Page 79 of Night's Reckoning
Ben locked his doors—hedouble set his locks—but he dreamed about her anyway. They were dancing in the alley behind the restaurant in San Juan. The warm tropical breeze surrounded them, wrapping around them as they held each other close. Music filled the air, and her arms were around his neck.
He felt her lips against his throat.
“I love you.”
Her fangs pierced his skin and she drank from him. The euphoria was swift and overwhelming. He fell to his knees, weak from the pleasure of her bite. He gripped her harder, melding their bodies together. He gasped for air. He called her name, but she didn’t release him. He felt the cobblestones under his knees.
“I love you.”
He gasped her name. He cried for more. He would give her anything. He would give her everything.
The cobblestones dug into his back. Blood dripped from the wound at his neck. He was bleeding everywhere. Blood leaked from his pores. It fell like tears from his eyes.
“I love you.”
* * *
Tenzin staredat the churning wake behind the ship. She perched on the top railing near the radio equipment and the antennae for the bridge. The sun had set an hour before; Ben was sleeping somewhere. Kadek, Cheng, and Johari had started the recovery of Zhang’s cargo.
“I can’t do this anymore.”
He was a foolish, foolish human, and she’d have to be gracious when he realized how wrong he had been. She’d been wrong too. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t nearly ready for the plans she had made for them. He would learn. He would come back. And she would forgive him.
Eventually.
“You can’t see what I’m going to do, or what I want, because as many years as you’ve been alive, there’s only ever been oneme.”
He had surprised her. That didn’t happen very often. She took to the air. She wanted to check on her father and her house. The rest of them could manage without her for one night.
Flying from the ship to the shore, she emptied her mind and allowed the air to fill her senses. She was surrounded by it, buoyed by the elation of space and the swift currents of wind. Even a rainstorm over Hangzhou didn’t slow her down.
“You haven’t changed. It’s been ten years, and you haven’t changed a bit.”
“You’re wrong.”
That stupid,stupidman! Why were males such sentimental fools? Her sire. Giovanni. Cheng. All of them ruled by their hearts. Didn’t they realize the moods of the heart shifted more swiftly than the wind?
“You never change.”
The memory of another fight burst into her mind, and Tenzin stopped in midair, seized by the pain of memory. Nima had been in the garden and she had been weeping. Her eyes were red and her nose was congested. Tenzin had thought it was from illness. It wasn’t.
“You never change.” Nima’s voice wasn’t angry anymore. It was different. Softer.
Defeated.
“I am a vampire; I cannot change.”
“I’m not talking about the outside, Xingan. I am talking about who you are. Your mind and heart. I cannot spend eternity with someone who will never change.”
“You would rather my love for you change like the wind? Like one season turning into another?”
Nima shook her head. “I will change and you will not. Then the person you loved will be gone, and you will leave. I will be alone. For eternity, I will be alone.”
But shehadchanged. She had changed after Stephen was killed. She had changed even more when Nima died. And knowing Ben…
They were wrong. All of them were wrong.
Tenzin made it back to Shanghai in less than three hours. It was some of the fastest flying she’d ever done, and she didn’t remember half of it. It was as if part of herself had moved through the air while the other was lost in memory.
