Prophecy of the Undead (17 page)

Apolinar drew in a breath. “Most likely orchids...they thrive here. I also note coral beans and bromeliads. A lovely combination, don’t you think?”

“It’s like the very air is perfumed.”

Yuri adjusted his shirt, frowning. “It may be perfumed but it’s humid as hell. How can mortals stand living in this? I feel like I’m still wet from my shower and I know I dried off.”

Casimiro joined them, after having dismissed the crew.

“This is why I rarely visit our holdings down here. If Apolinar visits in the winter, I might join him for a short while. The heat and humidity get too much for me after just a short time. If I have to have heat, I prefer the dry heat of Arizona. This is too much moisture for me.”

Apolinar grinned at his mate. “That’s because you and Yuri were born in the God-forsaken lands way up north, where neither man nor beast can enjoy the weather.”

He shuddered and turned to Keisha. “Have you ever been up to northern Russia? It’s so damn cold that even we feel it. I can’t abide it. As a mortal, it probably would have killed me. Even as a vampire, I find it unpleasant. I don’t know how anyone chooses to live in that.”

Yuri and Casimiro smiled at each other and shrugged.

“To each their own, eh, Yuri?”

He nodded. “I’d take Siberia over this place. Hopefully we won’t need to be here for long.”

“I hate to break up this fascinating weather discussion and all, but isn’t someone supposed to teach me how to fly? I mean, do I just start running and flap my arms or what?”

Apolinar let out a bark of laughter. “Uh...no. That would be a most undignified way to do anything. Speaking as the elder of this group, there’s no fucking way I’d flap my arms in front of any of you.”

Yuri smiled and turned to Keisha. “All you have to do is imagine yourself up in the air, my sweet. Remember when you were first turned and in the shower? I heard you scream and ran in, only to find you floating in the air.

“Good thing you did, because I had no idea how I got up there. The minute you ran in, I fell so fast I was afraid I’d break something when I hit the ground.”

He nodded. “You would have but I caught you. Do you remember what you were thinking before you floated up there?”

“Um...oh yeah, I was creeped out because I couldn’t find my pulse. I wanted to run away from you because I was so scared and the only window was really high up over the shower. I thought if I could only get up there, maybe I could squeeze my big ass through it.”

Yuri placed his open palm on one of her butt cheeks and fondled it appreciatively.

“I like the size of your ass. It’s perfect the way it is, my love.”

“Wait a minute, do you mean the reason I flew up to the ceiling was because I thought about being up there?”

“Yes. You merely need to think of defying gravity and you will. It’s a tricky thing to learn how to control at first. Once you are off the ground, you must be sure you don’t go too high up since even we will burn up in the atmosphere. There’s the problem of being hit by a bird...or a plane...”

“Okay, how do you move forward?”

“Same way. You just think of doing it and you will. Once again, controlling it is the issue so you don’t move too quickly to see where you are going.”

He nodded towards Apolinar and Casimiro, who were both suspended in mid-air behind her.

“See? They have long since learned how to control their movements. Once you get good at it, even long flights are not that hard. You just need to remember to stop when you feel weak so you can feed.”

“Good thing we had those bottles of warm blood before we got off the plane.”

Casimiro grinned. “Some of the crew are very well-paid for their extra services. We are not Mayans so we don’t demand that they suffer while they bleed for us. Some of them have gotten very good at finding veins. I ask them to fill the bottles at twilight because that way it’s still warm when we awaken.”

Keisha shook her head. “Do they know what you want it for?”

“They don’t care. Not with what I pay. Discretion and not asking questions are wonderful qualities in valued, long-time employees. In turn, their work is not arduous.”

Yuri now floated in the air also. He held out his hand but he was too high up for Keisha to reach it while she stood on the ground. She frowned.

“Uh, so I just have to think it, huh? Like this?” She furrowed her brow and concentrated. She shot up into the air so quickly that Yuri grunted from the force of their collision as he grabbed her.

“Easy, honey. You don’t need to go up so high.”

She began to drop as he held her up.

“Nor do you need to fall. Just concentrate on staying in the air. Feel yourself floating on the warm night air. Just hover for a while until it feels more natural.”

Keisha giggled. “There’s nothing natural about a human being floating in mid-air, Mister. This is kind of cool. It’s like the air is a pillow, holding me up.”

“To go forward, you just think of yourself doing it, like this,” Yuri moved slowly away from the plane, still holding onto Keisha.

“Let go of me,” she said.

“Are you sure?”

“No, but I might as well try it myself.”

She hovered about three feet in the air, then propelled towards Yuri. He stayed just beyond her reach, holding out his hands in an encouraging manner.

“That’s it...just keep looking ahead so that you don’t run into anything.”

She glanced over at the other two men, who kept pace with them.

“This must be like crawling along with a baby for you guys, huh?”

Apolinar smiled, his teeth shining white in the moonlight. “I have long-since forgotten how I learned to do this. Like so much of what we are and know, I have no memories of the before-time. I don’t even dream anymore of what it was like to be a mortal. It’s kind of fun to see a fledgling doing something for the first time.”

Casimiro tapped his watch. “We need to get to the villa. It won’t take us long to get to Chichen-Itza but we should get moving soon.”

Keisha took a deep breath, which raised her up a foot higher in the air. She smiled, surprised. “Okay, how high up do you fly when you are purposely going somewhere?”

Yuri answered her, “High enough that we can’t be seen by the mortals on the ground. There’s really no way to give you a number, because you have no ruler to measure with and the height is different depending on the local air traffic and how many people are around. Besides that’s not the most important part. It’s not a matter of how high, but more of how quickly you move.” He nodded towards the other two, who were in front of them one minute and then simply gone into the night.

“Wow. How fast do we have to move?”

Yuri shrugged. “I’ve never clocked it, so I have no idea. We need to stay close behind them since I’m not sure where exactly they are going.”

Keisha’s eyes clouded over and then she smiled. “I am. They’re just ahead of us. We need to go in that direction.” She pointed to the southwest.

“They told you that?”

“Yes.” She frowned. “They said to get a move on. Fine, fine. We’re coming.”

Yuri reached over for her hand. Together they flew the indicated direction into the night.

Chapter Seventeen

Casimiro and Apolinar had already landed when Keisha and Yuri flew up to them a few hours later. Yuri stopped forward motion and gently floated to the ground. Keisha stopped moving, then dropped like a rock and crash-landed.

“Oof.” She straightened up and dusted herself off, assiduously adjusting her clothes before she looked up into the amused faces of all three men.

“What? I suppose you all did everything perfect the first time you tried it?”

Yuri shook his head. “No, I most certainly didn’t. Somehow you manage to look ravishing even as you are most ungracefully plopping onto the ground.”

“I just thought you looked funny...” Casimiro began. Apolinar shook his head at him and he decided not to finish his thought.

Any retort Keisha thought of was forgotten when suddenly lights switched on all around them and a voice called out in first Spanish then English, “Stop. Do not move. Identify yourselves immediately or be destroyed.”

Movements in the darkness beyond the lights suddenly revealed themselves as dogs with vampire teeth and heavy red drool dripping from their feral faces. There were people holding the leashes of the dogs as they strained forward, desperately trying to get at the invaders.

Apolinar snarled as he turned. What Keisha saw in his face was horrifying. Humanity was stripped away and he looked like the monster of old, of whom stories are told to scare superstitious people. There were no gun shots. A man dropped from the sky directly in front of Apolinar, who stopped snarling immediately and hurriedly rearranged his face back into his normal self.

“Apolinar Villalba.
Mi amigo,”
the man now in front of them exclaimed. He threw his arms around Apolinar in a familiar embrace.

It was Casimiro’s turn to snarl. His was more muted—a low guttural expression of his dislike of another man hugging his lover in front of him.

“César Cortes,
mi compadre.
It has been too long for us...”

“
Sí
, it certainly has, my old friend. What brings you to my villa with no advance notice that would have spared us both this embarrassing scene? Who are these delightful people you brought with you?”

Apolinar turned and waved towards each of them in turn. “Casimiro Pavlenko,
mi compañero,
you have met before.”

César nodded in acknowledgement while Casimiro managed a strained smile.

“I would guess that this blond man also hails from the far north lands, as does your Casimiro, eh?”

“
Sí
, this is Yuri Kozakov, brought across by Rasputin himself in the waning days of the Romanov Empire.”

Yuri shook hands with their host.

“And this delightful
mulata
? Please tell me she is your gift to me in return for my hospitality.”

It was Yuri’s turn to growl softly. Keisha smiled at him as Apolinar finished the introductions.

“
Lo siento, amigo.
This is Keisha Brown of U-S-A. She is frighteningly intelligent, so I fear she would not be the kind of woman you prefer. At any rate, she and Yuri are...”

“¿
Amantes?
You are not the only one who is sorry, my friend.” César bowed low before Keisha. He took her proffered hand and kissed her knuckles softly.

“No, I am sorry because I didn’t bring you any gifts this time. I’m afraid we are on urgent business and we your help. There wasn’t time to contact you beforehand. We have only just arrived and must act quickly.”

“Then you must come with me into my villa. We can sit comfortably while you tell me why you need my help, my friend. After all we have been through together over the long years? There can be no question in your mind but I would give you any aid you need. Come everyone,
bienvenido á mi casa
.”

Keisha was glad to note the dogs were removed from their general area. Having grown up in the inner city surrounded by often vicious guard dogs, she didn’t look forward to getting closer to their snarling jaws, dripping blood-tinged saliva. She shivered with distant memories. Yuri moved closer to her and put his arm around her waist as if he felt her distress and wanted to ease it.

Looking ahead, she was amused to notice César watching them. Disappointment clouded his face. She decided that even though Yuri obviously touched her to mark his territory, it was still a gesture she appreciated.

They followed their host into a brightly-lit room decorated in bright colors and filled with the local flowers. Keisha moved closer to a vase on a nearby table and inhaled deeply.

“How beautiful. What a lovely fragrance.”

César, who had been speaking to a servant, now crossed the room. He indicated they should all sit on the comfortable wicker chairs near the open balcony doors.

“They are
flors de lun
—moon flowers—which only bloom at night. They pale in comparison to you, lovely Keisha.” He flashed a quick smile to placate Yuri. “You are a very lucky man,
señor
.”

Keisha moved over to perch on the edge of one of the chairs. Yuri immediately moved a chair closer to hers and sat in it. Casimiro and Apolinar sat also. César, the consummate host, waited until they were all seated to take the tray from the waiting servant. There were two bottles on it, along with five glasses. César poured some of the dark red liquid into each of the glasses and offered them to each of his guests in turn. Once they each had a glass, he raised his in a toast.

“To being able to do favors for old friends,” he proposed.

“And to having old friends to ask favors from,” Apolinar added.

They all drank most of what was in their glasses, and then put them down on the low table in front of them.