Fratelli: The Awakening (The Vampire Cartel Book 1) by Mynx Sienna

Author:Mynx, Sienna
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Divas Pen LLC
Published: 2024-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 36

The Consiglieri

The Palazzo Tower & Casino

Las Vegas, Nevada, April 14, 2018

(8 Days Before Death)

Tristan Santiago was his Christian name. Born in 1931, he was twenty-seven when Lucio Di Salvo took his life and fed him to the Draca. Since then, he had served his Master unwaveringly as consiglieri, enforcer, and trusted advisor. Through it all, he had seen and questioned many things. Yet, nothing puzzled him more than the woman his boss had brought into their lives.

He walked through the galley of the Palazzo, deep in thought. One hand in his pocket, the other holding a slender cigarillo between his pointer and middle fingertips. He brought the half-smoked cigarillo to his lips, eyes trained downward, exhaling a long plume of smoke from his nostrils. No one dared question him as he strolled from the casino entrance toward the posh side of the hotel. He was known to every man behind every security camera as untouchable.

The council of brothers would meet in the secretive Eclipse Suite, accessible only through a private, unlisted elevator. As he approached the roped-off golden doors to the lift, he found only one capu present. One was enough. The soldiers in the Fratelli of the Draca were the fiercest protectors of the order. One of them could hold back a hundred humans. Only the pups under the Werewolf kings matched their ferocity.

The velvet rope was lowered upon his approach. Tristan stepped past the capu to the biometric scan, a green beam swept over him from head to toe to identify his nature and ranking. The elevator doors opened, revealing his nemesis waiting inside.

“Hello, brother,” Shakespeare smiled, standing in the left corner of the golden, marble-floored elevator. Tristan extinguished the cigarillo with a press of his fingers to the burning tip. Smoking was a silly habit, a remnant from his chain-smoking youth. No vampire, regardless of rank, could taste or enjoy tobacco smoke. Still, he did it to reclaim a part of himself that was lost and to combat troubled thoughts that could lead to irrational behavior.

When Tristan stepped into the elevator, Shakespeare chuckled at the dismissive way he turned and hit the button for the top floor.

“Damn, what pissed you off? Tough day at the office?” Shakespeare asked. Tristan sighed as if dealing with a petulant child tugging at his pants leg. Shakespeare had been made consiglieri before him. In fact, before Lucio made Tristan, Shakespeare had worked for his boss as his personal confidant and enforcer. Shakespeare often reminded him of this fact.

“I heard you were traveling with luggage. Food or a problem?” Shakespeare asked.

“None of your concern,” Tristan mumbled.

“Who are your new friends?” Shakespeare asked more directly.

Tristan rolled his neck from side to side like a prizefighter, trying to loosen the tension coiled tightly within him. His Draca seethed with rage. If he succumbed to his primal urge for dominance, he and Shakespeare would take the elevator apart in a ferocious clash. His thirst for violence was intense, fueled by days without feeding and exacerbated by Lucio’s obsessive pursuit of his Julia Brown conquest.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.