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

After the sun went down,
the four of us went into the back yard. Tommy and I each had a beer
in our hands, watching my two sons climb a tree, as if we were
watching the Super Bowl of tree climbing.

“
So, what’s the deal with
your little monkeys?” Tommy asked. “Are they so bored on that
island that they turned primitive and now want to hunt and
gather?”

“
You watch, Tom. They are
going to climb the biggest of the trees.”

“
I don’t doubt it. What’s
a kid to do on an island except climb palm trees for
coconuts?”

“
We don’t have palm trees
or coconuts on our island.”

“
That’s too bad. Coconut
crème pie is so good. You know, I have some chocolate mousse in the
fridge?”

“
You wouldn’t lie to a
father of two five-year-old boys would you?”

“
I never joke about
pie.”

I grinned at my best
friend and then we both watched my boys prepare to climb Tommy’s
gigantic eucalyptus tree. It was at least thirty-five feet
high.

Both boys were tall for
their age.

Before we knew it, Jason
hopped up and began climbing. Joshua was right behind him. Jason
climbed to the left side of the eucalyptus tree and Joshua climbed
to the right.

They were both showing off
for their dad and uncle, and I should have been wiser about the
scenario. It was the old competitor in me that craved to see
competition, even with my own boys. It seemed like harmless
entertainment. At first...

“
My money is on Joshua,”
Tommy said.

“
I’m not going to pick
sides, but watch how slick Jason moves up the tree. The good money
is on him.”

“
Put your money where your
mouth is,” Tommy laughed.

“
I don’t want to encourage
your gambling and it’s not right for a dad to pick sides by betting
on his kids.”

“
Man, you’re no fun
anymore,” Tommy scoffed.

“
I’m plenty of fun. Just
grounded,” I said indignantly.

“
Unless I make the
headlines breaking the law, I’m not going to see my friend in
action.”

“
What kind of action do
you want to see? If it’s a strip tease, I just might do it if you
promise to tip well.”

“
You know what I’m saying.
You are no longer a recluse.”

“
And that’s a bad thing?”
I asked.

“
I don’t know. I miss the
old Josiah who used to kick ass with me.”

“
He had to grow up.” I
paused at the irony of our conversation. “You could always team up
with me.”

“
To do your little
crime-fighting stunt as a superhero?”

“
Stunt? It’s no stunt. I
have helped a lot of people who needed it.”

“
I know you always make
sure you pour every detail of your adventure to that
blogger.”

“
I don’t do that,” I said
half honestly. I never actually did it. But Sion was the blogger in
question. He was sort of my public relations guy along with
everything else he did for me.

“
Check it out, Josiah. It
looks like Jason is about to reach the top. Those branches don’t
look too sturdy. He should probably start coming down.”

I looked up into the
eucalyptus tree. Man! The boys were fast climbers. Just like Tommy
had said, Jason had reached the top.

I was about to yell, ‘it’s
time to start climbing down and you’re too high’ when the
unthinkable happened. It happened so fast, I couldn’t even react in
time.

My heart sank as Jason
lost his footing and fell from thirty feet up, knocking
down Joshua. As my two five-year old boys both
fell from the tree, I tried to react but I couldn’t move fast
enough. Both my little angels landed on the ground right at my
feet. It happened so fast, I couldn’t even comprehend or fathom it
happening the way it did. I nearly threw up as I witnessed this
horrible tragedy.

I was just about to reach
in my pocket and call 911 when Jason, who fell from the highest
point, sat up and started laughing as if he was told a funny joke.
My jaw fell open. He wasn’t hurt at all. He didn’t have a scratch
on him. He got to his feet and cracked his back and that was the
extent of his injuries. He hadn’t seen his brother yet and I knew
that would cause some waterworks. Joshua, however, was a mess. I
felt horrible. He was moaning, crying and bleeding from several
places. What the hell do I do? The Triat didn’t allow me to heal my
own family...that was apparent the night my sons were
born.

I looked at Jason and I
knew he had yet to discover this about himself...but he seriously
needed to heal his brother. His brother was in a lot of pain. He
was probably suffering serious internal injuries, if not broken
bones.

I couldn’t think straight
as I looked down at my young son, who had just fallen thirty feet
to his back after being clobbered by his brother on the way
down.

I knew I couldn’t heal
him, but hopefully Jason could. “Jason, lay your hands on
Joshua.”

“
Why, Dad?” Jason seemed
confused. I needed for him to focus.

“
I want you to concentrate
on healing your brother’s body.”

Jason looked at me,
confused. “What do you mean? You want me to pray for
him?”

“
I want you to let your
mind go blank and just concentrate on healing all the injuries in
your brother’s body. Can you do that, son?”

“
Yes, Dad.” Then Jason
reluctantly placed both hands over Joshua’s chest.

I looked over at Tommy,
and he looked like he was going to have a heart attack. I looked
back at Jason who had placed his hands firmly on his brother’s
bloody shirt over his body.

Then Jason pulled his
hands away quickly. “What happened?” I asked. “What’s wrong,
Jason?”

“
I see things. I see his
life,” Jason said in his little five-year-old voice.

“
Fight it off, and focus
on healing his body.” I couldn’t believe I was saying this to a
five year old. But I knew we had little time left.

Jason took a deep breath
and placed his hands back on his brother’s chest. He closed his
eyes and concentrated. Before we knew it, Joshua’s broken body had
healed. God only knew the extent of his injuries, but his brother
came through and healed him.

Joshua sat up and coughed
and then started laughing, just like his brother had. Man, I had
weird kids. Then Joshua said, “I don’t hurt anymore. What
happened?” Joshua looked at me and then he looked at his
brother.

“
A miracle happened, son.
I’ll tell you more about it some other time.” Then I picked up my
son and held him in my arms. Tommy grabbed Jason and the four of us
went inside and finished the pizza and started the movies. I think
Tommy and I will have no problem watching both G-rated movies
tonight. That was as scary as it gets for a parent. I couldn’t get
the image of watching my two sons fall thirty feet to the earth out
of my head, but I did my best not to show it.

When it was all over, I
told Jason to keep it a secret that he had healed his brother. I
told him we would tell his mother, but that would be the extent of
people knowing what he did. I did let him know he had a gift, but
that because he was so young, he needed my approval to use it. I
didn’t want him running around healing road kill and
insects.

Chapter Eight

I shut Joshua’s door quietly, being
sure not to wake him, and walked down the hall looking at the
pictures on the wall. I sure enjoyed being a dad. I stared at the
wall of a photo of my boys when they were about five. They were
such a handful. It had been hard. Both boys had always been there
for the other. Jason wasn’t the only one with an amazing
gift.

Like I said, we had two
incidents about three months apart. In the second situation, Joshua
came out the hero, maybe not as impressive as his brother, in terms
of magnitude, but in terms of family unity, it was just as
important and showed just as much love.

Joshua may not have had
the type of abilities that Jason has, but what he does have is a
spiritual connection to his brother. They were connected in a way
that was even tighter than the bond Tommy and I have. Well, it
should be, considering they were biological twins.

It wasn’t long after Jason
healed his brother from falling out of the tree that Joshua stepped
up in his own right.

The family had visited
Tommy once again in Southern California. We had to lay down the no
climbing of trees rule, especially because this time, Lena was with
us. To be honest, it was her rule. No one was going to dispute it
after what happened last time. Lena was still not over what I had
to tell her that happened three months before.

We were getting ready to
come back home after visiting Tommy and I decided to take the boys
to the Rain Forest Café in the Ontario Mills Mall. I figured the
boys would enjoy it.

As I suspected, the boys
had the time of their lives and I even saw Lena smile a couple of
times, too. She still thought she was pretty Goth when it came to
stuff like this and tried to show little emotion, but I knew when
she was having fun. She couldn’t fool me. She was digging the
animatronic apes.

But one of my biggest
nightmare happened after we finished eating and we decided to walk
over to the food court to get a dessert. I was a big believer in
eating your dessert in a different location than where you ate your
main course. It added intrigue to your evening and I loved
chocolate-dipped vanilla ice cream cones that you could only get at
the food court.

The four of us were
walking through the mall and Lena and I got sidetracked talking
about the music that was coming out of the window of a music box
store.

We had stopped at the
window were discussing the quality of music that comes out of the
music boxes themselves. I was under the impression that the sound
is horrible and all you’re really buying is a pretty box. I felt
very strongly about my opinion, as I did all my opinions. Lena was
under the impression that it wasn’t about the sound quality; it was
about the elegance. Once again, our arguments made no
sense.

After about two minutes of
bantering, we turned around. And, to our horror, we were one boy
short. Jason was missing.

I looked at Lena and she
looked at me. We both had the same terrified look on each other’s
faces.

We both scanned the area
as quickly as we could.

“
Jason?” Lena called
out.

There was no sign of Jason
anywhere. I left Joshua with Lena and I went in and out of every
store within a ten-store proximity.

I walked back to Lena and
Joshua and saw no sign of Jason.

“
How far could he have
gone?” I asked Lena.

“
Joshua, did you see your
brother walk away?” I asked.

“
No, Dad. I was looking at
the music boxes with you and Mom.”

Normally, I’d be nervous
in this situation, but the calling Jason had on his life made me
exceptionally nervous.

I’d always kept an extra
eye on Jason in public. This was the one time I hadn’t. Ontario
Mills Mall was a pretty large mall.

“
We need to find him,” I
said to my family. “Let’s go this way.” I wanted to go to the
right, back to where the Rain Forest Café was, but something
happened that changed things.

My son said, “No, Dad,
he’s this way.” Joshua pointed in the opposite
direction.

“
Are you sure, son? Did
you see him?” My five year old was still not very tall, and I
couldn’t imagine he could see him. “Son, time is of the essence. Do
you think he went that way?”

Lena looked at me as if I
had lost my mind. “Let’s just find Jason fast!” Lena
said.

“
Something tells me that
we should listen to Joshua,” I said.

“
Then I guess that’s what
we’re doing,” Lena replied.

The three of us made our
way left, deep into Ontario Mills Mall. I couldn’t imagine Jason
being intrigued by the stores in this section. It was all outlet
stores. Mainly stores for women.

Then we hit another part
where, did we go left and follow the clothing stores, or did we go
right and make our way toward the exit?

Joshua was leading the
way. My heart sank and I saw we were heading for an exit. But then
Joshua stopped in front of a pet store. “He’s in there!” Joshua
said. Thank God!

“
Are you sure?” I ran
inside the store and sure enough, in the back of the store, sitting
next to a box of puppies, was Jason.

“
Jason!” I called
out.

He looked up at me and put
the whisper finger sign on his mouth.

“
I’m your father. Don’t
tell me to shush. We have been looking everywhere for you!” I said,
almost beside myself. It was the most stern I had ever been with
Jason.

“
Dad, these puppies are
sick. I have been healing them.”