The Elemental Mysteries: Complete Series (107 page)

Elder Zhongli turned to Lorenzo, who was still arguing quietly. Suddenly, Zhang Guo stood from his throne and walked toward the center of the room with a scowl on his face. The crowd parted as he approached. When he reached his daughter, he grabbed her hand and bit. Tenzin curled her lip and pulled her hand away, but lifted Stephen’s hand toward her sire, as well. Zhang bit Stephen’s hand, licked at the blood, then dropped it before he spoke to the hall.

“My daughter is telling the truth. I want no more of this arguing,” he said in English, glancing at Beatrice before he looked back at Lorenzo with a pointed glare. “You cannot have him. He is my daughter’s mate, under her aegis and my own.”

Everyone in the hall seemed to disperse after Zhang issued his proclamation, but Beatrice was frozen stiff.

“What just happened?” she asked.

“Well, it seems—”

“Shhh.” She held up a hand to Baojia’s mouth, cutting him off before he could finish his sentence. She felt him smile beneath her fingertips. “Just… hush. I need to think. I need everyone to be quiet so I can think for a minute.”

Beatrice heard Baojia chuckle, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from her father, who stood next to Tenzin, tall and confident in the face of his sire, the vampire he had run from for fifteen years. She felt warm fingers grasp her own, and she looked over her shoulder to see Giovanni standing behind her. He looked down at her with an expression that told her he was carefully concealing his feelings from the rest of the room.

“Tesoro,” he murmured, bringing her hand to his lips and brushing her knuckles with a kiss.

She dropped her hand from Baojia’s mouth and the vampire took a careful step back.

“What just happened there?”

“Tenzin has claimed your father as her mate,” he said quietly, “and Zhang just confirmed that they have exchanged blood. Therefore, Lorenzo’s claim on your father, and his request to take him, has been overruled.”

“That’s a lot of stuff happening.”

“Yes, it was an eventful meeting.”

“That’s kind of an understatement.”

“Beatrice—”

“Can we kill Lorenzo now?”

“Unfortunately, he is here as a guest of Elder Zhongli Quan. Unless
 
we want to risk the wrath
 
of—”

He was cut off by Lorenzo’s voice ringing through the hall in clear English.

“I have another request for the great court of the Eight Immortals.”

All eyes swung back to the center of the room, and Beatrice could finally see Lorenzo clearly as he stood on the steps in front of Zhongli’s throne. He looked the same as he had when he had taken her five months before. His curling blond hair came to his shoulders, and he still had faint smudges of scarring along the edges of his Botticelli face. He stared right at her with a smile before he spoke again.

“There is a book that my son stole from me. A very valuable manuscript that I petition the court to return to me. I understand that it has been taken for study by the scholars of Elder Lu Dongbin, and I would like it returned. My child did not have permission to take it.”

She glanced at Giovanni, whose eyes had narrowed. He dropped her hand and stepped forward toward the center of the room.

“The book in question is mine, wise Elders of Penglai.” Giovanni was the picture of calm respect as he stood before the hall. “My son took it from me without permission, and his son took it from him. I have no objections to Elder Lu’s wise scholars keeping it for study.”

No one spoke after that. It was almost as if the whole room waited for… something. There was so much tension in the air, Beatrice almost felt as if she would choke on it.

Finally, it was the Immortal Woman, Elder He Xiangu, who spoke. It was in Mandarin, and Baojia leaned over to translate.

“Honored Elder Zhongli, it appears that there is some disagreement regarding the owner of this valued book.”

Royal Uncle Cao, the earth vampire who sat between the Immortal Woman and Tenzin’s sire, leaned forward, finally showing some interest in the proceedings. “Perhaps this is a disagreement we could help to resolve, for your guest, Elder Lu. And yours, Elder Zhang.”

There seemed to be a murmur of agreement around the hall. Baojia laughed quietly.

“Clever imp,” Beatrice heard him whisper.

“What?” she asked, leaning toward him. “Is there going to be some kind of trial or something? What are they going to do?”

“Oh,” Baojia nodded, “there will be a trial, but not now.”

“Why not? Why—”

“Alas,” Zhang stood, once again speaking in English and glancing at Beatrice. “It appears that Honored Elder Lan has departed the hall. If only I had known, I would have asked our fellow Elder to stay. Lan was departing on a journey of some kind. Of course, I did not question the Elder’s plans.”

“What?” Lorenzo hissed before glancing at Zhongli and falling silent again. There was a murmur of dissatisfaction from the right side of the hall where Zhongli’s allies had congregated, and many vampires seemed to be searching the hall for Lan’s small, white form.

But Beatrice knew the elder would not be found; Lan’s earlier appearance in the inconspicuous grey robes suddenly made more sense. For whatever reason, Lan had delayed Zhongli and Lorenzo. To what end, she had no idea, but as she looked around the room, she realized that Tenzin, Giovanni and her father looked pleased, and Lorenzo and all the vampires on the other side of the room looked annoyed.

That was probably a good thing.

“We cannot decide this matter without Elder Lan,” Zhongli conceded in English. “Lorenzo, you may remain at the palace as my guest until his return. All here”—he glared at the six elders surrounding him—“will guarantee your safety upon this sacred island. And to Elder Zhang’s guests.” He turned to Tenzin. “And to yours, Mistress Tenzin, we will guarantee safety as well.”

Giovanni stood casually in the center of the room. He nodded toward Elder Lu and Elder Zhongli in the center thrones. “No one under my aegis would doubt the honor of the Eight Immortals. We stay here at your leisure.”

After that, the hall turned back to the business of the night and hummed with energy again. Lorenzo was whisked away by Zhongli’s entourage, and Tenzin walked over to speak to her father, leaving Stephen and Giovanni in the center of the room, both wearing completely blank expressions. Finally, her father nodded to Giovanni and brushed past him, walking toward Tenzin, who reached her hand back to grasp his.

Beatrice wondered whether she was just noticing, or whether they were now being more open, but the intimacy between the two was apparent. They almost seemed to circle each other, reacting instinctively to the other’s movements as they passed through the room and out one of the side doors, leaving her alone with Baojia.

Giovanni was speaking with one of Zhang’s people in a low voice, and the room began to swirl around her. She turned to Baojia, who was watching her. His steady, silent presence remained at her elbow as she felt her exhaustion begin to creep up. She gave one last look at Giovanni, who was still deep in conversation, before she raised her eyes to her silent guard.

“Can we go now?” she asked.

Nodding, he took her arm and led her toward the back doors, where other vampires and human servants were exiting the hall and dispersing through the palace grounds.

“I will wait outside your room until Giovanni can join you. You should get some sleep.”

“Will Lorenzo—”

“Do not worry about Lorenzo.”

“You know,” she said, shaking her head, “I’m pretty tired of people telling me that when he’s kidnapped me twice.”

Baojia pulled her to a halt near the base of a large white limestone rock dotted with tiny shells. He stared at her for a few minutes, and she was beginning to squirm under his steady gaze.

“Giovanni is embroiled in this,” he finally said. “He has many roles to play in this game. I respect that.”

Beatrice frowned. “What are you trying to say?”

“I have one role to play here, Beatrice De Novo. I have one objective and one purpose. I was entrusted with your safety by your grandfather, my sire. I have one job, and it is you. So I tell you, do not worry about Lorenzo.”

He stepped closer, and the same flare of emotion she had seen earlier in his eyes leapt out again. Her heart began to beat more quickly, and a faint heat rose to her cheeks. Baojia’s eyes never wavered from hers, and she forced herself to tear her gaze away before she continued walking toward her room, his ever-present footsteps trailing behind her.

Chapter Seven

Mount Penglai, China

September 2010

Giovanni gritted his teeth as she left. The fact that Baojia had been the one to comfort her in her distress had not escaped his notice, even as he stood watch over the hall. His need to claim her had been overruled by caution, but he wasn’t pleased.

“Doctor Vecchio? Did you have any other questions?”

He turned back to Zhang’s administrator. “None. As long as Zhang can spare the extra security to make sure Miss De Novo is fully protected through the daylight hours, I am comfortable remaining on the island.”

The old wind vampire gave a respectful nod. “You honor us with your presence. And your support of Zhang’s interests will be remembered.”

“Thank you, Quan. Your master’s offer of protection will be remembered, as well.”

“Is there anything else?”

“I will return to Tenzin’s quarters at this time. I have some phone calls to make. I understand there is a phone connection on the island now?”

“Yes, a custom satellite system was installed last year. There are insulated phones that connect in each wing of the palace. I believe Tenzin does have one.” He leaned in a little closer. “The connections, of course, are shared. One must always keep that in mind.”

In short, don’t say anything on the phone that you don’t want spread around the palace. Giovanni received the veiled message with a quick nod before he took his leave from Elder Zhang’s efficient administrator.

He walked across the grounds, glancing toward the opposite side of the compound where Lorenzo was carefully sheltered within Zhongli’s entourage. He gritted his teeth and kept walking.

What was the wind immortal’s purpose? Why would he invite the water vampire to Penglai? Had his jealousy and paranoia of Tenzin finally reached its limit?

Elder Zhongli Quan may have been the second-ranking political leader of the Eight Immortals, but the old wind vampire had long been insecure of his position and suspicious of Tenzin. Zhang’s daughter dwarfed him in age and power, and it was only her disinterest in politics and her desire to avoid her sire, which kept her from attaining a position of leadership in the hall of the Elders. She could have had Zhongli’s throne with a flick of her small wrist, but had always been quite vocal that she had no desire for it.

Had her recent activities on Giovanni’s behalf caused suspicion that Tenzin had taken an interest in political life? If it had, he regretted it. He’d had no quarrel with Zhongli in the past, but now, the wind vampire was an enemy.

He was mentally running through the web of alliances within the council as he entered Tenzin’s quarters. He immediately turned down the hall to check on Beatrice. As he passed their room, he saw Baojia sitting on a bench, reading, nearby.

He looked up briefly. “She’s sleeping. She was exhausted.”

Giovanni came to a halt. He had nothing to criticize, even though an instinctive protest at the vampire’s presence wanted to leap to his mouth. The water vampire was doing the job his sire had assigned him, and as much as Giovanni may not have liked the interest Baojia showed his woman, he knew that Beatrice was safe under his care.

He finally nodded. “I have some calls to make to Southern California. Do you know where the phone is located?”

“It’s in the front library. You have to put it on speaker phone to use it, even with the insulation for the wiring, so be careful what you say.”

“Has Ernesto been informed?”

“I told her I wouldn’t leave the door until you returned, so no.”

“I’ll make my calls and be back shortly.”

Baojia shrugged. “It’s morning there anyway, so I can only talk to his secretary. Take your time.”

Giovanni frowned. “I’ll be back shortly.” He turned and walked toward the small library just off the main sitting room. The walls in Tenzin’s rooms were all decorated simply, with pale paint, sparse wall hangings, and a few wood screens. It suited her while still being formal enough for her father’s tastes.

He passed Nima in the hall, and the old woman nodded in his direction. Her face, as always, was set in a pleasant expression that concealed the calculating mind he knew she possessed. Nima had been in Tenzin’s company for so long, she was almost like another half of his friend, though Tenzin took care to not place the old woman in any position she feared could be dangerous.

No, Nima had always been carefully protected. As the old woman continued down the hall, he turned to watch her slow gait. Giovanni had always assumed that Tenzin and Nima had been more than merely companions at one point, and he wondered what Nima thought of her mistress’s involvement with Stephen. Giovanni had to wonder himself.