| Dark Heart By Mommints and Adriana |
| ~*~ Chapter 1 ~*~ Present Day On the outskirts of Venice, in the Veneto Region, a stately villa sat atop of a hill overlooking the Adriatic Sea, and over one hundred canals below. The dark figure of a man lurked in the shadows on the villa’s brick balcony. He dared not step into the light, although the sun was slowly setting like a ball of fire into the sea, the skies overhead streaked with pink and blue light as the day ended and night approached. With a yearning reflected in his dark eyes, he watched the last rays of light kiss the earth goodbye until the next morn, and he slowly stepped out of his hiding place. Luciano Peverite walked onto the balcony, gripping the railing as the familiar ache of loneliness washed through his heart. And silently cursed, for he was doomed to spend eternity alone, without his beloved wife, Juliana. Her murder happened well over one hundred years ago but to him, the memories were crystal clear and they tormented him, like the festering of an old wound. Even now, he still wanted to seek out the answers for the unexplained attack but as always his desire for blood was a far more tangible thing. And he knew he needed to feed and soon. Still he couldn’t help himself and whispered her name. “Juliana.” It floated away on a summer breeze that swirled by and out over the canals below, reaching out over the ocean. “How boring.” A sultry voice suddenly spoke from behind him. A moment late, he felt the cold, but firm caress of Bianca de La Vionda’s hands slide over his shoulders and down his back. “Still pining away for your lost love, eh mio amore? (my love)” Luciano said nothing but couldn’t help stiffening at the contact. “She’s gone, stop remembering what might have been and relish in what is now, and who can show you all the delights the world has to offer.” Bianca embraced Luciano from behind; her arms wrapped around his waist as her hands suggestively wandered over his broad chest. “She was my wife.” Luciano stated quietly. “And I will find her killer.” Bianca gave a light laugh but narrowed her eyes in irritation. For all the years she and the handsome Italian nobleman had spent together, there was still one obstacle she couldn’t overcome. And that was the memory of his Juliana. It was a twist of fate that Bianca had also been at the same dinner party the Peverite’s had attended that fateful night so long ago. Lured by Luciano’s soul cries of agony and despair, it she was that came into the blood spattered living room, and found the couple dead and almost dying. She had ignored Luciano’s command to be left alone, instead she had offered him something more valuable - immortality and revenge. “Leave....me. Let me die, I want to be with my Juliana.” Luciano moaned. Bianca held his limp body in her arms, with a surprising amount of strength and ignored the temptation to taste the rich, red blood that flowed over his broad chest. At least not yet. “Silly man, there’s no need for death.” She smiled like a serpent, her eyes glittering with excitement at this unexpected opportunity. “I can give you life ever after, I can give you revenge.” And she revealed a pair of long fangs, gleaming like pearls in the gloom of the night, her eyes colored red like rubies. He weakly protested but was far more astonished at the change in the woman he had met only hours earlier. She whispered to him, controlled his powerful spirit and mind with images of the havoc he could deal his attacker until she finally heard a faint acceptance of her offer. “Yes” With a firm yet gentle tug, she pulled Luciano’s head back, exposing his neck and sank her teeth into the weak but throbbing vein that carried his life’s blood. Luciano’s body jerked in surprise, then twisted in ecstasy as Bianca continued feeding, drawing the last of blood from his body, stopping only before he was a heartbeat away from death. Still cradling him, she pulled down the bodice of her gown and exposed a fair amount of her chest, her other hand raking the razor sharp nails across the cool flesh until four welts appeared, oozing blood. “Drink, mio giovane amico (my young friend). Take this gift I offer you and live, to be reborn as I so that we may share eternal life...together forever.” She pressed his head to her bosom and a moment later, reeled from the exquisite torment she felt as Luciano hesitantly started to feed. He had accepted the change. Luciano had never believed in vampires, never thought they had existed until that night. And he had no idea that the creature that had attacked them was something made by a blood drinker, a half vampire, half zombie who’s sole need was to feed on human flesh and blood. It was a mindless fiend, controlled by its maker and capable of doing anything, including murder. He just couldn’t understand why it would come after them, never realizing it had been sent on purpose and that his rescue as well as his fate had been precisely planned. In the nights that followed, Bianca exhibited an unusual amount of compassion for one so jaded and nursed the broken hearted Luciano back to health. She took him under her wing and helped him hone his abilities, both of them feeding more than once each night, until Luciano’s strength almost exceeded her own considerable skills. Sensing her patient becoming too strong, Bianca stopped those lessons and pursued her main point of interest in having Luciano around, and began seducing him. It was a love/hate relationship, both vampires of equal fiery natures and Bianca had to admit, eternity with Luciano around was certainly not boring. However over the years, she also sensed something else happening, a change in him she couldn’t quite figure, never thinking his desire for revenge was being outweighed by a hopeless despair. Luciano was no closer to finding his wife’s killer now than he was in the early 1900’s. He had almost exhausted all possibilities, investigated every false lead and was having a hard time accepting the fact his wife’s death would remain a mystery. With his despair came recklessness, almost a blatant disregard for all the rules taught to him. And Bianca knew, as she had always known, how far to push him with certain things, so with a feigned but carefree attitude, she cleverly changed the subject. “Mio caro (my dear), I know who she was and thinks it’s such shame about what happened to her.” She gently turned him around, and placed both hands on the sides of his face. “But what you need to remember is you’re alive, here, now and that I helped you. So humor me and come. Forget about Juliana for now, the moon is rising and its time for us to be off.” Luciano grabbed her hands and moved them away from his face, holding onto them in a vise-like grip, his expression dark and unreadable. Bianca actually felt the first trickle of fear twist in her soul and realized how blind she had been over the years. She had ignored the warning signs, scoffed at the idea that he was turning into something more than just a vampire, never thinking she had done her job exceedingly well. He was killing more often on his feedings rather than leaving his victim anemic and he fed more than once a night now, breaking their age-old rule of feeding only when necessary. “I know you.” He said whisper soft and menacing, glaring at her with red eyes and abruptly released her hands. “I can see through you and inside, your ugly, just like me. You’ve done this to me, damned me to live this charade you call life.” “Luciano....” Bianca started to protest but he silenced her with his fingers against her cold lips. “Shhhh. You’ve known all along what I would become, and now you have it. But be careful, for what you sow, so shall ye reap.” “Are you threatening me?” She asked incredulously. Luciano turned and walked away from the balcony railing, then stopped and stared over his shoulder. He was wearing a white silken shirt from Gucci, and a pair of black pants that molded his lean hips indecently. The wind joyously played with his shirttails, that he refused to tuck in his pants, and it teased them out to the sides of this body, revealing a broad chest and defined planes of his stomach. His long ebony colored hair blew out behind him, the wavy tresses fluttering like ribbons in the wind. He smiled a dazzling smile, perfect white teeth flashing against the dark contrast of his trimmed beard and his eyes were twin pools of something dark and dangerous. “No threats, just a promise.” He laughed and held out his arms to the sides, as if declaring he had not a care in the world. “Don’t you like what you see? Behold, for I am of your creation. Am I not what you had hoped I would be?” “Luciano!” Bianca called after him as he stared to walk away again. He ignored her with a wave of his hand, his sarcastic laughter floating back to her on the breeze. “I’ll meet you at the casino later on but be prepared, for I am not the same naive fool you once knew. Thing’s are changing Bianca and for once, you’re powerless to stop them.” He warned. Then Luciano disappeared leaving a seething Bianca alone on the terrace. How dare he, the arrogant upstart! In a blind rage, she lashed out and swept a terra cotta planter off a nearby stand, feeling no satisfaction as she watched it shatter into a thousand pieces on the brick floor. And she finally gave into the nagging suspicion and a strange premonition warning her that Luciano was right about the changes. She had already seen them take place in the young lord not so long ago, she had just chosen to ignore them. Now she wondered if her ignorance and her desire for him were to be her undoing. What had first attracted her to him the night she had met the couple at the dinner party, besides his smoldering good looks, was the innate goodness in him. It radiated from his soul and shone about him like a warm, golden aura. And to a vampire like herself, she was attracted to that warmth, having lived in the cold darkness of her life for over a hundred years. Now that same quality was congealing into something more, sinister and powerful. If left unchecked, it would grow until it became more terrifying because it could possibly end their lives as vampires and cast her soul into hell for all eternity. And that thought caused a shudder of fear to race through her. Yes, she thought to herself, she needed to keep a close eye on her protegee. Feeling as if a war between them was pending and that she needed to harness all of her power, Bianca disappeared from the terrace a moment later and immediately started to feed. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Dark Heart - Chapter 2 |