Noah: House of Wilkshire ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  Chapter 12

  Devon sat at the desk. He’d never had the ambition to be any sort of political member, but he could see that Noah would make a good one. He was just the right kind of person to make a difference in this town. And this one needed someone to start helping them out.

  He’d gotten the pictures of the old school just this morning before leaving his home. No one had come to him about it—he wasn’t really sure why. Devon thought that a great many people thought him to be like his father had been. But he’d taken great strides in trying to be his own man, and nothing like the bastard that had sired him. If not for him, Devon knew that his mother would still be alive.

  But he had his grandmother, mother to his mother, and she told him stories all the time about Mom when she’d been a child. And the antics that she pulled would have surely gotten him killed had he tried that with his sire.

  Devon never called him Father. He either referred to him as his sire or the bastard. Both were true. Devon had never hated anyone as much as he had his father and killing him that day was the best thing he could have done for a great many people. Especially for himself and his grandma.

  “You should have a party.” He looked at Bryce and wondered if she could read his mind and asked her. “I doubt I’d be allowed in your mind, but no, not this time. I was thinking about the school. And the people around here. I’m sure that you would have gone out of your way to make sure they had everything that they needed, and then some.”

  “Yes. I have a great deal of time and funds to do a lot for a lot of deserving people.” She told him that she and Noah did now as well. “I heard. My faerie has been here since my family first built my home. Snow and mine are very good friends. I believe they are from the same spring time harvesting.”

  “I was told that. I think the queen might have told me, or Snow. Anyway, I bet that not many people are aware that faeries are born with the first blooming of the flowers. And that the ones that aren’t collected, they become fully grown as faeries that can be in the human world. But they have to be either or. They cannot switch once they chose to be in either world.” She grinned at him. “Back to this party. Not so much a party, but a feast of the fall. Witches celebrate every season at some point or another, but the fall one, All Hallows Eve, is our favorite. You should have a fall festival. That way everyone gets to know that while you can be a bad ass, you’re usually a nice all-around guy. Noah is hoping that with him being mayor, if he gets the job, he’ll show people that even though he’s a dragon, he’s a nice guy too.”

  “Believe it or not, Kelly was just saying that we needed to do something. I showed her the pictures that you sent me. Thank you for that, by the way. And the faeries, they were so happy to have some hand in helping too.” She nodded and asked him if he’d seen the new grade school. “No, but that’s a splendid idea.”

  “I’m sorry. Did I miss something here? I only asked if you’d seen the new school.” Devon nodded. “Noah does that too. Doesn’t answer me, thinking that I’ll understand. Do you want me to hurt you? I can, just so you know. Not kill, I’d never do that, but I can hurt you a great deal.”

  “Nay, you love me too much to harm me. Remember, I’m a nice guy too.” She snorted, and he laughed, making them the center of attention. Waiting until they were back to what they had been doing, he continued. “What I meant was, a grand opening of the new school. Have a feast in the new digs, and perhaps sell some crafts. The locals would love that too. And, the kitchen will get a nice run for its money. And I’m very happy that they won’t have to cart in meals anymore. I heard that some of it, while nutritious, wasn’t all that hot or cold when it should have been.”

  “Yes, I heard that too. I think that’s a splendid idea. And with the interviews going on with the new teachers, we might be able to have a couple of the rooms set up and have a get to know the teachers thing. Also, you know, I’m sure that they’ve found a new principal for the high school and the grade school. The middle school one decided to stay on. And Noah approved it after they did a very deep background check on him.”

  They talked about different things that were going on around town. A couple of them he was going to see about taking care of in his own little place. The two towns were reasonably far apart, about twenty miles, so doubling up on some of the things going on around here was going to be all right.

  “I had a phone call the other day. I haven’t any idea why they thought to call me, but they were asking if you had opened up shop here. I didn’t know what they meant. So, in my way of making sure that your privacy is kept, I told them to fuck off.” They laughed again, and he decided that he really enjoyed this woman’s company. Kelly and her were a great deal alike. He asked her what it meant.

  “I’m a witch. And now the grand witch. Because they didn’t have any idea who you might be—though why they’d call you I don’t know either—they wanted to know if I had set up a council. I’m not, in the event you ask. There doesn’t need to be three anymore, as I’m the only person that can pass judgment on witches and warlocks.” She looked at him then. “I need to rent—and I really do mean rent—a building from you for court. You have to rent it to me, because if you ever have to be before me, if you know any witches, then they cannot say that you have been paying me off. I doubt that would ever happen. But that’s one of the rules that we have.”

  “All right. I can do that. Why my town? Wait—because it’s supposed to be neutral, correct?” She nodded. “Is this going to be hard on you, Bryce? Passing judgement on others of your kind?”

  “I don’t think so. I mean, it might be if I know the person well, but I’d like to think of myself as being a fair-minded person. Someone that likes rules for what they are but doesn’t have any trouble bending them if it calls for that too. Just not to the breaking point.” He agreed with her. “That’s not to say that I won’t have trouble, however. There are people out there, like I thought you were, that think rules are made and they’re never to be broken. But I have since changed my mind about you. You really are one of the good guys, Devon. A person that can be trusted and trusts easily. But once that trust is taken away, it’s not something that you’d give again.”

  “My sire. I think you’ve heard about him.” She nodded, and he did as well. “It would be difficult not to have heard of him. He was a bastard and a cruel thing. Not a man. He could never have been considered a man, good or bad. He was just evil.”

  “Did you really knock him down the stairs and wait until you were sure he was dead before you called for help?” He nodded, afraid that she’d judge him for that. “Good for you. I think I might have done it long before you did, but you did have other people that were depending on you. Also, before I forget again, you grandmother, a wonderful person by the way, is with my mom and grandmother planning mine and Noah’s wedding. I’d be honored if you could give me away, since I have no one that I like enough to ask. Other than you.”

  With that, she got up and walked away. Devon sat there for several minutes, his mind as blank as his calendar for the day. When the sitting mayor came into the room, he was on the floor and screaming about his rights before Devon was able to get up and move. He felt like he’d just been given the greatest honor someone could bestow on him—to walk his friend’s bride down the aisle.

  “I would like to know the meaning of this.” The agents, all of them in flack jackets, just kept reading him his rights. “I know damn well what my rights are, and— What the fuck is she doing here? If this is about that meeting, we have rules and she simply wasn’t willing to abide by them. My word is law, and she just acted like it was all about her and some damned playground for the kids.”

  “About those kids; what happened to the money that had been earmarked for the new schools, the better busses, as well as the elderly home having heat and air? Also, the food is subpar, and the—” Mayor Fritzburg cut Noah off, telling him that the funding had gone to new roads and newer parking meters along Main Street. “Really? The ro
ads are in worse shape than they were before my parents passed away. There aren’t any parking meters on the main street or anywhere else in this town. Try again. Or should I just tell you? You have a nice boat that you bought. Also, a very lovely home that…well, I should say that you used the money to have those things.”

  “What the fuck does that mean? I bought that with my own money. I have all the receipts at home for everything I bought.” Noah told Fritzburg that would certainly make it easier to figure out how much he owed the city. “I don’t owe them a fucking thing. They paid me to take care of them, and I did a fine job of it. At least up until you and that woman showed up. Now I have people coming out of the woodwork asking about this or that thing that I promised to get done. I did what I could for the ungrateful people around here. They should have taken care that they had those things in the first place. Besides, what do you think is going to happen now, boy? You think that just because I supposedly took a little here and there that anyone is going to care?”

  “I would. And I do care. My children will be attending those schools that you neglected. Did you know that there is only one working bathroom in the place?” He said that the boys could use the trees, that’s what he’d done as a boy. “And I guess that in the winter months, that’d be fine with you if they were to get sick and not able to attend.”

  “You let me out of this, Farley, and I’ll make sure you can use my boat whenever you and the missus want. Also, there isn’t any reason for this to get out. I’ll be a better person about the money. Might even be able to work around a way to pay a part of it back. Not too much of it though. I have needs too. And that is the fault of the city too. Should have paid me more if they wanted someone honest in the position. I’m not admitting to a damned thing, but that’s the way I’d be thinking.”

  “Oh, I think I might have forgotten to mention something. You were warned, I know, that the agents here are recording everything that happens, but the news people are also here. Several of them from all over the United States. You did a number of murders there as well. My lovely missus, as you called her, thought it would be a grand idea to have someone here that would be witness to your comeuppance.” Fritzburg looked around, then back at Noah. Even from where he stood, Devon could see the anger on his face. “Want to wave at your taxpayers, Fritzburg? I’m sure that they’ll have plenty of good things to say to you if they get to see you.”

  Devon was positive that the former mayor was making a few of the curse words up as he went along. And when he was pulled up from the floor, he was shackled at his ankles as well as his wrists. Devon was going to have to see if Kelly had heard of a twittering food trough mage detector before. And of all the things he was spewing, his favorite might have been an animal-fondling clusterfuck infidel.

  As Fritzburg was being taken off to jail, Noah was sworn in as temporary mayor. There would be a vote in a few months, but by then not only would the town be in much better shape, but he was sure that Noah and Bryce would have met every person in town to find out what they needed in the way of improving the city.

  Devon was glad that he’d gotten to witness both events. The arrest of a terrible man and the swearing in of a good friend and ally. Noah and Bryce would do great things, and he was going to have to make them let him help. Laughing, he made his way to his car. It was time to get a start on a few of the things that Bryce and he had talked about.

  ~*~

  Noah had the entire office that he was to use cleared out. He wanted nothing from the other man even to be near him. All of it was donated to the local shelter, where their next project was going to be starting. He was just getting the floor measured for his desk when Snow joined him.

  “We have a gift for you, my lord. All the faeries have gotten together to make you this.” He thanked her and told her that it wasn’t necessary. “But it is. You know the faeries and know what we need. You will not destroy our gardens in the name of a parking lot.”

  “He was going to do that?” She nodded. “Yes, well, I won’t. We need more beauty in the world and less concrete. It has its uses, and I couldn’t be in a home that hasn’t used it in some way. But just to be tearing something up to replace it with the hardness of that is just ludicrous. What is the gift?”

  He really loved giving gifts. Christmas was, to him, a time of the year where he could really go overboard. Not that he didn’t year-round, but he knew that their first Christmas together, he was going to have so much fun buying for Bryce and his new family.

  The money that he’d be making as mayor would be for extras. Going on a vacation. Out to dinner. They had enough now that he had the stash, and Snow had assured him that he could use as much as he wanted now that he’d fulfilled the agreement that he’d had with the stone. That had startled him the most.

  The mountain had known of the troubles. Not only that, but with all the things going wrong in town, no one had come out to see him, hike on his walls, smell the pretty flowers, or view the trees. It had made him stronger, this love the people had for him. But when hard times had come along, people were working more and getting out to do fun things less. He wanted the promise of the things he held so that he could be just as healthy as the town would be for it.

  “You must stand back, my lord. If you are in the way, you may be harmed.” He asked what she was doing. “You will see. It is the most wonderful gift I have had a part of giving to someone. And you deserve it, and so much more.”

  The room tightened, and he felt slightly sick as he sat in the window box of his office, a place he had planned to fill with herbs and plants. Noah closed his eyes against the fast-moving things in the room. Bright lights were there too, so bright that even with his eyes closed and his head buried between his knees, he could still see it.

  “My lord, you can look now.”

  Noah slowly raised his head and opened one eye. He still didn’t feel well, and when he saw the room, he nearly leapt out of the window seat and onto the desk that was sitting in his office.

  It was perhaps the most beautiful thing he’d ever laid eyes on. Every piece of wood was of a different type of tree. He couldn’t name them all, but he did recognize birch, as well as oak and pine. Running his hand over the wonderfully smooth surface, he marveled at the size, the pattern that had been inlaid on the top, as well as the pulls on the draws, also wooden. Sitting down, he looked around the rest of the room.

  There was a filing cabinet in one corner, made the same way, which shone beautifully in the sunlight. There was also a flat credenza that was covered in a thick piece of glass—he supposed for plants and such. While he was looking around, he could see that he had a new braided rug, just like the one that was in their bedroom at home. And turning when Snow asked him to, he saw that they’d made him blinds. They too were made of different types of wood that reflected his tastes more than he’d thought possible. Even the place where he’d been sitting, the window box, was now covered in the same style of wood.

  “This is too much.” Snow told him that it would never be enough for him. “I just don’t know what to say. I love it. Every single piece that has been made for me.”

  “Pull out the top drawer and looked at the bottom piece.” He pulled the door open and wasn’t surprised when it slid out easily. “See the hand prints? Those are from every one of the faeries and brownies that helped make this for you. The other drawers have the same markings too. There were too many to simply put on one piece of wood.”

  Running his fingers over the tiny hand prints, he wondered aloud how they’d put them there. She told him that they had used the juices of the different trees to stain the wood, and that after it was finished, they were there for him to see. Looking closer, he could see their marks alongside their names. It was in their language, but he could read it as well as any book on the shelves at home.

  Bryce joined them a few minutes later. She too had a gift for him, but she said that it was nothing compared to the furniture. Pulling her to his lap, he held her while he pu
lled the tissue paper from the bag. It was his name, proclaiming him as mayor, on a piece of fine oak. The other gifts, she told him, were from her mom and grandmother.

  The desk set too was made of wood and looked as right as rain sitting on the desk. He thanked the faeries for what they had done before they left them and told them that he wasn’t going to place any concrete where it wasn’t necessary. And as far as he was concerned, the only place the stuff should be used was houses, parking lots that were necessary for a business, and headstones. And if anyone said any differently, they’d need the latter of the three for themselves.

  Bryce helped him hang the pictures that he’d brought from home. One of them was a painting of his parents, the other of the castle. He knew the artist that had done them for him and doubted that many would believe who it was. So, saying nothing, he smiled when stepping back to look at them there.

  “I have had the faeries bring two of the eggs to the house.” He asked her which two. “Like I’m supposed to know that. A yellow one and a dark blue, almost black one. I suppose you know what sort of dragons we’ll get from them.”

  “I do for the yellow one. She’ll be a smaller dragon, not much bigger than a full-grown horse. And she’ll be a family dragon, which means just what you think—it can breed. Also, and this is something you should know—dragons aren’t born a sex. They adapt to whatever is necessary in the area that they are in. So, our dragons will more than likely be females, until such a time as a few others come to find them.” She asked how that worked. “When there are a few dragons around, they sort of call to each other. Not when they’re older, but young ones, less than two hundred years old.”

  “Yes, well, to me that’s not so terribly young. And the darker one. How do we tell what it’s going to be?” He said that Snow more than likely knew, or William. “I’ll ask them when we get back to the house. There is a child at the hospital in town. Her parents were drug addicts, and she’s been fighting off the drugs since she was born a few weeks ago. The doctor that called told me that she’ll have some issues, but not too many, and none too severe. I’d like to take her in.”