Page 31 of Dawn Caravan
She poked her head in. “Still really weird that you always know when it’s me.”
“Well, your…” No, he shouldn’t talk about how she smelled. He’d always hated it when vampires talked about how he smelled as a human. “It’s your steps. Maybe being a dancer, they’re just more distinctive or something.” He pointed to his ears. “You know, my hearing.”
Chloe’s dimples popped out. “It’s okay. I know it’s the smell.”
“Sorry, it really is. I feel like an adolescent again, only this time I’m being led around by my nose.”
“I live with one of you, remember?” She walked in and plopped on his couch. “It’s okay. Let’s go over tonight’s schedule.”
“Did Gavin want you heading to Radu’s with us tonight?”
“Yeah. He said it would be good for me to be identified as” —she used air quotes and rolled eyes— “‘his human.’ And I get it, so it’s fine. This city feels slightly…”
“Wilder?”
Her eyes went wide. “Yes! I was trying to compare it to Paris or Vienna, because the architecture kind of reminds me of both those places, but the vibe is completely different.”
“Paris has really calmed down in the past few years,” Ben said. “And no place feels as orderly as Vienna. I know exactly what you mean.”
“Totally. I want to roam around, but I think I’ll confine my roaming to daylight.”
“And only with Gavin’s security,” Ben said. “I don’t know anything about this place.”
“Do you think that’s why Radu wanted to meet here?” She pulled out her laptop. “Because he knows you don’t have many allies in this part of the world?”
“Maybe.” Ben sat across from her and tried not to think about the inbox he wasn’t tending to. “Chloe, let me just…” He reached for his tablet and used an eye scan to open it. “I really need to read my email.”
“No problem.” She was already in her files. “When you’re done, I have a question about the Corsican lead.”
“Got it.” He skimmed over the two messages from Tai. Nothing new in Penglai. He had one from Fabi, but it just looked like chatting. One from Giovanni with new information about the icon forger he’d found. “I’m forwarding this one to you. You can add it to the file on the forger.”
“Okay.”
He continued down to the bottom of the list to see an email from a BTA Art Recovery account. “Do we know a BTA Art Recovery?”
Chloe frowned. “Doesn’t sound familiar.”
Ben clicked on it.
I will not follow you anymore.
Ben dropped his tablet on the table. “Fuck.”
“What is it?” Chloe looked up.
“Tenzin.”
“What?”
Ben turned his tablet and showed it to her. “BTA Art Recovery is Tenzin.”
“Huh. That’s new.” Chloe looked back at her own screen.
“You didn’t know about this?”
“No. And I usually have to help her set electronic stuff up.” Her voice dropped a register. “She’s changing. Evolving. What will she do next?”
“This isn’t funny.” Ben was unaccountably annoyed.
