Looking down upon a familiar shoe, Theron smiled and said, “Maurice, you followed.” He let Maurice help him to his feet after which a loud clatter arose as he stomped the ground. Pointing down at the shrouded metal entrance, he said, “We need to go that way.” Theron followed the smell of old blood, with the aid of Maurice, down an underground tunnel, which lead them to the secret door into Ana and Wyler’s underground loft. Maurice opened the door, and Theron entered.
“Where are we?”
“Find the herbs,” said Theron moving toward the kitchen. “Tear this place apart, if you have to. I am going to see if I can get an invitation.”
Maurice nodded and raked his arm across the counter, and with a loud crash, the overfilled dish drainer fell to the floor. The sound caught Ana’s attention upstairs. She covered Julius and lightly tiptoed toward the center of the stockroom. She jumped when the door burst open, and in front of her was Theron or Larkin, she knew not which, crouched down holding his chest.
“Ana, help me.”
With wide eyes she observed his broken physique and found herself alarmed at the thought of Theron’s strength verses her husband. “Where’s Wyler?” cried Ana trying to hold back the hysterics in her voice.
“He is downstairs frantically searching for his herbs. I am in too much pain; come help me.”
Ana gritted her teeth at his command as she moved closer, “Wait! Show me the sign.”
He lifted his blood stained hands, and said in a more authoritative tone, “Help me, now!”
Ana, being used to Larkin’s demands, cried out, “Wyler, I moved the herbs to the vault behind the fridge.”
She was about an arm’s length away when she heard a voice not of her husband’s cry out, “I got it; let’s go.” Fright crossed Ana’s face as she turned to recoil, but it was too late. She was already too close. Theron popped up, reached out with his bloody right hand, snagged a fist full of Ana’s hair, and pulled. Theron’s withdraw was quick and effortless. He had Ana, but only a piece. He looked over to find Ana laying on the floor holding her head while Julius’s eyes burned into him.
Theron shook the toffee brown hair from his hand, “Julius, what a nice surprise. I thought I left you heartbroken over your old carpet.”
Julius’s body had not fully recovered yet, so he did not let his temper flair. He let out a chuckle and said, “Perhaps.”
“Come on, Theron,” Maurice called out from behind.
Theron bowed, “Until next time.”
“Next time we meet, it will be your heart I feel pulsating in my hand,” said Julius.
The words “Not likely,” accompanied by a snarl was Theron’s final response as he rushed back downstairs.
“Let me see,” said Theron. Maurice silently held up the bag. “That’s it,” responded Theron as he flung open the freezer, grabbed several ice cubes, and pushed them into his wounds. With every insert, Theron let out a teeth-grinding grunt.
“Let’s go! This ice is going to melt fast,” said Theron. By the time they re-emerged at the surface, Theron was clasping his chest again.
Maurice grabbed Theron and threw him over his shoulders. “We are only ten minutes away. We can make it; just hold on,” said Maurice as he sprinted through the woods toward the Mississippi River.
***
Wyler returned home to find his weeping wife huddled up next to Julius, and to his surprise, Julius was genuinely trying to comfort her. Upon seeing her husband, Ana raced to him squeezing his torso as hard as she could, refusing to let go. She finally released him, as she unfolded the events that took place while he was gone. Finally, she bent over to pick up the hair Theron had torn out. After discovering that Theron was not alone, Wyler did the only sensible thing he could. He first obtained the inn’s number, and afterwards he relayed the events that had unfolded at the shop to Larkin. As Wyler retold Ana’s story, she huddled against his back. Wyler urged Larkin to come back regardless of the previous plan since they now knew Theron was not alone and did not know how many co-conspirators Theron had brought with him. Larkin agreed it would be the best course of action and cautioned Wyler about going downstairs. “I’ll inform them to stay in the storage room,” replied Wyler, and as Larkin hung up the phone, he debated on how to awaken Jezalyn and return her to the shop without suspicion.
Instead of waking Jezalyn immediately, he paced back and forth in front of her door trying to come up with a suitable reason for departing in the middle of the night. Unbeknownst to Larkin, Jezalyn had awakened, her head foggy from the remnants of the sedative that Theron gave her. She glanced around the room a moment before quietly sliding off the bed. Jezalyn crouched down next to it, as if to hide, all the while peeking under and over it to make sure she was alone. Once she discovered she was alone, she checked both thighs. She had found no blood or even one mark on them, so she slowly stood up and sat back on the bed, took a deep breath, and concluded that she must have fallen asleep. “It was all a dream,” mumbled Jezalyn as she slid her bare legs back under the covers. She found herself trying to piece things together. She remembered, I felt fear, pain, and then pleasure, but what could it mean? There was Larkin who really wasn’t Larkin, Blaise, and aggression. I am missing something, thought Jezalyn as Larkin lightly rapped on the door before entering.
“You’re awake,” said Larkin as he entered the room with a wooden tray.
“What’s all this?” said Jezalyn pointing for him to place it on the nightstand next to the bed as she pulled the covers up to her chest.
After fulfilling her direction, he sat down next to her, “I made you some eggs, grits, French toast, and bacon.” He reached up to brush a few strands of hair out of her face, but she winced at the approach and reached for his hands.
“What’s wrong, Jezalyn?” asked Larkin.
“Nothing,” she responded with a smile as she saw two smooth hands. She certainly knew she had been dreaming when she found no scar, so she leaned in to kiss him.
As she pulled away, she said with a giggle, “It’s a little early in the morning for breakfast, isn’t it?”
“I know,” kissing the hand that clasped his, “but Wyler called and requested that we come home as soon as possible.”
“Is everything alright?” said Jezalyn with her body sitting up at full attention, letting the covers fall into her lap.
“Wyler said, ‘Ana had some kind of incident with a patient at work.’ He felt it would be better for Ana if we were to come back, but I didn’t want you to leave here without receiving breakfast at the bed and breakfast inn.”
Jezalyn giggled again at his reference before allowing her facial structure to form serious features, “Is Ana okay?”
“I think so, but we can’t be sure until we get all the facts.”
“Well, let’s go now then. Ana might need us for emotional support,” said Jezalyn pulling back her cover to get out of bed forgetting she had no pants on.
Larkin tried not to stare at her exposed panties, but he could not help it. When Jezalyn realized her pants were missing, she jumped back in the bed and quickly covered up her naked legs. Her countenance mixed with confusion and embarrassment. “Um, where are my pants?” she asked.
He moved to the bottom of the bed, lifted up the pants, and handed them off to her. “I’ll take this food back to the kitchen while you get dressed.”
“Wait!” exclaimed Jezalyn, pulling a piece of bacon off the plate as Larkin moved back toward the nightstand to recover the tray.
He picked up the plate and held it out to her, in a butler fashion, “Anything else?” Larkin lingered a moment waiting for Jezalyn’s extended hand to pluck a piece of food off the plate. He was somewhat surprised to find her hand had extended beyond the plate and onto his. Jezalyn did not flinch at the clattering of the plate hitting the floor as she pulled him into the bed with her.
Chapter 25: A Cocktail and a Conflict
All too soon, Larkin and Jezalyn found themselves back at Wyler’s bookstore. Soon afte
r entering the shop, they happened upon Wyler and Ana sitting next to a man with jet-black hair. It was short and stopped at the nape of his neck like most clean cut men’s hair, but the top was several inches long with no part. He styled it down toward the face and the back of the neck; Jezalyn could not see any sideburns. However, she assumed that if he had some, his hairstyle probably covered them. She noticed he wore a black tee and denim, but regardless of his fashion, she concluded he seemed well put together, almost like a model. Although she knew she should find him attractive and interesting on appearance alone, she did not.
Jezalyn completely by-passed everyone and ran up to Ana, swung her arms around her neck, and squeezed, “Are you okay? Larkin told me about your patient. What happened? Do you feel up to talking about it yet?”
Hugging her back, Ana said, “I am okay now. I am glad you’re back home safe.”
“We are all safe,” replied Jezalyn, and Ana could not keep herself from wishing she was as innocent and trusting as Jezalyn.
Wyler introduced Julius, who stood up and shook her hand. Jezalyn shuttered at the iciness of his hand. “I’m sorry; I got here only moments before you. I couldn’t find my gloves, so I jogged over without them anyway.”
“It’s okay; it’s unusually cold out tonight. How about I make us all some tea?” replied Jezalyn running water into the kettle before anyone could respond.
“Good idea,” said Wyler. Then jerking his head toward the downstairs door he continued, “Larkin, we’re all upstairs because the heater went out downstairs, do you think you could come take a look at it with me?”
“Sure,” replied Larkin somewhat hesitantly. “Perhaps Julius should join us, too.”
Julius responded to Larkin’s request with a mischievous smile as he said, “Nah, my fingers are frozen as popsicles; I won’t be any help to you. I think it’s best if I remain upstairs with the ladies,” lifting his eyebrows playfully to taunt Larkin.
Jezalyn and Ana blurted-out simultaneously, “I agree!”
As Larkin headed down the stairs to the underground apartment, he found himself perplexed by the emotions and thoughts garbled up inside his head. He needed to find a release of all these bonds, his brother, Ana, and at this point even Jezalyn.
He cleared his own thoughts long enough to survey the premises. Theron had done a good job of ransacking the loft; he had left the space broken and trashed.
“Scan for missing things; we need to find what he was searching for.”
“We don’t have to; Ana told me what Theron was after,” said Wyler.
“What?”
“Herbs! Theron made her think he was you, so she told him where to find them.”
“And where would that be?” asked Larkin.
“In the safe, behind the fridge.”
Larkin pushed the fridge to the side to reveal a mangled safe; the door hung down by one hinge exposing a large hole in the wall. Wyler rushed past him and grabbed the remaining contents and brought them over to the counter.
“Looks like they took the Saltbush, Wood Avens, and some Lavender,” said Wyler glancing over his herbs again. “What do they need this combination of herbs for? I understand the Wood Avens because it’s difficult to find, but Lavender, really!”
“I figured he would come after them,” replied Larkin. “After he scampered off into the woods, our connection was still linked. His body was slowing down, and he started staggering about and hallucinating. When he stopped at the creek, the connection was lost until an intense pain radiated through my chest. His intense emotions reconnected us long enough to discover that the arrow Blaise shot him with was poisoned.”
“Poisoned!”
“Yes, poisoned.”
“What kind of poison would need Lavender?”
“It’s not the Lavender that concerns me. We need to get our hands on some more Wood Avens.”
Wyler darted into the bedroom stumbling over clutter as he went. “Ah-ha!” called out Wyler as he removed the bed knobs. He ripped them off and ran into the kitchen with Larkin, “Look,” he said twisting off the stub that fit into the bedpost. He shook the contents out of each one in front of him. Larkin dug through the small bags and discovered they had two bags of Wood Avens, one bag of Snakeweed stems, and several bags of other miscellaneous herbs used to ward off maladies.
“Put these in your medical bag and have it at arm’s length at all times,” commanded Larkin holding several bagged herbs out for him to take. Wyler shoved them into his pocket, since he had left his bag upstairs.
“Okay now. How are we going to secure the door so that Ana will come back down without alarming Jezalyn?”
“We don’t have to worry about that tonight with the type of poison Blaise used on Theron. Besides, there are three of us here now.”
“What am I to tell Ana?”
“Tell her that we are setting up security perimeters, but before we go back up I need you to make me some special tea.”
“Okay,” replied Wyler moving to the cabinet without second-guessing his request even though Jezalyn was upstairs also making tea at that very moment. He filled one of the only remaining cups with water, put it in the microwave, and pressed the beverage button.
As the microwave counted down, Wyler asked, “Which flavor you want tonight blackberry, chai, or AB positive?”
“Neither, I need a special concoction. Grab a bowl and spoon,” said Larkin as he bent down to pick up several flowers off the floor. With the bowl next to him, he asked Larkin to search his pockets for some Snakeroot. The microwave buzzed as Wyler flipped out a baggie on the table.
“This is Snakeweed; I need White Snakeroot. Check again.”
Wyler carefully tip-toed through the debris to bring the hot cup of water over to the table. He sat it down next to Larkin before searching his pockets again. He placed the correct bag down next to Larkin and watched him pluck the tiny whiskers out of several flowers while he waited for his next order.
Larkin scooped the flower whisker into the bowl, added a pinch of Snakeroot, and ground it together. Once it was minced, he placed the mixture in the hot water and stirred.
Larkin blew into the cup before requesting Larkin to hand him a cube of ice since the steam burnt his lip as he blew. Wyler did as he requested, “That’s funny. We don’t have any.”
“No ice! Now I am certain that one of the poisons inflicted on Theron was Black Bat’s Flower.”
“Those plants were supposed to be extinct,” responded Wyler.
“I know, but when these flowers and vampire blood intertwine, one’s condition becomes extremely volatile.”
“So that’s why Theron attempted to come here. He was desperate.”
“Perhaps,” said Larkin, “but he could have had ulterior motives. My brother is not to be trusted.”
“Oh, I know all too well. I have not forgotten,” replied Wyler. “Do you want me to go upstairs and see if Jezalyn has some in her apartment?”
“No, I will chug it like this. If it burns going down, my body will restore after a while. I only wanted to avoid the irritation.”
After guzzling the hot tea, they sprinted upstairs to find Ana and Jezalyn laughing and joking with Julius. They were having such a good time that they did not even notice that Larkin and Wyler had returned. Wyler strolled over to Ana and wrapped his arms around her neck, kissed the top of her head, and quietly whispered in her ear, “I love you, Bunny,” but not quite loud enough for the rest of them to hear. Jezalyn watched Ana’s face beam with merriment before getting up to get Larkin a cup of tea.
“Here you go,” Jezalyn said handing him the cup of tea. “Two sugars, right?”
“Right,” replied Larkin taking the cup. He brought it to his lip and pretended to take a sip, his throat had not fully recovered yet, but he found himself not wanting to offend her by rejecting the tea, so he did what he had never done before and faked it to oblige someone else.
“Did you get the heater fixed?” asked Ana.
; “Yes, darling, I do believe it is,” replied her husband, who then walked over to his medical bag to deposit the remaining herbs.
“How about a game of cards before bed?” asked Larkin trying to take the attention off of Wyler. Not to mention, he longed to know whether his concoction was as success for him as it was for Theron. Moreover, he needed both Ana and Jezalyn awake. Seeing how there was an odd number of players, pairs were out. Because not everyone knew the rules to other games, they finally decided to resign the cards and play dominoes instead. They decided to set a limit, two games to five-hundred before heading off to bed.
The thoughts running through Larkin’s head began to become vague about an hour into the first game. Larkin may have been losing his hand, but he was overjoyed to be winning his sanity back. Furthermore, as time ticked past, the intrusive thoughts grew vaguer until they were so indistinct that he could no longer distinguish who thought what or even what the thought was. Larkin pondered as to how such a cure was not unearthed throughout his extensive years of existence. Yet, he could only blame himself for such a lack of wisdom, seeing how it was he who had suppressed himself from the world whenever the loss of Isadora became too painful to bear. For a moment his happy grin slanted into a melancholy stare, but Larkin quickly regained his smile when Jezalyn played the five-two to gain herself fifteen points.
He became increasingly irritated with the attention that Julius had shown her all night. Larkin knew he was doing it just to get under his skin, so he flashed him a smile and laid down a domino out of his hand.
When the last game finally ended, Jezalyn helped Ana pick up the dominoes while Larkin pulled Wyler to the side.
“The mixture is working. There’s haziness in my head, and I can’t hear anything that is going on in either of their heads.”
The Vampire Keeper Page 20