Darkness Embraced Part 24

"It is," I said. "Someone summoned one of the Dracule to kil us, Vasco."

"That is treachery," he said, clearly appal ed. "Who would do such a thing? How could they do such a thing?" he asked, though it sounded more as if he was thinking out loud. "How could anyone be awake to summon one of the Great Sires?"

Cuinn whispered through my mind.

The Stone of Shadows.

Since he didn't explain or add anything more, I asked Vasco. "What do you know about the Stone of Shadows?"

"La pietra di ombre?" He sat back with a thoughtful expression, his lips pursed. "It is a magical relic forged with the blood of the Great Sires. The legend is that the Great Sire who created the first placed his blood in the stone so that his immortal lover would not die when the sun rose."

"It was created with the sole intent of keeping a vampire alive during the daylit hours?"

"Alive and protected from the sunlight itself, s."

Why hadn't the Dracule bothered to tel me as much?

"Do the Dracule die at dawn like we do?"

"No."

"So whoever summoned the Dracule must have the Stone," I said.

"Which complicates things."

"How does it complicate things?"

"Because the stones do not belong to our kind, colombina. The only way a stone could have fal en into the hands of one of our kind is if one of the Great Sires gave it to them."

"That doesn't make sense," I said. It was obvious there was an old underlying feud between our two kinds, but I had not grasped how deeply embedded that feud was. "Some of the Dracule resent us greatly," I said, "I know this, but why would-"

Vasco answered my question before I'd finished asking it. "Think about it, colombina. If the Dracule has bound his or herself to one of the Rosso Lussuria, their agendas must coincide."

"Their agenda being the destruction of our kind."

"S."

"Could it be the same Dracule that bound herself to me?" I didn't want to ask it. I didn't want to know, but I had to ask. I had to know.

"A Dracule can only be bound to one lover at a time." A look of melancholy crossed his face and I sensed the thread of heartache in his voice.

"You had a Draculian lover?" I asked, managing to sound only a little surprised.

The corner of his mouth raised in a half smile that didn't reach or match the wel of sorrow in his eyes. "S, his name was Pantaleone. He was my lover many years before you were even born."

"What happened to him?" I asked.

"He was murdered," Vasco said. It hurt to hear the pain in his voice.

"Did Renata have a Draculian lover, Vasco?"

"Our Queen had her al iances with some of the Dracule. To my knowledge, she never took one to her bed. That would be a question better directed at our Queen, Epiphany. Why do you ask it of me?"

"She's a little hush-hush on the subject."

"In other words, she is being vague with you?"

"Yes."

"She wil give you an answer when and if she's ready to give it to you."

"I know that. I was her pet for fifty years, remember?"

"Are you saying that you are no longer her pet?"

"You know what I mean. Tel me about Pantaleone. Were you bound to him?"

"S," he said, and again his expression took on a sad look. "I felt his death when he was murdered."

"Did you ever find the murderer?"

He turned away from me then. "No, and it is a bitter torment that stil gnaws at my heart."

"I'm sorry, Vasco."

"Do not be sorry, bel ezza. I have had a fair amount of time to grieve." The smile he conjured was etched with bitterness and sorrow.

"I never saw a sigil on your skin."

"The sigil faded when Pantaleone died."

I nodded. I wanted the answers that Vasco seemed to have, but it was a sore subject, and I didn't want to rub verbal salt in his wounds. How do you find the answers you're looking for when the only questions you have are painful ones? Vasco chose that moment to question me.

"How did you come to bear the mark, Epiphany?"

"Renata and I bargained with the Dracule."

"What did you use as the bargaining chip?"

"My body."

"The Dracule asked to be taken to your bed?"

"Yes, how did you-"

"That is what Pantaleone did to me. I was newly reborn when Pantaleone appeared in my room late one night. I had been struggling with control ing my freshly awakened hungers. Pantaleone propositioned me. If I would offer him my bed, he would teach me to control al my hungers."

"Did the Queen not teach you to control your hungers?"

"The Queen can only teach one so much," he said. "You became her pet when she brought you over, Epiphany. She taught you to control your hungers more intimately than the rest of us."

I nodded, for it made sense. "So Pantaleone taught you how to control your thirst?"

"As wel as other things that I think you would rather not hear about."

"Probably not," I said, eyeing him. "When did Pantaleone give you his mark?"

"Not until some time had pa.s.sed," he said. "The Dracule do not give their marks lightly."

I glanced down at the curving black lines on my wrist. "Are you so sure about that?"

"I am sure, colombina. If the Dracule gave you her mark, she did not do such a thing on a whim."

"I can understand that. What I don't understand is why she felt I was worthy of her mark. The mark itself seems like a big deal. She said I pleased her and yet, she didn't seem entirely pleased with our people to begin with."

"What did she tel you her reasoning was?"

"That of an al iance," I said.

"That is dangerous for her."

"I know, that's why I don't understand why she chose to give it to me in the first place."

"Perhaps," he said, "after your years with Renata the Dracule was impressed with your...skil s?"

"I am not so skil ed as that."

"You would be surprised, colombina. The Dracule are a dominant lot. They like lovers that are wil ing to submit to them."

"I have offered Renata my loyalty and my submission. The Dracule has not earned such a gift from me, not yet."

Vasco gave me a surprised look. "You do not think she senses your innate nature? Our Queen did."

"Are you saying that the Queen brought me over just because she thought I would be her submissive plaything? She brought me over because I was dying, Vasco. She gave me life when life itself offered death."

"I am not saying that is the whole of it, only a sum of the reasoning. She saw in you what she desired, and perhaps, so too does the Dracule."

I wondered then if perhaps my innate nature was sensed by al . Is that why Lucrezia had begun tormenting me as soon as Renata cast me from her bed? Surely, Lucrezia understood the difference between consensual and nonconsensual pain. As soon as I thought it, I knew she didn't. I sensed very strongly that the lines had completely blurred for her many years ago, if they hadn't already been blurry. I told Vasco then about my confrontation with Lucrezia. I told him of the surprise and flicker of fear that I'd sensed from her when she had seen the Dracule's mark on my wrist.

"She is afraid of the Dracule?" He started sliding out of bed and I was glad to see that he didn't die in the nude. A pair of silky blue boxers clung to his Greek statue of a body.

"I believe so, yes." I watched as he disappeared into his closet and reemerged tugging on a pair of black pants. I told him about how I had thought Lucrezia innocent until her comment about Renata and I being wary.

He stopped me while pul ing on one of his black boots. "Wait, you threatened Lucrezia?"

I thought about my reply and said careful y, "In a way, yes."

"What did you say to her?"

"I told her to be wary of what powers she chases, for some powers have a way of returning chase."

He sat on the floor lacing his knee high boots. "I do not know whether to be proud of you or afraid for you. I would not say that threatening Lucrezia is exactly a wise thing to do."

"It doesn't matter if it's wise or not, Vasco. If I pa.s.s the trials and become an Elder and she keeps trying to torment me, she'l be chal enging my status within the clan."

"You're not the only one she enjoys trying to torture, colombina."

"I know there are other Elders that Lucrezia verbal y toys with, but she manages not to overstep any boundaries with them."

"She's perfected the art of being an irritant while remaining outwardly courteous."

I nodded. "Precisely. She wil insult the Elders in such a way they cannot always take outright offense. I do not think she wil spare me the outward appearance of courtesy if I rise in status."

"You are probably right," he said, sitting at a vanity table in front of a large mirror. He began practical y trying to rip the bindings out of his hair, tugging at them vehemently enough that I knew he was ripping strands of hair out with the force of his efforts. I placed the sword on the bed and went to him, shooing his hand away from his hair.

"Let me do it, Vasco. You're going to rip your hair out doing it yourself."

He met my reflection in the mirror. "I do not have the patience for it."

"I noticed," I said, careful y undoing the first black binding. I tossed it on the table and used my fingers to unravel the braid. The silver strands were a bit more difficult to unknot, as they had been careful y laced at the base of each braid.

"Who braided your hair for you?"

"One of the younger ones," he said. "She took a fancy to what she said was my pretty long mane."

"And so you let her play with it?"

"Why not?" he said and his eyes started closing like a lazy cat's. "I don't mind the pampering."

The corner of my mouth twitched. "Sometimes I think you were supposed to be a girl, Vasco."

He grinned at me wide enough to flash fang. "With a body like this?" he asked, touching the middle of his chest with one hand.

I thumped him hard on the back of the shoulder. He awarded me with a masculine laugh.

I was on the last braid, trying to untangle the silver tinsel when he asked me, "You think Lucrezia is involved?"

"The Dracule said it was a male that summoned her." I loosened the tinsel, freeing it of the long black strand. "I do feel that somehow, Lucrezia is involved."

"The matter is figuring out how she's involved," he said, "and what she has to gain, considering."

"Yes, I've noticed there's a fair amount of tension between our kinds." I leaned over to retrieve the brush from the table. I started brus.h.i.+ng out the untamed waves of his hair, pul ing it back so that I could braid it.

Vasco laughed. "Fair amount. That's an understatement. It's been an ongoing animosity for too many years to keep track of. I do not understand why a Dracule would side with a vampire."

"Because they hate us?"

"Or love us," he said. I wasn't sure what to say to that and so we ended up sitting in silence. Final y, I changed the subject.