One With the Darkness (26 page)

“But of course,” Julia murmured. She motioned to the servant. “Clean his anus.”

More rummaging while the sisters and Caligula discussed Jergan’s most immediate future.

“Let the guard have him first,” Caligula was saying, “from the rear, while you, Sisters, use that quirt on his chest and belly. Then I’ll command him to suckle me and you can either whip his backside or use the handle on his anus.”

Jergan chewed his lip. The emperor was a fearful creature. Perhaps he could use that. “You should fear for your member,” Jergan growled, “if you put it in my mouth.”

Caligula giggled again. “We’re not concerned. After all, your careful attention to pleasing us is the only way you can avoid some very unfortunate consequences to Livia Quintus Lucellus. We saw the way you looked at her tonight.”

Jergan let out a grunt of anguish. They had him. He would do anything to keep Livia from being victimized by this sick bastard.

They laughed. By Belatucadros, they all laughed.

15

L
IVIA COULDN’T BEAR
it any longer. He could survive what the sisters might do to him, but a man like Jergan would be changed forever by what Caligula could do, even if he survived it.

Everyone in the room would see her use her powers. It was against every tenet of the Rules that had governed her kind for millennia.

Livia closed her eyes, once.

It was the Rules or Jergan.

She took one long breath. She had seen a slave once who had been tortured to death carried out the back door of the palace and thrown into a cart like so much garbage. The image of his broken body hovered in her brain and would not be banished.

There was no choice, really.

It didn’t matter that her nature would be revealed, the Rules broken. It didn’t even matter that her plot might be undone. She would do the best she could to avoid those eventualities, but in the end they didn’t matter. She looked around.

She needed someone who was familiar with the palace. Slaves? But what slave would be allowed into the inner sanctum of the family? Not those who served at banquets,
surely. Asiaticus would know. He had drifted over to talk to Helion. But Asiaticus would never aid her.

Her eyes fell on Claudius, looking distinctly uncomfortable in this cauldron of lust.

“Gather the other senators and go home, Titus,” she murmured, rising. “The Guard won’t dare stop you if you all go together.”

“Don’t do anything you will regret, Livia,” he hissed.

But she was already moving off among the crowd. Several senators clustered together and pushed toward the door. Claudius had several cronies around him. That would not do.

“Claudius Drusus,” she said, at her most dulcet. “We have hardly had a moment to speak.”

He jerked around. “L-L-Livia Quintus L-Lucellus, I was s-surprised to s-see you on the Senate f-floor today.”

“Asiaticus arranged a personal escort from the Guard to the event,” she said. Let Claudius draw his own conclusions.

Claudius nodded, thoughtful. On the imperial dais, Caesonia had called for attendants to take Incitatus back to his stall. Livia had heard it was made of carved ivory and contained a golden manger. Caesonia was planning to leave. The Guards certainly wouldn’t stop the empress. The Praetorian Guards at the entrances were confronted by a group of senators, Titus among them, who had found safety in numbers. Claudius saw his opportunity and rose.

Livia put on her most seductive smile. “Do not go. I would be desolate.”

Claudius blinked at her warily. “P-perhaps another t-time.”

She took his arm. “But who knows what the fates have in store for us? There may be no other time.” She glanced to his friends. “Of course, your friends have other obligations,
do they not?” He looked around as though for assistance. His friends were smirking.

“Don’t let us interfere, old fellow,” one said.

“If ever you want to speak to me, Livia Quintus, just say the word.”

They melted away, one waving. Livia turned back to Claudius. He looked rather alarmed.

She leaned up to whisper in his ear, “I need your help.” She made it look like a caress. “I have no one else to ask.”

He relaxed. Apparently being asked for a favor was preferable to being invited to seduction. He glanced around and nodded to a curtain from which slaves emerged with trays of food. It didn’t look secluded, but Claudius had not survived the constant assassinations in the imperial family by being stupid. She followed at a discreet distance.

Claudius slipped through the curtain. After a moment, Livia followed. He was nowhere in sight, but a door stood slightly ajar on her right.

She found herself in some kind of storage room, filled with platters and goblets, finger bowls and intricately embroidered cloths to wipe one’s hands. It was lit with smoking lamps so the slaves could pick out what they needed from the stores. It smelled of the oil used on the platters to make them shine, and the underlying acrid smell of the metal itself. He turned on her. “Now, L-Livia Quintus, what is it y-you want?”

How to ask him? And why would he risk helping her? But there was no one else.

“The slave I freed has caught the attention of the imperial sisters.”

“I n-noticed. C-can he keep his m-mouth closed?”

“He won’t betray us.” She took a breath. “That’s why I can’t allow him to be tortured.”

“N-nothing you can d-do, I’m afraid.”

“I think Caesar has joined his sisters.” Claudius would know what that meant.

Claudius pursed his lips. “Then you’d b-better resign yourself.”

“No,” she hissed. “Jergan is an honorable man. He doesn’t deserve what Caesar will do.”

“R-Rome d-doesn’t deserve what Caesar d-does,” Claudius muttered. “That d-doesn’t change fact.”

“It does. I can get Jergan out.”

“For an h-hour.”

“No. I can free Rome from Caligula forever. You were right about me. And there are others with me. I’ll accelerate our plans. But first, I must free Jergan.”

“H-how?” Claudius examined her face. “I w-won’t be a p-party to some d-doomed plan.”

If he didn’t believe she could succeed, he would never help her. Claudius, the pragmatist. That’s how he’d stayed alive. Then she must show him her powers, since using them was the only way she could succeed. How much truth to tell him?
If
he would believe it. That was her kind’s great protection—humans never believed that vampires lived among them.

Tell him
, that voice that had grown inside her said.
It will be all right.

No. She had to show him. She reached for a platter. It was thick, made of beaten copper. She bent it double, and then doubled it again like it was paper between her palms. Then she crumpled it into a ball with one dainty hand. Her hands
were
dainty.

She glanced to Claudius. He had gone white in the dim room.

“I am not like you.” Would that be enough?

“Ob-obviously n-not.” He gathered himself. “But s-strength alone m-may not w-win the d-day.” His stutter
was worse, just as it was when Caesar had forced him to read the proclamation.

“There are other things about me. You do not want to know them.”

Fear reverberated behind his eyes. “W-what are y-you?”

“A woman. A woman who wants to save this man.” Claudius looked wary. That explanation wasn’t enough. She drew herself up. “I have been touched by the gods, Claudius. And what I am will help you free yourself from a cousin you hate, and Rome from a tyrant who makes her less than she can be.” Livia softened. “It is a burden I bear, to be different. Some people would say different is evil, at the very least, worse. I don’t believe that. I think differences can be used for good. Can you understand?” She knew he could. That’s why she said it.

She saw him frown and pressed her advantage. “Help me. Tell me where they are.”

“How will you get through the guards?”

He was back to being pragmatic, but now he was testing her plan. That was a victory of sorts. She dared not give vent to her relief.

“I can wrap darkness around myself. I can wrap darkness around Jergan, too.”

“I believe you are strong, Livia Quintus, but no one can command the elements.”

Livia ran her tongue over her lips. It was too late to draw back now. She called the power of her Companion and let the darkness whirl up to her waist. She saw his widening eyes. “Not evil, Claudius Drusus.” She held up a hand as though to stop his thought. “Not evil, just different.” She let the darkness seep away. “I am still Livia Quintus Lucellus. All I need to know is where Jergan is being held.”

Claudius mastered himself. She admired him for that.

Claudius nodded, thoughtful. “I have l-lived in the c-corners of life, unobtrusive. Th-that was my p-protection.” He was trying to decide.

“The center of the rotunda, speaking before the Senate, is not an unobtrusive corner.” She took a chance in reminding him of that.

He flushed in shame. “A-an aberration I did not seek.”

“It needn’t be.” She said it quietly. “You can be a force for progress.” If he had aspirations to be more than a joke, now was the time to prove it.

“Y-you are a S-Sibyil at the l-least.” He sucked air into his lungs. “What you n-need, Livia Q-Quintus, whatever you are, is a d-diversion.”

He pushed past her, limping. She followed. They wended their way through kitchens where brawny, sweating, half-naked slaves turned giant spits of meat over the fires, and women took countless loaves of bread from brick ovens. The place smelled of every kind of food, and spice and wine. It wasn’t surprising that the slaves and servants all bowed respectfully to Claudius. He was obviously patrician. But that he called many by name and thanked them as they opened doors was amazing. Claudius might be nobody to the royal family, but here he was valued. He knew his way here, where, she would wager, no other member of the imperial family had ever trod. Perhaps this was one of the corners where he had lived his life. They passed through storerooms and a steaming laundry. Everywhere slaves blessed him as he passed.

They emerged from a curtain back into the imperial section of the palace. Rustic tiled floors gave way to marble, iron straps on wooden doors to gold leaf and mosaics of lapis lazuli. Livia could not help but have faith that he knew where he was going.

He stopped abruptly and held up a hand.

They listened. Male voices, some rough laughter.

He limped to the wall and pressed his back against it. She slid up beside him. He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “The guards are in the next ch-chamber and your m-man and my cousins in the n-next after that.”

“How far to the inside of the room where they have Jergan?”

“F-fifty feet? Yes. Fifty f-feet.” He took her hand. “The guards know m-me. S-several have s-served as my b-bodyguard. When they t-turn to l-look at me, w-wrap your d-darkness.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“Do n-not thank me. If anything g-goes wrong I will v-vow I do n-not know you.”

She reached up to kiss his cheek. “You pretend to have no courage, but I know better.”

He looked at her seriously. “W-whatever you s-see in that r-room, j-just take him and g-go. Go f-far.”

She swallowed. The very thought of leaving Rome made her almost physically ill. She couldn’t think of that now. She had to get Jergan out of here.

You can do this. You will do this. You have done this. The voice inside her was reassuring.

“Hurry,” she adjured Claudius.

He turned and limped into the next room. “Am I l-late?”

There was a clack. Spears crossing over the door. Livia peered around the column.

“Consul Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus.” It was the cherub-faced guard.

“Open th-the d-door, Gratus, or I’ll m-miss everything.”

“The emperor does not wish to be disturbed, Consul.”

His voice held respect for Claudius. Kindness even. That was strange. Livia wondered whether Claudius’s common touch extended to the Praetorians who guarded him.

“D-do you ch-challenge a m-member of the imp-perial f-family?” Claudius’s stutter had gotten worse, but there was iron in his voice. Livia held her breath. What kind of a diversion could he make if they just turned him away at the door?

“No, Consul. I … I was just trying to save you the emperor’s anger.”

Claudius relented. “I know, boy. But there are things that must be done, anger or no anger.”

The young guard pursed his lips. Then he shook his head. “I can respect that.” He pointed to his fellows.

The spears clacked open.

“That’s b-better.”

“I tried to warn you, Consul. I beg you to remember that.” Gratus sounded sorry.

Now was the time.
Companion!
she called. An answering shiver of power ran up her veins. A film of red dropped over the world.

“Gaius,” she heard Claudius call. “Julia L-Lavilla. Have I m-missed the fun?”

More!
Livia shouted silently. And a whirling blackness rose around her.
Fifty feet
, she thought.
Fifty feet.
All went black. The familiar pain arced through her, making her gasp.

Then she sucked in breath as a new room appeared around her. She was in the shadows near a great bed, whose coverlets were twisted in disarray. Claudius was coming in through the door. All turned toward him, even the three guards with swords drawn. Dimly she noted a brazier burning with hot irons in it. Jergan was chained to two ornately
carved posts in the middle of the floor. She took in at a glance that he was sweating, and that there were welts across his chest and red weals on several places across his body. Julia stood in front of him, fondling his erect penis. A man Livia did not know was caught in the middle of removing his loincloth behind Jergan. He was erect as well. Was she too late? Caligula lay on a couch with Agrippina, watching, his own erection small but stiff.

“What do you mean by this, you drooling idiot?” Caesar said, rising on one elbow.

Get away from him, Julia.
She couldn’t steal Jergan with Julia so close.