Ben slammed the door in this woman's face, pressing his back to the wood. Mind whirring, he caught his breath now more sober than ever. The woman—the vampire– on the other side snickered and rattled a tune against the door again.
"I'd love to be friends, if you'd open the door," she said.
Yeah.
Fuck that.
Ben bolted back up the stairs, practically throwing himself at Nino's side. He jumped on the bed, not caring if he kneed Nino in the side and mercilessly shook him. "You useless vampire!" Ben snapped and shook him harder until Nino's brows furrowed. "Nino, wake up!"
"No," Nino groaned and strung his arm around Ben, pulling him back onto the bed.
"What happened to all that concern for my livelihood you had last night?! There's a vampire at the door—" Ben insisted, and Nino's eyes popped opened "—and she knows my name."
A flash of red sparked across Nino's eyes and Ben sighed, relieved he finally got through to him. Jumping over Ben, Nino scooped his shirt off the ground and fumbled his arms inside as he hurried to the door.
"Stay here," he said, but Ben knew that wasn't happening, a restless feeling forcing Ben to his feet.
He ran after Nino. Couldn't help himself as he cowered at the top of the stairs, bending down so he could still watch Nino open the door to reveal the same little girl as before. Seeing her again, Ben noticed this girl was carrying Gucci luggage. She had long silky spindles of black curls, half pulled back by a white bow. Everything she wore from the coat, the shoes, the dress, and even the pearled button-up shirt looked like it cost more than Ben's first year rent in the city.
She stood eerily still with her big doe eyes staring up at Nino, no emotion on her face like she was a porcelain doll. Nino drew back. "Evelyn? What are you doing here?"
Ben's back straightened. "You know her?"
Nino glanced up at him. "She's my niece, Evie. Come on," Nino said, motioning Evelyn inside, and Ben was too late to stop him.
"Wait! Wait!"
"Come in—"
"Thank you!" The vampire woman sing-songed, appearing again and shoving Nino back on her way inside the apartment. Ben's stomach dropped to his toes. She pushed her sunglasses back through her long ruby red hair like a headband. Everything about her, like the little girl, seemed overdressed. Her dark eyes took in the apartment as she strolled deeper inside, the clack of her yellow heels bouncing off the walls. The heels matched the flared-out dress with ruffled puff sleeves hanging off her shoulders.
"Bianca? What—?" Nino looked between them. His face misshaped into a question mark. "What are you doing here? Why are you here? How did you even know I was here?" Ben had never seen Nino so thrown off his game. He was suddenly several inches shorter and much younger than ever before.
The vampire woman, Bianca, bent her neck to look up at Ben as she offhandedly spoke to Nino. Ben caught her slight Italian accent, the same one as Nino's. "I am your older sister. It's my job to know everything. Ben, come down from there." She raised one hand and pressed one to her chest. "I swear on my undead life I will not bite you." A smile pulled at her lips, and she winked. "Unless you ask me to."
"You're not funny," Nino grumbled.
Ben took a few steps down, looming closer, but wasn't ready to join. His eyes stayed trained on Nino. "You have a sister?"
Crossing his arms, Nino scowled at her less like a sister and more like a uninvited wild animal scratching up the furniture. "Unfortunately. This is Bianca Ventura, my older sister, and a menace to society."
Bianca seemed committed to the trend of ignoring Nino to focus on Ben. She met him the rest of the way to the staircase, resting her arm on the wooden banister. "Nino doesn't just have a sister. He has brothers too. There's five of us all together. Seven in the family, if you count Mom and Dad."
"But you can't," Nino mumbled as if his words leaked out and Ben wasn't supposed to hear.
"Lucky number seven," Ben said, wondering if he was hallucinating.
Loving that, Bianca grinned. "Ventura does mean good fortune, so consider yourself lucky that you met me."
That one sentence sucked Ben out of the room and back to five years ago, seeing Nino for the first time and falling for that smile. Hearing him say with that velvet accented voice.
Instantly, Ben snapped a fierce glare at Nino and the way Nino hid his face only confirmed his guilt. Ben reached into the coat rack and grabbed a hat to chuck at his stupid head. Nino jumped, whirling around as Ben snapped at him, "You have five siblings?!"
"I do," he admitted, sheepishly.
"Why am I just hearing about this now?"
"I didn't think you needed to know."
"Do I..." Ben stood, taking one more step. It was impossible not to look completely gutted when that's what it felt like. He thought when Nino came over, he was diving deep into this man and getting swept away in his tide... but Ben had only reached the shallow end of Nino's life. "Do I know you at all?"
Nino's eyes widened. "Ben—"
"Nino," Bianca cut in, reminding them all she had the center stage of this show. "You have been a very bad boy."
All the air got sucked out of Nino's balloon and he turned his grimace to his older sister. "Why are you here, Bianca? What's Evie doing here?" He pointed to the little girl, still standing quietly in the corner, not moving at all. Less child, more statue. Ben was more nervous about her.
"You don't come home often, Nino. That makes a sister worry..." Bianca said in a way that reminded Ben of Lincoln right before he popped off on a lecture. Shaking her head, Bianca's hands landed on her hips. "And I know you make your own money modeling and ignoring your family's legacy, but..."
She walked up to Nino, pressing a French manicured finger to his chest. "You still use the joint family accountant. Your allowance has been depositing in the same account for five years every month, very consistently." She grinned, her lips curling as mischievously as the Cheshire cat. "So, like anyone would, I got curious. I started watching you Nino, started noticing all your little changing habits."
She eyed Ben from over her shoulder, her smile so devilish he wondered if she was part demon. "Vampires are callous creatures by nature. We rarely notice the passage of time or the changes in others, but..." She looked at Nino again, hands on her hips. "As vampires, we pay attention to where we get our blood. After all, it is the only way we stay gorgeous and alive. I realized you stopped eating at home."
"This is an invasion of privacy and I'm going to fire the accountant."
"Already did it for you. But that was mostly for me. I'll get to that later. I followed the money and the deposits to this little brownstone, so I sent a private investigator—"
"You did what?"
Ben echoed, "You did what?"
As if she just did a magic trick, Bianca held her hands out in a mock presentation. "And lo-and-behold, little Nino Ventura comes to visit this same brownstone every three months and the human that lives there emerges from these visits longer needing glasses with glossy hair and perfect skin. My little brother must have found something good.... I figured it could be one of two things. Either you fell in love, but me knowing you, knows that can't be true..."
Ouch. Ben took that like a punch to the gut and he thought the floor looked like a nice place to wither and die.
"Or he must've found a Feast. Am I wrong?" She challenged him.
"No, you're not wrong. You don't have to make me say you know you're right."
"Don't get mad. I haven't told a soul..." Her eyes slid back over to Ben. "Ben Robinson, you've made my brother a picky eater."
Nino raised his voice, grabbing back her attention. "Did you just come here to mess with me? Don't you have more important things to do? Aren't you getting a..." He glanced at Evie and then back, whispering as he spelled out, "D-i-v-o-r-c-e?"
"You can say divorce. Evie might be ten, but she knows what's happening. I tell her everything. She's a smart girl and you can trust her. Actually, this isn't about me, you, or the Feast—"
"Ben," he corrected to no one listening.
"This is about Evie. You're right. Things aren't going well in my divorce..."
With a sigh, she approached Ben, entangling their arms together and her touch may have been gentle, but her grip was incredible and with her strength, Ben had no choice but to follow. She took him to the kitchen. Speaking in confidence, she patted Ben's arm. "From what I can gather, Nino has told you nothing about our family, but I am happy to let you in on all the juicy details—"
In a flash, Nino appeared in front of them, and Ben jumped. "Let me tell him," He snapped at his sister and pulled Ben from her hold, pushing him deeper into the kitchen where they were crowded in the corner. Tickled, Bianca didn't fight and meandered around the kitchen, snooping through the cabinets and making too much noise.
"Ben," Nino said. He seemed ragged, as if ten minutes with his sister equaled to a twelve-hour triathlon. Gripping Ben tight, Nino seemed to think he needed to keep Ben from floating away. "I'm sorry, but I haven't been forthcoming about where I'm from or my family because, well... I'm not involved in the family business."
"Okay..." Ben said, with little else to say. He was still processing it all.
"I have told you that my family is wealthy, but it's more than that. My father operated under a different code than other coven heads."
"Coven head?"
"You can just say King," Bianca chimed in, glancing through the window into the outdoor space. "Kings lead vampire covens."
"Does that make you a prince?" Ben asked. Now, he doubted anything would surprise him.
"I'm not involved. With my brother Dante, my father practiced in a dark underground world that even monsters don't trifle with. They deal in fear and control."
Bianca giggled to herself. "You can tell him what we are. Even humans have their own mafia—"
"I'm not proud of it like you are, Bianca!" Nino snapped, but her smile never wavered. Ben was suddenly thankful he was an only child. Sighing, Nino's grip tightened on Ben's shoulders. Now Ben was the one keeping him upright. "Ben, I didn't want you to get the wrong idea. Really, this whole time, I haven't meant you any harm. Vampires are things to be feared, but not me. I never wanted you to be afraid of me."
Ben shook Nino's hands off, his grip so gentle, his hands easily fell. Nothing like Bianca, but that didn't surprise Ben. He couldn't stop the furrow of his brow. "Looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't know you," Ben said. "You don't know me either. You think after five years of being your friend, I'm going to judge you for where you come from? What does that say about me?"
Whatever was on the tip of Nino's tongue didn't fall off easily. Ben watched the cogs in his brain spin. Damn. Ben didn't think Nino just kind of liking him and knowing him was such a difficult thing to explain.
"Look," Bianca butted in, her hands raised in surrender. "I didn't come here to cause a fight between you two."
"Too late."
"I came here with a deal in mind."
"Bianca..." Nino sighed.
"Not with you. With Ben..." She pushed Nino out of the way, so he'd be on the sidelines, so this would be just between her and Ben. She said, "From what I've gathered, my little brother pays your rent every month for feedings." She didn't wait for a response. "Well, I want to do you one better. I will buy you a house wherever you like and it'll be yours for however long you live."
"Bianca—!" Nino gawked and Bianca held her hand to his chest to keep him at bay.
"You're kidding." Ben had to laugh. This was all making him delirious. It was like she opened his brain and read his Wishlist.
"I'm not the joking type." Bianca shrugged, waving her hand as if brushing off the little details that didn't matter, but this mattered deeply to Ben. Nothing sounded better than total security than the comfort of owning his home and not being able to get thrown out. Technically, this deal with Nino could end at any time and then he'd have nowhere to go.
He never told Nino this, but at the end of every month, he watched his rent bill, waiting in ache for it to switch to zero. Every month it got paid. But that fear always returned, too.
She explained further, "Choose where you want to live, and I will buy the home for you in your name. No more strings attached. Hell, I'll even furnish the damn thing."
"Bianca," Nino bellowed, taking his stand, and moving between them. He pushed Ben behind him. "What do you have planned? What are you doing?"
"Sorry to disrupt your deal, Nino, but I guess you'll have to find another way to tempt the Feast to help you. You heard Nino," she said to Ben, and tilted her body to keep eye contact with him. "My divorce is not going well. Evie's father is Gabriel Caputo, and he comes from a place a lot like our family. We're almost equivalent in every way, except for wealth. The Ventura are old money. Since the dawn of time money. My husband's father built everything from the ground up in the manner of a few centuries... it seemed like a good idea for us to get married before it became a tumultuous competition."
Nino rolled his eyes. "She's glossing over the fact they were crazy for each other. They went missing in the 70s."
"It was our honeymoon."
"Then, she just randomly showed up pregnant with Evie."
Bianca stuck her nose up at the comment. "We were different back then, but now it has gotten quite volatile and while separating the estate, of course my daughter has come up and I'm not about to give the most precious thing in this world to him. I just have to get through this divorce and figure out how to protect us. In the meantime, Ben, I need you to house Evie for the summer."
"You can't be serious."
"I absolutely can. This is a brilliant plan. There's no reason for anyone to think that Evie would be here with some random human. Besides, if you're so worried about their safety, you can stay and watch Evie too."
"You can't ask that of Ben—"
"I'm still here," Ben reminded him, but Nino didn't stop.
"—He doesn't understand how dangerous that family is or ours."
"Ben," Bianca said, because at least she acknowledges Ben was a part of this conversation. "I don't expect you to watch her forever. I will only be gone until the end of the summer and then I shall pick Evie up and we'll go house hunting. How does that sound?"
Everything was just a wave of information hitting Ben over and over, too strong to let him up for air. Just when Ben was adjusting to the idea of Nino being a gangster prince, he remembered his whole family, and the money... So, this whole time, Nino could have taken care of Ben the way Bianca was offering... but he needed Ben on the payroll. He needed Ben in a weaker position.
His chest twisted, and Ben had to brace himself for the heartache. He couldn't go through the last five years with Nino and pick out all the lies. It was too much.
And then Ben's attention strayed to Evie. If he leaned around, he could still see her standing by the door, looking at her shoes. This must be really hard for her. Vampire child or not, watching your parents separate was hard.
Closing his eyes, Ben clenched his fist and listened to his heart. He had his answer. Looking at Bianca, dead in her eyes, Ben declared, "I also want a car."
"Ben!" Nino snapped a fierce look at him.
Bianca grinned, offering her hand, "Deal!"
"Deal." Ben took the handshake.
"No," Nino bellowed and pried their hands apart. He gripped Ben's wrist, holding it up and away from his sister. Ben tripped backwards, bumping into Nino's side. "I said no."
"She's not asking you." Ben glared, and Nino's jaw tightened.
"Bianca. Go away."
Bianca raised her hands, stepping away from the island. "I'll let you two have a little fight about this, and I'll go grab more of Evie's things. I assume you have a guest room she can use. Also, if she needs anything, have Nino pay for it. I don't want any purchases traced back to me. I'll reimburse him after all of this is said and done."
Turning, Nino slammed his hands on either side of Ben, caging him against the counter. Every inch of Nino's body held tension and Ben didn't dare touch him. Not when it seemed like he might burst into flames. He'd never raised his hand to a growling dog. Ben stood his ground. "I'm going to do it."
"I don't want you to do it," Nino said.
"It's not up to you." Ben crossed his arms tighter and pressed his hands so tight around his arms, bruises threatened to bloom. "Bianca asked me."
"You don't know her. You don't know my family."
"Whose fault is that?"
"She's doing this on purpose. If she asks you to watch Evie, she knows I have to stay too. Then, I'm wrapped up in my family all over again."
"Why?" Ben swallowed his fear, choking down as he tightened his fist. He took a step forward. "I'm not asking you to stay. You're good at leaving. Go."
Ben held Nino's dark eyes in steady eye contact, seconds slipping between them utter silence. This might have been the angriest Nino had ever been with Ben... but at least it was better than indifference.