Page 119 of Tin God

She felt his amnis riot, then calm as it recognized her own. “I did not tell you this to anger you.”

“You know how to survive.” His voice was soft. “You need to survive.”

“I don’t.” Tenzin was far from sentimental about her own immortality. “Not really. I have had so much time. But you do, and you seem happier when you have me, so I will be less careless about my safety.”

His gaze finally unfroze, and his eyes moved to meet hers. “Less careless? Like not flying off into the Alaskan wilderness and leaving me in order to meet a vampire who might have killed you?”

Tenzin kept her hand on his cheek. “She wouldn’t have killed me. Her moral code wouldn’t permit it.”

“You’re right.” He blinked. “You’re right.” Ben took a deliberate breath. “My reaction is exactly what Zasha wants. They want to divide us.”

“Like I said, Brigid’s moral code would not permit it, and mine would not sacrifice myself because it would be detrimental to you.”

Ben’s eyes turned from rage-filled to calculating. “I wonder what Henri Paulson would have said if Brigid did kill you and then Zasha killed themself.”

“I suspect he would not like it. He probably thinks Zasha is required to follow his directions.”

“Zasha never follows directions,” Ben muttered. “That’s what killed the Ankers’ plans.”

Tenzin frowned. “Why did Paulson recruit Zasha? Is his ego really that big that he thinks Zasha Sokholov would do his bidding?”

“I’m guessing that Paulson thinks like other rich vampires. Well, rich vampires other than you.”

She slid her hand from his cheek to his palm, knit their fingers together, and nudged him to fly next to her as they made their way south to Vancouver. “What do you mean?”

“Rich people love money. They’re motivated by it.”

Tenzin nodded. “I do like money.”

“Why?”

Tenzin considered the question. “Because I can do whatever I want if I have money, and I can acquire the things I want.”

“Yes. And if you had enough money to do all that, would you still want more?”

She closed her eyes and let her mind drift to the wind caressing her skin and threading through her scalp.

“Tenzin?”

“Why would I want more if I have enough to get what I want? Money isn’t interesting anymore. Now it’s only numbers that Cara reads off when I ask her.” She curled her lip. “Boring.”

Ben smiled. “You’re adorable.”

“Unless it’s gold.” She smiled. “I like gold.”

“Gold is a shiny thing for you,” Ben said. “But it’s not really money these days.”

She was glad he understood that, because she sometimes became concerned he didn’t realize how fleeting modern human civilization was. “Because money is a human construct that means nothing.”

“I know.”

“And gold is gold.”

“Exactly.”

She quickly added, “And paintings are inherently worthless.”

“Can we focus?”

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