Weeks ago, these three had walked into his office and handed him a fifty-thousand-dollar retainer. He’d listened to the story Jess and her aunts had told about the death of Marja. For all accounts, Ben was a functioning vegetable. His medical reports depicted a person who was able to follow directions only, walk, eat, and shower. The man lacked the capacity to independently initiate actions.
Jess, born Jessica Weedle on her birth certificate, would have been the state’s star witness at the age of ten in the murder trial of her father. Ben’s mental state had made that trial impossible. He’d been declared medically incompetent and institutionalized for the past fifteen-plus years with zero mental improvement. The charges had remained pending. Murder charges had no statute of limitations in Arizona.
According to her story, Jess had woken from a dream recently in which she saw more about the death of her mother than she had originally remembered in childhood. The memory of the minutes leading up to her mother’s death had been released from her adult mind. Though she still maintained that she had fainted at the steps of the kitchen door, then regained conscience a few seconds later, she’d opened the door to see her father kneeling next to her mother holding the knife that had slashed through her mother’s throat—verbatim of what was written in the original reports. No one had even asked the child why she had fainted in the first place. They’d determined that she must have seen her father kill her mother through the kitchen window. The report said that Jess had repeated over and over, “Mom’s bleeding from her neck.”
According to Jess’s dream she was watching through the kitchen window and saw her mother lift the knife from the counter and take it to her own throat. Jess had fainted and then blocked the memory. Prior to coming to Mark, she had tried going to the district attorney’s office directly. They had refused to re-open the investigation, stating it was too high a cost to the state to re-evaluate the evidence for a trial that would likely never take place.
Mark had been just as skeptical as the district attorney had been. Jess’s aunt was Ben’s sister Laura, and she wanted to give Ben home care. Marja’s twin sister Moira swore that there was no way Ben could have ever hurt Marja. Laura wanted her brother to live with her. It was impossible to have Ben released from the state institution with the charges pending against him. Mark was originally worried that young Jess was being bullied by her two aunts to manufacture this dream, a particular worry when he dug into Jess’s background to find that no one had taken responsibility for the girl. She’d ended up in the foster system. The aunts hadn’t been a part of the girl’s life until a few months ago. Mr. Weedle had not had a single visitor, not even his daughter. A background check on Laura Weedle showed that she had been in the Peace Corp up until she’d had a baby, after which she had visited her brother for the first time.
He reluctantly agreed to represent Mr. Weedle and submitted a request for full disclosure of discovery. Then he sent the whole lot for an independent analysis of the fatal wound and blood spatter. He was skeptical that it would determine the wound was a self-inflicted injury, and he was utterly amazed when the report came back that it was not only possible, it was undeniable. Marja Weedle had killed herself, severing the arteries on both sides of her own neck in one swipe of a knife.
On Monday, he had filed to have the charges against Mr. Weedle dropped along with a request for a bail hearing pending the review of the new evidence that would exonerate him. The women wanted Mr. Weedle released to them immediately. He’d received a response back the same day, informing him that the review would take up to one hundred and eighty days, and that the bail hearing was denied. The time frame did not please Jess and her aunts. Here it was Friday, and his secretary had just brought in the dismissal form for the charges.
“So can we go get him? Right now?” Laura asked, tears filling her eyes. She clutched her infant to her chest.
Mark scanned through the document, wanting to be thorough. This was the easiest money he had ever made. Even after paying the specialists for the analysis and counting every minute he’d worked on this file at full rate, he would still be giving them a small refund. “Yes, my secretary will have a certified copy of this ready for you to pick up on your way out, along with a check for the difference between the billed time for my firm and your initial retainer.”
All three women rose then. Mark stood as well. Jess hugged Laura. Moira shook his hand. “We don’t want any of the retainer back. You have done what we asked of you for the amount we paid you. Call it even.”
The three women thanked him and left. Mark sank back into his chair and smiled. It was a good day to be a defense attorney. He’d helped save an innocent man’s reputation. Mark hoped that Ben could one day understand enough to realize how hard the amazing people in his life had fought for him.
****
Moira didn’t accompany Jess and Laura to pick up Ben, concerned that her resemblance to Marja might set Ben back before the psychic healers had a chance to see if they could help him. It had taken hours of arguing, a few calls to both the district attorney and Mark Johnson, and several threats of lawsuits before the hospital would release Ben into the care of his family without strings. Jess could see why humanity sometimes frustrated the other species that occupied the planet. It was everything she could do not to go Chuck Norris on their asses.
Laura had decided to take up temporary residence at Sara and Nathan’s Montana ranch community. The SOSC had been able to genetically link her to four of the children in the China nursery. Her three-year-old son had already been re-united with her and her new son. She had two more daughters and another older son that the SOSC was still rehabilitating and deprogramming from the cult thinking they had been raised in.
Jess drove Ben and Laura straight from the hospital to the airport, where Gil had arranged for a private plane to take them to Montana. Healers were already preparing for his arrival. Laura promised to return for Jess and Shane’s wedding. Then they were gone. Ben had never given any indication that he knew who they were. He didn’t notice anything happening around him.
Jess turned once, but the plane was no longer visible in the sky. She sighed, feeling guilty. She had thought that once Ben was free, some of her guilt would subside. That hadn’t happened. Standing in that hospital with the superior attitudes of the doctors, nurses, and orderlies, she was sure they had treated Ben with the least possible care needed to keep him somewhat healthy. No more, no less. What a horrible place. She felt responsible. She had never even visited him. She had done her best to not even think about him.
Thankfully Fualth had told Moira what really happened. Ben’s freedom was the only good thing that had come out of the madman. It didn’t negate the fact that he was the reason Ben was catatonic to begin with. She was glad Fualth was dead. The SOSC had yet to determine what had happened in Fualth’s cell, but Jess couldn’t give a shit less. If they did figure out who killed him, she hoped they gave that person a medal.
She was almost to her Jeep when she felt the energy ripple. “Shane.” She rushed into his arms the second he stepped through the port. He was dusty, still in his fatigues, an assault rifle hanging from his shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
Shane’s Elven Ranger unit had been deployed just before she had begun the fight to free Ben. She hadn’t realized how much that distraction had kept her from feeling the full loneliness of being without him until he appeared. It was different than the separation when she had Become. They were able to talk telepathically anytime they wanted, send fantasies. Those sometimes made her miss him more.
Holding her to his chest, Shane breathed in her scent. “I was getting ready to call you to let you know that we completed our assignment this morning. We should be on a plane within a couple of hours, debriefed and released by tomorrow night.” His fingers beneath her chin, he lifted her face to his. “When I felt your sadness, I hit the latrine. I only have a few minutes, but I needed to see for myself that you’re okay.”
“Better now
.” Jess smiled, standing on tiptoes to press just a soft kiss to his lips, not wanting to start something neither of them could finish. That was a big reason why Shane didn’t port to her when he was on duty. “Tomorrow night, huh? I needed something to look forward too. Thank you.”
Shane returned her sweet kiss with a hard, desperate, albeit quick kiss, letting her know how much he was looking forward to being home. “I have to get back,” he whispered regretfully. “You can tell me everything when I get home. Don’t be sad, Beauty. Remember how much I love you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered. With a grin, Shane stepped back into Afghanistan.
This would be his last deployment. Shane had resigned his Ranger officer’s commission. He’d agreed to be a commandant for a new Humanity Integration Training Course. Turned out Gilgamesh had been trying to get Shane to either start one or help him in Meshy Hell for years.
The SOSC had purchased thousands of acres of land directly behind the acre Shane and Jess had bought in the desert on the outskirts of Mesa. Shane and Jess were having a home built. Gilgamesh, Enlil, and Shane were working on constructing the Humanity Integration Training Course along with a full campus and long-term housing, which would allow people to live and train in one location. To the outside world, it looked like the backyard ended in a cliff that dropped into a canyon ravine, thanks to the camouflage weave created by Suena and Lugal. Now that Jess had Become, she could see through the weave to the newly forming community growing on the other side of the screen. Many of the rehabilitating victims of Fualth had requested to settle here.
There had been such an increase in enrollment at the Ryu that Jess and Aymee had added onto the building. Jess was giving segregated classes where any species could learn self-defense and mixed arts in a private, locked-down new section of the Ryu. There would also be a Ryu II in the training course that was going in behind Jess’s property so that the Volaticus, Tellus, and Aquaties could learn in true form.
With the fight for Ben, the construction of her and Shane’s new home, the development of the land behind it, the expansion of the Ryu, and planning a wedding, Jess hadn’t had much time. For a girl who had not so long ago whined about not have a life, she was certainly making up for it.
Thankfully, she no longer had to hide everything from Aymee and Eric. It had taken the combined efforts of Ninlil, Napoleon, and, Jess was pretty sure, Innanna (though of course no one would confirm that for Jess) to get permission to confide in Aymee and Eric. They now knew the truth of what she was and the existence of Volaticus.
Both of them had handled it better than she’d expected. Aymee thought it was the coolest thing ever. Eric pulled a gun on Shane, calling him a vampire, convinced Shane had “turned” her. Shane laughed his ass off while looking down the barrel of Eric’s gun, which hadn’t gone over so well. It took some time for Jess to explain and convince Eric that she was what she was, that she would have Become no matter what. Once they both kinda understood the bloodmate thing, they both accepted Shane. Eric and Shane where now the best of friends. NOT. She hadn’t told them of the Tellus or Aquaties … yet.
Epilogue
Eric and Jerika graduated from the police academy in the first and second ranking, surrounded by friends and family. Jess and Aymee tricked out the Ryu for a post-graduation celebration/wedding reception. They had scheduled the wedding for a few days later, but since everyone would already be gathered, they had the reception first. She looked forward to leaving on a honeymoon cruise directly from the ceremony later.
Although Enlil was her Elven mentor now and Ben was recovering, it was Jirou Yamamoto who Jess asked to walk her down the aisle. Ellen thought Shane hung the moon. She had welcomed him into her family. Of course, Jess was living proof that the woman loved to bring home strays. Watching the people she loved mingling, Jess knew true happiness.
“You look happy, Jess.” She looked over at the woman who had just appeared beside her, a no-no with humans around. Jess wondered who she was. Tall and stunning, she wore an A-line, pastel-pink, mid-thigh dress. Her long, platinum blonde hair was tied in a fishtail braid that hung to mid thigh. Then the female met her gaze. “I got my invitation.” Her violet eyes were still too big for her face.
“Innanna?” Jess guessed, raising her fingers to her lips wondering if she could increase her height too. “You look—”
“Like a human?” Ironically, there was a bit of insecurity in her eyes, like she was worried that she didn’t.
“Absolutely beautiful,” Jess finished. Innanna awarded her a beaming smile.
Shane and Gil joined them, and Shane tucked Jess under his arm. “Care to dance, Mate?”
Wrapping her arms around the male miracle of her life, Jess said, “Well, I believe I would love to dance. Mate.” Grinning at Innanna, Jess confided her secret in a whisper: “I won’t let him call me wife until we’re married.” The two of them headed out to the dance floor, glowing in their love for each other.
****
Innanna turned to get a good look at the male before her. He was as devastatingly handsome today as the day she’d met him nearly three thousand years ago. His brown-black hair was pulled away from his face and braided to his waist. His deep tan skin was a perfect compliment to the ivory of hers.
“Yer way less scary when yer big, Innanna,” Gil blurted out admiringly.
“You don’t say, Gilgamesh. Are you fearless enough to ask a female to dance?” Innanna baited. It had been far too long since she was swept into the arms of this handsome male.
“My pleasure.” Gil held out his arm gallantly, and Innanna placed her hand delicately into the crook, allowing Gil to lead her onto the dance floor. She smiled when a sultry song came through the speakers. “Ya have anythin’ ta do with this particul’r song?”
Flipping her braid in classic female deflection, she gave him a soft “hmmph.” “Whatever would make you ask that?” she grinned.
“Cancel that earlier idea. Yer maybe scarier when yer big.” Shaking his head, Gil guided Innanna into the first position of the salsa. They moved in perfect sync together, while the hot beat of the dance drove everyone else from the floor, leaving the two of them. With saucy hip swings and deep, passion-filled dips, they ground through the music seamlessly. Anyone watching would think them partnered forever. They’d always had perfect timing on a dance floor. Too bad it never extended beyond.
The music came to an end and they finished nose to nose. The softness of Innanna’s breasts pressed tightly to the hard planes of Gil’s chest meshed together tighter with their combined heavy breaths. Groin to groin, searching for eye contact, Innanna struggled to contain her arousal.
She swallowed hard, glancing around the room at the crowd surrounding the dance floor watching them, and patted Gilgamesh’s shoulder, reminding him to release her. Slowly he did, too slowly. She met Jess’s expression, and the clear question in her eyes, the look Jess called the ‘“WTF” look, told her she had to get out of there, now.
Smoothing her hand down the front of her dress, she attempted to regain some of her dignity. “Thank you for the dance.” Her nonchalance was forced. She stepped over to Shane and Jess, leaning to place a kiss on Jess’s cheek. “I’ll see you at the wedding.” Then she strode regally toward the exit.
“Now wait just a minute.” Gil was right on her heels. She’d damn near made it, too. “What the hell just happened?”
He halted her at the door. She’d be damned if she was going to have this conversation with witnesses. “Ya gonna answer me, Tiny Mite?” He hadn’t called her that in centuries, not since he’d gotten angry with her for not warning Enlil about Etana’s murder. That had also been the last time she had danced with him. A waltz.
“Now is not the time.” In more ways than one. She should have resisted the temptation tonight had posed. Turning, she placed her hand in the middle of Gil’s chest, keeping him at a distance. Full of regrets, she looked into his doe-brown eyes.
The confusion on Gil�
�s face couldn’t be helped. “Innanna, talk ta me.”
She looked back at Jess and Shane slow dancing and staring into each other’s eyes like no one else on the planet existed. The pure, unadulterated love pouring off the couple filled her with longing and envy. She couldn’t talk to Gil, not yet. Leaning in, she placed a chaste kiss on his cheek, then turned and ported to her small apartment in Greenland. Alone … for now.
Glossary of Terms
Aquaties: An enlightened species whose primary habitat is in the water. They have the ability to use sonar and high-frequency sounds. They have extremely sensitive hearing but average eyesight, and their skin is opalescent and capable of absorbing solar energy from the sun for conversion to thermodynamic energy. They manipulate current and tides, generating gravity and stability to the chortals. They have retractable fins, and their hair and eyes are usually pastel shades of coral, blue, green, and pink. They can manipulate melanin to appear flesh-colored and with typical hair and eye color when they want to blend in with humanity. Extremely tall, both males and females are usually between five foot ten and seven feet, with legs that are long in comparison to their torsos. Prone to multiple births called paired siblings.
Bonds: Established by birth or blood, bonds enable communication and locating/tracking/finding/aiding the bond-mates. Physical bonds can be established by touch.
Types include:
A) Bloodmates: A chemical/biological compatibility within Volaticus couples that determines forever mating. Once mated, the pair has private and full access to each other’s emotions and minds.
Immortal Becoming Page 28
