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By GreG Stolze with John ChamBerS

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C l a n B o o K :

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Clanbook: Giovanni

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CreditSWritten by: Greg Stolze with John ChambersAdditional Material: Justin AchilliDeveloped by: Justin AchilliEditor: Ed HallArt Director: Richard ThomasLayout & Typesetting: Pauline BenneyInterior Art: Michael Gaydos, Leif Jones, Vincent Locke, Matt Mitchel and Christopher ShyFront Cover Art: John Van FleetFront & Back Cover Design: Pauline Benney

© 2001 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire, Vampire the Masquerade, Vampire the Dark Ages, Mage the Ascension, World of Darkness, Hunter the Reckoning and Aberrant are registered trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Werewolf the Apocalypse, Wraith the Oblivion, Changeling the Dreaming, Werewolf the Wild West, Mage the Sorcerers Crusade, Wraith the Great War, Trinity, Clanbook Giovanni, and Dark Ages Companion are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

The mention of or reference to any company or prod-uct in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned.

This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.

For a free White Wolf catalog call 1-800-454-WOLF.Check out White Wolf online athttp://www.white-wolf.com; alt.games.whitewolf and

rec.games.frp.storytellerPRINTED IN USA.

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ContentSintroduCtion: KiSSinG CouSinS 4Chapter one: a Familiar ConCeit 12Chapter two: it runS in the Family 34Chapter three: ShareholderS and Charnel houSeS 80

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kissinG Cousins

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Boston, April 4thIt was late afternoon when Kay Polerno arrived at the Boston mansion of her mother’s family. She was nervous.

She had met her maternal cousins before, but not often and never in a large group like tonight’s.She lifted a fingernail to her mouth and then lowered it. They had all been filed, manicured, sculpted

and lacquered expertly — not by some beauty salon worker but by her great aunt Isabel. (At least, “great aunt” was what Kay called her. She assumed Isabel had, like her mother, been born with the Milliner name and taken her husband’s name.) Isabel was different from the rest of Kay’s family: She was exotic and graceful and had a glamorous aloofness that Kay associated with the East Coast, and with Europe, and with other places far from her home in Georgia. It was impossible to imagine Isabel blushing, or ending up picked last for volleyball, or going to the bathroom. She had the unchanging perfection of a statue, and Kay was eager to see her again.

Kay also wanted to see her cousin Stewart Milliner, but she wouldn’t tell anyone about that.Isabel had said she would meet Kay at the party. That made Kay less nervous. Also, Isabel had brought her a

beautiful red velvet dress for her birthday, but wearing the dress made Kay both more and less nervous at the same time. Isabel had given her another gift, which was in her stylish matching clutch purse.

“Do you think I’ll need this?” Kay had asked.“You never know,” Isabel had said, with the secret smile of a worldly woman.“But at the party? I thought it was just family.…”“Even with family, you never know.”Like the dress, the other gift made her both more and less nervous. The car turned a corner, revealing the Milliner mansion. Everything that comforted her evaporated, and

everything that scared her doubled.She had seen pictures of her mother’s childhood home before, of course, but they couldn’t do it justice. The pictures

didn’t convey the barren smell of the land or the way it looked so much like a tombstone with the name worn off. Stepping out of the car, she glanced toward one end of the house. Had she seen…? Maybe it was just the wind

blowing leaves, playing on her nerves to look like flowing white cloth. Kay had her hand raised to knock on the door when it opened, revealing her cousin — not cousin Stewart, though.

Whereas Stewart was tall and healthy, the figure before her was short and pale with a bent and cringing posture. “Cousin Kay!” He grinned and actually clapped his hands. He wore a tuxedo that hung awkwardly on him.

He’d already managed to lose a cufflink. “Hello, uh….” She struggled to remember his name. “Primo! Cousin Primo. It’s, uh, good to see you.”Primo Giovanni smiled, showing even teeth that were the only perfect thing about him. “Ah, Cousin Kay! I hoped you’d be invited this year. Come in!”“This year…?” He ignored her question, grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the house. Looking around, Kay

could see people of all ages, formally dressed, mingling, drinking. She saw a few blond heads, but not Stewart’s, and she didn’t see Isabel anywhere.

introduCtion: KiSSinG CouSinS

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“Here, come with me Kay.” Primo had not released her wrist, and he was pulling her insistently away from the party, toward the west wing of the house.

“I’d really….”“No, I have something to show you! But you have to hurry!”She’d seen Primo a few times when they were both children. He’d been ugly, whiny and tantrum-prone then,

too. But he was one of the Giovanni, and Kay suspected they were the ones with the money, because even her proud mother deferred to them. Unsure what else to do, Kay went along with Primo, even though something about him, or the night, or the twisting corridors of the house made her skin tighten with fear.

Primo pulled her through a small side doorway and into a garden of thin, spindly plants.“Primo, I’m not going another step until you tell me what you’re going to show me.”“I just wanted to show you the sunset. From the top of the hill? I very much want to watch it go down all the

way. Please come with me? It’ll be perfect!”Kay felt that cold sickness in her chest that came from watching someone humiliate himself and not realize it.

He sounded so uncertain and needy that she acquiesced. At the top of the hill was a cold stone bench under a desiccated tree with only one stout branch that stuck out

like the arm of a gallows. Primo sat on the bench and stared, rapt, at the setting sun. Kay joined him and, after a moment, frowned. Why had he been so insistent that she come with him if he was

only going to ignore her? Wide-eyed, he gazed west, like a child watching TV. Her glance followed his for a mo-ment, but even the sunset was ugly: Through the thick gray clouds, the red and purple orb looked tired and bruised.

Kay turned quickly. Had she heard laughter? But there was no one around.“Primo? Is this what you…?”“Shh! Not yet. It’s not all the way down.”

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