Chapter 1

Scipio wandered the streets alone. What was he to do now? All he had left was his wicked father and military school to look forward to. He breathed a heavy sigh, and was contemplating losing himself to Canal Grande when a booming voice brought his attention to the end of the alley down which he walked.

"Venire qui, o taglierò la sua gola!!" he heard a deep voice call to some unseen offender. Scipio hardly had time to react when a young girl came bounding down the alley towards him.

"MOVE!!!" she shouted. Her voice was filled with panic and thick with an Italian accent.

Startled, Scipio automatically shot out an arm, which snaked around her waist as she passed him. The gangly girl yelped in surprise as he pulled her back into a deep dark alcove of the alley, trying to steady her thrashing body. She didn't make much noise as she fought, but Scipio used his free hand to cover her mouth just in case. The scuffle was evenly matched, as she was only an inch or two shorter then he was, and seemed strong enough. But she could not use her arms in the struggle, as they were wrapped around a brown duffle bag.

"Silenzio!" he hissed into her ear, and was surprised to see her obey.

They both listened, the air palpable with anticipation. They waited with baited breath for the footsteps that soon pounded down the alleyway. Scipio waited until the footsteps were far away before releasing his grasp on the girl. She grunted loudly and pushed his body away from her own, now holding the brown duffle in one hand now.

"Prendere le sue mani via da me!" she yelled, all her earlier panic replaced with anger.

"Already done, mio caro." Scipio replied in his most arrogant of voices.

He was rather put off by her rudeness, believing that he had just done her a great favor.

The girl ignored his remark and crept to peer around the alcove corner into the alleyway.

"Whoever it was they're gone." he said, trying to regain composure by staring nonchalantly at his fingernails.

When she didn't reply to this, he risked a glance up at her. She was tall, for a girl, definitely of Italian decent, with long legs and long arms. Her hair was hardly even shoulder length and some dark color, indistinguishable in the unforgiving black of the night around them. Her clothes were rather ratty; as were the shoes she wore. She looked like an orphan to Scipio, but she held herself with a regal air, the kind that comes naturally to some people. She whirled around to face him.

"Now, were you planning to accost me again or can I be on my way?" she asked, tapping her foot impatiently on the stone ground.

"Depends," Scipio replied. "It sounds as though you've got someone out there who wants to kill you." He followed her as she stepped out of the alcove into the alley.

"Maybe so. What is it to you?" she asked, looking up and down the alley for any sign of people. He shrugged.

"Just wondering if there was anything more I could do to help." he replied. She laughed a bitter, short laugh.

"I don't need your help." she shot back, wrapping her arms tighter around the duffle. Scipio's eyes widened. "Don't need my help? Don't need my help! Who just saved you from….from…well I don't know what!" he crossed his own arms across his chest, trying to stare her down, but she wasn't paying attention to him anymore.

"VENIRE QUI RAGAZZA!!" the sinister voice came roaring down the alleyway.

The man was back, and the girl was frozen with fear. Scipio grabbed her upper arm and quickly began to pull her down the winding alley, away from the quickly approaching source of the voice.