Superstition

by Veronica Blake

  “Hi, Mom,” she said cheerfully and with a sense of relief that she was diverted for the time being from the dreaded blue stick in the box.

  “Hi. Finally. I’ve been worried about you. I haven’t heard from you and you haven’t picked up when I’ve called lately.”

  A brief sense of guilt overcame Dawn. Her mom was awesome, but she worried way too much. “No need to worry. I’ve been busy, but everything is perfect. How are you and Dad?”

  “We’re perfect, too. So, what’s been keeping you so busy?”

  Her mom’s curiosity was obvious. “I met someone, someone, umm, special.”

  “Really? How special?”

  Dawn giggled. It felt silly talking about Mateo like he was just some regular guy she was dating. “Don’t freak out, but he’s, well, he’s the one. I’m in love, big time.”

  She heard her mom gasp and she wished she was able to see her face right now.

  Ever since Dawn’s brother had gotten engaged a couple of years ago and married last spring, her mom had been more than a little anxious for Dawn to find someone to settle down with, too. She could only imagine how big her mom was grinning at this moment.

  “Oh, my God. Seriously? Well, I need all the dirt on this guy. What’s his name? What’s he look like? When will I meet him?”

  Dawn chuckled. “Well, his name is Mateo Two Moons. He’s Native American, from the local Apache tribe. He’s so amazing—just perfect in every way—and he’s absolutely gorgeous.”

  “Wow. So, when are you bringing him to meet us? Thanksgiving maybe? I think Jeremy and Teresa are coming for Thanksgiving, too. I can’t wait for all of us to be together. That would be perfect.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment, suddenly grateful her mom couldn’t see the look on her face. Yes, Mom, that would be perfect. But no, mom, we won’t be coming at Thanksgiving or Christmas or ever. He’s a vampire, you see, so he can’t leave his cave in the daytime. Wow.

  “Soon, you’ll meet him soon,” she lied. A sick feeling made her stomach tighten. She had not lied to her mom since she was a teenager and told her those cigs in her backpack belonged to her friend. Her mom didn’t believe that story back then, would she believe her now?

  “Maybe we’ll just plan a trip to Arizona soon. Your dad could use a vacation.”

  Dawn tried to keep the spectrum of emotions tearing her up inside from edging into her voice. What if this was the last time she would ever hear her mother speak? “That would be great. Hey, Mom, I need to get going. Sorry.”

  “Okay. But I need to hear more about this Mateo real soon.”

  “Okay, soon.” She heard a slight tremor in her voice. “Hey, tell Dad hi for me. And, Mom, I really miss you guys.”

  “Aw, Honey, we really miss you, too.”

  “Love you, and Dad, too. Bye.” She held her hand over the speaker on her phone in an attempt to block the sound of her choked sob.

  “Bye, love you more.”

  She dropped the phone on the bed after she hung up, threw herself face down on the mattress and gave into the rush of tears she was unable to control. She couldn’t bear the thought of what her family would go through when she did go up to the mountain with Mateo and was never seen again.

  The heartbreaking memory of talking to Chloe’s dad after her disappearance came to Dawn’s mind. Chloe believed she was going to find the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine for her father when she went up to the Superstitions and met her horrible fate. Dawn would be going to meet her destiny knowing how much her family was going to suffer after she was gone. How could she do this to them?

  Somehow, she needed to stop thinking about all this stuff before she passed out from all this useless crying. She refused to give up hope that somehow Mateo would be able to figure out a way for her to continue to live her life here as a real one, and still be his eternal mate.

  Pushing herself from the bed, she grabbed the pregnancy test from the night stand and headed to the bathroom. She would get this nonsense out of the way, so she could concentrate on getting ready for school tomorrow. She had papers to grade from last week and needed to work on a lesson schedule for the coming week. For now, she had to keep functioning like she was still living her old life, no matter how hard that was going to be.

  ****

  Dawn parked her truck in the same spot Chloe parked her SUV when they had come here to camp a little over two weeks ago. It was also where Chloe’s vehicle had been found after her disappearance last week. The sun would be down soon. She double-checked to make sure the doors were locked. Hopefully, Mateo would get her frantic text messages as soon as he left his village tonight. If he didn’t, and she was sitting here alone for too long, well…Cowboy up, Cupcake.

  The desert could feel lethal and lonely at any time, but at night the encompassing peril was strangling. She glanced around at the heavy darkness starting to blanket the view where, just moments ago, she had seen faded light. It was almost gone now and only foreboding black was settling over her truck inside and out.

  She was having a hard time taking a full breath and the panic making her entire body quiver was ruthless. This sense of terror was even worse than the way she felt when she hiked up here with Chloe on that first night. Because now, she knew there really was something deadly and dangerous—immortal—hiding in the depths of the rugged mountain range.

  Every sound made her breath clog deeper into her throat and chest. She kept imagining the horror Chloe must have endured when she had been out here alone the night she disappeared. But she hadn’t known the extent of the real dangers awaiting her on this mountain. Dawn was very much aware of the risk she was taking. Sitting at home waiting for Mateo to come to her was not an option either. She desperately needed him now, and she would wait here forever if that was how long it took for him to find her.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Billy Torres did not even try to hide his relief to be leaving the secret encampment when Anton Two Moons escorted him back down to his truck at the base of the mountain. It was obvious how nervous it made him to be up on the Superstitions at night, even though his position as a Clan Society member insured his safety when he was there. One of Drago’s grandsons always accompanied him up and down the mountain to make sure he didn’t encounter any problems with wildlife or anything else that could cause him injury along the narrow rocky trails.

  He only came to the village at night if he had something extremely important to talk to Drago about. Learning about other stillborn births in Blood Clans around the world was urgent enough for him to travel to the village late in the day, which meant he wouldn’t be off the mountain until after the sun went down.

  They had received news that several dhampyres had been born dead in four different clans in other parts of the world. One unfortunate clan in Alaska had two stillborn births just a couple weeks apart. All but one of the deceased infants had been cremated. Only a female child who was stillborn in Switzerland had been preserved. Her body was taken to a doctor who was the brother of a Clan Society member in Geneva and could be trusted to conduct tests on the dead infant without revealing any secrets regarding the child’s parents.

  A discreet autopsy revealed the baby’s blood had been infected by a strange virus that invaded her body, most likely right before or during her birth. Although, the Swiss doctor didn’t know what caused the infection, he hoped he would be able to develop an antidote from the blood he extracted. But it was going to take time and there could be more tragic deaths until he had it perfected. It wasn’t the best news, but at the very least, it was some sort of an explanation.

  After hearing Billy’s news, Rafael apologized to Mateo for blaming him for the death of his son. For the first time since this tragedy happened, Mateo felt a renewed sense of hope for his clan, and a huge relief the bad feelings between him and his brother were gone.

  Now, he had to get to his beautiful mate, because he couldn’t wait to see her again. But before he could get out of the village, his grandfather a
pproached him and detained him even further.

  “It has been a while since you have been going down to meet with your mate in her world,” Drago said as he motioned for his grandson to sit with him beside the fire.

  Mateo nodded and reluctantly sat down cross-legged next to his grandfather. Dawn told him she would be waiting at the condo tonight and he had been dreaming of holding her in his arms on the big bed with the velvet bedspread since the second he opened his eyes at sunset this evening.

  “Yes, Grandfather,” he said trying not to sound irritated. “It is going much better than I hoped. My mate is—”

  “It is time,” Drago interrupted. “Time to bring her here and end this nonsense.”

  He stared wordlessly at his grandfather. “I don’t understand? Has something else happened?”

  “Your mate has to come up here to the mountain as soon as possible. It is too risky for her and for all of us.”

  A heavy disappointment settled in Mateo’s chest. He knew time was running out, but he kept hoping there would be a way to make his time in Dawn’s world last a little longer.

  “There is no immediate danger, Grandfather.”

  Drago drew in a heavy sigh and glanced toward the big cave which held the darkest secrets of the Clan. “Anton said the woman your father brought to the cave recently was a friend to your mate.”

  His grandfather’s remark surprised him. He knew Anton had not disclosed this information with any thought of malice, but it certainly did not help in his quest to delay bringing Dawn up to the village.

  “My mate has no idea what happened to her friend,” he lied. “The woman my father brought here was a lifelong gold seeker. It is believed she fell to her death somewhere on the mountain while looking for the gold mine.” He shrugged and hoped his nervousness was not apparent to his grandfather. “The same as all the others in the past.”

  For a moment, Drago was silent. A thoughtful frown held his face in a stoic expression. He reached down and played idly with the material of his white loincloth, the only article of clothing covering his muscled and youthful three-hundred-year-old body.

  “There is big change in the air for our kind. I feel it in the wind that whispers along the tops of the highest ridges. The death of Rafael’s child and all the other babies in different clans are proof we are not as invincible as we have always believed.”

  Mateo felt a numbing sensation grip his insides. “A change, Grandfather? What do you mean?”

  A heavy sigh escaped from the older vampire. “I first felt it years ago, when you began to seek more knowledge of the real ones and their world below. Although our kind has always been somewhat curious of the real ones, you were the most insistent one, the one who always wanted more than to read the books and learn their languages and spend more than an occasional night among them.” He smiled wistfully at his grandson. “But I knew you wouldn’t be the last.”

  Confusion filled Mateo’s mind. He shook his head and shrugged.

  “Anton’s eldest son,” Drago continued, “He is very much like you. Maybe even more curious than you are.”

  “Chaz?” Mateo questioned. “What do you mean?”

  “Yes, Chaz is full of inquisitiveness. He asked his father to allow him to spend more time with the real ones on the reservation and to explore the world below the mountain. Just like you did when you were his age, Grandson.”

  A grin touched Mateo’s lips. He remembered the consuming desire to know more about the real ones when he was Chaz’s age. “I would be happy to take him with me sometimes,” he suggested. But not tonight, he thought as the image of his beautiful flaxen haired woman floated through his mind.

  Drago nodded as if he already knew his youngest grandson would extend the offer to show his oldest great-grandson the world beyond the mountain. “I’ll admit I have thought about denying Chaz’s request. It worries me that one of you might accidentally reveal something to the real ones about our clan.”

  A sinking feeling worked its way through Mateo. To deny Chaz, or any of them, the right to leave and explore the world outside of this village would be incomprehensible. Yet, Drago was the leader of this clan, and his word would always be the final ruling. Although he fought an inner battle, wanting desperately to disagree with his grandfather, he was more afraid of saying something that would sway his grandfather to make a disastrous decision without further consideration.

  “I know how you feel about this,” the older vampire stated when Mateo remained silent. “You are true to the clan, and I know you respect my position. I also know you are going to be the one who leads us to the next evolution of our kind.”

  Mateo took a deep breath. “I only seek to make our world better for all of us.”

  Drago’s head moved in agreement. “It is a fine line we tread, Grandson. You know I believe we have only survived this long by remaining hidden and not letting our secrets be known to anyone other than the Clan Society.” He chuckled slightly, adding, “Chaz actually believes we can expose ourselves to the sunlight, even past the crucial twenty-five-year mark.” He laughed and shook his head. “Who among the adult vampires here would want to risk testing his theory, and most likely, end up a pile of cinders on the ground?”

  The breath stopped short in Mateo’s chest. His mind exploded with all the possibilities he considered through the years, especially after reading how dhampyres supposedly did not have the same weakness as full bred vampires. But then, he always had to wonder how the authors of those theories had come to these conclusions, since real ones didn’t know real vampires or dhampyres even existed.

  He questioned why the books about so-called real vampires always assumed they had insatiable and uncontrollable urges to drink the blood of any human they could find. Unlike the Blood Clan, the imaginary vampires drank only blood; never eating food, drinking water, or needing any other sort of substance to survive.

  The storybook vampires were supposed to have two retractable fangs which they used to pierce their victims in the neck and drain all the blood from their bodies. The Blood Clan had no such fangs, only teeth like real ones. Except for their mates, whom they bit during the mating process, when drinking from any other human blood source, they could either bite the person on any part of their body with all their front teeth, or they would drain blood from a vein and drink it from containers.

  It was apparent virtually nothing was known about vampires. Maybe he and Chaz needed to discuss some of the theories they were both so curious about?

  “I’ve wondered about such things, myself, Grandfather,” he admitted. “Have you ever thought about why the vampires described in books are so drastically different from our clan?”

  Drago stared thoughtfully at his grandson for a moment. His head slowly began to nod. “Yes. I have wondered about many things. But I remind myself there are so few of us—the males who would carry on our bloodlines—if we were to test out any of these notions, and we ended up destroying ourselves, it could be disastrous. It is my responsibility to ensure this clan survives, so I have not been willing to risk losing even one of us to explore any of those speculations.”

  “I understand,” Mateo agreed. He had never been brave enough to test out any of the concepts he thought about, either.

  “So, we come back to the subject of your mate,” he said. “I assume you have been intimate with her?”

  Mateo’s mouth gaped open. “Yes,” he finally mumbled.

  Drago seemed oblivious to his grandson’s embarrassment. “She could be carrying a dhampyre already. It is imperative the process to make her your mate is completed so your woman, and hopefully, the male dhampyre she might carry, is made strong and healthy after the completion of the mating process.”

  He reached out and rested his hand on Mateo’s forearm for a moment as he added, “She must be here under our protection. We have already lost a male dhampyre and who knows if the Swiss doctor will ever be able to find a cure. One thing is for certain, though, we cannot take any more unn
ecessary chances with the future of our clan.”

  Mateo could only nod his head in agreement. As much as he hated to give up on his dreams of spending more time in Dawn’s world with her, his grandfather’s words made sense. He couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to his mate or their future offspring.

  The fleeting memory of the pregnancy test laying on her nightstand passed through his mind. She said she wasn’t pregnant—yet. But it would happen. The Blood Clan believed their mates were chosen because they were fertile and could produce strong dhampyres, even though it sometimes took a woman many years to conceive and the births could be few and far between. Since the beginning of their kind, no barren woman had ever been chosen to be a mate. According to clan history, all this was preordained.

  Mateo choked back the heaviness in his throat and glanced around at his surroundings. Night had completely engulfed the mountain and less than a half-moon was peeking out from in between the scattering of clouds.

  His parents were cooking meat over a small fire pit at the entrance to the cave where they slept during the day. Rafael and Lydia’s three children were playing close by, but there was no sign of their parents. After Billy Torres left and Rafael made peace with Mateo, Rafael and his mate retreated to their cave. Mateo was sure Billy’s news about the other stillborn births affected them deeply and they needed some time alone to deal with their own grief.

  Anton and Nita were having a dinner of venison stew with their six children. The entire family was sitting crossed legged around another small fire pit. All of them looked exactly like their ancestors looked centuries ago, except for Chaz, who appeared to have entered the modern age with his short haircut. Although he was bare-chested and wore no shoes on his feet, he was wearing a pair of denim jeans instead of the usual white loincloth the men and boys wore around the village. His full plate of food was sitting on a rock beside his feet. The teenager wore a headlamp around his head for light and held a book in his hand. All his concentration appeared to be focused on the words he was reading. Mateo smiled, remembering how he had been when he was young. How had he never noticed before now that Chaz was exactly like him?