BLOOD UPON THE GATES

The charter plane screamed through black skies, engines a storm. The cabin reeked of electricity: fear and rage. Luca leaned on the cockpit railing, fingers knotted in the headrest, the other white-knuckled fist clenched. His eyes burned across distance, fire the only thing he could perceive. "She had the audacity to attack my base," he snarled. Bianca returned to the rear guard, rearming her pistol just in case. "She was messing with us. Pull the king and queen away from the throne, then let it char to embers." Leaning over the tactical pad, Raphael zoomed in on their Ravenna compound on the spy photo. "South wall compromised. Autonomous defense turrets are going toe-to-toe—by their barests. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of forty of her people inside at present." Adraine sat silently, eyes empty. "She brought me here so that you'd fall in love with Marseille. This is my fault." Luca would not turn around. "You bet it is. I don't care what you do now, though. Just help us kill the rest of them." Bianca moved towards him, placed her hand on Luca's chest. "We're taking it back. Not because it's yours… but because it's our future. Our home." He glared at her—eyes unwinding, but only hers. "I'm not going to let her get it from us." "You won't," Bianca said, filling the gun with the final magazine. "We take out the intruders. We locate Sophia. And we finish it for good this time." --- Ravenna's horizon burned with blazing orange as they made their way closer. Sheaves of smoke wrapped around the south wing of the complex. The guard training sector was trembling with detonations. The rest of the guards had ringed up and were not budging. Raphael fought through the first, yelling in his comms. "Team Alpha, east flank. Hold the line. Keep people off the vault!" Luca and Bianca trailed him down the ramp, both guns cocked. Adraine brought up the rear, specially modified silencer and flashbangs from the cache. A vehicle had stopped beside them—Marco, chief of security for the estate, leapt out, bleeding from the shoulder. "She's hired mercenaries," he gasped. "Some of them are augmented. These are not regular troops—these are pros." "Where is staff?" Bianca snapped. Broke out through the tunnels, Marco stated. "Besides Elena—Bianca, she would not remain behind the nursery." Bianca's expression went polar cold. "Luca, we must retrieve her." Luca nodded once. "We split up. Raphael, front lines. Adraine, sniper to the balcony. Bianca, you're with me." Raphael growled. "Let them bleed.". Within the estate, hallways were strewn with bullet casings and rubble. Luca and Bianca moved like ghostly twins, sweeping along each corner at frantic speed. They proceeded toward the nursery wing and discovered that the doors had been boarded up. "Elena!" Bianca cried. The door creaked open. Bianca's head maid and closest friend, Elena, peeked out with trembling hand and smear of blood above her eyebrow. "Bianca… they broke through the walls…" Luca kicked the door open. Two dead bodies of the mercenaries were on the floor by the overturned crib which had been employed as a barricade. The baby in the crib wailed until Bianca enveloped him in her arms. "It's all right," she comforted. "It's all right, sweetheart." Elena fell to the ground. "I did not allow them to take him. I vowed to protect him." "You did and more," Bianca said. "Sleep now." Luca gazed out the window. Fire in west wing. "We must go. Raphael must be taken. This is not a moment for civilian shields." Bianca escorted Elena to the window and indicated the spot behind the armoire where they'd concealed themselves. "Take him with you. Go down. Don't wait for anyone." Hardly had Elena and the baby departed the room when Luca halted Bianca. "She made it personal." Bianca leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. "So will we." In the courtyard, the battle was raging. Raphael huddled in the vault's cover, dispatching Sophia's mercenaries in groups. Smoke bombs exploded in mid-air. Red-stained marble tiles. "Down!" Raphael shouted. Luca and Bianca joined in, guns firing. Bianca was a panther-fighter, quick and lethal, shooting bullets into eyes, throats, and chests. Luca sent the neck one away, grabbed his gun, and slapped it across the second one's head. "Where's Sophia?" "They're telling her she's watching on a drone feed," Raphael snarled. "She wants to kill us." "Then give them a show," Bianca teased. There was a voice in the earpiece, Adraine's. "North balcony clear. Field commander in range. Taking the shot." There was a cracking noise above. "Come down, she shouted." But not quite over was. In the midst of the smoke was a woman as black-robed as Sophia herself, ice-green eyes—Sophia's twin, Carmilla. Twin swords, no quarter given, were her crest. "Monticelli!" she yelled. "Come out and die the coward you are!" Luca spun to confront her, glacial fury of the lion. "You'll live to regret the day you died at Marseille." They met in the middle of the courtyard. Luca outpaced Carmilla. She stabbed at his gun, fists, elbows, with knives. Every punch rattled the mansion as Bianca fought him, parrying wave after wave. Finally, Luca disengaged Carmilla's knives from between her fingers, shoved her against the wall, and jammed the gun into her chest. "Tell Sophia—" She spat blood in his face. Luca fired. At dawn, the gates remained closed. Outside the gates, a heap of dead bodies. There were still glowing embers. There was still smoke in the air, but not a banner of defeat—this was the leavings of victory. Luca, battered and bruised, sat in the war room as the security feeds reestablished line by line. Bianca arrived, wiping blood from her face. "It's done," she gasped. "Until next time," said Luca. Raphael limped in. "We lost two dozen men. But we dropped sixty. That's a fuckin' fine ratio." "Sophia, though?" Bianca asked. Adraine stood in the doorway. "Gone off-grid. But I intercepted the drone feed. She's in an old fortress on the Croatian coast." Bianca shifted over and took Luca's hand. "It ends here." Luca stepped back over to the map, drew a circle around the fortress with his finger. "No warnings. No mercy." Bianca nodded. "We're done, my king." He smiled weakly. "And then?" She smiled, too. "We get married. No shadows. No war. Us." Adraine stood back, voice harsh. "Then there's something I have to tell you… before you marry her." Luca and Bianca stiffened. "What?" Bianca demanded. Adraine's eyes rose, shame-torn. "There's something you don't know about Sophia. And your family. And why she hates you more than any living thing." Luca replied flatly and lethally. "Speak." Adraine walked into the room. "Bianca. Sophia is not just your sister." Bianca's eyes flashed cold. "What are you saying?" "She's your twin. You and she were born separated. She wasn't jealous, she was spurned, abandoned, brought up in the shadow of our enemies' throne. She thinks you had all that belonged to her by birthright." Bianca staggered. "No. It can't be.". I have the records, Adraine informed him. "The birth certificates. The documents from the orphanage. Everything. Your parents had no idea she was even alive. She's not doing this for revenge—she's doing it to determine where she belongs in this family." Luca intervened, his face set. "Does it matter?" Bianca did not give an inch. "No. She attempted to kill our family. I do not care she is my twin sister—I am not going to allow her to ruin what we've created." Luca blinked rapidly. "Then we go to Croatia. And we take her out of the world." Bianca's tone was icy. "Forever."