The Bleeding Dusk (13 page)

“Never mind, Winnie. The pope hasn't been here in Rome since the war, so you needn't worry he can
hear
you,” Lady Nilly returned, one charcoaled eyebrow arching.

“What's this about the Palombaras?” Victoria asked again, a bit more insistently. And she sat back down. The Consilium would have to wait.

“To be sure, it may not be the Palombaras themselves who are hosting the…
meeting”
Lady Melly said primly. She was twining one of the wispy curls that dangled along her cheek around her left index finger. “It's quite exciting, really, Victoria. What a shame it is you cannot attend. I'm not certain how many people will be there, though I doubt it will be such a crush as we might have seen back home, you know. After all, it is Ash Wednesday. Even though it
isn't
a party.”

“But perhaps I won't want to miss it, if you would please tell me what this meeting is.” Victoria noticed that her jaw was beginning to hurt, and she eased off before she cracked something. The strength of a Venator's gritting teeth could have lasting effects.

“It would be delightful for you to attend,” Lady Winnie crowed, sounding rather unlike a duchess in that moment. “The family villa that has been closed off for decades is being opened tonight for a pa—meeting. It shall be an adventure, for the Palombara villa hasn't been occupied for years, and the family has been gone and—”

“It will be rather like a treasure hunt,” Lady Nilly chirped. “They've invited only a select group of friends to help in the search, and the Tarruscellis insisted we join them.”

“A treasure hunt?” Victoria felt a shiver across her shoulders. “Whatever would you be searching for in an old, empty house?” But she had a sneaking suspicion she might know.

“A scavenger hunt,” Lady Melly interrupted. “And we don't know exactly how to find what we're looking for, but it should be frightfully amusing. Well, perhaps not so
amusing,
”
she added, looking abashed. “It will be nothing more than a
good deed,
helping the family find a key that has been missing for more than a century. I'm certain even the pope would approve. If he were here.”

Indeed.

“It does sound intriguing,” Victoria said. “I have decided I will attend after all.”

It took her another several minutes to extricate herself from the ladies' enthusiasm, and then nearly forty minutes in the barouche with Oliver driving a roundabout path from the Gardella villa to the small church of Santo Quirinus.

Thus it was past five o'clock when she entered the small, unassuming church where a bowl of ashes sat in the vestibule. Victoria crossed herself with the gritty soot, leaving a dark smudge on her forehead and bits of dust floating down to catch in her lashes.

There were several penitents in the church, and she paused to kneel in prayer before slipping past the rail at the altar to the confessional.

Inside the small confessional, she closed the door behind her as if to meet with the priest. But instead of kneeling, Victoria felt for the small latch to the hidden door next to her seat. It slid silently open to reveal three steps that led down to a long, narrow hall studded with icons.

Victoria closed the door behind her and entered the passageway, taking care not to step on the middle stair as she did so. That middle stair was connected to an alarm in the Consilium below, warning when an unauthorized presence approached.

The hall in which she stood appeared to be nothing but a gallery of images that dead-ended in a brick wall. However, if one knew that the last icon on the left, the one depicting Jesus with the angels Gabriel and Uriel, concealed a subtle pattern of bricks that must be pushed in the proper order, one could release the rope-and-pulley mechanism that opened the dead-end wall and reveal the spiral staircase that led to the chambers below. After she'd opened the hidden door, Victoria started down the curling steps that were lit by several sconces.

She walked through the marble archway into the main chamber of the Consilium where the fountain of holy water splashed and sparkled, and she stopped.

On the other side of the circular font was gathered a group of Venators: Ilias, Zavier, Michalas, Stanislaus. They were all talking in earnest. One tall, dark head rose above the rest, attached to a set of broad, black-clad shoulders facing slightly away from Victoria, and that man seemed to be at the center of the conversation.

Zavier saw her first, and retreated slightly from the little group to hail her toward them. “Victoria! At last you've arrived. I couldn't help be a wee bit worried after we were separated last night.” He gestured toward her, his face bright with pleasure, nearly matching his hair. “And see who's returned.”

Max turned, and their eyes met briefly until she returned her attention to Zavier, who, for all his muscular bulk, looked as excited as a child with a new toy.

“Hello, Max,” Victoria said, walking toward the group. For some reason she wasn't certain whether she should acknowledge their meeting the night before.

Today, his face was devoid of the soberness he'd worn then and instead held the cool, aloof expression she was more accustomed to seeing.

“Good afternoon, everyone,” she added, smiling at them all. The other Venators responded with nods and warm smiles, making her feel as if she were a long-lost sister returning to their midst.

But when Max arched a brow in that way of his and nodded in casual greeting, Victoria couldn't help but feel a spike of irritation. Why did his face seem to blank and sharpen now that she'd arrived? Even from behind, she could see he'd been relaxed and engaged in conversation—before he saw her.

“I didn't mean to be late,” she said, then was annoyed with herself for apologizing because she felt as though it was only for Max's benefit that she'd done so. “But there's a problem that has arisen—which is what caused my delay—and it must be dealt with. Ilias, do you know where Wayren is? I should speak with both of you.”

“She's in her library, of course, and was waiting for your arrival,” the older man replied.

Victoria had reached the group of Venators by now and found herself next to Zavier, who'd taken her arm and drawn her into the group. “Max,” she said, looking at him again, “welcome back. Are you indeed back?”

“For now, yes.”

Victoria looked over the others and asked, “How was the last night of Carnivale?”

“Fifteen vampires slain,” Ilias told her.

“Then seventeen in all,” Victoria added with a smile. “And I saw no evidence of victims.”

“Where did ye disappear to?” Zavier asked, still holding her arm. “I was worried that whoever attempted to grab ye the night before had succeeded.”

Victoria felt Max looking at her, likely wondering if she would share her conversation with Beauregard. But since none of the others knew about the Door of Alchemy, nor about the missing armband belonging to Aunt Eustacia, she felt no need to go into the detail of her evening. They would find out soon enough, if it was necessary.

Instead she gave Zavier the smile she'd learned was helpful in distracting a man from his purpose and gently extricated her arm from his grip. “I went after a vampire, and when I returned you were gone. But, more importantly, I have need of your assistance as an escort this evening. Are you free to help me?”

“Aye, and with pleasure. Tell me only what I can do.”

“Thank you,” she replied, turning the smile just a bit warmer. Having Zavier to watch over her mother and friends would leave her free to do her own tasks at the estate.

“Did you say you needed to speak with Wayren?” Max interrupted.

“Yes, and Ilias as well,” Victoria replied, catching the elderly man's eye.

Zavier looked disappointed, but she said, “I won't be long. Ilias, I have to do one thing, and then I'll go to Wayren's library to speak with you.”

She excused herself and hurried through the long gallery of Venator portraits, this time passing the newest one of Aunt Eustacia. At the other end of the hall she reached what appeared to be a dead end, but actually contained three hidden doors. One led to an old spiral staircase, one of several secret exits from the Consilium. These steps took one up to the ruins of a tumbledown building that appeared to be nothing more than an abandoned house on the small street of Tilhin. It was located many streets away from the main entrance at Santo Quirinus.

A second door led to Wayren's private library, and the third door was the entry way Victoria sought. The doors were not secret to keep out other Venators; they all knew this chamber existed, and many of them had visited it.

They were hidden merely as a precaution. In the event the Consilium should ever be breached, the important and valuable items kept in this room and in Wayren's library would remain safe and would be able to be evacuated through the nearby alternate entrance if necessary. Thus, Victoria reasoned, this would be the safest place for Aunt Eustacia to have hidden the armband with the key.

Perhaps she'd had the opportunity to secret it here before going to the meeting that resulted in her death. It wasn't likely, but Victoria wanted to make certain all other possibilities had been exhausted before she talked to Sebastian.

She pushed on the marble relief of a trail of vines, her fingers sliding one of the leaves to the side. The heavy marble wall rumbled and opened enough for her to slip through.

Inside this chamber, which always had torches ready to be lit, the Venators kept their greatest secrets, their most valuable weapons, and the most dangerous souvenirs of their history. Victoria held her candle aloft, showing cabinets with deep cupboards and shallow, wide shelves that lined the walls. Display tables with glass tops that enclosed some of the objects sat adjacent to one another. A desk with curling manuscript papers and a large magnifying glass was positioned in a corner.

On display here was the stake given to Gardeleus when he was called to his destiny of fathering the generations of Venators. It was made of aspen wood, and had been part of the True Cross. Lady Catherine's emerald ring, which she'd worn during her days in Queen Elizabeth's court, was in a small, silver-cornered box made of ash. A head-size egg that belonged to the serpent demon Pithius was locked in an iron cage. It had never been incubated, but for security's sake it was locked up, just in case it might someday spontaneously hatch. So far it had been there for centuries with nary a wiggle, according to Ilias.

There was the gold clasp that Eustacia and Kritanu had seized one Christmas Eve in Venice, thereby saving the city from horrific destruction at the hands of a powerful vampire. The golden anklet that had belonged to Dahhak, one of the
divs
of long-ago Persia. A twining copper ring, one of the five Rings of Jubai that had been given by Lilith to her most trusted Guardians centuries ago. An odd-shaped box made of jade that Victoria had never had occasion to see opened sat next to the egg. And, there on one of the tables, a long, obsidian object.

A shard from Akvan's Obelisk.

Victoria walked over and looked down. The piece of shiny blue-black stone was no longer than her forearm from wrist to elbow, and perhaps as thick as three fingers. It was splintered to a lethal point at one end and a wider, jagged edge at the other. One side was smooth and curved, the opposite was fragmented and ridged.

It had been a part of the large obelisk which had contained a great, primitive evil harnessed by the demon Akvan. When the obelisk had been destroyed, it shattered and disintegrated in a great explosion. Victoria had found the piece of obsidian during her escape with Sebastian from the aftermath of its destruction, and she had brought it here for safekeeping.

The gleam of her candle flame flickering on the shiny object reminded her of the blue and black flames that had erupted from the obelisk when it was still whole. As she looked at it, Victoria felt the shimmer of evil that had once been contained therein and placed her hand over her belly, where the
vis bullae
dangled, protecting her.

Stepping closer, Victoria smoothed her hand over the length of the shard and felt the prickle of evil present. She wondered, belatedly, if it was safe to leave it here, in the deepest, most remote part of the Consilium.

“What are you doing?”

Max's voice caused her to jerk her hand away and whirl around. “Stop sneaking up on me,” she snapped. She stepped away from the table, refusing to look at the shard behind her. “What are you doing here? I thought you weren't sure if you were back. And now you are everywhere, as if you had never left. As if you have the right.”

He'd stepped into the doorway, filling it, casting a long, dark shadow from the brighter hallway behind him. “I'm back for now,” he said. “Are you looking for something?”

“Just making certain Aunt Eustacia didn't leave her armband here before going…that night. It was a possibility,” she said defensively as he raised a brow. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for my meeting with Wayren.”

Brushing past him, forcing him to back out of the entrance, she went into the small vestibule, closing the storage chamber door behind her. But to her surprise, when she turned to enter the library Max was right there in her wake. “What are you doing here?” she asked rudely.

“As an adviser to the
previous Summa
Gardella,” he said smoothly, “I was invited to attend. Ilias felt it was appropriate for me to be here.”

Wayren interrupted any response she might have made. “Please sit down, Victoria, and Max, perhaps you will take that seat.” If the mild-mannered woman was surprised or upset by the barbed comments between the Venators, she gave no sign of it. “Now, tell us what has happened.”

With a glare at Max, Victoria had no choice but to speak. “My mother and her friends have been invited to a gathering at none other than the Palombara villa tonight for a treasure hunt.”