“I saw the ashes.”

“They were not Asian. European.”

Baojia cocked an eyebrow. “Interesting.”

“I thought so.”

They ducked under another tapestry that led to a narrow earthen passageway lined with unlit torches. Giovanni quickly lit one and handed it to the young monk before he turned back to Tenzin.

“I don’t feel anything here,” she said. “You?”

“I feel nothing in this direction,” he said, looking down the dark corridor. “No vampire has been here tonight.”

She nodded. “Excellent. This one is very old, I was hoping they would not know of it.” She turned to the young man. “This tunnel leads to a river landing. There is a cave at the base. Continue down the corridor and then wait at the riverbank. Take shelter in the cave if you feel danger. Elder Zhang is sending his guards, they will find you and keep you safe.”

The young monk nodded.

“Go. We must return to the monastery and continue searching.”

“If you find Master Fu-han—”

“Do not worry about your master, worry about these boys. Keep them safe.”

She nodded to the young man and then ducked back under the tapestry and ran in the opposite direction from where they had come. Baojia and Giovanni followed her.

“Where are we going?” Giovanni asked.

“There is an older part of the monastery,” she yelled. “That is where the library is. Your senses are better than mine in the mountains. Open up and look for them, my boy.”

Giovanni tried to focus his amnis to detect any latent energy traces, but the stone walls, along with the mass of blood, adrenaline, and old tangled signatures were confusing.

“They’ve been all over, it’s almost impossi—”

He broke off and swerved to the right, drawn to a clutch of energy in a large empty space.

“Here!”

Giovanni burst through an old wooden door to see three vampires huddled over a group of bodies, feasting on the blood of Lu Dongbin’s monks. They looked up in surprise, snarling at the three vampires who entered the stone courtyard that looked like an outdoor kitchen.

Baojia, Tenzin, and Giovanni spread out, surrounding the vampires before they attacked. Baojia drew his sword, immediately cutting off the head of one while Tenzin took to the air and swooped down over the group, hacking at another with her scimitar. Giovanni grabbed the third by the neck, twisting it until the head came off and the three vampires lay in a bloody heap over the bodies of the monks.

“Where the hell is he?” Giovanni said as he scanned the courtyard.

Baojia began to shake his head. “There are more. More than I had imagined. It was a bad idea to leave Stephen and Beatrice by the river. If Lorenzo’s not here, he may be anywhere.”

“Go,” Tenzin said. “He’s probably still in the library somewhere. It’s a maze. We’ll search the rest of the monastery. We weren’t in time to stop their murder, but let’s hope the monks might have saved the book.”

Baojia nodded and ran back out the way he had come, while Tenzin and Giovanni ran deeper into the mountain fortress, searching for Geber’s manuscript.

Stephen stood with sword drawn, tense and ready. “Give me the book, Lorenzo.”

Lorenzo rolled his eyes. “And why would I do that? I finally got it back, and I had to get rather messy doing so.”

Beatrice could see the blood spatter on Lorenzo’s robes, even in the darkness. The smell of human blood covered her father’s sire and the three guards that surrounded him. She was having trouble concentrating. She gritted her teeth, gripped her sword, and tried to focus on the two vampires that stood across from her in the small, grassy clearing.

“What are you doing, my Stephen?” Lorenzo laughed. She heard him draw his own sword. “Do you actually think you and your little girl are going to stop me? My friends and I just killed all of Zhongli’s guards—they were a bit squeamish about killing all the monks, you see—and ransacked a very valuable library to get this book back. I’m certainly not intimidated by you and the girl.” He glanced over his shoulder at Beatrice. “Though I do find her very attractive when she’s bloodthirsty like this. Nicely done, Stephen. She turned out beautifully.”

“Dad?” She didn’t know what she was asking. She shifted back and forth on her feet as her eyes darted between the two guards who licked their lips and grinned at her. She had never faced two opponents before.

“Tenzin and Giovanni will be here shortly, Lorenzo.”

Lorenzo only laughed. “I very much doubt that. We left… well, a bit of a mess, really. I was worried about her Chinese dragon, but he seems to have run off and abandoned his post.”

Beatrice glanced at Stephen again. They were separated on opposite sides of the clearing with four vampires between them.

Her father still spoke calmly. “Baojia will be coming back soon, as well.”

“I’m sure you hope so.”

Beatrice was starting to panic, and the scent of the human blood covering the guards was flooding her senses, causing her head to swim. There was too much going on. She could see everything, hear everything, smell everything. Far from making her more aware, the flood of sensory input was only confusing. Her fangs were long in her mouth, and she could taste the blood where they had pierced her lip.

Beatrice saw one guard curl his lip and move to attack, and she reacted automatically, cartwheeling to the side. As she hit the ground with one hand and popped up, she brought her dao down on the back of the attacker’s neck.