Deadman's Blood

by T. Lynne Tolles

  Josh smiled weakly at Dominic as he left the room. He took a gulp of coffee, and Melanie hugged him as he picked up the phone and began to dial his uncle.

  *****

  When Jules had come home from her encounter with Anton and Mark in the altar room, she sat alone in the dark until the sun started to peek up over the Atlantic Ocean, spreading its loving warmth onto the waking world. But there was no light or warmth inside of Jules. With Anton, there had been a glimmer of hope that the iciness of her cold heart could defrost and thrive once again, but now that he knew the truth of who she was and what she had become, that hope had been smashed like so many other dreams and desires had been before.

  How could she have been so wrong about Owen and why had it never occurred to her that something could have happened to him? Had she always been so untrusting and pessimistic? She thought about those treasured hidden moments with Owen and how happy she had been with him. She also thought about how he had been willing to give up his family, his wealth, and everything he knew, for a love he barely knew. Why couldn’t she be that way with Anton? Why couldn’t she make that leap of faith for someone? She couldn’t answer those questions, but she did know what she didn’t want to be anymore, and that was the villain.

  She reached for the phone and entered a number. The phone rang several times before a voice answered.

  She said, “It’s me.”

  …

  “No. I just wanted to tell you, I won’t be working for you anymore.”

  …

  “I know we made a deal, but circumstances have changed.”

  …

  “It’s not about the money, in fact; you can have back what you’ve given me. I just don’t want to be involved with this…whatever it is you have with the Larsens.”

  …

  “No. You know I never get involved, that’s why you hired me.”

  …

  “Don’t get nasty with me. We’ve worked together many times, and we’ve known each other a very long time. What I’ve learned is that vendettas rarely turn out the way you expect them to - it’s too personal and that’s when it gets messy.”

  …

  “Don’t threaten me.”

  …

  “No. I won’t do that, and if you continue to threaten me, you will regret it. You may be older than me, but I’ve honed my skills and I will destroy you if it comes to it.”

  …

  “If that’s the way it must be, fine. There’s no love lost between us; I have no problem cutting you down to size, in fact, the world would be a better place for it.”

  …

  “Fine…Don’t call here again,” she said as she hung up on the other speaker’s loud ranting.

  She sat in silence and thought of a life that wasn’t dark, mischievous, and full of hate and death, but one that someone long ago had promised her with the gift of a ring and his devoted love. She may never see such a life, but at least she felt that breaking her ties with one so dark and vindictive was a step in the right direction, Maybe one day she could even feel good about herself once again.

  *****

  It had been decided after talking to Nuala and Devon that tonight Darby would go to the cliffs described in Nuala’s ancient tome and sing the song the old captain had written to the Mermaid Queen in the hope she would help them. She thought all day about what a Mermaid Queen might want. Something worthy of a queen was not so easy to come up with. Besides, Darby didn’t even know the Queen. That would have made things simpler. Maybe she had a mermaid hobby? Or something. In the little mermaid, Ariel liked to find whatcha-ma-call-its including forks and eyeglasses, coins and books, but maybe in the real mermaid world, they had those things. Who knew? No one she knew, that was for sure, and the fae certainly weren’t helping.

  The moon was not going to be full that night, which Nuala had said would have been optimal, but the quarter moon would have to do. They were running out of time and, according to Yanna, the Summer Queen had taken a turn for the worse. Darby put together a box of things she thought the Queen might find interesting: a chintz teacup, some peacock feathers, a china trinket box, some colorful crystals Nuala had offered, an intricately designed flute, a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and a pair of sapphire earrings. She hoped this treasure trove of items would be enough to entice the Queen’s interest.

  Devon, as usual, was his gallant self and decided to make a romantic night out of it. He put together a lovely picnic basket of wine and cheese, some French bread and fruit. They set out for the cliff’s edge before the sunset and watched the sun slowly descend from the sky over the mountains and into the sea. The yellows and oranges morphed to pinks and reds, then purples to blues and lastly from blues to black, but the stars were beautiful when they peeked out from behind the clouds. They lay on the blanket and had their meal and watched the majestic show in the sky until it was dark enough and the moon joined the festivities.

  Devon nodded to Darby that it was time, so she brought the box to the cliff edge and pulled out the piece of paper on which she had jotted the song. Clearing her throat after taking a sip of wine, she began to sing a haunting lullaby. The crashing waves set the beat, and the music was the sound of the grasses in the wind.

  Mara Sweet Mara

  Maiden of the sea

  Come sing me a song

  Of how sweet love can be

  For the sea owns my heart

  And no lassie dare marry me

  Oh Mara Sweet Mara

  Sing to me

  Mara Sweet Mara

  Maiden of the loch

  Come sing me a song

  Of a courage no man may mock

  A tale of hard won battle

  And a sword no man may block

  Oh Mara Sweet Mara

  Sing to me

  Mara Sweet Mara

  Maiden of the shore

  Come sing me a song

  Of a wealth that overflows

  Plenty coin to go around

  And a pocket that’s never poor

  Oh Mara Sweet Mara

  Sing to me

  Mara Sweet Mara

  Maiden of the deep

  Come sing me a song

  And lull me to sleep

  For I’m old and I’m tired

  And my boat it sinks and seeps

  Oh Mara Sweet Mara

  Sing to me.

  Devon smiled at Darby as she finished the little chantey and he and Darby searched the swells for a sign that the words had been heard. After a long while, with a sigh of discontent, Darby turned to Devon’s arms. Devon suddenly pointed to something moving in the current, coming towards them in the spray of the crashing waves.

  The twinkling of a crown rose from the water as the graceful mermaid sat herself on a rock and addressed her audience.

  “Who sings to me the song of my long ago love?” she asked.

  “I do, your majesty,” Darby curtsied. “My name is Darby O’Reilly and this is my love, Devon Bloomington.”

  The queen nodded in acknowledgement, “You seek to converse with me?”

  “Yes, my Queen. The Summer Queen of the Sidhe has become ill and I have been summoned to help them find the Elixir of Life from Biddy’s bottle. I have scried to find the approximate place it resides under the waves, but I am human and can not breathe under water as your kind do.

  “I hoped I might request a breathing pearl from you,” Darby explained.

  “The Sidhe’s petty problems do not interest me. What can you give to me that I would give you something so valuable?”

  “I’ve brought a few things that I hoped might tantalize you into giving me such a thing.” One by one Darby pulled out each item from the box, until she finally presented the earrings.

  The queen said, “In your world, my child, these items may be worthy of a queen, but they don’t much appeal to me.”

  Devon stepped to Darby’s side to help her pack up the items, making the picnic blanket and its contents viewable to the queen.
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br />   Darby was feeling crushed when the queen said, “What is that?” as she pointed towards the blanket.

  Darby tried to follow her line of sight and pointed to the basket as if in a question, and the queen shook her head. Darby pointed at the wine bottle, again in question.

  “No, no, my child, the round, red item,” the queen said in frustration.

  Confused, Darby picked up the only red, round item on the blanket and said, “The apple?”

  The queen’s eyes sparkled with delight. She nodded quickly, “‘The apple’ is its name?” she asked.

  Darby corrected, “No. It’s called ‘apple’ and it is a fruit.” She brought the apple to the queen.

  “A fruit. Hmmm. It’s so beautiful. What is it used for?”

  Amused at the queen’s fascination, she said, “It is food. You eat it. Fruit is a sweet food.”

  “You eat such a beautiful thing?” the queen asked.

  “We do,” Darby answered.

  “How?” asked the queen.

  “Just bite into it,” Darby said.

  The queen looked at her quizzically and then hesitantly put the apple to her mouth and bit into it. Her eyes widened as the apple crunched between her teeth and its sweet juices ran down her chin.

  “Oh my,” she said, still chewing. “It….it’s wonderful and look, it is white and fleshy on the inside. This, my child, is worthy of the gods and God almighty. Thank you.”

  The queen plucked a pearl from under one of her scales near her tail and handed it to Darby. “This, my dear, is a mere trinket of my gratitude for the lovely fruit you’ve shared with me. Place it within your mouth and it shall provide air for you underwater for as long as you need it. Thank you again, Darby. It was very nice to meet you, Devon.”

  As quickly as she had appeared in the moonlight, she disappeared under the waves with the red apple. A splash of her tail and she was gone.

  Darby and Devon looked at one another and then at the beautiful white pearl in Darby’s hand. He kissed her tenderly and then they packed up and went home.

  *****

  The Brenner funeral had been bittersweet, but like Melanie had said, Josh did find a sense of closure, being consoled by aunts and uncles and cousins. Josh had never been that close to his family. Most of them thought he was an odd, socially awkward child, but now that he could control the volume of the chattering of people’s thoughts around him, mostly due to Blake’s tutelage, he found them to be less intrusive and more loving than he had ever noticed before.

  But something had changed. He would always call them his family, but somehow now his family was made up of vampires and werewolves and it was they that he was suddenly missing.

  His new life with Melanie, Dominic, Blake, Anton, and all the others, this was now family to him. He and Melanie had taken a walk that night when things weren’t quite as hot so he could show her around his old neighborhood.

  For a man who barely spoke to anyone, Melanie found it funny and sweet that he was so chatty. They walked for more than hour and she barely spoke a word. It was as if a dam had been broken and he had found his voice. He wanted to share everything and anything with her and she reveled in his openness.

  As they walked back to his childhood home, oblivious to all around him, he told childhood story after story to Lanie. Neither of them noticed the dark car coming fast up the street. Its dark windows would not allow anyone to see who might be driving as the car hopped the curb and clipped Josh from behind. If it hadn’t been for Melanie’s quick thinking, the car would have taken him out, but at the last minute she spun around, yanking him from the worst of it. As she turned, one of her hands touched the car and her sense of psychometry kicked in. She couldn’t see the person driving but she definitely sensed it was a vampire - a very old vampire.

  When its victim was down, the car peeled out, leaving a large gouge in the grass and a long skid line as it left the scene.

  On the ground, Josh was squirming in pain. The hit had clearly broken his thigh bone.

  “Josh, look at me. I’m going to try and heal you before anyone comes out here. Try not to yell, I know it’s got to hurt, Sweetie; just focus on my eyes. Focus and know that I love you and I’m going to try and make it better,” Melanie said.

  He nodded and he did as she had told him. She laid both of her palms on Josh’s thigh. A glow radiated out from her hands and into his thigh. Josh watched in astonishment as his leg started to tingle and heat up. In just a few seconds, his leg was almost completely healed, but as a worried couple came up from behind her, Melanie quickly removed her hands from him and turned to deal with them.

  “Oh my. Are you kids all right? That car nearly killed you!” the older gentleman said.

  Josh started to get up with Melanie’s help. “It only grazed me. I’m fine,” Josh said gratefully to Melanie.

  “Are you sure? Shall we call the police? Did you get the license number of the car?” the older woman said.

  “No. Everything happened so quickly. That’s okay, ma’am. We’ll call the police when we get home. We’re only just up the road,” Melanie said to the concerned couple.

  “Well, okay. Do you need any help getting home?” the gentleman asked.

  “No. We’re good. I’m just a little bruised, but thanks for the offer,” Josh said as he and Melanie headed quickly for the house.

  The concerned couple hesitated for a moment as Josh limped slightly towards their destination, then they headed to their own home. Melanie got Josh safely in the house and finished the healing. As she did, she explained to him that the driver of the car was a very old vampire and that this wasn’t its only attempt at taking a life, but that was all that she could tell. She got no picture of a face or a hint at who it might have been.

  Knowing this attempt may well have been connected to Blake and the Larsens, Josh decided it was time to head back to California to let Dominic know and to check on Blake’s progress with the dialysis.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Devon wasn’t feeling particularly well the day he and Darby planned to go for their underwater adventure, but as he started to feel a little better that evening (at least, that’s what he had told Darby) they headed out to the shoreline in the dark. This way, they were hidden in the shadows of night instead of visible to passersby who might wonder about this couple in wetsuits, underwater without air tanks.

  They made their way to the water’s edge, their rubber suits squeaking. With goggles in place, the scrying crystal in a bag tied around Darby’s wrist, and flashlights in hand, Darby put the magical pearl the mermaid queen had given her into her mouth and tentatively descended under the dark water.

  There was something serene about being under the water at night, but it could easily turn to creepy in a heartbeat if the circumstances were right. It was cold, no doubt. The initial plunge under the water almost took her breath away, but after a moment, she had either gotten used to it or the numbness from the cold just made it less noticeable.

  The pearl worked great. The only worry she had was that she might accidentally swallow it. As they went deeper in the water she felt a sense of isolation even though she was in a big wide ocean; the pressure of the water served almost as her own little box. With the light only able to penetrate several feet around her, she could see how one might feel claustrophobic in such a situation. It did have its beauty though, as fish flitted by, drawn by the light of the flashlight. As she figured it would be, scrying was a bit of a challenge under the water. It took several tries for her to decipher which was the current pulling the stone or the stone telling her where to go. It didn’t take long before she got a handle on it and she waved to Devon to follow her.

  After a few minutes, Devon and Darby came across an unbelievable mountain of bottles - green bottles, brown bottles, clear bottles, big bottles, and small bottles. Truly, if one was in the market for bottles, this was the place to come. In the darkness, as it were, it was hard to judge just how big the mountain was without anything to
compare it to. It could take them a week to go through all these bottles; thank God there was a little magic to be used.

  Darby took out the scrying stone and held it as she had done a hundred times before above water, and let it do its thing. She concentrated on her ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ questions to ask the stone about what direction to go as she hovered over the mountain of bottles. It led her to the Northern most side, but several yards in towards the middle. That is where the digging, so to speak, would begin.

  Darby had earlier shown the drawing of the bottle in Nuala’s book to Devon, so at least he could help her sort through the bottles. Every fifteen minutes or so, Devon would go to the surface for more air then travel back down to the arduous task of sifting through bottle after bottle.

  After an hour or more of the seemingly insurmountable task, Darby again tried scrying. This time it pointed inwards, away from the hole they had started. When she had gone up to talk to Devon at one point when he had gone for air, she’d noticed the mountain of bottles now looked like a volcano with an odd air vent on its northern bank.

  After another half hour of burrowing into the pile, she felt a sense of electricity all around her, like when she put up her force field bubble during a fight. She hoped this was her senses picking up on the magical properties of Biddie’s bottle.

  She felt sure they were near it and she waved excitedly for Devon to come quickly as he descended from his air break. By now they had made quite a crater in the side of the mountain. It seemed for every bottle they would throw aside, eight more fell into its place.

  Feeling confident, Darby saw something glowing just under a couple of bottles not quite in her reach. She pointed to the glow and Devon acknowledged her by thrusting his arm deep into the pile towards the bottle they were certain was their waiting prize. They hadn’t thought about the stability of the mountain until it was too late.