“Partner?” Ben said. “So this wasn’t your own idea?”
Juvan and Alcide narrowed their eyes.
Tenzin put a hand on Ben’s arm. “He means this wasn’t only your idea of course. Tell me about your partner.”
Alcide cursed under his breath, and Juvan spread his hands. “Are you going to tell us about your client?”
Tenzin smiled. “You know we can’t do that.”
Alcide said, “So you must know that we cannot tell you either.”
“You can’t tell me a name,” Tenzin said. “But surely you can give me something.” She looked out the window of the yacht. “I would consider it a favor.”
Juvan and Alcide both perked up. Giving Tenzin the meeting was fulfilling their favor to her. Offering information would gain them a new favor from one of the most powerful vampires on the planet.
“She gave us the pictures, but we don’t have a name,” Juvan said. “Only a bank number and a voice on the phone.”
“Voice?”
“Female,” Alcide said. “Immortal. The accent wasn’t recognizable.”
Which was often the case with older immortals. They usually traveled too much and lived in too many places for their accents to be classifiable. Added to that, they often spoke versions of languages that had long ago become extinct.
“A guess?” Ben asked. “Even a region would be helpful.”
“I would say…” Juvan pursed his lips. “Eastern Europe. Perhaps Austria or Hungary.”
Wildly different languages, but it gave them a place to start, and they did have a Hungarian lead.
“How did the pictures come?” Ben asked.
“Delivered by courier. A man.”
“Age?”
Juvan muttered, “I am shit with human ages, but he was experienced. I would say forties or fifties.”
“Language?”
“English.” Alcide was catching on. “But he did have an accent.”
“Was it familiar?”
“Russian but not Russian,” Alcide said. “If you know what I mean. He sounded like he learned English from a Russian.”
So the courier was a man in his forties or fifties who learned English from a Russian and worked for a vampire in either Hungary or Austria. Since Hungary was in the former Soviet Bloc, Ben guessed the Hungarian connection was the next one to follow.
“This has all been so interesting.” Tenzin picked up her blood-wine again. “And the concert was excellent.”
Juvan glanced at Ben. “I like him. He’s not the best, but he respects the microphone.”
“Thanks,” Ben said. “I think.”
“You’re welcome.” Alcide slapped his shoulder. “It is all about respect.”
14
Ben and Tenzin were silent on the flight back to the mainland. Ben ran through every piece of information he’d gathered along with all the new revelations from the brothers.
The Hungarian connection. That was the one. He’d been thinking they should go to Ankara next to explore the lead in Turkey, but after their meeting with Juvan and Alcide, Ben was definitely thinking Hungary was the lead to follow.
“They liked you,” Tenzin said.
They were flying above the clouds, an oddly silent and peaceful place over the twisting wind currents that rose from the heated surface of the sea.
“They didn’t like me,” Ben said. “They like you. They tolerated me.”
She appeared to think for a moment. “That is possible.”
“Probable.” He flew silently for a few minutes. “How did you earn a favor from them?”
“I spared their lives.”
Ben glanced to the side. “Who wanted you to kill them?”
“Your uncle.”
Okay, he hadn’t been expecting that. “Giovanni? Why?”
Tenzin narrowed her eyes. “You do realize they’re very horrible criminals, don’t you? They traffic in drugs, guns, even in humans.”
And I just serenaded them with Louis Armstrong classics. “Okay, better question, why didn’t you kill them?”
“I thought your uncle was overreacting. And he’ll admit he was now. Juvan helped Lorenzo kidnap Beatrice years ago. He lent some of his men to Lorenzo when they went to Houston.”
“I can see why Giovanni would be kind of pissed about that.”
“But they never had anything to do with Lorenzo’s little schemes,” Tenzin said. “They were work for hire. Your uncle sees that now.”
“And that made a difference to him?”
“Of course. Don’t forget that your uncle was an assassin too. For many years, he didn’t have much of a conscience. He had rules, but not a conscience.”
Ben tasted bitterness in the back of his throat. “So that’s going to be me eventually?”
Tenzin looked genuinely baffled. “Why would that happen to you?”
“Don’t you lose your human morals after a while? Justify things you normally wouldn’t because you’re so… above humanity?”
Tenzin raced in front of him, stopping him on his flight path. “Why do you think that?”
“Because—”
“I do not understand this about you, Benjamin. I truly do not. Your uncle’s sire was a madman who actively killed Giovanni’s empathy for others, but he still retained a core of humanity. My early immortal life was horrible, and I…” She stared at a spot over his shoulder, her eyes piercing the darkness. “I cut off parts of myself to survive it. But that was us.”
Ben stared at her. What was she saying? Tenzin never talked about her past like this. She didn’t look back. He couldn’t remember how many times she’d told him: If I look back, I will go truly mad.
“You cut off parts of yourself to survive?” He swallowed hard. “What does that mean, Tenzin?”
She shook her head. “It means that you are not me. And you haven’t had to do that. I would never have let him take you unless I knew he had evolved. I wouldn’t have allowed it.”
“Tenzin—”
“This isn’t about Zhang. Or me. You are yourself. And I know you are angry with me, but you have to think past that now.”
“No, this is about you.” I don’t want to talk about me. “You want me to reveal everything when you give me nothing. What do you mean, Tenzin?”
She ignored him. “Does Carwyn have a conscience? Does Beatrice?” Her face was twisted with an anger Ben had never seen before. “Think of the countless men and women of honor whom you know. Baojia. Brigid. Lucien Thrax.” She seemed to stumble a little on Lucien’s name. “Your friends, Benjamin.”
He felt a burning in his chest. “You were my friend.”
She looked him straight in the eyes. “I am still your friend. I will always be your friend whether you want me or not.”
She turned and flew toward shore, leaving him alone in the dark clouds, the wind cutting through his clothes and lashing his skin as a light rain began to fall around him.
Tenzin landed on the balcony of Gavin’s house in Monte Carlo. He had a top-floor apartment in a historic building with updated amenities and vampire security. It would have cost him millions and millions of dollars, or many favors.