Page 96 of Venice Vampyr: The Beginning

“When I found you in my house that first night, I had my friend Nico make inquiries. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but I was afraid you’d be angry at me for investigating you.”

“You knew I was a whore?”

“Shh. You’re no whore. You’re pure.”

“I’m not pure. I’m soiled. I’m—”

He laid his hand on her heart. “In here, you’re pure. It doesn’t matter to me what lies in your past. You’re what I want. Be mine. Let me make you happy.”

“You mean this, don’t you?”

He simply nodded. A moment later she threw herself into his arms and held him tighter than he’d ever been held.

“I love you, Lorenzo.”

He lifted her chin up to brush his lips against hers. “For eternity.” Then he lowered her back onto the sheets and moved over her, sliding in between her spread thighs. “My love, if we ever make it out of this bed, I’ll shower you with every treasure you can imagine.”

“And what can I give you?”

He smiled. “I already have my own treasure. You.”

Epilogue

Three weeks later

“The men on this list don’t exist,” Raphael proclaimed, holding up the infamous piece of paper Bianca had found.

As murmurs of disbelief rippled through the dozen friends who were assembled in Raphael’s parlor, Lorenzo felt disappointment settle in. He’d been so sure the list showed the members of the hated Guardians of the Holy Waters, the group who’d been hunting him and his friends for years.

He let his gaze travel to Bianca, who sat on the sofa next to Isabella and gave her a reassuring look. While Nico, Raphael, Dante, and the latter two’s wives had already met Bianca three weeks earlier, today Lorenzo had introduced her as his wife to the remainder of their closely knit group. Rumors about his nuptials had already traveled like a wildfire through the canals of Venice, and his friends had been eager to set eyes on the woman who’d stolen his heart.

“Then why would Signore Greco hide it with a ring of the Guardians? Is it to try and throw us off their trail?” Andrea asked.

“A ruse, I assume,” Dante explained. “I assure you, Raphael and I have investigated each and every single name on this list. Without any success. The names are false.”

“And incomplete.” Isabella’s words made Lorenzo snap his gaze to her.

“How can you know that?” Lorenzo took a step closer to her.

“Because neither my late husband’s nor Massimo’s name is on it.”

“Nor Salvatore’s,” Viola, who stood next to Dante, added.

Lorenzo remembered all too well what had happened to the three men: Giovanni, Isabella’s first husband and a Guardian had drowned. Massimo, another Guardian, who’d threatened to kill Raphael had been shot dead by Isabella, and Salvatore, the Guardian who’d nearly killed Dante and had forced him to turn Viola into a vampire to save her from certain death, had been shot and killed by Raphael.

“Maybe they’re not on the list because they’re dead,” Lorenzo voiced his observation.

Bianca shook her head. “I don’t think so. The ink on the paper looks old and worn. My father didn’t write this list in the last few months before his death.”

Raphael looked at the list in his hands again. “I agree. This is older than simply a few months. Hence it’s impossible for those three men not to be on the list. Signore Greco couldn’t have known about their deaths when he wrote down the names.”

“Maybe they are on the list after all.” Everybody turned at Nico’s words.

“How so?” Lorenzo asked, curious whether Nico had figured something out that the rest of them had overlooked.

“A code.”

Raphael’s gaze swept over the paper in his hands. “By God!”