They floated back into the loft and onto the new bed. Tenzin lay on him, aligning her body along his, skin to skin, as their amnis twisted and hummed.
She kissed along his jaw. “You’re better tonight.”
He played with a strand of her hair. “Sorry about the cranky mood.”
“It’s fine. You’ve put up with more than one of mine over the years.”
“True.” He didn’t say anything more, even though it sounded like he wanted to.
She poked his side. “Speak.”
“I’ve lived here for what? Five years? And in a city of eight million people, I’ve seen him three times. What are the chances of that?”
“It’s really not that big an island. It is bound to happen.” Tenzin wanted to say, Shall I kill him for you? But she didn’t. That would probably be considered a backslide when it came to personal evolution. Chloe would not approve.
“We can move,” she said. “We have options.”
“I like New York. And Cormac has finally stopped giving me dirty looks when I run into him.”
“Do you want me to find your father and strongly suggest he move back to San Juan?” With amnis. Not that she wanted to subject the lovely island of Puerto Rico to Ben’s father.
“I don’t think he’d do anything but make my grandmother’s life miserable.”
She laid her head on his chest. “Why does seeing him bother you so much?”
Ben didn’t say anything for a long time. He stroked his thumb along her hip and stared at the ceiling. “Did you have children when you were alive?”
Tenzin stopped breathing for a moment.
He looked at her, and there was a challenge in his eyes. You want me to show you mine? Show me yours.
Poke. Prod. Stretch the skin and shed it. Leave the old behind.
Growth was painful, especially in moments like this.
“I had three children.” She took a slow breath. “A girl who died and twin boys. I think possibly one of them might have lived to adulthood, but I don’t know because I was abducted by raiders when they were babies.”
The challenge in his eyes fled, and Ben wrapped his arms around her in an iron grip.
“My father is such a shitty person, and he still got to have a kid. I’ll never have children, and I think I’d be so much better at it than he ever was. For some reason, in the past few months, that has been pissing me off. And then I saw him and it was just like… a slap.”
Tenzin examined his expression. She sensed no hidden meaning or prevarication.
“It is ludicrous to say that you will never have children, because you are immortal now and you know that many of our kind adopt children. You don’t know what your life will be like in ten years, let alone in one hundred or two hundred.”
He stroked the back of her neck. “Would you have children again?”
“Not now, and not anytime soon.”
He nodded.
“But I will not say never.” She looked away. “It would be foolish to project like that.”
“Okay.” His hand stroked along her back.
Tenzin closed her eyes and felt his blood living inside her. She still hadn’t told him that she’d started sleeping again. For a few blissful hours each day, she slept and dreamed. That, more than anything, had calmed the voices in her mind.
Often their days were spent like this, Ben falling asleep with Tenzin draped over him, either in the loft or the bedroom they’d light proofed when they returned to New York. Tenzin preferred that Ben sleep in the loft. She liked to sense his nearness even when she was awake or meditating.
That night they were supposed to meet Chloe and Gavin for drinks at the Dancing Bear. But then again, maybe they wouldn’t.
She felt a burgeoning energy approaching, and a familiar scent blew through the open windows like a gust of night jasmine in the air.
Tenzin picked up her head. “Zhang is here.”
Ben frowned. “What?”
It couldn’t be. But it was.
“Zhang. My sire. Our sire.” She sat up. “He is here.” What was he doing in New York?
“I smell him on the roof.”
She was about to fly out of the loft when Ben pulled her back threw a tunic at her.
“Clothing please. I know you don’t subscribe to traditional mores of modesty, but please don’t make me crazy, even if it is your father.”
She looked at him. “Is this another relationship parameter?”
He rubbed a small circle on his temple. “I can’t believe we have to spell that out, but yes, Tenzin. Please don’t randomly spend time naked in front of other people.”
“That’s a reasonable parameter.” As was monogamy. Very few vampires as old as Tenzin subscribed to monogamy, but since she had no interest in sexual intercourse with anyone other than Ben, that was an easy request to agree to. Understanding the complex dynamics of an emotional and sexual partnership with one person was complicated enough. She didn’t know how Arosh handled a harem, but he clearly had far more emotional depth than she could manage.
Tenzin pulled on a tunic and a loose pair of pants; then she flew down to the french doors that led to the roof. Ben was right behind her.
Just as she’d suspected, Zhang was sitting on a bench outside, his eyes roaming over the city.
“Extraordinary,” he said. “Truly, I begin to understand Lan’s fascination with the modern world.” Zhang looked over his shoulder. “It looks like another sky has fallen to the ground, spreading its stars across the land.”
Ben leaned against the doorway. “Yeah, it’s pretty spectacular.”
Tenzin didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “What are you doing here? What is wrong?”
“A piece of unexpected information came to me two weeks ago.” Zhang turned, and Tenzin was surprised by the tension she saw on her sire’s face. “It affects both of you.” He sniffed the air. “I see you have become sexual partners again.”
Ben covered his eyes with one hand. “God, you two are so strange. I will never understand your relationship.”
“That is none of your business,” Tenzin said. “And it has no bearing on our relationship with you.”
“Admittedly, this is true,” Zhang said, “but I do hope you are both happy with the arrangement.”
“Why are you in New York? I doubt it’s to check whether Ben and I are having sex.”
Ben groaned and sat on a bench. “You just keep saying it.”
She spun on him. “So Catholic.” Tenzin turned back to her father. “What is this about?”
“It’s about Arosh,” Zhang said, keeping his voice low. “I have sources who say he has found the bone scroll in Axum.”
Tenzin felt as if her body had been hollowed out in an instant. “The bone scroll is a myth.”
“No,” Zhang said. “It is not.”
“Aabmen—”
“I have seen it with my own eyes.” Zhang’s face was like a grave. “It is not a myth.”
Zhang had seen it? It was as if she were seeing her father for the first time. How had he seen it? Where? If he had seen it, why had he not destroyed it?
Ben crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s a bone scroll? And haven’t we done enough for Arosh to last a lifetime? We found the Night’s Reckoning. We ended the cold war between the West and the East. Isn’t that enough?”
Zhang looked at Tenzin and spoke in the old language. “You haven’t told him about Saba.”
She responded in the same. “You didn’t tell him either.”
Ben walked over to Tenzin. “You’re going to teach me that language because this” —he pointed between them— “is going to drive me crazy.”
The bone scroll. It was a myth. She’d always been told it was a myth.
But her father did not lie.
Tenzin walked to Ben and looked him straight in the eye. “How do you feel about a trip to Ethiopia?”
THE BONE SCROLL
Elemental Legacy: Book Five
Coming Spring 2021
ELIZABETH HUNTER is a USA Today and international best-selling author of romance, contemporary fantasy, and paranormal mystery. Based in Central California, she travels extensively to write fantasy fiction exploring world mythologies, history, and the universal bonds of love, friendship, and family. She has published over thirty works of fiction and sold over a million books worldwide. She is the author of Love Stories on 7th and Main, the Elemental Legacy series, the Irin Chronicles, the Cambio Springs Mysteries, and other works of fiction.
ElizabethHunterWrites.com
Also by Elizabeth Hunter
The Elemental Legacy
Shadows and Gold
Imitation and Alchemy
Omens and Artifacts
Obsidian’s Edge (anthology)
Midnight Labyrinth
Blood Apprentice
The Devil and the Dancer
Night’s Reckoning
Dawn Caravan
The Bone Scroll
(Spring 2021)
* * *
The Elemental Mysteries
A Hidden Fire
This Same Earth
The Force of Wind
A Fall of Water
The Stars Afire
* * *
The Elemental World
Building From Ashes
Waterlocked
Blood and Sand
The Bronze Blade
The Scarlet Deep
A Very Proper Monster
A Stone-Kissed Sea
Valley of the Shadow
* * *
Glimmer Lake
Suddenly Psychic
Semi-Psychic Life
Psychic Dreams
(August 2020)
* * *
The Irin Chronicles
The Scribe
The Singer
The Secret
The Staff and the Blade
The Silent
The Storm
The Seeker
* * *
The Cambio Springs Series
Long Ride Home
Shifting Dreams
Five Mornings
Desert Bound
Waking Hearts
* * *
Linx & Bogie Mysteries
A Ghost in the Glamour
A Bogie in the Boat
* * *
Contemporary Romance
The Genius and the Muse
7th and Main
INK
HOOKED
GRIT