The following night, Ben and Tenzin walked to the house at nightfall. He felt rested and newly refreshed. It wasn’t only his body but his mind. The conflict between Beatrice and Tenzin—the two women he loved most in the world—had been festering. And while nothing felt healed, Ben thought that perhaps the wound had been lanced.
“You feel better,” Tenzin said. “You rested well.”
“I did.”
“You’ve been restless while you’re sleeping, which is unusual for a new vampire.”
“I’m not that new anymore.” Ben didn’t like thinking about it, but he’d been dreaming. And lately, most of his dreams featured him and Tenzin dying violently in a burst of flame flung from the Fire King’s hands.
So they were much closer to nightmares than dreams.
“You know, sleep can be weird and I’ve had some of your blood, so maybe that changes things.” He wanted to change the subject. “Did Sadia come to visit you during the day?”
“Yes. She brought a makeup set and sunglasses so we could” —Tenzin frowned at the memory— “take ‘fancy pictures.’ I was very unsure of what she meant and made the mistake of agreeing.”
Ben barely kept from laughing. “Please tell me someone took pictures of that.”
“I am fairly certain Dema took many, despite my threats.”
Task one for the night: find Dema and obtain Tenzin’s fancy pictures.
“So does Sadia have a future as a makeup artist?”
“I have worn various cosmetics over the years for different cultural and court reasons. I was confused by her choices, but I am probably not the best person to judge. There was a lot of glitter. And she had trouble putting it on my eyes.”
He bit his lip hard. “I’m sure it was beautiful.”
“I’m sure it was ridiculous, but Sadia was delighted and that was the important thing. Do you know her father has her memorizing Virgil already?”
Ben opened the french doors leading to the living room. “I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not.” He could hear the family gathered in the kitchen, as per usual. “Do you want to go in for dinner or go up to the library?”
“Library.” She rose and brushed her fingers over the rise of his cheekbone. “You need time alone with your family.”
“They’re your family too.” He caught her fingers before she floated away.
“Which means I understand that certain members of it might need space.” Her smile was fleeting but content.
Ben let her go and entered the dinner chaos that erupted at nightfall in the DeNovo-Vecchio household. He jumped in with no fanfare, cleaning Sadia’s face, taking out the garbage, and setting dishes on the table. He listened as disparate factions shared details of the day and waited for opinions, questions, and ideas.
As the meal wound down, he made his exit with his uncle next to him.
“I’m going to get the slides ready,” Giovanni told his wife. “Maybe ten minutes?”
“I’ll get Sadia to bed then,” Beatrice said. “She has classroom in the morning.”
Ben escaped before Sadia’s whining could gain volume. “Tuesdays?”
“Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.” Giovanni climbed the stairs with Ben following. “She needs human interaction with other children.”
Ben nodded. He’d already been savvy enough to keep secrets by the time Giovanni had adopted him at twelve, but small children must be a different challenge entirely. “So her whole school—”
“Designed for day-people only,” Giovanni said. “She’ll transfer to your alma mater when she’s older, but for now she assumes everyone has vampire family. There’s no way she could go to a typical school.”
They entered the library, and Ben saw Tenzin lounging on a sofa near the fireplace.
She turned her head to look at them. “No Beatrice?”
“She’ll be joining us shortly.” Giovanni walked over and sat near Tenzin. “You realize she knows how much you care for each other?”
“Of course.”
“And this is mostly a function of maternal—”
“It’s completely expected, my boy.” Tenzin sat up and waved a careless hand. “Don’t feel like you need to apologize.”
“I’m not apologizing.” Giovanni glanced at Ben. “She loves you both.”
“I know that.” Ben sat next to Tenzin, desperate to change the subject. “What do you think about Tenzin’s proposal?”
“About finding the bone scroll and keeping it in our library?”
Ben said, “You already have Geber’s alchemy manuscripts. What’s one more dangerous threat to the vampire world?”
Giovanni and Beatrice had a secure and discreet library in central Italy, off the beaten track and guarded by a crusty ex-priest from the Vatican, a research librarian, and numerous human, vampire, and electronic guards. It was available for scholars who petitioned for entry, but only at Giovanni and Beatrice’s discretion.
“It’s not a bad idea,” Giovanni said. “But I’ll be honest: if this thing actually exists—and it actually does what the myths say—I don’t want anyone to have it. Not us, not you and Tenzin, not the Elders at Penglai.”
Ben said, “You think it should be destroyed?”
“Vampires are powerful enough. I know immortals who can pull water from the cells of a living human, leaving them a writhing husk. And that’s one powerful vampire controlling one element. You think someone like Saba or Arosh needs control over all four?” Giovanni shook his head. “Some things shouldn’t exist.”
“I don’t agree,” Tenzin said. “And I will tell you why: I don’t think it’s as simple as we are thinking. I think there is another key to this myth. Otherwise, I believe it would have been found before.”
Giovanni said, “Are you talking about the blood of Mithra myth?”
Ben asked, “What blood of Mithra myth?”
His uncle raised a finger. “Let’s wait until Beatrice gets here. I don’t want to have to explain all this twice.”
“That reminds me, I was supposed to video-connect Chloe so she’s not in the dark.” Ben rose and walked to the large desk with various electronics that had been modified for vampire use. “I gave her a summary of what’s going on last night, and she wanted me to beam her in if we went over more stuff.”
“Beam her in?” Tenzin frowned.
“I’m just going to put her on video, Tiny. I’m not actually going to transport her here. Though that would be convenient.”
“Though possibly a bit shocking for her,” Tenzin said. “And Gavin would likely have issues with you manipulating Chloe’s molecules.”
Five minutes later, Ben and Tenzin’s human assistant, Chloe Reardon, was visible on a computer monitor from New York, Beatrice was back in the library, sitting marginally closer to Tenzin with significantly less glaring, and Giovanni was back in professor mode.
“I’m so excited!” Chloe’s voice chirped from the computer. “This is the first time you guys are doing a big project in Africa. We’re going, right? I am so excited. You better be going and you better be bringing me.”