Blood and Sand (22 page)

Her mind tripped back to his kiss in her bed the night before. Focus. That was part of what made him so irresistible. As quiet and distant as he could be in front of others, when Baojia turned his focus on her, the intensity of it rocked her. He kissed her as if it was his mission in life. Just then, his eyes flicked to hers and the dark promise in them caused her face to heat.

“Oh, hello, dark and sultry look,” Beatrice murmured. “Someone likes an audience.”

Dez slapped at Beatrice before Natalie got a chance. “Be quiet. You’re embarrassing her. And he can hear every word we say, you know.”

Natalie’s blush just got brighter. “Oh, right.”
 

Obviously proving Dez’s point, Baojia looked over his shoulder and gave her ledt goa quiet smile. Then he turned back to Ben, adjusting the young man’s arms and pulling his elbows farther in before he practiced a punch. She could see him tell Ben something and the boy nodded, then Baojia demonstrated himself before patting Ben on the back and letting him go.

“He’s a good teacher,” she said.

Beatrice nodded. “The best. Even Tenzin says so. I was lucky to have him as my weapons instructor. You should ask him to show you a few things, Nat. I’m fairly positive it’ll come in handy at some point.”

“I’m going to hope that most of my battles are won through the whole ‘Pen is mightier than the sword’ philosophy, but I’ll keep that in mind. Dez, can I?” She held her hands out for Carina to give her something else to focus on.

“Sure. My arms could use a break.”

Carina immediately started pulling on Natalie’s hair, which caused her to laugh and wince at the same time.

“She’s so funny, Dez. Amazing. Do you love it?”

“It has its moments, but yes. Totally love being a mom.”

Beatrice smiled and reached over, tickling the baby’s tummy and eliciting a giggle. “And she’s definitely the cutest member of the family. Don’t tell Gio.”

“Or Ben,” Dez said.

Natalie watched the two women, one mortal, one immortal, tease back and forth. She watched baby Carina nibble on the vampire’s hand as both women watched Ben practice the forms Baojia was teaching him, slowly speeding up with each repetition.

“This is special,” she murmured. Beatrice and Dez stopped talking and looked at her. “What you guys have here? The family you’ve built. It’s really special.” She swallowed back the lump in her throat and kissed the top of the baby’s head. Her whole life, she’d wanted something like what they had. Did they even realize how lucky they were? For years, it had only been Natalie and her mom and dad. Then her mom was gone and her dad… Well, he was sort of gone, too. She had friends, close ones, even. But it was nothing like what her old friends had built between them.

Beatrice smiled as if she could read Natalie’s thoughts. “Human. Vampire. Family’s family.”

“Yeah, starting to get that.” Her attention shifted when the baby pulled at her hair again, tugging Natalie’s face down to her own. Carina patted her chin with one drooly hand as she grinned and babbled. At that moment, Natalie saw him from the corner of her eye, staring at her holding the baby, an odd look on his face. She looked away, suddenly realizing what had led to Baojia’s unexpected confession the night before.
 

He was like her now. He didn’t have a family either.

The moment was interrupted by a whirl of movement. A dark-haired pixie of a woman spun into the room, energy sparking around her. She flung a long, hockey-like stick toward the practice mat, yelling, “Catch, Ben!” as she did. Baojia zipped toward the incoming projectile, grabbing it before it hit anything, then he glared at the newcomer. As if by magic, she was sitting next to Beatrice and bumping her shoulder. “Hey, there. Miss me?”

Beatrice said, “Incoming.”

Natalie barely caught her breath before the woman was standing again, one hand held out toward Baojia, who was baring his teeth and already had a sword in his hand. Flames burst into the strange vampire’s hand and Natalie let out a yelp as a sheet of water appeared out of nowhere to flank Baojia. Carina wiggled and laughed in her lap, clapping at the sudden special effects show that had appeared before her.

“Hello,” the stranger said with a smile. “Friend. Sorry, thought they would have warned you.”

Baojia said nothing, a low growl rumbling from his throat as he remained in a ready stance, his eyes never leaving the fire vampire.

“Brigid,” Beatrice said, “you might want to move away from the redhead with the baby.”

Dez was obviously trying not to panic, even though Carina was delighted by the action. “Yeah, guys. Baby here. Teeny, tiny human.”

“Oh, is that how it is? She’s his?” The woman shrugged and took a step back. “Understandable, then. Sorry about that.”

Natalie scooted farther away from the woman, and every foot that separated them seemed to put Baojia more at ease. Eventually, the sword was lowered and the water returned to the fountains, though his fangs remained visible in his mouth. He made no effort to hide them as he walked toward her and leaned down, rubbing his cheek along hers in a quick movement before he turned and stomped back to the practice mat where Ben had been standing and staring silently. Eventually, Ben lifted the long stick the woman had thrown.

“Is this the hurling thing?”

“Yep,” Brigid called. “Also handy for bashing idiotic husbands across the back of the head, should the need arise.” Everyone looked at her. “What?”

Ben said, “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.” Then he and Baojia returned to the training dummy, with Baojia keeping one eye on Brigid the whole time.

Natalie finally breathed out. “So… That was interesting.”

Dez whispered, “And
hot
.” Beatrice was just beaming at her.
 

“What?” Natalie’s face was red again.

Brigid smiled. “I’m Brigid, by the way. I’d shake your hand, but he’d likely amputate it at the elbow, so I’ll just wave.”
 

Natalie waved back. “I’m Natalie. And I’m not really sure what just happened.”

“That’s one highly possessive vampire you have,” Brigid said in an amused voice, her accent obviously marking her as the Irish vampire Tenzin had sent the plane for. “He’s young, eh?”

Beatrice shook her head. “Not as young as you. But she’s new. Or rather,
they’re
new.”

“Fun.” Brigid leaned back and surveyed the studio. “B, is he the one who taught you to use those crazy hook-swords I want?”

“Yep, that’s Baojia. And please. You’d never give up your guns.”

The vampire grinned, fangs fully on display. Like Beatrice, she had black hair and a slim figure, but Brigid was a tiny ball of pure energy. She had shockingly pale skin, even for a vampire, and close-cropped hair that suited her delicate features. Like Giovanni, heat radiated off her. Natalie could feel her from yards away. And her eyes were startlingly inhuman, brown around the pupil feathering out to a deep ash gray. Though Dez had told her the fire vampire was young, Natalie guessed she would have a hard time passing as human to a careful observer.

The baby was dozing off, no doubt a vampire schedule wreaked havoc on normal bedtime. Carina had nestled into Natalie’s chest, her soft pink cheek warm against the skin of her neck and her little hand still clutching a lock of her red hair. “Hey Dez…”

“She asleep? I’d better get her home.”

Reluctantly, Natalie handed over the little girl, feeling the loss of the baby’s warmth as she sat back on the bench.

“Good to see yGopan>Natou.” Beatrice stood and hugged her friend goodbye. “Tomorrow night?”

“I promised Matt a human night,” Dez said with a wink. “Bedtime by eleven and a real breakfast the next day.”

“Daywalker,” Beatrice muttered. “Fine. At least I have new friends to keep me busy.” She threw an arm around Brigid.

“And cause trouble. Speaking of that…” Brigid looked around the studio and lowered her voice. “What are we waiting around here for?”

Brigid might have been lighthearted upon first meeting, but the woman was all business once they got in the car. Natalie, being the only human, was the designated driver.

“Jeez, I miss driving,” Brigid moaned as they caught the 5 going south toward the border.
 

“I miss my bike,” Beatrice added. “I need to buy an older one so I can just ride, but I miss my Triumph. By the way, where’s your husband?”

They had returned to the house an hour before, Beatrice assuring Baojia that Natalie would be carefully guarded. She might have left out the current plan to drive to the border to check with one of Natalie’s contacts at the Otay Mesa border crossing.

“No idea,” Brigid said absently as Natalie steered the car through light traffic. “We’re going to the Mexican border, right? And why there?”

“The earth vampire Baojia and I spoke to out in the desert said trucks were dumping the bodies, but the victims have all been Mexican nationals. You want trucks coming from Mexico? You go to Otay Mesa. It’s the third busiest port of entry between the US and Mexico. Tons of traffic. And I know a few people who work there.”

“You’re a newspaper reporter, then?” Brigid asked. “Very cool. I was horrible at writing in university.”

“Brigid was studying to be a criminologist when life got interesting. Now she does security for the vampire who runs Dublin.”

“Along with a bit of… consulting, we’ll call it.”
 

It felt weird to have them in the backseat. Natalie felt like a chauffeur. She was reminded of poor Luis in San Diego. What would happen to him now that Baojia wasn’t working for Ernesto? What would happen to Baojia’s things? Did he own his house in San Diego? Suddenly, her stomach dropped. Would he be able to move back or would he disappear into the night when this was all over?

Beatrice piped up from the back. “Why are you so upset, Nat? Your heart is racing.”

Natalie cleared her throat. “I’m… I’m not. Don’t listen to my heart, B.”

“It’s pounding out of your chest,” Brigid said. “And you smell of nerves.”

“God!” Her breath exploded. “Is it always like this with you people? You can smell everything! Hear everything. Baojia never—”

“He probably doesn’t mention that stuff because he knows it makes you nervous,” Brigid said. “Humans who don’t grow up around our sort tend to be jittery.”

She bit back an angry retort, feeling like a fish out of water. She felt a hand patting her shoulder from the back seat.

“It’s fine,” Beatrice said. “You’re doing great, Nat. And the good thing is, Baojia’s not so old he doesn’t remember what it’s like to be human, you know? You’ll be fine.”

She hoped so.
Not
being fine wasn’t really an option at this point. She might not have super powers or combat skills, but she knew she’d have to figure out some way to survive if she was go ifampire wing to live in this crazy new world.

Brigid asked, “So tell me more about this Ivan fellow. Your man’s quite sure he’s the one behind this?”

“Baojia said that the waitresses at the club smelled amazing. Like pomegranate. Very hard to resist.”

“Yep.” Brigid sighed. “That sounds like Elixir. Poor things. They’re dying and they don’t even know it.”

By the time they’d pulled into the port of entry, Natalie was getting nervous about the dawn again. It had to be almost two in the morning and it had taken them over two hours to get there. She’d already called her contact at Customs to ask her if she was working, but Natalie was still worried about the sun.

“Are we going to have enough time?”

Beatrice didn’t seem concerned. “We’ll worry about that. You just find your friend.”

It turned out she didn’t even need to look for Sandra. Almost as soon as she parked the car, she saw a flash of a familiar face.

“No freaking way…” she muttered. They couldn’t be that lucky. “Beatrice, Brigid, back in the car.”

The two vampires spun around in almost choreographed movement.
 

“Back in the car! We have to follow that truck.”

To their credit, neither hesitated; they just jumped back in the car as Natalie started the engine and slammed it into reverse, hoping to catch up to the nondescript container truck that was already heading north.

“Natalie, what are we doing?”

“There’s a vampire in that truck, and I recognize the bastard. He almost bit me in Mexico, but Baojia put a knife through his throat. His name’s Tio.”

Brigid grinned. “Well, that’s a stroke of luck!”

“So we’re chasing one of Ivan’s men?” Beatrice groaned. “Oh shit. He’s going to be pissed.”

“Nonsense,” Brigid said. “This is far more fun than asking questions.”

By the time they reached their destination, Natalie already had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“I know this place,” she said as she pulled into the mostly empty parking lot. She found a spot a few rows away from the truck and they stopped, rolling down their windows. The same electronic noise filled the air as the last time she’d been here. Tio and the driver were already jumping out and walking into the casino. “This is Ernesto’s casino. I came here with Baojia.”