Bloodstone Heart

by T. Lynne Tolles

  "Chasing her down."

  But SHE doesn't have it. This was not a difficult task I asked of you. I gave you the stone, and then it was stolen from you. You told me you hunted it down weeks ago and yet, you still have no stone and no followers.

  "I do have followers, my Lord. I've gathered eight loyal followers without even having the stone. Once I have it I will release its power on the followers and more will flock to me. All is going as planned; it's just taken longer than I had anticipated. I was just going to call to make an exchange - the stone for the girl, when you arrived."

  You could at least cut her down. They're not going to want her if she's dead.

  "Yes, my Lord." Dimitri immediately pulled out a pocketknife and cut the rope over Lanie's head and she fell to the hard floor, limp and unaware.

  Dimitri, if you do not obtain the stone by tomorrow night, I will have to take measures into my own hands and find another to fill your shoes. Do you understand?

  "Yes, my Lord."

  And also, the person you seek is here on the east coast - Connecticut to be exact, and I am very displeased with your involving the Larsen family in this matter.

  "He's here? Josh Brenner is here? Who are the Larsens?"

  Yes, Josh is here. You need not know who the Larsens are; suffice it to say MY employer is very displeased with their involvement and you are treading on a very thin ice indeed.

  Josh could see fear in Dimitri's face, who answered, "Yes, my Lord."

  And Dimitri, don't call me that. I am not your lord, but your employer. Please refer to me by my name.

  "Yes, Dark Angel."

  They both turned and left the room, closing and locking the door behind them, but leaving the light on. He rushed to Lanie and looked her over. Though he couldn't move her, he could see deep purple finger marks on her neck, her mouth looked swollen under a piece of duct tape, and there was a dark matted area on the side of her head, he could only assume was drying blood. She was breathing though and that was something to hold on to.

  He thought the best thing he could do for Lanie was to figure out where she was so he decided to try and leave the room. He walked to the door and felt rather silly about being nervous about trying to go through it. He tested it first with his hand to make sure. No sense in going headfirst and knocking himself senseless. He wasn't sure what would happen, but he knew he had to try.

  First his hand and then his foot went through the door, then he leaned into it and he was instantly standing on the other side in a dark, long hallway. There were crates here and there and at the far end of the hall he could see Dimitri and the Dark Angel walking away. Then suddenly the hooded Dark Angel stopped, turned, and looked down the hallway. Was the Dark Angel sensing him somehow? He wasn't sure, but he froze. After a moment Dimitri started talking again and the Dark Angel turned and continued down the hall with him.

  Right across from the door through which he’d passed were three wood crates stacked on top of each other. They were stamped with the vendor name Acme, which made Josh think of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

  He looked for a packing slip or something with an address, but there was nothing. He looked at crate after crate and there was nothing relating to location. He was starting to panic when he saw a shard of paper between four stacked crates. He tried to pull at it but when his hand passed through it he remembered he had no substance for such a task. Josh was ready to pull his hair out with frustration and started back to the room where Lanie was when he saw a white uniform shirt. In bright red letters was the name 'Juan' and above it was embroidered 'Boldt Castle.'

  Dimitri called the California number he had gotten off of Josh's iPhone download. It rang once, made a clicking sound, and then rang again slightly differently as if it had been transferred.

  Bernard answered the phone with, "Larsen Residence."

  Dimitri faltered for a moment when he heard the name Larsen – the Dark Angel had been right about the Larsens’ involvement. He said, very agitated, "I need to speak with Josh Brenner."

  Bernard answered, "Of course, Sir. May I say who is calling?"

  "You can tell him if he wants to ever see Miss Harper again, he should get on the phone."

  "Yes, Sir. Right away, Sir."

  Bernard set the phone down and ran for the stairs. Slightly out of breath, he entered Josh's room as Blake was waking him up to check on him per Dr. Rowe’s orders. Josh bolted upright in bed, startling both Blake and Bernard. Josh looked at Blake and said, "I know where she is. I did what you said; I think I know where she is."

  Bernard interrupted, "Master Josh, HE is on the line and said if you ever wanted to see Miss Harper again, you should get on the phone."

  Blake handed Josh the cordless phone next to the bed.

  Josh tentatively took it from Blake's hands. Blake sprinted for the stairs to get to the other handset to listen in.

  Josh said, "Hello?"

  "Josh...I think you have something I want."

  "Yes, and you have Lanie."

  "I do. Meet me at the Alexandria Bay water taxi dock tomorrow at noon ALONE." Then Dimitri hung up.

  Josh set the phone down in its cradle. Bernard could see he was worried and said, "He wants to make a trade?"

  "Yes," Josh said quietly.

  "I'll go get Master Dominic and you can talk in the study, I'm sure he and the others will come up with a plan to get Miss Harper back safe."

  "Thank you, Bernard. I'll be down in a minute," Josh answered. Bernard slowly turned and headed out of the room. Shaken by the phone call, Josh raked both hands through his hair and brought both hands down with a slap on his thighs as he stood up and headed to the study.

  Darby had been right; one minute things are as slow as a snail, and the next they’re speeding like a bullet. He walked slowly down the stairs seeing Dominic, Devon, Anton, and Blake gathered around the foyer table with the phone on it. Blake could see the worry in Josh's eyes. The group moved towards the study as Josh reached the last few steps.

  They all sat closely on the leather couch and chairs in front of the fireplace, displacing a very annoyed and sleepy Mr. Chow, who now sat on the floor with his back turned towards Dominic who had moved him. After a moment of ignoring everyone in the room, the cat sauntered off slowly rubbing his face and side on the edge of the open door and exited.

  Josh sat down and Blake who was nearest him, started. "As we predicted, that was Dimitri with his demands. He wants Josh to meet him at the Alexandria Bay water taxi dock at noon - alone."

  Dominic said, "Well, he most certainly isn't going to go alone."

  Blake said, "That hasn't been decided, but my gut tells me Dimitri won't play fair, so we need to make him think Josh is alone and when things go bad, that's when we swoop in."

  "How can we 'swoop in' if we don't know where the trade will happen?" Anton asked.

  "When I went up to check on Josh, he was talking in his sleep. He had another visit with Melanie and although he didn't have time to tell me everything before the phone rang, he said he knows where she is."

  "Great. Where?" Devon asked.

  "Boldt Castle,” Josh said.

  Anton said, "He must be doing the trade in the altar room deep under the castle in the tunnels. I've been there, even met the Dark Angel when I was there."

  Devon stared at Anton. "You what? And you're here to talk about it?"

  "I know! Amazing, huh?"

  Josh interrupted, "Did you say Dark Angel?"

  "Yes!” said an excited Anton. “The one and only, and we talked for a moment or two."

  Devon looked at him with amazement. "You had an actual conversation with the Dark Angel?"

  "Yep! That's right!" Anton said seemingly proud of himself.

  Josh said, "The Dark Angel is there with Dimitri."

  All the heads in the room snapped to attention and Dominic was the first to ask, "What? How do you know?"

  "I saw him...her...it. Dimitri and the Dark Angel were talking over Lanie's body.
"

  "Lanie's body?" Blake said. "Maybe you should start from the beginning and tell us what you saw and heard."

  "Okay. I did what you had suggested, Blake, I tried to be aware of my surroundings to see if there was anything that could give me a clue as to where she was, but it was like a black tunnel with bright lights, no land below me or anything I could see. When I landed, it was still dark, but I was sure I was in the same room because the feel and the smell were the same, and I could sense Lanie but I couldn't see her.

  “A moment later the door opened and this hooded figure and Dimitri stepped in and turned on the light. I think I must have gasped or something because I swear the hooded figure turned towards me but apparently couldn't see me. Then they started talking while Lanie hung from the middle of the room by her wrists from a beam.

  “It was then that I knew Blake was right about the episode on the stairs, it was related to Lanie. She had deep purple bruising around her neck, her lip was bloodied and swollen and her hair was all matted with blood on one side of her head."

  "Hmm," Blake said.

  "What did Dimitri and the Dark Angel talk about?" asked Dominic.

  "The Dark Angel was pretty angry about Dimitri having so much trouble obtaining the stone. Apparently the Dark Angel is the one who gave it to him in the first place and then it was stolen. I'm assuming by the vampire I killed in the alley. They both were pretty peeved about Lanie running Dimitri all around the country, when neither the stone nor I, was with her. From what I could tell from what the Dark Angel was saying telepathically..."

  "Wait, the Dark Angel didn't speak verbally?"

  "No."

  "The Dark Angel spoke telepathically to me too," Anton interjected.

  "Hmm," Dominic said. "You were saying, Josh?"

  "From what I could tell from the conversation,” Josh continued, “the angel employed Dimitri to put an army together for some purpose. The Dark Angel also knew that I was here. I'm not sure but the Dark Angel said…”

  "They know you're here? How?" Dominic asked.

  "It said 'the person you seek is here on the east coast - Connecticut to be exact'. Then went on to say that it was very displeased that the Larsen family was now involved."

  "But...how....?" Dominic stuttered.

  Blake ran his hand through his hair and Anton sat back in the chair contemplating this.

  "That CAN'T be good. The Dark Angel is involved? And knows we are too? AND where we are?" Devon said.

  Blake said, "But I don't understand. If the Dark Angel knows Josh is here, why hasn't the stone been taken already?"

  Everyone pondered that for a moment when Dominic said, "There must be more going on than just acquiring the stone and making an army. Otherwise, the Dark Angel would have just done the job himself or herself…well, you know what I mean."

  "So does that mean that Dimitri does not have any followers yet?" asked Devon.

  Blake answered, "I guess."

  "Yes, he does,” Josh blurted. “He told the Dark Angel that he had 'eight loyal followers' and as soon as he got the stone he would invoke the power of the stone on them, or something like that."

  Devon said, "Eight followers - so probably eight vampires AND the Dark Angel against four vampires, two werewolves, and two witches."

  "Don't forget,” Blake added, “Darby said that Alyssa has gypsy blood, she could be used to help any spell they cast, so three witches and a Private Investigator."

  Devon looked at his brother like he was an idiot.

  "What?” Blake said defensive now. “He's a damn good shot with a bow. He missed Libby by like a half inch and that was because Anton couldn't hold her."

  "Hey, don't blame it on me. She scratched the hell out of me," Anton said.

  Blake laughed, "I'm teasing you, Anton. No one could have held her still, she was like a wildcat, but that doesn't detract from Mark's abilities."

  Devon retorted, "But we don't want wooden arrows being shot around a room with us in it. Plus, he's human. We won't be able to protect him and Josh from the vampires AND the Dark Angel."

  "I didn't get the impression the Dark Angel was going to be involved at all with the trade. It was just stated that Dimitri better get the stone by tomorrow night or he would be replaced," Josh said.

  "Whew! That helps!” Anton replied. "Well, there is one good thing...when I went to the castle last time, I saw that they had posted a notice that they were closing off the island to tourists for some maintenance. Dimitri obviously is taking advantage of the lack of people coming to the island to deploy his plan."

  "At least no innocent bystanders will be hurt in this," Devon said.

  "We need to come up with a way to infiltrate the castle tunnels without being detected," Blake said.

  "That's certainly easier said than done," Anton said.

  "Dominic, is there any way we can mask our scent and the others?" Devon asked.

  "Maybe, but won't they sense you even if your scent is masked?” Dominic answered.

  “Sensing is usually done by the mind - sensing someone thinking about arbitrary things. Linking with Josh will bypass that," Blake explained.

  Devon said, "How?"

  "Usually one is sensed when they accidentally drop their mind blocking in order to communicate with someone but we can concentrate all our power on blocking and fighting because Josh will be taking care of all the communicating by linking us."

  "You really think that can work?" Devon said, doubtful.

  "I do. And I think it will be our biggest asset."

  Dean finally said something. "Well then, if you just need to mask your scent, do it like the animals do. Cover your smell up with something smellier."

  "Brilliant, Dean," Dominic said. "Josh told Blake that the tunnels where Melanie is being held had the distinct smell of ocean and mustiness. If we were to rub seaweed on ourselves, it might be enough to mask our scent along with the werewolves.

  "Also I have a map of the castle and its tunnels. That is how Anton found the altar room in the first place. We can hide in different locations in the tunnels, maybe even take out a vampire or two, and Josh will give us our cue, then we pounce."

  "It seems a little too simple," Anton said.

  "Sometimes the simplest way is the best way," Dean retorted.

  "So I guess all we need to do is try this linking thing," Blake said.

  Dominic stood up and said, " I think I will take my leave."

  Blake said, "But don't you want to be in the link? You're the oldest and strongest vampire here."

  "No. I think I will leave this one to the younger Larsens. I'll just stay with someone who is linked so I know when we are to move. Besides, didn't you say that it would be strongest with five - something about the pentagram or crystals or something like that? Besides, we're going to need to head out early to get our plan in place so I think I will turn in."

  "Um yeah, it would be stronger with five, but...okay. Goodnight, Dominic," Blake said slightly befuddled by his uncle's non-participation. Dominic eyed Devon as he left the room. Devon nodded.

  Blake was confused by what he saw between Devon and Dominic, but continued, "Okay then...shall we try it?"

  Everyone nodded.

  "All right then. Let me explain some fundamentals of what we are about to do before we begin.

  "Telepathic abilities are all about frequencies and connecting to them. Think of it like turning on a radio and finding the station you want, that's kind of what we will be doing here. This can be done several ways, but I think for our purpose, we will have you think of a specific thing and then Josh will search for that thing, tuning into your frequency. When he has found all four he will visualize them being linked together like five pieces of rope tied in one knot. As Dominic had said, five is a significant number in linking. It is thought that like the five points of the pentagram, it symbolizes strength."

  "How do we unlink?" Josh said.

  "Each of us visualizes the ropes tied together being untied or cu
t."

  "Sounds simple enough," Anton said.

  "Ready then?" Blake asked.

  Everyone nodded.

  “Okay, Devon, Dean, and Anton, I want you to visualize...um...a bright red Ferrari. Close your eyes and see it in your mind. Try to think only on the red Ferrari. I'll do the same. Josh, you need to go from person to person and find the red Ferrari in each of our minds. That is our frequency, so to speak. Hold on to it and move on to the next person until you have all four, then visualize your own and tie them together. When you can visualize that, open your eyes and tell us you are done and we will see if it has worked.”

  It was silent in the room as they concentrated. Josh started with Devon, found his car, and then moved on to Dean, finding his car, then Anton and Blake. He did as Blake had suggested and visualized all the cars now on a table, with a silver cord connecting all of them, including his, and tied them all into a knot.

  He opened his eyes and said, "Okay! I think I did it."

  Everyone looked around, but no one felt any different until the image of a giant string bean with fangs and bat wings popped into their minds.

  Knock that off, Dean! I told you, vampires can't turn into bats, you big dweeb. Blake hadn’t needed to actually yell this; it was conveyed to all telepathically.

  "I'd say our test worked, but once we are linked, we need to stay focused on what we are doing, or it could be a mad house of five voices yelling all at once all the time," Anton warned.

  Blake laughed but agreed. "Okay, I guess that was a successful experiment, but we should probably break the link before we go to bed, I don't want to share EVERYTHING with you guys."

  "Good point," Devon agreed.

  “So to break the link, everyone close your eyes and focus on the cord being cut and falling away from the others. Josh, your visualization of this cutting/breaking of the link is the most significant since you are the one linking us. Okay. Now close your eyes and focus on the rope.”

  They all visualized the cords and of the knot holding the cord together being cut, and a few seconds later the link was broken and their thoughts were their own.

  Blake said, "Thanks, Josh, that was very cool. Was it much of an effort for you?"