Fall of Darkness (The Chronicles of Darkness) (22 page)

“I hope you’re right,” Dominic answered.
“But know this. If you let anything happen to her, I swear by all that is holy,
I’ll make you pay. You’ll beg for the fires of Hell to claim you before I’m
through with you.”

“I’m sure you would try, but have no
fear. Katerina will be kept safe at all costs. In that alone, we agree,
Ridolfi. I will protect her with my life, especially from you.”

“I would never hurt her,” Dominic
protested. 

 “You already have,” Ambrogio said. “Farewell,
Dominic.” The line went dead and Dominic chucked the phone across the room.

Shaking off the memory and the pain it
caused, Dominic sucked in a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. Enough
of this wallowing in self-pity shit.

It was time to go home. Time to face the
consequences of his actions. Time to channel all his pain and anger into the
one thing he did best. Making vampires bleed, making them burn. Like a phoenix,
reborn from the ashes of his own destruction, Dominic rose to his feet. He was
an indestructible warrior, a bad ass mother fucker. Time to start acting like
it.

Chapter
18

           
Kate’s cell phone leapt to life in her
pocket, vibrating against her leg and singing her favorite song, an oldie but
goodie by Rupert Holmes. Bum ba-ba-bum, ‘If you like piña coladas…’

The song was so sunny and bright, like
her life had once been. Yeah, the ring tone had to go. Something darker and
edgier would better fit the ominous spiral her life currently careened down at
a break neck pace. Maybe something by Disturbed or Nine Inch Nails.

Fishing the phone out of her pocket,
Kate peeked at the screen. Ah, man. It was only a matter of time before Mama
called to ream her out for disappearing. She’d hoped for later rather than
sooner. Sucking in a deep, fortifying breath, she tried to prepare for the
verbal onslaught as inevitable as sunrise. She flipped her phone open and
pressed it to her ear.

            “Hi,
Mama.”

“Kate Irresponsible Inconsiderate Shit
for Brains Murdock, where the hell are you?” Mama’s voice achieved a decibel
loud enough to reach people the fine people of Tokyo. Kate jerked the phone
away from her head, rubbing the offended ear. Mama’s voice squawked on.

It was worse than she’d thought. Not
only had Mama given her a list of less-than-desirable middle names, but she’d
resorted to profanity. Kate always knew she’d reached a whole new level of
trouble when Mama swore. She never cursed unless heads were about to roll. Oh,
heads would roll alright. Mama was spitting mad and Kate’s was the head in
question.

Mama always said a pretty girl didn’t
have an ugly mouth. Kate wasn’t about to remind her though. She was chin-deep
in shit as it was.

            “Mama,
I—” Kate opened her mouth to explain, but was railroaded by the irate woman on
the other end of the line. Her mother didn’t lose it often, but when she did,
she was a force to be reckoned with. Kate closed her eyes, leaned her head
against the seatback, and prepared to wait out the storm.

            “No.
No excuses. What in the name of all that is good and holy do you think you are
doing? Never mind that,” Mama huffed. “Are you even thinking at all? Hmm? Hmm?
Leaving the hospital AMA. Not a word to the doctors or nurses… to your family,”
Mama ranted, as though Kate had committed the eighth deadly sin. “You could be
dead out on the street and we’d be none the wiser. Did you even think to call
us. Noooo…”

            “Mama,
I’m sor---” Kate tried to interject, but was still unable to squeeze a word in
edge wise.

            “I
showed up to visit my daughter in the hospital to be told she had vanished.
Gone. Not a word to anyone. I was worried sick. What do you have to say for
yourself, young lady? Hmm?”

            “Mama,
I’m so sorry. I—”

            “You
damn well better be. I’m expecting one hell of an explanation.” Mama paused,
her angry silence scolding as effectively as her words had. “Well, go on dear,
impress me. I’m dying to hear what could’ve possibly possessed you to
recklessly endanger yourself like this.”

            “I
left with Alexander.”

            That
got Mama’s attention. Apparently, piqued curiosity took temporary precedence
over righteous indignation. “The gorgeous golden guy from the hospital?”

The worst of the storm had passed. Kate
opened her eyes and peeked at Alexander through the corner of her eye. His eyes
were on the road, but a knowing smile played at his perfectly sculpted lips.
The wretch, he was enjoying this.

            “The
very same,” Kate confirmed, relieved her mom had at least stopped shouting long
enough to hear her out. Hopefully Mama didn’t listen too carefully. She was a
lie-bloodhound and could sniff one out before it was even spoken. And Kate was
about to tell one hell of a whopper.

In all fairness, she had no other
choice. It’s not like she could tell her mother she’d turned into a vampire,
Alexander had been assigned to show her the ropes, and it wasn’t safe to be
around the family anymore. Yeah, right. That would go over really well. She
could see the straight jacket and padded room now. “But Mama, it’s not like
---”

            “What
are you doing with him, Kate? A couple of weeks ago you were head over heels in
love with Dominic, planning a wedding, with stars in your eyes and your head in
the clouds. Then it was over. End of story. No explanation.

“You didn’t want to talk about it. We
didn’t push you, no matter how concerned we were. And we were very concerned,
believe you me. You were an absolute disaster. Speaking only when spoken to,
never smiling, never laughing. To make matters worse, you came down with that
rare blood disorder and almost died.

“All of that stress has obviously put a
strain on your ability to think rationally. Why else would you run off with
some strange man when you should still be recuperating? Stress, that’s why.”
Kate could picture Mama nodding her head in sage wisdom. “It’s perfectly
understandable. Even the greatest minds snap under pressure. Just come home
now. We’ll get you all of the help you need.”

            “Mama,
I’m not crazy,” Kate protested. Great, she hadn’t even mentioned vampires and
her mother was already diagnosing her with some distorted version of post
Dominic stress disorder. One straight jacket and padded room coming right up. Lovely,
just lovely.

            “I
know you’re not, dear,” Mama reassured her, not reassuring her at all. She used
the same tone on patients at work who denied drug use, but tested positive. “No
one said you were. You’re just under a lot of stress right now, what with the
break up and now your illness. It’s more than understandable for you to be
struggling.”

That tone had always irritated the hell
out of Kate as a teenager. It said, ‘I know I’m right and you’re wrong, but I
know what’s best, so I’ll let you pretend you’re right.’ Kate could never
argue, because Mama technically was agreeing with her, without really agreeing
with her. Mothers.

Kate conceded the point. It wasn’t worth
arguing over her sanity anyway. It’s not like she hadn’t questioned it herself
a time or two in the past few weeks.

            “Mama---”

            “Where
did that man come from anyway? He showed up at the hospital and refused to
leave your bedside. He refused to tell us anything about his relationship with
you. Is he your new boyfriend, Kate?” Mama’s tone reeked of disproval. Interesting.

            “You
don’t like him, Mama?” That got Alexander’s attention. Golden brows furrowed
above narrowed golden eyes.

            “Is
he your boyfriend?” Mama would never slander her daughter’s significant other,
if that’s what he was. No, Mama was definitely more of a sabotage kind of gal.

            “No,”
Kate answered honestly. Phew. At least she could claim she’d told part of the
truth. Her mother released a relieved sigh as well, but for altogether
different reasons.

            “Then
no, I don’t like him,” Mama admitted. Surprised, Alexander hadn’t managed to
charm her mother, Kate glanced to her left at the golden man in question.
Alexander’s gaze was refocused on the road, but the muscle in his jaw was
twitching. Ha, served him right.

            “What
don’t you like about him?”

            “I
don’t know, honey. He makes me nervous. It feels like beneath all that smooth
charisma and propriety, lurks something feral, waiting to pounce the second you
let your guard down. He’s dangerous, I can feel it.”

If only Mama knew. Alexander’s wolfish
grin said he liked being ‘dangerous.’ If that was his only fault, he was
pleased as punch about it.

            “I
guess I can see that.” Kate thought he was dangerous for a lot reasons.
Beautiful men were trouble with a capital T. She wouldn’t make the same mistake
again.

            “If
he’s not your boyfriend, what are you doing with him? You need to be in the
hospital, Kate.”

 Bring on the lies.

            “He
works for my grandfather.” True. “He’s taking me to Italy to meet my birth
family.” Also true, at least as far as she knew. “I guess my blood disorder is
hereditary and the doctors there are doing some cutting edge research.”
Half-true, what she had was hereditary, but she was pretty sure there would
never be any medical research done about it. “They might be able to cure me.”
Lie, lie, lie, but she so badly wanted it to be true.

            “Oh.
Why didn’t you say so?” Mama asked.

            “Perhaps
I wasn’t given the chance,” Kate replied, her tone dry as sandpaper. Mama
ignored her sass.

            “Are
you sure he works for your grandfather? Or that you even have a grandfather?”

That was the million dollar question.
Leave it to Mama to voice Kate’s own fears. Like mother, like daughter.  The
problem was, Kate didn’t know a thing about Alexander.

But he knew about her. He was the only
one, Dominic excluded, who seemed to know what was happening to her. Could she
trust him? Not a clue. Did she have a choice? Not really. She knew that, but
Mama didn’t need to. She sighed.

            “He’s
for real, Mama. It’s okay. Don’t worry,” she reassured her mother. All she
wanted to do was cry her heart out to Mama, tell her the truth, and let the
irrepressible force that was her mother fix everything. But she wasn’t a child
anymore and she sure as hell wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Mama couldn’t save her
in this world. Sorry, Toto, but it looked like she was on her own.

            “You’re
sure?” Mama asked, sounding mollified, but not convinced.

            No.
“Yes,” she lied.

            “Promise
me you will call as soon as you can.”

            “I
promise.”

            “Be
careful, baby,” her mother pleaded.

            “I
will. I love you, Mama.” The words stuck in Kate’s throat as she fought back
tears.

            “I
love you too, honey. It doesn’t matter how much family you find over there,
you’ll always be my baby girl.”

 “I know,” Kate choked out. “Bye, Mama.”

            “Goodbye,
sweetheart.”

With a click, the call ended. Kate
stared at her phone in silence. Their farewell felt so final.

            Alexander
confirmed her thoughts with an outstretched hand, his palm facing up, demanding
she surrender her phone. Kate frowned, hesitating before handing over the last
link she had to her human life. His fingers closed around it. The phone
crumbled in his fist like a handful of crackers. He let the pieces fall to the
floor.

            Kate
gaped at him in a combination of irritation and awe. The asshole crushed her
phone with his bare hands.

            “It’s
for the best, Katerina,” Alexander said, an apology in his eyes. 

            Kate
sighed. “I know.”

            Oh,
she knew alright. It wasn’t goodbye for now. It was goodbye forever.

            “Frick,
frick, and double frick.”

            “What’s
the matter?” Alexander popped his head through the sitting room door.

About an hour before, he’d checked them
into a swanky suite at the most luxurious hotel the heart of Chicago had to
offer. He’d told her they would await nightfall there, while he made travel
arrangements. Kate took advantage of the down time, attempting to tank up with
blood, in case they had a run in with anyone human and delicious in their
travels. She wouldn’t give Alexander the satisfaction.

            “You
didn’t happen to snag a few extra needles and supplies during your mission to
steal all of this blood from the hospital’s blood bank, did you?” Kate asked,
gesturing to the cooler beside her on the loveseat.

            “No.
Why?”

            “Because
my IV won’t flush,” she wailed, bouncing the resistant plunger of the syringe
attached to her line.

            Alexander
answered her with a blank stare.

            “If
it won’t flush, I can’t use it. If I can’t use it, I won’t get the blood I
need,” she explained with strained patience, panic rising in her throat.

            He
shrugged. “So? Drink it.”

            “Drink
it? You want me to drink it?”

            “Sure.
Why not? It’s as good a compromise as any. Nobody died for your dinner. You get
the blood you need, without sacrificing your precious morals.”

            “I’d
be drinking blood, that’s why not,” she protested, throwing her hands up in
exasperation.

            “Fine,
go thirsty,” Alexander tossed back at her. “Let’s see how long it takes for
those tidy little bags to look appetizing to you. I give you a couple of hours,
tops. Or we could have some real fun and take you outside, see how long it
takes you to crave a far fresher vintage. It’s your decision, Katerina.”