Night's Reckoning Read online

  Ben released his hold, and the choking man clutched his throat as Ben quickly drew his fist back and aimed for the temple. His fist made contact, the man’s head snapped to the side, and he fell in a solid thunk.

  Ben quickly rifled through his pockets, grabbing his wallet and the knife and gun in his waistband. He felt for an ankle holster but didn’t find one.

  Shoes? He needed shoes.

  Damn. This guy’s were too small.

  “Topo, where are you?”

  “By the door!”

  “Luca?”

  Nothing.

  Ben looked at the man he had to guess was Luca. He’d wake up eventually, and he would deserve the massive headache.

  Now with one hundred percent more weapons, Ben crawled on top of the stack of pallets and surveyed the warehouse. His head was throbbing, but he needed to eliminate the human threat and avoid the vampire.

  He’d have to climb down eventually to reach the door. He crawled over two more stacks of pallets and dropped to the ground. Three more humans and he’d have a clear shot.

  The second man nearly walked into Ben. He turned in to the alcove where Ben was waiting and his eyes widened, but Ben put the knife to his throat before he could yell.

  “Shhhh.” Ben put a finger to his lips. “The baby’s sleeping.”

  The man cocked his head, confused. “Wha—?”

  Crack. Another fist to the temple. Another snapped neck, and the human fell to the ground with his eyes rolling back.

  And his shoes were still too small. What was with these people? Did they all have miniature feet?

  Ben kept the knife out. There were three more wandering around, not counting the vampire.

  Where was the vampire?

  He had the door in sight when he nearly ran into two of the men. One reached for his gun, but Ben kicked it before the man could raise it. He muttered a curse and reached for his knife while Ben dodged the other man’s grasp.

  They weren’t expecting Ben to be so fast. They thought they’d wounded him. They’d thought he was broken.

  Gotcha, suckers.

  Silence was useless now. The men were shouting as he fought them off. He grabbed the unarmed man by the shoulders and brought his face down to his knee. Ben felt the spurt of blood from the man’s nose.

  The scent of blood lay like bitter copper in his mouth. His own skin was broken. One man rolled on the ground, holding his hand to his face as blood poured out, and Ben turned to the other man, who was now a little more cautious. It was the original ringleader, Stefano, whose throat was still red and raw from the vampire grabbing him. He was bent to the side, still limping.

  His voice was hoarse. “Who are you?”

  Ben touched the corner of his split lip and flinched. “No one important.”

  Before Stefano could ask another question, Ben brought his foot up and swiftly kicked him in the gut, knocking the man to the ground. Then Ben walked over and kicked Stefano’s temple, snapping his neck to the side and making his eyes roll back.

  Ben examined the two men on the ground. Making a swift decision, he grabbed Stefano’s shoes and slipped them on his feet, leaving the laces untied. They were a little big, but they were better than nothing.

  He ran for the door. He was nearly home free when the vampire appeared.

  She appeared a few yards away from Ben, moving so quickly he nearly didn’t see her. She stomped her foot on the ground and a crack split the floor. Ben’s foot fell into the earth and he felt the pulse of power as the dirt tightened around his ankle.

  Earth vampire. He added that to the file.

  “Hey there.” He kept his knife out and reached for the gun he’d slipped in his pocket, never taking his eyes off the vampire walking toward him. “Ben Vecchio. How you doing?”

  “I know who you are.” She wasn’t angry. She was curious. Her head was angled to the side, and she examined him like normal people examined an interesting specimen at the science museum.

  “I’m just trying to get out of here,” Ben said. “I have no desire to start a fight.”

  “You’ve already been in one.” Her voice was still barely over a whisper, and Ben was starting to wonder whether she had some physical disability that affected her voice.

  Contrary to human mythology, changing into a vampire didn’t cure all your ills. It didn’t make you younger or heal anything other than the most recent injuries. If you were missing an arm before you turned, it was still going to be gone. If you were deaf as a human, you’d be deaf as a vampire. Nerve damage could be cured, and immortality fixed all but the most severe eye problems. But a damaged voice? You’d live with that for eternity.

  “I’m not looking for a fight,” he repeated. “I just want to go home.”

  “Do you?” She met his eyes and her fangs fell. “And who would miss you if you didn’t go home, Ben Vecchio?”

  He raised the gun. “I don’t know you. I am a human under vampire aegis. We have no quarrel. Let me go.”

  Her mouth was halfway between a smile and a pout. “If you’re under vampire aegis, you should know that gun won’t do anything to stop me.”

  “I know if I hit your spine, you’ll be out of commission until nightfall tomorrow.” He glanced at the ceiling. “You’ll be safe in here. I won’t even have to feel guilty. No direct sunlight. Whoever might find you during your day rest, that’s not my problem, is it?” He really wished Luca’d had a semiautomatic he could steal, but he was still a decent shot with a revolver. “I’m an excellent shot. You don’t want to take a chance. Let me go.”

  She smiled. “I’m not going to kill you. I was simply curious.”

  “Oh?” He kept the gun trained on the vampire’s neck as she moved.

  “Curious what she sees in you.”

  Fuck. Ben knew exactly who she was and just the reminder pissed him off. He cocked the gun. “Let me go.”

  “I don’t poach.” She came closer. “But I wonder if a taste—”

  The gun went off and her long hair blew back. Ben could see a red line where the bullet had passed by her neck.

  “Back off,” he said in a low voice. “I won’t miss again.”

  “You didn’t miss that time. Interesting.” She blinked and smiled fully. “I do understand what she sees in you, Benjamin Vecchio.”

  Without another word, the vampire ran out the door and Ben heard it creak from the swift gust of air.

  And his foot was still stuck in the ground. “Really?”

  Wiggling it back and forth, Ben managed to work it out, but only because Stefano’s shoes were bigger than his foot. He left the right shoe stuck in the ground and limped to the door.

  Ben was almost there when it swung back, revealing a thin man leaning against the wall, pointing his gun at Ben with a shaking hand.

  Ben glared at the man. “You really want to do this?” He raised his revolver and the man lowered his gun.

  “No, I don’t—”

  “Are you Topo?”

  The man nodded.

  Ben kept his voice low and walked toward him. “Okay, mouse, the rest of them are out. The vampire’s gone. You want me to punch you or shoot you?”

  The blood drained from his face. “Are those my only options?”

  “You think your boss is gonna be satisfied if you just run?” Ben nodded over his shoulder. “She knows you were here and walking when she left.”

  Topo’s face crumpled. “I guess… shoot me. Left leg?”

  Ben had been certain the man would go for the knockout. “A bullet? You sure?”

  The man pointed to his eyes. “The doctor, he says if I take any more punches, I could lose an eye. I used to be a boxer.”

  “That sucks.”

  Topo shrugged. “It’s only a nine millimeter.”

  “Still a bullet, man.”

  Topo hesitated. “Maybe… you could break a few ribs?”

  It was a solid option. It wouldn’t put him completely out, but with enough bruising, his boss would
believe Ben got past him. After all, he’d already taken out all the other brutes.

  “If you’re sure.”

  Topo put the safety on his gun and tossed it to the side. “Yes.”

  Ben didn’t hesitate. He smashed his fist into Topo’s ribs, punching him until the man was falling to the ground and Ben’s fist felt like hamburger.

  Damn. He really wished he’d just gone with the bullet like Topo wanted. His knuckles would take weeks to heal.

  Ben finished Topo off with a swift kick to the side. He looked at Topo’s feet and bent over. “Hey, mouse?”

  Topo could only blink. He was gasping for breath.

  “I hate to do this, but I’m gonna need your shoes.”

  2

  Ben was holding an ice pack to his face when he contacted Fabia on screen chat. “Hey.”

  “Cavalo!” She leaned toward the camera. “What happened to you?”

  “The other guys look worse.” He shifted the ice pack. “Okay, probably I look worse, but they have concussions. Doesn’t matter. I got the info. Let Filomena know I’ll be down in Naples tomorrow night. Going to sleep, and then I’ll catch the train in the morning. I’ll have to check the schedule because I can’t remember when—”

  “Ben, you need to see a physician. Come back to Rome and I’ll call Dr. Mariano.”

  He winced when he shifted. He hadn’t broken any ribs, but his face and his hands were battered. “I promise it looks worse than it is. Nothing broken. My feet are a little torn up, but I finally found shoes.” He glanced at Topo’s shoes, which were sitting by the door. “Actually, after I clean them up, I might keep them. They’re really well made.”

  “What are you talking about? Have you lost consciousness at any time in the past few hours? I’m worried about you falling asleep by yourself. Do you want me to come get you?”

  “I’m fine.” He reached for a cotton ball and dipped it in disinfectant before he dabbed his lip. “I’m going to clean up, take a nice long shower, and then I’ll feel better after some sleep. I’m in a secure place. I just wanted to call you because my phone got smashed and I knew you’d be worried.”

  “I am worried. About your health.” She frowned. “Do you at least have a spare phone?”

  He held up his newest burner. “Yep.”

  “Set an alarm and call me in three hours.” She held up a hand. “Don’t argue. You’ve been punched repeatedly in the head, and I’m a doctor.”

  “You have a PhD in archaeology. That doesn’t make you a doctor.”

  “Do you want me to call Angela?”

  He glared at her. “You’d better not.”

  If Fabia called her aunt, Angela would call his aunt and then Ben would be harassed from both hemispheres.

  “Call me in three hours,” Fabia repeated. “Then you can go back to sleep and call me in another three. Otherwise, I’m driving up to Genoa to get you right now.”

  “You know, this is why we never got together. You’re a worrier.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s why we never got together? Are you committed to that story?”

  “It’s not too late.” He blew kisses at the camera. “I know you find me irresistible.” His right eye was completely swollen shut; his lips were cracked and bleeding. He had a dark bruise blossoming on his left cheekbone.

  “Oh yes,” she said. “Irresistible. That’s definitely the first thing that comes to mind. I’m worried about brain damage. Clean up, get some sleep, and call me in three hours or so help me, I won’t call Angela, I’ll call someone else I know you’re avoiding. Chloe has her number.”

  He glared at the screen. “Over the line, Fabi.”

  She looked chagrined. “Ben—”

  He snapped the laptop closed and shoved it away. Then he set the alarm on his phone for three and a half hours and carefully walked to the narrow shower in the apartment bathroom. He kept the lights off, left the hall door open, and turned the water to lukewarm. After stripping off his clothes, he walked in and immediately forgot his irritation with Fabia in a wave of pain.

  Everything hurt. The cuts across his skin. His muscles. His fists. He soaped up and washed the blood, oil, and grit from his body. The worst was cleaning his feet. Not only were they cut and sore, he had to bend in half to wash them. He nearly lost his balance so many times he ended up sitting on the floor of the shower, gingerly picking gravel from beneath the skin and being happy he was currently living alone so no one else could see his humiliation.

  After he’d gotten his feet clean, he stood and leaned his head against the tile, letting the hard spray of water pound against his back, soothing a little of the ache.

  I don’t poach.

  His fingers touched the fang marks on his neck. They were too faint for human eyes, but vampires would see them. See the vicious, uncontrolled bite of a vampire in bloodlust. See the carefully healed scars she’d sealed with her own blood.

  I do understand what she sees in you, Benjamin Vecchio.

  She wasn’t gone. She was never gone. Except that she was. She was a gaping hole in his life, and nothing he did seemed to fill it. Not fighting. Not work. Not travel. Not drinking.

  Worse than that, there were letters. Three of them were sitting in the kitchen in Rome, carefully addressed to him and bearing the seal of the Eight Immortals on Penglai Island in China.

  He couldn’t bring himself to open them. He’d been hiding in Rome for the past four months, dreading a return to an empty apartment in New York. Chloe was gone. Tenzin was gone. Chloe was at Gavin’s, and he wasn’t sure where Tenzin was. All he knew was that she was probably keeping tabs on him.

  Infuriating vampire.

  It had been six months since he’d seen Tenzin. Six months since she’d run away from whatever twisted relationship they’d been falling into.

  Ben didn’t know what the letters from Penglai were about. He didn’t want to know. He knew he should open them, but he didn’t want to deal with whatever inevitability he’d be faced with once he did. And every night that passed, it grew a little bit easier to leave them hidden away.

  He was changing trains in Florence the next time he managed more than a cursory check-in with Fabia.

  “Did you tell Filomena I’m on my way?” A mother and child passed him. The little girl’s eyes went wide while the mother carefully looked away. “I want to get this job done with and get back home.”

  Ben knew he still looked frightening, but he’d used a little of the theater makeup Chloe had taught him how to apply in New York. He could at least pass without people gawking and staring.

  “Her Majesty said she’d meet you at ‘your spot’—her words not mine—at eleven o’clock tonight. Do you know what she’s talking about, and does that give you enough time?”

  “Just a sec.” Ben flashed his ticket at the conductor and boarded the first-class compartment for the final leg to Naples. He quickly found a seat near the back corner by the window. He stowed his bag in the overhead compartment and took a seat before he answered. “That’s plenty of time.” He tipped his head back and leaned against the seat. “I’ll get there a little after seven. And I know where she’ll be.”

  “How long are you staying in Naples?”

  “That depends on how friendly Filomena is.”

  “Ben, be serious.”

  He smiled. Then he winced. His lip was still really painful. “I’ll leave in the morning. I miss my bed.”

  “Do you have accommodations in Naples arranged?”

  “I have a place.” While Chloe acted as his general assistant and human external hard drive in New York, Fabia had taken over his life in Rome. She was between jobs at the moment and wasn’t teaching at the university this semester, so she had the time and Ben needed the help.

  He’d been contracting for short jobs with various friends and vampire allies for the previous few months. Taking time off from treasure hunting and lying low was a good idea since the last heist, which he and Tenzin had gotten away wi
th in Puerto Rico.

  It made sense for him to stay in Europe while North America cooled off a bit. He’d annoyed more than a few vampires in New York and Puerto Rico. Plus he could avoid being in his and Tenzin’s empty apartment in SoHo if he was hopping around Europe.

  He’d spent some time in England, a little in Scotland with friends, but Rome had always felt like a second home. His uncle was Italian and had houses in Rome and Tuscany. The Vecchio private library was in Perugia. He’d grown up spending as many holidays in Rome as he did in Los Angeles. When life got complicated, Italy was where he ran to.

  And life felt… very complicated at the moment.

  Fabia said, “Call me when you get to your hotel after you’re finished with Filomena tonight.”

  “Will do.”

  “Don’t forget you have a meeting with Ronan on Friday evening.”

  He had forgotten about the meeting. “About?”

  “He didn’t say and I didn’t ask. I assumed you knew.”

  Ronan was working directly for Emil Conti, the vampire in charge of Rome. He’d grown up with Ronan, both kids raised in the vampire world. Of course, no two families were exactly alike. Ronan’s parents were human, and Ben’s were vampires. And Ben was determined to remain human while Ronan had turned under Emil Conti’s aegis two years before.

  Ben glanced around at the relatively deserted compartment and lowered his voice. “So is Ronan fully non-bitey at this point?”

  Fabia laughed. “I ran into him a few weeks ago when I was out with friends. Other than being a bit paler, he’s exactly the same Ronan.”

  “I shaved my beard. Think he’ll still hit on me?”

  “I think his partner might object to that.”

  “I didn’t know he’d paired up.” Ben smiled a little. “Good for him. He’s a solid guy. I still have no idea what he wants to talk to me about. For some reason, I thought he just wanted to hang out.”

  “When he called, I got the impression it was for business reasons.”

  Ben shrugged. “Then I’m sure he’ll tell me on Friday.”

  “Could be something like what you’re doing for Filomena.”