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Taking a deep breath, Angel said, “Bellina, this is your Uncle Arackniss.” He wished he hadn't yelled so loud, or else Bella would not have come out to investigate and scold them for using bad words. Teaching Bella Italian had occasionally proved to be a double edged sword.
Bella clung to Angel's legs and adjusted her glasses. She thought Uncle Arackniss was in the danger circle, like her No-No Nonno.
“What's the matter, kid?” Arackniss asked. He was quietly impressed that she had understood Italian so well, but he was not telling Angel that. “Cat got your tongue?”
“Uncle Husk doesn't have my tongue,” Bella said. “He has juice. And KeeKee doesn't have my tongue, either.”
“I taught her not to blab family secrets to outsiders,” Angel said, putting a hard emphasis on “outsiders” as he gave Arackniss a pointed look. “I did learn something from the old man.”
“Papi wants me to tell him secrets,” Bella added, almost shuddering at the thought of all those cards and letters. She slightly put her wings around herself. “But I just send him drawings of pears and stuff.”
Arackniss wouldn't ask. His gaze drifted to the braces on Bella's legs, and he got an unpleasant reminder of Molly, but pushed it aside.
Bella happily played turf war with Auntie Cherri in the garden, defending her special castle Grandpa Luci made for her. Grandpa Luci was a good nonno, not a no-no. And Auntie Cherri was more fun to play with than Uncle Arackniss. Uncle Arackniss was just sitting there with a frowny face. Bella knew you couldn't be happy all the time, but she had not seen her uncle smile at all. No wonder Mama didn't like him.
Arackniss, for his part, thought the kid was too coddled. He knew women had to be protected, but it was clear Bella was being smothered. That un-feminine friend of his brother was obviously letting the kid win. You couldn't always win.
Lost in thought, Bella also lost her balance and fell down. She felt pain in her knee and started to cry.
“Shit,” Auntie Cherri muttered; Bella was too focused on her knee to point out Auntie Cherri was not supposed to use that word around her. “Calm down, Bells, I'll get the first aid kit.” Cherri had had to patch herself and Angie up lots of times.
“I got it,”Arackniss said flatly, carrying the kit over to Bella. He'd had some experience as a mob doctor, so a scraped knee should be easy.
Bella hid behind Cherri. “The dis-fec-tant hurts!”
“I know, kid, but if it's not treated, it'll get infected,” Arackniss pointed out. “And infections are a lot worse down here.” Lots of horrific Hell bacteria that made the childhood bacterial infections of his time look like nothing.
Bella let Arackniss treat her scraped knee, while holding onto Cherri. Arackniss ignored Cherri as she murderously narrowed her eye at him.
Cherri did feel a little smug, knowing she was more of a family member to Bella than Arackniss likely ever would be.
Near the front door, they heard Angel cursing again, and they all went to check.
Arackniss was silently bewildered when he saw his brother grumbling a mix of English and Italian profanities at a purple stuffed unicorn with silver wings (sort of like Bella's) and a red bow around its neck, tied in a sort of heart shape. Arackniss thought this was exactly the type of sissy crap Anthony would like.
“Crap, another one?” Cherri said sympathetically, as Bella ran up and punched the unicorn with her little fist. The unwanted unicorn toys were among the things Bella was allowed to punch, along with demons who might grab her without asking.
“Val sent it,” Angel quietly explained to Arackniss. “He sends shit like this a lot. Bellina doesn't even like 'em, or even normal horses. I think he and Vox tried to hypnotize her with the last unicorn.”
“Unicorno malvagio!” Bella yelled, hitting the toy again. The last unicorn toy had been bright red with a flashing blue horn that hurt Bella's eyes. Grandpa Luci had made it go away. The new unicorn may have been in Bella's favourite colour, but she still didn't want it. Most little girls seemed to think unicorns were prettier than plain horses, but Bella thought the horns made unicorns uglier (and scarier).
“Bella,” Arackniss called, quietly but sharp enough that it got Bella's attention.
“I'll get rid of that for you, kid,” Arackniss offered.
Bella was only too happy to hand over the unicorn.
“Grazie, Zio Arackniss,” Bella said.
Arackniss almost smiled. Almost. “Prego, cara.”
The next morning, high-pitched screams were heard from Valentino's penthouse. Any Vee Tower employees who heard them knew better than to question what went on in the penthouse.
Valentino was screaming at the unicorn head in his bed. The half-asleep Vox was more concerned about how this managed to get past all of his security...and why Val was screaming at some busted old piece of a toy. It wasn't as though it was a real animal's head.
Val, who fully understood this movie reference (it was well after Vox's time), kept screaming and babbling panicked Spanish. God, Vox was so sick of that language.
Bella liked lists and charts. She had a whole red notebook listing all the bad presents Papi sent her. He had now sent stuffed unicorns in every colour of the rainbow, and even some multi-coloured unicorns, so hopefully he had run out of unicorns to send her.
There was also the pie chart of her Safe Circle and Danger Circle. Bella decided to move Uncle Arackniss from the Danger Circle to the Overlap Area, next to Uncle Alastor. This was the first time Bella had moved somebody out of the Danger Circle. Papi would probably be in the Danger Circle forever.
At least Papi never sent stuffed unicorns or any other unicorn things again.