“Why did you have someone come to kill me last evening? Someone to break into my home and try to kill both myself and my mate while we were in bed? You should know that not only did this person confess he was being told to do this, but he also told me he’d rather die than have to go back to his boss and tell them he had failed. However, he didn’t give me a name. Just that it was a female.” That startled both Aurora and her when CJ spoke. Bea told her that she lied. “You know better than that. I cannot lie while in this room. Nor can you. Why did you send someone to kill us?”
“We were told if we were to kill the two of you that great riches would come our way. She told us that forever we’d be at her side. I deserve to be there when she rises up and takes over.” CJ laughed and told her that was never going to happen. “She is closer than you think and will get you.”
The snarl again was wet, and the splatter of it danced around the room until it hit the stone floor. Even as hard as it was, the acidy spit burnt deep holes into the stone and through it to the underground. If it had touched either of them or even something living, it would have eaten right through them until they were mutilated for life.
“The babe you carry will ruin it for all of us.” That was it, Melisandre thought to herself. CJ was with child. Her eyes told all that knew her that CJ was carrying a life within her. CJ asked her why she thought that was going to happen. “Because these two will give you more than anyone deserves. You were not even raised as a faerie, and here you stand with so much power now that it blinds me. No, you need to be dead, so my kind can go about their fun without you causing us any trouble.”
“You will wish for death.” Bea looked at Melisandre, then at Aurora. She begged not just for her life but those of her children as well. “They’re dead. I took care of them before coming here. Their short lives lay at your feet because you taught them your ways.”
The bodies of four trolls, all of them considered adults by anyone who saw them, were lain on the floor between CJ and Bea by CJ’s army. Bea’s screams were cut off when CJ simply snapped her fingers. Not only did the sound stop, but Bea’s mouth disappeared as well.
Melisandre could see that they’d not suffered at all but had been killed by a single stab to their heads. The spikes of iron were still within their skulls. She did wonder at the strength it would have taken to have put it through the skull of a troll. They had a skull thick enough, she knew, that very little could penetrate it—the reason they were so stupid. They had tiny brains in their head.
~*~
Don had never been asked to kill a troll before. If he was honest with himself, he’d thought they could only be killed by someone like Bancroft or the queens he was getting to know. He was being asked to do this because he was the second to Lord Bancroft. CJ had done her duty and found the guilty person. Now he was the one that would end her life after the trial.
Every time he said Lord Bancroft, even to himself, he had to stop himself from giggling. They were calling his childhood friend a lord. If only they knew him as he did. They’d rethink their position of calling him anything but a nutball.
The trial, or whatever this was, had been going on for several days now. He’d been told it would be short, and he’d finish her off for the crimes against her. But there had been so many other creatures to come forward to tell about the things that had been done to their kind by the troll that he was positive it was never going to end. Just today, there had been fifty-plus creatures that had said that Bea, her sons, or River had either killed a member of their family or had ruined their livelihood so that they were nearly dead themselves. Bancroft was in attendance as well, having only just found out that his own lands had been spoiled by the work of the trolls.
Did you know that when a troll is killed by a person such as myself, their history becomes written down and put in a library? I haven’t any idea why. That’s just what I was told. No one cares to find out why either. He asked CJ who read the accounting. Good point. Other trolls. Do you think that’s the reason for it? So they can see what other idiots did?
I don’t know why they’d have to go and read them in a book. Every troll in the land is here. What I find funny is that none of them seem to have any sympathy for any of the family of River and Bea. She told him that was sad and also expected. Yes, I suppose so. I was wondering about your plans for after this trial. If it ever ends.
I do have plans. The things I ordered are arriving daily. I’ve been putting this crap away since you left here. By the way, you’re going to be cutting down boxes when you return, not for the trash bin, but for the faeries. They’ve taken quite a shine to this stuff. The bubble wrap is the real hit. I think they’re adding it to their playgrounds. He could see them jumping on it to hear it pop. Smiling to himself, he thought of what they might be doing with the cardboard. Tonight we’re going to figure out who the person is that is ordering the hits on me. I think I might have an idea, but right now, I’m trying hard to keep an open mind. Kelly and the other women are going to be helping me. Along with Bancroft’s grannie. She’s a hoot, by the way.
He didn’t have a clue, and that bothered him more than anything. Thinking about the death of Cody, he wondered if anyone would ever be able to look at CJ again without equating her with the way she’d killed the little creature. He would have thought it impossible to make such a small thing suffer the way he had, but then he’d never had to kill a troll before. Looking up when he heard the others shuffling around, he hoped it was the end. Not that he was looking forward to his part in this, but he wanted to just be home.
“We’re breaking for lunch,” Bancroft told him. That was another thing he didn’t care for. They assumed that since he and some of the others were vampires, they needed to line up people for them. It was wrong in so many ways that he’d had to go away and have some time alone. “How about we go out in the gardens? I have a few things I’d like to discuss with you. It’s not important, but it’s just that I want your input on it.”
“Sure.” They were seated out in the most beautiful gardens he’d ever seen. The colors were bright and bold. The arrangement of the different plants seemed never-ending. It was difficult to tell where one plant ended and the other began. They blended so well as a whole. When Bancroft didn’t start right away, Don told him what he’d been learning about since he’d gotten here. “Did you know there are at least a thousand faeries around you at any given time? I had no idea. Melisandre has been teaching me how to see them. I have magic for that, too, in the event you’re wondering. It allows me to see them in a way that makes it easier for—”
“I have a plan.” Nodding at Bancroft, he let him tell him rather than asking for details. Like what sort of plan did he have? Was it something to do with today? “Once, when I was a younger vampire, I purchased a great deal of land along the oceans. It wasn’t all that expensive, but back then, no one was thinking they’d enjoy swimming in it. And those that did only went there when they needed a bath. Anyway, this plan I have is to sell it to put in hotels along the ocean for all of us to use. It would be a place where any of us could go and—”
“What are you talking about? I’m reasonably sure there are laws regarding that, but that’s not the point. You’re stalling. Tell me or not, but I’m here to listen if you want me to.” He nodded and looked away before starting. “Bancroft, you’re scaring me. What the hell is wrong?”
“I’m going to be a father.” Don waited. He was as well, but they’d not shared that information with anyone as yet. “I don’t have a lot of memories of my own parents. I’m terrified I’m going to fuck this up. What if one of my kids turns out to be like some of the ones we see here?”
“First of all, duh on you being a father. I think we all have noticed that Kelly is carrying around something. Secondly, you do know that you always fuck up your first one.” Bancroft told him he wasn’t helping. “Not my job, buddy, to make you feel good about being a parent. But the tr
uth is, we’re all terrified of that coming into our lives. And that’s a good thing. I think people who don’t think about being a good parent at least twenty times a day aren’t going to be one. A good parent, I mean. Sheesh, Bancroft, I don’t have any children, and every time I see one, I want to study it. I mean, like take it home and figure out how to take care of it. However, in all my trying to figure a kid out, I’ve noticed that they’re all different. Even kids growing up in the same house could have a different personality for each one of them. That boggles the mind if you ask me.”
“You aren’t helping me the least bit now. What the hell do you mean, they could all be different? Do people raise their kids differently?” Don told him, of course, they did. “I could stake you right now. I’m not kidding one bit either. I could ram a stake through you and not think another thing about it.”
“That’s because we’re all only children.” Bancroft said that wasn’t it at all. He wanted him dead because he was making the situation worse. “You love me, and we both know you’re not going to kill me. Save that thought for when, if you have a daughter, she wants to date someone like you. Now that would give me nightmares.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Don was really enjoying this and thought that if Bancroft didn’t kill him, he’d laugh himself into a stupor. “I don’t even know why I thought you’d be at least sympathetic with me. Here I come to you with my woes, and you tell me shit that isn’t the least bit helpful.”
“Yes, it is, and you know it. I’m trying my best not to freak you out. No, that’s not true. I am trying to do it a little and enjoying it too. But what you have to remember is that you aren’t the only person to worry over this. Nor will you be the last. It is what it is, Bancroft. Why are you so twisted up about your child coming into the world?” He told him that they were having a daughter and a son. “Good for you. You must be on top of the world. However, I surely do hope she takes after her mother. Both of them, actually. You are ugly. I’m sorry to have to tell you that, but it’s the honest to god truth. You’re an ugly man.”
They were rolling around on the ground, sort of attempting to hurt one another, when Melisandre and Aurora came to where they were. Aurora fussed at them about her garden while Melisandre held onto the tree, laughing. Getting up from the ground, he offered his friend his hand.
“I’m not going to be any more sympathetic for you than you have been for me.” Don told him he was glad to hear that. “You’re really not afraid of being a parent? I find that hard to believe.”
“I’m a very old and powerful vampire, the same as you. Anyone fucks with my kids and wife, I know it’s been said thousands of times, but I do mean it when I say no one will ever find their bodies. However, I will take pictures and hang them around the house when someone calls on one of my daughters.” Bancroft said he loved that idea. “You can use it if you wish. Even if I have to put the fear of me into their minds, my children will be as safe with dates as they would be with us, or I’ll come down on them in such a way that their ancestors will be rolling in their graves.”
“I’m not sure that talking to you had the desired effect I was hoping for, but it did calm me a little. Kelly is ready to toss me out of the house until the babies are entering college. Not that I think that will be calming enough for me, but she seems to think they’ll be able to defend themselves by then.” Bancroft stood up. “Thank you. You’ve made this old man feel at least marginally better.”
“If you two are done with your patting each other on the back, do you think we could get this thing over with?” Melisandre was beginning to sound a great deal like CJ. Following them into the room, he was glad to see there weren’t nearly as many people as there had been before lunch. “I’ve sent them all home. I don’t think we need to hear any more about how the five of them had messed with their lives. Do you?”
“No. They weren’t good people, so let’s just get this over with.” Melisandre nodded and started away, only to return to stand next to Don. “Something wrong?”
“Yes. So you know, I’ve had my people out searching for the person in charge of the things going on with CJ and you. I might have a name for you. But I don’t want you to say anything to CJ.” He said he could only do that until she asked him point-blank. “I know that, but this, if I’m wrong, will hurt our relationship, and I so enjoy having CJ around. She’s been my rock since she was born, and I think I’d wither up and die without her around to talk to me.” After asking her who it was she’d figured out, he sat down on the ground. “I know that it’s a lot for you to take in, but I’m as sure about this as I am the friendship the two of us have.”
“She’ll have to be told, and soon. I don’t think holding something this important from her is a good idea. Someone will need to inform her, and the sooner, the better.” Melisandre nodded and sat down on the chair that suddenly appeared beneath her. “I’m assuming you wish for me to do it.”
“I will. I just needed to see if you’d be there for me.” Don thought about it and told her he’d tell her. “I don’t want you to be the bearer of bad news, Don. I can tell her.”
“I would rather if you don’t mind.” She told him whatever he thought was best. “Best? That would be to hunt this person down and give them the longest death I can make for them. However, I won’t do that either. I’ll go as soon as I have this taken care of.”
“I have people watching both of them. I’ve been doing that all along, but this is so much more important than before.” He had to agree with that. “All right. I’ll wait here until you call to me. In the event that she has any questions or…I don’t know, something else I can do for either of you.”
He didn’t know what that would be but decided he wasn’t going to think about that. Today he had to kill a troll. Then later kill someone else. Things were not going to be happy around his home for some time, he worried.
As he entered the room, he was led to the open arena that surrounded the castle. He’d never known what the place was for until just this minute. The ground was made of sand and stone so that anyone bleeding here would not spoil the earth. As soon as Bea was bought out to him to kill, he waited for her sentencing to be read to her before he let go of his beast and did what few others could do. Kill a troll.
Chapter 7
CJ entered the back door of her sister’s home just as she heard her calling for Cody. Not sure what she’d be wanting her faerie for, CJ pulled the shadows around her and slid deeper into the room until she could actually see Pfeiffer.
“Cody? Where are you? You were supposed to be here an hour ago.” She stomped her foot, then yelled for him again. “Cody, if you don’t come back here right this minute, I’m going to take away your sugar cubes for a month. Come on. I need you.”
“Why?” Startling her sister, CJ sat down at the table and gave herself a tall glass of iced tea and several cookies. “I so love that I can eat whatever I want and not gain a single pound. I mean, it’s not like I was carrying around a lot of weight in the first place, but knowing that makes this so much better. Why are you calling to my faerie, Pfeiffer?”
“We were to have a meeting. Here, let me get you something else. You shouldn’t be eating sweets when it’s so close to dinner.” CJ pulled the cookies to her and told her to leave them alone. “That was harsh. What’s up with you? Did someone say something to you?”
“No. Not yet. But you’ve not answered my question. Why are you calling for Cody?” She told her again that they had set up a meeting. “About what? I can’t imagine what sort of meeting you’d be having with Cody. I mean, he only answers to me.”
Pfeiffer sat down again and then got up to get herself a glass. While she was pouring tea, CJ tried to look into her mind. All she got for her efforts was a singsong about the alphabet. When Pfeiffer sat back down, she didn’t reach for the cookies that were still on the plate. But she did crumble up a napkin. A sure sign that she was nervous.
“Just after you started going to school, even as young as you were, I was in awe of you. How you were so poised and seemed to be able to do just about anything. I know there were times when you’d get frustrated with me. Not having much in the way of confidence in myself the way you did. Then I met Robert. It seemed to me like things were going to go my way for a little while.” Saying nothing, she watched the other woman. “Robert wasn’t a nice person. Not even before we started dating. He wasn’t abusive, not in the way that would show to anyone else, but you saw it, didn’t you?”
“Yes. He would ride you until you didn’t have anything left for anyone but him. Even when there were others around, your daughters, he seemed to think all that time you devoted to them wasn’t right.” Pfeiffer said that was how she felt as well. CJ wondered if she’d get to the point when she started speaking again. “Neither Sally nor Rachel are his. They’re born of an affair I had with a kind man when I was younger. Robert knew. It was something he held over my head right up until he took his last breath.”
“I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but you still haven’t answered my question about Cody.” She nodded, sipping her tea. Then she told her she was working up to it. “He’s dead anyway. So is Benson.”
“You killed them both.” CJ told her she had. That she was going to kill the person that had hired them to kill her. “She’s dead as well. That was why I was calling to Cody. To help me get rid of the body. Or, in this case, bodies.”
She wasn’t entirely sure what she was talking about, so let that hang there between them. Neither of them seemed inclined to speak right then, so she enjoyed her tea. Reaching out beyond where they sat, she could feel death, but not who it might have been. Then it hit her.
“Rachel and Sally.” Pfeiffer nodded, then started crying. “Why? I mean, why did they want me dead? Did they tell you?”
Donald: Dalton’s Kiss: Vampire Paranormal Romance (Dalton's Kiss Book 3) Page 10
