“Thank you, Mr. Vecchio.”
Ben had excellent control, but he really didn’t feel like growling at room service when they delivered his blood, and with the way his throat was feeling, that was highly probable.
What had set him off so much? He tried to think back to the drifting place before he truly woke.
Right. Sex dreams about Tenzin. That would do it.
He was still confused about why he dreamed at all. According to Brigid, it wasn’t normal or natural for a new vampire to dream. When she went out, she was out. No consciousness at all. She said it was one of her favorite things about being a vampire.
But Ben wasn’t that way. He hadn’t slept like that since the first night he woke.
The first night he woke… and drank from Tenzin.
He refused to think that her blood could have affected him that much; it was one time.
Nope. Wasn’t an option.
It was probably something about Zhang’s blood being so old. It was far more likely that was the explanation.
He lay back down and waited for the intercom to chime again, and an uneasy tremor ran down his spine.
Ben sat up and stared at the wall. The realization hit him with an unexpected slap of anger.
She was gone.
He knew it like he knew blood would sate his thirst. He knew it like he knew the wind would hold him if he jumped off a building. Tenzin was gone and his amnis ached.
“Mr. Vecchio?”
“Yes?”
“Your evening meal has arrived.”
“Thank you.”
He couldn’t identify how he was feeling. He rose and gave the server a few seconds to depart. He pulled on a pair of cotton pants and a T-shirt. Then he leaned against the door and closed his eyes, thinking about the dream he’d left behind.
They were flying over a forest, a blanket of thick trees below them. They were pressed together, their bodies moving as one while the air cradled them.
Not a sex dream really. Something far more intimate.
He walked into the living area and found the thermos on the table. He gave it a quick shake—fresh blood coagulated quickly—and opened the lid to drink it straight from the thermos, ignoring the tall black mug the server had placed on the tray.
God, it was so good.
As a human, he’d always imagined blood hunger would be the same as human hunger, but it was far more intense. It was closer to being drastically thirsty than hungry, but sating that thirst was more satisfying than drinking water. It was a full-body sensual experience that was second only in pleasure to sex.
Sex and blood drinking? Well, that was probably part of the reason Ben hadn’t wanted to touch another women since his one night with Tenzin. He couldn’t imagine the intimacy of blood exchange with anyone else, but he couldn’t imagine finding any sex without blood drinking satisfactory in the least.
He finished the thermos and set it down on the table, wiping the traces of blood from his lips with his thumb. He felt the warmth traveling from his throat, down the core of his body and into his limbs as he woke from daily torpor.
She was gone.
Left.
You asked her to leave, his mind taunted him.
“…this is a temporary thing, Tenzin. That means when we finish and I ask you to leave, you leave. And you do not follow me again.”
So… she was gone. And he had work to do.
Ben walked to the bathroom and started the shower, waiting for the steam to fill the small room. One of the more surprising things about becoming a vampire was the constant, invasive cold.
While it was true that he could heat his body with amnis, he hadn’t quite gotten to the point where it was automatic. It took effort to create an average body temperature, which meant that if the surrounding environment was cool and there were no humans around to fool, he usually didn’t make the effort.
But Ben hated being cold. It reminded him of childhood winters in New York when the landlord would shut off the heat in their building and his breath would freeze in the air as he lay in bed, wishing he could stay under the covers.
Basically, Ben now understood why so many vampires—not just the northerners—had saunas and steam rooms in their houses. He sat in the bathroom enjoying the warm, wet air surrounding him and thought through his next steps.
Return to Bucharest. Gavin had another night of meetings, but Ben didn’t need to be there and it was only a couple of hours to fly on his own. Did he want to just take off? He was sure Gavin’s place was still safe even without Gavin.
Yep. Best to just leave.
Meet with Radu and hand over the icon. Unlike some of his jobs, this wasn’t going to be hard. Nothing about the icon appealed to him. It was nice enough, but Ben didn’t understand the sentimental value, and while it was a beautiful example of early Orthodox art and it had a fascinating history, it wasn’t something he’d become attached to. It really was just a job.
The last job.
“That was what you wanted. You said, ‘This is a temporary thing, Tenzin.’ You were quite clear.”
Yes.
Yes. This was what he wanted. Ben shook off the feeling of loss.
Except she hadn’t even seemed sorry. Or angry. Or sneaky, which would tell him that she had no intention of actually leaving him alone.
It didn’t matter.
He’d leave tonight for Bucharest and call Radu to meet the next night at his club. The vampire had already paid, so nothing else needed to happen. At the end of the night, this had really been one of the more straightforward jobs he’d worked, and he hadn’t even had to wrangle about payment.
Payment in advance.
Investigate icon.
Call in favors from Corsicans to confirm a sneaky tip from associate of his aunt.
Break into cool thief’s house.
Retrieve icon.
Return icon.
And that was that.
Aaaand he hadn’t been able to talk to Tenzin about what they were going to do about the New York house.
