Carpathian 10 - Dark Symphony

the courtyard looking at his flowers. All he has to do is look up, and he would see Josef.
    Antonietta studied the images in Byron's mind. Josef moved up the side of the second story, much like Dracula in the movies. His form shimmered, shifted, went from webbed mask to startled horror. He slid down the sheer wall, bumped a window ledge, and plummeted to the courtyard below.
    Swearing, Byron bounced airwaves, cushioning the boy's fall. Josef landed hard enough to knock the wind out of him but obviously wasn't seriously hurt. Don Giovanni heard the impact as Josef crashed through a low shrub, breaking several branches.
    "What happened, young Josef? Did you trip? Are you hurt?"
    Josef climbed gingerly to his feet, rubbing his posterior as he did so. "Just my pride. I can't seem to get anything right these days."
    "I had a good look at your painting a few minutes ago, and it seemed quite good to me. I don't know all that much about art, but Tasha does. She'll have to take a look at it for you."
    Josef followed the older man over to his easel and picked up a brush. "Do you really think she'll like it?" He splashed more paint on the canvas, choosing a bright, vivid red for droplets that ran over the entire painting.
    Don Giovanni frowned and studied the work from various angles. "The picture was very authentic until you did that. What is the reasoning behind the red?"
    Oh no. Byron groaned and covered his face. Do you mind very much if I strangle the kid and stuff him in the laundry chute?
    Antonietta did her best not to laugh. Practicing to maintain invisibility and then giving the entire thing away by laughing wouldn't earn her too many points. You said the key was not reacting to anything.
    That was the rule before Josef came into the world. Now it's kill or be killed, the way of the jungle.
    "It's blood, of course. See up here, looming over the pal-azzo, the eyes of a predator?
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    Dark Symphony
    Page 162 of 188
    That's the vampire cloaked in darkness. He's made his kill up on the battlements."
    Don Giovanni struggled to keep his face blank. "Very imaginative. I have seen few villas with vampires on the battlements."
    Josef shrugged his shoulders. "The hunters do a fairly good job of keeping the numbers down. I would make a great hunter, but my mother won't hear of it." For a moment he stared deliberately at Don Giovanni, his eyes glowing red, his face contorting into a mask of evil.
    Don Giovanni took a step back, blinked to bring Josef back in focus, and saw only a grinning, boyish face.
    Byron waved his hand to veil Don Giovanni's mind, holding him still within a thrall.
    Positioning himself in front of his nephew, he shifted the shape of his head.
    Don't do it. Antoinetta cautioned, pressing a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing.
    It's so undignified to stoop to his level.
    Josef reached up with his paintbrush to add a finishing touch to one of the droplets. The muzzle of a wolf came at his face, bared teeth, dripping with saliva, snapped, eyes red and wicked, glowing in the dusk. Josef stumbled backward, stabbing at the wolf's head with his paintbrush as he did so, tripped over his own feet, and fell to the lawn screaming, crab-walking backward.
    In the blink of an eye, Byron disappeared, and Don Giovanni was staring down at Josef with a strange expression. "You need to get off the drugs boy, no good comes of using that stuff. You have a good family. You don't want to bring them sorrow."
    Josef looked around himself cautiously. "Has my family been here? My father or my uncle?" He dusted off his clothes meticulously.
    "Not yet, but they'll probably come soon. You should think about what I said, Josef. Take it from an old man who has lived a long time. Drugs tear apart families."
    "Yes, sir." Josef said politely, "you're absolutely right."
    Byron and Antonietta strolled out of the maze, hand in hand. "Good evening, Don Giovanni, Josef." Byron's white teeth flashed. "How is Paul this evening?"
    "He woke only a short time ago. He slept all day and is still refusing to have us call a doctor. He said he would wait for you and Antonietta. He looked pale to me, but he isn't running a temperature, thank the good Dio." Don Giovanni took Antonietta's hand and drew her to him. "You look lovely, my dear. Byron is good for