Giovanni rose above their behavior and sat with me while I ate and we talked about taking me back to his home for a while. He seemed to think that it was less stressful on me. He was right. I wanted to go. I missed his villa. I missed Tuscany. After Pallo"s redecorating job, the farmhouse no longer felt like home. Tuscany did.
Caradoc and James helped me clear the table and James insisted on cleaning the kitchen. He told me that he"d rather wash a thousand dishes than to go back into that room. I understood where he was coming from. I kissed his cheek and smiled at him.
"You"re too good to me, James."
"Don"t I know it, luv."
I grabbed a couple bottles of wine and headed back out into the dining room. Malita was practically under the table. For a split second I thought she might be giving Pallo a blow-job. My gaze flickered toward Mikhail and he put his hands up. She was out of control and he knew it. I walked past her and handed the bottles of wine to Mikhail.
"If you would be so kind as to do the honors," I said.
He smiled. Malita rose up slowly in her seat and gave me a dirty look. I wanted to take one of the bottles of wine and smash it over her blonde head, but hey, I had new furniture now. I had to treat it nicely and red wine on it wasn"t so nice.
Pallo and Caleb were leaning in talking quietly to each other. Caleb looked up at me. "Gwen, what"s this about an attack?"
My denim duster covered the now almost gone scars, but I still wore traces of the attack. Pallo looked at Giovanni. I knew he still blamed him for it. I walked over to Giovanni and stood behind him. I put my hands on his shoulders and rubbed them. Both Caleb"s and Pallo"s faces" hardened.
"It was nothing, really ... well, it was kind of serious, but we never saw them again, so it"s fine."
Pallo lifted a brow. "I would not say nearly bleeding to death and needing my strength to survive was fine."
His strength to survive? What the h.e.l.l was he talking about? Giovanni touched my hand. "Bella, it is why you saw him so many times. Your body had to borrow the strength of your maker for a while to heal."
"Borrow strength? My maker? So, what are you guys telling me? Is Pallo my master now?"
Giovanni tightened his grip on my hand. Caleb looked sick to his stomach. I"m sure my face matched his. Pallo on the other hand appeared pleased with himself. "Gwyneth, no one leads you around, right?"
Malita peered down the end of her nose at me. "You really are an ungrateful b.i.t.c.h. He saved your life more than once and this is the thanks you give him?"
Mikhail put his hand on her arm. She tossed it off. She rose to her feet and her long yellow floral dress was wrinkled from trying to play footsie with Pallo. I watched as her eyes changed slightly. I wasn"t the only one who noticed. The whole room stood. I pulled my power up and stared at her. If the b.i.t.c.h wanted to play, I"d play.
"No ... it"s fine," I said to everyone. They looked uneasy but sat back down.
Malita"s mouth curved into a smile. She showed me that she was partially changed and that her teeth were growing larger. When she spoke, her voice was a touch deeper. "You take everything in your life for granted, Princess. You have the love of three men and have caught the eye of a fourth." She glanced at Mikhail, so did everyone else. He squirmed in his seat, but didn"t deny it.
You have got to be kidding me.
Malita kept her gaze on Mikhail and her voice lost its edge. "They have all had her and she twisted their minds. She has no soul, no conscience. Look what she did to Pallo all those years ago. She got knocked up by that one." She pointed at Caleb. He glanced at me. I tightened my fist. "That"s not even good enough for her, no she"s got to figure out a way to show back up, alive and try and ruin their lives again. What, Gwyneth, the first time not enough for you? You planning on turning them all against each other again? Maybe it will end the same, with them finding you dead ... again."
I was so furious with her that I could feel the tiny hairs on the back of my arm standing on end, anxious to get to attack her with my power. Most of my anger came from the fact that she was right about so many things. Things I hated about myself and my situation. I wanted to say something to her, but she continued.
"Look at you standing behind Giovanni for support-for protection. You know he once told me about you while he was f.u.c.king me." She waited for the shock on my face. It came and she smiled. "Yeah, he f.u.c.ked me and so did he." She pointed at Pallo. "You"re not the only one who can lure the men to you, Gwyneth."
I let my voice drop lower, as well. "Very true, Malita, but they"ve never once mentioned you while they were f.u.c.king me, so what does that say?"
Mikhail spit his wine across the table and Caleb slid his chair back. Malita turned her attention to Caleb.
"How can you stand to be near her? Her whoring around cost your unborn baby its life... Oh, don"t look surprised, we all know the story. Maybe if she could have kept her legs shut, she"d have kept Giovanni from wanting to kill her, but then she couldn"t have tossed them open for you. Since the baby never saw the light of day anyways, I guess that would have been better. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d of a child would have been a wh.o.r.e like its mother and ...."
Pallo jumped up and grabbed Malita by her throat. Caleb was two steps behind him grabbing his arm. "Don"t do this, Pallo, she"s not worth it."
Pallo loosened his grip on her and backed away.
Malita was livid. "Oh, sure protect her and her b.a.s.t.a.r.d sp.a.w.n, but you know it"s true. The baby would have been a lying, manipulative, weak, s.l.u.t like her mother."
Pallo slapped Malita"s face. I normally don"t condone that kind of behavior, but I wanted to slit her throat so it was best I wasn"t consulted. Giovanni grabbed my hand tighter. He turned and locked gazes with me. "His mother is none of those things and he was not a b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
"He?" Pallo"s face paled. "I had a son?"
Giovanni nodded and my legs shook. Malita glanced at Pallo. "No ... no, you couldn"t have been the baby"s father. You told me she got pregnant by the faerie."
Caleb stepped in. "As much as I wanted to be the father, I wasn"t. It was Pallo, and I was okay with that. I couldn"t have a child with Gwen, but I wanted one desperately."
Malita glanced around the room wildly. "You"re all crazy. Every last one of you is crazy." Her focus settled on me. "It"s in your blood to try and control us. You think you"re so much better than us all .... You"ll never be my leader. I"ll never bow down to you .... You"ll get what"s coming to you." She pointed at Caleb. "He"s got so many people gunning for him and they"ll all come for you ... the woman he"s supposed to marry." She smiled. "They may have had a little help with knowing where to find you."
I watched in horror as her face began to morph. White fur sprouted all over her body as her nose lengthened. Her shoulders hunched and her dress ripped off her. It seemed like minutes, but I"m sure it was only seconds before she was in full shifted form and leaping at me. Mikhail tried to stop her, but she thrust him backwards. Giovanni shot up out of the chair and went at her. Her mouth opened wide. I pushed Giovanni to the side and put my hand up. I sent enough power through her to light a small country"s electric plant for a week. Her body jerked and she yipped. She kept going and went straight through the dining room window. I turned and watched her fall in the gra.s.s. She got back up on all fours and took off running towards the woods.
Giovanni grabbed me. "Gwyneth, what were you thinking trying to take her on by yourself?"
Caleb walked up to the gla.s.s and touched it. His finger came away b.l.o.o.d.y. "My guess is she was thinking of killing that b.i.t.c.h."
"Good guess," I said.
Chapter Nineteen.
I sat wrapped in a blanket on my bed. Caleb had seen to my needs after the shock of what had just happened had sank in. I had tried to kill Malita. I"d killed before and I hadn"t felt bad about it. But almost killing her was bothering me. I wondered if it was because she was telling the truth or the truth as she knew it.
Giovanni came and wrapped his arm around me. I looked up into his dark eyes and shook my head.
"What just happened?"
He kissed my temple. "You just received verification I am truly the monster Pallo depicts me as."
I pulled away from him a little. I was confused and wanted to be comforted not concerned that when I woke up he"d be gone. "No, don"t do this ... What? You think because you told everyone that you know the baby was a boy that makes you a monster in my eyes? Giovanni, you took note of the fact he was a he. I"ve seen a vampire in a rage before ... they don"t stop and take inventory. You did, which means you cared."
A soft knock came on my door. Giovanni touched my leg and went to answer it. His body language told me that it was someone he didn"t necessarily want to be opening the door for. That didn"t tell me much, half the d.a.m.n house was against him-against us. He pushed the door open and stepped aside.
Pallo stood there. His white shirt was unb.u.t.toned and his chest was showing. His normally perfectly put together outfit looked like he"d slept in it for days. I wasn"t sure I wanted to know what he"d been doing. He glanced at me and then at Giovanni.
"May I come in?" he asked dryly.
"I thought you guys could go anywhere you wanted once you"d been invited in?"
Giovanni stared at Pallo and then at me. "We can."
Pallo was being polite, and I had totally missed it. I looked at his head of brown, wavy hair and his dark brown eyes and wondered again how all of this had gone so very wrong. Was I doomed to spend this life cleaning up the mess I"d made in the past? Karma wasn"t getting me-it was biting me in my a.s.s. I nodded at Pallo and he stepped in.
"I would like to speak with you, privately," he said.
My gaze flickered to Giovanni as he headed out the door. "No, wait!" He stopped and turned to me. "I"ll go back home with you, Giovanni-to Tuscany. I don"t belong here anymore." I knew that what I said was the truth. I was ready to give up my life here to be with him.
Giovanni"s face lit up as he walked out of the room.
Pallo came to me and dropped to his knee in front of me. "Gwyneth, now you are thinking about going home with him for good?"
I pushed his hand away. "I told you once that I couldn"t do this anymore and I meant it. Pallo, you"ve broken me down with expectations of having what we had before, so has Caleb. Giovanni ... he and I were together for close to a hundred years and he has never put any pressure on me to remember how we were or to be what we were."
Pallo let out a snort. "I believe that would be because he was the reason your life ended, Gwyneth. Why would he want you to remember?"
"But, he"s offered to give me what memories he could back, even if those aren"t ones he wants me to have."
Pallo moved next to me and sat on the bed. He was quiet for a moment and I wondered how much grief I was going to catch over this. "Gwyneth, I think you should take him up on his offer. Let him show you what he is... what he did."
"I thought ... I thought you"d say no. You"re good at that and after finding out about the baby... it being a boy.... I just thought ...."
He leaned over and touched my arm. "Gwyneth, the very fact you refer to the baby as an it, tells me that you have little to no memories or feelings from your past. We have all been holding you accountable for your behavior then and in truth, all you have now are vague feelings for us and random memories. We are expecting you to cram close to three hundred years worth of living into your twenty-five short years now." He moved and put his arm around me. "I have no idea what horrors Giovanni put you through. No one but he does. But I do know when your body was found in the field, you had not been treated kindly. It is for your own safety now that you know who you are dealing with."
I touched his knee. "Giovanni told me to have someone in the room with us that I trusted. Will you be there with me?"
"I think perhaps you should pick someone else. I am not sure I could watch him touch you and not want to reach over and tear his heart out."
It was bold of me to ask him to sit in on something that would cause him so much pain. I didn"t want to hurt him. I loved him and would always love him, but he"d never let me love Giovanni, too. I had thought Pallo was an all or nothing kind of guy until he had told me to come back and marry Caleb. He was beginning to loosen his hold on me, but only for the right people.
I wanted to trace his dimpled chin and kiss along his soft, full lips. I missed his touch so much, but was not willing to sacrifice my feelings for Giovanni for him. I was being selfish and I knew it. But that didn"t stop me from wanting to trace along his overdone body and feel every curve of every muscle. His open shirt showed off his six pack abs and I had to make an effort to hold myself back. I wondered if it"d always be this way between us and if he felt it, too.
He took his hand and ran it down his chest and stomach. My eyes followed his every move and I found myself wanting to see his hand dive below his waistline. He looked over at me and moved it up to my face. I grabbed for his large hand and brought it to my lips. His skin felt so cool and soft against my warmth. I kissed along the edges of his center finger. When I reached the top I moved my lips over it and drew his finger into my mouth. His eyes closed and his mouth opened slightly.
He pulled his wet finger out of my mouth and drew it down my chin, neck, and chest. I sucked in and felt as my entire body shook slightly for him. He leaned into me and brought his lips just shy of touching mine. He picked up my hand and brought it to his hard chest. He ran it down himself and let it trace tiny circles on the thin line of dark brown, almost black hair that ran up to his navel.
"Yes, I think that we will always feel this way for one another," he said to me softly. He was reading me again, but I wasn"t sure if it was on purpose or not. "I have felt this way for you since the moment you found me asleep during my many trips to spy on you. I have felt the need to have you near me and to touch you every moment of everyday since then."
"Why... why is it like this?"
He moved his free hand up and over my heart. "Because we were destined to be together in the life you lived so long ago."
I leaned in and put my lips against his. Pallo"s mouth opened for me and I slid my tongue in to find his. I felt his pushing at mine. His hands came around to each side of my face and he pulled me close to him. I went ahead and let my guard down. Caleb had taught me how to keep it up enough so that the two of us would not end up expecting a child. Caleb had way more control over when his body shifted and by that I mean really just his eyes, than I did. I knew enough about my body to know that it had reacted once to Pallo, so it was possible that he was still very much a mate for me.
He pulled at my face and for a minute it felt like he was trying to drink me down. I moved my head to match his and felt my body tightening and my eyes warming. I grabbed one of his hands. I pulled it up towards my eyes and then pulled out of the kiss with him.
"Look," I said, softly.
His eyes opened and he looked at me. His face changed as he touched the corners of my eyes softly. "Gwyneth, how long have you known this?"
I kissed his lips quickly. "Since the first time we were together, but I didn"t know then that it meant what it did."
"So, here is our proof you and I are still meant to be together." He knew more about faeries than me. He could read and speak the ancient language and he could answers questions for me that I didn"t even have yet. He was very aware of how rare it was for a faerie"s body to react to someone. In a faerie"s lifetime they would be considered lucky to find that one person who they matched with. It was how our population of immortals was kept in check.
"Pallo, do you understand that now that I"m back, I am living a new life with ties to an old one?"
He nodded. I smiled and continued. "Then you understand Caleb is now also a match for me and that means I"m drawn to him the same way I am to you?"
He drew me closer to him. "Do you feel the same pull to be near Caleb as you do me?" I nodded my head slightly. He seemed to think about this for a minute. "And you have been pulled between us. Gwyneth, how have you survived these past few months away from us? I have only felt this way for one person, you. To feel this way for two and to deny those feelings must be difficult."
I slid back from him. This was heading down a path I wasn"t sure I wanted to take. "Pallo, it was hard, some nights it was downright h.e.l.l, but I got through it. I"m trying to learn to move on. I can"t have you both, so I ...."
"You found someone you thought would push us both away." His jaw hardened and I knew that his mood was souring.
I wrapped the blanket around me more. "In the beginning ... yes... after I first left with Giovanni, that"s exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be far away from the "meant to be" bulls.h.i.t. I couldn"t do it anymore, and it was destroying the two of you. So, yeah, I started out using Giovanni as a springboard to forgetting you two."
Pallo shifted and put his hands on the bed. "I sense a "but" coming on."
I let out a small, nervous laugh. "But, he didn"t let me use him for that, Pallo. He kept me at arm"s length, emotionally. He provided what I needed most ... friendship."
Pallo turned his head away from me and his neck muscles tightened. "I can be your friend, too, Gwyneth."
"Can you?"
When he met my gaze I saw the hurt on his face. "I can be a better friend than the man who took you from me. He made me a monster and I lost you and our son. I thought it was forever and now that you are back in my life, I cannot bear to see you be close to him. Gwyneth, to lose you at his hands again would be my undoing."
"Pallo, what you and Caleb don"t seem to understand is that Giovanni is more than just a friend, he"s my vita mio, my amore eternal."
Pallo lurched back from me. He stood quickly and stared down at me. "Gwyneth, what did you just call him?"
I shook my head. I wasn"t really sure why I"d said that. Pallo moved down and glared into my eyes. "Gwyneth, during the time he tortured me, he would say those words under his breath and then when he could go no further without killing me, he told me he was going to take from me to punish you ... occhio per occhio, vita mia, amore mia ... amore eternal."
I leaned back. He was scaring me. "Pallo, I don"t know what that means."
"It means ...." He was so close to me now that he could have bit my lip off if he wanted to. "It means an eye for an eye, my life, my love-my eternal love ... it is what one would call a love between two immortals. Giovanni made me this way because he thought you would be unable to stay with me as a vampire, like what had happened to him."
Pallo pulled back from me fast and I let out a small scream. He spun around and looked down at me. "By all means, Gwyneth, take him up on his offer and I will be more than willing to watch you learn what he truly is."
He came at me fast and I put my hands up to protect myself. The door to the room swung open and Giovanni appeared. Pallo grabbed my arms and yanked me up. "It is not I you need to be frightened of. It is he." He let go of me and I dropped to the floor with a loud thud.
I pushed myself up off the floor and tried to stand. Fighting Malita with my power and going on an emotional roller coaster with Pallo had left me drained. I stood and lost my balance. I put my hand out to Pallo to steady myself. He was so busy staring Giovanni down that he didn"t seem to notice me.
"We are not finished talking," Pallo said sternly to Giovanni.
"I think that you are," Giovanni answered back, his gaze hard.
The tension in the room was thickening. I could feel both their cool powers rising up. It was impossible for Pallo to beat Giovanni and I knew it. Giovanni was twice Pallo"s age and the one who had sired him. He could tear Pallo to pieces and not lift a finger. I needed to stop them.
"Leave us," Pallo said, loudly.