She rolled her eyes. “And you used to accuse me of being obtuse.”
“No, not between us.” He snapped his fingers and felt the air snapping back at him. “That rippling… something. It’s just under the surface. The humans are tense and wary. Kezia and Radu are constantly poking at each other. The guard—Vano—is slinking around.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“It’s Puerto Rico,” Ben said. “It’s Naples.”
The light went on behind her eyes. “You think there is some rebellion in the works?”
“I think one has to be. All the signs are there.” Ben turned back to the three pictures remaining on the board. Radu, Kezia, and Vano. “This isn’t a theft; this is a coup.”
Tenzin rose and stood next to him, staring at the pictures. “So these are the trailers we need to break into? Radu is not going to like that.”
“You must be joking.” Radu was unamused. He glared sideways at Tenzin before he leveled his dark eyes on Ben. “I told you that you would need to be impartial.”
Tenzin leaned forward. “What motive would I have to steal the goblet?”
“It’s a beautiful and valuable one-of-a-kind treasure,” Radu said.
“Point taken.” Tenzin leaned back. “He’s right—if I got a chance to steal it, I probably would.”
Radu snorted. “Surprisingly self-aware.”
Tenzin spread her arms wide and smiled with fangs in full view. “I’m evolving.”
Something about her expression made the idea of Tenzin evolving absolutely terrifying. Judging by the expression on Radu’s face, he felt the same.
Ben reached out and took her hand. “Tiny, I don’t think Radu actually thinks you took the goblet.” He looked at Radu. “Admitting that one of your own family members may have it out for you is difficult.”
“My brother and sister had nothing to do with this.” Radu wore a tense smile. “But just to prove that to you, I will create an amusement tomorrow night, something involving all the guests. I will instruct the Hazar to allow you passage through the camp without harm.”
“Thank you,” Ben said. “I promise we’ll—”
“There will be no we.” Radu cut him off. “You may search the trailers if you can get past the safeguards,” he said. “You alone. Tenzin will stay with me.” Radu’s mouth was set in a firm line. “Because I still think she is the one who took it.”
Tenzin and Ben exchanged a look, and Tenzin nodded. “I will stay with Radu.”
“Fine.” Ben wasn’t happy, but he understood. Tradition was everything to Radu. The idea of violating his siblings’ privacy went against everything he believed in.
“I’m not a busybody,” he said. “All I’m going to do is look for the goblet. Don’t forget, you’re the one who brought me here.”
“To find a thief, not accuse my family.”
“I will go where the evidence takes me,” Ben said. “If Vano knew nothing about the theft, then why was he in Kashgar?”
A shadow flickered in his dark eyes. “To accompany our sister.”
“You know there’s more to it than that,” Ben said. “Radu, I’m trying to help. Think. Look around you. Who benefits most from your loss of legitimacy?”
He didn’t answer, but he didn’t avoid Ben’s eyes. “I appreciate your honesty, Ben Vecchio.”
“I won’t lie to you.” He glanced at Tenzin. “And I didn’t dismiss her outright. But I can tell when she’s lying.”
Tenzin snorted. “No, you can’t.”
“Really?” Ben raised an eyebrow. “The ship in Puerto Rico?” The place she’d told him she was leaving for China and that it had nothing to do with him.
Tenzin narrowed her eyes and looked away.
Why did he persist in irritating her? She was showing admirable restraint as it was.
Ben had no idea how much gold Tatyana had hidden in her caravan. But was Tenzin stealing it? No. Radu kept a chest full of gemstones in his vardo. Had she taken a single one?
Well yes, she’d taken a rather nice sapphire, but then she put it back.
See? Evolving.
She was doing remarkably well on her New Year’s resolutions. Did Ben give her any credit? No. He continued to act as if she hadn’t changed at all.
And he still had iron control over his sexual urges, which was very frustrating.
“Tell me this has nothing to do with me. Look me in the eye and tell me this has nothing to do with you and me and what happened in that cave…”
Why had he brought up Puerto Rico? Three years had passed since that happened. Was he still angry that she’d left? If she hadn’t, she would have lost control, just like she had in the cave. She would have hurt him. She’d nearly killed him while he spent his dying breaths reassuring her that it was okay.
Oh no. She’d needed a long break from the temptation that was human Benjamin Vecchio.
He’d been slowly wearing down her control for years, picking at her, making her lower her guard, trying to reveal the human beneath the vampire she’d become.
Ben thought he knew her, but he had no idea.
“Tenzin?”
Radu was gone. The two of them sat alone at a table on the edge of the forest with a candle burning between them and an open bottle of blood-wine.
She turned her eyes to him. “Why do you try to humanize me?”
Ben looked surprised. “Because you are human.”
“I’m not.” Something in the center of her chest ached. “You should be honest about who I am, Benjamin. Otherwise, the person you think you love will only be an illusion.”
The smile he gave her was halfway between bitter and sad. “I know who you are.”
“Do you?”
Ben leaned on the table. “I think you tried. I do. But the last job finally made me understand how you saw me as a human. So maybe this was all inevitable.”
“Do you think I thought I was greater than you? Better somehow as a vampire?”
“I know you did.”
“You’re wrong.” She leaned forward and ran a finger along his jaw, reveling in the contact, the energy that embraced her, even as he held her at a distance. “You were always too good for me, Benjamin. I never deserved your admiration or your friendship, much less your love.” She gently touched her lips to his. “Shining boy. White knight. You should have been more afraid of me.”
“I couldn’t be.”
“Are you afraid now?”
His lips remained parted. “No.”
“You should be. I’m trying to remember who I was,” Tenzin said. “But the parts I had to cut away were all the soft, gentle things. I’m not sure what’s left.”
He grabbed her hand. “If you take off before this is finished—”
“I’m not.” She took a breath and let it out slowly. “I’ve been following you for two years, Ben. You haven’t figured out why?”
“I’m waiting for you to tell me,” he said. “You call me a white knight, but we stopped playing chess the minute I stopped being human. I need to hear the words, Tenzin, because I’m tired of trying to read your mind.”