Haven (28 page)

“Release her.” Steel edged Alexander’s voice.

“Fuck off, vampire,” Dom snarled, eyes on me.

“Let her go, or I break your wrists. Your choice.” He backed up his threat by tightening his grip.

My brother sucked in a breath and released me. Stella snagged Dom by an arm and hauled him away.

Alexander tracked their movements, eyes flashing, anger pouring off his body in hot waves.

I massaged my arms where Dom had squeezed them. “Thanks for the save and for not hurting Dom. He’s not usually so crazy.”

His expression softened when it landed on me. “Sure.” His hands curled around my waist, pulling me close. I relaxed against his chest, listening to the rapid beat of his heart.

Across the room, Tony spoke to Dom too low for me to hear. For the second time tonight, regret flashed across the latter’s face. And shame for his actions. I was ashamed, too, of my smartass comment about our mother. She might be some abstract concept to me, but to my brothers she was much more. Until I came along and took her away from them.

I stepped out of Alexander’s embrace and approached my brothers. Stella hopped up on the counter nearby, just in case.

I gave Dom good eye contact. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” I glanced at Tony. “Either of you. Can we try this again, but without the drama? And Alexander stays. He’s a part of this.
Capito
?”

They nodded. We stood in awkward silence.

~ * ~

On Adrian’s back deck, Dom and Tony sat at the small café table near the kitchen’s bay window. I reclined on the chaise longue across from them, wrapped in a cashmere throw. Hot day, chilly, foggy night. Typical San Francisco.

Alexander perched on the railing, close but not too close, allowing me to think straight without hormonal distraction. Stella remained in the living room watching TV while Faith and Kai had gone ahead to the club. I hoped less of an audience would make confession time happen, but no. My brothers weren’t talking. Dom stared at his wine glass while Tony made a serious study of his bare feet.

I huffed and gazed in the direction of my club hidden by the yard’s foliage. Haven had opened its doors almost an hour ago and the faintest hint of beat bled out to us. With wizard magic and clever construction, we’d made the club sound proof. A good thing given its proximity to many homes on Hartford and businesses topped with apartments on Castro Street proper. Keeping the party noise inside made for happy, uncomplaining neighbors outside.

Sure wish I were happy. Sure wish someone would say something already so we could proceed to the fun, dancing portion of the evening. I let out another disgruntled breath. Neither brother reacted.

Alexander broke the silence. “I think we’re done here.” He hopped off the railing and extended his hand. “I can answer most of your questions now, anyway.”

I gave him a doubtful look. “Really?”

He nodded. “The Contessa paid me a visit while you were here with Thomas and Jonas. I bet she covered everything you want to know.”

I raised an eyebrow. That info eased my annoyance over her conspicuous absence chez Adrian. Since we were getting nowhere with my reluctant brothers, why not go? I let Alexander help me up, leaving the throw behind on the lounger.

Tony stood, too, relieved he was off the hook. “I’ll get my shoes. And Stella.” He padded into the house.

Dom scowled. “That’s it? You’re leaving? Don’t you want to know why they want you to be with this guy? This particular vampire? You think he’s going to tell you the truth? He doesn’t care about you, none of them do. They just want your power. They want to use you.”

I shook my head, angry he was baiting me, spoiling for another fight. “You had your chance to share, Dom. I don’t know what has happened to you to make you this insane doppelganger of yourself and right now, I don’t care. I’m tired of the cryptic shit. If you have something concrete to say, you’d better say it fast, because I’m out of here.”

Alexander and I turned as one and made it to the end of the deck before Dom spoke again. “
Mi dispiace, sorellina.
”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re sorry. So you keep saying. What else you got?”

“She loved them both.”

I released Alexander’s hand and faced Dom. “What?”

“Mother loved both of them.”

Okay, didn’t expect that.

“And they loved her,” he continued. “Somehow they made it work. Like some big, weird happy family. I don’t know much more about their relationship. Tony doesn’t, either. We were kids, too, you know, so they didn’t tell us anything. Honestly, we—that is, Tony and I—never thought to ask.”

“You didn’t ask when you were older?”

He shook his head. “Why would I? After she died, nothing else mattered.”

A lump formed in my throat at the sound of the pain in his voice, still raw after all these years. I stepped toward him but he waved me off.

“If you want to know more about our parents and the dynamics of their relationship, you’ll have to ask Lorenzo. I bet he knows. Or ask uncle Maur—I mean your father.”

I nodded.

Dom took in a brisk breath. “Anything else you want to know? Pick a topic. You’d be surprised what I can tell you.”

I suspected he wanted me to ask about Alexander, but instead I said, “Dom, I’m sorry I killed your parents.”

He gaped at me.

Tony strolled out the door, his mood buoyant. “Okay, party people let’s go get our groove on—oh no, what’s wrong now?”

We both ignored him.

Dom’s face darkened. “You didn’t kill them.”

“Your mom died because I was born.”

“Not your fault. And she was your mother, too.”

“Yeah, for like a minute and then she died. I took her away from you. Like you said, nothing else mattered after that.”

“I misspoke. You matter. You’ve always mattered. To everyone.”

I closed the distance between us. “What about Edoardo? Did you still feel that way after I killed him, too?”

Dom stepped back and bumped into his chair. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“How can you say that? He died because someone—or something—was after me, right? And he got in the way.”

Dom was quiet for a moment. “Who told you that?”

“No one. I remember.”

He shook his head. “No, you can’t remember that. You were five.”

“It doesn’t play like a complete movie in my head like a lot of my recovered memories do. But I remember bits and pieces, and believe me, some of those bits are way more graphic than I’d like them to be.” The image of tiny, bloodied me and the big burnt vampire flashed through my mind.
Ick.

“No. Impossible.”

“Oh, yeah?” I strode to the railing and stared out at the yard. “We were in the rec room. You guys were shooting pool. I was on the floor playing with a doll. Daddy, um, I mean, Edoardo rushed in and picked me up. There were sounds. Gun shots, people shouting, screaming. Then we were outside. It was dark, but there was a flash and then there was blood all over me. Edoardo fell in the fountain. I was on the ground and these huge, cold hands picked me up and—”

I hesitated, not wanting to describe the vampire chewing on my neck followed by me turning it into a crispy critter and a pile of ash. They probably knew about that, anyway.

Something else caught my attention in the memory. Something new.

“Wait a minute, there’s someone behind him. Behind the vampire.” I whispered, as if speaking loudly would scare the other figure away. A dark, blurry figure, not present in my earlier flashback. Was I remembering more, or was my mind playing tricks on me? No time to find out. The memory closed in on itself as if a vacuum had sucked it out of my head. I gripped the railing. A wave of nausea hit me hard.

“Did you see who killed him?” Dom gripped my arms, trying to turn me. I resisted, afraid if I moved, I would throw up my dinner.

Tony approached us. “God, Dom, stop. You’re going to make her cry. You’ll ruin her make-up and it will take me ages to fix it.” He tried for a teasing tone, but failed.

It took me two tries to speak through the nausea. “Yes, I mean, no. I don’t know, I think I saw someone else but I can’t get at it. It’s slipping away.” I doubled over, forehead on the railing. Was someone messing with me? Breaking through the barrier I’d placed in my head earlier this evening?

Dom squeezed my shoulders. “We never found out who did it. His throat was...someone used a knife on him. Uncle blamed the servants of some powerful vampire he’d killed way before we were ever born. He destroyed every enemy he found that night, but we never knew for sure who murdered father. Did you see? Try to remember.”

“Dom, stop,” Tony protested. “Can’t you see something’s wrong with her? Stop making it worse.”

Alexander whooshed to my side and pulled me from Dom, holding me close. But it wasn’t enough. A whirling black vortex pulled at my mind. The more I tried to remember, the harder it tried to suck me into its nothingness.

Instinct told me this wasn’t vampire energy, therefore, not Thomas or Jonas or Tessa, but my gut didn’t know what it was, either.

Alexander’s arms tightened around me. “Don’t shut me out. Let me help you.”

Didn’t have to ask me twice. I destroyed the mind block, pictured it like a wall of melting wax. Once gone, Alexander’s warm power rushed into me, clearing the darkness, eliminating the dizziness and nausea. My body relaxed against his and my power awoke, curling up to greet his like some happy, purring cat responding to love pets.

My brothers hovered nearby. “I didn’t know,” Dom said. “I didn’t understand.”

“Understand what?” I addressed them both.

Tony answered for him. “He thought they were using Alex as an easy way to suck you into their world. And get at your power. But he was wrong.”

“I was wrong,” Dom agreed.

Yes, you were, doofus.
“What makes you say that now?”

“He can feel it,” Tony explained. “Your connection. Its power and the validity of it.”

I pivoted to lean my back against Alexander, his arms encircling me. “You both can sense it?”

They nodded.

“Wait. Do you guys have any wacky super powers I don’t know about?”

They shook their heads. Dom had rediscovered his blank face, over his uncharacteristic chattiness. Tony, on the other hand, was happy to share. “No, but we can sense vampire power. A perk of our bloodline, I guess.”

“What, now you approve of my date? Is that it?” Irritation sharpened my voice.

“Hey, I never disapproved. Unlike some people,” he gave Dom a disapproving look. “I believe in our family and their love for us, and trust them to do the right thing. Even when I don’t understand or condone their methods.”

I nodded, knowing he referred to my twelve-year stint with vampire-induced amnesia.

“Besides,” he added. “Tessa was the one who told me about Alex. That made me doubly sure it was the real deal.”

“How so?”

He tilted his head, expression thoughtful. “Let’s just say Tessa doesn’t like men, generally speaking, so when she does happen to approve of one, you pay attention.”

“Hold on, are you saying she’s a lesbian?”

Stella took that moment to arrive on the deck. She snorted at my question.

Tony laughed. “No, not at all. In fact, she and Thomas—” he stopped. “You know lil’ sis, you have a lot to learn, but if we keep this up, we’ll never get to the club. We’ve pulled enough skeletons out of the closet for now, don’t ya think?”

I blinked at him.

He flung his arms wide. “Please, for the love of whatever god, let’s go have some fun now.”

His melodramatic gesture curved my lips upward despite my irritation at Tessa for having heart-to-heart chats with everyone but me.

Tony was right. It could wait.

Fourteen

Tonight was a special night at Haven. We’d flown up a crew of our celebrity DJ pals from L.A. and they promised to pump out some serious, aggressive beats, and funky, chunky bass. All night long.

I was so ready for that.

We entered through the back door. As soon as we hit backstage I stopped, closed my eyes and let the beat wash over me, caress me from head to toe. A welcoming heartbeat. I took a deep, cleansing breath, and another, and another, rotating my head and shoulders and shaking the kinks out of the rest of my body in a languorous wave.

Music, good. Stress, bad. Bye-bye stress.

Alexander squeezed my hand. I opened my eyes to find him gazing at me with the bemused expression he’d worn so often this evening. That is, when we weren’t handling some kind of crisis.

“Welcome to my house.” I spoke at a normal volume. No need to shout-talk as I would have with a human. Vampire super hearing came in handy in a club rockin’ the loud tunes. “You don’t know this, but I like to dance. A lot. You up for it?”

He nodded.

Oh, yippee. My new undead boyfriend liked to get his groove on. More tension melted away. Tony nudged me, dancing in place, waving in the direction of the main room, ready to shake it, too.

My happiness increased by the second.

We’d already missed the female DJ in the L.A. crew, my friend Claire. She was stepping down from the DJ platform on center stage when I strolled up.

Claire gave me a big grin, arms spread wide in welcome. “Rina!”

We hugged and stepped back to admire each other. At five-ten, Claire was a few inches taller than me but at the moment she stood over six feet thanks to mega tall, orange vinyl platform boots. On her long and lean body she wore a shiny orange, vinyl mini skirt and matching crop top. Her hair was dyed neon pink today, with the exception of stark white bangs and a bit of white fringe framing her oval face. The rest of her hair was trapped in two pony tails set high on each side of her head. Anime-fantastic.

Claire gave me an appreciative once over and surveyed my companions.

“What’s up with the entourage?” she yelled in my ear. “You a rock star now?”

“Long story.” I motioned at Tony and Alexander to join us.

“Claire, this is my brother Tony.”

“I live in L.A.,” Tony shouted at her, shaking her hand. “I’m a big fan.”