Fratelli: The Awakening (The Vampire Cartel #1)

17. Lucio Listens

Chapter 17

Lucio Listens

H ouse of Draca - New Orleans, LA

April 14, 2018

(8 Days Before Death)

“It’s weird,” she remarked, taking a moment to appreciate the flavors of the Holy Trinity mixed with her eggs and breakfast sausage. She grabbed her napkin, and lightly touched it to her lips. Lucio watched her as he ate. She caught his beseeching gaze and found it cute—almost as if he had developed a crush on her. She smiled, thinking she must have put it on him last night.

“Still freaked out?” Lucio asked.

“Huh?” she replied.

“You seem shaken by this miracle,” he answered.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I keep bringing it up because it is a miracle. I can see clearly now, without my glasses. Have you seen my glasses?”

It was the third time she asked him since she realized her sight had returned. She kept mentioning it to him, and he barely reacted. Instead, he slipped a robe over her and led her to the gazebo for breakfast.

“I think they are in the room. How is that weird?” Don Lucio inquired, puzzled. “You took your glasses off earlier in the night.”

“You don’t understand. I have a degenerative eye condition. The doctors said I’d be completely blind before forty. I’m legally blind. I can’t explain it—this morning, I can see. But I’m functioning with it. I drive, I work, I do things because I’ve got around it.”

Lucio stopped chewing.

Dolly finished her juice. It tasted freshly squeezed and delightful. She preferred fresh juice and not out of the carton. It was something she just realized.

“Anything else different about you this morning?” Lucio asked.

“Different? Yea, this place, you, last night. I can only remember parts of it though—,” she said.

“I mean physically?” he asked.

“My throat,” she shrugged. And forked more eggs into her mouth.

Lucio set down his fork and focused on her. This memory lapse and her eyesight didn’t seem to rattle her. The mention of her throat did the complete opposite for him.

“What about your throat?” he asked.

“It’s sore, like I’m coming down with a cold, or something. I hope not.” she sighed.

“Oh, me too,” he mumbled.

“I’m not bothered. I guess I’m just curious; weird things always happen to me. I remember one time, me and Tyrone…” she paused. “Never mind.”

“Finish your thought? Who is Tyrone?” he asked.

“Not important. You know I’m a paramedic working for the Department of Emergency Medical Services, right? It’s affiliated with the fire department. Let me tell you, getting a job there isn’t easy,” she said.

“Yes, I’m following,” Don Lucio said.

“I had to resign,” she said.

“Why?”

“Someone reported me for forging my vision records, claiming I have poor vision. Legally blind, that kind of terrible vision, like I told you. But now, look, I can see details of anything like that over there!” She gestured towards a portrait on an easel at the far end of the garden. Lucio followed her point. “Imagine it. I quit my job cause I lied about being blind and the next day I could see. Tell me I don’t have the worst luck. Maybe it was just Friday the 13th bad luck stuff. Or I’m cursed.”

“You don’t strike me as superstitious,” he said.

“I’m not,” she replied. “I’m just used to weird stuff happening. Unless there is an explanation. A simple one.”

“Meaning?” he asked.

“You tell me,” she replied.

“Me? Why?” Lucio gave a small chuckle.

“Well, I don’t recall having eye surgery last night… but everything felt so intense, so wonderful this morning. I can’t remember all of it, even the good parts, like the sex my body says happened. Did you, um, slip me something?”

Lucio’s mirth faded, and his expression turned solemn. “I would never drug you—or any woman. Ever.”

“Okay,” she conceded with little protest. “I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just so bizarre, right? That I can see clearly now? That’s my life, though, full of bizarre, random drama. Maybe I can get my job back. Go to them and prove I can see, umm, maybe,” she said.

“Didn’t you say you quit?” He reminded her.

“Yeah, I did,” she sighed.

“This is why I suggested seeing a doctor, to let me help,” he said.

“I won’t have to now, if my eyes stay this way… I can’t believe it… maybe it’s like cancer,” her words faded into her thoughts. “You know, like when the cancer goes into remission.”

“So, you were saying earlier that you were adopted,” he asked.

“I didn’t say that,” she frowned.

“Yes, you did. You said you have no idea who your parents were?” he stuffed more eggs into his mouth. Last night, he claimed not to have an appetite. She saw him wolfing down food like he’d been starving for years that morning. Maybe sex made him hungry.

“Oh, I know my parents. Lucy and David Young are my parents. The ones who gave birth to me don’t matter. Lucy and David raised me, loved me, and protected me. Then they died, and everything changed.”

“How?” he pressed.

Her appetite disappeared. She wasn’t really interested in telling the story, but for some compulsive reason, she wanted him to know her. She wanted everything about the day to continue. “Plane crash. I was sixteen. Russell was only thirteen. The courts and my adoptive mom’s family intervened. My dad’s only living brother was overseas and uninterested. My mom’s family are weirdos. They are a part of a cult. Some devout fundamentalist Mormon cults. They disapproved of her marriage, her rejection of their religion, and of course, my adoption. After the accident, they split us up—me into foster care, and Russ with them. They intended for the trust to be for both of us but left me with nothing. I still don’t understand how.”

“That’s rough,” said Don Lucio.

“Yeah, it was, very. You do not know how scared and alone I was for two years. I was out of foster care and on the streets within a year. By the time I was sixteen, I had three jobs. I slept in a storage unit I rented for eighty dollars a month. I slaved for the Red Roof Inn as a maid, worked at the local Kroger, and then did part-time work at a strip club, washing dishes, cleaning booths and bathrooms whenever I could. I slept only two hours a day or whenever I could find a break and someplace to sneak off to. I used every dime I made to get my brother back. Hired an attorney who stole my money and then reported me to Mom’s family and child services. No one would help me.”

“Who was this attorney?” Lucio asked.

“A slimeball named Jackson Boudreaux,” she mumbled.

Lucio sat back, his jaw tensing as he listened.

“I met Charmaine at a club, and she gave me a couch to sleep on. Helped me get on my feet by dancing a few nights,” she said.

“Your brother lives with you now?” Lucio asked. The information he had on her was surface level. Because she rarely paid her taxes, years of her living off the grid in storage units and her reliance on side jobs meant that her history post-sixteen was virtually untraceable.

“Yes!” she replied to his question. “As soon as he turned eighteen, he told them freaks he wanted out. They only agreed to give me the burden of caring for him if he turned over this trust to them. They are supposed to cover his medical expenses at least, but it’s a pain in the ass to get them to do it. Doesn’t matter. I take care of it. All of it. And he’s with me, healthy, happy, a good man. We did it together.”

“Now you’ve lost your job,” said Lucio.

“Exactly. And I got bills to pay. So, I came here hoping to make a friend who could connect me to an opportunity, maybe. Preferably in Louisiana. I can’t travel much because of Russ. You understand?”

“You only came to have dinner with me for a job?” Lucio asked.

“I, ah, well, I didn’t want to have sex. I mean, I told you, I wasn’t thinking of having sex,” she said. “It just happened between us.”

“Yes, I know that. I hoped maybe you were interested in me. I guess that’s just my ego. You’re so remarkable and beautiful. I’m sure you have many suitors at your door,” he smiled.

“Ha! Suitors at the door? Not hardly. There are just a few firemen who are married that tried. I don’t hoe around, even when I was stripping,” she said.

“Wait? I thought you said you washed dishes at a strip club?” Lucio paused.

She sighed. “I did. But I made friends. Charmaine and Sonya are both my friends, and they showed me I could make more money. I did that job to get on my feet. At my age, there weren’t many jobs that paid me well. But as soon as I turned eighteen, I got a job at the Mill. I haven’t had a boyfriend since Tyrone,” she went on and on, not even stopping to take a breath. Lucio listened. Not at what she said, but the convenient details she skipped. Like this mysterious Tyrone who she evidently parted from on bad terms.

“Who is this, Tyrone?”

“Why!” She laughed. “It’s over with me and him. There is nothing there. And even if I wanted there to be, he went missing a long time ago.”

“Good, I’m a jealous man,” said Don Lucio.

“Well, that’s not attractive. Why be jealous when you have all of this?” she gestured around her.

“I don’t envy wealth or other men. I envy—never mind.”

“What? Say it?”she said.

“This, the simple pleasures, humanity,” he said with a smile. “I envy those who have touched you, known you before I got the chance, too,” said Lucio.

“That’s sweet,” she said.

“I envy a soul connection with someone. A person I can listen to and who can listen to me. I want a friend. Like you.”

“Well, consider that solved. We’re friends now, right?”

“Right,” Lucio smirked. “Friends.”