Chapter Nineteen

Nanping

Fujian Province

China

November 2010

Beatrice woke with a burning in her throat. She rose from the bed in the plane, baring her fangs as her eyes darted toward the door. In a heartbeat, she had the handle half turned and Giovanni at her back. He locked an arm around her throat and threw her on the bed.

“You’re up early.” He fell on top of her, pinning her to the mattress and pulling her mouth to his neck. She struck hard and fast, the thick taste of his blood slaking her instinctual hunger, though it didn’t kill it completely.

“Shhh,” he soothed her, stroking Beatrice’s hair until she was calm again. As soon as she was thinking rationally, she took a deep breath, only to be hit with the unremitting scent of sweet human blood. She could even hear the pump of the pilot’s heartbeat, though she realized, for the first time, that the bloodlust was not overpowering.

“Where are we?” she grunted out after she took one last draw from Giovanni’s vein.

“A small airfield outside Nanping. Tenzin says it’s the closest to the monastery, but we will have to go upriver. It’s an hour and a half until sunset, so we can’t leave the compartment.”

She felt like weeping. “So I have to smell the pilot for another hour and a half?”

“Shh,” he whispered again. She buried her face in his neck, sealing the bite marks she had made and trying to block the smell of human with her mate’s own, smoky scent. “If it helps, Tenzin is more miserable than you. This is her first time in a plane, and I’m surprised she hasn’t peeled the walls off yet, despite the threat of sunlight.”

She tried to laugh, but it only exacerbated the burning.

Giovanni continued, “You’re beginning to wake earlier and earlier. Just like your father and Tenzin. You’re awake ten minutes earlier than last night, and that was ten minutes earlier than the night before.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that unless something changes, soon you will need as little sleep as Tenzin and your father. Maybe only a few hours.”

“But that’s less than you!”

“I know.” He did not sound displeased. “That’s means your amnis is already very strong, and growing stronger by the day. This is good. Eventually, you won’t need sleep at all.”

It also meant that for a good portion of the day, she would be without the support she had come to depend on from her husband. If Giovanni was not awake to distract her or stop her, Beatrice feared what she was capable of.

As if reading her mind, he spoke in a soothing voice. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out. Perhaps your father can stay with us for a time, or Tenzin. One night at a time, Beatrice. Don’t borrow trouble.”

“Okay,” she whispered, burying her face in his skin again.

“Let me up, and I’ll get you some blood. That will help your thirst. We have some in the main cabin, I was just about to get it when you woke.”

“Have someone block the door.”

“Of course.” He rose and paused over her, examining her eyes, which were still hazy with hunger.

She gripped the sheets and nodded. “I’m fine. Go.”

Giovanni rose, pulled on a pair of pants, then darted out the door in the blink of an eye. In a few seconds, he was back with three pints of blood, cool, but still smelling fresh. He tossed one to her and she caught it with one hand, piercing it with her fangs before she sucked it dry. By the time she was finished with the third bag, she realized that, though the pilot’s blood still called to her, with some effort, she could think around it.

“How long?”

“Will the bloodlust last?” He took the bags from her, placing them on the small bedside table before he slid next to her. He wrapped a steadying arm around her waist. “If you progress the way I expect you to, within a year, you’ll be able to be around people with ease as long as you feed when you wake.”

She took a deep swallow, still distracted by the burning sensation at the back of her throat, though the ache in her gut had been satisfied. “That’s not too bad.”

“It will pass more quickly than you can imagine.”

Beatrice closed her eyes and bit her lip. “Unfortunately, the next hour and a half is going to be torture.”

“Well, we can’t leave the secured compartment until the sun falls, which means we have no way of making the pilot leave until then. I’m afraid there no escaping the scent, but…”

She looked up to see a smile teasing the corner of his lips.

“What?”

He leaned down to nip at her ear.

“Let’s see if I can’t distract you, hmm?”

Though she had to admit Giovanni did an excellent job distracting her, there was also a hint of desperation to their coupling. She knew they would be plunged into the most dangerous race she could imagine as soon as the sun crept below the horizon, and she had no idea what to expect. Her dao sat propped by the door in the sling that Baojia had fashioned that would allow her to carry it while swimming.

She lay across his chest in the last minutes before sunset. “Am I going to be distracted by humans while I’m in the river?”

He frowned as he ran his fingers up and down her back. The water had been drawn to her skin as they made love, so his hot fingers left trails of steam where they touched.

“You’ll be fine. The water will help your control. And I doubt there will be many humans in the river after dark. I’ll tell your father and Baojia to watch out for you. Any animals should be fine, they won’t smell as appealing.”