Chapter 19
GAbrIEL
Fog rolled in off the lagoon, curling around lampposts and blurring the already murky line between water and land. Venice always smelled different at night—brine and crumbling brick and the boggy scent of stagnant water, soft and familiar as the city’s slow pulse.
Once again, the hair on the back of my neck prickled in warning, and I resisted rubbing the spot, forcing myself to stay focused on tonight’s task.
Vampires had ruled Venice since the city was nothing but mud, and we’d rule this place long after they were gone. Mortals were transient, impermeant, but they, like this city, were mine to protect.
Violating the no-hunting rules during the Blood Compact was punishable by death, and yet, every single time, some idiot broke them. Since I was the one tasked with enforcing our laws, here I was, tracking the assholes down.
Well, me and Nico.
But someone else was watching.
It was hard to say who. Every family had spies spread through this city, watching each other, posted on rooftops and in dark corners. But this felt different.
This felt… personal, somehow.
Without being obvious, I scanned the rooftops again, then the shadowy, narrow street to my right. Nothing. If I kept this up, Nico would start giving me endless shit about being paranoid, and I’d never hear the end of it.
Our boots whispered over worn paving stones as we tracked the faint trace of human scents through the maze of calli. Three mortals, young and completely unaware of the dangers of this city at night, were less than ten minutes ahead of us.
And behind them, the scents of the monsters who hunted them.
“Left,” Nico directed quietly. “They cut through Calle del Forno.”
I didn’t need his reminder; I knew this city better than him, but I let him talk. Nico liked to pretend he was the one in charge, and I let him because I was generous like that.
“You’re missing the party tonight.” Nico got talkative when we were hunting. “Too bad, the last night is always the best, and I was so hoping to get laid, but I’m stuck here with you, working.”
“You have my permission to leave.” I slanted him a look that clearly said shut up or go away. “Maybe if you get laid, you’ll stop being such a pain in my ass.”
“Fat chance, Paròn. You’re stuck with me tonight.”
We slipped beneath a low archway, staying within the shadows clinging to the canal beside us, the water so still, it looked like a stretch of black glass, the reflection broken by a gondola ghosting past, the oar’s soft splash a dull echo.
Again, the nape of my neck prickled, and I paused, looked over my shoulder, scanning the rooftops, and finding nothing. Fuck.
Maybe my overactive imagination was catching up to me.
“Their scent reeks of hate.” I refocused, getting my head back in the game. “Eastern. Not from our Dynasty.”
Nico snorted. “Of course not. Our idiots at least know the rules. They must have slipped inside the city with one of the envoys, thought to enjoy some sport while we were distracted.”
“Good thing we don’t get distracted.” I shot him a toothy grin when he fell back into stride beside me, long coat wrapping around his knees, dark hair pulled into his signature braid. Nico hummed with the same restless energy that dogged me ever since that disastrous meeting with Emberline.
I’d been thinking about her ever since.
Challenging my father like that… she was lucky he hadn’t killed her out of hand, and the stunned look on her face when Giovanni had offered her up like some consolation prize… well, she couldn’t say I hadn’t warned her.
Except… I’d ended up getting caught in the trap, too.
Fuck, ever since that night, every time I’d closed my eyes, all I could see were those big, brown eyes, those red lips, imagining how good they’d feel wrapped around my cock. Her skin had been softer than velvet, she’d smelled like pure sin, and…
I needed to get my fucking shit together.
My job was hunting these fuckers down tonight and killing every last one. Releasing all this pent-up aggression and frustration before I split wide open at the seams.
Nico bumped my shoulder. “You’re quiet.”
“I don’t babble inanely when I’m hunting.” I made a sharp right down an alleyway barely wide enough for my shoulders. “Like some people I know.”
“You’re brooding,” he corrected. “You aren’t worried about your upcoming nuptials, are you, Gabriel? The illustrious Signorina DiRavello… I have to say, my friend, words don’t do her justice. That dress… I’ll be having my own fantasies about that dress, at least until you two make it official.”
I ground my teeth together. “We’re working here, Nico.”
“And?” He lifted his hands in a mock shrug. “Can’t I multitask? Fantasize about your future wife, kill trespassing leeches, discuss your tragic love life… bitch because I’m not getting laid tonight?”
“There is no love life to discuss. And you’re definitely not getting laid tonight.”
“Exactly my point.”
We stepped onto a narrow bridge, slick from condensation. I listened, filtering through the layers of sound until—there.
A muffled cry, cut short.
Nico’s grin vanished. “I got them.” We dematerialized east, moving in a frozen rush of air as we flew down dark, narrowed streets and alleys toward the sound.
Hunting this labyrinthian city was all instinct, tracking the stale scents of foreign vampires who were feeding sloppily… right in front of us.
We landed at the mouth of a pinched, narrow alley between two buildings, a fresh blood trail still gleaming beneath the moon.
“They’ve already taken one.” I bent down, running my fingers through the droplets.
“Let’s make sure they don’t take the rest.” Nico’s voice was ice cold, all the lazy humor burned away.
We followed muted whispers sliding over the stone, the sound of quiet, panicked sobs, catching fragments of a rough, European dialect, sharp consonants that belonged to deep mountain forests, not a city built on water.
Nico’s knuckles brushed mine—a simple, old signal. I’ve got your back.
I nodded, then he was gone, just as I stepped into a small courtyard, nothing but walls that stretched to the black sky.
A dead end.
“Draconi Brotherhood,” I called in Italian, my voice ringing off the stone. “Step away from the humans, and you might actually survive this.”
The reaction was instant.
Murky shadows solidified into a long, pale face, red-tinted eyes gleaming, fangs still wet.
The vampire was far older than me—blood smeared from cheek to chin as he gripped a human girl by the throat, her dangling feet barely touching the ground.
Another human, a man in a cheap jacket, lay crumpled at their feet, his heartbeat thready.
A third—another girl—cowered against the wall, tucked into a shivering ball.
“Ah,” the stranger drawled, switching to a heavily accented Italian. “Il Lupo Nero, himself. How exciting.” He mock-bowed, flashing a grin. “I am honored by your presence.”
I didn’t bother answering. I stood between him and freedom. Nico was flanking the interloper, melted into the shadows, ready to strike. This asshole was fucked. My only goal was making sure the two remaining humans survived.
Perhaps the third, if we got lucky.
“You violated our laws,” I explained patiently. “Hunting humans in the open, leaving bodies where anyone could stumble across them.” My gaze drifted to the girl, her eyes unfocused. “That’s a death sentence in my city.”
“Your city,” he smirked, like our laws were a joke. “You don’t own the world, Dominico.”
“I own these streets. I protect them.” I took a slow step forward, the shadows closing around me, cold and sharp, something sharp raking down my back. “The D’Immortali Dynasty controls this city and everything in it, including her.”
With a growl, his fingers tightened, and the girl choked, clawing futilely at his hand. Her wild eyes rolled toward me—frightened, uncomprehending. I met them briefly, letting my power wash over her, soft and inexorable.
“Sleep,” I ordered, voice dripping with compulsion. She went limp, consciousness falling away as the vampire’s fingers slipped from her throat, and she dropped from his grasp like a puppet with its strings cut. The man on the ground shuddered when she landed beside him.
Alive. Barely.
“She was my kill,” the leader hissed, “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“And you shouldn’t have set foot in my territory,” I replied cheerfully, cracking my neck, still trying to get rid of that one stubborn knot. “Submit to my judgment, and perhaps your line survives.”
Highly unlikely, but I live to be surprised.
He threw his head back and laughed. “You might have the council at your back, princeling. But here?” He spread his arms, encompassing the cramped alley, the slick walls, the starless slice of sky.
“Out here, it’s just you and me.” Three more figures detached themselves from the darkness behind him, fanning out.
“Oh, wait, my mistake. Four against one.” He flashed his fangs, like some sort of hierarchy play. “Seems we’ll be the ones who finally take down the Black Wolf.”
I wanted to roll my eyes at his theatrics, but frankly, I’d already had a shit day.
I sighed instead. “Niccolò,” I called. “This idiot thinks it’s me against the four of them, and they actually stand a chance. Should I let this sick fuck enjoy his delusions, or should we set him straight?”
Nico’s soft, evil laugh rang out, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once. The leader’s head snapped up, searching the darkness for the source.
Too late.
Nico materialized in the center of them, boots striking the vampire on the far right with enough force to smash him into the wall. Brick cracked. His skull, too.
Chaos exploded through the alley.
I moved, the world narrowing down as their leader lunged for me, fangs bared, but he was all swagger and no training and hampered by the chaos Nico was causing in the tight space.