The Elemental Mysteries: Complete Series (82 page)

Okay, that one hurt a little
. Beatrice was determined not to show any mental weakness before the woman, even if physical fortitude wasn’t an option.

“You need to toughen up,” Gemma continued. “And you need to get faster. Watch me.” Gemma attacked one of the training dummies in the large studio on the second floor of Terry’s house. Beatrice watched in awe as Gemma laid a flurry of punches, elbows, and even a few head-butts to the dummy in the corner. Though she had slowed to human speed, Beatrice still recognized the utter ruthlessness of the attack.

“Now, try that on the dummy, and then you can try it on me. After that, you need to run some more; your stamina is still not up to snuff. And be quicker. Make yourself so fast they can’t grab you. If they do, you’re dead.”
 

“Fine,” she grunted, approaching the dummy in the corner. Beatrice had been training for over two hours that night. She was exhausted but tried to rouse herself so she didn’t meet Gemma's mocking eyes when she finished.

She imagined the face of her old boss for a moment, but that didn’t raise as much ire as it had the week before. Then she imagined Gemma’s face, but not even the sneering blonde could raise her out of her exhaustion.
 

Finally, she imagined the look on Deirdre’s face when she felt Ioan’s death. She remembered the howl of her cries before the ground swallowed her; then she imagined pale hands restraining Giovanni.
 

A cold calm settled as she cleared her mind and focused the way Tenzin had practiced with her. She sprang, first into the combination Gemma had shown her, but she couldn’t stop. She rained down blows over and over until she felt her knuckles slip wet against the plastic skin. Beatrice paused to catch her breath, leaning down and bracing her hands on her knees. As she wiped the sweat from her eyes, she realized her knuckles were bloody and the skin of her knees was torn.

Beatrice glanced over her shoulder to look for Gemma and found the blond woman watching her with narrowed blue eyes. Her stance was relaxed and a small smile played on her porcelain face.

“You’ll do fine,” she said. “Now run.”

London, England

February 2010

“Ow, ow, ow,” Beatrice whined as she sank into the bathtub. She was exhausted, sore, bloody at the joints, but relieved as well. She was finally getting a little less battered every night. Beatrice and Gemma had been training together for over two weeks, and as much as Beatrice resented her, she had to admit the vampire was giving her a lot of precious time.
 

Beatrice had realized soon after she learned Giovanni was a vampire that, as much as their strength and speed gave them physical advantages, the fact that vampires were housebound for half of the day put severe limitations on their immortal lives. Even older immortals like Carwyn who could be awake for much of the day were groggy and weak, exhibiting barely human strength and even less speed.

For Gemma to devote as much of her limited night hours to training Beatrice as she had—no matter how much satisfaction she got from beating her up on a regular basis—was not something Beatrice could forget, and she was reluctantly grateful.

She relaxed into the heat of the bath, wishing that she could share how sore she was with Giovanni, but knowing instinctively that he would not react well. He and Carwyn had been in France for a week, trying to determine what connections Lorenzo still had and meeting with possible allies. It was a delicate balancing act, since most of the French immortals seemed to hate Terry, Gemma, and all their people simply because they were English.

“Vampire drama,” she muttered. It still reminded her a little bit of high school.

She heard the door to the bedroom open and Giovanni’s voice when he walked in. Her eyes popped open. He was back early.

“Shit,” she whispered and stuck her bloodied hands under the water.

“Beatrice? I’m back.”

“Hey, just taking a bath. I was training tonight,” she called through the door.

Shit, shit, shit.

“How are you feeling? Gemma was quite complimentary of your determination when I talked to her. She says your speed is improving as well.”

He sounded impressed, and she hoped he wasn’t breathing too deeply.

“That’s good to hear,” she said and ran the soap over her knees, trying to clean the blood from her skin even though it made her wince.

Owwwwww.

“Beatrice?”

No!
 

She panicked and ducked under the water, remembering all the blood that had stained her hair from her broken knuckles. She heard him snarl from the other room.

“Why do I smell so much blood?”

Too late
.
 

She surfaced to see an irate vampire standing over her.

“I’m naked, Gio!
Naked
! Get out of here.”

He ignored her, his eyes raking over her bruised form and bloody joints.

“What the hell is going on?” he roared. “You look like you’ve been attacked.”

“I was. On purpose. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”

She sat up in the bathtub and crossed her arms over her bare breasts.
 

“What has Gemma been doing to you? She was supposed to take care of you. She was supposed to make sure—”

“We’ve been training. And I don’t want her to go easy on me, that’s not helpful. Now will you—”

“I told her not to hurt you!” he yelled. “I told her to temper herself and make sure—”

“The last person in this house that’s going to temper herself around me is Gemma! That’s the only reason—”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

She finally realized he wasn’t going to leave the bathroom while they were arguing, so she swallowed her embarrassment and continued washing up.
 

“Do you really not know she’s in love with you, Gio?” she whispered, conscious of the sensitive ears that filled the house. She rinsed out her hair as Giovanni stood over her, glowering. “Gemma is
in love
with you. And you love me and she’s not going to cut me any slack in the training room. That’s the only reason I suggested training with her.”

He wore a furious expression when he finally spoke. “You’re being ridiculous and jealous, Beatrice. And this is beneath you.”

She stood up, water sloshing out of the tub as she grabbed a towel from the stand.

“I am not. Stop being a pretentious ass and get out of the bathroom right now.” She shoved his chest when she caught him glancing at her breasts. “We will argue about this when I’m dressed.”

He turned and stormed out of the room. She heard the bedroom door open.

“And do not go looking for Gemma right now!”

She heard a pause before the door slammed shut. His heavy footsteps paced the bedroom. Beatrice toweled off, grimacing at the broken skin on her knees, elbows, and fists. She ached badly but forced herself into her soft sleep pants and t-shirt without a sound. Finally, she grabbed her hairbrush and went to sit on the bed to work the tangles out of her knotted hair.

Giovanni had stopped pacing and was standing with his back against the door, the scent of smoke pouring off him.

“You better calm down. You’ll burn that shirt if you don’t.”

His jaw unclenched enough for him to speak slowly. “I am not interested in the state of my wardrobe, Beatrice.”

“Well, calm down anyway.” She started working the brush through her hair, but he darted behind her and sat with his legs on either side, running one hand down her arm to grab the brush.

“Let me,” he said in a gentle voice. “You’re hurting. Just try to relax.”

He started to pull the brush through her tangled hair, stopping to work out the knots as she tried not to wince. She was sore and beginning to get stiff in the cold room.

As if sensing her discomfort, Giovanni tossed small blue flames toward the grate, where they lit the wood that was waiting to be kindled. She sighed and tried to relax her shoulders.

He spoke softly as he worked. “Why do you say she’s in love with me? We were involved, but it was never serious.”

“Well, obviously it wasn’t for you, but from the way she looks at you, it was for her.”

“But I never felt for her what I feel for you. I have an affection for her; I consider her a friend.”

“And I’m not trying to interfere with that, Gio. I understand, I’m just—”

“Did she beat you like this because I love you?” he asked in a whisper.

Beatrice stopped his hands and turned so she could look him in the eye. She placed one hand on his cheek. “No. We were sparring, and she’s a good teacher. My sensei in L.A. would have treated me just the same. Well, if he was a vampire.” She shook her head. “It wouldn’t do me any favors for her to go easy on me. I need to know how to fight.” She turned back around to face the fire, and he continued to brush her hair out.

He finally spoke again. “Is this because you don’t trust me to stay? The fighting? Is it because you think I’ll leave you again?”

Was it?
It was a fair question, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that even if Giovanni didn’t leave, she would still feel like she needed to be able to defend herself.

“You can’t be with me all the time. You have to sleep during the day, and I don’t want you following me around all night, either. We’d both go nuts.”

He put the brush down and laid his hands lightly on her waist.

“Maybe I’ll lock you in with me during the day,” he said in a teasing voice, pinching her waist and putting his chin on her shoulder. “I think I could keep you occupied.”

She rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t dare. I would draw all over your face while you slept. I’d write, ‘I’m a pretentious ass’ on your forehead.”

Beatrice felt him chuckle and his skin was cool, so she knew he was no longer angry.

“Where does it hurt,
tesoro
? Let me help.”

“Can your blood do anything? What if I drink a little?”

“Unfortunately, it only works on open wounds for humans.” He turned her and rolled her pants up to her torn knees. He bit his finger and started rubbing the blood into the cuts. She felt a tingle as it spread over her skin; then she saw the wounds start to knit together before her eyes.

“That is wicked cool.”

He smirked. “If you were a vampire, some of my blood would help heal your bruises, too. But your human metabolism would break it down before it could take effect. It will help on any open wounds, though. Give me your hands.” He held out his hands and she placed her palms into them as he bit his thumbs and spread the healing blood over the cuts there, as well.

“Thanks.”

He shrugged and finished looking over her arms, healing, then cleaning any wounds he found. Finally, he tilted her face up and she saw him pierce his tongue. He licked from her chin, mending the cut there before he traced along her bottom lip. She could feel the tingling before he caught her lips in a gentle kiss.

Giovanni sighed into her mouth and wrapped his arms around her. Even though his embrace was gentle, Beatrice winced when he touched her shoulder, and he backed away.

“Sorry, sorry,” she muttered. “I’m still pretty sore.”

He picked her up and laid her down on the bed, stretching out beside her and rolling up her shirt.

“Don’t apologize. Just tell me where it hurts.”

“What are you—”

“Heating pads for hands, remember? Tell me where it hurts.”

She slowly relaxed as he kneaded her sore body, making his hands almost painfully hot at times to treat the battered muscles. By the time he was finished, she was limp as a rag and half-asleep.

“Tell me what happened in France,” she murmured.

“Shhh. Tomorrow, Beatrice. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“Okay…night.”

He wrapped his warm arms around her, and she drifted away.

Chapter Fifteen

London, England

February 2010

The Swan with Two Necks was not a pub where tourists would venture. In fact, as Giovanni looked around, he thought even the fiercest of immortals would balk at entering the dark bar in London’s Docklands, if for no other reason than to avoid tasting a human with Hepatitis, which was never a pleasant experience.

But the dark pub was the known meeting place for the canny water vampire he and Gemma were finally meeting that night. Tywyll only had one name, as far as anyone knew. And his name was the only thing most humans or vampires knew about the dark vampire whose skiff moved up and down the River Thames, trading and controlling the valuable flow of information Giovanni needed to access.

He had brought Gemma along because Terry had jokingly informed him the night before that Tywyll had a rather unexpected, and very unrequited, infatuation with his old friend. He had been avoiding spending time alone with Gemma since Beatrice’s revelation of Gemma’s feelings for him.

“So, ye’ want to know whether yer boy ha’ been on the river, do ye’?”