by V. A. Dold
Chapter Fourteen
It was barely Ten a.m., and they were already pulling up to his new house on the royal plantation. “Don’t move,” Thomas told Julia as he jumped from the car and ran around to open her door. “Welcome home, mate,” he grinned as he helped her from the passenger side.
“Wow! I didn’t get to look around the grounds much during the gathering. Your security team prevented anyone from wandering outside the party boundaries, so I missed seeing these new homes. This is awesome!”
“I’m glad you like it. Let me show you around.”
Thomas took her by the hand and gave her the grand tour. A kitchen that would make a chef think they’d died and gone to heaven, followed by a huge great room with a pool table and monster size flat screen TV. Then it was off to the bedrooms and wrap around balcony on the second floor.
“Um…Tommy. How many kids are you planning on having?” Julia asked nervously, as she counted six bedrooms.
“One or two, why?”
“You have a lot of bedrooms for only a couple kids.”
Thomas laughed at her horrified expression. “I wanted extra guest rooms for visitors. As chief of security, I have extra guards for events like the gathering, and when they travel to help me on location, they stay with me.”
“Oh,” Julia said with an embarrassed smile.
“Don’t worry, babe. When we decide to have kids, we will decide how many together.”
Julia continued to blush as he ended the tour with the master suite: a huge bedroom, sitting room combination with a massive bathroom that contained a Jacuzzi tub large enough for a small family. The walk-in closet was bigger than her entire bedroom at her house.
“Wow, this is a great house,” she called from inside the closet. “Did you design it yourself?”
“Kind of. I told the architect what I wanted and the general layout, and he drew it up for my approval.”
She stepped from the closet and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Your house is perfect.”
With a raised eyebrow, Thomas used his index finger to lift her chin until she met his gaze. “Our house. And anything you want to change, let me know, and I’ll make it happen.”
Her warm breath raised goosebumps on the exposed skin of his neck, right over her bite mark. Chills ran down his spine as the temperature in the room suddenly increased. The soft press of her lips to her mating mark was almost his undoing.
“Julia,” he whispered, as he claimed her mouth.
A soft moan escaped as she parted her lips for him.
He swept his tongue inside. Like lovers who had been together for years, their bodies molded seamlessly. One hand wove into her long hair while the other wrapped around her hip, fitting her closer. There was no mistaking his reaction to her. She could feel it pressing into her stomach.
He ended the kiss and held her close. “I’ll never get tired of kissing you.”
“I certainly hope not.” She laughed, with her eyes shining brightly.
“As much as I would love to strip you bare and lock you in our bedroom for a week, we have to get your stuff from your house while we have daylight.”
“I know, but you’re just so tempting. I couldn’t help enjoying your scent. But you’re right. We need to pick up a few things from my house and talk to Logan about The Backwater.”
As if in response to her mention of the bar, he stiffened and turned in the direction it lay across the swamp. The claiming had enhanced his gift all right, and now he could sense anger and intent to do harm from miles away. The good news was, at least now he could turn it off or tune it to specific people or locations. Being able to pinpoint his sensitivity was a godsend, or should he say a Goddesssend.
“Something is wrong at The Backwater,” he turned back to her. “I think you should stay here while I check it out.”
“Hell no! That’s my bar. I’m going with you.”
Thomas studied her determined expression for a second. “All right, but I need to gather a couple of the guys before we go. There’s no telling what we’ll find.”
Within minutes, they were speeding toward the bar in two of the family’s boats. Thomas and Julia in one, while Lucas and Marcus followed in the other.
Tim paced from the door to his kitchenette and back in his tiny efficiency apartment. He’d been blindly walking back and forth, stewing in a brew of hate and revenge for hours. His ex-wife, Anna, and piece of shit son Thomas, would pay for everything they’d done to him.
Passing by his one and only end table, he snatched the backscratcher he always kept handy. Ever since he’d moved to Las Vegas, he had repeatedly broken out in hives and boils that itched like a mother. Countless doctor appointments and allergy specialist had puzzled over his ailment with no solution in sight.
Fuck it. Getting revenge on the family who had turned their backs on him was worth the risk. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the casino boss in New Orleans he hadn’t spoken to in over a year. If he were careful, he could get some information on Anna and Thomas without ending up at the bottom of the Mississippi River, wearing a pair of cement shoes.
Twenty minutes later, he was in debt to the tune of five thousand dollars in exchange for some very interesting information. It seemed Thomas was involved with a woman whose mother violently disapproved of him. And luck was on his side. The mother was willing to disclose the location of a bar in the middle of the swamp where he could locate not only his son but his ex-wife as well. Exacting his revenge was going to be easier than he thought.
Thomas and Julia were still a mile out when an explosion reverberated around them. Smoke and flames shot into the sky from the direction of her bar.
Julia clamped a hand on Thomas’s arm. “Was that my bar?”
“I’m not sure. Is The Backwater the only structure in that direction?”
“Other than my house, yeah.”
Thomas drew her closer. This was going to be bad.
The instant the boat entered the mouth of the bay where her house and bar were, his entire demeanor changed. His body stiffened, and he slammed down the walls in his mind to block her from his thoughts. He morphed into a man she didn’t recognize, one who was cold and frightening. He had no expression on his face at all. His eyes turned hard and dangerous. Thomas, the sheriff, was a man even she with her telekinetic abilities didn’t want to meet in a dark alley.
“NO!” Julia wailed. Every window was busted out of her beloved bar, and the door hung awkwardly on its smashed hinges. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Her house was a smoking heap of rubble. The explosion must have been her house.
“Julia?”
Stunned and in obvious shock, she stared at the wreckage, unhearing and unseeing the men around her.
“Julia, I need you to stay on the boat until we check this out.”
The instant the boat was within leaping distance, she raced down the pier and disappeared from sight.
“Julia, damn it! Come back here,” Thomas barked. His hands shook so badly, it took two tries to secure the boat to the pier. He was terrified for her safety.
All three men skidded to a halt as the house came into view. Julia stood on the peak of the rubble in what would have been her living room. Wracking sobs shook her body, and a horrible keening ripped from her throat.
Thomas walked around to the other side hoping to find a safe path to reach his mate. The last thing he wanted was to cause the unstable heap to shift with her on top of it.
Damn it! There was no way to get to her. She would have to come to them.
“Sweetheart, please look at me.”
Even though she hadn’t looked at him, he saw a flicker of questioning recognition glimmer in her eyes.
“Baby, please. I need you to jump to me. The debris might shift, and you could be trapped under the unstable rubble.”
Slowly, her head turned, but her eyes were still very glazed over. He wasn’t sure she was hearing h
im at all.
Suddenly, she gasped, bent her knees slightly, and launched herself to the edge of the forest.
“No,” she cried weakly. Her voice containing every ounce of heartbreak she was experiencing. From his angle, Thomas couldn’t see what she was looking at. Then a flash of blue and another of purple caught his eye.
Thomas held up his hand like a traffic cop toward Lucas and Marcus. “Guys, don’t move and stay very quiet.”
“Julia? What do you have in your hand?”
Numbed by grief and shock, her movements were jerky and awkward from her sobs and gasping breath. Thomas inhaled sharply when he finally saw what was cupped in her palm. A tiny iridescent faerie lay broken and dying. The others flittered around Julia’s head and shoulders unsure what to do but wanting to help their fallen friend.
In a tiny weak voice, the faerie whispered, “I tried to stop the bad men, the swamper shifters who attacked Sir Thomas. I’m sorry, I failed.” With one last shuddering breath, the faerie died.
A horrible snarl ripped from Thomas’s chest as his wolf tried to take charge.
Julia’s eyes grew wide, and her heart hammered frantically in her chest.
Tommy stood behind her, wearing the deadliest most intimidating expression she had ever seen. Raw power poured from him as his wolf howled a challenge into the forest.
A whimper of fear from his mate brought him crashing back to reality. The situation that had created a red haze of fury to rage through him came into focus. There was no way in hell he wanted to cause his mate any further distress, but his behavior was doing just that.
Sucking in a deep calming breath, he shook off the rage so he could be the mate she needed and not the dangerous man who was frightening her.
“I’m so sorry.” He reached for her to draw her into his arms. “Please, don’t be afraid of me, sweetheart.”
“You just put on your tough and ruthless sheriff persona. I’ve never seen you like that before,” her voice quavered, but her gaze met his steadily. “You become a different person, a really, REALLY, scary person. I understand why you have to be that way, so don’t worry, I was just taken by surprise is all.”
“I’m sorry, babe. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“They destroyed my home, did who knows what to my bar, and,” her shoulders shook with her sobs, “killed Daffi.” After several minutes, her wracking sobs became shudders and sniffles.
Thomas didn’t say a word, he held her tightly, rubbing his palms up and down her back, trying to be the rock she needed.
With tear-reddened eyes, she looked up at him and gave him a faint smile. “I knew you probably needed to be a tough guy to do what you do as the head of security. I was just shocked to see you become that person before my eyes.”
“I become someone else? What do I do? I don’t understand.”
“You slammed your walls down to block me out and shut down all your emotions. It was like you separated yourself from the situation and became cold and unfeeling.”
“I deal with horrible men and situations every day. I have to shut myself off from that, or I would become insane or suicidal. That is the only way I know how to cope and not allow my work to affect me.” Thomas raked a hand through his hair, a blatant sign of his agitation. “What can I do to make you less afraid of me? I can’t lose you, Julia.”
Julia cupped his face with her warm palm, brushing away his frown lines. “You won’t ever lose me, mate. I knew you were this person. I was just surprised to see it. I know you need to do things to survive and cope, I was just shocked by the unexpected change on top of this.” She waved a hand at the destruction that used to be her house. “It isn’t anything I can’t handle, especially now that I know what to expect.”
Lucas and Marcus left them to their private moment. The Backwater needed to be checked for damage. It was obvious there was nothing left of the house to be saved, but the bar might be in fairly good shape.
“Shit,” Marcus growled, as they got their first look inside.
“Whoever did this will die,” Lucas snarled.
Marcus and Lucas wove their way through the destroyed interior of the bar. It was so much worse than it looked from the outside.
“Call the guys. Let’s get this cleaned up for Julia.” Marcus frowned as he righted a chair. “I hate that she is even going to see it like this.”
Neither of them had to turn around to know their cousin had joined them. A strangled cry followed by a muffled whimper broke the silence of the devastation that used to be her home away from home.
Lucas glanced over his shoulder to see Julia wrapped in Thomas’s arms, her face buried in his chest.
Marcus spoke quietly to the person on the other end of the phone, organizing the cleanup crew and notifying his parents. Isaac was going to blow his top over this attack on his family. If shifters had done this, and it sounded like they had, the swampers anyway, they would die under shifter law. As the king’s niece, Julia was not only a royal lady through blood, but now she was a princess through her marriage to Thomas, the next queen’s son. Royal bloodlines merely required the king or queen to be the parent, and Thomas fit the criteria. Even though he didn’t broadcast it, he was, in fact, a prince.
Thomas rubbed Julia’s back as she got herself under control. How much more could his mate take?
With a deep breath, she straightened her shoulders and gave him a small smile. “Thank you for being here for me.”
“I will always be at your side, Julia, never doubt that.” Julia stepped from his arms to take a good hard look around the bar. Now that she was less stressed, Thomas took the opportunity to check with his uncles. “Marcus, what’s the plan?”
“All the men are coming from the plantation except a few guards for the women who will remain. Julia’s brothers are also on their way and a few men who live near the bar. We will have this cleaned up in no time so you can take stock of what we need to get it back in operation.”
“Excellent. Thank you for taking care of that.”
Thomas took Julia’s hand and carefully made his way toward the long cypress bar. “Let’s let the men handle the tables and chairs while we check the damage behind here.”
Julia nodded even though she was behind his back, and he couldn’t see her response. She was still too shell-shocked to speak.
“Ouch!” she bumped her nose hard into his back as he came to an abrupt stop.
Dang, that stings. In less than a second her eyes were watering, and her head was one massive headache.
Thomas spun around at her cry of pain. “Sorry, babe. Are you okay?”
Julia gingerly touched her nose. “I’m fine. It always hurts like a mother when you get your nose bonked. Just ask Logan, I’ve whacked his a few times.”
Marcus and Lucas chuckled across the room.
“He never did know when to leave you alone,” Lucas said grinning. “I know Krystal wacked him plenty of times, too.”
“He’s always had a thick skull,” Marcus agreed, shaking his head.
“What’s the word behind the bar, Thomas?” Lucas asked as he inspected a busted table.
“It looks like they smashed every bottle in the place and Logan is going to shit when he sees his new frozen drink machine.”
“Dang it! He just put that thing together, too,” Julia whined.
“Do you have insurance on the place, babe?”
“No,” she sighed. “It’s too far out. None of the companies wanted anything to do with it.”
Just then, Logan came skidding through what was left of the door. “What the hell!”
“Swampers,” all three men answered at once.
Logan raked his fingers through his hair, and then his eyes went wild. “Julia, you okay? You weren’t here when this happened were you?”
“No,” she growled. “If I were, there would be bodies to bury.”
“Thank Goddess!” Logan grabbed his sister into his arms. �
�So, do we know who needs killing yet? Because someone is going to die, I can tell you that, right now.”
Thomas shook his head. “All we know is it was swampers.”
Julia raised her face from her brother’s shoulder. “I know who it was. Well, kind of.”
Thomas, Marcus, and Lucas stepped closer. “What do you mean?” Logan asked.
“Daffi, or I mean Daffodil, the tree faerie, said it was the swampers who attacked Thomas. Although I don’t really know who they were either, except for Blade. I know that moron.”
Marcus cracked his knuckles. “So, we find Blade and then beat the information out of him.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Lucas nodded in agreement.
Thomas cleared his throat and waited for everyone’s attention. “As much as I want to beat these guys senseless, first we need to get the bar operational, and then we can go swamper hunting. Isn’t that what you called it the other day, Marcus?”
“Yeah.” Marcus closed his eyes and took a deep breath as if calming his raging temper. “Okay, you’re right. We’ll get the bar up and running again, and then gather some men to do the job.”
Lucas turned to Thomas. “I think we should get Jack and Michael out here to look over the area for clues with us. Their vampire senses may pick up something we don’t. There might be clues, other than smell if we can pick one out of the mess, to help us identify them when we go hunting for the assholes.”
“Good idea. I’ll give them a call and have them come out here after sunset.”
A gasp from the entrance had everyone turning toward the door. The work crew had arrived, but there was no way to truly prepare someone for what they’d walked into.
A hair-raising telepathic growl was heard by everyone the instant Isaac stepped from the pier and saw the pile of debris that had been his niece’s home and the damaged bar.
“What the hell happened here?” Isaac demanded as he stepped through the door.
What little was known about the attack was explained quickly to everyone so the cleanup and repair could get underway.
