Tenzin flew over the forested hills south of Arecibo the next night, following the rough picture of the map she carried in her mind. She flew high and low, dipping over green fields and rising over hills. The land was dark; electric lights were sparse. The wind sang with verdant promise, rich with water, salt, and the scent of growing things. In the distance, she caught the smell of gasoline burning, but the strongest scent was that of rebirth.
Puerto Rico might not have been a rich island to much of the human world, but Tenzin saw past the petty measures of humans. The land was rich with good soil and plentiful water. And though she sensed human pollutants in the water and the soil, the earth was resilient. This island could be a paradise again.
Humans. Why couldn’t they leave places alone?
She dipped down to follow a river, dragging her fingers through the stream as she caught her reflection. Wild hair. Wild woman. What did the humans see when they saw her? A young woman from their limited perspective. Ancient eyes in an unchanging face. She’d braided colorful threads in her hair because she’d been missing home.
I need to leave for the mountains. Soon.
Being on an island rebounding from a great storm reminded her that she’d been in the city too long. She needed wild things and open skies. She needed Tibet. Ben would just have to do without her for a while. She’d finish this job and then she’d tell him. No use putting up with his fussing before it was necessary.
How long had she flown? She flipped head over feet, twisting over the forest and upward into the warm night air. The cloth of her pants twisted around her ankle, irritating her. With a shimmy, she discarded the human clothes. Encouraged by the wind’s embrace, she stripped her shirt off and allowed her element to carry her.
Tenzin let out a sigh of relief as the wind caressed her skin.
She could feel more now, sense the expanse around her, the dimensions of the earth and the sky. She closed her eyes and felt the contours of the land, the filtered moonlight through the trees. The drop of stone where the earth had closed in on itself long ago.
There.
Tenzin smiled and flew lower. The sinkhole on the map fell into the forest just past the rocky outcropping in the shape of a horse’s head. She hovered over the sinkhole for a few moments before she allowed herself to drift down. She could hear animals in the brush fleeing from her. Birds and small rodents scattered.
All could sense the presence of a predator.
Tenzin landed barefoot in the center of the sinkhole. It was an old formation, its walls covered in lush green ferns and bromeliads. Tree roots clung to the rock as life reached upward to the sun.
She turned in place, inspecting the margins of this remote area. She could sense no human presence. There was no scent or visible trace of them.
Excellent.
Water fell somewhere nearby. She floated over the land, searching for it.
There.
The waterfall was underground, the stream tipping over the edge of the rocks and following a narrow opening along the edge of the sinkhole. Moss and algae grew along the channel. Tenzin lay on the ground and ducked her head into the moss-lined hole.
The darkness was immense.
Perhaps during the day some trickle of light reached the chasm, but at night even a full moon would have been obscured. Nevertheless, Tenzin could feel the expanse below her. Under the surface, a honeycomb of caves twisted, each sending a slightly different scent to her nose. In that direction, water. In another direction, the smell of rotten eggs. In another, bat guano. And mixing in among those smells, the chalky smell of old bones that told Tenzin a predator had once used a cave for shelter. Judging from the age and smell, she guessed it had been a vampire.
Interesting. Possibly problematic. Then again, not all immortals were interested in gold. Some barely gave it notice.
Tenzin wondered if there were stories about a creature in these caves. She’d be sure to ask Ben if he’d studied the local folklore.
Despite her necessary caution, she felt the fluttering thrill of discovery in her gut. She’d found the cave. It was here. She had found the entrance and she had a map.
Within days, a new cache of gold could be hers.
But for now—she flew up and into the night sky, twisting in the sea breeze—she could wait.
Ben was sitting in a lounger, reading a book under a lamp, when he heard her land. “Hey,” he said. “Did you have any luck?”
“Yes. I did.”
He glanced up, then down, then up again when he saw her. His eyes went wide.
Naked. So much naked. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen her naked, but it had been a few years.
Tenzin’s body was slim and anything but boyish. Her hips were wide and her waist narrow, her breasts small and round. She had tattoos, one thing he’d never forgotten. They were fine lines and crosses between and beneath her breasts, running down the center of her body and splitting at her navel to frame a soft belly.
He cleared his throat and forced his eyes away. “Uh… did something happen to your clothes?”
“Oh.” She sounded surprised. “I couldn’t find them.”
“And you lost them how?”
“Well… Honestly, I didn’t look. I forgot. They were annoying me and the air was nice and warm. Why are you being puritanical?”
“You mean why am I not staring at you while you’re naked?” His heart pounded. He wanted to look. Oh, he wanted to look. Not that he needed to. Some things you didn’t forget. Ever. “Uh, just trying to be polite.”
“You’re ridiculous.” She walked to the edge of the balcony. “Being naked is the natural state of humanity unless our bodies need shelter from the elements. Do you think the indigenous people on this island wore clothes?”
Ben kept his eyes on his book. “Anthropologically, I’m sure you’re right. Can you put some clothes on anyway?”
She walked over to stand right in front of him. He couldn’t avoid her. Her feet were muddy. Her knees covered in dirt. She looked like she’d been crawling around on the ground.
“Tenzin, what—?”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why should I put on clothes? I’m comfortable like this.”
He looked. He couldn’t help it. His eyes ran from her feet, up her legs, over her pubis and belly, her breasts, her arching neck, until he was looking into her eyes. He felt an unexpected spike of anger twisting within the furious desire her body ignited.
He hadn’t taken a lover since the last disastrous woman who’d lied to him. He’d been a monk. Drinking less. Pouring himself into work. Focused only on rebuilding his reputation for himself and his family.
“You want to do this right now?” he asked in a hoarse voice. “Really?”
She said nothing, her grey eyes staring into his.
“Put some fucking clothes on, Tenzin. Because I’m a man and you are attractive, and if we’re going to work together, you need to wear some fucking clothes so I can concentrate.”
She held his gaze for another beat, then she walked past him into the house and shut the door without a word.
Ben closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the lounger.
Why are you doing this to yourself?
What are you doing?
What do you think is going to happen?
A few moments later, she walked back out to the balcony, clad in a black caftan that covered her body but hinted at the form beneath every time the breeze blew.
Fuck me. It’s almost worse.
“Okay, you found what? The horse head?”
She pulled up a footrest and perched next to him. “I found the horse head. I found the sinkhole. I found the cavern.”
Ben blinked. “Holy shit.”
“Yes. The good news is, I didn’t sense any human activity around the caverns. No signs or scents of them. The nearest road is quite a ways away.”
“Which means you’ll probably have to fly me in.”
; “Maybe. But there appeared to be hiking trails.”
“And the bad news?”
“There’s been a vampire there. Not recently, but I can smell her kills.”
“Her?”
Tenzin shrugged. “Or him. I couldn’t tell. The energy was too old.”
“So there’s been a vampire. How deep into the caves?” Ben calculated the odds of another vampire finding the exact same cave system by coincidence. Honestly, it wasn’t that far-fetched. How many isolated cave systems could there be on an island?
“I couldn’t tell how deep the other vampire went; I didn’t go into the caverns themselves. There’s no light, which means I couldn’t pick anything up. We’ll have to go with your equipment.”
“Wind vampire?” he asked. “You said it was pretty inaccessible.”
“Maybe? It’s hard to tell. An earth vampire could theoretically get into the area, though the cave systems are limestone, which isn’t easy to manipulate without damaging it. Just to give you an idea, Lucien can work with limestone; Carwyn cannot. That’s the age we’re talking about with earth vampires.
“So not very likely to be earth. And Macuya is earth, right?”
“Yes. So water or wind vampire would be my guess. Either are equally likely. There is a lot of water on this island. The underground rivers here are far more extensive than the humans realize.”
“So there’s been a vampire in the cave, but it might just be a useful hiding space. How extensive was the scent?”
She smiled. “You’re very bright. Not extensive at all. I only sensed the vampire in one direction, which meant it hadn’t really explored. We won’t know more until we get down there with the map and some equipment.”
“And we don’t want to do that until we get formal permission.” He tapped his chin. “Tomorrow night.”
“I’m telling you, Benjamin, these self-important immortals aren’t going to stop me from finding this treasure,” she muttered. “I don’t care what they say tomorrow. I’m searching that cave.”
“Calm down,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. You’re right. They are self-important. You think they believe there’s anything about this island they don’t know? They’ll let us search because to deny it would be as good as admitting there are secrets here they don’t know the answer to.”
“Good point.”
“So chill out, let me do the fancy talking tomorrow, and we’ll keep everyone happy for as long as we can.”
11
The house in the hills was lit with torches the next night when Ben and Tenzin arrived. There were no humans there, but dozens of vampires lounged around the patios and perched along the cliff face. Water vampires floated in the pool and stood under the waterfall. All watched silently as Ben and Tenzin walked across the grounds.
Ben kept an eye on Tenzin, mindful of her discomfort at being underground. She was a creature of air. She wasn’t meant to be confined. She’d switched from her loose pants and dresses that night to slim black leggings and a fitted tank top. She looked like danger in a compact package.
Good. It was the impression Ben was hoping she’d go for.
Ben, on the other hand, decided to present himself as the academic. Let the vampires be reminded of his uncle, the notorious fire vampire. He wore a white linen shirt and black pants. He wasn’t wearing a tie, but he’d donned a summer-weight black jacket with turned-up cuffs, and his hair was slightly mussed. He’d been tempted to wear glasses, but he didn’t want to push it.
Inés eyed them with some amusement when she met them at the front door. But she led them wordlessly across the grounds and back to the mountain. They crossed the footbridge and walked into a large tunnel lit with more torches. Music echoed down the hallway, the beat thumping with a syncopated rhythm Ben associated with the Caribbean. Drums echoed down the hallway.
“Address the cacique as Cacique Macuya. His two queens are Cacica Valeria and Cacica Jadzia. You may address them as such. All three are fluent in English and Spanish. I will introduce you in Spanish since that is the language of the court, but you may feel free to speak English as you are visiting Americans.”
“I’m not American,” Tenzin said.
“That may be, but the caciques do not speak any Asian languages,” Inés said. “You may use English.”
“We’ll use English,” Ben said swiftly. “Thank you, Inés.”
They entered a wide cavern with painted walls and arching bridges that looked half natural, half man-made.
“Vampire hewn,” Tenzin muttered.
An earth vampire had created or expanded a natural cavern to accommodate what looked very much like a royal court. Drummers and dancers performed in front of three raised thrones on a dais, the dancers twisting themselves into configurations that left no question they were vampire. The air smelled of flowers and smoke.
The center throne was occupied by a man of medium height with dark brown skin similar to Inés and an elaborate feathered headdress of blue and gold. Gold links were around his neck and wrists. More gold decorated his ankles. He was bare-chested and muscular.
To his right was an elegant woman with pale white skin and reddish-brown hair pulled into a braid that hung over her shoulder. Instead of feathers, flowers decorated her hair, and her dress was a simple sheath in deep blood red.
To the man’s left was another woman, a very familiar woman.
“Do you see?” Tenzin muttered in Chinese.
“Mm-hmm.”
The woman to the left of the cacique was the same woman they’d seen in San Juan, watching the musicians in the restaurant. Dark unconstrained curls formed a natural crown on her head, complemented by flashes of gold around her face. She wore a strapless dress of vivid aquamarine blue that clung to her body.
All three of the figures on the dais were regal in completely different ways. All watched the dancers in front of them while other vampires hovered around them, whispering in their ears or serving them in some way.
A king and two queens.
Los Tres.
Inés had paused at the entrance to the cavern to give Ben and Tenzin a moment to take in the grandeur, but after a few beats she walked forward and they followed. As she approached, dancers bowed and fell back. Drummers turned and lowered their volume. The mood in the cavern shifted from excitement and celebration to focused curiosity as Ben and Tenzin stepped forward.
Ben mentally took stock as they walked through the crowd.
Fifty vampires at least. At least ten hovered overhead.
One known exit. Unknown caverns and tunnels leading farther into the heart of the mountain.
Weapons surrounded the room. Curved blades and stone-tipped staffs carried by no less than a dozen guards.
Basically, if Los Tres decided to kill them, Ben was shit out of luck, even with Tenzin at his side.
They walked through the middle of the crowd, the room growing more and more quiet as they approached the thrones. Tenzin whistled three notes, the familiar opening to a Hollywood Western showdown.
Ben glared at her.
“What?” She shrugged. “Tension.”
“My brother, Macuya.” Inés stopped in front of the thrones. “Valeria and Jadzia. I present to you Ben Vecchio, nephew of Giovanni Vecchio, scribe of Rome and son of Kato. Accompanying him is his partner, Tenzin, daughter of Penglai and Commander of the Altan Wind.”
Ben whispered, “They left out the ‘Scourge’ part.”
“I asked her to,” Tenzin said. “I’m trying to seem more approachable.”
“Really?”
“No.”
Macuya, Valeria, and Jadzia rose. Inés stepped back and motioned Ben and Tenzin forward.
Ben dipped his head to the cacique but kept his eyes on each figure as he greeted them. None of the three acknowledged him with more than a noncommittal glance, but they nodded at Tenzin when she copied his gesture.
It was yet another reminder that Tenzin occupied a rare place in the vampire world no matter
how much she was a personal thorn in Ben’s side. To most vampires, especially older ones, she was royalty and was treated as such.
“Cacique Macuya, Cacica Valeria, Cacica Jadzia.” Ben let his eyes linger on Jadzia for a moment, let her know that he recognized her. “Thank you for this opportunity to visit your island, and thank you to Inés for the introduction.”
Macuya sat in his chair, followed by his queens. “You are American.”
“I am.”
“You come here for your work?” He glanced at Inés. “You come here to find something?”
Ben chose his words carefully. “My uncle and I have been hired by a client to search for an object of personal value that the client believes exists on this island.”
“And does this object belong to your client? Or are you trying to steal from my people?”
Thank you for asking that second question. “The origin of this object is not Puerto Rico, Cacique. I would not steal from your people.” Which was true. Most of the treasure was likely of either Spanish or English provenance. “We believe our client has a strong claim.”
“And you can’t tell me what you’re looking for?”
“The confidentiality that our clients expect forbids me, Cacique. As an immortal of considerable power”—never hurt to tack on some flattery—“you realize how even a minor object of personal interest can be used against an immortal. Confidentiality is vital to my uncle’s and my work. We guard it zealously, as we would if you ever had need of our services.”
The vague mention of services intrigued the vampire. Ben could see it in his eyes.
Interesting.
“So if I allowed this search,” Macuya said, “it would be a great favor to your uncle, would it not?”
Giovanni had prepared Ben for this. Favors weren’t handed out lightly in the immortal world. He had to be careful how he responded.
“Your consideration would be greatly appreciated,” Ben said. “And your cooperation would be remembered should your path cross my uncle’s or anyone under his aegis.”
Ben could tell it wasn’t what Macuya wanted to hear, but it wasn’t nothing either. Giovanni Vecchio and his mate, Beatrice De Novo, were two vampires of immense reputation and power around the world. Being on their radar in a positive way wasn’t a bad position to be in.
Blood Apprentice: An Elemental Legacy Novel Page 10