Venice Vampyr - The Beginning (41 page)

Her hand encountered a small item made of metal. She pulled it out and perused it. It was a ring. But it wasn’t shiny nor did it hold a large precious stone. Instead, the ring was rather ugly, its black stone carrying the same symbol she had noticed on the paper she’d found. This wasn’t any treasure! It was a near worthless piece of jewelry, which didn’t even please her eye.

There had to be something else in the treasure trove. Could this really be all her father had left her? Had he sold the remainder and gambled the money away?

Disheartened, Bianca reached into the dark compartment and swept her hand systematically from left to right and top to bottom when her palm encountered a stick. She wrapped her hand around its smooth surface and brought it out into the light.

Her heartbeat doubled as she looked at the item that her hand gripped tightly: a stake! She was holding a wooden stake. A gasp escaped her. Had her father hunted vampires? Had he killed men like Lorenzo?

But she had no chance to think on it further, a movement to her left entering her vision. As she turned her head, Lorenzo vaulted himself onto her and wrestled her onto her back, his strong arms gripping her wrists and pressing them against the mattress to both sides of her head. At the same time he straddled her, pinning her to the bed so she was unable to move.

When she caught the look on his face, she shrieked. His eyes were glaring red, and his fangs were extended. He growled low and dark.

“You too? How could you?” Disbelief carried in his voice. “You devious bitch! I trusted you!”

She knew what it must look like, and knowing what his former lover had done, she could only too easily understand his anger. “Lorenzo! Please, don’t hurt me! Please, I didn’t—”

He flashed his fangs at her and snarled. “You tried to kill me!” Then he threw his head back. “And to think that I loved you! What an idiot I am!”

“No, no!” she pleaded. “I didn’t try to hurt you.”

He let out a bitter laugh. “Oh, no? The stake in your hand says otherwise.” He wrung the offending item from her palm and tossed it off the bed.

“I found it! It’s not mine. It was with the treasure!” Bianca closed her eyes, willing away the tears that threatened to burst to the surface. He wouldn’t believe her tears. Her only chance at making him believe her was to tell him the truth, all of it, every ugly detail.

“What treasure?”

She swallowed hard before she opened her eyes again. His gaze was as angry as before, yet she’d never thought him more beautiful. And she would lose him now. Once he knew of her past, he would toss her out onto the street. At least she would be alive, even though she couldn’t imagine living without Lorenzo. He’d come to mean everything to her in the last few days.

“My father, he told me of a treasure he’d hidden in this house. He said it was worth more than the house itself.”

Lorenzo huffed, but said nothing.

“I came back to find it so that I could finally start a new life. I’m not a lady. I’m not the gently bred daughter of a Venice merchant anymore. You deserve to know what I did. I’ve deceived you. I’ve hidden my shame, and I’m sorry. But when my father tried to marry me off to some old man I hated, I had to run. I had to escape.”

She closed her eyes and allowed a tear to escape. “To survive I became a courtesan. I’m no better than a common whore.”

“Bianca—”

“No! Don’t say anything now. Hear me out. I tried to escape my lot. When my father died, I came back to find the treasure he’d spoken to me about so many years ago. But then Signore Mancini told me that the house had already been sold. I let myself in, hoping the new owner wouldn’t move in until the next week. By that time I would have been gone with my treasure. But then you came that night—”

“You weren’t at the house hoping to seduce me so you could stay and snag yourself a rich husband?”

She shook her head. “No! Of course not. All I wanted was to search for my father’s treasure and leave to start a new life where nobody knew me.”

Lorenzo eased his grip on her wrists. “Go on.”

“You know the rest.”

“No. Tell me why you stayed and allowed me to seduce you into my bed.”

She averted her eyes, feeling embarrassment sweep over her at the memory of their intimacies. “At first, I stayed merely to continue my search. But then—”

“Then?” His eyes were back to their normal color now, and his fangs had retreated too.

“I stayed because I didn’t want to leave you. I felt something I’d never felt before.”

***

Lorenzo’s heartbeat slowed as his anger started to slowly dissipate. “If you have feelings for me, then why did you try to kill me?”

“I didn’t. I found the stake. There.” She pointed past him toward the head of the bed. “It was with the treasure.” She gave an unladylike snort. “And what treasure it was: a stupid ring and a piece of paper. Worthless! Now I have nothing.”

Lorenzo turned to look behind him and saw the opening in the headboard. A secret hiding place and cleverly done at that. He’d never noticed it, not that he’d given the piece of furniture more than a cursory glance before. Every time he’d been in this room, his entire attention had been lavished on Bianca, and he’d never really taken in any details about his surroundings.

As he was about to turn back to Bianca, his gaze fell onto the pillow. The black onyx ring contrasted against the white linen.

“Hell!” he cursed and picked up the evil item, snapping his head back to her. “This was the ring you found?”

She nodded.

“Do you realize what this is?”

“It’s just a worthless ring. It’s not even a diamond.” The disappointment in her voice told him that she really had no idea what she’d stumbled upon.

“This, my sweet, is the ring of a Guardian.”

She gave him the most confused look he’d ever seen her wear. “It’s ugly.”

He suddenly felt compelled to smile. “That it is. It appears your father was a Guardian, a member of the secret society that hunts our kind.”

Bianca gasped. “He hunted vampires?”

“It appears that way.”

“I don’t understand. Then where’s the treasure he spoke of? Was he just telling me tales to entertain me as a child?”

Lorenzo held the ring in front of her face. “This
is
a treasure. Was this all you found?”

“There was a piece of paper too, with names.”

“Names?” Lorenzo spun around to pick up the sheet of paper he’d ignored earlier and looked at it now. As his eyes ran over the long list of names, his head spun. The list could only mean that those named were Guardians.

He looked down at Bianca, realizing that he still held her captive between his thighs. “This is the real treasure. The list. The names.”

“Worth more than this house?”

He nodded.

“That’s what my father always claimed. He said if he sold the treasure to the right people, he would be a rich man.”

“He was right. Any vampire in this city would pay a vast sum of money to get his hands on this list. Knowing these names, we can finally defend ourselves and know our enemies.”

“So you believe me now that I didn’t want to kill you?” she asked, her voice resigned now. Why did she not join in his joy?

“Yes, my sweet, I believe you.” He lifted himself off her and pulled her up to sit.

“Then I should pack my things and leave.”

Lorenzo’s heart stopped. “Leave?”

“Yes. You do understand that I can’t stay here any longer. You know my secret now. You know what I am. A whore. Not worthy to be your mistress anymore.” She moved to slide off the bed, but he snatched her arm and pulled her back.

“You’re right. You can’t be my mistress anymore. It wouldn’t be right.” Then he leaned toward the nightstand where he reached for the little box he’d placed there upon his return home. He opened it and took out the item it contained and turned back to Bianca.

“I wouldn’t want the woman I love to merely be my mistress.” Then he took her hand and slid the brilliant ruby ring onto her finger. “Be my wife.”

A gasp came from Bianca’s mouth, but no words came out even when she opened her lips and worked her throat. Her eyes went wide as saucers, and tears stood at their rim. Her gaze darted from the ring on her finger back to his face, and still she didn’t say anything.

“Bianca, please say something. Don’t keep me in suspense. I need to know your answer. You know I love you. You’ve seen my heart, you’ve felt the depth of my commitment to you, now please tell me you want me as your husband.”

Suddenly her hands came around his neck, and she pulled him to her.

“Is that a yes?” he asked.

She nodded, a sob escaping her. “Yes.”

His heart felt like bursting as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately. But there was a tiny twinge of guilt inside him that he couldn’t suppress. Separating his lips from hers, he inhaled deeply before he spoke.

“Bianca, my love, I have to make a confession.”

Her eyelids rose, and her gaze collided with his. “Yes?”

“I’ve known about your past all along.”

She pulled away further. “You what?”

“When I found you in my house that first night, I had my friend Nico make inquiries. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but I was afraid you’d be angry at me for investigating you.”

“You knew I was a whore?”

“Shh. You’re no whore. You’re pure.”

“I’m not pure. I’m soiled. I’m—”

He laid his hand on her heart. “In here, you’re pure. It doesn’t matter to me what lies in your past. You’re what I want. Be mine. Let me make you happy.”

“You mean this, don’t you?”

He simply nodded. A moment later she threw herself into his arms and held him tighter than he’d ever been held.

“I love you, Lorenzo.”

He lifted her chin up to brush his lips against hers. “For eternity.” Then he lowered her back onto the sheets and moved over her, sliding in between her spread thighs. “My love, if we ever make it out of this bed, I’ll shower you with every treasure you can imagine.”

“And what can I give you?”

He smiled. “I already have my own treasure. You.”

Epilogue

Three weeks later

“The men on this list don’t exist,” Raphael proclaimed, holding up the infamous piece of paper Bianca had found.

As murmurs of disbelief rippled through the dozen friends who were assembled in Raphael’s parlor, Lorenzo felt disappointment settle in. He’d been so sure the list showed the members of the hated Guardians of the Holy Waters, the group who’d been hunting him and his friends for years.

He let his gaze travel to Bianca, who sat on the sofa next to Isabella and gave her a reassuring look. While Nico, Raphael, Dante, and the latter two’s wives had already met Bianca three weeks earlier, today Lorenzo had introduced her as his wife to the remainder of their closely knit group. Rumors about his nuptials had already traveled like a wildfire through the canals of Venice, and his friends had been eager to set eyes on the woman who’d stolen his heart.

“Then why would Signore Greco hide it with a ring of the Guardians? Is it to try and throw us off their trail?” Andrea asked.

“A ruse, I assume,” Dante explained. “I assure you, Raphael and I have investigated each and every single name on this list. Without any success. The names are false.”

“And incomplete.” Isabella’s words made Lorenzo snap his gaze to her.

“How can you know that?” Lorenzo took a step closer to her.

“Because neither my late husband’s nor Massimo’s name is on it.”

“Nor Salvatore’s,” Viola, who stood next to Dante, added.

Lorenzo remembered all too well what had happened to the three men: Giovanni, Isabella’s first husband and a Guardian had drowned. Massimo, another Guardian, who’d threatened to kill Raphael had been shot dead by Isabella, and Salvatore, the Guardian who’d nearly killed Dante and had forced him to turn Viola into a vampire to save her from certain death, had been shot and killed by Raphael.

“Maybe they’re not on the list because they’re dead,” Lorenzo voiced his observation.

Bianca shook her head. “I don’t think so. The ink on the paper looks old and worn. My father didn’t write this list in the last few months before his death.”

Raphael looked at the list in his hands again. “I agree. This is older than simply a few months. Hence it’s impossible for those three men not to be on the list. Signore Greco couldn’t have known about their deaths when he wrote down the names.”

“Maybe they are on the list after all.” Everybody turned at Nico’s words.

“How so?” Lorenzo asked, curious whether Nico had figured something out that the rest of them had overlooked.

“A code.”

Raphael’s gaze swept over the paper in his hands. “By God!”

“Yes,” Nico continued, “what if they all have code names they call each other by, so that if they are being overheard, their true identities won’t be revealed?”

Lorenzo’s spirit lifted. The find hadn’t been for naught. “Then we simply have to figure out the code. Knowing that Massimo, Giovanni and Salvatore have to be on the list, if we can decipher what their code names were, we can get behind the logic of it and figure out the remaining names.”