Houston, Texas
April 2004
“Let me in!” Beatrice beat on his chest. “Let me in, you bastard. Isadora!”
“Be quiet and wait. The smell of blood is not strong,” he hissed. “Wait, so I can check the house, damn it!”
“Grandma?” She began to cry, continuing to try to shove past him, but his arms held her in a cold, iron grasp. She was beside herself, and could only imagine the worst.
“Beatrice, do you have your phone?”
She wanted to hit Giovanni, but she was too busy trying to get out of his arms so she could enter the house.
“Beatrice, calm down. You need to call this number.” He rattled off a number, but she still wasn’t listening.
“You stupid, asshole vampire!” She tried to jerk out of his arms. “Let me in my house. Make your own telephone-” She froze, suddenly realizing it was possible there were people or vampires still inside. She immediately fell silent and stopped struggling.
“What do you hear?” she whispered.
“Nothing suspicious, and I don’t feel anyone. I do smell blood, but your grandmother’s pulse sounds fine; her breathing is slow and regular. Are you going to be calm now?”
She took a deep breath and nodded, blinking the tears from her eyes.
He gave a quick nod and released her, turning the door knob to walk into the house. Beatrice couldn’t see anything in the living room but the television playing a game show her grandmother hated.
“This way,” he said, pointing down the hallway to the kitchen. Beatrice followed behind him.
“Grandma?”
She gave a strangled cry when she saw Isadora lying on the floor in a crumbled heap, but Giovanni pushed her back and went to examine the old woman.
There were vicious bite marks on her neck and others on her wrist. A small pool of blood appeared to have dripped from a wound on her forehead, but the bleeding had stopped.
“Please, please no,” she cried and knelt down across from Giovanni, holding her grandmother’s limp hand. “Not you too, no…”
Giovanni did a quick physical examination of the old woman, finally looking up to meet her eyes.
“She’s going to be fine, it’s not as serious as it looks.”
Beatrice was still sniffing and holding Isadora’s hand, rocking herself back and forth on the kitchen floor smeared with her grandmother’s blood.
“Beatrice,” his commanding voice broke through her growing panic, “you need to calm down now so you can help me.”
Though her eyes welled with tears, she nodded and tried to get herself under control.
“What do I need to do? Should I call 911?”
He shook his head. “They drank from her, and made no effort to heal the bite marks. I could heal her outer wounds, but we’d still have to explain the blood loss to the paramedics. Do you have your phone?”
She nodded and pulled the mobile phone from her pocket.
“Good, dial this number.” He slowly dictated the number and waited as it dialed. “Put it on speaker for me.”
After a few rings, a male voice picked up.
“Hello?”
“Lucas, it’s Giovanni Vecchio. I need you to come to my house now.”
“There’s nothing wrong with Caspar, is there?”
“No, I have a human suffering from blood loss.” He looked at Beatrice. “Do you know her blood type?”
Beatrice shook her head. “No, she’s always been really healthy.”
“I’ll bring universal,” the voice on the phone replied brusquely. “Do you need transport?”
“No, I’ll take her to my home. If you get there before me, do not tell Caspar anything, do you understand? He’ll be angry, but just ignore him and tell him I sent you.”
Beatrice could only imagine how Caspar was going to take the news that his boss’s enemies made a meal out of his girlfriend.
“I’ll see you in fifteen minutes. Goodbye.” The phone went silent, and she looked down at her grandmother’s pale face again.
“I’m going to lift her. I don’t think anything is broken, so we’ll put her in the back of my car. I’ll hold her in the back so I can monitor her breathing and heart rate. Can you drive a manual transmission?”
She nodded. “Yeah, no problem. Just take care of her, okay?”
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “She’s going to be fine, Beatrice. And as soon as she’s able, we’ll get her out of town.”
“And I won’t argue. I’ll stay with you until you kill Lorenzo.”
“Beatrice-”
“Because you are going to kill him, right?”
Giovanni bent to lift Isadora, cradling her tiny body as if she was a child. Nodding toward the door, he finally said, “Let’s focus on taking care of your grandmother before we start plotting murder, shall we?”
When Beatrice pulled up to the house, she could see an unfamiliar blue sedan parked by the garage and Caspar pacing in the courtyard. As she stopped the car, he pulled the back door open.
“Oh no, please no-”
“She’s going to be fine,” Giovanni interrupted. “Calm down and help me.”
Beatrice parked the car and got out, watching the two men fuss over her grandmother, who was still unconscious. She would have been insane with worry if Giovanni hadn’t have been monitoring Isadora’s heart rate aloud in the car the whole way over. She had seen him bite his finger and rub a bit of the oozing blood over her grandmother’s neck and wrists in the backseat. The wounds, though red and angry, were already closed.
“Here,” Caspar held out his arms, “let me take her. I thought-Lucas showed up and asked for a downstairs bedroom for a patient. I thought something had happened to Beatrice.” Caspar glanced at her before he took Isadora’s small body in his arms and walked toward the house. Giovanni raced over and opened the door for him before rushing back to her.
“You’re doing very well,” he whispered when he pulled her into his arms. “You drove her here safely and now Lucas will take care of her. He’s Caspar’s personal physician, and he’s the best in the city. I trust him.”
She nodded and relaxed, letting his arms hold her up. “I was afraid I was going to crash on the way over here.”
“Nerves of steel, tesoro.” He brushed a kiss across her temple as he walked her into the house with an arm around her shoulders. “You’ve handled yourself extremely well.”
“Does this happen a lot?”
“No.”
“You really need to kill Lorenzo.”
She heard him give a small snort. “You’re quite bloodthirsty for a little girl.”
“I’m serious,” she said, pausing in the door between the kitchen and living room to look up at him. “I want him dead. If I could do it myself, I would.”
He stared at her for a moment before nudging her toward the hallway. “Let’s take care of Isadora first, then we’ll talk.”
When they entered the bedroom, the doctor had an IV set up and, within an hour, Isadora’s coloring had improved. A half an hour later, her eyes fluttered open and she looked around in confusion.
“What am I…where am I?”
Beatrice rushed to her side. “You’re going to be fine, Grandma. They just-I mean, you had an accident. But we’re at Gio’s house, and Caspar’s here, and there’s a doctor…”
Isadora’s eyes searched the room, finally settling on Giovanni. She nodded, closed her eyes, and sighed.
“This has something to do with Stephen, doesn’t it?”
Beatrice had never been more furious in her life.
“I cannot believe you didn’t tell me!”
“He told me not to.”
“You didn’t think I had a right to know? Do you have any idea how messed up I was after all that shit he did to my brain?”
She paced the room, tugging at her hair as Isadora tried to calm her down.
“I didn’t know about all that. Stephen told me he had tried to talk to you, and you couldn’t handle it. He said you wouldn’t remember. He told me not to tell you when you were older because we wouldn’t see him again.”
“But the depression-”
“Your grandfather and I never made the connection, Beatrice. Why would we? I was the only one who knew what was going on with your father, and you didn’t tell me any of this about seeing him, or the dreams. You confided in your grandfather. This is the first I’ve heard of you having any memories of him after his change. I thought I was the only one who knew.”
“Grandpa said it would just upset you if I told you I’d seen him.”
Isadora snorted and looked around the empty room. “You damn De Novos-so arrogant! You, your father, your grandfather…you all thought I was so fragile. Your father’s the only one who figured it out, and he’s dead.”
“But he’s not dead!”
“Yes, Beatrice, he is. He told me we would never see him again. He told me,” her voice cracked, “he told me it was too dangerous. That he had to run away.” Isadora shook her head. “I was so furious. I told him we could handle it as a family, but he just ran. He was determined to disappear.”
She wiped angry tears from her eyes, and Beatrice stopped pacing and went to sit in a chair by the small fireplace.
“How did you not realize that Gio was a vampire when you met him?”
Her grandmother frowned. “He’s much better at it than your father was. Other than the pale skin, Giovanni looks just like a normal human. You have no idea, B. Your father…” She paused and shook her head. “He was barely recognizable, even to me. He was gaunt and pale. His skin was cold to the touch. He looked nothing like a normal human. It’s no wonder you found his appearance so frightening as a child.”
Beatrice came to sit next to her grandmother. “How are you feeling now? Are you still feeling dizzy?”
Isadora smiled. “Fine. I’m going to be fine. I feel very lucky. When those men came to the door, I thought I was going to die. I saw their fangs and knew it had something to do with Stephen. What’s going on?”
“The vampire that turned Dad, Lorenzo…” She paused, not wanting to tell her that Lorenzo was Giovanni’s son. “He’s after Gio, too. He’s after-”
“He’s after you, isn’t he? Your father said he was looking for him ten years ago. If this Lorenzo still hasn’t found Stephen, he’ll want you. I’m only surprised he hasn’t come after you before. If he knows your father at all, he knows the man would do anything for you. That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”
She nodded slowly, reminded again not to underestimate her delicate looking abuela.
“Well, what are we going to do about it? Can we run? Would it even make a difference? How about killing him? How hard would that be?”
“You De Novo women,” Giovanni muttered as he entered the room with Caspar. “Terribly vicious, aren’t you? Never underestimate the fury of an angry mother, Caspar. They’re the most vicious creatures in the world.”
Caspar went to take Isadora’s hand. “How are you feeling, darling? You had me terribly frightened.”
“I’ll be fine. I am fine. I’m mostly concerned about Beatrice.”
“We’ll stay here for a few days to make sure you’re recovered, then I’m taking you out of the city,” he said.
“But B-”
“I’ll be taking care of Beatrice,” Giovanni said from the corner of the room.
Isadora’s angry green eyes flared. “I’m supposed to trust you with my granddaughter, Giovanni Vecchio? How do I know you can keep her safe?”
“You don’t, but I’m the best option you have.”
“Isadora,” Caspar murmured, “Giovanni is a good man.”
“If it was your child, would you trust him?”
“My father did.”
Isadora frowned and looked from Caspar to Giovanni, then finally at Beatrice.
“Mariposa, do you want to stay with this vampire? You’re a grown woman, it’s up to you.”
Beatrice looked at Giovanni, then back to her grandmother as she sighed. “I think Gio’s right, Grandma. I don’t really like being bait, but I think he’s probably my best bet at this point.”
Isadora finally nodded, her eyes swinging back to Giovanni as he stood silently by the door. “Fine. Caspar, I’ll go with you, but I want to be kept informed. I’m tired of people keeping me in the dark and thinking I can’t handle things, do you understand?”
Giovanni nodded and withdrew from the room, leaving Isadora to the care of Beatrice and Caspar. Beatrice had no idea when Lucas had left, but she’d heard him say he would be back the next night to check on her grandmother’s recovery.
“B?”
She looked up to see Caspar watching her.
“Hmm?”
“Why don’t I show you to your room? I’ll find some spare clothes for you to sleep in until we can go to your house tomorrow and get some things for you both. I’ve already adjusted your security, but it’s better that we don’t go during the dark.”
“Okay.” A sudden thought occurred to her. “Hey Caspar?”
“Yes?”
“What happened? I mean, where were the guys who’ve been watching the house when they attacked Grandma?”
His expression was grim. “They were the appetizers.”
Three days later, Giovanni and Beatrice stood in the courtyard, waving to Caspar and Isadora as they drove away an hour before dawn. They were headed to a very private home in the hill country somewhere around Kerrville, Texas. A home, Giovanni had explained, that had never carried his name and would be almost impossible to find for anyone other than Caspar or himself.
She waved with a small smile, ignoring the twisted feeling in her stomach, and the little voice that warned this could be the last time she ever saw her grandmother. She walked back to the empty house, feeling Giovanni’s eyes burn her back as she left.
As much as she was grateful that Caspar and Isadora would be safer out of Houston, Beatrice also dreaded the thought of living alone in a house with Giovanni, and no friendly buffer of Carwyn or Caspar to distract her. They had been avoiding each other since the night of her grandmother’s attack, but she felt like he watched her almost constantly; she was more than aware of the building tension, and all that remained unspoken between them.
“Beatrice,” she heard him call as she walked through the kitchen. “Your escort will be here at eight. You will have plenty of time to get to your first class.”
She kept walking toward the living room. “Fine. I’m going to sleep for a few more hours.”
“I’ll see you tonight.”
She walked up the stairs, never turning to look behind her as she went to her borrowed room on the second floor. “Yep, see you tonight.”
“Beatrice.”
She finally paused and turned around. In a flash, he was standing on the step below her, so they were almost eye to eye. His hand lifted to stroke her cheek and the familiar tremor ran through her as she stared into his green eyes. “Caspar will make sure she’s safe. Nothing is going to happen to your grandmother. He’s more dangerous than he looks.”
She wanted to lean against him. She wanted to curl into his strong chest and feel his arms holding her as he chased away the chill of fear that had become her constant companion. She wanted to believe that nothing bad or scary was going to happen again. That her grandmother and Caspar were just going away for a vacation. That the world as she knew it had not ended the minute a beautiful blond vampire walked into the library. That it hadn’t ended years ago when her father escaped a madman.
Most of all, she wanted to believe that Giovanni would keep her safe.
“Nothing bad is going to happen to her?” she whispered. “Promise?”
She saw the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.”