Mercy: Queen’s Birds of Prey: Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Queen's Birds of Prey Book 1)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “No. As a matter of fact, we’re going to the warehouse after we settle up with the movers tomorrow, I think. I wanted to show your dad around.” She asked if she could go. “Of course. There are some old Victorian beds stuck in there someplace, as well as a couple hundred chairs you might want to put in your new room. It wouldn’t be any trouble to get them redone for you. I know a guy here in town that loves doing it.”

  “I’d love to see them. I bet over the years you’ve kept a lot of that sort of stuff.” Joel told Miley that they were going to put a few of the pieces in the house. “That would be way awesome. I have a dream of having a huge family table, and all the aunts around it with their mates. It would be so cool at Christmas.”

  They decided to go out to dinner, someplace they could splurge on a good steak as well as some wine. They had a driver now; hired by one of the others to drive them instead of them having to find parking spaces. Joel was looking forward to moving into the bigger house and having Christmas there, just like Miley was.

  As they were riding down the elevator to the main level, Miley asked about the grounds around the house. Mercy was telling her about the horses that they could get, because there was a great deal of land to ride on. Joel was looking at the large garage with the apartment over the top. He was muddling through wondering if Daniel would like to live there. It would be nice for the added protection, he thought.

  It only took them an hour to get to Columbus, and they didn’t have to wait long for a seat. Joel was surprised to see that a great many people seemed to know Mercy. She introduced him and Miley as her family to every one of them. Soon they’d have to make it official, but for now, he was content with just having his women near him as much as he could.

  Chapter 6

  Saul couldn’t understand why he was in jail. He’d not actually done anything to the little girl yet. He was pretty sure that just threatening someone couldn’t result in jail time. He’d have to look into that when he got out of here. The officer came to get his empty tray just as he was trying to figure out who he could call to come bail him out.

  “Hey, you got any friends that would like to make a fast buck? I mean, I’d pay nicely once I’m paid. You know, after the job is done.” Joey, he thought his name was, just bent and picked up the tray without answering him. “Are all you cops so stuck up that you’d not answer a man when he asked a polite question?”

  “I’m sure that anyone in here wouldn’t do a thing for you. But go ahead, tell me what this plan of yours is so I can slap another few days on your sentence.” He didn’t know for sure if the guy was serious or not, so kept his mouth closed. This was the weirdest jail system he’d ever been in. “I see. So, you might have gotten a clue that to tell a cop your plans, or to say something that could get you into trouble in front of a cop, is a bad idea. I’m glad that we could teach you at least one thing while in here.”

  “It’s considered rude to talk over someone’s head.” Joey walked away laughing hard at him. “He certainly isn’t laughing with me. Mother fucker.”

  Sitting down on the chair that was nicer than he’d seen in those expensive furniture stores, he wondered yet again what that woman had seen in his brother enough to marry him. Saul supposed his brother was nice—too nice if you asked him. And he wasn’t nearly as good looking as Saul was. Joel was a sap too.

  Saul thought of himself as a man’s man. He had his own definition of that, not being able to find anything under that sort of title in the dictionary. Saul thought of himself as a man who got things done, and damn the consequences. Usually that was what got him into trouble. But what sort of life could you live if you were always worried about getting caught?

  Saul had his own way of getting out of things, mostly with the cops. Any of them, from the little local asses, like the ones here, all the way up to the Feds. The big guys were harder to impress with his knowledge of shit going down, but on occasion he’d be able to impress one or two of them. That would get him a get out of jail on a lesser sentence card that he usually had to use within days of getting it.

  “This is just stupid.” Saul usually talked to himself. And when he did, he thought that he gave himself the best answers. When he had a crew, which wasn’t that often, he didn’t like sharing, so he would bounce ideas off them. It was difficult to get them to agree to his way of doing things, so he usually did it on his own by killing them off and going about his business. Messy, but effective.

  Saul would admit to anyone that he was a crook. He took pride in the fact that he’d not worked a job that wasn’t a way to get to something he wanted in all his life. When he took a job, it was to get insider information, find someone to let him in after hours, or simply to steal whatever he could walk out with on his first day.

  Saul loved stealing. To him, it was a national pastime. People said all the time that they didn’t take things. Lies, all of it. People would take a pen here or there. Print up something that was personal on company time, using company paper. He knew that some people would order gifts for the family online or even play games. It was all theft. Every single bit of it. What he never understood was why they thought that he was the criminal and they weren’t. Fuckers, every last one of them.

  Saul hadn’t any idea how long they thought they could hold him here. He had shit to do and things that he had to put into motion. There was the slight worry that they’d be watching him a little closer now. Not that it really worried him that much. Saul had a way to slip in and out of shadows more than most.

  When the cop came back, this time he wasn’t alone. With him was a fancy man. Had to be a lawyer.

  “You my court appointed shithead?” The man shivered and said that he was not. “What do you want? As you can see, I’m kinda busy here.”

  “I have a proposal for you.” Saul told him he wasn’t any kind of homo, but thanks all the same. “You’re a disgusting man, has anyone ever told you that? I’m here to offer you money to go—”

  “I’ll take it.” The man said nothing as Saul stood up and put out his hand. “Hand it over, Fancy Man. I haven’t got all day. How much is it? Enough to get me out of here?”

  “You need to shut up and listen. I’m not going to just hand over money to you without telling you what you have to do to get it.” Saul sat back down. There was a catch to everything nowadays. “I will pay you ten thousand dollars to leave the country.”

  “Nope. I’ll take the money, but I’m not going anywhere. I know for a fact that my new family has a great deal more than that. This is just a drop in the toilet for them. Why do they want me to leave the country, anyway?” The man told him. “They just want me to leave them alone? That still doesn’t answer why I have to leave the country. And besides, ten grand isn’t going to get me far with me having to start over, you know.”

  “Start over? What is it you think you need to replace that you’ve had before? You have nothing now, from what I’ve been told about you.” Fancy Man snorted at him. “You take the money, leave tonight on the first flight out, and you’ll get ten more when you land on the other end. However, you return, and all bets are off, I’m told to tell you.”

  “You think that is supposed to scare me away? No, it’s not going to happen. And even if I wanted to leave the country, I can’t. I’m a felon, as you know. I wasn’t even supposed to leave the state. But I told them I was coming to see my brother be wedded. The fool. And that got me a free pass for a month.” Allen asked him how long ago that was. “Well, I’m not foolish enough to tell you that, now am I?”

  “Are you going to do as asked?” Saul just pushed the chair back into the lounging position and closed his eyes. “All right, I’ll take that as a no. There is another deal on the table, Mr. Oliver. Are you willing to listen to it?”

  “Sure, go ahead.” He didn’t move, thinking that he’d rattle the man and he’d have to come back. “You go on and tell me what you think I’ll do for them.”

  “Mercy Oliver, your sister-in-law, has said that if you c
ome around her family again, for any reason, then you’ll be a dead man.”

  Saul looked over at the cop, asking if that was a threat.

  “No, not a threat when it comes from her about you. I’d say that it was a promise. She will kill you. And when she does, I doubt much that anyone will give a shit.” Joey laughed, then he smiled. “You should know that the bodies of your parents are being exhumed. There is a question of someone murdering them. They’re pretty sure that it was you, if you didn’t get that.”

  “Who the hell ordered that? That fucking brother of mine? He’s a moron. And if there is something like that with their bodies, then he did it.” Joey just nodded, and the lawyer cleared his throat. “You tell that bitch that I’m not the least bit worried about her or my brother. I want them to acknowledge me in a financial way, or things might start to fall apart for them. And yes, that was a threat. Fuck this shit. I want my own lawyer. Get me one, doofus.”

  Joey was laughing again as he walked away with Fancy Man. This shit was just stupid. The fact that everyone seemed to be getting a kick out of his predicament was pissing him off too. And he knew from past experience, being pissed off would get him into trouble. Stupid people lost their cool, not smart ones like him.

  When his next tray came around, it was brought to him by none other than his new family member. Mercy sure was a pretty thing. And he’d bet anything Saul could have her begging for mercy in no time. When she pushed his tray under the little opening he just sat there, waiting for her to beg him for something.

  “I’m not begging you for anything, you moron. You had your chance. I’ve come here to ask you if you have your will and such in order.” He asked her if she was threatening him. “No. I doubt it would do me any good anyway. I’ve come here for the very reason I said. Just to make sure that you’re not leaving anything undone. I’m not one to make idle threats. I will do just what I said. I will kill you if you bother my family again.”

  He laughed. Saul couldn’t help it. Mercy wasn’t any bigger than a bug to him. He might be older than her—he was sure he was—but he was also stronger, and he was a man. When she laughed, he asked her what she thought was so funny.

  “You are, if you think that you having a dick will make a difference when you come up against me. I’m much stronger than I look.” He asked her if she could read his mind. “I can. And I have a feeling that any moron with an IQ the size of a gold fish would be able to read it too. You must be so much fun at poker.”

  “What the hell do you think you can do to me, little girl? And I’ll do as I wish, when I want. You have money and I want it.” She said nothing but looked up at the camera that hung at the end of the hall. When it popped and sizzled, he watched as the second one, at the other end, did the same thing. “So? You have a bit of magic. Most people do.”

  “Do they? Can they do this?” She shifted into a bird. Not one of those cute ones he was forever seeing on television, but one that looked like it could snap him in half with her beak, and then swallow him down without a thought. Even her head, bent to accommodate its size compared to the height of the ceiling, was bigger than him. Saul leapt back from it, and she laughed when she became a person again. “Did I scare you? I fucking hope so.”

  “How did you do that?” She just smiled at him and then snapped her fingers. Both cameras buzzed for a moment, and he’d bet anything that they had come back on. “I demand that you tell me how you did that. Do you have any idea how much fucking money we can make off a show of you? Christ, people would pay big bucks to see you do that. And the Feds would never arrest me again, even if I were to take out a gun and kill the president. Just because of the uses that they could find for you and that bird.”

  “You really are stupid, aren’t you? Do you have any...? Well, I’d say you’ve not thought beyond what you can get out of something for nothing your entire life. I cannot believe that you and Joel are from the same gene pool. He’s the sweetest most generous man I’ve ever met. While you? You’re nothing but a money-grubbing ass wipe that only looks for what things can get him.” She shook her head as she continued. “The threat still stands. You come near my family, in any way, shape, or form, and I will pick you up in my claws, fly as high as I can, and drop you. There will be nothing left of you but a stain on the dirt.” She was suddenly in his face, coming through the cell bars, his body lifted from the floor. “You will die, Saul Oliver, and trust me when I tell you, I will enjoy it more than you can believe.”

  After she dropped him to the floor, he sat there as she faded from the cell. Saul didn’t get up right away, his body still trembling from the encounter. But the longer he sat there, thinking, the more ideas he came up with on how to get more than just money out of her talents. Saul was sure that he’d be on easy street for the rest of his life.

  Laughing, he got up. Taking his tray to the little table that was cemented to the floor, he laughed harder. The things that he was going to get from this were going be the best scheme he’d ever done. Pulling off the cover from his plate, Saul screamed. The little birds, all of them the color of blood, came shooting up off his plate and slammed him in the face.

  Falling back, waving to keep them from pecking his eyes out, the chair tumbled, and he fell back. The last thing that Saul remembered thinking was her laughable attempt at getting him to back off.

  ~*~

  As soon as she left the station house, Mercy took to the skies. She was just angry enough to go back to the jail, tear a hole in the side of the place, and grab Saul up to do just as she said she would. It was small wonder to her that she’d not killed him when she had the chance. Instead, like a fool, she feared she had given him yet another chance to try and hurt one of them.

  I can actually feel your anger. Wow, you must be about as pissed off as I’ve ever known anyone to be. She told Joel what had happened, leaving nothing out. Well, I hate to say this, but it’s nothing more than you expected from him, correct?

  I guess. But he was actually giddy about me shifting instead of being fearful of what I could do to him. Even going so far as to try and think up ways to make a few bucks off me. Joel said he was sorry. Don’t be. He’s the one that should be sorry. I’m not going to hold back on him when he tries his shit.

  I was thinking about joining you in the sky. That made her anger turn to something so profoundly different, she begged him to join her. I’m not sure how good I’ll be at this. I mean, the little bit of practice that I’ve had, it didn’t go that well.

  You were too worried about looking stupid. I told you, we all had to learn how to do what you do every day. Walking is much harder than it looks. She saw him below her. Miley was sitting on the deck in a lounge chair with a blanket over her legs. As soon as her dad shifted, she clapped loud enough for Mercy to hear. Just think of flying, Joel, and come join me in the skies.

  They had discovered that not only could he be a falcon like her, but he could also turn into her larger falcon. Like the one she’d been that destroyed castles and saved their people. She had enjoyed watching him struggle with bouncing along the grass, trying to walk. And her and Miley had had a good time trying to get him to flap his wings. It was like watching a comedy of errors with him. But he’d been so good natured about it that Mercy had loved him all the more for it.

  When he struggled again with liftoff, Mercy waited. He’d get it or not. But she already felt better than she had before simply because he loved her, and her him. They were perfectly suited, she thought.

  Joel did much better than she thought he would once he got up and going. The lift, she’d told him, would be the most difficult to master. But once a person had that, things like flapping their wings would come to them easier. As soon as Joel soared by her, she laughed, feeling like a great weight had been lifted from her heart.

  This is beautiful. Look at the tops of the trees. The way they sway and move is amazing. She let him see what she’d not for a long time—her age and jadedness had made her forget the beauty beneath her. Oh, M
ercy. This is why you do this for blowing off steam, isn’t it?

  Even before becoming a human, she had long since only seen things in the form of strategy, how to best make trees or boulders work for her. How the terrain was laying in the direction of the waterways. She and the others had gotten good at making things work for them. Saving lives and the kingdom had become their first priority. And in turn, it kept them all alive to fight another day.

  They played in the skies until well after dark. It didn’t matter to them, being predators, that the darkness would bring out creatures that only ate at night. They were meaner, sharper at getting in and out of situations. And they could soar in and out of danger better than most. Mercy showed him how to ride the currents.

  When they landed, they noticed the time was after midnight. Miley had long since gone to bed, Dutch told them, and left them out a tray of food, telling them that the hot tub had been delivered earlier that day and was now up to temperature. There was just enough chill in the night air to make the sound of getting into the tub tempting.

  Sliding into the steaming heat, they both moaned. Mercy felt his moan all the way to her core, but she was much too relaxed and very happy to be turned down if it was only just the tub giving him such pleasure. But she should have known better. Almost as soon as the thought was out of her head, he reached for her.

  His callused hands were tender. Joel’s strong fingers massaged in places that the heated water couldn’t touch. As he worked over her muscles, she sat facing him on his lap. Leaning into his neck, resting her chin on the edge of the tub, she let him have his way with her.

  “You are much too tense to have just been soaring over the land, my love. You aren’t still thinking of Saul, are you? If so, then get his rattlesnake meanness out of your head and think of me. And all the things that I plan to do to you.” She told him there was nothing on her mind. “Good. I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to remember. I love you very much, and that’s the reason that I’ve gone ahead and done this. I’ve set us up to be married in the morning. Miley helped me pick out the flowers and the people that we would both want there when we tie the knot.”