Page 5 of Valley of the Shadow
“S’ timefrbed,” she mumbled. She let out one last pitiful sigh before she closed the door.
Baojia waited to hear her little feet walk back to her bedroom, shuffling the whole way. Her door creaked open. Shut. He could hear her muttering under her breath as she got back into bed.
He looked down at Natalie, whose lips and cheeks were still flushed. “We are the worst.”
“The meanest parents ever.”
He smiled and settled back down in bed. “Horrible and rotten.”
“Come here.” She hooked her arm around his neck. “Let me show you what I do to horrible, rotten, mean vampires as sexy as you.”
“Hold that thought.” He slipped out of bed. “And let me lock the door.”
Baojia wokethe next night in the small room they’d built into the farmhouse where they lived on the Northern California coast. He took a moment to orient himself, listening for the voices he expected beyond the thick cement walls of his day chamber. It had been built to withstand storms, earthquakes, explosive concussions, and gunfire. In it, there was a small bathroom and enough provisions for four humans to survive for thirty days.
His day chamber also doubled as their panic room, which was necessary when you were the senior security chief for the immortal in charge of the Pacific Northwest, much of Canada, Alaska, and a not-insignificant part of Russia.
Baojia listened for the expected sounds of life beyond the walls of his day chamber.
But the sounds were unexpected.
“Mom?” His son sounded scared.
“Are they awake yet?” It was the nanny, and her voice was panicked. “Natalie, would Baojia be awake yet? The sun is down. How about Lucien and Mak?”
He didn’t wait another moment. Pulling on a pair of sweatpants, he unlocked the dead bolt that secured his room and rushed toward the voices, which were coming from the kitchen and dining area.
“Natalie?”
He forced himself to remain calm when he saw her lying on the kitchen floor. Sarah was crying. Jake was sitting next to his mother on the floor, and Ariel, their children’s nanny, was on the phone.
She spotted him. “I’m on the phone with Lucien.”
“Tell him to come.” He bent down and looked in her face. Her eyes were open. She wasn’t unconscious. “What happened?”
“Just…” Natalie tried shaking her head, but her pupils were abnormally dilated. She blinked. “Dizzy. I just got dizzy. I lay down on the floor so I wouldn’t fall. That’s all.”
“Have you eaten today?”
“Had breakfast with the kids. Snack an hour ago. Something like that.”
That should have been enough. He performed a basic physical exam. She didn’t have a fever. Her skin was cool and clammy. “Jake, take Sarah into the family room.”
“I wanna stay with Mama!” Sarah wailed.
“Sarah.” Baojia gave her a steady look. “Mama is going to be fine. She’s just a little sick. Remember when you got the flu and threw up last winter?”
Sarah stuck her thumb in her mouth and nodded.
“Mama is sick like you were.” Mama wasnotsick like Sarah had been. Natalie had no fever. Her pulse was normal. Something else was going on. “I know it’s scary when Mama gets sick,” he continued, “but Uncle Lucien is going to come over and give her a checkup, so you and Jakey need to go play so there’s room in the kitchen.”
Ariel held out her hand. “Come on, guys. Let’s go do a puzzle, okay?”
Jake was giving him suspicious eyes.
“Jake,” Baojia said, “I need you to take care of Sarah.”
“Okay.” His voice was small. He stood and held his hand out for his sister. “Come on, Monkey. Dad’ll take care of Mom.”
