“Yes, I’ve been fed, watered, washed. All shiny and new, George.”
He looked over his shoulder and smiled slightly as he looked inside the small walk-in closet. “We’re safe, Baojia.”
“I know.” Still, his eyes scanned the room and tension radiated from him.
“Will you come sit down, please?” Natalie patted the edge of the bed. “You’re making me nervous.”
He sat near her feet, studying her.
“Now,” she finally said after he’d looked his full. “Let’s talk about the first night we met.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“You bit me?”
Baojia sighed. “After everything I just told you, that is what you focus on?”
She was angry. “You bit me. Without my permission—even my kinda-drunk permission—you bit me and drank my blood.” She hadn’t left the bed, but she was glaring at him with one hand covering her neck. He leaned over and pulled her fingers away.
“That bite saved your life in Mexico after you went to speak to Ivan. After I told you not to.” He leaned over her, holding her wrist in his and stifling the satisfied growl that wanted to surface every time he saw the pale, silvery scars. “Those marks on your neck were the reason I could come after you and no one would question it. Without them, you would have been fair game. Would that have been preferable, Natalie? Would you rather be dead? Or Ivan’s plaything in Ensenada?”
He could tell the minute righteous anger turned to fear. Her face grew pale and her eyes widened. His anger fell away. “Don’t cry.”
Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. She’d been so strong; the sight of her crumbling tore at him inside. He gathered her in his arms, rocking her back and forth.
“Don’t cry. Natalie, you’re safe. Don’t cry.”
“Too much,” she whispered against his shoulder. “I feel like everything changed in one moment. And I’m starting to wonder whether I’ll ever be able to go back. Is it always going to be this way? Will my life ever be normal again?”
He held her for a few more minutes as she calmed down. Finally, he said, “It won’t be the same. It can’t be. And for that, I am sorry.” But a bitter taste filled his mouth, and a guilty voice in his head whispered that he wasn’t sorry at all.
She pulled away from him and narrowed her eyes, still sniffing a little. “Not going to apologize for the bite though, are you?”
“Are you going to apologize for going to Ivan’s?”
Natalie wrinkled her nose the same way she had in the car that first night. “I don’t even remember that. How am I supposed to apologize for not taking advice I don’t remember, you dork?”
He couldn’t help it, he smiled. She was not amused.
“Stop.”
“Can’t.”
“You’re not allowed to smile. You didn’t apologize for biting me.”
“And I’m not going to.”
“Urgh!” she growled, flopping back on the pillows as he leaned over her. “You’re so damn stubborn.”
JI
He had to laugh. “Look who’s talking.”
She didn’t even respond, only lifted one eyebrow and asked, “What else?”
“What else, what?”
“What other embarrassing stuff did I do that I don’t remember? I always remember things—I hate this.”
He debated about telling her she had kissed him. “You… ah—”
“I kissed you, didn’t I?”
He blinked. “How did you know?”
“I tend to get affectionate when I’m drunk. I figured amnis-intoxication might be the same.”
“I’ll remember that.” He smiled again when she punched his arm. “And I might have seen an eyeful when I took you home.”
Her mouth gaped open. “I was in my underwear that morning! I’d forgotten that part.”
He held up his hands. “It wasn’t me. I opened the door and you started stripping.”
“Oh no!” She covered her face. “And you looked?”
Of course he had. Did he look like an idiot? He decided she didn’t need to know everything. “I made sure you were safe and no one was in the house, then I locked up and let myself out.”
Her hands were still over her bright red face. “That’s all?”
“Disappointed? I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t enjoy the view.”
She punched his arm again, then rolled over and buried her face in the pillows. “Dying. I’m dead.”
His hand trailed down the exposed nape of her neck and over her shoulder. “You most definitely are not. Nor will you be anytime soon, Natalie Ellis.”
She took a deep breath that he matched. The human gesture seemed to soothe them both and he could feel the tension start to leave her shoulders. He continued to run a hand over her back, up and down, enjoying the meditation of listening to her steady heart and rhythmic breathing. She was so full of life. She made him feel alive, despite the pain of loss that still throbbed inside him.
Baojia couldn’t decide what he felt. For the first time in his immortal life, he was directionless. He had no family. His sire had cut him off at his own request. He was heartsore and confused. But he didn’t regret his actions. Nor did he second-guess himself. And oddly enough, he wasn’t lonely. Looking at the strange woman on the bed, he realized he hadn’t felt lonely since she’d appeared. Odd. And unexpected.
“Baojia?”
“Hmm?”
“What were you and Beatrice?”
His hand stilled. “We… were nothing.”
She rolled over and looked at him. “I’m not stupid. I know her husband doesn’t like you. I know she gets a weird look on her face when your name is mentioned. So whatever it was, it wasn’t nothing.”
How could he possibly explain? He still didn’t quite understand it himself. “Beatrice was an assignment.”
“What kind of assignment?”
“I watched her for Ernesto. She is his blood relative, and she was unguarded by Giovanni. For five years, he left her here. I don’t fully understand why, but I know they’ve made their peace about it. And while he was gone, she needed protection, so Ernesto asked me…”
“To watch her.” Her usually open expression was cautious. Wary.
“I guarded her. That was my assignment. And then later, I helped to train her. Before and after she became a vampire. I was her weapons instructapo8">or. And also her bodyguard.”
Natalie’s eyes narrowed. “You had feelings for her.”
“I…” He took a deep breath. “I watched her for five years. Watched her grow and mature. She’s a fascinating woman. I had feelings… for the idea of her. But by the time I had the opportunity to truly know her… She was Giovanni’s. She was always Giovanni’s; I can accept that.”
“But you didn’t like it.”
“Natalie—”
“Hey, you’re a hundred and twenty years old.” She rolled over again, facing away from him. “I’m sure you’ve had plenty of women who caught your interest in all that time. I shouldn’t even pry. It’s none of my business, but she’s my friend, and—”
“You have…” His voice dropped. “…every right to pry. And it is your business.”
Silence fell between them as he lifted his hand again, slowly running it down her back. He could feel her skin heat beneath his touch.
“Natalie?”
“I’m not mad.”
“You asked me once whether I ever regretted becoming a vampire.”
“And you said ‘Occasionally.’”
The feel of her skin soothed and excited him. He let his amnis touch the surface and it prickled in awareness. “The night in the bar downtown. When I made you bump into me.”
“Confessing that too, huh?” she said, a smile in her voice.
“I wish… I wish that had been our first meeting. When I left you that night, after you and your friend went to the movie, I wished that I was a normal man, and I had simply met you at the bar. That I could have joined you
for the movie and talked with you more.”
She said nothing, but he could hear her pulse begin to speed.
“Because you were smart and funny. I wish I could see your hair in the sun. You said that the smell of the ocean was wrong. And I’ve thought that every night for a hundred years, I think, but I didn’t recognize it until you said it.”
Then there was silence. Until she finally whispered, “George?”
“Hmm?”
She reached over her shoulder and tugged on his hand as he leaned closer. “Lay down with me. I think I need a hug.”
“Um… okay.”
She rolled and scooted over on the bed, pulling him close and wrapping his arms around her like a blanket. He tensed for a moment, unsure of what she wanted. His body roared to life as his senses filled with her scent and heat. But when she put her head on his shoulder and sighed, he forced himself to relax.
“Baojia?”
Did she have any idea how that breathy voice whispering his name affected him? He felt his fangs throb. “Yes?”
“What are we doing?”
Not enough. “What do you mean?”
“You and me.” She looked up. Sea-blue eyes, surrounded by black lashes. Pale freckled skin, flush with life. “Are you and I—”
He kissed her. He had to. It was the only answer to her question.
He pulled her against his chest and felt his heart thump slowly. Once. Soft lips opening to his mouth. The taste of sugar and mint on her tongue. Twice. His hand ran from her shoulder, down her spine, over the soft curve of her hip. Three times his heart beat before he gave in and grabbed her thigh, hitching it over his hip to brihis rang her closer. There were no words, just the sound of her breathing and her heart as it pounded. He could hear the rush of blood in her veins. Her skin flushed with heat. Kissing Natalie felt like a memory of the sun on his skin.
He reached a hand up to pull at the tie that held her hair back.
“I hate these things,” he murmured between bites of her mouth. “Never wear them.”
“Sometimes…” She pressed into his chest, and her arms wrapped around his waist. Her hands tucked into the waistband of his slacks, and he moaned when he felt the tickle of her fingertips against his sensitive flesh. “Sometimes, it’s just the most practical thing to tie it back,” she murmured between kisses.
“It’s beautiful when it’s loose around your face.” He grabbed a handful of her hair and tugged her mouth back.
She kissed him for a long, breathless moment. “It’s a mess.”
“Woman,” he said and kissed her more deeply, their tongues tasting and teasing, “are you arguing with me? Now?”
“Of course I am.”
Baojia smiled against her lips, then he started to laugh, his nose bumping against hers as he squeezed her thigh and let his head fall to the pillow. She stared at him, her lips swollen and red from friction. Her face was flushed. Her hair was a mess. He just laughed harder. “You’ll argue with me forever, won’t you?”
Natalie shrugged innocently. “It’s what I do.”
The laughter died down and he tugged her back down to his shoulder, tucking her head under his chin as he played with a curl of her unruly, argumentative hair. The heated mood had shifted into something warmer. Plus, he could feel the house beginning to stir for the night, filling with activity as humans and vampires filled the halls. He savored the lazy indulgence of lying beside her, even if it was just for a few more minutes.
“Baojia?”
“Hmm?” Why was her heart picking up again?
“Am I more than an assignment?”
Th-thunk. His heart beat with hers for a second, and his breath caught.
“Yes.”
The Italian did have an excellent library. Technically, he knew Giovanni had given the library to his wife, but he could see the years of work in its shelves. The rumors were that Giovanni Vecchio was a minor nobleman who had been turned by a very famous water vampire during the Italian Renaissance. The immortal never suspected that the urbane man would wake as a fire vampire, the most dangerous and unpredictable of their kind. Giovanni’s reputation was enough to make Ernesto give him a wide berth. His marriage to Ernesto’s blood relative was another.
But whatever uneasy truce Giovanni and Beatrice had with Ernesto, it had never extended to Baojia. As his father’s enforcer for so many years, he had taken Ernesto’s connections and alliances for granted. As a newly independent immortal, he would have to build his own.
“How are you?” Giovanni said, appearing at his side.
He tried not to react and instead looked to Natalie, Dez, and Beatrice, who were at the library table, poring over newspaper clippings while Natalie took more notes in one of her yellow legal pads. “I am well. Thank you again for opening your home and providing a safe place for Natalie.”
Giovanni nodded. “You are welcome, as well. I have never forgotten your service to us in China.”
He had joined in Giovanni and Beatrice’s fight icepan>n China, even though it had not been part of his mission and Ernesto had not been pleased. “I failed in China.”
The other man shrugged. “That depends on your definition of failure, I suppose.”
He would have to think about that later. “I hope our presence does not cause problems for you with Ernesto.”
Giovanni laughed arrogantly. “I do not fear Ernesto. He knows better. And I told him years ago I would willingly have you on my side again in a fight.” He pushed away from the bookcases and said, “I don’t know that I would say the same for him.”
He watched the Italian walk away. Odd. That had to have been their most civil exchange. His ears perked when he heard Beatrice mention the word “elixir.”
“What did you say?”
She looked over her shoulder. “I said that it could be this is the first evidence we’ve seen of Elixir in America.”
“Elixir?” Natalie asked. “What’s Elixir?”
He walked over to her side and perched on the edge of the table. “Isn’t this what you were going after in Rome? I’d heard there was some crazy fight over it, but I thought it had all been destroyed.”
Giovanni shook his head. “We thought that too, but the missing boxes of Elixir were never found. And then last year, some of our friends found it in Ireland. Apparently, whoever was making it had bigger plans than just Rome. We think it’s being manufactured in more than one place now. We’re not sure how it’s being distributed.”
“Shit,” he muttered. If the rumors about the drug were true, this was a bigger problem than a few murdered humans.
“Can someone fill me in, please?” Natalie was annoyed. “What is Elixir?”
Beatrice was the one who spoke up. “It was intended to be a kind of cure. It was first made during the medieval period in the Middle East. An early chemistry experiment with vampire blood. Humans can’t drink our blood. It can be used on open wounds, but unless a human is at the point of death and means to be turned, their body will reject it, making him or her sick. Elixir was intended to overcome that, to make vampire blood ingestible to humans so it could heal them the way we can heal each other.”
“Okay…” Natalie was a little confused, but she was smart enough to fill in the gaps. “So it was made to be kind of a cure-all for humans. So we could heal the way you guys do. That’s not a bad thing, so something must have gone wrong.”
Giovanni said, “Along with curing humans, if a human drank the elixir, it made their blood…” He broke off, at a loss for how to explain it.
Baojia spoke up. “The rumors are that a human who drinks Elixir has supercharged blood. You don’t have to drink much and it’s like you’ve been fed for a year. And it tastes better than anything you’ve ever had.” Some memory tickled the back of his mind. “But those are just rumors. I’ve never met anyone who’s actually tasted it. I’m not going to lie, something like that would be popular, particularly with younger vampires. There were a lot of stories flying around the club
in San Diego.”
Beatrice shook her head. “It’s like a drug, Baojia. Don’t ever drink from a human who’s taken it. It messes you up. It won’t kill you, but vampires who have tasted Elixir blood go wrong in the head. They’re really, really strong at first—”
“A quick burst of elemental power. Increased amnis,” Giovanni said. “But then—”
“Totally nuts,” Beatrice added. “Messes up your amnis. Weakens you.”younis
Baojia started. “Kills you?”
“Not exactly,” Giovanni said quietly. “But you’d be as good as dead. You might not even realize someone was after you. Or you might walk out into the sun without even knowing it.”
Natalie said, “So, it’s like any other drug. Seems amazing at first, but slowly kills you. Great. And it’s for vampires?”
Giovanni nodded. “It’s given to humans who the vampires drink from. And according to what we’ve heard, the rumors are true—Elixir blood does taste heavenly.”
“Well that might explain the bite marks,” Natalie said, looking up at him.
Beatrice asked, “What bite marks? What do you mean?”
“Of course.” Baojia took a quick breath. “Of course. They were… high. The vampires who killed the girls. It’s just like you said, Natalie. You asked Tulio and me if there was a drug, and we dismissed it. But there is a drug…” He stood up from the table when the realization hit. “Ivan’s giving it to the waitresses.”
Natalie stood too. “At the bar?”
He nodded. “When I went that night, I noticed a few… I almost grabbed one right then, even though I’d fed that night. They smelled that good. I didn’t think about it at the time because I was focused on getting you out of there, but they smelled incredible.”
Her mouth fell open a little. “Wow. Now I’m strangely insecure.”
He broke into a quick laugh and dropped a kiss on her mouth. “Don’t be. This explains everything. The women in the desert had been given Elixir. The vampires feeding from them must have lost control of their bloodlust and Ivan disposed of the bodies. And that explains the odd smell that Tulio and I noticed on the dead humans.”