“And fire?”
He shrugged. “I’ve never beheaded a fire vampire. I don’t know. Usually, we burn.”
She paused. “Why did you leave me your journals in Cochamó?”
“I wanted you to know everything. Like when I told you to tell Dez about your life. There can be no future with that many secrets, tesoro.”
“But why didn’t you tell me all that before?” she asked gently. “You always held back with me.”
He sat up and moved to her side, looking into her eyes when he answered.
“When we first met, I didn’t know if I could trust you. And when you left for Los Angeles, I wasn’t sure you wanted to be part of my world. Which I understood. So I tried to shield you, Beatrice. There was no reason for you to be burdened with all of this if you were only going to touch the edges of it.”
“Gio.” She shook her head. “I think it’s pretty obvious at this point…”
She didn’t finish, and he leaned forward. “What? What’s obvious?”
She stopped short of admitting she loved him. She still wondered, when the current mystery was solved, whether he would disappear from her life again. This time, she knew the hole she felt from his absence when she was younger would be dwarfed by the immense vacuum another departure would leave.
He reached over to nudge her chin toward him so she was forced to meet his eyes. “I take nothing for granted, but I will not have you make any decision blindly. I’ll not have you resent me for hiding things from you.”
“I don’t want you to.”
“Then why-”
“Are you going to leave me again?”
He drew back as if she had struck him. “What?”
“If we find Lorenzo-”
“When we find him.”
Beatrice looked away. “Fine, when we find him. After he’s been killed. After you find my father, will you leave again? What if you decide you don’t want to feel grief like Deirdre’s? What if I choose not to become a vampire? What if-”
“You’ll have to be far better at evasion than even your father to lose me at this point, Beatrice De Novo.”
She looked at him, and his eyes begged for her to believe him. She wanted to, she realized. More than anything, but five years still hung between them. “Are you sure? About me? About this?”
He cocked his head.
“What?” she looked down nervously, wondering at his expression.
“Deirdre asked me the same question,” he said softly. “When she brought Ioan’s body back. She asked me, ‘Are you sure?’ I didn’t really understand what she meant at the time.”
A memory of the fearsome woman carrying the body of her husband flashed to Beatrice’s mind. “What did you answer her?”
“I never got the chance.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Will you answer me?”
Giovanni grasped the back of her neck and pulled her into a hard kiss; she felt the force of it down to her toes. Finally, his mouth traveled to her ear and there was no mistaking his answer.
“I am sure of the fire that runs through me. I am sure of the earth I stand on. And I am sure of you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Northern Wales
January 2010
“When are you coming home?”
“I’m not sure yet, Benjamin. I want to come home, but it’s more important that I make everyone safe first.”
“From Lorenzo?”
“Yes.”
He heard the boy sigh over the telephone and knew that he was probably rolling his eyes as well.
“Tell me what you and Caspar and Isadora have been doing,” Giovanni said to distract him.
“Lots of stuff. They’re pretty cool for old people.”
He chuckled. “They are. Has Caspar taught you how to shoot yet? He thought it would be good for you to learn. He’s a very good shot, so make sure you pay attention when he teaches you.”
“At first I thought it was going to be really cool, but then he made me clean all the rifles after we finished.” Giovanni grinned. “And that wasn’t cool at all. But we shot some cans for target practice, and he said I was pretty good.”
“Excellent. And how is the rest of your schooling?”
Ben huffed on the other end of the line. “Dude, Caspar isn’t very good at Latin anymore, Gio.”
“Well,” he said and laughed, “you can be his teacher then. And how is Beatrice’s grandmother? Are you getting along?”
“Other than the cleaning stuff, yeah.”
“Cleaning stuff?”
“She wants me to clean my room here, like, all the time.”
He frowned. “Well, I’m fairly lax on that, so pay attention to her. Your room at home is something of a disaster area.”
“She’s a good cook, though. I’m gonna get fat hanging out with them, Gio. They both cook really good.”
“They both cook very well, and see if Isadora will give you lessons while you’re staying with them, will you?”
“If it means I’ll have to help her clean up the kitchen, I think she’ll be okay with it.”
He smiled and sat back in the chair, feeling more relaxed than he had in days. Giovanni sat in the library at Carwyn’s house, enjoying the fire and listening to the wind whipping outside. Beatrice had already fallen asleep, so he had taken advantage of the time difference to call Ben in Texas.
He was surprised by how much he missed the boy and his quick humor, though he was pleased Ben was getting along so well with Caspar and Isadora.
“Caspar said your friend died.”
“Yes, he did.”
“Did he have kids?”
Thinking of all the children Ioan and Deirdre had sired or fostered over the years, he nodded. “He did. He had a large family.”
“I’m really sorry. Tell Carwyn I’m really sorry.”
“Thank you, I will.”
He could almost hear the wheels turning in Ben’s small head, so he wasn’t surprised by the next question.
“Are you going to get hurt? I thought you couldn’t die.”
“Benjamin, I will do everything in my power to prevent anything happening to Beatrice and myself.”
“Can’t you guys just come home and hide here with us?” he asked in a small voice.
He closed his eyes and thought how he wanted to answer.
“You know, Ben, in my own way, I hid for years. I minded my own business and tried to keep out of sight so I could live my life in peace. But sometimes, minding your own business isn’t the right thing to do. Sometimes, you need to confront the evil in the world. I tried to ignore that for too long and people got hurt.”
“Like B? When Lorenzo took her?”
“Yes.”
“And your friend? Is that because of Lorenzo, too?”
The guilt and grief threatened to overwhelm him, but he cleared his throat and answered, “Yes, that was also because of Lorenzo.”
“But you’re going to get him, right?”
“Yes, I’m going to make sure he can’t hurt anyone else.”
“And find B’s dad, too, right?”
He nodded, even though he was alone. “I’m going to find her father. Eventually.”
“Good, ‘cause he sounds like a good guy and she misses him.”
He smiled, happy to hear the more relaxed tone of the boy’s voice on the other line. He could hear Caspar and Isadora talking in the background, and Giovanni wished he and Beatrice could be relaxing with them in the Texas hill country instead of stuck at an old stone house in the cold Welsh mountains.
“So, is B your girlfriend yet?”
He cocked an eyebrow at the phone. “I’m working on it.”
“Still?”
“I think I’m still on probation. She’s making sure I’m really going to stick around.”