“What is it, Josh? Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Yeah. Everything is okay, it’s just weird,” Josh said.
“What’s weird?”
“Well, Dominic and Anton wanted to talk to me tonight.”
“Yeah? What about?”
“Me. More specifically, my biological parents,” Josh answered.
“Really? So Dominic found them?”
“Oh, he found them all right,” he said with sarcasm, then plopped back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with his arms spread wide. Melanie sidled up next to him, propping herself up with her elbow.
Only inches from him she said, “So? This is a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Yeah! No, definitely, I just wasn’t expecting it to be Dominic,” Josh admitted.
“Dominic? What do you mean?” Melanie asked.
“Dominic is my father,” Josh said.
“No way. But...really? Huh!” Then she plopped back on the bed next to him and they both stared at the ceiling. She was silent for a moment and then continued, “So...who is...?” Melanie asked.
“My mother? A student he was teaching - Katarina Jansson,” he stated.
“Oh. But why did they give you up for adoption? That doesn’t seem like Dominic at all.”
“That’s where it gets complicated,” he explained. “Dominic didn’t know about the pregnancy, and because it was a pregnancy between a vampire and a human, the pregnancy itself was twice as long as a normal one. Dominic thinks that Katarina may have been considered crazy because she couldn’t explain how she had gotten pregnant or with whom or even when. He figures they locked her up and took me from her once she gave birth.”
“How awful for all of you! You always think in these situations that it was a voluntary decision to put a child up for adoption, but if the child was torn from its mother and the father never knew of the child’s existence, it certainly puts a different twist on things,” Melanie said.
“It certainly does. Since my parents told me I was adopted I’ve always felt a certain amount of anger towards my biological parents, but now knowing what really happened, it makes me feel sorry for them,” Josh admitted.
“Yeah. I can see that. Are you going to tell your parents about Dominic and Katarina?” Melanie asked.
“I suppose. Dominic wants to meet them - have them become part of his family. He’s also trying to get Katarina out of the clinic she’s at in Minnesota and bring her to Connecticut. I think he still loves her,” Josh said.
“If he loved her, why did he leave her in Minnesota?” Melanie wondered.
“He said that he thought being involved with a vampire would complicate her life, plus I think, to some extent, he felt like he was betraying Sophia and Anton.”
“Anton. I almost forgot about him. He was there too with Dominic when he told you all this?” Melanie asked.
“Yes,” Josh confirmed.
“How does he feel about having a little brother?”
“About how I feel about having a big brother. I think it’s pretty cool,” Josh admitted.
“How about Dominic? How do you feel about him being your father?” Melanie asked.
“I don’t know. It really hasn’t sunk in. I think he’s great and I have a lot of respect for him. Before all of this I thought of him as an uncle or something, but to find out he is my dad? It just feels...” Josh started.
“Weird?” Melanie asked.
“No. Not really. That’s the weird thing. It feels like you - It feels right! And I can’t help but think that we were all drawn together somehow,” Josh said.
“Hmmm. Could be!”
Chapter Three
They both laid there staring at the ceiling, contemplating. After a moment, Melanie rolled over to her side, again facing Josh, and propped herself up on her elbow.
“Do you feel better? Or do you still feel like you are going to explode?”
He raised both hands to either side of her face and raised his head to kiss her. When he was satisfied, he laid his head back down and said, “I feel better. Thank you. However, I still feel like I’m going to explode, but it’s not because of my parents, it’s because you are just too delectable.”
She smiled and dramatically brought the back of her hand to her forehead looking like a southern damsel in distress about to faint. Eyes closed, she breathily said, “Oh, my!” Then she opened one eye to look at him and whispered devilishly, “You can always have more.” She winked at him.
He laughed and grabbed her at the waist, rolled her on top of him, and kissed her long and tenderly. When he stopped, she said in the best southern drawl she could summon, “Why, Mr. Brenner, you ARE incorrigible.”
He kissed her again deeply, and rolled her on to her back to move on top of her. She whispered half out of breath in his ear, “I love you.” This only made him want her more and he made that quite known.
Her hands ran through his curly, golden hair and then down his back. She could feel his tall, sinewy body pressing hard against her.
She was making him wild with passion. Up until now, they had not gone any farther than some heavy petting and kissing. He wanted her to know he respected her and wanted a real relationship, so though he had been tempted, he’d waited. Now, though, she was pulling him so close and he wanted her so badly that he decided to let it happen. As if a light had been turned on, clothes started to disappear between them as they both feverishly stripped down to their underwear. That’s when Melanie whispered in his ear seductively, “Be gentle with me, Josh. You’re my first.”
He was stunned and, to her great surprise, almost jumped out of the bed. “Your what?”
She looked like she was about to cry as his face flushed and he grabbed his pants. He sat with his back to the foot of the bed with his jeans balled up in his lap.
With tears rolling down her face and her arms extended to him in a pleading gesture, she said, “Josh...I’m sorry...What did I do wrong? I promise, I’ll do better next time, just show me...”
“Ah, geez, Lanie...that’s not it. You’re perfect. I just....I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know what?”
“That...well...that you are a....virgin.”
“That’s what this is about?” she cried harder. He wanted to hold her but he was preoccupied with covering himself. “It’s not a disease, Josh.”
“Of course it isn’t...NO...It’s wonderful and perfect...but I can’t....not like this....”
“You can’t?”
Between the tears, he could see anger rising as she was grabbing clothes from the floor and heading for the bathroom.
“Wait, Lanie...ah geez...this isn’t going well.”
“No, Josh, it isn’t. I think you should go.”
“Lanie, you’re misunderstanding me.” She went into her attached bathroom and shut the door hard. Josh took this moment of privacy to quickly put on his pants, and then he went to the bathroom door and knocked. Pleading with her, he said, “Ah, Lanie. Don’t be mad. I just freaked a bit. You’re blowing this out of proportion. Just come out and talk to me.”
From inside the bathroom, her muffled cries told him, “Now I’m blowing things out of proportion? You’re the one that freaked. Just get out, Josh, Please, get out....” The words were morphing into uncontrollable sobbing. He was at a loss for words as well as what to do, so he did what she told him to and grabbed his shirt and dolefully left her room.
Blake popped his head out of the room he shared with Rowan to see what the ruckus was and saw Josh coming out of Melanie’s room with a pitifully sad face. Blake and Rowan had become fast friends with him and Melanie when they had come looking for help with the Bloodstone Heart mystery. Though Blake stood taller than Josh by at least two to three inches, Josh was much broader. Don’t be fooled though, as skinny as he was, Blake was deadly when his loved ones were in trouble. Blake had taken Josh under his wing and taught him to control his telepathic abilities. He also smacked him upside the head when he was
doing something dumb with Melanie.
“What did you do?” Blake said scornfully as Rowan too peeked out and reprimanded Blake for being a butthead. She pulled him into the room and shut the door.
What did I do? Is right! I’m such an idiot. He leaned back on Melanie’s closed door and he could still hear the muffled sobs coming from the bathroom within.
For a minute instance, he thought he saw into Melanie’s mind. Since he had met her, he had never been able to read ANY of her thoughts. She had been the only one he had met in his life that he could not read and he found that disorienting to say the least. He had always been able to say the right thing or do the right thing when around other women, because he could hear what they wanted. This was new territory for him and he was obviously failing miserably. If this had been any other woman, he would have seen/heard the virginity issue long before it was an issue.
Josh had asked Blake several weeks before why it was that he couldn’t read Melanie and Blake explained that she too was telepathic, but not of her knowing. He said that often when a human with natural telepathic abilities goes through some horrible trauma, they can telepathically build a wall around themselves. Blake had even described this wall that Melanie had built. It was a round turret type tower of grey-blue stone. It was very high and very thick, but just a minute ago Josh thought he saw this wall start to crack. Streams of blazing, brilliant light emanated from behind the wall, revealing giant cracks as stones started tumbling down. A tsunami of guilt and heartrending sadness washed through him, dragging him under like a powerful rip current.
To have broken down her wall enough for him to see in and feel all she felt, he knew he had hurt her terribly. Oh man, did I blow it big time! he thought.
*****
Josh somberly shuffled away from Melanie’s door and headed downstairs. There would be no sleeping tonight he thought, might as well go get a book. On his way to the study in the quiet sleeping house, he made a detour for the kitchen and grabbed a glass of milk. He shuffled through the gigantic house in his socks, stopping in a room on the way to the study. The wall facing the huge pond on the property was mostly glass for two stories. It was a beautiful moonlit night and the water sparkled the moonbeams back at him. He sipped his milk and leaned against a huge wingback chair nearby.
He thought to himself how funny it was that now that he had found Melanie, picturesque scenes like this made him want to run up and share them with her. He knew better though; this night had been ruined for them and it had been his reaction that ruined it. He wondered why it had freaked him so. He had acted as if his sinful hands would be turned to ash by the mere touching of her angelic skin. He respected her even more now than before, if that was possible.
A voice out of the darkness startled Josh deep in his thoughts, “Josh?”
Josh turned to find Anton making his way to the kitchen before going to bed. As soon as Josh turned to face him, Anton knew something was wrong.
“Why don’t you join me for a nightcap?” Anton offered.
“I’m not much of a drinker - more of a beer guy,” Josh said.
“Brewskies it is - Bernard always keeps a stash of beer in the vegetable drawer.”
Josh finished off his milk and said, “Yeah. I guess.”
They quietly made their way to the kitchen and, shutting the swinging door behind them, turned on the light and sat on the stools at the granite-topped island in the middle of the kitchen. Anton slid a beer to him after he removed the cap, as if he were at a bar in a cowboy movie.
“Bottoms up,” Anton said. They both took a long pull from the beer and exhaled loudly after they swallowed, like this was some kind of ritual they had been doing for years. Anton turned back to the fridge and rummaged through the leftovers for something that piqued his interest, then sat next to Josh and took another swig of beer.
“You want to talk about it?” Anton asked.
Peeling the label off the dewy bottle of beer, Josh replied, “I don’t know. It’s personal.”
“Hmmmm. Melanie, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I was married for forty years. I do know a couple of things about women - not a lot - but a few things.”
“Forty years? How old are you?” Josh asked.
“Well, vampires age a little differently than humans,” Anton admitted.
“Obviously.”
“Yeah. I’m one hundred and twelve in human years, twenty-eight in vampire years.”
“Hmmm. One hundred and twelve. You look good for your age. Don’t suppose I’ll look that good at one hundred and twelve,” Josh admitted.
“Not sure, but it will definitely be fun to tease you about it when I look younger than you someday,” Anton joked.
“Right.”
Josh started to speak then stopped and decided to have a swig of beer instead, perhaps in an effort to attain courage. Anton knew he wanted to talk, but didn’t pressure him and didn’t say a thing until spoken to.
“I freaked out on Lanie tonight and I’m not sure how to fix it,” Josh said.
“Freaked out? About Dad and the whole father thing?” Anton asked.
“No. No. I think I’m pretty cool with all that. I talked to Lanie about all of it and as I was talking to her it felt more and more...I don’t ...fine....No...this happened later....after....you know.....we were.....you know....”
“Yeah...you were.....whatever. So what freaked you out?”
“Just before we were, you know...going to do it...she told me she was a....a....virgin.”
“Hmmm,” Anton said and then took another sip of beer. “And you pulled away, I suppose?”
“Yes...I...”
“You felt like a vile, sinful creature preying on a sweet, harmless angel.”
“YES...exactly!”
“And she ran into the bathroom crying.”
“Hey, now...were you listening in on our conversation?”
“God, no. But you said you freaked and I can imagine that didn’t sit well with her, and so, put two and two together and you get four.”
“Well, I don’t know how you got four, but you are right on the money. I told her she was blowing it out of proportion, that it was just a misunderstanding.”
Like he had been poked with a wooden stake, Anton winced and said, “Ooooooooh! You didn’t say that, did you?”
“Yeah. I did. Why?”
“Never ever tell a woman she is ‘blowing things out of proportion’ or ‘over-reacting’ unless you want a huge fight on your hands. On top of fixing that, you’ve also rejected her.”
“I have not,” Josh argued.
“You have, in her eyes,” Anton explained.
“I have?”
“Think about it! Her first time, she’s feeling scared, vulnerable, inexperienced, exposed. She’s handing you the key to the holy grail and you ‘freaked out’,” Anton said.
“You’re right. Geez! She’s never going to forgive me.”
Anton got up and said, “I think we’re going to need more beer.” He walked to the fridge and pulled two more beers out of the vegetable drawer, grabbed the bottle opener on his way, and sat down again, handing a beer to Josh. He continued, “Aw, little brother....she’ll forgive you - you’ll pay, but she’ll forgive you, if she’s truly in love with you and I’m very sure she is.
“Women are amazing creatures. The depth of their love and forgiveness is unabating. The love of a good woman can make a weak man virile and successful at just about anything. I mean lets face it; men are big kids, animals sometimes. If we could, we’d walk around in our underwear itching whatever, whenever. We find belching and farting and other bodily noises humorous. But...we also like sex, and in order to attract that special woman, we keep the belching and farting to a minimum when they are around and even dress up on those special occasions - spreading our peacock feathers, so to speak.
“Once we find that someone special though, we relax and revert back to some of our bachelor habits, we just blame
them on the dog or an innocent child passing by. You may get a glare of disapproval from time to time, but she will still crawl into your bed every night and whisper she loves you.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, women have their quirks too. Some more than others. Hormones wreak havoc on the poor things - not once or twice a year, no, every month. Geez. I can’t even imagine having to go through that. Then most of them want children so they put their bodies through nine months of continuous hormones, contorting their bodies to extremes....and then there is child birth....Now that looks HELL OF PAINFUL. Then they want another one. What masochists. When a person climbs up on a roof and falls off, they don’t go back up to do it again. No.
“I admit I don’t understand most things about them, but I think that’s what makes them so intriguing. We provide them with a sense of protection and security and they provide us with their boundless ability for love and nurturing,” Anton explained.
“Okay. So she will forgive me eventually. How do I make this right?” Josh asked.
“It depends on what your intentions are.”
“What my intentions are?”
“Yes. Can you see yourself having a long term relationship, maybe even marriage?” Anton inquired.
“Uhhhhhh. Yeah. I mean...that’s why I’ve waited up until now to ... you know....” Josh said.
“Then you sit her down and tell her why you freaked.”
“But.... I don’t know...”
“Sure you do,” Anton said.
“I do?” Josh asked.
“Yeah. You do. The knowledge of her virginity made the act that much more special - meaningful. You wanted to do right by her. The first time should be something a bit more planned.
“When I grew up, there wasn’t ‘casual sex.’ You courted a woman, you asked for her parents’ permission to marry her, you got married, and then you made love to your wife. Simple. Nowadays, it’s not quite so simple. Now you can live with a woman like a married couple without marriage for years. Not quite as climactic on the honeymoon....”
Deadman's Blood Page 3
