She really needed to learn Chinese.

By that time, the arguments had died down, and more vampires had dispersed, allowing her to see Tenzin and Zhongli speaking more quietly. Tenzin held an open hand toward Stephen, who reached out to grasp it in his own.

“Well,” she heard Baojia murmur, “that is… interesting.”

“What? What’s interesting?”

Zhongli looked irritated, but resigned. Elder Lu Dongbin, who she remembered Giovanni telling her was a close ally of Tenzin’s father, looked quietly pleased, and the Immortal Woman looked as if she wanted to laugh.

Elder Zhongli turned to Lorenzo, who was still arguing quietly. Suddenly, Zhang Guo stood from his throne and walked toward the center of the room with a scowl on his face. The crowd parted as he approached. When he reached his daughter, he grabbed her hand and bit. Tenzin curled her lip and pulled her hand away, but lifted Stephen’s hand toward her sire, as well. Zhang bit Stephen’s hand, licked at the blood, then dropped it before he spoke to the hall.

“My daughter is telling the truth. I want no more of this arguing,” he said in English, glancing at Beatrice before he looked back at Lorenzo with a pointed glare. “You cannot have him. He is my daughter’s mate, under her aegis and my own.”

Everyone in the hall seemed to disperse after Zhang issued his proclamation, but Beatrice was frozen stiff.

“What just happened?” she asked.

“Well, it seems—”

“Shhh.” She held up a hand to Baojia’s mouth, cutting him off before he could finish his sentence. She felt him smile beneath her fingertips. “Just… hush. I need to think. I need everyone to be quiet so I can think for a minute.”

Beatrice heard Baojia chuckle, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from her father, who stood next to Tenzin, tall and confident in the face of his sire, the vampire he had run from for fifteen years. She felt warm fingers grasp her own, and she looked over her shoulder to see Giovanni standing behind her. He looked down at her with an expression that told her he was carefully concealing his feelings from the rest of the room.

“Tesoro,” he murmured, bringing her hand to his lips and brushing her knuckles with a kiss.

She dropped her hand from Baojia’s mouth and the vampire took a careful step back.

“What just happened there?”

“Tenzin has claimed your father as her mate,” he said quietly, “and Zhang just confirmed that they have exchanged blood. Therefore, Lorenzo’s claim on your father, and his request to take him, has been overruled.”

“That’s a lot of stuff happening.”

“Yes, it was an eventful meeting.”

“That’s kind of an understatement.”

“Beatrice—”

“Can we kill Lorenzo now?”

“Unfortunately, he is here as a guest of Elder Zhongli Quan. Unless  we want to risk the wrath  of—”

He was cut off by Lorenzo’s voice ringing through the hall in clear English.

“I have another request for the great court of the Eight Immortals.”

All eyes swung back to the center of the room, and Beatrice could finally see Lorenzo clearly as he stood on the steps in front of Zhongli’s throne. He looked the same as he had when he had taken her five months before. His curling blond hair came to his shoulders, and he still had faint smudges of scaring along the edges of his Botticelli face. He stared right at her with a smile before he spoke again.

“There is a book that my son stole from me. A very valuable manuscript that I petition the court to return to me. I understand that it has been taken for study by the scholars of Elder Lu Dongbin, and I would like it returned. My child did not have permission to take it.”

She glanced at Giovanni, whose eyes had narrowed. He dropped her hand and stepped forward toward the center of the room.

“The book in question is mine, wise Elders of Penglai.” Giovanni was the picture of calm respect as he stood before the hall. “My son took it from me without permission, and his son took it from him. I have no objections to Elder Lu’s wise scholars keeping it for study.”

No one spoke after that. It was almost as if the whole room waited for… something. There was so much tension in the air, Beatrice almost felt as if she would choke on it.

Finally, it was the Immortal Woman, Elder He Xiangu, who spoke. It was in Mandarin, and Baojia leaned over to translate.

“Honored Elder Zhongli, it appears that there is some disagreement regarding the owner of this valued book.”

Royal Uncle Cao, the earth vampire who sat between the Immortal Woman and Tenzin’s sire, leaned forward, finally showing some interest in the proceedings. “Perhaps this is a disagreement we could help to resolve, for your guest, Elder Lu. And yours, Elder Zhang.”

There seemed to be a murmur of agreement around the hall. Baojia chuckled.

“Clever imp,” Beatrice heard him whisper.

“What?” she asked, leaning toward him. “Is there going to be some kind of trial or something? What are they going to do?”

“Oh,” Baojia nodded, “there will be a trial, but not now.”

“Why not? Why—”

“Alas,” Zhang stood, once again speaking in English and glancing at Beatrice. “It appears that Honored Elder Lan has departed the hall. If only I had known, I would have asked our fellow Elder to stay. Lan was departing on a journey of some kind. Of course, I did not question the Elder’s plans.”