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They moved off the beaten path. Here and there, an old man shuffled along, headed for a bar or trattoria. A woman swathed in black hurried to a church service. A young housewife strolled with her baby in a carriage.
Another turn. They were far from the shops, into a mostly residential section of the city. Dusk was now falling. The lights that fell upon the canal were dim, coming from dwellings where fathers were returning from work, some to stay, some for a bite before returning to work to soak in the tourist dollars by night.
It was still Sal’s city. Warm now in the glow of home and day-to-day living.
Ahead was a wide bridge, one that connected two islands of houses. They were not too far now from his own.
The gondola drifted beneath the bridge.
Sal barely heard the man in the dottore costume move.
He had just started to turn, not quite hearing but sensing the whispers . . .
He felt the hands on his shoulders, powerful in a vise that would soon break bone. The grip was agony, but even as he opened his mouth to scream, the noise was choked off in the sudden rampant flow of blood.
He wasn’t even aware of the razor-honed piercing that seared into his neck, creating the bubble of blood in his throat. . .
Nari was in the center of the Square, masked, surrounded by revelers. She stood still, staring up at the sky, appreciating the dying of the day. Night. . . soon. She could hear the laughter around her, the talk, the languages. She could hear the music, playing at the bandstand. When she concentrated, she could hear more.
A pulse . . .
Thump, thump, sweet, delicious.
Breathing. . . life . . . essence . . .
Tonight. It might be tonight. She had a plan in place, and actually, missing out on her intent here and there wasn’t so bad. It was rather like a game.
Cat and mouse. The chase creating an even sweeter scent of fear. And the taste of fear . . .
She started when she felt a grasp on her arm. She glanced up in horror.
Ragnor. He had found her. Here, in the open.
“It stops,” he said.
She wanted to jerk away furiously. She knew that she could not.
“Really? What are you going to do with me to make it stop? Kill me?” she taunted.
“Put you away,” he said quietly.
“That’s your intent anyway, isn’t it?” she said softly. She couldn’t escape him. Why not enjoy the moment She brushed her knuckles against his cheek.
“Ragnor . . . ”
He took her hand, forcing her to drop it. She smiled slowly anyway. “Do you think that I ever forget?” she asked.
“Do you think that I ever forget?” he cross-queried harshly. “I’m telling you, Nari, that it stops. I’m warning you. Threatening you, if you like. You could have everything, you have a life here, a beautiful palazzo, a title, a position. You?”
“You forget yourself, don’t you, Ragnor? I know the legends, that you think yourself so different, but in all honesty, are you so very above us all?”
“All? Many are living?”
“Henpecked. Locked into a world like a cage. ”
“Being rational and surviving. Nari, look around you? you have everything!” She studied him for a moment. “No, I don’t have everything. But I know what I am. ”
“There’s so much more that you could be. ”
She rose on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “I like what I am. ”
“Last time. Definitely a threat. I could?”
“You could what? Break me here and now? In front of all these people? They’d arrest you, throw you in jail. You could escape of course . . . but then, what about your face? You couldn’t just wander around all these nice people, then, could you? Damn me and you damn yourself. ”
“We are already damned,” he told her flatly.
“So you haven’t!” she marveled. “The truth is what is, and you know it, though, you always thought you were different. ” He was different She felt a spasm of hunger suddenly that was so violent she could barely contain it She wanted to touch him again. All these years . . . he was still Ragnor. Solid, never faltering. Beautiful. The rugged planes of his face, the wall of his chest Old regrets died hard. Well, she had made her decisions and her choices. She had underestimated him. And now, looking into his eyes, she knew it was too late.
“There are laws?”
“Their laws? Our laws? What laws?” she taunted. “The world is in chaos, Ragnor?hadn’t you noticed?
And we will prevail. Foolish fellow! Don’t you know?”
“I know that I can break you?and will. ”
“Will it be so very easy?” she whispered softly, moving against him.
“Like snapping my fingers. ”
She moved away. “It’s that American girl. ”
“It’s what you’re doing. ”
“You’re a liar. You’ve been watching that girl. ”
“If I have an interest in the American girl, Nari, you’ve created it. ” Nari smiled. She had at least found his weakness.
“She doesn’t like you, you know,” she informed him. “She senses that you’re not. . . well, you’re just not right at all. ”
“Why was she among the . . . select guests at your party?”
Nari hesitated, then lied. “Can I help it if the foolish creature stumbled into the wrong place?” Was she being dishonest as well? Eventually, he would know the truth. The whole truth.
And that the girl was, indeed, select.
“What you’re doing here, the horror you’re creating, goes far beyond the American girl. And there are ways around it. ”
Nari shrugged. “Why? It’s estimated that there are perhaps hundreds of serial killers all around the world today. The police continue to search for a majority of them. ”
“You will bring the fires of hell down upon us. ”
“On you, maybe. We are the fires of hell. ” She suddenly softened her voice, her words damp with a sweet whisper of breath. “Don’t you ever . . . crave . . . old times? Remember what was, how it could be
. . . ” Again, she spread her fingers over the expanse of his chest.
Again, he removed her hand. She was startled by the fury of his rejection.
“What an ass you are. And as to the American . . . I, at least, am friendly with her family. As a matter of fact. . . I have plans with her this evening. ”
His grip tightened with such intensity that she was afraid he would break a bone. She felt her cheeks paling, her power draining.
“If you so much as touch her?”
“And your interest is mere concern for the benefit of mankind?” Nari scoffed. “If I touch her?” Nari started to laugh. “Oh, Ragnor!”
Again, his grip tightened. She gasped with the pain, fighting, struggling to find her own sense of power.
“If you think that I’m all that you have to deal with . . . ”
“What? What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.
“Ragnor, let go of me! You’re hurting me,” she cried out. Anyone in the crowd might have heard her.
There were carabinieri in the Square. Still, he didn’t let go of her; his eyes were a blue fire as he stared at her. She felt again the deep, bitter pain of loss. And a shooting agony of raw, furious, jealousy she’d thought could never touch her again . . .
“Tell me what’s going on,” he repeated. “What plans do you have? Where are you meeting her tonight?
What is it you’re talking about?”
“She’ll be at Harry’s!” Nari gasped out. She had to ease his grip; she couldn’t afford to suffer any broken bones right now. “You’d have to kill me before I’d say more now. Yet if you kill me, you’ll never know, you’ll hunt forever, and your precious little midget of an American would be gone?”
“Don’t try that, Nari. I told you that this all stops. It h
as nothing to do with one person?”
“Good. ” She relaxed into his hold. “Because if you hurt me now, I’ll enjoy her myself! Every last. . . lick. ” His grip had eased; he stared down at her, eyes still the greatest threat he offered. “All right, Nari, tell me what you’re talking about. ”
She swallowed hard. She forced herself from her fascination with simply being so close after so many years. Once he’d been hers. Raw, lithe, supple, naked, moving. Raked with scars, torn with conflict, passionate and hungry, like lightning in the night. . .
No. That time was gone. And she could give nothing away, he was destined to pay for being what he was. Bitterly, bitterly, she forced herself to remember only vengeance. Only life, as she knew it. The life she could have. Wild, free, abandoned, savage?a life with freedom to ease the torment inside her, fill the hunger . . .
She cursed him suddenly. She’d hit his weakness. He was worrying about the American girl. Well, he‘d best worry, because he didn’t begin to understand the complexity of what was happening here.
“All right, Ragnor. You’d best worry about her. Because guess what? You’re both going to die!” She saw the anger that tightened his features. Now, here, in the Square? she had to escape him. Had to move, before he touched her again. She had been reckless; she had come so close to ruining everything. She had put him on guard. . .
He would touch her again. And she couldn’t allow it She found her strength. Stepping back, she turned into the crowd. She felt him reaching for her, felt the power exuding from him just a breath away. But there were so many people here. And she had her own strengths. Amid a jungle of capes, she disappeared into the coming night.
Her plans for the evening were ruined. And yet. . .
He couldn’t follow her. He couldn’t risk it. He had threatened her, but she had warned him. And he did have his weaknesses, no matter how he denied it.
Now, he’d be afraid.
And always, he’d have to be on guard.
And while the cat was very, very busy, the mouse could play . . .
Upstairs in her room Jordan found a note from Cindy, slid under the door.
Hey, kid!
Where are you? Silly question, if you‘re reading this now, you’re in this mom! Missed you today; we’re meeting at Harry’s at 8:00? please be there, or call, or I’ll be too worried to pig out on my favorite pasta!