by JF Holland
“I’ll accompany Lana,” Balin piped up and Lara hissed at him. He sighed and added for her benefit. “I’ll also keep my hands to myself,” to which Lara snorted in disbelief. “Fine, I’ll keep my paws to myself too - I give you my word,” he ground out as she made a growling sound in her throat.
“Jesus Lara, be reasonable,” Helena spoke up, to more murmurs. There was only one among them at their table keeping his council and that was because he was mated with a son – therefore he knew it wasn’t a good idea to argue with a female. Douglas also kept quiet on the matter as he was mated to Agatha. He’d obviously learned the hard way that their women had backbones of steel - therefore easier and less detrimental to a quiet life not to.
“His word means nothing to me; I will not trust him blindly.”
Balin pushed his chair back and stepped away from the table. He could understand Lara’s reservations, he could, but it still galled him none the less. There again it was his own fault he was in this predicament - his drunken behaviour sure hadn’t endeared him to her.
“I will walk behind her like a dutiful mate. I will not touch and if it makes you feel any better I won’t even talk to her. Satisfied,” he snapped sarcastically as he moved to another table. Keeping his back to them, he dropped into a seat with his coffee.
“Mother, really was there any need for that?”
“What?”
“You know what. Balin isn’t responsible for what my father did, why are you taking it out on him?”
“You don’t understand,” Lara sighed running a shaking hand over her face. “I’m trying to protect you.”
“From what mother?”
“I failed once, I couldn’t keep you safe from your father – but god forgive me I tried.”
“I know mum, I wear the evidence,” Lara said taking her mother’s hand. Helena took hold of Lara’s other hand and Sam and Jaden moved away from the table, joining Leonard in the corner to give the women a little space.
The other tables seemed to follow suit and low conversations broke out between them as the women spoke amongst themselves.
“The spells didn’t work, he still found you,” Lara said in anguished tones. “God Lara, have you any idea how I felt coming back that day and finding him with his hands around your throat. I should have been there - I should never have left you alone.”
“Mum, you’d just nipped to the shops, you were only around the corner. How could you have known he’d turn up. I mean, we moved every couple of months so you could keep me safe. What more do you think you could have done?”
“I should have known. We’d stayed too long in one place; I’d got comfortable and let my guard down…” she trailed off.
“It still wasn’t your fault.”
“I came through the door and found you on the floor, bleeding with his hands around your throat. You weren’t breathing Lara, you were seven-years old and he’d strangled you. Have you any idea how it felt to see that, to know it was my fault.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“He tried to burn you alive, your hair was already on fire. I managed to knock him out, and give you CPR after putting the flames out, your scalp was still burned though. I thought I’d lost you.”
“But you didn’t, you brought me back… and… and… I had to then watch him kill you mother. I was there, I saw it all, he pushed me through the door as he clawed your back. He then smashed in your head before throwing you onto the flames... I witnessed it all.”
Balin sat at the table pretending to drink his coffee and his stomach rolled, nausea bubbling from what he could hear the women discussing.
How the hell could a father do that to his own child?
He should have been protecting his wife and daughter not taking their lives. Looking up he caught Jaden and Sam’s eye, a tick starting in Jaden’s jaw as he went to move towards him. Balin shook his head, he couldn’t deal with any extra emotions just then - he was already overloaded with what Lana was feeling. In her turmoil, the walls in her mind had come crashing down and he was privy to the scene unfolding through her younger self’s eye.
He felt her panic and confusion as her father had come through the door. At first he’d been friendly, hugging and kissing her head - telling her how much he’d missed her and how he was going to make sure they were all safe now. He’d told her he was going to take care of everything and that they would no longer have to run. Then it was as if a switch had been flicked. The hands that had been comforting her were now slicing her and then around her throat, squeezing and cutting off her airway.
He smelt the thick cloying smoke, heard the crackle and heat of the flames - and felt the intense pain in her scalp. The scent of her own skin and hair burning turned his stomach, and then nothing.
The scene changed to her wandering around – lost and cold, her throat bruised and swollen, making it difficult to swallow or speak. He felt her exhaustion and fear as she tried to remember how to get to her aunt’s house. Trying to crawl when it became too much, looking over her shoulder and expecting to see her father catch up to her. Silent tears falling as she’d heard her mother’s screams in her head as the fire had engulfed her.
Closing his eyes, Balin tentatively reached out to her.
“Lara honey, you have to let it go. Please, I can’t comfort you, not here - and it’s killing me seeing what you went through.” He felt her confusion and as he looked up and turned in his chair, their eyes met and held. Balin swallowed at the devastation evident in her haunted gaze.
“I’m sorry,” was all he got back before her gaze dropped from his and her walls came back up.
Now he knew where the husky quality to her voice came from. It was a combination of the abuse to her larynx and smoke damage. His fists clenched on the table-top and he turned back around, with not a clue how he was going to be able to get over the insurmountable prejudice from her mother. It was understandable now he’d seen what they’d been through. A man who had claimed to love them one minute had then turned around and hurt them the next. Not just once, but over and over. Having to constantly move to get away from him and then being hunted down. His personality seeming to be split, with no rhyme or reason as to what would set him off.
Shit, he had his work cut out for him.
Putting his cup down he ran his hands over his face and sighed.
What was he going to do?
The door to the café opened and he looked up and growled low in his throat as a voluptuous redheaded female sashayed inside. She stopped before his table.
“I’ve decided to forgive you.”
“Look… er…”
“Stephanie, my name is Stephanie, I told you this last night.”
“Yeah, right. Look Stephanie, I’m sorry but I was a little worse for wear last night. I can only apologise if I gave you the wrong impression. I am not single, nor am I on the market for anyone.”
“That’s okay, I can wait… well not too long,” she gave a tinkling laugh.
“I won’t ever be on the market,” Balin told her frowning at the way she bit her bottom lip as if worried.
“You’ll change your mind. All men do eventually, they can’t resist the charms of a nymph. Soon you’ll be begging me to take you back, but in the meantime - I’ll just give you a reminder.” She then bent forward and tried to brush her mouth over his.
“Whoa, hold on,” Balin said moving his head backwards and putting a hand out to stop her. “Like I’ve already said, I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, but I am not single. Therefore, I can’t offer you anything, not even my time.”
She looked at him, confusion on her face as she stared at him, her blue eyes dark with annoyance. Then her mouth slit in displeasure as she turned on her heel and slammed back out of the door.
“I told you, men… and I use the term lightly - they cannot be trusted,” he heard Lara say to Lana and inwardly groaned.
What the hell had he ever done to deserve this hassle?
Looking at the ceiling he cursed under his breath.
“So, you still not on board with the whole Nymph sex then?’ Leonard asked taking a seat opposite him. Balin just raised a brow. “Then enjoy the chase my man, this could be fun.” He raised a brow in silent enquiry. “A nymph does not give up.”
“Fucking brilliant,” Balin spat as Leonard smirked, before a huge grin split his face.
“Be careful who’s affections you play with,” he told Balin, amusement rife in his voice.
“I was pissed, and I also carry the mate mark.”
“And as I told you last night, they can get around it.”
“Who in their right mind is going to give up eternity for a quick roll in the hay?”
“I never said it was quick,” Leonard winked as he pushed back to his feet and moved back to the corner.
Chapter Six
O nce the sun had set, Luc arrived at the café. So, as the others left, John Forrester and Edwin Murdoch joined Balin and Luc at his table as for a quick drink as he was going to lock up before he headed home. Quite frankly he needed time away from his family, especially with Lara’s resentment and Lana wanted his neutered.
They got Luc up to speed on the spreadsheet and rota for doing reconnaissance around the area - and checking on everyone’s safety.
“Right, we’ll be off now. I still have paperwork to go through at my mother’s shop,” John said putting their cups on the counter.
“Anything I can do to help?” Balin asked. John came back - Edwin stepped to his side, placing an arm around him.
“Unless you know anything about running a small business, no.”
“I run several business’s,” Balin informed them.
“Oh yes, you have this and your property management, I’d forgotten.”
“It’s okay, it’s been a tough week or two for you. Losing a parent is never easy John, no matter how old you are, but to lose her the way you did…” he trailed off as John swallowed and nodded.
“I know, and thank you I appreciate all the help I’ve been given. I especially appreciated Helena taking care of mother, and saving her ashes for me. That was most kind of her to be so thoughtful. I still can’t quite believe that I shan’t see her again,” his bottom lip wobbled and Edwin turned him into his own chest and hugged him tightly.
“So you could help him?” Edwin enquired.
“I could try, what is the problem?”
“We’ve come across some kind of internet business that mother owned,” Balin frowned at his words. “Sorry, I called her mother too, she insisted, she was such a good woman, so accepting of our relationship.”
“Nothing to accept, you love and are mated to who you are mated to. Race, colour, sex doesn’t come into it, it is what it is,” Balin said with a shrug.
“We’re slowing coming to understand this,” John said turning from Edwin, but retaining his hand and entwining their fingers. “You’ve all been so kind, and accepting of us. We’ve never really known how to come out and explain.”
“No explanations should be expected John. We’re just relieved that you have someone, someone to help you through this difficult time. It was a relief for us to know that you weren’t alone,” Balin told him, as John wiped a tear from beneath his eye.
“Thank you,” and Balin held his hand up.
“So you’ve come across some kind of business she has that you knew nothing of?”
“Yes, I’m not even sure what it is. I’m not exactly tech savvy,” he shrugged.
“Okay, do you want me to take a look?”
“I’d really appreciate it if you could, but I don’t want to impose on this important time with your mate…” Balin cut him off.
“Trust me, my mate does not want me around at-the-moment. Maybe she’d like to cut off my nuts, but be around me, not so much,” he winced.
“Come on, we’ll all go. If you provide the drink, we’ll take a look at this paperwork,” offered Luc.
“Most kind of you both, and drinks we can provide,” explained Edwin as he led John from the café.
They waited while Balin locked up and set the alarm, then all headed up the street towards the little shop John’s mother had owned and run. It was two rows up from the café, the last on the road before you the businesses turned to residential properties – although there was an alleyway between and woodlands at the back.
Edwin unlocked the door and switched on the lights as they stepped inside. John’s bottom lip wobbled as he ran a hand over the counter at the back of the shop.
“I spent a lot of time in here growing up. It has been many things over the years, but was always home to me,” he explained. “My father was a butcher at one time, but my mother didn’t have a taste for the business after my father was killed. Funny really, especially as we’re Tigers,” John laughed and the others joined in.
“Your father was a good man,” Balin told him.
“He was, unfortunately he did enjoy running in his animal form, well we all do. However, he also did so when we went on holiday - and in places he wasn’t familiar with either.”
“It was a damn shame he happened to be in his cat form when those hunters came across him,” Balin sighed.
“Yes, bloody trophy hunters. If they’d just shot him and had their photograph taken he’d have been fine. Unfortunately, he came across the kind who like to keep the head as a trophy mounted on their wall.”
“Did you ever find them?” Balin asked conversationally.
“I did, I bought his ‘trophy’ a couple of years back,” John spat, distastefully. I had him shipped over, then buried in the churchyard with the rest of his body. Mums ashes will be joining him, one of the only good things really. She had missed him terribly these last forty-years or so,” he told them as he moved into the back room.
“One of the only things I take comfort from myself,” Balin replied, as he slapped John on the shoulder. His own parents were buried in the little churchyard and he visited once a year on the Anniversary of their death.
Balin refused the whisky John offered him as all four of them sat around the table in the kitchen upstairs in the flat his mother had lived in. After the mess his life had turned into after the last time he’d been drinking, he’d give it a miss for a while.
They’d all mucked in and helped clear the carnage left behind in the back room of the shop. To look at the clear area now no one would believe that Maisie the black witch had tortured and killed John’s mother there. Luckily the way Helena’s phoenix worked it meant when she burned a body, that was the only thing her fire touched. There were no traces of the horrors left behind once she’d finished, just her ashes. They’d cleared out the room before she’d begun to make it easier to collect and save her afterwards for John. The small urn now sat on a table in a corner of the room, behind an armchair. Her favourite place to sit of an evening after she’d closed-up shop. Her death had been put down to a heart attack, natural causes, well, after Leonard had put a little whammy on the local doctor Harry Simpson, who lived on the other side of them – he also worked as the coroner. Him and the local authorities believed they’d received a call from John stating he’d found his mother already deceased after coming to visit.
They now sat with the paperwork spread out between them trying to figure out what kind of business she’d run. Balin frowned as he found the answer and began to chuckle.
“What is it?” John asked looking up from a spreadsheet.
“Your mother ran a dating agency, and a very successful one if the figures are to be believed.”
“A what?” Edwin piped up.
“A dating agency.”
“Seriously,” John asked, and Balin nodded.
“Yes, it seems she was very good or the programme she used was very good at matching up couples.”
“Let me look,” Luc said holding out a hand. Balin passed him the paperwork and he scanned through the documents.
“Wow, she has an excellent success rate of matching the
couples. Pity I didn’t know about it, maybe she could have found me a witch to get rid of my god damn curse,” he snorted handing it back. Balin went to take it but Luc didn’t release it, a grin splitting his face. “Hang on, let me just do something,” he said pulling out his phone.
“What are you up to?” Balin asked.
“A little payback. I think it’s time good old Leonard settled down,” he said and Balin grinned.
“You can’t do that,” said John in a shocked tone.
“Watch me.”
“But why?” Edwin asked.
“Because he’s the reason I turn to bloody stone every day.”
“Explain,” Balin said, watching as he pulled up the site on his phone and began tapping in information.
“Leonard has always been a lady’s man, he introduced me to Maisie, said I needed to help him out on a double date.”
“You and Leonard were friends?”
“The best of friends at one point.”
“What happened?” John piped up taking a sip of his whisky.
“Bloody Maisie happened.”
“Surely you can’t blame Leonard for her turning out to be a complete psycho?” Edwin replied.
“Yes I do.”
“But,”
“He knew she’d been married. Knew she’d killed her mate, a Fae of some kind. He knew and yet still set me up with her as he was desperate to get her mate in the sack and she wouldn’t meet him without a date for a friend.”
“Surely that can’t be right, I know he’s a bit of a whore but…”
“He’d heard rumours about her, but refused to believe that someone who looked like her was capable of doing it.”
