Page 18 of Night's Reckoning
“Your room is ready here.”
“I don’t want it.” She looked over her shoulder. “Thank you.”
He said nothing, standing with one arm braced on the library table and the other fisted at his hip.
She nodded toward his shoulder. “You should have a parrot.”
He frowned. “What?”
“To complete the pirate look.” She pointed her chin at his shoulder. “A parrot for your shoulder.”
He frowned. “I don’t care for birds.”
“Your loss.” She left him in the study, walking up the stairs and onto the deck where she took to the air without another word.
He was crouched down in the courtyard, staring at the delicate creatures.
“You brought home birds. In a cage?”
“I know you don’t like—”
“Caging birds destroys their nature, Benjamin.”
“I understand that, but—”
“Birds in cages cannot fly. It is in a bird’s nature to fly.”
Tenzin flew until she reached the silent house in a water village west of Shanghai. She didn’t visit often, but when she did, her sire inevitably showed up.
She saw Zhang sitting in the courtyard, feeding the koi that swam in the channels running through the house.
Tenzin landed and continued walking past him, holding up a hand when he opened his mouth to speak. “Give me a few moments.”
Zhang Guo, eldest of the Eight Immortals, wind vampire of impossible power and sire of a single, deadly immortal child, shrugged his shoulders and continued feeding fish. “Fine.”
The house was more like a compound. The front house and rooms were taken by Jinpa, the human woman who kept the house. She and her granddaughters lived in the front rooms. Tenzin walked across the courtyard and over a bridge, passing the gate that marked her private rooms. She opened the door and paused inside.
Moonlight shone through the alabaster windows high on the walls. Finely carved screens separated the two formal rooms that never received visitors. She walked through them and into her private library. In front of her, dim light shone through the four massive doors that had been a gift from her father. They were carved with two mythical figures entwined with each other, eternal and powerful.
The dragon and the phoenix.
“I told you I’d hurt you if you broke into my room.”
“If we’re comparing the situations, I’m not in your bedroom. And you’re not naked. Are you going to take the knife away from my carotid now?”
“Your pulse isn’t even elevated. That’s rather extraordinary for a human.”
“What can I say? I have interesting friends.”
Tenzin stared at the screen until she felt her temper even out. She couldn’t understand what she was feeling. For the past few months, she’d been repeatedly drawn into her memories, which annoyed her. She was a creature of action. She moved forward, not back. Memories of Benjamin were not welcome.
Do not waste your regret on the past.
She walked out of the house, across the courtyard, and into the kitchen. “My father and I would like tea.”
Jinpa’s granddaughter nodded. “Of course, Tenzin. I will boil the water now.”
“Thank you.”
