Fall of Darkness (The Chronicles of Darkness) (16 page)

Chapter
13

They were hurting her. Frozen in place,
Dominic was powerless to stop them. Each whimper of pain from his baby sister’s
lips, twisted like a knife in his chest. Her terrified cries pierced the
silence of the night. Caprice begged her captors to release her, but to no
avail. The only release she would receive at their hands was death.

            Caprice
lay huddled at their feet, trembling with fear and pain. Blow after blow rained
down in merciless assault. Dominic silently urged to her to get up, to at least
try to defend herself. Her gaze locked on him in a jarring moment of realization.
The vampires were oblivious to his presence, but his sister was not. Caprice
could see him. The hope in her tear-filled eyes clawed at his heart.

            “Help
me, Dominic, please. Help me,” she pled, her lips forming the soundless words.

Dominic would sell his soul to do just
that. Oh, he tried alright. Hell of a lot a good it did him.  His mind issued
commands, but his body would not follow. An unseen force paralyzed him, holding
him in place. Impotent rage filled him.

He could barely breathe as he watched
them brutalize his kid sister with the ruthless abandon characteristic of the soulless,
blood sucking bastards. The vampires had no qualms about hurting a woman or a
child. At seventeen, Caprice was both. She wasn’t even old enough to phase for hell’s
sake.

A flash of silver caught his eye and
Dominic’s heart froze in his chest. Dear God, not silver. A beating she could
heal from. Wounds inflicted by silver she could not. At last, Dominic broke
free of his unseen chains, lunging at her armed assailant in renewed
desperation. He propelled himself with enough momentum to knock the blade and
the vampire to the ground with the weight of his body.

It didn’t. His body slipped through the
other man as though he was an apparition. The force of his unanswered charge
sent Dominic sprawling to the ground. He leapt to his feet. With one frantic
swing of his fist after another, he swiped at the vampire’s blonde head.
Frustration took hold of him as his blows passed through the demon again and
again.

He couldn’t stop them.

The shimmer of silver must have finally
spurred to life the latent beast within Caprice. Too young to phase, but strong
enough to fight, she kicked and scratched at her attackers with all she had. It
was too little too late.

Caprice screamed as they cut her. The
silver blade flashed in the moonlight as it slashed downward again and again,
slicing and stabbing at her tender flesh. Dark streams of blood poured from the
wounds before giving way to angry red puckers as her immortal skin struggled to
heal itself against its one true poison. The knife marked her beautiful skin as
only silver could. She would bear those jagged scars for as long as she lived.
Dominic doubted that would be long.

The metallic tang of blood on the air
roused the beast within him as well. His inner animal raged against the unseen
cage that confined him. He couldn’t phase. Lost in a haze of red, he attacked
like a man possessed, striking out at the vampires with all his strength. It
was no use. He was nothing more than a wisp of vapor, as intangible as the air
they breathed.  Never before had he felt so powerless.

Choked sobs wracked Caprice’s body as
the golden eyed vampire knelt on her chest and two others pinned her arms to
the ground. Dominic tried to drag them off her, but his hands sifted straight
through them. He couldn’t stop them. He couldn’t close his eyes to the sight of
the blade against her skin. Nor could he close his ears to the bloodcurdling
screams that split the air.

He watched in horror as they carved the
word “BITCH” into the smooth skin of her forehead, the word turning red with
blood before scarring into a legible brand. The agony was more than he could
bear. Her doe-like eyes fluttered, wide with fear as the blade descended on her
exposed throat.

“I’m sorry,” Dominic whispered, choking
on the words. “By God, Caprice, I’m sorry.”

Broken and defeated, he turned his back
on his dying sister. The pain of failure seared his soul, branding him forever
with its fiery mark. He could never forgive himself, would never forget. With his
heart heavy in his chest, he walked away.

“Dominic?”

The voice was not his sisters.

Dread curled its icy fingers around his
heart as he slowly turned.  Caprice and the evidence of her violent death were
gone. Kate stood in her place, beautiful and radiant, regal as a queen.

His family surrounded Kate, every lycan
he’d ever known or loved, dead or alive, formed a circle around her. They
taunted and jeered her, jabbing and poking, calling her names.

“Blood sucking parasite.”

“Soulless demon.”

“Filthy leech.”

“Soul stealing abomination.”

Kate stared past them… at him.

She was bound to a stake, dry kindling
at her feet. The pungent fumes of an accelerant burned his nostrils. Kerosene.
Kate didn’t move, didn’t blink.

A match flickered to life with a sharp
scratch. Dominic’s heart seized in his chest. His brother, Matteo tossed the
match to the kindling at Kate’s feet. 

“Nooooooooo!” he roared as flames
consumed the woman he loved.

Dominic woke with a start. Cold sweat
poured from his brow as his heart hammered against his sternum. He rubbed the
sleep from his eyes and took in his surroundings. He was in his bed in Chicago.
Kate was beside him, rousing from his movements. Thank God, she was
alive.                                                                                   

 “Are you alright, my love?” Kate’s sleepy
face was full of concern as she laid a soft hand on his shoulder.

Dominic shuddered. “Yeah, I’m okay.
Sorry I woke you,
cara
.”

He’d relived Caprice’s murder in
nightmares many times over the past twenty some odd years, but not once since
he met Kate. When Kate came into his life, dreams of her consumed his brief
hours of sleep. She’d never been in danger in his dreams before though.  He
couldn’t quite shake the feeling it was a warning, but shoved the thought
aside.

No. It was probably just his guilty
conscience getting the better of him. Guilt for Caprice’s death. Guilt for
betraying his family. Guilt for not telling Kate the truth... Man, the guilt
was starting to pile up around here.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

If only he could. He vowed he would tell
her everything someday, but tonight wasn’t the night. Tonight was for them. He
would not let anything dampen their joy. For tonight, their future shined
bright and limitless. Reality could wait until tomorrow. 

“No. It’s nothing. Just a bad dream.”
Dominic pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Go back to sleep,
cara
.”

But Kate didn’t lie back down. She
studied his face instead, her emerald eyes narrowed in concern. “Who’s
Caprice?”

Dominic blinked. “What?”

“Caprice,” Kate repeated gently. “You
shouted her name in your sleep. Who is she?”

“My sister,” Dominic sighed. So much for
his night of blissful denial.

“You’ve never mentioned her.” Her narrow
brows arched high over green eyes filled with questions.

He raked his hand through his hair.
“It’s not a story you want to hear.”

“Try me.”

Dominic sighed. “Caprice was my youngest
sister. I wish you could’ve met her,
cara
. You would’ve loved her. She
was so young and vivacious, so innocent and full of life.”

“Was?” He could practically see the
wheels turning in Kate’s head as she tried to fit this new piece of information
into the puzzle of his life.

“She died a long time ago.”

“Oh, Dominic. I’m so sorry. What
happened?”

“She fell in love with a man who was all
wrong for her.” Caprice’s death was the last thing he wanted to talk about
right now. But for Kate, he would do anything. Besides, the beautiful, stubborn
woman wouldn’t let it go without answers.

“Wrong for her how?” Kate asked, then gasped,
“Did he kill her?”

Dominic shook his head. “No, he would
never have hurt her. He loved her. Caprice was in way over her head. Remember
when I joked about my dad being a mob boss?”

Kate chuckled. “Vividly.”

 “Well, it’s partly true. My family is
one of the most powerful families in Europe. His was the other.”

“Just when I thought I was out they pull
me back in,” Kate interjected in a bad Al Pacino impression.

Dominic grinned in spite of himself.
“Nice.”

“Thank you, thank you very much.” Her
Elvis impression was even worse.

“Naturally, our families are rivals,
enemies even. Neither family would have approved of the match, so they kept
their love a secret.”

“How very Romeo and Juliet.”

“I guess so,” Dominic shrugged. “Only,
instead of killing themselves to be together in the end, they were both
murdered by his family.”

Kate gasped, “Really?”

He closed his eyes to the pain and
nodded. “They delivered her mutilated body to us piece by piece, a new box
arriving on our doorstep each day.”

“How could they do that?” The horror on
her face was so genuine. He couldn’t help but wonder how she would respond to
the news that ‘they’ were her family.

“The enmity between the two families
runs deep. Each is hell bent on destroying the other.” A gross understatement,
but he couldn’t think of any other way to tell the story without opening a big
can of worms labeled ‘the truth.’

“But to murder an innocent girl?”

Dominic bit his lip. “Families like
theirs operate outside the law. They have no moral code. She’s not the first
they’ve killed, nor the last.”

“But someone has to stop them,” Kate
protested.

“That’s exactly what my family is
determined to do.”

This seemed to placate her a little.
“Good,” she said as she nestled into his side.

He wrapped his arm around her. “Now, no
more talk of murder and mob bosses tonight, okay?”

Kate yawned, filled with sleepiness and
satisfied curiosity. “Okay.”

Dominic held Kate in silence, relishing
the feel of her heartbeat so close to his. His mind raced in a thousand
directions as she seemed to doze in his arms. He thought she was asleep, when
she surprised him by speaking.

“Dominic, can I ask you something?” she
asked dreamily, snuggling deeper into his embrace.

“Anything,” Dominic murmured huskily,
the pad of his thumb tracing the outline of her fingers in lazy circles.

“Why don’t you ever want to talk about
your family?”

His absentminded caress froze
mid-stroke. Except that. Dominic sucked in a slow, deep breath. “Some things
are better left unsaid.”

            “Why?”

            He
turned her in his arms, bringing them face-to-face. She was so beautiful,
bathed in moonlight with sleepy eyes and tousled hair. “Because, I may not have
a family anymore.”

            “Why
not?”

            “I
have done something they may never forgive me for. There will be Hell to pay when
I return.”

            If
I return.

            With
his jaw clenched, he anxiously waited for the question that would lay open all
wounds. The one that would expose him for all that he was. ‘What did you do?’
He held his breath and braced himself. But she asked a different one instead.
“Do you regret it?”

            Their
eyes met in a perfect moment of trust, warmth, and love. How could he possibly
regret what he had with her? Despite his inner turmoil, his lips turned up into
a slight smile. He shook his head. “No, not at all. Given the chance I would do
the same thing again and again. It was the best mistake I’ve ever made and no
one can make me regret it.” Except you.

           
“Then it can’t be that bad,” Kate
reassured him. “I’m sure they’ll understand, once you explain it to them.”

            “Maybe.”
Not.

            Kate
bit her lip. “Do you think they’ll like me?”

            “Why
wouldn’t they?” He asked, brushing his lips to hers. What wasn’t to love about
a Cacciatori vampire destined to destroy everything they held dear?

            “They’re
your family, you tell me.”

            His
chest rumbled with a dark chuckle. “Sweetheart, they’re not going to know what
to think of you.”

Dominic woke as his phone leapt to life
with intermittent vibrations, inching its way to the edge of the nightstand. He
rolled over sleepily in response to the repetitive buzzing sound. He glanced at
the number on the screen and muttered a curse under his breath.