I pulled his hand up and laced his fingers in mine. "You told me that you loved me. Is that true, or are you trying to manipulate me? Am I just another toy to you ... a showpiece?"

"I see that Pallo has paid you another visit."

I didn't deny it. I pulled his fingers up to my lips and kissed them. "If what you say is true and you do love me, then you'll tell me about us. No more lies and no more secrets." I was proud of myself. I'd done it. I had put him on the spot and if he decided not to answer my questions then that would prove Pallo was right. It was a c.r.a.ppy thing to do to him, but my life was possibly at stake.

He turned his head away from me and looked towards the window. The thick dark drapes were drawn to keep the sun out. He let go of my hand and moved away. I sat up and crawled off the bed. I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to keep it together. I stormed across the room and s.n.a.t.c.hed a rusty colored peasant shirt from my drawer. It was luck that it matched my long black skirt, because I didn't care. I just wanted to go. I headed for the bedroom door.

"Gwyneth."

I turned and stared at him as he sat on the edge of the bed, naked, with his head lowered. His shoulders moved up and down slowly. I walked over to him and touched the top of his head. He glanced in my direction and I fell to my knees when I saw his eyes full of tears.

"Do not make me tell you what I've done. You will leave and never return. I will be the monster the others told you of. I was that person, Gwyneth. I was evil."

"Giovanni, I have to know I can trust you and if it means hearing all the ugly details of our past, then that's what it means. I'm not that person anymore, and I hope you aren't either."

"I will gladly walk into the sunlight to show you I mean what I say and that I will never hurt you again. Dying to prove this to you is better than living for eternity knowing you see me as a monster."

I wiped his cheek and came away with tears. I pulled his chin up and stared into his dark eyes. "I don't think bursting into flames is the answer. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine, but I will be leaving tonight. I can't continue to be here with you. I don't want to believe Pallo, but part of me knows that there's some truth to what he says. I need to know how much."

"Why?"

I felt my own tears beginning to trickle down my cheeks. "Because, I'm falling in love with you and you've only ever proven you couldn't be trusted and I don't need to put on an encore performance this time around." I pulled away from him and headed for the door. He came up behind me fast and pulled me to him.

"Bella, did you just tell me you're falling in love with me?"

I nodded, afraid if I spoke I'd break down.

"What of Pallo and your Caleb?"

I was the one preaching about lies between us and saying that I could love only him would be the biggest lie of all. I touched his face and leaned against his chest. "I want to stand here and deny that I still love them, but I can't. I can only tell you the truth, Giovanni. I'm falling in love with you, but I can't trust you. I want to, but I know I can't."

He held me to him and pulled me back towards the bed. The sun was up and that meant he was weak. I felt horrible for doing this to him now, but it had to be done. He sat down on the bed and pulled me down on his lap. He pulled my head against his shoulder and rocked us back and forth.

"I am having a hard time figuring out where to start," he said. I felt my heart skip a beat. He was going to tell me. He wanted to prove himself to me and this was the only option I'd given him.

"Start by telling me how we met."

He let out a little laugh. "Yes, that will do."

I sat on his lap and listened to him tell me how we had come to know each other. He and my father had known each other for almost a hundred years prior to my arrival. On rare occasions, my father would come and visit me. No one knew that the King had a daughter and he wanted to keep it that way. Giovanni was his head enforcer. He was the one my father called in to do his dirty work. Giovanni's specialty was torture, but he was an excellent warrior, as well. He and my father hit it off from the get go. My father had trusted him enough to tell him his dearest secret. He told him about me. Giovanni was sent to watch over me from a distance. No one was to know he was there and for many years it stayed that way.

He had spent so much time in the Dark Realm, watching me from afar, that he'd found himself an honorary member of the court. A woman came into his life about the same time I was celebrating my tenth birthday. He'd found himself drawn to her. She was a powerful sorceress and was well-respected in the court. They had an affair and continued to see each other as I grew up. He honored my father's wishes and continued to pay me visits to check on me. He watched me grow into a young woman and he watched Caleb appear on the scene more and more.

Giovanni blushed slightly when he told me about finding Caleb and me in a field of flowers making love for the first time. He had sensed that we'd been getting closer and he expected we'd soon take that next step, but he watched in spite of himself. He was so captivated by my love for Caleb that he found himself coming around even more than he had been sworn to. This went on for years and years.

One night he was following me. I was on my way to meet with my soon-to-be husband, Caleb. The sorceress Giovanni had been sleeping with had followed him. They had an argument and she called his demon out and left him-leaving him in vampire form. The horse I was riding had been spooked by something near us and threw me from it and I'd fainted. He came to me to make sure I wasn't hurt.

He'd kept his face hidden in the shadows for fear of scaring me. When he finally did emerge, he was normal again. The first thing I said to him was that I could tell he'd been standing in the dark hiding his rage and wondered how a man with such a loving heart could harbor so much hate. This took him by surprise and when I told him I could sense his heart was also conflicted, he had feelings for two women, he knew I was definitely my father's daughter.

Giovanni gave a small smile, pausing in his story. "You were so powerful for a faerie, Gwyneth. I could tell you were your father's daughter."

I returned his smile and slid closer to him as he went on with the tale of how we'd met.

Apparently, we immediately hit it off and his visits stayed constant only now they were no longer a secret from me. Caleb found out about my new friend and was leery of him. He knew Giovanni from the Dark Realm courts and knew what kind of monster he could be. The harder he tried to prove this to me, the more I pulled away from him. Pressure for the wedding to take place started and I was unable to understand the King's interest in me. I didn't know at the time that he was my father. Giovanni didn't tell me. He was already betraying my father's trust enough by spending so much time with me. Revealing that I was a princess and daughter of the most powerful King in the land would have pushed my father over the edge and put my life in jeopardy. Others would have stopped at nothing to a.s.sa.s.sinate me.

Caleb found Giovanni and me sitting together under the night sky. He'd had enough and demanded I never see Giovanni again. I wasn't one who liked to be told what to do, so I sent Caleb away. Giovanni knew Caleb would go to the King about his future wife's sudden interest in a vampire, so Giovanni told me he was leaving. He headed off and I followed him like a whipped puppy. He sensed me during the journey and stopped to tell me to go back to my mother and to Caleb. I pulled him to me and kissed him.

He did his best to try to persuade me to leave him. He finally broke down and admitted to being a vampire. I laughed and told him I'd seen him the night we'd first met, and I'd known all along. I also told him I could see into his heart, and I knew he was a good man. We ended up making love for the first time that night and I left with him.

Giovanni contacted my father and told him I was safe. My father was powerless to stop us. If he tried then Giovanni told him he would expose the truth about who he was to me and to the Dark Realm. My father made him swear to continue to watch over me. He did and we lived together happily for seventy-five years. The other twenty years weren't as grand but Giovanni avoided going further with his story so I didn't know the details of those last years.

Giovanni shifted under me. I moved over to sit next to him on the bed. He looked exhausted. I touched his arm and he turned to me. "Thank you for sharing this with me."

He leaned back and kissed me. "I have not shared everything there is to know with you. I have only told you of happy times between us."

"I know but you need some more rest. We'll talk more later."

"Later? Does that mean you're staying?" he asked. I could see the hope in his black eyes.

I kissed him and stood up. "That means we're off to a good start and we can talk more about it later, when you're up and feeling better."

I walked towards the door and glanced back at him before I left. He was still sitting on the edge of the bed, but he was looking at the closed windows. I wondered if he was reliving the events of our past in his head or if he was debating on how much more to tell me. I pulled the door closed and headed downstairs.

Chapter Eleven.

I had just hit the bottom stair when one of the double-dumbs found me. She was carrying the cordless phone in her hand and chomping on a piece of gum. I almost suggested she spit it out and use it to cover the pink part of her nipple that was sticking out of the top of her tight blue top, but refrained.

"There ya are. I've been looking all over for you. Here." She shoved the phone in my direction.

"Thanks...umm...Brandy."

"Candy."

"As if it matters," I said softly under my breath as she walked away. I brought the phone up to my ear and wondered why she hadn't just taken a message. I know ... I know that would involve her actually writing something down, silly me.

"This is Gwen."

"Gwen, it's about time ... that one is thick as a brick, isn't she?" James said softly, following it up with a quick whistle.

I laughed, knowing he was telling me that Brandy, I mean Candy, was a moron. I walked into Giovanni's study and closed the door. The place had been scrubbed clean and the faint smell of bleach still hung in the air.

"What's up, James? You ran out of here before I could say goodbye." I was hurt by that fact but didn't bother to voice it. I was sure James already knew as much.

He let out a small groan. "Gwen, I think you should come home and, before you say anything, you should know that Pallo isn't aware I'm calling you. I'm at your house. I hope that's okay."

I walked over to the window and stared out. Mikhail was standing near Fritz by the edge of the pool. They looked like they were arguing but I couldn't tell.

"Gwen?"

"Yes, sorry ... James, you know you can stay at my place anytime you want. h.e.l.l, you can move in. I'd love to have you."

"Right then," he said, absently, as if he wasn't really listening to what I was saying. "I'm calling because of Caleb. We found him dumped outside Pallo's place. He's fine, a bit banged up and three sheets to the wind, but he's all right. Anyway, I know the people who did this to him. This was just a warning. He's been getting in over his head with the bounty hunting and the ...." He was searching for a way to break bad news to me.

"And, with the ladies I know already."

A sigh of relief made its way through the phone. "Anyway, he's in some deep s.h.i.t and Pallo's trying to help him, but the two of them well ... you know how well they get along, so I'm asking you to come back and help get Caleb straightened out. I know the two of you had your problems, but Gwen, this is serious. These guys mean business. They'll kill him if he keeps it up."

"Have you told his mother?"

"Yeah, I walked up to her front door and announced that her son was turning into a womanizing alcoholic .... h.e.l.l, no I didn't! Sorcha would fry my insides and feed'em to me on a stick, Gwen. You know her. Besides, if Caleb even thought I'd go to her, he'd have another pop at me."

That caught my attention. "Caleb hit you?"

"Yeah, that's puttin' it mildly. I was here the other night, feeding Diablo and he showed up. He was dead drunk by the time he got here, and I didn't want him driving around. I told him to go upstairs and sleep it off. He went on and on about you, your bedroom and me being in the house. He... umm... sort of implied that you and I are a good deal more than just friends .... anyhow ... it ended up with the two of us fighting."

I stood there and tried to soak in everything he was telling me. Fighting, Caleb drinking and Diablo? "James, who the h.e.l.l is Diablo?"

He laughed. "He's the puppy I bought for ya, luv. He's a good boy. I've been staying here almost every night to take care of him. I had a friend of mine watch him when we came to Italy for the night. Pallo thinks I got him for you as an excuse to see you more, but seeing as your how you're halfway around the world, enjoying Tuscany, he let the argument go."

I had a puppy now? Great, I needed one more male wanting to mark its territory. I sat down and opened Giovanni's laptop. It only took a minute for it to boot up, and I was able to access departure times for flights.

"I can't catch a flight out of here until tomorrow night, James. Shoot, can you keep Caleb under control until I get there?"

"Gwen, you could cut through the Dark Realm, you'd be here in less than two hours."

I thought about taking the very mystical short cut James was suggesting, but that would mean I'd pa.s.s my father and right now I didn't want to deal with him. I also didn't know my way around the supernatural subway of the Dark Realm. My luck I'd end up sitting in Australia having dinner with a demonic dingo. No, I'd stick to modern mortal traveling for this.

"James, I ..."

"Bella, you will take my jet. I'll arrange for someone to take you Stateside by tomorrow morning," Giovanni interjected from the doorway of his study.

"Gwen?"

"Yeah, James, I'll be home soon. I'll call you back with the details later and thanks for the puppy."

I hung up and glanced at Giovanni. He was already moving towards me to take the phone. I handed it to him and walked out the patio door to give him time to make all the arrangements.

It was almost dinnertime, which meant the sun would be going down in about an hour or two. I looked back at Giovanni, he was sitting close to the window, but I knew he'd be all right. His home had windows that had been treated for maximum UV protection. He'd explained it to me my second day there, but it was one of those things that went in one ear and out the other.

"You will not disobey me on this, or there will be h.e.l.l to pay," I heard Mikhail saying as I stepped out onto the patio. He saw me and stopped talking to Fritz.

Fritz stared over at me and made a V-shape under his mouth with two of his fingers and flicked his tongue out at me. Mikhail let out a low growl. Fritz either didn't hear him or didn't care. I turned around and saw that Giovanni's back was to us. It wasn't like he could have done a thing about Fritz during daylight hours anyways. I glanced back at Fritz and decided that I'd had enough of the punk rock boy behavior.

I walked down the stairs, towards Fritz and let my power build. I needed to use it more than I had been and he was giving me the perfect excuse. He brought his fingers down slowly when I reached him and smiled.

Mikhail stepped forward. "I'm sure he didn't mean to ..."

I put my hand up and stopped him. "No, it's not you that's been being an a.s.s since you stepped foot here."

Fritz stared wide-eyed at me. "I'm sorry did you say a.s.s? Are you offering to let me have some of it? I prefer doggie style, how about you?"

Mikhail brought his fist up quickly. The last thing I wanted was a fight to break out.

"No."

He stopped. He had amazing self-control, I was impressed. I took another step closer to Fritz and put my magik packed hand on his groin. He licked his lips and glanced at Mikhail.

"I told ya the b.i.t.c.h would do anybody."

"Yeah, you got one thing right. I am a b.i.t.c.h." I let my power run through my hand and into his groin. I sent enough of a charge into him to give him a h.e.l.l of shock. He screamed and his right hand came up fast to strike me. I ducked and reached up and under his arm. I stood quickly and moved my body into his. I wrapped my foot around his leg and twisted around, jerking the weight of his body over my back as I went. He flipped over me and landed on his back on the hard, tiled patio. I glared down at him as he clutched himself between the legs and I smiled.

"I'm sorry, where were we again? Right, I believe you were calling me a b.i.t.c.h."

He gave me a look that told me exactly how much he hated me. I returned it. I felt energized and I wanted an excuse to beat the c.r.a.p out of him again. Mikhail touched my arm. I flung around and grabbed his wrist.

"Hey, I surrender, Gwen Lee, master of the martial arts," he said laughing slightly.

Letting Mikhail go, I shook my head. "Sorry, I lost control of myself. Guess I don't know my own strength."

His gaze went to Fritz who was rolling over trying to get up. Mikhail laughed from the gut. "No, I guess not."

"So, is it later?" I asked, referring to our meeting in the hallway earlier. I wanted to know more about the tattoos and I had to leave soon, so time was of the essence. Mikhail nodded at me and put his arm out for me. I took it and was impressed with the fact that he was wearing silk. Since he'd been at Giovanni's I'd only seen him in jeans and faded shirts. He had a definite rugged quality about him. I liked that, but enjoyed silk better.

We walked out to the stables. I tried to go in, but Mikhail pulled me back. He explained that he wasn't too sure how the horses would react to him. I hadn't thought about it, but he had a point. In shifted form, they were his lunch. We settled under a tree near the stable and I looked over at him.

"Malita, is she your pack leader?"

He smiled and pulled a blade of gra.s.s up. He rolled it around between his fingers and looked up into the trees. "Omnimorpheleons don't have pack leaders per se. We have a master, similar to vampires. I'm the master, the alpha of the pack. Malita doesn't like knowing anyone is above her, let alone me."

From the way Malita acted around them all I'd thought she was the one who was in charge. Giovanni had even referred to the girls as her people. I thought about it for a minute then it hit me. "She's your mate. She is the dominant female."

"Yes and no. She's not my true mate. I'm not even sure if I have one of those. She is, however, what you would consider my significant other. While we're not wed in the eyes of our kind or human law, we've been a couple for a long time."

"But, she was with Pallo. They almost ..." How do you tell someone that their life mate almost had s.e.x with another guy?

Mikhail ran his hand through his ear length sandy brown hair. "We haven't been intimate in many years, Gwen. I should have replaced her at least twenty years ago, but our pack is large, we have hundreds of omnimorpheleons and she'd been doing well at running things."

"Had been good? What changed?"

"Well, you brought me out here to ask about this, right?" He unb.u.t.toned his black jeans and pulled them down, exposing his tattoo to me. I reached my hand out and stopped just before I touched it. "It's okay, it won't react to you."