Page 21 of Tin God

Carwyn’s eyes and mouth were bloody from hurled debris; the air around them was churning with black mud, water, and gravel that sliced at his skin. Ben was bloody and his body was encased in rock.

He shoved his element away so hard that the churning mass of water and mud exploded out and the trees cracked from the force of his amnis.

As soon as he shoved the wind back, he released the air and Carwyn’s lungs filled again.

“For fuck’s sake, you lunatic, what do you think you’re doing?”

Let me go,Ben mouthed, glaring at Carwyn.

“Are you calm?”

Ben looked around at the air that was now still, the rain falling in a light mist around them.

Carwyn eased his fingers back from around Ben’s neck. “I’m letting you go.”

Moments later, Ben could speak again and he felt the ground around him slowly crumbling away. “Where is she?”

“You think I know?” Carwyn shook his head. “They’ve done a runner on both of us, boy. Let’s go inside and get you cleaned up.”

Ben satat Carwyn’s kitchen table, drinking the black tea the vampire had made for both of them. It wasn’t the elegant loose tea that Tenzin enjoyed but two bags of cheap black tea dunked in mugs and heavily dosed with milk.

It tasted slightly of paper, but Ben drank it anyway.

“When did she leave?” Carwyn asked.

“Four days ago.”

“Brigid left months ago. Right after we found that boy in Vegas that Zasha kidnapped.”

“She went to New York. Tenzin didn’t tell me. I found out from the O’Briens a couple of weeks after, but Tenzin wouldn’t tell me what it was about. Then four days ago?” He flicked his fingers in the air. “Gone.”

“It’s not a coincidence. They’re working together.”

Ben sipped the paper-flavored tea. “I tracked her for the first day and then lost her trail. I went to your house in California but you were gone, so I came up here.”

“How did you find this place?”

“Gavin’s people tracked your stupid van, found the account you used to rent this place.”

“Better talk to Lee about that,” Carwyn muttered.

“Can’t hide from traffic cameras,” Ben said. “Get a more boring vehicle.”

The earth vampire sat across from him, sliding a bottle of blood-wine across the table. “Drink that. You lost blood and expended a lot of energy.”

Ben twisted off the top of the inexpensive variety. “You?”

Carwyn shook his head. “I went hunting at nightfall before I met with Katya.”

“Does she know where they are?”

“No. Brigid didn’t go through Katya—she got help from Oleg, and I don’t know his people. She had better connections there.”

“Why did she go to New York? Why did she rope Tenzin into this?”

Carwyn narrowed his eyes. “You know why.”

The blood of Temur remembers who you were.

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