The Elemental Mysteries: Complete Series (125 page)

“You’ll be fine. The water will help your control. And I doubt there will be many humans in the river after dark. I’ll tell your father and Baojia to watch out for you. Any animals should be fine, they won’t smell as appealing.”

“I don’t want to slow anyone down.”

“The key is to let your amnis connect with the water the way it wants to, then allow it to move you upriver. It will be instinctual, so don’t try to control it too much. Just let it happen. The way you move already and the way you fight, I think you’ll be very fast as long as you allow yourself.”

“Okay.”

“But I’m going to tell Baojia to swim as fast as he can. If you fall behind, Stephen will stay back with you. I’m sorry, Beatrice, but the priority—”

“Is the monks.” She nodded. “I understand, Gio. They’re defenseless against Lorenzo. Of course they’re the priority.”

They both fell silent then, and Beatrice’s eyes darted to the clock that hung on the wall. They had ten minutes till sundown.

“We should get dressed,” she whispered.

He held her tight to his chest for a moment before he pulled her up and kissed her. They stared at each other for a few more minutes before she rose from the bed. Beatrice focused on the task at hand, pushing the still-present scent of the human to the back of her mind. Giovanni watched her dress in a slim pair of jeans and a tight T-shirt that would not drag in the water.

“Beatrice.”

She looked up. “Hmm?”

“I love you.”

Her breath caught, and her heart gave a quick thump. “Don’t say that like you’re saying goodbye.”

He frowned and shook his head quickly, but she could see him blink away a red gleam in his own eyes. He rose and dressed in the black combat pants he wore when fighting and nothing else. Though the pants were fire treated and would usually stand up to his element, any other clothing would be nothing but ash, so he did not waste time with it. Giovanni strapped a curved dagger to his thigh and he was ready. He helped her buckle her sword onto her back, making sure she could easily draw it to fight.

Five minutes.

She began to feel a pressure in her chest. “I love you, too,” she whispered.

He moved to stand in front of her. “This is no longer sparring. These vampires will kill you, and you must not allow that to happen,” he murmured. “There will always be war. It is your job to survive it. No matter what. That is your victory, do you understand?”

Beatrice nodded, staring at his chest and wishing she could bury her face in it to avoid the coming bloodshed. Giovanni grasped her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. He did not look at her with the soft eyes of her lover; he wore the fierce expression of a soldier.

“You must survive, Beatrice. Do you understand? Do
not
sacrifice yourself for any other. Do
not
be meek in battle. Do
not
hesitate to kill anyone that threatens you. Eliminate them swiftly and without remorse. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

A desperate light came to his eyes and his hands tightened on her jaw. “Do you understand?” he asked again.

She reached up and put her hands over his as she stared into his eyes. “Nothing will keep me from you.”

They stared at each other for a minute more before Giovanni pressed his lips to hers in a single, fierce kiss before he drew back and reached for the door. He pulled it open and everything seemed to happen at once.

They rushed into the main compartment. Tenzin had the door open and waiting for them. Baojia streaked out, followed by Stephen and Giovanni carrying Beatrice in a headlock as they passed the human in the cockpit. As soon as they reached the deserted runway, Tenzin sealed the door, eliminating the alluring scent of blood; then she grabbed Giovanni and took to the sky in one sweep. Giovanni and Beatrice’s fingers touched for only a second before he disappeared into the night.

Beatrice turned to Baojia, but the vampire had already bolted toward a thick stand of forest calling, “This way!” as he ran.

Stephen grabbed her hand, and Beatrice ran at full speed for the first time in her immortal life. Her heart pounded in excitement. The wind rushed around her and, if she had been human, it would have stolen her breath. She squinted her eyes, closed her mouth and ignored the swarm of insects she swam through as she and her father rushed to keep up with Baojia. She could only assume he had been briefed during the plane trip and knew where they were going.

They darted through the thick stand of trees, dodging around tree trunks and skipping over rocks with a swift grace she tried not to think about. The less she allowed her mind to analyze how fast she was going, the easier it was. Her heart pumped, but not with effort. It was pure excitement.

Later, Beatrice would realize she had never truly understood instinct until the moment the scent of the river hit her nose. The rushing water called to her, and when she saw Baojia leap into its depths, she followed without hesitation, her father close on her heels. She had no need to hold her breath; she simply closed her mouth and let the water envelop her, keeping Baojia’s murky form in front of her as they sped up the rushing stream.

Beatrice struggled for a moment to keep up with him, trying to force herself forward under her own preternatural power until she remembered what Giovanni had told her.

“…let your amnis connect with the water the way it wants to… allow it to move you… it will be instinctual…”

She forced the thought of kicking from her mind and focused on the rush of amnis over her skin. The moment she did, it was almost as if her energy unfurled into a thousand long tendrils, spreading out in the water as it reached to push her upstream. She had no conscious thought of maneuvering around rocks or the odd raft she came across, she had only to think of where she wanted to go and her amnis reached out to bring her there.

After a few moments, she was fully enveloped in the ecstasy of the river, moving with a single thought just under its dark surface as she tracked Baojia. She barely registered her father trailing behind her or the bends and creases of the river as it wound up and through the deep river valleys of the Wuyi Mountains. She could feel the energy signatures of the fish and small animals that darted away from her, but their blood did not distract her as human blood did. She felt the water shallow out before it grew deeper again.

They sped upriver for miles, and Beatrice had little sense of time. She knew only the water, her amnis, and Baojia’s faint shadow in front of her as she followed him. After what could have been hours or minutes, she felt him slow, and she moved silently behind him along the edge of the river. Her eyes broke the surface as they approached the bank where a long bamboo raft was pulled up.

Baojia held a hand out for silence as they walked to the edge of the riverbank. Beatrice could feel the mud between her toes and fought the instinct to remain in the safety of the water. She felt Stephen pick up her hand and tug her along when she hesitated.

None of them said a word as they walked along the muddy bank, finally stepping onto the soft grass that lined the clearing on the edge of the forest.

Baojia smelled it first, and his gaze lifted toward the rise of ancient stone stairs and the scent of blood and smoke. Both hit Beatrice’s nose at the same moment, and her eyes darted around, looking for danger. The smell of blood and fire surrounded her.

“The monastery is in flames,” Stephen whispered. He looked over her shoulder to a set of stairs buried in the hill. They led up into the dark forest and Stephen started for them before he was pulled back by Baojia.

“We need to find the source of the blood. Di Spada and Tenzin are already up there, I’m sure of it.”

Stephen shook his head. “Of course.”

Beatrice’s nostrils flared. “It’s not human.”

“No.”

They walked cautiously toward where the scent was strongest. As they breached the laurel trees on the edge of the riverbank, she saw them. A mass of twisted bodies and rolling heads, Zhongli’s guards were piled into a low depression just beyond a clearing. Their blood sprayed across the dead leaves and detritus that layered the forest floor, and Beatrice gagged at the tangled bodies of the dead vampires.

“Lorenzo must have had men following them,” Baojia said.

“But how?” Stephen looked up in confusion. “They flew.”

“I don’t have any idea, but we’ll talk about it later. Take Beatrice back to the river, and I’ll go up to the monastery.”

“I don’t want to wait by the river!”

His eyes cut toward hers. “Too bad. You’re not going up there unless there’s no avoiding it. It’s already a bloodbath from the smell of it, and I’ll not have you distracting di Spada with your presence and endangering lives. You’re not ready yet. Stay here and keep your head down, little girl.”

Baojia turned to Stephen. “And you stay here, too. Keep her away and out of trouble.”

“The monks—”

“Are probably already dead. By the smell of them, these bodies have been dead at least an hour. Stay here and keep her out of it. That’s the most you can do.”

“Baojia,” Beatrice still protested. “I’m not going to stay down here when—”

He tackled her and bared his fangs as he gripped her around the neck. “Stay here! I do not have time to argue with you. I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t have let
you
come here. So don’t make me regret it. Stay here and keep your head down, or you’ll get someone killed. Probably yourself.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he bared his fangs again and she shut up. No matter how much she wanted to help, she knew much of what he was saying was true. She had little experience in actual battle and would probably only hurt herself.

“There will always be war. It is your job to survive it. That is your victory…”

She nodded tightly and Baojia leapt off, racing up the stone stairway and toward the growing cloud of smoke. Stephen gripped her hand and pulled her up. He drew Beatrice away from the bodies of Zhongli’s guards and toward the riverbank where they crouched in the shadows to wait.

“Do you worry about Tenzin?” she asked.

Stephen paused before he answered. “Yes. I know I probably shouldn’t. She’s lived for five thousand years, right?”

“Yep.”

“Right.”

“I still worry about Gio,” she confessed in a whisper. “Even though he’s survived more than I could even imagine.”

“You’re very lucky, Beatrice.” Stephen looked at her in the dim light of the crescent moon. “You’re lucky to have found each other. You know that love that I was talking about in my journals? The kind Grandma and Grandpa had? That’s the way he looks at you. Like you’re the most important thing in the world to him.”

She blinked back tears. “He’s everything to me.”

Stephen gave her a soft smile. “You’re very lucky.”

They waited in silence as the smell of smoke only grew stronger. Every now and then, Beatrice thought she could hear a shout from the top of the stairs, but nothing was clear. Stephen explained that the majority of the old stone temple was hewn into the side of the mountain, and the hallways were like a puzzle.

“Even if Lorenzo gets there, there are many false corridors and passageways. It was designed as a defensive fortress, so there are escape routes and dead ends; the monks know all of them. It would take him hours to find his way to the library alone.” She wasn’t sure whether he was convincing her or himself.

But she nodded anyway, even though Beatrice had a hard time feeling very reassured as the smoke grew thicker, blotting out the stars in the night sky. She had little concept of the passage of time, and she sat up straight when she heard a whistling tune.

It was the children’s song about a cricket that Giovanni would often sing to her, but as the sound of the whistle grew louder, she shrank back, dreading its approach. It was not Giovanni.

Lorenzo’s blond hair shone silver in the moonlight as he bounced down the stairs carrying a wrapped package clutched to this chest. Three guards followed him as he descended. He still sported the grey scholar’s robes he had worn in the Hall of the Eight Immortals as he stepped toward the bamboo raft.

Beatrice turned to her father in panic.

“The book,” Stephen breathed out as he watched his sire with wide eyes.

Lorenzo’s steps halted immediately, and he turned and eyed the bushes where they were hiding. Beatrice heard a taunting laugh come from his throat.

“A book in the hand,” he called as he stepped toward them, “and it sounds like
two
De Novos in the bush.”

Her father rolled to the right and into the clearing, drawing his sword in one swift movement. Beatrice drew her own and darted around the trees behind Lorenzo’s guards as Stephen rose to face his sire.

“Well,” Lorenzo chirped, “this night just keeps getting better!”

Chapter Twenty

Wuyi Mountains

Fujian Province

China

November 2010

Giovanni threw fire into another whirlwind that Tenzin tossed his direction, the scent of blood and ash thick in his nostrils. The bodies of Lu’s monks lay scattered in the courtyard as he and Tenzin eliminated the last of Lorenzo’s water vampires who guarded the outer gates of the monastery.