Page 6 of Night's Reckoning
He’d been contracting for short jobs with various friends and vampire allies for the previous few months. Taking time off from treasure hunting and lying low was a good idea since the last heist, which he and Tenzin had gotten away with in Puerto Rico.
It made sense for him to stay in Europe while North America cooled off a bit. He’d annoyed more than a few vampires in New York and Puerto Rico. Plus he could avoid being in his and Tenzin’s empty apartment in SoHo if he was hopping around Europe.
He’d spent some time in England, a little in Scotland with friends, but Rome had always felt like a second home. His uncle was Italian and had houses in Rome and Tuscany. The Vecchio private library was in Perugia. He’d grown up spending as many holidays in Rome as he did in Los Angeles. When life got complicated, Italy was where he ran to.
And life felt… very complicated at the moment.
Fabia said, “Call me when you get to your hotel after you’re finished with Filomena tonight.”
“Will do.”
“Don’t forget you have a meeting with Ronan on Friday evening.”
He had forgotten about the meeting. “About?”
“He didn’t say and I didn’t ask. I assumed you knew.”
Ronan was working directly for Emil Conti, the vampire in charge of Rome. He’d grown up with Ronan, both kids raised in the vampire world. Of course, no two families were exactly alike. Ronan’s parents were human, and Ben’s were vampires. And Ben was determined to remain human while Ronan had turned under Emil Conti’s aegis two years before.
Ben glanced around at the relatively deserted compartment and lowered his voice. “So is Ronan fully non-bitey at this point?”
Fabia laughed. “I ran into him a few weeks ago when I was out with friends. Other than being a bit paler, he’s exactly the same Ronan.”
“I shaved my beard. Think he’ll still hit on me?”
“I think his partner might object to that.”
“I didn’t know he’d paired up.” Ben smiled a little. “Good for him. He’s a solid guy. I still have no idea what he wants to talk to me about. For some reason, I thought he just wanted to hang out.”
“When he called, I got the impression it was for business reasons.”
Ben shrugged. “Then I’m sure he’ll tell me on Friday.”
“Could be something like what you’re doing for Filomena.”
“Could be he wants to knowwhatI’m doing for Filomena.”
“That’s also possible.”
Ben wouldn’t tell. He was charming enough to avoid giving answers he didn’t want to give, and protecting privacy was one of his hard-and-fast rules. Unless someone gave him a reason to spill secrets, he was a vault.
“Fabi, I’m gonna hang up. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Don’t forget I need to hear your voice tonight.”
“I won’t forget.” He ended the call and closed his eyes as the train pulled out of the station.
A normal person might think Fabia was being overprotective, but all her requests were standard safety protocol when living in the vampire world. Call when you finish the meet. Call when you’re locked in safe for the night. Daylight was for moving. Nighttime was for caution.
Of course, most humans never had to worry about any of that. Most humans knew nothing about the shadow governments, immortal politics, and twisted economy of the vampire world. They didn’t know that thousand-year-old immortals walked among them when the sun went down. They didn’t know that world events were often subtly shifted depending on the whim of an earth vampire in Greece or an immortal council outside Beijing.
There was no reason theyshouldknow. The majority of vampires didn’t kill to drink blood. Killing was inconvenient and, frankly, a waste of natural resources. All but the most sociopathic of them drank from unwitting humans or cooperative ones they employed for that specific purpose.
Vampires couldn’t exist without humans. Not for sustenance and not for business. Ben was evidence of that. He’d been adopted by a vampire when he was only twelve years old, and he’d been under Giovanni Vecchio’s protection and working for and with him ever since.
Did Giovanni love Ben? Yes.
Did Giovanni also expect Ben to send emails for him when he couldn’t figure out how to work the voice-controlled computer in his office? Also yes.
