Page 23

Tito

I caught Valencia just before her body hit the floor. Scooping her up, I stared down at her pale face. “Valen?” I whispered.

“She will be alright. She just fainted. Put her over there,” Max said.

I looked to where he pointed and walked over to stare at a large leather sofa in the darkest corner of the room. I blinked my eyes. “Where did that…” I refused to ask as I went over to it and peered down at it. “Is it real?”

“Of course,” Max replied. “It has been there the entire time, you just didn’t see it.”

I carefully bent down to lay her onto the couch. I waited for her body to rest on top of the cushions to be sure it wasn’t a mirage or something before I let go of her.

“She will be alright,” Max assured me. “You can let go of her now. She will be safe.”

I did so and her body rested on the cushions. Raising up, I turned to Max. I didn’t know how to feel about him. “I keep thinking that I’m gonna wake up and be in my room, in my bed,” I murmured to myself.

“I can arrange for that, if you would prefer?” Max asked. “It would just take a little configuration.”

My head shot up as I turned to face him. “No. I have questions and I want to hear the whole story.”

“The whole story?” Max asked.

“As it pertains to what you are, why you are here and what the hell you meant about my mother and uncle being…” I couldn’t seem to say such an outrageous thing out loud.

“Dead?” he asked.

I nodded. “Just tell me how you got here.”

“When your grandfather passed, I looked up Stephano’s address and used the flame.

” He motioned to the furnace, where the fire was now gone.

“Then I arrived. Your Uncle Stephano answered the door. I came in and announced that I was here to serve. I’d been sent by his father before he passed away. I’ve been here ever since.”

“Yeah, Uncle Stephano told that story.” I shrugged. “Well, minus the part where you are 300 years old and can travel through time or something.”

“What he told you is true,” Max agreed.

“NO!” I retorted. “He told me you were our butler. The part about you performing magic was left out.”

“It is not magic. It is the manipulation of time.”

“And about that,” I said. “So are you…alive in the sense of like a human being?”

“Yes,” he then paused.” Although I am unsure now. After your great-great, great grandfather saved me… I do not bleed, have a beating heart, nor do I have the same emotions as a human.”

“The same?”

He nodded. “I can feel loyalty, perhaps a sort of fondness?”

“Fondness?”

“Yes, like I feel for you, your brother and all of your cousins.” He paused. “Although I shouldn’t as I will pay for that in the end. I always do.”

I stared at him. “Why?”

“Why what?” he asked back.

“Why would you pay for it?”

He looked away to avoid my gaze for the first time since we saw him down here as he answered, “Because no one lives forever.”

I paused and furrowed my brows. “You said you reanimated my mother and Uncle Stephano.”

“I did. I wasn't supposed to, but I did. So they will perhaps live forever.”

I gasped a little. “Like you?”

Nodding, he added, “I’m unsure if they can die. But I do not think so? You see, I never did such a thing before. So I really do not know. There is no information on the net about that subject either.”

“On the net…” Again my voice wavered. This had to be a dream. I would wake up and see that soon. “So, does my uncle know about you?”

“Deep down, he does,” Max replied. “However, it is too much for his reality so I manage to keep it below his actual waking day consciousness.”

“You made him forget?” I asked.

“In a way yes, but I cannot wipe memories away entirely. It depends on the person. If they desperately wish to forget then I can make it happen.”

“Ok, so tell me what happened so that you had to… reanimate them?”

“This story may not do you well, Tito. Like it is not always a matter of…the truth shall set you free. It can sometimes be, you can’t handle the truth. ”

Our gazes met as we both said, “A Few Good Men.”

I laughed.

Max nodded. “Great movie.”

I stared at him. “You watch movies?”

“I have seen almost all of them.”

“All?” I repeated back at him.

“I am busy enough with Descalias' and the Bruno’s daily lives, but I do have a lot of time considering that I can travel back and forth through time. I do not sleep much, really. I used to before your ancestor managed to save me. I stopped aging and I changed in some ways. So yes, I may have seen almost every film that has been made in American history at least. Well, up until whatever has been released in the last two years. I find I don’t care for some of the most recent ones. ”

“Me neither.” I shrugged.

“You two are talking about movies?”

I looked over to see Valencia sitting up.

“We found him coming out of a fireplace while he’s been living in the basement,” she reminded me. “Or was that just a dream I had?”

“No,” I told her. “This is all real as far as I can tell?”

She shook her head at me. “So, you get to have a conversation with an actual…” Her words slowed. “...Whatever he is and you ask him about movies?”

I chuckled and tried to explain, “I didn’t really um…”

Max shook his head. “I do wish to say that the women you, Legend, Romeo and Dante have chosen are magnificent!”

Batting her eyes at Max, Valencia asked, “Are you serious?”

Nodding, he replied, “In my formal capacity as a butler, I cannot say what I think about anything really. But Glory, Juliet, Della and you, Valen… are all beautiful, tough, smart and nearly invincible.”

“Invincible?” Valencia asked.

He nodded. “You have been through some harrowing events. Glory was kidnapped and kept as a hostage, though she nearly fought her own way out of that one. Della was placed in a crypt of all places…” he paused and gave a nod to Valencia.

“No insult intended. Then Juliet finds out she is first of all, a twin and second of all, not really a Regatta. And you Valen, were raised by a psychopath but never knew it, you then dealt with the lies you were told only to support your twin right when she needed it the most. And yet, you all retain your strength and courage. You females are all truly the most amazing beings.”

Valencia smirked as she shook her head and quipped, “So says the immortal man that can re…um re…what did you say you did?”

“Reanimat—”

“NO!” Valencia cut him off. “You bring people back to life after they die. Isn’t that what you meant?”

“It is,” he answered simply.

“And do you do that a lot?” she asked with a raised brow.

“No,” I answered this one. “He said, he never did it before.”

“Because he is not supposed to, I will bet,” Valencia concluded.

“That is correct,” Max confirmed.

“And who dictates that?” I asked in a cynical tone. “The council of magic?”

“No, it’s not like that. I travel through time. That was how I saved your mother and uncle, I took them back to just before they died, then we lived through the time left, but we had passed the exact moment of death.”

I blinked at Max several times. “Ooook, well that didn’t clear it up at all.”

“It's partly physics and partly timing,” Max explained.

I knew I was not going to get it, so I interrupted the educational lesson, “So, back to my mother and uncle. How did it come to be that you… took them out of time?”

“An assassin was sent after your father. He made sure he never came back from Italy. Then I took out your father’s killer. Unfortunately, I could never catch your aunt’s killer.”

“Wait!” I exclaimed. “My Aunt Bella’s death was natural, wasn’t it? She was sick?”

“She was poisoned and died in the hospital but it was not natural.”

I stared at him in total shock. “So we were lied to about my father’s death and Alessandra Descalia’s death too?”

He looked away then back at me. “It wasn’t my decision to make.”

“Uncle Stephano. Right?” I asked him.

He actually avoided my gaze as he replied, “You were all infants or children when these horrible events transpired.”

“What kind of answer is that?” I demanded.

“The kind that is truthful. I can only tell you what I know.”

“No, you are avoiding the answer, but I get it,” I told him. “Your boss is Stephano Descalia after all. So, I really do understand who makes the decisions. Let’s skip that part. I just want to know who and why.”

“Again, I cannot say. I am sorry.” He lowered his head respectfully.

“Then you said my mother was reanimated,” I reminded him.

He nodded.

“So why did that have to happen?”

He kept shaking his head. “I cannot—”

“—say. Yes, yes.” I growled. “All these lies. The secrets.”

“Like an Italian soap opera,” Valencia noted.

“You told me that my uncle and my mother might be immortal now?” I asked him.

He nodded. “I am assuming that. I am not sure.”

“You mean you don’t know?” Valencia asked him.

“I never reanimated anyone before, not in 300 years.”

“Three…” Valencia stammered. “Wow, this is all real?”

I laughed at her comment. “I keep thinking the same thing. I am gonna wake up and this will all be gone…” I shook my head.

“I can arrange that,” Max offered. “All I would have to do is go back to before you sneaked down the stairs and crept around the pantry to break into my sanctuary.”

I laughed. “Wow, that makes me sound like a real creep, Max.”

He shrugged. “I am a little miffed that you found me out.”

“Miffed?” Valencia asked as she now chuckled.

“No…no.” I shook my head. “We need to remember this. Because I will come back to the pantry all over again, Max. I know that I will. And by coming here, I found out there’s a lot of history that—”

“You shouldn’t meddle with,” he cut my words short.

“No, I think we should meddle,” I told him.

“What good will that do?” he asked. “I have been around for centuries, Tito. And I have found that meddling in the past only brings misery.”

“Answers,” I pointed out. “I need them. The family deserves to know the truth. Like do you know why an assassin was sent out to kill my father?”

He stared at me.