“Did you at least kick his ass out of the house?” Cass growled the question. “I would have killed him, but you’re not me.”
Rienne sighed and shook her head. “I called Helja and asked her to get the property up for sale and let her take care of Tyler. He’s always been scared of her. I told her to offer it to the Amish community at any reasonable price. They took care of me.”
“You sent a hyena to handle this for you?” Cass gasped and then snickered. “Oh man, Bumblebee. You may be down, but you’re not out.” She chuckled softly. “I’ll be surprised if the town is standing when she leaves.”
Rienne giggled weakly. “I knew she could handle it, Cass. You know what she’s like. She goes looking for reasons to be pissed off. First thing she did was take all Tyler’s stuff to the front yard. Then she shifted and pissed all over it. I think Keith is going to join her in a while. He was mumbling about skunking the whole town. I didn’t tell them what happened, but I’m sure they guessed some of it. She showed up the day after I got home, and the bruises and cuts were still pretty fresh. I don’t heal like the rest of you. She’s going to stay until the house sells to make sure no one vandalizes the property. I hope it doesn’t take too much longer, but with the economy the way it is, it could be a few more months. At least she can work from the house. I paid all the utilities and everything up for another three months so she didn’t have to worry about them.”
Cass wet two dishcloths and handed Rienne one of them and then began wiping her face with the second cloth. “Why are you handling this so well? I don’t think I’d be doing nearly as well as you are in the same situation,” she asked with some visible concern.
Rienne shrugged, wiping her eyes with the damp cloth. The cool moisture was soothing. “I dunno. Time distancing it? Compartmentalizing? It hits me like a ton of bricks sometimes, but I have to function.”
She scrubbed the cloth across her face and sighed, looking up at Cass. “I’m going to see if I can rent a cabin. I heard about some in town. Then I’m going to try and find a job, if you don’t mind me staying nearby.” Her stomach roiled a little as she braced herself for the same gentle refusal she’d received from other members of her family. It had hurt more than she could say when so many didn’t want the problems she might be bringing with her and had politely and subtly made it clear she should move on after a few days.
“Forget the cabin, Rienne,” Cass told her earnestly, taking her hands again. “I want you to stay with us. We can set up your hive in the backyard. There’s a bunch of open land around here. I’m sure they could find enough flowers.”
Rienne shook her head. “No, I want to find my own place. You haven’t been married very long, and you two need your time alone.” She scrubbed at her face again. “I need some space too. I need to remember who I was.”
Her cousin grimaced but gave in gracefully. “Fine, but you’re coming to the pub with me tonight.”
She cringed a little. “Cass—”
“Nope. Not gonna work, Bumblebee,” Cass interrupted with a slight smile. “I know you all too well. You’ll hang out in your room all night brooding, and then it’ll turn into a habit. So, be ready for us to pick you up around seven. We’ll get dinner there tonight. Dar heard they are doing a razor clam fry.”
She licked her lips, her mouth watering. “Razor clams? Fresh?” Hopefully her stomach wouldn’t revolt on her. It had been years since she’d had razor clams and she could almost taste the sweet, succulent flesh already. It was almost worth going out in public.
“Oh yeah,” Cass replied with obvious anticipation. “Clam tide late last night, and a bunch of the locals limited out. The pub doesn’t sell them because they’re privately caught, but anyone who brings a dish to add to the potluck is welcome to share.”
Rienne smiled slightly at the sanguine expression on her cousin’s face. “I take it you have a suggestion for something to bring along?”
“Well, I’m bringing tartar sauce and pepper slaw,” Cass murmured slyly. “So, I was thinking maybe some of those cinnamon honey rolls you make. I made up bread dough last week,” she added, drawing the words out coaxingly. “All you would have to do is put them together with that secret sauce of yours. If the cabin doesn’t have a kitchen, you can come back here. We are usually short on desserts.”
Rienne snorted inelegantly. “You just want to know how I make the honey sauce, you sugar hussy.”
Cass chuckled. “Of course I do, but you don’t share. Really you can bring anything you want, but your desserts are the best, and I’ve missed them. Besides, you owe me for not making it to the wedding.”
“Okay. How many should I make?” She mentally counted how many jars of honey she had packed. She had sold most of it before she left and had been giving it to her family as she traveled. “I have plenty of honey left.”
“Well, at least three pans. There will be a lot of people there. Are you using your honey?” Cass was digging in her freezer, pulling out plastic-wrapped balls of frozen dough. “How many loaves do you think you’ll need?”
“At least four, maybe five. Yes, it’s my honey. As if I’d buy some other person’s honey.” Rienne calculated quickly. A thought struck her. “Do you have any canned peaches?”
Her cousin froze. “Yes…” She looked at Rienne hopefully. “Are you…?”
“I think I have some dried apricots in the cab of the truck. Sorrow likes them.” A small smile teased the edges of her lips.
“You are a goddess,” Cass breathed reverently. “I have cream cheese.”
“I’ll need some corn syrup too.”
“You got it. Tell you what. I’ll hit the store, you get a cabin and meet me back here in an hour or two, and we’ll cook together. I don’t need the oven. I think I have enough pans too. If not, we can improvise.” Cass rubbed her hands together. “This will be fun. Dar won’t be home until six or so. I was going to rattle around in here alone all day. I can get the local paper, and we can see if anyone is hiring. It’s been kind of lonely here. I don’t know anyone except Dar and his family, and the locals are just starting to warm up a bit.”
Rienne blinked back tears again as the sense of welcome and home soaked into her. “Thank you, Cass,” she murmured huskily. “That sounds wonderful.” Her cousin grinned and shooed her out the door.
“Bring Sorrow with you. She can sun herself on the back porch. It’s glassed in,” Cass added as Rienne climbed into her truck.
DANDY HID UNDER the tarp protecting the boxes in the bed of the truck. He smiled with satisfaction. It was much easier to ride than try to cut through the forest to reach the cabins before Rienne. Besides, the cabins weren’t too far from the hollow tree his clan made their home in. What a lovely name. Rienne. I don’t believe I’ve heard it before. He was very attracted to her, with her wildly colored hair and sad eyes. He couldn’t wait to go home and tell the others.
Listening in on her conversation with Cass had been enlightening. It still wasn’t clear what she shifted into. No one knew what Cass shifted into either, come to think of it. If she had shifted since she had moved here, she had been extremely careful no one was around, or had stayed indoors while she was in animal form. He had heard Cass’s family didn’t have a specific animal tied to their bloodline, which was probably why the curse had never been broken. The power binding it would be different in each person, so breaking it for everyone would be next to impossible. Not that he thought the family was very interested in having the curse broken. It was actually very refreshing to be around cursed humans who weren’t constantly bemoaning their fate. I’m sure there was a very good reason the curse was cast in the first place. The tingle of fey magic told him it wasn’t the simple pissed-off priestess or gypsy tale Cass’s family had been passing down. If anything they seem to embrace it. I bet that would piss off the original caster to no end if they found out. He chuckled softly.
He had begun making plans the moment he heard she was staying. Relief blew through him in a dizzying rus
h. If they had even one hive to tend, his clan wouldn’t fade. It was even possible they could talk someone on the island into hiring her. This would give them even more opportunity to keep the bees. All they had to do was figure out some way to get her to stay. She was so wounded it nearly broke his heart. She needed somewhere safe to stay nearly as badly as his clan needed her bees to care for.
Maybe she was a bear shifter. That would explain why she had bees, even if it didn’t explain why they were so intelligent. Everyone knew how much bears loved finding a beehive. It didn’t matter either way. No matter how intriguing she was, it was the hive that would get the other small fey to help take care of her.
Only a few of his friends found large ones, as they called anyone over a foot-and-a-half tall, sexually attractive. Some in his clan found that attraction bordering on the obscene. A dart of sadness pierced him for a moment. Those who had held themselves back from the large ones had been the first to fade.
Dandy shook off the lingering grief. Now was the time to plan. He settled deeper into the box he had chosen to hide in. It was filled with books and clothing which muffled some of the weakness brought on by traveling in so much human-forged metal. The wood pulp the pages had been made from still had the faintest pulse of life.
Human-forged metal seemed to be in everything now. Some metals, like aluminum, copper alloys, and tin didn’t bother magical creatures, but the metals with iron made them sick. It acted like poison to most of them. He turned his mind to the problem at hand and began whispering to the bees drowsing in the carefully packed hive. They murmured softly back, giving him more information about themselves. Yes, the queen was healthy. No, they would not stay without the elusive “Mother” they spoke of. They asked him questions in return. Are the flowers here tasty? Was there cool water to drink? Would they stay in one place soon? They didn’t like all the traveling. It was boring and cold.
He smiled with delight. They were more intelligent than any other bees he had spoken to and far more robust. If the hive was strong, which the four stack of hive boxes suggested, it could easily swarm and create another hive or two this summer. There were enough plants and flowers to easily support several hundred hives. The small fey would have to monitor the swarms very carefully to be sure enough bees separated to make a strong new hive without overly weakening the first. Swarms were always a tricky business.
First thing he would do when he got home was check the empty hives. Most had been cleaned, but the last few had not. The small fey had lost the heart to care for the boxes once the bees were all gone. A small flame of rage ignited in his heart as he thought of the man Rienne had spoken of. What kind of idiot would set bees on fire when the whole world was worried about the declining bee population? Pray the fool never set foot on the island. Dandy would make sure he never left. There were several apple trees that needed fertilizing, and a human body made good compost.
He smiled evilly at the thought.
The truck came to a stop, and Dandy slipped out of the back and zipped home. Luck was with him, and his clan was all there. They all looked up at him listlessly when he burst in the front door in a shower of sparks.
“Come, my brothers,” he said coaxingly. “Hope has returned to us this very day, but we must work quickly if it is to flower.”
“What hope, Dandelion?” Thistle, his best friend and lover, asked without much interest. He slouched on a stool, a miniature statue of misery. “Don’t you know hope has abandoned us? What use is work when our bees have left and our women faded with the dawn?” Sorrow grayed his skin, and his vibrant purple-and-green wings drooped sadly down his back. His nut-brown hair was knotted and tangled as if he hadn’t bothered combing it in days. Stains were sprinkled liberally on his clothing.
“A woman came to the island today. She is very intriguing.” Dandy tried to sound mysterious. It seemed to work, as the others began to stir and look at him with small hints of interest.
“Do you know who she is?” asked Foxglove, who was tucked onto a shelf near the ceiling. Even his long, spiraling red curls seemed wilted to the barest of waves. Like the others he was cast adrift, looking for a reason to continue his existence.
Dandy tilted his head to the side. Unlike the others, Foxglove didn’t appear surprised by his news. A spark of knowledge gleamed in the other man’s grass-green eyes.
“She is a cousin of Dar’s new wife.” He paced gracefully around the room. “She is like Cassia, a shifter of some sort.”
More interest sparked in the eyes of his clan, and they began to lean forward as they watched him. Small fey had more curiosity than a cat; he simply had to fan it a bit.
“She has…” He drew the moment out, using his body to convey his growing excitement and hope. His wings hummed as he beat them behind him. The others leaned forward, faces brightening with the expectation of a secret about to be revealed. “Bees.”
Several of them sucked in sharp breaths. They began to murmur to each other.
“Truly?” Thistle asked in growing excitement.
“Yes, a large healthy hive. She wishes to stay the summer if she can find work. It will be up to us to make her want to stay longer, for I do not believe she will part with them. She calls them her babies.” He nodded at the sighs of pleasure following this pronouncement.
“What do you want us to do?” Foxglove asked, yanking on his tunic in a vain effort to pull the wrinkles out. Excitement filled his expression. Again Dandy caught a secretive gleam in the man’s gaze.
“She is coming to the pub tonight. I would like to go and meet her. We should clean our hives and see if, perhaps, the old witch’s house could be cleaned and repaired for her use.” Dandy pulled on his braid. “I’m not sure what else at this point,” he said regretfully. “Maybe Shiloh will have an idea.”
His nose wrinkled as he became aware of the various odors wafting through their home. “I would also suggest baths and clean clothes for all of you,” he grumbled. “You guys stink and so does this place. It’s no wonder we are depressed! This place would make the most cheerful of people gloomy.”
The men drew back, startled at this tart pronouncement. Maple and Elderberry sniffed themselves experimentally and grimaced.
“Goddess, I’ve smelled goats that reek less than I,” Elderberry growled in horror. “I had no idea I had let myself sink to such a state, Dandy. I’ll heat the water if someone else will fetch our clothing.”
Thistle stood up and took charge of the chores. “Elderberry, Thorn, and Clover; you three prepare the baths. Foxglove, you get clean clothing and gather the dirty clothing for us. We will bathe before we go to the pub this eve. There is no point in bathing and then getting filthy again. Suffering one another’s stench for a few hours will remind us not to get in such a state again.” He pulled his tangled hair back in a messy ponytail. “Dandy and I will go to the witch’s house to check its suitability. Half of you go over the hives and make sure there is not a speck left of our bees. I want them like new. The other half will begin cleaning our home.”
There were a few protests over this. None of them wanted to do women’s work. It was quickly quelled with a few choice words and hard stares from Dandy and Thistle.
“We will have to learn these chores. There are no women left to do them for us,” Dandy said with some heat.
“What use are bees when we have no women, Dandy?” Clover sighed.
“We will have hope, and we will have purpose again. Time is not a problem as we live as long as we will it so. Mayhap women will come again.” Dandy smiled encouragingly and clapped Clover on the shoulder. Clover’s woman had faded over a year ago. Dandy had never cared for her but knew his friend had loved her deeply. Most of his dislike stemmed from her propositioning him several times when he knew very well Clover didn’t know about it and would be devastated if he found out. The rest was from how nothing seemed to make her happy. No matter what Clover did, it was never enough for the woman.
“You never had a woman to lose or m
ourn, Dandy,” Clover snarled in sudden anger. “Just your unnatural fixation on Thistle’s ass. My Rose was not some toy I can replace with a new one.” He slapped Dandy’s hand off his shoulder and stalked from the room. These bursts of temper from him were becoming more and more common as time passed.
Dandy looked at the floor as an uncomfortable silence filled the air. The muscles in his back tightened when Thistle gently touched him.
“Let it be, Dandy. Not everyone is comfortable with who we are, and that’s all right,” Thistle whispered in his ear. “We had something to hold on to when so many lost their loves. It makes Clover bitter. I don’t know why he didn’t let himself fade and join Rose.”
He stepped away as the others crowded around and supported the men with gentle touches. The remaining small fey were all men who had never bonded with any of the clan’s women.
While they mourned those who had faded, they were not heartbroken as so many who had lost their mates had been. Dandy had often wondered why the women had faded so quickly. Weren’t their families and mates enough to sustain them when so much was going wrong? Couldn’t they have had a little more faith?
Soon everyone had drifted off to do the chores they had divided among themselves. Some of the excitement had been snuffed with Clover’s outburst, but the men were still much more animated than they had been before.
Thistle tipped Dandy’s chin up with a finger and kissed him gently. “Let’s go check out the house.” Leaning closer, he said, “I might even let you indulge your unnatural fixation with my ass if you’re good.”
Dandy chuckled with renewed humor and flew out the door, Thistle in close pursuit. He refused to let Clover ruin his good mood.
Bee Stung Page 3