And laugh some more. Oh, this was not good. She’d hit her breaking point, and it was coming out as laughter.
Ben got off the couch and knelt beside her. “Chloe, you’re not crazy.”
“I know.” She had tears in her eyes. “Are there werewolves too?”
He shook his head.
“Zombies? How about demons and witches? Mermaids?”
“Don’t think so.”
“So you grew up with an uncle who drinks blood for dinner and… what? Makes earthquakes or something?”
“No,” Ben muttered. “He’s a fire vampire, actually.”
“Oh, fire!” She laughed some more. “That seems… likely.”
“It is. Not common, but it happens.”
She let her head fall back, still shaking with laughter. “Okay. Why not?”
“I’m going to call my friend Gavin over,” Ben said. “He’s…”
“A vampire?” Just saying the word made her burst into laughter.
It wasn’t funny. She knew it wasn’t funny. But Chloe had this dreadful feeling that the minute she stopped laughing, she would start to cry.
Vampires existed in the world, and she’d been sharing a house with one.
Chloe was still laughing like a crazy person when Gavin arrived.
The Scotsman walked into the apartment with one eyebrow raised. “Well, laughter is better than screaming.”
“I’ve never done this before,” he said. “It’s been fourteen years since I found all this stuff out. I don’t remember what I’m supposed to do. What am I supposed to do? Should I give her a drink?”
“To begin with, you can calm the fuck down, ya cockwobble,” Gavin muttered. “Where’s Tenzin?”
Ben took a deep breath. “I asked her to leave. I was pissed at her.”
“Is she the one who told your friend?”
“Yes. For purely selfish reasons.”
Gavin’s eyes drifted to the quietly snickering Chloe. “Has she vomited? Passed out?”
“No and yes. She passed out once, hit her head, and she’s been on the couch since then. There’s been a lot of laughter.”
“It’s a common reaction of some humans to emotional stress,” Gavin said. “She probably does the same thing at funerals.”
“I do!” Chloe said. “Or I want to. That’s awful, isn’t it? My parents used to get so mad at me.”
“No, it’s not awful.” The corner of Gavin’s mouth lifted, and he walked over to the couch where Chloe was sitting. Her legs were drawn up, and she’d wrapped her arms around them. “Hello, Chloe. My name is Gavin Wallace. Congratulations. You’ve just learned something rather shocking, and you’re not screaming or crying, which puts you far ahead of most humans. It’s very nice to meet you.”
“Hi.” She hiccuped. “You’re Scottish. I didn’t know Ben knew Scottish people.”
“He knows a few.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, I guess. You’re all so beautiful. Tenzin’s pretty. His uncle is like… I don’t know. A supermodel. All the girls at school talked about it. And here you are and you’re a… vampire.” She snorted. “And you’re really handsome too. Is that part of the package? Drinking blood makes you gorgeous? Has anyone told Hollywood?”
Gavin was clearly amused. “Not part of the package, but nice-looking humans do catch the attention of vampires. We like pretty things.” The corner of his mouth turned up. “So I’d be careful if I were you.”
“Are you calling me pretty?”
“Pretty is an understatement.”
Ben walked over to the couch. “Watch it, Gav. I didn’t bring you here to—”
“I know, I know.” He pulled over a chair. “So, lovely Chloe, you’ve just found out that vampires exist in the world. In fact, there’s one sitting right in front of you. Things are not as they seem. Bad things go bump in the night.” He leaned forward and said quietly, “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Chloe’s laughter died. Ben watched Gavin closely. The minute he made Chloe uncomfortable, he was out the door.
She stared back, unshaken. “You’re a vampire. Are you a bad guy?”
“Debatable.”
She relaxed her legs, crossing them under her on the couch. “Are you dangerous?”
He cocked his head, clearly intrigued. “A better question. Yes, I am quite dangerous. But not to you.”
“So you’re not going to drink my blood?”
“No.”
“Can you smell it?”
“Yes. It smells delicious. A little like tart apples.”
Ben glared. “Gavin.”
“Fine.” The vampire took another deep breath, but he pulled away from Chloe.
She said, “So I smell good, but you’re not going to drink my blood?”
“Do you eat any food you come across just because it smells good? If you’re hungry, do you eat without control? Or do you eat at the appropriate time and only until you’re sated?”
“Until I’m… sated.”
“As do I,” Gavin said. “The human stomach can hold roughly a liter of liquid at its normal size. I, once being human, have the same size stomach as you do. So even at my hungriest, I’m likely to only drink around a liter of blood. Do you know how much blood a healthy human can safely give without losing consciousness?”
Her eyes were wide, transfixed on Gavin. “How much?”
“Roughly a liter and a half. So even if I was very hungry, dove, it’s not likely that I’d drink enough of your blood to harm you unless I wanted to.”
Chloe blinked. “Oh.”
“Though you might want me to keep drinking from you. A vampire’s bite can be—”
“Gavin!”
The Scotsman cleared his throat. “Which is not to say that all vampires are nice people who respect others. Most of us are… morally ambiguous predators at best. But then most humans are too.”
Chloe said, “You have a dim view of human nature.”
Ben piped up. “He owns a chain of bars.”
“Well,” Chloe said. “That explains it. Food service will make anyone cynical.”
Ben couldn’t explain the fascinated expression he saw on Gavin’s face, but it made him wary.
Not on your life, bloodsucker. She is not for you.
Chloe’s eyes kept straying to Gavin’s mouth as they spoke.
Gavin leaned forward. “Do you want to see them?”
Chloe’s cheeks reddened. “Sorry, is that rude?”
Ben rolled his eyes. Most vampires loved showing off their fangs. They preened like peacocks. Gavin was no different. He smiled widely, flicking his tongue over the edge of one fang as his canines grew long in his mouth. All vampires had sharper-than-normal canine teeth, but most of them weren’t extended unless the vampire was hungry, horny, or just showing off. Tenzin was the only vampire Ben knew of who couldn’t make her fangs retract.
“Oh wow.” Chloe cocked her head. “Are they…” She lifted her hand.
“Don’t!” Ben snapped.
She drew her hand back as if she’d been burned. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to… Sorry.”
“No need to apologize.” Gavin glared at Ben, but Ben shook his head firmly.
Touching a vampire’s fangs was intimate. Ben knew they were highly sensitive. Chloe touching Gavin’s fangs was roughly equivalent to copping a feel, something Ben knew Chloe wouldn’t do to a strange man she’d just met.
“Cavete,” Ben snapped in Latin. Careful. She’s not yours.
Gavin’s pale cheeks were ruddy when he sat back in the chair. He ignored Ben and lifted a hand to stir the air, making Chloe’s curls bounce in the breeze he created.
“What are you doing?” she said with a smile.
“I’m a wind vampire. I’m playing with the air.”
“That’s so strange. It feels just like the wind but… more.”
Because Gavin was using amnis. So the wind that brushed across Chloe’s face was as tangible to Gavin as it was to her. He might as well have
been caressing her skin with his fingertips. Ben glared at Gavin until the vampire caught his expression and the wind in the apartment died down.
“That was cool,” Chloe said. “Can you fly like Tenzin?”
“I can.”
“How old are you?”
“Don’t ask that.” Gavin cleared his throat and stood. “We can be touchy about our age because we don’t like revealing weaknesses, and younger vampires tend to be weaker.”
She nodded. Ben noticed with some relief that her laughter had died down and whatever spell Chloe had woven over Gavin was broken. The vampire walked to stand at the bar next to Ben and pulled out a card from his wallet.
“Chloe, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I need to go.” He handed the card to Ben and said under his breath, “Have her call me about the job.”
Ben shook his head, more convinced than ever to keep Chloe far away from the vampire world.
“If you don’t tell her, I will,” Gavin muttered.
“Tell me what?” Chloe stood up.
“Nothing,” Ben said as Gavin glared. “Thanks for the calm and measured explanation, old man.”
“You’re quite welcome, young Benjamin.” Gavin flicked Ben’s collar. “Do see to the matter I mentioned.”
“I’ll talk to Tenzin.”
“She’s not a child.” Gavin turned to Chloe. “Chloe Reardon, it was a pleasure making your acquaintance. I look forward to our next meeting.” With a nod, Gavin left, leaving Chloe staring at the door behind him.
“Are they all so…” The dreamy expression was back.
Ben cleared his throat. “What?”
“Um… I don’t know.” She shook her head. “Charismatic, I guess.”
“Is Tenzin?”
“No.” Chloe squinted. “Yes? There is something about her.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“I still have about a million questions.”
“I know.” He threw his arm around her shoulders and swiped Gavin’s card to hide in his pocket. “Don’t worry. I can answer most of your questions, and I don’t have any fangs to distract you.”
“That’s… probably a good thing.”
12
Ben could hear Mozart’s Mass in C Minor in the background when he called his uncle’s home in Los Angeles.
“How is my favorite nephew?” His aunt Beatrice answered the phone with a laugh in the back of her voice. “Your uncle is driving me crazy.”
He smiled. She might have been named for Dante’s muse, but his aunt looked like a cross between a Latina goth and a London punk with musical tastes to match. “Classical music rocking the house?”
“He’s turned Mozart up to eleven, Ben.”
Ben closed his eyes and couldn’t stop the smile as he imagined his uncle darting like a madman around the library that took up most of the second floor of their mansion in Pasadena. “He must be on a new project.”
She sighed. “We were hired to track down a rare book of hymns illuminated by a monk known for the naughty pictures he drew in the margins. It was supposedly destroyed in Ireland under Cromwell, but recent rumors have put it in Belgium.”
“Everything Giovanni loves. Manuscripts, music, monks, fire, and naughty pictures.”
Beatrice laughed. “Did you need to talk to him about something or were you calling to visit with your coolest aunt?”
The barb found its mark, and Ben winced a little. “To talk to you, of course.”
“Liar,” Beatrice said. “We haven’t seen you in months.”
“I know, I know.” His aunt knew Chloe. In fact, Beatrice probably remembered Chloe better than Giovanni did. “There was something I needed to tell you.”
“What’s up?”
“Do you remember Chloe?”
“Chloe?” Her voice warmed. “Of course I remember Chloe. Did you find her? Is she still in New York? Is she dancing and living some marvelous, amazing life?”
Ben smiled. Trust his aunt to remember the important stuff. “Yeah, I found her. And yes, she’s still dancing, but not full time. She had a knee injury. And… some trouble with a boyfriend.”
All humor fled Beatrice’s voice. “What was that?”
“I’m taking care of the boyfriend. Who is an ex now, by the way.”
Beatrice was silent for a long time.
“She’s fine now, B. She’s going to be fine.”
“How bad was it?”
Ben wavered between spilling his guts to his aunt and honoring Chloe’s confidence. “It was bad. But we’re taking care of it.”
“Is Tenzin aware of what’s going on?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” Beatrice let out a breath. “Is this what you need to talk to Gio about?”
“Kind of…”
“I’m not even going to try to guess what’s behind that voice. I’ll pull him away from his books.”
“B?”
“Yeah?”
“Love you the most,” he said quietly. She might have only looked a few years older than him since she’d turned into an immortal, but Beatrice was the closest thing he had to a mother. A real mother, not the woman who’d given birth to him.
She sniffed. “Love you too, Ben. I’m proud of you for taking care of Chloe.”
“I should have—”
“Should-haves are ridiculous,” she said. “Don’t carry the world on your shoulders. That’s not your job. Come see us soon. Bring Chloe. You know she’s always welcome here.”
“Thanks.” He waited on the line and listened for the muttering that was his uncle being forced to the phone.
Like his aunt, his uncle was a mess of contradictions. He was an immortal legend who wanted to remain anonymous. A fire vampire descended from the ancient powers in the Mediterranean world who chose to live in the Americas. A five-hundred-year-old assassin who liked books more than killing and music more than the cries of his enemies. A cranky old man who looked like he belonged in an Italian fashion spread.
“You need to come visit your aunt, Benjamin.” Giovanni’s voice bit through Ben’s musing. “She hasn’t seen you in months.”
Ben smiled. “I miss you too.”
Giovanni wasn’t the most sentimental man in the world. He was exacting, stubborn, egotistical, high-handed…
And he loved Ben fiercely.
“What’s wrong?” his uncle asked. “Beatrice mentioned Chloe. I always liked that girl. Is she in trouble?”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” Ben said. “But she’s been staying here for a while. And Tenzin took a liking to her. And…”
Giovanni uttered a Roman curse. “She told her, didn’t she?”
“She claimed it was inevitable and Chloe would find out about vampires anyway, but—”
“She didn’t ask you or Chloe, did she? She just assumed that Chloe knowing about our kind was the best course of action.” Giovanni sighed. “How is Chloe? Do we need to attempt a memory— What am I saying? Tenzin would just tell her again.”
“That’s what I thought too. Chloe’s doing pretty well. I put her to bed a couple of hours ago and she went right to sleep. I’m pretty pissed at Tenzin though.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“I kicked her out of the apartment and called Gavin over.”
“Gavin?”
“I figured dry sarcasm would go over better than manic glee.”
Giovanni said, “That’s a fair point. Do you trust Gavin?”
“To an extent. He was already aware of Chloe because of… something else. And he’s independent of the O’Briens, so he has no reason to share information with them. Speaking of the O’Briens…”
“Ah.” Giovanni must have clued in to the reason Ben was calling. “Chloe needs to be put under aegis.”
“You know Tenzin won’t do it.”
“I’m tempted to push the point since Tenzin’s the one who told her, but I know it’s an exercise in futility. I’m happy to put Chloe under my protection, Ben. She’s a wo
nderful girl. I don’t suppose you and she have reunited in more meaningful ways, have you?”
“Sorry, no.”
“An uncle can hope.”
“What do I tell the O’Briens?”
“You tell them nothing,” Giovanni said. “I’ll contact Cormac and let him know you’ve hired an old friend who is under my aegis. I’ll tell him she’s a friend of the family and we needed another day person for the business. He won’t put up a fuss unless she’s acquired some kind of reputation in the human world.”
“Anonymous twentysomething trying to make a go of it. Two jobs. Nothing high profile.”
“Keep it that way. Notoriety isn’t recommended. She will need to work with you in some capacity though.”
A troubling thought reared its head. “Okay, but… are you saying she can’t dance anymore? I mean, she’s not super famous or anything, but she does dance professionally, and I don’t want her to lose—”
“Is she going to become a prima ballerina?” Giovanni asked. “Profile in newspapers? Face on television?”
“Not likely.”
“Then she’s fine.” Giovanni sighed. “Americans are profoundly ignorant of the arts. In this case, it will work to Chloe’s advantage. What about you? Any jobs on the horizon?”
Ben smiled. “Well, there is this one thing. It’s not a job, per se, but it looks interesting.”
“It’s too early for you to be doing pro bono work, Benjamin.”
Ben bared his teeth at the phone. “Did Tenzin tell you something?”
“No, but I know you. Is there a damsel involved?”
“There’s a painting involved,” Ben said. “That’s the main point. It’s by a surrealist, Emil Samson. There’s a trilogy of paintings, and the middle one has been missing since World War II. And… yes. There’s a girl, but she’s related to the artist and she didn’t ask—”
“Let me get this straight,” Giovanni said. “There’s a missing piece of modern art. Part of a set.”
“The middle painting in the trilogy. It’s called the Labyrinth Trilogy and—”
“And there’s a girl who needs your help.”
Ben tapped a pen on the notepad by the phone. “Yeah.”
Giovanni started to laugh.
Ben said, “It’s not like we have anything going on right now. So taking time out to help Emilie isn’t going to hurt anything.”