“Stay,” she said. “You’re not going to break me.”
No, but she might break him. Ben buried his face in her neck and inhaled her scent. He ached for her blood. He wanted it so much his mouth opened without thought and his fangs scraped along her skin.
“No.” She pinched his neck. “Not tonight.”
He quickly closed his mouth. “Sorry.”
“I understand,” she said. “I want it too. But there are things… We should talk about what it means.”
“I know what it means.” Ben rolled off her and felt the cold stone of the cave against his back. “I was raised by a mated vampire pair, Tenzin. I know what it means.”
“You know, but you cannot know truly until you have experienced it, Benjamin.”
A bitter taste came to his mouth, and he spoke without thinking. “Like you and Stephen?”
Tenzin said nothing, but she slowly stood and walked to the back of the cave where her backpack was tucked in a corner.
Shit. He was an ass. “Tenzin—”
“I don’t want to talk about Stephen.” She rubbed a small towel over her body and cleaned up before she clothed herself in a tunic and leggings again. “The rain has let up. We should go so we’re not caught before dawn.”
“I’m sorry.”
Her eyes were blank. “Don’t be sorry. We have to talk about it. I just don’t want to talk tonight.”
She made mating sound like some kind of chore or task, not the romantic bond he’d always imagined it to be.
Ben caught her hand as she walked past. “Remember, I’m still a little impulsive and I say shit I don’t mean to because of it. But I love you.”
She cupped his cheek in her hand and rubbed her thumb across his lips. “Baina min khar.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what that means?”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t really translate into English.”
They left the river valley and flew northeast, cutting across wider valleys and high plains. They were nearing Lalibela, crossing a plain between two rivers when Tenzin stopped.
Ben turned and flew back. “What is it?”
She frowned. “There’s something strange.”
He turned and sent his senses out. “I don’t feel anything.”
“Wait for a minute.” Her gaze was fixed on the dark horizon. “They are coming.”
He saw it seconds after, a dark whirlwind in the distance, sweeping across the plain and twisting high in the clouds.
“Ziri.” Tenzin narrowed her eyes. “He likes to make a show.”
“Tenzin, there’re more.” He rose in the sky and watched through the clouds. The stars were obscured over a far greater area than just a single whirlwind. It was as if a cloud was gathering as a wall across the high plain. “Holy shit.”
Tenzin flew higher, joining him in the clouds. She made a face. “It’s Inaya. Ziri’s little girlfriend also likes to make an entrance.”
“Where are they going?” He asked. “And who do you think—”
“Saba would have asked Ziri to travel with her to be faster,” Tenzin said. “Remember, she’s an earth vampire. She’s just as slow as Giovanni and Beatrice without flight.”
“And why would Inaya—? Oh. Arosh.”
“Yes, he’ll need an escort too, though I’m surprised he didn’t simply recruit one of his children since all of them are sired to wind.” Tenzin watched the wall of wind and dust move across the valley. “Saba must have called in a favor, because Inaya is no one’s errand girl. They must be paying her well or promising something in return for her cooperation.”
“They’re headed north too.” Ben saw them sweep across from the west and head in the same direction Ben and Tenzin were going; only they were heading there much faster. “Do you think Hirut told them who we were talking to in Addis?”
“I have no way of knowing,” Tenzin said. “It’s possible Liya could have talked to Hirut and she would have no idea. Hirut could have wiped her memory. She could have sent someone to spy at the university.” Tenzin looked at him. “I told you, this is her territory. Every vampire holds allegiance to Saba.”
Ben’s heart began to sink. After their success in Addis, after breaking into the embassy, finding Desta’s crown, and narrowing the search area in the north, Ben had actually felt like this long-shot quest wasn’t quite as improbable as he’d thought.
Tenzin’s words poked a hole in his hope balloon.
“Come on,” Tenzin said. “Let’s keep going. Seeing them like this? When you think about it, it’s good news.”
“Oh?”
“Yes.” She smiled at him. “That means my father was wrong, at least in part. Arosh doesn’t have the bone scroll. He and Saba are looking for it too.”
22
The compound in Lalibela was situated on the top of a hill that overlooked the old town and the steep valleys below. Everything in Lalibela seemed to be built on an angle. The roads wound around steep slopes, and fresh vegetation, newly sprung from the season’s rain, clung to the mountains like the stubborn goats that grazed on it.
Human residents walked up and down the narrow roads, dodging bright blue tuk-tuks that beeped as they ferried residents through the mountainous village and over bumpy cobblestones.
But the sky was brilliantly clear and the stars shone brightly when Ben and Tenzin finally landed on the dark road that led to the compound. Ben raised his fist and pounded on the metal door, which opened with a great, rasping groan.
Dema was waiting for them. “You could have just flown in.”
“And risk your machete for surprising you?” Ben shook his head as Tenzin ducked under his arm and into the compound. “No, thank you. Is there water?”
“Plenty.” Dema nodded to the stone house where Tenzin was already headed. “Come on inside. You’ll like this place.”
Like everything else in Lalibela, the house was built up, a three-storied structure built of dressed-stone blocks, angular in form and beauty. Balconies stretched across the second floor, and the house wrapped around an inner courtyard tiled in red with a trickling fountain in the center.
“This place used to belong to some politician in Addis, but he was arrested for corruption,” Dema said. “Now it belongs to Hirut.”
“Saba’s daughter owns this house?” Ben asked.
Dema shrugged. “Seems like every vampire we meet in this place is Saba’s relative or in her line. It’s impossible to avoid the connection.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that.”
“There are plenty of light-safe rooms on the second floor and even one on the third. There’s also a new basement dug into the bedrock. It’s pretty cool.”
“Sounds like it.” Ben couldn’t muster up any excitement though.
Ever since they’d seen the dust storm south of Lalibela, he’d felt a sense of dread settle over him. Now that they had all the leverage they could find, Desta’s crown and her devotional, the enormity of what they were attempting was beginning to weigh on him.