Tears poured down my face, now hot on my icy skin. Myheart pounded. I coughed, realized I had been coughing, the sound hoarse and wet. I tasted blood, salty.
EJ opened the sliding door and approached, weapon in hand.
Villetti said, “I am in my right mind, and alone with my thoughts. Your sister is exhausted, not empowered by possession. You will not have to shoot us, my friend.”
I whispered, “Aardvark,” the current code word.
EJ holstered his weapon.
Walter popped onto the porch and bent to us. He scooped Villetti up like a child, and me with him. I laughed again, knowing the sound was so very not normal. He carried us both inside and directly to my shower, where he placed us on the floor. Deftly, he stripped us of weapons and the cloak.
Face like a stone, he said, “The tenant on floor six is sending down coffee, tea, and a whole roasted salmon in thanks for living in a building that uses your gifts to keep the power on when most of the city is now without. The tenant on the floor above sent down some sliced roast beef and asparagus. All is in the kitchen refrigerator.You will eat,” he commanded. “And you will say nothing about this attack to your tenants. They heard the explosions and thought the grid had been hit by lightning.”
I managed a nod, but my shivers were enough to rattle my teeth.
Walter turned on the water. “On the guards’ floor, Boots and Peewee have prepared a variety of fowl with cheese and herbs and many pounds of onions and peppers.”
He frowned down at us, his tone darkening, dour. “It reeks. It always reeks in unit quarters. It even reeks in the stairwaysIuse.” He scanned us again, lying on the tiled floor. “When you are dry, you will eat to restore the loss of protein and fats, and I will feed you from my blood. Youwilldrink of me.” He turnedthe water up to human body temperature, shut the shower stall door, and left the bathroom.
Water poured over us and our clothes. Though it was barely tepid, it felt scalding and my shivers increased. Villetti scooted me to the floor beside him. He leaned forward and pulled off his boots, then mine, and tossed the wet shoes out of the shower with multiple thumps. Closed the door. He warmed the water and steam began to move like fog. Villetti leaned back on the cold tile, closed his eyes, and let the water pour over us.
Through the pain in my hands, the cough that racked me several times, I was aware that the thin wet cloth of my clothing left nothing to the imagination, but then, Villetti wasn’t any better covered.
He lifted my dead white hands, his eyes evaluating. Over the roar of the shower and rising steam he said, “You can’t keep doing this to yourself, my love.”
“It’s unlikely we have enough collection containers in the city,” I said between coughs. “All flights in and out have surely been suspended. Mountain roads clogged. We’re not getting supplied soon. We’re under attack. People will be possessed and die. So, I’ll continue to do what I do.” I pulled my hands free and added, “And even if we had flights in and out, even the queen herself doesn’t have enough collection vessels for this many demons.”
“Walter will heal you. You will allow it. And he may drink from me to restore the blood loss—which will be great to repair such damage.”
“Why did you leave?”
His forehead crinkled. “I am here.”
“No. Why…Why did you leave for the war? Without saying goodbye.” Things I never would have asked before. Hurt I wouldnever have admitted to until now. Now that he had risked his life to stay by my side while demons attacked.
The water streamed down on us. The mist and steam thickened and rose. I stopped shaking, only then aware how badly I had been shivering.
Over the roar of water, Villetti said, “My father was U.S. military, you know this. He was in Italy with my mother, visiting her family when the war broke out. Because it was impossible to get back to the base in Germany, he was offered to the Italian military.”
“Offered by the U.S. military, as in he had no choice?”
Villetti shrugged slightly and tossed his hand in a gesture that said,What could he do?
So much in a gesture. My face relaxed, and I laid my frozen hands on either side so they would be out of the stream of the water as Lee adjusted the shower temp slightly warmer. There was little feeling in them other than sharp tingles, and the sight of the pale white flesh was disturbing.
“My mother,” he continued, “was conscripted into the intelligence arm of the initial war effort due to her fluency with languages, and they worked together. But she was ill. She couldn’t keep up and…They needed someone they could trust to translate. In an arrangement that did not include my approval or consent, the U.S. military sent an escort. They dragged me out of bed at university, at night, tossed all of my electronics into a bucket of acid to kill them, and carried me to the airport. Nine hours later I landed in Florence. While on the flight…” His voice trailed off, his eyes opening, and staring across the shower, not seeing.
“My father had been injured at the front and was being transported back. Possessed. But alive. My mother needed me.Italy and the EU and the U.S. needed me. Germany had fallen. France was nearly done. And there was no way back.” He shrugged again. “Suddenly, weeks had gone by, and I was lost in the Alps, rescuing a priest. And I realized I wasn’t likely to survive the war. It seemed kinder to set you free.”
His flat belly rose and fell with a slow breath.
“Your father?”
“Dead.”
He didn’t elaborate. I didn’t ask him to.
“When I returned from Italy you were healing from…What do you call him?Il vampirothat you married?”
