Page 113 of Dawn Caravan
“I already know he died. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Tenzin looked at Ben with a frown. “It wasn’t what you are thinking. Stephen and I cared for each other, but it was a strategic mating. A political marriage, if you want to think of it that way. I didn’t love him the way that Beatrice and Giovanni love. Not the way…”
Not the waywhat?
He shut up since he’d already made an ass of himself enough for one night. “I’m glad the two of you cared for each other. I’m sorry he died.”
“I’d been sleeping.” Her voice was soft. “For a long time I’d been sleeping. Stephen woke me up.” She smiled. “And he made me laugh.”
“That’s good.”
She kept her eyes on him, and Ben sat in the feeling he sometimes experienced in the silent space between waking and dreaming when he saw Tenzin’s image in his mind. Her expression moved from one second to the next between very young and indescribably ancient.
He sat with the knowledge that tempted and terrified him about forging something new and untested with her.If you know her, you will know everything.
29
Since Ben had run out of time after searching Kezia’s trailer, he followed Vano the next night. Ben chatted with Tatyana as they strolled through the camp. They talked, and he subtly steered her from one place to the next, always keeping his eyes on Vano.
“Where did you grow up?” she asked him.
“I thought you said I was famous.”
Tatyana shrugged. “You’re mildly famousnow. No one really talks about your human years.”
“Really?” He watched Vano lift a Poshani child onto his back as he chatted with three burly men around a small fire. “I’m kind of bummed about that. I tried really hard to make a reputation for myself when I was human.”
“Why?” She sounded horrified.
“For business. It’s not easy being the human partner of a famous vampire.”
“You mean Tenzin?” Tatyana shrugged. “I don’t know that I would call her famous.”
“Infamous?”
Tatyana smirked. “Feared. Admired a little. But mostly feared.”
“Is it the military stuff in the past or the assassin thing?”
Tatyana’s eyes went wide. “Military stuff?”
Ben’s eyes followed Vano as he walked among the humans in the Poshani camp. “Don’t worry about the military stuff. She’s retired now. So it’s the assassin thing. I get that, but I know her. She’d never take a job to kill someone who was an innocent.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. She has a thing about powerless people.” He glanced at Tatyana. “Besides, what vampires do you know who are innocent?”
“Me of course.” She offered him half a smile. “You would not count yourself?”
“Innocent?” Ben thought about the man in Rome. About a thief in Shanghai who’d done nothing but get caught up with the wrong people. He thought about the hundreds of innocent bystanders he’d probably left in his wake, never wondering how they fared in the chaos he and Tenzin routinely left behind. “I’m far from innocent,” he said. “In fact, I might be the guiltiest one here. At least other vampires are honest about being monsters.”
Tatyana rolled her eyes. “Self-pity is so boring. You’ve been given riches, eternal life, a powerful sire, and a fierce mate who obviously loves you very much. Why on earth are you complaining? Think about the choices you have.”
Ben was watching Vano shake hands with two men with long beards and furtive expressions. They were wary, watching for errant eyes.
He hardly registered speaking. “I didn’t choose this.”
“What?”
