Valley of the Shadow: An Elemental World Novella Page 3

  For the adults, a large library filled one bulkhead. The books were trapped behind clear plastic doors so they wouldn’t shuffle during takeoff and landing. There were also games, DVDs, and a video game console. A small kitchen was against the other bulkhead, along with several large storage areas that contained food.

  And blood. And blood-wine.

  Natalie tried not to shudder. This was going to be her life. Blood would be her primary sustenance. Though she would eat a small amount of human food, she would drink blood, a lot of it during her first year, if she had her facts correct. Just the idea was enough to weird her out.

  She loved it when Baojia bit her, so she didn’t know why the idea of biting him felt so weird. But it did. It definitely did.

  The adults had surrendered the television to the four drowsy children. Baojia, Lucien, Makeda, and Giovanni were all in the vampire sleeping compartments. Beatrice, who never slept, was reading a book behind Dez while Matt and Dez both stretched out on the sleeping couches.

  Dez and Matt’s daughter, Carina, was the oldest of the kids. She was sitting on the couch with Beatrice’s daughter, Sadia, between her legs. Sadia was sucking her thumb and leaning into Carina; the girls were clearly very close. Jake stretched out on the ground in front of the television while Sarah leaned against Dema’s side.

  Dema rarely spoke, but she kept a close eye on all the children and smiled a lot, seemingly content to watch her sixth straight animated movie of the trip.

  Sarah had already taken a liking to the quiet nanny, which made Natalie regret she couldn’t lure Dema away from Giovanni and Beatrice.

  Of course, Dema was also a former soldier with medical training who acted as a bodyguard, spoke five languages, and could fly the plane in an emergency. Natalie was pretty sure Jake and Sarah wouldn’t need that level of nanny-ing.

  She turned in her seat. “Where did you hire Dema?”

  Beatrice looked up from her book. “It was a process, but Matt helped, so I’m sure he can consult with you guys if you feel like you need extra help. She was working for a friend of his in Madrid, but she wanted to get back to the West Coast, so it worked out.”

  “Where is she from?”

  “Orange County,” Beatrice said. “Her parents are Syrian, so she speaks Syrian Arabic like a native, but she grew up in Anaheim. Language fluency wasn’t a requirement for Sadia’s nanny, but it was definitely a plus. We wanted her to grow up speaking both Arabic and English fluently and my skills are still developing. Giovanni’s are better, but Dema helps a lot.”

  “Yeah, the plan was for Baojia to only speak Mandarin with the kids and me to only speak English, but we kind of fall down on that. Jake’s Mandarin is pretty good, but Sarah’s is spotty.”

  “What do they speak with each other?”

  “English,” Natalie said. “Unless they’re trying to be mean and they think Dad can’t hear them. Then it’s Mandarin because they know I only get every other word.”

  Beatrice laughed. “Kids.”

  “Tiny hellions,” Natalie said quietly. “And we have two. I’m probably going to have to pay double what you do.”

  Beatrice pursed her lips. “I highly doubt that unless you need someone with a pilot’s license.”

  “Good point.” She crossed her arms on the back of the seat and rested her chin. “It’s so weird. I still feel totally normal. I have a sore spot on my left boob. That’s about it.”

  “The dizzy spells?”

  “Once I started getting more sleep, they seemed to go away. Lucien doesn’t even think my initial fainting was related to the cancer, but fortunately it forced me to get a physical.”

  “Who found it? Lucien?”

  Natalie shook her head. “Makeda. I love Lucien, but I’m more comfortable with Mak.”

  Beatrice smiled. “I’m glad she came. I’m looking forward to getting to know her better.”

  “You’ll love her. So will Sadia and Carina. She’s great.”

  “But you’re still determined that you want Lucien to…?” Beatrice bared her fangs and made a biting motion.

  Natalie couldn’t stop the smile. “Yeah. I mean, it would be weird to have Baojia’s immortal child sire his wife, wouldn’t it?”

  Beatrice waved a hand. “Not really. I can think of five or six vampires whose families look like that, actually. Carwyn’s daughter is the one who sired his wife, Brigid, though they weren’t involved at the time. Immortal families don’t look anything like human ones. I mean, Giovanni’s son kidnapped and sired my father, who eventually sired me.” She spread her hands. “Not considered odd by anyone we know.”

  Natalie shook her head. “Vampires are superweird.”

  “Aren’t we? I know.” A shadow crossed Beatrice’s face.

  “Are you worried about Ben?” Natalie had heard their adopted nephew had changed, but she didn’t know the details and she didn’t want to pry.

  “He’s doing okay.” Beatrice glanced at Sadia. “He hasn’t really called since he went to Mongolia. We just get reports from his sire’s assistant. The first few months can be a blur, and you lose track of time a lot, so we’re trying not to worry.”

  Natalie nodded. “Still, I’m sure you’d rather he was with you.”

  The faint lines around Beatrice’s eyes tightened. “He’s where he needs to be. Besides, that means you can be in Cochamó. So maybe things worked out exactly like they were supposed to.”

  Natalie could tell Beatrice was still torn. “Are you and Giovanni sure—”

  “The cabin in Cochamó is perfectly set up to keep you and the whole family safe,” Beatrice reassured her. “It’s where I spent my first year. The cabin is up in the mountains, so I stayed there and Gio went back and forth. Ben stayed at Isabel and Gustavo’s house in the valley.”

  “And he liked it?”

  “Are you kidding? It’s a cattle ranch with horses and dogs and goats and a million chickens. They go river rafting and rock climbing. Forests everywhere. Ben had his own horse. He ran all over the place; it’s kid heaven. Plus Gus still has human family who run the ranch, so there are lots of people to be with the kids during the day.”

  Natalie smiled. “It sounds great. Jake might never want to leave.”

  “It was hard getting Ben to leave some years because we’d spend summers down here. And summer for us is their winter! We’re headed straight into the nicest time of year.”

  “I keep forgetting that. We’re going to sun! Actual sun.”

  Beatrice nodded. “Yep, summer for Christmas. The weather is perfect right now.”

  Her smile felt forced. “Gotta soak up the rays while I can.”

  Beatrice took a long breath. “Yeah.”

  “Yeah.”

  Beatrice got out of her seat, walked around the couch, and sat next to Natalie, putting her arms around her. “It’s going to be hard at first. And then it’s going to get better. There are lots of isolated places in the mountains for you to go, so you won’t feel cooped up. The farmhouse is about two miles away from the cabin, so you’ll be far enough away to feel like you won’t be a danger. I promise, it’s the best place I can think of for your family to be.”

  “And Carwyn’s family—”

  “They’re amazing.” Beatrice glanced at the locked compartments. “Since Lucien is going to sire you, you’re going to be an earth vampire, which Carwyn’s entire family is. So it’s perfect. Seriously, you’ll feel so at home you’ll probably never want to leave.”

  Natalie leaned her head on Beatrice’s, trying to wrap her mind around being confined to a strange place for a year with no option to leave. “It’s going to be fine.”

  “I promise it will. It might not seem that way all the time, but it’s going to be okay.” She squeezed Natalie tight. “Remember, you’re not alone.”

  Cochamó Valley, Chile

  Baojia rode at the back of the party, keeping watch over the children who’d all been rocked to sleep by the movement of the horses as they rode into t
he valley. The moon filtered through the dense foliage, illuminating the narrow track they were taking through the forest.

  Carwyn’s son Gustavo had met them at the end of the road—which was literally the end to a road that ran along the coast, over the mouth of a river, and through the mountains until it ended in a dirt track—to lead them into the heart of the isolated refuge in the impenetrable mountain valleys of Patagonia.

  The whole party had mounted horses with the children riding along with the adults. Dez and Matt were excited and talking softly while Carina slept in the saddle in front of Matt. It was their first time in the valley, but they’d heard a lot about it over the years.

  Lucien and Makeda rode silently next to each other, a tall, regal-looking pair who would be at home in some kind of imperial procession rather than riding workhorses to a cattle ranch. Dema watched them both with undisguised interest.

  Beatrice was far more comfortable in the saddle than Baojia had expected. She was riding next to Natalie, who had Jake sitting in front of her.

  Giovanni fell back and rode next to Baojia, Sadia sleeping curled up in front of him, not unlike how Sarah was sleeping on Baojia.

  “Are you comfortable?” the fire vampire asked.

  “I haven’t ridden a horse in roughly a hundred years, but I guess it’s a little like riding a bike.” It probably helped that they were walking slowly through a relatively even section of the forest and the trail followed a river.

  “It’s not too much farther. Maybe an hour or two.”

  Giovanni looked at home on a horse, and Baojia was reminded again how old the man was. He’d been alive for over five hundred years. Cars were still new technology.

  “What’s it like?” Baojia asked. “To be able to move around the world so quickly now? Yesterday we were in Los Angeles.”

  “It’s astonishing.” He smoothed a hand down Sadia’s back, and the little girl sighed deeply. “She’ll never know a world where the entirety of the globe isn’t a few days’ journey away. Astonishing.”

  Baojia thought of the weeks he’d spent crossing the Pacific Ocean in a steamship, crowded into accommodations far less comfortable than a private jet. “It is astonishing.”

  “In some ways it’s made everything far simpler.”

  “And far more complicated in others,” Baojia said.

  “Yes.”

  Baojia debated asking the question, but he was rabidly curious. “Can I ask you about Ben?”

  Giovanni’s eyes flicked to Lucien. “It’s complicated.”

  “Family usually is.” Baojia had only heard rumors, but he knew Giovanni was right. “He’ll be all right. Most of my own security staff aren’t as tough as your nephew.”

  Giovanni glanced at Sadia. “She’s going to miss him. Ben is one of her favorites. They usually talk on the computer once a week. So far we’ve been able to distract her, but she’s beginning to ask more often.”

  The Italian didn’t say what he was probably thinking: far harder to distract two growing and curious children from missing their own mother.

  Baojia glanced at his daughter. Sarah was an even mix of Natalie and Baojia, unlike Jake, who was a small carbon copy of his father. Her dark hair curled slightly, like Natalie’s did. Sarah’s skin was fair, and she had freckles across her nose. Her eyes were brown like his, but her chin and nose were the exact shape of his wife’s.

  He knew other vampires wondered how he and Natalie had conceived children who so obviously resembled both biological parents when natural conception was impossible.

  Other vampires could mind their own business.

  Sarah began to slump to one side, and Baojia nudged her back into place. “She’ll enjoy all these trees when she’s awake, though I may have to lock her up during the day to keep her from breaking all her limbs. She wants to climb everything.”

  Giovanni looked at Sarah, then at Sadia. “Does the complete and abject terror ever go away?”

  Baojia looked up. “You tell me. How old is Caspar now?”

  Giovanni smiled sadly. “I know it sounds odd, but I didn’t worry the same way about Caspar when he was small. He was a Jewish child living in England during World War II. The terror of German bombs and Nazi invasion seemed far more pressing than the terror of climbing trees or childhood illness.”

  “That doesn’t sound odd.” Baojia hadn’t known any of that about Caspar’s background. He’d only known that Giovanni had adopted Caspar when he was a boy and raised him overseas. “That sounds practical. You have to prioritize threats.”

  Giovanni mused, “Caspar was such a survivor—it didn’t even occur to me that he wouldn’t make it to adulthood. Isn’t that strange?”

  “She’s a survivor too.” Baojia nodded at Sadia. “And she has a large family now who will do anything to keep her safe. And a nanny trained in krav maga.”

  Giovanni smiled. “Is it that obvious?”

  “There’s an efficiency about the way she moves,” Baojia said. “I’ve seen it most in professionals trained in krav maga. It was a guess.”

  “A good one.”

  “Guessing is my job,” Baojia said. “We only call it threat assessment because it looks better on business cards. But to answer your question”—Baojia glanced down at Sarah—“no. In my experience, the terror never leaves you. Small humans are remarkably fragile. It’s amazing they’re even born, isn’t it?” He brushed a lock of Sarah’s hair from her eyes. “An everyday miracle. Every night they get a little sturdier. A little stronger.” His eyes moved to Jake. “But even then—even when they’re grown like Ben—we will always worry. And with good reason. We know the worst of what this world can be.”

  “We do.” Giovanni’s face was stoic. “I try to remember the best it can be to keep myself sane.”

  Chapter Four

  Beatrice felt the energy of familiar ground in her blood. Though she wasn’t an earth vampire, every rock and stream of the valley felt familiar. The crystal-clear night sky soothed her eyes, and the smell of the wind settled her heart.

  Home.

  She’d been returning to this place every year for as long as she’d known Giovanni Vecchio. She came here to heal. She came here to grieve. She came to find joy in stolen moments of peace and a pure river that quenched her soul. Waterfalls that dotted the slopes of the mountains and a winding river that cut through the valley.

  Cochamó was home. And now she got to share it with the people who had become her chosen family. She hadn’t been painting a rosy picture for Natalie because of her circumstances. There was no better place to make the transition to immortal life.

  As they broke through the trees and into the clearing that marked the boundaries of the grazing land, Giovanni rode up beside her and reached for her hand. She squeezed it, knowing he was thinking the same thing she was.

  “I wanted it to be here for him.”

  “I know.”

  Even thinking of Ben made her heart hurt. “Do Isabel and Gustavo know?”

  “I’m sure Carwyn told them.”

  “Are he and Brigid here yet?”

  “They are. Carwyn has been helping Carla with something, and I’m not sure what it is. But he’s been in Peru for a while. I think Brigid just joined him.”

  “Peru?”

  “Or Bolivia?” Giovanni shrugged. “I’m honestly not sure.”

  Carwyn’s daughter Carla was Gus’s twin sister, and the only one of Carwyn’s living children Beatrice had never met. She was notoriously reclusive and didn’t often leave the wilderness.

  “Is Carla in Cochamó?”

  Giovanni shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  Beatrice saw lights in the distance and the red-gold flicker of a campfire. As they approached, a shout went up, and soon after the sound of horses galloping drew toward them.

  Sadia woke from her perch in Giovanni’s arms and looked around. “Baba?”

  “Yes, Sadia?”

  “We home?” She yawned.

  “We are i
n the adventure place,” Giovanni said. “Remember?”

  “Mmm.” She pressed her face into Giovanni’s chest. “Ben?”

  “No, Sadia. Ben isn’t here this time.”

  Beatrice listened to their quiet conversation. Sadia still didn’t speak as much as other children, but Beatrice was beginning to think that was just her personality. She spoke when she wanted to, but she was an observer by nature.

  Giovanni was endlessly patient. When Beatrice became overwhelmed, frustrated, or worried, he was a well of calm. He never called Sadia by anything but her name. There were no nicknames like the teasing “princesa” that Isadora and Beatrice used for the little girl when she was being obstinate. Giovanni called their daughter Sadia, and in his mouth their child’s name sounded like a blessing.

  Four horses from the ranch drew close, and Beatrice saw who rode them. Carwyn was at the front, his red hair flying up in the wind. He wore a colorful wrap around his shoulders and a grin on his face. When he reached the party, he went directly to Natalie.

  “There you are.” He reached across and enveloped her in a wild embrace. “I’m so glad you came to us.” He sat back and put his hand on her cheek. “What a clever woman you are.”

  Jake was sitting upright, blinking his eyes. “Mom?”

  “Jakey, this is our friend Carwyn. This house belongs to his family.”

  The boy took a deep breath and yawned. “V-vampire?”

  “Indeed I am.” Carwyn stuck his hand out to Baojia. “Good to see you, my friend. It has been too long.”

  “Thank you,” Baojia said solemnly. “I will never be able to repay you for welcoming us like this.”

  “These aren’t debts we keep track of, are they?” Carwyn’s smile never wavered. “Not between friends.”