Cole: House of Wilkshire ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  Cole kept an eye on his wife. She would overdo things, and he was worried for her. She would fuss at him if she knew that. He sort of liked it when she did that.

  He saw Roxanna talking to someone, someone he was sure wasn’t alive. Cole decided to join her when he saw that Connor was also busy with one of his clients, he called them.

  Roxanna looked at him, and he could see that she was highly pissed. When he asked her if she needed his help, she surprised him by saying yes. Cole couldn’t see the ghosts, not all the time unless they allowed it. The ghost that appeared in front of him as soon as she said yes looked like he’d been dead for some time.

  “I want her to find my killer and kill her.” Cole told the ghost that things didn’t work that way. “I don’t care how things work for others. I’m not going to be laying there rotting for another month. Find the fucker and then kill her. But make sure you put her body out where nobody can find her either.”

  “You’ve been given the rules upon your death, yes?” He only waved him off. All of them, all the family, knew the rules regarding the dead in the event Roxanna or Connor needed help. “Why do you think you should be exempt from having to follow the rules like everyone else? I mean, there isn’t a section for assholes that I’m aware of. In the event you didn’t understand me, that’s what you’re being right now.”

  “You’re very funny. Giving a dead man a hard time. I should be exempt because I say so. It’s not like I’m really dead anyway. We all know she can bring the dead back. That’s what I want too, to be brought back so I can finish up on the things that are still in the works for me.” He glared at Roxanna. “She said that’s not the way it works. But I know better. I’ve seen it on television.”

  “You have? Well, hell. That makes it perfectly right then, doesn’t it, Roxanna? He’s seen it on television. The man is brilliant. I think you should just bring him back like they said.” He put his finger to his mouth, then looked at the man while he pretended to be thinking about it. “However, so you know, you’re already as back as you’re going to get. I’d say you’re about twenty-four hours from exploding, as a matter of fact.”

  “Why, you smart ass. I should knock you three ways from Sunday.” Cole told him to go ahead and try. If he did, he was going to have Roxanna send him to White Land. It’s the place where the ghosts that weren’t cooperating were sent. “You can’t do that either. Want to know why? Because I’ll have your job if you even look like you’re going to do it. Fucking bitch. Go find my killer and do her in.”

  Cole was hit with the information on what had happened to the man. As he reran the reason he’d been killed and by who, he wanted to kill the man himself. Instead, he decided to just put the man in his place.

  “Your wife is finally happy, and you aren’t going to do a thing about it either. You beat her daily. Verbally and mentally abused her with every breath you took. She killed you when you tried to kill her with the gun you brought with you. The woman you forced to have an affair with you helped her. I think the two of them should be happy to be away from you.” He thought of something else. “I’m going to make sure your body is never found. With a little magic, I can make it so that people and other creatures will walk over you without ever seeing what kind of piece of shit they’re walking over.”

  He had no idea why he said that, but the images that came from the man’s mind or memories—whatever they were—pissed Cole off so much that he wanted the man to suffer in some small way. He looked over at Roxanna, and she smiled at him. Cole was more confused than he’d been when the images came to him.

  “Do it.” He didn’t say anything while standing in front of the man. He was embarrassed enough. “You make it so the earth never gives him up, and I’m going to send him on to White Land.”

  The man was sent on. Cole told Roxanna what had happened and that he wasn’t sure he knew how to do what he’d said. She smiled at him and then laughed. He asked her what she thought was so funny.

  “You. It doesn’t matter if his body is found or not. He’ll never know about it. The body could be found within the next few minutes, but he’ll never know. The threat alone is enough to have him suffering with the knowledge that he won’t be found. I love that. I’m going to have to use that one again. Did you really see what he had done?” Cole nodded. “I’ve never seen what was in their head like that. Perhaps that was what led you over here in the first place. So that you could deal with him properly. Thank you for that.”

  After she gave him a hug, he went to find something else to do. He’d been sitting around long enough. Going by the food tables again, he made himself a plate of junky type food and found Ryan. He thought perhaps she’d been standing around too much today.

  Laughing to himself, he thought about what she’d say if he told her to have a seat. When he got to her, she was laying on a large towel with two children, Connor’s kids, and napping. Pulling up a chair, he watched her in slumber, the way he had every morning since the two of them moved into their home.

  ~*~

  She watched the six men as they sat in the big room. They had come in here to watch the television. However, it was muted, and the remote was laying among the foods that had been brought in for the occasion. Their conversation was animated, sometimes loud and filled with laughter. Each time one of them laughed loudly, she would join them. Watching them, she wondered if anyone would know that there sat six of the most wealthy and powerful men in the world.

  “You can talk to them, should you wish.” Shaking her head at the newcomer, she told him it would be an awkward meeting. “I doubt very much it would remain so should they know you were here. Especially your son.”

  Anna watched her son, the king of dragons. The one that she had watched grow up since the moment she’d taken her last breath. Anna loved her boy. Loved, too, that he was so handsome and happy. But she’d made a promise to herself long ago that she’d not disrupt his life by going to see him. Even when he was small enough to have spoken to her.

  “He is happy, is he not?” Austin, a ghost she’d known well in life, told her that Devon was happier than any of the others there. “My mother, she has done well with him. I’ve regretted only that he was responsible for killing his sire. However, he would never be the man he is should it have turned out differently.”

  “I know the same to be true of my own child. Bryce is what she is because of my death. I miss her. But like you, I can come to see them whenever I wish. It makes my heart feel a little fuller, knowing I can be nearby when I wish it. Are you sure you don’t wish to meet him, Anna? It might well be the best thing for the two of you.” Anna told him that she knew it would only make matters worse. “You have seen this then.”

  “I have.” She’d seen a great deal while dying in her birthing bed. There weren’t just scant pieces of his life that she’d seen, but it had played out in her mind as if she were there and a part of it. Anna knew that if she were to show herself to her only child, it would mean trouble for so many years. “He would be saddened by my leaving him. In that, his heart would be filled with sorrow, and he’d be hurtful to his mate. Kelly keeps him focused. If I were to show him that I see him and he could see me, all her work with him would be for naught. Things are better this way.”

  Anna also knew that should she show herself to Devon, it would set about a chain reaction that would only end in war, a war that she knew would expose him for what he really was, and the killing of dragons would begin anew. Her grandchildren would be hunted, the others as well. She wasn’t entirely sure what brought the war to them, but when she saw his life without her in it, there was no strife, no wars, and more dragons to be born than even when there were more than humans.

  Someone must have looked at the game they were watching, and the television was unmuted. Laughter slowed for a bit, and the cursing began. Even that she found wonderful. The colorful way each of them expressed their unhappiness with whatever
was going on. Smiling at Austin, she leaned into his shoulder.

  “When I was but a small child, I remember thinking of all the things I saw in my dreams. This, this box of news and movies was always playing a part in everyday life for everyone. I wish, at times, that it had never been invented. People use it to look at the outdoors more than they go out and enjoy it, I think.” Austin said that was very true. “Then the small phones they use. I’m so happy to see that Devon has his guests drop them at the front door, so they’re not distracted from whatever they’re doing when visiting him. The others, they have done the same thing. Making sure that there are few distractions when they’re all together.”

  “That is the reason, now that I think on it, that Bryce has put a spell around her home to make sure that no phones work when people are around. Laura, the love of my life, she will not use it to talk to anyone. She said if she has something to say to you, she will say it to your face. That way, there is no issue with things being read wrong. Laura is correct in that. Things said over text, they can be thought of in so many different ways.” Austin asked her what she was going to do now. “Surely you’re not going to stand here watching them when there are children about.”

  “I have visited each of the children that are a part of this family. It’s wonderful that I can talk to them, and they listen.” She moved out of the living room and ended up in the nursery. Kelly was there, rocking the small child that Anna had fallen deeply in love with. “You are my heart, little one.”

  Austin left her to rest. Since no one could see her, she didn’t use as much energy as he had when visiting his family. Anna found her mother sitting in her room with her eyes closed. Going near her, she was startled when she began speaking. To her, it seemed.

  “I miss you every single day, my darling.” Anna was tempted to let her mother see her but decided she would wait. “I no longer go to the cemetery every day to talk to you but chat with you whenever I think of something to tell you about. How I wish you were here with us.”

  Her mother didn’t look a day older than she had when Anna had been a child. Her hair was still dark and pulled back into a tight bun. Anna wondered what her mom would look like with it hanging down, the wind blowing through it. Laughing to herself, she knew that even if she were to have begged her to do that, her mom would have said it was undignified for a woman of her age to look so wanton. Sometimes her mother could be such a prude.

  “You will be happy to know that I’m also helping the young women that have come to this family. They’re strong ones, the mates to these boys. Such a mixture of magic that would have you happy with it. Pixies, faeries, witches, and humans. None of them are anything like you were. All of them, each and every one of them, would have knocked your husband down the stairs the first time he drew back to hit them.” A tear rolled down her mother’s cheek, and Anna wanted to wipe it away. “I believe you would have too, had that monster not chained you to the bed like an animal. He killed you. I know he did. He would have killed Devon, too, if the boy had not fought back. I know you’re at peace with the way things turned out. But I so wish you could be here now to see him as a man. A king. A good person.”

  A faerie came in through the open window and sat upon Anna’s mother’s lap. She turned and looked at her. Anna put her fingers to her lips to tell the little one not to mention to her mother that she was there. When she nodded, the faerie turned back to her mom.

  “Mistress? Mistress?” Mom opened her eyes and looked at the little person. “It is I, Lady Susanna. Lily.”

  Lily had been her faerie. All those years ago, it had been Lily that entertained her when she was alone. She even read books to her when Anna found herself too weak to even turn the pages. Watching as Lily waited on her mistress to wake fully, Anna wanted to have her read to her one more time.

  “Lily. Thank you for waking me. I was having such a dream.” Mom stood up, and Lily looked at Anna before going to her new mistress. “I had a dream that my Anna was just there, watching me as I did her when I was able. To think that she’s been gone so long that I can still see her face as clearly as I had the day that she was born. What shall we do today?”

  “The faeries have been putting the gardens in for the fallen dragons, my lady. They’re all but finished with the ones that were found in the cave beyond. Also, I’m to tell you that your daughter’s grave is now filled with faerie flowers too. That was a splendid idea that Lady Kelly had in marking her place in the world of dragons.” Mom said she’d thought it a brilliant idea as well. “Lady Kelly said that was the place you first met her. At the grave of your daughter. We all think that the most romantic thing in the world. To have had the two of you meet in such a sad place.”

  “She was such a delight even then, you know. Why, she was even kind enough to say she’d come to tea with me sometime. But even then, I knew it wouldn’t be so easy to get her to agree. She thought—still thinks even now sometimes—that she was unworthy of us. Imagine that. Kelly thinking she was less than us.” Anna hadn’t heard that story. She knew a lot about the story between her son and his mate. “Devon, he worships the ground she walks on. And Kelly…. Well, I don’t think anyone loves their mate as well as she does my Devon.”

  When they left the bedroom to go to the gardens, Anna made her way to the place she’d come to vent her grievances. Her husband was there, the ground around him as dead as he was. None of the faeries would go to this place. No flowers grew around his grave. There was not even a headstone to mark his passing. Just a dark spot in the earth that grew darker with each passing year.

  “Devon is doing well. He is happy too. Something that you never allowed any of us to be. You’ll also be unhappy to hear that he is a good father and husband to his mate. Never once has he chained her to anything.” Anna laughed a little. “Not that I think she’d allow him to do that. She is quite strong, you see. I believe with all my heart had you been alive when she came to the castle that she would have had you killed the very first day.”

  She often thought it funny that the dead would visit the dead. But Anna wanted to be assured that he heard every deed that her son had done. The way he took care of not only the good people in town but his friends as well.

  “He’s a good man, my son. Something that he thankfully decided to be on his own. You’ll also feel that the earth loves him twice as much as they loathe you. You were a rotter, and I’m happy to see you here all alone in this place.”

  Anna looked around. There were no trees that bloomed in the summer here. No leaves that turned into beautiful shades of fall when the weather turned. Snow did not rest on this place, as the heat from the dead man below the earth didn’t get flowers blooming in the spring. Nor did it have any fresh flowers put upon the grave when others would visit their loved one. No one, it seemed, cared enough to come and see to this man.

  “Devon and his family will go on being happy. They will help millions of others with their time and money. There is nothing they won’t do to make sure the people of the earth and the creatures that take care of it are well fed and warm when it’s necessary.” She thought of her grandchildren yet to come and those born already. “I believe that any of the children of these people would have run screaming from you. A child knows a monster better than most. You have nothing good to show for your time in Devon’s life other than the sperm you used to create him. Thankfully, that is all you gave too.”

  Anna was getting tired. She had been out and about more today than she had in some time. It was time, she hated to admit that she went to rest. But she did have one more thing to say to the man she hated more than she did being dead all these years.

  “This is the last time I will come here. The last time I will berate you for what you did to me and mine. I have come all these times to make it so you wallow in the goodness of Devon. The wonderful man that he became that you never were. My life and my death are no longer going to be attached to you in any way.�
� She stood up. “Goodbye, you retched monster. I hope the hell you created for yourself is just as satisfying as I imagine it to be. May you never rest in peace.”

  Once she was back at her resting place, she felt stronger. Someone was thinking of her, and she had to smile. It was where the dead got their strength when someone thought of them. Glad to have spent the day as she had, Anna laid down to rest. Her family was happy. More happy than she had thought they’d ever be.

  Before You Go…

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  Kathi Barton, a winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement award as well as a best-selling author on Amazon and All Romance books, lives in Nashport, Ohio, with her husband, Paul. When not creating new worlds and romance, Kathi and her husband enjoy camping and going to auctions. She can also be seen at county fairs with her husband, who is an artist and potter.

  Her muse, a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Hugh Jackman, brings her stories to life for her readers in a way that has them coming back time and again for more. Her favorite genre is paranormal romance, with a great deal of spice. You can visit Kathi on line and drop her an email if you’d like. She loves hearing from her fans. aaronskiss@gmail.com.

  Follow Kathi on her blog: http://kathisbartonauthor.blogspot.com/

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1