He grinned and we walked towards my house. “Good, now that we’ve got your issue resolved, I need some help with Declan and Chloe. I have them taking classes with Sam and Ethan Levi’s sensei, but I’d really like you to start working with them on stealth skills. I know you have your plate full now, but thought maybe if you’re going to teach Hailey, you can teach the twins at the same time?”
“You trust her around your twins?”
“Absolutely. She never even came close to losing control last night. I thought Brain might have a coronary when Harmony hugged her, but Hailey was fine.” He chuckled. “Gen told Connie she wanted to hug her, too, but Duke had threatened to spank her if she got within five feet of Hailey. I’m sure he’ll relax a little more next time — he had quite a scare when she was shot.”
“Yeah. You did too, and I think I may have aged fifty years in the three days it took Hailey to rise, and then another fifty years in the months it took for her to remember herself.”
“Talk to Bran, work out what you’ll need to do to bring her home a few days. There’s an unfinished room in the back corner of the basement. You know the brothers will help you turn it into a cell if we need to.”
I shook my head. “Why don’t we put shutters and bars on the windows of my bedroom and bathroom, put a reinforced door going to the hall, and a combination lock to keep us in? I’ll be home with her the entire time, and if she loses control I can get her back.” I considered it a few moments and realized we’d need the cell downstairs, too. “No, you’re right. I’ll need something escape-proof, too. I may never use it, but I’ll need it as a just-in-case.”
“Two concrete walls and a concrete floor, so you’ll just need bars on two walls and above her.”
“Yeah, okay. We can make this work.” I considered how my day would need to go, and said, “I’ll make a run to the building supply place and make arrangements to have some metal I-beams delivered. I’m not sure what Bran’s using for the metal mesh to keep her snake in — I’ll have to check with him.” Gonzo had used I-beams to make a cage for Constance in their basement, but he didn’t have to worry about her shifting into a snake and getting out between them.
“Do that, and then stop and get Hailey’s favorite restaurant food and take it to her. I’m sure she has cabin fever, and it’s possible her little field trip just made it worse, not better.”
Constance was using her time in the cage to further her education, and her cage was in two parts, with the outer part filled with textbooks and comfy furniture, and the inner part a basic cage she could step into and pull the interior door closed if she realized she was about to lose control. She could also let herself out of the inner cage, because if she was human enough for arms, fingers, and number recognition then she could work the keypad to unlock the door. That wouldn’t work for Hailey — she needed someone else to sense whether she was in control or not, because the vampire could now do all of that even when Hailey was consumed with bloodlust.
“I know you need to get to the bar, but do you think it’d be okay for me to get Constance out and take her and the twins swimming?”
“Yeah, sure. You’re capable of handling her if she starts to lose control.”
The twins had to be bound so they knew the secret. It’s harder to bind little kids, but it’s possible, and Randall and Abbott had helped, thank goodness. The nanny they brought in is a grizzly bear. No one knows for sure how old she is, but she had to go off the grid — she can only accept cash payments now, and her electricity and house are in her kid’s names. She looks ancient, but you don’t want to mess with her.
However, she made it quite clear she was there to take care of the twins and little Dom, and not to babysit a new wolf. So Constance was in the cage unless a trusted wolf was around to supervise.
Gonzo walked over with me, told the kids the plan, and then he and I went down to get Constance.
She’d expected to have her nose in her books all day, and was pleasantly surprised she’d have some time outside with the twins. Gonzo walked her up to get her bathing suit on, and then left her with me at the pool.
Gonzo’s twins are a handful. I mean, they’re as sweet and smart as they can be, but they talk nonstop, and little Chloe is nearly always into mischief. Usually it’s sweet, cute little mischief, but still… the child is going to give Gonzo a run for his money as she grows older.
Today, though, this was just what I needed. Constance doused herself and the twins in sunscreen, and I could see her about to offer it to me, but then decide not to. I chuckled. “Just imagine all the money I save by not needing it.”
“Gonzo says you slept in the woods in your other form, and he thinks you need sunshine and laughter.”
“I do, but if you don’t mind me asking you some questions once we get the twins squared away, I think maybe you can help me with Hailey.” She looked curious, so I added, “The situations are different, but still a little the same. I think you both have cabin fever, and things going on in the outside world you thought you’d be doing, but you can’t.”
“My work expected me to take five months off for maternity leave, so we didn’t have to deal with them for a while. I’ve since put in for another seven month leave of absence, and I’m lucky they approved it so I know I’ll have a job to go back to.”
“Hailey probably won’t need to go back to school, and I’ve already reimbursed the Cherokee Nation for the twelve hundred dollars in scholarship money she’d accepted and spent on tuition, since she didn’t finish the semester. She’s kind of starting over with a clean slate, and the time is allowing her the luxury of getting used to her two favorite instruments again, but…” I shrugged. “She’s still in a cage most of the time and the Cherokee in her needs blue skies and forest. What can I do to help her?”
“Can you give her blue skies and forest? Maybe in the middle of nowhere, away from humans? Gonzo took me to some land the Atlanta Pack owns to let me run in the beginning, because it’s fenced in. Since then, we’ve been to Horse’s property a few times, and Nix has tons of property north of here.”
I shook my head. Bran wasn’t willing to give her the test that would turn her loose on society yet, and until she passed it, she had to be leashed or caged, or with a vampire who could catch her and control her nearby. Also, blue skies were a long ways off, but I couldn’t tell Constance any of this.
“No, and the reasons are out of my hands.”
“Then let her do something every day that helps her get closer to it. Make her feel in control of her destiny. Outline exactly what has to happen before she gets her freedom again.”
I thought about all the obstacles she still had to get past, and realized she might not have a clear blueprint. “Yeah, okay. I need to get with…” I cut myself off. “Thanks. Seriously.”
“Not a problem.” We were both in the pool by now, supervising the kids as they raced each other back and forth long ways. “I’m home with my kids. I mean, I can’t be with them all the time yet, but I’m home. She isn’t. Help her get home.”
We swam and played with the kids, and I enjoyed watching Constance make use of her new strengths. Twenty minutes or so later, Chloe ran to the climbing wall Gonzo had built on the side of their playhouse. She scaled the wall, skipped across the roof, slid down the pole on the other side, and ran back to the pool.
“It’s like she has so much energy she doesn’t know what to do with it,” Constance remarked.
“I’ve heard stories about how protective Bud was with Angelica, but I have a feeling those stories will pale in comparison to Gonzo with Chloe.”
Both kids were on the climbing wall now, and Constance kept her eyes on them as she said, “Yeah. Chloe’s a lot like Sandy — always taking chances. I think she’ll be okay, though, as long as we can keep her focused in a healthy direction.”
We both heard little Dom cry, heard the nanny’s footsteps, and then heard him settle as she picked him up. She talked to him as she worked, changing his diaper
and feeding him. Meanwhile, I got the dive-rings from the pool house and dove with the kids to retrieve them.
The nanny brought little Dom out, and Constance held and played with him in the water. Declan and Chloe stopped long enough to talk to him and dance around him, and then they ran back to the climbing wall.
We stayed out another hour, with Dom under a little umbrella in his little floating platform, and then I regretfully had to put Constance back in the cage in the basement before I left.
She hugged me goodbye as she said, “Thanks for getting me outside with the kids a few extra hours. It’ll all work out. Just be there for her and help her have as much control over the process as possible.”
Chapter 24
Hailey
I awakened alone the next evening and was disappointed, but saw a note on my table telling me Dare was upstairs, and if I awakened before sundown he could come down, otherwise one of the guards could bring me to him.
I gathered my shower bag and pushed the button to get the guards’ attention. My door opened, I walked down the hall to the bathroom with a shower, and took my time getting ready.
I’d hurt Dare the night before. I could smell it on him, but it took me a while to figure out the problem.
Bran and Viper are walking me through this process, and while Dare has been an awesome support and he can help me with generalities, he isn’t a vampire or a snake so he has to rely on Bran and Viper a lot more than his wolf is probably okay with.
He came to me with a wolf thing, and my first question was whether Bran had okayed it. Bran was the one responsible for me in the Concilio’s eyes, so he was calling the shots. Of course Dare’s wolf wasn’t happy.
I had no idea what to do about it, though.
He was waiting for me in my room with the door open when I returned, and I put my things away and walked upstairs with him.
“I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I could smell that I’d hurt your feelings. I’m sorry for…” I considered my words, and finished with, “The whole situation sucks. I wish it was just you and me, but I don’t see how it can be.”
“It can’t be for a while yet,” Bran said as we approached his living room. “But Ghost wants us to outline what has to happen before you can be turned loose on society.”
“Unfortunately,” said Viper, “there isn’t a simple answer. Even if you pass the vampire test, and manage to get clearance from the Cherokee Elders, we’ll still have to get consent from the Concilio.”
“What’s the vampire test?” I asked.
“I can tell you one of them, but the other has to stay a secret, so you can’t prepare for it mentally.”
“Okay, so tell me the one you can, please?”
“I don’t know if it’ll apply to you. For a pure Lugat, we starve them until they’re less than sixty percent of their original weight and then give them a shopping list and send them into a store full of people. If they lose control, we firebomb the store to hide evidence of the way everyone died. You can understand why we have to be sure you’re ready before we test you, right?”
“Starving me from blood may not work.”
Bran nodded. “For now, we’re seeing what happens when you eat a normal human diet with no blood. We know how you react with blood and no food. We’ll put you on a total fast later.”
I looked to Viper. “What will the Elders do to test me?”
“Some of what Apollonius did — testing to see if you can follow directions in English, except they’ll speak to you in Cherokee. They’ll also do things to you in your human form and expect you to keep control. You’ll pass their tests just fine, but I’m worried about their reaction to your Lugat blood.”
“Technically,” Bran said, “we were on the edge of legal when we took you to the RTMC bar. It’s owned by supernaturals, and they knew you were coming. We kept you away from the general public in the VIP section, but the fact you had to walk through the crowd at the beginning and end is sketchy. We felt you needed it for a variety of reasons, but I’m hesitant to do much more.”
Bran looked at Dare and back to me. “Ghost is making arrangements to put a cell in his basement, and to install bars on the windows of his bedroom and bathroom, and reinforce the bedroom door. He wants to take you home for a few days, where he’ll be the only person supervising you.”
My heart skipped double-time at the prospect of going home with Dare, but Bran added, “I’m hesitant for a variety of reasons, but he and I will brainstorm and find a compromise. Meanwhile, you haven’t been outside without me yet, and I’m going to let the three of you walk my property tonight. Stay inside the fence and don’t go over the cliff, but nothing else is off limits outside.”
Chapter 25
Ghost
Three weeks later, I took Hailey home. I had a Lugat in my front yard and in the woods behind my house at night, and guards of various flavors would replace them during the day.
But it was just Hailey and me in the house together for forty-eight hours.
First, I had to explain why her Ford Focus was gone, replaced with a slightly used Nissan Juke.
“The Focus wasn’t reliable,” I told her. “You needed something trustworthy.”
“You don’t get to buy me shit just because I’m fucking you!”
“You’re absolutely right. I get to buy you shit that keeps the woman I love safe, not because the woman I love happens to be a great fuck.”
She crossed her arms and glared at me, and I tossed her over my shoulder and walked inside with her.
These two days came with a steep price. When I’d negotiated to turn five of Bran’s staff into wolves, we’d taken my being food for one of his friends off the table. They’d had to postpone the visit, and when we renegotiated, he’d said he could use one of his new wolves in my place.
Bran had another guest coming to town next month, and this one preferred to lick the blood from whip marks. He wanted me to agree to let a male vampire restrain me to a large cross, whip me, and then lick the blood from my wounds. When I said no, Bran had told me how much it would cost for two guards around the clock for forty-eight hours.
I’m not hurting for money but I’m not exactly rich either. I own my house outright, as well as my car and my bike. I only have about ten grand in the bank, but I have five times that in cash. Still, an hour of pain and creepiness for nearly five-thousand dollars?
I’d told him I’d pay the five grand, and he’d backpedaled to thirty minutes, then twenty minutes.
When I saw he wasn’t going to move to fifteen minutes, I’d taken the deal at twenty minutes. I was certain it’d be awful, but I’d deal with it.
Meanwhile, I had Hailey all to myself for two days.
We left Bran’s house at ten, with Hailey driving. Bran had made her practice in a simulator in his video room, plus she’d been driving on backroads an hour every night. She was nervous as fuck, but she made it to my house with only a few class calls.
The guards situated themselves in the front and back, each at an angle so they could see a side, and Hailey and I went inside.
“God, it’s good to be home.”
“I’m glad you consider this your home.”
“It’s weird that I still have my own bedroom. You’ve been in my bed so much at Bran’s, it feels like we should be in the same room here.”
“Everything happened at once. I considered moving your things to my room, but it felt like something you should do.”
“We’ve talked about us, but it feels more real, coming home.”
She wrapped her arms around herself like she was cold, so I pulled her to into my embrace. “It’s real. We’re real, and it’ll be just us for two solid days.”
“Yeah, and I suggested we eat before we left Bran’s so we could come home and have wild monkey sex.”
She didn’t have to ask me twice, and I threw her over my shoulder again, walked her into the bedroom, and unceremoniously
dumped her on the bed. “Lift your skirt. We’ll strip you naked later, when we have more time.”
Bran promised none of our intimate moments were recorded. I knew cameras were on us every second and it was likely people were watching, but I had to take him at his word that he didn’t have hours and hours of us fucking stored away on a hard drive.
The vampires outside could hear us, but they couldn’t see us, and — since Hailey was reborn — this was the first we’d known for a fact we weren’t being watched.
She was bare under the skirt, and when she lifted her legs to give me access, I leaned down to give her a few teasing licks.
I love her moans — the vibrations go straight to my balls, and I groaned as I stepped back to unfasten my belt and jeans.
“I’m going to take you slow, and you’re going to do as you’re told or you’ll feel my belt,” I told her, my voice low. “You need to show me you have control even if I tease the fuck out of you.”
Okay, so my wolf came to the surface more than I intended, but it worked because she relaxed into the bed and nodded. My nose told me she was ready, so I didn’t mess around with foreplay.
I was still standing beside the bed, and I pulled her to the edge of the mattress, put the head of my cock at her entrance, and adjusted her again so it’d be perfect.
This wasn’t what I’d planned, but it was what we both needed, and I groaned as I sank into her. She reached to touch my face but I shook my head and ordered, “Hands behind your head and keep them there. Just feel, Hailey. I know you love me.”
She put her hands behind her head and gave me a tender smile, and I returned it as I added, “I love you, too.”
I pulled her ass a little over the edge of the bed, pressed her legs a little higher so I had better access, and sank into her again, oh-so-slowly. I wanted her to feel every millimeter of me, and my cock pulsed as she closed her eyes with bliss written all over her face.
Ghost: The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Book 8 Page 16
