Unknown Touch
Page 28
Daniel stopped dead in his tracks the moment he had eye to eye contact with this individual. My senses flared out to scan the mind of this man, and instantly rammed into a mental block. I did not sense evil, but supreme power. This man was no ordinary person. In fact, I didn't believe him to be human, and yet I wasn't feeling he was a werewolf, either.
He read my mind and replied, "You are accurate, I am not human. And I am not a werewolf, as my friend and ally, Daniel, is. If you weren't able to grasp what I am, then I suppose this is your first introduction to a vampire. As that is what I am, my dear."
Oh...my...God. I actually got weak in the knees and had to lean myself against the front desk. Now I was expected to deal with vampires?! I was just getting cozy with my life with the werewolves.
Daniel walked up to this vampire, shook his hand with great enthusiasm, as both tried to overpower the other with their handshake...that male dominance thing, of course. Daniel looked to me and gave an introduction, "Josiah, meet my girlfriend, Kara. She is a full blown psychic with mental manipulation powers."
Josiah extended his hand in a formal greeting and I wobbled over to him, trying to be polite, to shake his hand. As I reached out, he gently took my hand into his, and in Old World fashion, kissed the top of my hand. I had my senses on full alert and this Josiah wasn't giving any indication that he was violent. I still couldn't fully read his mind, but his aura is what I was absorbing. He was tall, had long, dark hair pulled back into a band, exceptionally handsome, very physically fit but not as muscular as Daniel. His clothes were immaculate, expensive, and, of course, had a trench coat. What's with those vampires always wearing trench coats, anyway?
He read my mind again, darn it. Daniel was picking up on some of it, too, so he wasn't totally out of the loop with Josiah's response as he said, "Thank you for those compliments. We do look dashing in this attire, don't we?! But I would like to put you more at ease, Kara, as you are giving me the impression you might faint. Please try to believe me when I say that I'm not an evil vampire. A little help here on your part, Daniel...?"
Daniel stepped over to me, especially since Josiah had planted a kiss on top of my hand. Daniel was territorial, possessive of me, and I know I had heard a low growl escape from Daniel when Josiah did that little display of affection. I got the impression that Josiah did that on purpose to get a rise out of Daniel, messing with him just for the fun of it. And because he so easily could.
Daniel frowned at Josiah, with one eyebrow up, but did defend him with, "No, he's not evil, but he sure does like to joke around. He is a friend, Kara. We have joined forces as allies in the past when the need arose to protect ourselves and to fight off the true, evil vampires and werewolves that have entered our territories. It has been a while since we've seen each other. Let me lock the front door and we'll go visit in the lounge."
Daniel and I sat on our favorite couch, while Josiah nabbed up a stately recliner that seemed to fit his personality. Now, having a vampire in my presence, I had a million questions to ask, just like when I was discovering everything about werewolves. Josiah was calm and cool. He seemed old. Very old by the way he talked and acted. And dressed. Power, in many forms that I couldn't quite decipher yet, seemed to pour from him. Much more power than the werewolves.
Josiah asked, "Kara is your girlfriend, as is the term nowadays. How did this come to be? She is human, Daniel. At least at this point in time, she is."
I interjected, "I am sitting right here and can hear you."
Daniel laughed and explained, "Kara, he takes a little getting used to. He attempts to blend in with society, as the werewolves here do. He is much older than me, and still has retained many of his old fashioned traits, which makes him seem eccentric or odd. Vampires have a difficult time going out in the sun, which is why he is here under the protection of the night, but that also makes blending in tricky. Okay, back to you, Josiah."
Daniel proceeded to summarize to Josiah what had transpired over the last two months. He seemed to have no qualms telling Josiah many personal details of which I felt rather uncomfortable having a stranger know about me. But, I had to trust Daniel's judgment in divulging this story to someone he considered a friend. Josiah found it extremely interesting about my indecision on whether to convert to a werewolf or not. He, too, did not try to influence my choice, and kept that a neutral topic.
Josiah explained that he owned several homes scattered throughout the country, and took turns living in different ones during the year. As he was traveling through our area, he thought it would be a wise idea to drop by and update Daniel on some underground intelligence. Plus, he hadn't seen Daniel in a long time, and wanted to touch base to renew their friendship. He had heard rumors about a resurgence in the number of witches using black magic. Coincidentally, a few of these were the actual descendants of the witches that had put the original werewolf curse on Daniel and his friends back in 1693. He warned us to keep our ears and eyes open for any unusual occurrences that might indicate witches entering our territory. Most of the problems seemed to be on either the east or west coast.
Suddenly, Josiah paused, and eerily studied me with his piercing black eyes. He cocked his head to one side, and stated, "You do have strong telepathic abilities. As I've sat here, my mind has been drawn to your unique power. Calm down, Daniel, I'm not trying to court your girlfriend. Although, you do have quite a catch here. I have a splendid idea, though. Since I can be a bit hard to locate with my constant nomadic tendencies, I think, Kara, you should perform a mind merge with me to create a common link between us. With my superior, far-reaching psychic power, if you needed me in an emergency, I do believe that even at a great distance, with your own abilities, you could make the connection to my mind. If the pack was in trouble, or you feared an attack, or maybe you learned more about those demented witches, you could alert me and I could come to aid you. Do either of you disagree with my suggestion?"
I was very leery about establishing a mental link with Josiah. He was a vampire. I wasn't even aware of all the things he was capable of doing. Although, I had a feeling I would eventually be finding out. I just met him two hours beforehand.
Daniel requested, "Josiah, I understand what you're saying, the importance of being able to contact you at a moment's notice. This is up to Kara. I do think it is a good idea; although, I have a jealous streak a mile wide, so don't go flirting around in her mind, if she agrees to this."
Both of those gorgeous beings turned their gazes on me. The way they could mesmerize and captivate a person was downright amazing. They were waiting for my answer. I'm sure they hoped I would agree to this additional method of strengthening our forces. Of gaining an advantage over the enemy by telepathically alerting our comrades immediately to any trouble at hand. Good vs. Evil. I had been having strange feelings, almost like premonitions, of evil looming in my near future. I had to say 'yes'. I wanted to say 'yes'. This was part of my life now.
I firmly stated, "All right, let's get down to business."
Daniel moved off the couch to allow Josiah to sit and face me. I reached out for his hands since a physical touch was the best way to get a concrete, mental connection. I sensed Daniel's overprotective nature toward me and touched at his mind, Oh, give it up, Daniel. You're standing right here. Like he's going to swoop me off my feet and start kissing me or something.
Yeah, it's the something I'm concerned about, he managed to mentally say with a sigh.
Josiah was tickled with our little display, as I'm sure he was reading both of our minds. He recommended that Daniel sit directly behind me on the couch. And it wouldn't hurt to be holding my arms, to add to the power of this mind merge, since Daniel had his own slight psychic ability that might enhance the whole experience.
Normally, I would have closed my eyes to concentrate, but Josiah's penetrating, unblinking stare, held me captive. We merged our minds, created a mental link, a lasting connection for all time.
Mentally, Josiah exclaimed, Kara, I'm very gl
ad you allowed this. I want to share some conversation in our minds to completely establish this link, this specific path, so you'll always be able to find me. You are a remarkable human and very brave. Daniel cares deeply for you and is very loyal and committed to your happiness.
I replied, Thank you. I apologize for having my doubts about you. I am able to sense your emotions are well under your control. I will need to learn more about your kind.
As I started to drift out of his mind gently, Josiah instantly popped out of his mental link with me. Because of his extreme power, which I was not familiar with, the abrupt way he ended our connection was like a rug being pulled out from under my feet. I was flung against Daniel's chest, since he was still sitting behind me. He jerked his head back to prevent our heads from crashing into each other. Luckily, Daniel suspected there might be a repercussion from merging with a vampire as powerful and ancient as Josiah and was prepared for such an event. I wasn't hurt at all; it had just taken the air out of me.
Josiah immediately reached out to me, apologizing, "I am so sorry, Kara. Daniel, forgive me, I didn't mean any harm. I sometimes forget my own strength when dealing with a human. Kara, I'm so used to breaking off the mental link when I know we're done, and I wasn't aware you eased out of it so gently. I should take notes from you, as that is a more polite and less shocking way of ending a mind merge."
At first, Daniel was not too happy with Josiah being so careless, when he knew he was dealing with me, a human. He should have known better. But, after Josiah fumbled around and tried to apologize the best he could and then commented on how he should take notes from me on proper psychic skills, Daniel and I burst out laughing. After all, this was a vampire of tremendous power, knowledge, abilities, and longevity. I was just a mere human, only 21 years old and really had only recently developed my skills.
While still holding onto one arm of Daniel's to reassure him and keep his jealousy under control, I leaned over and gave Josiah a one arm hug. He was surprised and was silent for a moment, not sure how to respond. It touched him emotionally that I would show him affection, in a friendship type of way, of course.
"Josiah, don't worry about it. It just caught me off guard, but now I'll be prepared in the future so I don't get knocked off my feet when we mentally link up," I nodded my head and smiled at him. "Daniel might not always be standing there to catch me!"
We sat around for another hour, and continued to talk about the previous month's incidents. I started to yawn when it got to be 1:00 in the morning and even Daniel was wiped out. Daniel offered Josiah one of the cabins, especially since there were no guests at the resort this time of the year. He graciously accepted, and reminded us he would be asleep most of the daylight hours. When he awoke in the evening, he would then come to us in the lounge area.
Daniel and I went to bed, totally exhausted but excited with the arrival of Josiah. He informed us he would stay two nights in the cabin. We decided to take advantage of this time with him and use this as a learning experience for me since this was my first contact with a vampire. Even Daniel could pick up more knowledge and information from Josiah as he had so much to offer. We were concerned about his warnings regarding the witches, too.
Half asleep, I mumbled, "I guess I should call Eli and the team about these witches. I'm sure this is right up their alley. Maybe they already know about the uprising."
Daniel whispered in my ear, "Get some sleep, baby."
"One more thing," I had to get this out, "I want to go see my parents for Christmas. It's only about a week away and I want you to come with me. So, we need to work on our cover story. The one honest truth I can tell them is that I'm in love with you and am staying here. All of the rest of what has happened to me and what I'll be dealing with in the future, has to remain hidden from them. You and Josiah are the unknown. I just happen to be one of the few, privileged humans that have been allowed to enter into your world. And I still may choose to fully cross over, to become one of the unknown myself...(yawn)...okay, Daniel, I'm going to sleep, but beware, I'll be seeking you out in my dreams where anything can happen."
THE END
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