Ch16. Wine and blood
'Mafia... Did that Quintus guy really say mafia?" Johan thought, letting a nervous laugh escape his lips.
The expression on Johan's face could only be described as strange.
Completely different from anything the guests were expecting to see on Erick Vaughn's face.
However, it seemed that everyone there was taking it the wrong way.
The expressions of Quintus, Lilah, and everyone else there were of amazement, almost of fear.
Everyone there feared what Erick's next reaction would be.
Meanwhile, Johan was absorbed in completely different thoughts.
'Bastard... What was the point of not telling me that, as well as being rich, he was also a mafia boss? Fuck! I thought that was just something out of a movie...'
But Johan couldn't go on wasting time with those unnecessary thoughts.
'That's it... The longer I keep quiet, looking like an idiot, the more they'll tend to doubt my identity as Erick. Now... What would Erick say in my place...? And why do my thoughts seem so slow...?
Johan inhaled deeply, regaining some of the composure he had lost during his reveries, and when he spoke, everyone there fell silent.
"If the Niners are outnumbering you, my dear Quintus..." The smile on Johan's lips sent shivers down everyone's spine. "Then take more men, and overwhelm them with greater numbers."
'The Art of War... Defeat your enemy absolutely, so that he will never rise against you.
Johan took another sip from his wine glass, and looked at everyone there, his vision slightly blurred.
"Good heavens... I must be a bit more tired than I thought. This trip must have taken a bit more out of me than I'm used to..."
Quintus, still standing, bowed and sat down again.
"Anyone else with a problem to settle?"
Lilah looked at Johan with a captivating, almost seductive smile on her lips, but apart from that, everyone shook their heads.
No one said a word about anything else that might be going on.
Until Clifford decided to raise his hand.
"I... I have something to say, Mr. Vaughn."
Immediately all the air in the room seemed to be sucked out, and a strange, heavy tension settled over everyone's shoulders.
Claudius had a calm, almost indifferent smile on his lips. He was stirring his own cup, swirling the contents around as if trying to create a whirlpool inside the crystal.
"I think, as everyone here must know, your absence during these past six months has left the power structure within the family rather... Shaken..."
Johan frowned in silence, waiting for Claudius to continue.
But why on earth does Claudius' voice seem to be getting lower?
'It's as if he... Is getting... Further and further away...'
"... And so, I suggest... Mr. Vaughn? Are you all right?"
All eyes were on Clifford, but when the handsome young blond man asked that simple question, all eyes turned to Johan.
And Johan really didn't look well.
His chest was rising and falling in an uncontrolled rhythm.
His skin looked pale, and cold sweat soaked his forehead.
Johan, however, was more concerned with understanding what the hell was going on.
"I... I'm not feeling very well..." Johan said, trying to get up, and taking another sip from his glass of wine.
'Why is this shit... Is it so bitter? And why am I... Drinking this? Didn't I say I didn't even like wine?
In the next instant, however, Johan fell hard against the marble floor.
And everything around him went dark.
***
Around Johan, the world seemed to be a succession of moments of darkness and clarity.
In the moments of clarity, however, his body ached like nothing else in the world, being carried like a sack of potatoes by Claudius Clifford to some place that Johan didn't have the capacity to even question where it was.
"Now you're going to get a taste of your own medicine, you asshole..." Johan heard Claudius laugh softly. "Just imagine how everyone will feel after the great Erick Vaughn is found like this..."
Johan wanted to get up, fight Claudius, punch him as hard as he could and make him pay for whatever he had done to him.
But his body simply wouldn't obey.
Why?
'The wine...'
Johan felt the strange taste permeating the mucous membrane of his mouth, and immediately understood what had happened.
"You always knew I was aiming for the family throne, didn't you?" Claudius asked, even though he knew there would be no answer. "That's why you made sure to keep me close enough to you... So you could control me..."
'You did something with the wine...'
The next moment, however, Johan slipped back into unconsciousness.
***
When Johan opened his eyes, the sun was already shining brightly through the huge window of that strange room.
Erick's room was large, spacious and luxurious.
But that room was stranger, more portentous and finely decorated than Erick's.
The silk sheets, although they caressed Johan's skin like a woman's fingers, also seemed alien to him.
"Urgh... Where am I?" Johan asked, trying to sit up in bed.
Suddenly, a wave of migraine caused his arms to shake violently, and he lost control of his own weight, falling back onto the bed.
"Shit..."
Johan was looking up, trying to regain the rhythm of his breathing when, groping further to the side, he felt something warm, sticky, touch his fingers.
'But what...'
Just as Johan prepared to turn around and see what was there that was causing that uncomfortable sensation of warmth and stickiness, the bedroom door burst open.
"HERE! HE'S HERE!"
Claudius' voice was laced with despair, even though Johan couldn't see his 'best friend's' face.
Just then the sound of several footsteps filled the room, making Johan's head almost explode in pain.
"Good God..." One of the male voices said.
"I don't believe it..." Another voice added.
"Mr. Vaughn, you..."
"Everyone, please be quiet!" A voice more authoritative than the others sounded, silencing everyone in the room. "I can't believe I lived through this..."
The owner of the voice took a deep breath, and then Johan's world shattered into a thousand pieces.
"Erick Vaughn... You're under arrest for the murder of Susan Vaughn, you have the right to remain silent..."