“Huh?” She curled her lip.
He laughed. “Not as much of a honeymoon, but we could make it a group trip. Maybe Kirby and Dez would want to come with us and help with Ben. I don’t know that Caspar and your grandmother would want to leave home for that long, but if Kirby and Dez come, we could go for the summer. They could look after the boy during the day. We’d still get plenty of time to ourselves, but we’d be able to spend time with them, too.”
Her face suddenly fell, and tears sprang to her eyes. “I’m not gonna be able to see any of them for a while, am I?”
Giovanni shook his head when one of the harsher realities of her new life struck her. She set her food down and crawled into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her temple. “My grandma,” she whispered. “Caspar.”
“They are both in very good health. And you’re very strong for a new vampire. Very strong, Beatrice. After a year or so…”
She nodded her head, still tucking herself into his chest.
“I need to talk to you about something else. Something I should have spoken to you about years ago.” Giovanni took a deep breath. “Speaking of Italy… of Rome, that is, I need to tell you about Livia.”
“Livia? Your friend in Rome?”
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t call her a friend. Livia is… well, it’s complicated. You remember”—his voice dropped to a whisper and he murmured in her ear—“you remember about my father. Don’t say anything, remember there are many sensitive ears in the palace.”
Beatrice nodded again, pressing closer.
“You must know, you and my son are the only beings on earth that know the truth about Andros. And it must stay that way.”
She drew back and looked at him, the question evident in her frown.
“What we did… what I did… it is a very grave crime. To kill your own sire is a very grave crime.”
“So, everyone thinks—”
“Lorenzo and I told Livia that the villa was burned by marauders. That Andros was killed in the fire.”
They were still speaking in whispers, but his ears were alert to the sound of any passerby in the hallway. They had been left alone, for the most part, but he could take no chances.
“But really, Lorenzo killed him, right?”
“He sent all the servants away and dragged Andros into the sunlight when he was in the depths of daytime rest. I saw the ashes in the courtyard when I woke. Paulo was sitting in the corner, weeping and shaking. I took him to Crotone the next night and turned him. We burned the villa before we left.”
“And the library?”
“That is more complicated. And I don’t know what happened to all of it, only Lorenzo does. It’s one of the reasons I’d like to take him alive, if possible.”
“But your uncle’s books were safe, so your father’s—”
“Paulo told me that after my uncle’s collection was burned in Florence, Andros became paranoid. He kept some of his books in Crotone. Some of them at the villa my uncle left me near Ferrara. Some at the property in Perugia. It was scattered, and since Lorenzo was the one who oversaw the property and the human servants, I did not keep track of it as I should have. When he told me later that most things had been lost, destroyed or stolen, I believed him. He must have been planning for some time.
“Wouldn’t Andros have noticed?”
“I don’t know what he told Andros. After he died, I was focused on survival, and I foolishly trusted that my father would have kept track of Paulo. He had been with Andros since he was a child and my father trusted him, possibly even more than me.”
“Why?”
“Andros thought he could control Paulo. He thought… my father had little respect for humans, Beatrice. He didn’t really understand them anymore. He thought Paulo adored him. He couldn’t see the resentment because he didn’t really look. And Paulo was very good at presenting a front, just like Andros.”
“So, everyone in the vampire world thinks your father was… a good guy?”
Giovanni shrugged. “Define ‘good.’ Andros was highly respected. Feared. Admired. Most never saw his madness or his cruelty. He was the consummate politician, a master manipulator. Even adored in some circles as the highest example of learning and culture. If it was ever known that we killed him…”
“What would happen? And why hasn’t Lorenzo told anyone in all these years?”
Giovanni snorted. “Paulo would be killed first. He was human when he killed Andros.”
“But you—”
“My life would also be forfeit.”
She spoke in an angry whisper. “To who? You’re the one he tortured. You’re the one he kidnapped and held captive for ten years. Who has the right—”
“Livia,” he whispered, leaning so his lips brushed her ear, “is not just one of the most powerful vampires in the Old World. Not just the vampire who helped me to get you back. Who spoke for me with the council in Athens. They never would have allowed me to attack Lorenzo the night I took you unless she had intervened on my behalf. But Livia has always had a strange sort of affection for me, because Livia…” His breath caught for a moment, and he pressed Beatrice closer. “Livia was my father’s wife.”
A few nights later, Tenzin, Stephen, and Baojia joined them in the living area to talk about Lan’s return and what it would mean when the council met.