Page 10 of Valley of the Shadow
His jaw clenched, but Baojia looked into Natalie’s eyes. She nodded.
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “That gives us a few weeks to plan.”
“Trust me,” Beatrice said. “I know the perfect place for the holidays.”
Chapter Three
Natalie lounged on the couch of the private jet, drifting in and out of sleep. The sixteen-hour journey from Los Angeles to the remote valley in Chile was nearly halfway over. They’d be stopping in Panama for fuel soon, then another eight hours would take them to Santiago where they’d do a quick stop to take care of paperwork before they continued on to Puerto Montt.
In Natalie’s experience, nothing beat international travel with vampires. The few times she and the kids had accompanied Baojia on a work trip, she hadn’t had to stand in customs or immigration lines. She rarely had to pay for visas. Was bribery involved? Probably. But when she was traveling with preschoolers, bending her journalistic ethics probably served the greater good.
Beatrice and Giovanni’s plane was even more luxurious than the private planes she’d been on before. There was one private stateroom and three narrow compartments added for vampire passengers. The windows were blacked out, and where normal planes had seats, their plane had short couches that could be extended into beds. A television had been installed on one side of the cabin, and four children were gathered around it, watching a cartoon with Beatrice and Giovanni’s nanny, Dema.
For the adults, a large library filled one bulkhead. The books were trapped behind clear plastic doors so they wouldn’t shuffle during takeoff and landing. There were also games, DVDs, and a video game console. A small kitchen was against the other bulkhead, along with several large storage areas that contained food.
And blood. And blood-wine.
Natalie tried not to shudder. This was going to be her life. Blood would be her primary sustenance. Though she would eat a small amount of human food, she would drink blood, a lot of it during her first year, if she had her facts correct. Just the idea was enough to weird her out.
She loved it when Baojia bit her, so she didn’t know why the idea of biting him felt so weird. But it did. It definitely did.
The adults had surrendered the television to the four drowsy children. Baojia, Lucien, Makeda, and Giovanni were all in the vampire sleeping compartments. Beatrice, who never slept, was reading a book behind Dez while Matt and Dez both stretched out on the sleeping couches.
Dez and Matt’s daughter, Carina, was the oldest of the kids. She was sitting on the couch with Beatrice’s daughter, Sadia, between her legs. Sadia was sucking her thumb and leaning into Carina; the girls were clearly very close. Jake stretched out on the ground in front of the television while Sarah leaned against Dema’s side.
Dema rarely spoke, but she kept a close eye on all the children and smiled a lot, seemingly content to watch her sixth straight animated movie of the trip.
Sarah had already taken a liking to the quiet nanny, which made Natalie regret she couldn’t lure Dema away from Giovanni and Beatrice.
Of course, Dema was also a former soldier with medical training who acted as a bodyguard, spoke five languages, and could fly the plane in an emergency. Natalie was pretty sure Jake and Sarah wouldn’t need that level of nanny-ing.
She turned in her seat. “Where did you hire Dema?”
Beatrice looked up from her book. “It was a process, but Matt helped, so I’m sure he can consult with you guys if you feel like you need extra help. She was working for a friend of his in Madrid, but she wanted to get back to the West Coast, so it worked out.”
“Where is she from?”
“Orange County,” Beatrice said. “Her parents are Syrian, so she speaks Syrian Arabic like a native, but she grew up in Anaheim. Language fluency wasn’t a requirement for Sadia’s nanny, but it was definitely a plus. We wanted her to grow up speaking both Arabic and English fluently and my skills are still developing. Giovanni’s are better, but Dema helps a lot.”
“Yeah, the plan was for Baojia to only speak Mandarin with the kids and me to only speak English, but we kind of fall down on that. Jake’s Mandarin is pretty good, but Sarah’s is spotty.”
“What do they speak with each other?”
“English,” Natalie said. “Unless they’re trying to be mean and they think Dad can’t hear them. Then it’s Mandarin because they know I only get every other word.”
Beatrice laughed. “Kids.”
“Tiny hellions,” Natalie said quietly. “And we have two. I’m probably going to have to pay double what you do.”
Beatrice pursed her lips. “Ihighlydoubt that unless you need someone with a pilot’s license.”
“Good point.” She crossed her arms on the back of the seat and rested her chin. “It’s so weird. I still feel totally normal. I have a sore spot on my left boob. That’s about it.”
“The dizzy spells?”
“Once I started getting more sleep, they seemed to go away. Lucien doesn’t even think my initial fainting was related to the cancer, but fortunately it forced me to get a physical.”
“Who found it? Lucien?”
