chasing the orion stars (venators of orion series) by l.h...

Chasing the Orion Stars (Venators of Orion Series) by L.H. Nicole

1

1 Changes

“Why can’t this torture be done yet?” Aurora watched her gorgeous mother, firmly

tucked to her fiancé’s side, move from one group of art admirers to another.

She twisted and released the fabric of her dark purple knee length dress, then readjusted

the sleeve to make sure her scars were still safely hidden away. Immobilizing, ghostly fingers ran

over her spine as she scanned the small but crowded gallery of the Italian consulate.

This was the seventh icy chill she’d felt since arriving, despite the unusually hot October

night in DC and the stifling air of the older building. A tall woman stood out like an orchid

among daisies. She was wearing a cream and red silk dress that draped over her lithe frame, and

deep auburn hair piled in curls on top of her head. Aurora’s chest tightened as she studied the

woman who held herself aloft from the others in attendance. The lady's head turned slightly, and

Aurora saw cold hazel eyes glance over her before shifting away.

That woman didn’t belong here. She felt dangerous. But, lately, Aurora felt like she was

blind to a whole other world that lurked just below the surface of real life. One filled with

impossible monsters and danger cloaked in adventure, betrayal and endless possibilities.

“Stop it!” Aurora hissed to herself. “This isn’t your dream world. Those things don’t exist

outside my imagination!” Just like him…the only boy she’s every cared for. The one that doesn’t

exist outside her dreams. She wondered for the millionth time if she was going crazy for thinking

that such fiction could actually exist. The strange woman vanished into the crowd and she forced

her mind from the ridiculous train of thoughts and found her mother in the huddle of more

admirers.

“How did you manage to match that particular shade of orange so perfectly, Vanessa?”

Aurora didn’t have to hear the conversation with the stuffy DC elitist to know he was

asking something along that line. Her mom, Vanessa Milos, was one of the best art restorers in


2

the country, and she had grown up surrounded by the work of the masters and attending most of

the gallery parties her mother curated.

She looked to the handsome Italian businessman that was now officially part of her

family. He was classically handsome, in that older guy sort of way—like Brad Pitt—with salt

and pepper hair and laughing green eyes. Gio Bertani was many things, influential being top

among that list. He held a minor position of authority in the Italian government working with

their cultural and foreign affairs office. The few times she had been able to visit him at the Italian

embassy it always seemed like he was so much more important than what he let on. He and her

mom had met at one of the gallery shows around DC, almost two years ago. He was a far better

man than every other loser her mom had dated. Wetness started to prickle her eyes and she

looked away. Aurora loved Gio, he was the father she’d never had and wanted for all her life.

But the phantom ache of not knowing her birth father throbbed like a visceral, un-healing bruise.

They finally stepped away from the latest elitists who claimed to be art connoisseurs and

she made her way to them. “Mom, Gio, would you mind if I caught a ride home? I’m really tired,

and I’ve still got some homework I should get done.”

Her mom smiled and patted Gio’s hand. “Sure, Rory.” Only Gio and her mother were

allowed to call her that. “But let’s step out of the gallery. Gio and I’d like to talk to you for a

moment.’’

She frowned but followed them into a wing of the consulate decorated with priceless

statues and other objects that had somehow survived hundreds of years. “I already know you and

Gio are engaged.” She nodded to the big glittering rock on her mom’s finger.

Gio chuckled, his smooth Italian accent thicker when he said, “Yes, cara mia, but we

have more to share.”


3

She looked at her mother’s flat stomach and raised a brow.

“Not that, Rory!” Her excitement over shadowed her eye roll. “I just got offered a new

job at a big art museum, and we’ve decided to accept their offer.”

Aurora shifted back, her lips pulling down. “You already work with all the major

galleries in the DC area, mom.”

The two love birds looked at each other with knowing smiles. “This one is in Rome,

Italy!” Her mom was nearly dancing from foot to foot as Aurora’s stomach sank so low she was

afraid it was going to fall out of her body.

“Are you okay, Rory?” Gio placed a gentle hand on her good shoulder. “You are looking

pale.”

She put on a smile and nodded, hoping the low lighting would keep them from seeing the

tears welling. “I’m fine, just…surprised.”

Her mother’s arms wrapped around Aurora’s frame as she squeezed her tight but let go

just as quick. “We know this is a lot at once but think about all you’ll get to experience living in

one of the oldest cities in the world! You love history so much, you’ll get to live in the place that

was the seat of power in Europe for centuries.”

And the city that will break my heart.

Gio nodded and kissed her mom’s temple. “We know this is a big change, Rory, but it

will be for the best, I promise you. I have to return to Rome tomorrow, to help prepare the

paperwork and get things settled from that side, but I will be anxiously awaiting your arrival in a

few weeks.”


4

She felt like a numb puppet as she nodded, trying to contain the powder keg in her chest

threatening her ability to breathe. “I think it’ll be cool.” I hope I seem more excited to them than

I sounded.

They looked at each other again, her mother’s lips drawn to one side and Gio’s eyes were

a little dimmer.

Guilt swamped her. “Really, I’m excited about this, I’m just super tired too. I didn’t get a

lot of sleep last night.”

Her mom let out soft sigh, but she smiled and nodded.

“I’ll have my driver take you home, Rory.” Gio didn’t always use the car service the

embassy provided him, but she knew if she took his car, then his driver would never let her do

what she really needed to do.

“It’s okay, Gio. I can take a ride share home. You guys will need the driver later.” She

stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Gio’s cheek. “Thanks though.”

“Alright, but make sure you go straight home. Gio and I will be there in a bit.”

She nodded like a dutiful daughter and left the room filled with statues of Greek and

Roman heroes and gods and goddesses, trying not to break out in a sprint to escape her mom and

Gio’s watchful gaze before she exploded. Aurora bypassed the elevator and descended the stairs

to the floor below doubling her pace and pulling out her phone and ordering a ride share. She

burst through the heavy doors and into the warm night as her phone pinged and a car pulled up at

the base of the stone steps.

She jumped in, barely acknowledging the driver as they merged into traffic and headed

through the city glowing with streetlights towards her favorite monument. DC was a wondrous


5

and fascinating city to grow up in, but this place was special to her. Maybe it was because of her

dreams she’d shared with her Roman prince at that monument.

“Here you go,” the driver said turning around to look at Aurora. “Are you sure you want

me to let you out here, it’s awfully late and the Lincoln monument can be dangerous.”

She opened the car door. “I’ll be good,” she assured the woman. “I know how to be

careful.” Aurora had ventured here dozens of times at night and never once had a problem.

“Okay. Be safe.” The driver took off a few seconds after the door closed.

Aurora sucked in a large breath of city air and held it in hoping it would numb her chest

and the aching explosion she could still feel building. She made her way across the stone

sidewalk and up the marble steps to the middle landing in front of the former president’s statue.

She brushed out the heavy fabric of her skirt and sank down onto the cold stone. She felt like an

escapee from a wedding party trying to hide from the reality of the extreme loneliness of her life.

“Way to dramatic, there, girl,” she chided herself and laid back on her elbows and stared

at the dark sky. Despite the bright streetlights polluting the night, she could just make out the

Orion constellation. She remembered another of her dreams where she’d done the same thing

with him by her side. She sat there for what felt like ages, mind wondering to a world where she

could have everything she longed for as tingles of energy danced up and down her spine. But she

ignored them because they weren’t the icy, dangerous fingers she’d felt earlier.

The rapidly cooling air and continuous prickling awareness finally penetrated her body

and convinced her it was time to leave before she got discovered. Her shoulder ached as dull

threads of pain made their way through her arm. She rotated it to loosen the layers of scar tissue.

She pulled out her phone, the time reading ten twenty as she ordered another car. She should


6

have just enough time to get home and change for bed before her mom and Gio got back, as long

as there was another ride close by.

She stood and brushed off her dress and took two steps down when the sound of scraping

rock and wood came from her right. Frozen on the stairs she watched several large figures zip

through the trees on the far side of the reflecting pool so fast she wasn’t sure if they were one of

the phantoms from her dreams she wished were real. She saw them so often, especially at night,

just out of the corner of her eye.

Her phone pinged, and she looked away from the now empty trees. Her ride was waiting

for her on the other side, away from the shadowy figures she needed to stop imagining before she

wound up being committed. She moved quickly down the wide steps keeping her ears and eyes

open for another sign of her dream creatures. She crossed in front of the reflecting pool and

towards the World War Two soldier statue that was just by the pickup and drop off point.

A guy about her age, with blonde-brown hair and a large, athletic frame came walking up

the path towards the bronze statue. Stings of varying intensity shot down her spine, from the

descending night cold no doubt, as he glanced at her briefly before turning past the statue and

disappearing into the shadows.

The car in front of her flashed its lights and she wasted no time jumping in the back of

the warm car, her body started to relax again. She fell into a haze trying to keep the swelling

pressure in her chest and heart from boiling over as the streetlights flew past on her way home.

The lights were still off in the townhouse when the small sedan pulled up to the building in one

of Arlington’s nicer neighborhoods. She let out a small sigh, relieved she had managed to avoid

getting caught. Her mom, and Gio for that matter, were very attentive, but it was amazing how


7

blind they could be sometimes. A fact that would change super quickly if they ever found out

about her many, many lonely nighttime adventures around the city.

“Thanks!” she said pulling out her keys and dashing up the front stairs and through the

glass and wood door. She kicked off her shoes walked down the hall to her room at the back of

the first floor and shut the door. She changed out of her dress, washed her face and fell into bed

feeling so drained she couldn’t have stood for another moment.

Will I see him tonight? She desperately needed too as the reality of what her mom had

said finally started to set in.

——————

Walking in a Roman vineyard over five hundred years old, even though it was just in her

dream, never failed to take her breath away. Especially since it was the Borgia’s family vineyard

in Forli and her dream prince was here somewhere. Walking the fields at sunset was one of

Lex’s favorite things. It was the only time he said he could find peace from his father and his

duties as a lord of the Romagna.

She made her way up a row of thick vines with waxy leaves that stood just taller than her

and were populated with grapes a myriad of colors that smelled so sweet and ripe she could

almost forget how close her fragile world was to total collapse.

She felt the same powerful presence that always hovered in the background of their

dream world. Out of the corner of her eye she saw two figures, a man and woman. They got

glimpses of the pair sometimes or, if not them, strange creatures. Aurora and Lex had imagined

dozens of scenarios over the years; maybe they were guardian angels, the gods of old, or

phantoms haunting them?

Maybe it was because for so long she had wished for any part of her dream world to be

real, but she could’ve sworn the shadows she’d seen tonight could have been the same phantoms.


8

On the other hand she’d lost count of the times she’s been told she lives in a fantasy world too

much. After all, she wasn’t a heroine in one of the teen novel she loved to curl up with.

The vines ahead rustled, the delectable sweet scent filling the air even more. “Lex?” She

looked around searching the field for her best friend. “Where are you?”

“I’m here.”

Aurora spun around. As soon as she found his hazel eyes the breath she hadn’t realized

was stuck in her lungs escaped as the relief flooding her body threatened to turn her legs to

rubber and she felt her cheeks flush. “Hi.”

Alexander Borgia always took her by surprise even after eleven years of knowing him, or

his dream self at least. Lex was tall and lean with wide shoulders and defined muscles that

weren’t always obvious through the layers of sixteenth century clothes; a linen shirt, silk doublet

and leather jerkin layered under a cape secured across his chest all decorated as a sign of his

family’s wealth and status. His pale skin laid over sharp cheekbones and a long face; his chin

was peppered with evening stubble and an adorable cleft that did very little to defuse the rough,

almost rakish look he’s inherited from his family. His dark curly locks framed his face and fell

just past his angled jaw. He was handsome in a way guys in the twenty-first century couldn’t

even come close to. She loved coming back to his time in their dreams.

‘Sometimes I wish I lived in the sixteenth century instead of the twenty first, even though

they don’t have modern plumbing. Still…’

“I was afraid you would not come tonight.” His not quite Italian accent rolled over her.

“I have not seen you in days, mia gemma.”


9

‘My gemstone.’ That was one of the many pet names he always used with her, just like

she always called him Lex. A habit from the very first dream they’d shared when she was five

years old and couldn’t properly pronounce his name.

“I need my best friend after today.” Maybe she was being overly dramatic but after

tonight’s newest bomb, she needed the one person she had trusted and felt secure around for so

many years.

He took a few steps closer. “What is wrong?”

She dropped her gaze; she didn’t want him to see the gathering tears. She wrapped her

arms around herself, the web of scars on her shoulder pulled uncomfortably. Aurora always keep

her scars covered; she couldn’t stand the way people looked at her because of them. Lex was the

one person who’d never flinched away, never made her feel like less of a person.

“Mia gemma,” he whispered, his tone soothing. His hands, heavy with callouses, came

up to touch her arms but, like always, they passed through her. Lex’s face turned dark and angry

as he clenched his hands so hard they shook.

It was their curse.

They could taste, touch, and smell everything in their dream world—except each other. It

was agonizing most of the time but tonight Aurora was as grateful as she was resentful.

Her gaze focused on the beautiful and sweet-smelling fruit. “My mom,” She started,

“told me we’re moving to Rome in a few weeks. She’s been offered a really big commission at

one of the museums.”

“I thought you wanted to come to Roma?” Lex’s confusion echoed her mom’s from

earlier.

She bit her lip, nerves fluttering in her blood. “I did… I do, more than anything.”


10

“Then why are you fighting tears?”

Her throat tightened. How could she tell him the thought of being in Rome–in Italy–

without him by her side was unbearable? He was the reason she loved Italy. He was the reason

she found a love for history. He was the reason she wanted to go to Rome. For eleven years he

had been her rock and her greatest friend. Only two years ago she had realized just how in love

she was with him. It wasn’t the instant love the Renaissance was known for, it was the kind of

love that started and bloomed over more than a decade.

“Mia gemma, please look at me.” The gentleness in his voice couldn’t be denied. Slowly

she looked up willing her tears not to fall.

His eyes, filled with compassion, held her enslaved. “You do not ever have to hide your

tears from me, angioletto. Nobody knows you like I do. You are safe with me always,” he vowed,

the sincerity and vulnerability in his voice crushing her resolve.

“I’m sorry, Lex.” She sniffled and took a breath.

He waited while she gathered herself. His hands gripped his sword belt, his shoulders

tense. Something he always did when he was trying to remember he couldn’t touch her.

How had she fallen so hopelessly in love with a dream, a figment of her imagination?

Every record she had ever searched never mention Cesare’s favored son. Not a name, a birthday

or even a damn favorite color, nothing. But then how could she have imagined him when she was

five years old? How could she have seen and talked to him, both of them aging over the years in

their dreams?

“You don’t have to tell me,” he offered. That made her smile. Lex always wanted to know

everything she was thinking, just as she did him.


11

She cleared the dry scratchiness from her throat. “Part of me is so excited to go. I’ve

wanted this forever.”

“But?”

If they had been in the real world, and not their dream, she knew there was no way she’d

even imagine telling him the truth, but this wasn’t the real world. “You won't be in Rome waiting

for me.” She hugged herself tighter, wishing it was his arms squeezing her, keeping her from

flying away back to reality.

He looked like he’d been struck. Astonishment mixed with a hopeful gleam that widened

his eyes. “Angioletto, I don’t know what to say.” He stepped closer, only an inch or two between

them.

She couldn't touch him, but she imagined what he would feel like. Strong, warm, gentle

when most men of his time were rough and uncaring. She could almost feel his hand stroking

through her hair, holding her waist, cupping her cheek. Her heart raced. ‘God, why can't he be

real?’

“I'm being stupid I know.” She wiped away the tear that escaped. “I just always pictured

myself walking the streets of Rome with you by my side.” There she said it, and it made the knife

in her chest twist.

Sorrow and happiness warred on his face. “Mia gemma, I…”

She held up her hand to stop the words she knew he would say. “Please don’t.” she

begged. “It…hurts… too much to have my dream guy whispering promises I know can never

happen. You’re not real, and being in Rome without you… I’ll have to face that truth after I’ve

spent so long trying to tell myself that you really do exist. That’s why I’m so torn up. I fell in love

with a dream.”


12

His eyes and face darkened, the late evening light casting shadows over his sharp face.

“Say it again,” he pleaded with a voice gone hoarse.

“I’m in love with you,” She whispered, her voice as soft as the wind.

Lex’s face lit up, his body relaxed, and breath whooshed out of his lungs. “I lov—”

“No!” Desperation swamped her. “I can't,” she explained, not wanting to hurt him. “I

can't take hearing you say you love me. A dream can’t fall in love with me!” She turned away

shoving her shaking hands through her hair. “God, I should be committed for my delusions.”

“Stop this now, Aurora!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing and listen to my words.”

Her eyes shot up, lips sealed. No one was stupid enough to ignore the absolute authority

in a Condottiero’s voice. They were some of Italy’s best and most dangerous mercenaries or

military leaders; and Lex had learned from the best: his father, Cesare Borgia.

“I love you too,” he declared. “I think I have since we first met so long ago as children.”

He closed the distance between them. She had to tilt her head up to hold his gaze. “I do not care

what I have to do. I will find a way to you, to your time,” he vowed, his gaze intense and

determined. His voice dropped, losing the hardness but none of the passion. “I will prove to you

I am real, prove to myself that you are real. I never make a vow I cannot keep.”

Ever so slowly he raised his left hand, palm facing her, like he was resting his hand

against a window, and waited. This was their way of holding hands, like they had when they first

met as children and realized they couldn’t touch each other. It had become their promise over

the years. Whenever one of them were angry or hurting or making a vow, this was what they did.


13

She could see his fierce determination, and his worry that she would reject him for the

first time, ever. Her raging heartbeat was so loud in her ears it was hard to think. Accepting his

oath would only shatter her even more in the coming weeks when she finally arrived in the

Eternal City and he wasn’t there. She felt like a crazy glutton for pain for even thinking of

accepting this promise. Nothing good could come of it, but her heart and mind had different

ideas. Turning her back on his words—from Lex—would never happen.

She was trembling as she placed hand against his, his fingers and palm bigger longer

and wider hers. Their digits blurred together like she was touching a hologram. She couldn't

physically feel anything, but there was something else holding them together. Something neither

of them understood. A bond that had brought them together despite the centuries keeping them

apart.

“I'm going to hate myself for this in the morning,” Maybe she would, but she also knew

that if Lex were indeed real, he wouldn’t want her to be sad.

The two figures from earlier watched them from the other end of the vineyard, but they

weren’t important right now. Aurora made her own silent pledge.

She would go to Rome. She would do all the things they had talked about. She would go

to all the places he had told her about. She would experience his city and country the way he

would want her to. And she would find a way to be happy… without him… somehow.


14

After eleven years of shared dreams straight from a fairy tale, Aurora and

Lex want nothing more than to be together, but five hundred years is keeping them

apart—literally! Lex may be the bastard son of a Borgia in the 16th century, but he

is willing to do whatever it takes to find Aurora in the 21st century, even joining an

immortal army created by a god. But when they finally unite, will they be able to

come together and survive the secrets and traitors bent on keeping them apart, or

will the world as they know it be destroyed before they have a chance to find true

love?

Find the full story on Swoon Reads and be sure to leave your feedback as it is the

best food we Authors can get!

<3 Always L.H. Nicole

https://www.swoonreads.com/m/chasing-the-orion-stars-venators-of-orion-1/

chasing the orion stars (venators of orion series) by l.h...

Documents