“Beatrice,” he whispered before muttering something unintelligible in rough Italian.
“I really need to learn that language.” She sighed as her eyes rolled back.
“Hmm.” He lifted his mouth and gave her a wicked smile. “I’ll just switch to another language you don’t know then.”
“I’ll catch up with you eventually.”
“You don’t need to catch up.” He moved up her body so he could whisper in her ear. “Just stay. Stay with me. Stay here.”
“I can’t… oh”—she arched her back in pleasure—“stay here forever.”
“Yes, you can.”
Giovanni set about proving why staying in bed with him really
was
the best plan, but he was interrupted by a loud knock at the door.
He looked up with a snarl and sped naked to the door in the sitting room. She heard it open.
“Go away,” she heard him say before he slammed it shut.
Beatrice sat up in the bed, covering herself with the sheet. He walked back in the room and dove into the bed.
“Who was that?”
“No one,” he said before he pulled the sheet away.
“Giovanni!”
He rolled his eyes and lay back on the bed, pulling her on top of him and running his hands through her hair. “That was your fencing teacher.”
“Baojia?”
“Yes.”
“You slammed the door in Baojia’s face?”
“Yes.” He obviously didn’t consider this rude or unusual as he began investigating the freckles that dotted her cleavage. “He’s probably standing out in the hall now if you want to tell him something,” he said before his mouth returned to her skin.
She rolled off of him. He only sat up and tried to pull her into his lap.
“Sorry, Baojia,” she called loudly, knowing he would be able to hear. “Sorry my… Giovanni is a rude vampire.”
“Fine.” Beatrice heard his muffled reply from the hall as she hid her face in her hands. “I’ll be in the practice room when you escape his clutches.”
Giovanni gave a satisfied laugh, but she slapped at his shoulder and pulled away, standing to walk to the bathroom so she could take a shower.
“What?” he called out, still laughing.
“You can’t keep me occupied every single hour that Lorenzo is awake. I have things I need to be doing.”
“Yes,” he said as he lay back on the bed, stretching his legs. “I can think of several right now, in fact.”
She shook her head and shut the door, only to hear it open as she stepped in the shower.
“I really need to go practice, love.” She felt him run the ginger-scented soap over her back.
“Consider this a warm-up,” he said as he ducked under the water.
H
er face was still flushed when she finally made it to the practice room.
“Sorry,” she said when she spotted Baojia in the corner of the room.
“No need to apologize. We practice on your schedule.” He stood and handed her the practice
dao
, which had become her favored weapon for practice. She hadn’t switched to the full-weight weapon yet. Soon. The thin steel blade curved wickedly in the lamplight, and she began her regular warm up routine, spinning and thrusting in the style Baojia had taught her.
He made quiet corrections to her form before he grabbed his own weapon and began demonstrating a new series of maneuvers. He rarely spoke, and the vampire’s near silent instruction became a kind of meditation, focusing her mind as her muscles memorized the intricate steps.
They practiced almost silently for another hour before she spoke again.
“He’d prefer it if I never left our quarters after dark.”
Baojia gave a quiet chuckle. “I can’t blame him for that.”
“No, really, he doesn’t like me being out when Lorenzo might be around.”
“Are you sure that’s his only motivation?” he teased quietly.
“Haha. Men.”
Baojia laughed again. “Like I said, I can’t blame him for that.”
He came to a halt and she followed his lead, standing at relaxed attention and mirroring his stance. “Were you my woman, Beatrice”—his eyes darted down to her mouth—“I would hardly let you leave the room.” He grabbed her
dao
, brushing a finger against her wrist as he took it from her suddenly limp hands. “For safety’s sake, of course.”
He walked calmly over to the wall of weapons, placing both sabers back in their cradles before he looked over his shoulder with a smile.
“Safety’s sake.” She gulped. “Right.”
He caught her eye and tossed a
jian
in her direction. Her arm reached out instinctively and caught it.
“Switch weapons.”
Beatrice straddled Giovanni’s lap in the large tub, working a lather up as she shampooed his hair. He just watched her, smiling as his blinks became longer.
“You better not fall asleep in here, old man.” She laughed. “There’s no way I could carry you to the bed.”
“Well, at least you know I couldn’t drown.”
She smiled and pinched his shoulder to rouse him. He sat up and put his hands on her back, warming them to soothe her sore muscles as he laid his head against her shoulder.
“Thanks, Gio.”
“Your back feels tense. Good practice? And did you have dinner with your father this afternoon? I forgot to ask.”
“Yep. He hates the food here, too.”
Giovanni chuckled. “Just because there’s no hot sauce.”
“You can take the girl out of Texas…”
He laughed against her neck as she poured the water over his hair, rinsing the soap out and soaking them both.
“I’m still amazed that he can stay awake so well.”
Beatrice shrugged. “It must be Tenzin’s blood.”
“It must be. It’s no wonder his amnis seemed so strange when I first met him.”
She pulled back. “You never told me that.”
“I didn’t know what to make of it,” he murmured. “It seemed different, but I couldn’t pinpoint how. It makes sense now.”
“Why?” She stood and reached for one of the towels, handing the other to him when he followed her.
“I would have guessed that he was much older. Easily my own age, but perhaps even more.”
“Wow.”
“It was definitely odd. And the fact that he can stay awake for most of the day now, it’s extraordinary. My sire could stay awake except for a few hours in the middle of the day, but he was over two thousand years old.”
She frowned as she patted her hair dry. “So my dad is the equivalent of a two thousand year old vampire?”
“Well.” Giovanni shrugged. “His energy feels that way. He doesn’t have the life experience, memory, or skills, of course.”
“Still… wow.”
“Yes.” He rubbed the towel across his shoulders before he grabbed Beatrice’s, hanging both on a hook by the door. “It’s quite a strength.”
“I’ll say.” She grabbed a brush to comb out her hair, but Giovanni picked her up and took her to the bed, tossing her in the middle with a playful grin. He grabbed the brush and settled behind her, kissing her shoulder as he let the heat build on his skin to warm them both in the cold bedroom.
“Gio?”
“
Sì, Tesoro
?”
She leaned back and pulled his warm arms around her. “I feel like this is the calm before the storm.”
He took a deep breath and rested his chin on her shoulder.
“I do, too.”
“S
tupid, stubborn vampire jerk,” she muttered under her breath, stabbing the air in the dark garden.
“Focus. You’re not going to hurt him, but by all means, visualize that if it improves your focus. Plus, it’s just sort of amusing.”
Baojia’s droll voice drifted across the lawn as she whirled and stabbed the air, focusing on a spot in front of her that had a stubborn, five hundred year old man floating in it.
“Stupid, overprotective…” She thrust into a tall camellia bush that was beginning to bud with white blossoms.
“Please don’t kill the shrubbery, my dear. The Elders might get annoyed and not let us practice out here again.”
Normally, any kind of sparring was disallowed on the palace grounds, but Elder Zhang had overheard Beatrice whining about feeling cooped up one night and generously offered the gardens for her to practice, promising he would smooth any ruffled feathers in the court as long as she and Baojia were careful.
Beatrice had been overjoyed she would be able to escape the confines of Tenzin’s quarters.
Giovanni had not.
“Stupid, overbearing—”
“Beatrice, if you hack that scholar’s stone, I will disarm you! Focus.”
She shook her head and brought her mind back. The fight with Giovanni could wait. He had certainly stormed off in a huff, smoke pouring from his collar as he stalked back to the library, ostensibly to help Stephen translate more of some Greek manual for Elder Lu’s monks to examine.
The two scholars were sending letters back and forth to the mysterious monastery that no one knew the location of except for the Eight Immortals. Stephen had visited, but had been blindfolded for the journey. Not even the highest-ranking administrators knew the secret site of the protected library where the book was being kept.
Nor did anyone know where Elder Lan had gone. No word had reached Mount Penglai about the strange immortal’s whereabouts, so the whole palace was in a kind of holding pattern. Tension blanketed the grounds, affecting everyone.
Especially Beatrice.
Her martial arts were improving exponentially, mostly because practicing was all she could do. She had progressed in her weapons training to the point that Baojia had moved her from dull weapons to sharp and was practicing more aggressively with her. The strange chemistry Beatrice sensed from her teacher had not dissipated in the tense atmosphere, which only added to the overall stress she was feeling. Even the weight of his stare was starting to bother her.
“Again.” Baojia’s blade slapped hers and she backed away. “Try that combination again, only this time, try not thinking about your boyfriend.”
“Shut up!”
He snarled at her, getting in her face when she glared at him. “Do not order me around, little girl. Do you think I care about your hurt feelings? You wanted to learn from me, so pay attention.”
She didn’t back down, stepping closer as she tossed her blade to the ground. “I’m done. Go bite something, Baojia.”
He grabbed her arm and spun her around when she tried to walk away. “You want me to bite something? I’ll tell you—”
“Well, isn’t this interesting.” Beatrice stiffened when she heard the mocking voice. “Whatever would my
Papà
say if he saw this little scene?”
She turned slowly to see Lorenzo sitting on a bench nearby, surrounded by guards.
“Beatrice,” Baojia warned quietly. “He’s baiting you. Ignore him.”
“Gio wouldn’t say anything to you, you slimy little bastard.” She spit at the blond vampire. “Leave me alone. Or were you going to try to grab me again? Not so brave when you don’t have others doing your dirty work, are you?”
Lorenzo’s blue eyes narrowed, and a smile flicked at the corner of his lips. In the blink of an eye, he stood before her, leaning down and hissing before Baojia could pull her behind him. Her bodyguard pressed her into his back, standing his ground as the palace guards intervened and stepped between the two water vampires. They pushed Lorenzo back and Beatrice heard a low snarl come from Baojia’s chest.
“Back away, Lorenzo.” She heard him say. “I have orders to protect this one, and I don’t care who your patron is. I will happily end you if you interfere with my assignment.”
“Everyone is in love with the little human.” Lorenzo laughed. “It’s all so amusing. Such a precious little girl. I do hope she wanders in my direction soon.”
“I very much doubt that will happen,” Baojia said as Beatrice slumped against his back, suddenly exhausted and wishing she could run away. Despite her fear, she didn’t want to show any weakness in front of her old antagonist, so she straightened up and stepped out from her protector’s shadow.
“Run along, Lorenzo,” she called. “No one wants to play with you today.”
“I’ll just have to see if I can change your mind,” he said with a wink and a smile before he jumped across the stream and strolled back to the opposite side of the palace gardens.
They both watched him until he was out of sight. Baojia finally turned to her.
“Don’t be brave. Bravado will get you killed.”
Beatrice only shrugged and turned to walk back to Tenzin’s. “So will fear.”
He caught up with her. “I request that you do not make my job more difficult for me, Beatrice De Novo.”
“Afraid of my grandfather’s wrath if I get hurt?”
“Of course I am. I’m not an idiot. Also…”
“What?” She stopped and turned to him, suddenly desperate to know why he watched her the way he did. It had become more than just the obvious male appreciation she was used to. His dark eyes searched her face.
“I find you… worthwhile. For a human.”
She snorted. “Worthwhile?”
He frowned. “I would find it very unpleasant if anything were to happen to you, B.”
Beatrice had no idea what to say to him, and her heart was racing in her chest. Baojia looked as if he was on the edge of saying something else, so she turned abruptly and retreated to her room.
Mount Penglai, China
October 2010
S
tephen and Giovanni paged through the books in Tenzin’s library, looking for any further connections between Geber’s research in the elixir manuscript and existing alchemic practices in the far East. They had been looking for any precedent for the attempt to stabilize vampire blood for human consumption, but had found none.
“Did you see this?”
Stephen handed Giovanni a book. “It was written in the eighteenth century, comparing Aristotle’s theory of aether and the traditional fifth element in Indian alchemy. A contact mentioned it years ago and told me it might be worth looking into. This is the first copy I’ve found. Might be relevant.”
“I hadn’t seen it, thank you.” Something caught Giovanni’s attention. “What contact?”