Rome was two cities, one built on top of the other. The first was a city of the sun, vibrant and alive, a chaotic performance of Vespas and tourists and shouting locals. The second was the one I now moved through. The city of night.
As soon as the sun set, a lullaby of silence fell over the ancient streets. The locals knew. They vanished indoors. Only the main thoroughfares, islands of artificial light, held any life. The back-alleys and winding cobblestone lanes were left to the dark. I'd learned in my first few nights that the oblivious tourists who dared to venture into those shadows... often just went missing.
The city hid its secrets well, like a woman wearing a veil. She could see everything, but you could never see her full face.
My job was to lift that veil away.
The vampire had been a talker. He was quiet now. I sheathed the claws on my right hand, the Touki-laced energy fading. The vampire's head, now severed, lolled onto the expensive Persian rug, its eyes wide with a final, agonizing surprise. Its body remained tied to the chair.
This one was a messy eater. The penthouse apartment reeked of a sickly-sweet perfume that failed to mask the coppery, rotting-meat smell of old blood. He was one of the thirsty ones, a creature of pure impulse who abducted tourists to feast on their flesh and blood.
He was also, I'd discovered, a fantastic source of information.
Before he died, he'd given me a rough, terrified map of the city's nocturnal politics. And the picture he'd painted was one of chaos.
Rome was in the midst of a vampire civil war.
According to his panicked whispers, the Tepes children—the heirs—had somehow removed their father. The old man, furious, had allied with the rival Carmilla Faction, and now the two were tearing the vampire world apart.
This is it. This would provide me with the camouflage I need.
The Tepes Faction, however, seemed to be winning. The reason? A rumor was spreading, a rumor this creature had sworn was true: some of them could now walk in the sun. They had overcome the single greatest limitation of their race.
A civil war, a new, sun-walking subspecies... .
I'd spent week, trying to get a feel for their hierarchy. My mission was twofold: find the ruling clans and locate the Tepes Bank. One would inevitably lead to the other. But they were good. Too good. They were all rich, all living in opulent, fortified homes. It was impossible to distinguish a common, centuries-old vampire from a true noble.
I had been trying to move covertly, hiding in the shadows, but I realized that in a city made of shadows, I'd just get lost.
I have to change my approach. I can't just be a ghost. I need to shine a light on them, force the real predators out of hiding.
This headless fool was the first step. He confirmed another, crucial fact—my Touki, my life-force energy, was a true poison to them.That was my ace.
I moved to the penthouse balcony, stepping over the threshold into the cold night air. A distant siren was the only sound. I placed one foot on the ornate stonework of the railing, fed a thread of chakra to its sole, and began to climb, moving up the side of the building with an unnatural ease.
I reached the roof, a flat expanse of gravel and ventilation units, and looked down at the city. The commotion was already starting. A few blocks away, I could hear shouts, the sound of other vampires, their senses triggered by the sudden, violent scent of their comrade's death. They were rushing to the apartment.
They'd be in for a surprise.
I watched as the windows of the penthouse I'd just left glowed a dull orange, then bright yellow. A moment later, they shattered outward, a plume of fire and smoke billowing into the night sky. The fire I'd set in his wine cellar, accelerated by the liquor, was now an inferno.
All at the right time.
A block away, in the deep shadow of a forgotten aqueduct, a nondescript Roman man in a cheap suit wavered like a heat haze. The unfamiliar features dissolved, the body shrinking, reforming into my own. The transformation jutsu fell away, leaving me in my simple hoodie and cargo pants.
The fire was the light I needed. It would draw them all out—the curious, the panicked, and, eventually, the ones in charge. My plan was forming, the next piece of the puzzle falling into place.