Beneath A Casanova {#1}

Part 11

Part 11

Dante knew it hurt, but he never knew it could hurt so much. No, he wasn’t referring to the neck wound. Skalov’s attack at him was just a minor injury. What hurt so much more was the distrust in Lexi’s and Alvron’s eyes. Dante knew they were unwilling to leave their home, and his heart bled to know that he was forcing them to come with him.

But it was for their safety –he reasoned.

“Look at him. Did Skalov do anything other than a stab at his neck; I wonder.” A voice said faraway. Dante dimly registered a name to that voice, as he struggled to reason with his inner self. It must be the way to go. To protect Lexi and Alvron, he must make them stay –at least until he was sure it was safe.

But when would it be safe? Unless he could find Skalov and kill that immortal bastard, Alvron would never be safe. Lexi would never be safe.

Something hard stabbed him in the neck, and he jumped to his feet, slapping away the hand on instinct.

“What the hell was that for?!” He yelled, glaring at Jack as the vampire raised a brow amusedly.

“Welcome back to Reality. You have just received a dose of wake-up garlic juice. Please remain seated for your patch up.” Jack replied smoothly, trying to make a joke out of him.

By normal rights, he should be extremely pissed off. Dante and Jack had never gotten on perfectly well and were always bickering. They couldn’t consider themselves enemy, but Dante always found divine amusement in pissing the scientist off, and he was pretty sure Jack reciprocated the idea.

Yet, this time, Dante couldn’t find it in himself to make a comeback.

He stared at his hands, drifting away quickly into his thoughts; dimly aware that Jack was now prodding annoyingly at his wound, making sure nothing foreign had gotten in.

Dante wondered what Lexi and Alvron were going through now. It wasn’t fair for him to insist that they be wrenched from their lives to join them at Jack’s townhouse. Everyone had been warned, and while Zanetta had been upset at the exposure of their kind, the rest had been welcoming.

He supposed that this would be a test. If his vampire friends wanted him to show them that he could be acknowledged in the human world and not be pointed out a vampire, then he needed to know that they would be able to accept new people into their tightly-knit group.

Still, this was not a fair gauge. Both Lexi and Alvron knew about vampires, and they knew they were in trouble. It wasn’t the best way for a test, but Dante guessed it would have to do. He could feel the sunrise coming up soon, and he hoped that Sky would be able to update the two newcomers on the nature of their kind.

But what would Sky tell them? Honestly, what could he tell them? Vampires were peaceful? Vampires were kind? Vampires were not out to do harm? None of it was true. None of it could be said by the brother of Chris with a straight face. Like there were always a few humans who were out there to do bad, Dante and his friends were the few who were out there to do good.

Someone slapped him on the face, and he jerked back again, scowling outright this time when Jack continued to raise an amused brow at him.

“One more time, and I will punch your head in.” Dante growled, but Jack smiled.

“I would gladly wait for that day, Dante. I suppose it is too much for your thick head right now to realize that you’re bandaged and free to go?” The vampire clapped him on his bandaged shoulder and Dante winced at the jolt of pain. He knew it would have all healed up by the next night, but for the moment, it needed to be bandaged up.