Blood Apprentice: An Elemental Legacy Novel

by Elizabeth Hunter

  Though Ben occasionally dragged a ladder over if he was feeling ornery.

  He wasn’t particularly tall for a modern human, though he was far larger than Tenzin. His features were a blend of the blood that had made him, half from the Old World and half from the New. His human father had been Puerto Rican. His mother, Lebanese. The blood of every continent flowed in his veins.

  But his eyes—those dark, watchful eyes—came from the vampire who had made him the man he was.

  Ben moved silently in the library, opening one reference book after another, jumping between his laptop computer and the books. He was following a trail of some kind, slowly narrowing his search area.

  He had become a fine hunter.

  It was an odd thing, Tenzin thought as she watched him, to see the slow transformation of a novice. Ben had never been a child to her. She’d met him when he was a teenager who looked no older than she did, but he had never been a child. Life had taught him early that fate was not kind to the young.

  While he remained human, he would grow older every year. Unlike Tenzin, whose face hadn’t changed in five millennia, Ben’s features grew more rugged. His beard became thicker. His expression more solemn.

  While he remained human…

  “I don’t want it, Tiny. You know I don’t. I’m too familiar with vampire life to idealize immortality.”

  He knew nothing.

  “Promise me.”

  Tenzin had made many promises over the years. She’d broken most of them.

  She spotted the map he’d been avoiding for a year. It was sitting in a clear plastic sleeve on the edge of a bookshelf.

  Tenzin cocked her head and thought about the map to the rumored treasure of the famed privateer Miguel Enríquez, about an island still ravaged by a hurricane and an old woman who carried Ben’s last true link to the human world.

  “I don’t want it.”

  And yet….

  Are you truly human anymore, my Benjamin?

  Tenzin flew down to him, grabbing the map from the bookshelf before she sat next to him on the table.

  Ben looked up from his computer and spotted what she was holding. “Not this again.”

  “It’s been a year.”

  His expression was carefully neutral. “And we only got a letter back from the island a couple of months ago.”

  “We didn’t need to wait for a letter. You know that.”

  “We did. Giovanni—”

  “This isn’t about protocol, Benjamin.” She put the map in front of him and bent down. “This isn’t about appeasing the current vampire in charge of—”

  “Three, actually. There are three vampires in charge of Puerto Rico.”

  She kept talking and ignored the way the Spanish name rolled off his tongue. Ben was annoyingly attractive when he spoke Spanish. “This is about you avoiding your past. Avoiding a place that might still have some hold on you.”

  “You think so?” His eyes were heated. “Don’t pretend this is about me. I’ve never been to Puerto Rico. It has no hold on me. I wanted nothing to do with this map. You want to hunt pirate treasure, Tenzin. You don’t care what the island had been through or what conditions people are living in.”

  “Yes, I want to find the treasure. Other people are not my problem. And I was right to think we should have gone earlier. The chaos directly after the hurricane would have cloaked our movements. And there was almost no electricity. You know I love that.”

  Ben closed his eyes. “Could you at least pretend to care?”

  “Why? I thought this wasn’t about your family, Ben. Why would I care about strangers?”

  He had no answer for that.

  “You care,” she said. “And that’s fine. Your empathy doesn’t bother me. Maybe when we go down, you can do more than send money anonymously to your grandmother. All I care about is following this map and finding treasure. You are delaying for personal reasons that don’t have anything to do with business.”

  He opened his eyes and glared at her. “Fine. You want to hunt pirate treasure, we’ll hunt. But we’re doing this in a respectful way, and we’re not charging down there without an introduction.”

  “Excellent.” She sat up. “Then you’ll be happy to know I made a date for you and Novia to have drinks tomorrow night.”

  Why was Spanish so effective? She even found it attractive when he was cursing.

  2

  Ben was meeting Novia O’Brien at Gavin Wallace’s new bar in the theater district, the Dancing Bear. The place had quickly attracted a local crowd of performers, artists, and theater regulars since it was open until four in the morning and had a rooftop bar where everyone looked the other way when it came to smoking.

  Late hours were also very attractive to vampires, and since Gavin was one, that made the Dancing Bear his most common haunt. The fact that Chloe was rehearsing with a new dance group in the area might have been another motivation.

  Ben exited the subway at the 50th Street station and walked over to 9th where he turned right and looked for the red door that led upstairs to Gavin’s pub. He was early, but Chloe was working that night, which meant he’d be able to catch up since he’d fallen asleep at dawn, when she was first rising.

  Though Chloe and Gavin were… dating? Involved? Dating seemed too human, and involved seemed too casual. Either way, Chloe had been firm about keeping to a relatively human schedule, which meant she was awake during the day. Luckily for Gavin, she was also a dancer, which meant she was used to late hours. She’d moved from Gavin’s first pub in Manhattan to the new one in Hell’s Kitchen when it opened. She didn’t work as many hours, but the hours she did work, Gavin made it a point to be there.

  Ben walked up the stairs, immediately hit by the smell of paint and chocolate. The paint he understood—the pub was still undergoing renovations—but the chocolate was curious. He poked his head into the party room and spotted the reason.

  “Is that a fountain?” He raised an eyebrow. “Seems a little pedestrian for you, Gav.”

  Gavin Wallace, wind vampire and whiskey enthusiast, lifted his head from the buffet table where Chloe was arranging a three-tiered chocolate fountain that was already flowing.

  “The ridiculous bride wants a chocolate fountain,” he muttered, “the ridiculous bride gets a chocolate fountain.”

  “Bride?”

  Chloe looked up with a chagrined smile. “Bachelorette party. They booked the party room almost as soon as we opened. I told them it would still smell like paint, but they insisted. They also insisted on a chocolate fountain.”

  Ben strolled over and grabbed a strawberry from beneath protective plastic wrap. He poked it on the end of a skewer and stuck the berry under the chocolate waterfall, then popped it in his mouth and nodded in appreciation. “It may not fit your vampire hipster aesthetic, my friend. But don’t knock the chocolate fountain. That’s delicious.”

  “What are you doing here?” Gavin asked.

  “Didn’t Chloe tell you?” he asked. “Work’s a little slow right now, so I’m moonlighting as a stripper for bachelorette parties.”

  Chloe burst into laughter, and even Gavin had to crack a smile.

  “Good God, Vecchio. Warn me before you start taking your clothes off. That’s all I ask.”

  “It’s the gig economy, man. Everyone has to have a side hustle.”

  “Oh?” Gavin looked at Chloe. “What’s yours?”

  “You.” She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. “Or more accurately, your bar.” She walked toward the door. “The party starts in an hour. We’ll have to catch up later, Ben.”

  Gavin said, “I thought I was your main hustle.”

  Chloe turned at the door and shook her head. “Delusions of grandeur,” she said sadly. “I hear they often affect the elderly.” She winked. “Tell Albert we’re going to need more chairs from the back.”

  “I’ll pay you back for the elderly comment later.” Gavin turned to Ben. “Other than stripping, you taking a meeting with
my sort?”

  “Novia. She didn’t call?”

  The corner of Gavin’s mouth lifted. “Novia O’Brien is the favored child of the most politically powerful vampire in New York. She doesn’t have to check with me before she swings by. She always gets a table.”

  “I’m glad you added the ‘political’ label there.”

  “Everyone knows Tenzin is the most powerful immortal. Don’t let her ego get the better of you too.”

  Ben smiled. “It’s always refreshing to meet someone who isn’t in awe of her.”

  Gavin walked behind the bar and took two glasses from the counter. “Awe? No. Fear? Yes. Healthy fear is a necessity when it comes to Tenzin. When it comes to anyone that old in our world.”

  “Your world.”

  Gavin rolled his eyes and poured two fingers of whiskey in each glass. “Get over your insolent humanity, will you? It’s annoying at this point.”

  “I watched the sun come up this morning. It was delightful.”

  “So did I. The nature channel has a sunrise program. This morning I got to hear birdcalls in the Costa Rican rainforest.” He sipped his drink. “Try this one. I’m considering sending a bottle to your uncle.”

  Ben sipped. “Peaty. Beatrice would like this one more than Gio.”

  “Yes, I thought so, but if I send it to her, she’ll toss it in the trash. And I couldn’t do that to a perfectly innocent bottle of scotch.”

  Beatrice and Gavin had a history that included Gavin handing Ben’s aunt over to a mortal enemy at one point. It was an old story, but Gavin and Beatrice weren’t on the best terms.

  “Still,” Gavin continued, “she no longer glares at me after I deeded that vacation house in Switzerland to them. Let that be a lesson to you, young Ben. Bribery works.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” He finished the whiskey and set the glass down.

  “What are you and Novia meeting about?”

  “Los Tres.”

  Gavin frowned. “Not following.”

  “The trio of vampires who run Puerto Rico. They’re called Los Tres.”

  “How imaginative. You’re going to Puerto Rico?”

  “Maybe. And Los Tres has held power on the island for almost five hundred years, so it might not be the most imaginative name, but it works.”

  “Fair enough.” Gavin raised his glass. “Novia isn’t Puerto Rican, is she?”

  “No, but she’s familiar with the court. Her human family is Cuban. She still travels regularly through the Caribbean. I don’t know much more than that, but she’s the one who sent an introduction.”

  “Have you heard back?”

  “A couple of months ago.”

  “Hmm.” Gavin leaned on the bar. “Putting things off. That’s not a Ben Vecchio trait normally.”

  Ben didn’t feel like getting into it, especially not with Gavin. Chloe knew more about his childhood than most of his friends, but he still didn’t like talking about it with anyone. At all.

  “It’s complicated.” That was all Ben felt like sharing.

  “Understood.” Gavin might have been a friend, but he was also a vampire. And vampires didn’t pry about the past. “You can take that corner booth in back. The place will start filling up around one, but that corner’s the quietest. If you need something more discreet, the snug is yours.”

  “Tell me why.” Novia leaned back, stretching both lean arms across the red velvet upholstery of the booth. She was dressed for clubbing, and the tips of her dark corkscrew curls had been recently dyed a vivid blood red. “I mean, I wrote the letter already. I did that because we’re friends, Benny.”

  “Are we?”

  She gave him a slow smile, both fangs showing. “Of course we are.”

  Were you supposed to find friends mildly frightening?

  “I can’t just tell you details.” Ben leaned forward and gave Novia his most charming smile. “It’s not really my job. Tenzin is point on this.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Then you definitely need to tell me why.”

  He scooted closer and nudged Novia’s arm until it was across his shoulders. “Darling.”

  Novia started to laugh, amused by his attempts to flirt, even if she saw right through them.

  “Darling,” he continued, “do you want to know out of curiosity? Or are you looking for a cut of whatever it is we’re going after?”

  “Oh?” She widened her eyes. “Are you going after something shiny?”

  “I’m always after something shiny.” He reached up and played with the heavy crystal dangling from her left ear. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t belong to anyone alive.”

  “None of my sort?”

  “Nope. You look amazing tonight, by the way. What perfume are you wearing?”

  “Aren’t you cute? It’s called Rosa.” Novia made sure to roll the r.

  “I haven’t heard of that one.” Ben reached for his drink.

  “Neither had I until I fed from her this evening. She was delicious.” Novia smiled and touched her tongue to the tip of her fang as Ben tried not to choke on his martini.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “You should. She likes boys too.” Novia ran a hand down Ben’s shoulder and arm, sliding her fingers across his thigh. “You’re too smart to let all this get old and sad, Benny. We all know what’s coming.”

  Ben gave her a tight smile but didn’t try to move her hand. Novia liked to flirt. With men. With women. Vampires and mortals. She was an equal opportunity predator. “You know, every time a vampire assumes I’m going to turn, I put off thinking about it for a few more years.”

  “Contrary boy.” She smiled. “But you are thinking about it.”

  “Are you done teasing?” he asked. “Can we talk business now?”

  “Humans.” She sighed. “Always in a hurry.”

  “Hurricane season is just around the corner.”

  “Isn’t it always?” Not so much amusement now. “So you want to know about Los Tres?”

  “Yes. And I promise to bring you back something shiny.”

  Novia’s smile returned. “Fair enough. The thing to remember about Los Tres is that they don’t really abide by any modern kind of rules. The island is run by a Taíno chief. A cacique named Macuya. And that old man has been running Puerto Rico long before anyone from Europe arrived. He’s just pissed Columbus spoiled his food supply.”

  “He sounds delightful.”

  “He’s an old asshole is what he is.”

  “I thought it was a trio in power.”

  Novia shrugged. “To the outside world maybe. He’s taken two wives. One Spanish and one African. They were political marriages.”

  “Aren’t most vampire marriages political? At least in the hierarchy?”

  “Fair. I should have said they were… concessions. ‘Look, new Spanish vampires, I have a Spanish wife. You can give me your loyalty. Look, former slaves, I have an African wife too. Don’t rise up and kill us in our sleep.’ He uses his wives to give the appearance of equal rule. It’s not the reality.”

  “So he’s not well liked.”

  “Nobody likes him. But they do fear him. He’s old, which means he’s strong as hell. He’s an earth vampire, and he lives in the mountains around Lares. That’s his stronghold. He doesn’t care what the humans in San Juan are doing as long as they keep attracting nice, tasty tourists to the west side of the island.”

  “So he’s not involved in human government?”

  “Not at all. His sister deals with anything involving humans. Inés. You’ll likely meet her first. And his nitayno.”

  “His what?” Ben felt like he should know this stuff—he was half Puerto Rican, for God’s sake—but he knew nothing about the island’s indigenous history.

  “His nitayno. Like a general, kind of. His general is Spanish. A water vampire by the name of Vasco.” Novia smiled. “He’s a bit friendlier than most of that group.”

  “Got it.” Ben decided she didn’t need to elaborate on tha
t one. “So I’ll probably meet this Inés first?”

  “Probably. She’s got a big fancy house on the beach in Mayagüez. Gorgeous place. And then there’s the estate in the mountains. Try to meet her in the mountains. It’s closer to Macuya.”

  “And she’s a sister?”

  “She’s Taíno too. I don’t know if they started out as blood relatives, but they had the same sire, though nobody knows who that was. Probably an ancient, judging from how powerful Macuya is.”

  Ben wanted to take notes, but he knew Novia wouldn’t appreciate it. This was a friendly conversation. No records needed. He filed as much away as he could, hoping he remembered it all.

  “What’s my way in?” he asked. “If I want something—”

  “Money.” Novia sipped her cocktail. “No… maybe status? The old man likes flattery. He respects money, but he respects power more. Reputation. Favors. He’s old school. He’ll be impressed by Tenzin, but he’ll be threatened too.” Novia’s mouth turned up in the corner. “He has a thing about powerful women.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Not that she’d really answered the question. Ben still didn’t know how he was going to wrangle permission to search the caves where the map said this treasure was buried. But there was no way he was going searching underground in Puerto Rico—in the territory of an earth vampire—without getting some kind of permission.

  “And Benny? Macuya is smart, and he rewards immortals for loyalty. Remember that. People who are loyal to him are true believers. Trying to get any of his court to betray him will be difficult.”

  “I’ll remember.” He settled back into the booth, allowing the music and the energy from the crowd to fill him. “So what’s new with you? Rosa, huh?”

  Novia shrugged. “It’s nothing serious. Maybe.” She nodded at Chloe behind the bar. “I’d take a taste of that if Gavin wasn’t so greedy.”

  “Chloe is not food, Novia. She’s my friend and Tenzin’s assistant. She’s under my uncle’s aegis.”

  “I know.” She held up a hand. “I’m just sayin’.”

  “And besides all that, it would definitely not fly with Gavin.”

  “You know I don’t poach.” Novia watched Gavin cross the pub. “Hell, I’d play with both of them if they were into it.”