The Vampires' Birthright (30 page)

He pulled out a parfait glass that looked as if it had a chocolate shake poured into it, and brought it over to me.

“Drink this,” he said, while motioning for me to hand Alaia over to him again. “It will take you a few minutes to drink it all, so why not sit down with me?”

“Why, does this have a drug in it or something?”

“No, there is no Rohypnol or anything else, other than vitamins and things that completely nourish the human body,” he said, chuckling more while reclaiming his seat with my daughter cradled in his arms.

“Ah, so it has perhaps the same ingredients as that crazy pill you gave me when we were about to ski down that mountain in the Pyrenees, huh?”

“Sort of,” he said. “Will you at least taste it, damn it?”

Tough words delivered with a silver-tongue and devilish smile.

I took a sip, and then another, and another until I nearly gulped it all down. It was delicious, and my ravenous hunger made it nearly impossible to heed Racco’s advice to drink it slowly.

“Now, in four or five hours, when you wake up for good, we’ll share an excellent brunch,” he said, while rocking Alaia in his arms like a proud papa.

I couldn’t be more proud or very, very tired.

“You did put something in this!” I yelled, hearing the slur in my voice. The tiredness damn near rivaled my experience from the night before, when I could barely keep it together long enough to climb under the bedcovers. “What in the hell did you put in it?”

“Nothing harmful, Txema,” he said. “The truth is that you haven’t slept very long at all since last night. You were asleep for less than four hours. Paris is seven hours ahead of Nashville. If you take time to ‘do the math,’ as they say, you’ll see this is true, and that you woke up at what would’ve been 11:30 p.m. Nashville time, which corresponds to 6:30 a.m. in Paris. It’s not even seven o’clock yet, seeing daylight after retiring in the dark is what has thrown you off.” The times and numbers and cities he was throwing at me were coming so fast and confusing and my eyelids were so heavy that I couldn’t think straight.

I started to protest how this couldn’t be true, when one of the pilots peered into the cabin. He announced that we’d soon take off for our next destination.

“Time to buckle up again!” Racco said, half jesting and half concerned. “I really think you’re going to like, no,
love
, today’s destination!”

I reluctantly put on my restraint, while I ‘did the math’ in my head. I should mention here that I have always scored quite high for ‘logic’ in every type of intelligence test I’ve been given the past few years. But for math, even though it is directly related to logic, I suck…
really
badly.

By the time we were airborne again, I had worked the numbers three different times, and gotten the same answer Racco told me was true… twice. The jetlagged exhaustion continued to grow worse, and once the airplane climbed back into the clouds, I allowed him to lead me back to the bedroom. He coerced my reluctant agreement to let him take care of my baby girl, too. I gave my word not to leave the room again until he came back to get me, when the fabulous brunch he promised to provide was ready.

“Txema… Txema, my sweet, rise and shine!”

Lying on my stomach, I craned my neck up until could see Racco standing over me. He smiled down at me, an amused glint shining in his beautiful blue eyes.

“Perhaps you would prefer to sleep a little longer?” He sat gently beside me. His right hand, so strong, felt wonderful as he rubbed my back. “I can have Julius, my chef, hold off on your beloved crepes until you are ready.”

“No, no, that won’t be necessary,” I said. “Just give me a few minutes to get myself together and I’ll join you. I take it we’ll eat somewhere near the front of the plane, or do you have a dining room aboard this fine vessel of yours?”

“Actually, with such a nice bedroom, bathroom, and a kitchen large enough for someone like Julius to maneuver and work his magic―not to mention sleeping quarters for the servants at the back of the plane and the pilots behind the cockpit―there is no place left for a dining room, alas.” He grinned impishly. “But we have taken pains to make sure our improvised dining area lives up to your high standards,
ma
chérie amore
!”

That brought a giggle, and he laughed along with me.

“I’ll wait fifteen minutes and return for you, unless you prefer to take a shower before eating,” he said, and got up to leave.

“If Julius can hold off for twenty minutes, I can be totally ready, although I don’t have anything clean to wear,” I said.

“Yes you do, something casual but still sexy.” He pointed to the cot, where jeans and a cream-colored blouse ad been laid out for me, along with underwear, as well. He seemed uncomfortable once he followed my gaze that lingered on the panties and bra. “I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty long ago to find out your size from Raquel, in case an emergency such as this ever arose.”

“Just as long as they’re clean and they fit, I won’t have any qualms about wearing them.” I shot him my own impish look.

“Okay, then. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

I waited for him to close the bedroom door behind him to get out of bed. As I expected, the adjoining bathroom was quite nice—actually a little overboard in my mind with the black marble tiles and what looked like solid gold faucet handles. Even the commode was dressed up like this. But, I suppose when you have nothing better to spend your billions on, then anything goes. Not to mention the same waterfall jets that were in his French castle had been installed in this particular aircraft.

All my shampoo, toothpaste, and makeup preferences were here, which made me believe that either Raquel or one of my other vampire guardians had given an entire list of my personal products and preferences to Racco. I doubted this information came from Garvan or Armando. Nor did it seem likely it came from Chanson.

Anyway, having everything I needed right at my fingertips allowed me to beat the twenty minutes I committed to, with at least a minute to spare. I had just put on my shoes from the day before, which weren’t a complete fashion faux pas, when Racco returned for me.

“Well, I must say you look even better than I anticipated,” he said, studying me for a moment with admiring eyes. “Regardless of what you wear, you always look like a goddess.”

Such flattery. Yes, every woman loves a gracious compliment. But, in the short time I’d been dealing with immortals, both human and vampire, I had already learned the importance of having a well-calibrated bullshit meter on at all times.

“Hmmm… I’ll do my best to live up to such a lofty statement,” I said, adding a knowing smirk to let him know his words were under official review.

“No, I’m serious, Txema!” he said, wearing a pained look that was at the same time playful. “I mean what I say. You are that beautiful.”

Without waiting for another comeback from me, he gently took my hand and led me to the front of the plane. The first thing I looked for was my precious daughter, who Mercel held at the moment. Dressed in a cute light blue ‘onesie,’ she seemed enthralled with his slightly elongated nose and was trying to grab hold of it. But that fascination came to an end as soon as she saw me. As she had earlier that morning, Alaia reached out for me to take her.

“Hey, baby girl!” I squealed while taking her from Mercel. “Mommy’s missed you so much… yes, she has!”

As amazing as all of the luxurious castles, boats, jets, and palaces that I had been inside of these past six months, to my heart they paled terribly in comparison to the loving look my daughter gave me. And as Racco commented earlier, her growth utterly astounded me. Every day she showed something beyond a subtle difference from the day before. Not even a week old yet, even Mercel found it hard to believe that she wasn’t approaching five to six weeks in actual age.

“Well, what do you think?” Racco motioned to a table that had been set up in front of the window next to the passenger cabin exit door. “This may be much more than you or I, or even Mercel, Stephen, and Julius can consume in a single afternoon.”

Try two or three such afternoons, Racco dear. The crepes smelled incredibly good. Along with them, Julius had cooked an omelet, bacon, and added fresh fruit and what looked like fruit preserves. Everything was piled high, and there was no way in hell all of us could eat this much food in a day, much less in one meal.

“Would you like champagne, wine, or coffee?” said Mercel. “Or, we have water if you prefer.”

If this had been served earlier, I surely would’ve needed the coffee. But whatever was in the breakfast drink Racco gave me had eradicated my exhaustion and disorientation from the jetlag. I felt great.

“Champagne, please.”

Racco motioned for me to sit next to him, and I dug in. Literally. Of course, once I had eaten enough to curb the initial hunger, I noticed he hardly had placed anything on his plate. It occurred to me that he rarely ate much in my presence. It was a question that I meant to ask him about before, but one that was definitely inappropriate at that moment. Not unless I was prepared to feel like a cow if the half crepe he took was all this powerfully built man required for nourishment.

“So, when are you going to tell me where we’re going today?”

“It might be better to give you a little hint first, although I don’t expect for you to recognize the geography below us,” he said, motioning out the window.

The angle of the sun indicated mid to late afternoon… maybe three to four o’clock. It sucked not having a watch handy.

“How long did I sleep?” I asked, while trying to get a decent view of the earth below us. Mountainous terrain stretched out for miles below in any direction. “It looks like it’s way past brunch time.”

“You slept for six hours, which your body needed,” said Racco, looking over my shoulder at the view below. “Right now it would be 1:20 p.m. in Paris, but we are three hours to the east in time zones. It is 4:20 p.m. thirty thousand feet below us, in Karachi, Pakistan.”

“Is Pakistan where we’re headed?”

I couldn’t hide the stress in my voice as it cracked. I sought to reconcile his statement about loving our next destination.

“You really do think I’m full of shit, don’t you?” He chuckled again. “I made a promise to Gustav not to tell you where we’re going, despite the fact Ralu could never reach you there even if he did know your exact whereabouts.”

“So, I guess you’re not going to tell me, huh?” I smiled, and hoped he understood that I already regretted my earlier statement. I wanted to believe in Racco so badly, but it was going to be an ongoing war within my heart for a while.

“We’ll see,” he said, wearing a Cheshire grin. “For now, I will tell you this. It isn’t in Pakistan, and we’re not going back to Nepal or to Kazikli’s ancient fortress in India. Our destination is one of the most beautiful places in all of the world.”

“I’ve got images of Fiji, with white sand beaches and soft ocean breezes,” I said, thinking of the last summer vacation I took with my parents and brothers. It was my high school graduation gift, which I could’ve spent with friends. I wanted it to be with my family instead. It made me feel sad, but at the same time grateful for something to look back on fondly. “What can be better than that?”

“You’ll see.”

“Where we’re going is better than Fiji?”

“Yes.”

“And it has fantastic beaches that aren’t crowded and where the evening breezes caress your face as you walk hand and hand with someone special?”

“Yes, again,” he said, pausing to study me. His eyes turned slightly brighter. “And there are freshwater lagoons fed by amazing waterfalls, too. My little island has it all!”

“Your
island?” I wasn’t completely incredulous. After all, Racco could state he had a space station at this point and I’d only be slightly surprised. “Where is it?”

“Ah, there you see?” He laughed. “I knew it would come down to me having to tell you, and I will. But I can’t tell you yet… not until we are hundreds of miles from the mainland and over the Indian Ocean. That should keep us safe enough from certain flying vampires bent on killing everyone on this plane, especially you and Alaia.”