Blood and Sand (21 page)

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.”

“What odd smell?” Beatrice and Dez asked at the same time. Funny, he’d almost forgotten they were there.

“The dead girls all smelled… sour. Not like a normal human at all. Their blood smelled fermented.”

“Hmm.” Giovanni leaned onto the table, eyes narrowing. “That fits with what Brigid has discovered about the smell of Elixir, too.”

“The smell?” Natalie asked.

Beatrice said, “It has a distinctive smell of pomegranates—”

“Yes, that’s what it was.” His heart pounded. “Pomegranates. The girls smelled like pomegranates.”

Beatrice and Giovanni exchanged a look. “Well, it’s definitely Elixir then. We’d better call Dublin.”

“Already have,” piped up a voice from the couch. Baojia turned. It was Tenzin. She was putting together a puzzle that was laid out on a low table. “I sent the plane last night.”

Giovanni said, “You just sent my plane to Dublin?”

She shrugged. “I sent a note.”

He saw the Italian smother a smile. “You know, we could have just used the telephone, Tenzin.”

Tenzin frowned. “Where’s the fun in that? I’d rather see Brigid.”

Baojia turned to Natalie, whose eyes were beginning to droop from exhaustion. “You might want to get some sleep. It appears there will be more vampires showing up tomorrow.”

She forced out a wobbly smile. “Goody.”

It was only an hour before dawn, and Baojia was paging through the notes Natalie had left out on the library table. The pieces were finally forming a clearer picture, but he still had no idea what theirdeafore dawn, plan of action needed to be. And there were still too many questions. If Ivan was doing this, what was his game? Did the cartel in Mexico City know? How many humans had been infected? Baojia had been the head of Ernesto Alvarez’s security and even
he
hadn’t known the details of this drug. Did Ivan? Was Ivan taking it?

He felt the presence at the door and a smoky smell filled the air.

“Hello,” Giovanni said. “She’s very smart.”

“Natalie? Yes, frighteningly so, at times. She rushes into things, following her brain with no thought to her physical safety.”

“Your relationship—”

“Is private,” he said quietly. “I’m sure you understand.”

Giovanni nodded. “I do.” He walked over and sat at the other end of the table. “Does she know what it all means? You leaving Ernesto? Being placed under your aegis?”

“No. Not entirely.”

“So she doesn’t know you’ll have to leave?”

“We haven’t talked about it.” He gave up and set down the notes. “I haven’t thought about it much myself, to be completely honest. I can’t stay here. I have resources, but few connections outside my clan. And I cannot ask for an official introduction from Ernesto at this point.” Vampire politics was tricky. In order to move to a new place, he’d need the tacit permission of whoever controlled the area, or he’d need to be in an isolated enough location that no one would pay him any mind. The problem was, he now had Natalie to consider, too.

As if reading his thoughts, Giovanni said, “Would she go with you willingly?”

“Her life is here.”

“Her
old
life is here. You have to make her realize she won’t be able to go back to that.”

“How…” Baojia’s voice was rough. “How did you tell Beatrice—?”

“I didn’t. Not for five years. She moved here, and I never told her the truth of it. Not completely.” The Italian gave him a rueful smile. “I wouldn’t recommend that course.”

“Understood.” It was too complicated to solve in one night. There were too many factors to consider and too many unknown variables. His thoughts were a jumble, and his feelings for the woman were no less tangled.

“Have you thought about San Francisco?” Giovanni asked.

“San Francisco? No. Why?”

A smug smile crossed the fire vampire’s lips. “You were turned there, were you not? While Katya was in power? Do you know if Ernesto had permission from her to take a human from her territory?”

“I don’t.” He’d never even thought about the ruler of the Pacific Northwest more than in passing or when talking with his peers on her security team when they’d arranged for business or political meetings. “You think I should reach out to her?”

“I think…” Giovanni smiled again. “I think she and Ernesto have had a
friendly rivalry for many years. I think she might be
more
than happy to welcome home a former resident who has lived so long away from his mortal home. And I think she might be particularly welcoming to someone with your… unique résumé.”

For the first time since he’s left his sire’s home in disgrace, a ray of hope seemed to break through.

Giovanni rose and nodded toward him as he made his way to the door of the library. “Rest well. And think about it. I’d be happy to write a letter.”

“Finally get me out of your hair,” he called to the Italedt wlian.

Giovanni only answered back with a lazy laugh that echoed down the hall.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Wow,” she murmured.

Dez bounced a chattering baby on her knee and said, “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”

“It’s like watching a Bruce Lee movie. Only, you know, way hotter.”

Natalie watched
Baojia demonstrate another combination of kicks and punches for Benjamin before standing back and motioning the boy toward the wooden training dummy. She and Dez were sitting in the corner of the training studio that Beatrice, Giovanni, Tenzin, and Ben used to practice. One wall was lined with weapons, swords, spears, axes, and more weapons she could barely identify. Four fountains marked the corners of the training mats and dummies, ropes, and weights lined the other walls. It looked like a very well-equipped private gym, and currently, Baojia was giving Ben a lesson in some martial-arts technique.

His body was a subtle work of art. While he may have been average in height, there was nothing average about Baojia’s body. The skin of his torso was smooth and unmarked, though his forearms and back were marked with a few pale scars. His muscles had been defined by what Natalie guessed was a mortal life filled with manual labor. Not bulky, but incredibly strong. The loose pants he wore concealed his legs, but nothing could conceal the carefully controlled strength. His movements were sharp and almost quicker than her eyes could follow.

“What’s it called again?”

Beatrice said, “This particular style is known as Wing Chun. It’s very fast and very precise. Designed for close-range combat. I’m pretty sure he practiced it as a human, which only made him faster as an immortal. Baojia’s a bit of an anomaly. Very powerful for his age.”

“Ben seems to be picking it up fast,” Natalie said. The young man appeared to take the practice very seriously, watching Baojia at each turn with an intense focus.

“He’s been training in various martial arts since he was about thirteen. Gio and I want him prepared for… whatever.”

Baojia spun around in a blur, barely visible to the human eye.

“It’s so fast.” She leaned forward, fascinated and… well, completely turned on from watching him. She had seen him fight—the memory of his attack on the vampires at Bar El Ruso was painted in vivid color in her mind. But to watch him,
really
watch him, as he patiently explained each movement or stance to the boy was mesmerizing. He exhibited total efficiency of movement. There was no flourish or extravagance, only a pure economy of energy and focus.