Hard Days Night (The Firsts Book 8) (38 page)

“Yeah, I guess I am.  I’ll keep in touch.”

Kai stood looking at his cell phone screen for a good 60 seconds after the call ended.  What the fuck?  That man wasn’t only a drug runner and human trafficker, he was fucking crazy in the deal.

But what Kai needed to know were two things.  First, how the hell had Canzone found Mal?  And second, what the hell did he want with her?

IN SOUTH AFRICA

Cherise loved these yurts.  If the climate wasn’t so unfriendly to them in Iceland, she would have loved to have built one at home.  The connection to nature was just so close and personal.

David, naked the way she liked him, crawled into bed with a grin.

“May I?” he asked, and scooted down to nip at Cherise’s thigh. 

“Didn’t you get enough at second meal?”

“I did not.  All those sweets on the buffet and the only thing I could think of for dessert was my little French pastry.”

Cherise muffled a giggle with her pillow as David pulled her down to the end of the bed and began to nip and lick his way up from her ankles.

Hours later, satisfied and curled up in David’s arms, she began to writhe.  David woke enough to realize that she was spirit-walking in her dream, and held her close.  Some time later, she calmed and moaned, he pulled her closer, and they fell back to sleep until the sky lost its glow.

First meal was already bustling with activity when Cherise joined Ahmose, Jacob, Starla, the children, Chione and Luka, at their table for their breakfast. 

It may have been her talents, but she seemed to arrive on an air of great contentment, her smile deeply felt by everyone.

“I love it here.  The connection to all life is stronger here than perhaps anywhere I have ever been.  You have a beautiful home, my friends.”

“You are always welcome here. I will build a perfect dwelling for you and David and you may come and go as you wish.”  Ahmose stood and took one of her hands to lead her to her seat.  “David?”

“He’s coming.  He wanted to see the waterfalls right away so he stepped out of the village.  I would have accompanied him except that I needed to see you right away.  In my sleep, your blood reached out to me again.  I know where your daughter and her mother are, Ahmose.”

Ahmose’s smile slipped and he waited, still, quiet, even his breath halted.

“She’s on an island in the Atlantic ocean.  I will show you precisely when we get back to your dwelling as I know that you will start out immediately.”

Starla got up and walked over to Ahmose.  “Would you like me to come with you?”

Ahmose shook his head.  “No.  This I must do alone.”

What he meant, Starla knew, was that he knew he would be extraordinarily emotional on this journey and when he arrived, and he did not want to share that depth of feeling with anyone but this woman.  Ahmose felt things
so
deeply, it was one of the things she loved most about him, and what made him such an extraordinary father.

“Go, then, prepare for your trip. I will pack up your breakfast and you can enjoy it on the way.”

Again, Ahmose nodded, but when he rose, he dropped down beside Cherise on his knees.  “I am grateful for what you have given back to me.  I might never have known about my child or that Mal was still alive. I do not understand how she could be afraid of me, but I will bring her here where she will be loved and safe always.”

“It gives an empath the greatest joy to use her gifts to bring people together like this. I must thank you, my friend, as well.  Now, go, get your girl.”

Ahmose bowed, and sped up the hill to pack a small bag.  He wouldn’t need much.  It seemed that everything he needed was waiting for him in the middle of the ocean.

Chapter 18

Another perfect day was winding down.  Lately, Mal and Brigitte were living to Erin’s schedule.  It seemed a time for family, and Erin was very much that, so they slept during the last part of each day
, Mal didn’t want to give up her sunrises, and then rose at nightfall to enjoy Erin’s
day
with her. 

Jack had shrugged when Mal changed their routine and matched it when Friday came until he had to work again on Mondays.

Their bonfire was almost out of control.  A full moon lit up the sky, the deck surrounded by solar-powered Japanese lanterns is soft pinks and blues, all eclipsed by the too-high flames of the fire Jack had built in a fire-pit off of the deck. 

Mal came out of the house, nuzzling her face into Brigitte’s as the baby reached for her mother.  She was hungry again and Mal would feed her as soon as they got outside.  Her head was drawn up suddenly by the brilliant orange and yellow flames.

“Jack, you’re going to burn down North Caicos!  We’ll end up in the Appalachian mountains making corn liquor for a living!”

He grinned up at her and Brigitte while he continued his efforts to contain the fire.

“I’d go anywhere with you ladies,” he said, and threw a little more sand into the fire pit, but the fire was already calming down.

Mal
slid into one of the loungers and held the baby close as she began to loosen the ties that held together the two sides of her lightweight dress.  She let one side fall open and held the baby up to her nipple.  Brigitte latched on right away, hungry from their recent rest.

Sighing in contentment, Mal laid her head back against the chair, her eyes on the perfect little face that she’d made. 

Jack came up and sat on the bottom of the chair, his hand curled around the back of Brigitte’s head.

“There are my B girls,” he said, smiling as he leaned over to kiss the back of Brigitte’s soft head.

Erin was coming down the stairs with a tray filled with food, her eyes moving across the scene, her new family, the perfect tropical landscape, a bright moon, her contentment at an all-time high.  She wanted to convert them, to keep them all in her life forever, but that issue was not for now.  Someday, she would need to speak with Mal and see how she felt.

As she reached the bottom step, her head whipped to the right, to where a car travelled slowly up the path to her beach house.  Something was different, she could sense it, and as soon as the car was near enough, she knew.  Whoever was coming here was vampire.  She hurried down the stairs, but was too late.

A huge vampire stood on the edge of the deck, still, watching Mal and Jack laughing together, Jack’s head bent close, Mal nursing the baby, their close relationship apparent.  The intimacy apparent.  Her eyes moved back to the big man’s face, beyond handsome, shadowed, emotional.  She knew who he was.

Erin went over to him and he looked down at her.

“Ahmose, sir, it’s nice to see you again.”

He nodded.  “Who might you be?”

“I might be the woman who has cared for this human and her first blood child from the beginning.  I might be family to her.  I might be the one in trouble, because I won’t let you take the baby from us.”

He looked up, startled.  “Take her?  I am not here to take a child from her mother.”

Erin paused, her eyes moving across this unexpected visitor.

“But she’s yours, too.  And first bloods do not surrender their children.”

“No.”  His eyes returned to Mal, who had a hand on Jack’s shoulder now.  “She’s beautiful.”

“Your daughter?
  Yes, she is.”

He hadn’t meant the child, Erin realized the moment after she said it.  She could see his jaw, set tight, as he watched another man with the woman that Erin now realized he had more than a passing relationship with.

“So what are your intentions here?”

“I don’t know.”  He looked at Erin now.  “I don’t have any intentions or plans.  Just last night, I discovered that Mal was not dead, that she’d had my child.  You can imagine how stunned I am.”

“I can.  May I ask that you respect that this is my home, and that Mal and her baby are my adopted family?  I know you are more powerful than I, but I ask out of respect for you.”

“I will not do anything to upset Mal, I promise.  I just need to see her.”

“All right.  Come with me.”

Mal looked up as Erin approached.  Her greeting died on her lips as she saw who walked up behind her.

Damn.  Her memory hadn’t done him justice at all.  He looked good enough to eat, and suddenly, more than anything, she wanted to do just that. 

But there was another issue here, and that issue was currently attached to her bare breast. It’s where Ahmose’s eyes went as soon as they left her face.

Jack stood, his eyes questioning Erin.

“Jack, will you come with me?” 
She asked, and put out a hand to him.

“Who is this?” he
asked, his stance aggressive, aware that this man was a rival.

Erin stepped in front of Jack and took his hand.  When he looked at her, she said
gently, “Come with me now,” and Jack walked around Ahmose to follow her into the house.

Frozen by feelings so diverse, she couldn’t process even one of
them, Mal pulled Brigitte away from her nipple and pulled the top of her dress over the exposed breast.

“You found us,” she finally said, as she stood and backed away
several steps.

Ahmose came forward slowly.  “I thought you were dead. I mourned you.”

Nodding, Mal kept her hands tight around the baby that she now held against her. “I was.  That’s what I was told anyway, and the bullet holes in my body seemed to support it.”  She tilted her head in thought.  “Like yours.  I hadn’t really connected that until now. Just like you, I was shot to death, and then seemed to be okay. Does that mean that I am a vampire now?”

Ahmose shook his head.  “No.  But you
are
Shoazan.  It is something that we did not know until last year, but when a woman, human or vampire, carries a first blood child, then you’re, well, sort of indestructible.”

He stepped closer. “I didn’t know. 
That you were with child.  Shoazan’s are extraordinarily rare, the odds that you were capable… Mal, it’s almost astronomical.  Had I any idea, I would never have left you. Or her.”

“And now?
  Now that you know, what do you expect to do?  Erin told me that a first blood would never let me keep my child.”

A
hmose released a deep sign on a long breath.  At last he knew why she was afraid of him, why she’d hidden herself and the baby.

“Mal, I will never take your daughter from you. I promise this from my heart, to the depths of my soul, this child shall not be without her mother.

Tears began to form, then slip from Mal’s eyes.  “Oh, God, Ahmose.  You were my greatest fear in all of this.  Erin has been a good friend to me, and I believed her when she told me that my daughter would be taken from me.”

“She was not misinformed.  I believe she did have your best interests at heart.  A first blood child is the most precious thing in the universe
, and there are those who would have done exactly as she suggested.  I am not that man.” 

He stepped closer and saw the tears of relief staining
Mal’s cheeks.  “May I see her?”

Had he ever seen anything more beautiful than this woman he now realized he had an indefinable connection with, as she stood in front of him, her dress undone,
her breasts almost completely displayed for his desperate eyes, holding his child in her arms?

Slowly, she walked to him, and turned the baby away from her body to show Ahmose his daughter.

When tears filled his eyes and he reached for the baby, Mal couldn’t believe the depth of joy she felt.  This is what had been missing.  She’d wanted her daughter to have a father, to know the incredible man who had created her, and that he was here, now, and not a threat…nothing in her life had ever felt more right.

As he lifted the baby up, the tiny girl suspended in his big hands, he searched her face, then pulled her close and kissed her gently on the forehead.

“What did you name her?”

“Brigitte, after my mother.
  She was the kindest, prettiest, sweetest, smartest woman I have ever known.”

“Then that is the perfect name for our child.
”  He looked down at the tiny rose-colored face in his arms, surrounded by dark hair, like his, lots of it, and blue eyes, like Mal’s.  “She’s magnificent, of course, but she would be, with such a lovely mother.”

Mal flushed.  She
never
flushed!  This man knocked her off-balance, out of orbit, over the moon.  Around him, she barely recognized herself from who she had been all of her life.  She had forgotten how handsome he was, yes, but she’d also forgotten how charming he was, how amusing, how caring.  If she’d trusted her instincts back then, she would probably have never heeded Erin’s advice to disappear.