Legal disclaimer: this is fiction. Not implying anything about the characters involved. Don't read if you're not old enough.
Author's note: sorry for taking so long. Hope you like. Back chapters and more at my site.
Feedback can be sent to BlueKath@eudoramail.com
BlueKat
-Sanity Is Just A State Of Mind- http://www.envy.nu/bluekat
- Eternally yours, part seventeem -
"Let's get you back home," JC murmured, carefully helping Joey to his feet. But when he tried to lead the taller man back to the car, Joey eased out of his hold. Gathering his strength he straightened up and looked at JC.
"Baby... I can't. I want you to go find Justin and Lance and go back. I have to talk to Vincenzo about this."
At the sound of the only name in the world that could fill JC with jealously, the blueeyed man hesitated. Since Joey had been the one who had turned him, he had never experienced the bond between maker and flegdling outside of the bond of love. And he knew how strong the bond could be, how sacred.
"Not tonight, Joey," he heard himself say, already knowing that the battle was lost. "You're hurt, you should have stopped bleeding long time ago... You need to rest." Refusing to bend his will to his maker for once, he locked his gaze with Joey's. "Please, love. You can go to him tomorrow night."
"No, I'm sorry, it has to be tonight. We don't have much time, Josh. And I need to know that you and the young ones are safe away from the streets. I won't be long, I promise."
"Yes," JC said, now turning away. The streets was grey and unyielding, holding their city together in a maze of iron ribbons. "I will go home, while you... We promised to never keep secrets from each other, Joey, you remember that? You made a promise to me."
"I know, caro." Joey's voice was soft, lined with silk and steel, telling JC that this was not an issue to be pushed. "But I need to talk to Vincenzo now..."
"Why haven't you ever told me about Italy?" JC asked, looking from the ground up to his lover, seeing the surprise and start of understanding written in his face.
"You have told me everything, everything that happened after you set foot on US soil. But you never mention your native land, or your family, or how you were..."
"Enough." The word was spoken quietly and still soft. "Go home, Joshua."
Gathering his courage, Jc refused to let go. "Why can't you tell me, Joey? Is that why the elder pointed you out as the leader of the revolution? Because of something that happened in Italy?" His voice trailed off as the elder's words replied themselves in both minds.
"He said that you committed the ultimate sin..." Who JC really was speaking to, he wasn't totally sure of. Maybe himself.
A presence behind him startled him. Joey was standing behind him now, placing his hands on JC's shoulders. "This is not the time," Joey told him mildly, but sternly. "Now go back, love."
The touch on his shoulders tighetened as he was turned around and given a slight push in the direction of the car. With a sinking feel of coming dread that didn't want to go away, JC looked back, just to find that his lover was already gone in the darkness.
The house was very much as their own, for a second Joey let himself study it before entering. He had spent centuries in here, at one point in time never even being able to picture himself anywhere else. Not before he had gone out alone that special night...when his world suddenly was changed with the mere impact of a look. From that night on nothing had ever been the same, he had never been the same. The stars had shone just as brightly, the moon hadn't lost its shimmer. But the world had changed, old times dying, new times being born right under their feet.
A low chuckle made Joey take his look of the sky, slightly embarrased to have been caught. "Why can't I ever surprise you for once?" he said in his native tongue.
"One day, perhaps," a voice replied, also in Italian. "When you're not thinking so much about changes..."
"That obvious, huh?" the younger vampire said, shaking his head a little. "Vincenzo, something happened tonight..."
"They came for you?" Out of the darkness a tall man appeared. He was dressed in a simple, black suit, a black silk shirt inside. The only display of colour was a red rose in his hand, fingers caressing the petals absentmindly. Studying Joey with dark brown eyes, he smiled. "I should have warned you about this, Gianni. I should have said something sooner."
"You can tell me now," the younger vampire answered. "I know about the prophecy, and I am aware of that it very well might be me... At least it all fits..." He sighed. "Did you know before? Did you come to me, because this was my destiny? I am the chosen one?"
"Maybe. I knew when I met you that you were meant for the darkness. I couldn't see clearly what you would become back then, not fully. But I knew that you were mine, mine to turn."
Following the other onto the verenda that circled the house, Joey brushed his hand along rose trees that clung to the railing, draping themselves along the wood like drops of blood.
"So it is all true," Joey stated, the darkness velvetsoft around them. "It will be my choice in the end."
There was a pause before Vincenzo answered. "Yes," he finally said. "So far every word of the prophecy have been fulfilled. But then it ends. After the chosen one has stepped forward and taken his palce, the prophecy stops... Gianni, I know that your visions must have told you everything you need to know. They have never failed you before."
"They have never been this stong before," Joey admitted, admiring a perfect, frail white rose from the only tree that carried white roses. "I like the way you call me Gianni, by the way. I haven't heard that name in a long time... Too long, maybe."
"Well, you don't need me like you used to," Vincenzo smiled. "I am proud of you, child. Even if you insist on still hiding who you really are...Gianni Antonio Di Fatone...the youngest son of what was once Sicilia's most powerful, richest family, top of the aristocracy..."
"And look what happened to us since," Joey mused. "What we did. What I did. My brother went to his grave hating me. He passed the hate on to his children. I wonder if they still remember me? If they still are..."
"Slayers?" Vincenzo gently asked, coming to stand next to Joey. "Yes, they are. Stephano passed the duty onto his oldest offspring. His daugther passed it on to her son... Today the duty is being held by a young man, just over the age you were when you joined us."
"It's ironic, really." A small smile grazed Joey's face. "The holy duty of being a slayer... And I am the chosen one, the one who is supposed to hold the faith of every vampire in my hand... My father would have been furious."
A comforting hand was placed on his arm, as silence again grew between them.
"You know, Josh asked me tonight...why I have never told him about Italia," Joey said, the words slow and thoughtful. "Why I have never told him about the night I was turned."
"It has been a long time now," Vincenzo told him. "And he will understand... Gianni, you need to tell him now, you need to tell both of them."
"I know," Joey sighed. "And that brings me to another thing... We have...had another addition to our little family. His name is Lance."
Vincenzo was looking at him curiously. "You turned another one? Josh did? Or..."
"Justin did," Joey finished for him. "And being true to himself, he made a mess. But things smoothed themselves out, we're over the worst... But he is too young for this...so is Justin too... And how can I tell them something like this?" Staring at the nightblack sky again, Joey voiced his unsecurities to his mentor. "How can I tell them that I..."
The older man watched him with a knowing look, pride still shining through the worried features. When he answered, he finished the sentence Joey never had been able to speak fully.
"That you killed your father?"
"I don't wanna go home yet!" Justin pouted. "Joey said that I could go out on my own again, this is unfair, JC...!"
"Shut up, Justin, I don't need your complaining right now," JC said, practically dragging Justin along to the car. Besides his worry for his boyfriend, he was also worried about another encounter with the circle of vampires. He himself could probably hold his own against them, and maybe Justin too, at least to some degree. But he didn't want to risk it. And especially not with Lance, who was just starting to explore his new, vampiric abilities and strenghts.
"Where could Lance be?" he muttered. "The sun isn't coming up for hours yet...he could be anywhere..."
"What are you going on about?" Justin asked, still angry. "What's up? Why are we all suddenly going home? And where's Joey?"
At the mention of Joey's name, JC froze. "Ask me that question again later, Just," he mumbled a reply. "Better yet, let Joey answer when he gets back..."
Sensing the uncommon hostility coming from the other, Justin quickly sobered up. For JC to act like he did, and for the him not to be with Joey, something big had to have happened. Something big, and bad.
"I know where Lance is," he finally piped up. "I saw him earlier tonight. Do you want me to go get him?"
"Yes," JC said, turning to him. "But be quick... And Justin?" He waited until he had the other one's attention before finishing. "Be careful."
"I will," Justin promised, a little puzzled over the words and JC's serious look. Then he turned and ran back to the alley where he had spotted Lance and the slayer earlier. At the entrance to the alley he ran straight into someone on their way out.
"Watch it!" he snarled, not realising just who he had met.
"Watch it yourself!" a known voice answered. Justin looked up to meet green eyes and a secretive smile. Lance brushed past him, making Justin follow him.
"What do you want?" Lance asked as Justin came up at his side. "I would have imagined you were out causing general nuisance by now?"
"I was," Justin replied. "But something's come up. We need to go back."
"Damn," Lance stated, the small smile still in place. "And I was just starting to have fun! Allright, where's JC and Joey then?"
"JC is back at the car. I don't know where Joey is. I think he'll come back later..."
Lance who was still away in sweet memories and the promise of another meeting the next night, was pulled out of his thoughts by Justin's words. "He's not going back with us? What happened?"
"I have no idea," Justin had to admit. "JC was alone when I saw him. He didn't explain anything, just said that we needed to go back right away. If it wasn't for the utter insanity of it...I'd say that Joey and him had a fight."
"Fight? No, that doesn't sound like them. Something else must have happened. I'm sure JC will explain..."
"Don't count on it," Justin told him, appearing older and more mature than Lance had ever seen him. "Our house is full of secrets, some kept because we want to, some not. And then there are the ones we never talk about."