He Who Heals finally came into the room. “Are you feeling okay, my dear? You look a little worried.”
Lidia sighed. “I will feel better after you tell me again that everything is alright. I just have this feeling…”
“Nonsense, my child. Every expecting mother worries, you’re not the only one. I wouldn’t be surprised if you dream of the young having three eyes or horns on its head.”
“You know about my dreams?” Lidia asked astonished. “I didn’t tell anyone and…”
The Shaman chuckled. “Lidia, Lidia, calm down. Like I said, every woman who is to have a baby will worry and have strange dreams; it is completely normal. Your hormone levels are high, so just relax and lay back and we will get you a picture of your new little bundle of joy.”
The Shaman raised Lidia’s shirt up to her breasts and tucked a cloth in the top of her pants to keep the jelly from ruining her clothes.
“This may be a little cold. I didn’t know you were coming in today, or I would have had it warmed for you. Now, tell me, what would you like to have? A boy or a girl?”
The Shaman squirted the gel on her abdomen.
“Holy Cow, that’s cold! I don’t care if it’s a girl or a boy as long as it’s healthy. I’ve been sick a lot lately. Is that normal?”
“Hmmm.”
Lidia sat up quick, looking at the monitor the Shaman seemed puzzled over.
“What’s wrong with it?”
He Who Heals actually let out a full belly laugh. “Lidia, you are fine. You are having morning sickness. Not a serious condition. Almost all women experience it during pregnancy. And yes, you might be having a little more sickness than normal because you are having more than one baby. This –”
“What?” Lidia shouted.
“Yes. See? Look. This one here is a… boy and this one… ha, it’s a girl. You are… sixteen weeks along. You are pregnant by a vampire, yes?”
Lidia couldn’t speak, all she could do was nod and stare at the monitor with her mouth hanging open.
“Yes, then you are due September twentieth, and do keep in mind that you might not be able to carry them full term.” The Shaman rolled his stool over to a cabinet and took out a bottle of pills. “Take one of these a day, every day. Those babies, especially since they are a vampire descendant, are draining you of your body’s nutrition and vitamins. Eat something with them and they won’t make you feel as sick. Now, off you go. Go spread the wonderful news.” He handed her a towel to wipe the gel off her stomach.
“But…”
The Shaman took her hands in his. “You will be fine, Lidia. You have wonderful friends who are going to bend over backwards to help you. You are not alone, you never were. You just have to let people get closer. Have a good day, and I will see you in three weeks. If I’m not here, just ask for Ariana. She’s just agreed to join me a short while ago. She will be fully trained and competent in the use of all my equipment by the time you come back.”
That finally distracted her worrisome mind. “She came by and accepted the job? I’m so happy for her. That is good news indeed.”
He frowned. “Yeah, and her little friend too. I am going to have to go out and hurt people on the island on purpose just so I have enough money to pay my hired help.”
“Becky, too? Oh, yea!” Lidia clapped and got off the table. She walked to the door as the Shaman stopped at the counter.
“Here. Here is your picture. Go show everyone.” He smiled at her warmly.
§ § §
Lance pulled in his driveway at seven forty five. He unlocked the side door off the carport to find soft music playing and little tea candles lit all over the house. Red rose petals left a thin trail through the kitchen, towards the hall. He grinned.
“Well, little hummingbird, looks like you found a better use for my roses than leaving them in a vase to die.” Lance ran his shaky fingers through his hair and slowly followed the trail of petals down the hall to his bedroom.
At the sound of his voice, Janie walked out of his bathroom in a dark blue see-through night gown that went all the way to the floor. The smell of roses mixed with Janie’s floral body wash, overwhelming his senses. He was a mere man, for God’s sake! Men were not meant to multitask. One sense at a time was all he could manage. He gave up on the sense of smell to concentrate on sight instead, which also meant his jaw muscles were left unattended.
His mouth fell open in awe as his eyes feasted on Janie’s petite figure. He could see the swell of her breasts, barely hidden by a multicoloured flowery pattern at the top of her gown. Lance let his eyes continue their journey down her body, knowing that any minute now his heart would skip right out of his chest. Her waist was so tiny and he almost lost it as his gaze snagged on a tiny piece of material that could hardly be called panties. He didn’t care what they were, but he did know they were coming off.
Lance dropped his lunchbox in the doorway and started running toward her.
Janie threw her palm out, facing him. “Stop!”
He almost tripped over his own feet, trying to obey her.
“You are going to take it slow. This isn’t a race, you know?”
It took a lot of concentration for Lance to manage a slow walk; his vision had almost gone blurry with the effort. Finally, she was right in front of him. Her eyes were so full of love for him, so deep, he wondered how he could have ever been so stupid as to say those nasty things to her.
“Yes, Ma’am.” He bent his head and kissed her soft lips gently and soon the soft kisses turned into deep hungry kisses for them both.
Lance picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, where he laid her down gently. He laid down beside her and locked her in his gaze.
“I’m so sorry, Janie. I won’t ever hurt you again, I promise. I love you, Janie Mason, and if you still want to, I’m willing to help you find Ariana.”
Janie attacked him then, yanking his shirt over his head and reaching for the button on his jeans.
“Whoa, whoa, Janie,” he said as her hands snaked around the back of his neck and pulled him down to her mouth. “Not a race, remember?” Lance mumbled, breathing hard. This was her last chance to slow down, or he wouldn’t be held responsible for his actions. He managed to break her hold and took her face in his hands. “You’ll regret this if we don’t take it slow. Please, we don’t have to hurry. I want to remember this night for the rest of my life.”
She smiled up at him. “I do, too, Lance. Make love to me.”
CHAPTER 38
Ariana and Becky had been bathed in fragrant soaps and rose petals, manicured, pedicured, had their facials and make-up done and they were finally getting their hair styled. Who knew that being pampered could be so exhausting?
“Ariana, your hair is so beautiful. Why can’t I get mine to do that?” Becky whined.
Ariana laughed. “Maybe because mine is a good foot longer than yours.”
Ariana’s hair was curled in long spirals that hung to the small of her back. The beautician had put the left side of her hair up in bobby pins so her ear was showing. She had tiny diamond studs in her ears that Janie had saved three months for and gifted to her on her last birthday.
“You look beautiful,” the beautician said as she unbuttoned the cape that was fastened around Ariana’s neck. “Come to the counter and I’ll ring you up.”
“I’m paying for both of us,” Ariana said as she got Abe’s credit card out of her purse.
“Okay, that’ll be… four hundred eighty-seven dollars.”
“Oh my God, are you serious? I mean, we look good, but damn,” Becky said.
Ariana smiled as she handed the card over. “Abe knew very well how much it would cost or he wouldn’t have insisted that we come, and that he’d be paying. I’m starving. Abe said we should eat at The Plateau, you ever been there?”
“No, it’s too expensive for my pocketbook. But I heard it’s the bomb.”
“Good, let’s go try it out. Sooner or later the man will lear
n not to give a girl his credit card and tell her to have fun with it.”
They both laughed as they went to the alley where the car was parked.
“Who is that?” Becky asked, pointing to a man standing beside Ariana’s car.
“I don’t know. Maybe he just likes the car. Just keep your mouth shut, okay? Maybe he won’t say anything and just go away.”
Becky nodded.
Ariana walked to the driver’s door, keeping her eyes averted from the man who was clearly staring them down. She reached for the door handle and felt a hand grab her elbow. A hard object pressed into her ribs.
“You scream and I’ll pull the trigger. You’re a pretty little girl. I could play with you for hours,” he whispered in her ear.
Ariana was scared to death, but she knew that if she didn’t do something her and Becky might be found on some back road somewhere, cut up in little bitty pieces, if they were lucky. Fish food, if they weren’t. And as she opened her mind to read his, she found that little bitty pieces and fish food were both preferable to what he had planned for them before he killed them.
Ariana brought all of her emotions to the surface and then whispered ‘burn’.
“You say something, sweetheart? What I want you to do is open the door nice and slow and hit that little button to pop the trunk. Then you two are gonna walk around to the trunk…”
Ariana focused again and this time she shouted it at the man. If they were going to die, it wouldn’t be because she was too scared to at least try to save them. “Burn, you asshole!”
“What? Ow… what the hell?” The man dropped the gun and let go of Ariana’s arm to bat at the flames that were getting bigger and bigger, licking all over his body. “Ahhh, ahhh, make it stop. What did you do to me, you little bitch?”
Ariana brought her emotions up again and shouted “Water”. Instantly, the man was saturated with water that came out of nowhere. The look on his face was panicked as he first backed up and then turned around and started to run away.
Ariana knew she shouldn’t let this creep go, but she didn’t know how to stop him without burning him or drowning him. What can I do to immobilize him? Ariana thought.
It came to her as suddenly as if someone stationed in her head answered her unspoken question.
She brought her emotions to the surface once again, pointed and shouted before the villain rounded the corner. “I paralyze you.” The guy first dropped to his knees, and then his face hit the concrete.
Becky dialed Jonah’s cell, breathing hard, close to tears.
“Hey, you miss me already? I miss you, too. How much longer are you two going to be? Abe’s getting antsy.”
Becky’s voice was shaky when she spoke. “Is he there? Is Abe there?” Becky looked at Ariana who was still pointing at the man laying on the ground. “I think it’s okay now, Ariana, he ain’t going anywhere. Put your hand down, honey.”
Jonah sensed something was wrong. “Becky, are you okay? Did Ariana wreck the Porsche?” She could hear Abe in the back ground and his voice was getting louder. She just knew he was going to snatch the phone out of Jonah’s hand.
“Where’s Ariana? Is she okay? Damn it, Becky, talk to me,” Abe growled.
Yup. Looks like she knew Abe better than she’d thought.
“I think… Yeah, I think we’re okay now. But we will be bringing you something back to the palace. We’ll be there in about forty-five minutes or so. Don’t worry, Ariana can sure take care of herself. We’re coming home now.”
“Becky, if you don’t tell me what happened I’ll probably have all my hair pulled out by the time you get here, and if Ariana leaves me because I’m bald, it will be all your fault. Do you want that on your conscience? Could you at least drive, please? I don’t want Ariana fainting behind the wheel.”
“Yeah, I can drive.”
“Good. Now let me talk to her so I will know for sure that she’s alright.”
Becky held out her phone to Ariana.
“Abe wants a word with you.”
Ariana looked Becky in the eyes, took a deep breath and let it out before taking the phone and putting it to her ear. “I’m fine Abe, keep your hair on. We are coming back now. We really are fine, so you can quit worrying. And I don’t care if you’re bald, but I do like your hair.”
Abe spoke through his teeth. “I’ll stop worrying when you’re safe in my arms, Ariana. Until you become a vampire, me worrying about you is not open for negotiation. Please be careful on your way back. I love you.”
Ariana had calmed down enough to understand why Abe was so worried. She had felt the same way the minute she found out Michael had been killed. You never knew when your whole world would be turned upside down and so she lowered her voice. “I’ll be there soon. I love you, too.”
Becky walked over to their paralyzed attacker. His eyes were darting back and forth between Ariana and Becky; they were the only things he could move.
“Are you going to help me, Ariana? Pop the trunk and grab his feet.”
Ariana opened the trunk and noted that it was huge for such a compact car. She looked at Becky. “Let me try something; I don’t want to touch that creep.”
Becky stood back as Ariana pointed at the man. “Levitate!” Ariana laughed, shocked yet delighted, as the guy’s body raised two feet off the ground. She directed her finger toward the open trunk and his frozen body obeyed her command.
Once he was settled in there, with all appendages inside, Ariana shut the trunk and started for the driver’s seat.
“Um, Ariana, Abe really wanted me to drive, just in case you…”
Ariana shot Becky a dirty look.
“You can drive,” Becky said quickly.
They got in and Ariana started the car. She put it in gear, pushing the pedal all the way to the floor once more.
“Are you really okay, Ariana? That guy scared the shit out of me and I wasn’t even the one that had the gun in my back.”
Ariana took a deep breath. “I’m fine now. If this had happened to me a month ago, I wouldn’t have been. But I think, since I got here, well… I think my powers are giving me some mental strength, too.”
“You start feeling woozy, you pull over and I’ll drive the rest of the way home, deal?”
Ariana smiled at Becky. “Deal.”
Ariana drove the car as fast as she could without once feeling like she was going to lose control. It helped that the road was straight as a board.
She could tell, by looking at the sky, that there would only be a few minutes of daylight left, and she was glad that Becky’d had the idea to put the top up on the car so the wind wouldn’t mess up their new hair on the way back.
As she drove down the ramp, into the garage, she saw two male figures standing two feet back from the line the sun made on the concrete floor. She didn’t want to run them over, so she stomped on the brakes.
Abe had her door open and his arms around her in a flash. “Are you okay?”
When she didn’t say anything he held her at arms’ length and searched her eyes anxiously.
“Well, for a second there, I couldn’t breathe. But I think I’m okay now. Can I park the car?”
“Let Jonah or Becky do that; I’m not letting you out of my arms.” Abe looked up at Jonah, who quickly took the hint and got behind the steering wheel.
“I see your hair’s still okay,” she tried to brighten Abe’s mood.
“Huh? Oh. Yeah.” Abe cracked a smile. “You haven’t seen me at my best, though. The day you arrived it was electric blue.”
“What? Your hair?”
“Um-hum. Rainey uses booby-traps instead of dead-bolts.”
“Ha, ha. Yes, she did say she expected to see lots of blue-haired people when she got back. I never realized you were one of them.”
“It was a close-run thing. You saw me right after Rainey restored my natural good looks. Now, about earlier. What happened? You’re not hurt, are you? Becky almost gave me a heart attack. Well, she would hav
e if I had a beating heart.”
Ariana squeezed his hand. “Abe, we need to talk about something.”
He stopped suddenly, gloom clouding his eyes. Ariana quickly scanned his thoughts.
“No, no, I’m not leaving you. I’m not going anywhere, but I’m not completely happy with the idea of becoming a vampire yet. I’ve just done something today, something… powerful… and that proved to me that I don’t need vampire strength to live. My powers are enough to keep me and my friends safe. And besides, I got the job at the clinic today. I will have to go to work while the sun is still out. If I’m a vampire, I won’t be able to do that. Oh, and I got Becky a job, too, as my assistant, so you’ll need to replace her in the kitchen.”
When they got closer to the parked car Ariana heard something. At first she thought the guy in the trunk had regained his mobility, but after looking at Abe she realized it was him grinding his teeth.
Abe lowered his head to hers and took a deep breath to calm himself before he spoke.
“Ariana, I thought I made myself clear about that. I won’t watch you suffer. I won’t watch you get broken bones or cancer. Hell, I wouldn’t even want to see you get a paper cut. And I won’t watch you die. I can’t. I thought, after all you’ve been through with Michael, you would understand. It would kill me to even think that, one day, it will happen. There are ways to keep your job, if you’re serious about it. I will set a clinic up for you in the palace, so your patients can come to you here during daylight hours. I’m glad Becky will be working with you, it’s good to have friends close by.” Abe cupped her chin in his hands. “I love you, for all eternity. Please understand that. I won’t force you to change, I couldn’t force anything on you, but if your choice is to stay the way you are, you won’t leave the palace unless I’m by your side, and that includes going to work.”
Eternal Island (Book 1 in the Eternal Series) Page 21