Page 24

My wife’s uncle with his white cape flashing in the rising sun. That French fuck who promised twenty thousand hungry soldiers the spoils of Rome—all the gold they could pocket and all the cunts they could fuck. The sack lasted eight months.

“The building’s owner, actually. He has renounced his vampire colony name. He no longer answers to Charles Montenegro.”

I don’t ask why. I don’t care. A man I have despised for five centuries owns the building on top of my knife.

“I won’t ask his permission.”

“I’ll remind you of what you already know. King must not fight king. It is forbidden.”

Kings don’t fight kings. We backbite and disagree.

We send our proxies to battle for territory.

Buchra had me fight Audwyn for sport, but my old friend was not a king.

To kill another king sets up a cycle of vengeance that can spill enough blood for extinction, so it has always been forbidden by the goddess.

“I’ve been keeping away from that plundering monster for as long as I can remember. Now I can’t.” My arm tremors like a leaf in the wind.

The lawyer flicks a finger at Sam, who comes to us in the same style of suit he wore in his female form, but with square shoulders and a conservative side-part in his short, blond hair. He leans down so Nazario can whisper in his ear, then disappears behind a pair of curtained glass doors.

Nazario clears his throat and turns back to me. “You fell in love with the American Strega.”

“I didn’t.” I have to look away, because it’s one hundred percent what I want to believe, and each word is a lie.

— I is the first lie, because she did it. She went inside me and changed the shape of my sense of self, my heart, the coil of dormant emotions I hadn’t needed for so long I’d forgotten they existed.

— didn’t is the second lie, because it happened, and the emotions are so real I can feel their heat. The air vibrates with the love she gave me. It’s a physical presence, and separate. I have nowhere to keep this living, breathing being, so I drag its weight around.

Nazario knows I’m lying and he lets it go with a silent chuckle.

“Why did you send her to me?” I ask.

“The ways of the goddess are mysterious, but her instructions are clear.”

“She’s getting too old for games.”

The lawyer shows a flash of anger—as if I’ve hit on a truth.

“And I’m too old for platitudes,” I say. “You brought this perfect creature to my doorstep, why? To torment me? To distract me? I am not a man . I don’t like being manipulated.”

“Manipulate you?” His half-laugh breaks his anger. “The goddess acts as she sees fit. If you think she’s made a mistake, it’s because you cannot hold the circumstance of an entire world in your tiny mind.”

“If she wants to use me as a pawn, she can take this ring off my finger.” Suggesting the goddess doesn’t have the authority to use me any way she wants is an overstep, but the boundary lines are getting harder to see at this distance.

“You think you were ever immortal? You think you knew forever? Did you think it changed the way you counted time? That you were too permanent to feel anything but loneliness?” He huffs in disgust. “You’re made of flesh, from the body of a mortal woman.

You didn’t exist before you were pushed out.

Your eternity only goes in one direction.

Luna was sent to you because Vesuvia told me to send her. ”

“Let me tell you what the goddess has wrought then. I would crawl into the volcano for Luna. I would rip Vesuvia from her throne.”

“You’d die trying.”

“I would. For Luna, I would. My eternity goes in one direction—hers.” I lean back. I’ve spoken truths to him that I haven’t even told myself. “If that’s what the goddess intended, that’s what she got.” I take a breath.“ I need the knife so that I can be strong enough to protect my wife.”

“Let’s hope she doesn’t demand you crawl into the fire to challenge the goddess.”

“Let’s.”

We watch each other for a moment, each conceding nothing. I couldn’t kill him if I wanted to, and without instruction to do so from the goddess herself, he is incapable of hurting me. We are powerful men without power against each other.

“Good.” He nods as if we’ve agreed on a plan. “I’ll arrange your meeting with the Luganos.” Sam comes unbidden to help him up. “As far as this”—he flicks a finger at my arm—“problem goes, it’s going to affect whether Charles goes hunting for your Strega later or much later.”

“Is she truly the last of her kind?” I stand with him.

“The rest are in hiding.”

“Then they won’t be found.”

“There is one other who can be scented. Two can take him down, maybe, if you’re too dead to be of use.

” He holds his hand out to Sam, who puts a business card in it.

“Take care of this problem while you’re here.

” He presses a card into my palm and kisses both my cheeks before slapping my shoulder. “Get some rest. You look like shit.”

Sam leads his boss away.

I read the card.

DR. JASON WATANABE (1943)

Internist for the Children of Vesuvia

Full Body Scans

Blood & Venom Health

Age & Sleep Disorders