wasn’t afraid of the fire. She was a water vampire. Interesting. “Oleg did not send me.”
“Good.”
The scent of peppers and garlic filled the air, and Tatyana continued to ignore him, speaking to the women in the kitchen with a clearly fluid grasp of the dialect they spoke.
“You’re very good at languages,” Ben said. “I’ve been trying to figure it out.”
“Poshani?”
“Yes.”
Tatyana glanced up. “You’re probably trying to fit it into a Romantic or Slavic paradigm,” she said. “Which would be your mistake. The Poshani language is primarily North Indian with opportunistic borrowing from Hungarian, Turkish, and Farsi.”
Ben grinned. “You’re a language nerd.” His aunt would approve. “How did you get to be a vampire?”
She was clearly confused by his enthusiasm. “None of your business. Do all Americans smile so much?”
“Probably.” He held a hand out. “Can I help?”
She looked at the spoon stirring the deep red stew. “You’re a wind vampire?”
“I am.”
“Then cool the stew. It’s getting a little hot.”
Easy enough. Ben channeled a swirl of air over the pot, but it splashed on one of the women’s dresses.
“Stop.” Tatyana waved a hand. “Just stop.”
She might have been as young as Ben was, but she was surprisingly good about concealing her power. He got nothing from her other than the urge to back up and give her space. She was definitely putting out “don’t touch” vibes.
“So if you don’t want to talk about yourself—”
“I don’t.” She glanced at him. “I know who you are. You didn’t need to introduce yourself. Everyone knows who you are.”
Ben leaned on the trailer behind him. “That’s so annoying.”
She waved. “Your profile isn’t exactly low, Benjamin Vecchio, son of Giovanni Vecchio, immortal son of Zhang Guo, mate of Tenzin—”
“Wait, what?” His stomach dropped.
Tatyana raised an eyebrow. “She is not your mate?”
Shit, how did he answer that question? “It’s complicated.”
Tatyana grimaced, and Ben knew she wasn’t a stranger to complicated relationships.
“Oleg?” Ben asked.
Tatyana said nothing, but the look she shot him told Ben that he wasn’t far off.
Ben stepped closer and lowered his voice. “Okay, level with me. Does everyone assume Tenzin is my mate?”
“Yes.” The twitch at the corner of her mouth was as close as she’d come to a smile. “Is she not?”
“Tell me about Oleg.”
Her mouth twitched again. “It’s difficult to remain hidden in this world, isn’t it?”
“Which is so weird, because the humans aren’t supposed to know about us.”
“Be serious. Don’t you think most of them know?”
Ben remembered Chloe’s shock when she’d woken up to see Tenzin hovering, fangs out, in their loft in New York. “I think there are a lot of people who don’t know a thing.”
“Then they’re blind.” She glanced up. “Did you always know?”
“No.” He debated how much to tell her, but he decided to offer something to see if she’d open up. “I was twelve. I picked a vampire’s wallet.”
“You tried?”
“Succeeded. Not to brag, but I did. He tracked me down and ended up adopting me.”
“That’s interesting.” She glanced up again. “I was in university.”
“Same as my aunt.”
“I doubt that.” She took a breath. “It wasn’t a pleasant revelation, but I overcame it.”
“So Oleg isn’t your sire?”
She let out a string of unintelligible curses that got the humans laughing. “No. Praise God he is not my sire,” she muttered. “That asshole.”
“Clearly you’re a big fan.”
“He’s a manipulative son of a bitch.”
“Aren’t they all?”
Tatyana looked up. “You tell me. You’ve known them longer than I have.”
Ben didn’t know how to answer her. When he was with Tenzin, he found it easy to call himself a monster. But when he was confronted with calling his aunt or uncle a monster, he felt strangely protective.
“You’ll find your people,” he said quietly. “Eventually you’ll find them.”
“I hope so.”
She put on a good front, but Ben sensed nothing but fear from her. “So what brings you to the Dawn Caravan?”
“What brings anyone?” She lifted the spoon and waved the scent of the stew in front of her face. “I heard about it. I needed to get away. I needed…” She shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea.”
What had she been about to say? What could the Dawn Caravan have that would draw a vampire on the run? Ben glanced around.
Poshani women and children. The young ones ran between the trailers and buses in the swiftly dimming light as human guards roamed the perimeter and vampire guards hovered overhead.
Ah. Of course. “You’re afraid of him.”
“Of who?” She looked up with blank eyes.
“You know exactly who I’m talking about.”
“Sorry, I really don’t.”
She was afraid of