The Elemental Mysteries: Complete Series by Elizabeth Hunter Page A

check his appearance in the mirror, wishing he wasn’t wearing black as it accentuated his pale skin, but also feeling a perverse pleasure that he had no need to hide his true nature any longer.  
    He’d never doubted she was trustworthy.   Maybe it was her careful handling of the rare texts that contained so much elusive knowledge, or maybe it was the guarded expression in the girl’s dark eyes, but he knew Beatrice was someone who could keep secrets, including her own.  
    He walked downstairs to hear Caspar opening the door for her.  
    “Miss De Novo, what a pleasure to see you again.”  
    “Thanks, Caspar.   How’ve you been?”
    “Very well, thank you.   I was able to catch that showing of Night of the Living Dead you told me about.   It was wonderful.”  
    “Cool!   Glad you saw it.   I never got out to the theater.   No one does zombies like Romero.”
    Giovanni turned the corner and paused in the doorway of the kitchen.  
    She was wearing black, of course, but nothing about it made her seem inhuman.   Her smooth skin practically pulsed with life, and his eyes were drawn to the graceful column of her neck.   Her long hair was pulled back, and his fingers itched to release it from the band at the nape of her neck.
    She saw him, and for the first time since the night in the elevator, she called him by his name.  
    “Hi, Gio.”  
    “Hello.”  
    Caspar interjected, “Beatrice, can I get you something to drink?”
    She turned to the older man. “A Coke?   Do you have…Coke?”
    Giovanni chuckled.   “Yes, we have Coke.   Caspar’s quite fond of it.”  
    She blushed.   “Just that, thanks.”  
    “And I’ll fix myself a drink in the living room, Caspar.”   He looked at Beatrice.   “If you’ll join me?”
    She nodded and allowed him to usher her into the brightly lit living room, filled with comfortable furniture and a large flat screen television which hung on the wall.  
    “Oh, wow.   That T.V. is huge,” Beatrice mused as she walked over to observe the large screen.   “The picture’s probably really good, right?”
    “Caspar couldn’t very well watch bad special effects from old horror movies on a small, low-resolution screen, could he?”
    Beatrice glanced over her shoulder with a smile on her face.   “Of course not.”  
    He just smiled at her, unexpectedly pleased to see her wander around his house and examine his belongings.   He was tempted to show her his library but decided to wait and see why she had come to his home before he offered.  
    Caspar came in a few moments later as he was pouring himself a whiskey at the sideboard.  
    “Please let me know if there is anything else you need, Beatrice.”  
    “Call me B, Caspar.   Only Mr. Formal over there insists on calling me Beatrice.”   Giovanni grinned with his back to the room, more determined than ever to call her by her given name at every opportunity.  
    “Of course, B.”  
    “Thanks.”  
    Giovanni finished pouring his drink and turned back to face the room.   Beatrice was sitting in one of the leather armchairs—the one he usually used—so he sat to her left on the sofa.  
    “Will there be anything else?”
    He shook his head, and Caspar left them alone.   Giovanni sat silently, sipping the whiskey Carwyn had brought him from Ireland the year before and waiting to see why she had come.   He felt a small surge of triumph when she unfolded the note he’d left for her weeks ago and set it on her lap.  
    “So the job you mentioned, what kind of job is it?” she asked.  
    “A research position.   Primarily computer work.”  
    “Why me?” she asked, her eyes still carrying a shade of suspicion as she looked at him.
    So I can find out more about your father and his habits.   So I have something to offer him in exchange when I do find him—which I will.   Also, you smell like honeysuckle.
    He blinked at the last thought but shrugged nonchalantly.   “You have more