Giovanni (Blood Brothers Book 6) (13 page)

Just then Jaxson, Romeo and Christine’s seven year old son walked into the dining room, his face scrunched up in disgust. “What’s the matter, champ?” Romeo asked the little boy.

Jaxson folded his arms over his chest. “Gianna took a dump in her pants and she’s stinking up the place. She’s killing my nose.” He swatted the air for effect.

“Oh, boy. I guess that’s my cue to go change her.” Maggie pushed herself away from the table and got up.

Jaxson turned his attention to his aunt. “What do you guys feed that baby? Skunk Pie? It’s not normal for such a little kid to make such a toxic smell.” If nothing else the kid was honest. Dante couldn’t help but chuckle at his nephew’s antics.

Everyone around burst into laughter at the child’s straight forwardness.

Romeo rubbed his son’s head.

Despite this brief moment of merriment, Dante knew there was trouble ahead to be dealt with, and he hoped they could handle it before it was too late for Giovanni.

Chapter Thirteen

Giovanni literally felt like he was going insane. Since he’d left Sydney over a week ago, his symptoms had grown worse. It had been a difficult decision to leave the boarding house but the very fact that his illness had gotten worse told him that he’d made the right decision.

He was feverish to a degree that would kill a mortal man. When he’d chanced a look in a mirror he saw that his eyes were blood red. His incisors wouldn’t retract and he had the insatiable thirst for blood and pussy. Blood was one thing, but there was only woman he wanted pussy from. And that was Sydney. After sampling her sweetness Giovanni knew no woman would satisfy him the way she did. That she couldn’t remember their night together bothered the fuck out of him, but there was nothing he could do about it until he got his body under control.

He thought about getting in touch with one of his old contacts to look out for Sydney while he was indisposed, but the idea of someone other than him watching her every move made him jealous and angry. He couldn’t quite explain it. The rational part of him realized that it would be a good idea just in case this dark force that inhabited that house meant to harm her. Giovanni briefly considered contacting his younger brothers but again vetoed that idea. He didn’t feel like he had a right to intrude in their lives. Now that Adonis and his mother were gone, they’d probably forgotten all about him. He couldn’t be certain but it was hard to focus on anything at the moment other than wanting to be with Sydney and how much pain he was currently in.

He promised himself that when he was better, he’d go back to her. At least then he’d be in a better position to help her. After he left the hospital he headed back to the house to grab his bag. The only person who’d been in resident was Darlene, much to Giovanni’s annoyance.

Darlene stepped out of her bedroom just as Giovanni walked past her door to get to his room. “Hey there. You going somewhere?” He turned around to see her in nothing but a floor length negligee that covered most of her body but left nothing to the imagination. He could tell she wore nothing beneath the green silk as it skimmed her more than generous curves. She looked as if she was in the mood for entertaining but all Giovanni felt was mild disgust. No doubt she was a beautiful woman but she wasn’t for him. The predatory gleam in her jade-colored eyes seemed too desperate and he didn’t forget the insults she’d thrown at Sydney. Besides, when it came to women, Giovanni was old-fashioned. He preferred to be the one doing the chasing.

He wasn’t in the mood to be polite when he needed to be as far away from here as possible. “Yes. To my room. Not that it’s any of your business.”

She raised a dark red brow and her mouth circled in a silent “oh”. It was apparent she wasn’t used to being talked to in this manner. “Well there’s no rush. Why don’t you come into my room for that drink? Those two stick-in-the-muds who run this house don’t serve alcohol so I have to get my own. Let’s say you and I have a little fun?” Darlene ran her finger down the center of his chest, fluttered her eyes and pushed her thin lips into a pout.

Even if he had been the least bit turned on by her, his dick would have gone woefully soft by now. He captured her hand and squeezed it. “He narrowed his eyes.” What on Earth would make you think I was interested in you?”

She gasped. “You’re…you’re hurting me.” She tried to yank her hand out of his grasp but he tightened his grip.

“Maybe I want to hurt you,” he growled. He could feel that unbearable heat take over his body and he wanted to bite this woman and drain her.

Darlene began to yank her hand in earnest but the more she fought the more he wanted to cause her pain.

Giovanni released her as his incisors descended. Unable to control himself he slammed Darlene against the wall. She released a blood-curdling scream that only pissed him off. He slapped his palm over her mouth and sunk his teeth into her bare shoulder where he spotted a delicious blue vein.

She fought and squirmed against him as he drank from her. The heady rush of taking this blood in such a savage way fueled the beast that lurked within him.

It didn’t matter that Darlene stopped fighting because a vampire’s bite was like an aphrodisiac that gave pleasure. All Giovanni could concentrate on was how this blood didn’t compare to Sydney’s. In fact, the more he drank, the angrier he grew. He pulled away none too gently, not caring enough to extract his teeth from her skin slowly so as not to rip her flesh, which is exactly what he did.

Darlene clutched the wound and looked at him in surprise, shock and horror as blood splattered everywhere.

Seeing her on the ground with her negligee getting darker from the blood dripping down her neck brought Giovanni out of his daze.

Fuck! What had he done? What if this had been Sydney? Lately it felt like all he’d been doing was fucking up. His only explanation for acting out this way was
la morte dolci
. He seemed to lose control at the most inopportune moments like now and Giovanni wasn’t sure how much longer this moment of clarity would last.

He wanted to leave right away, but if he left Darlene like this, she just might bleed out, however if he didn’t leave soon, there was a chance someone could stumble upon this bloody scene and there was no telling how he’d react.

Even though he didn’t particularly like the woman currently cowering away from him, he didn’t want to see her die. He held out his hand to her but she whimpered and scooted away. Not having the patience to coddle her, Giovanni leaned over and scooped her up. She squirmed against him. “No! Don’t hurt me. I promise I won’t tell anyone. I’ll leave this place tonight and go back home. I have a really wealthy father. He’ll pay you whatever you want.”

Giovanni maneuvered her in his arms so that he could open her bedroom door. Then he carried Darlene to her bed. “If your father is so wealthy then what are you doing here?” He didn’t ask because he actually cared, he just wanted to distract her from what he was going to do next.

“He lowered my allowance and I couldn’t stay in my nice apartment by the river. It’s all because of that witch he married.” Darlene’s eyes filled with unshed tears.

Giovanni slit his wrist with his sharpened nail, drawing blood. He wasn’t sure what this little bit of his blood would do to Darlene while he was in this state but he would rather take his chances than to have her bleed to death. These few drops of his blood shouldn’t hurt her, he figured. He yanked her hand away from her shoulder and pressed his opened, wrist against her wound.

“What are you doing?” She began to squirm in panic.

“Relax. This should take care of your injury. Now sleep.” He put all his concentration into that suggestion and thankfully her eyes drifted shut. He kept his wrist against her wound until he saw her skin slowly mend. By the time he pulled away from her, she was nearly healed. The only indication that there had ever been an injury was the dried-up blood coating her nightie, and her neck and shoulder area.

He was thankful that his power of suggestion was back although he wasn’t sure how strong it was. He leaned over until his lips nearly touched her ear. “After you wake, you will pack your bags and go back home to your father. You will apologize for being a spoiled brat and you’ll start talking responsibility for your own life. Go to school or get a job. Become a responsible adult. When you wake up, you won’t remember seeing me. I wasn’t here.”

“I won’t remember a thing,” she whispered in her sleep.

“Good girl.” Giovanni pulled away from her. When he was certain she wouldn’t stir, he hurried to the bathroom and grabbed a towel to clean up the blood in the hallway. Then he returned to Darlene’s room and wiped her up the best he could. Her injury was now completely healed. There was still blood on her nightie but that couldn’t be helped as he had no intention of going through the trouble of undressing her and finding something else for her to wear. He smeared the bloody towel under her nose. Perhaps when she woke up she’d think she had a bad nosebleed in her sleep.

Once he was sure that nothing was out of order, he went back to his room, stuffed the bloody towel into his duffle bag, gathered all of his items and headed out of the house without looking back.

He wanted to get away from here before Sydney became his next victim.

Giovanni bought a ticket on the first train out of town. He must have traveled several hours, fighting the urge to rip the other passengers apart. When he couldn’t take the temptation anymore, he found himself in a town two states away from Sydney’s. He paid for a room in a seedy motel, the kind that took cash and didn’t ask questions. It was heavily populated with miscreants and people on the fringe of society, a place where one went to get lost.

He was in so much pain, he welcomed death. Giovanni lay on the bed, covered in sweat, burning up. He clawed at the sheets, howling in agony. The only thing that gave him a modicum of relief was when he focused on Sydney’s beautiful image. More than anything he wanted to go to her and claim her as his but then he remembered what happened with Darlene.

The physical hurt was unlike anything he’d ever endured. Giovanni screamed his misery as another wave of pain hit him. It felt like every bone in his body was breaking and someone was squeezing his heart in their hands.

“How does this feel, brother?”

Giovanni squinted and saw Adonis by his side. His brother’s fist had gone through his chest and Adonis had a death grip on Giovanni’s heart.

He shook his head. This couldn’t be happening. Giovanni squinted. He had to be seeing things.

“Adonis?” he whispered.

“In the flesh.”

“But… you’re dead. I—”

“You killed me? Yes, I remember that. You took my heart in your hand and crushed it to a pulp.”

“I had to do something. You wouldn’t have stopped otherwise.”

“I did what I had to do to make that man pay for what he did to me, did to us.”

“No. It’s not what our father did to us, it’s what our mother did. She created this mess. Our papa wanted to help us. He would have taken you in with him but you refused.”

“And why would I want to live with him and his whore? He seduced our mother and abandoned her.”

“You’re talking crazy. Maria was a fine woman and you killed her and our father. They didn’t deserve it. You would have kept killing unless I did something.”

“You chose them over me. You saved them and not me.”

“They were vulnerable.”

“What about me, Giovanni? Wasn’t I vulnerable too?” Suddenly Adonis transformed into his childhood version.

It was official: Giovanni believed he had truly lost his mind.

“Adonis, I tried to reach you. I really did,” Giovanni tried to reason.

“Maybe you didn’t try hard enough. You could have saved me but you didn’t. Now how does it feel now that the tables are turned?”

“I’m sorry. More than you could ever imagine.”

“Sorry won’t bring me back,
brother
. You didn’t save me and now I’m going to make you pay.” And with that Adonis squeezed Giovanni’s heart, intensifying the pain.

Giovanni screamed until his throat was sore. He closed his eyes and prayed for death but when it didn’t come he opened them again, and Adonis was gone.

Had it all been in his mind?

The sudden need for blood was more intense than he could imagine. He slid out of bed with one thing on his mind.

Hunt.

Chapter Fourteen

“Why don’t you play a song for us, Sydney?” Ida asked after dinner which had been a quiet affair. The exchange students had decided to go out with friends instead of eating with everyone else. Darlene was no longer a resident. While Sydney was still in the hospital apparently she’d packed her bags and left without notice. Sydney could honestly say that was one tenant she wouldn’t miss. Peter decided to stay with his son for a few days because his daughter-in-law recently had a new baby.

And John was gone.

Maybe it was a coincidence but every time she thought about him, she’d get one of her temporary migraines. She felt there was more she should remember about him but something kept preventing her from even trying.

The only occupants in the house were her Ida and Dylan. Usually Sydney liked these times of quiet. She could concentrate more on her music than running the boarding house. But she couldn’t shake the uneasy sensation that something wasn’t right. She’d felt this way since she came home from the hospital and she wasn’t sure why. Nothing seemed out of place. Dylan was attentive and couldn’t seem to do enough for her. Even Ida seemed to be in good spirits.

“Um, sure. Was there anything in particular you wanted me to play?”

“You pick, honey,” Ida replied.

“Okay.” Sydney attempted to stand but Dylan was by her side. He took her by the arm and pulled Sydney to her feet. “Uh, thanks Dylan I was capable of getting out of the chair myself.”

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I know you can sweetheart. Can’t a guy help out his lady? Besides, I don’t want you to tire yourself out.”

Sydney barely managed not to flinch when his lips touched her skin. She should have been responsive to her boyfriend’s advances but she found no enthusiasm whenever he kissed her. In fact, it was yet another thing that didn’t seem right. Maybe she was still suffering from the after effects of what sent her to the hospital. “Dylan, I’m blind, not 102 years old.”

Dylan chuckled. “I forget that you’re Miss Independent.” He released her arm. “Fine, go ahead and play something jazzy.” He smacked her on the bottom.

Sydney was tempted to elbow him in the gut for that but she managed to contain herself. She counted her steps as she made her way to the piano and took a seat on the bench. As her fingers made contact with the keys, she breathed a sigh of relief. At least something around here felt familiar. Even though Dylan had requested an upbeat song, Sydney found herself playing a melancholy tune about lost love and longing. She swayed to the music, getting completely immersed in the notes she played.

By the time she finished the song, her cheeks were damp. Tears had fallen unheeded down her face and she didn’t know why.

“That was beautiful, Sydney.” Ida sounded sincere but there was an edge to her voice that made Sydney wonder what her friend didn’t like about the performance.

“Thanks. Dylan, what did you think?” Sydney inquired.

“It was nice. But you know I’m not into that classic shit. Too boring for my taste. Now play something fun like I asked you the first time.”

She didn’t like his tone and it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him exactly that, but a knock on the door interrupted her mid-thought. Frowning, she stood up. “We weren’t expecting guests, were we?”

“I don’t think so. But I can answer the door,” Ida volunteered.

No, just have a seat and relax. You cooked a delicious meal. Rest your feet.”

“I’ll escort you to the door.” Dylan was at her side.

“Dylan, would you stop treating me like an invalid? I know you’re just being helpful but it’s driving me crazy. I know this house better than anyone else, including you.”

“I’m just trying to help.”

“You can help me by not trying to do everything for me. Let me answer the door.”

When she made it to the front door she called out, “Who is it?”

“Are you the proprietress of this boarding house? Miss Lewis?”

Anyone who looked up her boarding house in the classifieds could find her name so it didn’t bother her that he knew who she was. “Yes. Who’d like to know?”

“Dante Grimaldi. I’m here with my brothers and we’re wondering if you could help us locate someone who we believe is currently staying in your house.”

Sydney was immediately apprehensive. There was no one in the house with the last name of Grimaldi, and it was rare when visitors came to see the house guests without notice because it was frowned upon. For safety reasons there was a rule that all visitors needed to be cleared with Sydney or Ida before they were allowed into her home.

She heard footsteps approach from behind and knew it was Ida because her steps weren’t as heavy as Dylan’s.

“Who is it? What do they want?” Ida demanded.

“Someone named Dante Grimaldi. He says he’s looking for one of our boarders. Should I open the door?” she whispered so the men on the other side of the door wouldn’t hear her.

“I’ll see what they want.” Ida brushed past Sydney and opened the door. “Yes? What do you want?” She greeted the men without preamble.

There was a pause before any of the men answered. Sydney didn’t know how many were out there because Dante had said brothers in the plural.

“Our apologies if we’re interrupting your dinner but we just need a minute of your time. We’re looking for a man who we believe is one of your boarders.”

“Hmph,” Ida grunted. “What’s his name?”

There was another pause. “John Chandler.”

Sydney focused her attention on the direction of the voices. Dante, the one speaking sounded similar to John. “Yes. We know him he was—”

“It’s our policy not to allow guests in this house without checking them out first. So maybe you should come back again when you follow proper protocol,” Ida interrupted, not giving Sydney a chance to finish.

“Ida!”

“I’m thinking about our safety, girl. We don’t know these men.”

“Ida is it?” The one called Dante asked.

“Yeah, that’s my name.”

“Ida, you seem tired. I bet you had an exhausting day. You should probably go get some rest.” Dante’s words were extremely presumptuous but there was a hypnotic quality to his tone and even Sydney found herself yawning.

“You know what? I’m tired. Think I’ll go lie down. Sydney, you handle our guests.” And just like that Ida walked away. Sydney heard her friend walk up the stairs.

Sydney opened her mouth in amazement. What the fuck just happened? “H-how did you do that? Ida doesn’t take orders from anyone.”

“I didn’t order her to do anything,” Dante argued. “I simply made a suggestion.”

“Well whatever you did, it worked. But then again, maybe Ida really was tired. It’s hard to read people when you can’t see their faces.”

“You’re blind?” Another masculine voice asked in what sounded like surprise. “Umph! My apologies. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

Sydney imagined someone must have hit or elbowed the man who’d just spoken. She chuckled in amusement. “No worries. I get that a lot when I don’t have my cane with me.

“But still, I shouldn’t have worded it liked that. My name is Romeo, by the way.”

Sydney raised a brow. “As in the Shakespeare play?”

“Something like that.” She could hear the smile in his voice. This one was definitely a charmer.

“I’m sorry, but how many of you are there?” She asked just to be cautious even though she felt no imminent danger. At the very least they didn’t make any aggressive move to get inside her house.

“There are four of us,” Dante answered. “My brother Romeo who has already introduced himself, my other two brothers GianMarco and Niccolo.”

Sydney nodded in their direction. “Nice to meet you. I’m sorry, where are my manners? Why don’t you guys come in?” She stepped back, opening the door wider.

“We don’t want to intrude.”

She shook her head. “Oh, you’re not intruding. We’ve already eaten dinner and we were enjoying some music. Follow me.”

She waited until she was sure they were all in before closing the door and heading back to the sitting room. “Who are these men?” Dylan demanded as soon as she stepped into the room. “And where is my grandmother?” He hooked his arm around her waist and possessively pulled her to his side. Sydney squirmed in his hold but the more she tried to put some space between the two of them, Dylan’s fingers would dig into her sides. Not wanting to make a scene in front of the guests, she forced herself to remain still.

“Um, why don’t you all make yourself comfortable? In the meantime, can I get you fellas something to drink? We have water, fresh-squeezed lemonade and sweet tea.”

“Nothing for me, thank you. We don’t want to take up too much of your time,” a new voice answered which was either GianMarco or Niccolo. She couldn’t tell.

“Anyone else?”

“No, thank you,” the rest of the men said in turn.

“Then why are you here? We don’t get many visitors around these parts, especially fancy ones like you.” Dylan’s sullen tone made it clear that he resented their presence.

Once again Sydney tried to break free of his hold but this time he actually pinched her. Hard.

Though it had hurt, she gasped more from surprise than pain. What the hell was Dylan’s problem and why was he acting this way in front of company? He wasn’t being himself. She hoped her guests didn’t notice.

“Are you okay, Miss Lewis?” There was a slight edge to Dante’s voice which told her that he did see what happened.

“Oh, yes. I’m fine.” Sydney hoped her words sounded believable. Thankfully Dylan loosened his grip enough for her to slip out of his hold. Figuring most of the other seats were occupied, sat down at the piano bench. Dylan scooted next to her and placed a hand on her knee. Sydney was extremely embarrassed by his display but she had no choice but to play it off.

“So you didn’t tell us what you wanted,” Dylan broke the silence first.

“We were telling Miss Lewis that we’re looking for someone we think is one of her boarders. I believe he goes by the name of John Chandler.”

“You see Sydney, I told you that guy was trouble. Now he has people coming around here looking for him. You men have wasted your time coming here. He’s gone and good riddance.” Dylan emphasized his words with a snort.

“Do you know where he may have went? We were sure he’s still be here. At least this is where we’d traced him,” Romeo spoke. Sydney wasn’t sure why these men were looking for John but the frustration in her guest’s voice was very obvious.

Sydney would have told them what she knew but she was cut off by Dylan.

“We already told you what you need to know. That motherfucker is gone. And that’s exactly what you should be. Gone.”

“Dylan!” He was really starting to piss Sydney off. When their guests were gone she intended to give him a good ol’ Southern cuss out.

“Perhaps Dylan has had a long day and is feeling stressed. I bet he wants to take a walk. Don’t you, Dylan?” There it was again, that hypnotic timbre in Dante’s voice.

“What the hell are you talking—you know what, I’m feeling stressed. I think I’ll take a walk.” Dylan leaned over and planted a kiss on Sydney’s cheek before vacating the piano bench.

When she heard the front door click behind him, Sydney demanded. “Okay, how the hell did you do that? Are you some kind of hypnotist?”

“You could say that,” Dante answered.

“I could say anything but what you’re not telling me says more than what you are. What’s going on and why do you want to get in contact with John? Is he in some kind of trouble?”

The room was quiet for a moment and she wondered if the men were exchanging secret glances with each other. Finally one of them spoke. “Yes, we believe he’s in some kind of trouble and it’s imperative we find him. How long would you say that he’s been gone?” She didn’t recognize the voice of the speaker.

“I’m sorry, but could you tell me who just spoke?”

“My apologies, I’m GianMarco.”

“GianMarco,” she repeated, testing the name on her tongue. “He’s been gone for almost a week. I was in the hospital after some kind of freak occurrence in my body when I last saw him. He came by for a visit and told me he was leaving. He said he may or may not be back but he didn’t tell me where he was going.”

“Shit,” one of the men muttered but she couldn’t tell which one.

“Is there anything else you could tell me about his visit?”

“How do I know the four of you aren’t trying to cause more trouble for John?”

“Because he’s our brother. The last thing we want is to cause him any harm. Please, it’s important that you help us. He’s dealing with an illness that only we can assist him with and if we don’t get to him in time there could be major consequences,” Dante replied.

“For whom?”

“For him and anyone who’s unfortunate enough to be within eyesight of him.”

Sydney frowned. “What kind of illness is it? Is it contagious?”

“No. But it does make people not themselves. Someone going through what he is can get very violent.”

Sydney wasn’t sure how much she could trust these men but the sincerity in their voices was plain. Her gut instinct rarely let her down before. She sighed. “There’s really not that much I can tell you about him besides the fact that he was nice and we got along well. But he seemed really troubled. When he first showed up, he slept for three nights straight. I was very close to calling an ambulance. He woke up screaming bloody murder, something about not being able to save someone. I don’t know who he was referring to. He said something odd about not having slept in a long time. I think his words were that he had an extreme case of insomnia. And…” She scrunched her forehead. Sydney felt there was something she needed to remember but the harder she tried to dredge up details her head would hurt. She made another attempt and a sharp pain hit her, leaving Sydney winded. “Oh!” she cried out, clutching her head.