The Elemental Mysteries: Complete Series (121 page)

Giovanni leaned forward. “No one knows how Lan will vote, and he’s the most unpredictable.”

“Or she,” Beatrice whispered. The whole table laughed. “Really?” she asked. “No one knows?”

Tenzin smirked at Giovanni. “Have you ever seen Lan get angry?”

“Only once,” he grimaced. “Not pleasant.”

“It doesn’t happen often.” Tenzin’s eyes danced toward Beatrice. “Try to imagine an extremely old and powerful fire vampire having a temper tantrum. It takes a lot to get Lan truly angry, but when she does, numerous vampires usually end up dead. Lots of humans, too.”

Giovanni saw Beatrice’s eyes grow wide. “But that doesn’t happen often, right?”

“No, Tesoro, it takes much to provoke Lan. Despite his playful appearance, he’s one of the canniest vampires on the council.”

“I’m not going to lie, the whole he or she thing is kind of annoying.”

“Agreed,” Stephen added quietly.

“He,” Baojia smiled, “or she doesn’t feel the need to inform anyone. Are you going to be the one to ask?”

“No,” Stephen and Beatrice said together.

“Getting back to the trial,” Tenzin said, “the council is fairly evenly split. My father and Elder Lu are firmly our allies. The Immortal Woman will side with Giovanni, because he’s a fire vampire, and she’s like that. Royal Uncle Cao will go along with Lu because he doesn’t want to disagree.”

“What about Elder Li?” Stephen asked.

Giovanni shook his head. “You know how the earth vampires tend to be. It seems that he will most likely follow Zhongli Quan since they are typically allies and he won’t want to disrupt that. Since Zhongli is the one who invited Lorenzo to Penglai, we can assume he’ll vote with him.”

“Han Xiang?” Baojia asked after the second water vampire on the council.

“He’ll vote with Zhongli,” Tenzin said. “He always does, just to spite Lu.”

“But,” Stephen directed himself to Beatrice, “Earth vampires also tend to be the ones most amenable to compromise, so if a reasonable one is offered, Iron Crutch Li and Royal Uncle Cao would probably go in that direction.”

“What kind of compromise could there be?” Beatrice asked. “Lu’s monks have the books. Lorenzo wants it. Giovanni wants it. Someone has to win.” No one spoke, and Beatrice looked around the table. “So, by my calculation, that leaves four elders on our voting side and three on theirs. And no one knows what Lan will do.”

Giovanni said, “He could vote for us.”

“She could vote for Lorenzo, too.” Tenzin shrugged. “I’ve known Lan for years and I don’t even know how she’ll vote.”

“Again with the he and she thing…” Beatrice muttered under her breath. “So, if Lan votes against us, that leaves it at a tie. What happens then?”

Giovanni’s eyes darted to Tenzin’s and both of them smiled.

“What was that look?” Beatrice asked. “That was a look.”

“A tie means that your husband could challenge Lorenzo,” Baojia said.

“I don’t like that option!”

“Neither would Lorenzo,” Tenzin snorted. “Giovanni would put an end to him quite easily. It’s really the best thing that could happen.”

Beatrice leaned forward. “But then we’ll never know what happened to the books. Or why he wants the elixir. I think we need to know that stuff, don’t you guys?”

“You aren’t worried, are you?” Tenzin looked scornful. “Have you ever really seen your mate fight? He’s ruthless. Lorenzo wouldn’t have a chance. I trained him myself.”

“And he has that irritating habit of bursting into flames,” Baojia said.

Stephen raised a hand. “I have to agree with Beatrice on this. As much as I’d like to see my sire dead, I think he has information we need. Lorenzo wants this elixir for a reason, and I think it’s obvious at this point that there are others involved in his scheme. We need to know who they are, or we’re back in the same boat of not knowing who may be after us.”

“Lorenzo said he had made promises to people. When he had me on the freighter, he said he had ‘made promises to people who were starting to doubt he could deliver.’ There’s obviously someone else involved. At least one other person, maybe more.”

“And,” Stephen added, “if my contact is correct that Lorenzo was researching pharmaceutical labs in Eastern Europe—possibly to produce it—then he must have someone who can fund him. That wouldn’t be cheap, and B stole most of his money.”

“You did?” Baojia turned to Beatrice with a look of amusement. “I always wondered why a college girl had that much cash. Ernesto never said. How clever of you.”

“Thanks!” She smiled.

Giovanni swallowed a growl, but he caught Baojia’s eye and threw an arm around the back of Beatrice’s chair.

Tenzin crossed her arms over her chest. “So, killing the annoying one is not the ideal outcome. But, if it happens, it happens. If there’s a tie, Gio has to challenge Lorenzo; that is what’s done. And if he challenges him, he
will
kill him.”

“He can’t just like… take him captive or something?”

Tenzin shook her head. “Nope. All or nothing. Only one of them would be allowed to leave the island.”

“Great.” Beatrice sighed.

Giovanni was torn. He wanted to find his father’s books so badly he could taste it, but the prospect of killing Lorenzo was also rather alluring. Since it was out of his control, he chose not to torment himself. He would do what he needed to do. Soon after, the group split for the evening; Beatrice kissed him goodbye before leaving with Tenzin and Baojia for more training. He and Stephen went to the library and dove back into research again.

A week and a half flew by, and the five of them stayed barricaded in Tenzin’s quarters except for one brief trip to the open ocean for Giovanni and Beatrice. She was ecstatic, ebullient in her joy and surrounded by her element. She dove under the surface, playing for hours. She wasn’t as strong as she might have been, and Giovanni suspected that, like her father, she would draw more elemental strength from fresh water, though she could easily manipulate both.

Late on Friday night, Tenzin, Beatrice, Stephen and Baojia were playing a game of poker by the fire while Giovanni read a book. He saw Beatrice’s nostrils flare a second before a knock came at the door. She burst up from the table, rushing toward the door, but Stephen quickly caught her, holding her back from the human servant someone had foolishly sent.

Giovanni walked over and took Beatrice’s arms, braceleting her wrists with one hand before he grabbed her around the waist and took her from her father, carrying her to the corner. She snarled at him, baring her teeth and whipping around in an attempt to get away and hunt the human. He waited patiently for Tenzin to send the servant away.

“Order some blood, at least a liter,” he called over his shoulder to Stephen as Beatrice cursed at him in Spanish. Baojia stood behind him, ready for her to break away. Giovanni was reluctantly grateful. A newly turned vampire in the midst of bloodlust could be surprisingly strong. When he could hear the human’s steps receding, he shoved her into the corner, braced his legs around hers, and brought his wrist to her mouth. She tore at it, biting hard into the flesh as she glared at him with narrowed eyes.

“Shhh,” he murmured. Soon, she was calmer, and he let go of her wrists, bringing his hand up to stroke her hair. “Drink what you need, my love. Your father is getting you more blood.”

He could tell when reason grabbed hold of her again because her eyes cleared and bloody tears leaked from the corners. She let go of his wrist and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning into him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. That was the first time I’ve smelled a live one. Their blood—”

“I know. Don’t apologize; it’s perfectly natural, and we were unprepared. It’s fine, Beatrice.” He still stroked her face as he heard Stephen enter the room and Baojia faded back. Giovanni could smell the warm blood from the corner. “Go, drink. You hadn’t fed tonight. We’ve been too casual about it, being isolated like this. You’ll need to be more prepared in the future.”

“What about the trial?” She sniffed and wiped her eyes as she sat at the table. “There are usually humans in the hall. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Tenzin came to sit next to her, holding a folded piece of paper. “There won’t be any during the trial. It’s vampire only. If you were still human, you wouldn’t be allowed in.” Giovanni caught the quick gleam in Tenzin’s eye.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Lan’s back. They’re meeting tomorrow night.”

Giovanni nodded. He had no sense of nervousness, only a grim kind of resolve. Whatever happened, he would be getting his way. Either the council could vote with him, or he could kill Lorenzo.

Giovanni tried to ignore the pervasive sense of foreboding when he rose next to Beatrice the following afternoon. By nightfall, they were both fed and dressed in the formal clothing that Zhang provided them. They wore the soft blue-grey robes and pants that the scholars of the court wore. Their collars were adorned with a single jewel indicating their element, deep blue lapis lazuli for Beatrice and a blood-red jasper for Giovanni. Beatrice tied her hair back into a subdued knot at the nape of her neck.

They met Tenzin, Stephen, and Baojia in the front room. Stephen also wore the grey scholar’s robes, but Tenzin wore a silver robe similar in style to her father’s formal white, which was decorated with an ornately jeweled Mandarin collar with dotted moonstones and pearls. Her hair, which she usually tied back, flowed around her shoulders in a long, black sweep. Baojia looked severe in the plain black robes worn by the palace guards. They were met and escorted by one of the green-clad administrators who worked for Zhang.

“Gio?” He heard Beatrice speak softly as they crossed the gardens.

“Yes?”

“My dad was explaining all the color meanings to me. If yellow is supposed to be the most beautiful color, why do the servants wear it around here? Wouldn’t that be reserved for the Elders or something?”

He smiled. Trust Beatrice to be curious instead of nervous on the way to meet an enemy. “Many of the servants here are monks, Beatrice, so they wear their yellow or saffron robes. Most of the other humans dress in brown. But the ones you have seen tending the gardens are almost all monks. It is considered a great honor to serve in the palace of the Eight Immortals.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”

“The elders wear white because it is the symbol of death.”

“That… doesn’t make much sense.”

He smiled again. “But they are the masters of death, aren’t they?”

They climbed the stone steps leading to the great hall, even Tenzin was oddly subdued as they made their way to the front of the room and took their place in front of Zhang’s leather throne.

The elder was already seated, looking calm and fearsome, his hair loose and long as his daughter’s. At times, it was easy to forget that Tenzin and her father belonged to a far less civilized past than the one represented by most of the sophisticated vampires of the Chinese court. With his hair flowing around him, seated on his saddle-like throne, Elder Zhang Guo looked like the ancient warlord he was. Tenzin stood behind her father, playing the loyal daughter for appearance’s sake. Even the most powerful of immortals would tremble to challenge the pair.

Giovanni glanced at Beatrice, who was taking in everything with her perceptive eyes, measuring each Elder and the people who scurried around them. Baojia stood behind her, watching, always watching, anyone that came too close. Once again, Giovanni found himself reluctantly grateful.

“Baojia, will you be able to translate for Beatrice?” he asked quietly. “I’m sure this will all be in Mandarin, and I will have to speak at some point.”

“Not if you want me to be able to concentrate on protecting her.”

“I can translate,” Stephen whispered.

“Anything you don’t want overheard, say in Spanish,” Giovanni said. “It’s not widely spoken here and will be the most secure.”

Stephen nodded as Zhongli’s guards entered the hall. The Elder was already at the front of the room, but the guards ushered Lorenzo between them. Giovanni scoffed when he saw his son wearing scholar’s robes like their own. Though the pursuit of knowledge was far from a priority with him, Lorenzo was nothing if not a master of appearances. In that way, Giovanni supposed Lorenzo truly
had
become Andros’s heir.

Giovanni was curious about the company he was keeping. There were eight guards around Lorenzo, all wind vampires from the look of their robes, which bore the milky moonstone associated with the wind element. Eight. A lucky number, particularly when associated with business. He had a feeling that the selection was not without calculation. All the Elders were superstitious, but none more so than Lorenzo’s host, Zhongli Quan.

Little by little, the hall filled, until eventually, every elder was on his or her throne and their entourages filled the room in front of them. Energy buzzed, the collision of electrical currents charging the air. The torches and lamps that lit the room flickered, and a soft wind brushed through the crowd. Everyone was there and waiting.

Except for Elder Lan.

Giovanni exchanged a look with Baojia, who only shrugged. “No one’s surprised, are they?”

Suddenly, every head turned when a laugh rang from the back of the room, and a high-pitched voice called out, “Are you all waiting for me? How amusing!”