Finn: Xavier’s Hatchlings ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance (Xavier's Hatchlings Book 1)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Do you see it there? The coldness seeping into my body?” Before he touched it, he asked her why it was her body and not the building that needed healing. “Ah, yes, you are very wise. It is because I was buried here by magic long before this building was created. Should you heat the stone there at the fireplace, I’ll be released to help you. And I shall help you, Finn. I swear this to you on the heart of my own child.”

  Putting his hands to the stone surrounding the fireplace, Finn thought of all the heat it would have taken from the fireplace to have helped the woman. Letting his heat move from his hands to the stone, he could feel the letting go of something strong. For the life of him, Finn had no idea why he’d agreed to this. As soon as the stone, just a small one in the corner of the mantel, broke off and hit the floor, he felt a power and strength enter him he’d never felt before.

  Thrown back, he hit his head and body hard on the wall. Trying to stand upright again, he saw moving colors dizzily moving around in his sight, and he couldn’t make heads or tails of them. Closing his eyes, he opened them again when something slapped him in the face. Finn looked up at Theo and smiled. After that, he closed them again to allow his poor noddle, as his mom called his head, to rest.

  ~~~

  Just as Rachel was putting the dishes in the rack near the salad bar, she staggered back and fell against the wall behind her. Dishes went flying, and she knew she was going to get cut when some of the larger pieces of the dishware hit her on the legs and arms. She was still sitting on the floor where she’d fallen when her manager and sister-in-law came out to see what had happened.

  “I don’t know. I was putting the dishes in the slot there to help out in the kitchen, and all of a sudden, the floor started to heave, and I fell back. Did you feel it?” Sandra told her she’d not felt anything but had heard the crash. “Surely someone felt it. It knocked me on my butt just now.”

  “Rachel, do you have any idea how much this is going to cost me?” She looked at Sandra with a frown. “I know you’ve been here forever, but I’m going to have to write you up for this. Your brother is going to be really pissed off about this.”

  “You’re joking, right?” Sandra told her she wasn’t. “You’re going to write me up because I dropped about five dishes? Are you flipping serious right now? There isn’t any way you can do that. Not to me.”

  “I’m going to do it.”

  With a lift of her chin, Sandra left her there on the floor. She’d not even asked her if she was all right—just made her flipping announcement and left her there. Looking at the mess she’d made, which really wasn’t all that bad, Rachel wondered why over the last few days, Sandra gotten such a burr up her butt.

  Rachel picked up the glass and piled it on the tray nearby. Thinking about her friend, she really did wonder what was wrong with her—this time. Looking up when someone drew near to help her, Rachel smiled at Tommy.

  “You hurt?” She told him not too much. “I got me some Band-Aids in my pack. Momma told me I have to carry them all the time. I can give you some of them if you give me some back. Can I have the ones with the green man on them?”

  “Yes. I’ll pick you up some, Tommy. I don’t need any Band-Aids. I’m going home anyway soon. But I do thank you.” He grinned at her, and she laughed. “You’re just too nice to me. What will I do if you ever find another job? Be lost, I think.”

  Tommy Archer was handicapped, and more than likely the most loyal and friendly person who worked at the restaurant. He was nearly forty years old, but he had the mental capacity of about a ten year old. His parents had done a wonderful job with him, and he could hold down a menial job like bussing tables for the restaurant. Rachel thought her mom had hired him before her and Dad had passed away.

  After getting the glass all picked up, she went to the kitchen to inspect her wounds. There were a lot of them, mostly superficial, but there were one or two she thought would need stitches. Limping to her locker after clocking out, she was in her car and driving home when she thought of the earth literally moving under her feet.

  Why hadn’t Sandra felt it? Why hadn’t anyone else commented on it when she’d gone back to the kitchen? It wasn’t as if something like that happened every day. Pulling into her driveway, her phone was ringing, and she could see it was the restaurant. Knowing it was Sandra, she declined the call and then turned off her phone.

  If she was going to write her up, then so be it. Rachel didn’t like working for the restaurant anymore anyway. Her brother owned a small percentage of it since their parents were gone, but Rachel owned the bulk of it. Rachel knew, too, that Sandra was forever cutting hours to make the payroll. The guidelines had been set up by their parents, and it didn’t look to her like Sandra was following any of them. Rachel knew with her part of the inheritance from her parents, she could do a great many things.

  After taking a long hot shower and getting dressed, she looked at her wounds again. They weren’t nearly as bad as she’d first thought they were. The smaller ones were already healing up, and the two larger cuts were scabbing over. Good. One less thing she’d have to mess with.

  Rachel had always been able to heal quickly. Her parents had told her that since she’d been old enough to understand she’d been adopted. They’d also told her she wasn’t entirely human. Mom had always told her she more than likely had some shifter blood in her. Whatever the reason, she’d never been sick a day in her life, nor had she had any broken bones.

  The pounding at her door had her telling them to back off. Chad, her brother, told her to let him in. She asked him what he wanted through the door. She could see him through the peephole and knew he was pissed off.

  “Let me in, Rach. I’m not shitting you. I just got off the phone with Sandra, and she said you left your shift.” Opening the door, she put her hand in front of him when he started to enter. “You want to do this out here? Fine. I’m supposed to fire you. She said you destroyed several hundred dollars’ worth of dishes, and then just left.”

  “I do hope she’s figured out there is no way to fire me since I’m the owner of the place. Are you here to get my side of the story or to yell at me? And just so you know, Chad, you’d better pick wisely. I’m no more in the mood for this shit than you are.” He let out a long breath and asked her what had happened. “Thank you. The floor seemed to have shifted under my feet, and I broke six plates. If those are hundreds of dollars, then we’re charging way too little for the food we put on them.”

  “Are you hurt?” She told him it was healing nicely. “Sandra has this thing about you lately that even I don’t understand. Can I come in?”

  She moved back so he could enter. “I don’t understand her either. Since the two of you got married, and since Mom and Dad were killed, it’s been like this train wreck between the two of us. I really only broke a few dishes. Then she said she was going to write me up. Chad, she can’t do that. I own more of the place than you do. If she does that, I’m going to fucking fire her.” She let out a breath too to calm herself. “I’m sorry. I’m trying very hard not to curse, and twice now I have. What is going on at home with you two? You don’t have to tell me anything personal, all right? But there has to be something.”

  “I couldn’t tell you—as in, I really have no idea. I mean, right now, I would tell you if I understood. And you’re right, since we were married, it’s been hell even being around her. Even for me. Yesterday I was sitting on the couch, and she came in there screaming at me about having to go someplace. I was trying my best to be calm, but she didn’t want to hear it. I finally just pulled on my shoes and got in the car. By the time we got to the dinner party she swears she had told me about, it was as if nothing had happened. I don’t know if I can take much more of her.” He flopped down on the couch, kicking off his shoes. “I don’t know what to do right now. She’ll just bitch at me if I don’t fire you. Something about taking your side all the time. But if you leave, the rest
aurant is going to have worse sales than it does already because you aren’t there to cook. I know you could work anywhere, Rach, but the place was Mom and Dad’s baby.”

  Inviting him to stay for pizza, she ordered it while he called Sandra. Rachel heard him telling her he was with her now, and they were talking about their options. The only one she could see working right now was for her to quit or to fire Sandra. Either way, no one was going to be happy with the end results. Especially Chad, who seemed to be caught in the middle every time she and Sandra fought. Going back into the living room when he was no longer talking, she sat across from him on the couch.

  “You have to tell me everything. I have a feeling you’re stressing out too on some of the things she’s been bitching at you about.” Chad nodded. “Tell me. I think I need to know what I’m up against. Not to mention what you’ve been dealing with. I didn’t do anything to her.”

  “I know that.” He leaned back and closed his eyes before speaking. “It’s everything about you. This house is larger than ours. I told her you’d bought it a long time ago and have been doing the improvements all along to make it look this good, but she says you’re rubbing the fact that our home is smaller than yours in her face. We drive around in a five year old car. I have no idea what it means. Your car is almost as old as you are.”

  She laughed. “She really is jealous? I don’t understand. We were okay, not really friends, but okay, hanging out together before you married her.” Chad told her there was more. “Do I even want to know what else she thinks of me?”

  “She thinks I got a bum deal when our parents died. I should sue you for your half of the estate.” He didn’t even move as tears started to fall down his cheeks. “I tried telling her I was a piece of shit when I was a teenager, and I knew Mom and Dad were going to take the money they had to pay out for damages as well as drug rehabilitation, but she won’t hear it. Sandra says you’re not really my sister anyway, and you should have shit. I can’t tell you how much that hurts me, Rach. You are my sister.”

  It hurt her too. Her entire body ached with what Sandra thought of the relationship between her and Chad. Not his sister? They’d grown up together. They were sister and brother not by blood, but because they were brought together by their parents. Pushing back the pain for a moment, she cleared her throat. It wasn’t working to make her feel better, so she got up and went to the kitchen, hoping Chad would give her a moment to collect herself. She smiled when she saw him.

  “I have an idea.” Rachel pulled out a bottle of wine when Chad joined her at the kitchen table. “You can tell me if it will work or not because I’m not going to bite your head off. But this is something I’ve been thinking about for a few days now.”

  “I’m assuming it’s because of the way Sandra has been treating you. Not to mention, this conversation we’re having right now.” She told him not all of it, but some. “I’m so sorry about this, Rach. I truly am. I just don’t know what is wrong with her.”

  “I’m not sure either, other than jealously, but I don’t care for the way she’s putting you in the middle. I wish if she had something to say about me she’d come to talk to me. But that’s neither here nor there. I’m going to quit, or you’re going to ‘fire’ me. Either way makes it so you’re not in trouble at home.” He said the restaurant would fail. “I can’t work with her anymore, Chad. You have to see it too. If the place fails, I’ll just take it over, without her there, and start fresh. It’s the only thing I can think of to make this work out for you and her.”

  “I’m sorry.” She looked at him, and he said it again. “I just don’t know what to do anymore, Rach. This is hurting all of us.”

  “Chad, I love you dearly, so don’t get hurt by this. You need to stand up and tell your wife to shut the fuck up about me. I’m not the bad guy in all of this.” He nodded. “I’m not joking. I have to think some of this is on you too, you not standing up to her about me being your sister. Did you tell her you weren’t going to sue me, or is there something I need to look to happen?”

  “I told her I’d think about it.” She got up and poured her wine into the sink. Rachel had thought she was hurt before, but it wasn’t even close to what she was feeling right now. “I’m not going to do it. But I don’t know what to say to her.”

  “I think you should leave here.” He asked her what she’d said. “It’s time you left, Chad. I have nothing more to say to you if you don’t know what to say to your wife, who is pounding a steel wedge between the two of us. I’ve forever had your back on everything you did. Even getting into trouble for you when you were in trouble. But this? You’ve shoved me down the river without any kind of support. Please go home to your wife. If you’re going to sue me, I’d like to know as soon as you decide. I’ve not the energy nor the heart to try and talk to you right now.”

  She waited for the sound of the door to close behind him before she let go of her hurt. Crying, sobbing with the pain he’d given her, Rachel slid to the floor and curled into a tight ball and let it all out. She didn’t even try to hold anything back as she lay there. Her brother. Rachel was going to lose her brother over this, and she had no idea what to do about it.

  When the pizza arrived, she paid for it and tipped the young man. She knew she looked a wreck but didn’t care. Taking the pizza to the kitchen, Rachel tossed it into the trash. Her hurt was too great, and eating right now would have made her sick.

  Going to her bedroom, she packed up a few things she might need and decided she was going to take the first plane out of there. Not caring where she ended up, she tossed her passport in the bag as well.

  Rachel was halfway to the door when she felt dizzy, her body heavy. Holding onto the couch back, she was sick. Something was wrong with her head, and it hurt like someone had taken a hammer to it a couple of times. Something or someone was hurting her. Going to her knees to make sure she didn’t fall back and hit her head again—if that was what had happened—Rachel let the darkness take her under, terrified she’d not be found lying dead on the floor for a month.

  Chapter 3

  “Finn? Finn? Are you all right?” Opening his eyes, he looked at the person standing over him, not having any idea who it might be. “It’s Dover. You knocked yourself pretty hard when you were tossed back from whatever it was. Right now, you’re lying in the yard behind the house. The rest of us have been scared out of our minds. What the fuck was that?”

  “I don’t know. Let me sit up for a minute.” He was helped up, his body seemingly weak from whatever had happened. “I don’t know what happened. I mean, I did fall when I was freeing Shadow, but I got up from that, right?”

  “Yes. You said you were fine, only shaken up a little bit. Do you remember that?” Things were starting to come back to him now, and he nodded. Holding his head when he did that, he told Dover he remembered. “Then what happened? You didn’t say much other than you hurt. When asked why, all you said was, Chad broke your heart. Who the fuck is Chad?”

  “There was a woman.” Dover told him there wasn’t a woman. “No, not here, but when I was out. I didn’t see her face, not clearly, but I did see her. Chad is her brother. I think. I’m not clear on that because from some of the argument I heard between the two of them, it wasn’t clear if he was or not. I’m confused.”

  “You’re confused? How do you think we feel? You were just coming out of the building, looking like you’d conquered the world, then you stopped moving, clutched your heart, said something about a man breaking your heart, then fell forward. You hit your head on a rock over there and broke it—not your head like one would think, but the rock. What the fuck is going on with you?” Finn thought about the conversation he’d overheard. “Finn? You’re scaring me right now.”

  “Just listen to me for a minute. When I released Shadow, I watched a part of the fireplace break off. A smallish stone or something. It was strange the way it just seemed to float to the floor. When
it hit, it was like you see on television when a sonic boom is going on. The waves flow out from the source. Anyway. Then I heard this woman’s voice, talking to a person about her legs being cut from some dishes. The dishes were broken because of the shifting of the ground. Like the rock hitting the floor had caused this tremor to happen around her.” Dover asked him if he knew if it was a dream or not. “I don’t have any idea, but I don’t think it was. She was as real as you and I are. But somehow, she was a part of what I was doing here. Or I was a part of her life where she is. I’m not sure.”

  “Okay, let me get this straight. You think a woman you don’t know was cut by the earth shifting under her feet when a rock here was knocked off the fireplace where you were just minutes ago. Not only that, but Chad someone, her brother, you think, has broken your heart? Or is it her heart? Either way, someone’s heart was broken.” Finn told him it was her heart. “Does it really matter right now?”

  “I think it does. I have no idea why, but I think she’s somehow connected to me and the releasing of Shadow.” Dover shook his head and asked him what he’d been drinking. “I don’t drink, and you know it. This is serious. This woman, whoever she is, we’re connected, and I’d very much like to figure out how and why.”

  “All right. Let me see what I can find out with the information you’ve given me.” Dover, forever with a computer pad with him, started typing on it with the information Finn gave him. “There are just too many variables, I’m afraid. I have some names here, but nothing really we can narrow down to help you.”

  “I’ll ask Mom. Maybe she can make some sense of it.”

  Reaching for his mom, he had another thought. This time he didn’t voice it to his brother. He was freaked out enough as it was. Mom was laughing when she answered his call. After explaining to her what had happened, she was quiet for some time.

  I’m with your Aunt Carson. She’s feeding in the information you have. As for why this connection happened, have you thought of the reasons for it? I mean, my mind is all over the place right now with it. Finn asked her if she meant the woman being his mate. Yes. That’s exactly it. How else would you be able to connect with a perfect stranger? Nor do you have any other information on her.