Cara MIA - By Book One of the Immortyl Revolution - By Denise Verrico Page 0,50

garden still dripped with roses, but the air was crisp and cool, with the scent of iron and sugar from the distant slopes of Vesuvius, and the ripened grapes growing there.

“Philip… about Brovik.”

Philip took me by the shoulders, dark eyes fixed on mine. “You’re caught in the middle of a battle that’s been raging for a century. It runs hot and cold with them. Right now is one very cold spell.”

“Yet he still works for him?”

“Brovik looks out for us and we pay tribute to him. It’s the way things are done. It started when Brovik took Kurt… ”

“Kurt?”

“He was just eighteen when Brovik found him. His entire family was transported to Auschwitz to be gassed, but he’d been sent instead to Dauchau to work. One night Brovik was there, doing business with the commandant, when the boy was dragged out and beaten, nearly to death. Brovik paid a vast sum to take him away from there. Ethan is simply jealous. Brovik dotes on the boy, but Ethan is and will always be his favorite. Ethan can only play this game with Brovik for so long. Sooner or later he always goes back to him. When he does, be wary. Trust no one. Nature provided you with this enchanting form— use it. If it means swallowing your pride to survive, do it. It’s a bloody game Mia. Innocents are slaughtered in the playing.”

What could I say? What can you say when you find out the man you love was the lover of another man?

Suddenly a rock dislodged on the hillside. In a blur of movement, Philip leapt, taking hold of the dark figure hiding behind a column. Dirk struggled but Philip’s arm held him fast as an iron bar, his free hand pressing a knife against Dirk’s carotid. “You’ve violated a sacred law, you brute,” Philip said. “Does your elder know you’re trespassing?”

Dirk’s eyes had the look of a trapped animal.

I shuddered. “He must have snuck off as soon as Ethan got to Capri.”

“Call the palazzo. Ethan and Gaius must come immediately. I’ll keep this one out of trouble.”

Philip dragged Dirk into the house, throwing him into a chair with the knife still poised at his throat. I did as I was told, relating the story to a furious Ethan over the phone.

They arrived by boat shortly afterward. Gaius took his usual seat, leaning back, surveying us all as if we were part of his dominion. If he’d asked us to kiss his ring I wouldn’t have been surprised. He got right to the point. “I can’t blame this fool. She’s been made to fascinate and he’s weak. Dirk tells me she’s allowed liberties.”

Dirk elaborated, “She let me touch her.”

Ethan grabbed me by the arm. “Tell the truth, Madam!”

“I did no such thing!”

Gaius smirked. “Women are accomplished liars. The innocence of her face is deception itself. Nevertheless, I’ll send him to Diego to learn some manners. But If I were you my friend, I’d keep a closer eye on her.” He stared down Ethan coolly as he rose. “Brovik will be informed about this matter.”

After they left, Ethan called me onto the carpet. “You let him touch you? Gaius would be more than happy for you to play their nasty games all the time. I’m sure he has a special place reserved in his dungeon. You’ve created a problem for me! My orders are to keep close tabs on the Wolf, and now we’ve offended him. You could have played them for some time, but you were stupid. Haven’t I taught you anything?”

“Just to be a whore!”

Ethan grabbed me by the back of the hair. “You have a part to play!”

“To piss Brovik off, because you’re jealous of Kurt?”

Ethan slapped me across the face. I reeled from the blow.

Philip stepped in between us. “Touch her again, and I’ll take her to Brovik myself!”

“This is none of your affair!”

Philip shielded me in his arms. “Strike her and you’ll have me to contend with. I’m capable and you know it.”

Ethan backed off. “Say hello to Brovik’s assassin, Mia. Does his clownish act fool you? This deadly weapon shed family blood before. There was a rebellion. Brovik ordered him to take out the disloyal alphas, but that was centuries before my time.”

Philip sighed. “I told you, child. It’s a bloody game. Ethan is right about one thing. You can’t alienate the Wolf. We need to stay in his good graces, until we learn what we’re after. We’ve reason to think he’s building a