Blood and Sand
Page 34

“So he’d notice someone dumping bodies on his front lawn?”
The woman had the most amusing way of stating things at times. “Exactly.”
“So when he said ‘There’s more.’ You think that’s what he was referring to? More bodies? If Tulio doesn’t like vampires wandering around and there are more bodies—maybe some that the police haven’t found but he has—why hasn’t he stopped them? It sounds like it would be characteristic of him, from what you’ve said.”
He grimaced. The human was becoming more attractive with every intelligent observation. “Yes, he would stop them. If he knew where they were. But I also noticed there was no strong vampire scent around the girl’s body.”
“I thought you said she was killed by a vampire.”
“She was.” He saw the entrance and stood back, letting their host become aware of them in his own time. Baojia glanced at the dark, empty horizon; he was beginning to worry about the sun.
“But you said—”
“There was vampire scent all over the body.” Tulio’s voice broke through the night. Good, he wasn’t wasting time on power displays. He hardly needed to; they were on his turf. The vampire’s head popped up from the crease of hills where his home was buried. “But there’s no scent of our kind leading to or away from the bodies.”
“They were dumped during the day,” Baojia said, nodding at Tulio and still holding on to Natalie’s hand.
Natalie’s eyes widened in understanding. “Left by humans, not vampires.”
“Yes.” The big vampire waved them over. “Come on in. Bring your woman. Cirilda has some food made for her.”
He climbed up the hill and then over to see a small door, barely visible if you weren’t looking, tucked into the sandstone rocks and partially obscured by a convenient stand of mesquite bushes. Tulio was disappearing inside.
“Wow. It’s like a dugout,” Natalie said.
“It is a dugout. Earth vampires like to live underground.”
“Well, that makes sense… inasmuch as any of this makes sense.”
He smiled. “You’ll get used to it.”
Baojia ushered her over the hill, ducking inside before her out of caution. It was a spacious room hollowed out of the sandstone hills, far cooler than the air outside. Smooth walls had been decorated with beauti fledege suful woven clothes and pictures he suspected Tulio’s human had painted. Two dark passageways led farther back in the hill, but the room was lit by gas lamps and a few candles, creating a cozy, welcoming home. Their host was sitting at a large wooden table with his woman, a Tarahumara Indian from Copper Canyon in Northern Mexico, who was pouring a mug of something from a clay jug. He motioned to the two chairs across from him as Cirilda moved back to the small kitchen area in the corner.
“My woman will get you some water.”
It was more than just a friendly gesture from the vampire. Since Baojia was a water vampire and could use any water as a weapon, an offer of it was a gesture of trust, so he nodded in thanks. “I thank you, Tulio.”
“No need to be formal. What’s your human called?”
She spoke up for herself. “I’m Natalie.”
“Natalie, you may help Cirilda if you like.”
“Excuse me?”
Baojia grabbed Natalie’s hand, squeezing before she exploded at the man. Cirilda, who looked to be in her early fifties, barked something over her shoulder that made the other vampire smile, and Baojia knew Tulio was teasing in his own odd way. “My woman’s skills don’t lie in the kitchen, Tulio. But thank you for the offer.”
Natalie made an odd whining sound that told him she was biting her tongue.
He cleared his throat and dove into the issue at hand. “There are more bodies.”
Tulio nodded. “Thirty-four. All dropped off during the day. Usually in groups of three or four. Sometimes more. I buried them; Cirilda said words so their spirits could rest.”
“Thirty-four?” Natalie whispered, as horrified as he was.
“Are all of them marked as she was?” Baojia asked.
“Marked?” Natalie said. “I didn’t see anything. Marked how?”
Tulio looked to him, letting Baojia explain. “There were multiple bite marks on the girl, Natalie. They had been healed by vampire blood, which can mend surface wounds. That’s why you couldn’t see them, but they are visible to our sight for some time.”
He saw Tulio lift an eyebrow in his direction and knew the other vampire had spotted the faint bite marks that were still visible on Natalie’s neck. Luckily, the man didn’t say anything.
“So more than one vampire drank her blood,” she said. “Is that normal? It seems like you all don’t share very well from what I’ve seen.”
“Smart girl,” Tulio said. “No, it’s not normal. But then something in her blood isn’t all that normal, either.”
Baojia looked at him. “So it wasn’t just me?”
“No. And the other girls were the same. There’s something… sour about their blood. What’s left of it. Smells fermented almost.”
“That’s what I thought, too.” He didn’t know how old Tulio was, but it was far older than him. “Have you ever—?”
“No. Never smelled anything like it.”
Natalie said, “Could there be something different about these girls? Something about their blood that makes the vampire feeding from them lose control?” She looked between Baojia and Tulio. “Like a drug or something? Alcohol? Speed? And are you sure it’s more than one vampire, or could it be multiple bites from the same one?”