Cursed blood

“Go find out the best family.”

Paper fell from his hands.

“You want to go to Florence?”

The smile was instantly on his face and his fangs were for everyone to see. His eyes started shining and as soon as one of the vampires came back with the very big and old book, it disappeared from his hands and was suddenly on the table.

“Go take care of Isabella. Let her prepare the meat and something to drink. She needs to be ready to move as soon as possible, so they could go visit some friends to get their money and get the fuck off our city.”

*****

Next evening.

Clara woke up ready to do her ritual with Isabella and get ready to go to the fallen family. She quickly left the basement and went back into Lucio’s room. As soon as she entered inside, she found him already there with paper in his hands. A smile appeared on both of their faces and she sat at the table. He gave her a paper with the fame of the family and a quick description.

“Here’s a name for a fallen Venetian family from around the year 1000:

The Vercelli Family

The Vercelli were once a prosperous family with roots in early Venetian trade, known for their modest fleet of merchant ships and connections to Byzantine markets. They made their fortune by trading salt, cloth, and glass, building a reputation for fair dealing. However, a series of misfortunes struck two months ago. One of their main ships was lost to pirates, and a poor business investment with a distant trading partner left them heavily crippled. To make matters worse, internal family conflicts over inheritance divided the family and weakened their ability to recover. Vercelli had lost their influence in Venice, and their remaining members were left struggling to make ends meet, operating small trade stalls and fish markets in the lesser-trafficked parts of the city.

“So?”

“They lost most of their family members and are currently divided, but their wealth is right here protected from each other. Here in the villa are only three family members. The rest of the family is somewhere else. I don’t know where, but that doesn’t matter.”

Clara listened to Lucio until he finished.

“Where is Isabella, I want to see her,” said Clara and looked back at Lucio, who was still smiling. He stood up and they went back into the room, where they were yesterday. Isabella was still sleeping like a log, but she had no injuries whatsoever. Clara felt somehow happy as soon as she saw her.

She immediately went in the bed to her and moved her hair out of the way of her neck. She was looking at Isabella’s artery. Just before she pierced through the skin, she heard Lucio from behind.

"If you start drinking from her now, she will have a much harder time recovering and will not be able to go with you today, not to mention how to travel with you into Florence."

"You see, you can't just suck all her blood and let her die there or think that she will recover just with sleep. Her blood needs to replenish itself to the point when you will eat again, she will be able to survive and not die in the middle of you eating her."

Clara starts thinking about whether she will drink a little from Isabella or not, but in the end, she decides to not drink.

"How long until she wakes up?"

"At first we should go into the Vercelli family. Who is currently there?"

"Maddalena Vercelli. She is the most powerful woman in the family. She is the one who is ruling the family. The other is Flavia Vercelli, she is her daughter and the last is Ruggiero Vercelli. He is the youngest child of the family now ten years old."

"How much money do they have?"

"I don't know, but they have some silver and some gold coins."

"Good. We will leave right now. Prepare Isabella to go with us. We will go there to find the Gold and the next day move to Florence. I don't like it here."

"As you wish. I will find people to go with us, so there will be no problems with your move. It's also very important to have a good image as a vampire elder, so the rest of the city will know that you are the owner of the family. Once you will do it, no one will try to make a move against them and you will have sole access to their wealth and blood."

Two hours later.

Clara went out of the house with Isabella, who was climbing her head on Clara. Everyone who saw Clara blushed as she was in black night garments making her extremely attractive.

Isabella was in colorful clothes looking more like a merchant and the rest of the vampires around were in white shirts and black pants. Only Lucio looked like a typical vampire in beautiful stylish clothes and with an air of authority.

"We will all move to the Vercelli family to get hold of their assets. Don't kill anybody and capture all family members. One will be everything done, you will be rewarded."

"Now let's go."

Everyone who was in the alley ran away and only the three stayed behind. Clara was not able to calm down and had the extreme urge to feed.