Matthew: House of Wilkshire ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “I had it appraised for you. I know your situation well enough to know that you can use the money more than you can the sentiment of the jewelry. The appraiser was quite taken aback to have an original Chime in his place of business. You should have seen his face when we told him that we’d found it. He was very jealous of you.” Touching the big gem that was in the center of the hand tooled chain maul, she could feel how well it had been made. “There are so few pieces that he made, you see. His son, your grandfather, bashed him in the head with the piece of the clock that belonged to Patrick. Then he put the weight—quite heavy, I’m told—back into the clock, hoping that no one would ever figure it out.”

  “How did it end up in the clock? I’m not saying that I believe you when you say that it belongs to me, but do you think that I could pick it up?”

  Aisling told her to go ahead. Matt got up and helped her put it around her neck. She felt like a million dollars.

  “Here is the bill of sale that says it belongs to you. As you can see, it belonged to William the first’s wife before she passed on.” Angel was handed a piece of paper that looked to be as old as the necklace. Which she supposed it was. “Mary, her name was, wanted her husband to keep it, to give to your grandfather for his wife. As you can imagine, when he killed his father, it never got beyond the clock, where William the first had hidden it from his son. I guess he was right in doing that, don’t you think?” Angel nodded, fingering the necklace while she looked at it with Matt’s cell phone set on selfie mode. “We did a lot of research on the lineage of the Chimes. You do have a great uncle out west that is in a nursing home. He suffered some brain trauma before he was born, and he’s been there since birth. You are the only living Chime left that we could give it to other than him.”

  “You’re serious about this, aren’t you? Or you think you are serious about this.” Aisling looked at Patrick. “I don’t understand why you didn’t just keep it for yourself. I would have had I found something like this in a clock that I owned.” Patrick said that she wouldn’t have done that any more than he could have. “All right. I couldn’t have, but it’s very expensive, isn’t it?”

  “Six point seven million dollars. It might fetch you more if you were to take it to an auction house. The man who appraised it for you said he’d gladly give you that much just so he could say that he had a Chime piece in his collection.” Angel nearly choked to death on her glass of water. “Careful there, child. You don’t want to get yourself ill over this.”

  “Six million dollars? Are you fucking serious right now?” She realized how loud she’d gotten, and lowered her voice. “What am I going to do with that much money? It’s more than I’ve ever seen before.”

  “True. It’s a great deal of money. But it could be more if you’re smart about it.” Matt handed her another sheet of paper. On it was a check for four million dollars. “I won’t make you suffer through trying to cash this. I have cash for you should you wish to go the route that I have planned out for you. I would like to help you and your future husband along by investing the other two million dollars. I think we’ve proven to you that we can be trusted. You might say that we’ve gone beyond that. But as the kind of shifter I am, I can see things in the future that, after investing in it, will give you a return on the two million, upwards to ten more, on the money that you already have.”

  “I don’t understand why you’d do something like this for me. As I said, you don’t know me.” Aisling said that she didn’t know them either. “True. But this is more than I thought I’d ever have in my life. Much less all at one time. Even if you were to take the other two mill and run, I’d have enough for me to live on for the rest of my life.”

  “There is something else that you should know, darling.” Angel looked at the other woman, Julia, who’d not spoken until now. “I’ve done a little digging on my own. About Gabe Snider, the man you’re marrying. He’s not all that he portrays himself as being.”

  Angel didn’t say anything right away. There were things about Gabe that weren’t adding up for her now too. Like his inability to get and keep a job. She’d been working so much, two jobs, and lots of overtime, while he couldn’t even put the dishes away after she washed them. She asked Julia what she’d been able to find out.

  “You’re taking this much better than I thought you might when I mentioned his name. You’ve had some feelings on the matter of him yourself, haven’t you?” Angel didn’t want to admit that she was making a mistake with marrying Gabe, but she had been thinking about it for some time now. She nodded. “All right. Let me tell you what I’ve found out. Then you can tell me if it has been something that you knew or not. He has a gambling problem, for one. Not a little one either. Once you put money in the bank for the wedding, he comes right around the corner and removes it. You should check on that when you get home if you’ve not already. Also, he owes more money than he’ll ever be able to pay back to some very bad men. That necklace you have there? He’ll take it from you, even if he needs to kill you to get it. He’s done it before.”

  “His first wife.” Julia nodded. “He told me that she killed herself when they lost their first child. I did believe him at first. But the more I thought about him wanting me to get pregnant before we were married, it bothered me. I went to the library and looked in back newspapers. There had been a child, but it was stolen from them. I think that he sold it. Didn’t he?”

  “Yes. I don’t want to go into details about it, but the child is no longer alive. I’m so sorry.” She nodded. Angel didn’t know why, but she’d never thought that it would have been. “I have to tell you that I now fear for your life more than I did before.”

  Thinking about what they’d told her and what she knew, Angel knew that they weren’t lying to her. About any of it. The more she sat there, touching the gems on the necklace, she knew what she had to do. She looked at Matt.

  “If you have the cash, I’d like that. And for you to invest the rest.” Matt said that she could trust him. “I don’t know why, but I believe you. I’m going to have to give you an address later. I’m leaving town.”

  “Good for you. And we’re going to help you.” Angel laughed and asked Julia what they were going to do. “There is a jet on the tarmac right now. It’s gassed up and ready to go. He knows where to take you and that you’re going to need him to stick around a few days helping you to get settled. With me so far?”

  “Yes. You’ve given this a great deal of thought, haven’t you?” Julia winked at her, then told her about her abusive first husband and the man that had saved her life. “You did that for her, didn’t you, Patrick?”

  “I did. And we want to help you the same way. While I don’t think anyone else knows, this Gabe person, he knocks you around a bit too. Honey, I have to tell you, it will never stop. I know that.” She said that she did as well. “Good for you. All right. The jet is ready, as we said. We have that cash that we talked about for you. Now, this is going to be a little too much for you, perhaps, but this is Dak. Dak was the faerie for Aisling for a very long time. He will serve you in any way you wish.”

  The little man bowed before her as he stood on the edge of her plate. “You will be forever safe, my lady. This, I swear to you.” She believed him as well. For whatever reason, this little man standing on the edge of her plate gave her more comfort than Gabe had ever done. “You and I, we’re going to be the best of the best. You come along now, and you and I will get started on our new lives together.”

  She was out the door and at the airport before she could change her mind. Not that she thought that she would, but she was being hurried along very quickly. Angel asked Matt why the rush.

  “Gabe is going to be caught in bed with another woman in about ten minutes. He’s going to be caught by the woman’s husband. She was not okay with being raped by him, as you can imagine.” Angel didn’t want to know more, but she asked Matt what else. “He’ll call you to come an
d get him. On the way home from jail, he would kill you. Just like that, you’d be dead. None of us want you anywhere near him when he’s arrested, nor when he’s taken in. You’re going to be just fine.”

  “What are you?” The question seemed to catch them both off guard. “I’m sorry. That was rude. But what are you? Really?”

  Matt stepped back from where they were standing. He tipped an imagery hat at her, then shifted. Angel was glad that she was holding onto the railing of the steps to the jet, or she might well have fallen on her face. When Matt took to the skies, just soared upward, so did the other three. Angel could see that Julia was held in one of their great hands. It had to be Patrick, she thought, shifting then flying away. Angel looked at Dak.

  “Yes, they be dragons. Now, you don’t go telling anyone what they showed you this night. No one would believe you anyway. Come now, my lady. Let us get our adventure going.”

  She was excited for it too. And she’d gotten to see dragons, not one, but three of them. She’d seen them, and that was a wonderful way to start her new life—on an uplifting note like that.

  Her journey was about to begin. Life too, she thought with a smile. Angel decided right then that she was going to go to college and make something important of her life. She’d be a teacher, a mentor. Be someone that people could look up to. All her life, she’d had nothing, no one to depend on but her mother, who had been ashamed of her lot in life even before Angel had been born. Now she could make her name, her life, something that she could be proud of, something that her mother could be proud of.

  She looked at Dak. “You’re going to help me, they said.” Dak nodded. “They’re dragons who have been around for a long time too.”

  “They have been. Mostly the men and little Aisling, but yes, they’ve been around longer than you can imagine.” She nodded. “What’s the first thing you want to do, my lady? The world is open for you. Whatever you wish, you can have.”

  “I can. But I don’t want to be stupid about this. I’ve been given a fresh beginning. Not a fresh start, but a beginning, and I’m going to really think things through. That being said, I’d like a home, someplace that I can call my own. After that, after thinking about what I can do, I want to go to college as well. It’s been one of my dreams.” Dak said, then she’d do it. “Thank you so much for helping me with this, Dak. I think we’re going to be very good friends.”

  “We already are, my lady. We already are.”

  As the plane took off, so did her dreams. Angel Chime was going to be happy.

  ~*~

  “Do you really think that you can help her? I mean, with more money?” Matt told his dad that he could while they were waiting on nightfall to fly home. “Well, I’m glad to hear that. Perhaps you can invest a little for us too. Not that I need the money, at least at the moment, but you never know what the world will bring down on itself that we all might need more. Understand?”

  “I do, and yes, I can do that for you. Angel is going to be just fine. She’s already thinking of ways to improve her lot in life. Finding them a house, as well as getting her education, is high on her list of things to do. I believe that she’ll be just fine once she is settled down and able to think past the fact that she’s free. Of not just money worries, but also of Gabe. He would have killed her tonight, you know?”

  “I know. When you told me about it, I did have my doubts that he’d be so cruel about it. But I just don’t want to think about humans hurting their other half. I’m sure he wasn’t that to her, but just hurting a woman that is working so hard to support the two of you is just mind boggling to me.” Matt told his dad that he still tried to believe in the good in people. “Yes, I guess I might have to do a little less feeling the good in people. I’ve been burnt a few times recently. Nothing too bad, I guess, but it really made me sit up and take notice about the shit that people are willing to do to one another. You get out more, so I’m sure you see it a great deal more than even I do.”

  “I try to keep an open mind about things. People, humans, aren’t so open-minded anymore, I think. It’s as if they want to believe in one thing, and that is all there is to believe. Sort of like that guy you used to hang out with, his opinion was the one that everyone should have. I hated to be around him.” Dad laughed and said that he had too. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, Dad. How is Julia doing? It’s only been a few days, I know, but she hasn’t brought it up, and I was worried that she might blame me for some of it.”

  “We had a long talk the night that Rolland was taken care of. And that’s the only way I know how to put it. Because to she and I, he was taken care of. Julia has been distancing herself from Rolland for a long time, since years before I came into her life. He was her son, but the feelings she might have had for him had dried up, much like the feelings she’d had for his dad. She’s very glad that things are finished with him. The things that Bryce and Kelly told her that he was up to hurt her in ways that I can’t imagine. She’s in a good spot right now. I think that she’ll move on quicker because he’s not there, causing her anymore trouble about things.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. Aisling and I have to deal with her mother when we get back. Like Julia, I think that she’ll be in a good place as well. Her mother hasn’t been a part of her life for a very long time. But the things that she knows about her now, about how she was the one that had caused her father to be killed as well as hurting Aisling, has really cut the ties between them.” Dad asked him what their plans were. “Right now, all we want to do is confront her. Because of her dealings with dragon slayers, she’ll be tried by Devon. But before he does anything to her, which I’m sure he will, Bryce will sentence her as well. I guess when she dealt with men to sell off Aisling this time, she got with some dark witches, making plans to sell her off to them for her power. I can’t even imagine what she’ll do when she finds out that Aisling’s an earth dragon, Dad. It will be like her greedy self to try and kill her right then.”

  “I have known Medusa for a good many years. Even before you were born. She was never one to be friendly. It always surprised me that she and Aisling’s father were ever mates. He was a good man, Colin was. He would have done anything for Medusa.” Matt told his dad that Aisling was a stolen hatchling. “I’m sure that there is nothing to do about that now, don’t you? I mean, it’s been centuries since she hatched. And I don’t know what luck you’d have in finding out who her real parents were.”

  “I talked to Devon about it. He did some research. It’s like you said, nearly impossible to find them. Unless they filed something with the previous king about a missing egg, which he can’t find any information on, there would be no way of even finding out if they still live. Knowing Medusa from what I’ve heard from people, I doubt they are. I don’t know how she would have gotten rid of them unless it was just to sell them off, but she has a lot to answer for.” Dad nodded, seemingly deep in thought. “I think that Aisling is happy either way. She knows her nemesis and how to deal with her, she told me. That’s all she can hope for. I think she’s worried that her real parents might not have been any better than the one she has now. You know as well as I that dragons from centuries ago weren’t all that good to humans, nor to other dragons. Perhaps she’s right. It’s just as well that she has no idea.”

  When it was time for them to leave, they gathered in a large parking lot. They didn’t need all that much room, but Matt figured that they could shift and get gone before anyone was the wiser. They’d taken out all the cameras earlier.

  He felt bad about that, the cost of it. Matt decided that he’d send them something to get them fixed. Telling them how he’d been there and knew that they were out and costly to repair. No one would ever have to know it was him that had disabled them.

  I was wondering something. He asked Aisling what it was. Do you know that big place in town? The one that used to be a theater at one time? Devon told me that they’re going to have to te
ar it down if they don’t find someone to do something with it. What I was thinking is that it would make a great place for school plays and such. High school graduation events too. It holds over three thousand people, he told me. What do you think?

  I think that is an excellent idea. I can see a place like that being used for a lot of different things, including what you mentioned. Can you imagine a bunch of little kids putting on a play, and that place being packed? I think they’d love that. He had been there a few times when visiting the area with Devon. It was a place that could put on huge productions and ceremonies. I don’t know how much work it would take to get it up to par, but I’m sure that we both know a few faeries that can get it looking good in no time.

  I thought of that too. But it should be a community project. Then everyone will have a vested interest in it getting finished and looking good. Fund drives to pay for things. I have found that if you pay for everything, you’d be doing it forever. It’s best not to mention any kind of donation like that. At least not right away. Matt told her that he’d not even thought of that. Yes, well, I’m not a person that trusts easily, and I am forever thinking about things like that. I guess you might call it my nature not to trust people to do what you want them to. If they don’t have to work on the project, then they won’t have any respect for it. At least that’s what I feel.

  You’re more than likely correct on that. Not everyone, but enough that it wouldn’t be nice the next time someone wanted to use it. In fact, my dad and I were just talking about that. He thinks that he’s more trusting than I am. I guess we need to work on that together. Did you tell Devon of your plan? She told him that she’d not. We’ll do it as soon as your mother is taken care of. You’re still on board with all that entails, correct?