Page 124 of Night's Reckoning
“You may approach,” Zhang said.
The woman stepped forward and bowed. The slight current of air that gusted toward him smelled of aromatic resin and anise, which meant she’d been working around incense. The closer she came, the more Ben caught hints of gardenia flowers.
No one told you that when you became a wind vampire, the whole world was composed of scents. Good ones. Bad ones. Some truly horrendous ones. The wind had been blowing off the ocean when he woke earlier, and the overwhelming scent of seaweed—which he’d once enjoyed—had almost made him puke. It was incredibly potent.
There was a whole wing of Zhang’s palace that smelled of honey and cardamom, the two scents he associated most with Tenzin.
Don’t think about her.
If he thought about Tenzin, he would want… He would just want.
The vampire approaching them walked slowly, no doubt not wanting to startle the newborn. “Zhang’s son, you are looking well this evening.”
“Thank you.” He tried to smile at the sweet-faced woman, but it probably looked more like a grimace.
She smiled back but spoke to Zhang. “Your guests have sent word that they will arrive in two hours, Elder. The boat will be waiting for them at the dock.”
“Thank you,” Zhang said.
She bowed and backed away, probably to avoid turning her back on the newborn.
“How long are people going to be afraid of me?” Ben asked.
“Does it bother you that they’re afraid of you?”
“Yes.” Ben had spent his life trying to be inconspicuous, trying to set people at ease so they would give him what he wanted or needed. “I really hate it, actually.”
“Then there is good news and bad news for you,” Zhang said. “The bad news is that for the rest of your immortal life, there will be some—possibly many—who see you as a threat. This is because you are dangerous and you will be very powerful.”
“Great.”
“The good news is that your attitude pleases me. Too often men seek this life because they want to be feared. That you do not means that my daughter was correct.”
“Oh?”
Zhang turned and looked him in the eye. “Yes. She told me years ago that you would make an extraordinary vampire, Benjamin Vecchio. I believe she was right.”
Ben didn’t know how to respond to that.
“Of course,” Zhang said, “we don’t need to tell Tenzin she was right. She already thinks she’s omniscient. No need to encourage her.”
31
Tenzin conveyed Ben’s message to Fabia, dismissing the girl’s obvious anger so she could focus on finding any trace of the doctor or Johari.
If Tenzin’s suspicions were correct, Johari would be feeling lost, literally out of her element. The man she probably still loved was in a refugee camp across the ocean, she had been sent on a deadly assignment with little hope of success by her new vampire sire, and she hadn’t had any time to plan.
What would be Saba’s play? What was the plan? They could not know when or how the Laylat al Hisab would be found. How was Johari supposed to get it back to her sire? Who would she meet? Where?
How did an out-of-place earth vampire get an ancient sword from the East China Sea to the Mediterranean, particularly when her sire had few connections in East Asia and Pasifika?
A ship. Obviously, it had to be a ship.
She waited in Cheng’s office for him to see Fabia off on the helicopter, staring at the large map he’d posted on his wall.
Taiwan.
Hong Kong? No, still ruled by Penglai, though it had its own regional lord like Cheng controlled Shanghai.
