been avoiding each other since the night of her grandmother’s attack, but she felt like he watched her almost constantly; she was more than aware of the building tension, and all that remained unspoken between them.
“Beatrice,” she heard him call as she walked through the kitchen. “Your escort will be here at eight. You will have plenty of time to get to your first class.”
She kept walking toward the living room. “Fine. I’m going to sleep for a few more hours.”
“I’ll see you tonight.”
She walked up the stairs, never turning to look behind her as she went to her borrowed room on the second floor. “Yep, see you tonight.”
“Beatrice.”
She finally paused and turned around. In a flash, he was standing on the step below her, so they were almost eye to eye. His hand lifted to stroke her cheek and the familiar tremor ran through her as she stared into his green eyes. “Caspar will make sure she’s safe. Nothing is going to happen to your grandmother. He’s more dangerous than he looks.”
She wanted to lean against him. She wanted to curl into his strong chest and feel his arms holding her as he chased away the chill of fear that had become her constant companion. She wanted to believe that nothing bad or scary was going to happen again. That her grandmother and Caspar were just going away for a vacation. That the world as she knew it had not ended the minute a beautiful blond vampire walked into the library. That it hadn’t ended years ago when her father escaped a madman.
Most of all, she wanted to believe that Giovanni would keep her safe.
“Nothing bad is going to happen to her?” she whispered. “Promise?”
She saw the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Only one more final left, right?” Charlotte grinned when Beatrice entered the reading room. “And then that’s it for the graduate!”
Beatrice shrugged and set down her bag by the reference desk. “Until next semester. Then I can freak out about finals at the graduate level. Yay.”
Charlotte chuckled and shook her head. “What is with you lately? Are you getting nervous about moving? I think I’m more excited than you are.” The librarian continued sorting through the photographs on the counter.
“I guess I’m just missing my grandma.” That much was true. Beatrice was starting to feel like graduate school in California, even if there was no fear of strange vampires, wasn’t the best idea, after all. She had never imagined she could miss Isadora so much, though she was happy her grandmother seemed content and safe.
“How is she feeling? Have you talked to her lately?”
“Yeah, I just talked to her last night. She’s feeling great.”
“You know, I had no idea she had breathing problems like that.”
Beatrice nodded. “It’s…fairly recent. Her doctor suggested a few months in the desert. It’s just lucky she has that cousin in New Mexico.”
In reality, it was her grandfather who had cousins in New Mexico, but since Beatrice had to figure out some reason to explain her grandmother’s disappearance, dry air seemed like a good one.
That excuse, along with a phone call from her grandmother, had been enough to assuage Isadora’s friends from storming over to her currently empty house to investigate when she didn’t show up for Tuesday dinner.
“It’s such a shame she won’t be here to see you graduate, you know? But, you always hear how bad the air quality is in Houston, especially in the summer, so I guess her doctor made the right call.”
“It’s not a big deal. The college graduations are a madhouse. She’s not missing anything. I’ll make sure she flies out for my master’s, you know? The air in California has got to be better than here.”
Charlotte giggled and winked at Beatrice. “And the scenery. You better date a surfer, at least once. I want pictures.”
Soon the two women were laughing at all of Beatrice’s imaginary romantic prospects in sunny Southern California. It felt good to joke around with Charlotte and listen to her tease about boys and suntans and rollerblading. It felt good to feel just a little bit normal after the overwhelming tension of the previous month.
Beatrice had done little beside school work, classes, and finals since moving to Giovanni’s. The house was enormous and they both took care of their own cleaning and cooking, so other than the occasional meeting in the kitchen or the laundry room, she didn’t even see him. She spent more time with Carl, her friendly neighborhood security guard, who always had a friendly smile and plenty of firepower.
Other than the research time they continued in the library, Beatrice didn’t see her new roommate all that much, but she was definitely learning more about his habits by proximity.
Giovanni swam almost every night. She had woken once at three in the morning to hear a splash in the pool outside her window. She peeked outside and watched him swim laps for over an hour without taking a breath. She didn’t stare the whole time, but his focus was impressive…as was his naked body. He really was the most perfect man she had ever seen. He looked like a Greek sculpture molded from a single block of pale marble.
He played several different instruments, but the piano and the cello seemed to be his favorites, and he often played through the night. It was always something quiet that soothed her and seemed to help her sleep through the nightmares that had begun to plague her sleep.
Other than whiskey, he did eat a little, rich foods like olives and avocados and cheese; ironically, she had never seen him eat any kind of meat. He liked sweet smells and spent a lot of time in the garden. He was fond of the gazebo where honeysuckle grew up and over, almost enclosing the small structure in vines. She had found him there a number of times, reading a book in the dark.
He also loved water, even the sound of it seemed to relax him, and if he was irritated or stressed, Giovanni would immediately go and jump in the pool. She remembered the way that the humid air Lorenzo manipulated had doused the flames that ran along his skin when he was angry, and she wondered if he was drawn to water for the same reason.
She was interrupted from her tangled thoughts by Dr. Christiansen’s voice as he entered the reading room.
“Hello, ladies, I have another Pico letter.”
“What? Really?” Beatrice was shocked. She had imagined, for some reason, that since Lorenzo was in town- even though he seemed to be laying low after their first meeting and her grandmother’s attack-they wouldn’t see any more of the fascinating letters. She had jotted down several other names in her notebook after filtering through what she remembered Lorenzo saying at the library.
Nic.
“Yes, one more from the University of Ferrara. Apparently this one took a bit longer than the others for some reason. It’s been delayed.”
“Oh, so we were supposed to get it last month or something?”
Dr. Christiansen smiled. “No need to worry, B. We have it now, and there’s plenty of time for you to look at it before you leave us next month. Would you like to make a few copies of the notes so we could put them out for the descending hordes?”
“Sure, I’d be happy to.”
She walked over and grabbed the notes while the Dr. Christiansen and Charlotte chatted about the seventh letter. Beatrice walked down the hall to the copy and imaging room and quickly found a chair so she could sit down and read. Flipping through the notes to the translation, she immediately got out her notebook and started jotting down details.
