Bloodstone Heart

by T. Lynne Tolles

  Darby noticed Josh's face start to pale. She caught Dominic's eyes and nodded in Josh’s direction. Suddenly, Josh jumped out of his seat to a standing position and quietly excused himself as he darted towards the door. Blake was still answering questions when suddenly there was a loud, guttural groan of pain from the foyer.

  Chapter 28

  Melanie was deep in thought as she drove on the freeway to the airport. She was excited knowing that in a few hours she would be in a safe home in Connecticut and a phone call away from Josh. She hoped that the others back home had been able to make a plan to permanently get Dimitri off Josh's trail.

  She hoped that the plane tickets she had sent to Sandy and Travis, Danny and Ellen, and Chris and Lori had all been received and were going to good use, not for her own plan to succeed, but because each of them deserved a little kindness from an anonymous stranger. She figured her fate with Dimitri was out of her hands now and she only hoped to get safely back to her friends.

  She had called for a service to pick up Devon's car from the airport and ship it back to California. She would leave the keys in the car under the mat and they would do the rest. With the list of things to do neatly checked off, she smiled as she slipped her own tickets to Hartford into her bag.

  She parked Devon's car in a spot where she thought it would receive the least amount of door dings from other travelers, but then there was no guarantee. She had become quite attached to the car. It had been like a friend that had helped her keep two steps from danger, when there were no others around. She checked the car twice for anything she might have left behind. With her duffle bag and her purse on her shoulder she set the key under the mat, locked the door, and closed it. As she walked away from the car she whispered, "Good bye, my friend."

  The Charlotte Douglas airport was much bigger than she had anticipated. It had five concourses and 91 gates. She stood in line to get her boarding pass from the automated kiosk, when someone grabbed her arm and turned her around. She looked up in surprise to find who she assumed was Dimitri. He spoke quietly before she could react and her body went stiff with his words.

  "Ms. Harper. Please follow me," he said quietly.

  She followed his commands despite wanting to scream. As if no longer in control of her body, she watched herself follow him without hesitation while she screamed inside. He held on to her arm with just one hand and led her through the crowded airport and to the parking garage. He led her to a dark colored car far away from the eyes of busy travelers and opened the driver's side door. Again he spoke firmly but quietly, "Get in and slide over to the passenger's seat."

  Her will-less body did as he commanded, but not without loud protests from the little voice inside her head. He never took his hand off her arm. Once he was in the car next to her, he shut the door and leaned over to her.

  "This will hurt," he said without remorse. His fangs showed as he opened his mouth and moved towards her. Screaming inside her head, she wished just one finger or muscle would respond to her command but to no avail. His fangs sank into her soft neck and it was, as he had said, very painful.

  He drained her for what seemed an hour, but was probably only a minute. The pain went on and on. First her hands and feet ached along with her neck, then legs and arms, and lastly her head throbbed. The little voice in her head screamed and screamed until she had no energy to do so anymore and she lay there in an unresponsive body watching as he buckled her in, started the car, and started to drive.

  In the foyer, they found Josh on his knees holding his head in pain. He had leaned forward with his forehead on the cool floor in hopes of some relief, but none came. Blake dropped to the floor and put his hands on Josh’s shoulders. Somehow Blake knew what was happening when no one else in the room had a clue.

  "Josh...listen to my voice...I think I can help, but you have to do what I say, can you hear me?"

  His face contorted in pain, and he tried to nod, though no words would come.

  "Okay, Josh, you need to visualize the pain as a fireball. Gather every last piece of pain and add it to the fireball."

  Josh groaned loudly as he held both hands to his head. "Josh, you have to focus, you can control this...visualize it as a fireball. Once you’ve put all the pain in that fireball, visualize extinguishing it and seeing it get smaller and smaller, slower at first, then faster until it’s small enough to control. Come on, Josh, you can do this! I know you can. Focus. Can you see the fireball getting smaller? It's getting smaller and smaller until you can control the pain, then you can extinguish the ball altogether.”

  Josh opened his eyes for a moment but his face was still contorted with pain. His eyes told Blake it was working.

  “Keep focusing, Josh. When you get it under control then you can tell us what you saw or felt. Okay. Just focus on the fireball getting smaller and smaller. There you go! It's getting better, isn't it?”

  Josh nodded. Blake could see the tension fading and Josh gaining control of it.

  Everyone in the room was relieved to see Josh's pain relaxing within him. Josh started to turn red from embarrassment at everyone looking at him. Blake smiled, realizing if he was able to blush, then he had indeed tamed the pain.

  "Don't be embarrassed, Josh. Think of us as family," Blake said and at that comment, Devon and Dominic both glanced at each other. Blake continued, "Can you stand up?"

  "Yeah," he said quietly and Anton jumped forward to offer his hand to help him and Blake from the floor.

  "Bernard, can you get Josh some water and maybe some aspirin?"

  "I sure can, Master Anton. Right away." Bernard took off like a shot to the kitchen.

  "Can you tell us anything about what you saw or felt?" As Blake said this, he and Anton helped Josh into the study and into a large comfortable chair. Everyone else followed them in.

  "Yeah," he blinked his eyes a couple of times then rubbed his temples and continued, "It's Lanie. Dimitri has her."

  "Can you tell where they are?"

  "No. In a car maybe, but he bit her. She was screaming so loud I thought my head was going to explode. She couldn't control her body. He told her what to do and she did it, but she protested in her head all the way. Why can't I tell where they are?"

  "Well, first off, it’s your first time; secondly, I think you did a damn fine job. The details may come later, but what you've done is amazing for someone who has not been trained. Extraordinary at the very least," Dominic professed.

  "But that doesn't help Lanie. She's been drained of blood and is walking around like his pet zombie. We have to do something before he kills her."

  "He won't kill her - at least not until he gets to you. She's his one-way ticket to you and the stone. He might be a little pissed off about being duped by her for the last couple of weeks, but he won't kill her until he knows where the stone is," Mark said. "I expect we will be hearing from him as soon as he gets her hidden and questions her."

  Blake said, "Yes. I imagine he's not going to be happy when he realizes that he can't read her mind to get the answers he wants."

  "That means he'll try to get answers by torturing her?" Josh said in a panicked voice.

  Mark said, "Probably."

  Darby scolded, "Mark, that's not helping."

  Alyssa jabbed him in the ribs and said, "We need to work on your bedside manner, Mister."

  "What? He needs to be prepared for what might happen." The girls all frowned at him scornfully.

  "So what do we do?"

  Mark said, "Well unless Josh has a more detailed brain melt down that tells us where they are so we can have the jump on him, we wait for him to call."

  "That's it? We just sit around and do nothing," Josh snapped. "That's all we've done for weeks." Josh was really agitated. He was pacing the room now and Blake thought he might take a swing at the next person who spoke, but he responded anyways.

  "Josh. I know it seems like we haven't accomplished anything, but Melanie gave us the gift of time. And with that time, we learned an awfu
l lot about Dimitri, about the stone, what he wants to use it for and how it might be used against us. I know it doesn't seem like a lot but it is. I doubt he thinks we know ANYTHING and that is an advantage we have over him. And again, thanks to Melanie, we found the stone early on and learned about its origins.”

  "But HE HAS LANIE and who knows what he will do to her!"

  "He does, Josh. But he doesn't know we know he has her. Again your...whatever they are...are giving us yet another advantage. He also doesn't know we have so many people willing to fight to get her back.”

  Darby walked over to Josh and sat on the ottoman in front of him. "That's right. We're all here to help. Dimitri probably hasn't had much chance to form his army, or whatever you call a bunch of evil vampires. Plus he doesn't have the stone to make them super vampires. I'm sure he doesn't know what he's going to be up against. It doesn't sound like he hung around the house long enough to sense Dean and Rowan's werewolfism. Plus being here, we add Dominic and Anton in the vampire category. Of course Rowan is a double-bladed sword with being a witch too, and lastly, you have two more witches and a pretty awesome gypsy, as far as I can tell."

  Alyssa smiled and added, "And the best P.I. ever."

  Mark said, "And I'm pretty damn good with bow and arrow, not that there is much call for that these days, but it's an asset - I think."

  Dean said, "Unless you hit Anton again with a poisoned arrow."

  "Hey now, she moved. He was supposed to hold her still. It's not my fault vampires can hear an arrow coming." Dean stuck his tongue out at him. Mark countered, "Are all werewolves so juvenile?"

  A little chuckle was heard from everyone in the room but Josh, who said, "I appreciate that, but we still don't have a plan and we still don't know where she is and I hate this sitting and doing nothing."

  Darby put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him and said, "I know how you feel, Josh. I've been there. Sometimes you feel like you are so close and then before you know it you are ten paces backwards, but I've learned it’s kind of the nature of the beast with these things. Sometimes this stuff comes flying at you a hundred miles an hour and you wish it would slow down. Other times things are slow and you have to wait for every little thing to come into place and it’s so mind numbing you want to scream, but you have a bunch of people here to lean on and help you. I think things will probably start moving real fast here, real soon, but we will be here to help.

  "Melanie's seen a lot of sadness in her lifetime and she kept herself hidden away from everyone, but you, Josh. I can only guess that somehow you give her a strength she didn't know she had, and it’s that strength that brought you to us and has kept you alive all these weeks. I'm guessing to keep you safe, she can endure quite a bit and she'll draw on your strength to get her through all this. If nothing else, Melanie is a survivor, even if she doesn't know it. She'll be okay."

  "Thank you, Darby. I'm really sorry to spoil your happiness with all this trouble."

  "Don't be silly. Since I met Devon and Blake, things have been a bit crazy, but maybe that's what we are meant to do. Help. Help our family." She looked at Anton. "Help our friends." She looked at Sally. "Help our loved ones," she said and looked at Devon and Rowan and then at Blake. “Kind of like the Order was originally meant to be - maybe WE are the true Order of the Black Orchids." She laughed heartily at that and so did everyone else, including Josh.

  Darby had soothed his heavy heart. It seemed to be what she did best and why all who were in that room loved her as much as they did. Josh knew now why Lanie had brought him to find her. Though the circumstances were not ideal, he was glad he had come. Mostly he was thankful for the friends he had acquired. If anyone could help him get Lanie back, it was this room full of people he now would always refer to as friends.

  Chapter 29

  Melanie could see what was going on around her, but she was too weak to move, much less escape a vampire. When Dimitri stopped the car and turned off the engine, she sluggishly opened her eyes to get a look at her surroundings. A wave of dizziness hit her as she tried to focus on the scenery. Everything was so incredibly bright she could barely stand to open her eyes in a squint, but that didn't stop her from trying. She couldn't quite tell if it was her surroundings moving up and down or if it was just an illusion.

  Dimitri pulled her out of the passenger side of the car to a wobbly standing position. Again his hand was on her arm and he commanded her to walk with him. Her body did as he commanded as he led her down a sloping landscape and onto what she had finally figured out to be a pier with boats swaying back and forth. He led her onto a small boat and let go of her arm, and she instantly slumped to one side in an odd and slightly uncomfortable position as he untied the boat, started its engine, and started to steer away from the docks.

  If only she could find the energy to jump, but she knew that would just be a death sentence, since she had no energy to swim back to shore. She was doomed. No one knew where she was - no one had known for weeks. How had he found her? She had been so careful. Had he found her lost post-it note and figured the rest out? How could he, it was cryptic at best to someone who didn't know her plan, unless it gave him enough time to check out the other four recipients of tickets to find out if they were legitimate or not. It puzzled her, and it was too hard to think in this state.

  The ride was bouncy, the noise from the engine deafening, and she felt nauseous from her pounding head which made her more sensitive to the bouncing, the brightness, and the noise. It seemed like a long ride but she wasn't sure if it was just because everything seemed so distorted. Dimitri cut the engine and the boat drifted to a waiting dock where he hurriedly tied the boat up. He grabbed her arm and shoved her up onto the dock. She would have fallen off the other side if a pylon had not stopped her. He grabbed something out of the boat and again had her arm. He commanded her to follow him again and he led her to what looked like a cave. He took something out of his pocket as they came to a bright red door that had some lettering on it but Melanie was in no shape to read it. He pushed through the door and they went down a long corridor. It was dark, very dark, and she couldn't see anything.

  It seemed like they walked forever before he stopped and opened another door and then another, all in pitch-blackness to Melanie. If she had control of her body it would have been horribly disorienting, but Dimitri with his vampire vision, knew exactly where he was going and what he was doing.

  The door he opened seemed to be their final destination, at least it was hers. Here he flicked on a fluorescent overhead light that flickered and buzzed into life most unpleasantly to Melanie's sensitive eyes. She was glad for the light once it stopped flickering, she could get a glimpse of the room she was in. Dimitri quickly tied her hands behind her and behind the chair that dug into her forearms terribly. Then he tied her feet to the legs of the chair, and just to make sure she didn't get any crazy ideas, he tied her torso to the back of the chair.

  He brought another chair close to her, which seemed to be the only other thing in the small room and stared at her for a moment before he began to speak.

  "Well now, Miss Harper it's time for a little Q & A."

  Melanie's head lolled on her neck as if it was barely attached.

  Dimitri continued, "Where is your boyfriend, Josh Brenner?"

  Melanie didn't answer.

  "Where is the heart-shaped stone?" He waited a moment, but she did not respond. "I know he has it, because he couldn't have survived the explosion without it. Now tell me what I want to know.”

  He seemed to be concentrating very hard on her and Melanie thought maybe he was trying to read her thoughts. After another moment he stood up, sighed, and said, "Maybe a little alone time will help your memory.”

  He put the chair he was sitting on by the door, grabbed a bag he had brought in with him, and pulled out some duct tape. He ripped off a piece about eight inches long and placed it firmly over her mouth. He then went to the large metal door, opened it and turned to look at her one more time
before he left and closed the door behind him. After a few clicks and metallic sounds, she assumed he locked the door tight behind him and there she sat in a room alone.

  The room was no more than ten feet by ten feet and the wall perpendicular to the wall with the door had a large arch. It looked like a doorway but it had been bricked up a very long time ago. The wall opposite the arch was the same, with a walled up arch in it. There were no windows and no furniture besides the chair by the door and the one she was tied to. A beam on the ceiling ran the length of the room to which the light was attached.

  It was cold and dank and felt much like she imagined a dungeon might feel. Moisture dripped from the walls and there was a strong smell of musty mildew and seawater. The rope he had used was rather like twine, coarse and very tight and the ones around her midsection made it hard to take in a deep breath. Even if she had her strength, there was nothing but her head that she could move. She was so tired from being drained, that her head dropped to her chest and she passed out.

  Josh had gone up to his room to lie down. It took a long time for him to fall asleep with all the adrenaline that had pumped into his system with seeing Melanie hurt. It was similar to his night time journeys but he was awake, and the night time journeys were more like a casual flight - it was fast, but nothing like this morning. The journey to her then was more like free falling from 30,000 feet. It was fast and frightening, not to mention the pain he'd felt when he got there. He was certainly not looking forward to another one of those journeys.

  He practiced some relaxing techniques that Blake had taught him. After about an hour or so he finally did fall asleep and he found himself on a casual flight to Melanie. He hadn't really meant to, but she was always on his mind. He was in a small room with two chairs in it. Stone bricks that looked very old enclosed the room along with a big metal door. A tiny, limp woman sat in the middle of the room, tied with small gauge rope to the chair. She looked unconscious or sleeping, but Josh couldn't tell. There were no injuries aside from the fang marks on her neck with streaks of crimson running from the holes to her blouse collar.