Bloodstone Heart (18 page)

"Speaking of that, I have a question for you."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Last night, I'm not sure if I was dreaming it or if it actually happened, but I was focusing my thoughts on Lanie while I was relaxed and lying in bed.
 
I had the sensation that I was flying towards a light over a great distance and when I descended I could see her sitting on a bed in a hotel room, looking at a map, planning out her next day’s trip."

"Really? What other sensations did you feel?"

"I could smell her hair and I could have sworn I touched her face. She has a way of making me feel very comfortable when I am around her and I had that feeling and then I think I fell asleep, unless I was already asleep and it was a dream. I’m not sure. It couldn't have been real, right?"

"Huh! No. I don't think you were sleeping.
 
What you described sounds sort of like astral projection only your body wasn't there, just your mind. Could you read her thoughts?"

"No, but then I couldn't do that even when she was sitting right next to me."

"That's right, I forgot about that,” said Blake. “I can't be sure, but try it again and see if the same thing happens.
 
Put a notepad next to the bed and in the morning write down anything you remember seeing or hearing. If you are really projecting your mind to her, then you are much stronger than I had ever imagined. Either way, your link to her is very strong and that feeds your gift with more energy, like a battery."

"Okay.
 
So how is this trip of yours going to affect our plan with Dimitri?"

"Well, unfortunately, it won't affect it at all. Since we haven't come up with a plan as of yet, I don't think a few days will make a huge difference.
 
We will be with Dominic, and when we aren't dealing with Darby, we'll try to stay focused on researching and dealing with your situation. If something happens, we are a phone call away and hopefully closer to Melanie than you are when it comes to distance."

Chapter 13

Melanie's stops that day were New Orleans where she would be running a credit card, and then later she would stay in Montgomery, Alabama.
 
Her plan had her doing a lot of backtracking, but she hoped if she kept it as unpredictable as possible, Dimitri would always be at least a state behind her or, at the very least, a few big cities behind her.
 
She tried to keep the driving to a minimum since she knew that it would get really old, really fast.
 
She took her time going through Louisiana, though, especially New Orleans.
 
The architecture of the buildings was so beautiful. The moss hanging from the trees she found to be oddly graceful and elegant. Having never been away from the west coast, for the most part, she might as well enjoy some of the beautiful scenery around her.
 
When she was done sightseeing, she ran the credit card at a motel in the French Quarter, grabbed a book of matches for her collection, messed up the bed, and drove east until she hit Mobile, Alabama around 6:00 P.M.
 

She found a small diner and decided it would be nice to have something other than fast food. The place wasn't crowded at all.
 
It was just her, a little boy, his mother and the waitress, whose name was not Flo, but Debbie. With so few people in a place, it was hard not to eavesdrop on the other conversation.

The mother was facing away from Melanie, but the adorable little boy was about five years old and playing with what appeared to be a new truck.
 
He made revving noises as the truck rolled over everything on the table and the vinyl seats of the booth.
 
His truck even had the super power of flying from one surface to another where it would suddenly take on the noise of a rocket ship.
 
Melanie smiled as she saw the little boy entertaining himself.
 
She noticed that the mother's arm had some substantial bruising, in what looked an awful lot like a handgrip.
 

The mother said to her son, "Danny, I have to go use the restroom. You be a good boy and don't wander off.
 
Your burger will be here in a minute okay?"

"Sure, Mommy."

"Good boy."
 
She stood up grabbing her purse and turned towards Melanie and headed to the restrooms just past her.
 
Melanie noticed she had a bad limp and horrible black eye to match her cut lip.
 
Melanie smiled at the woman as she passed but the mother would not make eye contact with her. Melanie was making silly faces at the boy who was now very much enjoying her attention.
 
Melanie figured in a small town like this, that the waitress probably knew the little boy and his mother. After several rounds of peek-a-boo with Danny, Melanie asked Debbie if it would be all right to talk to the little boy.

"I suppose so.
 
Ellen will only be a minute."

Melanie got up and walked to the table and squatted down next to the boy.
 
"Hi," she said. "My name is Lanie, what's yours?"

"I'm Danny."

"Nice to meet you, Danny. Cool truck you got there."
 

"Yeah!
 
Mommy got it for me today."

"You have a pretty nice mommy.
 
Is she okay?"

"Yeah, I guess.
 
She just has some owies."

"I can see that. Does that happen a lot?"

"Sometimes.
 
But not as much as it used to when he lived with us."

"Well, that's good. Do you hide when he comes?"

"Yeah.
 
Mommy says that if I wake up and there's noises and she is crying, I'm supposed to grab Mr. Bear and go to Norah's house as fast as I can and stay there until she comes to get me."

"That's a very smart mommy you have.
 

Debbie came with the food.

"I'll let you eat.
 
It was very nice to meet you, Danny. "

"Bye, Lanie.”

Melanie got up and went to her meal that had just been brought to her table.
 
Danny's mother came back from the bathroom just then and they all enjoyed their meals.
 
Melanie finished up and asked Debbie if she knew the little boy and his mother very well.

"I do.
 
Ellen and I went to school together."
 

"Do they come here often? I mean, if I were to send them a gift here, would you see that they got it?"

"Sure.
 
They come in at least once a week, if not more, and sometimes I babysit Danny."

"Great."

"Here." Melanie handed Debbie thirty dollars.
 

"That's way too much."

"I would like to pay for their meals, too. Will that be enough?"
 

"Yes, and then some."

"Good.
 
Keep the rest for yourself. My name is Melanie, so if you receive a package addressed to you at this address with my name on the return address, you'll know it's from me to give to Danny and Ellen.”

"Well, that's very kind of you, Melanie."
 

“Not at all. It looks like she had a pretty crappy day pretty recently, maybe a little gift from a stranger is just the boost they need to get through this rough time."

"Maybe.
 
Take care and drive safe."

"Thanks, Debbie," Melanie said and turned, grabbing some matches and waving at Danny who was taking a massive bite of a burger that looked as big as his head. Melanie laughed as she headed for the car. On her way she passed a coach bus loading passengers for some Sci-fi convention in Wyoming. Some were dressed in costume but all were distracted by the impending trip. Melanie took Josh’s IPhone out quickly programmed it to turn on in 8 hours and tossed it into the baggage compartment when no was looking, then continued on to the car and got in.
 
.

As she drove to Montgomery that evening she thought about how surprised how surprised Dimitri would be to find he had been tracking a phone in the baggage compartment of a bus full of Sci-Fi convention goers instead of Josh.
 
She knew a vampire could take on a lot of humans if he needed to, but she doubted Dimitri would bother that many passengers once he figured out he had been duped.

She had thought earlier that when the time came to buy the airplane tickets, maybe one of those sets would be for Ellen and Danny to go to Disney World for a couple of days. This seemed better than just using the tickets as decoys to keep Dimitri confused.
 

She drove to Montgomery, paid cash for a motel room, and had a long, hot bath before going to sleep.

Chapter 14

Blake and Dean spent the rest of the day packing and getting ready for their flight to Connecticut. Josh got in one more lesson with Blake before they left for their red-eye flight.

Dean and Blake took off in the sexy black Audi R8 that had been hiding in the garage.
 
The rest of the evening was uneventful. The only thing out of the ordinary was that Sally decided to stay over just in case Dimitri did show. She went around the house, as she did every night, whispering words to herself and waving smoke into every corner of the house with a huge feather.
 
She said it was called 'smudging' and that it would help protect the house and all who were in it. Apparently there were many kinds of smudging, and Sally was an expert on just about all of them.
 

Josh didn't mind.
 
He had gotten used to the evening ritual and it actually smelled pretty good. He remembered to grab a pen and a notepad and set them next to the bed so that he could jot down anything he might remember about his next dream journey, if it happened again.

Another nightly ritual Josh was getting used to was Harry's pet-o-rama.
 
Whenever Josh got into bed and turned off the lights, within seconds there would be a thump up onto the mattress and then the Harry monster would stand on Josh's chest and abdomen.
 
When a 25+ pound cat stands on you, he takes up much more area than just your chest. What always astonished Josh was when Harry would stand there, the area where his feet met Josh's skin felt like 1 inch wooden dowels pushing down on him.
 
Shouldn't the weight be more evenly distributed?
 
The pressure felt more like a one hundred pound cat standing there.
 
He must be causing bruises,
Josh thought, but every morning he would check and no bruises ever appeared.
 

As if the cat knew this was terribly uncomfortable, he would stand there frozen for what seemed like an eternity before he would finally lie down on Josh, distributing all that fuzzy girth less painfully.
 
That pain would finally end and then the kneading would begin.
 
After the first night Josh knew to have at least the sheet, but preferably a blanket and the quilt between himself and the huge cat's front paws; if not, he was sure to endure more pain until Harry was done kneading.
 
At first it wouldn't hurt, but as Harry would get more enthusiastic, the nails would dig in deeper and hold longer.
Will the pain never end?
Josh wondered. The purring was nice, though. It was loud and vibrated nicely on his chest relaxing him. After the kneading was done the residual purring would last for at least another ten minutes, at which point Josh was required to intermittently scratch Harry's ears.
 
Once the purring stopped it would not be long before Harry tired of the rising and falling of Josh's chest and would take over the empty side of the bed, laying his furry head on the pillow and beginning the twenty-minute cleaning ritual.
 

There is something to be said about having a set schedule or rituals.
 
Though they may seem monotonous to some, there is great comfort found by many in the predictability of these rituals. Josh found it soothing to know what to expect every night with Harry. With his whole world being tossed up in the air like dough as a pizza maker formed his perfect crust, the evening's predictable events were his only comfort.
 
So much was undetermined: Lanie's whereabouts and safety. How to get Dimitri off their backs? What to do about the Bloodstone? Not to mention, Blake and Rowan's issues with Darby and Devon.