“Mom told me you were taking over the security part for her. She seemed to be quite pleased with the measures you’ve gone to just to make sure everything is safe. Including us.” She said with her background, she thought she could use a little more of the things she’d seen put in place in larger buildings. “That is wonderful. What else have you found out? I mean about Venetia and Zephyrine’s parents?”
“Not much about their biological parents, but I have about the people that raised them. Betty was in on whatever was going on with this kidnapping thing. I’m not sure why, but she had a change of heart about having to watch over Venetia right up until she—”
Carroll turned to look at her when she stiffened in her seat. Pulling off to the side of the road, he waited on her to tell him. Whatever it was, it was painful for her. Carroll reached out and took her hand into his. She held tightly to him as she explained what had happened.
“Betty is dead. She was killed by one of the men. Since I didn’t know who is who yet, I know their names now. Colton Henderson and Benson Applegate. They were both there when she was murdered. They killed her because she wasn’t going to lie for them anymore. The woman suffered terribly in those last few minutes of her life.” He told her how sorry he was. “Me too. She wasn’t innocent in all this, but she didn’t hurt anyone by taking care of Venetia. With their names, I can trace them now.”
“All right. Did you want to go home?” She shook her head and said going to the dig site would be just what she needed. “If you get there and want to leave, just say so. This was just something I thought would be fun for us.”
“It will be. I just want to look into the men’s minds for a little bit while you drive. All right?” He told her whatever she wanted to do was fine by him. “When I find these men, and I will, I’m going to make them suffer in ways they haven’t even thought of yet. You can take that to the bank.”
“I believe you. So long as you let me be there at your side when you do it. I’d like to see their faces when they realize they’ve fucked with the wrong woman.” She smacked him on the shoulder, and he laughed. “I don’t know if you know this or not, but my cat is terrified of you. He thinks if he messes up, you’ll hurt him. I’ve never had that feeling from him before.”
“So long as he protects you when necessary, I’ll not hurt him at all. But the moment you get even a splinter when he’s on duty, I will make him think the whole wrath of hell is on his ass.” Carroll was sure she meant it too. His cat curled around him tightly as if he believed she did as well. “I was going to tell you when we got there, but I’ve had a faerie fix us up a place to stay out there for tonight. I have food in the car for us to snack on and have for breakfast in the morning. You should have seen your mom when I told her I was buying this car. I think she thought it was going to start polluting the moment I turned it on. I had fun telling her it was an electric car and didn’t require gas. She’s a hoot—you know that, don’t you?”
“I didn’t know until you came around. I think Mom has been waiting for you as long as I have. You’ve made her so relaxed it’s hard to realize how stressed she’d been all those years.”
Pulling into the area where he thought they were going, he wasn’t at all surprised to find not just a large tent but a fire going too. This was what they both needed, he realized. A little time away from all the things going on at the house. It wasn’t as if they both didn’t have plenty to do, but this was just for them. A home away from home for a few hours. He was pulling out the food when he noticed Hanna was talking to one of the faeries. When she started digging near one of the larger stones, he had to laugh. So much for being a restful evening, he thought.
When she sat down next to the fire with him, Hanna handed him several items she’d found. One of them was an arrowhead. The other two things were nuggets. But these were different than the ones he’d had earlier. She told him what she’d found out.
“The ground is cooperating with me on this little outing. They’ve spoken to the earth, and it’s going to push up the things from his depths. Not everything, I was told. There are a lot of gems tangled up in the tree’s roots, and it would be harmful to extract from them. I was also told by the trees that they have a few of the pretty stones in their branches. When they grew, with the gems in their way, they would just absorb them into themselves and grow with them. I’ve been shown a couple of them. They’re very proud of them.” He asked her to show him when they went on a walk. “You should know too that the stone here, the larger one, has been holding treasures beneath him for centuries. He isn’t hoarding them, but once he sees one just beyond his reach, the earth will move enough that they can be hidden by him as well. They were protecting them for your mom. They love her as much as we all do, for what’s she’s done for the land here.”
“She’s done so much for everyone and anything around here. Her parents, did she ever tell you about them?” Hanna said she’d heard bits and pieces of it. Carroll told her everything he knew, including how they’d become her children. “My biological mom was older than most of the breeding animals around here. But since she was safe and kept fed, she was able to have us for the world. We were the very first shifters. And in that, we have powers that other shifters, ones that came after us, don’t have. But too, there are things we can’t do that they can. Like, I can’t change you into one of us. That saddens me a great deal. Mom wanted to be able to run with us as well, but it wasn’t to be.”
“She told me she wished every day that she’d asked for that to be available to her. She said that, too, it would have been nice to be able for her to have a conversation with Golden when she was younger. They were very close.” Carroll said he’d gotten to spend his first year of life with his mom and Morgan together and that he remembered them being like sisters. “I bet. It might well have been harder on your mom had she passed away when you were first born.”
“It would have been.” He looked out over the fire where they were. “How about we have some fun? I know there is a waterway close to here. We can go there, play around in the water, and perhaps make love on the shore.”
She stood up and ran. He wasn’t sure what her plan had been, but he let his cat take him even as he stood up. Running after her was a lot more fun this way, and perhaps he’d be able to convince her to take a little of her clothing off every time he found her. Yes, Carroll thought, this was just what they both needed.
~*~
Pacing hadn’t ever been anything Zippy took lightly. Roman watched his daughter as she stomped her way from one end of the room to the other. If she put that much effort into anything she ever did, especially spells, he thought there would be a good deal fewer people in the world. Like him, she didn’t care much for humans either.
“Did you know she was still alive?” He shook his head, knowing on some level that she didn’t really want an answer. Besides, he’d answered her several times since Zippy got the call a few days ago. “I didn’t have any way of searching for her. I’d never met her, nor did Grandma, or we would have brought her here with the two of you that day. Christ, this is a royal fuck up.”
“You saved our lives by bringing our bodies here. If you had not, we would have been buried, and that would have been the end of us. As it is now, we both have some issues. You don’t think you really fucked up, do you, Zippy? We’ll all go and get your sister and make up for lost time. Do you think she’s magical too?” Zippy told him she saw no reason for her not to be. “I don’t know. You seem to be much more powerful than even your mom and I. What if you got everything being the first child?”
“I don’t think it works that way.” His lovely Victoria came into the room, leaning heavily on the cane she needed to walk. He had one as well but didn’t need it nearly as much as his wife did. “Mom, did you have any inkling that Venetia was alive?”
“No. But you have to remember that the first five years or so after we were so abused, just trying t
o heal enough to get around, I never thought of much of anything but the pain.” She looked at him. “We’ve been given tickets too so we can travel to this house. Do we know anything about the Goldens?”
“They’re very wealthy. Cats, I think—leopards. Older than we are by a great deal. And their mother is human. I can’t get a handle on why that is, but I’m working on it.” Roman smiled at Victoria when she huffed at Zippy. “She’s working things out. I don’t think we should interrupt her right now.”
“I’m standing right here.” He told her she wasn’t standing at all but wearing a trench in the floor. “Why is it that when you do it, it’s all right, but when I pace to think, it’s wearing a trench?”
“Because you pound the floor with those tiny feet of yours while I just glide across the floor with grace and dignity.” They all laughed, just as Roman had wanted her to do. “We’ll all go. If we have to, we’ll kill the lot of them off and bring Venetia home. That’s all there is to it.”
“And the two men that hurt you? That took Venetia away? What will we do to them?” Roman didn’t answer her right away, and she glared at him. “I should like to be in on whatever you have planned, Dad. I mean, you’re going to need me at some point, right?”
“The people we’re going to see, they’re going to kill them anyway. I thought perhaps we’d try to talk them into letting us have first—what’s it called?” Zippy told him. “Yes, first dibs. I’m not going to let them off easily if you’re thinking I will. I thought her dead all this time, and they took that away from us. All of us.”
Roman was actually excited about seeing his daughters together. He hadn’t any idea what Venetia had turned into, but he knew she’d be as beautiful as her sister and mother. There was no way she’d look anything like him. He was too ugly to put to words, he’d always thought. When they settled down for dinner, Victoria told them she was having their things packed. The plane they were taking was a private one the Goldens had sent just for them. He didn’t know why they went to the extra expense, but he was happy he’d not have to share a seat with someone he didn’t know. Sometimes he had to stretch out in order for his back to not hurt. He wasn’t one to make others suffer for his comfort.
By the time they were eating their dessert, they’d gotten around to the men again. He had worked for the two of them, Henderson and Applegate. It had been an all right job, something to waste some time with. When you were as old as he was, things tended to get boring quickly. But he liked the buying and selling aspect of the job. Then he figured out what they were doing.
Roman had never been one to take drugs. He had to now, occasionally. The pain would get the better of him, and he’d have no choice. The same for his Victoria. When they’d both been shot and left for dead, he’d gotten a bullet in the head and his back while his lovely wife had been shot in the chest. Had his mother not felt his pain, they would surely have been put to ground. They, as witches, couldn’t heal under the earth. Why? He had no idea but was forever grateful for his mother’s fast thinking.
“Do you suppose they will allow us to take part in the demise of those that hurt us?” Victoria laid her head on his chest when they retired to the living room. “I’ve been thinking of nothing else but Venetia. She’d be in her twenties by now. So long without any contact.”
“I’ve been thinking of her too. I wonder if she’ll be a beauty like you and her sister. Also, magic. Do you suppose she’s been told she has it? I mean, we did detect a little when she was first born. Now there is no telling how much she might have.” Victoria told him they’d help her no matter what. “Yes. As we would have all those years ago.”
Roman thought that was by far the cruelest thing these men had done to him and his family. They’d taken not just their child and nearly their lives, but the time they missed with his child. He knew he’d be able to see her soon, but he also knew he was going to make them pay in ways even his daughter, as strong as she was, wouldn’t think of. This was, to him, war.
The next afternoon they were packed up and ready to go. He wasn’t sure how they were going to get there, not with all the traffic, but almost as soon as he was thinking of getting them a cab to ride in, a limo the size of a small bus pulled up. It took him several seconds to realize this was for them. The man driving even loaded their belongings in the back of it and held the door open for them to be seated. He looked at Zippy when she opened the basket of fruit on the seat next to her.
“These people are wealthy, you said.” Roman told her what he’d been able to find out. “They’re good at blocking me from getting into their minds as well. I wonder if it’s just me or everyone.”
“I’ve not tried. It seemed to me that they were being very generous with their information, and it never occurred to me to look. What is it you found out?” She told him she had found out they were living on a large spread, and they didn’t need to purchase anything, that everything they needed or ate was right there. “That’s wonderful to know. What else?”
“As you said, the mother is human, but I can only go so deep into her mind.” She bit off a chunk of the apple she’d unearthed. “How much you want to bet this is from their place? This apple is amazing. Here, try the grapes.”
They were impressed with the tastes they were finding. The note on the basket told them the fruit had indeed been from their place. He especially loved the water, bottled up in a nice glass bottle with lemons and strawberries. Not a combination he would have thought would work, but it was delicious.
The plane was stocked for them as well. Not only were there sandwiches, but more drinks as well. Roman was so happy that he had no problem when Zippy said she was going to see what sort of poison was in them. When she declared them clear, he wasn’t sure if she was happy about that or not. Whatever, he thought. This was the way to treat someone, he thought.
The ride wasn’t long, but it was very comfortable. There was staff on the plane that catered to them. Also, he and his wife were given faeries to help them with whatever they needed. Zippy, of course, declined, but he could see her watching the little man she’d turned away.
“I wonder what sort of other treats they have in mind for us.” Victoria scolded him for being rude, and Pippin, his faerie, told him they were to stay at the big house. “I was wondering about that. A hotel would have been all right, but this is so much nicer.”
“The lady of the house has purchased homes as well. They are for anyone that wishes to stay after the meeting. They are very lovely homes indeed. But she also said if you preferred to stay in the house with her, she will be just as happy to have you around. I think she has been lonely for a time.” He asked how that was possible with six sons. “She is very dedicated to the farm, sir. It’s good to see her laughing now. I think Lady Hanna has brought about a good change to the mistress.”
The plane landed as gracefully as it had taken off. The smoothness of it had him thinking he might enjoy flying a little more if this was the way it was done. When they disembarked, they were shuttled to the main building. Roman began to get nervous. Perhaps, he thought, this was a terrible idea.
“Hello, Dad.” He turned suddenly and nearly fell off his cane. The man standing there grabbed him so he’d not fall. Roman then looked at the beautiful woman standing next to him. “You look so different than I imagined. But then I really didn’t have to go—”
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. Roman knew that on some level, he should have said something to her. Perhaps hello or something. But she was there—his little baby girl was there, and she called him Dad.
“Roman, let me have a hug.” Releasing her even to her mother was harder than he thought it should have been. But since it was his wife, he thought he could allow her to go to her. “Oh, darling, you look just like your grandma did when she was younger. Zippy, come talk to your sister. Oh my, the two of you look just alike, don’t you?”
“Hello.” Zip
py, being her usual self, was slightly standoffish. But Venetia didn’t seem offended. The man with Venetia put out his hand and told him who he was. “I’m happy to meet you, Leslie. You look like you can take on the world. Are all of your brothers as big as you are?”
“Yes. Some of them are actually bigger. I also wanted to let you know that just this morning, I realized I’m Venetia’s mate. We’re working out some of the finer details. But I want you to know I’m not going to come between her and her family. I want her happy, and being with you is making me happy because she is.”
He didn’t know how he felt about her having a mate. To him, she looked grown up, but she was still his baby. Not voicing his concerns just yet, he hugged both his daughters. He had family now, and he wasn’t going to waste a second of being with them by being worried about a man he’d only just met.
They were going to the house when something occurred to him. He only looked at Zippy but didn’t say what had been on both their minds. Roman wondered if Morgan knew his daughters would find their mates here. That was why the house had been purchased, perhaps? He didn’t know. Thinking that things were moving just a little too fast for him, he leaned back on the seat and closed his eyes. Searching for some kind of clue as to the outcome of coming here, he came up with nothing more than he’d be as welcome as her own sons were in the house. Roman had to admit, even to himself, that he might just like this Morgan person after all.
Chapter 10
Hanna couldn’t help but laugh. Every time she did, however, someone else would glare at her. Who would have thought that so much could change in a matter of seconds? And it had, for just about everyone. When Leslie and the others came into the house, Hanna laughed hard. Telling him what was going on was funnier every time she had to speak.
Carroll: Morgan’s Leap – Leopards Shapeshifter Romance Page 14
