As the Don drones on, Carlos begins manning some kind of audio-visual show with lights and music. Dragon wings are projected around the court, and they take flight across the shadows of the walls. It’s like a totally over-the-top pep rally screaming “megalomaniac madman” with every strobe and thump of the bass. I wonder if, while Vincenzo’s distracted, there’s an opportunity for me to take him down.
Same applies to you, Rosa buzzes into my brain.I see you weighing odds. For now, you’re free, Luca. Keep that advantage until we’re sure there’s no other option.
She turns to face Tomasso, who’s now standing right in front of her. Even in thick-heeled boots, he’s barely taller than her. They smile evilly at each other.
“We gave you a new nickname,” she announces, voice kept low to fly under the Don’s master-of-the-universe speech. “You are now known as the Grand Ball Sack.”
He curls his lip and waves his hand. “Pathetic and childish, as usual. Once you have produced a Seer child, I will enjoy watching your decline. And once I have that child—I think I may call her Serena in memory of your sister—she will be raised to obey and do her duty. She will be raised to be my tool. You’ve never understood your own strength, the potential of the Seer, and now you never will. You’ve always been too slow, too stupid. Tooyou.”
Rosa struggles to keep her face neutral. His words will have infuriated her, but they also hurt. Nobody has quite the same ability to scar you as those who should love you.
He moves along to Pietro and taps the side of his face in what might be affection. “Ah, Pietro. Cucciolo. At first I thought they killed you. I was even sad about that. But then my new tech manager—did you assume you were irreplaceable?—saw you creeping around in my systems. It’s what I hoped for, and why I left the passwords the same.
“I let you see what I wanted you to see. While you were laughing at the silly old man, Don Vincenzo reached out to tell me he had you both. After that, it was a short step to broker a deal that works for both of us. We have a lot in common. There’s no real reason to be enemies when joining forces makes so much more sense. Look around you. It’s a new world order!” His smug tone and curled lip suggest he disapproves of the garish display of power and ambition going on around him, that he finds it all a bit vulgar. He leans forward and adds, “And guess what? I drove here in a different car.”
I’m ignoring my fury, tuning out the endless chanting and hand clapping and madness that Carlos and Vincenzo are inciting around the room. I’m ignoring everything apart from Tomasso and Rosa and how I can separate one from the other. She meant it when she said she’d rather be dead than his.
So far, there has been no indication that Tomasso knows who I am or what my role in this is. He hasn’t even glanced in my direction. I’m just another vamp enforcer standing in the wings at his master’s beck and call. It’s a small advantage, and I’m wondering how to play it when the music goes low. It’s left as a background boom, a bass heartbeat, and the stage lights are dimmed until the space is bathed in a deep red glow. Carlos’s face is painted in it and looks more demonic than usual as he smiles over at me.
Why the fuck is Carlos smiling at me?
I’m grabbed from behind, my arms twisted behind my back, my wrists slammed into cuffs. A swift punch smashes into my side, one to the base of my spine, another to my ear. All strikes that would have been lethal to a human and are enough to take me down. The kicks and blows come swiftly after that, all targeting parts of my body that are the most vulnerable, blinding me with pain and confusion.
Blood oozes from my mouth and drips from my scalp as I’m dragged to the center of the stage, Matteo scuffling in the background, Rosa screaming inside my mind and out of it.
“You see before you a traitor,” the Don announces, putting some regret into his tone. “A once-trusted son who has proved himself disloyal. I have loved him and honored him, and he has betrayed me. And now he must suffer the consequences.”
I’m not hearing so well with the blood trickling out of my ear, but there are some cheers. Not from everyone though, and I’d take some comfort from that if I gave a shit. All I care about is Rosa and making my last moments count. It’s over for me, but Matteo knows what to do. He can still get her out. There’s still a chance for her.
Two guards pull me upright, dangling me by my twisted arms, and a bone snaps from the unnatural angle. Vincenzo is in front of me, small, coiled, foul, and grinning. “Mio figlio,” he says, running one of his yellowed fingernails down the side of my face so it draws blood. “Did you think you had fooled me? I have known you since you were human. I made you who you are. I own you. You cannot fool me. I might not have known the details, the finer points, but I knew that something changed in you as soon as you met the charming Rosa. And now it will change again, for both of you. Don’t worry, though, we won’t kill her. Once she’s produced Tomasso’s precious heir, it’ll be my turn for a ride on the Seer. I hope she isn’t too broken by then.”
I growl and snarl and spit blood in his face, willing to tear off my own arms for a chance to get to him. I hear her voice in my mind, trying to calm me, but it’s useless. She has no clue what this man is capable of, how much suffering he would inflict on her. I cannot let that happen. She is mine, and the vows I made to myself still stand. I love her. I will kill for her. I will die for her.
I murmur a few words, deliberately low, deliberately obscure. One of the guards snatches up a fistful of my hair and pulls my head up and back so hard something snaps. I mumble again.
“What was that Luca, once of Firenze?” the Don says, frowning at me. Maybe he’s hoping I’m begging his forgiveness. This is traditionally the stage at which that occurs.
“I. Challenge. You.” I grit the words out, each one a battle against the blood pooled in my mouth and the jaw that I suspect is fractured. It fucking hurts, but I get those words out. Loud enough for the guards and the front rows to hear. Vincenzo tries to look amused, but I see it, a flicker of doubt licking its way across his sallow, greasy skin.
“I challenge you!” I manage to yell this time. “You fucking crazy asshole. In front of the court of Firenze, I challenge you!”
CHAPTER 28
ROSA
As soon as he utters those words, forcing them out of his beautiful, broken mouth, the room goes silent. The music is still playing, a low, suspenseful throb, the kind they use on quiz shows when the contestant is waiting for an answer, but there is no sound from the hundreds of vamps in the crowd.
I have no idea what is happening, but it’s big. The guards holding Luca exchange confused looks before letting him go, and he staggers but stays upright.
The dude with the clown hair leaps down from behind his sound system and lands with surprising grace right in front of Luca. He’s human but seems to have no fear of the alpha predator he’s eyeballing.
Maybe, I think with a sob, that’s because Luca is so ruined. I saw how badly they beat him, how they targeted his organs and twisted him at bone-shattering angles. Blood is still dripping from his mouth and ear, and his shoulder is popped out in a way that must be agonizing.
Despite all of this, he lifts his face and stares at Carlos with contempt. “Too late, dickhead,” he mutters. “Challenge already issued. Nothing you can do about it.”
“I could order these guards to kill you right now,” Carlos replies furiously.
“Don’t think so.” Luca spits out a tooth. “Everyone heard. He can’t refuse.”
