Fate of a Blood Moon (The Hades Blood Moon #2)

Chapter 3

Rachel

March 10, 2034 Mira, Italy

D uring the three-hour train ride from Boston to New Brunswick, Valentina told me about the academy she and my father helped establish alongside a professor named Darius Cruca.

Darius was an old friend and one of her direct progenies. He and his best friend, Cyrus—my biological father—built the academy on the outskirts of Venice.

Darius and Valentina had recruited several witches to their cause, having them conceal the school with layers of protection magic and runes that only they could remove.

But it wasn’t enough. In 1833, Lemurian Quartz, the sister coven to Black Onyx, attacked the academy. Fortunately for my mother, she and Cyrus escaped. For all she knew, the school was either completely destroyed, or they had spent the past two hundred years hiding.

One of the dhampirs’ fathers had betrayed them, leading the coven straight to their doorstep. If my life had a way of connecting with the past, then being taken under the wing of the Black Onyx was proof that it had all been part of their plan. When Valentina discovered they had been raising me, the truth became clear—they had been studying me. The war between the dhampirs and those who protected them was far from over. By the coven learning how I fought and understanding my kind’s strengths and weaknesses, they were preparing for the day they could wipe out the rest of them.

Valentina and Cyrus wanted to stay behind and help fend off the attack, but Darius demanded they go. It was too risky for her, as she was a little over six months pregnant and wouldn’t be able to defend herself. Valentina had learned the location of her stolen ring months before the attack, so she and my father left for the States to retrieve it. Little did she know that the Black Onyx knew of her arrival, hunted Valentina down, and killed my father.

“We were supposed to set sail the following night,” she had said, her voice hoarse as we boarded the plane. “You would have been born on the sea, not in a desecrated church with your father’s corpse.”

She mainly stayed silent during the rest of the flight.

We arrived in the Metropolitan City of Venice just before dawn. After finding a hostel in the city, she lay down to rest—not to sleep, but to recover and stay out of the sunlight. Valentina explained that while sleep was unnecessary for vampires, she relied on restorative meditation. It was a practice she had carried over from her days as a witch to help her mind heal and relax.

While Valentina recovered, I explored the city, scouting a hospital where I could easily steal blood. By the time the sun dipped beneath the sea, frustration and hunger gnawed at me—blood wouldn’t cut it. I needed a steak and pasta.

Valentina, however, was another story. She truly needed blood, having gone over two centuries without feeding. Fortunately, I managed to secure what she needed from the city hospital. Thanks to my speed, no one noticed the blur that slipped into the storage room and vanished just as quickly.

When I entered our room, Valentina was waiting for me. She had brushed out her hair and restyled it into a simple French braid. We still wore the same clothes we had stolen from the shop in Boston. While she looked put-together and elegant, I felt like a fucking wet paper bag.

“Here,” I said, handing her the blood bag. “I may be fine for the next few months, but you need to feed before going back out there. There are too many humans roaming around, and we can’t risk you attacking an innocent. From what I’ve gathered, vampires are a lot more accepted here than in the States. I noticed a few signs on buildings looking for night shift employees—specifically those without a heartbeat. But we don’t want to draw unnecessary attention, especially from witches.”

Valentina smiled softly before holding up the bag. “I remember when humans first started using others’ blood, trying to save lives, but I’ve never seen it stored like this.”

“Yeah, they began doing it this way in the 1900s to help soldiers in battle. We actually learned a lot about blood back then. That one,” I pointed to the bag in her hand, “is Type O positive. The ones in the hostel fridge are Type B negative. Pretty wild, right?”

Valentina’s eyes brightened with curiosity. “I always wondered why they all tasted so different. Human science … it’s fascinating.”

A subtle smile crept onto my face as I showed her how to open the bag. For a moment, she stared blankly at the red liquid, as though trying to convince herself this was the only way. With one last look my way, she tilted the bag and drained the contents completely. There was a small trickle of blood escaping the corner of her mouth, but she didn’t bother wiping it away.

After she placed the bag down, her face twisted in disgust, and she tightly clutched her stomach, wincing.

Yeah, I figured cold blood wouldn’t cut it for her.

“I’m a little embarrassed. Sorry,” Valentina said, keeping her voice soft. “I know I have to get used to this.” Her eyes met mine. “Drinking blood cold and stored like this doesn’t bother you?”

I shrugged. “Until recently, I didn’t even know I had fangs. So yeah, drinking from these is pretty much the only thing I know.”

Well, except for the Dimitriou brothers, but I’m pretending that never happened.

Valentina closed her eyes, and a faint purple glow appeared beneath her hand. “It’s upsetting my stomach,” she said as the magic she pulled from the ring swirled around her. “I used this water healing spell to help my nausea when I was pregnant with you.”

Despite my disconnect from her, a small smile touched my lips, a fragile bridge in the silent space between us. After a minute, Valentina felt better and stood.

“Okay, I’m ready. I only hope Darius and the others survived the attack. When Cyrus and I fled, the dhampirs had already taken down several of the coven members, all while doing everything they could to protect their parents. Many of the dhampirs were still children then but were fast and skilled. Let’s hope it was enough.”

I nodded and walked to the door. “Alright, let’s start looking now. When I went to the library, I didn’t find any records of an attack or unusual events around when you and Cyrus left. But if they kept the school a secret, maybe news of the attack never reached the city.”

“We’ll go to the school itself. With you wearing that ring, I’ll be able to sense the spellwork that's keeping it hidden.”

I gave her a nod and gathered our things and about an hour later, we reached the commune of Mira. Buildings and massive gardens behind thick walls surrounded the city. I glanced around, taking in the dark streets with my enhanced eyesight. Valentina stood next to me, her arms crossed and eyes closed.

“What are you looking for, exactly?” I asked. “These houses are ancient, and I don’t see any sign that an academy existed here.”

“It’s hidden, Rachel. Be patient,” Valentina said, looking around. “It’s so well hidden that even standing right next to it, you’d never notice a thing.” A second later, her eyes opened, the blue in her irises now glowing. “Alright. Found the door.”

She walked down an alley leading to the garden walls and stopped at two iron gates. She raised her left hand in front of her, and a purple mist flowed from her fingertips, morphing into strange symbols I didn’t recognize. Valentina chanted a few words, and the purple symbols glowed brighter, shifting to the vibrant blue of a protective shield spell. The symbols pressed into the iron gate, and a blinding light swallowed the entire wall. I covered my eyes until the glow died off. When I lowered my arm, I gasped. Valentina staggered back, her hands pressed against her chest.

The wall had vanished. Where the iron gates once stood was now an entrance leading into a grove of ancient trees.

“No …” her voice trailed off. “Oh my God. No.”

There, beyond the gate, was a building reduced to rubble and bodies scattered across the grounds. Bones and tattered cloth poked from the overgrowth of vines and grass. Broken stones lay scattered around the corpses, like crumbled tombstones in a forsaken graveyard, the lasting parts of them untouched for two hundred years.

Resembling a graveyard draped in verdant cloth.

A sudden chill went down my spine while I took in the sight. Though faded and almost imperceptible, I could still smell the blood soaked into the earth. I walked toward the closest pile of broken and decayed bone fragments and tattered garments. My jaw tightened, and I looked around for other clues. A scrap of cloth drew my eye, and I kneeled to examine it.

Valentina came to my side as I reached down to pull the fabric free from the bricks. She inhaled sharply, and I turned to her.

“That’s a Lemurian Quartz cloak,” she said, breathing out in relief. “See that pin? Clear quartz set inside a gold pentagram. Those monsters decimated the school, but I can’t tell who made it out. There’s too much destruction.”

I laid a hand on Valentina’s arm. “What I’m seeing here is a bunch of dead fucking witches. Let’s say Darius and the dhampirs escaped. Where would they go?”

Valentina looked at me and nodded. “Darius and Cyrus had a plan for the day the witches came for us. It’s not far from here.”

After she walked toward the way we came in, I glanced down at the torn, dirty cloak in my hand and released it, letting it fall back to the dust of some long-dead witch.

The sprawling grounds of the villa looked like something made from a dream, surrounded by towering trees and thick brick walls covered in vines—purple blossoms blooming from each stem. We walked up to the ancient iron gate, and I pushed it open. The faint squeaking from the hinges gave credence to just how old the home was. I couldn’t sense anyone nearby or their intentions, but there was also no trace of magic.

“Are you sure this is it?” I asked, scanning the bronze plaque on the left column holding the gate.

Cannaregio 4578

“I’m most certain. This was Darius’s home. The academy was something they had built from the ground up, but this is where he slept.”

Before we stepped through the open gate, a beam of light bounced off her toes.

“Figures,” I said. “You don’t happen to know the spell to get inside, do you?”

Valentina narrowed her eyes at the magical wall and caressed her fingers over the magic. Blue light trickled from her skin, and she winced. “Darius recruited a witch to create this ward to prevent outsiders from entering. If a witch were to walk through it, it would kill them.”

“What about a full-blooded vampire?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Darius made allies with every clan within Venice. He dealt with those who opposed him. Only those with elemental magic are kept out.”

I smiled at her. “Lovely. So, part of me would run into problems. Good thing I’m wearing this ring.”

Valentina tried to stop me as I pushed through the magic. Immediately, I felt my heart stop beating, but only briefly. My skin reddened, and intense, burning pain shot through my body. “Fuck, that hurt!” Once on the other side, my skin began healing, and I turned around, raising my arms. “Okay, your turn,” I said, slipping off the ring. Without it, Valentina would lose her powers and become an ordinary vampire again.

She moved straight toward the wall without hesitating, pressing her palm to the magic. The blue shimmer didn’t harm her, and in a few moments, she stepped through the ward.

Quickly, I followed as she walked past the main gate and down the pathway, my eyes scanning the dark gardens for any signs of security. Nothing felt out of place, and no spells lingered to announce our arrival. This struck me as odd. Still, I opened up my senses to probe for anything unusual.

Our shoes crunched softly on the pale-gray gravel path leading from the gate. It led toward the main house before splitting into two. One led to the front door, while the second vanished beneath an archway of greenery and a crystalline pool. Everything about this place took my breath away. It was as if Valentina and I had stepped into a Renaissance painting, untouched by progressive modern life. I’d spend the night exploring if Valentina and I weren’t breaking and entering.

“This way,” Valentina said, pointing toward the home. It was a massive building, a mosaic of white stone with rough lines cut into it. Higher on the path leading to the front steps stood an ornate marble fountain carved out into the shape of a water nymph dressed in a flower-adorned robe. Sparkling water poured from the figure’s outstretched hands, as if in sacrifice to some unseen god, and splashed into the bowl with a soft, musical sound. The sound blended with the rustling of leaves overhead and the distant flow of water coming from the river beside the house.

Suddenly, the hairs on my neck rose, and my skin prickled.

Alright, now I feel something, but it’s not magic.

“Valentina,” I whispered. “I think we’re being watched.”

“I sense them, too. Turn around carefully. I can hear their thoughts, and they’re armed.”

As we turned away from the stairs, there were the sounds of crackling branches on either side. We slowly raised our hands as two hulking figures with guns materialized from the gardens.

“Of course,” I scoffed. “I thought it was strange there was no one on guard duty. Turns out the shrubs have eyes.”

Valentina huffed out a laugh. “I wasn’t expecting this kind of welcome.”

I carefully turned my head to look at Valentina. “Yeah, well, we did walk in without an invitation and broke through their spell.”

“Kneel and put your hands behind your head,” one man commanded in English, stepping closer to my side. After we complied, the man speaking pressed the barrel of his gun against my skull. I knew that the ring on my right hand would prevent me from dying, but I didn’t want the situation to escalate to the point where we’d tarnish the fountain with our blood.

“Would you two care to explain why you thought it was a good idea to break into this villa in the middle of the night?” the man standing behind Valentina asked with a thick Italian accent. “Obviously, you aren’t witches, or you’d be dead by now. But we’ve worked here long enough to know you’re something else. How about you tell us what that is, or we put a bullet through your skull.”

The metal of the gun digging into my skin was becoming incredibly annoying, and my temper began to rise. I had to grit my teeth to avoid doing something really fucking stupid. Just because I was invulnerable didn’t mean Valentina would be so lucky. Of course, she could easily evade and slaughter the men within seconds, but she was trying to see Darius without unnecessary killing. So, she remained docile for their sake.

“To be clear,” I said, clearing my throat. “We’re not from here. I couldn’t read the sign by the gate entrance. We thought this was a hotel.”

The man laughed and knocked the gun’s muzzle lightly against my head.

This fucking guy.

“The sign’s in English, signorina.”

Oops. Shit. “Ah, well …” I shrugged. “We considered it a suggestion, not a rule.” I lifted my chin in an effort to appear more confident than I felt. “Look, we came here to find someone. It’s not our fault you left the gate unlocked,” I snapped, my temper getting the better of me. “Your alarm systems are either nonexistent or just shit.”

I heard the guards cock their guns, and despite needing to stay calm, my internal beast was itching for a fight. “I can tell you more if you lower your goddamn weapons … pretty please.”

“If you gave us a minute to explain without pointing guns at unarmed women, I can clear this all up,” Valentina said, her voice tight with anger.

“You have thirty seconds.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, is Darius Cruca here or not?”

From my peripheral, the guard near Valentina tilted his head to the right, lifting the gun slightly from her hair. “The padrone here is Lorenzo Marino. He’s—”

“This is ridiculous,” Valentina snarled, carefully turning to look both men in the eyes. “I’m trying not to slaughter the two of you, so if you could kindly put your guns down. Now.”

I felt her power crackle to life in her throat as she spoke. The compulsion crawled over my skin as it moved between us and toward the guards. But the men shot each other a look before chuckling. It rolled into laughter that echoed across the grounds.

“Nice try, vampire. We’ve been trained to block such ridiculous parlor tricks.”

As I went to mouth off an insult, a boot heel clicked against the stone porch. We all turned to see a man in his early thirties descending the stairs. He was tall with wavy brown hair that brushed his slightly scruffy jawline as he walked. He stopped at the fountain and paused, examining the four of us.

Valentina dropped her power and gasped. “Darius.”

Oh, thank God.