Dawn Caravan

by Elizabeth Hunter

  She still owned the warehouse. He knew because they still received a bill from the city every month. There were odd artifacts of her existence scattered around the place, but the alcove where she’d once spent her days was empty. Her books were gone except for an old museum program from a special exhibit they’d attended ten years before.

  “The sky was so black I lost track of time. I didn’t realize I was starting to dream, that the sun was coming up. I saw you.” He leaned his head against the mirrors and looked at the ceiling. “Or a vision of you, I guess. You talked to me, but obviously you didn’t. So I guess I was talking to myself.”

  He fingered the black sash he’d tied around his wrist. It was something he’d found in his dresser at the San Marino house. A simple strip of cotton, one of the many she’d used to tie her hair back one of those countless nights they’d shared. She must have dropped it and he’d picked it up. When he held it to his nose, he could smell a hint of her skin.

  “You whispered to me that I was a monster.” He stared at the knot he’d tied over the inhumanly pale skin of his wrist. His skin didn’t get brown anymore. It would never see the sun again. “Zhang found me right when I passed out. I probably would have been in a world of pain if he hadn’t. Maybe burned up. I don’t know, maybe not. That storm lasted for two nights. Do rain clouds protect you from burning?” He looked up. “Either way, I would have had a fun time recovering from those injuries.”

  Ben stood and walked along the empty racks, running his finger along the dusty wood. “I miss you, Tenzin. Maybe I miss who I thought you were. Maybe I miss who I thought I was too.” He looked around the warehouse studio where he’d learned to fight with swords. He’d sparred with vampires and humans. He’d sharpened knives and debated combat like a seasoned soldier.

  Like a boy.

  He’d known nothing.

  “Golden boy.” He looked around the warehouse. “You used to call me that. I heard you. Was it an insult? I could never figure that part out.” He walked along the mirrored wall, his feet sinking into the training mats. “For the longest time, I thought my childhood ended in Rome when I killed that man. I don’t know why I thought that, like taking someone’s life was a kind of graduation in the vampire world.” He paused and looked at his reflection, staring into his inhuman brown-and-silver eyes. “I was still a boy. Just a boy with blood on my hands. Killing never made me any smarter or any harder.” He blinked. “Death did.”

  Ben walked away from the mirror, turning his back to his reflection.

  “I know you’re still keeping tabs on me. I smelled you in Xining. I’m pretty sure I saw you in the market in Seoul. I know you were in Kashgar, and I know you followed me here.” He stooped and picked up a bag of her things she’d left around the San Marino house. “I’m leaving your stuff.” He flew up to the alcove where she’d once rested. “Stop following me.”

  He tossed the bag into the nook and floated back down to the ground. “I’ll even say please. If you ever really cared about me, Tenzin, please stop following me.”

  Tenzin listened to him from the roof, absorbing every painful word.

  My Benjamin, anger still eats your soul.

  She wanted to hold him. Wanted to comfort him. Wanted to whisper in his ear that nothing could make him the monster he feared he’d become. He might be a little less shiny, but he was still her golden boy. He was still the light to her darkness; the only one she’d found in thousands of years. Was she selfish for wanting to keep it?

  Yes.

  Oh well.

  He wanted her to stop following him? Fine. That was an easy one. She’d stop following him. She’d only done it because she was worried that he’d become careless about his own safety.

  Now that he’d come home—his true home, not Penglai—and he’d seen his baby sister, seen his family, she felt more confident that he would take care of the life she’d paid for.

  Because she had paid for it, though it was a price she never wanted him to know. Tenzin wanted nothing between them. No debts and no anger. Now that Ben was immortal, he could finally have the life he was meant to.

  And when he came to her, it would be as her equal.

  9

  Bucharest, Romania

  One week later

  Ben woke to the unfamiliar. He smelled cinnamon and vanilla. Flour. Road tar. Someone was baking and it was raining outside.

  He rose from the borrowed bed in Gavin’s safe house, which lay in a luxurious basement below his whiskey bar. The whiskey bar was a newer establishment, trying to capitalize on the rich and growing international crowd in Romania’s capital.

  It reminded Ben of Gavin’s bar in Houston. The lighting was low, the menu was extensive, and the vampire to human ratio was fairly even.

  Romania and Ukraine fell in the slightly grey area of vampire territory between Saba’s domain in the Mediterranean and the influence of Oleg in Russia with Romania being slightly more Saba’s and Ukraine being slightly more Oleg’s. Both earth vampires watched over the countries, but not closely, leaving local influencers with more power and less oversight. In situations like that, businessmen like Gavin and Radu became de facto authorities, offering safety to immortals who frequented their businesses.

  Ben stretched and spent a few minutes practicing the tai chi forms Beatrice had reminded him were so important for focus. He closed his eyes and centered himself as he took stock of his immortal body.

  Hunger, sated. He’d fed the night before from one of the paid donors in Gavin’s bar as well as topping off right before dawn with a large glass of blood-wine.

  Mind, focused. He was in Romania to meet Radu. He had a goal and three avenues to investigate that they’d identified before they left Los Angeles.

  Amnis… uncertain. He kept waking in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar scents and energy around him. While human Ben was a longtime friend of Gavin’s, vampire Ben’s amnis was still becoming accustomed to the other immortal’s energy, which Ben could only describe as… slippery.

  Gavin was impossible to pin down, and Ben’s instincts couldn’t decide if he was a friend or a foe yet. Logically, Ben knew that was probably part of what made Gavin so successful in his business. He could set more powerful vampires at ease… but only so much. There was something fundamentally uncertain about Gavin’s amnis.

  Yep. Slippery.

  Chloe, thank God, was a steadying factor. When the three of them were together, Ben could be at ease.

  He punched in the security code with the stylus next to the PIN pad, and the doors unsealed. He walked out to the small living area outside his secure day chamber. Since the bar and the safe house were new, they had the most recent Nocht-compatible technology installed.

  Ben woke his tablet. “Good evening, Cara.”

  “Good evening, Ben Vecchio. Your voice ID has registered with this device. You have enabled two-factor authentication. Please speak or enter your ID code now.”

  Ben spoke his code in an obscure Mongolian dialect Zhang was teaching him.

  “Authentication recognized. How can I help you tonight?”

  “Do I have any new messages from today?”

  “You have… ten new messages.”

  “Please display.” He saw a tray with a thermos and several pastries on the coffee table. Nice. That must have been the vanilla and cinnamon he’d been smelling. He walked over and unscrewed the top of the thermos to find dark, steaming coffee.

  “Good.” He’d been half expecting blood, and that just didn’t go well with cinnamon cake. He sniffed the coffee. Sweet. More like Turkish coffee than the American variety. He poured a bit into the small mug next to the cake and added cream from the tiny pitcher.

  Okay, damn. That was delicious. He could get addicted to Romanian coffee if they stayed here long.

  Someone tapped on the door.

  “Cara, blank screen.” Ben faced the door, coffee in hand. He could already smell Chloe. “Come in, Chloe.”

  She poked her head in. “S
till 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.

  Chloe bit her lips. “Uh, yeah. It kind of is. It’s an email, Ben.”

  “An email that proves she was in LA.” And listening to me when I was at the warehouse.

  Fuck.

  “So? You told me you knew she was there anyway.”

  “I thought she was.”

  Chloe shrugged. “And now you know. I don’t know why you’re pissed.”

  “Because…” He just was. “Forget it.”

  “Okaaaay.” She looked up. “Did you want her to keep following you? Just email her back.”

  “Can we work please?”

  “Sure.” She turned her laptop around. “So here are the three leads we have. Now the Corsicans—”

  “I know. It’s slim. But if we follow what the forger said, it makes sense.”

  “But if this gang has the icon, why do they want to make forgeries of it?”

  Ben thought back to Tenzin, a metalsmith in Venice, and a pile of rare medieval coins. “Just trust me. Sometimes people don’t want to sell the original. And they’re the only criminal organization in the vampire world that’s shown any activity near Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.”

  “Okay, so that’s one lead in Corsica, where I have never been—”

  “And you will never go.”

  “Not even with vampires?”

  “Especially not with vampires.” Even Giovanni was cautious about the immortals in Corsica, who were a particularly ruthless fragment of the previous French vampire coalition that had shattered several years before. “You’d probably be fine as a human tourist, but since you’re not an ordinary human tourist, don’t go to Corsica. It doesn’t really matter. It’s last on my list anyway.”

  “What about Hungary?”

  The second lead was Hungarian. “More probable. Radu has connections there via his sister, so we’re going to focus on that one first.”

  “And Turkey?”

  “We’ll tackle that one second. We’re looking at three places with strong Roma history and ties to the saint. I still say the Hungarian connection is the strongest.”

  Chloe closed her laptop. “Which brings us to tonight. Our meeting with Radu is at midnight. We’re going to a club called Zarvă, which is Radu’s place. It is not like Gavin’s places.”

  “Did you visit?”

  “I looked online, and I also asked Gavin. He made that face he makes when we walk though Times Square.”

  “Right.” Unfortunately, Gavin’s disgusted face could mean Radu’s club fell anywhere between Euro-tacky and Jersey Shore spring break. “So what do we wear?”

  “Wear black. Look handsome and dangerous. It shouldn’t be that difficult for you.”

  The corner of his mouth turned up. “I don’t look dangerous.”

  “Sure.” Chloe gave him eyes that said otherwise. “Whatever you say.”

  “Since when do I look dangerous?” He batted his lashes at her. “I’m a friendly vampire.”

  “Benny, why do you think I went out with you in high school?” Chloe stood. “I was a rebellious kid, so you know it wasn’t for your wholesome Midwestern demeanor.”

  The thumping bass spilled out of Zarvă, making Ben wish like mad for his human hearing back. Maybe noise-canceling headphones. Earplugs. Anything.

  Chloe walked between him and Gavin. She looked up. “Ha! You’re both making the face.”

  Ben met Gavin’s eyes. There was definitely a look, and it had a lot to do with the cacophony of sound emerging from Radu’s club. “Have you been here before?”

  “Not when it’s been this crowded,” Gavin muttered.

  They made their way to the alley behind the club and the private entrance manned by a vampire bouncer who was taller than them both and had a head that was distinctly square and facial hair that looked straight out of an old Western.

  Romania defied explanation.

  A heavy metal door opened and steps led up to a distinctly muffled room that still thumped of bass.

  “Vampire lounge,” Gavin muttered. “This is new.”

  “Good idea though.”

  “Bummer,” Chloe said. “No music at all?”

  Ben looked at Chloe, amazed that she couldn’t hear anything. Then he looked at Gavin.

  The man shrugged.

  “Was I that deaf?”

  “Deaf?” Chloe asked.

  “Oh no,” Gavin said. “You were far worse.”

  “Bullshit.” Ben walked up to a discreet hostess stand. “We’re here to meet Radu.”

  The young woman was dressed in a strappy black cocktail dress and her red-streaked hair matched the leather booths in the dimly lit lounge. “You are Mr. Vecchio?” She spoke in heavily accented English.

  “Yes.”

  She looked at Ben. “But I have only three in your party.”

  Ben looked at Gavin, then Chloe. “And?”


  She offered him a strained smile. “I’m sorry. I am confused. Please, if you can wait. Please. Let me check with Radu.”

  She wandered off, leaving Ben, Gavin, and Chloe waiting in the lounge.

  “Maybe it’s a language thing?” Ben asked. “Do you speak Romanian?”

  “No.” Gavin was sweeping his eyes around the club. “Not picking up anything suspicious,” he said under his breath.

  “Neither am I.”

  The hostess came back, all smiles. “Please. My apologies. Please follow me.” They followed her through the winding lounge. “It was a… missed understanding from me.”

  “No problem.” Ben glanced at each booth they passed, taking note of faces and making mental notes to ask about a few who looked familiar.

  Hello.

  In the far corner he spotted the vampire guard he’d seen with the mysterious woman in Kashgar. The man was looking as nondescript as ever, but his eyes locked on Benjamin with clear recognition.

  Ben knew the woman in Kashgar had been connected to Radu, but this obviously confirmed it. Ben nodded to the man as he passed, but the other vampire only observed him with a distant, unflinching stare.

  Would his mystery woman appear from the shadows next? Ben wouldn’t be surprised.

  “Please.” The hostess parted a curtain covering the corner booth. “It was my mistake. One of your party had already arrived.”

  Fuck. Me.

  “Mr. Vecchio.” Radu rose from the end of the booth, a handsome, dark-haired vampire with a barrel chest who was wearing a perfectly tailored three-piece suit. “Welcome. It is so good to finally meet you.”

  Ben barely registered what Radu was saying. Sitting silently in the booth next to him, wearing a blood-red dress, was the one mysterious woman Ben hadn’t been expecting, though maybe he should have been.

  After all, Tenzin did like surprising people.

  10

  Ben shook Radu’s hand, never taking his eyes off her. Tenzin was pleased; it had been too long since she’d been able to look him in the face.