Eternal Island (Book 1 in the Eternal Series) (8 page)

Rainey turned to Becky next. “After breakfast, Becky, give me a call.”

The girls looked at each other and stood up. Becky put her arm around Ariana’s shoulders and led her gently to the door.

Rainey’s phone beeped. “I have a missed call. I didn’t even hear it ring,” she muttered.

Rainey waved at Ariana and Becky as they walked out the door and pressed the button to retrieve Abe’s message. Talk of the devil… Well, think of her, really, and she appears. Yes, Julia could well become a complication. They would have to play their cards right and, for goodness’ sake, not do anything rash. The slightest mistake could cost Ariana her health, or worse. And Abe his happiness.

Rainey drifted around the place, trying to soothe her mind enough so sleep – and the much needed rest – would come. After all that had happened that day she thought she’d be fighting a losing battle, but soon after her head hit the pillow she started her dream journey.

Rainey walked along the beach on the other side of Eternal Island far away from the palace walls. She knew this because she could see the top of her favorite restaurant, Mackie’s; they made the best chicken quesadilla she’d ever put in her mouth. She didn’t know why she walked the beach barefooted and alone, but her dreams sometimes could be deceiving.

Rainey got most of her insights from her dreams, so she always welcomed them. But tonight she wished they would give her a break and let her get some actual rest. She was fast approaching information overload, and when that happened she was certain her brain would explode. She already had trouble keeping track of all the ramifications of visions, events, dreams and conversations; it couldn’t be long until something would go terribly wrong. She wondered vaguely if psychics could be overworked.

The dream took her farther down the beach and soon a man sitting in the sand caught her eye. He was staring out towards the ocean. She didn’t think he was aware of her presence.

When Rainey got within twenty-five feet of him she could tell something was amiss. The man’s face was blurry, like she couldn’t focus enough to see him clearly. His body was buff. Shirtless, with only flip flops and khaki shorts on, this man was Heaven sent. Maybe her subconscious was trying to tell her to take some time off. Hell, yeah, this dream was starting to be very welcome.

As she walked closer his face still didn’t focus but he started talking to her; it had to be her, as there was no one else but the two of them on the beach as far as eye could see.

“Excuse me, are you talking to me?” Rainey asked the mysterious hot guy, to be sure.

“Yes, Rainey.” The man sounded as if he had a smile on his face, but he was still too out of focus for her to tell. He stood up, walked to her and stopped only inches from her face. She estimated he must have been about five foot eleven. “I’ve been waiting for you to sleep. My name is Kade and I’m a psychic dream walker. I had a vision of you today.” Kade looked around them as if confused. “Where are we? I thought… the beach… but it doesn’t look like California to me.”

Rainey was awestruck. “You aren’t in California, you’re in my dream. This is where I live. Eternal Isl… Uh, where did you say you’re from? And why can’t I see your face?”

Kade chuckled. “California is where I’m from. L.A., to be exact. And I’m kind of new at dream walking, so I’m not sure why you can’t see my face. I can see yours, and you’re beautiful.” Kade raised his hand and brushed Rainey’s cheek softly.

Rainey knew she had to be blushing because her face felt really hot, all of a sudden. “Why are you here, Kade?”

“I had a vision of you and… other people… and you were in some kind of trouble, but I’m not sure what, exactly. I wanted to help you. I don’t know what I can do from where I am, but I’ll keep in touch with you; I’ll let you know if I have another vision. Actually, I would like to keep in touch with you even if the visions stop. If that’s okay with you, that is.” Kade reached out and took Rainey’s hand. He brought it up to where his lips would be if she could see them and she felt the slightest pressure on the back of her hand. “I have to go now, but I will see you again, soon. Be careful, Rainey, please. There is something really evil lurking in this place.”

Rainey couldn’t say a word. She could only stare at Kade as he slowly vanished into thin air. “So much for time off. I finally meet a hot guy and he’s only in my dreams; that figures.” She began to retrace her steps through the sand, deep in thought. “And if this guy’s right, I have not a moment to spare. Thanks so much, Kade.”

§ § §

Abe walked into Code Red with a big chip on his shoulder. So much was going on and he just couldn’t shake his bad mood. Julia had pissed him off for the last time. He couldn’t understand why that little witch vampess was playing games with him. She was forgetting her place.

He walked up to the bar and ordered two doubles of Jack. Abe downed the first one and grabbed the other, when his cell phone rang. After looking at his caller ID and cursing out loud, he answered the call.

“What the hell do you want, Jonah? I thought I was clear the last time we talked that I never wanted to speak to you again.” Abe remembered just in time what happened to the last phone he’d squeezed this hard and loosened his grip a little.

“Is that any way to talk to your favorite cousin? Just letting you know that I’m on the Island and I need a place to stay.”

“You’re my only living cousin, but that doesn’t make you my favorite. And, technically, the last time we talked I believe I made it clear that you are dead to me and no longer welcome on my Island. Why are you here? Trying my patience is not a good game to play.” It occurred to Abe at that moment that maybe Jonah could take care of the Julia situation. Jonah hated Julia and had always wanted to ‘choke that life-sucking manipulative bitch’, as he put it. Time to put it to the test. He forced a chuckle. “Anyway, since you’ve made the trip already… I’m at Code Red, meet me here.” Abe ended the call, turned around with his drink and bumped into Jonah.

Jonah smiled. “I knew where you were before I called, cuz.” Jonah pointed at his head. “Built in tracking system, remember? Too bad all you got out of your change was brutal strength and some pointy teeth. You look like something is bothering you. What’s weighing on your mind?”

Abe downed the rest of his drink, ordered two more and handed one to Jonah. “I have a job for you, and don’t you dare say no. You owe me. Besides, I think you will enjoy it immensely.”

Jonah, just happy to be in Abe’s good graces for a change, jumped at the opportunity. “Name it and it’s done.”

Abe turned and stared Jonah straight in the eye. “Get rid of Julia.” Abe smiled as Jonah’s jaw dropped.

C
HAPTER 12

Jonah and Abe weren’t blood related in that sense. They had both been turned by vampires who were actually brothers, as humans. Of course, the brothers were long gone now. They got bored with life in general and introduced themselves to the sun. That happened a lot in the vampire world. Vampires get bored with day to day life and can’t find enough activities to keep them occupied so they off themselves.

Not Jonah. He’d planned an eternity full of activities, and in his seven hundred thirty-eight years he had managed to only accomplish about a quarter of it. He was adding new ones to the list every single day.

When Jonah met Abe for the first time he called him ‘cousin’. Abe had been so pissed off that Jonah decided to stick with it. After all, that’s what Jonah did best, piss people off. That, and bed as many women as possible. There’s nothing unhealthy about having a lot of women, he concluded, as nothing bad had come out of it so far. Vampires couldn’t get diseases of any kind unless you called getting burned to a crisp by the sun in less than ten seconds ‘skin cancer’.

A few of those women had almost driven him to the sun, God bless them. He got too close a few times, almost fell in love, but realized at the very last minute that he was immortal and didn’t want to spend his eternity with the same woman. No, Jonah was too wild for that, too free. Plus, he had very strict life rules: he cared about only one thing, himself, and that’s just how he liked it.

The only problem he really had was keeping the women he had from bumping into each other. He had about twenty-five or so on speed dial and about ten more on the side, in case of emergencies. What could a poor vampire do? He loved women and that was not illegal in any country he’d loved them in so far. Nothing to feel ashamed about, nothing to be hunted down for. Except, maybe, for his phone number.

Despite not liking Julia so much, Jonah was disturbed as he walked out of Code Red. Abe’s request was weighing heavy on his mind. That was a rarity in its own right, because Jonah didn’t worry or even think that often. Julia wasn’t one of his favorite vamp-witches or whatever the hell she was, but he had thought she was one of Abe’s.

“Looks like this is going to be an interesting visit after all,” Jonah said to himself as he started his blood red Suzuki Hayabusa GSX1340R, the fastest crotch rocket known to man, going in excess of two hundred miles per hour with a stage one turbo kit and titanium Yoshi exhaust.

He loved his bike like he loved his women, fast, wild and controllable. It had been too long since he rode his baby. He kept her in garage number three, under the palace. He could tell that she needed a tune up. It had been a good six months since Abe had his temper tantrum and told Jonah to leave Eternal Island and not return. Jonah thought that was long enough to let him cool off. All in all, his intuition didn’t seem that far off the mark. At least Abe was offering him a deal.

Jonah needed some time to think about all of this and he knew exactly how to do that thinking. An eighty-five mile long highway went straight through the middle of the island, no bends, just some secondary roads leading off here and there; perfect for high-speed meditation.

“Time to open you up, baby. Come on, let’s do it.” Jonah twisted the throttle and did a wheelie for a quarter mile before he let the front wheel drop to the pavement and gave her all she had.

He’d really missed this place, but he couldn’t really sight-see, even with his heightened vampire senses. Going two hundred and forty-eight miles per hour made it hard to concentrate on the road ahead, much less what was in the distance, off the road. He might be immortal but going this speed and hitting that pavement would sure hurt like hell.

Fifteen minutes into his ride he realized his trip was almost over. Not near long enough, but he had no intentions on leaving the island anytime soon, so this could become a regular event. He did, however, plan on staying on Abe’s good side, and that right there made up his mind.

Julia had to go, but what to do with her? He wasn’t a murderer. He was a party animal. Of course, he had other vampire buddies that would do the job for him. There were a few that still owed him big and he intended on collecting what was due. Abe would never allow that type of vamp on his island, though. Jonah could turn on his charm and lure Julia off the island, and the witches could make her not remember where she was or, for that matter, not remember anything about her life at all. But that bitch could read minds and she was a psychic, too, so she would see it coming. How the hell did you get rid of a psychic, mind-reading vampire?

Jonah came to an intersection on the east side of the island, only ten miles from the palace. He slowed enough to watch three witches as they practiced their magic in the park, different color lights flying out of their hands. Witchcraft always amazed him and he envied the witches who chose to be turned into vampires. They had all the talents of a witch and the strength, speed and virtual immortality of a vampire.

Jonah did have something going for him that most vampires didn’t, something almost as cool as the witches’ magic: he could sense where people were in the world. And as far as he could tell, there wasn’t a range to it, either. He had tracked people as far as Europe before, from a bar in California. All he had to do was sit and think about that person for a minute, and he could pinpoint within two blocks where they were. He’d had this gift ever since he could remember. It had only enhanced when he woke up with fangs. When he was twelve, Jonah and his brother got lost in the woods while hunting. Jonah sat on a rock, closed his eyes and thought about his dad. All of a sudden, he could see him. When he opened his eyes there was a string, bright as the sun, floating in the air that lead him and his brother back to their dad. Talk about a good GPS.

He turned his bike left and headed toward the palace. He really was tired after all the travelling and thinking he’d had to do all in one day. He just wanted to go for a swim in the palace’s indoor pool before getting a little shut eye.

The palace was a typical vampire mansion – no windows. Security cameras monitored the entire island twenty-four seven and the palace was full of them, too. There were elevators that took you up to the various floors straight from each garage. The only other exit was the outside gate; you had to go through two doors to get to that one. Absolutely no chance for a vampire to accidentally walk out into the sun to get the morning paper.

Jonah parked in his normal spot in garage three and rode the elevator to the second floor, where his old room used to be. He pulled a bunch of keys out of his pocket and picked the key to his old room.

“Some things never change,” Jonah said to himself as he put the key in the lock, turned it and opened the door to the sound of Seether blaring out of a radio.

A pretty girl with short platinum hair was sitting on his bed, writing something in a journal; she hadn’t heard him come in over the loud music. Just then his world turned upside down as the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on walked out of his old bathroom with nothing on but a towel wrapped around her body and one twisted around her hair. The half naked girl took one look at Jonah and let out a scream that could have shattered toughened glass. Jonah couldn’t do anything but stare at her as she picked up a shoe and hurled it through the air, hitting him right on the nose.