Breathe Under Water - Shadows of the Night 1

Chapter 18

Hi!

Sorry for not posting earlier but I was in an editing frenzy... Who am I kidding? Still am. Anyway, here's chapter 18 for you! As always thanks for reading and let me know what you think!

Lara

____________________________________________________________

Chapter 18

I was going to break another rule. A big one. But there was no other way to gain any more information.

I walked up to the human servant and smiled.

"Hi. I'm Anna, Master Alexander's human servant. I hope I'm not interrupting your conversation?"

Blunt and not the brightest opening, but it was the only one I could come up with. Somewhere along the way I seemed to have lost my, admittedly lousy, ability to fool vampires (or human servants) with King's English. Maybe I simply didn't care anymore.

While Gina Cox raised an eyebrow in irritation, the human servant gave me a warm smile.

"Not at all. I am Marco. You have already talked to my master?"

His accent was rich and betrayed his heritage from the very first word. He probably was a few years older than me and didn't exactly meet the Italian-prototype-cliché I had stored in the back of my mind. I guess his blue eyes were what threw me off course. They drew the attention, struck me as round and kind. The strong Italian accent and low voice were probably the most striking features, apart from the fact that he towered above most of the male guests. I had to look up and up to meet his gaze.

"Yes, I had the honor to talk to him," I replied. Yeah, that was better.

Gina snorted with contempt, her deep brown eyes blazing with unspent mischief. "I don't understand why Heron even let you approach him, it's a scandal!"

Your cleavage is a scandal, girl. Am I bitching about that? No.

I stared at her for a moment. Whatever cards I had left, I had to play them well. If they were expecting brainless-vampire-bait, I'd give them brainless.

I let my eyes widen. "I was together with Heron's human servant. I'm sorry! I wasn't supposed to talk to him, right?" I said, turning to Marco.

Marco touched my shoulder, giving me a reassuring smile. "No, it's alright. Master Antonio does not mind. He likes to have conversations with humans."

Likes to have conversations with humans? It almost sounded like it was some sort of special occasion for Antonio.

"Really?" I said.

"Really," Marco said.

Finding the right words to steer the conversation where I wanted it to go was harder than I thought. I had to be careful.

"I've never met any royalty before, you know," I said. "I never thought I'd actually meet them. I mean, their beauty is otherworldly, and their clothes! And... well, I wanted to ask where they got these extraordinary amulets from. Is the stone a real ruby?"

Gina Cox's lips twitched, her silence turning into soft laughter. "Oh my! Alexander must have been out of his mind when he made you his human servant."

I couldn't agree more.

I stared at Gina, then at Marco with innocent eyes. "Did I say something wrong?"

Marco answered hesitantly, obviously having trouble at keeping up his gentlemanly manner. "Well, no. You couldn't know. ... É un blasone. Come si dice?"