“Nay. I will not return if you were to allow me to go. I promise you this on my heart.” Piper laughed, and the troll looked at her. “What do you find so funny? You are nothing more than a woman who steals the rides of my men.”
Piper slid from Avalanche’s back to stand before the creature. He took a step back when she put her hand out to touch him. Fear was palpable from him. When Piper touched only her fingers to his chest, the creature screamed out. Whether from pain or from fear, Fisher didn’t know, but when she stepped back, she looked at him.
“The queen said the creatures the troll harmed the most should be the ones to destroy him. His death will not be quick. However, it would satisfy so many for it to be done by the ones he harmed in his pursuit to come here and take the castle.” He asked her who that was, and when she looked at Avalanche, he knew. “He and his family. They have suffered the most, Fisher. His mate and their child have been killed to make him bring his team to heel. They have paid the ultimate price.”
“All right, then, that is what we’ll allow.” The troll begged once again as he was lifted into the air by the rest of the horses. Fisher noticed that Avalanche stayed with them. “You have the permission of the queen to do with him as you wish.”
I do. And it means a great deal to me. However, I have pledged myself to your mate, and that alone is payment enough for what he has done to me and my kind.
Nodding once, Fisher turned away from him. Looking at the castle, he saw Aurora there. Her smile was contagious, and he returned his own back to her. When he was standing before her, she put her hand on his cheek.
“You’re not asleep, Fisher. You’re here, in my land, defending my castle as you were meant to do.” He looked around, then back at her, smiling. “You still do not believe me? When I tell you that you have won a great battle today for all mankind?”
“This is a dream.” She shook her head and looked to his right. Piper was there, grinning at him. “It is a dream, right? I mean, I’ve fought wars such as this before. It’s a dream. Tell me I didn’t just threaten a troll with nothing more than a sword in my hand.”
“You did it quite well if you ask me.” Shaking his head, he asked Piper again if she was here in his dream. “No, moron, you’re here. With me. If this were a dream, could I hurt you like this?”
The pinch to his nose was painful, but he didn’t wake up. Still standing in front of the queen, he rubbed at the pain as he tried to take in what he’d done. Looking back, the dead were being pulled into the earth, their bodies going a long way in helping the earth recover from so much blood.
“I’m here. I’m really here defending your castle. No way.” Piper smacked him on the forehead. “I don’t understand it. Why do I feel as if I’m dreaming? There has to be a reason for me feeling so confident and strong. Don’t you think?”
“You are strong, Fisher. Bigger than your brothers. Stronger than all of them together now. You needed to be, to be there when I call upon you.” He looked behind him again as Aurora continued. “What do I have to do to convince you that you’ve just saved my kingdom?”
He didn’t know, but he was no longer sure he’d been dreaming. Fisher looked down at his hand. The wound there was healed, but the scarring, something he’d never had before, was still there—in the shape of a horse. Looking at Avalanche, he realized he had saved him by touching his blood—his blood, not magic—to the forehead of a horse. Fisher dropped to the ground. His legs were trembling hard enough that he was sure everyone could hear his knees knocking together.
“Now, what is upsetting you? Do you need a nap? Or a binky?” He looked up at Piper and thought for sure she was having entirely too much fun at his expense. “Why on earth did you think this was a dream in the first place? I mean, really?”
“How did I get here? I just seemed to wake up here. Also, I don’t remember dressing in my armor. Tell me when I did that?” When Piper looked at Aurora, he did as well. “The sword. It was a gift from you. I knew that, but I have no memory of you handing it to me. What would you think if that happened to you?”
“You’re right. I would be confused.” Aurora snapped her fingers, and they were in the castle. He was dressed in his usual mode of dress—jeans, a T-shirt, and socks. No shoes if he was in the house, which is where he thought he had been. “I summoned you. That is how you came here. As for your armor, it is forever on you so that at a moment’s notice, such as today, I can call to you, and you won’t be hampered by getting dressed. It isn’t seen by anyone until you need it. The same with Piper, who is taking this a great deal better than you are, Fisher.”
He looked at his mate and pulled her into his lap. The security of having her near him was making him feel less stupid about this entire thing. Fisher told her he was sorry, then did the same to the queen.
“You have no reason to be sorry, Fisher. We won the battle. You were brilliant out there.” Piper kissed him on the nose. “Next time we get called out, I’m going to make sure you know you’re awake. Or perhaps not. You were very brave, thinking you were asleep. I might keep you that way when a heavy decision needs to be made.”
Piper was still giggling when she sat down on the chair again. There was a plate of cookies near her, as well as a tall glass of what looked like orange juice. He took one of her cookies and moaned at the taste.
“They’re pineapple crunch cookies. Are they not the best?” Fisher agreed with Aurora as a plate of the same cookies appeared next to him. A glass of the drink too. “That is pineapple orange juice. I saw it in a store once and couldn’t get enough of it. So I’m having the cook experiment with different flavors of fruit together. Are you all right now, Fisher?”
“I am. I’m sorry for the way I acted.” He still wasn’t sure about a couple of things, but let them go. “I don’t think it will be that easy again, will it? I mean, the troll was easy to defeat. Will it always be that way, you think?”
“I think for the first time in many years people will think twice about coming here to take my castle. It’s important for all creatures, in this land and yours, to be able to come here as a safe haven. Today you took on a troll that has been giving me trouble for a very long time. I think, as I said before, this will make people think twice before they think to take what does not belong to them.” Fisher told her he was glad for that. “As am I. You have done me a great service, Fisher and Piper. You will be rewarded nicely.”
Before he could tell her that it wasn’t necessary, he found himself in his room in bed. Sitting up, he looked around. So it had been a dream, he told himself. Then he looked at his hand. The horse there, the beautiful white Avalanche, winked back at him.
~*~
Louis sat in the chair that had been provided to him and waited. Like he had a choice in the matter. He’d been looking for Mary when a cruiser stopped him from crossing the street and asked him who he was. Lying to them didn’t get him anything but cuffed up the side of the head. When he was tossed in the backseat of the cruiser, he was glad the air had been turned all the way up. He’d been sweating like a pig.
Now he was in a building he didn’t know, sitting in an office of someone he also didn’t know, waiting for someone to tell him what the hell was going on. Louis stood up to pound on the door again when it was opened, and his wife stood there.
“What are you doing here?” She didn’t speak but entered the room and sat down. Rachel came in a few seconds later and sat as well. “Are you going to speak to me, Bonny? Or you, Rachel? Are you the reason I was picked up like a common criminal?”
“You’re never common anything, Louis. Sit down and shut up.” He was surprised by Bonny’s tone. She never said a word to him that had any kind of heat to it. But he did sit down when she told him to the second time. “No, I’m not the reason you were brought here. I’m glad they found you, but I didn’t do it. Some very wealthy and strong armed people did it.”
“So you ju
st hopped in the car and came here because they told you to? I can’t even get you to make my favorite dinner. How did they do that?” He was going for a joke, but she glared at him. “Tell me what you know, and perhaps we can get this over with instead of sitting here snipping at each other.”
“I was asked, politely, I might add, to come here to finish this with you. A private plane picked me and Rachel up and flew us here yesterday. We were given a nice room at a lovely hotel and then taken to dinner. You’ve not done that for me in a very long time. Now, I understand why.” He asked her why she’d not called him to have him come and stay with her and his daughter. “Because, Louis, you weren’t even a thought in my head when they told us you were here with Mary. These people were as kind to us as anyone has ever been, and when they told us what you’d done, divorcing you was a no brainer.”
“Divorcing me? No. Why would you want to do that?” She told him what she’d found out. “I have it all figured out. As soon as I get the insurance money from Mom, it’ll pay it all off, and we’ll be on easy street. You know I’m like a cat. That I’m always landing on my feet.”
“This time, you landed yourself into jail. How could you do this to our daughter, Louis? Steal her money? She worked hard in winning that money, and you pissed it away because of one scheme after another. And there is no money from your mother’s estate. She was broke. Dead broke, and might well have lived longer had you and that nutball of a sister of yours helped poor Piper out when she asked for it. Your own mother, Louis. You left her to die like she was nothing to you.” He started telling her there was money. “No. I’ve seen what Piper spent of her own money to keep your mother in medications. The list of things they had to do to even make a payment on the funeral was more than they had. The insurance money? The one you’ve been trying to get? It went for paying for her funeral, and that of your father. You left them with nothing. And that is what you’re getting. Nothing.”
“Who told you that? Piper? I know for a fact there is—” The paperwork she tossed at him was written in his sister’s pen. He knew it was hers too. The girl wrote like there was going to be a grade on anything that she put to paper. “Where did you get this? From her again?”
“The lawyer that came to see us. Not only did he show us every little thing that was purchased, but he also was kind enough to tell us about the money your mother put into an account when you were a child. Enough money, thankfully, to get Rachel and I out of the poor house and pay the back taxes you were supposed to have paid.”
“Good old Mom is going to save me.” He put out his hand. “Tell me how much it is, Bonny, and I’ll make sure it gets into the right hands. You might well have saved me from prison right now. Honey, we’re going to be on easy street after this. I’m going to put the money to good use, I promise you.”
“I’m not going to give you anything.” He told her it was his. That his mom had saved it. “I don’t care if God himself put that money in an account for you. You’re not going to need it where you’re going. Prison. Right where you belong.”
He couldn’t believe his wife was speaking to him this way. It was like she was an entirely different person. There was no reasoning with her like this. Louis turned to his daughter, the light of his life right now.
“Don’t bother, Father. I’m finished with you too. Had it not been for Aunt Piper, Peter and I would be screwed in being able to go to college. She and her new husband have paid our way into the dorms, as well as given us each enough money to pay our tuition and books for the next four years. Longer if we need it.” Louis told her that was why he needed the money, he wanted to put her on easy street too. “Sure, you do. I was already on easy street, as you call it, but you fucked that up for me when you decided my education wasn’t as important to you as the next deal. As I said, I’m done with you. Don’t expect me to feel sorry for you or to help you in any way. You’re a terrible father, and always have been.”
“That’s not fair. How did you come up with me not being a good father to you?” She sent her own paper toward him. On it was a list of money that he’d borrowed from her. Birthday money, Christmases when they’d been so broke they couldn’t even have a nice meal. There were a lot of them too. “This is what a family does, Rachel. They support each other and their dreams.”
“My dream was for you to pay me back when you took my money. My dream was for me to go to college to become a good attorney so that I could see you put in prison for the way you treated us. Not to mention how you treated Grandma and Grandpa. They were so ill, and you left them to die. Aunt Piper is the only one in your family that never gave up on them.” Rachel stood up. “I will see you in hell before I have anything to do with you again. You have taken and taken my entire life, and I’m finished with having to watch as you destroy Mom too.”
He looked at his wife when Rachel left them there. She was crying, and he didn’t understand what she had to be so upset about. Rachel had yelled at him, not her. He finally couldn’t take it anymore and slammed his hands on the table.
“Straighten up and wipe those tears away. What is going on here? Why am I the bad guy in all this?” Louis shook his head. “You had a roof over your head, didn’t you? A car to drive around. All that was because of me.”
“I had a job that I didn’t tell you about. I worked every day at a shit job so we could eat and have a car to drive.” He asked her why she’d had to hide it from him. That he could have used that money. “Because you would have taken it. The very food from our mouths to feed this insane idea you have that scamming people is the only way to make it. Well, it’s not. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had a bill collector come by the house to shut off something? Weekly. It was always about you, Louis. About the next big scam. The one that was going to make you rich. Would it have ever been enough, had you followed through on any of them?”
“There are people like me all over the world, making money at some of the things I was trying. I just don’t understand why you felt you had to have all the money you made. You didn’t treat me well, Bonny. I hope you understand that. I’m ashamed to call you my partner in life for not giving me money when I needed it.” She stood up. “Where are you going? I don’t have a pot to piss in here. You’ll have to give it to me now, or I’ll be living on the streets. You don’t want that, do you? I’m your husband.”
“You were my husband, Louis. I filed for divorce and was granted it when the judge heard what sort of person you are. As for you living on the streets? I want you to think about what would have happened to me and your daughter had I not gotten my ass out there and gotten a job. Would it have been all right for us to have been in the same predicament?” He told her it wasn’t the same. “Of course you’d say that, wouldn’t you? It’s all about you.”
When she left him there, he decided to go and get her. She had to have some money on her. Enough for him to fund an idea he had in his head. Before he could get to the door, a well dressed man and three officers came into the room with him. He was told to sit and to shut up for the second time today.
“Now see here. I don’t know what’s going on here, but my wife and I need to finish our conversation. She’s trying to take the money that my mom left me.” The man in the suit introduced himself as Federal Agent Mick Banks. “So? I don’t care who you are. I have things to do.”
“I’m afraid you’re not going to be able to do that, Mr. James. You’re under arrest.” He was read his rights then told what he was being taken in for. The list was longer than he thought it should be. When cuffs were put on him, the agent spoke again. “You’re going to be taken to the jail for the next several days, then you will be moved back to Nevada where you’re going to be facing charges. Do you have any questions?”
“I have plenty. What’s the bail going to be? You’ll have to go find my wife. She’s taken all my money. Whatever it is, you tell her she has to pay it. I don’t want to go to prison anywhere.” Th
e cops laughed, and he tried to think what they might have thought was so funny. As he was being dragged to the elevator, he saw his sister, Mary. “They’re arresting me, Mary. You have to do something. I don’t want to go to prison. Bonny took all my money. You need to see if—”
“What the hell do you expect me to do for you, Louis? In the event you didn’t notice, I’m being arrested too. My own husband called the cops on me. My own fucking husband did this.” She struggled with the police for a moment before she turned back to him. “Yeah, I had some money too, but it’s going to Paddy. For his hardship of being married to me. I’m going to show him what hardship is as soon as I’m out of here.”
He was shoved into an elevator before he could talk to his sister any more. Once the doors opened, he was taken to another room and told to behave. Like he was five years old or something. Mary was brought in a few minutes later, but whenever he started to talk to her, he was told to keep his mouth shut. What was wrong with people today? No one seemed to have the slightest bit of manners.
“What are we doing in here? Do you have another revelation to tell us about money that we can’t have? Have you, by chance, figured out that we’re the victims in all this? That we’ve been screwed over by our own flipping family? This is bullshit.” He watched as the door opened and a man walked in straightening his tie. “What is he going to tell us? That we’re aliens from a different world, and we’re screwed?”
“My name is Fisher Prince.” An incredibly beautiful woman came in and sat down. He didn’t know who she was, but Louis wanted to get to know her. “Hey, moron. That’s your sister. My wife.”
Louis looked at the woman, then back at the man. When he nodded, Louis stared hard at the woman. Jesus H. Christ, she looked just like their mother had when she was younger. Except for the white streak of hair, she could have been her double. Then it occurred to him what the man had said.
Fisher: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 10