He snickered a little and pierced her earlobe with one fang, quickly lapping at the blood with his cold tongue before he rose and straightened his clothes. She immediately felt the chill leave her, and Beatrice resisted the urge to shake.

“Delicious. You are a treat, my dear. I’ve already fed this evening, but hopefully we’ll have time tomorrow night.”

“Where are you taking me?” she asked, shrugging the tension from her body and drying her eyes with the back of her sleeve. He thought she was going to wait around to let him feed on her? In his dreams.

“Don’t be silly. It’s very possible that Giovanni will have found you by tomorrow night, and I don’t want to give him any new information.”

She glared at the monster in front of her.

“Why did you kill Ioan?”

He giggled and looked around the room. Beatrice finally noticed that there were four other vampires present beside Lorenzo and no other humans beside herself. All of Lorenzo’s men were dressed in black, and none of them seemed remarkable in the least.

Lorenzo finally stopped his ridiculous giggling. “One, I did not kill the kindly doctor, these lovely gentlemen did. Two, the reason I killed Ioan is between Ioan and myself. So you’ll have to ask one of us, and since I’m not telling, and he’s little bits of dust at this point, I suppose you’ll just have to live with disappointment.”

In that moment, Beatrice De Novo decided that she would become a vampire. If for no other reason than to kill the evil creature in front of her, who shattered lives on a whim. A cool calm settled over her, and a smile flickered across her face.

“I am going to kill you, Lorenzo.”

He only laughed. “You’re precious. Now, will my father kill me?” He shrugged. “Perhaps. He’s definitely powerful enough. The problem for him is, he lacks a certain…we’ll call it ‘devious intent,’ that allows me to be far more ruthless. Oh, he’s quite violent when provoked, as my lovely house on the island can attest, but he doesn’t really enjoy it like I do. Now you…” He lifted a curious eyebrow. “You might be a force to be reckoned with, Beatrice De Novo.”

The smile fell from his face, and he cocked his head to the side. “I can see the calculation in your eyes, and it’s very intriguing. What could you accomplish with power? It’s almost worth changing you to find out.”

The thought of his blood running through her veins sickened her, and she curled her lip. He quickly plastered on a sick smile.

“Oh! You’re so darling. I missed you.”

“I can’t say I feel the same, Paulo.”

She didn’t even see the slap coming. His quick backhand would have knocked her unconscious if she hadn’t become accustomed to Gemma’s even more ruthless blows during their training. Lorenzo was eyeing her with a new light in his eyes.

“So, my darling Papá confided my human name to you, did he?” He cocked his head. “What else did he confide?”

Beatrice kept her expression neutral, suddenly aware that she’d made a horrible mistake. No one had known how much she knew about Giovanni, and she realized that his secrets were completely open to any vampire that wanted them if they could get their hands on her.

The same thought seemed to occur to Lorenzo, but he didn’t put his hands on her. Instead, he smirked and blew her a kiss before he swept out of the room with his entourage. Beatrice released a breath when she was alone again and settled into the bed to rest and wait for dawn.

Chapter Seventeen

English Channel

March 2010

The sun was pouring through the porthole when she woke, and small droplets of condensation cast tiny rainbows around the small room. Beatrice remembered Giovanni’s favorite waterfall in Cochamó and how it looked during the day with the sun reflecting off the spraying mist. It would be late summer right now, and she decided that if she could pick one place to be, it would be at their house in the valley with him.

They would wake in the early evening and make love in front of the fireplace in their bedroom, the flecks of mica sparkling in the hewn granite wall. She would sleep next to him all day and spend the night riding through the meadows in the moonlight. Maybe there would be wildflowers. She would have to remember to see as much of the valley as she could in the sunlight and take pictures for after she had turned. Since it was summer, maybe they would implement a no clothing rule in the house. She knew Giovanni wouldn’t mind.

Beatrice rubbed her eyes and stretched. She was going to get out of the room today. She wasn’t sure how, but it was daytime. Granted, it was morning, which meant that some of the vampires could still be awake if they stayed out of sunlight, but by afternoon, she knew they would be sleeping. That meant anyone up and walking around would be human. And she was pretty sure if she could land the odd blow on Gemma, she could kick some human ass.

Hours later, when the sun was hanging lower in the sky, she beat on the thick metal door.

“Hey!” she shouted. “Anyone?”

She paused to hear if there was any movement.

“Anyone out there? I’ve been in here all day, you gonna feed me?” She pounded some more. “Hey, I’m starving!”

She wasn’t starving, she was sickeningly nervous, but she needed someone to open the door.

“Open up! I need some food.”

She finally heard steps approaching, and Beatrice stepped back, grasping the sheet she had twisted into a thick rope.