Notturno by Z.A. Maxfield Read Free Book Online Page A

up
    in the dim light. “You have lovely hands. I was going to
    mention it. Artist’s hands. Your work is wonderful.”
    “I was a young man who found endless fascination in
    drawing the boy he loved. What you have is the only surviving
    proof that he lived. My—the woman I was married to, Renata,
    destroyed the rest. Notturno was hidden, along with some other things of mine to which I didn’t choose to allow her access.”
    “Why is it Notturno? I’ve wondered that, the musical
    meaning of Notturno came later, and—” Adin felt Donte
    rumble with laughter.
    “That was my private joke, a kind of blasphemy. Of course I
    was to make my nightly supplications to God, say my prayers
    like a good boy and shun vice and temptations. Yet even then, I
    often found myself reliving the time I was able to spend with
    Auselmo. So the nightly vigil, the nocturni , became the time I used to ruminate on the boy I loved. I mouthed words by rote
    and let my mind wander. Mea culpa. I gave the journal the
    name to flaunt my transgression.” Donte shrugged. “I was
    young.”
    Adin swallowed hard. “ I’m sorry. ”
    “For what?”
    “For your loss. It must have been terribly painful.” Donte
    said nothing. “What happened?”
    “Renata had Auselmo killed. As you can see, she had a
    particularly spiteful way of dealing with me.” He flicked a moth
    off his jacket.
    “ She made you what you are?”
    “Not personally, no. She outsourced—isn’t that what it’s
    called? She hired a foreigner.” Adin shivered, whether from
    cold or fear he didn’t know, but Donte gave him a squeeze.
    “The joke was on her, though. I renewed our acquaintance at a
    masked ball she gave some years later, and invited her out to the
    garden. She went with me quietly, thinking I was someone else.
    I gave her no pleasure and it was like drinking battery acid, but
    38 Z.A. Maxfield
    she had a nice finish, which went rather well with a quite good
    Chianti they were serving that evening.”
    “You are making that up ,” said Adin, shocked.
    “Only the part about the Chianti. I’m a rather-devoted
    cinemaphile and always liked that line.” Adin couldn’t help his
    laughter. “Now, have you forgiven me?”
    “No.”
    “Ah well. The reason I brought you here is to show you
    something, and show you I mean to do, whether you like it or
    not.”
    “All right.”
    “So acquiescent sometimes…so stubborn at others.” Donte
    gave his hand a firm tug but didn’t rise. An eerie glow began
    over the lake, as though Adin were looking through weak night-
    vision goggles. He could perceive the movement of
    things…insects and small animals where before he’d seen only
    darkness.
    “Donte…”
    “Shh…wait,” said Donte, still holding his hand.
    As if the dawn were breaking, Adin now saw the cemetery
    itself, the lake, the fountain, the pathways… It was incredible.
    He felt the grass trembling in the breeze, saw and heard a cat
    moving stealthily behind some bushes. Farther away, he heard
    Michael, the security guard, humming the “Macarena” in his
    office where he watched the monitors. Adin smelled things like
    doughnuts frying in some distant little shop and the arousal that
    Donte had hidden all evening. He heard the beating of a
    number of hearts, only vaguely aware that Donte’s was not one
    of them. He heard birds rustling and exoskeletal insects
    scuttling along. Adin turned to Donte in awe.
    “Why are you doing this?” he asked, seeing Donte as if for
    the first time, his newly heightened senses drowned by the
    nearness of this man who attracted him so powerfully.
    “Because I can. Because I thought it might please you.”
    Donte kissed the palm of his hand. “Does it?”
    NOTTURNO 39
    “Yes,” breathed Adin. “I want…”
    Adin turned in Donte’s arms and kissed him, pressing the
    advantage he gained by rising to his knees and looking down at
    the taller man. He cupped Donte’s face with his hands and
    looked into his