by Ruby Raine
“I hadn’t wanted to ask, but, I was hoping you’d heard from him.”
“Sorry. Nothing. Longest I’ve ever gone without talking to him.”
“He’s a big boy. He’ll be fine.”
Lucas cast her a wary side-glance. “Do you think if we say that enough we’ll actually believe it?”
“Ha. I’ll let you know. And it’s not that I don’t think he can’t take care of himself, it’s just, he left under such terrible circumstances. His head wasn’t on straight, neither was any of ours, but Riley, especially.”
“I’m afraid on my part it’s the never ending big brother syndrome. I’ll always see him as my little brother who I gotta watch out for. No matter his age. Even when we are both old and gray.”
“You and Charlie should have a chat about that. Better yet, start a support group,” jested Melinda. Lucas hit her upper arm gently in amused response. “Big brothers anonymous,” she continued. “And you definitely need a twelve step program.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
“I try my best.”
His gaze lingered. An emotion Melinda couldn’t quite place.
“You really are perfect... for my brother,” he added in hasty clarification. It was her turn to lift a brow. “Sorry, I was not trying to hit on you. At all. Promise.”
“I’m trying to believe you,” she admitted sheepishly. But after they’d accidentally gotten too comfy and fallen asleep on the sofa the night before.
“It’s just, I’ve never seen my brother as happy as when he met you. I wanted him to have that. I really did.” His tone indicated he was familiar with lost love and sympathized with Riley. “Sorry, you’re trying not to think about my brother, and here I am bringing it up.”
“Don’t worry about it. The thoughts were not going to stay buried for long. Lucas?” she added in swift curiosity.
“Yeah,” he started down the road again.
“Feel free not to answer if you don’t want to.”
“I’m really not hitting on you, I swear.”
She chuckled. “That wasn’t what I was going to ask, but I mostly believe you if that makes you happy.”
He shrugged it off, amused. “What do you want to know?”
“Well, um,” she played with her fingers nervously. Lucas stopped walking again and gave her his full attention. “Sorry, this is stupid really. We already have so much to handle, it’s just that I have so few people I trust to... talk to, like this.” She pinched her nose inward. “Ugh, I always feel like such a coward.”
“You are not a coward. And please just ask. I’d like to think we’re friends, Melinda. Good friends. I am definitely not hitting on you, but I really enjoy hanging out with you. To be honest, I’ve never had many friends, and you are easy to be friends with.”
“That’s kind of sweet.”
He gave her a lazy eye roll.
She shook herself. “Okay. So, it’s kind of this whole thing with my love life, if that doesn’t make you uncomfortable to talk about, since it’s in part your brother.”
“I think I can handle it.”
“Have you ever been in love, Lucas? And how did you know? For sure?”
“Oh, well,” his cheeks got a ruby sort of blush. “That wasn’t what I was expecting.”
“Sorry, you don’t have to answer. I just don’t know how to tell if what I’m feeling is real love.”
“I’m sure it is real.”
“But how do I know if it’s the fall hard, get married, and stay together forever, kind of love?”
“When you think about the person you love, do you feel like the world will end if they are ever taken away from you? That you literally wouldn’t want to remain breathing, if they were suddenly yanked from your life?”
Melinda sucked in. He had most definitely been in love at some point, and she understood exactly what he meant.
“I’m wagering that’s a yes,” he replied on her behalf. “However, I have a feeling it might not be my brother who comes to mind when you think about the answer to that question.”
She didn’t want to admit or deny that right now, but if that was the measure, she was extra doomed. Of course, she’d known William so much longer than Riley, and there wasn’t anything saying she’d not feel like that about him someday too. If they ever got a second shot at it.
“Wish you hadn’t asked?” Lucas questioned as they took off walking again.
She shook her head, though not confidently.
“So did you leave a girlfriend behind when you came to the Isle?” she prodded lightly.
“No.” His one-word answer seemed loaded with things he was not willing to speak of. They might be friends, but not everything was easy to share.
Fair enough, she thought to herself. “I think you’re on the right track with the ferry-man,” she changed the subject. Enough about love. “It makes sense that he’d want his bloodline to know where they came from.”
Lucas stopped again. They really were not getting far with all this talking and sharing.
Melinda stopped with him. “What?”
“Thank you, for helping me figure this out when you should be helping your family. I’m sorry I got snappy earlier, this whole thing is so not my life.”
“You’re welcome, Lucas. But it is your life now.” He frowned, but she spoke the truth. “And it’s part of my job too. And you know what else?”
“What?”
“It’s the first time I’ve ever gone out on my own and helped someone. Usually, I tag along. Or hide in my room and let my brothers, William, or Mack handle it.”
“Well I think you’re doing great.”
She laughed haughtily. “You say that a lot. C’mon, big-brother-complex-so-totally-not-hitting-on-me guy. We’ve got to hurry up and shatter a woman’s life.”
“Oh, gee, well, when you put it that way...” They started up again. Hurrying. Even though Lucas was sure they were on the right track, that pounding sense of urgency to solve this problem had not abated.
THE CONVERSATION HAD gone almost exactly like Lucas and Melinda expected it would. Levi Johnston’s love child was home, and had graciously and unquestioningly allowed them in to speak with her. She looked to be in her mid-fifties. She was kind, and friendly, and spoke of her parents with forlorn fondness. They’d both died and she missed them terribly. The very idea that her father was not really her father, and her mother had never told her this... well, she hadn’t run them out of her house yet.
In the end though, Lucas had shared what he learned and told the woman he’d wager if she had a blood test done she’d learn the truth, if she really wanted to. If nothing else, he’d passed along the message. It was all he could do.
The woman got up and paced. Overall, she was handling this well. Almost too well considering two strangers showed up at her door out of the blue with a crazy story about her father.
“You’ve always wondered, haven’t you?” Melinda surmised. “This isn’t actually a big surprise to you, is it?”
“Um, no. I mean it is. But yet, it’s not. The timing of my birth, my mother’s marriage and departure from the island. I had reasons to doubt. Sadly, though, you don’t really care about these things as much when you’re younger. By the time I was actually curious enough, and had the daring to ask, my mother died. I never had the chance. And,” she stopped, painting a look that warned you’re going to think I’m crazy.
“I can guarantee you, this is the island of crazy. If it seems impossible, and it’s on The Demon Isle,” started Melinda, “it will not be as crazy as you think.”
“I’ve heard stories about this place. From my mother mostly. Never believed a one of them, until this summer that is.”
“What changed?” asked Lucas.
“I saw her. The ghost of her. My mother, clear as I’m seeing you both. I went into my daughter’s room a few nights ago to check on her. She’s pregnant, about to turn twenty, a few months from due. Her fiancé is in the military and not back
for another month yet. And she’s not been faring so well with the pregnancy. It’s been hard on her so the doc’s ordered bedrest. She goes in for regular checkups. I thought being on the island would be a good way for her to rest. It’s so peaceful and calm here.”
Melinda and Lucas both had a hard time not snorting out a disgruntled reply to that, but let her continue.
“Anyway, I was checking on her and when I opened the door there she was. My mother, looking down over my daughter like she was, watching over her.” There was a tear in the woman’s eye. “She turned, saw me, smiled, although it was a sad smile. Even in this ghostly form, I saw the sadness. She opened her mouth like she wanted to speak, but there was no sound. And then she vanished. Right before my eyes. Just poof. Gone.”
Yeah, ghosts couldn’t talk to the living, not unless they had a vessel, like Emily Morgan.
Not a second later the woman’s daughter climbed down the stairs, her young eyes widening at seeing the guests. “Oh. Sorry, Mom. I didn’t know you had company.” She winced, and clutched her chest.
Her mother was on her feet and by her daughter’s side at once. “Again?” she demanded, troubled.
“It’s fine. It’ll pass. Just like every other time.” She smiled at the unfamiliar guests. “My mom and doctors like to dote, and worry too much. It’s just indigestion. Normal while being pregnant,” she reminded. The young woman’s breath was a bit raspy, like she wasn’t quite getting as much air into her lungs as she should.
“Come. Sit by the open window and get some sea air. That’ll help,” insisted her mother.
“We won’t take up more of your afternoon,” said Lucas, standing. It was actually already nearing evening; the day had gotten away from them. “I appreciate you giving us the time to talk to you.” He kept it vague in case the woman didn’t want to speak of it with her own daughter, who winced again, putting her hand to her chest.
“We’ll see ourselves out,” addressed Melinda.
The woman offered to make her daughter some tea.
Something nagged at Lucas. What the heck was it?
He was about to open the door to leave when he spun around and flew past Melinda back into the sunroom they’d been in a minute ago.
“You have to get your daughter to the hospital.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” the mother stammered. The daughter looked around at them like they were crazy.
“I was wrong,” Lucas explained. “Not wrong, just not everything. I almost missed it.”
“Missed what?” asked Melinda and the mother at the same time.
“The clutching of her chest. I almost missed it. Levi did the same thing right before I went off the road with Lizzy. I was so shocked by what was happening I forgot about it. He was clutching his chest, and he fell to the ground. And just now before we got here when he told me they are like me, he didn’t just mean they have my blood in them.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on here,” the daughter was saying. The mother looked no less confused. But Melinda was piecing it together.
“Oh my God, Lucas. If you’re right...”
“I’m positive I am.” Mostly because that feeling of urgency he’d had was threatening to reach a full blown panic at any minute. “Look, this isn’t how anyone wants to learn about these things, but your daughter’s life is in danger. Your father, whether you choose to believe it or not, had a heart condition. One that was not treatable back in the 1950’s. And one that’s still today, nearly impossible to discover until it’s too late. Don’t be too late.”
The mother went to protest and Lucas stopped her. “You willing to bet the life of your daughter and grandchild on it?”
“Oh, shit.” She was grabbing her phone and dialing 911 seconds later.
“Mom, what the hell is going on?”
“I’ll explain later. I promise. Just, sit tight. Okay.”
CHARLIE RESTED HIS forehead on Lizzy’s bed. Way past, tired. But unable to sleep. Stuck in a trance-like state of awake, but not entirely present.
No change. Not one little blip of hope, which he did not have much of at this point.
Even the doctor had finally been forced to admit he’d thought she might come around by now. Head trauma was complicated, he explained. But he refused to get too down about it, and warned it might take weeks. In some cases, months. And in a few rare cases, years. And on ridiculously rare cases, never.
That was Charlie’s worst nightmare.
Never...
It was Lizzy’s too.
Although all options were nightmarish in their own way.
Buzz.
Buzz.
Buzz.
He lifted his head. This wasn’t one of the hospital machines. It sounded like a phone.
“I think your phone is buzzing,” he slurred out. He expected no response, but he refused to act like she was some dead-like thing lying in a bed. “I can hear it.” He got up and searched through the bag of Lizzy’s belongings. “Got it.” The movement jolted him back to slightly more alert.
Her cell phone buzzed again, a new text message. Charlie wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to read it, but kept the phone in his hand and took his post again by Lizzy’s bedside.
“Now I have the dilemma of reading the message that just came in, or not. Or letting Lucas check it out when he gets back to visit.” He was just letting his stream of conscience come out vocally now. He needed Lizzy to hear his voice, if she was capable. Even if half of what he said was mumbo jumbo at this point.
“Not many people would be texting you, Lizzy. There are few who would, and I’m not messaging you, and I cannot imagine Lucas or Melinda or Michael would be either. Which logically leaves Riley. And I’m guessing you’d like to hear from him, especially if he’s reaching out or wanting to come home. I certainly don’t want to let a message from him go ignored if that’s the case and I don’t think you’d want that either. Okay, so I’m just going to read it.”
Charlie took a glance and sucked in a breath. There was a message from Riley, which he ignored as there was another much more intriguing.
“William? Um, okay... there is a message from Riley, which I’ll read in a minute, but William messaged you. I can’t even fathom why he’d do that. Wait, let me check my phone.” He reached into his pocket and grabbed it. “Nope. Not a single message from anyone. Sorry, Lizzy, this is just weird and not what I expected, and now I am not sure what to do. I have to admit, I really want to read it. It must be important, but he specifically sent this to you. Shit. Why the hell would he do that?” Why the hell would their longtime friend and mentor leave them, without any knowledge of his whereabouts, and now, contact only Lizzy?
“Sorry. I can’t ignore it, Lizzy. Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation that’s got me all wigged out and making bad choices but seeing as you cannot read it yourself...” he looked over at her expectantly. Nothing. Still nothing. No response whatsoever.
He turned her phone on, unable to ignore the message. “Lizzy. I apologize for the spot I’m about to put you in,” Charlie read aloud so she could hear. “I cannot currently explain where I am or why I left the Isle, if or when, I may return. Something has come to my attention that I cannot ignore, however, something you must pass along to Charlie, Michael, and Melinda. Please do all possible to keep the source of this information secret, this has to do with the reason I left, and I’m sorry, but it must be this way.”
The message ended abruptly, Charlie frowned.
“Um, the message ended. What was so damned important that William didn’t even finish?”
Another message beeped through. Charlie chuckled, but it was an exhausted attempt.
“Sorry. You know me and phones. I hit send before I was finished.” Charlie snickered at that. Sounded like the same old William. “Anyway, there is a dark power rising. And it is rising on The Demon Isle.”
Charlie shifted in his seat, a burst of adrenaline sweeping through him.
“What the
hell? A dark power...”
The message ended again. And a minute later another came through.
“Stupid fucking fingers,” Charlie read, still amused by the vampire, but concern mounting over this ominous contact. “Sorry, this should all be said better, it’s just, damn it, I’ve gotten a warning that cannot be ignored. A seer, a trustworthy seer, made this claim: she is coming. Or waking. She awakens. Or I think it was said both ways.”
Charlie gazed across Lizzy’s bed into nothing. “William seems a little off. I wish he’d just contact me. Wish I knew what the hell was going on with him. I’ve got it in my right mind to just call the vampire. You know what, screw it. I am.”
He dialed, but hung up before it rang through.
“Shit. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” he droned with weary effort. “William left the Isle on purpose. For some reason that includes us not knowing the why’s or where’s. Damn it. Sometimes, I get so sick of doing the right thing.” His gaze caught her sleeping form. “So very sick of doing the right thing. If I were selfish, I’d just bite you.” How long had it been since he’d slept? Days, definitely days. “If you really can hear me, you must think I’ve lost my mind. Hell, I think I have too. Delirium is a bizarre mindset.”
Lizzy’s phone beeped again.
“William again,” Charlie informed her, reading the rest of the message aloud. “There is a dark power rising in the form of a she. This is all I can tell you. Not when, or how, or exactly who or where. I realize it’s not much to go on, but please do all possible to warn them in case there are signs. And thank you for keeping my secret. It is of the utmost importance at this time.”
Charlie plunked back in his chair, staring at the unconscious Lizzy. “So what would you have done had you gotten this message as William expected?” His mouth lifted in a soft grin. “My guess is you’d have stormed into the mansion totally pissed off, and passed along the message. But followed it up with giving William a ton of shit. And telling him off, and that you were totally going to tell us who the message came from. And end your reply with something like, stupid jerk. We all miss you, you know.”
