Divine Blood (Vampire Love Story #6) (19 page)

“
Joshua, when you were
five, you helped us find Jason when he was lost in a
mall.”

“
I remember I saw him in
my mind, in the pet shop.”

“
That’s right. Can you use
your same powers to locate Jason?”

Joshua closed his eyes and
concentrated. “He’s over the ocean and moving fast in a southwest
direction, but mostly south. It’s dark so I can’t see who he’s
with. He’s scared, but not letting them know it.” He opened his
eyes. “That’s all I can see. I haven’t used that power for years.
It’s still there, though.”

“
That is very helpful. I
must fly.”

“
Uncle Tommy can take care
of Mom. Turn me, Dad,” Joshua said. “I want to fly with you and get
Jason.”

“
No, son.” I grasped his
shoulder and squeezed it. “You have no idea what you ask of
me.”

“
I have some idea. And I
am the son of Josiah. It is my...birthright.”

“
Who told you
that?”

“
I have always known
it.”

Lena dissolved into tears.

Tommy walked up from the
flickering shadows of the coals in the fire pit. He zipped up his
black leather jacket.
eHeHhhhh
“Take me with you on your Mani flight, bro. I’m
ready to kick some ass and take no prisoners.”

“
Tommy, I’m going to try
to make this a superfast flight, if at all possible. I don’t know
that your physiology could take the G-force for an extended flight.
And Joshua is going to need you if there is any trouble.” I paused.
“He’s never killed anyone before.”

“
I hope I never have to,
but I would do it to protect anyone in my family,” Joshua
said.

I nodded. “I know, son. Keep your mom
safe between you and Uncle Tommy.”

“
Yes, sir.”

We all said a quick goodbye and I was
off. Lena was sobbing when I left. Joshua was now in charge of her
safety. And Tommy would be with them, too.

I wasn’t going to wait on anyone
getting to Helena Island. I passed their jet within the first
couple of hours. Sometimes, something took over me, something that
was greater than myself. I had to listen to it. It was a sixth
sense that hadn’t steered me wrong yet. I was going to sweep the
island of Attica. And if I couldn’t find my son, I was going
straight to Brock’s castle.

I flew the entire distance
from Victorville, California, as the Great White Eagle. I flew on a
long-snuffed emotion that had rekindled:
Rage.

The thought of my poor son, who
wouldn’t hurt anyone, being punked around by some of Brock’s thugs
was enough motivation to get me to Attica in less than five hours
of flying. I soared at a force that was beyond my previous skill
set.

I got to Attica and from the night
sky, it looked like Monte Carlo. Brock had commercialized almost
every piece of property that this island had to offer and some of
it looked sleazy from the air, like a little Las Vegas. I guess
that was the key to being on top of the financial world: money and
gaudy lights. I’d do it my way. On the backs of the hard-working,
with me leading the way and working every bit as hard as any under
my leadership.

I swooped in, still in my White Eagle
form, and searched every nook and cranny of Attica for about six
hours.

I made my way to Brock’s castle and I
couldn’t imagine he’d dare keep Jason there, but I was going to see
for myself. And if anyone wanted to challenge me, I’d be happy to
make them miserable with the pain I would put upon them. I was in
warrior mode and a blood-lustful battle cry began to build in my
belly. I did not yet let it out.

I made my way to the security detail
he had out front of the castle, at the gate house, because, though
I could have just crashed through a window, I was not much of a
sneaky foe. I was more of an in-your-face-sucka foe. I recognized a
couple of the guys from the night I was jumped by them on Helena. I
wasn’t intimidated by these mercenary thugs who I had beaten to a
pulp without much harm to myself. Nothing about them worried me on
the physical level. My only concern was for my son’s
safety.

“
Let me see Brock,” I
demanded to the first guard I saw. He recognized who I was and even
with Brock now becoming a dictator of this island, instead of a
governor, my presence still commanded respect, and this nervous
Mani was giving it to me. I guess I wasn’t a total loss in the
respect department. I had his. For one thing, he didn’t even try to
jump me.

“
Hold on, sir,” the Mani
said to me. He went to talk to the other security guys and then
they got on the walkie-talkies—how old school. Maybe their cell
phone service sucked on Attica.

In a few minutes, they opened the gate
and told me to walk through it and up to the castle and that Brock
would greet me at the main door.

So, I headed my way to the front of
his castle-mansion. It was built in an elaborate style that suited
royalty because it screamed infinite megabucks with poor taste, and
Brock sure as hell thought he was royalty. Or at least, he
pretended he was. More than I ever noticed before, his decorating
style and governing style screamed new money, as if he was treating
it like winning the lottery.

The massive double door opened with a
dramatic squeak and Brock stood there with about six of his men
behind him. It was a regular thugfest of posers, if the truth be
known. And behind them, a huge fire roared in the big fireplace in
the great hall.

“
Why so many people? Why
can’t two neighbors just talk?” I said to Brock.

“
These are just my friends
keeping things a little physically even between us.”

“
Nah. You’re still far
behind,” I said.

“
I figured as much, but I
had to start somewhere. Well, let’s try to be civil.”

Did he really just say that? “Brock?
Just answer one question. Do you have my son?”

Brock paused, got up from his chair
and paced a bit and said, “Does anyone truly have
anyone?”

Oh, what a douchebag! He picked now to
try to be cute with me. I could have taken his life in a second and
he knew it. But he held the trump card. He knew the whereabouts of
Jason. And, I did not.

“
I’m not even going to
play any games with you. No mincing words. Do you have Jason, or
not?”

Brock smiled very slightly and calmly
said, “I do know where your boy is.”

A fierce adrenaline raged through my
body. “Where is he?” I demanded, the bloodcurdling battle cry
threatening to burst out of my belly and through my lungs into his
sneering face that I wanted to break, bone by bone. “Where do you
have him?!”

“
Now, Josiah. If I told
you that, then I wouldn’t get what I want. It’s very simple. When
Jason heals my son, we all live in harmony.”

“
That’s the problem,
Brock. We won’t all live in harmony, happily ever after. First of
all, you have betrayed my trust in a deadly way by snatching my
son. And second of all, as a matter of fact, if your son lives, he
will go down in history as possibly one of the most despicable
people who ever lived.”

“
Why? Because your freak
little child says he sees it in a vision?” Brock was now raising
his voice.

“
Give me my boy back,
Brock. It is not my family’s fault your son is sick.”

“
But your family can heal
my family. Can’t you see that? All the ‘good deeds’ are on your
side. But your refusal to do so is making this very ugly. For that,
I’m afraid your son, too, will possibly pay the ultimate price if
we can’t work something out, in time.”

“
Work something out? And
what do you mean, in time?”

“
It’s simple math, Josiah.
If your son just sits back and allows my son to die, knowing that
he could have prevented it, his non-action will force me to take
his life, too. An eye for an eye. That’s the way I see it. They
both live or they both die. And that’s that.”

That wasn’t the way this
was going to go down. As a matter of fact, he had it all fucking
wrong. He was going to see justice, and see it
my way
. Without a warning, I lunged
toward Brock and knocked him down. I then threw him across the room
and his back hit the wall next to the huge fireplace. He slid to
the floor with a grimace of pain, his mouth open in shock that I
had done such a thing to him.

“
I can kill you, Brock. I
can kill everyone in this room.”

“
I know, but you won’t,
because then that will guarantee that you’ll never again see your
son alive,” Brock said. “I think you have worn out your welcome in
my home and I’m going to ask you to leave. If you behave on the way
out and leave peacefully, I’ll make sure your son has a peaceful
few days. If you do anything to any of my men, your son will suffer
for it. Harshly.”

“
You better make sure that
no one fucking lays one finger on my kid. I will hunt down and rip
out the heart of anyone who hurts Jason. And I will feed it to
them.”

“
We are all highly aware
of your abilities. You don’t need to make threats. You hurt one of
us? We kill your son. It’s that simple.” Brock was an evil man. I
couldn’t believe I didn’t see it this clearly before.

“
Don’t touch Jason!” I
bellowed.

“
Don’t even think of
further retaliation. You are in no position to demand anything or
anyone.”

I held my tongue.

“
One more thing, Josiah
Reign.”

“
What is that?” I
asked.

“
If my son dies, then all
bets are off. Your son is no longer protected because he is no
longer needed. Jason will be dispatched without mercy if Pierce
dies.”

I looked at Brock and I wanted to rip
his throat off his body and watch him die his Mani death, begging
for mercy. But I had to keep my cool. It was for my son’s safety.
Damn, this was hard!

I turned my back on them
and leapt out of a window to take flight. They all ran to the
window to watch where I went.
Home.
That was where I was going.

I couldn’t believe I was
going to have to go along with this. I knew my son was close, but I
didn’t know exactly where he was. If Joshua had only been able to
come with me...
No.
I banished that thought from my mind. Joshua was too young to
be involved in this, at such a dangerous proximity. I wouldn’t risk
both my sons’ lives.

I needed to head back to Helena and
gather my troops.

Since my parents’ death many years
ago, very few things had made me emotional. I usually didn’t let my
true emotions get involved. On the outside layer, I was very
sincere but I hadn’t truly felt pain since this moment. I needed to
find Jason. I wasn’t sure of either of our futures, and now Joshua
was openly pressuring me to turn him Mani, so that he could enter
the fight with extra supernatural ammo. He claimed it as his
birthright and I had refused to turn him. I would resist doing
that...forever, if I could.

One thing I knew was that I would be
willing to die, trying to save Jason. And so would my friends. An
old Tandra Bible verse rose to the surface of my Mani mind:
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends.”

I had the best, most loyal friends in
the world. Each one of them would give their lives to save mine.
And likewise, me for any of them.

By the time I got back to Helena and
arrived at my castle, all the vampires were already there. Tommy,
Sion and Joshua also arrived shortly in Hector’s private
jet.

Lena was already in the kitchen,
pacing around, cleaning things that were already clean and slamming
cabinet doors. So, I knew the first order of business was making
sure she was okay.

I stepped into the kitchen.

“
Where’s
Jason?”

“
Brock has him. I’m
negotiating his release.”

“
Liar! If you knew exactly
where he was, you’d have him already and Brock would already be a
dark oily stain on his drawbridge.”

“
You’re right. Brock knows
where he is. It may not be at the castle. Brock lives until I know
where Jason is and have him back, and then, it’s curtains for
Brock.”

“
You think you have all
the answers, Josiah,” Lena said from across the kitchen. “But you
don’t. Your way was exactly what the Triat used to get Jason away
from us.”

“
So, that’s how you feel?
It’s us against the Triat?”

“
Well, if the Deity is the
voice and she prophesies our son will die a martyr’s death, I’m not
exactly on board for that. I never was. When the Deity spoke so
long ago, I remember smiling and nodding my head—I nodded that I
was on board with what she was saying, but at the time, I was too
scared to say otherwise. I was the good wife—no, the good Mani
wife—and I just went along with it. Things have changed. I am no
longer going along with it. And I am no longer nodding my head to
the Triat.”

I looked at Lena dead in the eyes at
her blasphemy and said, “Neither am I.”