Obsidian's Edge by Elizabeth Hunter

Author:Elizabeth Hunter [Hunter, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elizabeth Hunter

THEY were playing chess and drinking wine the following night.

“I think I want to move back to New York,” Ben said.

Giovanni paused, a rook held in his hand. “You want the town house?”

“No,” Ben said. “I’d stick out like a sore thumb in that neighborhood. I’m thinking about a loft in Brooklyn.”

“For?”

Several kicks under the table from Fabi, a few dropped hints from Tenzin, and lots and lots of sleep were starting to make things clear. “I want to do what you do,” Ben said. “Or at least I want to try. But not with books. I can’t spend that much time looking for books, Gio. I’ll go crazy.”

“Do you think this is a surprise to me?”

“I want to find art,” Ben said. “Antiquities. Take on clients and find things for them on commission. What do you think?”

Giovanni paused and finished his wine. It took three more moves from both of them before he replied.

“You can’t do it alone,” Giovanni said. “Not in the immortal world. No matter what your reputation, skills, or connections, there will be some who only take you seriously if you have a vampire partner.”

“She’d go with me. You know she would.”

“So you’re the brains and Tenzin is the brawn?” Giovanni tapped the table. “It has possibilities. You’d be in O’Brien territory.”

“Would that be a problem?”

“I don’t think so. You don’t have political ambitions, and neither does Tenzin. If you gave them a cut rate for family and associates like I do with Ernesto, you’d probably be fine. Cormac is the one to approach. Talk to Gavin.”

Ben nodded, growing more and more excited about the idea as he thought about it. “I can do that.”

“They wouldn’t like Tenzin living there…,” Giovanni said. “Or maybe they would. If it would open a business relationship with her allies in Asia, they might not have a problem. She’d have to play nice sometimes.”

Ben shrugged. “I can get her to play nice when necessary.”

“You’re possibly the only one who can.”

“Do you think it’s a big enough market?” Ben asked. “Could we make any money with it?”

“If you were good, you could make very good money, but we should consider it an offshoot of Beatrice’s and my business to start. I’ll refer clients to you when they need to find antiquities—”

“And eventually I’ll refer clients to you if they need to find books.”

Man and vampire both smiled.

“This could work, couldn’t it, Gio?”

“Are you excited about the idea?”

Ben paused and really thought about it. “This feels right,” he said. “More right than anything else I’ve thought of. I just have to keep Tenzin from forging copies of stuff we’re hired to find.”

Giovanni closed his eyes and turned back to the chessboard. “I’m pretending I didn’t hear that.”

“Good call.”

“Don’t do it again.”

“I won’t.”

“You risk your reputation and mine, Benjamin.”

“I get it. I get it. I’ll keep her in line.”

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