Page 19 of Tin God

“You are no more. The vow is mine.”

“Then flee this place and leave Zasha to the Russians. They belong together. Leave your little friend and fly away.”

“Zasha needs to be stopped. I never should have let them live.” She’d relived that night a hundred times since seeing Zasha’s face through the smoke of a burning wheat field. “I should have killed them when I ended Temur’s line.”

“Why you? You’ve killed enough. What do you owe the world?”

New Year’s resolutions. Tenzin closed her eyes. “I need to do this. I made a vow not to harm Zasha, but I can help Brigid kill them. That does not break my vow. So Aday, you need to leave.”

“And you need to wake up.”

Tenzin opened her eyes,and the dream was gone. The room was empty, and so was her stomach. She needed to feed. She needed to meditate.

She needed to find Brigid and get this done.

The longer she was away from Benjamin, the more volatile she became. She hadn’t dreamed of the small vampire in years, and now she was back?

This situation was tenuous. So was her mind.

She looked at the ruby ring on her left hand, the one she never took off even though she didn’t wear jewelry. She collected it. She rarely wore it.

I don’t believe in marriage.

Did I ask you? It’s a ring. You like rubies. Wear the ring.

She wore the ring and gave him one of her own. It was made of gold taken from Solomon’s mines, an ancient artifact of unspeakable value she’d bartered for in the second century after listening to a story from an Ethiopian merchant traveling through Arabia. He had enchanted her with his tales of war and love, and she’d given him one of her favorite swords in exchange for his gold ring just because she knew it would help her remember that night.

Ben had dropped that ring down the sink in the bathroom twice and had to take apart the plumbing to find it.

So normally Tenzin was fine with losing her grip on reality because Benjamin was with her. Benjamin grounded her. Their connection was the thin tether that anchored her to what was left of her humanity.

And then she’d left him in New York.

He was not going to be happy about that.

ChapterFour

“Careful, boy.”

Ben glared at the old vampire standing in the rain. Carwyn was barefoot, strolling through the rain without a care in the world while Ben had just felt a punch through his amnis like fire. “Where the fuck is Tenzin?”

Carwyn snarled. “You think I know where she is?”

“You and Brigid are joined at the hip, old man.”

“And you and your tiny sociopath aren’t?”

“She’s not a fucking—” He bit back his words, but nothing could stop the punch of air that blasted Carwyn in the chest as Ben tried to control his rage. His amnis was out of control.

The air shoved Carwyn back a few feet, and the earth vampire snarled, digging his feet into the ground.

Too late, Ben realized his mistake.

The old vampire didn’t even move, but the earth opened up, grabbing Ben’s legs and pulling him into the ground as Carwyn charged.

Ben’s arm shot out and forced the larger man back, but the pull of the ground didn’t stop. Ben tried to reach for the air within the soil, but he felt nothing. The ground was saturated with water, and while his amnis searched for something to grab, there was no purchase.

Ben lifted his arms, letting the air pull him from above, but the ground followed, crawling up his body as Carwyn braced himself, digging his hands into the earth.

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