Page 72 of Dawn Caravan
Ben’s body roared to life. His amnis leapt toward her. He could feel the air whisper in the space between them, and every cell in his body begged him to reach out.
Step closer. Consume her. Take everything. She is yours.
“That instinct you’re feeling right now? You think I don’t feel it too?” Her voice was low and quiet, barely over a murmur. “I have not let another being take my vein for over four thousand years. I have killed any who tried. My blood and my instincts are shouting at me that you areminein every way, yet for two years now, you have kept me at a distance. You have no idea what this is costing me.”
He stared at the fine strands that grew along her hairline. The pores of her pale skin. The minute creases next to her eyes. He looked at her and saw everything in a way his human eyes never could. And he still wanted to be closer.
He drank her scent and felt like drowning. “You took my blood too.”
Tenzin looked up and boldly met his eyes. “Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
Fine lines appeared between her eyebrows. “Why do you think?”
His chest felt like it was cracked open. “Just tell me.”
Tenzin floated up his body, and Ben forced himself to remain frozen. He felt her lips an inch away, running along his jawline and down his neck, pausing where his vein lay shallow beneath the skin. If she opened her mouth, her fangs would draw blood.
“Why would I tell you what you already know?” She warmed her breath before it touched his skin, sending pinpricks of pleasure in a wave down his body.
“I told you everything that night,” he whispered. “I bared my soul.”
“Yes,” Tenzin said simply. “You offered your love to me, then you demanded that I watch you die.”
Ben’s breath stopped; he couldn’t speak.
Tenzin’s voice held pain. “I knew you had cruelty in you, Benjamin. I didn’t think you would use it onme. Not like that.”
“That’s not what I did.”
“That” —she pulled away and there were tears in her eyes— “is exactly what you did.”
She put a hand on his chest and pushed him away. Ben didn’t resist. He couldn’t. He backed into the hallway, his arms still crossed over his chest while his blood screamed at him to reach out and take her, hold her, keep her close.
“I’m leaving tomorrow at nightfall.” Tenzin stared over his shoulder, the tears still visible in her eyes. “Goodbye, Ben.”
Then she closed the door.
He heard nothing for a long time, only the sound of her breath moving slowly in and out of her lungs, then her footsteps receded from the door and there was silence.
19
Chloe caught Tenzin before she left the next night. “Where will you go?”
“Back to Bucharest.” She stuffed a new video game console in her backpack next to her gloves and a Cara-enabled tablet. “Can I stay in the same place?”
Chloe nodded. “You have the code?”
“I do.”
Gavin had his regular apartment over the club in downtown Bucharest. He also had a safe house where Tenzin had stayed that few knew about. It was only accessible by air, built into an old Soviet-era warehouse on the outskirts of the city.
“How long will you be in Romania?”
Tenzin said, “No more than a few nights. I need to contact a few people; then I will probably disappear for a time.” She pulled an envelope from the pocket of her tunic and handed it to Chloe.
“What is this?”
