A Hidden Fire

He quickly put everything back in its place, keeping an ear open to listen for anyone entering the reading room while he was out of sight.  He noted the meticulous organization of the document shelves and the empty spaces where the boxes needed to be placed and the faint honeysuckle scent of her that lingered in the small room.  For a brief moment, he considered simply taking the letters that were his, but he brushed the temptation aside and focused on the present danger.  By the time he slipped out of the stacks, Beatrice had shut down the computers, grabbed her bag, and turned off the lights.

They walked down the hall together and silently made their way downstairs.  She let him guide her toward his Mustang, and he unlocked the door for her, pausing before he opened it.

“Beatrice—”

“I know it’s not really your fault,” she murmured.  “If anyone’s, it’s my dad’s, though I’m sure he didn’t plan on being attacked by a vampire when he went to Italy.  You were just the closest one here, so it was easy to blame you.”

He was surprised by her apology, but felt an unfamiliar tension ease when he heard it.

“Are you really sorry you met me?” he asked in a low voice.

She paused and glanced up at him in the dim lights of the parking lot before she reached out to grab the door handle, opening it for herself.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

He took surface streets to her grandmother’s house, trying to give her time to collect herself before she saw Isadora.

“So he’s really your son?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Why on earth did you turn him?  Was he always so awful?”

Giovanni frowned.  “He wasn’t—no, he wasn’t always like this.  As a child, he was almost timid.  He hadn’t had an easy life.  I thought I was doing the right thing when I did it.  There was a time that I had a kind of affection for him.  I had hoped with guidance, he would… Well, he had his own ideas about immortal life at a very young age.  We only stayed together for around five years before we parted ways.”

“Has he done this before?  Has he tried to, I don’t know, provoke you?”

“No.  I know his reputation, of course, but we’ve spent hundreds of years avoiding each other.  I’m starting to realize what a mistake that was.”

“And he has your books?  Your own son stole your books and letters from you?”

Giovanni nodded.  “Before I turned him, he told me they had been lost.  He told me that my properties were intact, but that my library had been ransacked and destroyed.  It was during the time of Savaranola in Florence.  It wasn’t hard to believe.  There was so much lost.  I had to trust him.  There was a time that I couldn’t be around people like I can now.”

“Why?  The blood thing or the fire thing?”

He hesitated before he answered.  “Either.  Both.  There were…many reasons.  Can we talk about something other than my past, please?”

He saw her cross her arms from the corner of his eyes and angry tears came to her eyes.  “Well, it seems like your past is affecting a lot of my future, Gio.  So maybe I feel like it’s kind of my business at this point.”

Biting back a curse, he gripped the steering wheel a little harder too hard and heard the plastic crack.  Damn.

“I’ll tell you what you need to know, just not right now.  I’ll take care of this, Beatrice, but you’re staying with me for a while.”

She snorted.  “I am not.  I have finals and classes and all sorts of shit to do.  You’re not locking me up in your house.”

He frowned, irritated that she had predicted him so accurately.  She was probably correct, and he didn’t want to interfere with her completing her classes unless it was absolutely necessary.  He had no doubt Lorenzo would linger in the city for some time, watching them and securing support before he made any sort of move.

In his mind, he recalled the small boy sitting in front of a basket, dangling a mouse by its tail.  The rodent was intended to be a meal for the snake that was kept in the classroom, but the boy always asked to be the one to feed it.  Not wanting to handle the task himself, Giovanni always let him, but soon became disturbed by how the angelic looking child taunted both the snake and the mouse before he finally offered the serpent its meal.

“Gio?”

“Hmm?”  He broke out of his reverie to glance at Beatrice.  “We’ll figure something out.  It would be best if you stayed at my house after dark.  There’s plenty of room.  I’ll increase your security during the daytime, as well.”

“What about my grandmother?”

“There’s a house that Caspar loves, up in the hill country around Kerrville.  It’s isolated and Caspar knows the area extremely well.  He can take her there.  I don’t think it’s in Lorenzo’s interest to follow them.  They aren’t what he’s after.”

“He’s after me?” she asked in a small voice.  “I guess I knew that, but it hadn’t really sunk in until today.”

She seemed to shrink into the seat next to him as they made their way through the winding streets of Houston.  He scented the air, pleased that the adrenaline had ceased pumping through her bloodstream and satisfied she wouldn’t alarm Isadora.