Knight Shift

by Paulette Miller

  After Penny examined its content she asked, “You bought me a round-trip ticket to Richmond, Virginia?”

  Ice replied, “You’re holding the voucher. As soon as you tell me the date, your real ticket will be waiting for you at the airport.”

  Scanning the room, her eyes welling up, Penny said, “I can’t believe you did this for me.” Glancing over at Ice, she cleared her throat and added, “Or are you trying to get rid of the irritating Human for a few days?”

  Ice wasn’t looking forward to a week without his nightly haunt to her cabin, but he knew how much she needed to go home. He teased, “You’ll soon be under our feet again. You’re a lot like fungus. No matter how much we scrub, you keep coming back.”

  The room went instantly silent. They were shocked that Ice had attempted humor and weren’t sure if they should laugh or not. When Ice smirked, everyone released the tension and laughed.

  Penny leaned toward Ice and, with a serious expression, said, “I’ll keep my promise; I won’t tell them anything.”

  Ice replied with confidence, “I know; I trust you.”

  Next to seeing her Human family, his words were the best birthday present she could have ever received.

  *~*~*~*

  Two weeks later, Penny was on the way to the airport in Ice’s Rover with the twins in the backseat. After they parked, Tadd carried her luggage through the airport while Taylor gave Penny a piggy-back ride. While they laughed and carried on like children, Ice followed quietly behind.

  When they reached the point where only passengers could go on, Penny turned to the twins and said, “I’ll miss you two.” She gave each of the twins a bone-breaking hug and a big kiss on the cheek. With tears almost welling in her eyes, she said, “Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone, no harassing my employees, or there will be hell to pay when I get back.”

  They replied as a chorus, “Yes, Mother.”

  Ice stepped forward and handed her the boarding pass. She took it and said, “Thank you for dropping me off.” She wanted to tell him that she was going to miss him too, but kept that fact to herself.

  Tadd handed her a bag and asked, “Can you put this in your luggage and give it to M&M?” As Penny took it, he added, “You can peek if you want.”

  Feeling the weight of the bag, Penny’s curiosity got the best of her and she looked inside. After she pulled out two identical bottles of Fireball Whiskey, Penny laughed and exclaimed, “They’ll love it! Thank you so much.” She took a moment to carefully tuck the items into her luggage.

  Ice said with a more serious expression, “Text me the moment you land and let me know when you’ll be arriving back home so that we can be here waiting to pick you up.”

  “I will.” As she walked toward the baggage check counter, she looked down at the boarding pass. When she saw her seat assignment, she spun around and said, “This is in first class. I can’t accept this. It’s too much.”

  Tadd said, “Don’t argue; it’ll do you no good. Just get going and we’ll see you in a week.”

  When Ice nodded her on, she turned and passed through the security gate, leaving her friends behind.

  *~*~*~*

  A week later, Penny stepped out of the catwalk into the airport terminal. She heaved a sigh at the welcomed sight of the place she now called home. Although it was hard to once again walk away from her former home, she had missed her make-shift Changeling family and was anxious to see them and her cabin again.

  She headed down the terminal and, as she passed through the security gate, she heard someone calling her name. She looked up to see the twins heading in her direction with Ice standing like a sentinel behind them.

  After several big hugs, Penny handed Taylor a large bag and said, “I was told to give this to you.”

  He and Tadd opened the bag and once they peeked inside, both twins exclaimed, “Excellent!” They pulled out large bags of every kind and color of M&M candies.

  The group escorted the traveler to the car. While the twins tossed candy into the air and caught them in their mouths, Penny proceeded to tell details of her trip, starting from the second she had gotten on the plane. Ice had to, once again, trail behind to hide his amusement at her ability to talk without taking a breath.

  Her story telling started over when she arrived at Sam’s and was greeted by the rest of her family. Ice chuckled, knowing that he would hear it all a third time when she had to tell it to Casper later.

  While sitting in the living room talking, Penny said, “In a couple of weeks my family will be flying off on a hiking trip.”

  Sam asked, “Are you going?”

  Penny shook her head. “Yearly inventory is due this next week and then reps from headquarters are coming out to inspect our store. I have to be here for that.” In a futile attempt to hide her disappointment she added, “There will be plenty of trips in the future, so I can miss this one.”

  Seeing the distress in her eyes, Susi suggested, “When you aren’t working, why don’t you spend your evenings over here?”

  Ben had to look away to hide his snicker when Penny glanced over at Ice and her mind projected a night time project that Ice could help her with. After shaking off the image, knowing it would be too difficult to spend nights in the same house as Ice, she replied, “Actually, I have a project that has been nagging at me at the cabin and could use some of my undivided attention.”

  While Penny and Susi continued to talk, Ben approached Ice who was standing off by himself. He asked so that no one else could hear, “Why don’t you go help distract her?”

  “Who are you talking about?”

  “The one you’ve been staring at all evening.”

  “I haven’t been staring.”

  Ben tapped his temple and said, “Most of the time your mind is closed to me, but when Penny is around, I can feel the emotions you’re projecting. And, given what I’m feeling from Penny’s mind, I guarantee that she would be open to a little distraction from you.”

  Although Ice didn’t respond, Ben knew he was thinking about the idea. He suggested, “Just go, open yourself up to her, and see what happens.” He walked away and left Ice to his thoughts.

  Chapter 20 - Chance Encounter

  Over the next few weeks Penny worked long days at Gone Wild to make up for her extended absence. The night before her well-earned day off, she told Casper about implementing her plan to distract herself by spending the day building a deck. He was momentarily disappointed that he wasn’t the distraction she had in mind.

  She announced, “One way or another, by this time tomorrow, I’ll have a place to sit and enjoy the cool night air.”

  Penny rose early and had her hammer raised into the air at the same time the sun broke over the horizon. By the time it was mid-morning, she was already covered in sweat. Although she had been working hard, the job was slow and challenging since she was working alone and with unfamiliar tools. She was reviewing her deck plans to prepare for her next step when she heard a vehicle pull into her driveway. Assuming it was the twins, she groaned. She loved spending time with them, but she knew that their presence meant that her project was about to come to a crashing halt. When her guests rounded the corner of her cabin, her eyes opened wide in shock.

  “Ice?” she questioned to herself at a whisper.

  Ice approached and said, “Susi told me that you would be off today and working on a project. I was in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by to see how your distraction was coming along.”

  Pointing to the construction mess around her, she replied, “It’s supposed to be a deck but, as you can see, it has a long way to go. This is my first deck that I’ve built on my own.” Looking behind Ice, she asked, “Are you alone?”

  He nodded. “Susi gave the twins something to do so that you wouldn’t be bothered.” Seeing the piles of lumber and watching Penny rub her lower back, he knew that this project was too much for her. He had been delaying his arrival to make his appearance more believable. Now he felt gui
lty that he didn’t show up earlier.

  He asked, “Why didn’t you call for help?”

  “I didn’t think power tools in the hands of those two fur balls was such a smart idea.”

  “I can’t argue about the twins and construction not being a good mix, but I wasn’t referring to them. Why didn’t you call me?”

  Penny was dumbfounded by the question and asked in reply, “Call you?

  “You have my number on your phone, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but your number is for emergencies only. I couldn’t bother you with my silly projects.” In reality, calling someone like Ice to help her with manual labor hadn’t even crossed her mind.

  He said, “I gave you my number so that you would call me whenever you needed assistance, not just in emergencies.” Seeing Penny struggle to respond, he added, “You’ve repeatedly referred to us as your family and I know that the twins, as well as everyone else, already feel the same way about you. Am I wrong?”

  Penny stuttered out, “No.”

  “Well that family role comes with obligations. One of them is calling on us whenever you need help.”

  Before Penny could say anything in return, Ice took the plans from her hands and, after studying the design, he said, “This project is more than any one person should be doing alone. If your brothers lived close by, you would have asked them for help, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “While your brothers were visiting, we told them that we would keep an eye on you in their stead. I can’t do my part if you won’t contact me. And, by the way, I’m fairly handy with power tools.”

  “I know that you’re an exceptional fighter and hunter, but I had no idea that you knew anything about construction.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” Ice lifted a board and, when he saw Penny standing motionless, he asked, “Well, are you going to help?”

  She jumped and nodded numbly.

  He gave her a smirk and said, “Then grab the other end of this board and let’s get this deck built.”

  Penny forced her mind to re-engage and did as Ice requested.

  As they started to work together and Penny realized how much Ice actually knew about construction, she asked, “When did you have time to learn how to do things like this?”

  Ice decided to listen to young Ben’s advice. While he continued to work, he told Penny a little bit about himself. “Sam was the first Changeling that I saved. He was a mess when I found him and I had no idea what to do with him. I had just rescued him from a research lab so I couldn’t dump him and let him die, but I couldn’t take him to a Human hospital either.”

  Penny asked with pure interest, “What did you do?”

  “I had to do something. I went back to the lab and acquired some of their research findings in hopes I would find something to help Sam.”

  Penny gasped when she thought about how he acquired the information. She quickly regrouped and asked, “What did you learn?”

  Ice replied, “I learned that Night Walkers, like Sam, have extreme healing abilities if given the right food and time. So I found an abandoned warehouse and fixed up a dark room for him to stay in. I brought him his meals so that he remained still and let his body heal.”

  “By meals you mean Human blood?”

  He nodded. “As you already know, it isn’t the only thing he eats, but yes. I brought him what his body craved.” He glanced up at Penny and, seeing the expression on her face, he added, “None of his snacks died. As you’re quite aware already, I can sneak up on someone without ever being seen. When I found my target, I knocked them out and brought them to Sam. When he was done, I returned them to where I found them relatively unharmed and unaware of what happened to them. Once Sam was strong again, he joined me in my crusade. We didn’t have any money so we scavenged for the materials we needed to create our first safe house. Over the years I may have picked up a few construction skills.”

  “How many Changelings have you saved since Sam?”

  After a moment to ponder on his answer he said, “A lot. I don’t keep count.”

  Based on information from the twins, Penny knew that the number was in the thousands.

  Ice took a break from his work and looked over at Penny. He wanted to test the bounds of her tolerance for who and what he was so he asked, “Aren’t you going to ask me the other question that must be on your mind?”

  Since Ice was willing to talk, she decided to do what he asked. After swallowing hard, she asked, “How many Humans have you killed?”

  “Let’s say that the number is a lot more than the number of Changelings that I’ve saved.” Ice expected her to cringe or shy away from him, but instead she nodded her acknowledgement to his words without judgment.

  To keep Ice sharing more information about himself, Penny asked, “The twins have told me that you’re actually quite wealthy and that you’re now paid for your services. How did you go from vigilante to hired hunter?”

  “Word spread quickly about my unique talents and, one day, Sam was asked to speak to me about being hired for a job. It was a situation similar to his and I was asked to rescue someone from a lab. Sam was so insistent that I couldn’t say no, so I took the job. Later assignments included proactively eliminating those that threaten my kind. And yes, I’m paid very well for my services.”

  “You don’t hesitate to spend your money on others—the stone house, cars, the twin’s insatiable spending habits. Yet I only see you in the same simple clothes each day and driving an ordinary vehicle. Why?”

  “I only buy what I need, so I don’t need much money. Sam and the others need it more.”

  Penny smiled and announced, “You’re like a knight for the Changeling world that’s storming the castle to save his people from an evil dragon.”

  After staring into her bright, sparkling green eyes, he gave her one of his rare smiles and replied, “I would never use the word knight to describe me.”

  After studying Ice’s features for several minutes, she said, “Actually, you’re exactly what I picture as a knight. You’re strong, fearless, and highly skilled at your trade. You live by simple means and put others’ needs ahead of your own. Although you always have people around you, you keep everyone at a distance. I think that’s so you don’t become attached to anyone or anything, which allows you to do what you need to do without looking back.”

  “You paint a much prettier picture of me than reality.”

  “I’m an artist and can see beyond what’s on the surface. Do you want to know what I see on your canvas?”

  “By all means.”

  “On the surface is Ice, which is what you want everyone else to see. But I also see Jax behind those dark eyes of yours. You keep him locked up tight and won’t let anyone see the real you.”

  “But Ice is the real me.”

  “He’s a part of you, but he isn’t all that you are.”

  “As long as my people are in danger, Ice’s talents are needed and I must remain diligent. As you put it…” He held up his hammer like a sword and said, “I must continue to storm the castle.”

  Penny laughed and said, “Someday, maybe you’ll be able to find a balance between Ice and Jax so that you can learn to let people in. Not everyone is a dragon waiting to rain fire down on you. By saving thousands of lives, you’ve already proven that your skills can be used for good.”

  “Like helping to build a deck for a stubborn damsel in distress who refuses to ask for help and has no business touching power tools?”

  She put her hands on her hips and said, “Hey, I would have finished this project someday.”

  He replied, “Well stubborn Human, if you want this deck finished within your lifetime, you better start focusing on your assigned work.” As he pointed to the piles of wood next to him, he finished his thought, “Or this knight is never going to be able to slay this dragon.”

  Although Penny wanted to spend hours asking Ice questions, his tone informed her that th
e question and answer session was over. She nodded silently, quickly grabbed the other end of the board he was holding, and focused on her work.

  Over the next several hours, she did everything Ice asked without hesitation. Although conversation was minimal, they quickly learned to work together. Once they found their rhythm, the deck quickly took shape. Penny was keeping up with her end of the partnership until Ice got overly hot and took off his shirt. It caused images of him in knight’s armor to fill her mind and she couldn’t force her eyes to stop watching his chest and arm muscles bulge as he worked. She ended up having to call for a short break because her mind’s connection to her feet temporarily disconnected and she repeatedly tripped over scrap piles of wood. Although she claimed the issue was because she was tired and hungry, Ice wasn’t blind to her wandering eyes and raised pulse. He knew the real reason for her distress and loved the unexpected power he now had over this unique Human. He would never, however, understand her attraction to his scar covered body.

  After they both had a quick bite to eat, Penny forced her mind to stay on task and, just as the sun was low on the horizon, she pounded in the last nail. The two sweaty workers took a moment to stand back and admire their work.

  Penny said, “It looks great. I can’t thank you enough for your help.” She was not only pleased by their results, but also by the fact that they had spent an entire day alone together and that Ice seemed to enjoy her company.

  Not wanting to call it a day yet, Ice asked with genuine interest, “What other projects are you planning out here?”

  Deciding to share her vision, she replied, “Well, the Sandy River isn’t very far away from here. I thought I would try to create a path through the trees to the river and then make some kind of sitting area at the edge of the water where I could fish or watch nature float by.”

  Ice pointed toward the river and said, “Lead the way and let’s take a look at the next dragon to slay.”

  With a big smile she said excitedly, “Follow me.”

  After a short walk down a slow decline, she led Ice out of the trees to the edge of the water. She sighed as she looked out at a wide river full of large rocks and fallen trees that caused the water to babble as it traveled downstream. “Ahhh, I could listen to river sounds all day and never tire of it.”