. “I would level empires to be with you again. It is never enough.”

“Mine is not the only love you have.”

“It is the only one that matters.”

“You know that is untrue.”

He ignored her quiet voice and kissed her again. His mouth met hers in growing hunger, his lips and teeth and tongue fighting to hold on to the vision of her. He could feel himself waking.

“I love you, Beatrice.
I love you.
I thank God for bringing you into my life.”

She grinned then, the mischievous smile Giovanni had fallen in love with when she was a lonely girl in a library, and he was frozen in time. “You don’t believe in God. Not really.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I do.”

“You don’t.”

He scanned her face. Her luminous skin. Her dark eyes and hair. The slight bump on the bridge of her nose. The tiny scars and imperfections that marked her as the only woman in the world. The only woman. For him.

“I believed in God when He brought you to me.”

“You don’t believe in coincidence.”

He could see her fading. The fall of water in the room grew louder, and she began to melt away. Her eyes drifted around the room, but she was the only thing he saw. “Don’t leave,” he whispered. “Don’t leave me.”

Her eyes were filled with tears and her hand lifted to his face, holding his cheek in her soothing hand.

“
Ubi amo; ibi patria.
Come home to me, Jacopo.”

“Don’t leave me.” He blinked to suppress the tears that came to his own eyes. “Please.”

When he opened them, she was gone, and Giovanni lay silent in his cold cell, the sound of rushing water surrounding him.

He might have lain still for hours; he did not know. He waited to hear the unseen lock turn in the stone door, signaling Livia’s entrance. No sound came, only the falling water that dripped down the walls. His fingers played along the edge of the dagger she had left. It had been over a week and yet his keen senses had detected no weakness in the room. It was round, and the water was fed through some channel that coated the walls with a constant stream and filled the air with a swirling dampness. There was a slight opening where the water flowed, but it was far past his reach. Though he could jump, he could not suspend himself long enough to take advantage of the weakness and because it was round, it contained no corner that he might brace himself.

Giovanni could hear the rushing of some underground stream that flowed beneath the room. The chamber was probably set on a pile foundation of some kind, as had been used to build Venice. Between the river below him, and the water flowing around, it was as if he was floating in a stone bubble. If he was an earth or water vampire, an enviable prison. For a fire vampire… a very effective one. His father always had done quality work.

He stared at the ceiling, trying to determine what lay beyond it. It was impossible to sense past the stone. He was concentrating so intently, he almost missed the scratching sound coming from the floor. Suddenly, he felt the floor buckle beneath him and a shock of red hair pushed through. He sat up, and his heart raced when he saw his visitor.

Muddy. Disheveled. The cloud of red hair fell into her face, but she pushed it back, and Giovanni grinned when he saw the wicked gleam in Deirdre’s eyes. She put a finger to her lips and reached down, pulling a very annoyed looking Gavin up behind her. The wind vampire looked about as happy as a drenched cat.

“This is the most humiliating, most—”

Deirdre slapped a hand over his mouth and pulled Gavin away from the hole that was starting to crumble along the edges. Giovanni saw another hand reach up and Jean Desmarais lifted himself gracefully out of the river. Unfortunately, as soon as Jean entered the room, the force he had been using to push the water back faltered and the room began filling with water. Rapidly.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake! Can this get any worse? I thought I was going to be able to dry off for a bit.”

Deirdre curled her lip. “Thank you so much for alerting the entire castle to our presence, Gavin.”

Giovanni could already hear shouts coming from past the door. “Whatever stealth you had was lost when the water started leaking under the door, so whine away as long as you have some plan to get us out.”

“Well, in that case—”

“Yes, feel free to continue,” Jean said as he looked around the room. “Especially if you’re keen for Livia to know exactly who is breaking out her favorite prisoner.”

That thought seemed to shut Gavin up, and he also began to look around.

Deirdre said, “It’s exactly as he described. Gavin, I know you’re wet, but you’re going to have to fly me up there. Can you do it?”

Gavin scoffed and lifted Deirdre in his arms. The two vampires flew to the top of the chamber as Giovanni turned to Jean. “Why can’t we go out the way you came?”

Jean shook his head. “Very strong current and a nasty drop off somewhere just past this chamber. I have no idea where it leads. I could drag one person, but not three and none of you are strong enough to swim back upstream without my help. No, our contact said there is a large, empty chamber above this. He felt it.”

“Who—ah, I see.” Giovanni nodded. Ziri must have been able to get a feel for the surrounding space when he visited the chamber to see him. “And so Deirdre will break through the ceiling…” His eyes looked up to see Deirdre pushing against the stone, tossing pieces away and digging her hands into the solid chamber walls.

“If she and Gavin don’t kill each other. They’ve been bickering ever since they showed up in Le Havre.”

Deirdre had dug about a foot and a half into the rock when she motioned for Gavin to fly her down. The water was almost up to their knees.

“It’s very thick. I think I have another foot and a half to go. It’s dry set and mostly solid. Very few joints and very tight. There’s no soil here, so it makes it more difficult.” She was paler than normal, and Giovanni could tell tunneling into the river, then through the floor of the prison had tired her. She needed blood, but no humans were available.

Giovanni nodded and tried to push back the impatience that wanted to grab hold of him. “Deirdre, do you need—“

“Here.” Gavin stuck out his wrist, baring it to her face. Giovanni could see her fangs descend, and Deirdre almost skittered back. He knew without asking that she had not drunk from another immortal since her husband had died. Giovanni frowned at Gavin. For him to even offer…

“Here, woman.” The gruff Scot huffed and pushed his wrist closer to her face. “Don’t be stubborn, unless you want to die. I don’t, and neither do I plan on failing a job this simple.”

Deirdre hesitated another moment before she grabbed his wrist and dug in. Giovanni glanced at Jean, who was watching with interest, one eyebrow cocked at the pair. Gavin’s face was carefully impassive, but Giovanni saw him swallow once. After a few deep draws, Deirdre pulled back and Giovanni could feel her amnis flex in the air around them. She grabbed onto Gavin’s shoulders and the two wordlessly flew up to the top of the room again.

After a few more moments and a few more pieces of stone, the marble came crashing down, and Giovanni could scent the stale air as it rushed into the room. He and Jean were floating in the water. Someone was trying to push the door open, but they had tossed the loose stones against it. Between that and the press of water against the door, they were secure.

Finally, Gavin pushed Deirdre up through the passage she had made. Then, he flew down and pulled on Giovanni’s arm first and flew him to the top of the cell. He crawled through and lifted himself into an empty chamber that was even higher than the first.

“How deep was that room?” He looked at Deirdre as she walked around the second stone-lined room.

Deirdre said, “I’d estimate twelve meters? It was about three stories down. And it looks like I’m going to have to break through another—“

“No.” Giovanni’s eyes had spotted something up in the corner of the vaulted ceiling. He heard Jean and Gavin climb through the floor, but his eyes were glued to a tiny ledge and small door he had spotted. “My sire built this room, and Andros didn’t believe in one way out. There would always be an escape hatch. Always another way out. Look.” He pointed up and turned to Gavin. “Nice flying, by the way. When did that happen?”

Gavin only gave a roguish grin and a wink. “Handy, no?”

“Very. Can you fly up to that corner? I believe there is a door up there.”

Gavin nodded and flew up quickly before he dropped back down. “Well, yes, there’s a door, but it’s rather thick—maybe a foot or more of solid oak. Can you burn through?”

He frowned. “It’s locked?”

“Yes. Odd kind of thing. Not one I’ve seen before. Almost looks like a sundial with a—”

“Starburst along the outer edges and a kind of rippling channel that runs around it?”

“Not unfamiliar, then?”

Giovanni shook his head. Trust his father to use his most difficult lock to secure the door. He pulled the dagger from the small of his back. “Andros loved designing locks I would have difficulty breaking. He tried for years to find some design I could not master.”

Deirdre asked, “And did he?”

Giovanni walked over to stand by Gavin and flicked the end of his blade. “No.”

Jean’s low chuckle echoed in the empty room. Giovanni held a hand out. “Gavin, if you please?”

“Well, you’re not as pretty as the last one that asked for a ride, but I suppose you’ll do.” Giovanni heard Deirdre snort. The wind vampire flew up to the corner of the room and held him, hovering while Giovanni carefully picked the lock. It occurred to him that while Livia had never trusted Giovanni, Andros had never trusted her. Why else would he create a way for him—only him—to escape? No other being he knew of could pick the lock in front of him. He couldn’t have escaped without help, but perhaps Andros had more faith in him than he’d thought.

After a few tense moments, he pulled the starburst from the thin channel and pushed the door open, revealing a dark, earthen passageway. Gavin, who must have been tiring, tossed him through. Then he flew back. Giovanni waited only a few moments before Jean entered the tunnel behind him. They both waited longer—much longer—before Gavin and Deirdre entered. Gavin, Giovanni noted with some amusement, looked decidedly more energetic.

“I can smell fresh air,” Gavin said. “Deirdre, can you tell where it leads?”

She held her hands out and ran both along the walls as she walked forward. “Southwest. It’s long and sloping. If it keeps at this angle it would exit… past the castle wall, I imagine.”

Jean said, “Let’s keep to the plan. The party must still be going on, which means that Carwyn, Tenzin, and Beatrice are still upstairs.”

His heart leapt. “Beatrice?”

Gavin held a hand out. “You’ll see your woman soon, but not here. Livia has to find you missing and discover that none of them—”