Bloodstone Heart (16 page)

"Where is everybody?" he asked.

Rowan and Dean looked at each other and then back to the game. Rowan knew she was on her own.
 
"Well, um, Blake and Sally took a little trip to San Francisco and Melanie left this for you."
 
She handed him an envelope.
 
"After you've read that, I'll explain more."

Josh didn't like the sound of that and his heart started pounding like crazy. He slowly opened the letter and sat down at the end of the couch.
 

My Dearest Josh,

You said to me the night we met when you insisted on walking me home, that you felt responsible for me in some way. I feel the same way about you and that is why I have decided to lure Dimitri away from you.
 
I’ve taken two of your credit cards, your iPhone and Devon’s car and I plan on using the cards to make Dimitri think you and I have taken off running again after the explosion. My hope is that it will give you, Blake, Rowan, Dean, and Sally some time to figure out a plan to keep you safe permanently.

Keep the stone we found in your jacket lining close to you. It will keep you from harm, as it is what saved you from the explosion.
 
Blake will explain the details of the stone and Dimitri.

Please don’t be angry with me or anyone else for letting me go.
 
No matter what happens, know that I have cherished every moment we’ve shared, despite being chased by a vampire. I will miss you terribly and will be hoping I see you very soon.

All my love,

Lanie

"Oh no!
 
Please tell me she didn't do this. She's out there on her own with a killer following her? How could you guys let her go?"

"I'm sorry, Josh. She was insistent and very determined,” Rowan said.
 

"Besides, man, he isn't after her yet. Right now he's tailing Blake and Sally. She's going to call Blake on your cell phone when she gets a couple of hours away," Dean added.

"Right. When Dimitri sees that your phone is out of state via the GPS, he'll realize he was duped and think that you and Melanie have taken off again," Rowan said.

Josh put his head in his hands. "This is so stupid.
 
Why would she put herself in that kind of danger?"

Dean said, "Well, I think the 'why' is pretty obvious." Josh looked up at Dean bewildered, so Dean continued, "She's in love with you, man. Duh!"
 

Josh put his hand to his mouth and then rubbed his chin hard as he thought. Ignoring Dean's comment, Josh said, "Well, then we'll call Blake and tell him to make her come back when she calls."

"Josh, that would put her in more danger than she's already in.
 
Her plan is actually very good and I think it can work.
 
We just have to work fast on finding a more permanent solution."

"So you think she did the right thing?"

"I don't know if it is the right thing or not,” said Rowan. “But I do know that if it was Blake in this situation and I thought I could buy him some time to come up with a plan, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
 
She's giving us some time so we shouldn't be wasting it arguing whether or not she did the right thing. We should be using the time to find a way to fix this and bring her back safe and sound. After all, it's a done deal. We can't do anything about it now, the wheels of the plan have been set in motion whether we like it or not."

Josh put his head back in his hands for a moment and then ran his hands through his hair and said, "Right. You're right. What's done is done. But we are going to do everything we can to get her back, right?"

"Absolutely," Dean said.

"Okay. The letter said you found out about that heart-shaped stone that was in my jacket. Can you explain that to me and anything else I missed while I was sleeping?"

"Sure. We believe the stone is called 'The Heart of the Crone'," Rowan said.

"What is a crone? Isn't that some old lady?" Josh asked.

"Yes, but in witch lore the crone is the oldest and wisest witch alive. Anyway, the heart was carved from bloodstone and enchanted by a good and kind witch in order to save her beloved from being killed by the hand of evil. As long as he wore the heart around his neck he was protected by her love from death. Sally and I think that because the heart was not around your neck but in the lining of your jacket, you survived the explosion but you were slightly burned."

"So anyone who wears it is protected?"

"Yes."

"Then it is the item Dimitri is looking for?"

"Yes."

"So what does the ‘black orchid’ have to do with anything?"

"The Black Orchid is an organization bent on enslaving humans and taking over the world."

"Oh swell. And Dimitri?"

"He's their present leader."

"Even better. So he wants the stone so he can be invincible?"

"Pretty much."

"But he's already a vampire. Aren't they immortal? Self-healing? All that stuff?"

"Yes, but they can be killed."

"I see. So why didn't Lanie take the stone to protect herself?"

"Well, first off, it's you she wants protected and secondly we really should keep the stone as far away from Dimitri as possible."

"But if the stone protects its wearer from death, why try to kill me in the explosion?"

"Dominic thinks it was a test."

"A test?"

"Yes. If you survived, then he would know for sure that you did indeed have the stone."

"How long have Blake and Sally been gone?"

"About two hours."

"So Lanie's only to Sacramento or so if she hasn't hit traffic."

"If she hits any traffic it will be IN Sacramento; that is if she's headed to highway 80 and out of the state. Being Sunday, most of the traffic will be coming back to Bay Area from those who went away for the weekend, but we don't know if she went that way. Maybe she's heading south and cutting over to Highway 40 or 10. She didn't say."

"I guess that's good. With her being two hours away and Blake leading Dimitri another two hours in the opposite direction she's got, at the very least, four hours on him."

"Right. And if she stops at a motel, uses the iPhone from there, and pays for a room, but continues to drive through the night, she could be quite a ways from him by morning. I'm sure that is what Blake will suggest to her when she calls."
 

"Just for the record, I really hate this," Josh announced.

"I know, Josh. If it were Blake I'd be going nuts myself."

"Yeah, but Blake is a vampire.
 
He can at least defend himself if he gets caught.
 
Lanie can't."

"But she's very smart, Josh.
 
She said if she felt he was getting too close that she'd hop on a plane and get to Dominic as fast as she could."

"So she's headed east?"

"I think so.
 
I think she's going to try and meet up with Darby."

"So how do we know that Dimitri doesn't have thugs to help him run all over the US looking for Lanie?"

"We don't," Rowan said.

"Great."

"I'm not so sure that we don't know that," Dean interjected.

"Why?" Rowan asked.

"Well, think about it.
 
Dominic said that the heart may have been in the hands of the Black Orchids for a long while, that's why it keeps popping up and never dies out even though the order has been destroyed many times over the centuries. If Dimitri is trying to scrounge up followers and doesn't have the
all powerful
stone, why would anyone bother following him? I know I wouldn't.
 
I'm guessing he's desperate to get it because without it no one will follow him."

"That's interesting.
 
I think you might be on to something there, Dean.
 
That would make sense as to why the first vampire I ran into was looking for it. I got the sense that it wasn't his, as if he had stolen it.
 
Maybe the stone is the symbol of the leadership, like a crown or a ring. The first vampire could have just as easily been the leader. I don't think he was smart enough to get very far.
 
Dimitri is much smarter, that I definitely sensed. And very much in control of his thoughts. Oh man.
 
I haven't worked with Blake long enough to cloak my thoughts.
 
If Dimitri heads back this way, he'll know I'm here."

"I thought of that while you were sleeping,” said Rowan.
 
“That's what I've been reading up on.
 
Darby was really the potion and charm expert, but I think I can make a temporary charm to cloak your thoughts until Sally can come up with something better or you can learn to block them yourself."

"Great."

"So what do we do now?"

"We wait," Dean said turning his attention back to the ball game.

"We wait? But we are wasting time."

"We aren't exactly wasting time, Josh.
 
You can do some research on the Internet for anything on the 'heart of the crone', bloodstone attributes, its uses, 'black orchid', or whatever.
 
Any tiny bit of new information is helpful.
 
I will go and make up the charm and check Sally's wards around the houses."

"What are wards?"

"Protection spells. They warn us about intruders or keep intruders out.
 
They can do all sorts of things. We will do what we can until we can put our heads together with Sally and Blake.
 
We'll come up with something, Josh.
 
Dominic is the one who told us about the stone and the Black Orchids and he is still researching so he may come up with something more too."

"Here," Rowan handed him a laptop.
 
"You know your way around a computer?"

"Yeah. I'm a programmer by trade."

"Great. Have at it. Seems you and Blake have even more in common than I thought."

"Why's that?"

"He and Devon are both software engineers."

"Hmmmm."

Chapter 12

Melanie had to admit, if you had to be stuck in a car for a long period of time, the Mercedes was a nice way to be stuck.
 
No doubt it would have been much nicer with Josh, but that wasn't an option.
 
In order for the heat to be taken off of him, it had to be done. She figured he would be pretty angry with her right about now, but she hoped he would eventually understand why she had done it.
 

She'd been making pretty good time so far.
 
She had opted to go south as she knew Blake was heading north.
 
If Dimitri followed him then she had that much more mileage between them. It was 9:00 P.M. and she was just coming into Los Angeles. Devon had a pretty good map of California in his car despite having a GPS.
 
She had opted not to use the GPS just in case Dimitri had figured out he'd been duped.
 
She figured he didn't know just yet, but the next part of the plan would take care of that and from then on there was no going back. She figured Los Angeles was a good place to get a fake motel room.
 
She pulled into a motel very close to the freeway that had a gas station, and 7-Eleven all within a two-hundred foot proximity.
 
First she went to the 7-Eleven and got a huge Big Gulp of Pepsi and some snack food. Next she went to the gas station, filled up the car, and got a cross-country map. Lastly, she went to the motel, checked in as Mr. and Mrs. Richard Smith, took the key, and went to the room.
 
She used the bathroom to wash her face and got the iPhone out.
 
She sat on the bed and called the number Blake had given her for the house.

"Rowan? Hi. It's Melanie. I'm using the iPhone. I figured if we were really on the run, I'd be calling you to tell you we were okay. Did Blake and Sally make it back okay?"

"Yes, they just got back about twenty minutes ago.
 
Are you okay?"

"Sure. I'm fine. I know I shouldn't stay on the phone long, but I was hoping to talk to Josh.
 
Is he there? Or is he too angry to speak to me?"

"No. He's here, and I'm sure he'll want to speak with you. Josh? It's Melanie."

Josh leaped out of the chair where he had been searching the Internet for the last few hours on the laptop. "Lanie? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Josh. I just didn't like leaving without actually speaking to you, but I knew you would have been able to talk me out of this."

"And I would have, believe me."
 

"Are you very angry with me?"

"No, Lanie. I'm not angry with you.
 
Terribly worried about you, but not angry. I hate that you are there and I am here and that you've put yourself in such danger."

"I'm glad you’re not mad.
 
Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I'm counting on you to come up with a brilliant plan to end all of this, you know."