“I don’t know what you’re planning, but I do hope whatever it is, you tell me about it first.” She said that she would. “Good. And while you’re there talking to her, would you please tell her that we’ll be seeing them for Christmas, as was planned?” “I can do that. I think she would make a great president, don’t you think? I could be her advisor. I would certainly be memorable. And while she’s there, perhaps I can get her to add some color to the House itself.” Chris told her that one could never forget her. “I thought as much.” “But I do believe that it’s called the White House for a reason. You don’t want to mess with that. It’ll just confuse people.” Myra nodded but smiled, so Chris had a feeling that if Giyanna did make it to the grand house, there would be little doubt to anyone that her advisor was a little on the color-blind side. When Myra was gone, Chris picked up the paperwork again. There was much to do in her job, and sometimes she had the worst of it. There was always something going on somewhere that needed her attention. Like this that she had in front of her. The killing of a young witch for her magic. It broke her heart to hear of such things. After she helped the family of the young victim deal with their overwhelming grief, Chris went in search of her mate. They had things to do today, and she was going to see if she could talk him into chasing her in the woods first with his cat. The man was a wonderment with his body and tongue. ~~~ Tyrrell wasn’t enjoying the trip to the greenhouse. In fact, he wasn’t enjoying being out of his house at all lately. He was broken hearted. Not for the death of his brother, but because he couldn’t bring himself to care that he was gone. Not even a small tear at the loss. There had to be something wrong with him, was all he could think about. He had no heart, or something much worse. And when Giyanna bullied him into going with her, he’d had no choice but to go. She said she’d turn him into a frog if he didn’t get up and get going. Tyrrell wasn’t sure that she could do that, but the things he’d seen lately made him not want to take chances. “Where are we going again?” She told him that he knew. “Yes, I know, but why am I going too? You do know that I’m older than you.” “Yes, by a whole fourteen minutes. Hush now, and enjoy the day. And look at all the greenery. You know, this time tomorrow, all this will be sold. The Market Place is doing very well this year, and I’m very proud of it.” He stopped to look at the pretty roses that were tied up with a trellis. He had something similar in his yard, but he didn’t know the color as yet. “Tyrrell, you have to come around to being happy. I can’t stand it when you’re not.” “How do you feel about Rogan being dead?” He hadn’t meant to ask her, but now that he had, he really wanted to know. “I feel nothing. Not even a little remorse that he’s gone. I even went to his grave the other day, and it could have been a perfect stranger for all the emotion that I felt standing over it. “I don’t think about him, if I can help it. But when I do, all I can remember is your face when you told the courtroom that you’d found the boxes one day when he’d come home covered in blood. I wish you had told me. I might have been your lookout or something, and we could have gotten him arrested.” He said that it wouldn’t have worked. “Why not?” “The police back then. You remember how they were. They weren’t any better than Rogan was. And the one and only time that we did go to them about him, they called him up and had him come and get us. Do you remember what he did to us that day?” He rubbed the scars on his arms that were forever a reminder of how violent Rogan could be to them. “No, going to them would have gotten us killed.” “Why do you have to feel anything for him? I mean, yes, he was our brother, but only because we had the same parents. There was never a time when he was good to us. Never do I remember him saying anything kind to either one of us. And there is also the fact that he had planned to kill me.” He shivered when he thought of knowing that her picture had been among the things that Rogan had collected from the dead. “Like I said, he’s gone, and you and I have come together again. That is the only thing that he ever did for us. And even that was done for selfish reasons because he needed an attorney.” “I think that Mom was afraid of him as well.” Giyanna asked him why he thought that. “She would never be alone with him. When they were in the house together, don’t you remember she’d make one of us or both sit in the kitchen with her. Even as a young child, I could see the look in her eyes. Do you suppose they knew what he was doing all that time?” “Yes, I think they did. And they too were afraid of the police not doing anything.” He’d not thought of that. He asked her how she felt about their parents being with the other dead. “Now that you mention about Mom being afraid of him, I wonder if that was why they were gone so much. To keep him from hurting them. I mean, that doesn’t make it fair for us to have been left behind, but I can see it.” They were quiet as they looked for Jenny. Giyanna needed to give her a message from one of the brothers, and that was why he’d come along with her. Not that there would be trouble, but she did want him there when she was able to give her the good news. His own job was something that he was looking forward to. Tyrrell hadn’t liked being an attorney for some time now, but he thought that he’d enjoy working with Tanner. He was a good man, and a great person to have as a future brother-in-law. He just hoped that he could live up to the high standards that he had. Tanner was an amazing attorney. Giyanna was talking to a young woman, and he had to get closer to her. Her eyes, he thought, were beautiful. Yet the closer he got to her, the more he noticed about her. She was stunning and had a lovely voice too. “Jenny, I’d like for you to meet my brother Tyrrell. Tyrrell, this is Jenny Farley. She’s just been promoted to manager of the greenhouse. The faeries are very happy with her promotion too.” He took her hand in his, and was surprised at how tiny it was. And how warm. “She’s living with her grandfather, who is working for Noah too.”
“Grandda is having so much fun getting the little shop fixed up. And some of the boxes of clothing came in yesterday. I think he wanted me to try one on so that he could work his magic on it. I wonder how Noah knew that he’d been a tailor at one time?” Giyanna said something, but Tyrrell was mesmerized by the movement of Jenny’s mouth, the way she used her hands when she spoke. Tyrrell almost missed it when she asked him a question. “No, I’ve never had a suit tailored before. I just never found that it was all that necessary.” Jenny told him how Grandda would disagree. “I bet he would. Would you go out with me?” He had no idea where that question had come from, but he was glad that his brain was working with his mouth. When she smiled at him and said yes, he could have danced a jig, as Noah was so fond of saying. “Your name is very formal, isn’t it?” Tyrrell asked her what she meant, loving that she’d said yes to going out with him. “I don’t mean anything by it, but my name is Jennifer and everyone just calls me Jenny. Do you go by anything shorter? Like Ty?” He hadn’t wanted anyone to call him a shortened version of his name since he’d been smaller and Rogan had called him that. But it sounded so much better when it came from her that Tyrrell told her that he’d be very happy if she called him that. They walked around the greenhouse, her pointing out the names of the faeries that were there, or the name of a flower when he asked. It smelled good in here as well, and he found himself bending to smell each one that she showed him. When they got to the roses, he told her about the one he had in his yard, and how it had no blooms on it as this one did. “You have either a late bloomer or one that only blooms every other year. I didn’t know there was such a flower until the faeries told me.” She showed him the one that was in the last line of bushes. “Does it have this kind of leaf, or this one here?” She showed him the two different ones, and he had to focus on what she was saying. The movement of her hands had him distracted again. Jenny laughed when he told her that he’d not really looked at the leaves. “I didn’t either before working here.” He followed her, and all Ty could think about was kissing her. Taking her into his arms and kissing the daylights out of her. “Are you all right, Ty? You look like something has upset you.” “Honestly?” She nodded at him, and he felt like he could talk to her in ways he couldn’t eve
n with his sister. “I’d like to take you right here. Not just to kiss you, but I need you in a way that I could never have thought of before with a woman. I’m not a virgin or anything like that, but sex had come to mean as little to me as my life did. But with you, the simple things that you say and do, it makes me want you in my life.” “You make me feel the same way.” He nodded, and wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. “I think this is going to be an epic relationship, don’t you?” He said that he thought so too and kissed her. Christ, it was like kissing a hot volcano, her body was so warm and supple. When she wrapped her arms around his neck, Ty had no choice but to deepen the kiss. Not because of what she’d done, but because it was the most natural thing in the world for him to do. And when she moaned, her body shuddered against his and he felt his cock thicken and stretch. It was as if he’d been awakened. Love. He knew that it was much too soon to say it aloud, but he could feel it. Like she’d caressed his heart and woke it to hers. Lifting his head, he looked down at her smiling face. She was looking at him in a way that he knew no one else had ever looked at him before. Kissing her again, this time with as much hunger but not for as long, he held her to him and tried to get his mind and body to think of anything but taking her to his house and having his way with her over and over. “You and I, we’re mates.” He nodded, not sure what to say about that; he was only human and told her that. “So am I, but I can feel that we’re to be together, can’t you?” “Hell yes.” Her laughter was like a balm to his heart, a lifting of his spirits. “I’m sorry. Was that a little loud?” Ty laughed with her. This was something that he could get used to, this Utopian feeling of being in love. As he hugged her to him again, he saw his sister staring at him. And when she gave him the thumbs up and walked away, he could have kissed her. She had done this for him. Not really, but her bullying had paid off. Her need to nurture and to love him. Walking around the greenhouse with Jenny, he listened this time, wanting to know whatever she was telling him in the event that she wanted him to work with her. ~~~ Giyanna reached for Tanner to tell him the good news. Tyrrell is in love. They both laughed. It was strange to see him this happy after he’d been so down lately. He asked her who the lucky girl was. Jenny Farley. I was only gone for a few minutes, and when I came back, they were kissing and holding onto each other. Yes, well, that’s the way it works when you find your other half. I’m so happy for them both. There couldn’t have been a better matching than them. Other than us, of course. She laughed again. By the way, have I told you today how much I love you? You have, but only a few dozen times. Giyanna was in love with the man of her dreams and then some. I’m coming to see you in a little while. We’ll have lunch, then ravish each other in the back room. You think you could do that? I can suffer through it for you, my dear. She wanted to skip and giggle. Things that she’d never done before. And all because of one man and his family. She was in the office when she thought of her brother, Rogan. She knew how he had died. Tyrrell didn’t yet. She wasn’t sure that she’d ever tell him. The papers put it down as a massive stroke brought on by his weight, which was a big factor, and the stress of the trial. But she had known that he wasn’t long for this world, and Chris Bentley had come to her to let her know. “He would have continued on his task to kill anyone that he could.” Giyanna had nodded and told her that she believed it too. “When I put someone out to cause his death, it was only speeding up the process, not messing with the events. He would have died, but not soon enough for seven more people that would feel his wrath. And you and your brother would never have been as happy as you are now.”
“It was always going to be there in the back of my mind, whether or not he was going to be freed.” Chris nodded. “I thank you for what you’ve done for me. And for my family. I wouldn’t have been able to go on knowing that he was there, killing a captive group of people.” “I’m sorry, my dear, but you’re very brave. And I’m very happy that you took Tanner to your heart.” She asked her what she meant. “That you love him so much.” “He is the one that should be thanked. Without him, I’m not sure where I’d be in my life. Certainly not here. Not with Tyrrell and the rest of them. I’d not be having a child that I plan to love and cherish for the rest of my days. Without Tanner, there would be no me. I’m sure of it.” Chris had hugged her then, and she’d felt a little tingle along her skin. When she asked her what that was, the woman only laughed. Going home, she thought of all the things that were going on right now. Her life was full, so was her heart. Giyanna decided to stop by the marked plot that her brother Rogan was in, and sat on the ground next to the plain memorial to a sadistic man. “This will be the one and only time that I come to see you, Rogan. I wanted you to know that you got just what you deserved, and that I think it should have happened long ago.” She looked around the area and thought it a fitting place for a man such as him. “You were cruel and mean, you never let anyone be happy, and I think that’s the saddest thing ever.” There was a couple near a new grave. She wondered if it was one of the women that had been found, and her heart broke for them. They put flowers on the newly turned earth and sat on a pretty bench by the marker, each of them holding onto the other as they grieved for their loved one. “You did that to so many people. Broke them with your need to kill. I haven’t any idea what sort of thoughts went through your head all the time, but I’m glad that you’re gone, that you’re no longer a threat to anyone that I know and love. Nor to the strangers that can now walk safely out and about.” She laid the single flower on his grave; it was dead, shriveled up, and black. “This is what your heart was like. And a reminder to you that you aren’t going to do this to my heart ever again.” Heading home again, she felt lighter than she had before. And she knew that she’d never think of her brother again. As far as she was concerned, he’d never been and never would be again. As she pulled into the drive, there was Tanner, standing on the deck waiting for her. Yes, her heart thought, this is love.
Chapter 12
James sat on the flowery bench and thought of what they were doing there today. It was time. He and his lovely mate Jas had talked it over, and they were ready to move on to the next phase. A move that was breaking his heart with every beat of it. But they’d been around for a very long time now; they were chasing two hundred years old, and it was too much for them. “You’re sure this is what you wish? I cannot change it back once I’m finished.” He nodded and so did Jas when Chris spoke to them. “I thought you were so happy to be alive with all your family. I’m sad to see that you wish to no longer be a part of their lives.” “We’re tired. And we’ve been here far longer than we should have been. It’s time.” Jas nodded and held his hand as he continued. “There are so many of them now, so many children of the children, that we can no longer keep them straight. And when they come to visit us, we’re too far behind in what they’re doing in their lives for us to keep up. Oh, I suppose that we could have, but we are just going through the motions of life, and that’s not the way that it should be.” “We loved being able to meet them all. The children of our son are something that we were blessed to see. And their children have been such a joy to us both. But as my James said, we’re tired. And want to follow on with the family and friends that we’ve outlived for far too long.” Jas looked at him, and James just fell in love with her again, as he did every day of his life with this woman. “We’ve seen too much in our time. Deaths of friends. Our family ever expanding. It’s time for us to take this next step, the step that we both want, and to end our lives.” “What does your family say about this? I’m sure that they’re as upset as I am.” Jas shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks, as did his own. “Jas, I’m so sorry to make you cry.” “No, no, you didn’t. I was thinking of the first grandchild that I held in my hands. Trent was such a lovely baby, chubby and so good. And then his brothers being born and coming into my heart. It was more than any woman could ever hope for, to see my child have children. He was our dream for TJ and Christine. The dream of having som
eone to love so unconditionally that it could only make your heart beat faster and better.” James kissed her then, holding her to him as he had a million times a day. “When I told them that we were ready, they seemed to be sad at first. But then we told them, just as we have you, that we’re tired. Not of life or love, but just tired. We were old before we were given such a gift, and it didn’t get any better for us, just longer. And I think, in a way, they understood that better than we could have told them.” “You are the nicest people that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. You know that, don’t you?” James had been a little in love with Chris since she’d come to his home to help his grandson, Sterling, with the she-devil so long ago. James nodded at her, and told her that he didn’t know anyone else that could have helped them with this or they wouldn’t have broken her heart over it. “I thank you for that. As I said, you are the best.” “We’ve said our goodbyes today and yesterday. They are broken up about it—they are, but they understand. I couldn’t have asked for a better family than that. And when we told them that we was going to you today, they had us a party. A celebration of our life and all the things that we have done together.” Chris nodded, wiping her own tears away from her cheeks. “We’re ready anytime that you are.” The celebration had been wonderful too. And as he sat at the party, he’d thought of each of his grandchildren and what they were about now. Nothing in this world could have made him prouder than his grandchildren. Trent, the oldest and by far the one who was into most things, he and Joe took care that the town was prosperous and safe. They had set up more programs for the people that lived there than most whole states had for their citizens. They were also good to the children that came into their lives. And there was now a sixth Trent James—a seventh and the eighth were on their way. Joe, from time to time, would look over the investments that he had and have him tweak them. He’d left all their money to her to distribute where it was needed. Elijah was still making the family money. Not that there was any need for more of it, but they not only donated a great deal to the causes and programs that Trent had going, but they also worked at the school, teaching the kids the value of money. Noelle did more for the children than anyone did. She had a special place in her heart for every one of them. Not that he blamed her, not the way that she’d been raised. Scott had gone back to teaching people how to have sex. He supposed that was the wrong way to put it, but it mattered little. He was happy again, and as far as he could see, that was what he’d want for them all. Chloe was still running the town’s police station. She was good at it too—they’d not had a robbery or a murder in decades. Well, there was that time that a bunch of kids decided to rob mailboxes, but she nipped that in the bud right away. A night in jail scared them boys on the right path, it surely did. Sterling. He loved that boy more than the others. Of course, he’d never say that. But Sterling had been through more than the others in his lifetime. Probably more than a couple of them. When that she-devil had tried to kill his Sterling, James had been so afraid for him. His art hadn’t changed, though. It was still dark and scary, but he couldn’t keep a painting without someone wanting to buy it before the paint even dried. His and Marty’s little boy that they adopted when his parents were killed, Benson, took over the running of the gallery and did as good a job as his daddy ever did. That Marty, she hadn’t changed a bit either. Still a pistol, and a mouth on her that made him blush sometimes. Randal didn’t teach as much as he used to. But he did run a lot of after school programs for the kids. There was a time when he had food in his room for all the kids that didn’t have much to eat. Also, there was gloves and hats. Now they had a room that was dedicated to the children with everything they could want, from good food to eat, to boots for the cold months, to having backpacks filled with enough supplies to get them through the year at school and to take home to do homework. He loved his kids, he called them all. Laney had made up with her daddy after a time, and he still spent time with them, but he didn’t think she’d ever be as close to him as she was to his son, TJ. Then there was his boy Tanner. He’d had a rough time of it when Giyanna had been in a car accident after their second child was born. She’d been pregnant with another little boy, but he had been taken from them. James thought for sure that it was going to break them both, they took it so hard. But when after their second child, a little boy, started talking, they seemed to come out of it. He’d never been so happy in his life when Giyanna announced the very next year that she was having another baby. Sure did his heart good to see them happy and living again. Yes, sir. His grandkids had done him proud, and James didn’t think there was a grandda happier with their growing up and become fathers themselves as he was of them. He was sure gonna miss them. He knew that he was asking a great deal of the witch. But James and his lovely mate had never been asked if they wanted this. Not that he wasn’t glad for the time that they’d had, but they were ready now. Perhaps if they’d been a little younger, they might have been all right with things. But they weren’t, and now they needed to get to the stepping off place, as his momma had called it. “If you could give me an hour, I’ll have the place ready where you can rest. Or have you taken care of that?” Jas told her that they had a marker all picked out, but, no, they’d assumed after all this time they’d just turn to dust. “Not quite, but we’ll take care that you have a very nice spot, close to the family so that they can visit you. I’ll call on the lady of the earth now and have it arranged.” “How would we get there, if you don’t mind me asking?” James couldn’t seem to let go of Jas’s hand. “I mean, traveling here wasn’t any hardship on us, but we’d really like to be close to the children.” “Yes, of course. I can arrange that.” She left them there, and he looked at his wife of just under two hundred years. “You’ve been my rock and foundation our whole life together. I couldn’t have made it in this life without you and this family. You know that, don’t you?” Jas nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know what I’d have done had you not been there at that hospital when I woke up. Seeing you there, so pretty, like you are right now.” “Oh, go on with you. You know as well as I that I was just a little bitty thing. To think, having my daddy bringing me to work like that, and what do you think happened? I find my other half being worked on by him.” James remembered it like yesterday. “You were so afraid of him, I think now. You wanted to impress him that you’d be a good man.” “He didn’t much care for me, I’m thinking.” She laughed, and he did as well. “Then it only took us another ten years before you became my other half, my wife for all time.” They rocked on the bench, taking in the sights that were all around them. They’d been doing that a great deal over the last months and days here on this earth. Taking in the sights so that they’d have something to comfort them when they were ready to go on. That was where the first conversation had come about, when they’d been taking a long walk one night after supper. “I remember you being large with our TJ. Best sight I ever seen was when you handed him up to me from that bed. You said, ‘Here you go. Now raise him to be as good a man as you are.’ And I think between us, we did a good job.” She told him they had. “Then he did the same for his sons. Six strapping boys he had, and I couldn’t have been prouder of them than if they’d been ours.” “Christine loves them all so much. It’s like those girls were born to her too...she loves them as her own. Like it should have been.” James knew that too. And he loved them as if they were his granddaughters as well. “James, I’m going to miss them, I am, but I’m so ready for this.” “I am too, love. I surely am.” He rocked them some more, watching the deer in the field beyond playing with their newborn. “All I can think about is how much I love you. And how I know this is the right thing to do.” “Yes, myself as well. I’m so tired all the time, James, and I’m sorry for that.” She started crying and he held her. James couldn’t have stopped his own tears from falling under threat of death. He told her that there was nothing to be sorry for. “Like you said, had we been younger, we might have been better.” “Better? Oh darling, we were
the best there was, I’m thinking.” He pulled out the envelope that he’d gotten from Trent last night. He took half the pictures and handed her the other half. “This is why I know that we were the best. Just look at them faces. And the smiles on all of them children. We did that. We started this long line of happy faces. You remember that.” “I will. You, I’ll remember your face as well.” He looked at her again, and she traced her fingers over all of him. His face, like hers, wasn’t like it used to be, but to him, she was still the loveliest creature ever born. “I love you, Trent James Calhoun the third. Forever and a day, I shall forever cherish our time we had together, and all the memories that we made.” He was just about to cry again; his heart was so full. They’d been telling each other they loved the other since they were wee children. And now, all these decades later, they were still saying it. James held his wife until Chris came back to tell them that it was all set up. “Good. That’s right kind of you, Chris. It is.” She nodded, then asked him if they’d changed their mind. “No, we haven’t, have we love?” “No, we’re ready as we’ll ever be. But I do have a single request.” Chris told them anything. “I should like to watch the sun setting while you do this. I’m not sure what all this entails, but the sun setting, like us setting into the earth, so I’d like to watch it once more.” “Of course. And as much as I’d like to tell you that it’s easy, it won’t be on me. I have come to love you two like my own grandparents. People that I’ve respected and needed in my life daily. I could not have asked for better friends.” They both nodded. “All right then, you two just sit here and watch the sunset. It should be soon. And then just close your eyes when you’re ready.”
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