Tenzin stopped breathing for a moment.
He looked at her, and there was a challenge in his eyes. You want me to show you mine? Show me yours.
Poke. Prod. Stretch the skin and shed it. Leave the old behind.
Growth was painful, especially in moments like this.
“I had three children.” She took a slow breath. “A girl who died and twin boys. I think possibly one of them might have lived to adulthood, but I don’t know because I was abducted by raiders when they were babies.”
The challenge in his eyes fled, and Ben wrapped his arms around her in an iron grip.
“My father is such a shitty person, and he still got to have a kid. I’ll never have children, and I think I’d be so much better at it than he ever was. For some reason, in the past few months, that has been pissing me off. And then I saw him and it was just like… a slap.”
Tenzin examined his expression. She sensed no hidden meaning or prevarication.
“It is ludicrous to say that you will never have children, because you are immortal now and you know that many of our kind adopt children. You don’t know what your life will be like in ten years, let alone in one hundred or two hundred.”
He stroked the back of her neck. “Would you have children again?”
“Not now, and not anytime soon.”
He nodded.
“But I will not say never.” She looked away. “It would be foolish to project like that.”
“Okay.” His hand stroked along her back.
Tenzin closed her eyes and felt his blood living inside her. She still hadn’t told him that she’d started sleeping again. For a few blissful hours each day, she slept and dreamed. That, more than anything, had calmed the voices in her mind.
Often their days were spent like this, Ben falling asleep with Tenzin draped over him, either in the loft or the bedroom they’d light proofed when they returned to New York. Tenzin preferred that Ben sleep in the loft. She liked to sense his nearness even when she was awake or meditating.
That night they were supposed to meet Chloe and Gavin for drinks at the Dancing Bear. But then again, maybe they wouldn’t.
She felt a burgeoning energy approaching, and a familiar scent blew through the open windows like a gust of night jasmine in the air.
Tenzin picked up her head. “Zhang is here.”
Ben frowned. “What?”
It couldn’t be. But it was.
“Zhang. My sire. Our sire.” She sat up. “He is here.” What was he doing in New York?
“Has he ever been to New York before? Are you sure?”
“I smell him on the roof.”
She was about to fly out of the loft when Ben pulled her back threw a tunic at her.
“Clothing please. I know you don’t subscribe to traditional mores of modesty, but please don’t make me crazy, even if it is your father.”
She looked at him. “Is this another relationship parameter?”
He rubbed a small circle on his temple. “I can’t believe we have to spell that out, but yes, Tenzin. Please don’t randomly spend time naked in front of other people.”
“That’s a reasonable parameter.” As was monogamy. Very few vampires as old as Tenzin subscribed to monogamy, but since she had no interest in sexual intercourse with anyone other than Ben, that was an easy request to agree to. Understanding the complex dynamics of an emotional and sexual partnership with one person was complicated enough. She didn’t know how Arosh handled a harem, but he clearly had far more emotional depth than she could manage.
Tenzin pulled on a tunic and a loose pair of pants; then she flew down to the french doors that led to the roof. Ben was right behind her.
Just as she’d suspected, Zhang was sitting on a bench outside, his eyes roaming over the city.
“Extraordinary,” he said. “Truly, I begin to understand Lan’s fascination with the modern world.” Zhang looked over his shoulder. “It looks like another sky has fallen to the ground, spreading its stars across the land.”
Ben leaned against the doorway. “Yeah, it’s pretty spectacular.”
Tenzin didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “What are you doing here? What is wrong?”
“A piece of unexpected information came to me two weeks ago.” Zhang turned, and Tenzin was surprised by the tension she saw on her sire’s face. “It affects both of you.” He sniffed the air. “I see you have become sexual partners again.”
Ben covered his eyes with one hand. “God, you two are so strange. I will never understand your relationship.”
“That is none of your business,” Tenzin said. “And it has no bearing on our relationship with you.”
“Admittedly, this is true,” Zhang said, “but I do hope you are both happy with the arrangement.”
“Why are you in New York? I doubt it’s to check whether Ben and I are having sex.”
Ben groaned and sat on a bench. “You just keep saying it.”
She spun on him. “So Catholic.” Tenzin turned back to her father. “What is this about?”
“It’s about Arosh,” Zhang said, keeping his voice low. “I have sources who say he has found the bone scroll in Axum.”
Tenzin felt as if her body had been hollowed out in an instant. “The bone scroll is a myth.”
“No,” Zhang said. “It is not.”
“Aabmen—”
“I have seen it with my own eyes.” Zhang’s face was like a grave. “It is not a myth.”
Zhang had seen it? It was as if she were seeing her father for the first time. How had he seen it? Where? If he had seen it, why had he not destroyed it?
Ben crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s a bone scroll? And haven’t we done enough for Arosh to last a lifetime? We found the Night’s Reckoning. We ended the cold war between the West and the East. Isn’t that enough?”
Zhang looked at Tenzin and spoke in the old language. “You haven’t told him about Saba.”
She responded in the same. “You didn’t tell him either.”
Ben walked over to Tenzin. “You’re going to teach me that language because this” —he pointed between them— “is going to drive me crazy.”
The bone scroll. It was a myth. She’d always been told it was a myth.
But her father did not lie.
Tenzin walked to Ben and looked him straight in the eye. “How do you feel about a trip to Ethiopia?”
THE BONE SCROLL
Elemental Legacy: Book Five
Coming Spring 2021
The Elemental Legacy Series
Want to read more about
Ben and Tenzin’s adventures?
Obsidian’s Edge
is now available at all major retailers!
For the first time ever, all three origin novellas in the Elemental Legacy series are available in one volume, along with a bonus novella, The Bronze Blade.
In Shadows and Gold, driving a truck full of rotting vegetables and twenty million in gold across mainland China wasn’t what Ben Vecchio had in mind for summer vacation. If he can keep Tenzin’s treasure safe, the reward will be worth the effort. But when has travel with a five-thousand-year-old wind vampire ever been simple?