The Light Who Shines

by Lilo Abernathy

Jack looks pained at this and nods.

  I say in a puzzled voice, “My hands were injured from the shackles, but there’s no sign of the injury now."

  Jack says in a quiet voice, “When I found you, you were not going to make it. I gave you some blood. Remember I told you?”

  When I nod, Jack continues. “There was a lot of bone exposed, more so than even Dr. Ziggler saw. My blood helped you close up that muscle and start your heart and your respiration. It also closed up the most superficial wounds.”

  “But I thought that Vampire blood could completely heal you?”

  Jack sighs. “It would have if I had given you more. But you have to understand, Blue, you lost so much blood and your injuries were so bad, if I would have given you enough blood to completely heal you, there is no doubt I would have turned you in the process. It is the ratio of Vampire to human blood that matters. I gave you as much as I dared at the time.”

  “Ohh, I see.”

  I can’t stand not to touch him, so I stretch my hand toward him. Jack seems to know what I want because he reaches out and gently brushes my fingertips with his and then slips his fingers under my palm to softly squeeze it. He keeps his hand there as he continues in a low voice, “Your body has refilled its blood volume naturally now, and it has healed some more. I could give you more blood now. It would heal you, and you would have no scars. Your muscles would be as good as new. You could walk out of this hospital with me today.”

  I look at him with hope in my eyes. “Would you do that?”

  Jack smiles. “Of course, if you want it.” Then his face turns serious. “But you need to know, Blue, while I would do anything for you, to help you, I can’t be with you.” He looks down at his hand holding mine. “I’ll gladly give you my blood, but we can’t be together. Do you understand that?”

  Tears threaten my eyes, but I force them back. Instead I smile a bittersweet smile and trace a finger on his palm. I think carefully about how to answer him, and finally I say, “I understand you, Jack, more than you think. If you help me with this, I will not expect more than you’re willing to give.”

  Jack nods, accepting my answer. He draws out a pocket knife and starts to aim it for his wrist. I shake my head slightly. “I want your neck, Jack.”

  Jack looks at me questioningly. “But you can’t sit up, Blue.”

  “I don’t need to. You’re going to lie down. But first scoot me back so you have room.”

  Jack gently moves me back so I’m close to the bars on the side of the bed but not touching them. Gentle or not, it hurts like crazy. A familiar spasm of pain rolls through my back. I grip his hand for a moment. Jack stills, then asks, “Are you ready?”

  I nod. Jack takes off his suit jacket and carefully slides into bed next to me, facing me, on his right side so we are hip to hip. I revel in his body heat and slowly place my right hand against his chest. I so treasure the feel of him beneath my hand.

  He kisses my nose, and I look up to his eyes. I watch as he gently bites his lip with his fangs so that fat blood droplets form. He draws his face near me and brushes his lips against mine. His lips softly urge mine apart, and I take his bottom lip into my mouth, softly sucking.

  I can taste the salty warmth of his blood in my mouth, and a small tingle starts to build. Jack cradles my head and positions me so that my mouth is on his upper lip now. I gently pull on his lip with mine, and droplets of blood fall onto my tongue. I feel the tingling expand with an expanding warmth that washes over my body. Jack groans and gently runs his fingers up and down my arm.

  Jack pulls his lip away from me and looks at me with liquid heat in his eyes. He takes my hand and gently suckles my index finger. I feel the soft warmth of his mouth enclosing my finger, pulling and then letting go, pulling, then letting go. He repeats this with each of my fingers until he reaches my pinky. This he twirls his tongue around, evoking a breathless gasp from me. He kisses my nose and looks in my eyes. “Are you ready?”

  I nod slightly. That’s all I’m capable of doing at the moment.

  Jack quickly creates a small slit on his neck with the knife and cradles my head in the crook of his arm, positioning his neck next to my mouth.

  I taste him tentatively with the tip of my tongue. The same tingling sensation washes over me again. I wrap my lips around the wound and slowly pull the heady potion into my body. My senses come alive. My nerve endings sing, and my body flushes with a rushing warmth. I want him with a wanting I have never felt. I swear I can taste his soul in his blood. It is beautiful and loving.

  I arch my hips toward him, helpless, unable to move closer, needing more. Jack sees my need and moves his hips firmly against mine so that we are pressed together tightly. I feel the hard length of his manhood between us.

  I suck more strongly now. Jack groans and starts to tremble. I knead his neck with my lips as I take more. I want him. The wanting is so strong that my mind is aware of nothing else. My entire body shakes with desire as I rub against him as much as I can.

  Jack murmurs against my hair between gentle kisses to my ear and temple. “I can smell your womanhood so strongly. It calls to me. You are so beautiful, inside and out. I’m so glad you’re still with me Blue. I am so glad. I am so glad.”

  I curl my hand around Jack’s shoulder and rub the length of his arm. He gently pulls my mouth away from his neck, catching my lips with his instead.

  He rubs his lips softly against mine, imploringly. I open my mouth to him and he kisses me lightly at first, then deeply and sweetly. Our tongues dance for a moment before he pulls away. He pushes in again, then pulls away once more. I kiss the cleft of his chin and the tiny corners of his mouth. Then, feeling more daring, I run my hand down his abdomen, feeling the hard muscles beneath his shirt.

  “Jack,” I say, “I want to feel your chest.”

  Jack hesitates. I plead my case with my eyes. He unbuttons his crisp, white shirt quickly and lets it fall open. I place my right hand on his chest, then gently feel around, exploring, getting to know the feel of him, memorizing this moment. I run my fingers across his flat nipples. They harden beneath my hand, and Jack takes in a quick breath. I look up at his eyes, and they are such a dark green they are almost black. I watch his face, and I slowly move my hand down his rib cage, loving the texture and heat of his skin. His heavily hooded eyes peer intently into mine. I feel him suck his stomach in as I go lower and lower until I hit his belt. I try to dip my finger under his belt line, but he stills my arm and gently pulls it up to his mouth. He kisses the palm of my hand and smoothly backs away to slide off the bed.

  My whole body feels bereft without him. Only cold air fills the place where he was. Jack leans over and kisses my left eye, my right eye, and then my nose. Then he moves to sit a mile away from me in the darned chair. I sigh my disappointment and sadness.

  Jack says, “I am sorry, Blue. If I didn’t stop you now, I would have taken you. You’re not healed yet.”

  I don’t want to hear it, but I know he’s right. It is a small consolation to see that it seems to be as hard on Jack as it is me. I hug my blanket close to my body. “How long will it take?”

  “A little while still.”

  “Will you at least hold my hand until then?”

  Jack smiles and reaches over and twines his fingers with mine. Suddenly I feel a blanket of exhaustion fall over me. I struggle to keep my eyes open because I want to keep looking at Jack. But I can’t help it. My eyes are so heavy. They close, and I drift away.

  It seems like a minute later when I pop my eyes open and try to feel for pain in my back. After I discover no pain, I tentatively use my arms to lever myself up to sitting position. Still no pain! I look at Jack.

  “It’s amazing! I feel so good!”

  Jack smiles. It’s not the smile of my lover. It is the smile of my boss. My heart clenches at this.

  “What’s wrong?” he asks.

  “Nothing. I feel great!” I plaster a smile on to give depth to the lie.

  “Can
I look at your back?”

  I nod my assent.

  As Jack moves to the other side of the bed, I notice that his white shirt is all buttoned up and his suit jacket is back on. I frown at this while my back is to him. Meanwhile, Jack carefully pulls a corner of the tape and gauze covering my back. Slowly, he pulls more of it down. Then he gently pulls it all off. He turns toward me with a huge grin. “You’re all healed! But we should have Dr. Ziggler check you out first.”

  “I am?”

  Jack nods.

  I clap my hands. “Good. Then we can get back to work right away.”

  Jack looks at me strangely as I carefully remove the IV from my arm. “Don’t you think you deserve a little vacation after all of this?”

  I say firmly, “Jack, there’s something you don’t know. It isn’t over yet. Blackwater was not acting alone. He said he has people to answer to. He said, “‘We will make it happen.’”

  Jack‘s face goes deadly black. “Make what happen?” He stands up and starts pacing around my little hospital room, clenching and unclenching his fists.

  “He wanted the Gifted to control the world and have power over Norms. He wanted to use Vampires to do it.”

  Jack hardly flinches when I tell him, but he is overflowing with such evident violence that anyone else would be afraid to be in the room. I can feel his fury bouncing off the edges of the room, tangible and absolute. But I am not afraid, because I also feel his pain.

  Jack looks at me with his bright green eyes and moves toward me purposefully. He gently grabs my face between his two large, warm hands and looks me directly in the eyes. He slowly and deliberately lowers his mouth toward me and moves his lips roughly over mine. He kisses me with hunger, devouring my mouth with his lips. This is no loving kiss or asking kiss. This is a claiming kiss. He is marking me as his.

  He lifts me up off the bed and pulls me hard against his body, holds me tightly to him while he fills my mouth with his tongue. He delves and plunges it into my mouth, touching every bit of flesh, filling me as much as possible, moving quickly and urgently. I wrap my arms around his back and rub it soothingly.

  Jack suddenly rips his mouth away and holds me even closer, encompassing me in his arms, placing his chin over my shoulder, pressing me tightly, rocking me gently, as though he’s comforting me, when really it is he who needs comfort. He puts his mouth against the hair by my ear and whispers, “I won’t let them have you again. I won’t let them have you again. Never again. Never, ever again.”

  In this moment, I truly understand how much pain he went through while I was gone. I can feel that it still cuts him deeply. I can feel his fear and panic as my own. My heart squeezes with the pain of it and I whisper back, “I am okay. You’re okay. We’re okay. I promise. We are okay.”

  Jack finally calms down and pulls his body back from me, but he still holds my arms, and his eyes are actively searching my face.

  I say with a sure voice, “Jack. They are not going to get me again.”

  Jack shakes his head sadly and says, “Blue. There is so much you don’t know, so much I have to tell you.”

  This puzzles me. “What do you have to tell me about, Jack?”

  Jack grabs my hospital gown at the neckline and tears it about four inches down so that it slips slightly over my shoulders. He fingers the Belladonna Necklace and moves his hand to my shoulder. He slowly traces my birthmark with his thumb, and he searches my eyes as if checking to see if I am ready for what he has to say.

  I am getting a little worried now, so I hold his gaze firmly and repeat, “What do you have to tell me, Jack?”

  Jack whispers so softly, like the sound of grasses rustling in a summer breeze. “You, Blue. I have to tell you about you.”

  Want More?

  Thank you for reading The Light Who Shines! I truly hope you enjoyed my first writing endeavor. I have plenty of future adventures in mind for Blue and Jack if this first book is well received. So please, please, let me know if you crave more in one of the following ways:

  Lend it: This book is lendable, so email it to a friend who you think might like it too.

  Review it: Leave a review on Goodreads (www.goodreads.com), Amazon (www.amazon.com), or whatever site you purchased the book from.

  Facebook: Send a friend request to my Facebook page and write on my wall: www.facebook.com/lilo.abernathy. If you truly enjoyed this book, I would also be extremely thrilled if you would post about it on your Facebook page.

  Email: Send an email to lilo.j.abernathy@gmail.com titled “Email List,” and I’ll notify you when the next book is scheduled to come out.

  Blog: Follow my blog! This is another first for me, but I’m willing to give it a try if you are. http://lilojabernathy.blogspot.com/

  Gab: Please tell your friends about this book.

  I’m self-published, so any way you can spread the word would be hugely appreciated!

  Author Autobiography

  I’m currently forty-two, but that could differ depending on what year you read this. Unless some fundamental laws of nature change, I expect that number to only get higher. I am half Italian and half Irish. Well, the Irish side is sort of an Irish/German/English/French/Scottish mix, but since I believed I was truly half Irish until my mother’s foray into genealogy, I’m sticking to that story. Despite this reputably volatile combination, I am a remarkably calm person.

  I live amidst the Smoky Mountains and can sometimes see the shadows of clouds lying on the mountains from my front porch. I am not yet snobbish enough to call it a veranda, but time will tell. I’m a great believer in the proof being in the pudding. Sometimes my young adult daughter joins me on the veranda… err, porch to admire the view. Often my Australian Shepherd runs around the veranda looking for things to shepherd in the yard. Because we are decidedly lacking in livestock, he frequently presents me with slobbery balls to throw. I, in turn, do my best to ignore them. I feel justified in this neglect because I am planning on adopting a girlfriend for him soon so they can wrestle over the slobbery ball together to wagging tails’ content.

  I started working full time while in high school and haven’t stopped since. My illustrious career began with a smattering of service experiences at various fast food and restaurant chains, went on to fine jewelry, slipped into property management for housing projects, morphed into corporate real estate, then ended up in mergers and acquisitions. Please don’t ask me how that happened as I would have to kill you if I told you. However, I can reveal that I pertinaciously enjoy calling my manager “My Boss” so that he remembers that sometimes I only agree with him because he pays me. All the rest of the time I actually agree with him.

  My home is a modestly sized ranch, recently purchased and still not completely unpacked. The walls are a boring light beige, but they make the perfect backdrop for my brightly colored Gustav Klimt canvas prints. Van Gogh hopes to join Klimt on my walls soon, but right now the brakes on my Cube need to be fixed, and the washer overflows if I place the water level on super-duper high. Priorities, priorities.

  More importantly than all of the above, you absolutely must know that my favorite color is purple. Not Barney purple, no offense to Barney, but more of a medium eggplant purple. I like to think of it as a “mature” purple, but deep down I know it is really just purple.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Preface

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 01 Double Depravity

  Chapter 02 Slipped at the Cock and Bull Tap

  Chapter 03 The Wild Garden Grows

  Chapter 04 Hidden Treasures

  Chapter 05 Of Smoke and Shadow

  Chapter 06 Herbal Etcetera

  Chapter 07 Evidence of Anguish

  Chapter 08 The Dragomir

  Chapter 09 Every Day Enmity

  Chapter 10 The Office

  Chapter 11 Begging for Reprieve

  Chapter
12 Lessons on Wolves

  Chapter 13 Homecoming

  Chapter 14 The Hunt

  Chapter 15 A None Too Gentle Reminder

  Chapter 16 Vapor

  Chapter 17 The Bitter Truth

  Chapter 18 Making an Entrance

  Chapter 19 A Grain of Salt

  Chapter 20 Fertilizing the Flowers

  Chapter 21 Short Drive Down Memory Lane

  Chapter 22 Gala Magic

  Chapter 23 Evidence of Entry

  Chapter 24 Silent Vigil

  Chapter 25 The Yellow Sea

  Chapter 26 New Leads

  Chapter 27 Positive Reports

  Chapter 28 Fly Trap

  Chapter 29 Empathetic Soul

  Chapter 30 Bees and Honey

  Chapter 31 A Big Mess

  Chapter 32 Belfry

  Chapter 33 Beautiful Vigil

  Chapter 34 The Alley

  Chapter 35 Not Remembering

  Chapter 36 A Light Too Beautiful

  Chapter 37 Foiled Again

  Chapter 38 A Mutual Understanding

  Chapter 39 Office in Disarray

  Chapter 40 Is the Dog Rabid?

  Chapter 41 Solidarity

  Chapter 42 Suspect List

  Chapter 43 Soliciting Assistance

  Chapter 44 Covert Sentinel Revealed

  Chapter 45 A Confusing Illumination

  Chapter 46 Convening

  Chapter 47 A Sagacious Gentleman

  Chapter 48 Vacant Generosity Exposed

  Chapter 49 Artful Deceit

  Chapter 50 An Embarrassing Pretense

  Chapter 51 Targeting the Suspect

  Chapter 52 Lemonade

  Chapter 53 Bad Omen

  Chapter 54 Phantom Island

  Chapter 55 Searching Desperately

  Chapter 56 An Introduction to Pain

  Chapter 57 Warehouse District

  Chapter 58 Into the Darkness

  Chapter 59 The Riverside

  Chapter 60 Strengthening the Soul

  Chapter 61 An Errant Wolf

  Chapter 62 Running in Circles