Fall of Darkness (The Chronicles of Darkness) (17 page)

It was his brother. Knowing the time
difference, Giovanni would never call him at this hour unless he had a problem.
On the bright side, at least it wasn’t his father. For now.

            He
rolled out of bed and ambled stiffly out of the room. He stepped onto the
balcony and out of earshot before he accepted the call.

            “Yes?”

            “Dom!
How you doing, little brother? Long time no see,” Giovanni boisterously greeted
him, oblivious to Dominic’s terse greeting.

            “I’m
well, Gio. To what do I owe the honor of a call at this ungodly hour?” Dominic
tried to muster a shred of patience for his good intentioned brother.

            “What?
A guy can’t call his brother to see how he’s doing?” Giovanni asked with a
little too much innocence in his voice.

            “I’m
fine. Now you know. So, what do you really need?” Dominic raked his fingers
through his sleep tousled hair in exasperation.

            “Did
you do it?”

            “I
beg your pardon, but do what?” Dominic feigned nonchalance, despite the
uneasiness building in his chest. He knew what this call was truly about.

            “Kill
the girl?” Giovanni clarified cheerily. “I overheard Matteo and Father talking
about it today.”

Dominic struggled to keep a level head,
but his gut clenched in knots of worry. Nothing good could come from his father
involving Matteo.

            “Not
yet. I’m waiting for her to turn,” Dominic answered, hedging his more private
reasons for not killing Kate.

            “Well,
I’d get on it if I were you. We can’t keep her
tutore
distracted over
here much longer. If the vampires get to her first, she’ll be a million times
harder to kill. You need to do it now.”

“I can’t… there’s been… a complication,”
Dominic stalled, stumbling in a blind search for words that would sound better
than the truth, without being an outright lie.

            “What
kind of complication? I know you, Dom. There’s nothing that can stand in your
way. Just do it.”

Giovanni’s faith should have been
reassuring. Instead, it only made Dominic feel worse.

            “I
can’t. It’s not that simple,” he answered quietly.

            “Why
the hell not?” Giovanni demanded.

            “Like
I said, it’s complicated,” Dominic growled. Understatement of a lifetime, but
as good an answer as any. Better than the truth, at least.

            “Come
on, Dom. It’s me, remember? You can tell me anything.” Dominic could hear the
hurt in Gio’s voice. He heaved a sigh of frustration. His brother was not going
to let it go with ‘complicated.’ He had to start telling the truth eventually.
Gio was a good place to start.

            “I
imprinted,” Dominic mumbled inaudibly, the words sounded ridiculous, even to
his own ears. Laughter exploded from the other end of the phone.

            “What?
You’re impotent? Well, no wonder you didn’t want to say anything, little
brother. I don’t really see how it relates to the problem at hand, but hey, never
mind that.

“Tell you what, you take care of your
little mission. When you get home, I’ll fix you up with a good doctor and a
nice girl. Badda-bing, badda-boom, problem solved.” Gio’s voice reeked of
jubilation. His brother loved the idea of so easily solving Dominic’s
‘complications.’

Dominic pinched the bridge of his nose
and slowly sucked in a deep, cleansing breath, praying God would grant him one
more sliver of patience.

            “I’m
not impotent, Gio,” Dominic ground out, his voice hard enough to cut diamonds.
He couldn’t believe he was discussing his sexual virility over the phone with
his brother in the wee hours of the morning.

            “Well,
then why did you say you were?” Gio seemed a little too attached to the
impotency answer to let it go without at least the semblance of a good fight.

            “I
didn’t,” Dominic sighed, wondering if he should’ve let his brother cling to the
small misconception.  It might not have been the worst thing in the world for
Gio to believe his problems all revolved around poor sexual performance. A
little damaging to his male ego, but it would be much easier than explaining
the truth.

His conscience and masculine pride
rebelled against such errant thoughts. No, he would be honest with his brother.
Gio deserved that much. They would all know in time anyway.

            “What
did you say then?”

            “I
think… I imprinted,” Dominic clarified reluctantly. “You know,
Il
cambiamento
.”

            “You
what?!?!” More booming laughter on the other end of the line, only this time,
it didn’t ebb. Dominic could hear his brother’s exuberant mirth all too easily
with the phone held well away from his ear. He grasped at the last shreds of
his rapidly unraveling patience and sucked in another deep breath.

            “Gio.”
Dominic addressed his brother sternly. More laughter.

            “Gio!”
he shouted into the microphone of his phone.

            “I’m
sorry, Dom,” Giovanni finally managed, still chuckling. “But, oh how the mighty
hath fallen. This is just too great. You—imprinted? Like an animal? Like in
those lame girly books Gianna’s always reading? Ha! I don’t believe it. I can’t
imagine you traipsing after any woman with your tail and tongue wagging like a
smitten little puppy dog. This I’ve got to see. She’s got to be hot. She’s hot,
right?” Giovanni asked with rising enthusiasm.

Dominic knew his brother was just
warming to his subject. He closed his eyes and massaged his temples. This night
just kept getting better.

“Yes, she is very beautiful,” Dominic
sighed.

            “Well,
who is she? Tell me all about my future sister.”

            How
could he answer that? There was no real way to explain the perfection that was
Kate. She was beautiful and kind, loving and passionate. She had unknowingly
stolen his heart and imprinted herself on his soul. He needed her more than the
air he breathed and loved her desperately with each and every breath he took.
He would gladly face an eternity in the fires of Hell to be with her, would
sacrifice all…

Dominic must have been lost in thought for
far longer than he realized. Giovanni interrupted his reverie.

“Hey, Dom?”

            “Yeah?”

            “What
does imprinting have to do with your ability to kill the girl?” Gio’s voice was
cautious.

Dominic could guess what conclusion
weighed heavily on his brother’s mind. No less than the truth. The air was
heavy with their mutual silence, neither willing to tread forward on such
dangerous ground.

            “Who
is she, Dom?”

            Dominic
couldn’t force the words from his mouth. His silence was more damning than any
confession.

            “No.”
Giovanni’s horrified protest was little more than a whisper.

            “I
love her,” Dominic sighed.

 Dead silence fell from Giovanni’s end.
No words passed between the two brothers as each contemplated the momentous
implications of Dominic’s admission, of his betrayal.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” Giovanni
choked, his voice thick with sorrow.

Dominic hung his head in shame, a
tempest of remorse raging in his chest. If only he could help his family to
understand he’d had no choice. The decision had not been his to make.

“Yes,” Dominic exhaled in a ragged
breath. He knew all too well. Now was probably not the time to tell his brother
he’d asked her to marry him, that they would probably never see each other
again.

“What are you going to do?”

“I have no idea,” Dominic answered
honestly. “But I know what I am not going to do.”

“Dom, you have no other choice. If you
don’t kill her, Father will send someone else. That’s what he and Matteo were
talking about. He thought you may need some help if her
tutore
gets back
to her before you kill her.” Gio’s voice dropped to a low hiss.

“You know Matteo won’t blink an eye at
killing her. He’s dying to finish what he started, to prove to the family he’s
not a screw up? You can’t save her… and what about her
tutore
? If he
finds you sniffing around her like some smitten little lovesick pup, who knows
what will happen? Nothing good, at least for you, and that’s for damned sure.”
Giovanni paused.

“If you can’t do it, then come home.
Call Father right now, tell him you can’t do it… make up some excuse and get
the hell out of there. You’ll have to lay low for a century or so, but there
are worse things in life.”

Yeah, like falling in love with a
vampire.

“I can’t leave her,” Dominic insisted.
Would not or could not, he was uncertain which, but it didn’t really matter,
for they were one in the same in his mind.

            “Yes,
you can. You have to. Kill her or leave her for someone else to. Those are your
choices. Take it or leave it, little brother.”

“I can’t…” Dominic agonized. He tried to
picture his life without Kate, but imagined only a bleak emptiness stretching
on into a hollow, torturous eternity. Even if he could survive without her, he
couldn’t abandon her to the fates. If he left, she would die, or worse, succumb
to the dark nature of her kind. He couldn’t let that happen, not to his Kate.

“Dom,” Giovanni’s voice gentled at the
pain in his brother’s voice. “Whatever you decide, I’ll stand with you,” he
promised.

            “Thanks,
Gio,” Dominic said quietly, his voice rough with unshed emotion. He always knew
he could depend on Giovanni, but his brother’s unwavering sense of loyalty
never ceased to amaze him. This time it could get him killed. “I would
appreciate your discretion, until I find a way to tell the family myself,” he
added, knowing full well his brother would never betray his trust.

            “Of
course,” Giovanni agreed. “But Dom?”

            “Yes,
Gio?”

            “What
are you going to do?”

            Dominic
sighed. “I have to tell her the truth.”

            Giovanni
half laughed, half choked in surprise. “You mean she doesn’t know?”

            “No.”

            “Not
even what she is? What you are? Why you’re there?” Giovanni asked.

            “Nothing.”

            Dominic’s
brother chortled, a mix of sympathy and amusement in his choked laughter. “Oh
man, little brother. And you thought you had problems before. I’m not sure
what’ll be worse…. Informing the family you’ve turned your back on everything
we stand for or convincing the woman you love she’s a soulless demon you were
sent to destroy for the good of mankind. I never thought I’d say this, but I’d
hate to be you right now. Good luck, man.”

            “Thanks
a lot,” Dominic replied dryly. “I’m going to need it.” It was going to take a
lot more than luck to survive telling Kate the truth.

            “You’re
welcome. I’m glad I called. It’s been enlightening to say the least,” Giovanni
chuckled.

            “I’m
so glad you were entertained,” Dominic replied acerbically. “Thanks for the
warning though, Gio,” he added, all humor aside. His brother’s warning was a
much needed wake up call. He had been drifting around, lost in a punch drunk
haze of love and Kate.

            “Not
a problem. You know I’ve got your back. Take care of yourself, little brother,”
Giovanni cautioned.

            “I
will,” Dominic agreed. “You too.”

Chapter
14

Kate rolled dreamily over in bed,
reaching for Dominic’s comforting warmth, but found only empty air and equally
empty sheets. Huh. Groggy and disoriented, she rubbed her eyes and sat up to
look around the room. No Dominic. Rising from the bed, she quickly dressed and
went looking for him. Her search was brief, for his penthouse was a huge, open
space and offered very little in the way of hiding places.

            She
found him outside on the balcony, leaning with his palms on the railing, his
solid six foot two frame a dark shadow against the gleaming sunrise of the
horizon. He appeared to be studying the waking cityscape beyond. While admiring
the view--- of his delicious back side, not the breathtaking skyline, which was
much less impressive in comparison---she had a sinking suspicion something was
wrong.

The muscles of his back and shoulders
tensed and bunched as he stood there, staring off in the distance in disparate
silence. Kate crossed the room to the glass doors of the balcony and stepped
out into the chilled morning air. Dominic didn’t turn at the sound of her
approach, so she casually ambled over to the spot where he stood and leaned her
elbows on the railing next to him.

Kate cocked her head to study his face.
The anguish marring his dark, handsome features tore at her heart. The faint
laugh lines etched into the skin around his eyes, mouth and forehead had deepened
into harsher lines of worry. His typically laughing brown eyes were darker,
sadder, the laughter replaced by desolation. His lips were drawn into a tight
grimace, his scruff-shadowed jaw tense and brooding.

            “Hi,”
she smiled up at him.

            “Hi,”
he replied, distracted, his eyes still fixed on a distant point on the horizon.

            “What’s
wrong?”

            Silence.
His tense hands raked through his thick black hair, the anxious movement
providing the only outward sign that he’d even heard her question. More
silence. Hurt by his refusal to answer, she turned to leave him alone with his
thoughts. A strong, dark hand reached out and caught her forearm before she
could take a step.

            “What
if you needed to tell me something you knew I would never believe?” he asked
quietly, still not meeting her searching gaze. Kate set a gentle, reassuring
hand on his shoulder.

            “I
would try.”

            “You
would, wouldn’t you,
cara
?” he asked with a grim smile, turning to face
her for the first time.  “Even if it ruined everything.”

            “Tell
me.”

            His
troubled gaze met hers. A tangled web of pain and guilt clouded his dark eyes.
She longed to cross the small space stretched between them like a great canyon.
She ached to pull him into her arms and tell him it was all right, no matter
what ‘it’ was. Yet, something lurking in the shadows of his beautiful,
tormented face held her firmly in place.

He finally broke the silence with his
hoarse whisper. “There’s so much I need to tell you, Kate. God help me, I don’t
want to, but I see no other choice.”

“You can tell me. Whatever it is, it
can’t be that bad.”

            Even
as she said the words, her heart fluttered in fretful anticipation, her mind
racing in a thousand tragic directions. It could never be a good thing when an
unremarkable girl’s too-good-for-her-in-the-first-place fiancé tells said girl
they ‘need to talk.’ Not good at all
.
Was he dying of some deadly
disease? Was he having second thoughts already? Did they move too fast?

Guess the fairytale had to end sometime,
even if it was a lot sooner than she’d hoped. Exit handsome prince, bring on
the frogs. It’s not like he wasn’t too good to be true in the first place.
She’d set herself up to get her heart broken.

            Dominic
interrupted her private-pity-party-for-one inside her head with a gentle
clearing of his throat. She dragged her eyes up to his face and realized that
not only had she been withdrawn for more than a few lengthy minutes of
overdramatic pondering, but she was wringing her hands and pacing like a
madwoman.

Giving her an understanding smile, Dominic
took her by the hand and led her inside. Kate followed willingly, her heart
tapping out a restless cadence in her chest.

“Please, sit.” He indicated one of the
overstuffed black leather couches with the sweep of his hand. He sat down
beside her, but his posture was rigid and guarded.

            “I
don’t know where to start. There’s so much you don’t know,
cara
. So many
things I should have told you, but couldn’t find the words. I wish I had been
completely honest from the beginning.

“So many times I tried to tell you,
opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t form the words, knowing they might drive
you away. I was terrified that if you knew the truth, you would turn away from
me. I knew I didn’t want to lose you. I need you, Kate. You are my life. My
everything. I love you with all my heart and will love you forever. That is my
only defense for the secrets I’ve kept. I know it isn’t much, but it’s the
truth.”

            “Dominic,
I…” Kate stumbled to find the words, but didn’t know what to say. She was
terrified of what he might say next, of whatever damning confession lurked
behind his words of love, waiting to shatter her glorious world into irreparable
pieces. He gently pressed a finger to her lips.

            “Please,
don’t say anything. Hear me out. You won’t like what I have to say. You may
believe me delusional, but I have to try. I owe you an explanation, at the very
least. But before I begin, there is something I need you to know.

“Nothing I am about to tell you changes
how I feel about you. You are my world. I will sacrifice anything to be with
you, all that I am and will ever be. My heart is yours.” Though he spoke
softly, his voice was rough, thick with emotion.

His eyes burnt with a fiery sincerity,
his proud face open and vulnerable. Notching one finger beneath her chin, he
gently lifted her face. Their eyes locked. Kate lost herself in the deep, dark
chocolate pools of his soul. The world fell away. All she saw was the
passionate man before her and the desperate soul aching within.

Their lips strained to meet, as though a
magnetic force, stronger than gravity pulled them together. Kate kissed him
with soul blistering fervor, capturing him in a firestorm of heated desire. She
felt his surrender as he responded with a fire all his own.

Wrapping his arms around her, Dominic
drew her closer as he deepened their kiss. He laid gentle siege to her body and
heart with the sweet pressure of his lips and each tantalizing stroke of his
tongue. Kate struggled to press her body tighter against his, releasing a tiny
growl of desire.

But the spell broke and Dominic
stiffened in her arms. With marked reluctance and a low groan of frustration,
he dragged his body away from her eager embrace.

“I have to do this, before I lose my
nerve. Hell, I could get lost in your arms forever, forgetting everything I’ve
ever known. I could ignore the truth a little longer, but that would be
detrimental to us both in the end. I have to tell you. I will tell you, but
where do I begin?” He seemed to pose the question more to himself than to her.
He sat quietly, lost in the depths of his own private thoughts.

Chewing her bottom lip, Kate regarded
his pensive state with a wary eye, filled with concern for whatever plagued his
mind. She played his declaration over and over again in her mind, searching for
a hint of what was to come. He said he loved her, would give anything to be
with her. So, what was the problem?

There had to be an enormous ‘but’ in
there somewhere. Kate anxiously waited for him to speak again, counting to one
hundred and back down again in her head. Finished counting, she was about to
interrupt his long pause when he finally spoke.

            “Tell
me what you know about your birth family,” he said, his face drawn into an
inscrutable mask.

            Perplexed,
Kate regarded Dominic from beneath furrowed brows. How could anything he needed
to say relate to her family, people who had been lost to her for over two
decades? How had he transitioned from poignant declarations of undying love to
a genealogy discussion?

Kate began slowly, guarded, as she
watched Dominic’s face, hoping he might clue her in to the direction his
thoughts had taken.

“Not much. My file said I was born in
Libertyville, Illinois to Adri and Robert Torres. They died in a car accident
before I turned two.” Her fingers unconsciously reached up to stroke the faded
scar over her heart. “I survived the accident and had no other family, so the
state placed me with my adoptive parents.” Kate shrugged. “That’s all I know.”

When she finally managed to win the
court order to unseal her adoption records, she’d been vastly disappointed by
the lack of information in them. She couldn’t feel too bad though. Many adopted
children spend their whole lives searching for their birth parents. At least
she knew their names and had graves to visit.

            “No.”

            “No?”
Her voice squeaked in protest. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

            “No,
you were not born in Illinois. You were born in a town near the border of
Austria and Italy to Roberto and Adrienne Cacciatori. No, your parents were not
killed in a car accident. They were murdered. And no, they were not the only
family you had left. The rest of your family is still very much alive.”

Dominic’s tone was slow and measured, as
though speaking to a horse he feared might spook. The blood drained from her
face. Tucking her knees to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs. She
felt like a lost little girl, looking for her mommy in the great big
supermarket. Watching him in glassy-eyed silence, she waited for him to
continue his explanation.

            “Your
parents came to America shortly after you were born. They fled Italy when the
implications of your birth were realized. Your parents were in hiding --”

            “H-h-how
do you know about my parents?” The lump in her throat made her voice hoarse as
she posed the question. The reality of his words sank in like feathers in quick
sand, slowly, giving birth to a barrage of new questions.

“How? Why were they hiding? How did they
die? Why was I placed for adoption, if my family is still alive? Didn’t they
want me?”

            He
shook his head.

“Please,
cara,
one question at a
time. I never met your parents. I do, however, know the rest of your family
quite well.” His acerbic tone made it clear he didn’t care for the surviving
members of her so called ‘family.’ “Your parents left Europe to escape both of
our families, to protect you from the war raging in our homeland.

“Your parents were tracked down and
murdered, shot to death in their sleep. You were shot as well,” Dominic traced
the scar over her heart with the tip of his finger, his touch as gentle as the
brush of butterfly wings, “but you survived your injuries. Most of my family
believed you dead, so yours decided to leave you here in hiding, until you came
of age.”

            “You
knew my family before I met you and yet you never said a word about it? How
could you? You pretended to be a stranger… y-y-you lied to me. What else have
you lied about?” Kate spat the words in an angry stampede. She dug her
fingernails into the armrest of the couch, scarring the leather and turning her
knuckles white with the pressure.

Dominic held both hands out in front of
him, palms facing her in a sign of peace. His handsome face contorted in pain. Brows
drawn, his dark eyes pled for understanding.

“Yes, I’ve lied to you. For that I am
truly sorry, but I am trying to make it right. Please, let me finish. I will
answer any questions you might have, but I need to get this all out first.

“You may not believe me, but I have to
try. All I ask is that you listen without interrupting. Then you can yell and
scream and throw whatever you need to at me.” Dominic said the last part with a
hint of the devilish grin Kate knew and loved, but the glimpse passed as
quickly as it came. “Can you do that?”

Kate nodded.

“I may as well come right out and say
it. You’re not going to believe me, no matter how I word it.” Dominic paused,
sucked in a deep breath, and let it out in a rush of words. “Kate, you’re a
vampire.”

Kate tried to form a denial to his
ridiculous announcement, but couldn’t find the words. Her mouth hung open in
her best fish out of water imitation yet. Dominic pressed a single finger to
her lips, shaking his head back and forth.

            “You
promised,” he reminded her. “Just listen. I know it sounds insane, but it’s the
truth. You’re changing Kate, every day. I’m sure you’ve begun to notice the
physical changes. The paling of your skin, the dark shadows beneath your eyes
sleep can no longer erase, the constant exhaustion, lack of appetite, and
heightened senses.