Consequences (Blood of Pharaohs Book 1) Page 10

  As she sucked the blood from the bag, Nikki speculated that Irinushka was the only one draining the immortals’ blood, and she probably didn’t care who replaced it, or even if they replaced it. Each time she drained them, she gained a little of their element. Irinushka was thousands of years old, but Nikki imagined that she’d only been inbreeding for the last hundred years or so.

  “Nikki, get your ass in here and help me!”

  “Vince?”

  Chapter Nine

  Vince’s thoughts spurred Nikki out of the house and across to the barn. She flung the barn doors opened and looked around urgently. “Vince?”

  “Over here, sis.”

  She walked to the end of the barn and heard a horse whinny. Then Nikki fell to her knees.

  “What’s so damn funny?” Vince asked sharply.

  Nikki couldn’t stop laughing. She tried to point at the horse, but her laughter caused her hand to wave back and forth. “You’ve got… you’ve got a horse on your arm.”

  Vince was standing behind the horse’s tail with his arm up above his elbow inside the horse’s vagina. The intense frown on his face could not convey how very uncomfortable he was at that moment.

  Lilah, holding the horse’s halter, peeked around the mare’s head and looked at Nikki with curiosity and a little trepidation. Why would she think something so important was so funny? “That’s because Vince has longer arms than I do,” she explained.

  That made Nikki laugh even harder.

  Her laughter was infectious, and Lilah was beginning to loosen up just a little. Every time she saw Nikki now, she had to keep reminding herself that vampires weren’t real, and it had just been a bad nightmare. She couldn’t imagine a vampire caring enough to escort her to a funeral and arranging it so she could see Rebecca. Subconsciously, Lilah was beginning to see Nikki as more than just a paid annoyance, but as a noble woman, too. But consciously, she still saw her fangs from her nightmare.

  “Okay, so what if my arm is all the way up this horse’s ass?” Vince shrugged, then scrunched his face and pinched his nose with his free hand. “An ass that smells really merdoso, by the way.”

  “Merdoso?” Lilah asked.

  “Shitty,” Vince translated.

  Lilah was laughing now, finally able to appreciate the scene the way Nikki saw it.

  The three of them had a good laugh, although Vince was sneering through his laughter. “Can we get on with this, please?” he urged. “I think this horse is falling in love with me.”

  More laughter. The horse, however, was not amused. She was beginning to pace, and Vince had no recourse but to follow after her.

  “Whoa, girl. We’re almost finished,” Lilah said, rubbing the mare’s muzzle.

  “How can I help?” Nikki asked, stepping closer.

  Without thinking, Lilah took a step back. When she saw Nikki’s eyelashes twitch, she realized she had hurt her feelings. Damn, I don’t know why I did that. Just jumpy, I guess. That stupid nightmare really shook me up.

  Vince saw the look on Nikki’s face. He had seen it once or twice before. “Just give her time, sis. Her body knows that she’s been through a rough time even if her mind can’t remember it.”

  “Yeah, you’re right, Vinny,” Nikki said, nodding at her brother.

  “Uh… okay then,” Lilah said, confused by their exchange. “Vince, reposition the foal’s head so it’s lying on both front legs. Then grab both the legs by the fetlock and pull firmly, but gently.”

  “Both legs? You mean I have to put my other arm in there?”

  “Here, let me help,” Nikki said.

  “Nikki, you can catch the foal,” Lilah suggested. “Disinfect your hands and put on a pair of gloves. Everything’s right outside the door.”

  “I’m on it, Doctor,” Nikki said over her shoulder as she stepped out of the stall.

  “Doctor? Just one more year,” Lilah thought and then sighed. “I don’t know if I have the energy to finish.”

  Nikki heard her thoughts and exhaled. If only… what? If only she had never known her? She would be dead by now, she rationalized. The Russians would still come after her because Ludovico owned the ranch. Rebecca’s death had nothing to do with her. Still, she felt responsible. If only she hadn’t erased Rebecca’s memory… Lilah’s memory. If only. Nikki walked back in, snapping her rubber gloves on like a surgeon.

  “Okay, she’s having a contraction. Vince, this may hurt,” Lilah warned.

  “Why would it hurt him?” Nikki asked. “She’s the one having a baby.”

  “Her muscles are going to contract around his arm and if he’s not careful, it could break.”

  “Ah. Got it,” Nikki replied.

  “It’s coming!” Vince exclaimed. “I can see a blob in some kind of white goo. Yuck!”

  “You have to pull, Vince. Help the little guy out. Nikki, hold your hands out to help the foal to the ground. Don’t try to hold it, just make sure he doesn’t fall on his head, okay?”

  Nikki swallowed hard and nodded. In all her years on earth, she had never helped birth anything. It was rather exhilarating to her. She planted her legs apart and held her arms out, ready to catch whatever fell out of the mare’s behind. “Vince was right, yuck!” Nikki declared as Vince pulled the foal until it was free of its mother. The colt was heavier than either of them expected, but Nikki still managed to soften its fall to the ground.

  Vince tried to help, but ended up grabbing a handful of the sac. The membrane clung to his hands and shirt. “Okay, I’m going to throw up now,” Vince quipped. “Yes, I know. Vampires don’t vomit. But I might be the exception.”

  Lilah wondered why Nikki was laughing, but she didn’t have time to think about it. She grabbed the suction bulb and began cleaning mucus away from the colt’s nose.

  “He’s not breathing!” She picked up a piece of straw and tickled the foal’s nose, but there was no response. “Quick, help me get him cleaned off.” She began cleaning off the rest of the white membrane, and without looking up, instructed Vince to get the resuscitation kit from the office. Then she placed the stethoscope over the foal’s heart and listened for a moment. Frowning, she threw the medical instrument over her shoulders and immediately began chest compressions.

  Nikki, without hesitation, held her hand over one of the foal’s nostrils and put her mouth over the other one, puffing air into its lungs.

  Vince came running back with the resuscitation kit and placed it beside Lilah. Among other things, the kit had a resuscitator mask that Lilah had planned to use if Nikki had not stepped in.

  “Thanks. One one-thousand. Can you grab a couple of blankets from the bench up front, two one-thousand, and cover the mare with one please? Three one-thousand.”

  “On it,” Vince assured her, hurrying out of the stall again.

  “Come on, little fella,” Nikki said in between puffs. “You can do it.”

  As she counted compressions, Lilah glanced over at Nikki and caught her breath. Something inside of her softened as her heart fluttered. Nikki’s genuine, unguarded display of affection for the young horse lifted her heart in a way she had not experienced before. She felt a yearning that she couldn’t put reason to. A longing that she once had suppressed. A flicker of desire that seemed to be building with each encounter.

  Suddenly the colt snorted Nikki’s puff of air back out at her, and Nikki fell backwards on her rear. Lilah clapped her hands, tears brimming in her eyes. As the foal raised his head, the mare, who had been watching, whinnied and nuzzled her offspring.

  Lilah listened to the foal’s heart again and then his lungs, and finally sat back on her knees.

  “Everything all right, Doc?” Nikki asked. Lilah had interned at a veterinary clinic on the weekends during the time Nikki dated her, and they were usually the only two there. She had seen Lilah’s natural way of gaining the animal’s trust first before she started her examinations. She had seen her cry when an animal couldn’t be saved, and cry when she brought a newborn into th
e world, just as she was crying now. It was another reason why Nikki had decided to break it off with her. She couldn’t bear the thought of her not being able to fulfill her dreams because she had dragged her into her world of cruelty.

  She glanced up at Nikki. “Yes. He’s a healthy little colt with strong lungs and heart.”

  Nikki had a catch in her throat when she looked at her. Her curly hair was mussed up, there was a smudge on her cheek and on her scrubs, and her eyes were beaming. She thought she was the most breathtaking woman she had ever seen.

  Vince brought in the blankets and unfolded one as he walked behind the mare.

  “Vince,” Lilah said urgently. “I wouldn’t stand there if I were you. She hasn’t expelled—”

  The mare suddenly discharged the afterbirth on Vince’s foot. He turned his head and choked.

  “Don’t move!” Lilah demanded, jumping up. She grabbed a trash bag and picked up the placenta, placing it inside the bag.

  Nikki turned her head and gasped.

  “What a bunch of wusses we are,” Vince thought.

  Lilah carried the bag out of the stall and down to a table at the far end of the barn. The two siblings stepped out of the stall and watched as Lilah weighed the bag. After she jotted down the weight, she pulled the afterbirth out of the bag and held it up, looking at it closely. Then she laid it across the bag and did a preliminary examination. Satisfied that the coloration and shape were correct, she set it inside an empty ice chest to examine it thoroughly in a few hours.

  Vince cocked his head at her as she walked back. “Uh, Lilah? Why were you playing with that, uh, female stuff?”

  Lilah laughed, imagining that someone who wasn’t accustomed to the birthing process, which obviously neither one of them were, would have a difficult time with the afterbirth. “That female stuff will tell me more about the health of the foal and its mother.” Lilah pulled the stall door shut and leaned on the railing. “Look,” she said quietly but excitedly. “The colt is trying to stand.” As many times as Lilah had helped deliver foals on the ranch, she still marveled when the foals took their first step.

  “Come on, bebé, you can do it,” Nikki said under her breath, willing the foal to stand up.

  “Look, the bambino is almost up,” Vince pointed out excitedly.

  Lilah glanced at the two of them and couldn’t help but smile, her nightmare long forgotten.

  When the colt finally stood up on unsteady legs and wobbled over to its mother’s teat, drinking heartily, all three of them cheered and applauded with a sense of ownership. They had pulled a new life into the world. For Nikki and Vince, it was profound, philosophical, metaphysical, even.

  “Lilah, what happens next?” Vince asked.

  “Well, that’s about it, actually. I’ll sit here for a couple more hours to make sure that the mother and baby bond, but there’s no need for either of you to stay for that.”

  “I’m staying,” Nikki assured her.

  “No surprise there,” Lilah teased.

  “All right then, I’m out of here,” Vince said.

  “I’ll walk you out, Vince,” Nikki stated, nodding her head toward the door.

  “Wait,” Lilah stopped them. “Vince, thank you so much for your help. Greenhorns don’t usually have the stomach for this kind of work but you were terrific.”

  “Hear that, sis. I was terrific,” Vince said with a grin.

  “Oh, yes, you were,” Lilah agreed. “And you, Nikki.” You warmed my heart. “You were magnificent in the way you knew what to do and had no qualms about doing it. You would make a wonderful vet.”

  “Hear that, bro?” Nikki beamed. “I was magnificent.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Big deal. So you blew air into a pony’s snotty nose. I had my arm up its mother’s ass. I think that—”

  “Now, kids. It wasn’t a contest. You both were wonderful.” Lilah stood on her tiptoes and kissed first Vince on the cheek, and then Nikki. Then she walked back over to the stall

  Nikki stood awestruck as she watched her for a moment. Vince slapped her on the shoulder and the two of them walked out of the barn.

  Vince shook his head. “I will never feed from a horse again, sis.”

  During the Civil War, they had little to choose from in the way of fresh blood. Horses, mules, an occasional chicken or pig, were all that was available. And if they were lucky, a Yankee or two. They never postulated about how, when they were turned during the war, their allegiance was also turned. That had more to do with bloodlust than with loyalty to either camp. Even the strongest newly turned vampire had little control over their bloodlust. The raw, burning need to drink circumvented cautious thought, or any rational thought at all. Ludovico counted on that when he turned them and then set them loose on the battlefield.

  “Okay, so what’s going on?” Vince asked.

  “It’s a long story, but our sire thinks that the immortal you killed was an inbred out of Russia. And he says we can expect a lot more, so stay on your toes.”

  “Well, slap a tutu on me and call me a ballerina. Get it? Toes.”

  Nikki glared at him. “This is serious, damn it.”

  “You think I don’t know what serious is? I just had my hand up a horse’s ass.”

  “Irinushka controls all five elements,” Nikki continued.

  “Holy shit. You’re right, that is serious. What’s the plan?”

  “I don’t know. I suspect we will see a lot more immortals around here very soon. Make sure they know to follow our lead. I’m not sure how Leonard and Lilah will take to all the extra protection.”

  Vince shrugged. “And I don’t see how we can keep them from finding out about immortals at this point.”

  “I think it might help them in the long run if they were aware, but that’s Papá’s call to make.”

  “Are you sure, Nikki?” He nodded toward the barn. “Subconsciously, she already knows about us. It’s only a matter of time.”

  Nikki glanced over at the barn for a moment, wishing she could see through walls. “She’s been through so much already, Vince. How could I turn her world upside down again?”

  “By preparing a soldier for battle, you have already armed them with the knowledge of how to survive. It’s the same thing for a lover.”

  Nikki chuckled. “Deep, Vince. Do I need hip boots to walk through that horse shit?”

  Vince slapped his immortal sister on the shoulder. “No, just the courage, Niko. I’ll be in inside if you need me.”

  Thinking about what Vince said, Nikki walked back to the barn. She’d wanted to tell her since the first moment she saw Lilah at the bar with her friends, but her resolve to keep her safe from her world stopped her. Now it would seem that the two worlds were about to collide, and Lilah would inevitably learn the truth anyway. As she walked inside, she saw Lilah sitting on the ground leaning against the wall across from the stall. Her hair was a tangled mess, her arms rested on her knees, and she was chewing on a piece of straw that hung from her mouth. She was too cute for words.

  Lilah gazed up when Nikki walked in and flashed her a soft smile. Damn, she’s so sexy.

  Nikki couldn’t blush when she heard Lilah’s thoughts, so her eyes twinkled instead. She sat down on the ground beside her and leaned against the wall. “How’s the new mother and baby doing?”

  “Very well.” Lilah beamed at her. “And again, thank you for your help tonight.”

  The mare was lying down, her head turned back to the foal beside her. She was licking its muzzle.

  “That is a wondrous sight to see,” Nikki exclaimed.

  Lilah glanced at her with understanding eyes. “That’s exactly how I feel every time an animal gives birth. Animals don’t have to play games to find their mate. There’s no seduction involved, no emotional needs, and no subterfuge. They meet, sniff each other’s butts, and eleven to twelve months later, a foal is born.”

  “Simplistic in its brilliance,” Nikki concluded.

  “Precisely. It’s the humans wh
o make it so damn hard to fall in love with each other.”

  With a sly smile that Lilah didn’t see, Nikki asked, “How can they simplify the process?”

  “Well.” Lilah contemplated for a moment. “Something as simple as holding hands speaks volumes to a girl.”

  Nikki took her hand and held it in hers. “What else?”

  Lilah tensed, but then felt the energy that tingled through her fingers. “It’s little things, like noticing a woman’s shoes, her dress, especially her hair.”

  Nikki reached up and tucked a wayward strand of Lilah’s wavy hair back behind her ear. She brushed her fingertips over the ridge of Lilah’s ear before pulling away.

  Tingles. Everywhere she touches me, I feel tingles. Oh, that is so wild. I like this game. “Nikki, can I tell you a secret?”

  “Uh-hum,” Nikki muttered as her thumb lazily rubbed the palm of Lilah’s hand.

  More tingles. “You’re kinda butch and you’re also a bodyguard, and it’s true, some of us girls secretly want to be protected. We just don’t want to be pushed to the side as if we are hapless children.”

  Nikki was raised in an era where the men had all the control and say so over their women, and she had to think and act like a man in order to fight in the war, and then she continued the façade for decades after because it gave her more freedoms as a man. So she was a little bit slow to comprehend. “You want to be protected and face the danger, too?”

  “Yes, exactly. Your job is to protect people, right, but you’re also a girl,” Lilah explained.

  “True, there’s a woman inside of me, but I still don’t get it.”

  During the late sixties and early seventies, when the women’s liberation movement began, Nikki stopped acting like a man — spitting, grabbing her dildo, binding her breasts — and allowed her inner self to evolve. She was amazed at how much more confidence she had in herself.

  Lilah glanced at her. “Okay, say I were in love with you. I’d want to protect you as much as you protect me. You see, we should be equal in life as in love. It’s the nature of things.”