Bloodstone Heart (48 page)

"I know. It caught me off guard too when Devon suggested it. I know it is a long way away, but you must have known that we wouldn't live together forever. I mean, two couples in a house, that wouldn't work.
 
We need some privacy as do you and Blake."

"I know all that in my head, my heart just doesn't want to accept it."

"Mine either, sometimes. Besides you'll be flying over so much for the wedding preparations that you'll get good and sick of Ireland."

"Oh, I doubt that. So that's where you want to have the ceremony?"

"Yeah. I think that's what we both would like.
 
I think Devon feels closest to his parents there and I think that's important."

"Yeah. Definitely."

"It will be months before we actually move, too. Devon's started talking with people there to start renovations, but they are talking months before they can get the right stuff shipped there and then the modifications need to be made, then installation - and that's just for getting his work stuff implemented.
 
There's updating the wiring and plumbing and some minor repairs that need to be made since no one has been doing any maintenance on it for quite a while, so it will be quite a while before we move."

"Hmm.
 
What about Harry? Will you take him?"

"We talked about that, and we decided he wouldn't be happy away from the only home he's ever known.
 
He's king of that neighborhood - I just couldn't do that to him.
 
I’ll miss him terribly, but I love him too much to take him away from his home. Besides customs would put him in quarantine for several months, and he'd never survive being caged up away from everyone he loves, that would be awful. So if it is okay with you, I'd like to have him stay there with you and Blake."

"I'd like that too. For as much of a pain in the butt he is, I don't think it would be home without him. You know, he thinks he owns your room.
 
Blake and I had a little tiff and I slept in your bed one night. When I got up to get some water in the middle of the night, he had gotten off the bed and closed the door on me.
 
He wanted the bed to himself. The only one he has allowed in bed with him so far is Josh. They must have had some male bonding thing or something, it was cute though."

"How funny. He really closed the door on you? What a bad fuzzy boy," Darby said as she laughed. "I also wanted to thank you for taking Melanie in like you did. What you and Blake did for her and Josh was really wonderful."

"It's nothing you and Devon wouldn't have done. I guess we've both had some pretty great teachers."

"No, I think you and he have always been this way, it's just that maybe being the older siblings, Devon and I never let you shine like the bright stars you both are."

"Maybe - maybe not. I do know that Blake and I have a new appreciation for you and Devon when we had to step up and fill in. But I think we've made some really amazing friends.
 
I've never seen Blake so responsible. He's been fretting about Josh for weeks, like a big brother. I've gotten to see a side of him I didn't know existed. In fact, one I'm not sure he knew existed."

"I see you and Sally have really become good friends."

"True. She's definitely not you, but she's pretty amazing. She stepped in while you were gone.
 
I guess I felt pretty lost without you, along with feeling guilty and about a hundred other things."

"Don't do that. I have no bad feelings towards Blake and you. You did what you could. You had to live your life the way you saw fit, just as I had to do what I did. I'm just glad it ended the way it did instead of me in some funny farm, and trust me, there were times I doubted myself. It wasn't easy on anyone and I'm sorry you spent months feeling guilty. I never wanted you to. I might have felt the same way if the tables were turned - most everyone did."

"You're pretty amazing, Darby. I'm pretty lucky to have you as a sister - crazy or not," she teased. "And I am sure glad you found Devon and that we are all back together."

"I'm pretty lucky too, you know. You're a pretty amazing sister too," she hugged Rowan and said, "I love you, Rowan."

"I love you too, D. Always will."

Up in his room, Anton thought about all the happy couples downstairs and remembered his beautiful date from the engagement party.
 
Why had Jules left like that? Had he done something wrong? He mulled it around in his head and just couldn't come up with any explanation.
 

Had someone said something to her? Why would they do that? No one even knew her. He hadn't even gotten a chance to introduce her to anyone. No matter what excuse he came up with, he just couldn't see any logic behind her departure.
 

With things so crazy since the party, he hadn't really had a chance to try and give her a call, maybe now was the time to get some answers. He pulled out his wallet and a business card and dialed the number he had written there.

The phone rang four times and he was just about to hang up when he heard her melodious voice on the other end with its slight accent say, "Hello?"

"Uhh. Hi. Jules? It's Anton."

"Hello, Anton."

"Hi. I...well....I...."

"I guess you are wondering why I ducked out of the party without any explanation."

"I... Yes, why?"

"I don't have an excuse, Anton. I guess I just got scared."

"You? Why? Did someone say something to you?"

"Oh no, nothing like that, No. It was all just too lovely. And you were too...wonderful. I panicked."

"Too wonderful? That's a bad thing?"

"Not at all, for a normal person. I just, well, haven't been involved with anyone I could care about in a very...very...long time."

"I see. I suppose it wasn't the best setting for a first date. I should have planned something a little more secluded or intimate, maybe with handcuffs to keep you from darting."
 

She laughed quietly. "I doubt that would have kept me from darting since I am an excellent lock pick."

"Me too," he said excitedly - maybe a little too excitedly. "So would you, maybe, be willing to try it again? A little more casual? A little less pressure?"

She hesitated for a moment and Anton started to feel she would say no, when she said, "I might."

"Great. No pressure though."

"Right. Okay, well..."

"Well, then I'll say goodnight, Jules, but before I do, can I say, I look forward to our next meeting."

"You may. I think...I do too."

"Goodnight, Jules."

"Goodnight, Anton."

Chapter 36

After dinner, Josh and Lanie went up the stairs for a little alone time that was long overdue. He invited her into his room, closing the door behind them.
 
She sat on the bed and looked at him.
 
"So are you going to explain to me how you knew what Dimitri did to me?

"Hmm. I suppose I should," he said as he lay across the bed, supporting his head with his hand. "I've learned some things while you were gone. I mean Blake taught me some things and other things just came on their own. I hope this doesn't freak you out." She reclined, facing him on the bed supporting her head in her hand.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Well, at first I thought it was a dream, but after describing it to Blake, he was sure that it wasn't. Apparently I can project myself to places - more specifically, to places you are."

"What do you mean?"

"I guess I had been worrying about you and fell asleep thinking about you, and the next thing I knew I was flying, speeding towards a light, faster and faster. That light was you. I could see you, smell your hair, watch what you were doing, but I couldn't touch you or speak to you. After a few nights, I started traveling to be with you without even knowing it.
 

“I told you before, I feel a comfort I've never felt before with anyone when I'm near you and Blake thinks that I craved that feeling so much that I traveled to you every night, whether I meant to or not, to sleep with you."

"To sleep with me?"

"To just lay next to you, be close to you. Apparently I couldn't sleep without you, so my mind would transport itself to you."

"That's interesting, because there were times at night I could have sworn you were there with me, but I just thought I was losing it."

"No. You weren't. It was me. Later, though, when Dimitri abducted you and tied you up, I could feel your pain and see it, but I couldn't do anything about it.
 
When he knocked you up against the wall, or when he split your mouth open, I felt that, in fact I just about killed myself falling down the stairs, when you hit the wall. That’s how I got this.” He pointed to the stitches on his chin and the cut on his cheek.
 

“Or when he almost drained you when he first got a hold of you? I could hear you screaming in my head, so loud I thought it would split. That was the first time I transported to you while I was awake.
 
I think somehow, though, that's how I found you in the boathouse. I think you had given up, you weren't yelling for me anymore, but I felt you somehow and found you tied to the boat under the water. I just about died right there. I've never been so scared in all my life, not even when that first vampire tried to kill me. Seeing you there, not moving or breathing. I...."

"I'm sorry, Josh."

"Sorry? Sorry for what?"

"Sorry that you had to go through all of that."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn't do anything but save me over and over again. Because of you I can control what I hear and what I let in or out. I can teleport myself - which I might add is pretty cool, and I can link people. Plus..."

"Link people?"

"Yes. Apparently vampires sense each other not by smell but by thought, so Blake had me link him, Devon, Dean, and Anton to myself, so that we could all communicate without the other vampires sensing them.
 
That's how they were able to come when I needed them and how they took Dimitri and his vampires by surprise.

“Plus I feel like I have a real family for the first time in a long time.
 
Friends - can you believe that? The recluse has friends. All of these things I have because of you."

"What? I had nothing to do with any of that.
 
You did all that on your own, Josh. You always had the power within you to do the things you learned from Blake, you just needed a nudge from someone who knew how to help. And the friends, well, you made those on your own. I wasn't even there."

"But you were and it is your doing. I'm so sorry I was such an idiot to not notice it before you left, but I, well I think I've been in love with you since you slipped on the ice that night at the store. I just didn't know what it was I was feeling, but I've had quite a bit of time to mull that over and a few smacks upside the head from Blake," he laughed, "but it's true, Lanie. I AM very much in love with you."

Lanie's eyes welled up with tears and she put her hand to Josh's cheek - no gloves. Her hand felt so warm and soothing to him. He closed his eyes as if it would make the moment last longer and she said, "Oh, Josh. I am SO in love with you too. I wanted to tell you that night on the phone when I was in Los Angeles. I tried, but I was scared you didn't feel the same way, but I do. I really do.”

He started in towards her to kiss her and stopped and fought with himself whether this was the right time.
 
You never get the first kiss back. Once it's done, it's done.
 
What if he kissed her after confessing his love and it felt like kissing a sister?
Oh God, that would be bad
, he thought, but he started towards her again, stealing another few inches of distance and stopped again.
 

Maybe we should be sitting up, or maybe we should go for a walk around the pond in the moonlight, that would definitely be more romantic.
 

Their lips were mere inches away. He could feel her breath on his face and he came in close again this time touching his forehead to hers, her warm breath softly grazing his cheek and lips. He turned his head slightly still, forehead to forehead, he let his cheek touch her cheek and he could feel her lips touch his ear so soft and warm. He then slid his cheek past her lips to where their noses were caressing each other and his lips ever so lightly touched hers, but then her lips came to his, tenderly kissing his bottom lip and that was all it took for the flood gates to open up for Josh.