“Of course not.”
“Does it bother you?” Ben saw a water vampire Emil Conti had been trying to track down in Italy for a few years. The man was a thief and had assaulted a human on Conti’s staff, nearly killing her. Yet here he sat in Monte Carlo, openly chatting with business associates and beautiful humans.
“I like who I like” —Gavin followed his eyes but said nothing about the Italian vampire— “but business is business. Safe haven is assumed in my clubs unless you cross me or those under my protection. Neutrality may not be palatable to some, but it’s necessary.”
Ben shook his head. “What does it say about me that it makes sense?”
“It says you appreciate disagreements being settled without bloodshed.”
“Right.”
“What has you in a mood?”
I am still your friend. I will always be your friend whether you want me or not.
“Tenzin thinks she did the right thing, doesn’t she? Not just the selfish thing” —he looked at Gavin directly— “the right thing. The righteous thing.”
“Yes. And she’s right.”
“How can you say that, knowing how I feel?”
“Because look at you.” Gavin leaned forward and refilled his champagne glass. “Look at yourself, Ben.” His voice was low. “Your power fills this space like the bass thumping in Radu’s club the other night. That’s how big it is. Most vampires would walk in here with an attitude if they wore that much power. Even if they were young, they would flaunt it. And yet here you are, quietly drinking a glass of wine with me, speaking politely to the humans in my employ, nodding at immortals you only know socially and acknowledging everyone, not only those who can benefit you.”
“And?”
“You were born to be this.” Gavin sat back. “Don’t glare at me when you know it’s the truth. You—the man you were—has not been changed by immortality. If anything, it’s made you a little more humble. And that’s extraordinary.”
“So you’re saying Tenzin knew what was good for me better than I did?” Yeah, that really didn’t sit well.
“I’m saying that if it hadn’t been her who had to make the decision, you’d already be at peace with it. You’re angry because you don’t want to admit this is who you were meant to be.”
It might have been early Saturday morning for Ben, but it was still Friday night for his baby sister, which meant that he owed her a video chat.
Ben sat in his safe room at Gavin’s and powered on his tablet. In seconds, a ringing sound filled the room.
“Ben?” Sadia’s little face popped onto the screen. “You called!”
“I told you I would.”
“Every Friday night.”
“As many as I can.” Ben knew not to make promises he might not be able to keep. “I will do my best.”
Sadia’s screen jumped and shook. “Wait a minute.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“To my fort.”
He smiled. “Your fort?”
“Yes.” The shaking stopped but the picture wasn’t as bright.
“Where are you?”
“I told you, in my fort.” She craned her neck. “Dema and I built it in the playroom, and we used blankets and some of the poles from a camping tent and it’s really cool.” She looked up. “Can you see?”
“I can see the inside a little.”
“It’s really cool.” She propped her chin on her fists. “Do you have a fort?”
“I don’t.”
“Where are you?”
He looked out the window at the glittering lights of the boats docked in the harbor. “I’m not too far from Rome.”
“Really?” She switched to Italian. “Piacere!”
Ben smiled. “Ciao, sorellina.”
“Are you going to Rome? Are you going to see Fabi?”
“Not on this trip. I’m going to a new place I’ve never been tomorrow.”
“Is it going to be fun?”
“I hope so.”
“If it’s not” —she rolled over and looked at the tablet upside down— “just come home.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He smiled. “I do have to work though.”
“I know.” She kicked her feet in the air. “Do you see my feet?”
“I do.”
“Mama said Dema is going to buy me new shoes because I grew out of my old ones.”
“Are you getting really old while I’m gone? Am I going to recognize you when I see you again?”
She giggled. “Yes. I’m going to be old enough to be a vampire soon.”
Ben tried not to wince. “Okay, silly, just remember—”
“It’s only, only allowed for grown-ups.” She rolled back over. “I knoooow.”
He stared at her precious round face and her missing teeth. He tried to imagine what she would have done if he’d died in China. Would she still remember him? Or would he only be a faint memory now, reserved for pictures in her childhood home?
“Sadi?”
“Yeah?” She was reaching for her feet behind her back.
“Why do you want to be a vampire when you grow up?”
She nearly caught her toes, but she toppled over in the dark blanket fort. “’Caaaaause Mama and Baba are vampires. And you are. And when I’m grown up, then I’ll be a vampire too and then Mama and Baba and you and me can be a family forever.”
Ben had the urge to hug the screen, but it wouldn’t be as satisfying as hugging Sadia. “That makes sense.”
“I know. And Tenzin will be in our family too.” She was reaching for her toes again. “And Dema and Zain, but they won’t be vampires.”
“You’ve got it all planned out.”
“I know! Don’t you think it’s a good idea? Mama says it’s good to plan things.”
“Yeah, she’s right.” Ben was fighting the urge to cry. He cleared his throat. “Tell me what you learned in school this week.”
Sadia launched into a litany. She loved reading books, and she extra loved playing on the giant grand piano in the music room. She did not like Latin and said it was boring and Mandarin was more fun because she already had a screen friend in Hong Kong she could talk Mandarin with, but none of her friends knew about Latin even though Baba loved it best.
His baby sister switched fluidly between English, Italian, and Spanish, though she sometimes confused things in Italian and Spanish. She spoke Arabic with Dema but never with Ben. She was quick, curious, and had more than her share of attitude.
Ben refused to think about himself at Sadia’s age. She lived in a different world than he had, and Ben was happy for it. She chattered like a bird, nothing at all like the suspicious, wounded toddler he’d first met. She was cautious with those outside her family, but within, she was a glittering star.
Ben could feel dawn approaching. “Sadi?”
Her blinks were also getting long, and she’d lain down in the blanket fort, resting her cheek on her arms. “Yeah?”
“I need to go to bed, and I think you do too.”
“Okay.” Another long blink. “Baba said you were with Tenzin.”
“Um. Yeah, she’s here.”
“She’s there?”
“Not right here. Not this time.”
“Next time?”
Ben was hoping that by next week Tenzin would be out of his life, but how was he supposed to tell Sadia that? “I’ll tell her to call you, okay?”
“Okay.” Sadia yawned. “Love you forever, Benny.”
“Love you for always, Sadi.”
He ended the video call and tried to contemplate a world where he didn’t get to see Sadia grow up. Where he wasn’t able to watch over her.
“I didn’t want to die yet.”
“You won’t.”
16
The flight to Budapest took a little over two hours, so Ben, Tenzin, Gavin, and Chloe used their time the next night to go over Ben’s notes about the Hungarian collector.
Ben put the man’s pic
ture in the center of the table. “Gergo Farkas is pretty notorious with human authorities. Collector is a generous term. He does collect and he does deal on the legitimate market now, but he started out as a thief. Probably retired now.”
“This guy?” Chloe held up the picture. “He looks like a bookkeeper.”
The nondescript man in the photo looked like he was in his early seventies and was wearing a dull brown suit and a tweed cap.
“Don’t be fooled by his appearance. He’s successful because he skates under most radars. He wants to be forgettable.”
“Farkas is more than successful. He’s brilliant.” Tenzin was glowing. “Such a beautiful thief. Some of the best work I’ve seen from a human. He stole the Caravaggio Nativity, and it was not ruined like they said. That part was fiction.”
Gavin said, “Really? I thought that was two men?”
“No, it was Farkas and a partner. A woman. No one ever found it.”
“I thought the mob had that one,” Ben said.
Tenzin waved her hand. “Not even close.”
Ben glanced at the photo. “Farkas’s residence has been a mystery for years, even among his close associates. The only reason we have this location is because apparently, someone very private and very mysterious owed my aunt a favor.”
Gavin looked at the map spread on the table. “How far outside of Budapest is this?”
“No more than an hour by air,” Ben said. “I think it’s best if Tenzin and I go in by ourselves.”
“Agreed,” Tenzin said. “Chloe, we’ll keep in touch with you via Cara.”
“Sounds good to me.” She leaned into Gavin’s shoulder. “I bet there’s a safe, comfy place I can hang out.”
“Of course, dove.” Gavin was still looking at the map. “So you’re breaking into Farkas’s house.”
“Yes. It’s near Lake Balaton.” Ben put more pictures on the table. “An old baroque mansion with a winery attached. Farkas runs the winery now. Claims to be totally legitimate of course, but access to the house is limited. As far as I can tell, there are no pictures of the interior. No plans of any kind on file at city or county offices. He doesn’t get visitors. He entertains a little, but it’s all at the winery, not the house.”
“Big old house like that,” Chloe said. “Lots of walls. So many possibilities.” She nudged Gavin. “If you want to go…”
“No, it’s fine.” Gavin stared at the pictures. “Totally fine. I don’t need to go.”
Tenzin said, “You can come if you want.”
Gavin looked at Tenzin, then at Chloe. “No. It’s fine.”
Chloe broke into peals of laughter. “Oh, you so want to go break into the old art thief’s house!”
“No.” Gavin straightened his tie. “I’m a legitimate businessman now. Not some thieving rake.”
“Well, we’re not thieving rakes.” Ben looked at Tenzin, then back to Gavin. “We’re going to break in the thieving rake’s house and then… recover an icon that rightfully belongs to Radu.”
Chloe asked, “And we know it belongs to Radu how?”
“Because” —Ben cleared his throat— “he told us so.”
Chloe pursed her lips. “Just admit that you have different standards about stealing things from a thief than you do from a normal person. I completely understand that justification.”
Ben spread his hands. “I mean, Farkas obviously stole it from someone, right? If it’s there, it’s Radu’s icon. And Radu knows the entire history of the thing and he’s Poshani, which means that his people pray to Sara-la-Kali, so obviously the history of the thing…”
Tenzin was frowning at him.
“What?”
She turned to Chloe. “If you’re an art thief, then you have to expect people to try to steal from you. It’s only fair.”
“Agreed,” Chloe said. “That makes sense to me.”
Ben turned to Tenzin. “So do you expect people to try to steal from you?”
“Obviously. Why do you think I move my gold regularly and keep very little art?”
“Are we ignoring your jewelry and armor collection?”
She waved a hand. “That’s more fashion than art.”
“The armor is fashion?”
“It is if you ask me.”
“Arthur loves the armor,” Chloe said. “Even though he’s a little creeped out by it.”
“Do we have any blueprints at all?” Tenzin asked.
“Nope. I scoured online archives but couldn’t find anything. It’s possible there’s something in the local county records, but I figured it would be just as easy to break in and look for ourselves.”
“Sounds good.”
Chloe and Gavin went to the galley to grab a snack for Chloe, leaving Ben and Tenzin at the table alone.
“I talked to Sadia last night,” Ben said. “She wants you to call her.”
“Then I will do that.”
“Do you talk to her often?”
“I try to call at least once a month.”
“Why?”
Tenzin looked up with wide eyes. “Does it bother you?”
“I’m just—”
“You know what? I don’t care if it bothers you.” Tenzin looked back at the pictures of the house. “You cannot keep me from speaking to Sadia if she wants to speak to me. I love her.”
“I’m not trying to keep you from Sadia.”
“Good.”
Ben could tell she was pissed. “You need to stop assuming the worst about me.”
Tenzin looked up. “Why? You assume the worst about me constantly.”
“I do not.”
“Of course you do.”
“I don’t—” He raised a hand. “Okay, look. I don’t want to fight about this.”
“You don’t want to fight because you weren’t winning,” she muttered.
“No, this is supposed to be just business, and it’s getting into the personal.” He gathered up the papers. “We agreed to keep it business.”
“Our lives have been entwined for over ten years,” Tenzin said. “Do you really think we can keep anything only to business at this point?”
“Doesn’t matter.” His throat felt tight. “That was the agreement.”
Tenzin stared at him for a long time. “So it was.”
She rose and left him alone with his files.
They’d all agreed to stay in Gavin’s house in Budapest since he had plenty of room for them all, and with any luck, they’d only be there for a night. Knowing that Tenzin was going to be not-sleeping in a room right next to him was messing with Ben’s mind.
He wanted to talk with her. He didn’t know what to say. He probably shouldn’t talk to her, but he found the urge to just be in the same room with her was nearly impossible to resist.
Was it her blood? Was this because he’d taken her blood and his amnis wanted her? Ben felt slightly desperate thinking about the end of this job. In a matter of days, they’d be finished and he’d have no excuse to be near her. What would he do? Where would he go?
He had no obligation to return to China to be near Zhang because his sire had asked nothing of him.
He had no obligations in Los Angeles except with family.
When he thought about his future, the only thing he wanted to do was what he had been doing. He wanted to look for lost art for clients.
Ben found her in her room. He knocked on the door and waited for her to open it, but all he heard was a clatter of what sounded like plastic hitting the floor.
“Tenzin?”
She opened the door, her cheeks flushed. The sight sent an immediate surge of arousal to his groin even though he knew she’d probably just been having blood-wine.
“What?” She was irritated. She glanced down at the sudden tent in his pants. “I don’t have time for that right now.”
“I wasn’t… What was that?” Ben found her irritation oddly comforting. “Did you break something?”
She spun and looked at a scatter of yellow plastic on
the ground. “This… thing! It’s driving me crazy.”
He walked into the room and stared at the mangled plastic and circuitry. “Is that the new Nintendo portable console?”
“Yes. If I wear thick gloves, it’s too clumsy. If I wear thin gloves” —she held up her hands in light pink driving gloves— “then it breaks in under a half an hour!”
He looked at the stack of boxes next to the bed. “How many of these things have you wrecked?”
“This is the third.”
“Tenzin.”
She kicked the pieces toward the wastebasket. “What else am I supposed to do? I’m going crazy waiting. Why aren’t we flying to Farkas’s house tonight?”
“Because tomorrow he has an event at the winery and no one will be home.”
She let her head fall back. “So we just sedate him or something if he’s in the house. Come on, Ben, you’re a vampire now. You have amnis.”
“Which I’m not going to use on humans unless I absolutely have to.” The familiarity of the argument was soothing. “I don’t know why you find this surprising.”
She sat in a chair and glared at him, her arms crossed over her chest. “I would just like to point out that the man who was convinced he was going to turn into a monster if he became a vampire is still the man with an overdeveloped sense of honor toward humans who don’t deserve it.”
“This isn’t an honor thing. It’ll just be easier—”
“Tell the truth—you don’t even like hunting, do you?”
He leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms, mirroring her posture. “Why would I need to when there are perfectly willing human donors available when I want to drink?”
A slight flush came to her lips. “I bet they love you.”
“I tip well.”
“That’s not why they love you.”
“Tenzin…”
She said nothing, but the raised eyebrow said enough.
“I don’t have time for this.”
She laughed. “Yes, you do. You have time, Ben. Plenty of it now.”
“Are you trying to piss me off?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it. “Hmm.”
“Are you actually thinking about what you’re going to say?”
“I am attempting in this new life to be more introspective.” She pursed her lips. “So far the results have been mixed.”
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