Black Blood (9 page)

“At least I’m
not past my curfew like some people are.”

Ruby’s attempt
to take the heat off her worked. As two stern sets of eyes swung
towards her, Gemma shot her sister a black look.

“I was just
about to leave before you pulled me away.”

Her parents
looked skeptical.

“I swear I’ll
be home on time.”

“Gemma, this
Friday night was a privilege. Don’t push your luck. Leaving your
departure to the last minute then driving home at the speed of
light is not a good idea.”

Gemma shone
them an innocent smile then began gnawing on her cheek.

“Well, at least
he’s not here, that’s one thing we can be grateful for,” her father
muttered.

Gemma
rolled her eyes. Would they ever trust her again? No matter how
many times she argued that Harrison and her had not yet slept
together, they did not seem convinced. She was sure whenever they
pictured her with her boyfriend they were imagining two naked
bodies locked in a sweaty embrace. She may as well sleep with him,
if that was the case, but she wanted her first time with Harrison
to be on her terms. She’d know when it was right and resisting the
urge to sometimes devour him was giving her pride in her sense of
control. As much as they wanted to, they didn’t
need
to right now; it would just be an added bonus
somewhere down the track.

And what a
bonus it will be.

Gemma smiled,
her cheeks rising with a flame she was glad no one could see in the
dim light.

“Okay, shhh,
here he comes.”

The family
followed their father’s lead and crouched down in the foliage.
Gemma strained her eyes to see the figure approaching. She assumed
he was a man. As he drew closer she could see the masculine shape
of his fingers, the wide breadth of his hand clutching the gnarled
wooden staff. His gait was awkward and the sound of his breathing
as he passed them was labored. The way his body hunched suggested
he was elderly. Gemma wished she could see his face, but it was
covered by the large hood of his woollen cloak. He looked like a
monk.

Once he had
shuffled past, her father stood and indicated they stay here while
he followed in silence.

What?

Gemma felt the
disappointment sear through her. She had been entangled in a very
delectable tussling match with Harrison and to be called all the
way over here to do absolutely nothing was just plain mean!

As Ruby
squabbled over the same issue with her mother, she rose to her
feet. Dom caught her movement, but turned his head away. He would
let her go in order to get the details later.

She would
deliver, just like he would cover for her if their mother noticed
she was gone.

Creeping
through the flora she followed the sound of her father’s steady
breathing, keeping a safe distance back. The moonlight began to
aide her quest as it filtered through the pines and cast a low glow
over the vegetation. She watched his body tense still then lower to
a crouch as he peered towards a small clearing.

Gemma
repositioned herself so she could follow his line of sight. The
hooded man stood hunched in what Gemma thought was despair. Her
intuition was confirmed moments later when a low sob echoed through
the air. The man dropped awkwardly to his knees. The cane thudded
to the grass as he flung back his hood, revealing a crop of silver
curls atop a dark, wrinkled face. Gemma studied his profile. Tears
trickled over his broad, flat nose, but he didn’t bother to brush
them away. In his bony hands he held a leather pouch. Pulling it
open with shaky fingers, he emptied the contents into his hand
before lifting it up to the moonlight.

Gemma felt her
breath catch as she recognized the arrow shaped necklace.

Another
one!

The talons of
doubt scraped down the back of her brain.

Don’t be
stupid. Dad is just finding out where they are so he can keep our
family safe.

That was
the theory Harrison had presented to her a couple of months ago and
she liked it… a lot. She remembered the first trip to Germania
where she had had to re-locate the trinket for an
archaeological
dig. She had
questioned the validity of the trip and found her concerns growing
when they had done it a second time. She had worked out that the
necklaces belonged to two of the
electus
. Titus and Tita.

She had
pushed her suspicions aside as time had worn on, but here they were
again. Maybe each
electus
had a
necklace. She wondered if they would be doing four more of these
trips in the not so distant future. Her father was obviously
looking at where the piece was buried so it could be retrieved
easily in 2011.

But why do you
need to retrieve it, Dad? What are you doing with these
necklaces?

Fighting off
the doubt, she clung to her father’s good nature as she watched the
crying man dig a small hole in the ground.

Bringing the
necklace to his lips, he whispered a jumble of words Gemma couldn’t
catch before kissing the arrowhead and placing it in the
ground.

Gemma
could feel the agony of lost love radiating through the clearing as
the man buried the small treasure. She wondered if he was one of
the
electus
. The
idea that she was gazing at one up close and personal sent a thrill
through her body. Was it Gaius? Did the necklace he was burying
belong to his true love, Gaia?

The thought
made her smile. She knew of this love. The kind of love Nathaniel
had held for his morning star; the kind of love that inspired
poetry.

Its roots had
taken hold within her soul too, blooming with hope and spreading
life throughout her entire body.

Harrison.

Her mind
lingered over him as she watched the man pat the dirt in farewell
before her body shredded to dust.

Chapter Twelve

St Augustine, Florida
– 2011 AD

It had been two
weeks since their disagreement. Harrison had made a special effort
to avoid the topic, but he found his mind was plagued with worry.
If Gabe was right then her parents were potentially very dangerous
people and he shivered to think of what they might have planned for
Gemma. He needed to protect her, but how?

Help her see
the truth?

The idea was
plausible, but he wasn’t sure he could pull it off when he didn’t
really know what the exact truth was. He wasn’t really in a
position to go spying on the Hart family. The only time he ever
went into their home was if Gemma was sneaking in to grab
something. They never lingered and if they did happen to see one of
her parents the temperature in the room dropped to sub zero and a
quick retreat was the only chance of survival.

Pulling the rag
from his back pocket, he wiped his hands then lowered the hood of
the car he’d been working on. Slapping the red paint, he turned to
the office in search of the key.

Avoiding the
topic of Gabe had kept his relationship with Gemma on smoother
ground. They were still bickering more than usual, the tension they
were living with was impossible to ignore. She had been relatively
happy pretending Gabe didn’t exist. Wanting to avoid full on
blowouts with her, he had kept his thoughts to himself, but he
wasn’t sure how much longer he could do it.

“
She’s running out of time.”

Gabe’s words
echoed in his head as he unhooked the key from beside Bryan’s desk.
Harrison’s biggest fear was that he would leave it too long and
then it’d be too late.

His worry for
Gemma wasn’t helped by the fact that she was looking more and more
exhausted after each trip. He stopped on his way to the car to
study her as she exited the bathroom.

She rubbed a
finger over her eye and ran her hand over her forehead. Her
ponytail shook back and forth as if she was trying to wake herself
up properly. Her body sagged as she stopped for a second to lean
against the tool bench and re-gather herself.

Harrison felt a
flash of anger as he watched her try and cope with her return.
Surely her parents knew what a toll this was taking on her. How
could they keep putting their family through this? Wasn’t parenting
all about doing what was best for your children?

Dropping the
key into his pocket he headed straight towards her and grabbed her
quivering bicep.

“You need a
break.”

She didn’t even
put up a fight as he dragged her to his Stingray, hollering over
his shoulder that they were taking an early lunch.

Leaning back in
her seat with a sigh, Gemma closed her eyes and took in a slow
breath.

“
Are
you-
”

“Just give me a
minute.” She raised her hand to stop him.

He kept driving
in silence towards their favorite spot at Anastasia National Park.
His eyes darted from the road to her resting body. He wanted to
start spouting off about her parent’s selfishness and about how
Gabe might be able to help her, but he kept his lips sealed,
knowing she was in no frame of mind to take it.

By the time he
pulled into a parking space and cut the engine, Gemma’s cheeks had
found their color and she sat up with an easy smile. He wasn’t
appeased.

“You know
you’re getting worse, right?”

Her eyes
tightened in the corners and she looked away from him.

“Each trip
you’re coming back more and more exhausted.”

“I always
recover.”

“
Yeah,
but for how long? I mean, what if you
stop
recovering?”

“My parents
wouldn’t do that to me.” She turned back to face him.

“They shouldn’t
be doing this to you at all! Do they even know the effect travel
has on your body?”

“Of course they
do! We all feel tired afterwards!” Her brows creased.

Are you sure
about that, Gem?

He kept his
lips from asking, knowing it would just make her bite even more
vicious. Instead he glanced away from her, frustrated that they
were heading down the argument path again.

The car
simmered with stony silence. He kept his eyes out the window, his
fingers drumming over the steering wheel and his mouth shut.

Gemma finally
let out a soft sigh.

“I was just in
France, 1943.” She held out an olive branch. Because of the
building friction between them, she hadn’t been as forth coming
with her trips. Her effort to restore their happy equilibrium was
obvious.

“We helped a
Jewish family to the coastline. Apparently they had managed to hide
out for most of the war and got caught helping out a fallen
soldier. Dad thought such tenacity should be rewarded. We managed
to get them on a boat to England.”

Harrison smiled
and made a mental note to look up that story later. It sounded like
a good one.

“Where’d you go
a couple of weeks ago?”

“Huh?”

He glanced over
to see Gemma scrolling through her memory banks. He gave her a
small hand.

“You’d been at
my place and when you got back you had to leave pretty quick
because you were close to curfew, but you gave me the most stunning
kiss… and then never told me why.”

Gemma smiled.
“So I have to explain each of my kisses now?”

“No,” he
chuckled. “I was just wondering.”

“I remember.”
She settled back in her seat and reached for his hand. “I don’t
know where we were… or even when, but it was the most beautiful
night. The stars were out, the forest was silent and I just wanted
you there beside me.”

“What were you
doing?”

“Just
observing.” She shrugged.

“Observing?”

“Yeah,
sometimes Dad needs to see where something is or how something
plays out before deciding what to do. Occasionally we head back to
a place for a second time after he’s gone on an observation trip.
He doesn’t usually take us along.”

His heart
thudded and he sat up straighter.

“What do you
mean, he doesn’t usually take you?”

“If he’s only
observing, he doesn’t need us there. I don’t know why he felt the
need this time.” She shrugged again. “Maybe he’s going to start
teaching us how to analyze or something.”

Her reasoning
didn’t sit right. His heartbeat was erratic as he tried to process
the feeling creeping through his system and then it hit him.

“
Time
spirits can’t travel forever. The older they get, the weaker their
power becomes.”

Gabe’s words
rang in his head, stealing his breath. He tried to keep his
expression nonchalant.

“How old is
your Dad now?”

“Um.” Gemma
looked confused by the question, but worked it out anyway. “He must
be 49 this year. Why?”

Harrison shook
his head. “I just… realized I didn’t know.” He was sure the smile
he pasted on his face was pathetic.

Gemma’s eyes
narrowed and he quickly drew away from the subject not wanting to
reveal his thoughts. She would kill him if she knew he was planning
on seeking out Gabe and telling him his theory.

“You feeling
better?” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Yeah.” Her
reply was slow. She was still trying to assess him.

He cleared his
expression.

“You’re not
telling me something.”

He nodded then
licked his lips. “I will… eventually, but for now, I need you to
trust me. I won’t do anything to hurt you, Gem.” He kept his gaze
steady. “Everything I do is because I love you.”

The mark on her
collarbone pulsed red. Her lips rose at the corners before she
pulled his head towards her.

The rest of
their lunch break was lost as the car ignited with their fuel and
roared to life as they both lost themselves in each other,
forgetting the worries that lay outside the car doors.