by Terry Spear
Bentos snorted. “I would never kill her, though I was angry she gave you up for adoption when I thought she’d raise you as her own child and love you. I didn’t give you to her so she’d give you away.”
Uncle Stephen glanced back at them. “You’re wearing rings.”
Bentos cast him a dark smirk. “They are mated so that Hunter can protect Alana from other Matusa who would covet a Kubiteron gate guardian.”
Uncle Stephen’s eyes widened. “I thought you were waiting.”
“Until after I graduate.” Alana smiled at her uncle.
Her dad cast Bentos an irritated look that told him to say no more of the matter.
Bentos only gave Pappalios a dark smile and winked at Hunter, as if telling him he’d let the proverbial cat out of the bag, and Hunter could be with his mate now.
“Have you told your mother?” Uncle Stephen asked.
“Of course,” Alana said.
Hunter knew she didn’t realize still that they were mated now.
Uncle Stephen rubbed his beard in thought. “I thought you would stay with me and your dad at a wizard-owned hotel, but I guess you’ll be needing your own suite with your mate.”
Alana’s jaw dropped. “Not until after graduation.”
“But you’re mated. And everyone agreed to give you their blessings,” Uncle Stephen said.
She turned to her dad. “The rings are for pretend, just to show the Matusa that Hunter and I are together, right, Dad? That’s why we’re wearing them.”
Benton chuckled.
Papplios looked like he could strangle Bentos. The Matusa had that effect on a lot of people.
Alana’s eyes glowed red. Hunter loved it when they did. He couldn’t help himself.
“Tell me you thought this was just a ploy until after I graduate from college,” Alana said to Hunter, already pulling away from him.
“Alana, they would always come after you. I couldn’t protect you always. Not unless I was your mate,” Hunter said.
“I would protect her,” Samson said.
“You knew!” She started to move to another seat on the plane, and Hunter held her hand for a moment as she glowered at him.
“I love you, Alana. And that will never change. It also means protecting you through whatever means are necessary.”
“You were afraid I’d find some cute college guy more to my liking.”
Hunter smiled. No way did he think that.
She yanked her hand away from him and sat by Samson. “You can protect me.” She patted him on the chest.
He puffed it out and leaned back against the seat, well-satisfied. “I will.”
“Are you protecting her with your bubble?” Pappalios asked Stephen.
Samson quickly looked at Alana, as if worried she’d been pulled away, then breathed a sigh of relief.
“Yes. When she and Hunter were wrapped around each other, I had to do it around them, but now, just around Alana. Hunter doesn’t need the protection.”
Jared moved back to sit by Hunter. “You can protect me.”
Hunter laughed. “You’ve got a deal.”
17
When they landed at the airport in Amarillo, a limo van was waiting for them, and took them to a hotel run by wizards.
Alana was still miffed with Hunter. Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t go to college. Some fields of work needed more…hands-on experience. And the truth was, it was only two more months before she graduated from high school. As long as she graduated. She would just make Hunter suffer her indignation, except that he wasn’t. He was loving her, no matter how much she could be difficult about this. Which showed he was a demon.
Then again, she was too. “You’re not off my list, buster,” she said, sitting beside him in the limousine.
Uncle Stephen insisted they have their own rooms until they settled the differences between them.
After having a lunch of fajitas, they headed out in separate vehicles loaned to them, looking for demon signatures anywhere in the Amarillo area. Samson had one, so he paired up with Uncle Stephen. She gave hers to Bentos, who went with her dad.
Jared stuck with Hunter and her, and then they took off. Hunter was driving, Alana lying down in the back seat, her arm still hurting. She had Hunter’s demon tracker, while Jared was sitting in the front seat, using his.
That was the role they played for four days—eating out, gathering at night at the wizard’s hotel, searching all day long.
On the fifth day, they were all discouraged, assuming his parents were gone. That they had been moved to some other location. They didn’t have a clue where else they could search for them, but they gave it one last shot.
“Behind us,” Alana suddenly said.
“What? Oh, yeah, faint, some distance back. Elantus! Two Elantus!” Jared said. He was so excited.
She hoped he didn’t get his hopes up too much. They could be anyone.
“Male and female!”
“Okay, turning around.” Hunter got on the Bluetooth. “Hey, we’re on Main Street, and we picked up Elantus female and male signatures.” He gave them the crossroad and the direction.
“On our way,” Samson said.
Bentos agreed.
“They’re splitting up,” Jared said. “But I think they’re on foot. Over there.”
“And one is headed south,” Alana said. “Pull the car over. I’m going after the one.”
“I’ll find the other,” Jared said.
Hunter pulled the car into a parking spot in front of a craft store, then he joined Alana. Jared took off in the other direction.
Alana was directing them as they moved down an alley, onto the next street over, and then right again. “I swear the demon knows we’re chasing him.”
Hunter glanced at Alana. “Hell, they’re Elantus demons. Maybe, if they’re Jared’s parents, they’ve designed something like he did.”
Alana stopped and was staring at Hunter. “Then they know we’re after him, and he’s probably afraid of you!”
“I’m not leaving you alone.”
“Just for a few minutes. Stay here, and I’ll be back for you.”
“You’ve got my demon tracker. I can’t even watch you to make sure you don’t get into any trouble.”
“I’ll telepathically communicate with you.” She quickly gave him a kiss and took off in the direction the male was heading in. He’d raced into a bank, and she walked inside, nearly running into a man who was leaving the bank because she was watching the demon tracker.
The Elantus male had taken the elevator. She watched until the fourth-floor number was lit up. “I’m at West Texas Bank, but just wait. He’s gone up in an elevator to the fourth floor.”
“Be careful. I don’t like this.”
“They’re Elantus.”
“Yeah, and they can be as dangerous as any demon.”
“All right.” She raced up the stairs and when she reached the fourth floor, she saw the demon had entered the men’s room.
Great.
She stood at the door. “We’re looking for Elantus parents of a young boy that went missing nineteen years ago. I’m a gate guardian.” She hoped only the Elantus was in the restroom. If anyone else was—
A man exited and smiled at her, then walked down the hall to an office. He walked inside and shut the door.
“Their boy is all grown up now, and he’s desperately looking for his parents. His name is Jared. He doesn’t remember his real name.”
The Elantus male opened the restroom door. Man, did he look like an older version of Jared.
She wanted to give him a hug, but smiled brightly instead. “You look just like Jared.”
“Calamus.”
“Uh, okay. Well, there are several of us here together searching for his parents, my dad and uncle, and my mate—”
Hunter strode toward them, and the man looked like he was having heart palpitations.
“That’s my mate. Hunter, this is Jared’s father.”
Hunter smiled.
“He’s half-human. You don’t have to worry about him.”
Bentos and Pappalios headed their way, and she quickly made introductions.
“I’m Pepe, Calamus’s father.” He looked shocked, like he was ready to collapse.
And then she saw the demon tracker in his hand and showed him hers. “Jared made them.”
“We’ve been staying out of your range, figuring we needed to leave the city.”
“Because of us?” Bentos asked.
“We figured the two Matusa were in charge of the others in some nefarious way, and they’d come for us.”
“We actually saved a train load of passengers a few days ago in Seplichus,” Bentos said, sounding proud of himself. “I might add, we were on our way to create a portal to enter Earth world where you’d disappeared to. But the train wreck prevented that.”
“We left one of our friends back there to search for her parents,” Alana said.
“Where’s Samson?” Hunter asked his father.
“He took off after Jared.”
Then Hunter got a call. “Yeah, Jared?” He put the call on speaker. “We found your father.”
“I’m with my mom. She’s crying and…” Jared was all choked up.
“Okay, why don’t we all get together at Main Street where we left the vehicles and return to the hotel?” Hunter said. “They’ve got a sitting area we can go to and talk.”
“You can come to our home,” Pepe said.
“We’ll follow them to their home,” Hunter said then.
Samson said, “Jared and his mom will ride with me.”
“All right.”
Pepe gave them his address, and then they all left the bank to return to their vehicles and drive over to their home in the country.
“Now what happens?” Hunter asked Alana, as they followed Pepe to the house.
“I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine. They might want to return home now, but maybe not, if they know Jared’s living here. Or they might all want to return. It’s going to be hard on them to pick up the pieces no matter what. At least I think so. I feel like I’ve always known my dad.”
“That connection, that bond we feel with someone who’s family,” Hunter said.
“Yeah, like you and Bentos.” She knew it would be hard on Hunter if Jared left them. Not only because he was so good at making useful gadgets for them, but because he was a really good friend.
When they arrived at the country estate, Pepe invited them in.
Once they were all seated in the living room, Jared giving his father a hug, and then sitting between his parents on one of the sofas, they began to tell their stories.
“The summoner who brought us over had a heart attack. He was shocked to see that his birthday game had worked. So we were free of our summoner at least. But we had the problem with blending in with the human population, getting jobs, and a place to live. We both know so much about computers, we became programmers for a firm here in Amarillo. When Fern had the baby, Calamus, we were thrilled.”
“I always thought I was born in Seplichus,” Jared said.
“You were born here.” His mother squeezed Jared’s hand. “You were three when you were at pre-school, and someone picked you up and took off with you. They have better safeguards now, but at the time, they just didn’t. The police looked for you for weeks. Your dad and I created our first demon trackers, but it took a week, and by then, you were long gone. We still searched for years, but we didn’t hold out any hope that we’d ever find you. And to think you had been searching for us all this time!”
Jared explained who everyone was in the group, and about Celeste and how she’d been injured, but was searching for her parents along with the Camaran demon she had saved.
“We’re so proud of you,” Pepe said.
Jared shook his head. “I never would have guessed you’d have a tracker and would be watching our movement. It must have a longer range than ours, or we would have picked up your signatures.”
“Ten miles out,” his dad said.
Hunter looked at Jared. “Okay, so that’s what we need.”
Everyone smiled.
Jared said, “Well I’ll just get my dad to make them.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Your brother was devastated to lose you. And I ran into Uncle Clyne on the train after we had the derailment. I’m sure all your family and friends would love to see you,” Jared said.
“What about you? Would you live there?”
“No. I’m all grown up, and I have a job to do. I work with the gate guardians.”
“Where’s your home base?” Fern asked.
“In Baltimore. That’s where Alana lives. Hunter and I live just down the street from her. Well, Celeste lives with her and her mother too. And Samson stays with us. Hunter and Alana can create a portal so I can return any time I want to see family.”
“It wouldn’t be enough,” Fern said. “We want to see who you meet and marry. Be grandparents. We wouldn’t want to be separated again.”
“So you’re saying you want to stay here?”
“Not here. Baltimore. I’m sure we can get jobs there, and then we’d be close by. Not to tell you what to do, but to be there for when you want to see us, or just to talk,” his dad said.
Jared smiled, looking relieved. “Okay, that sounds good. Our work takes us all over, but it would be nice to have the holidays together and visit whenever we can.”
“What about your…other parents?” his dad asked.
“Ah, I love them, but they’re absentee almost always. I’ve spent more Christmases with Hunter than anyone. Though this year, we planned to spend Christmas with Alana’s mom.”
“And Dad,” Alana said.
Hunter looked at his dad, but didn’t offer. Alana was sure he’d spend it with his other son, and his wife.
“And any time you want to return to Seplichus, you would only just let us know,” Hunter said.
“We would like to and see our families. To let them know we’ve lived here so long, and because of wanting to reconnect with Jared, we’ll stay here,” Pepe said.
“Okay, well, I can also open portals and am a gate guardian, so if you ever need me to help, just ask,” Papplios said.
“We’d like to see our family right away,” Pepe said.
Fern nodded.
“We can arrange it.”
And just like that the whole bunch made arrangements for the day, had dinner that night, and then the next morning, they flew back to Dallas. Uncle Stephen stayed there, but the rest would leave through the portal Hunter opened in his backyard.
“We’ll be back,” Alana said, giving her uncle a hug, “so I can finish school.”
He smiled at her. “Good.”
Then he shook Pepe’s hand, and smiled at Fern. Then each of them went through the swirling blue and green lights of the portal.
They were closest to Jared’s uncle’s house, so they went there first. The reunion between the brothers and Fern was heartwarming. A family celebration followed, with all of them included, since they’d been instrumental in locating Pepe and Fern.
But Alana couldn’t wait to return to her dad’s house, so she could get in touch with Celeste and see how her search was coming along. Jared was staying with his family. Hunter and his team would return, pick him and his parents up on the way back, and take them to Dallas.
As soon as they reached Pappalios’s house, Alana wanted to take off to speak to Celeste, but Hunter and Samson felt the same way.
“Tell her I hope to see her soon,” Alana’s dad said.
“We will.”
18
Celeste was worried how her friends would feel about this whole business. She was a full Camaran demon and with her sense of adventure and her future visions, she had a job already lined up. No more having to go to human school. What could she hope to do as a pretend human? Alana was the one with the good job prospect, and her mother
lived with her too. Though Celeste knew Alana and Hunter would soon be a couple, and Celeste would be alone again. After meeting Wendell, and really liking him and his parents, and them offering for her to live with them until she could locate her family, she realized she needed to stay here.
It hadn’t taken them long to locate her parents in another city. Not when the media had been sharing her news for some time: how she’d saved the life of another Camaran demon in Earth world, nearly dying for her heroics. And how she and her friends had been in the train wreck that had made international news. Her parents were certain she was their daughter and would have the DNA to prove it. She was glad for that, because she worried—what if this was just a lonely couple who wanted a daughter? Or maybe they wanted some of the fame?
Her parents had made the four-hour trip here to see her, and she had been excited and apprehensive at meeting them. What if they didn’t get along? What if they set all kinds of rules for her? She had been on her own so much, she wasn’t really ready to be told what to do.
When they arrived, her mother, because she knew she was from the minute she laid eyes on her, burst into tears and hurried to hug her, as if they had never been apart. Celeste wished she wasn’t wheelchair-bound at the moment. She knew, not only from the way her mother and she looked so similar, but she felt the familial connection right away. Her dad pulled her into a hug and the three wept, as her parents crouched on either side of her wheelchair.
Journalists had somehow learned of the meeting and flocked to capture the moment for the next news story. But she didn’t care. She wanted other demons to know, who might have lost a family member to Earth world, that they should never lose hope, no matter how long it took.
After all the years of home placements, and not ever feeling at home anywhere, then finally meeting up with Alana and her friends, and Alana’s mother taking her in, that had been the first real home she’d known.
But Pepe and Fern were her family. And here she could find more of her kind. Date. Mate. Fit in.
