Free Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel by Winter Pennington Page A

to open the door to a small cabinet nearby and retrieved a leather case from inside. She opened it and unraveled the scroll within, spreading it across the table.
    I had no idea how we would go about such a thing, for clans in general had very little contact with one another. That’s not to say that we were at cross-purposes, only that we tended to keep to ourselves. I was again uncertain as to how safe passage would be established.
    Renata spoke, reading my thoughts. “Under certain circumstances, a ruler is allowed to move between the clans and seek sanctuary if they need to do so.”
    “So you couldn’t send an ambassador?” I asked. “You would have to go yourself?”
    “Yes.”
    “If Anatharic and I were to take you to visit one of the clans, would you be allowed to assemble a small party?”
    “According to our laws, yes. So long as I am present and have reasonable cause, they cannot declare us Il Deboli.” She shook her head. “But it is difficult to predict the outcome of these things. I cannot say with utmost certainty how another ruler will react.”
    “Still,” Iliaria said, “it might be worthy of the try. Anatharic and I can carry a few of you and move easily between the realms. It would be best to keep our numbers as small as possible, not only to keep the threat of attention at a minimum but to assure that we can evade capture if we need to.”
    “How many can you carry at a time?”
    “Effortlessly?” She seemed to think about it for a moment. “Two at the most. I’d say three, but I will not be as quick carrying three bodies.”
    “Do you suppose Anatharic will agree to it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then it’s settled,” Renata said. “Come the next nightfall, we’ll leave for Bull Shoals and request an audience with their king.”
    They began discussing who would accompany us to meet with the clan of Bull Shoals. The scroll on the table turned out to be a hand drawn parchment map. Though it was old, it was accurate, indicating the numerous vampire clans speckled throughout the American continent. The clan of Bull Shoals was some miles from the Arkansas-Missouri border. It was the closest clan to our own, and judging by the guide marks on the map, it was located in the midst of the Ozark Mountains.
    “Great,” Iliaria said, “they’re located in a tourist attraction.”
    “Yes and no,” Renata said. “The lake resort is here.” She turned the map, tapping it with the tip of her lacquered nail. “The clan itself was established many years before ours and is located in a set of caverns the humans have never and will never discover.”
    At that, Iliaria raised her brows skeptically.
    Renata smiled slowly. “We are not the first clan to have used the aid of the Stregha centuries ago. The pathway and entrance to the caverns is terribly difficult to find, let alone navigate to gain admittance.”
    “Being so close to a resort poses an opportunity to their hunters, I imagine.”
    “It does.”
    No doubt, many a soul had gone missing while wandering their campgrounds at night.
    “If I am to carry you there, I will need specifics. Do you know where the entrance is?”
    “Yes.”
    “You will have to guide me, lest we end up on a cliff edge.”
    “Ah,” Renata mused, carefully rolling the map and sliding it back into its leather case. “That is where we will need to be if we are to gain entry.”
    “This sounds a bit precarious, my lady.”
    She shrugged. “It is the only way that I can perceive.”
    “Do you know their ruler?” Iliaria asked.
    “Yes and no.”
    “What does that mean?” I asked.
    She placed her hand over mine, her eyes like dark sapphires in the flickering candlelight. “I met Augusten centuries ago, very briefly, before he left Roma to establish the clan here. I have not had any association with him since.”
    There was a stumbling sound on the other side of the bedroom door. Renata and I looked at each other before Dominique’s voice filtered