“She knew.” His fangs fell and he didn’t try to stop them. “She knew how I felt. I made her promise so many times—”
“I couldn’t have watched you die.” The words rushed out of Giovanni’s mouth in a quiet torrent. He clutched the hand over his heart into a fist. “Is that what you want to hear? Or need to hear? God forgive me, but I couldn’t have watched you die when I knew I could save you. Would you have forgiven me?”
“You’re my uncle.” Ben swallowed hard. “It’s not the same.”
“But she was your friend. And I know there was more, but before anything else, you were her friend, Benjamin. She doesn’t have many.” Giovanni’s eyes drilled into him. “She lost Stephen. She lost Nima. Did you think she could lose you too?”
Ben looked away. He couldn’t face the raw pain in his uncle’s eyes anymore. “You’re saying I was selfish?”
“Maybe.”
“She didn’t have to take me.” He walked to the table and threw back the glass of whiskey he’d poured earlier. “She didn’t have to keep dragging me back. I was trying to get out, and she kept pulling me back.”
“And you kept answering the call.” Giovanni put his hands in his trouser pockets and stared at the fire. “She asked you to swim, but you dove into the deep end. Living that life was never only her choice.”
Ben stared at his uncle, wanting to hug him. Wanting to fight him. Wanting to erase the words Giovanni had just said from his mind.
You were her friend, Benjamin. She doesn’t have many.
“I’ll take the plane,” Ben said quietly. “You’re right. I’ll be able to move faster.”
Giovanni kept his eyes toward the fire and nodded.
“I’m also going to ask Chloe to come with me to Bucharest, so it’ll be more comfortable for her to fly privately.”
“If Chloe goes, Gavin will go too.”
Ben took a long breath. “I’m counting on it.”
Giovanni looked at her. “Asking her to swim?”
“Yes. But unlike Tenzin, Gavin will make damn sure she doesn’t jump into the deep end.”
* * *
It was early morning in New York and just before dawn when Ben managed to catch Chloe on the phone.
“Gavin’s already on his way to LA.” Her voice was cheerful. “He kind of figured you might need me, and he says it works out because he has three places in Eastern Europe he needs to check on anyway. I’ll email Radu’s people now and set up a meet for the two of you in Bucharest.”
“I’ll book you a flight tonight if that’s enough time. You can take the red-eye.”
“It’s enough time as long as you’re putting me in first class.”
Ben smiled. “Of course I am.”
She sighed deeply. “I do love working for rich people.”
“And we’ll take Gio’s plane to Bucharest.”
“I’m going to be ruined for economy flights,” Chloe said. “I better stick with you from now on.”
“You’ll be support staff only on this, okay? You’re not going to be sneaking through corridors and breaking into museums like you did in New York.”
“You’re so responsible now,” Chloe said. “Fine. You know I’m not an adrenaline junkie like you anyway.”
“I was never an adrenaline junkie.”
Chloe laughed out loud. “You’re adorable.”
Ben ignored her laughter. “I’ll book you a flight and text you the details. Pack for three weeks.”
“Got it.”
Chloe hung up, and Ben walked back to the garden where Beatrice and Sadia were swimming in the heated pool.
“Do it again, Mama!” Sadia’s laughter flew through the air.
“Okay, hold your arms out.”
Ben sat on a chaise and watched Beatrice lift her daughter into the air, raising a column of water under Sadia’s arms and legs as the little girl laughed and wiggled.
“It tickles!”
“High enough?”
“Higher!”
“Just a little bit.” Beatrice’s face was glowing. “One, two, three… Dive!”
In an instant, Sadia pointed her arms over her head and puffed her cheeks out to hold her breath. The column fell back into the pool, softening Sadia’s landing. The little girl flipped head over heels before she swam under the water like a fish, heading toward the shallow end.
“She’s a good swimmer,” Ben said.
“She is.” Beatrice sat on the steps of the pool as Sadia surfaced. “Did you hear Ben? He was complimenting you on your swimming.”
Sadia’s smile was huge. “I can swim all the way across the pool. Want to see?”
“Yes.”
She immediately flung herself into an enthusiastic crawl, her arms wheeling and her legs kicking as she moved through the water.
“Is she on the swim team?”
“Not yet.” Beatrice leaned against the edge, her hair piled on top of her head in a bun. “Dema and Zain would be the ones to enroll her if she wanted to do it. Right now we’re still keeping close to home or school.”
Sadia attended the discreet and very private school that Ben had also attended as a child. It was run by and for the day people of immortal clans. All the children knew about vampires, and none of them had to hide their unusual families or parents’ jobs from unknowing classmates.
“When do you think she’ll be ready to hide things?”
Beatrice snorted. “Never? I’ve never met a blunter child.”
“Not even me?”
“You?” Beatrice looked at him from the side of her eyes while she kept her focus on Sadia. “You were the opposite of blunt. You were the most politic teenager ever. You wanted to make everyone happy and get your way at the same time.”
“Isn’t that everyone?”
“Maybe.” Beatrice narrowed her eyes. “But you weren’t manipulative. You never did anything you thought would hurt people. You just… tried to cheerfully arrange the people in your life so you got the exact outcome you wanted.”
Ben frowned. But wasn’t that how everyone worked?
“Don’t get me wrong, you were a great kid. But more than once, I caught you doing something, started to object, then realized you’d actually gotten me to give you permission in some tricky way.”
Ben smiled. “I did get away with a lot.”
“And your uncle didn’t
