Chapter 64
EMBERLINE
Nico dragged me from La Sala, kicking but not screaming because there were bounties on our heads, and this city was crawling with vampires willing to do anything to collect.
Giovanni had outdone himself this time.
All I’d seen from my vantage point was Gabriel jolting, touching his neck, a small pinprick of blood. A sedative, most likely. If my uncle had wanted Gabriel dead, there would have been poison in that dart, but he wanted him alive.
His prisoner, held under house arrest, like Rocco.
To make examples of them, in the worst possible way.
I’d spent my life observing vampire nature, and after being around my uncle for almost thirty years, I knew what came next. Extermination.
There hadn’t been a true Purge in our Dynasty for two hundred years, but there was no better way to eliminate your enemies—and it was perfectly legal.
“What are you planning to do?” Luca drew back his hand and deftly skipped a stone across the sunlit water, tiny ripples appearing as it bounced off the surface. “Or maybe I should ask… what will our uncle do next?”
I’d been pondering that very question, trying to outthink Giovanni, just this once.
Except for putting Rocco under house arrest, he’d acted predictably at the meeting. The gun-wielding assassin Dante fried had been an obvious plant, and we’d been searching for the second one when Gabriel had been hit.
We’d seen Giovanni’s scheme; we just hadn’t stopped him in time.
“He’ll send the Draconi Brotherhood in here, round up every single Dominico member, and execute them.
Which means we should evacuate the island before that happens.
” I frowned. He’d need the Brotherhood to exact a Purge.
And he’d never convince Severin—our ally—to go along with exterminating an entire bloodline.
Which meant he had a plan to get Severin out of the way, too.
“I can help, you know.” Luca artfully skipped another rock across the water. “I have skills I can lend to the cause.”
Before he was finished, I was shaking my head. “Your magic is more likely to put you in danger than give us anything useful.”
“Give me a chance, Em,” Luca pleaded. “I’ve gotten stronger these past weeks. I’ve been practicing.”
“Reading minds without detection takes decades of practice, not weeks. And these old vampires, Luca… their mental shields are impenetrable. You’d never get through.”
“Not for me,” he insisted. “And I’ll prove it to you. Right now, you’re thinking about confronting our uncle and using the Basin as leverage.” He paused, tipping his head in confusion. “Why are you thinking about that old thing, Em?”
I threw up my hands. “This is why reading minds is dangerous, Luca. Forget what you just saw and especially forget about the Basin.”
“I was just proving I can get through anyone’s mental shields,” he grumbled.
He’d gotten past mine, but this just proved my point. If Luca went poking around in the wrong vampire’s head or discovered something incriminating—like we’d stolen the Basin—our enemies would torture him. To death.
I scratched my head, debating. “We have to get Gabriel out of the La Sala. Fuck knows what Giovanni is doing to him.” Now that I knew my uncle’s proclivity toward torture, I hoped he was too busy celebrating today’s victory to indulge in bloodshed.
“And how do you expect to do that?” Luca asked. “By yourself?”
“No.” Yes.
“I have a plan, I just...” I sighed. “It’s reckless, and while it might just work, I also have to protect the family I have left, Luca. I suppose it’s too much to ask you to go somewhere safe with the rest of Dante’s family?”
He looked offended. “Like I’d leave you to fight alone?”
“That’s what I thought.” I paused, considering him. “You’ve been around Giovanni for weeks. What do you think he’s planning?”
“He’s after more than the title,” he mused, picking up another rock, both of us falling silent as a pair of Dominico soldiers passed by on their daily patrol, giving us a respectful nod on the way past.
“He’s been more secretive than usual, and one night I heard a stranger’s voice in the study; they were arguing.
A voice I didn’t recognize until…” He slanted me a look.
“Do you remember the last time we were in Rome with Father and we met Lord Blackwood? I think… I think Giovanni was meeting with him.”
“Anything else?” I prodded, and if Luca was surprised I didn’t question him about Blackwood, he didn’t show it.
“If he’s meeting with Blackwood, then this goes beyond a coup. This is Giovanni expanding his own empire beyond Venice. I did some digging on Blackwood. Have you heard the rumor he controls dark magic, that he feeds on the souls of his subjects?”
No, I certainly did not.
Something prickled at the edge of my awareness, like a memory that was important.
“With Rocco out of the way and Emilia,”—he gave me an apologetic wince—“in stasis, Uncle’s cleared the way to control the Dynasty. But bringing Blackwood in… there has to be a reason for involving an outsider, especially one who threatens his power.”
“Forget Blackwood. He’s dangerous.” I pressed my fingers to my temples. “I can’t allow our uncle to destroy the Dynasty. He’s planning something monstrous, Luca.”
“Something involving the Basin? Is that why you were thinking about it?”
“There is nothing going on with the Basin.”
“Gods, you’re a terrible liar.” He grinned.
“Haven’t you been listening, Em? I can read minds.
You asked me to keep my eyes and ears open, remember?
” He punched me lightly in the shoulder.
“Which is how I know that three weeks ago, Uncle stole the Basin from the Brotherhood and hid it on our island, in the DiRavello mausoleum.”
Everything went quiet, his words echoing in my head, the ground slipping away from beneath my feet.
“Where… where did you say Giovanni hid the Basin? Repeat what you just said, Luca.”
“He hid it on our island, in the mausoleum. I’ve been keeping a close eye on him, to make sure… Why do you look like you’re about to throw up? Em? What’s wrong?”
I could barely breathe.
We stole a fake Basin. A decoy.
That’s why it had been so easy—if killing ten monsters, surviving an ambush, and barely escaping alive was easy.
“You’re sure, Luca? I need you to be a thousand percent sure about this because if you are wrong, a lot of people will die.”
And all of us will become mindless sock puppets, which will totally suck.
He squared his shoulders, suddenly looking ten years older. “I’m sure. I was careful. He was distracted, and his shields aren’t nearly as strong as he thinks they are,” he smirked. “Most people’s aren’t, honestly.”
At my glare, the cocky grin fell off his face.
“Anyway, I got curious and started digging deeper because it seemed important, and you told me to keep my eyes open,” he said proudly. “But I couldn’t see why he had stolen the thing, then Blackwood showed up, and I figured out their whole plan.”
“What, exactly, did you figure out, Luca?” Gods, my brother was reckless and irresponsible, and while I wanted to punch him in the nose, this information could potentially save our lives.
“If the rumor is true and Blackwood possesses dark magic, and the Basin holds the blood of every D’Immortali member, then how hard would it be for him to use the Basin to control everyone in this Dynasty?”