Page 11 of Valley of the Shadow
Natalie shook her head. “Makeda. I love Lucien, but I’m more comfortable with Mak.”
Beatrice smiled. “I’m glad she came. I’m looking forward to getting to know her better.”
“You’ll love her. So will Sadia and Carina. She’s great.”
“But you’re still determined that you want Lucien to…?” Beatrice bared her fangs and made a biting motion.
Natalie couldn’t stop the smile. “Yeah. I mean, it would be weird to have Baojia’s immortal child sire his wife, wouldn’t it?”
Beatrice waved a hand. “Not really. I can think of five or six vampires whose families look like that, actually. Carwyn’s daughter is the one who sired his wife, Brigid, though they weren’t involved at the time. Immortal families don’t look anything like human ones. I mean, Giovanni’s son kidnapped and sired myfather, who eventually sired me.” She spread her hands. “Not considered odd by anyone we know.”
Natalie shook her head. “Vampires are superweird.”
“Aren’t we? I know.” A shadow crossed Beatrice’s face.
“Are you worried about Ben?” Natalie had heard their adopted nephew had changed, but she didn’t know the details and she didn’t want to pry.
“He’s doing okay.” Beatrice glanced at Sadia. “He hasn’t really called since he went to Mongolia. We just get reports from his sire’s assistant. The first few months can be a blur, and you lose track of time a lot, so we’re trying not to worry.”
Natalie nodded. “Still, I’m sure you’d rather he was with you.”
The faint lines around Beatrice’s eyes tightened. “He’s where he needs to be. Besides, that means you can be in Cochamó. So maybe things worked out exactly like they were supposed to.”
Natalie could tell Beatrice was still torn. “Are you and Giovanni sure—”
“The cabin in Cochamó is perfectly set up to keep you and the whole family safe,” Beatrice reassured her. “It’s where I spent my first year. The cabin is up in the mountains, so I stayed there and Gio went back and forth. Ben stayed at Isabel and Gustavo’s house in the valley.”
“And he liked it?”
“Are you kidding? It’s a cattle ranch with horses and dogs and goats and a million chickens. They go river rafting and rock climbing. Forests everywhere. Ben had his own horse. He ran all over the place; it’s kid heaven. Plus Gus still has human family who run the ranch, so there are lots of people to be with the kids during the day.”
Natalie smiled. “It sounds great. Jake might never want to leave.”
“It was hard getting Ben to leave some years because we’d spend summers down here. And summer for us is their winter! We’re headed straight into the nicest time of year.”
“I keep forgetting that. We’re going to sun! Actual sun.”
Beatrice nodded. “Yep, summer for Christmas. The weather is perfect right now.”
Her smile felt forced. “Gotta soak up the rays while I can.”
Beatrice took a long breath. “Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
Beatrice got out of her seat, walked around the couch, and sat next to Natalie, putting her arms around her. “It’s going to be hard at first. And then it’s going to get better. There are lots of isolated places in the mountains for you to go, so you won’t feel cooped up. The farmhouse is about two miles away from the cabin, so you’ll be far enough away to feel like you won’t be a danger. I promise, it’s the best place I can think of for your family to be.”
“And Carwyn’s family—”
“They’re amazing.” Beatrice glanced at the locked compartments. “Since Lucien is going to sire you, you’re going to be an earth vampire, which Carwyn’s entire family is. So it’s perfect. Seriously, you’ll feel so at home you’ll probably never want to leave.”
Natalie leaned her head on Beatrice’s, trying to wrap her mind around being confined to a strange place for a year with no option to leave. “It’s going to be fine.”
“I promise it will. It might not seem that way all the time, but it’s going to be okay.” She squeezed Natalie tight. “Remember, you’re not alone.”
Cochamó Valley, Chile
Baojia rodeat the back of the party, keeping watch over the children who’d all been rocked to sleep by the movement of the horses as they rode into the valley. The moon filtered through the dense foliage, illuminating the narrow track they were taking through the forest.
