Giovanni (Blood Brothers Book 6) (9 page)

Carefully, he bathed the sweat, blood and bodily fluid. It was a trial to wash between her legs without losing his mind. His incisors descended again and he couldn’t retract them. Heat suffused his body but it wasn’t the good kind. Something was happening to him that he couldn’t explain. When he finished cleaning Sydney he dressed her but still she remained dead to the world.

He had to revive her soon or he feared she might not wake.

Giovanni knew it was a long shot but he needed to contact Steel who could probably help Sydney.

After throwing on his pajama bottoms, he went through his duffle bag and pulled out the phone he didn’t think he’d need to use. It only had a few numbers on it and Steel was one of them. Giovanni prayed that the warlock would answer.

He tapped his foot against the floor impatiently as the phone rang on Steel’s end but there was no answer. Just when he was on the verge of hanging up there was an answer.

“Giovanni, I’m surprised to hear from you,” the warlock greeted.

“I need your help. Right now.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Something has gone wrong with the purge. I’m turning back into a vampire.”

“Is that a bad thing? We said that being human was possibly temporary.”

“I could deal with this if I were able to control my powers. But I can’t and something bad has happened.”

“What?”

“There’s a woman. While we were… Anyway, I took too much blood and now she won’t wake up. If I take her to a hospital they may ask too many questions. I don’t have access to the database that would tell me what doctors are there who would be discrete about something like this. Is there a way you can get here?”

“Are you in the States?”

“Yes.”

Steel let out what sounded like a frustrated sigh. “I’m unfortunately in London at the moment, but the twins are stateside. Give me your address and I’ll reach out to them. Hopefully they’ll be close to make it there in time. I just need five minutes and I’ll call you back to confirm.”

“Hurry.” Giovanni clicked off without waiting for a response. It was probably rude to end the call so abruptly when he was the one who was in need of help but all he could think of was Sydney.

He rushed back to her side and stroked the side of her face. If he couldn’t save her, he not only wouldn’t be able to forgive himself, he didn’t think he could live with the guilt.

Chapter Nine

Ten minutes.

He was told the twins would arrive within that time. It was the longest ten minutes in his life. As he waited, Sydney’s heartbeat grew fainter. He knelt by the bed with his head pressed against Sydney’s body. How could he have lost control like that? One minute he’d experienced his greatest pleasure and the next he was draining her like a savage beast. Holding, kissing and touching Sydney had been beyond anything in his dreams. Not only had the reality lived up to the fantasy, it had surpassed it.

The second he’d slid inside of her he knew without a doubt that she was his bloodmate. Giovanni didn’t think he’d ever have one after so many centuries but he’d found her. The problem was, he couldn’t claim her. With all the changes going on within him, he didn’t know if what happened earlier wouldn’t happen again. Besides, he was too damaged. Sydney deserved so much more than he could offer. He’d done too many bad things in his life, hurt a lot of people.

Besides losing Adonis, one of his biggest regrets was hurting his friend Lilianna. She had been a loyal companion over the past several decades. She’d been his confidant, friend and at times, when they both had itches to scratch, his lover. On his end it had never been anything more between them except a strong friendship but Lilianna’s feelings for him had been stronger. If he had been a different person, he would have turned her away and allowed her to forge a new path for herself instead of helping him in his pursuits. He’d become so dependent on her help that he’d selfishly kept her around. She would still be alive today if he had only done the right thing.

That was two deaths he had on his hands. How could he move on with his life and find happiness when two people who had meant so much to him couldn’t? With that in mind, if the twins could save Sydney, he vowed to leave and never look back. Nya would have to understand. A far as he could tell, Sydney was doing just fine without his interference. While Dylan concerned him, Giovanni figured he could hire someone else to take residence in the house and keep an eye on things in case anything got out of control.

“I see we made it here just in time. Her heartbeat is slowing down.”

Giovanni raised his head to see Cutter and Blade Romanov had appeared from out of thin air. Even though they were identical, it was amazing how much alike they looked. Usually there was some kind of identifying detail that made it possible to tell most twins apart but these two were carbon copies of each other. If weren’t for the fact that they wore their hair differently, Giovanni wouldn’t have known the difference.

He stood up and raked his fingers through his hair in agitation. “It’s been more than ten minutes, what took you so long?”

“We were several hundred miles away. Teleporting takes a massive amount of strength and concentration,” Cutter, the short-haired twin answered, stepping forward. He walked to where Sydney lay and pressed his hand against her forehead. “We can do a transfusion. Blade and I can infuse some of our blood into her. There will be no side effects besides the healing properties.”

Blade joined his brother and took a knee.

Giovanni watched on anxiously as the brothers each took one of Sydney’s hands and began to chant in unison. Even though Giovanni had practiced black magic for years it was nothing like the natural powers performed by a witch or warlock. Their joined hands began to glow and the twins fell silent.

Giovanni bit his lip to keep himself from demanding that they hurry but he realized these types of spells took total concentration. All the while he watched anxiously, willing Sydney to give some indication that she would be all right.

After several minutes, Cutter and Blade released her hands and stood. “It’s done. It may take a few minutes for her body to restore itself but she shouldn’t be any worse for wear once she gains consciousness. We gave her a sleep suggestion at the end of the spell so she won’t wake until the sun rises.”

Giovanni sat next to Sydney and placed a light kiss on her lips. Words couldn’t express how relieved he felt. Because of his fuck up, she could have died. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered to her.

Sydney mumbled something in her sleep but other than that she made no other indication that she’d heard him.

He then turned to the two warlocks who looked at them with mild curiosity on their stoic faces. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if something happened to her.”

Cutter nodded. “You’re welcome.”

“I’m going to return her to her room.”

“It’s okay. We’ll wait. There’s something we need to discuss with you. Don’t worry about making too much noise when you take Sydney to her room, the rest of the residents won’t wake up until the morning. We placed an enchantment on the house before entering so we wouldn’t draw any unwanted attention,” Blade explained.

Giovanni was thankful that he’d put Sydney’s clothes back on. Even if he had no right to feel this way, it bothered him that anyone else would see her so intimately. Although the twins said they’d put a spell on the house, he was still careful to not make any noise as he delivered Sydney to her room. After gently placing her in the bed, he removed her robe and then tucked her in. He dropped one last kiss on her lips, believing it would be his last.

With a heavy heart, he returned to his room and closed the door behind him. Cutter leaned against the wall, his expression blank, while Blade sat in the chair by the desk. His face was also expressionless. Giovanni didn’t know the Romanovs well beyond the time they worked together to take down Adonis and his mother and when they’d helped him with his purge. His connection with them was tenuous at best even though they had a relative in common. But he knew he could trust them. They were strong allies to have in one’s corner.

“I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done tonight, and I apologize for being short with you when the two of you arrived. As I’m sure you could tell, I was frantic with worry for Sydney. I don’t know what came over me. I just…as I was telling Steel, one minute I’m having the most incredible experience of my life with her and the next, I’m draining her dry. I’ve never lacked control like that since I was a baby vampire.”

“That makes sense,” Blade replied.

Giovanni raised a brow. “What do you mean it makes sense? What are you talking about? This wasn’t one of the things we discussed before you performed the spell on me.”

“I know,” the warlock continued. “We told you all that we knew about it at the time. It’s not something that’s commonly used. To my recollection, the purge has only ever been done as a counter spell; usually one who has practiced the dark arts for as long as you have doesn’t willingly volunteer to relinquish their powers. As far as any of us knew the two biggest possibilities would be death or you becoming mortal. Whether that mortality was permanent couldn’t be determined at the time.”

Cutter pushed himself from the wall and walked to the center of the room. “We wanted to research it further just in case something were to occur.”

“Well it did,” Giovanni interrupted. “What did you find out?”

Cutter exchanged a look with his brother before answering. “What we learned was that the length of mortality depended on whether you were born or made a vampire. Since you were made, it should have been longer. When Steel told us what had happened it baffled us, but then we figured it might be because you’re over seven hundred years old. You’ve been a vampire far longer than you’ve been human. But there’s also another factor that we didn’t piece together until we saw you with your Sydney. You know that mates are important to immortals. When we find our mates, we find the other half of our souls. It’s clear she’s your bloodmate and meeting her might have sparked your body into these changes prematurely. What’s likely to happen is you’ll gain all your powers back, your strength, the heightened senses and so forth. But there will be some complications.”

“I’ve already experience them. Didn’t you see what I did to her? I couldn’t fucking control myself.”

“Exactly,” Cutter agreed. “As you regain your abilities you won’t be able to manage them at first. They’ll grow erratic. You vampires have a thing you suffer through when you’re denied the thing you most require.”

“
La morte dolci
,” Giovanni whispered. He’d never experienced it before but he’d seen other vampires suffer from it. It wasn’t pretty and often times those dealing with it left a trail of destruction in their wake. This definitely firmed his resolve to leave here and never look back. He couldn’t trust himself to be in this house and put Sydney in danger. He released a heavy sigh. “Do you know how long it will last?”

“We’re not sure,” Blade answered. “It could take a few days or even weeks.”

“Okay.” Giovanni took a seat on his bed and dropped his head into his hands. He wasn’t sure how he felt about becoming a vampire again. Despite being one for most of his life he believed that being human would be part of his punishment, but now he would once again live forever. He couldn’t take his own life because that would be the easy way out. He deserved every bit of misery coming his way. “Well, I thank you both for coming and helping me out of my predicament. I should probably start packing my belongings. I need to get out of here before Sydney stirs.”

Blade stood up. “I know why you feel you have to leave but there may be a reason why you should stay.”

Giovanni shook her head. “Don’t tell me I have to stay for Sydney’s sake. She’s the reason I have to go. I can’t place her in danger again. Tonight was just a preview of what I’m capable of. The next time you two might not be around to bail me out of trouble.”

“Maybe not but there’s a good reason why you should stay. I’d only recommend going if you place someone in the house who you trust,” Cutter countered.

Though it was Giovanni’s plan to do just that, there seemed to be urgency in the warlock’s words. “Why?”

“You probably don’t feel it because your full powers haven’t returned, but there’s dark magic here. In this house. I can’t tell the source unless we do a thorough inspection from top to bottom, but it’s powerful and if I’m not mistaken, someone has already used it on Sydney. When I touched her there was something distorted in her spirit. A malevolent force means her harm. I understand you want to keep away from Sydney but someone should keep an eye on her.”

His heart raced. Who here could possibly want to harm Sydney? Other than Dylan the rest of the boarders seemed harmless. Now he understood why Nya had sent him here. She must have felt it too when she had last seen Sydney. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “This is why Nya wanted me to come here.”

Both twins seemed to come to life at the mention of his friend’s name. “You’ve seen Nya? What does she have to do with all this?” Blade demanded.

“Has she been here?” Cutter questioned him sounding every bit as eager as his brother.

When they’d last spoke, Nya had mentioned the twins being a bit of a thorn in her side. It was obvious their interest in her wasn’t simply mild curiosity.

“I spoke to her some weeks ago. She’s the reason I’m here. Nya has been keeping an eye on Sydney and her family for years. They were her last living descendants so she had a vested interest to look out for them. Then when Sydney lost her family Nya became even more protective of her, but she had to stop her visits because Adonis was having her watched. So she entrusted me to keep an eye on Sydney. I watched her like I promised I would but when I first saw Sydney, I couldn’t approach her like I told Nya I would. I think even then I knew she was my bloodmate. I couldn’t complicate my life at the time. I felt that just keeping tabs on her was sufficient even though I told Nya that I had actually met Sydney first hand to reassure her. The last time I talked to her, she was insistent that I come down here and pose as a boarder. She wouldn’t tell me why, but she must have sensed something the last time she was here.”

“But you didn’t feel it during your last visit?” Cutter asked. “You were still a vampire then were you not?”

“I was but like I said, I kept my distance. Nya has actually been inside this house. She pretended to be a salesperson so it gave her an opportunity to speak with Sydney. Nya didn’t elaborate beyond that.”

“And have you spoken to Nya lately?” Blade wanted to know.

“No. I’m not sure when I’ll see her again, but she knows how to get in contact with me.”

“Do you know how to get in contact with her?” Blade persisted.

Giovanni raised a brow. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t share that information. Look, it didn’t escape my notice the last time we were all together that you two have taken an interest in her but you’ve got to know, she was Adonis’s bloodmate. She’s still dealing with that. You two are going to have to give her time.”

Cutter flared his nostrils obviously not pleased with Giovanni’s words. “How much time would you suggest?”

“As much time as she needs. And for the record, she’s worth more than just a fling so if that’s all you two have in mind where she’s concerned I’d suggest you leave her alone.”

Blade narrowed his eyes to ice blue slits. “You seem to have a pretty low opinion of us considering you just needed our help.”

“And I appreciate what you’ve done. But Nya is my friend. I’ve known her for a long time. She might wear a tough exterior but on the inside she’s quite sensitive. I will not have either of you hurt her.”

Cutter crossed the room to stand in front of Giovanni. “Trust us when we say that’s the last thing we’d ever do to her. We’ve been looking for her actually. But we lost her trail a few weeks ago. It’s like she vanished into thin air.”