Page 12 of Fangs, Frost, and Folios
“We’ll decide that when we find it.” He pulled Beatrice toward the hall of bookshelves. “Now, my darling fanged bookworm, let’s put those vampire senses to good use, shall we? How fast can you sniff out four-hundred-year-old paper?”
Beatrice’s eyes lit up. “I do enjoy a challenge.”
They spent two hours searching through the first row of bookcases, Beatrice using her keen sense of smell to sniff out any paper older than three hundred years while Giovanni used that time to explore the shelves themselves for hidden compartments, including books that looked out of place or might be hollow.
They hadn’t spoken for over an hour, and midnight was approaching when they heard the door of the library creak open.
Beatrice looked for Giovanni, but he was already moving in the shadows to intercept whoever was approaching. In all likelihood it was Nick coming to check on them, but they didn’t want to take a chance.
She took a deep breath and froze.
Vampire.
There was a scuffle, then a bitten-out curse in guttural French and a sharp exhalation as Beatrice rounded the corner, the long dagger she kept at her back already drawn.
What she saw was far from what she’d been expecting.
Her husband was standing near the fireplace, a long hunting knife drawn and held at the neck of a golden-haired vampire whose fangs were bared.
Beatrice frowned and lowered her blade. “René?”
Ben tossed a piece of popcorn at his sister, expecting a reaction but not the deep and nearly painful eye roll that he received.
“What is that look?” He tried to stifle a laugh but failed.
“You’re going to get grease on this shirt, and I have to wear it to school tomorrow.” She looked down at the grey shirt with dark black crosses scattered over it. She was wearing that, a black pair of jeans on her awkwardly long legs, and Doc Marten boots she’d probably stolen from her mother’s closet.
“You don’t have to wear that shirtexactly,” Ben said. “I have a feeling you have a few others.”
“Yeah. I do have to wear this shirtexactly.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s our last day before break and Kaya is going to wear her white shirt with grey crosses and then we’ll look badass because we’ll look like light and dark twins.”
Light and dark twins?
“Let me guess, you’re the dark twin?” With her olive-toned skin, nearly black hair, and dark brown eyes, his sister could pull off the baby-goth-princess look with ease. “B must be so proud.”
Sadia slouched down in the plush theater seat. “Please, like she even notices.”
Oh, so it’s like that.
He let a few more minutes of the classic horror movie pass in silence. Beatrice and Giovanni had a vast collection of vintage horror, and Ben had seen them all because Tenzin was perversely fascinated by film depictions of monsters.
Ben tried to be casual. “You know, I remember when your mom was younger. Her style was a lot like yours. Especially when she was wearing her motorcycle leathers.”
By the look in her eye, Sadia hadn’t heard of the motorcycle-leathers stage in her mother’s fashion history.
“Let’s just watch the movie.” She threw a piece of popcorn back at Ben. “You talk too much.”
“Tenzin might have mentioned that once or twice.”
Ben kicked his feet up in the movie room that Beatrice had redecorated a few years before. There was a new projector, a larger seating area, and a popcorn machine in the corner.
Growing up with vampires for parents could be more than a little limiting. There were no Saturday movie matinees with friends or trips to the water park in the summer with Mom and Dad. Family life happened at night, and security personnel became part of the family.
After another half hour of watching the movie, he chanced another question. “How’s Dema?”
