In fact, if Ben had to guess, half their business associates had no idea they were romantically involved.
Need to change that.
Once they were mated, that would change. Once they were mated, she would smell of his amnis and he would carry hers. No one would mistake their connection once that happened.
“Can you just get Giovanni please?”
Tenzin disappeared and returned shortly with Ben’s uncle.
“Ah.” Giovanni smiled. “I figured the two of you would be able to get her back to sleep.”
“What?” Ben looked down at a limp Sadia. “Oh right. Gio, what’s the deal with Bêta Gabriel?”
Giovanni leaned against the doorjamb and put on what Ben referred to as his professor face. “What are you asking?”
“Sadia says they’re not churches.”
“That’s a popular belief,” Giovanni said. “Many scholars are convinced that the churches of Gabriel and Rafael were originally part of a palace complex or had some nonsacred purpose.”
“But they were carved by King Lalibela?”
Giovanni shrugged. “We don’t know. Not really. That’s the popular belief, and he speaks of them in his hagiography but doesn’t speak of building them. At least not in what I’ve studied so far. They could have already existed.”
“What does he say about them?”
Giovanni frowned. “I can’t remember exactly, but there was something about outsiders not disturbing the church. So he did refer to them as churches.”
“What does that mean?” Tenzin asked. “To not disturb the church? Who would disturb the church?”
“I don’t know,” Giovanni said. “But even in the thirteenth century, thieves existed.” He looked pointedly at Tenzin. “Or so I’ve heard.”
Ben said, “But maybe the angel churches aren’t churches at all. Or they weren’t churches. If they were treasuries, that could be why Emperor Lalibela wanted to keep outsiders away.”
“Lalibela wasn’t known for his riches,” Giovanni said. “He was widely hailed as a humble king who lived very similarly to his people. He left no castle or palace. The churches are considered his greatest achievement.”
Tenzin raised one eyebrow. “So maybe he was guarding something else besides treasure.”
Giovanni was slowly nodding. “Like a powerful object hunted by immortal powers?”
“Maybe,” Tenzin said. “According to Sadia, Bêta Gabriel is not a typical church.”
“And that’s exactly what we’re looking for.” Ben squeezed his little sister tight and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Brilliant baby.”
“Thanks,” Tenzin said.
Ben stared at her.
“Oh, you’re talking about Sadia.” Tenzin pulled her legs up to her chest. “I knew that.”
The following night, Ben, Tenzin, and Daniel climbed up a hill where a rocky outcropping was shaded by towering eucalyptus trees. Ben was walking with the earth vampire while Tenzin flew ahead, irritated by even the idea of the ground.
Ben could feel her tension and knew she was reaching the end of her patience.
Not unlike a certain ancient vampire who was approaching Lalibela.
“Do you think Arosh is already in the city?” Daniel looked suitably worried. “I really don’t want to create stone walls in the middle of populated areas.”
“I think he’s going to have to behave if Saba is with him.”
“She was with him last time.” Daniel ducked under a low-hanging branch, still following stairs cut into the side of the hill. “You think she’ll have more respect for the humans than for us?”
Tenzin flew toward them, hovering in the dark night. “In short? Yes. She considers humans like little children, unable to defend themselves and thus off-limits to truly powerful predators like her. It’s not that she cares more for humans than vampires, but she would consider the fight uneven.”
“Like it was when she razed the Aksumite kingdom and tried to wipe out the Solomonic dynasty?”
Tenzin raised a finger. “To be fair, that prince murdered her favorite daughter.”
“Not humanity’s finest moment.” Ben veered toward the right when he saw a deep channel cut into the side of the mountain. “We’re here.”
Tenzin came to settle on the narrow stone bridge that started at the base of the hill and grew narrower and higher toward the churches. “The bridge of heaven.” She skipped up the narrow path. “Symbolizing the journey of a devout, earthly life.”
“Narrow.” Daniel looked down at the steep drop off the right side. “And precarious for a human.”
“They don’t allow the humans to climb this way anymore.” Tenzin pouted. “Pilgrim safety or something like that.”
Ben suspected that a drop from the top of the bridge really did mean a quick trip to the hereafter. It was well over three stories high at the peak.
“Are we sure about this?” Daniel asked. “Are we really taking advice from a five-year-old?”
“She’s six,” Ben said.
“Oh, that makes it completely different,” Daniel said. “What was I worried about?”
Ben paused and turned to Daniel. “We were planning to search this church anyway. We’re just moving it up the queue.”
“When Arosh’s arrival is imminent?”
“Hey, you didn’t disagree with Sadia’s assessment.”
“I don’t, but if King Lalibela was the one to hide the scroll, I simply think it’s far more likely to be in a church, not a strange building with more questions than answers.”
“The angel church.” Ben looked ahead and began to climb next to the earth vampire again. “What if Sadia was right in more than one thing? She’s the one who was wondering if angels were really just wind vampires that humans didn’t understand.” He looked over his shoulder; Daniel was following them. “What do they say? Out of the mouths of babes?”
Daniel spoke under his breath, his eyes fixed on the dark outline of the churches in the distance. “Surely He said to those around him, ‘Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected praise.’ The Son of God didn’t say anything about wind vampires, my friend.”
“Maybe I have faith anyway. Saba wants us to find this scroll,” Ben said. “The closer Arosh gets, the more I’m sure of it.”
Minutes after they had started the climb, Ben stood staring across a gulf at the shadowed facades of Bêta Gabriel and Rafael. Tenzin had already flown across the span of the steep drop and tested the door, which was locked. Then she flew to the carved base of the churches two stories down, inspecting the wells and cisterns carved into the rock, wells that had no logical point of access for anyone other than a wind vampire or an earth vampire who could scale walls.
“There are handholds.” Daniel peeked over the edge. “Difficult for a human free climber, but not impossible.”
“For an earth vampire?”
He shrugged. “A mildly amusing exercise. Nothing more challenging than that.”
Tenzin flew along the sheer walls of the space, her hands pressed against the rock beneath the wooden bridge that connected the cavern to the front of the church.