“You know how our kind are sired, do you not?”

“Yes.”

“When mates…when two vampires exchange blood in small amounts over long periods of time, a different bond is formed.”

“A sexual bond?”

She shook her head. “Much more than sexual. You can have sex without exchanging blood, but when you do…”

“Yeah?”

Deirdre gazed out over the valley, still digging her hands into the earth. Her mood had shifted, and Beatrice could tell she was thinking of Ioan. “Blood exchanged in love and passion for hundreds of years. Over and over until it is so mingled…”

Beatrice’s heart raced. “What?”

“We are two halves of a whole,” Deirdre whispered. “Four hundred years we have been together. That’s why I know he still lives. If he was dead, my own blood would cry out. There would be no question.”

“So, when they said you could ‘scent’ him—”

“Our blood calls to each other if we are apart. I will be able to scent him because, if even a drop of his blood touches open earth, it will call to me.”

Beatrice was silent, staring into the distance as the stars came out around them.

“I can’t even imagine what you must be feeling right now.”

Deirdre turned her head sharply. “Do you want to?”

“What?”

“You cannot look at him the way you do and not have thought about sharing this life with him.”

She felt the tears spring to her eyes. “It’s…too much. I can’t—”

“You have to.”

“Do you think so?” She remembered Giovanni had said Ioan asked Carwyn to change Deirdre when she was human. “You made the choice. Has it been worth it?”

Deirdre’s blue eyes were wells of sorrow, as if she was staring into a grave.

“I have shared his blood for four hundred years. What do you think?”

Chapter Eleven

Dublin, Ireland

January 2010

Giovanni rang in the New Year watching a young water vampire twist into a smoldering pile of ash.

“He’s created all these children,” Carwyn muttered. “Almost indiscriminately. But none of them know anything.”

They were standing in a warehouse on the edge of the River Liffey that was thick with the scent of Ioan’s blood and Giovanni’s son, but other than faint brown smudges on the concrete floor, there was no sign of the missing doctor.

Giovanni pulled on his shirt after killing Lorenzo’s useless minion. “Did you call Deirdre tonight?”

Carwyn nodded as he watched Patrick Murphy’s people sweep the ashes out the open door of the warehouse.

“Gentleman,” said the solemn vampire in the three-piece suit. “We’ve come to the end of my leads. This warehouse was the last of the information my people had gleaned. We’ll still keep our ears and eyes open, of course. The loss of Ioan—”

“Has not been confirmed in any way,” Giovanni muttered, watching Carwyn pace at the other end of the warehouse.

Murphy tugged at the black curls on his head, obviously nervous. “If there is any further assistance I can offer to either of you while you are here...”

“It’s fine, Murphy,” he heard Carwyn spit out across the room. “I’ll expect your cooperation in the future, but if we’ve ended our leads here, I want to go back to my daughter.”

Giovanni tried not to sigh in relief. Though he knew Beatrice was perfectly safe in Wicklow, he still felt uncomfortable being without her.

“Boats,” Murphy said. “My best guess would be boats. Lorenzo is a water vampire, and he would have the resources to transport him by boat. This warehouse has river access, and we are not far from the port.”

Giovanni nodded. “We’ll keep you informed.”

“Please do. And safe travels to you both.”

They drove Ioan’s old car back to Wicklow, having located it near a church where he’d been running a clinic the night he disappeared. As they swerved through the hedgerows and over the bumpy roads on their way to the lodge, he could feel the weight of Carwyn’s worry as if it was another passenger in the car.

“I think he is dead.”

“You don’t know that, Father. And Deirdre would have sensed it.”

“She might not. Not if he was taken far away and never touched the ground.”

“Carwyn—”

“What if he is in water?  Or unable to touch the earth? Oh, my son,” he whispered, gripping the wheel. “My Ioan. I don’t want to contemplate this life without my boy.”

Giovanni clenched his jaw, willing the road to smooth before them.

He saw Beatrice in the front garden, practicing her tai chi forms in the dark. He nodded toward the silent guard Deirdre must have assigned to her; the young vampire nodded back before disappearing into the night. Giovanni crept toward her, not wanting to disturb her silent meditation, and watched her for a few moments in the moonlight.

She was beautiful. And so much stronger than he ever could have anticipated. Though Beatrice was still weaker than him physically, it was the strength of her mind and her determination that impressed him. She was no longer afraid to stand up to him, their argument before leaving Texas a prime example. He loved her all the more for it.

A mischievous smile crossed his lips, and he snuck up behind her. Before he could anticipate it, she stepped back, shoved her hip into his groin, and threw him off balance. Beatrice reached around, grabbing his waist and sweeping her leg through one of his as she flipped him onto his back and landed on his chest.