Haven (7 page)

I glared at my brother, hoping he’d let something slip. “You made it for me in a bowl with a ton of milk and a hint of coffee. At least when I was little. When I was thirteen, you added more
caffè
.”

Still he said nothing. Why didn’t he say something?

“This doesn’t make any sense. Why am I mad at you about a stupid cup of coffee?” I pushed the glass at him and stood, toppling my bar stool. My appetite vanished as I battled emotions not tied to solid memory. I couldn’t even express how sick I was of not knowing.

“It’s all part of the programming,” Faith commented, voice flat.

My scowl deepened. Programming. Faulty memory.
All weirdness led to Thomas.

“
Per favore, sorellina
.” Lorenzo’s neutral tone gave nothing away, all business. “Finish your breakfast. You need it. We’ll talk after.” He picked up my chair, gaze averted.

I sat, sipped my coffee, and polished off my food in silence, all pleasure in the meal gone. He was right. I needed it. My irrational anger subsided and took with it my thirst for answers. All I wanted now was a long, hot shower.

Faith cleared the dishes and Lorenzo cleared his throat. “Come home with me. We can talk there. With Dom and Tony.”

“No.” I stalked to the hall, as if I could escape him and the truth. “I need to shower.”

His voice came soft, but I heard him. “Fine. I’ll wait.”

I wheeled around, blinking hard at the temptation of tears again. “No. I’m not in the mood to hear one more word about my supposed brain damage or the surgery that crazy man thinks he’s going to do to my head. Or the power you two
think
I have.”

“But our enemies—”

“I can take care of myself and have been for a long time. Right now, I just want to shower, so back off.”

Lorenzo strode over to me, but I waved him off. “Enough, Lo-Lo, just get out.”

He sucked in a breath, shock and pain fighting for hold in his expression. “What did you call me?”

“What,
Lo-Lo
?” No idea why I’d said it, but his sudden intensity made me back away from him, afraid of what I’d stumbled upon.

He followed, clutching my arms. “Say it. Say it again!” Intensity scored his words.

Pain stabbed my head, my world went black, and I remembered how much I loved my brother.

~ * ~

“Lo-Lo, no! Don’t let them take me! Puhhleeease!”

“Come to me, cara mia, it is time.” Thomas’s voice grabbed my body as if it had arms to pull me away from Lorenzo.

I clung to my brother, desperate. “No, I won’t. You can’t make me!”

Thomas appeared next to us. “You see, Lorenzo? Already she gains the strength to resist me. We must do this now or never. If we do not, she will die.”

“I know,” Lorenzo rasped. My brother, my stoic brother, sounded like he fought tears. His arms tightened around me, safety, warmth, and security all in one embrace.

Cold, strong hands gripped my shoulders, tugging me free of Lorenzo. “Come, Carina.” Another voice. Powerful. Impossible to ignore. My uncle Zi. Lo-Lo released me and sunk to his knees like someone sucked the strength out of him.

Uncle Zi cradled me, gazing at me with the face of an angel. I rested my head against the dark curtain of his hair. My sobs subsided to hiccups.

Dom and Tony joined Lorenzo on the floor, crying. I whimpered at the sound of their distress, twisting to see them.

“Look at me, Carina,” Uncle Zi commanded. My eyes met his beautiful dark ones, mirrors of my own. “We love you. Always.”

“Always,” Thomas echoed and lifted my hand. He pressed his lips to the inside of my wrist, the tenderness in his expression lulling me. A soft kiss on the pulse, once, twice... His mouth opened wide. Sharp teeth slid into my flesh.

I screamed, the pain too much to endure. My brothers wailed. My blood flowed into Thomas, as did my life, year after year of memories pouring out of my veins, out of my mind with each beat of my heart.

Lorenzo croaked, “Sorellina, sorellina mia.”

Thomas pulled back, mouth stained red with my blood. “We near the end. Her memory and power are bound. Now the door must close.”

Uncle Zi kissed my forehead and placed me on the floor between them. “Goodbye for now, my beloved one.”

They each took an arm. Weak, I didn’t have the strength to even try to fight them.

“As one.” A quiet command.

“As one,” Thomas echoed.

Fangs pierced my wrists. Lorenzo’s shouts followed me into oblivion.

~ * ~

“
Sorellina
,” Lorenzo yelled in the real world.

I jerked from his grasp, swatting at my arms, wrists burning with phantom pain.

Mark and Ren burst through the door and swarmed Lorenzo while Kai and Faith pulled me away.

“Stop.” At my command, Mark released his stranglehold on Lorenzo. My brother coughed and climbed to his feet.

I rubbed my wrists, twisting my fists, the memory of teeth in my flesh still too vivid. “Everybody out.”

After a long, hard stare at Lorenzo, my friends trooped out in silence.

My brother leaned against the wall, rubbing his neck. “They’re good.”

I joined him, a bocce ball of emotion lodged in my throat.
He loves me, my brother really
loves me
.
How could I have forgotten?

“
Sorellina?
”
He tilted my chin, forced me to look at him. His warm brown eyes beamed with love I couldn’t believe I didn’t see for so long. Blinded by magic. But I saw it now.

“Lo-Lo,” I croaked and burst into tears.

He crushed me to his chest until my waterworks subsided and I stepped back. “I soaked your shirt.” I sniffed and rubbed my nose, embarrassed by my uncharacteristic show of emotion.

He shrugged and rewarded me with the most open smile I’d ever seen on his face.

My heart swelled, and I swiped at my cheeks with the back of my hands. “You love me for real. Not just words. And I loved you.
Love
you.” I was thirteen all over again, awkward and needing my big brother to make it okay.

“Yes.” He pulled me into another bear hug then led me to the couch. I sat cross-legged, hugged a black velvet throw pillow, and blew my nose a thousand times.

He squeezed my shoulder. “What exactly did you remember?”

“The ballroom. You, Dom, and Tony were there. You were crying then...” I glanced at my wrists. My throat felt raw from tears, but it didn’t compare to the shards-of-glass feeling of the bites in my arms, still too real.

“You remembered what they did to you.” He spoke as if to a traumatized child, very carefully, as if I could shatter, which was fine. I didn’t feel adult at the moment, and I wanted my big brother to tell me the memory-stealing monsters under my bed weren’t real and—worse—weren’t related to me.

Angry tears burned my eyes, hot and not cleansing in the least. “They took away everything,
everyone
I loved and left me with nothing. They said they loved me. But you don’t do that to someone you love, do you?”

“There was a good reason for all of this pain,
sorellina
. I promise you.”

“I’m sure there is, but before we go there, let’s talk about the enormous elephant in the room.”

“Eh?”

I held up my arms, my scar-free arms so recently gnawed in my memory. “Uh, helloooooo, Thomas and Zi bit me. What are they? Please tell me they’re not vampires.”

“Okay, they’re not vampires.”

I stared. “They’re vampires, aren’t they?”

He nodded.

~ * ~

Lorenzo and I drank way too much
caffè latte
while he filled in some memory blanks for me.

“Let me see if I’m getting this.” I took a sip from my one-millionth glass. “I was a super happy kid before our vampire uncles mind-fucked me.”

His brows collided, stern disapproval clear in his expression. “Language.”

“Sorry, but I was a happy little orphan, yes?”

“
Si
.”

“Thomas and Uncle Zi were my nannies.”

He chuckled. “No. Primary caretakers. Father figures would be more appropriate, in this instance.”

That factoid proved harder to accept than the whole vampire deal. Thomas didn’t strike me as the nurturing type and, since it was his fault I didn’t remember his alleged, nurturing ways, I stuck with my first impression. Crazy, bossy, manipulative.

As for Uncle Zi, well, with no other memories to go by, he was just a monster with a pretty face and super sharp teeth. Ghost pain flared in my wrists.

“However, I was your legal guardian,” Lorenzo continued. “I took full custody when you were thirteen after—”

“The monsters ate my flesh?”

“They’re not zombies,” he replied in all seriousness.

“Sorry, kidding. But wait, do zombies exist, too? Any in the family?”

“Perhaps and, no, none in the family.”

“Okay, fine. Two vampires is enough weirdness for me right now, so let’s continue. Uh, where was I?” The caffeine made my thoughts bounce around my head like an out-of-control ping-pong ball. I tapped my glass in rapid staccato.

“The summation,” Lorenzo offered.

“Well, listen to you, mister smarty pants business man,” I teased. “We’re not in the boardroom, here.”

“Focus, Little Miss Caffeinated,” he teased right back.

Wow, what a change
. Hanging out, laughing, not fighting.
Sweet.
“Okay, vampires, check. Brotherly love, check. Happy childhood, check. That leaves—”

“Boarding school,” he supplied.

I sobered, remembering our long, silent drive in the limo, the confusing tension emanating from him. At the time, I thought him impatient to be rid of me. How wrong I was.

“I get it now, why you sent me there. What else do you do with a thirteen-year-old kid who doesn’t remember who you are?”

He gave me a grave nod, sadness heavy in his dark gaze. “A bit more complicated than that, but yes, it was necessary.”

We shared a moment of silence.

“The first year was the worst. God, we missed you. That’s why Dom took off for Italy and Tony moved to L.A. It was too hard, the house too empty, when you were away at school. And even when you returned home on break—”

I tapped my forehead. “I wasn’t there.”

Lorenzo nodded.

“But Dom and Tony came back for most holidays. I remember some fun summer breaks with you guys. Well, with Tony and Faith. You and Dom were—and still are—total workaholics.”

“Now you know why.”

“Oh.” I stared out the window at a fog bank curling around Sutro Tower and snaking over the hill. The sky blazed blue above it and the sun shone on my house, warming it even as the nearby fog pushed a cool breeze through the open window. “So, we were a happy orphan family until the vampires drained my brain.”

Lorenzo winced at my choice of words, but didn’t deny them.

“It’s good to know why my teen years were so whacked.”

Lorenzo tapped his glass. “But?”

“But why did they do it? Why did they think I’d die when I was thirteen? Is it the power you all think I have? I don’t feel anything now.”

My brother shrugged. “It’s dormant. Or was.”

“I don’t feel a thing. What kind of power is it? Am I a witch? Are you? Do you have powers, too?”

He breathed out, long and slow. “No I don’t. But we should talk about all this later. It’s complicated.”

I snorted. “Of course it is.”

“You can’t fully understand. Not until after—”

“Memory rehab with Thomas?” I offered.

“
Si
.” His lips curled downward. “It won’t be easy, you know.”

I spun my glass in circles. Was any of this easy? If so, for who? “Yeah, got the memo, what with your recent protective big brother act at the W-T.”

We shared a look.
I have to ask.
“Let’s talk about the vampire thing. Do crosses and holy water hurt them? How about silver? Does sunlight burn them to dust? Do they drink only human blood or will any blood do? And wow, does anyone else know they exist?”

Lorenzo cleared his throat. “Well...”

A knock on the door and Faith called out, “Can we come in?”

“Sure,” I chirped.

Faith and my boys trooped into the room.

Lorenzo stood and stretched. “That’s my cue to leave.”

I stood, too, bouncing with caffeinated glee. “I’ll come home soon.”

He gave me a quick hug and kissed my forehead. “
Ciao, sorellina mia
.”

“
Ciao
, Lo-Lo.”

He walked the gauntlet through my friends. The boys stared at me in stunned silence. Faith, on the other hand, grinned like a proud mama.

I held up my hand. “Before any of you speak, I’m way too hyped up on coffee beans to do story time. All you need to know for now is Lo-Lo, I mean, Lorenzo and I have reconciled. And Thomas is my uncle
and
a vampire. Yep, the blood-sucking undead are walking around San Francisco as we speak. So hey, let’s go run at Kezar.”

Four

We arrived at Kezar Stadium near sunset. Faith and Kai took to the grassy centerfield for some Tai Chi and Mark and Ren shadowed me around the eight-lane track while I enjoyed my caffeinated euphoria. One little memory and I wanted to jump around like an idiot, screeching,
Whee! Yippee! My brothers love me!
That, plus vampires, equaled quite a shift in my worldview.

Boredom struck after a few laps around the spongy track, so we collected Faith and Kai and headed into Golden Gate Park. Faith and Kai flanked me, Mark took point, and Ren brought up the rear. We blew past sleeping homeless guys stretched on park benches, past the Academy of Sciences, and onto the Music Concourse, weaving
through the grid of pollarded elm and London plane trees. Devoid of leaves, their curved, corkscrew branches pointed to the sky like a city of twisted, black arms.