Wruin (Brothers Of The Dark Places Book 1)

by Miranda Bailey

  He handed me the phone, his face a blank as he pushed back in his executive chair. Change and paper money was spread out before me. I was short the exact amount I knew I would be. I sighed heavily as I took the phone.

  “Hello?” I just wanted to give them my side of the story now and get home.

  “You’ll be written up and this will go on your permanent record with the company, Abigail. We won’t fire you this time, but a second incident will result in your termination. You’ll also be on probation for six months, which means no raises until next year because your evaluation was set for next month.” The voice over the phone was cold, uncaring, and sent my blood pressure through the roof.

  This wasn’t my fault and not only was I being written up, I was going to miss a raise?

  “Pardon? Jaime told me to give the woman the money. I insisted we count the drawer down, but he said to just give her the money or he’d fire me. I couldn’t refuse!” I glared over at the manager of the farm store I worked at, hating him completely. “I did as he told me to do. He’s the store manager and I’m the one in trouble?”

  Before I could hear the response the man in question childishly stuck his tongue out, grabbed the phone, and glared back at me. “That’s not what happened at all. She’s just a bit confused.”

  He listened and then hung up.

  “If you don’t want me to fire you now, shut up and sign this paper.” He took a paper out of the fax machine as it printed out and handed it to me.

  I read it over and stood up. “No. I’m not signing that. I’m not taking the blame for your screwup!”

  “Abigail, come on. There’s no need to worry that pretty little head of yours. Just sign the paper and we can both go home. I’ll even put the money away for you.” He paused, the light in his eyes changed, and I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck again. “I can also make sure this probation period goes smoothly, if you show me what you can do with those beautiful red lips of yours.”

  I stared at him in utter shock, not sure whether to kick him in his undoubtedly tiny little balls, call the police, or just punch him.

  2

  Wruin

  I slid from my slumber, into a dark world of nothing, only drips and the sound of the sea outside of the cave I waited in. The world was out there, Doreen was out there, with her daughter. They were safe, though, I’d seen to that years ago. Something had changed.

  Or was about to change, I realized as I shifted into my human form. The buzzing in my head that was normally a steady hum when I sought out Doreen had become fainter.

  I fell to the ground, stunned at the realization. She was still so young. The little girl was no more, but the woman should be vital and strong. Instead, she was weak. Dying.

  “Doreen,” I called to her with my powers and hoped for an answer. Would she be able to hear me now, as the glamor of the world faded and the magic that had disappeared long ago came back to her.

  “Wruin.” I heard her tired voice from across the miles, almost like an echo.

  “What can I do, Doreen? How can I fix this?” I slumped against the cold, damp rocks, my home for far too long.

  I’d been abandoned long ago, left behind, and this had been my shelter, my home, as I waited for my way back to my own home.

  “You can’t fix it, Wruin. It’s too late. Watch out for my Abigail, please. She’s going to need you.” Her tired voice was only in my head but it shook me. The little girl that had almost tempted me out of my cave, only to leave me behind, was on her deathbed.

  “I will do what I can, Doreen. You know that. Go in peace, my dearest friend.” She had been just that, too. From the moment she’d wandered into my cave at five years old, she’d been my friend. Even through the years when she’d been unable to see me, even after that man stole the magic from her world, she had still kept me in her heart.

  “She’ll be home soon. Please, let me save my strength for her. I have to tell her goodbye. I can’t leave her without that, at least.” I could hear the pain in her words and started to retreat from her mind.

  “Go, Doreen. I will care for your little girl. She will be safe. Do not be afraid. I hope we meet again, in the afterlife.” I closed the connection with the woman so close to death, and swallowed down a sob. I had a job to do, something to draw me from my slumber at last.

  Abigail would find her way to me, after she recovered from the pain that was to come.

  If not, I would leave this desolate place, and find her myself. Her father would seek her out, as well. If she did not come soon, I would not be able to protect her so I would have to go to her. The magic that had kept her safe for so long would slowly fade after her mother passed. I would give her time to come to me, but if she did not, I would find her. Even if it meant I could not come back. She was my mate, after all. I could not allow her to be harmed.

  3

  Abigail

  He waited, his look of self-satisfaction made me wonder if he’d somehow orchestrated all of this.

  “Are you kidding me? You’re going to add blatant, overt sexual harassment to the list of “shit I shouldn’t have done today”, Jaime? No. Fuck you and your perversions! I did not take that money and you know it. I’m not signing that paper! You can fire me, you can tell corporate, whatever you want to do, but I’m not signing that lie!” I scrabbled the money together, put it in a locked bag, and threw it down the chute for the safe. “I’ll let you know whether I’m going to come to work tomorrow or not. Don’t count on it, though.”

  I left the office and kicked the door closed, went to the break room to clock out, and left. I didn’t know what was going to happen but as the most reliable employee, with the unofficial title of customer service manager, I knew I’d be hard to replace.

  I saw my car pulling up then and swiped the angry tears away that had fallen while I stood there in the cold, the tears almost frozen to my pale cheeks. I didn’t get out much and I was probably the only person in the county that thought tanning beds were dangerous. Besides, I didn’t have the money to waste on looking like a pumpkin or a piece of mahogany.

  “Girl, fuck him and his menage-I-don’t-fucking-think-so fantasy.” Holly, my best friend for my entire life, said before I even got my seat belt on. “What’s he done now?”

  “Something bad, Holly. The company now thinks I stole money because of him. A lot of money.” I balled up my fist and counted to ten as I tried to take my anger out of the stratosphere.

  “What the hell?” She’d started to pull away but stopped now. “Let me go back in there and kick this fuckwit’s ass!”

  Holly could be blunt and she relished her ability to swear at any moment in time, which meant every other word in this situation. The tall, half Cherokee beauty beside me didn’t take any prisoners, and had the karate training to back it up. It was the one good thing her mom did for her before she left, enrolled her in karate.

  “No, I know you’d give it a good try, Holly, but it’s not worth it. I need to get home and check on Mom.”

  “Her nurse is still there, or was when I left. Thanks for letting me use the car today, by the way. I filled it up.” She gave me a grin and I sank into my seat, weariness leaving me all but boneless.

  I felt like such a slob compared to her, the bare minimum of makeup I wore to work was now smeared around my eyes, my work-shirt was threadbare and stained, and my jeans worn thin. She was in black leather pants, a red long-sleeved shirt made to look like a corset in the front, with a pair of sexy black leather boots on her feet. I looked down at my paint spattered trainers glumly.

  “How was the tournament?” I asked to change the direction of my thoughts. Holly was an incredible pool player and often played in tournaments on the weekend that won her thousands of dollars. “Mom’s going to be drinking name brand nutritional supplement drinks this month, girl! I won five grand!”

  “Whoa! Are you serious?” Holly lived with my mom and I, and she was more like a sister than a friend in many aspects. She always
paid more than her fair share of the bills and she was always doing stuff for Mom. She really was an incredible person.

  “Yeah, so if Sleezo the Clown in there is getting to be too much for you to handle, I’ll cover the bills until you find something else.”

  She’d made the offer a dozen times before but I’d always turned her down. Now, maybe it was time to focus on something else?

  “I might just take you up on that.” I said as we pulled onto the dirt road that led up to our house. The house was nestled in a valley between two mountains, so technically, yes, I lived up a holler, or hollow as it’s properly called.

  Mom got the house cheap when I was about three years old and we’ve lived her ever since. She’d paid on the house for ten years, scrimping every dime she could from her job at the library in the next town to pay for it. Now, it was still home, the only home I’d ever really known.

  “You and your mom, Abi, you two have always been there for me. You took me in when Mom ran off with that construction worker when we were 17, you gave me a home, and it’s time I pay that back, I think. Let me do this. Let me do the heavy lifting for a while. You know, Doreen doesn’t have long left. You should be spending this time with her. Not that assmunch.” She turned the car off and handed me the keys.

  “I’ll think about it. Holly. Thanks.” We went into the house and I called out for Mom’s nurse. “Terry, you around?”

  “Shh. Abi, come quick. I think, well, I think it’s that time, honey.”

  “What?” I screeched, dropping my bag on the floor as I ran for Mom’s room.

  My mother was in the final stages of cervical cancer. After fighting it for a year, she was finally at that stage where she just couldn’t fight any more. She’d let it go on for far too long without being checked and the cancer had just spread. She’d been too afraid of being told the pain and symptoms she was having was cancer to have it checked, and now, tragically, it was too far gone to stop.

  “Mom?” I called out as I went into her room, falling to me knees at her bedside. The small room was lit only be a small lamp and I could barely see her under the pile of quilts she was buried under. She was always cold, even with three wood burners in the house.

  “Abi. My baby girl.” Her sweetly accented English came as a whisper from under the pile of quilts. “I’m so tired, sweetie.”

  I heard the sound of dry skin sliding between cotton and felt her wraith-like hand clutch at my wrist. “Find Wruin, my girl. He’s looking for you. He’ll protect you from your father.”

  “What? What are you talking about Mom?” I pulled the cover from her gaunt face, trying to ignore the dark circles under her eyes and the sharpness of her cheekbones.

  She no longer looked like the healthy woman that had raised me alone, that had worked every day until the pain just grew to be too much to handle. Now, full cheeks were replaced with the sharp planes of cheekbones, her bright blue eyes, always full of sparkle, were now glassy with narcotic pain medication. The woman that I loved so much was still there, but now she was only a shadow of her former self.

  “Your father…,” she stopped talking, her breath a painful wheeze. “England. Go…” A long, rattling sigh made my skin go tight and it felt like my hair stood straight out from head. I stood, bending over her. “Mom? No! No, no, no, no, no! Momma!”

  I turned her to her back; I felt for her pulse, but found nothing.

  This couldn’t be! I’d only just...got home. I’d only just come in to see her. She was supposed to have weeks left. She can’t be gone.

  “Terry!” I screamed for the Hospice nurse, my throat only letting out something that sounded like a choking sob. “Terry!”

  Holly ran to me, her taller frame embracing me totally as she realized what had happened.

  I screamed for Terry again, not realizing she was already there, staring down at me sadly. I whimpered out another scream, and clutched at Mom’s hand in the hopes that she’d clutch mine back and tell me it was okay, that she was still there.

  But my mom was already gone…

  Three weeks later

  “It’s a fairly simple process, Ms. Vaele. Your mother only had two beneficiaries, you and Ms. Thorton. I was instructed to give you both these.” The middle-aged lawyer, a paunchy man with a balding pate, and warm brown eyes handed over two envelopes across his desk to Holly and me.

  “Now, I’m glad you gave your mother the funeral she wanted, Toni. So often the children go all out, but your mother didn’t want that, she wanted the simple funeral she’d already planned and I have to say, you did her proud.” He took a deep breath before going on. “Now, the bulk of her estate seems to be in England, but she did leave a key for a safe deposit box at the bank, the details will be given to you in a moment. As for the estate in England, the keys are here, and the paperwork for that will be provided to you as well. Ms. Thorton, you were left the house here and a good sum of money.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Charles.” I said numbly as I took the papers he handed to me and put them with the envelope already on the black wool of the dress that covered me to just below my knees. For a moment I was too lost in the painful memory of my mother’s sad, quiet funeral to understand his words. “Keys to the house in England?”

  I could only stare at the man, my brain still not able to process that Mom was gone, despite the passage of time. What house in England?

  “I expect you may have some questions later. Feel free to give me a call. My number is in the paperwork there.” He waved at the papers, and I took that to mean our very informal reading of my mother’s will to be over.

  He hadn’t gone through the usual reading, the entire will had been written on a single piece of paper he’d showed us as he began. A couple of paragraphs and nothing more. Her signature, his, and a seal were all that handed over my mother’s worldly possessions.

  Holly stood beside me, at eight inches taller than me she actually stood over me, and helped me to stand. I clung to her, the soft fleece of her yellow top a comfort to me. Her favorite color is yellow, I thought as I walked out of the office in a haze, my brain still detached from reality. Holly had always gravitated towards the color when it came to casual clothes.

  I had put on the black dress Holly bought me for Mom’s funeral this morning, thinking the outfit was appropriate for the reading of a will. I’d lost my job at the store, so at least I didn’t have to beg for time off of work to come in. I’d lost the job not because I’d told Jaime off, but because I hadn’t come in. My mother had died but Jaime didn’t care. He’d wanted me under his thumb. Holly had heard me crying on the phone, took the handset away from me, and promptly told him where he could shove it. She’d cared for me with such devotion since Mom passed away, and she still was.

  “Do you want to head over to the bank?” She asked her eyes on me as I settled into the car on the passenger side. Her eyes told me it didn’t matter, that she only wanted to do what I wanted to do.

  I gave her a weak smile of appreciation and shook my head yes.

  “Yeah. Let’s get that over with.” I watched out of the window as she drove to the other end of town, going over a small bridge and around a large curve.

  The town was really just a village, barely even big enough to have a lawyer’s office and a bank, but they both still clung to their roots, staying more for the people than profits now. I sighed heavily as we got out of the car and headed in.

  “I thought you might be in today, Abigail. Let me show you the way.” Mrs. Brewster, the bank manager for all my life, led us into a section I’ve never been in before. A heavy door with a wheel on it stood open and Mrs. Brewster guided us into a room with nothing but an oak table and two chairs inside. The walls were lined with metal doors hiding deposit boxes of varying sizes.

  Mrs. Brewster took my key, added both mine and hers to the door, and slid out a rather large box.

  “Here you are, Abigail. And may I just say, once more, how very sorry I am at your mother’s passing. She was always
such a beautiful, sweet, kind woman.” She took my hands for a moment before she left, a sparkle of tears in her eyes.

  “She’s always been so nice.” Holly said as she sat down, waiting on me to go to the box.

  “That’s it then. The last bit of my mother for me to discover.” I put the other items from the lawyer down on the table; I hadn’t even realized I’d brought them in with me until then.

  I settled in my seat and pulled the metal box to me. I pulled the lid open and looked inside. I was confused at first, but then realized that there was another box inside, that’s why it looked like it was still closed.

  I took the cardboard box out and pulled away the lid.

  Jewels, dozens of glittering jewels, hundreds maybe, filled the box and I gasped as I looked down at them. There were no windows, only overhead lights, but that was enough to make the jewels sparkle.

  “Holy fuck!” Holly cried as she sat up to look into the box. “Where did she get all of that?”

  A letter sat on top of the jewels and I picked it up. A single sheet of paper, it had my mother’s handwriting on it.

  His name is Wruin. Find him, and you will find the answers, my darling. Use these to your advantage. Use them wisely. Go to England, Abigail. Find Wruin. You are the Key.

  Wruin. My mother had said his name just before she died. She’d also talked about my father. Well, mentioned him. Was Wruin my father?

  “I just, whoa. I don’t know, Holly. You don’t think the government will try to seize them do you?” I looked up at her, my brain suddenly back to life and full of questions.

  “They’ll surely want a chunk of the value in taxes, I’m sure. I’ve never seen anything like it!” She sifted a hand through the jewels, pulling up an oddly colored one. “This one is weird. It must be fake. It’s the American flag!”