Author, A. J. Llewellyn

By A.J. Llewellyn

Living in LA, I know hundreds of actors and singers and get invited to all kinds of plays, musical performances and showcases. I try to attend everything I can since I value my friendships, but sometimes the results can be questionable. When my best friend, Claire, invited me to join her on Saturday night to see a new musical at a restaurant, I had an open heart (and stomach) but had no idea what to expect.

I certainly didn’t expect one of the most moving experiences I have ever had in my life.

The restaurant, Mare’ka, a little vegan gem tucked in a strip mall on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, was chaotic and jammed, the stage tiny.

The cast of Finding Venus sat on stools and squeezed into the small space, its star, Caroline Waters highlighted with her amazing voice, wonderful wit, her piano and guitar playing and her amazing, vibrant soul.

It was a mighty wind the Goddess Venus ushered in that frigid evening as one of her daughters shed tears and heart blood to the rapt crowd as she shared the story of her life.

Born in Norway, Caroline Waters was raised strictly under her father’s coda that success comes with discipline, discipline and discipline. She learned to play music and to perform from the time she was very young. I kept thinking of the Von Trapp family singers as she described having never had a day off as a kid. Sundays were spent exercising.

A near-fatal accident on her bicycle changed her life. After struggling to recover – alone - since her parents chose to keep touring as she lay in her hospital bed, Caroline/Venus discovered that almost dying had freed her spirit and her body. She realized she was gay but when she came out to her parents, they refused to believe it.

They brought psychiatrists home in ham-fisted efforts to convince her she was confused. In one amusing sequence, the psychiatrist told her mother, “She’s not confused. You’re confused.”

A visit to San Francisco when she was nineteen introduced her to a woman named Stefanie Stroh. For Venus, life began to make sense. All the things she’d yearned for, dreamed of, suddenly became possible.

I am in a puddle of grief as I recall this portion of the show. Venus and Stefanie were so in tune that when Venus returned to Norway and communication from Stefanie suddenly stopped, Venus became frantic. Terrible dreams of Stefanie calling out to her ruptured her sleep for months until she finally told her parents that she had to return to San Francisco to find her.

Her parents didn’t encourage the idea, her mother blurting, “What if she isn’t there?”

They finally gave Venus a letter they’d withheld from her.

Stefanie Stroh had disappeared in the Nevada desert four months ago, last seen walk toward a freeway in the town of Winnemucca.

She hasn’t been seen since.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house - even on the stage – as Venus described her long search for Stefanie. The soul-wailing unleashed in the performance as she finally accepts she must let her sweet friend go, reduced everyone in the house to tears.

Caroline Waters is a brave woman, an even braver artist and I cannot wait to see this show again. Thanks too, must go to her incredible cast. I can’t decide where to start but will go with my heart and say that Katisse Buckingham and Jennifer Richardson’s musical accompaniment was perfect. As for the performers, Katia Moraes as Stefanie is simply wonderful. Marie Bergenholz as her mother had a sometimes thankless role but was pitch-perfect. Ottiliana Richardson, portraying a couple of different music teachers and life-guides for Venus, was exquisite.

Brian Dyer as her father had me shaking in my boots that he might force us all into the Norwegian forest for deep knee exercises.

I loved Waters’ camraderie on stage with her amazingly supportive performers, including Matthew Moore, who played the sympathetic psychiatrist.

This is art. High art. It is also a compassionate, realistic study of what unsolved mysteries can do a human life. How do we let go? How do we say goodbye when we can’t? How do we move on? How do we smile again?

We Find Venus.

Stefani Stroh remains missing, believed murdered. Her case is still open and in the show’s program, Caroline Waters has a photo of the real Stefanie with a plea for any information to be forward to the Nevada police. I found her case online: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/stroh_stefanie.html

I urge my readers to sample Caroline Waters’ special brand of music. She has a YouTube video and clips of her songs on her website: www.carolinewaters.com but do whatever you have to do to see her next (as yet unscheduled) show. You will be inspired, empowered and entertained.

You too, will Find Venus.

Aloha oe,

A.J.

By A.J. Llewellyn

Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone… I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I’d see you again. – from Fire and Rain, music and lyrics, James Taylor

When I first started writing gay erotic romance fiction six years ago, I didn’t tell many people. It was a new medium for me and I wanted to see how it went. I had coffee one day with my friend John Bruno, who had been struggling to find work as an artist. I’ve never met a kinder, more talented man. I couldn’t understand why he couldn’t get a break. He told me he was getting work here and there…and suddenly mentioned a movie he’d directed. When I probed he wouldn’t say what kind of movie at first. He finally said he was directing gay porn.

I was delighted. I told him I was writing gay erotic romances and we had a good laugh that we were such shy puveyors of porn. John Bruno (his porn name, not his real name), became one of my biggest supporters and introduced me to Adam Killian before Adam became the multimedia superstar he is now. Adam and I did a shoot for three of my favorite bookcovers and John showed an intense interest in my work.

We’d talk shop and he told me hilarious stories of life on the set. Then one day he casually suggested we should work together. We had big ideas. Actually, the ideas were his. He had this vision of porn webisodes based on a book he thought I should write. John was brilliant that way. He was cutting edge.

Today, he is gone. Way too soon.

His life cut short by his own hand.

Yesterday, I learned he took his own life on Monday evening and I am in grief. I am in torment, but I have had to accept that he had tried before with pills. This time he made sure there would be no rescues. It wasn’t a cry for help.

He was, as a mutual friend said to me last night, done.

John had a gun nobody knew about and left his family house in Michigan where he’d been visiting his parents. His father followed his footsteps in the snow and found his body. He’d shot himself and I cannot imagine his father’s pain and grief.

Everyone I’ve spoken to has beautiful memories about this man and feels a deep, deep sadness at his passing.

John Bruno died because his dreams not only didn’t come true, they were trampled once too often.

He couldn’t get work in porn, in spite of his obvious talent  because the hot new thing is porn stars doing their own directing.

He couldn’t get work in mainstream media, in spite of his prolific background in it, not to mention his awards, because executives would find out he’d directed gay porn.

It happened more than once. He wouldn’t get the job.

Because he’d directed porn.

So what?

We discussed this devastating issue the last time he tried to kill himself. He was matter of fact about it. He was sad, but trying so hard to be positive. He quit the porn industry two years ago after a near-fatal overdose when he couldn’t handle losing work, losing his home and…his crushing, severe depression.

He moved home to be with his family for a while and worked as a waiter. He had hilarious stories and suggested a book.

He was as usual, wonderfully funny, sweet, but sad at the same time. He wanted to work. He took up photography again and would send me photos. He had bright ideas and suggested Moby’s Dick for a new book. Based on his idea, D.J. Manly and I wrote it and the book came out at Silver Publishing last year. I loved his cover for it and wished I could have paid him a lot more for it than I did but he was excited. He had other ideas, too.

I wondered, if it was this hard for a director of porn to get work, what must it be like for performers? Gay, or straight, it’s difficult. Last night I heard on the radio a story about a beloved female teacher who lost her job because one of her students found a very old snippet from a movie she did ten years ago.

What hypocrisy!

What pisses me off is that the same executives who wouldn’t hire John were probably watching his movies. At Falcon Studios and his own private label, Massive Studios, he discovered and honed many talented performers.

Adam Killian was one of them.

He was John’s videographer and it was John who encouraged Adam’s first foray into porn – his scene-stealing sex scene with Zeb Atlas in The Best Man. John nurtured Adam’s porn career the way he did other performers like Samuel Colt, Tristan Jaxx. I could go on.

John suggested to me a series of books, the first of which became Laid. He did the cover. I wrote the story. Our plan was to shoot it as webisodes. Falcon deemed the sex scenes too expensive too shoot so John set his sights on the second book, Bad Cops and this time he controlled the sex scenes and I wrote them from the actual shoot.

He did the webisodes with frankly mixed results. I still laugh over Rob Romoni’s scene where he and another guy watch each other jack off. Even to a novice like me it was obvious the two men were filmed at different times – thanks to a broken camera.

But we had dreams. Big ones.

We ended up doing more in the Laid series but only Bad Cops made it into webisodes before Falcon crushed his last hope and treated him shamefully by diminishing the work they gave him. It was out with the old. In with the new. His planned projects were handed over to a gay porn performer who was also directing.

John wasn’t a performer. He was an artist.

As such, he encourged his friend Erik Rhodes to direct and they worked on a couple of movies together. I know he was devastated by Erik’s suicide. I know he felt that same hoplessness, that John too, fumbled in the dark.

John Bruno loved people. He came across tough but was a big marshmallow. He was the kindest, most giving man. He got up time and again and kept trying. He gave his friends help and hope. He loved cats. He loved life. He just kept getting beaten up by it.

Last night, I looked at his model mayhem page where he is listed as a photographer under his real name. His work is there and he last checked in just a few days ago. John had begun a new life in Atlanta and was actively pursuing his photography. He was a brilliant photographer but when I looked at the comments on his page, they were all requests for help.

For his opinion.

Nobody offered him work.

It is perhaps fitting and of course ironic that in his last days on earth people saw him as a master craftsman. Which he was. Perhaps they didn’t know the panic and pain of not being able to get work. Of being overlooked. Brushed aside.

I listen with a broken heart to that other master craftsman, James Taylor and can’t help thinking of his line from Fire and Rain:

Well, there’s hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come.

Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.

John was a sweet dream to all who knew him. And our beautiful, wonderful, high flying machine is finally in pieces.

On the ground.

Good-bye my friend. I hope you are in a better place. I hope you have no more pain.

I hope choirs of angels, other artists and writers want to listen to your words. I hope they appreciate with wonder your great art.

And I hope above all, more than anything, that you can once again fly.

Aloha oe,

A.J.

 

A Vampire in Waikiki Chronicles

Cover art: John Bruno

Chapter One: Ho’ano ~ Divine Sex

By A.J. Llewellyn

 

Attention Readers: This story takes place a few years after the last A Vampire in Waikiki series ended. Div and Tem’s beloved nephew, Akua is now four and Div and Tem still share their home with Div’s sister Kalani and her life mate, Clancy…I hope you enjoy this new series! There will be a new chapter every two weeks…

Love, AJ xoxo

 

 

Chapter One

 

“So what makes you think you’d be good parents?” the man across the desk asked me.

I held my breath.  It was noon and Joshua Cain already stunk of onions. Why did humans always eat onions? My eyes began to water so I had to breathe.

“You really want a child badly.” Joshua sounded surprised as he pushed a box of cheap tissues toward me. “You have tears in your eyes, Jimmy.”

If it helped our cause there was no need for him to know these were onion tears. I tore off a tissue and held it to my face. Evidently my improv skills needed work. My husband, Tem, looked at me, exasperated. This was so emotional for him, that I spoke for both of us.

“We love children and we have plenty of time and money to take care of one.” I had a hundred reasons I could offer the director of Applewood Children’s Home, but the only important one was that Tem wanted to foster a child. I could feel his tension, his restlessness. We’d been childless for just two days and he was climbing the walls.  Me, I wasn’t. But this wasn’t the time to be feeling sorry for myself. I was so in love with my man I’d even violated my own habit of not being out early in the day. I would have been happy making love to Tem all day. But noooo, he wanted more sticky pizza fingers and bedtime tantrums and…

I glanced past Tem to the windows that overlooked the emerald green grass outside. I think this was what upset him the most. That the children in the home were well cared for but the magnificent land out there belonged to the Disney resort complex next door. The Applewood kids got to see and hear other, more privileged children having a whale of a time all day long as they played with toys donated by strangers on grass that was a lot less attractive.

We’d done our best, ever since Tem found this place, to brighten the kids’ lives. We’d had a blast over Christmas buying a ton of One Direction stuff, iPods, and even iPads for the older kids and anything we thought would make them feel a little bit special.

If, however, I never had to hear Harry Styles belting out What Makes You Beautiful ever again, I’d stay a happily undead man.

This fostering idea had been Tem’s and to be frank I hadn’t been thrilled.

“We want to give an unwanted baby a home,” Tem started to say when I’d lapsed into silence. “We want the sound of a child’s laughter. The running feet, the−”

“There’s more to being a parent than that.” Joshua was being rude now and I didn’t tolerate anyone being rude to Tem. We had been good to him and his staff. Most of our dealings had been with them, but they’d encouraged us to approach him.

“Tem raised his brother and we frequently babysit our nephew. We’ve just had him for a whole month,” I said. No need to mention that Akua, whose name meant godly thunder, but since he was a storm demon he was more thunder and less of a god… And absolutely no reason to mention that Tem and I were apparently the only two people alive, or…undead…or whatever, who could control the little bastard.

No reason at all.

I realized Tem could read my mind and he was getting ready to be very upset. He adored Akua. We both beamed at Joshua who glanced from me to Tem and back again.

“You’ve donated a lot of money to us and you brought Christmas presents for the children last month. Your family has spent a lot of time here with them. The children all love you.” He took a breath.

I sensed a big but coming.

“And of course I’m aware that you do a lot for the community,” he added.

A lot for the community? He didn’t know the half of it. Being Tem’s life mate meant that the sick, stray and completely senile sought us out. Todah, his brother, constantly palmed Akua off onto us. Not that I minded. Not really. I sort of got a kick out of the kid hosing nasty people with fire and poking his little forked tongue out at them. It could be difficult to explain sometimes. I’d also become used to having to fly up to the roof to get him down from there.

“Then what is the problem?” I asked.

“Your wife.” Joshua picked up a piece of paper. “She’s out of the country traveling with her band, isn’t she?”

God. “She’s on her way back.” I didn’t check my watch again. I’d done so many times in the fifteen minutes since we’d walked into the office. We’d had to reschedule two meetings already when Clancy’s tour of Japan became extended and Tem would flip out if she didn’t turn up soon.

How did I explain that Clancy was only technically my wife? I couldn’t tell Joshua that she was my sister Kalani’s vampire mate, and that Tem was mine. I’d married Clancy so she could stay in the country. It was all Kalani’s idea and Tem had insisted on it. I took a deep breath.

“Yes, but she should be here any minute. She’ll be here for another week before heading to Vietnam. She loves children and ah…and my sister lives with us.” I indicated Tem. “My business partner lives in the house, too.”

“Right.” He looked at us. “And so…all of you would be involved in taking care of the child?”

“Absolutely.”

The door flew open and Clancy cluttered in, a violin in one hand and a giant takeout coffee cup in the other.

“I’m here! I’m here!” She looked so pleased with herself. Something was stuck to her blonde hair. It looked like a plastic fork. She seemed exhausted but she remembered to plant a kiss on my lips.

I was surprised she’d made it at all. Kalani was right behind her. Having just collected her wife from the airport after a three-week separation I was pretty sure this wasn’t where Kalani wanted to be. Or Clancy for that matter. They shook hands with Joshua who brightened at the appearance of the two women.

“We were just discussing the possibility of your fostering a child,” Joshua said. His gaze remained riveted to Clancy’s hair.

Kalani seemed to suddenly notice the plastic fork and gently extracted it. Clancy’s blonde curls fell in waves to her shoulders.

I think it was that moment in which Joshua Cain fell in love.

“I saw your concert at Blaisdell,” he said in a hushed tone. “Thank you for giving all the children free tickets.” His gaze flew to the violin case. “Is that…it? The Lady Tennant?”

Clancy nodded. One of the world’s most valuable, highly coveted violins, this Stradivarius had come into Clancy’s possession when the previous owner needed money Kalani had bought it for her on their third wedding anniversary.

Of course he wanted to look at it. Everybody always wanted to look at it. He wasn’t gauche enough to ask what it had cost but most people could Google it and know the previous owner bought it at auction for two million dollars.

The Lady Tennant never left Clancy’s trusty grip if she was traveling with it and once she was home, we kept it in an underground safe.

“Would you like to see her?” Clancy asked.

“May I?” His face trembled with excitement. She moved around to his side of the desk as Kalani sat beside me and squeezed my hand. I felt Tem relaxing on my other side as Clancy opened the case and picked up her prized instrument.

Joshua’s mouth fell into an appreciative o as she put it in his hands.

“It’s so heavy.” He sounded surprised. Everyone who touched it said the same thing. “Beautiful. Just beautiful.” He handed it back to her with a reverent gaze and she secured it once again in the case’s lush purple velvet interior. Clancy must have aimed to impress. Even I wasn’t allowed to touch that piece of wood without a pair of white cotton gloves.

She hurried around to squeeze into a chair between me and Tem.

“Well,” Joshua said, apparently caving in. “I’ve thought about it. And you mentioned a baby but we don’t have any of those. I know you know most of the children here but we have one little boy who doesn’t quite fit in here−”

“What’s wrong with him?” Clancy asked.

Joshua blinked. Her Australian forthrightness could be a real sting in the eye at times but it was a fair question. The man looked pained.

“Nothing’s wrong with him.” He tapped his fingers on his desk for a moment. “Keej came to us under unusual circumstances.”

“Keej, that’s a delightful and unusual name,” Tem said.

Joshua nodded. “His family is hmong, and they come from the mountains of Thailand. It’s a very sad set of circumstances, but his parents and grandparents were killed in a flood there. He was sent to live with relatives on the Big Island and they couldn’t cope with him. They say he is rambunctious.”

“Is he?” Tem asked.

“Well, yes. But it’s more than that. He’s been here for a week and he’s just so unhappy. He picks fights. He won’t eat.”

“Does he speak English?” I asked.

“Oh, yes. He’s five and a half and he’s been living in Kona since he was two. I don’t think he remembers his own language anymore.” He paused and gave me a significant look. “He loves One Direction. Harry Styles is his favorite singer.”

I knew I would never live down having made an ass of myself singing along with that doll on Christmas Day when we visited the home. Word had spread. I was a boy band guy. A further ding to my street cred.

“Can we meet him?” Tem was so excited.

“Of course.” Joshua picked up his phone. I wasn’t stupid. I’ve been a vampire in Waikiki for over a hundred years. I could tell when a human adult thought he was offloading a lemon. Something had to be wrong with the kid for him to be willing to let us take him home.

“Martha,” he said into the receiver, “bring Keej in.”

The door opened a few minutes later and Martha, whom Tem and I knew well, came in, a big smile on her face as she held the hand of a tiny boy wearing blue board shorts that were too big for him and flip-flops in lurid green.

“Hi Keej, I’m Tem, and this is Jimmy, though we call him Div at home. And these lovely women are Clancy and Kalani.” Tem got down on the floor with the kid. “We are so happy to meet you!”

Keej was a handsome boy. His dark hair looked a little dull and he tossed it back from his face. He smiled at Tem who suddenly grabbed him and hugged him. The boy seemed to melt in his arms.

“Oh, Div! He’s adorable!” Tem looked up at me. “Can you take a photo of the two of us together?”

“Sure.” I pulled out my cell phone. I pointed the camera at them trying to remember the complicated configuration for saving the photo.

“Don’t worry,” I said, glancing up at Joshua. “It won’t show up on ebook or facemail.”

Joshua had a look of total surprise on his face. It quickly turned to a grin. “I think you mean Facebook.”

“Right,” I said.

The women took turns fussing over Keej. Me, I was staring at him, trying to figure out why I didn’t want to go near him. There was something off about him. I felt bad thinking so when he seemed perfectly sweet and rather shy, actually, but something shimmered around him. Perhaps, with such a sad beginning, something had clung to him from the other side.

I cast all these thoughts aside as Tem went bonkers over the boy. “Would you like to come and stay with us? Would you like to feed the dolphins?”

Trying to appear cool and with-it, I asked, “You like Super Mario Brothers?”         Keej’s little face lit up. “Yeah!” he screeched. “I want a wii U.”

What? He wanted to wee on me? Joshua was right. The kid was a menace to society.

“A wii U, Div,” Tem said quickly. “It’s the hot new video game console.”

“Right, right.” God I was such a damned dinosaur. “We got some for the kids for Christmas.” We’d also given Akua the Super Mario Brothers but at the age of four, he was so advanced being a supernatural being he’d labeled Mario a pussy.

Within minutes, Joshua began organizing Keej’s release papers. The little boy would be coming to stay with us for four weeks and if all went well, this would be extended.

“Is there anything we should know about him?” I asked as Martha led a reluctant Keej away from us to pack his things.

“He didn’t come here with much.” Joshua frowned. “Most peculiar thing.” He glanced at the file in front of him and back at us. “His relatives on the Big Island burned all his things. They took him to the police station saying they could no longer care for him. They wouldn’t say why they burned everything. They said it was the custom in Thailand, but frankly I think it was devastating for Keej. He cries a lot and sometimes wets his bed.”

He stared at Clancy. “Since you’ve been to Thailand and you’ve traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia, I thought Keej would be a good fit for you. He needs a lot of extra attention. With all of you involved, maybe it’s the tonic this little boy needs.”

My thoughts were racing. I had a terrible feeling something sinister was going on. People of Asian cultures only burned things to destroy a curse, or an evil entity. I’d come across an imu-gami when I’d first met Tem. I’d recognized it as other-worldly but hadn’t been able to identify the vicious dog-ghost. With the help of a Japanese odaisan, I’d destroyed the spirit that had attached itself to Todah.

Oh, man, would I have to get help once more?

I tuned back into Joshua’s monologue. “In the meantime, Martha will be your caseworker and she will be making unannounced house calls to you, approximately once a week. The state of Hawaii’s  Child Support Enforcement Agency will also be kept in the loop.

“You can expect a visit from them if Martha files anything negative, but hopefully it won’t come to that.”

Clancy and I signed a bunch of papers and we all rushed outside to await Keej. As soon as Martha brought him out he rushed right into Tem’s arms. Everybody loved Tem. He was love personified.

I took hold of the small backpack with Keej’s meager belongings. Kalani and Clancy hugged us all. We urged them to go home and enjoy each other.

“We’ll make dinner,” Clancy said. “Something special for Keej. Do you like hamburgers, Keej?”

The little boy nodded then buried his face in Tem’s neck.

“We want to take Keej shopping,” Tem said. He put the kid into the child safety seat we used for Akua in our SUV, and buckled him into it. Keej discovered a couple of Akua’s books in the seat pocket in front of him and pulled out Dora and Diego’s Adventures. He kept himself busy as we drove to the Ala Moana Mall.

Our first stop was Gap Kids where Tem went mad buying Keej all kinds of cool shorts and tops, some swim trunks, and underpants and socks. At the Reef store, we got the kid some board shorts that fit and flip-flops that matched. At the computer store, which I owned, the staff went gaga over him.

“He’s so well behaved,” Greta the store manager said. Yes, he was a big improvement on temperamental Akua for sure.

We picked up a wii U and a couple of games for Keej then dovetailed into the bookstore where he chose half a dozen books to read.

“Can we go for a swim?” he asked, his voice a nervous whisper.

He was really a sweet little guy and I was feeling bad about my dark thoughts. Maybe he wasn’t cursed. I mean, I couldn’t really see anything. It was something I sensed, and of course, what Joshua had told us.

“Of course we can go for a swim,” I said.

Tem and I exchanged grins. This was actually novel for us. Maybe the kid was normal after all. Akua was highly allergic to water. Something had gone wrong when he was born and as a rare hybrid of vampire and storm demon, he had to be bathed very carefully with a moist sponge. He certainly had never jumped into a body of water in his life.

“We should take him to Duke’s,” Tem suddenly said.

Uh-oh. I could see His-His-and-His Aloha shirts in our immediate future.

I wasn’t wrong. I drove to the Outrigger Hotel on Kalakaua Avenue, the nice end with the posh boutiques, as Tem sat in back with Keej, redressing him in new threads. He stashed all our new purchases in the cargo hold and quickly changed into board shorts we kept in back as I rolled into the valet entrance of the hotel.

The child looked positively stylish in a new pale blue T-shirt, matching board shorts, and black and blue flip-flops. As we passed the Aloha shirt shop, Tem walked in and asked if they had any vintage shirts in the same pattern for all three of us.

“I’ll find some for you,” the store clerk promised, dollar bills dancing in his eyes. He had Tem’s cell phone number already and we went on to Duke’s.

Keej seemed excited as he looked out at the thatched umbrellas at the outdoor tables and to the ocean beyond.

“Would you like some lunch first or a swim?” Tem asked the little boy.

“Mmm…a swim.”

Tem took him to the beach while I waited for a table that was outdoors but shady enough that I wouldn’t melt into a vampire puddle before I’d had a single drink.

I could see Tem, who’d left their shirts and shoes with me, striding into the water. Man, I loved his hot ass. Keej squealed with joy as they plunged into the water together.

A harried waitress found us a table and I sat, ordering a mai tai. I was in a thoroughly good mood by the time Tem and Keej returned. Being mated vampires, Tem and I could read each other’s thoughts.

Not a single tantrum. Not one moment of fussing, he telepathed to me.

I nodded. Smiling at Keej I asked, “What would you like to eat?”

He looked saucer-eyed. “I can choose?”

“Of course you can choose. What’s your favorite thing in the whole wide world?”

“Hamburgers.”

“Hmm…mine too. We’re having hamburgers for dinner but since this is a special day we can have them for lunch as well. You like French fries?”

“Yeah!”

This day was getting better and better. We could take this kid out with us. He didn’t pick up his utensils with his feet. He laughed and listened and ate. He took tentative bites of his mahi mahi burger, which he switched to after I ordered one. He liked the fried fish, but took a little coaxing to eat more than a few bites. He seemed shy one second, excited the next. He loved the fries and chocolate shake we ordered and his eyes grew dreamy when he saw the hula pie the waiter brought for all three of us to share.

I took a photo of him and Tem sharing a spoonful of whipped cream and hot chocolate sauce and that’s when I saw the shimmer again. It was all around him. Something tall.

Tem was unaware of it, for which I was grateful. I’d have to call on our family matriarch, Blossom, and ask her for another favor. I didn’t want to, because her return favors were usually unpleasant, but we were going to need help. Whatever had attached itself to Keej was lying in wait.

Blossom had found the last odaisan for us but Tem had been forced to kill him after he tried to kill Akua.

I tried to keep my thoughts neutral because I didn’t want my husband to read my fear. He was so happy in this moment, I wanted nothing to spoil the simple pleasure he took in enjoying this afternoon with Keej.

After lunch, we walked on the beach, another rare pleasure. The three of us danced and chased waves across the sand, winding our way back to the hotel. We retrieved the SUV from the valet guys and headed home.

Little Keej picked up the book he’d been looking at earlier but it slipped through his fingers as he fell asleep.

“He’s wonderful,” Tem whispered.

I agreed. I had to. We drove home in silence, holding hands. I was pleased to see that a few holiday decorations remained on some people’s houses. I wished every day were Christmas.

 

Back at our house on top of the Tantalus Mountain, Keej awoke, full of curiosity and joy when he saw Kalani riding up to us on horseback. The little boy went nuts when he met Lono, one of our sweetest horses.

“Would you like to ride with me?” she asked Keej who jumped up and down with excitement.

“He needs a helmet,” Tem insisted.

“Tem, are you kidding me? This is me you’re talking to. I won’t let anything happen to him. Children on the islands don’t wear helmets on horseback.”

I lifted Keej up to her and he giggled as she settled him protectively in front of her. This was one hobby she’d been unable to share with Akua, because although he liked the horses, they were spooked by him.

She seemed to be really digging Keej. I dutifully photographed them together. He looked so small and sweet up on that horse with my raven-haired, leather-clad sister.

“Go have some fun.” She wiggled her eyebrows at us and turned Lono around. “We’ll see you a little later.”

“Giddyup!” Keej shouted, giggling.

My sister laughed.

I didn’t need sex permission in writing. I helped Tem unload the cargo hold and we took everything inside. We’d prepared for this day but it was still a surprise to be taking the things we’d purchased for Keej into the room we’d picked out for him.

We dumped the bags as Clancy walked in.

“He’s so cute,” she said, “but Kalani says he has a shimmer.”

“A shimmer? What’s a shimmer?” Tem’s head whipped back and forth.

“I think he has a ghost attached to him,” I said, keeping my tone light.

“Oh. Well, that’s not a surprise really, considering his whole family died. Div, do we have time to jump into bed really fast?”

“Of course we do.”

“Go,” Clancy said. “I’ll keep him busy once they come back inside.”

Tem looked worried. “We won’t be long.”

“Relax, sweetie.” She put a hand on his cheek. “He’s not Akua. He won’t set fire to anything. I can almost guarantee it.”

 

Tem and I raced to our bedroom, where our cat, Moontime, lay on Tem’s pillow. He lifted a languid eyelid and peered up at us. He tolerated some light petting before revealing his teeth. Moontime was a nap guy and we’d just invaded his privacy.

We fell on the bed, hugging and kissing, trying to avoid his lordship. I soon forgot everything except the taste of chocolate on my husband’s tongue and salt on his beautiful, caramel-colored skin.

He moaned each time I came up for air and kissed his mouth. I moved back down his body, wanting to lick every inch of him at once. For a moment, I paused gazing down at him.

Being with him was Ho’ano. Divine Sex. I couldn’t get enough of him, but then as I moved in for a kiss, I could read his thoughts.

Poor little Keej. His hair should be shiny. I’ll wash it and condition it. We should take him to the dentist and check his teeth. His breath’s kinda stinky…

“Hey!” I protested.

He gazed up at me, a guilty look on his face. “Sorry, Div. I adore you. I just…”

His gorgeous, sensuous lips formed into a sexy grin as I began undressing him. When his breath began turning ragged, I knew he’d tuned back into me. Yeah! Me!

When I’d liberated his cock from his tight-fitting jeans, he went crazy as I began to suck him. He pushed at my shirt, fumbling for the buttons. I raised myself off him, hastily tossing off all my clothes.

I got back on the bed and pushed his board shorts off his legs, licking and sucking as I went. I went back to his mouth for another kiss.

Chocolate salty caramel. Hmmm…

He lay on his side, trying to get to my cock but this was my fuck. I wanted to pleasure him. I hoped the girls could manage Keej a little while longer. Quickies had become a part of our repertoire thanks to our unruly nephew−

“Hey!” Tem said.

Oops. He’d been reading my thoughts. I returned to his hot, wanting cock after lavishing attention on his beautiful hip. I loved every inch of this man.

He gasped as I sucked on his huge, meaty cock, drawing it into my mouth tightly. I worked him with serious intentions, but as soon as I detected some pre-come, I pulled right off him, moved to his back in spite of his murmured protests, and began licking from his neck to his fine ass.

I’d been coveting a piece of it since I’d watched him wade into the ocean without me.

I got to his crack and lifted his left leg. He clutched at the bedding as I gave him a lavish tongue bath, running my tongue from his asshole to his balls and to his cock. I pulled it down so that I could suckle the head, giving him both pleasure and a small amount of pain in this position.

His ass kept humping my face and I pointed my cock at his hole. His lovely, long hair fell over his shoulders as I kissed him and began to enter him. He trembled against me, longing for contact. I jabbed into him, loving the tightness, the depth I craved.

I was fully in him. I fucked him with steady strokes, reaching between his legs for his cock. His left leg came up even higher and he leaned against the bed, bracing himself as I began to fuck him faster, harder.

The fusion of our souls never failed to astonish me, our fire dance swamping me.

“Oh, Div, Oh, Div,” he muttered as his ass clamped down on me. I came with a roar, Tem shooting into my hand. His hot cream fell over my fingers and I lifted them to my face.

So much better than hula pie.

It was hard to pull out of him but we showered quickly and changed, Tem and I eager now to spend more time with Keej.

“We can get his room set up,” Tem said. “Do you think he’ll get along with Moontime?”

“Let’s hope,” I said.

Next to us, Moontime was the only other being in the world who could handle Akua. I knew the cat was still sulking because Akua had left.

Moontime would punish us with a good long fume, I knew.

 

We came out of the bedroom to a flurry of activity. Kalani and Clancy were running, trying to separate Keej and…Akua.

Akua? What the hell was he doing here?

“Todah dropped him off.” Kalani didn’t look pleased. “He said Akua’s been impossible since they got him home. I said we’d take him, of course, but he freaked out when he saw Keej. Keej just wants to play but Akua…”

Her voice drifted away as a sad-faced Keej stood beside her.

“Take Keej into the kitchen, get him some milk and cookies,” I said. I was stunned to see Akua hiding behind a wing chair.

Kalani took Keej away, a shocked Clancy following them.

“Div, what is it?” Tem asked. “What’s going on?”

It took us several minutes to coax our nephew out from behind the chair. As always I was stunned by his beauty. He was a handsome little boy with his mixture of Hawaiian and Moari blood. He looked so much like Tem and Todah, yet, he was a little monster.

Literally.

Neither Tem nor I had ever seen Akua afraid of anyone or anything, but he trembled in my arms.

“Make him go away,” he whispered, sounding terrified. He wound his arms around my neck. “Please, Uncle Div. Please.”

Tem’s voice flew into my brain. Div, what is it? What does Akua see in Keej?

It took me several times of asking Akua what he saw before the child spoke.

“I saw it.” His voice was a whisper, his eyes darted from side to side.

“I saw it,” he said again, his face crumpling.

“Darling,” I said, “Akua, please tell me what you saw?”

“Zashiki Warashi,” he whispered, his eyes huge, his expression panicked.

“What the hell is a Zashiki Warashi?” Tem sounded near hysteria.

I wrapped my arms around my nephew a little tighter.

“They’re parlor children.”

Tem gaped at me. “And what the hell does that mean?”

“Ghosts of children left to die, or disposed of after birth.”

The words hung between us for a moment. I took a deep breath and went on. “They can be playful, or very violent.” I let that sink in before adding, “Only children can see them.”

“So which one is he…or has him possessed? Playful or violent?” Tem looked worried now.

“No idea. I guess we’re about to find out.”