The Stars Afire: An Elemental Mysteries Anthology

by Elizabeth Hunter

  Tenzin could clean that up too.

  Beatrice stood Sadia in the large farmhouse sink in Angela’s kitchen, turning the water on and making sure it was warm before she stripped Sadia’s shirt and pants off. They were covered in puke. The little girl began to shiver, and Beatrice tried to soothe her.

  “Shhhh, baby. It’s okay.” She forgot to speak Arabic. She couldn’t think of it in that moment when the girl was shaking and crying and clearly miserable. “It’s okay, Sadia. You just got a little sick, didn’t you? It’s okay.”

  The little girl stood naked in the sink while Beatrice wet a washcloth and began rinsing her off. Her lip stuck out and her beautiful hazel eyes were full of tears.

  “You’ll be all clean in a minute.” Beatrice rinsed her off and reached for the towel Angela had laid on the counter. “Should we get some milk for you? Why don’t we get some new clothes and Angie can pour you some milk? That will feel good in your stomach.”

  Beatrice did everything by rote. She was Carina’s favorite aunt and usually the one who ended up bandaging boo-boos since she was often the one who had helped the little girl get them in the first place. She’d helped Carina learn to ride a bike and jumped with her on the trampoline. She’d cleaned up her share of puke from the trampoline, that was for sure. She also climbed trees and taught Carina to swim.

  Sadia watched Beatrice with wide eyes. They went to Sadia’s room, and the little girl didn’t protest when Beatrice picked out a soft green shirt and pair of knit pants. She let Beatrice pick her up and bring her back to the kitchen where Angie heated the little girl a cup of warm milk.

  Then Beatrice took Sadia to the living room and put on an old American Christmas movie with talking reindeer and Santa Claus. She sat the baby on the sofa and turned to find a blanket to wrap her in. The night had grown cold, and Beatrice’s elemental instincts were clamoring. She could feel rain coming.

  She heard Sadia whining and turned around. “What is it?”

  The little girl stuck out her lower lip and hit the space on the sofa next to her. “Mama.”

  Beatrice’s stomach dropped. “What?”

  “Mama,” Sadia yelled and smacked the sofa.

  Was she asking for her mother? What…?

  “Mama!”

  Beatrice walked over and Sadia pulled her arm until Beatrice sat next to her. Beatrice spread the blanket over her lap and over Sadia’s shoulders.

  Oh.

  Ohhhh.

  The little girl let out a deep sigh, leaned against Beatrice, and stuck her thumb in her mouth. She rested against Beatrice’s leg and watched elves and reindeer and round men in red hats while Beatrice gaped at her.

  That was it. That was all it took.

  In that moment, Beatrice fell head over heels, crazy in love with the little grumpy girl who couldn’t stand her one moment and might have just been calling her mama the next.

  Who do you think you are?

  What do you think you’re doing?

  “I am your mama,” Beatrice whispered, stroking the curls back from Sadia’s forehead. “Do you understand, Sadia? I am. And I promise I will be anything you need.”

  That night when Sadia felt sleepy, it was Beatrice she toddled to. It was Beatrice who rocked her in front of the fireplace and got her to fall asleep, and it was Beatrice who felt the soft press of Sadia’s round cheek against her chest.

  Chapter 7

  Giovanni watched his wife on Christmas night, watched her delight seeing the newest member of their family tear through paper, open colorful boxes, and stick ribbons on Ben’s head. Sadia tore each piece of paper on her present individually, then walked the piece over to Beatrice, set it in her lap, and waited for Beatrice to say, “Oh thank you, Sadia” before she returned to the tree to tear again.

  Every gift had proceeded in the same way, whether that gift was for Sadia, Ben, Tenzin, or Angie. No one wanted to say no to her.

  Yes, that will become a problem.

  There would be many problems, many challenges, to come. Giovanni didn’t fool himself that this moment of peace meant their journey would be a smooth one.

  But for now, with the glow of joy on his wife’s face, the warmth of the holiday filling the air, and the chime of Sadia’s happy laugh when she tore into each present, he said nothing.

  He was too happy.

  Watching Beatrice’s heart grow was the greatest gift he could imagine. Greater than gold or rare books or art. Greater than any gift he’d experienced in over five hundred years of life. She was a beautiful mother, just as he’d known she would be.

  And Sadia was a fighter. A survivor.

  Giovanni could already see the will in her. Far from making him nervous, that will gave him comfort. Because their world was no place for the weak. Sadia would be protected. She would be watched. Giovanni would put a veritable fortress around her if he needed to.

  But one day she would need that will, need that stubbornness, and need the survival instincts that had kept her personality whole through the trauma of her early life.

  Others would call her difficult. Giovanni would call her strong.

  And he would call her his.

  The phone rang on the desk behind him. He went to answer it and heard a familiar voice on the other end of the line.

  “Arturo tells me you have a daughter,” Carwyn said.

  “Yes.” Giovanni smiled. “I have a daughter.”

  The End

  Afterword

  Dear Readers,

  I hope you’ve enjoyed this re-release of Lost Letters and Christmas Lights, along with the newest short stories in the Elemental Mysteries series. While some stories and characters may be familiar to you, others might be new. I hope you’ll read more about Ben, Tenzin, Gavin, and Chloe in the next Elemental Legacy book, Blood Apprentice, out this winter wherever books are sold. I’ve included a very special sneak preview of Blood Apprentice on the next page. I hope you’ll check it out.

  I always love revisiting Giovanni and Beatrice, especially around the holidays, and I also hope you’ll see with the newest addition of their family in Desires of the Heart, that you’ll be hearing more from them in the future, even if it’s just a short story every now and then. They’ll also be showing up in Ben and Tenzin’s series.

  Thank you for making this series a forever favorite of mine. Thanks for loving these characters so much. I hope your holiday season is filled with joy, humor, and that you also find the desires of your heart.

  I wish you all a blessed season and a happy new year.

  With all my sincere thanks,

  Elizabeth Hunter

  Preview: Blood Apprentice

  Ben Vecchio was a thief.

  Tenzin swung the saber diagonally, but the thief blocked her with his own blade, a Japanese-forged katana she’d trained him on.

  “You’re insane,” Ben shouted. “I didn’t eat your cannoli.”

  “Then where is it, Ben?” She parried, forcing him to back up. “Did it just disappear? Did a mouse break into the refrigerator?”

  A pink box that contained two cannoli and one cheese danish had occupied the refrigerator the night before. She’d risen from her meditation at nightfall. The danish had survived, but both cannoli were gone.

  Ben growled as he blocked her relentless blows. “I am not responsible for your food choices, woman.”

  Tenzin wasn’t a woman. She was a vampire. She didn’t survive solely on blood, but she also didn’t eat much.

  She’d been waiting for the cannoli, and now it was gone.

  He lunged right, tipping her off-balance and forcing her across the training mat. The first floor of their apartment contained a large training area, various weapons, and oddly enough, dance equipment for their new roommate.

  “I’m telling you, I had one. I don’t know what happened to the other one. Why don’t you just eat the danish if you’re hungry?”

  Tenzin’s eyes went wide. “The danish isn’t mine. The danish is Chloe’s. The cannoli
is mine. Only one person loves cannoli more than me in this house.” She spun around the slapped the back of his thighs with the flat of her sword. “You didn’t even get rid of the evidence. You’re worse than a thief. You’re a bad thief.”

  Ben’s eyes narrowed. “Take it back.”

  “No.”

  He attacked. The room filled with the furious clashing blades of two enemies ignited by righteous fury. She forced herself to stay on the ground. Just because she could fly didn’t mean she would. Not when it would only draw complaints about unfair advantages of being immortal.

  Oh no. Tenzin wanted vengeance, and she didn’t want to hear Ben whining about it.

  Blood or no blood? She decided she didn’t want to hear complaints from Chloe about cleaning up the training area, so she kept to slaps with the flat of her blade.

  “You’re a bad thief,” she taunted him with a slap to the bicep. “Slow.”

  “Shut up.” He slapped back and her ass felt it. “I’m the fastest human you know.”

  He was the fastest human she knew, but Tenzin wasn’t going to admit it. Ben was a human in an immortal world, and he did everything possible to even the playing field.

  He practiced and trained relentlessly, carving his tall, lean body into a weapon as flexible and lethal as a rapier. He mastered martial arts from South America and Asia. He’d studied knife fighting with masters. He’d killed his first enemy at sixteen in defense of a friend, matched wits with emperors, and bargained with ancients.

  “If you’re so fast, maybe you should have run out and gotten another cannoli instead of stealing mine.” She darted to the side, just escaping the blade that would have slapped the back of her knee.

  Close.

  Tenzin narrowed her eyes. That was the closest he’d ever gotten without her allowing it.

  She jumped into the air and flew over his head, kneeing him in the right kidney and quickly punching her knuckle into the nerve above his elbow.

  Ben grunted and fumbled the blade. “Cheater.”

  “Thief.”

  He dropped his shoulder and flipped her over. “It is the height of hypocrisy for you to be calling me a thief!”

  Tenzin hit the ground and Ben was on her, straddling her hips with his knees and twisting her wrist until she loosened her grip on the weapon she carried.

  Did she notice how broad his shoulders had become? Perhaps. Did she notice how lean his hips were and how penetrating his gaze was? Yes. She’d have to be blind not to see what an attractive man he’d become.

  He still made her irrationally angry. “That was my cannoli.”

  “Enough.” His normally affable expression was gone. It had been gone for months.

  “Why would you buy me a treat and then take it for yourself?” she asked. “That makes no sense.”

  “Because I didn’t.” He rolled off her and lay flat on the mat. “Don’t pick up that fucking sword again, or I’m gonna lose my last nerve. I swear it.”

  She’d been hoping a good fight would perk him up, but it seemed to have only annoyed him. And his lip was bleeding.

  Oops.

  “What is wrong with you?” He pinched the arch of his nose. “Were you just bored? I was trying to wrap my brain around this fucking Bucharest job, and you’re busting my balls about cannoli for fuck’s sake.”

  “Is it wrong that I kind of like it when your New Yorker comes out?”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  Tenzin couldn’t stop the smile.

  Ben stood up, reaching a hand out to help her up before he grabbed the katana and the dao they’d been fighting with, walked to the long racks at the edge of the training area, and put both weapons in their place. Then he grabbed a towel from the bench nearby.

  Just one. Tenzin didn’t sweat.

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “The Bucharest job is vexing you because Radu hasn’t given you all the information yet. You still don’t know who his sire is, so you don’t know if he has any siblings, so you don’t know if anyone else has a claim on that icon. Until you find out if he’s the only one with a claim, you’re not going to feel comfortable bending the rules necessary for this job. Conscience, Ben. It’s your greatest weakness.”

  “I’m so glad you think so,” Ben muttered. “Radu’s not going to tell me who his sire is.”

  “Then tell him you can’t help him.”

  He wiped the towel across his forehead. “This would be our first job in Eastern Europe. And Radu knows every vampire between Prague and Tbilisi.”

  “Radu is a pain in the ass,” Tenzin said. “Every vampire between Prague and Tbilisi knows Radu is a pain in the ass. We’re not going to lose face if we tell him we don’t want the job.”

  “The finder’s fee on this one is healthy. Giovanni encouraged me to say yes. He’s not officially my boss…”

  “But he’s kind of your boss.” The jobs that Tenzin and Ben took were closer to the art world than the historical world that Ben’s adopted uncle, Giovanni Vecchio, had worked in for centuries. But the concept was the same. If you were an immortal who’d lost something, they could help you find it. Ancient Tibetan scroll? Giovanni was your man. Medieval Russian icon? That was Ben and Tenzin’s department.

  “Gio probably considers a job for Radu character-building,” Tenzin said. “He’s self-righteous like that.”

  “But is he right?”

  “Maybe. Do you really need your character built more?”

  “According to my uncle”—Ben raised a familiar eyebrow—“character is a construction of eternity, an endless striving of the self to be subsumed to the greater good.”

  Tenzin rolled her eyes, partly because Ben’s imitation of her old friend was just that good. “Ancestors, save me from philosophers.”

  Ben almost cracked a smile. Almost. “Right now I’m more motivated by Radu’s bank account.”

  “Like either of us needs the money.” She eyed the new construction next to the training area. “But the money would be nice.”

  She could smell plaster dust in the air from the workmen who were finishing the bathroom attached to the new bedroom they’d added. Chloe had overseen the construction, just like she was now overseeing most human aspects of their business. She answered mail and ran errands. She kept track of various accounts and helped Ben move money when it was necessary.

  Tenzin didn’t need to move money from banks. She kept all her earnings in gold. She liked gold. Radu was offering to pay in gold.

  “He’s been missing that icon for a hundred and fifty years,” Tenzin said. “And bitching about it for at least a century. You can push him off for a while. Send him something by courier and tell the courier to get lost. You can put him off for at least another year with that trick.”

  “Really?” Ben looked skeptical.

  “Trust me. I’ve used it many times. Especially if my father summons me.”

  “Good to know.”

  She tilted her head back to look at him. “Did you eat that cannoli?”

  Ben tapped her forehead. “Fucking one-track mind. No. I did not eat your cannoli. And I’m ending this conversation before it gets more ridiculous. I’m hungry. I’m going to make dinner.”

  “Fatoush?”

  “I made that last night. Chloe is picking up some lamb. Figured I’d try making polo if you want.”

  “Well, if there’s no cannoli…”

  The edge of his mouth barely tilted up. “I’ll make enough for three.”

  Tenzin followed Ben up the stairs. “You should put ice on that lip.”

  “Thanks for the tip.” He peeled off his shirt, which was covered in sweat, and tossed it over his head, hitting her smack in the face.

  Tenzin wrinkled her nose and held the shirt with two fingers. “But you should shower first. You stink.”

  “Yeah, I got ambushed before I could clean up. I wonder how that happened?”

  “I consider cannoli theft between partners a serious offense.” They made
it up the stairs, and Tenzin heard Chloe humming in the kitchen. “Hello, Chloe.”

  “Hey, guys!” The cheerful human—the only one in the house these days—waved at them. She must have just come from rehearsal because she was wearing leggings and a loose top. Her dark spirals of hair were pulled up into a giant ponytail, and her light brown skin glowed with health. She’d made vast progress since she’d left her abusive boyfriend and moved in with them.

  Tenzin was definitely going to keep her.

  “Ben, the lamb you wanted is in the fridge.” Chloe looked up. “What did you do to your lip?”

  Ben turned and glared at Tenzin. “Ask Tiny.”

  “Sparring?” Chloe turned to the fridge. “Oh! Tenzin, before I forget. I ate that cannoli Ben brought home yesterday because a chocolate craving hit hard before rehearsal, but I got you another one from Masseria.”

  “Thank you.” Tenzin walked to the fridge. Excellent. A fresh cannoli was even better than a day-old one, though Masseria’s cannoli crust always held up well, even overnight.

  Ben’s mouth was open. “That’s it?”

  Tenzin opened the refrigerator and removed the pastry from the box before she answered. “What?” She took a bite and sighed in happiness.

  Ben walked across the kitchen, slammed the refrigerator door shut, and towered over her. “You ambush me, give me a bloody lip and a bruise in my fucking hamstring because you think I took your cannoli, and Chloe waltzes in, admits to stealing the thing, and all she gets is an ‘okay cool?’”

  Tenzin held up the crusty pastry tube of deliciousness. “But she got me another one.”

  “Unbelievable.” He stormed out of the kitchen and down the stairs. A few minutes later, Tenzin heard the water in the shower switch on.

  Chloe pursed her lips. “He’s so tense right now.”

  “I know. I keep trying to think of ways for him to relax, but nothing is working.”

  Chloe cut her eyes toward Tenzin. “I can think of one thing.”