Blood From a Stone

by Cynthia Lucas

  He squeezed her hand. “Yeah, as a matter of fact it does hurt. It starts as a cold feeling…chills…and then my whole body just starts to slow down. And before I know it I just can’t move anymore. My organs start to shut down…my breathing slows down to nothing. My vision starts to dim and eventually that fades to almost nothing too. Everything just comes to a screeching halt, until I am no more than a block of stone.”

  Her eyes welled with tears. “I’m…so sorry. Is there anything we can do to fix this?”

  He busted out laughing. “I’ve spent the better part of ten Awakenings over five hundred years time trying to do just that. I’ve even tried killing myself to end all my misery. But you saw the product of what wounding me does when we were at Velvet.”

  Willow’s mind drifted back to the moment outside the club when Samson had shielded her and Sasha from Cisco’s vicious bite. She knew his arm had been torn up! And yet there was not a mark on him.

  “So then…your healing powers also extend to your own body. That’s why there was no wound on your arm after Cisco bit you.”

  She shifted under the blanket and Cisco came over as if on cue, knowing they’d been talking about him. She patted his head, now understanding exactly how it had been possible that the vicious dog they’d encountered in the alleyway was now her best friend, companion and foot warmer.

  She looked concerned suddenly. “He wasn’t just cold and hungry was he. Did he have…rabies?”

  Samson nodded. “Yeah, he did.”

  She dragged in a deep breath trying to calm the instinctual fear she felt knowing that he’d had the disease.

  Samson smiled. “I said did. NOT does. He is perfectly fine now.”

  She nodded as she continued petting his soft golden head. “When? When will this change happen to you again?”

  “If nothing happens to free me from it, I have about three weeks left.”

  She stared at him, and tears began to well up in her eyes again. “There’s got to be something we can do. I can’t just sit back and let this thing take you away without trying to fight back. I won’t.”

  “Believe me…from what I know, there is no way to fight back. I‘ve gone over it in my head a million times. The old witch said, only thy jailer can set thee free. And she’s been dead for nearly five centuries.“ He reached out to touch her face.

  “If things could only be different. But they can’t,” he said softly.

  Willow’s brows knit together. “How do you know for sure? That guardian angel lady….what if she can help you? Have you asked her?”

  He sighed heavily. “I’ve asked her. And her buddy Maximus too. They said something about choices and staying on the path. That was it.”

  “Maybe if you’d let me take some blood, I could work with it and try to see if there’s some cure.”

  He laughed out loud. “My blood is a cure, for most illnesses and injuries except my own, apparently. I guess that’s the irony of it.”

  “I don’t care about any of this,“ she said softly. “I’m not giving up.“ She reached forward and brushed his long hair backward with her fingers.

  He stared at her in silence for a few moments before he spoke again. “Willow, I came here today to say goodbye. Apparently I can’t die. And I barely age either. I’m exactly as I was when I was changed five hundred years ago. And I can’t expect you to sit around waiting while I exist…if you can call it that…for the next fifty years as a piece of rock sitting on the side of a building. To waste any of your life worrying about me or what could have been, when you could be sharing your life with someone else. Someone human.”

  “I don’t want someone human. I want you,” she said firmly.

  “You don’t know what you’re saying. This isn’t some dark vampire romance movie. When I wake up again, you’ll be an old lady. A beautiful one, I’m sure. But you will still be an old lady. Would you really want to sit around wasting your life…and all because of me. I can’t let you do that.”

  “So you think just walking away is a solution? That it’s going to stop me from feeling the way I feel?” she shot back angrily. “Samson. I love you…love doesn’t mean you walk away. It means you see it through ‘til the end. And I intend to see this through ‘til the end with you, no matter what end that might be.”

  “And how are you going to feel if Cisco or the little boy David or that old man I healed turns into a block of stone with me in three weeks? Are you going to love me then?”

  She looked concerned for a moment and it was apparent that this hadn’t occurred to her yet. He waited in silence for her reprimand. But it never came.

  “Well…I guess that is a possibility. But I do understand your desperation to help them. I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same. I guess we can only hope that won’t happen, and if it does, I will work tirelessly to find a cure. But again for the nth time…I need a sample of your blood to work with!”

  God damned she was stubborn. But then that’s one of the things he loved about her. She didn’t give up. He pulled her closer and kissed her again, fighting hard to control the raging torrent inside of him. He had, after all come here to say goodbye. To give her the gift of her life and her freedom. It was the right thing to do…and yet, it didn’t feel very right at all. What felt right, was her, here in his arms.

  She pulled back from him, her gaze never leaving the depths of his turquoise eyes. “I know that this situation seems hopeless. But, no matter what happens, if you change again, I want the last thing you feel is my arms around you and my voice in your ear telling you that I love you. Because God forbid, I know it’s crazy, but I do and I won‘t let you go through it by yourself.”

  She kissed him softly. “Please….stay with me.”

  “Willow, I can’t do this to you. If I walk now, it will be much easier for both of us.”

  “If we only have three weeks, then let’s make the most of that three weeks,” she said firmly. “Give me something to hold on to for the rest of my life, because no matter whether we shared a few days, a few nights….or a few weeks, I’m never going to forget you and I’m never going to stop feeling what I feel for you right now!”

  Choices. Here was another one. She was actually willing to see this all the way through and offered to be there with him, no matter how horrifying to watch, when and if he changed again. The love he felt for her in that moment was beyond any he’d thought he felt before.

  But, would he be able to live with himself if he stayed, knowing how much harder it was going to be to say goodbye when the time came? To watch her tears fall while he sat there helplessly with no way to comfort her as he turned to stone before her eyes?

  And conversely if he said goodbye now, would he be able to live with himself, knowing he’d walked out and never spent every moment he could loving her until the Change took him by force?

  God forgive me, he thought.

  “You would be willing to be there…when…if it happens again?”

  She nodded. “If you walk out on me now, I swear to God I will spend every minute trying to find you so that I can be with you when it happens.”

  He dragged in a deep breath. “Well I suppose I’m just going to have to make sure you always know where I am then.”

  She smiled. “Really?”

  “Yeah,” he said softly, as he pulled her close and captured her lips in his own.

  Her arms wound around his neck as he deepened the kiss, his tongue playing against hers with tenderness.

  He kissed his way down the side of her neck and back up again, brushing her hair back from her face as he nuzzled her cheek with his lips.

  “You said you would take me to Europe and I told you I would keep you informed of my vacation time. So, well….I’m informing you, now,” she laughed. “I have some money saved up too.”

  He smiled. “I think I have enough to cover it…you don‘t need to do anything except bring yourself. When do you want to go?”

  “ Are you sure? You can afford it?”
she said looking puzzled.

  “Of course I’m sure. I’ve made sure I take care of myself these past Awakenings. It’s called Savings Bonds. Trust me. I have enough to get us there and back. When do you want to go?”

  “As soon as we can get a flight. But….”

  “No buts. Don’t worry about it,” he said firmly.

  She nodded. “Sasha can take care of Cisco and the house. I know she won’t mind.”

  She moved in closer. “I want to see where you came from. Where you lived. The place where this started.” She leaned and kissed his neck feeling the beat of his pulse beneath her lips as she breathed the words against his skin.

  “That can be arranged, my lady” he said softly.

  “I like it when you call me that.”

  “And I like to call you that,” he whispered.

  His hands wound in her hair as he pushed her back on he couch, pulling back the quilt she had wrapped herself in.

  He lay the weight of his body carefully on top of her as he began to kiss a path down into the crease of her cleavage. He worked his way down further pulling up her shirt to expose her belly, where he began kissing her stomach/ The phone suddenly rang and Willow leaned over to see who it was.

  “It’s Sasha,“ she sighed, and then giggled as he tickled her navel with his tongue. “I know she’s worried about me because I left work. Let me just talk to her for a minute. I promise it will be quick”.

  He popped a kiss on the end of her nose and sat back up, straightening her shirt as he did.

  She reassured Sasha everything was fine, and then told her of their plans to go to Europe.

  “When are you leaving?”

  “In a day or two. I have accrued vacation time, so I guess as soon as I can get a passport. They have some kind of expedited service so it should be fairly quick.”

  “Oh, my God! I’m so excited for you, but are you sure? I mean aren’t things moving a little too fast? A few hours ago you were breaking up.”

  “Yeah, I know. And I know we’re moving faster than common sense should allow. But sometimes you have to just grab the moment and live like you don’t have forever. Because, we don’t.” Willow said matter-of-factly.

  “Wow. We are certainly getting philosophical tonight, aren’t we?” laughed Sasha. “I guess you know what’s best for you. Listen, my break’s over and I have to get back to work. I’ll call you later.” Sasha hung up and Willow put her cell down on the coffee table.

  “Now. Where were we?” she said smiling.

  “Well, I was right about here,” he said, lifting her shirt and placing his lips to her stomach.

  He pulled her up and wrapping the blanket around her, lifted her up in one swift motion and carried her to her bed. He gently set her down and unwrapped her from the confines of the thick quilt as he blanketed her body with his own.

  She could feel his heart beat against her breasts as he moved over her, enveloping her lips with his own.

  He deepened his kiss, as her fingers dug into his wide back and back up into the length of his sandy hair. But instead of taking off any more of her clothing, he suddenly rolled over onto his side next to her, as a plan began to blossom in his mind’s eye.

  She stared at him in confusion. “What? Is something wrong?”

  He shook his head. “No. Everything’s perfectly right. And I want to keep it that way.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “So far everything I’ve done with you has been for those damnable ‘right reasons’ and I have another one in mind.”

  “But we’ve already done this…more than once.”

  “And we’ll do it again. But next time it’s going to be….special.”

  “And I take it that next time isn’t going to be tonight?” she said cautiously.

  He reached up and traced a finger down her lip smiling devilishly. “I know how much you want me. How could you not?”

  She rolled her eyes and smacked him on top of his head.

  “Patience, my lady,” he said, sitting up and offering her his hand.

  They walked back out to the living room and he plunked down on the chaise chair, dragging her with him and covering them both with the quilt as he flipped on the television to find a movie.

  As much as he desired to lay with her again, he was determined to refrain from touching her. He wanted to let the fire build to a raging inferno that would consume them both by the time they got to Wales in a day or two.

  He knew just the place where he hoped to take her…a little bed and breakfast nestled in the hills near the place where he was born. They would enjoy breakfast in bed as the sunlight filtered through crisp white window curtains…dinner by firelight and sunsets on the snowy hillside. And at night she would lay in his arms as he savored every inch of her body by candlelight in a dance as old as time.

  For now, he was content to just hold her here, the length of her body pressed against his and the sweet smell of her hair on his skin.

  A couple of hours passed and he felt an inner peace he’d never known as he drifted off to sleep…. her breathing slow and steady against his chest, wrapped in the warmth of his arms.

  C HAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The next two days passed like a whirlwind as they packed got paperwork together, applied for and got passports, and took care of everything that needed to be done.

  Sasha would be taking care of Cisco and the house, and Samson had made sure all of his belongings were secure.

  There was more thing that he wanted to check on before leaving…he was curious as to how old Harold was doing, and was relieved when the old man greeted him as he entered the shelter. He seemed bright-eyed, hale and hearty. Samson could only hope that the condition was permanent.

  “Mister Angel!” said Harold straightening his shirt, and smoothing back his hair, as Samson approached.

  Samson smiled. “I told you…I’m no angel. I’m just a friend.”

  “How are you feeling, Harold?” he asked, with sincere interest.

  “I’m gettin’ better every day. Seven days now without a drink! And I kept my promise to ya too. I’m helping here and earnin’ my keep.”

  “I can see that,” Samson nodded. “You’re a good man.”

  Harold looked a bit misty-eyed for a moment before he spoke again. “No one’s ever said that to me in all my life. I ain’t never been good enough for anyone to say it. That is ‘til now…cuz a what ya done for me.”

  “Harold. You were always a good man….you just didn’t believe in yourself. If what I did for you somehow brought it out, then so be it. Now it’s up to you to stay on the path.”

  Samson paused for a moment as he realized what he’d just said. Staying on the path. Believing in himself. Wasn’t that the words that both Adrielle and Maximus had said to him? Strange.

  “Well, listen now Harold. I just dropped in to check on you and say hi. I’m getting ready to go on a trip overseas. I’m not sure when I’ll be back…but I wanted to make sure you were alright before I leave.”

  Harold nodded. “Yes sir…I’m just good as can be. And I hope you’ll come back to see me. Someday I’m gonna have my own place again. You wait and see.”

  Samson smiled. “Somehow…I know you will. I’ve got to go now. I’ll see you soon.” He offered his hand and Harold enthusiastically shook it, before grabbing him in a man-hug.

  “Thank you, for all you done,” he said quietly. Samson nodded before turning to walk out the door. He drove by the apartment to pick up a few things that weren’t already packed in his suitcase at Willow’s, and dropped by the landlord’s office to let her know he’d be gone for several days and ask if she’d just keep an eye on everything for him.

  He double checked the apartment to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything and was about to walk out when he felt a familiar chill and was startled to see Adrielle standing there in the corner of the room.

  He drew in a deep breath. “So…are you here to inform me that I might be joining
your little club soon? Everyone else seems to know about it.”

  Adrielle looked confused, but said nothing.

  “Quit bullshitting me, Adrielle. That’s your name isn’t it? Harold’s still calling me ‘Mr. Angel’…and Willow knew too because that little boy told her you were in his room.”

  Adrielle stepped forward as she spoke. Not inside his head, but with actual words. Her voice was melodic and rich as she spoke.

  “That was an accident. And of course she knows your secret as well.”

  “Yeah, she does now,” he said calmly. “So…now are you going to give me shit for not walking away?”

  She stared at him long and hard and he knew that he’d probably violated some ‘rule’….hopefully not something that would affect his breaking the curse. No matter, he wasn’t sorry for what he’d done, any more than he was sorry for saving Harold and the boy.

  “You love her,” she said matter-of-factly.

  He nodded. “Yeah, I do. And even if I never find my way out of this thing, I intend to make what little time I have with her count.”

  Adrielle looked a bit sad for a moment and then smiled. She reached forward and touched Samson and he felt a warmth filling him as waves of her energy penetrated his soul and she read his thoughts.

  “Are you taking me with you? The boy said I would be one of you. Is that true?”

  She backed up and said quietly, “Free your mind. Look to the rhyme.”

  I already did that. All I came up with was that time does seem to go backwards a bit when a sick animal or human tastes my blood. The blood of my will?”

  “Look to the rhyme…”

  Without another word, she shimmered out leaving him alone in the room.

  He sighed heavily as he picked up a small strong box filled with his most important papers and other of his most valuable items. He grabbed sunglasses and some loose change and shoved them in his jacket pocket.

  He glanced at the clock. Their flight would be leaving in just a couple more hours. He walked out, locked up the door and headed to Willow’s house to drop off his car, and call a cab to the airport.