She hopped to her feet. “Hell, yes.”

Beatrice ran to the bathroom to take a shower. As she reached down to untie the drawstring on her leggings, her fingers twisted in the knot. For a moment, she clutched it, remembering Giovanni’s hands tugging at the drawstring in the tower room. She lifted the front of her shirt and inhaled the sweet and heady fragrance of their combined scents. Then she stripped off her clothes, stepping into the shower as she locked her sorrow away.

A few minutes later, she poked her head out the door. Ben was gone, and Tenzin sat at the desk in the corner of the room, poking through Geber’s journals.

“We should give these to Lucien to look through. He’ll be able to read them.”

Beatrice went to the closet and began to dress in a pair of black jeans and a skin-tight black T-shirt. She slipped on the leather boots she’d worn to the party. “I doubt it. It took me months to wrap my head around Geber’s writing.”

“Trust me, he’ll be able to read them.”

“Is he awake yet?”

Tenzin shook her head. “He probably won’t wake until well after sundown, and we’ll already be in the air.”

“Oh, right, you can fly us. Much better,” Beatrice muttered as she tied her hair back and strapped on the scabbard Baojia had made for her to carry the twin hook-swords that had become her weapon of choice. She slid the two blades into the black leather sheaths and stretched back over her shoulders to make sure she could draw them easily. She thanked her vampire strength and flexibility that she was able to wield them at all.

“Ready?”

Beatrice nodded. “We have a few minutes before sundown. What are we expecting to happen?”

“We’ll fly up there. Scare her. If we’re lucky, some of her guards will attack us and we’ll get to kill some of them.”

Beatrice hesitated as she remembered Carwyn’s admonition to be patient. “As much as I’m looking forward to killing something, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“If they attack us, we can defend ourselves. No one will question it, particularly since you have been put on the defensive, and I am a known ally of Giovanni’s.”

“And you’re sure going there is the right move?”

“It’s the only move. Currently, Livia has all the bargaining power. We need to shift the balance and throw her off her plan. Making her appear weak is our main objective.”

They left the bedroom and walked down the stairs.

Beatrice asked, “So how are we going to do that?”

“When we get there, let me do the talking. I may hate politics, but I know how to play the game when I must.”

“What do I do?”

“You’ll stand behind me and look pissed off and menacing. Like I said, if anyone threatens you, kill them.”

“Even Lorenzo?”

Tenzin cut her eyes to the side. “He’s not that stupid. He might not even be there. It depends on how much attention he’s looking for.”

Beatrice paused at the base of the stairs. “Tenzin, why are we really going?”

The small woman looked up at Beatrice with furious eyes. “For almost a thousand years, the Eastern immortals have left her to her pretense of an empire. She kept to herself. We had no interest in her. Lorenzo changed that. Livia needs to realize that as long as she harbors a vampire who killed my mate and defied my father’s court, she has lost any pretense of disinterest.”

“She’s powerful.”

Tenzin gave a wicked smile, baring her curved fangs. “Never forget, Livia has tasted defeat in the past. She’s vicious, but she’s become soft on her cushioned throne.”

Beatrice nodded, feeling nervous and elated at the same time. She watched as Tenzin strapped her ancient scimitar to her waist and opened the door to the garden. Twilight had fallen.

Tenzin held out her hand for Beatrice to grasp as they took to the air with a quick jerk. “My girl,” she called out. “I believe we should remind her what it is to fear.”

A few minutes later, they landed with a soft thud at the gates of Castello Furio. Beatrice could hear the sounds of a party going on in the house.

Tenzin’s eyes swept the grounds. “She’s thinking more defensively.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, two guards rushed them. They came to a halt a few meters away, but Tenzin kept walking at a steady and determined pace.

A guard spoke. “Stop, both of you! You may not enter the castle with weapons.”

Tenzin drew her sword in the space of a heartbeat, sliced off the head of the guard who spoke, and kept walking as the body crumbled to the ground. “Oh, really?”

The other guard immediately snarled and drew his weapon, but Beatrice reached back for the shuang gou, drew them, and cut off the head of the vampire in one smooth movement. She hooked the swords in front of her and kept walking.

Four guards came at them next. Tenzin took to the air and swiftly killed two as Beatrice reached out to either side and hooked her blades around the necks of her attackers. She pulled both of them toward her, feeling the cold blood spatter on her face as their spines were severed and their heads fell at her feet.

By the time they were halfway across the garden, more guards had gathered but had stopped attacking them. They walked up the stairs, and Tenzin sent a great gust of wind to slam against the doors, pushing them open.

The two vampires entered the grand entryway and halted as every eye in the room turned toward them. Beatrice walked to the fountain and tore off a sleeve, flicking her fingers to spray a sheen of water over her blood-splattered face. She patted it dry, staring at the gaping immortals in formal wear that watched them. The music had died, and a path opened through the crowd, guiding them forward.