As usual, I didn’t talk much at lunch. Christina was a real chatterbox, and she particularly loved to tell me about the cat’s latest antics. He climbed my flannel shirt to sit on my shoulder.
Whatever had happened to me, I was one lucky son of a bitch.
Then I remembered that I’d left my staff in the SUV. “I need to go retrieve my staff.”
Laura shook her head. “Diana knows something’s weird about it. She’s confiscated it until Lucinda Ricci can check it out.”
Lucinda had made it in the first place, with some help from me, and I knew she’d treat it with respect. “Remember what I said about how supercharging it was my idea entirely.”
Laura frowned but didn’t disagree.
After Christina and Rascal returned to class, Laura took me outside to wander the ranch. I’d always found that soothing. The grass in the pastures here had barely begun to grow, unlike down lower at Red Rocks Park.
On the plus side, the view here was panoramic and breathtaking. In every direction, dark green forests surrounded us, and far to the west, steep, craggy mountain peaks remain covered with snow. It was like a scene from one of those screensavers that didn’t seem real.
Lazarus dropped out of the sky and landed close by. I bent over and cradled him in my arms. He seemed nervous, but my petting settled him down. Then I tossed him back into the air, and the heavy beats from his wings reminded me of how strong a flyer he was.
Laura and I wandered the field, followed by Washta’s entire pack, Hercules, and Lazarus. We talked about other people in the clan and how they might react to my injury, but mostly we reminisced about our time together. Life was precious, and we were both lucky to have each other.
When we’d finished roaming, I’d noticed that she rarely let go of me. “Are you afraid I’ll relapse?”
A nervous laugh escaped her lips, and she stared deep into my eyes. “Not taking any chances with a stroke if that’s what happened. Your brain got fried pretty bad, but I’ll sense any new problem right away and take care of it.”
We walked onto a patio outside the commons building. There were comfortable chairs and tables set out, but no one was outside enjoying the warm spring day. In fact, I’d run into hardly anyone since getting here.
“Where is everybody?” I asked. “I usually get swarmed after a fight.”
She nodded. “They probably want to give you time to readjust to what happened. We don’t want to add to your stress.”
I was feeling stressed. The battle hadn’t gone as I’d expected. I’d almost lost.
She pulled my hand over to her belly. “He’s kicking.”
I slipped my hands under her loose blouse and ran my fingers over her. She put her arms around my neck and kissed me. Her rose-scented perfume surrounded me, and I fought tears as I realized how much I’d almost lost.
Her whole body trembled as I put my arms around her back and kissed her, letting all my confusion go. All I could be sure of was that I needed this woman in my life ahead.
“Let’s go to bed,” she whispered.
-o-o-o-
WE SPENT THE AFTERNOON together in the apartment enjoying each other’s company until Christina finished school for the day. Then, I helped her with her homework. Not that she needed much help. Her vocabulary was amazing for a six-year-old, and she could add and subtract with ease.
We ate dinner in the dining hall, and I noticed that most people either avoided me or just said a friendly hello. I didn’t mind them giving me some space to deal with the new me.
It was Mexican night, and I piled my plate high with steak fajitas. My mental confusion had little effect on my appetite. Laura invited Tess over to our table, and we chatted, keeping our comments to the weather and favorite movies.
I couldn’t blame everyone feeling nervous. I had little idea of what I should talk to them about, except to say I felt great. Everyone was doing their best not to upset me, and I appreciated their concern. This place was perfect for the moment, never a harsh word spoken or heard. We all had to stay on script until the powers that be decided what to do with a warrior who had a bad case of PTSD.
While that issue was hanging over all of us, Laura proved one thing emphatically. I’d married well above my station in life. She was invariably upbeat and sweet. Who could complain about being doted upon? Not me.
When Diana approached our table, I noticed that Tess and Laura suddenly became wary. The woman had a way of filling a room.
“How are you feeling, Ian?” she asked.
“Fine, ma’am.”
“Is your memory impaired?”
“Don’t think so, ma’am. Just tired for some reason. Big day, and I realize how close I came to losing everything.”
She nodded as though she’d expected that. “I have managed to entice an excellent healer from Los Angeles to come here tomorrow. Dr. Glinka is an internist at the UCLA Medical Center who specializes in brain disorders. She should arrive by ten a.m. Please don’t wander away tomorrow morning.”
“Ten in the morning, got it,” I replied.
After a few moments of small talk with the others at the table, Diana took a phone call and left us.
“I’m officially a head case?” I asked the women.
They fell over each other to tell me “no,” which meant that the answer was “yes.”
So be it. The lady wasn’t a shrink, and I probably wasn’t going nuts. And I need time to unwind with Laura and Christina. The outside world might not want to cooperate with my plans, but I was done fighting for a while.
Chapter 17
Monday, May 27th
AFTER A LEISURELY BREAKFAST with my family, Laura and I met Dr. Glinka in an empty conference room. The good doctor wanted to talk to me alone, but Laura had put her foot down.
“In the past, I’ve been too casual about who influences him,” she said. “No more. If he’s ill, I go wherever he does, and I will protect him from whatever trouble comes.”
She seemed much feistier than before, or maybe she knew more about my injury than she’d revealed. Either way, I was happy to have her looking out for me.
Glinka shrugged. “This first conversation will be short. I need to understand exactly what happened to you before I conduct my physical examination. I will also interview everyone else involved in your life to determine how you came to be as you are. Then we can decide the best course for treatment.”
“Makes sense,” I replied, although I hadn’t expected any future treatment. Laura seemed to have healed me fully.
Glinka collected the same basic information every doctor does, and then she said, “Here’s the most important thing. I want to minimize your stress for the near future. Avoid any situation that might produce conflict. To the extent that you do your healing work with animals, make sure that you do it calmly. If that’s not possible, stop working for a few weeks.”
“Got it,” I replied.
I returned to our apartment to read a mystery novel I’d gotten from the Boulder library, and Laura stayed with Glinka, no doubt to tell her all the nasty stuff that’d happened to me over the last nine months.
An hour later, Laura returned.
“You spent all that time talking about my time in Colorado?” I asked.
“Yep, and I need to tell her more eventually. Now, though, she’s talking to Don Blake.”
“She cares about my karate training?”
Tears welled in Laura’s eyes. “She cares about everything that’s happened to you, and she already knows you’ve been forced into too many stressful situations. Time for you to relax.”
I leaned back on the sofa. Relaxing was fine for the moment. “What about my job? Should I go to work today?”
Laura shook her head. “Holly says to take as much time off as you need.”
That poor woman was working outrageous hours, and I felt guilty about taking more time off than I already had to visit California and the Grand Canyon.
Laura and I were still talking about
Holly when someone knocked on the door. Diana’s assistant, Amber entered and brought in someone I knew well.
“Grandpa Samuel! I’m thrilled to see you.”
The gruff old chief grinned. “The feeling is mutual. Diana called me yesterday and told me what’d happened.”
We hugged for a few minutes, and then he hugged Laura.
“How is everyone back home?” I asked.
“Everyone is fine,” he said. “Francis and John are taking care of your farm until you can return. They’ll be harvesting the wheat soon. It’s been dry, and the crop is about the same as last year’s. Anyway, I wanted to be sure you knew I’d arrived. I should speak to your brain doctor to learn how I can help you heal. I’m sure I’ll see you later.”
With that, he hurried out, which was very unlike him. The man normally took an hour to say hello.
Laura grinned at me. “I’m delighted that he came. I’m sure you two will have lots of time to talk later.”
That’s how things went for the rest of the day. Except for during a lunch break with Christina, who treated me like before, everyone walked on eggshells. Folks dropped by the table in the lounge where I relaxed and read, but they didn’t stay long. When they talked, they spoke slowly and carefully, as though worried that I wouldn’t understand them. How could all these people be worried about me?”
The indoors began to feel confining, like a fancy prison. I asked, “Can we walk outside again?”
Laura jumped up like a spring had ejected her. “Sure, of course, too stuffy in here.”
It was colder and cloudier than yesterday. Washta, Hercules, and Lazarus followed Laura and me around on the well beaten paths at the ranch.
Laura had an amazing knack for conversation, but she refused to talk about fighting, either in the past or in the future.
Finally, I asked, “Can you at least tell whether I can still cast spells to defend myself.”
“Nope.” She clenched her jaw as though she was afraid more words would sneak out. “Glinka will tell you later all you need to know.”
We walked in silence for a moment, and I admired the far off snowy peaks of the Continental Divide. As we strolled, we talked about our trips into the mountains before they became snowbound. Those had been some wonderful trips, and we’d soon be able to visit the high country again.
-o-o-o-
IN THE AFTERNOON, DIANA tracked us down on the patio outside the commons building. She asked how I was feeling, and I gave her my standard spiel. Then she said, “Dr. Glinka would like to meet with a select group of us to explain a few things and lay out some ground rules for the future.”
We followed her to a large conference room where all my favorite helpers had already gathered. Glinka motioned for me and Laura to sit next to her.
She smiled at me. “This may be beginning to feel like some kind of criminal trial, but I assure you, you’ve done nothing wrong. Some of your friends and advisors have pushed you into extremely difficult situations and somehow decided that you need to be their guardian angel. I’ve spoken to them about their choices, but you are as innocent as a newborn babe.”
She glanced around the room with daggers coming out of her eyes, and she rested her gaze for a moment on Diana, who looked down.
Glinka looked at me again, and her smile returned. “Nevertheless, I’m going to direct everyone here not to repeat their past mistakes as we look to the future.”
She scanned the room again, and nobody objected.
Glinka continued in her soothing voice. “Unfortunately, in your last fight, it appears you accidentally killed a highly trained and vicious assassin named Bruno Sitka. Among other foul deeds, he’d recently attempted to attack you and your family. His body has been disposed of, and I doubt you will face any legal repercussions.”
Nicky and Felicity nodded.
I’d killed Sitka. He’d done his best to destroy me, and he’d deserved it, but his death didn’t sit easy on my mind. The only man I wanted to be sure died sooner rather than later was Escobar.
Laura gave me a hug and whispered, “Sitka was the worst of the worst. I would’ve killed him, too, if I’d gotten the chance.”
“I only defended myself.” I said.
“Absolutely,” Glinka replied. “He wouldn’t have stopped coming after you until you beat him.”
That gave me some comfort.
“Thanks mostly to your extraordinary efforts,” she continued, “you managed to create a sanctuary for witches in Boulder County that will exist for ten years. No sorcerer can threaten anyone here during that time. No one here has any right to ask you to fight for them or the clan again.”
Again, no one disagreed.
“Most of what happened in the past presents no danger to you,” Glinka said.
Then she glared at Grandpa. “With one exception. The person or persons who murdered Sheriff Cantor have exposed you to the risk of going to prison for their crime. Unfortunately, you are one of the Morgan County District Attorney’s prime suspects. Although you are currently fighting extradition on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder, your attorneys do not seem confident that they can quash the indictment.” She looked at Nicky and Felicity, as though to give them the chance to correct her.
They both waved at me from across the table, and I knew they eventually expected to lose the extradition challenge. “I’ll let that process play out.”
“Was I involved?” I asked.
Before Glinka could respond, Grandpa said, “You’re not going to prison for someone else’s crime! I’ll make sure of that.”
It sounded like he was contemplating turning himself in. “Don’t get any crazy ideas about being noble, Grandpa. I would’ve helped get our family justice if I could’ve. If anybody tries to take the rap for me, I’ll confess to having planned the whole damned thing myself. Just let Nicky and Felicity do their jobs, and everything will work out fine.”
Grandpa shook his head but didn’t speak.
Glinka then checked her notes. “Lastly, one of your most powerful mentors, Gill Cunningham, has gone into retirement from fighting. I have questions for him as to how his power happened to get into your staff, but he hasn’t responded yet.”
That was too much. Nobody was going to harass Gill or Laura for trying to help me. “You leave him alone. Right before he retired from fighting, he gave me his staff. I found a spell on the Internet to take some of his power. I decided that all alone, and I knew I was doing wrong at the time. Nobody is to blame for that screw-up but me. Everyone here listen. Leave Gill alone!”
That produced a buzz around the table, and Lucinda Ricci, who made my staff, looked at me with narrowed eyes.
“Katie is returning from Brittany for a few days,” Diana said, “and we’ll discuss the changes to your staff when she arrives.”
“Those are the main points I wanted to cover,” Glinka said. “Tomorrow morning, Ian and I can discuss treatment options for his injured brain, including techniques that might help him recover his lost power, although I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up that Ian will ever be a magical fighter again.”
Glinka gathered her papers and strode from the room. Diana followed her, but most of the others gathered around me. It quickly became apparent that I’d made lots of friends in this world. That’s a blessing.
Laura said in a loud voice, “Why don’t we all head to the lounge for happy hour?”
She grabbed me by the hand and pulled me there. The others followed.
It took me a few minutes of chatting to figure out what most of them thought. They felt guilty, including Grandpa, for not doing more to protect me from unreasonable expectations.
I finally said in a loud voice, “Listen up. Everybody knows I was a willing participant in this mess, and I contributed to my own injuries. I wanted revenge against Escobar for his vicious crimes, and I still do. For what he did, the bastard deserves the worst.”
Laura shook her head. “That doesn’t mean you have to be the family�
�s avenging angel. There’s no reason why the same people who took care of Cantor can’t also eliminate Escobar.”
She stared straight at Grandpa, and he nodded.
I put up my hand to stop him. “No need to decide that today. I’m on the mend, and we’ll sort out next steps later, after Dr. Glinka has done her best to put me back together.”
Laura glowered at me but didn’t tell me no.
When the crowd in the lounge eventually dwindled, Grandpa pulled me aside.
“Before you turn in,” he said, “I have an apology to make.”
I held up both hands to stop him, but he continued, “No, I have to say this. My anger at Escobar was blinding me, and that put you in terrible danger. We took care of Cantor, and were thrilled to do it. Escobar will receive our revenge shortly. It’s out of your hands now.”
I shook my head. “Someone needs to confront him head-on. He’ll be watching for attackers.”
“We know. He lives in a fortress just outside of Denver. A dozen sorcerers protect him, but he leaves from time to time. One of us will succeed in an ambush.”
“Let’s plan it out together.”
“I promised your doctor not to cause you stress,” Samuel said. “You certainly won’t be involved in the next steps. Let your kin take care of this problem. You’re not the Chosen One.”
I didn’t have a good answer for that, except to say, “Don’t expose someone else in the family to danger to protect me.”
He patted my arm. “We’ll be careful. We’ve always been patient hunters, waiting for the perfect opportunity.”
He turned the conversation to family gossip, and it heartened me to hear how well everyone had gotten along since I’d last seen them.
Eventually, tiredness crept up on me, and when I yawned twice within a minute, I knew it was time for bed. It’d been a jam-packed day.
-o-o-o-
Tuesday, May 28th
I WOKE UP AFTER a deep refreshing sleep. As I lay in bed, I thought about what I’d learned the day before. It sounded like the worst thing I’d done since leaving the farm was to kill a sorcerer who’d chased me and my family for weeks. He deserved to rot in hell.
Vengeance (The Sorcerers' Scourge Series Book 3) Page 16