IN THE COLOSSEUM

She was simply incredible! Alisa had to be careful not to stare at the other girl with her mouth wide open. Even as she turned her attention back to the lesson, she was aware of Ivy-Máire's presence behind her.

Should she approach her later and introduce herself, or would the Irish girl find that intrusive? She would have to start tactfully and definitely not gawk at her like some of the young vampires still did. An opportunity would present itself.

The opportunity came during the midnight break. Signora Enrica bid farewell and announced that Professor Ruguccio would continue the lesson in half an hour.

The vampires left the classroom, dispersed in the corridors, strolled in the courtyard, or went to the Owlet Hall. Conversations everywhere revolved around the silver-haired girl and her wolf, only to abruptly fall silent when the two came within earshot. Ivy-Máire either didn't notice or convincingly ignored the whispers and murmurs. After stowing her belongings in the first sleeping chamber, she - with the wolf by her side - entered the assembly room. Luciano stopped mid-sentence as Ivy-Máire appeared before him, smiling somewhat foolishly. Alisa hesitated whether to be annoyed or amused. She glanced from the girl to Franz Leopold, whose gaze was fixed on Luciano. His face took on a malicious expression. Obviously, he had used his telepathic powers and would now not hesitate to proclaim Luciano's feelings and most secret thoughts aloud to the others. That this would be embarrassing for the young Roman was beyond question, but what could she do about it?

Franz Leopold opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Ivy-Máire addressed him.

"I've already pointed out to you once that this is very rude!" she said, with a gentle reproach in her voice. "When I asked you to stop, I didn't just mean towards me! You shouldn't use your ability against your other classmates who haven't learned to protect their thoughts yet. It's a weapon we use for defense and for hunting. - No, don't bother. You won't succeed with me." She turned away.

Franz Leopold stuttered, "That's impossible. Only the Dracas possess the power of thought!" Confused, he shook his head and slipped outside.

Luciano pushed himself up from his seat and hurried with awkward steps to Ivy-Máire. "Thank you, that was very kind of you. I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to say, but it would be for me..." He paused and looked embarrassedly to the side.

Ivy-Máire, on the other hand, seemed not the least bit phased. "It was my pleasure, Luciano."

The Roman awkwardly bowed. "I am at your service if you ever need my help. Not that I think my powers could even remotely compare to yours..."

She interrupted him. "Thank you, I accept your offer. How about you show me around your realm a bit? I think we have enough time after the last lesson before dawn drives us into our coffins."

Luciano beamed. "Oh yes, if you want, I can show you the Colosseum and the ruins on the Palatine Hill."

Ivy-Máire smiled. "That sounds fascinating. Can we go alone, or do we need a chaperone?" She nodded towards the servients who had withdrawn to a corner and were discreetly keeping an eye on their charges.

"If I command Francesco to stay here, he will respect my wish!"

"Good!" She smiled. "I'm looking forward to it."

Luciano glanced sideways and began nervously picking at his jacket with his chewed nails. "If you don't mind, we could take Alisa from the Vamalia in Hamburg with us."

 I

vy-Máire glanced over at her, and Alisa tried to put on an indifferent expression as she pondered whether Luciano was simply afraid to be alone with the Irish girl or if he already felt so friendly towards her that he wanted to show her the Roman ruins.

Ivy-Máire approached her with an outstretched hand. "But of course! I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm Ivy." They solemnly shook hands. Alisa scrutinized Ivy, but couldn't detect any malice or hidden falsehood. Perhaps she was as friendly as she appeared. Yet Alisa felt a barrier of sorts, an impenetrable wall that enclosed everything that wasn't meant to be revealed. Her openness only extended as far as the young vampire allowed it. Alisa was convinced that there were many secrets she would always keep.

"I'm also pleased, Ivy," Alisa said, her gaze lowering to the wolf who was studying her with yellow eyes. She hesitantly reached out her hand towards his head. The wolf didn't move, only his neck hairs bristled. Alisa looked at Ivy questioningly. "Will he snap at me?"

To her surprise, Ivy relayed the question. Alisa only understood the name of the animal: Seymour. Perhaps she was speaking Gaelic to him. The wolf whimpered briefly, then his fur smoothed again.

"You may touch him," she said simply.

"Seymour," Alisa repeated, placing her hand on the wolf's neck. How soft he felt!

"It's a great honor. He's very particular in his preferences and usually doesn't appreciate being touched by strangers."

"He's wonderful!" Alisa exclaimed.

Ivy's smile faded slightly. "Yes, he is. But he's also my shadow, whom I can't simply command to stay behind as I please."

Alisa made a dismissive gesture. "He's just a wolf, not an adult vampire who constantly interferes and ruins the fun. We in Hamburg don't have shadows. We all live together. That has advantages, but also disadvantages. Dame Elina has determined that Hindrik is responsible for us, so he has to keep an eye on us. He doesn't leave as easily as Luciano's Francesco when we don't want him around. He decides for himself whether what we're planning might be dangerous and if we need his protection!"

"Then we should disappear as inconspicuously as possible later," Ivy suggested.

"Yes, we should!"

The young vampires didn't learn much new in the second half of the night. Professor Ruguccio had them perform a few simple defense exercises, then footsteps in the corridor outside the classroom drew the students' attention. Heads turned left as the door opened and Conte Claudio - today in royal blue with lavish gold embroidery - entered. The remaining clan leaders and their companions followed him. Professor Ruguccio nodded and yielded the stage to the Conte, who immediately positioned himself in front of the lectern. He rubbed his fleshy hands together and then interlocked his long nails.

"Heirs of the Nosferas, Pyras, and Vamalia, the Dracas, Vyrad, and Lycana," he began. "Your training has begun tonight. You've already had the opportunity to gain some experience. But even we, your family heads, have not been idle tonight and have assembled what you need to record your findings, to practice, and to experiment. We've brought books that will introduce you to the history of Rome and our language and reveal many other secrets. They will help you tackle the great tasks we have conceived for you in our halls beneath Rome's surface."

Books! Alisa could hardly contain her joy. However, she also saw that the other students reacted to this announcement with far less enthusiasm. Only Ivy and the English seemed to be more pleased than scared by this announcement as well. Two servients entered the room with large boxes in their arms and began distributing the books. Then the clan leaders handed out the filled school bags to the members of their own families. It was clear that they had not been provided for everyone together. Alisa grinned to herself as she received the simple rucksack made of brown leather. Luciano's school bag, on the other hand, was made of fine, soft leather, black with contrasting seams and a silver buckle. But even with the splendor of the Viennese bags, she couldn't compete. Marie Luise stroked the golden strap of her bag, adorned with tiny gemstones, with a dreamy smile. Fernand reached out to touch her bag, but she pulled it away and glared angrily in his direction.

"Keep your dirty fingers off my stuff," Fernand shrugged and took his rat off his shoulder. He opened his bag and let his lap pet sniff around. The rat disappeared inside the simple leather bag and made itself comfortable among papers, quills, and inkwells. Maurizio took advantage of the commotion in the classroom to let Ottavio in through the back door and take his prey from him. He sucked the rat in with one gulp before anyone could reprimand him, then pushed the cat out through the door crack along with the cadaver.

At that moment, Conte Claudio spoke again. "The time of farewell approaches."

"If he could cry, he would surely shed a few tears now," Franz Leopold sneered. "But even then, no one would believe he's not damn happy to have them all out of the house again. But I guess that's mutual for most!"

Silently, Alisa had to agree with him. There was a crackling tension between the heads of the families. Dame Elina had apparently had a confrontation with the two seigneurs from Paris. At least, the two brothers still regarded her with hostility, and the dispute between the Dracas and the Conte, which Alisa had partially overheard, seemed to still be simmering. The Roman or perhaps the entire council of clan leaders had forced the haughty siblings to back down, at least temporarily, but Alisa suspected they wouldn't give in so easily.

Well, the school year would run its course in Rome. Just a temporary retreat, seemed to say the gaze of the baroness.

Only the delegation from Ireland seemed unconcerned about the squabbling. Clan leader Donnchadh stood a little apart. The beautiful impure, whom he had chosen as his shadow, stood close behind him, whispering in his ear occasionally.

Finally, all the farewell speeches were over, and the travelers made their way to the courtyard, where they lay down in their coffins to begin the journey home. Buckles were fastened, small bolts clicked into place, keys turned in locks. Then the servants loaded the wagons that would take them to the train station or the port on the banks of the Tiber. The students who had gathered in the courtyard for farewells watched them go. Most of them seemed rather relieved.

"You're lucky," Luciano sighed, linking arms with Alisa.

"Why?"

"You can send almost all of them home. We'll be watched by strict eyes all year."

Alisa chuckled. "Then it's time to try and escape them."

"Good idea!" Luciano beamed. "I'll lead the way."

The three young vampires slipped through the hidden side door Luciano had led them to. The white wolf slipped through the gap behind them before Luciano gently closed the door. They crouched behind a bush and waited for a few moments to see if anyone called them back, but everything remained quiet.

"Alright, let's go!" Luciano called out cheerfully. Only the wolf noticed that shortly thereafter, a figure emerged through the door and followed them at a safe distance.

Luciano headed straight for the towering walls of the Colosseum in front of them. Here, on the side facing the hill, stood the outer ring with its four impressive levels: three with arcades and the fourth with small square windows. As they reached the foot of the walls, Alisa tilted her head back. "How tall is it? Amazing! It must be higher than all the ship masts."

"Eighty paces."

Alisa pondered. "That's about sixty meters. Impressive!" The wolf whimpered and pressed closer to Ivy.

"What's wrong with him?" Luciano asked. "Don't worry. The animal hunts in the Colosseum were abolished in the sixth century." He reached out to pat the wolf, but it growled and bristled its neck fur. Luciano backed off a bit.

"I thought the animal hunts were about humans being chased by wolves and other wild animals, not the other way around," Alisa remarked.

Luciano nodded. "You're right, unless they didn't pit gladiators against each other. But they stopped that much earlier."

Ivy's eyes glittered. "Humans are more like us than they think. The hunting fever and the thirst for blood are also in them, and they only manage to hide this desire poorly under the pretty dress they call civilization."

"If you say so," Luciano said, looking at her a little suspiciously. Before she could launch into further philosophical considerations, he led the two girls on. "It must have looked very magnificent at one time. One of our venerables collected all the documents he could find for over a hundred years. He also has drawings that show statues everywhere under the arches. A huge tent roof provided shade for the visitors."

Today, the Roman amphitheater was buried under its own mound of rubble, so the way inside was blocked by the lower archways. Luciano stopped and pointed to an opening in the ground. "If we crawl through that hole, we'll get to the underground part of the theater and from there into the arena and the stands."

They crouched and slipped into the passage, which soon became higher again, allowing Ivy to walk upright at least. They passed small chambers and half-buried corridors. The walls were curved, and the passages converged at acute angles, as if they were inside the hull of a huge ship.

"There were probably the cages of wild animals and the cells of the prisoners thrown to them for food," Luciano explained. "And here, wooden platforms must have been installed, which served as elevators with ropes and pulleys."

"And the gladiators?" Alisa asked. "Did they live down here too?" She looked around with interest. Even though everything was old and semi-ruined, it seemed cramped and not particularly comfortable even earlier.

"They certainly put on their armor here and waited for their fights, but they lived and trained in barracks outside."

They continued on. They had to dodge piles of stones and rubble repeatedly. Once they came to a spot where the ceiling had collapsed, and they could catch a glimpse of the night sky.

Luciano pointed upwards. "The venerable Giuseppe says that people descended through this hole with ladders a hundred years ago. With torches and lamps, they wandered around here in awe and enjoyed their shudders. Yes, there were even entire picnic parties held up on the stands. They found it particularly romantic to wander through the ruins by moonlight."

Alisa looked up at the sky. The clouds moved on, revealing a narrow crescent moon, whose light made Ivy's hair shine like liquid silver.

"I think I remember a few lines from our poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He writes about a bright moonlit night over the ruins. Yes, he must have been here."

Luciano shrugged. "Anyway, people suddenly started to take an interest in the old ruins. They wanted to preserve the walls, clear them of bushes and weeds, and excavate the palaces and temples. It must have been an exciting time, I can imagine. Many of the Nosferas feared that people would also remember the existence of the Domus Aurea and could penetrate there despite our defensive measures. But then the people disappeared again, and silence returned to the ruins and the Colosseum."

"They're not digging anymore?" Ivy asked.

"No," confirmed Luciano. "Perhaps they have lost interest in the old times. They have more important things to do now that the Pope has lost power and Rome has become the capital of a new kingdom. Probably the Romans no longer need to concern themselves with the ancient imperial glory of their city and can forget their ruins - and leave them to us!"

They had now climbed a steep ramp and were standing inside the amphitheater. It was still a breathtaking sight. One could imagine how down there in the oval arena, the gladiators fought for their lives with swords and shields or tridents and nets, accompanied by the deafening shouts of the thousands in the stands.

Luciano pointed to the half-ruined arches on both sides of the arena. "Over there in the west, the gladiators entered the combat arena through the Porta Triumphalis. And through the east gate, the Porta Libitinaria, their corpses were carried out."

The wolf nudged Ivy and bared its fangs. Its ears twitched nervously. "Seymour wants us to leave."

The others nodded. Luciano was just turning back to the ramp when Alisa grabbed his arm. "Did you hear that? I think we're not the only nocturnal visitors here."

Luciano made a dismissive gesture. "Just a few stones that have slipped. That happens here all the time."

"We are not alone anymore," Ivy contradicted, her hand resting on the wolf's neck. "Seymour can smell him."

The three hid behind a stone block and scanned the area, but they couldn't detect any movement or aura of warmth that would indicate a person's presence.

"Come on!" Luciano whispered. "There's another way out."

They moved forward cautiously. However, not as quietly as Alisa would have liked. Unlike Ivy's footsteps, which couldn't even be heard by her keen ears, Luciano's soles crunched noticeably underfoot, and occasionally he kicked a stone that rolled down the stands. Even a person with poor hearing could easily have followed them!

To their relief, they soon reached a damaged staircase that led them down two levels. They crawled through an arch and then descended a cone of debris, which ended in a few blackthorn bushes.

Alisa freed her sleeve from the thorns. "Let's hide in the niche over there, then we'll soon see if we have company." The others followed her.

"What does Seymour say?" Luciano asked in a whisper.

Ivy stroked the animal's head and neck. "He's still uneasy. But look, he's scenting in the other direction. Is there also an exit over there?"

"Yes, there is, but not one that could be reached so quickly. You would have to get to the other side inside and then cross the hypogeum we saw first." He looked puzzled.

"Maybe you don't know all the passages?" Alisa suggested. Luciano snorted contemptuously.

"Or we're dealing with more than one pursuer, and they've split up. Let's get a little closer." Ivy raised her head and sniffed the air. "There's a human. I'm sure of it. Can't you feel it?"

"A woman," Luciano added, surprised. "Alone at this time of night? Strange." They crept a little closer. Yes, there, under the next arch, someone was standing. They could sense the warm, human aura.

Luciano was just motioning for the two girls to move forward when a stone rolled down the ramp they had used to leave the theater ruin.

"Someone's coming!" Alisa whispered. "Take cover!"

A dark figure in a long cloak appeared in the opening. The three vampires dropped to the ground. Seymour growled menacingly.

From the bell tower of Santa Francesca Romana, three chimes drifted over and dissolved above the square in front of the Colosseum. The woman adjusted her veil. Three o'clock! He was already an hour late! She listened into the night. Nothing. No footsteps, no voices. Just an owl hooting, and then a cold gust of wind brushed her cheek. She flinched and pressed herself a little closer to the stone blocks, which had been bonded together into a solid wall for almost two thousand years and towered above her. Her long black robe blended with the nocturnal shadows.

Why wasn't he coming? Had something happened to him? Or had she misjudged the time? But no, they had arranged to meet here on the night of Saint Gregory. She was supposed to hand him the letter she hid under her cloak. And he was supposed to give her a note with the time and place of the next meeting.

With her bare feet in sandals, she was slowly getting cold. She alternated between standing on one leg and the other. What should she do now? Keep waiting? Go back and confess that she hadn't been able to fulfill her mission? He wouldn't be pleased. Oh no, not at all. His Eminence didn't like it when things went wrong. Everything was supposed to happen according to his will, smoothly and without delays! The woman suppressed a sigh. It wouldn't get any better if she delayed it any longer. She had to get it over with.

Suddenly, she froze. Wasn't there something? She listened. Laughter, then whispering voices, and the growling of an animal. Disturbed, she shook her head. How strange. That wasn't the person she was expecting. It was time to disappear. She gathered her cloak and habit and hurried off, crouching between weeds and wild bushes.

It had been easy to follow them through the corridors of the Domus Aurea. When Franz Leopold saw Ivy-Máire in a dark robe and Alisa in shabby pants and a smock, he knew they were planning something forbidden, and he tagged along behind them. He had to remember the secret door. It might come in handy later. Franz Leopold waited for a long time behind the closed door before he dared to slowly push it open. It opened silently. The crescent moon hid behind the clouds. Good. The light of the night was enough for him not to lose the others, and so they wouldn't discover him if he kept enough distance. After all, they all came from inferior clans, whose senses were hardly developed like those of the Dracas. However, he was sure that the wolf had noticed him. The cursed animal kept turning its head and staring directly in his direction. But they couldn't possibly communicate with the beast!

Franz Leopold followed the others down to the Colosseum and then through underground passages to the arena. He kept his distance so much that only occasionally did their voices reach his ears. He couldn't understand their words, but it sounded like they were enjoying the outing. Angry, he clenched his fists. He suddenly felt strangely alone. His cousins Marie Luise and Anna Christina appeared before his inner eye, and he quickly pushed them aside. They were spoiled, capricious, and mostly a nuisance. He could have asked Karl Philipp to accompany him, but he always wanted to be in charge. And allowing a vampire from another clan to get so close to him was out of the question.

Ivy-Máire's voice wafted over to him, and for a moment, he saw himself at her side, leading her through the ruins and showing her the wonders of long-gone times. The fat Luciano was really lucky. If they were in Vienna, she wouldn't even deign to give that scum a glance!

But really, that was unimportant. Who was she anyway? A country girl who had grown up among sheep. Nothing special and certainly not worthy of him.

As the three finally crawled out through an arch into the open air, he waited for a long time before sneaking after them. He let his gaze wander, searching, and froze. A faint reddish aura behind a bush caught his attention. Had the three come here to attack and drain a human together? That would have been a serious violation of the sacred rules of all families! Young vampires did not yet have the power to control the minds of their victims, and they did not have the strength to stop in time before the last heartbeat faded. Therefore, they only got animal blood. Because once someone had tasted human blood, they could not resist the urge and succumbed to their greed - despite prohibitions and penalties - over and over again. How true! So the young vampires had to wait until they were introduced into the world of adults in a ritual and presented with their first victim at a feast.

Franz Leopold took another step forward to get a better look. A stone rolled down the slope. Then everything happened quickly. The shadow with the reddish aura detached from the wall and ran across the square. T

he white wolf howled and took off, but he didn't chase after the fleeing figure!

Franz Leopold ran down the rubble ramp. He didn't get far. He heard the pounding of paws, then felt the hot breath behind him.