Dane (19 page)

“I‟ll speak to our attorneys tomorrow and have them approach Satyr with an offer. We have to maintain control of that grove. Our little business is done for if we lose it.”

“What‟s the matter, Mother? Afraid your looks will fade if you don‟t have your creams and lotions?”

“Shut up, fool. That‟s not all that‟s at stake. If news of our work leaks, our reputations will be in tatters. The family fortune gone in an instant.” Her face turned conniving. “But Satyr has even more to lose than we do. His entire world would be exposed if we tell the secrets we know. He and his family would be locked up as fearsome freaks.”

Gaetano turned back to the window. Eva was no longer in sight. “If you think he‟ll sell the land back to us, think again. I offered on it right after I lost it and one other time since. I saw how badly he wanted it.

Called it his heritage.”

“Just because some distant ancestor of his planted its trees, that doesn‟t entitle him to them. And I‟d like to see him prove his claim without revealing what he is. I‟ll make an offer to him. If he doesn‟t see things our way, our lawyers will sue him.”

“His brothers might have something to say about that. They‟ve acquired some powerful allies in the government. Especially the eldest, Bastian. His finds in the Forum are earning him friends in high places.”

“I‟ll manage something. We‟ll have the grove back, don‟t you doubt it. Women left to clean up a man‟s mess, as always.” She sent him a look of disgust.

“What are you two arguing about?” asked Alexa, coming over to them. “It‟s a party. Time to enjoy yourselves. Time enough for squabbling tomorrow.”

“Which reminds me,” Serafina went on, berating him without pause. “I don‟t approve of you consorting with Alexa‟s little friend.”

“Eva?”asked Alexa.

Gaetano ground his teeth. “She‟s much preferable to your choice for me. The Claiborne girl has the face of a horse.”

“And the bank account of Midas, as well as a fine pedigree,”

Serafina scolded. “After you tell me you lost the grove, I‟m in no mood to humor you regarding that French tart.”

“Don‟t speak that way about Eva,” said Alexa. “You hardly know her. And what do you mean he lost the grove?”

“I mean he lost our olive grove on Aventine. In a card game to Dane Satyr. Now I must hire lawyers to get it back,” she said.

“Then go and get on with it, and leave me in peace. As for the French tart, I plan to wed her,” said Gaetano. He‟d have pursued Eva regardless, but it was a bonus that his mother detested the idea.

“Wife? I hardly think so,” Serafina scoffed. “You will stop your pursuit of her. Nothing can come of it and it‟s an embarrassment. She lives in a rented townhouse, for goodness sake. And she‟s hardly of our status. No, I don‟t think so.”

Gaetano‟s stomach roiled with anger. Eva wasn‟t polished in the stilted way of the women his mother chose for him. But a man didn‟t care about such things. He wanted Evangeline Delacorte, and by God he was going to have her. Alexa put a comforting hand on his arm, but he shook it off. They‟d always gotten along well enough, but Alexa‟s willingness to pacify their parent was beginning to grate on him.

“Shouldn‟t you be mingling, Mother?” Honestly, sometimes he wanted to throttle her.

Serafina nodded. “I see our attorney over there. I might as well broach the matter of our little difficulty.”

“Or I could wed him,” Alexa offered, drawing two pairs of startled eyes her way.

“Who, the attorney?” asked Gaetano. “How would that help?”

Serafina stared at her, intrigued. “You always were a smart one.

You‟d be willing?”

“You mean to wed Satyr?” Gaetano demanded, fuming as he finally comprehended things. “No, I forbid it!”

“Honestly, Tano, as if you had the power to forbid anything.

Come, Alexa, let us discuss this matter without further distraction from your brother,” said Serafina. With a diffident swish of her skirts, she took Alexa‟s arm and made to leave him. But before they departed, she couldn‟t resist one last dig. “Remember, I hold the purse strings in this family, and I‟m sure your gambling would suffer if you were cut off. Let tonight‟s dance be the last you enjoy with your little mademoiselle.”

After they‟d gone, Gaetano turned and banged his forehead to the window glass. “But I feel something with her,” he whispered. His gaze searched the piazza below. Of course, Eva was long gone by now.

Shifting so his coat would hide what he did, he cupped himself. His cock was flaccid as usual. Had he only imagined it had stirred when he danced with Eva tonight? No, had happened before in her company. It was real, and she was the only woman who‟d ever affected him in that way. He was almost afraid to take her under him in bed, fearing that in the end, he might discover that he was as impotent with her as with all the others he‟d tried. But the possibility that this was not the case was a lure he could not resist. He would woo her with drink or drug one night soon and try her on. And if he was successful at bedding her, his mother would relent.

Then he could have the delightful Eva whenever he wished. Could wed her. Sleep with her in his own bed on fresh sheets. Upstairs, not down in the dank labyrinth that ran beneath his home.

Just then, he saw Dane on the tile below, moving in the direction Evangeline had just gone. Damn. Did the man think to steal everything from him?

11

“What is this place?”Pinot whispered.

“Shh!”said Eva, batting at him to stay behind her. “I don‟t know.

I‟ve never noticed it before.” Hidden at the bottom of a staircase in the shadow of an enormous stone griffin, they stared at the mysterious building at the top of the steps.

“Nor I,” said Pinot. “And I often pass this way.”

They‟d followed the black-caped gentlemen from Palazzo Nuovo for several blocks, until the trio had taken the stairs up to this stately three-story edifice. Along its facade, a series of sash windows alternated with Corinthian pilasters crowned with carven olive branches. Something flickered beyond one of the glass panes. A candelabrum.

“It reeks of magic,” said Eva.

She felt Pinot‟s head nod at her elbow. “A Council building,” he whispered. They were still on Capitoline, not far from their own home.

From somewhere behind them in the distance came the clink of pickaxes and shovels working around the clock to uncover ancient mysteries in the Forum ruins.

“I‟m going in,” said Eva, when a group of naiads arrived and took the steps upward toward the building. “Go home.”

“Forget that. I‟m coming, too,” insisted Pinot. “This is far too good a mystery.”

“Hurry, then, if you must, and keep up,” she said. Together, they ascended the steps. Attaching themselves to the last party up the stairs, they attempted to surreptitiously enter through the arched doorway with them.

“Halt!”A gargantuan one-eyed creature barred the threshold, just before they made it inside. A Cyclops. Not the first Eva had met, but certainly the largest. At his side, a three-headed guard dog sniffed at them for a long, considering moment during which they held their breath.

Her mind raced, trying to think of a plausible excuse that might gain them entrance. Difficult when she didn‟t know what this place was.

But when the dog didn‟t devour them, the sentry muttered,

“Cerberus finds you acceptable.”

“Well, good. Then. . ”Eva tried to edge around him.

“However, I don‟t.” The Cyclops blocked her, eyeing the pair of them like some giant, supercilious butler who‟d spotted vermin. “Where‟s your card?”

Card? Eva and Pinot exchanged furtive glances.

“I forgot it?” Eva offered, having no idea what he was talking about.

The big eye narrowed. “You don‟t sound too certain.”

“We‟re friends of the three Brethren of Misericordia who entered earlier,” Pinot piped up.

“Yes! Right. There they are,” Eva said, spying Signor Russo beyond the Cyclops. At the far side of the room he and his companions disappeared through a red velvet curtain. Smiling with what she hoped was confidence, she took Pinot‟s hand and again tried to sidle past the guard.

And yet again, he blocked them. “No card, no admittance. Not without the boss‟s approval.” Leaving Cerberus to stand watch alone, the Cyclops took her arm in one hand and Pinot‟s collar in his other, and hustled them both inside and through the velvet curtain.

They quickly found themselves in what appeared to be an elegant sitting room dotted with small tables and couches. Perhaps two dozen people were ensconced there, mingling and chatting. Unfortunately, Signor Russo and his companions were not among them. No one glanced up as they entered, and Eva gathered it would have been considered gauche to take too much notice of anyone in particular. There was something indefinable in the air here that encouraged discretion.

Before they got much farther, a masculine voice stopped them.

“Mademoiselle Delacorte?” Dane‟s brother Sevin was approaching.

“What are you doing here?”

“I might ask you the same question,” Eva parried. He was dressed more formally than when she‟d last seen him, in black silk. She‟d been so intent on Dane when they‟d met in the ruins that morning that she hadn‟t really noticed how handsome his brother was. His hair was dark like Dane‟s, his lips full and sensuous, his eyes a clear sparkling blue, his shoulders broad.

“I‟m the proprietor.” Sevin waved the guard off, then acknowledged Pinot with a nod and took her elbow, leading them both farther into the room. His touch was firm and masculine and confident, yet it didn‟t affect her in the same melting way Dane‟s did. “You‟ve come ahead of schedule, actually,” he told them. “Once you‟d resided in this world for six months, you would have received an invitation.”

“It‟s the Salone di Passione, isn‟t it?” Pinot guessed suddenly, sounding excited. Trust him to have heard of this place. He sniffed out information like a bloodhound.

A corner of Sevin‟s mouth curved upward in tacit confirmation.

“What?” Eva asked blankly.

Just then, a young man passed them, gesturing toward Pinot as if to draw him away. He was tall and slender, and attractive in a boyish fresh-faced way. Eva looked down at Pinot and saw him blush.

“He‟s a friend,” Pinot explained, making to leave them. “I‟ll just be a minute.”

Once he left them, Sevin steered her to one side of the room so she could better take it all in.

“A passion salon?” she queried. “What is this place and why haven‟t I ever noticed it before?”

“The building is bespelled so the uninitiated won‟t take note of it, or of any comings and goings from it that might bring on an investigation.

To nonmembers, it appears to be merely an impenetrable thicket. I can only assume that your association with my brother has had the effect of prematurely rendering us visible to you.”

Fascinated, Eva studied her surroundings, noting the risqué frescoes and mosaics on the walls and floors, the brocade couches, and the bubbling fountain at which guests periodically refreshed their drinks.

“What goes on here that‟s so secret? Does the Council know?”

Sevin nodded. “They sanctioned it. I broached the concept to them five years ago, presenting it to them as a way of staving off trouble for our kind on this side of the gate. ElseWorld immigrants needed a safe, private location to congregate for conversation and concupiscent engagements with like-minded partners. Coming here helps limit the potential for inadvertent exposure were such engagements to take place outside these environs.”

Sevin believed he‟d created a haven for all ElseWorld creatures. Yet without her powders, Eva knew she would be as endangered in this place as she was outside of it. For if she were to reveal herself to him and his brothers as a female satyr, there would be no sanctuary here for her. They would turn her over to ElseWorld authorities if they knew. Wouldn‟t they?

“What‟s through there?” she asked, pointing toward a drape that obscured an arched portal. Since Signor Russo hadn‟t lingered here, she deduced that he must have passed into the next chamber.

“The main salon,” Sevin readily explained. “This is merely an anteroom, used to engage in verbal foreplay. Some guests never move beyond it. For them, a little flirtation with members of their species is enough. However, if one is looking for more, there is the main salon through that drape. But first, partners can spend time here in this room negotiating terms if they wish. Then, when they move on, they can arrive with a plan and already in character, so to speak.”

“And if one arrives here without a partner?” she asked. She glanced toward Pinot and was jolted by surprise to see him locked in an embrace with his friend. Selfishly, she‟d never before thought of him as having a personal life outside of the one her household provided.

“Then this can serve as a setting in which to meet one before entering the main salon. As I‟ve suggested to Dane on numerous occasions.”

“He‟s a member? Oh, of course. He‟s your brother after all,” she mused, not altogether pleased at the thought of Dane here, with other women. “He might have told me.”

Sevin sent her a knowing look, a twinkle in his eye. Had he been testing her to gauge her reaction to the mention of his brother?

“It could impact his marriage prospects,” she improvised hurriedly.

“And mine. Even if the perimeter is bespelled, what of these people?” She gestured toward the room‟s occupants. “They‟ll have seen him, and now me. It increases the risk of gossip that might prove detrimental to our hopes to wed within the human community.”