Hi!

Alexander's back and he's brought a bag full of surprises. No trick or treating - Anna's got to amp up her skills if she wants to stay alive. Anny suggestions or exit strategies for the 'little witch'? Let me know!

Lara

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Chapter 38

Alexander's hand settled on my arm. A careful touch that was more than simple skin contact.

"The Cellinis have felt your power, your true power, the last time we met, little witch. They will know that you are trying to deceive them. Drop whatever spell you did," he said softly.

I stared into his face, a kaleidoscope of shadows dancing on and around it as the car approached the monastery, and stated the obvious. "They're centuries old. They'll figure out it's not them I'm trying to deceive."

The Cellinis were the slightest problem, the easiest hurdle to overcome.

For an instant his fingers tightened on my arm, then glided down to my wrist with a deliberate slowness that drew goose bumps out of my skin.

"You have nothing to fear as long as you are with me," he said. "You should know by now that I protect those that are with me."

The hand was gone. The simple touch that left me reeling, gasping for air and longing for room to breathe. I stared out of the window, mind racing. Silence settled in the car, a blanket of white noise that prevailed as we passed the gate and made our way to the monastery. Once, in centuries past, it had been built with white, yellowish stone that even these days gleamed a pale white in the face of the moon. The color seemed too bright, unreal, against the harsh, rugged mountains looming behind. Red banners adorned the stone wall like a perfect composition of art. The color gave the illusion that the cloth was soaked with blood.

Part of a whole army of decorations meant to distract from what this really was. There were dark spots reaching up from the outer wall, way up into the air. The longer I looked the more I was certain. Not just dark spots - scorched marks like tainted hands reaching for the sky. They marred the monastery's exterior shell, a faint memory of times when religious belief had been about war, bloodshed, and fire.

My hands were moist with cold sweat, torn between the urge to close my eyes and the burning need to learn more.

A complex of buildings that flanked and hugged the tower-like stump of stone in the middle. Light reflected and I caught a glimpse of a round, ornamented window. This had to be the actual church, the most sacred of what once had been a place of silence and peace. It would be in that part that the festivities would be held - I didn't need Alexander to tell me that. Previous experience taught me that much. Whenever given the chance, vampires spat on everything that faintly reeked of church and Catholicism.

Yeah, it wasn't the building that made me shiver down to my bones. The things that frightened me most were those that moved. Vampires, guests who'd come at the Cellinis' bidding to celebrate whatever the hell Red Night's Eve was about.

I caught a glimpse of a group heading to the heart of the monastery, towards the place we were headed. Their figures danced in the moonlight like whirling, sharp blades of darkness. They glided into the night with a grace equal to Alexander's, speeding up effortlessly to pass our car in a shadowy blur.

I swallowed. Whoever these vampires were, wherever they had come from, they were playing in a different league than most master vampires I'd met. They weren't old as dirt, they were what the very first dirt was made of. My pulse quickened. And they were my enemies. All of them.

The car rolled to a stop, smooth and slow. I felt Alexander's eyes on me and turned to face him. Alexander said he was going to protect me. A part of me believed that, wanted to believe that with all I had. But there was another part of me that believed his protection might not be enough. I don't know what Alexander saw in my face, but he didn't give me the dark, slightly conceited touch of a smile I expected. He stilled and stared at me wordlessly. He cocked his head ever so slowly.

"Little witch, what are you-"

The car door opened with a click, and I found myself staring at what most certainly was a human servant of a sort.

I stepped out of the car with the grace of a wooden soldier and faced the worst kind of déjà vu in the worst kind of places. It was Pennsylvania, all over again. And yet it was different from what I'd seen in at the Vampire League conference. One look at the humans surrounding us was enough. Where there had been naked skin, varnish, and leather in Pennsylvania, it was silk and satin here in Italy. Elegant dresses and suits. Servants.

I wasn't fooled, though. What lay underneath the garments was exactly what I'd seen back then at the Vampire League conference. Blind and excessive submissiveness. A longing for something that in truth was nothing but an illusion. What I was staring at were walking, talking blood bags.

Alexander was beside me, hand clasped on my arm before I could take another step into this den of smoke and shadows. At some point in time - between opening the car door and getting out of the mountain of a vehicle - he had put on an elegant black jacket that must have cost a fortune. In his get-up he looked just like the rest of them and yet he was so very different. He was staring at me, and there was something in his look, some sort of meaning I thought I should get, but didn't.

"Master Alexander!"

I turned at hearing the low voice. My eyes travelled up his chest and up to his eyes. Blue, round and kind, just like I remembered them. Marco, one of the Cellini family's human servants, was positively beaming at us. Looked like our welcoming committee had arrived.

Marco led us through an alley of columns towards the back of the areal, which was empty apart from the occasional servant rushing from one end of the corridor to the other. From what Marco said I gathered that almost everybody else had arrived one night ago and was now in some sort of preliminary celebration.

Good thing they were, I thought.

No matter how much I steeled myself, no matter how many times I tried to pull a blanket of stony indifference over my face, it would slip at the sight of what lay in front of us. The monastery was overwhelming and vast. Wide stone arches connecting from one end of the halls to the other. Elaborate ornaments that kept showing up in repetitive patterns that might have been an intricate puzzle or coded message. Ceiling frescos that described what humans pictured as the divine looked down upon us with a hint of mockery.

But that wasn't the worst. It was the oppressive atmosphere. The air was thick with dark power, reeked of blood, mold, and stone. Every step we took felt like one step further into a recurring nightmare I wished I'd never taken a glimpse of.

By the time we were in front of what Marco referred to as our room, my palms were wet with cold sweat. I was too caught up in the images to hear what passed between the human servant and Alexander, too shaken to notice much of what was going on behind my back, less realize that Jack had been trudging behind us the whole time.

Alexander turned to Marco and gave him a smile that gave me pause. I'd seen this one before. It was the easy, slight smile that was supposed to lure his opposite into believing whatever he wanted him to.

"There was a little incident with my human servant's luggage at the airport," he said, his eyes sliding to me for the fracture of a second. "It seems that it has been lost on the way. An unhappy incident and very inconvenient for us, as you can imagine."

Marco smiled. "I understand, Master Alexander. Do not fear, I will attend to the matter. I am sure his highness will be happy to be able to repay his debt to you in any way he can. I will arrange for something to be sent."

All I could do was stare at Marco as he bowed and walked away briskly. It wasn't until I heard the sound of a lock twisting, settling into place that I returned my eyes to Alexander. Jack had opened the door, holding it for us - Or should I say Alexander? - to walk through. The master vampire took my arm and pulled me through wordlessly.

I stumbled into what looked like an ante-room. Two doors. One to the right, one to the left. Both wide open. Two bedrooms. I breathed a sigh of relief.

To soon. The moment the door was closed Alexander turned on me.

"Explain to me, little witch, what this was?"

I turned my back on him, aiming for nonchalance, and pretended to study the anteroom. "It would help if you told me what you mean by this."

His hand was on my hand and spun me around. This time his touch was soft, lose enough for me to snatch my arm back if I wanted.

"Not only was your performance lacking in finesse, at times it was non-existent," he said softly. "Why?"

For a moment I stared at the door, then at the walls. "Is this, you know..."

My eyes went to him. Soundproof, I mouthed the word.

"Of course it is, little witch. I am not a fool." He narrowed his eyes and looked me up and down for a long moment. "What happened?"

I laughed softly, shaking my head. "You're throwing me into one and the same room with a bunch of uber-powerful vamps and you're asking me why I don't perform well?" I swallowed. "I will get better at this."

I must get better at this.

Another long moment of silence.

"Yes, I know that you will." He said it so softly that I wasn't sure if he'd spoken at all. "For the duration of our stay all that I call my own are under the protection of the Cellinis. No harm can befall you."

I felt his eyes, searching mine, willing me to open up and look him straight in the eye.

"I have to attend a meeting with the royal family first," he said. "You will stay here together with Jack. I will return in half an hour. By the time I return you will have found the ability to act like the perfect human servant. There are still things that need to be discussed. Do not leave this room. Do not inconvenience me or anyone else I am connected with."

I caught myself swallowing again. It was all I could do to make my heavy head move up and down.

The shivering started at some point after Alexander left. It was probably after Jack ushered me into one of the two bedrooms. Yeah, that moment, when I was all by myself, standing in semi-darkness. It was then that reality crashed into me.

I'd been waiting for alone time, the moment I could finally make use of the pendant. Portal out. Only, I couldn't do it.

If I portalled out at this point in time, it would not only draw more attention to me than I could afford, there was a slight, but real possibility that I couldn't ignore: My disappearance could accidently lead Alexander or some other insanely powerful vamp to the Lumenis. I had no idea how close the beach Rico and I trained on really was to the Lumenis' secret village. Was it in another part of Italy, or just a few miles away - as I suspected? No matter what, I was pretty sure Alexander would come after me. Logic told me the starting point for his search would be the beach.

I couldn't risk that.

The realization floored me: I was stuck in another, much more dangerous version of the Vampire League conference in Pennsylvania. When I went to Pennsylvania all those months ago, I went in with the attitude of someone who didn't have anything to lose. Things had changed. If Antonio Cellini or another ridiculously powerful vamp got a good reading of what was in my head, not only was I in danger, the whole Lumenis would be exposed.