Bloodstone Heart

by T. Lynne Tolles

  During Blake's meandering through Melanie's mind, Rowan caught up with them and was now at their side. Blake was still holding Melanie back from running and Rowan was checking Blake and Melanie's injuries. When she found all the wounds to be superficial, she tried to soothe Melanie's anguish. Never once did Melanie stop screaming and crying for Josh.

  People were coming out on to the streets with their hands over their mouths in shock at what had happened. Somewhere far away, Rowan thought she heard sirens. Amongst all this chaos, Blake's head jerked hard to the left as he saw a figure all in black standing near a lamppost staring at the scene. "Rowan, take care of Melanie, I have a vampire to take care of," he said, and like a streak of lightning, he was running after the now running man in black.

  Melanie's screams were getting softer, not from lack of effort, but from sheer hoarseness. Out of pure exhaustion, she dropped to her knees sobbing and staring at the place where the back door once stood, now billowing with black smoke, and the orange glow drawing closer. She thought she saw something move inside, but it must have been her eyes playing tricks on her. She could barely see out of them with the continuous tears and stinging smoke and dust. Then again she saw something move behind the blackness of the smoke.

  She spun around out of Rowan's grasp and started to sprint for the door, just as Josh emerged from the smoke looking rather dazed and singed. Melanie jumped into his welcoming arms and she wrapped her arms and legs around him holding him so tightly she was sure that she would emerge on the other side of him. She pulled back for an instant with both her hands on his face and took him in. He looked fine. He looked in better shape than she did. His face was red, but he looked absolutely fine. "Oh my God, Josh. Are you okay?"

  "I'm… yeah. I'm okay. I'm fine."

  He was still wearing his black leather jacket, jeans, and flannel shirt and none of him seemed burned at all. In fact he had less soot on him than Rowan, Blake, and Melanie.

  "How did you survive that blast?"

  "I don't know? I got thrown back against a wall, but I feel fine."

  "What about your lungs? Maybe we should have you checked for smoke inhalation."

  "No, Lanie. I'm fine. Where's Blake?"

  "I don't know, but he's fine. I was about ready to kill him myself because he wouldn't let me go in after you, but he's fine."

  "Go in after me? You could have been killed."

  "I thought you were dead. Oh God, Josh. I thought you were dead." She wrapped her arms around him again and sobbed in the crook of his neck, while he tried to soothe her. Rowan opened the tailgate of the SUV and Josh sat down holding on to Melanie. She was not intending on letting go of him anytime soon and he was pretty sure he didn't want her to.

  Josh asked Rowan, "Where's Blake?"

  Rowan said, "I'm not sure. All he said was that he had a vampire to take care of."

  Josh's eyes went wide. "We've got to get out of here. He's found us again."

  The realization hit Rowan like a ton of bricks and she knew instantly what he meant. "Oh no! You’re right! We've got to get you two out of here." She handed her phone to Josh, who was now standing with Melanie standing next to him. "Speed dial Dean and get in the truck," Rowan said as she slammed the tailgate closed and ran for the driver's side. Within a second they were leaving, weaving in and out of crowds of people who were milling around in the street like cattle. After she honked her horn, they made a path for the truck and in a few seconds she could hear the fire engines arriving. As they turned the corner of their street, she saw Dean and Sally walking out of the house presumably to see what the ruckus downtown was about. Rowan's tires squealed to a halt and she was yelling for Sally and Dean to help her.

  "Bad news, Sally. The bookstore is gone. Someone tried to blow up Josh inside of it."

  "Oh my God. Is everyone okay?" Sally said.

  "Yeah."

  Dean said, "Where's Blake?"

  "He saw the vampire. He went after him."

  "Alone?"

  "Well, we were kind of up to our eyeballs in mourning as we thought Josh was dead."

  "He was in the building when it blew up?"

  "Yes."

  "But he doesn't have a scratch on him. Melanie looks like the one that was in the building."

  "I know. Speaking of that, we need to get that piece of wood out of her leg and get her cleaned up. She landed on top of Blake or the wood would have been in him."

  Dean said, "Maybe I should go after him?"

  "Actually Dean, I think we need you in case the vampire comes here. Josh, can you sense Blake nearby?" Rowan said as they closed the front door and headed for the kitchen to clean up Melanie.

  Josh closed his eyes as he took his leather jacket off and sat down on a chair next to Melanie, who was not letting him go or letting him out of her sight. "Ummm, hmmm. I sense him, but I can't talk to him. He's blocking his thoughts from the other vampire. And yes, I can sense the other vampire too. He is doing the same, blocking his thoughts from Blake."

  "Well, then Blake is okay or he'd be sending you some kind of message. Melanie, you need to let go of Josh, so I can bandage up your arm, and clean up your leg, okay, sweetie? He's not going anywhere."

  Dean said to Josh, "It's amazing. You look absolutely fine, aside from what looks like a sunburn."

  Melanie said, "We should treat that. Do you have any aloe?"

  "Yeah," Rowan said. "Sally, could you go in Darby's bathroom, I think in the medicine cabinet or under the sink there should be some aloe for sunburns."

  "Sure."

  Rowan was now working diligently on Melanie's leg where the piece of wood had pierced her. It wasn't a big piece of wood but it was deep. "Maybe we should get you to the hospital to get this looked at?"

  "No. I'm not leaving here. I'm fine. It doesn't even hurt."

  "That's probably because you are in shock."

  "No, really I'm fine, but I promise if the cuts don't look better in a couple of hours I will go and have them checked."

  Sally came back with the aloe. "Here you go," she said as she handed it to Josh.

  Melanie said, "Now put this on your face and hands, Josh. It will cool down your skin and keep you from blistering."

  "Okay, but I think I'm going to go change my shirt. It smells like smoke. I'll change the rest of my clothes later, once we know Blake is okay." He got up and went into Darby's room, which was right across the hallway from the kitchen, so Melanie could keep an eye on him. He bent over and grabbed his duffle that was on the floor and got a t-shirt out. He lifted the t-shirt and flannel shirt he had on up and over his head with his back to Melanie. She gasped and he jerked his head around to her, "What?"

  "Your whole body is sunburned aside from a spot on your lower back. Could you come here?" Melanie said.

  Sure enough, there were no lines where his jacket ended or his shirt ended. It was as if he had been completely naked in the fire and sunburned, aside from a small mark on his back in the shape of a heart about two inches by two inches. "What the heck is that?"

  "It looks like a heart," Dean said, snickering.

  "It does, doesn't it? But why is that the only spot on him that isn't burned?" Melanie said.

  "Is it?" Dean asked.

  "Is what it?" Melanie asked.

  "Is that the only spot on him not burned?" Dean answered. Josh's face went even redder than it already was.

  Melanie suggested, "Maybe you should take a shower now and see if that is the case. When you are done with the shower, you should put the aloe everywhere you are burned. I can do your back when you get done, but you can do the rest." She smiled. "If you sense anything with Blake, yell."

  "Okay. Will you be okay?" Josh asked.

  "I'm not the one that was in the burning building. Are YOU okay? Because, I'm fine. In fact, I'm great, knowing you're alive."

  "Yeah. All right. I'll only be a few minutes."

  Once Josh was out of the room, Rowan said, "You saw this, didn't you? You had a premonition last n
ight that he would die in that explosion, didn't you?"

  "Yes. I didn't know what building, but when we came around the corner and we got closer to the back door, I recognized the door. I didn't know it was the bookstore, or I would have said something," Melanie said.

  "Oh, Melanie. You poor thing. I can't imagine what it must be like to have something like that hanging over your head. No wonder you were so upset last night," Rowan replied.

  "Sally, I'm so sorry about the bookstore. Again, if I had known what building it was I would have said something, but all I knew was that there was an explosion and that Josh would be inside," Melanie said.

  "Melanie, you have nothing to feel bad about. I'm just glad no one was killed. Besides it was insured. Now that we know everyone is pretty much okay, I'm going to go put some wards up around our two houses so that we have some warning if our vampire friend comes calling."

  "Geez. How did he find us so quickly? Do you think he was behind the explosion?"

  "I don't know. I guess we will know more when Blake gets back."

  Chapter 10

  The rest of the day was almost as crazy as the explosion itself. The police and fire department came and took statements from everyone about the explosion. Poor Sally had her hands full with stacks of paperwork and calls from insurance claim officers. Dean went to the bookstore later that day and boarded up all the windows and doors for Sally until the insurance company could come out for their inspection.

  Josh was one big sunburn, except for the two-inch by two-inch heart on the left side of the small of his back. He followed Lanie's instructions and slathered himself in aloe. He looked in the mirror at the burn and decided he looked like he’d been at the beach all day buck-naked. When he was done, Melanie finished him off with doing his back, where she inspected the odd heart-shaped spot once more.

  Soon after, Blake came home. He updated them all on what little information he had obtained. He never really had caught up with the vampire, though. He had found out his name was Dimitri and he was definitely responsible for the explosion. But why? Blake was still unsure of that. It puzzled him why Dimitri would try to kill Josh, when Dimitri thought Josh was the only person who could tell him where his lost item was. He also saw that Dimitri had a tattoo of a black flower on his left hand above his thumb at the wrist. Blake figured it was a black orchid. This was not a lot of information, but it was more than they’d had when they got up that morning.

  The black orchid reminded Blake to check his email. Maybe Dominic had found something. Sure enough, there was an email from Dominic waiting in his Inbox.

  "Listen to this," Blake announced to whoever might be in earshot. Melanie and Rowan walked into the room that served as an office and followed along over Blake’s shoulder as he read:

  "Order of the Black Orchids: Initially it was an organization/school for vampires and supernaturals, put together by a group of vampires, to teach young and rogue vampires to adapt and control their hunger in a supervised environment. It also served as a place to answer questions from humans and supernaturals. Their hope was to lessen the loss of human and vampire lives due to misinformation. By educating both races, they hoped they could live in harmony amongst each other.

  "The order had been around secretly for centuries. At some point it was splintered by power hungry vampires and slowly split in two. The power hungry vampires opted for the complete opposite of the order’s initial goal - the enslavement of the human race and to hone their own abilities into a master race. Those who disagreed with the enslavement went off on their own forming 'The Preservers of All Life.'

  "Occasionally, the Black Orchids would induct a powerful leader. One who would take over several communities and start spreading like a disease. That's when Preservers of All Life would step in and decimate the Black Orchids. But there always seemed to be another power hungry vampire ready to step into the Black Orchid’s leadership shoes and start the process all over again. This would happen over and over for centuries.

  "Apparently, it has been resuscitated yet again."

  "So what's that got to do with Josh?" Melanie asked.

  "I don't know yet."

  "How did he find us so quickly?"

  "That I did read from him. It had something to do with an address book at your apartment. He didn't have the house address, but he had the bookstore name. He knew you were heading for California. He must have just gone through your things until he found something that linked you to California."

  "So I led him right to Josh."

  "You couldn't have known he'd find you here. Besides, when you came here you didn't know what kind of help you would find. I'd say you did pretty well in finding two werewolves, a witch, and a vampire to help you. And we have reinforcements, if we need them."

  "I know. You've all been great, but Josh was almost killed today. I'm still not sure why he's alive. I'm so thankful he is but every bone in my body says he should be dead. So now I've brought danger and destruction to my friends, and I hate that. To top it all off, we still don't know what this guy wants." Josh walked by the office, heard the discussion, and joined them.

  "I know it seems bad, but it usually is the darkest just before you get a shimmer of light, which makes me confident we are very near to figuring some things out. Let me call Dominic and give him what little information we have learned. Maybe he will have some insight," Blake said trying to comfort Melanie.

  "Okay. In the meantime, Josh, I think you should go lie down. This has been a hell of a day for you and you have this burn all over you," Melanie said.

  "But Melanie, I'm fine," Josh tried to convince her.

  "Just do it for me, please. I'll go get your iPod. Trust me, you are probably more tired than you even realize," she implored.

  "She's right," Rowan said. "That kind of trauma has a way of catching up with you."

  "Fine. I guess you know where I'll be," Josh said in defeat.

  Josh headed back to the bedroom and Melanie went to the kitchen where Josh had taken off his jacket. She reached in the jacket pocket, but nothing was there. Then she went into the other pocket and nothing was in there either, however there was a hole in the pocket and she could feel his IPod just on the other side of the hole in the lining of the jacket. She said as she walked into the bedroom, "Did you know you had a hole in your pocket?"

  "Yeah. That's been there for a few months."

  "Then you realize that whatever you put in your pocket can go into the lining of your jacket?"

  "Ummm. I guess. My iPod sometimes goes through the hole."

  "What I'm getting at is that whatever you picked up that night in the alley could be in the lining of your jacket."

  "Oh! I hadn't thought of that." She sat on the bed and handed him the iPod. The next thing she pulled out was his ear buds. She could get her whole hand through the hole since her hands were so tiny and she reached around the base of the jacket lining. She pulled out some change, the phone number of that obnoxious waitress, receipts to the corner store and the drugstore in Dunsmuir, and then Melanie's hand touched something cold and smooth. When she grabbed a hold of it, it filled her entire palm. She slowly pulled it out of the hole and held it front of them.

  It was a polished stone or amulet. It had a hole in it at the top with a small silver ring for a chain or chord so it could be worn around the neck. It wasn't gorgeous, like a crystal or diamond, but something about it was comforting. It was a beautiful deep green, like marble or granite, with red spots that looked like splatters of blood. It appeared to have been lovingly polished by hand.

  "What is it?"

  "I don't know! It was in YOUR pocket. Don't YOU know what it is?"

  "No."

  "Could it be the shiny item that you picked up in the alley?"

  "Yeah. I suppose. It's about the right size."

  "Hmm."

  "Hmm, what?"

  "Well, you do realize it's in the shape of a heart. The size of the heart-shaped spot on your back. Do you mind if I sh
ow it to Blake and the others?”

  "No."

  "Okay. Why don't you rest for a while? I'll check on you later." She handed him his iPod again that he had since set on the dresser and kissed his cheek. "I'm so glad you are okay, Josh. I thought I had lost you forever."

  He smiled at her as she quietly closed the door. She went into the living room and said, "Look what I found in the lining of Josh's jacket."

  Rowan said, "What is it?"

  Melanie smiled and said, "I think we have that ray of light now, Blake. From what I can sense from this thing, it is the reason Josh is alive. Notice its shape? A heart. The same size as the heart on Josh's back where he has no burn. I can sense the dark man on it too, very slightly."

  "Rowan, can you get your iPhone? Let's take a picture of it and email it to Dominic. It looks old – really old." Blake held it in his hand as he looked at it some more and Rowan went to her purse to get her phone. "Looks like Bloodstone, don't you think Rowan?"

  Rowan nodded, "That would be my guess, but Sally would know for sure."

  "It has a cool, calming effect to it."

  Melanie said, "Yes, I felt that too. Very soothing."

  Blake took a picture of the stone and sent it to Dominic. Not two minutes later the phone rang and it was Dominic. "Do you know what that is, Blake?" he said.