Beneath A Casanova {#1}

Part 24

Part 24

“OMIGOD, YOU’RE BACK!” The high pitched scream strangely belonged to Alvron as Lexi and Dante materialized in the sitting-turned-conference room in his palazzo in Venice. It struck him funny how the only human in the room was the first one to spot their arrival before all his other vampire friends, who all looked up only at Alvron’s exclamation.

Louis clapped Dante once on his back, both a congratulatory gesture and a gesture of pity as thevampires rushed to them. Alvron was first, as Dante watched his girlfriend be smothered in Alvron’s bear hug. Vanda cried a fair bit, and though Zanetta looked halfway-pissed, halfway-happy, Dante grinned and hugged his fair maiden friend all the same. Jean-Jacques was adamant on the pissed-off look, but at least the vampire kept lecturing words away from his lips when Dante gave him a grateful hug.

Brushing with such mortal dangers by committing such a suicidal act, Dante was suddenly very grateful of each and every of his friends –every one of them who cared for him right till the end, even Laz.

Jack adversely abstained from his happy hugs of return, but settled on a handshake, a victorious, sly glint in his eyes as Dante grinned at him. Both of them knew what he’d done had saved the both of them, but they were still, on the surface, frenemies. That meant a strict no-no in hugging or thanking or kissing Jack for thanks. No, the softie talk would happen some other time when they weren’t around any prying eyes or ears.

“Do you know how much I cried when Louis picked up the phone and said it was you? I almost lost myself!” Vanda wiped away her tears again, and from what Dante managed to get from Chris, it was already Vanda’s fifth wave of tears. Man, the woman had pipelines that were so active she could be an actress by her own rights.

“I didn’t know you cared so much about us, Vanda.” Dante replied, surprised. The slightly eccentric woman amongst their Council had always been fiercely independent, and even though Dante took her as part of his close circle of friends, it hadn’t struck him how much he meant to her.

“Not you,” Vanda hit him strongly on the chest that had him staggering back. “I was crying for Lexi.”

Dante stumbled a few steps back, rubbing the painful bruise that was undoubtedly going to form soon, and stumbled into Louis.

“Whoa, stand down, Vanda. Dante’s human now.” Louis warned, holding his best friend stable as Dante rubbed on his sore.

“That’s why he had to call for help to teleport? I thought he was just a wuss!” Vanda exclaimed, and he made a sound of protest, before Vanda offered a glare in reply.

“What? You can’t do anything to me now. You’re human!” Vanda replied gleefully, as if crazily glad at that fact. Dante made a face at her, then proceeded to ignore his slightly-crazy friend as he turned to Louis.

“Thank you for teleporting us, Louis. And I hope you won’t say anything about…” He trailed away, gesturing to Lexi where she was getting smothered by hugs from Alvron, Chris and Vanda.

Louis fought back a smile.

“I saw, felt and heard nothing upstairs at your place, Dante. I only went there, dug around your place to look for some Blood Pills, and when I was done, so were Lexi and you.” Louis explained with a secret smile, and Dante knew his secret was safe. Guaranteed, his friends would all eventually know that Lexi and his relationship had evolved another level, but at least Louis was willing to give them a little more privacy longer.

Dante wasn’t sure if he was embarrassed or happy to say he finally got past Lexi’s shyness. He wasn’t a man to mash words, but thinking about the passionate sex Lexi and he shared throughout most of the afternoon in Paris, Dante was speechless. Afterwards, he had teleported them to their new home in America, where it was just sundown. There, they had sex once more before they decided it was time to go.