by Night, H. T.
DIVINE BLOOD
Vampire Love Story #6
by
H.T. Night
Acclaim for H.T. Night:
“Vampire Love Story is a passionate story that is told from a refreshing perspective. This book was a blast. Night invents a brand new world for the Vampire genre. Great Job!”
—Summer Lee, author of Angel Heart and Kindred Spirits
“Vampire Love Story is a hip and timely vampire novel filled with real characters and some of the coolest vampires since The Lost Boys! You’re going to love Night’s completely original take on the supernatural.”
—J.R. Rain, author of Moon Dance and The Body Departed
“Night is a true story teller. Winning Sarah’s Heart is thoughtful and inspirational! I enjoyed the ride.”
—Elaine Babich, author You Never Called Me Princess and Relatively Normal
OTHER BOOKS BY H.T. NIGHT
The Fourth Sunrise
Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story
VAMPIRE LOVE STORY SERIES
Vampire Love Story
The Werewolf Whisperer
Forever and Always
Vampires vs. Werewolves
One Love
Divine Blood
Sons of Josiah
ENTWINED SERIES
Werewolf Love Story: Part One
Werewolf Love Story: Part Two
The Rise of Kyro
Loving Maya
Werewolf Without a Cause
VAMPIRE SUPERHERO SERIES
with Elizabeth Basque
Vampire Superhero No. 1
Vampire Superhero No. 2
Vampire Superhero No. 3
WINNING SARAH’S HEART SERIES
1. Episode One: Back to School
2. Episode Two: Boys Being Boys
3. Episode Three: Looking Good, Cody Greer
4. Episode Four: Saying Goodbye
5. Episode Five: Something Special about Silence
6. Episode Six: Junior High
7. Episode Seven: Finding Cody
8. Episode Eight: Lovesick Quarterback
9. Episode Nine: A Very Cody Christmas
WITH J.R. RAIN AND SCOTT NICHOLSON
Bad Blood
POETRY
Everlasting Love
SCREENPLAYS
Getting Yours
Jocks
DIVINE BLOOD
Published by H.T. Night
Copyright © 2012 by H.T. Night
Smashwords.com Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
(Author’s note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.)
Dedication
I dedicate this book to my wonderful family who has been there for me through the good and hard times.
Acknowledgment
Special thanks to Eve Paludan, J.R. Rain, Margaret Cervenkas, Alberto Silva, Elizabeth Basque and Liz Jones for all their help.
DIVINE BLOOD
Chapter One
Sixteen years was a long time.
That’s how long we had lived on this island and in this castle. I wished I could say everything had gone as planned. I wished I could say that the world was perfect and that humans, vampires and werewolves all coexisted in peace. But that couldn’t be any further from the truth. I had realized very early on that my role in all this was a temporary fix. I also had a strong feeling that my role wasn’t finished.
I was restless, as if I was preparing to run a marathon the next day. This was no 5K charity fun run. This was real life, as real as it got. Memories were screaming in my head, complete with images of the mechanical crucifix and Krull. I wished I could forget the agony of it. I knew what I had to go through to get to where I was today. I had tried to protect my kids from knowing any of the gruesome details. Tomorrow, I felt I just might be putting one of them in danger. I rolled over on my stomach and I accidentally woke Lena.
She stretched. “Are you, okay, Josiah? You’re moving around a lot.”
“Go back to bed, sweetie. I’m sorry for waking you up.”
“You’re not a young man anymore. You need your sleep, too.”
“I’m still pretty young.”
“You have sixteen-year-old boys. Once your kids turn sixteen, you’re officially old.”
“Wow, Sunshine...aren’t you pleasant when you wake up in the middle of the night?”
“Maybe I’m grouchy because I have a grizzly bear rolling around in my bed and stealing the covers off me.”
“Sorry I woke you up,” I said to her buzz-kill statement. I let go of the covers and she took back exactly half of them. “Go back to sleep, sweetie. I’m sorry I woke you up.”
Lena kissed me on the chin. I think she was aiming for my lips and missed. Then, she rolled over and zonked out. She was doing her own little version of snoring in seconds. Her snoring was very cute. It was less of a snore and more of a squeak.
I didn’t want my restlessness to keep her up. I sat up on our bed. I was wearing black basketball shorts and decided to walk over to the closet and put on a t-shirt. I found a white one and put it on. I smiled to think that my two sons and I all wore x-large shirts.
My two sons. There was my new heartbreak. I knew my kids were going to be a struggle. I knew this because they had divine gifts and a prophecy over their heads. Eventually, things would start to get weird. It was as if I had lived the last sixteen years, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Don’t get me wrong, my kids had had a great childhood so far. Lena and I had made our mistakes along the way, but we gave them both a great upbringing.
Despite our parental learning curve, they were turning out to be two fantastic kids. One thing that surprised me, and it nearly knocked me off my feet every day, was that I wasn’t prepared for the immense love I had for both my boys. It was a love unlike any other. I think until a person has had a child, it was impossible to really fathom the unconditional love you had for them. In a way, it made me sad that most Mani would never have the opportunity to feel the love for their own child because they were unable to reproduce. In a weird way, my mortality was a curse, but also an immense blessing. There was nothing on this Earth like the feeling when your child tells you they love you, even at age sixteen.
We were close, my boys and I, sometimes closer than me and Lena. I knew it and she knew it. She often felt like the odd man out, which was weird because there were four of us. I knew she had a special bond with both boys, and that both boys would lay down their lives for their mother in heartbeat. I just hoped that it would never come to that.
Chapter Two
I remembered a time back when the boys were very little, when they started talking and saying sentences. They were asking funny questions. They were cute questions like: “Why does everything that tastes good have cheese on it?”
Their questions were increasingly cute, and always making me nervous. How much were they curious about? What if they started asking questions that pertained to their divine gifts? A lot of things concerned me those days. It wasn’t just my kids. It was everything in the world, in general. The world was in chaos and it needed a hero. I had a burning sensation to be that hero. Vampires and werewolves were being seen more and more by the Tandra. The myth was becoming the reali
ty...even to the humans. A Mani hero needed to rise up, one who would make the world a better place.
I knew I needed to specifically speak to somebody about the vampire superhero idea. It had to be somebody I trusted and from whom I had learned wisdom. Only one person fit that description. I needed to see the Deity.
Don’t get me wrong. I loved my wife and we had great talks. However, the knowledge the Deity gave was like having a direct hotline to the Triat. My wife was great on asking her advice on laundry detergents, or what romance writer was hot right now.
I was the one who asked the Deity the grand questions, the ones that kept me up at night and sometimes filled me with terror. Nothing in this world was like being in the Deity’s presence and seeking her wisdom. It was as close to a religious experience as it got whenever I had been near her.
I hadn’t seen her since the great war with Krull. That was years ago. When dealing with women, it didn’t matter if one person was around when King Solomon ruled. There was jealousy on Lena’s part, but not in the way I anticipated. She got jealous that I looked to the Deity for wisdom. I know that in her heart of hearts, she wished she could be the one to give me that wisdom. That is why I loved Lena so much. The only time she ever showed her competitive juices, it was usually because of me. Who wouldn’t love his wife for competing for his attention?
We had lived as a family on the island for about two and a half years. I needed to talk to Lena and it wasn’t going to be the easiest of conversations. I needed to talk to her about leaving the island and helping the places and people who needed it. I was very clear that I would come back. Sometimes it might take a day, sometimes it might take a week. But I assured her that I would always come back to her.
After I mentioned my vampire superhero plan, she said, “Let me get this straight. You want to follow the news on the internet and find out where things are bad and go there and make things right. How? By beating everyone up?”
“By bringing justice to the situation. It won’t always call for violence. There will be diplomacy.”
“Not if you can help it.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“It’s no secret that you love to fight. Remember our arguments about your MMA days?”
“This is different. I don’t love to hurt innocent people.”
“I know. You just love kicking the bad guy’s ass.”
“Exactly.”
“You’re being serious about this vampire superhero stuff?” Lena asked.
“I just want your blessing. Is that so wrong?”
“My blessing?”
“Yes, I need your blessing because I plan on visiting someone in the next couple of days.”
“The Deity?”
“Yes.”
“And you want to go alone?”
“We can’t both go. Our boys are too young to meet her.”
“Where does she even live now?”
“Sion located her. She lives in Pahrump, Nevada.”
“Why don’t you take Sion?”
“Why would I need to do that?”
“Having numbers is always a good thing. Either that or have Tommy meet you in Nevada. I’m sure he is very familiar with the state. After all, they have sports betting there.”
I smiled. “Are you okay with this?”
Lena paused. She knew I was just itching to do some living. Lena understood that I had this thing in my gut, this urge to constantly help. She wasn’t thrilled about the idea. But she knew it was my heart’s desire. She finally said, “Go ahead. Go talk to the Deity. Tell her we all say hi.”
“Thanks, babe.” I knew I needed to see the Deity, and draw out some wisdom from her cryptic compassion. I needed some comfort and some answers. She was the one who understood me fully. I loved Lena, my wife, but the Deity, she was beyond the limitations of any sort of relationship love. I believed that she was love. Personified.
The Deity had gone underground before the Mani war broke out. Though it was long over, she still lived underground. Sion had said that she currently resided in Pahrump, Nevada. Why she had chosen there to live, I had no idea. What I did know was that the only time I ever got answers, the kind that satisfied my curiosity, it was usually the Deity giving me the information. She was a phenomenal woman. She was more than a woman, actually. She was my closest connection to the Triat.
Chapter Three
I remembered that Lena didn’t want me to go. I stood in front of our closet, staring down at this woman I had loved for so long. She had made her way back to sleep and my thoughts were still going.
I thought about when I did visit the Deity for the first time since the war. It was a couple of days after my talk with Lena. She was still acting weird about me going, but she was doing her best to be supportive.
I knew I had a long trip ahead of me. I went out to see her all by myself. I had decided to say goodbye to my family for a night and fly out White Eagle style to Pahrump, Nevada, and head out from Las Vegas. Lena never liked it when I flew that far as the Eagle or in my human form. She said I was asking for trouble. She would rather me drive places. I laughed. It was inconceivable because I had to fly over an ocean to get to where I needed to be.
The Deity had a giant house in the heart of the city of Pahrump. In the back yard, she had built an underground barracks. It wasn’t as large as the one in Mexico, but it was definitely in a better area of the world, even if Sin City was only an hour away from Pahrump.
I got to her new compound around midnight. It had been about three years since the battle of Krull. It had been a real long time since I’ve seen her, too long. I’d avoided her on purpose in the beginning until she was able to make her whereabouts known to whoever she wanted to have this information. I had a lot of questions about the future, parenting, and just how to be the best man to Lena I could be.
This was my first time at her new compound. I didn’t want my visit to ruffle any feathers. I knew she would be well protected. But I also knew she would be very happy to see me.
I would have never even have found her location if it hadn’t been for Sion. It took him three months, but he was finally able to locate her.
So, here I was, in Pahrump, Nevada, at midnight in the year 2016. I was about to have another heart-to-heart talk with the only person I trusted more than myself, in regard to the Triat.
I was led to the Deity by one of her security detail to the back of her giant three-story house, to the underground barracks.
Just like Mexico, I was led down a stairway to a hallway and at the back of the barracks, there was a room with the door open.
I slowly walked down the hall and made my way to the open door. I peeked in and saw the Deity, recalling that she was also blind.
I called into the room, “Hello. Do you remember me?”
“Josiah Reign, is that you?” the Deity asked.
“It sure is.”
“Come in here and give me a hug.”
I stepped inside the room and noticed that it was similar to the one she had in Mexico, very dimly lit. She sat in a rocking chair, perhaps even the same rocking chair that she had favored in Mexico. She looked as vibrant and healthy as ever. “Come sit next to me, child.” The Deity reached out her hand to take mine.
I took her hand and sat cross-legged next to her rocking chair.
“How many years has it been, Josiah?” The Deity smiled in my direction.
“Close to four,” I said. “The boys are almost three years old now.”
“Oh, my goodness! They must look adorable.”
“They’re pretty handsome boys, I give them that. They do take after their old man.”
“I imagine you have very handsome family, Josiah.”
“We try.”
“You know what is even more wonderful than outer beauty? It’s the only beauty I can see, the beauty that lives in someone’s heart. Your heart is what separates you from the masses.”
“I always thought it was my fists.”
>
“No, dear child. It’s your heart. You’re an amazing man...on the inside. Never sell yourself short.” The Deity took a sip from her cup. I never knew what she drank. I never asked, but she as old school as we get. I’m sure it was blood based. “How are the boys and your lovely wife doing?”
“They’re good,” I paused and reflected a tad. “I’m worried about Jason.”
“Why?”
“He is very introspective.”
“And that is concern for worry?”
“Joshua talks about everything under the sun, but we’re lucky to get two sentences out of Jason.”
“He’s different,” the Deity said. “A wise man listens and observes. He is just acting wise.”
“He’s three. How wise can the kid be?” I said, almost making a wisecrack myself.
“I can only imagine how wise he already is. Let me ask you this. When he does speak, is it profound?”
“Do you mean that all he does all day is quote Shakespeare sonnets and give his philosophical take on life?”
“This isn’t like you, Josiah. Why are you being so sarcastic and defensive?” the Deity asked me.
“Because he is a three-year-old boy. He is my three-year-old boy and I love him very much.” I thought about my son Jason and I knew in my heart, he was a deep kid. I guess I resisted it because I resisted his calling. “I’m scared for him,” I said as the words cracked out of my mouth.
“Knowing what I told you about your sons is painful for you, isn’t it?” The Deity was looking through my soul and reading it correctly. It wasn’t a hard read.