Pure Magic (Black Dog Book 3) (26 page)

“Well, but,” said Natividad, and looked at Keziah for help.

“You are not safe to be alone!” Keziah snapped. “And you
did
run away because of me! If you are killed and it is my fault, Grayson Lanning will kill me. Or cast me out, and then what would happen to Amira, if I am not there to protect her?”

“Oh, now, Grayson wouldn’t—” Natividad began.

Keziah curled her lip. “What do you know about it, Pure girl? You are not merely Pure, you have the blood of your father in your veins, proper Dimilioc blood! Everyone values
you
.
Black dog
girls are not valuable—”

“Grayson’s
wife
was a black dog!” Natividad said, out of patience because Keziah ought to
know
better. “You think
she
wasn’t valued?”

“
She
was Dimilioc!”

Natividad threw up her hands. “So are you!”

“Enough!” shouted Justin.

Natividad, startled, stopped. So did Keziah, though she gave him a narrow, dangerous look. Justin shook his head, made a noise like “Aargh,” and jammed both hands through his hair. Then he dropped onto one of the overstuffed chairs, rubbed his face, looked up, and said in a quiet, civil tone, “Natividad, what exactly is it that
you
want to do now?”

“Well,” said Natividad, and hesitated. Then she said in a rush, “Even if Ezekiel’s not—even if Grayson didn’t send Ezekiel to El Paso, we can’t come all this way and then not go on and at least find those black dogs. Not you, Justin, if you don’t want to, but honestly, I never meant to let you just go off to your grandmamá and leave you there to
stay
, you don’t know nearly enough—”

“I’ve heard all that before,” snapped Justin. “What do you think we should do?”

Natividad shrugged. “I think we should call those black dogs from here, find out what’s going on in El Paso right now. Then either we can go in and get them to help us kill this vampire, or if it sounds too dangerous, at least we can get them all out, take them back to Dimilioc with us—”

“We can call them?” said Justin

“I got their number off caller ID, of course, when they called Dimilioc,” Natividad said impatiently. “What? Like you really think I’d want to go in blind?”

“Who would wish to guess what you might do?” said Keziah.

Natividad ignored her. “We can’t just go back to Dimilioc without even
talking
to them! I mean, we thought all the Hammonds were gone, the bloodline lost, and now here are two Hammonds after all. And another Lanning, even! It will kill Grayson to lose them.” She turned to Keziah. “Honestly, you don’t need to worry. You’ll terrify them all -- and one of them’s even a girl, did I tell you? Her name’s Carissa, Carissa Hammond—”

Keziah tilted her head to one side, regarding Natividad with a contemptuous expression. “Can you truly imagine I would care?”

“Keziah,” Justin said, before Natividad could say anything unwise. “What do
you
want us all to do?”

The black dog girl paused. Then she shrugged. “It is important for me to return you to the safety of Dimilioc. I will do so. It is foolish to trespass on the territory of a vampire when we are not properly prepared. We should not approach El Paso, if there is a vampire there. I do not care about those black dogs, these Lanning and Hammond cousins. If there is a vampire and they do not have the strength to face it, then they should have the sense to run. I do not care if Natividad calls them and tells them to run.” She glanced at Natividad and lifted her shoulders in a slight, elegant shrug. “I do not even mind waiting for them. One day. Twelve hours, at least. If they do not come in that time, forget them. Or if the vampire follows them, let it have them. The Master believed they were dead before. He can accept that they are dead again. Let Dimilioc bring in new blood and forget the names it used to own.”

“Oh, now, that’s just wrong!” protested Natividad.

Keziah’s nostrils flared. “You think you are so clever, you always think you know just what to do, better than even the Dimilioc Master!”

This hit a little too close to the bone. Natividad stopped, not knowing how to answer, except by saying,
But I’m right
, which didn’t seem likely to make Keziah any happier.

“Enough!” said Justin, holding up both hands. “I guess we all know what the next step is, right? We call those black dogs in El Paso. Then we figure out what to do from there, right? We don’t need to argue until we know what we’re arguing
about
. Right? Natividad, you have a phone?

Natividad had a phone. She had turned it off because she hadn’t wanted to argue with Grayson or Ezekiel or anyone, and because she wasn’t sure whether maybe Grayson, or maybe Miguel, might be able to track her through her phone if she turned it on. She thought she sort of remembered something on a television show where someone had tracked someone else through a phone. Maybe that wasn’t really possible, but she didn’t know, so she had left hers off. She turned it on now.

Grayson had let Miguel buy phones for himself and for her. Miguel’s was a smartphone and could do everything. Hers was pink, and not very expensive, and could do nothing but make calls and take pictures. But it got an adequate signal even in Dimilioc. Here in Rattlesnake Springs, it got an excellent signal, perhaps because the land was so flat to the south and west and El Paso was not so very far away.

She dialed. The phone rang. And rang. Four times, five. Natividad looked at Justin, raising her eyebrows: maybe Christopher had put his phone down somewhere, maybe he had lost it? Maybe his phone had run out of its charge and it only sounded like it was ringing? Natividad tried to remember if you heard ringing when you called someone and their phone was dead. Maybe you got a busy signal? She began to shrug, and then there was the tone that meant someone had hit
talk
. “Oh,” said Natividad, half surprised because she had begun to believe no one would answer. “Christopher?”

“Yes!” said the young, half-familiar voice. Christopher Toland sounded tense. He’d sounded tense the other time, too, but there was now a tightness to his voice that she didn’t remember from the earlier call. He said again, “Yes? You’re there? I mean, here? Are you in Carlsbad? You’re not in El Paso, right? It’s bad, there, it’s really bad, it’s definitely a master vampire, you don’t want to go there, you’re Pure, right? Which is good, that’s good. Is Ezekiel there?”

“No,” Natividad said quickly. “I mean, not yet!” She wondered whether she should try to explain things. But Christopher was plainly scared enough already. She wondered if she should say
Cousin
and tell him her name. Had Miguel actually told him he had new cousins at Dimilioc? Had Grayson? She couldn’t remember. She said, “This is Natividad, Natividad Toland, Edward Toland’s daughter? I hope you and, and everybody are still safe! No one’s been hurt, have they? We’re here—I mean, not in Carlsbad, but in Rattlesnake Springs. So we’re close. We think maybe it would be best if you all came here, too, and then we can talk and make plans, okay?” She paused, but the quick, nervous voice on the other end didn’t answer. “Christopher?” she said.

On the other end of the connection, there was a long, slow exhalation, like air sighing out of a deep cavern. There was nothing about that sound that had ever been human.

Natividad dropped the phone. It turned end over end, seeming to fall very slowly. She watched it fall, standing frozen and blank, as unable to move as though she had suddenly turned to stone.

Keziah caught the phone. “Who are you?” she snapped into it, a savage black dog snarl underlying every word.

The thing whispered in answer, “What are you?” It paused and then asked again, “What are you?” Then it said, which was even worse, “I know what you are.” Its voice was desiccated, ancient, utterly inhuman. It sounded like wind sighing across sand. It sounded like a scorpion that had learned human speech. It sounded like a long-dead corpse, brought back to a grotesque semblance of life and given voice.

Keziah crushed the phone in her hand. Little black bits and shards of bright pink plastic cascaded to the rug. Keziah looked straight at Natividad and said, her voice hardly human, “You told him where we are.”

Natividad blinked. Her eyes felt gritty. She felt strange, like all her thoughts had slammed to a halt and also like everything in her head was running madly in circles, both at once. She had spoken to a vampire. It had spoken to her. She knew its
What are you
had been directed at her, not at Keziah. It had said
I know what you are
. It had
spoken
to her. That was almost like it had
touched
her.
Madre de dios
, she could still feel it
looking
at her as though all the distance between them was nothing—

Keziah strode forward, grabbed her by the shoulder, and slapped her. It was, for a black dog, a very gentle blow. But it rocked Natividad; she staggered and would have fallen except that Keziah did not let her go. And Justin had jumped forward and held her, too; she understood that after a moment. The shock of the blow had brought tears to her eyes, but it also seemed to shake loose her frozen thoughts. Natividad blinked and put her hands to her face. She whispered, “I did. I told it.”

“Who?” Justin asked urgently. “Who? That wasn’t your cousin, I get that, was it one of those ghoul-things, what do you call them, blood kin?”

“He will come here,” said Keziah, her eyes never leaving Natividad’s face. “He is coming now. We must run.” But she said it as though she already knew it was impossible.

“Not fast enough,” Natividad whispered. “We can’t run fast enough. It’s only twenty miles from here to Carlsbad. Less. I told it—Maria,
madre de dios
—we can’t run. It will have our scent. It will follow. It will catch us on the road. Dawn is too far away.
Madre de dios
.” She shook her head, trying to think.

“Was that the
vampire
?” Justin demanded. “Are you telling me that
twenty miles
isn’t enough of a head start?”

“It is not,” Keziah said flatly. “They can fly.”

“Don’t tell me they can
turn into bats
. Because I
won’t believe you
.”

“They don’t have to,” Natividad said numbly. “They just fly, that’s all.” She rubbed her face with her fingertips, hard, blinking. “Anyway, it will have made blood kin. Some of them will be out this far. Vampires like to spread their creatures out a long way . . .”

“Now wait,” protested Justin. “Blood kin are those monsters that look like ghouls and eat people. How exactly are they going to be lurking secretly in a little place like this? No miasma, remember?”

“The master vampire will hide its creatures,” Keziah said flatly. “So long as they stay close enough to their master, no one will see what they are. Twenty miles is close enough. Natividad is right. Some will be here already, in this town.”

Natividad nodded. “They’ll be
looking
for us—” she whispered.

Keziah raised her hand sharply, a threat, and Natividad flinched, but the black dog girl only said, “You are Pure. What should we do?”

Natividad stared at her. She took one breath. Another. She looked at Justin, who stared back, scared but steady. He had no idea. But that meant he could be like that, steady, a rock on which to brace herself. She looked at Keziah, slim and beautiful and deadly as a knife blade.
Keziah
wasn’t frozen with terror.

Natividad swallowed. Then she straightened her shoulders. “We’ll tell those women they have to run. They can warn people.” Everyone would listen. People had learned to take warnings seriously, during the war. Which had been over, until tonight. She blinked back tears of self-pity and fear and said, “Hiding won’t work. It knows we’re here. We need to finish putting crosses all along the foundation. I need to lay another mandala. We’ll find something to anchor it. The ladies here might have crucifixes or something. We should ask.” She took a deep breath, blinked, and added, “And we’ll call Grayson. He won’t be able to do anything—” not in time. “But we can warn him. If we—if—at least Dimilioc can kill this vampire. It won’t have time to build up its power or make too many more vampires or anything.”

It did help, to know that. She thought, looking at the other two, that Keziah also found comfort in the knowledge that the vampire would not long survive them, but that Justin did not. She understood them both. She began, “At least—” But then she stopped, staring blankly at nothing.

“What?” said Justin. He took a step forward and touched her arm. “Natividad, what?”

“There is something
else
wrong?” Keziah said, her tone disgusted as well as exasperated, hiding her fear behind anger.

Natividad shook her head, not in denial, but trying to sort out the stab of fear and fury that had suddenly flashed in jagged lightning across the back of her mind and flamed up in her heart. “Alejandro,” she said, understanding at last. “Something is wrong at home—something is wrong with Alejandro.” She took a step toward the window, peering out into the dark as though she might see her brother across all the miles that separated them.