A Fall of Water (27 page)

Giovanni sat, staring at Ziri for a moment as he tried to process the revelations the ancient had given them. Finally, he spoke. “Ziri, if you would leave us, please.”

Ziri gave a regal bow. “Of course.”

Beatrice sat next to him. Carwyn stood across the room. He could tell that some of the information had been new to his wife and friend, but not all.

He said, “I can see that much has been discovered and planned in my absence.”

Beatrice tried to interrupt. “Gio, we—”

He cut her off. “You have all made your plans, but now I am back. And I will tell you what I will do.”

Chapter Eighteen

Lake Maggiore, Switzerland

June 2012

Beatrice opened her mouth again, but Carwyn caught her eye with a warning glare. He shook his head slightly, so she shut her mouth.

“I am going back to Rome. I am going to find Livia and kill her. Then, I am going to find my son and kill him. I will take the book back, destroy it, and see to it that any of the elixir that has been made is destroyed. I will maintain my reputation so that others who threaten my family will fear me. If that means that I have to kill half of Rome, so be it. If that means I have to travel to Greece and kill the council there, I will.” His voice rose. “If that means that I have to spend the next hundred years killing, maiming, and burning the European immortal community to the ground, I will. I will not run and hide. I will not stand for others shielding me, and I will
not
stand for Livia to live while I walk the earth. Is that understood?”

Beatrice was speechless. She could handle Giovanni’s fiery anger, but the cold rage that poured off her husband was something she rarely encountered. Again, she opened her mouth to speak, but Carwyn spoke first.

“Fine, Gio.” Her eyes widened, but Carwyn glared her into silence before he continued. “You know you have my backing, as well as the support of Jean in France and Terry in London. The Germans may have a problem with it, but I have a feeling that you could make your case to Matilda. It’s too bad you’re married already. A political marriage could have solved that problem, but I’m sure you can work something out. Greece will be tricky, but they’re not strong enough to really oppose you once you control Rome.”

Beatrice’s head began to swim, and she felt Giovanni stiffen beside her. Carwyn just continued on in a deadly quiet voice. “I can secure the support of the Vatican. Emil Conti would be your most likely rival for power. We had planned on cultivating him as an ally, but that is easily cured. You’ll probably need to eliminate him and most of those under his aegis to avoid any future problems. A takeover in Rome is long overdue. Most of the other centers of power have switched to a new guard in the last hundred years or so. Rome was the only holdout. Once you’re established, you’ll need to start thinking about whom you want as a lieutenant. I have some ideas, but you might want to bring in entirely new people. After all, you are an outsider, so it wouldn’t be nearly as simple as an internal coup. Still, it’s manageable.”

She wanted to protest. Her heart was racing, and the words were on the tip of her tongue, but Carwyn just kept talking in a steady voice. “You’ll need to send Beatrice and Ben back to the States, of course. She’s strong, but as she’d be targeted constantly, her presence would be a distraction for you. She’ll be far safer in Los Angeles under Ernesto’s protection until things are stable. If everything goes well, in fifty years she’ll be by your side again, my friend.”

Carwyn finally leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Really, not all that long in the vast span of things. Excellent plan, Gio. Let me know when you want to leave.”

Giovanni shot out of his seat and across the room, plowing his fist into the wall and shouting, “Damn it!”

Carwyn said, “You want to blaze into Rome and take out Livia. That’s what you’re looking at. You know I’m right.”

She saw him glare. “I’ll hand it over to Conti.”

Carwyn snorted. “Brilliant plan. Conti will take it and then try to kill you. He’d have to, or no one would respect him, and he’d be battling rivals for the next hundred years.”

“I’ll…”

“What?” Carwyn rose and walked over to stand next to him. Beatrice was tempted to speak, but knew that Giovanni needed to reach the same conclusions they had weeks before.

Carwyn leaned closer and spoke softly. “What are you going to do, Gio? You want to kill Livia? You get Rome. That’s the way it works. You’ll be embroiled in politics for the next three hundred years, at least.”

“I have no desire to rule Rome.”

He took a deep breath. “Then you need to listen to Beatrice’s plan.”

Giovanni pulled his fist out of the wall and turned around. He leaned against it and crossed his arms. “Livia still needs to die.”

Beatrice finally spoke. “She will. And hopefully, you’ll be able to kill her, but this needs to come from someone in Rome, unless we want the city to descend into chaos that you’ll be expected to clean up. In the long run, it’s the easiest way. Emil Conti has been making moves to return the city to a more republican form of leadership for years. He’s sensible. Stable. Given the right circumstances, he could take over and we wouldn’t be stuck with it. We just need to create the right opportunity for him.”

Giovanni smirked. “You sound so very American right now, my dear.”

“Hey.” She shrugged. “We do love our revolutions. But this time, we’ll try to make it slightly less bloody.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “What’s your plan?”

“Dez and Ben have discovered where she’s been producing it. It’s a cosmetics factory in Bulgaria. We need you and Carwyn to go shut it down. Find the humans she’s been working with. Find out how much they know. From what Ziri remembers and looking at Lucien Thrax’s condition, we know that this elixir is harmful to immortals, but she’s been circulating rumors that she has some great revelation. A secret that will make Rome the center of the world again and make her even wealthier. We need to get people doubting her. Questioning her intentions. If we can make people distrust her—”

“We can try, but who will believe us?” Giovanni shrugged. “She’s charismatic. Powerful. Even if we find out the elixir is poison, she could play it as if she was a victim. She’s very good at manipulation.”

Carwyn spoke up. “If we can find Arosh, Ziri’s certain we’ll find Kato. If we can find Kato, we’ll know the truth about the effects.”

“The truth doesn’t matter,” Giovanni shouted. “It only matters what people believe.”

“Then we’ll
make
them believe. Listen Gio, she either knows what the effects are, or we’ll make it sound like she does and didn’t care. Saba, the greatest healer in our history, killed everyone who had taken it.
Killed
them, Gio. Ziri thinks the truth will be damaging enough for her allies to abandon her. Once that has happened, Conti can step in with minimal conflict, because he is the obvious successor. There will be some bloodshed, of course, but we’ll be able to let him take the lead so that he’s the one stuck with the city. We’ll be backing him up, instead of acting as usurpers. Jean and Terry will throw their support behind him. The Vatican likes him already, which will lend him further legitimacy with the younger Roman vampires, most of whom identify as Catholic. It’s the easiest way.”

“You’re forgetting that we have nothing as proof.
Nothing
. We have guesses and the memories of one of the vampires involved. We have one sick vampire. Memories and suppositions. Even Lucien doesn’t know what’s really going on with his own health.” Giovanni paced the room.

“And then you have Livia! She has a lost secret. The elixir of life. And no doubt she’ll have mocked up some kind of lab results to make this elixir look legitimate. She’ll make it sound like we’re trying to stir things up against her, and no one is going to trust us.”

Beatrice murmured, “Well... that’s why you’re going to have to bring Kato back.”

She could have heard a pin drop.

“Oh, of course!” He threw up his hands. “So, not only are Carwyn and I supposed to
find
these two vampires—who aren’t supposed to exist—but we need to bring them back to Rome, as well!”

Beatrice forced a smile. “Ziri’s pretty sure Kato will like you.”

Giovanni turned to Carwyn. “Tell me she’s joking.”

“She’s not joking. Ziri says Kato would love you.” Carwyn slapped him on the shoulder and moved across the room.

Giovanni’s eyes darted between him. “Are we forgetting about the deadliest fire immortal in history? Are we forgetting about Arosh? If Arosh took Kato away for his own protection, then I’m fairly sure he’s not going to be pleased about being found.”

“Well, that’s true.” Beatrice nodded. “And that’s why
you
need to go.”

“Tesoro…” He rushed to her side and took her hands. “I’m very strong. I’m very powerful, Yes, I could probably hold my own against him in battle for longer than any other, but
no one
is as powerful as Arosh. He is the oldest fire vampire in immortal legend. He ruled Persia and Eastern Europe for thousands of years. I stand very little chance of actually making him listen to me!”

“But Ziri says he hated Andros.”

His face was frozen. “That just means he’ll kill me faster.”

“But what if you tell him you killed him? We’re pretty sure he’ll listen then. Also, Ziri has a letter for you guys to take.”

“Oh, of course. A letter!” Giovanni brushed a hand over his exasperated face. “Do we even have an idea where he might be after all this time?”

Carwyn said, “Ziri has the location that Saba gave him when he first decided to kill Andros. It’s somewhere in the Caucasus.”

Giovanni blinked. “So, we have the location that a notoriously vague immortal gave a friend over five hundred years ago to track down two vampires who have managed to remain hidden from the immortal community for a thousand years?”

Beatrice cleared her throat. “Well, if you’re only going to look at the down side—”

“Forgive me if I am less than optimistic about our chances of finding them.”

Carwyn said, “Do you really think that, once they’d found a good hiding place, they’d move? You know how the old ones are. Five hundred years is little to them. They’re probably tucked into the Northern Caucasus, happily feeding on the local population and playing chess.”

Giovanni stared at his friend.

“See that,” Beatrice said. “That’s his skeptical face, Carwyn.”

“I’m familiar with it.”

Her husband said, “I agree that I would probably have the best chance to find him. And you’d need a fire immortal to approach Arosh if you’re going to get close enough to deliver any sort of message. A female would be better, but... it might work. We will need a letter from Ziri. And we trust him?” His eyes turned back to Beatrice.

She nodded. “We do. Tenzin vouches for him and so does Lucien.”

Giovanni sat for a moment, thinking. Then he sat next to her on the couch. “The Thracian has always been trustworthy.”

She could see him begin to really consider their plan, and she felt herself relax. “So?”

“So Carwyn and I will go shut down this factory in Bulgaria and then find Arosh and Kato, who are in…” He looked toward Carwyn.

“It sounds like the mountains in the Republic of Georgia.”

“Lovely. And after we avoid being killed, we’re going to convince Arosh and Kato to come out of hiding in order to go to Rome and testify that Livia knew about this elixir and whatever harm it can cause. Which we’re still not sure of.”

Carwyn said, “It would have to be damn serious for Saba to kill any human they had tested it on and for Arosh and Kato to fake their deaths.”

“Agreed.” Giovanni paused, and she could see his mind churning. “So while we’re doing this, Beatrice and Tenzin will be stirring up revolution in Rome?”

She nodded. “I’ll be getting closer to Emil Conti. He’s already displeased with the actions Livia took against you. The population seems to be split, but given some encouragement, he could probably turn the tide against her. He’s already becoming more popular. He senses an opportunity, and I’m surprisingly… well, I’m kind of popular in Rome.”

Carwyn said, “Everyone is enamored of the new girl Livia doesn’t like.”

Beatrice grinned. “I’m driving her crazy. Tenzin and I killed a bunch of her guards and she couldn’t really do anything about it.”

Giovanni sighed and rubbed his temples. “So, I’m going to let you and Tenzin create havoc in Rome and destabilize a dangerous and powerful vampire even further while I go off on a dubious errand to find two legends who I’m still not entirely convinced even exist anymore.”

Carwyn walked over and slapped him on the back. “Yes, you are. Tenzin and B are brilliant and between the two of them, along with some help from Lucien and Ziri, they’re going to be fine.”

Giovanni reached up and touched her cheek. “And we will have to say good-bye.”

Beatrice blinked back tears. “For now.”

“We have to say good-bye
tonight
.”

Carwyn cleared his throat. “And I think that’s my cue to go. Gio, I’m going to procure a car for us. Hopefully, something older that you won’t break. I’ll be back later. B, I’ll see you later, darling girl.” He leaned down, brushed a kiss across her cheek, and left the room.

As soon as they were alone, Giovanni pulled her into his lap.

“I still don’t like this.”

“It’s either this, or we face you killing Livia in a bloody coup as an outsider and becoming even more tangled in politics for the next few hundred years. Do you want that?”

“No.”

“Then...” She tucked her head into his neck. “This is the best way.”

“Do you feel safe? Around Livia? Around Lorenzo? He’s still there, isn’t he?”

“Yes, and I don’t like it, but I’ll be fine. Tenzin is teaching me patience.”

“Yes, she’s good at that. I remember once we hid for over six months in a cave in Russia waiting for a target. She played this dice game against the wall of the cave constantly. Almost drove me mad.”