Now he was a powerful predator, and though the men were earth vampires, Ben knew his amnis shouted across the room. Learning to cloak it the way Tenzin and Giovanni did would take time.
“You hired the Dominican to paint three forgeries.” Ben paged through his folder. “Why three?”
“Why not?” Juvan shrugged. “We were going to sell them to humans.”
“So not on the open market?”
“No, no.” Juvan’s brother Alcide waved a hand. “Only to criminals.”
Tenzin asked, “Is there a market for forged icons in the human criminal class?”
She was next to him at the table. Ben had a feeling she might have been taking notes for future business opportunities. Selling forged icons to mobsters for hard cash would be exactly the kind of thing Tenzin would find hilarious.
Not your problem anymore.
“More than you might think,” Juvan said. “Most human criminals are extremely stupid, so the gold that’s on icons makes them think they are worth more than their actual value. If the story is good and we put up enough resistance to selling the piece, they always buy. Icons have become a good source of income for us.”
“Interesting.” Tenzin sipped a glass of blood-wine. “Of course, if you hired the Dominican, then you must have photographs. He won’t work without them.”
“We did.”
“Really?” Tenzin cocked her head. “Then you weren’t selling it to humans.”
Juvan and Alcide froze.
Ben kept his lips glued together because he had no idea why a photograph… Ohhhhhh. Right.
The icon had disappeared from public records long before photography had been able to record it, so no living human had ever seen it. Which meant absolute accuracy—which necessitated an expert forger working off photographs—would only be important for an individual who had actually seen the icon in their lifetime.
In other words, a vampire.
Juvan and Alcide exchanged a look.
“We were,” Juvan said. “On my honor, we would not have tried to pass a forgery to an immortal. Too many opportunities for the transaction to go wrong.”
Alcide said, “We don’t need the money or exposure. It wouldn’t be worth the risk.”
Ben asked, “So why did you need the pictures?”
“We didn’t need them. We had a written description and references. Our partner offered them, and we saw no reason to say no.”
“Partner?” Ben said. “So this wasn’t your own idea?”
Juvan and Alcide narrowed their eyes.
Tenzin put a hand on Ben’s arm. “He means this wasn’t only your idea of course. Tell me about your partner.”
Alcide cursed under his breath, and Juvan spread his hands. “Are you going to tell us about your client?”
Tenzin smiled. “You know we can’t do that.”
Alcide said, “So you must know that we cannot tell you either.”
“You can’t tell me a name,” Tenzin said. “But surely you can give me something.” She looked out the window of the yacht. “I would consider it a favor.”
Juvan and Alcide both perked up. Giving Tenzin the meeting was fulfilling their favor to her. Offering information would gain them a new favor from one of the most powerful vampires on the planet.
“She gave us the pictures, but we don’t have a name,” Juvan said. “Only a bank number and a voice on the phone.”
“Voice?”
“Female,” Alcide said. “Immortal. The accent wasn’t recognizable.”
Which was often the case with older immortals. They usually traveled too much and lived in too many places for their accents to be classifiable. Added to that, they often spoke versions of languages that had long ago become extinct.
“A guess?” Ben asked. “Even a region would be helpful.”
“I would say…” Juvan pursed his lips. “Eastern Europe. Perhaps Austria or Hungary.”
Wildly different languages, but it gave them a place to start, and they did have a Hungarian lead.
“How did the pictures come?” Ben asked.
“Delivered by courier. A man.”
“Age?”
Juvan muttered, “I am shit with human ages, but he was experienced. I would say forties or fifties.”
“Language?”
“English.” Alcide was catching on. “But he did have an accent.”
“Was it familiar?”
“Russian but not Russian,” Alcide said. “If you know what I mean. He sounded like he learned English from a Russian.”
So the courier was a man in his forties or fifties who learned English from a Russian and worked for a vampire in either Hungary or Austria. Since Hungary was in the former Soviet Bloc, Ben guessed the Hungarian connection was the next one to follow.
“This has all been so interesting.” Tenzin picked up her blood-wine again. “And the concert was excellent.”
Juvan glanced at Ben. “I like him. He’s not the best, but he respects the microphone.”
“Thanks,” Ben said. “I think.”
“You’re welcome.” Alcide slapped his shoulder. “It is all about respect.”
14
Ben and Tenzin were silent on the flight back to the mainland. Ben ran through every piece of information he’d gathered along with all the new revelations from the brothers.
The Hungarian connection. That was the one. He’d been thinking they should go to Ankara next to explore the lead in Turkey, but after their meeting with Juvan and Alcide, Ben was definitely thinking Hungary was the lead to follow.
“They liked you,” Tenzin said.
They were flying above the clouds, an oddly silent and peaceful place over the twisting wind currents that rose from the heated surface of the sea.
“They didn’t like me,” Ben said. “They like you. They tolerated me.”
She appeared to think for a moment. “That is possible.”
“Probable.” He flew silently for a few minutes. “How did you earn a favor from them?”
“I spared their lives.”
Ben glanced to the side. “Who wanted you to kill them?”
“Your uncle.”
Okay, he hadn’t been expecting that. “Giovanni? Why?”
Tenzin narrowed her eyes. “You do realize they’re very horrible criminals, don’t you? They traffic in drugs, guns, even in humans.”
And I just serenaded them with Louis Armstrong classics. “Okay, better question, why didn’t you kill them?”
“I thought your uncle was overreacting. And he’ll admit he was now. Juvan helped Lorenzo kidnap Beatrice years ago. He lent some of his men to Lorenzo when they went to Houston.”
“I can see why Giovanni would be kind of pissed about that.”
“But they never had anything to do with Lorenzo’s
