by K. N. Banet
“Carey…” I didn’t really know what to say, but I needed to say something.
“That bitch was saying all sorts of nasty shit about me, Dad, and Landon!” Carey snapped, throwing her bag down.
I didn’t say anything about the cursing or the thrown bag, only watched her, waiting to see where this temper was going to lead, so I could head it off. We were already in a difficult position, and I wasn’t going to get upset over her strong feelings. We could come back to those later.
“So be mad at me all you want, but no one talks about my family like that!” I watched as tears filled her eyes. “They would howl when I walked by! They would put their butts to me, saying if I needed to…”
I reached out and pulled her into my arms, understanding the depth of the issue. This wasn’t a single event but an escalation of an ongoing issue, and it was only the second week of school. It had to have been bad if Carey was already at the point to hit someone.
“I’m not mad at you,” I softly said as I rubbed her back. “It’s going to be okay. I’m not mad at you.” I held her for a long time as she cried. High school was a nightmarish four years for most kids. Only in her second week and she was breaking down?
“They thought I wanted to sniff them…and then…one of them asked if I let them hump my legs…”
“They’re a bunch of assholes.” I tightened my hold on her. “Look at me. Carey, look at me.”
Her face came up, and I hated how tall she was getting. She was shooting up like a reed, although most of the time, I never noticed. Today, I noticed. She wasn’t the eleven-year-old who came to the backdoor of Kick Shot, scared and tired. She was a fourteen-year-old girl, whose adult years were coming and coming quickly. I was a solid five-eight. She was probably five-six now, and there was a chance she found a few more inches before she left high school. Some girls stopped growing young, some didn’t.
“They’re hateful people who need someone to pick on. They’re not doing it because of you. They’re doing it because they want power, and that’s how they find it. They’re doing it because it makes them look better when you look bad. The world will come for them in the end.” I pushed her hair from her face and wiped tears from her cheeks. “You are smart and wonderful, and you love your family, and there’s nothing wrong with any of that.”
“So, I shouldn’t let it…roll off my back?”
“No. People should never talk to you like that,” I said immediately, huffing as I gave her a serious look. “No one should ever say those things at all.”
“Did I do the right thing today? I mean, I only hit her once. I didn’t know she was just going to fall down like that.”
I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times, trying to consider what the right thing would be.
“Did you tell a teacher about the bullying?” I asked carefully.
“The teachers would watch them howl,” Carey mumbled, looking away. “They would chuckle. Only one told them to cut it out, but she was trying not to smile. She asked me to ignore them afterward, but she didn’t give them detention or anything.”
“Did you bring it up to your dad? You told us you were having trouble in middle school and having a hard time making friends, but this is high school, and we’re only on the second week. Have you said anything about how bad it’s been since day one?”
“He can’t do anything about it,” she said, pulling away. “So, I decided to handle it myself.”
“Well…” I didn’t really agree with that, but I understood. I often made similar decisions and found myself dealing with the consequences. “I can’t say you did the right thing, Carey. I would say…you tried to do the thing you thought would protect you the best and protect your family. Sometimes, we get that wrong, but you seem like you had good intentions. To me, that matters. It might not matter to the school or your dad, but it matters to me.”
I’m probably getting all of this wrong, but I can’t lie to her, and I can’t get her hopes up with her dad, either.
“I hoped you would understand. Thank you.” She kept her head down. Part of me wanted to tell her to hold her chin up high and be proud of how she knocked some sense and fear into a girl much older, but the other part of me knew not to encourage that behavior.
I was about to reply when my phone vibrated again, this time with another call. I wrapped an arm over Carey’s shoulders and started walking to my house as I answered.
What now?
“Jacky Leon,” I said, hearing the impatient exhaustion in my own voice.
“Hi, Jacky. It’s Bethany…Agent Kirk. I just got a strange notification that Carey Everson was taken out of school for the day because she started a fight?”
“Why…why are you asking about it?” I frowned, then gently pushed Carey to the house, waving her on so I could handle this. I talked to Bethany at least once a week because she frequented Kick Shot. We had scheduled meetings as well to appraise the situation of werecats going public, but overall, everything was relatively quiet. Most humans had their heads in the sand and plugged their ears since werecats were even rarer than most other supernatural species. They didn’t see us, so they had no reason to worry about us. The few extremist elements that normally targeted werewolves couldn’t find a werecat to mess with. All in all, Bethany was just some acquaintance I had. I never expected her to call me about Carey.
“Well, the BSA talks. We monitor werewolf families with human children. I’m your handler, and I normally wouldn’t hear this news, but you were the one who took her home…Everyone is a bit confused because we don’t really understand the situation.”
“Yeah, I’m allowed to sign her out,” I clarified. “The werewolves are in Dallas for the day and needed me to step in. She couldn’t stay at the school after the fight.”
“Did you know you’re considered her legal guardian in lieu of her father and brother? We dug that up ages ago and thought it was because you were another werewolf, but you’re not a werewolf, and it got lost in the shuffle. It was sent to me today with this news.”
“Yeah, y’all move fast.” I kind of knew, had assumed I was, but I didn’t remember signing any paperwork. Knowing Heath, he’d snuck it in somewhere, and I hadn’t read it. That man could hand me paperwork to sell my soul to a demon, and I would probably sign it because I trusted him.
“Why?” Bethany was confused, and I could see why. Among werewolves and werecats, everyone knew about my relationship with Carey. I’d die for her, and I’d kill for her. I had already done both to protect her, but it wasn’t human knowledge, and until now, there hadn’t been a need for humans to know.
“I’m her oath sworn protector,” I answered as if it happened every day. “I swore to protect her from all supernatural threats until she became an adult or Heath moved her out of my territory. I’ll probably protect her for her entire life. Heath uses that to his advantage to get me to help with parenting sometimes, but I don’t mind.” If I’m honest, I enjoy it. I like the normalcy.
“What was the fight about?”
I didn’t answer immediately. I didn’t know how much the BSA deserved to know, but then I thought about the school. They had been acting like this was all Carey’s fault. She had made it clear that the teachers didn’t have her back. If the BSA asked the school, and they would, the school would paint a dangerous picture about Carey.
“Bullies,” I said softly. “Some of the kids have been saying some awful things about her father and brother, asking her to do things, implying nasty stuff. Most of the teachers were ignoring it, and the one who didn’t asked her to ignore it. It’s hard to ignore when another kid is asking you if your dad needs to sniff ass to greet someone or that you need to…She thought she could put a stop to the bullying if she showed them she could fight back.”
“Oh…” Bethany sighed. “I’m sorry that’s been happening to her.”
“Me, too,” I agreed. “So, is that what you wanted to hear?”
“Yeah, I was just curious why you were handlin
g this. I didn’t realize you were so tied to the werewolf family. It’s good to know, though.”
“Will this hurt Heath keeping Carey?”
“No, it shouldn’t,” Bethany said with confidence I wanted to trust. “Werewolf and human children have fights, especially when they’re bullied particularly badly. This just comes with the territory, especially with children of supernatural parents. The most important thing Heath needs to do, and you might be able to help with, is make sure she doesn’t get into too many fights if the bullying keeps up. If this gets too bad, she could be looking at juvenile detention, and Heath might find his daughter relocated. Make sure she understands that. Oftentimes, it’s the kids who don’t really understand the severity of the consequences. They just think they’re protecting themselves.”
“Thanks for the insider info.”
“In the spirit of transparency…I used to deal with these cases. Up in Denver.”
“Yikes. Okay. Well…Are we still on for Friday’s meeting?”
“Of course. You owe me a drink for missing last month’s doing whatever you were doing,” Bethany said with a chuckle.
“I was on vacation,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, but you never told me where you were going.”
“And you’ll never know.”
“Yeah, try telling that to my bosses,” she mumbled. “I’ll let you go. You probably have a grouchy teen to deal with.”
I looked up at the house to see Carey standing in a window, her sour expression telling me a lot.
“You’re right about that. See you Friday.”
I hung up and headed in to talk Carey through this. I needed to find something for her to do all day while her dad was gone. She was old enough to be a latch-key kid on the rare days Heath and Landon were missing, but I didn’t feel comfortable taking her to sit alone in her house with no one around. I didn’t want her stewing about what had happened or what could happen.
Before I made it through the door, Dirk stepped out of the security building.
“Hey, Davor tried to access the system again.” He didn’t leave the doorway, hanging out in it as though he intended to go back in the moment he could.
“I’ll tell him to quit it,” I called back. Damn fool trying to spy on me like he does everyone else. I warned him I didn’t want him messing with my security.
“What’s Carey doing here? Shouldn’t she be in school?”
“Yeah…it’s complicated.”
“Let me know if you need anything.” The door was shut again, and Dirk went back to his domain. For a man who spent his years bartending, he was smarter than the rest of us put together, at least with technology. Niko had taught him well.
All he really has to do is review footage and watch cameras. Maybe I should give him something harder to deal with. No, he already sweeps the bar for bugs every night. I shouldn’t put more on his plate.
It had taken a few months, but I had finally settled back into my own territory. Most of it was thanks to Dirk, Heath, and Landon, all supporting me as my security was upgraded.
Inside, I found myself face to face with Carey.
It was back into the trenches with the teenager.
3
Chapter Three
“We’re just going to hang out quietly until your dad gets back,” I said as I walked into the kitchen and dumped my keys on the counter. “You’ll do whatever homework or reading you need to do, then you’ll do more. You’re in all the advanced classes, so you can’t fall behind.”
“I’m smarter than the advanced classes,” she mumbled, dumping her bag on my dining table. “I could probably test out of them.”
“Then you should talk to your dad about that. Maybe if we get you advanced through a couple of grades, you can graduate early and get out of that place.” I poured myself a stiff drink and got her a soda. “I know this sucks, and yeah, you’re grounded, by me, at least. You got into a fight, and there obviously needs to be consequences. I also get why you did it, so I’m going to try to think of a solution.” I put the drink down in front of her. “I don’t want you going to school where people try to hurt you every day. I don’t want this to happen again.”
“I won’t punch anyone again, I promise.” Carey kept her head down and refused to look me in the eye.
“No. I don’t want people to drive you to the point where you think you have to—different problem. You felt unsafe, insulted, and angry. You had reasons to feel all of those things.” I sat down across from her, sipping the whiskey I normally shared with Heath. It gave my throat a nice burn; although normal alcohol didn’t give me a buzz, the placebo was nice. The idea of a relaxing drink was all I needed. “You should have never been in that position. That’s what I want to fix.”
She nodded and started pulling her books out.
“Dad won’t be able to fix anything,” she mumbled. “But graduating early…”
“Was already part of the plan, wasn’t it? You take summer classes and everything.”
“Yeah, but the school wouldn’t let me test ahead. Jumping grades is only for geniuses, not over-achievers.” Her eye roll was legendary.
“I’ll talk to Heath about it,” I promised.
“Who called? Was it Dad?”
“No, it was Agent Kirk. The BSA watches everyone here closely. They already learned you got into a fight, and I took you out of school. They were wondering why I was considered one of your legal guardians.”
“Only when Dad and Landon aren’t around,” she said, shrugging.
“Yup. Bethany gave me some advice I need to pass on. If you get sent to juvie for fighting, they’ll look into taking you away from your dad.”
Carey paled. “One fight isn’t that bad, right? Right? She didn’t say I would be given to other people, right?”
“No, one fight shouldn’t be that bad,” I confirmed. I hadn’t meant to scare her so much. “My advice? Remind yourself, in four more years, none of these people will matter. This is just the last bit of childhood hell, and maybe we can make it shorter.”
“What would I do if I graduated early?” Carey frowned. “I would be too young to go to college, right?”
“You can take local classes. There’s a college up in Tyler. Maybe get some of your boring classes out of the way and help you choose a major. You’ve never told me what you want to do when you grow up, and that’s cool. Most adults don’t know either.” I certainly didn’t. I thought I was running my life, but in reality, my life was running me.
Carey looked away without saying anything. I sighed and got up, leaving her to her schoolwork. With her focused on that, I texted Davor, telling him to back the fuck off. He replied with some nonsense about security and if there’s an emergency. I repeated my demand and was left on Read. He called after that and started talking the moment I hit the green button.
“Jacky, there’s stuff going on with the fae, and I just want to keep an eye on everyone.” He sounded desperate, a little annoyed, and tired as well. “We used to have really close ties to them, and you have magic from one of them. I’m just trying to do my job for the family and keep an eye on things.”
“I have Dirk,” I reminded him. I only knew the softest of rumblings about the fae. It came up every so often when something shifted in their politics. Everyone in the family was keeping their heads down, thanks to the baby now in the picture. No one was willing to risk Amir.
Especially me, since I probably knew more than my family did about that situation. I still hadn’t told anyone what I had learned about Brin. Even thinking about telling them made my stomach roll with unease. Warning bells, I knew. My instincts didn’t like it, so even though I had known for months, I listened to my gut and kept my mouth shut.
“Everyone has a head of security that manages the day-to-day stuff, but—”
“Davor, please. I don’t like when you or anyone else in the family is really nosy.”
“This is…” He growled. “Jacky, this is what I do. This is how I
contribute to the family. I’m trying to step up as a brother with you after…after everything. Just let me.”
“I’ll think about it, but you need to cut it out for now.”
I fell onto my couch and turned on the television to a daytime drama show, trying to let it make my life seem so much easier.
It failed.
I mean, who else had seven siblings, a father who didn’t know what year he was born, and a mother who went missing for years on end and could do magic? That was before I even considered how the werewolves entered the equation. My werewolves. My weird found family in the bubble of my territory, my lover and his children. Then there were my humans.
Yeah, daytime television had nothing on me.
Someone could become a billionaire from a supernatural version of this show. Estranged for a decade? Ha, that’s so human. We have people who can be estranged for centuries. We have people who live exciting and terrible lives without a single human ever realizing it. We fight entire wars in a single conversation. Talk about a show that would get people rich quick.
The wait was long and quiet. Oliver called once to tell me Kick Shot had opened without a hitch, and no one called in tonight, so no one was looking for me to be there. Eventually, Carey came to sit next to me on the couch, and I didn’t say anything, just lifted an arm and let her lean into me, knowing the simple comforts were sometimes the best.
It might be a dramatic life, but it’s mine.
It was nearly seven when Heath called. I had felt him enter my territory and head to his own home. I could have texted or called him first, but I didn’t want to rush it. I wanted Carey to feel safer for a little longer. Heath wasn’t a danger to her, but he was going to be an angry father who had to deal with a fight at school. He hid it well on most days, but from his texts, I knew this situation was going to be one that pricked his temper.
