Hard Days Night (The Firsts Book 8) (21 page)

“I’m Starla, Ahmose’s baby mama.  It’s a long and complicated story.”

She took a seat opposite him, awkwardly lowering herself down.  “That’s harder than it looks.”  Then she leaned across the table and took his hand.  “Luka, tell me about the woman that Ahmose met in California.  I assume she’s a friend of yours.”

“Why?”

“Luka, don’t be argumentative. I’m a highly volatile vampire with unstable hormones and some powers I really have no control over.  Ahmose was involved with someone in America.  He’s troubled, and it had to have something to do with you.  So I assume it’s a woman, and I assume she’s the reason he converted you.  So, talk. Leave no details out.  If you tell me, you will have a new friend for life.”

She was aggressive, overwhelming, overbearing, and completely charming.  Luka couldn’t help himself. He smiled
, genuinely, with pleasure, for the first time since he was taken from California and made vampire.

“They weren’t involved.  I don’t know why he did this for her, but Mal wouldn’t have known him, so she would have just been professional with him.”

Starla shook her head, dark curls bouncing, as she leaned closer.  “Uh, uh.  No, he was involved.  Deeply, because he’s so troubled.  They made love, I’m certain of it.  So, tell me about your Mal.”

“You’re wrong.  But I’ll tell you.  She’s beautiful, brilliant, and about as fucked up as I am when it comes to relationships.  Neither one of us has ever been able to keep someone in our lives.”

“You can’t let them in, I can feel that.  She’s the same way?”

“Maybe worse.
  But she has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known.  That’s why we love each other so much.  Kindred spirits.  We got each other, and if nothing else in our lives worked very well, we had each other’s backs through it all.  Not that that matters now, I guess, since I’ll never see her again.”

“Oh, newbie, you’ll learn that nothing is immutable.  You never know what the next day might bring.” 

Luka was startled when the beautiful woman reached out and touched his cheek.  “You made a handsome vampire, Luka.  Don’t waste this gift.  I was made vampire against my will, too, but my life was nothing before this.  You have eternity waiting for you, and if you want, you can do so much good.  You can transform lives and touch tomorrow.  I can feel what a great heart you have.  Your Mal must be the same for you to love her so much.  And for my Ahmose to be lost to her.  I see exciting moments this year.  Okay, I won’t bother you any longer.  I see my mate is back and he is going to have all kinds of questions.  I’d better answer them before he demands them of
you
.”  She got out of the chair, but it was more of a struggle than she’d had getting into it.  “Uh, oh, this baby is ready, I tell you, and so am I.”

Starla watched a confused and aggressive Jacob making his way towards her with a
smiling baby boy and a huge bowl of ice cream that she really didn’t want.

ON MOLOKAI

Bev was laughing so hard, tears streamed down her cheeks.
  They were sitting around a table on the deck watching the sky change from day to night.

“No, no way!
 
You
, dressed like a
woman
?  Kai, your arms are as big as a WWF fighter!”

“I didn’t say I was a
pretty
woman.  But you’d be surprised by how many offers I got.”  Kai finished off a pack of French fries he had been sharing with Mal.

“Cops have to do all kinds of freaky things in the fight. You should have seen Luka in bright blue yoga pants!  His boys were
crushed!
”  Mal said, then felt nauseous, and it wasn’t because of the pregnancy.   A sudden memory of Luka, shot, more than once, like her bizarre memory of the gorgeous dead naked man.  Vibrant, intense images,
memories, she was
sure
, of the gorgeous man carrying Luka’s dying body into a beach house, of her pain in knowing it was too late, of begging the gorgeous naked man…
what?
  What had she asked of him?   Exactly what did these memories mean?  Then, just as abruptly, a strange sense of serenity…that Luka was all right and she mustn’t worry.

She opened her eyes to see her father and Bev leaning over her, Bev had her wrist in her hand and was speaking to her.
  Mal was lying on a lounger.

“Mal, are you all right?  Can you speak?”

After drawing a long breath, and blinking too many times, Mal nodded.  “Um, no, I mean yes.  I’m okay.  I just had…I’m not sure what you’d call it.  A memory, a vision, hallucination, I don’t know.  God, it was awful.  Luka, shot, bleeding out, dying.”

“Oh, Mal, you don’t k
now that.  You can’t think like that. He’s probably fine.”

Mal shook her head.  “I don’t think so.  But I also don’t think he’s dead.”

“That’s the hope you cling to, babygirl.  Half the L.A. police force is searching for him.  They’ll find him.”  Pop knew what to say because he’d been in her shoes.  His own partner had been knifed on duty, and died from the wounds two days later. 

“No, they won’t. I don’t know how I know that, but I do.”

Mal looked up at her father and Bev and sat upright.

“Guys, I have to tell you this. 
This crazy thing that’s happening to me.  I don’t understand it at all, I’m half terrified, but I believe every bit of it is true.”

Kai sat on the end of
Mal’s lounger and Bev adjacent in an upright chair, both riveted on Mal as she turned to face Bev.

“
Bev, I told my father this morning.  I just found out myself, and I’ll explain how in a minute, but I want to tell you that I’m pregnant.”

Bev looked like someone cold-cocked her.

“Wha…I…but, you aren’t seeing anyone. 
Anyone
, Mal. You would have told me.  You tell me everything.”

“I do.  I’ve told you what I
thought
was true, but now I know different.   The gorgeous homicide victim, the one with the bullet hole in his forehead?  He wasn’t dead.  He’s the one that held me hostage for a night. He told me that he was, oh, hell, this is going to sound nuts, but, he told me he was a vampire and that a gunshot would not kill him.”

Mal looked back and forth between her father, who sat quietly, expressionless, and Bev, who she could see was wearing her
therapist’s
understanding
face.

“Yeah, I know it’s ridiculous and sounds impossible, but I watched that man get up after I’d checked his pulse.  There wasn’t one.  And I saw the wound, literally close within a day.  Anyway, he said he would release me, but that he needed my blood to finish healing.  He fed from me, and I had sex with him.”

Kai shot out of the lounger, fury radiating.

“Consensual, Pop.
  Consensual.”

“How was it consensual?  You were a hostage!”

Mal smiled and looked at Bev. “Well, Pop,
you
didn’t see him.”

Bev smiled
now, because she clearly remembered the “dreams” Mal had told her about the gorgeous naked
dead
man.

Mal nodded.  “Yes, that’s him, Bev.  Forget about that, Pop, that’s minor compared to what I’m going to tell you.  Luka came looking for me, and when he found me the second day, someone shot him, almost point blank.  Four rounds in the chest and belly.  I don’t have to tell you what that means.  This man, this vampire, he told me that he can convert humans, can heal them.
  I begged him to do it for Luka, and he resisted, but finally agreed.  It worked, I swear it.  Luka survived the shooting.  But when someone becomes a vampire, they can’t stay in their life, so the man took him.  He used a mind control, a forced compulsion, to empty my memories and plant the idea that Luka was okay.”

After
Mal finished that part of her tale, she let it sink in for a few moments.  Then she looked back and forth again between her audience of two.

“Okay, no questions.  That’s good.  So the last part is just as weird.  Pop, I threw up this morning and went to rest after Bev gave me some medication.  While I slept, I found out that I am carrying the child of the man who claimed to be a vampire.  Again, you’re going to think you need to lock me up, but I swear this is true.  My daughter sort of spoke to me
, not in words, of course.  She told me she can’t wait to be out here and meet me, and that I should find her father.”

Once more, Mal stopped
to let the information settle.  It sounded ridiculous to her own ears, too.

Bev and Kai exchanged glances.

“I’m not crazy,” Mal repeated.  “And I see how impossible it is that you would believe me, but that doesn’t make this any less true.”  She lowered both of her hands and put them on her belly.  “My daughter is here, I know this as well as I know both of you are here.  Anyway, I just needed to hear myself say this out loud to see if I sounded as looney as I thought I did.  I do.  So, just let what I told you kind of float out there in the distance, and let’s go get some dinner.  My treat.”

Kai came over next to Bev, and squatted down in front of Mal.

“It’s been a tough time for you.  We’re going to get through this.  All of us together.”

Mal smiled.  “I know. 
It’s okay, I would be reaching for some serious medication for you if you were telling me the same thing.   Just try to trust in me, just a little, until I can prove to you that I’m not losing it.”

“Sure, babygirl.  How about I take both of you lovely women to town
for a nice hibachi dinner?  My treat.”

Mal nodded.  “Okay.  Let me clean up.  Bev do you need the bathroom?”

“No, you go ahead.  Let me know when you’re finished.”

Mal got up carefully and walked back into the house.

Kai looked at Bev.  “PTSD?”

“I think so.  She’s been kidnapped twice and Luka’s missing.  They drugged her and God knows with what, so she’s probably having a great deal of trouble dealing with all of that.  And you know your
daughter, she’s been trying to deal with it alone.  The last thing that girl will do is admit she’s having trouble and needs help.  But I’m on it, I’ll get her through it.  I guess I’d better call Kordalis and let him know I may not be back in two weeks.”

“Anything you need from
me, just let me know.”

“Your presence will make the difference.  She loves you.  You’re the most stable influence in her life.”

Kai rolled his eyes. “God help her then.”

“The last time she was truly happy was here with you and her mother.  Really, Kai, this place is good for her.”

“When she told me she was pregnant this morning, I was overjoyed.  I suppose that’s a figment of her imagination.”

“I think so.
Likely a coping mechanism. It’s going to be okay.  Above it all, that is one strong woman you raised there.”

“She’s amazing in spite of me, not because of.”

Bev paused and watched Kai’s face.  “You’ve had a lot of pain, too.  Let yourself be human, Kai.”

He moved closer and laid a hand on one of Bev’s cheeks.  “I think it’s time to move forward.  Step past the pain.  We can’t live for yesterday
when our lives are ahead of us, right?”

Bev felt it
, the flush, the sensuality.   She really liked the feel of his hand against her skin.  She was beginning to think Mal was very right about Hawaii.  This was a place of healing and it
was
paradise.

“They didn’t believe me.”  Mal smiled
, realizing she was already in a habit of speaking to her unborn child.  Maybe that seemed a little crazy, but she knew it wasn’t.  This child spoke to her in feelings, but she still understood exactly what her daughter meant.  This,
this strange reality
, the new world she had been drawn into, included things that most people would never understand, but it made it no less true. 

The greater question
now, was how could she find her child’s father?  She had already done a
people search
on the internet for men with the first name of Ahmose in South Africa, but it wasn’t uncommon, and she had no last name or address.

She
also was aware now, intuitively, that she wasn’t supposed to remember anything at all about him other than an exotic sensation of their time together.  As she thought of him naked, moving against her heated skin, her fingers, which had been curled around her belly, slid lower and brushed the top of her sex. 

The memories were coming back, hard and detailed, and she remembered him completely, every second, every touch,
every orgasm. 
And the memories that he had wiped flooded back.

Memories of Luka, dying, her own voice, pleading for Ahmose to save his life.
Ahmose, kind, gentle, couldn’t turn her away, so he had done so.  Ahmose, warning her that Luka would live, but she would never see him again.  Mal telling Ahmose it was the only choice. Then nothing.  She’d awakened without Ahmose
or
Luka.