Chapter 24
ROSA
The witch finds me an hour or so later. I have relocated to one of the spare bedrooms and showered. I’m not sure any amount of water will wash away the taint of what’s happened, but it’s all I have.
Luca didn’t want to let me go, didn’t want me to leave his room, but I made it clear the days of me doing what he asked were gone.
Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to trust that my feelings were real and not the byproduct of some creepy-ass spell.
Every decision I’ve made—every single thing I’ve felt or done since I met him—is now polluted. The fruit of a poisoned tree.
I’ve asked Pietro and Donna to go over everything we’ve pieced together, to look at all the information with fresh eyes, to pick it all apart without relying on any of my instincts or anything I previously felt sure about.
It needs to be done, because I can’t trust him and I can’t trust my own judgment. And I’m not about to start trusting a witch I don’t know from Eve.
She knocks and pops her pixie-cut head around the door, smiling gently and asking if it’s okay to come in. I relent because she might at least have some answers about the spell. I can make use of her, even if I don’t trust her.
“I brought you some tea.” She places a steaming mug on the bedside table. I sniff the air and come up with chamomile and cinnamon and not much more.
“Don’t worry,” she adds, blinking slowly. “I didn’t add any hemlock. I save that for special occasions. How are you doing?”
“Oh, you know—questioning every choice I’ve made since I met him. Feeling violated by the spell. Feeling betrayed by him for not telling me. Generally pissed at the whole universe.”
“Ah. Right. Well, I’m not sure the tea is going to help, then. But I am sorry for my part in it. I’m sorry you found out like that. I assumed he’d told you, and you know what they say about when we assume things.”
I rein myself in. None of this is her fault.
“It makes an ass of u and me. Yeah. Look, I don’t blame you, Minnie.
He should have told me. I can understand him not spilling it as soon as he knew.
It was early days, things were fragile, and I suppose I can accept that he was still figuring shit out himself. ”
“Matteo says he was totally pissed when he found out,” she says. “Called it a parasite.”
“Yeah. That’s kind of how it feels to me as well. But he … Well, let’s say things got complicated between us. On a personal level.”
“No need to be embarrassed. I know what sex is.”
“This felt like more than sex. This felt life-changing. It altered me. Yeah, the sex was mind-blowing—but I also fell in love for the first time ever. I haven’t had that before.
Never let myself open up enough … Until I met him.
And now I get told that it was all the result of some ancient spell, and that he knew all along.
I feel like a foolish little girl. I feel angry and violated.
He took advantage. It might have been something he had no control over either, but at least he knew.
I was kept in the dark. So I still have all this love for him, still feel drawn to him—but I also kind of hate him and want to stake him. It’s really fun.”
Minnie nods, her eyes thoughtful, but stays silent. I don’t suppose there’s much she can say.
I move around the room, picking up the dirty clothes I discarded, marked with Luca’s blood, and throwing them into the laundry basket. They must spend a fortune on stain removers in this place.
I’m in the middle of counting the cash I have left in my emergency fund when she finally speaks.
“I wanted to think about what I said before I said it,” she explains, pulling a face.
“I haven’t been doing well at that since I met you.
Maybe there’s some blood spell that makes me verbally spew to you without considering the effects of what I’m saying.
Anyway, two things … No, three, maybe four, although they’re kind of interconnected. ”
I sit down next to her on the bed and sip my steaming tea. She still looks like she’s counting in her head, and I make an exasperated sound. “Talk or leave, Minnie. I don’t have a lot of patience left.”
“Well, first of all,” she says, “we haven’t checked if there definitely is a spell. We could all be overreacting.”
“We could, but it feels right. It explains a lot. And wasn’t it you who suggested it in the first place?”
“Yes,” she replies. “But I also said I needed to do some tests to be sure.”
“What, like some kind of witch sonogram?”
“More like a blood test.”
Of course it would be a blood test. “Okay, so can we do that?”
“I’ll need both you and Luca to agree to it, but I’m sure he will.
I’d be really surprised, though, if it came up clean.
When Matteo first told me that Luca was in the UK, that he’d met you and was reacting to you in a way that was completely out of character, completely inexplicable, I was immediately suspicious. ”
Exactly as I should have been, I now know.
“Vincenzo is a vile creature,” she says.
“But he has methods to keep his people loyal, whether they want to be or not. Luca considered disobeying him, and that was huge. So I asked some questions and dredged up some memories, communal witchy folklore kind of stuff, and I did a bit of research. The answer that fit best was a blood spell, cast at his birth or maybe his transformation, somehow binding him to you.”
“But he was born hundreds of years before me. How would that have worked?”
“It might not have been that specific. It wouldn’t have been like ‘this spell binds Luca and Rosa forever and ever.’ It would have been designed to be triggered by certain circumstances.
By certain dangers, perhaps, like your amulet is.
Thinking out loud here, but Luca was turned the day the Bargain was sealed, wasn’t he? ”
“Yeah, he mentioned that. I suppose there would have been some world-class witches knocking around the place back then.”
“Absolutely. The best, the most powerful, the wisest among us. The ones who would have been looking ahead and been given the job of peeking around corners.”
“What?” I say, frowning. This is news to me. “Witches can see the future?”
“Not exactly. It’s not linear, and often not clear, and only a few can do it.
But some witches are blessed—cursed, whatever—with the ability to see snatches of what happens down the line.
If one of those witches saw something really, really bad coming up, like, Bargain-era bad, she might have had cause to cast the blood spell.
Witches don’t live long—one-fifty max—so she won’t be around for me to ask. ”
I shake my head, overwhelmed by the sheer uncertainty of it all. I hate this. I’d much rather be out there shoving my stake into something than trying to figure out a centuries-old mystery.
“Too many questions,” I mutter. “Not enough answers. Why Luca? Why me—and by me, I obviously mean random future Seer, because I’m not special enough to actually be named. And just … why?”
“Witches like to keep the peace. We are all about balance. And what’s happening now is not balanced.
The Vecchissime were given power in the Bargain, and the four families were supposed to offset any rising tide of badness from the vamps.
They were supposed to prevent a repeat of what happened back then.
Death, destruction, mass murder, potential exposure … It’s all about checks and balances.”
“Right. Yeah. I see what you mean. If the Grand Ball Sack is making a takeover bid, looking to effectively end the other Seers and destroy their families in the process, then one of those checks and balances is removed.”
“And if you throw into the mix the way that Vincenzo is reacting—the same way the other Coscas will react—it’s even more dangerous.
The Coscas are organized, well-funded, completely ruthless.
A full-on war between them and Tomasso would be a disaster.
Like, whole-cities-getting-wiped-out type of disaster.
Like a no-way-humans-wouldn’t-notice disaster.
The type of disaster that would completely fuck up any semblance of balance. ”
“Okay,” I say, nodding. “I get that. But what can Luca and I do about it? We’re two ordinary people.”
She lets out a tinkling little laugh. I have no idea what’s so funny, and I kind of want to punch her in the face.
“Ordinary? You and Luca? You’re kidding, right?
You’re two of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever met.
I don’t have all the answers, but something about Luca must have made him the right man for the job.
I wonder what he knows about his bloodline. ”
I shrug. “You’d have to ask him. All he’s mentioned to me is that his biological mother was a maid who sold him to the Firenzes before he was born.”
“Right. Well, maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not. He only has the word of the Firenzes to go on. There could be something there. Something he doesn’t know about his lineage. Either way, he’s special. You must know that.”
“I thought I did,” I say. “But I there’s this whole pesky blood spell thing going on, so I’m not sure.”
“Well I don’t have a blood spell, and I’m sure.
He’s the kind of man who pulls people toward him.
A leader. He … makes you feel like whatever you throw at him, he’ll deal with it.
I’m not the only one who thinks this. He has support at court too.
Not the new guys, obviously, but the ones who’ve been there for years, watching Vincenzo go more and more off the rails.
Nobody’s said it out loud, but Luca’s well-liked, respected, plus people are terrified of him. He could be a challenge to Vincenzo.”
I think about what she’s said and wish I didn’t have to. I hate that my life is now intimately tied up with Mafia vampire politics. It’s all so preposterous.
“Okay. Well, lucky old Luca, I suppose. It has nothing to do with me.”