CHAPTER 1 – RIFT
Art was more truthful than people, Ariana Summers mused as she glanced over a Renaissance painting by the Italian master Raphael. People could lie about their true natures but art never did; standing in a high baroque-style drawing-room of the Pitti Palace in Florence where an exclusive art auction was about to begin, Ariana tapped through notes on her tablet and lowered reading glasses to peer at the painting more closely. The poplar base was the right wood and the egg tempera the correct paint to be original. But though this painting was recorded as authentic, it was unlike any of Raphael’s works she had ever seen. A depiction ofVision of a Knightwith a dark demon looming over the sleeping knight and a luminous, fae-being on the other side, it was a wilder version of the original that seemed at once like it was fake.
Though Ariana knew it was real.
She couldn’t explain how she knew, she just did – with the strange instincts that were her birthright as a Summer Fae. As Ariana frowned and leaned closer, looking for confirmation, she tucked a lock of her red hair back into its loose side-twist. Noting Raphael’s trademark brushstrokes, she donned white silk gloves, sliding her fingertips over the painting and feeling for imperfections. Turning it over, she inspected every inch of the piece, looking for signs of modern work. Wearing a slim charcoal pantsuit with grey stilettos and a white silk shirt, a classy gold torque around her neck, Ariana made her final assessment with a shake of her head, then turned to the Pitti Palace’s Director waiting beside her.
“Strangely enough,DirettoreVoglio, this one is an original.” She spoke, putting her chic glasses up on her head and removing her gloves. “I’ve never seen anything like it, but it looks like an alternate version ofVision of a Knight. While the one in London depicts two women thought to be Pleasure and Virtue standing over a man, this has men who are clearly of demonic or angelic persuasion standing over a female knight – though if you ask me, this darker man looks like a vampire in modern lore, while that one looks like a fae. It’s a very odd but unique donation to your auction, and since it has never been seen, will fetch quite a lot. Your donor has very fine taste, and is extremely generous to donate this for the Pitti Palace’s upkeep.”
“Thank you, Ms. Summers. We will include this in the auction, then.” The director, a balding man with a nice smile and alert brown eyes spoke in a brisk Italian accent. Hired from the international Antiquities Authentication and Curation firm Robar, Fisk & Lund, Ariana could tell the Pitti’s director was more of an architectural restorationist than an art hound as he smiled at her in relief. As a human living in the human world, he obviously had no idea that creatures like Fae and Vampires were real. But that was information Ariana could never divulge; and as she had no magic herself other than her strange instincts and had never been to the Twilight Realm, raised in the human world thanks to her lack of magic, she would never be the one to tell him what was actually depicted in this painting.
“The donor of this piece often contributes to our restoration auctions, and has donated many period-original items over the years.” The Pitti’s director spoke conversationally now as he smiled. “Still, we were happy to have you look at this piece since it was so very odd.”
“Of course.” Despite her fatigue from having flown in from an auction in Cairo the day before, and Singapore the day before that, still not having been home yet to her apartment in Florence, Ariana smiled at the palace’s director. “Your donor must be very generous.”
“He is.” The man smiled with real pleasure now. “We are very lucky to have the Barone Quindici DaPonti donate to our cause as often as he does. Though he forbids us from erecting a plaque anywhere to thank him for his generosity.”
“It would mar the beauty of this palace you are trying to so painstakingly restore,DirettoreVoglio. Which we cannot have.”
Turning, Ariana blinked at the beautifully smooth, sexy voice that had interrupted the Pitti Palace’s Director. Only approved individuals were allowed in this back room during the auction; but though the Palace’s security guards in their black Italian suits glanced at the man who now entered the room, they kept their beefy hands crossed.
As for the man who approached, he was exquisite. Ariana’s eyebrows shot to the ceiling as he arrived, and she was suddenly acutely aware of how she must look from five days of back-to-back international flights. Though Ariana was an art world professional with her slim grey suits and stiletto heels, her wild Fae waves of long red hair always managed to make her look more renegade than she intended, even when they were mostly constrained like this afternoon. Smoky makeup accentuated her bright emerald eyes, plus crimson lipstick, but her look had been managed hastily on the plane.
And this man looked like he demanded perfection from everyone around him.
Wearing a slim black Armani suit with a dark red silk pocket square, the man was exquisitely tall with nice shoulders, a lean waist, and an elegant demeanor. His perfectly-styled short dark hair showed gold and auburn hi-lights as he passed beneath the overhead spotlights. With straight dark eyebrows and almost viciously high cheekbones above his perfectly cut jaw, he might have looked severe except for his sensually full lips and deviant delight as he took in Ariana. As he clasped hands with the Pitti Palace’s Director, Ariana saw he wore a plain gold Rolex with gold and onyx men’s rings on his long white fingers, cufflinks to match. The stones in his ensemble matched his dark onyx eyes – as he looked back to Ariana, she found herself falling into those eyes, deep. With cordial manners, he lifted her hand.
And bent, leaving the softest kiss upon her skin.
“Ms. Ariana Summers.” He spoke in his silken, luscious baritone. “Your reputation precedes you, and it is an excellent reputation indeed. I am honored to have my donation to the auction today be evaluated by the rising star of Robar, Fisk & Lund.”
“Barone DaPonti.” Ariana recalled his title, even as she also noted that like her, he had hardly any accent to his perfect English. His looks were drowningly Italian, however; the epitome of tall, dark & handsome as he brushed his thumb over the back of her hand. As he stared her down, Ariana noted his fingers were cool, almost astonishingly so.
But as a strangely deep heat flooded her at his touch, she saw him catch his breath. His dark eyes sparked with passion as his fingers warmed ten degrees in an instant. A fierce wave of heat and light suddenly rushed through Ariana and she reeled, seeing starbursts.
Silently, she cursed herself for skipping lunch; but this seemed like far more than her usual Fae habit of forgetting to eat as she became lightheaded by the man’s strangely cold-hot touch. In her peripheral vision, it suddenly seemed as if a dark nimbus devoured the drawing room; like a massive sea, it boiled all around her, swallowing the lights cast down upon the auction pieces like some kind of wrathful god. As Ariana saw it, she startled; and as she watched that black nimbus boil through the room, she saw it flash with crimson and gold fire.
Coming from the Barone.
Startling backwards, Ariana jerked her hand from the Barone’s – his touch now scalding as he stared at her with his drowning black eyes. Though she didn’t know exactly what he was, she knew what she’d seen. It was magic coursing off him, dark magic; and though Ariana had seen magic before from small spells her father had worked over the years at their manor near Florence, her heart raced impossibly fast to see it so suddenly now.
Magic wasn’t common in the human world, and Ariana had met few Twilight creatures living here over the years. But as if her very blood leapt to the Barone’s now from his dark surge of power, as if he’d somehow provoked this massive flush all through her with his touch, Ariana felt tingles rush inside her. Reaching up and rubbing her neck as her hackles rose, she slowly backed away.
Allured, yet also terrified of him.
“Ms. Summers? Are you well?” Direttore Voglio asked as he frowned at her reaction to his best donor. Blinking, Ariana found herself released from the Barone DaPonti’s gaze as she glanced to the Director.
“Forgive me,Direttore, it’s been a long week. I think I simply forgot to eat today. Is there anything…?” She asked apologetically, though that strange sun-bright heat still blazed through her, making her feel more alive than usual, electric.
“Of course.” The palace director smiled, gesturing to a side door. “We have a catering spread through there for our staff working the auction tonight. A ladies’ bathroom is across the hall, if you’d like to freshen up. The auction will begin in twenty minutes – please make yourself comfortable now that you are finished with your work. We are very lucky to have you.”
“Thank you,Direttore. Barone DaPonti, if you will excuse me.” Ariana smiled to them both now, though she felt a deep resurgence of that reeling sensation as she glanced to the Barone. But though he gave a gentlemanly nod, he stood with almost marble perfection now as his onyx eyes watched her. A sensation like graves sighed from him and Ariana shivered, still seeing and feeling that dark nimbus of magic curling around him in the air. Setting a hand to her temple, she shook her head, trying to clear it. But whatever he was, whatever power he had, it was too strong for Ariana to evade.
And as the Barone watched her with a subtly piercing gaze, he moved a step closer. “Ms. Summers, would you like an escort to find a bite before the auction?”
“No, that won’t be necessary, thank you.” She spoke briskly, though as she turned, she had to clutch the nearest table in her fugue. Seeing it, the Pitti’s guards moved forward with alarm, but the Barone was the first to reach Ariana. As her vision flashed out and she reeled in a faint now, his hands shot in, catching her.
But as he clutched her close to his perfectly-sculpted frame, Ariana gazed up into his dark eyes and saw them flare with a ring of crimson-gold. Drawing a short breath, she suddenly felt as if the entire universe had dropped away as she stared into that ring of fire around the Barone’s drowning black eyes. It was like watching the corona of the sun during a total solar eclipse; as Ariana saw it, the lights in the room seemed to dazzle her with a thousand colors. A high whine hit her ears, her vision blazing white. When the room returned, Ariana found herself still in his arms.
