"Lila, you can tend to her later. After we're gone, right, Marta?"
Lila doesn't understand what I've said so Max repeats it in Spanish. She starts to protest but Marta waves her off and, wrapping a towel around her wrist, turns to us.
"By all means, let's get this over with. The sooner you've gone, the sooner I can contact Belinda. Get all the rest you can, vampire, because as soon as my pilot comes back, we'll be after you."
Thanks for the warning. But I'm still not sure we won't walk out of this house and into a trap. "Max, ask Lila where Pedro is."
He does and repeats her answer. "He's with the pilot, in the hangar."
"Are they waiting for us?"
This time, Marta answers before Max can relay the question. "He's helping the pilot. They're doing maintenance on the helicopter. Wouldn't want you to have an accident, now would we?"
"Is it ready to fly?" I ask.
She starts for a telephone but I'm beside her before she walks the two steps that take her to the instrument. "Don't try anything."
She sniffs and brushes my hand off her arm. She lifts the receiver, speaks into it.
When I look at Max, he nods. "She's asking if the copter is ready."
There's a pause while she listens, then she replaces the receiver and turns to us. "It's ready."
I gesture to Marta and Lila. "Then let's go."
At first, Lila acts like she's not going to come with us. But I'm not leaving her alone in this kitchen. She might take it upon herself to call Pedro and say something to upset our plan.
When I give her a shove, Marta says, "Leave her alone." She turns to the woman, "Lila, venga con nosotros."
Head down, Lila falls into step behind her mistress.
Max and I let them lead the way outside. The fresh air and sunshine come as a welcome relief after being cooped up in that hellhole for the last—what? I've lost track of time. When I turn my face to the sun, Max looks at me with a raised eyebrow.
"It's a myth," I explain. “The sun thing."
He nods as if I've just explained what makes grass green or the sky blue. Like it's a perfectly normal answer to a perfectly normal question.
Maybe there's hope for us yet.
It's painful to watch Max wobble along. I keep an arm on his elbow, both for support and to be able to snatch that little gun out of his pocket if the need arises. Marta's done nothing to indicate that she knows we have it, so at least we have one small element of surprise.
The door to the hangar is open. As we approach, Marta calls out and the pilot appears. He looks shocked to see Max and me. Marta says something that must put him at ease because the anxious look is replaced with a curious frown. Max listens and nods to me. "She's instructing the pilot to fly us to Tijuana. She says he's to come back immediately."
So far, so good. The pilot returns to the hangar and in a moment, he and Pedro roll the helicopter onto the pad. The pilot dons his flight helmet and sunglasses. He climbs aboard and fires up the engine. Marta and Lila stand quietly behind us while we wait for the copter to warm up.
The hair on the back of my neck is stirring. This is too easy. I turn to warn Max that something doesn't feel right and I catch a flash out of the corner of my eye.
Lila has stepped close to Max. From somewhere in the folds of her voluminous skirt, she has drawn a gun, the twin, it looks like, to the one I slipped Max.
She presses it into his back and says something that's lost to me in the roar of the helicopter engine. When I look over at Marta, she is signaling the pilot. The helicopter abruptly grows silent.
For once, I wish my instincts had been wrong.
CHAPTER 53
MARTA TAKES THE GUN OUT OF LILA'S HAND. "Did you think I would let you go that easily?"
Exasperation makes me want to tackle her this very minute, but she's got the gun pressed into Max's spine. As quick as I am, I can't be sure I could knock her away before she pulled that trigger.
The pilot has joined us. He, too, has a gun in his hand. His is bigger. A .45.
I release my impatience in a sigh. "I thought we had a deal, Marta."
She laughs. Not pleasantly. "Oh, we did. But I've come up with a better one. I kill Max and lock you away until the hunger is more than you can bear. Then you may reconsider what I asked of you before."
Max, testing, takes a tiny step forward and turns to me. "What does she want?"
Marta closes the gap between them at once, keeping her gun in contact with Max's back.
She's not taking any chances. I shrug. "Simple. She wants me to make her vampire."
His brows shoot up. "Why would she want that?"
Marta shoves at him in a pique of impatience. "Ask me yourself," she growls.
Max stumbles, fights to regain his balance, tough with the broken ankle. But with the effort, he moves just far enough way from Marta to allow an attack. Marta realizes her mistake almost instantly, but I'm on her before she can correct it. I wrench the gun out of her hand and her injured wrist behind her back. I'm about to leverage the hold when the pilot's gun barks once.
I yank her around in front of me.
The pilot has his gun to Max's head. "The first one was to get your attention. The second will blow your friend's head off if you don't let her go."
His English is heavily accented but very good. He has Max with an arm around his throat. I'm about to release Marta, when Max sends me a look that coupled with a tiny shake of his head, gives me cause to reconsider. He has one hand in the pocket of his jacket; I see his fingers maneuvering the gun.
So does Marta. She starts to yell a warning. I snap her neck with one hand.
The pilot's mouth falls open in shock. But it's momentary. His fingers tighten on the trigger. Max slumps into him and in that same moment, fires the Derringer through the fabric of his pocket.
The pilot staggers backward, looking down at his mid-section in disbelief.
The Derringer is a .22 and even a contact gut shot is very rarely fatal. The pilot raises the .45. Max whirls around, the gun now out, and follows up quickly with a round to the head.
That does it. The pilot goes down like a rock.
Lila and Pedro are screaming. I toss Marta's body toward them and scramble to pick up Lila's gun and the pilot's .45.
It's not until the adrenaline has stopped pumping that the reality of the situation hits.
"Max," I yelp. "You killed the pilot. How the fuck are we going to get out of here?"
For the first time, I get a real smile out of Max. "How do you think," he says. "We fly."
"You know how to fly a helicopter?"
"Don't sound so shocked."
"But you never told me you could fly a helicopter."
"You never told me you were a vampire. I think your secret trumps mine."
We hold this conversation as we make our way toward the helicopter. Max pauses at the hatch. "What do we do about those two?"
I turn back to look at Lila and Pedro. They are prostate with grief over Maria's death. Lila is on the ground, holding Marta and rocking her body as if it were a child's. Pedro is standing over them both, tears streaming down his face. Neither looks in our direction.
"Leave them."
If the coldness of my reply fazes Max, he doesn't show it. He doesn't argue, either. He merely reaches into the copter and picks up the pilot's helmet.
He hands me one, too, and a leather jacket that was slung onto one of the rear seats. I look at it for a minute.