Page 120 of Dawn Caravan
“I thought you said she thought I was annoying.”
“That too.” Ben crossed his arms over his chest. “She has a soft spot for thieves.”
René rolled his eyes. “Clearly.”
“I’m not talking about me.”
“No? You should be. Don’t pretend you’re anything more than a thief, Vecchio. A thief who comes from thieves. You think your uncle trades for the manuscripts he finds? You think he buys them from auctions? You think Tenzin gained her wealth through honest means and the pittance of an assassin’s wages?”
“What does that have to do with—?”
“You Vecchios think you are so noble.” René curled his lip. “You all think you’re better than the rest of us. You’re not.” René spat out his name. “Benjamin Vecchio, warrior of Penglai, Master of Iron in blah, blah, blah.” René lifted his hands and the earth rose under him. “What are you but another immortal’s creation? At least I make my own way in life and don’t trade on my family’s name.”
“Because they’re sick of you?”
“Because I have my own identity!” René thumped a fist against his chest. “Not theirs! Mine.”
It was clearly a sore subject, but Ben still felt like making René bleed. “How attached are you to your left hand? Not your right—I know you’re right-handed—but just your left one?”
One finger. Maybe two.
A thumb? Ben felt the edge of the dagger sewn into his pants.
“You think I’m the one who has the goblet?” René asked. “How naive are you? There is one master thief in this camp. One!” He laughed. “And it’s not me, Vecchio. It’s not you and it’s not me.”
Okay, René probably had a point. The only master thief in the camp was Tenzin. Ben kept his hands in his pockets. “You think she stole it?”
“Of course I do, and so do you. You’ve been holding her at arm’s length the entire time you’ve been here. Why?” René sneered. “Because you know the truth. You know Radu is right. If the temptation was there, she would take it. She’s playing with you! Tenzin plays by no rules but her own. She cares for none but her own. If the goblet was in front of her” —René reached out and made a grabbing motion— “she would take it without hesitation.”
Hadn’t she said it the night before?
I will never be human. I will never be tame.
“You keep trying to make her an ordinary woman,” René said. “God knows why. She’s not ordinary, Vecchio. She’s a glorious monster, and she will never apologize for it. Why the hell do you think you’re in love with her?”
“Fuck you.” Ben flew away, leaving René in the shadow of the oak tree. He wanted to punch René’s teeth in, but in his gut, he knew it wasn’t because the man was annoying or grating on his nerves.
It was because he was right.
31
Ben was waiting in her caravan when Tenzin returned from the dinner hour in the clearing.
“Hello.” She hadn’t been expecting him after she heard him fighting with René, had instead assumed he’d brood for some time.
“Hey.” Ben stretched his neck back and forth. “Ran into René on the way over here. Got sidetracked.”
“Yes, I heard. Does he still have all his limbs?”
“As far as I know.”
“I did not have sex with him.” She was distracted, disturbed by the scent of Vano on Ben and the faint scent of Ben’s blood. Had he been wounded in his argument with René? Why did he smell like Vano? “René did stay in my trailer. He was telling me what he knows about Fynn, and the sunrise caught him.”
“Yeah.” Ben wrinkled his nose. “I can smell him in here.”
“He was in the bed.” She sat across from him at the table. “I haven’t slept in a while.”
“Stating the obvious,” he muttered.
