Born Into Love

by LaClaire, Catherine

  Battling shock, she tightened her hold on Diego’s vest. “Get on the counter!” she screamed.

  But he couldn’t. His head lolled against his shoulder. She thought of the life she wanted with him and pulled straining until she cried out in pain. She maneuvered Diego’s head and shoulders up to her chin then lurched backward onto the counter. It seesawed in the persistent waves. She gripped the edge but didn’t have the strength to climb aboard. The tropical sun bore down as merciless as the ocean was indifferent.

  Steam rose in white spirals from Diego’s face. Tiny fish, with barracuda heads nibbled his flesh as if he were beef. They nipped his legs and ankles. She swatted trying to chase them, but only succeeded in spreading the dark liquid oozing from his wounds. One fat creature latched onto her finger. She screamed and pried it off.

  A flash of silvery white flickered then disappeared in the crests. She shifted her weight to fight the force of the waves and the counter shot away. Fish dodged in and out attacking Diego. A horn blasted. She sensed movement behind her.

  “Relax, little girl. I got ya.” A thick arm ripped her away from Diego onto a deck.

  “No! Save him!”

  The man left her then reappeared. He dumped Diego next to her. “Gotcha all now.”

  “But the others. . . ”

  “Sorry. Ain’t no more.”

  Mercedes burst into tears.

  “You gonna be all right. That shark goin’ skip a meal.”

  Mercedes didn’t look. She’d seen enough monsters for a lifetime. Pain shot up her leg and she wept for Hugh and the captain.

  “I’m Buck and you jest bin rescued.” He handed her a ragged towel and pointed to Diego. “He git burnt?”

  “Yes. Please, help me move him out of the sun.”

  “I can do it myself.”

  She guessed no one argued with Buck the Giant with biceps larger than a baked ham. The boat shifted under his weight but he moved his bulk like a trained athlete. He lifted her under the faded canopy with a twist of his wrist.

  “Ain’t got nothin’ to drink but water. Want some?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Buck handed her a plastic bottle then strode to the console and gunned the engine.

  “Where’re we going?

  “My home base. It’s real close. I got to radio ahead. We got a clinic.”

  The doctor shook his head. “He’s barely got a pulse. His veins have collapsed, can’t hold an IV.” He looked at Mercedes with regret in his eyes. “I’m sorry, miss. The most we can do is make him comfortable, give him oxygen.”

  She stepped closer to the cot. Pain zigzagged up her leg. “May I stay with him?”

  “Of course, but first you need to be examined. I see abrasions and burns and you’ve hurt your ankle.” A young nurse with soft brown eyes rushed in with a wheelchair and eased Mercedes into the seat.

  In the examination room the doctor discovered more bruises from the seat belt and confirmed a sprained ankle. “Bone’s not broken so we’ll wrap it. Pain will keep you from walking for a while.” He reached for the elasticized gauze. “You have other lacerations, some of them deep like the one over your breast.” He opened a metal cabinet. “I’m giving you antibiotics. We don’t want your injuries to turn septic.”

  “Thank you, doctor.”

  He bandaged her ankle and dressed the lacerations. “You can stay overnight at the clinic or at the small hotel near the harbor.”

  “I’d prefer to stay here.”

  “You’ll need clothes.”

  “Yes, if that’s not too much trouble.”

  He handed her two robes. “Tie one in back and the other in front. They’ll do the job.”

  “Reminds me of the robes my sister had to wear in the hospital back home.”

  He smiled.

  “Doctor, does the clinic have a blood supply?”

  “No.” He patted her arm. “Don’t worry. You don’t need a transfusion.”

  “But my friend. . . .”

  “He is gravely ill, too ill to be moved.”

  Mercedes held back tears. “Does the clinic have a phone?”

  “In my office. I’ll wheel you.”

  She called Luz and then Annie—one call to save Diego and the other to reassure her sister she was safe.

  Fearing that the cattle blood might not reach them in time, that Luz’s efforts would be in vain, Mercedes crawled into bed with Diego and placed her neck by his mouth. She waited. Diego stirred, but only to turn his face away.

  In the morning, the blisters had worsened. Soon they would peel. The sweet-faced nurse entered the room on tiptoe clearly unfamiliar with death and grief.

  “Miss, are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. I’m expecting a package. I want to wait at the entrance, but I can’t leave my friend. Will you watch for me?”

  “Of course, I’ll bring it.”

  The shipment arrived from Long Island. Mercedes didn’t question its rapid arrival. Luz had her ways. Mercedes thanked the nurse and when the girl disappeared into the main office, Mercedes yanked the curtain around the bed, punctured the can with an opener she commandeered from a drawer in the kitchen and poured the blood onto Diego’s lips and into his mouth.

  He choked.

  She tried to lift him, but he was too heavy. She cranked the bed. His eyes opened.

  The whites had yellowed. He gripped the can with both hands, his fangs ripping from his gums and drained the liquid.

  She gave him a second feeding.

  The monitors started to beep shattering the quiet. “The nurse’ll be coming. Lie down!” Mercedes hid the empties in a pocket on the side of the wheel chair and wiped Diego’s mouth with the hem of her robe.

  The curtain snapped open. “What happened?” The girl gaped. “How? How did he do it?”

  Diego stretched kicking the sheet to the side of the cot. His skin appeared blotchy but so improved that Mercedes had no idea how to explain it. “Where am I? What happened?”

  The nurse rushed to Diego’s side and grabbed his wrist checking his pulse. “You’ve been ill. You were dying.”

  He offered a laugh. “No wonder I feel so bad.”

  “But your skin! It’s healing right in front of me!”

  “It’s amazing,” Mercedes said. “It is healing rather fast. Maybe he suffered an allergic reaction. A bite from some creature.”

  Upon entering the room, the doctor froze at the base of the bed. His gaze flicked between the monitor and the patient. “I’ve. . . never. . . seen such a recovery. I want to check you.”

  After many questions, to which Diego purported not to know the answers, the doctor released him. “It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  Mercedes hunched her shoulders. “I think it had to be a bite.”

  The nurse drove them to the dock where Buck waited, his boat’s engine on idle. Diego carried Mercedes aboard.

  Buck raised sun-bleached bushy eyebrows. “You two lookin’ much better.”

  Mercedes shook his hand. “Thanks to you and many others.”

  As they pulled into the busy port of another island to make a connection, Buck slapped Diego on the back. “You be careful now. This little girl don’t need no more trouble.”

  Diego nodded. “I will not let her down.”

  The only charter available at the tiny airport was a twin-engine seaplane.

  Mercedes laughed and leaned against the airline counter. “Perfect. Knowing it can land on water makes me feel much better about climbing aboard.”

  “Let us think happy thoughts.”

  “What’re we doing about Manuel?”

  “The Peruvian government is looking for him and I’ll offer a reward.” Diego’s jaw tightened. “The suffering you experienced is a sample of what can happen if you stay with me.”

  “I’m not changing my mind. We’re getting married.”

  He scooped her in his arms and settled her in a red plastic airport chair. “I have some papers to sign
at the counter.”

  “Wait. I know they didn’t survive, but when the plane crashed, what happened to Hugh and the captain?”

  “Debris killed Hugh. The captain died on impact. I should have explained. Neither drowned, if that is what you were thinking.”

  “The captain’s skill saved us.”

  “Yes.”

  Mercedes blinked away tears. “Hugh was so young and the pilot so brave.”

  “We will get them the justice they deserve.”

  Her ankle throbbed and her cheek itched. “When will danger strike next?”

  “When we least expect it.”

  Chapter 21

  Luz folded her arms across her chest. The thick silver bracelets that covered her wrists jangled willfully. “Master, now that you’ve rested, I must say something.”

  “I am listening.”

  “I told you bad things would happen.”

  “You were mistaken about Mercedes. She caused no problems. She saved my life as you have done. Your neighbor stood up to the jungle better than I.”

  Luz nodded in that annoying way she developed during the sixties when she had a raised consciousness and knew everything. In my absence she had tinted her hair cherry red. Gone were the tufts. A small mercy. Now her short hair formed a cap on her head.

  She pouted. “I’m not clairvoyant, okay? I issued a warning. Best I could do.”

  “I understand that you tried to help. I am grateful for your effort.”

  “Master, you spent lifetimes in South America. You should have recognized the fruit. Of course the roots are poison.”

  “I was not on a nature walk.” Her eyes misted and he reproached himself for being too harsh. Sometimes even a vampire had to admit he was wrong. “I am sorry.”

  “Apology accepted. What do you think Teodoro meant when he said his plan would be a good joke on you?”

  He could only guess at an answer. “The double effect of the plant must have been on his mind. That he had my brother’s ingots another. And the third possibility? That he would find what he wanted—the sacrificial knife knowing my connection to it.”

  “It seems like something’s still missing. He was way more devious than that. When’s the wedding?”

  Like him, Mercedes healed quickly. “As soon as we arrange for the license and the blood tests.”

  “How’re we doing that?”

  “Skullduggery.”

  She raised a pencil-thin eyebrow. “Really.”

  “Not quite. You will hack into the laboratory computers and create mine.”

  Luz hugged herself. “Cool.”

  Now he changed topics. “You have been a good companion.”

  “Does that mean I’m leaving? That you no longer need me?”

  “You deserve freedom.”

  She burst into tears. “You’re dumping me?”

  “I committed a wrong in binding you to me.”

  “Yes, but now it’s my thing. You’ve molded me into an obedient servant. How can I survive on the outside?”

  She slid into pure drama. “We will make arrangements. This is your favorite century. Perhaps you should attend university.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  Why was she agreeing so easily? “It is the perfect time to free you.”

  “Your wish is my wish. I could study law.”

  Unsettling as that was, he did not comment. Students changed their majors all the time. “Will you help with the wedding?”

  “Of course.”

  “Your cooperation is alarming.”

  She smiled then hesitated when she reached the door of the crypt. “Just so you know, trouble’s coming.”

  “Unless your psychic abilities improve, there is no way I can prepare.”

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  After his rest he set out across the dunes. Windblown and beautiful in the last rays of the red sun, Mercedes waited on the pier. Hungry gulls mocked each other. Anxious sandpipers ran from the waves that perished on the shore. They were home but were they safe?

  His love patted the plank next to her. “I’ve been waiting. I just got off the phone with the doctor. “No poison in my system. No disease of any kind.”

  “You are a remarkable woman, smart and brave.”

  “And I’m marrying a remarkable man. When I think of all the things that have happened I can’t believe we made it home.”

  He kissed her cheeks that had recovered from the burst of flames. “I have more good news. Luz has agreed to help with the wedding arrangements.”

  “I remember. You mentioned that on the plane. What’ll I be wearing? Red leather?”

  He laughed. “If anyone is her match, it is you. How is Annie?”

  “She had two transfusions. The nurses are monitoring her.”

  “And Dave?”

  “At her side, pacing like an expectant father. Dr. Mendez will do a Caesarean tomorrow morning.”

  “Will you visit her tonight?”

  “Yes. I came home to give them time alone and to have you hold me.”

  He eased his arm around her shoulders. They stared at the breaking waves. Silver tinged the water making it hauntingly beautiful. As if she had read his thoughts, Mercedes cut in.

  “I’m ready for peace and quiet.”

  He reached into his pocket. “Unwrapping my gift will not make much noise.” She stared at the box.

  “What is it?”

  “Open it.” She tore into the wrapping.

  “A tupu!” She held it near her breast then toward the closest lantern. “Is it silver?”

  “Yes, a variation on the actual piece. This is lighter, but strong.”

  “And much prettier than buttons. Thank you.”

  “Would you prefer it in gold?”

  “No.”

  “The Incas called silver the Tears of the Moon. I prefer to think of it as moonlight on water.”

  * * *

  Mercedes tiptoed into the hospital room. Annie smiled and rubbed her mountainous belly.

  “This boy’s ready.” Annie sipped water. “Tomorrow’s the day.”

  “It’s going to be sunny. A good day to be born.”

  “Sit. There’s something I’ve got to tell you.”

  Mercedes’ mouth went dry. “What?”

  “I made a will. Dave and I are getting married soon as the baby and I get home, but if anything happens, you and Dave share custody. The baby gets my share of Aunt Louise’s legacy.”

  “Of course, let’s skip the bad stuff and think of how we’re going to spoil him. I’ll be the best aunt.” She bent over her sister to give her a hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

  “Want to know something? I surprised myself.”

  Mercedes held Annie’s hand, startled to find it cool. “Soon Dr. Mendez will find another treatment and you’ll surprise yourself again.”

  “But right now, I’m going to rest, okay?”

  “Sure. I’ll sit with you until Dave gets back from the cafeteria.”

  At eight o’clock, he peeked in. Mercedes waved. “She’s sleeping.” He remained at the doorway.

  “I see your ankle’s still strapped.”

  “Pull up a chair.” She waited until he sank onto the cushion. “There are a lot of things I need to say to you but I’ll begin with the easiest. The baby’s room is beautiful. The color’s just the right shade of blue. How long did it take?”

  “The preparation was the pain.”

  “Annie told me she supervised.”

  “Sure did.” He hesitated. “I’ve started to pay back the money I took from her.”

  Mercedes’ heart twisted. “I’m glad I was wrong about you.”

  “I’m taking things slow. Knowing my boy’s coming made me stop thinking about easy ways out of things. I want to give him the care I never got.”

  Annie moaned. Mercedes leaped to her side. “What is it?”

  Annie ran her hands over her stomach. “Water broke.”

  Mercedes called fo
r the nurse. Dave rubbed Annie’s hand. Fear flared in his eyes.

  “We’re going to be a family,” Annie said. Then she looked at Mercedes. “Thanks for being a great sister.”

  “Don’t make this good-bye.”

  “Where’s Dr. Mendez?” Annie shouted. “My baby’s coming!”

  * * *

  Mercedes glanced up and found Diego standing next to her in the hospital lounge. She drew him down to the sofa and fell against his chest. “The baby’s coming any moment now.”

  “How is she?”

  Mercedes shook her head. “Weak.”

  “And Dave?”

  “With her.”

  Still wearing scrubs, Dave entered the waiting room. A white mask dangled from his neck and tears streamed down his face. “We have a boy.”

  “And Annie?”

  He shook his head. “We have a boy.”

  * * *

  She and Diego gathered around Dave and the baby in a private room away from the happy mothers. When she gazed at the baby’s face, she allowed herself a bit of magical thinking. Little Matt sensed his auntie’s presence. He fluttered his eyelids trying to open them, trying to see her, but the world was too new and so was his equipment.

  At the nursery the pediatric nurse made certain his blue cap fit then swaddled him in a soft blanket. She placed him in a receptacle that carried his name written in large black letters—Matthew David Walker.

  * * *

  A hospital representative arrived. His beloved looked at him. “Diego, I have to make arrangements. I’ll be a while. Will you stay with Dave?”

  “Of course.”

  He and Dave stood in the empty corridor. Dave’s attention rested with the child whose future held only promise. Diego recognized that the person who stood beside him had achieved more than Diego thought possible and he had done it on his own.

  Dave humbled him and that was good.

  * * *

  A nurse led Mercedes to Annie’s room then quietly slipped out the door. Mercedes crawled into the narrow hospital bed and stretched out next to Annie now covered up to her neck with a white blanket. In the muted light reminiscent of a chapel, Mercedes searched for words as she gave her sister a gentle hug. “Remember how we used to sleep in Gram’s big feather bed? You on the right side, me next to the wall. I’d always fall asleep first.” She stifled a sob. “But this time, you’ve gone ahead and I want to call you back. This is not the way things should happen.” She kissed her sister’s temple. “I’ll say good-bye now. I know you aren’t really here and that breaks my heart. But I know where you will be. I’ll look for you in my nephew. Meet me there, okay?”