Blood and Sand (10 page)

The black Mercedes was parked close enough to the club to be safe from vandals, but far enough away that it wouldn’t be caught by traffic in case its occupants needed a quick getaway. The man named Luis kept his hand on her arm the whole way there, guiding Natalie as she stumbled in a horrified daze.

Fangs. The one named Ivan had bitten the girl’s neck and he had fangs. There had been blood and fangs and the horrible crunching sound of the monster’s neck as he was flung into the wall by Geor—Baojia’s… sword? Knife? Who the hell carried a knife that big? The one who smelled her had fangs, too. She’d seen them. He hissed at her like a snake. And then…

See that? You do not sniff what is mine. Do you understand?

The tears she’d held at bay started to roll down her cheeks and she felt Luis’s hand tighten on her elbow.

“Just a few more minutes, Natalie.”

Nausea rolled through her, tightening her stomach as Luis unlocked the car. She heard a terrible gasping sound and realized it was coming from her. Luis, to her surprise, laughed.
 

“A few too many cosmos, huh, Nat?” He guided her behind the Mercedes and put a hand on her back. “Better get rid of it now; he’s just gonna be more pissed if you mess up the car.”

She lost it, leaning over and emptying her stomach as the insane man stood next to her. She realized he was still talking with someone.

“—stubborn little thing. Someone’s companion at Boca was raving about the DJ here and she couldn’t get enough. The boss said he’d bring her, but I guess she got impatient. She’s new.”

“I don’t think it’s a big deal. I’m sure they’ll work it out.”

“Hope so. Baojia was pissed on the drive down here, that’s for sure.”

Natalie fumbled for her purse until she realized that Luis was holding it. Damn. If she could just get her keys…

She felt him nudging her Nlas r p up and waving goodbye to the man… monster… whatever he was… that had walked them out of the club.

“Few more minutes,” Luis whispered. He opened the door and gently helped her inside. Then he got in the front seat and immediately locked the doors.

“Okay,” he said, turning around to hand her a box of tissues and a bottle of water. “He’s out of hearing range, so unless they had guards I didn’t see, we’re safe to talk. You okay?” He did look concerned. He looked scared actually, as if he was waiting for her to collapse or explode or suddenly sprout antennae.
 

Which, considering what had just happened, was entirely possible.

Natalie glared at him, took the bottle of water, swished some in her mouth, then tried to open the door. She cocked her head silently at Luis, who turned to roll down a window so she could spit it out. She took another long drink of water, dabbed at the tears still staining her face, and turned to her… protector? Kidnapper? Chauffeur?

“What. The
fuck
. Was that?”

Luis let out a long breath. “Yeah… This is gonna be interesting.”

“Interesting?” Her angry tears dried and she felt the rage boiling up. “Interesting is not the word for what that was! Horrifying. Bizarre. Unreal—oh!” She gasped. “They spiked my drink. That was a hallucination.”

“Um, no it was—”

“Wait,” she said with a frown. “I didn’t drink anything. I specifically didn’t drink anything because I thought the bartender looked sketchy. I didn’t drink anything, so it couldn’t have been drugs.”

“Natalie—Ms. Ellis—I’m not sure which one you like, but—”

“Oh! No…” Her eyes widened. “It was some kind of airborne hallucinogen. They had those fog machines going and—”

“Natalie!”

She looked up, having almost forgotten she had an audience. “What?”

“You weren’t drugged. You weren’t having a hallucination. I saw the same thing you did in there.”

Her stomach plunged, and she felt the bile rising again. “Luis, open the door.”

“I cannot let you out, Nat—”

“Gonna puke again.”

“Oh.” He unlocked the door just in time for Natalie to lean out of the sedan, leaving the last of her lunch on the sidewalk in Ensenada. When she pulled her head back in, Luis was there with another bottle of water and a worried expression.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“For what?”

“That you had to see that.”

“And what…” She swirled and spit again, fairly confident there was nothing left in her stomach. “What the hell was
that
, Luis?”

“That, Natalie Ellis, was a vampire pissing match, and you were in the middle of it.”

“Vampires.”

“You’ve said that, like, five times now.”

They had been in the car for at least ten minutes and there was still no sign of Baojia. She was fairly sure that she could take Luis in a fight, though, so Natalie wasn’t all that worried. And she was pretty sure Luis was normal. Well, mostly. He did wear too much cologne.

“Still trying to wrap my head around that idea.” There was no such thing as vampires. Or werewolves. They were in the same category as Big Foot and the Chupacabra.

“I forget how weird it can be to someone who doesn’t know. I mean, I grew up around it so—”

“You grew up around it?” Her mouth dropped open in horror. “Around that?” She pointed at the club she could still hear music pulsing from.

“Huh? That? Oh no. Nooo.” He shook his head in horror. “Are you kidding? My mom—”

“Your mom knew?”

“Of course she did! I mean… No, not that. She would have freaked if we saw anything more violent than
Tom and Jerry
growing up. We were never—”

“Then why the hell did you just say—?”

“Listen!” The young man took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Natalie, what you just saw was… awful. We like to think that kind of stuff never happens, but—”

“Luis!” Panic welled up and her eyes darted around the car. She had to get out of there. At any moment, one of them could come back. “You have to get me out of here. Just give me my keys. Tell them I got away.”

“I can’t. It’s not safe. Will you just listen?”

“It’s not safe in
here
. I can tell you’re normal like me.” She tugged on the door handle, but it was locked again. “You have to help me. Whatever those things are, they’re dangerous. Leave with me before he gets back. I know people who can help you. You don’t have to—”

“It’s not like that!”

She stopped tugging on the door and moved closer to him. “Then tell me. You can tell me what’s going on.”

“I’m trying to explain.” He glanced out the window, but there was still no sign of anyone approaching the car. “You have to stay here. You have to let him protect you.”

“Protect me?
Him
? He’s one of them!”

“Listen, you’re a crime reporter, right?”

“Yeah?” What the hell did that have to do with vampires and fangs and monsters named Tio?

“So, you see all kinds of horrible stuff, right? Things humans do to other humans.”

She blinked, trying to make sense of what the young man was trying to say. “There are bad people everywhere, Luis, but—”

“And there are bad vampires, too. That’s my point. It’s just like the regular world in most ways. There are good guys and there are bad guys. Those guys? Ivan? Tio? They’re the bad guys. The
really
bad guys. But Baojia? He’s a good guy.”

She could hear the sincerity in Luis’s voice. Natalie had a pretty good sense of when someone was lying to her, and Luis wasn’t. At least, he didn’t believe he was.

“And he went to a lot of trouble tonight to come get you. Trust me, it was really risky coming here alone, but if Ivan had found out you were connected to Baojia and were in his territory—”

“But I am not connected to Baojia! This is insane. I met him once and he told me his name was George, and we had a drink and that’s all. And it was—obviously—all an act. I’m not
his
like he said. I don’t even know what all this is about. I’m just investigating a story.”

Luis looked as confused as she was. “Well, trust me, you’re connected somehow. Otherwise, there’s no way he would have done all this. You’re not under Ernesto’s aegis, as far as I know, and that’s the only other reason he would go to all this trouble. He doesn’t really have a human-chick thing. I mean, he likes women. But he’s not a vampire who gets attached, so—”

“Stop!” she fin Sp!ick ally screamed, squeezing her eyes shut. “Just… stop! There are no such things as vampires. This is crazy!”

Luis fell silent, and when Natalie finally looked at him again, there was no trace of the lighthearted young man who had been trying to comfort her.

“You saw it yourself, Natalie.
Felt
it yourself. You saw Ivan feed from that girl. You felt it when Baojia touched you. Admit it or don’t, but you would have done anything he asked. You wouldn’t have been able to help yourself. Are you gonna be one of those delusional people who tries to believe their eyes are lying to them? Or are you going to accept that there just might be things in the world that you didn’t know about before? The truth kind of hit you over the head tonight, but it’s still up to you. You gonna fight it or roll with it? You don’t seem stupid.”

Just as she was trying to process what the young man was saying, there was a tap at the window across from her. A dark outline stood motionless as Luis unlocked the door. Then Baojia opened it and slipped into the car with barely a whisper. The vampire glanced at her with an unreadable expression before he spoke quietly to Luis.

“Luis, watch your tone when you speak to Ms. Ellis. And drive home. As fast as you can.”

“Where are you taking me?” she finally asked as they left the lights of Ensenada behind them. “My car—”

“I will arrange for someone to pick up your car and return it when we reach San Diego.”

Luis had raised the privacy screen so it was just her and George-who-wasn’t-George in the back seat of the car as they drove north. At least all the highways were familiar, so she didn’t think he was lying about going back to San Diego.

Vampire.

The word, the twisted reality of it, hung in the air between them. A part of her couldn’t accept the idea. The other part—the part Luis had spoken to—knew it had to be true. Baojia was quiet, but the tension in his shoulders told her he was not relaxed in the least.

“If you just give me my keys, my friend Manuel—”

“Ah yes, your friend, Manuel.” His voice was soft and almost frighteningly calm. “Where was he tonight, by the way? A couple might not have been quite so conspicuous. Did Manuel have more important things to do than see to your safety while you ran stupidly into the lion’s den to ask questions about his teeth?”

Natalie’s mouth dropped open. “Are you… Are you mad at me? You? Mad at
me
? Are you kidding?” He remained silent, but by then, she could practically feel the waves of anger pouring off him. “I don’t think you have any right to—”

“I told you not to go to Ivan!” he burst out. “I told you, ‘Never. Never speak to Ivan.’ And you didn’t listen!”

The privacy screen rolled down a few inches. Natalie could see Luis’s saucer-eyed stare. “Um, Boss—?”

“Put the screen back up, Luis!” The screen immediately went up, but Baojia was still fuming.

“I have no idea how my directions could have been more specific. ‘Don’t speak to Ivan’ is pretty damn clear. How many Ivans are there?”

She was as confused as she was angry. “What are you talking about? When did we ever talk about Ivan? I met you
one time
and then you show up—”

“I should have known. Should have kept you under house arrest after I met you the first time.”

“The first time?” Oh… Those weird flashes of memory sudden Smemer hly made sense. “We met before, didn’t we? You’re the reason I can’t remember that Friday night.”

She could tell from the look on his face she was right. It wasn’t an apologetic look in the least. Baojia was still angry.

“I told you not to go to Ivan, Natalie. Why couldn’t you just listen?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she yelled. “Maybe because I couldn’t remember it, you bastard! What else did you do to me? Was it the same creepy shit you did back there that made me practically unable to speak? What the hell was that? Do you know I thought I’d been drugged? I thought I had a brain tumor, for God’s sake!”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I might have! I spent hours in the emergency room. Kristy wanted me to have a cat scan!”

“Which you didn’t have.” He crossed his arms. “You did, however, go to speak to Ivan when I told you not to.”

“Baojia. It was
your
name Dez gave me, wasn’t it? Why did she lie about it? Does she know what you are?” Natalie suddenly gasped, terror clutching her throat. “Is she in some kind of trouble? Oh, my God! Matt. The baby! Is Dez okay?”

His head rolled back as he groaned. “Of course she’s okay! She’s the one who called me and told me you were on your way to Mexico, Natalie. She’s the one who sent me after you.”

“How did she—”

“You tweeted some picture at the border crossing.” He paused. “And someday, someone is going to explain to me what the hell Twitter is.”