Read Cortigiana (A Vamp Life Prequel) Online
Authors: Jez Strider
Tags: #romance, #vampires, #paranormal romance, #free, #venice, #courtesan, #romance 1500s, #jez strider, #vamp life
Cortigiana (A Vamp Life Prequel) (9 page)
my eyes open, I fell asleep. Later, a noise at my window woke me.
Darkness filled the room, but I could make out the silhouette of a
man. I started to scream, but he had crossed the room and covered
my mouth with his hand before the sound could escape.
“
Shh. It is Antonio.” He
removed his palm.
My eyes squinted to see him
as he lit a candle on the bedside table. The flame flickered,
revealing his form. “Why did you sneak in?
How
did you sneak in?”
“
Giulia is camped out in the
hallway. She is terrified of what Dante will do if he finds out you
left.” He reached out and touched my cheek. “I did not want to
raise suspicion so I climbed down from the upper level and came in
through your window.”
“
That is far and there is
little to hang onto.” I held his other hand with mine.
“
I know, but I needed to see
you one last time.” Briefly, his voice cracked and he looked
away.
“
What do you mean by that?”
I spoke calmly, but only barely.
Stopped. Tried again. “I received a letter from Master Sanuto. He
requested that I leave immediately to handle his business out of
the country. His arrival is set for tomorrow. He missed you.”
“
Wait. Dante will be home
tomorrow and you are leaving? When?”
“
Now.”
curled his large hand into a fist and punched me in the stomach or
face. “How long will you be gone?”
Abruptly, my hand was released and my lover
stalked across away to the window he’d entered the room through.
“Never.” His back was to me. He didn’t have the decency to say it
to my face.
“
Surely not forever?” I
refused to believe what he said.
“
This affair has always been
temporary. I cannot stay with you.” That’s when he turned to look
at me with an expression that held no tenderness.
He
was
leaving. I ran forward to stop
him. I grabbed his arm and held on as hard as I could. “Please. One
last time, I beg you to take me away. I love you.”
“
It is over. I cannot love
you. Goodbye, Evelina.” Easily, he freed his arm from my grasp and
disappeared out the window.
appeared that he had jumped, but I saw no sign of him when I gazed
down. There had been no splash of water to indicate he’d landed in
the canal. When I turned my gaze upward, he was nowhere in
sight.
“
I hate you, Antonio.” The
pillow beneath my face choked the continuous sobs along with my
words. Tears wet the soft fabric. My nose stuffed up and I had to
lift my head from the pillow to breathe.
I should have known better
than to trust him
.
For maybe two seconds the angrily thought words halted my
tears. But, his scent surrounded me on the bed where he’d taken
me,
claimed
me as
his own,
loved
me.
grabbed the manly, sexually aromatic sheets and tugged them off the
bed. I struggled to tear them apart, shred the torturous reminder
of Antonio to pieces. Frustration caused me to growl when I
couldn’t rip the fabric. Limply, I lowered my arms and let the
sheet fall from my grasp.
The love affair was over. I knew from the
pain in my chest that my dreams would never be realized. Something
had changed his mind. I didn’t know if he was scared of Dante. A
part of me hoped it all was a lie and he’d return to whisk me
away.
Footsteps outside my room put me on high
alert. Had he returned already? As I ran to the door, I wiped the
tears from my now reddened cheeks. I threw it open wide and smiled,
ready to forgive Antonio already.
“
Dante…” I said, trying not
to sound surprised. A shriek threatened to tear from my throat, but
I held it back while keeping the smile painfully stretched across
my face.
“
You appear surprised, my
dear. Were you not told I would be returning?” He removed his
gloves slowly and placed them on the dresser. An elegant sort of
cape draped over his shoulder and flowed to the floor behind
him.
likely. I wrapped my arms around the man. I needed someone to hold
me, whether it was Antonio or not. “I missed you.” I lied.
He hugged me firmly against him, but his
embrace held no warmth. His touch had never been extremely gentle.
It was intense, like the man. He pushed me forward and I backed
into the bed, sitting down. I looked up at him. His white hair and
eyes appeared luminescent.
“
Absence made your heart
grow fonder?” He asked without expression or emotion.
“
Yes, Master.”
Heart?
The wretched organ
still beat even when ripped into bloody shards.
“Well, let me give you a night to remember.”
To my shock, I almost forgot about Antonio
as Dante ravaged my body. The violent abuse was reminiscent of the
night before he’d left for his trip. There was no comfort to make
me forget Antonio, just pain, as Dante slammed into me and then
lowered his mouth to my throat. The slight sting I expected didn’t
come. Not this time. Instead, Dante bit into my throat roughly and
sucked on the wound. I had my suspicions that he might be a
vampire, but I was not sure. One thing I did know. He was a sick,
sadistic son of a bitch. Maybe the silver lining of the situation
would be Antonio’s freedom from Dante’s control.
My entire body ached when I woke up the next
day. When I turned my neck, I winced. Pain shot up the side. I
wrapped a sheet around me, but it did little to stop the chills as
I walked over to check my reflection. On the side of my neck, two
gashes made me step back from the mirror.
No
.
flesh around the tears was turning black. I lifted my hand to my
mouth, that’s when I broke into a fit of coughs. Something wet was
in my palm. Blood.
“
Mistress Evelina, Dante
requests your presence downstairs.” Giulia banged on the door a few
times. Her mood had not improved.
“
In… in a minute.” I dressed
quickly and covered the gangrenous looking bite mark. Seeing
Giulia’s bruised face caused me to gasp. “Forgive me for causing
him to punish you.” I ran downstairs before she could
respond.
“
Sit and eat.” Dante ordered
and a servant pulled out a chair for me.
My nerves shot, I twiddled
my fingers in my lap. That’s when I noticed my fingernails appeared
discolored. They were darker than normal, though not black like the
plague victims.
Yet
. I curled my hands into fists so I would not see them and
closed my eyes.
“
Was I too rough on you,
dearest?” He lifted a spoon to his mouth without looking at
me.
“
No, sir. I feel ill.” I
knew I had to tell him. Too many innocent people lived in the
house. Dante could be infected. Antonio could be…
oh god, no
.
“
I am sorry to hear that.
Eat something and you will feel better.”
eyes lifted and his pale eyebrows along with them. “I need to tell
you something.”
“
Go on.”
fabric covering the wound on my neck.
Dante cleared his throat and had a strange
look of surprise. “I was too rough.” He mumbled, “It should have
healed quickly.” Realization dawned on him slowly and then he was
on his feet with my head cupped in his hands. He leaned it to the
side to examine the injury.
“
Gods, it is the Black
Death.” He let go of me and shoved me suddenly. I stumbled
backward. His voice grew louder, angrier. “Of course you have the
plague. You are a whore and have been working the filthy streets
after I told you it was strictly forbidden! One of the reasons I
asked you not to lay with other men was because I heard about the
early cases of the epidemic.”
“
No, Master Dante! I swear I
have not. The only time I left the house alone was to visit my
mother and I stopped by where my relatives lived. The… the door had
a red mark painted on it.” He came toward me and I cowered away,
expecting to be hit.
“
Giulia let you do
that?”
I flinched at every word
spat at me.
Lie, Evelina. Lie.
The memory of the bodyguard’s beaten face caused
me to speak truthfully. “No. I snuck away.”
“
Then you have signed your
own death sentence.” He grabbed me by the arm and dragged me toward
the front door. His personal gondolier stood outside. The man’s
eyes widened at the display.
“
Please. I am scared. I do
not want to die, Dante. Please!” I screamed.
the canal. “All you had to do was love and obey me, Evelina. Was it
too much to ask?” His back turned on me and I leapt at his feet,
grabbing for an ankle with one hand and catching a shoe with the
other.
“
I love you. I do. You
cannot leave me to die.”
“
Yes, I can.” Aggressively,
he shook his foot free of my grasp and walked into the house. The
gondolier helped me into the boat as I wailed and cried. I was left
alone with nothing but the clothing on my back, dropped off in the
exact place I didn’t want to end up. With the low class, old, and
used up prostitutes of Venice.
the plague. Everything became clear to me when the blindness of
love and the protection of my wealthy master were gone. In the city
of masks, no one wore them anymore except the pizzicamordi. When
the gravedigger wearing a hooked nose mask passed me, I backed up
against a building with a gasp. As if his appearance hadn’t been
unnerving enough with his tarred cloak and gloves, the eerie ting
of bells around his ankles warned every one of his presence.
Fear, more than curiosity drove me to follow
the horrifying man. I could even smell the faint scent of the
lavender antidotes that were in the nose of his mask. He caught me
tagging along and turned around.
He looked me up and down. I covered the
wound in my neck with my dress and clasped my hands together so he
couldn’t see my darkened fingernails.
“
Go home. We are
transporting victims to the Lazaretto hospital and this is no place
for you.”
“
The island, sir? Can they
be cured?” I asked, desperate to live, clinging to the faintest
hope.
voice. “I am afraid it only delays the inevitable. We need them out
of the city. Return to your master or I will inform him of your
excursions when I have the time.”
Gravedigger knew who I
was.
Gravedigger
.
With his outfit and job, what other name did he need? Death was
coming for me and Gravedigger would be there to either burn my
corpse or toss me into a mass grave on one of the islands. The
vision of my inevitable demise caused my limbs to freeze
up.
“
Of course. I pity those
with the… affliction.” I turned away from the harbinger of death
and ran until I was out of breath. The coughing started up again
and wouldn’t stop. My hand rested against a building and I bent
over to try to regulate my breathing. The run hadn’t even been that
far.
“
How much?” A voice from
behind me asked.
nostrils flare. Rot. Death. He was infected. I turned around to
look at the man. His extremities, fingers, lips, and nose, were in
an advanced state of necrosis. And he still wanted to buy my sex. I
seriously doubted he could manage what he was offering to pay for.
Tears flowed from my eyes and fell silently as I looked at what I
would shortly become.
“
Sorry, I am
not….”
and stepped in front of the man with a hand on one hip. From behind
her, I could see by the motion of her arms she had tugged down the
front of her dress to show him her goods. “I will service you.” She
said, taking him by the hand, his blackened fingers entwining in
hers as she led him away for a bit of privacy.
She’s going to die.
I wanted to stop her and warn her, but she
had to know. Either she didn’t care or maybe she was already ill.
Instead of saying anything, I fled again. Only, there was nowhere
to go. If I went to my mother, she could contract my disease. Dante
hated me. And none of my previous lovers would dare touch me if
they suspected my illness. Antonio was gone. Not that I would have
put him at risk more than I already had.
Eventually, I collapsed to the ground from
the day’s traumas and exertion. It must have been hours before I
came around because it was dark when I weakly opened my eyes. No
one helped me. No one even looked in my direction. I crawled over
to glance at my reflection in the moonlit water of the canal. Black
Death shrouded me. The woman staring back at me was different from
the one I’d seen in the mirror that morning. I curled into a ball
as my muscles cramped and my body shook violently from the
chills.
