Venice Vampyr - The Beginning

The search of her father’s bedchamber proved fruitless. She’d found nothing. Frustrated, she trudged down the stairs and made her way to the kitchen, where a plate of food was waiting for her. Another one of Lorenzo’s elusive servants had delivered it earlier. She wondered briefly why his servants weren’t staying at the house with him. Was it because she was with him? Or did he simply like to be on his own?

As she devoured the food, her thoughts drifted back to her father. Had he sold the treasure before his death and that was the reason why she couldn’t find it? Bianca didn’t believe it. He’d always claimed that the treasure was worth more than the house itself, yet her father had left a mountain of debt behind. Had he sold the treasure, there shouldn’t have been any debt. No, the treasure still had to be in the house.

The slamming of the front door jolted her out of her reverie. She jumped up, eager to be back in Lorenzo’s arms. At the kitchen door she halted, alarmed by a second slamming of the same door.

“We’re not done!” a stranger’s voice echoed through the hallway.

“I didn’t invite you to my home, Raphael!” Lorenzo bellowed.

“I’m not leaving until we’ve discussed this.”

Her heart beating in her throat, Bianca strained to hear more, but the two men had moved into the parlor and shut the door behind them.

She knew it wasn’t polite to eavesdrop, but something in Lorenzo’s voice had alarmed her, and she needed to know what was going on between them. And she knew just the place from where to see everything that went on in the parlor without being seen herself.

As a child, she’d loved to play hide and seek and had found a small storage room located on the upper floor right above the parlor. The room provided access to where the parlor’s crystal chandelier was suspended from the ceiling. While the candles could be lit without lowering the chandelier, in order to properly clean the crystals, the area had been made accessible so the heavy item could be lowered without effort. Holes in the ceiling allowed for a view into the room below to coordinate the lowering of the chandelier with servants in the parlor.

Her stocking-clad feet made no sound as Bianca stooped not to hit her head on the beams that carried the weight of the chandelier. She crouched down and slid back the leather patch that covered the hole, allowing her to peek into the parlor.





Chapter Fifteen




Lorenzo felt his anger boil over and turned to the fireplace where the embers still glowed. “Nico had no right to tell you!”

“Well, I’m glad he did!”

Lorenzo bent down and placed a handful of kindling on the fire, watching as flames licked up and engulfed it, eager to ignore Raphael’s reprimand. His private life was his own. Nobody had a right to interfere in it.

“You have to send her away. She could be a danger to you.”

Lorenzo threw another piece of wood onto the fire and rose, turning on his heels to face Raphael. “Bianca is no danger to me, she’s—”

“She’s human!” Raphael interrupted.

“And how is that any different from what you’re doing? Explain it to me, Raphael! Go ahead. Your wife is human. She lets you drink her blood, and don’t tell me it doesn’t drive you both to ecstasy every time you do it. And you have the gall to deny me a chance at the same happiness?” Yet he knew he could never bite Bianca, because he had to hide from her what he was.

“Don’t bring Isabella into this. This is very different. You don’t know anything about this woman.”

“I know enough!”

“That’s your cock talking!”

Lorenzo’s gums itched as his fangs extended, threatening to push to the surface. “I won’t have you insult me in my own home!”

“I’m not insulting you. I’m warning you. Or have you forgotten what happened with Elle?”

At the mention of Elle’s name, Lorenzo’s fangs pushed past his lips. He snarled and glared at his friend. “How dare you?”

“She betrayed you! Are you going to let the same thing happen again? What will you do once Bianca finds out what you are? Do you trust her enough not to kill you in your sleep?”

The sharp pain of a stake worked itself into Lorenzo’s heart as intense as if the imaginary weapon was real. But he wouldn’t admit his own doubts to Raphael. “She won’t find out. I’ve hidden it from her so far.”

“How much longer do you think you’ll succeed?” His friend’s voice was calmer now. “And if you really want true happiness with her, then you can’t hide this from her.”

“I’ll hide it for as long as I need to. She’ll never know that I’m a vampire.” Lorenzo closed his eyes. The promise wasn’t meant for Raphael but for himself. He could never allow her to find out. Even if this meant forgoing the ultimate pleasure of feeding from her. If she found out what he was, he’d lose her. And that thought scared him more than being caught outside when the sun rose.