Page 54 of Unbound

“Ignore Rosa,” Minnie says to Bruno. “She gets bored if she can’t kill it or fuck it.”

“That’s not fair. What about eating it?”

“True. She’s a sucker for candy. Anyway …”

I glance down at the book. It’s heavy, bound in cracked leather, scorch marks seared across it in black streaks. It’s a miracle any of it survived. I take a photo of it with my phone, which makes them both gasp. “What?” I say. “It’s survived this long; it’ll survive one flash … I want to send this to Luca. It’s his family for fuck’s sake.”

Bruno thinks about this and nods. “You are correct, Rosa. And if he wants this book, then I will relinquish it. This is an archive, not a thieves’ den. So, we have pieced together some of what was missing and found different fragments of a family tree.”

“And they’re all called d’Argento,” Minnie adds. “Even if a female d’Argento married, the man took her name. How cool is that?”

“Pretty fucking cool. Girl power.”

“Anyway, the last entry onto that tree was indeed a ‘Luca d’Argento.’ Well, a ‘ca d’Argento’ to be precise; that bit was all singed. But it’s got to be him, right? Rosa, your man was born in the year 1599. Talk about a silver fox.”

“Hah. Say that to his face. So that means he was a teenager when he was transformed. How the fuck did that happen? The only child of a witch dynasty, getting turned into a vamp? It makes no sense.”

“Not to us, Rosa,” Bruno replies. “But possibly to those who did it. Giulia da Firenze was, by all accounts, a deviant.”

I nod. I’ve heard a few stories. The ways she used to torture people. The fact that she abused Luca. She was the most twisted of mother figures, and I wish she was still alive so I could drive a stake through her rotten heart. “So, what, she just took a liking to him? Wanted to see what would happen?”

“I have no idea, Rosa. But we know so little about those times, really. On paper, the Bargain was brokered in response to out-of-control hordes of vampires. There were too many, they were too vicious, the world was out of balance.”

“That’s the story, yeah. You have doubts?”

He glances around at his library, at all the knowledge he has amassed over his long life. “I’d be stupid not to. Yes, the Bargain changed the way that vampires are created, and it lessened the threat to humanity. I can see that is why the witches agreed to oversee it, to make sure it held. But if you think about it, it also handed out huge amounts of power to other individuals and groups, didn’t it?”

“Like us? Like the Vecchissime?”

He shrugs, looks pained. Rubs the bridge of his nose and sighs. “Possibly. I don’t like to think it was that cynical. That Alberto Capelli, your great-grandfather, was anything at all like his son. But I do not know that for sure, and the Bargain did guarantee our families a place at the table moving forward. I was, however, thinking more of the Coscas. They existed before the Bargain, of course, the ancient vampire clans, but they had nowhere near the same amount of power, of potency. After the Bargain, they became the most dominant of their kind—the Old World ruled the new. The Bargain made them the superior example of their species. They were stronger, they could evolve, they asserted control. In fact, that was part of the Bargain, I believe. That along with the Seers, they would help to police their own society. As with any deal, the Bargain resulted in both winners and losers.”

I think it over. It’s always been presented as a big win for humans, and I still think that’s true. Despite monsters like Giulia and Vincenzo, on the whole the Coscas do a decent job of that police work. Donna and I have discussed this, how we are never Called to deal with a Cosca vamp, because they’re so disciplined. We also now know that they “take care of” a lot of the rogues who might go on to cause enough of a problem to trigger a Call in one of us Seers.

But if what Bruno suggests is true, then … the Bargain could have been a whole lot more than an altruistic measure to protect humankind. It could have formed the basis for the supernatural world as we know it today, establishing the major players and allotting them roles that they still play. In theory at least.

“I get it,” I say, nodding. “There could have been all kinds of skullduggery afoot.”

“Precisely,” he agrees. “Plus, extra points for use of the word skullduggery.”

“Thank you. So. Okay. We know a bit more, but we also know nothing. Have you … have you looked at the document?”

They look at each other in confusion. “What document?” Minnie asks. Oh lordy. Here we go again with the magical McGuffins.

“The one that’s in your messenger bag over there.”

“What? There’s nothing in there!”

I sigh and walk over to the bag. I open it up and … shit! She’s right. It is empty. So, where the hell is it? The thing that was in the bag? The thing I need them to look at? What’s it called again …

I slap myself in the face, hard, with both hands. It hurts, but it acts as an excellent head clearer. Uh-oh, no way Jose. I will not let this disappear again. I tip the bag out, and even though it still looks empty, something has obviously hit the table because it knocks a pen rolling to the floor.

I feel around, find it. Pick it up. Once it’s in my hands, it seems to shimmer into reality. I wave it under Bruno’s nose.

“This is a copy of the Bargain. It’s a tricky bastard.”

His eyes go wide, either at the magically appearing papers that have materialized before him, or at what I say it is. His mouth drops open too for full comedic effect. Then he grabs it greedily, realizing a second later that he could have torn it or damaged it, horrified at his own blunder.

“I’m so sorry,” he says, smoothing it down carefully. I think he’s actually talking to it, and maybe for a man like Bruno, this is normal. “I should have my white gloves on. You should be in a temperature-controlled environment. You should be somewhere safe.”