Fall of Darkness (The Chronicles of Darkness) (25 page)

Chapter
21

By the time the plane touched down in
northern Italy, Kate’s IV was out and the site had healed. She’d burned through
the entire stash of bagged blood, but felt halfway human again. Alexander vowed
to get her more blood, as soon as she was safe within the confines of her family’s
estate. Words couldn’t express the depth of her gratitude.

Kate hated to admit it, but he was growing
on her. Her enigmatic
tutore
was stubborn and proud, but generous and
patient. Amusing, yet totally aggravating.

After twelve hours of being locked in a
cabin with him, she felt as though she’d known him forever. Willing to answer
her questions with absolute candor, Alexander was a valuable source of information.
He would be an even more valuable ally as she adapted to her new life.

“Are you ready?” Alexander, or Alex as
he insisted she call him, even though he refused to call her Kate, gave her a
reassuring smile.

Kate shrugged. “As I’ll ever be, I suppose.”

“Well then, Katerina, prepare to meet
your adoring public.”

He spoke as though a welcome wagon
waited for her. Alexander opened the door and indicated for her to step through
ahead of him. Silver moonlight caressed her skin as Kate stepped out into crisp
air of the night.

A roar of approval filled the air. A
crowd of thousands cheered her appearance. Kate froze on the stairs, gaping in
disbelief at the masses gathered to welcome her.

Men, women and children of all ages
crushed together in a sea of bodies and glowing candles, straining to catch a
glimpse of their long-lost princess. Muscular men in black suits, their forms
rigid with military-bearing, created a wide path from the base of the stairs to
a sleek white Rolls Royce Phantom with vampire-rated dark windows.

Kate imagined this was how rock stars
felt when they went on tour. Only she hadn’t done anything to earn these
people’s admiration. She’d never felt so inadequate. Wishing she’d run a comb
through her hair or at least splashed some water on her face, she smiled and
waved back at the sea of happy faces illuminated by candlelight. Their sheer
volume overwhelmed her.

“Are they all vampires?”

Alex nodded.

“I didn’t realize there were so many.”
She couldn’t help but think of how many people had to die each day to keep this
throng fed.

“There are many more, scattered across
the globe. A majority of the vampires you see here live throughout Europe, but
a handful of them have travelled half way around the world to witness this
moment with their own eyes.”

“Why?” 

“You are their princess. They’ve awaited
your return for over twenty years.” Alex waved her off with a half smile. “It’ll
all make sense later.”

Kate didn’t like the sound of that, but
Alex didn’t give her time to question. With a tug of her arm, he led her down
the path to the waiting car. Hands strained to reach past the barrier of guards
as she passed. Kate tried to touch as many of the outstretched hands as she
could. It was overwhelming and humbling to see the blind adoration on their
faces. She hoped she could grow to deserve it.

Alex tucked her into the luxurious
interior of the Phantom, closed the door, and circled around to the other side.
Kate frowned in confusion when he slid into the front passenger seat, instead
of next to her. As the only familiar factor in her foreign equation of a life,
she needed him at her side. He must’ve sensed her discomfort, because he gave
her a reassuring smile.

“It’s for appearances, Katerina, nothing
more. I will not abandon you.”

Relief filled her. “Thank you.”

“This is Armand, another of your
personal guard.” Alex indicated their driver with a pat on the shoulder.

Armand gave her a shy smile. “It’s a
pleasure to meet you,
principessa
. Welcome home,” he greeted her in a
quiet, unassuming voice. Kate wondered how such a soft spoken man wound up in
the vampire body guard business.

Armand honked in farewell and started
the engine. The resulting cheers resonated through the car as the Phantom
pulled away. 

“How far are we from the house?” Kate
asked, squinting as she tried to see the dark landscape beyond the tinted
glass. What she wouldn’t give to see this place in daylight, but that would
never happen.

            Alex
craned around in his seat to answer her. “Not far at all. We landed near the
heart of Cacciatori territory.”

            Kate
watched the terrain beyond her window grow mountainous as they drew nearer to
her family’s estate. “Do you mind if I roll down my window? I want to see.”

            “Go
ahead,” Alex agreed, glancing over his shoulder at her.

            With
the push of a button, Kate’s window slid down. Kate inhaled the crisp mountain
air, sucking in deep breaths until her lungs ached. Her hair whipped in the
wind as the car weaved its way through densely wooded mountains. They passed the
gleaming lights of a multitude of quaint villages tucked in clusters among the
ridges.

Kate forgot she was a vampire. She
forgot that her whole world had been turned upside down. In that moment she was
just another girl, experiencing an exciting new place.

            The
Phantom rounded the ridge and Kate’s breath caught in her chest. There,
positioned high above the trees, towered a medieval castle with its
battlement-lined walls illuminated in white light. The breathtaking fortress
rose up out of the mountain, as though hewn from the rock itself.  It was a
stronghold of pristine stone, sprawling up the mountainside to overlook the
surrounding valley and inferior ridges of mountain.

            Alex
twisted in his seat to watch her, his face glowing with pride and excitement.
“Welcome to Castello di Cacciatori, Katerina.”

           
Kate gaped in wordless wonder as the car
passed through towering gates, into an immaculately manicured courtyard. A
field of plush green, lined by squared hedges and cobbled paths, climbed the
side of the mountain up to the castle front. The Phantom scaled the drive and
leveled out as they circled around an enormous pond, its lighted fountain
dancing on a reflection of the castle’s gleaming façade.

            “It’s
so beautiful,” she breathed.

            “It’s
your home,” Alex said with a proud smile.

            Leaning
forward, Kate punched his shoulder. “Jerk. You didn’t tell me it was a castle.”

            “Sorry.”
His sheepish grin was far from apologetic. She gave him her best ‘don’t let it
happen again’ look.

            Armand
slowed to a stop as they rounded into the porte-cochere. Alexander climbed out
of the car and opened Kate’s door. She’d fallen head first into a fairytale.
Albeit, a demented fairytale with a twisted sense of humor. One where the
princess was a reluctant vampire, the handsome prince was a murderous werewolf,
and there was no happy ending. Yeah, she was living the dream.

            Kate
stepped out onto the drive of patterned stone pavers, closing the door behind
her. Armand drove away, leaving the two of them standing at the base of the
great fortress of her ancestors.

            “Are
you ready?”

Alex kept asking her that, as though he
expected the answer to change. It wouldn’t. She would never be ready for any of
this.

            “As
I’ll ever be,” Kate said.

            Together,
they climbed the stone stairs, pausing in the archway before the massive front
doors. Kate wondered if such a place used old fashioned iron knockers or if an everyday
doorbell had been installed. But the door opened before she could satisfy her
curiosity. A dour, tuxedo-clad man with fair hair and light eyes held the door,
performing a stiff bow of deference when his eyes fell on Kate.

            “Welcome
home,
principessa
.” At least that’s what she thought he said. His accent
was so thick, Kate wasn’t one hundred percent sure. The man nodded to Alex in
greeting. “Capitano Ambrogio.”

            Alex
returned his nod. “Lorenzo.” They exchanged words in yet another language Kate
didn’t understand. It looked like she would spend the rest of her immortal life
learning new languages, just so she could understand what was being said around
her. On the bright side, she had plenty of time.

            Lorenzo
stepped aside, granting them access to the grand foyer, grand being a gross understatement.
Rising to nearly the full height of the castle, the spacious entryway dripped
opulence. The high tray ceilings were painted to look like the morning sky,
complete with fluffy white cirrus clouds drifting slowly across the room.

The largest crystal chandelier Kate had
ever seen soared high above them, its jeweled tiers casting sparkles of light
about the room. The high walls were leafed in gold and engraved with elaborate
vines climbing toward the ceiling, accentuating the cavernous height of the
room. The arched windows were not real windows, but reflected the same bright
sky as the ceiling above. Kate knew it was night beyond the walls of the
castle, but in this magical place she could easily forget.

“I love how the windows and ceilings
look like the sky. It’s so real,” Kate murmured, tipping her face up as though
she could absorb the warmth of daylight.

“Ah, yes,” Armand beamed with pride.
“They are one of the many unique features of the castle. Since vampires have a
different circadian rhythm than the sun, each hour depicts its reciprocal. The
castle creates day where there would be night and night where there would be
day. As with the skies beyond our walls, sunrise makes way for daylight and
sunset makes way for starlight, but on our time.”

Kate watched the sky in utter amazement.
She’d seen a similar trick in some of the Las Vegas hotels, but nothing to this
magnitude. These clouds were actually drifting and changing before her eyes.
She longed to lounge on her back in the middle of the floor and pick out shapes
in the fluffy formations.

The floor beneath her feet was a
polished stone mosaic, designed with a complement of rich colors patterned
around a triangular familial crest. Curved staircases swept up both sides of
the room. The stairs met in the middle to form a landing, before dividing again
to lead off into opposite wings of the castle.

As a little girl, Kate would’ve loved to
slide down those smooth banisters. As a teen, Kate would’ve loved to make a
dramatic entrance in her prom dress on those stairs. As an adult, Kate tried to
not to feel too cheated. Not that she would change the past, even if she could.
She loved the family who’d raised her, but wondered what it would’ve been like
to grow up in this dream castle with the family she’d been born to.

Lorenzo led them deeper into the
fortress. The entire building was the perfect fusion of preservation, renovation,
and innovation. They passed through more high, arched doorways and travelled
down long halls with beautiful wood paneled walls.

Pausing before a closed door, Lorenzo
knocked. A male voice from within bid them enter. Lorenzo pushed the door open.
With a bow in Kate’s direction, he disappeared down the hallway. Alexander
indicated for Kate to enter first.

Praying for strength, she sucked in a
deep breath and stepped through the doorway. A handsome man with dark hair and
sharp eyes rose from behind an oversized mahogany desk, an unreadable
expression on his face. Kate recognized him from the pictures on the plane. Gustavo
Cacciatori, the current leader of the vampire race and her grandfather on her
father’s side. A strange thought, considering he didn’t look much more than ten
years older than she.

Unsure what to say, Kate stared at him
in awkward silence. Though related by blood, he was still a stranger to her,
one who’d abandoned her as a child. She knew it wasn’t fair, but she couldn’t
look at him without thinking about how he’d allowed strangers to become her
family, only to tear her away from them when it was convenient for him.

With the calculated gait of a predator,
he stalked toward them. The side of his mouth tipped up in a crooked smile that
didn’t quite reach his dark eyes. Even smiling, he radiated ominous antipathy,
as though he could kill a person in cold blood with that same smile on his face.
The weight of his scrutinizing gaze made Kate feel as though he’d taken her
measure and found her wanting.

“Katerina, it’s good to see you, child.
Welcome home.” Gustavo brushed a light kiss to each of her cheeks. “What a
beautiful young woman you’ve become.”

Kate tried to drum up a gracious smile
for the vampire patriarch, but feared it came out as more of a grimace. All
she’d hoped for was some semblance of a life since her previous one had ended.
And here he was, offering her just that. She could live in this beautiful
castle and be the princess of the vampires. Yet she knew where much was
offered, much would be expected in return. In time, her grandfather would name
his price.

“Thank you. You have a lovely home.”