Blood Rose

by Jacquelynn Gagne

  “I was going home to speak to one of my sisters. I thought she could help me understand things. Help me with you, to be specific.” His eyes dropped to the floor before rising to meet mine.

  “Help how exactly?”

  Pause. Deep sigh. “You’re the first woman I’ve ever loved. I wanted her advice on how to handle it. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “Why not call her?” I just wanted to understand.

  He tapped his head. “To know what she was thinking. She wouldn’t lie to me but that doesn’t mean she always shares willingly.”

  My brows lift as possibilities went through my head. “Can you all read minds? What more can you do? How many of your kind are there? What else is there? I mean if Vampires are real than are there werewolves gallivanting through the woods every full moon too?”

  “I’ll go in order. Most can hear thoughts to at least some extent. I do not know how or why it works. Some are better than others. There is a lot more. More than I can explain in a night. That goes for abilities as well as what else is out there. Such as yes, there are werewolves but not exactly like what you read about in stories.”

  Momentarily stunned, I sat back slumping into the couch absorbing what he was saying. Memories of my strange magical dreams flooded my thoughts confirming my gut instinct. It was not just a dream like everyone had said.

  “Wow, werewolves. Like wolf men, for real? Like on the full moon man into beast stuff? That’s so crazy.”

  “Hollywood.” Damien’s head shook disapprovingly as he chuckled. “Not quite like that. All of the stuff you do know about is complete fiction ninety percent of the time. Sometimes someone gets something right. Strength, speed, those things usually.” He sighed but his eyes were optimistic as he looked at me. The corner of his mouth pulled up. “Are we okay?”

  Slowly I gave a nod. “Yeah. We’re okay.” My head dropped into my hands. I winced and dropped my wrapped wrist onto my leg. My other hand ran through my hair. I shook my head in a weak attempt to clear my thoughts. “So what’s the truth then?”

  He stayed quiet a moment looking down to his hands. “It’s difficult to explain.”

  “You can’t seriously stop now! I mean come on you bit me. You can’t leave it like that!” by no means was I yelling I was too overwhelmed to panic. Didn’t mean I wasn’t insistent to the ninth though.

  He snickered looking back up to me with a smug grin. “If I remember accurately and trust me I do, you enjoyed it nearly as much as I did. Yes, I do mean only nearly.” Heat flushed through my whole body and burned out through my cheeks.

  “Mmm.” He looked down a moment, although he looked more satisfied at the recollection than embarrassed as I was. “Cherries.” Still looking down, his lips spread to a broad grin. Cherries? Huh?

  “Anyways. I didn’t intend to leave you guessing. You must understand after hiding everything about my entire existence and then suddenly finding myself unburdening these secrets is difficult for me. Certainly you understand that.” I nodded. He smiled weakly.

  “I’ve shown myself to others but never so much, Anna. Most were accidents. I was younger. Had less control. Thought far too well of myself so I thought I didn’t need to be careful.” Another shake of his head. Memories? Good or bad? He shrugged. “Some of both.”

  Absently I picked at the wrap on my knee with my left hand. Aware of the pain but doing my best to ignore it. He stood from the chair across from me and in a second he slid in against me. “How do you move so quickly?” My eyes were wide. That would take getting used too. I’m sort of jumpy.

  “As I stated before, just a special quality. We’re faster than any human.” He shrugged as he carefully pulled my bad leg into his lap, unwrapping it slowly. “We can let them breath for now. Then I have to brace your wrist.”

  “All of you?” He nodded. “How fast can you go?” I sank down into the couch beside him as he unwrapped my ankle too. If you’ve ever had an injury like these unwrapped you understand the relief, even if it’s painful relief.

  “We don’t break the sound barrier but faster than human eyes can focus. Never been clocked with a radar gun though personally.” He chuckled briefly before the seriousness came back.

  “How does your knee feel?” His cool fingers prodded at the swollen flesh gently before bending my leg slightly. His cold hands held carefully to me like a gentle ice pack.

  “Sore but better than it was. Believe it or not I heal quickly.” If I didn’t, I would be an invalid.

  “As do we.” With a nod, he looked down at my ankle, which was still a wide range of colors mostly between blacks and purples. “I wish I could do more,” he mumbled more to himself than to me. Looking up at me but not meeting my eyes his fingers brushed over my broken cheekbone. There was nothing he could do for that.

  “No magic healers in the land of fairy creatures then, huh?” His brow rose in thought over my comment but he never answered. “Tell me about the werewolves.”

  “They are not technically werewolves. They’re spirit walkers. More commonly known as shifters. Day or night full moon or new, they shift at will. They can change to any animal they like until they’re full grown. At full maturity, they’re spirit’s settle with one animal or another. You don’t commonly see them in main stream society. They prefer to be closer to nature. Though yes, many prefer the form of the wolf, especially where they are common. However, no creature is off limits. They’re far less human than even my kind are.”

  He continued flexing my knee carefully with his fingers spread over the kneecap feeling the movements as I lay there dumb founded. The joint ground roughly. He frowned. It hurt but I knew it had to be done.

  “I’d love to see that…” My voice took on a dreamy quality. To see such magic in real life! Miraculous. “So are there a lot of Vampires and other magical creatures? Like compared to humans.”

  “Not near as many of us as there are of you, trust me. Maybe one of us to every twenty humans. At least I would give that average. I may be a little off.”

  “Us as in Vampires, or all of the otherworldly creatures?” I’d never been so entranced. This was amazing, nearly as amazing as the impossible opportunity to sit down with Leonardo Da Vinci. He’s so lucky! Then my knee popped. Though my lips clamped shut, the yelp was audible.

  “Are you alright?” He eased my leg into his lap gently. I held my breath a moment as the shooting pain passed, then nodded. “I hate to tell you this but I think you tore something.”

  I looked away. Shrugged hard and dismissively. Life’s a bitch.

  He sighed. “You think I’m lucky huh? Yeah, I suppose I am. Never thought either way on it to be honest.” He stared at me intently. His thumb stroked my knee gently. “And I mean all of us.”

  I shook my head in utter disbelief. “This is just so intense. I mean it’s amazing! Unbelievably amazing. It’s just so much to take in…” I felt stunned, quite literally.

  “So you mean you don’t want to know about the rest?” He smirked. Reached to the end table and handed me the bottle of water and Vicodin. One more down the hatch.

  “Are you kidding? Of course I do.” My brow rose curiously, pondering how he really got the bottle.

  “Well let’s see, you know about Vampires and spirit walkers... There’s still the Faye and Immortals they cover all your basic Crossbreeds. A few other mortals who can use magic as well of course,” his voice seemed to sneer as his words trailed off.

  “Wait Crossbreeds? Like super natural mutts? What’s next, the world is really flat?” My brow rose disbelievingly.

  “You mean how different is the world you thought you knew?” Silently I nodded. “More different than you know, my dear.”

  “What’s a Faye? Like a fairy?” My mind drifted back to my dreams when I was younger seeing magical little fairy creatures everywhere. She loved to play with them on the island.

  “Yes, there are many different kinds of course. Some purely magic based so those are more like what you hear about in
fairy tales. Like tinker bell sort of if that helps.” He chuckled lightly.

  “Yeah, I’ve seen those. Well okay, I haven’t seen a real one. In my dreams I have,” my voice trailed to a whisper as I looked down to my hands that were fidgety.

  “You think they are real?” I nodded to his question refusing to look up to see his “your loony” expression. Then he surprised me. “Surely the dreams are some sort of window then. What did you dream about last night?” I guess that answered my question on if he could see, or hear them, rather.

  An involuntary shudder spread through me as I remembered the dream so vividly. “It’s hard to explain.” He gave me time. “I am not me in these dreams. I am always this other girl. I have never dreamed of being anyone else. But she- When people die she feels their pain, she lives through their death. When they’re being tortured and everything that leads up to their death. It’s her curse. Our curse. Last night there was a boy.” I took in a deep reluctant breath still refusing to meet his eyes, which I felt watching me. Waiting for some hysterical reaction no doubt.

  “There were these horrible vines that were like alive or something and they grabbed him and wrapped around his legs and started dragging him... There was a house burning. He fought so hard. The more he fought the worse they hurt him. They drug him into the house slowly and he burned.” I could almost feel the heat again. Painfully I shuddered.

  “So what happens to these other people, she feels. Then through the dreams, you become her and so you feel it too. Does she get hurt in the dreams just as you do?”

  “Yup. We both live it. Just like the ones who are dying.” With a sigh, I lay back into the couch lazily. “I’ve lived through her death too. Hers is this worst one of them all.”

  Damien’s cell phone rang. He sighed as he checked the caller ID. “It’s my sister. I need to take this. I’ll be back in a minute.” A kiss brushed my lips and then suddenly he was gone.

  I spent the time roaming, or hobbling if you will my way bathroom and this time braving the light switch so I could get cleaned up. As I suspected he didn’t have much stocked in it. This was obviously just a spare bathroom. It didn’t have a shower.

  The view in the mirror stunned me. I knew it was bad but I had no idea how bad. A rainbow of hideous colors surrounded both eyes and spread down to my fractured cheekbone and across my broken nose.

  My lower lip was purple, red and black along the stitched and swollen area and doubled in size. As I suspected, the stitches were utterly and perfectly uniform. Tears immediately filled my eyes threatening to spill. Seeing the injuries made them hurt more.

  “I should just put a bag over my head, jeeze.” Carefully I washed my face and wet my hands to comb through my tangled hair to tame it. Finally rinsing my mouth, swishing and gargling the best I could with water to get the taste of stale blood out.

  “There’s just no way to make this ugly go away.” I told myself with a shaky sigh. Don’t cry. Don’t you dare! To try to make sense of my hair I soaked it. Combed with my fingers and wove it into as tight a French braid as I could manage. This was seriously difficult for it hurt my left hand like a son of a bitch.

  Walking hurt like hell but I had dealt with it before and likely would again. Just as I opened the door and stepped out, I realized Damien was leaning on the wall nearest to me.

  “Hell!” I nearly fell backwards, hurting my ankle in the process of him scaring the daylights out of me. “You cannot scare injured people like that! It’s very mean.” Callous scorning.

  His face was unusually serious as he scooped me into his arms before I could say two words about it or even one word really.

  “I apologize for startling you,” he spoke low as he carried me back to the couch and lay me down gently. “Although I would ask you not to walk around, especially without the wrap. I don’t want you hurt worse than you already are.”

  “That or you don’t want me nosing around your house. I just needed to use the restroom I promise I wasn’t creeping.” He stood next to me a moment shaking his head slightly.

  “I have no more secrets to keep from you, Lianna. It is just that I have a very difficult time seeing you injured.”

  “What did she have to say? And please sit down you’re making me nervous.” His brow arched as he slowly sat to the edge of the couch next to me, careful not to even touch me. Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold. Sigh.

  “She wants to meet you. I just don’t believe it’s necessary right now. I told her we would stay at least another week, so we can make arrangements for you. Her only comment was she highly doubted that.”

  He sighed. Damien’s brow furrowed as he leaned his elbows onto his knees and locked his hands together staring at them begrudgingly. “My sister has a way of knowing things. Usually she knows a lot more about the bad things than the good.”

  That reminded me of Neesa and the tarot readings. “As much as I have had to deal with that specifically lately, I don’t think I am quite stable enough for the details as to what you mean. So I am going to ask later.” I couldn’t stand to look at him in such a brooding mood, so I stared down at my black and purple ankle. Yeah, that made me feel better. Not.

  “Oh, she also said I was a horrible host who has forgotten many of your more human needs.” He glanced at his bathroom and shook his head. In disagreement, I rolled my eyes as he looked back at me.

  “Would it be alright with you if we left for a little while? I do not keep many human necessities on hand I am afraid and you haven’t eaten in nearly two days I do believe.” He barely lifted his head as he looked up at me.

  “Did you know you speak more formally when you’re upset?” My brow perked slightly as I looked at him. All he did was stare at me. “I’m fine, Damien. I don’t eat much really anyway. Besides, we’re not done talking.” It had been three days. He didn’t need to know that though.

  “If you choose to say no again I will not allow you to put pants on. I will take you half-naked. Three days will not turn into four.” Damn it. It was both amusing and disturbing that his face and voice was so deadly serious.

  “They wouldn’t let me in.” I challenged after a moment’s hesitation.

  “Do you not remember saying with a single look I tend to get what I want? I believe they would.” His brow perked in mock of my expression. No humor. “Besides, I never said we were done talking. I haven’t learned near enough about you yet either, sweetheart.” A faint smile tugged at his lips as my cheeks flushed.

  “Well when you put it that way I won’t challenge you. Where are my pants?” His lips twisted into a slight smile. Pity it really was only a slight one. “But I’m keeping the shirt.” He grinned at that one.

  XIII

  “OMENS”

  “So, maybe you can shed some light on something for me.” I chewed my lip idly while looking out the window. He stayed quiet waiting for me to continue. “Some things were going on, it was while you were still just coming into the restaurant and we weren’t talking too much.” His brow arched as he looked over at me curiously. Taking in a deep breath, I sighed heavily. “Weird things were happening in my apartment.”

  “You’ll have to give me an example, sweetheart.” His brows furrowed as his eyes focused on the road. It felt as if I was just filled with weird crap. I didn’t mean to burden him but the strange unanswerable things were almost always pinging around my id waiting to be surfaced and dealt with. Silly or not, I wanted his opinion. “It’s not silly and it’s not a burden. Tell me what happened.” His lips turned up as one hand left the steering wheel to take my hand gently.

  My cheeks burned because I felt like a paranoid nutcase. “Stupid stuff. Music turning on when it shouldn’t mostly. The other stuff is difficult to explain. I’ll just get a weird feeling that I’m being watched or that I’m not alone. I’ll see shadows move. Human looking shadows.”

  “How often?” His eyes were narrow again as if he were thinking on something.

  I shrugged dismissively. “Pretty often. More and mo
re frequently actually.” I laughed bitterly. “My god I sound like one of those freaks who thinks their house is haunted. It hasn’t always been like that. Only the last four or five months maybe? I don’t really remember.”

  “Hmm. Could be a number of things. If it happens when I’m around will you tell me? Or if I’m not, though that’s doubtful, will you call me?” I nodded absently. He programed my number into his phone and sent me a message so I would have his.

  We watched the sunrise as we drove. It was beautiful. Much better when shared with another. He agreed. We rolled the windows down and tried to blow his speakers with some Fuel. His system was top of the line. We failed but I’d enjoyed the challenge.

  Damien had taken me to a small diner off the highway for breakfast. It was old. Completely restored to its hay day. Blue Formica ruled the room with white and black tile covering every inch of the floor and bar siding. Picture a gleaming silver trailer with a neon sign of blue inviting the world of travelers to Sally’s Place.

  Questions stirred through my mind about anything I had heard or read that related to every mythological creature I have heard of.

  Of course, I couldn’t ask him out loud in the restaurant but after some creative thought I began thinking of yes or no answer questions. He seemed amused enough to humor me with slight shakes of the head for no and faint nods for yes. At least I did get to wear pants and his shirt, which I enjoyed a little too much. Pity he wore one too. And yes, each battered break and mangled joint was securely wrapped.

  It went a little like this, I would think a question. Can you eat food? Shake of the head no. But you can drink alcohol. He shrugged. Explain it more later? Nod. Crosses? He smirked and reached a hand across the table, the tips of his fingers brushed the golden cross dangling from my neck. My cheeks warmed significantly along with other parts of my body. He winked teasingly as he let his hand fall away. Alright, another myth. Churches? He smirked still, though faintly and looked from right to left discretely. Myth. You can be hurt. How? He stared at me. Not now, gotcha. I sighed as the waitress came to take our order.