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!”

“Yes,” Nico continued, “what if they all have code names they call each other by, so that if they are being overheard, their true identities won’t be revealed?”

Lorenzo’s spirit lifted. The find hadn’t been for naught. “Then we simply have to figure out the code. Knowing that Massimo, Giovanni and Salvatore have to be on the list, if we can decipher what their code names were, we can get behind the logic of it and figure out the remaining names.”

Nico grinned. “You’re taking the words right out of my mouth, my friend.”

“Excellent!” Dante slapped Nico on the shoulder and looked into the round. “Let’s get to work then.”

As his friends huddled together to pour over the list, Isabella rose from her seat and approached him. In a low voice, she addressed him. “Lorenzo, I think you should take your wife home. She seems unwell.”

Instantly, his gaze shot to his wife, and indeed she looked somewhat pale. “Thank you, Isabella.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it before he strode to Bianca.

“My sweet, let’s go home.”

Bianca gave him a grateful smile. “If you need to stay, I can go by myself.”

Lorenzo pulled her up to stand. “I’d rather spend the rest of the night with you than with my friends.” Then he snaked his arm around her waist. “Now come, you need to rest.”

“I’m perfectly fine.”

He smiled at her attempt to brush off his concern and made his excuses before he led Bianca out of the house. Glad that his house was only steps from Raphael and Dante’s, he lifted her into his arms and carried her, ignoring her protests.

“I can walk.”

He pressed a quick kiss on her lips to stop her from talking, then carried her into their home and up the stairs. “I like having you in my arms.”

In their chamber, he gently set her on her feet. She instantly swayed, then ran for the commode which held a pitcher of water and a bowl.

“Oh, no!” she wailed, before she bent over the bowl and cast up her accounts.

With two steps, Lorenzo was behind her, slid his arm around her waist and supported her. Despite the fact that she was unwell, he couldn’t suppress his smile. His sweet little wife was giving him the most amazing present.

With his free hand he poured her a glass of water.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong. Maybe the meat I ate was spoiled.”

“Drink.”

She took a gulp of water, washing out her mouth, then spit it out. “I’m better. I’m sorry you had to see this.”

Lorenzo’s hand slid possessively over her stomach, and his lips went to her ear. “My sweet, I’ll be here whenever you need me. And now that we can be relatively certain that you’re enceinte, we have a decision to make.”

“Enceinte?” Bianca gasped and turned to face him.

“Yes, my love. There can be no other reason for your sickness. And if you need any more proof: you’ve not once rejected my advances in the last weeks and claimed to have your courses.”

“Oh, my God.” She looked down at herself and pressed her hand onto her stomach, then looked back up at him with wonder in her eyes. “A child.”

“Yes, our child. But we have to—”

She grabbed his hand. “Lorenzo, will it be vampire like you or human like me?”

“That is for you to decide.”

Bianca gave him a confused look. “But how?”

“If you decide you want a human child, there’s nothing for you to do. But should you decide you want a child that’s half vampire, half human, for it can never be fully vampire, you have to drink my blood while the child is in your womb. You have time to decide until you’re four months along.”

Would she want a child that was part vampire? Lorenzo knew what he wanted.

“What do you want?” Bianca asked.

“It doesn’t matter what I want. This is your decision. Your choice.” He didn’t want to influence her with his own preference, so he didn’t voice it.

“If it’s half vampire, will it be hurt in the sun?”

“No. A half vampire, half human child will be able to walk in the sun and the shadows, having the traits and strengths of both species. It’ll be stronger than either.”

“But will it age?”

He understood her concern and was glad to be able to lay it to rest. “Yes, the child will grow and age as any human child. But as soon as it reaches maturity, it’ll stop aging just like any vampire whose age is frozen at their turning.”

Bianca nodded, clearly contemplating his words. Then she looked at him, her eyes going to his neck where his vein throbbed uncontrollably. She licked her lips. “What does blood taste like?”

Lorenzo’s heart leapt. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

She nodded.

He drew her into his embrace. “You don’t know what this means to me. Nobody’s ever accepted me like you have. And now, to know that you’re prepared to have our child be half vampire, you’re making me the happiest man in the entire world.”

“I love you, Lorenzo,” she whispered and pressed herself closer. “Make love to me and let me drink your blood.”

And there was nothing else he’d rather do in that instant.

THE END