Kesan only lifted his chin, his black eyes gave away nothing. If he was concerned to be there, it did not show.
“So,” Ben started, shuffling a little. “Should we get started?”
Cheng asked, “Did you not want to wait for Tenzin?”
He let his eyes go to Kesan. “We ran into a little trouble in the city. I’m sure she’ll be along shortly. In the meantime”—he nodded toward Jonathan—“we can get started on the inventory. I have it with me.”
Jonathan said, “Excellent. Let’s begin, Mr. Vecchio.”
“Please, call me Ben.”
“Gladly.” The two men, mortal and immortal, headed toward the open container. Jonathan spoke under his breath. “Do you speak Latin, by chance?”
“I do.” He switched to the ancient tongue that had become a second language since Giovanni had adopted him. “I’ll assume we’re avoiding Kesan’s ears. What’s going on?”
“Do you know where Tenzin is?”
“There was a woman following us in the city. We cornered her and Tenzin took off. That was over two hours ago.”
“Not good.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
They ducked into the container and Ben knelt down to pick up the pry bar set by the crates. He took the printed inventory and set it out next to his phone. He and Jonathan started to unpack the wooden boxes and check the inventory to make sure both matched up.
“Are there gold bars in each crate?”
“Yes,” Ben said. “We had to carry the crates. There should be about twenty or so in the bottom of each. Then porcelain packed on top. Then jewelry.”
“Right.” He dug through straw, still speaking in Latin. “Cheng has suspicions about Kesan. That is why he’s here.”
“Tenzin and I had the same suspicions.”
“They must have spoken about it the other night. It’s possible he was the one who sent those three after you in Kashgar. These are beautiful. Very old.” Jonathan was holding one of the palm-size bars in his hand. “What do you estimate?”
“About two kilos each. And I think it’s more probable than possible. He was the only vampire in the region who had the connections and the knowledge of where we were going.”
Jonathan shook his head. “What would be his purpose? The vampires who attacked you might not have known their opponent was so formidable, but Kesan did. He knew Tenzin would kill them.”
“But maybe not before they killed me. Which would piss her off. And who would she blame if something like that happened?”
Jonathan shrugged and continued to stack small gold bricks. “The vampires who killed you?”
“With the right rumors, she might be tempted to blame a former lover. Especially if he’s known to be territorial.”
The Englishman gave Ben a grim smile. “If he thought that, Kesan does not understand the nature of Cheng and Tenzin’s relationship.”
“Does anyone?”
“Good point. My God, this jewelry is exceptional. These are museum quality.”
“Silly vampire,” Ben said, taking a Byzantine sapphire and gold necklace from Jonathan and marking it off on his inventory. “The best pieces are never in museums. If Tenzin wanted to sell this, it would never even see an auction.”
“Cheng doesn’t appreciate antiquities unless he can sell them, unfortunately.”
“Poor you.” Ben grinned. “We like the pretty stuff.”
Jonathan sighed and handed over a leather sack of gold coins. Ben poured them into his hand and counted them. It was tedious work, but he didn’t mind. The treasure had been out of their control for over twenty-four hours. More than enough time for a thief to take advantage. He wouldn’t rest easy until the crates were sealed, the container was locked, and the ship was at sea.
He glanced over his shoulder. Still no Tenzin, but Cheng and Kesan stood watching them. Ben’s eyes met Cheng’s before he looked away. The vampire looked bored, but Ben was guessing it was a carefully built facade for Kesan’s benefit.
A few minutes later, Ben heard footsteps on the roof. He looked at Jonathan, whose eyes were already on his sire. Cheng stood, hands behind his back, face lifted in a smile as he looked at whoever had landed on the container over them.
“Looks like someone finally joined us,” Ben said, carefully setting down the necklace he’d been wrapping and stepping out of the container with Jonathan at his side. He swung the giant metal door closed, then locked it with a padlock he’d brought with him. He didn’t know what was going to happen, but he had a feeling that inventory would have to wait.
Tenzin stood, toes hanging off the edge of the container, the woman who’d been following them glaring at her side.
“Kesan!” she called. “I have something of yours.”
Without a warning, Tenzin threw the woman into the air, straight at the vampire who bared his teeth and took a step back. Cheng was the one who caught the human, tossing her to the ground as her scream cut off. Jonathan darted to his master’s side, but Kesan’s eyes were on Tenzin, glaring at her. Ben saw the glint of silver at his waist. The slight twisting of the vampire’s torso.
Without another thought, he reached for his own blade and sent it flying into Kesan’s eye.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
At the human’s scream, dockworkers and security officers came running. A small crowd gathered in moments. Tenzin landed on the ground near him. His hand was already drawing the second blade.
“Stop,” she said, putting a hand on his. “Cheng wants to make an example of him.”
Ben glanced around at the crowd. Mostly humans, but with a number of vampires thrown in to spread the word. All had their eyes trained on the two vampires circling each other, one with his hands in the pockets of an eight-thousand-dollar-suit, the other holding his eye as blood dripped down his face.
“So, Kesan, you thought you would betray my friend?”
“She has no loyalty to you,” Kesan hissed.
“And you do?”
Kesan said nothing, and Ben knew the vampire had underestimated the old pirate.
“I faced a mutiny once,” Cheng said, stepping close to Kesan. “Do you know who won?”
“You,” the other vampire muttered.
“No, actually. My crew did. I learned a valuable lesson that day.” He grabbed Kesan around the throat. “Mercy is useless. Only cruelty is remembered.”
Cheng threw Kesan to the ground and calmly took off his jacket and handed it to Jonathan. The crowd around the two immortals had begun to call out, clearly ready for the fight. Ben started to step away, but Tenzin put a hand on his arm.
“Wait. We must watch. We’re his guests. This is as much for us as it is for his people.”
“I have no desire to watch him chop some guy’s head off, Tenzin.”
Her eyes gleamed. “Cheng doesn’t like to use weapons.”
Ben’s stomach turned over when he heard the crack of a fist against a jaw. Cheng’s laughter rose above the cheering crowd. He forced his eyes back to the center of the circle.
Kesan was fighting back, but he had no chance against the stronger vampire. Cheng had stripped down to bare skin, the humid air of the river clinging to his chest, making it look as if the immortal was drenched in sweat. In reality, vampires didn’t sweat. But for water vampires, humid air was a boon, the element suffusing the air and giving them even more strength.
“What is Kesan’s element?” Ben asked her.
“He’s an earth vampire.”
“I was guessing that based on the panicked way he’s eyeing all this asphalt.”
Earth vampires needed bare earth to draw strength, which was one of the many reasons they avoided cities. Kesan hadn’t expected this ambush from his employer.
“Was the girl the one who drove the truck to Ürümqi?”
“Yes. She’s his servant. He didn’t think we’d turn down the offer of a driver. He planned to use her to steal my gold. She was going to seduce and kill you. Kesan thought I would blame Che
ng and he could use the loss of face to grab more power for himself. How did you know she was the driver?”
“I remember thinking how weird it was that the seat was so far up when I got in the truck. Thinking back, someone a lot smaller than Kesan must have been driving and it must have been a human, because the dashboard wasn’t shorted out.”
“You’re very observant.”
“I try.” He winced when he saw Kesan’s head snap back so far a human would have been dead. It wasn’t easy to kill a vampire. You had to sever the spinal cord completely. Snapping it would cause paralysis, same as in humans, but that would heal unless the spine was completely severed. It was one of the reasons swords and knives were still so popular.
This wasn’t a knife fight, however. This was pure brutal rage directed at the vampire who had pissed Cheng off.
“He’s enjoying this, isn’t he?”
Tenzin shrugged. “He could be called an exhibitionist. He knows his people enjoy it. So this idea I had—”
Ben sucked in a breath. “Is he actually going to—”
“Probably.”
Cheng gripped Kesan around the neck in a chokehold, the other vampire scrambling to release the iron forearm at his throat. If Cheng wasn’t going to use weapons, that meant to make an example of Kesan, he’d have to…
“Ugh,” Ben muttered. “Gross.”
“Yes, that’s one word for it.”
Ben still faced the crowd, but he let his eyes leave the two fighting figures under the lights. He saw a figure squirming out of the crowd, trying to remain inconspicuous.
“Oh, look who wants to get away,” he murmured.
The human who’d been following them in the city—the one Tenzin said had been hired to kill him—moved the same way, even when she was backing away and hoping no one would notice her. Ben stepped away from Tenzin, who was watching Cheng fight, and stepped into the shadows.
No one was stopping her.
Tenzin asked, “Want some help?”
“You watch Cheng. I’ve got her.”
“Careful. She bites.”
The woman might not have been a vampire, but she was no innocent. She crept to the shadows and fled, running into the night and away from the growing crowd.
Ben chased her.
As he fled deeper into the labyrinth of containers, he tuned out the sound of the shouting and grunting crowd, focusing on the single panting breaths of the human who was trying to escape. Part of him was reluctant to chase her. She was human. Who knows how she’d been dragged into this world? Maybe she was like him.
No.
“She was going to seduce and kill you. Kesan thought I would blame Cheng…”
Well, that just pissed him off.
He ran to the end of one aisle, only to turn left and slam into something that crushed his nose. The woman must have grown tired running from him. She stood at the ready, palm out, his blood wet on her palm.
He winced and spat blood from his lips.
“Ow.”
“So you were the one I was supposed to kill.” Her eyes were narrow and appraising. She spoke in clipped English. “It wouldn’t have been that bad, I suppose.”
“Am I supposed to be flattered?”
He ducked right and raised his hands. She didn’t have weapons. Not that he could see. It didn’t seem fair to reach for his.
The woman smirked. “Aren’t you cute?”
“If you think I have any American reservations about hitting girls, you obviously don’t know who my sparring partner is.”
Two quick jabs to her left and he’d clocked her on the jaw. Her head snapped back, but she used the momentum to spin around and duck under his arm, jabbing a sharp fist into his left kidney.
Ben roared in pain and snapped his head back, but she was too short to make contact. He stuck out his foot and she didn’t jump fast enough. He hooked an ankle around her knee, throwing her off-balance. She came down hard, the air leaving her lungs as he bent down and straddled her. She spat in his face and tried to twist away, but he had the advantage. She was no match for him once his weight was on her.
The woman’s eyes darted to the knife he carried on his left side. “So you’re going to kill me now?”
“No.” Stymied on how he’d control her, he spied a length of frayed twine, oil soaked and kicked to the side of one container. He leaned over and grabbed it. “But I can’t have you running around.”
She squealed when he flipped her over and pushed her face into the dust. She let loose with a string of Chinese profanities.
“I can understand all those, you know,” he said with a grin. “I can even pronounce most of them now.”
“Fuck you!”
“That word is universal, isn’t it?”
“You bastard!”
“Yep. Right in one.” He frowned and twisted her hands behind her back, securing them with the twine and mentally thanking the boring weeks in the Cochamó Valley where he’d had nothing to do but help the cowboys with the horses and cattle.
He learned a lot about knots that summer.
Ben dragged the woman up to standing and pushed her in front of him, starting back toward the sounds of the fight.
“You’re going to hand me over to Cheng?” Her voice was wavering now.
“I’m guessing you get some kind of paycheck, right?”
“Yes.”
“And if the vampires here are anything like the ones I grew up with—”
“I didn’t have a choice!”
“Yeah, you seemed really conflicted back there when you broke my nose.” Ben scrunched up his face. He could already feel it swelling. “Anyway, I’m guessing you received pretty fat paychecks and the name on those paychecks was Cheng’s. So, since you’re his employee, I’m turning you over to him. What happens after that is none of my business.”
They reached the pier. Kesan and Cheng were still fighting. Tenzin caught his eye and gave him an amused nod where she stood by her container.
“If I could,” the woman spat out, “I would stab you with my heel right now, you stupid boy. Then I’d kill your little girlfriend.”
“I’m feeling so torn about handing you over to Cheng now.”
Just then, a roar rose from the crowd. There was a shout. A wet ripping sound. Then a blood-soaked Cheng lifted Kesan’s mangled head from the center of the crowd.
Ben felt ill.
The blood drained from his face and his stomach twisted. The woman turned to him. For the first time, he saw fear in her eyes.
“They’re monsters,” she whispered. “Every one of them. No matter what face they wear. You and I both know it.”
“Yes, they are,” Ben said, suddenly exhausted by it all. “But you and I both chose to play with the monsters, didn’t we?”
He wanted to go home. Wanted Isadora’s chile verde. Wanted to watch a dumb action movie with Beatrice. Wanted to hear Giovanni lecture him about his grades.
“Besides,” he said, pushing the would-be assassin forward. “The worst monsters in my life have been the human ones.”
“Is your face okay?”
“Yeah.” He wiped the blood from his jaw with the wet towel Jonathan had handed him. Tenzin held out an ice pack. “Thanks.”
Her hand tilted his face up. “It’s straight.”
“Good to know that modeling career is still an option.”
“There will be a bump, I think. But you were too pretty before, anyway.”
“Thanks.” He pushed his face into the cool of the ice pack and groaned. “Okay, I’m done. Can we go home now?”
She stroked a hand through the hair at the back of his neck. “Soon. Can you finish the inventory with Jonathan tonight? I can’t access the pictures on your phone without breaking it, and the boat is supposed to leave before dawn.”
“Let me find a bathroom. I’ll wash up and get it done.”
Tenzin nodded. “Give me the key. I’ll have Jonathan load the container on the ship. We’ll check it the
re so they can keep working. Then we can seal it and be done.”
“Cool.”
Ben didn’t see the woman in the sterile office trailer they showed him to. He didn’t ask. Maybe he’d have nightmares about handing her over, but he didn’t think so. She’d have killed him if she’d had the chance.
Jonathan was waiting for him by the time he’d bandaged his lip and cleaned up. There was nothing to be done for the nose except stuff a bunch of tissue up it and wait for it to stop bleeding.
“Hey.”
“Shall we?” The tall Englishman still looked as impeccable as he had at the beginning of the evening. A thin red scarf hung around his neck.
“Sure.”
They climbed on board the freighter and up to the deck, quickly finding the container in the maze of others loaded on the medium-sized ship that would cross the Pacific. Tenzin was waiting, but flew away after she’d handed over the key. Ben and Jonathan worked for another couple of hours, each crate opened, checked and marked. He ignored the bustling of workers around him, the whistles and cranes. He just wanted to get done.
“Well, Mr. Vecchio…”
Ben hammered the last nail in the final crate and looked up at Jonathan.
“Yeah?”
“I do believe we are finished. Does the handling of Tenzin’s property meet your approval?”
Jonathan held out a stack of paperwork. Ben took it and skimmed over it, signing the bottom of the top sheet and handing it back.
“It does. Thank you, Mr. …”
“Rothwell.”
“Thank you, Mr. Rothwell. This shipment of…” He flipped through the paperwork. “…miscellaneous holiday decor has been loaded to my approval and handled to my satisfaction. I’m sure Tenzin will be pleased.”
“Excellent. I’ll leave you then. You and the miscellaneous decor should be in Long Beach on schedule.”
Ben chuckled, until he realized what Jonathan had said.
“Wait… what?”
“Twelve to fourteen days, depending on weather. Probably twelve.”
“No.” Ben shook his head and ran out of the container, looking around him to see nothing but ocean with the lights of Shanghai far off in the distance, obscured by the nighttime fog. “No!”