Page 51 of Tito
“And I do not mean yes or no about this,” Max clarified. “They both were dead for a very short time.”
I think I’d been holding my breath for too long and all the shock got to me and the room seemed to spin around me now. “D-did y-you say d-dead?” Everything seemed to get dark.
“Sir,” Max told Tito. “You need to catch her before she…”
My body tilted forward as the floor came up to meet my face.
Chapter Fifteen:The Whole Story
Tito
I caught Valencia just before her body hit the floor. Scooping her up, I stared down at her pale face. “Valen?” I whispered.
“She will be alright. She just fainted. Put her over there,” Max said.
I looked to where he pointed and walked over to stare at a large leather sofa in the darkest corner of the room. I blinked my eyes. “Where did that…” I refused to ask as I went over to it and peered down at it. “Is it real?”
“Of course,” Max replied. “It has been there the entire time, you just didn’t see it.”
I carefully bent down to lay her onto the couch. I waited for her body to rest on top of the cushions to be sure it wasn’t a mirage or something before I let go of her.
“She will be alright,” Max assured me. “You can let go of her now. She will be safe.”
I did so and her body rested on the cushions. Raising up, I turned to Max. I didn’t know how to feel about him. “I keep thinking that I’m gonna wake up and be in my room, in my bed,” I murmured to myself.
“I can arrange for that, if you would prefer?” Max asked. “It would just take a little configuration.”
My head shot up as I turned to face him. “No. I have questions and I want to hear the whole story.”
“Thewholestory?” Max asked.
“As it pertains to what you are, why you are here and what the hell you meant about my mother and uncle being…” I couldn’t seem to say such an outrageous thing out loud.
“Dead?” he asked.
I nodded. “Just tell me how you got here.”
“When your grandfather passed, I looked up Stephano’s address and used the flame.” He motioned to the furnace, where the fire was now gone. “Then I arrived. Your Uncle Stephano answered the door. I came in and announced that I was here to serve. I’d been sent by his father before he passed away. I’ve been here ever since.”
“Yeah, Uncle Stephano told that story.” I shrugged. “Well, minus the part where you are 300 years old and can travel through time or something.”
“What he told you is true,” Max agreed.
“NO!” I retorted. “He told me you were our butler. The part about you performing magic was left out.”
“It is not magic. It is the manipulation of time.”
“And about that,” I said. “So are you…alive in the sense of like a human being?”
“Yes,” he then paused.” Although I am unsure now. After your great-great, great grandfather saved me… I do not bleed, have a beating heart, nor do I have the same emotions as a human.”
“The same?”
He nodded. “I can feel loyalty, perhaps a sort of fondness?”
“Fondness?”
“Yes, like I feel for you, your brother and all of your cousins.” He paused. “Although I shouldn’t as I will pay for that in the end. I always do.”
