Blood Pool

by B. Ella Donna

  “What about the girl, Jade?” Bo brought up the subject that made Tobias shift in his seat.

  Tobias cut into the juicy meat, slightly nervous. He set down his fork. Tobias made an art form out of seemingly eating a meal. In reality, he’d only taken a bite or two at most. “I would have to assume she is like her father. She hasn’t tried to escape, and from what I’ve heard, he loves her a great deal.”

  “How can you be sure she’s like her father? She carries Mom’s genes, too.”

  “I hope for her sake she doesn’t,” Tobias said forlornly. He changed the topic. “How are your parents, Bo?”

  “Fine. They’re with my sisters in Colorado. They’re all coming in for the big ceremony on the thirty-first.”

  Tobias smiled. “It’ll be good to see them again. Your grandfather and I talk quite often.”

  That was Lamai speak meaning Bo’s grandfather Matoskah and Raven’s father met in the dreamtime.

  No one knew exactly how old Bo’s grandfather was, but he and Tobias had known each other for a long time.

  Bo cleaned up after dinner, and a half-hour later they all drove up to Town Hall in Raven’s car. Tobias tried to make idle chatter on the way. He wanted to ignore the feelings of dread, which took root inside. He couldn’t.

  In front of Town Hall, a large bonfire burned in a cast iron cauldron that was over one hundred years old. The roads glowed with orange lights, and minstrels played on almost every street corner.

  A horse-drawn wagon carried Julianna and Solaris, with Nathaniel—a wizard of sorts—guiding the horses down the street. The wagon overflowed with cornstalks, potatoes, apples and pumpkins. Solaris and Julianna tossed candy to the children walking beside them.

  Music filled the air as others followed on foot, playing fiddles and pennywhistles. The parade started at Town Hall and would end at Three Maidens Marina, a five-mile journey across the island. Townspeople dressed in long cloaks with pointed hats, while some painted their faces to resemble skeletons, devils, angels, scarecrows or mermaids. A few wore sheer fairy wings, and when they caught the light just right, their auras glowed. Those were the real fae.

  “Hey, Raven…here’re some beads!” Julianna called, tossing a few necklaces to her.

  “Thanks, Jules,” she shouted in reply, winding the beads around her neck.

  People draped themselves with gems the colors of autumn and necklaces made of acorns. Some children from Bo’s clan had their faces painted with the images of their alter egos. A few of the little shape shifters appeared as tigers, wolves and bears. Jaguars, hawks and owls represented other clans.

  Tobias joined Frank on the front lawn of Town Hall, by the fire. Emerald flirted with Raven’s father. Her blonde hair fell in waves down her back, and her aura pulsed in shades of crimson.

  She was in love.

  Emerald’s magick helped keep Raven’s father safe—not that he needed it. In his way, he did love the beautiful fae.

  Tobias spent a lot of time with Emerald whenever he came to visit. She held a special place in his heart. Still, Raven knew her mother would always haunt his dreams.

  Emerald’s sister Iris, on the other hand, had to deal with Emerald after Tobias departed. Iris had confided to Raven a few months earlier how Emerald pined away for hours after each time he left. For weeks after, Emerald would try to come up with something magickal to bring him back and keep Tobias on the island.

  Iris had even mentioned to Raven that Emerald wanted to bear his child. Emerald confessed to Iris that she thought it would fill the void left by Nicolette.

  She had miscarried twice. It wasn’t easy for Lamai to have children with humans or other magickal beings.

  Tobias had hinted at having other children. Raven assumed throughout his long life he’d had to have fathered more than a few. Some had probably died a long time ago. Born of mortal women, each had his or her Achilles’ heel, just as she had. Tobias found her mother’s reincarnated soul lifetime after lifetime. She’d often ask her father to talk about when he’d first met her mother. He always promised he would, but never did. And so she wondered when Tobias would tell that story, along with countless others. Raven sensed there were many stories to tell. She also suspected there were a few full-blooded Lamai brothers or sisters out there.

  Raven was shocked to hear her father had been on the island other times and not visited her. Then again, she was always disappointed in some way with her father. Her mother’s death had changed Raven’s life in so many respects. She often wondered how her relationship with her father would have been had her mother lived. Would it be the same, better—or maybe worse? There was no magick to mend a broken heart. Only time could do that. And time was something that Tobias never seemed to lack.

  Chapter Six

  Raven was enjoying the festivities of the first Night of the Parades when she heard a high pitched voice cry out.

  “I’m pregnant, Tobias!” Emerald screeched as she flung herself into his arms. “I just found out. Dr. Odin called me on my cell phone with the news.”

  Raven turned and caught a glimmer of tears in her father’s eyes.

  Tobias spun Emerald around in his gentle embrace.

  “Oh, Emmie, that’s wonderful news!” Iris joined in the celebration, literally jumping for joy as Tobias hugged Emerald. This was the first real display of affection Raven had seen between her father and Emerald. It was long overdue, in Raven’s opinion.

  “Are you okay? Is the baby healthy?” Tobias asked, stroking Emerald’s cheek.

  “Yes! He said the blood tests came back fantastic, and there’s very little chance of miscarriage. My hormone levels are high, and that’s a good sign. Oh, baby… I’m so happy!” Emerald cried as she buried her face in Tobias’s neck. Raven walked over to her father. Emerald opened her arms to gather her into their embrace. The three hugged. “I’m really happy for you…both,” Raven whispered.

  Tobias took a velvet box from his pocket, gave Raven a wink and got down on one knee. Emerald’s eyes spilled over with more tears of joy.

  Raven made a valiant attempt to fight back the tears. Her throat closed and she clenched her hands, shoving them into her jacket pockets. Once more she was an outsider in her father’s life. Why hadn’t he told her he was planning on proposing?

  “I was going to ask you at the festival on the thirty-first, but now seems like the perfect moment. Marry me, Emmie?” Tobias took out a huge, pear-shaped emerald, surrounded by tiny diamonds. It was beautiful. Emerald just stood there, nodding.

  Finally, she exclaimed, “Y-yes… I will marry you.”

  Bo walked up behind Raven and wrapped his arms around her waist as she watched her father hold his bride-to-be. “Talk about stealing our thunder,” Raven whispered to Bo.

  “We’ll be next, my love,” Bo murmured in her ear.

  “Sparkling cider for all,” Iris called out as she hugged her sister once more.

  Bo and Raven joined the walk to the marina, sipping some wassail that Solaris supplied along the way.

  “Well, that was a big surprise. You’re going to have a brother or a sister,” Bo stated, looking out at the gibbous moon, his dark hair glimmering in the soft glow of the streetlights. “I mean, another…”

  Raven drank in the sight of his chiseled features—his straight, narrow nose, the square jaw and strong chin.

  “Yes, I wasn’t expecting Tobias to show up, let alone all of this. A wedding and a baby.” She pointed her gaze at Bo. “I go from being an only child, or so I thought, to having two siblings in the same day. Who knows with my father? I’m certain he has more secrets than the Pentagon. I wonder if Emerald was the only real reason my father came to the island.”

  Bo put his arm around her. “I asked him to come. I should have told you, but then you would have tried to talk me out of it. And I think he should be here. You need protection, and I can’t always be around.”

  Raven smiled. “It’s weird, but I still feel like I have to watch out for him, and he
’s the immortal one.”

  She heard the rumble of her cell phone before she felt it vibrate. “Dr. Strigoi,” she answered.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, Raven, but we need you and Bo at the morgue,” Tracy said.

  “We’ll be right there.” She snapped the phone shut. “Sounds like trouble,” she told Bo as they about-faced and headed back to her car.

  She paced the floors, staring at Tracy. “Where is the body?”

  “I wish I knew. Davis pronounced him at the site. He’s a summer resident—a human resident,” Tracy explained as Raven headed for the autopsy room. “He had no pulse, his pupils were fixed and dilated, and his liver temp was ninety degrees. Raven, what’s going on?”

  “This is the DB I did the paperwork on. I guess it wasn’t a heart attack,” Bo said.

  Her shadow—Tobias—had appeared in the doorway. “You’ve got a bokur that is creating vampires, but first he’s sedating them with coupe de poudre. I’m sorry, Raven, I had to follow you here.”

  She turned in time to see Tobias’s grey eyes flash to icy silver. “What do you mean? Tetradotoxin?”

  He nodded. “It’s taken from some species of puffer fish. It’s been used by many a bokur for zombification.”

  “English, please?” Bo asked, running his hand through his hair—a long-time nervous habit. They all headed out of the autopsy room and toward Raven’s office.

  Raven explained, “Tetradotoxin, or TTX, is a neurotoxin. It blocks the channels that cause nerve and heart cells to provide necessary electrical impulses. Certain bokurs know the right amount of TTX to cause a near-death state. Breathing and heart rate slow to the point that the victim is thought to be dead—and there you have an instant zombie.”

  Tracy stood in awe, shaking her head in disbelief.

  Raven said, “The victim suffers total paralysis yet the body still functions, at a much slower rate. Scary, right? It gets better. Later, a compound of atropine and scopolamine are administered, putting the person in a permanent state of delirium and disorientation.”

  “A zombie?” Tracy asked. “I-I’ve heard Sol talk about them, but we’ve never actually had any on the island… Have we?”

  “In a word, yes—the process produces a zombie. And no, as far as I’m aware, there haven’t been any here on Mirabelle Island,” Raven said.

  “No, you’re right. We haven’t had any problems with zombies,” Tobias responded.

  “There’s more bad news,” Tracy said, followed by a heavy sigh. “Derrick’s blood vial is missing.”

  Bo’s cell phone chirped out the Charlie Daniels’ tune, The Devil Went Down to Georgia.

  “Wasake,” he said walking down the hall. “You gotta be shittin’ me!” Raven heard the clap of his cell phone shutting followed by his footsteps as he neared the door of her office.

  Bo reported to Raven, “Jules just called from The Bed and Brew. Mordred’s been bitten. From her account, it looks like our DB is on the prowl. And Raven…a woman fitting Jade’s description was seen dining at the restaurant…where the alleged dead body was also seen.”

  “You said you got an I.D. on the so-called corpse?” Raven asked, searching for his file on her desk. “Wait…what? Did you say Jade?”

  Bo removed his notepad from his jacket pocket. “Yeah, Jade. Tim Donnelly’s the vic. He was here for the festival, a summer resident back for a long weekend. His girlfriend was supposed to meet him here tonight. The girlfriend checked into The Bed and Brew. Bridget saw the DB—Tim—in the back alley, right after Mordred got hit. Or, rather, bit. During the commotion the girlfriend went out back and that’s when she I.D.’d Tim. Both women are nervous wrecks. Mordred’s at the hospital. The doctor’s monitoring him carefully, doing blood work. Jet wanted to know if you could go down there. No doubt there’ll be inconsistencies in his blood.”

  “You’re sure he was bitten?” Tobias asked.

  Bo double-checked his notes. “That’s what Jules reported. Two puncture marks on his neck. Oh, and by the way, your other victim’s name is Bly—Derrick Bly.”

  Raven nodded. “How did Jules know about Jade?” she asked, taking her jacket off the hook on the back of the office door.

  “I made a few stops before I came to your home. I saw Julianna, Solaris and a couple of other friends. I’d left photos of Jade with them and asked them to call Bo if she surfaced in town,” her father answered.

  “Where did you get a photo?” Raven asked, heading toward the exit with Bo and Tobias on either side of her.

  “It’s a photo-enhanced picture. Between photos of your mother and Jade’s childhood pictures, a friend of mine was able to digitally print an approximation of what she would look like now. I’m leaving to meet with Jules.”

  Tobias stopped before they reached Raven’s car and took her by the hand. “Be careful, Raven. You can be certain that if Jade is here, so is Laroque. He’ll try to get you any way he can.”

  She wished her father would for once speak of how he truly felt. That he would someday say, “I love you, Raven.” It was just one of her fantasies, along with regular holiday and birthday visits. Most times she could safely tuck away these tender emotions, but with Tobias here, they clawed their way into her consciousness.

  “I’ll keep my eyes on her, Tobias. I don’t want anything to happen to her, either,” Bo reassured her father.

  “I’m counting on you, Bo.”

  Emerald pulled up in her green Eclipse, which ran on solar power with a fairy dust booster. “I just dropped Iris off at the hospital,” she said as Tobias entered the car. “We’re driving back to The Bed and Brew to keep an eye on the place for Julianna.”

  Bo and Raven headed to the hospital.

  “Is there any way a transfusion could alter the outcome? Is it inevitable that he become Lamai?” Bo asked, rubbing Raven’s hand with his as they walked arm-in-arm.

  Raven furrowed her brows. “I hope so. This is all new. I’ve never come up against anything like this.”

  They entered Seacrest Hospital. Heading toward the ICU, Raven could feel the energy in the air. Julianna had been administering Reiki to Mordred, and the healing combination of Iris the fae and Julianna’s treatments was potent. Vibrations surrounded everyone there, especially Julianna’s daughter Bridget. Jet performed reflexology to try to stimulate the organs to maintain their natural size.

  The on-call doctor approached Raven and Bo. “We’ve given him a transfusion. As a matter of fact, this is his second. We’ll draw more blood. I’d like you to look at what we have, Raven,” Dr. Sanjay said. “I value your opinion. There are some oddities to his platelets, and his clotting factor was abnormal.” She led Raven into the lab. Bo remained with Jules in the ICU.

  Raven instructed, “Have Iris donate some blood for Mordred. Perhaps his fae blood is fighting the infection.”

  Dr. Sanjay smiled. “I’m one step ahead. Iris is donating her blood now.”

  Raven peered into the scope. “I’ll need a sample in order to compare it to what I have in my lab. From what I recall, this blood doesn’t seem to have quite the same characteristics as the sample from Derrick Bly. He was our most recent fledgling vampire.”

  Raven, having finished her analysis, walked out to find Bo. Dr. Sanjay prepared a blood sample for Raven to bring back to her lab for further comparison.

  Julianna entered the hall outside of Mordred’s room. “Bo told me to let you know he had to leave. His partner was waiting for him outside to pick him up. He said something about Jade showing up at the festival.”

  “Tell Jet we’re doing all we can for Mordred,” Raven said as she headed for the exit. Soon she was in her car, racing toward town. Her bad feelings about this night were growing in intensity. By the time she reached Town Hall, her suspicions that the evening would end in disaster were no longer simmering beneath the surface, but were quickly approaching a boil.

  Chapter Seven

  Raven got out of her car and raced to the park next to Town Hall. There had b
een no mistaking her. All the photos Raven had seen, including the computer-enhanced picture, indicated that the young woman at the center of the commotion was Jade Laroque. Amidst the clamor, Jade was calm. That was just before Raven observed the sea of people gawking at Bo who lay on the ground unconscious.

  Raven’s stomach clenched then threatened to expel its contents. Her head swam as all the sights and sounds pulsed around her, threatening to pull her into darkness. “Bo!” His name tore out of her in a rush of adrenaline. Her incisors lengthened and she knew her eyes changed to silver ice.

  Pushing her way through the crowd, Raven knelt beside him and felt for his pulse. She noticed her hands were shaking and moist with perspiration. She blinked back the tears that blurred her vision. Get it together, Strigoi.

  He had a fairly strong rhythm, but he didn’t respond to her verbal or psychic requests. “Boo, please…open your eyes. Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.” She caressed his cheek and forehead pushing his hair off his face. A white, powdery substance stuck to her fingertips, and she wiped it on the moist grass beside her. The film covered the skin around his nose.

  “Raven, what happened?” Joe Menendez asked as he ran over, out of breath. “Did anyone call 911?”

  “I did,” Jade said, waving her cell phone. From the memories Raven had of watching old family movies, Jade even sounded like their mother.

  “What happened here?” Raven’s gaze never left Jade. Her hand clutched Bo’s.

  The two sisters stared at each other. Jade glared at the Raven with resolve—while Raven overflowed with anger.

  Jade placed her cell phone into her jacket pocket. Leaves crunched under her feet as she started to approach Raven. “I was returning from the parade and some lunatic jumped out at me from the bushes.” Jade pointed to a thicket of bittersweet behind her. “The next thing I know this man here pushed me out of the way. I didn’t see anything after that.”