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 h
eard 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.
“One more!” Tenzin swung her arm around, tossing the vampire toward him.
The dark-haired guard fell in crumbled heap, only to rise and run toward Giovanni. These were not the ineffectual spawn that Lorenzo had been creating; these vampires were far more formidable and bore European features that were further confirmation that Lorenzo had allies that remained a mystery. Allies with deep resources to hire or inspire the loyalty of such fierce opponents.
It was taking longer than he’d planned for Tenzin and him to work through them.
Giovanni sidestepped the guard, who tried to spray him with water to extinguish the fire that coursed over his body, but Tenzin drew the wind from the attacking vampire, sucking the water toward herself and allowing Giovanni to light his opponent on fire. He screamed and ran toward the stairs to escape, but Tenzin caught him up in a gust, pinning him to a stone wall as he turned black and flaked away.
“This is taking too long!”
“That’s the last one.”
“I smell blood in the monastery.” He tried to suppress the flames on his body. “Let me just…” He took deep breaths, forcing the fire back so he could enter the stone rooms without harming Tenzin or any remaining monks.
They had seen the crumpled bodies of Lu’s monks from a distance as they approached. The journey through the mountains had gone swiftly, but not swiftly enough to beat Lorenzo’s men. At least twenty human bodies littered the courtyard and five vampires had patrolled the gates.
“Are you ready to go inside?” Tenzin asked with cold eyes.
He nodded, taking a deep, calming breath. “Yes.”
They stole silently through the doors, searching, but quickly bypassing the meeting hall where the monks had met to pray. He forced himself to ignore the lifeless bodies that lay in the shadows. Giovanni followed Tenzin, who quickly wound her way back into the mountain, following tangled corridors and dark passageways that always seemed to end with more bloodied corpses. The sheltered monks of Lu Dongbin’s order had been decimated.
Finally, at the end of one corridor, Tenzin’s eyes darted to the right. She took a deep breath before she ducked under a thick tapestry that hung on one wall. There was a small stone door, no bigger than a gravestone, that she pulled back before she ducked inside.
Giovanni followed. He heard a scuffling in the chamber and quickly lit a flame that shot to the top of the small room. A young monk, no more than sixteen or seventeen, stood, spreading his arms to guard the clutch of small boys behind him. The young monks wore saffron robes and tears in their eyes.
“We are not here to hurt you,” Tenzin said softly. “Where have they gone?”
The young monk examined them before he seemed to decide they were trustworthy. “I do not know. Master Fu-han woke me and told me to gather the young ones here to hide them while he went to the library. I only did what he told me.”
“And you have not seen the strangers?”
“I saw no one. But many have come through the halls before you. What has happened in the monastery?”
“There has been an attack. You cannot stay here—” Tenzin’s eyes darted toward the door in panic before she relaxed. “It is Baojia.” She turned to Giovanni. “I will find a safe place for these boys, and then we search for Lorenzo.”
Giovanni nodded and stepped into the corridor where he found Baojia waiting for them. “Where is Beatrice?”
“At the riverbank with Stephen. It was deserted. All of Zhongli’s guards were there, dead.”
The boys filed into the passageway and began following Tenzin down the corridor.
“I wondered what had happened to them. There were others in the courtyard,” Giovanni murmured. “We killed them.”
“I saw the ashes.”
“They were not Asian. European.”
Baojia cocked an eyebrow. “Interesting.”
“I thought so.”
They ducked under another tapestry that led to a narrow earthen passageway lined with unlit torches. Giovanni quickly lit one and handed it to the young monk before he turned back to Tenzin.
“I don’t feel anything here,” she said. “You?”
“I feel nothing in this direction,” he said, looking down the dark corridor. “No vampire has been here tonight.”
She nodded. “Excellent. This one is very old, I was hoping they would not know of it.” She turned to the young man. “This tunnel leads to a river landing. There is a cave at the base. Continue down the corridor and then wait at the riverbank. Take shelter in the cave if you feel danger. Elder Zhang is sending his guards, they will find you and keep you safe.”
The young monk nodded.
“Go. We must return to the monastery and continue searching.”
“If you find Master Fu-han—”
“Do not worry about your master, worry about these boys. Keep them safe.”
She nodded to the young man and then ducked back under the tapestry and ran in the opposite direction from where they had come. Baojia and Giovanni followed her.
“Where are we going?” Giovanni asked.
“There is an older part of the monastery,” she yelled. “That is where the library is. Your senses are better than mine in the mountains. Open up and look for them, my boy.”
Giovanni tried to focus his amnis to detect any latent energy traces, but the stone walls, along with the mass of blood, adrenaline, and old tangled signatures were confusing.
“They’ve been all over, it’s almost impossi—”
He broke off and swerved to the right, drawn to a clutch of energy in a large empty space.
“Here!”
Giovanni burst through an old wooden door to see three vampires huddled over a group of bodies, feasting on the blood of Lu Dongbin’s monks. They looked up in surprise, snarling at the three vampires who entered the stone courtyard that looked like an outdoor kitchen.
Baojia, Tenzin, and Giovanni spread out, surrounding the vampires before they attacked. Baojia drew his sword, immediately cutting off the head of one while Tenzin took to the air and swooped down over the group, hacking at another with her scimitar. Giovanni grabbed the third by the neck, twisting it until the head came off and the three vampires lay in a bloody heap over the bodies of the monks.
“Where the hell is he?” Giovanni said as he scanned the courtyard.
Baojia began to shake his head. “There are more. More than I had imagined. It was a bad idea to leave Stephen and Beatrice by the river. If Lorenzo’s not here, he may be anywhere.”
“Go,” Tenzin said. “He’s probably still in the library somewhere. It’s a maze. We’ll search the rest of the monastery. We weren’t in time to stop their murder, but let’s hope the monks might have saved the book.”
Baojia nodded and ran back out the way he had come, while Tenzin and Giovanni ran deeper into the mountain fortress, searching for Geber’s manuscript.
Stephen stood with sword drawn, tense and ready. “Give me the book, Lorenzo.”
Lorenzo rolled his eyes. “And why would I do that? I finally got it back, and I had to get rather messy doing so.”
Beatrice could s
ee the blood spatter on Lorenzo’s robes, even in the darkness. The smell of human blood covered her father’s sire and the three guards that surrounded him. She was having trouble concentrating. She gritted her teeth, gripped her sword, and tried to focus on the two vampires that stood across from her in the small, grassy clearing.
“What are you doing, my Stephen?” Lorenzo laughed. She heard him draw his own sword. “Do you actually think you and your little girl are going to stop me? My friends and I just killed all of Zhongli’s guards—they were a bit squeamish about killing all the monks, you see—and ransacked a very valuable library to get this book back. I’m certainly not intimidated by you and the girl.” He glanced over his shoulder at Beatrice. “Though I do find her very attractive when she’s bloodthirsty like this. Nicely done, Stephen. She turned out beautifully.”
“Dad?” She didn’t know what she was asking. She shifted back and forth on her feet as her eyes darted between the two guards who licked their lips and grinned at her. She had never faced two opponents before.
“Tenzin and Giovanni will be here shortly, Lorenzo.”
Lorenzo only laughed. “I very much doubt that. We left… well, a bit of a mess, really. I was worried about her Chinese dragon, but he seems to have run off and abandoned his post.”
Beatrice glanced at Stephen again. They were separated on opposite sides of the clearing with four vampires between them.
Her father still spoke calmly. “Baojia will be coming back soon, as well.”
“I’m sure you hope so.”
Beatrice was starting to panic, and the scent of the human blood covering the guards was flooding her senses, causing her head to swim. There was too much going on. She could see everything, hear everything, smell everything. Far from making her more aware, the flood of sensory input was only confusing. Her fangs were long in her mouth, and she could taste the blood where they had pierced her lip.
Beatrice saw one guard curl his lip and move to attack, and she reacted automatically, cartwheeling to the side. As she hit the ground with one hand and popped up, she brought her dao down on the back of the attacker’s neck.