Dante (Blood Brothers Book 5) (24 page)

Chapter
Seventeen

The war had finally reached its culmination. Every battle fought had led up to this. Dante would finally face
Il Demonio
head on. Adrenalin raced through Dante’s veins. His heart pounded so quickly it probably would have killed a lesser being
.
He’d waited for this moment for years and now
,
it was here. He was anxious to face Adonis but scared for the safety of his family and allies. No matter the outcome, there would be a lot of bloodshed and many would fall. But
,
he was ready.

Standing with him
a short distance from the castle was team which consisted of the same group from before. They were joined
by
several more members of The Underground which Dante was thankful for. They would need all the reinforcements they could get.
He’d have to put his trust in them and they in him. If they were all to make it out alive, they’d need to watch each other’s backs more closely than they ever had before. The witches and
warlock
s twitched with the magic flowing through their bodies, and the shifters were already in fur form.

Stealing a glance at his brothers,
Dante could tell they were as tense as he felt. He turned to his nephew.
“Are you sure this is the place, Jagger?” he asked needlessly, simply wanting to hear a voice in the silence of the night. Dante already knew this was where his nephew had been held hostage. He could feel the great evil surrounding this castle, an evil so strong it threatened to choke him.

Jagger nodded wordlessly.

“Is there anything that has to be done, magic-wise?
I’m sure there are powerful wards surrounding this building.
” Dante directed his question toward Sasha and her brothers. Nico had needed some convincing, but he’d finally relented in his decision to use Sasha to their advantage
,
if it needed to come to that.

Sasha frowned at the structure before them and shook her head. “There’s not much we can do until we’re inside. As you can see, the gate is open for us to go in. Giovanni will probably know some dark spells to counter whatever Adonis and
Beatrice
cast. My brothers will be able to assist Giovanni with that. I will, of course, take care of the demon, although I can’t do it alone.”

“You’
ll have my assistance and Giovanni will be doing what he can as well,”
Liliana
added.

Jagger
moved to his mother’s side and wrapped
his arms around her. “And you will have me as well, Mama. I may not be as powerful as you, but I can lend my magic to strengthen yours.”

Sasha rested her head against her son’s chest. “Thank you. Your help will be much needed.”

“We’ll all have to work together
,
if we’re going to get out of this alive,” Dante reiterated. “If you are one-on-one with your adversary, but see a teammate is being triple-teamed or more, it’s easier for two of you to join up and defeat your enemies together. This is something we already know, but this lesson was never more necessary than tonight. Some of us
may
not make it out of this alive, but I’ll make damn sure I get as many of you as possible out of this
battle alive.”

Marco, Romeo, and Nico grasped their mates, pulling them close as if they were all sharing their last embraces. The intimacy of the moment
made Dante’s thoughts stray to Isis. He couldn’t understand why he couldn’t get her out of his mind after what she’d done.
She was probably inside now, lying in wait with her lover to kill him and his family.

He
balled his fists at his side
, pressing
them together so tightly His fingers went numb
. Dante refused to let her
distract him
, and he wouldn’t go easy on her if she got in his way.

Giovanni exhaled deeply. “It’s time.”

The group huddled together, everyone exchanging meaningful glances before forging ahead. For the first time in centuries, he felt an emotion he believed himself no longer capable of where fighting was concerned
;
fear.
But
,
he would use this emotion to his advantage to keep himself and his team alive.

The moment the entire group stepped over the threshold of the castle, the gates slammed behind them, barring any avenue of escape. “Stay close,” Dante
commanded
.

A powerful chill seeped through his clothing and penetrated his skin, making him shake. His stomach turned as the offensive stink of something old and rotten
assailed
his nostrils. It was the scent of death and something else he couldn’t quite
determine
. An invisible energy brushed against him,
sending an involuntary shudder down his spine
. There was a powerful evil here. In his years of searching for Adonis, he’d encountered glimpses of it, but never had it gripped him as strongly as it did now, anchoring him to where he stood.

Taking a deep breath, Dante forced himself to walk farther into the castle. He felt as if he was stepping back into the fifteenth century. There was nothing modern about this castle, from the setup of the great hall to the wooden furniture, which was splintered and swollen from age and misuse.
It didn’t sit well with him that they had yet to encounter Adonis, Beatrice or any of their minions. Dante
might not have been able to see them, but he felt
the presence of many surrounding him
and he didn’t like it one bit.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than a force pummeled him in the chest and sent him flying through the air. He crashed into the wall with an “Umph!” The back of his head took the brunt of the blow, and his senses reeled. Using every ounce of agility he possessed, Dante managed to land on his feet, but just barely.

To his dismay, the members of his team each seemed to receive their own attack
s
. A loud, throaty chuckled
echoed through
the hall.

Anger coursed through his body, and the blood pounded in his head.
His bloodlust had been awakened and someone was going to feel his wrath.
Dante let his incisors descend to
the sharp points that would tear his enemies to pieces.
Shifting his hands, his nails lengthened to razor-sharp claws. The heat from his eyes spread throughout his entire body. Whoever had been behind that assault may have caught him off guard, but it wouldn’t happen again. “Show yourself!” Dante whirled around the room, eyeing every corner for any foes. His breathing came out in short huffs and never had he been
more ready
to battle as he was now.

Nothing happened.

“What the fuck,” he muttered
under his breath
.

“They’re toying with us,” Giovanni
answered
. “Don’t let down your guard.”

“
Not a chance.
”
Dante surveyed his
surroundings
, ticked
that
his enemies remained invisible.

Giovanni closed his eyes tightly and began to meditate. When he
finally opened them again, his normally green eyes
were a glowing red
. “They want you to lose control. If that happens, you’re more likely to make mistakes.”

“Shit!” Romeo shouted and began to advance on the older vampire. “He’s one of them!”

Giovanni backed away from a stalking Romeo. “Calm down, Romeo.”

Rage-filled cobalt eyes glowed before Romeo threw a fist.

Giovanni stepped aside, barely missing the punch. “Stand down. I’m not one of them.”

Dante
put himself between his brothers to defuse the situation
. “Wait a minute. I think he’s telling the truth.” As damning as those eerie red eyes were,
for reasons he couldn’t explain, he believed Giovanni. Considering the trouble they had had with red-eyed rogues before, there was no reason Dante should have believed him
, but
instinct told Dante to
give
Giovanni an opportunity to explain.
“You’ve got exactly sixty seconds to
tell us
why you resemble one of those
tainted
rogues.”

Giovanni closed his eyes again and when he reopened them, they were their usual green hue. “I’ve already told you, I’ve had to dabble in black magic in order to stay two steps ahead of you and Adonis, and sometimes
,
there are consequences for the things we do.”

Dante
tapped his foot impatiently
. “I’m not sure I follow.”

“One can’t mess with the black arts unless they’re willing to deal with the consequences. It becomes addictive. It’s a craving that can’t be satisfied until the next infusion of power. Why do you think there are so many
followers
willing to do Adonis’s and
Beatrice
’s bidding? They hunger after that next injection of power until it drives them insane.”

Marco narrowed his eyes and looked Giovanni up and down. “And you want this power
,
too?”

“Not so much want it, but need it in order to keep my sanity. I knew this was one of the effects before I began using it, but my options were limited.”

“I suspected this was
th
e
case,” Sasha mused.

Nico turned to his mate. “You knew this and never mentioned it.”

She shook her head. “You have to keep in mind I’m only coming into my powers. Remember, my father kept me bound for decades, and I still have a lot to learn. I know of black magic, but my familiarity with it isn’t as extensive as Giovanni’s.”

Dante raised a brow. He could excuse Sasha her ignorance given who her father had been, but he wondered ab
out her brothers. He turned to her brothers
. “Blade? Cutter? Steel? Perhaps
,
this was something you could have told us about?”

Steel shoved his hands through his hair with a sigh. “I wish it were th
at simple. There are
several layers of it that even we don’t know of. And
,
if one practices for as long as Giovanni, Adonis, and their mother
have
, d
ifferent levels are achieved that even we can’t imagine
. I
now
,
at least
,
understand why those rogues seemed stronger. Injected with a more powerful brand of black magic, they would hunger for it more. Fight harder. My only concern now, comrade, is will Giovanni make it through the fight without his need consuming him?”

Judging by how red Giovanni’s eyes had turned, Dante wasn’t sure he could answer that question and he didn’t have time to. An explosion went off that rocked the foundation beneath him. He’d been warned not to let his guard down and that’s exactly what had happened, but it wouldn’t again.

“Come out,” he shouted.

“If you insist.” A woman with long,
dark
red hair that tapered to her waist appeared out of thin air. Garbed in a green silk gown that clung to a petite but well-curved frame, she appeared taller than she probably was. There was something regal about her carriage. And her eyes were the same shade of green as Giovanni’s.
Beatrice
. From the unblemished porcelain skin to the straight patrician nose and the thickly lashed eyes, she was stunning, but hers was a cold beauty that could freeze a man in his tracks. It was a touch-me-not kind of loveliness that hinted at the danger lurking beneath the surface.

She smiled at them as if this were a social visit
. “Welcome to my home, Grimaldi family and friends. I’m so embarrassed you’ve come before I had a chance to tidy
my home up
. There were once many servants here, but you know how the saying goes: Good help is hard to find, is it not?”

The woman was truly insane, or maybe they were the crazy ones. Why else would they be standing here instead of going after th
is
psychotic bitch?

She snapped her fingers, and the castle was abruptly illuminated with candles and lanterns. But not only that, the entire inside transformed. All the broken-down furniture was suddenly restored and a thick, expensive-looking carpet cushioned the floor beneath their feet. A large dining table appeared with place settings as if a big meal was about to be served. “Now, this is more like it. You remember this place, don’t you, Giovanni? This was yours and your brother’s birthright before that
man
came along and destroyed everything.”
Her smile slipped momentarily.

Dante shot his older brother a glance. What the hell did she mean by that? Was there something else Giovanni was hiding from them?

The muscles in Giovanni’s jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth together. “This was never our birthright and you know
it. He wasn’t our father and I’
m glad I wasn’t sired by
a selfish megalomaniac who was gullible
enough to fall for your charms.”