Page 104 of Night's Reckoning
“Yes.” She combed her fingers through Ben’s tangled curls.
“But I am sorry for my actions,” Zhang said. “I have carried regret for millennia. And you will never be sorry for this. You will never apologize for taking his life.”
“No.” She stared at Ben, memorizing every inch of his skin. The angle of his jaw and the exact arch of his brow. The soft curve of his lip and the faint bruise where she had bitten him, angry, afraid, and confused by the surge of emotions he elicited. “I regret nothing.”
“Then we will both wait,” Zhang said. “And we shall see who is forgiven first. You need to go. His immortal life is my privilege and my responsibility now. We will leave at dusk for Penglai. I want him to wake on the island.”
“Of course.”
Ben’s life belonged to Zhang now, though Tenzin would make good on any number of threats if her sire put pressure on Ben to be anything other than what he was.
You don’t know what he is now.
He could be a threat.
He is a threat.
He is not.
He is a wish.
Tenzin rose and walked to the door, taking comfort in the waves of amnis she felt growing stronger by the hour. He would be strong. He would be so strong.
“Tenzin.”
She turned at the door.
Zhang’s gaze was like iron. “I have not sired a child in over three thousand years.”
“I know.”
“He will be powerful.”
“Good.”
“He will be angry with you.”
She nodded. “I also know that.”
Ben wouldn’t be the only one. Tenzin walked to the library and opened a cabinet where Ben had stored a spare tablet. She propped it in against the bookshelves, pushed the button, and woke the device.
“Waiting for voice log-in.” Cara’s voice was a sharp reminder that life continued outside the walls of her house.
Tenzin took a deep breath, suddenly overcome by everything that had happened in only a few short hours. She put her head in her hands and breathed out. In. Out.
“You’re lovely. Lovable. You’re worthy of that.”
He would not think so now.
Tenzin blew out a sharp breath and felt the air draw near her skin, brushing her back and neck, swirling softly against her face as if to comfort her.
“Waiting for voice log-in,” Cara repeated.
“Log in Tenzin.”
“Waiting for two-factor authentication.”
Tenzin placed her face in front of the tablet camera, wondering if she looked the same as she had twenty-four hours ago. How could she? She had everything and nothing she had wanted.
