Thanks for the info? “Which has what to do with the goblet?”
“I don’t know.” He narrowed his eyes. “But she is an excellent lover. Perhaps she means to entrap me.”
“That’s…” Too much information? Unlikely? Unfortunately, more than one vampire considered sex just another weapon in the immortal arsenal. And most of them were very good at it.
Tenzin was good at it.
“I think” —Ben cleared his throat— “that if she had the goblet and wanted to use it in some kind of bargain, she would’ve made her hand a bit easier to read.”
“Perhaps,” Radu said. “You suspect René DuPont. Why?”
Ben wanted to swallow his exclamation from the day before. “I only know he’s a skilled thief. But he also takes contracts for others. If René took the goblet, I suspect he’s already sold it or handed it over to a buyer and the goblet is probably long gone.”
A flicker of anger burned in Radu’s eyes. “It is far more than a goblet.”
“To you,” Ben said, “yes. But to another, it’s a priceless artifact.” He saw the object of their conversation lounging on a cushion near the bonfire with a slim, dark-haired woman Ben recognized. “Your sister Kezia.”
Radu glanced at René and Kezia. “What about her?”
“She’s clearly friendly with René. Could her loyalties—?”
“Not even a sliver of a chance.” Radu was clearly confident. “She would never betray the Poshani.”
“I see.” Nevertheless, Ben watched Kezia and René, watched them flirting and playing coy with each other, watched them whisper and laugh.
After a minute’s scrutiny, René glanced up and saw Ben watching him.
“Vecchio!” The French thief broke into a wide smile. “Fancy meeting you here.” He leapt to his feet. “And all grown up too.”
René sauntered over to Ben and Radu’s table.
“Hello, René.” Ben desperately wanted René to have stolen the goblet, but he had a feeling that Tenzin was right this time. René DuPont had the look of a man without a care in the world. He didn’t even appear to be scheming.
It made his face look all wrong somehow.
“I see you recovered from that time Tenzin threw you off a building,” Ben said.
“And I see you’ve shed that irritating mortality, yet kept the same lack of humor.” René cocked his head. “Such a disappointment.”
“Must be the title of your sex tape,” Ben muttered.
All the vampires looked confused, but a familiar laugh cackled from the trees.
René lifted an eyebrow. “If Vecchio is here, he must be following Tenzin.” He slipped an arm around Kezia’s waist. “You know Tenzin, don’t you, chérie?”
Kezia said, “Of course I do.”
“The boy follows her like a faithful puppy. It’s quite adorable.”
“Hey, René,” Ben said.
“Yes, Vecchio?”
“Remember the times I beat you—twice—when I was still human and you were a vampire?”
René’s lip curled just slightly. “You have different memories than I do.”
“Clearly. The funny thing is” —he addressed himself to Kezia— “René always seemed to be a step behind me, even when I was mortal. Can you imagine how far behind he’ll be now that I’m a vampire?”
Kezia’s mouth curled into a smile. “You like playing with fire, young Vecchio?”
Ben rose and stepped close to both of them. “Fire doesn’t concern me. Just makes me think of home.”
“Hmmm.” Kezia looked him up and down appreciatively. “So I see.”
He felt her approaching and knew instinctively what she would do. Tenzin flew toward them and landed on Ben’s back, curling her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist possessively.
Was she making it look like she was claiming territory? Yes. Did Ben mind?
Not… really?
It was a power play, but a good one. Tenzin might be one of the suspects on Radu’s list, but Ben wasn’t willing for any adversary to see them as divided. They had their problems, but those were no one else’s business.
He ran a hand from Tenzin’s ankle up to her knee. “Hey, Tenzin. How’d you sleep today?”
“Metaphorically?”
“Of course.”
“Very well, thank you.” Tenzin laid her cheek against Ben’s neck. “Hello, René. Hello, Kezia.”
“Tenzin.” René looked slightly ill, and yet he couldn’t take his eyes off Tenzin. His lips were flushed. It was a weird combination.
“My dear Tenzin.” Kezia greeted her with a smile. “I am so glad you accepted my invitation.”
“I was surprised to receive it, but there was no way I would turn it down. I wouldn’t want to miss a minute of this,” she said. “I’m just glad Radu invited Ben too.”
Radu rose. “Forgive me for leaving this delightful group, but I must attend to other guests.”
“Cool.” Ben’s fingers were running across Tenzin’s ankle. “We’ll catch up later.”
“Let me know if you have any further questions about your accommodations.”
“You bet.” Ben wasn’t looking at Tenzin, but every cell in his body was tuned to hers. “So René—”
“I heard so many rumors about your adventures in China,” René said. “I imagine only half of them could be true.”
“Did you hear that Ben found the Laylat al Hisab at the bottom of the ocean,” Tenzin asked, “where it had lain for a thousand years? But he found it completely intact, stored in the glass vessels created by Harun the sword master, along with countless other gold treasures valued at many millions of dollars.”
René pressed his lips together.
“Because that happened,” Tenzin said, playing with a curl of Ben’s hair. “It was fun.”
Ben turned to her. “Did you want to make that call at my place?”
“Yes.”
Ben turned to Kezia and René. “You’ll have to excuse us. Personal business.”
Kezia smiled. “Of course. I’ll just let my imagination run wild until René fills me in on all the details.” Her eyes swept up and down Ben’s body one more time before she glanced at Tenzin, smiled with a hint of fang, and turned back to the fire.
Ben gave René a flippant wave and turned toward his caravan. He said nothing more until he reached the bus. He kept Tenzin on his back until he walked inside and shut the door. “Okay, you can get down now.”
Tenzin floated off his back and landed in front of him. “Kezia would like to have sex with both of us. Just in case you didn’t understand what that look was about.”
“Yeah, I got it.” It was pretty obvious. “Just not into it.”
Tenzin nodded. “I will add that to the previous parameters.”
“This is not…” He closed his eyes and willed the erection away. “Can we not start a conversation about this when we’re here to video call my baby sister?”