Blood Rose Read online

  “Safer?” I moved closer to him. Instantly he responded by pulling me into the same position we’d been in before Neesa had shown up with the food. The remains of which were now stashed in the fridge.

  “You injured the Crossbreed with the rocks if you remember?” We’d discussed the details of the attack on the docks in length. I nodded. “We can be hurt, just as we can be killed. It’s just more difficult and we heal at a very rapid rate compared to humans. Still, they tried too much for our own good or theirs to be rid of us. More human’s died than supernaturals of course. So eventually, we decided to disappear. It was safer for everyone in the end.

  “That’s sad but I can see the truth in it. There is a saying my history teacher used frequently, ‘A person has the potential to be understanding and intelligent. People as a mass are deaf, dumb and blind.” I always knew he was right.”

  Damien’s shoulders shook slightly with bitter laughter. “That’s a good way to put it.”

  * * * * *

  It wasn’t long before Neesa came back. Damien went to the window when he heard her car to make sure she was alone. He disappeared out the door just as I heard her car door slam shut.

  It wasn’t long before I could hear them in the hall, Neesa obviously louder than Damien. When they came through the door, Damien was carrying a huge box in his arms. She really did think worse of him than he deserved…

  “Where do you want it?” He asked his voice back to its grumbly norm that he used while Neesa was around.

  “By the bed is fine.” Neesa flipped the lights on at last. All the light of the day had faded and the room was too dark for her eyes. Mine were already adjusted only because I was used to it.

  Neesa followed Damien to the bed where he put the box down on the floor. The first thing she pulled out of the box was a teapot and a small black wooden box, reaching up she handed them to Damien. He said nothing and stood there until she picked up a gallon glass jug, which seemed to be filled with water and rocks. Damien took it from her before following her to the kitchen.

  “So will this really work?” I had to ask. How

  could herbs and candles cure injuries like this?

  “Well usually a single break or something I could heal almost completely. I’m afraid as badly as you’re hurt, you’ll be far from perfect but as I said before, way better off than you are now. I promise to put some hella focus on the facial bruising for you chica.” Neesa never did mind my skepticism. Mostly I think because she always knew she could prove me wrong.

  Neesa’s magic was nothing like that light as a feather stiff as a board trick kids did in grade school. She always said her magic was as real as Mother Nature herself. Honestly I did believe her, but I still questioned everything nonetheless. It’s just who I am.

  “So just that I’m clear. Badly sprained ankle, dislocated knee, something torn possibly, broken wrist, fractured cheekbone, busted lip, broken nose and black eyes. That it?”

  There were some bruises elsewhere but they were minimal and not even on the radar as far as I was concerned. Some scrapes and cuts. Nothing big. “Yes boss. So, is any of this going to hurt?”

  “You’ll only feel pressure. This is perfectly safe, I promise.” She filled the teapot from the jug before she set the kettle to do its thing. Once she was done, Neesa came back over to the bed and started digging through her box again with Damien right behind her as a silent helper.

  It was a strange sight to see and I’m sure he wouldn’t go bragging about it to anyone in the future.

  As she knelt by the box and began shuffling through things, she lift one large box out from the bottom with an overflowing bowl of rocks on top. A stone fell from the bowl as she bumped her elbow on my bed. Damien being closest, reached down to pick it up.

  “Don’t touch it!” Neesa screamed just as his fingers touched the stone. It was too late. She was humanly slow. The second his skin had touched the stone, smoke rose from his flesh forcing him to drop it instantly.

  Damien grit his teeth and turned away from Neesa and I to collect himself. I starred at Neesa in shock. “What the hell was that?”

  “It’s bloodstone. Pure bloodstone.” She reached over to pick it up and quickly dropped it into a small black bag for safekeeping.

  “It’s used to clear infections and illness in the blood. Your lip is blood red, which means it’s infected. The down side is most supernaturals can’t touch it. Damien, are you alright?”

  “I’m fine.” His chest rumbled slightly as he spoke. His hand flexed down at his side. The flesh of his fingers was black where the stone had touched him.

  “I’m so so sorry. I promise to be more careful. I’ve just never been so flustered… It’s never been so personal to me before. I’m really sorry.” Neesa looked so nervous I thought she might cry any moment.

  “Neesa, I am fine. Take care of Anna.” I starred at his hand and watched the black slowly fade away to red.

  Finally, he turned back to her and kneeled down beside her. “Is there anything else that will incinerate me in here that I need to know about?”

  Neesa shook her head, wide eyed with anxiety. “No. Well not that I know of.”

  “Well then, we’ll just have to hope for the best.”

  His smile was slight and forced but it was the best he seemed able to manage for her.

  Neesa’s smile was timid and nervous. She wasn’t a fool when it came to dealing with supernatural beings. They were stronger and could be dangerous but I didn’t think it warranted being afraid of Damien. Then again, I was the one in love with him, not her.

  “Raw Bloodstone, to cleanse infection and toxins in her blood. I’ll put the stone in with her tea. The water is from pure quartz crystal. The tea will be made from Angelica Leaves for healing and protection.” She was reciting as if recalling a written lesson.

  It was strange to be sitting there and see the two conversing as if I wasn’t in the room. “I have a titanium mortar and pestle. If you will grind some Brazilian Agate, the dust and some magic will act like a pain killer.”

  Damien nodded but when Neesa handed him the metal bowl and grinder he just raised his brow. Taking the bowl, he put the grinder back in the box. I couldn’t make out the words but Neesa mumbled under her breath causing Damien to chuckle.

  Setting the small bowl of pebbles aside, Neesa fished through the metal box she had pulled out and handed him a big round rock the size of an apple. Damien held the stone in his fist and squeezed, splitting it into smaller pieces. He made it look as if it was nothing more than loosely packed dirt.

  Neesa shuddered at the show of his strength even though she knew he was capable of more. My jaw dropped for it was the first time he’d given me an example of how strong he actually was.

  Once the stone was split, it was really quite beautiful with swirled layers of different colors like the embodiment of a rainbow. Damien glanced up at me for a split second as he proceeded to powder the geode stone into dust with his bare fingers. He was analyzing my reaction to his strength.

  “Okay, we also have Onyx to strengthen bones. Peridot, to help her body regenerate. Axinite, to aid in mending fractures. Blue Lace Agate, to heal bruising and wounds. Like her lip and her eyes and such. Azurite to strengthen her knee, combined with Malachite to help mend the muscle and tendons.”

  Each stone was beautiful and unique. I had no idea how it was supposed to heal a broken bone let alone make a bruise vanish. It was this or nothing in the end.

  “So I have to ask, as much as I get hurt why didn’t you ever mention this stuff before?” I was now laid on my stomach close to the edge of the bed, watching them both closely.

  “My mother wouldn’t let me. She said you are too observant. You wouldn’t simply trust in the spirituality of it. She believed you would see the raw magic. Mother said you weren’t ready to understand and acknowledge our world.” Neesa looked sad as she answered me.

  What she said was true though so I quit questioning her. I couldn’t face my ow
n dreams, how could I have faced this before I had found Damien.

  Damien looked up from the rock, which was mostly glittery sand by now, to look at me with a slight smirk. He shook his head, amused. “She doesn’t miss a thing, does she?” He too was doomed from my observant qualities it seemed.

  “Okay, so now what?” Ignoring his teasing.

  “Now you roll onto your back and get comfortable. Damien, can you go ahead and remove the splint on her arm? Lianna, you’re going to lie on your back and place your arms out to either side palm up. Don’t speak and try not to be scared.”

  “Gee Nees, you really know how to make someone feel relaxed.” Sarcasm. Heavy sarcasm.

  XV

  “DREAM SCAPE”

  Neesa took a hand full of dust and rubbed it over her palms until they were chalky and sparkling. As gently as possible, she rubbed her hands along every bit of my exposed flesh. Even lightly sprinkling some over my lips. Repeating the hand dusting as needed.

  She got her bowl of stones out and began the placement process. One on each ankle, knee, over my belly button and my heart, another directly between my eyes and one on the inside of each wrist.

  This felt disturbingly like the trance meditation. I was seconds from putting an end to it. The intense look of focus in her eyes was all I needed to know not to speak or interrupt.

  She didn’t speak to me as her mother had. Neesa was chanting in a melodic whisper. It sounded almost songlike with her honey rich voice.

  Damien was back next to the window as soon as Neesa had begun. Obviously trying to stay out of her way. He respected her magic more than he admitted to.

  Neesa stood next to the bed, one knee balancing her so that she leaned over me. Her hands danced over my body in a strange whimsical way. At times, the chanting would grow more intense. She’d place her hands firmly on my legs, or my stomach or both hands firm on my shoulders. Her fingers brushed once from my forehead down to my chin. Danced over my body through the air and then touched to my toes and brushed all the way up to my face.

  My skin was tingling. I thought at first from the

  powder but it was everywhere, even places concealed by my clothes.

  Each place she’d touched me with her hands felt strange. The pressure lingered. Her hand movements became more dramatic as her chanting also became more exotic and intense. Once more, her hands placed hard against my shoulders and chest. The sensation was so shocking I gasped. There was no pain but the pressure made it feel as if her fingers had entered my body and grabbed a hold of something deep inside of me and was pulling it up and out.

  When I saw what followed I wouldn’t have been able to speak if I wanted to. A blue shimmering fog seemed to spill from her fingers like she were holding dry ice. The substance had a trail of origin from where her hands had been. She repeated the process on my stomach. It felt just as real and had the same result. Again from my thighs. The thick fog swirled and danced above my body.

  Could they both see this?

  Now just the tip of her index fingers touched me. Firm though it didn’t hurt, I could tell she was touching on pressure points. Each time she came up she pinched her fingers together as if pulling a string. The fog streamed between her fingers.

  What the hell was this? Was I hallucinating? Her chanting was so powerful now it seemed to no longer come from her but rather it came from everywhere.

  I must have been trembling despite that it didn’t feel like I was. Each one of the stones precariously placed began to shake. Looking up to try to see Neesa I found myself mesmerized by the energy. It had taken on its own form.

  The form of the same girl from my dreams in perfect detail though crafted of shimmering silver energy. She smiled down at me. Her hand reached for me. Then so suddenly that I nearly shrieked, each stone placed on my body exploded, forming a cloud of dust around me causing the apparition to fall apart. It looked as if a water balloon had burst midair. Just before I felt it hit me, everything went dark.

  * * * * *

  Pale sand felt like powder under foot. The sun blinded me. Everything looked white from the intense light but it wasn’t hot- just bright. The light began to fluctuate between white and pink. I couldn’t look up to understand why.

  Slowly I turned in circles looking around me in attempt to understand my surroundings. In attempt to prepare for the worst. I was getting used to the worst these days. May as well be ready.

  The first thing I realized is that this wasn’t a dream. I was perfectly one hundred percent me through and through.

  Sand spread endlessly in every direction. It extended so far that it melted in with the horizon when my sight could no longer read the distance. Everything was level. No sand dunes, no slopes. Nothing Just flat beach or perhaps flat desert.

  So what now? I looked down, noted I was in the same short black gym shorts and the running bra as I’d been in before. So I hadn’t changed. Somehow, I thought that was a good thing. Made things slightly more real.

  Ah, the next thing to come to realization. No pain. No injuries. How long would it last?

  Third. I wasn’t alone. Blackness masked the figure as the sun was too brilliant for me to make out the features. The figure was a ways off but moving steadily closer.

  It was her. The girl I had dreamed of since my childhood. She was dressed in white shawls, looking just as I remembered her to be. “Hello, Lianna.”

  “Well you know my name. That’s good to know. What’s yours?”

  “That’s not important.”

  My eyes narrowed. From the light? Maybe. “Where are we?”

  “Between reality. We’re in limbo. Do not distress. You’re not dead.”

  I needed a moment to take it in. She let me have it, showing no impatience. “Are you? Who are you? Why do I become you every night? Why do I watch your people getting murdered and tortured so brutally? Why must we feel their pain?” I sounded desperate. I was desperate.

  She said nothing. Only looking on at me with pity. “Are you real?” She laughed at my apparently silly question.

  “Every bit as real as you are. Yes, I suppose I am dead. Then again here I am. So there for I am no longer. That’s thanks to you of course. Which is really thanks to me.” She seemed smug over her riddle.

  “Why are we here? Was I right, the dreams are a message?”

  “No. They’re a story. Nothing more. Just a very old and very important story. We feel their pain because we must, Lianna.”

  “And Damien?”

  “He’s why we’re both here isn’t he? The answers you seek are simple, Lianna. All questions have but one answer. Blood.”

  “My blood or his?” She only looked at me. Her patient smile made her angelic. Her lips parted to speak. The light was blinding. It over whelmed everything. I could see nothing but the white and pink radiation.

  “If you’re to survive what is coming then you must listen. They are coming for blood, Lianna. They will destroy everything,” her voice became a whisper.

  “You must stop them. The key is in the blood. There is great power in sacrifice. There is life in death. The magic is there, Lianna. You have to reach for it! You must have faith!”

  * * * * *

  “Wait!” I woke up with a painful gasp as my body jerked up right. My hand was reached out as if to grab something, then tightened to a fist and then held to my chest. As if that could slow my pounding heart.

  Damien was suddenly kneeling on the floor in front of me. His hand took mine. Our gazes locked. His other hand came up to my chin, his thumb stroking my cheek. “Are you okay?” He whispered so as to not wake Neesa. She lay curled up in a ball asleep at the end of the bed. She looked utterly exhausted.

  For the first minute, I couldn’t answer him. The image of the sandy world and that strange woman from my dreams still burned me. “Did you see it? Did you see what happened?” His eyes narrowed. He didn’t answer. Instead he just sat waiting for me to continue silent and patient. “She said that all the answers were in
the blood... What does that mean?”

  Damien’s brow lifts precariously as he looked to Neesa in silent question if I meant her. All I could do was shake my head. My hands were shaking. I clinched my eyes shut and shook my head. “Tell me,” his voice was surprisingly soothing. I nodded, taking a deep breath. He moved to the head of the bed, keeping my hand in his and pulled me into his lap, arms circling me protectively.

  I explained everything I experienced with Neesa up until I blacked out. Then what all had happened next. The dream was so short that it didn’t take long to explain. I had somehow managed to skip over the part about Damien without him realizing it or picking it up from my thoughts.

  Damien’s brow furrowed as his foot nudged Neesa in the leg lightly. “Wake up Descendant,” his voice rumbled like a growl. Nothing gentle about that.

  As Neesa’s eyes popped open she wrinkled her nose grouchily and looked up to Damien so obviously ready to give him a verbal reaming until she realized I was awake. “What can I help you with?” She grumbled through clenched teeth.

  “You put her in a trance and promised no one could reach her there because it would only induce an out of body experience so that she could heal peacefully with no stress from her mind. Your words Descendant,” his words were venom.

  Damien starred at Neesa expectantly who only looked confused and worried. “And yet that’s not what happened.” Her eyes widened as her lips parted slightly. It was a look of fear. “What happened was another being pulled her into a metaphysical dimension.”

  “Oh shit.” Neesa grumbled as she sat up and looked at me as if she wasn’t sure what she was looking at exactly.

  “She’s fine. No monsters waiting in the darkness this time. Just an undead spirit who’s been haunting her for her entire life thus far.”