“What?”
“If anything happens to me, or if for some reason you decide you want to leave the city, go to Via San Zanobi, number thirty-three, and ask for Sarah.”
“Who’s Sarah?”
“My mother.” He gave her a tight smile. “Don’t worry. It isn’t my mother you’ll be seeing; it’s simply a password. Go there and they will see that you get out of the city safely.”
“Who are ‘they’?”
“They’ve been well paid,” he evaded. “Only go to them in the direst of circumstances.”
“William, I told you I don’t want to leave.”
“We have no idea what will happen. This is my peace of mind that you will be safe.”
“Okay. I don’t promise to use it, but I’ll remember it. Thirty-three Via San Zanobi.”
“Good.” William’s body relaxed. “With that matter taken care of, we should probably make arrangements to retrieve your things from your apartment and bring them here.”
“Yes.” She hugged him close.
“We’ll celebrate tonight, once you’re comfortably ensconced here in your new home.”
“I like the sound of that, even though the circumstances are not ideal.”
“Welcome home,” he whispered, covering her mouth with his.
Chapter Forty-three
By the time the sun set, Raven had successfully packed her worldly goods in boxes and was sitting at her desk in her bedroom.
William had offered his assistance and he’d also offered the assistance of Lucia and Ambrogio, but Raven didn’t want other people handling her things.
It was strange to think that after knowing William for so short a time she would be living with him. Given the uncertainty of their lives, she was throwing caution to the wind. She didn’t want to be separated from William for a single evening, so it made sense to share his home as well as his bed. As he pointed out, the villa was one of the safest places in the city.
Raven surveyed the blank walls and the part of her old cane that was still embedded in one of them. She had no idea how she would explain it to the landlord. No doubt she’d have to borrow money from William to pay for the damages. He’d been the one to throw the cane so hard it had lodged inextricably in the wall.
She’d taken down and carefully packed all her artwork and her sketches. She was looking forward to painting in William’s garden. She was looking forward to having him pose for her. The thought made her skin flush.
Her phone chimed with an incoming text.
The text was from Cara.
At the train station in Florence. What’s your address?
Raven was so surprised, she nearly dropped the phone. She quickly typed the address and added, Is Father Kavanaugh with you?
Within seconds, she received the reply, No, he didn’t want us to leave. Fuck that. We snuck out.
Raven snorted and placed her cell phone in the back pocket of her jeans. She was relieved her sister had decided to come to her, but she was also nervous. She didn’t know how their conversation would go. And she didn’t know how she was going to account for the now-strained relationship between herself and Father Kavanaugh.
She wondered how long it was going to take for him to realize that Cara and Dan had left. She wondered if he’d send the Curia after them. She was about to telephone Ambrogio in order to let William know of Cara’s plans, when a knock sounded at the door.
She grabbed her cane and limped through the kitchen. William was being overly formal. She unlocked the door and opened it, swinging it wide.
But it wasn’t William who stood in the hall.
The man standing before her looked young, barely twenty. And he had long, curly brown hair that swept his shoulders. His eyes, which were also brown, were narrowed and peering. He was dressed in Renaissance clothes.
He smiled and bowed. “Signorina,” he said, addressing her. “The Prince has sent me to retrieve you.”
“Oh. Where is he?” Raven looked past him into the hallway.
“He is waiting at Palazzo Riccardi.”
Raven’s brow furrowed. She’d never been inside Palazzo Riccardi with William. And it wasn’t like him to send someone in his stead, unless he was busy.
“Where’s Luka?”
The man hesitated, but only for a fraction of a second. “He is downstairs.”
She looked at the man carefully. He was obviously a vampyre, with pale, perfect skin and an almost ethereal perfection of face and form. She didn’t recognize him as one of William’s servants, but his voice, and his old-fashioned Italian, was familiar. She must have heard it somewhere before. She wondered why she couldn’t identify him by his face.
“I can’t come right now. My sister and her boyfriend are on their way here.”
“The Prince wants you to come now.” The vampyre’s tone changed. “Pets obey their masters.”
Raven lifted her eyebrows, while resisting the urge to correct him.
“I’ll call Ambrogio and explain.” She pivoted toward the kitchen table.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
Reflexively, Raven stood aside.
She opened her mouth to invite the vampyre in, when something Father Kavanaugh had said flashed through her mind. She turned her head slowly and saw the man watching her, poised on the threshold like a snake, waiting to strike.
She smiled in an effort to disarm him. Then, in one quick motion, she closed and bolted the door.
Something heavy slammed against the door and the wooden object sagged on its hinges. The sounds of Italian curses filtered through the air.
She pulled out her cell phone, fumbling with the buttons. The man pounded on the door, demanding to be invited inside. Raven waited impatiently for her call to connect.
“Ambrogio?” she almost shouted into the phone. “A strange vampyre is here. He says he works for his lordship. He’s pounding on my door, demanding to be invited in.”
“Don’t invite him in,” Ambrogio responded coolly, as if she were merely giving him a weather report. “His lordship is not at home but I will get a message to him. Stay where you are. I’ll send Luka and Marco.”
“My sister is on her way here. She’s taking a taxi from Santa Maria Novella.”
“Stay where you are. The men are coming.”
Raven ended the call, dropping her phone on the kitchen table.
Luka and Marco, who were merely human, would be no match for the angry, pounding vampyre. And what if he was lurking around when Cara and Dan arrived?
Raven inclined her head toward the door, but the vampyre had ceased. Quietly, she stepped over to the peephole and looked outside. The hallway was empty.
Cautiously relieved, she entered her bedroom and walked to the window, pushing the curtains aside so she could look down at the piazza.
There were patrons sitting at the café across the square and there were a few tourists and students milling about. But there was no vampyre. She wondered where he’d gone.
Thirty minutes later, Raven was sitting on her bed, clutching her phone and waiting for Luka and Marco to arrive. There was still no sign of the vampyre. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Cara and Dan, either.
Her apartment buzzer rang. She looked out her bedroom window and was relieved to see Cara and Dan standing outside with their luggage.
She placed her phone in the back pocket of her jeans and approached the door to her apartment. The hallway was still clear.