Seriously? Sadia was going to end up giving Ben a complex about his boring fangs.
“Hey,” he said. “Isn’t it your bath time?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?” Ben asked. “I can always throw you in the pool.”
“No!” Sadia giggled and slipped down the barstool; then she ran into the living room. “Dema, get him!”
Dema eyed Ben before she followed her charge. “Great. Now she’s going to want to swim.”
Zain piped up from the kitchen. “Not before dinner.”
Chloe shook her head. “That poor kid has like four parents.”
Ben snorted. “Hardly. She has two parents and an assortment of adults who fawn over her. Nothing poor about that kid.”
Zain smiled. “Gonna have to agree with Ben on that one, Miss Reardon.”
“Please call me Chloe. I’ve been in and out of this house since I was fifteen, so I’m hardly a guest.”
“Chloe then.” Zain was eyeing her appreciatively.
Ben narrowed his eyes at Zain. “When’s Gavin coming into town?”
“He should be here tonight,” Chloe said. “Not sure what time.”
“You know they have those GPS-tracker things.”
Her eyebrows went up. “I’ll have to suggest that. Sounds exactly like something Gavin would love.”
Ben smirked. “It’s just a suggestion. Those wind vampires are hard to track.”
“Speaking of that, do you know where Tenzin is?”
Ben’s smile fell. “Why would I know that?”
Chloe shrugged. “She left New York last week. Said it was something about work. I thought maybe she left you a message.”
“We don’t chat.”
“Well, maybe you should. You know, she’s not the same—”
“Not interested.” Ben walked out of the kitchen and into the front garden.
The house in San Marino was built on two acres in the middle of the city. It was more of an estate than a house, and a tall stucco wall surrounded it. Green vines crawled over the walls, and dense trees and hedges sheltered the house from curious onlookers.
“Ben!” Chloe yelled from the house. “Come on. Get back here.”
Ben crossed the gravel driveway. He wanted out of the house. He wanted to fly so fast the wind burned against his face, but before he could take off, he saw Gavin landing on the far side of the front lawn, just inside the gate.
Security rushed forward, but Ben intervened. “Wait! He’s a friend.”
The guard lifted a radio to his mouth as Gavin brushed off his shirt.
“Vecchio.” Gavin offered him half a smile. “You still walk like a human.”
“Thanks?”
“It’s been a few years.”
“Two actually.”
“Over two. Have you lost track of time already?” Gavin’s Scottish brogue was evened out. He had his company voice on. “Usually takes a hundred years or so for that to happen.”
Ben stood at a distance, his hands in his pockets as Gavin’s amnis pushed at his. He and the wind vampire had been friends for over a decade, but their elemental energy was unfamiliar. They poked and prodded, measuring the other vampire’s power.
“Keep the heid.” Gavin finally smiled. “Yer a powerful little bastard, aren’t ye?”
The other vampire’s amnis retreated so abruptly Ben nearly wondered if he’d been imagining it. Maybe that was the point.
“So.” The Scottish vampire wandered over. “Is my woman here?”
“Yes. And she already brought Tenzin up.”
Gavin offered him a shrug. “Tenzin’s been around. This time you’re the one who disappeared.”
“Seems like it was my turn.”
“And you’ll get no argument from me. Be angry if you like, just don’t expect me to be sorry you’re alive.”
“That’s pretty much the reaction I’m getting around here.”
Gavin slapped him on his shoulder. “It must be such a burden to be shackled with so many people who give a flaming arse you’re alive. Where’s Chloe?”
“The kitchen.”
“Excellent.” Gavin left him on the lawn and strode toward the house without a backward glance.
Ben watched Gavin leave. He spotted Sadia running through the backyard, Dema trailing behind her. He could hear Giovanni and Beatrice speaking quietly in the library and Zain making small talk with Chloe.
It was familiar. It was home.
It was suffocating.
Ben took off into the air, grateful for the soft cocoon of coastal fog that blanketed the San Gabriel Valley that night. He moved soundlessly through the clouds, moving by instinct and scent toward the heavy wisteria arbors at the Huntington Gardens.
Descending into the rose garden, he spotted the gates of the Japanese garden and walked toward them.
In the middle of the night, the park was serene. The only sounds were an owl hooting in the distance, a mockingbird call, and the quick flap of bats hunting through the gardens from their roosts in the palm trees.
Ben walked through the gate of the Japanese garden and sat under the wisteria arbor to survey the silent sanctuary. He’d spent summers here as a child. When he closed his eyes, he could see the sago palms and maple trees bathed in golden sunlight, the pools with darting koi, their tails cutting through the reflected sky.
You will never see that again.
You will never see your shadow during the day or feel the sun on your skin.
You will never watch a sunrise or a sunset.
It was a process, this litany. Like deliberately cutting off a limb that was already dead. Every now and then he forgot. Then he remembered and that limb twitched again, a phantom pain spiking through his heart.
“I remember what I said that night. But I’m not that man anymore. I’m not a man at all. I don’t know what I am.”
“You are still you.”
Was he? Some nights he felt like himself, and some nights he was so filled with overwhelming anger he felt like he was choking on it. A year after he’d fled to Mongolia with Zhang, he flew out over the mountains and screamed as long and as loud as he could.
He felt better for a night. When he woke up the next night, the swelling rage nearly overtook him again.
“All things have roots and branches. Every being has their end and their beginning.”
Zhang’s words came back to Ben as he sat in the silence of the garden.
Roots and branches.
“We don’t have an end. We’re immortal.”
“All things have ends, and one
