Sensual Danger (Venice Vampyr #4)

A frightened look on his face, Giuseppe nodded quickly. “E-e-everything will be done as you w-w-wish, signore.”


But at this point, Nico wished only one thing: for this nightmare to be over. However, it was a wish his servant didn’t have the power to grant him.





14


A sudden silence fell over the parlor in Dante’s and Raphael’s house, where the two brothers, their wives Viola and Isabella, as well as Marcello, Lorenzo, and Bianca were assembled. They had been poring over the list of Guardians’ names once more.

Nico nodded gravely. He’d arrived ten minutes earlier and relayed what his footman had told him and what he’d observed with this own eyes when coming upon Oriana in the dark alley where she’d been attacked. “It’s true. My wife is the enemy we’ve been hunting for the last few days.”

The enemy—the word sliced through his chest.

Raphael sighed. “There can only be one reason why your wife was attacked.” He exchanged a look with Marcello.

“The cutthroats you chased off must have been working for the Guardians,” Marcello continued. “Nobody else has a reason to want this machine.”

Nico shifted restlessly from one foot to the other. “But why attack her if she’s working for them?”

“Maybe she isn’t. Maybe she’s working on her own and will sell the machine to the highest bidder. If the Guardians are aware of that, they’ll want to intervene before somebody else gets hold of it,” Raphael ventured a guess.

Marcello made a hand movement, indicating his impatience. “Be that as it may. It’s clear what we have to do: destroy the machine and erase her memory.”

Nico’s heart began to race, but before he could even protest, Lorenzo rose from his seat and protested, “No!”

All eyes landed on him.

“You know my position on this. Erasing a human’s memory should only be done if it is to erase a single moment in time, not entire weeks or months of a person’s life. It’s too dangerous. You all know what can happen.”

Nico locked eyes with Lorenzo, knowing only too well what lay in his friend’s past. He’d been forced to erase his lover’s memory after she’d tried to stake him. Elle had ended up in an insane asylum, her mind destroyed, because of the amount of memories Lorenzo had erased. Ever since then, Lorenzo had cautioned all of them not to make the same mistake.

“I can’t do this to my wife,” Nico said quietly, reassuring himself that he wasn’t the kind of monster to hurt the woman he loved.

“Then what are you planning to do?” Marcello took a step toward him, poking his index finger into Nico’s chest. “Why do you even care? Weren’t you the one who was planning to send her to the countryside after the wedding? Or have you suddenly changed your mind?”

Surprised that even Marcello knew about his original plan, he glared at Raphael and Dante.

Dante shrugged. “You never said it was a secret.”

“Never mind that now,” Marcello continued. “You know as well as each and every one of us that your wife presents a danger to us. We have to deal with it. Swiftly, before things escalate and the Guardians succeed next time and snatch the machine from her.”

Nico’s anger surged. “There won’t be a next time. I’ll destroy the machine!”

“That won’t be enough!”

It had to be, because the other thing his friends expected him to do, he couldn’t do. “It will have to be enough!”

“And what if they snatch her?” Marcello challenged him. “What if they force her to build a new machine?”

“She won’t.”

While Nico’s voice was strong and filled with determination, his mind was anything but. How would he stop his wife from betraying them? He couldn’t keep her locked up day and night. He would have a mutiny on his hands in short order. A headstrong woman like his wife wouldn’t submit for long. Eventually, she would resent him for curbing her freedom. And she would try to escape.

“There’s no way of making sure of that,” Marcello disagreed.

Lorenzo, leaning casually against the fireplace, cleared his throat. Nico snapped his gaze to him.

“There is one way,” Lorenzo claimed.

Nico raised an interested eyebrow.

“Show her what you are.”

For several seconds nobody spoke. Then Nico shook his head. “It’ll never work. She hates vampires. Why else would she build a machine to be able to identify us? If I reveal what I am . . . ” Nico couldn’t finish his sentence.

Oriana would recoil from him in disgust. Instead of wrapping her legs around him and pulling him closer, she would kick him off her, searching for the nearest weapon to kill him. And then he’d be forced to kill her. And by God, he could never kill the woman he loved.

“Nico.” Lorenzo’s urging voice penetrated his thoughts.

He looked up to meet his friend’s gaze.

“Nobody’s heard from you in the last two days and nights. It leads me to believe that you’ve been . . . shall we say, busy with your wife?”