“You must be feeling better. Your sarcasm seems to be intact. Okay, but I’ll have to stop if one of the nurses comes in; you’ll understand as I get started.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“As far as we can tell, you went to the backyard to get something you thought you left out there during the circle ceremony. Do you remember that?”
“I remember the circle ceremony, but not going outside later.”
“While you were out there, one of Paine’s men grabbed you and either sedated you or knocked you out. I’m thinking Chloroform or something like that, because the doctors didn’t find any wounds on your head. They put you on a plane, we think a personal jet or charter, and flew you to Maine.”
“Why Maine?”
“I guess Paine felt if you were closer to him, he could deal with you and us in his own backyard, so to speak. Paine’s thugs took you to a warehouse, where they...ummmm.”
“They ummmm...what?”
“They injected you at regular intervals with werewolf blood.”
“What? Why?”
“Paine was insane. He had found some ancient book that made mention that werewolves and vampires were mortal enemies. He figured you had been turned by Blake and he wanted to make sure that you, as a vampire, would die with the Bloomingtons.”
“But where does the werewolf blood come in?”
“Well, it seems that if a vampire is injected with werewolf blood, that the two bloods will fight it out, leaving both bloods dead along with you.”
“But I’m not a vampire!”
“I know, Sweetie, but he didn’t know that and went along with his plan.”
“Swell. So what does that mean?”
“I don’t know yet. We’ve been more concerned with you waking up, then what you would wake up to become.”
“So I could be a werewolf?”
“Again, I don’t know. We’ll deal with that when we have to. Right now we want you to get well enough so we can go home and figure this all out.”
“Where’s Blake?”
“I sent him and Devon back to the hotel to get some sleep.”
“Why? How long have I been here?”
“A few days I think. I’m not absolutely positive, as I was out for a while too.”
“You? How? Why?”
“Well, after you were kidnapped, we found a note next door, telling us the only way to get you back was for the guys to turn themselves over to Paine. So we all jumped on the red-eye and flew into Portland. Once we got here, we went straight to Paine’s house in Cape Cottage and confronted him. I used one of those psychic bubbles Blake taught me to use and put it around Paine. I minimized it to just around his body so he couldn’t move from his chair. I also made the bubble air tight, so that his air supply would become less and less as time went on. It was the only tactic I could think of, to get the information we needed to find you. After listening to the man’s deluded ranting, we finally got him to admit what he had done to you and where you were. I sent the guys to gather you and when Dev…”
“Wait a minute. You sent the guys to get me? Who was watching after you?”
“There was no need. The old man was in a bubble, what could he do?”
“But the last time you used the bubble you passed out.”
“Umm. Yeah! But this needed to be done. There were two thugs with you and they were about to give you another dose of blood.”
“But that was stupid of you. What would have….”
“It had to be done. The guys had three people to contend with and I had an old man who could barely breathe. Anyway…getting back to the story…”
And that’s when the nurse came in to poke and prod.
“Oh, it’s good to see you finally woke up, Dear. How do you feel?” the nurse asked.
“Ok. A little hot, I guess,” Rowan answered.
“Well, I will let the doctor know that you are awake. I’m sure he will be in to see you this morning when he makes his rounds. In the meantime, get some rest, Dear,” the nurse replied.
“Uh huh!” Rowan said and the nurse left.
While the nurse was in the room, Darby texted Blake and Devon to let them know Rowan was awake.
“Okay, so you were alone with Paine, and you had sent the guys off after me and the thugs, then what?” Rowan said now that the nurse was gone.
“Paine and I had a long conversation about what a deluded old butt-head he was. He showed me the ancient book that he had gotten his werewolf information from. I also got the name and address of the werewolf he killed, whose blood he used on you. I thought we could maybe contact his family. Maybe they had information about werewolves that we might need to help you. About that time I received a call from Devon that they had found you and you didn’t look good. I told them to grab everything there and get you to the hospital. I also asked Blake to meet me back at Paine’s house,” Darby answered.
“Why? I mean why Blake?”
“I thought, well…I had a plan that…I don’t know, I guess I just thought he’d listen to me no questions asked and that’s what I wanted. I was going to have him turn the old man and then give him a dose of the werewolf blood and let him die there the way he intended you to die.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“That sounds more like something I would do, not you!”
“Yes, well…I’m not proud of it, but I was sick of this crazy old man interfering with my family, and well – do you know that the werewolf didn’t even attack them! He just started to turn – probably trying to scare them off and they killed him, right where he stood.”
“Hey! I’m not condoning what Paine did. He was psychotic; I’m just surprised at how you handled it. So you felt that if you had asked Devon, he wouldn’t have let you go through with it?”
“I’m not sure that’s why I asked Blake instead of Devon. I knew, though, that Devon was the right person to be with you. He’s the stronger of the two and he’d protect you like I would.”
“Hmmm. So what happened that landed you in the hospital?”
“Well, when Blake finally reached the house to find my nose and ears bleeding and Paine aiming a gun at me. I don’t remember much of anything else. Later, I woke up in the hospital with Devon at my side.”
“Overdid those psychic powers again, did you?”
“Apparently!”
“So what happened to Paine?”
“Not absolutely sure. It’s all kind of foggy, but Devon said Blake took care of him – I’m guessing with me bleeding and passed out, he opted to just kill him vampire style and get me to the hospital.”
Just then Blake came blazing through the door, with Devon behind him. Blake’s face was bright with excitement as he saw Rowan.
“Rowan, oh man, I was so worried about you!” He rushed to her side and hugged her. Darby, on the other side of the bed, winked at her sister as if to say, we’ll leave you two alone.
Darby grabbed Devon’s arm and led him out of the room into the hallway. With arms around each other, they walked down the hall slowly to the family waiting room. It was empty now, so they could be alone.
Devon asked, “How are you doing? You sure you don’t need to go and get some rest? We don’t want you checked back in here.”
“No, I’m good. No, I’m great. My sister is awake and you are here holding me. Life is good.”
“But shouldn’t we talk about your sister? I mean the… werewolf thing?”
“I suppose we should but couldn’t we wait until Blake can join us? I say we talk about it later with him and just be thankful that she’s awake right now. I mean, we don’t even know how one becomes a werewolf. Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the blood.”
“Either way, introducing someone else’s blood to another person is not good.”
“I know. Believe me, I know. But we also have to be happy for what we do have instead of what we might not have. You need to savor the good things, even if they are tiny or far and f
ew between, otherwise, you get drawn down into all the bad and ugly. I know we may have some very high hurdles to jump in the near future, but let’s just remember to enjoy the good when it’s in front of us and deal with the bad when we have to.”
“You have a wonderful way of looking at life. Not many people look at things quite the way you do.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“As you should,” he said and leaned over to kiss her.
When he pulled back, she opened her eyes and said, “I know it hasn’t been, but it seems like it’s been a year ago since we were in Monterey together.”
“You’re right, I guess because so much has happened in such a short amount of time, it just seems longer.”
This time she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately and he returned it eagerly. Suddenly, he pulled back and said, “Umm, Miss O’Rielly, we’re in a hospital.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, um, I don’t feel comfortable.”
“What did you think I was going to do, rip your clothes off? Silly boy! I just wanted to give you a little taste of what you’re in for when we get home, Mr. Bloomington.”
With a raise of his eyebrows, he said, “Well, now you’re talking!!!”
Chapter 16
Blake came out into the waiting area looking tired and ragged. The room was empty aside from the three of them. He sat down in the chair across from them, collapsing into it with a loud sigh as he did so.
“So what now?” he asked.
Darby answered, “I don’t know. I guess we start looking into werewolves. We are coming up on a full moon soon, and if nothing happens, great! But if something does, then we should know what to expect. What do you think we should do? This involves you the most, Blake.”
“I don’t know. God, what if she is a werewolf now?” He seemed to be miles away in that thought. His eyebrows were furrowed Just as he stared past Darby and Devon in a daze. His expression was that of sadness and anger somehow mixed together in a way Darby had never seen before.
Devon broke the silence. “Well, then we deal with it. If she’s a werewolf now, we help her through it, but we certainly don’t give up trying to figure this out.”
“You’re right, Devon. We need a plan. How about this? Blake, when you’re not in with Rowan, why don’t you get on your computer and try doing some searches on the Wolfe family. Go through Benjamin’s wallet and see if there is anything in there that can provide us with a lead to his family.
“Devon, you can do some web searching too. Maybe we should make sure the Paine issue really is gone. You could do some background checks on Paine and his thugs. Just make sure there isn’t anyone else after you two. Blake grabbed everything out of the safe and if I remember correctly there was a leather book in there. Maybe it’s a ledger or a diary. That may be a good place to start.
“I can send a message to Allison to start gathering books on werewolves for us. In the meantime, I will start going through that ancient book that was on Paine’s desk. When I get home I’ll go through the book of shadows and see if there is anything in there about werewolves. I’ve never seen anything but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
“As for Rowan, for now she can work on healing and getting herself out of this place. We might not get a lot done while we are here in the hospital, but at least we know what direction to head in when we do. Once Rowan’s home, she can do some reading and once we have some leads maybe she can do a rune reading or something.”
“Good, good. That’s great, Darby. Isn’t it, Blake?” Blake was still in his daze and Devon wanted him to focus on something constructive, rather than whatever dark thoughts were going on in his head. Blake had been blocking his thoughts from Devon, but Devon could tell it was nothing good.
Blake answered, “Yeah. Great, Darby – get on the computer and get info on wolves.”
“Not wolves, Blake, Benjamin Wolfe,” Devon corrected.
“Yeah. Wolfe. That’s what I said.”
The rest of the morning was extremely frustrating and boring. Now that Rowan was awake, all that anyone could think of was Let’s go home. Now that Rowan was awake and seemingly fully recovered, they thought of grabbing Rowan and leaving, but Darby told the boys it would draw too much attention. They were hoping that the tests that had been done didn’t reveal anything that would raise any red flags. In fact, they hoped the werewolf blood would not become an issue at all, but they all knew that might be wishful thinking. So they sat there and waited.
Rowan’s doctor showed up sometime before 2:00 P.M. Aside from a slight elevation in temperature, he couldn’t see any reason to keep her in the hospital. Most of the tests were back and everything looked fine. The tests that had not come in he would forward to her doctor back in California. He said if she wanted to go home, he would discharge her at 5:00 P.M.. Great, more waiting. At least they could look into flights and maybe be home in the next 24 hours.
The next few hours went slowly, but Devon was able to get them booked on the 7:15 P.M. flight out with an hour layover in DC, arriving at SFO at 12:26 A.M. With that bit of good news, the waiting didn’t seem quite as hard.
Once on the plane, it was time to kick back and let the pilot do all the work. Still concerned about what was to come, the fact they were on their way home was a huge weight off everyone’s shoulders.
Blake still seemed to be in a daze and Darby could tell Devon was worried about him. Blake was an expert at blocking his thoughts, especially from Devon, so there was no chance at finding out that way. Devon tried to talk to him while the others were dozing, to no avail.
During the layover in DC, Darby called Allison to check in. Allison said all was well. She had been a bit worried about Harry since he hadn’t shown up back at the house for quite some time, but he must have gotten hungry and his stomach forced him back home. He was safe and sound at home now. She told Darby he was a tad bit jumpy, but looked none the worse for it. The store was fine, same old, same old.
Darby told her they would be back late that evening, early Friday morning. She would come in for a couple of hours Friday to do payroll and check her messages.
She asked Allison then to do an inventory search and pull any books about werewolves she could find. Thanking Allison, Darby said she’d explain when she saw her.
The next flight was uneventful and that was just fine with everyone. No one got much sleep on the plane, but it was certainly less stressful than it had been on the flight to Maine.
It was nice to be back. Even the Mercedes felt like home. With sleepy passengers, the ride home was very quiet. Even once they got home and entered the house, no one said a word. Blake and Rowan paired off to Rowan’s room and shut the door as Darby and Devon headed back to Darby’s. They hit the pillows, fully dressed, minus shoes, and slept blissfully until late afternoon. Darby was the first to get up, feeling she needed to get to the Cauldron, Book and Candle before closing. She had promised Allison, after all, and she rarely broke her promises. She quietly tiptoed to the bathroom, took a shower and got dressed.
She wrote a note to her sleeping prince and his furry sidekick, Harry, who was now taking up her entire side of the bed with his head on her pillow. She put a note on the table next to the bed that read:
Sweetheart,
Promised Allison I’d come in to do payroll. Be back soon.
Love you
D
“Allison, thanks again for holding down the fort and taking care of Harry! I always knew you were great, but now you have exceeded ‘Greatness’ to become ‘Totally Awesome’.”
Allison replied, “Does the new title have a raise attached to it?”
“If business keeps up, you bet! Hey, what did you do to your neck? That’s the strangest looking hickey I’ve ever seen,” Darby joked.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’m dating a vampire!” Allison said.
Darby just about choked on her soda. Loving the rise she got out of Darby, Allison sai
d, “Kidding! You know, you just about blew that through your nose. I can tell you from experience, carbonation does nothing for your sinuses. But seriously, I think it’s a bug bite or something. Got it last week sometime.”
“Hmmm. Guess I hadn’t noticed since you didn’t have your hair up, by the way, it looks cute like that.”
“Thanks. So what was the emergency trip? Another hot date?”
“Hardly. No, let’s just call it a family emergency. Devon had to go back to Maine to take care of some family issues, so I went along for the ride.”
“Well, not that I mind taking care of Harry, but why didn’t Rowan just take care of him?”
“It just so happens that Rowan has hooked up with Devon’s brother, Blake and he and Rowan came along.”
“I see.”
“So here’s your check! Anything I need to know before I get out of here?”
“Not really.”
“Oh, did you find any good books on werewolves?”
“Oh yeah, let me go get them.” A couple minutes later she set two books in front of Darby, “Here you go! New hunk of yours a werewolf?”
“You are full of it today!” Darby said, a little unnerved at how close to home Allison was. “Pull these out of inventory and add them to my account. And, no, he’s not a werewolf, he’s a vampire - way sexier than Dracula ever was. Guess I’ll have to reprimand him for biting my employees though, can’t be having any lawsuits.”
Allison laughed. Darby thought to herself, they say the best place to hide something is right out where everyone can see it, right? If I’ve joked he’s a vampire, then that should be the last thing she would think he is, right? Whatever the logic, what’s done is done.
“Thanks again, Allison. I’ll keep you posted on my schedule, but you can call me on my cell anytime.”
“See ya, Darby!”
Darby walked in the back door with groceries for dinner and set them down on the kitchen table. As she started to put things away, Devon came in behind her and wrapped his arms around her, starting nibbling on her neck.
Blood of a Werewolf Page 14