“How’s my daughter?” Stephen asked.

Giovanni debated for a moment, but decided he would answer him. “She’ll be fine.”

Stephen nodded and closed his book. He set it on the bench next to him and folded his hands, the picture of practiced serenity.

“Have you had any word of Lorenzo?”

“I suspect he knows you are here. Or at least has some suspicion. The last time we had information about him, it indicated he was heading to Eastern Asia.”

Stephen took a deep breath. “I’ve been in this place long enough that I knew it would trickle back to him.”

“Then why did you stay?”

“I was tired of running.” He sighed. “And I hoped that Beatrice would find me somehow.”

Giovanni felt a spurt of anger. “You knew that I was looking for you. You must know my reputation. Why did you not seek me out? I was protecting your daughter; I could have protected you, too. And then you wouldn’t have worried her.”

“And how did I know you were trustworthy?” Stephen cocked an eyebrow at him. “Do you know the stories your son tells about you? The picture Lorenzo painted of you would make a thousand-year-old vampire run screaming, much less someone as young as me.”

“Good.”

“Do you know what it did to me to think that Beatrice was under your aegis? I had the most horrifying thoughts and conflicting reports. I had no way of knowing what the truth was.”

Giovanni snorted. “Your daughter is more than safe with me, De Novo.”

“I realized that when I met Tenzin.”

“Tenzin…” Giovanni curled his lip. “I’m quite angry with both of you.”

“She said you would be, but that we were doing the right thing and that things had to happen in a certain order.”

He shook his head. “Damned mystic. Who does she think she is?”

“Your friend,” Stephen said as he leaned forward, “and a friend to my daughter.”

Giovanni remained silent, sitting with a stoic expression as he examined Beatrice’s father. Stephen had the thin countenance common among those who spent their lives immersed in books, but he also looked as if he had been feeding regularly, and he no longer wore the gaunt look Beatrice had described from her childhood. There was something about his energy signature that bothered Giovanni. If he had no idea who the vampire was, he would have guessed he was much, much older.

Perhaps even older than him.

“Is Beatrice very angry with me?”

Giovanni shrugged. “You’ll have to ask her.”

Stephen sighed. “You explained to her what he’s like, didn’t you? Lorenzo?”

“She didn’t need me to describe Lorenzo’s madness for her. Unfortunately, she’s quite well-acquainted with it on her own.”

Stephen’s face fell, crumbling with guilt as he remembered why Beatrice was familiar with Lorenzo’s cruelty. “I know she may not forgive me. I understand that.” He looked up. “Do you understand?”

“Why you ran? Of course I do. I could even feel some guilt for it, since I created him, but ultimately, Lorenzo is a creature of his own making. And frankly, Stephen De Novo, you are only as important to me as you are to your daughter. If she did not want to find you, you would be nothing to me. A mere annoyance in my otherwise very long life.”

Stephen looked at him silently, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment. “You really do love her, don’t you?”

“That is between Beatrice and me. I do not know you well enough to confide in you; however, Tenzin may decide to trust you. And if I think that your presence is a danger to Beatrice, I will not hesitate to be rid of you, manuscript or no manuscript.”

“You killed to get her back. You’ve spent vast sums to protect her. Does she even know?”

Giovanni shifted slightly. “It is irrelevant.”

Stephen only nodded. “I’m glad you found her. She could have come to a far worse end.”

“Yes,” he murmured, “she could have.” The rage Giovanni had suppressed for over five years bubbled to the surface, and he felt his skin begin to heat. “Do you have any idea what you did? How you endangered her? What it did when you abandoned her?”

“What? Abandoned—”

“How could you be so careless? With your own daughter? Do you realize what could have happened to her?”

Stephen scowled. “I didn’t plan on being murdered by your son, di Spada. If he hadn’t killed me, my daughter never would have been in danger.”

Giovanni rose to his feet. “And if you hadn’t left her unprotected, she wouldn’t have been, either.”

Stephen shook his head. “What do you even know about—”

“You are not a man without skills, Stephen De Novo. You could have sought protection for yourself and your family through someone more powerful of your choosing. Then she and your mother—”

“I thought I was doing the right thing!” Stephen rose to his feet. “I thought—”

“You thought like a petulant child!” Giovanni glared at him, clenching his hands and trying to restrain himself. “You gave no thought to your daughter. Do you realize that every man in her life has abandoned her at some point?”

Stephen blinked, cocking his head at Giovanni before he sank back to his seat. “But I thought you—”