“Yes, because it’s such a stellar name now, thanks to you, isn’t it? I made myself into something, Walton. I didn’t pander to the needs of my body but went out into the world and made myself a good man. With funds enough that I never had to worry about my son, or who he might have been fathered by.” There was so much he could say to that statement, but he didn’t. Just looking over at his mother—a milksop, his grandda used to call her—he knew that his father had done no less to his own wife. “I’m a man’s man, and you have ruined my good name. I can only hope that that boy of yours is a better person than you. And if I can, I’m going to raise him to be just like me. A man to be proud of.”
“What do you mean, you’re going to raise him? He’s my son, not yours, and you can’t have him.” He laughed when his father said yes, he would. “You mean the man that taught me that it’s okay to beat his wife? I enjoy a good beat down too, by the way. And that if you want it and they tell you no, then take it anyway. You said the golden rule is for suckers, and if I wanted to make it in this world, then I had to be in your image. I found out that wasn’t what I wanted. I decided to make myself into who I wanted. Walton Conrad, a great man.”
“I taught you the real meaning of being what it would take to make it in this world.” His father rubbed his chest again, like he was reaching for a gun or something. “Walton, aren’t you the least bit ashamed of how you act? How, even now at twenty-seven, you still don’t have a clue what you want to do in this world? By the time I was your age, I had it all planned out. Money that I could turn into something more. You have nothing that I haven’t given you.”
“I’m thirty-one. Thanks for keeping up on that. And I have plenty that you’ve not given me.” His father looked at his mother when she sighed heavily. “What do you think is going to happen to her when you finally kick the bucket? You think she’s going to do the same things? Come down to breakfast at precisely six fifty-one. Go to the women’s club at seven twenty-three. Then what? Do you suppose she’s any more animated than she is here? I don’t think so. You’ve killed her spirit the same as you have everyone that lives here. Is that what you plan to do if you get my son?”
“Their spirit? What are you talking about? That’s for the dead, not someone living in my house. And your mother has finally reached a point in our relationship that she’s better off just doing as I tell her, and not making a big deal out of every little thing. Just as you should have learned, but never did.” His mother stood and pushed her chair into the table. She looked at him then moved to leave the room, but Father spoke first. “Where are you going? It’s not time for you to—”
Had Walton not been sitting there, he would have missed the entire thing. It was over in seconds, both bleeding out when his mother took the steak knife from her service set and brought it from ear to ear across his father’s throat. The way his father jerked around, screaming as blood spurted out of his neck, Walton nearly didn’t see his mother sliding the same sharp knife across her own throat and then dropping to the floor. Walton was so stunned that he didn’t move. He wasn’t even sure that he could. Walton had just seen his milksop mother kill his father and then herself. Like she’d been planning this forever.
When someone started to scream, he stood. The cook had been bringing in his coffee and had seen them both dead or dying on the floor. Walton went to look at his mother, to make sure, he supposed, that she was gone. Looking at his dead father, there was no doubt that he had bled out. And his dear mother, who was no longer moving, was staring right up at him with the strangest smile on her face. She had killed him then herself in a matter of seconds.
Moving toward the door that led to the kitchen, he told someone to call the police. Walton knew that he’d not have much time. Grabbing his father’s fat wallet from his bloodied jacket pocket, he made his way to the upper floors before the police arrived. He had no idea if the staff would remember to not tell them that he’d been around, so he was making himself scarce. But he was going to get out of there in style, and with all the cash and other items that he could carry.
Raiding his father’s room, he found more cash as well as his stash of jewelry. Father never put things in places like a box—no, he had to have them laying out, for anyone to see. And he thought to tempt the staff into stealing from him so that he could teach them a lesson. One that usually put them in the hospital or dead from the beatings. He knew all too well how bad his father treated people who took from him. Had he servants where he lived, he might well have treated them the same. He liked things just so, and they rarely did anything properly as far as he was concerned.
Gathering some clean clothes and stuffing them into a duffel, he slipped out the window on the second floor and escaped down the trellis that led to the backyard. Something that he’d done a thousand times while living here. By the time the police were pulling in front of the house, not only was he nearly to the city limits, but he’d managed to take a car that had been his father’s favorite. It wasn’t like he was going to use it again, he thought. Driving was much faster than walking anyway, and his father would surely want him to have the best now that he was gone.
His father was dead. The fat fuck was finally dead. And by his own lovely wife’s hand. Mother had been a zombie for a very long time, so Walton did wonder what the hell had happened to make her take action today. And now she was dead as well. But to be honest, he thought that she’d been in that condition for quite some time anyway. Or so he would have thought up until she sliced his dad’s throat like a Christmas ham.
As he drove to the hotel on the other side of town, he thought of all the things he was going to have to take care of now that his parents were out of his life. Walton did wonder if he would have to make arrangements for his parents but dismissed that right away. His father would never have trusted him with such a task and had more than likely taken care of that himself. It would have been paid for, as would the moaners that were to show up. His father was a detail man all the way to the end.
He more than likely had thought that he’d die long after Mother and had all her holdings left to him. And she’d been the one with the cash when they married. Father just managed to make it into more. Since he was dead first, then Mother, Walton wondered how that would work. Because as far as he could see, he was the sole survivor of the Conrad fortune. Laughing, he thought about what his father would think of that.
“Probably rolling in his own blood about now.”
Settling into the hotel room after checking in, Walton turned on the television. He wanted to hear what was being said about the deaths, and if anyone had let it slip that he’d been there too. Walton kept thinking about how quickly his mother had acted. Like she’d been planning this for a very long time and finally got the nerve to do something. He was more like her than he’d thought in that moment. That was just the way he handled things too. Quickly and to the point. Then never look back.
Breaking news came on to talk about the tragedy when he’d been at the hotel for an hour. It said that there was an incident at the Conrad estate, and they were still awaiting word on what had happened. So far, the news reporter had shit and he thought it was funny. If they were to interview him, he could give them a firsthand account of what went down.
At around six that night, after all day of them making speculations about what might have been done to whom, they finally said that Mr. and Mrs. Walter Conrad were both dead by an apparent murder-suicide. There wasn’t a note that they could find, but the staff said that they’d been having breakfast as they usually did, and when they came in to serve them, they found Mrs. Conrad on the floor bleeding to death. Mr. Conrad was slumped over in his usual chair, covered in blood. They didn’t know what had happened, but they were shocked to find them that way.
“No shit. She just up and killed him, that’s what she did. Probably been planning it forever too.”
He laughed when the news reporter said that her heart went out to the rest of the family. Like he even cared that his
parents were both gone. It just made things easier now that he didn’t have to be nickel and dimed every time he wanted a buck or two. He was richer than he’d ever dreamed he’d be. Nothing would have to be shared with any other family member, and he was glad. He might have had to take his own steak knife to someone if that were the case.
He’d have money enough to get the equipment he needed to not just get the kid back who the dragon had befriended, but also the means to hold the dragon once he got it. And by God, he would too. Just as soon as he found his fucking wife. Then he was going to kill her, take his son and all his riches, and live like the king he’d always wanted to be.
Walton wished now that he’d have killed Ginger when he had the chance. That bitch from the mountain had fucked that all up for him. Some butch dike he was going to kill too. Maybe. He would only admit this to himself, but she scared him a bit. The way she held him there with nothing but her hands. But he’d deal with her when and if he had to. For now, he was focusing on Ginger and that daughter of hers. She was going to get him that dragon, or he’d kill her. He was going to anyway, but she was useful to him now, and he would be just as happy to use and abuse her like he did her mother.
“Yes, sir, I’m going to be on rich street soon.” He laughed when he saw the woman talking again and didn’t even bother turning the sound back up. She’d told him all he needed to know, they were both dead and he wasn’t blamed for it. “Life is good for a change. Yes, sir, life is what you make it, and thanks to dear Mother, mine is sitting pretty damned good for a change.”
Chapter 5
Sadie sat on the rocker and waited for the household to wake. She wasn’t in any hurry—not that she didn’t have things to do, but she knew they’d be there when she went back. Watching over the Manning boys had been something she’d promised their father she’d do. But now it was time to give them the rest of the spell. She had been waiting for the right moment, and it had finally come.
Rose came to sit with her just as she was closing her eyes. She wasn’t one to put your guard down around. She took her job very seriously when it came to her king. It had been a good choice to have the then young faerie pair with the king of dragons.
“He thinks you’ve come to harm them.” She asked Rose if she’d told him why she was here. “Nay, I did not. ‘Tis not my job. You have come to finish this, haven’t you? It’s about time, if you ask me.”
“I did not, but you are correct. I should have arrived before the first mate did, and now there are three of them.” Rose sat down on her leg, not bothering with the formality between them. “He is well, the king of all dragons?”
“He is the best, my lady. His mate, she is so much more than we would ever have thought for one such as him. I worried at first that he was making a mistake, but she turned out to be his lead in a lot of their ventures. It is good to see him so happy.” Sadie nodded and said that was as it should be. “Do you know what the magic you bring has for them?”
“No, I was told only to wait until the time was right. I had no idea what that would mean when I gave their sire the magic. Just when I was about to find them, they found me. I think that is the perfect timing, do you not?” Rose said that she didn’t know about any of this. “You know more than you allow people to see. You always have.”
“I am but a faerie.” Sadie snorted and they both laughed. “He will know soon enough what it is I have done for him. Do you think he’ll be upset with me? And for not telling him of the other work I do for him and his brothers?”
“I doubt that he’d ever be mad at you for very long. And you’ve no reason to tell him everything, only what you wish to. But I think him not to care if he is anything like his father.” Rose moved to stand on her hand and Sadie brought it to her face to better look at her. “You have grown into a beauty, my little Rose.”
“Thank you, my lady. Coming from you, that means a great deal.” She sat down on her outstretched palm. “Do the slayers yet come? Should we be more careful now that a child is on the way?”
“They are all but gone. That doesn’t mean they won’t rise again though. Like a wart, you can never get the root for all the tangles in the skin.” Rose nodded. “You and your kind, you are well taken care of? You have enough of the gardens to keep you warm and fed?”
“We’ve more than enough. And Lincoln has opened a greenhouse, and given us permission to take what we wish from it, so long as we want. He too is a good man, and a leader among humans. They do not know the strength of him, but I do.” She asked if she’d talked to him about the things she wanted him to do. “Not yet. I’ve been awaiting word from you. Besides, his mind is befuddled, what with him having a new mate and a business.”
Sadie laughed; oh, how she remembered those times. But her mate had been gone for longer than they were together. At times she would forget that she’d even had one, it had been so very long. That didn’t mean that she didn’t still miss him.
“His lordship has arisen. He will be down soon. Will you wait here to talk to him, or go inside? It will be better if you could talk to them both at one time. He will be more inclined to hold his tongue until you are finished than not, with Lady Carson there.” She said that she’d go inside if it was all right. “Yes. I will have cook, Mistress Molly, make you some tea. It will help your old bones.”
“You talk to me about that when I know you are older than me.” Rose landed on her shoulder and guided her to the big kitchen. Sitting, she laid her burden and cane to the side. “I should like something sweet too, not too terribly so, please.”
Molly fussed around for her, and she ended up with two scones as well as a cup of coffee, not tea. It was more to her liking than tea. She knew that the dragons didn’t partake in the stuff, but she had found that it did her little harm, and she loved the rich nutty taste of it. This cup was very good, and she sipped it gently.
The big man that entered the kitchen looked so much like his father that she nearly spit out her brew. “My goodness, how you have grown. And into such a man too. I had no idea that you could be so handsome.” He was upset, she could tell that, but didn’t let it bother her. He would accept what she had for him or not, it mattered very little to her. “Your mother and father have been moved to this estate. I have had the faeries get permission from the queen to—”
“I was going to do that.” Sadie told him she was sorry, but she wished for him to be happy. “To make me so, you would need tell me why you are here so early in the morning, and why you’ve come in the first place.”
“Your father has sent me.” He told her that he was dead. “I know that well enough. I gave him the magic that took his life to make it so that his sons would have theirs. You have done well with his sacrifice over the years. He’d be very proud of you.”
“We have worked hard to make it so that he would have been.” She nodded and asked after his family, hoping that his mood would improve with the question. “They are all well, as you know. You have been spying on us these last years, haven’t you?”
“Cooper, what a way to talk to someone.” This must be the lovely mate. And what a beauty she was. Sadie wanted to bow but knew that she’d never get back up if she did. “You must be the famed Sadie they’re all abuzz about. I’m Carson Manning. I will tell you now, if you harm any of my family, you’re dead where you stand.”
“Yes, my lady.” She would too. There was no doubt in her mind whatsoever. “I’ve come to give you the last of the magic, and things that your father wanted you to have.”
“I don’t think I want it.” She asked Cooper why not. “I don’t know. It might be from anyone and you’re trying to kill me.”
“What a thing to say.” She laughed, then stood and opened the leather bag that she’d held in trust all these years. After dumping it on the table, she stared at the young man and smiled. “Your father was my friend, and he was a good man who loved you all very much. He told me that someday you’d be ready for this, and that I was to bring it to you. However, I was
too late. No, not that, but a little late. I was to come before the mates did. This is from him, written in my hand because, as you know, your father could neither read nor write.” She started for the door but was stopped by Carson. “I must go. I have brews still on the fires. I only came here to give him this.”
“Wait.” She looked at Cooper as he stood there with a large key in his hand. She knew it was going to give them memories. “Where is the trunk for this? And what is this book about?”
“The trunk is in my lair. If you don’t trust me, and it is apparent that you don’t, then I shall have it brought here for you. Otherwise, you may come at any time and open it. On second thought, I’ll have it brought here. It has some pictures and such in it that he thought you’d enjoy.” She looked at the book. “You have a book of the dragons, don’t you? Well, this is the second. There is one more, and I don’t have any idea where it is. If it even exists any longer. But you may want to read the first couple pages. Your father was a good and gifted man.”
She’d done all that she could concerning the package and started for the door. Sadie was in the yard when two faeries came to be with her. Both Daniel and his mate, Petunia, were her friends, and if anyone could cheer her after the treatment from their king, then they could.
Sadie had been living in the cave since she woke from her rest for nearly ten decades now. It was a place that she could both see the young men growing up as well as do what she needed to keep them safe. And she had, a great deal over the years. But only recently was it apparent that they no longer needed her. And since then, she had been feeling all her years, as well as losing her ability to stand for long periods of time. Just as she was ready to take a little rest before going up the mountain, she sat down on the ground and thought about the distrust from Cooper.
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