This Same Earth

Chapter Nineteen

English Channel

March 2010

“Just the two left?”

“We were lucky to save those before Gemma got her hands on them.”

“And no trace of my son?”

“No, but he left his lackeys here. And he must have known we would take them.”

“Interesting and deliberate.”

Giovanni and Carwyn were walking up the stairs, Giovanni growing stronger with every step. He wanted to feed again, but didn’t want to weaken Beatrice more by asking. She was still limping, and her bruises were more vivid. It irritated him that he could do nothing more to heal her. She had been handling herself extraordinarily well, but he could tell she was starting to crash.

“Tesoro,” he said as he slipped a hand around her shoulders while clutching the blanket wrapped around his waist. “Will you stay with Jean’s men on the top deck while we question them? I’m sure you could handle it, but-”

“I’m okay with skipping the torture part, thanks.”

He nodded, relieved she had not insisted on being present for what would be, no doubt, a brutal interrogation.

As they walked through the melted door and onto the open deck, he saw Jean’s men securing what was left of the crew, and Gemma held two battered, young vampires by the throat. Terry tossed him a pair of black pants he found somewhere, and Giovanni turned to Beatrice as he saw the three vampires walk away with the captives.

He leaned down and kissed her. “I’ll be back soon.”

She threw her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, “Don’t be too long. There are things to say.”

He nodded and gave her one more lingering kiss before he walked away.

The injured vampires were obviously disposable; Giovanni wondered why Lorenzo had even left them on the ship. They dragged them to the rear deck among the maze of containers the freighter carried.

“No one else?” he asked as he slipped on the borrowed pants.

Terry and Carwyn shook their heads.

“Jean’s men searched all the containers,” Gemma said, pounding on one that echoed in the dark. “Nothing. Not even a drained human or a bit of clothing.”

“Cazzo,” he muttered and turned his attention back to the vampires at Gemma’s feet. “Why did he leave you?”

“Are you the master’s father?” One croaked and took a deep breath of the salt air. Giovanni suspected they were both water vampires, turned by Lorenzo to replace the personal army he and Tenzin had destroyed in Greece. Both looked to be in their early twenties. One had an American accent, and the other sounded Irish.

Giovanni knelt down and braced one arm on his knee. “I am Lorenzo’s sire.”

“We have a message for you,” the American said.

“Thought you might.” He let the blue flames flare on his torso as the young vampires watched. The American, a young blond man with brown eyes and an innocent face, looked at Giovanni as if he had never seen anything more terrifying. The other wore a placid expression, and his hard, blue eyes did not flinch. “Well?”

It was the Irishman who spoke up. “Lorenzo says he will burn your books, take your woman, turn your child, and one day, you will call him master…and you will love him.”

Giovanni cocked his head. “He sacrifices your lives to boast?”

The young American vampire could not seem to look away as the fire grew. Again, it was the other that spoke for them. “We are his humble servants.”

Giovanni stared into the young one’s frigid blue eyes. He whispered, “Did you kill Ioan ap Carwyn?” He could feel Gemma and Carwyn looking over his shoulders. “Did you kill my friend?”

The young vampire’s calm mask finally faltered, and he stuttered when he answered.

“W-we are his humble servants.”

Giovanni grabbed him by the neck and took the knife that Terry held out. “You are nothing. But you will tell me everything you know.”

He slashed the vampire across the neck and the side, placing his burning hands on the wounds as the young one began to scream.

Giovanni interrogated them for hours, Terry reviving both with seawater when they fainted.

The two vampires confessed to luring Ioan away from the clinic he had been running in the slums of Dublin. The young Irish vampire, named Sean, had been a patient of Ioan’s as a child and used the connection to put the doctor at ease. Then the other vampires, two of whom Gemma had killed in the cargo hold, kidnapped three children who had come to the clinic, threatening to kill them unless Ioan cooperated.

As Giovanni had suspected, his compassionate friend had not hesitated to sacrifice his freedom for the innocent girls. It was the American boy with the guilty brown eyes named Josh who finally broke down and confessed how Ioan had been killed.

Lorenzo met them at the old warehouse, where he tortured the doctor for days about some kind of research he had been conducting on vampire blood types. None of it made sense to the young ones, and Josh broke down sobbing when he confessed that he and his friends had drained the little girls instead of letting them go.

By the time Giovanni finished, he could hear Gemma sniffing quietly in Carwyn’s arms as Josh explained how Lorenzo forced Sean to behead Ioan before he tossed his body onto the riverbank on their way out of Dublin. It was the only time the young Irishman showed any sign of guilt.

Giovanni continued questioning them about Lorenzo’s plans, but the young water vampires knew nothing of value. Terry checked the time on the reinforced pocket watch he carried and glanced at him.

“We’re wasting time. They don’t know anything else.”

Giovanni left the crumpled vampires twisting on the deck and walked over to Carwyn and Gemma.

“They are yours. Finish them for Deirdre.”

He watched stoically as Gemma and Carwyn walked over to the two boys, forcing them down on bloody knees as Josh sobbed. Sean cocked his head defiantly. Carwyn twisted Sean’s head off first, tossing it into the ocean before he kicked the body over the railing. The priest stood over the sobbing American boy for a few minutes before his shoulders slumped. Finally, Carwyn knelt down and quietly offered the boy last rites.

Giovanni turned his head away as the boy finished confessing his sins and asking for forgiveness. Carwyn walked away, and Gemma twisted Josh’s head off and tossed his remains into the ocean before rushing into Terry’s waiting arms.

The four vampires walked back to the front of the boat, using one of the deck showers to wash off the worst of the blood so they didn’t startle Beatrice.

“Gio?” Terry called. He was walking behind Giovanni with an arm around Gemma.

“Yes?”

“Your boy knew we were coming.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t he take her?”

Giovanni shook his head at the question that had plagued him since they failed to find any trace of his son on the ship. “There is something he wants more than Beatrice at the moment. That is my only guess.”

“He’s traveling light,” Carwyn said. “Only four other vampires with him.”

“And now none.”

Giovanni muttered, “Who knows where he is? I can’t do anything about it right now. I need to see Beatrice.”

Carwyn nodded. “Go. We’ll question the crew.”

He sped across the deck, only slowing when he had her in sight. He walked to a small metal table where she sat huddled, blinking back tears from the wind, which whipped her dark hair into her face. He waved Jean’s men away, picked her up, and settled her on his lap as he tried to block the wind.

She sighed and laid her head on his chest before she pulled away. “Oh! Is it okay?”

“It’s fine.” He drew her back and tucked her under his chin.

“Lorenzo?”

“They knew nothing.”

“Did they kill Ioan?”

“They helped.”

“Are they dead?”

“Yes.”

She paused for a moment before she squeezed his waist and whispered, “Good.”

They sat silent for a few moments. He drank in her scent and rocked her when she hugged his waist.

“I told him things, Gio. About my father. About you. I couldn’t help it.”

It was nothing he hadn’t been expecting.

“It’s all right. What you knew is not…it’s fine. Your father’s location is still a mystery to me, so I doubt it will make much sense to Lorenzo, either.”

“I thought maybe you hadn’t told me everything because you worried about him taking me again.”

“There were a few things I held back, but not much.”

Giovanni could feel her start to shake, and he held her securely as he examined her, stroking his hands along her limbs and torso, noting every minute flinch or hint of tension. Soon, the shivers overcame her, and he knew the adrenaline that had fueled her for hours was wearing off. The aftershock collided with the stress of the day and caused her to shake.

“Shhh,” he soothed her, sending a mild current through his hands to relax her muscles. He rocked her in his warm arms until her breathing had returned to normal and her heart no longer raced.

“I…shit, Gio. I thought…” She sniffed, stuttering for a moment until she took a deep breath. “I thought he was going to bite me. Maybe turn me. He threatened-”

“I’ll kill him.” He kissed her forehead and tilted her chin up. “As many times as I can.”

She snorted before he heard her mutter, “Not if I kill him first.”

Giovanni smirked as she placed her cheek over his heart. “That’s the spirit of competition, my bloodthirsty girl.”

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, rocking in the cool night air.

“Man, I am glad you’re here,” she said in a shaky voice. “I’m exhausted.”

“You are extraordinary. I saw you disarm that man. You didn’t even need me there.”

He felt her smile. “The librarian finally kicked some ass, didn’t she?”

“She most certainly did. And I’m sure you’ve made Terry and Gemma quite proud.” He winked when she looked up.

“And you?”

He shrugged. “I’ve always been proud of you. I always knew you were extraordinary.”

She smiled and relaxed back into his chest. “I slipped and called Lorenzo by his human name. He knows you’ve told me about your life.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Why did you tell me? Why?” She almost looked a little angry. “You knew I would be vulnerable to any vampire who got his hands on me. Why did you tell me?”

He simply smiled. “Because you asked.”

“What?” She looked up at him, blinking as the wind made her eyes tear up again.

He leaned down and brushed at the tears. “I told you. I can’t deny you anything. You asked. I answered. I like that you know. It’s good to be known.”

She pressed her hands to his cheeks and looked into his eyes. “You should take the memories away so you’ll be safer. I never want to-”

He stopped her with a hard kiss. “Not in a thousand years.”

Beatrice stroked his cheeks and let her fingers trail to the back of his neck where she played with the singed ends of his hair.

“I love you, Jacopo.”

He blinked, wondering whether he had imagined it.

“What?”

She placed her hands back on his cheeks. “I love you, Jacopo…Giovanni…whatever name you choose in a hundred years…or two hundred. I’ll love you then, too. Ubi amo, ibi patria. Where I love, there is my home. You…” She blinked back tears and gave him a smile. “You are my home.”

Giovanni was speechless, so he crushed her to his chest. He held Beatrice for a few moments before pulling away so he could kiss her. He kissed her over and over again, nipping at soft, swollen lips as his heart pounded. “I love you,” he whispered. “Per sempre. Forever.”

“I love you, too. I never really stopped. I can just admit it now.”

He broke into a low chuckle that turned into a full laugh. He was happy. More. Joyful. She loved him. He kissed her again.

“I really wish we didn’t have an audience right now,” she finally said when they came up for air.

Giovanni tucked her head under his chin. “Someday, woman, I will have you to myself.”

“We need to get away, just us. Soon. But right now…” She hugged him close. “We have a crew to interrogate and strategy to plan. We still need to murder Lorenzo and find my dad, remember?”

“Somehow, you are not any less sexy as you say this, Beatrice,” he said with a smirk. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. Now, let’s go interrogate some Spanish sailors.”

“Darling girl,” Carwyn walked over and embraced her. “Gemma says you disarmed a six foot man. If I promise not to make you watch wrestling anymore, will you promise not to hurt me?”

She punched Carwyn’s side and smiled. “Very funny, old man.”

“That’ll teach you to run from your bodyguard next time you visit,” Terry muttered. “I had to keep your man there from turning the poor sod into a pile of ash last night.”

“I’ll remember. Thanks to you both, by the way,” she said, nodding at Gemma and Terry. “Thanks for beating me up, Gemma. Humans have nothing on you.”

“What do you Americans say? ‘It was a tough job, but someone had to do it?’”

“Right.” Beatrice said and rolled her eyes.

“You should keep that gun, by the way. It’s a nice piece,” Terry said, nodding to the nine millimeter handgun tucked into her waistband. “Your first spoils of war, B.”

“That is a good weapon,” Giovanni’s eyes narrowed. “Why does a Spanish sailor have an H &K?”

“Well, while some of us…” Carwyn waggled his eyebrows at the two of them. “Were snogging on the deck, others were questioning what was left of the crew. None knew anything about your son, of course.”

“It seems like they took Lorenzo and his people on in Rotterdam, but they didn’t really know what they were getting into,” Gemma added. “Lorenzo was directing the captain off his usual route. London was not a scheduled stop, so thank God for Tywyll’s informants, whoever they are.”

“Where does that little bastard get his information?” Terry muttered.

Carwyn shrugged. “From looking at the ship’s records, it looks like they were headed to North Africa. The details are a bit fuzzy, but Lorenzo outfitted the crew with weapons, probably thinking he could use them as fodder if he was threatened.”

Giovanni looked between Carwyn and Terry. “Then why is he not here? What tipped him off?”

“Well.” Terry glanced at the French humans. “It’s more likely ‘Who?’ is the better question.”

Carwyn shook his head. “Apparently, they stopped in La Havre early this morning, just before dawn. Someone on our side or Jean’s must have warned him we were sending a daylight team. There were three containers dropped off and put on trucks. Gemma called Jean. He has people at the port checking where they went, but Lorenzo could have been in any of them.”

“And that explains why the bastard didn’t take Beatrice,” Terry said. “He would never have left himself alone with a human during the day.”

“Damn, now I wish he had taken me,” Beatrice muttered at his side. Giovanni put an arm around her and stroked her arm, more relieved to have her back than angry at the missed opportunity.

He bent down and kissed the top of her head. “We’ll get another chance at him. The most important thing is that you are safe.”

“We’ll have some questions for Jean’s people. And my own, for that matter. Unfortunately, it’s probably the human staff,” Terry said, shrugging. “They’re always the most vulnerable.”

“It could be a vampire,” Giovanni added. “Lorenzo still has resources we don’t know about.”

Gemma piped up, “Anything’s possible. We’ll just have to keep our ears open.”

Carwyn looked over at the group of humans surrounded by Jean’s men. “What should we do with the crew?”

Giovanni looked at Beatrice, who only shrugged. “Let Jean look into them,” he said. “If they were only being used by Lorenzo, I have no quarrel with them, as long as they did not harm Beatrice.”

“All the ones who hurt me are taken care of.”

The five of them looked around the deck, and Giovanni noticed that the sky was already beginning to lighten with a hint of dawn. They needed to return to Terry’s secured boat in the port of Cherbourg.

“Can we go now?” Beatrice asked. “This human is cold and really, really tired.”

Terry motioned toward the zodiac floating nearby, piloted by one of his sons. “Your chariot awaits, ass-kicking librarian.”

“Haha,” she said with a slight blush as she tugged Giovanni in the direction Terry and Gemma were walking. Carwyn walked beside them, looking out toward the sea, and Giovanni wondered whether he was thinking of the two boys who lay at the bottom of the ocean, finally dead after stealing the life of his oldest child.

His friend looked over at him, glancing between him and Beatrice with a bittersweet smile. Carwyn reached a hand over to stroke her hair. “You’re safe, darling girl, you’re safe.”