Dane (34 page)

Serafina went on. “Her breasts swollen with milk and no child to feed.

Sergio is only pumping it from her. We use it as an ingredient in our rejuvenating face cream, which sells for fifty lire a gram. Alexa gave you some recently, did she not?”

“But that‟s wicked! Criminal!” said Eva, scarcely able to credit what she was hearing. It made her violently glad she‟d never opened the jar she‟d been given.

“That disapproving look on your face will result in wrinkles,”Serafina advised her.

Wrinkles? Was the woman insane? “Does Alexa know about this?”Eva demanded.

“Alexa?” said Gaetano, shooting his mother a hate-filled look.

“No, my dear sister developed a sudden and urgent distaste for Rome yesterday, packed her things, and left for a visit to our relatives in Venice.”

“I‟ll write to them this afternoon,” Serafina said sharply, and Eva sensed the tension between them and wondered if she could employ it as a wedge. “They‟ll send her home.”

“It‟s you who should be locked up, not that girl!” said Eva, unable to hide her abhorrence.

Annoyed, Serafina came closer, bending to look her in the face.

“How old do I look to you?” Beyond her, Gaetano rolled his eyes.

Eva gaped. “What is that to anything?”

“I‟m forty-eight,” she said fatuously.

Though she looked far younger, Eva refused to be impressed.

“That girl in there does a great service. As do the others,” Serafina insisted, making a sweeping gesture that encompassed the other doors.

“Their donations of breast milk, semen, tears—even their blood and urine have uses in limited quantities—offer the promise of youth to thousands of our aging clients.”

There were others like that poor girl behind each of these doors? It was too horrible to imagine! At all costs, she must avoid being shut into one of those rooms herself. She must keep them talking until she could think of some sort of plan that would allow her to escape with Mimi.

“How do you know about us—about my world?”

“An ancient ancestor of mine, Faunus, had a liaison with an ElseWorld female. She died giving birth to their daughter. And through that daughter, my family discovered your kind‟s uses.” Serafina smiled.

“Back in those days, the wealthy ladies of Rome had to make do with charcoal, saffron, chalk, and lead in their cosmetics. Can you believe it?”

she tsked. “But with the use of fluids Faunus‟s daughter provided, my matriarchal ancestors concocted new cosmetic recipes. The women of ancient Rome leapt at our superior offerings that made their skin smooth, replenished thinning hair, and kept them young. It made us rich, but we didn‟t forget our humble beginnings. We named our products after Faunus‟s daughter, who‟d helped us so much in our discoveries. Bona Dea. Grateful women worshipped her as a goddess and flocked to her temples to receive treatments, so desperate for them that they turned a blind eye to the inner workings of our business. It is much the same today.”

“Bona Dea.” The words Daniel had spoken! Eva‟s eyes widened as everything suddenly fell into place. “You abducted Dane and his brother all those years ago, didn‟t you? And brought them here.”

Gaetano broke his moody silence to make an irritated sound.

“Don‟t be jealous, Tano,” chided Serafina. “You have her now.”

Unmollified, he snatched up some keys and opened another door, revealing the young man inside. His features were handsome, his hair dark and overlong, hanging down his back. He rose unsteadily to his feet and she saw he wore only a linen loincloth. His face turned slowly toward them, his eyes blinking open. They were silver! Like Dane‟s. Oh, Gods, was it—it had to be...

“Lucien?” Eva called in a tremulous voice. His head cocked and his eyes fastened on her in a slightly more lucid way as if he‟d recognized his name. “It‟s you, isn‟t it? Dane and your brothers, they‟re still looking for you. They haven‟t given up. They love you.”

His eyes bored into her, intent and fascinated. And hopeful?

“He doesn‟t understand you.” Gaetano gave a loud clap and Lucien‟s fascinated gaze flew to him instead. “See? Anything draws his attention. He‟s drugged.”

“As long as you‟ve woken him, you might as well give him the onions,” Serafina ordered, and like an obedient dog, Gaetano went back into the tunnel to fetch. When he came back, he carried an oddly shaped funnel and a round white onion and a knife, and he headed into Luc‟s cell.

“What are you doing to him?”Eva demanded. She half stood to go to them, but Mimi‟s weight sent her down again. If she caused too much trouble, they might lock them up as well. If only Dane could know his brother lived. She longed to tell him somehow. Her gaze went to the exit.

“Don‟t try anything stupid,”said Serafina. “He‟s not going to hurt him. The onion is only to bring on the boy‟s tears so my son can siphon them off.” She seemed entirely incapable of comprehending that what they did here was wrong!

Serafina moved over to the cabinet, took a knife and bowl from within, and then began slicing the olives Eva had picked and collecting their pits in the bowl. “Forgive me for being such a poor hostess, but we are quite desperate to have these olives. The calming agent we use on your kind is made from the pits. In small doses, it dulls your scents, but in large quantities, it lulls your minds as well. Since we lost the grove, our guests have gone without enough, and that makes them restless.”

Eva watched the knife blade cut precisely and another pit flew into the bowl. “Is that what we are to become?” she asked faintly. “Your guests?”

Instead of replying, Serafina offered, “You look like your father, did you know?”

Bile rose in Eva‟s throat. “Did you trap him down here as well?”

“Don‟t be silly. Angelo knew nothing of this. He was visiting Rome from Florence when we met at a social function. Lord, he was so handsome, a dark angel. Women flocked to him. But he wanted me. Until your whore of a mother came. I hated her for taking him. ”The cut of the knife grew louder with her anger. Then she glanced at Eva and said cruelly, “Your maidservant poisoned him.”

“So I learned yesterday.”

Serafina gestured with her knife toward the doors that ringed the room. “But you didn‟t know that she‟s here, did you, in one of the rooms?

Came wandering around this morning at my home, hysterical. Accusing us of hiding you. Threatening to go to the polizia. I couldn‟t have that.”

Although Eva would never forgive Odette for all she‟d done, the woman had been like a second mother to her and she didn‟t want to see her tortured! “Can I see her?”

Serafina shook her head. “She‟s drugged for now, but is far too old to be of use to us. She‟ll be flushed into the Tiber as soon as Gaetano can manage it.”

Poor Odette! To have fallen into the hands of those responsible for the drownings and doomed herself to the very fate she‟d long feared.

Terror threatened to immobilize her and Eva fought it down.

Serafina straightened, dusting her hands. She‟d finished her work—the pits were piled in a small mound. “Tano, come out and watch her! I‟m going to the scullery.” She hefted her lantern and went back into the tunnel.

When Gaetano emerged from Luc‟s room, Eva felt his eyes on her and ducked her head. Mimi stirred and her chest tightened with worry for her. Poor Lucien. Poor Odette. And the others here. She felt battered, almost numb from all the terrible revelations thrown her way one after another.

With all her heart she wished that she could protect Mimi from whatever was to come. The fact that her captors were so free with damning information surely meant they had no plans to release them. She would do anything to save Mimi. Anything.

Gaetano‟s thigh came into her peripheral vision as he came closer.

A hand feathered on her hair. She wanted to slap it away. But instead she did what she knew she must. Calmly, she raised her gaze to his and forced a gentle smile. “I still care for you, you know,” she said in a soft appeal. It was a ridiculous statement, but the only gambit she could contrive at the moment.

Unfortunately, he wasn‟t so easily fooled. “Is that why you humiliated me with Satyr?” he scoffed. “Because you care for me?”

“I—“

“I only wish you could have seen your lover when we brought him here. He wasn‟t much use then. The young ones never are. Still, we gave him the onions. He hated that. Cursed us and fought worse than anyone we‟ve had down here. Didn‟t help him, though. We got what we wanted.

Every day for a year.” His eyes found hers. “Has he had you?”

When he read the truth in her face, his lips took on a cruel curve.

“Well, I had him once. Not with my prick, but with the handle of a flogger.”

Oh, Gods! It killed her to think of Dane as a boy, here with this demented man. “You‟re a decade older than he. A man to his child then.

How could you!”

Distantly, Eva heard Serafina return. Gaetano sighed and said softly, “Lord, I‟d give a kingdom to be able to tell that bastard how he and his brother passed their time here.”

“Don‟t,” she begged quickly. “He‟s been hurt enough. Please, promise me you won‟t ever tell him.”

His eyes slowly swept her, lingering on her bosom. “What‟ll you do for me in return?”

19

Eva. No. Gods, no!

Terror stabbed Dane‟s chest as he stared into the dark tunnel beyond the mosaic door. It had been sealed, but he had just wrenched it open with his bare hands. This was how he and Luc had been taken! He remembered now. Through this door and into this gaping abyss. How could he have forgotten it all this time? A year after his abduction, he‟d been found wandering in the Forum. So he‟d concentrated his efforts to find Luc there these past weeks. Fucking waste of time! Instead, the secret of his brother‟s whereabouts had been right here under his nose.

“You have to find them!” Lena‟s tear-soaked cry jerked him back to the present. His heart had very nearly stopped when she had appeared at the house just now, telling him that Eva and Mimi had been abducted from the temple.

He took her thin shoulders and gave her a little shake. “You‟ve done well in bringing me here, Lena. Now stop crying and tell me what happened.”

Looking frightened of his stern tone, she obediently launched into speech. “We came here so Eva could gather the olive pits so no one will guess that she‟s satyr.” She covered her mouth, her eyes wide. “I wasn‟t supposed to tell that. It‟s a secret.”

“It‟s all right,” Dane told her impatiently. “What else?”

Lena pointed to the tunnel. “A lady and a man took Eva and Mimi away through there.”She made as if to step inside and search for them, but he snatched her back.

“No! Listen to me, Lena. Go back to the house. Wait there for Pinot or my brothers and tell them what has happened. Tell them I‟ve gone into this tunnel to find Eva and Mimi.”

“But—“

“Promise me.”

“I promise,” Lena said bravely, though her thin body was trembling so hard that her teeth rattled.

“Good girl. I‟m proud of you.”The words slipped from him with surprising ease, an echo of his own father‟s approvals to him and his brothers long ago when his family had owned this land. He turned her body toward the house and gave her a little push. “Go.”

As she went, he grabbed a lamp from the temple and lit it. Dante and Daniel were both awake inside him—an unprecedented occurrence.

Dante never came for anything other than physical gratification. And Daniel—he‟d never come at all when Dane was aware. But now both were making frenzied pleas to stop him from entering the tunnel. Begging him to let his brothers go instead.

I‟m not waiting for them to help! Dane replied in a soundless shout.

The trail will grow cold and Eva could be. .

No. No, she would be fine. Arrogantly, he refused to let it be otherwise and steeled himself against any possibility of losing her as he‟d lost Luc.

Heart slamming in his throat, he stepped across the threshold into the jaws of hell. Even with the lantern, it was nearly pitch-black in the tunnel. As he loped through the darkness, the walls seemed to undulate, choking at him, trying to close in on him from every side. His head swam with his own fears and those of his alternate personalities as they fought with him and themselves.

Let‟s go back. I‟m frightened. I hate this place! This from Daniel.

And then Dante joined in the chorus. You see what you‟re doing?

Panicking him. No good can come of this. Do you want to wind up in another asylum?

Go back go back go baaaack!

No! I have to find them. Have to. Have. To. Left. Right. Eva.

Mimi. Luc. Eva. Mimi. Luc. Keep. Moving.

The trail wound crazily, then fifty yards on, it forked. If he chose wrongly, he could waste precious minutes. Which direction? He held the lantern higher.

There was something just ahead, in the direction of the right fork.

A rectangle of white lying on the ground. Running to it, he snatched it up.

A sheet of paper, limp from dampness seeping through the walls and collecting in puddles on the floor. The word Evangeline caught his eye, written in a spidery feminine hand. It was a page from Eva‟s mother‟s journal!

He lifted the lantern again and moved farther in that direction down the tunnel. Nothing but black. But then he saw another rectangle of white on the floor. His boots slipped and slid as he rushed toward it.

Another page. And farther ahead, another. Eva must have dropped them one by one, leaving a trail her captors had missed! He dropped the two pages to the ground there to mark the path for his return trip. When he would have his rescued loved ones in tow.