Cortigiana (A Vamp Life Prequel)

by Jez Strider

  Lighthearted and happy, I headed to my mother’s for a visit the next day. Antonio had been gone when I awoke and Giulia had said something about an important letter being delivered. It had been difficult to leave the house without my bodyguard’s knowledge, but with a little stealth, luck, and a substantial tip to the gondolier, I succeeded.

  “Evelina!” My mother called out and hugged me tightly. She didn’t look well, but once again, I hardly noticed at first. I had been too self-centered.

  “How are you? I apologize for not visiting lately. Everything has been crazy.” I said as she led me inside.

  She brushed a hair away from my face and smiled as we sat down. “I am well enough. Tired. Must be the weather.”

  “I hope you recover soon.”

  She nodded. “So the arrangement suits you? With Dante? You are simply radiant today.”

  Mother had warned me about the dangers the hearts of men posed. I looked down at my hands and didn’t answer. As hard as I tried, I could not find a good way to phrase what I wanted to say.

  “It’s the other. The dark haired, young one.” Her perception shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did.

  I nodded without lifting my gaze. “Yes. Dante has been out of town. Perhaps, I should tell him the truth, but I’m afraid of him. Sometimes he is kind, but others, there is something dark that I see.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her bite down on her lip as she thought about it. “No. It would be a severe insult.”

  “What do I do?”

  “Keep it a secret.” She stated flatly. “You would not be the first girl to marry a man she did not love and find happiness and true love through an affair.”

  Unfortunately, they weren’t the words I wanted to hear. Nodding and exhaling a sigh, I reluctantly agreed. “Antonio says the same. I worry that I cannot do it.”

  “You will because you have to.” A fit of coughing caused her to reach for a cup.

  “Rest.” I said softly, picking up the drink and handing it to her. Suddenly, I regretted bringing my troubles home. “You are right. The love would no doubt be less appealing if it were not forbidden.” I wasn’t convinced, but I wanted to give her a reassurance.

  “I am proud of you, Evelina. I know life is far from perfect, but you are smart and a good woman. You deserve to be happy no matter what it takes.”

  “Thank you.” I reached out and patted her hand. “I will come see you when you are feeling better. Maybe tomorrow if you are not busy.”

  “I would like that.”

  During my previous visit, my mother had been vibrant and healthy. I knew I should have spent more time with her instead of focusing on my life with Dante and now Antonio. How could I have known time was running out on the relationships that meant the most to me?

  On my way home, I stopped by the alleyway where I had seen the prostitute the first night I had stayed with my aunt and uncle. I’m not sure why exactly. Maybe it was to convince myself of how far I’d come since then. The filth in the corridor, the lair of dark deeds, gave off a stench like death.

  Out of some weird respect, I headed to the front door of the house. What I saw made me take a few steps back. A large red cross marked the door. My hand went up to my mouth. The force of my palm against my trembling lips did little to stop them. I’d heard stories about the plague. This was a different era. Surely, the red mark had to mean something else. As much as I had disliked my aunt and uncle, I would have never wished such a horrible death on them.

  Lingering around a quarantined home was the last place I needed to be discovered. I made my way back to Dante’s mansion and went straight to my room. Giulia called out in her deep voice from behind me, but I didn’t stop running until I was safely behind my locked door. Hurriedly, I stripped off my dress and tossed it out the window into the water below. Slowly, the fabric became saturated with water and disappeared from sight.

  “Guilia!” I knew the woman would no doubt still be fuming outside my room. “Will you send a servant with items for bathing, please?”

  “You bathed this morn!” She yelled back.

  I opened the door and glared at the brute. “Do it, now.”

  In a huff, the bodyguard called out to the nearest servant girl and ordered her to retrieve the necessary items. “Do not think I will hide your behavior from the master of the house.” Giulia said when she returned to guard my door.

  “Yes, I am quite certain he will want to hear your complaints instead of enjoying the sensation of my lips against his skin.” I slammed the door in her face while she looked on in surprise at my behavior.

  A short time later, the servant returned. Being so fearful of contracting the Black Death, I nearly scrubbed my skin raw. The chance had to be slim. I hadn’t been inside the house. Not even that close, really. Better to be safe. One thing was for sure. I was not ready to die a gruesome and painful death.

  Giulia spent the rest of the evening outside the door to my room. The guard no doubt knew of the risks that awaited me in the city. Poor districts suffered the most in times of plague. Wealthy people tended to be cleaner and live in better conditions. This helped them avoid contracting the illness. No wonder Giulia been upset with me.

  The hour was late and Antonio had not joined me. Most of our days were spent together. Every night, his arms circled around my waist as I slept. I decided he had found out about my solo adventure. Being punished made me furious.

  After waiting until I could no longer keep 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.

  Antonio bowed his head. He started to speak. 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.”

  It would have hurt less if Antonio had 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.

  I leaned outside, scanning the darkness. It 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 no
se 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.

  Growing frantic, I slid out of the bed and 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.

  Something came over me. Desperation, most 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.

  The corner of his mouth curled up a little. “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.

  Scared, I check the wounds more closely. The 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.”

  I stood up slowly and walked toward him. His eyes lifted and his pale eyebrows along with them. “I need to tell you something.”

  “Go on.”

  After taking a deep breath, I removed the 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.

  He pushed me hard and I nearly toppled into 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.

  Looking around, I could now see the toll of 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.

  The man glanced around before lowering his 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.