Blood From a Stone

by Cynthia Lucas

  Before he did anything else, he was going to make a quick stop somewhere to see if he could get more up to date on the culture of this decade. That in and of itself was always his greatest struggle. The first couple of times had not been so hard, since there was no such thing as technology. Changes in clothing….the way carriages were built, and other such things. But in the past couple hundred years is when an apparent sorcery had occurred and it had been downright unsettling when he’d first found himself in a world of technological advances that none could have dreamed of in his own time. But then….his own time was long in the past and nothing more than a distant memory. This was the present and he intended to make the most of it. He walked back down the busy street and stood in front of the window of the electronics store watching commercials and other shows that were running until they closed up.

  Television had been quite a shock the first time he saw it. The last time he’d seen one, shows were still in black and white…now here was everything on massive screens of all sizes, in full color and a clarity that matched real life.

  He quickly discovered what a cell phone was…what a laptop was…and in no time, he knew the names of several current movies and a few actors and actresses, a few shows that were on every week and the names of several stores and restaurants. And some innovative little gadget that swept floors without a broom or mop. You just throw away some pad that attaches to a handle! It was quite apparent that the past fifty years had brought more change than he’d ever seen in any other century. Frightening and yet, marvelous.

  He continued to drink it all in as he’d wandered several blocks north to this gothic looking place called Velvet where there was Vendetta, and booze…..and women.

  One thing was for sure from watching the television screens and watching the people in this place: women of this era were definitely different from the last he’d known a couple of generations before! If ladies acted back in 1961, or any other of his past Awakenings the way they acted now, they would be called ‘loose’, ‘harlots’,’ tramps’, and other such choice terms of that era and certainly the farthest thing that any young women would aspire to be like. But not here and now. In fact it seemed like the looser and trampier they acted, the more they were looked upon with eyes of admiration by all!

  And that suited him just fine…not that it really mattered. He’d never had any problems getting women into his bed, loose or not, anymore than he’d had a problem with telling them it was nothing serious when he wanted them to get out. The world had certainly changed, but that part hadn’t.

  One thing he was sure of; this new world, with its sleek cars, wild clothes, pieces of metal pierced through people’s lips and eyebrows, and all the rest he’d come to see in the past few hours was pretty damned amazing. And he intended to enjoy every second until the next month’s lunar cycle when he would go back to being cold, hard, and able to feel little but the passing seasons as the years drifted by.

  But for now…here he was! He’d been walking to Velvet and happened by the alleyway at just the right moment, saw the dog about to pounce on the two women and had to step in. He couldn’t just walk by and let the rabid animal attack them…and of course it wouldn’t be a bad thing if they happened to be feeling grateful afterwards and offered a reward or sexual favors for his gallantry. But as soon as the incident happened, he realized this Willow wasn’t that type and the only reward he was getting was her yelling at him for not going to the ER and taking the dog to the pound.

  Still, he found it hard to escape the smell of her perfume, the sass in her voice and the way she blushed when she looked at him.

  He rose from his seat and stood by the balcony waiting for her to come back out. He really sort of wished that she were a bar tramp…and even better yet, hell’s bells and whistles would be blaring tonight and if he could have gotten both her and her friend loaded and willing. Now that could prove to be quite a celebratory night of fun and games! He laughed to himself. He’d had a more than a few of those over the centuries. Debauchery never went out of style.

  But that wasn’t going to happen. The two most probable choices for the evening were get lost in the crowd and go find a good whore to spend the night with…or go back to the spot where Willow Dalton would burn holes into him with that school marm glare and tell him off at every turn of the conversation. Get laid or get cussed out.

  Hmmm….tough choice. He almost laughed out loud. Ah, what the hell, he thought. Maybe he could do both!

  He smirked as he swigged down another large gulp of beer and spotted her as she emerged from the ladies room with her friend. They made their way back toward the stage. That was his cue.

  He set down his beer bottle on the ledge and headed back down the stairs to see what she had in store for round two. She was witty, she was smart…he loved the way she blushed when he looked at her….and she was never going to bed with him. Then again, never say never.

  He loved a good challenge.

  C HAPTER THREE

  Willow felt a pair of hands at her waist and a second later, a hint of warm breath caressed the back of her neck. Her instinct was to whip around and smack the shit out of someone, but something stopped her. She knew instinctively that it was him. She turned around slowly to face him.

  “Well…I guess that ‘maybe’ has turned into definitely?” he said.

  She looked puzzled for just a second.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You said earlier that maybe we’d see each other again tonight if I was still here. Well, maybe is now definitely.” He raised his eyebrows.

  “Well….I guess it is, isn‘t it.” She stared at him for a moment and finally gave in and offered him the smile he was waiting for before she turned back to her friend.

  Sasha whispered loudly, “Oh, my God! He looks even better than he did outside.”

  Willow mouthed a silent “Shhh!” but by then Sasha was oblivious as the band started back up.

  They both moved closer to the stage and began dancing to the first song and singing along loudly as Samson watched them from behind. And after a few minutes, Willow found she could no longer resist the urge to sneak a peek behind her to see if he was still standing there watching. She was glad to see that he was and decided to go ahead and invite him closer. He smiled and moved next to her as the loud thumping of the drums began the next song. As soon as it was finished, Willow handed him her drink. “Could you hold onto this for me, please?”

  Samson nodded and took the glass as she grabbed all of her long hair and pulled it up off her neck into a pony tail.

  “Thanks.” She held out her hand to retrieve it when she was finished. Samson took a sip, drawing the tangy liquid up the straw before handing it back.

  She wrinkled her nose. ‘I didn’t invite you to do that, you know.”

  Samson looked down at the glass and back up at her. “Don’t worry. I don’t have any diseases…except maybe mental.”

  He laughed at the expression of alarm that crossed her features. “I’m just kidding. I don’t have anything mental or physical,” he reassured her.

  And that was the truth. Little did she know that his curse prevented him from ever getting sick or dying so that he could suffer its torment for an eternity….but then again, if you considered the curse itself a disease, then by God he had the mother of all infirmities!

  “I’ll buy you a fresh drink if you want.” He looked apologetic. She rolled her eyes and grabbed the glass back from him, tossing the straw aside and taking a sip from the rim instead.

  Seconds later the drums began a slow beat as the lightshow dimmed down and the music faded into a slow, rock ballad.

  Samson had always been good at hearing opportunity knocking.

  “Would you slow dance with me? Maybe it can be a ‘thank you’ dance? Or an ‘I’m sorry I took a sip of your drink without permission dance?’” he asked. His eyes traveled up and down the length of her body and he realized anew just how beautiful she really was.
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br />   “Yes, actually I’d like to. But, no hands on the ass

  or anything like that. Agreed? Obviously you did something really nice earlier….but I also don’t know you.”

  “Fair enough” he said, laughing, and belying the fact

  that he was sort of hoping that maybe he could get away with a little something or another. Not likely though, since she already had his number on that one. They moved onto the dance floor in front of the stage and he pulled her closer to him.

  She could feel his body against her as his arms circled around her waist. Before she could stop herself and keep a polite distance, her arms slid around his neck and she rested her head against his chest. She could feel his heart beating, and she could also feel just how well-built he was under the jacket.

  She leaned into him as the music took them away and he pulled her closer. She should be backing up a little but for some reason her arms wouldn’t move and her feet stayed right where they were. God it just felt so good with his arms around her. Or maybe it was just the tequila. She needed to remind herself this was a bar, and you don’t meet any right kind of guys in a bar. But all her sensibilities faded into some faraway place during the four minutes of that song. Time seemed to melt away as their bodies swayed to the music, and when it ended they continued to hold on, not wanting the moment to end.

  Finally as the drums for the next song kicked in, they were jarred from their trance and stepped back from each other.

  She stared at him for a moment, not sure what to say, until he broke the silence, with “Thank you for the dance.” His blue eyes seemed to cut right through her.

  “You’re welcome,” she smiled back. “And thanks for refraining from the dirty dancing,” she added dryly, with a smirk.

  “Oh, it was my non-pleasure, believe me. Cause I wanted to!” He started laughing.

  She tried not to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d humored her, but the smile escaped her lips before she could stop it. And she had to admit she liked the fact that he was attracted to her.

  “So, Willow. Tell me about yourself,” he said. “And I don’t mean the Lonely Hearts Club personals ads crap like ‘long walks on the beach, sunsets, quiet dinners and holding hands’ that every single person in America claims to

  have as a hobby. Tell me something real about you.”

  He figured it was a safe statement to make because everyone even back in 1961 said the same crap in those ads and he’d wager things probably hadn’t changed too much. At least he hoped they hadn’t or he’d sound damned stupid right about now.

  She laughed at the humor in it, because it was true! Everyone in the online dating services did seem to lay claim to those same interests.

  She nodded. “What do you want to know?”

  He shrugged relieved that she didn’t seem fazed by his statement about the personals ads. “Well, you said you were a nurse. What else do you do in life? Hobbies? Sports?”

  “Actually, I take long walks on the beach at sunset and make quiet dinners,” she said sarcastically. “Seriously, though. I work on the fifth floor at St. Luke’s. So does Sasha. Our schedule rotates so we don’t always get Fridays and Saturdays off, so we decided to come out and celebrate since we both got a Friday off for once.”

  He nodded. “Do you have a specialty or a certain area where you work? Operating room? Emergency?”

  “Actually, yeah. I work in the pediatric ward. I take care of sick children in the main unit and in post op. I also have another degree and can do labs and blood work ups.”

  “Wow,” he said. “That’s impressive. A job like that

  taking care of kids…that takes a lot of courage. And a big heart.” He nodded and smiled even though he wasn’t exactly sure what the terms ‘labs’ or ‘blood work ups’ meant. Must have to do with something in a laboratory and blood tests? He’d have to look them up later. No matter…he’d meant what he said about taking care of kids.

  She felt a little embarrassed at his heaping on the praise, but at the same time grateful that someone actually understood what a tough job it was to be a nurse. The long hours and the pressure of children’s lives depending on you.

  “Thank you for saying that. Not many people realize what’s involved. What do you do?” she asked.

  “Actually, I’m a businessman. I deal in….antiques and stonework. I travel a lot.”

  It was close to the truth. At least the stonework and antiques part.

  “So, you have your own business?”

  He nodded before the music became so deafening that talking was again impossible so they all just listened, sang along and enjoyed the music.

  A few songs later, the band was finishing up the end of their set and she turned to him and said, “Well, listen. It was really nice to meet you, Samson and thank you for the dance, and again, for what you did earlier. If you hadn’t come along like you did, she and I would probably be in the ER right now ourselves. But it’s getting late, and we really should be heading home now.”

  “Will I see you again?” he asked, knowing damned well it was the exact wrong thing to do. “Can I get your number or something? Maybe we can go for coffee sometime.”

  “Okay. Where’s your cell…I‘ll give you my number.” She normally would not be giving it out to some guy she’d just met, but he had risked his own life and limb for her and Sasha, and he already knew where she worked. So she figured it was worth the risk.

  He looked puzzled. He thought to himself, Cell? OH. Yeah…those things that everyone held to their ears or seemed to be tapping their fingers on.

  He had to think fast so he didn’t screw up his answer. “I don’t have mine with me right now. I lost it. Can

  you just write it down for me and I’ll call you when I get a new one or when I get home.”

  “Yeah. Hang on a sec.” She dug in her purse for a pen and paper and wrote it down for him. Her handwriting was slightly messy from drinking one too many of those sinful green concoctions, but legible nonetheless.

  She handed him the paper. “Okay, then. So, call me and we’ll get together for coffee or lunch maybe.” She grabbed Sasha and they headed toward the door and groaned when they looked out. It had begun snowing hard and even though they didn’t appear to be actually drunk, they did seem just a tad wobbly on their feet.

  He looked concerned and hoped they were not planning to drive.

  He ran forward to stop them. “Hey! Wait a minute. You’re not driving are you? I mean, no offense but you had a couple in there and if it starts to ice….you know.” He shrugged.

  Willow hated to admit it but he was right. So what now? Was he going to offer to drive her home? She wasn’t really comfortable with that even though Sasha would be with them.

  She would just call a cab. But then of course, she’d have to leave her car and she didn’t want to do that either, but she didn’t really have much choice.She dialed 411 information, got the number of a local taxi service and asked for a cab to be sent and quickly hung up.

  “Okay, done.” she said. She looked up at Samson. “Speaking of driving, how are you going to get home? It’s not safe out here!”

  Home…it had been so long since he’d had one he forgot what it felt like. What a joke! The only thing that would sufficiently take him home to his perch on the side of the old church would be a hoist and ladder. It was truly laughable, but he kept his cool and answered her question.

  “I didn’t drive. I took a cab here, so would it be okay if I shared yours?”

  Now, where exactly he would go after dropping these two off, he wasn’t sure. He knew they weren’t up for any of the lewd fantasies he had in mind. He supposed he could find a hotel somewhere or go back and dig up some more of his money from the graveyard and just hang out til morning, since he did not require sleep. Yeah, he would feel every miserable minute of the cold, but it wouldn’t kill him…that was a certainty.

  It was his first night back among the living, and he’d almost forgotten about that addi
tional little gift that was part of his curse. He required little or no sleep, since that was all he did for decades in between Awakenings. Yes, he could enjoy all the food, sex, booze, and sensations that the world had to offer for about a month, but never a good night’s restful sleep filled with sweet dreams of color, beauty and to know the feeling of waking from such bliss. The simple comfort of knowing that just because you went to sleep, it didn’t mean being cold and dead as a rock for fifty years! And then there were some other things that were off-

  limits too…like falling in love. What good would that do when he’d do nothing but leave behind yet another disappointed female pining away with a broken heart. Wasn’t that what had gotten him into this mess in the first place?

  Lucky for him, love was not and had not ever been on his ‘to do’ list, although throughout these several Awakenings, he had at least grown to have some sense of compassion enough to acknowledge that it would not be right to love someone and leave them in such a manner as was dictated by his circumstance.

  As for the curse, he’d racked his brain and his soul for

  any possibility which might be the cure over and over again in every Awakening. In desperation, he’d even tried once or twice to fall in love, knowing it was all wrong, but proceeding nonetheless, in the hopes that the old ‘only love’s kiss can break the wicked curse’ bullshit might work. But, of course he hadn’t really been in love and it hadn’t worked either.

  Instead he’d found only one cold and unyielding

  truth: it had followed him for five centuries across the ocean to America. And that truth was simply that there was no way to break this curse, and if there was, it was like squeezing blood from a stone….literally, in his case.

  And it was something he had to always keep in mind when he met someone he initially felt attracted to, like this girl Willow. She could never mean anything to him, and he needed to make sure he would not mean anything to her either. But he figured since he already had her number and gotten to know her just a little bit, well….it might lead to a dinner or two and maybe a few nights together in bed sometime during the next month if she was game. He would just make it very clear from minute one that it was nothing serious…he was absolutely not looking for a relationship and encourage each of them to see others so there was no attachment.