Clanbook Giovanni – Revised Edition Contact: taintedsnowqueen.l2fury.com Introduction: Kissing Cousins Chapter One: A Familiar Concept Chapter Two: It Runs in the Family Chapter Three: Shareholders and Charnel Houses Edited and compiled by: Tainted Snow Queen Contents Clanbook Giovanni – Revised Edition Contact: taintedsnowqueen.l2fury.com Introduction: Kissing Cousins Boston, April 4th It was late afternoon when Kay Polerno arrived at the Boston mansion of her mother’s family. She was nervous. She had met her maternal cousins before, but not often and never in a large group like tonight’s. She lifted a fingernail to her mouth and then lowered it. They had all been filed, manicured, sculpted and lacquered expertly – not by some beauty salon worker but by her great aunt Isabel. (At least, “great aunt” was what Kay called her. She assumed Isabel had, like her mother, been born with the Milliner name and taken her husband’s name.) Isabel was different from the rest of Kay’s family: She was exotic and graceful and had a glamorous aloofness that Kay associated with the East Coast, and with Europe, and with other places far from her home in Georgia. It was impossible to imagine Isabel blushing, or ending up picked last for volleyball, or going to the bathroom. She had the un- changing perfection of a statue, and Kay was eager to see her again. Kay also wanted to see her cousin Stewart Milliner, but she wouldn’t tell anyone about that. Isabel had said she would meet Kay at the party. That made Kay less nervous. Also, Isabel had brought her a beautiful red velvet dress for her birthday, but wearing the dress made Kay both more and less nervous at the same time. Isabel had given her another gift, which was in her stylish matching clutch purse. “Do you think I’ll need this?” Kay had asked. “You never know,” Isabel had said, with the secret smile of a worldly woman. “But at the party? I thought it was just family...” “Even with family, you never know.” Like the dress, the other gift made her more and less nervous. The car turned a corner, revealing the Milliner mansion. Everything that comforted her evaporated, and everything that scared her doubled. She had seen pictures of her mother’s childhood home before, of course, but they couldn’t do it justice. The pictures didn’t convey the barren smell of the land or the way it looked so much like a tombstone with the name worn off. Stepping out of the car, she glanced toward one end of the house. Had she seen...? Maybe it was just the wind blowing the leaves, playing on her nerves to look like flowing white cloth. Kay had her hand raised to knock on the door when it opened, revealing her cousin – not cousin Stewart, though. Whereas Stewart was tall and healthy, the figure before her was short and pale with a bent and cringing posture. “Cousin Kay!” He grinned and actually clapped his hands. He wore a tuxedo that hung awkwardly on him. He’d already managed to lose a cufflink. “Hello, uh...” she struggled to remember his name. “Primo! Cousin Primo. It’s, uh, good to see you.” Primo Giovanni smiled, showing even teeth that were the only perfect thing about him. “Ah, cousin Kay! I hoped you’d be invited this year. Come in!” “This year?” He ignored her question, grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the house. Looking around, Kay could see people of all ages, formally dressed, mingling, drinking. She saw a few blond heads, but not Stewart’s, and she didn’t see Isabel anywhere. “Here, come with me Kay.” Primo had not released her wrist, and he was pulling her insistently away from the party, toward the west wing of the house. “I’d really...” “No, I have something to show you! But you have to hurry!” She’d seen Primo a few times when they were both children. He’d been ugly, whiny and tantrum-prone then, too. But he was one of the Gi- ovanni, and Kay suspected they were the ones with the money, because even her proud mother deferred to them. Unsure what else to do, Kay went along with Primo, even though something about him, or the night, or the twisting corridors of the house made her skin tighten with fear. Primo pulled her through a small side doorway and into a garden of thin, spindly plants. Introduction: Kissing Cousins Clanbook Giovanni – Revised Edition Contact: taintedsnowqueen.l2fury.com “Primo, I’m not going another step until you tell me what you’re going to show me.” “I just wanted to show you the sunset. From the top of the hill? I very much want to watch it go down all the way. Please come with me? It’ll be perfect!” Kay felt that cold sickness in her chest that came from watching someone humiliate himself and not realize it. He sounded so uncertain and needy that she acquiesced. At the top of the hill was a cold stone bench under a desiccated tree with only one stout branch that stuck out like the arm of a gallows. Prime sat on the bench and stared, rapt, at the setting sun. Kay joined him and, after a moment, frowned. Why had he been so insistent that she come with him if he was only going to ignore her? Wide-eyed, he gazed west, like a child watching TV. Her glance followed his for a moment, but even the sunset was ugly: Through the thick gray clouds, the red and purple orb looked tired and bruised. Kay turned quickly. Had she heard laughter? But there was no one around. “Primo? Is this what you...?” “Shh! Not yet. It’s not all the way down.” “So what? I mean, it’s just a sunset. I think they have another one scheduled for tomorrow night, y’know?” “This could be my last sunset ever,” he replied, still not looking at her. She sighed, and crossed her legs and arms, but stayed until it was dark. Primo turned to face her. “Can we go back now?” “What’s your hurry?” He put one hand on her knee and the other behind her neck. She pulled away, but not quick enough to avoid feeling his rough lips on hers. She turned her head and tried to pull back, but Primo was stronger than he looked. Despite her struggles, she could not get free. “Primo, Quit it!” “No, don’t you see? This will be perfect.” “Don’t!” “No, look, this way our son will be a Giovanni,” he said, as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world. Kay screamed. Primo flinched but didn’t let go. “Our son will be single blooded,” he said, shifting his grip. “Kay, I don’t want to die a virgin!” Their struggles tumbled them off the stone bench, and Kay landed atop her cousin. She felt him trying to roll her onto her back, so she braced her leg against the bench to stop him while her hands struggled with her purse. Both their hands here tugging at red velvet as Kay finally got her bag open. She wondered if this was why Isabel had given her a 50,000 volt stun gun. She jammed it hard into Primo’s scrawny arm. The effect was immediate. He began thrashing and shuddering. Kay pulled away and sprawled on the ground for a moment, breathing heavi- ly. Primo was blubbering, curled up in the fetal position. “It’s not fair...” he moaned. Kay pushed herself unsteadily to her knees, crawled forward and jammed the electrodes into his thigh. “Bastard!” she shouted. He screamed too. She stumbled to her feet, then sat on the stone bench. She burst into tears. She regained some of her composer only when she realized that Primo was starting to uncurl. “Asshole!” Her throat was raw and sore. He was making soft kneeing sounds as he scrambled away from her on all fours, but she easily caught up with him and kicked him in the side of the head as hard as she could. She kicked and kicked until he stopped moving. * * * * Although Kay did not know it, her fate – along with that of Primo and of Stewart – was being discussed back at the house at that very moment. “I think Primo is ready for the change,” Accorri Giovanni said. He tried hard to keep his voice neutral. “He is single-blooded, he has flou- rished under the Proxy Kiss, and even now he is developing necromantic skill. You know how rare that is before the Embrace...” Introduction: Kissing Cousins Clanbook Giovanni – Revised Edition Contact: taintedsnowqueen.l2fury.com Diego Giovanni shrugged, but it was only superficially a human gesture. His shoulders rose and fell, but with the smooth movement of a ma- chine, not an animal. He moved like an object, not a person. Judged by appearance, Diego Giovanni would seem the youngest person in the room. But someone who looked deeper, who gauged by the postures and attitudes of the people around him – Accorri’s slight, defensive defiance, the formal attention of their host Eric Milliner, even the intent regard of Kay’s “Great Aunt” Isabel – would instantly realize that he was the one making the decisions. Diego Giovanni looked as if he were in his late twenties. He had been dead for over six centuries. “Accorri, your loyalty to your descendant does you credit,” he said. “I would hate to think your loyalty to the family as a whole is less in- tense.