Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel by Winter Pennington Page B

Savina’s features.
    “We are done here,” Vasco said. “You have overstayed your welcome.”
    She didn’t like that. “You still need my help,” she said.
    “If this is how you repay a favor in kind, then no. We are better off without it.”
    “You’ll not find your vampire without me.”
    “You said you would not help us and I tire of these games, Savina.”
    I shook my head, drawing Vasco’s attention.
    “What is it, colombina?”
    “After all these years, she still wants you to need her, Vasco.”
    “I do not,” Savina lied.
    “You’re lying to yourself, lady. Aye, you do. You don’t like that Vasco is sending you off. You want him to beseech you, and he won’t. If you truly knew him, you would know that.”
    “Of course he would not,” she said snidely. “You were always too good for that, weren’t you, Vasco?”
    Renata said, “Anatharic.”
    “Yes?”
    “Would you kindly see to it that the witch Savina is returned safely to her homeland?”
    When Anatharic approached her, Savina backed away from him with a look of disgust and distrust.
    “I can find the way myself.”
    “Then by all means,” Renata said, eyes blossoming with power. “Do so. Sooner, rather than later.”
    “Are you threatening me?”
    She stood. “Your services are no longer required.”
    Savina cast a look to Vasco. “You’ll need me,” she said, believing her own words. “Before all this is over, Vasco, you’ll need my aid again. Remember that when you come crawling back on your knees for it.”
    In the blink of an eye, she was gone, leaving no trace that she’d ever been with us.
    No trace, except for the sorrow emitting off Vasco’s tall frame. I touched his arm. “Are you well, my brother?”
    He relaxed a fraction under my hand. “As well as I can be, colombina.”
    “She meant to unsettle you, Vasco.”
    “I know.”
    “Do not let her. It makes no difference now.”
    He shook his head with something close to regret in him. “It makes all the difference, Epiphany. My own flesh and blood is out there somewhere.”
    “Will you try to find him?”
    If Vasco decided to try to seek out his son, if Renata granted him permission to do so, it was a dangerous task to undertake.
    Vasco said aloud what I had fairly much been thinking. “It would be dangerous to leave the sanctuary of the Sotto.”
    “It would, but there is a way, my Silver Prince, if you decide that finding your son is something you must do,” Renata said.
    “Even then,” Vasco said, “there is the danger of being mistaken as Il Deboli.”
    “Yes.”
    “I will think on it.”
    “Simply let me know when you decide. The Cacciatori can ride out with you. That should greatly diminish the risk.” Renata inclined her head to indicate the conversation was over, at least for the moment.
    It wasn’t a bad idea. The Cacciatori were the only vampires allowed to venture outside the walls of the Sotto, but they did not often venture outside the vicinity of Renata’s rule. It was rare that any Cacciatori traveled on lands not ruled by their ruler. If it was to be done, it could be, as clans were not allowed to be at war with one another, but safe passage somehow had to be established.
    “Now what are we going to do?” I asked.
    “The Elders should be awake now,” Vasco said.
    “So they should,” Renata said. “Vito, Vittoria.”
    They stepped forward in unison.
    “Yes, m’lady?” Vittoria asked.
    “Gather the Elders.”

    *

    We left the banquet hall for the Underlings that required sustenance and met instead in Renata’s private sitting room. We drank the blood of the Donatore from a heated earthenware pitcher. As there was no electricity in the Sotto, the pitcher sat on a stand above a dancing flame to keep its contents warm. Renata sat in her chair, her long legs crossed while she idly nursed her glass.
    Severiano downed his glass and reached for the pitcher to pour himself another. It was a task that, had an Underling been present,