The Dragon Coin (4 page)

So, maybe he would draw curious looks after all.

“And, as for your habit of scrutinizing my attire, it will be the blue-eyed Jew in the prime of handsomeness that will always upstage the quiet Celt,” he continued, perhaps hoping his telepathic peek inside my head would temporarily shut down my need to analyze and define everything around me. “But to my original point, I told you Dracul’s pull and worsening voyeurism would get stronger the closer we came to his stomping grounds.”

“Oh, goody…I hope he leaves me in peace when I need a piss in Budva. I’ll try harder to enjoy the sightseeing before we board our two o’clock flight to Montenegro.”

“Well, you should give it your utmost effort, since you’re the one who suggested an afternoon flight so we could catch a few sights. During the last one hundred years, I’ve been here much more frequently than you, Judas. Other than a few new art exhibits, there’s nothing I’m dying to see this morning.”

“No curiosity about the old neighborhood?”

He chuckled. “Truthfully, I’ve seen it twice since the latest turn of the century. There’s no reason to see it again this soon. Besides the old walls near where our villa once stood were dismantled to make way for a wider road back in two-thousand-one, leaving nothing more to remind me of Claudia and Albinus.”

The laughter died quickly, and it brought to mind a particularly painful year for Roderick in 292 A.D. Claudia died while giving birth to Albinus’s younger brother, Octavian. The death of the woman he loved more than any other has been particularly difficult for Roderick to heal from. I believe he may never fully recover. As for Albinus, he remained in Rome with his maternal grandfather when we moved on to Crete, and later died fighting under Constantine.

“We can skip it, if you’d like,” I told him, compassionately. “There are other things I’d like to check out instead, and I’m game for visiting the exhibits you mentioned in lieu of forgoing everything else.”

“You won’t feel cheated?”

Suddenly, the image of the wife I had back then popped into my awareness. Her name was Fulvia, and she was a few years older than me. As those following my ongoing saga should certainly appreciate, the fact she continued to age while I remained young led to serious discord in our relationship. Fulvia was among the first to accuse me of dabbling in sorcery. Romantic love was tenuous for me in those days, and nearly impossible to sustain under such suspicions. I was more than willing to leave her behind when we left for Crete.

“No, I don’t believe I will,” I advised, while still picturing Fulvia, and her incessant grilling about my youthfulness and other traits she found annoying.

“Very good. If you are finished, I would like to get started,” said Roderick. “A morning’s worth of entertainment will help clean the palate of painful distractions, and perhaps lessen the dread of our upcoming rendezvous with Dracul.”

I couldn’t agree less. But in light of the fact he might very well be in the afterlife before this day ended, I decided to make sure I remained a good sport until we were back on a plane to Budva. I downed my mimosa and picked up a croissant to take with me, and we hailed a taxi for the Palazzo Altemps. Two of the exhibits were held there, and upon Roderick’s advisement that this is one of the better museums the locals favor, I warmed up to the idea of spending a few hours admiring what is considered ‘an entrancing collection of classical sculptures’.

The artistry was stunning, even without considering the featured Renaissance collections we eventually visited. It was indeed the perfect distraction, and the additional ancient jewelry and coin collections from the reign of Trajan were equally fascinating. From there, we spent our last hour and a half browsing the artifacts on display at the Museo Nazionale dell’Alto Medioevo. Viewing familiar weaponry encrusted with jewels brought back a mixture of fond and not so fond memories from the years preceding the Crusades, and almost capped our museum excursion splendidly.

Yet, I didn’t expect to see other, more recent, items on display. These were attributed to the period when Vlad Tepes masqueraded as a pious arm of the Vatican. Everything from jeweled capes, that he and others had used to adorn themselves, to swords and daggers carried by Dracul himself were on display. Surely, some of you might question whether or not the articles were in fact the very ones he held close to his person. But no two weapons in the collection were the same, and I recognized slight flaws in craftsmanship. Hell, after seeing the daggers up close on several occasions, I had never forgotten the gleaming sapphires, rubies, and diamonds encrusted upon the hilts, glistening in the fiery glow of torches and the blacksmith’s furnaces in the Inquisition dungeons. The blades were often heated to an orange glow to make it more painful when slicing away skin and severing delicate body parts. Not to mention the cauterization extended the torture sessions before a victim would expire.

“At least there are no impaling poles lying about, bearing jewels encrusted along the length,” joked Roderick, obviously privy to my thoughts. “The longer dagger looks identical to the one carried by Dracul.”

“Yes, it certainly does.” It was damned near impossible to look away, as Roderick tugged on my sleeve to pull my attention to other artifacts from the same general time period. “Certainly you didn’t know beforehand that we would encounter such items, or did you?”

“No, I didn’t,” he advised. “I’m beginning to wonder if his influence forged the attraction to come here in the first place.”

“But, we decided to come here while flying over the Atlantic,” I said. I could tell my tone sounded on edge. “I didn’t feel the old familiar tricks from the bastard until early this morning, after we retired. Besides, how would he know what buttons to push to get you to consider this visit off the beaten path?”

“It’s easier than you think, and we have seen his cleverness before. And, Comte and even Racco have used similar tactics, though for the better good. Especially, when trying to make a lasting impression for a message they deem important.”

“So, it is sorcery, then?”

“Yes, that and an acute understanding of how subtle illusions can be melded together to create a much bigger one. Think of it as a massive hallucination.”

“Sounds like bullshit.”

“No,
smells
like bullshit…or your upper lip.” He chuckled, grasping my shoulder to ensure his jest was understood to be made entirely in fun. “My biggest concern is the scale and reach of Dracul’s illusions. He’s had centuries to prepare and scheme for us, to
practice
for this moment. Believe me, my friend, our enemy has looked forward to this reunion with anticipation for a very long time.”

I nodded thoughtfully to Roderick’s words, intent on absorbing the entire message. Much of what he related was new, at least in the sense I’d never fully considered the possibility of Dracul setting up an elaborate trap for us. A trap extending far beyond the barbaric mind I recalled, and I now understood with chagrin and regret that I had underestimated his cunningness and intelligence.

It was what I thought about most as we drove to Rome’s busiest airport, Leonardo da Vinci/Flumicino International. Neither of us spoke much after leaving the museum and picking up our luggage from the hotel. As we approached the main terminal, my phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Pops? Where in the
hell
are you?!”

Alistair. My kid sounded as upset as I had expected. Actually, that’s not quite true. What I expected was for him to be screaming at me in overflowing rage, after I left without answering any of the questions he had bombarded Roderick and me with two nights earlier, at the gala.

“Hi Ali,” I said calmly. “I’m in Rome taking care of personal business.”

“Is that right, Pops? Would this be personal business of a coin-collecting nature?”

I could almost feel him tighten his grip on his handset, which I gathered from the number he called me from was the latest Samsung device he purchased a month earlier. I’d hate for the damned thing to crumble from rage, or slip from his grasp and the Gorilla Glass screen explode on the upstairs balcony floor. That’s where he was at the moment, based on the road traffic noise surrounding him, and Beatrice’s calls to him in the background, begging him to keep some ‘promise’. Maybe it would be best if he did have such a mishap. In that case, I wouldn’t answer my phone again until, or unless, we survived our upcoming encounter with Dracul.

“This isn’t an excursion to collect a coin,” I told him, drawing a sharp glance from Roderick. “It’s something I should’ve taken care of long before you, or even your mother, were born. But, I am taking care of it right now.”

“Mother told me everything,” he said, his tone lowered slightly while his voice still shook with anger. “She said you’re going to meet Dracul, and I’m not sure I even believe that isn’t code for someone else. But you’ve gone to the Mediterranean to meet somebody and damned if I don’t believe you’ve decided to ditch me for some undisclosed, selfish reason!”

“Ali, I’m
not
ditching you at all. I’m protecting you!”

Honestly, it felt like a knife had cut through my soul. Beatrice betrayed my confidence, and yet, it wasn’t a fatal sin. Lord knows my boy can be an incorrigible handful when he gets riled up.

“Ahh, cut the
bullshit, Dad!”

Dad? Alistair never uses that name, except in the ruse we used to play on others.

“I’m not bullshitting you, son!” I responded, finding it almost impossible to control my own temper. Roderick shot me another look, and I wasn’t sure if it was a warning to watch the sharpness in my tone, or because I had just repeated the same lie, in a sense, about collecting a coin. “Dracul is real…very,
very
real! If I don’t find a way to stop him now, he
will
come for you, Amy, and your mother. I will
die
before I let that happen!”

Silence on the other end, and if not for the continued sounds of traffic flowing sixty feet below him, I would’ve assumed he hung up.

“Sure, whatever, Pops,” he said, unapologetically. I could hear the pain in his tone…almost as if I’d broken his heart. My heart began to feel like candy glass about to shatter. “Go ahead and have your fun out there, wherever you really are, and be sure to say ‘hi’ for me to Roderick. Yeah, you two take care, and when you get back to the states, Amy and I will be looking forward to an update on your frigging
bullshit trip!”

The line went dead before I could respond further. The oppressive weight that had been steadily worsening seemed to grow twice as heavy as it settled upon my entire being. Numb to my core, I barely acknowledged Roderick’s polite nudge when we reached our destination.

Chapter Five

There wasn’t time to mourn the conversation with my beloved son. Our flight to the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica, left at 2:08 p.m., and we took our seats with a mere four minutes to spare. A much smaller plane, since the flight over the Adriatic Sea was only an hour and a half in duration, the difference between first class and business class was negligible. However, given Roderick’s unusual height, we’ve always opted for first class unless traveling by private jet.

For this small jaunt, the extra space was good for pondering what had taken place, and also reflecting upon the dangerous unknowns ahead. Of course, it all felt hellish to me at the moment. Beatrice had broken her promise to not tell our boy what I was up to, and as a result, his feelings had been severely hurt. Yes, love would likely soothe and quickly heal the wounds the three of us had incurred, but the healing wouldn’t begin before Roderick’s and my safe return to Virginia.

“He wasn’t calling you from my place, was he?” asked Roderick, after studying me quietly for a few minutes.

“No, they hadn’t left yet,” I said. “And, I doubt they will now. At least not Alistair, and if he doesn’t go, then neither will Amy or Beatrice.”

“It’s too dangerous for them to remain in the condo, as you know,” said Roderick, reaching for his phone. “As soon as we are able, I’ll send an email message to Margolise over the plane’s WiFi network. Do you trust me?

I didn’t like the way that sounded. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t fear me, my brother,” he said. “I’d like to call in a favor to have a car and enough men to convince your son to travel to Abingdon. Beatrice and Amy should be easier marks to convince if Ali agrees to go first.”

“There can’t be any physical coercion involved,” I said, unable to mute the menacing tone in my voice. “That would be bad.”

“Why do you always threaten me when you feel insecure?” Roderick eyed me impishly. True to form, he rarely takes my threats to heart. “I’ll disguise their abduction as an urgent move to get them to safety, maybe even use our present threatened status as the motivator to get them to leave Ali’s condo and journey to the fortress. After all, if Dracul does subdue either of us, he won’t stop. His need for vengeance is unquenchable, and he will seek to satisfy it with Ali’s and Beatrice’s blood, possibly Amy’s blood, too.”

“Yes, that’s my assumption as well.”

“Once Ali sees the seriousness of the situation, I believe he’ll come around.”

As intuitive as Roderick is, I thought he was incredibly naïve about this. Alistair wouldn’t react well to being manipulated, whether by words or by force. If anything, it would make him much more inclined to pursue us. Thank the Almighty I never mentioned our final destination of Montenegro to Beatrice. Otherwise, my boy and possibly his fiancée would arrive in Budva by tomorrow afternoon.

“So you think,” whispered Roderick, glancing out the passenger window next to his seat.

“What?”

“You know well enough,” he said, eyeing me wearily. “Just see how it goes after I reach my contacts.”

I nodded thoughtfully, while throwing up a mental shield in hopes it would hinder his invasion into my head. I had far too much to consider without fighting off his probing, and unwanted, sentience.