Sensual Danger (Venice Vampyr #4)

As he said it, he felt a stab in his heart as if somebody had driven a stake into it. In that moment he realized that losing Oriana would mean losing his heart. Because he loved her. For an instant, he froze, stunned at the realization. How could this have happened? How could he have fallen in love with his own wife when three days ago he’d fought tooth and nail against this marriage?

“Why was she out there?” he thundered, then pointed to the contraption in the servant’s hands. “And what is this? Why was she fighting with that cutthroat over this thing?”

The servant’s eyes widened, and he nervously looked around the room as if looking for a way to escape his master’s scrutiny.

“Speak! Or I’ll make you regret the day you were born!”

Shaking, Giuseppe’s mouth opened. Only a croaking sound emerged.

“Now!”

“Y-y-your w-w-w-w-wife she has a l-l-l . . . ” His voice died.

Nico’s heart stopped. “A lover?” How could this be? She’d been a virgin until he’d deflowered her only two days ago. With disbelief, he stared at the stuttering footman. “I swear, man, I’ll crush you with my bare hands if you don’t tell me the truth immediately.”

“L-l-laboratory. Your wife has a laboratory,” Giuseppe answered.

Relieved and confused at the same time, Nico questioned him again, “What do you mean, a laboratory? For what purpose?”

“The signora tinkers.”

“Tinkers?”

Giuseppe raised the apparatus in his hands. “With s-s-science. She built this to proof that v-v-v-vampires exist.”

The room suddenly began to turn before Nico’s eyes, as if the earth beneath him were shaking. “No, no,” he mumbled breathlessly. It was impossible. His wife? She was the one who was rumored to have a way of ferreting out vampires? “No,” he repeated.

“Y-yes, signore. I speak the truth. You have to believe me.”

Nico looked at him, then dropped his gaze to the machine. “Show me.”

“Show you what, signore?”

He made a throwaway gesture. “Everything: her laboratory, her science, how this contraption works. Everything!”

Meekly, the servant nodded. “There’s a secret passageway.” He motioned Nico to follow him as he stepped out into the hallway.

A secret passageway? What else was in store for him? He was unable to even contemplate what this news would mean for him. If his wife was the person who was trying to find a way to discover vampires, then she was their enemy. He couldn’t live with his enemy. One day she would find out what he was. One day she would discover his secret and kill him. Because there could only be one reason why she had built this machine: to aid the Guardians of the Holy Waters, the vampires’ sworn enemies. Maybe she was even one of them! Who was to say that the secret society of the Guardians only consisted of men? What if women had joined their ranks?

With a heavy heart, Nico followed his servant through a hidden door in the paneling in the hallway. It led him along an old, musty, narrow corridor to a single door. Giuseppe reached above the sill of the door and pulled a key from it. Unlocking the door, he pushed it open and entered. Hyperaware of his surroundings, Nico entered behind him.

The room was dark. Nico heard a match being struck, then watched Giuseppe light a candle. The light now illuminating the room revealed a multitude of bottles, jars, and tools, as well as an abundance of scientific books and papers.

Nico pointed to the machine Giuseppe now placed on a work bench. “I saw it glow when we were in the alley. It’s not glowing now. How does it work?”

Giuseppe pointed to a cylinder in the middle of the contraption. “Your w-w-wife fills it with a l-l-liquid and when a vampire touches it, it will g-g-glow a certain color. If the p-p-p-person is human, it glows a d-d-different color.”

Nico nodded. He’d seen the machine in action: it had glowed orange when the cutthroat had tried to take it from his wife, but when Nico had touched the rod that protruded from its front, it had started glowing blue. But he wasn’t going to share this revelation with Giuseppe, since he was almost certain that the servant had been too engaged in fighting off the second thug to have had an opportunity to observe what had happened.

“Why doesn’t it glow now?”

“The cylinder is empty. M-m-maybe the liquid spilled, w-w-when your wife fell.”

Nico stretched his palm out to Giuseppe. “The key to this room.”

Giuseppe quickly obeyed and placed the key in Nico’s hand.

“Nobody enters this room. And not a word to my wife that you told me about this. Do you understand?”

“What if she is looking for the k-k-key?”

“Then you know nothing!”

Giuseppe nodded. Nico motioned him out the door, then after following him, locked the door behind them and put the key into the pocket of his waistcoat. In the hallway he turned to his servant once more.

“I will be back shortly. In the meantime, you’re responsible for seeing that nobody enters or leaves this house. That goes for everybody, especially my wife. If my orders aren’t followed to the letter, I will find you, I promise you that.”