Blood and Sand
Page 22

Fangs. The one named Ivan had bitten the girl’s neck and he had fangs. There had been blood and fangs and the horrible crunching sound of the monster’s neck as he was flung into the wall by Geor—Baojia’s… sword? Knife? Who the hell carried a knife that big? The one who smelled her had fangs, too. She’d seen them. He hissed at her like a snake. And then…
See that? You do not sniff what is mine. Do you understand?
The tears she’d held at bay started to roll down her cheeks and she felt Luis’s hand tighten on her elbow.
“Just a few more minutes, Natalie.”
Nausea rolled through her, tightening her stomach as Luis unlocked the car. She heard a terrible gasping sound and realized it was coming from her. Luis, to her surprise, laughed.
“A few too many cosmos, huh, Nat?” He guided her behind the Mercedes and put a hand on her back. “Better get rid of it now; he’s just gonna be more pissed if you mess up the car.”
She lost it, leaning over and emptying her stomach as the insane man stood next to her. She realized he was still talking with someone.
“—stubborn little thing. Someone’s companion at Boca was raving about the DJ here and she couldn’t get enough. The boss said he’d bring her, but I guess she got impatient. She’s new.”
“I don’t think it’s a big deal. I’m sure they’ll work it out.”
“Hope so. Baojia was pissed on the drive down here, that’s for sure.”
Natalie fumbled for her purse until she realized that Luis was holding it. Damn. If she could just get her keys…
She felt him nudging her Nlas r p up and waving goodbye to the man… monster… whatever he was… that had walked them out of the club.
“Few more minutes,” Luis whispered. He opened the door and gently helped her inside. Then he got in the front seat and immediately locked the doors.
“Okay,” he said, turning around to hand her a box of tissues and a bottle of water. “He’s out of hearing range, so unless they had guards I didn’t see, we’re safe to talk. You okay?” He did look concerned. He looked scared actually, as if he was waiting for her to collapse or explode or suddenly sprout antennae.
Which, considering what had just happened, was entirely possible.
Natalie glared at him, took the bottle of water, swished some in her mouth, then tried to open the door. She cocked her head silently at Luis, who turned to roll down a window so she could spit it out. She took another long drink of water, dabbed at the tears still staining her face, and turned to her… protector? Kidnapper? Chauffeur?
“What. The fuck. Was that?”
Luis let out a long breath. “Yeah… This is gonna be interesting.”
“Interesting?” Her angry tears dried and she felt the rage boiling up. “Interesting is not the word for what that was! Horrifying. Bizarre. Unreal—oh!” She gasped. “They spiked my drink. That was a hallucination.”
“Um, no it was—”
“Wait,” she said with a frown. “I didn’t drink anything. I specifically didn’t drink anything because I thought the bartender looked sketchy. I didn’t drink anything, so it couldn’t have been drugs.”
“Natalie—Ms. Ellis—I’m not sure which one you like, but—”
“Oh! No…” Her eyes widened. “It was some kind of airborne hallucinogen. They had those fog machines going and—”
“Natalie!”
She looked up, having almost forgotten she had an audience. “What?”
“You weren’t drugged. You weren’t having a hallucination. I saw the same thing you did in there.”
Her stomach plunged, and she felt the bile rising again. “Luis, open the door.”
“I cannot let you out, Nat—”
“Gonna puke again.”
“Oh.” He unlocked the door just in time for Natalie to lean out of the sedan, leaving the last of her lunch on the sidewalk in Ensenada. When she pulled her head back in, Luis was there with another bottle of water and a worried expression.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“That you had to see that.”
“And what…” She swirled and spit again, fairly confident there was nothing left in her stomach. “What the hell was that, Luis?”
“That, Natalie Ellis, was a vampire pissing match, and you were in the middle of it.”
“Vampires.”
“You’ve said that, like, five times now.”
They had been in the car for at least ten minutes and there was still no sign of Baojia. She was fairly sure that she could take Luis in a fight, though, so Natalie wasn’t all that worried. And she was pretty sure Luis was normal. Well, mostly. He did wear too much cologne.
“Still trying to wrap my head around that idea.” There was no such thing as vampires. Or werewolves. They were in the same category as Big Foot and the Chupacabra.
“I forget how weird it can be to someone who doesn’t know. I mean, I grew up around it so—”
“You grew up around it?” Her mouth dropped open in horror. “Around that?” She pointed at the club she could still hear music pulsing from.
“Huh? That? Oh no. Nooo.” He shook his head in horror. “Are you kidding? My mom—”
“Your mom knew?”
“Of course she did! I mean… No, not that. She would have freaked if we saw anything more violent than Tom and Jerry growing up. We were never—”