The vampire’s lip curled a second before the energy he’d been drawing to himself, energy Tenzin had sensed and warned Ben about, exploded like a bomb.
28
Daniel threw out his hands and shoved both of them back as he raised a giant wall of stone from the ground. The fire went on and on; pressed against the rock wall, Ben could feel the heat creeping toward them.
“He’s melting the rock.” Ben gasped at the sheer power of the fire. He’d felt his uncle’s power, but it was nothing to Arosh’s inferno. “What do we do? The instant we fly away, he’ll turn it on us.”
Tenzin was angry. “Who does he think he is?”
She reached out and gathered the air around her, spinning it into a whipping tornado that picked up the dust and rock on the top of the mountain. She spun it up and over the wall, catching the firestorm on the other side before she extended up and flung the fiery torrent off the edge of the cliff.
“My God,” Daniel breathed out, still pressed against the rock. “Was that a fire tornado?”
Arosh sent another column of flame against them. “A clever trick!” he yelled. “But you cannot hide forever, small daughter of Zhang.”
“It’s just petty,” Tenzin grumbled. “There’s no reason to bring up my size.”
“Maybe it’s just how he remembers you,” Ben said. “You’re small and he’s old.”
“Can we maybe do something about the fucking fire that’s turning this rock to lava?” Daniel said. “And debate nicknames later?”
“Fine.” Tenzin called another whirlwind, but this time she caught the edge of Arosh’s fire and drew it into the tornado like a ribbon into a fan. The Fire King kept pouring flames into the wind, and the firestorm grew in size until the column of the fire seemed to stretch into eternity.
Sparks flew out, singeing Ben’s face and falling on his back. Daniel yelled when a large lick of flame fell on the back of his shirt.
“Ben!” He fell to the ground, rolling in the dirt. “Make it stop!”
Despite Daniel rolling on the ground, his clothes wouldn’t stop burning. There was no water, no ready fire extinguisher available. He was pressed against a rock wall on the top of a mountain with a literal firestorm over his head.
So create a bubble without air.
Desperation charging his amnis, Ben reached out, imagining a field around his friend, and pulled the air away with a violent jerk. Daniel’s hand went to his throat at the air was sucked from his lungs, but the sudden vacuum starved the fire that was burning his clothes and the flames died instantly.
Tenzin was watching the column of fire turn in her hands, her face alight with destructive fascination.
“Tenzin!” Ben tried to break through. “Do something!”
Her head cocked as she watched the column grow wider and wider. She spun it on the tips of her fingers like a trickster spinning a plate. A small smile played on her lips and she tossed it over the wall, flinging it back toward Saba and Arosh before she grabbed Daniel and Ben by the hand, launching herself off the rock wall and into the black night.
Ben heard a short scream and an angry roar.
Tenzin flung Daniel toward Ben and yelled, “Get him back to Lalibela!”
“What are you doing?”
She turned and waited, drawing a sickle-shaped sword from her tunic. “Waiting for Ziri. If he comes, I’ll draw him away. Get Daniel back to the compound.”
Every instinct in Ben told him to put Daniel down and help Tenzin, but two things stopped him.
His partner was far deadlier in air-to-air combat.
Daniel had burns all over his back.
Burns couldn’t kill a vampire unless they completely destroyed them, but they could weaken them precariously and took a very long time to heal unless the immortal took in a substantial amount of blood and the surface wounds were treated with vampire blood too.
“Go!” she yelled. “It won’t be the first time the old man and I have locked blades. If he comes, I’ll be fine.”
If he comes?
“Ben…”
Daniel’s pained voice ended Ben’s internal debate. He flew south, and he didn’t look back.
Giovanni had Daniel stretched out on a bed in a light-safe room. He’d cut his own hand and poured the blood into the angry burns on Daniel’s back while Beatrice rounded up every human servant in the house that was able to donate fresh blood to the wounded vampire.
“Ben?”
He turned from his station at Daniel’s side to see Dema in the doorway. Her face was pale, and her lips were pressed together. She pulled up the sleeve of her tunic and bared her wrist. “I’ll go first.”
Ben nodded and let her kneel beside Daniel.
“Dema?”
“What mess have you started now, Danny?” Though her words were harsh, her voice was soft. She brushed a singed piece of hair away from Daniel’s forehead with her right hand while she pressed her left wrist to his mouth. “Take it. You know I’m strong.”
“I finally put my fangs in you and we have an audience?” His voice was still pained, but it carried an edge of his normal humor. “Just my luck.”
“Shut up and drink, you ridiculous old man.” Her fingers never stopped stroking his hair. “You’re going to need more than me.”
“This time it wasn’t my fault, Dee. Promise.” His mouth closed over her wrist, and Ben saw Dema’s tiny flinch when his fangs hit.
Ben remembered that feeling, the mixed ecstasy of pleasure and pain from an immortal’s bite. He’d only experienced it with Tenzin, and she hadn’t always been gentle about it. Daniel was hurting. He would never purposely hurt Dema, but he could get a little lost in hunger, so Ben watched him and watched her.
Tenzin. Where was she? It had been over an hour since they’d returned and she hadn’t appeared yet. He’d told Beatrice to tell him the minute she arrived.
Daniel released Dema’s wrist, and she leaned over and kissed his temple. “I’m going to find someone else to donate.”
“Forget it.” Daniel’s voice was rough. “I want your taste to live in my mouth.”
“Romantic notion.” Giovanni’s voice was droll. “But you need at least three more donors. Dema?”
“I’ll get them.” She rose and, without another look at Daniel, headed out the door.
“She’s an incredible woman,” Giovanni said. “How did you manage to fuck it up?”
“Why are you assuming it was me?” Daniel asked.
Ben and Giovanni exchanged a glance but said nothing.
“Okay yes, it was me. It was about five years ago, and let’s just say I wasn’t the thoughtful and patient person that I am now.”
“Thoughtful and patient?” Ben frowned.
“Fuck you.”
Beatrice stuck her head in the door. “Ben, she’s back.”
He abandoned Daniel without a backward glance.
“I see how it is!” Daniel yelled. “See if I raise a rock wall for you the next time a fire vampire attacks us, Vecchio.”
Ben strode out of the room and into the courtyard to see Tenzin sitting on the edge of the fountain, her blade sitting beside her and a spatter of blood across her face.