Page 18 of Tin God

“Why not you?”

“I’ve never liked Carwyn. He smiles too much.”

Brigid’s eye twitched. “No. Why don’t you go hunt and kill Zasha yourself? Since I’m gonna assume I’m right and you caused this somehow, why don’t you take care of the mess you made?”

The smell of smoke and scorched stew burned to life in Tenzin’s memory. “Because I made a vow.”

She was dreaming,and when she woke, her mirror image was sitting in a corner of the dark room, lit only by a single incandescent light bulb.

Aday smiled when Tenzin spotted her. “You’re sleeping again.”

“A little bit.”

“I thought you trained yourself not to do that anymore.”

“I didn’t want to see you.”

“Too bad.” The mischievous vampire flew up and perched in the wooden rafters over Tenzin’s head. “Remember this? Remember when you killed them all?”

“Why are you here?”

“I come when I’m needed.”

“I don’t need you anymore. You can leave.”

“Are you sure about that?” She spoke a name that Tenzin hadn’t heard in centuries, a name that was dead to her. “Saraal.”

“I’m called Tenzin now.”

“But that’s not who you are.” The vampire turned in slow circles in the air. “Is it?”

Tenzin wasn’t sure if she was still dreaming. Sleep was foreign to her, and it had only come back to her when she and Ben had started exchanging blood. For thousands of years before that, she had not slept.

She’d slept at one time in her life; then she hadn’t.

And now she was sleeping again.

Was the vision in her room only that? A vision? A memory best left on the ancient steppes of Central Asia? She had laid Aday to rest in a shrine in Tibet where the people worshipped her as a goddess and her sire had come to make amends.

She had buried her in the muddy banks of the Amur River, thrown her in the depths of Lake Baikal, and left her hanging in a deodar cedar, food for the carrion birds that nested in its great, dense branches.

“Why are you in this place?” the vision asked.

“Because I should have finished the job. I didn’t know Temur’s Blood had truly mated. That means his blood still lives.”

Aday flew down to kiss her softly on the mouth. “And we can’t have that, can we? Temur’s blood must die. You should kill it.”

“I made a vow.”

“To the man?” Aday shook her head softly. “His blood has made you weak.” She smiled slowly and ran soft fingers down Tenzin’s cheek. “Then again, he made you dream again, so I do not hate him. I missed you.”

“You’re not real.”

“I’m real when you need me.” She leaned forward and whispered, “You made that vow. I did not. Let me live and I will kill Zasha. I break no promises.”

“You break everything.”

Aday smiled. “As I said, I come when I am needed.”

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