Bloodstone Heart (13 page)

Once everyone was showered and dressed they headed for Rowan's SUV.
 
Blake drove into town, stopping in front of Haddy's Department store. Rowan leaned over and kissed Blake and Melanie glanced over at Josh's sweet but slightly confused eyes and she smiled as she closed the car door.
 
Rowan said to Blake, "We'll meet you at the bookstore in about twenty minutes. Don't forget to use the back door, so no customers come in thinking it’s open."

"I will.
 
Love you," Blake said.

Rowan smiled and said, "Love you too. See you in a bit."

Melanie and Rowan headed in the store and the guys headed towards the bookstore another two blocks and parked on a side street.
 
The bookstore was on a corner and the back door was on a little side street off the main street of town. Unless you drove down the street you'd never see it.
 
Blake unlocked the door and went into the back office, which was right off the back room. They kept excess books and inventory there along with office supplies. While they were walking in the building, Blake was explaining techniques he had taught Darby once to hold a psychic bubble around someone. When the conversation came to a lull and they had found the couple of books Blake was looking to show Josh, they sat down in the office.
 
Josh flipped through one of the books.
 

Blake asked, "Can I ask you a personal question, Josh?"

Josh looked up concerned, then closed the book and set it next to him on the couch. "Yeah, I guess."

"Why aren't you and Melanie, you know, together?"

"Ummm well, I don't know. We've only just met. Besides, I don't think she's all that interested."

"You're kidding right?"

"No. Why?"

"Well, I'm no rocket scientist, but I've been in your head and you obviously like her, but on the outside you treat her like she's your kid sister."

Josh looked shocked. 'You obviously like her' echoed around in his head. Is that what all the confusion in his head and heart was about?
Damn!
he thought.
Blake is right.
 
It was like a light had been turned on.
 
How stupid he had been.

"Huh! I hadn't really thought about it."

"Liar," Blake said jokingly.

"Okay, so I've thought about it, I guess, but hadn't really put two and two together yet. So much has been going on; I guess my brain just hadn't sorted through everything. But it doesn't really matter, she doesn't really think of me that way."

"What makes you say that?"

"She's been distant since yesterday. Then last night and this morning, I don't know, she's been standoffish."

"Why? What happened yesterday?"
 

"We posed as a married couple at the motel but when we went to dinner, there were so many people in the restaurant, I kind of freaked. Lanie buffered a lot of the voices out but it was a bit too much, so she ordered our food to go so I didn't have to be around all those people.
 
She was cute kissing me on the neck and acting like she was helping her poor sick husband back to the room. We talked for a long time that night. It was really nice."

"So what happened the next day?"
 

"I don't know? I got up in the morning and she was still asleep, I thought. So I went out for a walk. When I came back we went to breakfast. On our way back we saw the vampire and we cut out of there.
 
Once we were on the bike, I knew there was something wrong.
 
She had been up close to me all the day before, but she barely touched me yesterday."

"So what happened at breakfast? Did you treat her any different then you had been before?"

"I guess, maybe. There was this waitress at the restaurant that was hitting on me in front of Lanie. She even had the nerve to write her number down on the check."

"How did the waitress treat Melanie? How did you treat the waitress?"

"The waitress was totally rude to Lanie. She acted as if she wasn't even there.
 
Lanie had to shout out her order to the girl as she walked away. I didn't want to draw any attention to us, so I played along smiling at the waitress, but I wanted to smack her."

"There's your problem right there."

"What? I should have smacked her?"

"No. Don't be stupid.
 
But YOU were the one giving mixed signals."

"How?"

"The day and night before, all seemed well, but then you smile at this waitress who is obviously hitting on you, you pretty much ignored Melanie while this was going on, and from what I've seen since you've been here, it's been pretty much the same. You didn't even speak to her last night at dinner. You didn't sit with her. In fact, I haven't seen you talk with her alone at all since you've been here.
 
She doesn't think you are interested in HER and I have to agree, you are not exactly giving her any sign that you are. This morning she looked like she had been crying all night."

"I think she had been."
 

"And you knew this?"

"Yeah. She came running into the room last night in a panic.
 
I guess she had a bad dream, something had happened to me. I often sleep with my iPod on so I don't have to listen to the voices around me, so when she first came in, I didn't hear her and she freaked. She jumped on the bed and yelled my name and cried. I couldn't seem to calm her down. She was shaking and she held onto me like she was scared to death, but she wouldn't tell me what was wrong, she just said she had a nightmare. Suddenly she got up and wiped her face and apologized for waking me and went back to the couch."

"And you didn't follow?"

"No. Should I have?"

"You really are new at this, aren't you? Actually, you should have never let her leave in the first place, stupid."

"Hey!"

"Well, if the shoe fits. You don't know much about her past do you?"

"Who? Lanie?
 
I know that her parents were killed in a car crash. When she woke up from the coma she had her powers. She met Darby in college."

"Yeah, that's not much. Anything else?"

"Hmmm, she paints? In fact she paints really well. I can't read any of her thoughts, as you know, and when I'm around her, the voices are quiet.
 
It's like she puts a spell over me that makes me totally comfortable around her.
 
The second time we ran into each other, I accidentally fell asleep on her couch. But I'm pretty sure she just thinks of me as a friend."
 

"Rowan told me a story about her last night that maybe you should hear. It seems, in college Darby befriended Melanie because Melanie was so shy.
 
When Melanie finally started to come out of her shell, she met some guy and they dated for a bit.
 
At some point in the relationship, Melanie had a premonition that he and another girl were in a car accident and they both died.
 
Melanie tried to warn the guy, but he treated her like a freak and dumped her for accusing him of cheating on her.

"Later that night, he met up with some girl he had been dating behind Melanie's back.
 
He had too much to drink and lost control of his car on a bridge.
 
They went into the water and they both drowned. Melanie pulled away from everybody and everything after that. Darby was able to keep her in school to get her degree and she set her up in the apartment she was living in when you met her. Darby also set her up with a gallery owner who fell in love with her paintings.
 

“Apparently, Melanie's a pretty well known artist in the art world. But, Josh, Melanie never leaves home, ever. She doesn't even socialize with the gallery owner. They do all their business via the Internet. The fact that she left her home to help you, that's huge, I mean, monumental. I'm sorry, but someone who would make such a sacrifice, is not 'just a friend', Josh. I'd dare to say she likes you quite a bit. Maybe she's scared or doesn't realize it herself, but she's taken a huge leap of faith for you. So take it from someone who almost lost the love of his life by making a stupid mistake, don't let her slip through your fingers.
 
You two definitely have something worth pursuing."
 

"I had no idea."

"Well, now you do, so step up to bat, Josh."

"Now I know why Dean teases you so much."

"Why's that?"

"You have some dumb lines."

"Is that so? Hey, the girls should be back any minute. I forgot Sally wanted me to bring a big heavy box in from out of the back of the truck to the stock room. Don't go running off or anything, I'll be right outside the door at the truck."

"Okay, mom," Josh teased.

"Oh good, another pain in the butt to take teasing from. See if I teach you anything more about your powers."

Josh chuckled as Blake headed out the door.

Darby and Melanie were coming around the corner as Blake was heading for the SUV.
 
As the girls walked down the street heading for the back door, Melanie was suddenly struck with panic as the back door came into view. It was familiar – very familiar. She dropped her bags and began to run and she started to scream for Josh. It was the door she had seen in...

BAABOOOOM!

The blast was deafening. Just like the premonition, the blast first hit horizontally, with shards of glass shooting out everywhere along with brick, stucco wood, and other debris. Then a black cloud went straight up and the entire building was up in flames. The blast had knocked Blake onto his back almost to the opposite side of the street. Melanie was getting on her knees from being thrown back and she was about to head straight for the back door.
 
Soot already blackened the tops of the doors and windows. Blake grabbed Melanie at the waist when she was about two feet from the door when another smaller blast threw them both back into the street. Melanie landed on Blake, but this time she got pelted with wood and brick shrapnel, saving Blake from any paralysis from the wood.
 

During all of this, Melanie never stopped screaming for Josh. She hadn't even realized she was screaming.
 
Her face was streaked with soot, blood, and tears. She started up again and was trying to get away from Blake, who had his hands on her waist trying to keep her from running into the fire. Blake knew that Josh could have never survived a blast this big from inside the building.
 
He could see inside Melanie's mind as her huge wall came tumbling down as if the blast had somehow hit the castle tower in her mind that kept everyone out. The pure agony and guilt she felt oozed like tar through every nook and cranny of her destroyed imaginary tower - horrible gut wrenching guilt. Blake knew instantly why she was scared to tell Josh her feelings; she felt everyone around her was doomed to die because of her. She had prayed it would be different with Josh, but the premonition had come true.
 
Yes
, Blake thought,
a premonition.
 
It wasn't a bad dream Melanie had last night, it had been a premonition of this.
Blake knew too, that she might not survive this loss. This was too acute and far too soon after the guy in college. She'd never make the mistake of leaving home again.

During Blake's meandering through Melanie's mind, Rowan caught up with them and was now at their side. Blake was still holding Melanie back from running and Rowan was checking Blake and Melanie's injuries.
 
When she found all the wounds to be superficial, she tried to soothe Melanie's anguish. Never once did Melanie stop screaming and crying for Josh.
 

People were coming out on to the streets with their hands over their mouths in shock at what had happened.
 
Somewhere far away, Rowan thought she heard sirens. Amongst all this chaos, Blake's head jerked hard to the left as he saw a figure all in black standing near a lamppost staring at the scene. "Rowan, take care of Melanie, I have a vampire to take care of," he said, and like a streak of lightning, he was running after the now running man in black.
 

Melanie's screams were getting softer, not from lack of effort, but from sheer hoarseness. Out of pure exhaustion, she dropped to her knees sobbing and staring at the place where the back door once stood, now billowing with black smoke, and the orange glow drawing closer. She thought she saw something move inside, but it must have been her eyes playing tricks on her. She could barely see out of them with the continuous tears and stinging smoke and dust.
 
Then again she saw something move behind the blackness of the smoke.
 

She spun around out of Rowan's grasp and started to sprint for the door, just as Josh emerged from the smoke looking rather dazed and singed.
 
Melanie jumped into his welcoming arms and she wrapped her arms and legs around him holding him so tightly she was sure that she would emerge on the other side of him.
 
She pulled back for an instant with both her hands on his face and took him in.
 
He looked fine.
 
He looked in better shape than she did.
 
His face was red, but he looked absolutely fine.
 
"Oh my God, Josh.
 
Are you okay?"

"I'm… yeah. I'm okay.
 
I'm fine."
 

He was still wearing his black leather jacket, jeans, and flannel shirt and none of him seemed burned at all.
 
In fact he had less soot on him than Rowan, Blake, and Melanie.

"How did you survive that blast?"

"I don't know? I got thrown back against a wall, but I feel fine."

"What about your lungs? Maybe we should have you checked for smoke inhalation."

"No, Lanie. I'm fine. Where's Blake?"

"I don't know, but he's fine.
 
I was about ready to kill him myself because he wouldn't let me go in after you, but he's fine."