Sister's Keepers

by Belinda White

  Chapter 10

  I STARED AT HER, NOT believing my eyes. How could the sister I had known and loved for sixteen years be a faerie princess? Finally, my heart took over, and I ran to throw my arms around her.

  Damn it, I was crying. Not the image I wanted to give Dell after all these years. Or was she Shaylee now? I was so confused. But then it didn't really matter because I had found her.

  She hugged me back, laughing. "It's good to see you again, too, Taz," she said. "But I still need to breathe, you know."

  I dropped my arms and stepped back so I could look at her. Rose must have been right about time in the world of Fae because my older sister could now easily pass as my younger... by several years.

  She was dressed in a long green tunic over a flowing skirt of a slightly darker green. Dell had always been taller than me, and yes, her hair had been blonde while my mane had been brown mixed with gray, and okay, so her eyes were a natural green and all of my family had the topaz wolf eyes. Looking at her now, I realized she had been adopted. I mean how could sisters from the same parents be so very different in looks?

  I'm guessing that my parents had thought she was Benandanti and not faerie. The Fae must be really good at this manipulation stuff.

  When my voice would work again, I asked a single, simple question. "How?"

  Titania's laughter floated over my shoulder, but still, I didn't look at her. A large part of me feared that if I took my eyes off of Dell, she would disappear as MacDougal had. It wasn't a risk I was willing to take.

  "How what, my dear?" Titania responded. "How is my daughter and the girl you know as your sister one and the same? Or how do we get her back to your world with you?"

  Okay, maybe my question hadn't been as simple as I thought. The faeries were masters of double meanings.

  I reached out to take Dell's hand, liking the feel of holding onto her. Dell smiled and squeezed my hand in return. Apparently, she had missed me too. While I'd been staring at her, she'd been staring back. Of course, she didn't seem as surprised to see me as I was her, but I figure Titania had given her time to prepare.

  Holding Dell's hand gave me the confidence to turn to face the queen, with my sister at my side. Even if we weren't blood-related, we were still sisters. No matter what Titania or the Fae might say.

  "Both," I said, finally answering the queen's question. Then my body started shaking. I looked down at myself. Were we having an earthquake? Then things started getting hazy and my vision started to go.

  Titania smiled. "If only I had the time to answer all of your questions, things may be different. However, as you might be able to tell by looking at Shaylee, time moves much slower here in this realm than in yours. I'm afraid if we don't get you back to your sleeping body soon, your mate will fear for your life."

  "I'm not going anywhere without..."

  I was being shaken. Gently, but with a little desperation, too. "Taz. Tazlyn, wake up. Come back, please."

  Jed.

  I opened my eyes and stared into his frightened face. Glancing around the room, I realized that I couldn't see the clock because he was blocking my view.

  "What time is it?" I croaked. My throat was incredibly dry and I had a tremendous headache. I started to get up, but Jed was still in my way. Staring at me with a disbelieving look. He was really good at those. Then he sniffed me.

  Ever since he had learned months ago that he was a non-shifting Benandanti, he had been trying to improve his scenting ability. Actually, he was improving, but still, I didn't think this was the time or place to practice.

  "Cedar and lavender. By the Creator, it worked didn't it?"

  Oh yeah, the scent of Faerie. Which reminded me. I sniffed too. Cedar and lavender. While not my favorite scents in the world, they really felt special to me at that moment. You always take your abilities and senses for granted until you lose them. Even temporarily.

  "Yeah, it worked all right." I felt like a hot brand was scraping my throat with each word I spoke. I'd have to use them judicially. "Soda." There, my most basic need at the time, all in one word.

  He stood and stepped over to the fridge to grab me a bottle of diet soda, which left the bed open enough for me to swing my legs over the edge and sit up. Immediately my head starting pounding worse. "Aspirin." I was getting the hang of this.

  Jed doubled back and got a couple of Aspirin from the bottle over the sink and handed them to me with the open bottle of soda.

  Once a little drink had gone down my hatch with the pills, I started to feel better. My head still hurt, but I could talk again without pain.

  "Titania sent me back rather abruptly," I said. "She said too much time had passed here. What time is it?"

  "Almost noon," he said. Then he straightened quickly. "I've got to call Rose. I'd called her to come to me."

  He really must have been worried. About little old me. Creator, it was nice to have a pack. Up until last fall, I'd been alone—well, I'd had Rebel, but it was nice to have pack mates who could actually talk to me. And care for me. That was nicest of all. Not that Rebel didn't care for me. He did. Just in a different way.

  While Jed called Rose, I made my trip to the bathroom. I debated on taking the time for a shower but wound up taking one anyway. Like I said cedar and lavender weren't my most favorite of scents. I much preferred my honeysuckle scented shower gel.

  Jed came into the bathroom as I was toweling off. "I got her just as she was going out the door. She wants us to come up there for a debriefing." His eyes took in my naked skin form and a tingle went up my spine. Not to mention other places. Luckily, the aspirin had done its job and the headache was gone, so I wouldn't have to use that as an excuse.

  I walked over to him and ran my hands up under his tunic. Damn, but my man was cut. Running them up over his abs to his chiseled chest, I sighed in pleasure.

  Looking down at me his voice grew husky. "Shower or bed?"

  A half hour later, we both smelled like honeysuckle.

  As we were getting dressed, Jed looked over at me. "I really was worried about you. What if the faeries hadn't let you come back?"

  I looked at him thoughtfully. "I don't think it was so much that she sent me back. I thought so at first, but now I think you just woke me up. In the future maybe we'll set a time limit or something for you to bring me back."

  He nodded. "Done." He hesitated. "Did you find her?"

  I smiled. "Yes. And she's coming home."

  Jed's brows drew together. "Dealing with the Fae, it just can't be that easy. What did you agree to do in trade?"

  My smile turned into a grin. "What I would have done anyway. Welcome her into my home with open arms and protect her with my life."

  "With your life?" Jed's voice had an odd note to it. "Something big is going on here, isn't it?"

  I nodded. "And I didn't get very many pieces to the puzzle, I'm afraid. My time there was so short." I looked at him and wondered how to tell him the news. But then I just did what I always do with my mate, I just spit it out.

  "It seems my sister Odella was adopted. My parents must have thought she was Benandanti, especially since the Fae have the ability to change shapes, too. Come to find out, Odella isn't really Benandanti at all." I paused watching his eyes. "She's a faerie."

  His eyes broke off from mine. "Could it have been a faerie glamor? Titania making her look like your sister?"

  For a short moment, I forgot how to breathe. I hadn't thought of that possibility.

  Jed saw my face and knew I was having doubts. "It'll be okay. If they pulled the wool over your eyes in Faerie, they won't be able to do it here. We still have our lucky clover patch."

  He was right, of course. But having planted the seed of uncertainty, my heart wasn't nearly as light as it had been only moments ago. I wouldn't know now if Shaylee was actually Dell until she showed up on my doorstep.

  My thoughts must have worked like magic because just then there was a knock on my door.

  Chapter 11


  JED LOOKED OUT THE peephole and then looked back to me. "Okay, get your clover ready. It's MacDougal and a girl. Too young to be your sister, though. Maybe an advance team?"

  I shook my head. "Time difference. She hadn't aged a day." I made my way over to grab a fresh clover and cut off a small piece of duct tape to affix it to my shoulder. Jed raised his eyebrow.

  "That's actually not a bad idea," he said thoughtfully.

  When the clover was taped to my bare skin, I nodded to him, and he opened the door to our faerie guests.

  I forced myself to look, dreading what I might see. But all the worry was for nothing. Odella had come home.

  Jed must have been able to tell from my expression because he stepped back to let them in. Stepping forward, I kissed Dell on the cheek. Then in a moment of what might have been sheer insanity, I did the same to MacDougal.

  He blushed. "Ack, now lass, save your kisses for yer mate. I'd not like to make him jealous of me manly charms."

  I grinned at him. "Thank you, MacDougal, for bringing her."

  His gaze went to the floor and his foot started shuffling back and forth. "Tis more than bringing her, me am. By the queen's orders, I'm not to leave the realm so long as Shaylee may have need of me." Finally, he brought his eyes to mine. "Remember me out in our bargain. A quest of the queen and I have free access to your realm."

  I remembered all right. And by the choking sounds behind me, so did Jed.

  I glanced at Dell. "Welcome to my home, small as it is." I looked behind me and nodded at Jed. "This is my mate, Jedadiah Crowe, Spirit Hunter."

  Her eyebrows rose. "You have chosen well, sister." She cocked her head and tore her eyes back to me. "Or can I still call you sister?"

  "Oh yes. No matter what happened all those years ago, you are my sister. Even if you aren't my blood."

  She gave a regal nod. "So be it." Then her eyes drifted back to Jed. "A spirit hunter? Truly?"

  He nodded and stepped forward to shake her hand. "One who only recently took on the role, I'm afraid. My mate and her pack showed me the error of my past ways."

  One royal eyebrow went up. "An ex-Luparii, perhaps?"

  "As a matter of fact, yes," he said.

  "So you followed the same path as my adopted father of this realm." She turned again to me. "You have chosen very well indeed, sister."

  Her eyes only then began to take in the room, actually the entire house. Only then did her regal stance start to falter. Back when we had lived with Mom and Dad, we had a fairly large house. There had been both a family room and a more formal living room, and each of us had our own bedroom. Our own wolfy territory.

  She hesitated. "This is your home? What of the house we used to live in?"

  Okay, my home is very tiny. Basically, it's a one room cabin with bathroom. I glanced at Jed. He did a good job of wiping the smug look off his face, but not before I saw it. He'd been trying to negotiate a move to a larger space ever since he had moved in. So far, I'd just shot him down.

  I loved my house. Growing up, we'd had a bigger house, sure. But we had full reign to make our rooms into our very own, personal space. Our den. Being on my own for so long, I'd opted for a small space. All the better for a lone wolf's den.

  I sighed. My lone wolf's den just wasn't going to work with two Benandanti, two large dogs (soon to be a family of large dogs), a faerie princess, and a leprechaun.

  Jed cleared his throat, and I realized our guest—I was still perplexed over what name to call her—was still waiting for an answer to her question. I swallowed, remembering that awful time of my life just after I'd lost my whole family to the beast.

  "When our parents were killed and you were lost, I wasn't of legal age to live on my own. The court gave me the decision to rent out the house or to outright sell it. I rented it out for a while, but then once I was old enough to get out of the foster parent system, I found that I just couldn't live there. Too many memories and way too much space." Hence my little den.

  "So, I sold it and used a part of the money to buy this land and cabin. We do still have twelve acres of the land, though. The part that backs up to Bradford Woods."

  She smiled. "And the tree house?"

  I nodded. "Yup. Although I've made some modifications over the years." A werewolf had to have a bolt hole or two scattered around. I had another, smaller one in the State Park close by the cabin.

  Jed looked at me. I hadn't told him about the tree house yet. I shrugged. We'd only known each other for five months, less than half a year. A girl can't possibly let go of all her secrets in that short of time. Besides that first month had been kind of rocky. What with him being a Luparii assassin out hunting all us Benandanti.

  She tried to hide it, but I could tell she was disappointed. "So everything in the house is gone." She made it a statement, not a question.

  How dense could I possibly be? She'd had eighteen years of stuff accumulated in that house. But there I had good news for her.

  "Most of Mom and Dad's stuff, like clothes and furniture, yeah." I smiled at her. "But I was never really sure that you wouldn't come back to me one day. I put all of your stuff in storage. Well, all your small stuff anyways. Your clothes and books and things are all boxed up out in the workshop."

  Her eyes lit up. "My clothes? Even the bell-bottoms and tie-dyed shirts we made for hippie day at school?"

  Trust her to remember that. "All of them. And your Nancy Drew book collection, too."

  For that, I got a hug. "Can I see them? Please?" For all the world, she looked like a kid who had just woken up to find out that Santa Claus had been there to deliver his yearly shower of gifts.

  The phone rang before I could answer. Jed got it and I heard him talking. Rose. I had totally forgotten we were supposed to be going to her house. And with that reminder, everything else came back too. I still had to explain to the pack what I'd volunteered for. I really believed they would stand behind me, but it had to be their choice. I looked at Jed, too. I had told him Dell was faerie, yes, but I hadn't had a chance yet to tell him who her real parents were. Chances were good that it wouldn't help my case.

  Jed disconnected the call and rejoined our little group. We were all still standing there by the door. Am I a great hostess or what? But then again, my seating arrangements were almost not enough for those present. If anyone else showed up, we’d be standing room only.

  "I told Rose the situation. She would really like us to come up to her house and have a debriefing." He smiled at Dell slash Shaylee. I so had to ask her what she wanted us to call her. But I didn't want to in front of Jed before I'd had a chance to tell him. "It would give you a chance to meet the rest of the pack, too. Then I'll get a hotel room tonight, so you and Taz can have the whole evening and night to catch up. Deal?"

  She smiled at him. If it was anyone but my very own sister, I'd swear it was a flirtatious one. But she so totally wouldn't do that. Would she? "Deal. Although I wouldn't mind if you hung around. Being my sister's mate, I really should get to know you too."

  I stepped over to Jed and put my arm around him just in case. Wolves are territorial creatures, even with sisters. "I'd love to have you around, too, Jed, but I think a night for just us girls is a great idea. You and MacDougal would be more comfortable in a hotel room, I'm sure." I stretched up to kiss him. Full on the mouth. Just my way of saying 'He's mine'.

  The kiss almost deterred him. But a second later it hit him. "Me and MacDougal?"

  I tried out batting my eyes at him. "Well, you did want to give us girls an evening alone, right?"

  He swallowed but nodded. I would so owe him for this one. If he was still talking to me after finding out who Dell really was.

  I searched for a good excuse to get him alone, but nothing came to me. So, in the end, I just told everyone I needed a minute alone with Jed. It was a pretty March day outside, so we let them stay inside and take turns using the facilities before we left and the two of us stepped outside.

  "Okay. Lay the bad news o
n me," he said.

  He knew me altogether too well for my own good.

  "I didn't have a chance to tell you who Dell really is," I said. "I wanted you to be the first to know. Mates' rights and all."

  He frowned. "But you did tell me. She's really a faerie, right?"

  "Yeees." I drew the word out, hesitating to speak the words that could change everything. "She's also a faerie princess." I looked up at him. "Dell is really Princess Shaylee. She's Titania's daughter."

  Jed was speechless. Oh, this couldn't be good at all. A silent Jed was a very, very angry Jed. So I went into defensive mode.

  "She couldn't choose her real parents, could she? Dell, I mean Shaylee, was raised by my mom and dad. She was—I mean is—my sister. No matter who gave birth to her."

  He nodded, stroking my hair absently. "Who her parents were changes nothing and everything all at the same time," he said. Being a mystic Native American, he could get by with saying things like that.

  "So, you'll still help her, right?" I asked.

  He smiled down at me. "I'd like the chance to hear her out and gather some information before I agree to anything." He kissed the top of my head. Normally I hated it when he did that. Today it felt...nice. Comforting. "I do promise to keep an open mind."

  That's all I could ask. "Thank you, Jed." I started to go back in, then turned back to him. "You don't find her more attractive than me, do you?" I hated myself for asking.

  He laughed softly and hugged me close. "You're the only wolf for me."

  "Technically, she's not a wolf," I said. I mean as much as I hated to ask, I needed a real answer. "She was adopted, remember?"

  "Oh, right." He smiled. He had expected me to catch that, the devil. Jed was playing with me. "Truth is, I like my women with a little more age on them." He stroked my hair again. "I'm a sucker for the brown and silver look."

  I hugged him even tighter. "Thank you."

  "And Taz?" I looked up at him. "I appreciate you telling me first," he said. "Maybe one day you'll take me to this tree house of yours."