Infinite Harmony

by Tammy Blackwell

  Joshua leaned against the doorframe Charlie had abandoned when he went to stand by his mate. “I didn’t touch that dress.” He pointed at the pile of fabric on the floor, which had endured more battle wounds than either Scout or Joshua. “I killed the ugly one.”

  “Oh.” Maggie looked to Charlie for guidance. At first Charlie was as confused as she was, but then he really looked at the pale blue-gray dress and understanding softened his expression. “Your mother is an artist, Talley,” he said.

  “Thanks, Charlie. I’ll pass along the compliment.” Joshua couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be a remark about how Charlie was the only person besides Scout who was no longer on speaking terms with Mrs. Matthews or not. If it was, he knew it was useless. Charlie and Scout weren’t letting go of their anger anytime soon, and Joshua couldn’t blame them. Being betrayed is always bad, but when it is by someone who is supposed to take care of you and protect you from harm, then it’s even harder to swallow. There was a chance the two friends who had been harmed the most by her actions would never be able to move past it.

  And if Joshua let the conversation linger on the dress and its maker, none of them would be moving anywhere for a very long time.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be on the other side of the state guarding the Den?” Joshua asked Charlie, who wasn’t scheduled to arrive in Lake County for another four days.

  Charlie slid a hand around Maggie’s waist and pulled her closer to his side. “We had some visitors,” he said. “Seems part of the Perry Pack got lost on their way to the wedding. Maggie and I decided to show them the way so they wouldn’t miss meeting the Alphas.”

  A slow, predatory smile spread across Scout’s face, and Joshua almost felt sorry for the idiots who thought they could get away with trying to hurt someone the Alpha Female considered hers. While Scout and Maggie might not be the closest of friends, Scout still considered the Thaumaturgic under her protection, and would have even if Maggie hadn’t finally given in and joined the official ranks of the Alpha Pack as a Taxiarho. Maggie was Charlie’s, and Scout had claimed Charlie as one of hers while she was still in diapers.

  “You okay, Mags?” Joshua asked, noticing the way the bright yellow sleeve of her dress didn’t quite cover the finger-like bruises around the top of her arm.

  “Fine with a healthy sprinkling of dandy,” she said, self-consciously tugging on the edge of her sleeve. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but Charlie won’t let them touch me.”

  Scout scrunched up her nose. “That was nauseatingly cheesy,” she said.

  “And somewhat inaccurate,” Charlie added. “My role in saving the day was small and inconsequential once Maggie turned the front yard into a giant mud pit and then hardened it up the moment the moment our visitors were all hip deep in the muck.”

  Joshua stuck his hand up in the air and Maggie did a little jump to slap her own palm against his. “Excellent work, Thaumaturgic,” he said.

  Maggie flashed a bright smile. “Just doing my job, Immortal.”

  “So, Layne is here now?” Charlie’s teenage nephew and ward wasn’t officially a member of the Alpha Pack, but it was only a matter of time. Once the kid finally figured out the world was neither out to get him or owed him some giant debt, he would be a damn good Shifter. His dominance level rivaled Jase’s, and Jase was possibly the most dominant coyote Shifter in history.

  “No, he’s not coming until Friday,” Charlie said, effectively ruining Joshua’s plan of pawning Angel off on him. “Lizzie didn’t feel like she could leave the horses that long with the regular trainer still up in New York. With everything going on, I didn’t want her traveling alone, so Layne is driving her.”

  Scout choked on the water she was drinking, and Talley crinkled her nose and asked, “And they both agreed to that?”

  Knowing Charlie, he had resorted to using persuasive measures, like threatening to beat Layne within an inch of his life if he didn’t comply.

  “You couldn’t pay me enough to be in that car,” Joshua said.

  “Speaking of situations you couldn’t be paid enough to do,” Charlie said, “aren’t you supposed to be guarding the brat? Where is she?”

  Joshua wanted to punch Charlie for his judgmental tone. It wasn’t like he’d just left the kid somewhere to fend for herself while a group of crazies was targeting her. “She’s back at the cabin with her parents.” And two different Taxiarhos guarding the house. “We had an issue today that required some downtime from each other.”

  “Downtime? From Angel?” Charlie chuckled. “Who would ever want such a thing?”

  Maggie slapped her boyfriend on the shoulder. “Stop it. Angel is adorable. I love spending time with her.”

  “That is because she thinks you’re a fashion goddess and hangs on your every word,” Charlie said, tapping Maggie on the tip of her nose. “She’s never poured a bowl of cereal over your head.”

  “She did not—”

  “She did,” Scout said, cutting Maggie off. “Lucky Charms if memory serves correctly.”

  “Fruit Loops,” Talley corrected. “And you deserved it, Mr. I-Think-Singing-The-K-I-S-S-I-N-G-Song-Over-And-Over-To-A-Disgruntled-Eight-Year-Old-Is-A-Good-Idea.”

  Scout nodded in agreement, but Charlie wasn’t chagrined at all. If anything, he was amused by the memory. “Angel and Joshua sitting in a tree…” he began.

  Joshua closed his eyes and wondered if Scout would hit him a few times square in the middle of his forehead to save him the effort of pounding it against the wall. He decided against both options and settled for punching Charlie in the arm as hard as he could, which was hard enough to make the Shifter fall on his ass. It took more than a little effort to keep the smirk of satisfaction off Joshua’s face.

  “I feel like I’m missing some…” Maggie’s hands danced in front of her as if trying to conjure the right word or phrase from the air. “Backstory” was the word she finally settled on.

  “Joshua, being a typical male, didn’t know Angel has been in love with him since the first time Jase took him home like the little lost puppy he is. Today he oh-so-smartly let the munchkin catch him making out with her best friend’s sister,” Scout said, summing up the situation with her characteristic apathy. “Angel had a come-apart, and Joshua feels so rotten about it he ripped up my dress and forced me to beat the crap out of him.”

  “You have a black eye, your majesty,” Joshua said, using the formal title he knew would piss her off almost as much as pointing out how it hadn’t been quite the one-sided fight she would have liked. “And I did you a favor by ripping up that monstrosity. This wedding is supposed to placate the haters and finally unite the Shifters and Seers under your rather unorthodox Alpha Pack. You’re on display more this week than you’ve ever been in your life.” Which was really saying something. Scout was, at her core, an introvert who wanted nothing more than to fade into the background and live her life, but from the moment she made her first Change, she’d been the center of attention for both her supporters and those who would like to see her burned at the stake. “When you walk down the aisle, you’re not expected to just be a bride. You’re supposed to be a queen, and that,” he pointed to the ripped dress on the floor, “would have made you look like a court jester. Everything you’ve been working towards these past few years would have been ruined just because you’re too damn proud to wear a dress made by a woman you don’t like.”

  “She tried to kill me,” Scout growled, the wolf looking out through her eyes.

  “I’m not asking you to invite her over for milk and cookies. I’m telling you to wear the damn dress.”

  They were both leaning towards one another, ready for another round of the rough-and-tumble stuff. Joshua’s breath sawed in and out of his lungs, and Scout’s chest was rising and falling just as hard and fast. One word, and they would have gone for each other’s throats.

  “Joshua was kissing who?” Maggie said, as if she was completely unaware of the tension in the room.


  Talley grabbed ahold of the lifeline she’d been tossed with both hands. “Ada Jessup.” She swooped down and picked up the ripped dress. “Kinsey Jessup’s older sister.” As she walked past Joshua to the trash can, she patted him on the cheek. “Our Immortal is love.”

  Joshua wanted to correct her. He should have. The only problem was, he was terrified she might be right.

  Chapter 17

  Ada was not in love.

  She’d given it a lot of thought over the past few days, and on that one thing she felt very strongly. She was not in love with Joshua. She was still firmly in the love-is-a-plot-device camp. But dear sweet happy things, she liked him. A lot. More than a lot even. She liked him so much, her body practically vibrated with joy at the thought of him, which was often since she couldn’t seem to think of anything else.

  “Ada.”

  Her happy Joshua-tinted thoughts and journey out the door came to a screeching halt at the sound of her father’s voice. It had been three days since Marsden shared their most private moments with the world, or Timber First Baptist Church, which was pretty much the same thing to Ada. During the days that followed, her father had spoken to her so rarely, she could have counted the sentences on one hand. At first it was a blessing. She didn’t know what to say to him, and silence seemed preferable to a lecture. But then the silence had stretched on, and a sense of abandonment was creeping in.

  “Yes, Daddy?” she said with equal parts relief and nerves. As much as she longed for things to return to normal, she feared what he might have to say.

  “Do you have a minute?” He was sitting at the kitchen table, his Bible and various religious commentaries spread out in front of him as he worked on next Sunday’s message.

  Ada looked at the grandfather clock swallowing the foyer. “Not much more than that,” she said, walking into the kitchen. “I’m supposed to be at work at four.” She debated on whether or not to take a seat at the table and decided standing was for the best. That way she could always turn around and run out the door quickly if things got too intense.

  Reverend Jessup slid his reading glasses off his nose and laid them on top of his Bible as he massaged the indentation left by the nosepiece. “I hear you’ve already taken up with a new beau,” he said, cutting right to the chase in that weird, I-am-holier-than-you-because-I-use-Puritanical-words-like-beau way of his.

  Ada stood in stunned silence. How could he know about Joshua? She’d seen him only twice since the day in her bedroom - the day he’d kissed her - and both of those times had been when she’d taken Kinsey to meet up with Angel somewhere. Kinsey had told Ada all the angst-ridden details of Angel’s long-suffering crush on Joshua, so Ada and Joshua kept their distance by an unspoken agreement, not wanting to traumatize the girl further, or fall victim to her ire.

  At least, Ada hoped it was an unspoken agreement to spare Angel’s feelings keeping Joshua away. She supposed there could be other reasons, like being less than satisfied with their kissing experiment, but she chose to be an optimist.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ada lied, trying to keep her face neutral. “I’ve been grounded. Makes it kinda hard to start dating.”

  Some parents could have argued that internet relationships start up every five seconds, but since her parents had all of her account names and passwords and weren’t afraid to use them, there was no chance in Ada striking up a new relationship with someone online. If she had, she was sure her father wouldn’t have had to ask. There was no doubt her mother, whose entire life’s mission was reporting her children’s misdeeds to their father, had been stalking her online accounts since Saturday night. The only thing they let her keep private was her phone, which everyone who knew her knew. It was why it had been blowing up for the past few days while her social media accounts were as silent as her father’s condemnation.

  “Mary England said she saw you with a boy at the drive-in the other night, and then again with the same boy at The Strip yesterday. Tall boy. Gangly. Big eyes.” He listed off Joshua’s features as if they were charges against him.

  “Joshua?” She had to bite her tongue to not correct his assessment. Joshua wasn’t gangly, he was sinewy. And his eyes were big, but not in the dismissive way her father said it. They were like large brown orbs, the magic kind that could show you galaxies and faraway kingdoms if you looked close enough. “He’s a friend of the Donovans. Since they’re all weighed down with wedding stuff, he’s had to play chauffeur to Angel this week.”

  Her explanation didn’t seem to alleviate any of her father’s concerns. If anything, it intensified them. For some reason, Reverend Jessup always disliked the older two Donovan siblings. He adored Angel like most adults tended to do, but he never had a kind word for her siblings. He used words like arrogant and reckless to describe them, but Ada thought it had more to do with the way neither of them appeared to give a crap what anyone, including her father, thought about them.

  Reverend Jessup folded his hands together as if in prayer and then tucked them under his chin. “If he’s a friend of Jase and Scout Donovan, then he’s too old to be your friend, Ada.”

  Ada smothered her giggle with a cough.

  “Joshua is nineteen,” which was more or less true, “and it would be rude to ignore him. What am I supposed to do? Turn my nose up in the air when he talks to me?”

  She tried to imagine how that would go. Anyone else would quickly label her a bitch and go on with their lives, but Joshua wouldn’t. Knowing him, he would just keep talking until she couldn’t take it anymore and talked back out of self-preservation.

  A smile tickled the corners of her lips, and she quickly squashed it. When she was young, Ada thought her father could read minds. It took her years to realize it wasn’t her thoughts giving her away but her face. She spent hours staring at herself in the mirror, trying to learn how to school her expression for occasions when the absolute last thing she wanted was for her father to know what she was thinking. He didn’t need to know how every time she said Joshua’s name she remembered the way his body had felt under her roaming hands.

  “Perhaps you should explain to this young man that you’re not interested in a relationship. It’s just as rude to lead someone on when you have no intention of getting involved.”

  And just like that, he had her in a corner. Either she admitted to wanting to be involved with Joshua (which wasn’t going to happen), or she agreed to quit talking to him (which also wasn’t happening).

  “I don’t think I need to make things awkward,” Ada said, grasping for a third option. “Joshua isn’t interested in dating me.” Which might have been true enough. It wasn’t like he’d ever asked her out on a date or anything. He’d merely told her he was falling in love with her against his will and then kissed her like he was trying to fuse their souls together with his lips and tongue. “We’re just killing time while Kinsey and Angel do their Kinsey and Angel thing.”

  “That isn’t what your sister says.” Reverend Jessup leaned back in his chair, looking very much like a judge about to deliver a guilty verdict. “She says the boy is quite smitten with you. That he ‘follows you around like a love-sick puppy’ were her words.”

  Ada opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her brain was too busy coming up with ways to kill her sister and dispose of the body.

  “I know I’ve kept you sheltered from people like this, but I can’t let you go on being so naive when it comes to boys, especially considering your reputation now,” her father continued. “When a boy knows that a girl has done what you’ve done, they assume certain things.” Ada’s murderous thoughts turned from her sister to her father. Or perhaps herself. “This Joshua person may seem like a nice guy who only wants to talk to you, but what he really wants is sex.”

  Nope. No need to murder anyone. Ada was dying right then and there of humiliation and fury.

  “That’s not fair.” She’d meant for it to be a bold, confident statement, but her throat was too clogged with
the screams she was holding in. It came out as a strangled whisper instead.

  Reverend Jessup raised his eyebrows. “To who? You? Or him?” He didn’t expect an answer, so Ada didn’t give one. She waited for him to continue with her fists clenched down to her side. “This is what happens when you make bad decisions, Ada. You pay the consequences. And in this instance, the consequences are boys will come to expect certain things from you. You can’t undo that now. All you can do is protect yourself.”

  There were so many things she wanted to say to that, but she held them inside like she always did. The only purpose they could serve was to further upset her father and create an even bigger rift between them, and no matter what she might tell everyone else, she was dying. Not today or tomorrow, or probably even next year, but the odds were on her parents having to watch her slide off this mortal plane. Her illness had already put them through more than any parent should have to endure, and her death would destroy them. She knew it in the marrow of her being. She wasn’t going to add to their burden with her opinions that were so different from their own. She’d caused enough trouble by being born sick. There wasn’t any way to make up for it, but she tried by being the daughter they wanted instead of the person she was.

  “I’ll pray for His guidance,” she finally said, a tear escaping at the pain the lie caused her heart. Her father interpreted it differently, however, and came to wrap his arms around her.

  “I know you’ll find your way,” he murmured into her hair. “We all make missteps from time to time. But don’t worry. God knows your heart.”

  Chapter 18

  By the time Ada extracted herself from her father’s well-meaning arms, she was running late for work. It was ten minutes past the time she was scheduled to start when she slid her timecard into the archaic machine. Jo made a few remarks about how her son would be in tears by the time she finally got to the daycare, but no one was there to write her up, so she considered it a win.