“Holland Phillip McCray. Born in fourteen twelve.” Lucy looked at him. “Fourteen twelve? Do you know how long that man has been around? Christ love a duck.”
She handed Ian the book, and he found the entry. “Hollie was born at home. His date of death says unknown. Then it has a notation here I can’t read. Not that I can’t read it. I just don’t know what language it’s in.” Ian leaned back in his chair. “Whoever wrote this knew more about this than just an unknown date of death. Until you mentioned it, I had no idea there was a family Bible. Dad, this is scary.”
“So, Hollie said you two were born for this, and that Lucy here was strong enough to live through the changing as well as the magic coming to you.” Ian told his mom that was what he said. “And now that he’s gone, you two will take over his job and be around until the next generation or whatever is born. Son, that could be an exceptionally long time.”
“We’ll be paid. I don’t know how much or even if it’s enough for us to live on, but someone somehow makes sure we can do what we need to do when we are needed. We’re to meet some guy soon that will have us sign off on some of the paperwork we’ll need to have in order to get paid. I don’t know what we’d have to sign, before you ask. Hollie was somewhat vague about it. Also, you should know that it’s not just Ian and I that will be around forever. All of the family will be as well, he told me.” Dad told Lucy he didn’t want to be around forever. “I don’t think you have to be if you don’t want to. But Alden, don’t you want to be here for all your grandchildren? All of them? I know I’d like for you to be around for my kids and their kids too. Oh, I’m going to have a baby. Honey told me.”
“I’m sorry. What?” Lucy smiled at Ian and then repeated that she was going to have a child to his mom. “You’re going to have a baby? Lucy, that should have been the first words out of your mouth when I got here. Oh, my goodness. More grandchildren. I’m the luckiest grandma in the world. Of course, we want to be around. Alden, grandchildren bouncing on our knees for all time.”
“But this could be hundreds of years. Hundreds and hundreds of years. Whatever will we do in all that time? Not to mention, if nobody dies, then there won’t be anyone for our family to marry that won’t be related to them.” Ian laughed. “I don’t think this is the least bit funny, son. This is some serious business.”
“It is. But that’s just about the funniest excuse I’ve heard for not wanting to live forever. I’m sorry, Dad. You have to admit that not having a mate to marry is funny.” Dad just glared at him. “Dad, I’m still dealing with this the best I can. Lucy and I haven’t had much more time than you have to get used to this. The magic? What she showed you is the tip of the iceberg on what we can do.”
Ian put out his hand. This was what had him freaking out when his dad had arrived. Concentrating on just having the flame of fire in his palm, it appeared. After it was glowing hot, he changed it to a snowball. Then he split it in half so that one side was frozen ice, the other hot flames.
“I don’t have any idea what I might use that for, but I can do it. Also, I can do this.” He laid both his hands on the table and thought of a Thanksgiving feast. The food, all of his favorites of the meal, appeared. “It’s real too. I’ve eaten some of it. And after I get all I want out of it, I can put it away.”
“To feed bears/people. Okay. That would be helpful. A healthy person can have healthy children.” He nodded at his dad. “I’m not saying this is bogus or anything. Don’t take that from this. But why? Why not just give you enough money to help people? Why magic?”
Ian didn’t know. He didn’t know a lot of things. But it was there. The magic, the ability to help. But why? Why indeed was there magic? What could he do to help bears reproduce when there were medical treatments that would fix that without him? For that matter, how the hell was he supposed to fix that? Touch the bellies of females? Was he supposed to make sure they were having sex at the right time?
After his parents left, he was no closer to knowing anything than he’d been before. He wanted to be able to sit down with Hollie and ask him questions. What if Hollie was wrong about him having to find a replacement for when his time was finished? When he had to find the next person to take over for him, would he be killing young unsuspecting women too? That wouldn’t be something he’d do. Ian wasn’t sure even Lucy would want him to do that.
“I have about a million and ten thousand questions. How about you?” Ian told her he was sure he could double it. “Yeah, just what I was thinking too. This is insane. I mean, who would have thought that an act of sex could bring out so much confusion as well as pain? Why us? Why did you fit the bill for whatever he has going on? I’m not saying you’d not be great at this job, but we have more questions than we should for this sort of thing. Don’t you agree?”
“Even when I voice my concerns, even to myself, they open up about a thousand more concerns than before.” He held Lucy to him as soon as she sat down beside him. “I wonder if there is a way we could just quit this and tell someone we’re not doing it. I’ll help people out, that I have no trouble with. But this is crazy nuts.”
The knock at the door didn’t faze either of them. When someone rang the doorbell, he saw Hinkley go to the door with Lucy right behind him. It was nice having someone around that would do things like this. Not having to talk to anyone unless they wanted to. Leaning back on the couch, he was shocked when a strange voice started talking.
The woman that entered the room with Hinkley was glowing. He didn’t have any idea what she might be, but whatever it was, he had the feeling she could simply kill them without a bat of her eyes. The fact that she was smiling at him didn’t lessen his fear of her.
“My goodness, he surely did pick a beautiful couple, didn’t he?” Lucy asked the woman who she was. “Oh, my. My manners. I’m the mother of all creatures, Gaea. And as such, I’ve been around a very long time and have had dealings with Hollie and his job. I’ve come to talk to the two of you about what he might have convinced you has happened. You’ve nothing to worry about if you’ve not signed anything. You’ve not, have you?”
“No. The man was supposed to come around soon, but we’ve not seen him.” She smiled at him. “Why do I have the feeling the confusion we’re experiencing now is nothing compared to what you’re about to tell us?”
Her laughter chimed around the room. It was that too, the sound of a well-balanced wind chime. When she sat down on the couch across from him, Lucy joined him on the other couch again. The woman asked Hinkley to bring in something very sweet. That they were all going to need it before too much longer.
~*~
Gaea watched the two of them as they sat before her. They were a beautiful couple, but she knew Hollie picking them had nothing to do with that. Instead, he would pick people that would have been stupid, or so he thought with these two. They were smarter than even she had given them credit for being.
“You said he was going to convince us of a job. I’m assuming all this bullshit he told us is just that. Bullshit.” Gaea laughed and told Ian it was the way he did things. “What is his deal? I mean, has he done this sort of thing before? If so, I’m going to murder his ass.”
“You cannot. Though there are a lot of people that wish he was dead. He’s nothing but a trickster, one that prays on people he believes to be too dumb to realize what they’ve gotten into. In this, Hollie is trying his best to have you take over, not his job, which is what I’m assuming he told you, but his prison sentence. He’s been in a magical jail for a long time.” Lucy asked her how he’d gotten out. “He has from time to time. Not lately. I thought the chains on his person were enough to hold him. I know now that not only was he able to escape, but someone gave him enough magic that he could come here with the two of you. Did he harm either of you?”
Ian explained how he’d nearly killed his mate. When she asked Lucy to stand, she could see that this, too, was magic. Running her han
d over the places Ian told her he’d seen the claws come through, she could feel the magic that had been put upon the young woman to make them believe she was being injured.
“He said I was with child. That’s not true either, is it?” Gaea said she was sorry. “It’s fine. To be honest with you, I didn’t want to conceive a child by Ian in that way. It was too violent and painful.”
“Again, I’m so very sorry. If you’d not mind, I can explain things to you about his visit and why he’s done this.” Ian and Lucy both said they would love to hear it. “Good. His name is Holland, as he told you. Also, he was, at one time, a bear. However, he’s not related to you at all. The names he used would have made you think so, but sadly, they’re nothing more than just things he’s picked up from others in your family. Mind reading.”
“So what does he want? You said he was serving time.” Gaea told them that Lucy was an immortal and would be for as long as the world had magic. Gaea had been the one to give it to her.”I don’t know in human years what that might be, but I’m assuming a very long time.”
“It is. Hollie is, as I said, a trickster. It’s a label that was put upon him when he gained magic for a deed he was to have done. However, it wasn’t until later it was discovered he had caused the trouble rather than being the one that had stopped it. Long story short, Hollie was more trouble than the average magical creature.” Lucy asked if he’d harmed anyone. “Killed them, yes, several hundred people, as a matter of fact. He was responsible for sinking a boat with hundreds of people on it. He put an iceberg in their way, and it was a disaster even before so many were saved. Hollie did help with the rescue by turning boats toward those in need. But the damage had been done, and a great deal of magic had been his before it was discovered. His magic, because we all thought him to be a hero, was given to him as gifts. It wasn’t until later we figured out he’d been the one to cause the incident in the first place.”
“Why didn’t someone take it back? I mean, that would seem to be the most logical thing to have done.” She told Ian that once you have magic, it’s not that easy to take it back. Sometimes impossible. “I’d figure out a way. Even if I had to remove his head. He hurt my mate. Not just a little, either.”
“Lucy, you were never cut. Nor are you able to change into a bear. It was all him. He only made you think you had been. The violence of the lovemaking would have been real. Hollie would have convinced Ian that he had no part in it. He was playing mind games with the two of you. Terrible ones if you ask me.” They both said they agreed with her assessment of it. “As I was explaining, he would have had you finish out his sentencing by having you sign off on the paperwork he said you’d get. The money would never have been given, nor would the amount of magic you were to have received been given to you. Mostly he put enough in your heads so you’d believe it. However, I can see you’ve been fighting against what was told to you, and the magic is slowly being taken apart. It wasn’t much, mind you. Just enough that you’d be able to do a few parlor tricks. Then once you signed the paperwork, he would have taken even that away from you.”
“Why us?” She told them she didn’t know. They were just in the right place at the wrong time. “What can we do to make it so he never does this again? I’m assuming that since you’re here, this is something that Lucy and I have to take care of.”
“Yes. That’s another thing he’d not counted on—how intelligent the two of you are. Anyone else might have questioned his motives for picking you, but once the magic kicked in, it would have been a walk in the park for him to have gotten them to sign off on his sentencing.” Neither of them said anything, but she could tell they were thinking hard on this. “As to what the two of you can do to stop this from happening again, you have to confront him. And you will when—if, I guess I should say—you don’t sign the paperwork.”
“Oh, you can bet we’re not signing shit. The fucker is going to regret trying to bamboozle us.” Lucy looked at Ian and laughed. “I think I’ve been spending a little too much time with your parents. That’s one of the things I’ve picked up from them.”
They asked her a great many questions about Hollie. What had happened to have him in a cell of magic, and so on. But the most important thing they hadn’t asked was what they would get out of stopping Hollie. A great many things depended on them doing this. Then there was the reward that would be there for doing a job that was never meant for the two of them to do.
“When you said all we needed to do was confront him about this, I have a feeling it’s not as simple as that.” She told Ian it was, really. “So, we just tell him he’s full of shit, and we’re not playing his games? That doesn’t sound like it’s going to do us much good in the way of stopping him. What is it you’re not telling us?”
She laughed. It had been a long time since she’d laughed so hardily. They were going to be the perfect couple for putting a stop to Hollie. More than that, they were going to be the couple that would, in the future, get things done that were needed of them. Nothing so confusing as what Hollie had tried to tell them to do. But it would go a long way in helping humans and creatures alike.
“Confronting him is what you must do. Once his courier comes with the paperwork, you need only to tell them you’re not signing anything. That the two of you have had a change of heart. It will, in seconds, bring Hollie back to where you are.” Ian eyed her carefully. “He will attack you, Ian. You must be prepared for it. Both of you will need to be on the ready for him to try and harm you. Then, as you said, you would kill him before, one of you must remove his head. As he wronged you and your mate, it can only be one of you who makes sure he’s no longer around to harm others. Ending his life is the only sure way to make sure he isn’t around any longer.”
“I can avenge my mate by removing his head. And what consequences will happen to me for killing a magical being?” She told him that as she was the one in charge of Hollie, she would never press charges against him for defending his mate. “That’s it? I can walk away without anyone coming back at me later demanding that I end up in prison for ending the life of a bastard?”
“I promise you, Ian James McCray and Lucy Jackson McCray, on my honor as the mother to all creatures of the earth, that nothing will befall you in any way for you ending the life of Holland.”
They stared at her for several minutes. When Ian put out his hand, she took it gladly. Then Lucy did the same. By them shaking on it, the bond to keep the promise to them was as binding as their love for each other.
“Thank you. There are things I will tell you. Once you have removed his head, his body, what will be only ash, will disappear. Don’t be alarmed if one of the palace guards comes to you. He is only there to get a sample of the dust, so it can be confirmed that he’s dead. Once he is gone, you will be free to live out your life as you wish. The magic you now have, you can keep. However, if you wish to get rid of it at any time, you need only to call for me in the forest, and I will come to you to do so.”
She stood up, and the two of them did as well. Gena asked if they had any questions of her. When they both said they didn’t at the moment but they might later, Gaea told them she’d be back sometime to make sure they were doing well.
“I’ve come to enjoy your company. You’re a fresh breath of air compared to others I have had to work with. Your ability to say what you think and to make me laugh is something I rarely encounter in my job. I wish to thank you both for this.” They shook again. This time she gave them a little magic that would help them to see when the courier was on his way. Being prepared would go a long way in Hollie not being able to talk his way out of the mess he’d made on his own. “Now, I must go. Be careful with Hollie. And good luck.”
After she left them, Gaea went to her castle and sat at her desk. There was plenty for her to do, but she sat there thinking about the couple she’d just left. They’d been a great deal more helpful than anyone she’d ever worked with before. Not only
that, but she thought they’d do well if she ever needed help again.
The payment they were to receive once Hollie was gone would be great. While she didn’t know what its equivalent would be in their world, she knew it was a great deal in hers. Once they had it, she knew even though it was never asked of them, they’d do many things with it that would help others of their kind, humans and shifters alike.
“They have decided to end his life?” She told her mother they would. Mother Nature was someone she loved more than her own spouse at times. “You have gotten their payment gathered, have you?”
“Yes. I had it with me, divided into two different packets, while I was there. But it didn’t seem like the time to give it to them. They never asked as you said they wouldn’t.” Mother Nature said they were a good family. A better bloodline than she’d ever encountered. “You told me they’ve done much for us in the past, without so much as a payment from us. This will be good for these two. I believe we’ll be able to ask of them again if we have such problems on that side.”
“I agree. However, let us just hope they can take care of Hollie. It will be good to know he’s been taken out of our lives.” Gaea agreed. “When are you planning to go back and pay them? Soon, I hope.”
“I’m not going there to give them the payment. I think there would be a fight should I be there when it arrives.” Mother Nature laughed and told her she was more than likely right. “I know I am. I will make sure they’re compensated, but I shall send others when they call for me to explain. They’ll get used to it, I think. And work with it to help everyone as well.”
“I think you’re right.” Nodding, Mother Nature left her. Just as she got to the door, she turned back. “I’ve given them some magic as well. Enough to ensure they can care for themselves and others. They are, as I said, a good strong family.”
Gaea knew that as well and put all the funds that were to be theirs into a package. It would have to be delivered soon, but not before they confronted Hollie. The couple might well back out if she did it beforehand.
Ian: McCray Bruin Bear Shifter Romance Page 11
