by C. J. Snyder
I could feel Cora come to stand behind me, just her presence made me feel better. “Well, Gage and I came across some very interesting information.” I opened the laptop again and pulled up the web browser with every single tab with information loaded on it, up.
“From what we can tell, and this is just the lore, the Hunters – or as they like to call themselves – the Guardians of Deyethra, - which stands for ‘The Earth’ are an old group of soldiers or guardians dedicated to the protection of mankind.
Snickering after I said the name out loud, “Of course they refer to themselves as GOD why doesn’t that surprise me?” There was a roundtable of sighs and eye-rolling.
Gage sat back in his chair and reached up to grab Presley’s hand, “But unfortunately that’s all we know. There’s nothing else coming up on the web anywhere. Not even in paranormal blogs.” How are they supposed to keep protect mankind, why, and from whom?
Glancing down at my smartwatch I break in before anyone else says anything, “Guys, we need to take a break from this and get some sleep.
This information leaves us with more questions than answers. Tomorrow is the wake. Let’s go into this fresh after that.” Everyone started standing up and brushing themselves off, not that they were dirty, but more of a nervous reaction.
“Oh, and Clair I want you to stay here tonight. If that witch or whatever she was, knew about you I don’t want you to be alone. You can stay in the guest room opposite Cora’s. There is safety in numbers.”
“Oh right birdman, just what I need. I think I can handle myself.”
I could tell by looking at her that she was trying to be brave and all badass, but I knew the look of fear as well. “Listen, that wasn’t a request. If I have to tie you to the bed you’ll stay. Humor me this once will ya?”
“Oh, very well. Just because you asked so nicely, I’ll stay” She grumped. With a short dip of my head, I said, “Thanks, Claire.”
Cora was watching our interaction and I was about to explain when I noticed that Chayton hadn’t come back from the library and sporting goods store yet. Pulling out my cell, I punched the picture of him saved on it to call him, “Hey Bro, you good?” he answered with an irritated huff, “Yah, man. This has been an afternoon of failure. I can’t find anything worth noting.”
“I understand man, we found what we think is a name -but it’s just showing as a legend, nothing concrete.” I could hear his sigh of frustration, “Well, that’s just great. Should I make my way back then?”
Mentally exhausted was the phrase for today and everyone was feeling it, “Yah, head back. We are done for the day.” Chayton grunted into the phone and disconnected. Tension welled up in the pit of my stomach, I needed a distraction and I knew right where to find her.
Walking over to where Cora was standing, I wrapped my arms around her middle and pulled her into my body, “Hey there sexy, why don’t we head inside?” she leaned her head back to look at my face which allowed me to wiggle my eyebrows in suggestion.
“Oh? Whatcha have in mind?” she pulled her bottom lip in under her top teeth and the tension that I felt got replaced with a flaming desire to be inside her. Turning her in my arms so she was facing me and tilting her face up so I could claim her lips; she leaned into my body and wrapped her arms tightly around my neck. Electric current raged through my body at her touch.
Deepening the kiss by running my tongue along her bottom lip and pulling it between mine, Cora moaned softly into my mouth and pushed herself tighter against me. Wanting her as close as we could get, I reached down with both hands and grabbed her ass, lifting her. Cora wrapped her long legs around me while I carried her to the backside of the house and pushed her against the outside wall. My head feels so foggy with desire, I don’t care at this point that we are outside.
Supporting her body against the side of the house, my hands roam up to the sides of her breasts. Moving from her mouth to the side of her throat, my heart has sped up and all I can hear is her breathing and throaty moans. Her legs are wrapped tightly around me with her feet pressing firmly into my ass pushing me closer – closer to losing what little control I have left around her. Nibbling on her neck, I move my hands under her shirt to touch her skin – warm, soft and jolting with my touch. What she didn’t know, was that I needed to touch her more than anything right now.
She was the anchor to my rocking world.
Cora moved against me, making me throb harder than I already was. “Oh baby, you need to stop that or I’m going to take you right here in this backyard and traumatize those garden gnomes.”
Cora giggled and wiggled harder into me. Showing her, I meant business by backing up some and slamming her into the wall, which made her moan and tosses her head back against it. Nothing else mattered except this moment, the look of desire on her face, the feel of her skin against mine, the flush in her cheeks, the – sound of crunching? Wait, what? The hell? Looking at Cora, she must have also heard it because her brows were furrowed and her mouth was turned down with the frown. Not wanting to let go at all I slowly lowered her until her feet were on the ground. Cora adjusted her clothing while I slowly turned toward the source of the sound, and there stands Chayton – eating popcorn with a silly ass grin on his face.
With a mouthful of popcorn and his eyes dancing he says, “No no, keep on going, this is like dinner and a show. I’ll be quiet; you won’t even know I’m here I promise.”
I could feel my face twist into anger, “NO!” pointing angrily toward the house, “Go inside!”
With a shrug, Chayton tossed popcorn at us and pivoted around to go into the house. Moment ruined, fuck. I turned back to Cora, “Nothing like a cock block, huh?” she smiled and walked over to tiptoe up and kiss me, “Seems to happen a lot to us, honey. We will have to go somewhere private.” I like how this woman thinks.
Taking her hand and walking her into the house and to the guest room, I planted a quick kiss on her full lips. Though I wanted to stay with her I knew instinctively it wasn’t the right time. “Good night, sexy lady.” And I walked to my room before I decided to finish what we started outside.
∆∆∆
Eight hours later
I woke up with the sun shining directly on my face, normally this would be a great start to the day. But today was Dad’s wake and I could already hear movement and sounds coming from the kitchen area. Ugh, time to get up and deal with this. Throwing on whatever clothes were the closest to me, I walked into the kitchen to find my Mom, Grandparents, and Cora sitting around the kitchen island drinking coffee and eating what looked like fresh blueberry muffins.
“Morning everyone. Cora baby.” Giving her a quick kiss on the cheek and grabbing a muffin for myself I asked, “What’s the word, birds?” Sometimes I have to chuckle at myself.
If mom would have rolled her eyes any harder, she would have given herself a convulsion, “That’s my boy, always joking.” Shrugging my shoulders as I poured coffee, “Well, Mom, someone has to.”
Taking a quick look at the time told me the wake wasn’t set to start for another hour. “Cora, join me outside for some fresh air and coffee?” I asked holding up the cup and motioning for the back porch. She excused herself and followed me out the door.
Chayton was already sitting out there with Claire when we stepped outside, “Hey bro! Bout time you two lazy asses got up.” Cora and I both shot him a glare while sitting down in the patio chairs. Taking a sip of my coffee before answering, “Guess we’re waiting on Gage and family, huh?” Chayton nodded his head and propped his feet up on an extra chair, crossing his arms behind his head, “Yah, he texted a bit ago and said they’d be here in less than thirty minutes.”
Looking over at Claire, she was on that damn cell phone again texting away. I swear it was permanently attached to her hand. But at least she looked like she got some rest “Claire, who in the world are you texting right now? New lover?”
She graced me with a smile that showed her cat fangs, it was menacing, to say the
least, “Wouldn’t you like to know.” Yes, asshole, that’s why I asked. Had to remind myself to be nice, Kangee, everyone is on edge. “Please try to not have an attitude, Claire. Everyone is on edge; we get that you are also stressed out. I was just trying to make conversation.”
She let out an audible sigh and placed the phone on the table, “There are things I am not ready to talk about yet. When and IF I feel like I want to share, I will. Fair enough?” She looked around the table at the entire group, they all looked around and nodded. She was a complicated one, that Claire. I feel bad for whoever falls in love with her if that ever happens.
It wasn’t long after that, that Gage and his family showed up. Gage, his Dad, and Presley met us out back while his mom joined mine in the kitchen. Gage’s dad is a clan leader for the Wolf clans in the tri-county area. The look on his face told me that he had been filled in on everything that has gone on in the past week or so.
“Gage tells me that we have a serious problem on our hands,” he says as he grabs a folding chair and sets it by the table with the rest of us. “What can I do to help?” I make sure everyone is situated before going over every detail that we knew, from Chayton’s attack to the Wiccan shop to what little we found on the internet.
Gage’s dad sits back as far as he can in the folding chair and crosses his muscular arms over his chest in contemplation, “So, what your saying is, we have a bunch of highly trained, possibly magic-wielding humans hunting us.” At our nods he continues, “We have a possible name for the group but it’s only coming from a lore page and it’s not concrete.” Another nod from the group as a whole.
“There’s a ‘Witch’ at the local Wiccan shop who may or may not be involved, and nothing is registering at the local library even in the paranormal and supernatural sections.” A final nod from the group.
Gage’s dad looked concerned and contemplative at the same time.
“The name of the group sounds ancient.
With today’s technology, there is no way you shouldn’t be finding something. Either it truly is a legend or someone has worked very hard to keep them a secret. “I have some connections. I’ll make some calls after the wake; let me see what I can dig up. In the meantime, the elders are going to want to know all of this and I’m happy to help you guys explain it.”
The group breathed out a sigh of relief almost in sync. Standing up to stretch out, I walked over to the kitchen door to peek in to see how many others had arrived. “It looks like almost everyone else is here. Guess we should go inside and get this started.”
Having said that I felt such a loss it nearly took me to my knees. Gage’s dad wrapped his arm around my shoulder as if he were giving me comfort when in reality he was holding me up. I looked at him gratefully and he only nodded saying quietly, “We’re all family, son. You’re not alone in this.”
With heavy hearts and very worried thoughts, everyone got up and walked into the kitchen. Laying a parent to rest is hard enough, having to do it with a potential bullseye on your back was a whole other story. Gage’s dad let me go as we entered the kitchen so he wouldn’t draw any unwanted pity. Just as if he knew what I was feeling.
Wrapping an arm around Cora as she stepped near, we joined the rest of the family and clan to remember my father and the man he was.
∆∆∆
Chapter 17
Cora
The wake was beautiful; so many stories were told about Kangee’s dad that I wish I would have been able to meet the man. The food that was cooked and donated was good enough that all of us had to go and switch into more comfortable waistbands toward the end, which made for a good laugh.
Watching Kangee with his elders was mesmerizing, he reminded me of a soldier in the military, standing at parade rest and bowing his head to them when they talked. I knew they were asking a lot of questions and by the way, their faces scrunched up into frowns and concerned looks; I also knew they were not happy with what little we knew.
Walking back over to where Kangee stood I looped my arm through his and introduced myself.
“Hello, I’m Cora. Thank you all for allowing me to be a part of this wake and now to know about your world.”
“It seems like we are getting more and more human females nowadays,” one elder by the name of Alan responded, “I guess I should be thanking you for not giving our Kangee here a hard time.”
Laughing I said, “Oh, I never said I didn’t give him a hard time.” The elder chuckled and I gave him a small wink before excusing myself to where Presley was standing. Leaning in close to Pres I whispered, “How much do you know about Gage’s dad and the other clans?” She leaned her head closer to mine to whisper.
“I know he’s a high-ranking leader in this area and the two surrounding areas, and other clans come to him for advice and decision making on important matters, but I had no clue that there were shifters outside the United States.”
That concerned me. If there were shifters all over the world, who’s to say that these hunters also aren’t all over the world and ancient as the web blogs were stating. There’s always some truth to legends.
Claire was pacing back and forth between the opened front door and the window, looking nervous and fiddling with her phone. Deciding to make sure she was ok, I walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder causing her to jump, startled.
“Damn it, Cora. Don’t. Do. That.” Followed by a narrowed eye glare, “What? What do you want?” Man, she was touchy.
“Just saw you pacing and I wanted to make sure you were mentally okay.” I reached out to touch her shoulder again but thought better of it when my arm was halfway up.
“I’ll be fine, but there’s someone who looks suspicious standing around outside the house but won’t’ come any closer, he has me concerned.” She pointed out the window to what looked like a teenage boy around the age of sixteen.
He was wearing the same type of clothing that Chayton described; black cargo pants and a black hoodie.
The boy was standing at the end of the driveway with one hand deep in his pocket and the other on a cell phone watching for it to make a sound. This couldn’t be good.
Grabbing my shoes, “You stay here. I’m going to walk out and just ask if I could help him with something.” Claire’s eyes went wide and she started to shake her head. I held up a hand to stop her from telling me to not go, “Remember the walk to the Wicca shop?” then at her nod, “You know I can handle myself.” another slight nod, “Besides I’m human and you’re not.
They are looking for shifters, which you are, I’ll be fine. Keep watch from here.”
Going outside and walking casually down to where the teen was standing and trying to be as calm and non-threatening as I could be, I asked. “Hi. You lost?
Can I help in any way?”
He jumped and immediately took out an earbud from his ears, “Um, no ma’am. I am waiting on a friend, but she said she’d be around this area for a small family get together. I was just trying to see if I could find her and surprise her there.”
He wasn’t very good at lying, his eyes were wide and darting between me and the house, he kept wiping his palms against his pants. And I could feel his nervousness.
“It looked like this house had a party going, so I was trying to call and text her to see if I was in the right location.” More shifting around.
Putting both of my hands flat on my hips, in case I had to make a quick move to subdue him I said calmly, “This isn’t a party, it’s a wake. I’m sure the person you’re looking for, isn’t here.”
He raised his left hand to his hair and ran it through it in frustration, looked down at his phone and then placed it into his pocket, “I understand, I’m sorry to bother you. I’m going to go now.” With that, he turned away from me and started to walk down the street.
I kept an eye on him until he was out of sight and I knew that he wasn’t going to dip behind a tree and come back around. He was up to something. Turning around myself I headed back into t
he house and filled Claire in on what was said.
“Well, he looked the part. I was nervous when I came out and is a very bad liar. But I made sure he walked out of sight and didn’t try to double back.”
It looked like Claire relaxed a little, her shoulders sagged and her face wasn’t as pinched.
“All the same, Cora, I’m going to stand guard just to make sure,” she said resuming her pacing between the front door and the window.
Not wanting to upset Kangee or his family any more than they already were, I decided to keep the incident with the boy between myself and Claire. No sense in stirring the pot when there isn’t any reason to. Glancing back over at Claire and then back outside to make sure the boy stayed gone, I walked back into the living room with the rest of the crew.
