Divine Blood (Vampire Love Story #6) (4 page)

I called my island Helena, after my
good friend, Helen, who had lost her life in the good fight against
Krull, those many years ago.

The second island, I originally gave
to Atticai, my former comrade, and even prior to that, my adversary
who became an astute right-hand man, after Tommy, if not a friend.
Atticai named his island Attica, despite my objections. He nearly
ran his island into the ground for ten years. It was shocking to me
how such an elite fighter had been a terrible governor. It was a
lesson to me that just because a Mani was good at war, that he
would also be good at peace.

The island of Attica was now run by
someone new—Brock Houston—a highly educated Mani who, up to now,
had turned that island around. It was as prosperous as our island
in trade and crops.

I had been given the biggest castle on
the island of Helena after the great battle with Krull. My friends
came and went but managed to stay in my life and even help me out
sometimes when I needed it. These days, I rarely did.

As for my friends, one by one, they
eventually exited off the island to go on and do their own thing.
The fairytale society of a perfect Mani kingdom fell short when we
discovered we all took our imperfect selves into the mix. Our
unique individuality was beautiful, but it was also a hindrance
that occasionally ran to chaos and disassociation with common goals
and distractions with personal lives and passions that did not fit
who we were, as a unified people.

Everybody had the best intentions, and
many did stay. It just fell a tad short of the Utopian world that
was prophesied to so many for so long. The irony was, the ones who
still stuck around on the islands were the oldest Mani vampires. It
was as if they knew it wasn’t perfect, but it beat the lives they
had once lived. By far.

I privately thought of my kingdom
almost as a cruise-ship approach, where we kept the “lifers” happy
with games and food, with little expectations beyond a swift and
deadly defense if such an occasion should arise against some enemy
who sought to take us out. It had not happened since Krull had come
to try to destroy us. Helena was a peaceful place.

Over the last sixteen years, I noticed
the people of Helena had grown complacent, lazy, and suffered from
a serious lack of purpose or organization, beyond the day-to-day
life that was not for the greater good, but degenerated into days
that were merely for ourselves. I was more than mildly ashamed. If
Tommy was around, he would at least kick my butt and make me work
out every day, keep my fighting skills sharp. I did not perform
such self-maintenance.

Again, the thought came to
me:
Where is my Utopia?

My friends, my comrades in arms, and
in my heart...they had all decided to move on with their lives. All
except for Sion. They visited once in a while and we usually found
some trouble to get into when they came to raise the roof with the
stories of us of old, with my sons listening, almost in wonder at
their old man who became a legend, like the Vikings, like the Huns,
even, dare I compare myself, like the disciples.

But, though my body barely
aged, my golden age of courageous acts had seemed to pass away into
dust, and into
was
, instead of
is
. That faithful gang of mine had definitely split up and my
life was now focused on my family—my sons were not just my blood,
but my
divine
blood, as the Deity put it to me so wonderfully.

It was a great responsibility,
especially raising Jason. His destiny was not mine, but knowing the
prophecies about him was truly a grappling hook in my heart. I
would have to raise him, only to lose him. I would rather die than
allow that to happen.

It had been years since I had fought
for anything. I retired a few years back. But now, I had this
strange feeling that things were about to heat up again on the home
front.

My sons were almost men, and if my
intuition proved to be accurate, that divine blood would prove to
become even thicker than I anticipated.

I still couldn’t sleep. I had way too
much on my mind, and there was only one who could fully understand
my worries about tomorrow.

I sat up in bed and looked down on
Lena, who was still laying sound asleep right next to me. She was
sleeping peacefully, with not a crease of worry in her expression.
I’d always thought there was no one more beautiful than my wife
sleeping and each day, when I woke up next to her, I was grateful
for her. She had been the love of my life for almost eighteen years
of dating and sixteen years of marriage.

We’d had our ups and downs and I
probably should have told her more often that I loved her, but I
was sure she knew it. We had been together a long time. Through the
years, there had been challenges, but we’d always come out
ahead.

There was nothing normal or regular
about my marriage to Lena. We lived in a sixteenth-century castle
on an island that I owned. Lena and I were the rarest breed of Mani
vampires. As a matter of fact, we were so rare that we were the
only two vampires that had one really unusual trait: Lena and I
were both mortal and immortal. If someone said they were mortal,
that should be the end of the story. In our case, it wasn’t—we also
had all the characteristics of vampires. Neither of us could handle
the sun longer than 45 seconds. Our marriage had been as normal as
walking on the surface of the sun in a pair of
flip-flops.

As if that wasn’t enough, here was
where everything got a little tricky. We had amazing twin
sixteen-year-old sons who couldn’t be any more different. Both had
a huge calling in their lives, just like their father. When I
talked about ‘a calling,’ I was referring to the Triat. The Triat
was the supernatural force that bound together all who are
immortal.

Our lives had been pretty out of the
ordinary for quite some time. So, every once in a while, I enjoyed
just simply staring at my beautiful angel as she slept. I kissed
Lena on the forehead and whispered, “I love you.” Maybe it would
penetrate into her subconscious.

I used to think my two
boys sleeping was a peaceful picture. I guess I just worried about
them too much these days. That, and they were now both taller than
their dad. Checking in on them at night was less cute and more just
making sure that everyone was safe. There was no more night
mischief, such as special bedtime blankies brought for them when
they were young and still in possession of their baby teeth. There
were no more teddy bears, no bedtime stories, and no tucking in of
the covers.
Boys to almost
men...

These days, I felt like a captain
checking in on his troops. Bed check. Big boots on the floor. Thick
schoolbooks with titles like trigonometry and political science. A
heavy bag in the corner. Martial arts videos, both entertainment
and instruction.

Joshua and Jason were big boys. Not
fat. Built like tanks. Both were nearing 6 feet, 2 inches tall.
Joshua weighed about 215 and Jason was skinnier. He was pushing two
bills, but I’d be surprised if he was a pound more.

I should have known better than to
start reflecting about my family. Especially on this night.
Tomorrow was going to be a huge day for one of my sons and me. I
should be used to all types of stress, but there was nothing like
the feeling when you worried about your kids. To me, worry meant
that you loved someone.

I loved both my boys with
every inch of my being and I would do anything for either of
them.
Anything.
And that was what kept me tossing, turning, my stomach a pit
of anxiety, and my heart, heavy. My mind was full of strife and
what-ifs.

Jason, the introvert of our two sons,
had a divine gift. It was a gift we discovered he had, right out of
the womb. He could heal. He could heal anyone. I’d seen him heal
humans, vampires and werewolves. However, his healing did
discriminate. Also, Jason didn’t need the Triat’s approval to use
his gift. His opinion overrode even the Triat themselves because of
who he was, is, and will be.

My son was a very good boy. His heart
was larger than anything else this world had to offer. The reason
why tomorrow concerned me was because this time didn’t feel right.
All my life, I had listened to my feelings—they had kept me alive
this long.

Those who knew me well
trusted me when I told them that the Triat wanted me to stay alive.
There was no way I should still be alive after all I had been
through. And yet, here I stayed. Lived.
Thrived.

But...I was also a man of my word. I’d
told Brock Houston that I’d meet him at his newly built mansion on
the island of Attica. I remembered the day Atticai had named that
island. I’d thought the name wasn’t too inspirational, as it was
already the name of a prison, but the name had become what it was
and Atticai was just trying to find a name that was close to his
own name. He also had a wicked sense of humor, under the serious
demeanor, but the name of the island, I felt, was driven by his
need for a legacy. He had no children, and the island was all he
had to carry his name.

Now Atticai was long gone, but that is
a tale for another time. The island was now governed by Atticai’s
successor, a superrich and highly charismatic Mani named Brock
Houston. I didn’t know him well. I’d actually gone out of my way
not to know him well. As far as I was concerned, he was an
outsider.

Like I said many times, I was a man of
instinct and my instinct told me on day one not to like this guy.
There were many reasons to dislike him, other than that he came
from money.

Attica’s people followed
Brock Houston as passionately as my followers followed me. That
scared me. His power. I had earned my power. I had come from
nothing, and built my honor, blood drop by blood drop. When someone
had power that was wrapped up behind their money, that never sat
right with me. Respect had to be earned on the battlefield.
Not granted.
Brock’s
power was pure granted, a given, because of his wealth, which both
repulsed me and alarmed me.

However, I had never felt pressure to
help someone. It had always been because it came from the goodness
of my heart. I felt very manipulated by Brock. Whenever someone
blatantly manipulated me, it made me feel highly
uncomfortable.

I felt this situation had gone out of
control. The only thing to do was honor my commitment and move on
with my life. Hopefully, my son and I would both come out
unscathed. This situation seemed to be coming from a power that
wasn’t my own. This was entirely my decision to let my son go into
the lion’s den. I just prayed that I wouldn’t regret it.

An old saying came to mind
from many years gone by, and it was a scrap of wisdom from my
once-human life that had been eclipsed by my immortality:
Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends.

When the time came, I’d be there with
my son, by his side, and with the old battle cries and the power of
the Triat behind us, guiding us, leading us, empowering us. I was
going to honor that vow to serve, to protect, and to sacrifice, or
my word meant nothing.

Chapter Six

I was still lying on my back in my bed
next to my wife as restless as I think I ever have been in my life,
my brain synapses repeatedly firing with ideas and worries and
hopes and agonizing dread. I knew I needed some sleep because I
wanted to be sharp tomorrow, just in case Brock tried to pull a
fast one. At this point in my life, I needed to be prepared for
anything.

I thought about the
essentials that made me who I was, who I am and who I will
be.
Josiah, past, present and
future.
The scenes of my life rolled out
like movie trailers, with the future misty and uncertain, the
present clear and a little stale, and the past seeming like someone
else’s life of glory, honor, and sacrifice.

I stared at the ceiling, willing my
mind to focus on something for the greater good, a philosophy that
had taken me from the near-gutter of selfish humanity to become the
sacrificial leader of a united race of immortals.

My mind was all over the place. I sure
wasn’t a kid anymore. I never went into the tank over anything
other than Lena. But tonight, I had a lot on my mind. I was just
taking some time to think how I got into this predicament. It was a
series of events that got me to where I was today and it started
with my close friends leaving. It was heartbreaking and I couldn’t
stop them because I had nothing to offer them.

As if it was yesterday, I
remembered the point of no return for each of them. Yari had never
even got her feet dusted by the thick, red earth on Helena Island.
So, when she came to visit me at my castle, I wasn’t surprised what
she had to say to me. It pained me to hear, but it sure didn’t
surprise me.

We had only been on the
island for about three full years. One day, Yari had simply showed
up around 6:00 p.m. without any explanation or even an implied
mission. In my book, that was very early in the day for a Mani, so
I knew she had a big night ahead of her. Why she came to see me was
becoming more apparent as the clues came rolling in.