Chapter 9

"One kills a man, one is an assassin; one kills millions, one is a conqueror; one kills everybody, one is a god."

Alcina ignored Ezio's cries, toppling over a mass of crates to barricade the door. The bleeding wretch crawled across the floor of the cellar squinting to see in front of him. Only the faint glow of flames illuminating from under the doorway pierced through the curtain of darkness in front of his face. He scrambled aimlessly searching for an escape. His vision began to haze from the pounding edge of shock and rapid loss of blood. A sharp jolt sent a burning pain through his leg. He wailed and clawed at the fresh knives that sunk several inches into the meat of his thigh, his eyes scanning, fearfully searching the darkness for his attacker. He scooted helplessly across the floor, overturning small barrels of something that smelled familiar... gunpowder. Another sharp pain lurched into his right shoulder leaving him screaming in response. More knives. She was toying with him. His fingers fumbled and slipped over the bloody metal protruding from his wound as he crawled further and further backwards. His back finally bumped into the back wall, cornered. Panic gripped him as he realized that his attacker had set a trap to corral him, and he had taken the bait. He gaped in horror as the distant gleaming of fireworks from outside the window flashed a haunting, sporadic, glow across the room. A bright flash revealed a terrifying image of the assassin directly ahead as she advanced closer and closer with each pulsating burst. He flailed aimlessly, as she rapidly loomed over him. "Where is he!" she screamed.

"Where is who?" he stammered.

She dropped to his level in a menacing crouch, roughly grabbing him by his bloody collar, "Donato! Enzo Gavino's son! You stole him away ten years ago before burning down my family's home! Where IS he!"

"I do not know what you are talking about," he jeered and spat in her face. She paused in sudden fury, wiping away his saliva. He stared in dread at the ivory white hawk unfurling it's wings, stretching open it's talons to claim it's prey. She smiled an almost amused looking smile into his fearful expression; the eerie light flickered and illuminated her face as she silently sunk her blade into his leg forcing him to scream in overwhelming pain.

"Tell me where he is..." she seethed.

He gasped for air as his eyes began to roll uncontrollably in his skull. He mustered his remaining strength as he reached for her face, clawing away her mask and once again spitting into her eyes. The porcelain hawk shattered to the floor beneath them. The sound of creaking wood and roaring flames exploded from behind. In the blink of an eye she punched the commodore across the face driving him to the ground, laying in the broken pieces of her fallen mask. His blood seeped across the floor, shimmering a reflective, metallic, hue in the glowing of the approaching fire.

"Last chance..." she snarled.

He struggled to raise himself from the blood stained floorboards, "Vai all'inferno cagna!" he blurted. She rose to her feet silently and heaved a crate into the window, bursting shards of glass across the room rapidly filling with flames. "WAIT!" He screamed. She paused in a frozen crouch on the window sill, "you're not going to kill me?" he wheezed.

Her gaze was cold and unforgiving, "I already did... I killed you when I poisoned you just moments after we met." He gasped in horror as he recalled the chilling memory of her once inviting face offering him a fresh glass of wine. Almost instantly burning tremors overcame his body as blood slowly oozed from his nose and gargled in his throat. Raising two fingers to her brow and tauntingly saluting him farewell, she dove into the harbor below as Sergio Uso gasped one final breath before the flames around him ignited the scattered gunpowder.

The killer swam to the dark floor of the bay, starring up at the explosion above the surface. She flinched sharply as pieces of debre harpooned themselves through the water. A soft cloud of red floated around her in the current as the bloom of raging fire burned overheard. Her body felt weightless, almost dead, the sound of the hades above muffled from under the waves. Delivering arms grasped tightly around her waist, pulling her lifeless body up from the abyss. Heaven had claimed her, as an angel of death soared skyward with her in his arms. Warm air burned her face, the sounds of an uncontrollable inferno roared and ran rampant around her. This wasn't heaven... it was hell. She ordered her body to move but it was somehow helpless, not in control. Her angel of death spoke, muffled, barely audible, words, "Alcina! Alcina stay with me, you are going to be alright!" She could feel her eyes rolling back into her head as she began to choke up mouthfuls of water. Consciousness slowly developed as she returned to sanity. She was alive. She felt herself being carried as her body shivered from the rushing breeze. She could hear the roaring of the fire began to drift away as running footsteps, rather than wings, delivered her to safety.

She felt her body gently laid down upon what she assumed was a distant pier, she could still hear water beneath her. She crawled a few feet on her hands and knees as she coughed loudly, water spewing and dripping from her mouth. Her blurred vision regained focus as she made out the image of Ezio at her side. "Alcina what did you think you were doing back there! Ah? You were nearly killed!" She stubbornly wobbled to her feet, ignoring him. "Alcina stop! You need to rest," he responsively caught her, holding her by the elbow to steady her balance.

"Leave me alone Ezio," she said coldly.

Ezio was fed up with being polite with her unexplainable bitterness. "Che diavolo! If you wanted to drown all you had to do was say so ragazza."

"You ruined everything!" she pulled away from his grip in anger.

"I believe I just saved your life signora!"

"No! I had everything under control, and you ruined everything!"

"Alcina your thirst for revenge is blinding you! You nearly killed yourself to have your vengence! Killing another won't bring your family back..."

His words had struck a nerve, "You have no idea what you are talking about Ezio!" she yelled, the oncoming tears burning behind her eyes.

"Don't I?" he snapped, matching her tone. She instantly regretted her words as she looked away in shame. His tone softened, "That is not why you are so angry, I can sense it." she turned away as she began to limp back to land. He reached for her again, "Alcina... please..." he begged her to stop.

"Leave me alone Ezio!"

"No!" he darted in front of her, blocking her path. "It is too late for that."

"Too late? Go away! Just leave me!" He stared down at her, refusing to move. "Let me go Ezio..."

His anger melted as words of soft spoken honesty murmured from his lips, "Alcina, I have become weak for you... I can no longer just leave..." He waited as a long, unexpected pause divided them. The silence began to drive him mad as she stubbornly refused speak or look at him, "Please... say something..."

When she did finally speak, he instantly wished that she hadn't, "Did you tell this to your fair Cristina as well?" her cold words silenced him as she pushed past. He let her fumble away without a fight as he felt the sudden guilty pull at his gut again, only this time, it attacked his heart.

"You saw?" he whispered in regret. She paused her stride only to glare back at him in betrayal. "Alcina... I..." he suddenly realized that he did not know what to say, he didn't know how to apologize, or what he could possibly express to make her stay... to stay with him. Words of honesty began to spill from his lips, "Cristina and I were in love many years ago. I held onto to her in my heart because I felt as if it were keeping the memories of my life in Firenze alive, keeping my family alive. I realized tonight that she and I can never be together. It is finished between us... it always has been," his words tasted bitter in his mouth as he himself realized the harsh truth. "I regret what happened tonight, but I needed to know if it was truly over... I am sorry if my actions hurt you."

He listened carefully to hear her footsteps leaving, but there were none. "So is that it then? Are you expecting me to simply forget everything I saw? Just let you continue to toy with me? For me to keep falling for all your enchanting words? You do not understand how painful it was..." she blurted in resentment.

He took curious steps toward her, "why was it so painful?"

"Do you truly not know?" was all she could whisper as a tear fell slowly down her cheek, she swiftly turned from him, hiding her face as she wiped it away. A tender hand reached from behind her to caress her arm, pulling her against his broad chest. He softly laid his cheek against her wet hair, then deliberately turned her to face him. With two fingers he tilted her chin upward to meet his gaze. Her beautiful brown eyes refused to look into his own, as another stray tear betrayed her, making his heart melt. She turned away, ashamed by her sudden emotion. He had already let one broken heart walk away from him that night, he wasn't about to let it happen again.

"Come here," was all he said as he turned her sharply in his arms crushing his lips to hers, holding her face lovingly in his hands. She sighed as she tasted his breath and savored his passionate lips, they were everything she imagined they would be. Time was beyond comprehension, neither of them knew how long the moment lasted, seconds or hours, it seemed endless. He reluctantly broke their kiss as he rested his forehead against hers. "Sei il mio angiola... There is no one like you... ," he whispered, pushing away a strand of wet hair from her face, her lower lip quivering. He kissed her face softly and pulled her even closer into his arms.

They held onto each other in a loving embrace, blacking out the pain as a new day began to break the horizon, chasing away the coldness of the dark. The pieces of their broken hearts fastened together, healing one another. The grief from their past was finally just that, the past. Though unspoken, Ezio realized in his heart that she was his life now, as he was now hers. He once again kissed her forehead as they both held tightly to their beautiful angels of death.

...

translations:

- Vai all'inferno cagna- go to hell bitch

- Che diavolo- what the hell

- Sei il mio angelo- you are my angel