Sensual Danger (Venice Vampyr #4)

Her heart stopped. “They know about my research?”


Giuseppe dropped his head, and his fingers played nervously with a button on his livery. “Well, the thing is, in order to find out what they know, I had to tell them a little bit about what you know.” He raised his eyes quickly, uncertainty about her reaction to this news written in them. “I didn’t say much, but I alluded to the fact that you may know how to identify preternatural beings.”

Frantically, the wheels in Oriana’s head began to spin. Had her footman put her in danger by revealing something about her research to strangers? Or could these people help her further her work?

“Do you know what specifically they’re looking for?” she asked.

“Vampires, just like you. They are interested in finding out how to detect one.”

“Have you told them about my machine?” she asked, raising her voice and stepping closer.

Instinctively, he shrunk back from her. “No, not really. Not specifically.” He hesitated, shifting his weight from one foot onto the other, while she stared at him intensely. “I may have said you have a way of knowing.”

“What exactly did you tell them?”

He swallowed visibly, his Adam’s apple jumping. “I may have said that you’re working on an apparatus . . . ”

Oriana sighed in frustration. “I don’t even know if this machine works yet. I’m still tinkering with it. It’s too early to tell anybody about it. If it fails, I’ll be the laughingstock of all of Venice! Giuseppe!” she cursed.

“I apologize, signorina, uh, signora!”

“Never mind that now. You’d better go back to them and tell them that I’m still testing the equipment and I’m not ready to reveal it yet.”

Giuseppe scratched himself on the back of his head. “I don’t really know anybody of the group directly. They seem to be very secretive.”

“Then how did you relay information to them?” she asked, confused.

“There’s this footman I know; he knows one of them.”

“Well, then talk to him and tell him what I’ve told you: I’m not ready.”

Then she brushed past him and left her laboratory, calling for her maid to help her put on her corset, which was one piece of clothing she couldn’t lace herself into. Once dressed properly, she headed for the dining room to partake of her breakfast.





6


Nico was awakened by the various sounds in his new home, and had risen despite the fact that it was still daytime, and by the looks of it, even before midday. He could say with certainty that in his entire time as a vampire, he’d never been up this early.

He sleepwalked his way through his morning ritual, nevertheless taking great pains to wash with the cold water that a servant had left in a pitcher the night before. He would call for a bath at a later time. For now, he was eager to find his wife and reassure himself that the face he’d dreamed of after returning home in the early hours of the morning was as beautiful as he remembered.

After Oriana had refused him access to her chamber and her enticing body, he’d left the house, knowing full well that staying while she slept in the room next door would make it impossible for him to sleep one wink. Besides, he was a creature of the night and could be found in a bed during night time for only one reason: to bed a woman.

With stealthy steps that were second nature to him, he stalked downstairs and inhaled deeply, taking in the different scents of the house that was now his home. One scent among the many different ones tickled his nostrils, eliciting the same reaction as when he’d first smelled it the night before: Oriana’s pure scent.

He followed it as it carried him toward the dining room. When he approached the door, he heard the faint tinkling of cutlery. Oriana’s scent was strongest here. Filling his lungs, he opened the door and let himself in, closing it silently behind him.

Knowing he only had a second to take in the lovely sight, before his wife would be alerted to the intrusion, he looked his fill: her lips were red and plump, her fingers holding a fork ever so delicately, her back straight, and her eyes fixated on something in the distance.

Despite the two windows, the room was rather dark because the house backed onto another, slightly taller building, which robbed this side of the house of sunlight. He appreciated this fact, because it made it easy for him to move around. In fact, many Venetian homes were rather dark, since they were only separated from other houses by narrow alleys that didn’t allow much light to penetrate.