“If it’s not her tripping over her own feet, she’s allergic to everything under the sun. She’s probably allergic to the sun, too! She’s left me totally without anyone again, and we’ve got about two dozen kids right now, which isn’t a great ratio even when Luna is there.”
Lily perked up. Kids? TraceyAnn continued at high volume, seemingly without a need to take a breath. Not that Rika was even going to try to get a word in there.
“And Mallory’s taking off on maternity leave soon — honestly how can you expect me to run the Staff Childcare center by myself? I need more staffing. I need people like yesterday. Get me people, Rika, stat!”
Before Lily could stop herself, she blurted, “I have a Certification Letter for Early Childhood Education.” Drat! It was in her real name.
Her face flushed, just as TraceyAnn swung around to face her, her eyes sweeping Lily up and down quickly before her voice boomed.
“Are you here for a job? I’ll take you!”
As TraceyAnn swept out, she called to the HR Director over her shoulder, “Make it happen, Rika! I have to rush back and let Luna go home. And who knows what the Terror Twins have done in the meantime, left alone with Luna!”
The door slammed shut behind her, the office feeling like the aftermath of a twister.
“Terror Twins?” Lily was the first to break the silence.
Rika gave a little laugh. “And now you’ve met our head of the Staff Childcare Center. Our employees are eligible to leave their kids there whenever they’re on the premises, even if they’re not working. It’s a huge perk that we offer. The Terror Twins are the five year old kids of one of our Staff Caff employees.”
“Staff Caff?”
“Another benefit. Full-timers have access to free meals and snacks. The owner of the Faire is extremely progressive, and honestly interested in making sure that employees are happy.”
Lily was running out of reasons to go. There had to be a down side.
“But I do have to warn you.” And there it was. Rika’s voice was still calm, as Lily braced herself for more bad news. “Part of the reason why TraceyAnn is so much in need of staffing is because there’s a high turnover among those that work for her. You can probably tell already that she can be….difficult, especially if you get on her bad side. And she doesn’t seem to have a side that isn’t bad. If you do want to work here, you don’t have to work in the Staff Childcare Center.”
Lily sighed with relief. Difficult? She could eat ‘difficult’ for breakfast. She’d lived with a psycho for the last few years of her life. Difficult would be a nice, refreshing walk in the park. “It’s synchronicity. I do need a job, and working with kids isn’t only what I’m qualified to do, but what I want to do if I can. Everything else so far sounds ideal.”
Rika smiled. “It gets even better. We’re one of the largest Medieval Festivals in the country, maybe even the biggest one, so if you wear the re-enactment clothing like you saw TraceyAnn wearing, we can have you listed as a temporary employee and entertainer. Those can work as many hours as needed and get paid in cash. We can provide the housing on the premises as I had talked about, you’d just get paid at a lower rate than if you didn’t take that option. It’s still a better deal than any of the motels nearby, if there are any rooms available since summer is the busiest time for us. Do you want to take a minute to think about it?”
Lily didn’t need a minute. It was an automatic yes, to all of the above. Wearing the costumes was a bonus, it would be one more layer of camouflage. Staying on site was a no-brainer, with her current lack of working wheels. As if she even had the money to pay for a motel longer than one night. And even food was included. All that was missing was a fresh stack of Jana DeLeon paperbacks, and for all she knew, Rika probably was about to pull that out from behind the piles of paperwork on her desk.
“Yes, of course! To the job, I mean. And everything. Thank you so much!” Lily’s babbling made Rika laugh.
The door opened as someone dressed as a knight in chainmail walked in. Rika nodded to him, and asked Lily, “You mentioned that you had a Certification Letter?”
“Yes—I’ll go get it right now.” Lily looked at the knight, and then back at Rika. “About the name on it — ”
“We’ll talk about that when you come back with the letter,” Rika said, tilting her chin at the man.
“Yes, of course.” Lily appreciated the discretion. As she rushed out, the knight started complaining loudly about there not being enough vegan options in the Staff Cafe. She couldn’t grin any wider. To end up in a place where people were complaining that the free food they got wasn’t to their exact preference—she couldn’t believe the huge turnaround in how her day, her life, was going.
She unzipped the go-bag, and for a second she freaked, thinking that she had grabbed the wrong one. But no, it was hers, with the reassuring heft of the photographs inside a paper envelope, and the larger plastic sleeve that held her Certification Letter.
The one with her real name.
She zipped the go-bag shut, and tossed it over her shoulder and reached for the small duffel bag, smiling at the lumpy shape of Mr. Calabash pushing against the thin canvas. She might as well carry both bags in, and hope that Rika made good on a place to stay.
As she approached the office, the knight who had been inside was walking out, looking decidedly calmer than he had before. He gave a courtly bow to Lily, and she smiled back before entering.
Rika was waiting for her.
“A lot of our staff are called by the names of their Medieval characters, but I’m going to need to have a copy of your ID on file, as well as verification of your credentials. All this will be kept confidential, of course.”
“Of course.” Lily pulled out her driver’s license, knowing that the fact that she had two hadn’t escaped the HR Director’s notice. She had a feeling that Rika didn’t miss much.
She handed it over, along with the Certification Letter.
“Trade you for these forms you have to fill out. Standard items, including medical conditions we need to be aware of. It all gets digitized, and only myself, the head of Operations and the Owner have access as needed.” Lily took the clipboard of forms that Rika handed her. Rika was aware of her looking at the stacks of papers on her desk.
“I usually have staff members help with the scanning, but I process confidential forms personally. Paper’s on my desk of materials that go to other staff members, like our accounting and purchasing directors.”
Lily nodded, and started filling out the top sheet as Rika scanned in the driver’s license and letter.
As Lily signed the last page, Rika handed the materials back to her. “I’ll still have to run a background check, of course, especially since you’ll be working with kids. I have to let you know that for a childcare position I’m obligated to report any irregularities I find.” Her warm brown eyes held Lily’s. “Do you still want to work in the Staff Childcare Center?”
Lily swallowed. “You won’t find any irregularities. If you found out that I was a risk—or if you found any risk to kids at all —I’d want you to report it.”
Rika nodded with approval.
“I gather you don’t want to be called by your real name, do you still want to go by ‘Lucie Swanson’?”
Lily opened her mouth to say yes, and then her eyes fell on the documents still in her hand. The Certification Letter, and driver’s license, that spelled out her full name.
Lily Katherine Cooper.
Katherine, after her mother.
Using her middle name made it less like living a lie, even temporarily. And it was a way to honor her mother, who would want this for her only daughter.
“Katherine,” she finally said. “Katie for short.”
Rika nodded. “Katie it is, then.” She pulled out a laminated map, covered with pen marks. Lily recognized the crenelated wall, the box marked X as where she was now. The HR director used a ballpoint pen as a pointer, indicating another square not t
oo far away, assuming that the map was drawn close to scale.
“This is where the Staff Childcare Center is, within eye view of where we always have security stationed,” Rika explained. “Why don’t you head over there now and meet with TraceyAnn to get the lay of the land? I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to start scheduling your shifts, and whatever time you put in tonight will be credited towards your hours.”
She was going to start making the much needed dollars towards the repair of her car!
“When I have a package all prepared for you with your housing—shared accommodations for now— and your meal card activated, it’ll be brought to you there. TraceyAnn can fill you in on where to get clothes, once you get your staff ID.”
Rika paused, looking out at the parking lot outside. “Don’t worry about leaving your car where it is. Now that you’re staff, our crack Ops team will take care of getting it towed to the auto shop that we use. As our employee, you’ll get the lowest discounted price as one of the benefits. Any questions?”
“N-no. You’ve covered everything. How can I thank you?” Lily stammered.
Rika laughed. “If you can keep TraceyAnn’s rants about Luna from turning into a nightly event, that will be thanks enough! Now, get going before another person comes in with a fire to put out.”
Lily picked up her belongings—all three bags of it, including the sad purse draped across her torso—and made her way out the door, overcome with gratitude. By her calculations, it would take her at least two months of working every shift she could get, to make the cash necessary to fix her car and leave.
As long as Rey didn’t track her down in the meantime.
Col hoped that the agreement to go “wenching” would have brought a reprieve of a few minutes, at least, but it was not to be. The Bredhren were still hyped up on adrenaline, eager to battle but with no enemy in sight. Merek and Barric were brawling again, as the next argument was over whether the wenches at the Alehouse, in the city of Gardendale, were comelier than the wenches at Ye Olde Taverne, on the Fairegrounds. And then it degenerated into how comely—or not as the case may be—were the wenches that Merek would lay with, as opposed to the ones that ended up with Barric.
Somewhere in there Aylwyn made some choice barbs about how the wenches were like “Yomama”, although Col for the life of him did not know this person whereof Aylwyn spake, or why it would vex Merek and Barric so.
Col shrugged, he had other problems to worry about. Like the fact that he actually urgently, truly wanted to go wenching. Or rather his body did. His body had been suffused with the sudden compulsion to cleave onto a female’s. He’d lain with a woman a mere week before – that should have been enough to sate those particular appetites for weeks, at least.
Unlike Aylwyn, Merek and Barric, Col had always seen these loveless couplings as more of a chore – done to ensure that his body’s needs didn’t distract him. A thousand years ago, he’d dreamed of the true joy that came only with bonding with a destined mate – a Destine. Those dreams had died when he heeded The Sorceress of Plenty’s call.
Apparently Simon had been driven out by the melee, as he was returning now through the clear sliding door with the human Waryeor, Miller, and their Vixar, Tybalt in tow.
“Waryeors!” Tybalt’s voice projected, cutting through the snarls and growling. The air around the fighting wolves blurred, before a wave of energy pushed out. Two pissed-off males in bloodied and bruised human form fell to the ground, still lunging for one another.
Col and Aylwyn quickly stepped in between them.
Tybalt looked at them, and spoke in measured tones. “Merek, channel healing energy and use it to tend to yourself and Barric.”
“As you say, so shall it be, Vixar.”
Merek was the one who was best able to use the joint group energy to heal Waryeors. The larger and more cohesive the group, the more energy that he could access. It was all the more reason that this group needed to come together, and fast. It was just bruises and abrasions today, but if —no, when—they did battle with the enemy, they would be likely to sustain more serious injuries.
Another reason why it was ironic that Barric was the one most resistant to being part of a group, given how in addition being most adept at telepathic communication in wolf form, he tended to fight as a berserker. Unable to feel pain in the heat of battle, he would rack up wounds that should have killed him.
If only, Col thought sourly.
Col did not know more of his story, as Barric was not eager to share it. He’d been asked once, by Aylwyn, in a joking tone, and the fight that ensued required so much of Merek’s healing energy that he’d been laid up for an hour.
“It is done.” Merek said, sitting back on his haunches. Aside from his long, dark wavy hair escaping the leather corded around it, he looked as if he had been at rest. Barric, too, appeared refreshed. The glower on his face was his usual demeanor.
“We must needs remember that we are Bredhren and act accordingly,” Tybalt said. “And to that end, we will go together to Ye Olde Taverne —”
“Yes!” Aylwyn fist-pumped the air.
“— and save all this fine, virile potency for the wenches.”
“Double yes!” Aylwyn grinned from ear to ear.
Merek had already re-tied his hair, and it was as if there hadn’t just been a fight between him and Barric, the two of them laughing at the latest witticism from Aylwyn.
There was hope that this rag-tag bunch could pull together into a cohesive fighting unit after all.
There was no choice; without them, humanity didn’t stand a chance when the Dark Warlord awakened.
Chapter Five
A couple of hours past dinner time at the Staff Childcare Center, the lights were dimmed throughout the large space, filled with toys and kid-sized furniture. There was a row of cots in the back of the center behind folding screens, where the young kids were sleeping until their parents came to pick them up. The Staff Childcare Center was open until midnight.
“Katie, you’re an absolute angel to come help out.” TraceyAnn was sweetness and light, the complete opposite of what she had been in Rika’s office.
“It’s my pleasure,” Lily said, in a hushed voice.
When Lily had first come into the Staff Childcare Center a little earlier, TraceyAnn had her hands full with the infamous Terror Twins.
Brady, the boy twin, had been running around with TraceyAnn waddling after him in her Medieval garb, her headdress wobbling, trying to catch him. His sister Clover had made a game out of pulling at TraceyAnn’s corset laces from behind, and running away when the woman stopped to grab at her.
It had taken Lily only a few seconds to size up the situation: the so-called Terror Twins were acting out, just like her preschoolers back home who had one parent ghosted or in jail, the other working long hours to make ends meet, with little time or money for their kids. And just like she would do with her kids, she honed in on the most active one.
And smiled.
Clover had looked at her, and Lily gestured, while lowering herself to her haunches: Come over, I want to talk to you. The little girl tentatively came over, and Lily cupped a hand to the side of her mouth.
She whispered, “You should try going for her funny hat next time.” Clover giggled.
“I can’t reach that high, silly,” she said. But she smiled at Lily. “You’re pretty.”
“So are you. I’m Katie, what’s your name?”
“I’m not s’posed to tell strangers that.” Her brother came over, TraceyAnn sprawled on a kid size chair in the distance, clearly winded with her chest heaving.
“That is super smart advice. So tell you what, I’m going to go over and ask TraceyAnn for a job here. Would you like for me to work here?”
“Yes!” The little girl exclaimed, and her brother picked up the cue. “Yes!”
“If I work here, I’m going to need someone to be my assistant. Would you guys do that for me? Be my special helpers?”
“Yes!” they both said, puffed up with the responsibility.
“OK, your first task is to take me over to TraceyAnn so I can ask her for a job. Can you do that?”
Lily felt the little girl’s hand in hers, and the little boy’s in the other. Together they walked over to TraceyAnn, the twins now purposeful.
TraceyAnn’s eyes widened as Lily approached. And she was even more impressed when the twins “helped” Lily show them how to read a bedtime story so they would fall asleep in their cots.
“I’ll place you on the schedule as much as you want,” TraceyAnn said once they were settled in. “Take as many shifts as you can stand.”
“I’m happy for the work,” Lily said, truthfully. The center opened at 8AM, and TraceyAnn would allow her to set her own meal breaks —provided that someone was on duty in the Staff Childcare Center at the time. At this rate, she’d be outtie before the summer was over, maybe even in time to find a new teaching job in San Diego, or wherever she landed.
“Ideally, it would be wonderful if you were here every time the Terror Twins were dropped off, which is practically all the time we’re open.” TraceyAnn’s grumble underscored what she thought of that.
“It’s unfortunate that Brady and Clover need to be here so much,” Lily murmured diplomatically, “but it’s really a wonderful benefit that the Faire offers.”
“Oh, Simon is amazing,” TraceyAnn said, the positivity surprising Lily. But it was followed by a more characteristic malice, as TraceyAnn lowered her bellow into a conspiratorial shout-whisper. “Those demon-spawn, however, I have half a mind to say they have behavioral issues that we can’t accommodate. It would just figure, since their father’s in jail for dealing The Rage.”
Lily immediately felt for the two kids. And felt even more validated that she did the right thing. The Rage didn’t just destroy the lives of the ones who used it. It ruined families and kids who became collateral damage.
“What does their mother do?”
Col: His Destined Mate Page 5