Deadman's Blood (3 page)

“I know this must come as a shock to you; believe me, it was a shock to me too – however, probably more of a pleasant one for me than for you, I suppose. I do have one regret and that is going behind your back to obtain a hair sample from your brush to have a DNA test done, but I simply had to know if my suspicions were correct and well, I may have overstepped my boundaries.” Dominic watched for a reaction from Josh, but when he got nothing he could read, he looked at Anton.

Anton watched Josh for a moment, even tried to read him, but Josh had recently become very good at shielding himself, so there was nothing to read. Anton said, “Josh? Are you okay?”

As if Anton’s voice had somehow lifted the fog that had come over Josh, he answered, “Yes. I mean....Yes, I guess...DNA test? So you’re sure then? You’re my...father?”

“Yes. I can show you the test if you would like to see it,” Dominic offered.

“But....no...I believe you...so....how long were you with my moth...Katarina?” Josh asked.

“Just that fall when I filled in for a professor,” Dominic answered.

“But that can’t be then...I don’t understand,” Josh said.

“I’m not surprised. I’ve gone about this badly. I hope you will forgive me someday. See, when a vampire and a human conceive, I mean....” Dominic started.

“Josh, what Dominic is trying to say is that a pregnancy between a human and a vampire can be up to eighteen months. Like vampire age is about one year to every four human years, the pregnancy kind of splits the difference. Nine months for a human pregnancy times four is thirty-six months…the average time for a vampire/vampire pregnancy…divided by two for the human parent and you get eighteen months. However, sometimes it can go as long as twenty-four months.”

“That’s a long time to be pregnant,” Josh stated.

“It is. Especially when you are alone and you don’t know what is going on,” Dominic admitted.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, no wonder your mother was in psychiatric care. Most likely, Katarina didn’t know she was pregnant until probably the last six months of the pregnancy when she would have started showing. If she hadn’t been with anyone intimately since me, then she would be very confused as to how and when she got pregnant. Most likely, no one would have believed her. If only I had known, I could have explained things to her. Maybe she wouldn’t have been put under psychiatric treatment all these years if she had known I was a vampire,” Dominic explained.

“So you never loved her then? It was just a fall fling and you never saw her again?” Josh asked.

“Yes and no. I did love her, but I had been raised that vampires were not to be involved with humans. My father had always said that it would only complicate a human’s life and make the blood line impure. I had instilled that in my own son; that was what I knew, and then I met Katarina and all that flew out the window. It took every ounce of willpower to leave her behind that December. I somehow felt I was being unfaithful to Sophia and Anton, but there has not been a day that has gone by that I haven’t wondered where Katarina was or what life would have been like if I had succumbed. And now...knowing that I could have had a family again....Anton could have grown up with a brother, and you...would have had a different life too. You would have grown up knowing why you hear others’ thoughts and how to control them.”

“Ya...I guess things would have been different. So what does that make me? A vampire? A human? What?” Josh wondered.

“It doesn’t change who or what you are, Josh. You are still human; it just explains your telepathic abilities. You may or may not be stronger and faster than the average human, but you are still the caring, quiet young man we’ve all gotten to know and love the past few weeks. For me, now, even more so. I couldn’t be more proud to have you as a son; that is if you could someday think of me as your father.

“I envy your adoptive father - all the events I missed over the years as you’ve grown up. I hate too that I’m the reason Katarina’s missed out on her son’s life and accomplishments. Maybe neither of you can forgive me for that, but if I had known about the little miracle growing inside of her, I would have moved heaven and earth to include you and her in my world with Anton. Anton and I have led pretty lonely lives up until now. If I hadn’t been so pig-headed with my father’s voice as my conscience, well...’What if’s’ don’t mean much to someone put up for adoption and never knowing his parents or why he has the powers he has. I’m just grateful you came into the hands of the Brenners. Though they couldn’t help you with the telepathy, they certainly gave you their love and raised you to be a good-hearted soul,” Dominic said.

“So...what happens now?” Josh asked.

“That’s up to you, Josh. With your permission I would like to get your mother out of treatment, if they haven’t done too much damage with medication after all these years. I’d like to get to know her again and see if there is anything left of what we had. If not, I still want to make sure she is comfortable for the rest of her days. It’s the least I can do for what I’ve put her through.

“As for you...I would very much like you to be a Larsen and all that entails. I don’t mean changing your name, that’s totally up to you; I mean being family - blood - to Anton, myself, Blake, and Devon. This is your home now, we - Anton and I, would like to share in your celebrations, your disappointments, and your life. The Brenners are family too, as far as I am concerned; of course, I’m not sure they will be quite as pleased to have a bunch of vampires to call family, but we’ll make it work. It’s very important to me to have them involved. They’ve bestowed a gift on this family that we Larsens can only try to repay - they took care of you when we didn’t know you existed,” Dominic told him.

“Wow, Dominic...I just don’t know what to say. I’m sure Mom and D...I mean, the Brenners would love to meet you.”

“Don’t you stop calling them Mom and Dad! They will always be your parents. I just hope that you can look to me and Katarina one day and think of us that way too,” Dominic said.

“Thank you, Dominic...I...”

“Look, Josh, nothing more needs to be said tonight. Anton and I have thrown a lot at you and you probably need to mull things over. Maybe talk to Melanie about how you are feeling about all this, but if you have ANY questions about anything, don’t hesitate to come to either of us. If you don’t want the rest of the family to know about this for a while, we can do that too. However you want to handle this is fine with us.”

“That’s right, little Bro...I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have a brother. The things I have in store for you...camping trips with itching powder...frogs in your underwear drawer...” Anton said.

Josh’s face went pale.

“I’m kidding, Josh....or am I?” Anton laughed.

“Right...well, it’s a lot to digest. It’s weird, all this time I just assumed that my biological parents didn’t want me - that I was a mistake. Hearing the other side of the story now somehow makes things confusing but somehow complete - like wandering through life missing a small piece of a puzzle. It’s odd though, don’t you think, how this all came together. Starting with Lanie and Darby and finding my way here - like destiny’s wheel turning us in all directions to find us all standing together, bound by blood but first by friendship. It makes me wonder…” Josh thought.

“Wonder what, Josh?”

“It makes me wonder if the Bloodstone Heart had more to do with our destinies than we know,” Josh stated.

“Hmmm. I couldn’t say, but I don’t think anyone knew what it was capable of except maybe its maker, the Crone. But it is interesting that you bring up the stone,” Dominic admitted.

“Really, why?” Josh asked.

“Well, when the blast of the stone pelted through all of us and the altar room, a piece of stone fell away from the hearth and I found something in the crevice it revealed. I was going to show it to the family in the morning. I think it has something to do with the Larsen family and possibly the Ancient Ones. But for now, talk to Melanie. Get some rest and we will speak as a family in the morning,” Dominic said.

“Okay. Thank you, Dominic. Anton. Goodnight,” Josh said.

“Goodnight, Josh,” Anton said.

“Goodnight, son,” Dominic said. Josh smiled. He had heard Dominic call him son many times in the last few weeks, but tonight, it meant something different. It no longer was an endearing gesture of friendship between an older man and a younger one. No. Now it was a loving salutation from a father to his long lost son. It was comforting and though it felt a little odd, it felt right too. Josh nodded at both of them and headed upstairs for the evening.

*****

Not quite ready for sleep with all the thoughts running around in his head, Josh thought he would take Dominic’s advice and talk to Melanie. He softly knocked on her bedroom door. A sweet, melodious voice answered, “It’s open.”

Josh sighed in relief that she was still awake. He opened the door to find Melanie draped across the bed, reading a book in the soft lighting of the lamp on the nightstand. She looked up at him with a huge smile and that was all it took to melt him to his very core. There was something so amazingly comforting about this beautiful girl. It emanated off her like radiant light from the sun. Though they had been in each other’s company off and on for the last couple of weeks, it still took his breath away every time it happened.

There had been a time not so long ago when Josh couldn’t turn off his telepathic abilities and it pushed him into a life of dark isolation; but a late night walk to the corner store one dark, cold March night, that all changed when he quite literally ran into Melanie and saved her from slipping on some ice. His hand touched her skin and a jolt of electricity pulsed through him, filling in behind it sweet silence. Some kind of amazing connection happened between the two of them that night, and neither one of them had been alone since.

“It’s just me, Lanie. I’m glad you’re still up. I need to talk to someone or I’m going to explode,” Josh said.

A look of concern came over her face as she sat cross-legged on the bed, patting a place next to her lightly - an invitation for him to sit with her. He never broke eye contact with her as he walked across the room and sat down on the bed. Her striking blue eyes searched his for what was troubling him and she put her hand on his shoulder, softly rubbing it as if that would make everything go away. Her dark hair was up in a clip at the back of her head, revealing the slenderness of her neck; her long bangs framed her face softly along with some stray strands. When her hand touched his shoulder, he temporarily forgot all his problems and sighed heavily as if a huge load had been taken off his shoulders.

“What is it, Josh? Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. Everything is okay, it’s just weird,” Josh said.

“What’s weird?”

“Well, Dominic and Anton wanted to talk to me tonight.”

“Yeah? What about?”

“Me. More specifically, my biological parents,” Josh answered.

“Really? So Dominic found them?”

“Oh, he found them all right,” he said with sarcasm, then plopped back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with his arms spread wide. Melanie sidled up next to him, propping herself up with her elbow.

Only inches from him she said, “So? This is a good thing, isn’t it?”

“Yeah! No, definitely, I just wasn’t expecting it to be Dominic,” Josh admitted.

“Dominic? What do you mean?” Melanie asked.

“Dominic is my father,” Josh said.

“No way. But...really? Huh!” Then she plopped back on the bed next to him and they both stared at the ceiling. She was silent for a moment and then continued, “So...who is...?” Melanie asked.

“My mother? A student he was teaching - Katarina Jansson,” he stated.

“Oh. But why did they give you up for adoption? That doesn’t seem like Dominic at all.”

“That’s where it gets complicated,” he explained. “Dominic didn’t know about the pregnancy, and because it was a pregnancy between a vampire and a human, the pregnancy itself was twice as long as a normal one. Dominic thinks that Katarina may have been considered crazy because she couldn’t explain how she had gotten pregnant or with whom or even when. He figures they locked her up and took me from her once she gave birth.”

“How awful for all of you! You always think in these situations that it was a voluntary decision to put a child up for adoption, but if the child was torn from its mother and the father never knew of the child’s existence, it certainly puts a different twist on things,” Melanie said.

“It certainly does. Since my parents told me I was adopted I’ve always felt a certain amount of anger towards my biological parents, but now knowing what really happened, it makes me feel sorry for them,” Josh admitted.

“Yeah. I can see that. Are you going to tell your parents about Dominic and Katarina?” Melanie asked.

“I suppose. Dominic wants to meet them - have them become part of his family. He’s also trying to get Katarina out of the clinic she’s at in Minnesota and bring her to Connecticut. I think he still loves her,” Josh said.

“If he loved her, why did he leave her in Minnesota?” Melanie wondered.

“He said that he thought being involved with a vampire would complicate her life, plus I think, to some extent, he felt like he was betraying Sophia and Anton.”