Venice Vampyr - The Beginning

If she confessed everything now, would he forgive her? She had to try. “Lorenzo, there’s something I need to say …” She paused, not knowing how to go on.

“Bianca, before you say anything else, I need to explain one thing to you. It’s about what you overheard that night. About Elle.”

At the mention of that name, Bianca remembered his friend’s words about a betrayal. An uneasy feeling rose from her stomach. “Yes?”

Lorenzo rolled to his side and let his head flop onto the pillow beside her. Then he pulled her into the curve of his body, cradling her against him. His breath was at her ear when he finally spoke. “I loved a woman once. She was human, and her name was Elle.” He sighed. “I trusted her, and I believed that she loved me. And maybe she did. But her love wasn’t strong enough.”

“What happened?”

“She betrayed me. When I confessed to her what I was, she pretended that she didn’t mind, that she could live with it. I should have seen it. She’d hidden her feelings in plain sight. One night, I awoke to find her bending over me with a stake. She almost killed me.”

A heavy gasp escaped her as tears formed in her eyes.

“Oh, Lorenzo, I’m so sorry.” She realized then that he wouldn’t be able to forgive another betrayal. “What happened?”

“I had to wipe her memory of any knowledge of me. But it was too much for her mind to take. She became insane and died soon after.”

Bianca’s heart stuttered to a halt. Having felt how he’d projected his own feelings into her mind, the knowledge that he could wipe away memories didn’t surprise her as much as it should have. Yet, there was something else that didn’t make sense to her. “But, I don’t understand. How could she not have accepted you? Why would she forgo the kind of pleasure your bite brings? Why would—”

“I never took her blood. She didn’t allow it. At the time I thought if I was patient, maybe she would change her mind. But sometimes we just don’t want to see what’s in plain view. She didn’t love me.”

A sob escaped her.

“You, my love, are the only woman who’s ever freely offered her blood to me. And for that, I cherish you even more.”

His words choked her, because she knew she didn’t deserve his adoration. She’d deceived him just as Elle had, and while Bianca had no intention of ever hurting him, she knew if he found out about her past, he would feel the same kind of betrayal that he had gone through with Elle. She couldn’t stop the next sob from freeing itself from her throat.

Lorenzo stroked over her cheek. “You weep for my heartbreak, my love? There’s no need for it anymore. My heart is mended now. I’ve given it to you, and I can’t imagine a more worthy woman to keep it safe for me.”

As her tears flowed freely, Lorenzo’s hands caressed her and lulled her into sleep and the comfort she didn’t deserve.

***

Lorenzo leaned back in the armchair in Nico’s rooms and stared into the fire.

“Then why don’t you tell her that you know about her past?” Nico asked and took a seat next to him, stretching his long legs toward the fire.

“Things have been so perfect the last couple of days, I don’t want to upset the status quo.”

“And what is the status quo?” his friend asked pointedly.

“I told you already. She knows about me now. And she accepts me as I am. Hell, every day and every night, she offers me her blood. Freely, without restraints. I can’t tell her that I’ve been looking into her background. What must she think?”

Nico smirked. “That you’re a cautious man? Who has reasons to be cautious, if I may add. Surely, she can’t fault you for that. She showed up in your home, unannounced and—”

“Which reminds me,” Lorenzo interrupted, “what was my housewarming present to be if it wasn’t Bianca?”

“Ah, that!” Nico grinned. “We were planning on organizing an orgy for you, with exotic belly dancers fresh from the Orient, but seeing that you’re so infatuated with this woman, I suppose we shall purchase a piece of furniture instead.”

“Much appreciated.” The thought of an orgy had no appeal for him at all. Not when he knew that Bianca was warming his bed.

“Now, to get back to my point: she’s the one who deceived you, yet you’re the one feeling guilty for investigating her background. Why do I think that’s odd?” Nico made a near comical face, underscoring his sarcasm.

“Because you’re an unfeeling ass, Nico! If you understood women at all, you’d see clearly that I’m in a quandary here. How am I going to show her that her past has no bearing on my feelings for her when I don’t want to let her know that I already know?”

With his hands, Nico made circles in the air. “As you so eloquently stated, that is a quandary. And you’re quite sure, you’re not willing to admit to your little indiscretion about inquiring into her past?”

Lorenzo shot him an annoyed glare, and Nico instantly threw up his hands.

“Very well then. And since I do know women a little, thank you very much, I have a suggestion.”