He was still waiting to hear from Bryce when they were headed to their truck. She said she was fine but had some great news. Unless she had killed that guy, he couldn’t think of a single thing that was good about the WC. As soon as they were at the house, he forgot about everything but the things they had to do yet.
By the time they were finished, and everything was where it was supposed to be, he was ready for his own home. But the house was ready for the family. Susanna had even hired them a small staff so that they could continue to mend and get stronger. The children needed their mother to be well, not trying to heal and take care of them at the same time. Noah thought it was an excellent idea. But he, too, was exhausted, and since Bryce had beaten him to bed, he nearly fell in it beside her without taking off his clothing.
Tomorrow he had a lot to do, and he still had to talk to Bryce about the WC at the hospital. Things, he had a feeling, were about to get bad. And he was sort of looking forward to it.
Chapter 8
Gray thought about the conversation that he’d had with the grand witch. He knew that she was in the area where he was. And he also knew that she was a great deal stronger than anyone, including Black, thought she was.
As soon as she’d come into the room, he stood up and bowed low to her. When she gave him permission to stand, he sat on the floor. He had been taught all the rules governing witches, and when one was as strong as Bryce, he had to never let his head be above her heart.
“You know what happened to this woman? Someone raped her so badly that she may well have died had you not brought her here.” He said that he knew, and who had done it. “It was Black, wasn’t it? He hurt her.”
“Yes, mistress. He has hurt many more, but I never found them until it was much too late to save them.” Gray looked over at the dying woman. “I fear that I didn’t find her in time.”
Bryce touched her fingers to the woman’s head, and he watched in awe as the readings from the heart monitor, as well as the other machines on her, seemed to get stronger. He could hear her heart beating better as well. When Bryce sat down, he thanked her.
“There is no reason to thank me for saving someone that shouldn’t have been made to hurt in the first place. You do, however, know what this means with the WC, don’t you?” He nodded and smiled at her. “You knew this was going to happen before coming here with her.”
“I had hoped it would. I had no way of knowing that you’d be here, but if you had not shown up, I was going to find you and throw myself at your mercy. Not that I deserve it. But I would wish that you’d let me tell you all before you behead me.” She nodded, and while he was relieved to be able to clear his heart and mind, he really didn’t want to die. “Black has been raping and murdering women for many years. Decades, I believe. I have lost track of time over the years, and I cannot tell you for how long. But nearly from the beginning.” She asked him about children. “He has three that I am aware of. I have hidden away two of them. The third one he wishes to just take his chances with, he told me. I thought him to not care. He has so very little in life.”
“I would like their names.” Gray told her that he had a file on each of them that he would make sure that she got. “What about the women? Why does he not just have sex with them then let them go?”
“I think he believes that he is above all laws. He has it in his head that I’m stupid. It is a belief that I have played up for him. I have a great many things that I have stashed away, all of which I will give to you. In the event that I would have been killed before I stepped down, which I was planning to do soon anyway, they were to be hand delivered to you. Pictures, names, and places that I know that he has buried the dead.” Bryce nodded and asked him to go on. “He wishes you dead, and thinks that by taking your mother, or now your mate, he can control you in your grief. I think he is under the assumption that you will be so grief stricken that you will simply let him kill you. I have a feeling that you are not so easily dissuaded.”
“I am not. Is it true that you cannot tell what other creatures are? That you can only know that a shifter is a shifter when told?” He nodded, and wanted to ask her why she’d asked, but didn’t. And she didn’t elaborate. “Is White involved in any of this?”
“No, mistress. He is stupid.” She laughed, and he wondered at that, but again, didn’t ask. She was listening to him, and that was more than he could have hoped for. “The list of names isn’t all the women, nor the dead. I didn’t find out about it in time to make sure that there was an accounting for them. And if you were to ask me why I didn’t turn him in before now, it is because there wasn’t a witch strong enough to have taken him on until you.”
“Why?” He asked her what she meant. “Why is it you think that I’m so strong? I’m no different than any other witch that I know. Even my grandmother can do a great many things—not only better, but there is just more that she can do.”
He asked for permission to stand up and to touch her. When she nodded, he stood and could feel his knees shaking, and his hands were just as bad as he reached out to lay just a finger onto her shoulder. Gray closed his eyes, thinking of the pain he was going to be in when he showed her what she could do. Bryce asked him to tell her what he was doing.
“I am a lesser witch. I have powers, yes, given to me by becoming what I am. But you are so much more powerful that should I only touch you, as a lesser, then your power will show me what you are. And you.” She asked again what would happen. Instead of answering her, he simply put his hand on her shoulder.
The pain of it radiated up his arm and to his head. As soon as the pain took his breath away, he was tossed across the room, where he hit the wall. Bones broke—he knew that even before she helped him to rise, and in turn, healed him. Gray also knew that she had every bit of information that she’d ever need from him concerning his life, that of the men he worked with, and how he felt about them both.
“The next time someone asks you what is going to happen when you do something like that, tell them. You nearly gave me a heart attack. Of all the stupid things to do.” He was healed by the time she sat him on the chair that she’d been in. When he started to slide to the floor, she glared at him. “You sit on the floor again, and I will do something more than what you just did to yourself; you understand me?”
“Yes, mistress.” He had to fight hard to hide a smile. She was going to be able to take care of the WC and run it better than anyone had before. “Black’s plans are set, mistress. He will try to take you down by killing your mother or your mate. And when he tries, I fear that all will be lost if he should succeed.”
“He won’t. Not in taking my mate or my mother.” She paced the small room and he watched her. He’d never seen such energy when someone walked. But she was walking hard enough that he was sure that the people below them could feel it. “What are your plans now? I mean, can you go back there and act as if nothing happened? Black will kill you should he find out.”
“You will kill me first, so I’m not worried about him. I only ask that you make it quick. He will not, I’m afraid. There isn’t a compassionate bone in his body. Nay, he will make me suffer in ways that will make what he’s done to this poor woman look like child’s play.” She stopped pacing and turned to look at him. The fear that he felt was profound, and he held his breath for her to make the final blow to his life. But when nothing happened, he opened one eye and looked at her, and it was then that he realized she was confused. “You have every right to kill me, my lady.”
“I do, but I’m not going to. Anything you might have done before has now been erased so far as I’m concerned, because you not only helped me, but you saved this woman’s life. And you’re going to be helpful in taking down Black.” He was afraid and thought that she knew it. “This woman will be able to go on from here. I’ve taken away the memories of what really happened, and simply let her think she was raped.” Bryce looked at the woman then, and so did he. “Not that rape is a simple thing, but what happened to her was horri
fic, and she might well have not been able to survive the memories of it. While not good, it will help her in the end.”
“You’re much kinder than any of us were led to believe. I think even the other witches, those that have had dealings with Black, believe you to be more monstrous than even him.” Bryce nodded. “You will have much work to do if you are to have them trust you. And you will need their trust once you take charge of us all.”
“I don’t know if I want the responsibility of all that.” She had started pacing again before he could comment. Not that he was sure what he would say to her. “I want you to stay here with this woman. I’m going to make arrangements for you to stay and see that she gets the best of care. For that to happen, I will name you as her husband. You will be Mr. Allen Burch for the time being. That is her last name. Her first is Kelsey. She will sleep for a bit longer, a couple of days anyway, until I can figure this out. Black won’t know where to find you, so don’t worry about that.”
So now, here he sat, watching over a woman that might well have died had the grand witch not stepped in and saved her. Gray...Allen wondered why she had saved him too. As surely as he was sitting here, he was positive that if it had been anyone else that had done what he’d done, hidden what he had, they’d not only have been dead, but suffered greatly too.
Allen smiled at the nurse when she brought in his dinner tray. He’d not known what to expect, as he’d not had food for a very long time. He could eat, yes, but he’d long since lost the desire to have a meal. But when he opened the silver lid and looked down, his mouth did something that it had not done in more years than he could count. It watered.
“Is it to your liking, Mr. Burch?” He told her to call him Allen, and that it looked delicious. “Good. I was told to make sure that you have a good meal, and that I was to order it out for you. The rest of us are eating well too. Thank you for remembering us.”
“You’re very welcome. Since you’re taking such good care of my wife, then it is the least I could do.” He didn’t have any idea what he’d supposedly done for them, but it had made this nurse happy. Allen would have to find out from Bryce what she’d done. “Do you think I could have a cup of coffee? I’ve sworn off of it for so long, but now I find that it’s the only thing I can think about.”
He used to drink coffee a great deal when he’d found out about it long after he’d started this job. But back then it was no more than brown water, sweetened, should he have wanted, with honey or syrup. He had despised both very much, so it was just brown water for him.
There was a story, one that he was sure was an apocryphal after all these years. But an Ethiopian man had discovered the bean when his goats would become very excited and full of energy after having a few beans of a coffea arabica plant in a nearby field.
When the carafe of coffee was set on his tray, he looked at it for several seconds before he realized that the nurse was speaking. She was asking if he’d like any sugar or cream as she turned the cup over on the saucer. Asking for both, he thought that he was going to try them all, after he took a sip of the most fragrant thing he’d ever smelled.
The taste exploded in his mouth. It was as if his tongue had been given a fine drug, his taste buds awake and raring to go after so long. Then he swallowed. The brew was hot, but that wasn’t what made him moan. The flavor, the combination of it all, made him think that he’d gotten the wrong drink and not the coffee, the brown water that he’d asked about.
He’d been prepared for it to be bitter, to taste like nothing more than the smell. And even in that, he’d thought that he’d be happy. But that wasn’t even close to what had moved down his throat like the softest silk as it moved over his body when he dressed. The warmth of it seemed to permeate his entire being—not just his body, but his mind as well. Setting down the cup, he was almost afraid to try any of the things she’d brought him for it and decided that he’d drink this cup and pour more for the second one.
Allen dug into his meal. The steak was magnificent—rare, just as he might have ordered it had he known how good it was. The baked potato was good as well, but when he discovered, quite by accident, that he could add the sour cream as well as the cheese upon it, he smiled at the way it all melted together to become a gooey delicious treat.
By the time he’d polished off the apple tart, what he’d read it was called on the receipt, he was so full that he wanted a nap. For about eight hours. Smiling, he leaned the chair he was in back and closed his eyes. He also felt safe for the first time. Safe from whatever nastiness happened at the WC office.
~*~
“Where did Gray say he was going?” White said that he didn’t know that he’d said anything other than “later” to him. “What do you mean, he didn’t say where he was headed? He just took off? Without a word to anyone? I demand to know these things. You cannot just go flittering off like you have no duties to me. To the council.”
“I guess he had something that he needed to do. I didn’t know you wanted me to watch his every move, Black. He’s a grown person and can take care of himself, don’t you think?” Yes, Black thought, and he could also get them all into trouble. But he didn’t say that. “I can tell you when he gets back if that’ll help. But since I don’t know where he is, I can’t even know when he gets back. Maybe he’s shopping. He seemed happy, that’s all I know.”
“For what? Who the hell would he be shopping for? I never gave him permission to do anything like that.” White said that he didn’t know but thought that he enjoyed it. And why did they need his permission to shop or enjoy anything? “That’s not what I said. You enjoy just walking about, shopping? And what is it you shop for? A present, perhaps? Or do you just steal things and take them to wherever it is that you sleep?”
Black was in trouble here, letting his ideas spew from his mouth. Taking a deep breath, Black let it out slowly and inhaled once again to try his best to get his temper and his runaway mouth under control. But before he could speak, White got pissy with him.
“I don’t steal. And I don’t need nothing for my place. I can make it when I find it’s something that I want.” The indignation of the man made him laugh. “I don’t know what you find so funny, but I’ll tell you when he gets back. If he does. I’d not if I were him. You’re just too mean all the time. And you’re always thinking that you’re the boss over us. You aren’t the boss of anybody, Black. We’re all equal, and you know it.”
“I’m mean all the time, as you put it, because I have to watch over you two idiots so you don’t get me caught...us caught when something goes wrong. As for being equal? You can’t honestly think that you and I are even close to being the same. I’m much smarter than you and Gray together.” White just stared at him and said that was why Gray kept a book. “I’m sorry. What did you just say?”
“Gray. He has himself a book that he writes stuff down in. I thought he was making himself stories to print up, but he said they were just doodles that he writes down so that if you had buried a body in a certain place, he was sure that you’d not use the place again. He wanted to make sure you didn’t. What bodies? There something that I should know about?”
“I don’t know anything about what he’s writing down.” But he did, and his balls, still sore from meeting up with Bryce, curled up again. “Just let me know if he comes back. Do you know where he keeps his book?”
“Yeah. They were all in this wall safe that he put in a long time ago. A really long time ago. And you should know that there used to be a whole bunch of them. I don’t know how to count that far, but he’s got a bunch of them.” Black had started away, to toss Gray’s room to find them, when White spoke again. It sounded to him almost gleeful. “But they’re not there no more. He had most of them this morning when he was eating breakfast with me. He said that the rest of them are with a safe person. I don’t guess he trusts us all that much. Especially you. He would have given them to you, huh?”
Walking away while White was still speculating on who was a safe pe
rson, Black went to Gray’s home anyway. If he dropped even one of the books, he could find out what he’d been doing. It might have been just as he’d said, doodling. But for some reason, Black had a feeling that he was making notes on where he’d hidden the bodies, and all the other shit that he’d done over the years.
The safe, as if it were mocking him, was wide open. And there was an envelope on one of the shelves that was addressed to him. While he’d never seen Gray’s handwriting, he was almost positive that the handwriting on it wasn’t his, but that of someone that Gray had considered safe. Opening it up with trembling hands, he read over the missive twice before he sat down.
“Dearest Moronic Fuck.” He didn’t have to read the rest; he knew what she was going to do to him and who was saying it. But he did, reading it aloud for himself to hear to be assured of the words she’d put there. “This is the countess of Dragon’s Keep, lady of Sheppard’s Land, and the grand witch, Bryce Frost Farley. I wanted you to be assured who you were dealing with on all this. I am coming for your fucking ass. And trust me when I tell you, anything and everything you’ve done to the people that are buried across the world is going to be paid to you tenfold.”
She didn’t sign it. He supposed her full title and name at the beginning was quite enough. But the more he stared at the paper, the angrier he got. Who had appointed her the grand witch? Who but him could do such a thing? No one, that’s who. It took two to—
Getting up, he went to find White. “Did you by chance sign anything that Gray gave you this morn? It would have been on very fancy paper.” White was nodding before he could finish. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? How you’ve hurt us all?”
“You mean making Bryce the grand witch? Nah, she said that I was going to be all right. Just so long as I didn’t do what you were doing, and that I kept my nose clean. I’ve been washing it up every ten minutes to make sure. And that I was to come to her when someone asked me any questions. I could answer them if I knew what the answer was, but then I was to tell her anyway.” He asked if she knew that he’d asked after Gray. “Well of course she does, Black. I just told you, I could answer you, but I had to tell her. She’s my boss now. Ain’t that grand? I mean, I’m going to get to go home now and have fun. I never had fun when I had to work with you all the time. Not that I didn’t learn a lot, but I’m tired of it. And I get to keep my magic.”
Noah: House of Wilkshire ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance Page 10
