Twice Bitten (53 page)

“I’ll never leave you again, Txema,” he told me softly, his breath tingling my neck as he pulled his warm body up tightly against mine. “I swear this upon my soul.”

Lately, trouble seemed to always find me. Yet, in that moment I felt protected and at peace from all of life’s craziness. Completely exhausted from everything going on, I quickly fell asleep…but with a smile in my heart and upon my face.

Racco’s promise to me was the last thing I thought about.

Chapter 17

I didn’t awaken until the next morning, when the dawn’s light peered in through the lone uncovered window in Racco’s bedroom. We had just arrived in Paris. I thought for sure that someone—namely Racco himself—would’ve awakened me beforehand, so I could brace myself for the brief jolt of the plane hitting the runway. Not to mention the urgency to protect Alaia from flying across the room in her bassinet.

That thought alone got me rushing out of bed. But, when I peered into the bassinet, it lay empty. Panicked, I threw on my clothes and had barely zipped up my slacks as I scurried out of the bedroom and raced down the hall, shouting for Racco and my baby.

“We are right here,” he calmly called to me from the front of the plane. “Come, and see for yourself that everything is okay.”

He was sitting in his preferred leather chair with Alaia in his arms, and she seemed content until Mommy arrived. She immediately raised her arms for me, which was something she could barely do even as recent as the evening before.

“She will grow up faster than you can even imagine,” he said, surely in response to the look of surprise on my face. I felt a little self-conscious as I took her from him, since I’m sure my makeup was a complete mess and that I looked a lot less appealing than I had when we said goodnight. He, on the other hand, looked as if he had showered and shaved already. He was dressed in comfortable jeans and a peach colored shirt similar to the one he wore the previous night. “And, you worry far too much!”

“Did you just read my mind?”

I looked at him suspiciously, since his response certainly fit my worried thoughts. Alaia made a sound that almost sounded like a giggle. I wondered, for a moment, if I had two telepathic voyeurs in the passenger cabin with me.

“No, Txema, I’m not gifted like the vampires in that way,” he said, chuckling amusedly. “It’s only an observation that comes from many, many years of dealing with the heavier burden of vanity that all women carry, as opposed to the much lighter one we men have been dealt.”

Easy for someone like him to say, I’m sure. I highly doubt that most gorgeous, insanely rich men in the prime of life can relate to the ‘spring flower’ cycle a woman deals with. Granted, I’m quite young for a mother, and technically still a teenager as I write this. But, I have a cousin that will be twenty-seven in December, and when I last saw her at twenty-five, she looked nothing like she once did at my age. Three kids and a philandering husband are partly responsible for that. But, there aren’t many women who can keep an even pace with their aging male counterparts. Unless they become vampires, where aging and fighting gravity are no longer issues to contend with.

“So, how long will we be here?” I peered through a window on the opposite side of the plane from where he sat. Alaia continued to make giggling noises while I marveled at how deserted the tarmac looked. “We are in Paris, correct?”

“Yes, this is definitely the Charles de Gaulle Airport that we’re sitting in,” he confirmed. “You’re not used to the curfews in Europe that make it difficult to travel for airliners. Good thing I have my own jet with friends throughout this continent to pull strings for me, eh?”

“What? Or, else we’d still be back in Nashville—is that your point?” I taunted playfully, while returning my attention to him.

“Actually, your lovely behind would likely still be somewhere in Nepal, since your flight from Kathmandu to Frankfurt and then to the States was also arranged through personal friends of mine,” he said. “Of course, you have the option of traveling by vampire, as well. But, that can take some time since supernatural or not, they do need to take breaks while traveling from one region to the next.”

I almost said something else smartass about how they might incinerate at daybreak traveling like that, but then thought better of it. At the same time, I started to feel nausea from my hunger, since the stuffed crab from my lunch with Peter was the last thing I’d eaten.

“I will have a fabulous brunch prepared for you!” said Racco, who stood up after he heard my stomach’s rumble and moved over to the bar, where he opened a small refrigerator. “In the meantime, this should tide you over.”

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 advised, chuckling some 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 advised, while rocking Alaia in his arms like a proud papa. I couldn’t be more proud…and suddenly felt quite tired again.

“You did put something in this!” I accused him. 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.”

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

“Time to buckle up again!” Racco enthused, 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 that Racco told me was true…twice. So, as the jetlagged exhaustion continued to grow worse, 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. Then 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 love, rise and shine!”

Lying on my stomach, I craned my neck to where I could clearly 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 down 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 told him. “Just give me a few minutes to get myself together, and I’ll join you. I take it that 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 said, grinning impishly. “But we have taken pains to make sure our improvised dining area lives up to your high standards, my chérie amore!”

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

“I’ll wait fifteen minutes and return for you, unless you prefer to take a shower first 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 a cream colored blouse and jeans had 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, Le chateau de douleur, 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 protested, 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 was being held at the moment by Mercel. 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 immediately 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 Alaia wasn’t approaching five to six weeks in actual age.

“Well, what do you think?” Racco motioned to the 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 that day, I surely would’ve needed the coffee. But whatever was in the breakfast drink Racco gave me had completely eradicated my exhaustion and disorientation from the jetlag. I felt great.